VOLUME 1, ISSUE 28  •  JULY 11, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Receiving awards, Benedict XVI credits witness of John Paul II

Pope lands in Ecuador, calls nation to continue in Catholic identity

What did he just say? Pope Francis off-the-cuff in Latin America

Pope Francis’ visit will stir up people’s faith, Bolivian priest at Vatican expects

Pray that the family synod will deepen the Church’s spiritual discernment, Pope asks

Pope Francis visits an old friend in Ecuador

Pope: Evangelizing isn’t about big talk – it’s about joy

Papal crowds in Ecuador topped one million on Francis’ first day

God to Cain, Pope to educators: ‘Where is your brother?’

Pope to policy makers in Ecuador: Love society as your family

‘Remember your roots’: Pope goes off-the-cuff to priests, religious

‘Jallalla Bolivia’ – Pope Francis arrives speaking Quechua

Don’t forget how Christianity shaped you, Pope tells Bolivia

No one should be discarded – In Bolivia, Pope Francis advocates for the poor

Pope Francis apparently not amused by ‘communist crucifix’

Let us be grateful witnesses of God’s mercy, Pope says

Pope Francis: Humanity’s future is in the hands of the poor

Pope in Latin America apologizes for sins against native peoples

From one sinner to another, Pope asks for prayers during prison visit

Burger King turned into sacristy for Pope’s outdoor Mass in Bolivia

Francis lauds strength of Paraguay women amid nation’s bloody history

WORLD NEWS

Pakistani police save Christian couple from ‘anti-blasphemy’ mob attack

Franciscans asks prayers for kidnapped priest in Syria

The man who put Laudato Si into practice in Ecuador – 40 years ago

Australia’s bishops reaffirm marriage – and get reported to government

Ecuador is ‘a Church on the move’

Spanish court recognizes pharmacists’ conscience rights

Despite terror attack, Christians in Tunisia have reasons to remain hopeful

U.S. NEWS

Rebuilt from the ashes: The story of an American basilica

Want to put the Pope’s encyclical into practice? Protect religious freedom, archbishop says

A bloody secret still haunts the diamond industry

Pope Francis goes to Washington (and will reach an even bigger crowd than planned)

What happens when clerks object to providing gay marriage licenses?

California legislature withdraws physician-assisted suicide bill

Okla. ruling against 10 Commandment statue blasted as extreme, inconsistent

Considering WYD 2016 in Poland? Here’s what one bishop wants you to know

Controversial HHS mandate accommodation now finalized

FEATURES

Fidelity to Moral Truth and the ‘Law of Graduality’ at the Upcoming Synod on the Family

Is Life a Cabaret or a Pilgrimage?

America needs a new ‘Baltimore Catechism’

‘Amy’ makes for a fascinating and tragic documentary

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • July 12, 2015

Monday • July 13, 2015

Tuesday • July 14, 2015

Wednesday • July 15, 2015

Thursday • July 16, 2015

Friday • July 17, 2015

Saturday • July 18, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 28 • July 11, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

Receiving awards, Benedict XVI credits witness of John Paul II

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

Benedict XVI receives honorary doctorate from the Pontifical University of John Paul II and the Academy of Music in Krakow. (CNA)

Vatican City — After receiving an honorary doctorate from both the Pontifical John Paul II University of Krakow and the Krakow Academy of Music, retired pontiff Benedict XVI credited the saintly example of his predecessor for his spiritual and theological achievements.

Benedict said he received a “special joy” in receiving the doctorates, because “in this way my bond with Poland, with Krakow, with the home of our great St. John Paul II, has become even deeper.”

“Without him my spiritual and theological journey would not be imaginable.”

The retired pontiff – who now goes by “Father Benedict” – made his comments at the July 4 conferral of his two honorary doctorates in Sacred Music, one from the Pontifical John Paul II University of Krakow and one from the Krakow Academy of Music.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow and former secretary of St. John Paul II, conferred the degrees. The ceremony took place in the Italian city of Castel Gandolfo, where Benedict is currently on a two-week stay at the papal summer residence.

The doctorates were conferred due to the great contributions Benedict has made to both knowledge and culture, specifically his attention to truth, beauty, faith and the presence of sacred music in the liturgy.

John Paul II was a “living example” of how “the joy of sacred music and the task of common participation in the sacred liturgy, the solemn joy and the simplicity of the humble celebration of the faith” can go hand in hand, Benedict said.

He noted how even though it might not be felt that strongly, “little by little” a certain tension has developed between active participation in the liturgy and solemn, sacred music.

Benedict pointed to how the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, mentions both.

It says that “the treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care,” while at the same time emphasizing that the active participation of the faithful is “a fundamental liturgical category,” he noted.

“Those two things, which in the text of the Constitution remain together and at peace with each other, were in the implementation of the Council, often in a relationship of dramatic tension,” the former pontiff observed.

Asking how the two can be reconciled and how the council can be implemented in its entirety, Fr. Benedict said that a deeper and more fundamental question is “what is music really? Where does it come from and toward what does it tend?”

Benedict then pointed the origins of music itself, saying that it first of all stems from one’s personal experience of love, sadness and death, and a true encounter with God.

One of music’s first expressions “is the experience of love,” he said. “When men were seized by love, another dimension of being burst within them, another greatness and another breadth of reality. And it also led them to express themselves in new ways.”

Poetry, song and music in general were all born “from this being affected, from this unfolding of a new dimension of life,” he said.

Another origin he pointed to was the experience of sadness, death, pain and “the abyss of existence,” which the former Pope said also opens up, in the opposite way, “new dimensions of reality” which can “no longer find an answer in mere speeches.”

The third origin Benedict indicated was “the encounter with the divine, which from the beginning is part of what defines man.”

A major reason for this, he said, “is that it is here where the totally-other and totally-great arouses in man new ways of expressing himself. Perhaps we can say that actually in the other two areas – love and death – the mystery of the divine touches us and, in this sense, it is being touched by God which together constitutes the origin of music.”

He said that the quality of music depends on “the purity and greatness” of one’s encounter with the divine, with their experience of love and of pain.

“The more pure and true that experience is, the more pure and great will be the music from which it was born and developed.”

Benedict then turned to the types of music found in different cultures, saying that music from the West in particular has the ability to go beyond the religious and ecclesial domain, mentioning Bach as an example of where for him, the glory of God is represented.

Whenever music is developed based on an encounter with God, he said, “you encounter the truth, with the true creator of the world.”

“Because of this the great sacred music is a reality of theological rank and of permanent significance for the faith of all Christianity, even if it is not at all necessary that it be done always and everywhere,” he noted.

On the other hand, Benedict pointed out that it is also clear that such music “cannot disappear from the liturgy and that its presence can be a special way of participation in the sacred celebration.”

At the end of his speech, Benedict said that although we don’t know where the future of our culture and sacred music are going, one thing is clear: “where a true encounter with the living God who is Christ among us is had, there the response is also born and grows, whose beauty comes from truth itself.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope lands in Ecuador, calls nation to continue in Catholic identity

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

Pope Francis at the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 24, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Quito, Ecuador — Landing in Ecuador on Sunday afternoon, Pope Francis began his tri-nation visit to Latin America by stressing the Gospel’s role in fostering respect, dialogue, and care for the vulnerable, while praising the nation’s centuries-old Catholic heritage.

“We can find in the Gospel a key to meeting contemporary challenges, respecting differences, fostering dialogue and full participation, so that the growth in progress and development already registered will ensure a better future for everyone, with particular concern for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.”

“For centuries that faith has shaped the identity of this people and borne much good fruit,” he added.

Speaking of Ecuador’s Catholic heritage, the Pope cited the saints who have been produced by the country, such as St. Mariana de Jesus, St. Miguel Febres, and St. Narcisa de Jesús, as well as Blessed Mercedes de Jesús Molina, beatified in 1985 during St. John Paul II’s visit.

“These, and others like them, lived their faith with intensity and enthusiasm, and by their works of mercy they contributed in a variety of ways to improving the Ecuadorian society of their day.”

Pope Francis made these remarks during a welcoming ceremony at Ecuador’s Quito International airport shortly after his arrival. He spoke to a delegation which included Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, government authorities, and his fellow bishops.

The Pope told the delegation that his reason for coming to Ecuador was to be “a witness of God’s mercy and of faith in Jesus Christ.”

Ecuador is the first stop in Pope Francis’ visit to the continent of his birth, which is taking place July 5-13. The journey will also include stops in Bolivia and Paraguay.

Having reflected on the nation’s Catholic heritage, the Pope noted the Christian significance of Ecuador being home to the peak “closest to the sun” of Chimborazo, the point closest on earth nearest to outer space.

“We Christians identify Christ with the sun, and the moon with the Church, the community of the faithful. No one, save Jesus Christ, possesses his or her own light.”

“May the coming days make all of us ever more clearly aware of how close is the sun which ‘dawns upon us from on high’. May each of us be a true reflection of his light and his love.”

Pope Francis expressed his desire “to embrace all of Ecuador,” adding: “May you never lose the ability to protect what is small and simple, to care for your children and your elderly, to have confidence in the young, and to be constantly struck by the nobility of your people and the singular beauty of your country.”

The Pope concluded his address by appealing to “the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to which Ecuador has been consecrated.”

Although President Cerrea was present at the welcoming ceremony, the Pope – digressing from the custom – will not officially meet with the Ecuadorean leader until he after his July 6 visit to the sanctuary in Guayaquil, followed by lunch with the Jesuit Community at the Colegio Javier.

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VATICAN NEWS

What did he just say? Pope Francis off-the-cuff in Latin America

by Alan Holdren (CNA/EWTN News) • July 5, 2015

Francis gives the homily at Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints in Rome’s Verano cemetery, Nov. 1, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Quito, Ecuador — The world is about to see a new side to Pope Francis and, interestingly, it could be the most intimate look yet at who he really is. For the first time since he was elected as the Successor of Peter, he’s visiting his native Latin America and the difference will be on the tip of his tongue.

Already in his first speech at Quito’s Mariscal-Sucre airport for the welcoming ceremony, he was adding color to his speech. Powerful lines like saying that the most vulnerable minorities “are the debt that Latin America still has.”

He also appeared to have a laugh about Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa’s extensive and highly political opening speech, in which he cited the Pope repeatedly. The Pope thanked him and said Correa had even quoted him “too much.”

These and other additions to the prepared speeches are likely the first of many off-the-cuff comments to come.

“This is the first time he’s truly going to feel at home speaking his own language,” veteran Mexican journalist, Valentina Alazraki, told CNA aboard the papal flight en route to Quito, Ecuador.

In 22 planned speeches and countless other, more personal encounters across the next week, Pope Francis will be speaking in his native tongue, Spanish, to Spanish-speaking crowds.

He’s visiting “his” people, the people of Latin America. It’s the land he calls the “Patria Grande,” the “Great Homeland.” While he won’t be stopping through his native Argentina, millions of people in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay will be treated to Pope Francis “unplugged.”

The Castellano-speaking TV reporter, Alazraki is a veteran. She’s covered 130 papal flights dating back to her first, also St. John Paul II’s first, in January of 1979. But she called this trip “unique.”

“Language, precisely, is the essence of this visit because the Pope, as we’ve known him to do up until now, will improvise,’ she said, almost in warning.

As the Pope traveled across the Pacific Ocean in an Alitalia-operated Airbus 330 aircraft, the director of the Holy See Press Office conceded that papal improv sessions would be “facilitated” during the tour.

“How the Pope will want to make use of it, we’ll see,” Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said with a grin. “But it is certainly a particularly favorable condition for the communication between the Pope and the people.”

At rallies with schoolchildren or in audience with large groups of priests at the Vatican, he often can’t help setting aside the prepared remarks and saying what comes to mind.

And, Pope Francis has improvised heavily on previous trips, most often in Italian, but also in Spanish and even English.

But no more will he be limited by the constraints of speaking a second or third language for an extended period of time. He’ll be free to say exactly what he wants, no simultaneous interpreters needed, all week long.

“He’s happy, you wouldn’t have to ask him to know that,” said Gerard O’Connell, an Irishman who writes for America Magazine. “The Pope says Spanish is the language of his heart. He expresses himself very well in Italian but this is his mother tongue.”

While Spanish is the majority language across Latin America, it’s not the only one spoken in the three relatively small South American nations he’ll be visiting. For some of the indigenous population there, what they call Castellano - Castilian Spanish - is actually their second language.

An incredible ethnic and linguistic diversity marks the Andean nations of Ecuador and Bolivia in particular. There, the indigenous Quechua and Aymara languages, respectively, are very much alive. In addition to Spanish, these two and also Guarani will be employed in papal liturgies in the coming days.

Journalists traveling with the Pope are either very happy to be following the Pope in Spanish-only this week, or quite concerned.

Those with some anxiety know from past experience that when the Pope goes off-the-cuff, he can also employ words that most of the Spanish-speaking world wouldn’t know unless they were also raised in his part of Argentina. And then, there are the new words he invents, in Shakespearian style.

“We all know that he loves his language. So, that’s going to give him greater freedom and expressivity,” said Sergio Rubin, the Argentine co-author of El Jesuita, a 2010 biography of then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. The head of the religion section of Argentina’s daily “Clarin” newspaper is also going to be on the Pope’s heels all week as part of the pool of newsmen and women on the papal flight.

“I think he could say some very interesting things and make very interesting gestures as well,” Rubin told CNA. He noted that the Pope has been to all three of these nations previously and is “profoundly aware of the social and religious problems” they face.

The papal biographer sees the current trip as a sneak-preview of the possible 2016 visit to Argentina, which would allow the Pope to kick the language up yet another notch, rolling out his Buenos Aires’ dialect of Lunfardo to the delight of locals and the trepidation of foreign journalists.

Rubin said the Pope will be in his element on this trip, returning to known territory. “I think he’s going to feel very comfortable, very comfortable, for many reasons … the issues of the excluded, the most dispossessed, the simplest. In this context, you don’t forget that. This is very important for him and for the Church,” he said.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis’ visit will stir up people’s faith, Bolivian priest at Vatican expects

by Alvaro de Juana (CNA/EWTN News) • July 6, 2015

The Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana in Copacabana, Bolivia. (marcosHB via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Vatican City — On Wednesday Pope Francis will set foot on Bolivian soil, beginning a three-day visit to the country which one of its priests, who works in the Vatican, expects will strengthen the faith of its Catholics.

Father Ariel Beramendi, the sole Bolivian priest working at the Vatican, told CNA he expects that Pope Francis’ trip to his homeland will “revive and stir up the faith of Catholics” there.

Pope Francis is currently in Ecuador, whence he will go to Bolivia July 8-10, after which he will visit Paraguay.

Fr. Beramendi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cochabamba who prepares documents in Spanish and Portuguese at the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said the Pope “has chosen three countries out of those experiencing unresolved social, economic and religious problems” for his South American visit.

“Although these countries are on the same continent and speak the same language, without a doubt they have very different profiles and challenges, as well as a cultural richness, and a popular piety characteristic of each of them.”

He noted Bolivia’s multicultural richness – for example, there are more than 30 indigenous languages which have official state status alongside Spanish. He added that in recent years, prominent Bolivian politicians “have wanted to change the political concept of the state, and there have been moments of friction in relations with the Church … in Bolivia it’s public knowledge that the bishops have had difficult moments with the government, which the Pope will help to alleviate.”

Fr. Beramendi said Bolivians “are a very religious people … the majority of the people are Catholic, but they live out their faith in a different way than in other countries.” He said Bolivia has “a popular piety where the faith isn’t lived out in an incisive manner, a radical way, and this is just what the Pope will awaken there.”

“His visit will revive and stir up the faith of Catholics so that they don’t simply stand still in this popular piety, and its superficial aspect; but instead it will penetrate their personal, family, and political life.”

The most important message the Pope will bring is reconciliation, Fr. Beramendi said.

“Among the Latin American peoples, certain ideologies want to view the Church as a colonizing entity and they even set up ‘government decolonization ministries’, since there is the notion that historically they were plundered.”

The priest believes that the presence of Pope Francis, a fellow Latin American, “will have a reconciling effect in the historic, cultural, and religious areas.”

Among the highlights of Pope Francis’ time in Bolivia will be his visit to the maximum security prison at Palmasola, on the outskirts of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where he will listen to the testimonies of several prisoners.

“Everything the Pope does, he’s doing because he wants to imitate Christ. Jesus went where nobody wanted to go, and welcomed people nobody wanted to receive.” So “in the three countries he’ll be visiting the fringes of society, places of suffering like hospitals, orphanages, and in Bolivia he’ll go to that prison,” Fr. Beramendi explained.

“One of the greatest problems at Palmasola is overcrowding,” he said, and also “a lot of prisoners live there with their families … there are situations of extreme material poverty and human suffering, where they lose their dignity and don’t have enough living space,” he stated.

The Pope will bring with him a message of hope, Fr. Beramendi said, and he will say that “these people should be treated with a minimum of dignity, calling society’s attention to this reality they don’t want to see.”

But also it’s a matter of “a challenge for those governing Bolivia, since the conditions in the prison demonstrate the fragility of the judicial system, of a mechanism that perhaps doesn’t work as it should … everybody knows there’s corruption within the prison and (some convicts) even direct their operations on the outside from there.”

The priest said that when he heard the announcement that the Roman Pontiff would be visiting his county, “the first thing I did was to call to mind the time John Paul II came.”

“At that time I was 14 years old and I had never thought of becoming a priest … the image of the Pope who was coming to visit us stood out in my mind, and I remember some of the messages and gatherings I participated in as a teenager back then.”

“I’m convinced that Pope Francis’ visit will make its mark on the new generations, and I hope there will be an increase in vocations to the priestly and religious life coming from it, but above all, good Christians and good citizens.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pray that the family synod will deepen the Church’s spiritual discernment, Pope asks

by CNA/EWTN News • July 6, 2015

Pope Francis says Mass at the North American College in Rome, May 2, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Guayaquil, Ecuador — During a Mass said on Monday, the first full day of his visit to Ecuador, Pope Francis called for prayers that the upcoming Synod on the Family might discern the needs of the family, an institution irreplaceable to society.

“The Church will celebrate the Ordinary Synod devoted to the family, deepen her spiritual discernment and consider concrete solutions to the many difficult and significant challenges facing families in our time,” the Roman Pontiff said during his July 6 homily

“I ask you to pray fervently for this intention, so that Christ can take even what might seem to us impure, scandalous or threatening, and turn it – by making it part of his ‘hour’ – into a miracle.”

The family “cannot be replaced by other institutions,” he added. For this reason, “it needs to be helped and strengthened, lest we lose our proper sense of the services which society as a whole provides.”

The Mass with the Holy Father was celebrated in Ecuador’s Los Samanes Park in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city, with 1 million people in attendance, according to estimates.

