VOLUME 1, ISSUE 26  •  JUNE 27, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

In Middle East martyrdoms, Pope Francis sees seeds of Christian unity

Pope Francis speaks up for Italy’s unemployed youth

Shroud of Turin reminds us of all human suffering, Pope Francis says

Pope Francis asks workers: give immigrants compassion, not blame

Pope in Turin: Allow God to make us new

A Vatican two-wheeler: Teen mechanics restore motorbike for Pope Francis

Pope Francis asks forgiveness of Christian group over historical persecution

A wish granted – Pope meets with young prisoners in Turin

Pope Francis reconnects with relatives in Turin

What Pope Francis owes the Salesians

Synod guiding document: families need the Church’s message of mercy

Pope to families: If you hide your problems, they’ll only get worse

Synod on the Family’s working document sets the stage for spirited discussion

The one theologian you need to know about when reading ‘Laudato Si’

Cardinal sends Ramadan wishes to suffering Muslims, rebukes religious violence

For Archbishop Chaput, Vatican synod, Philly family meeting providentially linked

Pope exhorts future Vatican diplomats to bring Christ’s face to the world

A hope for peace: Vatican, Palestine sign treaty protecting religious liberty

Educate girls to the ‘beauty and grandeur of their vocation’ – Pope Francis

WORLD NEWS

Clearing up the confusion: New film sheds light on beauty, truth of marriage

Sister Nirmala, former head of Missionaries of Charity, dies in India

Thousands gather in Rome to support the family, oppose gender theory

Transfixed by the face of Jesus: Pilgrims at the Shroud of Turin

CDF reportedly judges Medjugorje apparitions false, but permits pilgrimage

U.S. NEWS

Dorothy Day had nothing to say to this theologian – or so he thought

Modern martyrs should inspire U.S. Christians, archbishop says

Have a family, grow a garden, be holy – conclusions from Laudato Si

Father Flanagan founded Boys Town. Will he be recognized as a saint?

Don’t overturn social order, faith leaders urge Supreme Court before marriage case

Coming to the World Meeting of Families: Andrea Bocelli

The dark side of living ‘childfree’

California legislators renew push against Junipero Serra, saint and Hispanic ‘founding father’

Congress combats targeting of traditional marriage advocates

Fathers play on Father’s Day: The priests of two Nebraska dioceses face off in softball game

Assisted suicide bill stalls in California legislature, but pressure continues

Breaking News: Supreme Court redefines marriage throughout U.S.

U.S. bishops encourage Catholics to maintain witness to the truth of marriage

FEATURES

The Pope and the Planet

‘Laudato Si’ and Romano Guardini

‘Ted 2’ an improvement on the original, but still stoops low for jokes

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • June 28, 2015

Monday • June 29, 2015

Tuesday • June 30, 2015

Wednesday • July 1, 2015

Thursday • July 2, 2015

Friday • July 3, 2015

Saturday • July 4, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 26 • June 27, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

In Middle East martyrdoms, Pope Francis sees seeds of Christian unity

by CNA/EWTN News • June 20, 2015

Pope Francis speaks with Ignatius Aphrem II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, at the Vatican, June 19, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Meeting with Syriac Orthodox leaders on Friday, Pope Francis decried the continuing martyrdom of Middle East Christians, and gave special mention to two Christian bishops kidnapped in Syria two years ago.

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of unity in the Church and the instrument of the building up of the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of peace and of justice,” the Pope said June 19.

“Let us ask the Lord, too, for the grace of always being ready to forgive and of being workers of reconciliation and peace. This is what animates the witness of the martyrs.”

The Roman Pontiff encouraged prayers for the victims of violence in the Middle East. He particularly mentioned Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Paul Yazigi, two archbishops of Aleppo, Syria who were kidnapped together in 2013.

The Pope’s comments came during a meeting with Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of Antioch, who was accompanied by a delegation of his Church.

The Syriac Orthodox Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which rejected the Council of Chalcedon held in 451. The Church has about 1.2 million members around the world, and its patriarchate is now based in Damascus.

The Roman Pontiff told Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem that the Syrian Church has been “a Church of martyrs from the beginning.” He lamented that the Syriac Orthodox Church, with other Christian communities and other minorities, continues to endure “the terrible sufferings caused by war, violence, and persecutions.”

“So much suffering! So many innocent victims. In the face of all this, it seems that the powers of this world are incapable of finding solutions,” the Pope said.

He added: “in this moment of harsh trial and of sorrow, let us strengthen ever more the bonds of friendship and fraternity between the Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Let us hasten our steps along the common path, keeping our gaze fixed on the day when we will be able to celebrate our belonging to the one Church of Christ around the same altar of Sacrifice and of praise.”

“Let us exchange the treasures of our traditions as spiritual gifts, because that which unites us is much greater than that which divides us.”

The tradition of papal meetings with Syriac Orthodox leaders dates back to 1971 when Blessed Paul VI met with then-Patriarch Ignatius Jacob III. Pope Francis said that at that encounter, both leaders “consciously began what we can call a ‘holy pilgrimage’ toward full communion between our Churches.”

Bl. Paul VI and the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch signed a common declaration of faith that laid a “dynamic foundation” for the journey to unity, Pope Francis said.

He cited Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Magnesians, in which the Church Father prayed for unity among Christians. He also prayed a Syrian prayer that asks for God’s sanctification and prays that Mary’s prayers be “strength for our souls.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis speaks up for Italy’s unemployed youth

by CNA/EWTN News • June 20, 2015

Pope Francis near St. Peter’s Basilica before his Wednesday general audience on June 3, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Youth unemployment is “a true social plague” that leaves young people feeling useless, Pope Francis told an Italian labor group on Saturday.

“The human being is the center of development, and as long as men and women remain passive or marginalized, the common good cannot be considered fully met,” the Pope told members of the Italian National Federation of the Knights of Labor at the Apostolic Palace in a June 20 audience.

The pontiff said the world of work should be ready and waiting for young people and the fresh strengths they bring. However, in recent years young people have received the message that “there is no need of them.”

“This is a symptom of a grave dysfunction, which cannot be attributed only to global and international causes,” he said.

Italy’s official overall unemployment rate is above 12 percent. Its youth unemployment is about 40 percent, according to European Union figures.

Pope Francis reflected on the social significance of work, noting its ability to engage people and give them responsibility in a way that simulates enterprise, creativity and diligence

“This has positive effects on new generations and ensures that a society begins again to look ahead, offering prospects and opportunities, and thus hope for the future,” he said.

The Pope said that the common good cannot be achieved merely through increasing earnings and productivity. Rather, it requires “the active involvement of all the parties that make up the body of society.”

The economy contributes to authentic development only when “rooted in justice and respect for the law,” when it does not marginalize individuals and peoples, when it avoids corruption, and when it does not neglect to preserve the natural environment.

Justice requires not only abstaining from wickedness and observing the laws, the Pope said, though he granted that doing this is “already a lot.”

Rather, the just man acts with “conscience and concern for the good of all, not only for their own.” A just person “takes to heart the fate of the less advantaged and of the poor” and “never tires of work” while being ready to discover new paths. Pope Francis particularly praised this kind of creativity.

The Pope also praised the Knights of Labor’s work to help create jobs and increase the value of Italian products. He said their work is “more valuable than ever” given Italy’s economic stagnation and recession and a social situation “already marked by inequality and unemployment.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Shroud of Turin reminds us of all human suffering, Pope Francis says

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • June 21, 2015

A photo negative of the Shroud of Turin. (CNA)

Turin, Italy — Pope Francis prayed before the Shroud of Turin on Sunday and reflected on the role the reputed burial cloth of Jesus Christ can play in Christian spiritual life.

“The Shroud attracts (us) toward the martyred face and body of Jesus,” the Pope said June 21.

“At the same time, it pushes (us) toward the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person. It pushes us in the same direction as the gift of Jesus’ love,” the pontiff said during his noontime Angelus address at Turin’s Piazza Vittorio Veneto.

Earlier that morning Pope Francis had visited the Shroud of Turin, housed in Turin’s Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.

The cathedral is kept dark while the shroud is on display. The Pope spent several minutes in silent prayer before the relic. He then approached the shroud’s reliquary and touched it.

The Shroud of Turin is among the most well-known relics believed to be connected with Christ’s Passion. The burial shroud is a little more than 14 feet long and three-and-a-half feet wide. It bears the image of the front and back of a man who has been brutally tortured and crucified.

The relic has been venerated for centuries by Christians as the burial shroud of Jesus. It has been subject to intense scientific study to consider its authenticity and origins. The Catholic Church has not taken an official position on the relic’s authenticity.

Pope Francis, after praying before the shroud, then visited to the tomb of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who is buried in a nearby altar. Frassati, a Turin native and a patron of young people, spent much of his short life leading others to Christ, serving the poor, and working for social reform. He died of polio at the age of 24 on July 4, 1925.

Some family members of Blessed Pier Giorgio were at the cathedral for the Pope’s visit. Others present included elderly priests and cloistered nuns, a group of the city’s local canons, and members of the commission dedicated to preserving the Shroud.

The pontiff’s visit to the shroud was part of his two-day visit to the northern Italian city. He arrived in Turin early on Sunday, and is scheduled to return to Rome on Monday afternoon.

Before his visit to the Shroud of Turin, the Pope met with a group of workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs in Turin’s Piazza Rebaudengo. After his stop at the Turin cathedral, he presided over Sunday morning Mass in Piazza Vittorio. He then met with the sick and disabled in the afternoon at the Church of Cottolengo.

This year’s papal visit coincides with a rare exposition of the shroud, which will be on public display from April 19 to June 24. The shroud was last on display in 2010.

The papal visit also marks the bicentenary of the birth of Saint John Bosco, founder of the Salesian order. He is known for his work with young people, particularly disadvantaged youth like street children and juvenile delinquents.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis asks workers: give immigrants compassion, not blame

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • June 21, 2015

Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 18, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Turin, Italy — Pope Francis has encouraged workers not to blame their economic troubles on migrants, who are themselves often victims of injustice and treated like merchandise rather than human beings.

“Immigration increases competition, but migrants are not to blame, because they too are victims of inequality, of this economy of waste and of war,” the Pope said, remarking on the various crises, especially in Africa and the Middle East, which have driven migrants to Italy’s shores in droves.

“It makes you cry to see the spectacle during these days in which human beings are treated like merchandise,” he added in off-the-cuff remarks.

The pontiff’s remarks came during a meeting with workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs in the northern city of Turin’s Piazzetta Reale. The meeting was the first stop in his two-day visit.

“My visit to Turin begins with you,” Pope Francis told his audience as he reflected on the importance of work.

“Work is necessary, not only for the economy, but for the human person, his dignity, his citizenship, and his social inclusion,” he said.

The Pope expressed his particular closeness to young people who are unemployed, and to other workers in various sectors who are having difficulty moving forward.

“Now is the time to reactivate solidarity between generations, to restore faith between young people and adults,” he said.

The Pope also addressed the rights of women, who “carry the majority of the weight in caring for the houses, the children, and the elderly, (yet) are nonetheless discriminated against, even in work.”

Pope Francis, after arriving in Turin early Sunday morning, met with the workers as the first stop on his trip.

The pontiff observed that even Turin, Italy’s third largest economic center historically known for its manufacturing, has been affected by the economic crisis.

“In this we are called to reaffirm the ‘no’ to an economy of waste,” which calls us to resign ourselves “to the exclusion of those who live in absolute poverty,” he said.

Pope Francis called on the faithful to say “no” to the idolatry of money, “no” to corruption, and “no” to inequality which, he said, “generates violence.”

The complexity of the current global situation is such that it is not enough for “recovery,” the Pope said. There needs to be an “economic model” that is organized, above all, toward the common good, not merely as a function of capital and production.

“Turin is called to be once again the protagonist of a new season of economic and social development with its tradition of manufacturing and craftsmanship,” as well as its traditions of research and innovation, the pontiff added.

He also addressed the need for a “social and generational pact,” and the need to open new possibilities through support and education.

Pope Francis cited the example of Saint John Bosco, the Turin saint whose 200th birthday is being celebrated this year. He was known for his social action to help young people. He founded the Salesians to educate the impoverished young and prepare them for occupations.

“Don Bosco teaches us that the best way is that of prevention: even social conflict must be prevented, and this is done with justice,” the Pope said.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope in Turin: Allow God to make us new

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • June 21, 2015

Pope Francis in Turin’s Piazza Vittorio on June 21, 2015. (Marco Mancini/CNA)

Turin, Italy — Pope Francis has challenged Christians to seek safety in God’s transformative power, and not in the world.

“Do we believe that the Lord is faithful?” the pontiff said to thousands at Mass in Turin’s Piazza Vittorio. “How do we live the newness of God who transforms us every day? How do we live the steadfast love of the Lord, who puts up a secure barrier against the waves of pride and false newness?”

“The spirit of the world is always in search of newness, but only the fidelity of Jesus is capable of true newness, of making us into new men,”

The June 21 Mass was one of the major events of Pope Francis’ two-day visit to the northern Italian city.

The visit coincides with two events: a rare exposition of the Shroud of Turin, the relic reputed to be the burial cloth of Jesus; and the bicentenary of the birth of the city’s beloved saint, St. John Bosco.

In his homily, the Pope reflected on the Psalm from the day’s readings, which invites the faithful to give thanks to the Lord whose “love is everlasting.”

“It is a love which does not disappoint, (and) which never fails,” the pontiff said. Jesus, who incarnates this love, “never tires of loving us, of supporting us, of forgiving us, and thus accompanies us on the journey through life.”

It was out of love that Jesus became man, died and was risen, and is always with us through good times and difficulties, the Pope said. “Jesus loves us always, until the end, without limit or measure.”

Pope Francis turned to the day’s second reading from Saint Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, which discusses how God’s love “re-creates everything” and makes “all things new.”

The Pope explained that by recognizing our limitations and weakness, we allow ourselves to be open to God’s forgiveness, whereby we can be “re-created.”

“Salvation is able to enter into the heart when we open ourselves to the truth and recognize our mistakes, our sins,” he said, recalling how Jesus did not come for the healthy and the righteous, but for the sick and the sinners.

Pope Francis turned his reflection to the day’s Gospel reading, in which St. Mark recounts Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

“God’s love is stable and secure, like the rocky cliffs which protect against the violence of the waves,” he said.

The disciples were afraid, the Pope recounted, but Jesus “opened their hearts to the courage of faith.”

“How often do we feel as though we cannot do it anymore! But he is next to us with hand outstretched and heart opened.”

Pope Francis challenged the faithful to ask themselves if are secure on this “rock” of God’s love, or if fear of the future drives them to seek safety that is ultimately impermanent.

“Even we Christians run the risk of allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear of the future, and look for security in things which pass, or in a closed model of society which tends to exclude more than include.”

Recalling the witness given by the saints and blesseds who accepted God’s love, the Pope said we can follow their example, living the joy of the Gospel by practicing mercy.

“We can share the difficulties of many people, of families, especially those who are most fragile and marked by the economic crisis,” he said, echoing his remarks earlier in the day to a group of workers from Turin.

“Families need to feel the maternal caress of the Church in order to go forward in the conjugal life, in the education of children, in caring for the elderly, and in the transmission of faith to young generations.”

He added that God’s peace is “for everyone, as well as for our many brothers and sisters fleeing war and persecution in search of peace and freedom.”

Pope Francis concluded with a Marian prayer and a mention of the local feast for Turin’s Sanctuary for the Virgin of the Consolation, which took place June 20.

“We entrust our ecclesial and civil journey to our Mother: She helps us to follow the Lord in being faithful, to allow ourselves to remain steadfast in love.”

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VATICAN NEWS

A Vatican two-wheeler: Teen mechanics restore motorbike for Pope Francis

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

Students and teachers who helped restore the motorbike. (Salesian Professional School of Bra)

Turin, Italy — A group of teenagers at a Salesian-run professional school in Italy have restored a motorbike as a gift for the Pope.

The motorbike, an Itom 50 model that dates back to the 1960s, was present in Turin during Pope Francis’ meeting with Salesians at the House of Valdocco, the motherhouse of the Salesian congregation.

The teens plan to give it to the Pope in a private audience in the Vatican in the near future.

About 10,000 young people gathered June 21 in front of the Church of Mary Auxiliatrix in the quarter of Valdocco in the city of Turin. Many came from the Salesian schools and oratories in Italy and other parts of the world.

When Pope Francis came out of the Church to address young people with a short speech and to give a blessing, he could see the motorbike on his right side.

The restoration of the motorbike was done by the Salesian Professional School in Bra, a town in northern Italy.

“Students, with the help of a teacher, disassembled the motorbike, and then they restored it, repainted it in white and yellow (the colors of the Vatican flag), and re-coated it with zinc,” Gianfranco Morra, one of their teachers, told CNA June 21.

He said that the school proposed the project in a letter to Pope Francis. “We got a positive response from the papal entourage, we have been told our initiative was welcomed,” Morra said.

Their letter to the Pope explained the story of the Professional School of Bra, which was founded in 1959 with its first courses focused on carpentry.

“Then, we had classes of industrial mechanics, automotive mechanics, and we started a new repair shop with new workshops and tools, so we have a wide space to train our students,” the teacher said.

He added that the school now has about 600 students. About 90 of them are taking classes on car and motorbike repair.

Morra said that students and teachers “are waiting to be invited to go to a private audience to Pope Francis, to give the Pope the motorbike in person.”

St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, started professional schools in Italy, with the aim of teaching young disadvantaged people job skills, a revolutionary idea in the 19th century. The year 2015 is the bicentenary of his birth.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis asks forgiveness of Christian group over historical persecution

by CNA/EWTN News • June 22, 2015

Pope Francis embraces Eugenio Bernardini, a Waldensian pastor, at the community’s church in Turin, July 22, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Turin, Italy — Pope Francis met on Monday with members of the Waldensian movement, an ecclesial community which suffered persecution from Catholic authorities from the 12th to 17th centuries. He apologized for the Church’s “non-Christian attitudes and behavior” towards the Waldensians during that period.

“Reflecting on the history of our relations, we can only grieve in the face of strife and violence committed in the name of faith, and ask the Lord to give us us the grace to recognize we are all sinners, and to know how to forgive one another,” the Pope said June 22 at a Waldensian temple in Turin.

