VOLUME 1, ISSUE 15  •  APRIL 11, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

If you’re looking for the truth, you’ll find the Resurrection, Pope says

Pope’s Easter message: In this violent world, what we need is Christ’s resurrection

Pope Francis sends rosaries, Easter cakes to Iraqi Christians

How the Holy See is using diplomacy to aid Christians in the Middle East

Pope Francis brings down hammer, says ‘Don’t mess with children’

The Vatican considers – what does vocational formation look like in the modern age?

Kasper is not the ‘Pope’s theologian,’ says leading African cardinal

Practical help for the demon-possessed: Vatican rolls out new exorcism course

WORLD NEWS

The ‘surrender’ of a Syrian girl gives face to the plight of refugee children

One Christian woman’s quest to care for the forgotten Yazidis in Iraq

India bishop: Christ is working through the tragedy of present-day martyrdom

Do we really understand Boko Haram?

For Bishop Davies, ‘British values’ come from human dignity, not politicians

Amid war in Syria, Catholic patriarch says Easter offers path of hope

Britain stands with persecuted Christians, prime minister affirms

Patriarch welcomes court’s ‘courageous’ decision to block Israeli wall through West Bank

Bomb attack, ISIS invasion can’t dampen faith of Iraqi seminarian

Slovak ‘Charity Battalion’ aids displaced Christians in Iraq

Doctrine divides while justice unites? One author’s new take on an old claim

Paris wax museum unveils statue of Pope Francis

Is there a light in the dark for Turkey’s invisible Christians?

U.S. NEWS

NBC brings stories of the early Christian Church to network television

Troubled by Indiana reaction, Christian leaders stress gravity of religious liberty

Faith served straight up: how alcohol shapes cultural and religious identity

Between conflicting cake rulings in Colorado, baker’s livelihood still at risk

Bishops appeal against death penalty in Boston bombing case

Kansas becomes first state to ban ‘dismemberment abortion’

Can we delete death? Transhumanism’s lofty goal meets a Catholic response

Young boy lives dream of ‘being a priest’ for a day

U.S. sees increase in priestly ordination numbers this year

The fix that wasn’t: law professor says Indiana legislature demoted religious freedom

FEATURES

Over a decade after its debut, ‘The Passion’ stands alone

Putting on Christ

The Mysterious Word: Mine

Paul Walker’s legacy lives on in his charities, latest film

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • April 12, 2015

Monday • April 13, 2015

Tuesday • April 14, 2015

Wednesday • April 15, 2015

Thursday • April 16, 2015

Friday • April 17, 2015

Saturday • April 18, 2015

The Catholic Digital News

The Free Weekly Newsmagazine for the Church of the 21st Century

Volume 1, Issue 15 • April 11, 2015

Copyright © 2015 by LGC Publishing. All rights reserved.

News articles and images originating from the Catholic News Agency and other media outlets have been reproduced with the full permission of their respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

Scripture readings for Daily Mass have been reproduced from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1989, 1993 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission through the Gratis Use Policy of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.

Content editing, cover image design, and digital book creation by P. C. Weber

The Catholic Digital News

Website: catholicdigitalnews.com

New issues of The Catholic Digital News are published every Saturday as free e-book downloads that are released exclusively through this website. Although these files are provided gratis to the public, they remain fully protected under copyright law. Consequently, users should be aware that certain actions are expressly forbidden once an issue of The Catholic Digital News has been downloaded onto a device. These include reproduction or distribution of the file at other websites, over the Internet, or through other media; utilization of the file for commercial use or other unauthorized purposes; disassembly of the file or alteration of its internal code or content; modification of the file to create derivate works; or violation of third-party copyrights on text and images contained within the file. For full compliance, please download issues of The Catholic Digital News for personal use only and refer others to this website instead of sharing downloaded copies.

VATICAN NEWS

If you’re looking for the truth, you’ll find the Resurrection, Pope says

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

Pope Francis holds the Easter candle during the Easter Vigil on April 4, 2015. (Martha Calderon/CNA)

Vatican City — During his homily for the Easter Vigil Pope Francis said that the Resurrection of Jesus is a mystery we can only enter by going out of ourselves and looking for the truth.

“To enter into the mystery demands that we not be afraid of reality: that we not be locked into ourselves, that we not flee from what we fail to understand, that we not close our eyes to problems or deny them, that we not dismiss our questions,” the Pope said April 4.

In order to fully enter the mystery of Jesus’ rising from the dead, we must let go of the comfort zones, laziness and indifference that hold us back, and instead go out in search “of truth, beauty and love.”

“It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence.”

Francis spoke to the thousands present inside St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate the Easter Vigil, which is celebrated the night before Easter in anticipation of Jesus’ rising from the dead.

The Easter Vigil, he noted, is also a night when the disciples, caught in sadness and fear after Jesus’ death, anxiously locked themselves inside the upper room.

However, the Pope noted that instead of staying with them, the women went to Jesus’ tomb and were the first to enter into the mystery of the Resurrection when they went inside and found it empty, except for “a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe.”

To enter into the tomb, Francis said, “is why we are here: to enter, to enter into the Mystery which God has accomplished with his vigil of love.”

“We cannot live Easter without entering into the mystery,” he said, explaining that this mystery is not merely something intellectual, but is rather “much more!”

To enter into it fully, he said, we must also have the ability to contemplate it and listen “to the silence,” which is where God speaks to us with “a whisper.”

Pope Francis concluded his homily saying that the women who were Jesus’ disciples serves as an example for all, because they kept vigil alongside Jesus’ mother, Mary.

The women, Francis noted, “did not remain prisoners of fear and sadness, but at the first light of dawn they went out carrying their ointments, their hearts anointed with love. They went forth and found the tomb open. And they went in.”

He prayed that everyone might learn from these women how to keep watch with the Lord and with Mary, so that “we too may enter into the Mystery which leads from death to life.”

Pope Francis also Baptized 10 people during the ceremony, including 5 women, 4 men and a 13 year old girl.

Please find below the full English translation of the Pope’s homily:

Tonight is a night of vigil.

The Lord is not sleeping; the Watchman is watching over his people (cf. Ps 121:4), to bring them out of slavery and to open before them the way to freedom.

The Lord is keeping watch and, by the power of his love, he is bringing his people through the Red Sea. He is also bringing Jesus through the abyss of death and the netherworld.

This was a night of vigil for the disciples of Jesus, a night of sadness and fear. The men remained locked in the Upper Room. Yet, the women went to the tomb at dawn on Sunday to anoint Jesus’ body. Their hearts were overwhelmed and they were asking themselves: “How will we enter? Who will roll back the stone of the tomb?” But here was the first sign of the great event: the large stone was already rolled back and the tomb was open!

“Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe …” (Mk 16:5). The women were the first to see this great sign, the empty tomb; and they were the first to enter …

“Entering the tomb”. It is good for us, on this Vigil night, to reflect on the experience of the women, which also speaks to us. For that is why we are here: to enter, to enter into the Mystery which God has accomplished with his vigil of love.

We cannot live Easter without entering into the mystery. It is not something intellectual, something we only know or read about … It is more, much more!

“To enter into the mystery” means the ability to wonder, to contemplate; the ability to listen to the silence and to hear the tiny whisper amid great silence by which God speaks to us (cf 1 Kings 19:12).

To enter into the mystery demands that we not be afraid of reality: that we not be locked into ourselves, that we not flee from what we fail to understand, that we not close our eyes to problems or deny them, that we not dismiss our questions …

To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love. It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence.

To enter into the mystery, we need humility, the lowliness to abase ourselves, to come down from the pedestal of our “I” which is so proud, of our presumption; the humility not to take ourselves so seriously, recognizing who we really are: creatures with strengths and weaknesses, sinners in need of forgiveness. To enter into the mystery we need the lowliness that is powerlessness, the renunciation of our idols … in a word, we need to adore. Without adoration, we cannot enter into the mystery.

The women who were Jesus’ disciples teach us all of this. They kept watch that night, together with Mary. And she, the Virgin Mother, helped them not to lose faith and hope. As a result, they did not remain prisoners of fear and sadness, but at the first light of dawn they went out carrying their ointments, their hearts anointed with love. They went forth and found the tomb open. And they went in. They had kept watch, they went forth and they entered into the Mystery. May we learn from them to keep watch with God and with Mary our Mother, so that we too may enter into the Mystery which leads from death to life.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope’s Easter message: In this violent world, what we need is Christ’s resurrection

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • April 5, 2015

Pope Francis gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing on April 5, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Pope Francis reminded Christians this Easter of the strength which comes from Christ’s death and resurrection, calling them to be witnesses of peace and justice, especially for those suffering today in regions of extreme violence and persecution.

“From the risen Lord we ask the grace not to succumb to the pride which fuels violence and war, but to have the humble courage of pardon and peace,” the pontiff said to tens of thousands of cold, rain-soaked pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for Easter Sunday Mass.

Delivering the traditional Urbi et Orbi address from the central balcony of the basilica after the Mass, the Pope asked Jesus, as “the Victor over death, to lighten the sufferings of our many brothers and sisters who are persecuted for his name, and of all those who suffer injustice as a result of ongoing conflicts and violence.”

Pope Francis listed by name some of the current conflict zones around the world, especially the Middle East, Africa, and Ukraine, and called for peace in those regions of ongoing violence.

He made particular mention of Kenya, which is still reeling from the massacre of 148 young people at Garissa University College on Thursday.

The pontiff also appealed for “peace and freedom” for victims of slavery, drug dealers, and “peace for this world subjected to arms dealers.”

Looking down from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on the scores of pilgrims with their umbrellas, braving the inclement weather, the Pope appealed for all those suffering: “the marginalized, the imprisoned, the poor and the migrants who are so often rejected, maltreated and discarded, the sick and the suffering, children, especially those who are victims of violence.”

He called on them to listen to Jesus’ consoling words: “Fear not, for I am risen and I shall always be with you.”

By the death and resurrection celebrated on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis said, “Jesus shows everyone the way to life and happiness: this way is humility, which involves humiliation. This is the path which leads to glory.”

“Christians, by the grace of Christ, dead and risen, are the seeds of another humanity, in which we seek to live in service to one another, not to be arrogant, but rather respectful and ready to help.”

This grace is a strength, not a weakness, the Pope said. Rather, “those who bear within them God’s power, his love and his justice, do not need to employ violence; they speak and act with the power of truth, beauty and love.”

Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ Easter message:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus Christ is risen!

Love has triumphed over hatred, life has conquered death, light has dispelled the darkness!

Out of love for us, Jesus Christ stripped himself of his divine glory, emptied himself, took on the form of a slave and humbled himself even to death, death on a cross. For this reason God exalted him and made him Lord of the universe. Jesus is Lord!

By his death and resurrection, Jesus shows everyone the way to life and happiness: this way is humility, which involves humiliation. This is the path which leads to glory. Only those who humble themselves can go towards the “things that are above”, towards God (cf. Col 3:1-4). The proud look “down from above”; the humble look “up from below”.

On Easter morning, alerted by the women, Peter and John ran to the tomb. They found it open and empty. Then they drew near and “bent down” in order to enter it. To enter into the mystery, we need to “bend down”, to abase ourselves. Only those who abase themselves understand the glorification of Jesus and are able to follow him on his way.

The world proposes that we put ourselves forward at all costs, that we compete, that we prevail … But Christians, by the grace of Christ, dead and risen, are the seeds of another humanity, in which we seek to live in service to one another, not to be arrogant, but rather respectful and ready to help.

This is not weakness, but true strength! Those who bear within them God’s power, his love and his justice, do not need to employ violence; they speak and act with the power of truth, beauty and love.

Today, from the risen Lord we ask the grace not to succumb to the pride which fuels violence and war, but to have the humble courage of pardon and peace. We ask Jesus, the Victor over death, to lighten the sufferings of our many brothers and sisters who are persecuted for his name, and of all those who suffer injustice as a result of ongoing conflicts and violence.

We ask for peace, above all, for Syria and Iraq, that the roar of arms may cease and that peaceful relations may be restored among the various groups which make up those beloved countries. May the international community not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries and the drama of the numerous refugees.

We pray for peace for all the peoples of the Holy Land. May the culture of encounter grow between Israelis and Palestinians and the peace process be resumed, in order to end years of suffering and division.

We implore peace for Libya, that the present absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence may cease, and that all concerned for the future of the country may work to favour reconciliation and to build a fraternal society respectful of the dignity of the person. For Yemen too we express our hope for the growth of a common desire for peace, for the good of the entire people.

At the same time, in hope we entrust to the merciful Lord the framework recently agreed to in Lausanne, that it may be a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world.

We ask the risen Lord for the gift of peace for Nigeria, South Sudan and for the various areas of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. May constant prayer rise up from all people of goodwill for those who lost their lives – I think in particular of the young people who were killed last Thursday at Garissa University College in Kenya – for all who have been kidnapped, and for those forced to abandon their homes and their dear ones.

May the Lord’s resurrection bring light to beloved Ukraine, especially to those who have endured the violence of the conflict of recent months. May the country rediscover peace and hope thanks to the commitment of all interested parties.

We ask for peace and freedom for the many men and women subject to old and new forms of enslavement on the part of criminal individuals and groups. Peace and liberty for the victims of drug dealers, who are often allied with the powers who ought to defend peace and harmony in the human family. And we ask peace for this world subjected to arms dealers.

May the marginalized, the imprisoned, the poor and the migrants who are so often rejected, maltreated and discarded, the sick and the suffering, children, especially those who are victims of violence; all who today are in mourning, and all men and women of goodwill, hear the consoling voice of the Lord Jesus: “Peace to you!” (Lk 24:36). “Fear not, for I am risen and I shall always be with you” (cf. Roman Missal, Entrance Antiphon for Easter Day).

Pope Francis’ words after leading the faithful in the Urbi et Orbi prayer:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I wish to extend my best wishes for a Happy Easter to all have come to this Square from different countries, and for taking part through various means of social communication.

Bring to your homes and to those you meet the joyful announcement that the Lord of Life is risen, bearing love, justice, respect, and forgiveness.

Thank you for your presence, for your prayer, and for the enthusiasm of your faith, on a day that is very beautiful – and very ugly, on account of the rain.

A special thought and appreciation for the gift of flowers, which this year come from the Netherlands.

I wish you all a Happy Easter. Pray for me! Have a good lunch! Arrivederci!

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis sends rosaries, Easter cakes to Iraqi Christians

by Alejandro Bermudez (CNA/EWTN News) • April 7, 2015

Pope Francis at the General Audience on March 18, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Erbil, Iraq — The Solemn Easter Vigil in Erbil, Iraq, concluded in a spirit of joyful celebration with the distribution of dove-shaped Easter cakes and rosaries sent by Pope Francis to thousands of Chaldean Christians displaced by ISIS.

More than 70,000 Christians fled to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, after their villages came under attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) last June. The militants have since established a caliphate and have persecuted non-Sunnis in its territory, which extends across swaths of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS has forced more than 1.2 million Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims from their homes in Iraq, under threat of death or heavy fines if they do not convert.

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, sent by Pope Francis to celebrate the Easter Triduum with the persecuted Christians of Iraq and Syria, participated in the solemn ceremony, which was presided over by Chaldean patriarch Louis Sako I and concelebrated by Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil and dozens of other priests.

The Mass took place in an enormous tent in neighborhood “109” in Erbil. More than 5,000 Christians, most of them internal refugees, participated in the ceremony that began at 9 p.m. local time.

After Cardinal Sako delivered the homily, Cardinal Filoni, speaking in Italian and translated into Arabic by an interpreter, said that Pope Francis asked him to deliver the message to Iraqi Christians that “even though I will be presiding at the Easter Vigil in Rome, my heart is with you, and I will not abandon you in my thoughts.”

“In this way, we can say the pope is here,” the cardinal added.

“I did not come here as a tourist, but rather to make a pilgrimage among the persecuted Christians, a pilgrimage that has done me a great spiritual good,” the cardinal said.

At the end of the Easter Vigil, Cardinal Filoni told all those present that in the name of the pope and the faithful of the Diocese of Rome, he had brought as an Easter present – thanks to an airlift provided by the Italian government, 6,000 “colombe” or dove-shaped Italian Easter sponge cakes, as well as 10,000 Rosaries “so that the refugees can continue to pray for the Church and the pope.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

How the Holy See is using diplomacy to aid Christians in the Middle East

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer, Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • April 8, 2015

Msgr. Segundo Tejado Munoz, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, with refugee children in Iraq, March 28, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — In the face of increased persecution of Christians in the Middle East, the Holy See’s diplomatic arm is developing a strategy to shed light on Christian martyrs, helping those remaining to stay in their homeland and to foster interreligous dialogue.

A visible effect of this commitment is a joint statement issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council March 13, which was drafted by the Holy See together with Lebanon and Russia.

According to Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the UN in Geneva, the statement “is news in the world of the Human Rights Council, since it is the first time we explicitly mention the category of Christian persons.”

The joint statement clearly recognizes the abuses suffered by persons from any religious, ethnic, or cultural background simply because they want to exercise their religion.

The document represented a sort of ‘road map’ for Holy See diplomacy. Since the release of the joint statement, the UN Human Rights Council discussed in a April 1 special session the situation in Nigeria, where the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has killed more than 15,500 since 2012.

Archbishop Tomasi voiced the Holy See’s concern, and stressed that “we are witnessing the continued development and dissemination of a radical and ruthless type of extremism inspired by an ideology which attempts to justify its crimes in the name of religion.”

The Holy See Permanent Observer also underscored that “with the recent explicit allegiance of Boko Haram to the so-called Islamic State group, one cannot be blind to the fact that such extremists groups are growing like a cancer, spreading to other parts of the world, and even attracting foreign militants to fight in their ranks.”

The Holy See’s final goal is help build a network able to stop the persecution of Christians and of any other religious group, and to back the building of pluralistic societies with solid political systems, capable of protecting fundamental human rights.

This task had already been indicated by Fr. Miguel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in a Sept. 8, 2012 intervention at a conference on “Arab Awakening and Peace in the Middle East: Muslim and Christian Perspectives.”

Commenting on the ‘Arab Spring’, Fr. Ayuso stressed the need to “nurture a culture of democracy,” to develop “a fair rule of law, so that everyone is equal in front of the law,” and to develop “needed state institutions at the service of every citizen.”

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue’s efforts are aimed at awakening the consciences of the Muslim world, which remained silent in front of the brutalities perpetuated by the Islamic State.

In an Aug. 12, 2014 declaration the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue called into question religious leaders, especially those in the Muslim world, asking “What is our credibility, if we do not denounce what is going on, which is offending God and humanity?”

Holy See efforts at interreligious dialogue are continuing. In an April 7 interview with The Australian, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, said that “The Holy See will continue to dialogue with Muslim leaders and teachers, and to encourage respect of the true spiritual values which come from authentic religious experience.”

In addition, the Holy See is working to aid persecuted Christians on the ground, helping them to remain in their home countries. In recent months, its missions to Iraq have tried to comfort the internally displaced and to coordinate financial aid.

Shortly after the Islamic State seized Mosul and much of Nineveh province, Pope Francis sent Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as a special envoy to Iraq. Cardinal Filoni returned to Iraq during Holy Week, visiting refugee camps, celebrating Mass for refugees, and meeting people to see how their conditions could be improved.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Filoni underscored that “despite the precarity of the situation, I met people willing to remain in their home country.”

A delegation led by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum also travelled to Iraq March 26-29, and a delegation of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, led by its prefect, should be visiting Iraq in the coming weeks.