Ecuador is the first stop in Pope Francis’ visit to the continent of his birth, which is taking place July 5-13. The journey will also include stops in Bolivia and Paraguay.

In his homily, the Pope reminded the faithful that the family is a small “domestic Church.”

“When we experience the love of our parents, we feel the closeness of God’s love,” the Roman Pontiff said.

“In our own families and in the greater family to which we all belong, nothing is thrown away, nothing is useless.”

Pope Francis centered his remarks on St. John’s Gospel account of the wedding at Cana, which was read during the Mass. The scene recounts Mary telling Christ that their hosts have run out of wine, to which he responds that it is not yet “his hour” – a reference to his forthcoming Passion.

“Mary’s maternal concern is seen in her plea to Jesus,” the Pope said.

“The wedding at Cana is repeated in every generation, in every family, in every one of us and our efforts to let our hearts find rest in strong, fruitful and joyful love.”

Pope Francis invited the faithful to “journey with (Mary) to Cana” by following her example as shown in this scene, first by reflecting on her attentiveness to the needs of others.

During the wedding scene, Mary notices that her hosts have run out of wine which, the Pope said, “is a sign of happiness, love and plenty.”

He compared the Gospel passage to those within families who have run out of this “wine” – people who feel unloved or neglected, or who suffer difficulties such as unemployment or illness.

“How many elderly people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside and longing each day for a little love?” he said.

In contrast, through her attentiveness and concern, Mary demonstrates her maternal nature toward others, Pope Francis said.

“Mary is not a ‘demanding’ mother, a mother-in-law who revels in our lack of experience, our mistakes and the things we forget to do,” the Pope said. “Mary is a Mother! She is there, attentive and concerned.”

Pope Francis then reflected on the example of confidence with which Mary approached Christ at the wedding feast.

“Mary prays. She does not go to the steward, she immediately tells her Son of the newlyweds’ problem.”

She receives the seemingly disheartening response from Christ, who says: “What does it have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.”

Despite this reply, the Gospel recounts how Mary tells the servants to do as Christ tells them, bringing him large jugs of water which he changes into wine.

In this scene, Mary “places the problem in God’s hands,” the Pope said. “Her concern to meet the needs of others hastens Jesus’ hour. Mary was a part of that hour, from the cradle to the cross.”

“She accepted us as her sons and daughters when the sword pierced her heart. She teaches us to put our families in God’s hands, to pray, to kindle the hope which shows us that our concerns are also God’s concerns.”

Having reflected on Mary’s example of prayer in Cana, Pope Francis spoke of the role of prayer within the family.

“The family is a school where prayer also reminds us that we are not isolated individuals; we are one and we have a neighbour close at hand: he or she is living under the same roof, is a part of our life, and is in need.”

Finally, Pope Francis observed how Mary acts, demonstrating how service, which is “the sign of true love,” is learned within the family.

In telling the servants to “do whatever he tells you,” Mary is giving “an invitation to us to open our hearts to Jesus, who came to serve and not to be served,” the Pope said.

“We learn this especially in the family, where we become servants out of love for one another. In the heart of the family, no one is rejected.”

“The family is the nearest hospital, the first school for the young, the best home for the elderly.”

Pope Francis concluded by turning back to the narrative of the wedding at Cana, and how, thanks to Mary, everyone could enjoy the “finest of wines,” especially those without hope.

“The time is coming when we will taste love daily, when our children will come to appreciate the home we share, and our elderly will be present each day in the joys of life,” the Pope said.

“The best wine is yet to come for those who today feel hopelessly lost … whisper it to the hopeless and the loveless. God always seek out the peripheries, those who have run out of wine, those who drink only of discouragement.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis visits an old friend in Ecuador

by CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2015

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

Guayaquil, Ecuador —”Why in the world is the Vicar of Christ coming to me?” said Father Paquito, when asked how he would receive Pope Francis when he visits him in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The Jesuit priest who in a few days will be 91, was very excited about his get together with his old friend.

Fr. Francisco Cortés, better known as Paquito, was born in Malaga, Spain, July 10, 1924 and came to Ecuador in 1963, serving since then at the Javier School in Guayaquil.

According to El Universal newspaper, the priest met then-Fr. Bergoglio in the early 1980s, when he was the provincial for the Jesuits in Argentina and he visited Ecuador looking for a place to send his novices.

Years later, they met again, when Fr. Paquito traveled to Argentina for the priestly ordination of some Jesuits that he had spent time with in Ecuador.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Pope Francis chanced across Fr. Paquito’s doctor, María Panchana, in 2014 in Rome and asked her: “How’s Paquito doing? Say hi to him for me and tell him I’m going to see him soon,” Dr. Panchana recalled.

In February this year, César Pérez, editor of El Universo newspaper in Guayaquil, showed the pontiff a cell phone video in which Fr. Paquito greeted his old friend. Pope Francis told him that he wanted to see Fr. Paquito. The journalist replied, “Then you’re going to have to go to Guayaquil.”

The Jesuit priest has some heart problems and is in constant contact with the doctors.

“They tell me he wants to talk with me. I don’t know what about … when he was named Pope he sent me more than five messages personally greeting me. Not Fr. Francisco Cortés but Fr. Paquito,” the priest told Agence France Presse news agency. Paquito is the affectionate form of the Spanish nickname Paco, for Francisco.

“For me, this is an act of humility for that man, to remember a person with no merit at all, nobody special, he’s insisted he wants to see me,” he added.

The occasion was set up for July 6 at the Javier School, where Pope Francis was to have lunch with his Jesuit brothers.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope: Evangelizing isn’t about big talk – it’s about joy

by CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2015

Pope Francis processes into Mass at Quito’s Bicentennial Park, July 7, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Quito, Ecuador — In his second homily while visiting Ecuador, Pope Francis spoke on Tuesday of the importance of fostering unity through evangelization, which he said is not done by preaching at people, but rather by being a joyful witness to the Gospel we have received.

“We evangelize not with grand words, or complicated concepts, but with the joy of the Gospel, which fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus,” the Pope said July 7.

“Evangelization does not consist in proselytizing, but in attracting by our witness those who are far off, in humbly drawing near to those who feel distant from God and the Church, those who are fearful or indifferent.”

Proselytizing, he said, is but a “caricature” of evangelization.

Pope Francis’s Mass took place in Quito on the second full day of his apostolic journey to his home continent of South America. The July 5-13 tour will also include stops in Bolivia and Paraguay.

Set in Quito’s Bicentennial Park, the Mass followed a casual meeting with Ecuador’s bishops earlier that morning. The park commemorates the 1809 Ecuadorian call for independence from Spain – the first of its kind in Latin America – which he noted “arose from being conscious of a lack of freedom, of exploitation and despoliation.”

In his homily, which was packed with references to his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis centered on Christ’s prayer in John 17:21 that his disciples “be one … so that the world may believe.”

Referring to the “cry” of Christ to his Father and the Ecuadorians’ early cry for independence, he said that “I would like to see these two cries joined together, under the beautiful challenge of evangelization.”

“We who are gathered here at table with Jesus are ourselves a cry, a shout born of the conviction that his presence leads us to unity.”

Even though Christ was experiencing “the worst of this world” in his own flesh at the moment of his prayer, he didn’t back down or complain. Rather, he welcomed his task and calls us to the do the same, the Pope said.

“We too encounter daily a world torn apart by wars and violence … But is it precisely this troubled world into which Jesus sends us,” he said, explaining that we shouldn’t respond to this call “with nonchalance, or complain we do not have the resources to do the job, or that the problems are too big. Instead, we must respond by taking up the cry of Jesus and accepting the grace and challenge of being builders of unity.”

Pope Francis remarked that “there was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom which arose a little more than two undred years ago. But history tells us that it only made headway once personal differences were set aside, together with the desire for power and the inability to appreciate other movements of liberation which were different yet not thereby opposed.”

“Evangelization can be a way to unite our hopes, concerns, ideals and even utopian visions,” he said, noting that “the desire for unity involves the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, the conviction that we have an immense treasure to share, one which grows stronger from being shared, and becomes ever more sensitive to the needs of others.”

He stressed that from this comes “the need to work for inclusivity at every level, to avoid forms of selfishness, to build communication and dialogue, to encourage collaboration.”

“Our unity can hardly shine forth if spiritual worldliness makes us feud among ourselves in a futile quest for power, prestige, pleasure or economic security,” he said.

Pope Francis then turned to the Church’s salvific mission, saying that part of her identity is to embrace all nations on earth without discrimination.

Using a phrase he frequently repeats in Evangelii Gaudium, the Pope said that becoming a “missionary Church” means constantly striving to foster communion, since mission implies more than “outreach alone.”

“We also need to be missionaries within the Church, showing that she is a mother who reaches out, a welcoming home, a constant school of missionary communion.”

Francis then noted the importance of maintaining a spiritual life based on a personal encounter with Christ.

“This encounter leads us in turn to encounter others, to become involved with our world and to develop a passion for evangelization.”

He stressed that the unity to which Christ calls us is not a mere uniformity, but rather implies living in harmony amid our differences.

Unity is not something “we can fashion as we will, setting conditions, choosing who can belong and who cannot,” he said, adding that “none is excluded,” not even migrants. Nor does unity mean we all have the same tastes or gifts, the Pope said.

“We are brothers and sisters because God created us out of love and destined us, purely of his own initiative, to be his sons and daughters … that is the salvation which God makes possible for us, and which the Church proclaims with joy: to be part of the divine ‘we.’”

The Pope concluded his homily by praying that Ecuadorians would be a sign and witness of fraternal communion for the world by caring for one another.

When we give ourselves in service to others, “we discover our true identity as children of God in the image of the Father and, like him, givers of life; we discover that we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, to whom we bear witness,” the Pope said.

“This is what it means to evangelize; this is our revolution – for our faith is always revolutionary – this is our deepest and most enduring cry.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Papal crowds in Ecuador topped one million on Francis’ first day

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 7, 2015

Ecuadorians gathered in the street before the Cathedral of Quito to see Pope Francis, July 6, 2015. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Vatican City — On the first full day of his apostolic journey to South America Pope Francis had already drawn more than 1 million people to his first public Mass in Guayaquil, the Vatican’s spokesman estimates.

“There were a lot of the people in the streets of Guayaquil. 300,000 or 500,000 people were on the streets of the city,” Holy See press officer Fr. Federico Lombardi told journalists July 6.

Although it’s never easy to make an estimate in a place he’s never been before, Fr. Lombardi said the Pope’s Mass at Guayaquil’s Sanctuary of Divine Mercy drew almost twice as many pilgrims, many of whom had been camping out since the night before.

“It’s plausible, honestly, to say that practically a million people were there.”

Security officials present at yesterday’s Mass numbered attendees at 250-300,000; however, the Vatican spokesman insisted that the streets were also “full of people. So, between the two, I think the Pope saw many more than a million people.”

Fr. Lombardi spoke to journalists during a press briefing at the end of Pope Francis’ first full day of his July 5-13 apostolic journey to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

After landing in Quito Sunday afternoon, the Pope transferred to Guayaquil the next morning, where he visited and celebrated Mass at the city’s new Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, which was completed in 2013.

He then had lunch with the Jesuit Community at Javier College in Guayaquil before heading back to Quito, where he met privately with Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, and payed a brief visit to the city’s cathedral.

Lombardi said the number of people who turned out for the morning’s events was surprising given the high temperatures.

Although Francis didn’t use his pope-mobile, but instead drove in a closed car on the way to the Mass, “there was a real warmth from the people – a Christian love from the people.”

When asked what effect the Pope was having on the people so far, the spokesman replied that “It’s incredible how messages about people who suffer arouse an interest in him and he does what he can to respond … it comes from the heart.”

“You can’t always do it. But, it’s always spontaneous … and a great symbol. I think it can give us all comfort.”

Amid concerns that the intensity of the trip as well as the high altitude of some of the cities he’ll land in – Bolivia’s international airport is the highest in the world, and Quito is 1.77 miles above sea level – Fr. Lombardi noted that the Pope’s health is “always surprising.”

“The Pope, with his age, it’s incredible. He has a lot of energy and he always says it’s not normal. It’s a gift from God,” the spokesman said.

He noted that although some people complained about having headaches, the Pope was fine, even with high temperatures and a notable altitude change going from Quito to Guayaquil.

After concluding Mass, Pope Francis headed to Guayaquil’s Javier College to meet with the local Jesuit community, which he makes a point to do during each of his trips.

Monday’s encounter was a particular joy due to the fact that as provincial in Argentina, Francis sent 30 young men for formation to the house. The spiritual director at the time, Fr. Francisco Cortés, who will be 91 in just a few days, was also present.

The lunch lasted at least an hour, Fr. Lombardi noted, explaining that there were roughly 20 Jesuits present.

“It was a very nice event, very familiar. We spoke about Jesuit thought, about the college, about the Jesuits present – (it was) a very simple meeting of religious from the same congregation.”

Fr. Lombardi revealed that once the Pope Francis returned to Quito, he met Ecuador’s president privately for 20-30 minutes, with no prepared speech.

Although he had no information on the content of the discussion, the spokesman said that meetings such as this during trips are usually more personal than political.

“In my experience, what the Pope has as a personal charism is the encounter with a person. It’s not about a problem, but it’s about encountering the other … finding his identity, his humanity,” he said.

“I can’t say what they spoke about but I can say that it was an encounter between two people. What’s most important is that it’s an encounter between two persons. It’s something that engages the person. It’s not possible not to reflect about oneself and one’s attitudes after a meeting like that.”

Francis gave the president a mosaic of a Marian image inside the Roman Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, as well as a copy of his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium and his recent encyclical Laudato Si, both of which “are a point of reference for this trip.”

Correa for his part gave the Pope a painting a well-known church in Quito.

Fr. Lombardi also drew attention to the pastoral staff Francis is using during the trip: the staff is a replica of one made by prisoners in the Italian jail of San Remo. It was made out of wood, as a symbol of Christ’s cross. The staff “is very dear to the Pope,” and is the one he brought with him to the Holy Land last May, the spokesman said.

Because the Pope liked the staff so much, an exact replica was made out of olive wood in the Holy Land.

“It is true olive wood, made in Bethlehem and used for the first time during Palm Sunday in 2014,” Fr. Lombardi observed, adding that this staff “will be used many times on foreign trips.”

When asked why the Pope decided to visit these three countries – Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay – during his second trip to South America as Bishop of Rome, the spokesman said he is using the same strategy he has employed with smaller trips inside Europe.

Pope Francis, he said, “is fulfilling his desire to not begin with the biggest countries, but the smaller ones.”

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God to Cain, Pope to educators: ‘Where is your brother?’

by CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates Mass for thousands gathered at Guayaquil in Ecuador on July 6, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Quito, Ecuador — Pope Francis on Tuesday challenged Ecuador’s educators to form their students to engage in modern-day issues with innovation and in solidarity with the poor.

“As a university, as educational institutions, as teachers and students, life itself challenges us to answer this question: What does this world need us for? Where is your brother?” Pope Francis said, in reference to the Genesis account of God asking Cain about his brother Abel.

“Again and again we sense the urgency of the question which God put to Cain, “Where is your brother?” But I wonder if our answer continues to be: “Am I my brother’s keeper?””

Pope Francis met on Tuesday with representatives of schools and universities at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.

He strayed briefly from the text a few times, at one point lamenting that when a bridge collapses, it is a global scandal, but when an elderly person dies from the cold, it does not make it into the newspapers. He challenged his audience: “Are you your brothers’ keepers?”

In his address, the Pope described academia as a fertile soil that, if cultivated and protected, can enrich civic and cultural life.

He also said education shapes the future of a society and lays the groundwork for generations to come.

“We need to ask ourselves about the kind of culture we want not only for ourselves, but for our children and our grandchildren,” Pope Francis said, before citing his recent encyclical on the environment. “We would do well to ask ourselves: “What kind of world do we want to leave behind? What meaning or direction to we want to give our lives? Why have we been put here? What is the purpose of our work and all our efforts?”

With these questions, Pope Francis challenged educators to fully engage students in the realities of the world. He said this honest engagement with the world will help students develop critical thinking skills that can lead to humane, alternative solutions to modern-day crises.

The Pope mentioned one modern-day crisis that educators and students must address: the globalization of a technocratic paradigm.

He said this paradigm “tends to believe “that every increase in power means an increase of progress itself, an advance in security, usefulness, welfare and vigor: … and assimilation of new values into the stream of culture, as if reality, goodness and true automatically flow from technological and economic power as such”.”

Pope Francis also addressed the environment. He told educators that care for the environment is no longer a recommendation, but a requirement - and care for the environment is fundamentally linked to care for the human person.

“There is a relationship between our life and that of mother earth, between the way we live and the gift we have received from God,” he said. “Just as both can “deteriorate”, we can also say that they can “support one another and can be changed for the better”.”

“This reciprocal relationship (between the environment and the human person) can lead to openness, transformation and life, or to destruction and death,” he continued.

The Pope turned his attention to students, whom he described as Ecuador’s present and future. He asserted that education is a privilege and challenged students to grow in solidarity with the uneducated. He told the students their education gives them more responsibility to the poor in their community and to care for the environment.

“Personal initiatives are always necessary and good,” Pope Francis said. “But we are asked to go one step further: to start viewing reality in an organic and not fragmented way, to ask about where we stand in relation to others, inasmuch as ‘everything is interconnected.’”

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Pope to policy makers in Ecuador: Love society as your family

by CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2015

Screenshot of Pope Francis at the San Francisco church in Quito, Ecuador on July 7, 2015. (CNA/EWTN)

Quito, Ecuador — In an address at the San Francisco church in Quito, Ecuador Pope Francis told political and social policy makers of the country to look to the family as their model for solidarity and subsidiarity.

“In a family, parents, grandparents and children feel at home; no one is excluded,” the Holy Father said in his July 7 address. “Should it not be the same in society?”

The Pope lamented that frequently in the political realm, agendas are often pushed forward through confrontation and a desire to “eliminate” the other, rather than by working together for the common good.

“My position, my ideas and my plans will move forward if I can prevail over others and impose my will. Is this the way a family should be?” he asked. “In families, everyone contributes to the common purpose, everyone works for the common good, not denying each person’s individuality but encouraging and supporting it.”

The values learned in family life such as love, fraternity and mutual respect, can and should manifest in societal life as gratitude, solidarity and subsidiarity, the Pope explained. He asked those present to translate their love for their community, society and country into actions and not just words.

“Who we are, and what we have, has been given to us so that we can place it at the service of others. Our task is to make it bear fruit in good works,” he said.

Pope Francis especially asked that policy makers show respect and solidarity in protecting the great environmental diversity in Ecuador, which is home to both mountains and coastlands, as well as the Galapagos Islands.

