VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7  •  FEBRUARY 14, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Society’s dire need for the ‘female soul’ – Pope Francis speaks to women

Is priestly celibacy the cause of clerical sex abuse? Not likely, victim says

Pope Francis’ tough words against horrors of human trafficking

‘Rock star’ cardinal talks big cities, small gestures

What are the theological criteria to reform the Church and the Roman Curia?

If you care about God’s handiwork you’ll protect nature, Pope says

What Cardinal Burke really said about ‘resisting’ Pope Francis

Times are hard, but don’t give up – Pope’s plea to Greek bishops

Pope: God is not found in computers or encyclopedias, but restless hearts

German bishop appointed to catechetical post in Vatican

In Ukraine, Pope Francis backs effort for peace – not any particular party

The story behind Pope Francis’ surprise visit to a Rome shantytown

Vatican: rumor of assassination attempt on Pope Francis ‘unreliable’

‘Surrounded by children’ – Pope Francis’ take on a thriving society

Africa is for the young – and Pope Francis knows it

Two years into retirement, the legacy of Father Benedict endures

Could a new charity department lead a reformed Roman Curia?

Pope prays for migrants killed in Mediterranean boat tragedy

‘A reform to promote harmony’ – Pope Francis opens a much-debated consistory

Three countries will be represented in College of Cardinals for first time

At the consistory, a strong dedication to Vatican reforms

WORLD NEWS

Austerity marks the life of Archbishop Blazquez, Spain’s next cardinal

Parish dedicated to Rome’s poor gets a visit from Pope Francis

For these Christians in India, peaceful protests led to jail time

Franciscan Holy Land pilgrimage aims to revitalize priests’ ministry

Jail, not death: appropriate punishment according to Australia’s bishops

As church-goers wane, Germany’s controversial tax prompts unease

Enough talk about talking – Iraqi priest calls for action on ISIS

Ukrainian Catholic bishops urge prayer, fasting ahead of Sunday’s ceasefire

A cardinal for migrants: Italy’s Archbishop Francesco Montenegro

‘A dark day for Australia’: Church laments detention of child asylum seekers

In run-up to presidential vote, Nigerian bishop slams government corruption

U.S. NEWS

Could two new laws suffocate the Catholic Church in DC?

Statue of Pope Francis’ new saint could be kicked out of US capitol

Pope Francis hopes to invigorate Philadelphia Church in US visit

Why a former altar girl changed her mind about boy-only servers

Go forth! Ministry leaders instructed to encounter God in the poor

A women’s shelter or a graveyard – how ‘50 Shades of Grey’ ends in real life

Natural family planning, theology of the body – the Church’s ‘best-kept secrets’

US pushing Cuba to improve record on human trafficking, State Dept. says

Latino leadership in the spotlight at intersection of Church and culture

Catholic Benefits Association appoints first-ever CEO

Are wealthy US foundations paying to suppress religious freedom?

Bishop to Congress: Stop treating immigrants as ‘less than human’

Muslims respond to Chapel Hill shootings with prayer, calls for peace

Marriage is what brings us together today, bishop says

FEATURES

Such a time as this

50 shades of pain: sterile sex and the problem with porn

Lourdes and beyond

Classical intellectual pitfalls

Banning altar girls: theologically unsound and pastorally imprudent?

Movie Review: ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • February 15, 2015

Monday • February 16, 2015

Tuesday • February 17, 2015

Wednesday • February 18, 2015

Thursday • February 19, 2015

Friday • February 20, 2015

Saturday • February 21, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 7 • February 14, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

Society’s dire need for the ‘female soul’ – Pope Francis speaks to women

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 7, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Oct. 1 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has advocated for the widespread participation of women in all levels of the Church and society, saying that their unique gifts enrich both their families – as well as the public sphere.

“A more widespread and incisive female presence in the community is desirable, so that we can see many women involved in pastoral responsibilities, in the accompaniment of persons, families and groups, as well as in theological reflection,” the Pope said Feb. 7.

He encouraged women to make contributions in various social, cultural and economic structures, including education, pastoral activities, teaching the faith and within their own families.

Speaking to women directly, the Pope said they know “how to show the tender face of God, his mercy, which translates in the availability to give time more than to occupy spaces, to welcome rather than to exclude.”

“In this sense, I like to describe the feminine dimension of the Church as a welcoming womb that regenerates life.”

Pope Francis’ address was directed to participants in the Pontifical Council for Culture’s annual plenary assembly in Rome. Held Feb. 4-7, this year’s gathering discussed the theme “Women’s Culture: Equality and Difference.”

The topic, which is “very close” to the Pope’s heart, consists of finding and studying new criteria, so that women don’t feel like “guests,” but rather “full participants in the various areas of social and ecclesial life.”

This is a challenge, he said, “that can no longer be postponed.”

Alongside his endorsement for the advancement of women in society, Francis also cautioned that “we cannot forget the irreplaceable role of women in the family.”

“The qualities of gentleness, of particular sensitivity and tenderness, which is abundant in the female soul, represent not only a genuine force for the life of families, for the irradiation of a climate of peace and harmony, but also a reality without which the human vocation would be unfeasible,” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged the participation of women in the working field as well as in positions where important decisions are made, saying these roles should serve to uphold women’s special presence and attention in and for their families.

Headed by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the culture council organized the plenary as a review of various analysis on current challenges women face, both in society and in the Church, which were prepared by a panel of female consultants.

In his speech to participants, Pope Francis said that Western societies have “left behind” the social subordination of women to men, although some negative effects still remain. Another societal model which presents men and women as absolute equals has also changed.

What has emerged instead is “a new paradigm – that of reciprocity and in equivalence and in difference.”

“The man-woman relationship, therefore, should recognize that both are necessary in that they possess, yes, an identical nature, but with their own modality. One is necessary to the other, and vice versa, so as to truly fulfill the fullness of the person.”

On the topic of the feminine body, which the plenary’s working document noted is often subject to manipulation and violence, the Pope said that it is a symbol of life, and lamented the many ways it is often “disfigured, even by those who should be guardians and companions in life.”

“The many forms of slavery, of commodification, of mutilation of women’s bodies, oblige us therefore to work to defeat this form of degradation, which reduces (a woman’s body) to a mere object to sell on various markets,” he said.

Francis closed his speech by encouraging participants to work hard in carrying out the commitments they made during the plenary discussion, and entrusted their efforts the Virgin Mary, who is a “sublime and concrete example as a woman and mother.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Is priestly celibacy the cause of clerical sex abuse? Not likely, victim says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 7, 2015

Priests celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Jan. 17, 2015. (Catholic Charities/Jeffrey Bruno CC BY 2.0)

Vatican City — One survivor of priestly sexual abuse says that despite a common perception that clerical celibacy can lead to sex abuse of minors, most perpetrators likely had issues before entering the seminary.

“People don’t enter the priesthood and become child abusers, I don’t think that’s the case. I think that they had serious issues before entering Holy Orders,” Peter Saunders told journalists in a Feb. 7 press briefing.

Although there are “far too many” clerics who have committed sexual abuse of minors, “the vast majority of priests and religious will never hurt a child. I think it’s important to acknowledge that.”

Saunders said that the term “pedophile” is overused, and that the priests who abused him, rather than having any illness, “were very lonely.”

One of the 17 members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Saunders spoke alongside the commission’s head, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, giving journalists an update on the work they’re doing during their Feb. 6-8 meeting in Rome.

Abused by priests in his adolescence, Saunders went on to found the National Association for People abused in Childhood, which is dedicated to offering support for all abuse survivors and for developing greater resources in abuse prevention.

He was one of eight new members added to the Vatican commission last December.

Announced in December 2013, the commission was officially established by Pope Francis last March in order to explore various proposals and initiatives geared toward the improvement of norms and procedures for protecting children and vulnerable adults

This week’s meeting marks the first time the commission has met as a complete entity.

Cardinal O’Malley also addressed the issue of the alleged connection between priestly celibacy and sexual abuse, saying that it is a “big ticket item” for the commission, as well as the psychological screening of young men before entering seminary.

With 30 years as a bishop and a long tenure of handling cases of clerical sexual abuse in his various dioceses, the cardinal said that “I personally don’t believe that celibacy is necessarily what causes abuse.”

Although more studies need to be done on the topic, most show that “75-80 percent of abuse takes place in homes.” He also noted that with the current phenomenon of “serial cohabitation,” the problem of one’s partner abusing children is an increasing concern.

The John Jay College study commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2003 shows that since a more intense process of psychological screening has begun for young men who want to enter seminary, the number of clerical abuse cases “went down considerably,” the cardinal said.

Another high priority topic on the commission’s discussion list is accountability for bishops who fail to report cases of clerical sexual abuse in their dioceses. “Bishop’s accountability is most definitely something that is of concern and central to some of the work that is going to be carried out by commission,” Saunders said.

Cardinal O’Malley weighed in that the commission is “very, very concerned” about the issue of bishop’s accountability, and have already begun work on new policies that would help the Church to respond “in an expeditious way” if a bishop has not fulfilled his obligations.

The cardinal said that “there has to be consequences” for bishops who fail in their responsibilities.

He also spoke of the need to develop procedures that will allow these cases of clerical abuse “to be dealt with in an expeditious way rather than just having things open ended.”

The commission is currently in the process of forming several working groups to discuss specific areas in the protection of minors. So far a group addressing the needs and care of abuse survivors, as well as bishop’s accountability, have already met.

In partnership with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the commission has requested that each bishop’s conference send in a set of guidelines on how to prevent the abuse of minors and how to deal with cases of abuse.

Roughly 96 percent of bishop’s conferences have responded, with the remaining 4 percent being missionary countries who have limited resources and lack a diocesan structure.

Cardinal O’Malley said that the commission will soon reach out to offer help and support to these countries, so that they will have the means of creating effective guidelines.

“If you don’t have a clear path to respond in cases of sexual abuse, people tend to improvise and when they improvise they make many mistakes even though there’s all kinds of good will, and in those mistakes many innocent people suffer,” he said.

Pope Francis on Thursday sent a letter to all presidents of bishop’s conferences and religious superiors, asking for their full cooperation with the Vatican commission.

Cardinal O’Malley said that he, along with the other members of the commission, are “very grateful” that the Pope sent the letter, which was a suggestion the commission had made some time ago.

“It reveals how important child protection is in his pontificate, and he wants the bishop’s conferences to cooperate. It also calls on bishops and religious superiors to realize their own responsibility for child protection and care of those who have been harmed,” the cardinal said.

In addition to the current initiatives the Vatican commission is undertaking, they are working to develop educational seminars for Church leadership in the area of child protection.

The seminars, Cardinal O’Malley noted, would be designed for the Roman Curia as well as any newly appointed bishops who come to Rome. The content would also be used in orientation programs sponsored by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Also being prepared are materials for an official day of prayer for all those who have been harmed by sexual abuse.

Saunders said that another issue the commission is discussing is how to encourage victims to come forward and speak out about their abuse.

“The first thing these people should do, if they feel able to, is to report them to the police and civil authorities,” he said, noting that there is an “abysmal” past record of “ill-judged responses” on the part of bishops and priests throughout the world.

Having waited 40 years to speak up about his own abuse, Saunders said that “it’s very important that survivors are able to come forward and speak the truth.”

Both Saunders and Cardinal O’Malley stressed the importance of priests and bishops taking the time to sit down and talk with victims of clerical abuse as a means of forgiveness and healing.

They pointed out how Pope Francis himself met with abuse victims last summer, Saunders being one of them before his appointment to the commission, and that it had a major impact on the pontiff’s personal life.

Despite the fact that the commission still has a long road ahead of them, “they’re a heck of a team and I know they’re very, very determined, and that they will make a difference,” Saunders said.

“I think all of us are very comforted that Pope Francis is listening and looking forward to hearing our advice … We’re not here for lip service, we’re here to protect our children, and our children’s children.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis’ tough words against horrors of human trafficking

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 8, 2015

Pope Francis prays with journalists on the papal flight en route to South Korea, August 14, 2014. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis marked the Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking by calling on governments to remove this “shameful wound” which has no place in “civil society.”

“Each one of us feels committed to being the voice of these, our brothers and sisters, humiliated in their dignity,” the Holy Father said to the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, moments after the recitation of the Angelus.

The Feb. 8 the Day of Prayer coincides with the feast of Saint Josephine Bakhita, the 19th century Sudanese nun who as a child had been a victim of slavery, the Pope noted.

Pope Francis offered his encouragement to those working to end the trafficking of “men, women, and children” who are “enslaved, exploited, abused as instruments of work or pleasure, and often tortured and humiliated.”

He then called governments to action in “removing the cause of this shameful wound … a wound unworthy in a civil society.”

The United Nations estimates that as many as 2.5 million people are living as victims of human trafficking at any given time.

Speaking ahead of the Angelus, Pope Francis focused the theme of healing in the Gospel, basing his address on the the day’s Gospel reading (Mark 1: 29-29) which recounts the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law.

“To preach and to heal: this is the principle activity of Jesus in his public life,” the Holy Father said. “By preaching, he announces the Kingdom of God, and by healing demonstrates that this is near, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst.”

Having come to earth to “proclaim and bring about the salvation of all mankind,” the Pope said, Jesus demonstrates a “particular inclination” for the physically and spiritually wounded: “the poor, the sinners, the possessed, the sick, the ostracized.”

“He is the true Savior: Jesus saves, Jesus cures, Jesus heals.”

Pope Francis recalled the upcoming World Day of the Sick which is commemorated Feb. 11 on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the vigil which will precede the feast the evening before in Rome. The feast day marks the anniversary of the first in a series of Marian apparitions in 1858 to St. Bernadette in Lourdes. Due to the spring which sprung over the course of the apparitions, the town has become a major pilgrimage site for the sick and disabled.

In light of this upcoming feast day, the Pope led the crowds in praying a Hail Mary for Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, who is in Poland suffering from a serious illness.

Christ’s salvific work does not end with a person’s “earthly life,” Pope Francis said, but “continues through the Church, the sacrament of love, and God’s tenderness for man.”

Jesus sent his disciples out with a “double mandate: to proclaim the Gospel of Salvation an to heal the sick,” the Holy Father said.

The church has always considered aiding the sick as an “integral part” of Jesus’ statement that “the poor and the suffering you will always have with you,” as well as a “privileged path for encountering Christ,” the Pope said.

“To care for a the sick, to welcome them, to serve them, is to serve Christ: the sick person is the flesh of Christ.”

Despite the scientific advancements today, there remain existential questions surrounding the existence of sickness, suffering, and death, he said.

“The pastoral action of the Church must respond” to these questions, the Pope continued, “with the light of faith, having before her eyes the Crucifix, in which appears the whole salvific mystery of God the Father who, out of love for men, did not spare his own Son” (Romans, 8:32).

“Therefore, each of us is called to bring the light of the Word of God and the strength of Grace to those who suffer,” as well as the families, doctors, and healthcare workers who serve them.

Before leading the crowds in praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis invoked the intercession of Mary, Health of the sick, that all those suffering from illness can experience “the power of God’s love and the comfort of her maternal tenderness.”

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VATICAN NEWS

‘Rock star’ cardinal talks big cities, small gestures

by CNA/EWTN News • February 8, 2015

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila arrives at the Synod Hall in Vatican City on Oct. 6, 2014. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Vatican City — Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle knows a thing or two about urban evangelization. Ranked among the youngest cardinals in the Catholic Church, he heads the Archdiocese of Manila, based in one of the most densely-populated cities in the world.

Dubbed the “rock star” of cardinals, the 57-year-old Tagle was recently appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. He was in Rome this month to attend the group’s plenary assembly, on the theme: “Encounter God in the heart of the city,” where he was a keynote speaker.

In a Feb. 6 interview with CNA, Cardinal Tagle offered his thoughts on evangelizing in the big city, how to discuss contraception with pastoral care, and the impact of Pope Francis’ symbolic gestures during his recent trip to the Philippines.

The text of the interview has been edited for grammar and clarity.

Q. What are your impressions of – and hopes for – the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity?

Cardinal Tagle: This is my first time attending the plenary assembly for the Pontifical Council for the Laity. I’m a newly appointed member, and I’m very happy to know that this plenary assembly focuses on the big cities, the urban centers, the big metropolitan centers, and how the pastoral activities and the evangelizing mission of the Church can be accomplished in the big cities.

Pope Francis in his “Evangelii Gaudium,” his exhortation, stresses that in many parts of the world, people have been shifting from the agricultural, rural setting to the big cities. Centuries ago, the mission of the Church was tied to the regular human habitat of the time, which was the farms, the countryside. Now, that has been shifting, we should study the reality of the cities, and the challenges, and also the opportunities for evangelization.

Q: Looking at the Pope’s recent trip to the Philippines, how have we seen evangelization manifest itself after that visit? Has there been an impact that you’ve seen?

Cardinal Tagle: The event itself has been, for us, a sort of special blessing – the turnout of the people, the enthusiasm, the cooperation of everyone – it was really a moment of grace, and also of national import. Sustaining the fruits of that visit is now our main concern, and we have been focusing mainly on two things:

First, we have been inviting people to continue reading the messages, the homilies, the conferences of the Pope, continue reflecting on them, continue reflecting on the gestures of the Pope, the symbolic actions of the Pope. For only in a sustained mode of prayer, meditation, reflection, would we be able to relish more. Because listening already has an impact, but there is still much more to discover.

Secondly, not just a notional meditation or study of the messages, but allowing the message to hit us, to enter our hearts, to call us to a conversion, to call us to a review of life, etc., and from there, also to move into action – both individual action that everyone must implement in his or her life, but also, hopefully, together as a community, as a nation, as a Church. So that’s how we envision the post-visit efforts.

Q: You mentioned the importance of the symbolism of Pope Francis’ gestures. We think back on his visit with the young impoverished children at the shelter outside the Manila cathedral.

Cardinal Tagle: That shelter visited by the Pope is one of the many such symbols. I’m very happy that the Holy Father visited it, for he brought to the attention of many people what the Church and other NGOs have already been doing to address the needs of the street children. Because of the need to protect children themselves and their privacy, we don’t want them to be exposed to the scrutiny of so many people, so many of these projects have remained, in a way, hidden. But the visit of the Pope highlighted not only the situation of the children, but also good efforts that already exist, and we hope more people will support those actions, and also think of their own creative responses to those situations.

Q: How do you emphasize the poor’s material needs without neglecting spiritual needs?

Carinal Tagle: As far as the Church is concerned, we realize, of course, that the Church is not a parallel government. The Church is not a financial institution. The Church, in the words of Pope Francis, is not a non-governmental organization (NGO). It is a spiritual and missionary body.

So, it must be able to provide spiritual care for the poor, because we cannot expect other groups to do that. That’s another form of poverty: denying the poor access to spiritual, pastoral care. So the Church must do that, and the Church must accompany its action of education, providing food and shelter to the poor to the best of its ability, but always underlying that is the pastoral and spiritual care. Keeping the balance is always a challenge. Some would fall into the trap of being able to provide for the material needs, and somehow go slow on the spiritual, pastoral needs. But we are very much aware of our specific charism.

Q: The Pope made a number of strong statements on contraception. Have his words had any impact on those pushing for contraception legislation?

Cardinal Tagle: I think those who support the law knew from the very start the position of the Church. So I don’t think they were surprised that the Holy Father would reiterate the teaching of the Church, because the Holy Father is also very clear that while he is opening the doors of the Church as a compassionate and a merciful Church – meaning, trying to understand those who are finding some difficulties in their married life, etc. – he also says that he is a child, a son, of the Church. He is not at liberty to just invent his own teaching.

So, we see his affirmation of the teaching of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae. The Holy Father also alerted us to another aspect of the teaching of Paul VI, which is this: particular cases must be addressed individually, and they must be brought to the confessors, and the confessors must bring with them hearts of compassion and understanding as they evaluate particular situations and cases. There he was able to blend fidelity to teaching, and at the same time, seeing how individual cases are unique.

Q: How do we open the doors of those in a compassionate way without compromising the Church’s teaching?

Cardinal Tagle: I think it’s a matter also of pastoral approach.

For example, some people find difficulties in following some teaching of the Church, or they know the teachings of the Church, but they were subjected to some situations which are often not of their own choosing, or there are some factors which led them to some situation, which they know is not in harmony with the Church’s teaching. I think some people feel that, because they are not in harmony with the Church’s teaching, they’re already condemned. They’re outside the Church. That they have no place in the Church anymore. Maybe also, some priests made them feel that way. Whereas, what the Church has been proposing from the earliest of times, and what the Holy Father is reminding us again, is these people, who are having difficulties, they are the ones who need the Church’s guidance all the more. Maybe in a serene manner, let them realize the teachings of the Church. The teachings of the Church are not supposed to be oppressive. The teachings of the Church as ideals of the Christian life are actually quite liberating. When you talk about loving other people, when you talk about being truthful, when you talk about being just – those are not oppressive things. They make you better human beings.

An appreciation again of the beauty of the teachings of the Church, presented calmly, without any judgment, and then: how do we help those who are not in harmony with the Church? Sometimes, the situation has to be remedied. But, sometimes, the situation cannot be remedied any more.

So we consider: What is the pastoral approach to them, without making them feel that they are less children of God?

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VATICAN NEWS

What are the theological criteria to reform the Church and the Roman Curia?

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 9, 2015

St. Peter’s statue in St. Peter’s Square. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — The reform of the Roman Curia must be an example for the spiritual renewal of the entire Church, the prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote in an essay published Saturday in the Vatican’s newspaper.

“A true reform of the Roman Curia and of the Church has the objective of rendering the mission of the Pope and of the Church in the world of today and of tomorrow more radiant” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller wrote Feb. 7 in L’Osservatore Romano.

In the article, “Purifying the Temple,” Cardinal Mueller identified the final goal of Church reform as enlightening the mission of the Church; stressed the differences among the Roman Curia, the College of Cardinals, the Synod of Bishops, and the administration of Vatican City; and warned against the temptation of over-spiritualizing the Church, thereby relegating it to an environment of ideals divorced from reality.

Cardinal Mueller’s article was published on the eve of a meeting of the Council of Cardinals, and a subsequent consistory convoked by Pope Francis to discuss curial reform.

The Council of Cardinals are meeting for the eighth time Feb. 9-11, and under discussion are several proposals concerning the way the curia may be outlined in the future.

A first comprehensive draft designed the establishment of two super-congregations, each of including five secretariats that would take over functions and competences of several existing curial bodies: the Congregation for Justice and Peace, with the Secretariats of Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Migrants, Pastoral Health Care, Human ecology and life; and the Congregation for Family and Laity, which would include the secretariats for Laity, Family, Married Couples, Youth and Ecclesial Movements.

Other proposals were that of a substantial role for the Synod of Bishops in the general government of the Church, and a sort of common administration between the Holy See and Vatican City.

In his article, Cardinal Mueller implicitly addresses all of these proposals.

“At the heart of the Church stand the Gospel, truth, and salvation. History has taught us that any time the Church was freed from a worldly mentality and from earthly models of the exercise of power, the path to her spiritual renewal in Jesus Christ, her head and source of life, has opened,” he began his essay.

This has emerged in all attempts at Church reform, he said, noting the Gregorian reform of the 11th century, the Tridentine reform of the 16th, and the new springtime of Vatican II.

The temporal power of bishops was often corrupting, he said, yet “even more devastating were the systems in modern times of state Churches, such as Gallicanism … and the subjection of the Church to the State through royal patronage.”

“The Lord instituted the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation for the world … the Church cannot understand herself, or justify herself, by the worldly standards of power, wealth, and prestige: reflection on the nature and mission of the Church of God is, then, the basis and premise of any true reform.”

However, Cardinal Mueller warned against the temptation, in the face of man’s fragility, of “spiritualizing the Church,” thus relegating it “to an ambit of mere ideals and dreams, beyond the abyss of temptation, of sin, of death and of the devil, as though to reach the glory of the resurrection, we did not have to pass through the valley of pain and suffering.”

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith turned to Benedict XVI’s discourse about the need for the Church to free herself from forms of worldliness, and underscored that “Pope Francis has certainly continued this thought, speaking of a poor Church for the poor: the Church must never cede to the temptation of self-secularization, adapting to secular society and to a live without God.”

Discussion on curial reform has largely dealt with a desire to streamline the number of Vatican offices and employees, but Cardinal Mueller offered different criteria for reform: “the spirit of love through which the Church serves people through preaching, the sacraments, and charity.”

Cardinal Mueller explained that Roman Curia “is not a mere administrative structure, but is rather a spiritual institution rooted in the specific mission of the Church of Rome.”

The prefect stressed that the “organization and functioning of the Roman Curia depend on the specific mission of the Bishop of Rome.”

“Since it is only through the light of revealed faith that we can distinguish the Church from any religious community of merely human nature, likewise only through faith are we able to understand that the Pope and bishops enjoy a sacramental and mediating power which connects us with God,” the cardinal maintained.

He pointed out that “in the local Church, the bishop, constituted by the Holy Spirit, is not a delegate or a representative of the Pope, but the vicar and legate of Christ,” and that “the relationship between the universal Church and particular Churches cannot be compared to the relationship which exists among secular organizations.”

“The universal Church is not born as the sum of the local Churches, nor are local Churches mere branches of the universal Church,” explained Cardinal Mueller, saying there is a “mutual interiority” between particular Churches and the universal Church.

The Pope makes visible the unity and the indivisibility of the bishops and the Church, and this is why “he presides over the local Church of Rome” while at the same time presiding over the universal Church.

“The Pope cannot exercise primacy if he is not joined to the Church of Rome.”

Cardinal Mueller stressed that “the Pope exercises the universal pastoral ministry because the Pope is the successor of Peter,” but also explained that “the Pope puts into action this ministry with the assistance of the Church of Rome.”

The rationale that lies behind the existence of the Roman Curia is that “the Roman Church collaborates with the Pope’s task through the college of cardinals,” and so “groups of cardinals and bishops appointed by the Pontiff shape the body of the Roman Curia.”

“The cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia assist the Pope in his service to Catholic unity,” while the Pope on the other hand “is not limited by the action of the Curia, and he is rather supported” by it.

