VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12  •  MARCH 21, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Scholar from JPII Institute on marriage, family to advise helmsman of 2015 Synod

Pope to teachers: engage with peripheries in your classrooms

Lay people at the forefront of the Church’s mission, says Pope

Pope grieves Pakistan bombings, says world hides Christian persecution

Vatican: no papal endorsement for LGBT Catholic video

Pope Francis encourages bishops of Bosnia and Herzegovina in reconciliation

Vatican analyst explores ‘The Francis Miracle’ in new book

Use of force is a last resort against Islamic State – Vatican diplomat

A society that doesn’t want children is ‘sad and gray,’ Pope says

Three laypersons among saints’ causes advanced by Pope Francis

Pope condemns Tunisia attack as act against ‘the sacredness of life’

Dante’s biggest fans? The ‘poet of popes’ and his legacy at the Vatican

Vatican archives shed light on tragedy of Armenian genocide

Pope Francis: No matter what the crime, ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’

WORLD NEWS

Power of prayer: Contemplative cloisters coming to Crimea?

Read the words of an Orthodox bishop kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago

Here’s what the Church in Pompeii is doing about the mafia

‘Family is not a fad’: Dolce & Gabbana spark firestorm in backing traditional marriage

Pakistani Christians mourn bomb victims, protest lack of security

Hindu priest breaks into tears after elderly nun raped in India

With rise in extremist threat, Pope assures Nigerian bishops of his closeness

Australian bishop affirms innocence amid charges of concealing abuse

Ebola cases are dropping, but it’s ‘still too early to rejoice’

Children of gay and lesbian parents write letter of support to Dolce, Gabbana

Congolese bishop condemns priest’s murder as an ‘infernal act’

Automatic excommunication for bishop over illicit ordination

An 11,000-mile pilgrimage to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia

Pope accepts disgraced Scottish prelate’s resignation from cardinal status

Canada Supreme Court: Catholic schools have right to teach Church views

‘It’s time to surrender,’ Pope tells crime-ridden Naples

A feisty Pope Francis slams corruption, unemployment in Naples

U.S. NEWS

‘Smear campaign’ pushed Knights out of St Patrick’s parade

Patrick: the saint who knew what it was like to be a slave

Catholic-owned company wins ‘final victory’ against HHS mandate

What can St Patrick’s Day teach us about Catholic schools and Latinos?

March Madness? Put aside that fifth bracket and tackle Church teaching, bishop urges

For Archbishop Chaput, religious liberty means more than you may think

Pope Francis has called for a Holy Year of Mercy – so what does that mean?

San Francisco cathedral sprinkler aimed for safety, not homeless

Want a happy marriage? Save sex for ‘I do,’ new study finds

With laws set to threaten religious liberty in D.C., Senate is last legal hope

Presbyterian critics: community’s ‘gay marriage’ vote ignores Christian consensus

Pope Francis reaches to Catholic Charities to tap new D.C. bishop

FEATURES

Lying Selflessness

Bond of brothers

Go to Joseph

On Debt and Openness to Life

Is human society a covenant community or a marketplace?

You are my luxury

Kenneth Branagh’s Very Christian Cinderella

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • March 22, 2015

Monday • March 23, 2015

Tuesday • March 24, 2015

Wednesday • March 25, 2015

Thursday • March 26, 2015

Friday • March 27, 2015

Saturday • March 28, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 12 • March 21, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

Scholar from JPII Institute on marriage, family to advise helmsman of 2015 Synod

by CNA/EWTN News • March 14, 2015

A Bishop reads a newspaper in the Vatican’s Synod Hall before the Friday session of the Synod on the Family, Oct. 10, 2014. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — As the church prepares for the 2015 Synod on the Family, one of the newly-named advisers to the synod of bishops’ general secretariat is a scholar from the John Paul II Institute on marriage and the family – representatives of which were notably absent during last year’s gathering on the same subject.

Vice-president and professor of sacramental theology at the JPII Institute, Fr. José Granados, was listed in a Mar. 14 Vatican statement as one the advisers – known as “consultors”— tasked with advising the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri.

Representatives from the pontifical institute were absent from the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization,” noteworthy for the fact that marriage and the family are at the core of its study.

JPII institute scholars have openly opposed proposals made by some to grant reception of Holy Communion to divorced persons who have remarried without obtaining an annulment, a topic which received much media attention during the 2014 Synod.

This year’s Synod on the Family, to be held on Oct. 4-25, will be the second and larger of two such gatherings to take place in the course of a year. Like its 2014 precursor, the focus of the 2015 Synod of Bishops will be the family, this time with the theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the church and the modern world.”

A preparatory document for the Synod on the Family, formally known as the Lineamenta, was sent to bishops’ conference in Dec. 2014.

The 2014 synod has been criticized in some circles for a lack of transparency, because in previous synods the interventions, or speeches, of the participants were made public. Last year’s gathering, overseen by Cardinal Baldisseri, did not publicly release the texts of the interventions.

Founded in 1981 by St. John Paul II, the Pontifical JPII Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family is centrally based at Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University. It also has institutes in twelve other cities worldwide, including Melbourne, Australia; Changanacherry, India; and Washington, DC’s Catholic University.

Consultors are tasked with assisting the various Vatican departments – formally known as dicasteries – in their work.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope to teachers: engage with peripheries in your classrooms

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 14, 2015

Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Nov. 19, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has called on teachers to engage with the peripheries within their own classrooms, loving their students for their limitations as well as their potential.

“Indeed, the duty of a good teacher - all the more for a Christian teacher - is to love his or her more difficult, weaker, more disadvantaged students with greater intensity,” the Pope said, according to Vatican Radio’s translation.

The educational relationship of the teacher must be such that each student feels “loved for what he or she is, with all of their limitations and potential,” he added.

Professional associations of Christian teachers are “called to engage in the peripheries of the school, which cannot be abandoned to marginalization, exclusion, ignorance, crime.”

Pope Francis was speaking to members of the Unione Cattolica Italiana Insegnati, Dirigenti, Educatori, Formatori (UCIIM), a Catholic Italian association of educators, to mark the 70th anniversary of their founding.

The Pope also stressed the importance of teaching values, in addition to content, in order to promote harmony in the world.

“You must not teach just content, but the values and customs of life,” he said. “A computer can teach content,” but only a teacher can show “how to love, how to understand which values and customs create harmony in society.”

During the audience, Pope Francis acknowledged the beauty of the teaching profession, decrying how badly teachers are paid considering the time spent in school, in preparation, and with the individual students.

Similar to parenthood, at least in a spiritual sense, the Pope stressed that teaching “allows us to see the people who are entrusted to our care grow day after day.”

Pope Francis went on to remind teachers that they are never alone, joined as they are with “the entire educational community to which they belong.”

UCIIM was founded Professor Nosengo Gesualdo, a Catholic religion teacher, in Italy, 1944, while World War II was still under way.

Remarking on this anniversary, Pope Francis noted how far Italian schools have come through the aid of the Association.

“Over the past 70 years Italy has changed, schools have changed, but there are always teachers willing to engage in their profession with that enthusiasm and willingness that faith in the Lord gives us,” he said.

More than simply a job, Pope Francis said, teaching is “a relationship in which each teacher must feel fully involved as a person, to give meaning to the educational task towards their students.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Lay people at the forefront of the Church’s mission, says Pope

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 14, 2015

A newly married couple snaps a selfie with Pope Francis at the Wednesday general audience in Paul VI Hall, Feb. 4, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis reminded lay men and women of their place in the “front lines” in spreading the Gospel, living as Christian witnesses in the secular world.

Being “immersed in the world,” the Pope said Saturday, lay persons are called to permeate their surroundings with Christian values through their witness, whereby they can encounter “persons in concrete situations.”

The pontiff encouraged the laity, through their various professions and states in life, to be on the “front lines” in the Church’s mission, guiding people in the “spirit of the Gospel” through their witness of faith, hope, and charity.

Pope Francis was speaking with members of the lay movement Seguimi – “Follow me” – during a private audience at the papal palace to mark the 50th anniversary of their founding.

There is the temptation to believe that a good Christian is one who simply does social and charitable works, the Pope said. Rather, “the sap which carries life and transforms hearts is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ,” he said, calling those present to allow the Lord to “occupy” the center of their heart and work.

By being then “firmly united” to Christ, the faithful can then “go to the peripheries of the world.”

Established in 1965, Seguimi helps its members to find their maturity in Christ, both in community and in professional spheres. Its initiatives include Christian and human formation, working with the elderly and disabled, and offering support for families and single mothers.

Officially recognized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity in 1984, the Seguimi lay movement offers “a form of evangelical life” to be practiced in “the context of secularism and freedom,” the Pope said, offering a plan whereby Christian lay persons have “an effective way of walking in the world.”

Pope Francis encouraged the fraternity of its members – married and celibate alike – that they may remain vigilant in their “spiritual journey,” helping one another to be “true witnesses of the Gospel.”

“Celibate and married, each in his own state of life, encounter one another and share an enriching experience of complementarity,” he said.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope grieves Pakistan bombings, says world hides Christian persecution

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 15, 2015

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

Vatican City — In his Sunday Angelus address Pope Francis lamented today’s terrorist attacks against two Christian churches – one of them Catholic – in Pakistan, and prayed that such violence will stop.

“With suffering, with much suffering, I have learned of today’s terrorist attacks against two churches in the city of Lahore, Pakistan, which have caused numerous deaths and injuries,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square March 15.

Francis noted how both of the churches targeted, only a few meters apart, “are Christian churches, the Christians who are persecuted,” and grieved how “our brothers shed their blood solely because they are Christians.”

In addition to praying for the victims and their families, Francis implored God “for the gift of peace and harmony for that country, and that this persecution against Christians – which the world tries to hide – will end, and that there will be peace.”

Francis’ words came after what police believe to be two suicide bombers interrupted Sunday services at St. Joseph Catholic Church and Anglican Christ Church in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

Aljezeera news agency reports that at least 14 people were killed and 70 injured in the attacks, which are believed to have been timed during Sunday services to cause maximum damage.

Jamatul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, is said to have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Witnesses say there was a scuffle at the entrance gate of one of the churches between a security guard and another man, who blew himself up when he couldn’t get through to enter the church.

Reports state that after hearing of the attacks, Christians in other areas of Pakistan took to the streets in protest, and killed two men they believed were behind the attacks.

Before leading pilgrims in the traditional Marian prayer, Francis directed their attention to the day’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus tells Nicodemus that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.”

These words of Jesus are reminiscent of his death on the cross, and when we listen to them “we feel within ourselves that God loves us, truly loves us and loves us so much!” the Pope said.

A simple expression that sums up the whole of the Gospel, faith and theology, he said, is that “God loves us freely and without limits.”

Although God didn’t need man, he created him in order to have someone on whom he could bestow his goodness, Francis said, noting that the love of God is expressed in the first act of creation, and culminates in the Cross of Christ.

The crucifixion and death of Jesus “is the supreme proof of God’s love for us: Jesus loved us ‘unto the end,’ that is, not only until the final moment of his earthly life, but until the extreme limit of love,” he said.

“If the Father proved his boundless love in creation by giving us life, he gave us the proof of proofs in the Passion of his Son: he came to suffer and die for us.”

Pope Francis then pointed to the Holy Spirit as and additional pouring-out of God’s love. As a gift to man, the Spirit is a living memory of Christ, and works both inside the Church and out in order to foster authentic human values.

He turned to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, saying that it is “the holiest and most effective sign of this love,” and noted how each in each Mass the Church relives Jesus’ death on Calvary, which he said is “the summit of the love story between God and his people.”

Francis then turned to Mary, Mother of Mercy, as the woman capable of assuring man that he is loved by God, and led those present in the Angelus prayer.

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican: no papal endorsement for LGBT Catholic video

by CNA/EWTN News • March 16, 2015

St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on June 19, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — A Vatican official says there will be no papal endorsement for an LGBT activist video whose backers want it to reach Pope Francis.

Father Gil Martinez, C.S.P., a member of the development team for the video “LGBT Catholics: Owning our Faith,” intended to present the video to Pope Francis in a private audience after morning Mass on March 17, according to the website of the St. Philip Neri Parish and Northwest Paulist Center in the Portland, Ore.

The video contains the personal reflections from self-identified LGBT Catholics, several of whom reject Church teaching.

An official with the Holy See Press Office told CNA March 16 that the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household had not announced any public events for Pope Francis on March 17. This means that “no public or official meetings are scheduled.”

“The Pope can, however, meet whomever he wants, but this cannot mean in any sense an official endorsement, since every audience is intended to be kept private,” the official said. Such meetings are made public “only if some of the people involved speak out about it.”

The press release for the video said it is dedicated to “achieving the full acceptance of LGBT persons in the Catholic Church.” It said that the video evokes “the need for change” and will “reach thousands, including Pope Francis, many bishops and other prominent Vatican clergy.”

The St. Philip Neri Parish website said that Fr. Mark-David Janus, C.S.P., would also present Cardinal Walter Kasper’s newest book from Paulist Press, “Pope Francis’ Revolution of Tenderness and Love.”

The “Owning our Faith” video is produced and directed by Michael Tomae, a parishioner of New York City’s St. Paul the Apostle Church. Fr. Martinez is pastor of the parish, which shares a mailing address with the “Owning our Faith” project. Tomae is part of the parish’s Out@StPaul LGBT ministry, which is promoting the video on its website.

The “Owning our Faith” video includes interviewees who reject Catholic teaching on sexual morality and marriage.

Matt Putorti, a lawyer from New York City, criticized Catholic teaching in the video, claiming that the Church is telling gay people that “they need to be celibate” and “cannot live fully.”

Putorti said it is “inherently” discriminatory to say, “You can be gay, but you can’t live that life.”

Interviewee Matt Vidal, a lawyer from New York City in a same-sex civil marriage, said that leaving the Church would mean that “it’s never going to change.”

“So we have to continue living here, being an example and encouraging other people to be that example because that’s what’s going to change the Church.”

Another interviewee, Matteo Williamson, co-chairs the transgender caucus of the dissenting Catholic group Dignity USA, which aims to change Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Williamson, who identifies as a transgender man, said this transition was “immensely spiritual to me.”

The “Owning Our Faith” website recommends a list of parishes on the website of New Ways Ministry, another Catholic dissenting group. In 2011, the U.S. Catholic bishops reiterated that the organization is not allowed to identify as Catholic and said that it puts forward positions that do not conform to Catholic teaching.

New Ways Ministry claimed to have received VIP seating at the Feb. 18, 2015 papal audience. However, CNA sources at the Vatican explained that rather than being granted special seats, no requests for the seats were rejected and that the group identified itself only as “a group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loretto.”

The group is also promoting the “Owning our Faith” video on its website.

New Ways Ministry and Dignity USA are part of the Equally Blessed Coalition. The Arcus Foundation, a wealthy LGBT activist organization, has given the coalition hundreds of thousands of dollars through Dignity USA.

In 2012, the coalition attacked the U.S. bishops and the Knights of Columbus for defending civil marriage as a union of one man and one woman. In 2014, the Arcus Foundation made a $200,000 grant to the coalition “to support pro-LGBT faith advocates to influence and counter the narrative of the Catholic Church and its ultra-conservative affiliates.”

Catholic teaching rejects all unjust discrimination against homosexual persons while also recognizes homosexual activity as immoral and teaches that marriage is a union only of one man and one woman.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis encourages bishops of Bosnia and Herzegovina in reconciliation

by CNA/EWTN News • March 17, 2015

A Catholic church, a mosque, and a Serbian Orthodox church in Bosanska Krupa, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Mazbln via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0)

Vatican City — During his address to the bishops from Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday, Pope Francis urged them to foster reconciliation and peaceful coexistence in their country, which has been marked by ethno-religious tensions.

“The society in which you live has a multicultural and multi-ethnic dimension. And you have been entrusted the task of being fathers to all, in spite of material limits and the crisis within which you work,” he said March 16.

“May your heart always be large enough to accommodate all, just as the heart of Christ is able to receive in itself – with divine love – every human being.”

He began by looking forward to his visit to Sarajevo, the nation’s capital, which is scheduled for June 6, saying he will “enjoy with your people how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.”

Pope Francis’ words focused on emigration; he said that “I have prayed for … all those constrained to seek refuge abroad from war, unemployment, and a lack of prospects.”

Riots broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 2014 over unemployment – the rate is between 40 and 50 percent, with unemployment rates among young people at nearly 75 percent.

Moreover, following its independence upon the break-up of Yugoslavia, the country was embroiled in the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995 in which genocide and ethnic cleansing took place.

The resulting emigration “evokes the difficulty of return for many of your co-citizens, the scarcity of sources of work, the instability of families, the emotional and social laceration of entire communities, the practical precariousness of many parishes, and the still fresh memories of conflict, both at a personal and community level, in which wounded hearts are still painful,” Pope Francis reflected.

“I therefore encourage you to spare no energies in supporting the weak, helping – in all ways possible – those who have a legitimate and honest desire to remain in the land of their birth, bring succour to the spiritual hunger of those who believe in the indelible values, born of the Gospel, that throughout the centuries have nurtured the life of your communities.”

Bosnia and Herzegovina is effectively divided among its major ethnic groups: Muslim Bosniaks constitute some 48 percent of the population; Orthodox Serbs 37 percent; and Catholic Croats 15 percent.

In this fractured land, Pope Francis reminded the bishops that “every Christian community knows that it is called upon to open itself up and to irradiate the light of the Gospel; it cannot stay closed within its traditions … it must come out of its ‘enclosure’, firm in faith, supported by prayer and encouraged by pastors, to live and announce the new life of which it is a depository, that of Christ, Saviour of all men.”

He encouraged “initiatives that can extend the presence of the Church beyond liturgical parameters, assuming with imagination every other action that may affect society, bringing with it the fresh spirit of the Gospel. Every person needs, even without knowing it, to encounter the Lord Jesus.”

Reflecting again on emigration, Pope Francis told the bishops to “seek to promote a solid social pastoral ministry in relation to the faithful, especially the young, to ensure that consciences are formed, willing to remain in their own territories as agents and key actors in the reconstruction and the growth of your country, from which they cannot expect only to receive.”

In this ministry, he noted the importance of the Church’s social teaching, saying it is “a way of overcoming the residue of old materialism that still persists in the mentality and behaviour of some sectors of the society in which you live.”

Noting their pastoral, ecumenical, and interreligious ministry, Pope Francis reminded the bishops they are fathers to all, while admonishing them that “this does not absolve you of the need to give open and frank testimony of your belonging to Christ.”

In this respect he urged the bishops to learn from their priests, religious, and laity, and then encouraged them to foster good relations between secular and religious priests.

“In this year dedicated to Consecrated Life, we must show that all charisms and ministries are destined to the glory of God and the salvation of all men, taking care to ensure that these are effectively orientated towards the edification of the Kingdom of God and not contaminated by partial aims; that they are carried out in a regime of human and fraternal communion, bearing each other’s burdens with a spirit of service.”

Pope Francis concluded by exhorting the bishops to communion: “I am aware that historical events make Bosnia and Herzegovina different in many areas. And yet you are a single body: you are Catholic bishops in communion with the Successor of Peter, in a frontier location. One word alone emerges spontaneously from my heart: you are in communion. Although at times imperfect, such communion is to be pursued vigorously at all levels, setting individual peculiarities aside.”

“It is necessary to act on the basis of your belonging to the same Apostolic College; other considerations are of secondary importance and are to be analyzed in the light of the catholicity of your faith and of your ministry.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican analyst explores ‘The Francis Miracle’ in new book

by CNA/EWTN News • March 17, 2015

John L. Allen Jr. with Pope Francis. (John L. Allen Jr.)

Vatican City — Pope Francis is the subject of a new book by noted Vatican analyst and author John Allen, Jr. From the Pope’s Argentinian roots to his journey to the papacy and view to the future, “The Francis Miracle” seeks to offer a definitive resource on the Roman Pontiff and the legacy he will leave behind. CNA spoke with Allen about “The Francis Miracle,” which is available this month from TIME Books. The text of the interview is below.

CNA: What motivated you to write this book?

Allen: I’m a journalist who covers the Vatican and the papacy, so honestly I didn’t need a lot of motivation. Pope Francis is an undeniably compelling story, and the question of exactly where he’s taking the Catholic Church is one that fascinates people everyone, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. I knew I wasn’t in a position to write a conventional biography of this pope, because I don’t have the background in Argentina. What I could offer, however, is a book that’s not so much about the pope as it is the papacy. It’s obviously a moving picture, but two years in it seemed time for a preliminary assessment of where things stand. In part, that’s because two years under Francis is like twenty under other leaders in terms of the amount of drama and upheaval we’ve seen!

CNA: When did you decide to write it and how did that process come about?

Allen: I was first approached by the people at Time over Christmas of 2013. We finalized the details of a contract, and I set to work. Most of the writing was done over the summer of 2014, with adjustments and updates all the way up to just before release of the book in March 2015. A good deal of the content is drawn from my regular reporting and analysis on the pope, though some of it is based on interviews done exclusively for the book. I should also acknowledge my Crux/Boston Globe colleague Inés San Martín, an Argentinian and a terrific journalist who provided invaluable assistance.

CNA: Did you have your own “miracle” or “aha” moment that led you to write it?

Allen: I didn’t experience anything that I’d call divine intervention. However, as a journalist who makes his living as a Vatican analyst, and whose income therefore tends to rise and fall depending on how interested people are in the pope, I’d certainly call Francis a miracle on that basis alone!

CNA: What misconceptions about Pope Francis do you think your book will help clarify?

Allen: One misconception is the media hype that Pope Francis is a radical leftist, or, as I put, “Che Guevara in a cassock.” That’s clearly not the case. He’s been in office two full years now and has yet to adjust a single comma in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Instead, if there’s a “revolution” underway it’s at the level of pastoral application of doctrine, not revisions to that doctrine itself.

Another is the idea that there’s something unique or unprecedented about the resistance Francis has encountered. It’s a sexy narrative to speculate about arch-conservative cardinals huddled in a Vatican basement somewhere plotting their revenge, but the truth is that whatever “opposition” exists is far more disorganized and episodic than that. Moreover, there is nothing whatsoever new about the idea that some senior members of the hierarchy may have a different vision on some matters than the current pope. St. John Paul II ran into internal opposition, as did Benedict XVI. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that Francis is the 266th pope, and he’s the 266th pope to have trouble sometimes bringing all of his bishops along.

CNA: Do you think it is possible to talk about a “Francis effect”? Are there any important changes beyond a much better perception of the Pontificate in the secular world?

Allen: Statistically, it’s too early to talk about a measurable “Francis effect” if we mean by that, for instance, increases in Mass attendance or self-identification as Catholic. Some time back the Pew Forum found no such bump in the United States, though (Italian sociologist) Massimo Introvigne found that half of Italy’s pastors reported an up-tick in Mass attendance and demand for the sacrament of confession that they attributed to Francis.