“The tapping of natural resources, which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term benefits,” he said. “As stewards of these riches which we have received, we have an obligation toward society as a whole and towards future generations.”

The people of Ecuador took a step in this direction in the fall of 2008, when they became the first country to adopt a constitution that legally recognizes the “Rights of Nature” to “exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.” (Article 1 of “Rights of Nature” chapter of the Ecuador constitution).

Referencing his environmental encyclical, “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis asked those present to continue to protect their natural environment and to see themselves as teachers of an “integral ecology”.

Ecuador is one of the “richest areas both in the number of species and in endemic, rare or less protected species … it requires greater protection because of its immense importance for the global ecosystem … it possesses an enormously complex biodiversity which is almost impossible to appreciate fully, yet when (such woodlands) are burned down or leveled for purposes of cultivation, within the space of a few years countless species are lost and the areas frequently become arid wastelands,” the Pope said, referring to his encyclical.

Just as people experience a feeling of responsibility for those in their own family, so too should they see themselves as responsible for members of society and for future generations, who will inherit the world as it is left to them, the Pope added.

He also asked the public policy makers to help Ecuador overcome its current challenges of migration, overcrowded cities, consumerism, poverty and unemployment with laws and regulations that “aim at inclusion, create opportunities for dialogue and encounter, while leaving behind all forms of repression, excessive control or loss of freedom as painful past memories.”

“Hoping in a better future calls for offering real opportunities to people, especially young people, creating employment, and ensuring an economic growth which is shared by all (rather than simply existing on paper, in macroeconomic statistics), and promoting a sustainable development capable of generating a solid and cohesive social fabric,” he said.

The Pope also asked those present to consider all the diverse people of Ecuador as valuable participants in its democracy, and to consider how such diversity can make for a beautiful society that is working toward the common good.

“The Church wishes for her part to cooperate in the pursuit of the common good, through her social and educational works, promoting ethical and spiritual values, and serving as a prophetic sign which brings a ray of light and hope to all, especially those most in need,” he said.

“May the Lord grant that the civil society which you represent will always be a fitting setting for experiencing and practicing these values of which I have spoken.”

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‘Remember your roots’: Pope goes off-the-cuff to priests, religious

by CNA/EWTN News • July 8, 2015

Pope Francis blesses the crowds gathered at the Quito Cathedral in Ecuador on July 6, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Quito, Ecuador — In his last encounter during his visit to Ecuador, Pope Francis on Wednesday warned priests and religious against career ambitions that lead to ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s.’

“When a seminarian or priest thinks too much about his career, he starts to suffer from spiritual Alzheimer’s and he loses his memory and forgets where he came from,” the Pope said. “Never forget where you came from; don’t forget your roots.”

Wednesday is the final day of Pope Francis’ time in Ecuador, which is part of his ongoing July 5-13 visit to the continent of his birth. He will next travel to Bolivia, followed by Paraguay.

The Pope spoke off-the-cuff July 8 to a gathering of clergy, men and women religious, and seminarians at the shrine of Our Lady of Quinche, the patroness of Ecuador. The shrine, located fewer than 30 miles northeast of Quito, is home to a statue of Our Lady of the Presentation to which various apparitions and miracles have been attributed.

Arriving at the shrine, the pontiff venerated the statue of Our Lady of Quinche, and was greeted by Bishop Celmo Lazzari, Vicar Apostolic of San Miguel de Sucumbios, a missionary to Ecuador from Brazil. He also listened to testimonies from Father Silvino Mina, a representative of the Afro-Ecuadorian culture, and from Sister Marisol Sandoval, an Augustinian.

Setting aside his prepared remarks, the Pope then said that he was inspired by the location of the Marian Shrine and wished to speak from the heart.

Emphasizing that “everything is a free gift,” he pointed to the example of Mary.

“She was never a protagonist. All her life she was a disciple. Mary knew that everything she had was a freely given gift from God,” he said. “And God’s free gift is shown in you, religious men and women, and priests and seminarians.”

“We need to go back to that free gift of God,” he continued. “You paid no entry ticket to be who you are or to be where you are in the seminary or in religious life. You did nothing to deserve it.”

The Holy Father encouraged the clergy and religious to recognize that everything is a free gift from God and to “give back to the Lord.” He invited them to look at Christ each night before bed and thank him for the free gift of everything in their lives.

Even things that may be difficult, such as being sent to a new location as a priest or religious, is part of the freely given gift from God, he said.

”We are the objects of those freely given gifts and we are important only insofar as we never forget that,” he stressed, warning against those who say, “Oh look at this one, look at that one, look at this bishop or that one they’ve made a monsignor.”

“If we do that we slowly move further and further away from the example of Mary, the example of the gift.”

Pope Francis lamented situations when a priest or religious abandons the use of their native tongue – especially in Ecuador, where there are more than 20 indigenous languages spoken by the nation’s diverse cultures.

“It’s sad when priests or religious forget their local dialect, or don’t want to speak them anymore – it means they’ve forgotten where they came from.”

In addition, he exhorted the crowd to remember that “yours is a life of service: God chose you to serve. Service is for others – not for me, my time, my things.”

He cautioned against a priest insisting his office close at a given time, or who complains about house blessings because he’s tired; or saying there’s a soap opera on TV – “I say this to the nuns,” he jested. These examples, he said, “are not service.”

“Service means doing what you have to do, even when you’re tired. Even when people irritate you … service means dedicating ourselves to others.”

“Please, do not ask to be paid for having received grace,” the Pope added. “May our pastoral work be a free gift.”

He said a consecrated person who lives out their free gift, who is aware of their memory, can be recognized by their joy. “Joy is a gift of Jesus, which he gives us if we ask for it.”

“We have to pray that we never lose our memories, never forget, that we never feel we’re more important than others.”

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‘Jallalla Bolivia’ – Pope Francis arrives speaking Quechua

by CNA/EWTN News • July 8, 2015

Pope Francis delivers his opening address for his journey to Bolivia, at the airport of La Paz, July 8, 2015. (EWTN)

La Paz, Bolivia — Arriving in Bolivia on Wednesday afternoon, Pope Francis greeted those waiting for him with the greeting “jallalla,” significant because it comes from the Quechua-Aymara languages of the nation’s indigenous peoples.

Francis used the phrase “Jallalla Bolivia” at the close of his July 8 speech of greeting to Bolivians at the airport of La Paz, the nation’s administrative capital. In his address, the Pope noted the country’s rich cultural and ethnic diversity – it has 36 official languages beside Spanish, the largest of which is Quechua.

He said he comes as a pilgrim to renew the country’s faith, and he also encouraged further social, economic, and political development.

“As a guest and a pilgrim, I have come to confirm the faith of those who believe in the Risen Christ, so that, during our pilgrimage on earth, we believers may be witnesses of his love, leaven for a better world and co-operators in the building of a more just and fraternal society,” he proclaimed.

He landed at the La Paz airport – the highest in the world at 11,975 feet – at 4:15 p.m. local time, and was greeted by Bolivian president Evo Morales. His two-day visit to the country is the second stage in his July 5-15 South American tour. Prior to Bolivia, Pope Francis spent three days in Ecuador, and will move on to Paraguay on Friday afternoon.

Due to the especially high altitude of La Paz, Francis will only spend a few hours there before transferring to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where he will spend the remainder of his time in Bolivia.

In his address, Pope Francis praised Bolivia for its “singular beauty,” which he said can be seen in “ ts altiplano and valleys, its Amazon region, its deserts and the incomparable lakes.”

He said Bolivia is a land particularly blessed by its people, who constitute “a great cultural and ethnic variety,” including both ancient aboriginal peoples as well as newer native populations. Such diversity, he said, is an enrichment and a constant call for respect and dialogue.

Francis said the first proclamation of the Gospel in the country “took deep root, and through the years it has continued to shed its light upon society, contributing to the development of the nation and shaping its culture.”

“Bolivia is making important steps towards including broad sectors in the country’s economic, social and political life,” he noted, praising the nation’s constitution for recognizing the rights not only of individuals, but also of minorities and the environment.

“The integral advancement of a nation demands an ever greater appreciation of values by individuals and their growing convergence with regard to common ideals to which all can work together, no one being excluded or overlooked,” he said.

Pope Francis cautioned that “a growth which is merely material will always run the risk of creating new divisions, of the wealth of some being built on the poverty of others.”

He therefore called for both institutional transparency and the promotion of education in order to foster social unity.

Evangelization is a theme the Pope said he plans to touch on during the visit, and stressed that Bolivia’s bishops must have a prophetic voice which “speaks to society in the name of the Church, our Mother, from her preferential, evangelical option for the poor.”

“We cannot believe in God the Father without seeing a brother or sister in every person, and we cannot follow Jesus without giving our lives for those for whom he died on the cross,” he said.

Francis also drew attention to the family and the youth, saying that “in an age when basic values are often neglected or distorted, the family merits special attention on the part of those responsible for the common good, since it is the basic cell of society. Families foster the solid bonds of unity on which human coexistence is based, and, through the bearing and education of children, they ensure the renewal of society.”

Referring to young people as “the promise of the future,” the Pope said that helping them to embrace their dreams and lofty ideals is a guarantee for the future of a society.

He also emphasized the importance of caring for the elderly, and noted that Bolivia’s constitution already fosters a “culture of remembrance” capable of ensuring them not only quality of life in their final years, but also affection.

Pope Francis closed his speech saying that he is happy to be in a country “which calls itself pacifist, a country which promotes both the culture of peace and the right to peace.”

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Don’t forget how Christianity shaped you, Pope tells Bolivia

by CNA/EWTN News • July 8, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims inside St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Feb. 11, 2015. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

La Paz, Bolivia — In a meeting at the Cathedral of La Paz in Bolivia, Pope Francis urged civil authorities to respect religious freedom in order to allow Christians to play their part in civil life.

“Christianity has played an important role in shaping the identity of the Bolivian people,” the Holy Father said.

“Religious freedom – a phrase we often encounter in civil discourse – also reminds us that faith cannot be restricted to a purely subjective experience,” he said. “It also challenges us to help foster the growth of spirituality and Christian commitment in social projects.”

The Pope’s comments come at a time of tension between Church and state in Bolivia. Although Pope Francis and Bolivian President Evo Morales have met on several occasions and share similar views when it comes to climate and helping the poor, Morales removed the cross and the Bible from the presidential palace as soon as he took office in 2006.

In 2009, despite the overwhelming Catholic majority in the country, a new constitution declared Bolivia a secular state, and rules that Andrean religious rituals would now be the official rites at state ceremonies, rather than Catholic ones.

In his address, Pope Francis reminded authorities that when Christians are allowed to live out their faith, they are a benefit to society.

“Christians in particular, as disciples of the Good News, are bearers of a message of salvation which has the ability to ennoble and to inspire great ideals,” he said. “In this way it leads to ways of acting which transcend individual interest, readiness to make sacrifices for the sake of others, sobriety and other virtues which develop in us the ability to live as one.”

The Holy Father also urged those present to look beyond themselves and their own comfort in order to work for the common good.

“Without even being conscious of it, we confuse the ‘common good’ with ‘prosperity,’ especially when we are the ones who enjoy that prosperity,” the Pope said.

“Prosperity understood only in terms of material wealth has a tendency to become selfish, to defend private interests, to be unconcerned about others, and to give free rein to consumerism.”

A society that works for the common good, rather, considers what is best for all and not just what is best for certain individuals or interest groups, the Pope added. This is best done in an environment of freedom that respects everyone, and builds bridges rather than walls, he said.

“A nation which seeks the common good cannot be closed in on itself; societies are strengthened by networks of relationships,” the Holy Father said. “The current problem of immigration makes this clear.

These days it is essential to improve diplomatic relations between the countries of the region, in order to avoid conflicts between sister peoples and to advance frank and open dialogue about their problems.”

“How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralyzing mistrust, integrate those who are different and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive it is when those cities are full of spaces which connect, relate and favor the recognition of others!”

The Pope concluded his address by asking for prayers: “I need them,” he said.

Bolivia is the second of three stops on the Pope’s trip to South America. He visited Ecuador July 5-8 and will spend a few days in Bolivia before heading to Paraguay on July 10 to finish his visit.

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No one should be discarded – In Bolivia, Pope Francis advocates for the poor

by CNA/EWTN News • July 9, 2015

Pope Francis says Mass at Christ the Redeemer Square in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, July 9, 2015. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia — Giving into despair when confronted with life’s difficulties only leads to an individualistic attitude that discards others, Pope Francis said Thursday, explaining that with Jesus, no one is ever left out or excluded.

“A despairing heart finds it easy to succumb to a way of thinking which is becoming ever more widespread in our world. It is a mentality in which everything has a price, everything can be bought, everything is negotiable,” the Pope said July 9 during his homily at his Mass, said in Santa Cruz de la Sierra’s Christ the Redeemer Square.

He said that thinking this way only leaves space for a select few, while the rest – who “don’t add up” or are considered unsuitable and unworthy – are discarded.

In reference to the day’s Gospel reading, in which Christ multiplied loaves and fish to feed a crowd of 4,000, the Pope said Christ’s words to his disciples, “you yourselves, give them something to eat”, have a particular resonance today.

Christ, he said, tell us that “No one needs to go away, no one has to be discarded; you yourselves, give them something to eat.”

He said Christ is speaking those same words “here in this square. Jesus’ way of seeing things leaves no room for the mentality which would cut bait on the weak and those most in need.”

Pope Francis spoke the morning after his arrival to Bolivia. It began at 10a.m. local time, and fell on the fifth day of his July 5-13 apostolic voyage to South America. Prior to Bolivia, Pope Francis spent three days in Ecuador, and will move on to Paraguay on Friday afternoon.

Speaking directly to the pilgrims who came from many different areas and villages to participate in the Mass, Francis said they are living many of the same situations as those who came to hear Christ.

In addition to coming with their children and hopes in hand, the Pope noted how they also brought with them the weight of disappointments and injustice.

“Frequently we tire of this journey. Frequently we lack the strength to keep hope alive. How often have we experienced situations which dull our memory, weaken our hope and make us lose our reason for rejoicing!”

He warned that in such situations “a kind of sadness takes over. We think only of ourselves, we forget that we area people which is loved, a chosen people.”

“And the loss of that memory disorients us, it closes our heart to others, and especially to the poor.”

When confronted with contemporary problems, the Pope said, we can look at it in a worldly way and say nothing can be done – “our hearts yield to despair,” and we can feel the same way as the disciples when they asked Jesus to send away the hungry and those in need.

However, with his example of taking what was given to him, blessing it, and giving it to others, Christ shows us a different approach, he observed.

“This is how the miracle takes place. It is not magic or sorcery. With these three gestures, Jesus is able to turn a mentality which discards others into a mindset of communion and community.”

Christ, the Pope said, takes the people’s lives “very seriously. He looks at them in the eye, and he knows what they are experiencing, what they are feeling.”

Instead of being concerned about material objects or grand ideas, the Lord is primarily concerned about the people, he said, adding that “Jesus never detracts from the dignity of anyone, no matter how little they possess or seem capable of contributing.”

By blessing what had been given to him, Christ demonstrates his knowledge that everything is a gift from God, Francis continued. Rather than treating things as objects, the Lord values them as a fruit of God’s merciful love.

“Life is always a gift which, when placed in the hands of God, starts to multiply. Our Father never abandons us; he makes everything multiply.”

Pope Francis said that every blessing has a missionary purpose, which is to share what we have received with others. It is only by giving that we find joy and salvation, he added.

He reflected on how the hands which Christ lifts to bless God are the same ones he used to feed the hungry crowd, and encouraged those present to image “how those people passed the loaves of bread and the fish from hand to hand, until they came to those farthest away.”

“Jesus generated a kind of electrical current among his followers, as they shared what they had, made it a gift for others, and so ate their fill,” he said.

Referring to the Eucharist, the Pope noted how July 9 marked the inauguration of the Fifth Eucharistic Congress, which will be held in Tarija, in Bolivia’s south.

The Eucharist, he said, “is a sacrament of communion, which draws us out of our individualism in order to live together as disciples.”

He turned his attention to the Church, saying that she is a community of remembrance that continues to pass on the faith in memory of Christ, as he commanded at the Last Supper.

“We are not isolated individuals, separated from one another, but rather a people of remembrance, a remembrance ever renewed and ever shared with others,” Francis said.

“A life of remembrance needs others. It demands exchange, encounter and a genuine solidarity capable of entering into the mindset of taking, blessing and giving. It demands the logic of love,” he concluded, encouraging attendees to imitate Mary, who constantly pondered the life of her son.

“Like her, may we trust in the goodness of the Lord, who does great things with the lowliness of his servants.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis apparently not amused by ‘communist crucifix’

by Alvaro de Juana and Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2015

Bolivian president Evo Morales presents Pope Francis with a ‘communist crucifix’ at the presidential palace in La Paz, July 8, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

La Paz, Bolivia — When leftist Bolivian president Evo Morales on Thursday presented Pope Francis with a “communist crucifix” – a carving of Christ crucified on the hammer of a hammer and sickle – the Pope’s only reaction was to say, “This is not ok,” while shaking his head.

Shortly after his July 8 arrival at the Bolivian administrative capital of La Paz, Pope Francis made a courtesy visit to Morales at the Palace of Government. At such meetings, the leaders customarily exchange gifts; Pope Francis gave the Bolivian president a mosaic of the Marian icon of the “Salus Populus Romani,” her role as patroness of Rome.

Morales explained what his gift to the Pope was as he gave it to him. In the video, filmed by the Vatican Television Center and transmitted throughout the world, the Pope’s disapproval of the gift can be seen, and he says “No está bien eso” – “This is not ok” – while shaking his head.

While the audio is a bit marred by the clicking of journalists’ cameras, the embarrassment of the Pope seems clear.

The cross with a hammer and sickle is a reproduction of another carved during the 1970s by Fr. Luis Espinal Camps, a Spanish Jesuit who was a missionary in Bolivia who was killed in 1980 during the Bolivian dictatorship.

At a July 9 press briefing the Holy See press officer, Fr. Federico Lombardi, noted the lack of clarity in the audio of the exchange, and remarked that Pope Francis had been unaware the crucifix was a replica of Fr. Espinal’s.

He also claimed that Fr. Espinal’s use of it was not ideological but expressed a hope for dialogue between communism and the Church, adding that Pope Francis’ remark likely expressed a sentiment of “I didnt’ know”, rather than “This is not right.”

Morales’ gift has sparked a worldwide controversy, and reactions were not long in coming. The majority of them accuse Morales of trying to politicize the Pope’s visit.

Morales is head of Bolivia’s Movement for Socialism party, and his adminstration has focused on implementing leftist policies in the nation. Since coming to power in 2006, Morales has frequently sparred with the Bolivian bishops.

