VOLUME 1, ISSUE 9  •  FEBRUARY 28, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Ukraine, poverty, G7 discussed by Pope, German chancellor

If you are in organized crime, you are not a Christian, Pope says

To follow Christ, we must confront life’s deserts, Pope says

Pope and Curia begin annual Lenten retreat

Mystic, monk and poet – meet the newest Doctor of the Church

A brief history of spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia

Swiss Guard: We are ready to defend Pope from ISIS

Vatican retirees needn’t worry for their pensions

Vatican: Pope’s ‘Mexicanization’ comment not intended to offend

Ancient Roman pilgrimage revs-up spiritual aspect of Lent

Could Pope Francis travel to Ukraine?

This Lent, the Pope has a message for lapsed Catholics: It’s never too late

Pope Francis back from Ariccia with new seeds planted

Willy’s Story - the homeless man buried in the Vatican

The Pope’s Lent retreat: Bucking tradition or just being his Jesuit self?

Will there be an ecology department at the Roman Curia after reform?

WORLD NEWS

St. Therese of Lisieux’s ‘difficult’ sister is on the road to sainthood

Relief and gratitude after release of priest abducted in Afghanistan

For Thailand’s new cardinal, secularism is the face of the devil

Patriarch urges prayer after at least 90 Christians kidnapped in Syria

The war in Ukraine: a failure to evangelize?

A UK bishop’s plea: speak up on marriage before it’s too late

The story of a Czech priest who testified to a miracle – and was killed for it

Chinese Bible association gathers to make Scripture the heart of Church’s life

Turkish border closed as Christian hostages in Syria spike to 250

Paraguay archbishop to UN: stop pushing abortion, gay marriage

Indians rise up to defend Mother Teresa’s legacy after attack by Hindu leader

African bishops aim for observer status at African Union

Jesuit priest’s cheerful disposition kept hope alive during Afghan captivity

U.S. NEWS

Bishops push for Congress to support conscience rights in health care act

For Coptic Christians, threat of martyrdom is part of daily life

New religious freedom official: the time for action is now

How threats to religious freedom could harm unaccompanied minors

A Middle East without Christians: advocates call for action before it’s too late

A pro-life giant: remembering Dr. Willke

Faith vs. Fashion – Muslim woman spars with Abercrombie in major court case

Why a new State Department position could spell trouble for religious liberty

Oil company hit man has Archbishop Cordileone in his sights

FEATURES

Sometimes it looks like this

Jesus drinks dark roast

Stephen Fry, Job, and the Cross of Jesus

Is it really about the children?

Praying with the Psalms during Lent

Evangelization means the renewal of Catholic Institutions

Costner inspires in ‘McFarland, USA’

A Message in Blood: ISIS and the Meaning of the Cross

‘Focus’ gets it right

The annual Lenten crash and burn

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • March 1, 2015

Monday • March 2, 2015

Tuesday • March 3, 2015

Wednesday • March 4, 2015

Thursday • March 5, 2015

Friday • March 6, 2015

Saturday • March 7, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 9 • February 28, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

Ukraine, poverty, G7 discussed by Pope, German chancellor

by CNA/EWTN News • February 21, 2015

German Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to meet Pope Francis. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images News/Getty Images)

Vatican City — The ongoing crisis in Ukraine was among the topics covered by Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in their Feb. 21 meeting at the Vatican.

Merkel helped to negotiate the latest cease-fire agreement between Ukrainian government forces and Pro-Russian separatists, hoping to ease a continuing conflict that has left more than 5,000 dead.

The Pope has repeatedly called for prayer and negotiations aimed at peace in the area.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, told CNA before the meeting 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.”

The upcoming G7 Summit, at which Germany will serve as president, was also a topic of discussion. The summit will gather representatives of major industrialized nations to discuss the global economy, as well as foreign policy, security and development issues. Russia was formerly part of the group – then known as the G8 – but has been suspended over the annexation of Crimea.

Pope Francis and Merkel met in the Library Hall of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. Both spoke with the help of an interpreter, Francis in Italian and Merkel in German.

The 40-minute audience was private, and while specifics about the discussion were not released, the Vatican did say that it was a “very cordial” meeting. Other topics covered in their conversation included religious freedom, the fight against poverty and human trafficking.

During the exchange of gifts following their private meeting, Merkel gave the Pope a white envelope containing a financial donation for refugee children fleeing conflict in the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Syria, as well as a box of Bach CDs and a book.

For his part, Pope Francis gave a medal depicting St. Martin cutting off part of his cloak and giving it to a poor man, telling the chancellor, “I like to give this image to heads of state, because I think it’s their work to protect their poor.”

When Merkel replied to Francis saying that “we try to do our best,” the Pope told her “danke,” meaning thank you in German, and then gave the additional gift of his first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium.”

Merkel immediately noted that her copy of the exhortation had been translated into German. This, the Pope said in Italian, is “so you can read it,” to which the chancellor replied, “I will.”

According to Vatican sources, the chancellor herself requested today’s meeting with the Pope, in part to discuss themes surrounding the upcoming June 7-8 G7 Summit.

After arriving this morning from Via della Conciliazione, which is the main road leading up to St. Peter’s Square, Merkel and her entourage entered the Vatican through the square and under the Arch of the Bells, where the Pope himself enters and exits for his Wednesday general audiences.

Merkel was accompanied by a delegation of 14 people, including German ambassador to the Holy See Annette Schavan, German Undersecretary of State Steffen Seibert and foreign policy adviser Christoph Heusgen.

The meeting marked the third time Merkel has met with Francis since his election in 2013. A first encounter was exchanged in St. Peter’s Basilica March 19, 2013, for the occasion of the Pope’s official installation Mass as Bishop of Rome.

The two met again May 18 of that year, discussing Europe and solidarity in the context of the ongoing economic crisis.

Merkel came to Italy today specifically for her visit to the Vatican, to which was added only an encounter with the Sant’Egidio community in the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere.

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VATICAN NEWS

If you are in organized crime, you are not a Christian, Pope says

by CNA/EWTN News • February 21, 2015

Pope Francis meets with members of the Italian diocese of Cassano all’Jonio on Feb 21, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — You cannot call yourself a true believer if you participate in organized crime, Pope Francis told members of the Cassano all’Jonio diocese in Italy on Saturday.

No one, the Pope said Feb. 21, can “call themselves Christians and violate the dignity of the person; those who belong to the Christian community cannot program or carry out acts of violence against others and against the environment.”

“Jesus never invited demons to lunch, no he chased them away, because they are evil,” he said, emphasizing that Christ and evil are incompatible.

Mere external signs of devotion which are not coupled with a true and “public” conversion “are not enough to be considered in communion with Christ and His Church,” Francis stressed.

“External gestures of religiosity are not enough to credit as believers those who with the malice and arrogance typical of criminals, make lawlessness their lifestyle,” he said, calling those affiliated with criminal organizations to a conversion of heart.

Pope Francis’ words were delivered in a speech given to faithful from the southern Italian diocese of Cassano all’Jonio, who came to the Vatican to thank the Pope for his June 21 visit last year.

While celebrating Mass during his one-day trip to the region of Calabria, Pope Francis had spoken harsh words against the local mafia, known as the ‘Ndrangheta, calling them “adorers of evil” and saying that all who have chosen the “evil road, such as the mobsters, (are) not in communion with God. They are ‘excommunicated.’”

In today’s audience with Calabrian pilgrims, the Pope reaffirmed these sentiments, and once again called those involved in crime to conversion.

“Open your heart to the Lord! The Lord is waiting for you and the Church welcomes you if your willingness to serve the good is as clear and public as was your choice to serve evil,” he said.

Roughly 100 buses left Calabria this morning, bringing close to 7,000 pilgrims to the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, where they celebrated Mass with Cassano all’Jonio’s bishop, Nunzio Galantino, at 10:30 before having an audience with the Pope at noon.

In addition to his responsibilities in Cassano all’Jonio, Bishop Nunzio is also the Secretary-General of the Italian Bishop’s Conference.

Francis recalled how he met with the imprisoned, sick, elderly and religious during his previous visit to the diocese. He asked the people to pray for more vocations.

In particular, he praised the work of one group – the Emmanuel Community – for aiding young people caught in the web of drug addictions.

“Our era is in great need of hope! Young people should not be denied hope, young people need to hope; we must offer those experiencing pain and suffering concrete signs of hope,” he emphasized. “Social realities and associations, as well as individuals who work in hospitality and sharing, are generators of hope.”

“Therefore I urge your Christian communities to be protagonists of solidarity, not to stop in front of those who, out of a narrow self-interest, sow selfishness, violence and injustice. Oppose the culture of death and be witnesses to the Gospel of Life!”

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VATICAN NEWS

To follow Christ, we must confront life’s deserts, Pope says

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 22, 2015

Pope Francis gives his Wednesday general audience inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Jan. 28, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — The 40 days of Lent are a reminder that we face spiritual deserts, and we must confront them with courage and the aid of Scripture, Pope Francis said during his weekly Angelus address.

Delivering the Feb. 22 address from the papal apartments to a sizable crowd gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, the Pope’s remarks came on the first Sunday of Lent, hours before he embarked on a week-long Spiritual Exercises retreat with members of the Curia.

The pontiff began his pre-Angelus reflection by speaking on the Gospel reading of the day, in which St. Mark gives an account of Christ’s 40 days in the desert following the Baptism in the river Jordan. During this period, he recalled, Jesus was “tempted by Satan,” and “was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.”

This “voluntary test confronted by Jesus” is one from which he “emerges victoriously and which prepares him to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God,” the Pope said.

During the period in the desert, Jesus engaged in “hand-to-hand” combat with Satan, “unmasking his temptations” and being victorious against them, the Holy Father said. “Everyone has triumphed” in Jesus through this victory; however, “it is up to us to protect this victory in our daily lives.”

Lent is a time of “spiritual battle against the spirit of evil,” Pope Francis said. “And as we cross the Lenten ‘desert’, we fix our gaze toward Easter, which is Jesus’ definitive victory against Evil, against sin, and against death.”

This is the significance of the first Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father continued: “to decisively lose ourselves on the path of Jesus, the path which leads to life.”

He went on to highlight the desert as a place for listening to “God’s voice and the tempter’s voice,” which cannot otherwise be done amidst noise and confusion, in which “one only hears superficial voices.”

Since God’s voice is heard in His Word, the Pope reminded those present of the importance of reading the Scriptures daily, “because otherwise we do not know how to respond to the hidden dangers of evil.”

This desert, he continued, “helps us to say no to worldliness, to idols,” while helping us “to make courageous choices in conformity to the Gospel,” reinforcing “solidarity with our brethren.”

“Therefore, we enter into the desert without fear, because we are not alone: we are with Jesus, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit.”

In particular, Lent is a time of becoming “ever more aware of how much the Holy Spirit, (who we received) in Baptism, has worked and is able to work in us.”

Before leading the crowds in the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Francis turned to Mary, the “model of docility to the Spirit,” who “helps us to allow ourselves to be guided by Him who wishes to make each one of us a ‘new creation’.”

The Pope prayed in particular for Mary’s intercession during “this week of Spiritual exercises” in which he and members of the Curia were to take part, beginning Sunday afternoon.

He then appealed to the faithful to pray for those taking part in the Exercises, they may “listen to the voice of Jesus and correct” their many defects, and “confront the temptations” which attack them daily.

Following the recitation of the Marian prayer in Latin, Pope Francis greeted the various pilgrims from around Rome and the world, before introducing the distribution of prayer booklets to those in the square.

“Lent is a journey of conversion,” he said, adding that “our heart must be converted to the Lord.”

For this reason, Pope Francis took the first Sunday of Lent as an occasion to distribute small prayer booklets entitled “Custodisci il cuore” – “Guard your heart” – to those in Saint Peter’s Square. Each booklet, distributed by volunteers in the square, contains various tenants of the faith, including the Seven Sacraments, Ten Commandments, a list of the virtues, and the works of mercy.

The Pope said those in the square should carry with them this “richness of our doctrine,” in order “to guard the heart.”

“Humanity needs justice, peace, love,” he said, and can have it only by turning with all its heart to God, who is the source of all these things.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope and Curia begin annual Lenten retreat

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 22, 2015

Opening Session of the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican on Oct. 6, 2014. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — Pope Francis and members of the Curia set out from Rome on Sunday afternoon to begin their annual Lenten retreat.

This year’s spiritual exercises will run from Feb. 22-27 on the theme: “Servants and prophets of the living God,” according to the Jan. 30 announcement in L’Osservatore Romano.

The retreat will be guided by Fr. Bruno Secondin, Carmelite, who will focus on the prophet Elijah and the prophetic role of the Church today.

For the second consecutive year, Pope Francis wanted the Curia’s spiritual exercises to be held outside of Rome, in order to foster the spiritual retreat and to avoid the temptation to continue working.

The Pope and the Curial members will follow the five-day spiritual exercises at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, a city located some 16 miles outside of Rome.

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VATICAN NEWS

Mystic, monk and poet – meet the newest Doctor of the Church

by Kevin Jones and Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 23, 2015

St. Gregory of Narek. (Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

Vatican City — St. Gregory of Narek – a tenth century priest, monk, mystic, and poet beloved among Armenian Christians – has become the first Armenian to be named a Doctor of the Church.

“It is a great honor for the Armenian Church to contribute to this very important rank of saints who have enriched the Catholic Church with their teachings,” Armenian Catholic priest Father Thomas Garabedian told CNA Feb. 23.

“Certainly this is a big honor for us Armenian-Americans,” said Fr. Garabedian, who is chancellor of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Canada and the United States.

The Pope on Feb. 21 confirmed St. Gregory of Narek as the Church’s newest doctor during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Vatican Radio reports.

St. Gregory of Narek is known for his various poetic writings, especially a book of prayers entitled “Book of Lamentations.”

“This saint is very revered in the Armenian Church. It is not uncommon to find his book in every Armenian household throughout the Middle East and also here,” Fr. Garabedian continued.

The saint’s book laments his nature as a great sinner, said the priest, who compared him to mystics like St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

St. Gregory was born in the ancient Armenian region of Andzevatsik around the year 950, the son of an archbishop named Khosrov. His mother died when he was young, and he was educated by his cousin Anania, who founded the local monastery and school.

Ordained a priest at 25, St. Gregory began his writing career with a commentary on the “Song of Songs.”

He died in Narek in southeast Turkey around the year 1005. The monastery of Narekavank, where the saint passed most of his life, was destroyed in 1951. A mosque has since been erected in its place.

St. Gregory of Narek is venerated as a saint both in the Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is not in full communion with Rome. The Armenian Catholic Church, an Eastern Church in union with Rome, has about 1 million members.

Armenians suffered one of the first genocides of the 20th century, beginning in 1915 under the Ottoman Empire and continuing under the Turkish government which succeeded it. Over 1 million people were killed and many displaced.

Pope Francis particularly spoke about the martyrdom of Armenian Christians at a May 8, 2014 meeting with Patriarch Karekin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Pope said the “ecumenism of suffering and of the martyrdom of blood are a powerful summons to walk the long path of reconciliation between the Churches, by courageously and decisively abandoning ourselves to the working of the Holy Spirit.”

In a 2001 apostolic letter marking the 1,700th anniversary of Christianity in Armenia, St. John Paul II praised St. Gregory of Narek as one who “probed the dark depths of human desperation and glimpsed the blazing light of grace that shines even there for believers.”

Before Saturday, there were 35 Doctors of the Church recognized for their universal importance to the Catholic Church due to their great learning and sanctity. In October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named Sts. John of Avila and Hildegard von Bingen as Doctors of the Church.

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VATICAN NEWS

A brief history of spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 24, 2015

Pope Francis takes part in a penitential service at St. Peter’s Basilica, March 28, 2014. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — By gathering the members of the Roman Curia for Lenten spiritual exercises this week, Pope Francis is participating in a tradition that stretches back more than 80 years, to the pontificate of Pius XI.

The Roman Curia are on retreat Feb. 22-27 on the theme “Servants and prophets of the living God,” preached by Fr. Bruno Secondin, a Carmelite. The spiritual exercises will focus on Elijah and the Church’s prophetic role, and they are being held in Ariccia, adjacent to Albano Laziale.

The Roman Curia’s practice of spiritual exercises is modeled on St. Ignatius of Loyola’s spiritual exercises. Pius XI was a great admirer of the founder of the Society of Jesus, proclaiming him patron of spiritual exercises in 1922.

In 1929 the same Pope issued the encyclical Mens Nostra on the promotion of the spiritual exercises, in which he also made public the decision to hold annual spiritual exercises in the Vatican.

The spiritual exercises then become a fixed annual meeting for the Roman Curia. In the beginning, they were preached during the first week of Advent, and on a few occasions they were supplanted.

In 1963, Bl. Paul VI decided it was better to move the exercises to Lent, and from 1964 on the spiritual exercises have taken place in the penitential season leading to Easter.

The preacher for the spiritual exercises is selected by the Roman Pontiff, and examining the list one finds that Pius XI and Venerable Pius XII both typically chose Jesuits; and St. John XXIII designated a Jesuit, a bishop, a parish priest, and the Apostolic Preacher.

The first non-Italian preacher was Bernard Haering, a Redemptorist from Germany chosen by Bl. Paul VI. Montini was also the first to select a cardinal: Karol Wojtyla, who preached in 1976 on “Christ, a sign of contradiction.”

Since Bl. Paul VI’s pontificate, having been selected to preach to the Roman Curia has also signaled a career jump: preachers who later became cardinals include Dezza, Javierre Ortas, Pironio, Anastasio Ballestrero, Carlo Maria Martini, Lucas Moreira Neves, James Hickey, Georges Cottier, Ersilio Tonini, Jorge Medina Estevez, Tomas Spidlik, Christoph Schonborn, Francois-Xavier Nguyen van Thuan, and Angelo Comastri. And Mariano Magrassi, Bruno Forte, and Enrico dal Covolo were appointed bishops shortly after they had preached the Lenten spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia.

In 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, preached on the meaning of Lent, also discussing the way Christ was described as a character of the past by the historical-critical method of studying scripture.

Those reflections are the seed of Benedict XVI’s three-volume work Jesus of Nazareth.

Under Benedict XVI, preachers of the spiritual exercises including Cardinal Francis Arinze; Cardinal Albert Vanhoye; Cardinal Giacomo Biffi; Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi; Fr. Enrico dal Covolo; Fr. Francois-Marie Lethel; and Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya.

Last year, Pope Francis selected Fr. Angelo De Donatis, who preached on “the purification of the heart.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Swiss Guard: We are ready to defend Pope from ISIS

by CNA/EWTN News • February 24, 2015

Swearing in of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican on May 6, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — The commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard says the group of soldiers charged with protecting the Pope is on high alert and ready to act if any threat from ISIS materializes.

“We are ready to intervene. Our job is security. and as gendarmes we are well organized. We are ready if anything happens,” said Cristoph Graf.

At age 54, Graf is married with two children. Yet he and the other members of the Swiss Guard are willing to lay down their lives to protect the Holy Father.

In an interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale, published on Feb. 18, Graf responded to threats from ISIS militants, who stated in a recent video, “We will conquer Rome.”

“We have asked the guards to be on higher alert, to watch how people are moving. We can’t do more than that,” Graf said.

He also stressed the importance of information to prevent potential attacks. He referenced the Jan. 7 massacre at the headquarters of a French newspaper that had published offensive images of the Prophet Mohammed.