“I ask forgiveness for the non-Christian – even inhuman – attitudes and behaviors which, through history, we have had against you. In Jesus Christ’s name, forgive us!”

Monday’s encounter marks the first meeting between a Pope and the Waldensian community. Founded in Lyon in the late twelfth century, it is currently centered in Italy’s Piedmont region, which Pope Francis visited June 21-22.

The movement was founded by Peter Waldo, and embraced evangelical poverty and lay preaching, and believed there were only two sacraments. The movement’s ideas were condemned as early as the Third Lateran Council, in 1179. Beginning in the early 1200s, many Waldensians were executed on account of heresy.

One of the largest killings took place in 1545, during which soldiers killed scores of Waldensians in the French city of Mérindol, although the extent of casualties is disputed by historians.

Currently consisting of tens of thousands of members, the Waldensian community is headquartered in the Piedmont region, of which Turin is the capital.

Pope Francis told the community, “On behalf of the Catholic Church, I ask for your forgiveness.”

During the meeting, the Roman Pontiff praised ecumenical advancements which have been made among those united in baptism and belief in Christ.

“This tie is not based on simple human criteria, but on the radical sharing of founding experience of Christian life: the encounter with the love of God who reveals to us Jesus, and the transformative action of the Holy Spirit who helps us on life’s journey.”

Pope Francis noted that this communion “is still on a journey, which, with prayer, with continual personal and communal conversion, and with the help of the theologians, we hope, trusting in the action of the Holy Spirit, can become full and visible communion in truth and charity.”

He added that unity, as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, is not the same as uniformity.

“In fact, our brethren are united by a common origin but are not identical to one another.”

The Holy Father cited the scriptures, which speak of different charisms and gifts.

However, wars often break out when these do not accept these differences of others, he said.

Pope Francis thanked God that the relationship between Catholics and Waldensians continue today to be ever more rooted in “mutual respect and fraternal charity.”

The Pope said he is also encouraged by the various ecumenical steps that have been taken between the Church and the Waldensians, and reiterated the call to continue forward together.

There are various areas where the Church and the Waldensians could work together, he said, one being evangelization.

Another field of collaboration is working with those who suffer: the poor, the sick, and migrants, he added.

“The differences on important anthropological and ethical questions, which continue to exist between Catholics and the Waldensians, do not prevent us from finding ways of collaborating in these and other fields. If we walk together, the Lord helps us live this communion which preexists every conflict.”

Pope Francis concluded by saying a”new way of unity begins with seeing the “grandeur of our shared faith and life in Christ and the Holy Spirit,” before taking into account the differences which exist.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Waldensian community gifted Pope Francis with a copy of the first Bible translated into French, dating from the 16th century.

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VATICAN NEWS

A wish granted – Pope meets with young prisoners in Turin

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • June 22, 2015

Pope Francis before the Eucharistic celebration in Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Turin on June 21, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Turin, Italy — For Fr. Domenico Ricca, chaplain of the Ferrante Aporti juvenile prison in Turin, this weekend’s visit from Pope Francis was a dream come true.

“I met Pope Francis two years ago, and I immediately talked to him about visiting the ‘Ferrante Aporti’ and meeting with prisoners, as I saw he had celebrated the 2013 Holy Thursday Mass in the juvenile prison ‘Casal del Marmo’ in Rome,” Fr. Ricca told CNA.

When he heard that he Pope was planning to visit Turin June 21-22, Fr. Ricca’s hopes increased. However, he was afraid, up until the event itself took place, that it would not happen.

“The Pope’s daily schedule was very tight, and I knew that it was almost impossible to fix a meeting at the ‘Ferrante Aporti,’ as it would have taken him too much time to move,” he said.

In the end, “the Vatican proposed to meet the young detainees for lunch in the Archbishop’s House. The Pope really wanted to meet the young detainees; he is really attentive to these symbolic gestures.”

Fr. Ricca, a Salesian who has been serving as chaplain of the juvenile prison for 35 years, said that 11 young inmates – ages 17 to 21 – were chosen to lunch with the Pope.

This was not the first time that they had left the prison, he said, because they are permitted to leave for school exams and other select occasions.

The young detainees had lunch with the Pope June 21, together with several disadvantaged families, included a family from Rome.

“In total, there were about 35 people eating with the Pope,” said Fr. Ciro Benedettini, deputy director of the Holy See Press Office.

Fr. Ricca said that “everything took place in about one hour. The Pope arrived in advance, at around 12:40, and he left shortly before 2 p.m.”

He added that the “young people were happy, they ate like kings. They also were somewhat astonished, and at the beginning they were shy. After time, they became more comfortable, and addressed many questions to the Pope.”

The young detainees gave Pope Francis many gifts, primarily artwork that they had made in prison. The Pope in exchange asked that some pictures of his be given to them.

At the Ferrante Aporti prison, Fr. Ricca works to implement principles from the “preventive system” of education created by St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesians. The method focuses on educating youth before they encounter problems with the law rather than trying to rehabilitate them afterwards.

While the youth of Ferrante Aporti have already found themselves in trouble with the law, Fr. Ricca still sees value in St. John Bosco’s educational method, and views his work at the prison as that of an oratory.

“I work step by step, with no hurries. I waited for the right time to have a chapel of our own within the prison, I waited for the right time to place a statue of St. John Bosco in the prison’s courtyard.”

The chapel is now named after the Good Shepherd, and Fr. Ricca even celebrated the baptism of a young detainee there on Pentecost 2014.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis reconnects with relatives in Turin

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

Francis says Mass for his relatives in a chapel of the Archbishop of Turin’s residence, June 22, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Turin, Italy — During his trip to Turin this week, Pope Francis visited his relatives and his ancestors’ parish, his father, an Italian emigrant to Argentina, having been baptized in the city.

On June 21, he made a short visit to St. Teresa parish, where his grandparents were married in 1907, and his father baptized. He kissed the baptistery, recalling his grandparents and praying for families and the upcoming Synod on the Family, leaving behind a sheet of paper with brief reflections on the importance of the family.

The following day, he met with six of his cousins and their families, some 30 persons in all. He said Mass for them in a chapel at the residence of the Torinese archbishop, after which they had lunch together.

Pope Francis’ grandfather hailed from Portocomaro, a small town fewer than 45 miles southeast of Turin. The family settled in Portocomaro in the first half of the 18th century, when one of their ancestors bought the only house then extant in the town.

In 1906, Giovanni Angelo Bergoglio, Pope Francis’ grandfather, moved to Turin looking for better opportunities, where he met Rosa Margherita Vassallo. The two were married Aug. 20, 1907, and the following year they baptized their first son, Mario. In 1929, they moved to Argentina.

The Bergoglio’s first settled in Parana, and then moved to Buenos Aires. There, at a Salesian oratory, Mario met Maria Regina Sivori, and they were married in 1935. Jorge, their first son, was born the next year.

Pope Francis was profoundly influenced by his grandmother Rosa. During his June 21 Mass, he quoted from the Piedmontese poem “Rassa nostrana” by Nino Costa, which Rosa had taught him in the local dialect.

He has also mentioned his grandmother in his homily for Palm Sunday in 2013, and in homilies at his daily Masses.

Rosa was a very religious woman, nurtured in the stimulating cultural environment of Turin. Her religiosity was filled with the example of the ‘saints of social action’, as many Catholic associations for women were flourishing in Turin while she lived there.

In her spiritual testament, Rosa wrote: “May my grandsons, whom I gave the best of my heart, have a long and happy life. If one day pain, sickness or loss of a dear one will fill them with affliction, may they always remember that a breath in front of the Tabernacle, where the greatest and important martyr is secured, and a glance to Mary at the foot of the cross, can leave a drop of balsam on the deepest and most painful wounds.”

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VATICAN NEWS

What Pope Francis owes the Salesians

by CNA’s Vatican Observer Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • June 23, 2015

Francis at the Basilica of St. Mary Help of Christians at the tomb of Don Bosco in Turin, Italy on June 21, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Turin, Italy — Pope Francis is a Jesuit, but he has Salesian roots.

A Salesian priest was the matchmaker for Pope Francis’ parents and baptized the future Pope, while Francis owes his priestly vocation to a Salesian priest.

Pope Francis recently visited Turin to celebrate the 200th anniversary of St. John Bosco’s birth. Father Elio Cesari, who is responsible for the Salesian Youth in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, said there is a strong connection between the 19th century saint and the 21st century Pope.

“St. John Bosco was a prophet, and the Pope was imbued with his thought, as he studied in Salesian schools, and he owes his vocation to a Salesian priest, Fr. Pozzoli, as he always recounted,” Fr. Cesari told CNA June 20.

According to the Salesian Press Agency, the connection between Pope Francis and Salesians stretches back before his birth. A Salesian was the matchmaker of the first meeting of the parents of the Pope.

Fr. Enrico Pozzoli, an Italian who emigrated in Argentina, was the bridge between the families of Francis José Mario Bergoglio and Maria Regina Sivori, when they were in their twenties. The two met thanks to the priest, and Fr. Pozzoli celebrated their wedding Dec. 12, 1935.

Francis and Maria Regina moved in a house around the Basilica San José de Flores, in Varela in 1968. In that house, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born Dec. 17, 1936. Fr. Pozzoli baptized him 8 days after, in the Salesian Church ‘San Carlos’ in Almagro.

“Pope Francis nurtured in the Salesian world, and he grabbed much of St. John Bosco spirit,” said Fr. Elio Cesari.

In a 1990 letter contained in the book “Pope Francis and Fr. Bosco” by Fr. Alessandro Leòn, the then-Fr. Bergoglio recounted that he used to take part in the procession of Mary Auxiliatrix when he was a child and used to go to the oratory St. Francis of Sales, while he knew the Salesian confessors in San Carlo.

Pope Francis also attended classes for one year in the Salesian College in the House of Ramos Mejia. In the letter, Bergoglio stressed that “through an awakening of conscience and of truth, the College created a ‘non-bigoted’ Catholic culture. Study, social values of coexistence, the social references to the needs of people, sport, competence, mercy … everything was real and everything contributed to raise up habits that shaped a cultural way of being.”

This is also the reason why the mayor of Turin, Piero Fassino, gave to Pope Francis copies of 22 St. John Bosco autographed letters, reproduced on 19th century paper. The letters are part of a series of letters St. John Bosco addressed to Baron Feliciano Ricci des Ferres, an Italian Catholic noble strongly committed to social action, and a friend and benefactor of the saint.

Fr. Enrico Stasi, inspector of the Salesian province of Piedmont, told CNA June 20 that “the connection between Pope Francis and the Salesians is strong.”

“The Pope asks (us) to go to the peripheries, and St. John Bosco went to the peripheries to help young people and help them to learn a job. We took over his legacy.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Synod guiding document: families need the Church’s message of mercy

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • June 23, 2015

Opening session of the Synod of Bishops, Oct. 6, 2014. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — The document set to guide this year’s synod discussions on the family touches on hot-button issues such as homosexuality and divorced and remarried couples, stressing that mercy is something every family needs from the Church.

“For the Church it’s about starting from the concrete situations of families of today, all are in need of mercy, beginning with those who suffer most,” the document reads.

Published June 23, the document said that although mercy doesn’t break with the essential truths Church teaching is founded on, it could be communicated better, particularly in regards to irregular family situations such as separations, mixed marriages and divorce.

The Church’s role, it says, is to accompany families as Christ did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

“We must give our journey the healthy pace of proximity, with a respectful gaze full of compassion, but which at the same time is healthy, free and encourages one to mature in the Christian life,” the document reads, quoting a speech of Pope Francis.

“To be close to families as a companion on the journey means, for the Church, to assume a wise and diverse attitude … the Church adopts, in an affectionate sharing, the joys and hopes, sorrows and anguishes of every family.”

The working document, or “Instrumentum Laboris,” has been compiled by the Vatican department in charge of organizing the synod to guide this October’s discussions. Divided into three parts, it builds on the final report of last October’s synod, also incorporating suggestions from Church entities like bishops’ conferences and even individuals who freely sent their opinions.

The final instrumentum was reviewed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before its publication, according to a source familiar with the document.

The first part, titled “Listening to the challenges of the family,” focuses mainly on themes surrounding last year’s synod. The second, “Discernment of the family vocation,” and third, “The mission of the family today,” address the themes to be discussed during this year’s discussion.

Set to take place Oct. 4-25, this year’s ordinary synod will reflect on the theme “Jesus Christ reveals the mystery and vocation of the family” will gather more than 200 Bishops and representatives from all over the world. The conclusions of the gathering will be used by Pope Francis to draft his first Post-Synodal Exhortation, which can be expected in 2016.

Last year’s synod spoke of the need to communicate the Church’s message of mercy more clearly to divorced couples and individuals with homosexual tendencies. This year’s document affirms the need, saying that persons in these situations shouldn’t feel excluded from the Church.

At the beginning of this year’s instrumentum the synod fathers emphasized the indissolubility of marriage, which is a sacrament that has been designed to reflect the love of the Trinity.

“Jesus himself, referring the primitive design of the human couple, reaffirmed the indissolubility of marriage between man and woman, while saying ‘for the hardness of your heart Moses allowed you to denounce your wives, but in the beginning it was not so.’”

Marriage indissolubility “is not intended as a ‘yoke’ imposed on men but rather as a gift to the persons united in marriage,” it read.

However, it also stressed the need to express the Church’s mercy in a stronger way to couples who have been divorced and civilly remarried.

Integrating couples in these situations into the life of the Church requires “an attentive discernment and an accompaniment of great respect, avoiding any language or attitude which makes them feel discriminated against and which promotes their participation in the life of the community,” the document says.

To care for such couples “is not a weakening of faith and witness of the indissolubility of marriage for the Christian community, but rather it is precisely in this care that charity is expressed.”

The document stressed that an unsuccessful marriage is “a defeat for everyone,” and that after becoming aware of one’s own responsibility, each person needs to regain confidence and hope. Everyone, it says, “needs to give and receive mercy.”

Also addressed is the debate surrounding access to communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, which was one of the most debated issues of last year’s gathering.

In the document it is noted that various opinions have been expressed by synod fathers on the topic, including suggestions to keep the current practice. Others have asked that each individual case be examined, and that couples in special circumstances be allowed to receive the Eucharist after completing a journey of penance and reconciliation guided by the local bishop.

The document emphasizes that the question is still being discussed, and that particular emphasis should be given to the distinction between “objective situations of sin and extenuating circumstances.”

It is also noted that the Church’s message of mercy extends to men and women with homosexual tendencies.

Although “there is no foundation whatsoever to assimilate or establish analogies, even remotely, between homosexual unions and God’s design for marriage and the family,” persons with homosexual tendencies, the document says, “ought to be welcomed with respect and delicacy.”

It reiterated that “each person, regardless of their sexual orientation, must be respected in their dignity and welcomed with sensitivity and delicacy, both in the Church and in society.”

However, the document condemned as “unacceptable” the fact that the Church is often pressured by international organizations to support laws allowing same sex “marriage” as a condition for giving financial assistance to poor countries.

Other themes addressed in the document and up for discussion during the October gathering are the pastoral concerns and care for civilly married or cohabiting couples, and the streamlining of the marriage annulment process, which many synod fathers have asked to be “more accessible” and possibly free of cost.

Also addressed was the possibility of globally unified pastoral guidelines for the care of divorced persons, the lack of which has raised “confusion and division” and produced “a burning pain in those who live a failed marriage, (and) who at times feel unfairly judged,” the document said.

The increasing fear of young people to get married, the betterment of the marriage preparation process and the accompaniment of couples in the first years after marriage were also addressed.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope to families: If you hide your problems, they’ll only get worse

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

Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his general audience on June 24, 2015. (Daniel Ibañez/CNA)

Vatican City — Family wounds that aren’t dealt with in a healthy and timely manner can have devastating effects on both spouses and children, Pope Francis has said, and encouraged wounded families to work toward healing without letting bitterness build up.

“We know well that every family on occasion suffers moments when one family member offends another,” the Pope told pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his June 24 general audience.

The resulting wounds “come from words, actions and omissions which instead of expressing love, hurt those nearest and dearest, causing deep divisions among family members, above all between husband and wife,” he noted.

Hiding these hurts “only deepens such wounds,” and can lead to a buildup of anger and friction between loved ones, the Pope continued.

“If these wounds are not healed in time, they worsen and turn into resentment and hostility, which (then) fall to the children,” he cautioned, adding that when the wounds are particularly deep, “they can even lead a spouse to search for understanding elsewhere, to the detriment of the family.”

Pope Francis’ address was the latest in a series of catechesis dedicated to the family. Since late last fall, the Pope has been centering his Wednesday addresses on this theme as part of the lead-up to the World Meeting of Families in September, as well as October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family.

His most recent speeches have focused on the fragility of the human condition, poverty, illness in the family, and the death of family members.

In today’s address on family wounds, Francis noted how when one family member offends another it’s easy to get lost in the hurt and think only about oneself. Those who suffer the most from this are the children, he said.

“When parents hurt each other, the soul of the children suffers and they are deeply marked,” he said, explaining that “In the family everything is intertwined.”

“Spouses are ‘one flesh’ in such a way that all wounds and abandonments affect the living flesh which is their children,” the Pope continued. He said Jesus’ words on the “serious responsibility” of guarding the marital bond are proof of this.

Pope Francis continued with the topic of children in wounded families, saying that despite all of our “refined psychological analysis” and our “apparent advanced sensitivity” toward children, we have become “anesthetized” to the wounds often inflicted on children’s souls.

He said that the more one tries to compensate for hurt with “gifts and snacks,” the more one loses their awareness of the deepest and most painful wounds that children can suffer.

“We speak a lot about behavioral problems, mental health, the well-being of the child, the anxiety of the parents and the children – but do we even know what a wound of the soul is?” he asked.

“Do we feel the weight of the mountain that crushes the soul of a child in families where there is wrongdoing and it does harm up to the point of breaking the bond of marital fidelity? What effect do our choices – often poor choices – have on the soul of children?”

When parents hurt and do wrong to each other, their children greatly suffer and can even feel a sense “of despair,” which leaves deep wounds that mark them for life, Francis observed.