Catholics from various Hispanophone countries rejected Morales’ gesture, considering it offensive to the numerous victims of terrorist groups in Latin America and of the historical totalitarian communist regimes.

Bishop Jose Munilla Aguirre of San Sebastián, a Spaniard, tweeted: “The height of arrogance is to manipulate God in the service of atheistic ideologies … Today, once again: #ChristCrucified”.

Fr. Espinal – whose “communist crucifix” was the model for Morales’ gift to the Pope – was a journalist who advocated for human rights and democracy, continues to be a source of controversy in Bolivia.

While en route from the La Paz airport to the presidential palace, Pope Francis stopped to pray at the location where Fr. Espinal’s corpse was found after his March 21, 1980 kidnapping and murder.

“Dear sisters and brothers. I stopped here to greet you and above all to remember. To remember a brother, our brother, a victim of interests who did not want him to fight for the freedom of Bolivia,” the Pope said to those gathered at the site, after arriving by way of an open popemobile.

“May Christ draw this man into himself. Lord give him eternal rest and may light shine for him that has no end.”

Some regard Fr. Espinal as a martyr who lived the Gospel with the same spirit as Blessed Oscar Romero – who was martyred by right wing Salvadorans two days after Fr. Espinal’s death – while others claim the priest was a communist and became too involved in politics.

Born in 1932 in Barcelona, Fr. Espinal studied both philosophy and theology before entering the Jesuit novitiate in Veruela in Zaragoza at the age of 17.

The same year he traveled to Bergamo, Italy to study audiovisual journalism. After two years he returned to Spain and began to work for Spanish radio and television corporation TVE at the height of Francisco Franco’s rule.

Fr. Espinola denounced the censorships placed on TVE under Franco and left Spain. He moved to Bolivia in August 1968, where he took over as chair in the journalism department of the Bolivian Catholic University, and later become sub-director.

He was granted Bolivian citizenship in 1970, and over the course of the next 10 years worked in both the written and radio press, produced documentaries on social themes and got into screenwriting.

As an avid defender of human rights, the priest cofounded the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights in Bolivia in 1976. During the 1971 military coup led by Hugo Banzer Suarez, Fr. Espinola intervened on behalf of persecuted and detained politicians and trade unions.

In 1977 he participated in a three-week-long hunger strike to gain general amnesty for political exiles, validity of trade unions and the withdrawal of the army from mining centers.

In 1979 Fr. Espinola founded the weekly newspaper “Aqui,” which was quickly dubbed “leftist” due to its anti-establishment views and vocal criticism of government corruption.

As a result of his work, the priest was kidnapped by a group of paramilitaries March 21, 1980, while on his way home.

According to police and militants at the time, the militants took Fr. Espinola to La Paz’ Achachicala slaughterhouse, where he was tortured for five hours before being shot 17 times. His body was found handcuffed and gagged the next morning.

In 2007, Morales officially declared March 21 as the “Day of Bolivian Cinema” due to the priest’s contributions in the area. On that day, cinemas and television channels are obliged to show national films, particularly relating to the themes of human rights and indigenous peoples.

Fr. Lombardi noted during a July 6 press briefing that no cause has been opened for Fr. Espinal’s beatification.

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VATICAN NEWS

Let us be grateful witnesses of God’s mercy, Pope says

by CNA/EWTN News • July 9, 2015

Pope Francis greets the crowds at the airport of La Paz, Bolivia, July 8, 2015. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia — Christ gave sight to a blind beggar whom others ignored. For Pope Francis, this bears an important lesson for Christians today.

“We are witnesses not of an ideology, of a recipe, of a particular theology. We are witnesses to the healing and merciful love of Jesus,” the Pope said July 9 at a gathering with priests, religious, and seminarians at the Coliseo Don Bosco in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city.

“One day Jesus saw us on the side of the road, wallowing in our own pain and misery. He did not close his ear to our cries. He stopped, drew near and asked what he could do for us. And thanks to many witnesses, who told us, ‘Take heart; get up,’ gradually we experienced this merciful love, this transforming love, which enabled us to see the light.”

Pope Francis was first greeted by Bishop Roberto Bori, auxiliary of the Vicariate Apostolic of Beni, who said: “We are impassioned by the religious and social problems of our country. We have an urgent need for a more intense and extensive evangelization, so that our people know how to face the avalanche of secularism and materialism, with all their nefarious consequences in the spheres of personal, family, and social life.”

Bishop Bori gave a litany of the concerns facing Bolivian religious, including immorality, corruption, drug trafficking, alcoholism, family breakdown, social insecurity, political and ideological clashes, injustice, and poverty.

“Yet,” the bishop said, “all this does not dishearten us, for we are accompanied by the Lord and his grace, and by a message of great value, which is the Gospel of joy, and the joy of the Gospel. We know that good is more attractive and contagious than evil, because it produces true life, rich in beauty, love, and virtue, which all men are able to appreciate.”

Pope Francis then listened to the testimonies of Fr. Crispin Borda Gomez, a priest of the Cochabamba archdiocese, and rector of the San Luis major seminary; Sr. Gabriela Cuellar Duran, a religious; and Damian Oyola Ramos, a seminarian.

Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel of Mark’s account of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who “became a disciple at the last minute.” The man was “pushed aside” from the center of the crowd during Christ’s final journey to Jerusalem from Jericho – “more exclusion was impossible” – yet he cried out amid the large crowd when he heard Christ was passing by. Some in the crowd told Bartimaeus to be quiet.

Christ, however, told his followers to call to the beggar. He asked what he could do for him. When the blind man told him “Master, I want to see,” Christ gave him sight.

The Pope suggested that St. Mark wanted to show the reaction of Christ’s followers when faced with Bartimaeus’ suffering. He reflected that some of Christ’s followers passed by the beggar. This is “the response of indifference, of avoiding other people’s problems because they do not affect us.”

“We do not hear them, we do not recognize them,” the Roman Pontiff lamented. “Here we have the temptation to see suffering as something natural, to take injustice for granted.”

For Pope Francis, this is a response “born of a blind, closed heart, a heart which has lost the ability to be touched and hence the possibility to change. A heart used to passing by without letting itself be touched; a life which passes from one thing to the next, without ever sinking roots in the lives of the people around us.”

He cautioned that such a response had happened to the first Pope, St. Peter, “who denied the Lord, and whose wonder failed.”

“To pass by, without hearing the pain of our people, without sinking roots in their lives and in their world, is like listening to the word of God without letting it take root and bear fruit in our hearts,” he continued.

Pope Francis then reflected on Christ’s followers who told the beggar to be quiet. They reacted to Bartimaeus “simply by scolding.”

“This is the drama of the isolated consciousness, of those who think that the life of Jesus is only for those who deserve it,” he said. “They seem to believe there is only room for the ‘worthy’, for the ‘better people’, and little by little they separate themselves from the others. They have made their identity a badge of superiority.”

Pope Francis reflected that someone like this is “no longer a pastor – they’re bosses,” adding that “they hear, but they do not attend” to what their people are saying.

Someone with this attitude is cut off from the tears of others, but “most of all, from their reasons for rejoicing.”

“Laughing with those who laugh, weeping with those who weep; all this is part of the mystery of a priestly heart,” he said.

“Ask for the grace of memory,” he exhorted, hearkening to the message he spoke to Ecuadorian religious the day before. “Don’t deny the culture you learned from your people. Don’t feel that now you have a far more sophisticated culture. There are priests who are ashamed of speaking their mother tongue, and so they forget the Quechua, the Aymara, the Guarani … but if you lose the memory, you lose the grace that came with it.”

The Pope finally focused on the fact that Christ stopped when Bartimaeus cried out to him.

“Jesus singled him out from the nameless crowd and got involved in his life,” the Pope said. Christ sought to come into the beggar’s life and gradually restored his dignity.

“Far from looking down on him, Jesus was moved to identify with the man’s problems and thus to show the transforming power of mercy.”

This “logic of love” is not grounded in fear, he said. Rather, it is grounded in “the freedom born of love and of desire to put the good of others before all else.”

This logic often means “no more than standing at their side and praying with them.”

Pope Francis reflected that some of Christ’s disciples told the blind beggar: “take heart and get up.” He encouraged Christians to follow this example.

“Not so that we can be special, not so that we can be better than other, not so that we can be God’s functionaries, but only because we are grateful witnesses to the mercy which changed us.”

He closed his remarks by asking those gathered to remember Blessed Nazaria Ignacia de Santa Teresa de Jesús, who cared for the aged and the hungry and founded a woman’s trade union while also running homes for orphaned children and hospitals for wounded soldiers.

The Pope also mentioned Venerable Virginia Blanco Tardío, an evangelizer who cared for the poor and sick.

“May we press forward with the help and cooperation of all,” he concluded. “For the Lord wants to use us to make his light reach to every corner of our world.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: Humanity’s future is in the hands of the poor

by CNA/EWTN News • July 9, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on Nov. 5, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

La Paz, Bolivia — In an address to international NGOs on Thursday, Pope Francis said the poor and marginalized have an irreplaceable role to play in reversing what he calls the global dictatorship of greed.

“This system is by now intolerable: farmworkers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable,” the Pope said. “The earth itself – our sister, Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable.”

“You, the lowly, the exploited, the poor and underprivileged, can do, and are doing, a lot,” he continued. “I would even say that the future of humanity is in great measure in your own hands.”

Pope Francis made his comments in a colorful, lengthy address to the Second World Meeting of the Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The three day congress gathers international NGOs to discuss modern challenges facing the poor and marginalized. The Vatican hosted the First World Meeting of the Popular Movements last October.

Bolivia is the second of three stops on the Pope’s trip to South America. He visited Ecuador July 5-8 and will spend a few days in Bolivia before heading to Paraguay on July 10 to finish his visit.

During his remarks, the Pope echoed many of the points in his recent environment encyclical, “Laudato Si.” He lamented global exclusion and injustice; the farmer with no land, the family with no home, the worker with no rights. He warned that unfettered greed is the driving force behind these injustices.

“Behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called ‘the dung of the devil,’” he said. “An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind.”

“Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.”

“Let’s not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change,” he said, adding that even those who are benefiting from the current status quo have become dissatisfied and despondent.

Pope Francis said change is urgently needed, but it will also take time. He said change is also not dependent on one political decision or change in social structure. To illustrate his point, the Pope adopted a phrase he heard during his time in Bolivia: “process of change.”

“We know from painful experience that changes of structure which are not accompanied by a sincere conversion of mind and heart sooner or later end up in bureaucratization, corruption and failure,” he said.

“That is why I like the image of a “process”, where the drive to sow, to water seeds which others will see sprout, replaces the ambition to occupy every available position of power and to see immediate results.”

He also said human relationships are the major agents of change in society.

“Commitment, true commitment, is born of the love of men and women, of children and the elderly, of peoples and communities … of names and faces which fill our hearts. From those seeds of hope patiently sown in the forgotten fringes of our planets, from those seedlings of a tenderness which struggles to grow amid the shadows of exclusion, great trees will spring up, great groves of hope to give oxygen to our world.”

Pope Francis then laid out three main goals for the NGOs gathered at the Expo Feria in Santa Cruz.

First, put the economy at the service of the people, the Pope said.

“Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money,” he continued. “Let us say NO to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth.”

The Pope called for communitarian economy, which he said is not only possible but a moral obligation.

“For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment,” he said. “It is about giving to the poor and to the peoples what is theirs by right. The universal destination of goods is not a figure of speech found in the Church’s social teaching. It is a reality prior to private property. Property, especially when it affects natural resources, must always serve the needs of peoples. And those needs are not restricted to consumption.”

The Pope then urged NGOs to work to unite communities in justice and peace. He praised growing collaboration and fraternity between many Latin American countries. But, despite this progress the Pope warned colonialism still rears its head in new and old ways.

“At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon: corporations, loan agencies, certain “free trade” treaties, and the imposition of measures of “austerity” which always tighten the belt of workers and the poor,” the Pope cautioned.

“The world’s peoples want to be artisans of their own destiny..They do not want forms of tutelage or interference by which those with greater power subordinate those with less,” he said. “They want their culture, their language, their social processes and their religious traditions to be respected. No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their sovereignty. Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of colonialism which seriously prejudice to possibility of peace and justice.”

The Pope also urged NGOs to work to protect the environment, an issue he described as “perhaps the most important facing us today.”

“Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin,” he said.”

“I ask you, in the name of God, to defend Mother Earth.”

Pope Francis promised his solidarity with the NGOs as they work to uproot global injustice and poverty. Though he admitted that even he doesn’t have a recipe to fix all the problems of the world.

“Don’t expect a recipe from this Pope,” he said. “Neither the Pope nor the Church have a monopoly on the interpretation of social reality or the proposal of solutions to contemporary issues. I dare say that no recipe exists. History is made by each generation as it follows in the footsteps of those preceding it, as it seeks its own path and respects the values which God has placed in the human heart.”

He urged the NGOs to seek creative solutions to modern-day crises. He also cautioned NGOs to be on wary of ideological misguidance.

“Be creative and never stop being rooted in local realities, since the father of lies is able to usurp noble words, to promote intellectual fads and to adopt ideological stances. But if you build on solid foundations, on real needs and on the lived experience of your brothers and sisters, of campesinos and natives, of excluded workers and marginalized families, you will surely be on the right path.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope in Latin America apologizes for sins against native peoples

by CNA/EWTN News • July 9, 2015

Pope Francis delivering an address during his visit to Bolivia, July 9, 2015. (CNA)

Santa Cruz, Bolivia — Following in the footsteps of St. John Paul II, Pope Francis on Thursday asked forgiveness for crimes against the indigenous peoples of Latin America during “the so-called conquest of America.”

“I say this to you with regret: many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God,” he said July 9.

“My predecessors acknowledged this, CELAM (The Latin American Episcopal Council) has said it, and I too wish to say it. Like Saint John Paul II, I ask that the Church ‘kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the past and present sins of her sons and daughters’.”

“I would also say, and here I wish to be quite clear, as was Saint John Paul II: I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

The Pope’s comments came during an address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements in Bolivia. Francis is currently in the middle of a July 5-13 trip through Latin America, which began in Ecuador and will continue in Paraguay.

In his address, the pontiff spoke out against “colonialism, both old and new, which reduces poor countries to mere providers of raw material and cheap labor, engenders violence, poverty, forced migrations and all the evils which go hand in hand with these.”

“Let us say no to forms of colonialism old and new. Let us say yes to the encounter between peoples and cultures. Blessed are the peacemakers,” he said.

The Holy Father called for changes that respect the environment, workers, and families. He spoke of the “process of change,” which he described as “(c)hange seen not as something which will one day result from any one political decision or change in social structure. We know from painful experience that changes of structure which are not accompanied by a sincere conversion of mind and heart sooner or later end up in bureaucratization, corruption and failure.”

Pope Francis also spoke out against faith-based persecution in the Middle East and around the globe.

“This too needs to be denounced: in this third world war, waged peacemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.”

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VATICAN NEWS

From one sinner to another, Pope asks for prayers during prison visit

by CNA/EWTN News • July 10, 2015

Children play on a stage at the Palmasola prison in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, while Pope Francis listens to a greeting from Archbishop Juárez of Sucre, July 10, 2015. (EWTN)

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia — Pope Francis on Friday told Bolivian inmates that he too is a sinner who has experienced the merciful love of God, and encouraged them not to fall into despair but to accept forgiveness and to sustain themselves with prayer.

“You may be asking yourselves: Who is this man standing before us?’” the Pope reflected with prisoners during his July 10 visit to Bolivia’s Palmasola Rehabilitation Center in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

“I would like to reply to that question with something absolutely certain about my own life. The man standing before you is a man who has experienced forgiveness. A man who was, and is, saved from his many sins. That is who I am.”

Pope Francis said that although he doesn’t have much more to offer them, “I want to share with you what I do have and what I love. It is Jesus, Jesus Christ, the mercy of the Father.”

Palmasola is Bolivia’s largest and most overcrowded prison, which holds as many as 5,000 prisoners – and their families. Young children are allowed to live with incarcerated parents, and while the perimeter of Palmasola is secured by guards, much of the interior functions as a small town, with its own economy. An August 2013 riot in the prison, which began as a gang rivalry, killed 31 persons, including an 18 month-old child who was living there.

Pope Francis met with the prisoners on his last day in Bolivia, the second of his three-stage, July 5-13 tour of South America. The Pope spent three days in Ecuador before coming to Bolivia, and will transfer to Paraguay Friday afternoon.

The Pope was greeted by Archbishop Jesús Juárez Párraga of Sucre, head of prison chaplaincy in the country. He reflected that in prisoners “we feel the contradictory sign of being victims and perpetrators, evidence of a society which produces poverty, inequality, and violence … and an incoherence between the great guarantees of rights and the administration of justice, which in fact flagrantly wounds rights.”

Noting the more than 300 percent overcrowding in Bolivian prisons, Archbishop Juárez said that 84 percent of Bolivian detainees do not even have a set trial date. These figures, he charged, “call into question the ends of justice and of the prison system.”

Indeed, most of the prisoners in Palmasola have not been convicted, and are merely awaiting trial in the gridlocked and corrupt Bolivian justice system, and some are detained over unpaid debts. Transparency International gave Bolivia a score of 35 out of 100 for perceived public sector corruption in 2014 – on par with Mexico, slightly less corrupt than China, and slightly more corrupt than Argentina.

In the face of this, Archbishop Juárez said that “far from condemnation and finding fault, dear Vicar of Christ, we wish to unite our hearts and efforts with public authorities and civil society institutions, to seek together economic and structural solutions to the problems of justice in general and of penal justice in particular.”

The archbishop’s address was followed by the testimony of three detainees, each of whom related part of their life, and their experience at Palmasola, including the long waits for trial, overcrowding, and corruption.

Beginning his address, Pope Francis told the inmates: “I could not leave Bolivia without seeing you, without sharing the faith and hope which are the fruit of the love revealed on the cross of Christ.”

“Thank you for welcoming me; I know that you have prepared yourselves for this moment and that you have been praying for me. I am deeply grateful for this.”

“Jesus came to show the love which God has for us. For you, you, you, and for me,” he said, explaining that this love is both powerful and real, and takes seriously the plight of those whom the Lord loves.

This love is also something that heals, forgives and raises up, and is close to us and restores our dignity, the Pope continued, adding, “we can lose this dignity in so many ways. But Jesus is stubborn: he gave his very life to restore the identity we had lost.”

One reflection he said could help in understanding this is the fact that Christ’s disciples, Saints Peter and Paul, were also prisoners.

“They too lost their freedom. But there was something that sustained them, something that did not let them yield to despair, that experience of darkness and meaninglessness.” That something, he said, “was prayer, both individually and with others.”

