VOLUME 1, ISSUE 10  •  MARCH 7, 2015

Table of Contents

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VATICAN NEWS

The Pope who became a pilgrim: Benedict’s resignation remembered

Pope puts family at the center of social justice

The message of Jesus at the Transfiguration: Listen and follow, Pope says

Pope Francis explains why judging yourself is a Christian virtue

The solution to North African violence – dialogue and encounter, Pope says

New statutes for economic reform are in effect at the Vatican

Satanism, Pompeii and the Rosary – a bizarre tale surrounds Francis’ next trip

Pope slams culture of waste, says it’s ‘a mortal sin’ to discard elderly

Saints in the Little Flower family grow as parents set for canonization

Cardinal Pell’s Vatican economy office gets new statutes

Abandonment is the greatest suffering of the elderly, Pope says

Church unity is found in Christ, Eucharist, Pope Francis tells bishops

A man captured by Christ: The legacy of Father Giussani 10 years on

WORLD NEWS

Is there a ‘roadmap to happiness’ in marriage? New video series says yes

Karachi Church urges faithful to consider God’s plans during Lent – not their own

Indian diocese joins with Pope Francis in praying for persecuted Christians

How Cardinal Tagle thinks the Church can better reach Asian cultures

A global problem: Anti-Christian harassment around the world

Seven challenges for the Mexican Church and the family

Italy’s bishops help the poor through a ‘Loan for Hope’ microcredit

For Middle East Christians, UN indifference is deadly

After devastating floods, Malawi bishops urge disaster management policies

Indian bishop encourages celebration of color festival in joy, freedom

Burmese parish attacked amid ethnic conflict

U.S. NEWS

Chart-topping Benedictine nuns to drop new album for Easter

Why this priest has spent 50 years fighting with the New York Times

Father Hesburgh, legacy-building Notre Dame president, dies at 97

Pope taps Cordileone’s auxiliary to head San Diego diocese

Remembering Professor Charles Rice, the embodiment of Notre Dame

Christians by number: What projections are saying about the future of religion

Would you recognize ‘Homeless Jesus’ on a park bench in DC?

Alabama Supreme Court orders halt on ‘gay marriage’ licenses

Cardinal George admitted to hospital for tests, evaluation

The important role you can play in defending marriage in Nebraska

‘Capital punishment must end’ – Catholic publications unite in rare joint statement

Cardinal Egan commended to Christ’s mercy

Are kids just as well off with same-sex parents? Maybe not, studies say

How art and technology are clearing up ‘miscontraceptions’ on women’s fertility

What makes a good priest? Friendship with Jesus Christ

FEATURES

What’s so wrong with trashy books (and movies?)

The lonely mission of motherhood

Balancing Our Lives: ‘The Great Game’

Don’t miss the story behind the baby ‘drop box’

‘God’s Household’ is a rich image of the Church

The Beauty of Catholic Education VI: The Delicate Sense of Touch

‘Unfinished Business’ stoops low for shock comedy

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • March 8, 2015

Monday • March 9, 2015

Tuesday • March 10, 2015

Wednesday • March 11, 2015

Thursday • March 12, 2015

Friday • March 13, 2015

Saturday • March 14, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 10 • March 7, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

The Pope who became a pilgrim: Benedict’s resignation remembered

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 28, 2015

Father Benedict (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) officially retired from the papacy two years ago today. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — Two years after his historic resignation from the papacy, Benedict XVI’s presence continues to be felt by those around him as he keeps his promise to remain in quiet and prayerful service to the Church and the world.

“We always know that Pope Emeritus Benedict is present in the Vatican, with his prayers,” said Fr. Scott Borgman, English-language official for the Pontifical Accademy for Life. This presence, he told CNA in a Feb. 10 email interview, “is a very reassuring affection which we experience often.”

At 8 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2013, Benedict XVI stepped down from the papal throne, less than three weeks after announcing his resignation to the world.

Earlier that evening, the former pontiff stood from the balcony of Castel Gandolfo’s papal residence, overlooking the thousands who had filled the lake town’s small main square.

“I wish still with my heart, my love, my prayer, my reflection, with all my inner strength, to work for the common good and the good of the Church and of humanity,” Benedict told the crowds in off-the-cuff remarks just hours before his resignation would take effect.

Looking peaceful and happy standing a few stories above the square, Benedict XVI assured the world that, in stepping down, he would “simply be a pilgrim” who was “beginning the last part of his pilgrimage on earth.”

For the next two weeks, the See of Peter remained vacant until the election of Pope Francis on March 13, 2013.

In the two years following his resignation, Benedict’s days have been filled with prayer and study, largely out of the public view. He now goes by the simple title “Father Benedict.”

Upon first hearing of Benedict XVI’s impending retirement, the first of its kind in centuries, Fr. Borgman explained he was at once surprised and relieved: “Surprised because no one had seen this for 600 years,” he said, and “relieved because, finally, after years of intense labor, he would be able to rest and serve the Church in another very important way through his prayers.”

“He immediately became a kind of benevolent grandfather figure,” Fr. Borgman said. “We all have that image of the slight, humble pontiff with the piercing blue eyes and that saintly smile.”

Throughout his papacy, the Vatican official said, Benedict XVI “infused the Church with life through his humility and service,” from his support for “victims of abuse to his many journeys and diplomatic relations,” as well as his “love for the poor and respect for the deposit of the Faith.”

Over the course of his eight-year pontificate, Benedict XVI was often subjected to negative, inaccurate, and editorially selective depictions in the secular press, such as in the areas clerical sex abuse and gay marriage.

“We suffered alongside him with the misrepresentations which were so common in the popular media,” the Vatican official said.

Despite these depictions in the press, however, “history will tell how amazing his contribution has been and will continue to be for those who read his writings,” he said.

Fr. Borgman recalled his impression of having personally met Benedict XVI, twice during his pontificate, and once – accidentally – last September. “I was quite overcome by affection and gratefulness to God for the gift of this great man to the Church,” he recalled.

Benedict XVI also served as an important role model for priests, who “benefited greatly from his theology and his teaching on the lives of the Saints,” Fr. Borgman said. “He was extremely paternal for us priests and represents the Supreme Pontiff in a very clear way, but also a personal Father figure.”

“As a convert, I am always impressed by the wisdom of God in giving us an earthly Father who unites us and guides us according to what Jesus intended when he founded the Church!”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope puts family at the center of social justice

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 28, 2015

About 7,000 members of the business group Confederazione Cooperative Italiane gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for an audience with Pope Francis Feb. 28, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — In an audience with the Confederazione Cooperative Italiane (confederation of Italian co-operatives) Pope Francis called for the “globalization of solidarity” which places the dignity of persons and families at the center of social justice.

“To globalize solidarity,” the Pope said during the Feb. 28 gathering, “means thinking about spiraling unemployment, the constant tears of the poor,” and “the need for real, integral progress for the person,” not just in terms of income.

First founded in 1919, the Confederazione Cooperative Italiane is a “business incubator” which helps new and start-up companies get off the ground by providing services and resources. Suppressed under Italy’s Fascist Regime, it was re-established in 1945.

Speaking to the 7,000 people gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI during the audience, comprised of men and women representing various sectors of the work force, Pope Francis offered a few points of encouragement.

First, he spoke of the need to prioritize the creation of “new cooperative enterprises,” while developing those that already exist, thereby creating “new possibilities for work” which are currently unavailable.

Pope Francis also addressed the need for welfare reform, especially in the area of healthcare.

“I know what you have done for years with heart and with passion, in the peripheries of the city and our society, for families, children, the elderly, the sick and disadvantaged,” he said. “Charity is a gift,” the Pope added, “without which one cannot enter into the house of one who suffers.”

Turning to the economy, the pontiff discussed “its relationship with social justice,” as well as the “dignity and value of the human person.”

Pope Francis spoke of a “certain liberalism” which believes in the necessity to “produce wealth,” regardless of how, in order to “promote some political redistribution on the part of the State.” Such an approach runs the risk of focusing on marking, “without leaving the deadly circuit of the pride of persons and companies who have the money-god at the center,” he said.

Rather, in establishing “a new quality of economy,” he said, “one creates the ability for persons to grow in all of their potential.”

The pontiff then turned to the need for the cooperative to offer support for families, emphasizing the need to “help women to realize fully their own vocation and to put into practice their own talents.”

Pope Francis went on to say that, notwithstanding, money is necessary for these endeavors, and for this reason he urged members of the cooperative to invest well. He then stressed the importance of organizing resources whereby workers can be paid just wages, thereby allowing families to “live with dignity and calm.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The message of Jesus at the Transfiguration: Listen and follow, Pope says

by CNA/EWTN News • March 1, 2015

Pope Francis gives his Sunday Angelus address from the papal apartment window on Feb. 15, 2015. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — The Transfiguration reveals the glory of Christ and demands a response of listening to and following Jesus, Pope Francis said in his Sunday Angelus address March 1.

Last week the faithful were shown Christ victorious in the desert after enduring temptation from the devil, a reminder of the victory over sin offered to everyone through Christ. Today Jesus reveals the destination of the journey of conversion, which is “participation in the glory of Christ”.

The Transfiguration takes place as Christ is on his way to Jerusalem to fulfill the prophecies through his death on the cross. Jesus takes Peter, James and John away to a high mountain in order to reveal his glory in advance to them, to strengthen them in faith for what is to come – the way of the Cross, Pope Francis said.

“The three disciples are frightened, while a cloud covers and rings out from above … the voice of the Father, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him’” (Mk 9:7), the Holy Father said.

Christ’s glory is revealed because his “full adherence to the will of the Father makes his humanity transparent to the glory of God, who is Love,” the Pope explained.

Moses and Elijah appear next to Christ at the Transfiguration to show he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, that “everything begins and ends in Jesus.”

The invitation at the Transfiguration, for the disciples as well as for the faithful today, is to listen to Jesus and to follow him, laying down our lives as a gift of love for one another in obedience to the will of the Father, the Pope explained.

“The way of Jesus always leads us to happiness, do not forget it!” Pope Francis said. “There will always be a cross in the middle, but at the end … (he) always leads us to happiness.”

After the Angelus, Pope Francis asked the faithful present to keep praying for Christians in Iraq and Syria, who continue to be persecuted and killed by the radical Islamic group ISIS. Pope Francis said that he, along with other members of the Curia, offered the last Mass of his retreat last week for the Christians in the Middle East.

The Holy Father also offered prayers for victims of recent protests in Venezuela, and particularly for the teenager killed last week in San Cristobal. The country has been undergoing an economic crisis, and related protests resulted in the deaths of 43 people last year. The Pope encouraged the entire country to respect life and to open up constructive dialogue to work for peace.

The Holy Father then greeted various groups present for the Angelus, including a group from San Francisco, Calif., seminarians from southern Italy who were on retreat, and the fire department from Tassullo in northern Italy.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis explains why judging yourself is a Christian virtue

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 2, 2015

Pope Francis at the general audience Sept. 25, 2013. (Elise Harris/CNA)

Vatican City — The capacity of all men to commit the most despicable of sins should inspire the self-awareness necessary to accept God’s mercy and move forward in the Christian life, Pope Francis said.

“We are all sinners,” the pontiff said in his Lenten homily at the Santa Marta residence chapel Mar. 2. He added that it is “a Christian virtue” to be able to judge oneself, according to Vatican Radio’s translation.

The Holy Father centered his reflection on the theme of mercy as found in the day’s Mass readings, such as the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus calls his followers to “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

To judge oneself means “not hiding from the roots of sin that are in all of us, the many things we are capable of doing, even if we cannot see them,” Pope Francis said.

While it is “easier to blame others” for our sins, he continued, it promotes interior peace and health to consider what “we are capable of doing,” even if at first, “we feel disgust.”

“We are all masters, professors of self-justification,” and “have an alibi to explain away our shortcomings, our sins,” while putting on “an innocent face,” he said.

“This is no way to lead a Christian life.”

One example the Pope gave of the wisdom which comes from being able to judge oneself is “when I feel envy in my heart,” and know that this leads to being “capable of speaking ill of others and morally assassinating them.”

This is an essential lesson for the Christian, the Pope said: “If we do not learn this first step in life, we will never, never be able to take other steps on the road of our Christian life, of our spiritual life.”

He presents another example of passing by a prison, and thinking the inmates within deserve to be there.

“Yet do you know that if it weren’t for the grace of God you would be there?” the Holy Father asked. “Did you ever think that you are capable of doing the things that they have done, even worse?”

Pope Francis went on to reflect on the importance of shame before God, a theme which arises in the Monday’s first reading taken from the book of Daniel: “O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you. But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness!”

“This Lent, it would do us all good to have this dialogue with the Lord,” in which we accuse ourselves, the Pope said. “Let us ask for mercy.”

Pope Francis turned back to the Gospel reading, in which Jesus says: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

“But, who am I to judge, if I am able to do things that are worse?” the Pope asked.

The Holy Father concluded his homily, asking God this Lent to “give us the grace to learn to judge ourselves” in light of our capacity to do the “the most evil things,” and to pray: “Have mercy on me, Lord, help me to be ashamed and grant me mercy, so I may be merciful to others.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The solution to North African violence – dialogue and encounter, Pope says

by CNA/EWTN News • March 2, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on August 27, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis on Monday encouraged the bishops from northern Africa to dialogue with and encounter other groups, fostering hope for good relations between Muslims and Christians in the region.

“Interreligious dialogue is an important part of the life of your Churches,” Pope Francis said March 2, addressing the bishops of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya during their ad limina visit to Rome.

“The most effective antidote to any form of violence is education in the discovery and acceptance of difference as richness and fertility. Therefore, it is essential that priests, religious and laypeople in your dioceses are well-prepared in this area” he said, adding it is important to “deepen dialogue in truth and love between Christians and Muslims.”

In each of these nations, Muslims constitute at least 97 percent of the population, and in none of them are Catholics more than 1 percent, which suggests the importance of interreligious dialogue to the Christian communities there.

Both Tunisia and Libya experienced revolutions in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring; Libya has been in chaos since then, a fact to which Pope Francis referred near the beginning of his address: “For several years your region has been experiencing significant changes, which offer hope that aspirations to greater freedom and dignity may be fulfilled and which favour greater freedom of conscience. But at times these events have led to outbursts of violence.”

“I wish to mention, in particular, the courage, loyalty and perseverance of the bishops of Libya, as well as the priests, consecrated persons and laypeople who stay in this country despite the many dangers. They are genuine witnesses of the Gospel. I thank them with all my heart and encourage them to continue their efforts in contributing to peace and reconciliation throughout the region.”

He reminded the bishops that the priests working in their dioceses “are from many countries, and at times it is difficult for them to adapt to new situations. Therefore, it is particularly important to be close to them and to be attentive to their continuing formation so that they can live their ministry fully and serenely.”

“At the heart of your mission and at the origin of your hope there is, above all, the personal encounter with Jesus Christ and the certainty that he is at work in the world where you have been sent on his behalf. The evangelical vitality of your dioceses depends, therefore, on the quality of your spiritual and sacramental life.”

He drew particular attention to Augustine of Hippo and Cyprian of Carthage, early saints of the region, as well as to Bl. Charles de Foucauld, a hermit who was killed in Algeria in 1916. He then mentioned “closer to us, those religious men and women who have offered everything to God and to their brothers, to the point of sacrificing their own lives. It is your responsibility to develop this spiritual heritage first among your own faithful, but also by opening it up to all.”

Pope Francis commended the restoration of Christian churches in Algeria in recent years, concluding that “by welcoming all, kindly and without proselytizing, your communities show that they wish to be a Church with open doors.”

“In the sometimes difficult situations which face your region, your pastoral ministry has numerous joys,” he reminded them. “Thus, welcome the new disciples who join you, having discovered the love of God made manifest in Jesus; it is a beautiful sign from the Lord. By showing their compatriots concern for the building up of a society always more fraternal and open, they demonstrate they are all children of one Father.”

Speaking of interreligious dialogue, Pope Francis said the “imagination of charity can open up countless ways of bringing the breath of the Gospel to the most diverse cultures and social sectors. As you are aware, mutual ignorance is the source of many misunderstandings and even conflicts.”

“A Church of encounter and dialogue, you also wish to be at the service of all without distinction,” he noted. “Often with modest means, you manifest the charity of Christ and all the Church towards the poor, the sick, the elderly, women in need, and the imprisoned. Thank you for your work in the assistance of the many immigrants from Africa who seek in your countries a place of transit or of welcome. Recognizing their human dignity and working to awaken consciences before so many human tragedies, you show God’s love for each one of them.”

Pope Francis also assured the bishops of the universal Church’s support. “You are in ‘the peripheries’, with your special service of making manifest the presence of Christ and his Church in this region. Your testimony of life in simplicity and poverty is an eminent sign for all the Church. Be assured that the Successor of Peter accompanies you on your rough road, and encourages you always to be men of hope.”

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VATICAN NEWS

New statutes for economic reform are in effect at the Vatican

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • March 2, 2015

Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, says Mass at the St. Lorenzo Youth Centre in Rome, Jan. 30, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Statutes of the Vatican Council for Economy, Secretariat for the Economy, and General Auditor went into effect March 1, having been signed Feb. 22 by Msgr. Bryan Wells, assessor of the Secretariat of State.

The text of the statutes have not been released by the Holy See Press Office, but can be seen in the Vatican’s Courtyard of San Damaso, where they are displayed.

The statutes of the Secretariat for the Economy stressed over which Vatican bodies the Secretariat exercises its functions of financial control and oversight, and clarified its relations with the Council of the Economy.

The statutes of the Council for the Economy clarify functions and competences of the Council. Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, one of the members of the Council for the Economy, told CNA Feb. 13, “the Council for the Economy will be mostly entrusted with providing financial policies that the Secretariat for Economy will then foster.”

The issuance of the statutes has been characterized by a harsh internal discussion, which also brought a leak of some of the Secretariat for the Economy’s receipts, targeting Cardinal Pell.

The Italian weekly L’Espresso dedicated last week two articles to the issue, headlined “Peccati cardinali” (Cardinal sins) and “I lussi del moralizzatore” (The luxuries of a moralizer).

According to L’Espresso, the Secretariat had spent around $560,000 between July last year and January this year, and alleged that Pope Francis had queried the purchase of a $5,000 kitchen unit with Cardinal Pell.

The leaks were faulted in an official statement Feb. 27 by Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office.

Fr. Lombardi said that “leaking confidential documents to the press for polemical ends or to foster conflict is not new, but is always to be strongly condemned, and is illegal.”

The director of the Holy See Press Office stressed that “the fact that complex economic or legal issues are the subject of discussion and diverse points of view should be considered normal. In light of the views expressed, the Pope issues guidelines, and everybody follows them.”

“The article makes direct personal attacks that should be considered undignified and petty,” Fr. Lombardi underscored.

He then said, “it is untrue that the Secretariat for the Economy is not carrying on its work with continuity and efficacy. In confirmation of this, the Secretariat is expected in the next few months to publish the financial statements for 2014 and the estimated budgets for 2015 for all of the entities of the Holy See, including the Secretariat itself.”

The following day, the Secretariat for the Economy rejected accusations that Cardinal Pell has made excessive expense claims, and dismissed as “completely false” the reports that Pope Francis has discussed the expenses with Cardinal Pell.

A spokesperson for the Secretariat for the Economy said that “since March 2014 when the Secretariat was initiated, the operational costs of the Secretariat, which include some initial set up costs, were in fact below the budget set when the office was established.”

The release also pointed out that “the Secretariat currently has twelve staff working on implementing new financial management routines to improve transparency and accountability. The Secretariat will shortly present to the Council for the Economy the Audited Financial Statements for 2014. This will include a detailed account of all Vatican entities, including the Secretariat for the Economy.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Satanism, Pompeii and the Rosary – a bizarre tale surrounds Francis’ next trip

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 3, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Nov. 26, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Later this month Pope Francis will head to Pompeii: a city which lays claim to the curious story of a former Satanist priest – now on the way to sainthood – and his miracle-working Marian devotion.

Blessed Bartolo Longo is considered the founder of modern Pompeii, which was established in 1891 after he commissioned the building of the city’s sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary.

The sanctuary is home to a miraculous image of Our Lady of the Rosary, which was given to Longo by his confessor, Father Alberto Radente, in 1875.

Originally born into a devout Roman Catholic family, Longo fell away from his faith while studying law in Naples in the 1860s – a time when the Catholic Church faced opposition from a nationalist movement fighting for Italian unification, and which viewed the Pope as an antagonist to their cause.