He noted how there are some situations in which separation of families is “inevitable” and even “morally necessary” due to severe problems caused by caused by arrogance, violence, humiliation, exploitation, extraneousness and indifference.

Although he said he doesn’t like the term “irregular” family situations, the Pope stressed that persons involved in these cases need to be helped, and that the Church and community of believers must reflect on ways to accompany them.

Francis also acknowledged that despite the many broken and wounded families in the world, there are also many cases in which spouses, “out of faith and love for their children, continue giving witness of their fidelity to the bond in which they have believed.”

The Pope concluded by praying for both a “strong faith” in order to see the reality of family life with God’s eyes, and for “a deep love to approach all families with his merciful heart.”

He also offered prayers for all families passing through difficulties, asking that they learn how to overcome and heal their wounds without causing division and bitterness.

“May Jesus Christ heal every wound present in the life of your families, and may he make you witnesses of his mercy and love.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Synod on the Family’s working document sets the stage for spirited discussion

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer, Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • June 24, 2015

Participants in the 2014 synod depart the Vatican’s Synod Hall, October 13, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — That the discussion at October’s Synod on the Family is going to be a lively one is indicated by the fact that the most controversial paragraphs of the final report from last year’s synod are included in the working document which was released Tuesday.

At a June 23 press conference presenting the instrumentum laboris, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, noted that it is “based on the previous synod’s document” and that his office “itself drafted many of its paragraphs” based on the responses which it received from bishops’ conferences around the world to a questionnaire it had sent out.

The instrumentum laboris is 147 paragraphs, and its three parts will serve as a basis for the three weeks of discussion at this autumn’s gathering of bishops at the Vatican. It is available in Italian, but has not yet been released in translation.

It includes in its text three paragraphs from the 2014 synod’s final report which failed to reach the supermajority which is necessary for consensus. Those three paragraphs dealt with pastoral care for the divorced and remarried, and for homosexuals. They advocated admitting the divorced and remarried to Communion and reforming the nullity process, while the paragraph on care for those with a homosexual orientation was considered vague by many synod fathers.

On the other hand, the 2015 synod’s working document is hinged on the notion of “accompaniment,” which might be applied, according to the document, to the divorced and remarried, homosexuals, and those living in difficult situations – as well as to those actually living their marital life in a Christian way, those discerning marriage, and priests themselves, who the synod suggests need better education on issues related to marriage.

The need for more education for both priests and laity will likely be a core issue for the synod fathers.

Given the weight attached to the issues of homosexuality and the divorced and remarried, some other issues receive little attention in the instrumentum laboris. For example pornography is mentioned but once, in passing, in a paragraph on fragility and affective immaturity which was adopted from the last synod’s final report.

As the final composition of the body of bishops attending the synod draws near, it is foreseeable that the synod will maintain the Church’s tradition in pastoral care.

The Italian bishops have chosen as their representatives Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, Bishop Franco Brambilla of Novara, and Bishop Enrico Solmi of Parma. All should stand with traditional Catholic teaching, with some nuanced positions from Bishops Brambilla and Solmi.

The Polish bishops were among the most active in defending Catholic tradition at the 2014 synod, and the delegates of the Polish bishops conference show that their activism will not come to an end. Bishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw strongly has denounced what he has called Church’s betrayal of St. John Paul II’s teaching on marriage and family, and Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan took the floor at the 2014 synod to stress that “the main goal is to pastorally support families, not to strike them down.”

Bad surprises may come from Belgium. Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard of Malines-Brussels, 75, has been replaced by Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, who has called for the Church’s full approval of homosexual acts.

Bishop Mario Grech of Gozo will be the delegate from Malta: while not as far leaning as Bishop Bonny, he has shown himself keen to adopt the Orthodox practice of oikonomia, or tolerating second marriages.

The delegates from Germany are certain to support “pastoral openings” for the remarried and for homosexuals, as their leader, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, has already indicated that German dioceses will pursue such a course regardless of the synod’s indications.

Despite this, with an overall glance, the composition of the Synod of Bishops will stand with traditional Catholic teaching and practice on marriage.

The four synod fathers elected by the US Bishops conference are Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Archbishops Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, and José Gómez of Los Angeles. All are against access to Communion for the divorced and remarried.

France’s delegation presents Bishop Jean-Luc Brunin of Le Havre, a supporter of the Germans, and Cardinal André Vingt-Trois of Paris, who is more traditional.

The Spanish delegates are also more traditional: Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, and Cardinal Ricardo Blazquez Perez of Valladolid, who is a staunch supporter of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Firmly pointed in the traditional direction is Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht.

Moreover, the vast majority of African delegates are firmly opposed to the German bishops’ proposals.

In New Zealand, Cardinal John Dew of Wellington, a supporter of the German bishops’ proposals, was not elected as delegate this year. Another supporter of the proposals, Cardinal Daniel Sturla Berhouet of Montevideo, also failed to gain the votes to represent his country at the synod – the Uruguayan representative will instead be Bishop Jaime Fuentes Martín of Minas, a member of Opus Dei.

In the end, the 2015 Synod of Bishops’ composition may well maintain traditional Catholic teaching and practice, and this is why the papal appointments at the synod, unannounced as of yet, will play an important role in balancing positions.

The synod will then focus on nuances, which has already begun with the inclusion in the instrumentum laboris of the more controversial portions of the last synod’s final report.

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VATICAN NEWS

The one theologian you need to know about when reading ‘Laudato Si’

by CNA/EWTN News • June 24, 2015

Copies of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si on June 18, 2015 in Paul VI Hall. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Chicago, IL — With so many interpretations being presented for Pope Francis’ new encyclical, Fr. Robert Barron says only one theologian can give us the proper context for reading Laudato si: Romano Guardini.

“Whatever (the Holy Father’s) views on global warming, they are situated within the far greater context of a theology of nature that stands athwart the typically modern point of view,” Fr. Robert Barron wrote in his June 23 column, “Laudato si and Romano Guardini.”

“As I read through the document, I saw, on practically every page, the influence of Romano Guardini and his distinctive take on modernity.”

Indeed, Laudato si includes no fewer than five references to Guardini’s work The End of the Modern World.

Guardini was an Italian-born, German-raised theologian and priest whose works influenced the Second Vatican Council as well as St. John Paul II and, particularly, Benedict XVI. His best-known writings include The Spirit of the Liturgy, The Lord, and The Art of Praying.

While working toward a doctorate degree, the future Pope Francis made Guardini the focus of his research. Although he did not complete his degree, Bergoglio’s “immersion in the writings of Guardini decisively shaped his thinking,” Fr. Barron said.

According to him, it is Guardini’s Letters from Lake Como, a collections of essays, that best articulate the theologian’s views on modern man’s treatment of nature.

In the book, Guardini lauds not only the physical beauty of the lake region of Milan, but also the “manner in which human beings, through their architecture and craftsmanship, interacted non-invasively and respectfully with nature” Fr. Barron said.

However, as the region continued to develop, Guardini noticed a disturbing trend in the 1920s with the way that homes were being built on a much larger scale and with little consideration given to the natural surroundings. Similarly, the boats that once rose and fell with the waves now used motors to cut through them.

Guardini was aware of what Fr. Barron calls “a distinctly modern sensibility” that began with Francis Bacon and René Descartes, who both saw nature as something to be conquered and extorted.

The “typically modern subject” of science “became aggressive and self-absorbed, and the natural world simply something for him to manipulate for his own purposes,” Fr. Barron explained.

Bearing that in mind, it’s clear to see that the Pope’s views on our throwaway culture – from violence against the unborn to a lack of clean drinking water – were shaped largely by this twentieth century thinker.

“These lessons, which he learned many years ago from Romano Guardini, are still worthy of careful attention today,” Fr. Barron said. “What strikes the Pope as self-evident is that the nature we have attempted to dominate, for the past several centuries, has now turned on us, like Frankenstein’s monster.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Cardinal sends Ramadan wishes to suffering Muslims, rebukes religious violence

by CNA/EWTN News • June 25, 2015

A Muslim chaplain of the U.S. Navy prays during Ramadan at Camp Leatherneck, Helmand, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2011. (PO2 Jonathan David Chandler via DVIDS)

Vatican City — In an oblique rebuke to the Islamic State and other militants, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran has wished Muslims a peaceful and joyful Ramadan and acknowledged the pain of those who have suffered or died because of violence.

“With Pope Francis, we wish you that the fruits of Ramadan and the joy of Eid al-Fitr may bring about peace and prosperity, enhancing your human and spiritual growth,” Cardinal Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said in a June 12 letter to Muslims.

His remarks alluded to ongoing violence in the Middle East and elsewhere. He asked both Christians and Muslims to pray.

“Our prayer is much needed: for justice, for peace and security in the world; for those who have deviated from the true path of life and commit violence in the name of religion, so as to return to God and change life; for the poor and the sick,” said the French-born cardinal.

His comments follow the rise of militant groups in Iraq and Syria such as the Islamic State. Some Islamist militants accuse other Muslims of apostasy and target them for violence. While Christians and other religious minorities sometimes suffer disproportionately, millions of Muslims have suffered as well.

The cardinal’s Ramadan message spoke to these victims.

“For some of you and also for others from other religious communities, the joy of the feast is shadowed by the memory of the dear ones who lost their life or goods, or suffered physically, mentally and even spiritually because of violence,” he said.

The cardinal lamented the killings, enslavement, crimes against women, forced migration, and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage.

“We are all aware of the gravity of these crimes in themselves. However, what makes them even more heinous is the tentative of justifying them in the name of religion. It is a clear manifestation of instrumentalizing religion for gaining power and richness.”

He continued: “There is no life that is more precious than another one because it belongs to a specific race or religion. Therefore, no one can kill. No one can kill in the name of God; this would be a double crime: against God and the very person.”

Cardinal Tauran called on leaders in education, media, and religion to teach “the sacred character of life and the derived dignity of every person, regardless of his or her ethnicity, religion, culture, social position and political choice.”

He stressed the need for authorities to provide security and public order to protect people from “the blind violence of the terrorists.”

Ramadan is a Muslim month of fasting intended to commemorate the revelation of the Quran to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. This year, it lasts from June 17-July 17. It ends with the holiday Eid al-Fitr, which breaks the fast.

Cardinal Tauran told Muslims he hoped and prayed that they may be enriched by the Ramadan practices of fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and visits to family members.

“Our feasts, among others, nourish in us hope for the present and the future,” he said. “It is with hope that we look at the future of humanity, especially when we do our best to make our legitimate dreams become a reality.”

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VATICAN NEWS

For Archbishop Chaput, Vatican synod, Philly family meeting providentially linked

by Alan Holdren (CNA/EWTN News) • June 25, 2015

Pope Francis embraces Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, June 24, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia sees a providential link between September’s World Meeting of Families and October’s Synod on the Family. As a participant in both, he says the fresh experience from Philadelphia will be on his mind as he enters the Vatican Synod hall mere weeks later.

“I’m blessed with the opportunity of going to the Synod, and (the World Meeting of Families) is certainly going to impact me,” Archbishop Chaput told CNA June 25.

Archbishop Chaput is one of four representatives chosen by his fellow US bishops to take part in the three-week October synod.

With the Sept. 27 conclusion of the World Meeting so close to the Oct. 4 start date of the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Chaput said he is often asked if the juxtaposition was planned.

“I always respond that it must be God’s providence,” he related, adding that the World Meeting of Families was actually announced before the topic for the synod was.

While there will be no “formal” influence from the World Meeting of Families on the synod, he said many bishops participating in the Philadelphia event will also be at the Vatican for the three weeks of discussions on the family.

He and the Pope himself are two of them.

In addition to bringing the experience of the faithful to the synod, the Philadelphia archbishop said he will also be focused on bringing the message of the Vatican discussions to the faithful.

“Seeing all those people, interested in the improvement of their family life is going to make me – I would be serious anyway – but especially serious about making sure that whatever happens in the synod will be clearly communicated to the people of the Church because they really do depend on the bishops for the clear proclamation of Jesus Christ. And it’s important that we do that.”

During a press conference to update press on the 2015 World Meeting of Families at the Holy See press office, he said he’s expecting a broader perspective on family life to come from this year’s edition of the synod.

The archbishop lamented that during and since the 2014 synod, just “two or three questions that everyone seemed interested in” were given great focus, though “those are not the questions most families deal with.”

He said most families in fact cope with “a multiplicity of issues” and that “we are trying to talk about all of those issues.”

The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, also participated in the June 25 press conference. “The link is not by chance,” Archbishop Paglia said of the World Meeting-Synod connection.

“It pushes all of us to promote, increase, create a new atmosphere among families. All families have to bring their vocation, their mission all over the world,” he added.

Between the two events, he’s hoping for “a new spring of families” and “a new wave, a new effort of the families in order to build a new kind of world, to push all people to become one family.”

With a $45 million price tag only for organization, security, clean-up and other costs associated with the 2015 World Meeting of Families, Archbishop Chaput said it would be “a foolish waste of personal and financial resources” if it didn’t leave a long-lasting legacy.

“If we just encourage husbands and wives to talk to one another more honestly and profoundly, to care for children in more secure kinds of ways and then encourage their neighbors and grandchildren to do the same, I think it can be a force for transformation of the society,” he told journalists.

The Pope, too, has the World Meeting of Families on his mind, and is counting down the days.

At the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 24, he greeted the delegation from Philadelphia by holding up three fingers and saying, “Three months! Don’t forget.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope exhorts future Vatican diplomats to bring Christ’s face to the world

by CNA/EWTN News • June 25, 2015

Pope Francis greets the crowd at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, March 25, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis told the graduating class of Holy See ambassadors on Thursday that their main mission is to be Christ’s representatives to the world.

“It is not possible to represent someone without reflecting their features, without evoking their face,” he said June 25 at the Vatican’s Consistory Hall.

What does the face of Christ look like in the world? Truth and love, the Holy Father said.

“Jesus said, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’. You are not called to be the high functionaries of a state,” Pope Francis explained, “but rather the guardians of a truth that supports those who offer it.”

Pope Francis addressed those about to finish their studies at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, or the “Accademia” – the Roman institution responsible for preparing priests for diplomatic service to the Holy See all over the world.

In typical Pope Francis fashion, he gave the priests several analogies for the hard work they have ahead of them as ambassadors for Christ and his Church.

“I exhort you not to expect to find the terrain ready, but rather to have the courage to plough it with your hands, without tractors or other more effective means which we will never have at our disposal – to prepare it for sowing, awaiting the harvest with God’s patience,” he said.

He encouraged them in patience and perseverance, even though the fruits of the harvest might not be seen in their lifetime.

The Holy Father also asked that the future apostolic nuncios not look for “fish in aquariums or farms,” but that they “instead have the courage to leave behind the safe margins of what is already known and to cast your nets and rods in less obvious seas.”

And when the work becomes difficult, Pope Francis asked the nuncios to remember why they began the mission in the first place.

“(I)t is necessary to cultivate deep roots, to protect the memory of why you embarked on this path, and not to be hollowed out by cynicism nor to lose sight of the face of he who is at the origin of your journey.”

He also reminded them that their true authority does not come from a state or an earthly person, but rather from the love of Christ himself.

“The true authority of the Church of Rome is Christ’s charity. This is the sole force that renders her universal and credible for man and for the world,” he explained.

Pope Francis then assured the future nuncios of his prayers, and asked for theirs in return.

At the end of the address, he reminded the priests: “Your whole life is at the service of the Gospel and of the Church. Never forget it!”

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VATICAN NEWS

A hope for peace: Vatican, Palestine sign treaty protecting religious liberty

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • June 26, 2015

Riad al-Malki, Palestine’s foreign minister, signs the Comprehensive Agreement between the State of Palestine and the Holy See, June 26, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — The comprehensive agreement signed on Friday by the Holy See and the State of Palestine may serve the twofold goal of stimulating peace in the Middle East and providing a model for similar treaties with other Middle East countries.

The text of the treaty was agreed upon May 13, and the document was signed June 26 in the Apostolic Palace by Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States (the Vatican’s ‘foreign minister’), and by Riad al-Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine.

The Vatican-Palestinian agreement recognizes freedom of religion in Palestine, and outlines the rights and obligations of the Church, its agencies, and its personnel in the territory. The comprehensive agreement follows upon a “basic agreement” which was signed in February 2000.

It backs a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, though the bulk of the agreement regards freedom of religion and conscience, as well as the Church’s freedom of action, its staff and jurisdiction, legal status, places of worship, social and charitable activity, and use of communications media. It also includes issues of a fiscal and proprietary nature.

In an address following the signing, Archbishop Gallagher underscored that the agreement is signed with the State of Palestine, and that “this is indicative of the progress made by the Palestinian Authority in recent years, and above all of the level of international support, which culminated in the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations of 29 November 2012, which recognized Palestine as non member Observer State at the United Nations.”

Archbishop Gallagher voiced hope “that the present Agreement may in some way be a stimulus to bringing a definitive end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause suffering for both parties. I also hope that the much desired two-State solution may become a reality as soon as possible.”

“This certainly requires courageous decisions, but it will also offer a major contribution to peace and stability in the region.”

For his part, al-Malki noted that the agreement’s provisions “span the shared vision of the two Parties for peace and justice in the region, the protection of fundamental freedoms, the status and protection of Holy Sites, and the means of enhancing and furthering the presence and activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the State of Palestine.”

He noted that “for the first time, the Agreement includes an official recognition by the Holy See of Palestine as a State, in recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, freedom and dignity in an independent state of their own, free from the shackles of occupation. It also supports the vision for peace and justice in the region in accordance with international law and based on two states, living side by side in peace and security, on the basis of the 1967 borders.”

He drew attention to Palestine’s special status as “the birthplace of Christianity and as the cradle of monolithic religions,” saying the agreement “embodies our shared values of freedom, dignity, tolerance, co-existence, and equality of all. This comes at a time when extremism, barbaric violence, and ignorance threaten the social fabric and cultural identity of the region and indeed of human heritage. At this backdrop, the State of Palestine reiterates its commitment to combat extremism, and to promote tolerance, freedom of consciousness and religion, and to equally safeguard the rights of all its citizens.”

“These are the values and principles that reflect the beliefs and aspirations of the Palestinian people and its leadership, and they are the pillars upon which we continue to endeavor to establish our independent and democratic State.”