“What happened in Paris could happen here and it cannot be prevented without intelligence based on accurate information,” he said.

Reflecting on his own appointment as commander of the Swiss Guard, Graf said, “The Pope asked me if I was willing and I could have said ‘no.’ But I think this is a mission and I answered ‘yes,’ because I see this as the Lord’s work. I know there are several crosses to carry but I trust in God’s help.”

Asked if the Holy Father is afraid, he replied, “I don’t think the Pope is afraid of anything … Anything can happen but you can see that he is not afraid.”

Commenting on the future of the Swiss Guard, the commander said that there may be difficulty in recruiting new members, but that it will ultimately “depend on the situation of the Church and the faith, and on the issue of the low birth rate.”

The Swiss Guard was established by Pope Julius II in 1506.

Its first real test came on May 6, 1527, during the sack of Rome, when 147 Swiss Guards died fighting against the troops of Emperor Carlos V to allow Pope Clement to escape. The few dozen guards that survived escorted the Holy Father to safety.

In memory of that day, new Swiss Guards are sworn in on May 6 each year, taking an oath to defend the Roman Pontiff with their very lives.

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican retirees needn’t worry for their pensions

by CNA/EWTN News • February 25, 2015

The facade of St. Peter’s Basilica, as seen from the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — Thanks to a two-year increase to retirement age and other financial interventions, the Vatican’s pension fund is consistent and the the funding ratio of the pension fund is 95 percent, the Holy See stated Feb. 20.

The release was issued “since for some months, and amplified by press reports, alarming data has been circulating regarding the situation of the Vatican Pensions Fund and on the sustainability of honouring the commitments undertaken towards present and future subscribers,” and was meant to clarify the data.

Italy has seen a frenzy over the situation of the pension fund, which led to several speculations about a possible risk of default for the fund – this is why the pension fund has deemed it opportune to take an official stance on the state of its finances.

The pension fund underscored there is “substantial balance between the resources available and the delivery toward current and future retired persons.”

This balance was achieved thanks to an increase in contributions – an “increase of rates throughout the years up to the current rate of 26% on the total of taxable income” – and to the two-year increase of the age limit, so that now the retirement age is 67 years old for lay employees, and 72 for clerics and religious employees.

Both of these changes were “approved by the Secretary of State following proposals by the Managing Board.”

Regarding the financial resources, the pension fund stated that “financial resources have progressively increased,” such that “the fund is sound and consistent.”

“From a strictly income-based perspective, the economic and financial situation of the institution records a gradual increase of financial and real estate resources both in terms of capital resources which, from 1993 to 2013 increased on average from 22,256,196 euros per year, and in terms of the upward trend in net profit, which during the last 6 years has passed from 23,583,882 to 26,866,657 euros, sums sufficient to cover the current costs of pensions.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican: Pope’s ‘Mexicanization’ comment not intended to offend

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 25, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Nov. 5, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — The Vatican on Wednesday issued a statement clarifying a private comment made by Pope Francis to a friend warning that his native Argentina was in danger of a “Mexicanization” by drug traffickers.

“The Pope did not in any way intend to offend the Mexican population, for whom he holds special affection, nor to underestimate the commitment of the Mexican government in its fight against narco-trafficking,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi told journalists in a statement.

Controversy broke out in Mexico following the publication of the Pope’s comments, which prompted a protest from Mexican citizens, who claimed that Francis was stigmatizing the country and being dismissive of government efforts to dismantle drug cartels.

Pope Francis had originally made his remarks in a “strictly private and informal” email to his Argentinian friend Gustavo Vera, in which he voiced concern surrounding the increase in drug activity in Argentina.

In the email, Francis told Vera that “I hope we (in Argentina) can avoid Mexicanization. I have spoken with Mexican bishops and it is a terrifying reality,” according to news reports.

Fr. Lombardi noted in his declaration that Vera is “deeply involved in the battle against drug abuse,” and had used the phrase himself. Vera also heads a non-governmental organization called “Alameda,” which is dedicated to fighting drug trafficking and organized crime.

The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a Feb. 24 note to Mexico’s ambassador to the Holy See, Mariano Palacios Alcocer, clarifying the Pope’s use of the term, which was not meant to offend or provoke.

The note makes it evident that “the Pope intended only to emphasize the seriousness of the phenomenon of the drug trafficking that afflicts Mexico and other countries in Latin America,” Fr. Lombardi said.

The severity of the problem is what has made the fight against drug trafficking a key priority for the Mexican government, who are working to “combat violence and restore peace and serenity” to Mexican families by going to the roots of the problem, he said.

Mexico has been plagued by drug violence for years, and cartels have extended their reach to other countries throughout the world.

Last September, 43 college students in Mexico disappeared while on their way to a protest, and are believed to have been killed by a drug gang after being handed over to them by corrupt police officials.

The college students’ disappearance prompted national rioting and major protests, with citizens calling for an end to the violence entrenching the nation and stronger policies for fighting drug trafficking.

Mexico’s bishops also issued a statement following the tragedy, in which they said that “enough is enough!” as far as the incessant violence goes, and encouraged citizens to help build a society rooted in justice.

In June of last year, Pope Francis accepted an invitation from Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto to visit the country, although the dates of the trip are still unknown.

After his 25 minute meeting with the Pope June 7, during which the Pope conceded to the visit, President Peña Nieto said that Francis has “a special affection for the Mexican people,” and expressed hope that the visit would come soon.

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VATICAN NEWS

Ancient Roman pilgrimage revs-up spiritual aspect of Lent

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 25, 2015

(coloneljohnbritt via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — For pilgrims in Rome, Ash Wednesday marked not only the start of the Church’s Lenten season, but also a traditional Lenten pilgrimage that helps offer a more spiritual outlook on the journey toward Easter.

“It’s incredible. It’s an experience I never thought I would be able to have. It’s still hard to believe – I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not just back in the states, I’m not just going to a normal Mass. It’s in Rome and it’s a pilgrimage,” Sarah Maslow told CNA Feb. 18.

Maslow is originally from Burnsville, Minn., and is studying in Rome for a semester with the University of St. Mary. Like hundreds of others, she traveled to the Roman Church of Santa Sabina at 6:45 a.m. on Ash Wednesday for this year’s first Mass in the Station Church pilgrimage.

Organized by the Pontifical North American College, the Station Churches are part of an ancient custom dating back to the late second or early third century as a means of strengthening the Christian community while honoring the Roman martyrs after the legalization of Christianity in 313 A.D.

Faithful would journey through the streets of the city and visit various churches as they walked, praying the Litany of the Saints along the way. The Pope would participate, leading the group in prayer and celebrating Mass.

The seminarians at the NAC help keep the tradition alive today with the Station Churches pilgrimage, during which pilgrims are invited to travel to a different Roman parish for prayer and the celebration of Mass each of the 40 days of the Lenten season, excluding Sundays and the Easter Triduum.

Leon Griesbach, who serves as the North American College’s music director and organist, led the choir for the Ash Wednesday Mass, which took place at the minor basilica of Santa Sabina. Pope Francis himself celebrated Mass at the church later that day.

To participate in the event is “incredible,” Griesbach said, especially given the historical significance of both the event itself, and the parishes they visit, which often contain the bodies of saints.

“You just feel like a part of the tradition … its special. I have to keep pinching myself whenever I find myself in places like this,” he said.

“It’s such an honor to be in the same city as the Holy Father and to have access to him in the liturgies here. And to know that he’ll be treading on the same ground here later today underlines what it means for this pilgrimage and for the church.”

Griesbach and his family, who have lived in Rome for several years, have added morning and evening prayer from the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours to their daily devotions.

In addition, Griesbach said that he personally will be reading the Rule of St. Benedict and will try to be strict with fast days “if I can manage it.” He jested that “it’s always a work in progress.”

For Fr. James Platania, the pilgrimage also serves as a strong moment of community which provides the opportunity “to in a sense ‘spiritualize’ or make holy the city.”

Originally from Paterson, N.J., Fr. Platania grew up in Vernon and is currently studying Sacred Scriptures at the Biblical Institute. A former seminarian of the North American College, he is now stationed at Rome’s college of Santa Maria.

“There’s a real communal aspect to the whole experience (of the pilgrimage), which is walking with the brothers of the house to the site and then praying, celebrating Mass and then returning in a prayerful spirit,” he said.

A big part of his own Lenten sacrifice involves his commitment to participating in the ancient pilgrimage, which involves rising around 5 a.m. and making the walk to the day’s church with his community while praying the rosary.

By doing this, in addition to practicing acts of charity, “the penitential practice doesn’t just become a routine of just a rigorism, but something that gives life to others,” the priest noted.

Daniel Sedlacek, the student leader of the pilgrimage and a third year seminarian at the North American College, said the event serves as not only a means of prayer, but also of preparation for Easter.

“When you’re in Rome you have to prepare yourself for pretty much anything. But for the most part, the biggest preparation is the preparation toward the Easter Triduum, the spiritual preparation, which is what Lent is all about,” he said.

Lent is a time when the Church journeys together toward the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Sedlacek noted, explaining that he is seeking to assist people along this path in any way that he can.

His own Lenten journey involves not only making extra time for personal prayer, but also journaling, so that each day he can write down the “graces and things to be grateful for each day during this Lenten pilgrimage.”

Alan Holdren contributed to this piece.

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VATICAN NEWS

Could Pope Francis travel to Ukraine?

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer, Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 26, 2015

During the 2014 protests in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, protestors prayed in tent-chapels set up in the square. (Jakub Szymczuk/GOSC NIEDZIELNY/Aid to the Church in Need)

Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has sent a letter inviting Pope Francis to visit Ukraine, though the Vatican diplomacy has not yet responded, Ukraine’s Embassy to the Holy See told CNA on Wednesday.

The embassy forwarded the letter to the Vatican Secretariat of State Feb. 18, two days before the ad limina meeting of Ukrainian bishops with Pope Francis.

Bishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Vladimir the Great of Paris told Radio Liberty Feb. 25 he was aware of the letter, and that the Pope had a “positive reaction” to it.

On the other hand, diplomatic sources warned CNA Feb. 25 there would still be a long way to go before a papal trip to Ukraine could effectively take place.

According to the source, neither security nor relations with the Russian Orthodox Church would slow down the organization of the trip, but that the trip itself should be carefully managed, which would take time.

“When John Paul II visited Ukraine in 2001, he spent five days in the country, and it was considered a rush. Pope Francis’ visit would last at least three days, between Kyiv, Lviv and perhaps another city,” the source maintained.

Should the Pope give a positive response to the invitation, one possibility is that a papal trip to Ukraine could be an adjunct to his 2016 visit to Poland for World Youth Day.

A papal visit to Ukraine would represent a hope for the country, according to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk said in a press conference Feb. 23 he had invited the Pope to visit Ukraine, saying such a visit would “bring peace to that part of Eastern Europe soaked with the blood of so many martyrs for the unity of the Church.”

During the press conference, Major Archbishop Shevchuk also pointed out that Ukraine is “victim of a foreign aggression,” and that “the Ukrainian people feel hurt when the Holy See uses expressions that seemingly come from the Russian propaganda.”

Major Archbishop Shevchuk referred to Pope Francis ‘off the cuff’ words at the Feb. 4 General Audience, during which he referred to the conflict in Ukraine as “fratricidal violence.”

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, later explained that 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.”

In the official speech delivered to Ukrainian Bishops Feb. 20, Pope Francis no longer mentioned “fratricidal violence,” though on the other hand there was no mention either of a ‘foreign aggression’ or Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk commented that the Pope “had spoken of the respect of the international law, and asked for respect of the integrity of Ukrainian territory,” and made it understood that this was enough to him.

On the other hand, he also urged a “humanitarian action in the country to help refugees.”

Major Archbishop Shevchuk stressed that “UN official data estimates 1 million displaced persons, but non-official data estimates that the amount of people escaping from Crimea and Donbas may be double that, including 140,000 children.

The Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said religious freedom is lacking in Russian-administered Crimea, and areas of Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists: “Muslim Tartars of Crimea had to escape because they were persecuted; Jewish people in Donetsk had to leave the Donbas or were obliged to register themselves as Jewish and to pay a tax; and in Crimea five parishes were requested to renew by March 1 an authorization to stay in the territory, with the risk that the request may be rejected.”

Major Archbishop Shevchuk said the Pope told the Ukrainian bishops: “The Holy See supports you, also on the international stage, to articulate your rights, your concerns, and the evangelical values that motivate you.” And he reportedly added: “I am at your side, I am at your service.”

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VATICAN NEWS

This Lent, the Pope has a message for lapsed Catholics: It’s never too late

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Dec. 3, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Rome, Italy — Fallen away Catholics are being invited to “come home” this Lent through a worldwide initiative led by Pope Francis, which points to confession as a primary way to experience God’s merciful embrace.

“So often, people are afraid to come back to church or to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for they feel that, since they have been gone for so long, there is no way back,” said Father Geno Sylva, English language official for the Vatican’s New Evangelization council.

“This initiative is to let people know that it is never too late and there is always a way back,” he told CNA.

“24 Hours for the Lord” is a yearly event set for the fourth Friday and Saturday of Lent which began in 2014 under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

Taking place on Mar. 13-14, this year’s theme is “God rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4) which, Fr. Sylva observed, “is such an important theme of our Holy Father.”

In his 2015 message for Lent, Pope Francis expressed his hope that the Church, “also at the diocesan level,” would observe 24-hour initiative, saying it “is meant to be a sign of this need for prayer.”

The event will begin on the evening of the fourth Friday of Lent with a penance service presided over by Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Following the service in the Vatican, Churches throughout Rome will remain open for 24 hours to give pilgrims the opportunity to go to Confession and take part in Eucharistic Adoration.

Fr. Sylva recalled one of the iconic images of Pope Francis during the 2014 penance service for “24 Hours for the Lord,” in which the Pope surprised one of the priests by approaching him for confession before hearing confessions himself.

“There’s something to be said for joining with our Holy Father, joining as a universal Church, in such a prayer experience,” Fr. Sylva said.

He then told of his own experience in 2014 hearing confessions at the church of Saint Agnes in Agony, one of three churches in open Rome throughout the night.

“It was so incredibly moving and inspiring just how many people had come back to the sacrament for the first time many decades,” he said. “When I asked them why they came back, so many of them said they came back because Pope Francis had invited and asked them to. And he had indeed during the Angelus the Sunday before.”

The inspiration for “24 Hours for Prayer” came from the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization, during which the question of placing”the sacrament of reconciliation once again at the center of pastoral life” came to the surface, Fr. Sylva explained.

While parishes in Rome will be open overnight, Churches elsewhere are invited to adapt the initiative to their local situations and needs. Acknowledging that “every parish has a different history and unique culture,” Fr. Sylva said, “The pastor and the community are simply to invite people to come home.”

For those taking part in this year’s event in Rome or elsewhere in the world, especially those who have been away from the Sacraments for a long time, organizers have prepared pastoral aids in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Polish. The English edition can be purchased at the Catholic Publishing Company and is available worldwide.

“There are many different moments and steps in the new evangelization,” Fr. Geno said. “The 24 Hours for the Lord allows the Church the opportunity to demonstrate the great harmony of these moments: We invite, we welcome, we catechize and God forgives.”

Additional information on the “24 Hours for Prayer” can be found at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization’s website, novaevangelizatio.va.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis back from Ariccia with new seeds planted

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

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

Rome, Italy — After a weeklong spiritual retreat outside of Rome, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude to the priest who led the reflections, saying that although it’s not always easy to preach to priests, seeds have been planted.

“On behalf of all of us, I too would like to thank the father for his work among us during the spiritual exercises,” Francis said after his return to Rome Feb. 27.

“It’s not easy to give exercises to priests, right? We’re a bit complicated, all of us, but you succeeded in sowing seeds,” he said, and prayed that these seeds would continue to grow.

Francis’ words were directed to Carmelite priest Fr. Bruno Secondin, who preached on the theme “Servants and prophets of the living God” during the Roman Curia’s Feb. 22-27 Lenten retreat.

This year’s spiritual exercises focused on the figure of Elijah and the Church’s prophetic role. They are were held in the Casa Divin Maestro center in Ariccia, Italy, which is adjacent to Albano Laziale and sits roughly 16 miles outside of Rome.

It is the second consecutive year in which Pope Francis wanted the Curia’s spiritual exercises to be held outside of the Vatican, in order to foster the spiritual aspect of the retreat and avoid the temptation to continue working.

The Roman Curia’s practice of spiritual exercises is modeled on St. Ignatius of Loyola’s spiritual exercises. Pius XI was a great admirer of the founder of the Society of Jesus, proclaiming him patron of spiritual exercises in 1922.

In 1929 the same Pope issued the encyclical Mens Nostra on the promotion of the spiritual exercises, in which he also made public the decision to hold annual spiritual exercises in the Vatican.

Since then the spiritual exercises have become a fixed annual meeting for the Roman Curia.

Originally preached during the first week of Advent, the exercises were moved to the Lenten season by Bl. Paul VI in 1964, and have taken place the penitential season leading to Easter ever since.

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VATICAN NEWS

Willy’s Story - the homeless man buried in the Vatican

by Angela Ambrogetti (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

Willy Herteleer around 2010, still beardless and with glasses. (Paul Badde/CNA)

Vatican City — Willy Herteleer, a homeless man who lived on the side streets outside St. Peter’s Basilica, made headlines after his death, when he received a special burial in the Vatican’s Teutonic Cemetery. The following is an account of his story as told by Msgr. Amerigo Ciani, a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica and painter who had become friends with Willy.

Everyone in the neighborhood outside the Vatican knew Willy Herteleer.

The “Borgo” – as the area that borders St. Peter’s Square to the north is called – has a small-town-feel. Alongside the monsignors, sisters, cardinals and Romans that live in the neighborhood, there are many homeless people. You can see them every morning at Mass at the Pontifical Parish of Sant’Anna, just off the Borgo inside the Vatican walls.

Willy was one of them.

His austere appearance, the cross around his neck and the pull-cart he had turned into a piece of luggage to carry everything he owned left an imprint.

He participated in Mass every morning. “My medicine is Communion,” he always said. He was always well-groomed, but didn’t seek much conventional medical attention.

Willy was one of the many men and women who live on the side streets around St. Peter’s, men and women who live on the margins of the tourist routes, who have friends throughout the neighborhood.

Among his closest friends were an Italian monsignor, an American religious sister and a German journalist.

More than 80 years old, Willy died one day in December at the hospital near the Vatican where he would often visit to use the bathroom or clean up a bit.

He had to look good because his days were spent as a street evangelizer. After morning Mass, he would stop for a while and speak with the people.

“When did you last go to confession?” he would ask everyone he met. “Are you going to communion? Do you go to Mass?”

He asked the same of other homeless people, those with whom he chose to live.

For a time he lived in a shelter. “Yes, it’s nice, welcoming and clean. Yes, you eat well and the people are nice,” he told people. “But I need freedom. I love freedom!”

He preferred his friends. He preferred the streets. He preferred the monsignor that brought him oranges, the journalist that took his photo.

After Mass, he would speak with his friend Msgr. Amerigo Ciani. “Thanks for your homily pronounced so calmly. I understand it well and it helps me to meditate throughout the day,” he said.

On Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis was celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica when Willy left his earthly life. His friends began to search for him when he did not show up to the usual morning Mass later that week.