Praying for themselves and others became a network that helped maintain hope and kept them from falling into despair. It encourages us to keep going forward, Francis observed.

Once Christ becomes a part of our lives, we can no longer be prisoners of our past, but instead “we begin look to the present, and we see it differently, with a different kind of hope. We begin to see ourselves and our lives in a different light” and are able to make a new start.

He encouraged the inmates to look at the Crucified Christ whenever they feel sad, depressed, or negative.

“Look at his face. He sees us; in his eyes there is a place for us. We can all bring to Christ our wounds, our pain, our sins,” he said.

“In his wounds, there is a place for our own wounds. There they can be soothed, washed clean, changed and healed. He died for us, for me, so that he could stretch out his hand and lift us up.”

He urged the inmates to spend time talking with the priests who minister at the prison: “Jesus wants to help you get up, always.”

Francis then noted that being “shut in” is not the same thing as being “shut out,” and explained that detention is merely a process of reintegration into society.

“I know that there are many things here that make it hard: overcrowding, justice delayed, a lack of training opportunities and rehabilitation policies, violence,” he said, calling for a quicker and more efficient cooperation among institutions in finding solutions.

However, despite these challenges he said they shouldn’t think that all is lost, because there are things they can still do today.

The way they live together in the center “depends to some extent on yourselves,” the Pope said, noting that at times suffering and deprivation “can make us selfish of heart and lead to confrontation.”

“But we also have the capacity to make these things an opportunity for genuine fraternity. Help one another. Do not be afraid to help one another,” he said. “The devil is looking for rivalry, division, gangs. Keep working to make progress.”

Before asking the prisoners to pray together in silence for few moments, Pope Francis extended his greeting to their families: “I would ask you to take my greetings to your families. Their presence and support are so important! Grandparents, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, couples, children: all of them remind us that life is worth living and that we should keep fighting for a better world.”

Pope Francis also greeted those who work at Palmasola prison, saying they have “an important responsibility for facilitating the process of reintegration. It is their responsibility to raise up, not to put down, to restore dignity and not to humiliate; to encourage and not to inflict hardship. This means putting aside a mentality which sees people as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but instead tries to focus on helping others. This will help to create better conditions for everyone. It will give dignity, provide motivation, and make us all better people.”

He concluded by leading everyone in an extended moment of silent prayer, and then asking the inmates to continue praying for him, “because I too have my mistakes and I too must do penance.”

Following his comments, the detainees gave Pope Francis a hammock, a painting, a wooden carving of the Last Supper, and a T-shirt.

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VATICAN NEWS

Burger King turned into sacristy for Pope’s outdoor Mass in Bolivia

by CNA/EWTN News • July 10, 2015

Pope Francis on the streets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia on July 10, 2015. (Leila Mendoza via WhatsApp)

Santa Cruz, Bolivia — The organizers for Pope Francis’ visit to Bolivia made use of a local Burger King as a sacristy for the Pope and the 60 bishops that participated in the only outdoor Mass held in the country.

The restaurant of the popular fast food chain is located adjacent to Christ the Redeemer Plaza in Santa Cruz.

Organizers asked the company if they could use one of their locations near the altar that was set up in the plaza. An estimated million people attended the July 9 ceremony.

“We were proud to provide one of our restaurants. In the next few months we’re going to put up a commemorative plaque there. This is an historical event,” Alfredo Troche told La Nación newspaper. Troche serves as general manager of Bolivian Foods, the business that holds the franchise for the country.

Yesterday a group of employees covered up the overhead price list and hamburger promotions with white canvas to adapt the restaurant to the subdued atmosphere required by the ceremony. They also hung up curtains in all of the restaurant windows.

Bolivia is the second of three stops on the Pope’s trip to South America. He visited Ecuador July 5-8 and will spend a few days in Bolivia before heading to Paraguay on July 10 to finish his visit.

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VATICAN NEWS

Francis lauds strength of Paraguay women amid nation’s bloody history

by CNA/EWTN News • July 10, 2015

Pope Francis at the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 20, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Asunción, Paraguay — Arriving in Paraguay on Friday, Pope Francis recognized the particular contribution of women in the nation’s warn-torn past.

The Pope said that he would “like to acknowledge with profound admiration the role played by the women of Paraguay in those dramatic historical moments.”

“As mothers, wives and widows, they shouldered the heaviest burdens; they found a way to move their families and their country forward, instilling in new generations the hope of a better tomorrow.”

Women played a key role in rebuilding society after the Paraguayan War, which lasted from 1864-1870, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 60-70 percent of the overall population, and 70-90 percent of the male population, leaving a 4-to-1 ratio of women to men.

Francis spoke of the suffering of the nation, through war, fratricidal conflict and other human rights problems.

“Yet the Paraguayan people have also shown an admirable spirit of perseverance in surmounting adversities and in working to build a prosperous and peaceful nation,” he continued.

“I wish to pay tribute to the many ordinary Paraguayan people, whose names are not written in history books but who have been, and continue to be, the real protagonists in the life of your nation.”

The Pope’s remarks came July 10, in an address to Paraguayan leaders in the gardens of the Presidential Palace in the capital of Asuncion. The Pope pledged the Church’s support for building a just society “where each person can live in peace and harmony.”

Paraguay is the final country of Pope Francis’ July 5-July 12 Latin America visit. He previously stopped in Ecuador and Bolivia.

Noting the country’s reputation for hospitality and friendliness, the pontiff invited those present to promote the common good, five priority to the poor and needy, and follow Christ on the “path of mercy.”

“Our sure faith in God, who willed to become man, to live among us and to share our lot, urges us to press forward,” he said.

“Christ opens up to us the path of mercy, which, founded on justice, goes beyond it to inspire works of charity, so that no one will remain on the fringes of this great family which is Paraguay, a land you love and which you wish to serve.”

The Pope encouraged Paraguayans to work against homelessness and the displacement of farm workers, and to address and a lack of education and employment.

“May there be an end to violence, corruption and drug trafficking,” he said. He encouraged authentic economic development that serves human dignity and especially the most vulnerable.

“A people which forgets its own past, its history and its roots, has no future,” the Pope continued. At the same time, he called for a memory of the past that is based on justice and that rejects hatred and desire for revenge. Memory of the past also “makes us realize the tragedy and pointlessness of war.”

“Let there be an end to wars between brothers! Let us always build peace!” Pope Francis said.

He praised progress towards democracy and encouraged continued work to strengthen the country’s institutions.

He said there is a need to reaffirm dialogue as the best means of promoting the common good. The common good must be promoted “on the basis of a culture of encounter, respect and acknowledgment of the legitimate differences and opinions of others.”

To overcome “a spirit of constant conflict,” Pope Francis encouraged Paraguay’s leaders to blend their ideological convictions or party interest with “love of the country and its people.”

“That love must be the incentive to increased administrative transparency and unceasing efforts to combat corruption,” he said.

He prayed for God’s blessings on Paraguay and asked that all Paraguayans might embrace Our Lady of Caacupe, a subject of popular Marian devotion in the country.

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WORLD NEWS

Pakistani police save Christian couple from ‘anti-blasphemy’ mob attack

by CNA/EWTN News • July 6, 2015

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

Lahore, Pakistan — Police last week saved a Christian couple from a mob in Pakistan that attempted to kill them for allegedly committing blasphemy, the latest such violent incident in the country.

“Muslims of the town gathered there and dragged the poor couple who didn’t know what they had done. They were being beaten to death,” local police chief Sohail Zafar Chattha said, according to Agence France Presse.

The attack took place in the village of Makki in Punjab province June 30.

The couple, who are both illiterate, used as a sleeping mat an advertisement awning that bore college slogans. These slogans allegedly included Arabic inscriptions from the Quran. A local barber and two clerics accused the couple of committing blasphemy, and a mob gathered in an attempt to lynch them.

After the couple was rescued from the mob, the two were moved to Lahore and placed with a Christian community.

One of the clerics has been arrested. Some residents told police that the barber may have been interested in acquiring the accused couple’s house, Agence France Presse reports.

Christian human rights lawyer Nadeem Anthony praised the police intervention, saying continued enforcement would discourage “the elements who take the law into their own hands.”

The Legal Evangelical Association Department, an interdenominational Pakistan-based Christian human rights NGO, on July 2 described Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws as “continually misused” against “the poor and defenseless Christians of Pakistan.”

Blasphemy accusations have prompted several other violent incidents.

Over 100 people have been charged for the November 2014 murders of a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan, a city nearly 40 miles southwest of Lahore. The couple were accused of desecrating the Quran and angry villagers detained them at the brick kiln where they worked. The villagers reportedly told them to convert to Islam to make amends for their alleged crime. The couple were killed and their burned bodies were discovered in the kiln. Reports differed over whether they had been burned alive.

In Lahore in May a mob attempted to attack a young mentally ill Christian man following claims he burned newspapers with pages containing verses of the Koran. Police protected him, but the mob then attacked Christian homes and places of worship, including a church.

Pakistan’s state religion is Islam, and around 97 percent of the population is Muslim. The nation has adopted blasphemy laws which impose strict punishment on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad.

The blasphemy laws are said to be often used to settle scores or to persecute religious minorities; while non-Muslims constitute only 3 percent of the Pakistani population, 14 percent of blasphemy cases have been levied against them.

Many of those accused of blasphemy are murdered, and advocates of changing the law are also targeted by violence.

In 2011 the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim critic of the blasphemy laws, was assassinated. Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic and the only Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet, was also assassinated the same year by militant supporters of the blasphemy laws.

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WORLD NEWS

Franciscans asks prayers for kidnapped priest in Syria

by CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2015

A bullet-riddent bust of St. Ephrem in the remains of St. Mary’s Syrian Orthodox parish in Homs. (Aid to the Church in Need.)

Latakia, Syria — The organizations of Franciscan missionaries serving in the Holy Land have requested prayers for the safe return of Father Dhiya Aziz, who was abducted by militants in Syria on Saturday.

The Custody of the Holy Land have stated that they lost contact with Fr. Aziz on July 4. He is a Franciscan priest of the organization, and was parish priest at Yacubiyeh, a village in Syria’s Idlib province, more than 56 miles northeast of Latakia.

“Some militants of an unknown armed brigade, perhaps connected with Jahbat al-Nusra, came to take him away for a brief interview with the Emir of the place. From that moment we do not have any more news and we are unable to trace his where abouts at the present moment,” the custody said in a July 6 communique.

“We are doing everything possible to locate the place of his detention and secure his release. We entrust him to the prayers of all.”

According to the custody, Fr. Aziz was born in Mosul, Iraq, in 1974. He studied medicine, and then entered religious life, making a first profession of vows in 2002. The following year he was transferred to Egypt, and in 2010 to Jordan. Fr. Aziz was later moved to Latakia, and he then volunteered to come to Yacubiyeh, a predominantly Christian village.

Fr. Aziz’ kidnapping is the latest in a series of attacks on Christian religious since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

In 2013, militants kidnapped a group of Greek Orthodox nuns, Fr. Paolo Dall’Oglio, S.J., and the Greek and Syriac Orthodox bishops of Aleppo. The nuns were eventually returned to their convent unharmed, but Fr. Dall’Oglio and the bishops remain missing.

In 2014, Dutch priest Fr. Frans van der Lugt, S.J., was murdered in Homs. The priest served in Syria for more than four decades. He was involved in interreligious dialogue and had built as spirituality center that housed children with mental disabilities.

The same year, another Franciscan priest, Fr. Hanna Jallouf, was kidnapped together with as many as 20 people from his parish in Qunaya, a neighboring village of Yacubiyeh – the two are less than a mile apart.

In February, the Islamic State kidnapped at least ninety Christians from villages in northeast Syria.

And in May, Fr. Jacques Mourad was kidnapped at gunpoint from a monastery southeast of Homs.

The Syrian civil war began in March 2011 with demonstrations against the nation’s president, Bashar al-Assad. The war has claimed the lives of more than 220,000 people, and forced 3.9 million to become refugees. Another 8 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the violence.

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WORLD NEWS

The man who put Laudato Si into practice in Ecuador – 40 years ago

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

Pope Francis celebrates Mass at Guayaquil in Ecuador on July 6, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Quito, Ecuador — Among the members of civil society Pope Francis met with in Quito was an Italian who helped build a banking system to aid the poor in rising from poverty, anticipating in practice what Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ stressed this year.

A Salesian, Giuseppe Tonello, better known as Bepi Tonello, went to Ecuador in 1970, following the request of his superiors to go on mission in that land. He arrived at Salinas in 1971, in his words, “the poorest village of the poorest region of the country. The infant mortality rate was very high, and just a few adult people were able to write and read.”

Responding to Bl. Paul VI’s social encyclical “Populorum Progressio” – which asked for the creation of a fund to assist the poorest – Bepi Tonello and a group of other missionaries gave birth to the Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio, known as the Fepp.

The fund started with a deposit of 2,000 dollars, delivered to the poorest to let them buy tools or land so that they could work. Now, the Fepp boasts some 115 million dollars.

In 1998, the Ecuadorian banking system was on the verge of collapse due to a deep economic crisis. To face the crisis, the Fepp gave rise to the Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito Desarrolo de los Pueblos – Codesarollo.

Codesarollo is a Christian-inspired financial institute which supports the local and integral development of the marginalized people in Ecuador. Support to marginalized people is given through quality banking products and services, in order to strengthen cooperatives.

In 2002, Codesarollo started a cooperation with the Italian Bank for Cooperative Credit. According to the Italian bank data, more than 12,000 women got some 45 million dollars in loans, thus supporting the building of more than 2,000 new houses and the renovation of 1,800 houses.

In the end, 220 branches of the Bank for Cooperative Credit were involved in the initiative, with a 50 million dollar ceiling put at disposal of banCodesarollo, of which more than 20,000 families of ‘campesinos’ took advantage.

The loans also facilitated the purchase of 5,400 hectares of land, for a total value estimated of 12 million dollars.

Fepp supported the initiative with 5 million dollars for soft loans, which helped to build rural banks in villages, to purchase Codesarollo stocks and to reinforce enterprise as part of the social group Ecuadorian Fund Populorum Progressio.

All of these initiatives had the ultimate goal of promoting social inclusion, supporting environmental sustainability, and fostering economic participation and solidarity.

These notions are also part of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical ‘Laudato Si,’ which stressed that “new forms of cooperation and community organization can be encouraged in order to defend the interests of small producers and preserve local ecosystems from destruction. Truly, much can be done!”

According to a Vatican source, the Secretariat of State asked for notes about the Codesarollo history and experience, with the intention of mentioning it in some of the papal speeches.

While no specific mention to the Codesarollo experience has been made, the very presence of Bepi Tonello among the members of the Ecuadorian civil society is an acknowledgement of his work throughout the years.

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WORLD NEWS

Australia’s bishops reaffirm marriage – and get reported to government

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

(St. Anthony Communications)

Hobart, Tasmania — In a recent pastoral letter on marriage, Australia’s Catholic bishops reaffirmed Catholic teaching. And one of the bishops has countered a leading same-sex marriage activist who said the pastoral letter should be reported to the Tasmanian government for illegal bias.

“The Catholic Church in Tasmania is exercising its right to freedom of opinion, just as opponents to the Church’s views on marriage are also exercising their rights,” Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart said, according to the Catholic Leader newspaper.

His comments concern the booklet “Don’t Mess with Marriage,” a pastoral letter the Australian bishops’ conference released May 28. He said the booklet “explains the meaning of marriage enshrined in our laws from a religious perspective.”

Australian political leaders are considering whether to define marriage in law to recognize same-sex unions as civil marriages.

“A document defending the current law in our nation could hardly be called discrimination,” Archbishop Porteous said.

“We are being asked to abandon the plan of God for marriage and family (and) this would be a disastrous step to take.”

The pastoral letter was sent home with students of Catholic high schools in several archdioceses, including Hobart. It stressed both respect for all and respect for the unique nature of marriage as a union of man and a woman.

Randy Croome, national director of the gay marriage advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality, claimed the booklet is illegal under the law of the Australian state of Tasmania. His group cited laws that bar offensive conduct, inciting hatred, and publishing notices that promote or express discrimination.

“The booklet likely breaches the Anti-Discrimination Act and I urge everyone who finds it offensive and inappropriate, including teachers, parents and students, to complain to the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner,” Croome said June 24.

A formal complaint against the archbishop has been filed with the commissioner, according to the newspaper The Australian.

Lyle Shelton, a spokesman for the non-denominational group The Christian Lobby, said Croome’s effort was an “outrageous” attempt to “dictate what a private religious school can and cannot say about marriage.”

“Where have we come to as a society when the political activists for redefining marriage want to use the law to stop children in religious schools from being taught that religion’s teaching?” he said June 25.

“If a family sends their child to a Christian school they should not be surprised if their children are taught the faith and morals of the school’s religious identity.”

Australian Marriage Equality has attracted powerful allies in its push to redefine marriage. These include major businesses such as Google. Polls indicate a majority of Australians at present support redefining marriage.

Croome claimed that the distribution of the pastoral letter to the Catholic school students was “completely inappropriate,” and that the Catholic Church had enlisted young people “as the couriers of its prejudice.”

He said that the booklet harms homosexual students, and that he had received several complaints from Catholic school teachers about the booklet distribution.

“Any principal or teacher who exposes vulnerable children to such damaging messages not only violates their duty of care, but is a danger to students,” Croome stated.

Archbishop Porteous said many parishioners and Catholic parents have spoken positively about the pastoral letter, and that the pastoral letter respects diversity and “does not advocate hatred or vilification of people with a same sex attraction.”

Anthony Cleary, a religious education and evangelization official in the Sydney archdiocese, said positive comments outnumbered negative complaints “about two or three to one.” He noted that other information often goes home with students.

“Also we see schools as part of the evangelizing mission of the Church, not apart from it,” he told the Catholic Leader. He said advocacy of marriage redefinition is “saturating mainstream and social media.”

“There is very little given to the opposing viewpoint,” he said.

The pastoral letter itself rejected claims that Australian law and Catholic teaching on marriage wrongly discriminate.

“If marriage is an institution designed to support people of the opposite sex to be faithful to each other and to the children of their union it is not discrimination to reserve it to them,” the bishops wrote. They compared marriage to programs that specially target Aborigines, refugees, children, athletes, and those with disabilities.

To redefine marriage would be “a serious injustice” that undermines the common good, the pastoral letter notes, saying that redefining marriage would “legitimize the false assertion that there is nothing distinctive about a man and a mother and a father”; it would ignore the importance for a child to have both a mother and a father; and it would further destabilize the place of marriage in society.

“We all know and love people with same-sex attraction,” the booklet said. “They need love and support like anyone else. But pretending that their relationships are ‘marriages’ is not fair or just to them.”