Anecdotally, however, my impression moving in and out of various Catholic venues is that people do believe that Francis has improved Catholic fortunes. They realize that because of the public fascination with this pope, the eyes of the world are upon him and therefore they’re upon the Church. That gives Catholic evangelists what we’d traditionally call a “teaching moment,” and the shrewder among them are doing their best to take advantage.

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VATICAN NEWS

Use of force is a last resort against Islamic State – Vatican diplomat

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2015

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva, speaking Aug. 25, 2014. (Joaquin Piero Perez/CNA)

Vatican City — By presenting a joint statement to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to support Christians and other communities in the Middle East, the Holy See has fostered a new diplomatic approach to protect communities and raise the international focus on a top issue.

The approach is an alternative to the use of force against the Islamic State, which can only be the “very last choice,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Holy See Permanent Observer to the UN office in Geneva, told CNA.

The joint statement, he said, “is news in the world of the Human Rights Council, since it is the first time we explicitly mention the category of Christian persons, though we also mention the presence of other communities.”

Drafted together with Lebanon and Russia, the statement from the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva was presented March 13 during the assembly of the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council.

The joint statement clearly recognizes the abuses suffered by persons from any religious, ethnic and cultural background, simply because they want to exercise their freedom of religion and belief without being persecuted or killed.

Archbishop Tomasi explained that the Human Rights Council is the “third pillar on which the United Nations are grounded,” and so the statement has the goal to “sensitize this pillar of the United Nations so that the human rights of people persecuted because of religion are preserved.”

Archbishop Tomasi stressed that “in the past there has been a certain reticence to speak out clearly on the religious issue, because of complex military or political situations, or because of a certain fear to foster a negative reactions by voters in Western countries, or other reasons, and so Christians have never been mentioned.”

But today – the Holy See Observer stressed – “Christians are the main target of the violence of the self-proclaimed Islamic State.”

As the joint statement has been signed by “almost 70 countries, with different backgrounds,” Archbishop Tomasi emphasized that “we must foster dialogue, and this what the Holy See has always committed to,” though on the other hand a military intervention to block the Islamic State might be needed.

Archbishop Tomasi underscored that “our final goal is certainly to negotiate and to put violence to an end, and to solve any contrast among countries through peaceful tools.”

The use of force must come “as the very last choice,” he said, explaining that the catechism only justifies the use of force “according to the principle of the lesser evil, that is, that every intervention must be intended to safeguard people whose fundamental rights are violated.”

“This approach does not contradict the approach of dialogue … it mirrors the limits of our human experience, as situations that contradict our ideals may come out,” Archbishop Tomasi said.

The Holy See Permanent Observer hoped for a United Nations intervention.

“At this moment, the United Nations can encourage the larger countries and the countries of the Middle East region to sit all together around a table to stop the violence.”

In the case of an eventual military intervention, the United Nations “are called to make the decision to do so, and their function is crucial as they avoid private interests to overcome the common good or the interest of people the international community aims to help.”

On the other hand, the apostolic nuncio stressed that “a reform of the United Nations’ Security Council has been widely discussed, since most of the difficulties to make the decisions lies in the way the Security Council is conceived, since the crossed vetos of some of the countries block the possibility to get to a common action.”

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VATICAN NEWS

A society that doesn’t want children is ‘sad and gray,’ Pope says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 18, 2015

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

Vatican City — Pope Francis said Wednesday that children are a joy-filled gift for the Church and the world, and cautioned against an overcast society that lacks life because it has rejected and run out of children.

“Children give life, joy and hope. They also give worries and sometimes problems, but this is better than a society that is sad and gray because it has run out of children. Or doesn’t want children,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his March 18 general audience.

It is the second time Francis has spoken about children in his general audiences this year. On Feb. 11, he told pilgrims that a society which is “not surrounded by children, that considers them a problem, a burden, has no future.”

On that occasion he also spoke of how children are a gift, calling them “the joy of family and society.”

Children, he said, “are not a problem of reproductive biology, or one of many ways to realize oneself in life. Let alone their parent’s possession. Children are a gift. Do you understand? Children are a gift!” and went on to talk about the free aspect of love they bring to the world.

In today’s audience, Francis reiterated what a “great gift” children are, and said that their weakness and fragility is a reminder for everyone that we are always dependent on others.

“A society can be judged by the way it treats its children,” he said, explaining that they make us realize that “all of us are always children, in need of help, love and forgiveness, which are the conditions in order to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Francis noted that children also help to “dismantle the idea of believing we are autonomous and self-sufficient.”

In his birth, Jesus himself reminds of how we have all at one point in time been totally dependent on the care of others, the Pope said, noting that in his ministry, Jesus gave special praise to the “little ones” who need help, especially children.

Another reminder children give is that we are always sons and daughters, and that as we age, rather than being in “complete control” of our lives, “we never cease being radically dependent on others,” Francis said.

Children “challenge us to see things with a simple, pure and trusting heart, to receive and to offer warmth and tenderness and to laugh and cry freely in response to the world around us,” which is something that can often be “blocked” in the elderly, he noted.

Francis closed his audience by recalling how Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, beckons the children to come to him, saying that we must all become like a little children in order enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Let us welcome and treasure our children, who bring so much life, joy and hope to the world. How sad and bleak would our world be without them!”

After finishing his speech Pope Francis offered personal greetings to groups of pilgrims present from various countries around the world, including Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Philippines, Canada, the United States of America, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Argentina.

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VATICAN NEWS

Three laypersons among saints’ causes advanced by Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • March 18, 2015

Bl. Louis and Zelie Martin, whose intercession in a miracle was decreed March 18, 2015. (Public domain image)

Vatican City — Pope Francis recognized on Wednesday the heroic virtue of seven persons on the path of canonization, including a young Italian laywoman, as well as a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux.

Bl. Louis and Zelie will be canonized this autumn.

Francis met March 18 with the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, giving the green light for the causes to move forward.

While the miracle attributed to the Martins was formally recognized only today, Cardinal Amato had informally announced to journalists several weeks ago that the couple would be canonized in October, the same month as the Synod on the Family.

On that occasion, the cardinal referred to the French spouses noting that “the saints are not only priests and religious, but also lay persons.”

Louis and Zelie were beatified Oct. 19, 2008 by Benedict XVI, and their canonization will be the first of its kind, in which a married couple are jointly proclaimed saints.

Married in 1858 just three months after meeting each other, Bl. 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.

Zelie died from cancer in 1877, 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.

In addition to the couple’s miracle, the heroic virtue of seven individuals, now referred to as Venerables, were recognized.

Maria Orsola Bussone was born in Vallo Torinese in 1954, and became involved in the Focolare movement after attending a retreat led by the movement’s leaders as a young teenager.

The retreat marked a revolution in Bussone’s thinking, and she began a process of continuous self-examination in which she compared herself to the models of Jesus and Mary. She committed herself to love God especially in the service of others.

In addition to what she wrote in her diary, Bussone also wrote several letters to her friends which demonstrated her level of maturity, and in which she told them about her desire to see God in others.

Bussone wrote in one letter that “at the end of our life, God will not ask us if we have been behaving like this or that person, if we have understood what we had been told about him, but he will ask us if we have loved him in our brothers and sisters, and we shall have to answer for the talents he was given us and if we have made them work.”

She died after being shocked by a faulty hairdryer in Ca’ Savio, Italy in 1970 while helping to lead summer camp at the age of 16. She was declared a Servant of God by St. John Paul II in 2000.

Other causes approved for heroic virtue are that of Petar Barbaric, who was a novice with the Jesuits. He was born in 1984 in Klobuk, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and died in 1897 just before his 23rd birthday.

Elisa Baldo Foresti was a widow and founder of the Holy Home of St. Joseph in Gavardo, as well as cofounder of the Humble Servants of the Lord.

Among the other founders recognized for heroic virtue are Fr. Francesco Gattola, a diocesan priest and founder of the Daughters of the Most Holy Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes; Mary Aikenhead, founder of the Religious Sisters of Charity of Ireland and Sister Vincenta of the Passion of the Lord, a Pole who founded the Benedictine Samaritan Sisters of the Cross of Christ.

The cause of Sister Juana of the Cross, a professed religious with Franciscan Nuns of the Third Order Regular and Abbess of the Santa Maria de la Cruz convent in Cubas del la Sagra, Spain, was also advanced with the approval of her heroic virtue.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope condemns Tunisia attack as act against ‘the sacredness of life’

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 19, 2015

Francis prays at the General Audience Sept. 25, 2013. (Elise Harris/CNA)

Vatican City — On behalf of Pope Francis, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State has sent a letter to the archbishop of Tunisia, assuring him of the Pope’s prayers after yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack killed at least 23 people.

In the March 19 telegram, Pope Francis called the attack “(an act) against peace and the sacredness of human life.” He said that he unites with prayer “to the suffering of the families (of the victims) and to all those affected by this tragedy, as well as to the entire Tunisian people.”

Francis closed his letter by asking the Lord “to welcome the deceased in peace and comfort those who are seriously injured.”

Signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the telegram was addressed to Mons. Ilario Antoniazzi, archbishop of Tunisia, following yesterday’s attack on the country’s National Bardo Museum, which is a popular tourist destination.

Reports indicate that roughly 200 tourists were visiting the museum when three gunmen dressed in Tunisian military uniforms opened fire on several buses before storming inside the museum itself.

BBC News reports that in a new audio message released by the Islamic State, the militants claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out by “two knights of the caliphate.”

Tunisian police have reportedly arrested nine people suspected of having a hand in the attack, which left 23 people dead and 40 wounded. Two gunmen were killed at the scene, according to the BBC.

Among the tourists killed are foreigners hailing from Japan, Italy, Colombia, Spain, the UK, Australia, France and Poland. Three Tunisians are also reported to have been killed, including a police officer.

At the time of the attack, officials in the neighboring parliament building had been discussing anti-terrorism legislation.

Tunisia recently completed its first free presidential elections with a peaceful transition of political power after leading a democratic reform movement in 2010 which resulted in the outing of the country’s longstanding ruler.

The country’s revolution launched a wave of demonstrations, protests and riots across the Arab world – the start of what came to be known as the Arab Spring.

While the Tunisian government has sought to put an end to occasional attacks by Islamist extremists, the country has regardless become one of the largest providers of fighters joining ISIS forces in Syria and Iraq, The New York Times reports.

Yesterday’s assault marked the deadliest terrorist attack since a truck filled with propane exploded outside of a synagogue on the island of Djerba in 2002, killing 21 people, including European tourists.

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VATICAN NEWS

Dante’s biggest fans? The ‘poet of popes’ and his legacy at the Vatican

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 20, 2015

Dante portrait by Domenico di Michelino. (Jim Forest CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Rome, Italy — With this year marking the 750th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s birth, the Vatican is taking a closer look the author of the Italian masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, and his impact upon the popes of the 20th century.

“Dante is a universal poet for all people and all times,” according to a Mar. 17 article by L’Osservatore Romano which expounds upon the estimation which Paul VI, along with his predecessor Benedict XV, had for the Italian poet.

Once describing him as a “master of exalted lyricism,” Paul VI, who shepherded Vatican II to its close following the death of its founder, John XXIII, so appreciated the works of Dante, he gifted a special edition copy of the Divine Comedy to each of the council fathers.

Born circa 1265, Dante Alighieri was the leading Italian poet of the Middle Ages. He is best known for penning the Divine Comedy, an epic poem widely considered to be among the world’s most important literary works. Completed about a year before the Florentine author’s death in 1321, the three-part story, rich with political as well as theological allusions, famously recounts a journey through the various levels of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

In 1965, the same year as the close of Vatican II, Paul VI published the motu proprio Altissimi Cantus, in which the pontiff highlights the Medieval poet’s significance.

In the Divine Comedy, the pope writes in the document, Dante “embraces heaven and earth, eternity and time, the mystery of God and the affairs of men, both sacred and profane teaching, as well as the understanding made possible by divine revelation and the light of natural reason.”

Believing him to be “the poet of theologians and the theologian of poets,” according to L’Osservatore Romano, Paul VI would go on to establish a chair for Dante studies at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, with an emphasis on what he saw to be the “ecumenical” elements of the poet’s writings.

Paul VI’s love for the Italian master was such that he was even known to have requested that his private secretary, Msgr. Pasquale Macchi, read aloud excerpts from the Divine Comedy, as well as Alessandro Manzoni’s masterpiece The Betrothed, according to Cardinal Paul Poupard.

Cardinal Poupard, president emeritus for both the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, spoke at a March 17 meeting in Florence to commemorate the anniversary of Dante’s birth, as well as the 50th anniversary of Altissimi Cantus.

Like Paul VI’s successor, Benedict XV (1854-1922) was also an avid follower of Dante’s writings, referring to the Divine Comedy as “the fifth Gospel.”

Both popes “believed that the beauty of Dante’s work consists in both the manifold way it brilliantly reveals truth, and in its use of a wide range of artistic devices,” the cardinal posited, according to the Vatican newspaper.

In his 1921 encyclical, In praeclara summorum copia hominum, Benedict XV refers to Dante as “the most eloquent bard to sing and announce Christian wisdom.”

“Who can deny that, at that time, the behavior of some members of the clergy was reprehensible, deeply disturbing to a soul as devoted to the Church as Dante’s?” the early 20th century pontiff writes.

Dante was a “Christian poet,” he said, “someone who sang Christian doctrine in an almost angelic voice; a doctrine whose beauty and splendor Dante contemplated with his entire soul.”

December this year will mark 50 years since the close of Vatican II, the ecumenical council which began 1962 under the pontificate of Saint John XXIII.

Paul VI, elected to the papacy in 1963, was beatified in October 2014 by Pope Francis.

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican archives shed light on tragedy of Armenian genocide

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • March 20, 2015

Armenians being deported. (Narek via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — Ahead of Pope Francis’ Mass commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, newly released historic documents confirm the Holy See’s broad commitment to helping the Armenian people at a time when few others would.

The Italian Jesuit-run magazine La Civiltà Cattolica stressed that newly published documents “prove how the Holy See, always informed about events, had not remained passive, but was strongly committed to face the issue” of the Armenian Genocide. “Benedict XV was the only ruler or religious leader to voice out a protest against the ‘massive crime’.”

The Armenian Genocide is considered to have begun April 24, 1915 with a massacre of Armenians in Istanbul. Over the next eight years, 1.5 million Armenians would be killed and millions more displaced.

However, such killings were perpetrated before, when much of the region was still under Ottoman rule.

For instance, a March 27, 1896 letter by the Franciscan Father Domenico Werson, who was serving as a missionary in Aleppo, recounted the massacre of Christians in Marasc and vicinities.

Most of the documents in the newly published series are from the archive of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. They have been published in a series of four books by the Jesuit priest Father Georges-Henry Ruyssen. In advance of the series’ March 21 release date, the latest edition of La Civiltà Cattolica has published a summary.

The documents on the “Armenian Question” date from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century.

The collection of documents includes letters from Popes and to Ottoman sultans; documents and dispatches by Vatican Secretaries of State and prefects or secretaries of other Vatican dicasteries; documents and reports by the Apostolic delegates; and letters by Armenian patriarchs and bishops with firsthand information.

There are also reports by eye witnesses that clearly describe what was going on.

The documents note the actions of Pope Benedict XV, who sent two personal letters to Sultan Muhammad V Reshad on Sep. 10, 1915 and March 12, 1918, respectively.

The Pope’s effort was the climax of several attempts at mediation carried forward by the Holy See to help Armenians. Pope Leo XIII tried a mediation beginning in 1859. The Holy See sought to be a mediator with Djemal Pashà, commander of the Turkish army in Syria, for the freedom of 60 Armenians sentenced to death in 1917. Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, the Vatican Secretary of State, mediated with Mustaphà Kemal Pashà in 1921 for the safeguard of the lives and the goods of surviving Christians in Turkey.

The Holy See did not only work in diplomacy, but also sought to assist surviving refugees.

The Holy See, La Civiltà Cattolica writes, “mobilized a continual flow of financial aid and supplies in an era when there were no other international humanitarian organizations beyond the Red Cross and the Near East relief.”

The Holy See especially assisted orphans, and founded “many orphanages” open to people of every religious confession. Young orphan Armenian girls were also hosted in the orphanage in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.

The documents record the reasons why countries did not take any stance on the genocide and did not defend the Armenian people when the first signs of genocide were visible.

La Civiltà Cattolica underscored that in the late 19th century, the question of the future of the Armenians “was forgotten step by step,” because the “gradual passivity of European diplomacy” worked to “preserve at every cost the integrity of the Ottoman empire.”

Archbishop Augusto Bonetti, the apostolic delegate to Constantinople from 1887-1904, summarized the international situation.

France and Russia both aimed to preserve “the integrity of Turkey.” France had made major capital investments in the region, while Russia wanted Turkish relations to be dormant so it could focus on the Far East.

In Archbishop Bonetti’s view, Germany had a material interest in the continuation of the war between the Greeks and the Turks, while England had “important political interests in Turkey.”

On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the publication of these documents may shed light on the reasons why this genocide was perpetrated in the midst of a general political indifference.

As for Pope Francis, he will celebrate a Mass marking the centenary of the genocide in St. Peter Basilica on April 24.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: No matter what the crime, ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’

by CNA/EWTN News • March 20, 2015

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

Vatican City — Regardless of the crime that has been committed, capital punishment is unacceptable in the modern world, Pope Francis stressed in a recent letter.

“Nowadays the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed,” the Pope said.

“It is an offence against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society, and his merciful justice, and impedes the penalty from fulfilling any just objective. It does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.”

Pope Francis’ words came in a letter to Federico Mayor, president of the International Commission against the Death Penalty. The Pope held an audience with a delegation from the commission March 20.

In his letter, he reflected on Church teaching, based on Scripture and thousands of years of experience, in defending the sanctity of human life from conception to natural end. He noted that this respect for life is based on human dignity of persons made in the image of God.

“For the rule of law, the death penalty represents a failure, as it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice,” he said, adding, “Justice can never be wrought by killing a human being.”

“With the application of the death penalty, the convict is denied the possibility of to repent or make amends for the harm caused; the possibility of confession, by which a man expresses his inner conversion, and contrition, the gateway to atonement and expiation, to reach an encounter with God’s merciful and healing justice,” Pope Francis continued.

He noted that capital punishment is often “used by totalitarian regimes and groups of fanatics for the extermination of political dissidents, minorities, and any subject labelled as ‘dangerous’ or who may be perceived as a threat to its power or to the achievement of its ends.”

Pope Francis has spoken out against the death penalty several times since his election two years ago. His predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, also spoke out against its use in modern society.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty may be used “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” However, it adds, such cases today “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”

In his letter, Pope Francis reflected on this concept.

“On some occasions it is necessary to repel an ongoing assault proportionately to avoid damage caused by the aggressor, and the need to neutralize him could lead to his elimination; this is a case of legitimate defense,” the Pope said.

“However, the presuppositions of personal legitimate defense do not apply at the social level, without risk of misinterpretation,” he continued, explaining that the death penalty is applied not for a current act of aggression, but for one committed in the past.

Additionally, he said, the death penalty is applied to those who are not currently able to cause harm, since they have already been “deprived of their liberty” and the threat that they pose has therefore been neutralized.

In addition to the use of the death penalty, Pope Francis said, “States kill … when they send their people to war or when they carry out extrajudicial or summary executions. They can also kill by omission, when they fail to guarantee to their people access to the bare essentials for life.”

He also warned that “life imprisonment entails for the prisoner the impossibility of planning a future of freedom, and may therefore be considered as a sort of covert death penalty, as they deprive detainees not only of their freedom, but also of hope.”

The Pontiff encouraged members of the International Commission against the Death Penalty to continue their work, “so that the action taken against this cruel punishment may be successful and fruitful.”

“The death penalty is contrary to the sentiment of humanitas and to divine mercy, which must be the model for human justice,” he stressed.

“There is discussion in some quarters about the method of killing, as if it were possible to find ways of ‘getting it right’ … But there is no humane way of killing another person.”

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WORLD NEWS

Power of prayer: Contemplative cloisters coming to Crimea?

by Kate Veik (CNA/EWTN News) • March 14, 2015

A young religious sister prays at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Jan. 17, 2105. (Catholic Charities/Jeffrey Bruno CC BY 2.0)

Simferopol, Crimea — It’s been one year since fighting broke out in Ukraine. The death toll has surpassed 6,000. Almost 1 million people have been displaced. And a February ceasefire agreement with Russia has created only a tenuous halt in hostilities, leaving the future uncertain.

But, Bishop Jacek Pyl of the Diocese of Odessa-Simferopol has a plan; he wants to invite a contemplative order of sisters into the heart of the Crimean peninsula.

“I believe in the strength and the power of prayer,” Bishop Pyl told CNA. Contemplative nuns “are able to obtain many graces for people who live here; in the first place to ruin the walls of all kind of prejudices and atheistic habits, rooted deeply into people’s hearts over the years of communism.”

Bishop Pyl’s plan to bring nuns into Crimea seems counterintuitive. But it might not be.

While eastern Ukraine remains unstable, Bishop Pyl told CNA life in the Crimean peninsula is “just as safe as other regions of Russia.”

Russia annexed Crimea in March of 2014 after a referendum in which more than 95 percent of Crimeans voted in favor of reunification. The Vatican and much of the international community has not officially recognized the annexation, but the Church in Crimea is already working to register with officials in Moscow.

Bishop Pyl believes a contemplative order of nuns will help ensure the future of the Catholic Church in Crimea, where Catholics are a minority.

“We want to save the presence of the Catholic Church in this corner of the world,” he said. “The annexation of Crimea has divided some families and brought in anxiety. Certain number of faithful have left Crimea; new ones came. The Church is trying to overcome these divisions and unite people around Christ.”

The bishop has the support of at least two U.S. bishops who have seen the effect of contemplative orders in their own dioceses.

“I think the bishop’s got the right idea; I concur with him entirely,” said Bishop Emeritus Fabian Bruskewitz of the Diocese of Lincoln. Contemplative nuns “bring not only a silent and continuous homily to the people by their lives and by their attitudes … But, they also bring great joy to the diocese.”

The Diocese of Lincoln is home to two contemplative communities: the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters (known affectionately by locals as the “Pink Sisters” because of their pink habits) and the Discalced Carmelites of the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

The communities were established in 1973 and 2001, respectively, and local Catholics do not hesitate to admit the nuns’ powerful effect on the local Church. The Diocese of Lincoln is experiencing a springtime of vocations, with the highest number of priests and male religious since 1976. Female religious are also steadily recovering from drastic drops in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Vicar General Monsignor Thorburn credits the Diocese of Lincoln’s vocation health to the prayers of the contemplative orders.