One of them, a German named Paul Badde, had only recently become a confrere in the Confraternity of the Camposanto of the Teutons and Flemish, a small cemetery in the Vatican. He proposed that Willy – who was Flemish – be buried there, among the “confreres.”

The confraternity is made up of priests and men and women of German descent. German priests reside on campus, in a residence just next to the cemetery. It is all contained all within the Vatican walls, but is autonomous and independent – a little piece of Germany.

The cemetery dates back to the times of Charlemagne, who gave the piece of land next to St. Peter’s Basilica as a burial plot for pilgrims from German and Flemish lands who perished on their journey.

Willy’s friends organized everything, obtaining the necessary permission from the Vatican, Italy and Belgium, where Willy began his life. They made contact with his family – his four children whom he had not seen for decades.

Fr. Hans-Peter Fischer, rector of the Camposanto Teutonico, celebrated his funeral Mass, along with Msgr. Ciani. Some of Willy’s friends were present, including Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist Sr. Judith Zoebelein.

“Although he was alone, he didn’t feel alone,” said Msgr. Ciani in the homily. “The presence of God was strong and alive within him. He prayed and prayed. He prayed for the conversion of everyone, even for strangers to repent.”

And, that’s how Willy’s story on earth finishes, with a tomb in the Vatican’s cemetery, surrounded by the affection of those who were close to him in life.

His was a life lived in the margins, but a life full of love.

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VATICAN NEWS

The Pope’s Lent retreat: Bucking tradition or just being his Jesuit self?

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Nov. 5, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — While Pope Francis has altered the custom of his predecessors by leaving the Vatican for his yearly Lenten retreat, one priest tells CNA the pontiff is merely being true to his Jesuit roots.

“This is what Jesuits do,” said Fr. Joseph Carola, S.J., theology professor at Rome’s Gregorian University in a Feb. 26 interview.

“That’s very Jesuit of the Holy Father to choose to go somewhere else, somewhere where he doesn’t live normally, to make the exercises. It’s very much in keeping with our own tradition.”

The practice of going to a private location for retreat, away “from all friends and acquaintances, and from all worldly cares,” is “a very important thing for Jesuits,” he said.

“The retreatant usually goes away to a secluded place and spends these days in silence and in prayer, praying often five hours a day, with the meditations of the exercises themselves.”

Pope Francis and members of the Curia have just concluded a five-day spiritual exercises retreat at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, a city located some 16 miles outside of Rome.

This year’s retreat, which ran from Feb. 22-27, was led by Carmalite priest, Father Bruno Secondin, on the theme: “Servants and prophets of the living God,” according to the Jan. 30 announcement in L’Osservatore Romano. Fr. Secondin was recently appointed consultor to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life.

“We typically don’t make our retreat in our own homes,” Fr. Carola said. Reading from a leather-bound copy of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius with the Jesuit insignia embossed on the cover, he continued saying the retreatant “can leave the house in which he dwelt and choose another house or room in order to live there in as greatest privacy as possible.”

The Casa Divin Maestro is an ideal location for this sort of retreat, he said. Located on Lake Albano, a short way from the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, it is “a very beautiful place.”

“It’s there that he can be separated from all the mundane concerns that he has to deal with regularly, and all of the appointments and everything else that might distract him, and enter into greater solitude,” Fr. Carola said. “There the soul can be more intimately united with our Lord in prayer.”

Managed by the Pauline community, the house is “extremely clean, kept very warm during the winter, and has beautiful gardens, a rosary walk, a Via Crucis,” with “a commanding view of the lake,” he said.

This is the second consecutive year the Pope and Curial members have held their Lenten retreat at the house in Ariccia. While the practice of the pontiff going on retreat with the heads of Vatican dicasteries each Lent began some 80 years ago under the pontificate of Paul XI, it was customary for them to follow the spiritual exercises on Vatican ground. Beginning Lent 2014, Pope Francis chose to hold the retreat outside of Rome, true to his Jesuitical background.

“It’s important to pray together with the people with whom you work,” Fr. Carola said, remarking on the Pope’s practice of going on retreat alongside Curial heads. “The Holy Father wants to take his closest collaborators with him to be united in prayer before the Lord.”

Aside from holding the retreat outside of Rome rather than in the Vatican, however, Fr. Carola stresses that there is nothing new about this week. “John Paul II, Benedict XVI, they would invite a retreat master in, and he would preach in the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the papal palace,” he said.

“It’s a very important time to be united in prayer, not simply to be working all the time together, but to pray together so as to grow closer in the Lord and hopefully, through the graces received, to be able to serve the Church that much better.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Will there be an ecology department at the Roman Curia after reform?

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 28, 2015

(CC0 1.0)

Vatican City — An upcoming presentation of a Vatican-sponsored Pan-Amazonia Network may shed light on how a possible curial office for human ecology would work, if curial reform is shaped as it was presented at the Feb. 12 consistory.

The Ecclesial Network of the Pan-Amazonia was established Sep. 9-12 in Brazil with the aim of fostering a new approach to climate, and will be presented in the Vatican March 2.

The network involves the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Caritas Pan-Amazonia, the Department of Social Justice of the Latin American Bishops Conferences, the Bishops Commission for Amazonia, as well as several other realities committed to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest.

While the network was born with a regional purpose, its aim is in fact global, and so observers from Europe, Asia, and Africa have been called to take part in the network.

A source who works in the Vatican explained to CNA Feb. 27 that “real innovation is that the network wants to involve more developed countries not in order to provide funds – as has been done before – but in order to pursue a real collaboration, and to make the developed countries more aware of the issue of climate change.”

It is in the end “a global call for global responsibility,” and the network is an example of “how the Church works,” the source maintained.

This kind of approach will likely be fostered in a new department for Human Ecology that should be established within the Vatican ranks.

During the Feb. 12-13 consistory, Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, coordinator of the Council of Cardinals, outlined a possible curial reform through the establishment of two super-congregations: Charity, Justice and Peace; and Laity, Family and Life.

At least six pontifical councils would merge in the two super-congregations, and each of them would be composed of five secretariats. One of the secretariats within the Congregation for Charity, Justice and Peace may be that for “Human Ecology.”

The director of the Holy See press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, stressed in a media briefing Feb. 13 that human ecology deals with the idea that social and political environments can be deadly for the human person and for human dignity.

The phrase ‘human ecology’ was coined by Benedict XVI, but the notion has been pivotal in the last 50 years of the Church’s social teaching.

Bl. Paul VI, in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, linked heavy consumption to injustice, declaring that “no one may appropriate surplus goods solely for his own private use when others lacks the bare necessities of life … The earth belongs to everyone, not the rich”.

St. John Paul II added a spiritual dimension in his encyclical Centesimus Annus, criticizing “a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards having rather than being”, and urged people to “create life-styles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of the creation.”

Benedict took over this approach, and indissolubly linked care for the creation to care for the human being, so much that the theme of his 2010 World Day of Peace was “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.”

According to a source that has advised in the drafting of Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology, this approach has been also taken over the encyclical, and Pope Francis “was very happy with that.”

Pope Francis has said he intends to finalize his encyclical on ecology in March.

During an in-flight press conference in January, Pope Francis indicated the encyclical’s first draft had been prepared by Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The Pope then worked on it, and it was sent to theologians, the Secretariat of State, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The encyclical will likely provide a background to the new department for human ecology, while its actions and goals may be shaped on the model of the Pan-Amazonia Network that will be presented in the Vatican next week.

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WORLD NEWS

St. Therese of Lisieux’s ‘difficult’ sister is on the road to sainthood

by Marta Jimenez (CNA/EWTN News) • February 21, 2015

St. Therese of Lisieux and her sister Leonia Guerin. (Public domain images)

Rome, Italy — The “difficult” sister of St. Therese of Lisieux is on the road to sainthood, a reminder – according to her postulator – that holiness is a calling for all people.

Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger of Bayeux-Lisieux in France recently announced his intention to open Leonia Martin’s cause of beatification and canonization.

Leonia was the third daughter of Blessed Louis and Zelia Martin, the married couple beatified on October 19, 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI. She was also the sister of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who is a Doctor of the Church and the patroness of missions.

While Leonia eventually joined the Order of the Visitation, as a girl she was fragile, insecure and introverted. She was difficult to her parents on more than one occasion and struggled to live her vocation to the religious life.

In statements to CNA, Carmelite Father Antonio Sangalli, Leonia’s postulator, said that “although she was expelled three times from the convent, she achieved her goal of becoming a religious, which shows that if we persevere, it is possible to do God’s will.”

“Leonia’s difficulties were primarily due to her order’s strict rules, which were very difficult to follow in those times. However, this did not lead her to bury the one talent she received and that she used fruitfully to fully live out her vocation,” he said.

Leonia’s cause is currently in the initial phase of gathering all the historical documents related to her life. Before it is officially opened, the Bishop of Bayeus-Lisieux must receive the nihil obstat, the official approval of the Catholic Church from the moral and doctrinal point of view granted by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

“The train has departed and is heading towards Rome,” Fr. Sangalli said.

He noted that Leonia is already revered for her holiness and that her crypt at the Monastery of the Visitation in Caen, France, is frequently visited by pilgrims from all over the world.

“They come to pray. They ask her for favors and they find spiritual help in her. Their faith is strengthened by the example of this humble sister of the Visitation, and many letters testify to graces received,” the priest said.

Leonia, who took the name Sister Francisca Teresa, also suffered from physical problems as a child.

“She did not have the human qualities of her other sisters, but she knew how to abandon herself to God, who calls us all regardless of our qualities. No one is excluded from the call to holiness,” Fr. Sangalli said.

She also had a close relationship with St. Therese, and the two often exchanged letters. After her saintly sister died, Leonia decided to try to enter the convent again, following the “little way” traced out by St. Therese, with trust and abandonment to God.

Fr. Sangalli said Leonia ultimately was admitted to the convent, which “shows that Therese’s doctrine is not only meant for the Carmelites but for everyone … with the little way, Leonia became a greater sister of the Visitation, always remaining in the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales and St. Frances de Chantal, the founders of the Order of the Visitation.”

Leonia died on June 17, 1941 at the age of 78 at the monastery where she lived. Her tomb has become a refuge for parents concerned about raising their children, who find in her an example and an inspiration.

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WORLD NEWS

Relief and gratitude after release of priest abducted in Afghanistan

by CNA/EWTN News • February 23, 2015

Fr. Alexis Prem Kumar, SJ. (Jesuit Refugee Service)

Kabul, Afghanistan — Friends and colleagues have pledged their support for a Jesuit priest released after eight months of captivity in Afghanistan, where he had been working to help refugees.

“You cannot imagine our relief that he is now home, safe and sound,” Father Peter Balleis, S.J., international director of the Rome-based Jesuit Refugee Services, said Feb. 22.

“We are aware of the tireless efforts at many levels to achieve his release and we are grateful for the consolation we have received from the prayerful support of countless friends – including those of the school children from the school where he was kidnapped.”

Fr. Alexis Prem Kumar, S.J., was the Afghanistan director for Jesuit Refugee Services at the time of his abduction by unidentified men in June 2, 2014. Some reports identified the men as Taliban militants.

The priest had been accompanying teachers on a visit to a school for refugees in the village of Sohadat, some 500 miles west of Kabul.

The government of India helped secure the 47-year-old priest’s release, the Times of India reports.

India’s prime minister Narenda Modi said on Twitter he was “delighted” at securing the priest’s freedom. He said he spoke to the priest’s father and his “happy family.”

“I am thankful to God that my brother is safe, and is returning,” Fr. Prem’s brother John said, according to the India Express.

The priest has returned to India.

His colleagues at Jesuit Relief Services responded with gratitude.

“All of us will do whatever we can to ensure that Prem receives the necessary attention and support from his family, his Jesuit brothers in the Society of Jesus, and his many friends and colleagues in JRS,” said Fr. Stan Fernandes, the agency’s regional director in South Asia.

Fr. Kumar has been in Afghanistan since 2011. He is from the southern India state of Tamil Nadu, where he previously worked with Sri Lankan refugees, indigenous people and Dalits.

Jesuit Relief Services has been in Afghanistan since 2005. The agency is working to help displaced persons and their host communities through education and life skills training.

“We were close to the Afghan people before the abduction of Fr Prem and we will continue to accompany them in any way we can,” Fr. Fernandes added.

The relief agency is active in almost 50 countries, serving about 950,000 people.

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For Thailand’s new cardinal, secularism is the face of the devil

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 23, 2015

Cardinal Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok speaks with CNA Feb. 20, 2015. (Andreas Dueren/CNA)

Bangkok, Thailand — The main challenge facing the Church today is secularism, according to Cardinal Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok, who boldly called the phenomenon the devil’s face in the modern world.

“It is not just a challenge for the Asian Churches … all the world is facing the challenge of secularism,” Cardinal Kriengsak told CNA Feb. 20.

“Secularism is the new way the devil presents himself in the modern world,” adding that the devilish force takes an attractive appearance, rather than a grotesque one: “it seems to people that secularism is a nice devil, not a terrible one.”

The new Thai cardinal conceded that “there are good things in modern culture,” but on the other hand “people are too easily following the wave of secularism … and this does not take place just in Asia, and secularism does not affect only Catholics.”

Cardinal Kriengsak was born in Ban Rak, Thailand, in 1949, and attended St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Sampran, then the Pontifical Urban University in Rome.

He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Bangkok in 1976, and served in several parishes. He has also served as rector or vice-rector of several Thai seminaries, as well as a professor.

In 2007 he was consecrated as Bishop of Nakhon Sawan, and in 2009 was appointed as Archbishop of Bangkok.

Cardinal Kriengsak is one of the 20 bishops who were made cardinals at a Feb. 14 consistory held in the Vatican. He was one of 15 who, being under the age of 80, would be able to vote in a papal conclave; also, he is one of the three Asian red birettas created by Pope Francis during that consistory.

“I believe that Pope Francis has seen that Asia is still a continent of God, compared with other continents, and so this is the moment for Asia, as Pope Francis already stressed,” the cardinal commented.

The other Asian cardinals created during this months consistory are Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Hanoi; Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon.

“We all work together in the Federation of Asians Bishops’ Conferences, and we have many pastoral activities together,” stressed Cardinal Kriengsak.

He added that “in 2007, I found out that 3 million refugees coming from Burma were living in Thailand … they are not given the status of refugees, since the Thai state cannot provide for their survival, but they were there.”

This led to a particular collaboration between himself and now-Cardinal Bo: “I was encouraged to back the convocation of one assembly of the FABC in Burma, and hence we established a team of cooperation between the Thai and Burmese bishops.”

Living in Thailand, where Christian’s are a very small minority, Cardinal Kriengsak’s priorities have included interreligious dialogue, evangelization, and Catholic education.

“The Catholic Church in Thailand tries to build bridges, we try to educate people, to form strengthened Catholics able to go against the waves,” he explained.

Some 93 percent of Thais are Buddhist, and five percent are Muslims. Christians, most of whom are Catholic, are less than one percent of Thais.

Cardinal Kriengsak recounted that “since the 2012 Synod on New Evangelization, we have mostly focused on the testimony of life. First we witness to the Christian life with our lives, and it is after this that we can announce the Gospel. Everything will come, but first of all there is the need for a testimony of life in small groups of Christian families.”

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Patriarch urges prayer after at least 90 Christians kidnapped in Syria

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 24, 2015

Ignatius Joseph III Younan ordains a Syro-Catholic priest in Istanbul, Turkey Nov. 28, 2014. (Daniel Ibañez/CNA)

Rome, Italy — With reports circulating saying that ISIS forces have kidnapped at least 90 Christians from villages in northeast Syria, Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan said prayer is the only possible response.

“Let’s pray for those innocent people,” Patriarch Younan told CNA over the phone from Beirut Feb. 24.

“It’s a very, let’s say, very ordinary thing to have those people with such hatred toward non-Muslims that they don’t respect any human life,” he said, noting that the only reaction to Tuesday’s kidnappings is “to pray.”

Patriarch Younan, Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, made his comments after the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that at least 90 Assyrian Christians were kidnapped by ISIS militants after they seized two villages near Tal-Tamr, located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria.

The two villages attacked are inhabited primarily by the country’s ancient Christian minority.

Also known as “Hassake,” the Al-Hasakah region is located along the country’s border with Iraq, and is not far from Mount Sinjar, where many Yazidis were trapped and faced starvation after fleeing Mosul and surrounding villages when ISIS began its assault last June.

Although he said exact numbers of those kidnapped and killed are still not confirmed, the patriarch revealed that he maintains close contact with the area’s bishop, who says that the situation there has been “very, very tense.”

Patriarch Younan said that he has tried to get in touch with Al-Hasakah’s archbishop, Jacques Behnan Hindo, regarding the situation, but has not yet been able to reach him.

The Syrian civil war has forced 3 million Syrians, of all religions, to become refugees, with an additional 6.5 million internally displaced. And in Iraq, since the rise of the Islamic State, there are more than 1.8 million internally displaced persons.

Fighting between ISIS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria has intensified in recent weeks. The YPG has taken 24 villages as part of an initiative to recapture the town of Tal Hamis, which lies to the east of the two villages captured by ISIS on Tuesday, Aljazeera agency reports.

Since last month’s recapture of the town of Kobane, which borders Turkey, YPG forces have continued to advance, and have been active in Raqa, which neighbors Al-Hasakah. So far they have regained 19 villages in the area.

The observatory reports that the U.S.-led international coalition, which has backed Kurdish forces against ISIS, carried out a series of attacks on Tuesday near Tal Hamis, killing 14 ISIS fighters.

Patriarch Younan said that although it’s “so easy” for the ISIS terrorists “to kill and to cut the throat” of non-Muslims, he hopes that will not be the fate of those who were taken on Tuesday.

One possibility, he noted, is that the Christians who were taken will be exchanged by ISIS militants for prisoners being held by the Kurdish army.

“Hopefully they will do it,” the patriarch said. But, he described the ISIS militants as being “full of hatred and a venomous feelings toward the Christians over there.”

The ISIS fighters, which he referred to as “military terrorists,” are “ready to do all the horrible acts without any human feelings … But as I said, we keep praying and hoping.”

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The war in Ukraine: a failure to evangelize?

by Sofia Kochmar (CNA/EWTN News) • February 24, 2015

The funeral of Taras Brus, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in Ilovaisk, Donetsk Oblast, in the summer of 2014. (Sofia Kochmar)

Kyiv, Ukraine — Conflict in eastern Ukraine which began in April 2014 has pitted the country’s government against separatists widely believed to be backed by Russia, and some are attributing the chaos to a failed evangelization in the country.

Fr. Wojciech Surówka, a Dominican priest who directs the St. Thomas Aquinas Institute of Religious Sciences in Kyiv, urged that “a dialogue of reconciliation between Ukrainians and Russians should begin from the Church. If we do not start it, politicians will never do it. It would be nice if the formula of ‘forgive and ask forgiveness’ were delivered simultaneously by the Ukrainian and Russian bishops.”

“This war is the failure of our evangelization. If Christians on both sides kill each other, then we did not teach them well who Christ is. They absolutely do not understand the essence of Christianity. It’s our fault. In the conflict in Rwanda last century, the bishops recognized it – I expect this step from the confessions in Ukraine,” Fr. Surówka told CNA.

According to the estimates of the United Nations, the conflict has led to more than 1 million displaced persons in Ukraine, and nearly 6,000 dead.

