VOLUME 1, ISSUE 16  •  APRIL 18, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: Now is the time for mercy

Mercy inseparable from life, mission of the Church, says Pope

Touch and be healed by the merciful wounds of Christ, Pope says

Pope recalls slaughter of Armenians in ‘first genocide of the 20th century’

Evangelization isn’t a synonym for advertising, Pope says

Pope Francis: Vocations are about quality, not quantity

Vatican unveils a packed, diverse itinerary for Pope’s Sarajevo visit

A dark, tense history: behind Turkey’s protest of the Holy See

Pope Francis: If men and women aren’t different, we have problems

Papal blessings for Asia Bibi’s family, as death sentence still looms

American Sisters accept Vatican reforms on doctrine, theology

On 88th birthday, Benedict XVI lauded for emphasis on mercy

Pope Francis to honor Junipero Serra at American seminary in Rome

How much time does it take to reform the Vatican? A lot

Pope Francis to Cuba? It’s not official, but possible, Vatican says

Is a ‘springtime’ of leadership blooming for women in the Vatican?

WORLD NEWS

Kenyan bishop laments terrorism, calls for unity

Priest who died on the Titanic could be on path to sainthood

Relic of Saint John Paul II makes pilgrimage to Cuba

High-profile Rome exorcist: ‘ISIS is Satan’

With Iraqi Christians besieged, these are the priests and nuns who choose to stay

Kidnapped Nigerian girls deserve more than just a hashtag, activist says

Australian bishops: the suffering need compassion, not suicide by drugs

U.S. NEWS

After controversy, NJ Catholic school reinstates teacher with plea for ‘truth and charity’

Don’t thwart nuclear agreement with Iran, bishop warns Congress

The new celibacy? How porn may be destroying the impetus for sex

Getting married? Want to stay married? These Catholics can help

Anti-Cordileone ad misrepresents Catholicism, archdiocese says

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago dies at 78

National outpouring of love, prayers for Cardinal George

FEATURES

Händel’s ‘Messiah’ at Easter Time

Raising perfect children by teaching authentic family values

Movie review: ‘While We’re Young’

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • April 19, 2015

Monday • April 20, 2015

Tuesday • April 21, 2015

Wednesday • April 22, 2015

Thursday • April 23, 2015

Friday • April 24, 2015

Saturday • April 25, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 16 • 2015-04-18

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: Now is the time for mercy

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

Pope Francis venerates the Cross on Good Friday, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — In a world marked by suffering and fierce persecution – especially of Christians – now “is the time for mercy,” Pope Francis said, speaking at the vigil for the Feast of Divine Mercy.

Reflecting on the ongoing persecution faced by Christians, the Pope said, “our prayer is all the more intense and becomes a cry for help to the Father, who is rich in mercy, that he may sustain the faith of our many brothers and sisters who are in pain.”

For our part, we are to seek the grace of “conversion of our own hearts,” whereby we are moved “from indifference to compassion,” he added.

The pontiff made these remarks during his homily for Evening Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica, minutes after a public proclamation of the Jubilee for Mercy in front of the Holy Door.

The Jubilee is an Extraordinary Holy Year that will open this year on Dec. 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – and will close Nov. 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

The Pope first announced the Year of Mercy on March 13, the second anniversary of his pontifical election, during a Lenten penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Mercy is a theme that is dear to Francis, and is the central topic of his episcopal motto “miserando atque eligendo,” which he chose when ordained a bishop in 1992.

Speaking the evening before the Feast of Divine Mercy, which falls on the first Sunday after Easter, Pope Francis recalled Jesus’ words to his disciples, “Peace be with you!”

During the Easter season, he said, this concept of peace “remains the desire of so many people who suffer unprecedented violence of discrimination and death simply because they bear the name ‘Christian’.”

Regardless of life’s difficulties and sufferings, the pontiff said – citing St. Paul – the hope of salvation won for us the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection “continues to grow.”

“The mercy of God is poured out upon us, making us just and giving us peace,” he said. “This is a time for the Church to rediscover the meaning of the mission entrusted to her by the Lord on the day of Easter: to be a sign and an instrument of the Father’s mercy.”

Pope Francis explained that he declared this Jubilee of mercy because we are living at a “time of great historical change” which calls the Church “to offer more evident signs of God’s presence and closeness.”

This period in history is a time where the faithful “need to be vigilant and to reawaken in ourselves the capacity to see what is essential,” he said.

“This is the time for mercy.”

The aim of Jubilee Year of Mercy is to encourage the faithful to “welcome the numerous signs of the tenderness which God offers to the whole world,” the Pope continued.

These signs of God’s tenderness are especially offered to the suffering, the alone, the abandoned, and those “without hope of being pardoned or feeling the Father’s love.”

“It is the favourable time to heal wounds,” he stressed, “a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.”

Pope Francis concluded his short address by calling on Mary to help the faithful “comprehend the task to which we have been called” during this Holy Year of Mercy, helping to experience the year “as faithful and fruitful witnesses of Christ.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Mercy inseparable from life, mission of the Church, says Pope

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

Celebration of Vespers on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2015. (Elise Harris/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis officially proclaimed the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy by reminding the faithful that mercy cannot be separated from the life and ministry of the Church.

“Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life,” Pope Francis wrote in the official declaration, released April 11. “All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy. The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love.”

“Wherever the Church is present, the mercy of the Father must be evident,” he said.

Pope Francis released the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, on Saturday, moments before presiding over Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica for the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday.

The title of the bull is Misericordiae Vultus – or, “The Face of Mercy.”

The Pope first announced the Year of Mercy on March 13, the second anniversary of his pontifical election, during a Lenten penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Jubilee, also known as a Holy Year, will open this year on December 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

That feast, during which the Church celebrates that Mary was conceived without Original Sin, “recalls God’s action from the very beginning of the history of mankind,” the Pope wrote.

“When faced with the gravity of (Adam and Eve’s) sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy,” he said. “Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive.”

Each of the four papal basilicas in Rome has a holy door, which is normally sealed shut from the inside so that it cannot be opened. The doors are only opened during Jubilee years so that pilgrims can enter through them in order to gain the plenary indulgence that is connected with the Jubilee.

When it is opened, the Pope writes, “the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.”

One of the characteristics of this Jubilee will be that it not be limited to Rome, but will be extended to churches – and even some sanctuaries – around the world “as a visible sign of the Church’s universal communion.”

The Holy Year will conclude Nov. 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

“On that day, as we seal the Holy Door, we shall be filled, above all, with a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for having granted us an extraordinary time of grace,” the Pope wrote.

“How much I desire that the year to come will be steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God!”

Pope Francis also observed the significance that the Jubilee year’s opening will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, which ushered the Church into “a new phase of her history.”

“The Council Fathers strongly perceived, as a true breath of the Holy Spirit, a need to talk about God to men and women of their time in a more accessible way,” he said. “The Church sensed a responsibility to be a living sign of the Father’s love in the world.”

Pope Francis reminded the faithful that the capacity for mercy begins with learning to listen to God’s Word, which requires “rediscovering the value of silence” in order “to contemplate God’s mercy and adopt it as our lifestyle.”

The Holy Year also offers an opportunity for pilgrimage to the Holy Door, which also represents the journey towards mercy through “dedication and sacrifice,” he said.

“May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion,” he said. “By crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been with us.”

Pope Francis spoke about Christ’s command not to judge our brother.

“To refrain from judgement and condemnation means, in a positive sense, to know how to accept the good in every person and to spare him any suffering that might be caused by our partial judgment and our presumption to know everything about him,” the pontiff reflected.

However, he warned that this is not enough in expressing mercy.

“Jesus asks us also to forgive and to give,” and “to be instruments of mercy because it was we who first received mercy from God.”

The Jubilee is also an opportunity to reach out to those on the fringes of society, Pope Francis said – “fringes modern society itself creates.”

“Let us open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of our brothers and sisters who are denied their dignity, and let us recognize that we are compelled to heed their cry for help!”

He also called the faithful to “enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy,” and rediscover the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

“We cannot escape the Lord’s words to us, and they will serve as the criteria upon which we will be judged: whether we have fed the hungry and given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked, or spent time with the sick and those in prison.”

Pope Francis also warned that we will be judged on whether “we have helped others to escape the doubt that causes them to fall into despair and which is often a source of loneliness.”

“This Holy Year will bring to the fore the richness of Jesus’ mission echoed in the words of the prophet: to bring a word and gesture of consolation to the poor, to proclaim liberty to those bound by new forms of slavery in modern society, to restore sight to those who can see no more because they are caught up in themselves, to restore dignity to all those from whom it has been robbed.”

Pope Francis stressed the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation during the Jubilee for Mercy.

“Let us place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the center once more in such a way that it will enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands,” he said.

The pontiff then challenged priests to become good confessors, insisting that they “be authentic signs of the Father’s mercy.”

“Let us never forget that to be confessors means to participate in the very mission of Jesus to be a concrete sign of the constancy of divine love that pardons and saves.”

To expand the possibility for reconciliation, Pope Francis said certain priests during Lent 2016, as part of the Jubilee, will have the authority to grant pardon to sins which can otherwise only be pardoned by the Holy See.

These “Missionaries of Mercy,” he said, “will be, above all, living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon. They will be missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism again.”

Pope Francis went on to address the “relationship between justice and mercy,” stressing that they “are not two contradictory realities, but two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds progressively until it culminates in the fullness of love.”

“Justice is a fundamental concept for civil society, which is meant to be governed by the rule of law,” he said, but he warned against a legalistic interpretation which distorts the “original meaning of justice and obscuring its profound value.”

“Mercy is not opposed to justice but rather expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe.”

The Holy Father went on to reflect on mercy as it relates to those outside the Church: specifically, Judaism and Islam, “both of which consider mercy to be one of God’s most important attributes.”

“I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination.”

Finally, Pope Francis called on the faithful to turn to Mary during the Jubilee for Mercy, on whose feast the Holy Year will be commenced.

“No one has penetrated the profound mystery of the incarnation like Mary,” he said.

“In this Jubilee Year, let us allow God to surprise us. He never tires of throwing open the doors of his heart and repeats that he loves us and wants to share his love with us. The Church feels the urgent need to proclaim God’s mercy. Her life is authentic and credible only when she becomes a convincing herald of mercy.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Touch and be healed by the merciful wounds of Christ, Pope says

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

Francis greets Supreme Armenian Catholicos Karekin II during on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 12, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — In his homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis said that Jesus’ scars are full of mercy, and encouraged attendees to imitate the apostle Thomas in touching them and allowing their hearts to be converted.

“The Lord shows us, through the Gospel, his wounds. They are wounds of mercy. It is true: the wounds of Jesus are wounds of mercy,” the Pope told attendees of his April 12 Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday.

Jesus, he said, “invites us to behold these wounds, to touch them as Thomas did, to heal our lack of belief. Above all, he invites us to enter into the mystery of these wounds, which is the mystery of his merciful love.”

Pope Francis celebrated his Divine Mercy liturgy – which is a feast instituted by St. John Paul II and is celebrated on the Second Sunday of the Church’s liturgical Easter season – for faithful of the Armenian rite in honor of the centenary of the Armenian genocide.

Also referred to as the Armenian Holocaust, the mass killings 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.

Many faithful and bishops of the Armenian rite were present for Sunday’s Mass, including Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II.

During the Mass, Francis also proclaimed Armenian-rite Saint Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church, making the 10th century priest, monk, mystic, and poet the first Armenian to receive the title.

In his homily, during which he referred to the 1915 systematic killing of Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century,” Francis said that it is through Jesus’ wounds that we can see the entire mystery of Christ’s incarnation, life and death.

From the first prophecies of Lord to the liberation from Egypt, from the first Passover and the blood of the slaughtered lambs to Abraham and Abel, “all of this we can see in the wounds of Jesus, crucified and risen,” he said.

In the face of human history’s tragic events, “we can feel crushed at times, asking ourselves, ‘Why?’” the Pope noted.

“Humanity’s evil can appear in the world like an abyss, a great void: empty of love, empty of goodness, empty of life,” he continued, explaining that only God is capable of filling the emptiness that evil brings to both human history, and our own personal hearts.

Francis encouraged attendees to follow the path that leads from slavery and death to a land full of life and peace, saying that “Jesus, crucified and risen, is the way and his wounds are especially full of mercy.”

He pointed to the saints as examples that teach us how the world can be changed beginning with the conversion of one’s own heart. This conversion, he said, only happens through the mercy of God.

“What sin is there so deadly that it cannot be pardoned by the death of Christ?” he asked.

After his Mass, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to recite the Regia Coeli – a traditional Marian prayer given special emphasis during the liturgical Easter season.

In his address, the Pope noted how Jesus’ encounter with Thomas in the upper room marked the first time the Lord showed the disciples the wounds on his body.

Thomas, who was not there the first time Jesus appeared to the disciples, was not satisfied with the testimony of the others and wanted to see for himself, Francis said, noting that Jesus waited patiently and offered himself to Thomas’ disbelief.

“Upon the salvific contact with the wounds of the Risen Lord, Thomas manifests his own wounds, lacerations, humiliations,” the Pope said, explaining that in the mark of the nails, the apostle found “sweetness, mercy and decisive proof that he was loved, awaited and understood.”

“He finds himself in front of the Messiah full of sweetness, mercy and tenderness,” the Pope observed, saying that it was this personal contact with the “kindness and patient mercy” of Jesus that made Thomas realize the true meaning of the Resurrection.

Just like Thomas was transformed by the love of God who is rich in mercy, we are also called to contemplate the Divine Mercy of Jesus that is found in his wounds.

Mercy “overcomes every human limit and shines on the darkness of evil and sin,” Francis said, and pointed to the upcoming Extraordinary Jubilee for Mercy as an intense time to welcome and deepen in the love of God.

He referred to the papal Bull of Indiction he released at last night’s Vespers for Divine Mercy Sunday, which also served as the official announcement of the upcoming Jubilee for Mercy, and pointed to the bull’s title “Misericordiae Vultus,” or “The face of Mercy.”

“The face of mercy is Jesus Christ. Let us keep our gaze upon him,” he prayed, and led pilgrims in the Regina Coeli prayer.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope recalls slaughter of Armenians in ‘first genocide of the 20th century’

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

Francis celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday liturgy for faithful of the Armenian rite on April 12, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis today referred to the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 as a “genocide,” prompting the Turkish government to summon the Vatican’s ambassador for questioning.

“In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies. The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the twentieth century,’ struck your own Armenian people, the first Christian nation,” the Pope said April 12.

Francis’ reference to the genocide was taken from a common declaration signed by both Pope Saint John Paull II and Supreme Armenian Patriarch Karekin II in 2001.

His comments took place before celebrating Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, which is a feast instituted by St. John Paul II and celebrated on the Second Sunday of the Church’s liturgical Easter season.

Francis offered the Mass for faithful of the Armenian rite in commemoration of the centenary of the “Metz Yeghern,” or Armenian “martyrdom.” April 24 is recognized in Armenia as the official date of the start of the event.

Many faithful and members of the Armenian rite were present for Sunday’s Mass, including Armenian president Serz Azati Sargsyan, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II, Catholicos Aram I and Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX.

The Pope has kept strong ties with the Armenian community since his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, and a group of Argentinian Armenians were among those gathered for the Mass.