In addition to political problems, the Church was also fighting against the growing popularity of involvement in the Occult, which at that time had a strong presence in Naples.

Longo himself became involved in a Satanist cult, and eventually claimed to have been ordained as a Satanist priest.

However, after struggling with anxiety and depression, at times even suicidal thoughts, over the next few years, a university professor from his hometown urged Longo to abandon Satanism and introduced him to his future confessor, Fr. Radente.

Under Fr. Radente’s guidance Longo began praying the rosary and converted back to Christianity.

He developed a great devotion to the rosary, and became a third order Dominican in 1871, working to restore the faith of the people in Pompeii by promoting Marian devotion, particularly to the rosary.

The image of Our Lady of the Rosary that hangs in the sanctuary at Pompeii is a work from the school of Luca Giordano in the 17th century. It portrays Mary seated on a throne holding the child Jesus and handing a rosary to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, who are standing at her feet.

Originally an old, worn-out painting belonging to the Rosariello Convent in Naples, the image was delivered to Longo by way of a cart, which in those days were used to transport manure.

A few months after he received the image of Our Lady of the Rosary given to him by Fr. Radente, miracles started to happen.

The first miracle took place the same day Longo exposed the image to the public after scrounging funds for its restoration when 12-year-old Clorinda Lucarelli was completely healed of epileptic seizures, after being deemed incurable by distinguished doctors at the time.

Pope Paul VI later crowned the image in St. Peter’s Basilica, and it was restored again by the Vatican Museums in 2012.

Pompeii’s Archbishop, Tommaso Caputo, told CNA Feb. 28 that Longo “made an immense work of promoting devotion to the Virgin, inviting the faithful to pray to her so that she would spread her mercy.”

“And so it was. This is a testimony to the numerous offerings by faithful donors from the entire world in a sign of gratitude for received mercy.”

Longo died in Pompeii in 1926, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. He is known as the “Apostle of the Rosary.” His last words were: “My only desire is to see Mary who saved me and who will save me from the clutches of Satan.”

Pope Francis visit to the sanctuary will mark the third time a Pope has stopped to pray there, the first being St. John Paul II in 1979, followed by Benedict XVI in 2008.

Francis’ decision to stop at Pompeii’s renowned Marian shrine ahead of his March visit to Naples is a move the archbishop said shows the Pope’s devotion to Mary, and will root the trip in prayer.

“This seems to be a unique pilgrimage, from which this city of Mary will lead through the gateway of prayer.”

“The road that leads to Mary is a fertile land for every pontificate,” he said, noting that this is all the more true for Francis, “the Pope who does not take a step of his travels in the world without first relying on Mary.”

It has become a habit for the Pope to entrust all of his apostolic and pastoral visits to Mary. Each time he goes on a trip, Francis stops and prays at his favorite Roman parish – the Basilica of St. Mary Major – when he returns, before heading to the Vatican.

Before heading to Naples March 21, where he is scheduled to meet with the sick, youth, prisoners, priests and religious of the diocese, Francis will spend an estimated 30 minutes in Pompeii in order to pray at the Marian shrine.

Archbishop Caputo said that it is “a great joy” to welcome Pope Francis to his city, particularly because the pontiff hails from Argentina, where devotion to the Virgin of Pompeii is “very vivid.”

“We all know (Francis’) personal devotion to Mary, which has been manifested from the first moments of his election,” the archbishop noted.

One of the Pope’s greatest strengths is his love of praying the rosary, he said, noting how Francis has often referred to it as “the prayer that always accompanies my life, also the prayer of simplicity and of the saints and the prayer of my heart.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope slams culture of waste, says it’s ‘a mortal sin’ to discard elderly

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 4, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates Mass inside Manila’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Jan. 16, 2015. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Vatican City — In his general audience Pope Francis condemned modern society for silently disposing of the elderly, saying that a civilization which views them only as burdensome is ‘perverse’ and ill.

“It’s is a mortal sin to discard our elderly … The elderly are not aliens. We are them – in a short or in a long while we are inevitably them, even though we choose not to think about it,” the Pope told pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his March 4 general audience address.

“A society where the elderly are discarded carries within it the virus of death,” he said, and warned that if we do not learn to care for and respect our elderly, “we will be treated in the same way.”

He recounted the story of how he visited a home for the elderly while still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, recalling how during the visit he stopped in front of one of the residents and asked her how her children were doing.

When the woman gave a vague response, Francis asked if they visited often. When she said “yes, always,” the Pope said he questioned further, asking when they last came to see her.

The woman, he recalled, replied that the last time her children came was “At Christmas. It was August … Eight months without a visit from her children – this is a mortal sin.”

Pope Francis’ reflection on the elderly was part of his continued catechesis on the family, which he began last fall as a preparation for this October’s Synod of Bishops on the family. This week he focused on the role of grandparents.

“The disposable culture considers the elderly as a burden, a weight, since not only do they not produce, but they also constitute a burden and, although not openly, they are discarded,” he told pilgrims.

Many elderly people “fearfully live this situation of helplessness and abandonment,” he said, adding that a society “without proximity is a perverse society.”

In contemporary times people tend to live longer thanks to advances in medicine, he observed, but cautioned that the human heart hasn’t necessarily extended to embrace the years added to life.

“Often our societies not only fail to make room for the elderly, but even consider them a burden,” he said, explaining that the quality of a society can easily be evaluated by the way it treats its older members as well as the place it gives them in community life.

The Pope said this challenge is one particularly difficult for Western societies, who not only have larger aging populations, but are also marked by “a cult of youth, efficiency and profit which tends to discard everything not considered productive or useful.”

Due to their increased vulnerability and unique needs, the elderly, especially those who are ill or alone, require greater attention and care, he said.

However, rather than being a burden, such persons are what the Bible refers to as “a storehouse of wisdom,” the Pope said, and pointed to how the Church’s tradition has always placed great value on the elderly and devoted special attention to the final stage of life.

“For this reason a distant, indifferent and even contemptuous mentality toward the elderly cannot be tolerated.”

Pope Francis encouraged attendees to remember well that “where the elderly are not respected, the youth have no future,” and called for greater solidarity between generations.

He then asked for those present to remember all the elderly who are alone, sick, in need and dependent on others, praying that they would “feel the tenderness of the Father through the kindness and gentleness of all.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Saints in the Little Flower family grow as parents set for canonization

by Marta Jimenez and Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 4, 2015

Louis and Zelie Martin. (Public domain image)

Vatican City — Last week it was informally announced to journalists that the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, will be canonized this year in the same month as the synod on the family.

“Thanks to God in October two spouses will be canonized: the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux,” Angelo Amato Cardinal Amato said during a Feb. 27 encounter organized by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Entitled “What purpose do the Saints serve?” the event highlighted the importance of the holiness within the family.

Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, announced that Louis and Zelie Martin will be canonized in October of this year, the same month in which the Synod of Bishops on the family will take place in the Vatican.

“The saints are not only priests and religious, but also lay persons,” the cardinal said, referring to the French spouses.

The cardinal’s announcement comes a short time after Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger, who oversees the French diocese of Bayeuz-Lisieux, revealed his intention to open the cause of beatification for St. Therese’s older sister Leonia Martin.

Referred to by Bishop Boulanger as Therese’s “difficult” sister, Leonia was the third of Louis and Zelie’s nine children, and a member of the Order of the Visitation.

Louis and Zelie were beatified Oct. 19, 2008, by then-Pope Benedict XVI and their canonization will be the first of its kind in history, where a married couple are jointly proclaimed Saints together.

Their path to the altar has surpassed that of married couple Bl. Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, who were beatified together in October 2001.

Married in 1858 just 3 months after meeting each other, Louis and Zelie lived in celibacy for nearly a year, but eventually went on to have nine children. Four died in infancy, while the remaining five daughters entered religious life.

Both had previously attempted to enter the religious life themselves – Louis as a monk and Zelie a nun with the Order of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

Zelie was turned away due to respiratory problems and frequent headaches, while Louis was denied entry because he couldn’t speak Latin, which at that time was a requirement for entering the seminary. Louis then became a watchmaker, and Zelie a lace maker.

Known for living an exemplary life of holiness, the couple’s daily practices included Mass at 5:30 a.m., praying the Angelus and Vespers, resting on Sundays and fasting during Lent and Advent.

The couple would also invite poor people to dine with them in their home, and they frequently visited the elderly, thus teaching their children to treat the disadvantaged as equals.

Zelie died from cancer at the age of 46, leaving Louis to care for their five young daughters: Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine and Therese, who was only four at the time. Louis died in 1894 after suffering two strokes in 1889, followed by five years of serious drawn-out illness.

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VATICAN NEWS

Cardinal Pell’s Vatican economy office gets new statutes

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • March 4, 2015

Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, says Mass at the St. Lorenzo Youth Centre in Rome, Jan. 30, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Statutes for the Vatican’s three finanical oversight bodies were released earlier this week, largely consolidating the influence of the Secretariat for the Economy and its prefect, Cardinal George Pell.

Signed by Pope Francis Feb. 22 and having come into effect March 1, the statutes of the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy, and the Office for the General Auditor provided a legal framework to the three new Vatican offices.

The structure of Vatican finances are then shaped this way: the Holy Father is the supreme authority, and under him there is the Council for the Economy, which provides guidelines to the Secretariat for the Economy.

The Secretariat for the Economy will work as an oversight body to which all Vatican departments, as well as the Vatican City State administration, will submit their financial reports.

Aside them, there will be an office of the general auditor, which will be composed by three members and will audit all balance sheets.

As economic reform appears to continue the commitment to financial transparency started under Benedict XVI, a source in the Vatican financial branch explained to CNA March 4 that “what has changed is the benchmark.”

The source stressed that “before, there was not a Council for Economy meant to provide guidelines and policies.”

All the statutes came into force “ad experimentum,” and so it may be guessed that further modifications to the statutes will be made in the future.

The statutes of the Secretariat for the Economy stressed that the secretariat is “the dicastery of the Roman Curia with competence over the administrative and financial control and oversight over the Roman Curia dicasteries, the institutions connected or referred to the Holy See and the Vatican City State administration.”

In an unusual move for the Roman Curia, dominated as it is by the Italian language, the statutes confirm that English, too, will be a working language in the secretariat.

The statutes also underscore that the Secretariat for the Economy and Secretary of State join their efforts, but the Secretariat of State has “exclusive competence over the relations with States and other international subjects.”

According to the statute, the Secretariat for the Economy guarantees the autonomy of all Vatican entities and administrations.

This means that all the dicasteries will have their autonomy in managing their assets, but they will have to accurately report about their revenues and balance sheets to the Secretariat for the Economy, according to international standards.

The Secretariat for the Economy is composed of two sections, one “for control and oversight,” and the other an “administrative section”; and each of these sections will be headed by a prelate secretary.

The first sections controls and oversees all activities concerning financial planning, expenditures, preventive and final balance sheets, investments, management of human, financial and material resources of the entities under the control of the Secretariat.

The second section will provide “guidelines and procedures” to optimize resources, cut expenditures and rationalize expenses.

As the Secretariat for the Economy had enrolled the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See’s ordinary section, it will not manage real estate, as was initially previewed.

According to the source “there had been a certain discussion whether managing real estate may bear a conflict of interest for the Secretariat, since it is responsible for oversight.”

In the end, this function will be returned to another Vatican department.

There are at the moment two options: the establishment a brand new department to manage APSA real estate, or the returning of the management to APSA itself.

More will be understood in May, when it is likely that new statutes of APSA will be provided by the Council for the Economy.

The statutes of this latter describe the Council as a “body with competences to oversee the structures and the financial activities of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia and of the Vatican City State administration.”

The functions of the Council will be those of controlling the preventive, final and consolidate annual balance sheet of the dicasteries and to forward them to the Pope for approval. The Council will meet four times a year and will not be able to make any legislative change on financial matters, though its opinion may be influential.

The statutes of the general auditor also came into force March 1. The Auditor will be sided by the “adjunct auditors,” so that they can be more independent.

As they provide a legal framework, the statutes do not mention the establishment of a Vatican Asset Management, that is, a central office to manage Vatican investments.

In fact, the VAM is “still an idea,” that has not been accomplished or completely designed. According to the source, the VAM will be entrusted by the Vatican bank to invest part of the money deposited in its accounts.

During May, the Council for Economy should draft the new statutes for APSA and outline a new shape of Vatican finances.

As the Secretariat for the Economy has already taken over most of the functions of the Prefecture for Economic affairs, it is likely that the Prefecture will be then suppressed.

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VATICAN NEWS

Abandonment is the greatest suffering of the elderly, Pope says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 5, 2015

Pope Francis greets attendees at an audience March 29, 2014. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis said Thursday that when it comes to caring for the elderly, palliative care is necessary because it counters a mentality of utility that often leaves elderly persons marginalized and alone.

“Abandonment is the most serious ‘illness’ of the elderly, and also the greatest injustice they can suffer: those who helped us to grow must not be abandoned when they need our help, our love and our tenderness,” the Pope said March 5.

With its emphasis on alleviating the suffering of the sick and accompanying them with tenderness for the duration of their illness, palliative care serves as a crucial support for the elderly, “who, for reasons of age, often receive less attention from curative medicine, and are often abandoned.”

The Pope’s words came in an audience with members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who are gathered in Rome March 5-6 for their annual assembly, which this year reflected on the theme: “Assisting the elderly and palliative care.”

What palliative care offers as a unique and essential element in the medical field is the recognition of “the value of the person,” Francis said.

He noted that many elderly are either “left to die or made to die” due to their physical or social condition, and stressed that all types of medicine have the societal responsibility to bear witness to the honor due not only to elderly persons, but to each and every human being.

All medical knowledge, Francis said, “is truly science, in its most noble sense, only if it finds its place as a help in view of the good of man, a good that is never achieved by going ‘against’ his life and dignity.”

The Pope also emphasized that the criteria governing the actions of doctors must not be limited to medical evidence and efficiency, nor to the rules of heath care systems and economic profit.

“A state cannot think of making a profit with medicine. On the contrary, there is no more important duty for a society than safeguarding the human person.”

Palliative care then, bears witness to the fact that the human person always has value, even when suffering from age and illness, the Pope continued.

The human person, he said, “is a good in and of himself and for others, and is loved by God. For this reason, when life becomes very fragile and the end of earthly existence approaches, we feel the responsibility to assist and accompany the person in the best way.”

Francis then praised the efforts made on the part of those who work in the field of palliative care, and encouraged both professionals and students to specialize in the topic.

Although this type of care is not geared toward saving lives, it centers on the equally important recognition of the value of the human person, he said, and encouraged those working in the field to carry out their tasks with an attitude of service.

“It is this capacity for service to the life and dignity of the sick, even when they are old, that is the measure of the true progress of medicine, and of all society,” the Pope observed, and repeated an appeal made by St. John Paul II to “Respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life!”

However, while palliative care is necessary, it does not remove the need for the family in caring for the elderly, Francis added.

“The elderly, first of all, need the care of family members – whose affection cannot be replaced by the most efficient structures or the most competent and charitable healthcare workers,” he said.

When family members are not able to offer the needed care, or if the illness of their elderly loved one is advanced or terminal, then the “truly human” assistance offered by palliative care is a good option so long as it “supplements and supports” the care already provided by family members, he said.

Pope Francis closed his speech by encouraging those present to continue advancing in their studies and research, so that “the work of the promotion and defense of life might be ever more efficacious and fruitful.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Church unity is found in Christ, Eucharist, Pope Francis tells bishops

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2015

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

Vatican City — Pope Francis on Wednesday reminded bishops to turn their sights to the Eucharist – rather than themselves – as the source of unity for the Church.

“The bishop does not gather people around himself, or his own ideas, but around Christ, present in his word and in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood,” the Pope said Mar. 4 during an audience with bishops taking part this week in a gathering of the Focolare movement.

“The Bishop is the principle of unity in the Church, but this does not take place without the Eucharist,” he said; otherwise, “unity would lose its divine pole of attraction, and would be reduced a solely human, psychological, and sociological dynamic.”

Some 60 prelates from around the world have been meeting in Castel Gandolfo Mar. 3-6 for the 38th Conference of Bishop Friends of the Focolare Movement, which is centered on the theme: “Eucharist, mystery of Communion.” The Focolare Movement was founded in 1943 to promote the ideals of unity and universal fraternity.

Representatives from what Pope Francis described as the “bloody lands” of Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine, where citizens are facing severe political and religiously-motivated violence, were among those present at the gathering at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

Greeting these participants in particular, Pope Francis offered them encouragement that, through Jesus in the Eucharist, they might have the “strength to move forward in faith and hope.”

“In the daily celebration of the Mass we are united to you, we pray for you offering the Sacrifice of Christ; and from it the many initiatives of solidarity in favour of your Churches gain their strength and significance.”

Focolare’s president and co-president, Maria Voce and Jesús Morán, respectively, were also present at the audience.

The charism of the Focolare Movement is “strongly anchored to the Eucharist,” Pope Francis told participants gathered in the audience hall.

“The Eucharist guarantees that Christ be at the center,” with the Holy Spirit directing “our steps and initiatives” toward “encounter and communion,” he said.

“In the school of Jesus … the Bishop gathers the sheep entrusted to him with the offering of his life, himself taking on a form of Eucharistic existence,” Pope Francis continued. “And so the Bishop, conformed to Christ, becomes a living Gospel, becomes Bread broken for the life of many with his preaching and his witness. He who is nourished with faith in Christ the living Bread is urged on by his love to give his life for the brothers and sisters, to go out, to go to meet those who are marginalized and despised.”

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VATICAN NEWS

A man captured by Christ: The legacy of Father Giussani 10 years on

by Elise Harris and Angela Ambrogetti (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2015

1960. Varigotti (SV). Father Luigi Giussani with students during the Tower Ray. (Communion and Liberation Official Site)

Vatican City — Ten years after the death of Father Luigi Giussani, founder of the global fraternity Communion and Liberation, the priest’s life continues to shed light on man’s deepest questions, his biographer says.

What still strikes the world about Fr. Giussani is “his humanity, definitely,” Alberto Savorana told CNA Feb. 27.

“A humanity that since he was a little boy had been seized by a very important encounter on a day that he had later described as ‘the beautiful day.’”

This encounter, he said, “was the encounter with Christ, who for him was not merely a name, not just an object of devotion as for a devout man of the past, but was a presence he recognized as the most adequate for his young life.”

Savorana explained that it was in Christ that Fr. Giussani found the answer to the questions he had been pondering on truth, beauty and happiness since he was 13 years old and an avid reader of the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi.

For Giussani, Christ was not only the answer to these questions, but a faithful companion throughout life’s journey, and was someone who was able “to unveil the secret of hearts.”

Savorana is the official biographer of Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation (CL). He published the biography, entitled “The Life of Fr. Giussani,” in 2013.

Fr. Giussani was born Oct. 15, 1922, in the Italian city of Desio, located just north of Milan, which is the second most populous city Italy.

The movement traces its roots back to his close ties with the Catholic “Gioventù Studentesca,” meaning “Student Youth,” group that was born in 1954 at Berchet High School in Milan, where Giussani was a teacher.

Composed of mainly lay persons, Communion and Liberation also has members who are priests, religious, and consecrated lay men and women, who are called “Memores Domini.”

When Fr. Giussani died in 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was a close friend and confidant of Giussani, delivered the homily at his funeral.

In honor of the anniversary of Fr. Giusanni’s death, thousands of members from across the world are flocking to the Vatican for a March 6 audience with Pope Francis, to be held in St. Peter’s Square. Roughly 70-80,000 people are expected to attend.

In CNA’s interview with Savorana, the biographer touches on the most striking aspects of Fr. Giussani and his legacy, the essence of Communion and Liberation, as well as the priest’s friendship with Cardinal Ratzinger, now retired pontiff Benedict XVI.

Savorana is currently in charge of Public Relations for Communion and Liberation, and he knows the movement from the inside.

Please read below the full interview with Alberto Savorana, conducted by CNA’s Angela Ambrogetti:

Q: Alberto Savorana, what is striking about Fr. Giussani’s personality nowadays?

His humanity, definitely. A humanity that since he was a little boy had been seized by a very important encounter on a day that he had later described as “the beautiful day.” It was the encounter with Christ, who for him was not merely a name, not just an object of devotion as for a devout man of the past, but was a presence he recognized as the most adequate for his young life during 1930s and 1940s, because in Christ he had found the answer to the questions that he was impressed by when he was 13 and used to read the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. Questions on truth, on beauty, on happiness. What is striking about Fr. Giussani was this: he was a man for whom Christ was a trustworthy companion on the path of life, able to unveil the secret of hearts. For this reason, Fr. Giussani’s gaze was a gaze that valued everyone he met, because he was introduced to the possibility of a more human, more beautiful, more appealing human life … a human life that better fit the needs of human existence.