Cardinal Mueller described the collegial modus operandi of the Roman Curia, and said that “it is fundamental, for the reform of the Curia, that it be understood as a spiritual family: its character and its necessarily pastoral orientation are guaranteed by mutual cooperation and by charity, by prayer and the Eucharist, by retreats and pastoral commitments and preaching.”

It is important, he said, “that the Roman Curia be distinguished from the civil institutions of Vatican State, whose structures are subject to the law of public administration and safeguard the Church’s political independence.”

Cardinal Mueller also explained that “the Synod of Bishops is not a part of the Roman Curia in the strict sense: it is the expression of the collegiality of bishops in communion with the Pope and under his direction. The Roman Curia instead aids the Pope in the exercise of his primacy over all the Churches.”

“The Synod of Bishops, the bishops conferences, and the various aggregations of particular Churches belong to a theological category distinct from the Roman Curia,” he said.

“Only those who think through the lens of power, influence, and prestige will interpret the organic relation of primacy and episcopacy as a struggle between competences,” clarified Cardinal Mueller. “The Holy Spirit, however … creates harmony between the poles of unity and multiplicity, between the universal Church and particular Churches.”

This is why – the prefect continued – “fostering a just decentralization does not mean attributing more power to the bishops conferences, but only that they exercise the genuine responsibility to which they are entrusted” always “in union with the primacy of the Pope and with the Roman Church.”

True reform, according to Cardinal Mueller, will allow the Church to counter both the “dictatorship of relativism” identified by Benedict XVI and the “globalization of indifference” seen by Pope Francis.

“The challenge for the hierarchy and for all members of the Church is to resist these worldly infections.”

In conclusion, Cardinal Mueller stressed that Pope Francis “is pursuing a spiritual cleansing of the temple, at the same time both painful and liberating, so that the glory of God can shine in the Church and be a light for all people. Recalling then, like the disciples of the Lord, the words of Scripture, ‘zeal for your house will consume me’, we will understand the objective of the reform of the Curia and of the Church.”

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If you care about God’s handiwork you’ll protect nature, Pope says

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 9, 2015

(CC0 1.0)

Vatican City — Set to finish his encyclical on the environment next month, Pope Francis said during his daily Mass at the Vatican on Monday that Christians who fail to safeguard nature do not care about God’s handiwork.

“A Christian who does not protect creation, who does not allow it to grow, is a Christian who does not care about God’s labors” which are borne out of God’s love for us, the Pope said Feb. 9.

His remarks were based in part on the day’s first reading from Genesis 1:1-19, comparing God’s creation of the universe with the Jesus’ “re-creation” of that which “had been ruined by sin.”

Pope Francis announced to journalists on his way to the Philippines last month that plans to have his much-anticipated encyclical on man’s relationship with creation finished in March.

A year ago this month, the Vatican had announced the Pope’s plans to write on the theme of “human ecology” – a phrase that was originally coined by retired pontiff Benedict XVI.

This expression, spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said at the time, describes not only how the faithful must respect the environment, but also how the nature of the person – masculine and feminine as created by God – must also be defended.

Pope Francis’ first encyclical, entitled “Lumen Fidei,” or “Light of Faith,” was released in 2013. It was written by the pontiff as a completion of the work initiated by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who resigned before the document was finished.

During his homily Monday, Pope Francis turned to the day’s Gospel reading from Mark 6:53-56, reflecting on the account of Jesus curing the sick, with those receiving healing simply by touching is cloak.

This healing marks the “second creation” the Pope said, which “is even more wonderful than the first.”

But while the “second creation” is more important, Pope Francis said that God has given the faithful the “responsibility” to care for the “first” creation – the earth – by helping it “to grow according to its laws.”

That said, “we are the lords of creation, not its masters,” and are therefore called to protect it.

With regard to the “second creation” brought about by Jesus, Pope Francis said we are told by Saint Paul in the Bible to become “reconciled to God” – adding that “reconciliation is the work of Christ.”

Pope Francis explained that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all engaged “in this re-creation.” In response, we are “to safeguard and nurture Creation,” allowing “ourselves be reconciled with Jesus.”

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What Cardinal Burke really said about ‘resisting’ Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • February 9, 2015

Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, speaks with CNA in Rome on Sept. 15, 2014. (Joaquín Peiró Pérez/CNA)

Vatican City — Cardinal Raymond Burke said he was “responding to a hypothetical situation” when he stated that he would resist any possible move by Pope Francis away from Catholic doctrine.

“I simply affirmed that it is always my sacred duty to defend the truth of the Church’s teaching and discipline regarding marriage,” Cardinal Burke told CNA Feb. 9.

“No authority can absolve me from that responsibility, and, therefore, if any authority, even the highest authority, were to deny that truth or act contrary to it, I would be obliged to resist, in fidelity to my responsibility before God.”

Cardinal Burke said his interview with the French television channel France 2, broadcast Feb. 8, was “accurately reported” concerning a question and answer about resisting Pope Francis.

According to a translation of the interview on the blog Rorate Caeli, the cardinal stressed the need for attentiveness to the power of the office of the papacy in Catholic understanding. Papal power is “at the service of the doctrine of the faith,” he explained, “and thus the Pope does not have the power to change teaching, doctrine.”

The interviewer then asked: “In a somewhat provocative way, can we say that the true guardian of doctrine is you, and not Pope Francis?”

“We must, let us leave aside the matter of the Pope,” the cardinal replied. “In our faith, it is the truth of doctrine that guides us.”

“If Pope Francis insists on this path, what will you do?” the interviewer then asked.

“I will resist. I cannot do anything else,” he said.

The cardinal’s statement about resistance drew significant coverage.

Cardinal Burke went on to tell France 2 that the Catholic Church is facing “a difficult time” that is “painful” and “worrisome.”

At the same time, when asked wither the Church as an institution was being threatened, he voiced confidence.

“The Lord assured us, as he assured Saint Peter in the Gospel, that the forces of evil will not prevail – ‘non praevalebunt,’ we say in Latin. That the forces of evil will not achieve, let us say, victory over the Church.”

Asked whether Pope Francis is his friend, the cardinal replied, “I would not want to make of the pope an enemy, certainly!”

The cardinal, a former Archbishop of St. Louis, served from 2008-2014 as Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Roman Rota, effectively the Supreme Court of the Catholic Church. He also sat on the Congregation for Bishops for several years.

Pope Francis removed him from his curial positions and assigned him as Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a 900-year-old institution focused on the defense of the faith and care for the poor. The order has a presence in over 120 countries, with 13,000 members and 80,000 volunteers.

Cardinal Burke was a leading figure during the October 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family. At the time, he told CNA that much of the media had been inaccurately presenting Pope Francis as being in favor of allowing Holy Communion to be distributed to those who are divorced and remarried, along with other proposals.

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Times are hard, but don’t give up – Pope’s plea to Greek bishops

by CNA/EWTN News • February 10, 2015

Thousands of demonstrators gather outside the Greek parliament on Feb. 5, 2015 in Athens, Greece. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images News/Getty Images)

Vatican City — Pope Francis encouraged the bishops of Greece to engage in dialogue and solidarity, values he said are particularly necessary in fighting pessimism during the country’s ongoing financial crisis.

Fraternal communion is “indispensable for the growth of the Church in Greece, as well as for the progress of all of society,” he said Feb. 5 to the Greek bishops, who had come to Rome for their ad limina visit.

“This is even more true in your nation,” he continued, “which at the moment has more than ever the need for dialogue among its diverse political and cultural components, for the safeguarding and promotion of the common good.”

Greece’s financial crisis began in 2010, when it was discovered that the nation’s public debt was unsustainably high – it is currently 174 percent of the national GDP. The country was bailed out by several other nations and institutions, and the government has taken unpopular austerity measures to reign in the debt.

But in January elections, an anti-austerity party won elections on a platform of rolling back austerity measures and rejecting international bailout extensions.

In the face of the ongoing crisis, Pope Francis told the bishops: “do not tire of exhorting everyone to confidence in the future, in contrast to the so-called culture of pessimism. The spirit of solidarity, which all Christians are called to give witness to in the concreteness of daily life, is a leaven of hope.”

“It is important to maintain constructive relations with the authorities of your nation, as well as with the diverse components of society, in so as to spread this perspective of solidarity, in an attitude of dialogue and collaboration also with other European nations.”

The Pope encouraged the strengthening of Greek cultural traditions and of the “Christian roots of Greek society,” while at the same times encouraging openness to the cultural and spiritual values brought by the many immigrants to Greece “without distinction of race, language, or religious creed.”

The united witness of Christians can welcome the disadvantaged and “truly contribute to the transformation of society, with the aim of making it more closely resemble the Gospel ideal,” he said. “I am glad to know that you are already engaged in this pastoral and charitable activity, especially in favor of immigrants, including those who are undocumented, many of whom are Catholic.”

Pope Francis said dialogue was also important for the Greek bishops with regard to the Orthodox – an estimated 97 percent of Greeks are Eastern Orthodox. Ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox, he said, is an “indispensable prospect for a serene and spiritually fruitful future for the whole of your nation.”

He asked that the bishops encourage priestly vocations, “to address the insufficient number of clergy.”

“In this regard, I ask you to convey to the priests of your dioceses, many of whom are elderly, all my affection and my appreciation for their apostolic zeal, despite their limited means.”

He lamented “the weakening of the family, caused also by the process of secularization, which requires the commitment of the Church to persevere in programs of formation for marriage.”

In conclusion, Pope Francis said that “I wish to express my acknowledgement of the work of evangelization that, despite many difficulties, you are carrying out in Greece … I encourage you to persevere in your mission with evangelical joy.”

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Pope: God is not found in computers or encyclopedias, but restless hearts

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple in St. Peter’s Basilica, Feb. 2, 2015. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — In his homily Tuesday, Pope Francis said that Christians must have a certain “restlessness” if they want to know God, who is not found by staring at a computer, but rather by going outside of oneself.

“Sedentary Christians, lethargic Christians will not know the face of God: They do not know Him,” the Pope told attendees of his Feb. 10 daily Mass, which took place in the chapel of the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse.

“You need a certain restlessness to set out on this path, the same restlessness that God placed in each of our hearts and that brings us forward in search of Him.”

Pope Francis launched his reflections by turning to the day’s first reading from Genesis, which recounts God’s creation of Adam and Eve, whom he made in his image and likeness.

The Pope spoke of the right and wrong paths that Christians can take when searching for the origins of their own identity. When looking, it is important to note that the image of God cannot be found “on a computer, or in encyclopedias,” he said.

Rather, the only way to find the image of God and understand one’s own identity is to “set out on a journey,” Francis said.

Of course beginning this journey and allowing God to test us will always involve risks, he said, but pointed out that this is what all the major biblical figures, such as Elijah, Jeremiah and Job, did by allowing themselves to face difficulties and feel defeated.

The Pope contrasted the witness of these biblical figures with those in the Gospel who are stationary and falsify their search for God.

The Pharisees, who confront Jesus and ask why his disciples eat without performing the normal purification rituals, “are afraid to set out on the path (in search of their identity),” he said.

Instead of searching for God, the Pharisees are content “with a caricature of God. It is a fake ID. These lethargic people have silenced the restlessness of their heart, they depict God with commandments and forget God.”

By telling Jesus’ disciples that they are neglecting God’s law and are therefore following the tradition of man, the Pharisees themselves turn away from God and when they are insecure, “they invent or make up another commandment,” Pope Francis said.

He then turned to the day’s liturgy, saying that the day’s readings provide two “identity cards” that every Christian has.

The first is a card that tells us to go out in search of God, and that by doing so, “you will discover your identity, because you are the image of God.”

“Get up and seek God,” he said, noting that the second identity card the readings provide is that of fulfilling the commandments, because they show us the face of God.

The Pope concluded his homily by praying that the Lord give all “the grace of courage to always set out on the path, to seek the Lord’s face, the face that one day we will see, but which we must seek here on Earth.”

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German bishop appointed to catechetical post in Vatican

by Edward Pentin (National Catholic Register) • February 10, 2015

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who will work with the pontifical council for the new evangelization. (Christliches Medienmagazin pro via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the former bishop of Limburg, near Frankfurt, Germany, is to begin a new appointment in March as a delegate on catechesis at the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, the National Catholic Register has learned.

An official at the Pontifical Council confirmed on Monday that Bishop Tebartz-van Elst was appointed in December on behalf of Pope Francis through the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. It follows reports in the German press that the bishop had been appointed to the Council, but that the appointment had been subsequently withdrawn by Pope Francis, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The Vatican press office refused to comment on the appointment when asked by the Register last week, neither confirming nor denying it had taken place, although Archbishop Georg Gänswein unofficially confirmed the news to Vatican Magazin on Feb. 7.

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst was at the center of allegations that he had approved a $40m remodeling and building project in his diocese that included the bishop’s residence. The expensive project had actually been ordered by his predecessor, Bishop Franz Kamphaus, who retired in 2007.

Many believe Tebartz van Elst was the victim of a smear campaign and forced out because of his orthodoxy.

In 2008, he drew the ire of some of the German hierarchy when he dismissed a local priest for blessing a same-sex union. Some local priests also criticized his homilies and statements, and drew up a petition.

Bishop Kamphaus, on the other hand, sparked controversy in the early 2000s by refusing to comply with several request from Pope John Paul II to stop issuing certificates that opened the way for women to have abortions.

The allegations against 55 year-old Bishop Tebartz-van Elst also stand in contrast to the high spending of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which has just spent $150m on a new diocesan service center.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the archdiocese and is president of the German bishops’ conference, has also just had his residence renovated at a cost of $9m, paid for by the state of Bavaria.

But unlike Tebartz-van Elst, the media has paid little attention to the high spending.

The official at the Pontifical Council told the Register Bishop Tebartz-van Elst’s position is a new one, and that he had been appointed because his “background is in catechesis.”

This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register, Feb. 9, 2015.

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In Ukraine, Pope Francis backs effort for peace – not any particular party

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer, Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

Volunteers distribute food to Ukrainians displaced from their homes by the violence. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Vatican City — Following mixed interpretations of Pope Francis’ words on the crisis in Ukraine, the director of the Holy See press office said on Tuesday that the Holy See’s overarching interest is in peace and negotiation.

Pope Francis “has always wished to address all the interested parties, trusting in the sincere efforts of each one to implement agreements reached by common consent and invoking the principle of international law, to which the Holy See has referred several times since the beginning of the crisis,” Fr. Federico Lombardi said Feb. 10.

Following his General Audience on Feb. 4, the Pope had said that “once again my thoughts go to the beloved people of Ukraine. Unfortunately the situation is deteriorating and the polarity between the parties is growing worse. Let us pray first and foremost for the victims, among whom are so many civilians, and for their families, and let us ask the Lord that this horrible fratricidal violence cease as quickly as possible.”

More than 5,400 people have died in the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has lasted since April 2014, when pro-Russian separatists began fighting the Ukrainian government. The rebels are supported by both Russian arms and troops, according to both Ukraine and Western nations.

Because of the presence of Russian troops in the east of their country, many Ukrainians took issue with Pope Francis’ description of the violence as “fratricidal” – they consider the crisis a product of foreign aggression on the part of Moscow.

And when the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow praised Pope Francis’ words, the discomfort of Ukrainians – including Catholics – was heightened.

Fr. Lombardi clarified that “in the presence of an escalation of the conflict that has claimed many innocent victims, the Holy Father Francis has renewed his appeal for peace on several occasions. By these interventions, while inviting the faithful to pray for those who have been killed and injured as a result of the hostilities, the Pope also underlined the urgency of resuming negotiations as the only possible way out of the logic of mounting accusations and reactions.”

He added that Pope Francis is joyfully awaiting the ad limina visit of the Ukrainian bishops, scheduled to take place Feb. 16-21.

“This will constitute a further occasion to meet those brother bishops, to be directly informed on the situation of that dear country, to console the Church and those who suffer, and to evaluate together paths for reconciliation and peace,” Fr. Lombardi commented.

On the final day of the Ukrainian ad limina, Pope Francis will meet in private with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

As Merkel is strongly committed to peace negotiations in Ukraine, the issue is likely to dominate, and the Holy See would reaffirm its support for diplomatic action.

“I would say that it is natural that the Pope and Angela Merkel will talk about the Ukrainian situation. The principle that the Holy See will not interfere with the government agenda, and will not prompt solutions to crisis, will remain firm. But it is likely that both the Pope and the Secretary of State will express their concern and will encourage any effort to bring peace in the Ukraine,” Fr. Lombardi told CNA Feb. 10.

On the other hand, Fr. Lombardi rejected the idea that a declaration from the Secretariat of State on the Ukrainian issue should be expected.

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The story behind Pope Francis’ surprise visit to a Rome shantytown

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

Pope Francis visits a shantytown in Italy, Feb. 8, 2015. (St. Egidio Community/Gianna Iasilli)

Vatican City — Pope Francis made a surprise stop at a shantytown on his way to celebrate Mass at a Roman parish Feb. 8 – a “secret” plan that only the pontiff knew about and which prompted tears of joy from residents.

“We forgot that we can cry also for joy. We cry for shame and for suffering. Today, we remembered that we can pray for joy. This was the best day of our lives.”

According to Gianna Iasilli, who spoke with CNA Feb. 10, these were the sentiments of those who live in the “Arcobaleno” shantytown, where Pope Francis made a stop on his way to celebrate Mass at the Roman Parish of San Michele Arcangelo Feb. 9.

A member of the Sant’Egidio community, Iasilli was one of three representatives from the community who accompanied 30 of the shantytown’s inhabitants to the papal Mass. After stopping briefly at the town itself, Pope Francis met with the 30 individuals in the parish hall before Mass began.

Built in the 1930s, the block where the town is located was constructed as a provisional allocation for those evicted from their homes in downtown Rome following the restructuring of the city by early 20th century Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini.

Pope Francis’ visit to the Arcobaleno “was a visit that the Holy Father left a secret, truly a secret. No one knew,” Iasilli said, revealing that the Pope had asked his driver to stop at the town’s address while on his way to the parish.

She noted that when the Pope arrived he couldn’t find the shanties, and had to call the parish priest for additional directions. Once he arrived, the Pope was greeted by a mainly Latin American group, as they live closest to the entrance.

Francis greeted the group in Spanish, asking how many of them spoke his language. His question was met with a resounding “todos!” meaning “all of us!”

In addition to Latin Americans, the shantytown is also inhabited by Ukrainians, Romanians, Poles, Eritreans and Russians. Of these, the Ukrainians and Romanians “are the least well off,” Iasilli said.

Among the 30 shantytown inhabitants present at the parish for the Pope’s Mass were all nationalities except for Latin Americans and Eritreans.

The encounter between the Pope and the Arcobaleno dwellers “was a significant gesture that showed depth and mercy,” Iasilli noted, revealing that the Pope came into the parish hall before Mass and closed the door, before asking for each of them where they came from.

“It was very moving. They were moved. Many are alcoholics, many live in the shanties or sleep on the streets. They live in front of shops, looking for a bit of warm air at night,” she said, and recalled how Pope Francis asked to know which ones lived on the streets.

She said that some of the participants in the papal encounter don’t have places to stay in the town, but are too embarrassed to return to their own countries. Many used to work, but have lost their jobs, she noted.

Many who were present in the papal audience asked for peace, including the Ukrainians and the Russians, who said that while they live side-by-side in the town, their countries are at war.

Iasilli recalled how Pope Francis told them that “he prays for peace every day between the nations.”

Several individuals approached the Pope asking for prayers, including a man who had hurt his hand. When he asked for prayers for his healing, the Pope took his hand “and prayed at length” for his recovery.

There was also a former mercenary who had fought in Afghanistan that asked the Pope to forgive him for his sins and for “not having loved.” He bowed before the Pope, who blessed him.

Pope Francis also offered his blessing to a woman who asked forgiveness for having “greatly sinned.” The Pope, Iasilli noted, “told her that we’re all sinners. She repeated it and he blessed her.”

Many also asked for prayers regarding their health, because “if you get sick on the streets, it’s very difficult.”

Upon hearing that many of the people in the audience and in the Arcobaleno suffer from violence, including alcoholism and arson fires that destroy their homes, the Pope told those present that people call them homeless, “but without saying your names.”

The encounter, Iasilli said, “was very moving because it was so profound,” and noted that there was “a sense of mystery” in everyone.

Sant’Egidio has been working with the shantytown for 15 years and is on a first-name basis with many of the inhabitants. In additions to offering showers in a local parish where the homeless can get new clothes and sheets, the community brings dinner to the town every Tuesday and Thursday.

The Pope thanked the community for their “generosity and patience,” and told inhabitants that he gives them “courage from the Holy Spirit because your lives are like ash. When the fire goes out the ashes remain. But if the wind blows, the fire is rekindled. That wind is the Holy Spirit.”

Despite the difficult reality of those who participated in the encounter, the Pope’s visit “was a gesture that helps us to understand that we’re able to change the cities to make them more united, more human, so they can be more inclusive to the people,” Iasilli said.

She recalled how the Pope told them that Rome must rebuild itself “from the peripheries. Only in this way is a city able to start over. If we exclude the poor, we exclude God.”

Iasilli also spoke about the recent Vatican initiative to include showers for the homeless in the bathrooms of St. Peter’s Square.

Calling the move a model of “revolution,” she said that the act serves as a sign that “it’s possible for everyone if it’s possible for the Vatican and for the Pope.”

“The city and the way we live should be rethought and also how we should live with more solidarity,” she said.

To live with the poor “is a great joy. This I can bear witness to. Being a friend to the poor brings joy. It’s a great joy to be with the poor.”

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Vatican: rumor of assassination attempt on Pope Francis ‘unreliable’

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. addresses journalists during a May 15, 2014 press conference. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi told journalists Tuesday that rumors circulating about a possible assassination attempt on Pope Francis during his visit to the Philippines are unfounded.

“In the last few days there’s been talk of this hypothesis of an assassination attempt during the trip to the Philippines. Cardinal (Luis Antonio) Tagle, who has his good sources, said the information is unreliable,” the spokesman said Feb. 11.

Philippine media have reported that a man affiliated with Al-Qaeda had planned to place a bomb to be detonated along the route of the papal convoy, but police had gotten wind of the plan and altered the route.

Due to Cardinal Tagle’s closeness to the situation in the Philippines as Archbishop of Manila, Fr. Lombardi agreed that the rumors are “unfounded.”

Fr. Lombardi’s comments came during a press briefing on activities of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals, who are meeting this week to discuss matters of Church governance and reform.

Pope Francis traveled to the Philippines Jan. 15-19 for an apostolic visit to the country, where he met with victims of the country’s recent typhoons as well as former street children.

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‘Surrounded by children’ – Pope Francis’ take on a thriving society

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

Pope Francis meets with students in Paul VI audience hall on May 31, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — In his general audience address Pope Francis said that children are gift to parents and society, and that there is no future for a civilization which views them as merely an inconvenience.

“A society that is not surrounded by children, that considers them a problem, a burden, has no future,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Feb. 11 general audience address.

Children, he said, “are the fruit of their parents’ love and a gift of God, whose own infinite love bestows inviolable dignity and worth upon each person who comes into the world.”

Pope Francis’ words on children came as part of a series of catechesis on the family that he began last fall, in order to reflect ahead of this year’s Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family in October.

After exploring the roles of both mothers and fathers in recent weeks, the Pope turned to the role of children as “a gift of God for parents and society.” He alluded to the day’s liturgy, in which the first reading from Isaiah speaks of the joy and hope children bring to their parents.

“A child is loved for being a child: not because they are beautiful, healthy or good; and not because they think like me or fulfill my desires,” he said.

“Children are the joy of family and society. They are not a problem of reproductive biology, or one of many ways to realize oneself in life. Let alone their parent’s possession. Children are a gift. Do you understand? Children are a gift!”

The Pope went on to note how everyone has had the experience of being a child. To be children, he said, allows us to discover the free dimension of love, and to have the experience of being loved before doing anything to deserve it.

We are loved as children “before knowing how to speak or think, even before coming into the world,” Francis observed, saying that this is “a fundamental experience” in order to know the love of God, who is himself the source of the “miracle” of life.

The Pope then noted that he often encounters pregnant mothers in his audiences who ask for a blessing for their unborn children, saying that they do it “because these children are loved before coming into the world!”

Limitless love such as this gives humanity the strength to face life’s difficulties without fear as well as the ability to build a new world, he said. This love also allows society to work toward becoming better people without falling into “arrogance or presumption.”

Pope Francis then turned to the fourth commandment, which instructs children to “honor your father and mother.”

This commandment, he said “invites us to see in the relationship between the generations a sacred bond,” and at the same time serves as the “basis of every other type of human respect.”

A society which “discards” its elders is one “without dignity,” the Pope explained, while a culture that views children as inconvenient or burdensome is one that has no future.

“We must know how to recognize a child’s worth, and children should always honor their parents,” he said.

Parents must know how to be responsible when thinking about growing their families, he said, but stressed that “the simple fact of having many children cannot be seen as an irresponsible decision.”

The Pope closed his address by praying that Jesus, as the son of a human family, would help society as a whole to place greater value of the gift of life, of the family and of each person’s responsibility to help youth look to the future “with joy, hope and courage.”

He then offered personal greetings to pilgrims present from various countries around the world, including England, Scotland, Ireland, the United States of America, Spain, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.

After giving his blessing, the Pope prayed that Mary “grant to all her children the guidance and strength to grow in love and walk together to the gates of heaven,” and greeted various cardinals, bishops and pilgrims present before leaving the square.

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Africa is for the young – and Pope Francis knows it

by CNA/EWTN News • February 11, 2015

Rwandan children, Oct. 2013. (Michelle Bauman/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has encouraged African bishops to focus efforts on young people, suggesting education can help them counter new forms of colonization that tempt them to bad ways of life.

“Above all, it is the youth who need your witness. In Africa, the future is in the hands of the young, who need to be protected from new and unscrupulous forms of ‘colonization’ such as the pursuit of success, riches, and power at all costs,” the Pope told participants in the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar during a Feb. 7 audience at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

He also warned of fundamentalism and the “distorted use of religion.”

Investment in education, he said, is “the most effective way to overcome the temptation to give into harmful lifestyles.” Education will also help overcome social, ethnic, and religious divisions and “a widespread mentality of injustice and violence.”