During the Mass, Francis also proclaimed Armenian-rite Saint Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church, making the 10th century priest, monk, mystic, and poet the first Armenian to receive the title.

Widely referred to as a genocide, the mass killings took place in 1915-1916 when the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated its minority Armenian population who called Turkey their homeland, most of whom were Christians. Roughly 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

Turkey has repeatedly denied that the slaughter was a genocide, saying that the number of deaths was much smaller, and came as a result of conflict surrounding World War I. The country holds that many ethnic Turks also lost their lives in the event.

However, most non-Turkish scholars refer to the episode as a genocide. Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay are among the 22 nations that formally recognize the massacre as a genocide.

Reports have circulated saying that the Turkish government summoned the Vatican’s papal nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, for questioning after the Pope’s genocide comment.

When CNA phoned the Turkish embassy to the Holy See, they declined to comment, however the apostolic nunciature in Ankara responded by saying that the nuncio had in fact been called.

After Francis made his comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement expressing their “great disappointment and sadness” at the Pope’s remarks. They said the words signaled a loss of trust and contradicted his message of peace, the Associated Press reports.

The foreign ministry also held that Francis’ words were discriminatory, because he only mentioned the pain suffered by Christians, and not Muslims or any other religious group.

In his greeting ahead of Sunday’s Mass, Pope Francis noted how “bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even defenseless children and the infirm were murdered” in the 1915 massacre, which targeted Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks.

Francis also called to mind other tragic events of the 20th century, including the violence perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism, as well as other mass killings carried out in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.

“It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent blood (and) has refused to learn from its mistakes caused by the law of terror,” he said, noting that the enthusiasm to end such violence that came at the end of the Second World War seems to be “disappearing.”

By the “complicit silence of others who simply stand by,” the agenda of those who seek to eliminate others continues, the Pope said.

“Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who cries out: ‘What does it matter to me? Am I my brother’s keeper?’”

It is both necessary and a duty to honor the centenary of the “immense and senseless slaughter” the Armenians had to endure, Pope Francis said, because when memories fade, evil can enter and make old wounds fester.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it!” he said, and stressed that evil is never something that comes from God.

In a message given to the Armenian community after the celebration, Pope Francis said that to remember the event is the responsibility of the whole world, so that it can serve as a warning not to repeat similar “horrors” in the future.

He expressed his hope that Turkey and Armenia would work toward a greater reconciliation, and prayed that the Mass and proclamation of St. Gregory as a Doctor of the Church would be an occasion for all Christians to unite in prayer.

At the close of the Mass, Catholicos Karekin II spoke in English, saying that the Armenian genocide is “an unforgettable and undeniable fact of history.”

The genocide is deeply engrained into the consciousness of the Armenian people, the patriarch said, therefore “any attempt to erase it from history and from our common memory is doomed to fail.”

Karekin observed that according to international law, genocide is a crime against humanity that closely intertwines with condemnation, recognition and repatriation for the act, so therefore the Armenian cause is one of “justice.”

In the years after the genocide the Armenian Church has never forgotten “the continuous concern, assistance and solidarity of the Church of Rome toward Armenians,” he said.

The patriarch then expressed his “deep gratitude” to Pope Francis, praying that he would be strengthened in body and spirit so as to continue his ministry “with renewed dynamism and spiritual courage.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Evangelization isn’t a synonym for advertising, Pope says

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

Pope Francis at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on April 10, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Giving witness to Jesus Christ is more than mere advertising, Pope Francis said: it’s the act of courage in proclaiming the Gospel “with frankness” even to the point of martyrdom.

Christians do not simply “advertise Jesus Christ” with the aim of increasing our numbers, the pontiff noted during his daily Mass homily on April 13. “This is not necessary.”

“What the Christian does is to announce with courage, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ causes, through the Holy Spirit, that astonishment that keeps us going,” he said, according to Vatican Radio’s translation.

Pope Francis centered part of his reflection on the day’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, recounting the threats made against the apostles Peter and John during their imprisonment for speaking the name of Jesus.

Through the Holy Spirit, the pontiff said, Peter and John – although “simple” and “uneducated” – are given the “strength to proclaim Jesus Christ up until the final witness: martyrdom.”

Despite being threatened by their captors, the apostles continued to proclaim God’s word “with frankness” and encouraged others to do the same.

“We cannot keep silent (about) what we have seen and heard,” the pontiff said, recalling the apostle’s prayer to speak God’s word boldly, and “not flee” from the threats they receive.

Pope Francis went on to speak about the “path of openness” and “Christian courage,” which he says is relevant today.

“The path of Christian courage is a grace given by the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said. Courage, he added, is an instrument of the Holy Spirit. Without Him, “we can do many things, much work, but it is not of any use.”

Pope Francis turned to the Gospel reading for the day, which recounts what he described as the “mysterious” conversation in which Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of the need to be “born anew” in the Spirit (John 3:3).

“On this journey of openness,” the Pope said, the “true protagonist” is “precisely the Holy Spirit,” who is “the only one able to give us this grace of courage to proclaim Jesus Christ.”

“And this courage of proclamation is what distinguishes us from simple proselytism,” Pope Francis said.

The Holy Father cited the passage from John, in which Jesus says: “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

“Only the Spirit is able to change our attitude,” he said, to “change the story of our lives, to change our being.”

Pope Francis spoke about the period of preparation after Easter for receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

He concluded: In celebrating “the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus,” he called on the faithful to remember “the whole history of salvation,” asking “for the grace to receive the Spirit to give us the true courage to announce Jesus Christ.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: Vocations are about quality, not quantity

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

A religious sister at the Beatification of Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 4, 2014. (Jeffrey Bruno via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Vatican City — Well-formed vocations are more important than numerous vocations Pope Francis said in an address to religious formators on Saturday at the Vatican.

“There is not a vocations crisis where there are consecrated people able to transmit the beauty of consecration with their own witness,” the pontiff said, according to Vatican Radio’s translation.

Even in the midst of declining numbers in some religious communities, the Pope said formation – rather than recruitment – should nonetheless take priority.

“It is necessary to be lovingly attentive to the path of each and to be evangelically demanding in every phase of the path of formation,” he said, “beginning with vocational discernment, so that the eventual crisis of ‘quantity’ might not determine the much graver crisis of ‘quality.’”

Pope Francis spoke to a gathering of some 1,300 formators who were in Rome Apr. 7-11 for a five-day conference on the theme: “Living in Christ according to the way of Life of the Gospel,” an event put on by the Congregation for Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Although Pope Francis recently announced the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Year of Consecrated Life is still going strong. It began Nov. 30, the first Sunday of Advent, and will conclude Feb. 2, 2016, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus.

Pope Francis expressed particular affection for the young people under the care of those responsible for their formation in the religious life, and stressed the importance of this ministry.

“Consecrated life is beautiful. It is one of the most precious treasures of the Church, rooted in the vocation of baptism,” the pontiff said.

Those responsible for the formation of young people, he added, have the “privilege to participate in the work of the Father who forms the heart of the Son in those whom the Spirit has called.”

“In each of you I see our young people, protagonists of the present living with passion, and promoters of a future animated by hope. Young people who, moved by the love of God, search for the path they are to take in their own lives in the church.”

He urged formators to be true mothers and fathers to those under their guidance. Formators should possess “a great heart for the young, to form in them great hearts, able to receive everyone, hearts rich in mercy, full of tenderness.”

“The young must be formed in humble and intelligent freedom to let himself be educated by God the Father every day of their life, at every age, both in the mission and in fraternity, both in action and in contemplation,” he said.

During the audience, Pope Francis also warned against the temptation of feeling that their task as formators is a burden insofar as it takes away from other duties.

“The mission is important, but it is also important to form those for the mission, form the passion of proclamation, the passion for going wherever, in every periphery, to tell everyone about the love of Jesus Christ, especially to those far from the Church, to the little ones, and to the poor, and let ourselves be evangelized by them.”

“All this requires a solid base, a Christian structure of one’s personality that today families rarely know how to give,” he added. “And this increases your responsibility.”

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic life issued a statement, signed by the Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, on Apr. 13 following the conclusion of the five-day conference.

In the message, translated by Vatican Radio, Cardinal Aviz stressed the essential role of those responsible for the formation of young religious men and women.

“The Church loves you, appreciates you, and prays for you: without your service consecrated life could not exist.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican unveils a packed, diverse itinerary for Pope’s Sarajevo visit

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 14, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his Oct. 29, 2014 General Audience. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis will meet with a vast array of different groups during his daytrip to Bosnia, which is a visit Sarajevo’s cardinal says could help ease political and ethnic tensions after the country’s recent war.

Francis announced his June 6 trip to Sarajevo during his Sunday Angelus address Feb. 1, asking pilgrims to pray so the visit would be “one of encouragement for the Catholic faithful, fosters seeds of good and contributes to the consolidation of fraternity and peace.”

His audiences for the day range from meetings with Bosnia’s presidency and authorities to its bishops, priests, religious and seminarians. He will also meet with different interreligious leaders before holding a final encounter with youth that will wrap-up his events.

Sarajevo’s archbishop, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, told CNA April 8 that the Pope’s trip is an opportunity “for the world leaders to make a just peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Historically divided into three key ethnic groups, Bosnia-Herzegovina is composed of a majority of Muslim Bosniaks followed by a large percentage of mostly Orthodox Serbs and a great population of Croats, a majority of which are Catholic.

Ethnic tensions broiled during the country’s 1992-1995 war, during which Bosnia’s Serb population began a policy of ethnic “cleansing” in large areas of Bosnia inhabited by non-Serbs and Muslim, Croat and Serb populations who opposed their army.

In the cleanup that came after the war’s conclusion with the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, a certain calm was established, and a 3-member presidency was formed made up of one Bosniak and one Croat elected from the Federation, as well as and one Serb elected from the Republika Srpska.

The member with the highest number of votes is elected chairman, unless they were the incumbent chairman at the time of the election. The three presidents jointly serve a four year term, and the chairmanship rotates every 8 months in order to ensure equality.

Bosnia’s current presidency consists of Serb offical Mladen Ivanic, who is the current chairman, Croat representative Dragan Covic and Bosniak member Bakir Izetbegovic.

Although peace was established with the close of the Bosnian War in 1995, church leaders in the country say that what exists now is still an “unjust peace” that doesn’t guarantee equal human rights to all, such as a safe return home for those who were displaced, many of whom were Catholic.

In announcing his plan to visit Sarajevo, which is site where WWI broke out in 1914 with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Pope Francis “put Sarajevo, again, at the center of interest of the whole world,” Cardinal Puljic said.

The news made headlines everywhere, he noted, saying that “because of that, the most influential countries and people of the world started again to think about Bosnia and Herzegovina and reconsider the situation here, trying to rebuild the just peace here.”

“In the last few years, Bosnia and Herzegovina was put aside, and now it is again in the center.”

Pope Francis’ meeting with the presidency is the first encounter he will have after his official welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace.

He will then go on to meet with Bosnia’s authorities before holding encounters with the bishops, priests, religious and seminarians of the country.

The Pope is also scheduled to celebrate a Mass in Sarajevo’s Ko_evo stadium, and will meet with interreligious leaders and youth at the end of the day. After his arrival at 7:30a.m., Francis will give a total of four speeches and one homily to his various audiences before returning to Rome at 9:30p.m.

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VATICAN NEWS

A dark, tense history: behind Turkey’s protest of the Holy See

by CNA’s Vatican Observer Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • April 14, 2015

(Matthias Rhomberg via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Vatican City — Pope Francis’ comments on the extermination of Armenian Christians in early 20th century Turkey prompted a strongly worded criticism from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and led to the withdrawal of Turkey’s ambassador to the Holy See. But what’s the full story?

As the April 24 centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide approaches, tensions between Turkey and Armenia run high. Despite this, Pope Francis remembered the martyrdom of the Armenian people during his April 12 Mass at the Vatican.

The Turkish government criticized the Pope and an Armenian representative in a Sunday statement, focusing on the use of the word “genocide.”

Most non-Turkish scholars consider the mass killings of 1915-1916 to be a genocide in which the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated its minority Armenian population, who were predominantly Christian. Roughly 1.5 million Armenians – men, women and children – lost their lives in ways ranging from executions into mass graves to meticulous torture.

Turkey has repeatedly denied that the slaughter was a genocide, saying that the number of deaths was much smaller and came as a result of conflict surrounding World War I. The country holds that many ethnic Turks also lost their lives in the event.

Pope Francis’ comments on Sunday set off a firestorm of criticism among Turkish leaders, prompting the removal of the country’s Vatican ambassador.

What could be lesser known, however, is that the Pope’s introductory remarks included a precise quote of the joint text that St. John Paul II and Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos Karekin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church issued on Sept. 27, 2001, during a papal visit to Armenia.

The text said “the extermination of a million and a half Armenian Christians, in what is generally referred to as the first genocide of the twentieth century, and the subsequent annihilation of thousands under the former totalitarian regime, are tragedies that still live in the memory of the present-day generation.”

Though never read aloud by John Paul II, the words of this joint statement were balanced and correctly stressed that the Armenian massacre is “generally referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century.” On the other hand, John Paul II never spoke aloud the word “genocide” in his speeches in Armenia, though he had acknowledged the Armenian martyrdom when he visited the genocide memorial in Armenia on Sept. 26, 2001.

During that visit, St. John Paul II read a prayer and reminded his audience that the early 20th century pontiff, Pope Benedict XV, “raised his voice in defense of ‘the sorely afflicted Armenian people.’”

“We are appalled by the terrible violence done to the Armenian people, and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity,” John Paul II said.

The same spirit pervaded Pope Francis’ text. A source who works in Vatican diplomacy told CNA April 13 that the papal text had been sent in advance to Vatican diplomatic circles and there had been a discussion over whether using the word genocide could lead to some diplomatic tensions.

In the end, “a full quote from the 2001 joint text was considered the best way to give the message and avoid any diplomatic tension.”

When Pope Francis read the text on Sunday, he did not explicitly say he was quoting John Paul II. This led media reports to emphasize that the Pope recognized the Armenian genocide.

However, the concluding off-the-cuff remarks by Aram I, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, disturbed Turkish authorities even more.

Towards the end of his Armenian-language speech, Catholicos Aram I spoke for about 10 minutes in English. He underscored that “the Armenian genocide is an unforgettable and undeniable fact of history, deeply rooted in the annals of modern history and in the common consciousness of the Armenian people. Therefore any attempt to erase it from history and from our common history is doomed to fade.”

He also stated that “according to the international law, genocide is a crime against humanity. International laws spells out clearly that condemnation, recognition and reparation of the genocides are closely interconnected. The Armenian cause is a cause of justice and as we well know justice is not human made, it’s a gift of God; therefore the violation of justice is a sin against God.”

In the end, these words caused the declaration from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The statement clearly pointed out that it concerned the statements of both “Pope Francis and of the Armenian representatives,” and charged that both of them “contradict historical facts.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement focused on the legal concept of genocide. The ministry said that “claims not fulfilling the requirements of law, even if they are attempted to be explained on the basis of widespread conviction, are bound to remain as slanders.”

The release also objected that Pope Francis’ prior statements referred to the “tragic events” in Bosnia and Rwanda as “mass killings,” which “competent international courts” have declared to be genocides.