“As Christians we must be willing to present the truth about marriage, family and sexuality and to do so charitably and lovingly.”

CNA contacted the Archdiocese of Hobart for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.

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WORLD NEWS

Ecuador is ‘a Church on the move’

by Marta Jimenez (CNA/EWTN News) • July 8, 2015

Flags of Pope Francis wave at the Papal Mass at Bicentennial Park in Quito, Ecuador on July 7, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Quito, Ecuador — Everyone at the Vatican is praying for the fruits of the Pope’s apostolic visit to Latin America, but there is one person with a special insight into the papal trip.

Sister Andrea Romero Saltos is an Idente Missionary and the only Ecuadorian woman working at the Holy See.

“I’m really happy … Yesterday we saw him arrive (in Ecuador) and I felt a lot of joy and a lot of hope, because the visit of the Holy Father is truly the hope of the Gospel … I know it’s going to be a grace for every person, for homes, for families,” Sister Romero told CNA July 6.

Speaking from the Vatican, where she serves as an official on the Pontifical Council for Latin America, she called on people to open their hearts and doors to those outside the Church, “because the Pope as the Vicar of Christ is going through this life with the intention of doing good and embracing everyone with the love of the Father.”

Ecuador is the first Latin American country the Holy Father is visiting on his June 5-13 apostolic trip. For Sister Romero, this is no coincidence, but a message of hope.

Ecuador could probably be considered the outskirts of the world, she said. With this visit, the Pope is “calling on us to go out to the outskirts, not just geographically, but the fringes of society where people live.”

“In a certain way, I’d say it’s a small country, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Pope Francis would have decided to begin his first apostolic trip to the Americas in Ecuador. It’s a beautiful sign, calling on every one to come out, to come and embrace all of humanity coming from these outskirts, their pain and their suffering,” she said.

Sister Romero said she is “very happy” to know that so many people struggling with life’s difficulties can receive the grace and lasting joy that the Pope is brining.

“This is the joy that lasts forever and ever, not the joys of this world, but as the Holy Father says, this is the joy of the Gospel, the joy that you’ve found Christ in your life, the joy that gives your life a horizon, a greater dimension,” she added.

Ecuador, the missionary sister continued, is a Catholic country, a religious people that every day strives to strengthen and renew its faith.

“It’s a Church on the move, in mission, with the desire to live in communion with the Pope, and to show it. I think that like the whole Latin American Church … Ecuador wants to truly live out the mission for the entire continent, in which all Christians and all Catholics might live by the grace received in Baptism.”

“We’re all called to be missionaries and to bear witness to our faith in our daily lives, it’s a challenge to live a life of holiness and mission in our day to day lives. I think it’s a Church that is on the journey, growing, and more and more missionary.”

On July 6, his first day in Ecuador, Pope Francis has already visited the Divine Mercy Shrine in Guayaquil.

“The Holy Father carefully selects concrete signs … I think it’s a preamble to the Jubilee Year of Mercy that we’ll begin at the end of the year. He said it: ‘I’m coming with this embrace of the Father.’ It’s like the open doors of mercy where we can all enter in. I believe the Pope is visiting this shrine to place before us this external sign so we can bring everyone to discover this merciful embrace of our heavenly Father,” Sister Romero said.

Also commenting on the Pope’s visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Quinche, the patroness of Ecuador, the religious sister said, “the Ecuadorian people are very Marian. There’s a great devotion, love and confidence in the Virgin Mary’s help, and the Holy Father wanted to come visit her.”

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WORLD NEWS

Spanish court recognizes pharmacists’ conscience rights

by CNA/EWTN News • July 8, 2015

(Michal Jarmoluk via Pixabay CC0)

Madrid, Spain — Spain’s Constitutional Court has issued a ruling protecting the conscience rights of pharmacists who decline to sell the morning after pill on the basis of religious belief or other conscientious objection.

The court’s finding was based on freedoms of religion and conscience found in article 16 of the Spanish constitution.

The decision concerned the case of a pharmacist in Seville who was sanctioned with a 3,000 euro ($3,300) fine by the city council of Andalusia because he decided to not sell the potentially abortion-inducing morning after pill, though local laws obliged him to do so.

In the court’s judgment, the imposed sanction infringed on his right to conscientious objection.

Nevertheless, the judges rejected the pharmacist’s decision to not sell condoms, since in their opinion in this case, there is “no conflict of conscience relevant to the constitution.”

José Antonio Díez, general coordinator for the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Conscience, described the decision as “historic and pioneering not only in Spain, but in all of Europe.”

The Professionals for Ethics association of Spain said the decision puts an end to a situation of ambiguity in the law by which the freedom of conscience of those professionals was not sufficiently safeguarded.

As for the pharmacist’s alleged non-compliance to have the morning after pill available at his store, the Spanish daily ABC reported that the judges did not consider the decision to put at risk a woman’s right “to access contraceptive medicines authorized by the current legal system.” Nor was a woman’s access to the pill prevented, because the pharmacy is located downtown and she could go to another one.

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WORLD NEWS

Despite terror attack, Christians in Tunisia have reasons to remain hopeful

by Oliver Maksan (Aid to the Church in Need) • July 9, 2015

Father Sergio Perez baptizes a young boy at Tunis’ Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul. (Fr. Silvio Moreno/Aid to the Church in Need)

Tunis, Tunisia — In the wake of a June 26 terrorist attack on tourists in Tunisia which killed 38 people, one of the country’s leading Catholic priests insisted that the majority of Tunisians are not extremists.

”The government also does not want an Islamic sharia state – on the contrary,” said Father Sergio Perez, who is in charge of St. Vincent de Paul Cathedral in the capital city of Tunis, in an interview with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

“I believe that this is the very reason why the jihadists want to hurt Tunisia, a country that, despite many restrictions, is well on its way to democracy and stability,” said the Argentine priest who is a member of the Institute of the Incarnate Word.

“In all likelihood, they do not want other Arab countries to see a model that is working. This goal can best be achieved by striking there where the Tunisian economy is at its most vulnerable: tourism,” he said, noting that the attack has sent tourists fleeing the country, which “will have serious consequences for the country’s economy, which is already suffering.”

“The Christians of Tunisia are of course shocked by the massacre. Some are also afraid. However, I trust in the authorities. They now want to keep the cathedral or the bishop from becoming the target of a jihadist attack at all costs. Such an attack would be devastating for the reputation of the country. This is why they have taken all the necessary security measures.”

A terror attack at the Bardo Museum last March, which killed 20 people, had already triggered increased the vigilance of authorities in the capital. Some 80 mosques whose preachers were calling for violence have been closed.

Catholics form the largest single Christian group in Tunisia. There are Protestant and Orthodox communities as well. In all, there are an estimated 25,000 Christians in a population of 11 million.

“It is true that the Catholic Church in Tunisia is mostly comprised of foreigners. However, the Church feels as though it is part of the history and future of this country,” the priest said.

The Church – whose schools and hospitals are held in high esteem in Tunisian society – has legal status in the country. But there are significant restrictions in that “active proselytism” is not allowed; but “we can carry out our Church mission,” said Father Perez, adding that “the political transition after the fall of the dictatorship largely went according to plan. The new constitution not only guarantees freedom of worship – it also provides for complete freedom of conscience.”

“However, theory is one thing, practice is another. A Muslim who shows an interest in Christianity is placed under strong social pressure. Even so, time and again a number of Tunisian Muslims dare to take this step and take part in our prayers and charitable works.”

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

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U.S. NEWS

Rebuilt from the ashes: The story of an American basilica

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • July 4, 2015

A crucifix at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. (Nheyob via Wikimedia Commons)

Norfolk, VA — An immigrant parish, burnt down, with only the crucifix remaining. A parish rebuilt, transformed and a key part in giving back to the community. In a sense, one parish’s story of struggle, pressure and rebirth is metaphor for the American Catholic experience.

St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Norfolk, Virginia, is the only black Catholic church in the United States that is also a basilica. Its dramatic history captures both the broader American Catholic history of persecution, growth and acceptance, but also a witness to the unique challenges faced by black Catholics over the centuries.

Founded originally as St. Patrick’s Parish in 1791, it is the oldest Catholic parish in the Diocese of Richmond, predating the foundation of the diocese by nearly 30 years.

“Catholicism was not legal to practice” in Virginia when the colony was founded, said Fr. Jim Curran, rector of the basilica. In much of Colonial America, before the Revolution and the signing of the Bill of Rights, churches that were not approved by the government were prohibited from operating, he told CNA.

The land originally bought in 1794 for the parish is the same ground on which the basilica today stands. From the beginning, according to the parish’s history, Catholics from all backgrounds worshiped together: Irish and German immigrants, free black persons and slaves.

However, by the 1850s, the parish’s immigrant background and mixed-race parish drew the ire of a prominent anti-Catholic movement: the Know-Nothings.

Largely concentrated in northeastern states where the immigrant influx was greatest, the movement rose and fell quickly. Concerned with maintaining the Protestant “purity of the nation,” it worked to prevent immigrants – many of whom were Catholic – from gaining the right to vote, becoming citizens, or taking elected office.

“I consider the Know-Nothings to be a sort of gatekeeper organization, by which I mean that they were both anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic at the same time,” said Fr. Davis Endres, an assistant professor of Church History and Historical Theology at the Athenaeum of Ohio.

He told CNA that the Know-Nothing Party was able to bring together both pro- and anti-slavery voters in the mid-1800s, united in the common “dislike of foreign-born and Catholics.”

While most anti-Catholic activities took the form of defamatory speeches and public discrimination, the prejudice sometimes turned to violence and mob action, Fr. Endres explained.

The anti-Catholic discrimination and threats found their way to St. Patrick’s doorstep, where the Know-Nothings were unhappy that the pastor was allowing racial integrated Masses, said Fr. Curran.

The pastor at that time, Fr. Matthew O’Keefe, received so many threats directed against the Church and himself that police protection was required to stop the intimidation of the Catholics worshiping at the church, according to the locals.

Despite the threats, however, Fr. O’Keefe did not segregate the Masses. In 1856, the original church building burned down, leaving only three walls standing. Only a wooden crucifix was left unscathed.

More than 150 years later, it is still unclear exactly who or what caused the fire, but since the days following the blaze, parishioners have had their suspicions.

“We don’t know for sure if they were the ones who burned it, but it’s widely believed, it’s a commonly held notion that it’s the Know-Nothings who burnt the Church,” Fr. Curran said.

Fr. O’Keefe and the parishioners worked hard to rebuild the church, seeking donations from Catholics along the East Coast. A new church building was constructed less than three years after the fire and is still standing today.

After the church was rebuilt, the parish renamed itself in 1858 in honor of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854. It claims to be the first church in the world named for Mary of the Immaculate Conception following the declaration.

In 1889, the Josephites built Saint Joseph’s Black Catholic parish to serve the needs of the black Catholic community, and the two parishes operated separately within several blocks of one another. However, in 1961, St. Joseph’s was demolished to make way for new construction, and the two parishes were joined, reintegrating – at least in theory – St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.

But the merger was not popular with many of the white parishioners and conflicted with the segregation policies of local government institutions and public life, Fr. Curran said. “St Mary’s became a de facto black parish.”

During this demographic shift, many parishioners of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception had to draw deeply upon their faith. Black Catholics had to be stalwart, facing prejudice from both some white parishioners, who did not view them as fully Catholic, and some black Protestants, who did not support their religious beliefs.

“They were devoted, and still are,” the rector said. “You have to be very devoted to be a Black Catholic.”

This devotion and witness of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception was formally celebrated when, in 1991, Saint Pope John Paul II elevated the 200-year-old church to a minor basilica.

“Your black cultural heritage enriches the Church and makes her witness of universality more complete. In a real way the Church needs you, just as you need the Church, for you are a part of the Church and the Church is part of you,” Pope Saint John Paul II proclaimed at the elevation.

Today, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception plays a vital role not only as the only Catholic basilica in Virginia, but also as an important anchor of the neighborhood. The basilica operates a “robust” set of outreach ministries to local families, including rent assistance and food aid, serving thousands of people.

“The Church standing proudly and beautiful in the midst of the poor is where we need to be,” Fr. Curran said.

He also pointed to the basilica’s history as an example of one way communities can aid churches affected by violence, such as the - such as the half dozen black churches across the South that have burned since late June.

“The reason why we were able to raise so much money so quickly was because there were so many people that were appalled at the burning of St. Patrick’s,” the rector said.

Tragic events like the burning of a church can actually help bring people together in a common cause, he continued.

“It unites people of faith. If people of faith who are appalled by this stand up and assist and let our voices be heard, we can do something wonderful.”

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Want to put the Pope’s encyclical into practice? Protect religious freedom, archbishop says

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

U.S. flag at Carpenteria State Beach, California. (Jeff Turner via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Religious freedom is absolutely necessary to implement the teachings of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical Laudato Si, said the U.S. bishops’ domestic justice spokesman on Independence Day.

The Pope’s recent encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, demands that Catholics “engage the world and witness to our teachings,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said in a homily for the closing Mass of the Fortnight for Freedom on July 4. However, he added, this public action can only be accomplished with true religious freedom.

“Religious freedom is the human right that guarantees all other rights – peace and creative living together will only be possible if freedom of religion is fully respected,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Wenski is the chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. He gave the homily at the July 4 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. More than 1,000 people were estimated to be in attendance.

The Fortnight for Freedom is an initiative started by the U.S. bishops in 2012 to educate Catholics about the importance of religious liberty and to bring awareness to current threats to the practice of religion in the U.S.

The first fortnight was held amidst deep concerns about the state of religious freedom relating to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Other concerns since then have included small business owners being forced to serve same-sex weddings against their religious beliefs, adoption agencies having to close rather than place children with same-sex couples, and churches being prevented by states from ministering to undocumented immigrants.

More recently, the bishops expressed serious concerns about the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.

The majority opinion in Obergefell did not guarantee sufficient protections for the religious liberty of persons and organizations who believe marriage to be the union of one man and one woman, said Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore in a June 26 conference call with reporters following the decision. Archbishop Lori chairs the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

The theme of the 2015 Fortnight for Freedom was “Freedom to Bear Witness.” Archbishop Lori explained in his homily at the opening Mass for the fortnight, that “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.”

One of the key threats to religious freedom in Western countries is the privatization of religion, Archbishop Wenski said in his homily for the closing Mass, because religion is inherently public in practice.

In Western countries, “we see the courts chipping away at the original understanding of religious freedom,” he said. “In order to fit new political agendas, religious freedom is being reinterpreted narrowly to mean merely ‘freedom to worship’ but excluding the freedom to serve and the freedom to witness.”

This is already manifested in a “soft despotism,” he explained, where “ridicule, ostracism, and denial of employment opportunities of advancement are being used to marginalize us.”

“We see this when butchers, and bakers and candlestick makers are being put into the legal dock for refusing to renounce their religious beliefs,” he added. For example, Christian owners of an Oregon bakery have been forced by the state to pay a lesbian couple $135,000 in damages for refusing to serve their same-sex wedding.

In addition, the owners were told not to publicly discuss their faith-based refusal to serve the wedding, as reported by the Daily Signal.

The recent encyclical Laudato Si gives Catholics a mandate to practice their faith publicly, Archbishop Wenski said, by promoting an “integral ecology” of both care for the human person and for creation. Yet Catholics can only do this if their freedom to practice their religion publicly is protected, he added.

“An integral ecology demands that rain forests be protected – because of what they do potentially and actually for the flourishing of the human species on this earth,” the archbishop explained of the recent encyclical.

“Likewise, an integral ecology tells us that marriage, understood for millennia as a union of one man and one woman, ought to be respected and protected.”

If Catholic institutions that care for the environment and the human person are shut down because they cannot in good conscience comply with new laws and mandates, then Catholics cannot promote the common good of an “integral ecology.”

The Supreme Court’s recent redefinition of marriage has threatened this human ecology, he said, and the “radical autonomy” promoted by this decision was condemned in Laudato Si.

“Today, some hold for a radical autonomy by which truth is determined not by the nature of things but by one’s own individual will,” he said, stressing that the court’s redefinition of marriage does not change the nature of marriage no matter how much humans may desire to do so.

“As Pope Francis has written so eloquently in Laudato Si, such thinking has also brought about the degradation of both our natural and our human or social ecologies,” he continued.

Like freedom of speech, religion is expressed publicly and not just privately, Archbishop Wenski said.

Freedom of speech is expressed through public institutions like media outlets, political parties, and libraries, he said, and not only through one individual stating his opinion.

Similarly, religion is practiced publicly as well, not just through one’s personal beliefs but “those institutions that nourish the individual’s free exercise of religion,” he said. These institutions include not just churches but Catholic schools, hospitals, adoption agencies, and other charities and ministries.

Religious practice holds a proud tradition in the U.S., Archbishop Wenski added, especially when religious leaders marched at the forefront of the civil rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King as they pushed for equal rights for black people.

“Some today resent the public advocacy of religious people and communities. They accuse us of trying to impose our views on others,” Archbishop Wenski acknowledged.

“Yet, as St. John Paul II explained, the Church does not impose, she proposes. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his movement for racial justice could not impose their views on the American people. They understood this – and, for this reason, they opted for non-violence. But they made a proposition that touched the conscience of a nation.”

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A bloody secret still haunts the diamond industry

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • July 5, 2015

(Yang and Yun via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night by a dark figure in your room. He presses a gun to your head and demands that you get up. You and your family are dragged out of bed and led to a mining field, where you are forced to dig for hours on end.

They may be the proverbial “girl’s best friend,” but diamonds are far from friendly for many of those involved in the mining process.

With abuses ranging from forced labor to the funding of child soldiers, many diamonds still carry the shadow of blood and conflict, even decades after the first attempts to address some of the more troubling practices in getting the stones from their rocky deposits to a glittering setting.

What – if anything – can Catholics do to counter the immense human cost still attached to some of these gems?

Plenty, according to Max Torres, business professor and Director of the Management Department at The Catholic University of America.

“In this economy, the consumer is king,” he told CNA. “The day that consumers want to get worked up over diamonds, this will stop, whatever abuse it is we’re trying to eradicate, it will stop.”

While there are many steps in the process and levels of moral responsibility from consumers to the diamond exporters themselves, Torres maintained that ordinary people can still work to change large-scale moral problems in the industry.

“Do not underestimate the power of the consumer to move supply-chain decisions throughout the economy,” he stressed.

Clear stones; Blood-red controversies

Despite the 2006 hit film “Blood Diamond,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, many consumers are still unaware of the controversy surrounding the diamond industry. Meanwhile, the need for accountability and higher ethical standards is still sorely felt by many working to mine the precious gems.