The final goal of these trips is to coordinate on-the-ground efforts and to give more weight to apostolic nuncios and the bishops, who are working to protect Christian populations from persecution and to help them escape when they are persecuted.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis brings down hammer, says ‘Don’t mess with children’

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 8, 2015

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

Vatican City — Pope Francis said Wednesday that children are never a mistake, and called adults out for building faulty systems that leave children exploited and abandoned, rather than treated as the blessings they are.

“Brothers and sisters, think about this well: you don’t mess with children,” the Pope told pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his April 8 general audience.

He spoke in reference to the difficult circumstances many children are unfortunately forced live in due to societal and familial problems. The theme served as the focus of his address.

“We think about the children who are not wanted or abandoned, the children on the streets, without education or health care, children who are abused, who are robbed of their youth and childhood,” he said.

There are some who try to “justify themselves,” saying that it’s a mistake to bring these children into the world due to the poverty, hunger and fragility they suffer, the Pope continued.

For a child to experience these things “is shameful,” he noted, but quipped, “let’s not offload our sins onto children.”

A child, he said, “can never be considered a mistake. The mistake is the world of adults, the system that we have built, which generates pockets of poverty and violence, in which the weakest are hit the hardest.”

Francis’ focus on the suffering of children came after previous reflections on the blessing and gift they are to parents and the world. The theme fits into his ongoing catechesis on the family, which he began last fall in preparation for October’s Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family.

“Children are never a mistake, and their sufferings are only reasons for us to love them even more,” the Pope affirmed.

He continued, saying that each child who begs for money on the street and who is denied medical care and education is “a painful cry that goes directly to the heart of the Father, and accuses the system that we adults have built.”

Far too often these children become the prey of criminals who exploit them for either commerce or violence, the Pope said, noting that even children in wealthy countries frequently live “heavy dramas” due to family crisis or inhumane living conditions.

“In every case, their childhood is violated in body and soul,” he said, explaining that social stability, the promotion of the family, the lack of crime and the possibility of decent work all contribute, “without a doubt,” to assuring children of a good home.

No matter the circumstances, Francis said, no child is forgotten by their Father in heaven, and “none of their tears are lost, just as our responsibility is not lost.”

Children are the responsibility not just of their parents, but of everyone, he explained, adding that when it comes to the sacrifices one needs to make for children, none are “too costly.”

The Pope then pointed to the many “extraordinary parents” who make great sacrifices for their children every day, and said the Church puts herself at their service “with maternal solicitude and decisively defending their rights.”

“The Church, for her part, has always transmitted the blessing of the Lord to children and to families,” he said, and prayed that families would always care for their children and not worry about “counting the cost.”

It’s necessary for children to see this, he said, “so that they may never believe themselves to be mistakes, but always know their infinite worth.”

Francis closed his address by praying that children will never have to suffer from “the violence and arrogance of adults,” and went on to offer personal greetings to pilgrims present from various countries around the world.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

The Vatican considers – what does vocational formation look like in the modern age?

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 9, 2015

sisters take part in a Eucharistic procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major on June 19, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — Religious formators gathered in Rome for a seminar on fashioning new vocations in contemporary society – a task the Vatican’s point man for consecrated life says is not easy, but still full of hope.

Consecrated life is rooted in “the action of God, in the Holy Spirit, (who) calls some people to follow Christ closely, to transmit the Gospel in a specific way of life, to read the signs of the times with eyes of faith, to respond with creativity to the needs of the Church,” Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, said April 8.

Organized by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the April 8-11 seminar was held during the Year for Consecrated Life called for by Pope Francis.

The event began with a prayer vigil April 7, and will close April 11 with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Braz de Aviz, prefect of the congregation, in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Roughly 1200 religious from all over the world gathered to discuss the fundamental identity of consecrated life as well as formational needs unique to the contemporary age.

In addition to the scheduled presentations, there will be more than 50 workshops on current issues that participants can attend. The seminar will close with a formation forum having an interdicasterial vision.

Cardinal Braz de Aviz spoke with the formators at the beginning of the seminar, telling them that the Year for Consecrated Life is an occasion to “establish common points” on their journey, specifically in the area of formation, which he said is “so important.”

“For all of us the call remains to make fruitful the paths already traveled by many true disciples of Jesus,” the cardinal said, explaining that to bear fruit in this sense involves looking at the present moment, which is new, complex and challenging.

However, despite the challenges present the Lord gives hope, he said, and encouraged the formators to look for new ways to carry forward the work started by their founders and foundresses.

As a guide, the cardinal referenced objectives outlined by Pope Francis for the Year of Consecrated Life, which he said mirror those of St. John Paul II in his 1996 post-synodal exhortation on consecrated life.

“Francis wanted to write us as the Successor of Peter, whom the Lord entrusted the responsibility of confirming his brethren in faith, but also as a brother of the consecrated, dedicated to God like us,” Cardinal Braz de Aviz said.

He stressed the necessity of looking at the past with gratitude, observing that each community and order has a rich charismatic history.

With intense changes in the world that have resulted in new geographical and cultural contexts, consecrated persons have been “disoriented” in terms of their own identity, the cardinal said, explaining that “a new commitment to deepen” that identity is being asked of them.

To remember and keep alive the history of their orders and congregations is not a matter of “doing archeology or cultivating useless nostalgia,” he said, but rather of grasping the “spark” that led founders to create new projects and ideals.

Cardinal Braz de Aviz noted that Pope Francis has called the 50 years since the Second Vatican Council “a breath of the Holy Spirit for the whole Church,” and said the Pope’s invitation to look at the past is an occasion to live the Year for Consecrated Life in humility by recognizing one’s own fragilities, as well as the merciful love of God.

It is an opportunity, he said, “to shout to the world with strength and joyfully give witness to the holiness and vitality present in the majority of those who have been called to follow Christ in the consecrated life.”

The cardinal also mentioned the importance of living the present with passion, and pointed to all the founders and foundresses who sought to live the Gospel with the same passion as Christ.

“Is the Gospel our ‘handbook’ for everyday life?” he asked attendees, stressing that it is not enough to merely read or meditate on it without putting it into action.

He questioned whether Jesus was still their first and only love, which they professed the day they made their vows, and said that Francis, with the Year for Consecrated Life, “questions us about the mission which was entrusted to us.”

“Do our ministries, our works, our presence, respond to what the Holy Spirit asked our founders? Is there something that we need to change? Do we have the same passion for our people, are we close enough to share their joys and sorrows?” the cardinal asked.

To live the present moment with passion means to become “experts of communion,” Cardinal Braz de Aviz said, explaining that in the midst of a culture of confrontation and oppression of the weak, consecrated persons are called to be “a concrete model of community” who foster fraternal relations.

Consecrated persons are also called to embrace the future with hope, he said, noting that a decline in vocations, aging, economic problems, relativism, marginalization, difficulties surrounding internationalism and globalization are all challenges they currently face.

However, “it is precisely in these uncertainties that our hope is realized, (which is) a fruit of faith in the Lord of history who continues to repeat: Be not afraid … because I am with you,” he said.

Cardinal Braz de Aviz closed by noting how hope does not lay in numbers or works, but rather in the Lord for whom “nothing is impossible.”

“This is the hope that will not disappoint and that will allow consecrated life to continue to write a great history in the future, which we must keep looking to, conscious that this is what the Holy Spirit pushes us toward in order to continue to do great things.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Kasper is not the ‘Pope’s theologian,’ says leading African cardinal

by CNA’s Vatican Observer Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • April 9, 2015

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier speaks at the Vatican Press Office on Oct. 14, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — A top African cardinal says that German cardinal Walter Kasper – who’s stirred controversy over his views promoting Communion for the divorced and remarried – does not necessarily represent Pope Francis’ theological stance.

He also rejected efforts to claim the Pope for either side of the debate ahead of the upcoming synod on the family.

South Africa’s Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier dismissed a news report’s label of Cardinal Walter Kasper as the “Pope’s theologian,” saying, “I believe Pope Francis is a theologian in his own right. So he does not need anyone to be presented as ‘his’ theologian.”

Cardinal Napier, the Archbishop of Durban, told CNA April 9 that the Pope is “the head of the Church in general and of the College of Bishops in particular.”

“It is wrong therefore for any one group or individual to try to ‘own’ him or even to claim him as the adherent to one particular school or another of theology.”

Cardinal Napier had voiced concern about efforts to claim the Pope as a partisan of Cardinal Kasper in an April 4 Religion News Service article, which discussed the German cardinal’s new book. The article was headlined: “Cardinal Walter Kasper, ‘The Pope’s Theologian,’ Reveals The Brains Behind Francis’ Heart.”

Cardinal Napier said on Twitter April 5 that “It’s a real worry to read an expression like ‘the Pope’s Theologian’ applied to Cardinal Kasper.”

“Why is it a worry?” the African cardinal asked. “Unlike Pope Francis, Cardinal Kasper isn’t very respectful towards the African Church and its leaders.”

According to Cardinal Napier, Cardinal Kasper considers African bishops to be “excessively controlled by taboo” and too reluctant to address polygamy and similar marriage problems.

His description of Cardinal Kasper apparently alludes to the German cardinal’s Oct. 15, 2014 remarks to journalist Edward Pentin at the time of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family.

During the conversation, Cardinal Kasper stressed his view that “Africa is totally different from the West. Also Asian and Muslim countries, they’re very different, especially about gays. You can’t speak about this with Africans and people of Muslim countries. It’s not possible. It’s a taboo. For us, we say we ought not to discriminate, we don’t want to discriminate in certain respects.”

For his part, Cardinal Napier on Oct. 14, 2014 told journalists the African bishops’ worries about the synod’s controversial midterm report, known as a “relatio.”

On that occasion, Cardinal Napier had underscored that “the synod is not called to discuss contraception, abortion, same-sex marriages. It was convoked to speak about the family.”

The Archbishop of Durban said that the way the report was written “conveys that there is an agreement on issues, on which there is not in fact an agreement.” He added: “I hope the line of the synod, not that of some group, prevails.”

Shortly after these comments, Cardinal Napier was appointed to the committee charged with assisting the drafting of the extraordinary synod’s final report.

Discussion over the upcoming Synod on the Family has already started months ahead of the October 2015 gathering of leading bishops from around the world.

Cardinal Kasper’s new book promotion tour has often been portrayed by secular media as a presentation of Pope Francis’ views of the Church. The cardinal is a vocal backer of the view that the Church can, and should, change Catholic teaching that couples who have divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment should refrain from receiving Holy Communion.

Pope Francis did choose Cardinal Kasper to address the February 2014 consistory of cardinals on the issues of family, as part of the debate ahead of the October 2014 synod. The German cardinal’s remarks have often been presented as the Pope’s views, but Cardinal Napier challenged this interpretation.

Cardinal Napier told CNA that he believes Cardinal Kasper’s consistory presentation was “meant as a starting-off point for the discussion that was to follow.”

The Archbishop of Durban said it has been his “clear understanding” that the 2014 synod was intended “to concentrate on identifying, describing and analyzing the major issues besetting marriage and family.” Therefore, “it was not primarily about how to understand, discuss and resolve particular problems which weigh very heavily on the Church in the different parts of the world.”

The cardinal said these problems may include marital breakdown, divorce and civil remarriage; cohabitation with or without intention to marry eventually; ministry to persons with same-sex attractions; polygamy, whether simultaneous or successive; and marriage preparation and the “accompaniment” of engaged couples.

Cardinal Napier emphasized the importance of dialogue among Church leaders.

“For a real dialogue to happen, every side and every person must be given due space and time to participate,” he said.

“That is the problem with Cardinal Kasper’s assertion that African Bishops don’t matter because as he sees them they are too constrained by taboo,” Cardinal Napier said.

The cardinal pointed out that “not all Bishops in Africa are locked into a traditionalist or tribal or ideological straitjacket. Many, if not most, have embraced the Catholic faith and its teachings as fully as bishops from other traditions and cultures in the world.”

In view of the 2015 Synod’s focus on the role of the family in evangelization, Cardinal Napier said that some of the senior African bishops intend to concentrate in their presentations on “the millions of good marriages that exist” while looking at how to have these marriages “support others that may be struggling.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Practical help for the demon-possessed: Vatican rolls out new exorcism course

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

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

Vatican City — This month the Vatican will gather a wide range experts in the field of exorcism with the aim of shedding light on demonic possession from both theological and scientific perspectives.

The annual course, “Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation,” is designed for priests and lay persons interested in learning how to recognize a case of demonic possession when they see one – and what to do about it.

This year’s session will run from April 13-18 at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum University, and will feature interventions by a wide range of experts in the field of exorcism from priests – including practicing exorcists – medical professionals, psychologists lawyers, and theologians. It’s sponsored by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy and organized by the Sacerdos Institute.

According to Breitbart News Network, one of the primary objectives of the course will be to help priests and lay people distinguish demonic possession from psychological or medical conditions.

The sessions will also examine a series of other related issues, including occult practices, Satanism, and nihilism among young people.

Pope Francis has frequently warned against thinking of the devil as merely “a myth, a figure, an idea, the idea of evil.”

“The devil exists and we must fight against him,” the Pope said in an Oct. 30 homily, adding that the battle against temptation is not with small, trivial things, but with the principalities and ruling forces of this world, rooted in the devil and his followers.

In a separate homily, the pontiff stressed the importance of knowing how to discern the presence of evil in our lives.

Catholic experts have noted that occult activity and the resulting need for exorcisms has reached a critical level.

The International Association of Exorcists (AIE) met for their 12th annual conference in Rome last October. According to AIE spokesperson Dr. Valter Cascioli, an increasing number of bishops and cardinals asked to participate in the conference due to an increase in demonic activity.

“It’s becoming a pastoral emergency,” Cascioli told CNA. “At the moment the number of disturbances of extraordinary demonic activity is on the rise.”

The rise in demonic activity can be attributed to a decreasing faith among individuals, coupled with an increase in curiosity and participation in occult activity such as Ouija boards and seances, Cascioli said.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

The ‘surrender’ of a Syrian girl gives face to the plight of refugee children

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

A young Syrian child raises her arms in a gesture of surrender. (Osman Sagirli)

Beirut, Lebanon — A photo that went viral last week depicting a young Syrian child “surrendering” in front of a camera she thought to be a gun is but a mere hint at the trauma which displaced and refugee children face across the Middle East, an aid worker says.

“In regards to the children, it’s a very bleak and complex (situation). Circumstances are not good at all,” Zerene Haddad told CNA during a March 31 phone call from Beirut.

Many times children in refugee camps “look empty, or they just look numb,” she said, explaining that in her experience the recovery process for a child affected by war and violence “comes down a lot to the ability of the child to express themselves.”

The lack of vocabulary to express their emotions and the lack of emotional maturity needed to process what they are feeling and experiencing can have a very negative effect on children, Haddad noted, begging the question “how do you help this child? What are you able to do when the child is so young?”

Haddad is in charge of Regional Advocacy and Communications for Jesuit Refugee Service in the Middle East and North Africa, which is the organization’s newest region.

In addition to offering emergency assistance, JRS also offers educational, recreational, and psychosocial services to refugees. The regional office serves more than 2,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria.

Haddad’s words came after a photo went viral last week depicting a young Syrian girl raising her hands above her head to “surrender” when she thought the photographer was holding a gun rather than a camera.

Twitter user Nadia Abu Shaban, a photojournalist based in Gaza, tweeted the photo, which then spread through social media.

BBC Trending tracked down the original photographer, Osman Sagirli, who told the agency that he took the photo in December at the Atmeh refugee camp in Syria, which sits roughly six miles from the Turkish border.

After snapping the shot of 4-year-old Hudea, who came to the camp with her mother and two siblings after traveling over 90 miles from their home in Hama, Sagirli said he realized “she was terrified … because she bit her lips and raised her hands.”

“Normally kids run away, hide their faces or smile when they see a camera,” he told the BBC, but when he broke out his telephoto lens to capture the shot “(Hudea) thought it was a weapon.”

Since it was first published in Turkey’s “Türkiye” newspaper in January, where Sagirli previously worked for 25 years covering war and natural disasters outside the country, the original post has been retweeted more than 11,000 times, the BBC reports.

Now working in Tanzania, Sagirli explained that he finds pictures of children in refugee camps to be more revealing than those of adults.

“You know there are displaced people in the camps. It makes more sense to see what they have suffered not through adults, but through children. It is the children who reflect the feelings with their innocence.”

Weighing in on the topic, Haddad said that in her experience of working with displaced and refugee children, there is a wide variety of reactions to their situation.

Some children, she said, “are visibly traumatized and shaken up,” while others “are able to conceal it well, so they appear that they are coping well on the surface, but after a while signs begin to show.”

There are children who become “very aggressive, (and) you have other children who are shell-shocked and (can’t) speak, it’s difficult for a lot of children to learn.”

The majority of children JRS works with in Lebanon have experienced some sort of trauma, Haddad noted, saying that “they all have stories” of losing friends, family members or witnessing some form of extreme violence.

“Even the act of having to be forcibly displaced is a traumatic event to occur in someone’s life, even without any violence having necessarily occurred around or directly in front of your eyes,” she said.

This trauma is then exaggerated when families are forced to then live in “less than satisfactory conditions.”

With people living in inadequate conditions while struggling to feed their families, the task of educating becomes a challenge, Haddad said, because “you can’t teach a hungry child, it’s hard to get them to focus. Even as an adult, if I’m hungry, I can’t focus.”

Children who come to their schools frequently arrive sick or with some sort of ailment, she said, explaining that it’s easy for sickness to spread like wildfire due to the lack of sanitation and poor living conditions in the camps.

However, despite the gloomy circumstances, Haddad said she has been impressed by the children’s resilience.

One of the main factors helping is access to education in the midst of a crisis in which many of Syria’s children have not been to school for several years, including some who dropped out for one reason or another when the country’s civil war broke out four years ago, prompting political leaders to lament a “lost generation” of Syrian children who grow up without an education in the midst of war.

Low enrollment numbers in Syria – currently at 50 percent of what they were before the war broke out – are “frightening,” Haddad said, explaining that she has seen a major difference in the children who started attending the JRS-run schools after several years of not going.

The change “is just astounding,” she said, adding that having a structured and disciplined environment for the children, who are taught to live with a specific Monday-Friday routine, “has a massively positive impact on their social development.”

In what Haddad referred to as “an old-school pen-pal system,” a boy in Alaska had the idea of making postcards for displaced and refugee children. He convinced his class to participate in drawing pictures on one side, writing a message on the other, and sending them to the schools.

When the children in Lebanon got the postcards, it launched a “very interesting dynamic,” Haddad said, noting that the children responded by drawing mostly positive and happy things.

Some asked her what they should draw in response to the postcards from the U.S., saying “I don’t want to draw about politics, I don’t want to draw about war,” Haddad recalled.

“It’s very interesting seeing the children reject that narrative … they just want to be children … they take the time to recover and that’s how they move forward.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

One Christian woman’s quest to care for the forgotten Yazidis in Iraq

by Alejandro Bermudez (CNA/EWTN News) • April 6, 2015

Shelan Jibrael (far right) stands with a group of refugees in Erbil, Iraq. (Alejandro Bermudez/CNA)

Erbil, Iraq — Shelan Jibrael’s office is located in the Iraqi city of Erbil, where tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians displaced by the Islamic State have immigrated.

But on any given day, she is much more likely to be found in one of the various refugee camps around the city, looking after not only the Christians but also those who find themselves in a much more dramatic situation: the Yazidis.