Q: Not a doctrine, but the encounter with a real person. Ten years after Fr. Giussani’s death, what still remains of him in Communion and Liberation, and how has the movement developed?

His legacy is the path that he indicated to us: the possibility of making a human journey, as he did. Because Fr. Giussani did not explain Christianity — he incarnated Christianity, he lived it and continually reflected in his experience and he then communicated it as if it was a possibility for everyone. What remains today is the guidance of Fr. Carron – the priest that Fr. Giussani had called from Spain to be his successor in leading the movement. Fr. Giussani’s legacy is also that of communicating the possibility to re-live the same Christian experience which fascinated him, and the Christian experience carried on by Fr. Giussani is one that came to him from tradition: that Christ responds to the needs of men. Because of this, Fr. Giussani’s relevance lies in the fact that he stressed that if man does not cultivate his humanity, if he does not take seriously the inner questions of his heart, he will find it difficult to find an answer in Christ and in Christians. If instead man renounces himself, he can find someone whose changed life appears desirable. At the 1987 Synod, Fr. Giussani said that contemporary man - as it is said in Benedict XVI’s encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est’ - does not need the constant repetition of the announcement (of the Gospel), but to meet people who are so changed by the announcement of Christ that he desires to live as they do.

Q: From “Gioventù Studentesca” (the first seed of Communion and Liberation) to the Compagnia delle Opere (CL economic branch) through the Fraternità San Carlo (the CL seminary) … the story of Communion of Liberation is a longstanding one, which deals with both spiritual and temporal issues … what is, in the end, Communion and Liberation?

To say it with one only word, CL is a life. It is a phenomenon of life that tends to invest in all areas of human existence, because it is a Christian proposal which embraces the whole life of the human being – from the most simple and elementary level of life to the life of society and of the world. This is the challenge Fr. Giussani pursued his whole life: that of nurturing adults who are so certain that Jesus is the response to the problems of many that they live every aspect of their life based on this certainty – from culture, to education, to politics … sure, these people assume a responsibility and run the risk in every human effort of making mistakes. Fr. Giussani used to say that our efforts are “ironic efforts” since we don’t claim to have the automatic answer to every problem, but try with whoever is willing to find a way to make life more human and more adequate.

Q: The last question is a must: the relationship between Fr. Giussani and Joseph Ratzinger. The then-Cardinal Ratzinger celebrated Fr. Giussani’s funeral, and in his first encyclical as Pope Benedict XVI, we can feel the effect of the many meetings between Fr. Giussani and Ratzinger. Does that relationship still tell you something particular today?

Definitely. And I believe it is also meaningful for many Christians today and for Pope Francis himself, who doesn’t keep secret the bond and affection he has for his predecessor. Fr. Giussani for decades was close to then-Cardinal Ratzinger. This relationship was never flaunted, and was never used for purposes other than those of the mutual deepening of their experience of faith. Cardinal Ratzinger was a person which Fr. Giussani turned to each time he had doubts about what he said to the movement, about what he had communicated as the Christian message. Fr. Giussani would come to Rome, meet with Cardinal Ratzinger and ask him – whom he felt was a safe reference point for his life – for an opinion, a piece of advice, a correction. And this makes affection to the Pope-emeritus even greater, who, with his gesture of renunciation, made clear to everyone his attachment only to the figure of Christ.

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WORLD NEWS

Is there a ‘roadmap to happiness’ in marriage? New video series says yes

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 1, 2015

(John Hope via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Rome, Italy — With the family in the spotlight ahead of the Church’s upcoming Synod in October, one video initiative is confronting today’s marriage crisis head-on by teaching couples to discover its beauty.

“We wanted to develop a program that is going to meet (couples) where they are at, inspire them to God’s beautiful plan for love, for marriage, where we are called to find our happiness,” said Dr. Edward Sri, theology professor at the Augustine Institute, and the content director for Beloved: Finding Happiness in Marriage.

Released on Feb. 12, the 12-part video series produced by the Denver-based Augustine Institute is designed to aid in marriage preparation for engaged couples, as well as offer marriage enrichment for those already living out the sacrament.

One of the goals of “Beloved” is to show that the Church’s teaching on marriage is “not just some imposition from the Vatican,” but “the road map to happiness,” which “corresponds to the heart`s deepest desires,” Sri told CNA Feb. 12 in Rome, where the initiative was being presented.

The “Beloved” series – launched between the two Vatican Synods on the Family and just months ahead of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia – comes at a time of “great crisis of marriage and family life,” Sri said.

There are “many people that are in marriages and wanting to find happiness in this wonderful vocation, but not quite sure how to live it out,” he explained.

The pastoral care of married couples is among the many topics to be explored during the upcoming World Meeting of Families in September, as well as the Synod on the Family in October, which will have as its theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world.”

The “Beloved” series is divided into two main parts consisting of six episodes each: “The Mystery and Meaning of Marriage,” designed for engage couples, and “Living Marriage” for those already married.

By exploring Scripture, tradition and Church teaching, the various episodes touch on themes such as “Does marriage matter?”, “Real challenges, real love,” and “Building a thriving marriage.” The series is the latest installment of the Augustine Institute’s faith formation program, “Symbolon: The Catholic Faith Explained.”

Dr. Pia de Solenni, associate dean for the Augustine Institute’s Orange County campus and one of the experts involved in the series’ production, likened the importance of providing marriage programs for engaged and married couples to running a marathon.

“When you set out to run a marathon, you don’t just run a marathon. You train for it,” she told EWTN News Nightly. “We want to offer people the training, or – in a healthcare context – preventative care. Wellness care, so that they can begin to enter into good marriages, develop good marriages, instead of reaching a crisis point.”

One of the crises facing marriage today is its loss of value in the eyes of young people, said Augustine Institute president Dr. Tim Grey.

With statistics showing a 60 percent in the number of marriages taking place since 1970, he explained, many young couples after the sexual revolution have come to see marriage as “burdensome,” and are unable to recognize its value and meaning.

“This is the task of the new evangelization,” Grey said. “One of the foremost tasks we as Catholics face is showing people the dignity and meaning and importance of marriage for finding happiness and human love.”

Citing the words of Pope Francis, he said that “the world needs a witness of joy and love,” adding that “marriage is the heart of that.”

“If marriage is not healthy, then Christians are not going to be able to give a witness of joy and love to the world. But, if marriage is lived as God designs it, as God planned for it, we will be witnesses of joy and love to the world, and there’s nothing the world needs more.”

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WORLD NEWS

Karachi Church urges faithful to consider God’s plans during Lent – not their own

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • March 3, 2015

Launch of the Lenten seminar held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Karachi, Pakistan, Feb. 21, 2015. (Fr. Arthur Charles/Catechetical Center Karachi)

Karachi, Pakistan — The Archdiocese of Karachi, based in Pakistan’s largest city, held a Lenten seminar last month to help the faithful there revitalize their faith life and to meaningfully prepare for Easter.

“The participants were invited much more intensely to recognize the great mercy of God and the great love of God; to consider God’s plans for them, rather than focus on what they could do during the 40 days of Lent,” Fr. Arthur Charles, director of the Karachi archdiocese’s Catechetical Center, told CNA Feb. 28.

“The event was envisioned to explain the meaning and significance of the Lenten season, and above all to educate and enrich the spirituality of the faithful,” he added.

The Feb. 21 event themed “Jesus Christ died so that we may live” drew scores of people from across the archdiocese to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi’s Saddar neighborhoods. The seminar was organized by the Catechetical Center together with St. Paul’s parish.

Fr. Charles explained that at the core of the program was the concept of “defeating evil, the evil-one (Satan), and how to extend God’s love to others.”

Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, and his predecessor Archbishop Evarist Pinto, together with the priests, religious and laity joined in singing Lenten hymns led by St. Paul’s Parish Choir, and a prayer session led by Shauket Barkat, a lay member of the same parish.

Archbishop Coutts congratulated the efforts and in his message to the participants said, “This programme of the (Catechetical) Centre has called us to use the season of Lent to examine our relationship with God as we prepare for Easter.”

Among the speakers, Saleem Edward, a catechist from St. Paul’s parish, presented a reflection based on the Gospels according to Matthew and John stressing man’s redemption for sin for eternal life. He emphasized that “Christ came to save his people from their sins.”

Edward said: “Christ’s death was designed to provide for more than forgiveness of past sins … the ultimate cleansing of life from every sinful practice was the goal of his earthly mission.”

Fr. Charles said the high note of the program was a short play written and directed by Sunil Michael, an active member of St. Paul’s. The play portrayed an array of current situations in the country and life of the Church that paradoxically struggle between good and evil in the society.

Sunil Michael himself portrayed ‘the adversary (Devil), which enthralled the people with the message that evil can never overcome good, and that God is all powerful over Satan.”

Asif Nazir, a catechist, recounted to CNA the importance of short plays as a medium that easily connects a message to the lives of the people.

“Plays and skits have a tremendous effect to capture and educate the audience, and therefore they are a popular medium in helping children and village folk, especially the uneducated, in the dioceses,” he said. “The interpreted message touches each person and lingers in their mind, which helps in converting their heart.”

Archbishop Emeritus Pinto said that “As portrayed tremendously well in the short play … our Lenten practices should prepare us to reject Satan, all his works, and all his empty promises and to make a deep act of faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

He added that Lent has a “radically baptismal” character and that the “renewal of our baptismal promises is the goal of Lent, and all our Lenten activities should move us toward this goal.”

Fr. Charles thanked the community of St. Paul’s for their support, including in particular its priests, Fr. Nazar Nawab and Fr. Asif Saleem.

Fr. Charles concluded: “Yes, Jesus Christ died for us and we must be thankful beyond measure; however, he died so that we may live, not just live but to live for him, through our words, actions, thoughts and being.”

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WORLD NEWS

Indian diocese joins with Pope Francis in praying for persecuted Christians

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • March 3, 2015

in India’s Miao diocese pray in a candlelight vigil for persecuted Christians in the Middle East, March 1, 2015. (Fr. Felix Anthony)

Miao, India — A remote diocese under the shadow of the Himalayas joined hands with Pope Francis’ prayer for persecuted Christians in the Middle East on Sunday through a special candlelight prayer service.

In the wake of the rising persecution against Christians all over the world and especially the dramatic violence targeted towards Christians population in Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis called on all the faithful to offer prayers during his Sunday Angelus on March 1.

Responding to Pope Francis’ call for solidarity and prayer, the Diocese of Miao, a remote tribal diocese located in India’s northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state, joined to pray with the Pope at Christ the Light Shrine, Miao.

“The faithful in the Diocese of Miao and people of other faiths joined the Pope’s prayer with a special candlelight prayer service, denouncing the horrifying atrocities of despicable torture against the human race,” Fr. Felix Anthony, the Miao diocese’s head of communications, told CNA March 2.

“Everyone present was deeply moved with tears to hear about the heinous cruelty committed against the Christians, and invoked God to stop these incessant, inhumane, and horrifying crimes that are committed against Christians,” Fr. Anthony said.

Mr. Likhum, a layman and member of the parish pastoral council in Miao, said that “I feel deeply disturbed by what is happening to our brothers and sisters across the world and I join with our Pope to pray for them. I hope it ends soon.”

Another parish member, Mrs. Mossang said, “The Church is going through a difficult time; this reminds me of what happened during the Apostles’ time. God has always answered our prayers and I am sure he will help us all.”

“I thank Pope Francis for helping us to express our solidarity with our persecuted brothers and sisters,” Mrs. Mossang said.

Fr. Anthony said the faithful in the Diocese of Miao, under the pastoral guidance of Bishop George Pallipparmabil, has also been praying fervently for the protection of the Pope, for his good health and his safety.

“During the month of January the children in the Diocese recited 22,064,841 Hail Marys for the same intention,” the priest added.

After his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis asked the faithful present to keep praying for Christians in Iraq and Syria, who continue to be persecuted and killed by Islamic State. Pope Francis said that he, along with other members of the Curia, offered the last Mass of his retreat last week for the Christians in the Middle East.

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How Cardinal Tagle thinks the Church can better reach Asian cultures

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 3, 2015

Cardinal Luis Tagle takes part in a conference at the Pontifical Council For Laity in Rome on Feb. 6, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — Asia poses unique challenges to the spreading of the Catholic faith, and the Church must respond by evangelizing through personal encounters, insisted the leading Filipino cardinal.

“We have to admit, even up to now, in some parts of Asia Christianity is perceived as alien to Asian cultures,” Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila said at a Mar. 2 lecture at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

“It is part of the mission of the Church in Asia to show the richness of the Gospel in its universally valid truths, values, open to all human beings. But this should happen in human interactions,” he continued. “Evangelization can never neglect concrete men and women.”

Tagle delivered the annual Cardinal Dearden Lecture at Catholic University, speaking about “Gaudium et Spes After 50 Years: an Asian Reception.” That document, which translates as “Joy and Hope,” was one of the four main Apostolic Constitutions of Vatican II and focused on the Church and the modern world.

The lecture honored Cardinal Dearden of Detroit for his work in spreading the teachings of Vatican II.

Pope Francis’ “culture of encounter” is crucial to Asia, where Christianity is a tiny minority and looked upon with suspicion by many, Cardinal Tagle explained.

Although Asia is the largest continent and holds two-thirds of the world’s population, Christianity makes up a meager three percent of the populace, and half of that is in the Philippines, he said.

Poverty is rampant. Asia is filled with “teeming masses of the poor” which include migrants, victims of human trafficking and sex tourism, and persons smuggled for cheap labor, he added.

“In some parts of Asia you have refugee camps that no country claims, so you have stateless people. No country wants to protect them and their rights,” the cardinal said. This would include the massive Rohingya Muslim population in Western Burma, not recognized as citizens and thus not legally protected. An estimated 300,000 live in refugee camps in surrounding countries, according to the State Department.

Asian culture has been shaped by the “ancient religions,” many of which are older than Christianity itself, which is seen as “alien,” the cardinal continued.

Therefore, in light of Gaudium et Spes and its focus on the Church in the modern world, Cardinal Tagle proposed evangelization that above all is a person-to-person encounter. This is easier said than done, he admitted, in cultures that persecute Christianity.

When a government enacts an anti-Christian law, for example, “Will we continue dialoguing?” he asked.

Cardinal Tagle drew some inspiration from Pope Francis’ recent visit to the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Francis “pays attention to the reality,” and this is expressed in his “attentiveness to human beings,” the cardinal explained, sharing the story of Francis listening to victims of a recent typhoon describe the loss of their loved ones or their own corporal suffering from the storm.

Cardinal Tagle heard Francis elicit small groans as he listened, a sign that he was actively sharing in their suffering and expressing solidarity with them.

“The poor have a wisdom unique to them,” the cardinal said, adding that if one is humble he will listen to and learn from the poor and the suffering. Sometimes the Church does not have an answer for suffering, but he quoted Pope Francis that sometimes tears are the only answer.

One needs go no further than a shopping mall to see the poverty of loneliness in the modern world, he concluded, whether it occurs through one’s “excessive protection of privacy” or a “lack of trust” between persons. “We must create the conditions of trust,” he insisted, of “fraternity” and “sorority.”

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A global problem: Anti-Christian harassment around the world

by CNA/EWTN News • March 3, 2015

Stanford Church in Storm. (Trey Ratcliff via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Christian groups lead the world in a sobering statistic: they suffer harassment in more countries than any other religious group.

“The world’s two largest religious groups, Christians and Muslims, continued to be harassed in the most countries, and there was a notable increase in the number of countries in which Jews and adherents of folk religions were harassed,” the Pew Research Center said in a Feb. 26 report on trends in religion-related restrictions and hostilities.

Christian groups suffered social or government harassment in 102 countries in 2013, while Muslims faced similar problems in 99 countries. Jewish groups faced harassment in 77 countries, a seven-year high.

Pew defined harassment in various ways, encompassing physical assault; arrest and detention; desecration of holy sites; discrimination in employment, education and housing; and verbal assaults.

The number of countries with a “very high” level of government restrictions now stands at 18, down from 24, though Turkey and Singapore are new to the list. Some evangelical Protestants and Mormons say they suffer government surveillance and police interference in their activities in Turkey. Singapore continues to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Unification Church, and severely restricts some religious groups including the Falun Gong movement.

While religion-related social hostilities are down slightly from a 2012 peak, high social or political hostility towards religion is present in almost 40 percent of the world’s countries, Pew found.

Another 17 countries show “very high” social hostility levels, the report said. Social harassment is a problem for Muslim groups in 84 countries, a problem for Jewish groups in 72 countries, and a problem for Christian groups in 71 countries.

Tanzania and the Central African Republic were new to the list of countries with very high religion-related social hostilities. The Central African Republic is suffering sectarian violence between Muslim rebel groups and Christian vigilante groups, with hundreds of people dead and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

The Ivory Coast was one of 12 countries where social hostilities significantly declined. Pew cited as cause for the decline the joint statements from Christian and Muslim leaders who promoted national reconciliation and religious tolerance and interfaith events that emphasized national unity.

Pew researchers drew on publicly available information sources including the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and the Council of the European Union. The analysis focused on the year 2013 because it was the latest year information was available.

North Korea was not included in the report because independent observers lack access to the country, which is considered one of the most repressive in the world.

The year 2015 marks the seventh year Pew has produced a report on government restrictions and hostilities related to religion.

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Seven challenges for the Mexican Church and the family

by CNA/EWTN News • March 4, 2015

(Saúl Trabanca via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Mexico City, Mexico — On the Day of the Family, celebrated in Mexico March 1, Cardinal Norberto Rivera laid out seven challenges the Church must face to help the family authentically be what every person truly needs.

In his homily during Sunday Mass at the Mexico City Cathedral, Cardinal Rivera explained that, “the family has to be able to find the meaning of its vocation and its mission in today’s society,” according to the archdiocesan communications office.

The cardinal drew attention to the problem of loneliness, “which cannot be cured automatically,” but rather “requires recommitting oneself to establishing the links between persons and the links with God in order to come out of this situation.”

He laid out seven primary challenges facing the Church as it seeks to evangelize to families in the modern world: Guiding engaged couples in their marriage preparation; Staying close to couples in the early years of marriage; Concern for those living in a civil but not sacramental marriage or cohabiting; Care for single parent families and those wounded by separation and divorce; Pastoral care for persons with a homosexual orientation; Promoting the transmission of life amid the drop in the birth rate; and Supporting the family in the education of children and in evangelization.

These challenges may seem overwhelming, Cardinal Rivera said. “But we are not alone. God is with us. He guides us. He gave us his son in the family of Nazareth so that we can always walk with hope.”

The mission of the Church is to give hope to families, the cardinal emphasized, and Christ gives us good reason for this hope.

“On one hand Jesus reaffirms God’s ideal plan from the beginning that allows us to look with hope at one’s own marriage and one’s own home with the certainty that sin and evil are not the masters over marriage, but rather love and what is good, shown forth in the indissoluble union between man and woman that should not be understood as a ‘yoke’ but rather a ‘gift’ made to the persons united in matrimony.”

In addition, he continued, “we can never leave aside the fact that Jesus looked upon the men and women he met with love and tenderness, accompanying their steps with truth, patience and mercy, while announcing what is required for the Kingdom of God.”

In conclusion, Cardinal Rivera encouraged the faithful to look at Jesus to experience “the certainty that even though many around us proclaim the death of the family, we lay our foundation on the love that raised Jesus from the dead. And this fills us with hope.”

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Italy’s bishops help the poor through a ‘Loan for Hope’ microcredit

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • March 5, 2015

(fsecart via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Rome, Italy — The Italian bishops conference relaunched on Monday its microcredit initative for families and small businesses, a program first begun in 2009 in response to the global financial crisis.

In the last four years, the “Loan for Hope” program has distributed more than $29 million in loans to families and small companies in Italy. It is carried out through the Intesa San Paolo Bank, on behalf of the Italian bishops and Caritas Italy.

“We have provided loans to about 4,500 families, and 15 percent of them were small family companies or cooperative companies who got loans of $30,000 in order to replace furniture or write off the red of balance sheets which occurred with the economic crisis,” Fr. Andrea La Regina of Caritas Italy told CNA Feb. 27.