The ministry claimed that Pope Francis called “the events of 1915” a genocide “despite the absence of any such competent court judgment.”

These concerns were conveyed to the papal nuncio to Turkey, Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, and are likely part of a formal diplomatic protest forwarded to the Holy See through Mehmet Paçaci, Turkish Ambassador to the Holy See, who has was called to Turkey for consultations on Sunday.

Turkish reaction also comes in the context of the interactions between the Turkish and Armenian governments in view of the upcoming April 24 commemoration of the mass killings. The commemoration will take place in the Armenian capital of Erevan. Many heads of state have been invited, including the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan declined the invitation and organized another ceremony the very same day to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World War I Gallipoli campaign, one of the most famous battles of World War I between Ottoman troops and invading Allied forces. The Turkish president invited U.S. President Barack Obama and the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who declined the invitation.

These splits let understand why the issue has been so strongly addressed by the Turkish government. However, it is noteworthy that both the Holy See newspaper L’Osservatore Romano and the Italian Bishops Conference’s newspaper L’Avvenire referred more to the martyrdom of Armenians than to a genocide, putting into action a prudent – yet tough – language.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: If men and women aren’t different, we have problems

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • April 15, 2015

Pope Francis makes a visit to the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel in Rome on Feb. 8, 2015. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has warned against gender theories which seek to eradicate differences between man and woman, saying they perpetuate the very problems they are trying to solve.

“Experience teaches us: to know each other well and grow in harmony, the human being requires the reciprocity of man and woman,” the pontiff said Wednesday to participants in his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

In his Apr. 15 catechesis, the Pope challenged notions of “so-called gender theory,” and whether it “aims to erase sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”

Observing how such theories are an expression of frustration and resignation, the Pope added: “the removal of the differences is the problem, not the solution.”

“We risk taking a step backward,” he said.

Pope Francis acknowledged that today’s culture has allowed for advancements in the understanding of man and woman’s differences, but warned that “many doubts and skepticism” have also been introduced.

Sexual difference is evident in many life forms, but what makes men and women unique is that they are created in God’s image and likeness, he said.

Recalling that we are called to “listen to and help one another,” the pontiff suggests that without this reciprocal relationship, we cannot understand “what it means to be man and woman.”

Problems with relationships are resolved when men and women speak, listen, know, and love each other more, he added.

Pope Francis also stressed the universal significance of marriage, saying it is “serious matter” for everyone, and not just for Christian believers.

He appealed to intellectuals to not desert the idea of marriage, as though it has become “secondary” in their commitment to build a “freer and more just society.”

Without the “alliance” between men and woman, affection and hope diminish in the world, the pontiff said. He observed that there are already “worrying” signs that this is the case.

There is an urgent need to be attentive to the role of women in the Church and society, and recognize the significance of man and woman being created in the image and likeness of God, Pope Francis said.

In order to strengthen the reciprocal relationship between men and women, women should “not only be listened to more,” but they should be “a recognized authority, in society and in the Church.”

Pope Francis also noted the connection between the crisis in man and woman’s “alliance” and the modern crisis of faith in God.

The Bible, he said, shows how “communion with God is reflected in the communion of the human couple, and that the loss of faith in the Heavenly father engenders division and conflict between man and woman.”

“From here comes the great responsibility of the Church, of all believers, and above all believing families, to rediscover the beauty of creative design, which inscribes God’s image even in the alliance between man and women.”

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Papal blessings for Asia Bibi’s family, as death sentence still looms

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • April 15, 2015

Pope Francis greets Ashiq Mesih in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on April 15, 2015. (Service Photo Vatican SFV)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has blessed the family of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, as they continue to work for her release.

Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Masih, said “the Holy Father blessed and encouraged us.”

Masih and the couple’s youngest daughter, 14-year-old Isham, briefly met with Pope Francis after his Wednesday General Audience.

“We are here in Italy to make sure we can be the voice of an innocent woman who has been suffering in jail for six years,” Masih told CNA April 15.

Asia Bibi was convicted of violating Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws in 2010, an allegation she denies. She was accused of making derogatory comments against Islam’s Prophet Muhammad while arguing with a Muslim woman in 2009.

On Oct. 16, 2014 the Lahore High Court rejected Bibi’s appeal seeking to overturn the death sentence.

Isham, Bibi’s daughter, was nine when her mother was arrested. She defended her mother during an April 14 press conference at Italy’s Chamber of Deputies.

“The accusations against her are false,” Isham said. “My mother was working when two women asked her for water to drink. When my mother gave them the water, they began saying their hands were impure, that Christians are not dignified to eat and drink with Muslims, who are clean. On this basis, the accusation of blasphemy was built.”

Masih told CNA he and his daughter wanted to ask Pope Francis to encourage the government of Pakistan to free Bibi. They also wanted to raise awareness about Bibi’s case before the Pope and European authorities.

Joseph Nadeem, one of Asia Bibi’s lawyers, spoke about her case.

“We still have the hope of a presidential pardon,” he told CNA, saying a pardon would immediately release Bibi. Appeals to the Pakistan Supreme Court “could take a very long time.”

Bibi’s family is seeking help from the international community to pressure Pakistan’s government to help secure a presidential pardon.

Masih visited his wife before the trip to Italy. She is currently an inmate in a prison close to Lahore. Bibi is kept in isolation because sharing a cell with Muslims could put her life at risk.

“Since the day Asia Bibi was arrested, our family is totally destroyed. The children cannot survive without their mother. Asia Bibi misses her children, the children miss her,” said Masih.

“Asia’s faith is very strong, but she cries,” Masih added. “All of our family is praying to God to help her, and so we appeal to international community.”

“The life of Christians in Pakistan is very difficult,” he said, adding that “every Christian is in danger in Pakistan.”

People in Pakistan have made public protests against Bibi’s release.

Some of those released from prison after facing blasphemy charges have been killed. According to Masih, their killers “enjoy great esteem.”

He said that about 74 percent of Pakistan’s population is Muslim, adding “most of them are against Asia Bibi, they don’t want her to be set free.

“If Asia Bibi will be free, she cannot stay in Pakistan, she should move abroad very quickly.”

The blasphemy law has been in effect since 1986.

According to the Pakistan Catholic Church’s National Committee for Justice and Peace, at least 964 people have been charged with the crime of blasphemy from 1986 to 2009. Among these were 479 Muslims, 340 Ahmadis, 119 Christians, 14 Hindus and 10 people whose faith is not known.

Asia Bibi is the first woman sentenced to death under the 1986 law.

The law has faced criticism within Pakistan, as well. Salman Taseer, a Muslim who was governor of Punjab, called the law a “kala kanoon,” a “black law” in the Urdu language, because it can be exploited.

Shabhaz Bhatti, a Catholic who had served as Pakistan’s minister for religious minorities, said that the law is often used “as a tool to solve personal issues” and that 85 percent of the charges are false.

Both Taseer and Bhatti advocated for Asia Bibi’s release. Both of them were assassinated in 2011 by Islamist extremists.

Religious extremism in Pakistan is still a major issue. Fides news agency reported that a 14-year-old boy named Nauman Masih was recently burned alive by a group of Muslims, causing severe burns. After several days at a Lahore hospital, he died April 15.

The boy had reportedly been assaulted because he had said he was Christian.

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VATICAN NEWS

American Sisters accept Vatican reforms on doctrine, theology

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 16, 2015

Religious sisters attend the enthronement of Our Lady of Charity in the Vatican Gardens on August 28, 2014. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — In a joint report marking the conclusion of a multi-year mandate for reform, members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) have agreed to corrections called for by the Vatican, and said they will continue on the path of dialogue.

“We are pleased at the completion of the mandate, which involved long and challenging exchanges of our understandings of and perspectives on critical matters of Religious Life and its practice,” Sr. Sharon Holland, IHM, President of LCWR, said in an April 16 press release.

Officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle and officers of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) met at the Vatican April 16.

Although she was unable to attend the Vatican meeting, Sr. Holland said that “we learned that what we hold in common is much greater than any of our differences.”

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in the press release that “the Congregation is confident that LCWR has made clear its mission to support its member institutes by fostering a vision of religious life that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ and is rooted in the Tradition of the Church.”

This vision, he said, “makes religious women and men radical witnesses to the Gospel, and, therefore, is essential for the flourishing of religious life in the Church.”

Archbishop Sartain, who in 2012 was charged with leading their reform, presented a joint report with members of the LCWR on the implementation of the congregation’s Doctrinal Assessment and Mandate, which was issued in April 2012.

The joint report outlines the process in which the implementation of the mandate has been carried out. With the congregation’s acceptance of the joint report, the Vatican’s doctrinal assessment of LCWR has come to a close.

Members of the LCWR leadership met with Pope Francis today at 12:15 p.m., following the official publication of the final report.

With some 1,500 members, the LCWR constitutes about 3 percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States. However, the group says it represents 80 percent of American sisters since its members are leaders of their respective religious communities.

In April 2012, the Vatican released the findings of a four year doctrinal assessment of the women’s conference, which found a state of doctrinal crisis within the organization, and raised concerns of dissent from Church teaching on topics including homosexuality, the sacramental priesthood and the divinity of Christ.

Among the assessment’s key findings were serious theological and doctrinal errors in presentations at the conference’s recent annual assemblies. Some presentations depicted a vision of religious life incompatible with the Catholic faith, or attempted to justify dissent from Church doctrine and showed “scant regard for the role of the Magisterium,” the assessment found.

At the same time the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith assigned Archbishop Sartain to oversee the conference’s reform, and he was given a mandate of up to five years to help the LCWR review and revise their statues, formation materials, presentations, events and links with affiliated organizations.

A key topic the report addressed was the mandate’s call for a careful review of the LCWR’s publications and programs to ensure that they are faithful to Church teachings.

The conference said that the nature of their publications is intended to address spiritual matters rather than engage in formal theological inquiry, since their audience extends beyond members of the Catholic Church.

However, because of the “vital link between spirituality and theology” as well as the goal to both inspire and grow as women religious, the report consented that all of their publications “need a sound doctrinal foundation.”

“To this end, measures are being taken to promote a scholarly rigor that will ensure theological accuracy and help avoid statements that are ambiguous with regard to Church doctrine or could be read as contrary to it,” the report stated.

It was also noted that a publications advisory committee has been put into place, and that all manuscripts will be reviewed by “competent theologians, as a means of safeguarding the theological integrity of the Conference.”

The choice of assembly topics and speakers – which has been one of the most contested points of the LCWR’s reform mandate – was also addressed in the report.

In order to stay faithful to their mission and service in the Church, the selection of discussion topics and speakers will be carried out in “a prayerful, thoughtful and discerning manner,” according to the report.

In 2012, the same year the original assessment was released, the conference hosted philosopher Barbara Marx Hubbard, an author and promoter of “Conscious Evolution” as the keynote speaker for their annual general assembly.

Since then the concept – which Cardinal Müller cautioned opposes Christian revelation – has been featured heavily in LCWR materials.

“When taken unreflectively,” the cardinal said, the fundamentals of Conscious Evolution “lead almost necessarily to fundamental errors regarding the omnipotence of God, the Incarnation of Christ, the reality of original sin, the necessity of salvation and the definitive nature of the salvific action of Christ in the Paschal Mystery.”

However, the joint report assures that the LCWR will select speakers and presenters who speak “with integrity and to further the aims and purposes of the conference, which unfold within the wider context of the Church’s faith and mission.”

“When a topic explicitly addresses matters of faith, speakers are expected to employ the ecclesial language of faith,” the report reads.

“When exploring contemporary issues, particularly those which, while not explicitly theological nevertheless touch upon faith and morals, LCWR expects speakers and presenters to have due regard for the Church’s faith and to pose questions for further reflection in a manner that suggests how faith might shed light on such issues.”

The report also announced that they have revised the process for selecting the recipient of their Outstanding Leadership Award, which in 2014 was given to Sister Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J. – a theologian whom the U.S. bishops have criticized for serious doctrinal errors, including misrepresentations of Church teaching on God.

The joint report also recognized the revision of the LCWR’s statues, which have been changed to clarify the conference’s role as “a public juridic person centered on Jesus Christ and faithful to the teachings of the Church.”

The revised Statutes were approved Feb. 6, 2015, with an official Decree from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Other topics emphasized in the report were the importance of celebrating the Eucharist and the need to pray the traditional Liturgy of the Hours prayer in religious communities.

The centrality of a communal process of contemplative prayer practiced at LCWR Assemblies and other gatherings, the relationship between LCWR and other organizations and the essential understanding of LCWR as an instrument of ecclesial communion were also discussed.

The report closes with an expression of gratitude for the “clarifying and fruitful conversation” that has taken place throughout the mandate process.

“The very fact of such substantive dialogue between bishops and religious has been a blessing to be appreciated and further encouraged,” it read, and highlighted the commitment of the LCWR leadership to its “crucial role” in serving the conference, as well as bearing witness to the vocation of religious life.

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VATICAN NEWS

On 88th birthday, Benedict XVI lauded for emphasis on mercy

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 16, 2015

Pope Benedict XVI, May 11, 2010. (Mazur/www.thepapalvisit.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — The Vatican official charged with organizing the upcoming Jubilee for Mercy says the topic was the “heart” of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, due to the emphasis he placed on love, which is lived out in mercy.

“We cannot forget that Pope Benedict, his first encyclical was Deus Caritas Est (God is Love). That means the center, the heart of his pontificate was put in the light of love, and love and mercy are the essential for the Church,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella told CNA April 13.

Love, he said, “is mercy (and) mercy is love reaching pardon. We cannot forget the beginning of the encyclical Deus Caritas Est: love is not an idea, love is a person and it means also to meet, to encounter a person.”

Archbishop Fisichella, prefect of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, is responsible for organizing the upcoming Extraordinary Jubilee for Mercy.

Announced by Pope Francis March 13, which marked the second anniversary of his pontifical election, the Holy Year will open this year December 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – and will close Nov. 20, 2016, with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

Pope Francis released the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy April 11, moments before presiding over Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica for the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday. The title of the bull is Misericordiae Vultus – or, “The Face of Mercy.”

For Benedict XVI, “the face of mercy, (is) the face of the encounter with Christ,” Archbishop Fisichella said.

Benedict XVI – who celebrated his 88th birthday April 16 clinking beer glasses with his older brother Georg – shocked the world by resigning from the papacy just over two years ago Feb. 28, 2013.

Pope Francis offered his April 16 morning Mass for the retired pontiff, saying that “I want to remember that today is the birthday of Benedict XVI,” and invited the Church to pray for him, “that the Lord might sustain him and grant him much joy and happiness.”

The 10th anniversary of Benedict’s election to the papacy in 2005 will be celebrated later this month, on April 19.

In the introduction of his encyclical on love, the now-retired pontiff explained that to be a Christian “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

God is the one who took the initiative, and first loved us by giving his only Son so that “whoever believes in him should … have eternal life,” Benedict wrote in the encyclical.

This initiative makes love no longer a command but a response to the gift of love with which God draws close to us, he wrote, saying that “in a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant.”

Archbishop Fisichella referred to the title of the papal bull for the Jubilee on Mercy, saying that it comes from the same idea expressed in Benedict XVI’s encyclical; that mercy is a person, not just a mere concept or idea.