The Yazidis are a small ethno-religious community, most of whom lived in Iraq’s Nineveh province prior to the Islamic State’s advent last year. Their religion is syncretistic, and some Muslims consider the Yazidis to be devil worshippers

“Our Christian brothers and sisters are suffering terribly but at least they can count on the solidarity of our brothers and sisters in the faith around the world,” Jibrael told CNA. “The Yazidis on the other hand have nothing and nobody, they are the poorest of the poor.”

Despised by Muslim authorities, the approximate 450,000 Yazidi refugees have a hard time finding help.

Jibrael, an Iraqi Christian, works for Ivy, a non-religious affiliated Japanese NGO. She cares not only for fellow Christians, but for displaced Yadizis, whom she describes as being largely forgotten and desperately in need.

According to Jibrael, “there are hardly any refugee camps in Dohuk, the other city in Iraqi Kurdistan, but most of the Yazidis are scattered throughout Kurdistan, and a lot of them survive by staying in temporarily abandoned buildings in Erbil.”

Jibrael took CNA around to visit a group of buildings in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil, that are half-built due to the temporary crisis that has halted construction. Yazidi families, many consisting of only women and children because the men were killed by the Islamic State, are surviving by covering up windows and doors with plastic sheeting.

One young refugee girl, Elmyra – which means Princess – acted as a guide through the labyrinth of half-built apartments.

Jibrael translated the testimony of the lively nine-year-old Yazidi girl from Kurdish.

“My daddy is alive, not like the other children that have lost their father; but my brother is sick,” Elmyra said. Her older brother, who is 11, is suffering from the post-traumatic stress effects of the violence, and also needs an operation to correct a problem with his eyes.

In coordination with a group of Catholic doctors from Slovakia, Jibrael has promised to return in the coming week to take care of the most urgent cases, including a possible heart patient.

“The Yazidis’ needs are endless, and we Christians know that charity obliges us to go beyond the borders of our own community,” Jibrael said. “If we aren’t concerned about them, nobody will be.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

India bishop: Christ is working through the tragedy of present-day martyrdom

by CNA/EWTN News • April 6, 2015

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

Miao, India — In his Easter letter released this week, Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao reflected on Christ’s work through the tragedies of this life, noting the ongoing persecution of Christians and in particular the martyrdom of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya earlier this year.

“The gory sight of the 21 young men being mercilessly beheaded recently, because of their faith, the forgiving attitude of their folks back home and the thousands of thousands who are being killed, jailed and tortured in many parts of the world and their refusal to deny the Lord is the greatest inner strength that the Lord gives us,” Bishop Pallipparambil wrote in the letter released April 5.

“If Jesus had not taken our human form, lived like us avoiding sin, undergoing humiliation and the passion and death, our life with all its crosses would have no meaning.”

He noted recently that he was asked, in light of such tragedies, “why is Jesus not doing anything?”

“I was not confused or shocked,” he wrote, recounting that he replied: “the Lord is doing a lot. He is allowing himself to be crucified, beheaded, persecuted, he is also weeping with us for his lost brother, sisters, father, mother, just as his shameful death led to the glorious resurrection, these currents events will lead to a new reign of God”.

However, Bishop Pallipparambil maintained that the response to the question does not end there, and “we need to go further.”

He turned to the importance of family, in light of the upcoming Synod on the Family, saying, “we need to focus our attention to this most sacred organ of the mystical body of Christ.”

Bishop Pallipparambil called the family the “intimate and sacred unit of humanity which is the foundation of the society and church, where love is experienced, given and taken at great sacrifice but without counting the cost, where values are imbibed without being taught, where attitudes are cultivated without questions and suspicion and where feeling of belonging and responsibility are learnt and taught not through well planned lessons or demonstrations but by all the intricacies of plain lives,” lamenting that it is “fast becoming the most affected unit of humanity.”

Economic concerns should not push families “to the background, or even out of mind,” he said, urging that Christians be a light for others.

The bishop asked, “Can we make this Easter a different experience? Not just for ourselves and our immediate families … but for the many families in our neighborhood that are struggling to survive.”

“Without making deliberate attempts to show the light, can we be emanating light as a natural outflow from life? The families of the young Egyptians who were beheaded have just done that. Can their example go unheeded?”

Bishop Pallipparambil concluded, praying that “may ours be homes where God has a place and he gives meaning. As history and present age shows convincingly, any attempt to silence or remove God from our families will be the destruction of it. The Risen Lord who has given us the Holy Spirit who wants to be ever present with us. Do we have a place for him?”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Do we really understand Boko Haram?

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

Displaced persons in Maiduguri, who are being cared for by the local Church, in Sept. 2014. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Washington, D.C. — Boko Haram gained notoriety last April, by kidnapping some 300 girls from a boarding school in northeast Nigeria. But the militant Islamist group had been active in the country for years, killing thousands since 2009.

With Boko Haram having now pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), one scholar is questioning whether the West adequately understands the group and how to counter it.

Fr. Patrick Ryan has spent a total of 11 years in Nigeria on and off since 1964. He lived in nearby Ghana for 15 years, during which time he made multiple visits to Nigeria. He has seen the country change over the decades including the rise of Boko Haram, which he says is not a brand-new phenomenon.

“I think the thing that the press and the media generally misunderstand is the poverty of the situation in which this phenomenon has arisen,” said Fr. Ryan, who is the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University.

Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful,” launched an uprising in 2009 and hopes to impose sharia law on Nigeria. It has targeted security forces, politicians, Christian minorities, and moderate Muslims in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north.

In order to effectively counter the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram, the U.S. must understand its ideological origins and the social and political unrest of Nigeria.

“People think Nigeria and they think well, it’s a major oil producer,” he told CNA in an interview.

But as in most developing world situations in which there is a large population, “the money does not filter down to the lower levels.”

The country traditionally produced and exported peanuts and cotton but now lives off of oil revenue as the largest oil producer in Africa. That wealth is concentrated at the top and very little of it reaches the lower classes.

The numbers are “very few” who do not “reach the top levels of the military and the civilian regime” and do not “enrich themselves and remain sort of a permanent wealthy elite,” Fr. Ryan explained.

And he thinks Boko Haram is not a new phenomenon, as some might think, but a re-incarnation of a fanatical Northern Nigerian movement from three decades ago.

The 1980 riots in two Northern Nigerian cities – Maidougouri and Kano – were led by Mohammed Maroua who whipped up “almost Milennialist fervor” and railed against what he saw as excess wealth and luxury of the oil boom at the time, Fr. Ryan explained. It was possibly steeped in radical “crypto-Kariji” Islamic ideology and manned by unemployed youth and students of the Koran.

Maroua died in the 1980 riots but several other riots developed in his wake. The government forcefully put down the movement and was never fully clear about everything that occurred.

“I think this movement has come back,” Fr. Ryan said, noting that the current heads of Boko Haram were at that time “the children who begged for a living in order to receive their Koran school education in the early mornings.”

“I have a feeling that this has come back in another form,” he said.

The recent pledge of allegiance of Boko Haram to the Islamic State has caused rumblings about how powerful the terror merger might be but Fr. Ryan thinks it’s “mainly symbolic.”

Northeast Nigeria is extremely remote so there’s little chance of actual physical supply lines between the two terror groups. However, “it’s possible” that ISIS forces in North Africa could geographically link up with Boko Haram in Nigeria in the future.

“I think it’s a matter of people who have been affected by the typically rigorous interpretation of Islam that has been promoted by Saudi Arabia for generations now bearing fruit in various places where it has been present,” he explained of the allegiance between the two.

One of these places was the Sokoto caliphate from the early 1800s in Northwest Nigeria, and where Saudi-funded groups tried to spread their crypto-Kariji ideologies in the 1960s. It is this region where Fr. Ryan says the extremism continues today.

The structure of Nigeria is in shambles and if any progress is to be made in the future, education and building infrastructure must be at the forefront. If the country’s economy revolves around its petroleum industry, “things will just simply get worse,” Fr. Ryan said. Young men not in school and not working are ripe for recruitment by extremists.

The education system is poor and the government is largely to blame. They wrested control of the schools from churches and Muslim groups after the civil war that ended in 1970.

“It was a cooperation between government and various Christian churches and Muslim educational groups as well,” he said of the previous education system, “and that whole thing was broken down in the name of trying to prevent sectarian identification.”

The end result has been ugly. “Basic education is the thing that the government has not proven very talented and able to affect,” he said.

The former Nigerian presidency of Goodluck Jonathan was largely unable to control the military. Disenchanted soldiers, particularly those not well compensated by the current government, sold equipment to Boko Haram. With the new regime elected this past week, that remains to be seen if that problem will end – along with the terror group currently ravaging the country.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

For Bishop Davies, ‘British values’ come from human dignity, not politicians

by CNA/EWTN News • April 7, 2015

Houses of Parliament in London. (Karim von Orelli via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Shrewsbury, England — It is more important than ever for the British people to hear about Jesus Christ, who reveals the dignity and identity of every person, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury said in his Easter Sunday homily.

“It is in the light of His Cross and Resurrection that we have long recognised what a human being is worth and what we should truly value in our lives,” he said April 5.

Christianity has long been Britain’s “most important formative influence” ever since the “savage people”, he said quoting historian Sir Arthur Bryant, converted to “Christ’s gentle creed of love and sacrifice and the revolutionary belief … that every individual was a soul of equal value.”

Values come down to the question, “why do we believe that every human being has innate worth and is endowed with equal rights and dignity?”

That answer lies in the Christian faith which proclaims that our identity lies in the glory of the Risen Christ, not political rhetoric.

It is not the role of bishops to “formulate policies” or to take a “political stance” he said, as England prepares for a General Election to be held May 7. “This is the task and vocation of politicians who have a vital and necessary vocation.”

Rather, the bishops’ duty is to allow “the gentle light of Christ” to shine on all society and the questions that confront it.

“In His clear and gentle light, we see why it is we must care about each other and not see any human being simply in terms of economics or usefulness; why we must safeguard the value of every human life born or unborn, young or old, sick or healthy; why we must protect the family as the most precious cell of society where each man and woman is ‘nurtured.’”

Bishop Davies’ comments come as the English government seeks to regulate a set of “fundamental British values” to be taught to school children.

“It has left many uneasy because our values cannot be arbitrarily formulated by any passing generation of politicians even if they have the best intentions,” he noted.

“Our values will always emerge from what we truly believe about ourselves and beg the question why do we believe that every human being has innate worth and is endowed with equal rights and dignity?”

The government made the requirement after the “Trojan Horse” scandal — a plan by a group of Muslim extremists to infiltrate Birmingham schools with radical ideology.

Since then, the education standards watchdog Ofsted has been investigating schools and reviewing them for their adherence to the set of values created by the state which includes questioning children as young as 10 about “diverse sexual lifestyles.”

St. Benedict’s Catholic School in Suffolk was marked as a school that “requires improvement” after students were deemed “unaware of the dangers of radicalization and extremism,” even though it is ranked as the 56th best school in all of England by another school rating system.

Bishop Davies recalled Pope Francis’ comments to the European Parliament last November when he said that only when Europe can harvest the fruits of its religious roots will it be “immune to the many forms of extremism spreading in the world today.” He added “in other words, it is by faith in what a human being is, rather than by what any political leader says we are, that human rights are truly safeguarded.”

The same point had been made by Benedict XVI during his 2010 address to British politicians, when he said that “If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident – herein lies the real challenge for democracy.”

Bishop Davies reflected that “Pope Benedict had himself seen in Germany a violent, racist and anti- Christian movement come to power not by the bomb or the bullet but through the democratic process. He concluded that the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief need one another if the good of our civilization is to be secured.”

The bishop concluded that it is in Christ that “we will always be able to see what we must value and what upholds human dignity and flourishing in every generation.”

“It is this light which has guided our nation from its beginnings and continues to guide all those who today come to know Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Amid war in Syria, Catholic patriarch says Easter offers path of hope

by CNA/EWTN News • April 7, 2015

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

Damascus, Syria — Citing St. Paul’s conversion on the Road to Damascus, an Eastern Catholic patriarch’s Easter message repeated a call for peace and urged Christians to bear the Gospel of Life amid Syria’s ongoing civil war.

“God grant that the day of reconciliation, salvation and mutual embrace may come! Then indeed there will be a great feast for the whole of Syria, a feast of resurrection and life,” said Gregorios III, Melkite Patriarch of Antioch in his Easter Letter for 2015.

“How greatly we shall rejoice at the great feast, when joy will enter the hearts of all the fighters in Syria and they will discard their weapons and walk all together in the light of resurrection and life.”

The patriarch encouraged Christians to be “agents of life, prosperity and progress.”

“Let us be agents to build up the culture of life and not be instruments of death, war and destruction. That is the meaning of life: that is its beauty,” he said in his message, provided to CNA by the pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need.

The patriarch, who heads the Damascus-based Melkite Catholic Church, spoke more than four years after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. The conflict has witnessed brutal fighting between President Bashar Assad and rebel groups. Assad has faced accusations of human rights violations and the use of chemical weapons, while rebel factions include the Al-Qaida ally the Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State group.

In early February, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the conflict has killed over 210,000 people, almost half of them civilians. The group added that the real death toll is likely much higher.

At least 10 million Syrians, close to half the country’s population, have been displaced from their homes. About 4 million of these people are refugees in other countries.

Patriarch Gregorios called for the rejection of “murderous, terrorist, destructive, chaotic groups.” He had a special message for combatants:

“Join the two hundred thousand Christians who are celebrating the Feast of the Resurrection and life, love, solidarity, forgiveness, reconciliation, joy, and universal fraternity.”

“The call to reconciliation means embracing one another and being reconciled. Since the first month of the crisis in Syria, we have not stopped proclaiming that appeal. Today again, we call for there to be a mutual embrace and reconciliation,” he said.

He appealed to “all of Syria’s sons and daughters,” whatever their affiliations and rites, including opposition groups.

“From suffering Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and our East, especially Jerusalem, the city of Resurrection, we launch this appeal to the whole world.”

The patriarch urged Christians not to forget that they are “the children of the Resurrection” and that the road to Damascus is where the Risen Christ appeared to Saul, “the persecutor who came to Damascus with the intention of destroying the new Church that had been born.”

He was intending to “kill, slaughter, abduct and take captive, when he saw Christ himself, risen from the dead, who appeared to him saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’”

Saul then went to Damascus “as mild as a lamb” and was baptized, becoming the apostle Paul who would “announce the good news of the resurrection and life, which is Jesus Christ.”

Patriarch Gregorios praised efforts to work for peace and encouraged everyone in the West and the East to “dismiss any idea that this conflict is over religion.” He said it seemed to him that the Islamic State group “has nothing whatever to do with religion.”

“ISIS is rather an instrument which takes on, very foolishly and insolently, the outward aspect and show of a religious movement. However, in reality they show Islam in a most hideous, deceitful and fraudulent guise.”

He also rejected depictions of the conflict as merely a Shia-Sunni conflict, saying the conflict has become “a tool and a cover for proxy war in our region and at the cost of all its citizens.”

“I say with great certainty and with great pain that religion has become a tool; human beings have been instrumentalized and commodified. Religious conflict has become marketable. Killing the innocent has become a commodity and instrument and slaughtering Christians has become a tool.”

He lamented that many Christian parishioners and other citizens have “fallen as martyrs and victims of savage warfare.”

He cited three events that have “destroyed our morale” and “caused fear to well up in our hearts”: the expelling of Christians from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain; the slaughter of 21 Coptic Christians by ISIS in Libya; and the expulsions, killings, and kidnappings that have targeted Assyrians in 35 villages along the Khabur River in northern Syria.

“We offer our heartfelt condolences to all those who are grieving. We shall remain always trusting in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, who has destroyed death,” he said.

These events have caused emigration due to “fear and lack of security.” Nonetheless, Patriarch Gregorios exhorted Christians to trust in God.

“(I)n the face of all that we are seeing, in front of the scenes of death and violence, terrorism, killing, throat-cuttings, beheadings, burning of bodies and severing limbs, let us strengthen our faith in life, in the risen Christ who has conquered death and bestowed life and calls us all to be children of the Resurrection and life, to be bearers of the Gospel of life.”

He exhorted Christians to “work for success and the conquest of death by life, enmity by love, and hatred and revenge by forgiveness and reconciliation.”

The risen Jesus Christ, he said, is “causing joy and gladness to well up in our hearts through his love so that our hearts will be full of joy and consolation.”

“We feel that Jesus has been our companion on the way of our sufferings and tragedy during the past four years, but we did not know that it was he who was accompanying us along the road and protecting us despite the shells and mortars that were falling on us,” said Patriarch Gregorios.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Britain stands with persecuted Christians, prime minister affirms

by CNA/EWTN News • April 8, 2015

British prime minister David Cameron. (Number 10 via Flickr CC BY NC-ND 2.0)

London, England — Easter is a perfect time to take note of all that Christianity has done for Great Britain and to support those persecuted for their faith, UK prime minister David Cameron said in his Easter message.

“The church is not just a collection of beautiful old buildings,” Cameron said in an April 4 video message posted on Youtube.

“It’s a living, active force doing great works right across our country.”

Cameron expressed solidarity with the persecuted church and encouraged his country to be proud of their Christian heritage.

“Yes we’re a nation that embraces, welcomes and accepts all faiths and none, but we’re still a Christian country.”

From serving the poor to comforting the grieving, the “kindness of the church can be a huge comfort.”

However, the Christian duty does not end there. He said Christians must also speak out against injustice and show their support for those persecuted for their faith.

Cameron spoke of Christians around the world who are “being threatened, tortured, even killed” for their faith.

“To all those brave Christians … we must say, ‘we stand with you.’”

His government has “put those words into action” by providing support in the form of humanitarian aid and supporting “grassroots reconciliation” in Iraq.

“In the coming months we must continue to speak as one voice for freedom of belief,” he said.

His government has also supported Christianity at home by investing in the restoration of churches and cathedrals and passing laws protecting religious freedom, Cameron said.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Patriarch welcomes court’s ‘courageous’ decision to block Israeli wall through West Bank

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • April 8, 2015

Mass said on the proposed site of an Israeli security wall in the West Bank’s Cremisan Valley, Jan. 17, 2014. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Jerusalem, Israel — Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem has praised an Israeli Supreme Court decision prohibiting the country’s army from routing a security wall through Palestinian land in the West Bank, which would have separated 58 Christian families from their land.

The patriarch welcomed the April 2 decision as “a victory for Israeli justice itself since it had the courage to take such a decision.”

He also noted “the efficacy of prayer,” given that the former pastor of a nearby town said Mass on the wall’s proposed site each Friday for years.

The priest, Fr. Ibrahim Shomali, said, “We have been suffering for nine years because we feared we’d lose our land. It wasn’t easy to get this decision so we thank God.”

The security barrier’s proposed route through the Cremisan Valley – near the towns of Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, and Bethlehem – would cut off a Salesian monastery from a nearby convent, isolating their ministries. Children would also be separated from the Salesians’ school.

Planning on the wall began in 2002, as an effort to prevent suicide bombings. Beit Jala residents whose land would be confiscated by the barrier appealed to Israeli courts in 2006.

Last week’s ruling, following a nine year legal battle, accepted their petition “and requested the state to consider other alternative that are less harmful to the local population and the Monasteries in the Cremisan Valley,” according to the Society of St. Yves, a Catholic human rights organization based in Jerusalem which joined the appeal, representing the Salesian convent.