Some of the victims are civilians, uninvolved in military conflict, killed when pro-Russian militants fired on residential areas in Mariupol and Kramatorsk, hitting a bus stop, and a hospital. It is difficult to check the number of prisoners on both sides. On Sunday, during a memorial service for the victims of the Maidan protests, explosives fell in Kharkov, in central Ukraine, far from the conflict zone, killing two and wounding 10.

The fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists – widely believed to be supported by Russian troops and arms – and the Ukrainian government last April. The month before, Russia had annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

In areas controlled by the separatists, such as Donetsk and Luhansk, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allied with the Russian Orthodox Church is favored, to the exclusion of other Christian groups.

Mykhailo Cherenkov grew up in Donetsk, and was born into a family of Baptists: his father is Russian, and his mother Ukrainian. After his education at a local university, he served as rector of Donetsk Christian University, a Protestant institution. Now his university is a pro-Russian military base, home to around 400 militants.

Mykhailo lives in Kyiv now.

“In December I went to Donetsk. I couldn’t get into my university. There is too much military security. The place has become hostile,” he said.

In the territories controlled by separatists, the only “legitimate” Christian body is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Other Churches and ecclesial communities do not have the possibility of holding services.

“Protestant pastors should either go underground or leave Donbas. Churches and schools, all infrastructure are confiscated. They can continue to pray - but not participate in public life,” the former rector of Donetsk Christian University explained to CNA.

Roman Catholic priests of Polish citizenship were forced to leave Donbas; the Polish government evacuated them, along with its other civilians there. Now parishioners in Luhansk watch their priest say Mass via Skype: he is in Poland, and they are in the conflict zone. In Donetsk one Roman Catholic priest has remained, as he has local residency. The rest of the priests are serving in the territories controlled by Ukrainian authorities. In Donetsk, a Grad rocket system damaged the chapel of the Roman Catholic Church.

Bishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Vladimir the Great of Paris told CNA that “since July, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop has been forced out of his seat. He is still in his diocese, in an unoccupied area, but his residence, chancery, and all documents are under the control of terrorists. Most of the clergy have been forced out of the occupied territories. A number of Roman and Greek Catholic priests were abducted. Those that remain are under constant, direct and indirect threat.”

Last summer, the Greek Catholic priest Fr. Tikhon Kulbacka was held for 10 days by the “Russian Orthodox Army” – a radical militant group active in Donbas, and which uses “Orthodox ideology.”

Cherenkov – the Baptist from Donetsk – commented that “the Russian Orthodox Army can be as dangerous as the Islamic State, because they are using tools of terror in the name of Orthodoxy!”

But in the central office of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), they denied any relation to this group.

“If a person takes up weapons and goes to kill in the name of Jesus Christ, it is schizophrenia, but not Christianity. These groups have nothing to do with the Orthodox Church,” Fr. Mykola Danylevych, assistant director of the UOC’s external relations office, told CNA.

“They use these pseudo-Orthodox slogans to create an ideology for their quasi-states. But in reality they just use the Church, not having anything in common with it.”

Bishop Gudziak, who is head of external relations for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that “in the short term, the fact that the Moscow Patriarchate has acted as an apologist for the Russian annexation of Crimea and Putin’s invasion in Eastern Ukraine does not go well for ecumenism.”

“What is more serious for Moscow Patriarchate,” he continued, “is the fact that its leadership, which has not only failed to speak out critically against government policy, has acted as apologist and ideologue for the rise of aggressive Russian nationalism. This leadership has been losing credibility in Russia itself. The Russian Orthodox Church is heavily subsidized by the Russian government. The price of these subsidies is silence before their president’s warmongering and aggressive ideology. Today the population of Russia is being hypnotized into a trance of aggression. Unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t speak out against propaganda, and often acts as an agent of it.”

In addition to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), there are two other Orthodox Churches which have claimed autocephaly, but are not recognized by other Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

Fr. Danylevych, of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate), said: “If we will try to proclaim autocephaly today, it will lead us to new division. Unfortunately, the conflict in the Donbas has only increased among men those dividing lines that already existed. We, as a Church, feel very much these identities of Ukraine: Ukrainian and Russian, eastern and western. We try to keep a balance between these two. Ideologies separate us, but in Christ we are united.”

“Therefore, if a person recognizes his God and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Orthodox Church as the Church - this is our man. We need to learn to live in a Church, despite the personal ideological differences,” Fr. Danylevych said, describing his Church.

Cherenkov stated that “the Church should keep unity, without sacrificing morality: those who came with weapons onto the territory of their brother, became enemies. It is useless to forgive someone who has not passed through repentance. Our unity is not broken when we do not communicate, but when we lie to each other. The issue of Christian unity is not to pretend that between us nothing happened, but to look for reasons why it happened, and honestly recognize them. To recognize aggression - it’s not politics; it is elementary Christian ethics, because in this way we get up in defense against inhumane acts, fratricidal war, and the seizure of foreign territories, which undermine peace in the world.”

Fr. Surówka, who studied ecumenical theology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, reflected that “without prejudice to the dialogue with the Moscow Patriarchate, the Vatican could more frankly say what Church thinks about it. The Catholic Church has to say: ‘Yes, we would like to conduct ecumenical dialogue with you; but that you support terrorists is unacceptable for us.’ It could move us back in ecumenical cooperation, but it would become an expression of our humanity.”

During the Ukrainian bishop’s ad limina visit to Rome last week, Pope Francis reminded them of their duties to justice and truth amid their country’s crisis.

Cherenkov commented that in the crisis, “church diplomacy should give its authoritative word. The World Council of Churches is the only place where the heads of Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches can meet. Patriarch Kirill could influence the politics of Putin.”

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A UK bishop’s plea: speak up on marriage before it’s too late

by CNA/EWTN News • February 25, 2015

(Fabio Sola Penna via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Shrewsbury, England — Inside a small English church dedicated to St. Columba, a congregation of Catholics gathered, sitting in the midst of 2,500 years of marriage.

As they celebrated marriage as a blessing to society, they also received a warning: speak up on behalf of marriage now, before doing so becomes taboo.

Bishop Mark Davies of the Diocese of Shrewsbury celebrated Mass on Feb. 14 for over 50 couples who were commemorating their anniversaries of marriage, which collectively added up to more than 2,500 years. One couple, Vincent and Mollie Mooney, were recognizing their 65th year together.

While the faithful applauded and cheered for the couples who were united in marriage, the bishop cautioned that this union is increasingly becoming silenced throughout society.

“We cannot fail to observe an extraordinary phenomenon in our own society by which marriage becomes increasingly ‘unmentionable.’ Politicians speak of ‘new forms of family’ but often seem afraid to speak of marriage itself,” Bishop Davies explained.

He went on to note that in schools, teachers are cautious to even propose the model of traditional marriage to children in the classroom, afraid of being considered too narrow-minded. Inspectors have also questioned young children in school as to whether their teachers are promoting conventional understandings of the family, making them less eager to speak openly about marriage.

Amidst this societal intimidation, the bishop encouraged his flock to speak up in the name of marriage and not be afraid to proclaim the blessings that the sacrament brings to couples, families, and society itself.

Marriage, he stated, is a vital and beneficial institution that serves the good of society by providing stability in family life.

In a culture where the breakdown of the family has led to catastrophic consequences, promoting marriage is increasingly important, he stressed, adding that the Catholic Church has found herself among the last voices who are willing to speak out on marriage, as defined by the strong foundation of lasting and life-giving union between one man and one woman.

With the upcoming General Election in May, Bishop Davies told couples that they should take the moral lead and become courageous examples of the good news of marriage, especially when it comes to voting. He urged those who will be elected into Parliament to support marriage despite the quiet societal intimidation that urges silence.

“I want, therefore, to encourage you today to speak up about marriage, to speak uninhibitedly of the good of marriage! In this you speak not simply from your personal experience but from our faith that marriage is God’s plan for the health and happiness of the family, and indeed, for the whole of human society,” he urged.

Together with the Church, faithful couples can help restore the shattering collapse of families, he emphasized, saying that the good of society rests in the hands of marriage.

“Let us never be afraid to speak of the good news that is marriage!”

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The story of a Czech priest who testified to a miracle – and was killed for it

by Bohumil Petrik (CNA/EWTN News) • February 25, 2015

Fr. Josef Toufar. (Fr. Tomas Fiala)

Rome, Italy — A priest who witnessed to a miracle in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1940s was tortured and beaten to death for refusing to recant what his parishioners had seen. And now Catholics from the country are honoring his heroic virtue and pushing for him to be recognized as a martyr.

At a recent gathering in Cihost’ commemorating the priest’s brutal death, his current successor at the parish church says he’s grateful for efforts to overturn the decades-long silence on atrocities against Catholics in the 20th century.

“Naturally, I am glad that the issue of Father Josef Toufar is starting to be resolved in which it will be shown how the political regime in our country actually was,” Father Tomas Fiala told CNA.

During the season of Advent in 1949 – the early phase of the communist era in Czechoslovakia – some parishioners told Fr. Toufar that they saw a cross at the altar in the church moving from one side to another several times. The event has come to be known as “the Cihost’ miracle.”

To prevent the news of the phenomenon from going public, the secret police interrogated Fr. Toufar, demanding that he say that he had moved the cross himself.

The priest, however, refused.

In response, the police beat him so drastically that he was unable to speak, walk or sit. Later tortured until he would sign a document asserting his guilt, he died two months after the miracle took place.

After Fr. Toufar’s death, the Church along with all religions were suppressed across the Soviet Union-led communist regime. The state was officially atheist and any accounts of miracles and those who spoke of them were treated in way to be erased from the record and the historical memory. The regime even filmed a documentary which tried to show that the Cihost’ miracle was a forgery.

Despite their efforts, the account of the Cihost’ miracle has survived.

And, now the damage is being reversed, said Fr. Fiala. “We would like to achieve that Father Josef Toufar is recognized as a martyr of the church.”

On the Feb. 22, an estimated 500 people gathered for Mass in his former parish of Cihost’ to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Fr. Toufar’s death. Cardinal Dominik Duka, archbishop of Prague, presided over the Mass. The church was so full with visitors from the entire country that they outnumbered the population of the village of Cihost’.

The event was seen as an act of support for the canonization cause of Father Toufar, which is still in the preliminary diocesan phase with approval from the Czech Bishops Conference.

Historian and postulator of the cause for canonization, Father Tomas Petracek, told Czech Radio that the Mass was “a satisfactory argument that our engagement in the beatification of Father Josef Toufar is not vain and it is not something made top-down, but it arises from people’s veneration.”

The liturgy was followed by an exhibition of Fr. Toufar’s former room and his belongings as well as a discussion on his life and the beatification process.

According to Cardinal Duka, Fr. Toufar was “an icon for the years of violent collectivization,” under the communist regime, he told the Czech Radio.

The presumed remains of the priest have been exhumed from a mass grave near Prague. Once verified by scientists, they are set to be brought to Cihost’ during a July pilgrimage around the time of Fr. Toufar’s birthday.

Corrected on Feb. 25, 2015 at 9:15 a.m. MST. Original article stated that Fr. Toufar had seen the miracle personally. A more accurate account is that he was told of the miracle by numerous parishioners and was tortured and killed for refusing to recount what they had seen.

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Chinese Bible association gathers to make Scripture the heart of Church’s life

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • February 26, 2015

United Chinese Catholic Bible Association group photo at the 10th World Chinese Bible Congress in Taipei. (Cecilia Chui/UCCBA)

Taipei, Taiwan — The United Chinese Catholic Biblical Association held its tenth World Chinese Biblical Congress last month in Taiwan, drawing participants from 18 countries to reflect on Scripture and its place in the new evangelization.

“The congress was a very touching experience of a new Pentecost with the outpouring of gifts of the Holy Spirit in the company of the Blessed Mother … engendering fresh new inspirations, hope, and vision for all concerned to mark a new page in being biblical missionary disciples in the Church and in the world in creative ways,” said Cecilia Chui, secretary of the UCCBA.

“The UCCBA is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council document Dei Verbum and has resolved to meaningfully live 2015 as a Biblical pastoral ministry year and to dedicate this project to respond to the apostolic exhortations Verbum Domini and Evangelii Gaudium as a humble gift for Pope Francis on the second anniversary of his pontificate,” Chui told CNA Feb 24.

The biblical congress drew more than 300 participants to Taipei, the capital of the Republic of China, Jan. 22-26 to reflect on the theme “Bearing Witness to the Word for New Evangelization.”

In addition to Taiwan, participants came from Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Japan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, England, and Canada.

Most were laity, though six bishops were present, including Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.

Chui pointed out that centering on the directives of Verbum Domini and Evangelii Gaudium, the five-day congress was designed to reflect on “how to make God’s Word ever more fully the heart of the Church’s life and mission in multi-perspectives, and how to discern the signs of the times,” through talks and witnesses by speakers and communities from different locales.

Fr. Joseph Zhang, a Chinese biblical scholar, spoke on “Evangelization within the Chinese Community – How Does the Bible Encounter Chinese People,” emphasizing the importance of a deep reading of the Bible, the formation of Gospel-filled missionary disciples, and offering the Gospel that the Chinese need in view of their life situations.

Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan of Taipei spoke on “The Word of God, Marriage, and the Family,” and Fr. Mark Fang, S.J., presented an examination of Bl. Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi.

The climax of the congress coincided with the celebration of the feast of Bl. Gabriel Maria Allegra, referred as the St. Jerome of China. During the Mass, Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong, preached on Bl. Allegra’s ability to inspire the new evangelization.

Participants also received Chinese translations of Evangelii Gaudium and the New Testament, and instruction in lectio divina.

Chui concluded that “the tasks of overall planning and running of the meeting were shouldered by lay people, and that the outcomes were thrilling and fruitful manifest clearly that it is the ‘Age of the Word’ and the ‘Age of the Laity’.”

The prefect and the secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples both conveyed congratulatory messages to the meeting, as well as a message from Pope Francis and his apostolic blessing.

The UCCBA was founded in 1990, and the next biblical congress is due to take place in Hong Kong, the birthplace of the UCCBA.

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Turkish border closed as Christian hostages in Syria spike to 250

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 26, 2015

Thousands of Syrians streamed across a bridge over the Tigris River, entering Iraq on Thursday, August 15, 2013. (UNHCR/G. Gubaeva)

Rome, Italy — The number of ISIS hostages in Syria has increased to at least 250 after continued attacks on Christian villages, and civilians fleeing to the Turkish border have been stranded when not allowed to cross.

“There are 200 families who were running away and trying to escape to Turkey, but the border is closed for Syrians. No Syrian can cross into Turkey,” Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo told CNA Feb. 26.

Archbishop Hindo oversees the Syrian archdiocese of Hassake, which is located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria. The region sits between the country’s borders with both Turkey and Iraq.

He spoke to CNA in French over the phone with a patchy connection from his diocese in Syria, where internet is currently down, saying that ISIS has continued its assault in the area, raising the number of hostages to more than 250 after an estimated 90 were kidnapped during attacks earlier this week.

British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that at least 90 Assyrian Christians were kidnapped by ISIS after militants seized two villages near Al-Hasakah’s city of Tal-Tamr.

The two villages attacked are inhabited primarily by the country’s ancient Christian minority. After Tuesday’s attacks, ISIS has gone on to claim eight more such villages over the past three days.

Archbishop Hindo said that today around 4 a.m. “(ISIS) attacked two villages, which are a Christian majority. They took families from both villages.”

Entire families were abducted, he noted, including fathers, mothers, children and grandparents. He said that the militants took families from one village, before moving to the second and abducting more from that one.

ISIS then took the families back to their Syrian stronghold in the city of Sheddadi, which sits roughly 25 miles south of Hassake.

Archbishop Hindo expressed his concern for fate of the ISIS hostages, particularly the elderly, women and children, as well as that of the families who fled to the Turkish border, which has been closed to all Syrians.

So far the Syrian civil war has forced 3 million Syrians, of all religions, to become refugees, with an additional 6.5 million internally displaced. And in Iraq, since the rise of the Islamic State, there are more than 1.8 million internally displaced persons.

The number of displaced persons is expected to rise after ISIS’s recent attacks in northeastern Syria.

Fighting between ISIS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria has intensified in recent weeks. The YPG has taken 24 villages as part of an initiative to recapture the town of Tal Hamis, which lies to the east of the two villages captured by ISIS on Tuesday, Aljazeera agency reports.

Since last month’s recapture of the town of Kobane, which borders Turkey, YPG forces have continued to advance, and have been active in Raqa, which neighbors Al-Hasakah. So far they have regained 19 villages in the area.

Although the U.S.-led international coalition, which has backed Kurdish forces against ISIS, carried out a series of attacks Tuesday near Tal Hamis that killed 14 ISIS fighters, Archbishop Hindo said military invention from the West over the last few days has been sparse.

The archbishop said that every night he can hear planes passing over their heads, but “without bombing or doing anything … in the past four days air operations have been suspended. I ask myself why.”

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Paraguay archbishop to UN: stop pushing abortion, gay marriage

by CNA/EWTN News • February 26, 2015

United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (UN Photo/John Isaac)

Asunción, Paraguay — Archbishop Edmundo Valenzeula of Asuncion, Paraguay is demanding that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon – who is visiting the country this week – ensure that the United Nations does not promote abortion, euthanasia and “gay marriage” in Paraguay.

In a statement posted on Facebook Feb. 25 to mark Moon’s arrival, Archbishop Valenzuela said the Paraguayan people wished to extend hospitality to the U.N. leader but warned of concerns that the U.N. is putting pressure on Paraguay to accept things that violate the country’s core values and beliefs. “

“Mr. Ban Ki Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, is visiting our country at the official invitation of the government,” Archbishop Valenzuela said. “We welcome him and we offer him the hospitality of our people. We hope that Mr. Ban Ki Moon’s stay will be cordial and lead to concrete results that benefit Paraguayan families, especially those most in need.”

However, he warned, “We cannot deny our concern regarding the pressures constantly exerted on the Paraguayan state, which is free and sovereign, by so-called ‘U.N. experts,’ many of whom adhere to obscure ideologies that openly contradict our human and Christian values.”

These pressures are related specifically to “very sensitive issues such as the natural makeup of the family, contraception, abortion and the integral and total protection of human life from conception to natural death.”

“Faithful to its founding spirit, the U.N. needs to respect the cultural tradition of peoples, their core values and their beliefs, and recognize that the role of moral and spiritual mentoring belongs to the family and to religion,” the archbishop said.

He further stated, “The moral strength of a nation is found in its beliefs and values which, lived in accord with a healthy integral education that takes into account all the dimensions of the person, must not reject faith, which is a fundamental dimension of the psycho-social and spiritual structure of the human being.”

“Unfortunately, various recommendations from the U.N. on human rights for Paraguay and other countries include supposedly new rights such as those proclaimed by radical groups that are dedicated to promoting the legalization of abortion, euthanasia, homosexual and other kinds of unions, with the possibility that these couples can adopt children.”

The role of the Church, he emphasized, is to be an advocate “for children, especially for those with some form of handicap and/or who are still in their mother’s wombs and run the serious risk of being thrown out by society if the new canons of the culture of death, promoted by international agents at the global level, are accepted, and which legalize what is evil under the auspices of the State.”

“The Church raises her voice in the name of the families who are still living in situations that are structurally unjust and that must be overcome with serious and sustained public policies.”

“While we share some common good objectives proposed by the U.N., and as the Church we work in subsidiary with the Paraguayan State to achieve them, we are nonetheless vigilant in safeguarding the human and Christian values of our people, so that development focuses on and promotes a full and dignified life for all the inhabitants of our homeland.”