The Italian Bishops conference employed an endowment of about $30 million, coming from a national collection of money launched in 2009 that collected some $2 million dollars, and part of the fund of the Italian state tax for religions.

In Italy, eight per thousand of the tax income may be delivered to the Catholic Church, to other religious confessions that have an agreement with the Italian State, or to Italian State itself.

The Italian Bishops Conference uses one-third of the income of the tax for development projects in developing countries or to deliver money to missions.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, president of the Italian Bishops conference, told CNA Feb. 27 that “we bishops touch with our very hands how families are increasingly becoming poorer, while young people live the experience of feeling useless because they are unemployed and cannot see any future perspective.”

Cardinal Bagnasco said the the “loan for hope” was designed “in order to build a bridge for families living difficulties, so that they could go beyond the crisis.”

Local branches of Caritas delivered the loans to small companies and families, and “the loans have always been returned,” Fr. La Regina said.

The loan program was relaunched March 2 with another $30 million endowment that the bank hopes to multiply to $130 million through investments in the coming two years.

There will be a “social credit” for poor families, which consists in a loan of up to $8,300 for families; and a “credit to build companies,” for small start up companies, which will be a maximum of $28,000.

The initiative of the Italian Bishops Conference is just the most comprehensive of a series of initiatives put into effect by Italian dioceses in the course of recent years to help families get out of the economic crisis – for example, the Archdiocese of Milan launched in 2008 a “Family and Job Fund” financed with $1.3 million of funds of the archdiocese.

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For Middle East Christians, UN indifference is deadly

by CNA/EWTN News • March 5, 2015

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

Madrid, Spain — Inaction on the part of the United Nations and international community toward the brutality of ISIS has drawn criticism from a refugee and scholar who says the lives of Christians are at risk.

Raad Salam Naaman, a Chaldean Catholic and professor of Islamic Studies, sees a “totally deplorable and very strange” attitude on the part of the United Nations and the international community in the face of “the murders and crimes” of the Islamic State.

He told CNA that the international community is acting “as if Middle Eastern Christians mean nothing to them,” despite their sufferings under the violent Islamic radicals.

“They don’t care about the expansion and growth of this group,” said Naaman, who teaches Arabic philology and Islamic Studies at Complutense University of Madrid.

Born near Mosul, the professor has lived as a political refugee in Spain since 1991.

For Naaman, the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, is not a state but a “band of murderers and thieves.”

He charged that the group is “the fruit of the so called ‘Arab Spring,’ one of the many mistakes made by the West.” He said the Arab Spring uprisings “aided these revolts and protests pulled off by Islamic radicals.” Many of the radicals had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and helped overthrow governments run by secular Arab dictators, he argued.

The year 2010 marked the beginning of several popular “Arab Spring” uprisings that has toppled the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Political instability and sometimes violence followed. An uprising against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad unleashed a civil war now in its fourth year.

There is continued political instability in Iraq, which has worsened since the withdrawal of American troops between 2010 and 2011.

The Islamic State group, especially active in Iraq and Syria, witnessed significant successes in 2014 when it took the major city of Mosul. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, then proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in its territory in both countries. The group has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and persecuted Christians, other religious minorities, and Muslims they consider to be apostate. The group has enslaved women, murdered children, and destroyed churches.

It has encouraged radical groups such as the Libyan group Ansar al Sharia to join them. The Libyan group in February released a video of the beheading of 20 Coptic Christians from Egypt and a non-Christian from Chad.

Naaman said the Islamic State group “threatens our Western civilization and is a danger for the future of our human rights, for liberty and democracy which western society was able to attain after centuries of struggle.”

He said that the West should “correct its mistakes” and eliminate “this radical gang of Islamic murderers.”

In that respect, the Iraqi refugee echoes the call of the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who warned that rise of the caliphate in Libya demands “quick intervention.”

However, the cardinal said any military intervention should be “under the auspices of the U.N.”

Naaman said that bombing Islamic State targets will not eliminate them. He said the U.S. and the U.N. need to call for a U.N.-led coalition to attack the group and its followers “on the ground, and with a resolute army.”

“That is the only solution,” he said.

Naaman’s statements came as the Islamic State perpetrated a mass kidnapping of more than 200 Assyrian Christians in northwestern Syria. While at least 19 of the victims were released, it is feared the rest will be executed en masse.

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After devastating floods, Malawi bishops urge disaster management policies

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2015

A house damaged by January flooding in Malawi’s Phalombe district. (Lameck Masina/VOA News)

Dedza, Malawi — In light of heavy flooding in the country earlier this year, Malawi’s bishops have held a workshop for journalists to help them explore climate challenges and to mobilize public policy changes.

“Journalists drawn from various media houses in Malawi were sensitized on climate resilience policies, which includes a right-to-food bill, National Disaster Risk Management Policy, and national climate change,” Prince Henderson, communication officer of the Malawi bishops conference, told CNA March 3.

The Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (Cadecom) recently held the Feb. 19-20 workshop for journalists in Salima, a city in central Malawi located 60 miles north of Dedza. Participants came from Nation Publication Limited, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Zodiak Broadcasting Station, Radio Maria, Times Group, Luntha Television and Radio Alinafe.

Cadecom is the Malawi bishops’ relief and development wing, and the workshop was directed by its secretary, Carstens Mulume. He explained that the event was meant to equip journalists with knowledge on climate resilience policies so they can raise awareness among the public and stakeholders, and is meant to help Malawi increase its food security and resilience against climate shocks.

Yusuf Mkungula, another Cadecom official, said that Malawi’s disaster risk management “is a developmental issue for reducing socioeconomic and environmental disaster losses for economic growth.”

He added that recently, environment and climate change have emerged as “major development issues that are severely impacting people’s livelihoods … evidence in Malawi shows that the most serious ones have been prolonged dry spells, seasonal droughts, intense rainfall, riverine floods and flash floods.”

“Some of these, especially droughts and floods, have increased in frequency, intensity and magnitude over the last two decades; and have adversely impacted food and water security, water quality, energy and the sustainable livelihoods of rural communities,” Mkungula reflected.

Two weeks of heavy rain in January claimed more than 275 lives and displaced more than 230,000 persons from their homes. In addition to homes, infrastructure such as roads and bridges were damaged. Tens of thousands of farm animals, the primary form of capital for most farmers, have died or remain vulnerable to starvation and disease.

According to Voice of America, the flooding washed away more than 158,000 acres of farmland in the country where agriculture accounts for 30 percent of GDP.

To recall the recent devastating floods that lashed the country in early January claimed over 175 lives and which affected over 300000 population, which left over 100000 people displaced from homes. The Catholic dioceses is still undertaking brave steps in reaching relief and rehabilitation measure.

In light of such distasters, Mkungula commended the Malawian government for approving Disaster Risk Management Policy saying, “This will provide a platform for effective implementation of Disaster Risk Management related programmes.”

He further urged the government to ensure that the right-to-food bill and national climate change policy, which are in draft form, be urgently looked into and approved since they are linked to the Disaster Risk Management Policy.

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Indian bishop encourages celebration of color festival in joy, freedom

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2015

Holi, the festival of color, celebrated in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, in 2014. (Rajesh_India via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Pune, India — With Indians and Hindus celebrating Holi, a spring festival of colors, today, Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona has encouraged the faithful to participate in the celebration, which is meant to promote spiritual and social harmony.

Holi is a traditionally Hindu holiday that is celebrated culturally among many Indians, including some Christians and Muslims, and which is linked to the full moon. It falls March 6 this year, and is celebrated with everyone throwing brightly dyed powders on each other. It marks the setting aside of differences and grudges in a spirit of reconciliation.

Observing the collective celebratory spirit of Holi which integrates joy, enthusiasm and freedom, Bishop Dabre said the day “gives a message of joy and happiness.”

“It seems to teach us that religion must bring joy and happiness to people,” he told CNA March 6.

Nevertheless, Bishop Dabre cautioned that “Holi must live the holy joy, and the joy a religion should spread is not without norms or principles, but must be coupled with the observance of commandments.”

“The true joy that emanates from religion must respect the freedom of others; not impose our likes and dislikes on others,” he reflected.

Hindus begin the celebration with a Holika bonfire the evening prior to Holi, which relates to the myth upon which the festival is based. However, the throwing of color and water which all Indians participate in is a manifestation of joy and friendship across religious lines.

Bishop Dabre also noted that “religion must be experienced as a liberating experience of freedom, and this is very significant in the context of religious terrorism and extremism in different parts of the world, and in India.”

He lamented the rise of such groups as the Taliban, Boko Haram, and Islamic State, saying that in these cases, “religion has become a cause of fear, terror, injustice and oppression.”

In the light of recent persecution and discrimination against Christians in India, Bishop Dabre lamented that “even in our country, in the name of religion unreasonable restriction are imposed on the people; force and pressure is employed to reconvert people and to ban the adoption of a religion of one’s choice … also gruesome crimes are committed against women and people of the so-called low caste. Thus religion has become a matter of grievous concern.”

However, “in such a situation Holi gives an important lesson that religion must spread true joy and freedom,” he added.

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Burmese parish attacked amid ethnic conflict

by John Zaw and Simon Lewis (UCA News) • March 6, 2015

This window at Immaculate Church in Kutkai, in Burma’s Shan state, was broken Feb. 24, 2015 by shrapnel from a small artillery shell. (Simon Lewis)

Lashio, Burma — A parish in the Shan state of Burma, also known as Myanmar, became embroiled in the region’s spiraling conflict last week when small artillery shells landed in the church compound.

Kutkai Township, located between the cities of Lashio and Muse on the main overland trade route between Burma and China’s Yunnan province, has seen an influx of internally displaced persons so far this year as clashes between Burmese government forces and a number of ethnic armed groups operating in the region have intensified.

It is rare for the conflict to directly impact the local Catholic Church, but Kutkai’s parish faced suspicion by the military following an incident on the night of Feb. 24.

Father John Sau Luk, the parish priest, told UCA News that a bomb attack followed by a brief skirmish took place close to the front of the church’s compound that night.

“Three shells were fired at the church. Two exploded and one did not, so the army came to deal with the unexploded shell on Wednesday” the priest said.

“When it happened I crawled under the bed. My assistant parish priest was sleeping in his room and some shrapnel hit the window and smashed it.”

In addition to the window in the priest’s quarters, one of the windows on the facade of the church itself was also broken.

Fr. John Sau Luk said the shells were only about four inches long, but sent small pieces of metal flying in all directions.

It was not clear who was responsible for firing the shells. As well as the Burmese military and a local government-backed militia group, fighters of the Kachin Independence Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Shan State Army-North are all known to be active in the area.

The day after the shelling, the military entered the church compound, questioned a number of people and thoroughly searched the church and priests’ house. Five young men who live in the church compound and a 55-year-old gatekeeper were then taken to the local military base for further questioning.

“They blindfolded three of us and hit me with the butt of a rifle,” said one of those questioned, a 19-year-old who helps out with gardening in the church compound, who asked that his name be withheld.

All six men insisted they were not involved in the clashes the night before, he said, but they were interrogated, often violently, for five hours by the military before being handed over to the police and later released.

“They accused us of being rebels, and shouted at us: ‘Where are the guns? Where are the bombs?’” the young man said.

“One of the others couldn’t speak much Burmese, so they beat him more,” he added.

The majority of Catholics in Kutkai belong to the Kachin ethnic minority.

Recent fighting in the area around Kutkai has led to 450 new internally displaced people taking refuge in the township since the start of 2015, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Hundreds of people are already living in temporary camps in the town — including one situated in the Catholic church compound — and elsewhere in northern Shan state, where fighting has spilled over from the four-year old conflict in Kachin state to the north.

Heavy clashes broke out last month in the Kokang self-administered region, about 60 miles east of Kutkai, involving an ethnic Chinese rebel group called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.

At least 30,000 people have fled over the border into China, where humanitarian access has been limited, and according to UNOCHA around 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Bamar migrant workers, escaped westward, many returning to their homes in central Burma.

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Chart-topping Benedictine nuns to drop new album for Easter

by Carl Bunderson (CNA/EWTN News) • February 28, 2015

Benedictines of Mary. (Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles)

Kansas City, MO — Together with the joys of the Resurrection and feasting, this Easter will have an added delight: listening to the new album by the hit-making, Missouri-based Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.

“Many people do not realize that the Easter season lasts well beyond Easter Sunday – for a full 50 days in fact! Hopefully our recording will help bring many to a fuller awareness of the the Easter season in its entirety,” Mother Cecilia, prioress of the community, told CNA.

The nuns’ new album, Easter at Ephesus, brings listeners through the whole of the Easter season, including Ascension and Pentecost. It will be released March 3 on the De Montfort Music label, and can be pre-ordered from the nuns here.

It’s the Benedictines’ fourth album with the label, which had made the cloistered community chart-toppers. The group has been Billboard’s Best-Selling Classical Traditional Artist for three years in a row, and their albums for Lent and Angels and Saints were Billboard’s Top Traditional Classical Albums in 2013 and 2014.

The 27 tracks on “Easter at Ephesus” include pieces in both English and Latin; traditional hymns and compositions by the community; chants and four-part pieces such as Palestrina’s “Sicut Cervus”; and range from “This is the Day” to “Come Holy Ghost.”

Mother Cecilia that just as their previous albums have done, “Easter at Ephesus” has “simply been a snapshot of the music our community sings already throughout the season in our little chapel.”

“Easter is truly the ‘feast of feasts and night of nights,’ the climax of the whole liturgical year. There is a tangible exhilaration in each Sister’s heart when the ‘Alleluia,’ the song of the angels, is reawakened and sung three times at the Easter vigil.”

“The hymns and chants of Paschaltide convey not only the joy of the Risen Christ, but also deep and humbling gratitude for the great work of our redemption. He rose, and He is alive! We do not tire of singing His praise as He lives among us, in His Risen and glorified Body in the tabernacle … We pray that the recording reflects the sentiments of gratitude, joy and zeal in our hearts that come with this glorious season!”

Life in the community is marked by obedience, stability, and “continually turning” towards God. They have Mass daily according to the extraordinary form, and chant the psalms eight times a day from the 1962 Monastic Office. They also support themselves by producing made-to-order vestments.

The extraordinary form which the sisters observe includes an Octave of Pentecost: an eight-day extension of the season of Easter.

“The beauty of octaves is that the Church recognizes there is too much goodness, too profound a mystery to be contained in just one day. We continue to ponder the Easter mystery for eight days in prayer, especially through the Sacred Liturgy, until Mercy Sunday,” Mother Cecilia reflected.

The album’s original settings are a Regina Caeli; Queen of Priests; and Her Triumph.

Mother Cecilia said the Regina Caeli “is a favorite among the Sisters,” and that Queen of Priests “brings forth the role of Our Lady as both Queen and Mother of the sacred priesthood. It was composed in 2008 for the World Day of Prayer for Priests.”

“The idea for Her Triumph was conceived this past October, but it did not come to life until just before the recording sessions,” she shared. “As Our Lord is the hero in the story of our redemption, it is His Mother that takes up the role of heroine. It was her immovable faith at the foot of the Cross that carried the Church from the Old Covenant to the New. Despite the blood, the jeers, the agony, the utter hopelessness of the situation, she never doubted the truth of her Son’s divinity as He hung on the Cross.”

“And it was that same faith that sustained the Apostles and holy women those three dark days while Christ lay in the tomb. Where the Head goes, the Body must follow. Our Lady told the little shepherds at Fatima, ‘In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’ We dedicated it especially to our own shepherd and father, Bishop Robert Finn. If we put our trust in Our Lady, she, the most tender and loving of Mothers, will never fail to guide us safely to her Son, Who is the supreme Victor over death and sin.”

While much of the sisters’ singing is done in the context of the liturgy, Mother Cecilia added that “We do occasionally like to sing for fun. Sometimes we learn a funny piece for one of the Sister’s Feast Days. There are not lacking skits in the monastery either, and often musical acts are incorporated as part of the performance.”

Looking to the future, the prioress said the community has “actually been considering recording another Christmas album for quite some time, and now that we’ve covered Advent, Lent and Easter, perhaps the time has now arrived – maybe even for this coming Christmas!”

“There are other themes as well that we could envision covering in the future: the Holy Eucharist, the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, another devoted to the saints. We will have see as the days progress, if any of these have a place, and if so, what the timing would be. Of course we know, any future recordings will all be in God’s good time if He wills them so!”

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Why this priest has spent 50 years fighting with the New York Times

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • March 1, 2015

New York Times Building. (Torrenegra via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

New York City, N.Y. — A lot has changed in journalism since 1961, but not Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton’s resolve to rebut the New York Times on its editorial opinions regarding matters of faith and morals.

The New York priest has submitted Letters to the Editor of the publication since 1961 and recently compiled them all in a self-published book entitled “Jousting with the New York Times 1961-2014: Worldviews in Radical Conflict.”

Why has he written so faithfully?

“Among various instruments contributing to and constituting the political process, newspapers with their editorials and Letters to the Editor are one way of keeping in focus the truths and freedoms we hold dear,” he writes in the book’s introduction. “People with a strong sense of responsibility should use the letters instrument liberally.”

And liberally use them he has. Msgr. Hamilton has written The Times over 300 letters; some have made it to print or online, though most have not. The pieces printed by The Times are signified in the book by including their publication date next to their headline.

In his straightforward style, Msgr. Hamilton takes on what he sees as the secularist view of New York Times editorial pieces by explaining and defending Catholic teaching, typically in about 200 words or less.

Always interested in journalism, Msgr. Hamilton first took issue with The Times in the early 1960s, when its editorials questioned whether religiously affiliated schools were entitled to receive any public funding. Not long after his first letter in 1961, he became a question and answer columnist and eventually the editor for the now-defunct but once-thriving Long Island Catholic publication.

Although Msgr. Hamilton disagrees with many of the opinions of The New York Times’ editorial board, he maintains a high respect for the paper and its reporters. Their news articles are “dependably diligent” in including all relevant facts and weaving them into interesting and understandable stories, he said.

“The New York Times is a great newspaper, there’s no question about that,” he told CNA. “It’s the ideology that informs it philosophically and religiously that is objectionable.”

An ideology, he said, that is influenced by the French Enlightenment and that continues to influence their opinions on various matters today.

“That tradition … does not have much respect for religion, or religious doctrine, they certainly don’t believe in anything like revelation or that sort of thing,” he said, “or that moral principles are confirmed or can be confirmed by divine revelation. It’s all a question of philosophical opinion.”

Many of Msgr. Hamilton’s letters deal with the issues of abortion and “gay marriage.” He said that he did not pick these issues specifically, as opposed to other topics, but was simply responding to what The Times was writing about.

“You must understand that the letters are responses to editorials, or in two cases op-ed essays in the New York Times,” he explained, “so when they have the editorial, I write the letter. They are numerically coincident with the editorials.”

The letters increase in volume significantly beginning in the early 2000s – e-mail allowed for quicker and easier correspondence, and the views of The Times continued to head south of those held by the Catholic Church.

Despite his faithful letters, Msgr. Hamilton never received any feedback or engagement from The Times. They published some of his letters, though never more than the allowed one letter per 60 days.

Catholic News Agency reached out to the New York Times for comment on this story and did not receive any by the time of its publication.

As momentum in favor of “gay marriage” picked up in the United States from about 2008-2011, the New York Times published several editorials advocating for the redefinition of marriage. Msgr. Hamilton responded to every one, but none of his letters made it to print.

“I have always suspected, perhaps unfairly, that they use the column for advocacy, and not being, as they have always maintained themselves to be, a liberal, pluralistic newspaper which admits to all views,” he said.

It wasn’t only that none of his own letters made it to publication, but The Times did not publish any Letters to the Editor within that timeframe that were not in favor of “gay marriage.”

“My disappointment was not, as I said to them and to their public editor, that my letter was not printed, that’s not the point,” he said, “but no letter taking issue with the position of the editorial board on the same-sex issue was printed out.”

“I couldn’t imagine an issue of such fundamental social importance for the state, the country, and so for the world, that people would not have written in to dispute their position,” he said. “So that was a proof for me that they were dealing with advocacy, and were not really allowing the other position to be visited or printed in the news column.”

The goal of Msgr. Hamilton’s letters was to fulfill what he felt was and is his public duty as a citizen and as a Catholic, to engage in the political sphere and to try to contribute to the common good.

“It’s our obligation as citizens and certainly as Catholics even more so to contribute to the common good of society,” he said, “to support those measures, policies and laws which enhance our society, which defend and uphold the dignity of the human person, and to oppose those things which we are convinced are harmful to ourselves and to the future of our society.”