“We should remember that the face is not just something physical. When we speak about (a) face, we speak about what we are,” he said.

“No one can change his face because we are our face, and I think that ‘face’ also means our emotion, our feelings, everything we are is expressed by our face. For this reason, the face of mercy is Jesus Christ, the words of Jesus Christ, the deeds Jesus Christ. (This whole) person is in concrete mercy.”

Benedict XVI also spoke of mercy as both the name and face of God in his Regina Coeli address on Divine Mercy Sunday in March 2008, saying that it constitutes the “central nucleus” of the Gospel message.

Mercy, he said in the speech, “is the very name of God, the Face with which he revealed himself in the Old Covenant and fully in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of creative and redemptive love.”

From God’s Divine Mercy, peace is brought to individual hearts and also flows out into the world, generating genuine peace between different peoples, cultures and religions, Benedict said.

In an Angelus address a year earlier in September 2007, Benedict pointed to importance of mercy in contemporary society, saying that “in our time, humanity needs a strong proclamation and witness of God’s mercy.”

Archbishop Fisichella pointed out that St. John Paul II, whom Benedict XVI referred to as “a great apostle of Divine Mercy,” was a key witness that answered what Benedict called an “urgent pastoral need” for mercy.

Excerpts of John Paul II’s second encyclical “Dives in misericordia,” or “Rich in Mercy,” are quoted throughout the papal bull for the Jubilee for Mercy, he noted, explaining that the encyclical remains a historic moment in which the Church deepened in her reflection on the topic.

Mercy was a key theme in the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who wrote Dives in misericordia in 1980, and instituted the feast of Divine Mercy, which is celebrated the Sunday after Easter, in the year 2000 when he canonized Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska. He died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.

For Archbishop Fisichella, mercy was the “mystery” of John Paul II’s pontificate, but with the declaration of a jubilee dedicated to the theme, Pope Francis “is doing something more.”

With a Holy Year devoted entirely to the concrete practice of God’s mercy, Pope Francis is focusing not just on the Church’s celebration of the theme, but how it is lived out, he said.

“Mercy is the content of the pontificate of Pope Francis. From the beginning, his first homily in Santa Anna, his first speech at the windows of the apostolic palace, the (Holy Father) spoke all the time about mercy,” the archbishop noted.

He said that this emphasis on mercy is something that comes from the inside, and which comes directly from Francis in order make “clear what is waiting for the Church and for the mission of the Church today (as) a witness and a preacher of mercy.”

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Pope Francis to honor Junipero Serra at American seminary in Rome

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • April 16, 2015

Pope Francis laughing outside of St. Peter’s Basilica during the general audience on April 1, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Since Pope Francis won’t make it to California for the canonization of its great evangelizer, he will join a celebration at Rome’s American seminary to honor the soon-to-be saint and encourage devotion to him.

The Pope will be the guest of honor at a May 2 day of prayer and reflection on the life of Bl. Junipero Serra, set to be held at the Pontifical North American College, according to the program sent out with invitations to the event.

Francis will be joined by seminarians attending the college, as well as the American cardinals currently residing in Rome.

Among them are Cardinals Raymond Leo Burke, James Michael Harvey, James Francis Stafford and Edwin Frederick O’Brien.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet will preside over the event as the president of the Vatican’s Commission for Latin America. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles will also be there as a representative of the episcopate in California, and Archbishop John Myers will be present as chairman of the board of the NAC.

A morning full of talks includes an initial greeting and welcome from North American College rector, Msgr. James Checchio. Capuchin Fr. Vincenzo Criscuolo, OFM Cap. will then speak on the life of the new saint, in particular his “path to holiness.”

Fr. Criscuolo is an official in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints and is inspired personally as Bl. Serra himself was to the Franciscan spirituality.

Archbishop Gomez will deliver a speech on the religious origins of America and long-time Curia member and layman Guzman Carriquiry will comment on the canonization of Fr. Junipero Serra in light of St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation on the Church in the Americas, called “Ecclesia in America.”

The supreme knight of the Knights of Colombus, Carl Anderson, will finish with a talk on “Our Lady of Guadalupe, mother and guide of Fra Junipero Serra, Patron of the American Continent.”

Once the morning encounter is finished, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass with the seminarians and staff of the NAC, as well as priests from the Casa Santa Maria who study in Rome and priests from the Villa Stritch who work in the Vatican.

Lunch will then be served at seminary, however the Pope will not attend.

A news conference for the visit is scheduled to take place in the Holy See Press Office on April 20.

Pope Francis announced his plan to canonize “the evangelizer of the west” in January while on board Sri Lankan Air Flight UL4111 on the way to Manila.

Bl. Serra, a Franciscan priest, lived in what is now California in the 1700s. Born on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Majorca in 1713, he was the missionary who founded the first nine of 21 eventual missions in California. Many of the missions became the centers of major cities like San Diego.

Serra worked tirelessly with the Native Americans, and is said to have baptized more than 6,000 people, and confirmed 5,000. He was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1988.

Though an official program still has not been announced, Pope Francis is expected to canonize Bl. Serra in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. in September of this year.

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VATICAN NEWS

How much time does it take to reform the Vatican? A lot

by CNA’s Vatican Observer Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • April 17, 2015

The Vatican Seal. (Dale Napier via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — Already two years into the reform process of the Roman Curia, progress might seem slow. But cardinals on the Pope’s advisory council say efforts – which may soon include new “super” congregations – are moving forward at a normal pace.

“Reform will take time,” stressed Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga April 15.

Cardinal Maradiaga is part of the nine-member Council of Cardinal Advisors instituted by Pope Francis shortly after his election, to aid him in governing the Church and to reform the Roman Curia.

The Curia is currently ordered by “Pastor bonus,” the apostolic constitution issued by Bl. John Paul II in 1988 which regulates and defines the charges, duties and composition of the offices of the Vatican administration. The Council of Cardinals is now working to prepare a new constitution to govern the body.

Cardinal Maradiaga noted that “Pastor bonus” took several years to implement. “We cannot suppose (a new constitution) is going to be accomplished in short time.”

The drafting of a new constitution has not yet begun, nor have decisions yet been made about a drafting committee for the document.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, another member of the advisory council group, told CNA/EWTN News March 24 that “another year may be needed to draft the new constitution.”

The next concrete step in the reform process may be establishing a special sub-commission to study how to put into effect the proposals for Curia reform up to this point.

The Council of Cardinals met most recently April 13-15. Following that meeting, Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, said that most of the gathering has been dedicated “to a reflection on methodology to be put into effect” this year and next.

In addition, the cardinals considered earlier comments on Curia reform made during the February consistory, which brought together cardinals from across the globe. More than 60 speeches on the topic of Curia reform were made during that time, Fr. Lombardi said.

One area where reform could move forward quickly is in the establishment of two super-Congregations – one for Charity, Justice and Peace, and the other for Laity, Family and Life. These two super-dicasteries would take over the functions and tasks of six current Pontifical Councils, thus streamlining the shape of the Curia.

No objections had been raised to this change, which could “take place even before a new Pastoral Constitution is drafted,” Fr. Lombardi said.

The committee for communication issued an interim report, which was presented at the February consistory, Fr. Lombardi told journalists. “As the report met the expectations of the cardinals, and was not rejected, it turned into a final report.”

Therefore, he said, “it is foreseeable that the Pope will establish a commission in order to concretely think about how to put into effect the Committee for Communication suggestions.”

Fr. Lombardi said that Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston also put on the table the issue of bishops’ accountability in cases of abuse.

Cardinal O’Malley chairs the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, a body created during the Curia reform process. He raised the accountability discussion after a meal he had last month with one of the commission’s working groups that communicates with victims.

The group asked to meet Cardinal O’Malley in Rome to speak with him about some concerns that followed the appointment of Rev. Juan Barros Madrid as bishop of Osorno, Chile.

Protestors had accused Bishop Barros of having covered up sexual abuses committed by Father Fernando Karadima, a priest who had fostered his vocation and been among his close friends decades ago.

The civil case against Fr. Karadima was dismissed as being too far in the past. However, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith completed its own investigation in 2011 and declared 84-year-old Fr. Karadima guilty.

Bishop Barros, along with a number of other prelates, initially did not believe the accusations. Once the reports were confirmed in 2011, Bishop Barros said he “learned about this situation and its diverse and multiple effects with deep astonishment and pain.”

Before his installation, he reiterated in a letter that he had no knowledge of the priest’s abuses and neither approved of nor participated in them. “The deep pain that continues to affect the victims for long years profoundly hurts me. And I reiterate along with the whole Church that there is no place in the priesthood for those that commit those abuses,” he added.

According to a source in the Commission for the Protection of Minors, they were concerned because “some reports gave the impressions that newly appointed bishop did not take in serious consideration the alleged accusations,” and so they wanted to make sure that “guidelines for bishops accountability” were made clear by the commission.

All of these issues will be further discussed in the upcoming meetings of the Council of Cardinals, scheduled June 8-10, September 14-16 and December 10-12.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis to Cuba? It’s not official, but possible, Vatican says

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • April 17, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during his Wednesday general audience April 16, 2014. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — The Holy See Press Office confirmed today that Pope Francis is considering a possible stop in Cuba as part as his trip to United States, which is scheduled to take place in September.

“The Holy Father has taken into consideration the idea to stop in Cuba as part of his coming voyage to the United States,” an April 17 press release from the Vatican revealed.

However, the release clarified that “contact with the authorities of the country is still at a very initial stage, so it is not possible to speak of this stop as having already been decided and that there is an operative project going on.”

Although it’s in the preliminary stages, contact with Cuban officials is sure to be strengthened in the coming week with the visit of Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy, who will travel to the country Apr. 22-28 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Holy See.

Cardinal Stella served as papal nuncio to Cuba from 1993-1999, and helped pave the way and organize St. John Paul II’s visit in 1998, which marked the first-ever papal trip to the Caribbean Island.

The cardinal is set to meet with local clergy during his visit, and will celebrate three Masses. He will also encounter the top officials of the Cuban government and of the Communist Party.

His visit may represent a further fostering of the Holy See contribution in Cuba, and could be seen as a sign of the papal effort to help normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.

On the eve of the Dec. 17 announcement of the normalization of the diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone traveled to Cuba for a private visit.

In the coming days Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, former papal nuncio to Jordan and Iraq, will take up his post as the new nuncio to Cuba. He was appointed to the position March 17, and one of his main tasks will be to help facilitate talks between U.S. and Cuba.

The possible stop in Cuba this year would fit within the framework of Pope Francis’ efforts in the dialogue, since Washington and Havana are currently in talks to re-establish the diplomatic ties.

If the Cuba visit is made official, it would be the first stop in a week-long papal voyage to the United States. Although the official program for the Pope’s trip to the U.S. has not been released, some appointments have been already been confirmed.

Pope Francis will be the first pope to speak to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, which is scheduled to take place Sept. 24.

On March 18, secretary general of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon made it official that Francis will address the U.N. General Assembly in New York Sept. 25, and then move on to Philadelphia Sep. 26-27 to attend the World Meeting of Families.

The Pope’s appointments in New York are also expected to include a visit to Ground Zero, the site of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, that brought down New York City’s twin World Trade Center towers.

In Philadelphia, the two big events the Pope is anticipated to attend are a prayer vigil on the 26th and Sunday Mass on the 27th.

The organizational committee for the Pope’s U.S. visit includes: Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York; Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, papal nuncio to the United States; Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington; Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston; Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, also president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York; Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia; Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, secretary-general at the bishops’ conference, as well as a team of various secretaries and assistants.

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VATICAN NEWS

Is a ‘springtime’ of leadership blooming for women in the Vatican?

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

Pope Francis. (Yahaira Jacquez/CNA)

Vatican City — With more opportunities opening for women to take leadership roles in Vatican councils and congregations, women are filling the ranks of the Roman Curia on a historically unprecedented level.

“I think we are at a point of seeing (a different model) … a springtime for new forms of leadership … in the Church,” Cardinal Peter Turkson said April 14.

Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was speaking to participants of an April 14 conference held at Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

He referenced numerous changes being made in the ongoing reform of the Church and the Roman Curia, noting that the process has led to the opening of new doors for both women and laypersons to take up roles of leadership that have never before been open to them in the Vatican’s governing body.

The cardinal pointed out several recent examples of women serving in positions that until now have only been filled by men.

In 2012 Flaminia Giovanelli was appointed as the undersecretary for his council, the cardinal recalled, making her the highest ranking laywoman in the Roman Curia and the first laywoman to hold the position of undersecretary.

Before Giovanelli’s appointment under Benedict XVI, only one other woman, Sr. Enrica Rosanna, had ever held the position. A religious of Maria Auxiliatrix, Sr. Enrica served as undersecretary of the Congregation for Consecrated Life and Society of Apostolic Life from 2004-2011.

Broken up into different dicasteries, the Roman Curia serves as the Vatican’s governing body, and is composed of nine congregations, 11 councils, three tribunals, the Secretariat of State and three offices dedicated to organizing different areas of the Holy See – including the secretariat for the economy.

Each Vatican congregation is headed by a cardinal prefect, while presidents of the pontifical councils can be chaired by either a cardinal or archbishop, but never anyone below that rank.

Under the cardinals and archbishops of the dicasteries fall the ordinary of the dicastery, the secretary, a group of consulters, the undersecretary, the congress and finally the heads of specific offices and their officials.

Cardinal Turkson revealed that his council is currently looking for a new secretary after the former was reassigned. He recalled that in a conversation with Pope Francis, the pontiff gave the green light for the position to be filled by a woman.

The cardinal made a point to emphasize that while the role of women is increasing in the life of the Church, it’s a process that “takes time.”

Pope Francis has been outspoken on the topic of women, calling for a more “incisive” feminine presence in the Church. Cardinal Turkson noted that previous popes have done the same, and pointed to Saint John XXIII as one of the first popes to draw attention to the advancement of women in his revolutionary encyclical “Pacem in Terris.”

John XIII devoted an entire paragraph to “the growing participation of women in public and political life, consistent with ‘awareness of their natural dignity,’” he said.

“Far from being content with a purely passive role or allowing themselves to be regarded as a kind of instrument, they are demanding both in domestic and in public life the rights and duties which belong to them as human persons,” the cardinal said, quoting the encyclical.

St. John Paul II was also vocal on the importance, and specifically the dignity of women. He placed a strong emphasis on the “feminine genius,” and in the late 1990s shocked participants in a conference on “Women’s Health and Human Rights” by declaring to listeners that “I am the feminist Pope.”

In 1988 John Paul II published the first papal letter dedicated entirely to the topic of women entitled “Mulieris Dignitatem.” The document became the basis for the Pope’s reflections on the role of women in society and in the Church.

Pope Francis has continued the work of his predecessors in calling for an increased presence of women in the life and governance of the Church.

Along with his council of nine cardinals selected and assist him in matters of Church governance and reform, Francis has begun to open new doors not just for women, but also laypersons in general, by allowing more spaces for their leadership on Vatican councils.

Cardinal Turkson noted that another topic on the table for discussion for the Council of Cardinals is the possible merge of the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

When looking at possible heads for such a council, for Pope Francis “the Council for Laity can be managed by a parent, a man and his wife, and the Council for the Family can be taken care of by a similar group,” the cardinal explained.