He praised an education model that “teaches the young to think critically and encourages growth in moral values.” The pastoral care of students should also address “the need to unite academic studies with the explicit proclamation of the Gospel.”

Christian renewal was also a focus of the Roman Pontiff’s remarks.

“The great work of evangelization consists in striving to make the Gospel permeate every aspect of our lives so that we, in turn, can bring it to others,” he said. He encouraged bishops to remember always that evangelization implies conversion and “interior renewal.”

“The process of purification, which is inherent in evangelization, means accepting the call of Christ to ‘repent and believe the Good News’,” the Pope explained.

“As a result of this conversion to salvation, not only individuals but the entire ecclesial community is transformed, and becomes an ever greater and more vital expression of faith and charity.”

Pope Francis also gave clear advice for pastors, saying they “must remain free from worldly and political concerns.”

He encouraged the bishops’ efforts to strengthen their fraternal bonds with the Bishop of Rome. He also stressed the need for “streamlined pastoral structures” and “simple ecclesial experiences available to all.”

“Experience teaches that large bureaucratic structures approach problems in the abstract and risk distancing the Church from people,” he said.

Pope Francis also spoke to the state of society in Africa, noting “a trend toward the breakdown of the family.” He said the Church is called “to evaluate and encourage every initiative to strengthen the family, which is the real source of all forms of fraternity and the foundation and primary way of peace.”

The Pope praised priests, vowed religious, and laity who have “admirably taken responsibility for the care of families” and have shown special concern for the elderly, sick and handicapped.

“Even in the most distant and remote regions, your local Churches have proclaimed the Gospel of Life and, following the example of the Good Samaritan, have come to the help of those most in need,” he said.

“As followers of Christ, we cannot fail to be concerned for the welfare of the weakest; we must also draw the attention of society and the civil authorities to their plight.”

He especially praised the “magnificent witness to charity” in the response to the Ebola virus, which killed tens of thousands of people in West Africa.

“Many African missionaries have generously given their lives by remaining close to those suffering from this disease,” he said.

Pope Francis praised the African bishops’ promotion of respect for law, saying this helps heal the damage of “corruption and fatalism.”

The Pope noted that the symposium of bishops’ conferences seeks to serve the local Churches of Africa and to provide a “common response” to the continent’s challenges. He encouraged the symposium to “remain faithful to its identity as a vibrant experience of communion and of service to the poorest of the poor.”

Pope Francis closed his remarks by praying that the “light and the strength of the Holy Spirit” may sustain the African bishops’ efforts.

“May the Virgin Mary protect you and intercede for you and for the entire continent of Africa,” he said.

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VATICAN NEWS

Two years into retirement, the legacy of Father Benedict endures

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

Pope Benedict XVI. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk)

Vatican City — Two years to the day since Pope Benedict XVI told the world of his historic decision to step down from the papal office, those impacted by his pontificate say that his legacy is still burning bright.

“Pope Benedict’s legacy is really very massive,” said Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary for the congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

“His teaching, his balance, his ability to get to the bottom of so many things with such clarity” are among the marks that remain from Benedict’s pontificate, the archbishop told CNA.

While Feb. 11 is normally set aside as a holiday in the Vatican for the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the day took on huge added significance in 2013, when Benedict used the opportunity to announce his retirement at a relatively routine consistory – most of the prelates in the room had expected to hear little more than the dates for some upcoming canonizations.

Three weeks later, on Feb. 28, Benedict XVI would greet the crowds from the balcony of the papal palace at Castel Gandolfo for the last time as the reigning pontiff. Shortly thereafter, the resignation took effect, and the See of Peter was vacant until the election of Pope Francis on Mar. 13, 2013.

Since his retirement, Benedict’s days have been filled with prayer and study, largely out of the public view. He now goes by the simple title, “Fr. Benedict.” However, some see the legacy of the Pope Emeritus as continuing to resonate in complementarity to that of his successor, Pope Francis.

Archbishop Roche reflected on what he sees as the lasting impact of the former Pope.

He criticized negative portrayals of Benedict XVI as “somebody who was very severe,” saying that this media-fueled reputation was unfair and inaccurate.

Speaking from his personal experience, the archbishop said that in reality, Benedict “was the most easy person to speak to in the whole of the curia, because he was very interested in what you had to say. And, he was very interested about the problems which bishops were encountering.”

“I think that his magisterium is something that will remain and will be known as very great in years to come.”

Benedict XVI’s legacy has also extended well beyond the curia, with many young Catholics attributing their conversions to his pontificate.

Following his 2010 visit to the UK, for instance, there has been a rise in Catholic youth-initiated movements – Youth 2000, Night Fever, Flame Congress – as well as a slow and steady increase in men and women pursuing vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

The impact of this visit on UK Catholics was demonstrated shortly after the papal resignation was announced through an online initiative entitled “Generation Benedict,” in which 40 young people were invited to share their testimonies of how the German pontiff had touched their lives.

The initiative came in response to “a lot of negative media surrounding his abdication,” said Collette Power, co-founder of the Generation Benedict, along with Lisette Carr, both young laywomen from Britain.

“Our lives had been profoundly changed by his papacy, and by the invitation he had extended to us to know the Lord and to become saints,” she said, “and we knew a lot of other young people that had the same experience. This wasn’t being told in the media.”

Power told CNA she had lapsed from her faith, but experienced a conversion during Benedict’s visit to the UK, culminating in the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Cofton Park.

Although she had gone to Mass as a child, she said “no one had ever really explained the heart of the Gospel which Pope Benedict did when he visited England.”

“To know that God loves me, and that I’m called to have a personal relationship with Jesus, and that I’m called to holiness, nothing less, not the mediocrity of the world, that the Church challenges me and the Lord challenges me to be a saint.”

One year later, during the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, Power says she experienced the sense that she was being called by the Pope to share what she had received, “to go forward and to take the Gospel to all the places in kind of my life, all the people that I know, and to the ends of the earth in my area, to really go out and spread the good news.”

Two years after the papal resignation, Power reflected that “Pope Benedict really laid a foundation for what Pope Francis is doing now.”

“He encouraged us to know our faith, to know the culture that we live in, so that we can speak the Gospel effectively,” she said.

“Through Pope Francis now, we’re being sent, having been equipped by Pope Benedict, we’re being sent out to share the Gospel with everyone we meet and take it to the fringes of society.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Could a new charity department lead a reformed Roman Curia?

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer, Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Jan. 25, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — The secretary of the Council of Cardinals will present tomorrow at the consistory a proposal for curial reform based on the pivotal notion of charity, according to a source who has seen the latest draft of the proposal.

The nine-member Council of Cardinals met Feb. 9-11 with Pope Francis at the Vatican’s St. Martha house, continuing their discussion on the reform of the Roman Curia. The meeting precedes a Feb. 12-13 consistory also discussing the reform, and a Feb. 14-15 consistory for the creation of new cardinals.

Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, who serves as coordinator of the Council of Cardinals, will report Thursday in front of the some 150 cardinals and cardinals-designate who are taking part in the consistory.

A source who has seen one of the latest updates of Bishop Semeraro’s draft told CNA Feb. 11 that “charity has now become pivotal in the new Congregation for Charity, Justice and Peace.”

The new congregation will include the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Migrants, Cor Unum and Pastoral Health Care, and the first option was that of putting everything under the umbrella of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Following some observations of the chief of dicasteries, “the draft has been amended, and enriched with a theological basis. It now states that charity comes first, and provided several quotes from Benedict XVI’s encyclicals Deus Caritas Est and Caritas in veritate, as well as quotes by Bl. Paul VI,” the source explained.

According to the source, the super-congregation would now be “under the umbrella of the Pontifical Council of Cor Unum, and assisted by Caritas Internationalis, even though this latter may not be assimilated into a body of the Roman Curia.”

If this design come true, charity will be pivotal in the redesigned Roman Curia.

Bishop Semeraro’s presentation will follow an introduction by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, who serves as coordinator of the Council of Cardinals.

The consistory will begin with a short address by Pope Francis, and an introduction by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals.

According to Fr. Lombardi, Holy See press officer, Cardinal Sodano’s speech will zero-in on the several adjustments Pastor bonus, the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia promulgated in 1988, has undergone in the course of subsequent years.

Fr. Lombardi also stressed during a press briefing that “the comprehensive rewriting of the constitution will take time,” while it is possible that “in the mean time new bodies are established” in order to start building the new structure of the curia.

He also underscored that one first step toward curial reform may be “the creation of two super-congregations, the Congregation for Charity, Justice and Peace, and the Congregation for Laity, Family and Life.”

A source who works in a pontifical council underscored Feb. 11 that this “streamlining of the curia would lead to a diminution of the curial cardinals, and to an increase of lay people employed at the Vatican,” and that this is “reflected in Pope Francis’ picks for the last consistory, which awarded just one archbishop from the Roman Curia.”

The streamlining of the Roman Curia may be further achieved by the establishment of a central body for Vatican communications, which would also act as a central coordination body for editorial contents.

“This is one of the ideas the Vatican committee for communication is working on,” a source close to members of the Vatican communication committee said Feb. 8.

An interim report of the committee was presented Feb. 10 to the Council of Cardinals by Msgr. Paul Tighe, who serves as secretary of the committee.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, reported to the Council Feb. 9 about the role the Pontifical Council he leads may have in the curial reform.

According to the Portuguese agency “Ecclesia,” Cardinal Ravasi proposed to elevate his council to the rank of a super-congregation, which would also include the Congregation for Catholic Education and would administer the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Vatican Observatory and the Vatican Museums.

The Council of Cardinals also heard reports on the newly-established Secretariat for the Economy and the Council for the Economy, with a view to the finalization of the statutes for the two new bodies.

Fr. Lombardi said Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston is expected to address the Council of Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon, updating them on the work of the Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The Council of Cardinals has scheduled its next meeting for April 13-15, and is also expected to meet in July.

Fr. Lombardi underscored that “there is a long path forward to carry out curial reform.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope prays for migrants killed in Mediterranean boat tragedy

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

(Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — During his weekly general audience, Pope Francis said he was following “with concern” the news of hundreds of immigrants who perished in the Mediterranean Sea this week.

“I wish to assure you of my prayers for the victims, and encourage once again solidarity in order that no one lacks the necessary relief,” the Pope said Feb. 11.

The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, says that some 300 migrants are feared dead after their boat sank in the Mediterranean. Survivors said they had left Libya late last week.

The Italian government had launched the Mare Nostrum operation to patrol the sea to aid ships carrying migrants after 366 people died off the coast of Lampedusa in October 2013. The program was disbanded a year later, taken over by the European Union program known as Triton.

According to the BBC, Triton is less equipped than its predecessor in rescue operations, responding when lives are in immediate danger but being unable to pre-empt trouble on international waters.

In a Feb. 10 interview with Vatican Radio, Secretary General of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, (COMECE) Father Patrick Daly said “there is a growing sense of urgency within Europe about a EU-wide, Europe-wide commitment to help solve the refugee problem.”

Fr. Daly expressed “a more coordinated policy in this area, but also the EU as a whole must do all that it can to help the countries of transit from which many of our migrants come.”

Pope Francis visited the migrants of Lampedusa months ahead of the 2013 tragedy, thanking them for their “solidarity with migrants,” while condemning the “globalization of indifference” which “makes us all ‘unnamed’.”

UNHCR says more than 218,000 migrants cross the Mediterranean into Italy in 2014, with some 3,500 people losing their lives on the journey.

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VATICAN NEWS

‘A reform to promote harmony’ – Pope Francis opens a much-debated consistory

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

Cardinals participate in a consistory held in St. Peter’s Basilica, Nov. 4, 2014. (Lewis Ashton Glancy/CNA)

Vatican City — A reform to promote a greater harmony in the work of the Roman Curia, in Pope Francis’ words, was the topic of discussion on Thursday, the opening day of an extraordinary consistory of cardinals held at the Vatican.

Opening the consistory Feb. 12, Pope Francis stressed that the aim of reform “is always that of promoting greater harmony in the work of the various dicasteries and offices, in order to achieve more effective collaboration in that absolute transparency which builds authentic synodality and collegiality.”

“Reform is not an end in itself,” he said, “but a way of giving strong Christian witness; to promote more effective evangelization; to promote a fruitful ecumenical spirit; and to encourage a more constructive dialogue with all.”

The Pope then said reform was “strongly advocated by the majority of cardinals” in the pre-conclave meetings, and is intended to “enhance the identity of the Roman Curia itself, which is to assist Peter’s successor in the exercise of his supreme pastoral office for the good and in the service of the universal Church and the particular Churches, in order to strengthen the unity of faith and the communion of the people of God, and to promote the mission of the Church in the world.”

According to Pope Francis “it is not easy to achieve such a goal,” and it will require “time, determination and, above all, the collaboration of all. But to achieve this we must first entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the true guide of the Church, imploring the gift of authentic discernment in prayer.”

After Pope Francis, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, who coordinates the Council of Cardinals, read an introduction in which “he summarized the modus operandi of the Council, the way they collected the some 100 contributions from Vatican dicasteries, and the way they achieved the summary,” Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, said in a media briefing.

Cardinal Rodriguez also explained that the council did not focus exclusively on curial reform: in their eight meetings and more than 50 sessions, the council has also discussed the Synod of Bishops, the work of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, and economic issues.

Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, secretary of the Council of Cardinals, then presented to the cardinals a summary of a possible curial reform.

According to Fr. Lombardi, the draft was divided in two parts: the first part explained the main lines of the reform, and the second part provided the theological roots of the new outline of the Roman Curia.

Fr. Lombardi explained that the main proposal is that of establishing two super-congregations, for Charity, Justice and Peace, and for Laity, Family, and Life.

These two congregations may be established ‘ad experimentum’, while the Roman Curia continue functioning as the drafting of a comprehensive apostolic constitution to regulate its functions will be carried forward.

Fr. Lombardi said there “may be a commission to draft the new constitution, and its conclusion may submitted to a restricted commission of cardinal that will make the final draft. After that, the Pope will make the decision.”

This process “would involve canon lawyers and theologians,” since “there is the need to give theological foundation to the reform,” and this is the reason why “the path to reform will be long.”

Bishop Semeraro’s report took in consideration the functions of the Roman Curia, its relationship with bishops conferences, and criteria for rationalization and simplification.

The role of the State Secretariat has also been discussed. Fr. Lombardi stated there had been the proposal of establishing a “moderator curiae,” but that it had not to be considered a separate office, but rather one of the tasks with which the Secretariat of State is entrusted.

In fact, the First Section of the State Secretariat is entrusted with handling general affairs, and it is to be seen how this function may be improved.

After Bishop Semeraro’s relations, 12 cardinals took the floor, “mainly cardinals who have a profound knowledge of the workings of the Curia, although there have been contributions from a diverse range of contexts,” Fr. Lombardi said.

Among the issues at stake, there were those of synodality and collegiality, as well as that of the ongoing training of the staff of the Roman Curia.

According to “L’Osservatore Romano,” there were 148 cardinals and 19 out of 20 cardinal-designates at the consistory.

Tomorrow, Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, will report at the consistory about the Vatican economic reform.

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VATICAN NEWS

Three countries will be represented in College of Cardinals for first time

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

A cardinals walks through Vatican City after a consistory held Nov. 4, 2012. (Lewis Ashton Glancy/CNA)

Vatican City — The different cultures represented by bishops who will be created cardinals this weekend demonstrate the Church’s universality, thereby enriching the College of Cardinals, says the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Referring to those countries never before represented by a red hat, Cardinal Fernando Filoni told CNA their presence “is also making the Church very universal, not only in name but also in fact, in presence. These different cultures are enriching the cardinals’ college.”

Of the 20 cardinals who are to be created during the Feb. 14 consistory in the Vatican, three hail from countries which have never before been represented by a cardinal: Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon (Burma); Bishop Soane Mafi of Tonga; and Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado of Santiago de Cabo Verde.

In the two days leading up to Saturday’s consistory, the College of Cardinals are holding meetings to discuss reform at the Roman Curia.

Cardinal Filoni said that during these meetings the new cardinals typically “bring to the attention of everyone their point of view”, and will also have the “opportunity to better know our work and how we do things.”

He added that there is a “balance of understanding and bringing,” noting that it “is very useful for us to listen, being here, and for them to understand and reach in.”

The Italian prelate also noted the how during past consistories, new prelates asked to be part of “the most important moments of decisions either to bring something or to listen to what is going on.”

“It’s not just what others of different minds report but also what they themselves could listen to and see”, he said. “This opportunity of having this consistory is responding to their desire but at the same time to give them this opportunity and to us too.”

Pope Francis addressed the cardinals Feb. 12 at the opening of the consistory, stressing that “reform is not an end in itself, but a means to give a strong Christian witness” and “to promote a more effective evangelization; to promote a more fruitful ecumenical spirit; to encourage a more constructive dialogue with all.”

Pope Francis released the names of the new cardinals during his Jan. 4 Angelus address, having announced that the consistory would take place the previous Fall.

Of the 20 new cardinals, 15 will be cardinal-electors, able to participate in a future conclaves. The 15 new cardinal-electors come from 14 nations: five are from Europe, three from Asia, three from Latin America, two from Africa, and two from Oceania.

The day following the consistory, Pope Francis and the new cardinals will concelebrate a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

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VATICAN NEWS

At the consistory, a strong dedication to Vatican reforms

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

A view of St. Peter’s Basilica from the Augustianum in Rome, Feb. 11, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Reform was the watchword as cardinals met at the Vatican for briefings about the state of Vatican finances and about the work of a pontifical commission that protects minors.

Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna spoke with CNA about the extraordinary consistory of cardinals, reporting that “we are in the middle of a discussion, there are things to be refined, but there is a strong papal will to carry forward the reforms, and I can sense this among cardinals as well.”

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, discussed the extraordinary consistory in a media briefing.

According to Fr. Lombardi, the extraordinary consistory took place “in a serene and constructive atmosphere.” The press office director said that 164 cardinals took part, including the 19 of 20 cardinals-to-be who will receive their red hats on Saturday.

He stressed that no decisions may be expected from it.

The extraordinary consistory was supposed to end the morning of Feb. 13, but a new session was added to allow Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission of Protection of Minors, to report about how the commission is shaping its statutes and outlining its future work.

The extraordinary session preceded the ordinary consistory, which will take place Feb. 14-15.

Only one cardinal will not attend the consistory: Archbishop emeritus José de Jesús Pimiento Rodríguez emeritus of Manizales, Colombia. He has not come to Rome because of his advanced age.

The cardinals’ Friday morning session was dedicated to Vatican economic reform.

The cardinals first heard reports by Joseph F.X. Zahra, vice-coordinator of the Council for the Economy, who reported on the work done since the establishment of the Pontifical Commission of Reference for the Economic and Administrative Structure. He also reviewed the purposes of the council.

Next, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, coordinator of the Council for the Economy, outlined the goals of the council and its role and composition. He described the process to provide the council with statutes.

Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, gave further information about the secretariat’s recent activities.

Finally, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, president of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) spoke about the current situation of the institute, which is commonly known as the Vatican Bank.

In Fr. Lombardi’s words, the extraordinary consistory was “the first time so many cardinals together have been briefed on such progress.”

Many cardinals asked questions of the speakers. According to the Holy See Press Office director, “cardinals expressed their appreciation for the reorganization work that has taken place and their conviction that this constitutes a convincing reform that prioritizes transparency, integrity and competence.”

Cardinals also inquired about the competences of various bodies and the relations between the Holy See and Vatican City State.

According to a Vatican source, these clarifications are needed because “the statutes of the new bodies are being drafted.” The source added that one plan is to join the balance sheets of the Vatican City State and the Holy See, both of which are separate at present.

Everything is still in discussion, and Fr. Lombardi has said that no decision will be made.

According to Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, “once the economic reform has its grounds, it will work by itself.”

He said the Council of Cardinals has sought to find “a comprehensive way to foster the Curia reform.”

The cardinals identified a possible merging of pontifical councils

Archbishop Semeraro added that “this merging is not only due to pragmatic reasons, but it also has theological grounds.”

According to Fr. Lombardi, cardinals widely discussed the project of Curia reform. During the Feb. 12 afternoon session, 28 cardinals took the floor, including the Cardinal-designate Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura.

Most of the intervention focused on the relationship between the Curia and the local Churches, spoke of “decentralization”, and some of them also introduced the theme of ‘subsidiarity’.

Fr. Lombardi recounted that cardinals also spoke about the usefulness and importance of the central service of the Holy See. They bore in mind experiences in various countries where the local Church is weak and may be subject to pressure, and is therefore supported by the work of the Vatican.

Cardinals zeroed in on the selection of Vatican personnel, on the competencies of the Secretariat of State, and on the manner of achieving better coordination among the Curia body. Almost all of the intervention emphasized the need for a simplification.

Fr. Lombardi also said that “other interventions focused on the positive elements of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Pastor bonus,’ which must not be lost from view; therefore, the reform process must ensure distinct continuity with this document, especially from an ecclesiological point of view.”

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WORLD NEWS

Austerity marks the life of Archbishop Blazquez, Spain’s next cardinal

by Blanca Ruiz (CNA/EWTN News) • February 8, 2015

Archbishop Ricardo Blazquz Perez of Valladolid, who will be made a cardinal Feb. 14, 2015. (Angel Cantero/Iglesia en Valladolid via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Valladolid, Spain — Archbishop Ricardo Blazquez Perez’ friends say one of his first decisions as Archbishop of Valladolid was to set aside part of his salary to help those affected by Spain’s economic crisis. Although he will be made a cardinal within the week, his pay remains the same – that of a typical parish priest.

Earlier this year, Pope Francis announced that Archbishop Blazquez would be among the 20 men whom he will raise to the dignity of cardinal at a consistory being held Feb. 14.

The son of farmers from Villanueva del Campillo, a village in central Spain, Bishop Blazquez was born in 1942. He is the oldest of seven children.

He was ordained a priest in 1967 at the age of 24, after having entered minor seminary at the age of 13. He received his doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome and later returned to Avila in 1972, where he was secretary of the Theological Institute.

In 1974 he became professor at the Pontifical University of Salamanca. He was soon named Dean of the theology faculty, and from 2000 to 2005 he was the university’s Grand Chancellor.

He was consecrated a bishop in 1988, and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago de Compostela.

He was appointed Bishop of Palencia in 1992; then Bishop of Bilbao in 1995. In 2010 he was made Archbishop of Valladolid.

He is currently president of the Spanish bishops conference, and is no stranger to the position. He also held the position from 2005 to 2008, and from 2008 to 2014 was its vice president.

One of the first things he did upon arriving in Valladolid in 2010 was to decrease his salary, and he encouraged the priests of the archdiocese to do the same, and to donate part of their earnings to Caritas to assist those suffering from Spain’s economic crisis.

Now as president of the Spanish bishops, Archbishop Blazquez continues to live with the same austerity.

In 2010, Benedict XVI entrusted him with the apostolic visitation of Regnum Christi, coordinated by Cardinal Velasio De Paolis. In 2012 he represented the Spanish bishops at the Synod on the New Evangelization.

Archbishop Blazquez is one of 20 men who will be made a cardinal at this month’s consistory, and one of the 15 who, being under the age of 80, would be able to vote in a papal conclave.

A day in the life of Archbishop Blazquez

The archbishop starts his day at 6 am. “It is one of the most important times of the day for him, as he can devote time to preparing his day, and above all to prayer,” Fr. Luis Arguello, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Valladolid, told CNA.

He says Mass at 8:30 am in the chapel of the priests’ residence next to the archdiocesan chancery, where elderly and infirm priests live.

Sister Teresa Valbuena of the Disciples of Jesus manages the home.

“Bishop Ricardo often asks about the priests here, and about us nuns,” she said. “Many times, unbeknownst to us, he leaves us a gift on a shelf somewhere. Once after he came back from Rome, he brought us a rosary and a holy card of the Pope.”

After Mass he works in his office, from 10 am to noon. He receives visitors, meets with collaborators, and answers correspondence. In Valladolid Archbishop Blazquez does not have an church-owned car. He uses his own Volkswagen Golf to drive twice a month to Madrid to work at the bishops’ conference.

Fr. Luis Arguello has been working with Archbishop Blazquez for the last five years, and says he is very meticulous when issuing a document.

“He reads it and re-reads it. He has proofed it, he proofs it again. He is very accurate, but at the same time on a personal level he is very understanding.”

As his close collaborator, he says Archbishop Blazquez “always tries to makes sure that the people with him are okay. When he is in a situation of conflict he makes a great effort to unite.”

At 2 pm he returns to his apartment to have lunch, which his caretaker Andres Caballero and his family prepares for him.

“My wife helps with the housework at bishop’s house,” Caballero said. “She cooks and cleans the apartment. Sometimes the bishop eats the same meals she has prepared for us. Bishop Ricardo is like family to us. He is a very dear person.”

After a brief rest, Archbishop Blazquez returns to work. “The other day he stopped by the priests’ residence while they were eating. He often comes by unannounced. He went around to each table talking to everyone. He cares deeply for elderly priests,” Sister Teresa explains.

He also visits the Valladolid seminary on a regular basis. He meets with the formation directors and the seminarians. “He knows them by name, and the expertise of each,” Fr. Arguello says.

According to the vicar general of the diocese, “When he meets with young people he shows a special priestly affection. He wants to walk with them, encourage them, and help them to discover their vocation.”

He returns home normally around 9 or 10 pm, when he can finally have some downtime. “I think his favorite pastimes are reading and walking,” Fr. Arguello said.

During summer vacations he visits his family, with whom he has a close relationship, but he also takes time to meet with his theologian friends Olegario Fernandez de Cardedal and Jose Manuel Sanchez Caro.

“They have always been friends, from the theology department. They met in Avila and were later professors at the Pontifical University of Salamanca. Their love for the priesthood and for theology unites them,” Fr. Arguello explained.

But he also finds time during his vacation to visit the priests’ residence. Sister Teresa says that Archbishop Blazquez normally spends Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there.

Once on Christmas Eve, he asked the four nuns who run the residence to have dinner with the priests who live there. Sister Teresa says he told them, “We are all one family, and we have to share.”

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Parish dedicated to Rome’s poor gets a visit from Pope Francis

by Andrea Gagliarducci and Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 8, 2015

Pope Francis visits Saint Michael the Archangel parish on the outskirts of Rome on Feb. 8, 2015. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Rome, Italy — Pope Francis traveled in the eastern outskirts of Rome on Sunday afternoon to hear confessions and say Mass at a parish known for its commitment to the city’s poor and the marginalized.