Msgr. Hamilton said he has always encouraged his parishioners and Catholics everywhere to be active in the political process.

“Not simply through Letters to the Editor, but through belonging to organizations, political parties, above all by voting,” he said. “Not to be a slouch in that regard but to do our best for the common good.”

Msgr. Hamilton’s book is available on Amazon.com at:  amazon.com/Jousting-With-York-Times-1961-2014/dp/0692352066

Instructions for submitting a Letter to the Editor for the New York Times can be found here:  nytimes.com/content/help/site/editorial/letters/letters.html

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Father Hesburgh, legacy-building Notre Dame president, dies at 97

by CNA/EWTN News • March 3, 2015

Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. (University of Notre Dame)

South Bend, IN — The University of Notre Dame mourned the death of its former president Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., prompting outpourings of appreciation and remembrance for his deeply influential and sometimes controversial legacy.

“Although saddened by his loss, I cherish the memory of a mentor, friend and brother in Holy Cross and am consoled that he is now at peace with the God he served so well,” the university’s current president, Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said Feb. 27.

“In his historic service to the nation, the Church and the world, he was a steadfast champion for human rights, the cause of peace and care for the poor,” Fr. Jenkins continued. “Perhaps his greatest influence, though, was on the lives of generations of Notre Dame students, whom he taught, counseled and befriended.”

Fr. Hesburgh died Feb. 26 at the age of 97 at Holy Cross House in Notre Dame, Indiana.

He was born in Syracuse, New York on May 25, 1917. He studied at the University of Notre Dame and at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1939.

He was ordained a priest for the Congregation of Holy Cross at Sacred Heart Church on the university campus in in June 1943. He received a doctorate in sacred theology at the Catholic University of America in 1945. He joined the Notre Dame’s religion department that year and served as a chaplain for war veterans on campus, reports an obituary published by the university.

He became head of the religion department in 1948 and then was named executive vice president for the university. He became the university’s 15th president in June 1952, at the age of 35.

Fr. Hesburgh served as president until 1987. He was one of the longest-serving presidents of any U.S. university. During his tenure, Notre Dame’s enrollment grew from about 5,000 students to 9,600, while the number of faculty more than doubled from 389 to 950.

U.S. presidents appointed him to 16 positions dealing with civil rights, atomic energy, campus unrest, humanitarian development, and immigration.

At a 1964 civil rights rally at Chicago’s Soldier Field, Fr. Hesburgh joined hands with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and sang “We Shall Overcome.” President Richard Nixon later removed the priest from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which he had served as a charter member, due to his criticism of the Nixon administration on the issue.

President Lyndon Johnson awarded Fr. Hesburgh the Medal of Freedom in 1964. He received the American Association of University Professors’ Meiklejohn Award in 1970 for his opposition to the Nixon administration’s attempt to use federal troops to break up campus demonstrations. He also served on President Gerald Ford’s clemency board which ruled on cases of Vietnam draft dodgers.

He was the first Catholic priest to serve in a formal diplomatic role for the U.S. government, as U.S. ambassador to the 1979 United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development.

As part of the Overseas Development Council, Fr. Hesburgh help fundraising efforts to avert starvation in Cambodia in 1979 and 1980. He also worked in nuclear disarmament and college athletics.

Fr. Hesburgh also served four Popes. He was the Holy See’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1956 to 1970. He built the Notre Dame-operated Ecumenical Institute at Tantur, Jerusalem in 1972 at the request of Paul VI and headed the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations in the 1970s. Pope John Paul II appointed Fr. Hesburgh to the Pontifical Council for Culture in 1983.

Fr. Hesburgh served as a director of the Chase Manhattan Bank and was president of the Board of Overseers at Harvard University.

His influence was not without controversy.

During his time as chairman of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, Fr. Hesburgh led academics and over two dozen Catholic university presidents in signing the 1967 “Land O’Lakes Statement” which asserted the Catholic university’s “true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.” Critics of the statement have said it distorted the role of the Church in Catholic university life and functioned as a “declaration of independence” from the Catholic hierarchy, undermining universities’ Catholic identity.

Under Fr. Hesburgh, the University of Notre Dame played a significant role in the run-up to one of the major Catholic controversies of the 1960s: Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which reaffirmed Catholic teaching on the immorality of contraception.

With the involvement of Fr. Hesburgh’s personal assistant George Shuster, a series of meetings on human population growth were held at Notre Dame from 1963 to 1967 under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation. They brought together selected Catholic leaders to meet with leaders of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Population Council, as well as with leaders of the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.

Donald T. Critchlow, in his 1999 Oxford University Press book “Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America,” said John D. Rockefeller III and others within the foundation community were “astutely aware of the importance of changing the Catholic Church’s position on birth control” and saw the meetings as an opportunity to ally with Catholic leaders who could “help change opinion within the hierarchy.”

According to Critchlow, Fr. Hesburgh arranged for a 1965 meeting between Rockefeller and Pope Paul VI to discuss population control issues. The same year, 37 scholars who attended a conference at Notre Dame signed a confidential statement to the papal commission examining the morality of new forms of artificial birth control. Their statement lobbied for a change in the Catholic Church’s view of contraception.

Rockefeller appointed Fr. Hesburgh to the Rockefeller Foundation’s executive committee in 1966, with the understanding that he would abstain from voting on issues involving contraception, sterilization and abortion. Fr. Hesburgh served as the foundation’s chairman from 1977 to 1982.

The university president received 150 honorary degrees. His books include a 1990 autobiography “God, Country, Notre Dame.” Notre Dame’s library, whose 13-story building towers over the campus, bears his name.

In a Feb. 27 statement, President Barack Obama praised Fr. Hesburgh’s “lifetime of service.”

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his friends, and the Notre Dame community that loved him so dearly,” the president said.

Fr. Jenkins said Fr. Hesburgh “turned a relatively small Catholic college known for football into one of the nation’s great institutions for higher learning.”

The university will hold public visitation at Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart beginning on March 3. A funeral Mass for Fr. Hesburgh will be held at the basilica on March 4 at 2 p.m., with live video available at the website hesburgh.nd.edu.

Fr. Hesburgh’s body will be interred at Holy Cross Community Cemetery.

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Pope taps Cordileone’s auxiliary to head San Diego diocese

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 3, 2015

Bishop Robert W. McElroy. (Archdiocese of San Francisco)

Rome, Italy — The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis has appointed San Francisco’s native auxiliary bishop, Robert W. McElroy, as the new head of the diocese of San Diego.

McElroy will succeed Bishop Cirilo Flores, who passed away from cancer in September just one year after assuming the position.

Born in San Francisco in 1954, Bishop McElroy, 61, grew up in San Mateo County and resided with his family in Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Daly City and Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame.

After receiving a master’s of divinity degree from St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in 1979, he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John R. Quinn in St. Mary’s Cathedral April 12, 1980.

The bishop’s prestigious educational background also includes a bachelor’s degree in History from Harvard University, as well as a master’s on the subject from Stanford.

He also received a doctorate in political science from Stanford, and holds another doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The bishop has taught at the university level, and has authored various articles, as well as two books.

While still a young priest Bishop McElroy served as parochial vicar of both St. Cecilia parish in San Francisco and St. Pius in Redwood City.

The bishop also served at the chancery as secretary to Archbishop Quinn, and in 1995 became the vicar general for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

On April 4, 1996 he was named a prelate of honor by Pope Saint John Paul II, and was given the title “Monsignor.”

Bishop McElroy then served as pastor of St. Gregory Parish in San Mateo for 14 years before being appointed an auxiliary bishop for San Francisco.

His appointment came in July 2010 and his episcopal ordination took place Sept. 7 of that year at St. Mary’s Cathedral by Archbishop George H. Niederauer.

With just under 1 million Catholics, San Diego is one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the United States.

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Remembering Professor Charles Rice, the embodiment of Notre Dame

by CNA/EWTN News • March 3, 2015

Charles Rice, a law professor at Notre Dame, died Feb. 25, 2015. (University of Notre Dame)

Chicago, IL — Pro-life leader, Catholic commentator, and University of Notre Dame law professor Charles E. Rice was commemorated at a requiem Mass Monday, as his friends and admirers remembered his “countless” contributions.

“A devout Catholic, a Marine, a professor, and a coach, Professor Rice did it all, and always with an abounding sense of humor and purpose,” the Notre Dame Law School’s dean, Nell Jessup Newton, said in an announcement on the school’s website.

Newton invoked the motto inscribed above the doors of the Notre Dame campus’ Sacred Heart Basilica: “God, Country, Notre Dame.”

“Perhaps no man in recent memory has better embodied the motto inscribed over the door to the Sacred Heart Basilica than Professor Charles E. Rice,” he said.

Rice died Feb. 25 at the University of Chicago Medical Center following an illness. His funeral Mass was held at St. Joseph Parish in Mishawaka, Indiana March 2. He was 83 years old.

He was a prominent speaker, and author of 13 books on constitutional law, pro-life issues, and Catholic identity at the University of Notre Dame. He often appeared on EWTN and was the host of the 13-part series “The Good Code: The Natural Law.”

“His contributions to EWTN, the Church and our nation are countless,” Michael Warsaw, chairman of EWTN Global Catholic Network, said Feb. 25. “We will all certainly miss him greatly.”

Rice was born in Manhattan on Aug. 7, 1931. He received a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., his law degree from Boston College Law School, and a master’s and doctoral degree in law from New York University.

He met his wife Mary at Boston College Law School. They had 10 children together and also adopted a son born in South Vietnam.

He practiced law in New York City and taught at New York University Law School and Fordham Law School before joining the law faculty at Notre Dame in 1969. He was state vice-chairman of New York state’s Conservative Party. He sat on the Education Appeal Board for the U.S. Department of Education and was a consultant to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and to congressional committees on constitutional issues. He was an editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring as a Lt. Colonel.

His obituary in the South Bend Tribune stressed his love for the University of Notre Dame, noting his habit of giving his grandchildren buttons that repeatedly played the university’s Fight Song.

“His devotion to Jesus Christ and Our Lady – ‘Notre Dame’ – was the source of his commitment to the University and his passion that Notre Dame stay true to its Catholic identity,” his obituary continued. “He loved his Catholic faith and deemed his classes teaching the faith to high schoolers or talks at parishes all over the country as important as any Supreme Court brief that he ever wrote.”

He helped coach the Notre Dame boxing club for 30 years. He was a referee and advisory for the university’s annual Bengal Bouts boxing tournament, which raised funds for Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh.

He continued to teach university classes until December 2014.

Notre Dame history professor Father Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C., said Rice “epitomized all that is best about Notre Dame.”

“His profound commitment to the pro-life cause and to the truths of natural law, which were so evident in his writings, and in his speaking and television appearances, gave him an influence far beyond the Notre Dame campus.”

Rice was also involved in controversies on the university campus. He wrote regular columns for one of the campus newspapers, the Irish Rover.

His 2009 book “What Really Happened to Notre Dame?” argued that the university had wrongly taken a path of relativism and expediency. He traced some of its problems to the legacy of Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s deeply influential president from 1952-1987, who died just one day after Rice.

Rice objected to the Hesburgh-led “Land O’Lakes Declaration” of 1967 which sought to make Catholic higher education independent from the Catholic Church. He also noted Fr. Hesburgh’s role in allowing the Rockefeller and Ford foundations and other powerful advocates of population control to use Notre Dame as a base to cultivate opposition to Catholic teaching on birth control in the 1960s ahead of Bl. Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae.

In his final book, “Contraception and Persecution,” published in 2014, Rice warned that the United States had abandoned its toleration for Catholicism.

“The persecution of the Catholic Church in the United States is already under way,” Rice said, observing an “inevitable” clash between the secular state and the Catholic Church on issues of family, the right to life, economic justice, and issues related to “gay marriage.”

He saw federal mandates reriquiring Catholic employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception and sterilization as “a preliminary event in this accelerating persecution of the Church and of believing Catholics.”

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Christians by number: What projections are saying about the future of religion

by CNA/EWTN News • March 4, 2015

(Grey World via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Can numbers say something about the future of Christianity? George Weigel thinks so.

Weigel claims the past and present – together with a numeric projection about the future – can reveal something about what might happen to Christianity globally over the next 35 years.

The Status of Global Christianity is a study recently published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research which illustrates a timeline between 1900-2050, and makes projections about Christians through the next generation. The study highlighted some high and low numbers across the globe.

George Weigel, a distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., found that three groups in particular were creating a unique phenomenon: Christians in Africa, urban Christians, and charismatic Christians.

Weigel, in a Feb. 25 column at First Things, pointed out that by 2050 there will be as many Christians in Africa as there are in Latin America and Europe combined – totaling to a projection of 1.2 billion. Africa has shown exponential Christian growth over the past century, revealing a promising future for Christianity on the continent.

Christians living in urban areas are projected to decline by six percent by 2050, making their total number 59 percent. However, Christianity made an urban comeback this century at 65 percent today, compared to only 29 percent in 1900.

Although there are approximately 644 million pentecostal and charismatic Christians today, that number is expected to reach well over 1 billion over the next 35 years, making it one of the fastest growing groups in the religious world today.

“These three phenomena – African growth, urbanization and the rise of Pentecostalism – also help account, I suspect, for the greater fragmentation of the Christian world,” stated Weigel, adding that the rise of “entrepreneurial Christianity” – that is, founding one’s own church – is contributing to these three staggering numbers.

“That helps explain why the number of Christian denominations grew from 1,600 in 1900 to 45,000 today, with projections of 70,000 in 2050,” he continued, saying that this entrepreneurial Christian attitude will also be partially responsible for what Christianity will look like in 2050.

Although some commendable Christian growth is anticipated globally, there is also an equally declining number that has been exposed within European countries.

For example, in Europe Christianity has dropped by 43 percent since 1900, making its current Christian population only 23 percent; Christianity within Europe is expected to drop even more by 2050.

“It’s worth noting that, in a century of dramatic, aggregate Christian growth, European Christianity had the lowest annualized growth rate (0.16 percent),” Weigel pointed out.

He added that in 1900 “there were some 267 million Catholics in the world … today, the world Church counts 1.2 billion members, with a projected growth to 1.6 billion by the middle of the century. Yet in the last quarter of the twentieth century Catholicism was displaced by Islam as the world’s largest religious community, as the global Muslim population grew from 571 million in 1970 to today’s 1.7 billion.”

There is some good news about the global human condition that ought to be kept in mind when remembering the bad news of the past and current century, Weigel stated, pointing to the projection that 88 percent of adults will be literate in a world of 9.5 billion in 2050, compared to only 27 percent in 1900.

In addition to this accomplishment, 89 percent of the 7.3 billion human beings today profess religious beliefs, while only two percent are atheists and nine percent are agnostics.

“Chief Poobah of the New Atheists Richard Dawkins and his friends are not exactly winning the day,” he continued.

However, even if the majority of humans around the world profess religion, only 14 percent of non-Christians know a Christian: this means that 86 percent of non-Christians do not even have a Christian acquaintance, shedding light on the current problem of Christian isolation.

This failure of Christian evangelization could prove to be an interesting development for Christianity over the next 35 years, Weigel indicated.

“Christianity seems stuck in something of a rut,” Weigel said, pointing to the fact that Christians make up 33 percent of the global population today, and will probably only see a three percent increase by 2050.

“There’s a lot of work to do in fulfilling the Great Commission,” Weigel concluded, “especially with those who have no contact with the faith.”

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Would you recognize ‘Homeless Jesus’ on a park bench in DC?

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 4, 2015

Homeless Jesus. (Matt Hadro/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — A statue of “Homeless Jesus” now sits just outside Catholic Charities in downtown Washington, D.C., with the organization’s president hoping it will spur passers-by to service.

“My hope is it would just remind us all that there’s a population out there that needs our help and assistance, and that we meet Jesus in them. We meet Jesus in those in need,” said the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, Monsignor John Enzler.

The statue was sculpted by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz. Pope Francis blessed a small model of the statue back in November 2013.

“Homeless Jesus” is based on the “Judgment of the Nations” scene from Matthew 25 and signifies Christ in “the most marginalized in our society,” according to Schmalz’s website.

In the Scripture passage, the nations receive eternal salvation or punishment based on their fulfillment of the works of mercy – feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” Jesus says.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington offers over 60 ministerial programs and serves around 120,000 people a year.

The statue’s reception in D.C. has been overwhelmingly positive, Msgr. Enzler said, and is a monument of sorts in a city filled with monuments.

“The homeless people, they love it,” he told CNA. “I think it’s becoming for some people their realization that they are recognized.”

The statue is life-size, and to a pedestrian it appears as just another blanketed figure lying on a street bench. The wounds in the bare feet are the only giveaway that it is Jesus and not an anonymous person.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington was the indirect cause behind the statue’s placement in D.C. His spokesman called Catholic Charities and pitched the statue to them after the cardinal saw a model of it blessed by Pope Francis in Rome.

Cardinal Wuerl blessed the statue on Ash Wednesday before the charity’s weekly homeless dinner, shortly after he had returned from Rome. He has attended the dinner multiple times, according to Msgr. Enzler.

He “spoke about the importance of recognizing these are members of the body of Christ in need,” Msgr. Enzler said.

A significant part of the ministry of Catholic Charities, D.C. is to the city’s homeless population. Aside from ministries for mental health, addiction, food and clothing, the organization provides shelter – about 2300 beds per night during “hypothermia season,” which is any night with temperatures predicted below 32 degrees and an emergency alert sent out by the city.

The city government is actually “very good” to the homeless, but the “conditions” in D.C. shelters are “less than ideal,” Msgr. Enzler said.

He hopes the statue will serve as “branding” for the service Catholic Charities provides to the homeless, “a specific reminder that we are about the homeless, the poor, the vulnerable.”

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Alabama Supreme Court orders halt on ‘gay marriage’ licenses

by CNA/EWTN News) • March 4, 2015

Alabama Supreme Court building. (Jimmy Emerson, DVM via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Mobile, AL — The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday night halted the illegal distribution of marriage licenses to people of the same sex, setting up a potential constitutional conflict with a federal judge who imposed “gay marriage” on the state.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, praised the ruling that state officials must follow Alabama laws defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

“A single federal judge does not have the authority to force a state to redefine marriage and it’s high time that out of control judges were put in their place,” Brown said March 4. “We call on other states to similarly order their state’s officials to enforce state marriage laws.”

The state Supreme Court’s 7-1 March 3 ruling said: “As it has done for approximately two centuries, Alabama law allows for ‘marriage’ between only one man and one woman.”

“Government has an obvious interest in offspring and the consequences that flow from the creation of each new generation, which is only naturally possible in the opposite-sex relationship, which is the primary reason marriage between men and women is sanctioned by state law,” the ruling said.

It charged that a federal district court had ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent that “plainly was referring to traditional marriage when it proclaimed that marriage is a fundamental right.”

Brown noted that the U.S. Supreme Court specifically affirmed state laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman in the 1972 case Baker v. Nelson.

On Feb. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to put on hold U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade’s order that Alabama probate judges distribute marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Alabama.

The Alabama Supreme Court’s chief justice Roy Moore told the state’s 67 counties to ignore the federal court ruling. Most judges initially followed the state Supreme Court until Granade ordered a probate judge in Mobile County to start issuing licenses, Reuters reports.

The one dissent from Wednesday’s state Supreme Court ruling argued that the court did not have jurisdiction in the case, the Washington Post says.

Alabama’s debate is part of a larger national discussion about where the authority to define marriage lies.

Thirty-six states currently recognize same-sex “marriage,” while two others offer partial recognition. Of these, the majority – 25 states – had their definition of marriage changed by the courts. Only three states legalized “gay marriage” through a vote of the people. Critics have argued that the trend unfairly responds to a push from wealthy activists rather than allowing the people to have a say.

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Cardinal George admitted to hospital for tests, evaluation

by CNA/EWTN News • March 4, 2015

Cardinal Francis George. (CNA)

Chicago, IL — After being dropped from a cancer drug trial over a month ago, Cardinal Francis George, retired archbishop of Chicago, has been admitted to the hospital for testing and further evaluation of his health.

On Sunday, March 1, Cardinal George was received at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. His stay is expected to last for several days, where he will undergo various tests to assess his current state of wellbeing, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“The cardinal continues to count on the prayers of so many who have written to wish him God’s blessings,” the archdiocese said in March 3 statement.

The 78-year-old cardinal was first diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2006 and underwent a five-hour surgery to remove his bladder and other parts of his body affected by cancer. In 2012, his doctors discovered that the cancer had returned, this time to his kidney and liver.