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Indians rise up to defend Mother Teresa’s legacy after attack by Hindu leader

by CNA/EWTN News • February 26, 2015

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta. (Túrelio via Wikimedia-Commons, 1986/Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 2.0)

New Delhi, India — Indians from all walks of life and religions have joined to condemn allegations made against Bl. Teresa of Calcutta by a fundamentalist Hindu leader charging that her sole objective in helping the poor was converting them to Christianity.

Mohan Bhagwat, head of the Hindu nationalist organization RSS, said Feb. 23 in India’s Rajasthan state that “Mother Teresa’s service would have been good. But it used to have one objective, to convert the person, who was being served, into a Christian.”

Bhagwat was speaking at the inauguration of an orphanage and women’s home run by a local NGO, and said, “here we will not provide service like that rendered by Mother Teresa. It is possible that her kind of work was good, but there was a motive behind that service.”

His comments have evoked fierce reactions over social media, as well as protests. In the national upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha opposition parties staged protests which led to adjournment of the sitting. They demanded statements from the ruling government and from prime minister Narendra Modi, whose BJP party is closely aligned with RSS.

Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona told CNA Feb. 26 that “Mother Teresa’s services reflected the teachings of Jesus Christ – ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ – and so her serving others was unconditional, unselfish to lepers, the sick, the abandoned and the suffering, and for people of all religions.”

“Hundreds of thousands of people whom she served were people of different religions, and they remained in their religion till the end and she did not deny services to them, because they did not convert and left them to practice their faith.”

Bishop Dabre rebuffed Bhagwat’s comments saying that “scores of people of various religions joined Mother in serving the needy and the suffering, and among them were Hindus, so facts prove Mr. Bhagwat wrong.”

Gaja Nayak, a Hindu lawyer, told CNA that “Vindictive criticisms are like parasites, for they prey on other people’s work or achievement; some tend to be constructive, while many others are merchants of money, power and hate infiltrators … Mother Teresa spread love and kindness, and that makes the difference.”

“Perhaps people today have forgotten the historical past of the great famine of Bengal in 1943 and the pre- and post-Independence era of partitions and war, during which Mother Teresa offered her life and soul in helping the marginalized and downtrodden people.”

Nayak concluded saying that caste systems, women’s inequality, and oppression of the poor are scars that remain on India’s conscience.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India also have slammed the allegations, expressing its concern and distress upon “casting aspersion” on the saintly persona of Mother Teresa.

The CBCI said in a Feb. 24 statement, “It is quite unfortunate that the services of such a world renowned Nobel Prize laureate and Bharat Ratna awardee be dragged into such unwarranted controversies.”

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and in 1980 the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest award given to civilians.

“Mother Teresa never had any hidden agenda nor did she ever use her services as a cover up for conversion,” the bishops stated. “She always maintained that her main concern was to ease the suffering of people and to help the poor and the suffering to lead a life of relief and self-respect.”

The Indian bishops also emphasized the importance upholding the freedom of speech of every citizen of India, hoping that “the nation’s age-old passion for truth, unbiased support for the humanitarian works and compassion for the poor and the suffering may not be jeopardized by any cynical motive or intolerant gesticulations.”

Sunita Kumar is a Sikh and was a close association of Mother Teresa for more than three decades.

She is now spokeperson for the Missionaries of Charity, and told The Hindu, “No one is going to believe what they (RSS) said … Mother Teresa was above religion.”

Refuting the accusations of conversion to Christianity, she said “all what Mother worked for was the service of humanity and peace in society. There is no scope for any kind of religious conversion in the Missionaries of Charity.”

Social media has also flooded with various reactions condemning Bhagwat’s behavior. Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, Tweeted that having worked with Mother Teresa he knew her to be a “noble soul”, and asked that she be spared.

Bhagwat’s comments come in the wake of a spate of attacks on churches in New Delhi over the last three months.

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, a native of what is now Macedonia, joined the Sisters of Loreto and became a missionary in India in 1929. She felt called to serve the poorest of the poor, and in 1950 founded a new religious congregation, the Missionaries of Charity.

She died in 1997, and was beatified in 2003.

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WORLD NEWS

African bishops aim for observer status at African Union

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

Bishops of SECAM meet with President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, August 2013. (SECAM)

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — The African bishops took the first step on Monday toward having representation at the African Union, with the appointment of a liaison between the AU and the symposium of African bishops conferences.

Bernhanu Tamene Woldeyohannes was on Feb. 23 appointed head of the office for relations between the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the African Union.

Woldeyaohannes’ Addis Ababa office “will facilitate the signing of a memorandum of understanding for SECAM observer status at the African Union,” the bishops announced.

“This is in line with the goals of the Catholic Church in Africa in contributing to the building of a unified, integrated, strong, democratic, well governed, developed, prosperous, righteous, peaceful ,and respected Africa,” SECAM stated.

SECAM was designed during the Second Vatican Council as a mean for African bishops to speak with one voice despite language, cultural, and historical differences, and held its first meeting in 1969 during Bl. Paul VI’s visit to Uganda; the African Union gathers all African States but Morocco and was established in 2002.

The Holy See is a non-member state accredited to the African Union, and the establishment of a SECAM observer at the union could enhance the Holy See’s participation in the organization.

Woldeyohannes will likely collaborate justice and peace and economic commissions, aiming to promote African development in line with the AU’s “Agenda 2063”, intended to reignite a sense of unity, self-reliance, integration and solidarity that moved the African independence movements of the 1960s.

He has been head of the Ethiopian bishops’ justice and peace department, and work in their community development program.

Woldeyohannes’ appointment follows declarations by Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel, head of the Ethiopian Archeparchy of Addis Ababa, that he is committed to SECAM, as well as the Association of Members of Bishops’ Conferences of East Africa, gaining observer status at the African Union.

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WORLD NEWS

Jesuit priest’s cheerful disposition kept hope alive during Afghan captivity

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

Fr. Alexis Prem Kumar (second from left) seen with his family after his release, February 2015. (Jesuit Refugee Service)

Kabul, Afghanistan — A key player in working for the release of a Jesuit priest held by suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan for eight months said Thursday the priest never lost hope and was confident in the efforts being made to secure his freedom.

Fr. Alexis Prem Kumar, S.J., was the Afghanistan director for Jesuit Refugee Services at the time of his abduction by unidentified men on June 2, 2014. Some reports identified the men as Taliban militants. His release was announced Feb. 22.

“Fr. Prem (is) very cheerful, positive, and during the time of his captivity we knew this strength of his character would help him to sustain himself in positivity, not to give up,” Fr. Peter Balleis, S.J., told CNA Feb. 26.

Fr. Kumar had been accompanying teachers on a visit to a school for refugees in the village of Sohadat, some 500 miles west of Kabul. His release was secured with the help of the Indian government, which negotiated with his captors.

As international director of the Rome-based Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), Fr. Balleis played a major role at the community level in gathering information about Fr. Kumar’s whereabouts and well-being throughout his captivity.

He was able to speak with Fr. Kumar over the phone shortly after he was released by his captors earlier this month. Fr. Kumar, he said, expressed “great gratitude” for the efforts made to secure his freedom.

Fr. Kumar is now in India, his homeland. He is from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where he previously worked with Sri Lankan refugees, indigenous people, and Dalits.

Despite spending the majority of his time as a hostage either handcuffed or in chains, Fr. Kumar never gave up and never became bitter toward his captors, Fr. Balleis noted. “So he came out good.”

As a hostage taken by someone who can kill you or do whatever they want, “you have no power, you’re powerless,” the priest observed, recalling Fr. Kumar’s own words shortly after his release.

“You can also start to feel hatred, or wish them bad things, and that was not the case. (Fr. Kumar) kept positive, hopeful,” he said, noting that they also had to maintain cordial relations with the captors, because “if you want to achieve something you have to be friendly with your enemy, and talk to them.”

Although Fr. Kumar’s freedom was negotiated by the Indian government, Fr. Balleis said JRS was busy working to gather information through various contacts on the ground. They remained in constant contact with the Indian consulate and embassy, exchanging information.

Fr. Balleis and members of JRS were meeting daily throughout the eight months of Fr. Kumar’s captivity to discuss how to secure his release.

At times JRS was able to obtain more information than the government, the priest observed, recalling how it was they who received the first “proof of life” in a video clip sent by Fr. Kumar’s captors four months after his abduction.

Not all information received by the Indian government and JRS was exchanged, due to the need to protect their contacts and informants.

In addition to communicating with government officials, the Jesuits also needed to be in contact with the captors, Fr. Balleis said, to explain who they were and that as a charitable organization with a mission to serve, JRS couldn’t be “extorted for money.”

The eigth month process was full of ups and downs, he said, explaining that at times contacts would come forward and give hope by claiming to have gotten a message through to Fr. Kumar, but in the end they were also trying to extort the organization.

However, the most important part of the process, which Fr. Balleis said touches on a deeper spiritual level of trust, “is that we had to keep him alive in our own mind, and heart and faith.”

The priest expressed his belief that part of this faith is also transmitted to the hostage, and recalled how after being freed Fr. Kumar told him, “I knew they would make every possible effort they can to get me released.”

“So he lived all of the time with that confidence. We lived all the time with that confidence that he’s alive, and that we never got a message (saying) that he’s dead. No informant came back saying ‘No, I was told he’s dead.’ It was always ‘he’s alive, he’s well,’” Fr. Balleis continued.

He stressed the importance of somehow trying to get some message across to Fr. Kumar so that he knew that he was cared for, and to show his captors that they were interested in his release.

After being freed, Fr. Kumar recounted how in August his captors told him that “soon you will be released, they want you back.”

“So obviously our effort to be in touch through some informants reached the captors and him to assure him that we’re making effort, and care for you,” Fr. Balleis said.

JRS also “kept him alive” in the Indian government by constantly asking about Fr. Kumar and how the process of securing his release was going.

Even if they weren’t always able to get through to Fr. Kumar or obtain insight as to his well-being, the most important part of the process for them was to continue to keep him alive in their own minds by believing that he was alive, and hoping and working for his release, the priest explained.

“I believe that everyone’s efforts on the various levels, on the community level, on the higher political level, are important to find a solution,” he said, explaining that for them “It’s a great moment of gratitude, we are all grateful.”

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U.S. NEWS

Bishops push for Congress to support conscience rights in health care act

by CNA/EWTN News • February 22, 2015

U.S. Capitol at sunset. (vgm8383 via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Just because you may oppose abortion doesn’t mean you should be denied comprehensive health care coverage, according to Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.

The two spoke last Friday, urging Congress to support the Health Care Conscience Rights Act in defense of conscientious objection.

“Government should not force anyone to stop offering or covering much-needed legitimate health care because they cannot in conscience participate in destroying a developing human life or violate their conscience in other ways,” Archbishop Lori and Cardinal O’Malley together wrote in a letter to Congress.

The bishops, who chair the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged Congress to support conscience rights in health care legislation, dwelling on the importance of maintaining protected civil rights when it comes to the issue of moral objections in health care.

Archbishop Lori and Cardinal O’Malley referred specifically to a recently introduced mandate in California that incorporates all elective abortions – including late term – into the state’s health care policy, insisting that all health care plans within the state include this mandate.

Although this policy violates civil rights protected by federal law, California is leaving no room for moral objections and will enforce the legislation in religious universities, schools and churches. Other states, such as Washington, have also adapted this mandate.

On the other side of the fence, Reps. Diane Black, John Fleming and Jeff Fortenberry have introduced the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (H.R. 940) which would protect individuals from purchasing health insurance when they have a moral or religious objection to what it covers.

This bill, which boasts bi-partisan support, would also incorporate a conscience clause into the Affordable Care Act, providing an option to deny the items in the health care plan which violate moral or religious values. The bishops believe Congress acting to support this bill is an obvious step in protecting basic civil rights of conscience.

Similar to the H.R. 940 bill is the Weldon amendment, which prevents the government from using received federal funds to discriminate against individuals who do not want to participate in health care that violates a religious belief.

This bill has been successfully approved in Congress for the past ten years, although it does not provide the right of private action.

This is especially significant, because if the Weldon amendment merged with the H.R. 940 bill, it would also provide the right to go to court to individuals who reject health care coverage on moral grounds.

“We hope Congress will agree that people whose civil rights on this point are violated have a right to go to court,” the bishops noted.

In fact, President Obama has expressed support for the Weldon amendment, maintaining that on a federal level at least, individuals have a protected civil right to choose not to be involved in an abortion when it comes to health insurance.

The issue is likely to get more heated before it cools down, given that California believes the penalty of funding withdrawal in the Weldon amendment is subject to challenge. Even if the mandate violates federal law, it will have to receive the red light from Congress before dying down, which is why the bishops are pleading with Congress to take heed.

“We strongly urge you to support and co-sponsor the Health Care Conscience Rights Act,” the bishops continued, urging legislators to stand against the mandates that would deny health coverage to those with conscientious objections.

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U.S. NEWS

For Coptic Christians, threat of martyrdom is part of daily life

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 22, 2015

Prayer vigil outside the White House remembers 21 murdered Coptic Christians in Libya. (Matt Hadro/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — The brutal murder of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya at the hands of ISIS last week is shining a light on the reality faced by many of Egypt’s Christians on a daily basis.

“These 21 victims, they were not the first and they will not be the last. There is a flowing river of Christian blood in the Middle East,” said Mina Abdelmalak, one of the organizers of a D.C. candlelight prayer vigil outside the White House on Ash Wednesday.

The prayer vigil commemorated the 21 Coptic Christians beheaded last week by the Islamist terror group ISIS. The Christians had been working in Libya to support their families back home. They were abducted by ISIS in December and January.

In an internet video published by the extremist group, the Copts were marched along the Libyan coast and then murdered, with the video title “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross.”

The video caught the attention of the world, garnering significant media attention and responses from world leaders.

While this act of martyrdom was heroic and newsworthy, several Coptic priests stressed that for many Christians in Egypt, the threat of death for the faith is a daily reality that goes unnoticed by the rest of the world.

“Most people living in those areas, really every day they live by the grace of God,” explained Fr. Anthony Messeh of the St. Timothy and St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church in Arlington, Va.

“They’re not as shaken by these things as we are, because they count every day as a gift from God.” Their public faith could mean “the end of their life,” he told CNA.

One local Coptic Orthodox priest in attendance at the Washington, D.C., prayer vigil voiced both fear and hope in response to the Libya massacre.

“We are afraid about the spreading of the devil all over the world,” said Fr. Domadious Rizk of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Fairfax, Va. “The only thing can face this devil is Christ Himself.”

“We believe that the Lord will overcome all this darkness and spread it away,” he said.

Rural Egypt, where many of the Christians hailed from, is no friend of Christianity, Fr. Messeh said. While he has not lived in Egypt, the conveyed the situation there from accounts of those who had.

The plight of the Copts was “very bad” under the rule of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, he said.

Now, the situation has “officially” improved with the new president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who has said and done the right things. However, many Christians are still persecuted, especially in the rural areas where they are very much a minority.

The differences between Egypt and the U.S. are striking, Fr. Messeh said, and the hardship for Christians in Egypt is difficult for Americans to truly grasp. Faith for the Copts is everything, “a life that they’re willing to lose for the sake of their faith.”

This is why the “extreme bravery” of the Coptic martyrs is so compelling, he said. “They’re doing the stuff that we’re preaching.”

“For us, you can get by with a Sunday-only faith,” he explained. “They can’t, because every day of their life they see in front of them the decision to follow Christ does impact the grades they get in school, it impacts which customers will come to their stores.”

And in some cases, their public faith is met with death.

The video of the beheadings shook his Virginia parish, Fr. Messeh admitted.

“It shook us up because it kind of put all those stories that we hear about, it kind of put it in pictures,” he said of the beheading video circulated by ISIS.

“Somehow this one really struck a chord with everyone, even people who have no connection with Egypt whatsoever.”

A Church united in prayer over the killings will only be strengthened, Fr. John Farag of St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Cabin John, Md., told EWTN News Nightly on Wednesday.

“Copts live on prayers,” he remarked, explaining that the people are relying upon prayer and solidarity.

Local Coptic parishes will hold prayer services this weekend for the martyrs. Bishop Paul Loverde of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington even reached out in condolence, Fr. Messeh revealed, and offered to do a joint prayer service with St. Timothy and St.Athanasius parish. It was a gesture Fr. Messeh “really appreciated.”

He also thanked Pope Francis for offering a memorial Mass for the slain Coptic Christians earlier this week.

The Pope mourned their deaths and hailed them as martyrs, also praying especially for Patriarch Tawadros of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

“The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard,” Pope Francis said on Feb. 16. “Their only words were: ‘Jesus, help me!’”

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U.S. NEWS

New religious freedom official: the time for action is now

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 23, 2015

Rabbi David Saperstein in Davos, Switzerland, January 25, 2013. (World Economic Forum via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The new U.S. religious freedom ambassador wasted no time emphasizing the urgency of his mission as he was sworn in on Feb. 20.

Noting that enemies of religious freedom “have grown alarmingly strong” worldwide, Ambassador David Saperstein quoted Dr. Martin Luther King that “we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now” and pledged to promote religious freedom around the globe.

“It will not be enough for us to mourn victims of religious persecution or even to condemn the traducers of faith who murder in its name,” Saperstein said. The U.S. must be “actualizing, facilitating, coordinating, mobilizing, shaping effective responses, even while learning from the best practices across the globe.”

Rabbi Saperstein is the fourth ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and the first non-Christian to hold the position. The seat has been vacant since October 2013 when then-ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook stepped down after serving since April 2011. The position was previously vacant since the end of the Bush presidency.

Saperstein was nominated by the Obama administration on July 28 and confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 12.

The position was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Its purpose is to promote religious freedom worldwide in part through meetings with foreign diplomats and an annual report on the global state of religious freedom. The State Department also designates certain grievous offenders of religious freedom as “Countries of Particular Concern.”

In his first remarks as ambassador, Saperstein invoked his Jewish faith and ancestry as a pillar of his devotion to religious freedom. He also warned of rising anti-Semitism in Europe.

“(L)ike most Jews, I know all too well that over the centuries, the Jewish people have been a quintessential victim of religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, and demonization,” he said.

“(E)ven in Western Europe we are witnessing a steady increase in anti-Muslim acts and rhetoric and anti-Semitic discourse and acts of desecration and violence against Jewish individuals, synagogues, and institutions and communities that we thought we would never, never see again after World War II.”

Saperstein also mentioned the martyrdom of 21 Coptic Christians at the hands of the terror group ISIS as more proof of global religious persecution.

“Most vividly, the whole world has witnessed the tragic, violent attacks by ISIL, known as Daesh, against peoples of many faiths – most recently the tragic, tragic targeting of Egyptian Copts in Libya,” he said.

Other victims he mentioned were Yazidi Christians in Iraq, Rohingya Muslims in Burma, and Tibetian Bhuddists in China.

Saperstein promised to integrate religious freedom into all facets of the State Department’s mission and work closely with ministers worldwide on the matter.

Ultimately, he stated his mission was “to advocate for freedom of thought, conscience, and belief; for the rights of individuals to practice, choose and change their faith safely; not only living their faith through worship, but through teaching, preaching, practice, and observance; as well as the right to hold no religious beliefs; and consequently, to seek strongly anti-blasphemy and apostasy laws.”