The Feb. 8 visit to San Michele Arcangelo in Pietralata marks the third time a Pope has gone to the parish: Bl. Paul VI celebrated the Christmas Mass there in 1963, while St. John Paul II visited the parish Nov. 1991.

In an off-the-cuff homily, Pope Francis reflected on the themes of teaching and healing, as presented in the day’s Gospel reading (Mark 1:29-39).

“Do I let Jesus preach to me, or do I know everything?” he challenged. “Let Jesus preach to you, and and let Jesus heal you. We are all wounded. Everyone.”

In so allowing ourselves to be taught and healed by Jesus, the Holy Father continued, we can, in turn, teach the Word of Jesus, and help heal the wounds of others.

Concelebrants at the Mass were Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the auxiliary bishop for northern Rome, parish priest and the deputy parish priest Fr. Massimo Cautero, and Fr. Mauricio Andrés Fontalvo Floriàn and Fr. Nicolàs Francisco Garzon Reyes, Colombian priests who assist at the parish.

“We are before Jesus in this celebration,” the Pope said. “Jesus is He who presides over this celebration. We priests, we are in the name of Jesus, but He presides, he is the True priest Who offers the sacrifice to the Father.”

Before Mass, the Holy Father heard confessions, and also met with young members of the parish community and their families, including the sick children, the newly-baptized, those preparing to receive their first communion, and some 80 scouts.

In an interview with CNA/EWTN News ahead of Sunday’s pastoral visit, Msgr. Aristide Sana, parish priest of San Michele Arcangelo for the past 17, spoke about the preparations by the pastoral groups and other parishioners. “And we try to explain the importance of the visit to children, who are very curious.”

The Pietralata Block was build during the 1930s as a provisional allocation for those evicted from their homes in downtown Rome following the restructuring of the city by early 20th century Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini.

Located in a region where many are homeless, unemployed, or unable earn enough money for food, the parish Caritas center delivers food to families in need twice a month, while offering legal and job counseling.

The parish, also ministers to former inmates, many of whom live in the area owing to the nearby Rebibbia prison.

“We are the beating heart of the area,” Msgr. Sana said.

Established in 1938 in the block of Pietralata, its titular Cardinal is Mexican prelate and close friend of Pope Francis, Javier Lozano Barragàn.

The 30-person choir, directed by Maestro Carlo Alberto Gioja, sang “El Pueblo de Dios,” a hymn played in Argentina during the pilgrimage to the Madonna of Lujan shrine.

Pope Francis also reminded the faithful to remain in “daily contact” with Christ, which they can do by keeping a small copy of the Gospel with them to read throughout the day.

“Jesus speaks to me, Jesus preaches to me there, in the Word of God.”

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For these Christians in India, peaceful protests led to jail time

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

Following a series of attacks on churches in New Delhi, Christians protest government, police inaction, Feb. 5, 2015. (Fr. Savarimuthu Sankar/Archdiocese of Delhi)

New Delhi, India — Police in the Indian capital of New Delhi arrested numerous Christians on Thursday who were participating in peaceful protests requesting that the government take action following a series of attacks on churches in the city.

“The Christian community in the national capital, New Delhi, staged a peaceful protest Thursday morning on Feb. 5, for the second time in two months, demanding that the High Court monitor investigations into the attacks on five city churches since December last year,” Fr. Savarimuthu Sankar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Delhi, told CNA Feb. 5.

The first attack in the past two months was an arson at St. Sebastian church, Dilshad Garden, on Dec. 2. Then stones were thrown at Our Lady of Fatima, a Syro-Malabar parish in Jasola, during Mass on Dec. 7. A crib was found charred on the premises of the Church of the Resurrection in Rohini Jan. 4, and a Marian statue was destroyed at the grotto of Our Lady of Graces in Vikaspuri on Jan. 14. On Feb. 2, St. Alphonsa’s was broken into, with Hosts desecrated and the monstrance and a ciborium and chalice stolen.

In response, Christians, including Catholics and those of various denominations, gathered in front of Sacred Heart Cathedral lasdt week and stood in protest of government inaction, chanting and holding such placards as “stop attacking churches”, “I am proud to be a Christian”, and “Enough is enough.”

According to Fr. Sankar, “even before the protest began, the police began to use brutal force and arrested the leaders, and people who were just beginning to gather in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, including priests and nuns.”

Among the peaceful protestors detained by the police were Fr. Susai Sebastian, Fr. Dominic Emmanuel, John Dayal, A. C. Michael, Jenis Francis, and several elderly religious sisters.

Hearing of the arrests and the brutality of the police force, Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi condemned the violence and said, “this is a sad incident.”

“I strongly condemn the action of the police who assaulted the priests, nuns and the elderly people who were holding a peaceful demonstration in front of the church,” Archbishop Couto said.

“This is not acceptable in a democratic country such as India, and it is a blatant violation of fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution.”

Mukesh Meena, joint commissioner of the Delhi Police, told reports the protestors were detained because “they did not have permission to protest outside the church and we cannot allow them to protest on public roads,” the Press Trust of India reported. Meena told the Wall Street Journal that 350 people had been detained.

The Delhi prelate slammed the government’s behavior and said, “the community says it has lost faith in the Delhi police, who have failed to solve the conspiracy that has led to the vandalism, arson and desecration of churches.”

“Instead of probing the crimes, the police have consistently tried to minimize them. Despite detailed complaints, the effort has been to list them as minor thefts.”

Fr. Sankar explained that after the Dec. 2 attack on St. Sebastian’s, the Christian community had come out in large numbers marching to the Delhi police headquarters and the police promised a “thorough investigation, yet more than two months later, they have not announced any progress in the case.”

The community had been shocked by the desecration at St. Alphonsa’s, he said.

The parish’s pastor has alleged that the crime was meant to hurt the religious feelings of the community, rather than for material gain, as nothing of substance was stolen from the church.

Three donation boxes and other precious things were left untouched, but local police, “apparently under orders of the senior officers,” Fr. Sankar noted, “registered just a simple case of theft.”

Fr. Sankar described a memorandum by community representatives sent to the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, regarding the series of attacks on churches.

“It is quite clear that the Delhi police have failed to give these crimes the attention they deserve, and is trying to trivialize them,” the memorandum said.

It also charged that “elsewhere in the country, the targeted and communal violence continues with its vicious hate campaign, physical violence, police complicity, and state impunity in the persecution of the Christian community in many states of India.”

The community members cited the Human Rights and Civil Society group’s documentation of the death of two persons killed for their Christian faith in 2014, as well as 147 other cases of persecution of Christians. An analysis of the data shows Chhattisgarh state topping the list with 28 incidents of crime, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh with 26, Uttar Pradesh with 18, and Telengana with 15 incidents.

The memorandum also alleged that much of the violence has taken place after the government of the National Democratic alliance, headed by Narendra Modi, came into power in May 2014.

Violence peaked between August and October with 56 cases, before a second resurgence of 25 cases during the Christmas season. The violence has continued into 2015, with more Catholic churches in the city targeted as incidents continue in other states.

The memorandum submitted to the government also noted that more than half of the violence is constituted by threats, intimidation, or coercion, often with the police looking on. The two cases of deaths in anti-Christian violence were reported from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

The memorandum demanded that the “government takes urgent and effective measures to restore the rule of law, and curb the targeted and communal violence … the guilty must be traced, and action under the law should be taken.”

It further said that “police officers must be held accountable for communal crimes in their jurisdiction … in Delhi, we demand a Special Investigating team be set up to investigate the five acts of violence against the Catholic churches, monitored by the High Court of Delhi.”

On Saturday, the Kashmir Monitor said that Singh had directed the Delhi Police to improve security at the city’s churches.

Protests against government inaction in New Delhi have taken place across India, including in Mumbai, Dimapur, and Bangalore. In some places, Christian protestors were joined by Muslims.

In Mumbai, Bishop Agnelo Gracias, an emeritus auxiliary bishop of the city, said, “the Central government’s deafening silence is something we are not happy about. This is making us disillusioned with the state of affairs.” He added that “I believe these attacks are not isolated incidents. I would use the allegory of water lilies in a pond. On the surface each appears to be an individual flower but beneath the surface, they are all connected to a common stem.”

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Franciscan Holy Land pilgrimage aims to revitalize priests’ ministry

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

A crucifix inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, one of the sites of the Hearts Aflame pilgrimage for priests and religious. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Jerusalem, Israel — An upcoming twenty-day Holy Land pilgrimage for priests and religious aims at being a renewal program to help them become more effective in ministry, according to one of the pilgrimage’s coordinators.

“The main highlights of the program are a thorough orientation by Biblical experts, a detailed pilgrimage in the footprints of the disciples to the nooks and corners of Holy Land and a encountering a spiritual retreat experience,” Fr. Tojy Jose, OFM, said Feb. 6.

“It provides an opportunity to revitalize one’s consecrated life and re-ignite one’s commitment to the mission by having a similar experience as the disciples on the road to Emmaus,” he told CNA.

“Hearts Aflame: walking with Jesus in his land” will take place April 21 – May 10, and is organized by the Franciscans of the Holy Land and the Salesian Pontifical University of Jerusalem.

Fr. Jose explained the pilgrimage is meant to help priests retreat into a ‘spiritual Emmaus’, inspired by the Gospel of Luke where the two disciples of Jesus said, “Were not our hearts aflame within us while he was talking to us on the road, and opened the Scriptures to us.”

A $2,500 fee includes expenses during the pilgrimage, as well as return airfare from the airports of Bangalore, Cochin, Delhi, and Mumbai in India.

Fr. Jose explained that seminars will be held in English by eminent scholars such as Fr. David Neuhaus, SJ; Fr. Lionel Goh, OFM; Fr. Piotr Zelazko; Fr. Pier Giorgio Gianazza, SDB. Topics discussed will include biblical history and geography; Jewish culture and politics; early Christian history; priestly renewal; and spirituality of the Holy Land.

Meetings with Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem and with the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land are also scheduled.

A retreat on discipleship will be held at the site of the Visitation and the birthplace of St. John the Baptist.

Fr. Jose emphasized the program is meant to integrate study and prayer, with time alloted for personal study, reflection, and prayer.

Cardinal George Alencherry, Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly, endorsed the pilgrimage, calling it “a beautiful programme” and asking that “may many be attracted by this project and let all the organizers succeed in executing this project.”

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Jail, not death: appropriate punishment according to Australia’s bishops

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

An officer closes the gate of Kerobokan prison in Indonesia, where Myuran Sukuraman and Andrew Chan are jailed, Feb. 10, 2015. (Agung Parameswara/Getty Images News/Getty Images)

Canberra, Australia — With two of their nationals on Indonesia’s death row over drug trafficking offenses, the Australian bishops are appealing to the government to stay their executions by firing squad, believed to be imminent.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were in a group of nine Australians arrested in Bali in 2005 with more than 18 lb of heroin. Their fellow drug traffickers were sentenced to life in prison, but in 2006 they were given the death penalty.

“Justice must prevail and appropriate punishment used for the common good for our societies when such crimes are committed,” Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne wrote in a recent letter to Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president.

“However, we believe that jail sentences, not execution, are the more appropriate means of punishing offenders and deterring those who would consider committing such crimes,” Archbishop Hart wrote.

“Our concern for the sacredness of life motivates this plea for clemency.”

During their ten years on death row, it is reported that the two prisoners have been helping other inmates in Kerobokan Prison. Sukumaran helps in teaching art, and Chen is studying to be a pastor.

Archbishop Hart noted Chan and Sukumaran’s remorse and reformation, writing that they have “initiated education programs with the intention of supporting and reforming other prisoners.”

“This is a testimony to the opportunity for rehabilitation afforded by time in Indonesia’s penal system and to the commitment of these two men to make a positive contribution to the lives of fellow inmates and to the broader Indonesian community,” said Archbishop Hart.

The prisoners’ clemency appeals have already been rejected by Widodo, and they are among the next group to be executed.

Indonesia resumed the death penalty in 2013, and regularly executes drug traffickers, including those who are foreign nationals; six were put to death last month. Indonesian officials claim that 40 to 50 of their citizens die daily because of drug overdoses.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney issued a joint statement Feb. 8 with Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, of the Australian National Imams’ Council, pleading clemency for Chan and Sukumaran “to allow them to be further rehabilitated and to make reparation to the communities they betrayed by their crimes.”

“Our request today is for clemency or a commuted sentence for Andrew and Myuran so as to allow them to be further rehabilitated; to execute would prematurely end these lives, robbing both of them and our communities of the opportunity for ongoing repentance and rehabilitation,” they said.

“We acknowledge that illegal drugs tear at the social fabric of all communities and we applaud the efforts of the Indonesian government to protect its society-and indeed ours-from drug smuggling,” they added.

“Our plea today to the President and people of Indonesia is on the basis of their apparent remorse and repentance for a crime they committed nearly ten years ago. By all accounts Andrew and Myuran have come to appreciate clearly the gravity of their crimes.”

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As church-goers wane, Germany’s controversial tax prompts unease

by Jan Bentz (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

(fsecart via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Rome, Italy — While church attendees dwindle in Germany, questions have arisen once again over the controversial state-imposed church tax – and whether it’s time for the country’s bishops to address concerns around it.

“We are in a time when more and more people realize that the financial apparatus Church works well, that the facade is optimal but what is behind it? Where is the zealous true faith?” asked Martin Lohmann, Catholic publicist, author and spokesperson of the advocacy group Christian Action in Germany.

“While we have a decreasing of Church membership,” he told CNA on Feb. 9, “on the other side we have a raising of Church tax.”

When Germans register as Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish on their tax forms, the government automatically collects an income tax from them which amounts to 8 or 9 percent of their total income tax, or 3-4 percent of their salary.

The “church tax” is given to the religious communities, rather than those communities collecting a tithe. The Church uses its funds to help run its parishes, schools, hospitals, and welfare projects.

“But when we pose the question today in 2015, then we have to ask ourselves if the tax is still just and fair: is it just, since only Church members pay the tax? The question is pressing,” Lohmann said.

Many Germans have de-registered in recent years, so as to avoid paying the additional tax. The number of persons declaring their departure from the Church has been substantial – in 2010, the figure was more than 180,000.

The number of de-registrations has been heightened this year, as the church tax is now being withheld from capital gains, as well as from salary.

Many of those who have de-registered from the Church on the German government’s forms continue to practice the faith, and have de-registered to avoid the tax altogether, or to support the Church with private tithes.

In response, the German bishops – who each earn an average salary of 7,000 Euro per month (some up to 14,000 Euro along with free housing and cars, according to Lohmann) – issued a decree in September 2012 calling such departure “a serious lapse” and listing a number of ways they are barred from participating in the life of the Church.

The decree specified that those who do not pay the church tax cannot receive the sacraments of Confession, Communion, Confirmation, or Anointing of the Sick, except when in danger of death; cannot hold ecclesial office or perform functions within the Church; cannot be a godparent or sponsor; cannot be a member of diocesan or parish councils; and cannot be members of public associations of the Church.

If those who de-registered show no sign of repentance before their death, they can even be refused a religious burial.

And while these penalties have been described as “de facto excommunication,” the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, wrote in a March 13, 2006 document that opting out of taxes in a civil situation was not the same as renouncing the faith, and thus excommunication did not apply to such persons.

“I know enough people who cannot understand how a distancing oneself from the tax is necessarily connected with an exclusion from salvation,” Lohmann said.

What’s more, he said, “only 10 percent of the Catholics and even less Protestants go to Church on Sunday. In the view of the administration they are all considered ‘good faithful’ nevertheless, since they pay diligently.”

Lohmann added that the bishop’s conference treats non-tax payers as dissidents and that former pope Benedict XVI’s effort to resolve this remained thwarted.

“From Rome there was an attempt to solve this structural schizophrenia between finances and exclusion from the sacraments under Benedict XVI but it was in vain.”

In the interview-book “Salt of the Earth,” published 1994, then-Cardinal Ratzinger already mentioned criticism of the system as it was.

Lohmann himself contributed to a book about Church tax in 1993 and tried to impartially comment on it in the face of what he perceived as anti-Catholic opposition. “I contributed to the book back then because enemies of the Church had attacked her with this argument, there was no guarantee that fairness ruled the discussion.”

But now he believes that the tax issue has lead to an underlying problem with understanding what the Church is and what it means to be a member of it.

“Is it necessary that a general vicariate in Germany is blessed with million – and billion – Euro sized budgets? Is this automatism useful for the spearing spreading of the faith?”

“The Second Vatican Council taught an Ecclesiology that was not dependent on finances. I think that the implausibly high income of the Church has shifted how she sees herself.”

Lohmann also thinks that the financial interconnectedness of Church and state has stifled the voice of the country’s bishops on social and moral issues.

“Because of the decades-long connection of Church and State taxation system, financial offices etc. there is dependence,” he said. “The last years and decades there is a fear from the side of the bishops to proclaim the truth in social-political topics since they want to avoid a hostile reaction from the parties.”

Lohmann added that the Church loses financially if it upholds less popular teachings on divorce and contraception. Preaching about that means losing “paying customers” – he said – and “softening” these teachings means more money for the Church.

As long as this is the case, the Church, in Lohmann’s view, “will remain limited and not-free, darkened, and in a state without courage to proclaim the truth.”

However, Lohmann doesn’t think the tax should be “abolished wholesale” – the Church “needs money for her projects and for her evangelization, that should be a given.”

But, he says money should not rule of the contents of faith, social doctrine or mercy. “Mercy can never be a question of money. It is not the question of the budget of a diocese but of the heart!”

“Faith is more than money; faith needs money, but faith is more than money. That the materially richest Church on earth is spiritually the poorest one is very telling,” he said. “The Church tax is a topic that the Church would be well off to discuss instead of trying to discard it.”

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Enough talk about talking – Iraqi priest calls for action on ISIS

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

Refugees who have fled from ISIS and arrived in Ankawa, in the northern part of Erbil, Iraq. (ankawa.com)

Rome, Italy — An Iraqi priest currently living in Rome said that those living the nightmare of ISIS are tired of hearing talk about dialogue and human rights, and are ready to see concrete action on the part of political leaders.

“Like many other terms, dialogue is abused like the words democracy, peace, defending human rights and many other words. (They) are profaned because everybody talks about them, but in their heart they have other intentions, so who will do dialogue with whom?” Fr. Rebwar Basa told CNA Feb. 2.

“I do not want to hear more from the people or responsible authorities about dialogue and peace. I want to see that people are happy and living a normal life. But what we can see now is that the whole of Iraq is in misery,” he said.

Each day that passes without changing the situation brings more destruction, suffering and complication to the situation, the priest explained, noting that those suffering the most are the poor, including Christians, Yazidis and other minorities who have no form of protection.

Using the analogy of a car, Fr. Basa said that if the vehicle has a problem that goes unsolved, eventually more problems develop. If those also go unresolved, the car must be discarded and the owner must purchase a new one.

“But if you have this problem with a country, what do you do? Do you throw it away and buy another country? People are very tired.”

Fr. Basa is originally from Shaqlawa, near the Iraqi city of Erbil, and is a member of the Antonian order of St. Ormizda in the Chaldean Church. He has been in Rome since 2005, and is studying Holy Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

Despite some recent victories against ISIS, Fr. Basa said that the current situation for those living under the Islamist terror group’s reign is not so different from when the militants began their siege last summer.

The situation is especially difficult for Christians, he said. Forced to choose between converting to Islam, paying heavy taxes for their faith or “death by the sword,” many have fled their villages and are living in other cities or in refugee camps.

Currently in the city of Mosul, there is a market where the property taken from Christian houses occupied by ISIS can be bought and sold, the priest said.

The houses, which are considered a benefit of winning the war, are being used as either living quarters or training centers for ISIS soldiers. Artifacts taken from Christian churches are also being sold in the Mosul market, and many ancient books and manuscripts which belong to the Catholic Church have been burned, he added.

Fr. Basa said that his former monastery in Mosul, where he was ordained a priest and studied for nine years prior, is now “a prison for women – most of them are from the Yazidi religion – who were captured and taken as slaves.”

Moderate Muslims also find themselves in a difficult situation with ISIS, the priest said, noting that while many thought the group would be “their savior,” the militants have in fact oppressed and abused them.

He recalled a news article he had read about 10 Muslim women being condemned to death for refusing to have sexual relations with ISIS militants, saying that because “this is a kind of jihad, (or) sacred war,” refusing the soldiers’ desires is considered an act against Islam, and therefore merits death.

“There is no law; nobody can protect the weak people or the property of others, so (the soldiers) can do whatever they want,” Fr. Basa said.

He added that low oil prices are compounding the problem, because “Iraq depends on oil,” and a loss of oil revenue could lead to desperate people who “would do anything to gain some money.”

With the increase in extremist attacks around the world, including the killing of three hostages at a café in Canada and the recent attack on Paris satire paper Charlie Hebdo, Fr. Basa said that the world is becoming more aware of how serious the problem is.

“When you have some problem that is away from you, that does not mean it will not arrive to you,” he said, explaining that if a person sees their neighbor’s house on fire and decides to do nothing, their house will also “catch fire and burn.”

Politics and economics are also factors in the conflict, the priest said, because the system “is corrupt.”

“There are very few who are very rich and many people who are very poor, there is no justice, no peace. They talk about human rights but in reality they are not interested, they do a lot of propaganda for that, but at the end it is part of business, not about the human being,” he said.

Fr. Basa related the modern situation to the book of Job, saying that although Job knew he was an honest man who was suffering in an unjust way, he decided to do good anyway, even if there was no justice.

“So I believe that every Christian, every human being should continue to do what he believes is good, although the world is so bad,” he said.

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Ukrainian Catholic bishops urge prayer, fasting ahead of Sunday’s ceasefire

by Elise Harris and Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

A Ukrainian Catholic priest at prayer during protests in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, February 2014. (Jakub Szymczuk/GOSC NIEDZIELNY, courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need)

Kyiv, Ukraine — The Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the US issued a letter on Wednesday asking their faithful to pray and fast for peace, a day before a tentative ceasefire in Ukraine was agreed on which would end 10 months of fighting.

The Feb. 11 letter urged prayers for “the president and elected officials of Ukraine, for the conversion of the aggressors, for the Ukrainian army, for those who protect citizens, for the souls of the deceased, and for unity and independence of Ukraine.”

Alongside their Major Archbishop, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the US bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church have asked their faithful to set aside time each day for “quiet meditation and prayer” for these intentions.

The bishops’ appeal fell one day before Feb. 12, when officials from Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia helped to negotiate an indefinite ceasefire in Ukraine, which is set to begin at midnight on Feb. 15.

All sides have agreed to pull back heavy weapons in the deal, and there is expected to be a de-militarized zone between the Ukrainian government and separatist forces, who will both pull back to new positions.

All prisoners are to be released, and foreign weapons and troops are to be withdrawn. Constitutional reform is to enable decentralization in the eastern portions of Ukraine by 2016.

Fr. Wasyl Kharkuk, a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington, D.C., told CNA Feb. 12 the ceasefire is “a good thing,” while adding, “I have doubts … but still, this is a good deal. Better this deal, than nothing.”

“We will see how things will work, and we hope and pray that God will help and will bless and things will go a different way than it is now.”

Last February, Ukraine’s former president was ousted following months of violent protest, and a new government appointed. In March, Ukraine’s eastern peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Russia and pro-Russian separatist rebels, supported by Russia, have since taken control of eastern portions of Ukraine around Donetsk and Luhansk.

The death toll in Ukraine now exceeds 5,400 people, plus more than 12,900 others who have been wounded since fighting broke out in April. More than 970,000 have been internally displaced.

Sunday’s ceasefire is the second attempt to end fighting in the Ukraine, with a previous agreement in September falling through due to continued fighting.

The Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the U.S. urged their faithful to “fast by pausing from our daily activities for an extended amount of time to reflect and pray for the people of Ukraine (and to) meditate on the horrific sufferings of the people of Ukraine, as you pray to God for peace and unity.”

Prayers to the Mother of God were also encouraged, as well as a daily pause “to identify with the suffering as you pray for peace. Sacrifice valued time and thought in prayer for our brothers and sisters who suffer!”

Pope Francis also prayed for an end to the Ukrainian conflict following his General Audience address last week, asking that the violence come to an end. He encouraged all Christians to pray together for an end to the fighting and bloodshed, saying that “prayer is our protest before God in times of war.”

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A cardinal for migrants: Italy’s Archbishop Francesco Montenegro

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento, who will be made a cardinal at the Feb. 14 consistory. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Agrigento, Italy — Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento still feels himself more of a priest with concern for the poor than a cardinal, even though he will be given the red biretta this Saturday.

His local Church includes Lampedusa, the small Italian island near Tunisia which is the destination of many African and Middle Eastern emigrants, and which was the destination of Francis’ first trip outside Rome after his election as Pope.

“I wear the wooden cross made by the immigrants hosted in Lampedusa,” he said, indicating his pectoral cross, in a Feb. 11 interview with CNA.

“Thinking of the immigrants who made this cross helps me reflect how today, respect for the life of the other is not given the proper priority.”

Such concern for the poor has always been pivotal in his priestly ministry.

Archbishop Montenegro was born in Messina, on Sicily’s northeastern tip, in 1946. He attended St. Pius X Seminary in the city, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Messina in 1969, at the age of 23.

He served in several parishes and was private secretary for two of the diocese’s archbishops, director of the diocesan Caritas, a spiritual director at the minor seminary, and vicar general of the archdiocese.

In 2000, he was consecrated as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Messina-Lipari-Santa Lucia del Mela – his home diocese, which had been united with two other local Churches in 1986. While auxiliary bishop, he became president of Caritas Italy.

He was appointed Archbishop of Agrigento, in the southwest of Sicily, in 2008.

As Archbishop of Agrigento he has been confronted with the crisis of migrants from Africa – the island of Lampedusa is actually closer to Tunisia than to Sicily. Immigration has long been a concern for the island.

Since 1988, almost 23,000 people have died in the stretch of sea between Africa and Lampedusa – 330 of them in the latest tragedy, which took place Feb. 10.