“Being exposed to religious whose communities have remained faithful to the Church’s vision of religious life plants vocational seeds,” he reflected. “The prayers of all those religious help those seeds to come alive.”

Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix witnessed firsthand the power of contemplative orders when he was a priest in the Diocese of Lincoln. He was ordained a priest in the same year the late Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin established the “Pink Sisters” and recalls celebrating weekly Benediction with the nuns in his first years as a priest.

“I always saw that as part of God’s loving providence,” Bishop Olmsted told CNA. His experience in the Diocese of Lincoln moved him to establish new contemplative communities in the dioceses of Wichita and Phoenix.

“It’s certainly one of my priorities,” he admitted. “The Church needs the support of the contemplative communities; their prayers, their sacrifices and their example of making a total gift of themselves to God for the sake of the larger Church.”

“I felt when I arrived in the Diocese of Phoenix that one of the poverties we had is that we did not have a contemplative community,” Bishop Olmsted said, adding that the Diocese of Phoenix now hosts the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. “I think that’s what the bishop in Ukraine was saying; that something was missing there, a witness to God and a witness to the power of intercessory prayer and a witness to the goodness of adoration and praise.”

Msgr. Thorburn of Lincoln echoed Bishop Olmted’s comments and pointed to the example of Saint John Paul II, who had a great appreciation of cloistered women religious. The late Pope even went so far as to establish the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within Vatican City in 1994. The monastery was dedicated solely to prayer for the Pope, his ministry and the cardinals. Mater Ecclesiae now hosts retired Pope Benedict.

“Saint John Paul II knew, loved, appreciated and often sought the support of cloistered women religious,” Msgr. Thorburn said. “And we can be certain that they had his back as he presided over the peaceful dismantling of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.”

“Considering this example, I have no doubt that the bishop in Ukraine is spot-on. Jesus said that faith can move mountains. (Contemplative nuns are) that bishop’s secret weapon!”

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WORLD NEWS

Read the words of an Orthodox bishop kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago

by CNA/EWTN News • March 15, 2015

Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, who was kidnapped near the Turkish border on April 22, 2013. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Aleppo, Syria — On April 22, 2013, both the Greek and Syriac Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi and Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, were kidnapped in Syria near the Turkish border. Their driver, Deacon Fatha’ Allah Kabboud, was killed.

Today, 23 months later, the bishops remain missing – though for some time it has been rumored that only one of them is still alive.

The bishops were abducted on their way back from the Turkish border, where they were negotiating the release of two priests, Fathers Michael Kayyal and Maher Mahfouz, who had themselves been kidnapped in February 2013.

Archbishop Ibrahim and Archbishop Yazigi are only two of the multitude of victims of the Syrian civil war, which today is entering its fifth year.

The war has claimed the lives of more than 220,000 people. There are 3.9 million Syrian refugees in nearby countries, most of them in Turkey and Lebanon, and an additional 8 million Syrian people are believed to have been internally displaced by the war.

On March 15, 2011, demonstrations sprang up in Syria protesting the rule of Bashar al-Assad, the nation’s president and leader of its Ba’ath Party. The next month, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters.

Since then, the violence has morphed into a civil war which is being fought among the Syrian regime and a number of rebel groups: the rebels include moderates, such as the Free Syrian Army; Islamists such as al-Nusra Front and Islamic State; and Kurdish separatists.

Only about a week before his kidnapping, two years into the war, Archbishop Ibrahim had told BBC Arabic that Syrian Christians are in the same situation as their Muslim neighbors: “There is no persecution of Christians and there is no single plan to kill Christians. Everyone respects Christians. Bullets are random and not targeting the Christians because they are Christians.”

Archbishop Ibrahim had written a book in Arabic in 2006 called “Accepting the Other.” At that time, before the start of the war, Syrians of different religions lived together in peace.

An excerpt of this work, focused on “the dialogue of life,” was translated into English for Aid to the Church in Need and appears below thanks to that international Catholic charity, which has pledged $2.8 million in emergency aid for the Christians of Syria:

The plurality of religions and faiths does not foment an inter-religious conflict due to the fact that the common denominator of its teachings, heritages and ethics affirms the oneness of God and the multiplicity and integrity of its people.

Whenever Christians and Muslims approach the sources of divine teaching, they may feel that their common heritage is part and parcel of the universal belief of the relationship between man (the weak) and the Creator (the mighty). Christians say we have one God and Muslim say there is no God but God.

From this understanding of our common heritages derived the concept of the “Dialogue of Life” – to which we owe our peaceful coexistence and the flourishing of our communities. However, even given the rich ethno-religious diversity of our communal tapestry, it is not at all like the concept of multiculturalism that is emerging in Western society.

The “Dialogue of life” is a rather simple, spontaneous, and natural way of life – a sort of coexistence sustained by the values of solidarity, humanity, impartiality and accepting the other unconditionally. Some may argue that our “Dialogue of Life” draws on the principles outlined in the Geneva Convention. Not so, our “Dialogue” has its own unwritten codes, whose values far predate this relatively new Western concept of dialogue and coexistence.

The “Dialogue of Life” is an in-built intuition: its values have been well tried and tested throughout the centuries of our coexistence, both in situations of peace and war, with and without the presence of media and UN observers. There is no need for awareness classes, training courses or fundraising campaigns.

The “Dialogue of Life” starts with the first steps of a toddler in the neighbourhood, and carries on at nursery and schools, so that in adulthood people are well equipped with the basic skill to coexist and keep this dialogue alive and functional. Understandably, such values are not a commodity and certainly, may not have a sell-by date. However, they are not immune but in fact extremely sensitive to the fluctuations of security and law and order in our milieu. Therefore, they cannot be taken for granted, but need constant nurturing, maintenance and enhancements.

The “Dialogue of Life” reflects that we are all children of God, created in His image. We are all in the same boat, riding the same waves, facing the same reduced circumstances. We often find ourselves peddling in shark-infested, uncharted territories. Understandably, it is not necessary that all are able to reciprocate. But for us the principle of the survival of the fittest is not an option, and it cannot be spelled out who will come out on top. The “Dialogue of Life” hinges on accepting others and shuns religious or sectarian distinctions.

At this juncture of our history, when war has become a part of daily life, there never has been a greater need for this “Dialogue of Life.” It remains to be seen how waterproof our treasured “Dialogue of Life” and what the limits of effectiveness might be in such reduced and perilous circumstance — especially with so many outside factions coming into our country with the object of tempering with our way of life, upsetting our peaceful coexistence.

Let us hope and pray that the profound effects of civil war will not be so great as to prevent the recovery and survival of our “Dialogue of Life” and our civilized coexistence.

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Here’s what the Church in Pompeii is doing about the mafia

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 15, 2015

Pompeii with Mt Vesuvius in the background. (Pattie via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Pompeii, Italy — Archbishop Tommaso Caputo of Pompeii said that his diocese has welcomed the Pope’s recent condemnation of organized crime and has several initiatives in place to help affected families.

“The Italian church has always taken into great consideration the problems relating to the South of Italy,” where mafia activity in its various forms is deeply seated, Archbishop Tommaso Caputo told CNA Feb. 28.

Archbishop Caputo oversees the diocese of Pompeii, where Pope Francis will stop to visit the city’s sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary for roughly 30 minutes before heading on to Naples Saturday, March 21.

The archbishop alluded to problems the area faces due to mafia activities and violence, and said that the action of those involved in organized crime “offends man, society, every sense of ethics, religion, the very meaning of ‘honor,’ and backfires, then, against themselves.”

He then recalled Pope Francis’ recent words to members of the diocese of Cassano allo Jonio, who had an audience with the Pope Feb. 21, exactly eight months after the Pope visited the diocese, where he had harsh words for those involved in organized crime.

In his audience, Francis reiterated to attendees that those who love Christ “cannot call themselves Christians and violate the dignity of the person; those who belong to the Christian community cannot program or carry out acts of violence against others and against the environment.”

Pompeii is ready to listen to the Pope, Archbishop Caputo said, adding that Francis’ condemnation of the mafia and his call for their public conversion “have fallen on fertile ground.”

The archbishop also noted how the man known as the founder of modern Pompeii – Blessed Bartolo Longo – worked fiercely to combat the “painful realities” of his time, including corruption.

A layman, Longo was originally born into a devout Catholic family, but eventually left the Church with the rise of anti-papal sentiments spurred by the push for Italian unification in the 1860s.

With involvement in the Occult also on the rise during that time, Longo joined a Satanist cult and eventually claimed to have been ordained as a Satanist priest. He eventually converted back to Catholicism through the guidance of a Dominican priest, who encouraged him to pray the rosary.

After his conversion, Longo worked tirelessly to evangelize the people of Pompeii and to spread devotion to the rosary. He established the Marian sanctuary of Pompeii after receiving an image of Mary from his confessor, which is still hanging in the shrine today.

Archbishop Caputo stressed that from the beginning the sanctuary and the Church of Pompeii have always been firmly committed in the fight against organized crime, “because everyone was given the opportunity to earn their bread honestly and to promote the dignity of man and woman.”

“Our social works are still numerous” even today, he said, thanks to the generosity of several orders and institutions dedicated to serving those in need.

He gave a special shout-out to the Dominican sisters founded by Bl. Bartolo Longo, the Daughters of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii, and the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by St. Giovanni Battista de la Salle.

The brothers operate two day centers in Pompeii that serve as a type of boarding school which currently assists more than 200 boys and girls between the ages of 6-18. The youth who attend come from neighboring cities, where activities surrounding organized crime are robust.

In addition to receiving food and classes in topics such as basic subjects and computer skills, the children are also provided with the opportunity to participate in activities such as music, ceramics, sports, theater and dance.

Another initiative run by the sisters helps single mothers and women who have escaped situations of domestic violence, who have the option of staying in a special section of their convent for a period of time if needed.

The Brotherhood of Mercy in Pompeii helps to organize and run a mother-child clinic for needy families in Pompeii, which is an initiative Archbishop Caputo described as “very active.”

He said that the former workers’ lodging has been converted into three houses designed to welcome women, children and teenagers who find themselves in difficult situations.

In addition, the brotherhood also runs a daily soup kitchen for the poor in the area thanks to the help of the Order of Malta.

The archbishop said these are just a few of the charitable activities going on in the diocese, and expressed his hope that the dynamic of criminal activity in the region will change.

However, he cautioned that for that to happen, there is a need for “a change of mentality in people.”

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‘Family is not a fad’: Dolce & Gabbana spark firestorm in backing traditional marriage

by Elise Harris and Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • March 16, 2015

Dolce & Gabbana store front. (Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Rome, Italy — Creators of the luxury Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana sparked global controversy over the weekend after coming out in defense of marriage, saying that children have the right to a mother and a father.

“The family is not a fad,” said co-founder of the fashion empire, Stefano Gabbana, in an interview with the Italian Magazine Panorama. “In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

Sharing this view with his business and former romantic partner, Domenico Dolce told the magazine: “We didn’t invent the family ourselves.”

Dolce and Gabbana, who are openly gay, went on to say children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, and condemned the use of artificial means of conception, such as In-vitro fertilization.

The Italian-born fashion duo also spoke out against the use of surrogate mothers by gay couples who are seeking to have a child, referring to practice as “wombs for rent.”

Dolce referred to those conceived through artificial means as “chemical children: synthetic children. Uterus’ for rent, semen chosen from a catalog. And later you go and explain to these children who the mother is.”

To procreate should be an “act of love,” Dolce continued, adding that psychologists today are not ready to come face to face with the effects of “these experiments.”

“We, a gay couple, say no to gay adoptions. Enough chemical children and wombs for rent. Children should have a mother and a father,” the pair told the magazine.

Published Mar. 12, the remarks spurred public outcry from the gay community and it supporters, prompting musician Elton John and other public figures to boycott the fashion designers. In response, Dolce & Gabbana released a statement Sunday saying they meant no offense with their remarks.

This is not the first time the pair has expressed their opposition to gay marriage, having made their position known during a 2013 interview with the Telegraph. “I don’t believe in gay marriage,” said Dolce, who told the U.K. newspaper he was a practicing Catholic.

Dolce and Gabbana are not the first openly gay public figures to express opposition to gay marriage or parenthood. In a 2012 interview with the Sunday Times, British actor Rupert Everett is quoted as saying he “can’t think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads.”

It’s not unheard of for European men and women living homosexual lifestyles to openly oppose same-sex marriage. Recent legislation in France to legalize gay marriage sparked massive protests throughout the country, with many gay men and women joining the debate to defend traditional marriage.

During Friday’s interview, Dolce and Gabbana – who, until 2005, had been romantically involved with one another – were asked if they had wanted to be parents.

“Yes, I would do it immediately,” Gabbana responded, with Dolce adding that, because he is gay, he could not have fathered a child with his partner.

“You can’t have everything in life,” he said. “It’s also beautiful to be deprived of something. Life has a natural course; there are things that cannot be modified. The family is one of them.”

During Friday’s interview, Dolce said that the issue of family “not a question of religion or social status, there are no two ways about it: you are born and there is a father and a mother. Or at least there should be.”

The luxury industry fashion house was founded by the two designers in 1985. Dolce was born in Palermo in 1958, and from the time he was seven years old worked in his father’s tailor shop sewing pants.

Gabbana, meanwhile, was born in Milan in 1962, who once had a job cleaning bathrooms in the city as he helped his mother, who was a caretaker.

When it comes to the traditional family, Dolce and Gabbana said, it is “a trend that doesn’t pass.”

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Pakistani Christians mourn bomb victims, protest lack of security

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • March 16, 2015

A young girl lights a candle at a Marian grotto in Pakistan. (Magdalena Wolnik/CNA)

Lahore, Pakistan — Christians in Pakistan are grieving the loss of 15 people who were killed in suicide bomb attacks on two churches in Lahore on Sunday, and are protesting the lack of security provided by the government to the nation’s tiny Christian minority.

Within minutes of each other, suicide bombers blew themselves up March 15 outside St. John’s, a Catholic parish, and Christ Church, a Protestant church, in Lahore’s Youhanabad neighborhood, a Christian hub.

More than 70 were wounded in the attacks, responsibility for which was claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Pakistani Taliban group. A police spokesman has said that two policemen guarding the churches were among those killed.

“The bombing targeting innocent people who were praying; it was a cruel act and despicable attack,” Asif Nazir, a local catechist, told CNA March 15.

“At the moment people are praying for peace and are seeking support to help the injured victims, and are desperately seeking blood donors to save more lives,” he added.

Following the attack, protesters blocked roads and burned tires in protest over a lack of protections afforded the Christian population – which is fewer than two percent of Pakistan’s population. A mob also beat to death, and then burned, two persons suspected to have been involved in the attacks.

The bishops of Pakistan have urged the faithful to be calm, and pray that peace prevails.

Christians across the country have participated in protests over being targeted in the country, which is 97 percent Muslim. Christian schools across Pakistan are closed today, observing a day of mourning.

Pakistan’s government has announced a compensation of 500,000 Pakistani rupees ($4,920) for the family of each victim, and 75,000 rupees ($740) for each of those injured.

Prime minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the bombings, issuing a statement directing “provincial governments to ensure the security of (the) public and their properties.”

Both churches had police provided for security, but Christians in Pakistan maintain that not enough is done to protect them from such attacks.

Parishioners of St. John’s told Zari Jalil of Dawn, a Karachi-based publication, that three policemen were supposed to have been providing security, but two of them were in a nearby shop watching a cricket match at the time of the attack.

Each of the churches have security gates to prevent attackers entering the buildings themselves, so as to minimize casualties.

One of the victims of the attack on St. John’s was Zaid Yousuf, known as Goga. His brother, Riaz Fazal, told Dawn that when the bombers approached, “three boys asked them to identify themselves. They shot two of the boys point blank. But Goga intercepted them, and pushed them back, and in that time, a terrorist blew himself up.”

Nazir told CNA that “today’s attack is one of the worst on the community since the last attack carried out on All Saint’s Church in Peshawar’s Kohati Gate area in 2013.”

The Sept. 22, 2013 attack on All Saints in Peshawar killed more than 80 and wounded at least 120 as they left a service.

And on Nov. 4, 2014, a Christian couple living 40 miles from Lahore were killed by a mob after they were accused of desecrating the Quran.

Pakistan has adopted blasphemy laws which impose strict punishment on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad, and accusation of blasphemy against Islam fall disproportionately on the Christian and Hindu minorities, though they are also said to be often used to settle personal scores.

Pope Francis lamented the attacks following his Angelus address on Sunday, saying, “our brothers shed their blood solely because they are Christians.”

He implored God “for the gift of peace and harmony for that country, and that this persecution against Christians – which the world tries to hide – will end, and that there will be peace.”

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Hindu priest breaks into tears after elderly nun raped in India

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2015

(YouTube)

Krishnanagar, India — After the “heinous” rape of an elderly nun in the Indian state of West Bengal over the weekend, protestors have rallied in opposition to violence against women, with one Hindu priest tearfully voicing sorrow for the vicious act, as seen in this YouTube video

“He spoke about four or five sentences and then he broke down, he started crying. He said ‘(the) sisters have been doing so much good, and we have done such a wrong thing to her and degraded her,’” Bishop Joseph Gomes of Krishnagar (Krishnanagar), where the assault occurred, told Vatican Radio March 16. (

A school run by the Religious of Jesus and Mary located in Ranaghat, 22 miles south of Krishnanagar, was broken into during the early hours of Saturday morning.

After tying the sisters’ hands and feet and placing them in the same room, one of the nuns – who was over 70 years-old – was taken to a separate room and raped by one of the intruders.

Bishop Gomes has since spoken with the nun, who was being treated in a Kolkata hospital; he reports that she was “calm and cool,” and that she had placed herself in God’s hands.

“She did not look disturbed, but as I was talking to her some tears had rolled down from her eyes,” he said, explaining that the religious sister harnessed no hatred for the man who committed the act.

“She has already forgiven, she has forgiven that man … she doesn’t think about revenge, she only thanks God that she is still able to control herself and control her feelings. But she wants justice.”

Along with hundreds of others, Bishop Gomes participated in a silent, candlelight procession held in his diocese Sunday to protest the gruesome act.

Crowds gathered at the diocesan cathedral to hear a speech about the incident and how women are frequently victims of such degradation before processing in silence with a candle in hand.

Not only Christians, but also Hindus and Muslims participated in the procession, the bishop noted, recalling how one Hindu priest stood next to him while they were walking.

After returning to the cathedral to hear two more women speak about the need to defend women’s dignity, they asked the Hindu priest to say something, Bishop Gomes recalled. However, the man didn’t get far, as he broke down in tears after a few sentences.

Since Saturday’s attack, thousands have raised their voices in urging India’s government to do more to protect the country’s Christian minority and to end violence against women.

On Monday the Archdiocese of Calcutta (Kolkata) held a large rally in which participants gathered to protest the crime, and called for an end to the “rape culture”in India.

While 10 men have already been apprehended for the attack, Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta said during the rally that while the arrests are “a welcome start,” not much headway has been made.

He urged the government to arrest all those involved in the attack – the rapist has yet to be identified – as soon as possible, and to “ascertain motives for such a heinous crime on a Christian minority institution involving the rape of an elderly nun in the convent.”

A Catholic church under construction was also vandalized in Haryana over the weekend, and the cross was replaced with an idol of a Hindu god.

On Tuesday Indian prime mininister Narendra Modi voiced concern for both events on Twitter.

In the two tweets Modi sent, he expressed his “deep concern” for what happened in the West Bengal provinces, and asked “for immediate report on facts & action taken regarding the incidents in Haryana & West Bengal.”

The Indian prime minister has repeatedly been criticized for his silence over the increase in minority persecution since his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power last May.

Modi himself has strong ties to a radical Hindu nationalist organization, the RSS, whom many claim are responsible for the increase in attacks against religious buildings and persons, both Christian and Muslim.

After repeated calls to speak out against minority persecution in India, Modi finally broke his silence after U.S. President Barack Obama called for religious tolerance in the closing speech for his recent visit, saying that India wouldn’t meet success if it was fraying at its religious seams.

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With rise in extremist threat, Pope assures Nigerian bishops of his closeness

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 18, 2015

Nigerians forced from their homes by Boko Haram, who are being cared for by the Diocese of Maiduguri, September 2014. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Jos, Nigeria — Pope Francis has sent a letter to the bishops of Nigeria telling them not to be discouraged by problems caused by an increase of extremist violence in the country, and said he prays for them every day.

“I would like to assure you and all who suffer of my closeness,” the Pope told Nigeria’s bishops in a letter dated March 2.

Every day, he said, “I remember you in my prayers and I repeat here, for your encouragement and comfort, the consoling words of the Lord Jesus, which must always resound in our hearts: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.’”

Francis’ letter was written days before the militant extremist Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been terrorizing eastern Nigeria, pledged its allegiance to Islamic State. The latter has established a caliphate in Iraq after launching a bloody campaign to last summer, persecuting all non-Sunni persons in their territory.

Pope Francis said that with more than 160 million inhabitants, Nigeria set to play primary role not only in Africa, but in the world.

He noted how extremism and fundamentalism in the country have risen alongside their “robust” economic growth in recent years, and have affected society at the ethnic, social and religious levels.

“Many Nigerians have been killed, wounded or mutilated, kidnapped and deprived of everything: their loved ones, their land, their means of subsistence, their dignity and their rights. Many have not been able to return to their homes,” Francis observed.

All this has been done at the hands of those who claim to be religious, but instead “abuse religion,” turning it into an ideology for their own “distorted interests of exploitation and murder,” he said.

He reminded the bishops of the peace that comes from God, saying that this peace is just “the absence of conflict or the result of political compromise or fatalistic resignation,” but a gift from Jesus Christ, who is himself the Prince of Peace.

“Only the man or woman who treasures the peace of Christ as a guiding light and way of life can become a peacemaker,” he said, and noted how the achievement of peace requires daily commitment and efforts in dialogue and reconciliation.

In a March 11 email interview, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, spokesman for the Bishops Conference of Nigeria, spoke with CNA about the new partnership between Boko Haram and Islamic State, saying it could lead to an increase in violence in Nigeria.

When asked if Christians in the country are preparing themselves for the nightmares currently unfolding in Syria and Iraq at the hands of Islamic State, the archbishop said “Spiritually, of course.”

“The Boko Haram sect and its ilk, ISIS or ISIL, have a common ‘modus operandi’ (mode of working) in terms of recruitment of new members and execution of their aims,” he said.

By uniting themselves to Islamic State, Boko Haram “is craving for more international attention and will no doubt intensify its attacks to justify its new international identity,” the archbishop said, noting that new partnership could also mean more support for Boko Haram from their international allies.

The current situation for Christians in the Middle East is a sign for Nigerian Christians to step-up their commitment in both prayer and vigilance, he explained.

He said the government should also do more to guarantee peace and safety, and urged the United Nations Security Council to raise its “level of war” against terrorism.