Pope Francis has also made a point to include more women in his recent appointments to the Pontifical Theological Commission, including Sr. Prudence Allen, R.S.M., who has authored the multi-volume work “The Concept of Woman,” Moira McQueen of Canada, Sr. Alenka Arko, Loyola Community, from Russia and Marianne Schlosser of Austria.

The International Theological Commission is an advisory body which assists the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in examining questions of doctrine, and members are nominated for five-year terms. Women now make up 16 percent of the commission’s members.

Cardinal Turkson also responded to a question posed on how to embolden women in the conference’s theme, “Women’s Leadership in Conflict Resolution: Faith Perspectives.”

In his response, the cardinal noted one woman on his council is currently serving as a representative of the Holy See in Qatar, and that she had formerly been a representative in Strasberg, as well as a consultant at U.N. in Geneva on human rights issues.

Held at Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the event was organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the Russell Berrie Foundation and the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue.

In addition to Cardinal Turkson, other speakers and panelists included U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Kenneth Hackett, Jewish Philosophy professor Irene Kajon, Secretary General of the Italian Islamic Religious Community Dr. Ilham Allan Chiara Ferrero and Donna Orsuto, director of Rome’s Lay Center.

Cardinal Turkson ended his speech by calling to mind the words of Pope Francis during his Angelus address on the 2015 International Day of Women, saying that “a world where women are marginalized is a barren world because women not only give life but they also transmit the ability to see beyond, to see beyond themselves.”

Women, he said, “transmit the ability to see the world with different eyes, to feel things with a more creative, patient and tender heart.”

The cardinal closed by thanking attendees for their participation, and expressed his hope “that we may be enlightened by what women can do that we have not discovered yet.”

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WORLD NEWS

Kenyan bishop laments terrorism, calls for unity

by Antonia von Alten (Aid to the Church in Need) • April 13, 2015

Cardinal Njue at Nairobi’s Chiromo mortuary. (Waumini Communications KCCB)

Nairobi, Kenya — In the wake of the recent massacre of 148 people – mainly Christians – at a university in the Kenyan city of Garissa, Cardinal John Njue, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the capital Nairobi, has called on all citizens for a spirit of unity.

Cardinal Njue read a declaration April 8 at Nairobi’s Chiromo mortuary, where the bodies of the victims had been collected.

In his statement – a copy of which was obtained by international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need – the cardinal lamented “that many young Kenyans have been radicalized and incited to commit acts of terror against their fellow citizens.”

He spoke in reference to media reports that five Kenyans were among the suspects arrested after the April 2 attack. They are said to have supplied the attackers with weapons. One of the four terrorists killed by the police has reportedly been identified as the son of a district chief in the north-east of Kenya.

“It is regrettable that some terrorists live among us and that we do not report them to the competent authorities,” Cardinal Njue said.

“Religious leaders should stop stirring up hatred towards people who do not belong to their religion and faith,” he added.

The cardinal, standing by remains of the victims, also called on the Kenyan government and security forces to urgently develop emergency strategies for schools and universities: “We must ask ourselves: How well prepared are we to deal with acts of terror?”

Bishop Joseph Alessandro, OFM Cap, coadjutor of the Diocese of Garissa, spoke of the great fear of local Christians and described the situation as “very tense.”

However, he also told Aid to the Church in Need that there are good relations between local Catholic priests and Muslim clerics.

“On Holy Saturday the Chair of the Central Council of Muslims in Kenya came to us in a gesture of solidarity,” the bishop said. Nation-wide, there are a number of joint Christian-Muslim initiatives.

Kenya’s population of 45 million is 85 percent Christian, with just 10 percent being Muslim. However, the eastern part of Kenya – which borders Somalia and where Garissa is located – is virtually entirely Muslim. The region has proven to be a fertile recruiting ground for Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabaab militia, which has masterminded a number of terror attacks targeting Christians in Kenya.

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

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WORLD NEWS

Priest who died on the Titanic could be on path to sainthood

by CNA/EWTN News • April 14, 2015

The R.M.S. Titantic sinking. (Jimmy via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

London, England — When the Titanic began to sink on April 15, 1912, Father Thomas Byles had two opportunities to board a lifeboat.

But he forewent those opportunities, according to passengers aboard the sinking ocean liner, in order to hear confessions and offer consolation and prayers with those who were trapped aboard.

Now, a priest at the former church of Fr. Byles in England is asking that his beatification cause be opened.

Some 1,500 people died when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. Believed at the time to be “unsinkable,” the ship lacked adequate lifeboats for all the passengers on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.

Fr. Byles was traveling on the Titanic to preside at his brother’s wedding in New York. The 42-year-old British priest had been ordained in Rome 10 years prior and had served as a parish priest at Saint Helen’s Church in Essex since 1905.

Miss Agnes McCoy, a third class passenger and survivor of the Titanic, said Fr. Byles had been on the ship, hearing confessions, praying with passengers and giving his blessing as the vessel sank.

McCoy’s testimony, and that of other passengers onboard, has been collected at fatherbyles.com.

Helen Mary Mocklare, another third class passenger, offered more details about the final hours of the priest’s life.

“When the crash came we were thrown from our berths … We saw before us, coming down the passageway, with his hand uplifted, Father Byles,” she recalled. “We knew him because he had visited us several times on board and celebrated Mass for us that very morning.”

“‘Be calm, my good people,’ he said, and then he went about the steerage giving absolution and blessings …”

Mocklare continued: “A few around us became very excited and then it was that the priest again raised his hand and instantly they were calm once more. The passengers were immediately impressed by the absolute self-control of the priest.”

She recounted that a sailor “warned the priest of his danger and begged him to board a boat.” Although the sailor was anxious to help him, the priest twice refused to leave.

“Fr. Byles could have been saved, but he would not leave while one (passenger) was left and the sailor’s entreaties were not heeded,” Mocklare recounted. “After I got in the boat, which was the last one to leave, and we were slowly going further away from the ship, I could hear distinctly the voice of the priest and the responses to his prayers.”

More than a century later, Father Graham Smith – the current priest at Fr. Byles’ former parish of Saint Helen’s – is the promoter for opening his cause for beatification.

In a statement to the BBC, Fr. Smith announced the beginning of the process seeking the canonization of his predecessor, whom he considers to be “an extraordinary man who gave his life for others.”

Fr. Smith said that in the local community, “We are hoping and praying that he will be recognized as one of the saints within our canon.”

The canonization process first requires that the person in question be found to have lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree. A miracle attributed to the intercession of the individual must then be approved, for the title of “Blessed” to be bestowed.

Once beatified, another miracle due to the intercession of Fr. Byles would need to be approved, for him to be declared a saint.

“We hope people around the world will pray to him if they are in need and, if a miracle occurs, then beatification and then canonization can go forward,” Fr. Smith said.

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WORLD NEWS

Relic of Saint John Paul II makes pilgrimage to Cuba

by CNA/EWTN News • April 15, 2015

Pope John Paul II visits the United Nations. (UN Photo/Milton Grant)

Havana, Cuba — Seventeen years after the historic visit of Saint John Paul II to Cuba, the Polish pope is returning to the country, thanks to a relic brought by the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary after having journeyed on pilgrimage in various cities in the United States and Guatemala.

As reported on the website of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, the relic consists of a small vial that contains a few drops of blood of the saint, gathered during his last stay in the hospital, a short while before his death on April 2, 2005 in Rome.

The relic was first venerated April 7-9 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, located in the city of Santiago de Cuba. It was then brought to Camaguey from April 10-12.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, postulator for the cause of canonization for the Polish pope, entrusted the reliquary to the care of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary during its pilgrimage through several countries.

Three sisters from the congregation travelled on this pilgrimage: Nicaraguan Sisters Ema Maria Rueda and Marta Maria Gomez, and Sister Maria Teresa Acosta, a Cuban native. The lay persons that accompanied them from the congregation’s lay association were Alba Hernandez, Gisela Alfonso and her father Manuel Alfonso.

The Diocesan Religious Institute to which the sisters belong was founded in 1990 in the Archdiocese of Miami by Mother Adela Galindo. Their spiritual charism is “to be a living image and presence of the Heart of Mary in the heart of the Church and generously placing our feminine genius and our Marian charism at the service of the Petrine principle.”

The Cuban bishops also announced that the Prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, will visit the island from April 22-28. The cardinal is coming to Cuba at the invitation of the local bishops.

The cardinal was the Apostolic Nuncio to the country from 1993-1999. Cardinal Stella’s schedule includes a meeting with the bishops, visits to various dioceses and eventually “he will have official meetings with our country’s civil authorities.”

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WORLD NEWS

High-profile Rome exorcist: ‘ISIS is Satan’

by CNA/EWTN News • April 15, 2015

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

Rome, Italy — In a recent Facebook post, well-known Roman exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth said the Islamic State (ISIS) “is Satan,” and he also questioned the lack of response from Western nations.

“ISIS is Satan. Things first happen in the spiritual realms, then they are made concrete on this earth,” he said in an April 8 post on the social media website.

Father Amorth continued, “there are only two spiritual realms: The Holy Spirit and the demonic spirit.”

He said the demonic enters in “because evil is disguised in various ways: political, religious, cultural, and it has one source of inspiration: the devil. As a Christian I fight the beast spiritually.”

“The political world, which today seems to lack a response in face of the massacre of Christians, will also have to fight ISIS and it will do it in a different way. If it advances as it seems to be doing, we ask ourselves what has the West done over the course of the last decades.”

The priest, who founded the International Association of Exorcists, explained that Satan “keeps saying that the world is in his power, and what he says is true. Biblically speaking we are in the last days and the beast is working furiously.”

ISIS took control of the largest Christian city in Iraq, Qaraqosh, in August last year, causing tens of thousands of people to flee.

The terrorist group has persecuted and murdered Christians and other religious minorities in parts of Syria and Iraq.

Fr. Amorth, age 90, has performed over 70,000 exorcisms during the past 29 years. The number is so high because carrying out an exorcism can require multiple sessions and each time the rite is administered it is counted as one instance.

Fr. Amorth has previously spoken about the danger posed by people no longer believing in the devil, as well as a shortage of exorcists.

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WORLD NEWS

With Iraqi Christians besieged, these are the priests and nuns who choose to stay

by Oliver Maksan (Aid to the Church in Need) • April 15, 2015

Sister Suhama in Alqosh, Iraq in April 2015. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Alqosh, Iraq —”At night we often hear gunfire,” says Father Steven, a priest in Alqosh, Iraq.

“But luckily we are quite a bit away from the fighting,” he adds. In fact, as the crow flies, the town of Alqosh is only 10 miles away from the front line, where the heavily armed Kurdish Peshmerga forces and ISIS fighters are facing off.

When the weather is good, you can see the Christian towns on the Nineveh Plane that are now under ISIS control.

“Back there is my village, Batnaya,” the Chaldean priest says, pointing in the direction of the once-Christian community. “I was the last to leave Batnaya. The jihadists arrived shortly thereafter.”

Dozens of priests and religious have become homeless in the past year as a result of the ISIS offensive. They have not only lost their convents, churches and monasteries, but also schools and children’s homes – the entire infrastructure of an apostolate built up over many years.

“We lost 23 of our monasteries and houses,” Sister Suhama tells international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. The Dominican nun now lives in a development of terraced houses near Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan.

“We were 26 nuns in Qaraqosh alone. We led a flourishing community life there. Some of our sisters are having trouble getting over the loss. At night they dream of soon being able to return.”

A fellow nun cries quietly as she listens. Fourteen older sisters have died of sheer sorrow since they fled, the community says.

The people need to feel that the Church remains close to them, Sister Suhama emphasizes.

“It is our job to be with our people. I don’t believe it will happen, but should the day come on which the last Christian leaves Iraq, we priests and nuns will be the last to leave.”

Many of the religious, priests and seminarians who have been forced to flee from ISIS receive support from Aid to the Church in Need. The charity offers Mass stipends for priests as well as direct emergency aid for housing and other essential provisions.

Seminarians Martin and Randi are also among those who have lost their homes. The young men are now studying at the seminary in Erbil.

“ISIS has strengthened our vocation,” Randi said with deep conviction. “It is fortunate that the people have survived. That shows me that God is a God of life and not of property and objects. God is taking care of us.”

Martin agrees. The Chaldean from Karamlish, a town near Qaraqosh, is already a deacon. “I only want to be consecrated as a priest when I can celebrate the first Mass in my village. I realize that this may take months or longer.”

Deacon Martin has consciously made the decision to remain in Iraq, even though his parents are in the U.S. and could easily bring him over: “My place is here. This is where I want to serve the people.”

Randi also feels bound to stay put and serve the faithful: “Our flock may be even smaller in the future, (but) we Christians still have an important job to do here. We have to rebuild our country. Despite everything, we have to learn how to live with the Muslims again. We have to teach our children to respect and esteem the other.”

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

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WORLD NEWS

Kidnapped Nigerian girls deserve more than just a hashtag, activist says

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • April 15, 2015

(UNHCR/H.Caux)

Jos, Nigeria — The hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls abducted a year ago by the group Boko Haram deserve a major, sustained rescue effort, says a Nigerian lawyer who urges far more global attention for the wider crisis in the country.

“Every day of captivity for these girls is a dark day in their lives and their parents’ lives. It’s harder to keep hope alive,” international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe of the U.S.-Nigeria Law Group told CNA April 14.

He said not enough is being done to find the girls. In his view, intervention of an international coalition is needed.

“(T)he world hasn’t aligned itself similarly to counteract Boko Haram, as they are doing with ISIS,” he said, referencing the Islamic State terrorist group, to which Boko Haram has reportedly pledged allegiance.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram militants abducted nearly 300 predominantly Christian girls from a secondary school in Chibok. Several dozen escaped, but there are 219 girls believed to remain in captivity.

Escapees have reported rape, forced marriage, forced labor and abuse. The group International Christian Concern said some of the abuse was intended to coerce them into rejecting Christianity.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed the abducted girls have all converted to Islam and have been married, Agence France Presse reports.

The abduction of the Chibok girls prompted a social media campaign using the hashtag “#BringBackOurGirls.” Participants in the campaign included U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, human rights activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, and more than a dozen Hollywood personalities.

But while the social media effort may have raised awareness, Ogebe said concrete action to rescue the girls has been lacking.

“There needs to be massive deployment of intelligence assets and available technology to look for the girls, and this needs to happen on a sustained basis. We cannot wait for every anniversary before we have a fresh hashtag campaign,” he said.

The lawyer also pointed out that the kidnapping of the school girls was far from an isolated incident.

According to Amnesty International, at least 2,000 women have been abducted in 38 mass kidnappings in northeast Nigeria since the start of 2014. Boko Haram is believe to have killed at least 15,500 people since 2012.

Ogebe said Boko Haram’s “onslaught” has continued despite Nigeria’s elections and the regional efforts of the military.

He pointed to what he sees as a double standard in the reaction to violence by Boko Haram and the reaction to the actions of ISIS: the latter have drawn strong global condemnation and airstrikes from an international coalition.

While the beheading of about 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by Islamic State militants inspired “global outrage,” Ogebe said, there was little reaction to Boko Haram’s September 2013 mass beheading of 170 people, 150 of whom were Christians.