Archbishop Montenegro stressed concernedly that “these are just the known data … how many people have died and we do not even know of it?”

“As a bishop, I feel questioned and provoked by the pain of these brothers who knock on our doors and ask to be welcomed,” he said. “Questioned, because we cannot continue to watch them die, and remain indifferent. Provoked, because history must change; but it cannot change for the worse.”

The archbishop’s concern for the migrants is shared by Pope Francis, who visited Lampedusa in 2013.

“Any time I talk with the Pope, he asks me: ‘What is going on in Lampedusa?’ And he proved to be very attentive to the situation on the island when he sent a Nativity set to Lampedusa. The Nativity is set in a barque, and Joseph leans outside the barque to pull an immigrant out of the sea,” Archbishop Montenegro recounted.

“For Pope Francis, Lampedusa is a small piece of a new world where poverty and acceptance may be combined together.”

Archbishop Montenegro has been president of the Italian bishops’ commission on migration and the Migrantes Foundation since 2013.

He explained that all his priestly life has been characterized by concern for the poor, and this has brought him “to see life through a different lens: there are people who have to die in order to live, there are people who make of essential things the inner sense of their life … we have to take this into account.”

“The Gospel is about the poor: if we removed from the Gospel the pages about the poor, only the cover would remain,” he stated. “So if I want to live the Gospel, I must take the poor into account. And if I take the poor into account, perhaps I can really meet Jesus, since he identifies himself with the poor. Remember what he said? ‘Whatever you did unto the least of my brethren, you did unto me.’”

The archbishop said his appointment as cardinal now pushes him “to set my gaze on a larger scale … my attention was focused on Lampedusa, on Agrigento, on Italy, but now I have much more to look at.”

“Sicily can be an example of welcoming and dialogue,” he said. “For instance: in Lampedusa there is a small shrine, beyond the parish, and there are grottos there where Muslims and Christians met to pray a very long time ago … they did this before any discussion about ecumenism or interreligious dialogue emerged.”

Archbishop Montenegro is also known for his concern about the Mafia, which he has called the most pressing issue facing the Agrigento archdiocese; in 2012, he denied a Church funeral to a known Mafia leader.

Archbishop Montenegro is one of the 20 bishops who will be made a cardinal at the Feb. 14 consistory being held in the Vatican, and one of 15 who, being under the age of 80, would be able to vote in a papal conclave.

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WORLD NEWS

‘A dark day for Australia’: Church laments detention of child asylum seekers

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

A drawing by a young child in immigration detention for the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014. (Australian Human Rights Commission)

Canberra, Australia — A report detailing the profoundly negative effects of the long-term detention of children seeking asylum in Australia has led Church leaders there to call the government’s policy “barbaric.”

Asylum seekers – including children – travel by boat from Indonesia and are intercepted by the Australian navy before reaching land. They are then sent to detention camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, a small Micronesian nation. Many of the refugees and asylum seekers are from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, or Iran.

The Australian Human Rights Commission released “The Forgotten Children”, an inquiry into children in immigration detention, on Feb. 11. The report details threats to the health, both mental and physical, of children detainees, some of whom have been held on Nauru for more than 19 months. The average length of detention is 17 months.

In a period of 15 months, 128 detained children committed self-harm; 171 threatened self-harm; 33 reported sexual assault; and 27 went on hunger strike.

“The world’s most vulnerable children are being deliberately detained and harmed for seeking asylum,” commented Fr. Maurizio Pettena, director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, on Feb. 13. “It is with deep sadness that we read the findings of the report on children in detention.”

Fr. Pettana called the Australian government’s asylum detention policy “barbaric”, adding that “the Australian Government has thoroughly failed in its duty to care for these children.”

His office added that the Australian government “deliberately detains children in dangerous places that have subsequently led to innumerable cases of mental illness, developmental delays, sexual assaults and self-harm.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission visited 11 detention centers, and conducted more than 1,200 interviews with children and their parents, both those detained and those who had been released.

“The findings in this report on children in detention leave no doubt about its credibility,” said Fr. Pettena.

His office also noted the report emphasizes that “Australia is the only country in the world that practises the mandatory and indefinite detention of children,” which it reckoned “a clear violation of their rights under the Convention for the Rights of Children.”

Fr. Pettena urged the government to take full responsibility and to release the remaining 800 children in community detention and on Nauru, saying, “All eyes are now on Australia, to see how we as a nation respond to this inquiry.”

The government of Australia – led by Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party – responded to the inquiry by asking that Gillian Triggs, president of the independent Australian Human Rights Commission, resign from her post.

Mark Dreyfus, a member of parliament and a former Australian attorney general, said the government’s request that Triggs resign was “a disgraceful attack by the attorney general on a statutory agency in his own portfolio. The first law officer should be defending the independence of the national guardian of human rights.”

The number of child immigration detainees has fallen in the last year, but 257 remain, including 119 on Nauru.

The human rights commission’s report found that 34 percent of the child detainees in Australia and Christmas Island have a mental health disorder severe enough to require psychiatric report, and believes the rate to be higher on Nauru.

By comparison, the rate is below two percent for children in Australia at large.

The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office said it has “continuously advocated against the detention of children seeking asylum in Australia.”

To gain asylum in Australia many come from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Iran, sailing in dangerous conditions on conventional unsafe boats, often paying human traffickers.

In their bid to reach Australia, many die in capsized boats, and many others are intercepted and sent to detention camps in Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

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WORLD NEWS

In run-up to presidential vote, Nigerian bishop slams government corruption

by John Pontifex (Aid to the Church in Need) • February 13, 2015

in the Diocese of Maiduguri, Nigeria, September 2014. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Abuja, Nigeria — Bitterly condemning “the ugly tide of corruption” in Nigeria’s government, the Bishop of Sokoto has highlighted the challenges awaiting the next administration in the wake of an election postponed due to the violence of Boko Haram.

Presidential elections had been slated for Feb. 14, but were postponed until March 28.

In a memorandum sent to international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto – in Nigeria’s northwest, said the next parliament must urgently confront a range of pressing issues that he said are destabilizing the nation.

“Years of corruption have diminished the sense of loyalty to the Nigerian state,” the bishop wrote, calling on the new president “to rally citizens around the project of a national identity and national unity.”

With about 170 million inhabitants, Nigeria has the biggest population of any country in Africa — and one just about equally divided between Muslims mostly in the north, and Christians in the south. Presidential election are pitting the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan – a Christian – against Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim.

The two also faced off for the presidency in 2011, when, after Goodluck’s narrow victory, charges of vote rigging by Buhari triggered Muslim attacks on Christian communities that left 800 dead. The Buhari camp has denounced the postponement of the election, charging it is a tactic used by the incumbent to avoid defeat.

Bishop Kukah charged that the wealth derived from Nigeria’s natural resources are not benefitting the population at large but is being concentrated in the hands of a few: “Despite the huge resources that the nation has received from the unprecedented sales in oil, there is hardly anything to show for it in the lives of ordinary citizens.”

“The uncontrollable hemorrhaging of resources has led to the ubiquity of misery among the people,” he added.

The bishop called on the election’s winners to channel resources into education, job creation, and agricultural development.

Bishop Kukah also warned that continued raids by terrorist group Boko Haram had increased tensions between Nigeria’s Muslims and Christians. He wrote that “the insurgency has depleted a lot of the good will among the various ethnic groups and further deepened the fracture between Christians and Muslims.”

He also confirmed fears of a repeat of the violence that followed the 2011 election:

“Sadly, the federal government did almost nothing to redress these issues. No one was prosecuted and except for a few, the federal government did not deal with the issues of compensation for the majority of the citizens who lost property.”

The bishop wrote, however, that “Nigerians are approaching the forthcoming elections with measured optimism, excitement but with a deep sense of caution and even trepidation. We are also encouraged by the concerted efforts towards ending the insurgency and we are glad to note the international collaboration.”

“Taken together, ordinary citizens are hopeful that we could indeed have successful and peaceful elections.”

Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. Websites: churchinneed.org (USA); acnuk.org (UK); aidtochurch.org (AUS); acnireland.org (IRL); acn-aed-ca.org (CAN); acnmalta.org (Malta)

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U.S. NEWS

Could two new laws suffocate the Catholic Church in DC?

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 7, 2015

National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. on Jan. 22, 2015. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Washington D.C. — The U.S. bishops and several other Catholic and pro-life groups are asking Congress to nullify two new Washington, D.C. laws that they say could choke their ability to operate according to their religious beliefs.

The legislation amounts to “unprecedented assaults upon our organizations,” the coalition of groups stated in a letter to all members of Congress. “Both laws violate the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association protected by the First Amendment and other federal law.”

After a bill is signed into law by the D.C. mayor, Congress reviews the law and can choose to overturn it. The president must honor the disapproval for the bill to be nullified. If no such approval occurs, the bill officially becomes law.

The signatories asked Congress to overturn the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 and the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2014. Both unanimously passed the city council and were recently signed into law by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

If not nullified, the laws would affect employers including religious charitable, medical and educational institutions and pro-life groups.

The Human Rights Amendment Act overturned a decades-old exemption for religious schools and now compels them to recognize groups or persons that directly contradict their mission.

Catholic University’s general counsel Lawrence Morris explained to CNA that the bill “could force us into decisions regarding personnel or student life that would contradict such [Catholic Church] teaching.” For example, the university could have to officially recognize student groups that are fundamentally opposed to the teachings of the Catholic Church on matters of homosexual behavior.

The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act prohibits employers from hiring or firing employees based on their “reproductive health” decisions, such as abortion, sterilization, artificial contraception or in vitro fertilization.

Critics have warned that under the act, a Catholic school might have to retain a teacher who is openly opposed the Catholic mission of the school and violate Church teaching. A pro-life group could be forced to retain an employee who was openly pro-abortion and contradicted its pro-life mission.

Morris explained that the bill could prevent Catholic University “from taking action regarding employee conduct under certain circumstances.”

In addition, institutions could be required to cover contraceptives or abortions in their employee health plans. Morris said that the university could have to “provide coverage for drugs or procedures that violate our faith.”

In their letter to Congress, the coalition of concerned groups echoed the fear that the bill could be interpreted “to require our organizations to subsidize elective abortions through their employee health plans.” Since signing the bill, Mayor Bowser has introduced legislation clarifying that it says nothing about insurance coverage.

“Defending this law would be a waste of federal and local taxpayer funds,” the groups said.

“The law plainly violates the First Amendment, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), and possibly other federal laws and clearly contradicts the Supreme Court’s recent, unanimous ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church and School v. EEOC,” they stated.

In the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor decision, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the federal government could not intervene in a religious institution’s hiring and firing decisions of ministers, even if those decisions were not made for religious reasons.

The letter’s signatories included John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America; Cynthia DeSimone Weiler, chancellor for the Archdiocese of Washington; Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus; Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; and Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Also signing the letter were representatives of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Archdiocese of the Military Services USA, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and the National Organization for Marriage.

Speaking for Catholic University, Morris told CNA that “we do not expect to initiate a lawsuit over the new legislation, as we do not consider the laws to require us to do anything that contravenes our First Amendment freedoms.”

“But we will vigorously defend ourselves, relying both on the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, in the event that a party brings an action against us grounded on the council’s legislation,” he added.

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U.S. NEWS

Statue of Pope Francis’ new saint could be kicked out of US capitol

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

The statue of Father Junipero Serra (Far Left) inside the National Statuary Hall in Washington D.C. (CNA)

Washington, D.C. — Just weeks after Pope Francis announced his intention to canonize missionary Father Junipero Serra during his upcoming visit to the states, a California legislator has proposed replacing the soon-to-be-saint’s statue in the U.S. Capitol – but critics of the move are beginning to speak out.

“I certainly wouldn’t endorse it,” Monsignor Francis J. Weber, an author and historian of 18th century missionary, told CNA Feb. 6.

Father Serra helped establish the California missions, many of which became the centers of major cities like San Diego. In recent weeks, however, California State Sen. Ricardo Lara has proposed that the priest’s statue be replaced with a less “controversial” figure.

Yet Fr. Serra’s supporters maintain that aside from his personal charisma, the beloved priest played a pivotal role in the development of the U.S. as we know it today.

“It was the first contact that the Europeans made with the Native Americans,” Msgr. Weber said of the missionary’s work. “California today is what he started it out to be. Things have progressed a lot in 200 years, but he set the foundation.”

Msgr. Weber, the 82-year-old Archivist Emeritus of the Archival Center at the San Fernando Mission in Mission Hills, Calif., praised Father Serra’s “magnetic personality” despite being “a short little fellow, with poor health.”

“When he died the Native Americans were terribly upset. He had become such a hero among them,” Msgr. Weber said.

Grazie Pozo Christie, a Miami-born doctor who spent her childhood in Mexico, said Fr. Serra’s canonization “means a lot” to Catholic Latinos as well.

Fr. Serra is “very much our very own and we love to see our own recognized and acclaimed,” she told CNA Feb. 9. “I saw his statue for the first time just last month in the Capitol. I was surprised and moved to see him. I felt like a true American.”

“To Latinos, Fr. Serra means unconditional love, acceptance, and sacrifice, because that is what he showed our forefathers,” said Christie, who is on the advisory board for The Catholic Association.

Father Junipero Serra (1713-1784) was born on the Spanish island of Majorca in the Mediterranean. He became a missionary to the New World, helping to convert many native Californians to Christianity and teaching them new and vital technologies.

St. John Paul II beatified Fr. Serra in 1988. In January, Pope Francis praised Fr. Serra as “the evangelizer of the west” and announced his intention to canonize the Franciscan missionary during his scheduled 2015 visit to the U.S., during which he is scheduled to make a historic address to a joint session of Congress.

Fr. Serra’s statue has been in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection since 1931. His statue cradles a church in his left arm and holds a cross aloft in his outstretched right arm. The website of the Architect of the Capitol, which maintains the statue, describes Fr. Serra as “one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the New World.”

“California today is what he started it out to be. Things have progressed a lot in 200 years, but he set the foundation,” Msgr. Weber said.

However, Sen. Ricardo Lara has proposed that Father Serra’s statue be replaced with a statue of astronaut Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space.

Lara characterized the priest as “a controversial figure.” He said his effort to replace the statue with Sally Ride’s is about “recognizing the invaluable contributions of an accomplished Californian and American pioneer,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Msgr. Weber, however, rejected many of the claims against Serra. “You see all of these accusations against Serra, but not one of them can be validated by a responsible historian.”

The missionary, despite a painful cancerous growth in his leg, walked most of the way to Mexico City to secure a bill of rights for the native community.

“It was very painful. But that never slowed him down,” Msgr. Weber said, adding that the priest worked to separate the missionary and the military aspects of Spanish colonialism.

St. John Paul II, during his 1987 visit to the U.S., praised Father Serra as the native peoples’ “defender and champion” whose actions had as their aim the “spiritual and physical well-being” of Native Americans.

Msgr. Weber worried that an agenda was at work in the criticisms leveled at Serra.

“The Native Americans, I think, are being utilized by these people who have a rather warped view of what evangelization is all about,” he said. “I’m convinced that the questions about Junipero Serra are really not about Serra himself, who simply epitomized Catholic evangelization. I’m convinced that this is an attack on all of Catholic evangelization throughout the world.”

“There are those people who feel that the Church should not be out evangelizing people. But the problem is, we have to do that. That’s what Christ told us to do: go and preach the gospel to all people.”

Preaching is what Fr. Serra did. He left a prestigious university post in Majorca for the New World.

Msgr. Weber said the missionary’s efforts to teach the native community were marked with humility and patience. While some activists opposed to Serra’s canonization claim he wiped out native culture, Msgr. Weber noted the missionary’s effort to enculturate Christianity.

Fr. Serra insisted that the native community be taught in their own language, “because he said that’s the language in which they live,” the historian said. “He thought it was good for them to learn Spanish, but they had to learn the catechism from their native language.”

Despite the difficulty of printing at the time, several catechism editions were printed in the languages of various California natives. There were over 30 indigenous languages in the region, and Fr. Serra and his fellow missionaries worked to translate difficult Christian concepts like the Trinity into native languages.

Msgr. Weber also said that the missionaries imparted some practical developments to help improve what was often a harsh environment for California’s indigenous people.

“It was a very difficult existence for them, and the missionaries taught them how to cultivate crops, how to raise animals, learn how to sew, to wear clothing, how to make such things as candles. The missions themselves became the foundation of what has developed into the California culture of today.”

Msgr. Weber also rejected claims of forced conversion by the missionaries. “There’s not a single case I’ve ever studied, and I’ve been around for a long time, where any missionary ever forced any Indian to become a Catholic.”

Fr. Serra’s statue now sits in the U.S. Capitol beside Ronald Reagan’s statue, which replaced a sculpture of traveling preacher Thomas Starr King in 2009.

Msgr. Weber said he could support the inclusion of Sally Ride’s statue if the gallery increased the number of statues per state to three. “I don’t see the reason for moving somebody out of there.”

Christie agreed, saying “There must be enough space to honor him as well as Sally Ride.”

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U.S. NEWS

Pope Francis hopes to invigorate Philadelphia Church in US visit

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

Francis meets with Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia at the Vatican on Feb. 6, 2015. (Archdiocese of Philadelphia)

Rome, Italy — With preparations for the World Meeting of Families well underway, Pope Francis has told Archbishop Charles Chaput he hopes his visit will inspire joy and confidence in the Church of Philadelphia.

“He certainly is excited about coming,” said the U.S. prelate during a Feb. 5 interview with EWTN News Nightly shortly after meeting with the Pope about plans for the upcoming visit.

“He promised me he’d do his best to move our Church to a more positive, joyful, and confident place than it’s been, because the struggles we’ve had in Philadelphia.”

The World Meeting of families, set to run from Sept. 22-27 in Philadelphia with the theme “Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive,” will be one of the highlights of Pope Francis’ tour of the U.S. – his first since being elected to the papacy in 2013.

It’s likely that the “struggles” to which the former archbishop of Denver refers are the difficult history that the church in Philly has suffered in recent decades. Archbishop Chaput was appointed in 2011, less than a decade after it was revealed that two of his predecessors – Cardinal John Krol and Cardinal Anthony Bevilaqua – had been involved in covering up cases of clerical abuse of minors.

As the Philadelphia community prepares to welcome the Holy Father, Archbishop Chaput, who is hosting the meeting, acknowledged the global significance of the visit.

Pope Francis’ apostolic journey to the U.S. will include a Washington D.C. where he will address a joint session of Congress on Sept. 24. The Holy Father may also go to New York where he would likely visit the United Nations. However, the details of the Pope’s journey have yet to be finalized.

Despite these significant stops on the Pope’s agenda, the people of the Philadelphia consider the papal visit to their city as the “most important,” the archbishop said, “not only (for) the Church of Philadelphia but also to the families of the world.”

“What’s really important for all of us is what happens for our families,” he said.

The World Meeting of Families holds global significance as bishops worldwide prepare to gather for a second Synod in two years dedicated to the needs of the family in modern times.

In his meeting with Pope Francis about the World Meeting of Families, Archbishop Chaput took note of how “very serene” the Holy Father was, and how “very much in control of the facts about what’s going on”.

“We talked about two things: we talked about the World Meeting of Families, of course, but he also was curious about the life of the church in Philadelphia. So actually we spent more time talking about Philadelphia than we spent about the World Meeting of Families.”

While the details of the event still need to be confirmed by the Pope, the Philadelphia prelate said he hopes to have “a pretty definitive answer soon on what exactly he’s going to do.”

The archbishop recalled his time as archbishop of Denver – he took his post there just a few years after St. John Paul II’s 1993 visit for World Youth Day.

“It was amazing what a difference his visit made in the life of the Church,” he said. “It made the Church much more evangelical, much more enthusiastic, much more confident about itself.”

Looking back to that visit, Archbishop Chaput expressed his hope that the “same gift will be given to the Church of Philadelphia” during Pope Francis’ visit, “not only in terms of the enthusiasm of the moment, but the enduring legacy of the graces of a papal visit.”

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U.S. NEWS

Why a former altar girl changed her mind about boy-only servers

by Kate Veik (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2015

Altar servers. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

San Francisco, CA — When she was a young girl, Logan Crotty dreamed of becoming a Catholic priest.

She had always had an insatiable desire for intimacy with God and for a place of importance within God’s mission, the Church. When she became an altar server at her parish, those desires became directed toward the priesthood.

Crotty described watching her older sister serve at the altar. She said she was thrilled by her sister’s experiences of intimacy with God and the sacraments.

In her young mind, she began associating the heights of holiness with the priesthood.

“I didn’t really have a particular reason for wanting to be a priest, other than this desire to be holy and to serve the Lord and to be close to him,” Crotty told CNA. “By being a priest – I saw that as the highest place you could reach and the most that you could give to be close to our Lord.”

“No one really corrected me,” she said.

Crotty hit a major stumbling block in the fourth grade; after years of serving at the altar and dreaming of a promotion of sorts to the priesthood, she learned that the Catholic Church does not ordain women priests.

“I was left feeling kind of lost, I think, when I reached that place of understanding that this would not be a desire that could ever be fulfilled (through the priesthood).”

Years later, she discovered the writings of St. Therese of Lisieux, who also had dreams of becoming a Catholic priest. She said the 19th-century saint’s life and writings revealed to her the true role God has for women in the Church.

“It was recognizing that holiness and devotion can occur in very simple and hidden ways,” she said. “(And) recognizing that maybe it wasn’t fully a desire for the priesthood so much as it was a desire for holiness that had no direction other than this one role I had seen.”

Crotty noted that she had never met any religious sisters when she was younger.

“If you haven’t encountered the possibilities as a Catholic woman for your life, then it’s very hard to discern what those might be,” she said, adding that the priesthood was the only vocation she had witnessed as a young girl because of her years of serving at the altar.

The connection that Crotty saw between altar serving and the priesthood, and the resulting incoherence that she experienced as a young girl, illustrates part of the reasoning behind one San Francisco priest’s recent decision to make altar serving at his parish available only to boys.

“The priesthood is a male charism in Catholic understanding,” Father Joseph Illo, administrator of Star of the Sea Parish, told CNA. “Assisting in the sacrifice of the Mass is a priestly act.”

While women are technically permitted under Church law to be altar servers, Fr. Illo said, “on a symbolic level, it’s a priestly act.”

Fr. Illo isn’t alone in his decision. Other priests and bishops have also returned to the practice of male-only altar servers, citing a connection between serving at the altar and the priesthood.

Only boys can serve at the altar in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska where vocations to the priesthood are flourishing. And a recent study by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops revealed that 82 percent of men studying for the priesthood last year served at the altar before entering the seminary.

In a 2001 letter, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship clarified that if a bishop does decide to allow girls to serve at the altar, “it would remain important to explain clearly to the faithful the nature of this innovation, lest confusion might be introduced, thereby hampering the development of priestly vocations.”

It also stressed that for the non-ordained faithful, service at the altar is not a right.

Despite the Congregation’s statements, Fr. Illo’s decision was met with harsh criticism from some San Francisco locals.

“It’s disturbing and it’s troubling,” women commented to CBS’ San Francisco affiliate. “A step in the wrong direction.”

One young girl at Star of the Sea school told CBS the policy change “makes me feel like I’m not good enough.”

Crotty, who is now a youth minister at St. Odilia’s Catholic Community in Shoreview, MN, said the emotional reaction to Fr. Illo’s decision is understandable.

“We don’t necessarily have conversations that are clear and articulate about what it means to be man and woman,” Crotty said. “So, to present something like this can very easily affect people to their core and cause a very emotional and disappointed reaction.”

“It’s not an easy thing to immediately understand. But, it’s written in our hearts. The truth is there and once you’ve encountered it, everything changes.”

Holy Name Parish in Denver changed its altar serving policy about six months ago. Now, altar serving is reserved for boys.

But Holy Name’s pastor, Father Daniel Cardo, has established a new sacristan program for girls in the parish. The “Sacristans of Little Therese of Lisieux” have a schedule and responsibility, similar to the altar boys. Members prepare materials before and after Mass.

“I think for the most part it’s working very well,” Fr. Cardo told CNA. “They love it and they have great pride in their work … Sometimes even more than the boys being altar servers! You see now two very distinct groups.”

Fr. Cardo said the new sacristan group accentuates the young girls’ “feminine genius” – in the words of St. John Paul II – by showcasing their sense of reverence and attentiveness to detail.

The sacristans and altar servers also challenge each other to excellence in their different roles at Holy Name.

“In that way, the girls have a necessary place … and the boys have another necessary part which helps to promote vocations.”

Fr. Cardo believes the arrangement considers what is best for both the boys and the girls in his parish. He said most parents want their children to be involved in Mass so that they are less distracted.

Both altar serving and the sacristan program keep boys and girls involved in Mass in ways that respect their masculinity and femininity, he explained.

“It’s not just about what’s right or wrong. It’s about what’s best,” he said. “And this could be better, among other things, because it helps promote in an adequate and personalized way, vocations for girls and boys.”

Crotty said she wishes her parish had had a similar sacristan program when she was younger.

“When I heard about Fr. Daniel’s design for ministry for these young people, I was just so excited,” she said. “I think I really could have benefited from that and it took a long time to come to understand everything I had experienced.”

She noted that it was not a matter of “boys should be altar servers and girls should not be involved,” but rather involvement in different ways.

“I think that is to the Church’s detriment not to nourish these young female souls. But to prevent this confusion from occurring in the lives of those young female souls. And to really nourish and foster priestly vocations among young men. That needs to be the purpose and the goal.”

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U.S. NEWS

Go forth! Ministry leaders instructed to encounter God in the poor

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

Homeless. (Marc Brüneke via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Washington D.C. — The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference exhorted a group of Catholic leaders to go forth in ministry to serve at the peripheries of society, where they will encounter God in the poor.

“Here is today’s paradox: Go to the edge, and you reach the heart!” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville told those gathered at the concluding Mass of the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 10.

“Pope Francis calls us to get out of our homes and churches and schools and go to the frontier,” he said. “We go to the frontier, and we find the heart of the Lord Jesus. It is the heart of Jesus that we find in the forgotten, the voiceless, and the vulnerable.”

In a blog post about the experience, Archbishop Kurtz said that more than 500 leaders attended the Feb. 8-10 conference, which focused on social justice for the poor. Talks at the gathering covered topics ranging from rehabilitation of former prison inmates to the death penalty to the fight against physician-assisted suicide laws.