The Palestinian foreign minister added that the agreement “upholds the Church’s standing as an important contributor to the lives of many Palestinians.”

Archbishop Gallagher commented that he is pleased that “guarantees have been given for the work of the Catholic Church and her institutions. Catholics do not seek any privilege other than continued cooperation with their fellow-citizens for the good of society. I am also pleased to say that the local Church, which has been actively involved in the negotiations, is satisfied with the goal attained and is happy to see the strengthening of its good relations with the civil Authorities.”

He added that the agreement “offers a good example of dialogue and cooperation” in the Middle East, “and I earnestly hope that this may serve as a model for other Arab and Muslim majority countries. With this in mind, I would like to emphasize the importance of the chapter dedicated to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.”

A Vatican observer who took part in the negotiations told CNA that the agreement is particularly important because it is the first of its kind signed with a majority Muslim country, in which the state juridically acknowledges the Holy See and clearly recognizes freedom of conscience, “as has never been done in the past.”

Vincenzo Buonomo, an adviser to Vatican City State, wrote in L’Osservatore Romano that “the explicit acknowledgement of authentic conscientious objection as a practice consistent with the right of freedom of thought, belief, and religion is notable for its current relevance.”

Buonomo also stressed that value of the agreement is given by the participation of the Palestinian Catholic community in the negotiations, which began in 2010. “The local Church has been shown to be an effective agent, providing a valuable contribution not only towards the consolidation of the ecclesial reality, but also to the image of Palestine and the Holy Land as a whole,” wrote Buonomo.

The Israeli foreign ministry reacted to the treaty’s signing with a statement expressing its “regret regarding the Vatican decision to officially recognize the Palestinian Authority as a state.”

The Israeli foreign minister stressed that this “hasty step damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince the Palestinian Authority to return to direct negotiations with Israel.”

“Israel cannot accept the unilateral determinations in the agreement which do not take into account Israel’s essential interests and the special historic status of the Jewish people in Jerusalem,” the statement read.

The foreign ministry also announced that “Israel will study the agreement in detail, and its implications for future cooperation between Israel and the Vatican.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Educate girls to the ‘beauty and grandeur of their vocation’ – Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • June 26, 2015

Pope Francis meets with the International Catholic Conference of Guiding at the Vatican, June 26, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Pope Francis on Friday praised Catholic girl scout leaders’ “absolutely crucial” role in educating women for their vocation and responsibilities in a world of ideologies that work against God and treat women as inferior.

“Today it is very important that womanhood be properly appreciated … we are in a world where we see the spread of ideologies contrary to nature and God’s design for the family and marriage,” Pope Francis told a delegation of scouting leaders June 26.

“It is therefore necessary to educate girls not only to the beauty and grandeur of their vocation as women, in a fair and differentiated relationship between man and woman, but also to take on important responsibilities in the Church and in society.”

He continued, saying that “education is the indispensable means for enabling girls to grow into active and responsible women, proud and happy in the faith in Christ they live in their everyday life. In this way they will participate in the construction of a world imbued with the Gospel.”

In his remarks at Vatican City’s Clementine Hall, the Pope said girl scout organizations can play a major role in improving the situation of women in countries where they are treated as inferiors, exploited or mistreated.

Pope Francis addressed delegates from the International Catholic Conference of Guiding. The organization supports Catholic girl scouts and girl guides in 49 countries around the world and unites national scouting organizations.

The girl guides conference has gathered in Rome on the 50th anniversary of its founding to reflect on the theme “Living as a guide for the joy of the Gospel.”

Pope Francis praised this theme, saying that its program proclaims “that encountering Jesus frees us and heals us … opens us to other and drives us to announce him, especially to the poorest and most distant, the lonely and abandoned.”

The Pope noted that scouting’s educational method gives an important role to contact with nature. He connected this with his recent encyclical on care for our common home, Laudato Si’.

“I hope that guides will continue to be alert to the presence and the goodness of the Creator in the beauty of the world that surrounds them,” he said. “This contemplative attitude will lead them to live in harmony with themselves, with others and with God. It is a new way of life, more coherent with the gospel, that they will be able to transmit to others around them.”

He especially encouraged girl scout leaders to teach in a way that is open to a life consecrated to God, saying that the scouting movement has been very fruitful in this area.

The Pope’s comments about ideologies contrary to God’s design for marriage came hours before the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, protected by the 14th amendment.

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WORLD NEWS

Clearing up the confusion: New film sheds light on beauty, truth of marriage

by Gabrielle Cubera (CNA/EWTN News) • June 21, 2015

Scene from Marriage: God’s Design for Life and Love. (Saint Anthony Communications/YouTube)

Swansea, United Kingdom — Ahead of the highly anticipated Synod on the Family in October, many dioceses and Catholic media producers are finding new ways to ramp up their resources on marriage and family life.

Saint Anthony Communications, a Catholic media company in the United Kingdom, is looking to do just that with its latest project, “Marriage: God’s Design for Life and Love,” a DVD which addresses the Church’s teachings on marriage, sexuality, and family life.

“I think that so much of what is contained within the DVD has, for a large extent, not been taught in Catholic parishes, certainly across the Western world,” Christian Holden, director and co-founder of Saint Anthony Communications, told CNA June 11.

“I think for most people, they would know sort of the outlines of what the Catholic Church teaches; in brief what the church opposes, perhaps, but they wouldn’t necessarily be able to articulate why the Church upholds certain things, or why it opposes certain things like contraception and cohabitation,” he observed.

With the collaboration of the British Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, Saint Anthony Communications was able to give a copy of the DVD to each parish in the United Kingdom, and 1,000 copies were sent to Australia and distributed there through the local Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. The DVD will soon be sent throughout the parishes of Ireland.

Just a few months ago, in March, hundreds of priests in the U.K. sensed that confusion among the laity about Church teaching on marriage was so rampant that they signed an open letter to the Synod fathers, stating their firm commitment to “unwavering fidelity to the traditional doctrines regarding marriage and the true meaning of human sexuality, founded on the Word of God and taught by the Church’s Magisterium for two millennia.”

And in May, historically-Catholic Ireland became the first country to ratify gay marriage by popular vote.

Amid this confusion, Holden said he hopes the film will showcase Church teaching in a way that is “gentle and charitable, and always upholding the dignity of the human person.”

“I think the Church’s vision for marriage and sexuality and the family is such a beautiful, wholesome vision, but it’s so little known,” Holden said. “I think some people perhaps have the perception that the church is imposing a whole series of rules – you shall not, you shall not.”

He urged that there is, however, a different way of considering the matter – that the Church “is teaching the design of God for our lives, for the fullness in our lives, for our growth in holiness.”

“And it is only by living that fully, that we will find the happiness we truly seek.”

Besides the U.K. and Ireland, Saint Anthony Communications hopes to find opportunities within the United States and Canada to similarly distribute the project.

“We realize it’s a big project, it’s beyond our means. We need someone else, someone in the States who really sees the value and importance of this project, and be willing to roll with it,” Holden explained.

He has called the film “a chance to set out the often hidden Catholic teaching in a simple and accessible way. The DVD explains why we teach what we teach, to offset confusion caused by inadequate and diluted teaching in the past, and offer hope for the future.”

The 43-minute film, which is divided into three sections, manages to cover a wide range of topics, including marriage, cohabitation, divorce and remarriage, contraception, children and family life, and same-sex attraction.

Featured in the film are Cardinal Raymond Burke, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury.

Interviews also feature Fr. Marcus Holden; Fr. Andrew Pinsent; Louise Kirk of Alive to the World; Fiona Mansford of Jericho Tree; and Edmund Adamus, director of the Westminster archdiocese’s office for marriage and family.

The purpose of the film is three-fold: to be used in marriage preparation courses; as an additional catechetical resource for religious education; and as a tool for the new evangelization.

The first section, titled God’s Design for Marriage, explains how marriage is a natural, procreative union that has occurred throughout history and was elevated by Christ to become for Christians a sacrament, making it indissoluble.

Holden, who has been married for ten years and has five children, believes the biggest struggles facing young people today regarding marriage and sexuality include a society that “breeds in people a mentality of selfishness,” the “contraceptive mentality,” and the “lack of commitment to God.”

“For anyone thinking of a call to the vocation of marriage, it is a beautiful gift,” Holden said. “Each and every day brings something new – new challenges, new beautiful moments: in particular having children come into your life and then raising them.”

“Perhaps my best piece of advice that I could offer anyone thinking of entering and growing in holiness through a vocation to marriage, is to enter it in the spirit of sacrifice, of sacrificial love, of self-giving, in total self-giving to your spouse. And I think the more one gives of themselves in their marriage, the more they will gain, the more they will grow, and flourish. On the second strand of that, keep faith: keep God at the very center of their marriage at all times.”

The second section of the film, Challenges to Marriage, tackles contemporary society’s misunderstandings of sexuality, including its promotion of contraception, cohabitation, and divorce and remarriage. It also discusses natural family planning, and same-sex attraction.

The contraceptive mentality “affects so much … in the way we live and love, and the way we treat other people,” Holden stated.

“Particularly, it becomes more destructive within the bond of marriage, in that with contraception we change the nature of the sexual act,” he said, reflecting that once the unitive and procreative aspects of the act ruptured, “we lose the proper order of both.”

“When sexual pleasure has primacy in our lives, we can quickly justify all kinds of other things, and so I think that’s very dangerous.”

The film’s third section, The Family and the Future, highlights faith in the family, growing together in holiness, and hope for the future.

“It’s beautiful. All sorts of things go on in daily life – the trials, the arguments, the fighting of the children – but lots of beautiful moments, as well,” Holden reflected. “Gems of self-giving that you see in them, gems of kindness that they show to each other, or in their prayer – beautiful little utterances in their prayer life.”

During an interview for the film, Cardinal Burke acknowledged that people are now “living in very difficult times,” but that we should not dismay.

“We can’t permit ourselves to be discouraged, because we know that Christ is always at work in the lives of those who have entered marriage with sincerity and is very strongly at work in these families that are striving to live their vocation as fully and perfectly as possible.”

The film has been produced in the interim between the extraordinary and ordinary Synods on the Family, the latter of which will be held in October. A spokesman for the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy said it “responds to the call of the Holy Father to support marriage and the family, currently challenged and misunderstood.”

“The content is just basic Catholic teaching which everyone has a right to hear,” the spokesman continued. “It is a clear, unambiguous and bold presentation, but always given with charity and without polemics. Now is not the time for hiding the true and beautiful vision of marriage and the family for the healing of our societies.”

“Marriage: God’s Design for Life and Love” is available from Saint Anthony Communications on DVD, in a multi-region format that can be played on both US and UK players, for GBP 9.95 ($15.80). Saint Anthony Communications is now in its 20th year of creating and providing Catholic catechesis, providing a selection of DVDs, CDs, and books that explore faith, life, and culture.

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WORLD NEWS

Sister Nirmala, former head of Missionaries of Charity, dies in India

by Antonio Anup Gonsalves (CNA/EWTN News) • June 23, 2015

Missionaries of Charity participate in prayer vigil at St. Peter’s Square, June 19, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Kolkata, India — Catholics around the world are mourning the death of Sister Nirmala Joshi, who passed away Tuesday. Sr. Nirmala had succeeded Blessed Teresa of Calcutta as superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, serving in that capacity from 1997 to 2009.

Sr. Nirmala, who was 81, had suffered ill health for some years, and was hospitalized and then brought home a few days ago, dying at a Missionaries of Charity home in Kolkata in the early hours of June 23.

“All people in India and especially the Archdiocese of Calcutta is saddened with this great loss of Sr. Nirmala Joshi, who was very close and dear to us,” Fr. Dominic Gomes, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, told CNA.

“She was simple, humble and emanated a strong spirituality of faith,” Fr. Gomes added. “Her exemplary life was an inspiration to the younger generation in the congregation and to people around the world.”

The body of Sr. Nirmala is lying in state at St John’s Church in Kolkata’s Sealdah district, and will be taken to the Missionaries of Charity’s Mother House in Kolkata tomorrow. The funeral Mass will be said at 4 pm local time on Wednesday, and then interred at St. Johns cemetery.

Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta, who had visited Sr. Nirmala a fortnight ago when she had regained consciousness, has expressed his deep sadness and grief at her death, saying, ‘she was a great soul.”

He praised her work, noting that “she never talked about herself; she was more about how to support peace, to be helpful to the poor … she had a deep union with Jesus and she was a gentle apostle of peace until the end.”

Sr. Nirmala was in born in 1934 in Ranchi, capital of what is now India’s Jharkhand state, to a Hindu brahmin family from Nepal who were serving the British during colonial rule. Her given name was Kusum, meaning “flower,” and she was the eldest sibling among eight girls and two boys. Her early education was at Christian schools.

She was inspired by Mother Teresa’s humanitarian work, and was baptized. She later entered the Missionaries of Charity and took the name Nirmala, meaning “purity” in Sanskrit. She completed a master’s degree in political science, and studied law as well. In the 1970s, she became head of the congregation’s contemplative wing.

Sr. Nirmala was elected as superior general of the congregation just a few months before Mother Teresa’s death in 1997, and pursued the founder’s cause for beatification.

During the Missionaries of Charity’s general chapter in 2009 she declined to remain head of the congregation, given her health issues. She was succeeded by Sr. Mary Prema Pierick, who remains superior general.

The Indian government has recognized her work for the poor and for peace, granting her the Padma Vibhushan, the nation’s second highest civilian award, in 2009.

Tributes and messages have started to flood social media praising her service to the poor.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was quick to tweet, “Sister Nirmala’s life was devoted to service, caring for the poor and underprivileged. Saddened by her demise. May her soul rest in peace.”

The opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Extremely saddened at the passing away of Sister Nirmala. She carried forward Mother Teresa’s work with quiet dedication and dignity. She will be missed by the countless whose lives she touched.”

The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee stated, “Saddened at the passing away of Sister Nirmala, who headed the Missionaries of Charity after Mother Teresa. Kolkata and the world will miss her.”

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WORLD NEWS

Thousands gather in Rome to support the family, oppose gender theory

by CNA/EWTN News • June 24, 2015

The “Defend our Children” demonstration against a civil unions bill, at the St. John Piazza in Rome, June 20, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Rome, Italy — A pro-family demonstration drew hundreds of thousands of participants to Rome on Saturday, where the rally gathered those opposed to the introduction of gender ideology in Italian schools and to a bill which would expand the rights of those in civil unions.

“We want to bear witness to the beauty of the family,” said Vincenzo and Sara, addressing the June 20 rally. “All of our children have been born of a mother and a father.”

The couple have 11 children, and they emphasized that “parents are the ones called in the first place to educate our children, and the school cannot take away that sacred right from us.”

The demonstration took place in the piazza in front of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, and drew a crowd whose estimates range from 300,000 to 1 million. Participants came from across Italy, despite short notice – the event having been announced only June 2.

Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register also noted that the demonstration “had only tacit support from the Italian bishops’ conference.” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, sent a message of support for the event.

It was organized by “Defend our Children” to call for the rejection of a bill in the Italian parliament which would grant same-sex couples in civil unions many of the rights afforded to married couples. More generally, the rally intended to reaffirm parents’ right to educate their children, and to oppose gender theory in Italy’s schools and parliament.

Speakers outlined the key elements of this proposed legislation, and explained how the attendant gender theory has already been introduced in many of the country’s schools. Gender theory or ideology is the notion that one’s ‘gender’ is chosen and need not correspond with one’s biological sex.

Gianfranco Amato, president of Jurists for Life and one of the organizers, called for an end to gender theory in the schools, calling it a “drift toward totalitarianism that tends to impose by law the dictatorship of a single way of thinking.”

Simone Pillon of Family Forum told the crowd, “Today in the square we are all creating a culture, not against persons, but against the ideologies that are destroying the family and are trying to destroy man and woman as its model.”

The demonstration included, but was not limited to, Catholics. Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs participated, as well. The imam of the Centocelle Mosque in Rome told participants that “the Muslim community is against this law that is dangerous for the existence of humanity and would pollute the minds of our children.”

Kiko Argüello, founder of the Neocatechumenical Way, said that “Europe is sinning by rejecting the Gospel.” He said “the Pope is with us,” pointing out that the week prior the Holy Father warned of “ideological colonization “ when he spoke to hundreds of families in Saint Peter’s Square at the opening of a conference of the Diocese of Rome.

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WORLD NEWS

Transfixed by the face of Jesus: Pilgrims at the Shroud of Turin

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • June 24, 2015

Pope Francis with the Shroud of Turin in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, Turin on June 21, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Turin, Italy — At this year’s exposition of the Shroud of Turin, pilgrims reflected on looking upon what some believe to be Christ’s own image – miraculously imprinted on a Jewish burial cloth 2,000 years ago.

“I was transfixed looking at the face,” said Peter Taylor, a seminarian for the diocese of Middlesbrough, England in an interview with CNA.

“I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from the face of Christ. It was just so mesmerizing that you couldn’t look away.”

Taylor, who is completing his second year of formation for the priesthood at the Venerable English College (VEC) in Rome, was one of scores of pilgrims to have visited the Shroud of Turin during its April 19-June 24 exposition. Pope Francis also made a pilgrimage to Turin before the event ended.

Housed in Turin’s Saint John the Baptist Cathedral, the image on the 14 ft. long, 3-and-a-half ft. wide cloth is stained with the postmortem image of a man – front and back – who has been brutally tortured and crucified.

Taylor said it was especially moving to see the face on the shroud in light and Pope Francis’ recent Bull of Induction for the Year of Mercy, set to begin this December: “To see Jesus is to say the face of the Father’s mercy.”

“To really look upon Christ was really moving,” he said.

The staff and student body of the VEC began this past academic year with a trip to the Holy Land, during which they visited the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Many of these took part in a pilgrimage organized by the seminary to see the shroud during this current exposition.

“To actually have been in the tomb (of Jesus), and then to see the shroud, was a very moving experience I think for everybody,” Taylor said.