Both groups have declared their own Islamic caliphate and follow strict interpretations of Islamic law. Last month, reports were released indicating that Boko Haram had pledged its allegiance to ISIS.

Ogebe said the international community appears not to have a consistent approach, “in spite of the fact that both terror groups are now aligned.”

“What clearer evidence do we need that this is the same ideology at war?” he asked.

In addition to global cooperation to rescue the girls, Ogebe also said that international humanitarian assistance from religious groups is “desperately needed.”

“This really has the potential for a huge crisis. And we don’t have any of the major humanitarian groups working in Nigeria,” he said.

On April 14, Nigerians marked the anniversary of the Chibok kidnapping with protests and vigils.

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president-elect, has said it not known whether the girls can be rescued and their whereabouts are unknown.

“As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them,” he said, while pledging that his government will do “everything in its power to bring them home.”

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WORLD NEWS

Australian bishops: the suffering need compassion, not suicide by drugs

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

(Brian Gaid via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Sydney, Australia — Euthanasia isn’t what the suffering and dying really need, said Australia’s Catholic bishops.

“Suicide is always a tragedy, and all people who are confronted by their mortality, whether or not they are mentally or physically ill, deserve our help and compassion, not a lethal dose,” Bishop Peter Comensoli of Broken Bay said in an April 15 statement.

“All people have dignity regardless of their health, age, disability, usefulness or other circumstance and deserve our love and support.”

Bishop Comensoli is the Australian bishops’ delegate on assisted suicide issues. He said the bishops conference’s new pamphlet, “Real care, love and compassion – the alternative to euthanasia,” aims to inform people about the dangers of legalized euthanasia.

Euthanasia is illegal in Australia. However, there are lobbying efforts to legalize voluntary euthanasia, which its backers characterize as “dying with dignity.”

The Catholic pamphlet countered with the principle that killing people is wrong – a principal “fundamental” to Australian law. The pamphlet attacked several “myths” of euthanasia advocacy.

The pamphlet said human dignity does not depend on a person’s usefulness or health. Rather, it is grounded simply in his or her humanity.

“Our society should be judged by how well we care for the sick and vulnerable. Everyone should be loved, supported and cared for until they die. There is nothing truly dignified about being killed or assisted to suicide, even when the motive is compassion for suffering.”

“It is impossible for government-authorized killing to be made safe,” the pamphlet said, noting that terminally ill people are vulnerable to fear, depression, loneliness, not wanting to be a burden, and coercion from family members.

The pamphlet rejected claims that euthanasia has worked in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S.

Bishop Comensoli said that in some countries, legalized euthanasia has meant that “some people are being given a lethal dose even when they have not asked for euthanasia.”

Euthanasia is “not just an issue of personal choice” but always involves at least one other person.

“Allowing someone to cause the death of another is always an issue of public concern because it is a power that can so easily be abused,” the pamphlet continued.

Even popular support for legalized euthanasia does not justify the practice, given that the voices and concerns of the vulnerable are “often not heard in opinion polls.”

The pamphlet called on the Catholic faithful “to ensure that Australians are always treated with true dignity and compassion, right up to the point of their death.”

The bishops invited citizens to talk to friends, family, colleagues and Members of Parliament about the dangers of euthanasia and encourage alternatives like good palliative care as well as “loving support, and true, life-affirming compassion” for those who are suffering.

Bishop Comensoli stressed that Catholic hospitals have “long history and expertise” in palliative care.

“Palliative care helps people to manage their pain and distress, allowing them to make the most of the time they have, especially with those they love.”

Bishop Comensoli said practices of “respect and care” are “always the better option for the dying.”

The pamphlet is a response to the findings of last year’s National Church Life Survey, which found that 22 percent of church-going Catholics are “neutral or unsure” about euthanasia.

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U.S. NEWS

After controversy, NJ Catholic school reinstates teacher with plea for ‘truth and charity’

by CNA/EWTN News • April 14, 2015

(Valley Library via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Metuchen, N.J. — A New Jersey Catholic school has reinstated a teacher who was the focus of media controversy over her social media posts critical of LGBT advocacy. The school stressed the need for a positive presentation of the Catholic faith while also lamenting “hurtful” media coverage about the teacher.

Immaculata High School in Somerville, N.J., said that all issues related to theology teacher Patricia Jannuzzi’s employment are “resolved.”

Monsignor Seamus Brennan, the school’s director, said he and principal Jean Kline had decided to reinstate Jannuzzi. He said the school’s position is that a Catholic school teacher “must always communicate the faith in a way that is positive and never hurtful.”

“Tone and choice of words matter and I trust Mrs. Jannuzzi’s stated promise to strive always to teach in a spirit of truth and charity,” he said in an April 10 statement.

Msgr. Brennan cited Jannuzzi’s “otherwise good reputation as an educator” over her three decades at the school. He said the matter had been “a personnel and not a theological issue,” saying that the school has always been united in its understanding of and commitment to Catholic teaching.

David Oakley, the 57-year-old teacher’s attorney, said that he and his client were “grateful to the school for engaging in the process.” Her family, fearing she would lose her job, had started an online crowdfunding effort. Oakley said the money raised would be returned, MyCentralJersey.com reports.

An April 10 letter to parents from Kline, the school’s principal, said much of the media coverage was “erroneous and hurtful” towards Jannuzzi.

In early March, Jannuzzi had posted on Facebook a link to a web page critical of LGBT activist and sex columnist Dan Savage’s response to political commentator Ben Carson’s claim that homosexuality was chosen. Savage had responded by suggesting that Carson perform a homosexual act on him in the presence of a camera crew.

A screenshot of Jannuzzi’s post was taken by one of her critics. The post criticizes Savage’s comments as being part of an “agenda” in which LGBT activists will claim they are “born this way.” When they win constitutional protections, she suggested, these activists will argue “everyone should be able to choose being (the) gay or lesbian lifestyle.”

“In other words they want to reengineer western (civilization) into a slow extinction. We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity!” she said.

Several now-prominent former students of Jannuzzi criticized this post on social media.

Greg Bennett, a former cast member of the reality TV show Real Housewives of New Jersey, tweeted a screenshot of her comments to over 160,000 followers on Twitter March 8 and to over 70,000 followers on Instagram on March 9.

Another former student, Scott Lyons, wrote an open letter to Jannuzzi that his aunt, movie star Susan Sarandon, shared with 600,000 of her Facebook followers.

Some media reports characterized the teacher’s posts as “anti-gay.” Some of the teacher’s other social media posts criticized “gay marriage.”

Jannuzzi was put on administrative leave with pay and benefits, according to the diocese’s bishop. Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski of Metuchen published a March 20 statement saying Jannuzzi’s comments were “disturbing” and “do not reflect the Church’s teachings of acceptance.”

He also said that there were some “misstatements” about Jannuzzi and denied she had been terminated.

Jannuzzi’s attorney on March 23 had told reporters that the diocesan lawyers had indicated his client would never return to the school.

A lay Catholic group had bought radio ads defending the teacher.

The Diocese of Metuchen has adopted anti-bullying policies that mirror those of New Jersey public schools, MyCentralJersey.com reported in July 2014. The state laws, which were expanded in 2011, include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

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U.S. NEWS

Don’t thwart nuclear agreement with Iran, bishop warns Congress

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • April 14, 2015

(Lennart Tange via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The head of the U.S. Bishops’ international peace committee supports the new framework for Iran’s nuclear program and is asking the U.S. Congress not to “undermine” the deal.

“We welcome the most recent step the United States and its international partners have taken with Iran and encourage our nation to continue down this path,” said Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces. N.M.

Bishop Cantu spoke out on the framework outlined in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached April 2.

The plan is a product of negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran, the European Union, and the P5+1 countries – the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China. It provides the framework for a final agreement to be reached June 30.

The framework’s goal is preventing the “unacceptable” outcome of Iran developing nuclear weapons, Bishop Cantu said.

The plan reduces the number of Iran’s centrifuges by two-thirds, down to just over 6,000. It limits the level of uranium that may be enriched and the amount of low-enriched uranium stockpiled. No new uranium enrichment facilities may be constructed for 15 years.

The underground nuclear facility at Fordow must be turned into a research facility, and cannot research uranium enrichment there for 15 years.

Nuclear-related sanctions on Iran will be lifted if the country abides by the framework, but sanctions related to “terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missiles” will remain.

Bishop Cantu warned Congress not to get in the way of a final agreement, the “alternative” to which “leads toward armed conflict.”

“(O)ur Committee continues to oppose Congressional efforts that seek to undermine the negotiation process or make a responsible multi-party agreement more difficult to achieve and implement. The alternative to an agreement leads toward armed conflict, an outcome of profound concern to the Church,” he said.

His warning comes as the Senate is set to debate a bipartisan bill allowing Congressional review of a final agreement with Iran.

The Corker-Menendez bill, S. 615, currently sits in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It has 21 co-sponsors in the Senate including seven Democrats.

Iran’s hostility to its neighbors in the Middle East is all the more reason for the international agreement on its nuclear program, Bishop Cantu insisted.

“As we have noted in the past, Iran’s statements and actions have threatened its neighbors, especially Israel, and contributed to instability in the region,” he said. “We hope the agreement is a first step in fostering greater stability and dialogue in the Middle East.”

Pope Francis praised the plan in his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing on Easter Sunday, saying that “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.”

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U.S. NEWS

The new celibacy? How porn may be destroying the impetus for sex

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • April 16, 2015

(Juan Jose Velasquez Gonzalez-Tudela via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Denver, CO — One of music artist John Mayer’s most signature songs is “Daughters,” a sweet and simple tribute to the importance of parents’ influence on their little girls. Here’s the refrain:

“So fathers, be good to your daughters, Daughters will love like you do. Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, So mothers, be good to your daughters too.”

But when John Mayer isn’t crooning about your beautiful daughters, he’s looking at naked pictures of them, sometimes hundreds at a time before he gets out of bed in the morning. In fact, he often prefers that to an actual human being, according to his wildly controversial 2010 interview with Playboy magazine.

“You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora’s box of visuals. There have probably been days when I saw 300 (naked women) before I got out of bed,” he told the magazine.

Unfortunately, Mayer’s morning routine is not unique to him. Studies show that easy access to free internet pornography is having devastating effects on real-life relationships.

Preferring pixels to people

“For many individuals, the more porn they consume, the more likely it is that they can end up preferring the fantasy to reality, they can end up preferring the pixels to a person, and that’s really messing up relationships, as you can imagine,” said Clay Olsen, co-founder of the internet movement “Fight the New Drug” (FTND).

The FTND movement, so named because of porn’s addictive properties, aims to raise awareness of the harmful effects of pornography through creative mediums such as blogs, videos and infographics. The website includes personal stories as well as scientific studies to illustrate pornography’s effects on the brain, the heart (relationships), and ultimately on the world.

“Our goal is to change the conversation from ‘Dude, check this out,’ to ‘Dude, that’s messed up,’” Olsen told CNA.

The longstanding, pervasive cultural narrative surrounding pornography is that it is a healthy sexual outlet and can improve sex lives. However, science begs to differ. Several studies cited in FTND’s article, “Porn Ruins Your Sex Life,” found that pornography not only leads to dissatisfying sex, it can lead to less sex with actual human beings.

In a series of studies examining pornography use, “The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers” published by the Witherspoon Institute, researchers found that those who viewed pornography became less satisfied with their sex lives, and that viewing porn just once can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction towards a human partner.

According to an article in Psychology Today by clinical psychologist Tyger Latham, Psy.D, erectile dysfunction, while once considered an issue plaguing old men, is cropping up more in young men who rely heavily on pornography to become sexually aroused. A study by the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine surveyed 28,000 men on their internet porn habits, and found that porn use over time led to a lower sex drive and an eventual inability to become aroused at all.

“As soon as they try to actually get close to someone and commit to somebody and have an intimate relationship with somebody, it’s in those moments that the harms of pornography show their full colors and truly manifest themselves,” Olsen said. “The unrealistic expectations are completely exposed …

And we now see people in their 20s having porn-induced erectile dysfunction because they cannot get excited or aroused without the presence of pornography.”

A decline in marriage rates

Not only is pornography use destroying the physical sexual life, it may be impacting the number of people pursuing marriage or committed sexual relationships.

In the fall of 2013, an article in The Guardian sounded the alarm that fewer people in Japan were having sex, citing as evidence numerous statistics on the country’s declining birth rate, marriage rate, and even rates of young people who are dating or who are interested in dating.

A follow-up article on Slate on Slate found that while the actual number of people having or not having sex might not be definitively pinpointed, the statistics on falling marriage and birth rates only mean Japan is leading a world-wide trend, rather than bucking one. While it’s not clear whether porn is directly influencing these numbers, many have speculated that it is.

Researchers with The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany found an increase in free Internet pornography is at least correlated with a significant decrease in the percentage of young married men, and it may even be contributing to the trend. A 2013 Pew study found that 71 percent of single Americans were not looking for a committed relationship. Another study found that nearly 40 percent of American women had never been married.

“The results in this paper suggest that such an association exists, and that it is potentially quite large,” the study notes, as reported in the Washington Post.

The study used General Social Survey (GSS), a comprehensive, nationally representative survey which analyzed internet use of 1,500 men ages 18-to-35, between the years 2000 and 2004. The researchers studied the number of hours spent on the internet per week, how often internet pornography was used in the past 30 days, as well as other activities such as use of religious sites.

Even when adjusted for variables such as age, income, education, religion and employment, the study found that generally, the more a person used the internet, the less likely they were to be married. Additionally, it found that the more a person used internet pornography, the less likely they were to be married. On the other hand, the use of religious websites was positively correlated with marriage.

Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and a Catholic who has studied religion and sexual behavior, cautioned against assuming that correlation equals causation in such studies – but said that pornography use is likely part of a more complex reason for dropping marriage rates.

“We know that both things are occurring, but it’s difficult to establish a causal connection,” he told CNA in an e-mail interview. “A variety of things are contributing to the declining marriage rate.”

“I don’t think porn use necessarily causes that, but contributes to it (together with diminished earnings power, diminished confidence, etc.),” he added. “To be sure, porn use doesn’t help build confidence in men, something that’s pretty necessary (but not sufficient) to be considered marriageable. So I’d say porn use is a suspect here, but connecting the dots is hardly straightforward.”

Increasing awareness

Only in the past few years and months has a conversation countering the “it’s healthy, it’s normal” narrative been emerging in mainstream media about pornography. Several celebrities are speaking up, and there are an increasing number of websites dedicated to helping people fight pornography addictions.

A few months ago, the release of the controversial “50 Shades of Grey” movie sparked a conversation on social media about sexual violence against women in media, with the hashtag #50dollarsnot50shades encouraging people to forgo the movie and instead donate to places that help victimized women.

The movie sparked a response from an unlikely source – British comedian Russel Brand, whose short video about the problems with pornography went viral, generating over 500,000 views on his YouTube channel and over 2 million views on FTND’s website.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is another celebrity who has been outspoken about the negative impact of pornography, most notably in his 2013 movie “Don Jon,” which he wrote, directed and co-starred in along with Scarlett Johansson. The film explores the unrealistic expectations of love and relationships that come from pornography addictions and from the media at large.