Back in July, Saperstein’s nomination was met with some applause over his track record of promoting religious freedom internationally. Dr. Tom Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University, called him a “well regarded, long-time advocate for religious freedom” but added that he “will fail” if not given “the tools to succeed” by the administration.

However, critics pointed to Saperstein’s opposition to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision as evidence of a dubious record on domestic religious liberty. The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom said it was “troubling” that Saperstein believed businesses were not protected from the HHS birth control mandate.

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U.S. NEWS

How threats to religious freedom could harm unaccompanied minors

by CNA/EWTN News • February 24, 2015

(Katy Senour/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — Catholic and Evangelical humanitarian agencies are among the U.S. groups responding to the massive influx of unaccompanied minors from Latin America, but a new federal rule could require them to refer the children for abortion or lose their grants.

A coalition of these faith-based agencies called on the federal government to amend the rule so that the government can meet obligations to care for these children while “respecting the religious and moral beliefs of faith-based organizations that, to date, have provided such critical care for this vulnerable population.”

Joining the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a Feb. 20 statement to federal rule makers were leading organizations like Catholic Relief Services, the National Association of Evangelicals, World Vision, and World Relief.

Every year, thousands of unaccompanied minors from Mexico and Central America enter the U.S. without documentation. Last year witnessed a significant surge in their numbers, with many young people fleeing increased violence or a worsening economic situation.

On Dec. 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement published an interim final rule that addresses unaccompanied minors who may be pregnant due to sex abuse. The rule requires the provision of “timely and comprehensive information” and “timely access” to “all lawful pregnancy-related medical services,” which the coalition’s letter says “apparently includes abortion.”

The rule also requires “timely, unimpeded access” to emergency contraception for unaccompanied minors who are victims of sex abuse. Some of these “emergency contraception” drugs may cause early abortions.

The coalition stressed faith-based organizations’ “important role” in providing services for unaccompanied minors other and newcomers to the U.S. Six of the nine national refugee resettlement agencies are faith-based.

But that role could be in danger.

“The text of the rule includes no religious or moral exception,” said the coalition statement to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The statement insisted on “adequate protection” to prospective grantees, subgrantees, contractors, and subcontractors with objections to providing, or helping to provide, the items and procedures.

Faith-based organizations’ religious and moral convictions to protect human life are why they represent “such a significant portion of grantees” serving unaccompanied minors, the coalition said. Church-affiliated organizations have an advantage in gaining the trust of unaccompanied minors because similar entities provide support and assistance in their home countries.

The coalition praised the rule’s preamble for voicing a commitment to providing ways for organizations to partner with the government even if they have religious objections. However, the coalition said a “meaningful accommodation” should be placed in the text of the rule itself. The preamble’s options to protect religious and moral objections are also “inadequate.”

One proposed option for accommodation would disqualify organizations with objections from being primary grantees despite their experience in assisting unaccompanied minors. The organizations could only be subgrantees.

“Such a discriminatory effect would immediately work to the detriment of the children who are the intended beneficiaries of the program,” the coalition said.

The group added that other options are also problematic and would require organizations with religious or moral objections to refer for or arrange the objectionable items or procedures.

The coalition said the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 bars the denial of government funding for groups that exercise their freedom of religion.

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U.S. NEWS

A Middle East without Christians: advocates call for action before it’s too late

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 25, 2015

(Mosa’ab Elshamy via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Middle Eastern Christian communities face extinction, and the results for the stability and peace of the region would be devastating, said an advocacy group asking Americans to speak out on their behalf.

“They have been there since the time of Christ, and they are now arguably in the time of their greatest need,” said Kristina Olney of the advocacy group In Defense of Christians. “We are basically seeing history erased.”

In Defense of Christians is a non-profit that raises awareness of the plight of Middle Eastern Christian communities threatened by sectarian conflict and the terror group ISIS.

The advocacy group organized a “Day of Action” for those communities on Feb. 25, imploring U.S. Christians to pray and sacrifice “in the spirit of Lent” and give to charities that help Middle Eastern Christians. They have also called participants to contact members of Congress, the White House, and the State Department to advocate for the persecuted.

Olney spoke to CNA about the Day of Action and the current situation for Christians in the Middle East, where millions have been displaced and many more are threatened with harsh daily realities of persecution and violence.

These communities are the glue of society – if they are eradicated, the whole region will suffer, Olney argued.

“The Christian communities in the Middle East as well as the other vulnerable religious minorities who have also suffered persecution in the region, are essential not only as bedrocks of civilization in the region, but also filters for de-radicalization.”

The initiative is even more significant after the recent beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by ISIS, as well as the reported abduction of an estimated 150 Christians in Syria by the same militant group.

“This issue is not a priority for the U.S. administration,” Olney said. “The American people need to understand that ultimately if this issue is not championed by them, it isn’t just naturally going to be championed by our government.”

For instance, she noted that Congress created a special envoy for persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East to report directly to the president. But President Obama has not nominated a candidate to fill the position.

“So we are asking our base of supporters across the country to call the White House and ask that an appointee for this position be named,” Olney said.

In Defense of Christians also wants more accountability for U.S. aid promised to the beleaguered Christians. The State Department admitted in December that the overall needs of Iraqi refugees were not being met, in the dead of winter.

Last month, the United Nations’ refugee arm UNHCR – which has been giving the majority of aid to the refugees – reported a 40 percent shortfall in aid, Olney pointed out.

“If that aid does not reach those communities in the coming months, then there are going to be significant ramifications for the refugees in the region, because many of them don’t have shelter, basic survival needs,” Olney said.

Ultimately, she stressed, U.S. Christians must take the lead in educating everyone about the importance of the issue.

“You can’t defend what you don’t know,” she said. “People simply don’t know the history of those communities.”

“To remove them would be to remove a part of history,” she added. “If in America we were to have our monuments bulldozed, if we were to have our Constitution burned, those are things that would affect everyone, because it’s our national history.”

These sentiments were shared by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, who heads the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, and Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, chair of the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.

Earlier this week, the two bishops sent letters to the Obama administration and Congress calling for more to be done on behalf of Christians in the Middle East.

The U.S. could counter ISIS with military force, the bishops said, but within the parameters outlined by Pope Francis and the Holy See – that the use of force be “proportionate” to the threat, “discriminate,” and used under “international and humanitarian law.”

And military action is not enough, Archbishop Kurtz and Bishop Cantu insisted. They emphasized the “overwhelming” needs faced by refugees and called for the U.S. to increase its assistance, including by accepting “its share” of refugees unable to return to their homes.

The U.S. should also emphasize a foreign policy of religious freedom, human rights, and inclusion of minority sects in civic matters, the bishops continued.

“Attacks on religious and ethnic minorities are attacks on the health of an entire society,” they said. “The rights of all Syrians, Iraqis, Libyans and others in the region are at risk from the current situation.”

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U.S. NEWS

A pro-life giant: remembering Dr. Willke

by CNA/EWTN News • February 26, 2015

Dr. John Willke, a pro-life physician and advocate who died Feb. 20, 2015. (Life Issues Institute, Inc.)

Cincinnati, Ohio — Pro-life leaders marked the death of Dr. John Willke by praising his adamant stand against legalized abortion and his tireless dedication to helping women and their unborn children.

“The right-to-life movement has lost one of its most influential activists,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said Feb. 23. “But we know that Dr. Willke’s legacy of education and activism will live on in the countless men and women who were inspired to join the fight for life because of his efforts.”

Willke died Feb. 20 at the age of 89. He practiced as an obstetrician before beginning to work against abortion in the 1960s. He and his wife helped motivate pro-life groups working at the state level even before the U.S. Supreme Court imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide in 1973.

“There is no way to quantify the contributions Jack Willke, along with his wife Barbara, made to the right-to-life movement,” Tobias added.

As president of the National Right to Life Committee from 1980 to 1991, Willke made many media appearances and traveled around the world to advance the pro-life movement. Among his twelve books were the 1971 “Handbook on Abortion,” which sold 1.5 million copies, and the 2014 “Abortion and the Pro-Life Movement,” a history of abortion with a special focus on the United States since 1960. He co-authored both books with his wife.

Willke was founder of the International Right to Life Federation, and in 1991 he founded the Cincinnati-based Life Issues Institute.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Feb. 21 praised Willke as “a worldwide leader in the right to life movement” who with his wife “brought great passion to their mission to protect the unborn.”

“He will be remembered as a great teacher and friend and stalwart leader in giving a voice to the most vulnerable in our society. He will be greatly missed.”

Family friend Chuck Donovan, president of the pro-life education and research group the Charles Lozier Institute, said the Willkes “did much more than educate and inspire.”

Willke encouraged pro-life advocates to focus on both pregnant women and their unborn children and was a leading popularizer of the phrase “Why can’t we love them both?”

“They were, from the very beginning of their work, strong advocates for pregnancy help centers, maternity homes and positive alternatives,” Donovan wrote in a Feb. 23 essay at First Things.

He noted that the Willkes were always hosting an expectant mother or a troubled teenager at their Cincinnati home. Willke and his wife had six children, 22 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Barbara Willke died in 2013.

“They brought a message of human rights, of respect for the smallest and weakest among us, and of optimism about the human future,” said Donovan.

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Faith vs. Fashion – Muslim woman spars with Abercrombie in major court case

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 26, 2015

(Hernan Pinera via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Washington D.C. — When an employer’s hiring standards conflict with a prospective employee’s religious practice, when would the employer be guilty of discrimination for not hiring?

That is the question currently before the Supreme Court, which held oral arguments yesterday in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores. Abercrombie chose not to hire Samantha Elauf, a Muslim teenager who applied for a retail job with the chain retailer, claiming that her use of a headscarf violated the company’s policy of no headdress for employees.

“I learned that I was not hired by Abercrombie because I wear a headscarf, which is a symbol of modesty in my Muslim faith. This was shocking to me,” Elauf stated after the hearings.

“I am not only standing up for myself, but for all people who wish to adhere to their faith while at work. Observance of my faith should not prevent me from getting a job.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took up Elauf’s case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which states that it is unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire someone based on their religion, along with other qualifications including race and sex.

Elauf wore the headscarf for religious reasons and says Abercrombie knew this when they refused to hire her. Abercrombie’s lawyer noted that companies can run into legal problems if they directly inquire about an applicant’s religious belief, and said the firm wanted to avoid stereotyping individuals based on appearance and guessing whether their actions are being done for religious reasons.

The Court peppered both sides with questions, focusing particularly on a company’s responsibility to make its standards clear to a job applicant without making an illegal inquiry into an applicant’s religious belief.

Justice Samuel Alito posed a compromise of sorts when he asked if a company could explain its hiring standards to an applicant and then ask, “Do you have any problem with that?”

“I think the point is [for the employer] to initiate the dialogue,” answered Ian Gershengorn of the Department of Justice, arguing on Elauf’s behalf. “I think had that happened here, then – then we would be talking about a different point in the process about whether there was a reasonable accommodation that could be done and whether it could be done without undue hardship.”

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an amicus brief on Elauf’s behalf. Senior counsel Eric Baxter told CNA that the case is important in safeguarding the religious freedom of job applicants.

“A lot of job applicants don’t know going into a job what kind of work requirements there might be,” he said, giving the example of a requirement that employees work Saturdays.

“It’s important for the Court to hold employers responsible,” he said, stating that if employers know someone has a religious requirement, they should clarify whether the person can fulfill the job.”

Rev. Robert Shenck of Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital also defended Elauf’s religious freedom in the case.

“There is no Constitutional right to fashion preferences. There is a Constitutional right to religious practice,” he stated after the hearing. “There is a higher level of scrutiny for that right than for someone’s fashion preference.”

A decision in the case is expected from the Supreme Court this summer.

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Why a new State Department position could spell trouble for religious liberty

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 26, 2015

Rainbow Flag. (Kevin Wong via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The State Department’s new LGBT special envoy will promote human rights abroad but could also pose a serious threat to religious freedom, said several experts in the field.

“I believe this administration’s long-term objective is more revolutionary,” said Dr. Tom Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.

Through the new position, the U.S. could use its LGBT advocacy to “pressure” charitable groups and businesses to “abandon their core beliefs about the immorality of homosexual acts and same-sex ‘marriage’,” he explained, adding that the administration is “already trying to achieve” this in the U.S.

Anyone opposing same-sex marriage or the LGBT lifestyle could be “driven from the public life” through legal means or social ostracism, especially by the media, he told CNA, and this would be a consequence of U.S. policy.

The State Department announced Monday that Randy Berry, the U.S. Consul General to the Netherlands, would serve as the first Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons.

Secretary of State John Kerry explained that Berry, in his official capacity, would “work to overturn” criminal laws against same-sex conduct, fight anti-LGBT violence, and work for the human rights of LGBT persons overseas.

“At the same time, and often with our help, governments and other institutions, including those representing all religions, are taking steps to reaffirm the universal human rights of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Kerry stated.

Protecting human rights is important, but is not the same thing as promoting the LGBT lifestyle – something the new ambassador will probably do, argued Fr. Thomas Petri, O.P., academic dean of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. and an instructor of moral theology and pastoral studies.

“No innocent person should be a victim of violence,” he affirmed, adding that he did not believe private behavior between consenting adults should be criminalized.

However, there’s “quite a difference” between that and recognizing specific “rights” for LGBT persons that go beyond what are traditionally recognized as “human rights,” he said. This could be the “slippery slope” that the new position creates.

“Just because I accept a person’s dignity as a human being, as a child of God, doesn’t mean that I therefore am obligated to accept every decision and choice, every lifestyle, every activity that the person engages in,” he said.

Dr. Farr, who from 1999-2003 headed the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, said that current administration’s record on religious freedom fails to inspire hope for this new position.

This administration has failed to promote religious freedom abroad despite a 16 year-old statutory requirement to do so, in part because it thinks that religious freedom would “empower religious communities” to stand by their convictions on sexual ethics, he said.

“The Obama State Department has from the beginning of its tenure in 2008 invested far more diplomatic resources and energy in promoting international LGBT rights than it has international religious freedom.”

As an example, he pointed out that the position of international religious freedom ambassador has been vacant for half of Obama’s presidency.

The appointment could have implications at home as well, particularly for faith-based charities and social organizations that morally object to the LGBT lifestyle, Farr suggested.

Some Catholic institutions, he said, “have already decided that core Catholic teachings on sexuality must be set aside.”

“Even those who support same-sex ‘marriage’ should see how, when old and venerable institutions such as these abandon their fundamental religious beliefs, American pluralism has been damaged. That is not good for any of us.”

Fr. Petri noted that this scenario of citizens being legal pressured to accept changes in beliefs about marriage presents a massive problem for moral theologians to consider.

“Is it legitimate to give in to these legal demands? Or ought we to really force the issue and be forced, essentially, to go out of business, to be pushed out of the square, and to become a minority ourselves, a minority voice, rather than to somehow consent to a legal program that is in fact pushing a morality that we find not only to be unfaithful to God but is unnatural?”

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Oil company hit man has Archbishop Cordileone in his sights

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • February 27, 2015

Chevron’s Richmond refinery fire. (Nick Fullerton via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

San Francisco, CA — Sam Singer’s public relations firm spun a Chevron oil refinery disaster in California and fought back a legal ruling in Ecuador that could have awarded billions of dollars to indigenous people for the company’s alleged pollution damage to the Amazon.

Now he’s been hired to attack San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. He even wants Pope Francis to do his work.

“Everyone is praying that the Pope will remove the San Francisco Archbishop and these priests,” Singer said in a Google+ post on Feb. 18, Ash Wednesday.

“A revolution is brewing in S.F. Catholic Church against Archbishop Cordileone morality clauses,” he said in a Feb. 13 tweet referring to the controversy over standards for Catholic high school teachers.

The San Francisco-based Singer Associates, Inc., in its biography of Singer, said that the firm’s founder has been described as “one of the most powerful people in the San Francisco Bay Area” for “his ability to impact the news for his clients.”

Singer told the newspaper SF Weekly that “concerned parents” are paying for his services in their dispute with Archbishop Cordileone.

The beginning of this public relations war was bland enough.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco on Feb. 3 announced that explanations of Catholic teaching would be added to the faculty and staff handbooks for its four high schools. It also proposed new morals clauses for teacher contracts that would define teachers as having a ministerial role. The archdiocese said the changes to the handbook and teacher contract did not contain anything new but were intended to “clarify existing expectations that Catholic teachers in their professional and public lives uphold Catholic teaching.”

Archbishop Cordileone said the changes focused on sexual morality and religious practice because confusion is prevalent about the Church’s stance on these issues.

Protests and opposition greeted the action.

About 100 people, including some Catholic high school teachers, students, and students’ parents, gathered outside San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral on Ash Wednesday to protest.

Several activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign, Faithful America and the Equally Blessed Coalition have attacked Archbishop Cordileone as well.

But the SF Weekly claimed that the Ash Wednesday protest “bore the signature slickness of a Singer campaign.” The newspaper noted the widespread news coverage it received.

Singer said he hopes the archbishop sees that the standards he is asking of teachers are something that doesn’t “keep with Catholic values.” Singer characterized the standards as “a loyalty oath.”

Nonetheless, Archbishop Cordileone has withstood the media controversy and threats from state and city legislators. He suggested replacing proposed contractual description of teachers as ministers with wording about the teaching ministry.

Since mid-February, Singer’s social media accounts have sent out many news stories highly critical of the archdiocese. His tweets build a narrative that appears to focus on publicizing both opposition to the archbishop and the admitted mistakes of some local Catholic leaders.

Singer’s Feb. 18 Google+ post, which claimed that everyone was praying for Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Cordileone, linked to a story about priests at Star of the Sea Church who handed out pamphlets about examination of conscience to elementary school students ahead of confession.

February press coverage of the pamphlets focused on passages pertaining to adult sexual sins. Father Joseph Illo, the parish’s pastoral administrator, apologized for the incidents as an “oversight” and said the pamphlets should have been given to the parents instead of the children.

Singer also sought to capitalize on controversy from Father Illo’s decision to have male-only altar servers at his church, claiming that the “fight continues” for altar girls. He tweeted a quote from Father Illo defending the practice of male-only servers — and included a picture of the Monty Python sketch on the Spanish Inquisition.

Singer’s Twitter account repeated a San Francisco Chronicle columnist’s attack, saying: “Don’t let S.F. Archbishop’s charm fool you: his message of exclusion and hate.” Another tweet claimed the archbishop will “purge gay, lesbian, pro-choice teachers from Catholic schools.”

On Feb. 24 Archbishop Cordileone rejected similar characterizations, telling the New York Times “we’re not on a witch hunt; we’re not looking to terminate teachers.”

Singer Associates clients include the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle. Both newspapers have been highly critical of the San Francisco archdiocese’s Catholic schools.

The PR firm’s employees include former reporters, former political staffers as well as former political and legal strategists.

The SF Weekly profiled Singer’s abilities in August 2014, with a focus on his firm’s three-decade relationship with oil giant Chevron.

Singer Associates led the public relations response to a major fire at a Richmond, Calif. oil refinery after its third catastrophic failure since 1989. The 2012 pipeline explosion produced a massive cloud of thick smoke.

At the time of the fire, local authorities gave a shelter-in-place order for Richmond and two other cities. In the following weeks, an estimated 15,000 people in nearby communities sought medical treatment for breathing problems, chest pain, shortness of breath, sore throat and headaches, with 20 people being hospitalized, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s 2015 report on the incident said.