For pilgrims traveling to Turin to see the shroud, the experience begins a short way from the main Cathedral. Visitors are led quietly through a series of covered walkways which wind through a nearby wooded area. The path is occasionally marked by images and quotes from the local saints, such as St. John Bosco and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Visitors are then led into a darkened room where they are presented with a short film, without narration, showing the details of the burial cloth, and what the various markings mean. The film draws particular attention to the wounds on the shroud, emphasizing the correlation between the injuries seen on the image and those suffered by Christ as depicted in the Gospel.

At the conclusion of the film, the visitors are led through the Cathedral itself, which has been darkened to allow the full effect of the backlighting behind the Shroud. They pass by various side chapels, including one containing the tomb of Turin local, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Finally, they are led behind the central altar, and allowed to stand, in silence for about five minutes, just a few feet from where the Shroud is on display.

Although tickets are required to be able to see the Shroud close up, it is still visible from the pews which are open to everyone, and it is easy to make out many of the details owing to the overall darkness in the Cathedral in relation to the dim lighting behind the cloth.

Marco Egawhary, a third-year seminarian receiving formation at the VEC for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, also took part in the pilgrimage to Turin. He told CNA he was surprised by the prayerful atmosphere considering the number of people who were going.

“Before the shroud itself is actually very, very prayerful, and that was what really struck me,” he said. “It was the quietness of the atmosphere and just the deep sense of prayer that was going on.”

The Shroud of Turin is among the most well-known relics believed to be connected with Christ’s Passion. Venerated for centuries by Christians as the burial shroud of Jesus, it has been subject to intense scientific study to ascertain its authenticity, and the origins of the image.

Regardless of what the evidence indicates, however, it is not necessary to believe that the Shroud is authentic, according to Catholic teaching. Belief in whether it is genuine or not is left up to the individual.

In light of the question surrounding the Shroud’s authenticity, Egawhary explained his attitude in going to Turin: “If this is the shroud that has wrapped our Lord in the tomb, then what would that mean for me and to be praying in front of it?”

Although he believes the evidence suggesting that the cloth is real is compelling, he said his faith does not depend on its being authentic. “Our faith is not based on these sort of exterior signs of things like the shroud or the true relics of the cross. Our faith is based on a personal encounter with Jesus. That’s what it is to be a Catholic.”

“My experience in front of the shroud being that powerful sort of confirmed it, that interior sense. But if a statement were to be released saying it’s not genuine … it wouldn’t change my faith.”

Echoing the Church’s teaching that it is not necessary to accept the Turin relic as Jesus’ actual burial shroud, Taylor said the atmosphere of holiness surrounding the Shroud nonetheless left him believing in its authenticity.

“There was a real sense of being somewhere sacred, being somewhere holy,” he said.

Even so, “if the Vatican said it wasn’t authentic, for me it would still have meant something really moving,” he said.

“Having that time in front of the Shroud was a very poignant moment in my life and it always will be.”

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WORLD NEWS

CDF reportedly judges Medjugorje apparitions false, but permits pilgrimage

by CNA/EWTN News • June 25, 2015

A statue of Our Lady in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Gnuckx via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Rome, Italy — If reports in Italian media outlets are to be believed, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met June 24 to discuss the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, reaching the conclusion that they are inauthentic, but recognizing the site as a place of prayer.

On Thursday, the Vatican watcher Gianluca Barile wrote that “for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in fact, the ‘apparitions’ do not have any supernatural character; therefore it is forbidden to the faithful to participate in the ‘ecstasy’ of the six ‘seers’, and the latter are prohibited from divulging the texts of the messages they supposedly receive from the Madonna.”

According to Barile, the negative judgement regarding the apparitions is based on inconsistent theological messages; the visionaries’ economic interests in the site; and their disobedience to the local bishop.

However, the Vatican has not confirmed the reports – which have also appeared in Il Giornale – that this month’s meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith discussed Medjugorje.

According to the reports, the congregation did acknowledge Medjugorje as a place of prayer and devotion that can be visited by pilgrims for prayer, though without contacting the supposed visionaries or partcipating in their ‘apparitions’.

The alleged apparitions originally began June 24, 1981, when six children in Medjugorje, a town in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, began to experience phenomena which they have claimed to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to these six “seers,” the apparitions contained a message of peace for the world, a call to conversion, prayer and fasting, as well as certain secrets surrounding events to be fulfilled in the future.

These apparitions are said to have continued almost daily since their first occurrence, with three of the original six children – who are now young adults – continuing to receive apparitions every afternoon because not all of the “secrets” intended for them have been revealed.

Since their beginning, the alleged apparitions have been a source of both controversy and conversion, with many flocking to the city for pilgrimage and prayer, and some claiming to have experienced miracles at the site, while many others claim the visions are non-credible.

In April 1991, the bishops of the former Yugoslavia determined that “on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.”

On the basis of those findings the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directed in October 2013 that clerics and the faithful “are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such ‘apparitions’ would be taken for granted.”

In January 2014, a Vatican commission completed an investigation into the supposed apparitions’ doctrinal and disciplinary aspects, and was to have submitted its findings to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

When the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will have analyzed the commission’s findings, it will finalize a document on Medjugorge, which will be submitted to the Pope, who will make a final decision.

Pope Francis visited Bosnia and Herzegovina earlier this month, but declined to stop at Medjugorje during his trip. During his return flight to Rome, he indicated that the process of investigation in the apparitions was nearly complete.

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U.S. NEWS

Dorothy Day had nothing to say to this theologian – or so he thought

by Hillary Mast (CNA/EWTN News) • June 20, 2015

Dorothy Day, American journalist, social activist and Catholic convert, circa 1916. (Gobonobo, Wikimedia Commons)

Fort Wayne, IN — Ever since entering the Church 27 years ago, theologian Lance Richey had always known about the Catholic social activist Dorothy Day in passing.

“It’s hard not to run across her name, but I honestly had not paid much attention to her,” Richey told CNA in a recent phone interview.

“I viewed her as, just kind of a social activist, and someone who probably didn’t have much to say to a theologian like myself.”

But last month, Our Sunday Visitor released his edits to the 75th anniversary edition of Day’s journal from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement, “House of Hospitality.”

On top of that, he organized the annual Dorothy Day Conference at University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he serves as Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

So how did he go from having a cursory knowledge of Day to editing her personal journal – that had been out of print for decades – and organizing an annual conference about her?

“Several years back, I picked up her writings and started reading them,” he said. “My opinion of her changed dramatically. I discovered her for the first time.”

From her writings, including the then nearly impossible to find, “House of Hospitality,” Richey said he discovered a “profoundly spiritual woman” whose work and prayers “flowed from a very deep conversion to Christ and a deep love for the Church.”

The new edition of her diary covers the first six years of the Catholic Worker Movement which Peter Maurin founded with Day in 1933 to serve the poor, unemployed and homeless of New York City. Today there are some 228 Catholic Worker communities in the U.S. and around the world.

Oftentimes Day’s social works and advocacy for the poor are upheld while her profound spiritual life gets downplayed or even forgotten altogether, which is the result of man-made divisions within the Church, he said.

Catholics “tend to divide ourselves into Democrats and Republicans, and liberals and conservatives, and social justice or orthodox,” said Richey, who hold doctorates in both philosophy and theology from Wisconsin’s Marquette University.

And Day “tends to be championed by people on one end of the spectrum who ignore her deep spirituality and her utter commitment and fidelity to the Church.”

This approach takes away from the whole picture of who Day really was – namely, a deeply faithful woman who “defined her life around the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”

Richey said that in his studies he learned that “for Dorothy Day you can’t divide Catholicism into ‘kinds.’ There aren’t ‘kinds of Catholics.’ You’re either Catholic or you’re not, and being Catholic entails social obligations and theological obligations,” he said.

This is something he had in mind when speakers for the annual Dorothy Day Conference he organizes were selected, saying that his goal is that “everyone who attended the conference should be offended by somebody.”

“We should make sure we have something that we disagree with because usually in the moment it doesn’t change much,” he said, “but as we have to kind of process it, we come to challenge our own preconceptions and to expand our understanding of what does it really mean to be Catholic? What does it really mean to want to imitate Dorothy Day?”

This year’s conference included presenters such as Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review; Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles; and Martha Hennessy, Day’s granddaughter.

It’s important now to see the whole picture of who this woman really was, especially in preparation for the upcoming Year of Mercy, of which Richey says Day would be the perfect patron.

“I do think that it’s a very providential time for Dorothy Day’s message. Pope Francis is calling the Universal Church to what Dorothy Day called the American church to be,” he said. “I mean, everything about her was, ‘how are we called to be merciful to others?’ and ‘how every day of my life can I carry out these works of mercy?’”

Now that she has been recognized a “Servant of God” – meaning that the Vatican sees no objection in her cause for canonization progressing – he thinks that the chances of her becoming “Venerable” are “very good.”

While the miracles needed to prove to the Church that she can be called a saint are “in God’s hands”, Richey said he personally thinks that Day “led a heroically holy life of orthodox belief and sustained a consistent living out of the Gospel in very difficult conditions.”

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Modern martyrs should inspire U.S. Christians, archbishop says

by CNA/EWTN News • June 22, 2015

(Unsplash)

Baltimore, MD — The plight of persecuted religious believers overseas should inspire American Catholics and others to continue their defense of religious freedom at home, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore said.

“What solidarity we should have with these believers. We should be inspired by their courage and renewed in our resolve not to let religious freedom in our country be compromised by degrees until it all but disappears from our society,” the archbishop said.

“They are the ones who teach us about God’s precious gift of religious freedom,” he said in a June 21 homily. “No matter how great the threat to life and property, these believers exercise that God-given freedom which no tyrant can eradicate – the freedom to bear witness to one’s faith even at the cost of one’s life.”

U.S. religious freedom challenges are not the same magnitude as outright persecution facing Christians in other countries, he said, but U.S. Christians are nevertheless “in the same boat.”

Archbishop Lori’s homily came during Mass at Baltimore’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. About 1,000 people attended the Mass, which launched the U.S. bishops’ third Fortnight for Freedom event.

Archbishop Lori heads the U.S. bishops’ religious freedom committee.

“We seek the freedom to bear witness to Christ’s love, not just in church but in our service to the wider community through works of justice and charity, education, social services, and health care,” the archbishop said, echoing the 2015 campaign’s theme “Freedom to Bear Witness.”

The event, from June 21-July 4, coincides with the feasts of saints including Thomas More and John Fisher. It is intended to raise awareness about threats to religious freedom in the U.S. and about the need for religious freedom protections like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The Fortnight for Freedom campaign began in 2012 in the wake of the Obama administration’s efforts to mandate that employers provide insurance coverage for drugs and procedures to which they have religious and moral objections, such as sterilization procedures and contraceptive drugs, including drugs which have abortion-causing effects.

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling against the Obama administration mandate in favor of Hobby Lobby provided some protections for closely-held for-profit corporations and their owners, the federal courts are still considering legal challenges for non-profits and other groups.

The rise of “gay marriage” and strict application of anti-discrimination law have also caused problems for Catholics and other religious believers. Small businesses with moral reservations about participating in same-sex ceremonies have faced discrimination lawsuits for declining to provide services, while Catholic-run adoption agencies have been forced to close because the law would require them to place children with same-sex couples.

Archbishop Lori said religious freedom relates to “our most fundamental relationship, our relationship with God.”

He said there are “many intolerant voices” working to stifle religious freedom by “labelling as bigotry long-held beliefs about the sanctity of life and marriage,” by imposing “a grey and godless secularism,” and by “branding basic religious liberty protections as ‘a license to discriminate’.”

“Increasingly religious institutions in the United States are in danger of losing their freedom to hire for mission and their freedom to defend the family,” he said. “It is one thing for others to disagree with the Church’s teaching but quite another to discriminate against the rights of believers to practice our faith, not just in word but in the way we conduct our daily life, ministry, and business.”

Efforts to pass state-level religious freedom protections have faced increasing opposition from activist groups and large businesses. The controversy over Indiana’s 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act was so intense that the Indiana legislature passed an amendment that critics said significantly undermined religious freedom in the state.

The activist group Catholics for Choice has launched a campaign to undermine the Fortnight for Freedom. It has placed ads in the front cover wraparound of the Washington Post Express showing a caricature of a bishop who points at the viewer and says “We want you to help us discriminate.”

Catholics for Choice said the ad shows a Catholic bishop “recruiting an army of intolerance.” It claimed the bishops want the “freedom to discriminate against anyone who disagrees with them.”

Archbishop Lori in his homily praised the early Christians’ courageous witness of faith amid persecution, as well as later saints like St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher and English and Irish martyrs. He cited the recent execution of 20 Coptic Christians and one companion in Libya, whom Islamic militants beheaded for being Christian.

He prayed that Catholics will “allow Christ to awaken our faith and to stir us into action so that we may preserve, protect, and defend our God-given freedom to bear him witness … may God bless us and keep us always in his love!”

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Have a family, grow a garden, be holy – conclusions from Laudato Si

by Matt Hadro and Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • June 23, 2015

(bassnroll via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The vision behind Pope Francis’ newest encyclical is one that offers a holistic proposal of stewardship rooted in faith, offering a lens through which to view the environment, said several Catholic theologians and ecologists.

“I think what he is telling Catholics in the center of this encyclical is ‘you’ve got all the resources to show a better way to care for creation than any environmentalist has, and you have to make that contribution’,” said Dr. Chad Pecknold, professor of historical and systematic theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

The Pope’s latest encyclical “Laudato Si,” meaning “Praise be to You,” was published Thursday, June 18. The 184-page document takes its name from St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun,” a prayer composed in medieval Italian which praises God through the created world with figures like “Brother Sun,” “Sister Moon,” and “our sister Mother Earth.”

The document covers a wide range of topics in relation to the environment – from climate change, consumerism and economic structures to abortion, population control and gender.

Care for God’s creation is central to living the Catholic faith and is a natural outgrowth of a holiness, said Bill Patenaude, a special lecturer in theology at Providence College and founder of the website “Catholic Ecology.”

“Being an environmentalist is really not something that we add to our lives, it’s something that we do naturally as Catholics because we’re seeking a holy life,” he told CNA.

“We’re seeking to be free from the constraints of our desires and live in accordance with the needs of others, with those simple things of life, the joy God gives us, the blessings God gives us infinitely throughout the day, from moment to moment.”

At the heart of the encyclical is an exhortation for conversion on the part of every person, Pecknold said. It is as part of this call – and not outside of it – that Pope Francis advocates care for the environment.

“It’s not just an ecological conversion that’s necessary,” Pecknold explained.

“It’s a conversion to God, it’s a conversion to Christ, it’s a conversion of all creation in the Eucharist,” he told CNA, adding that this conversion is not just “individual” but “communal.”

How then can Catholics, particularly Catholic families, answer this call to conversion in their daily lives, specifically with regard to the environment?

For one, “the Catholic family would not be contraceptive,” Pecknold said, but one that celebrates “new creation, new life.” He also suggested that “you might have domestic gardens, and you might grow your own food,” among other ways of connecting with life in one’s own community.

“Every little daily action” can either be “destructive” or “cultivating” of creation, he emphasized.

In appreciating the little things, families can also guard against the consumerism and overconsumption warned about in the encyclical, Patenaude added.

“The virtues of temperance, of prudence … we don’t have to satiate every desire.”

Furthermore, families can strive to practice gratitude for little things and mindfulness of others in their daily lives, he said.

“How do we be more aware of interactions, our relationship (with) God, each other, and the environment? There’s kind of a spiritual sense of mindfulness that Pope Francis has called us to,” Patenaude remarked. “The joy of our lives can be so missed because we’re always working on our getting ready for the next thing.”

“We need to say grace before dinner,” he suggested as a simple example of families practicing gratitude.

Participation in the Eucharist can be another profound way for Catholics to express gratitude for the created world, Pecknold said.

“I think one thing that’s easy to forget … is that the bread and the wine actually come from the earth,” he said. “And not in an abstract way, but that there must be a grain of wheat in every wafer means that there had to be a wheat farmer, means that there had to be arable soil for that wheat to grow, means that there had to be rain that wasn’t acidified, that meant that there had to be time for the cultivation of the earth.”

In addition to speaking of conversion on a personal and family level, the encyclical also speaks to local, national, and international governing bodies, said Lucia Silecchia, a professor of law at The Catholic University of America who specializes in environmental law, ethics, and development.

Global policy cannot be limited to purely environmental concerns, but must promote human dignity and the wellbeing of the poor, she said.

“A dominant theme in the encyclical is that of interconnectedness – of economic life, political life, social life, moral life, spiritual life, physical environment, and natural environment.”

A prime example of this interconnectedness is the link in the encyclical between “respect for human life as a gift from God” and “environmental decision-making,” she continued: Human dignity must be central to national and international social policy.

For example, the encyclical warns environmentalists against putting the human person at or below the level of importance given to the environment, Silecchia said.

It also admonishes authorities against pushing population control in developing countries to cope with “the environmental problem,” she noted, as Pope Francis says this is simply a running away from “more difficult questions.”

Another area of connection between economy and environment is in the document’s claims that the poor in developing countries suffer a disproportionate burden of the harmful effects of climate change.

At the same time, policy that attempts to alleviate the material burdens of the poor must also consider their spiritual well-being, Silecchia explained of the encyclical.

“It is quite skeptical of the ability of economics or technology to bring about improvement to the lives of those who are poor,” she said. It even warns of their “potential to cause great harm if their use is not informed by moral considerations.”

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Father Flanagan founded Boys Town. Will he be recognized as a saint?

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • June 23, 2015

Father Edward Flanagan. (Boston Public Library via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Omaha, NE — The case for the sainthood of Servant of God Edward Flanagan, the priest who founded Nebraska’s famous Boys Town community for orphans and other boys, is now headed to Rome.

“More than being just a humanitarian, he was a man driven by his love for Jesus Christ to care for children who were forgotten and abused,” said Omar Gutierrez of the Archdiocese of Omaha. “He is a great model for the priesthood and for what Catholic social teaching looks like in the real world.”

Gutierrez, who served as notary for the diocesan tribunal investigating the priest’s sainthood cause, said he was particularly struck by the stories of past Boys Town residents, now elderly men, who knew Father Flanagan.

“I have had World War II veterans weep in front of me as they recall what Fr. Flanagan did for them when they were just boys,” he told CNA June 22.

“I have witnessed in a unique way the amazing power of fatherhood.”