In an effort to battle the returning cancer, Cardinal George took part in a cancer drug clinical trial last year, which experimented with helping the body recognize cancerous cells through the immune system. After it was determined that his trial was proving to be ineffective, he halted the treatment in January.

The first Chicago native to become the city’s archbishop, Cardinal George retired in 2014 amid his battle with cancer and was succeeded by Archbishop Blase Cupich.

In order to evaluate his condition after ceasing medical treatment for his cancer, Cardinal George will stay at Loyola University Medical Center over the next few days for tests to assess his health and determine what steps should be taken in the future.

Last year, the cardinal stated that the cancer could be the cause of his death, but that he was counting on prayers so that he “might be of service to the Lord and His Church in the time left.”

At a press conference in late January, Cardinal George told journalists that he is generally able to maintain a schedule that includes hearing confession regularly at the Chicago Cathedral.

However, he noted that much of his life is determined by his state of health, and his schedule often revolves around doctor appointments and physical therapy.

Still, he voiced gratitude for his life. “I’m in the hands of God, as we all are,” he said.

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The important role you can play in defending marriage in Nebraska

by Kate Veik (CNA/EWTN News) • March 5, 2015

(scribbletaylor via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Lincoln, NE — On March 9, hundreds of same-sex couples will flood Nebraska’s county clerk offices to receive marriage licenses for the first time in the state. At the same time, hundreds of Catholics will be uniting in prayer and fasting for the protection of marriage.

Nebraska’s bishops have reclaimed March 9 as a “Day of Prayer and Fasting for Marriage,” and they’ve invited Catholics both in Nebraska and around the world to join in.

“We ask all Catholics and people of good will to continue to fast and pray that God’s plan for marriage and family life will be affirmed,” Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, and Bishop William Dendinger of Grand Island wrote in a joint statement.

“Marriage was established by God before the state and before the Church, and the vitality of both depends on the fruitful union of husband and wife.”

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon struck down Nebraska’s voter-approved marriage amendment on March 3, but Bataillon’s decision will not take effect until March 9. Nebraska’s Attorney General Doug Peterson immediately appealed the ruling to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. The court could overturn the ruling or delay its implementation.

In his ruling, Bataillon ordered Nebraska county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He also instructed the state of Nebraska to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states.

Nebraska’s bishops said they were disappointed by Bataillon’s March 3 ruling, which “presumes to nullify what God has written on human hearts since the beginning of time – that marriage is between a man and a woman, and has as one of its principal purposes the procreation and rearing of children.”

The bishops have encouraged Catholics to pray for marriage on March 9 through such means as Eucharistic adoration, daily Mass, prayer with Scripture, the Rosary, and time in private prayer.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Lincoln said the March 9 initative is also an invaluable opportunity for Catholics in Nebraska and around the world to witness to the truth about marriage.

“Many Catholics wonder what they can do to really make a difference,” J.D. Flynn told CNA. “Fasting is a powerful tool.”

“As we offer sacrifices, we can - through the grace of the Cross - transform hearts and minds. This is an opportunity to transform hearts and minds on the truth about marriage.”

In a column published in January, Bishop Conley wrote that “The world is very confused about the meaning of marriage, about the importance of families and, ultimately, the world is very confused about happiness, and joy, and peace. The world is a dangerous place for anyone who is seeking real love. Christ’s love – and his plan for each one of us – is the antidote to that danger.”

Tuesday’s district court decision marked the second time Bataillon has struck down Nebraska’s marriage amendment. The first was in 2005 – and the following year, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the amendment.

Bataillon’s March 3 ruling stems from Waters vs. Ricketts, which the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska filed against the state in November on behalf of seven same-sex couples.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced in January that it would take up the question of same-sex marriage. A decision is expected by the summer.

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‘Capital punishment must end’ – Catholic publications unite in rare joint statement

by CNA/EWTN News • March 5, 2015

(Matteo Parrini via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Four U.S. Catholic publications with a broad range of audiences have come together in a joint editorial citing Church leaders in calling for an end to the death penalty in the United States.

“Capital punishment must end,” stated a March 5 editorial by America magazine, the National Catholic Register, the National Catholic Reporter and Our Sunday Visitor.

The death penalty is both “abhorrent and unnecessary,” the publications said, arguing that the practice of capital punishment drains resources in court battles that would be “better deployed in preventing crime in the first place and working toward restorative justice for those who commit less heinous crimes.”

The joint editorial comes a month before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging lethal injection protocol as cruel and unusual punishment. Last year saw a string of botched executions: inmates in at least three different states were observed gasping for breath, choking, convulsing, and clenching their fists. In one case, an inmate took nearly two hours to die. In another, an inmate died of a massive heart attack half an hour after the lethal injection.

In their editorial, the Catholic publications highlighted the words of Church leaders in opposition to the death penalty. They pointed to St. John Paul II’s 1997 addition to the catechism, which teaches that cases where the death penalty is necessary “are very rare, if not practically non-existent,” as well as Pope Francis’ exhortation last year for Catholics “to fight … for the abolition of the death penalty.”

Within the U.S., the editorial also referenced the words of numerous bishops against the use of the death penalty in recent decades.

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City called for a re-examination of the death penalty after a botched execution in his state last year.

Last month, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput reiterated his repeated statements on the subject, saying, “When we take a guilty person’s life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture and we demean our own dignity in the process.”

Earlier this year, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, stressed that “the use of the death penalty devalues human life and diminishes respect for human dignity.”

Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the bishops’ pro-life committee, echoed these words, emphasizing that society can protect itself in other ways than the death penalty, and adding that “institutionalized practices of violence against any person erode reverence for the sanctity of every human life.”

“We, the editors of four Catholic journals … urge the readers of our diverse publications and the whole U.S. Catholic community and all people of faith to stand with us and say, ‘Capital punishment must end’,” said the publications.

Addressing the claim that the death penalty brings closure to the families of victims, the editorial pointed to the words of a Mercy Sister, whose order holds an annual service for Families and Friends of Murder Victims.

The sister said that the mothers who attend the event never ask for the death penalty, because they say that they do not want another family to suffer what they have suffered.

Jeanette De Melo, editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register, explained the joint editorial as an effort to embrace the Gospel of Life proclaimed by St. John Paul II and his successors.

“(W)hile we recognize that the Church has allowed for the legitimate use of the death penalty for society’s self-defense, we find that it’s harder and harder to argue that a particular act of capital punishment is circumstantially necessary today in contemporary America,” she said.

“Unity among Catholics in defense of life can send a powerful message. Euthanasia, abortion, war and capital punishment differ in moral weight, but they all threaten human dignity and we must work to end them,” she said, adding that “we look forward to the day we can stand in unity with the other Catholic publications on each of these life issues.”

“The readerships of our various publications represent a wide spectrum of views on the Catholic church,” said National Catholic Reporter editor Dennis Coday.

“That we can forge a joint statement in opposition to the death penalty is a testament to the lasting solidarity Catholics show on all issues that touch on the sanctity of life.”

The editorial noted that Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania have all put a temporary halt to the death penalty.

Noting the importance of the Supreme Court decision expected this summer, the four publications voiced their hope that the ruling will expand this moratorium to become a broader ban.

“We join our bishops in hoping the court will reach the conclusion that it is time for our nation to embody its commitment to the right to life by abolishing the death penalty once and for all.”

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Cardinal Egan commended to Christ’s mercy

by CNA/EWTN News • March 5, 2015

Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, who died March 5, 2015. (CNA)

New York City, N.Y. — Cardinal Edward Egan, a former Archbishop of New York who shepherded the city in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, died Thursday at the age of 82.

“Join me, please, in thanking God for his life, especially his generous and faithful priesthood,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said March 5. “Pray as well that the powerful mercy of Jesus, in which our cardinal had such trust, has ushered him into heaven.”

Cardinal Dolan said his predecessor passed away after lunch in residence at the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. His secretary, Father Douglas Crawford, gave him the sacraments. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead due to cardiac arrest.

Cardinal Egan served as Archbishop of New York from 2000 to 2009. His time as New York archbishop included the horrors of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the intense emotion of the rescue efforts.

“It was a time of great tragedy, but also of great heroes,” he told the National Catholic Register in a September 2011 interview.

“New York and the world saw examples of self-sacrifice that I don’t think have ever been matched in our time,” he said. “People worked around the clock, with dust and sand from above or below. No one was thinking about themselves. Police officers, firefighters, emergency workers poured themselves out for others. You couldn’t help but be inspired by that. We saw heroism and self-sacrifice — expressions of great holiness.”

Cardinal Egan went to a hospital soon after the attacks and then visited Ground Zero at the site of the World Trade Center, trying to comfort victims and encourage relief workers.

The cardinal’s time in New York also witnessed celebrations of the archdiocese’s bicentennial in 2008, a year which also included the pastoral visit of Benedict XVI to the city.

St. John Paul II named him a cardinal in 2001, giving him as his titular church the Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Caelian Hill.

As archbishop, Cardinal Egan worked to ensure financial reform in one of the largest archdioceses of the United States.

He also established the Catholic Channel on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio.

Cardinal Egam was born April 2, 1932 in Oak Park, Ill. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill. He finished his seminary studies at the Pontifical North American College in Vatican City and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1957. He earned a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and then served in the Chicago archdiocese before returning to Rome to serve as assistant vice-rector and an instructor at the Pontifical North American College.

After earning a doctoral degree in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, he served as a secretary to Cardinal John Cody of Chicago and later served as chancellor of the Chicago archdiocese. He served on several ecumenical boards and other organizations that addressed social concerns, including racial issues.

From 1971-1985 he served as a judge on the tribunal of the Roman Rota. During this time he also worked for the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship and the Congregation for the Clergy. He was a professor at several Catholic universities in Rome and was among the six canon law experts who reviewed the 1983 Code of Canon Law before its promulgation.

Cardinal Egan was consecrated a bishop in 1985, and appointed an Auxiliary Bishop of New York. He served there until 1988, when he was made Bishop of Bridgeport.

His time in Connecticut included work in organizing Catholic school system and the diocesan health care system, as well as service in the US bishops conference.

Cardinal Egan remained in the Diocese of Bridgeport until his 2000 transfer to the Archdiocese of New York.

He served on the boards of many universities, charities and hospitals. He had leadership roles in many Catholic organizations, including the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, the Society of Catholic Social Scientists and the Black and Indian Mission Office.

Cardinal Dolan expressed his sympathies to Cardinal Egan’s family and to his “spiritual family” in the Archdiocese of New York.

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Are kids just as well off with same-sex parents? Maybe not, studies say

by CNA/EWTN News • March 5, 2015

(Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk)

Princeton, N.J. — The idea that children raised in same-sex households fare as well as children of married opposite-sex couples may not withstand scrutiny, according to a recent collection of studies.

Princeton University professor John B. Londregan said that the studies collected in a new book show “that the jury is still very much out on this question.”

“The American Psychological Association has declared that there are no differences in the parenting capacity of same-sex couples as compared with heterosexual married couples,” he told CNA March 3.

However, he explained, “This declaration is based largely on evidence from studies using small ‘convenience samples,’ and it has had a chilling effect on research, while it conveys a misleading message for the public debate.”

“The likely enactment of same-sex marriage by judicial fiat will enlist a segment of the next generation of American children as human guinea pigs in a giant social experiment to see how much same-sex marriage improves parenting outcomes of same sex couples,” he said.

Londregan, who teaches politics and international affairs at Princeton, authored the introduction to the new collection of scholarly papers titled “No Differences? How Children in Same-Sex Households Fare.”

Published by the Princeton, N.J.-based Witherspoon Institute, the studies in the “No Differences?” book indicate some significant statistical differences between children raised by same-sex couples and children raised by married parents.

The children raised in same-sex households resemble those raised by never-married single women, facing “relatively troubled outcomes” like higher rates of drug abuse, unemployment and dropping out of school.

Londregan said that the “relative instability” of same-sex couples compared to married heterosexual parents could be the primary factor in the different outcomes for children.

At the same time, he acknowledged, research into children’s outcomes faces obstacles in that that there are “relatively few” households led by same-sex couples that are raising children. A researcher therefore must survey “a huge number of people” to find enough households to make inferences.

Londregan summarized the “No Differences?” papers in a Feb. 24 essay at the Public Discourse website.

Some of the papers represent original analysis, while others examine the reliability of different studies on family structure with a special focus on same-sex parenting.

One of the papers, by Loren Marks, a family studies professor at Louisiana State University, focused on the American Psychological Association’s justifications for its position, adopted in 2005, that same-sex couples raise children at least as effectively as heterosexual couples.

Marks found that most of the studies on childrearing by same-sex couples rely on “convenience samples” of “very small” sample sizes with one or two dozen same-sex couples raising children and a similar number of heterosexual couples, at most. The sample sizes do not constitute a representative sample and introduce statistical bias into the analysis.

Many of the small studies fail to use a sufficient comparison group of heterosexual parents or compare “educated and affluent lesbian couples to single heterosexual parents,” Londregan said.

Several of the papers examine Stanford sociologist Mark Rosenfeld’s analysis of the 2000 census data which appeared to indicate that children raised by same-sex couples showed no difference in outcomes than those raised by heterosexual married couples.

Rosenfeld had argued that data for children who are adopted or geographically mobile should be excluded on two grounds: because this indicates family instability and because he contends that same-sex couples are more likely to adopt troubled children.

However, this approach neglects the possibility that family instability may be “an important mechanism by which the children of parents in same-sex relationships fare worse than those with married heterosexual parents,” Londregan said.

Another study in the collection finds that same-sex female parents are about twice as likely to break up as heterosexual married parents.

Researcher Douglas Allen, examining data from the 2006 Canadian Census, found that late-adolescent children raised by two women finish high school at about the same rates as those raised by single women, while late-adolescent children raised by two men finish high school at about the same rates as those raised by single men. These are “significant deficits” compared to children raised by a married man and woman.

Allen also found that daughters raised in same-sex male households fare worse than sons – a unique disparity not evident in any other family structure he has studied.

While data sampled from the U.S. Census provides the largest statistical sample, it is limited by access to “relatively few variables” about the well-being of children, Londregan said.

Another paper in the “No Differences?” collection defends the research of University of Texas at Austin sociologist Mark Regnerus as being within accepted standards. A 2012 study by Regnerus contacted over 15,000 young and early-middle-aged adults to ask about their childhoods, including whether at least one of their parents had been involved in a same-sex relationship.

He found “statistically significant” differences in 25 of 40 outcomes between adult children of married opposite-sex parents and adult children of mothers who had a same-sex relationship. The study drew much media attention and criticism from LGBT activists, one of whom filed a misconduct complaint against Regnerus, which his university rejected upon investigation.

Regnerus’ study is included in the Witherspoon Institute book.

Londregan told CNA that the differences between children of same-sex couples and those raised by a mother and a father are “still an open question” depending on the sample size and other conditions a study controls for.

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How art and technology are clearing up ‘miscontraceptions’ on women’s fertility

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2015

(Unsplash CC0 1.0)

Washington, D.C. — Read the headlines of major news outlets and you might think women’s fertility is an unknowable force understandable only by “voodoo“ or some other inscrutable form of divination. Women wishing to avoid pregnancy have to use pills, implants or a physical barrier to keep their fertility in check, and women facing difficulties attaining pregnancy must hand over thousands of dollars for artificial reproductive technologies, the conventional wisdom says.

However, the science behind fertility awareness shows that women can know what their bodies do and make decisions based on that information – and now, a Colorado app developer and a New York City filmmaker are among those doing their best to bring this knowledge to popular attention.

Dr. Victoria Jennings, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and the director of the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) at Georgetown University Medical Center, told CNA that there are a number of “myths and rumors” that persist about fertility awareness methods.

“The reality is that natural methods or fertility-awareness based methods of family planning can be extremely effective,” she said, explaining that “there are several fertility awareness methods” with differing protocols.

Many of natural methods do not require a woman’s cycle to be regular in order to work, she continued, with most natural methods relying on awareness of a woman’s day-to day fertility signs. Scientific studies, including ones published in 2007 and in 2009 have shown these methods to be highly-effective, comparable to many of the most effective means of artificial contraceptives for postponing pregnancy.

These fertility awareness-based methods, Dr. Jennings explained, are “all based on a woman’s ability to observe the changes that occur in her body over her menstrual cycle.”

These changes, she elaborated, “are triggered by her hormones” and include variations in body temperature, cervical mucus and physical changes in the cervix. “The symptothermal method specifically relies on changes both in temperature and in secretions” while other methods instead track variations in secretions or temperature or hormone monitoring.

The Catholic Church teaches that while spouses are called to discern whether they are called to expand their family at a given time, it is immoral to use contraceptive pills, implants, barrier methods or having incomplete intercourse. Instead, the Church teaches that couples wishing to delay pregnancy at a given time are called towards periodic abstinence during the wife’s fertile window. This is known as Natural Family Planning (NFP).

Couples using Natural Family Planning use the woman’s observations about her fertility for health knowledge or to help make choices about family planning. To avoid pregnancy, couples practicing fertility awareness avoid intercourse on days in which the woman observes fertile symptoms. To achieve a pregnancy, they do the reverse.

The idea of natural fertility monitoring is catching on in non-religious circles as well. Some non-religious proponents of these methods accept the use of barrier contraceptives – such as a condom – during a woman’s fertile window, departing from the Catholic Church’s teaching that all contraception, whether hormonal or physical, deters the sexual act as it was intended by God.

Still, the basic idea of more natural forms of family planning are appealing to couples across the globe.

“The primary reason that people give around the world is because it doesn’t have any side effects, it doesn’t affect my fertility or my health,” Dr. Jennings said.

Others use fertility awareness-based methods because they “find it empowering” to understand their bodies, she continued. Monitoring fertility signs can help to alert women to cycle irregularities that “need to be checked out by a provider,” including those that may flag health problems or difficulty conceiving.

One set of app developers from Colorado is trying to dispel the continuing misunderstandings surrounding fertility awareness-based methods and educate the public on how people’s bodies work.

“One of the huge problems is that there is a lot of misinformation about FAM out there and not only that but this misinformation is coming from very prominent websites and trusted sources that people generally really trust for unbiased, accurate information,” said Lauren Risberg, Customer Support and Content Lead for Kindara, an iOS app offering charting tools and support for recording a woman’s fertility symptoms and temperature.

Recently, Kindara has released a Fertility Awareness Report Card, grading health websites and reproductive health educators such as Wikipedia, WebMD, Planned Parenthood and the Centers for Disease Control on the accuracy of information they provide on fertility awareness-based methods.

“Over the past couple of decades, fertility awareness has been studied a lot. We know scientifically, based on evidence now, that it does work, and it works very well if you use it correctly. I feel that these websites that people trust have an obligation to look at that and update their information to reflect the most recent scientific evidence on the method,” Risberg told CNA.

She explained that Kindara did not set out to “attack” these websites, but also felt there was a strong need to correct medical misinformation. “I don’t think it’s fair to the women who are using these resources for information,” she said. “These women have the right to know the truth behind all the options that are available to them.”

Risberg also argued for the need to educate the public more broadly about the existence of fertility awareness, and pointed out that technology can help play a role in making these methods more accessible. “In our culture generally there’s this idea that we can’t really trust our own bodies, or that we shouldn’t, or that we need to medicate things away” and thus “a lot of women don’t really know this is an option for them,” she said.

However, “you don’t need to take a pill to control your fertility,” she emphasized. “You just learn how your body works and adjust your behavior.”

In addition to simply keeping track of a woman’s fertility symptoms, fertility apps can help “make fertility awareness much more accessible to people, much more convenient,” Risberg said. “Anything that starts to break down those barriers of thinking fertility awareness is a big deal or is difficult helps men and women be more open to it.”

Cassondra Moriarty, a New York City filmmaker and director of the recent short film Miscontraceptions, told CNA that she hopes her film can help educate, empower and expose women to the existence of fertility awareness-based methods.

After learning about fertility awareness three and a half years ago from her now-husband, Moriarty felt compelled to help educate others about these methods. In interviewing women and their knowledge of these methods, she said, one of the biggest challenges “is that you can easily get misinformation about it.” Also, she pointed out in the film, many women just don’t know fertility awareness-based options are even available. She hopes to “make more women aware of this option” by making a film for film festivals and screenings.

Moriarty also hopes that her film will let women “walk away and feel empowered.” Our culture, she said, tends to be “a little scared of our bodies,” with many women feeling out of control of their own bodies, even when using artificial drugs or devices, “because the device is in control, the hormones are in control.”