The City of Richmond’s 39-page legal complaint against Chevron accused the company of “willful and conscious disregard of public safety” as well as “years of neglect, lax oversight and corporate indifference to necessary safety inspection and repairs.”

In response to the disaster, Singer’s firm engaged in a major public relations campaign. It created a newspaper to produce pro-Chevron messages alongside community news and to shape the political and legal reaction. Chevron paid only $2 million in penalties for the incident.

Singer’s firm is also credited with helping to fight back a threatened multi-billion dollar legal judgment against Chevron that could have benefited indigenous Ecuadorans and farmers in the Amazon region who said the oil giant was responsible for massive pollution there. Singer’s firm said the lawsuit was fraudulent.

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Sometimes it looks like this

by Jenny Uebbing • February 23, 2015

Today was one of the best days we’ve had at home in a while, for me and the kids. The long-anticipated pajama day at preschool was trumped by a snow day, and all three little people spiked fevers sometime after breakfast.

No fewer than 7 (seven. SE-VEN) hours of cartoons were consumed by a certain someone with a 103 temperature and an abiding love for the Octonauts, and I was only dressed in real clothes for about an hour, during a brief foray to the doctor’s office and the grocery store.

And it was, truly, one of the best days in recent memory.

I didn’t yell, I didn’t cry, and I didn’t stress over what I was or wasn’t getting done. The kids were so needy, and I, for once, was so acutely aware of their littleness and their neediness that I just threw up my hands and settled onto the floor in my yoga pants to soothe, cuddle, and read aloud.

Sure, a few loads of laundry got washed, but nothing notable was checked off my endless to-do list. For once I could clearly see their needs, and somehow, there was the grace to meet them.

I wonder if it’s always there?

I suspect it is.

I read a great piece on a great blog a while back, and one bit of wisdom in particular stuck with me: when your kids are sick, stop what you’re doing and take care of them. Don’t ask why that’s rocket science to me (seriously, please don’t), but it hit me right in the gut.

I do so much in spite of my kids, stepping around them and over them and looking past them - or at least looking past whatever trying developmental stage we might be stagnating in currently - that I’ve lost countless opportunities to train flabby mommy muscles and hone parental prowess by meeting reality head on. I grit my teeth and get through it, whatever “it” happens to be: pink eye, potty training disasters, sleeplessness, etc.

And I drag them with me.

Today felt different, though. Today, maybe because it’s Lent, or because I prayed first thing like I always should but never actually do, or because school was cancelled and my agenda was derailed, I just met them where they needed me, extending my arms and letting them climb all over my slowly shrinking lap and reading Little House on the Prairie until my voice got scratchy. (And yes, hours and hours of Netflix, too.)

I didn’t try to escape it, not in the virtual sense or the literal sense. I didn’t load them up and force the planned Costco run. And, miracle of miracles, I didn’t send a single electronic smoke signal to my homebound husband on the evening commute. I just accepted the day as it unfolded, and for once I played the role of competent, caring adult for a solid 10 hours.

Maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit, but it certainly didn’t feel very familiar. I think I spend more time than is polite to admit attempting to escape from this particular season in life, whether it be through exercise or constant, low-grade panic-cleaning or the endless busyness of saying yes to yet another little project or another small commitment, giving away little pieces of myself bit by bit until there’s nothing but scraps left for the children.

For my children.

This isn’t meant to be some kind of self castigating tell-all about the terrible state of my motherhood. I’m not a bad mom, and I know that. But I am a highly distracted mom, most of the time. And an overworked mom, exhausted by my own free will more often than not.

My choices and my standards are what keep me there, though. It’s not really the kids, most of the time. It’s me. My expectations, my plans, my agenda … and my failure to put first things first, vocationally speaking.

I’m not saying mom shouldn’t make it to the gym every other night. God knows I need that precious time on the Stairmaster with HGTV blasting through my earbuds. And there’s nothing wrong with keeping a clean, clutter-free house that brings peace and life to your family. But there is something wrong, something out of place, when the kids and the marriage and the vocation you chose, of your own free will, become not the means to your sanctification but the burden that tugs at the edges of your sanity.

I am there too often, and I can see where a long string of days and months and years in such a place could lead.

Thank God, then, for little graces wrapped in feverish bunches of damp pajama bottoms and snot-streaked faces. For the bloodless surrender to a day spent reading stories and filling juice cups and vacuuming around clumps of kleenex. He knew just what I needed today - what we all needed.

For mommy to be around, in the fullest sense.

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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Jesus drinks dark roast

by Jon Leonetti • February 24, 2015

Here I was in my jeans, a book in one hand and a coffee in the other, and suddenly I saw him.

He stumbled into the coffee shop as if he’d never been there before. His eyes didn’t seem to focus on anything. His coat, if that’s what you’d call it, just barely held itself together. His knit stocking cap looked as though every strand of yarn had come up with an escape plan.

He sat down at a table about twenty-five feet from mine, and then his eyes finally found something to focus on. They focused on me.

He stared at me for what seemed like an eternity.

The words froze on the page I was reading. Three or four times I lifted my head to glance his way, hoping he would look away. Each time his eyes caught mine and didn’t move. He just kept staring.

Well, that was awkward.

Finally, he put his head on the table and began a conversation with himself.

I looked around hesitantly to see if anyone else noticed him, but no one seemed to notice — or at least if they did, they were trying as hard as I was to hide it.

There was something inside me that wanted to meet him, though. I didn’t want to shake his hand, of course, because even from where I was sitting I could see his hands were filthy. But I at least wanted to ask him his name.

Eventually he lifted his head again — and once again he was looking at me.

I’d had enough. I made a motion with my head toward the food and quietly asked him if he wanted something to eat. He nodded, and I closed my book. I gathered my belongings and met him at the counter.

But I kept my distance. I wanted to make sure everyone knew we weren’t together. I was only doing my Christian duty. He was hungry, and I was supposed to feed him, but I didn’t want people to think he was my friend.

Plus, I could barely take the smell.

I sent him over to look at the large menus above the counter. He stared at them for what had to be three solid minutes. There were people behind him, but he didn’t care, or at least I thought he didn’t. Then I suddenly realized that he might not even be able to read.

Fortunately, while I dithered, the woman behind the counter figured out what to do. She made him a chicken sandwich.

Then it happened.

He stuck out his hand.

It was crusted with dirt. In fact he had dirt everywhere. When he touched his beard, dirt fell to the ground.

I hesitantly shook his hand and looked into his eyes. He said his name was Todd. I asked Todd where he sleeps. I couldn’t quite catch his answer. He said he travels a lot. I told him I get to travel a lot, too — as if that gave us something in common. I don’t think we meant it the same way, though.

After he got his sandwich I bought him a cookie the size of my head, along with a large dark roast coffee. He thanked me repeatedly, turned around and went back to his seat to eat. I told him it was nice to meet him and went on my way.

And that’s the end.

But wait! Wasn’t I supposed to have a profound experience here? Wasn’t I supposed to tell you I knew it was Jesus the minute I looked into his eyes?

Well, see, that’s where I’m a little embarrassed. I didn’t have to look into his eyes. I knew it was Jesus the moment he walked in (it’s actually the first thing that came to mind). And I was still afraid to touch him. I was afraid to walk too close. I was afraid to say hi.

I know what you may be thinking: “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Jon. After all, you bought him a meal! How many other people did that for him that day?” Yeah, I thought that, too. But that’s no excuse. Not for me, and not for you.

I’m not Mother Teresa — I accept that. And I’m not going to be so hard on myself as to become discouraged – – after all, writing this is humiliating enough. But I know I need to get better, and so do most of you.

You’ve probably heard all the stories about how Mother Teresa kissed leprosy and comforted people on the streets who had seconds to live. And I’m sure she hesitated once in a while, too. She smelled the same smell everyone else did and probably had more than a few awkward glances thrown her way.

But she kept at it. She did good things until they became habits, and she kept at the habits until they became joys.

Together we can do the same.

So, let this be a challenge for you as it is for me. After all, it’s precisely in these times where we grow the most.

“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” (St. John Paul II)

Jon Leonetti is the author of two books, entitled Mission of the Family and Your God Is Too Boring. He currently travels the country giving keynote presentations and parish missions. Learn more by visiting jonleonetti.com.

The Live Greater Foundation exists to encourage ordinary people to live in extraordinary ways. Learn more about their work at livegreaterfoundation.org.

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Stephen Fry, Job, and the Cross of Jesus

by Very Rev. Robert Barron • February 24, 2015

The British writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry is featured in a YouTube video which has gone viral: over 5 million views as of this moment. As you may know, Fry is, like his British counterparts Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, a fairly ferocious atheist, who has made a name for himself in recent years as a very public debunker of all things religious. In the video in question, he articulates precisely what he would say to God if, upon arriving at the pearly gates, he discovered that he was mistaken in his atheism. Fry says that he would ask God why he made a universe in which children get bone cancer, a universe in which human beings suffer horrifically and without justification. If such a monstrous, self-absorbed, and stupid God exists, Fry insists, he would decidedly not want to spend eternity with him. Now there is much more to Fry’s rant — it goes on for several minutes — but you get the drift.

To those who feel that Stephen Fry has delivered a devastating blow to religious belief, let me say simply this: this objection is nothing new to Christians. St. Paul, Origen, Augustine, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton and many, many other Christian theologians up and down the centuries have dealt with it. In fact, one of the pithiest expressions of the problem was formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. The great Catholic philosopher argued that if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. Yet God is called infinitely good. Therefore, if God exists, there should be no evil. But there is evil. Thus it certainly seems to follow that God does not exist. Thomas thereby conveys all of the power of Fry’s observations without the histrionics. And of course, all of this subtle theological wrestling with the problem of suffering is grounded, finally, in the most devastating rant ever uttered against God, a rant found not in an essay of some disgruntled atheist philosopher but rather in the pages of the Bible. I’m talking about the book of Job.

According to the familiar story, Job is an innocent man, but he is nevertheless compelled to endure every type of suffering. In one fell swoop, he loses his wealth, his livelihood, his family, and his health. A group of friends console him and then attempt to offer theological explanations for his pain. But Job dismisses them all and, with all the fury of Stephen Fry, calls out God, summoning him, as it were, into the dock to explain himself. Out of the desert whirlwind God then speaks — and it is the longest speech by God in the Scriptures: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know … Who shut within doors the sea … when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place” (Job 38: 4, 8-10)? God goes on, taking Job on a lengthy tour of the mysteries, conundrums, and wonders of the universe, introducing him to ever wider contexts, situating his suffering within frameworks of meaning that he had never before considered. In light of God’s speech, I would first suggest to Stephen Fry that the true God is the providential Lord of all of space and all of time.

Secondly, I would observe that none of us can see more than a tiny swatch of that immense canvas on which God works. And therefore I would urge him to reconsider his confident assertion that the suffering of the world — even the most horrific and seemingly unjustified — is necessarily without meaning. Imagine that one page of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was torn away and allowed to drift on the wind. Imagine further that that page became, in the course of several months, further ripped and tattered so that only one paragraph of it remained legible. And finally imagine that someone who had never heard of Tolkien’s rich and multi-layered story came, by chance, upon that single paragraph. Would it not be the height of arrogance and presumption for that person to declare that those words made not a lick of sense? Would it not be akin to someone, utterly ignorant of higher mathematics, declaring that a complex algebraic formula, coherent in itself but opaque to him, is nothing but gibberish? Given our impossibly narrow point of view, how could any of us ever presume to pronounce on the “meaninglessness” of what happens in the world?

A third basic observation I would make to Mr. Fry is this: once we grant that God exists, we hold to the very real possibility of a life beyond this one. But this implies that no evil in this world, even death itself, is of final significance. Is it terrible that innocent children die of wasting diseases? Well of course. But is it finally and irreversibly terrible? Is it nothing but terrible? By no means! It might in fact be construed as an avenue to something unsurpassably good.

In the last analysis, the best rejoinder to Fry’s objection is a distinctively Christian one, for Christians refer to the day on which Jesus was unjustly condemned, abandoned by his friends, brutally scourged, paraded like an animal through the streets, nailed to an instrument of torture and left to die as “Good Friday.” To understand that is to have the ultimate answer to Job — and to Stephen Fry.

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire (wordonfire.org), and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary. He is the creator of the award-winning documentary series Catholicism and Catholicism: The New Evangelization.

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Is it really about the children?

by Jenny Uebbing • February 25, 2015

There has been much discussed about immigration in the news cycle of late. 5 million granted amnesty, amnesty revoked, bills vetoed, a legislative vs. executive branch showdown … it’s a hot mess.

There are millions of young people who want to be living here in the US of A. Whatever your politics, that fact stands. And both sides of the debate seem to have settled on the youth narrative as a good place to start from. Because 45 year old drug runners or convicted felons make less compelling subjects, and old people are boring, I guess? I think that’s the line of reasoning, anyway.

So the children. Both pro amnesty and anti amnesty groups point to the kids as the reason we need to fix the system/open the borders/streamline the process, and they’re right. The kids are the reason. They have as much dignity as the little people you have tucked up under your own roof each night, slumbering peacefully and securely.

Now, forgive me if I’m wrong, but this piece casts a rather disingenuous pall over the motives of some of those within the Department of Health and Human Services working so earnestly to secure residence for young illegal immigrants. And it smacks of the worst kind of eugenic elitism.

Sure, send us your poor, your huddled masses … and we’ll welcome them and abort their children.

Is there not rather an abrupt break in the narrative, at that point, if it is indeed supposed to appear as though the primary concern in the forefront of everybody’s generous heart is the children?

I guess, then, it still boils down to a prejudice of geography. Children running across deserts and fording rivers are welcome, but the stowaways within their wombs will be executed upon arrival, courtesy of the US taxpayer.

And yes, sure, it specifies that the “abortion services” will be extended to those children who were sexually assaulted during their crossing, but with the amount of trafficking occurring on our borders right now, that casts a wide net indeed. I wonder who decides whether a pregnant 14 year old girl has been assaulted and is therefore “entitled to” (read: has it forced upon her) abortion. Perhaps even against her will.

But then, it’s for the good of the children.

Violence upon violence.

This is the fruit of the assault on religious freedom, on purging goodness and truth from the public square. When we lose our voices and our rights to exercise our consciences, everybody suffers. And government bureaucracy is no replacement for the human heart for determining good from evil.

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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Praying with the Psalms during Lent

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • February 25, 2015

The Psalms are a masterpiece of prayer, a treasury for prayer. King David is considered their chief author, but this lyric poetry of rare beauty was written over a period of 700 years.

Intended for both personal and communal use, the Psalms are used not only at Mass but also at the Liturgy of the Hours. The 150 Psalms are prayed over the course of one week during the five Hours of the day: Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Day Time Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer.

The Psalms and Human Emotion

Addressed directly to God, the Psalms reveal how intimate the relationship was between the Jews and God. It was unimaginable to live without Providence in daily ups and downs, for nothing happened by chance, they believed. God was at work in each event showing them what he was like, healing them, and challenging them to grow. Life could be painful, exciting, joyful or dull, but it was always meaningful.

It comes as no surprise then that in the Psalms, we find the Jews pouring out their hearts in praise, thanksgiving and pleas for mercy. At the same time, they are not shy in expressing their raw emotions when overcome by anger and frustration.

After 1,000 BC, foreign invasions dominated the land and the consciousness of the Jewish nation. Between 900-700, the Assyrians ruled over them, and after them, the Babylonians from 700-500. Jews were deported, and they became the Diaspora, separated from their homeland. From 500-340, the Persian overran the Babylonians, and from 340-63 BC, the Greeks ruled over the Jewish nation. Finally in 63, with the Roman occupation, foreign domination was about to end.

Distress over foreign domination lasted for almost a thousand years. Are we surprised that the Jews cried out for consolation, cursing their enemies, chiding God for withholding help, thanking God for his mighty arm in victory over their enemies? Most of all, they cast their cares on the Lord. God was their rock, their refuge, and their song.

Nonetheless, emotions in the Psalms run high. Psalm 44 exemplifies sharp indignation:

“Yet you have rejected us, disgraced us: you no longer go forth with our armies. You make us retreat from the foe, and our enemies plunder us at will.”

Often their sentiments become ours: “Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep? Arise, do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face from us and forget our oppression and misery” (Ps 44)?

Some Reflections on Prayer

Personal prayer is analogous to spending time with a friend and deepening that relationship. The friend I meet in prayer is God in the person of his Son. It is the great exchange, as Father Thomas Dubay, S.M. was fond of repeating.

Personal prayer is best done in a place away from noise and distraction. But even in solitude, I pray as a member of the Body of Christ. I am in communion with every member, for in the Catholic communion, there is no such thing as private prayer.

At prayer, I bring everything in my life before the Lord, all that I am and am not. I bring to prayer my successes and failures, my fatigue, concerns, and fears. To whom shall I go for consolation? Psalm 62 begins: “In God alone is my rest.” This is echoed in: “Come to me, all you who labor and laden down with heavy burdens [you who are forced to bear heavy burdens], and I will give you rest. Take up your yoke upon you, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:28).

If my heart is honest and docile, then prayer will transform me. I will put on Christ, put on his mind and wear his heart, be his hands, his patience and energy and feet (Col 3:5ff). This is why St. Paul could say, “I live, not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). In order for this to happen, I must shed my sinful ways. I alone am responsible for my sin, always before me.

Yoga and Buddhist Meditation

Yoga, Buddhist meditation, or other techniques are valuable ways to relax and quiet the mind, and relieve stress. These strategies help in coping with life’s challenges. If they benefit the individual, then that person will be better able to help others.

For all their value, these self-help techniques are no substitute for prayer. They are not to be confused with prayer. They are not prayer. Yoga and Zen can lead the individual to prayer. They are additions to prayer.

Whereas Yoga and Zen focus on self-help, prayer focuses on the encounter with the person of Christ who is our help.

Yoga and Zen quiet the mind. Prayer quiets the mind so that Christ may enlighten and transform it.

Some years ago, I made an eight-day Zen retreat with a noted Zen master who was also a Jesuit priest. In silence, about thirty women and men sat on individual mats facing a blank wall — a still point — for seven hours a day, for eight days. This experience offered a different approach to western meditation.

In meditative prayer, the physical senses play an important role. As one advances, prayer is simplified. Here, the individual prays with the spiritual senses. Some individuals can rest in the Lord with few words or with no words at all. This is mysticism. In the history of western art, there are several depictions of saints in a mystical posture. “St. Teresa in Ecstasy,” sculpted by Bernini, is perhaps the most famous of them all.

Conclusion

The Church needs men and women whose lives have been transformed through the prayer of the Church, men and women who are able to communicate to others the experience of encountering God in prayer. The Church needs this kind of saint whom God uses to transform others, and by extension, the entire world.

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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Evangelization means the renewal of Catholic Institutions

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • February 26, 2015

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has been committed since Vatican II to a new and vigorous program of evangelization. However, discussions and writings on what this means have often suffered from inadequate clarity.

The word “evangelization” itself may be part of the problem. While it clearly means proclaiming the Gospel, it is not always evident how this takes place. Perhaps the word “evangelization” is hampered by its association with evangelical Protestantism with its emphasis on Bible preaching and charismatic conversion processes.

While this model of evangelization can be instructive for Catholicism, it is necessary to distinguish Protestant evangelization from Catholic evangelization.

If Protestant evangelization is word-centered, Catholic evangelization is sacrament-centered. Catholic evangelization is properly guided by the affirmation of Vatican II that the Church has the character of a “sacrament,” a “sign and instrument” of God’s saving activity in the world.