In recent decades, the conversation surrounding diamond mining has focused on the so-called “blood diamonds” – those mined in conflict areas whose profits are used to fund the bloody war efforts. Also called “conflict diamonds,” these previous stones are most associated with the illicit industries backing of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Liberia.

These countries all now have, at least in theory, legitimate diamond mining industries subject to international standards.

The most well-known international standard, the Kimberley Process, was set up in 2003 following a United Nations resolution against the sale of blood diamonds, to ensure that any given shipment of diamonds does not finance rebel groups. Certified shipments of rough diamonds must be transported in tamper-resistant containers and must be accompanied by a government certificate verifying their compliance.

But many advocates say the process is inadequate at addressing the problems underlying the diamond industry. For starters, there is no guarantee beside the exporting government’s assurance that a given shipment of diamonds is, in fact, conflict-free. Issues of corruption and bribery surrounding some governments’ certification, and a lack of transparency has led some key groups to pull out of the process altogether.

The 2003 National Geographic special “Diamonds of War” found that despite the early efforts of the Kimberley Process to regulate the industry, illegal transactions at the time were still rampant in some areas. A Sierra Leone official said that some 60 percent of the diamonds exported from the country were smuggled rather than going through officially regulated channels. One expert in the documentary estimated that 20-40 percent of the global rough diamond trade at the time was done illicitly.

Another complaint about the Kimberley Process is that while it works to combat funding of conflicts, it does not deal with other issues in the diamond industry, including forced labor and violence against workers, substandard and exploitative working conditions, the use of child labor and environmental concerns.

These problems show that the current definition of “conflict-free” is “far too limited in scope,” said Jaimie Herrmann, director of marketing for Brilliant Earth, a San Francisco-based jeweler that focuses specifically on providing ethically-sourced diamonds, gemstones and metals.

What the Kimberley Process “doesn’t include is human rights abuses, violence, sexual abuses, and severe environmental degradation, as well as corruption,” Herrmann continued.

“For that reason, we go above and beyond the Kimberley Process’s definition of conflict free,” she said. Brilliant Earth gets its diamonds from select sources in Canada, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Russia. “We feel like those diamonds really do go above and beyond that guarantee and they are untainted by human rights abuses.”

The chance to establish a legitimate and ethical source of diamonds has also been an economic opportunity for some countries. In Botsawna, the government and DeBeers diamond company each own half of the Debswana mining company, and the nation has seen a rapidly growing economy and increasing economic freedom thanks in part to its booming mining industry and trusted industry standards.

Canada too has invested heavily in its mining infrastructure and increased production, quickly becoming a key diamond-producing country since the discovery of large diamond deposits in the 1990s.

Synthetic diamonds too offer promise for more ethically-produced diamonds, though currently the lab-produced stones comprise only two percent of the diamond gemstone market, with the remainder of the synthetic stones used in industrial settings.

The Ethics of Luxury and Necessity

Dr. Christopher Brugger, professor of moral theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado, told CNA that in the diamond industry, as in any other work, Catholic social teaching instructs employers that “people come before profit.”

For businesses, he said, this means “pay employees a fair wage; respect the integrity of the marriages and families of employees; respect the faith of employees; permit labor to organize in socially constructive ways; work for fair access for all to goods and services necessary to living a dignified life.”

“Do producers who use their profits to fund conflicts or who use forced labor fulfill those duties?” he asked. “Emphatically no.”

Sustained abuses ranging from the funding of bloody conflicts to mining practices that exploit and demean workers not only fail to fulfill the moral duties of employers, Brugger said. The unjust practices also affirm that the high profits coupled with neglect for moral obligations have been “attracting scoundrels” to the industry.

But business leaders are not the only people with moral stakes in the diamond industry, he continued.

“It seems to me that morally conscientious people have an increasing responsibility to ‘shop ethically,’ i.e., to keep in mind where things come from, the conditions of those who supply things, the processes by which they are supplied,” Brugger suggested.

While it may not be possible to know the sourcing behind every product in every store, he said, it could be easier to find information on larger suppliers and specific industries.

Furthermore, he elaborated, there is a “greater responsibility on a person who is buying luxury items not to cooperate in the immoral actions of suppliers than there is on persons who are purchasing products for basic subsistence.”

“Ordinarily I do not need diamonds or chocolate,” Brugger said. “If we are dealing with luxuries, I think our obligations are still pretty strong to avoid purchasing from sources that do really bad things.”

“As one becomes aware of the ethical conditions surrounding an industry, one’s duty to factor that knowledge into one’s moral decision making becomes greater,” he added, noting that not everyone has the same access to the facts on abuses in a given industry.

“As knowledge of the ethical deficiencies become more widely known and the knowledge becomes easily available, our responsibility to use that knowledge in our shopping becomes greater,” he said. Knowledgeable customers should “inquire into the origins of the diamond they purchase; if shopkeepers are coy and not forthcoming about their sources, consumers ordinarily should look elsewhere.”

A Good Place to Start

Lack of information is “a big part of the problem,” according to Herrmann. She recommended that jewelers seek to trace the origin of their diamonds to countries and mines known for more ethical practices.

“Most jewelers know that their diamond is certified as conflict-free by the Kimberley Process, but do not know any more information about where their diamond is coming from,” she said.

Stephen Hilbert, a foreign policy adviser specializing in Africa and Global Development for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, seconded the suggestion that people looking at diamonds ask where they come from. He added that customers should also ask electronics dealers to check for conflict minerals, which face many of the same concerns as the diamond mining industry.

“Dealers may not be able to tell you whether their devices have been checked, but at least this raises the profile of the issue and this may trickle up,” he told CNA.

Consumer instance could be the force that leads to tighter standards and improved processes aimed at preventing abuse.

Still, Torres insisted, “no process is perfect.”

The Kimberley Process is a reputable starting point that could “be broadened and be brought more into line with human rights,” he said, and asking about the origin of diamonds “seems to be a rather painless method of at least garnering some amount of accountability.”

But in the end, the moral issues surrounding the industry are fundamentally a problem of human sin, which no process or regulations can erase.

“The only thing that can ensure moral behavior is the heart is human beings,” Torres said. Ultimately, “Jesus Christ is the answer.”

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Pope Francis goes to Washington (and will reach an even bigger crowd than planned)

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2015

Pope Francis at the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 24, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — The setting for Pope Francis’ address to Congress in September just grew by giant proportions as the public will be able to watch the telecast from outside the U.S. Capitol building.

Pope Francis also wishes to make a “brief appearance” on the West Front of the Capitol building after he addresses a joint meeting of Congress on September 24, House Speaker John Boehner’s office announced Wednesday morning.

The speech will be broadcast live to the public outside the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building, and an “inauguration-like setting” on the steps of the Capitol is planned for the event, the Washington Post reported.

The outdoor telecast will be a ticketed event open to the public. Tickets will be managed by the “Members of Congress and Officers of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Speaker Boehner’s office confirmed to CNA.

More information on how to procure tickets will be made available to the public on July 30.

In a press release Wednesday morning, Speaker Boehner’s office called the papal visit to Capitol Hill “unprecedented” and “a historic moment for the country.”

“We look forward to welcoming Pope Francis and Americans from all walks of life to our Capitol on September 24,” Speaker Boehner’s office said.

The address to Congress comes in the middle of Pope Francis’ whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C. from the evening of September 22 until September 24.

On the morning of September 23, he will visit President Obama at the White House with a welcoming ceremony for him on the South Lawn. Then he will meet with the U.S. Catholic bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in a prayer service.

Later in the afternoon at 4:15 p.m., he will celebrate the canonization Mass of Bl. Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. There are approximately 25,000 seats available for the ticketed mass, which will be celebrated in Spanish.

On the morning of September 24, Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress at 9:20 a.m. He will then visit St. Patrick Catholic Church in downtown Washington, D.C. and appear at Catholic Charities, D.C. for their weekly St. Maria’s Meals program for the homeless, before he departs D.C. for New York City, followed by Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families.

Speaker Boehner first extended the invite to Pope Francis in March of 2014. The Vatican accepted the invitation in February.

“It is with reverence and admiration that I have invited Pope Francis, as head of state of the Holy See and the first Pope to hail from the Americas, to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” Speaker Boehner stated in a formal invitation.

Both Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed their anticipation of the papal visit.

“Pope Francis has renewed the faith of Catholics worldwide and inspired a new generation of people, regardless of their religious affiliation, to be instruments of peace. In the spirit of the namesake of San Francisco, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis’ universal message of love and compassion speaks to millions around the world,” Rep. Pelosi stated.

“In a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another,” Speaker Boehner stated.

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What happens when clerks object to providing gay marriage licenses?

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2015

(Tekke via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0))

Washington, D.C. — After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, some county clerks have voiced religious objections to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Does legal protection for them exist?

“Frankly, there’s no reason why they [the clerks] should have to resign,” Ken Connelly, legal counsel for the group Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA.

This is assuming that should some clerks recuse themselves from issuing licenses on religious grounds, other clerks would be available to do so for same-sex couples, he said.

The Court’s recent decision in Obergefell v. Hodges ruled that all 50 states must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize such marriage licenses from other states.

However, some county clerks responsible for issuing the licenses have expressed religious objections to recognizing same-sex unions as marriage. What has happened to them? The results vary by case.

A whole clerk’s staff in Tennessee’s Decatur County resigned their positions for religious reasons rather than issue marriage licenses to which they object. The county clerk Gwen Pope had been serving since 2008 but resigned her position on July 5.

“I honestly believe God will take care of us,” she told the regional newspaper The Jackson Sun.

After the Obergefell decision, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, pledged to “do everything I can from this office to be a public voice” for clerks who are faced with fines and lawsuits because they cannot issue the licenses.

When Hood County clerk Katie Lang initially refused to issue same-sex licenses, one couple filed a lawsuit. The county eventually gave them their license, but they are continuing with the lawsuit until the clerk’s office agrees to grant licenses “to all couples, gay and straight, without delay,” and pay the attorney’s fees for the lawsuit, according to a statement from the couple’s attorney.

A clerk in Kentucky’s Boone County initially refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but relented three days after the Supreme Court decision.

The legal challenges for these clerks can come in a number of forms, noted Roger Severino, director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation.

Challenges vary by state. Clerks might face a direct lawsuit from a couple seeking a license. The couple might sue the state agency responsible for the licensing. Or a government agency might sanction the clerk for discrimination.

However, clerks are not required to resign or grant licenses in such cases, legal experts told CNA, because they do have legal avenues to defend themselves.

First, Connelly said, clerks could cite First Amendment protections of the free exercise of religion and of speech. And every state’s Constitution must contain protections similar to – and many are actually stronger than – those in the First Amendment.

If a government agency takes action against a clerk for refusing to issue a license, the clerk could invoke Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Severino added. Title VII says employers cannot discriminate against their employees on the basis of religion, race, or sex.

That law “requires reasonable accommodation of religious beliefs and exercise” on the part of the employer, he said, adding that the accommodation cannot by law “present an undue hardship on the agency.”

If a clerk invokes Title VII by informing his employer of his recusal on religious grounds, the employer can then find another employee to issue a marriage license.

The employer could also establish a system “behind the scenes” where certain license duties are given to certain employees. In this case, the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses would be a job only given to an employee agreeing to do so.

“So there are ways where religion can be accommodated, and there are no losers,” Severino said.

Of course, if an entire clerk office refuses to issue same-sex marriage licenses – like the Decatur County office in Tennessee – then this complicates an accommodation claim under Title VII, since no employee in the office would be available to issue a license to same-sex couples.

If Title VII is not a viable option for clerks, there are statutory protections in state law, a kind of “backstop to the First Amendment,” as Connelly put it. Some states have stronger religious freedom protections than others, he noted.

For instance, some states have a version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law prevents the government from putting a “substantial burden” upon a person’s free exercise of religion, except when it proves that the burden furthers a “compelling government interest” and that it is the “least restrictive means” of doing so.

For clerks, laws like this could enable them to refrain from issuing licenses without fearing adverse action by the government, Severino explained.

“And so long as the government can accommodate without any losers, it’s hard to see how a clerk would not win” in such a case, he added.

Some states are offering even more specified statutory protections. Whether more states will do so is uncertain.

“I think we need some new legal protections for county clerks,” said Dr. Chad Pecknold, a professor of theology and politics at The Catholic University of America.

“We need new legal protections now for people who have come to believe that this law is unjust.”

States will be reticent to offer these protections, Pecknold predicted.

“That is part of the tragedy of Obergefell, that the ruling was made in such a way that states should now have to scramble, actually, to provide new levels of protections. And many of them are not going to feel inclined to do so.”

North Carolina has stepped up to offer specific protections for county clerks, Severino pointed out.

After the state’s administrative office sent a letter out saying all the clerks had to provide same-sex marriage licenses or be fired and possibly face criminal charges, the state legislature took action.

They provided an “opt out” for clerks who recused themselves, on religious grounds, from issuing licenses. When the governor vetoed the bill, the legislature overrode the veto.

“We need states to actually step up and provide protections, to make sure that civil servants and their rights are also protected,” Severino said, adding of the North Carolina law, “I think it’s a great protection because there are no losers. Religious liberty wins, and no one is denied anything.”

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California legislature withdraws physician-assisted suicide bill

by J.D. Long-Garcia, Angelus News (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2015

California State Capitol building. (Wayne Hsieh via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Los Angeles, CA — The California state legislature has abandoned efforts to pass a measure that would legalize physician-assisted suicide – for now.

Sponsors of SB 128 said July 7 that they didn’t have the votes to pass the bill out of Assembly Health Committee. Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a broad coalition of disability rights groups, physicians, palliative and hospice care agencies as well as the California Catholic Conference, has strongly opposed the measure.

“We are very pleased at the outcome and grateful for the hard work done by the assembled coalition at Californians Against Assisted Suicide,” said Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference.

“The physicians, health care workers, disabled advocates, religious groups and others who came together to oppose the bill were key to the success of the campaign and we are proud to have played a role in that long-standing coalition,” he said.

Andrew Rivas, director of government and community relations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said Archbishop José H. Gomez’ letter to members of the state legislature changed a lot of minds.

“It was very pastoral and very compelling,” Rivas said of the letter.

“Death will always be a mystery and death will never be easy – for those who are dying or for those who love them. But we can make death less painful, less frightening and we can even make it a time of beauty, mercy and reconciliation,” the archbishop wrote.

“Once we start down this path – once we establish in law that some lives are not as valuable as others, not worth ‘paying for’ – there will be no turning back. The logic of doctor-assisted suicide does not stop with the terminally ill.”

Many faith leaders – including Bishop Charles E. Blake, the presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, a 6-million member, predominantly African-American denomination in the Pentecostal-Holiness tradition – rallied against SB 128.

Assisted suicide has been passed in three states: Oregon, Washington and Vermont. In 2015, assisted suicide legislation was defeated in several states, including Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado, Maine, Delaware and Nevada. Similar legislation is currently stalled in New York and New Jersey.

If the measure fails in January, Rivas expects it to come back as a voter initiative in 2016.

“It was pulled so that it wouldn’t lose,” he explained. “It will be back in January. We need to continue to educate people about what we know is bad for the poor and the community.”

This story was originally published at Angelus news, the Tidings online.

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Okla. ruling against 10 Commandment statue blasted as extreme, inconsistent

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

(Adam Dimmick via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Oklahoma City, OK — Responding to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling that a Ten Commandments monument on capitol grounds violates the state constitution, critics say that the decision is a legal outlier that ignores the commandments’ historic importance.

“It’s a really unusual decision. A lot of states have somewhat similar provisions, but to my knowledge all of them don’t interpret them in an extreme way,” said Jon Scruggs, legal counsel with the religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom. “I think it’s a misinterpretation of the Oklahoma constitution.”

The Oklahoma legislature’s involvement endorsed “the historical message of what the monument conveyed,” Scruggs told CNA July 8. “Throughout our history there have been religious people, religious ideas, religious principles, and it’s okay to acknowledge that.”

The Oklahoma City Supreme Court on June 30 ruled 7-2 that the 6-foot-tall granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the capitol grounds violates the state’s constitutional ban on the use of public property to benefit a religion.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt had argued that the Ten Commandments monument was constitutional on the grounds that it was historical in nature. He also said it was almost identical to a Texas version that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled constitutional, the Associated Press reports.

The state’s highest court said that the Ten Commandments are “obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.”

Scruggs suggested this decision contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court’s conclusions.

“Although the Ten Commandments have a religious message, it also has an overwhelming historical message that conveys principles about not killing and not lying that really serve as a foundation for a lot of laws.”

He also questioned claims that the monument benefits religion.

“It’s not like a religion owns the monument. It’s not like a religion put up that monument,” he said.

Scruggs said that under an extreme application of the court’s reasoning, a government-run fire department could not put out a church fire because that would benefit religion.

“That’s exactly why other state courts have taken somewhat similar language and interpret it accordingly,” he said.

“We don’t have to go on a ‘seek and destroy’ mission to wipe away history, to wipe away religious people’s contribution to our country, to faithfully comply with the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution).”

Pruitt, the state’s attorney general, said that the Oklahoma Supreme Court “got it wrong” and that its decision contradicts its previous rulings. He said his office would ask for a rehearing and that the constitution might need to be changed.

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City also criticized the decision.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the Capitol grounds ignores its historical significance in the formation of our state and as an ancient law code having prominence at the place where lawmakers work to enact wise and just laws,” he said June 30. “The Court’s dismissal of these established facts is deeply concerning and disappointing.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma represented the plaintiffs in the case.

Brian Henderson, the ACLU group’s legal director, said June 30 that the monument “created a divisive and hostile Oklahoma” and sent the message that “some religious beliefs are more valued than others.”

The original monument was set up at the capitol in 2012. In October 2014, a man who said he was mentally ill and said he was under the influence of the devil smashed his car into the monument, damaging it. The monument was then replaced in January.

The monument was funded by the family of State Rep. Mike Ritze, a Republican from Broken Arrow, Okla. whose bill authorized it. His family paid about $10,000 to build the monument.

Other groups have asked to put up monuments. These include a Hindu leader, the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and a group that wants to put up a depiction of Satan.

On July 7. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said the Ten Commandments would stay on capitol grounds. She cited the effort to ask the state Supreme Court to hold another hearing on the monument and proposed legislation to allow voters to amend the constitution.

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Considering WYD 2016 in Poland? Here’s what one bishop wants you to know

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 10, 2015

World Youth Day pilgims take part in a flashmob dance at the beginning of the closing Mass June 28, 2013. (Michelle Bauman/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — For those pilgrims thinking about participating in World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland, Bishop Frank Caggiano has a message: It will be worth the sacrifice.

The Bridgeport prelate, who is serving as World Youth Day Liaison for the U.S. bishops, acknowledged that attending the global gathering in Poland next summer will have a cost – not only in money, but also in time and the hardships of traveling to a foreign country.