The Omaha archdiocese closed the diocesan phase of the investigation with a June 18 Mass at Omaha’s St. Cecilia Cathedral, with Archbishop George Lucas as celebrant.

The final documents produced by the diocesan tribunal were signed and stamped. Two copies of the tribunal’s report were packaged and sealed with wax, stamped with the archdiocesan seal. The apostolic nuncio will take the package to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The congregation can recommend whether Pope Francis should declare Fr. Flanagan to have demonstrated heroic virtue and to declare him “venerable,” an important step on the path to beatification or canonization.

Father Flanagan helped at least 10,000 boys at Boys Town in his lifetime, and his influence extended around the world.

The priest was born in Ireland’s County Roscommon July 13, 1886. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1904 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1912. He was assigned to what was then the Diocese of Omaha.

After working with homeless men in Omaha, he founded a boarding house for all boys, regardless of their race or religion. He soon moved his work to Overlook Farm on the outskirts of Omaha, where he cared for hundreds.

The home became known as the Village of Boys Town, growing to include a school, dormitories, and administration buildings. The boys elected their own government to run the community, which became an official village in the state of Nebraska in 1936.

Steven Wolf, president of the Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion and vice-postulator of his cause, said he thinks there is abundant evidence of the priest’s heroic virtue.

“He completely immersed his life in the gospel, and lived it,” Wolf told CNA. “He completely poured his life into saving these kids nobody else wanted to deal with.”

Father Flanagan integrated young boys, “built a society around them, and put love, God’s love, in the middle of their circumstances and helped them to become whole and complete people.”

“He could see the face of Christ in every child, and he wanted to help every child, not just be successful citizens, but also be saints.”

Wolf added, “We need people to look into this man’s life, look into this man’s motivation, and look at his example and live that example. Pray that we can make our culture a better place through the way that he lived the gospel in his life.”

Gutierrez and Wolf could not speak about the tribunal findings, which are confidential. However, they noted that Archbishop Lucas alluded to its conclusions in his June 18 homily.

“You can imagine that we wouldn’t go through all this trouble to collect this information and send it to the Holy See if it wasn’t very good,” the archbishop said.

Father Flanagan’s work inspired 80 other Boys Towns around the world. The original Boys Town now serves about 80,000 kids and families each year.

After World War II, the priest helped care for orphans and displaced children in war-ravaged Japan, Germany, and Austria at the request of US president Harry Truman. According to Wolf, Japan’s juvenile system was founded on a report by Father Flanagan.

He noted that the priest broke with the segregationist practices of his time, serving all boys regardless of their race and religion.

After Boys Town moved from Omaha, the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan threatened to burn Boys Town to the ground because of it care for black children and Jews, Wolf said.

Father Flanagan’s response to racist criticism was to ask what color a person’s soul was.

Critics of his integrationist policy also included Catholic and Protestant clergy, as well as judges. Although the priest’s organization was always in debt, he turned down a wealthy Californian’s offer of $ 1 million if he turned Boys Town into a Catholic-only group.

“He was decades ahead of the civil rights movement in the US in what he was doing,” Wolf said.

Flanagan also worked to reform the criminal justice system’s treatment of minor offenders.

One of the priest’s famous phrases was “There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.”

The priest rose to national and international prominence for his work. Spencer Tracy won an Oscar for his portrayal of Fr. Flanagan in the 1938 movie “Boys Town.” The actor later donated the trophy to the priest.

Father Flanagan died of a heart attack in Berlin on May 15, 1948. His remains are interred in a memorial chapel at Boys Town. He was declared a Servant of God in March 2013.

The findings of the Archdiocese of Omaha’s tribunal will be the basis for the postulator’s argument before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. If the congregation approves, Father Flanagan will be declared Venerable. If a miracle attributed to his intercession is recognized, he will be beatified, and if a second miracle, he will be canonized.

Gutierrez said that two alleged miracles attributed to the priest are being investigated now.

He added that supporters of Father Flanagan’s cause can help through their prayers and through their support for the expenses of its advocates. The Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion is the main advocate for the priest’s canonization cause.

Among the people of Omaha, Father Flanagan’s reputation endures.

“They remember him with an intimate fondness and with a surety that he will be made a saint someday,” said Gutierrez.

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Don’t overturn social order, faith leaders urge Supreme Court before marriage case

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • June 24, 2015

Marriage supporters rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building during oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, April 28, 2015. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — As the Supreme Court will rule on same-sex marriage before the month’s end, over 50,000 Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish leaders have united to stand up for marriage as between one man and one woman.

“There are clear, distinctive doctrines and differences between us,” observed the pledge’s co-author, Deacon Keith Fournier of the Diocese of Richmond.

“But we all stand together on the truth about marriage as between one man and one woman, intended for life, open to life, informative of family.”

The pledge champions marriage between a man and a woman and asks the Supreme Court not to redefine marriage. It was crafted in advance of Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the court is deciding whether the constitution allows states to prohibit same-sex marriage, and whether states may refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

“Will it have an effect on the Court? I don’t know,” Deacon Fournier reflected.

“But along with it, we’re all praying our hearts out and people are fasting and asking that the Lord would in fact move in the hearts of these justices to see the implications of what they’re doing. Which would be to basically unravel the social order.”

If the Court recognizes a right to marriage for same-sex couples, signers of the pledge say they will not agree with the decision.

“Make no mistake about our resolve. While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross,” the pledge concludes.

The pledge has a “natural law analysis” that has largely been absent in Christian communities, Deacon Fournier pointed out, but signers of all backgrounds approved of it.

Marriage between a man and a woman, he said, “is not just our religious position, but it is written on the human heart, it is revealed in the natural moral law which is accessible by reason.”

He reflected on the significance of having both Catholic and Protestant signatories, saying that “We who are Catholics have a beautiful, developed understanding of the Christian family as the domestic church. And we have much to contribute. Our Evangelical Protestant friends have a dynamic dimension to their faith, and they contribute that … what holds us together is the highest common denominator, Jesus Christ. He’s the highest common denominator.”

“We affirm that marriage and family have been inscribed by the Divine Architect into the order of Creation,” the pledge states. “Marriage is ontologically between one man and one woman, ordered toward the union of the spouses, open to children and formative of family.”

For the Court to decide that same-sex unions are marriages would send a confusing message about what marriage is, the pledge continued. “As a policy matter, such unions convey the message that moms and dads are completely irrelevant to the well-being of children.”

If the court decides in favor of same-sex marriage, what follows could be a coercive effort to ensure persons and organizations recognize it, Deacon Fournier said.

“It will be coercive, because the police power of the state always follows actions such as what the Supreme Court will do. And we will have to stand with other Christians.”

The pledge notes that the state may, and “has long regulated marriage for the true common good. Examples, such as the age of consent, demonstrate such a proper regulation to ensure the free and voluntary basis of the marriage bond.”

“Redefining the very institution of marriage is improper and outside the authority of the State. No civil institution, including the United States Supreme Court or any court, has authority to redefine marriage.”

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Coming to the World Meeting of Families: Andrea Bocelli

by CNA/EWTN News • June 25, 2015

Andrea Bocelli. (Souran5 via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Philadelphia, PA — Renowned classical tenor Andrea Bocelli is accustomed to performing sold-out concerts around the world. He is comfortable center stage at Carnegie Hall and has sold over eighty million records during his musical career.

But come September, Bocelli will change his pace and join another award-winning musician - Colombian superstar Juanes - to perform for Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

Organizers confirmed this week that Bocelli and Juanes will perform at the public Festival of Families September 26 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

“When we first began planning the Festival of Families, we wanted to ensure that we brought together performers that represented the world,” stated Donna Crilley Farrell, the Executive Director for the World Meeting of Families.

“To have Andrea Bocelli, one of the world’s great vocalists, and Juanes, one of the most popular performers in all of Latin America, come to Philadelphia for the Festival of Families is an extraordinary gift,” Farrell continued.

But the Festival of Families will also have some local flair; the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, will join Bocelli and Juanes at the Festival of Families.

“To be able to have these incredible individuals perform with our hometown jewel in the Philadelphia Orchestra brings this event together in spectacular fashion,” Farrell noted.

“This will be a shared moment and we are deeply grateful to Andrea Bocelli, Juanes and the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin, for being part of this once-in-a-lifetime moment,” Farrell anticipated.

“Without a doubt, these performances will not only capture the hearts and imaginations of the thousands who will watch them live on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, but also the millions around the world who will watch on television and online.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra will also perform the music for the Papal Mass on September 27 with the accompaniment of hundreds of archdiocesan choir members.

Pope Francis will travel to Philadelphia September 26-27 for the World Meeting of Families, which is themed “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.” This is the first time the United States has hosted the triennial international event. The last World Meeting of Families was held in Milan in 2012. Saint John Paul II established the World Meeting of Families in 1994 to encourage families and strengthen familial bonds.

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The dark side of living ‘childfree’

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • June 25, 2015

(Gabriela Camerotti via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Denver, CO — A few months ago, several writers opened up a conversation they felt was long overdue in a book titled “Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision to Not Have Kids.”

The tongue-in-cheek title is an attempt to reclaim some of the stereotypes typically placed on adults who have made the decision to not have kids. The “whys” of the childless lives of the sixteen authors varied from people who chose to never have children, to people for whom circumstances were never right for children, to people who had miscarriages or abortions and never had other children.

But the online conversation surrounding the book largely left out the dark side of the story – a chosen childless life, in the context of a sexual relationship, almost always necessitates physical harm against women: either through long-term birth control use, or through abortion. It is very rarely the carefree lifestyle it can appear to be in the media, critics say.

“One of the things that perhaps we don’t consider in the choice to remain childless, is the toll that repeated abortions can have on a woman’s body and her spirit,” Vicki Thorn told CNA. Thorn is the founder of the National Office for Post Abortion Reconciliation and Healing, and of Project Rachel. She is also a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a mother of six.

“If it is the case of long term contraceptive usage, there are health issues that are very real and put her at risk for depression, blood clots and strokes, breast cancer, lost libido and other health issues. Even when the choice for childlessness is made, there are often many ‘what-if’s’ that may come back time and again,” she said.

Thorn is among an increasing number who claim that science is backing up how abortion and contraception are largely destructive to women – both of which are essential to maintain a childfree life.

Birth control and a false sense of security

Many of the authors in the book, like many childless Americans, are nonetheless married or in a committed relationship. And studies show most people in a sexual relationships use some form of contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancies. According to CDC data from 2011-2013, published in Dec. 2014, 61.7 percent of the 60.9 million women aged 15-44 in the United States were currently using contraception. The most common contraceptive method was the pill, followed by female sterilization and then some forms of long-acting, reversible contraceptives.

But when the goal is to avoid children altogether, what happens if and when these contraceptives fail?

“Everything has a failure rate,” said Abby Sinnet, a nurse practitioner at Bella, a Denver-based natural-care women’s OB/GYN clinic. “You look at sterilization where somebody gets their tubes tied, and that’s a 98 percent success rate, but there’s still that two percent that it could fail.”

Less drastic methods of contraception have even higher failure rates with imperfect use, according to data from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) reported on Business Insider in April 2014. Notably, the study also shows that the onus of birth control falls on women, with male sterilization accounting for only five percent.

According to the ARHP data, the pill, over time and with imperfect use, has a 91 percent success rate, while various unspecified ovulation tracking methods have a typical use effectiveness rate of 75 percent. Essure, a kind of permanent birth control which seals off a woman’s tubes with metal coils, has a typical effectiveness rate of 75-96 percent, according to a study by the Yale School of Medicine.

It’s difficult to tell with certainty the difference between a failure – a couple conceiving when they didn’t want to – and a drop-off, or a couple that chooses to stop using contraception in order to conceive, or who are complacent about whether or not they want to conceive and so are less vigilant about their method’s use. But nevertheless, the chance that most methods of birth control will fail at some point is real.

“Whether it’s natural family planning or it’s a birth control pill or a sterilization, there’s always that room for something bigger,” Sinnet said.

The idea of wanting some control over one’s fertility is understandable, Sinnet said, especially in a world that in many ways can seem so out of control.

But at what cost? Hormonal birth control pills, the most popular form of birth control, is a known class one carcinogen. A recent recent study out of UCLA this year also found that the pill may be shrinking parts of women’s brains and making them more masculine. Several studies suggest that hormonal birth control pills skew the way women choose partners, and can make them choose less genetically compatible ones. Other women who opt for more permanent forms of birth control, such as IUDs or Essure coils, may experience organ perforation or device migration among other complications.

According to Sinnet, the physicians and nurses at Bella propose that the knowledge women gain about their bodies through natural family planning methods is far more empowering than popping pills or getting implants and hoping for the best.

“If you look at it from a more natural side of things, how freeing is it for a woman to know her body so well, and to be in such control of her fertility because she knows the ebbs and the flows that it naturally does?” Sinnet said. “She knows at this time I’m fertile, so I’m not going to come together because I don’t want to have a baby, or maybe I do want to come together because I do want to have a baby, and that is truly freeing and that is truly having control.”

Besides offering a sometimes false sense of control over their fertility, using artificial contraceptives can close off certain emotional aspects of a relationship, Amanda Teixeira told CNA. Teixeira is a missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students who blogs about her and her husband’s struggles with infertility and natural family planning, as well as their adoption of their daughter Josie.

“With my husband and I, we are infertile, but just by our very act of being open … with our sexual life opens different emotions, and you just think about it differently,” she said. “I think these couples (choosing to be childless) are missing out on experiencing the other person in the fullness that they are.

They’re missing out on a deeper component of sexuality that they don’t even know they’re missing.”

Abortion: Necessary for choosing childlessness

For couples for whom a pregnancy is an unexpected and unwelcome surprise, abortion may and often does seem like the obvious and easy answer to the problem. But abortion, for most women, wreaks havoc on their psychological and physical lives.

In her experience working with post-abortive women, Thorn said she has found the portrayal of abortion by the mainstream media as a routine, medical procedure to be false.

“These are not non-events. This is always a mother who has lost a pregnancy in an unnatural and traumatic fashion,” Thorn told CNA. “Pregnancies aren’t supposed to end that way.”

“The problem is that we don’t really understand how complex pregnancy is on a pure biological level,” Thorn added. “Once I’m pregnant, I carry cells from those children for the rest of my life, and in fact, if I have a miscarriage or an abortion, I carry more cells from those children than the children I gave birth to, so there’s a biological connection that remains.”

The phenomena of women retaining the cells of their children for decades after birth is known in the medical community as microchimerism. According to a 2014 study on microchimerism by the “International Journal of Epidemiology” reported in the Atlantic, this retaining of cells may give women numerous health benefits, including a decreased risk of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a boosted immune system.

This deep biological connection that remains for years may be part of the reason that women find themselves grieving over abortions even years after they’ve occurred, Thorn said.

“It is a false sense of freedom to choose abortion,” she said. “Because you are biologically, not to mention spiritually and psychologically, changed by the experience.”

According to a 2011 analysis published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, post-abortive women were at an 81 percent increased risk of mental health problems, with nearly 10 percent of those psychological problems – such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal behavior – directly attributable to abortion.

On the other hand, while abortion is sometimes justified on the basis of mental health, a 2013 study found that the termination of unintended pregnancies had no therapeutic psychological benefit. There are also numerous physical side effects of abortion, most notably the increased risk risk of complications should the woman become pregnant again.

A woman who has chosen the childless life may then face significant pressure to abort a child and subject herself to these possible negative side effects.

One of the authors in “Selfish, Shallow, and Self-absorbed” speaks of this pressure when she, a budding young writer, found herself pregnant with a man in what she considered a “decent enough” relationship.

“When I called to tell my mother I was pregnant, she said, ‘You have a very special talent, Pam, and if you decide to have that baby, you are going to become perfectly ordinary like everyone else,’” Houston wrote.

“(C)ontrary to the belief of some outspoken congressmen, no woman ever wants to have an abortion. I have never met one who takes it lightly, who hasn’t thought about the abortion with if not some version of regret, at least with some sadness for the rest of her life.”

In her remarks to CNA, Teixeira emphasized that parenthood is not necessarily for everyone.

“Becoming a parent is a calling, and there are probably people out there who … maybe they’re emotionally not capable of ever loving or raising a child well, and to be wise about that is prudent,” she said.

“But I think it would be rare for a married couple to ever be called to not have children if they could.”

For those who have chosen childlessness in the context of a sexual relationship, Teixeira said it seems “there’s a disconnect there, ultimately they’ve decided to separate sex from babies, and I can’t see how the two are separated.”

“And as somebody who cannot have children, to watch somebody who maybe could, but chooses not to, I would just plead with them that they might be missing out on the greatest adventure of their life.”

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U.S. NEWS

California legislators renew push against Junipero Serra, saint and Hispanic ‘founding father’

by CNA/EWTN News • June 25, 2015

The statue of Bl. Junipero Serra inside the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. (iwishmynamewasmarsha via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Sacramento, CA — A statue of Franciscan missionary and saint-to-be Father Junipero Serra has stood in the U.S. Capitol since 1931, but its future may depend on an upcoming hearing in the California legislature and the success of a “Let’s Save Serra” campaign.

The legislature could vote to remove the priest’s statue and replace it with a statue of astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space.

On June 30, the California Assembly’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media Committee will hold a 10 a.m. hearing at the state capitol in Sacramento to consider the proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 4. The resolution has already passed the state senate, by a 22-10 vote.

Bl. Junipero Serra played a leading role in California history, helping to convert thousands of native Californians to Christianity and teaching them new technologies. The eighteenth century priest founded many of the missions that would go on to become the centers of major California cities.

In a May 2 homily, Pope Francis called Bl. Serra “one of the founding fathers of the United States, a saintly example of the Church’s universality, and special patron of the Hispanic people of the country.”

The Pope will canonize Father Serra Sept. 23 during his visit to Washington, D.C. The priest was beatified Sept. 25, 1988 by Saint John Paul II.

Bl. Serra’s statue is now in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection. His statue cradles a church in his left arm and holds a cross aloft in his outstretched right arm. The website of the Architect of the Capitol, which maintains the statue, describes Fr. Serra as “one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the New World.”

State legislatures have the authority to decide which two statues will represent their state.