Instead, Moriarty said, she thinks that “no woman should ever feel dirty or confused” because of a “perfectly normal healthy functioning part of their body,” such as healthy symptom changes or temperature variations. “I want my daughters to know that cervical fluid is not only normal, but it’s 100 percent healthy.”

This need for education and empowerment “has a long way to go,” even within the Catholic Church, said Moriarty, who is herself Catholic.

“Even in the Church, there’s so many people who don’t know about NFP,” she said, explaining that in addition to being a morally acceptable way of spacing pregnancies, she felt that fertility awareness knowledge helps couples be “more in tune, in regards to being more open to life.”

Even with these challenges of misinformation and the long journey of education ahead, Moriarty said that her experiences showing the film have left her hopeful. One experience in particular during a showing in Portland, Oregon left her thinking that this movement towards natural fertility is “up-and-coming.”

After screening the film, Moriarty explained, “a girl said to me, ‘I have an IUD, I got it a couple of months ago’ and she said ‘I want this foreign object out of my body now’.”

“It was so fulfilling for me because I didn’t say that, I didn’t put those words in their mouths. They realized what they were hungry for: empowerment and knowledge.

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What makes a good priest? Friendship with Jesus Christ

by CNA/EWTN News • March 7, 2015

Concelebration of Mass at Denver’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. (Catholic Charities/Jeffrey Bruno CC BY 2.0)

Denver, CO — For Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, the biggest challenges to priestly formation today can be overcome through divine friendship with Christ and the practice of Christian love.

“The priest is to be a man of charity because he must know himself as a beloved son in the Son,” the Denver archbishop said in a Feb. 20 address, adding that the priest should be someone who “lives in deep communion and friendship with Christ.”

“Human formation finds its fulfillment in that friendship with Christ, which is at the heart of spiritual formation,” he said. “In other words, human formation finds its fulfillment in charity.”

The archbishop spoke at a symposium for the Institute for Priestly Formation, co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Denver’s Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary, which hosted the Feb. 19-21 event.

Priestly formation is “one of the most demanding and important tasks that the Church must carry out,” he explained, taking guidance from St. John Paul II’s 1992 apostolic exhortation on the priesthood, Pastores dabo vobis.

Archbishop Aquila stressed the importance of the virtue of charity in both human and divine friendship. The archbishop stressed the importance of spiritual formation that is “all about living in intimate and unceasing union with God and the mysteries of Christ.” Its core is “friendship with God.”

“To abide in Christ means to enter into a relationship of friendship with him that is analogous to the relationship between God the Father and the Son. Jesus is the Way. Becoming sons in the Son, we are inserted in the very life of the Trinity.”

Just as Christ’s love for God the Father is manifested in his “obedience unto death” and “gift of self” for the Church, priests’ love for Christ is shown in their obedience and “gift of self” to Christ and the Church.

“Sheer obedience does not create friendship, let alone this supernatural kind of friendship,” Archbishop Aquila explained. Rather, obedience is the expression of this supernatural friendship.

He said the priest should have “a hidden life in Christ” in order to “to taste the intimacy that friends enjoy.”

“If we tell our secrets to Christ in prayer, he will tell us his,” the archbishop said.

“In this hidden life in Christ, the priest, as a man of charity, is called to think with the mind of Christ, to have the same feelings as Jesus, to freely will what Christ wills, and to educate accordingly his thoughts, feelings, and desires.”

The archbishop reflected on the nature of gifts, which are “gratuitous” and given “without intention of payback.”

“For this reason, one gives something for free to another, because one wants the good for him,” he added. The gift of one’s love is “the first and foremost gratuitous gift that a person offers to another.”

The archbishop said priestly formation faces “serious challenges.” Families once offered a solid human formation that was a basis for seminary formation, but this is no longer the situation in many cases. Seminary candidates often lack sufficient catechesis and knowledge of the faith and have been affected by “worldliness” such as broken families, a lack of maturity, and pornography and a sex-saturated culture.

However, he said, these challenges can be faced with hope through formation in the Holy Spirit and through the person of Jesus Christ, who is “rich in mercy.”

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FEATURES

What’s so wrong with trashy books (and movies?)

by Jenny Uebbing • March 2, 2015

Our weekend was filled with runny noses, pink eyes (I die. The second worst of childhood ailments, dethroned only by vomit), and lots and lots of reading.

The kids and I and even daddy all had books in piles around the house, freshly liberated from the library down the street and competing with Netflix for our winter-bound attention.

I must confess I spent the better part of Saturday reading a book I probably should not have finished … and I’m going to tell you why.

But first, a little background. Last week I asked my lovely readers who follow along on Facebook for some literary recommendations. And boy did I get some. You guys are so awesome, you flooded my newsfeed with more than 100 titles.

One evening later that week, after bedtime, I snuggled down with my laptop and my library account and went on a little hold binge, filling my e-cart with close to 50 titles. It was addictive, like shopping without money. Well, maybe like shopping with taxpayer money … but less of a sting than Amazon, for sure. (50 titles was a bit enthusiastic though, I will admit. Especially since 20 of them popped up in my email the next day as “ready for pickup.” Oops.)

I trudged through the snow with one small boy in tow and we retrieved about a dozen titles, probably more than I could read in 2 weeks, but hey, a girl can dream.

Sure enough, the powers of illness and weekend frigidity combined and was stayed inside reading plenty. Enough for me to finish one entire novel and crack into another one, only to be discarded and replaced by a 3rd option.

Here’s where things get weird though. You see, the first book I read, while engaging, was … questionable in terms of content. It was little things here and there at first, offhand references to casual sex. Details about make out sessions. Backstories involving (thankfully) derailed trips to the abortion clinic. And things kind of escalated from there.

The problem was though, I was so engaged in the story line and the characters by the time things got really steamy (read: super trashy) it was hard to shut the book and walk away. So I didn’t. I read the whole dang thing and pretty much enjoyed it but definitely squirmed through increasingly larger sections of it.

And afterwards, I felt acutely that I had betrayed an essential part of myself: my conscience.

For someone who can write confidently about skipping 50 Shades of S&M and has no problem flipping over the top copy of Cosmo in the checkout line, when it came to a book that was already in hand and being enjoyed, I had a more difficult time stepping away, even though I was fully aware that it was bad for me.

And no, I don’t think that I committed any mortal sin by finishing a smutty novel, because I was skimming through the squirmy parts and was definitely repelled by - not attracted to - the sins being committed on the pages. But still. I didn’t look away.

And I should have. I should have shut the book and played with my kids. Or picked up another title and tried again. Or, hell, painted my toenails or jumped on the elliptical or taken a nice long walk. There are plenty of things a tired mom can do with her limited leisure time that don’t involve torrid affairs and steamy sex scenes in the back of cars.

Because here’s the thing: every time I expose myself to the glamorization and normalization of evil - be it promiscuous teens losing their virginity, extramarital affairs, premarital sex, period - I lose a little bit of my natural (and supernatural) sensitivity to these sins.

It matters little that I will probably never personally commit them, (and I’m more than aware that there but for the grace of God go I); but when I am granting them entrance into my imagination - and my heart, because it dwells there, too - then I am throwing open an opportunity to grow not in virtue, but in vice. To do one thing with my “real” life, but to play by different standards inside the equally-real world of the mind.

And why invite those imaginary characters to come and live inside of me, occupying space in my brain and my heart where I’m desperately trying to cultivate virtue to impart to my kids, and to overcome the smallness and the very real fallenness of my own interior world?

We all struggle with sin, and thanks to the grace of God, we all have access to the grace to overcome them. Again. And again.

But that is by no means a license to roll around in the mud in our minds, rationalizing away the imaginary teflon divider between body and mind, spirit and flesh.

What we put into our bodies - our minds, our selves - matters. It matters because it becomes a part of us, just as much as the food we eat and the water we drink. It is incorporated into us in a permanent way. And as much as I have the authority over what will become irrevocably a part of me, it is my duty to exhort quality control over the raw material.

That’s why it’s not okay to go see a porno movie, even if it’s mass-produced and wildly popular.

That’s why I should probably delete that raunchy rom-com from my Amazon playlist, even though “it’s a cultural classic” and “a little smut never hurt anybody.” Because actually, all sins start small, and they have to start somewhere.

It’s hard enough to cultivate virtue in a culture that is anti-virtuous, the enshrines and celebrates the very things we are commanded to avoid: murder, adultery, gossip, slander.

Why compound the difficulty by filling our brains with the crap we’re trying so hard not to step in ourselves?

Why read stories about characters succumbing to temptations we’re striving mightily to overcome ourselves, entertaining plot lines that, if played out in vivo, would land us right in the confessional (and maybe divorce court, or prison)?

The past 6 years of living without cable has made me much, much more sensitive to televised smut than college Jenny ever dreamed of being. So yeah, my standards there are fairly high, but its’ because I’m not regularly exposed to it. The boiling frog effect hasn’t set in, and I’m instantly repulsed when I see something graphic on TV that I know is wrong, in part because it’s so shocking and so out of the ordinary.

I need to be more careful about what that looks like in terms of reading material too, though. Because just like you can never unsee something once it’s flashed across your vision field, it’s very, very difficult to divest yourself of the written word, too.

And I’m having an epic enough struggle swimming upstream in this culture. God knows I need all the help I can get.

I’m not going to undercut myself with friendly fire by reading “harmless” chick lit filled with innuendos and sex scenes between imaginary characters. Because they might not be real, but I am.

I’m a real flesh and blood woman with real struggles and real proclivities to sin. And I’ve also been entrusted with a husband to care for, and 4 little souls to guide back to Him.

My God, I need all the help I can get.

And when I do need to escape (and I do, very much, very often in these exhausting early years) it ought not be to a place I have no business visiting, even if only in my imagination.

There’s plenty of other stuff I could be doing with my free time, anyway. I could paint my daughter’s toenails, watch a make up application tutorial on Youtube, write my husband a love letter, curl my hair, shop online for some cute unmentionables, go for a run (or a walk, as this widening load would have it), call my best friend, stare at maternity style posts on Pinterest … etc.

(I’m intentionally leaving out the titles of the books in question, partly because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or embarrass them if they did make the recommendation, and partly because I do believe that different people have different thresholds for what makes them squirm.)

But I do want to challenge myself - all of us - to be conscious of that threshold, and how we can deaden or attune our own consciences with the choices we make and the company we keep, even in our own imaginations.

Maybe especially there.

Oh, and for the the record, I’m currently reading O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, at someone’s excellent recommendation. And loving it. There’s plenty of grit, there too.

Because I’m not looking for an impossibly squeaky clean “unrealistic” universe, but for one that plays by natural law. Think “Les Miserables”… plenty of sex, plenty of sin … and plenty of realistic consequences for what happens when we fail to choose the good. That’s the kind of steamy I can handle.

Or a bath. I can always handle a nice hot bath. If only the kids would all nap at the same time.

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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The lonely mission of motherhood

by Jenny Uebbing • March 4, 2015

If I’ve learned anything during my transition from mom-plus-2 to mom-with-a-double-fistful it’s this: the culture at large does not understand you, or your predicament.

You know, the one you got yourself into when you conceived the baby that puts you so far outside the status quo that strangers at playgrounds goggle their eyes at you and actually stutter the number “4” because it’s so shocking.

And it is, by the way, fairly shocking.

The average family size in the United States of America in 2013 (the most recent year I could find reliable statistics for) was 1.9, a number that has held steady for at least half a decade. Which means by the time you get your “one boy, one girl” matched set lined up, you’re already technically outpacing the national norm.

So when you roll into Costco with a trio of small people riding dirty in the double cart and then have the audacity to cut a maternal profile should you be foolish enough to leave your winter coat unzipped over the burgeoning baby bump below … you’re gonna get some arched eyebrows in your general direction.

I’m grateful to be on the receiving end of mostly positive feedback when I’ve got my small-but-multiplying crew out in public, but make no mistake, it’s not an “atta girl, good for you” warm fuzziness that usually greets us, but generally more of an incredulous “better you than me,” or “you will overcome, mom” vibe.

But God help me if the day is going downhill, or if anyone has a public display of insurrection.

If there’s one thing a culture which is fundamentally opposed to (or even merely apathetic to the existence of) the child is notable for, it is in not knowing in the least how to react to one when encountered in its native habitat of, say, the peanut butter aisle at King Soopers.

Nervous laughter, averted eyes, or, if we’re especially unlucky, pursed lips and disapproving scowls.

And sometimes the only thing harder than being a mom to a bunch of little kids is the way the general public reacts to them - to you - when you muster the audacity to take them out of the house.

Listen, I’m not looking for some kind of medal of recognition (despite the title of this piece) when I hit up the grocery store at 4 pm with my wild posse, but for the love of all the generic Oreos on the shelf, don’t stare at us like we’re the 8th world wonder because we’re there.

You might be the first adult I’ve laid eyes on since 7 am, and I’d love if I didn’t have to pretend everything was fine fine FIIIIIINE with an unnatural glint in my eyes and a slightly manic smile fixed on my face, because otherwise you might think that I’m not enjoying myself and this little child army of mine.

God forbid you think that.

God forbid I’m allowed to demonstrate, in public, how hard this is, because after all, didn’t I literally and figuratively make my bed and lie in it, and then repeat the feat 2 or 3 or 4 more times after that?

Yes, I know what causes this. I know where babies come from. I do have a tv, but it’s in the basement and we generally prefer Netflix, but that’s beside the point.

I’m raising children in a culture that despises them, for all intents and purposes, both in word and in deed, and indeed, by the very laws of the land itself. And it kind of feels like it despises me, too, most of the time.

Motherhood is already hard as hell, because, yes, diapers and bedtime chaos and ear infections and the crushing isolation of a post industrial society bound up by fiberoptic cables, but fractured of any physical community … but the difficulty is greatly magnified by the public disdain for and incomprehension of our children’s - and to some extent, our own - existence.

So what does this mean? Well, lots of the time it means I’ve got to be the brave little soldier mother, the one bucking the trend and smiling and saying “yes” over and over, not because I’m oppressed or brainwashed or lacking in education or opportunity, but because I chose this of my own free will.

And for that, I have forfeited the right to complain, at least outside the 4 walls of my home or my safe little corner of cyberspace.

I have abdicated the right to expect a sympathetic ear or an understanding spirit from a total stranger, or even my next door neighbor, because we’re swimming upstream in this household and most of the other salmon we’re commuting with are not only staring at us in blind incomprehension, but sometimes they’re throwing their slippery bodies in our way. Because we might be idiots. And we’re clearly not operating out of our right minds.

And some days it’s harder than others.

Sometimes I want to not have to pretend that everything is fine while we’re out and about only to come home and collapse in a sobbing mess behind the bathroom door once the groceries are put away and the snacks are dolled out.

I want to share with the other moms I encounter that it is hard, that I’m not doing it all, and that even though there are more days than not where I feel like crying by 8 pm, I wouldn’t have chosen another life than this one.

Can’t it be hard but also worth it?

Can’t I confide in some well-intentioned stranger that it is a struggle to be this busy and pregnant again, but that some hard things are worth doing, and that pursuing a life of self-actualization and leisure isn’t the only thing we were put on this earth for?

Can I be unafraid of coming across as a stereotype of the tired, overwrought, and oppressed mother who hasn’t yet happened upon the wonders of birth control and daycare if I let the smile slip from my face and I make honest eye contact with you while my 4 year old is lying on his back sobbing in the library because his favorite dinosaur book was checked out by somebody else, and his two other siblings are ready to leave now, and we can’t spend 20 minutes hunting for an acceptable substitute?

I wonder how much of the hardness of my hardest days is because it is hard right now, and really lonely, too, and I feel compelled to put on a brave face and pretend that it isn’t hard, out of fear that someone judge me accurately to be the sobbing, overworked mess of a mother that I really am.

Motherhood is always hard, and it always has been. But motherhood in a culture that shies away from self-immolation and self-denial and radical generosity in grotesque horror is especially challenging. And sure, I’m doing my little part to buck that trend, bit by bit, baby by baby. But it isn’t easy.

I remind myself over and over again of Pope Benedict’s words (but not often enough, obviously), “The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness.”

But God help me if I don’t crave comfort, just the same. I just wish I could talk about it honestly sometimes without getting counseled on the latest, greatest advancement in IUD technology.

I didn’t say I wanted to exterminate the little darlings, just that raising them is hard, and doing so in a culture that sees them primarily in terms of risk and cost is exhausting. Because I feel compelled more often than not to play along like everything is rosy, lest I be adding fuel to the anti-child fire.

And then, wouldn’t you know it, I am myself exhausted by the effort to make this look good, make this look enjoyable and attractive and worth it.

It is all those things, and more. So much more. But I’m so tired. And sometimes I just don’t have it in me to pretend otherwise, even when I know people are watching.

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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Balancing Our Lives: ‘The Great Game’

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • March 4, 2015

Imagine a painting that depicts a young girl taking one step at a time along the top of a fence. Titling her arms now to the right, now to the left, she tries to maintain her balance to the very end. Despite her lithe and willing body, it’s not easy.

Thus far, it’s been a game, but when it comes to balancing time spent with her family, on schoolwork and other activities, the girl must discover the meaning of the word while she lives her life. As an adult, she will discover what most of us already know: that finding one’s balance in life is far more than a game. It’s the great game of life.

The image just described is also a painting entitled, “The Great Game,” a woodcut in watercolor by Sr. Marion Honors, C.S.J. In this depiction, she captures the beauty of youth intent on play.

The Great Game of Life

Balancing our lives is a perennial challenge for mothers and fathers. In their desire to give their children as many opportunities as possible, they risk getting frazzled by parental devotion. Then there are other duties, perhaps caring for a sick relative. Balancing the demands of family life is never easy.

For clergy and consecrated men and women, balancing our lives is not easier — to be “men and women for others” and also men and women at prayer. This is our vocation.

The Life of Jesus Christ

When we look at the life of Christ, what do we see? Jesus was a serene person, able to balance his life between prayer and his itinerant ministry. Yet, there were a few times when he stepped out of character. Recall Peter’s show of dismay, even of irritation, at the mention of the Lord’s Passion. Jesus turns to him with the harsh rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan” (Mt 16:23)! Who of us would have liked to be on the receiving end of this rebuke?

When Jesus goes to the temple and finds moneychangers there, his actions shock; he angrily turns over the tables of money: “My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves” (Mk 11:15-17; Mt 21: 12-13; Jn 2:14-17). Jesus is enraged when confronting such irreverence, but his anger is prompted by his Father’s glory.

Balance in the Ordinary

Most of us conduct our activities according to a schedule, whether self-imposed or given from without. It is in our choices that balance is kept or compromised. Some of us work too much and sleep too little. Some love too much and risk smothering others. Some love too little and treat others with cool detachment. What seriously compromises our balance? The inner and outer life need to be in harmony with each other.

Ingrid Bergman and Her Choices

Occasionally it happens that a prominent and beloved public figure is denounced by a private scandal. In 1949, at the age of thirty-four, Ingrid Bergman had achieved international status as “the first lady of the screen.” Moviegoers fell in love with her public persona and equated it with her private life. Whether as the wife of an Allied Czechoslovakian patriot, a nun or a virgin-saint; whether playing the wife and victim of a crazed husband, a psychiatrist or the daughter of a Nazi war criminal, the glowing beauty thrilled her viewers. Her radiant facial features, pure and natural, her majestic nobility gave the impression of a saintly person with great inner strength. At the time of her death in 1982, Ingrid Bergman had won critical acclaim and awards for almost every role she played: Oscars, three in all, Emmys, Golden Globes, the David di Donatello Foreign Award.

As 1950 approached, Ms. Bergman’s personal life began to unravel. Her priority had always been acting, not commitment to her husband Dr. Lindstrom, a neurosurgeon, and to their daughter Pia. Her absences from them lasted for months at a time.

Ingrid Bergman’s desire to diversify her cinematic roles led her to Roberto Rossellini who was directing her first in Italy, “Stromboli.” During the film’s shooting, they began a scandalous affair. Notoriety followed. They sought to marry while they were both already married. Rossellini became the father of her three children, a boy and twin girls. Six years elapsed before Ms. Bergman returned to this country. She had been denounced in Hollywood and in Congress but not by the Catholic Legion of Decency. Her films were to be judged according to their artistic merit and not by her personal life, the Legion observed.

Ms. Bergman, always articulate, offered this statement to the press: “People saw me in ‘Joan of Arc’ and declared me a saint. I’m not. I’m just a woman, another human being.”

She felt boxed in by her controlling first husband, by the roles she played, and then by the greater control Rossellini exerted on her. After she divorced him, she married Lars Schmidt. Her children have narrated their own experiences.