Israel’s Supreme Court “confirmed that the planned route as suggested by the Israeli Ministry of Defense is not the only alternative which could ensure security and cause the least harm possible as requested by Israeli administrative law,” the society noted.

The court also rejected an alternative route proposed by the petitioners, as well as an Israeli army proposal to connect the monastery and convent by a gate in the wall. One of the judges added that in his opinion “any future plans should ensure that both Monasteries in the Cremisan valley should remain connected and in the same time both Monasteries should remain connected and accessible to the local community in Beit Jala,” according to the Society of St. Yves – suggesting that both the monastery and convent should remain on the Palestinian side of the barrier.

According to the society, “in practical terms, the decision means that the separation wall will not be built as planned for by the Israeli army.”

Patriarch Twal acknowledged both the local and international communitys’ commitment to supporting the Palestinians. He noted in particular the support of rabbis and former Israeli soldiers.

Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton, who chairs the English bishops’ international affairs department, said April 7, “I am delighted that the High Court of Justice in Israel ruled on Maundy Thursday that the extension of the separation wall through the Cremisan valley ‘violated the rights’ of the people of Beit Jala.”

“This judgment rightly puts paid to any attempts to weaken the status of Christians in this southern part of Palestine. Separating walls create difficulties in movement, access to worship and to education,” he added.

The US bishops have also opposed the route of the security barrier. In February, Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces warned the wall would have “devastating consequences” for the local community, and that “the situation in the Cremisan Valley is a microcosm of a protracted pattern that seriously jeopardizes the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

And in May 2013, Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines had decried an Israeli Special Appeals Committee decision approving the route of the wall through the Cremisan Valley, explaining it would “cut families off from agricultural and recreational lands, other family members, water sources and schools – including depriving Christian Palestinian youth of fellowship with their peers.”

The construction of the barrier is believed to be linked to the protection of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank; some 500,000 Jews currently live in more than 100 West Bank settlements, according to the BBC. Under international law, the settlements are considered illegal, though Israel disputes this.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Bomb attack, ISIS invasion can’t dampen faith of Iraqi seminarian

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 9, 2015

Remi Marzina Momica with a group of children outside an Aid to the Church in Need office. (Remi Marzina Momica)

Rome, Italy — Remi Marzina Momica has seen it all: a victim of a 2010 bus attack and among those forced to leave his home when ISIS invaded last year, he says Iraq’s “shattered” Christians need help.

“Christians are shattered like crystal glass all over. (From) being a culture who started the Bible’s Old Testament to a people with no land, no work, no schools, no hospitals … nothing!” Momica told CNA April 4. “Where is the global Christian community?”

Momica is a Syriac Catholic seminarian, currently studying in his final year of theology at the Al-Sharfa Seminary in Harissa, Lebanon.

He formerly studied at St Ephraim’s seminary in the mainly Christian city of Qaraqosh, which is now under the control of ISIS. He left when the militants attacked the city last August, driving out inhabitants who didn’t meet their demands to convert to Islam, pay a hefty tax or face death.

Invited by an acquaintance to spend part of Holy Week and Easter in Rome, the seminarian was in the city just two days, during which he visited Iraqi religious sisters who have a convent in Rome, and participated in Good Friday’s Way of the Cross service with Pope Francis.

Momica told CNA that he comes from an area in Iraq that has “seen the worst forms of persecution.”

While targeted attacks on Christians by extremists have not been uncommon in Iraq, the situation took a ghastly turn for the worst last summer, when the Islamic State, or ISIS, unleashed a bloody campaign in Northern Iraq.

Since then, ISIS has established a caliphate and carried out mass persecutions of minority populations, primarily Christians and Yazidis. They have also published videos showing the beheading of foreign hostages as a warning to countries that have militarily intervened.

Before being forced to leave Qaraqosh last August, Momica and his sister were among the victims wounded in the 2010 bombing of buses transporting mainly Christian college students from the Plains of Nineveh to the University of Mosul, where they were enrolled in classes.

Momica recalled that there were 25 buses carrying an overall total of 1500 students “seeking education, a simple right for human beings,” when two bombs exploded as they passed through a joint checkpoint manned by American, Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers.

The details of the event “will be forever engraved in my mind,” he said, noting that part of his face was deformed by the explosion, which wounded close to 100 students and left the owner of a nearby vehicle repair shop dead.

The seminarian underwent nine surgeries just to reconstruct his nose. His sister’s injuries were “severe,” he said, but less serious than his own.

“The minute of the explosion, one would really feel that the world was coming to an end … a roller coaster of fear, of death, of a bottomless pit,” he recalled. “The only word that we could utter was, ‘Oh Mother Mary, help us!’”

Attacks and bombings continued to take place after the bus incident, Momica noted, drawing specific attention to an attack on a church in Baghdad, which left both priests and most of the congregation dead.

The blood of the “innocent Christians” who died during the church attack “was proof of love for our Lord Jesus, who Himself was persecuted and left to die on the Cross for no other reason than being clean, honest and loving. This is who we (Christians) are,” the seminarian explained.

However, despite the severity and frequency of attacks against Christians in Iraq, Momica said the worst persecution hit when ISIS began their siege last summer, starting in Mosul.

The Christians of Mosul, who had “no intention” of denying Jesus or paying the terrorists the tax they demanded, then fled to Qaraqosh, which was formerly known as the “Christian capital” of Iraq.

Once ISIS attacked Qaraqosh itself August 6 in the middle of the night, the men joined with the Kurdish army, known as the “Peshmerga,” in trying to fight off the well-armed extremists “with any means they had,” which were mostly “primitive” weapons.

As the battle in Qaraqosh unfolded, ISIS militants bombed houses, with one rocket landing in a house and killing two children, 4 and 9 years old, the seminarian recalled, adding that three other children were wounded while standing in front of their homes, and a 30-year-old woman was also killed.

While the former archbishop of the Qaraqosh first urged Christians to stay and fight, he and the city’s priests “found it wiser to leave” as the night went on and ISIS advanced to “the gates” of the city.

“Displacement began. Believe me it was a bad experience. Means of transportation were not available, so most people had to escape on foot, walking on long, rocky, insect infested roads with babies and children,” he recounted.

Momica said that with no food, water or protection from the heat, Christians were fed “with the food of belief, quenched with the love of God and dressed with the arms of Jesus.”

When a large chunk of the 100,000 people who fled Qaraqosh arrived in the Iraqi city of Erbil that night, “the struggle for survival began” as the displaced were left to sleep on the streets, sidewalks, in public parks and in churches since no house would open its doors to them, he recalled.

All this was “only the beginning,” Momica said, explaining that people have been forced to stay in caravans, refugee compounds or half-constructed buildings with no doors or windows for protection.

His own family was among those fleeing that night, including his mother and his brother’s two small children, one of whom was just six days old at the time.

Momica told CNA that he was in Spain at the time of the attack, but got a phone call from his family saying they had tried to pile eight people into his brother’s small car to leave, but turned back out of fear the young baby would die due to the extreme heat.

After waiting for several hours, the seminarian said he finally convinced his family to take the risk and leave. So they piled back into the car and went to Erbil, where they stayed with other families in a church for a while before finding a small house to rent, where they currently live.

After returning from Spain he joined his family in Erbil for one month, where he worked 18 hours a day helping refugees, many of whom became ill due to the heat, before being asked by his bishop to go to Lebanon.

The seminarian said that when his bishop initially asked him, he didn’t want to go, and told the bishop he would prefer to stay and help the refugees. However, after receiving his bishop’s instruction to finish his studies in the seminary, he consented and left Erbil in September.

In addition to Rome, Momica also traveled to Geneva, Madrid, Cordova and France to speak about the situation of Christians in Iraq after being invited by a woman his bishop knows in Cordova.

He is currently visiting his family in Erbil, and will return to Lebanon when classes resume after the Easter holiday.

In reference to the situation of Iraq’s Christians, Momica said that “a culture of God’s word, a people of Jesus, (have been) left in the cold to meet a dark destiny,” and called on the international community to intervene.

Pope Francis also drew attention to the plight of Christians persecuted worldwide yesterday in his first Easter Regia Coeli address, which is a Marian prayer traditionally recited during the liturgical Easter season.

Speaking to the Shalom Community, which sponsored a relay to show solidarity with and raise awareness of persecuted Christians, the Pope said that prayers need to increase.

“Your itinerary on the streets is over, but what must continue on the part of all is the spiritual journey of prayer, intense prayer,” Francis told pilgrims and members of the community present.

“Concrete participation and tangible help in the defense and protection of our brothers and sisters, who are persecuted, exiled, killed, beheaded, for the only reason of being a Christian,” are needed, he said, stressing that martyrs today are more numerous than in the first centuries of Christianity.

Francis closed his appeal by expressing his sincere hope “that the international community does not look the other way.”

Momica also offered prayers that God would give the international community “the clarity of vision to see the truth and help (their) brethren in distress.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Slovak ‘Charity Battalion’ aids displaced Christians in Iraq

by Alejandro Bermudez (CNA/EWTN News) • April 9, 2015

Zuzana Dudova (center) and her ‘charity batallion’ at the St. Elizabeth Clinic for displaced persons in Erbil, Iraq. (Alejandro Bermudez/CNA)

Erbil, Iraq — It seems to be just another house in the city of Ozar on the outskirts of the Iraqi city of Erbil, but a small sign shows it is different from the rest: the Saint Elizabeth Clinic is where Zuzana Dudova has set up operations along with her small contingent of Slovakian Catholic volunteers who are serving Christian refugees displaced from their homes by the Islamic State.

Dudova, a young doctor who graduated from Saint Elizabeth University in her native Slovakia, came to Erbil with Przemyslaw Ulman and Sonia Revicka to set up a clinic where they could take care of the flood of Christian refugees that settled in this recently constructed suburb.

Saint Elizabeth University is specializes in careers related to medicine, social services, and missionary work. Its founder, Dr. Vladimir Kramer, was an important active member of the underground Church during the communist regime. After the fall of the regime, he founded the university with the intention of promoting charitable services throughout the world.

“Organizations like Aid to the Church in Need and the Knights of Columbus have made it possible for hundreds of families to move into new homes, but the number of refugees is so great and the cost of rent is such that three or four families have to share the same dwelling,” Dudova explained to CNA.

Unlike other places in Africa or Southeast Asia where Saint Elizabeth University has established other medical and social services missions, in Erbil “the cost of living is high and this makes aid work for the displaced Christians, as well as medical services, more difficult to sustain,” the doctor explained.

Nevertheless, the small Slovakian university “has never said no to an aid project, and we weren’t going to say no to the displaced Christians on the outskirts of Erbil.”

The clinic, which includes a reception desk, a waiting room with pharmacy and two rooms for medical care, serves more than 20 people a day. “We try to do the best we can with our limited resources and we send the cases that require special medical care to the hospitals in Erbil,” Dudova explained.

Even though Ozar is located only a few miles from downtown Erbil, where large hospitals provide services, “the lack of public transportation is one of the reasons that local medical care is so necessary,” Dudova said. In fact, during CNA’s visit, dozens of people came in needing emergency medical care such as the treatment of wounds or infections, or a follow-up treatment.

Dudova and her colleagues expressed their frustration in the case of a refugee girl who runs the risk of being paralyzed.

“She would have to get regular care in Erbil, and her parents know it, but they can’t always pay round-trip taxi fare,” Revicka explained. Erbil, in spite of its size, does not have a public transportation system, and very few refugee families were able to escape from Mosul or its environs with a vehicle.

“We provide the medicine, we make sure they get care at the hospital, we do everything possible, but the refugees have to deal with all kinds of problems, from the language barrier to bureaucracy,” Dudova explained. Every day she has to negotiate with the taxi drivers for the round trip to her residence in Ankawa, Erbil’s Christian district.

“If you’re travelling by day,” she explained with a smile, “you set your price and you pass up taxi after taxi till you get it, but at night it’s harder to negotiate.”

Despite the frustrations, Dudova and her “Slovak battalion” intend to continue working with the displaced Christians.

“I’ll be going back to Slovakia at the beginning of the summer, but I’ll come back in August to keep serving at the clinic. We know the international situation does not leave the Christian refugees many options. The men try to find work so they can move into a single family home, but there are few opportunities, and the lack of security makes going back impossible in the short term … so we have to continue going on here, and we hope that the world’s Christians will not forget their brothers and sisters in Iraq.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Doctrine divides while justice unites? One author’s new take on an old claim

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

Scales of Justice. (Michael Coghlan via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Rome, Italy — As the Church prepares to conclude its celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II later this year, one book is taking a hard look at the council’s vision of ecumenism in a world where attitudes toward social justice are constantly in flux.

Is it true, as some say, that doctrine divides, while justice unites? Can social justice really build Christian unity? Is it capable of declaring Christ to the world?

Justice, Unity, and the Hidden Christ: The Theopolitical Complex of the Social Justice Approach to Ecumenism in Vatican II takes a look at the council’s decree on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, examining these questions in light of the broader social and cultural picture.

Matthew John Paul Tan, who lectures in theology and philosophy at Campion College in Sydney, as well as the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne, Australia, is the author of the book.

He sat down with CNA to speak about what he describes as the “theopolitical complex” – the social, cultural, and political realities and presumptions within which social justice operates, and its dynamic in relation to authentic Christian unity.

“If you want to make the act of social justice build Christian unity, you then have to pay attention to this complex,” Tan said.

Otherwise, he warned, there is the danger of allowing political agendas and ideologies “to distort what actually counts as a Christian act.”

“What counts as justice in the theopolitical context of the culture that we live in now,” he said, “is actually one that is at odds with justice as is defined by Christian tradition.”

Tan’s book centers largely on Unitatis Redintegratio, part 12, which states: “In these days when cooperation in social matters is so widespread, all men without exception are called to work together, with much greater reason all those who believe in God, but most of all, all Christians in that they bear the name of Christ. Cooperation among Christians vividly expresses the relationship which in fact already unites them, and it sets in clearer relief the features of Christ the Servant.”

Below is an edited version of CNA’s interview with Matthew Tan.

Q: What is the main problem you are tackling in your book?

A: The main problem that I’m tackling is the age-old claim by many ecumenists: that doctrine divides and justice unites. I’m trying to interrogate whether or not that actually is the case.

But, attached to that is also the claim that was made in the Vatican II document Unitatis Redintegratio that when you actually do social justice projects with non-Catholic brothers and sisters, you are able to jointly declare Christ to the world in a very clear fashion.

I’m asking two questions: First, does justice really unite? And secondly: Whether or not the act of social justice actually builds visible Christian unity, and declares Christ to the world.

It’s very easy to make a yes/no claim, but what I end up making in the book is a yes/but sort of claim, in the sense that social justice can build greater Christian unity; however, that is dependent upon a whole range of un-articulated claims, institutions, practices, that form the social and cultural and political contexts within which the act of social justice takes place.

This whole array of contextual factors, I call the “theopolitical complex.” If you want to make the act of social justice build Christian unity, you then have to pay attention to this complex.

The claim I make in the book is that, by and large, the theopolitical complex was not paid attention to by the drafters of the declaration on ecumenism, with respect to the claim made in Unitatis Redintegratio 12 on the ability to declare Christ to the world.

I also explore the question of whether or not acts – particularly Christian acts – can be clearly interpreted by those both within and outside the Church to be Christian acts. Are these acts so clearly Christian in their character?

The argument that I make is that, first, actions are not so clear all in sundry. In the same way that words need to be interpreted, I argue that actions also need to be interpreted: the theopolitical complex actually acts as a lens by which we use to interpret the meaning of those acts.

When not paid attention to, the theopolitical complex can actually, if unintentionally, shape your interpretation, and your response, to even an act that is supposed to be, or is designed to be, Christian.

Q: Is there is the danger of the lines becoming blurred as persons of various denominations and respective ideologies seek to engage in social justice together?

Once you allow the cultural context to determine what counts as an act of justice, you then also have a situation where you let the cultural context determine what counts as an act of Christian social justice.

If the theopolitical complex is not paid attention to, you then have a situation whereby one unwittingly allows political agendas, political ideologies, to frame, to distort what actually counts as a Christian act.

There is an inextricable connection between the context and the Christian act of social justice, in that there is always going to be this risk: that what stands outside the Christian tradition can determine the shape of what counts as the Christian tradition.

Q: What has been the evolution of this approach to ecumenism in the decades since Vatican II?

There are going to be differences from context to context. If I were to draw a single general claim across the board, I think the evolution has been such that there has been less emphasis on the aim of building Christian unity, and more on engaging in the act of social justice, because that is the mandate with which their respective traditions tell them to engage in.

The other thing that they also do – and this is where my book really comes to a head – is that, by and large, many don’t engage in any reflection on their own respective traditions. They just sort of do the act of social justice, saying: we mean to ensure that justice is served, rather than emphasize on the need to ensure that justice is served in accordance with Christian teaching.

When the act of social justice is carried out, without any attention to the institutional, political and cultural contexts within which that act of social justice takes place, the theopolitical context then starts to shape the way in which the act of social justice is carried out.

There’s the assumption in the Vatican II documents that, whenever justice is served, it must be Christian. My book disputes that. I argue that what counts as justice in the theopolitical context of the culture that we live in now is actually one that is at odds with justice as is defined by Christian tradition.

Q: Pope Francis has made a number of remarks regarding social justice. What have been your impressions?

One of the things Pope Francis has been really good at doing is trying to extricate the Christian tradition from all of these – for want of a better term – secular political agendas. He has done so in his criticisms on the deleterious effects of the free market, on human dignity, and in so doing has incurred the ire of critics of both left and right.

That is one major thing that Pope Francis has contributed to the discourse on what counts as a Christian act: an act of discerning whether or not one is actually allowing secular contexts to determine what is a Christian act.

At the end of the book, I explore a paragraph in Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, in which he talks about how the Church is constituted by a “three-fold” responsibility of diakonia (service), Kerygma-Martyria (proclamation), and leitourgia (worship).

Where I think Francis contributes to this is in respect to preaching. He brings together the elements of Kerygma-Martyria (the proclamation of the word), and because it is an act of preaching, preaching is something that sort of fits within the context of worship, albeit indirectly.

Benedict has done more to draw our attention to the importance of worship as a constitutive act of the Church.

What Francis is doing is to fill out the gap by drawing our attention to the need for Kerygma-Martyria as a form of preaching. He is doing so also in his emphases on paying attention to how economics affects the dignity of the human person, and how the marginalized constantly stand as a point of judgment for Christians. That also means he’s drawing our attention to the importance of diakonia as a constitutive act of the Church as well, which is something that many Christians have ignored in recent decades.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Paris wax museum unveils statue of Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • April 10, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square before the Wednesday general audience on Oct. 29, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Paris, France — The directors of the Grévin Wax Museum in Paris presented the first statue of Pope Francis that is now part of its popular collection.

The statue was unveiled April 2 in the atrium of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The unveiling of the unique statue took place in front of photographers and dozens of tourists.

It is one of the more than 450 pieces exhibited in the Paris museum.

More than 15 artists worked on the statue of the Pope over the course of six months. The statue depicts the Pope smiling in his white cassock, wearing the papal ring, and with his right arm outstretched and hand in the “thumbs up” position.

In 2013, wax museums in Rome and Madrid were the first to come out with statues of Pope Francis.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Is there a light in the dark for Turkey’s invisible Christians?

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

Istanbul. (brixit lorenzo de la fuente via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND)

Rome, Italy — Despite Turkey’s claim of religious freedom, Christians there have faced ongoing hostility, including government oppression and murder – but a new legal status ignites hope that things will improve.