Despite the bleak scenario at hand, Archbishop Kaigama said that Nigerians as a whole “never give up the hope of things getting better no matter how seemingly hopeless the situation becomes.”

He cited recent victories of Nigerian army’s against the terrorist group in the northeast of the country, saying they offer him “a glimmer of hope.”

During a recent international congress in Nambia, Africa’s Church leaders discussed the possibility of forming a Reconciliation Committee for the continent, which would address the possible factors leading to conflicts or violence, as well as the best course of action for when they occur.

Organized by the Justice and Peace Commission of Africa’s Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the four-day congress brought together both national and regional Justice and Peace Commissions of the Catholic Church in Africa.

Participants discussed the theme “Justice and Peace at the service of Reconciliation and Integral Development of Africa,” and spoke of the possible formation of the reconciliation committee as a response to current unrest on the continent.

At the end of his letter, Pope Francis thanked Nigeria’s bishops, priests, religious and missionaries, who, despite the country’s challenges, have not abandoned their flocks, but have continued to serve and bear witness to the Gospel.

Assuring his solidarity, Francis told them “do not grow tired of doing what is right!” and encouraged the bishops not to be discouraged, but to “go forward on the way of peace.”

“Accompany the victims! Come to the aid of the poor! Teach the youth! Become promoters of a more just and fraternal society!” he said, and prayed that the Resurrection of the Lord will bring “conversion, reconciliation and peace to all the people of Nigeria!”

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Australian bishop affirms innocence amid charges of concealing abuse

by CNA/EWTN News • March 18, 2015

(CNA)

Adelaide, Australia — An Australian bishop is strongly denying accusations that he concealed a serious sexual abuse offense allegedly disclosed to him in the 1970s.

Last year, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide was notified by police that he had been accused of ignoring a sexual abuse case in 1976.

“The suggestion appears to be that I failed to bring to the attention of police a conversation I am alleged to have had in 1976 … that a now deceased priest had abused a child,” the archbishop said March 17.

“From the time this was first brought to my attention last year, I have completely denied the allegation.”

Archbishop Wilson is being charged with failing to report the claim and allegedly concealing the supposed sexual abuse case in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. At the time of the alleged conversation, he had been ordained a priest only one year.

The abusive priest was Fr. Jim Fletcher, with whom Archbishop Wilson was then a priest of the Maitland diocese.

In 2006 Fr. Fletcher was convicted over sex abuse charges after one of his victims approached a detective. He was jailed, and died within the year.

Archbishop Wilson was charged by the Strike Force Lantle of the New South Wales Police department, who are taking him to court over the matter.

“I am disappointed to have been notified by the NSW Police that it has been decided to file a charge in respect of this matter,” Archbishop Wilson said.

Devastated by the accusation, Archbishop Wilson upholds his innocence, stating that he intends to defend his honor in court. Senior Counsel Ian Temby AO is legally representing the archbishop.

The president of the bishop’s conference, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, stated he hopes the matter will be resolved without delay, noting that the presumption of innocence applies to Archbishop Wilson, just as it does to all citizens subject to criminal charges.

“I urge people not to make any judgement until the charge against Archbishop Wilson has been dealt with by the court,” Archbishop Hart stated.

The archbishop is due to appear in Newcastle Local Court April 30. He faces up to two years in jail.

Archbishop Wilson said that “I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm my commitment to dealing proactively with the issue of child sexual abuse and the implementation of best-practice child protection measures which I have pioneered since becoming a bishop,” adding that “my efforts in this regard have been widely acknowledged.”

He is taking a leave of absence to consult with various people on the matter.

“I would again like to express my deep sorrow for the devastating impact of clerical sex abuse on victims and their families, and I give assurance that despite this charge, I will continue to do what I can to protect the children in our care in the Archdiocese of Adelaide.”

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Ebola cases are dropping, but it’s ‘still too early to rejoice’

by CNA/EWTN News • March 18, 2015

Pastoral care given to children of Ebola victims in Sierra Leone. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Freetown, Sierra Leone — As the number of Ebola cases continue to fall in West Africa, survivors of the nightmarish outbreak are expressing cautious optimism, saying they still need much support.

“It’s still too early to rejoice, even if the number of newly infected has fallen considerably,” Fr. Peter Konteh, Caritas director for the Archdiocese of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, told Aid to the Church in Need earlier this month.

Sierra Leone has been one of the nations worst-hit by the virus, with 3,691 reported deaths and 11,751 cases as of March 15, according the World Health Organization.

As a country that had only eight ambulances before the outbreak, Fr. Konteh said medical treatment has improved significantly thanks to international aid.

However, the country still needs support and he worries that they will “be forgotten again when the cameras are finally switched off.”

When the outbreak first hit, Fr. Konteh said the archdiocese worked diligently to spread information about the infection to the mostly illiterate population.

“Every day there were broadcasts over the radio. We also used megaphones to inform the people, and we went onto the market places and into the villages. It wasn’t easy to convince the people.”

He attributed much of the success in containing the outbreak to collaboration among Muslims, Christians and those of other religious traditions. The country has long enjoyed good relations between religions, he said, which was exemplified in their response to the outbreak.

“This unity is one of our country’s strengths,” he said.

The Archdiocese of Freetown also relied on the help of lay pastoral workers who helped plan funeral services and comfort grieving survivors.

“There are large number of traumatized individuals who seek help and want to talk to a pastoral worker about their depression. Pastoral workers get through to and accompany people in their difficulties and sufferings,” he said.

Fr. Konteh gave personal examples of the emotional scars that he carries from the outbreak.

He recalled discovering a toddler living in the midst of four bodies. By the time doctors came to rescue him, the child had already died. “This still haunts me today because I sense I should have intervened earlier.”

In another example, he said that one of his colleagues lost all 27 members of her family to Ebola. “We tried to comfort her in her pain and told her that we were now her family,” he said.

Fr. Konteh has been asked to report to the U.S. senate about his experience and will address the British parliament about the role of pastoral workers in the fight against Ebola.

Catholic clinics played an important role in helping stem the spread of the virus since they were some of the best-equipped in the region. The Church response included the delivery of 2,600 radio ads and 1 million mobile phone texts to educate to prevention; health kits given to some 53,000 families; and the feeding of nearly 3,000 quarantined people.

The current outbreak has been linked back to a child in Guinea who died of the infection in December 2013, but its spread in earnest began last March.

It has since claimed the lives of 10,194 people, and infected 24,701.

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Children of gay and lesbian parents write letter of support to Dolce, Gabbana

by CNA/EWTN News • March 19, 2015

Domenico Dolce at Dolce & Gabanna boutique in Shanghai, October 2010. (Raemin Zhang via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Milan, Italy — The designers behind luxury Italian fashion label Dolce & Gabbana triggered a barrage of controversy after expressing support for traditional marriage and families last weekend in an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama.

On Monday, six children (now adults) raised by same-sex parents in the United States wrote a letter supporting the designers, thanking them for speaking up for the rights of children to both a mother and a father.

“Every human being has a mother and a father, and to cut either from a child’s life is to rob the child of dignity, humanity, and equality,” the letter reads.

The signers said Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are openly gay, expressed what they’ve learned through their own life experience, which is that while gay parents can be very loving, children are best supported when raised by a mother and a father.

Even though some of the signers are themselves gay, they all raise their children with their opposite-sex parents.

“We know that gay parents can be loving, since we loved our parents and they loved us,” they wrote.

“Nonetheless, we have all had firsthand experience with the harsh backlash that follows when the dominant view of ‘gay parenting’ as universally positive is questioned.”

The letter was published on the blog askthebigot.com, whose main author calls herself the “bigot”. The author was raised by her mother and her mother’s same-sex partner. She converted to Christianity in high school, and now writes about being raised within a same-sex home, and about how voices like hers are almost always silenced by the powerful gay lobby.

In her blog’s description, she writes: “The discussion about gay marriage deserves more than the one-liner and bumper sticker jabs that both sides lob into the debate. Having been raised by my mother who is in a same-sex relationship, this is my attempt to present my thoughts unapologetically but with sensitivity and fairness. Thanks for reading.”

Those who receive the most vicious attacks from the gay lobby are often those within the gay community themselves who dare to speak out in favor of traditional marriages and families, the letter notes. Still, even though the attacks will be fierce and their business will likely take a hit, the signers encouraged Dolce and Gabbana to stand by their comments regardless.

“If you back down from what you said and apologize, it will leave the children of gay homes even more vulnerable and discredited,” the letter reads. “It is important for our sake, for the sake of Italian children as well, that you not apologize or capitulate.”

The comments from Dolce and Gabbana that sparked the firestorm were that the “family is not a fad” that society has “invented ourselves.” In addition to supporting traditional marriage, the couple condemned the use of artificial means of contraception, such as in-vitro fertilization, and said that pro-creation should be an “act of love” rather than an “experiment.”

“We, a gay couple, say no to gay adoptions. Enough chemical children and wombs for rent. Children should have a mother and a father,” the pair told the magazine.

Their comments brought about significant backlash from several celebrities, most prominently from singer-songwriter and gay parent Elton John, who called their views “archaic” and started a campaign against the pair with #BoycottDolceGabbana.

The Italian designers responded that they were just stating their personal views rather than judging people.

“We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it,” Gabbana said in a statement. “We talked about our way of seeing reality, but it was never our intention to judge other people’s choices. We do believe in freedom and love.”

The six signers of the letter on the blog include Heather Barwick, contributor to Federalist; Rivka Edelman, co-author of Jephthah’s Daughters: Innocent Casualties in the War for Family Equality; Katy Faust, writer at asktheBigot; Robert Oscar Lopez, co-author of Jephthah’s Daughters: Innocent Casualties in the War for Family Equality; Denise Shick, author of My Daddy’s Secret; and Dawn Stefanowicz, author of Fuori Dal Buio: La Mia Vita Con Un Padre Gay.

Each of the signers plan on penning a letter to the United States Supreme Court, which is set to rule on gay marriage this summer, and said that the comments from Dolce and Gabbana provided inspiration.

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Congolese bishop condemns priest’s murder as an ‘infernal act’

by Antonia van Alten (Aid to the Church in Need) • March 19, 2015

A one-time Catholic church in Lodja, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (John O’Keefe via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Goma, D.R. Congo — A bishop from the Democratic Republic of the Congo has condemned last month’s murder of one of his priests in the strongest possible terms.

Bishop Théophile Kaboy Ruboneka of Goma, in a letter to the country’s apostolic nuncio, a copy of which was obtained by international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, condemned the Feb. 25 murder of Father Jean-Paul Kakule in the east of the country as an “abominable, abhorrent and infernal act.”

Fr. Kakule was treasurer of the parish of Mweso, a village 60 miles north of Goma. He was gunned down by an unidentified assassin as he was closing up the church for the evening.

“The priest was closing the doors of the Church when he discovered one or more gunmen who were hiding somewhere,” Bishop Kaboy said. “The criminals fired without hesitation, hitting him in the abdomen and head. Fr. Kakule died immediately.”

Fr. Kakule, 33, was the oldest child of a large Christian family from North Kivu, a northeastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ordained in 2003, he is the tenth priest to be murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1992, reported Bishop Kaboy.

His funeral Mass was held Feb. 28.

It is not yet clear whether the murder of Father Kakule is a criminal act or an expression of religious hatred, though Bishop Kaboy has reported that three suspects have been arrested.

The Bishop of Goma, noting that the mere presence of priests and religious in the area of Mweso is a source of irritation for criminals, suspects the killing was an act of revenge. The Mweso parish has gained a reputation as an institution that has been unafraid to condemn local criminality.

Bishop Kaboy said that marauders have often massacred defenseless villagers, and hundreds of thousands of people are displaced, adding that the population in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo feels extremely insecure.

“Criminal gangs can go about their evil business unhindered because there is no police presence,” Bishop Kaboy said, appealing to authorities on both the national and international level to intervene and restore peace to the lawless region. He has said that in the Diocese of Goma, “there are many gangs that terrorise the population and there are too many weapons in circulation. Nuns are among the victims of violence and extortion.”

According to Aid to the Church’s 2014 “Religious Freedom in the World” report, there are 20 different armed groups terrorizing the eastern part of the country. That year, Aid to the Church in Need spent $3.3 million in support of the Church’s pastoral activities in the Democratic Replublic of the Congo.

The report details the October 2012 abduction of three Assumptionist priests from their parish in Beni, also in North Kivu.

In addition, five sisters of the Congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul disappeared in 1996. There has been no trace of them to this day.

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

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Automatic excommunication for bishop over illicit ordination

by CNA/EWTN News • March 19, 2015

Episcopal consecration of Fr. Faure (sitting) by Bp. Williamson on March 19, 2015. (Union Sacerdotal Marcel Lefebvre)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — After having his previous excommunication lifted in 2009, Bishop Richard Williamson has again incurred the canonical penalty upon illicitly ordaining another priest as bishop on March 19.

Bishop Williamson was one of four priests who were consecrated bishops without pontifical mandate by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988; all five incurred a ‘latae sententiae’, or automatic, excommunication, which was removed by Benedict XVI in 2009.

Archbishop Lefebvre was founder of the Society of St. Pius X, which he established in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church following the Second Vatican Council. Even while remitting the excommunications of the Society’s bishops, Benedict XVI noted that “doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.”

Bishop Williamson was expelled from the Society of St. Pius X in 2012, and the man he ordained, now-Bishop Jean-Michel Faure, was expelled in 2014, “because of their violent criticisms of any relations with the Roman authorities,” the Society stated.

Both men incur automatic excommunication as a result of the illicit consecration, which was performed at the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Nova Friburgo, a city in Brazil’s state of Rio de Janeiro.

Bishop Edney Gouvea Mattoso of Nova Friburgo, the local ordinary, stated that he learned of the consecration “with great sadness,” adding that the “unlawful episcopal ordination at issue is a disobedience to the Pope in a most grave matter, a topic of the utmost importance to the unity of the Church, the ordination of bishops, through which apostolic succession is perpetuated.”

“An unlawful act such as this leads to a practical rejection of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, even constituting a schismatic act, with the penalty of automatic excommunication envisaged by the Code of Canon Law.”

According to canon 1382, both “A bishop who consecrates some one a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.”

Bishop Gouvea continued his statement, saying that “as Bishop of Nova Friburgo, it befits me to exhort all the Catholic faithful to fulfil the grave duty of remaining united to the Pope in the unity of the Catholic Church, and to not support by any means the unlawful episcopal ordination and the consequences which will result.”

He then guaranteed the “filial unity and obedience” of his flock to the Successor of Peter, “especially at this painful time.”

Bishop Gouvea concluded, saying that “such an unlawful and schismatic act offers to all an occasion for profound reflection and a renewed commitment of fidelity to Christ and to his Church.”

A professor of ethics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross made a similar observation.

Speaking to CNA, Fr. Robert Gahl suggested that “one might hope that when traditionalists see this additional radicalization of a fringe group that they might feel a greater need to foster full unity in the Church.”

He added that “my expectation is that some of them, on the personal level, will be horrified by this and it may therefore help them to see greater the need for unity with Rome, whereas others on the personal level may further radicalize.”

Fr. Gahl also reflected on the moral implications of Bishop Williamson’s repeated participation in episcopal consecration lacking pontifical mandate, suggesting that the bishop has a greater moral responsibility on this occasion than he did in 1988 when he was merely receiving episcopal consecration.

“In this case he would be excommunicated for being in the active leadership, which entails an even greater responsibility insofar as he is now the one conferring the sacrament. So just from that perspective this ordination entails a more actively rebellious disobedience against the Pope … it’s definitely a hardening of his position.”

The Society of St. Pius X also released a statement, saying it “denounces this episcopal consecration.” It added that it “regrets sincerely” that Bishop Williamson’s “spirit of opposition has led to an episcopal consecration.”

The Society commented that today’s episcopal consecration, “despite the assertions of both clerics concerned, is not at all comparable to the consecrations of 1988. All the declarations of Bishop Williamson and Fr. Faure prove abundantly that they no longer recognize the Roman authorities, except in a purely rhetorical manner.”

Bishop Faure had been ordained a priest by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1977, and prior to his expulsion from the Society of St. Pius X, he had served as its South American district superior and rector of its seminary in Argentina.

Bishop Williamson is also known as a Holocaust denier, having told Swedish public television that only as many as 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, when the accepted figure is about 6 million.

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An 11,000-mile pilgrimage to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia

by Katya Chachi (CNA/EWTN News) • March 20, 2015

Noelle Zemborain and family. (America en Familia)

Rome, Italy — How far would you travel to see the Pope? For one family in Argentina, seven months and 11,000 miles is a small price to pay for the chance to celebrate the World Meeting of Families with Pope Francis in September.

“The family is everything and we want to say it,” Noelle Zemborain, a mother of four, told CNA.

She acknowledged that families face many “difficult situations,” including meeting monthly expenses. However, she said, with the right perspective, family is not fundamentally a “limitation,” but an invitation for adventure.

Zemborain and her husband will take their four children on a seven-month trip of 11,184 miles in a Volkswagen camper that they have christened “Francisca.” They intend to arrive in Philadelphia in time for the World Meeting of Families Sept. 22-27.

Zemborain said her trip has a “spiritual meaning.” The family hopes to strengthen personal encounters while moving away from a mindset of individualism that can make many families indifferent.

She sees the trip as an opportunity to let go of material possessions, because living in a camper means you have to save space. She also highlighted the opportunity to participate in the World Meeting of Families.

Zemborain was born in France, but has lived in Argentina most of her life. She is a communications and marketing professional who works at the University of San Andres in Buenos Aires, as well as on projects for social organizations.

Her husband, Alfredo “Catire” Walker, is an Argentine. He is an operations manager for a cuisine company that advises for restaurants, various businesses and institutions.

“Catire is super sincere and out ahead of everybody, as we say here, always going forward, he’s a father who’s always there for our children. I’m the envy of a lot of my friends,” Zemborain said.

Their second and third children were born in Barcelona, where they had moved due to what they described as an adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit. They lived there for nine years.

“We wanted to have an experience abroad, because we liked the idea, but it was our hope to return, and now it’s already been more than three years since we came back to Buenos Aires,” Zemborain said.

She described their oldest daughter, 12-year-old Cala, as “very friendly.”

“Many times she’s taken the prize for being the best companion. She’s very responsible and she loves everything artistic. Sometimes she helps us out a lot with her siblings.”

Their second son, Dimas, is eight.

“He’s a typical restless boy who never stops moving. We’ll have to see how it’s going to go with Dimas in the camper van,” she laughed.

Five-year-old Mia is “very charming and affectionate” and “always bouncing around,” Zemborain continued, while the youngest child, two-and-a-half year old Carmen, is the “family celebrity” and “the most lively of all.”

“She talks non-stop and is very entertaining,” her mother said.

The lively family began their trip with a send-off Mass at the Marian Shrine of Lujan on March 7. Celebrating the Mass was Father Gustavo Antico, the secretary of the family committee of the Argentine Episcopal Conference.

Zemborain said the priest is a friend who supported their trip and agreed to bless the camper. The family intended to consecrate the trip to Our Lady of Lujan, a patron saint of Argentina.

They left from San Isidro in the Buenos Aires Province. They will stop in Santiago, Chile and then travel up the Pacific Coast, going through Peru. They will make a tourist stop to go to Cusco, the historic capital of the Incan empire, before a stop in Lima.

After that, they will take to the road again, going through Ecuador, Columbia, Central America and Mexico. They will then travel through the U.S. to reach Philadelphia.

During their travels, the family will also set aside some time and space to live their Christian life.

“We’re not hippies!” Zemborain insisted. “For us the Catholic faith, the Christian life has to be part of our life … we will very much enjoy getting to know new churches in every town we go through … this will come very naturally to us and will also be a part of our conversations with others.”

The eighth World Meeting of Families is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants to Philadelphia from around the world, with even more anticipated for the final Mass with Pope Francis. The event, which aims to promote and strengthen family bonds, was established by St. John Paul II in 1994 in Rome.

The World Meeting of Families website is:  worldmeeting2015.org

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Pope accepts disgraced Scottish prelate’s resignation from cardinal status

by CNA/EWTN News • March 20, 2015

Cardinal Keith O’Brien. (Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk)

Vatican City — In a rare move, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of disgraced Scottish Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien from the rights and duties of a cardinal, the Vatican announced on Friday.

“As most people are aware, Pope Francis is a good and prayerful man whose character embodies justice and mercy. I am confident therefore that the decision of the Holy Father is fair, equitable and proportionate,” Archbishop Leo Cushley of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh in a March 20 statement.

“Cardinal O’Brien’s behaviour distressed many, demoralised faithful Catholics and made the Church less credible to those who are not Catholic. I therefore acknowledge and welcome his apology to those affected by his behaviour and also to the people of Scotland, especially the Catholic community.”

Cardinal O’Brien stood down as Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh in March 2013 at the age of 74 amid media claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour with other men which allegedly took place in the 1980s.

After the claims surfaced that February, the cardinal’s request for retirement – originally submitted to Benedict XVI in November 2012 for reasons due to age and health – was accepted immediately by Benedict, going into effect Feb. 25.

O’Brien subsequently admitted that “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”

Following today’s announcement by the Vatican, Cardinal O’Brien will now remove himself from the key duties that pertain to the office of cardinal: the election of any future Pope and the assistance of the Holy Father in the governance of the Universal Church. He will also be reduced to a strictly private life with no further participation in any public, religious or civil events.

Only a Pope can approve a cardinal resigning his official status, and today’s announcement is extremely rare in Church history.

The closest parallel to today’s events came in 1927 when French Cardinal Louis Billot resigned from the Sacred College of Cardinals following a stormy meeting with Pope Pius XI. His resignation was accepted by the Pope eight days later.

The ruling by Pope Francis stems from his decision last year to send a personal envoy, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, on a fact-finding mission to Scotland. It is upon that investigation – the content of which is fully know only to Pope Francis and Archbishop Scicluna – that Francis reached his canonical conclusion.

Cardinal O’Brien’s decision followed a private discussion with Pope Francis. This was preceded by a period of prayer and penance.

“For my own part, I would like to express sorrow and regret to those most distressed by the actions of my predecessor,” added Archbishop Cushley, who was nominated by Pope Francis in July 2013, shortly after his election to the papacy.

“I hope now that all of us affected by this sad and regrettable episode will embrace a spirit of forgiveness, the only spirit that can heal any bitterness and hurt that still remains.”

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Canada Supreme Court: Catholic schools have right to teach Church views

by CNA/EWTN News • March 20, 2015

Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa. (Robert Linsdell via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Ottawa, Canada — Canada’s Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that Catholic schools in Quebec must be allowed to teach from a Catholic viewpoint during a state-mandated religion and ethics class.

“To tell a Catholic school how to explain its faith undermines the liberty of the members of its community who have chosen to give effect to the collective dimension of their religious beliefs by participating in a denominational school,” the Canadian Supreme Court wrote in its 7-0 March 19 decision.