After the Mass, participants went to Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress on various social justice issues.

“You will advocate for just immigration policies; for a budget that does not forget those who are poor; for efforts in the Middle East – in the land which Jesus walked; for a lasting peace,” the archbishop told the group.

“Take a vivid picture with you,” he instructed them, “let your efforts have a face so you speak for that person.”

Archbishop Kurtz revealed that when he met with Pope Francis in a private audience last October, the Pope said that “our faith in Christ is more powerful than the forces of a ‘throwaway’ society, a society that sadly ignores seeing the person first.”

The archbishop echoed the Holy Father’s call for a journey to the peripheries of society, in order to have an encounter with the poor.

“We are called to go forth. This is the task of the saints of God,” he told the congregation. “All through the centuries men and women of faith have been raised up by Christ to give authentic and bold witness – like St. Scholastica, the Sixth Century sister of St. Benedict, the one who gives us examples of prayer that overflows into action.”

“With God who is with us, who can be against us? Be courageous, be compassionate, be civil, stay calm. Do not fear. Go forth,” he charged.

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A women’s shelter or a graveyard – how ‘50 Shades of Grey’ ends in real life

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2015

(CNA)

Denver, CO — Valentine’s Day plans do not typically include domestic abuse.

Yet thousands of couples are already pre-purchasing their movie tickets for “50 Shades of Grey,” a film which many critics are saying romanticizes and attempts to normalize violence against women.

“It brands violence as romance, it teaches women that sexual abuse and being a victim is hot or sexy, and it’s really the story of a seasoned predator,” said Dr. Gail Dines, founder and president of the international feminist organization Stop Porn Culture.

The movie “50 Shades of Grey” is set for an international release on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. The film is based on the first installment of a three-book series by British writer E.L. James, which has topped best-seller lists all over the world, including in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the series, wealthy, 29-year-old Christian Grey grooms naive 21 year-old Anastasia to engage in a sadistic sexual relationship.

More than 100 million copies have been sold worldwide, and the series has been translated into 52 languages, but its reception has been fraught with controversy. Many groups – from feminist activists and organizations against domestic violence to Christian leaders and Catholic bishops – are speaking out against the upcoming film, calling it misogynistic and a dangerous portrayal of violence as romance.

In a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., invited his fellow clergy to “(r)emind the faithful of the beauty of the Church’s teaching on the gift of sexual intimacy in marriage, the great dignity of women, and the moral reprehensibility of all domestic violence and sexual exploitation.”

Dines and others in her organization became so incensed by the media hype surrounding the film, they came up with a social media campaign to boycott the movie, but with an ingenious twist: take the $50 that would be spent on dinner and movie tickets for two, and instead donate it to a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Together with other organizations such as London Abused Women’s Centre and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, they’ve been spreading the word with the hashtag: #50dollarsnot50shades. In just two weeks, their Facebook page has received thousands of likes, and the effort has been featured in dozens of publications, including The Guardian, BBC, Huffington Post, Time Magazine and People Magazine.

“This is a protest to give the money to a battered women’s shelter, because that’s where Anastasia is going to end up,” Dines told CNA. “She’s not ending up in a beautiful lake house with a guy who adores her. If she’s lucky she ends up in a women’s shelter, and if she’s unlucky she ends up in a graveyard.”

Tanisha Martin, an empowerment coach and kung-fu master based in Colorado Springs, said the campaign was just the avenue she had been looking for to speak out against the film.

“I was seeing so many people excited to see the movie and reading the books and I thought, ‘They’re not seeing the real abuse side of it,’” she said. “There is real abuse and manipulation going on, so when I saw the #50dollarsfor50shade, I thought, ‘I’ve got to do that for my local community.’”

For Martin, the story of Anastasia and Christian hits very close to home. Her ex-husband was abusive in many of the same ways, she said.

Martin, like Anastasia, convinced herself that she could somehow love her husband out of his abusive tendencies. Anastasia ends up accomplishing this, and defenders of the movie tout it as a story of love, rather than of abuse.

“That is a very dangerous concept to latch onto and glorify,” Martin told CNA. “That would be wonderful, but it’s not the reality for most victims and it’s not the reality for me.”

“It’s confusing enough to be a victim, because most of the time you don’t even realize you are one,” she said. “Even though you see signs of abuse, you still think it’s different with you … and that’s the biggest problem.”

The media hype behind the series has been the most infuriating part to Dines, who said she’s been walking around in a sort of “feminist rage” ever since the release of the first book in 2011.

“They’re making out as if this caught on all by itself, but it wasn’t organic growth. There’s been a juggernaut of media behind this, and it’s selling to women an image that somehow if you love a sadist out of his (abuse) you’ll have a great life,” she said.

“When in reality, how ‘50 Shades’ would end is that she’s running for her life to a battered women’s shelter, with children in tow, she’s got her front teeth knocked out, she’s got cigarette burns up and down her arm … she’s living off the grid without a bank account or a cell phone, cause these sadists never let go.”

The media celebration of the books and movies shows an irresponsibility and an ignorance about how violence against women is perpetuated, Dines added.

“You have a media who’s celebrating this violence against women,” she said. “No other group would be celebrated when they’re beaten and tortured like this, it would be considered an outrage. For any other minority group, if you had a film that would eroticize them being violated, people would absolutely be tearing down the cinemas in the streets. And what do we have here? We have a massive media juggernaut promoting it.”

Dines, who is also a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston, said she believes “50 Shades of Grey” has also caught on because we live in a culture where pornography is considered acceptable.

“If you want to understand the popularity of this, you have to look at the way pornography has literally hijacked the way people think about sex and sexuality,” she said.

As a sociologist, Dines said she has seen a lot of research about the effects of pornography on the brains of boys and men. The younger someone becomes addicted to porn, the more difficult it is to break away, she said. Furthermore, regular viewing of pornography is re-shaping the way boys’ brains are forming.

“We’ve got 40 years of experimental psychology research which tells us that the more porn men look at, the more boys look at, the more they believe it,” she said. “The jury’s not out about that – that has been known in the science literature for years and years.”

Fortunately, Dines said, her organization has seen a positive, international response to the #50dollarsnot50shades campaign in just a few days.

“It’s been unbelievable, it has gone viral, it’s fantastic,” she said. “People are e-mailing from everywhere saying they’re not going, they’re donating $50 to a battered women’s shelter, I’ve got e-mails from England, Australia, Brazil, Germany … it’s just incredible.”

Dines said she credits the huge response in part to women are tired of being silent in a pornography-obsessed culture.

“I think it speaks to the silent majority of women who are sick to death of this porn culture, because you know the media silences them,” she said, “and I think what we’re hearing now is them coming into their own and speaking out via our hashtag.”

“And I think it’s about time people started speaking out against a porn culture, because we’re so inundated with it, and really what this is doing is it’s speaking out against it,” she said. “It’s about women, and men who support women, making a stand, because this (series) is part of the porn culture, this did not come out of nowhere.”

Learn more about the #50DollarsNot50Shades campaign at:  facebook.com/50dollarsnotfiftyshades/info

To make a donation to a women’s shelter operated by Catholic Charities, contact your local agency through:  catholiccharitiesusa.org/our-impact/agency-spotlight/

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Natural family planning, theology of the body – the Church’s ‘best-kept secrets’

by CNA/EWTN News • February 11, 2015

Michelangelo’s The Creation of Eve, from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, c. 1510. (CNA)

Denver, CO — If you ask Archbishop Aquila, theology of the body and natural family planning – both practical resources on human sexuality – may be the Church’s best-kept secrets.

“The truth is, the Church has many positive things to say about the gift of our sexuality,” Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver said Feb. 8 at a dinner for teachers of natural family planning.

‘Theology of the Body’ is the corpus of 129 General Audience addresses delivered by St. John Paul II from 1979 to 1984, regarding the human person and human sexuality.

The heart of these teachings is the sacramental view of reality on human sexuality, Archbishop Aquila said, meaning that human bodies have a language that reveals something about the mystery of God’s inner life.

Archbishop Aquila believes the importance of Theology of the Body and the positive impact of natural family planning are foundational pillars to understand how Christ redeemed human sexuality after the fall of Adam and Eve.

“What makes Theology of the Body unique is that it brings true joy to relationships, marriages and friendships,” the archbishop noted, saying that without Theology of the Body, natural family planning can become “a kind of Catholic contraception, something which is really a contradiction in terms.”

“If you desire to experience and impart the joy and beauty of natural family planning, then you must understand the Theology of the Body,” Archbishop Aquila stated, saying that both of these resources are “one of the best-kept secrets of the Catholic Church.”

Looking at the past 40 years, the archbishop pointed to the abuse of power, loss of respect, and the belief that man has unlimited dominion over his own body as some of the causes for today’s societal sexual meltdown.

“We have seen an increase in infidelity, a surge in divorce, more dysfunctional families, a decrease in children’s psychological well-being and a boom in single-parent households,” Archbishop Aquila noted, pointing to the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s as the culprit in the rejection of Christian sexual values.

Great numbers of people find themselves dissatisfied with the culture of meaningless sex and objectification, he noted, saying that a manifestation of this can be seen in the upcoming film ‘50 Shades of Gray.’

“We were created and called into being to love and be loved, not to be used, not to be an object for someone else’s fantasy,” the archbishop noted.

Although the modern-day understanding of sexuality points to self-gratification, rather than self-giving, Archbishop Aquila called for a return to the mutual love and respect that men and women should have for each other.

”When a couple’s relationship is characterized by a love that is free, total, faithful and fruitful, then they are able to experience the joy God intended for them and so reflect God’s love to the world,” he said, emphasizing the importance of both natural family planning and Theology of the Body for couples and their understanding of sexuality.

However, when a couple uses contraception, they contradict this message of total self-giving, he stated.

“They say rather, ‘I give you part of myself, but I also deliberately withhold part of myself,’” Archbishop Aquila noted, believing that this is why the use of contraception is deceptive.

“As loudly and as persistently as our disbelieving culture proclaims its view of sex and happiness, a simple look around reveals the sad truth: too many people are left alone in the dark, searching for and failing to find love.”

While the secular approach to sexuality promotes objectification of the person, the archbishop believes that the Church views sexuality as the ultimate exchange of love in self-gift.

“We need to proclaim even louder and more persistently: God has the best, richest, and fullest plan for the happiness of married couples,” he went on to say.

“Love is a Person, and He has written a wonderful design for human love into each of our bodies and hearts.”

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US pushing Cuba to improve record on human trafficking, State Dept. says

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

Pilgrims gather in Cuba for Mass during the Pope’s visit in March 2012. (Michelle Bauman/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — As the U.S. aims to re-establish full relations with Cuba, it is also pushing the country to redeem its poor track record fighting human trafficking, said a U.S. State Department official.

“We met on multiple occasions over the past year to share information on efforts to combat human trafficking,” the State Department’s Sarah Sewall told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 11.

Sewall is the Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.

“We would like to take advantage of any opening that we have to prompt the Cuban authorities to make progress on trafficking, but the problems, as you pointed out, are severe,” she told Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a Cuban-American who has been one of the loudest opponents of the Obama administration’s new relationship with the Castro regime.

Menendez had broached the topic of Cuba at the hearing. Since 2007, Cuba has been designated a Tier 3 country – the worst ranking – in the State Department’s annual Trafficking In Persons report.

Tier 3 countries are those “whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so,” according to the 2014 report.

Menendez explained that not only is Cuba a source for sex trafficking, but the Castro regime has “conscripted medical personnel to work overseas under conditions that resemble forced labor” – and this is the regime’s biggest source of income.

According to the trafficking port, children ages 13-20 are particularly at risk for prostitution in Cuba, and citizens have even been forced into prostitution outside the country.

Pope Francis, who made personal appeals to both U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro to pursue closer relations between the countries, has been particularly vocal about human trafficking in his papacy.

Francis helped spur the first international “Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking” on Feb. 8. After Sunday’s Angelus, he told the audience in St. Peter’s Square that “each one of us feels committed to being the voice of these, our brothers and sisters, humiliated in their dignity.”

He also exhorted civil authorities to commit to “removing the cause of this shameful wound.”

The State Department’s ambassador on the issue expressed his excitement to CNA last April that Francis has made human trafficking a “normal part of the conversation” on freedom.

“I do see Pope Francis working to insert the issue of human trafficking in informal comments. The idea is to institutionalize the issue as part of the normal public discourse,” said Luis CdeBaca, the Ambassador-at-Large for the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The conversation between U.S. and Cuba on human trafficking may not be easy, Sewall admitted to Sen. Menendez, “but it will be as all dialogues are, frank and open.”

Sewall emphasized that the U.S. is trying to lead the global fight against human trafficking, through efforts that include diplomacy, trade agreements, foreign policy, and raising awareness.

“Undersecretary Sewall has said that almost every issue she touches has implications for human trafficking,” remarked chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) at Wednesday’s hearing.

Past efforts have produced results, Sewall insisted, noting that in the last 15 years, the matter has risen in importance to an “international priority.”

There is still a long way to go, she admitted, beginning with popular awareness of how consumer products have been made. “Many of the products I use on a daily basis,” Sewall said, “may have been produced by slaves.”

“The State Department’s Office of Trafficking in Persons has been nothing less than extraordinary, but it remains understaffed, under-resourced, and without leadership,” Sen. Menendez said, agreeing that more progress needs to be made.

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Latino leadership in the spotlight at intersection of Church and culture

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 12, 2015

(Faramarz Hashemi via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Social justice, politics and Latino culture are three areas that are fields for evangelization, a Hispanic ministry leader told young Catholic professionals at a recent event in Washington, D.C.

“Our love of God isn’t real, is not verified, if it is not expressed in love of neighbor – love particularly of the poor and the excluded and the marginal,” said Fr. Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J.

A professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in California, Fr. Deck was the former director of the office of Cultural Diversity in the Church for the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, and has published work on Hispanic ministry and the intersection of faith and culture.

Fr. Deck was part of a three-person panel addressing a crowd of young professionals at Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life last week. The focus of the event was on “challenges for young Catholic Latino leaders.”

“We’ve got 53 million Latinos in the United States,” Fr. Deck said, calling for leadership in both the political and religious arenas.

In putting the Gospel into practice, he advised, it is important to remember that true justice “is built and flows from our faith” and not from political ideology.

“We don’t ground what we’re about on ideology. We ground it on our faith commitment, and fundamentally, on the Gospel.”

If justice is divorced from evangelization, he continued, then justice is only seen through a political lens and evangelization risks becoming purely “spiritualized.”

In reality, the two must be connected, Fr. Deck said, describing true evangelization as “really very, very nitty-gritty.”

“It’s about being with the poor. It’s about serving the poor. It’s about understanding what their immediate needs are and what the structural underlying causes of their suffering is, and to work to change those conditions.”

While the Church explains this attentiveness to the poor in her teaching of solidarity, he said, it can sometimes be downplayed by the American ideal of individual achievement.

“In the United States, it’s a little difficult to raise this particular concept of solidarity with people,” Fr. Deck said, because it is commonly taught that “it’s all about working our way up the ladder of success.”

Another avenue for evangelization and social justice is through the symbols, rituals and stories of “popular Catholicism” in Latin American culture, he continued, pointing to the unique cultural aspects of the particular “Catholicism that Latinos celebrate and live.”

A prime example of this was Cesar Chavez, a Catholic who marched under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the 1960s for fair wages for California farm workers, Fr. Deck said.

He also pointed to the Argentinian shrines of Our Lady of Lujan and San Cayetano as examples of Latin Catholics rooting their struggle for justice in prayer and pilgrimage.

“There’s devotion, there’s prayer, there’s solidarity,” he said of the shrines.

Fr. Deck did encourage the young Latinos to get involved in politics, but not the partisan kind.

Pope Francis quotes Pope Pius XI, he said, saying that politics is one of the “highest forms of love.” This is not partisan politics, he clarified, but politics of “social concern,” for “especially for the most excluded and forgotten people.”

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Catholic Benefits Association appoints first-ever CEO

by CNA/EWTN News • February 12, 2015

(CNA)

Oklahoma City, OK — When hospitals are struggling financially, they bring in Douglas G. Wilson, Jr. to turn around their fortunes.

Wilson, who previously served as CEO of five distressed hospitals throughout the US and successfully turned them into growing enterprises, was recently named the first Chief Executive Officer of the Catholic Benefits Association and Catholic Insurance Company.

“The Board is tremendously enthusiastic about Doug becoming out first CEO. His deep experience and success uniquely positions him to lead the CBA and CIC to achieve its mission of making quality, competitive, morally-compliant healthcare coverage available to our members,” Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, president of the Catholic Benefits Association, stated Feb. 11.

The Catholic Benefits Association is composed of Catholic employers, both nonprofit and for-profit, committed to providing life-affirming health coverage consistent with Church teaching.

It is led by bishops, and consists of Catholic dioceses, ministries, colleges, religious orders, and businesses who want to provide healthcare and benefits consistent with Church teaching. There are 691 Catholic employers and 3,428 parishes within the CBA, covering more than 68,000 people.

In order to supply this comprehensive coverage, the CBA has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Catholic Insurance Company, which provides networks and administration to their members, so as to honor the dignity of the human person through healthcare.

The CBA also advocates for the religious liberty of Catholic employers to manage their health care plans according to their religious beliefs.

“Given the growth of the CBA and the CIC over our first year, the Board is focused on communications with current and prospective members and on making the CIC program as competitive and accessible as possible,” stated Carolyn Woo, a CBA board member and president of Catholic Relief Services.

“Doug Wilson is the perfect person to achieve these goals,” she continued.

Wilson’s healthcare career began in 1979 after he graduated from Georgia State University with a master’s in Healthcare Administration, where he specialized in the rehabilitation of distressed hospitals in Atlanta.

After successfully generating increased profits and revenues for struggling healthcare facilities, he focused his attention on growing three start-up healthcare enterprises and managed 29 ambulatory surgery centers while developing various physician partnerships. He also directed the expansion of a startup hospital management company, where he integrated rural hospitals, growing it from zero to 14 hospitals over a four year period.

After his extensive work with struggling and startup hospitals, Wilson focused his efforts on finding quality healthcare for his employees that was compatible with the teachings of the Church.

“I myself have experienced the challenges of providing quality healthcare benefits to my employees at prices we could afford without making benefits inaccessible to them and their families,” Wilson stated.

“New regulations imposing mandates contrary to Catholic values have made it nearly impossible for Catholic employers to manage their ministries and businesses consistent with our beliefs,” he continued, saying he felt privileged to have the new position at CBA, a place that defends the coexistence of faith and business.

“I feel privileged to work with CBA members in defending our right to do business according to our faith,” Wilson stated, saying that their work with the Catholic Insurance Company will enable them to reach their goals of quality, cost effectiveness, accessibility, and moral integrity.

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Are wealthy US foundations paying to suppress religious freedom?

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

(Kevin Dooley via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

New York City, N.Y. — Questions are being raised over two U.S. foundations that have poured more than three million dollars into abortion rights, LGBT activist, and legal groups to push the message that exemptions based on religious beliefs are “un-American” and an abuse of liberty.

The Arcus Foundation and the Ford Foundation have spent over $3 million in combined spending against religious liberty exemptions since 2013, according to a CNA review of tax forms and grant listings.

John Lomperis of the Institute for Religion and Democracy – a D.C.-based ecumenical Christian think tank – warned that the grants appear to understand the important role of “rhetorical message and framing” on religious liberty issues.

“The agenda of such groups in opposing basic conscience protections could hardly be more diametrically opposed to our nation’s great traditions of freedom of conscience and of religion,” Lomperis, who serves as United Methodist Director for the institute, told CNA Feb. 10.

He contended that the pattern of grants “serves a fundamentally totalitarian vision these foundations and their allied politicians have of ‘religious liberty.’” This vision is especially opposed to those who value traditional sexual morality and respect for unborn human life, he noted.

“Our society is now facing serious questions about to what extent Christians (as well as, to a lesser extent, followers of other faiths) will be allowed to have the same degree to live in accordance with our values without facing new and powerful coercions,” Lomperis said.

The Arcus Foundation’s website lists a 2014 grant of $100,000 to the American Civil Liberties Foundation supporting “communications strategies to convince conservative Americans that religious exemptions are ‘un-American.’” A two-year Arcus grant to the ACLU in 2013 gave $600,000 to support the ACLU’s Campaign to End the Use of Religion to Discriminate. Arcus Foundation tax forms describe this as a “multi-pronged” effort to combat “the growing trend of institutions and individuals claiming exemptions from anti-discrimination laws because of religious objections.”

The Arcus Foundation is a major funder of LGBT advocacy, including “gay marriage” advocacy. The foundation had almost $170 million in assets in 2013 and gave out $17 million to organizations it considers to be working for social justice.

As part of this effort, the foundation joined with the titanic wealth of the Ford Foundation to back Columbia Law School’s “Public Rights / Private Conscience Project,” run by the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. The Arcus Foundation gave $250,000 to Columbia University’s Board of Trustees to support the project, which the foundation says will “mobilize scholars, attorneys and advocates in order to develop and distribute new methods of framing perceived conflicts between sexual rights and religious liberty.”

Columbia University announced the project in a March 24, 2014 statement that acknowledged funding from both foundations. The announcement mentioned as examples of religious exemptions the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Supreme Court cases objecting to including HHS-mandated abortifacient contraceptives in employee health plans. The announcement also cited efforts to accommodate religious objections to “gay marriage.”

The project criticized the Supreme Court’s June 2014 decision in favor of Hobby Lobby. The project also spearheaded a letter from over 50 legal scholars that called on President Barack Obama to deny a religious exemption clause in a controversial executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Ford Foundation’s 2013 tax forms and website indicate it has committed $650,000 to the same project, which the foundation says will “counteract religious exemption and conscience-based carve-outs to laws securing sexual and reproductive rights.” The grant money also supports “a symposia series on LGBT rights.”

The Ford Foundation has assets of $11 billion and dispenses $500 million in grants each year. The foundation’s president, Darren Walker, sits on the Arcus Foundation’s eight-member board of directors. Walker is a past vice president of foundation initiatives of the Rockefeller Foundation, another titan of non-profit foundations involved in social change.

Lomperis noted many current controversies involving religious liberty: campus ministries have been “kicked off of campus” because of their Christian commitments; Christians in wedding-related industries have been threatened with fines and jail time for declining business that would involve taking part in “gay weddings”; health care professionals face pressure to perform elective abortions against their pro-life beliefs; and parents increasingly face difficulties exempting their children from school programs “intentionally designed to cure children of traditional Christian values around sexual morality.”

“It seems that with such grants, recently and historically, essentially secular liberal funders like those at the Arcus and Ford Foundations are trying their best to undercut the pro-life and pro-traditional marriage movements,” Lomperis added.

The Ford Foundation gave at least one other grant targeting religious liberty. Its 2013 grant of $150,000 to Political Research Associates supported “public education and strategic communications on religious liberties exemptions from nondiscrimination laws,” in addition to what the foundation characterized as education on the “export of homophobia abroad” as portrayed in the Ford Foundation-backed film “God Loves Uganda.”

Funding for efforts to reframe religious liberty extend even further.

In 2014 the Arcus Foundation granted $400,000 to the Center for American Progress to back the

center’s Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative in order to “articulate and disseminate a socially progressive framework of religious liberty as it relates to a range of issues” while working with “a diverse group of faith leaders, partners and allies.” The website of the center and its affiliated political action fund’s publication ThinkProgress criticize efforts to secure legal protections for those with religious objections to the HHS mandate or to the recognition of same-sex relationships.

Lomperis was skeptical of such efforts.

“With the specific battles these foundations are choosing to pick, it seems clear that they are hoping to confuse the public with a few prominently touted and ridiculously unrepresentative spokespeople claiming that not even ‘the religious community’ or ‘Christian leaders’ want these necessary religious-liberty protections being debated,” he said.

The Arcus Foundation has also supported pro-abortion rights groups opposed to religious freedom exemptions. Tax forms indicate it gave $500,000 to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to “expand monitoring and analysis of organized opposition to rights, information and services related to sexual orientation, gender identity and reproductive health, as well as working to prevent expanded use of religious exemptions in policy.”

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the U.S. and was responsible for over 325,000 abortions in Fiscal Year 2014.

The Arcus Foundation was created in Kalamazoo, Michigan by Jon Stryker, an heir to the fortune of the Stryker Corporation. The foundation has offices in New York City and Cambridge, England.

Stryker’s foundation has committed strategic funding to combating what it sees as “the abuse of religion to deny protection to LGBT people.” The foundation’s website says it aims to counter “the abuse of religious freedoms through ‘religious exemptions,’ and develop religious and legal strategies to hold exemptions in check.”

The foundation aims to “challenge religious opponents of LGBT people in the U.S. and internationally” and to develop communications strategies to counter “some religious institutions” which it says engage in “the discrimination and dehumanization of LGBT people.” Its grant priorities aim to use “multiple change levers” like “leadership development, alliance-building, policy change, culture change, and resource development.”

The Arcus Foundation’s 2013 grant of $50,000 to the Interfaith Alliance was intended to build “a faith network opposing discriminatory religious freedom exemptions,” which the foundation claims to be “harmful.” In 2014, the foundation gave $75,000 to Faithful America, a petition and activism website, to support “public campaigns that activate Christian grassroots advocacy networks to present a faith-based challenge to religious institutions and leaders that abuse religious freedom.”

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health received a $100,000 grant in 2013 to build its own capacities and to build a “cross-movement alliance” in order to “combat policies with religious exemptions.” Another $100,000 went to the northwestern U.S.-based Pride Foundation in 2014 to “coordinate messaging” on religious exemptions.

A 2014 grant of $100,000 to the Gill Foundation backed the Movement Advancement Project’s “research and messaging on religious exemptions.” The project is a strategy group that has previously helped the two foundations collaborate to advance LGBT advocacy within U.S. religious denominations, seminaries, clergy coalitions and media to counter religious opposition.

The Colorado-based Gill Foundation was founded by the politically savvy former businessman Tim Gill, a collaborator with Arcus Foundation president Jon Stryker’s sister Pat Stryker. Gill has pursued a long-term political strategy of advancing LGBT causes by targeting small local and statewide political races to train the talent pool of his opponents.