As far as the Turkish government is concerned, “Islam is the only possibility,” said Nikos Tzoikos, analyst of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Tzoikos spoke with CNA in November of 2014 before Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey that month. He said that an embedded relationship between Islam and the local government have rendered Christians in Turkey “without any rights.”

However, a new foundation established by the Armenian patriarchate could signal a change in the right direction for Christians and the Turkish government.

Officially established in January of this year, the foundation is called “Hovagim 1461” after the first Armenian patriarch Hovagim and the date when he was appointed to the position.

It marks a significant step in securing more breathing room for the community, who, according to Tzoikos, have had “difficulty” with the government in terms of civil rights.

Even though Turkey claims to have religious freedom nationwide, Christians still face discrimination, and their presence often goes unrecognized by the country’s Muslim majority.

There are believed to be only 100,000 Christians permanently living in Turkey, a small fraction of the country’s total population of 75 million, which is majority Sunni Muslim.

Although Catholics are recognized as a religious minority, Christians have “always been segregated,” Tzoikos said, noting that prior to this January neither Jews, Orthodox nor Armenian Orthodox were recognized by the government.

Even if members of the patriarchate are Turkish citizens born in Turkey, “they aren’t protected,” he said, explaining that even popes have met resistance with the government ahead of apostolic voyages.

Despite the fact that Turkey welcomed Pope Francis in November after he was invited by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and later by Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoan, Tzoikos revealed that government channels for such visits haven’t always been open.

He recalled Benedict XVI’s visit to Ankara and Istanbul in 2006, explaining that the then-Pope’s visit “wasn’t wanted.”

Even though Bartholomew had invited his “brother” Benedict to visit, “a pope can’t personally go to meet the patriarch simply. He can’t. He has to pass through Ankara for an official state visit. The Turkish government insists on this,” Tzoikos said.

When Pope Francis visited the country last November Bartholomew I advised him to take diplomatic channels and make the same route, going to Ankara first for an official state visit, which Francis did.

Tzoikos revealed that Benedict’s trip should have originally taken place in 2005, but was blocked. With the change in Turkish government in 2006 the visit was blocked again.

It was finally approved with the assassination of Italian priest Father Andrea Santoro, who was serving as a missionary in Turkey and was shot twice in the back while praying before Mass Feb. 5, 2006. It ‘s believed that the murder was committed in retaliation for cartoons printed against the Prophet Mohamed.

After the priest’s death Tzoikos said the Turkish government became fearful and finally approved Benedict XVI’s visit.

Such violence toward priests are not an uncommon occurrence in Turkey, and many have been attacked in recent years.

In 2010 Bishop Luigi Padovese, who was overseeing the apostolic vicariate of Anatolia and had been outspoken on challenges facing Christians in Turkey, was stabbed to death outside of his residence by his long-term driver.

The bishop’s driver was a Muslim, however it’s reported that the man, who had been suffering from depression, was unstable and that the bishop’s murder was not politically motivated.

Tzoikos said that Christians also face difficulty in the area of education, and explained that although religion – which was previously allowed to be taught only in churches – is now a part of Turkey’s educational system, only teachers paid by the state are allowed to lead the courses.

Mons. Georges Dankaye, rector of the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome, expressed his hope that the new foundation for the Armenian patriarchate will help in solidifying an awareness of the presence of Christians in Turkey, and obtain greater governmental support.

“The foundation is a recognition of a reality. It’s not a foundation or creation of nothing. There is a reality that exists. It’s a recognition on a judicial level but also on a civil level. And this is also very good, because it’s the recognition of a community,” Mons. Dankaye told CNA Feb. 9.

Turkish agency Hurriyet Daily News reports that the foundation has officially been registered in Istanbul’s 22nd civil court.

With a board of trustees composed of 10 members of the patriarchate, the foundation will be headed by the deputy Armenian Patriarch, Archbishop Aram Ate?yan, and will be able to make decisions financial matters.

The list of activities for foundations in Turkey are listed in the law as: organizing seminars, conferences and workshops, providing information, documents and data, publishing magazines, newspapers and articles in line with the goals of the patriarchate and accepting donations both from Turkey and abroad.

Hovagim 1461 also has the right to own property either by inheritance, purchase or donation. It will also have the ability to make investments through cooperation with other foundations.

Mons. Dankaye said that this step is also “a democratic thing, that is, to recognize a community that has its specificities, its rights, its nuances, its special way of life, also social and religious. These are the first phenomena of a democracy.”

Democracy, he said, doesn’t mean “to standardize or homogenize” everyone, but rather to recognize and respect social and religious differences.

He recalled the time of the Armenian genocide, the centenary of which takes place this month, saying that the mass killings perhaps came out of the Ottoman’s fear of recognizing these differences.

The refusal to accept these differences, he said, stems from the idea that “we should all be the same, and whoever is not the same, whoever doesn’t think like us, needs to go or needs to die.”

Also referred to as the Armenian Holocaust, the genocide took place in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated its historic minority Armenian population who called Turkey their homeland, most of whom were Christians. Roughly 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

In honor of the genocide’s centenary, Pope Francis will offer his April 12 liturgy for Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, for faithful of the Armenian rite.

During the Mass, which will be celebrated inside St. Peter’s Basilica at 10 a.m., Francis will also proclaim Armenian-rite Saint Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church. The 10th century priest, monk, mystic, and poet will be the first Armenian to receive the title.

Mons. Dankaye stressed the importance of remembering events such as the genocide specifically because of the witness of the martyrs, who serve as “a prototype,” and also to prevent future violence.

If the genocide and other similar events are not kept tucked away in our memories, history will repeat itself, he said, noting that 100 years after the genocide “the same scene repeats itself: decapitating. Crucifixions. Slaughter. Burning people. Starve them and block zones … It repeats itself.”

Pope Francis, although he refrained from making any political statement on the still-sensitive topic, mentioned the genocide during his trip to Turkey in November. He expressed hope that the border between Turkey and Armenia would be re-opened as a sign of reconciliation.

Even if things don’t change right away, Francis’ words will help, the priest said, because the Pope is able to express his message in “a very intelligent, very simple and very courageous way.”

“This is difficult to find in diplomacy,” he said, but “Pope Francis unifies everything: the courage of the politician, the simplicity of the message. He does not offend but he also does not leave his audience in peace.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

NBC brings stories of the early Christian Church to network television

by Peter Zelasko (CNA/EWTN News) • April 4, 2015

Mary the Mother of God featured on the new series A.D. The Bible Continues. (NBC)

Colorado Springs, CO — If history is any indication, millions of Americans will be tuning into the premiere of a new television series depicting the early Christian Church this Easter.

“A.D. The Bible Continues” is the latest project of the husband and wife team of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who succeeded in bringing the stories of the Gospels to cable television in their 2013 series “The Bible.”

Their new 12-week television series was created to tell the story of the early Christian Church, picking up where “The Bible” left off.

During a pre-screening in Colorado Springs on March 6, Burnett explained that “lot’s of people in mainstream America thought we had lost our minds with ‘The Bible’ … and we said we think you’re underestimating the audience.”

The veteran producer who was responsible for the runaway success of Survivor, Shark Tank, and The Voice has an incredible track record of figuring out what audiences want to watch.

“We leveraged our celebrity, money and success and got ‘The Bible’ on TV,” and “100 million Americans watched ‘The Bible’!”

They enjoyed creating that project together so much, they realized they didn’t want to leave.

“A.D. came from us not wanting to let it end,” Burnett admitted.

They had spent six months filming the original miniseries in Morocco, and were wrapping up production when they were inspired to create the new project.

“We thought about it and prayed on it,” Burnett reflected. “We thought, what a great, dramatic setting of A.D. 33: the Crucifixion and the Resurrection … and then what happened next?”

The first episode of A.D. jumps right into answering that question, starting with a graphic depiction of the Crucifixion.

“Hats off to NBC because they didn’t ask us to sanitize the Crucifixion of our Lord, and you see that he bled for us,” Burnett said.

The series immediately begins tying together the stories of Joseph of Arimathea, the temple priests, the Romans, the Apostles, Mother Mary, and many of the women of the Bible.

Further episodes will explore stories mostly pulled from The Acts of the Apostles.

While their previous project originally aired on cable through The History Channel, this time around they’re proud to be releasing their show on NBC.

“We couldn’t be more excited that it’s on broadcast television,” Downey said.

The husband and wife also don’t see this project as a stand alone series like “The Bible,” but hope to produce multiple seasons of the show. Burnett promised they were in negotiations for the second season already.

Ultimately, the series hopes to capitalize on a large and often neglected market: Christian TV viewers.

Downey expressed the couple’s “hope and prayer that families will gather around the TV screen together and tune in and see the story that changed the world.”

“A.D. The Bible Continues” premieres on Easter Sunday, April 5 at 9/8c on NBC.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Troubled by Indiana reaction, Christian leaders stress gravity of religious liberty

by CNA/EWTN News • April 6, 2015

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who signed an April 3 open letter on religious liberty. (Javier de la Flor/CNA)

Trenton, N.J. — Catholic and Southern Baptist leaders called Friday for a recommitment to religious freedom, lamenting the “acrimony and lies” surrounding efforts to protect religious freedom in Indiana and across the U.S.

“America was founded on the idea that religious liberty matters because religious belief matters in a uniquely life-giving and powerful way. We need to take that birthright seriously, or we become a people alien to our own founding principles,” they said in an April 3 statement.

“Religious liberty is precisely what allows a pluralistic society to live together in peace.”

They called on Americans “to remember the moral roots of their constitutional system, and to engage in a sensible national conversation about religious liberty.”

The April 3 statement, “Now Is the Time to Talk About Religious Liberty,” was published at The Witherspoon Institute. Its signers include Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. They were joined by Robert P. George, a Princeton law professor who has headed the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

They noted that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all believe in the creation of man as male and female and in the “unique covenant” of marriage as a heterosexual union.

They criticized claims that this central belief “amounts to a form of bigotry.”

“Such arguments only increase public confusion on a vitally important issue. When basic moral convictions and historic religious wisdom rooted in experience are deemed ‘discrimination,’ our ability to achieve civic harmony, or even to reason clearly, is impossible.”

They said even those who are not religious have a stake in seeing that religious freedom and freedom of conscience are protected in law.

The Catholic and Baptist leaders said they were “especially troubled” by the opposition to religious liberty legal efforts in Indiana and elsewhere.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on March 26 signed legislation declaring that state and local governments may not substantially burden a person’s right to the exercise of religion, unless they demonstrate a compelling governmental interest and use the least restrictive means to further that interest.

The Indiana law made explicit its application to businesses, which is in agreement with several federal appellate court rulings. The Indiana law would also strengthen a legal defense against civil penalties.

The religious freedom law was in large part modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which passed Congress almost unanimously and was signed into law by Bill Clinton. The legislation is intended to restore religious protections which had been eliminated by Supreme Court decisions.

The initial Indiana law did not mention sexual orientation, but it became the subject of intense media controversy after opponents depicted it as “anti-gay.” CEOs, celebrities, major sports events and leaders of some city and state governments threatened boycotts or otherwise voiced criticism that it would allow discrimination.

While some supporters of the religious freedom laws have hoped that they will protect individuals and businesses with religious and moral objections to “gay marriage”, there have been no successful cases in which the religious freedom provisions have trumped anti-discrimination laws.

Following media and political pressure, Pence on April 2 signed an amendment saying the law does not allow the refusal of services, facilities, public accommodations, goods, employment or housing on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or U.S. military service.

The change drew criticism from Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner, who said the change “unjustly deprives citizens their day in court, denies freedom a fair hearing, and rigs the system in advance.”

“It gives the government a new weapon against individual citizens who are merely exercising freedoms that Americans were guaranteed from the founding of this country. Surrendering to deception and economic blackmail never results in good policy.”

Waggoner said the initial law was “a good law” that allowed courts to weigh the government’s and people’s interests and “directs judges to count the cost carefully when freedom is at stake.”

The controversy in Indiana has had consequences in other states. The Arkansas legislature had passed a similarly broad religious freedom protections bill, but Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he would not sign it. On April 3, Hutchinson signed a narrower version of the bill.

Religious freedom laws are also an issue in Congress after the District of Columbia city council passed legislation outlawing “discriminatory practice” on the provision of facilities, services or programs based on “sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.”

Congress and President Barack Obama must agree to reject the district legislation by April 17. If the legislation is not rejected, without further legal action religious schools would be forced to recognize groups that conflict with their stated mission and allow them to use their facilities.

Religious freedom laws have drawn wealthy opposition. Since 2013, the Ford Foundation and Arcus Foundation have spent over $3 million in grants to back groups opposing religious exemptions. Grantees include Columbia Law School’s Public Rights / Private Conscience Project, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, LGBT activist groups and media messaging projects.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Faith served straight up: how alcohol shapes cultural and religious identity

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • April 7, 2015

(Whiskeywarrior via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0)

Washington, D.C. — From a glass of beer at dinner to the wine transfigured at the Last Supper, sharing a drink has held a profoundly important place in shaping people’s lives through the ages.

In fact, according to one noted Catholic bartender, society would be drastically different if it were not for the influence of alcohol on religion and culture.

“Alcohol is an important part of how we connect with each other,” said Derek Brown, a bartender and owner of several bars in Washington D.C.

In an interview with CNA, he reflected on the intersection of faith and fermentation, as well as the role of alcohol in shaping history and culture.

Over thousands of years of people coming together to share a drink, Brown said, people have had “experiences that are crucial to building our society and creating religious institutions.”

“It’s something very beautiful and expressive in our culture.”

It’s on the (White) House

Serving everyone from tourists to the D.C. locals who filter into his bars after work to the president of the United States, Derek Brown has found his calling in being able to serve and experiment in making a variety of different drinks.

Brown – along with his brother – opened his first bar, the Passenger, in 2009. It included a small, separate speakeasy-style cocktail bar in the back. Since then, he has expanded to several bars in the D.C. area. From standard burgers and beers, to fresh East Coast oysters and whiskey, to a bar that focuses on the fortified wine drink sherry, each of his establishments is unique in its spirits and cuisine.

“We’ve gotten to step out in a different way,” he explained. “You get to have a different bar experience, you get to discover great spirits and wine, and take the time to make and craft a cocktail, and I think that’s something unique.”

In 2009, Brown was introduced to President Barack Obama while bartending an event. Brown told CNA that he is “not at liberty to tell” others about the president’s drink of choice, but did recall his encounter with Obama.

Staff introduced Brown to the president as a “mixologist,” to which the president asked, “Isn’t that just a bartender?’”

Initially, Brown said he was “crestfallen” by the president’s question, but then Obama continued, observing that “being a bartender is like being a coach or being the president of the United States: everyone thinks they can do it, but not everyone can.”

Mixing drink and culture

In his time serving drinks, Brown said, he has come to a greater understanding of the ways in which alcohol interacts with culture.

“Drinking is about being together and connecting to other people and sharing your experiences,” he explained. “We have these moments where we fall in love, where we meet friends, where we console our friends, when we celebrate a union of people,” and oftentimes these moments include a drink or a toast.

Drinking can also be “one of the most salient ways to have a conversation with someone and sit down and really connect with that person,” he added. These personal moments of experiencing cultural and communal connection through drink tie into a larger societal mindset as well.

“Ultimately, what I try to do is show that alcohol can be something that, in the right sort of context, can connect people.”

However, he acknowledged that not everyone uses alcohol to bring people together. Sometimes, people’s approach to drinking “turns to something different altogether,” and becomes downright negative when alcohol is used “in a destructive way” or “as an excuse” for otherwise unacceptable behaviors.

“All drinking is rule-governed behavior,” he noted, suggesting that changing the cultural expectations surrounding drinking can help to influence society’s engagement with alcohol.

Meanwhile, Brown said, there are “a vast majority of people who can have a healthy experience with alcohol.”

Just as food is “an important part of how people talk in their lives and how they connect to our environment,” he added, drink is also an important part of human culture across the globe.

“One person could abstain from alcohol, and in some cases that is perfectly reasonable, but had humanity abstained from alcohol, we’d have a totally different culture.”

Vintage drinks

This link to culture, Brown said, can be found by looking to the drinks our ancestors made – even all the way back to the first meads and early drinks made by humans.

“It’s really hard to imagine just how hard and difficult early life was for our ancestors, and they didn’t always encounter friendly groups of people,” he explained, pointing to evidence that alcohol helped people to break down those barriers.

“Imagine early groups of people drinking together.” He suggested that alcohol’s properties could have helped people – even from different social groups – “to be in a weird way, equals.” Early humans, much like people today, probably had experiences where they didn’t “have to concentrate on other things and could just focus on being together.”

Brown also pointed to archeological and anthropological evidence that the fermentation of grains, honey and fruit played a key role in early civilizations’ agricultural practice.

Drinking, in fact, may have even helped to spur on the organization of complex societies: people had to live together in close proximity in order to share food and to make drinks. “Alcohol is difficult to produce in large quantities,” he explained. To do so “requires cooperation among a large number of people.”

Alcohol was so important in past times that it was even used as a paycheck. Brown pointed to discoveries that some of the workers who constructed the Great Pyramids in Ancient Egypt “were paid in beer,” among other historical examples.

Today’s drinks can also be a way of connecting to the traditions and experiences of those in the past, Brown noted.

“That’s one thing that’s interesting: things change over time. And as much as a cathedral itself is a sort of means of telling history, a cocktail is a way of telling history as well.”

He pointed, as an example, to the rickey – a century-old lime drink that is native to Washington, D.C., and is now the official drink of the city.

First concocted in the 1880s by bartender George Augustus Williamson, the rickey is “an important part of Washington, D.C. history,” Brown said.

D.C. news archives confirm this, with numerous stories on the drink’s creation and its popularity in the early 1900s, as well as mention of the bar where it was created as an important meeting place for contemporary politicians, lobbyists and writers. The drink became known outside of the nation’s capital as well, earning a mention in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book “The Great Gatsby.”

Communion and Communitas

Alcohol’s ability to connect people is not just a worldly phenomenon, however. Alcohol plays an important role in religion too.

In 2013, Brown gave a talk at a University of Notre Dame ethics conference on drinking’s relationship to community. Alcohol, he said at the talk, “produces a sense of being together,” but also “is a part of our sacramental and religious experience.”

This connection between alcohol and religious community can clearly be seen in Communion and the Eucharist, Brown said, as well as its important place in the ritual life of the monastic communities that produce beer, wine or liquor.

“If you look back through history, there’s all of this wine and spirits that popped up in religious communities,” he noted, pointing to the elixirs made by Trappist abbeys and Carthusian monks.

“I just don’t know if anyone makes better spirits and wine than monks and priests. It’s a cool part of our community.”

However, alcohol’s role in the Catholic faith is not limited to the drinks produced in monasteries and abbeys. Just the act of drinking together also helps faith communities in their ability to connect to each other, Brown reflected. “Communitas, that connection with people, is sort of essential to any religious community.”

Drink also has a spiritual element, Brown said, with religions around the world drawing metaphors to drinking. “There’s all these instances where they’re talking about alcohol,” he continued, “to describe religious experience.”

“For me those are two parts of alcohol and Catholicism that influence how I think about drinking,” he stated. “One is that spiritual experience, and the other is how we come together as a community.”

D.C. bartenders even have a spiritual resource in their honorary chaplain, Fr. Bill Dailey, whom Brown has profiled for cocktail magazines.

As for Brown, his finds Catholicism and his job in do not conflict with one another, despite bartending’s sometimes suspect reputation.