The province of Quebec in July 2008 introduced a mandatory religion and ethics class and required it to be taught without regard to any religion. Even in Catholic schools, teachers were barred from voicing a preference for any faith.

The rules would mean that if a student in the class asked about a Catholic perspective on a religion, a teacher would not be allowed to answer.

Additionally, the course must be taught regardless of whether a school receives state funds.

The Jesuit-run Loyola High School in Montreal challenged the law.

“This ruling makes clear that the government is on dangerous ground if it seeks to force a private organization to act in a manner completely contrary to its deepest faith convictions,” Canadian attorney Gerald Chipeur, who represented the school, said March 19.

The court’s decision means that “faith-based schools are free to operate according to the faith they teach and espouse.”

Chipeur’s law firm, Miller Thompson LLP, is allied with Alliance Defending Freedom International, the global organization of the U.S.-based religious freedom legal group.

ADF International’s executive director, Benjamin Bull, said the government “cannot require a private, religious school to tell its students that their faith is no more valid than a myriad of other, conflicting faith traditions.”

“All faith-based organizations must be free to speak and act consistently with their faith, or religious freedom is not at all free.”

The court ruling noted that the requirement interferes with parents’ right to transmit their Catholic faith to their children, “not because it requires neutral discussion of other faiths and ethical systems, but because it prevents a Catholic discussion of Catholicism.” Transmission of religious faith is “an essential ingredient of the vitality of a religious community.”

Undermining lawful religious institutions’ character and disrupting religious communities’ vitality represents “a profound interference with religious freedom,” the court said.

While the court’s ruling against the province requirement was unanimous, the justices were split 4-3 on how to resolve the situation. The majority ruled that the matter should be sent back to Quebec’s Minister of Education, meaning that Loyola High School may now reapply to the Education Ministry for an exemption to teach the program. The ministry’s decision must be guided by the court ruling, CBC News reports.

Benoît Boucher, who represented Quebec’s Attorney General, said the ruling shows that it is should be mandatory for all students in the province to have a thorough understanding of diversity.

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‘It’s time to surrender,’ Pope tells crime-ridden Naples

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 21, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates Mass at Piazza Plebiscito in Naples on March 20, 2015. (CTV)

Rome, Italy — Pope Francis told the people of Naples – a city ravaged by crime and mafia violence – that change is possible, and encouraged those involved in organized crime to convert and work toward a better future.

“It’s time for Naples surrender: this is my wish and my prayer for a city that has so much spiritual, cultural and human potential, and above all so much capacity to love,” the Pope told those present at his March 21 Mass.

The future of Naples “is not resigned to fold in on itself, but to open to the world with confidence,” he said, adding that “to hope is already to resist evil … to hope is to wager on the mercy of God, who is Father and always forgives and forgives everything.”

Pope Francis’ Mass, held in Naples’ Piazza Plebiscito, took place during his March 21 day trip to the city and neighboring Pompeii.

After paying a brief visit to Pompeii’s shrine housing a miraculous image of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis took a helicopter to Naples, where he met with people from various social classes and spoke harsh words against corruption, saying that “a corrupt society stinks like a rotting corpse!”

In his homily during Mass, Francis pointed out how the guards sent by the chief priests to arrest Jesus in the Gospel came back dumbfounded and empty-handed, saying that “No man has ever spoken like this!”

Jesus’ words are powerful, he said, but can sometimes cause an interior conflict because although we hear their “the charm, beauty and truth,” we reject them because “they make us question ourselves and is costs us too much to observe them.”

However, it is only Jesus and his words of mercy that can heal the wounds inflicted on hearts and society.

When hearts open to the Gospel, he noted, that is when “the world begins to change and humanity rises again! If we welcome and we live the Word of Jesus every day, we are resurrected with him.”

Francis spoke of Lent as a time to allow oneself to be open to this change as the Church journeys toward Easter, saying that it is a time when the hope of rising with Christ is “rekindled.”

“May the grace of this Easter not arrive in vain for the people of God in this city! May the grace of the Resurrection be welcomed by each one of you, because Naples is full of hope in Christ the Lord!” he said, and called particularly on the youth to be open to “the power of the Risen Jesus.”

Pope Francis told the inhabitants of Naples not to give up hope, and urged them not to give in “to the lure of quick profits or dishonest income.”

He encouraged them to react with firm resistance in the face of organizations that exploit or corrupt the youth, the poor and the weak, as well as the “cynic drug trade” and other crimes plaguing the city.

“Corruption and crime don’t disfigure the face of this beautiful city!” the Pope affirmed, and called on all those involved in organized crime, including their accomplices, to convert back to the path of love and justice.

“Let yourselves find the mercy of God! With the grace of God, which forgives all, it’s possible to return to an honest life,” he said, explaining that “the tears of the mothers of Naples,” as well as those of Mary, are begging for this.

Referring to Jesus’ words in the Gospel, Francis said that the Word of God is powerful, and seeks to reach everyone without exclusion, especially those on the peripheries of society.

This word receives its strength not from the world, but from the Lord, he said, explaining that God’s power “is that of love: a love which doesn’t know limits, a love which makes us love the other before ourselves.”

“The word of Jesus, the Holy Gospel, teaches that the truly blessed are the poor in spirit, the non-violent, the meek, the workers of peace and justice. This is the strength that changes the world!”

Each person and parish is called to go beyond our own “fences” and bring this message to everyone, the Pope said, so that the Church can be a sanctuary and source of hope for the poor, elderly and those in need.

“Go and welcome: this is the heartbeat of the Mother Church, and of all her children,” he observed.

Pope Francis closed his homily saying that God is both the source of joy and reason for our hope, and emphasized that the Lord lives among us in our cities.

“God lives in Naples!” he said, and prayed that the Lord’s grace sustain the city’s inhabitants “on your journey of faith, hope and charity, your good resolutions and your plans of moral and social redemption.”

Today’s condemnation of criminal activities, drug abuse and violence due to organized crime is not the first time Francis has been outspoken on the issue.

Last June during a one day trip to the diocese of Cassano all’Jonio, roughly 165 miles south of Naples, the Pope spoke harsh words against the local mafia, known as the ‘Ndrangheta.

He called them “adorers of evil” and said that all who have chosen the “evil road, such as the mobsters, (are) not in communion with God. They are ‘excommunicated.’”

Last month Francis received members of the diocese in audience at the Vatican, where he repeated his condemnation and plea of conversion for all who participate in organized crime.

No one can “call themselves Christians and violate the dignity of the person; those who belong to the Christian community cannot program or carry out acts of violence against others and against the environment,” he said during the audience, and called for a public conversion of mafia criminals.

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A feisty Pope Francis slams corruption, unemployment in Naples

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • March 21, 2015

Pope Francis speaks during his March 21, 2015 trip to Naples. (CTV)

Rome, Italy — Addressing the crowds in Naples’ notorious outskirts of Scampia, Pope Francis gave a verbal slap to corrupt leaders who exploit local laborers, charging that they “cannot claim to be Christian.”

Speaking off the cuff during his one-day trip to the city March 21, the Pope also warned that every person is capable of being corrupt, and that no one should feel exempt from this temptation.

“If we close the door to migrants, if we take job and dignity away from people, this is called corruption. And all of us are capable of being corrupt, none of us can say ‘I will never be corrupt,’” the Pope said.

Pope Francis added that human nature always contends with a strong pull “to slide toward easy business, toward the wrongdoings, toward crime, toward the exploitation of people.”

“How much corruption is in the world! If we hear this word, it’s a bad word, since a corrupt thing is a rotten thing. If we find the corpse of an animal, it’s rotten, and it stinks … and corruption stinks, the man who let corruption inside of him is corrupt, and so he stinks.”

In his mostly impromptu speech, Pope Francis also spoke immigration and job exploitation, following a series of three questions posed to him by a Filipino woman who migrated to Scampia, a worker who voiced the concerns of unemployed people, and the president of the Naples Court.

According to Pope Francis, “one of the negative signs of our times is the lack of work for young people. Just think that more than 40 per cent of young people under 25 are unemployed. This is serious! What can an unemployed young person do? What future can they have?”

A voice from the crowd yelled: “The Camorra” – which is the name for organized crime Naples.

Pope Francis stressed that “real issue is not feeding these people, it is not that we (don’t) have charities that can feed this people … the real issue is that these people cannot earn their food through their labor, and when you don’t earn bread, you lose dignity … this lack of work robs us of our dignity,” the Pope said.

“We cannot stay silent! We have to fight against this system, we have to defend the dignity of citizens, of men and women, of young people,” the Pope exclaimed.

The Pope also pointed his finger at what he called “the half job,” that is, “the exploitation of people.”

Pope Francis gave an example of a young woman who was offered a job working 11 hours a day for 600 euros per month, with no insurance or pension fund, and that she was told that “if she had refused, many people were seeking that job.”

“This is slavery, this is exploitation. It is not human, it is not Christian. If someone doing this described himself as a Christian, he is a liar,” the Pope underscored.

Speaking about immigrants, the Pope responded to the Filipino immigrant who asked the Pope to stress that migrants are sons of God.

“Is it really needed to say this? Are migrants second class human beings? Our brother and sister migrants must feel that they are sons of God, and that they are migrants like we are … since all of us are migrants toward another land, where each of us will go … all of us are migrants in the path of life, none of us will remain forever on earth … all of us will go to visit God!”

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‘Smear campaign’ pushed Knights out of St Patrick’s parade

by CNA/EWTN News • March 16, 2015

St. Patrick’s Day Parade, 2009. (Adam Pieniazek via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Boston, MA — The Massachusetts Knights of Columbus withdrew from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Boston on Sunday, saying that their motives for participating in the parade - which this year included a gay activist group - have been misrepresented.

The Knights asked people to pray during the march in honor of St. Patrick, who was famous for bringing Christianity to pagan Ireland.

A statement released by the Knights said that they had intended to march in the parade “as a Catholic witness, to honor this great Catholic saint, and in gratitude for the contributions of Irish Americans to our country.”

The organization said that it had wanted to run a float with both pro-life signs and other posters encouraging participation in charitable activities.

However, a source close to the situation told CNA that the Knights were ambushed by a campaign that smeared their motives and created confusion.

C.J. Doyle, executive director of Boston’s “Catholic Action League,” alleged that the Knights were acting “treacherously” and that their actions were actually “helping (the activist group) spread their message.”

Doyle said that the Knights were colluding to give cover to the parade’s organizers and Boston’s mayor for the parade’s inclusion of a homosexual advocacy group. He pointed to the fact that the mayor’s hometown of Dorchester was also the town in which the Massachusetts leader of the Knights of Columbus resided.

But CNA’s source said that the allegations were false and that the Knights had not been contacted about the situation or asked for clarification.

“The fact is that Doyle and his group created a scandal,” the source said. “The Knights were marching in defense of the faith, and did not want to leave the parade because they wanted someone in the parade to continue to stand for Church teaching. They believed that pulling out of this parade would abandon it entirely to non-Catholic elements, and that this would not be helpful to the evangelization of the people of Boston.”

“But in the end, Doyle and his group generated so much misinformation and so many attacks that the good the Knights were trying to do was literally overwhelmed by his claims.”

Doyle had encouraged his followers to contact the Knights and complain, and according to one source, many did, with profanity-laced phone calls and social media posts.

“The lack of charity by these people who called themselves Catholics was stunning,” someone who knew several of the Knights receiving the calls told CNA. “And it didn’t help that groups like MassResistance and the Michael Voris’ Church Militant picked these allegations and ran them uncritically.”

In response, the Massachusetts Knights’ state council released a statement saying that “certain groups have chosen to misrepresent our reason for marching, insisting that we were participating in the parade to support another group or for political reasons. Such allegations are complete fabrications and have no basis in reality whatsoever.”

“Because the parade has become politicized and divisive, and because of the misrepresentation of our motive for participating, we will not be marching in this year’s parade. Instead we invite Catholics to join us in prayer to celebrate St. Patrick during the hours of the parade.”

The statement also said, “The Massachusetts State Council of the Knights of Columbus had planned to march in the 2015 parade … in the belief that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade would be an occasion for unity and celebration in the city of Boston. We deeply regret that some have decided to use this occasion to further the narrow objectives of certain special interests, which has subjected this occasion to undeserved division and controversy.”

One Catholic official in New England suggested that the effect of this campaign could be chilling for any Catholic group trying to evangelize in a public forum.

“What is now clear to Catholics in Boston is that if your strategy for spreading the faith differs from someone like Doyle’s, they will attack you personally, will unleash their angry and uncharitable followers, and won’t let the facts get in the way of their agenda.”

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Patrick: the saint who knew what it was like to be a slave

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2015

St. Patrick, as seen in C.E. Kempe’s stained glass in St. John the Baptist parish, Burford, UK. (Lawrence OP via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Many know that Saint Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, was once a slave – but few know of his heartfelt plea on behalf of girls and boys abducted into slavery.

“The pathos of St. Patrick’s description of the fate of his victims is something I think we can identify with now,” said Jennifer Paxton, a history professor who teaches at Catholic University of America’s Irish Studies program. “The girls stolen by Boko Haram are very similar in their fates, I think, to captives of Coroticus.”

St. Patrick’s Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus was intended to shame the fifth century general whose raiding soldiers the saint declared to be “blood-stained with the blood of innocent Christians, whose numbers I have given birth to in God and confirmed in Christ.” He denounced those who “divide out defenseless baptized women like prizes.”

Patrick said he did not know what grieved him more: those who were slain, those who were captured, or the enslavers themselves – “those whom the devil so deeply ensnared.”

The plea is all the more poignant because St. Patrick was himself a former slave. In his letter he wrote that Irish raiders once took him captive and slaughtered the men and women servants of his father’s household.

“He would have known acutely what these slaves were going through, because he was the victim of just such a raid,” Paxton told CNA March 13. “In the fifth century this kind of raiding was endemic, all around the British Isles. He was stolen from someplace, we’re not sure where, in western Britain, and taken to captivity in Ireland.”

He spent six years tending sheep for his master.

“Obviously he did not enjoy his time as a slave and wanted it to end,” Paxton said. “So he would have definitely identified with these victims.”

The saint’s letter is a unique witness in medieval history.

“We do not have any other first person account of someone who was captured by barbarians and survived,” the history professor explained. “We have nothing else quite like it.”

The letter was written to be read aloud elsewhere, with the hope that Coroticus and his men would eventually hear of it and come under popular pressure. St. Patrick said those who hear the letter should “not fawn on such people” and should not share food or drink with them until they release their captives and “make satisfaction to God in severe penance and shedding of tears.”

Paxton said St. Patrick’s style is “somewhat defensive” because “he is up against tremendous odds, and he knows it.”

“He does not, as far as we know, ever get these captives back,” Paxton continued. “What we have is this cri de coeur that has resonated down through the ages. But he doesn’t manage to save them.”

She speculated that St. Patrick must have felt “the tragedy of seeing these people newly saved from damnation by baptism, and (then) taken away into slavery.”

Modern slavery is an enduring problem. Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria have enslaved Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities. In Nigeria, where St. Patrick is a patron saint, the militant Islamist group Boko Haram became infamous for the April 2014 abductions of several hundred girls from a school in the country’s northeast.

In December 2014 major religious leaders including Pope Francis signed a joint declaration at the Vatican urging the eradication of modern slavery. A 2014 report from the organization Walk Free estimated that almost 36 million people worldwide suffer some form of slavery, with 61,000 people held in slave conditions in the United States.

As for St. Patrick, his letter seeking the release of slaves was not widely circulated. It was preserved in a few places, including the Book of Armagh. Paxton said the letter played little role in Christian debates over slavery, which was taken for granted for centuries.

Slavery’s decline in Europe doesn’t owe much to Church efforts. “It was more economic forces that led to its decline, I’m sad to say,” Paxton remarked, adding that Coroticus himself was probably a Christian.

St. Patrick became known for his life of sacrifice, prayer and fasting. Although he was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, he is widely regarded as the most successful.

Paxton noted that St. Patrick’s letter and his other known work, the Confession of St. Patrick, are “steeped in the scriptures.”

“He basically writes in scriptural quotations. That’s the way Patrick thinks,” she said.

St. Patrick’s use of the Bible is rare in a medieval text because he quotes from many different sections of the Bible: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and numerous prophetic books.

Paxton said she found Patrick “a really fascinating figure.” In later legends he became a “wonder-working superhero” who expelled the snakes from Ireland and defeated druids in battle.

“But the real St. Patrick of his own words is really a far more moving and inspiring example for Christians of today,” she added.

“Ireland was never the same as a result of what he did. That’s something I think we should all be impressed by, somebody who himself was very marginal, who was not a major figure in his own Church, persevered in the face of all these obstacles and achieved something really wonderful.”

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Catholic-owned company wins ‘final victory’ against HHS mandate

by CNA/EWTN News • March 17, 2015

The Newland family, owners of Hercules Industries, who won a permanent injunction against the HHS mandate March 16, 2015. (Alliance Defending Freedom)

Denver, CO — A Catholic-owned company’s victory in its fight against a federal mandate to cover drugs and procedures that violate Catholic moral teaching shows the importance of putting God first, one of its co-owners has said.

”Oftentimes businesses can feel that their direction is dictated by market conditions, to which they must be reactive,” William Newland, a co-owner of Hercules Industries, told CNA March 17.

“This final victory, a permanent injunction protecting us from the abortion-pill, contraception and sterilization mandate, has taught our family that we have been right to put God first, and be proactive to protect our right to live and work according to our faith. Spiritual treasures come before business tools.”

Hercules Industries is a Colorado-based manufacturer of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units. Its owners, William Newland, Paul Newland, James Newland, and Christine Ketterhagen, all identify as practicing Catholics.

The company and its Catholic owners had filed legal challenges against the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that the employee health plans include coverage for sterilization and contraception, including some drugs that can cause abortions. Failure to comply with the mandate would have meant heavy fines, while compliance with the mandate would have meant violating the Catholic faith.

The March 16 permanent injunction from U.S. District Judge John Kane for the District of Colorado said the plaintiffs in the case were protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Under that 1993 law, the government may not place a “substantial burden” on the free exercise of religion, unless doing so is the “least restrictive means” of furthering a “compelling government interest.”

In June 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the act protects closely-held private companies with objections to the mandated coverage.

The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom helped defend Hercules Industries and its owners, who secured the first legal injunction against the HHS mandate in July 2012.

Newland said that because of the help of Alliance Defending Freedom and the “prayers and support” of many others, his family and others will “remain free to earn a living and contribute to society without fear that the government will punish us for living our faith.”

The legal group’s attorneys commented on the ruling.

“You’re not free if your beliefs are confined to your mind,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Kevin Theriot. “What makes America unique is our freedom to peacefully live out our beliefs, and the constitution protects that freedom.”

Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, agreed.

“Americans should be free to live and work according to their faith without fear of punishment by the government,” Bowman said. “In this country, citizens have always had the freedom to believe, the freedom to express those beliefs, and the freedom to operate their businesses in accord with those beliefs.”

More than 300 plaintiffs have filed religious freedom lawsuits against the mandate, including well over 100 non-profit institutions.

On March 9, the Supreme Court nullified a federal court ruling against the University of Notre Dame on the HHS contraception mandate and sent it back for reconsideration by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

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What can St Patrick’s Day teach us about Catholic schools and Latinos?

by CNA/EWTN News • March 17, 2015

Detail of stained glass depicting St. Patrick in Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Goleen, County Cork, Ireland. (Andreas F. Borchert via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0)

New York City, N.Y. — In the United States, St. Patrick’s Day marks opportunity to not only celebrate the heroic saint but also the achievements of the large wave of Irish immigrants who helped shape the nation’s history and culture.

In an article for the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn said that in the midst of this well-meaning celebration of Irish assimilation, we must recognize the enormous achievement of Catholic schools so as to continue their legacy of serving immigrant groups.

“The rise of a Catholic school system, in short, was an American achievement – the more stunning because it was pulled off by a poor, immigrant people,” McGurn wrote March 17.

In his article, “Feliz Día de San Patricio,” McGurn took St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to encourage support of Catholic schools in their service to Latinos, whom he says can benefit from them just as the Irish did.

He spoke with Fr. Timothy Scully of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education about the ongoing necessity of Catholic schools for immigrants.

“On St. Patrick’s Day we celebrate the mutual blessings that America was for the Irish and the Irish were for America,” Fr. Scully told McGurn. “We believe one day the same will be said of Latinos now arriving on our shores. At least if the Catholic schools have anything to do with it.”

McGurn said that the Dream Act has dominated the conversation about Latinos and education, but that a larger issue exists. Less than one fifth of Latino high school students are considered “college ready” and only about half graduate from high school in the allotted four years.

“So what kind of dream is it to design programs geared to college when most Latino kids are written off before they can even start?” he asked.

Enter American Catholic schools.

Set up as an alternative to Protestant schools, the Catholic school system served as a stepping stone to assimilation for immigrants, rather than being a stumbling block as many had feared.

Now Catholic schools can once again help immigrants take their place in American society, especially if they work to embrace Latinos.

Even though Latinos who attend Catholic schools are 42 percent more likely to graduate from high school, only three percent make up Catholic school students, according to Notre Dame’s Task Force on the Participation of Latino Children and Families in Catholic Schools.

“Put it this way: Is it really all that hard to believe that a Latino schoolgirl might be more comfortable mastering English and embracing American culture if she is learning in a school where she sees, say, a print of Our Lady of Guadalupe – patroness of all the Americas – hanging on the wall?” McGurn asked.

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March Madness? Put aside that fifth bracket and tackle Church teaching, bishop urges

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 18, 2015

(Matthew D. Britt via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Many challenges to families need addressing today, including perhaps too much attention given to college basketball’s “March Madness,” and not enough to studying Church teaching.

So said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, the head of the U.S. bishops conference, at a Mar. 16 discussion at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

“If we took the same studied approach to what the Church is saying as we do, let’s say, to sports, we’d be experts,” he reflected.

The problem, he explained, is many Catholics see the secular headlines on Pope Francis and don’t study Church teaching to grasp what he is really saying. Moral and doctrinal confusion ensues.

“I tell our people we have to be students,” he said. One of the missions born from last year’s extraordinary Synod on the Family, he added, “is to take an interest, become a student, even as much as March Madness.”

The archbishop revealed he has filled out an NCAA tournament bracket, but wouldn’t directly state his pick to win.

“I am from Kentucky,” he said, dropping a not-so-subtle hint to laughter from the audience.

The archbishop was discussing last year’s extraordinary Synod on the Family and the upcoming ordinary synod, both in the context of the New Evangelization.

The extraordinary synod focused on “pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization.” The ordinary synod, which will take place this October in the Vatican, will continue deliberations of the previous synod to result in “pastoral guidelines” for these challenges.