The Arcus Foundation’s current executive director, Kevin Jennings, is a former assistant deputy of the U.S. Department of Education, where he headed the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.

Jennings is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which has advanced LGBT activism in thousands of U.S. secondary schools. Jennings reportedly was a member of the homosexual anti-AIDS group ACT UP in the mid-1990s, just a few years after the group’s notorious anti-Catholic protests in New York City.

Jennings is on the 25-member Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary, a historically prominent mainline Protestant seminary with links to Columbia University.

The Arcus Foundation has backed the Equally Blessed Coalition, an organization of Catholic dissenting groups which have attacked the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Knights of Columbus for supporting legal marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Through the group Dignity USA, the coalition also received an Arcus grant of $200,000 in 2014 “to support pro-LGBT faith advocates to influence and counter the narrative of the Catholic Church and its ultra-conservative affiliates” as well as to “build advocacy and visibility in connection with two special events, the Synod of the Family and World Youth Day.”

The Arcus Foundation is also a partner of the U.S. State Department’s Global Equality Fund, having pledged $1 million to support U.S. government-backed LGBT activism worldwide.

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Bishop to Congress: Stop treating immigrants as ‘less than human’

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

Migrant workers from Mexico load cucumbers into a truck on a farm in Blackwater, Virginia. (Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tuscon, Arizona, leveled harsh criticism against the tone of some Congress members, saying that they were treating undocumented migrants as subhuman.

“I must say up front that the U.S. bishops continue to be concerned with the tone on Capitol Hill toward immigrants,” he stated to the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Enforcement in a Feb. 11 testimony.

“We do not agree with terms that characterize immigrants as less than human, since no person is ‘illegal’ in the eyes of God. Such harsh rhetoric has been encouraged by talk radio and cable TV, for sure, but also has been used by public officials, including members of Congress.”

Immigration has been a hot battle in Washington ever since President Obama, through executive action, expanded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in November. His action allowed millions of qualified immigrants to stay in the U.S. for up to three more years.

House Republicans responded by overturning the action within a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. They have also just introduced three new bills that would strengthen law enforcement against undocumented immigration and overturn the DACA program.

Bishop Kicanas said that he represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in voicing opposition to the bills. His diocese stretches along the Arizona-Mexico border.

The bishop prefaced his testimony by recalling the example of the late American humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller, a hostage of the terror group ISIS who was confirmed dead this past week. Mueller, who hailed from Arizona, was helping refugees from Syria’s civil war before she was captured by ISIS.

“Kayla, who dedicated her life to the service of others, represents the best of our country’s values,” Bishop Kicanas said. “She spent her life and lost her life in attempting to help the most vulnerable, here and overseas. She felt the pain and suffering of others, and responded. We might learn from the example of a fellow American.”

The bishop then explained why he opposed the three proposed immigration bills, starting with their repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The bills “would repeal protections for children fleeing violence in Central America, and would keep children in detainment for long periods of time, and would weaken protections for abandoned, neglected, and abused children,” he stated.

“Our country is judged by how we treat the most vulnerable, and the removal of protection from children, the most vulnerable, flies against human decency and violates human dignity,” he said. “The removal of due process from these children seeking safety, as these bills would do, is like a fireman showing up at a burning building and locking the doors.”

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Muslims respond to Chapel Hill shootings with prayer, calls for peace

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2015

Muslims pray outside the White House for the Chapel Hill shooting victims, Feb. 13, 2015. (Matt Hadro/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — Muslims gathered in front of the White House to pray for the victims of the Chapel Hill shooting on Friday, emphasizing a message of peace and love in response to the killing.

“We thought it would be best to create a safe space for everyone to sort of reflect on their feelings and be there for each other, in a spot like the White House, which is the center of change,” organizer Beyza Seflek told CNA.

“We really wanted to focus on not ourselves, but how the family is grieving.”

Fellow organizer Mahroh Jahangiri added, “We as organizers simply felt that we needed to bring a space to have Muslims be able to publicly perform their faith without fear of violence.”

The mostly-Muslim group was between 200 and 250 strong, according to an estimate by one of the event’s organizers. They prayed to honor three slain University of North Carolina students, each of whom were Muslim.

The students – 23 year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife 21 year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and her sister 19 year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha – were shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Tuesday.

The FBI is now investigating the case as a possible hate crime. The killer, 46 year-old Craig Stephen Hicks, shot the students over a “longstanding dispute,” according to Chapel Hill Mayor Kleinschmidt.

“We do not know whether anti-Muslim bias played a role in this crime, but I do recognize the fear that members of our community may feel,” Kleinschmidt stated on Wednesday.

President Obama decried the “brutal and outrageous murders” in a Friday statement.

“As we saw with the overwhelming presence at the funeral of these young Americans, we are all one American family. Whenever anyone is taken from us before their time, we remember how they lived their lives – and the words of one of the victims should inspire the way we live ours,” he stated.

Outside the White House in below-freezing temperatures, attendees of the prayer service emphasized peace and love in response to the killings which they saw as a religiously-motivated hate crime.

“We didn’t know them personally, but they represent each and every one of us Muslims living in the U.S. We’re American, we’re Muslims living in this country, we give back to our community as much as we can,” said participant Miriam Ismail, from Boston.

“I think it’s really important for the general community worldwide to understand that Muslims do represent peace. We represent justice. We represent humanity,” she added.

Another participant, Mahmoud, said he was inspired to attend the service by a sister of one of the victims.

“Her speech was magnificent,” he said. “It was just so powerful, it carried a lot of wisdom, a lot of love, no hate.”

“I’m here also to remember them [the victims] and to convey also a message of peace and a focus on we need to come together,” he continued.

“We need to really start knowing one another instead of fearing one another. There’s a lot of injustice, and there is also, I think, the fear of the unknown.”

Others present reflected his dismay at what they see are anti-Muslim currents in the U.S.

“In some ways, this violent, heinous crime is a strange fruit of 15 years of a dehumanization of Islam in this country, and Muslims,” said Jahangiri.

“I think the underlying issue is that Muslims feel unsafe and vulnerable in this country, and that speaks to a much larger and bigger societal problems that haven’t been recognized and aren’t being addressed.”

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Marriage is what brings us together today, bishop says

by CNA/EWTN News • February 14, 2015

(CC0 1.0)

Buffalo, N.Y. — Beyond boxed chocolates and Valentine cards, authentic married love is a gift and blessing that brings unity to society, and it deserves support and protection, said a New York bishop.

Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, who heads the U.S. bishops’ committee on marriage and family life, called on his fellow bishops “to celebrate the gift and blessing of marriage and to affirm and support engaged and married couples.”

Valentine’s Day marks the conclusion of National Marriage Week, which runs Feb. 7-14. The week has been celebrated in the U.S. for the past six years in a collaborative effort to encourage couples and uphold marriage as a benefit to both society and family life.

At the same time, World Marriage Day – which is sponsored by Worldwide Marriage Encounter and celebrated Feb. 8 – is now in its thirty-third year and received the Apostolic Blessing of Pope St. John Paul II in 1993.

In a letter marking National Marriage Week and World Marriage Day, Bishop Malone reflected on the state of marriage in the U.S.

“Marriage and the family face many challenges in our contemporary society,” he said. “The declining numbers of marriages in the Church is a concern to our Committee, as are the effects that pornography use has on marriages and families.”

He also pointed to continued efforts to redefine marriage as a grave concern to the institution of marriage between a baptized man and woman.

Even with these ongoing challenges, Bishop Malone offered words of encouragement, applauding work to value marriage and strengthen it.

“We are especially thankful for the many good efforts that continue in dioceses and parishes to promote, strengthen and defend marriage, and to accompany marriages and families in their joys and difficulties,” he said.

The bishop pointed to upcoming opportunities to proclaim the Gospel more clearly.

“In particular, we eagerly anticipate the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia from September 22-27, 2015. We also look forward to the Ordinary Synod on the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world, to be held in Rome October 2015,” he stated, adding that these events are a chance to help fortify marriages, families, and society.

Bishop Malone went on to highlight various resources for priests and married couples, including videos, bulletin inserts, and printed materials, as well as a preaching resource for the clergy. These tools, he said, emphasize the importance of marriage as a vocation, stressing the goodness of marriage and the many gifts it offers to both children and society.

“We hope this will encourage and assist your priests and deacons in preaching about marriage and the family,” he said.

Bishop Malone also called for prayer and sacrifice for an increased reverence toward marriage and family life.

He urged his fellow bishops “to affirm ever more deeply the gift of marriage and family life and may the Lord continue to bless all that you do in witness to the beauty and gift of marriage and the family.”

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Such a time as this

by Jenny Uebbing • February 9, 2015

From the Associated Press this morning:

“The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex weddings to start in Alabama, letting the number of gay-marriage states climb in advance of a constitutional showdown that may mean legalization nationwide.

In a 7-2 order, the justices rejected Alabama’s bid to stop a federal trial judge’s legalization order from taking effect Monday. The state now will become the 37th where gays can marry.”

At first glance, this perhaps doesn’t look like much in terms of news. States’ marriage laws have been crashing down left and right like felled timber over the past 2 years, and it’s hardly shocking that Alabama has joined the ranks of the other 36 places in the U.S. where same sex couples can legally contract a “marriage.”

No big deal, right?

Live and let live, and live the life you love, and you love who you love, and all the other platitudes that fill the airwaves and our ears in this modern cultural milieu.

I have some news for us Christians, and maybe it’s going to come as a bit of a shock, but it may well be that none of those clever turns of phrase are going to apply to us before too long.

Make no mistake, this has never been about simply leveling the playing field so that all may freely participate in the institution of marriage; what it is about - what it has always been about - is redefining and recreating marriage into something else entirely.

And when something gets redefined, the old definition is, by necessity, destroyed. Retired into the annals of history, if you will. Marked down as a tried-and-failed social experiment, and abandoned in the name of Progress.

If you believe that Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of other faiths who practice monogamous, heterosexual life-long fidelity within the context of a religious sacrament are going to be allowed to continue to teach, preach, and contract said marriages in peace once gay “marriage” is enshrined as the law of the land, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Maybe not immediately, but highly likely in the not-too-distant future

If you think you’re going to be able to teach your publicly-schooled fourth grader that sex is sacred and reserved for the intimate communion of marriage between husband and wife, you may have another think coming. (And possibly a visit from CPS, to boot.)

Once gay “marriage” becomes the law of the land, it will no longer be possible to hold a competing worldview and still be viewed, either professionally or legally, as a person of good will.

You will be a bigot, first and foremost. A menace to the pluralistic good of a society unshackled from the burdensome moral code of the past. And your kind - our kind - may not be tolerated.

Oh, it might not be a matter of legal troubles, at least not yet. It will probably be a quieter persecution. Passed over for a promotion. Let go from a job. Denied entry to a committee or school organization. Little things like that, white martyrdoms in varying shades of grey.

Because you see, it’s not really possible to live and let live when life trajectories are fundamentally opposed. Something has to give, someone has to yield.

We can’t all be right.

Relativism only works on paper. In real life it plays out like this: someone is right, and someone else is a bigot who is breaking the law.

Marriage can’t be both a monogamous, permanent, life-long commitment between a man and a woman and an open-ended sexual relationship configured by any two consenting adults. The two definitions are fundamentally contradictory.

And while I may be perfectly capable of ignoring the antics and goings-on behind my neighbor’s bedroom doors right now, when I am forced to publicly endorse their lifestyle by the laws of the land, my reality is altered.

Then it’s no longer live and let live, but becomes instead applaud what we do and accept what we teach, because you are now legally bound.

It’s time for us to wake up. Authentic Christian charity doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to social ills and harmful behavior just because they’re fashionable, trending heavily on Twitter, and popular in Hollywood.

I can love my gay brother or sister - and indeed, true love is willing the good of the other - without endorsing the institution of gay “marriage.”

But I may not have that option forever.

One day in the not-too-distant future, it might not be okay to say that in public. It may be something we whisper in private: “oh, we still believe in the Sacrament of Marriage personally, but we can’t talk about it here.”

And you know what? That’s on us. We have been hand-picked, each one of us, to occupy this unique space in this place and time in history. So what witness are you prepared to give, and what defense for the faith you have?

We ought to be praying, fasting, working like crazy to share the goodness and the truth and the beauty of married love. Not sticking our heads in the sand and pulling our kids, our voices, our potential to be influencers and world changers, out of the public square.

We have to be fearless. St. John Paul II said to us, over and over again, “be not afraid.” This is the heart of the Gospel: perfect love that casts out all fear.

I won’t let my fear of what somebody may think of me prevent me from speaking the truth. And so long as we have the freedom to do so, we ought to be speaking it boldly, humbly, inviting people in to the Faith, not cowering in church doorways, bracing ourselves for disaster.

Be not afraid. Over and over again, I have to remind myself. Be not afraid.

Gay “marriage” isn’t going to satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart; only the one Who created us can do that. Let’s invite as many people as we can to experience the truth of that firsthand. Jesus is what this sad, suffering culture of ours seeks, whether or not they know Him by name. And if we center our lives and our marriages on Him, we cannot lose.

Marriage is a beautiful vocation, and it is worthy of being defended. But it is our lived example that speaks volumes to a visually distracted and chaotic culture parched for beauty.

So that awkward encounter with a fellow commuter holding a matching newspaper early in the morning? Be not afraid.

A hard conversation with a beloved friend or college roommate who champions an alternate view of marriage? Be not afraid.

An unpopular stance with your child’s school administration for the sake of your impressionable 5th grader who won’t be participating in the sex-ed program? Be not afraid.

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14

Jenny Uebbing is the content director of our marriage and family life channel, where her blog Mama Needs Coffee will be permanently hosted. She lives in Denver, CO with her family, where she writes and speaks on Church teachings on marriage, contraception, NFP and bioethics.

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50 shades of pain: sterile sex and the problem with porn

by Jenny Uebbing • February 10, 2015

I’ve seen dozens of articles about 50 Shades floating around the internet the past week or so, and I’ve read a handful of them. A few are worth reading, this piece, this piece, and this piece in particular.

The thing that has me scratching my head over the whole situation, the fact that a trilogy of pornographic novels have been adapted to a reportedly dismally-cast and middlingly-entertaining big screen production, is how we got here in the first place.

Not whether it’s wrong or weird or nasty to plan to take your spouse on a hot date to the movies on Valentine’s day to see Anastasia get spanked by Christian (though it is assuredly all of those things), but how it is that we have arrived at this destination, en masse, as a culture.

Let’s look at the numbers; these books have sold 100 million copies since their release in 2011. That’s some kind of record, and whatever else we can take from those numbers, we can presume that there’s definitely an audience for the stuff. And in the pornographic culture we live in, it has become perfectly acceptable to identify oneself as a paying member of that audience and synch up the Kindle for a little smut to ease the long layover or kill the time in carline.

Because you see, the overwhelming majority of that audience is female.

I’m sure plenty of guys have read 50 Shades too, but it wasn’t written for them. Romance literature (if abuse and domination can be so categorized) is the centerfold pull-out of the female demographic. It’s printed porn, spelled out in characters and punctuation marks instead of screen shots and video clips.

And there’s a growing market for smut of the feminine persuasion, because yes, it has become more socially acceptable to raise one’s hand and identify oneself as a woman who consumes porn, but also because, I think, there are a lot of sexually-unhappy ladies out there.

So why is that? Aren’t we all liberated and unshackled from the fear of pregnancy and the stigma of unmarried sex? Isn’t everyone entitled to access anything they could ever have dreamt of, in terms of the erotic, now that all bets are off and all taboos have been discarded?

And yet what we’re longing for, apparently, is something so “exciting” that in polite circles and legal terms, it is actually defined as abuse and battery?

Which leads me back to the title of this piece.

I have a pet theory about sex in the current cultural climate, and it goes like this: when a couple removes all of the mystery, all of the suspense, and all of the “riskiness” from sex, perhaps it becomes intolerably boring.

Maybe your interest in your partner fades, over time, because sex becomes merely another option in a long list of activities which can be pursued after the dishes are done.

Obviously my husband and I are in a unique and temporary season of marriage, during which time it is actually possible, when everything is functioning properly, for us to get pregnant.

On paper, that means that every time we decide to have sex, unless we’re already currently pregnant, we first have to discern whether or not we’re disposed to receive another child into the mix. Because that is always a possibility. When the answer to that question is “not right now,” we still have to enter into the act prepared that the outcome might be another diaper-wearer, even when all our calculations and observations tell us otherwise.

Translation: even when we’re in an NFP “safe zone,” scientifically-identified as a period of infertility, there’s still always a chance that we’re wrong. I might have missed an observation or miscalculated a date. Or, since I’m not God, it could happen anyway, despite our best efforts otherwise. Because I’m not the one in control of my fertility, ultimately.

I didn’t design me, and, short of a hysterectomy, I cannot 100% guarantee that I can suppress my fertility.

(An aside, that’s why “surprise” babies in contracepting couples always strike me as such an odd concept. I mean, sure, you were using condoms or taking the Pill, but did you really think that if you did the thing that makes babies, there was zero chance you might end up making one?)

Honestly, this does add a certain level of excitement/fear/wonder at the unknown to the mix.

I’m not saying it’s comparable to the, uh, thrill, I guess? of being tied up and hit, but frankly, I don’t have the time to entertain thoughts of spicing things up with whips and chains. Nor the inclination.

I wonder if couples who can have all the sex they want - as much sex as they can physically stomach, kind of like the Golden Corral of the bedroom - thanks to contraception, aren’t getting a little bored?

Is that why Christian Grey is a welcome figure in the imagination of a woman who is already being used, on some level, by her partner?

Is that why a man feels comfortable taking his girlfriend to a movie where a young woman is physically and psychologically abused by an older guy, because it’s a little thrilling to control her like that?

Maybe there’s no real correlation, but I do think it’s worth considering that porn and contraception influence each other, even if only because they are both simultaneously so prevalent.

But sex doesn’t need to be increasingly dangerous and forbidden in order to be satisfying. There isn’t some kind of pleasure threshold that only riskier and kinkier behavior can satiate; indeed, the further we drift from the Christian ideal of sex as a total gift of self, the more dissatisfied (and sexually dysfunctional) we become as a civilization.

Because at the end of the day and in the dark of the night, what we do with our bodies and to the bodies of the ones we love matters. It matters very much. And a relationship that purports to be loving but that trades in the currency of use and abuse is anything but romantic.

Jenny Uebbing is the content director of our marriage and family life channel, where her blog Mama Needs Coffee will be permanently hosted. She lives in Denver, CO with her family, where she writes and speaks on Church teachings on marriage, contraception, NFP and bioethics.

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Lourdes and beyond

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • February 11, 2015

The town of Lourdes in southwestern France is one of the world’s most frequently-visited pilgrimage sites. Its tourist industry has fared well. Every year, about five million people, of great or little faith, or of no faith, visit Lourdes. Their reasons are varied. Most seek physical healing, inner peace, conversion of heart, and if not for religious motives, then out of curiosity about the pilgrims who do make the arduous trek to the town nestled at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains.

From a French Trading Town to a World-Famous Pilgrimage Site

Over a five-month period, between February 11, 1858 and July 16, 1858, the market town of Lourdes with a population of 15,000, was transformed into a center of Catholic religious devotion that has since attracted world-wide attention. From that year on, the life of Bernadette Soubirous, a teenager whose peasant family lived in extreme poverty, was forever changed.

One Sunday after Mass, Bernadette was gathering firewood in a secluded area near her home. She narrates: “Suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the field by the side of the river, but the trees seemed quite still, and the noise was evidently not from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top of each of her feet was a pale yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads.” (Liturgy of the Hours I, Office of Readings for Saint Marie Bernadette Soubirous, 1375)

It was the first of eighteen apparitions Bernadette was to experience. A few days later, she, her sister, and some other girls returned to the grotto. She was the only one to see the vision and fell into a trance. One week later on February 18th, she said that the lady asked her to return to the grotto every day for the next two weeks. The townspeople assumed the lady to be the Virgin Mary, but Bernadette refused to give her a name other than “the lady.”

On February 24th of the next week, the lady instructed Bernadette to bathe and drink from cold, muddy water! “When I got to it,” she narrates, “I could only find a few drops, mostly mud. I cupped my hands to catch some liquid without success, and then I started to scrape the ground. I managed to find a few drops of water but only at the fourth attempt was there enough for any kind of drink” (Ibid., 1376).

On the next day, the waters began to spring up and flow, all-fresh and clean. Since then, thousands have bathed in that spring water, linked with miraculous healings.

One month later on March 24th, the lady instructed Bernadette to have a chapel built in honor of her. On the following day, March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, the lady identified herself as the Immaculate Conception after church officials had prompted Bernadette to ask the lady her name. Bernadette did not understand the meaning of the two words, Immaculate Conception, even though the Church had defined the dogma four years earlier in 1854. Today, the Church celebrates the feast of that lady, Our Lady of Lourdes.

When she was twenty-two, Bernadette Soubirous entered the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Neverre despite the fact that she suffered from asthma and other debilitating ailments. She remained there doing menial tasks until her death at thirty-five. She was canonized in 1933.

Miraculous Cures

Since pilgrimages to Lourdes began in the last half of the nineteenth century, five thousand cures are known to have taken place. Fifty-eight have been declared miraculous by Church officials though unofficially as many as seventy have been reported.

“The Song of Bernadette”

In 1944, Jennifer Jones won an Oscar for her portrayal of Bernadette Soubirous in the film, “The Song of Bernadette.” The motion picture won three other Oscars: for best picture, best music, and best cinematography. Franz Werfel directed the movie. As a Jew, he was drawn to Catholic sensibilities. Years later, he became a Catholic. Just after 1938, Werfel and his wife Alma, the widow of Gustav Mahler, had to flee Nazi Germany, and in Lourdes, they were befriended for several weeks. In this country, Werfel wrote and published a novelized version about Lourdes entitled The Song of Bernadette, which then became the motion picture.

One Dogma with Two Emphases

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. The dogma states that the Mother of God was “from the first moment of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Savior of the human race, preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

The dogma is not found explicitly in Scripture however. But among the Eastern Christian Churches, according to their own ancient traditions, they had already celebrated the same dogma on December 9th under the title: “The Maternity of Anne, the Mother of the Mother of God.” The power of God extends over the powers of this world, and where Mary is concerned, this truth is fully realized. In fact, it is emphasized because Anne and her husband Joachim had been childless into advanced age. According to a second-century record, Joachim was not permitted to offer sacrifice in the temple because he had produced no progeny. He and Anne promised to dedicate a child to God if they were blessed with one. When Anne did conceive, the fruit of her womb would be offered as a gift to God. Mary was that gift.

The following two prayers of the Christian East refer to the feast as “The Maternity of St. Anne.”

“The soul of the Virgin Mary whom God had chosen from all eternity to be the Mother in the flesh of the Incarnate Word was created full of grace and free from original sin, united to a body formed according to the laws of nature through the operation of love of her parents, Joachim and Anne.” (Troparion)

“Today the universe rejoices, for Anne has conceived the Mother of God in a manner provided by God Himself: for Anne has borne the One who is to give birth to the Word in a manner beyond all telling.” (Kontakion; Most Rev. Joseph Raya, Byzantine Daily Worship, 537) Thus, in the Eastern Churches, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord is placed in a wider biblical and genealogical context.

Mother: A Word with Multiple Levels of Meaning

We know that mothers may be described in different ways, especially by their children, for example in the film, “I Remember Mama.” Since mother is a primordial word, your mother and my mother participate in the universal understanding of motherhood.

What of the Mother of God? From the early Church, she is a constant and ubiquitous presence in liturgical worship and in devotional prayer. In the Liturgy of the Hours there is a classical prayer available for every major Hour that venerates the Mother of God.

In the Christian East, the liturgical Office of Praise of the Mother of God (Acathist Hymn) sets forth a litany of praise that exalts the mystery of the Incarnation in its fullness: the miraculous maternity and perpetual virginity of Mary. Here Mary is admired with admiration of God’s condescension, wisdom, and power in using her womb to hold and enclose the Word who took her flesh.

Mary is the softer face of God, even the feminine face of God. Poets have exalted her as the exemplar of all women, “the eternal feminine,” whether she is named Mary, Maura, Mariah, Miriam, or the Madonna.

The Mother of God has been the subject of the sculptor’s hands, the artist’s brush, the iconographer’s contemplative gaze, and the composer’s musical imagination. Women and men bear her name. Cities, towns, villages, churches, and chapels wear her name. Her image is burnished on the facades of cathedrals, homes, and walls of Italian towns. Virtually every country has claimed her for its own. Whatever her feast, whatever the country, Mary transcends all and belongs to all. Visit the lower level of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and you will see in one nation’s chapel after the other the many faces of Our Lady. Yet it is only one face, universally recognized.

Mary is the ‘second Eve,’ the Theotokos, that is, the one who bore God, the mother of Christ’s humanity, the paragon of chastity, the mater dolorosa, the mater gloriosa, the woman clothed with the sun, the queen of heaven, the daughter of Zion. Often she assumes a majestic reserve and a certain detachment as she sits on her throne, symbolizing ‘the seat of wisdom.’ As the mother of the redeemer, she was preserved from being touched by sin. She is not an inaccessible goddess but a mother, sister, or friend who stands before her son to plead for us when, like the hosts at Cana wedding, we have no more wine to give (Jn. 2:3).

Mary is that lovely rose which Bernadette describes and of which the Jesuit-poet Daniel Berrigan, S.J. writes:

“Credentials”

…

So the rose is its own credential, a certain

unattainable form: wearing its heart

visibly, it gives us heart too: bud, fulness and fall.

Time without Number, 10

Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, Brentwood, NY, holds degrees in philosophy (Ph.L), musicology (Ph.D.), theology (M.A.), and liturgical studies (Ph.D). She has taught at all levels of Catholic education and writes with a particular focus on a theology of beauty and the sacred arts. Her e-mail address is jroccasalvo@optonline.net.

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Classical intellectual pitfalls

by Alice von Hildebrand • February 11, 2015

Top of Form Bottom of Form Genesis informs us that God brought millions of creatures into existence by uttering a single word: “Be.” Having accomplished His creative work, He rested and saw that what He had created was “very good.”