The campaign to save Bl. Serra’s statue includes ‘Salvemos a Serra‘, or ‘Let’s Save Serra’, a Spanish-language site which has called on Californians to write their legislators in opposition to the resolution that would remove his statue.

“U.S. Hispanics need your support to maintain the presence of our first saint in the U.S. Capitol,” the website said.

‘Salvemos a Serra’ has also asked supporters of Bl. Serra to sign English- and Spanish-language petitions on the website CitizenGo.org. More than 46,000 have signed.

The petitions ask legislators to “defend the memory of this Founding Father of California who protected the Native Americans and had a key role in the formation of this country.”

The petitions were posted by Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of Catholic News Agency.

“In a state that counts Hispanics as its largest ethnic group, California’s elected leaders are about to banish the first and one of the only two Hispanics from statuary hall,” Bermudez said in a May 22 essay at the Latino media website NewsTaco.

“To add insult to injury, they plan to go on the record with this just in time to welcome the first Latin American pope in history to the United States,” he added. “It’s quite the insult to the Pope, who will visit the Capitol and canonize Serra during his September visit — making him the first saint to be named by a pope on American soil.”

Some activist groups have attacked Bl. Serra as a symbol of European colonialism and have characterized the missions as engaged in the forced labor of Native Americans, sometimes claiming Bl. Serra himself was abusive.

Many of Bl. Serra’s defenders vigorously dispute the claims, noting the many natives he helped during his life, and their outpouring of grief at his death.

If the resolution passes the California Assembly, it would still require the approval of state governor Jerry Brown.

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U.S. NEWS

Congress combats targeting of traditional marriage advocates

by CNA/EWTN News • June 26, 2015

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

Washington, D.C. — A new bill protecting the religious liberty of traditional marriage advocates has the support of two leading U.S. bishops. But will the First Amendment Defense Act be enough to stem the rising tide of anti-discrimination lawsuits across the nation?

The First Amendment Defense Act establishes protections – largely regarding federal taxes and benefits – for individuals and organizations who conscientiously believe that marriage is between one man and one woman and that no sexual relations should take place outside this bond.

“In a climate of increasing intolerance, these protections are very much needed,” wrote Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore in a letter to the bill’s sponsors. Archbishop Cordileone chairs the U.S. Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, while Archbishop Lori chairs the Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

“The teaching of the Catholic Church about marriage is based on both faith and reason,” the archbishops wrote. “Using right reason, one can know that given the nature of the human person, created as male and female, marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

“The leadership of our Church will continue to promote and protect the natural truth of marriage as foundational to the common good.”

If marriage is redefined at the national level to include same-sex couples, the First Amendment Defense Act would bar the government from penalizing individuals and organizations who refuse to recognize or serve same-sex marriages.

For instance, the government could not deny persons federal benefits simply based upon their beliefs on marriage. They could not revoke the tax-exempt status of non-profits who don’t support same-sex marriage, and they could not deny federal grants or contracts to businesses just because of their religious beliefs on marriage.

The measure comes just as the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on the constitutional right to same-sex marriage. A decision is expected by the end of June. If the court recognizes or declares such a right, persons and businesses could face fines or discrimination lawsuits for refusing to serve or recognize same-sex marriage on conscience grounds.

The Obama administration has already hinted that organizations could lose tax-exempt status.

During the April 28 oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Samuel Alito pressed Solicitor General Donald Verrilli – arguing for legal same-sex marriage on behalf of the Obama administration – on the matter.

Citing the case of Bob Jones University which lost its tax-exempt status in 1983 over its ban on interracial dating, Alito asked Verilli if a religiously-affiliated college opposing same-sex marriage would risk losing its tax-exempt status if the Court decided a right to same-sex marriage.

“I don’t think I can answer that question without knowing more specifics, but it’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that,” Verilli admitted.

The First Amendment Defense Act was introduced in Congress on June 17 by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The measure has 18 co-sponsors in the Senate and 57 co-sponsors in the House.

“Religious freedom is at the heart of what it means to be an American,” Rep. Labrador said.

Sen. Lee added, “There’s a reason the right to religious liberty appears first in our nation’s Bill of Rights. The freedom to live and act in accordance with the dictates of one’s conscience and religious convictions is integral to human flourishing, serving as the foundation upon which America has produced the most diverse, tolerant, and stable society the world has ever known.”

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U.S. NEWS

Fathers play on Father’s Day: The priests of two Nebraska dioceses face off in softball game

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • June 26, 2015

The priests of the Diocese of Lincoln and the Archdiocese of Omaha met at Werner Park in Papillion, Nebraska on June 21 for the first “I-80 Collar Series” softball game. (Cathy Blankenau Bender/Lincoln Diocese)

Omaha, NE — In the state that’s home to the College World Series, a new kind of series came to town on Father’s Day.

Priests from two of Nebraska’s three Catholic dioceses – the Diocese of Lincoln and the Archdiocese of Omaha – played each other in a softball game Sunday afternoon in an effort to raise awareness for vocations and to honor both spiritual and natural fathers.

The game, dubbed the “I-80 Collar Series” (Lincoln and Omaha are just 60 miles apart along Interstate 80), was sponsored by local Catholic radio network, KVSS “Spirit Catholic Radio”. KVSS executive director Jim Carroll told CNA he was inspired to start the series after hearing of a similar game between the priests of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph and the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

He said he thought Father’s Day would be the perfect time for a game honoring priests – especially since there usually isn’t a College World Series game that day.

“We said, you know, people are so crazy about sports, it’s the College World Series time, so we thought it would be a great opportunity for the whole family to come out and do something,” he said. “They could recognize their dads, but also our priests as spiritual fathers. So many times we don’t get to see our priests having fun.”

Carroll and his staff started by contacting priests who had been involved with the radio show to see if they’d be interested in a game. They asked parishes and Catholic bookstores and restaurants to help sell the tickets. As the day approached, the priests and the staff with KVSS held their breath and prayed that the weather would hold – Nebraska has seen an unseasonable amount of rain as of late.

It worked: Sunday turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day, with nearly 7,000 people showing up to fill Werner Park minor-league stadium in Papillion, Neb. Of the 7,000, more than 200 were priests and religious, and around 60 were seminarians. Nine buses, organized by priests, drove in from across the state filled with clerical sports fans. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, bishop emeritus of the Lincoln diocese, threw out the opening pitch.

“The energy was just incredible, there were so many families and people there, so it was really neat,” said JD Flynn, director of communications for the Diocese of Lincoln. “Part of building Christian culture is just having fun in a Catholic context, so that’s just what that was.”

“The Omaha Storm Chasers usually play at Werner Park - and I would guess it had even more excitement than an Omaha Storm Chasers game,” he added.

Fr. Ryan Lewis, a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha, said events such as softball games helps bust the myth of a priest as some kind of ethereal being who’s not fully human.

“I think it’s very much in the John Paul II model of priesthood, that the priest is still very much a man, and incarnate, so things like sports and family and faith, that these things are not separate, they all go together,” he said. “I think it just really shows the best face of the priesthood.”

Fr. Nicholas Kipper, a priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, agreed that a softball game showed the humanity of priests in a way that lay people don’t often get to see.

“We as priests see ourselves as very human and know we’re very human, but something like this is something that’s attractive to people, because they get to see their priests as regular men or normal men,” he said.

Carroll said the priests seemed to enjoy the large audience and made the most of the game as a chance for some funny antics.

“One of them started an argument with the umpire, he was kicking dirt at him, another priest came out and put a stole on him and gave him absolution,” he said. “These priests, we’ve got some hams, they were really playing it up.”

Cooperation among the dioceses in Nebraska is not uncommon, Flynn observed. The bishops of all three dioceses in the state have collaborated on efforts to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska and to organize rallies for religious freedom. They also often attend events of their neighboring dioceses, such as priestly and diaconate ordinations.

The relationships among the dioceses are especially important because so many high school kids end up going to colleges throughout the state that might not be in their home diocese, Fr. Lewis pointed out.

“It’s really helpful for us priests to know each other and to collaborate, because we’ve got a lot of youth from each diocese back and forth,” he said.

This might have been the first time, however, that the priests gathered for a purely playful event, observed Fr. Paul Hoesing of the Omaha archdiocese.

And although the game was a little lopsided – Lincoln, the red team, defeated the Omaha priests in blue by a sound 31-17 – it was all in a spirit of friendship and camaraderie, Fr. Hoesing added.

“Competition aside, any time the brother priests can be together, it’s a gift for the whole Church, and it’s a great service when they can serve the Church together,” he said.

“So I’m happy to serve the Church if it means playing ball.”

All the money made during the game was split between the vocations offices of the two dioceses, and will go toward tuition for seminarians and to other vocation-promoting events.

Carroll said due to popular demand, he’s hoping to make the I-80 Collar Series an annual event that will incorporate the Diocese of Grand Island, as well as dioceses in Iowa that are also along I-80.

“All the bishops have said it’s been a really unifying thing having Catholic radio,” he said. “There’s a lot of talk about how we can expand this series.’”

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U.S. NEWS

Assisted suicide bill stalls in California legislature, but pressure continues

by CNA/EWTN News • June 26, 2015

(kev-shine via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Sacramento, CA — An assisted suicide bill in California has been temporarily pulled from a key committee in the state legislature, but its opponents say more work is necessary to sway legislators against it.

Bill opponent Californians Against Assisted Suicide said the move was only “a brief respite.”

“We know that the death promoters are committed to use every avenue they can, the media, the courts, the legislature,” the group said. “They will be back.”

Bill sponsor State Sen. Lois Wolk agreed June 23 to pull the bill from the Assembly Health Committee until July 7 to avoid a required vote on the bill. She intends to work to gain more support for the bill, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The California Senate has already passed SB 128, “The End of Life Options Act,” by a vote of 23-14. A similar bill failed to pass the California legislature in 2007.

The legislation would allow doctors to prescribe lethal prescriptions to patients who have six months or less to live, and is modeled on the assisted suicide law in Oregon.

The bill was introduced following a publicity campaign involving Brittany Maynard, a former California resident with terminal brain cancer. She partnered with the pro-assisted suicide group Compassion and Choices to advocate legalizing the practice. After she moved to Oregon, she killed herself with doctor-prescribed drugs in November at the age of 29.

About 300 opponents of the bill gathered at Los Angeles’ Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Tuesday.

“We’re hoping to convince people to take a stand against the bill,” Andrew Rivas, director of government and community relations for the Los Angeles archdiocese, told The Tidings.

He said the bill “sends the message that there’s a segment of our society that we refuse to invest in.”

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles had written committee chairman Rep. Bob Bonta June 16 asking the assembly health committee to reject the bill.

He said the bill has “dangerous implications” for Californians, especially the poor and vulnerable.

“We cannot respond to human suffering by simply making it easier for people to kill themselves,” he said.

“Helping someone to die – even if that person is desperate and asks for that help – is still killing. It is responding to the needs of neighbors with indifference, with the cold comfort of death.”

The archbishop acknowledged fears of terminal illness, chronic pain, and loss of independence. He said the answer to fear and a broken system is “to fix the system and address the fears … not to kill the one who is afraid and suffering.”

He said the bill would lead to a “quick-fix ‘solution’ that involves killing people we find too difficult, too burdensome or too expensive to take care of.”

Other religious leaders have spoken out against the bill, including Eugene F. Rivers, a Pentecostal minister from Boston, who has testified against the California bill.

Rivers told The Tidings that the bill is based on the idea that the human condition “must be exempted from suffering.” He added that most of the staffers in the legislature had not considered how the bill would affect the poor.

He said assisted suicide is “not really mercy” but “an act of opportunistic convenience which in many cases simply serves the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the poor.”

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U.S. NEWS

Breaking News: Supreme Court redefines marriage throughout U.S.

by CNA/EWTN News • June 26, 2015

(CNA)

Washington, D.C. — In a wide-reaching decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that same-sex “marriage” is a constitutional right and that states must recognize same-sex unions.

By a vote of 5-4, the court ruled June 26 that states must recognize same-sex “marriages” under the 14th Amendment, and recognize such unions contracted in other states.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, said the court now holds that same-sex couples may “exercise the fundamental right to marry.” He characterized this as a liberty that had been denied to them.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito dissented and, in an unusual step, each wrote separate opinions.

“The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment,” Roberts said. “The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this court’s precedent.”

“Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law,” he said.

Justice Antonin Scalia characterized the decision as a “threat to American democracy,” “hubris” and a “judicial putsch.”

Justice Thomas said the decision means that conflict between the recognition of same-sex marriage and religious liberty appears “all but inevitable” as individuals and churches face demands to participate and endorse in these marriages. The use of the judicial process “short circuits” the political process that could consider religious freedom implications, “with potentially ruinous consequences for religious liberty.”

Similarly, Justice Alito said the decision “will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy.” He objected to the majority’s comparison of traditional marriage laws to laws that denied equal treatment for African-Americans and women, saying this analogy’s implications “will be fully exploited by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent.”

The decision in Obergefell v. Hodges dealt with claims that Ohio’s marriage law discriminated by not recognizing same-sex unions contracted as marriages in other states. Several other states were also facing similar cases on the constitutionality of state marriage laws.

Backers of marriage as a union of one man and one woman argued that marriage is intrinsically connected to the procreation of children and cannot be redefined. Some also said the matter should be left to the people and the states and not decided in court when so much disagreement on the matter persists.

Backers of “gay marriage” asserted a fundamental right to marry whomever one loves, saying that failure to redefine marriage amounts to decimation.

Justice Kennedy’s decision claimed that it “demeans gays and lesbians for the State to lock them out of a central institution of the Nation’s society.”

“Same-sex couples, too, may aspire to the transcendent purpose of marriage and seek fulfillment in its highest meaning.”

Chief Justice Roberts said that a fundamental right to marry “does not include a right to make a state change its definition of marriage” and a decision to maintain marriage as a union of a man and a woman “can hardly be called irrational.”

For his part, Justice Alito noted that the connection between marriage and procreation has eroded in the popular mind. However, he said it is “far beyond the outer reaches of this court’s authority to say that a state may not adhere to the understanding of marriage that has long prevailed.”

Justice Thomas objected to the majority decision’s use of the legal principle of substantive due process, saying the court was “wiping out with a stroke of the keyboard the results of the political process in over 30 states.” The decision was an “inversion of the original meaning of liberty.”

Same-sex “marriage” was not firmly established in any U.S. state until 2004, after a Massachusetts court ruled that the state must give marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In response to that ruling, some had called for a federal constitutional amendment to protect the definition of marriage. Voters in 30 states have passed constitutional amendments and referenda strengthening the legal definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Many of these efforts have been overturned in state or federal court challenges.

In 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from supporters of California’s defense-of-marriage amendment, Proposition 8, which California officials had refused to defend in court. The Supreme Court said that the appeal did not have legal standing and allowed a lower state court’s overruling of the proposition to take effect.

The Supreme Court itself has declined to review several recent appeals seeking to defend state marriage laws against lower court decisions.

Also in 2013, a 5-4 ruling from the Supreme Court struck down aspects of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. The court claimed that a provision defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman for federal purposes violated the U.S. constitution’s equal protection guarantees. The ruling said that the federal government must recognize “gay marriages” in individual states if the states choose to recognize them.

The Defense of Marriage Act had passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton after a Hawaii court ruling briefly recognized such unions.

Increasing requirements for recognition of same-sex unions as marriages, combined with state anti-discrimination laws, have caused growing conflict with religious freedom.

Parents in some school districts have faced difficulty in exempting their children from classes voicing approval of same-sex relationships, while small businesses with moral reservations about participating in same-sex ceremonies have faced discrimination lawsuits. Catholic-run adoption agencies have been forced to close because the law would require them to place children with same-sex couples against their religious beliefs.

Those who supported efforts to defend marriage have also faced professional retaliation. In 2014 Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was forced to leave the company he co-founded after activist groups and media publicized that he had donated to support California’s Proposition 8.

The consequences for religious freedom were a topic of the court’s deliberations in Obergefell v. Hodges. U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verilli at one point acknowledged that the high court’s approval of a legal right to same-sex “marriage” could mean problems for the tax-exempt status of colleges with objections to recognizing the unions.

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U.S. NEWS

U.S. bishops encourage Catholics to maintain witness to the truth of marriage

by Matt Hadro and Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • June 26, 2015

(CC0 1.0)

Washington, D.C. — Catholics are called to witness to the truth of marriage despite the Supreme Court of the United States recognizing a legal right to same-sex marriage, the nation’s bishops said on Friday.

“Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable,” said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, president of the U.S bishops conference, in a June 26 statement for the conference.

“Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman,” Archbishop Kurtz added. “As Catholic bishops, we follow our Lord and will continue to teach and to act according to this truth.”

In a 5-4 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that under the Fourteenth Amendment, states must grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

The Fourteenth Amendment protects the rights of all citizens to “life, liberty, or property” under due process, and guarantees them “equal protection of the laws” in the states. In this case, the court ruled that state laws defining marriage as between one man and one woman deprived same-sex couples of their right to legally marry.

The ruling overturned a November decision by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld traditional marriage laws in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Same-sex marriage is now legal in all fifty states.

Although the Court recognizes a legal right to same-sex marriage, Catholics must teach and bear witness to true marriage, the bishops insisted.

“The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female,” Archbishop Kurtz reflected.

“Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.”

Despite the ruling, Catholics should continue to preach the truth about the nature of marriage with “faith, hope, and love” for all persons, and asked “all people of good will” to join Catholics in supporting this proclamation and respecting Catholics’ “freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth”

The decision “will not end the discussion about what marriage is and why it matters for public policy,” stated Jennifer Marshall, vice president for the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity at the Heritage Foundation.

Along with this support for true marriage, considerable social and legal obstacles will now have to be overcome as a result of the Obergefell decision, legal experts admitted.

“Redefining marriage to make it a genderless institution fundamentally changes marriage,” said Ryan Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation.

“It makes the relationship more about the desires of adults than about the needs, or the rights, of children,” he added.

The Supreme Court also played “activist” in re-defining marriage, an issue that should have been left to the state-level democratic process said Caleb Dalton, a legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom.

The Court “invented a new constitutional right,” Dalton told CNA in an interview shortly after the decision.

“The Fourteenth Amendment does not speak to what marriage is, and today the Supreme Court decided that it knows better than millions of Americans what the best social policy for the United States is.”