In a wide-ranging talk with the university’s theology professor John Grabowski, the archbishop revealed some of the inner workings of the recent synod, the family’s importance to the New Evangelization, and some obstacles and opportunities to the family’s role in the U.S.

Many young people doubt they will have a successful marriage because they see the divorce statistics are so high, or they grew up in a broken family. Rates of cohabitation and children without parents have risen sharply in the last two decades.

The Church must “inspire, especially young people, to think they’re not a statistic. That they’re not going to fail,” Archbishop Kurtz insisted.

“We need living examples of faithful love,” he continued. Canonization of more saintly married couples – like the parents of St. Therese of Liseux, Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, who could be canonized during the next synod – could help in this regard, he acknowledged.

“One of the things that I raised is I said at the synod, I said don’t tell me that people don’t understand sacrificial love when they see a mother or a father sacrificing for a child that maybe has a disability,” he added.

“I think in some ways that brings out the best in people, and I think we need to be able to highlight that.”

Another challenge for American families is to place more importance on relationships, he explained.

“We have so much. We sometimes don’t give time to the people who are most important in our lives. The most important things are the relationships that we have,” he said. More Catholics need to “put a priority on the gift of marriage and family.”

He also addressed questions about tension at the synod over discussing matters of pastoral care. Yes it was present, he admitted, while adding that it’s a natural part of the process.

“I went back to the Acts of the Apostles, and I read about the Council of Jerusalem,” he said, chuckling that in his epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul admitted of tension at the council, or “passionate discernment,” as Archbishop Kurtz referred to it.

That indeed “characterized the second week” of the synod after the controversial mid-term report was published. The relatio contained “some really good things,” yet “some things that we felt needed improvement.”

“We wanted to leave that synod with the best document possible,” he said, explaining some of the passionate deliberations, adding that “the Holy Spirit works through zeal and passion and listening.”

He also shared what he told President Obama in a December meeting between the two at the White House.

Quoting Pope Francis’ words to families, “don’t limit your life to what happens in Church,” he told the president that the Church in the U.S. needed religious freedom to serve the poor in the public square.

“I said, ‘listen, we’re not looking for any special favors. We just know as a Church, we need to serve others. Please don’t tie our hands.’”

Archbishop Kurtz also discussed Pope Francis’ plan to visit the U.S. in September, including an appearance at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, and what he will find.

Like any guest visiting the Church in the U.S., “you want them to get a real feel for what I would call how beautiful the Church is, and how beautiful the commitment of faith is in the hearts of people,” he explained.

“America sometimes from the outside looks like we’re this big superpower and all we’re interested in is money and material things,” he said, but added that in visiting the U.S., “I think [Pope Francis] will see some beautiful things.”

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For Archbishop Chaput, religious liberty means more than you may think

by CNA/EWTN News • March 18, 2015

Archbishop Charles Chaput says Mass in Philadelphia’s St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Sept. 7, 2014. (Javier de la Flor/CNA)

Philadelphia, PA — Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia warned Tuesday that the United States will face increasing pressure to abandon its traditionally broad protections for religious liberty, though he encouraged Christians never to give up hope in God’s love.

Religious liberty, he said, “means much more than the freedom to believe whatever you like at home, and pray however you like in your church.”

“It means the right to preach, teach and worship in public and in private,” he said March 17. “It means a parent’s right to protect his or her children from harmful teaching. It means the right to engage the public square with moral debate and works of social ministry. It means the freedom to do all of this without negative interference from the government, direct or indirect, except within the limits of ‘just public order’.”

The archbishop’s remarks came in his speech to Philadelphia’s St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he discussed Dignitatis humanae, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on religious freedom.

Archbishop Chaput evaluated the religious freedom situation in the U.S. as “good” compared to “almost anywhere else in the world.”

“Religious believers played a very big role in founding and building the country. Until recently, our laws have reflected that. In many ways they still do.”

He noted that a “large majority” of Americans believe in God and identify as Christian, while religious practice is high.

“But that’s changing. And the pace will quicken. More young people are disaffiliated from religion now than at any time in our country’s past. More stay away as they age. And many have no sense of the role that religious freedom has played in our nation’s life and culture.”

The archbishop said the current administration may be “the least friendly to religious freedom concerns in history.” This trend will continue in areas like gay rights, contraception and abortion services, and public religious witness, as well as in the application of “so-called ‘anti-discrimination’ laws,” he said.

The tendency will also be evident in anti-bullying policies “that turn public schools into indoctrination centers on matters of human sexuality” that undermine any concept of truth in the concepts of male and female; and it will be manifested in restrictions on public funding, revoked tax exemptions, and expanded government regulations.

However, for Archbishop Chaput the biggest “crippling” problem in U.S. culture is the lack of a commonly shared meaning to words such as justice, rights, freedom, and dignity.

“We speak the same language, but the words don’t mean the same thing. Our public discourse never gets down to what’s true and what isn’t, because it can’t. Our most important debates boil out to who can deploy the best words in the best way to get power.”

He said that liberal democracy lacks the ability to be self-sustaining.

“Democracy depends for its meaning on the existence of some higher authority outside itself,” he said.

Human dignity has only one source and guarantee: humanity’s creation in the image and likeness of God.

“Modern pluralist democracy has plenty of room for every religious faith and no religious faith. But we’re lying to ourselves if we think we can keep our freedoms without revering the biblical vision – the uniquely Jewish and Christian vision – of who and what man is.”

Archbishop Chaput summarized Christianity’s approach to society. Its rise had posed a threat to pagan societies, since the Christian understanding of sacred and secular authority rejected worship of the Roman Empire’s gods.

At one point the “confessional state” became “the standard Catholic model of government.” Such a state was committed to “advancing the true Catholic religion and suppressing religious error.”

The Second Vatican Council’s teaching on religious liberty aimed to correct this approach by “going back to the sources of Christian thought.”

“The choice to believe any religious faith must be voluntary. Faith must be an act of free will, or it can’t be valid,” he noted.

“Forced belief violates the person, the truth and the wider community of faith, because it’s a lie,” the archbishop continued. Persons have rights “even when they choose falsehood over truth.”

The archbishop warned that religious freedom cannot survive unless people “actually believe and live their faith,” including in their public lives.

“No one can finally take our freedom unless we give it away,” he maintained.

“In practice, no law and no constitution can protect religious freedom unless people actually believe and live their faith – not just at home or in church, but in their public lives. But it’s also true that no one can finally take our freedom unless we give it away.”

Archbishop Chaput stressed the importance of finding hope in the people who comfort the suffering, serve the poor and “seek and teach the truth.”

“In the end, there’s too much evidence that God loves us, with a passion that is totally unreasonable and completely redemptive, to ever stop trusting in God’s purpose for the world, and for our lives.”

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Pope Francis has called for a Holy Year of Mercy – so what does that mean?

by Matthew Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 18, 2015

General audience with Pope Francis on March 18, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — The Pope’s surprise announcement of a holy year for mercy has Catholics weighing in on the significance of the move, which some say can be boiled down to this: Francis wants us to know how much God loves us.

The Fathers of Mercy, a priestly order based in Kentucky, said they were thrilled when news of the jubilee broke last week. A self-described “itinerant missionary preaching order of priests,” they conduct parish missions focused on conversion through the sacraments of Mass and Confession.

“We see first-hand the reality and beauty of conversion – God’s mercy at work,” member Father Wade told CNA.

During a penitential service at St. Peter’s Basilica March 12, Pope Francis announced the extraordinary jubilee Year of Mercy, which will begin later this year on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8. It will end on the Solemnity of Christ the King, Nov. 20, 2016.

The scriptural focus for the jubilee year will be Christ’s command from Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

“It’s a journey that starts with a spiritual conversion,” Pope Francis said at the announcement.

But what is mercy, and how is it concretely practiced?

“Mercy is who God is. It is love’s second name,” Fr. Menezes said. And conversion is its “most concrete expression,” he added, quoting St. John Paul II’s 1980 papal encyclical “Dives in Misericordia,” or “Rich in Mercy.”

“God is more interested in our future than in our past,” he explained. God takes past sin “seriously” but never “as the last word,” because He “wants each one of us to become the ‘best version’ of our self that He wills for each one of us, personally, in His divine and eternal mind, and this requires conversion.”

This is exactly what Pope Francis has in mind in announcing the Year of Mercy, said Kathryn Jean Lopez, founding director of Catholic Voices USA.

“In our busy, buzzing, often bifurcated lives, we often don’t find the time for the silence of examination of conscience. This Holy Father is a Jesuit spiritual director to the world, urging us to see just how much God loves us, reorienting our hearts to His,” she told CNA.

Rather than proposing something radically new, Pope Francis is continuing the devotion to mercy of his predecessors St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, noted Lopez.

“Pope John Paul II loved Divine Mercy so, Pope Benedict would call him the apostle of Divine Mercy. Benedict would also say that Divine Mercy is the name of God himself,” she said.

This unbroken line is also proven in the encyclical Dives in Misericordia, where John Paul II wrote that “the Church – professing mercy and remaining always faithful to it – has the right and the duty to call upon the mercy of God,” Fr. Menezes said.

What’s more, though, mercy is also practiced through concrete acts of charity. The Church lists seven “corporal” and “spiritual” “works of mercy” which must be performed by the faithful.

“Catholics do the work of education, hospice care, caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, looking after the lonely. This is the encounter Pope Francis talks about,” Lopez said listing the corporal works of mercy.

The seven spiritual works of mercy are to admonish the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive all injuries, and pray for the living and dead.

“A message of mercy brings people in the door to freely encounter the heart of Christ in the sacramental life of the Church,” Lopez added.

According to the Vatican’s website, the jubilee year has its roots in the Monastic law when every fiftieth year was made holy for the Jewish people. Debts were canceled, slaves were freed, and lands were restored to their “original owners.”

Ordinary jubilees occur every 25 or 50 years, and extraordinary jubilees are called for some momentous occasion. Two extraordinary jubilees were called in the 20th century – 1933, to mark the 1900th anniversary of Christ’s redemption in 33 A.D., and 1983, its 1950th anniversary.

The jubilee year is a “holy year” marked by acts of faith, charity, and “brotherly communion,” the Vatican’s website adds.

“I am convinced that the whole Church will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time,” Pope Francis said after announcing the jubilee year.

“From this moment, we entrust this Holy Year to the Mother of Mercy, that she might turn her gaze upon us and watch over our journey,” he said. The jubilee year will begin on a Marian feast day, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

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San Francisco cathedral sprinkler aimed for safety, not homeless

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • March 18, 2015

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco, CA. (Slyvain.collet via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

San Francisco, CA — San Francisco’s cathedral installed a special sprinkler system to wash out “needles, feces and other dangerous items” from its doorways – and never intended to remove homeless people sleeping there, the archdiocese has explained in the face of media attacks.

“The problem was particularly dangerous because students and elderly people regularly pass these locations on their way to school and Mass every day,” San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William Justice said March 18.

“The purpose was to make the Cathedral grounds as well as the homeless people who happen to be on those grounds safer.”

Bishop Justice, who is also rector of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, said the cathedral installed the system about two years ago after learning from “city resources” that such a system was in common use in the city’s financial district for “safety, security and cleanliness.”

The Archdiocese of San Francisco told CNA that members of the San Francisco Police Department had recommended the system to the cathedral’s previous rector.

Bishop Justice said dangerous items such as needles and feces were regularly being left in the cathedral’s hidden doorways.

He said people who were regularly sleeping in the doorways were informed in advance that the sprinklers were being installed.

“The idea was not to remove those persons, but to encourage them to relocate to other areas of the cathedral, which are protected and safer.”

An initial report from San Francisco KCBS, which cited a cathedral staff member, claimed that the sprinkler system had been installed “to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral’s doorways.”

The sprinkler system ran for about 75 seconds every 30 to 60 minutes. Reporters saw several homeless people and their belongings become soaked by the water and said the sprinkler system was ineffective at cleaning the area and lacked a drainage system.

Bishop Justice apologized that the cathedral’s intentions had been misunderstood and described the sprinkler system method as “ill-conceived.”

“It actually has had the opposite effect from what it was intended to do, and for this we are very sorry.”

He noted that the San Francisco archdiocese and the St. Vincent de Paul Society are “the largest supporter of services for the homeless in San Francisco.”

“Every year, it helps many thousands of people through food, housing, shelter programs for people at risk including homeless mothers and families, and in countless other ways,” the bishop said. “St. Mary’s Cathedral is a huge part of that program, and does more than any other Catholic church.”

Only hours after the first news report on the cathedral water system, the City of San Francisco issued a formal notice that the sprinkler system violates building and safety codes. Bishop Justice said the archdiocese had already started to remove the system.

Negative coverage of the cathedral did not come in a vacuum.

The San Francisco archdiocese is presently the target of protests, critical media coverage and political pressure after Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced changes to archdiocesan high school teachers’ handbooks intended to clarify Catholic religious and moral teachings. He also announced, and later withdrew, a proposed clause to Catholic high schools’ teacher contracts outlining teachers’ ministerial role.

The political reaction included a March 6 resolution from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors against the archbishop’s proposal.

Board member Mark Farrell, who sponsored the resolution, claimed in a March 18 tweet that the sprinkler system was “inhumane and appalling.”

Media coverage could be aggravated by the involvement of Sam Singer, founder of the influential San Francisco-based communications firm Singer Associates, whose clients include the Chevron oil company and prominent San Francisco newspapers.

Singer told the SF Weekly newspaper that “concerned parents” are paying for his services in their dispute with the archbishop. While the SF Weekly report indicated that the parents are from the Catholic high schools, Singer told the National Catholic Reporter that he was in fact hired by parents, alumni and others opposed to the actions of Father Joseph Illo, a pastor at Star of the Sea Church and its K-8 school. The pastor’s decisions include having only male altar servers.

However, Singer is aiming at Archbishop Cordileone.

“Everyone is praying that the Pope will remove the San Francisco Archbishop and these priests,” he said in a Feb. 18 Google+ post that referenced the Our Lady Star of the Sea controversy.

Singer’s social media accounts are publicizing negative interpretations of the archbishop and the archdiocese while promoting stories siding with the protesters. His Twitter account promoted press coverage of cathedral’s sprinkler system, as well as some individuals’ negative reactions.

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Want a happy marriage? Save sex for ‘I do,’ new study finds

by CNA/EWTN News • March 19, 2015

(Unsplash)

Denver, CO — We’ve all heard the popular American rhyme about relationships: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage.

However, thanks to the current phenomenon of the ‘hookup culture,’ the traditional American family is rearranging to conform to the structure of modern, noncommittal relationships: first comes sex, then comes cohabitation, then maybe a baby, and possibly marriage.

In fact, the sequence of hooking up, sex, and premarital cohabitation seems to represent a growing norm in society, pointing to the fact that the traditional major milestones of a relationship are happening prior to marriage rather than after tying the knot.

Although the phenomenon of the hookup culture is often attributed to millennials, studies from the Journal of Sex Research have shown that millennials (2004-2012) do not actually have more casual sex than the generation before them (1988-1996).

With this in mind, it should be equally as enlightening to both millennials and non-millennials to hear that this culture of casual sex, the haze of hooking up, and the slide of sexual intimacy is also affecting the chances of a happy marriage.

The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia published a study called “Before ‘I Do’” and found that what couples do before they say ‘I do’ actually matters — and that premarital experiences from the past could end up haunting them long into marital bliss.

“What people do before marriage appears to matter,” stated Dr. Galena K. Rhoades and Dr. Scott M. Stanley in the 2014 study, saying that “how they conduct their romantic lives before they tie the knot is linked to their odds of having happy marriages.”

Rhoades, a Research Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Denver, and Dr. Scott, a Research Professor and Co-Director of the Center of Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver, have spent their time researching relationship commitment and development, as well as related implications for family, children, and divorce.

Their findings lead to the conclusion that happy marriages could weigh on the balance of relationships past.

They found that those couples who partook in hooking up, premarital cohabitation, or even engaging in multiple sexual encounters with different people over the course of their lives would have a less likely chance of remaining in a happy marriage - if they even got married at all.

“What happens in Vegas - everything you do before settling down in marriage - may not stay there,” Rhoades and Stanley continued, saying that “those who have had more romantic experiences are more likely to have lower-quality marriages than those with a less complicated romantic history.”

About 90 percent of Americans have sex before marriage and on average, these Americans will have five sexual partners before settling down with “the one.”

The study pointed to the probability that the more familiarity one has with relationships and sex, the harder it is to maintain commitment to just one person and to continue their satisfaction with only one partner. Marriage involves leaving behind other options, which may be harder for people who are used to having their choice of multiple romantic partners.

Having multiple relationship experiences also alludes to the conclusion of having multiple break-ups, leading to a more skewed viewpoint of lasting love and committed relation.

The same goes for cohabitation. Most American couples think that moving in together will help make the transition into marriage smoother. However, cohabitation before marriage has repeatedly been associated with higher divorce rates over the years, according to the study.

Stanley and Rhoades pointed out that cohabitation, which includes creating a life together - buying furniture, investing in a pet, paying monthly rent together - can create a kind of inertia that makes it harder for the couple to breakup, if the time came.

So instead of breaking up if the match proved to be unsuitable, the couple would likely stay together in a kind of unhealthy paralysis. The cohabitating couple would more likely enter into an unhappy marriage rather than delve into the inconvenience of breaking apart the life they so carefully created when living together.

Therefore, the findings of Rhoades and Stanley seem to show that in the case of marriage, having more sexual experience leads to a lower marital quality.

Marital quality in this particular study was defined by happiness, confiding in one another, believing things in the relationship were going well, and an absence of thoughts of divorce.

“In general, couples who wait to have sex later in their relationship report higher levels of marital quality,” Rhoades and Stanley continued, pointing to the fact that sex in a relationship - especially hooking up early on - will have repercussions on marriage.

This could have to do with the fact that typically, both parties are be blinded by attraction. The couple who has sex early on in the relationship still has no idea if they are well-matched because they are captivated by sexual enthrallment. If the relationship starts off with sex, then the more detailed and subtle aspects of their partner could be glossed over by the hazy lenses of sexual attraction.

The research also suggests that if an individual only has sex with their eventual spouse and no others, the odds of marital happiness are substantially better than if the individual had sex with multiple partners.

However, marriages are not fated to end in divorce when their past involves messy break-ups and haunting hook-ups - there are ways to maneuver this new, uncharted phenomenon.

“The more support a couple has, the better they are able to navigate the occasional choppy waters associated with marriage,” Rhoades and Stanely found.

One of the most interesting revelations of the study was that those couples who had more guests at their wedding reported greater marital quality, alluding to the possibility that commitment is strengthened when publicly declared, symbolizing a clear decision to commit.

This not only highlights the significance of community, family, and friends in a relationship but also suggests that community and a circle of support is one of the many ways that couples can enhance their chances at a happy marriage and renew their desire for commitment.

In addition, the professors added that seeking advice, couple counseling or therapy, and transparency about past relationships could also be helpful for those want to escape the wounds inflicted by the casual sexual habits of the past.

“Our bottom-line advice to Americans hoping to marry is this: Remember that what you do before you say ‘I do’ seems to have a notable impact on your marital future. So, decide wisely.”

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U.S. NEWS

With laws set to threaten religious liberty in D.C., Senate is last legal hope

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 19, 2015

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

Washington, D.C. — With religious freedom under assault in the U.S. capital, the Archdiocese of Washington is rallying behind its “only legislative recourse” left.

The archdiocese announced its support of “two resolutions disapproving the unprecedented attack on religious freedom” in the District of Columbia. It was joined by a number of religious and pro-life groups in its support of the resolutions, which were introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.).

The Senate resolutions oppose two new D.C. laws with which Catholic institutions say they cannot comply out of conscience. The laws were passed in December, and signed into law in January by the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser (D).

The first, the Human Rights Amendment of 2014, forces religious schools to recognize persons and groups who might conflict with their stated mission and allow them use of their facilities and benefits. For example, a Catholic school would be forced to officially recognize an openly-gay student group and could not deny them use of its facilities.

The second, the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014, prohibits all employers from discriminating against employees over their “reproductive health decision making.” Thus, a Catholic or pro-life group could not make employment decisions based on their employees’ decision to act contrary to the mission – such as procuring an abortion, for example.

Congress has 30 days to review the bills, which are slated to become law on April 17.

The archdiocese has been joined in its opposition to the laws by various groups and schools in the city, including the Knights of Columbus, the U.S. bishops conference, the Catholic University of America, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The laws “subjugate the Church’s moral teaching to the moral views of the government” and “result in discrimination against religious believers,” the archdiocese said in its Mar. 18 statement.

The general counsel for the Catholic University of America, Lawrence Morris, told CNA in February that if the bills become law, the school has not planned on taking legal action. He added that if action is taken against them, “we will vigorously defend ourselves,” citing protections under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Sen. Lankford chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees D.C. laws. He called the laws “a major threat” to the religious freedom of persons and organizations in the city “and a brazen display of intolerance.”

“We must stop this assault on the Catholic Church, and we must act to protect religious liberty,” stated Sen. Cruz, who joined him in authoring the resolutions.

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Presbyterian critics: community’s ‘gay marriage’ vote ignores Christian consensus

by CNA/EWTN News • March 19, 2015

(scribbletaylor via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Louisville, KY — A majority of presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted to redefine marriage, but one Presbyterian group warned that the denomination is “capitulating to the culture.”

“By approving this change we are disregarding the clear teaching of Scripture, the wisdom of those who have lived and died for the faith before us, and the continuing consensus of the contemporary church around the world. To do this is both disobedient and unwise,” The Fellowship Community said March 17.

“We know this particular change was intended by its proponents to extend the grace and the good news of Jesus Christ, and to further the witness of his Kingdom. We believe it accomplishes neither.”

A majority of the denomination’s 171 regional bodies voted in the ecclesial community’s General Assembly to approve a constitutional amendment that says marriage is now “a unique commitment between two people.”

While the amendment to the denomination’s constitution acknowledges that marriage is “traditionally” a union of a man and a woman, the denomination already allowed ministers to perform “gay marriages” in states which recognize same-sex unions as marriages.

The Presbyterian denomination will not require ministers with objections to perform any “gay marriage” ceremonies.

Backers of the redefinition of marriage, such as Brian D. Ellison of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, said it means the ecclesial community “fully recognizes that the love of gays and lesbian couples is worth celebrating in the faith community.”

The Louisville, Ky.-based Presbyterian Church (USA) has about 1.8 million members, down from 2 million members in 2010 and 3.1 million in 1983, when two Presbyterian denominations merged.

In 2011 the denomination voted to eliminate standards requiring clergy to show fidelity in marriage, and chastity in single life.

The denomination is following the path of several other U.S. religious denominations.

Clergy may perform same-sex “marriages” in the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Quakers, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches – denominations which historically have had significant U.S. cultural and political influence. Clergy in Reform and Conservative Judaism also may solemnize such same-sex unions, the New York Times reports.