This calls to mind words attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Christians must proclaim the Gospel by every means possible – and if necessary use words.” Catholic evangelization does not work primarily through preaching, but by doing.

Accordingly, Catholic evangelization means, in great part, a practical renewal of the institutions by which the Church has traditionally maintained a saving presence in society.

An evangelizing parish means one ministering within a defined portion of the diocese. (The Catholic parish does not incidentally mean only the local community of Catholics; it means everyone living within the parish boundaries.)

It means a parish church in which the liturgy is conducted in a truly public way and which is open to the whole community as a place of prayer and contemplation. Catholic churches are places for all people.

Evangelization involves an excellent religious education program which reaches even beyond the Catholic community and serves as a forum for reflection and dialogue for the larger community.

It requires an organized parish ministry serving the poor and suffering and offering comfort and assistance in times of need.

Catholic evangelization involves a program of arts and humanities, keeping in mind Pope Benedict’s often-stated conviction that the two things most attractive to non-Catholics about Catholicism are sanctity and beauty.

Catholic primary and secondary schools, colleges, and universities have always been outstanding media of evangelization. Through its colleges and universities, the Church’s influence has permeated the worlds of philosophy and education, the arts and humanities, medicine and science.

The same is true of the institutions comprising Catholic Charities in every diocese (the name varies). Catholic Charities continues to have a magnificent record across the U.S. in ministry in the name of Christ to the poorest and most deprived. Catholic Charities and other institutions like it stand at the heart of the Church’s evangelizing ministry.

Catholic hospitals have been among the most visible and effective means of evangelization. By their Christ-centered apostolate of healing, they have given Catholicism a powerful presence far beyond the Catholic community in evangelizing the world of medicine and health care.

However, these institutions face today a crisis of identity. In one way or another they are in danger of becoming secularized. Church leaders need to lead them in a constructive way to a renewal of their original mission so that they will participate again fully in the Church’s mission of evangelization.

The multi-faceted institutional presence of the Catholic Church in the U.S. since its foundation has been a monumental evangelical success and has rendered Catholicism the most visible, public religious denomination in the country.

In a new era of evangelization we need to build upon and be guided by that history.

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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Costner inspires in ‘McFarland, USA’

by Carl Kozlowski • February 26, 2015

There are few present-day actors who are as beloved and as worthy of all-time icon status as Kevin Costner. And there are even fewer great sports movies these days that can inspire greatness and teach life lessons along the lines of “Rocky” and “Breaking Away.”

But thanks to the new movie “MacFarland USA ,” which opened strongly last weekend and stars Costner in the true story of a white coach who overcame culture clashes to inspire a champion team of poor Latino cross-country runners, audiences have the opportunity to have both. Better yet for Catholics, the movie is filled with imagery of the devoutly faithful teens and their families’ homes filled with images of Mary and crucifixes as well as making note of the athletes’ prayerfulness.

“MacFarland” takes place in 1987, when high school coach Jim White was fired from a job as football coach in Boise , Idaho , after the latest in a string of anger-control issues occurred against a student. With his wife and two daughters in tow, he is forced to take a job as assistant coach and a teacher in McFarland , California – smack in the middle of farm country, surrounded by Hispanic migrant workers and their kids, who make up the entire student body.

When White butts heads with the head coach after just one game, his life is hanging by a thread. He gets reassigned to supervise the PE period, and lazily tells his students to run around the school’s weatherbeaten and decrepit track. While most of the kids do so half-heartedly, he notices a few of the boys are able to race like the wind without even trying.

The reason for that, he discovers, is that the boys are used to running a lot of miles every day at rapid speed in order to make it to and from school so they can work in the fields with their families outside of class hours. When White notices that one boy in particular is running 5 minute miles without any training , and running at that pace for several miles to boot, he goes to the principal and demands the chance to start a cross-country team.

And so the powerful and surprisingly unpredictable story begins. It’s easy to assume that viewers will be subjected to a threadbare series of clichés, but the ace script by Christopher Cleveland and Bettina Gilois weaves a powerful tale filled with twists and a surprising amount of wit. Director Nikki Caro of “Whale Rider” and “North Country” fame (her direction inspired Oscar-nominated performances in both films) makes both cultures come to life and helps guide the team’s young actors (some of whom are students and migrant workers themselves in real life) to beautifully realized performances. It’s also Costner’s best big-screen role in about a decade.

White comes to realize that the only way he can convince the boys’ parents to let them run for him and limit their work in the fields is if he shows that he cares about the families and their culture first. He joins them in the fields for a day, starts eating Mexican food regularly for the first time since he starts getting invited over for dinner. These moments ring true in both their initial humorous awkwardness and their eventual touching sense of understanding and connection.

But the movie, despite being a PG-rated release from Disney, also manages to address gritty subject matter like domestic violence, a near-suicide attempt, unexpected pregnancy and gang violence in a way that respects adult viewers’ intelligence while handling the issues subtly enough to not scare or confuse children. It’s a delicate balancing act that is quite impressive, and gives the film extra punch when it needs it – as well.

Parents need not worry that any of this is handled in a way that children can’t handle. No one is physically hurt onscreen, and there’s no sex, nudity or foul language to speak of. The most intense moment, which might scare younger children, is when Costner and his family race to a scene where one of his team members was shot by a gang member.

But “McFarland USA “ isn’t defined by these gritty moments, but rather transcends them in a way that makes the movie highly truthful and that much more inspiring. I was traveling last weekend and missed getting the review in for opening day, but I highly encourage families and frankly anyone who appreciate a great and inspiring film to continue supporting it this weekend with a trip to see it.

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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A Message in Blood: ISIS and the Meaning of the Cross

by Very Rev. Robert Barron • February 26, 2015

Last week, the attention of the world was riveted to a deserted beach in northern Libya, where a group of twenty one Coptic Christians were brutally beheaded by masked operatives of the ISIS movement. In the wake of the executions, ISIS released a gruesome video entitled “A Message in Blood to the Nation of the Cross.” I suppose that for the ISIS murderers the reference to “the Nation of the Cross” had little sense beyond a generic designation for Christianity. Sadly for most Christians, too, the cross has become little more than an anodyne, a harmless symbol, a pious decoration. I would like to take the awful event on that Libyan beach, as well as the ISIS message concerning it, as an occasion to reflect on the still startling distinctiveness of the cross.

In the time of Jesus, the cross was a brutal and very effective sign of Roman power. Imperial authorities effectively said, “If you cross us (pun intended), we will affix you to a dreadful instrument of torture and leave you to writhe in agonizing, literally excruciating (ex cruce, from the cross) pain until you die. Then we will make sure that your body hangs on that gibbet until it is eaten away by scavenging animals.” The cross was, basically, state-sponsored terrorism, and it did indeed terrify people. The great Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero once described a crucifixion but only through a convoluted circumlocution, for he couldn’t bring himself to characterize it directly. After putting down the great slave uprising of Spartacus, the Roman government lined the Appian Way with hundreds of crosses so as to dissuade any other would-be revolutionaries. Pontius Pilate had much the same intention when he nailed dozens of Jewish rebels to the walls of Jerusalem. That same Pilate arranged for Jesus to be crucified on Calvary Hill, a promontory situated close to one of the gates of ancient Jerusalem, guaranteeing that his horrific death would not be missed by the large Passover crowds moving in and out of the city.

From the crucified Jesus, all of the disciples, save John, fled, precisely because they wanted with all their hearts to avoid his dreadful fate. After Good Friday, the friends of Jesus huddled in terror in the Upper Room, petrified that they might be nailed up on Calvary as well. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were, understandably, heading out of Jerusalem, away from danger, and they were utterly convinced that Jesus’ movement had come to naught. In a word, the cross meant the victory of the world, and the annihilation of Jesus and what he stood for.

And this is why it is surpassing strange that one of the earliest Apostles and missionaries of the Christian religion could write, “I preach one thing, Christ and him crucified!” How could Paul — the passage is taken from his first letter to the Corinthians — possibly present the dreadful cross as the centerpiece of his proclamation? He could do so only because he knew that God had raised the crucified Jesus from the dead, proving thereby that God’s love and forgiveness are greater than anything in the world. This is why his exaltation of the cross is a sort of taunt to Rome and all of its brutal descendants down through the ages: “You think that scares us? God has conquered that!” And this is why, to this day, Christians boldly hold up an image of the humiliated, tortured Jesus to the world. What they are saying is, “We are not afraid.”

How wonderful this is, by the way, in light of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy and the controversy over the Dutch cartoonist’s mocking depictions of the prophet Muhammad. Christians don’t fuss particularly about insults to Jesus, for we reverence a depiction of the insulted Christ as our most sacred icon. We can say, with Paul, “I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39), for we know that the world killed Jesus but God raised him from the dead.

Just before their throats were cut, many of the murdered Coptic Christians could be seen mouthing the words “Jesus Christ” and “Jesus is Lord.” The first of those phrases is a rendering of the Aramaic Ieshouah Maschiach, which means “Jesus the anointed one” and which hearkens back to King David, the paradigmatic anointed figure of the Old Testament. The second phrase is one that can be traced to St. Paul’s kerygmatic cry Iesous Kyrios (Jesus Lord!), which was intended to trump a watchword of the time, Kaiser Kyrios (Caesar is Lord). In short, both declarations assert the kingship of Jesus, but what a strange kingship! The new David reigns, not from a throne, but from a cross; the one who trumps Caesar doesn’t lead an army, but embodies the divine forgiveness.

The ISIS barbarians were actually quite right in entitling their video “A Message Written in Blood.” Up and down the centuries, tyrants and their lackeys have thought that they could wipe out the followers of Jesus through acts of violence. But as Tertullian observed long ago, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. And they were furthermore right in sending their message to “the Nation of the Cross.” But they should know that the cross taunts them.

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire (wordonfire.org), and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary. He is the creator of the award-winning documentary series Catholicism and Catholicism: The New Evangelization.

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‘Focus’ gets it right

by Carl Kozlowski • February 27, 2015

There are few greater pleasures in cinema than enjoying a well-crafted con-man thriller that respects your intelligence, features stars with sizzling charisma and chemistry, and dialogue that’s witty at every turn. Very few have pulled it off since the heyday of Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant’s team-ups in films like “To Catch A Thief” and “North By Northwest,” but the new Will Smith movie “Focus” - out today – is one of the rare ones to get it right.

Since this is a Catholic site and it’s my primary duty to alert people to the moral and ethical problems in a film, I want to make a couple of points right away. “Focus” is a movie that features massive amounts of pickpocketing, thievery, fencing of those goods that have been pickpocketed and stolen, and then on top of that there are epic feats of gambling, duplicity, backstabbing and deception.

But in the context of a con-man movie, in which the audience is called upon to root for the antihero to find a way to win against ever-escalating odds, all of these illicit activities are presented in tremendously fun way, and are so complex that there is no way anyone seeing the movie could possibly walk out the door and emulate it – so they can’t even really be an occasion of sin, unlike truly violent movies that can set off one’s mindset to anger, or a highly sexual film inspiring illicit desires.

There is only one surprise shooting, a couple of sex scenes cut away at foreplay or are implied via discreet morning-after shots, and for an R-rated movie involving criminals, the foul language is pretty limited, with perhaps 50 or so offensive words – from five or six improper uses of Jesus’ name to about 20 uses of the F word, and the rest composed of minor profanities - in the full two hours. And most foul the language comes in bursts in contained, heated moments. I’m not justifying these things, but proportional to the majority of modern thrillers, these amounts of sex and foul language are minimal and will barely register with anyone who’s inclined to enjoy this genre of film.

Now for those adults who can just sit back and enjoy themselves with an always fun and sometimes brilliant script, “Focus” is the story of a lifelong con man named Nicky Spurgeon, played by Smith with the unique mix of charisma, humor, romance and emotional depth that marks his best work – and which here makes for one of his best roles. At the movie’s outset, Nicky is enjoying a drink at a ritzy hotel bar by himself, when he notices an attractive young blonde woman named Jess (Margot Robbie, building on her “Wolf of Wall Street” breakthrough to once again show major talent) tricking a variety of men out of both their drinks and their watches and wallets.

When she tries to trick him into taking her upstairs to her room and appears to seduce him, another man bursts in with a gun, claims to be her boyfriend, and threatens to kill them. It turns out to be a scam, but Nicky figures it out immediately and reveals that he knew he was being scammed all along.

The next day, Nicky follows Jess out of the hotel and taunts her about her poor crime skills. She begs him to teach her how to up her game on that front, and the two start to hang out as he shows her in an incredible series of moves how he can take items off of people from virtually their heads to their toes (it’s a clean scene, I swear). As she slowly impresses him with her ability to learn his illicit trade, he brings her into his organization: a group of about 30 people who can conduct scams, robberies and mass non-violent criminal actions on a basis ranging from a couple members to the entire group robbing dozens of passersby at once on a busy pedestrian street.

They next move to taking on the Super Bowl in New Orleans, scamming and robbing countless men who are away for the weekend from their wives (mostly robbing while flirting over drinks, with only one quick and clothed fake seduction shown). But once Nick takes Jess to a primo box seating area to watch the game, an Asian businessman overhears them betting each other over which people in the crowd would exhibit which behavior, and a string of utterly insane bets between Nick and the businessman ensues.

This sequence between Nick and the businessman is one of the best-written, most unexpected and edge of your seat mind games I have ever seen in watching thousands of films. The sequence on its own would be worth the price of admission even at today’s high ticket prices, and is a masterwork on every level by writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa – whose vastly different last film, “Crazy Stupid Love” was one of the absolute best films of 2011 and is highly recommended for older teens and adult viewing.

From there, the movie leaps three years forward to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with Nicky hired by a world-class race-car owner to figure out how to trick his main competitor into buying a bogus device that gives fake readings of fuel efficiency to the cars that use it, in the hopes that such a deal will give him the advantage to dominate the racing world. Nicky is all set with a fresh con to set the deal up – but then sees Jess arrive at a party, only to discover that she’s now the girlfriend of the man who’s hired him for this gig.

Since they had parted ways under abrupt circumstances, her re-entry into his life throws him for a loop at what appears to be just the wrong time.

It may sound like I’ve given away all the plot, but rest assured, even this is only about half of it. The rest remains so unpredictable, fast-paced and fun that this is easily a movie that any adult should enjoy – as I reiterate that the above-mentioned immoral content is handled with as much discretion as an R-rated comic thriller will allow. As such, I highly recommend this as the movie to focus on this weekend.

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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The annual Lenten crash and burn

by Jenny Uebbing • February 27, 2015

Well, well, well.

We all saw this one coming. At least I presume most of you fine people did, along with my husband and my entire extended family (we’re close knit like that).

Bottom line: committing to a radical total-life overhaul is the number one recommended way to screw up New Years … and Lent. And to do it while pregnant? Even better! That way there’s plenty of hormonal support for those lofty goals, fueled by prenatal appointments and late-night Pinterest binge sessions on Paleo meal planning and having “the best pregnancy ever.”

I lack self knowledge. Let no one question that.

I also lack humility, apparently, and what better way to remedy that than to admit crushing defeat 9 days into 47?

So the Lenten Whole 40. Um, no. It’s not going … well. We’re eating decent, low carb dinners and staying away from sugars and dessert, but other than that, I have utterly failed. First it was the occasional spoonful of crunchy peanut butter to supplement that morning banana. Then it was the occasional glass of whole milk “for the baby.”

And the only thing less impressive than no finishing this stupid endeavor would be to fail to cop to it here. So, my name’s Jenny, and I failed my Lenten sacrifices.

At least, I failed at the ones I picked for myself.

Oh my gosh, it’s so predictable and it’s so stupid, but it’s kind of the same way I feel when I go back to Confession time and time again for the same exact sins, the same exact issues.

I can’t do it on my own.

And when I fail to take His plans into account, I fail. Every time.

Oddly enough, the little penances He chose on my behalf, the sleepless nights with sick kids (Again! Again with the ear infections! A pox on this winter!), the teeth-gritting Mommy ‘n Me decade of the Rosary in the mornings, the endlessly melodic soundtrack of an almost-three-year-old’s chronic whining … well those sacrifices are going great.

Seriously, I haven’t missed a day yet.

And yesterday I even had the opportunity to re-mop a delicately steam-cleaned kitchen floor when a sweet little somebody barfed up her antibiotics over the side of her high chair.

I’m so lucky.

I mean that. Because look, if I had been relying entirely on my great ideas and lofty goals for self improvement, this Lenten season would already be DOA. And it is. My Lent is dead in the water.

But the one He had in mind for me? It’s in full swing.

More time spent in prayer, because I’m drowning and I need His grace to make it till bedtime.

Healthier meals and wiser choices in the grocery store. Because my sane and stable husband is doing marvelously well in his efforts to eat clean. And I’m in charge of the meal planning round here.

Growth in the virtue of patience. Because 4, 3, 1, and 16 weeks in utero. And all very needy. (Though all the small one wants is Cool Ranch Doritos, truth be told. Bad baby.)

Tons of opportunity to grow in humility. Literally, tons. Because my pants don’t fit now that, once again, the beautiful soul-stretching work of bringing a new body into the world is destroying mine in the process.

Hello, Lent which was meant for me. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.

Sorry I’m a week and a half late, it’s just that I haven’t bothered to look up from my plans until now. But I’m chastened and deflated and feeling much more teachable.

And I promise I’m going to try really, really hard and take my own advice in future years and just accept the Lent that has been handily laid before me, custom crafted for my own particular vices and weaknesses, and not try to concoct one on my own that is so lofty, so fantastically challenging that I’ve literally no hope of seeing it through.

I’m listening now. And, yeah, I’m eating cheese.

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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SUNDAY • MARCH 1, 2015

Second Sunday of Lent

First Reading (Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; NRSVCE)

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Second Reading (Rom 8:31b-34; NRSVCE)

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Gospel Reading (Mk 9:2-10; NRSVCE)

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

MONDAY • MARCH 2, 2015

Monday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Dn 9:4b-10; NRSVCE)

“Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

“Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.”

Gospel Reading (Lk 6:36-38; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

TUESDAY • MARCH 3, 2015

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Is 1:10, 16-20; NRSVCE)

Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of Sodom!

Listen to the teaching of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings

from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,

says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be like snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

If you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be devoured by the sword;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Gospel Reading (Mt 23:1-12; NRSVCE)

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father — the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

WEDNESDAY • MARCH 4, 2015

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 18:18-20; NRSVCE)

Then the people of Judah said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah — for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words.”

Give heed to me, O Lord,

and listen to what my adversaries say!

Is evil a recompense for good?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

Gospel Reading (Mt 20:17-28; NRSVCE)

While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

THURSDAY • MARCH 5, 2015

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 17:5-10; NRSVCE)

Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

and make mere flesh their strength,

whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,

and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,

in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,

whose trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,

sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else;

it is perverse —

who can understand it?

I the Lord test the mind

and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

Gospel Reading (Lk 16:19-31; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

FRIDAY • MARCH 6, 2015

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a; NRSVCE)

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”

So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”— that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

Gospel Reading (Mt 21:33-43, 45-46; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

SATURDAY • MARCH 7, 2015

Saturday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Mi 7:14-15, 18-20; NRSVCE)

Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

show us marvelous things.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over the transgression

of the remnant of your possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in showing clemency.

He will again have compassion upon us;

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our ancestors

from the days of old.

Gospel Reading (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32; NRSVCE)

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable:

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe — the best one — and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”