“My earliest memories of encountering the faith have always been around people who are drinking. There was never any stigma for me.”

In his mind, the connection between alcohol and his Catholicism “is pretty simple: it’s an important part of our religion and our practice.”

Catholicism is “definitely part of my life,” he said, adding that he finds his faith and his job to work together particularly well in the “charitable aspect” of his bars. Every Monday, his businesses serve as a meeting space for charities, such as non-profits that seek to end childhood poverty, or youth programs. Then, the bar proceeds from that night are donated to the respective charity.

Brown added that he and his fellow bartenders realize that “we’re very lucky to be able to do what we do” and also try to donate their time and material to help serve at events for other charitable organizations.

After a long night of service and community building, what does a Catholic bartender drink? Brown says that his beverage of choice is “a very classic martini.”

“It’s a very classic, hard to do cocktail, but when you do it right, it just sings.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Between conflicting cake rulings in Colorado, baker’s livelihood still at risk

by CNA/EWTN News • April 7, 2015

(California Bakery via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Denver, CO — The Colorado agency which punished a baker who declined to make a cake for a same-sex ceremony has ruled that other bakers may refuse to make cakes with messages opposed to gay marriage. Defenders of the censured baker, Jack Phillips, say the commission should be more consistent.

“Like the other bakers, Jack happily serves all people but declines to use his artistic talents to create cakes that violate his conscience,” Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said April 7.

He said the commission’s inconsistent rulings mean that the owners of some cake shops may run them according to their beliefs, while Phillips cannot.

“He risks losing his life-long business altogether if he continues to run it consistent with his faith. Such blatant religious discrimination has no place in our society.”

Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo. no longer bakes wedding cakes after Colorado’s seven-member Civil Rights Commission ruled that his shop illegally discriminated. In 2012, he declined a request from two men who wanted him to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding reception.

Phillips said making the cake would violate his religious beliefs.

The commission ruled in favor of a complaint from the two men. It ordered Phillips and his staff to undergo anti-discrimination training and to submit quarterly reports on how he is changing company policies.

Phillips has decided not to make any wedding cakes, his only legal option to continue his business without violating his beliefs.

After the controversial treatment of Phillips, a Colorado man named Bill Jack filed complaints with the Civil Rights Division of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies when three Denver-area bakeries refused to make his requested cakes in March 2014.

Jack claimed that Azucar Bakery, Gateaux, and Le Bakery Sensual had discriminated against him because of his Christian religion.

Jack had asked Azucar Bakery for cakes shaped like an open Bible. One bore the message that God hates sin and loosely paraphrased a biblical passage, saying “Homosexuality is a detestable sin.” The other said that God loves sinners and that Christ died for us, with an image of an “X” over two groomsmen holding hands.

The bakery declined, saying it considered the phrases to be hateful.

Jack told the Christian Post he believes Colorado’s anti-discrimination law is being used “to censor Christian business owners’ free speech” and “to coerce them to participate in events that violate their consciences.”

Colorado’s civil rights division said that Azucar Bakery had the right to refuse to make the cakes on the grounds their messages were derogatory, the Colorado NBC affiliate 9 News reports. The shop would have treated any other customer the same way.

The division told Jack there was insufficient evidence to support Jack’s claims, according to the Denver Post. Jack is appealing the decision.

Tedesco said the commission was right not to force the cake artists to violate their consciences, adding, “clearly the commission should have done the same for Jack Phillips.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Bishops appeal against death penalty in Boston bombing case

by CNA/EWTN News • April 8, 2015

Mother and daughter at a candelight vigil for those injured and killed during the Boston Marathon bombings on April 21, 2013. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Boston, MA — As accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stands trial, the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts are asking that he not receive the death penalty if he is convicted.

“The defendant in this case has been neutralized and will never again have the ability to cause harm,” the bishops stated. “Because of this, we, the Catholic Bishops of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, believe that society can do better than the death penalty.”

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. of Fall River, Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Springfield, and Bishop Robert J. MacManus of Worcester all signed on to an April 7 statement voicing opposition to the use of the death penalty in this case.

Twenty-one year old Tsarnaev is standing trial in federal court and could face either life in prison or the death penalty if he is found guilty of participating in the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon. He has been charged with acting along with his brother, Tamerlan, in setting off two pressure cooker bombs timed and placed to go off near the marathon’s finish line. The blasts killed two and injured over 260 people.

According to news reports, the brothers later shot to death a security officer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tamerlan was shot by police during the ensuing pursuit and was killed after he was struck by Dzhokhar in an SUV, trying to escape the scene, police said.

Dzhokhar faces up to 30 charges including terrorism. Jury deliberations in his trial began on Tuesday.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the U.S. Bishops have made clear that the death penalty is traditionally reserved for use only when a criminal is a direct threat to society and no other means can prevent this threat.

With the ability of modern societies to neutralize the threat of further violence, the death penalty should be “practically nonexistent,” the Catechism teaches.

The four bishops quoted a 2005 statement by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference on the death penalty that “no matter how heinous the crime, if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so.”

“We believe these words remain true today in the face of this most terrible crime,” the bishops continued.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Kansas becomes first state to ban ‘dismemberment abortion’

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • April 8, 2015

An unborn baby at 20 weeks, well within the second trimester, when dilation and evacuation abortions are commonly performed. (Steve via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Topeka, KS — Kansas became on Tuesday the first state to ban abortions by a procedure known as “dilation and evacuation,” which is common during second-trimester abortions and is called “dismemberment abortion” in the law.

Local pro-life advocates say the legislation is an opportunity to save the unborn from a horrific procedure, while providing a model for other states.

“Some states have to take the lead. We’re proud to be one of those states,” Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life, told CNA April 8. “With very solid, carefully constructed laws I think we really can make a difference.”

The procedure is used in about 600 abortions in Kansas annually, about nine percent of all abortions performed there, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on April 7 said he was proud to sign a bill that protects life “at its most vulnerable stage,” and noted bipartisan support for the bill.

The legislation, known as the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, bans physicians from “knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that … grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off.”

The law contains an exemption for medical emergencies or when a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. It also makes clear that a woman who seeks a dismemberment abortion is not liable under law.

The law allows civil action against physicians who perform dismemberment abortions in violation of the law.

Michael Schuttloffel, executive director of Kansas Catholic Conference, said the conference is “very, very pleased” to put a stop to the procedure in Kansas.

“We’d like to see other states follow our lead,” he told CNA.

The Kansas House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 98-26, while the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 31-9.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, the local affiliate of the largest abortion provider in the U.S., said April 7 the law was “atrocious,” claiming that Kansas “continues to be an outlier on issues both fiscal and social.” It said the law denied health care access to women and hindered their ability to make decisions.

Schuttloffel lamented that the bill was necessary and that some people still opposed the law.

“It just defies belief that people would publicly get up and insist that people in Kansas be allowed to rip the arms and legs off of unborn children,” he said.

He thought the abortion debate had become “disconnected from the reality of abortion” and legislation like the Kansas law can “help shock people out of complacency.” He said that even many pro-life Kansans couldn’t believe the procedure was happening in their state.

“When it comes to this particular kind of abortion, people needed to hear exactly what was being done and what was being done: second trimester babies, we’re talking three, four, five months along in pregnancy, were being torn apart, limb from limb,” Schuttloffel continued. “There’s evidence that suggests the unborn child feels pain at that point. It’s just horrific.”

In Ostrowski’s view, the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated such bills should be passed.

The court, in 2007’s Gonzales v. Carhart, described the type of late-term abortion involved as “brutal,” and found that the state has an interest in both protecting the integrity of the medical profession and “to show its profound respect for the life within the woman.”

She said Kansas is a “very pro-life state,” with over 50 locations supporting pregnant women who have complications or who lack family support.

“We’re bringing people into the pro-life movement. And now we’re passing laws with an excellent state legislature and a pro-life governor.”

Other states with this kind of climate and pro-life support should pass these laws, Ostrowski said.

The Oklahoma legislature is considering a similar bill, as are Missouri and South Carolina.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Can we delete death? Transhumanism’s lofty goal meets a Catholic response

by Adelaide Mena and Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • April 9, 2015

(CC0 1.0)

Washington, D.C. — It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie – being able to “upload” our minds to computers to live on after we die, to freeze our bodies only to bring them back in the future, or to pop pills to enhance our mood and intelligence.

While these may seem like impossible notions, these are the kinds of things the transhumanism and posthumanism movements are hoping for and working toward.

However, as with most technological advancements, these proposals have bioethicists and theologians questioning: just because we can, does that mean we should?

Transhumanism is a loosely-defined cultural, intellectual and technical movement that describes itself as seeking to “to overcome fundamental human limitations” including death, aging, and natural physical, mental and psychological limitations, says humanity+, a transhumanist online community.

The movement overlaps greatly with posthumanism, which posits that a new, biologically superior race is on the horizon, and could replace the human race as we know it. Posthumanists support technologies such as cryogenic freezing, mood-and-intelligence-enhancing drugs, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, bionics and “uploading” a mind to an artificial intelligence.

These movements stem from the idea that human limitations are just “technical problems” that need to be overcome, said history professor Yuval Noah Harari in a March 4 interview in “Edge,” a non-profit website devoted to the advancement of technology.

“Once you really solve a problem like direct brain-computer interface … when brains and computers can interact directly, to take just one example, that’s it, that’s the end of history, that’s the end of biology as we know it,” he said. “Nobody has a clue what will happen once you solve this.”

But is human nature a problem to be solved? Will treading into this territory completely change the way man relates to God, to their own bodies, and to one another? These are the questions many bioethicists are grappling with as they consider the morality of such technologies.

For Catholics, escaping suffering and trials by escaping human nature itself is a morally unacceptable option, according to Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., Director of Education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

“Catholics cannot accept a vision of man which presupposes an outright ‘unacceptability’ of his basic human nature, nor a vision that labors to replace it with an alternate bodily structure that is engineered to be ‘post-human,’” Fr. Pacholczyk told CNA.

Instead, the “integral vision of man” accepts that man is incarnate – that humans have a body – and that “we are meant to embrace and grow through the limitations of our human nature,” he said.

“Even if our nature were to be radically re-engineered and modified,” he elaborated, “our innermost self would retain fundamental shards of incompleteness.”

The human experience is a struggle between a longing for the infinite, and learning to accept and embrace human’s finite nature, Fr. Pacholczyk explained. This longing would still exist even if technology were to significantly advance man’s material reality, because the longing for the infinite transcends the material world, he added.

Christ’s life provides the road map to transcendence – rather than transhumanism – for man’s life, “achieved through repentance, discipleship, self-denial, committed love, and generous self-giving,” said Fr. Pacholczyk. The infinite that man longs for “is effected from above through grace, rather than through the mere machinations of human cleverness or willfulness.”

Only by accepting their nature can humans re-orient themselves to “the only authentic source of redemption compatible with his essence,” which is Jesus, he added.

Peter Lawler, a bioethicist and government professor at Berry College, said while he did not think transhumanism is possible, the movement’s ideology alone can impact society.

The mindset of detaching humanity from biology contributes to a “paranoia about existence” which sees the natural world as the enemy of man, and views the body as a mere machine rather than as an integral part of a person, Lawler said.

“We’re living longer than ever,” he said. Improvements in healthcare, life expectancy and other technologies have changed the way people think about many things such as sexual morality, desired family size, and the integration of elderly people into society.

Charles Rubin, a professor of political science at Dusquenes University and author on the transhumanist movement, also takes issue with the transhumanist or posthumanist ideology. The idea of “a superior version” of human beings implies that humans are poorly-designed “creatures of evolutionary chance,” Rubin said.

“They have the very ‘thin’ understanding of what it means to be human that is in many ways characteristic of our contemporary thin ideas about self-hood,” he said. The movement also makes the assumption that “material circumstances can solve all our problems.”

“Building as they do on a thin sense of self, they risk encouraging those tendencies of contemporary thought that treat human beings instrumentally or that otherwise diminish human dignity.”

But it’s not all necessarily bad.

Some technologies that improve and even extend human life can be beneficial, so long as they don’t violate morality, Lawler noted.

“The consistent pro-life position is that we are for life,” he said, referencing Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (Charity in Truth).

“Technology is highly attractive because it draws us out of our physical limitations and broadens our horizon,” the Pope wrote.

Still, he cautioned, technological advancements can never trump the good of the human person – they must always be done in an ethically responsible way.

“Human freedom is authentic only when it responds to the fascination of technology with decisions that are the fruit of moral responsibility,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote.

While extending life can be acceptable, the promises of transhumanism should be critiqued, Rubin said.

What should be combated, he continued, is those who “dogmatically assert the benefits of a longer life without having ever having asked seriously the question of what constitutes a good human life.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Young boy lives dream of ‘being a priest’ for a day

by CNA/EWTN News • April 9, 2015

Brett Haubrich with Archbishop Carlson of St. Louis. (Lisa Johnston/St. Louis Review)

St. Louis, MO — Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and the Make-A-Wish Foundation helped one young boy to live his dream by experiencing, in part, what it’s like to be a priest for a day.

Eileen Haubrich said that her son, 11-year-old Brett, didn’t “want anything” like a trip to Disneyland or the chance to meet a celebrity when he was approached by Make-A-Wish Missouri.

“For years, he has loved the Mass and been religious,” she told the St. Louis Review. “He has such a good heart. He’s a very caring boy.”

The foundation then asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. Brett said he wanted to be a priest, or else a doctor or an engineer.

Brett, the second of Conrad and Eileen Haubrich’s four children, has served Mass at his family parish and his school church, but “being a priest for a day” was a special honor that Archbishop Carlson himself helped plan, reported the archdiocesan publication.

The Haubrichs told several priests they knew about their son’s wish, and many of them had creative ideas such as having Brett serve a Saturday Mass at the cathedral or letting him and his dad spend a night at the rectory.

Then, Fr. Nick Smith, Master of Ceremonies at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, suggested that Brett serve at the Chrism Mass and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper during Holy Week.

Archbishop Carlson, who was standing nearby when Fr. Smith received the phone call from the Haubrich family, was enthusiastic about the idea and added a few additions of his own.

“He was throwing out ideas right and left, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that’,” Fr. Smith said of the archbishop to the St. Louis Review. “He said, ‘Put him in there; we’ll wash his foot’.”

“Before you knew it, it turned into a whole day.”

On Holy Thursday, Brett processed in with the priests, deacons and seminarians at the Chrism Mass. Later that day, he had his feet washed during the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. A seminarian even loaned him a collar to wear while serving the Masses.

Taking part in these Masses was especially meaningful to the boy, who has a special devotion to the Eucharist.

“I like receiving the Body and the Blood,” he told the St. Louis Review.

Archbishop Carlson also invited him for a luncheon with priests and deacons after the Chrism Mass and dinner with seminarians at his residence.

“The whole thing,” he answered when asked what his favorite part of the day was. “It was really neat for them to let me do this stuff.”

Brett is fighting a grade three brain tumor known as anaplastic astrocytoma, according to his GoFundMe page, set up by his therapy team to help his family cover his medical bills.

He is undergoing chemo and radiation therapy since brain surgery is not an option.

“He is a strong boy that needs prayers,” the message on his website said.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

U.S. sees increase in priestly ordination numbers this year

by CNA/EWTN News • April 10, 2015

Priests celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Jan. 17, 2105. (Catholic Charities/Jeffrey Bruno CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The numbers are in: almost 600 Catholic men will be ordained priests for the U.S. in 2015, an increase of more than 100 from last year.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh, N.C. said April 7 that the increase in ordination numbers is “encouraging.”

The bishop, who heads the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, noted that those to be ordained cited positive influences like “very high” support from their family, parish priests and Catholic schools.

The 595 men to be ordained in 2015 is an increase of 25 percent from 2014, when 477 men were ordained to the priesthood. In 2013, 497 men were ordained Catholic priests, the U.S. bishops’ conference reports.

A survey from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, based at Georgetown University, received responses from 411 of the men: 317 prospective ordinands for 120 different dioceses as well as 94 ordinands who are vowed religious.

The median age of the priests-to-be is 31, a slight decrease from past years. Respondents to the survey said they first began to consider a vocation to the priesthood at the age of 17 and received encouragement to pursue a vocation from an average of four people. Most said a parish priest encouraged them, while under half said friends, parishioners, and mothers had encouraged them in their vocations.

Most have been Catholic since infancy, though seven percent were converts. Eighty-four percent said both of their parents were Catholic, while about 37 percent said they had a relative who is a priest or vowed religious. Half attended Catholic elementary schools. They were somewhat more likely than other Catholics to have attended a Catholic high school and were much more likely to have attended a Catholic college than other U.S. Catholics.

Almost 80 percent had been an altar server, while half had served as a lector. Seventy percent said they prayed the rosary regularly before they entered seminary, while a similar number said they participated in Eucharistic adoration before entering the seminary.

Almost 70 percent identified their race as Caucasian, European American or White. Fourteen percent identified as Hispanic or Latino, while 10 percent said they were of Asian or Pacific Islander background.

About 60 percent of 2015 ordinands had completed college before entering seminary.

Father W. Shawn McKnight, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, voiced concern about new seminarians’ student loan debt. About 26 percent had educational debt when they entered seminary, averaging $22,500.

“Considering the high percentage of the men ordained already having earned an undergraduate degree, it will be important to find ways to assist in debt reduction in the future,” Fr. McKnight said.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

The fix that wasn’t: law professor says Indiana legislature demoted religious freedom

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • April 10, 2015

Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally in Washington D.C., June 2012. (CNA)

South Bend, IN — A Notre Dame law professor says religious liberty in Indiana was set back by the state legislature’s hasty reaction to strong criticism of a law intended to strengthen religious freedom protections.

“The fix is a substantial, and in my judgment misguided retreat from the original Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and I think it gives away too much of religious liberty,” Professor Gerard V. Bradley said in an April 6 phone conference sponsored by the Federalist Society.

“Those in favor of religious liberty should have opposed the fix, and even have been prepared to repeal the Indiana RFRA if that’s what it took to avoid enacting the fix,” he continued, charging that the amendment “bears all of the signs of a piece of legislation drafted in a hurry, passed in haste, and frankly not very well thought out.”

In Bradley’s view, the amended bill shows that legislators see religious conscience as “secondary in importance and value to the right to be free of discrimination.”

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on March 26 signed legislation declaring that state and local governments may not substantially burden a person’s right to the exercise of religion, unless they demonstrate a compelling government interest and use the least restrictive means to further that interest.

The law was in large part modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which passed Congress almost unanimously and was signed into law by Bill Clinton. The legislation is intended to restore religious protections which had been eliminated by Supreme Court decisions.

The initial Indiana law did not mention sexual orientation, but it became the subject of intense media coverage which depicted it as “anti-gay.” CEOs, celebrities, major sports events and leaders of some city and state governments threatened boycotts or otherwise criticized the law as discriminatory.

The Indiana legislature amended the law to say that it was not intended to allow discrimination in the provision of services, facilities, public accommodations, employment, or housing to the general public on the basis of several characteristics, including race, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. Gov. Pence signed that legislation on April 2, saying he wanted the legislature to clarify that the legal standard “would not create a license to discriminate.”

Bradley said the action solved the immediate political problem facing Indiana, but had “alarming features” from the perspective of religious liberty.

The law professor said he agreed with what he believed to be the critics’ concerns that no law should allow the denial of services like restaurant or hotel accommodations to people based on their sexual orientation.