“I think that there’s not a substantial difference between a lot of main-stream culture and pornography. They’re equally simplistic, reductionist,” Gordon-Levitt said in an interview with NPR about the film.

“Whether it’s rated X or ‘approved by the FCC for general viewing audiences,’ the message is the same. We have a tendency in our culture to take people and treat them like things.”

But the internet has been around for decades now – why has it taken society so long to catch on to the fact that pornography is harmful?

“Science has caught up with the fact that pornography’s harmful,” Olsen said, “but society is still catching up.”

It often takes years for something that was once culturally accepted as true to be flipped on its head as science proves otherwise, Olsen said, so Fight the New Drug knows they still have a lot of work ahead of them.

“We’re very excited to see some of this progress and some of these mainstream media outlets kind of following suit and starting to talk about the negative impacts, we couldn’t be more excited about it, but we still have a long way ahead of us.”

Some other websites that are also trying to raise awareness and give help to those struggling with pornography include The Porn Effect and Covenant Eyes, and internet filtering and accountability system.

The best way to kick a porn habit? Keep fighting it and lean on the sacraments, Regnerus said.

“(My) advice: don’t give up hope; pursue confession regularly; recognize and avoid the contexts which give rise to temptation. That’s a start.”

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U.S. NEWS

Getting married? Want to stay married? These Catholics can help

by CNA/EWTN News • April 16, 2015

(Pixabay CCO 1.0 Universal)

Denver, CO — With Christian marriages facing obstacles from pornography and infidelity to self-centeredness and divorce, what are faithful Catholics to do?

First, learn what love – the heart of marriage – really means, said a group of lay Catholics and theologians who have produced a marriage prep video series.

“Many married couples don’t know what love really is. They don’t know how to love. They don’t know what marriage is and they don’t know of the real graces that are present to them in the sacrament to help in their marriage and family life,” Dr. Edward Sri of the Denver-based Augustine Institute said in an April 8 conference call.

A “great crisis” faces the institution of marriage today, he said, but most of the discussion tends to focus on ideas. Although those ideas are “worth fighting for,” what people really need is help living them out in daily life.

Dr. Timothy Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, said that this crisis affects not just those who are divorced, but also “those who are married who are vulnerable to the loss of vision of what marriage means,” and even those who are not married.

“Beloved: Finding Happiness in Marriage,” a 12-part video series from the Augustine Institute, aims at enriching marriages and preparing couples for the sacrament.

“The Church speaks about self-giving love, but what does this really mean?” Dr. Sri asks in episode four of the series, “Total Gift of Self.”

“This is what we mean by self-giving love: someone in love is drawn, impelled, to surrender their freedom, to give up this free gift of free will, to commit their will to serve this other person, to serve their marriage union, and to serve any children that may come from that marriage.”

Featuring 46 presenters including noted Catholic speakers such as Teresa Tomeo, Chris Stefanick, Leah Darrow, Patrick Coffin and Jason Evert, “Beloved” explores the nature of love and God’s plan for marriage.

Released in between the Synods on the Family taking place last fall and this fall in Rome, Dr. Sri said the series responds to two needs identified by Pope Francis: better marriage preparation and continual formation for marriages.

Dr. Sri described marriage as an “art.” It’s not a “basic skill” that you can master in a weekend, like riding a bike, but something that takes lifelong practice and dedication.

“(W)hat we’re really aiming for here is to provide a service to the Church that can help for marriage preparation, but even more so, be an ongoing formation for married couples to build a strong marriage, to live the art of marriage with excellence.”

Teresa Tomeo, another presenter in the series, agreed, saying that she and her husband had little preparation and understanding of what marriage really meant, something that hurt them later on when they nearly faced a divorce.

“I think it’s continual work, and we understand this concept of work in so many different aspects of our lives, but not necessarily in marriage,” she said.

“‘Beloved’ helps to make it seem (like) not only work, but a type of work that you want to put your heart into. This is really worth the sacrifice.”

When they set out to make a new video series, the creators knew they needed to make something with high production value that would be able to stand out in a media-saturated culture.

“We realize that we’re competing with the world of Hollywood, Netflix, YouTube, and that’s why we wanted the best quality in video production and the best presentation as well,” Dr. Sri, who served as content director on the series, said.

In the time since the series’ Valentine’s Day release, he said there’s already been a great response to the series. He and other collaborators on the series have had people thank them for creating it, but have also faced questions about why something like this wasn’t available sooner.

“If we’re going to meet people, to help them to have healthy marriages, we’ve got to be there in the beginning,” said Dr. Pia de Solenni, associate dean for the Augustine Institute’s Orange County campus and “Beloved” presenter.

Programs on the “theology of marriage” are already out there, Dr. Gray said, but what the “Beloved” producers hoped to make is a series that maps out the “Biblical Catholic vision of marriage” to inspire even those who are cohabiting and may not see any value in marriage.

“Really, this is not just theology; it’s pastoral theology that seeks to not just teach something, but really inspire a new way of life, a new vision for living out one’s identity as a spouse,” he said.

The six-disc DVD set is available through Ignatius Press, along with study guides for couples and groups. Beginning in May, the Augustine Institute will make all their video series, including “Beloved,” available on a new digital platform called formed.org.

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U.S. NEWS

Anti-Cordileone ad misrepresents Catholicism, archdiocese says

by CNA/EWTN News • April 17, 2015

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at a press conference for the 2012 USCCB Fall General Assembly, Nov 13. (Michelle Bauman/CNA)

San Francisco, CA — A group of Catholics promoting a full-page advertisement asking Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone don’t represent San Francisco Catholics and misrepresent the facts, the archdiocese has said.

“The advertisement is a misrepresentation of Catholic teaching, a misrepresentation of the nature of the (archdiocese’s) teacher contract, and a misrepresentation of the spirit of the archbishop,” the San Francisco archdiocese said April 15.

“The greatest misrepresentation of all is that the signers presume to speak for ‘the Catholic community of San Francisco.’ They do not.”

The ad also drew criticism from Eva Muntean, a local Catholic who is an organizer of the group SFCatholics.org.

“It’s truly astonishing that a group of self-proclaimed ‘prominent Catholics’ has become so self-absorbed that they believe they can demand that the Holy Father remove an Archbishop because he refuses to sacrifice teaching Catholic values to children in our Catholic schools,” Muntean said April 16.

“We stand with Archbishop Cordileone and support his leadership,” she said.

The full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle presented an open letter signed by over 100 people, including business executives, business owners, prominent attorneys and charitable foundation leaders. Signers included parishioners and people with present or past connections to the archdiocese and area Catholic schools.

Among the signers is Clint Reilly, a businessman and former political consultant whose firm Clinton Reilly Campaigns boasted past clients like U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Sens. Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, and former San Francisco mayor Frank Jordan. Reilly is a past president of Catholic Charities CYO’s board of directors and has been a major donor to Catholic Charities.

Another signer, Brian Cahill, is a former executive director of the local Catholic Charities affiliate. He has been an outspoken critic of Catholic teaching on homosexual relationships. He has also criticized several U.S. Catholic bishops, whom he claims are less pastoral than Pope Francis.

Other signers include Tom Brady, Sr., an insurance firm principal who is the father of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady; and Charles Geschke, past chairman of the University of San Francisco board of trustees, who is the chairman of the tech company Adobe Systems.

“Please provide us with a leader true to our values and your namesake,” the ad asked the Pope. “Please replace Archbishop Cordileone.”

The ad accused the archbishop of fostering “division and intolerance.” It objected to the archbishop’s addition of an explanation of Catholic moral teaching to faculty and staff handbooks for the archdiocese’s four high schools. The ad claimed the explanations of Catholic teaching showed “absolute mean-spiritedness” that “sets a pastoral tone closer to persecution than evangelization.” They claimed a Catholic morality code would violate individual conscience and California labor law.

The ad also objected to Archbishop Cordileone’s selection of a pastor at Star of the Sea Parish who decided only to have altar boys and not female altar servers.

The ad claimed that the archbishop has “isolated himself from our community” and that he has a “single-issue agenda” that threatens the archdiocese.

In response, the archdiocese said it has met with a “broad range of stakeholders” and “engaged in a constructive dialogue on all of the issues raised in this ad.”

“We welcome the chance to continue that discussion,” the archdiocese said.

Muntean charged that the ad is “a slur on a good and decent man who has devoted his life in service to others.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross said that neither the Chronicle’s business department nor the ad sponsors would say how much the ad cost.

“We’re told, however, that full-page ads typically run in the tens of thousands of dollars,” the columnists said April 16.

Some high school students, teachers and parents have publicly protested the archbishop’s proposals. But other money has also been connected to the controversy.

Some opponents of Archbishop Cordileone have hired Sam Singer of the public relations firm Singer and Associates to back their cause. Singer has represented the oil giant Chevron for decades. He was hired by the directors of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District during a 2013 labor dispute with public transit unions.

On Twitter, Singer published or re-tweeted over 40 tweets highlighting the anti-Cordileone ad.

The voices of the city’s leaders are “loud and clear” that “Cordileone must go,” Singer said in an April 16 tweet. In a public post on his Facebook profile, Singer linked to a story about the ad, writing “the heat is on.”

While a February report in the SF Weekly indicated that Singer had been hired due to controversy in the Catholic high schools, Singer later told the National Catholic Reporter he had been hired by alumni, parents and their supporters involved in the dispute over Star of the Sea Catholic School, a K-8 institution connected to the parish of the same name.

On Feb. 18, Ash Wednesday, Singer said on the social media site Google+ that “everyone is praying that the Pope will remove the San Francisco Archbishop.”

The campaign against the archbishop is intimidating some Catholics.

A Catholic teacher who has worked at an archdiocesan high school for several years told CNA in March that the media campaign against Archbishop Cordileone “has caused fear among his supporters.”

The controversies in the Archdiocese of San Francisco come after significant activist funding. One Archbishop Cordileone opponent is the group Faithful America, a partner of the Berkeley, Calif.-based Citizen Engagement Lab. The group was the recipient of a $75,000 Arcus Foundation grant in 2014 to “promote greater media visibility for Christians who denounce the abuse of religious-freedom arguments to oppose full equality for LGBT persons.”

An early petition against the archbishop was created by Jim Fitzgerald, executive director of Call to Action, a decades-old dissenting Catholic group. The group’s “JustChurch” project specifically opposes morality clauses in Catholic schools.

The group is part of the Equally Blessed Coalition, with the LGBT activist groups Dignity USA and New Ways Ministry. The coalition has received at least $200,000 from the Arcus Foundation to “counter the narrative of the Catholic Church” ahead of the Synod on the Family, according to grant listings on the foundation website.

Archbishop Cordileone was Bishop of Oakland, Calif. from 2009 until 2012. He has served as the U.S. bishops’ conference’s ad hoc committee for the defense of marriage. He has also served on a governing body for Courage, a ministry for people with same-sex attraction who want to live a life consistent with Catholic faith and morals.

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U.S. NEWS

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago dies at 78

by CNA/EWTN News • April 17, 2015

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. (CNA)

Chicago, IL — Cardinal Francis George, the Emeritus Archbishop of Chicago, passed away Friday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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

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

The first Chicago native to become the city’s archbishop, Cardinal George retired in 2014 amid his battle with cancer and was succeeded by Archbishop Blase Cupich. He had shepherded the archdiocese since 1997.

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

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U.S. NEWS

National outpouring of love, prayers for Cardinal George

by CNA/EWTN News • April 17, 2015

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, at a press conference in Rome. (CNA)

Chicago, IL — The death of Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago on April 17 was met with an outpouring of prayer, as well as gratitude for the life and service of the prominent Church leader.

Archbishop Blase Cupich, who currently heads the Chicago archdiocese, remembered his “beloved” predecessor in a press conference shortly after the news was announced.

Around the United States, other bishops and Catholic organizations also offered their reflections and prayers, remembering the cardinal for his courage, intellectual contributions and selfless service to the Church.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, president of U.S. bishops’ conference

The death of an exemplary churchman such as Cardinal Francis George brings much sadness at a time of joy and resurrection. We find peace in knowing that, after so much suffering, he has been raised up with our Lord. As archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Cardinal George led as a kindly servant and unmatched intellectual, a man who encouraged everyone to see how God makes us all brother and sister to one another. I join with my brother bishops in thanking God for the gift of his witness and invite all to pray for the faithful repose of his soul.

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C.

It was with great sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cardinal Francis George, whom I have known and had the privilege of working with for over 25 years. As brother bishops, we had many opportunities to work together on a number of committees in service to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Over our many years of association, I appreciated Cardinal George’s many intellectual contributions to the conference, his pastoral concern for the faithful in his diocese, and his example of faith and courage. Particularly over the last couple of years as he fought his illness with great grace, he was an example of faith in the Lord.

I offer my prayers and sympathy to Cardinal George’s family and friends and the many people whose lives he touched by his ministry over the years and ask the Lord to grant him eternal rest.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York

While we have all realized for a while that it was near, the passing of Cardinal Francis George still comes as a jolt, and leaves us with a sense of emptiness and loss.

I assure Archbishop Cupich and the Catholic family of Chicago of our love, condolences, and prayers here in New York.

I will miss him as a pastor, friend, and guide, and can only thank God for the gift that he was and will ever be.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia

I was deeply saddened today to learn of the death of Cardinal Francis E. George, Archbishop Emeritus of Chicago.

Cardinal George was a close friend over many years, from the time I was a young bishop in Rapid City. We talked often. He was a constant source of good counsel and encouragement. As a fellow religious, he was a model for me of living the Beatitudes well, despite the daily crush of leading a large local Church. As a bishop and a scholar, he was the finest intellect the Church in America has seen in many decades. The only consolation in losing him is knowing that he served the Lord well, and the Lord has welcomed him home.

On behalf of the Church in Philadelphia, I extend prayerful condolences to Cardinal George’s family and many friends as well as Archbishop Blase J. Cupich and the priests, religious, and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

I ask the people of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to offer prayers for Cardinal George, and our priests to offer Masses for the repose of his soul. All of us are very grateful for the gifts of his life and service to the Universal Church. May God grant him the gift of eternal life, and give peace and consolation to all those who loved, admired, and respected him.

Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles

Cardinal George was a friend and a strong Church leader. I will miss him.

He was a good priest and a good bishop, a man of prayer and a scholar. I admired him as an apostle of the new evangelization, and especially his commitment to bringing American culture to a new encounter with the beauty and truth of Catholic teaching.

On behalf of the family of God here in Los Angeles, I extend my condolonces to Cardinal George’s family and friends and to all the faithful in the Archdiocese of Chicago. We thank God for the gift of his ministry and we offer our prayers for the repose of his soul. May God grant him peace.

Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver

This morning Cardinal Francis E. George, a true shepherd and faithful son of the Church, passed on to his eternal reward. His life was a testament to his love for Jesus Christ and devotion to the Blessed Mother. This same love moved him to place his strong leadership skills and towering intellect at the service of the Church. He will also be remembered for his great sense of humor and ability to relate well to people from all walks of life.

The Archdiocese of Denver is blessed to have been the place where Cardinal George delivered his last public talk, which was fittingly dedicated to the work of forming priests in the 21st Century. Those present heard a man of great courage and fidelity speak from the heart about his personal journey to the priesthood.