The Fellowship Community said Presbyterians who do not want to compromise teachings “must be willing to go to the darkest and loneliest places with the compassion, conviction, and hope of the gospel we profess.”

The amendment to the Presbyterian denomination’s constitution will take effect June 21.

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Pope Francis reaches to Catholic Charities to tap new D.C. bishop

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 20, 2015

Rev. Mario Dorsonville, bishop-designate of Washington, D.C. (CNA)

Washington, D.C. — With a background in Hispanic ministry and service at Catholic Charities, the newly announced auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C. hopes to help people turn their faith into action.

Fr. Mario Dorsonville, the vice president for Catholic Charities D.C. and now the bishop-designate of the Archdiocese of Washington, stated his commitment to “living the faith in action” after he was tapped by Pope Francis for the episcopacy at Roman noon on Friday.

“We cannot, in any moment, allow ourselves to close our doors. Open doors to listen, open doors to refer sometimes, open doors to pray, open doors to walk with the immigrant family,” he said at his introductory press conference.

Selflessness is part of the vocation of priest and bishop, he continued. “What a great experience if we can be faithful from what we have been called so many years ago, since the moment of our ordination, to give up our own life and our own face that people might recognize the presence of Jesus Christ in what we say and we do.”

Bishop-designate Dorsonville hails from Bogotá, Columbia, where he was ordained for the archdiocese there in 1985. A doctorate in ministry from The Catholic University of America brought him to Washington, D.C.

After a brief stint back in Columbia, he returned to D.C. and in 1999 was incardinated as a priest for the archdiocese. Since 2005, he has served as vice president of Catholic Charities in D.C. as well as director of the Spanish Catholic Center for the archdiocese, which has a Hispanic population of nearly 270,000.

He has also been a spiritual director for seminarians at the John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C., something he described as one of his “greatest joys” as a priest.

The seminary lacks the bureaucracy and “human resources” that one might find in the working world, he said. “It’s just love, dedication, and commitment for young men,” who strive to “follow Jesus Christ with all their heart, with all their strength.”

Formation of future priests “is like planting a seed knowing that you will never see the shadows of the tree that you are planting,” he acknowledged. “But I guess that’s what the Catholic Church is about.”

Bishop-designate Dorsonville’s boss at Catholic Charities agreed that his best work is when he gets to leave the desk and office for pastoral ministry.

“This is a man who is going to say ‘yes’ to people. He’s going to say ‘yes,’ whatever’s best for the Church, whatever’s best for people in need,” Monsignor John Enzler, president and CEO of Catholic Charities for the archdiocese, told CNA.

“This is a pastor. This is a priest who does ministry,” Msgr. Enzler said. “We don’t want him spending his time behind a desk,” he added, “you want to get him away from that stuff.”

Bishop-designate Dorsonville stated that one of his chief missions will be fighting the “globalization of indifference” that Pope Francis has preached against.

“The Holy Spirit uses people to awake people from indifference and to make the real transformation, the metanoia, from indifference to transformation, from transformation to reality, from reality to service, from service to love,” he explained.

“Life is about sometimes joys, but sometimes crosses. And carrying out the crosses of those who need.”

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Lying Selflessness

by Alice von Hildebrand • March 15, 2015

More than once in the course of my long life, I have come across women who, under the noble title of “motherly love”, hide a ruthless selfishness. They mendaciously label as “love” what is, in fact, plain possessiveness. They fall victims to an equivocation which today is highly favored by the devil: the ambiguity of the word “mine.”

Even though father and mother give their child an equal number of chromosomes, the role played by each of the conjoint is abysmally different. The father’s relationship to his child is, in some way “external, that is the bond between them is essentially through his wife. His role is to fecundate his spouse’s egg and from this moment, he is excluded from the drama developing in the mystery of her body.

She, on the contrary, is unbelievably blessed by having been “touched” by God Himself, the Creator of the immortal soul He places in the fecundated egg. This being “blessed” by God gives the female body a note of sacredness symbolized by the veil, lost sight of after Vatican II.

Mother and child are now tied by a bond that has no match in any other human relationship. She will feed him with her flesh and blood, until the dramatic moment of birth. After nine months of unmatchable intimacy with its mother, the child is now ready to enter the cold world. It is the mother’s mission to push him out of her body. To give birth is physically agonizing (“like a woman in labor” is the biblical expression when referring to severe pains), but it is also the end of a physical bond which is nothing short of amazing. Mother and child have now physically parted forever, but more than one mother might be tempted to feel that her child, being bonded with her in a unique way, still “belongs”’ to her.

This exterior “rejection”, necessary for giving birth, is a pattern that will repeat itself under different forms, for the rest of her life Having for months fed her baby at her breast, she must, one day, out of love, sever him that is deny him her precious milk. The moment has come to give him more nutritious food. She is the one who must encourage him to take his first steps, and once again, oppose the child’s laziness crying to be carried. She must again and again put him down and “force” him to leave his mother’s arms and stand on his own feet. Nevertheless, the closeness of the bond between mother and son is so strong that when the child falls and hurts himself, he will instinctively run to his mother. It is well known that soldiers dying on the battle field often call for their mother’s help.

The same scenario keeps repeating itself under various forms, until the son reaches a particularly dramatic moment: when he “falls in love. In many cases the young man has had only a very short acquaintance with the one he now calls his fiancée – possibly only a few months: she comes out of the blue, from a different family, a different background, yet now seems to be given pride of place in his heart. This must strike his mother as “unjust”, against “nature”. How can this “stranger” who knows so little about her son, all of a sudden intrude into his life, and make the tacit claim to be the queen of his heart. This fact inspired Max Scheler to claim that “mother” and “law” are irreconcilable concepts. It often happens that a mother dislikes her daughter in law to be, who is rarely “good enough” for her son, and that this antipathy is often fully reciprocated. We are facing a classic case of family conflict. A mother might feel “dethroned”, robbed of her birth-right to be number one in her son’s life. She will recall the innumerable loving acts that she has performed toward him, often at the at the cost of great sacrifices, selflessly serving her child’s good. Now all of a sudden, she will feel robbed of her reward. There are many mothers, however, who through prayer and repeated acts of selflessness fully understand and accept that maternal love is essentially sacrificial love, and having prepared their souls for this difficult moment, generously open their heart to the one who has conquered their son’s affection.

My concern is about those mothers who mendaciously believe that in opposing and challenging in every possible subtle way, their son’s choice, they are truly selflessly seeking his true good: this sheds some light on the fearful words of the Psalm: “omnis homo mendax.” Such a mother has “sincerely” convinced herself that she is totally selfless and only wishes what is best for her son. In fact, the underlying motivation is a craving for possession. The word: “my son”, instead of meaning that he is a gift of God, is interpreted as “belonging to me”. It gives one the right to, which dominate him, on the mendacious conviction that she alone knows what is truly good best for him. The tragic thing is that such mothers have convinced themselves that they are totally sincere.

They will make subtle plans to either prevent him from finding a bride, or ruthlessly criticize his choice and thereby sapping the very foundation of this budding relationship, while convincing herself “honestly” that she does so exclusively for “his happiness” and welfare. Some mothers have so artfully nurtured this mother-son relationship that it is bound to be an obstacle to a husband’s wife’s love: the sweet bond of mother-son love has degenerated into a heavy chain.

Let me relate some of the sad and, at times, dramatic experiences that have crossed my path I know of a marriage that was very rocky from the start, because the husband deified his mother, constantly comparing her with his wife, and making her understand that she should try to be just like her mother in law. She duplicated by making him feel that her father was her ideal of manhood: a brilliant man, very successful in business, and that he should try to emulate him. Needless to say that the marriage was not a peaceful one.

I also recall the story of one of my husband’s students in Munich. Shortly Dietrich von Hildebrand left Germany, (-refusing to live in a country “ruled by a criminal” (sic) - this young man, named Paul, got engaged to a young woman whom he loved and who fully reciprocated this love.

Fifteen years later, that is in l948, when Dietrich von Hildebrand, - to his joy, was finally granted a permit to re-enter Germany and go back to a town that had played such a role in his life, his family, his numerous friends and his ex-students organized a celebration that was attended by a young assistant pastor of the name of Josef Ratzinger.

As expected Paul attended. After the talk, he rushed over to greet his ex-professor. Dietrich von Hildebrand immediately recognized him, greeted him warmly and inquired about his wife and asked him whether he had children. To his shock and amazement Paul answered sheepishly, “Dear Professor, I am not yet married but I am still engaged.” Dietrich von Hildebrand, dubbed Dr. Amoris, was dumb founded: his Italian background had marked him deeply, and he practically pinned Paul to the wall, exclaiming: “This is inadmissible. You MUST GET MARRIED IMMEDIATELY”. Paul then told him sheepishly that knowing his mother’s love for him – a love he fully reciprocated – he knew that her heart would break if he got married and left her alone – a widow, and now getting elderly. Paul finally made up his mind, but to his distress and the one of his, yet no longer “young” wife, they were denied the joy of having children.

It is one of the tragic cases in which a mother betrays her “mission”: that is self-sacrifice. I do not imply that Paul’s mother explicitly told him that he was not “morally” entitled to leave her alone. There are, however, very subtle ways, typical of gentle women – as opposed to viragos – who communicate a clear message without uttering a single word.

I personally know two similar and yet different scenarios. I met both mothers and immediately detected that they were incredibly strong and domineering women: typical amazons. They had never let their son out of his “playpen”, had never given him a chance to make up his own mind: the all-powerful “mammy” “took care of everything”. One of them came uninvited to our apartment – with her son in tow – (he too was my husband’s students). She brought with her a bottle of wine – clearly aiming at polishing the apple - (this was badly needed for her son was not made of the stuff that philosophers are made of). I assume that she had convinced him to get a degree in the field dedicated to wisdom. In the course of the conversation, my husband asked him whether he did not wish to get married. Mammy’s boy who seemed to be on a leash, mumbled sheepishly as if reciting a lesson learned by heart: “I would have liked to, but mammy is so right: today, it is no longer possible to find a girl who guarantees to be a loving and selfless wife and mother; they are all careerists and will inevitably deprive husband and children of the love she owes them.” Having through mamma, made the experience of what woman should be like, I came to the conclusion that marriage is out of the question. He never got married. No comments are necessary.

The other case is almost a duplicate: but this time, I was well acquainted with the son as circumstances brought us in frequent contact. One day his mother invited me to dinner. The scenario was nothing short of amazing: Mammy was the one deciding what he should eat and not eat. I had the feeling that he was six years old; “yes, mammy; no mammy; as you will”. Needless to say; he never got married. He died in his sixties, and his strong, robust mother buried him. He died a “martyr” of this type of motherly love.

The most tragic case I experienced is the one of a young man, coming from a deeply Catholic background: we studied together; he was then a seminarian. He entered a religious order, and because of his remarkable piety and intellectual talents, he quickly was given a key position. Then his mother died. Sometime before her demise, he had made the acquaintance of a woman who following what was then the fashion of the time, got fascinated by oriental spirituality. She dabbled with Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism. The Koran was next on her list of spiritual experimentation, and she became fascinated by Mohammed. When she had her fill of it, she turned to Greek orthodoxy. Finally enriched by her spiritual pilgrimage and all these challenging detours, she came back to Catholicism. She got married but soon obtained an annulment, claiming that that the “marriage” was never consummated. I do not recall how she made the acquaintance of the high ranking priest I mentioned above, but it was noticeable that she was becoming became increasingly friendly with him, roaming close to his office and offering her services. But as soon as his mother died, and to everyone amazement, he asked to be relieved from his vows. He was by then in his forties.

The rumor was that his mother, to whom he was deeply attached, had told him ever since he was a child that her most ardent wish was to have a son who received the holy orders. It is likely that every Catholic mother, deeply rooted in her faith, entertains a similar hope. Having a deep love for his mother, and not wishing to disappoint her, he followed her wishes.

Wittingly or unwittingly, she had chosen his vocation. I have no reason to assume that she “forced” him to become a priest, but the words of Ovid come to mind: “Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo”. A drop hollows a stone: not by its strength but by repeatedly falling”. When God called her, he suddenly became aware that he was morally obligated to leave his order: he had been psychologically forced to become a priest. He had no vocation. His doing so would have been inconceivable as long as his mother was alive: she was understandably proud of his having risen so fast and so high in the hierarchy of this great order, and had he left while she was still alive, she would have dropped dead on the spot, giving him a bad conscience for the rest of his life. He had to wait until she was buried. Now he was free. To make a sad story short, as soon as he was released from his vows and been laicized, he married his new friend. One can fear, however, that he had gone from Scylla to Charybdis. I assume that his mother was a strong woman; his “wife” was stronger. To my profound grief and dismay, I was told that, after a while, they both left the Church, and she convinced him to become the pastor of a protestant sect.

May God have mercy on them both.

This story is almost duplicated by the one of a Spanish priest, who became quite prominent and was a close friend of Jacques Maritain, and who, upon the death of his domineering mother, realized that he never had a vocation. He left the priesthood, but thank God, after being laicized, he got married, and served the Church as a devout husband and father.

May God have mercy on such mothers; may He have mercy on their sons suffocated by their mother’s love.

Another amazing case which still puzzles me is the one of German Jews: mother with two sons from different marriages. Whereas she was not close to the older one, the younger one was the joy of her life. Having fled Nazi Germany, they landed in Belgium, and through the generosity and at times, heroism of some Belgian citizens, they survived the war and managed to come to the USA where her brother resided. He too – had fled Nazi Germany – and managed to come to the USA via Siberia. He was a MD. It was through him that I made their acquaintance. Whereas I met the older son but once, I saw the younger one and his mother several times. Their relationship was a very tender one. When invited at a party, they always sat next to each other, often holding hands like young fiancés. It was strange indeed, but upon my being told that mother and son shared a double bed to the very end of her life, I truly became puzzled. The idea of incest never crossed my mind, but the whole situation was so “strange” that it caused all those who knew them some concern.

I assume that their very deep bond could be explained by the fact that this mother-son relationship was all that they had not lost. Once again, we must leave it to God’s mercy. He alone knows the mystery called the human heart and how easily normal and abnormal, good and evil, can be intermingled.

Alice von Hildebrand is a lecturer and an author, whose works include: The Privilege of Being a Woman (2002) and The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich von Hildebrand (2000), a biography of her late husband. She was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of St. Gregory by Pope Francis in 2013.

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Bond of brothers

by Jenny Uebbing • March 16, 2015

My boys are lying facedown and soaking wet in a patch of sun on our thawed-out deck, relishing the 79 degree Colorado sunshine after a long winter (which, in all honesty, is probably nowhere close to finished, but I don’t have the heart to tell them … ) and taking turns slapping each other on the back.

“What’s happening?!” they trade off shouting, dissolving into giggles as they slap each other over and over again, imitating a character from one of their favorite books. They’re drenched from freezing hose water and their rash guards and tiny swimsuits are plastered to their bodies. And they are supremely happy.

Just a week or two ago, down with fevers and ear infections and endless 20 degree days, these same boys were scratching each other’s metaphorical eyes out in unrelenting Lego squabbles and disagreements over whose turn it was to open the garage door with the special remote. And to be fair, they’ll probably be fighting again in 15 minutes.

But for now they are deeply content and completely engrossed in one another, their 19-month age difference barely a blip on their consciousness except, of course, when Joey feels the need to assert his chronological superiority with every checkout guy, barista, and random stranger in the library.

Then there will be a reckoning of birth order, a rattling off of personal information and an unbidden recitation of names.

RIP, mohawks.

Their personalities are so different, and yet they have a sameness between them that can only be explained by a shared pedigree.

One is bossy, loud, impatient, slow to see the needs of others; the other more gentle, more reflective, more willing to console and to share. But I see the way they rub against each other’s temperaments, one emboldened by the fierce desire to keep up with an adored big brother, the other occasionally gentled by a younger one’s needs.

It’s amazing the way they were clearly designed to be together. And I’m amazed at how very little I had to do with it. I mean yes, I produced them both, but I couldn’t have planned the ways they complete each other, the ways they compete with each other, the ways they force generosity and coax cooperation and unselfishness out of day to day situations.

I have no doubt they’d learn these things eventually, be it in school or the workplace. But I’d rather they learned them here, now, sooner … so they have as much time as possible to sink deep in, becoming woven into the fabric of developing personalities.

Their baby sister is beloved by them both, but not fully of their world yet. She’s been grudgingly allowed into the bathtub after dinner time, and I’m seeing increased efforts to include her in playtime (or at least throw toys in her path to prevent screaming fits), but she hasn’t breached their shared imaginary world.

Maybe as she grows she’ll be welcomed into the club, or maybe the next sibling, growing now beneath my beleaguered ribcage, will be her match.

But he or she will be so much more than that, too. More than just another playmate or a contrasting personality to add to the crew; a unique and wholly unknown other to enter into the intimate world my kids share only with each other. Sometimes while I watch them play my heart constricts fiercely at the thought that my time with them is limited by the difference in our ages. I might get 50 years with them if I’m lucky. Their siblings might get 80.

They’ll grow old tougher because they’re growing up together. I know it’s true, because every week on Wednesday or Thursday night I slip out of the house after bedtime duties and drive a few miles to a predetermined spot to meet two of my sisters and, occasionally, our brother who live nearby. We have drinks and sometimes dinner, too, and we laugh about stuff only people who survived life with the same crazy parents (hi, mom and dad!) under the same roof can.

And now that babies have come and jobs have demanded relocations and friends have dispersed across the globe, we’ve become, just as mom and dad endlessly reminded us we would, each other’s best grown up friends.

I can’t wait to see that for my boys. Even though I probably won’t be privy to the inner workings of it. Even though I’m already being left behind, imperceptibly, day by day as they grow and change and need less of me, but arguabley more of each other.

I hope when they’re sharing beers together one day 30 years from now they can forgive a whole host of my failures and shortcomings as a parent for the simple fact that I gave them each their best friend. And I hope they encourage each other to strive tirelessly to improve their aim, because their bathroom smells exactly the way you might imagine a small space shared by two masculine preschoolers would.

Love you, boys. And I love your love for each other. Don’t ever let it grow cold.

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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Go to Joseph

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • March 18, 2015

St. Joseph’s role in salvation history celebrates the mystery of God’s dealing with a special man and his special vocation. A unique grace was offered him, and he accepted God’s gracious gift. It was entirely possible for him to turn away from it or reject. If, down through the ages, the beauty of Mary’s annunciation has inspired poetry, art, and music, the annunciation of Joseph merits similar artistry, for he stands with her, joint guardians of the Word-made-flesh.

Setting the Familiar Scene

To paraphrase the Matthean narrative (1:18-24): Joseph was anticipating his marriage to Mary, his betrothed. According to Jewish Law, the marriage contract had already been drawn up by the parents of both parties. Once the groom took the bride into his home, the marriage would be finalized. Joseph had prepared their home in Bethlehem, and their plan was to settle down to a peaceful married life. Their plan.

What is the proverb? Man proposes, God disposes.

The Dilemma

The stage is set for God’s inscrutable plan to unfold, and Joseph’s drama is about to begin. Finding Mary pregnant, he is shaken to the core. He is not the child’s father. Either Mary has been unchaste, or she has been raped. Under this cloud, he may not live with her. But he cannot live without her. (The biblical scholar, Father Raymond E. Brown, S.S., tells us that Mary’s strange pregnancy is the fifth listed in the Matthean genealogy of Jesus. Four other Old Testament women also had strange or scandalous pregnancies before marriage (A Coming Christ in Advent, 28.) It will take two angels to present a preposterous alternative to their plan and then untangle its knot. And what of the human plan? It will be turned on its head.

Joseph’s Sensitivity to Mary

The Law is clear. An unchaste woman must be stoned to death. Joseph loves the Law and keeps it always in mind, but stoning Mary? Unthinkable! This horror cannot be allowed to happen. Though her pregnancy is deeply disturbing, he is convinced of her virtue and will not agree to a public trial. Nor will he permit her to be shamed or embarrassed. The primacy of love is at work in Joseph’s heart.

Quietly, very quietly, Joseph will divorce her with no formal inquiry into details. He won’t flaunt the Law, but he will save Mary’s life and reputation by putting her away. How the plan is to be carried out, we will never know. Back and forth it goes — the Law or a quiet divorce, a quiet divorce or stoning. This is his dilemma with no obvious resolution.

The problem follows him to bed. It’s the decision of his life, and he must surely pray: “God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne” (Wis. 9:6).

Joseph’s Righteousness

Scripture describes Joseph as a righteous man. As a tekton, an artisan, a builder, he is known to deal honestly with others. He who is righteous or just is a modest individual, one who can discern how to act in difficult situations, and above all, a person whose faith in God is steadfast and complete, even in the face of persecution. Many Old Testament figures like Joseph in Egypt are described as ‘righteous.’

Joseph’s Dream and the Angel’s Message

The subject of dreams and their interpretation is usually related to unresolved issues which may be left over from previous years or from current problems.

So Joseph has a remarkable dream. Most people wouldn’t make important decisions based on the mandate of a dream. But according to the wisdom of Depth Psychology, dreams offer us a latent truth about ourselves, however confusing. The individual must decode the images so that, clearly, logically, the truth will emerge.

The angel speaks:

‘Joseph, you belong to the family tree of King David from whom the Messiah will be born. You must not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the Child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit, a mystery wrought by God.’

‘Mary will give birth to a son, and you must name him Jesus. As the Child’s earthly father, you must give him his identity. The Law requires it. Without your consent, God’s plan for the world will be thwarted. This Child will save his people from their sins.’

Joseph awakens with the certainty of Mary’s innocence. He will obey the angel’s message. Fear no longer grips him. He and Mary will be God’s instruments in the plan of salvation. The angel of the Lord has untied the knot. Peace floods his soul. He hasn’t flaunted the Law. Rather, he has discerned its depth according to God’s design.

Joseph’s Discernment

Throughout the Child’s infancy, Joseph faced many decisions that needed discerning, supported by faith and reason. His faith excluded naiveté and superstition. Still, there was a limit to reason, and, in the long run, in this singular event, reason had to be suspended in favor of the leap of faith and complete trust in God.

Patron of Discernment

Strictly speaking, the notion of discernment refers to making small and big decisions in the light of faith and at the level of faith. We human beings are moved by a maze of complex motives which are driven by images, ideas, attractions, revulsions — in other words, spirits, good and bad. We use the word spirit in a number of ways, for example, school spirit, the spirit of generosity, the spirit of ‘76, the spirit of the Constitution.

When confronted with making a decision, certain variable emotions or spirits make us take notice. Feelings of serving God’s pleasure or only my own may clash. Certain feelings may pull us in the direction toward God, while others pull us away from God. It’s a tug of war, the battle from within.