All this is a matter of record and not intended to cast judgment on Ingrid Bergman’s motives. She is ranked as one of Hollywood’s greatest film stars. The events of her life are here presented to express the dilemma all of us face despite differences of time or circumstance. And what is that? We walk not at the top of a fence, as in a game, but on a moral tightrope. There is conflict between the outer and inner person.

Lent is a good time to regain our precarious balance. It is a time to focus on God’s action in the ordinary details of life where balance is so difficult to achieve. “To destroy our taste for the ordinary is to interfere with the foundations of our life,” writes Ladislas Orsy, S.J. He explains: “We need much peaceful monotony to enjoy surprising happenings. At the time of monotony, the spirit of the inner man awakes. Not distracted, he can reflect on himself and on the outside world. The quiet rhythm of the ordinary is the best framework for thinking in depth. Great deeds and movements never originated in shallow thoughts; all giant trees have deep roots” (The Lord of Confusion, 38-9). Here is wisdom for balancing “The Great Game” we call our life.

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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Don’t miss the story behind the baby ‘drop box’

by Carl Kozlowski • March 4, 2015

For most film school students, a successful project means creating a compelling movie that is skillful enough to draw a good grade and maybe even an agent. But for Brian Ivie, making the student short that evolved into the full-length documentary “The Drop Box” changed his life on a far deeper level.

Ivie’s immersion into the world of his subject, South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak, inspired him to become a Christian himself. Seeing Jong-rak’s selfless devotion to his nation’s abandoned children through providing a home for abandoned and often disabled children lit a fire in Ivie that could only be quenched when he gave his life to Christ a year after beginning his project.

“I read about Pastor Lee in a Los Angeles Times article on June 20, 2011, all about a man in South Korea who had put a mailbox for abandoned babies in his church and cares for them. I thought it looks like the bunker of a man who had drawn a line in the sand and said, ‘No one dies here.’ I wanted to make the movie so no one would forget his work when the article faded.”

The initial short film evolved into a full-length documentary that is in the midst of special showings at theatres nationwide this week, including tonight and tomorrow. From there, the film already has a life scheduled for iTunes and other digital platforms.

At the time he started working on the short version of “The Drop Box,” Ivie was just a regular college student, “a nice guy with a lot of hidden things in my life.” He watched pornography at the same level as many other young men away at school, and had what he describes as “anger issues and abusive relationships.”

“I was a pretty good guy by most people’s terms still, but you still don’t get saved without repenting and asking forgiveness,” says Ivie. “A little boy recently asked me my biggest mistake, and I said that I had thought I was too good to need God’s forgiveness, and thought that sin was just a normal part of being a human being.”

Ivie first reached out to Jong-rak by sending an email to him, and a month later he received a reply inviting the young filmmaker to live with him and see his work in action. Three months later, he arrived in Seoul with a team of friends as his film crew, embarking on his first trip outside the US aside from a Mexican cruise.

He was astonished by what he saw at Jong-rak’s church and mission, surrounded by children whose parents had abandoned them because of cultural stigmas that consider disabled children to be signs of a curse upon their parents.

Seeing Jong-rak and his team of helpers care for such children in their most vulnerable state soon led to deeper thoughts about his own life and its purpose.

“It was a link in a chain, the pastor being proof of a loving God,” says Ivie, who is now 24 and engaged in film as his career. “It helped me realize I didn’t have to hate myself for my sins but that God wanted me to be debt free. My brother got saved as well, and he was the closest to an atheist I’ve ever seen, so that was pretty miraculous. Other friends on the trip maybe didn’t get saved, but the experience changed their lives upside down.”

Ivie notes that his conversion came about eight months into the making of his student short film, and after his transformation, he decided to return to Seoul and redo the film through his new Christian perspective. While he originally envisioned a film that would be 10 minutes maximum, he feels that God inspired him to make the film an 80 minute feature with many added points to its message.

He has been pleasantly surprised to find that his USC professors were supportive of his efforts, and was even more surprised by the fact that the national Christian organization Focus on the Family chose to support him as he expanded the film’s scale. Focus financed his final trip to South Korea and has become his distribution partner on the project, helping him release it to DVD, Netflix, Amazon and iTunes.

“Focus on the Family and I call it a documentary on life,” says Ivie. “I think the most powerful part of his work is him helping people not to abandon or abort their babies. He says he will embrace your suffering with you and bring the children in, that you are valuable and so is your childhood. This is a picture that asks: what if one family or man embraced others who are suffering and said we will embrace you and it grew from there. I think that could change the world.”

“The Drop Box” is showing tonight and Thursday night at select theatres nationwide. For theatres and showtimes, and to learn how to order the film via DVD or online platforms, visit thedropboxfilm.com.

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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‘God’s Household’ is a rich image of the Church

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • March 5, 2015

The Protestant scholar Paul Minear, in his book Images of the Church in the New Testament, identifies 96 ways of looking at the Church. Avery (later Cardinal) Dulles, S.J., (my one-time teacher) in his book Models of the Church shows how very important images are in understanding the Church.

Of all the images of the Church my favorite is the “Household of God.” The understanding of the Church as God’s household is rich in meaning, and it allows us to view the broad panorama of Christian life in a relatively simple, manageable, and eminently human manner.

Given the modern disposition to view society in great abstract, collectivist categories, the conception of the Church as a household has more than passing value. By its example, it can humanize cultures and reduce social alienation.

St. Paul may be regarded as the great exponent of the theology of God’s household. He writes to the Ephesians: “You are strangers and aliens no longer. No, you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God” (2:19).

Paul’s letters are full of concern for the good order of the Christian household. His preaching is about sisterhood and brotherhood, about sharing burdens and respecting the common life, about hospitality and treating strangers as relatives.

For Paul, the basic qualification of a bishop is that he be a good household manager, and of the deacon that he be a dedicated table servant. And, in Corinth, at least, Paul saw the need to teach good table manners and sociability.

Not only in Paul, but throughout the New Testament the Church and salvation are spoken about in terms drawn from family life. God is Father and we are his children. One of the most notable images of sin and reconciliation is familial: the Prodigal Son leaving home, and then returning to a father’s warm welcome.

The early Christian writers made much of the mothering task of the Church. Baptism is the womb that gives us new brothers and sisters. At the Table of the Lord, the Church, like a good mother, feeds us. She teaches us, heals us, consoles us – and occasionally throws us out of the house until we get our acts together! Wedded to the heavenly bridegroom, she prepares us for the eternal feast and the endless play of the children of God.

The image of the Church as a household allows a familial view of the divine/human and the human/human relationships. It enables us to see Church history as family history and former generations as our spiritual ancestors.

Viewing the Church as God’s household presents a view of modern tensions, squabbles, and disagreements in the Church as, in all families, generally unavoidable, but capable of resolution. Above all, it invites recognition of the enormous resiliency and buoyancy of the Christian family.

Finally, the image of the Church as a household acts as a helpful antidote to the modern heresy that we are all self-made people, all rugged individuals who can pull ourselves – even in matters of faith – up by our boot-straps. We need the Christian community to direct and shape our lives.

There are, as Minear points out, many similar images of the Church: the Church as the Body of Christ and the People of God (favorite images of Vatican II), a nation, a race. These images are never mutually exclusive (unless one feeds them into a computer!). Each highlights important features of the Church and of Christian discipleship. Yet no one image ever exhausts the richness of Christian life.

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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The Beauty of Catholic Education VI: The Delicate Sense of Touch

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • March 6, 2015

In his earthly ministry, Jesus healed those in need by touching them. Today, educators are wary of broaching the topic of touch because of the highly charged and negative press focused on the Church. In many cases, they are forbidden to touch their students. Nonetheless, this must not dissuade them from a positive treatment of it either directly through the scriptures and indirectly otherwise. If we don’t speak about touch in the context of our faith, who will? In approaching the topic with our students, the educators must tread with care and sensitivity. This is especially true with older students.

Touching: A Basic Human Need

Desire for human contact whether it is a hug, a comforting hand on an arm, or a gentle pat on the back is a basic human need. But touching has been largely exploited by social media. Most of us are conditioned to link it first and foremost to sexual abuse of children. Victims of this heinous crime must be helped to regain their sense dignity and self-worth. Still, this does not mean that Catholic educators must avoid the topic altogether. The sense of touch is a gift from God to be used in a proper and ordered way.

Skin-Hunger

Skin-hunger occurs among infants, young children, the elderly, and infirm. It deprives them of direct bodily contact with another, a fact that was brought home in the movie “Ordinary People.” In her Oscar-nominating performance, Mary Tyler Moore portrays a mother who expresses nothing but distance and coldness toward her husband and son.

Several years ago, a bizarre and chilling example of skin-hunger was reported on “60 Minutes” which featured life in the Romanian adoption system. There, children up to six and seven years of age were crammed in cribs and locked in like animals. They had been long deprived of loving hugs, warm hand rubs, and gentle pats on the back by care-givers. Their parents were nowhere to be found. Perhaps the orphanage enforced strict rules about avoiding direct contact with the children. Nonetheless, these infants and young children were denied a basic human need. To this day, those images of children, huddled together in cribs, remain imbedded in my mind. It is impossible to recall those images without cringing with horror. Where are those children today? How have they managed to develop as well-adjusted human beings? Or, have these children even survived?

The Magic and Mystery of Touch

Bodily touch has a beauty all its own. Touch can say far more than words or eyes because it is immediate and direct. Different from all other senses, touch is not localized in any one organ but covers the entire body. Sensations of touch are richer and more complex than their vague name would at first suggest. Direct touching is a presence. A child, being cuddled in the loving arms of a mother and father, knows instinctively that (1) it is loved and cherished; (2) the touch of mother and father embraces what is beautiful, true, and good.

There is no closer physical contact than sexual intimacy to express one’s love for the other. But a man and woman locked in such an embrace can be strangers, miles apart psychologically and spiritually, if sexual intimacy is mere entertainment. The ‘hook-up’ culture denigrates the human person and inflicts pain that sears through to the core of the psyche.

Touch As Metaphor

A toothache and other aches touch and affect the entire body. An unkind comment made in passing can touch a raw nerve like the sting of a bee. Some people have the magic touch for communication. Others have that touch of class, also known as impeccable taste in all they do and say. Then there are people known to be touchy — meaning that one’s temperament is overly sensitive. With the sheer touch of a finger, a person can be opened to a world of images on a small hand-held screen.

The Hand

One’s handwriting reveals many characteristics about that person’s character. The hand is best suited to convey the sense of touch whether it is the touch of a musician, painter, or sculptor, a surgeon, a construction worker, a masseur, or a seamstress. One’s handshake can convey a friendly gesture. Over lunch, it can seal a business deal. Holding hands is an every-day image. We all know the healing power of petting a dog and of care-giving dogs. Miracles in the making!

Touch in Scripture

In Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the artist depicts God extending his right finger to Adam’s to impart life. Although God’s finger is about to touch Adam’s, the tip of his finger is already showing signs of life in an otherwise limp grey-like hand. The finger of the paternal right hand of God comes from the medieval hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus. The hand of God is said to direct the universe, for God’s personal touch shapes all things.

In an act of faith, Moses stretched out his hand, and the Lord God set back the waters (Ex 14:17). In his Incarnation, Jesus, a carpenter by trade, used his hands to make things and as healing instruments (Mt 8:3; 15; 21; 9:21; 20:34). A sinner kissed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair. A woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, and she was healed. Jesus held children in his arms. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, and the risen Lord bade Thomas to touch the wounds of the Master.

In the reception of Holy Communion, Catholics taste and touch the Body and Blood of Christ. They sign themselves with the sign of the cross during the liturgy, and offer one another a gesture of peace with the hand. In his last moments on the cross, Jesus utters the Psalmist’s prayer to his Father, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46).

Touched By God

If we admit the sense of touch in the physical order, then we should have no difficulty in admitting the reality of spiritual touch. What can we make of a person who is convinced that God has touched his or her soul? Is this a vision in which God has physically embraced the soul? When a person is attuned to God, he or she acts on the touch or the prompting of grace at work within it.

Children must be taught early that as their life of faith matures, God’s Spirit inspires them to virtue. It is the evil spirit that lures them into doing wrong and to sin against the gift of touch.

The educator is charged with many responsibilities, and among the greatest is respect for the gift of touch.

Finally …

Faith is a fully human and dynamic act engaging the whole person. To ignore or denigrate the senses is to fall into errors that resemble Gnosticism. This esoteric heresy spiritualizes the body, intellectualizes holiness, and denigrates matter. Having originated in the pagan world, Gnosticism insists that the human body is evil and the material world is irredeemable. Salvation comes only through knowledge (gnosis), and it is Jesus who brought this gnosis into the world. Accordingly, only the purely spiritual person will be saved. In the second century, St Irenaeus of Lyons refuted Gnosticism by proclaiming the goodness of creation and what is material. The underlying tenets of Gnosticism exist today in the guise of some New Age movements. Gnosticism dilutes the meaning of the Incarnation. Jesus in his human person affirmed that the physical and spiritual faculties act in harmony with each other. Catholic educators must teach this harmony, however difficult it is. With the example of Jesus himself, it will not prove impossible to overcome a culture that defines the senses downward, especially the sense of touch.

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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FEATURES

‘Unfinished Business’ stoops low for shock comedy

by Carl Kozlowski • March 6, 2015

From the moment I first saw it as a 16 year old back in 1987, “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” was one of my all-time favorite movies. I’ve probably seen it at least 50 times since then, with at least half of those occurring during the annual Thanksgiving week screenings that pop up on TV in order to remind us all of the funny yet bittersweet story of two traveling salesmen desperately trying to make it home for the holiday.

Not many movies have been able to pull that magic off since, but the new movie “Unfinished Business” - starring Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco – has that kind of feel for much of its briskly paced running time. The story of three struggling businessmen who are so desperate to land a huge deal that they’ll make a madcap dash across Germany to beat their competition, the movie is extremely original and highly unpredictable with top-notch comic performances.

But just like “PT&A” could have been an even greater family classic if it wasn’t for the one scene where an enraged Steve Martin cusses out an auto-rental clerk by saying the F word literally 26 times in 60 seconds (I’ve counted), “Unfinished Business” blows its opportunity for a wider audience. Its storyline – which also includes Vaughn’s lead character dealing with problems from his loving wife and kids back home – had plenty of clean laughs without having to go dirty. But it unfortunately does, and in far worse and more frequent fashion than “Planes” ever imagined.

The movie follows Dan Trunkman (Vince Vaughn), a hardworking and loving family man with a wife and two troubled children. He quits his sales job in the opening scene, saying he’s had enough of his female boss Chuck (Sienna Miller) and that he can start a company selling metals that still respects his employees and their quality of life.

Only two men join him: a 67 year old named Timothy (Tom Wilkinson), who has just been laid off due to his age but wants to work, and a young guy named Mike Pancake (Dave Franco), who followed Dan out the door after failing a job interview due to his stupid answers. It is unclear throughout the movie if Mike has a mental disability or is just weird and naïve, but either way his goofiness is extremely lovable and entertaining.

After a year of largely failing, the trio get a chance to close a major deal but have to travel to do so. They head to Portland, Maine, only to learn that the real deal is to be made in Berlin. So off they go, nearly penniless, to Germany with only blind hope that they will succeed – only to find that Chuck meets them there as competition for the deal they thought they had sealed.

What ensues is a mad dash of bizarre meetings and misadventures. Unfortunately, writer Steve Conrad and director Ken Scott stoop to real lows for shock comedy at some moments of the movie, including the naïve Mike’s attempts to have sex for the first time and the men’s search for a gay businessman in the middle of a homosexual street festival. Where they end up involves highly visible male frontal nudity and jokes about extremely aberrant behavior.

There is also a major scene in which the men have to enter a unisex spa with lots of non-genital nudity from both sexes, in which Trunkman is forced to drop his own pants in order to convince a major businesswoman to negotiate with him since she’s already sitting nude in a sauna.

The movie also features lots of foul language throughout, although this is delivered in inventive, motor-mouthed bursts from Vaughn and is a sort of trademark for the actor. If you’re a fan of his prior work, you won’t be offended, but if you hate hearing much profanity no matter how humorously it’s delivered, then definitely count the language as another element in the “reasons to avoid” list.

Overall, the movie plays as if it is schizophrenic, even though I’ll admit that I found almost all of it extremely funny myself. If you can handle the movies of the Farrelly Brothers, such as “There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber,” you’ll like this. But I’m afraid that for most of our audience, this is a must-avoid and I do wish the filmmakers had had the common sense to just keep it clean, or at least toned down, all the way through.

It’s also a shame because the movie has very positive portrayals of family life and the American can-do spirit in the face of adversity, and this is a film that could actually inspire some people who are facing hard times at work. Here’s hoping that someone out there in Hollywood – or better yet, many of them – will have the guts to tell a refreshing, funny, adventurous story without having to wallow in moral muck along the way.

Carl Kozlowski has been a professional film critic and essayist for the past five years at Pasadena Weekly, in addition to the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the conservative pop culture site Breitbart.coms Big Hollywood, the Christian pop culture magazine Relevant and New City newspaper in Chicago. He also writes in-depth celebrity interviews for Esquire.com and The Progressive. He is owner of the podcasting site radiotitans.com, which was named one of the Frontier Fifty in 2013 as one of the 50 best talk-radio outlets in the nation by talkers.com and will be relaunching it in January 2014 after a five-month sabbatical. He lives in Los Angeles.

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SUNDAY • MARCH 8, 2015

Third Sunday of Lent

First Reading (Ex 20:1-17; NRSVCE)

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work — you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Second Reading (1 Cor 1:22-25; NRSVCE)

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Gospel Reading (Jn 2:13-25; NRSVCE)

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

MONDAY • MARCH 9, 2015

Monday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (2 Kgs 5:1-15ab; NRSVCE)

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”

Gospel Reading (Lk 4:24-30; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the people, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

TUESDAY • MARCH 10, 2015

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Dn 3:25, 34-43; NRSVCE)

Then Azariah stood still in the fire and prayed aloud:

For your name’s sake do not give us up forever,

and do not annul your covenant.

Do not withdraw your mercy from us,

for the sake of Abraham your beloved

and for the sake of your servant Isaac

and Israel your holy one,

to whom you promised

to multiply their descendants like the stars of heaven

and like the sand on the shore of the sea.

For we, O Lord, have become fewer than any other nation,

and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins.

In our day we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader,

no burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense,

no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy.

Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted,

as though it were with burnt offerings of rams and bulls,

or with tens of thousands of fat lambs;

such may our sacrifice be in your sight today,

and may we unreservedly follow you,

for no shame will come to those who trust in you.

And now with all our heart we follow you;

we fear you and seek your presence.

Do not put us to shame,

but deal with us in your patience

and in your abundant mercy.

Deliver us in accordance with your marvelous works,

and bring glory to your name, O Lord.

Gospel Reading (Mt 18:21-35; NRSVCE)

Then Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

WEDNESDAY • MARCH 11, 2015

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Dt 4:1, 5-9; NRSVCE)

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Gospel Reading (Mt 5:17-19; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

THURSDAY • MARCH 12, 2015

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 7:23-28; NRSVCE)

But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.” Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than forward. From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.

So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.”

Gospel Reading (Lk 11:14-23; NRSVCE)

Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? — for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

FRIDAY • MARCH 13, 2015

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Hos 14:2-10; NRSVCE)

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Take words with you

and return to the Lord;

say to him,

“Take away all guilt;

accept that which is good,

and we will offer

the fruit of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us;

we will not ride upon horses;

we will say no more, ‘Our God,’

to the work of our hands.

In you the orphan finds mercy.”

I will heal their disloyalty;

I will love them freely,

for my anger has turned from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;

he shall blossom like the lily,

he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon.

His shoots shall spread out;

his beauty shall be like the olive tree,

and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.

They shall again live beneath my shadow,

they shall flourish as a garden;

they shall blossom like the vine,

their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress;

your faithfulness comes from me.

Those who are wise understand these things;

those who are discerning know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right,

and the upright walk in them,

but transgressors stumble in them.

Gospel Reading (Mk 12:28-34; NRSVCE)

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ — this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

SATURDAY • MARCH 14, 2015

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Hos 6:1-6; NRSVCE)

“Come, let us return to the Lord;

for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;

he has struck down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;

his appearing is as sure as the dawn;

he will come to us like the showers,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes away early.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,

I have killed them by the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Gospel Reading (Lk 18:9-14; NRSVCE)

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”