However, he distinguished between orientation and conduct, and said the debate over the initial legislation was “commandeered” by those who said that it would “allow religion to license and privilege discrimination.”

Bradley said the amended law now has a “very, very narrow exemption” that applies religious liberty protections only to churches and non-profit religious organizations.

It offers no protections to closely-held businesses or to non-profit non-religious entities.

The amended Indiana law would offer “no protection” to a Christian bookstore with a handful of employees, a kosher butcher shop, or small psychology counseling firms or family therapy firms that work from a Christian perspective.

“Those persons would have no protection under this law” and would be obliged to hire people who did not share their religious viewpoint, Bradley said.

Unlike standards in other laws and regulations, there is no exemption for small proprietors of boarding houses or businesses composed of five or six employees.

“The fix goes way beyond the problem to which it is supposed to be a solution,” he said.

He added that the amended law, for the first time in Indiana state law, uses phrases like “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” but does not define them.

Bradley reflected on the need to change the narrative about religious freedom protections.

“The way to really understand what’s going on is to have a different narrative in place,” he said, recommending that religious freedom advocates give “a much greater, fuller account of how religion contributes to diversity.”

For Bradley, the diversity that’s most at risk in the marketplace and in public life is not diversity of sexual orientation but diversity of religious points of view.

“Especially in wedding services, we’re looking at whether there should be an ideological cleansing of certain professions or certain trades so that persons with traditional religious convictions would no longer be able to enter those professions or perform in those trades,” he explained. “I think that’s a great loss of diversity, reduces pluralism, and sends the wrong message to believers.”

What’s at stake, he said, is whether a person of traditional religious convictions “can actually become a wedding photographer or a wedding florist.”

Bradley said a better modification to the Indiana law could have satisfied both sides in the debate by focusing “strictly upon conduct.” The law could have barred requiring a service provider to participate in an activity contrary to their religious beliefs “so long as reasonable alternatives to that service were available.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

Over a decade after its debut, ‘The Passion’ stands alone

by Carl Kozlowski • April 3, 2015

There was a time in the 1930s through the ‘50s when Bible-based films were regularly released by Hollywood, as grand spectacles filled with moviedom’s biggest stars. Many of these became timeless classics, watched each year during the Easter and Christmas seasons.

Who doesn’t love watching “The Ten Commandments” every Easter, with an all-star cast of legends led by Charlton Heston bringing some of the most exciting stories ever recorded to life? It still plays today on ABC after 40 years of annual showings, and still draws viewers nationwide, and this year it is just one faith-filled option for viewers, as NBC starts airing the epic miniseries “A.D.” about the earliest days of the Christian church after Christ’s return to Heaven.

Yet none of those movies ever depicted the true horrors of Christ’s suffering for our sins like Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion of the Christ.” Even more than a decade after the release of that 2004 release, I am rendered speechless each time I see it.

Under the careful guidance of writer-director Mel Gibson, the film takes an uncompromising look at the mockery and scourging of Christ, and the long walk He endured lifting the cross on the way to Calvary, and His precious Sacrifice for our sins.

I can recall the reactions of not only myself, but the packed theatre around me in a Los Angeles suburb, as we all began the movie with a celebratory mindset tied to the fact we finally had a movie that truly respected our Savior. But by the end, that mood had turned to a grim sadness as Gibson and star Jim Caviezel took us through the bloody pain of each of the lashes.

By the time the movie ended with Christ dying on the cross before emerging triumphantly from His tomb, much of the audience was in tears, and a phenomenon took form. While the movie was on its way to making more than $370 million in the US and $600 million worldwide, much of the mainstream media and Hollywood itself (Mel Gibson financed the movie himself, and chose an independent distributor outside the Hollywood mainstream) didn’t understand why the movie was resonating with so many.

“The Passion” has continued to have a hold on the minds and hearts of many believers, especially Catholics. Even if Gibson has some unusual angles to his take on Catholicism, he clearly understands and embraces the unimaginable horrors that Jesus endured for us, and the unflinching look he provided has inspired many to re-watch the movie annually on Holy Week and especially Good Friday.

Such repeated viewings reflect a desire to connect with Christ in a way that is hard to do via a mere reading of the Bible or our own personal imaginations. To see Caviezel as Jesus streaked with blood, and His skin shredded by whips, His head subjected to the crushing cuts of the crown of thorns and then to be nailed to the cross and left to die – all of these bring the story to life in a fully present fashion that makes viewers almost feel as if they were there with the Lord.

But the message of hope brought by Christ’s resurrection and re-emergence from the tomb is in the film’s last scene, of course, even more important. And the success of “The Passion” financially led the way to the current wave of Christian and Biblically-themed films – from “Heaven is For Real” and “God’s Not Dead” to “Do You Believe?” and the latest “Exodus” – that are again helping bring Heaven to earth.

Let us pray that God will continue to inspire future artists to keep making such great films, and that the world will remain open to seeing them.

Carl Kozlowski has been a professional film critic and essayist for the past five years at Pasadena Weekly, in addition to the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the conservative pop culture site Breitbart.coms Big Hollywood, the Christian pop culture magazine Relevant and New City newspaper in Chicago. He also writes in-depth celebrity interviews for Esquire.com and The Progressive. He is owner of the podcasting site radiotitans.com, which was named one of the Frontier Fifty in 2013 as one of the 50 best talk-radio outlets in the nation by talkers.com and will be relaunching it in January 2014 after a five-month sabbatical. He lives in Los Angeles.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

Putting on Christ

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • April 8, 2015

Etched in film memory of the 1940s is the scene in “Easter Parade” featuring Irving Berlin’s “In Your Easter Bonnet.” Wearing their new Easter outfits are the stars of the movie, Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. With others, they strut along Fifth Avenue singing the famous song. Even pet dogs, decked out in canine finery, prance along the Avenue with their owners.

In many cultures, Easter marks the time for special foods. Easter breads in different shapes and sizes are decorated with hard-boiled eggs placed in the center of the breads. Eggs, especially at Easter time, are a symbol of the resurrection, for while it is dormant, the egg contains new life within it. With other culinary delights, the breads grace the table, colorfully-decorated. Specially-prepared vegetables, rack of lamb symbolizing the Lamb of God as well as butter carved in the form of a triumphant lamb complete the table’s Easter delicacies.

New Life in Christ

Using the Passover feast to explain new life to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells them to “get rid of the old yeast and so that you may be the new batch of dough” (1 Cor 5:6). During the Paschal season, the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours emphasizes new life in Christ as opposed to the old way of living. Having been plunged into the waters of baptism, the new Christian, and we who renew our baptismal vows, are raised to new life. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). Not only refreshed, we are ready to don the new Easter robe, a symbol of putting on Christ.

St. John Chrysostom (d 407) is considered the greatest preacher in the Early Church. His Baptismal Instructions use vivid imagery to make the teachings of the faith attractive and meaningful to his people. For this reason, he is called “golden-mouthed.” (Greek prefix, chrys, meaning gold or new.)

Chrysostom’s Baptismal Instructions would read like an ad for new clothes, except for the fact that he is speaking about donning the baptismal robe of new life in Christ. In each of the twelve instructions, he cannot stress enough the words of St. Paul, that through baptism, “all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on the wedding garment of Christ” (Gal 3:27). The soul becomes washed, metaphorically. He is fond of speaking about the beauty of the Christian’s new robe. By donning the majestic robe, the Christian is marked as a disciple of Christ. In this way, the Christian puts on the beauty and brilliance of Christ. Like Easter strollers along Fifth Avenue, the new Christian proudly ‘wears’ Christ but without fanfare. Didn’t Jesus command: “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16)? Good example needs no words.

Easter Is a Mindset

Easter is not a day but an attitude of mind. It is for this reason that the Church sets aside many weeks for us to bask in Christ’s glorious resurrection and to contemplate the meaning of new life in him. Great joy and exuberance characterize the liturgical readings at Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours. The Lord has triumphed over death. And so shall we all, for we know that our Redeemer lives.

“We are Easter men and women, and alleluia is our song.” (St. Augustine)

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.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

The Mysterious Word: Mine

by Alice von Hildebrand • April 9, 2015

The word “mine” is so rich in meanings that inevitably, it is opened to equivocations. Ambiguity is one of the main sources of error, if not downright heresies. There is an inevitable discrepancy between the immense variety of objects and “subjects” in the cosmos that call for our attention, and our limited human vocabulary. As a result, we often use the same word for things that are vastly different: for example, we use the word “love” to refer to God and to chocolate! Any wise man – i.e. any truth lover – must constantly be on the lookout from fear of falling into the numerous traps set by equivocations. In another context, I already have pointed to the fact that the word “good, if not properly defined, can be gravely misleading.

When we say “mine”, the first meaning likely to come to mind is “possession”, that is anything over which I have control, that I have the “right” to dispose of as I please. But anyone philosophically alert, will immediately realize that this meaning threatens to be extended to domains where it is not only gravely inappropriate, but moreover can open the door to terrible abuses with serious moral consequences.

It makes sense to say: “this is my pocket book”: I own it; it is my property, it is the fruit of my labor. I can dispose of it as I please. To take it from me is theft”. This also applies to my piece of land, my house, my furniture, art objects in my possession, my silverware. All the objects mentioned are inanimate, material, visible. But it is crucial to realize that the relationship between myself and my property is a ‘one way street’. Whereas I am legally entitled to do with it as I please, it would be nonsensical to claim that it has any “right” over me. This becomes doubly luminous if we turn to other relationships where the word ‘mine” is fully adequate, but has a totally different meaning.

When I say: “my parents”, it necessarily implies a reciprocal relationship between us because I am “their child”. Parents cannot be severed from child and vice versa: it necessarily refers to a very deep bond.

How tragic is the trial faced today by the ever increasing number of children who do not know who their parents are, or still more often who their father is. It is inevitably experienced as a “betrayal” which, in many cases, it is. Woe to those who escape from a sacred duty. Am I wrong in fearing that one of the grave threats menacing our society today is the loss of the sense of sacredness. This has been clearly perceived by Gabriel Marcel.

My parents are those to whom I owe my physical life, those God has chosen as instruments to bring me into existence. Hence my duty of reverence and gratitude toward them as formulated in the Ten Commandments. “You shall honor your father and mother”. Both G.K and Dietrich von Hildebrand, in their respective Memoirs, have found moving words to express their gratitude toward their respective father and mother. But the duty is reciprocal: parents have a moral obligation to love their children and to provide for them.

When I refer to someone as “my brother”, it inevitably follows that I am “his brother or his sister”. When a person declares that John is “her” husband, we know that she is his “wife”. My “husband” does not mean my “possession”, but refers to the one I love, to whom, with God’s permission, I have given myself. The same is true of “my wife”.

“My teacher” indicates that I am his or her student. As soon as perceive this very obvious truth, it becomes evident that “possession”, in the sense of “ownership” - was fully justified when referring to inanimate objects - is nonsensical and gravely “immoral” when extended to persons. No one has the right to claim “possession” over other human beings. The abominable word “slavery” (alas, often practiced and still is) is a very black mark on the sad history of the world. Whoever is “weak”, that is the poor, the sick, the elderly, women or children have been — and still are in certain societies — treated as chattel. It is one of the tragic cases in which something has often been deemed “legal” and is shockingly immoral. Woe to the society that legalizes crime and immoral behavior. It is inevitably digging its own grave.

One of the objections that can be raised against democracy is that a “majority” is often made up of ignorant, amoral and immoral people, spoon fed on the poisonous food offered by the news media, twenty four hours a day.

Five centuries before Christ, Socrates solemnly proclaimed that “we should obey God rather than men”. (Apology) His spiritual son, Plato, following in his steps, has rightly been dubbed “a preparer of the ways of Christ”: indeed, it also a basic tenet of Christianity. We are morally obliged to oppose any “law” which tramples on the natural moral law, accessible to all men of good will. The legalization of abortion is a case in point. It is plainly naïve to assume that the “majority” is always right and that its decisions are therefore “morally justified”. It only tells us that a particular ruling was endorsed by a larger number of votes.

The legalization of abortion on January 22nd 1972, was determined by a handful of Supreme Court members by a simple: “in favor.” By uttering these two words, they have cold bloodedly condemned to death millions and millions of innocents, and they did it “with a good conscience.” In any society that wishes to survive, “immoral” and “legal” should never be identified. Woe to the nation that denies this luminous truth.

Justice — the foundation of any society — is a virtue which, alas, has often been trampled upon. How many parents have treated their children as their “possession”, claiming the right to determine “who they are”, what they should do etc. Alas, the same thing is true of “wives.” How many ruthlessly brutal and selfish husbands have viewed them as their “thing”, and not as human persons of equal dignity: “after all, she is my wife,” i.e. “I can deal with her as I please.”

The history of the world is to a large extent, the history of crying injustices. It is luminous that we should all aim at correcting them. But alas, many are those who believe that the world could be made perfect if the state took over, and through human engineering and laws guarantee the creation of a “paradise for the workers.” This has given birth to the Gulags Archipelago.

It is also worth noting that when I say, “so and so is my father”, that by this very fact, I exclude his being the father of innumerable other children. But, it definitely does not exclude his being the father of my siblings. It is the sad fate of the single child to exclude the word “our” when referring to his father. It should be experienced as a deprivation; how enriching it is to say: my father and our father.

Another case that calls for our attention is when one speaks of God. It is inconceivable that someone saying: “My God” refers to any sort of possession. It should mean my “Creator”, the one to whom I owe everything, the one who calls for “adoration” which is the only adequate metaphysical posture toward Him. To view Him as my “possession” would be the peak of insanity.

But what do the words “my God” refer to? Why is it that “my” in this case necessarily implies “our”? The reason is obvious: because there can be only one God, and it necessarily follows that this one God has a relationship to all His creatures, independently of whether they know it or not, accept it or not. In other words: truth is catholic, ie, universal. It is offered to all men; but woe to those who reject it willingly because “it limits their sovereignty”. This is the tragic position of Nietzsche.

To claim with the Gnostics and similar sects, that “truth” is the exclusive property of the “elect”, is not only nonsensical but is a moral abomination. If something is true, and apprehended as such, it is by this very token “ours”. This is the cancerous error of relativism: to say, “This is true for me, not for you” defies reason. This is a primitive confusion between the statement which matches the fact to which it refers, and the particularly person to whom this fact applies to.

Alas, when a marriage breaks down, it does happen that an unworthy father will say to his wife,”It is your duty to take care of your child. You know that I did not want it; it is your fault.” This refers to a similar drama that Gabriel Marcel has enlighten in one of his plays: a husband says to his wife “your child”, referring to a miscarriage that she recently had. Bitterly she replies: “Indeed, by saying ‘your child,’ you hint at the chasm that has opened between us.” A child is always and necessarily “our” child.

Even when the father of the child is totally unknown (in the case of rape), the fact remains that this non-identifiable person has a bond with the newly conceived child, whether he acknowledges it or not. The first without the second is a betrayal. (Of course, I exclude the case of a father dying before the birth of his child). When the widowed mother remarries, the “step father”— through what Gabriel Marcel calls “the creative vow as essence of paternity” (Homo Viator) — is called upon to become a “real” father. That is, to achieve “the triumph of love over biology.”

Alas, the consciousness of having fathered a child and the moral obligation that derives from it, has, in our “advanced” society, been systematically undermined through an educational system hijacked by the devil. Children are now taught that sex and the conception of a child should be radically severed. To claim that sex is linked to procreation — an inheritance from the dark ages — puts an unbearable burden upon the “legitimate enjoyment” of the first. This refusal to be fathers is a condemnation of our society where a top notch priority is to respect the “rights of sex.” The de facto father is deaf to the cry of the newly conceived baby begging him to call him “Father, Abba.”

If we were willing to listen to the lessons of history, we would realize that a society in which the family collapses, is an agonizing society.

The most disastrous fact that has occurred today is that this “betrayal” is now duplicated by women who – female Judases to their most sacred mission – consider degrading to give birth – a major obstacle to a brilliant career which would be theirs is they could liberate themselves from “the slavery of the female body.” Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex) does not hesitate to declare “women hate their own bodies.” She is free to hate her own, but I claim my right to loudly disagree and proclaim that all women should have a feeling of awe for a body which once, was the cradle of the Savior of the world. A woman who writes that “she hates babies” is “un-sexed” to quote Shakespeare. (Macbeth) It gives us a pre-taste of hell.

Was it not Nietzsche who said that women are better or worse than men? It definitely applies to this case. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage and he was foolish. Feminists definitely trump him: they sell their “privilege” to give life (which Simone tells us animals do better and more efficiently) in order to have their names in the New York Times or to appear on television or to have her name on the list of potential presidents of the USA.

One is tempted to claim that if Descartes had published today his famous Discourse of the Method, he would have replaced the words “I think, therefore I am” with “I am on television, therefore I am”!

It is written, “Even if your mother abandoned you, I will never abandon you” said the Lord. (Isaiah 49- 15) Why is it that the word “mother” is used and not the word “father”? Why is it that Eve is called “mother of the living” and Adam is not called “father of the living”? This teaches us an important lesson. It clearly tells us that the bond between mother and child is a much closer one than the one between father and child which – in some way – must be “conquered.”

Let us repeat: physical possessions actually refers to things that cannot accompany me in my casket. This radical deprivation – all my possessions are taken from me – which takes place at the moment of death, also applies to “my” body which, within hours, is a corpse; a handful of dust. We should daily remember that “we are dust and in dust we shall return.” The only thing left are my sins: not a very desirable possession.

But death does not mean non-existence. For our soul, being immortal, cannot die. Death – a word that makes us turn pale – means that body and soul are brutally severed from one another until the awesome day of the resurrection of “Brother Ass”, as St. Francis calls it. It is a fearful punishment because man is both body and soul. To my mind, the dogma of the resurrection of the body – which seems to be very close to a re-creation – is one of the most awesome one of our faith, and is solemnly proclaimed in the Credo recited at Mass.

Dualism – a denial that man is made up of body and soul – is to be thrown out of court, but the fact remains that death severs their union. It is a fearful punishment that destroys our body – not our soul – and in fact creates a type of “dualism” which justifies the exclamation of St. Augustine: “I, I the soul.”

All of us have suffered the cruel loss of dearly loved ones: it would be unbearable to think that they no longer exist. We think of them; we talk to them; we tell them that we love them. This is a fact that cannot be denied and yet this separation of soul and body is a fearful fact. We cannot speak to a corpse; but we can only speak to a person.

It might be a wise from time to time to picture oneself lying in a casket, just covered with a sheet and then draw the metaphysical consequences. May we be “ready” when this awesome hours comes.

It is noteworthy that upon taking one’s final vows in religious orders, the candidate makes a vow of “poverty”, that is a willing renouncing of all earthly possessions. In his Holy Rule, St. Benedict emphatically tells his monks that once they enter the monastery, their “poverty” should be so radical that even their “very body” is no longer “their possession.” These are hard words, and one needs grace to understand them, and still more to live them. Referring to possessions, he writes that this vice especially is to be “radically rooted out”. (Chapter 33) The word “mine” is replaced by the word “our”. It clearly indicates that “possession” is fraught with moral dangers: it is probably true that most human conflicts are related to them. One of my students’ brother, a lawyer, once said to her: “In my testament, I shall not leave a single penny to my children. My law practice has taught me that siblings whose relationships have been harmonious, often break up any contact fighting over their inheritance. For this reason I have given all my children a very good education, enabling them to provide for themselves, but I will leave them nothing in my will; I do not want them to start fighting over money.”