Discernment may first involve a tug of war between choosing the good and the bad or between choosing the good and the better. Prayer evens out this tug of war so that interior balance remains. When we can honestly tell ourselves that the good spirit is bringing us peace, joy, charity, and the like, then we can be virtually certain of a good decision. If the opposite is true, that is, if in making a decision, unrest and agitation are present, we can almost always be sure that the decision is not a good one. In “A Man for All Seasons,” Robert Bolt assigns these discerning words to St. Thomas More:

“God made the angels to show him splendor

As he made animals for innocence

And plants for their simplicity.

But to man, he gave an intellect

to serve him wittily in the tangle of his mind.”

Out of Obscurity: A Patron for All and for All Seasons

There is good reason why Joseph is considered a hidden or forgotten saint. After the year 1,000, his name is mentioned in a few saints’ lists in Germany and Ireland. In the Christian East, Joseph ranks as a minor figure in the life of Christ.

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Joseph is depicted as an old man because the Church wanted to preserve the notion of Mary’s perpetual virginity. In the Counter-Reformation, he is depicted as the patriarchal head of the Holy Family, but he is still old and considered the foster-father of Jesus and not his earthly father, a more precise description. Following the leads of St. Bernardine of Siena and St. Francis de Sales, contemporary art rejects earlier depictions, and portrays the sound theology that Joseph was young, virile, and of marriageable age. (Sandra Miesel, “Finding St. Joseph,” Online article).

Our saint is the patron of families, patron of fathers, patron of laborers and of organized labor. He is the patron of many religious institutes named after him. In him, we have a shining example of all the virtues needed for the Holy Family, the Christian family, or any family.

Chi Mangia Bene Vive Bene

On March 19th, Joseph’s guidance over the family is celebrated mainly in Sicilian or Southern Italian families. An altar with fine linen is set up in his honor and is decorated with flowers, fruits, and fancy breads.

Epecially-prepared foods, including stuffed artichokes, a variety of fish, pane di San Giuseppe, pasta di San Giuseppe, zeppole di San Giuseppe, sfingi, and other sweet cakes are served in several courses. Chi mangia bene vive bene — whoever eats well, lives well: the boast of Italians.

St. Teresa of Avila: “Go to Joseph”

St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, encourages the Universal Church:

“I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of St. Joseph which he has failed to grant.”

“I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to this glorious saint, for I have great experience of the blessing which he can obtain from God.

“Though you have recourse to many saints as your intercessors, go especially to St. Joseph, for he has great powers with God.”

Go to Joseph.

Happy feast day.

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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On Debt and Openness to Life

by Jenny Uebbing • March 18, 2015

I was chatting with a friend recently who made a comment about how freeing their family’s experience of being debt free has been, and I had a kind of “aha” moment as her words sunk in.

“I wonder how much that experience of freedom translates into other areas of her family’s life?”

I also got really, really excited about the future, and about being able to experience that kind of freedom firsthand.

Now, the friend in question has more than a handful of kids. And my mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that financial freedom was probably immensely liberating in the procreative realm, as evidenced by her burgeoning brood, now rapidly outpacing the seating capacity of a minivan.

Does that seem far fetched?

I pondered it long after the conversation ended, considering the connection between our deeply-indebted modern culture and a general aversion to children, past the perfunctory one or two. (And I’m speaking here to couples who are intentionally avoiding additions to their family, not to those struggling with the immense heartache of infertility.)

I thought about our neighbors across the street, eager to hand me bags and bags full of darling little girl’s clothes, and equally happy to tell us on more than one occasion how very “done” they were because they simply “couldn’t afford” any more children. That their youngest daughter, though very much loved, was very much a surprise.

They’re a sweet family and they work hard to provide for their kids, who lack for nothing. Their girls have the best toys and clothes, and they throw fantastical themed birthday parties every year and plan wonderful family vacations. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Unless, of course, those luxury amenities - the vacations and clothes and birthday parties - become confused for the actual material needs of children.

I have to wonder whether what they - and so many of us - consider to be necessary trappings to the ideal childhood are really just that: trappings.

I know that kids care about having cool stuff, but I think they can be coached into caring, can be educated into a certain lifestyle and level of expectation, just like any of us can.

On the other hand, I think that parents who are drowning in consumer debt, choked by student loans and car payments and ridiculous mortgages, are probably honest-to-God afraid of having more kids under such circumstances.

And I’m just wondering where the intersection between wants and needs lies, in terms of what it really costs to bring up a kid or two in this day and age.

Because at some point it does become a matter of lifestyle, of choosing certain “necessities” not because they are truly necessary to life as we know it, but because they’re familiar and found in every house up and down our block.

And then finally, this: I wonder how many American couples are avoiding having any/more children because of debt.

I wonder how much of the Very Real Struggle of NFP is tied up in financial insecurity.

I wonder if there’s a tangible connection between generously and prudently managing one’s money and generously and prudently managing one’s fertility.

I am speaking to a stereotype here, but as is often the case with stereotypes, they issue forth from little grains of truth.

Is it pricey to raise and launch a kid into the world we live in here in the U.S.?

Yes, yes it is.

But we all make choices, whether in our careers or in our decisions at the grocery store (or on Amazon). We all decide how and where we’re going to spend the money we’ve been entrusted with, and whether or not we’re going to make debt a part of our lifestyle.

Some families have fewer options, whether due to underemployment, chronic poverty, or disability and restricted income potential, but I’m speaking here to the typical suburban American family, the one driving multiple car payments and buying brand new clothing and eating out in restaurants every month.

I wonder how much of our collective inability to manage money (and I’m looking into the mirror here) translates into our collective terror at the specter of Too Many Mouths To Feed (though that is hardly the real issue for 95% of us, let’s be honest.)

I think that being freed from the crushing burden of thousands of dollars of debt flowing out the door every month could go a long way to alleviate some of the fear of the unknown in terms of how many kids we might eventually be blessed with, creating some space for daring and generosity in hearts that are cramped and burdened by chronic stress and fear.

Not that the fear or the stress will be eliminated by a bank account that balances, mind you, but there’s something to be said for minimizing your risk of exposure, to the extent that we’re able to. Good stewardship and all that, and, yes, perhaps more than anything else, learning when to say no to oneself in the moment in order to say yes to something much greater in the long run.

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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Is human society a covenant community or a marketplace?

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • March 19, 2015

The United States was founded as a covenant society – a society held together by a covenant with God and between citizens. This notion was uppermost in the minds of the Founding Fathers. Social institutions were to be inspired and directed by the concept of covenant.

Recent social commentators have lamented the break-down of this conception of society and the general social malaise it has wrought.

One of the most problematic trends that kills the notion of covenant is the industrialization and commercialization of social institutions. By this I mean that everything is viewed in commercial terms and evaluated by its worth in the market place.

If we pay attention to the growing use of the word “industry,” we will see how all-pervasive this trend is. We speak today of the health care industry, the funeral industry, the arts industry, the farming industry, the music industry, the entertainment industry. The list is endless.

The problematic results of commercialization and industrialization have become evident in the reorganization of the legal and medical professions according to industrial models.

Parishes today increasingly employ “business managers” – a troublesome capitulation to industrial culture. The church is not a business; the word “treasurer” would be better. A national liturgical music organization sponsored a panel some years ago on the “liturgical music industry.” (I’m not making this up!)

In the parish in which I serve, there are twenty-seven nursing and retirement homes. All of them are run for profit. The well run are expensive and available only to a minority. In the rest, every attempt is made to cut corners. The results are scandalous conditions of overcrowding and general neglect.

What all this underlines is a growing view of human society as a market place, where everything becomes a commodity to be bought or sold, and every service and talent turned into a profit-making venture.

To question this trend is not to suggest that we should try to return to the simpler world where the country doctor and the storekeeper were not overly concerned about money, and where the economic exchange system was more familial and neighborly.

It is to suggest that the demise of the covenant community concept of society is the demise of civilized living. Life becomes a rat race, and business is conducted without mercy.

In a covenant society, workers and professionals see their careers primarily in vocational terms. Society is viewed as an extended family. Goods and commodities are traded and sold, and realistic business does go on, but always in a manner that makes economics answerable to the concerns of social justice and charity.

One of the main challenges for the contemporary church, not least in regard to its hospitals and health care systems, is that of witnessing effectively to the possibility of living together as a covenanted people, a community of care, trust, and solidarity.

Safeguarding the covenant community view of human coexistence is one of the fundamental issues that has constantly engaged the American bishops. Pope Francis’ magnificent stances against the greedy commercial society have given this concern an enormous boost. For him, as for Pope John Paul II, the dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which all economic life must be measured.

The commercialization and industrialization of society represents a very beguiling trend. It has much that is attractive about it, but it is finally idolatrous. Its ultimate achievement can only be to reduce the quality of life that it so deceivingly espouses.

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 Society’s journal, Antiphon. At the invitation of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago he founded the Mundelein Liturgical Institute in 2000.

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You are my luxury

by Jenny Uebbing • March 19, 2015

Sometimes, thanks to social media, the internet feels like a very small place, a limited orbit. I shared this on the blog’s Facebook page last night after seeing it posted on another site, but by morning it was everywhere.

Maybe you’ve read it by now, in which the “luxury” of stay at home motherhood is contrasted with the “necessities” for survival, as so deemed by society at large.

I thought it was a well written piece that walked the fine line between values statements and judgmental proclamations handily. Not everyone agrees with that assessment, but I think that’s more to do with the emotionally charged nature of the debate (mom-at-home vs. mom-at-work), and not any fault of the writer’s.

My own impression? I thought it was spot on. And before that gets me in trouble with my working mama friends, hear me out.

I see you, too. I know you must struggle to leave them every day, to put on your professional face and set your primary mom identity aside from 9-5. I know because you love your kids as much as I love mine, and that while I get a thrill of freedom and relief over the occasional half day in the office every other week or so, spent in meetings or working on a special project, you have to do it every single day, and that it probably doesn’t feel much like escape to you.

Home probably feels like your escape when you pull into the driveway at night, because that’s where you left your heart when you pulled the door closed behind you that morning.

And I don’t envy you for that. Because I know that no matter how much you love your job, that can’t be easy, and that no amount of uninterrupted time in the restroom can make up for the strain of that separation.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be working outside the home, by the way. You’ve made your choice and I’ve made mine, and we’re both doing our very best for our children.

But when I contemplate the idea of luxury like the New York Times piece touched on, when I stop to think about what makes life sweet and satisfying and ultimately, worth living, it isn’t cars or a beautiful home that come to mind, or honestly, even being able to pay my bills on time.

It’s them.

My children are my luxury.

So in that sense, yes, I have embraced the most luxurious life possible, in choosing to stay home with them, to work a job that fits mostly into nap times and late nights, and in forgoing some of the more typical decisions that might otherwise accompany one’s early to mid thirties in modern America.

We’re nowhere near buying a house, but that has more to do with me choosing to spend invisible money on higher education more than a decade ago than with the cost of diapers. We drive older, sort of ugly cars. But there are two of them, which sometimes causes me to catch my breath at the sheer indulgence of it. We did the one car thing and then, living overseas, the no car thing. A car is an enormous luxury.

But I’d trade my minivan for the chance to be home with them if it came to it, honestly I would. And I know couples who have made that decision, no regrets.

There’s something that only another parent can understand: your child is an unstoppable and ever-changing force of nature, and childhood is fleeing.

And every time I leave them, even if just for a weekend away with their daddy, or an hour or two at the coffee shop, I long to be with them again. Sometimes I even miss them while they’re sleeping, an admission that only hormones can be responsible for. (You know you’ve made the late night forehead kissing pilgrimage too, don’t deny it.)

And I know too, that no matter how far my eyes roll up into my head in Costco when yet another well-intenetioned stranger tells me that I’m so lucky to be able to stay home with them all day … in the end, they’re right.

I am so lucky. And I need to do a better job keeping that in mind, day in and day out. Because I chose this life, and we are choosing it daily, as a couple, and there are sacrifices and sufferings and little deaths involved, as there are in any other big decision. But when we add them up nothing compares to the immeasurable luxury of time with our children.

And I don’t have to explain that to a single other person. Besides, they couldn’t possibly understand what I do: that these particular kids are beyond worth it for this particular mother, and that no matter what else I could be doing in a professional capacity, it pales in comparison to what I’ve been asked to do within the 4 walls of my own slightly ill-kempt home.

That’s not a judgement on anyone else’s lifestyle choices. Just the recognition that my own life is, indeed, immeasurably privileged.

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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Kenneth Branagh’s Very Christian Cinderella

by Very Rev. Robert Barron • March 19, 2015

Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella” is the most surprising Hollywood movie of the year so far. I say this because the director manages to tells the familiar fairy tale without irony, hyper-feminist sub-plots, Marxist insinuations, deconstructionist cynicism, or arch condescension. In so doing, he actually allows the spiritual, indeed specifically Christian, character of the tale to emerge. I realize that it probably strikes a contemporary audience as odd that Cinderella might be a Christian allegory, but keep in mind that most of the fairy stories and children’s tales compiled by the Brothers Grimm and later adapted by Walt Disney found their roots in the decidedly Christian culture of late medieval and early modern Europe.

In Branagh’s telling, Ella is the daughter of wonderful parents, both of whom instill in her a keen sense of moral virtue and joie de vivre. The girl’s idyllic childhood was interrupted by the sudden illness of her mother, who, while on her death-bed, delivered to Ella the injunction always to be “kind and courageous.” Her father then remarried and brought his new wife and her two daughters to live with him and Ella. Some years later, Ella’s father left on a lengthy business trip. Before he set out, she enjoined him to send back to her the first branch that his shoulder would brush while on the journey. A few weeks later, a servant arrived with the branch in his hand and the dreadful news that Ella’s father had become sick and had died. The now utterly isolated Ella became the victim of her wicked stepmother (played by the always compelling Cate Blanchett) and her obnoxious stepsisters, who visit upon her every type of cruelty and injustice. They even take away her bedroom, forcing her to sleep by the dying embers of the fire to keep warm. The ashes that stain her face give rise to the cruel nickname her stepsisters assign to her. Significantly, the cat belonging to Ella’s stepfamily is called Lucifer.

So we have a beautiful, vivacious, and morally upright young lady whose life becomes a nightmare through the intervention of untimely death and wicked oppression. So thorough was her loss of dignity that she finds herself covered in dust, her beauty obscured. It does not require a huge leap of imagination to see this as an allegory of the fall of the human race. God created us as beautiful, indeed in his own image and likeness, but through sin and the ministrations of the devil, we descended into dysfunction, and our beauty was covered over. In the technical language of the theologians, though we had kept the image of God, we had lost our likeness to him.

To return to Branagh’s traditional telling of the tale: while out riding in the country, Cinderella encountered a magnificent stag that was being pursued by a hunting party. Subsequently, she met the leader of the hunting brigade, a handsome young prince, the son of the King. The two almost immediately fell in love. Because she returned home without identifying herself, the prince called for a ball and invited all of the young women of the realm to come, hoping to lure his mysterious beloved. Though her stepfamily tried desperately to prevent her from attending, Cinderella, through the ministrations of her fairy godmother, managed to get to the ball, where she, of course, entranced the prince. Once again, she was compelled to return early, and the lovesick prince sought her desperately until he found her and married her.

We are tempted, no doubt, to see all of this as the stuff of ordinary romance, but we should look more deeply. First, the stag is a traditional sign of Christ and thus his presence as the object of the hunt is meant to signal his presence at the symbolic level of the narrative. Moreover, the prince, the son of the King, who falls in love with a woman despite her lowliness, is an obvious evocation of Jesus, the Son of God, who was sent to become the bridegroom of the human race, whose spiritual beauty had been covered over by sin. The prophet Isaiah predicted that the “builder of the human race” would come one day to marry his people, and the motif of the sacrum connubium, the sacred marriage, runs right through the New Testament. Indeed, the fathers of the Church took particular delight in ringing the changes on this theme, emphasizing that the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, in marrying the human race, lifted us up out of our lowliness and bestowed upon us all of his own benefits and dignity. This is precisely why the early theologians of the Church specified that the sacrum connubium involved an admirabile commercium (a wonderful exchange), God taking our sin from us and giving us his grace. In the symbolic language of our story, the unmerited love of the prince indeed transformed Cinderella into a princess.

The surest sign that this transformation has occurred — and it is one of my favorite elements in Branagh’s telling — is that Cinderella, upon escaping from the cruel oppression of her stepmother, turned to the wicked woman, not to curse her, but to offer a word of forgiveness. There could be no more compelling proof that she had thoroughly taken on the character of the bridegroom.

When you see this film, I would invite you, even as you take in the fantasy and romance of it, to appreciate it too as a deeply Christian story.

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

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SUNDAY • MARCH 22, 2015

Fifth Sunday of Lent

First Reading (Jer 31:31-34; NRSVCE)

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Second Reading (Heb 5:7-9; NRSVCE)

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Gospel Reading (Jn 12:20-33; NRSVCE)

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

MONDAY • MARCH 23, 2015

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

First Reading (Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; NRSVCE)

There was a man living in Babylon whose name was Joakim. He married the daughter of Hilkiah, named Susanna, a very beautiful woman and one who feared the Lord. Her parents were righteous, and had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses. Joakim was very rich, and had a fine garden adjoining his house; the Jews used to come to him because he was the most honored of them all.

That year two elders from the people were appointed as judges. Concerning them the Lord had said: “Wickedness came forth from Babylon, from elders who were judges, who were supposed to govern the people.” These men were frequently at Joakim’s house, and all who had a case to be tried came to them there.

When the people left at noon, Susanna would go into her husband’s garden to walk. Every day the two elders used to see her, going in and walking about, and they began to lust for her. They suppressed their consciences and turned away their eyes from looking to Heaven or remembering their duty to administer justice.

Once, while they were watching for an opportune day, she went in as before with only two maids, and wished to bathe in the garden, for it was a hot day. No one was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her. She said to her maids, “Bring me olive oil and ointments, and shut the garden doors so that I can bathe.”

When the maids had gone out, the two elders got up and ran to her. They said, “Look, the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us. We are burning with desire for you; so give your consent, and lie with us. If you refuse, we will testify against you that a young man was with you, and this was why you sent your maids away.”

Susanna groaned and said, “I am completely trapped. For if I do this, it will mean death for me; if I do not, I cannot escape your hands. I choose not to do it; I will fall into your hands, rather than sin in the sight of the Lord.”

Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and the two elders shouted against her. And one of them ran and opened the garden doors. When the people in the house heard the shouting in the garden, they rushed in at the side door to see what had happened to her. And when the elders told their story, the servants felt very much ashamed, for nothing like this had ever been said about Susanna.

The next day, when the people gathered at the house of her husband Joakim, the two elders came, full of their wicked plot to have Susanna put to death. In the presence of the people they said, “Send for Susanna daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joakim.” So they sent for her. And she came with her parents, her children, and all her relatives.

Those who were with her and all who saw her were weeping.

Then the two elders stood up before the people and laid their hands on her head. Through her tears she looked up toward Heaven, for her heart trusted in the Lord. The elders said, “While we were walking in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, shut the garden doors, and dismissed the maids. Then a young man, who was hiding there, came to her and lay with her. We were in a corner of the garden, and when we saw this wickedness we ran to them. Although we saw them embracing, we could not hold the man, because he was stronger than we, and he opened the doors and got away. We did, however, seize this woman and asked who the young man was, but she would not tell us. These things we testify.”

Because they were elders of the people and judges, the assembly believed them and condemned her to death.

Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, “O eternal God, you know what is secret and are aware of all things before they come to be; you know that these men have given false evidence against me. And now I am to die, though I have done none of the wicked things that they have charged against me!”

The Lord heard her cry. Just as she was being led off to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young lad named Daniel, and he shouted with a loud voice, “I want no part in shedding this woman’s blood!”

All the people turned to him and asked, “What is this you are saying?” Taking his stand among them he said, “Are you such fools, O Israelites, as to condemn a daughter of Israel without examination and without learning the facts? Return to court, for these men have given false evidence against her.”

So all the people hurried back. And the rest of the elders said to him, “Come, sit among us and inform us, for God has given you the standing of an elder.” Daniel said to them, “Separate them far from each other, and I will examine them.”

When they were separated from each other, he summoned one of them and said to him, “You old relic of wicked days, your sins have now come home, which you have committed in the past, pronouncing unjust judgments, condemning the innocent and acquitting the guilty, though the Lord said, ‘You shall not put an innocent and righteous person to death.’ Now then, if you really saw this woman, tell me this: Under what tree did you see them being intimate with each other?” He answered, “Under a mastic tree.” And Daniel said, “Very well! This lie has cost you your head, for the angel of God has received the sentence from God and will immediately cut you in two.”

Then, putting him to one side, he ordered them to bring the other. And he said to him, “You offspring of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has beguiled you and lust has perverted your heart. This is how you have been treating the daughters of Israel, and they were intimate with you through fear; but a daughter of Judah would not tolerate your wickedness. Now then, tell me: Under what tree did you catch them being intimate with each other?” He answered, “Under an evergreen oak.” Daniel said to him, “Very well! This lie has cost you also your head, for the angel of God is waiting with his sword to split you in two, so as to destroy you both.”

Then the whole assembly raised a great shout and blessed God, who saves those who hope in him. And they took action against the two elders, because out of their own mouths Daniel had convicted them of bearing false witness; they did to them as they had wickedly planned to do to their neighbor. Acting in accordance with the law of Moses, they put them to death. Thus innocent blood was spared that day.

Gospel Reading (Jn 8:1-11; NRSVCE)

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

TUESDAY • MARCH 24, 2015

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

First Reading (Nm 21:4-9; NRSVCE)

From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Gospel Reading (Jn 8:21-30; NRSVCE)

Again Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

WEDNESDAY • MARCH 25, 2015

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

First Reading (Is 7:10-14; NRSVCE)

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”

Second Reading (Heb 10:4-10; NRSVCE)

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body you have prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’

(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Gospel Reading (Lk 1:26-38; NRSVCE)

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

THURSDAY • MARCH 26, 2015

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

First Reading (Gn 17:3-9; NRSVCE)

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

Gospel Reading (Jn 8:51-59; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the Jews, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

FRIDAY • MARCH 27, 2015

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 20:10-13; NRSVCE)

For I hear many whispering:

“Terror is all around!

Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

All my close friends

are watching for me to stumble.

“Perhaps he can be enticed,

and we can prevail against him,

and take our revenge on him.”

But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble,

and they will not prevail.

They will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.

O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,

you see the heart and the mind;

let me see your retribution upon them,

for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord;

praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.

Gospel Reading (Jn 10:31-42; NRSVCE)

The Jews took up stones again to stone Jesus. He replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ — and the scripture cannot be annulled — can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.

He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

SATURDAY • MARCH 28, 2015

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

First Reading (Ez 37:21-28; NRSVCE)

Thus says the Lord God: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.

Gospel Reading (Jn 11:45-56; NRSVCE)

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.

Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?”