The decision pushes legal same-sex marriage on a collision course with religious liberty at the national level, and the consequences for religious freedom could be severe, Dalton noted.

This conflict has been occurring in states where same-sex marriage has already been legalized, with business owners facing discrimination lawsuits when they decline to serve same-sex weddings for religious reasons.

Now that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, more lawsuits like this could occur.

“It’s redefinition of marriage like this that will continue to impact religious liberty of Americans across our country and it’s concerning,” Dalton said.

Anderson stated, “There is an urgent need for policy to ensure the government never penalizes anyone for standing up for marriage.”

“We must work to protect the freedom of speech, association, and religion of those who continue to abide by the truth of marriage as one man and one woman.”

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FEATURES

The Pope and the Planet

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • June 24, 2015

Behold and see, how beautiful, we who are brothers sun, wind, air, clouds, fire, and brother stars; we who are sisters, moon, water, and sky. See how wonderfully made!

We who are visible and invisible matter, all living things — trees and flowers, birds of the air and living creatures large and small, animals, especially our canine companions and buddies: Behold and see, how beautiful!

Question us, and we brothers and sisters will confess our praise of you, O Beauty who never changes. Men and women, praise the Lord, for you are wonderfully made.

This confession of praise reiterates the words of both St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Francis of Assisi. It sets the tone for the encyclical, “Praise be to you!”

“Praise Be to You!”

Pope Francis invites all men and women into a conversation about the quality of life on this planet. Weeks before its publication, the encyclical was anticipated with animated discussions, pro and con. It has not abated.

The document is ambitious in scope, detailed in content, and non-political. In it, three thoughts are repeated like refrains: This planet is “our common home.” All things are interrelated, interconnected; and, every human activity because it is human carries with it a moral dimension whether it is technology, global markets, the economy or consumer affairs.

See and Observe

Pope Francis clarifies terms. Ecology studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they develop. The ecology, of which nature is a part, cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves as a mere setting in which we live. This creation that includes nature is much more than nature.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, creation connotes “God’s loving plan in which every creature has its own value and significance. While “nature can be studied, understood, and controlled, creation can only be understood as a gift from the outstretched hand of the Father of all; it is reality illumined by the love which calls us together into universal communion.”

The environment is the relationship existing between nature and the society in which we live. We live in relation to nature and not separately from it. The role of nature is not simply to provide an aesthetic backdrop for us to contemplate.

“If everything is related, than the health of a society’s institutions carries consequences for the environment and quality of life.”

“Every organism is a creature of God, good and admirable in itself. The same holds true of the ensemble of organisms existing in a defined space and functioning as a system.”

“We depend on these larger systems for our own existence. These ecosystems interact in dispersing carbon dioxide, purifying water, controlling illnesses and epidemics, forming soil, breaking down waste, and in many other ways which we overlook or simply do not know about.”

In war-torn regions and underdeveloped countries, people drink polluted water, the only kind available to them. They live in garbage fields searching there for food or clothing. What is the quality of their lives? A deeply troubling question, a question with a moral dimension. At the same time, Pope Francis uses important guides at his disposal to help us see the roots of the worst problems affecting mostly the poor and the most vulnerable. To make his point, the Pope enlists ethical and spiritual positions, the Judeo-Christian tradition, Church Fathers, and writings from other faith-traditions.

This planet is the house we live in and “our common home.” The panoramic vistas proclaim the ordered harmony of the universe evoking wonder. They are “charged with the grandeur of God.” Pure gift.

Yet, the Pontiff draws a stark contrast between a world of beauty and a world that is dangerously on the verge of self-destruction. The world “is beginning to look like a pile of filth,” the Pope declares. Moreover, even a cursory observation tells us that we are in an ecological crisis characterized by the word “throwaway.” It is not just our climate that is in crisis. The root cause of this ecological crisis is the overall mentality that men and women can throw away whatever they wish and whenever they wish in order to promote a more efficient culture however disordered and destructive in the process.

We have become a “throwaway” world with a “throwaway mentality.” See for yourselves. Among the victims of this “throwaway mentality” are the most vulnerable of society, the poor and the homeless, the elderly, the unborn life in the womb, our wounded veterans — these, Francis declares, are the refuse of society. “Our common home” needs to be cleaned up and made whole.

Judge for Yourselves

The Pontiff describes “a relentless exploitation and destruction of the environment for which he blames apathy, the reckless pursuit of profits, excessive faith in technology and political shortsightedness.” This world, driven by technology, global markets, economics, and consumerism, has assumed a power that dictates the principles by which we should live. “A technology severed from ethics will not easily be able to limit its power.” He gives the example of transgressing all boundaries when experimentation is carried out on living human embryos.

What is an integral ecology? It encompasses cultural and moral conversion in such a way that it touches the international community, national and local groups all the way down to educating our young people with a moral ecology. It invites our young adults into an ecological lifestyle. An “integral ecology” is nothing less than a conversion to wholeness.

The Call to Action — Now

Having seen and observed the ecological landscape, the question arises: what have we done to bring about this “throwaway culture?” What must we do to improve the situation in small but practical ways? We have been given the responsibility of caring for “our common home” according to our talents, abilities and limitations. The encyclical conveys a sense of urgency; we must act, and change our ways.

Small measures can be taken by individuals and families to conserve our water supplies and other natural resources which are so scarce in other parts of the country and world. Cooperate on state and local levels. The Pontiff’s summons is not for others and for tomorrow, but for each of us now. From us, it fans outward to our children. Our youngsters can learn to conserve water and heat, food and paper. Children in this country should be made aware of other children their age who are not quite as fortunate as they. Parents can teach their children to have a God-centered, sacramental reverence for created things … how to care for their homes, their common spaces, and their own rooms.

Other Suggestions

Parents may choose to send their children to summer camp or day camp. Directors there are well aware of ecological matters. Likewise at the beach and pool, museums, libraries, parks, and cultural events.

One of the most satisfying times in the lives of children is to have inspiring and uplifting stories read to them at bedtime — stories with happy endings. Parents should read to their children about the world around them — stories about nature, animals, the environment, heroes, and mutual respect for others, and yes, conservation of “our common home.” Worthwhile DVDs like the Lassie movies, through dated, are classics and can always be enjoyed by everyone in the family.

Joy and Peace

The Pope writes that “Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.” ‘Less is more’ is preached by many faith-traditions. “A happy life is marked by gratitude for what one has, by moderation and by the contentment to live with little and appreciate small things and small pleasures. Such sobriety, when lived freely and consciously, is liberating. It is a way of living life to the full.”

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

‘Laudato Si’ and Romano Guardini

by Very Rev. Robert Barron • June 24, 2015

In 1986, after serving in a variety of capacities in the Jesuit province of Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio commenced doctoral studies in Germany. The focus of his research was the great twentieth century theologian and cultural critic Romano Guardini, who had been a key influence on, among many others, Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger. As things turned out, Bergoglio never finished his doctoral degree (he probably started too late in life), but his immersion in the writings of Guardini decisively shaped his thinking. Most of the commentary on Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si has focused on the issue of global warming and the Pope’s alignment with this or that political perspective, but this is to miss the forest for one very particular tree. As I read through the document, I saw, on practically every page, the influence of Romano Guardini and his distinctive take on modernity.

To get a handle on Guardini’s worldview, one should start with a series of essays that he wrote in the 1920’s, gathered into book form as Letters from Lake Como. Like many Germans (despite his very Italian name, Guardini was culturally German), he loved to vacation in Italy, and he took particular delight in the lake region around Milan. He was enchanted, of course, by the physical beauty of the area, but what intrigued him above all was the manner in which human beings, through their architecture and craftsmanship, interacted non-invasively and respectfully with nature. When he first came to the region, he noticed, for example, how the homes along Lake Como imitated the lines and rhythms of the landscape and how the boats that plied the lake did so in response to the swelling and falling of the waves. But by the 1920’s, he had begun to notice a change. The homes being built were not only larger, but more “aggressive,” indifferent to the surrounding environment, no longer accommodating themselves to the natural setting. And the motor-driven boats on the lake were no longer moving in rhythm with the waves, but rather cutting through them indifferently.

In these unhappy changes, Guardini noted the emergence of a distinctively modern sensibility. He meant that the attitudes first articulated by Francis Bacon in the sixteenth century and René Descartes in the seventeenth were coming to dominate the mentality of twentieth-century men and women. Consciously departing from Aristotle, who had said that knowledge is a modality of contemplation, Bacon opined that knowledge is power, more precisely power to control the natural environment. This is why he infamously insisted that the scientist’s task is to put nature “on the rack” so that she might give up her secrets. Just a few decades later, Descartes told the intellectuals of Europe to stop fussing over theological matters and philosophical abstractions and to get about the business of “mastering” nature. To be sure, this shift in consciousness gave rise to the modern sciences and their attendant technologies, but it also, Guardini worried, led to a deep alienation between humanity and nature. The typically modern subject became aggressive and self-absorbed, and the natural world simply something for him to manipulate for his own purposes.

If you want to see an English version of Guardini’s perspective, I would recommend a careful reading of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their Inklings colleagues on the relation between capitalist, technocratic humanity and an increasingly aggressed nature. If you want vivid images for this, turn to the pages in The Lord of the Rings dealing with the battle between Saruman and the Ents or to the section of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe detailing the permanent winter into which Narnia had fallen.

It is only against this Guardinian background that we can properly read the Pope’s latest encyclical. Whatever his views on global warming, they are situated within the far greater context of a theology of nature that stands athwart the typically modern point of view. That the earth has become “piled with filth,” that pollution adversely affects the health of millions of the poor, that we live in a “throwaway” culture, that the unborn are treated with indifference, that huge populations have little access to clean drinking water, that thousands of animal species are permitted to fall into extinction, and yes even that we live in housing that bears no organic relation to the natural environment - all of it flows from the alienated Cartesian subject going about his work of mastering nature. In the spirit of the author of the book of Genesis, the Biblical prophets, Irenaeus, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi - indeed of any great pre-modern figure - Pope Francis wants to recover a properly cosmological sensibility, whereby the human being and her projects are in vibrant, integrated relation with the world that surrounds her.

What strikes the Pope as self-evident is that the nature we have attempted to dominate, for the past several centuries, has now turned on us, like Frankenstein’s monster. As he put it in a recent press conference, “God always forgives; human beings sometimes forgive; but when nature is mistreated, she never forgives.” These lessons, which he learned many years ago from Romano Guardini, are still worthy of careful attention today.

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

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FEATURES

‘Ted 2’ an improvement on the original, but still stoops low for jokes

by Carl Kozlowski • June 26, 2015

The movie “Ted” took the movie business by surprise back in 2012, when the silly comedy about a grown man named Johnny played by Mark Wahlberg, who still lives with the teddy bear, Ted, he had as a child. The reason why he kept the childhood memento is because Ted magically came to life one Christmas and became Johnny’s best friend (aka “Thunder Buddy”) for life.

That movie, co-written and directed by Seth MacFarlane of “Family Guy” fame in his live-action filmmaking debut (and co-starring MacFarlane as the voice of Ted), made $218 million in the US alone and a total of $550 million worldwide. That success was almost inexplicable, as the movie largely consisted of Johnny and Ted getting into one debauched situation after another, involving drugs, sex, hookers, car chases and more, all shown through the prism of a completely stupid movie that had some laughs in it but very little plot to string them together.

But with so much money made by the original, it was inevitable there would be a sequel. The TV commercials and trailers for “Ted 2” seemed to go in a completely strange and wrong direction: the story is about Ted having to prove his personhood in order to have the right to stay married to his human wife and to adopt children. If he can’t prove he’s the same as a human mentally and emotionally, he will be regarded merely as property and will even lose his job as a grocery store cashier.

Thus, the ads for “Ted 2” have featured Ted in a buttoned-up suit, sitting in a courtroom rather than having anarchic fun with Johnny all across Boston. The ads gave the movie a self-serious tone, and seemed to also be a ham-fisted allegory for the battle over gay marriage rights.

But thankfully nothing could be further from the truth. The new movie is packed with gags and one-liners from nearly the beginning to end, with many of the best lines taking amazing swipes at the likes of Kanye West and the Kardashians, and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. In keeping with the style of “Family Guy,” MacFarlane has written a movie that throws outrageous zingers at the audience on an often non-stop basis, and takes shots at numerous celebrities and politically correct social tropes.

MacFarlane and his co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild weave together a constant stream of marijuana-smoking jokes and scenarios with hilarious homages to movies like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Field of Dreams” and the aforementioned shock humor beating up a string of celebrities with insults.

Thus, we have the crux of the problem for Catholic and other Christian moviegoers. On the one hand, “Ted 2” maintains the tradition of MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” in using as much crude yet clever humor as possible, and since he has more freedom in an R-rated movie than in FCC-regulated television,this means the movie contains many, many swear words, including at least 100 uses of F or S words and about 20 uses of God’s name in the form of JC and GD.

In the context of a simple-minded Boston guy who’s goofing around with his talking-teddy-bear friend, I would wager these swears are less offensive than they would be coming in the context of a violent criminal or a couple having a screaming fight in a serious movie. But yes, many of our readers will absolutely be offended. Add in the frequent pot jokes and total advocacy of marijuana smoking, and this is definitely not a movie for most of the CNA audience.

There are also numerous sexual and scatological jokes, though no sex or nudity is shown. The one visual gag that is truly offensive involves Johnny and Ted accidentally causing a huge spill in an in-vitro fertilization clinic, which I will spare readers from reading about directly. Finally, there is an absurd fight set at a comic-book convention, in which numerous costumed comic-book fans duke it out in silly fashion. And Johnny is friends with a gay couple who have a few jokes based on their punching and tripping the nerds at the comic-book convention; these moments are more mean than funny.

However, the strange thing about “Ted 2” is that it also makes a few good points along the way. Ted’s battle to regain his marriage places high value upon marriage, and is not the same-sex marriage allegory it appears to be. Johnny and their lawyer fall in love with each other, and never have sex, implied offscreen or on. Their relationship is sweet and chaste and involves a surprisingly beautiful love song that MacFarlane actually wrote himself.

The movie also comically attacks the use of pornography, as Ted confronts Johnny about how much he’s watching and how perverse it is, telling him he can’t just watch porn but needs to get out and find a new relationship again after his divorce (Johnny is not Catholic, so arguing the merits of divorce and remarriage doesn’t enter the picture here). The way Johnny and Ted completely destroy Johnny’s laptop is hilarious, and the movie shows his true-love, pure relationship is vastly preferable to porn addiction.

Most impressively, MacFarlane and his co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild weave in an intelligent and occasionally moving discussion of what the definition of personhood is. Is a person formed by having a soul, their mind or their heartfelt emotions? The fact that they can wage these big questions (and arrive at a pretty moral and sound conclusion), mixing the raunchy humor with smart jokes about such landmark Supreme Court cases as the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. The Board of Education is absolutely remarkable (and incredibly prescient timing considering the cultural battles being freshly waged in South Carolina right now). .

The one artistic weak spot in the movie parallels the weakest moments of the first “Ted”: an annoying performance by Giovanni Ribisi as a Ted-obsessed weirdo who wants to kidnap the bear and have it all to himself. Ribisi’s character is utterly gross and unpleasant and brings few if any fresh laughs to the proceedings; in fact, his subplot drags both movies out 20 minutes longer than they need to be.

On the other hand, Wahlberg is hilarious fun as the perpetually stoned and utterly stupid Johnny, and Amanda Seyfried brings luminous romantic magic and smarts to her role as the dope-smoking lawyer who takes on Ted’s case pro bono. And there are also a stream of big-surprise cameos that are so well-cast and sharply performed that the packed audience at the advance screening exploded with laughter and applause several times over.

With all these artistic factors in its favor, it’s a shame that MacFarlane felt a need to stoop so low and often into the gutter. Here’s hoping that his work will move to be cleaner the next time, consistently raising its moral quality to match its artistic inventiveness.

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 • JUNE 28, 2015

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; NRSVCE)

God did not make death,

and he does not delight in the death of the living.

For he created all things so that they might exist;

the generative forces of the world are wholesome,

and there is no destructive poison in them,

and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.

For righteousness is immortal.

For God created us for incorruption,

and made us in the image of his own eternity,

but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,

and those who belong to his company experience it.

Second Reading (2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15; NRSVCE)

Now as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you — so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written,

“The one who had much did not have too much,

and the one who had little did not have too little.”

Gospel Reading (Mk 5:21-43; NRSVCE)

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

MONDAY • JUNE 29, 2015

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

First Reading (Acts 12:1-11; NRSVCE)

About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.

The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Second Reading (2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18; NRSVCE)

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Gospel Reading (Mt 16:13-19; NRSVCE)

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

TUESDAY • JUNE 30, 2015

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 19:15-29; NRSVCE)

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they said, “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.” And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords; your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there — is it not a little one? — and my life will be saved!” He said to him, “Very well, I grant you this favor too, and will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” Therefore the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.

Gospel Reading (Mt 8:23-27; NRSVCE)

When Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

WEDNESDAY • JULY 1, 2015

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 21:5, 8-20a; NRSVCE)

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up.

Gospel Reading (Mt 8:28-34; NRSVCE)

When Jesus came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Suddenly they shouted, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. The demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go!” So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood.

THURSDAY • JULY 2, 2015

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 22:1b-19; NRSVCE)

God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

Gospel Reading (Mt 9:1-8; NRSVCE)

After getting into a boat Jesus crossed the sea and came to his own town.

And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Then some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”— he then said to the paralytic —”Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.” And he stood up and went to his home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

FRIDAY • JULY 3, 2015

Feast of Saint Thomas

First Reading (Eph 2:19-22; NRSVCE)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Gospel Reading (Jn 20:24-29; NRSVCE)

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

SATURDAY • JULY 4, 2015

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 27:1-5, 15-29; NRSVCE)

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the savory food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob.

So he went in to his father, and said, “My father”; and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.” But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,

“Ah, the smell of my son

is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you of the dew of heaven,

and of the fatness of the earth,

and plenty of grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you,

and nations bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers,

and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you,

and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

Gospel Reading (Mt 9:14-17; NRSVCE)

Then the disciples of John came to Jesus, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”