One thing is certain: earthly possessions are, for all of us, a very real danger. They are attractive; they are tempting … but for this very reason, they are a threat to our spiritual welfare.

But while lying in my casket, my bond with father, mother, siblings and husband and friends remains fully valid and defies death.

We live in a morally decadent society that is a society where the sacred bonds between husband and wife, father and child, brother and sister are gravely threatened. Years ago, it would have been inconceivable to even mention homosexual marriages. It was universally acknowledged that physical union between two males or two females was “against nature, repulsive” and, as Plato saw it, endangering the very fabric of society. (Laws, 836) St. Paul writes that “there are things that should not even be mentioned among you.” Homosexuality is definitely on the list. But alas in a society like ours where the news media are a sort of Leviathan aiming at controlling our minds, much of society is fed on lies – and a good lie is one that sounds true. Noble words such as “compassion”, “justice”, “broad mindedness” have been hijacked by the Evil one who knows exactly what “berceuse” will put our conscience to sleep.

The “never sleeping” devil is behind the scenes, the dynamic “conductor” of many television channels, perversely aiming at controlling education and convincing those of us that are immature and gullible, that anything is legitimate as long as it satisfies our urges and leads to self- fulfillment. Let us think about the human “mess” created by this diabolical legalization. How is one man to refer to the other? Obviously he cannot call him “my husband”, and in the case of lesbians, “my wife”. The only option left them is to call the other “my partner” – a word meaningful valid in business and in sports, but is horribly jarring when applied to deep human relationships.

Homosexuals, condemned never to have the privilege of being parents, now claim another right granted to heterosexuals: to adopt children, and “become” parents. The situation in which these poor adopted children are placed is nothing short of abominable. How are they to refer to those who have adopted them? Father number one and father number two? The noble word “father” is dishonored and degraded. This creates a human chaos indicative that we have entered apocalyptic times: that is when confusion will be such as to seduce even the elect if this were possible.

What is fearful is that for years, small – apparently harmless – steps were taken which clearly indicated the direction that the ship was taking: endless repetition of slogans and fashionable words which in fact were aiming at putting our conscience to sleep and prevent us from realizing that the wolf was at the door.

Always again, we should meditate on the words of Isaiah: “Woe to those who call good evil and evil good.” (5:20)

If homosexual “marriages” (a horribly jarring “music”) have gained legality, one could cynically raise the question: “if anything goes”, is it not time to reintroduce polygamy and polyandry which have been practiced in several cultures? They are efficient ways of solving certain social problems. Polygamy is the best solution to fight “under population” (when a society has been decimated by a devastating plague) and polyandry will be enthusiastically endorsed in a society where there is an overpopulation of males, and under population of females (something bound to happen in China where many more baby girls are murdered than baby boys). Why should the word “our wife” or “our husband” be still ostracized? Have not the “noble” social sciences (which Edith Stein calls “science in baby shoes”) taught us that it was practiced in many societies with positive results? By excluding it, are we not a bit “narrow minded”? Why not open five stars restaurant whose main menu are steaks of exquisite tenderness, using the flesh of recently aborted babies? Why waste these precious proteins? Gourmets are likely to appreciate this dish.

This leads me to the heart of this article: abortion. The various distinctions mentioned above might be helpful in discussing the very sensitive and crucial question of one’s relation to one’s body.

The key argument used by abortionists is that each one of us has a right to make decisions over his or her own body: “if anything can truly be called “mine: it is my body. Ergo, nobody, absolutely nobody, has a right to tell me what I should do or not do with it. To set limits to this “fundamental right” is the peak of immorality and every immoral law should be abolished. This is “progress”. Hence, Roe v. Wade was a victory guaranteeing the legal protection of a “right” that for a longtime, has been shamefully trampled upon by prejudices inherited from the “dark ages.”

Be it remarked however that there are two main causes preventing us from “seeing”: lack of light, and excess of light. This has been eloquently illuminated in Plato’s Republic (Book VII, 518). When the “philosopher” leaves the dark den and enters into the “real” world, he is “blinded” by the sun, and his first response is: “I am worse off than before.” Today, the age of faith is always referred to as the “dark ages”. It is legitimate to ask the following question: is this “blindness” triggered by lack of light, or by the brightness of the sun of revelation? Who would dare claim that the age that produced a St. Thomas Aquinas, a St. Bonaventure, a Dante was dark? Let us compared them to a Voltaire, a Rousseau, a Diderot, etc. if we dare. The French Encyclopedists prided themselves in claiming that they have “finally” brought the world out of the dark den of ignorance and prejudice created by religious myths, and now a glorious future opens up for us: “reason” will finally be recognized to be our exclusive guide. Has history justified their claim? The 20th century might go down as one of the bloodiest of all centuries, for our glorious technology has taught us to kill more people, faster and more efficiently than before. What should be said of today? It is tempting to suggest that those living in the dark night of “unbelief”, relativism, subjectivism have lionized those who lit a candle in a cellar, and are now acclaimed as heroes?

There is such a thing as what I dubbed “pseudo obvious” (see Wahrheit, Wert und Sein) that is a catch sentence that “sounds” so convincing that it is accepted at prima vista as self- evident, and intellectually paralyses us, preventing us from putting it under the lenses of a healthy critical approach. It is treated as an “epistemological diplomatic passport” passing custom without check-up. The conviction that “my” body is my full personal possession is a case in point: it sounds overwhelmingly convincing.

Upon careful examination, this claims is totally unwarranted, unless we clarify the meaning of the word “mine”. In the light of what we said previously, it should be clear that the word is ambiguous. Which one applies in the present case. It definitely cannot be called “possession” in the sense that I possess an inanimate object outside of me. If this were its only meaning, it would justify abortion. But my body is not an object outside of myself: it is not something I “have”; I “am” my body, a body closely united with a soul, i.e. I am a “human” person. A body does not belong to the essence of “personhood”: neither God nor Angels have bodies, but it essentially belongs to human persons. Animals have a body but are not persons.

That my body is “mine”, meaning the material, physical “house” in which my soul inhabits at present, cannot be denied. This implies that I and I alone “know” it: I feel it and register the slightest disturbance which occurs in it. I “feel” that I have a stomach when it is upset. I feel that I have legs when I suffer from cramps. I feel that I have eyes when they are inflamed. I feel that I have ears when I have an ear infection. This is true of all my organs; in this sense I can say that I like my body best when it is “silent”. But the case is very different when we deal with pleasant sensations. Then a Falstaff wakes up in all of us and makes us feel constantly craving to duplicate them. But the problem is that precisely because they are so subjectively satisfying, once we know them, we shall crave for more of them, and will soon discover that we “cannot do without them”. This is the very nature of addiction. A body that keeps screaming for them is a very uncomfortable “Brother Ass”. Most of us, instead of holding the bridle of a rebellious horse, will find it “easier” to yield to its demands, which, in time, will become more and more dictatorial. Anyone or anything standing in the way of these cravings, will be deemed our enemy. The soul becomes the slave of the body. That this is the situation of innumerable persons and gives us a key to all sorts of vices. Bad habits “justify” many immoral actions. “I could not do without it.” Hence the role of asceticism in any authentic religious life.

?When I drink a delicious vine, I and I alone, feel the pleasure that this noble liquid triggers in me. Let us imagine the grotesque case of a ruthlessly selfish husband who would say to his wife: “You told me that my pleasures are yours. For this reason, I won’t share with you the delicious Bordeaux that I just received. My drinking it will take care of your own satisfaction.”

When a beloved person suffers excruciating pains, and I stand by his bed side, and say to him: “I suffer with you” (con patire) this shared “suffer with” does not mean that I feel exactly what the beloved one suffers, but that to see him suffer resounds so profoundly in me that the word “con patire” is fully adequate. In such cases, it is also fully understandable that one says to the loved one: “How grateful I would be if I could take your sufferings upon me and by so doing, liberate you”. These are words when I heard from my mother, while aged five I was close to death. Too weak to say “thank you” I recall saying to myself: “Don’t you ever forget these words.”

While standing at the foot of the cross, Mary was actually “crucified” with her beloved son, even though they were no nails in her hands and feet, and her holy body was not hanging on a cross.

But this leads me to another question: is my body the “fruit” of my labor? Obviously my body is not “mine” in the sense in which Michelangelo can claim that the Pieta was his work – in fact the fruit of blood, sweat and tears. Had he not existed, this great work of art would not exist. This is true of all physical, artistic or intellectual work, always preceded by long and painful labor pains. Whether we think of the Cathedral of Chartres, Saint Peter Basilica in Rome, King Lear of Shakespeare, The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci, the St. Matthew Passion of Bach, the ninth symphony of Beethoven, Don Giovanni of Mozart, we should realize that they are the fruits of months of agonizing work. God gave these artists great talents – and they should thank Him for the gift – but the hard work, the pain, the effort are nevertheless required of the artists. The severity of these labor pain are known only to those who have suffered them.

But “my body”, that is, the material organism in which I am living, which I can see, hear, feel, weigh – the “house” in which I reside – was not and could not have been the fruit of my own labor. Not only it is impossible and self-contradictory to claim that “I have made myself” for it would imply that I pre-existed my own existence. The question: who is the giver of this amazing gift? (a question that preoccupied the young Chesterton who, conscious of the awesome gift of life, did not know at that time who was the person he should thank). For what purpose was it given to me? That my father and mother played a biological role is not to be denied, but both the semen and the eggs were pre-given, and placed in their bodies without any collaboration on their part: they were a precious gift. It was not their doing; they too received it. Finally they were both incapable of guaranteeing that the tiny, practically invisible semen, would reach the egg. The father is totally out of the game; so is the mother even though the “drama” of conception will unfold in her body.

Once the egg is fecundated, we are facing a human person. I recall one of my students, deeply upset because of my condemnation of abortion in all its forms. Her argument was that the tissues that are now in a pregnant female womb were neither chosen by her nor welcome. Therefore it is both her “right” and her “duty” toward herself to get rid of an uninvited guest. I told her that had I had the privilege of conceiving a child – for it is a privilege indeed – I would have conceived a human person – tiny as it, inevitably is in its first stage of development. An acorn contains all the glorious beauty of an oak tree. A bud is an invisible lily. If she could convince me that what she had conceived a rat, I would be the first to advise her to have it “surgically removed”. True as it is that this tiny little person has not accomplished anything, its metaphysical dignity is equal to the one of a genius. One has it or does not have it; it cannot be acquired by “growth” and actions.

I declare emphatically that the mysterious organism which is now hidden in its mother’s womb cannot in any way be called “hers”: for we cannot possibly possess another’s life. We have already hinted at the fact that even our own life is not “our possession”: it was a gift for which we will have to give an account to the Giver. Indeed, “what do we have that we have not received”? (1 Cor. 4- 7)

Let me repeat: material objects can be “possessed”. But it is a moral abomination to claim that “persons” can ever be someone’s possession. ?

Why do women abort or let themselves be convinced that they should get rid of an “unwanted” guest? There are very different reasons. There are tragic cases: an innocent teenaged girl is brutally raped, and finds herself pregnant from a man who disgusts her. If she keeps the baby, the consequences are going to impact her for life. Moreover, if the innocent baby discovers one day that he is the fruit of rape, he will inevitably have the feeling that “he should not have existed”.

In our “immoral” society where religious and moral education is either totally neglected, or non-existent, it is loudly denied that killing a baby is murder. It is easy to convince this young woman that there is an easy solution to a troublesome problem, namely abortion: a fast and harmless procedure. There are millions of young girls who have neither the means nor the maturity to take care of babies, and are grateful that there is an escape route to this troublesome problem. “No one has the right to claim that this unwanted growth deserves legal protection.” Some young girls are actually thrown on the street if they refuse “help” (i.e. abortion).

There are also cases in which a family lives in utter poverty and feels that they have no right to bring another starving child into the world. There are, alas, cases in which parents carry a gene which inevitably will give birth to crippled children. Do they have the “right” to bring another “victim into the world”? Don’t we have the duty of eliminating suffering?

What is often purposely not mentioned is that there are many charitable organizations always ready to offer help to such tragic cases. Good Counsel founded by Father Benedict Groeschel and Christopher Bell come to mind.

But in our society innumerable abortions are performed as a matter of course, killing children who happen to be conceived at an “inconvenient” moment, ruining the prospect of an exciting safari, or a possible promotion in one’s job. Moreover, a child is costly: to have a baby means to deprive oneself of many enriching experiences to which is “entitled.” “After all, one lives only once, and I have the right to decide the course that I want my life to take.”

I repeat: the moment that the news media have convinced the masses that my body is exclusively mine, the door became wide open to numberless murders of defenseless innocents.

In the light of what we have mentioned, is it true that my body is my property as my pocket book is – the fruit of my labor? One thing is obvious: I did not give my body to myself; I have no “merit” whatever in having brought it into existence. I have received it. When I receive a gift, I am morally obliged to ask what was the intention of the giver?

One thing is certain: no one will ever see what he does not want to see. In discussing what I have dubbed “sensitive” questions, i.e. those related to our personal existence, we should honestly ask ourselves the question: do we wish the answer to conform to what we perceive as “advantageous” to us? By raising this question by “more convenient”, do we mean “more subjectively satisfying”? Those fighting tooth and nail for the legality of abortion should honestly ask themselves whether their “eloquence” is not dictated by subjective personal interest. It is tragic to think that what is “subjectively” advantageous today trumps what is “right”. Moreover, in the long run turn out that an immediate advantage, might turn out to be gravely harmful to my soul. Plato must have had something similar in mind when he wrote that man is his own worst enemy. Those fighting against abortion are not self-seeking: they are fighting for is what is morally right. This is their one and exclusive concern. Can the same be said about abortionists?

There is a sentence in St. John’s Gospel which sheds magnificent light on our topic Christ questioned by the Pharisees about the validity of his teaching, responded: “… if any man’s will is is to do His will’, he will know whether the teaching is from God.” (VII, 7) This sentence is so profound that it calls for our special attention. Logically, it is obvious that the intellect precedes the will: the latter needs information coming from the former in order to make decisions. But Christ knows the trickiness of our fallen nature, and draws our attention to the fact that if we do not want to do something (for subjective reasons) this decision will block our intellectual vision, and then we can claim “honestly” that “we do not see”. A blind person wishes to see; a person whose choices are dictated by personal advantages, chooses blindness, and we all know that we shall never see what we do not want to see. Anyone wanting abortion to be morally legitimate, will never, absolutely never, perceive the luminous validity of the arguments presented by those fighting for life. Little Samuel, in the temple said: “speak, O Lord; thy servant listens”. The abortionists’ prayer is “do not speak; I am not listening”.

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.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

Paul Walker’s legacy lives on in his charities, latest film

by Carl Kozlowski • April 10, 2015

Last weekend, while most of us Catholics were focused on Easter weekend and the three most holy days of the year, the movie “Furious 7” – the seventh movie in the “Fast and the Furious” series of action movies - was breaking records at the box office. While seemingly just an action film filled with two hours of mayhem involving fast cars, explosions and the race to control a microchip that could create the most powerful surveillance system on the planet, the movie resonates with viewers on a deeper level for several reasons.

The most obvious reason is that the series’ costar, Paul Walker, died in 2013 during the making of the film as he and a friend took a wild joyride in a car that burst into flames, killing them almost instantly. It was initially easy to label this as merely reckless behavior and scoff at the 40-year-old Walker for having engaged in such reckless behavior, but then a deeper picture of the man emerged – with an Entertainment Weekly reporter writing that Walker was the most genuinely decent star they had met in the 15 years of their writing career.

It turned out that Walker was a devout Christian who was deeply involved in charitable activities that went far beyond writing donation checks and showing up for attention on red carpets. He founded the charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW), a disaster relief organization that was designed to cut through the usual red tape and help rush urgent care to the people suffering from the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

In the three years between ROWW’s founding and Walker’s death in 2013 (the charity still goes strong today), it sent medical teams to Indonesia after the 2010 tsunami, and sent an entire crew of workers to lead the clean-up in Alabama after it was devastated by tornadoes. In fact, Walker bought $15,000 in power tools himself and then had his friends drive his own pickup truck from California to Alabama filled with even more tools.

Another hotspot for ROWW help was the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, the largest storm ever recorded. And Walker was also training to become a paramedic, with thoughts of giving up acting in the next few years to save lives for a living.

These are surprisingly deep involvements for a Hollywood actor in his prime, and Walker further showed strong character as a deeply involved father to an unexpected daughter he fathered at age 25. But these concerns and actions fit in with the surprisingly deep ethos that underpins the “Fast and Furious” film series- especially those from the fourth film on.

It was in that 4th film, 2009’s “Fast & Furious”, that the series’ other main star, Vin Diesel, demanded a greater say in the writing and direction of the movies in the series. And with that insistence came a stronger emotional subtext to the movies, as the gang emphasized just how much the other members were like family to them.

There was also a strong element of faith and prayer that got heightened in the last four films, as Diesel’s character Dominic Toretto, frequently wears a crucifix (in fact, a crucifix in the newest film is a key plot point) and leads his family and friends in sincere prayers before meals. It’s refreshing to see a team of bone-crunching, speed demon all-American heroes can also be shown as people of faith who draw more strength from that than from their perceived coolness.

There’s not much else out worth seeing this month of April, all the way until the release of the new “Avengers” movie on May 1. Action movie fans will have a blast with the latest “Furious” movie, but the rest of us who want to see people of prayer portrayed positively in Hollywood will find plenty to be happy here.

Carl Kozlowski has been a professional film critic and essayist for the past five years at Pasadena Weekly, in addition to the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the conservative pop culture site Breitbart.coms Big Hollywood, the Christian pop culture magazine Relevant and New City newspaper in Chicago. He also writes in-depth celebrity interviews for Esquire.com and The Progressive. He is owner of the podcasting site radiotitans.com, which was named one of the Frontier Fifty in 2013 as one of the 50 best talk-radio outlets in the nation by talkers.com and will be relaunching it in January 2014 after a five-month sabbatical. He lives in Los Angeles.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

SUNDAY • APRIL 12, 2015

Second Sunday of Easter • Sunday of Divine Mercy

First Reading (Acts 4:32-35; NRSVCE)

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Second Reading (1 Jn 5:1-6; NRSVCE)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

Gospel Reading (Jn 20:19-31; NRSVCE)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

MONDAY • APRIL 13, 2015

Monday of the Second Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 4:23-31; NRSVCE)

After they were released, Peter and John went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:

‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples imagine vain things?

The kings of the earth took their stand,

and the rulers have gathered together

against the Lord and against his Messiah.’

For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Gospel Reading (Jn 3:1-8; NRSVCE)

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

TUESDAY • APRIL 14, 2015

Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 4:32-37; NRSVCE)

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Gospel Reading (Jn 3:7b-15; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

WEDNESDAY • APRIL 15, 2015

Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 5:17-26; NRSVCE)

Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. Then someone arrived and announced, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

Gospel Reading (Jn 3:16-21; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

THURSDAY • APRIL 16, 2015

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 5:27-33; NRSVCE)

When the officers had brought the apostles, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

Gospel Reading (Jn 3:31-36; NRSVCE)

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

FRIDAY • APRIL 17, 2015

Friday of the Second Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 5:34-42; NRSVCE)

But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the apostles to be put outside for a short time. Then he said to them, “Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them — in that case you may even be found fighting against God!”

They were convinced by him, and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:1-15; NRSVCE)

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

SATURDAY • APRIL 18, 2015

Saturday of the Second Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 6:1-7; NRSVCE)

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:16-21; NRSVCE)

When evening came, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.