There is an immense hierarchy among all the fruits of His Creation, and each one of them reflects, in its own imperfect way, the glory of God. This applies to the overwhelming beauty of the sun, the moon, the stars, planets, galaxies, but also to the tiniest little insect creeping on the earth. “Everything was very good” is a solemn declaration and expresses one of the most fundamental metaphysical truths: exemplarism. It is to Plato’s glory to have seen it, even though, inevitably limited by his ante lucem view, his perception of this key truth was incomplete and imperfect.

St. Augustine - and those following his wisdom - has shed abundant light on this. St. Bonaventure makes a crucial distinction between ‘vestigia’ (traces) of God (the whole impersonal creation) and ‘imago’: the creatures who are persons.

Aristotle makes his own important contribution by distinguishing between objects and subjects. The subject knows himself to be a “subject,” he is aware of his existence, and this enables him to know “objects” outside of himself and distinct from himself. A being which is a pure object – a tree – does not know that it is one: it just “is” and can neither know itself nor any other objects. The great Greek thinker makes it clear that subjects rank metaphysically much higher than objects, for not only are they able to know the latter, but they can also know themselves to be “subjects,” that is, to be granted the metaphysical privilege to say: “I.” The subject has a metaphysical dignity denied to pure objects and yet is itself an object to other subjects.

One of the many paradoxes of human existence is that the higher a being ranks in the metaphysical hierarchy, the lower will it fall if it chooses to “betray” the perfections given to it. The Latin words: “corruptio optimi pessima” powerfully express this truth. An animal cannot “betray” its nature: it is enslaved by it. He is exactly what it is meant to be. A tiger can be called cruel by analogy, but this cruelty is not chosen: it is rooted in its “tiger nature.” But the cruelty that men are capable of (let us think of the horrors of concentration camps), is infinitely worse, not only in its creative “refinement,” but also because it is consciously intended: finding “satisfaction” in seeing others suffer. Anyone being given the choice between facing a ravenous lion in the Colosseum or a vicious Nazi or communist would not hesitate.

It is the doubtful privilege of the male sex that, being physically stronger, men can “rape “the weak sex.” Women cannot reciprocate. It has always struck me that when males are particularly mediocre, they highly praise the size of their biceps.

The tyrant Quintianus, enraged by St. Agatha’s refusal to sacrifice her virginity to his lust, punished her by having her breasts cut off. This is a type of refinement in viciousness that animals are “incapable” of. They are endowed with remarkable instincts: zoologists will righty sing the praise of how cleverly they pursue their prey, protect themselves from danger or secure their food. These instincts, however, have strict limits and this is why man’s inventiveness will always have the last word. Once aware of the perimeter of these instincts, it is easy for men to “defeat” them. Lions cannot cage men.

Men have the gift of intelligence which together with free will, and the capacity to “love,” make them to be infinitely superior to animals, but once they “betray” these gifts, proudly choosing to trample upon them resenting their being “gifts,” – and therefore calling for gratitude – are capable of a degree of wickedness often leading to a well deserve punishment – namely – stupidity which would make monkeys laugh themselves into stitches if they could perceive it.

This leads me once again to the distinction between subject and object. To be aware that one is a subject is linked to an awareness of one’s metaphysical dignity; to be able to “know” objects is once again an impressive gift. But a subject who, for whatever reason, betrays his noble nature, will inevitably become “subjective,” which is a sort of epistemological jail man creates by choosing to wear deforming glasses, preventing one from seeing things as they are. Subjectivism is an intellectual cancer – a punishment for abusing one’s dignity as subject: through pride, one’s capacity to know others will be distorted and perverted. Once the “subject,” instead of listening reverently to the message given him by “objects,” decides what these objects should be, he will be the victim of heresies, errors, and every conceivable nonsense. This epistemological distortion can be directed toward objects but also toward subjects viewed as pure objects. It is also a key obstacle to self knowledge. This distortion is unlikely when turning to “neutral” objects for the plain reason that being incapable of arousing our feelings, they cannot tempt us to view them “subjectively,” and decide that we would like them to be. For this reason a physicist is less likely to make mistakes than a philosopher whose field is questions affecting our personal existence.

How often “geniuses” are blind toward is another genius’ talents! A very beautiful woman is not likely to praise the charm of her “rival.” (let us recall Snow White) while wearing magnifying glasses to detect the smallest imperfection in her rival’s appearance. Mothers tend to overestimate the talents and virtues of husbands and children, while denying the qualities of others – obvious as these might be. How many people will praise “their” country as being the greatest one in the world for the plain reason that they happen to be born on its soil.

The greatest danger faces us in the appraisal of oneself; how tempting it is for our fallen nature to blind ourselves toward our faults, while shedding a bright light on our virtues, or imagined virtues. This is why self knowledge is so difficult to acquire and is the reward of humility – a virtue that calls for grace.

Most amazing is the “allergic” reluctance of some thinkers to acknowledge God’s existence. Nietzsche had the “honesty” to state this in his famous book: thus spoke Zarathustra. In this work, he writes that if God existed, how could he endure not to be God Himself? Hence he feels justified in endorsing atheism: it is a choice. Period. It is a sheer waste of time and saliva to try to convince a person who has already made up his mind on a particular topic. No wise person should ever try to convince another of a truth that this person has decided to reject. “Causa finita est.” This sad fact has already been mentioned by St. Augustine: The City of God, II, 1. Indeed man’s nobility as a person - when poisoned by pride and accompanying stupidity as a well deserved punishment - will inevitably lead to errors that cannot be corrected for the plain reason that their initiator refuses to see.

The obvious conclusion is that subjects alone can be “subjective,” just as only living beings can be sick. A stone cannot catch cancer. But this does not entitle us to claim that subjects are BOUND to be subjective, and that Descartes’ falls into subjectivism in basing his Discourse on the Method on “I think (subject) there I am.” To be a “subject” is a metaphysical honor. To be subjective is an epistemological disease.

To go back to Descartes: Obviously existence must precede my knowing that I exist, but the point he wishes to make is that even though I can often be deceived by sense perceptions (nightmares, dreams, hallucinations), I cannot possibly be mistaken in thinking that I am thinking, because to be mistaken one must think. For this reason, a flower cannot flunk a test. That a subject can attain objective knowledge has been strikingly formulated by St. Augustine in his famous statement: “Si fallor, sum.” This is his remarkable refutation of radical skepticism and nihilism. He proves that “epistemological subjectivism” is a trap that can be avoided, and he gives us the joyful certainty that we can attain Truth. That Jacques and Raissa Maritain, fed on relativism taught at the Sorbonne and convinced that truth could never be found, drew the conclusion: “if there is no truth, or man can never find it, life is not worth living,” is all to their honor. They contemplated suicide. Thank God, He heard their anguished cry and placed Leon Bloy on their path. Once they found truth, they devoted the rest of their lives defending it.

Clearly this “Augustinian defense” of Descartes should not be interpreted to mean that the latter’s philosophy is flawless, which, obviously it is not.

The conclusion that can be drawn is for us is that self knowledge is extremely difficulty to attain because numerous are the epistemological hurdles barring our way, the most obvious of them being that a true knowledge of self cannot possibly be attained without humility, a virtue that keeps escaping us because he who believes he has it, loses it by this very claim. It can only be obtained by grace that is divine help and will only be fully secure in eternity. Self knowledge is the triumph of truth over subjectivism or put in other words: the perfect defeat of subjectivism. Who would dare claim that when God proclaimed that “I am who I am” (Exodus III, 14) clearly referring to his metaphysical perfection, he was falling into subjectivism?

Indeed when a subject truly knows himself, he attains perfect objectivity.

Another typical source of confusion for which Aristotle is indirectly responsible, is the one between “passivity” and “receptivity.”

”Activity” is clearly superior to “passivity,” coming from the Latin word “Patire,” to suffer. When a forester cuts off the branch of tree, the latter is purely passive: it “suffers” being cut. It is a “victim”; it is “defeated.” But Aristotle commits a very grave philosophical error in applying this truth to the relationship between the sexes. He declares the superiority of the male over the female because in the act of procreating man is “active,” whereas the woman is only “passive.” Whereas he is right in placing activity over passivity – in acting we are in control; in passivity – “patire,” we are under another’s control, I strongly challenge his claim that this applies to the difference between man and woman. Let us recall that Aristotle – in contrast to Plato -, had a passionate interest in natural sciences – all of which are concerned with matter. He wrote a treatise on the Generation of animals which is worth reading. However, comparing him with Plato, we will be struck by the fact that whereas the latter tells us explicitly that the higher is the “causa exemplaris” of the lower which is only a “copy,” this luminous truth is definitely not prominent in his “disciple” and this has serious consequences with regard to our topic: male and female; man and woman. In stating that in the act of procreation, the male is the “doer,” the female is just “acted upon,” he proclaims the superiority of the male sex. He is misled by his knowledge of zoology. The male pursues the female because he is driven by a powerful instinct over which he has no control, and will pursue her until his urge has been satisfied, that is, he has succeeded in catching her and covering her. She is “caught” and because of the male physical superiority, she cannot resist. But then what prevents us from calling procreation a form of rape? I leave it to zoologists to inform us whether the female resents being caught or whether there is a craving in her to be fecundated. At any rate, the “aspect” given us is the male pursuing her, and covering her and conquering her. The question then is legitimate: how do rape and procreation differ?. In fact do they differ? What is typical in the latter is the brutal conquest of the female dominated for the sake of the pleasure that this contact guarantees.

It is well known that little boys are born with a feeling of superiority over little girls because their reproductive organ is visible, obviously forgetting that what is precious is usually “hidden” or veiled.

I will now passionately defend the thesis that if it is true that the male superiority is valid in the animal realm, it is radically wrong when applied to “persons.” For Aristotle - this Greek “genius” (and I believe that he deserves the title) - fails to distinguish between “passivity” and “receptivity” – two concepts separated by an abyss. Yet, this distinction is crucial for our understanding of personhood. When a loving wife “unveils” herself and gives herself to her husband, she is acting freely and gives expression to her love – a desire to give oneself to the loved one, and is therefore at the antipodes of passivity. She joyously accepts the gift of his body, and reciprocates by giving him her own. It leads me to the conclusion that one of the most fundamental differences between human persons and animals is the sexual sphere. What characterizes the latter is precisely that one partner is “violated”, has nothing to say, is paralyzed by the other’s superior strength. Rape is nothing but theft, that is at the very opposite of any self donation. This is why this crime – for it deserves to be called such - is universally labelled as heinous and abominable. The day that an “advanced” society would declare rape to be perfectly acceptable is when it deserves to be blotted out of existence.

Years ago I was giving a talk in Portland, Oregon. My theme was the relationship between man and woman. After my talk, I was interviewed on Television and the anchor who was present at my talk said to me: you seem to claim that human beings are radically superior to animals. Many are those who claim that they only differ in so far as human beings have a more developed brain. How can you justify your position? Could you give me one single instance in which their fundamental difference is clearly defined? With lighting speed I said: “The sexual sphere”. The man’s amazement was amusing to observe; clearly he was convinced that he was interviewing someone who was not in her right mind, for to him, it was “obvious” that this sphere was precisely the one domain in which animals and human persons are most similar.

If a woman is “passive” - and this is widely accepted - the male sex is the superior one. I repeat: I believe it is true that boys are born with a feeling of superiority over girls and, alas, this has led to the justification of all sorts of injustices and ill treatments. In order to gain momentum the feminist movement – which has shattered our society – had to base its claims upon real facts, very much as Marxism had to justify itself by revolting injustices, but this rightful claim was only a cover up for a vicious philosophy which in fact, is a brutal attack on the beauty and nobility of femininity. Eve’s glory was to be declared “the mother of the living”. The poison of the feminist movement is to wage war on motherhood, to rupture the bond between “woman” and “life.” Hence it had to proclaim the legitimacy of contraception and if unsuccessful, abortion. If you want to kill a person, aim at his heart. If you want to destroy society and the family, aim at motherhood.

To see women as “passive” can only be endorsed by numbskulls who overlook the essential and concentrate on the accidental. She is receptive. The whole of Christianity is in fact a hymn glorifying this virtue, for it is one. It declares solemnly that the highest of all creatures – including Angels – is a woman, Mary, who became mother of the Savior by joyfully calling herself the Handmaid of the Lord, and pronouncing the words: “be it “DONE to me according to thy word.”

To attain holiness is to allow God’s grace to chisel one according to His plan: in other words to be totally “receptive” to His grace. “What do we possess what we have not received?” Everything we have is a gift, and the grateful acceptance of this gift is the way to holiness.

A feminist is, to my mind, someone who hates being a woman, who has stupidly accepted the “gospel” of Simone de Beauvoir, namely that woman is only a “becoming”; she is mere “immanence,” she is a slave; she is pure passivity; she does “nothing” (sic). To give birth is done better and more efficiently by animals. In fact maternity is slavery. As long as women are chained by this burden, they will never truly “be.” The road to liberation is socialism.

Like all talented people poisoned by revolt and pride, she is totally blind to the beauty of receptivity – a metaphysical attitude which gives birth to gratitude: a key virtue so often forgotten in decadent societies.

Teaching is in fact learning, and my long career has taught me that the very raising of certain questions condemns the very person raising them: if someone were to tell us: “Why is rape viewed as an abominable crime?” The very raising of the question is a “judgment” upon the person who has raised it and proves him to be the victim of a very grave moral sickness. Alas, years ago the question “why can’t two men get married,” would have triggered cries of horror from the masses. What is so worrisome about our society is that “any” question is now considered “worthy” to be raised. Why not? Indeed, “abyssus vocat abyssum” one stupidity opens the door to the next.

“Give me an argument against homosexual marriages.” If one were to say: the question is repulsive and should not be raised at all, it is most likely that we shall get the following answer: “You have not been able to disprove it”: “To despise is not to disprove.”

Let me repeat: “Why not?” can be a vicious trap; once we fall into it, the door is open to any moral aberration such as copulation with any mammals, torture of the innocent, and the whole gamut of abominations that “force” God to regret that he has created man. More needs not be said.

My key concern in this context is re habilitate receptivity, and show how crucial its role is in human life. In a gravely sick society like ours when moral bastions are collapsing, it might be urgent to rediscover the role that receptivity should play in human life. In fact, it should be given pride of place, but whatever human beings have achieved is to be traced back to the gifts that have enabled them to be “creative.”

Woe to those who no longer distinguish between good and evil, true and false. Isaiah warned us that a society which has blurred this distinction is doomed. (V -20)

In some way, one could also plead for the superiority of receptivity over activity because all the great “creative” accomplishments of men – be it in the intellectual sphere or in the artistic one, based on receptivity. Michel Angelo expressed this in the words: when I do “nothing” I am most creative. It is most luminous in the religious sphere where contemplation if placed above action: all great saints were totally receptive to God’s message: “Speak, O Lord, thy servant listens.”

The point I will try to make is that it is my deep set conviction that the vicious attacks made on femininity – alas coming from traitors called feminists – indicates plainly the key role that women play in the economy of redemption. The greatest victory of Satan today is to have convinced this privileged sex that in fact it is not only underprivileged but shamefully denied the role they are perfectly capable of fulfilling: to become priests. This arrogant and ridiculous claim – challenging the Divine Plan in creating two sexes – with distinct roles, reminds me of something I heard in high school while studying Roman History. Nero – one of the great historical monsters – a role model for both Stalin and Hitler, was clearly megalomaniac and one day “discovered” that to give birth was a very remarkable accomplishment. Being a male, he clearly had to acknowledge that this privilege had been denied him. In an impotent metaphysical revolt, he decided to fake giving birth. He put a cushion in his pajamas, went to bed, and started uttering pitiful cries, imitating a woman in labor. Needless to say, this vulgar comedy produced nothing … except air bubbles. When I heard that “women have been ordained as bishops and priests,” this image immediately comes to my mind. Indeed, the day that men can give birth, let women become priests … but the conclusion is obvious: a society in which the roles of man and woman are blurred is doomed.

May God have mercy.

Alice von Hildebrand is a lecturer and an author, whose works include: The Privilege of Being a Woman (2002) and The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich von Hildebrand (2000), a biography of her late husband. She was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of St. Gregory by Pope Francis in 2013.

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Banning altar girls: theologically unsound and pastorally imprudent?

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • February 13, 2015

In a January 26 statement, Fr. Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco, announced a new policy whereby altar girls at Mass would be phased out and thenceforth only boys would serve at the altar.

Fr. Illo gives both practical and theological reasons for the move: “First, in a mixed altar-server program, boys usually end up losing interest, because girls generally do a better job.”

As a long-time parish priest, this has not been my experience. Altar servers — both boys and girls — are as good as the training they receive. I have never perceived that girls do a better job, or that boys lose interest when serving with girls.

Fr. Illo states: “A boys-only program gives altar boys the space to develop their own leadership potential.” In this age of gender equality, should we really be training boys to develop leadership skills in a world apart from girls and women generally?

He goes on to say that “altar service is intrinsically tied to the priesthood and serve[s] as [a]feeder program for the seminary.” As a sacramental theologian, I would flatly state that there is no theological basis for asserting that altar service is intrinsically tied to the priesthood.

Fr. Illo continues: “Nothing awakens a desire for the priesthood like service at the altar.” I know of no studies that would back this up. In the parish in which I serve, there are three young men considering the priesthood and none were or are altar boys.

He states further: “At the risk of generalizing, I suspect young men serving with young women might just distract them from the sacrifice of the Mass, and perhaps even from a priestly vocation.” Generalizations are a tricky business, and “I suspect” is hardly an adequate basis for a pastoral policy.

Fr. Illo asserts, “If this altar boy policy bothers us, we must ask ourselves if we have not unconsciously accepted the errors of the current age; specifically that the differences between men and women have no more spiritual significance than ‘plumbing’ arrangements.” I doubt that Catholic girls and women have assumed whole-heartedly the principles of deconstructionist feminism. If they have, they wouldn’t darken the door of the church in the first place!

Fr. Illo does plan to have girls read the scriptures at Mass. Surely there is a huge contradiction here. Is there not a greater connection between priestly ministry at the altar and ministry at the ambo than there is between the ministry of the priest at the altar and the ministry of altar servers? I see no reason why Fr. Illo would not also ban girls from reading at the Mass.

And what about women serving as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion? Is not the role of handling the Body and Blood of Christ of greater dignity than washing the priest’s hands” And how does Fr. Illo regard the fact that in some parts of the world women perform baptisms, marriages, and funerals, and lead Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest?

I serve in what would be regarded as a typical Catholic parish, neither overly “liberal” nor overly “conservative.” I have no doubt that there would be an uproar if we banned altar girls, not least because girls and young adult women are often said to be the most alienated groups in the Church.

Fr. Illo’s policy is, in my opinion, lacking in theological validity and pastoral prudence — and is just plain old-fashioned. The policy will appeal to some, but not to most.

Msgr. Mannion is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Salt Lake City. He holds a Ph.D in sacramental theology from The Catholic University of America. He was founding president of The Society for Catholic Liturgy in 1995 and the founding editor of the Societys journal, Antiphon. At the invitation of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago he founded the Mundelein Liturgical Institute in 2000.

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Movie Review: ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’

by Carl Kozlowski • February 13, 2015

Due to the extreme hype, moviegoers might think that “Fifty Shades of Grey” is the only new film coming out this weekend. But there is an alternative to that twisted, overrated sex-driven flick, which any Catholic with common sense should know to avoid in the first place.

“Kingsman: The Secret Service,” a teenage James Bond-style escapade on steroids, is a British production that puts American action movies to shame. Packed with great gadgets, hilarious (but at times gruesome) action, brilliant inside-jokes about movies and clever dialogue overall, “Kingsman” could line up some surprising returns at the box office this week.

Unfortunately, while there are some truly great fun moments for adults, the filmmakers took what could have easily been a teen-friendly PG13 film and allowed frequent foul language, a couple of intense (yet humorously played) violent scenes and a brief but strong implied sex scene at the end into the movie. The most graphic fight scene occurs among a congregation in a church that is clearly modeled after the Westboro Baptist Church, the notorious pseudo-Christian cult that has for years cheered on US soldiers’ deaths at their funerals, claiming that their deaths were God’s punishment for modern society’s open attitudes toward homosexuality.

Adults who are used to intense action movies will have few if any problems with the content, but those who are easily offended by language and gouging, stabbing, kicking and fistfighting (though the worst of it is shown in ridiculously fast motion) might do well to steer clear.

The movie stars Colin Firth (“Bridget Jones’ Diary,” “Love Actually”) as you’ve never seen him before, playing a British secret agent named Harry Hart, who is also known as Galahad. In an absolutely crazy opening sequence, he takes part in a rescue attempt of a kidnapped professor, only to botch it and in turn be saved by a fellow agent code-named Lancelot.

But when Lancelot literally (yet bloodlessly) gets split in half by a sword-wielding female villain, Hart must recruit a new agent to take his place. Among the candidates is Eggsie, Lancelot’s 17-year-old son, who has grown up in the decade since his father’s death to become a thug in the making. Eggsie enters Kingsman training when he calls upon a secret number Hart gave him as a child and is bailed out after recklessly racing a stolen car backwards through the streets of London.

After a hugely entertaining series of training exercises, including perhaps the most harrowing skydive scene ever committed to film, Eggsie teams up with Hart to take on the villain du jour: Valentine, a billionaire cell-phone mogul who is clearly modeled as a black Bill Gates with the lispy voice of Mike Tyson. The fact that Valentine is played by Samuel L. Jackson, cutting loose with one of his best roles of the past 15 years, takes the movie to an almost perfect comic plane.

Valentine makes global warming his pet cause and tries to lobby the world’s leaders peacefully to do something about it. But when they don’t take the environmental crisis seriously enough, he devises an evil plan to depopulate the world by giving away free subscriber identity module (SIM) cards all over the world to everyone with a cell phone, then rigging them to control their minds.

Once these are installed in everyone’s phones, Valentine intends to wait for the perfect moment to send a signal that will drive the phone users to brutally kill everyone around them. The test run is made in a backwoods Kentucky church modeled on the Westboro Baptist Church, with the redneck congregation driven to slaughter each other in a fashion that makes the Jonestown Massacre look like a Christmas party.

I’ll leave the rest of the plot’s insanity a secret, but that church scene is going to be the red line that will potentially drive away a giant part of its potential audience in Middle America. The depiction of the mad preacher screaming about hot button issues like abortion and gay marriage is out of kilter to the rest of this otherwise comically violent and frequently foulmouthed yet undeniably charming movie. Yet even so, it’s about two minutes out of a nearly two-hour film, and much that remains after that scene goes back to being a fun romp.

In a way, that’s either the blessing or the curse of the entire film. Co-writer/director Matthew Vaughn previously made the two “Kick-Ass” movies, which also featured brilliantly inventive plots and groundbreaking action sequences, yet were kind of creepy due to the fact their heroes and villains were mostly children cussing and killing their way through life. If he would just tone them down a few notches, the movies would still be crowd pleasers while drawing far more eyes.

With Eggsie a bit older and more mature than the kids in “Kick-Ass,” and the absence of an eerily young girl heroine whose presence feels vaguely pedophilic, “Kingsman” is an easier film to enjoy.

Carl Kozlowski has been a professional film critic and essayist for the past five years at Pasadena Weekly, in addition to the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the conservative pop culture site Breitbart.coms Big Hollywood, the Christian pop culture magazine Relevant and New City newspaper in Chicago. He also writes in-depth celebrity interviews for Esquire.com and The Progressive. He is owner of the podcasting site radiotitans.com, which was named one of the Frontier Fifty in 2013 as one of the 50 best talk-radio outlets in the nation by talkers.com and will be relaunching it in January 2014 after a five-month sabbatical. He lives in Los Angeles.

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SUNDAY • FEBRUARY 15, 2015

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Lv 13:1-2, 44-46; NRSVCE)

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests.

If he is leprous, he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; the disease is on his head.

The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, “Unclean, unclean.” He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Second Reading (1 Cor 10:31 — 11:1; NRSVCE)

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Gospel Reading (Mk 1:40-45; NRSVCE)

A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

MONDAY • FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 4:1-15, 25; NRSVCE)

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.

Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, because Cain killed him.”

Gospel Reading (Mk 8:11-13; NRSVCE)

The Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 17, 2015

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10; NRSVCE)

The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created — people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

Gospel Reading (Mk 8:14-21; NRSVCE)

Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And Jesus cautioned them, saying, “Watch out — beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” They said to one another, “It is because we have no bread.” And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.” Then he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 18, 2015

Ash Wednesday

First Reading (Jl 2:12-18; NRSVCE)

Yet even now, says the Lord,

return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Return to the Lord, your God,

for he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,

and relents from punishing.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,

and leave a blessing behind him,

a grain offering and a drink offering

for the Lord, your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sanctify a fast;

call a solemn assembly;

gather the people.

Sanctify the congregation;

assemble the aged;

gather the children,

even infants at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room,

and the bride her canopy.

Between the vestibule and the altar

let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.

Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord,

and do not make your heritage a mockery,

a byword among the nations.

Why should it be said among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’”

Then the Lord became jealous for his land,

and had pity on his people.

Second Reading (2 Cor 5:20 — 6:2; NRSVCE)

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,

“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

Gospel Reading (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

THURSDAY • FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

First Reading (Dt 30:15-20; NRSVCE)

Moses said to the people, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Gospel Reading (Lk 9:22-25; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”

FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Friday after Ash Wednesday

First Reading (Is 58:1-9a; NRSVCE)

Shout out, do not hold back!

Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

Announce to my people their rebellion,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet day after day they seek me

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,

they delight to draw near to God.

“Why do we fast, but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

and oppress all your workers.

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today

will not make your voice heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose,

a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,

and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover them,

and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator shall go before you,

the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

Gospel Reading (Mt 9:14-15; NRSVCE)

Then the disciples of John came to Jesus, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 21, 2015

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

First Reading (Is 58:9b-14; NRSVCE)

If you remove the yoke from among you,

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

if you offer your food to the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

then your light shall rise in the darkness

and your gloom be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places,

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to live in.

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,

from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;

if you call the sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

if you honor it, not going your own ways,

serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;

then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;

I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Gospel Reading (Lk 5:27-32; NRSVCE)

After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”