I ask that the faithful of the Archdiocese of Denver and all those of good will join me in praying for the repose of this gentle, loving and wise shepherd’s soul and entry into the eternal joy of Heaven.

Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois

I was very sorry to learn of Cardinal George’s death. I had the great privilege of working with Cardinal George for over 15 years. He was one of the most holy and intelligent men I have ever met. He was my boss, but also an important mentor, and I dare say, my friend. I will miss him greatly.

Cardinal George served as chairman of the Catholic Conference from his installation as Archbishop of Chicago in May 1997 until his retirement In November 2014.

Monsignor Michael M. Boland, president of Catholic Charities of Chicago

Today we mourn the loss of an incredible leader, guiding spirit and loyal friend. Cardinal George had compassion for all. You saw this compassion in his eyes as he visited with the poor and most vulnerable in our communities.

He was a wonderful mentor to many, including me. He always supported the work of Catholic Charities and it was an incredible blessing to have his leadership help guide us for 17 years. He helped us tackle some of the most difficult issues facing our communities, always with faith and concern for the poorest of the poor. He exemplified our call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, showing mercy and kindness to all and leading by example.

Personally, Cardinal George served as an inspiration to me, as I know he did to many in the Archdiocese and around the world. He was unwavering in his support of the mission of Catholic Charities and his deep-rooted faith and love of the Lord shown through in all he did.

John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America

We at The Catholic University of America were fortunate to have Cardinal George as a member of our Board of Trustees for more than 20 years, including during the entire time that he was cardinal archbishop of Chicago. I was honored to have the opportunity to publicly thank him for his wise counsel to me and for his long and devoted service to his alma mater at our December board meeting last year. He was a man who put his great intellectual gifts at the disposal of Jesus Christ and his Church and who candidly spoke the truth in season and out.

Cardinal George received a Master of Arts degree from Catholic University in 1965. He was on the board of trustees for more than two decades.

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FEATURES

Händel’s ‘Messiah’ at Easter Time

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • April 15, 2015

At Christmas time, millions around the world enjoy George Friedrich Händel’s “Messiah.” Apart from carols, it ranks among the season’s most popular music. In addition to the Advent-Christmas section, there are two other parts, the Passion of the Suffering Servant (Part Two), and the Resurrection (Part Three). Unless these two parts are also sung at Christmas time, they are otherwise infrequently performed. In this Easter season, Part Three deserves more than a comment and repays listening.

Some Interesting Facts about Händel and His “Messiah”

Händel was born in Germany in 1685, the same year as J.S. Bach and only one hundred miles from him. They never met. In 1712, Händel traveled to England, and in 1727 became a naturalized British subject. “Messiah” is his greatest oratorio, defined as a large-scale religious or serious musical work for solos, chorus, recitatives, and orchestra, sung on stage but without actors, costumes, or sets.

“Messiah,” was composed in just twenty-four days. Clearly, it was an inspired work which Händel executed in feverish activity. It takes about three hours to perform even at breathless Baroque tempos. One of Händel’s biographers, Sir Newman Flower sums up the consensus of history: “Considering the immensity of the work and the shortness of time involved, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of music composition.” As a point of reference, it took Mozart six weeks to compose his last symphonies, 39, 40, and 41, taking about fifty minutes to perform, back to back. Mozart almost always worked at fever pitch and did not use an eraser.

Just as Händel was putting the finishing touches on the “Hallelujah” Chorus, an assistant called to him in his study and found him in tears, proclaiming, ‘I saw the heavens open, and I saw the face of God. Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it, I know not.’ He never left the house for the entire time.

First Performance

Händel chose Dublin as the place of ‘Messiah’s” first performance, and it was advertised in the 1741-42 season as a Benefit Concert for orphans, widows, and freed prisoners. The concert raised 400 pounds that evening.

Because an overflow crowd was expected to attend and be seated, the women were told not to wear their hoops inside their skirts and the men, to leave their swords at home.

On Your Feet!

The tradition of standing at the “Hallelujah” Chorus is attributed to the attendance of King George II at the 1743 performance in London. He is supposed to have stood in amazement at the opening bars of the “Hallelujah” music. It was understood that whenever the King stood, everyone else did as well. This long tradition has remained to this very day, even in this country.

The Easter Texts

For most of the Resurrection texts, Händel chose the Book of Revelations and 1 Corinthians. Of course, the power of the music intensifies these scripture verses. The texts are printed below.

Word painting is a favorite Baroque device with the composer making the music do what the words suggest. Händel uses this device in all his oratorios. For example in “Messiah,” in the text, “for as in Adam, all die,” and in the word “forever,” “die” and “forever” are prolonged musically; the trumpets are made to shine majestically when the text suggests their brilliance; to emphasize the theology of a text, all the voices are aligned in vertical chordal harmony, as in “worthy is the Lamb that was slain” and in the word, “Hallelujah.” The final “Amen” is an entire movement of music, clearly an indication that the composer affirms his belief in all that he has just composed. He has proclaimed it with great jubilation.

Introduction to Part Three: “Hallelujah” Chorus

Rev. 19:6-11; 15; 19:16 Hallelujah (repeated). For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world will become, the kingdom of our Lord and of his Chrsit, and of is Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Hallelujah.

Part Three: The Resurrection

45. Air I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand as the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. (Job 19:25-26; 1 Cor 15:20).

46. Chorus Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor15: 21-22)

47. Accompagnato Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. (1 Cor 14:51-52)

48. Air The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. The trumpet shall sound … (1Cor 15:52-53)

49. Recitative Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1Cor 15:54)

50. Duet O death, where is thy sting? A grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. (1Cor 15:55-56)

51. Chorus But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Cor 15:57)

52. Air If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?

53. Chorus Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Blessing and honour, glory and power unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen. (Rev 5:12-14)

Recommended for Listening

There are numerous recordings of Händel’s “Messiah,” some better than others. Recommended for the listening of readers are the recordings of Jeffrey Thomas or John Eliot Gardner, Version 1741, performed on period instruments. This means that the instruments used in these recordings were constructed to match sonorities of eighteenth-century Baroque practice. In particular, the trumpet used is the clarino or the Baroque trumpet. For this period, the twentieth-century trumpet is lacking in brilliance and agility. It will not do.

Händel’s Easter “Messiah” reveals in musical form St. Augustine famous verse, “We are Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.”

Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, Brentwood, NY, holds degrees in philosophy (Ph.L), musicology (Ph.D.), theology (M.A.), and liturgical studies (Ph.D). She has taught at all levels of Catholic education and writes with a particular focus on a theology of beauty and the sacred arts. Her e-mail address is jroccasalvo@optonline.net.

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FEATURES

Raising perfect children by teaching authentic family values

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • April 17, 2015

Judith Martin (a.k.a. Miss Manners), the widely syndicated columnist, has written a number of books on proper social behavior. One of them is entitled, Miss Manners’ Guide to Rearing Perfect Children.

What Mrs. Martin is writing about in this elegantly over-the-top book is what we call today family values. Here is my personal (but partial) list of family values:

Children are raised with a strong sense of responsibility to and for parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, and the necessity of making sacrifices for them in times of need.

Parents teach children about their forebears, and pass on stories of the achievements — and failures — of previous generations. Deceased relatives are spoken about often, and children are taught that they will meet them in heaven.

Teaching good manners and social skills is a parental priority. Children learn how to deal with the many different degrees of social relationships, and how to live successfully and gracefully in the adult world.

Children are taught how to take care of the household, and to view domestic work as dignified. They learn basic skills on how to cook, set a table, lead grace before meals, avoid eating as if they were members of the pork family, and carry on an intelligent conversation. They are taught how to clean the house and tidy the yard.

Values of tolerance, respect, and the ability to make charitable judgments are inculcated, as well as the ability to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and lifestyles. Respect and tolerance need not mean approval.

A strong para-liturgical life is promoted in the home. This is the basis not only for a strong domestic spirituality, but for the family’s participation in the parish. Children learn how lead prayers. Every family should own a copy of the Church’s Shorter Book of Blessings.

Children — with their parents — practice a strong civic and neighborly life. They watch out for elderly neighbors, help those who are ill, shop for those who are homebound, and visit the lonely and those in retirement homes.

Catholic teaching about abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, and so forth, is spoken about with some regularity. Parents call their home a “pro-life” home. A pro-life picture or poster is prominently displayed.

From their earliest years, children are formed with a strong sense of social justice and the necessity of helping those who are hungry, homeless, and marginalized.

Parents recognize that they are the primary religious educators of their children. They are, likewise, vigilant about what their offspring are taught in school, Catholic or not.

Children learn how to address correctly their elders, neighbors, and people they are meeting for the first time, avoiding the ubiquitous “Hi!” They learn the repertoire of greetings appropriate to different situations.

The sexual education of children is monitored by parents, who are always vigilant about the kind of sexual morality that appears in movies and on television. Parents are forthright in teaching good sex education.

Children are taught how to stay in the living room when guests are visiting. They are trained to show interest in visitors, how to converse with them, and to help with whatever is being served to guests.

And last but not least, parents have very, I repeat very, strong rules about children’s use of the device likely to bring down Western civilization — the Smartphone!

(Now, don’t write in and tell me that I, as a celibate priest, could know absolutely nothing about rearing children. I am the oldest of six — and was the third parent in our family!)

Msgr. Mannion is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Salt Lake City. He holds a Ph.D. in sacramental theology from The Catholic University of America. He was founding president of The Society for Catholic Liturgy in 1995 and the founding editor of the Society’s journal, Antiphon. At the invitation of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago he founded the Mundelein Liturgical Institute in 2000.

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FEATURES

Movie review: ‘While We’re Young’

by Carl Kozlowski • April 17, 2015

Midlife crises are always rife with complications, and those complications often make great fodder for fiction. The new movie “While We’re Young,” written and directed by the outstanding young filmmaker Noah Baumbach, shows that the topic can be funny, a bit touching and even a tad mysterious all at the same time.

“Young” features the powerhouse foursome of established stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, and red-hot rising stars Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, as two couples who become unlikely friends despite a generational divide. In casting such appealing actors, Baumbach manages to pull off the difficult trick of finding likable human characters amid the often annoying world of New York City hipsters.

Stiller plays Josh, an established yet struggling filmmaker who has been stuck for the past decade on a documentary that’s so pretentious and boring, even he can’t describe it easily himself. Watts is his wife Cornelia, who has never really found a strong career and who also harbors regrets that she wasn’t able to have children despite numerous scientific attempts to conceive back in her thirties.

While teaching a continuing-education class on documentaries, Josh is approached one night by a young couple named Jamie (Driver) and Darby (Seyfried). Jamie claims to be a passionate fan of Josh’s work, and asks him to meet up in-depth outside of class despite the fact that Jamie is only auditing the course for free.

Yet, eager for any sense of praise and validation as he’s mired in his early forties, Josh takes him up on the offer, and the two couples become fast friends. Josh and Cornelia had long felt the rest of their friends slipping away from them as everyone else became parents, so teaming up with vibrant hipsters eager to include them in activities outside of “mommy music” classes and parenting discussion groups is instantly appealing.

Cornelia joins Darby in a hip-hop dance class, while Josh starts wearing odd hats chosen by Jamie, and the two couples bike through Brooklyn and sneak through subway tunnels together. But something about Jamie always seems just a little too perfect.

When Jamie starts catching breaks on his own documentary project that Josh could only dream of – and even gains the approval of Cornelia’s dad (Charles Grodin), a legendary documentarian who has never embraced Josh’s work – Josh is determined to find out if there’s a larger game being played against him. And it’s in this mystery, which remains mostly comic in tone but is ultimately nearly as complex and surprising a revelation as the ending of “The Sixth Sense,” that Baumbach raises the movie to an entirely different level.

Baumbach has long specialized in lacerating yet comic portraits of self-absorbed New Yorkers, and has even pulled off a screenplay Oscar nomination for “The Squid and the Whale” along the way. Yet, whether depicting the effect a toxic marriage has on children in “Squid” or the life of a young woman learning to break out of her shell in “Frances Ha!”, he has only slowly but surely learned how to create characters that audiences actually want to be around.

His prior collaboration with Stiller, the 2010 film “Greenberg,” was so odd and neurotic that the movie gained nationwide notoriety for the fact that thousands of its attendees demanded refunds. That won’t be the case with “Young,” an infinitely more appealing movie that hits on themes of aging, parenthood and finding one’s place in the world in ways that are universal.

As the older couple, Stiller and Watts are an ace team who truly feel like they have shared decades of ups and downs together, and who remain inspiring for having done so. Seyfried and especially Driver have the more complicated job of appearing sweet and happy on the outside while harboring far greater complexity within.

A major presence in the acclaimed HBO series “Girls,” Driver uses his offbeat facial features and off-kilter speech rhythms to mesmerizing effect, and is poised to become a superstar with his upcoming lead role in December’s new “Star Wars” movie. The fact that he nearly steals a movie in which he nearly steals another man’s life is just one of the many pleasures that this thoughtful, intriguing and richly entertaining movie has to offer.

“While We’re Young” is rated R for its language, and nothing else, and while there are a couple rants by Stiller in which he uses the F word a few times within a minute – including a big argument with Watts – the movie overall is a positive portrait of two married couples in a New York City rife with unmarried cohabitation.

Beyond the movie’s pleasantly funny surface and eventual sense of mystery, “Young” also offers some depth regarding the pressures to have children and the toll it can take on those who are unable to do so. It balances touching moments in which Josh and Cornelia express their sadness and frustration at not being able to bring a child to term (they’ve had a couple of miscarriages), against hipster couples who seem to have babies just because “it’s time”, as if the children are merely lifestyle accessories.

While I can’t give away the ending of the movie, which comes after a huge plot twist, the story does ultimately come to a very life-affirming ending that is perfect for Josh and Cornelia and will make viewers value their own station in life, no matter their age, as well.

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

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SUNDAY • APRIL 19, 2015

Third Sunday of Easter

First Reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; NRSVCE)

Peter said to the people, “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.”

Second Reading (1 Jn 2:1-5a; NRSVCE)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection.

Gospel Reading (Lk 24:35-48; NRSVCE)

Then the two disciples told the others what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

MONDAY • APRIL 20, 2015

Monday of the Third Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 6:8-15; NRSVCE)

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:22-29; NRSVCE)

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

TUESDAY • APRIL 21, 2015

Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 7:51 — 8:1a; NRSVCE)

Stephen said to the crowd, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

And Saul approved of their killing him.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:30-35; NRSVCE)

So the crowd said to Jesus, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

WEDNESDAY • APRIL 22, 2015

Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 8:1b-8; NRSVCE)

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.

Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. So there was great joy in that city.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:35-40; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the crowd, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

THURSDAY • APRIL 23, 2015

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 8:26-40; NRSVCE)

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,

and like a lamb silent before its shearer,

so he does not open his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:44-51; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the crowd, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

FRIDAY • APRIL 24, 2015

Friday of the Third Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 9:1-20; NRSVCE)

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

Gospel Reading (Jn 6:52-59; NRSVCE)

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

SATURDAY • APRIL 25, 2015

Feast of Saint Mark

First Reading (1 Pt 5:5b-14; NRSVCE)

And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for

“God opposes the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.”

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

Through Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. Your sister church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Gospel Reading (Mk 16:15-20; NRSVCE)

And Jesus said to the apostles, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.