However, he told CNA, “it is in the sacrifice that you intimately meet the Lord.” Upon reaching Krakow, the fruits of the sacrifice are seen: “that you’re in solidarity, that there are millions like you who are making the same sacrifice.”

“I think one of the great debilitations of contemporary life for young people, and those of us older, is that we ask ourselves: are we the only ones doing this? Who else out there thinks faith matters?” he remarked

But when at World Youth Day, “you stand with two and a half million people, young people. Then you have your answer. Faith is very much alive, and you’re never alone doing it.”

Bishop Caggiano spoke to CNA after the “Krakow Kickoff” event held July 7 at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C.

“I invite every Catholic young person, every Catholic young adult, every leader in our Church to come together and embark with me on this great pilgrimage of faith and mercy,” the bishop told those gathered at the shrine.

World Youth Day is an international pilgrimage of young people from around the world, which includes opportunities for catechesis, prayer, sacraments, song, and fellowship. The event culminates with a prayer vigil and Mass with the Pope.

Instituted by St. John Paul II in 1985, the international gatherings are held every 2-3 years and have drawn crowds of up to 5 million. World Youth Day 2016 will be held next year in Krakow, Poland from July 26-31. The theme will be “Blessed Are the Merciful.”

Although anyone is welcome to attend, the event focuses on young people. Some 30,000 are expected to attend World Youth Day 2016 from the U.S., and the anticipated overall attendance is 2.5 million.

Bishop Caggiano sees World Youth Day 2016 as an invitation for all young people to encounter Christ’s transformative mercy. He told CNA that he hopes attendees “have two experiences.”

The first, he said, is “that they themselves will be touched somewhere deep inside of them. That in the part of their heart which is still perhaps secret, in a part of their lives which they may still be embarrassed at what has happened and what they did, where they still wonder whether God can love them, knowing what they know – that part of what will happen is they’ll be touched and realize that God knew it all along and still loves them.”

“And equally important, so what they have gotten, they give away,” he added. “To love and not expect something in return. Only someone who has experienced mercy can give mercy that way.”

The bishop encouraged those who will attend World Youth Day to start their spiritual preparation now through prayer and service. He suggested that they reflect on Jesus’ Transfiguration, and act as if they were climbing the mountain now with Peter, James and John to see Christ transfigured at the top.

For the three apostles, the Transfiguration of Jesus began the “rest of their life of faith,” he said. In a similar way, by making the pilgrimage and encountering God’s mercy at World Youth Day, young people today can be transformed and begin a new chapter in their life of faith as well.

It is “essential” that bishops, priests, and religious attend, but especially that bishops travel with pilgrims from their respective dioceses, Bishop Caggiano added.

“The young people, young adults, relate to them as spiritual fathers,” he said. “The bishop is the sign of unity and almost the symbol, sacramentally, of the Father’s love for his people.”

“Everybody needs to be a part of that too, but the bishop being there is tremendous, it’s a gift.”

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U.S. NEWS

Controversial HHS mandate accommodation now finalized

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 10, 2015

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

Washington, D.C. — In its latest update to the federal contraception mandate, the Obama administration on Friday finalized a set of proposed rules which the U.S. bishops have previously said still violate religious freedom.

A statement released Friday by Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell said that the measures balance the government’s goal of providing free contraceptives to women with “respecting religious beliefs” of employers who object to them.

The HHS mandate was first issued in 2012 as part of the Affordable Care Act, requiring employers to offer employee health plans that included free sterilization and contraception, including some drugs that can cause early abortions.

Many religious non-profits and business owners objected to the mandate on the grounds that it forced them to cooperate in practices they believe to be morally wrong. More than 300 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits challenging the mandate; the majority of cases have been granted preliminary injunctions protecting them against it.

Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby and other “closely-held” for-profit employers who objected to the mandate.

Responding to the lawsuits and widespread criticism, the Obama administration has released a series of modifications to the mandate. Earlier revisions instructed religious organizations to authorize third-party insurers and administrators to provide the coverage which they found objectionable. Many groups said this still forced them to violate their beliefs by requiring them to authorize the provision of things they found immoral.

The latest “accommodation” allows religious non-profits who object to the mandate to send a written notice of their objection directly to the Department of Health and Human Services, who in turn will inform the insurers and third-party administrators of the objection. Separate payments will then be made to the enrollees for the coverage at “no additional cost” to the employer.

In response to the Supreme Court ruling that Hobby Lobby and similar companies could not be forced to comply with the mandate, the Department of Health and Human Services also announced Friday that closely-held for-profit businesses would still be subject to the mandate, but under the same “accommodation” as religious non-profits.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed this new accommodation when it was proposed in 2014, saying it still requires religious organizations to facilitate activity that violates their religious beliefs.

“(T)he mandate continues to substantially burden the religious liberty of stakeholders with religious objections to the mandated coverage,” said Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsel and associate general counsel for the U.S. bishops’ conference.

The “accommodation” still violates religious liberty because it requires religious non-profits and closely-held for-profit businesses to give the government “all it needs” to provide the morally-objectionable procedures and drugs,” they said in comments last October.

“Because it does not further a compelling government interest by the means least restrictive of religious exercise, the mandate continues to violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” the bishops argued in Oct. 8 comments to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Criticism has also been raised about the tier-system used to apply religious exemptions for the mandate. Houses of worship and their affiliated organizations are completely exempt from its requirements, while religious non-profits fall under the accommodation, and for-profit companies that do not meet the legal standards of being “closely-held” are not offered any protection at all. Critics argue that this creates “classes” of religious freedom, rather than applying First Amendment protections equally among all parties.

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Fidelity to Moral Truth and the ‘Law of Graduality’ at the Upcoming Synod on the Family

by Fr. Thomas Berg • July 6, 2015

In this article I intend to address a series of problematic and closely related ideas bearing on perennial Catholic moral teaching and its underlying understanding of the human person. All of them, in one way or another, have already manifested themselves in the run-up to the 14th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops — to be held in October on the theme of “the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world.”

There has been much speculation that the deliberations that will ensue at Synod 2015 could lead to some dramatic changes in the Church’s pastoral ministry to Catholics who divorce and remarry civilly, to those who cohabitate, and to those who live in same-sex unions, and that consequently those changes might imperil Catholic doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage. At very least, those deliberations will not be unimportant, especially in giving shape to Pope Francis’s mind on these matters, his of course ultimately being the final word.

We should be grateful that these problematic ideas do not appear to have significantly influenced the synod’s working document — the Instrumentum Laboris — released last month. My point however, is that, if not consistently avoided by a majority of the synod fathers, these ideas still have the potential to exercise considerable influence on the participating prelates, and were they to do so, would have irreversibly deleterious consequences for the Catholic faithful.

Allow me to begin, however — especially for the benefit of readers who have not been following the synod preparation closely — with a brief, but by no means exhaustive, recap of important moments in the ensuing debate.

Recap of the debate and the controversy

The preparations for Synod 2015 have occasioned a renewed debate within the Catholic Church over questions most Catholics believed to have been essentially settled matters: whether, and under what circumstances divorced and civilly remarried Catholics (without benefit of annulment and continuing to enjoy sexual relations in the second union) could be allowed to approach holy communion; whether the Church can in some way validate such second unions; how the nullity of one’s marriage ought to be determined. Catholic teaching on these issues was expounded in Pope St. John Paul II’s 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio (specifically in number 84) — itself, the product of a synod on the family — and the doctrine later incorporated into the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Cf. 1649-1651). Be that as it may, Pope Francis believed these issues were worth revisiting, and that is what many good minds in the Church have been doing over the past several months. Not surprisingly, new questions have also been attached to the aforementioned issues: Can the Church grant some kind of validity to cohabitating couples? Can the Church not affirm the “values” present in same-sex relationships without compromising her stance on homosexuality?

In February 2014, at the request of Pope Francis, Cardinal Walter Kasper gave a lecture titled “The Gospel of the Family” to an extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals gathered in Rome in preparationfor the upcoming synods, in which he included a series of proposals for dealing with the divorced and remarried. It was, we might say, the first volley in what has become the current tense and very public theological debate. Then, in October of 2014, a smaller, preparatory synod with a select number of bishops convened in Rome to commence discussions.

At the halfway point of this first — extraordinary — synod, a “mid-term” report provoked considerable controversy. This report was supposed to have taken and represented the pulse of the bishops, presenting in written form a summary of their input thus far into the issues at hand. Instead, that document reflected much more the ideological bent of its several authors, who seemed to consider that much was up for grabs in terms of the Church’s pastoral approach to the divorce and remarried, challenging the Church to countenance the “constructive elements” present in the relationships of cohabitating persons and to “value the sexual orientation” of “homosexual persons.”

Such proposals were considerably tempered a few weeks later with the publication of the final synod report (relatio synodi). This then became the basis for Instrumentum Laboris published today. This new working document incorporates the 2014 synod final report in its entirety, but almost doubles its content in size by incorporating input from a months-long consultation process with dioceses around the world.

It is well known that not a few Catholic bishops are sympathetic to Kasper’s proposals, especially in his native Germany. Indeed, it came as no surprise in early May when the Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (Central Committee of the German Catholics) released a statement encouraging the Synod fathers to give serious consideration, among other things, to “a re-evaluation of the methods of artificial birth control,”…”an integration into the life of the Church of spouses who now live in a second marriage after a divorce, and also their admittance to the Sacraments after a sound decision of conscience,” and “the unconditional acceptance of the cohabitation of loyal same-sex partnerships, and a clear attitude opposed to those current exclusions and devaluations of homosexual persons.”

Later in May, an invitation-only private gathering — including the presidents of the episcopal conferences of Germany, France, and Switzerland, and some fifty bishops, theologians, and other assorted experts and invitees under the direction of German Cardinal Reinhard Marx — was held at the Gregorian University in Rome in late May. The prime focus of this assembly was a strategy for advancing the Kasperian proposals, including some form of Catholic “affirmation” of homosexual unions. Adding to a sense that lines are being drawn and sides taken, a symposium of African bishops met in Ghana in early June. The two groups of prelates could not be more at odds on those proposals.

Responses to Kasper’s Proposals

It is not difficult to find thoughtful accounts of all the debates that have ensued in the past year and a half. Here I will briefly identify some of the key responses to Kasper’s proposals, keeping in mind that these proposals are not recent.

In 1993, Kasper joined Archbishop Oskar Saier and then-bishop (later Cardinal) Karl Lehmann, in authoring a pastoral letter that advocated for the admission of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to Communion. Their implicit contention in that pastoral letter — that the bond once established by valid, sacramental, consummated marriages sometimes simply dissolves, and that a Catholic could in conscience decide that such was the case with his or her previous sacramental marriage and thus approach communion in good faith — was dealt a devastating rebuttal a year later by Germain Grisez, John Finnis, and the late William May.

An excellent essay by several authors (the majority Dominicans from the House of Studies in Washington, DC) detailed a systematic response to Kasper’s proposals. Christian Brugger has addressed proposals very similar to Kasper’s put forth by the Jesuit Giancarlo Pani — detailing specifically how we would best interpret the Council of Trent’s approach to the practice of oikonomia by the Orthodox Churches (whereby under certain circumstances a blessing is given to a second (civil) marriage after a period of penance). Finally, the most comprehensive and authoritative response to date was the volume edited by Fr. Robert Dodaro, Remaining in the Truth of Christ, which counted five Cardinals among its co-authors and was nothing short of a very public rebuke of their colleague Cardinal Kasper.

Some Problematic Ideas

Ideas have consequences — we well know. My concern here is a series of highly problematic and closely related propositions with regard to conscience, human freedom, the moral qualification of human choices, and the Church’s understanding of our progress in moral living that may well be exerting an influence on the thinking of any number of Catholic bishops, especially many of those set to participate in Synod 2015.

I would note from the outset that my reflections here invite the valid question — and concern — as to exactly what metaphysics and what philosophical anthropology each of the Synod fathers will bring to his task in October. Theology presupposes philosophy, just as revelation presupposes lived human existence. Show me the framework of your theological system, and I will tell you something about the metaphysics on which it is built.

I am not intimately familiar with the theological system or project — presumably he has one — of Cardinal Kasper, whose theological output and influence in the final decades of last century was considerable. Fortunately, others are. A recent critical assessment of the philosophical underpinnings of Kasper’s theological project by Professor Thomas Heinrich Stark illustrates this very point in spades.

Whence the Eagerness to Affirm the Positive (Within the Disordered)?

Let’s begin by asking why the authors of the October 2014 synod midterm report felt so compelled to explore avenues for a more or less formal Church “affirmation” of the “positive elements” to be found in “faithful” cohabitating relationships and in same-sex unions, and to “value” the sexual orientation of “homosexual persons”? There is much more behind this than mere political correctness, or succumbing to one of our odd moralistic fetishes du jour, namely that of “affirming positive values” (in just about anything), or simply a hat-tip to a secular culture which demands such affirmation.

To fall short of such an affirmation — in the mind of not a few theologians and bishops — would be to remain beholden to an impersonal ethic of rule-following, an ethic putatively in tension with the lived reality of these individuals, and incompatible with a sound pastoral sensitivity and personalistic approach to morality. Cardinal Kasper has been quite clear on his perception of this supposed tension when he seems to imply that fidelity to absolute moral norms is incompatible with the Church’s understanding of the flexibility of positive law (technically referred to by the Greek term epikeia), which needs to be malleable in view of the applications and adaptations that could not be foreseen by the framers of such laws. This is well and good as far as it goes for positive law. Of course to suggest that all moral norms should be subject to such adaptation and flexibility is not only to conflate positive law with the whole of moral normativity but also to suggest the non-existence of moral norms that have no exception, a stance incompatible with perennial Catholic moral teaching.

Accordingly, I argue that this eagerness to entertain such notions rests on at least two problematic conceptions: an idea of conscience whereby it is construed as a personal decision and a faulty notion of human freedom.

A Problematic Conception of Moral Conscience

The view of conscience as personal decision conflates the genuine judgment of conscience (something which can and should arise in one’s interiority fundamentally independent of one’s emotions and decision-making capacity) with mere moral opinion.

Granted, this is something of a default understanding of conscience in our contemporary culture. Its highly problematic reduction of conscience to the level of moral opinion, however, sets it deeply at odds with the perennial Catholic, natural law understanding of conscience.

Aquinas held that conscience in the strict sense was as an act of human reason — called a judgment — following upon and concluding a time of deliberation. Conscience is reason’s awareness of a choice or action’s harmony or disharmony with the kind of behavior that truly leads to our genuine well being and flourishing. If our choice is not in accord with the judgment of a rightly formed conscience, then that judgment will linger in our awareness and present itself as a felt disharmony between the choice and the moral norm (and corresponding virtue) that is being violated. While such felt disharmony is indeed of an emotive nature (e.g., a healthy emotional guilt), the judgment of conscience remains something distinct and irreducible to the negative feeling that happens to accompany it.

In a word, in the Catholic understanding of conscience — based firmly on the thought of Aquinas (who in turn, it must be pointed out, was simply being a student of human psychology here) — conscience does not create moral norms: it is not literally autonomous — a law unto itself. Rather, conscience is the manifestation of human practical reason guiding an individual to be fully reasonable, to embrace and be harmonious with a perceived ordering of personal choices and actions which most fully respects the integrity of the human goods involved and is most conducive to one’s genuine flourishing and that of others.

One might make “decisions” based on “opinions” about how to achieve the good, but such decisions might actually have nothing to do with the genuine judgment of conscience on such matters. On this view, conscience is essentially creative, autonomous, a law unto itself, settling personal moral matters by way of autonomous decision.

A Problematic Conception of Freedom and Moral Self-Determination

The aforementioned faulty view of human freedom posits that it actually operates on two levels, one conscious — the state in which we make everyday choices — and the other deeper, transcending conscious awareness, wherein we find our true self-worth and determine ourselves as moral beings. Presumably, barring stark evidence to the contrary (such as having a zest for acts of genocide), everyone’s fundamental option is in the “right” direction from the get-go of one’s moral life: the radical orientation of one’s whole life is toward God, as evidenced by the collective whole of one’s “right” moral choices in everyday life, the rightness of which is primarily assessed by the motives that inform them.

Given this two-tiered understanding of personal freedom, a person can licitly at times choose what these theorists would term as “pre-moral,” “physical” or “ontic” evils (such as abortion, adultery, euthanasia, and the like), albeit reluctantly and regrettably, and bring them about. However, if brought about for personally valid and substantial reasons, such choices and actions can be “right” moral options. Nor do these choices have an impact on the core or fundamental moral goodness (the “fundamental option”) of the persons who thus operate as long as their choices are buoyed by right motivations and a careful moral calculus that has assured a greater net outcome of good consequences over evil or less desirable consequences in choosing and acting.

I have just described, of course, the conception of human freedom that underlies the set of moral theories broadly characterized as Proportionalism, all of which were definitively refuted in Pope St. John Paul II’s landmark encyclical Veritatis Splendor.

Proportionalism can be defined as a moral theory that proposes the possibility of determining right and wrong action by calculating the maximum Net good or minimum Net harm entailed in performing that action. This theory holds that such a calculation is possible in light of a reasoned consideration of benefits and harms (especially in terms of foreseeable consequences) entailed in the proposed action, and in light of what would follow by its omission. These benefits and harms would then be calculated. The theory then proposes that right action would be that which offers a better proportion of benefit to harm. Consequently, if that calculation is made with care, and choices made intending the greater net good as an outcome, one could conceivably choose and commit even behaviors which the Church has consistently held to be intrinsically evil, and not in any way compromise one’s basic moral orientation or “fundamental option”.

While Veritatis Splendor thoroughly excoriates this dualistic understanding of human freedom which separates choices and actions from one’s basic moral orientation, those ideas — though perhaps fallen from the prominence they enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s — are still influential in the thinking of not a few priests (and, it is to be feared, bishops) who were students of Proportionalist professors of Catholic moral theology during their seminary years.

A Problematic Appeal to the Law of Graduality

These ideas inevitably lead some to suggest that it can be possible for at least some of the baptized to remain validly, legitimately, without consequence to their ultimate salvation, and in varying degrees, in communion with the Church even when, in their life-style choices (their decisions), they openly reject the Church’s perennial moral teachings on marriage, cohabitation, premarital sex, and sexual activity between persons of the same sex. To be clear, we’re not talking about persons who might engage in such behaviors in a state of invincible ignorance (which the Church’s moral tradition naturally understands can attenuate and even eliminate personal responsibility); the idea here is that persons would knowingly engage in such behaviors acknowledging the inconsistency of such behaviors with Church teaching, even that they are gravely sinful. The further idea is that, in response the Church would somehow find a way to affirm some degree of soundness in their moral status, and “good standing” with the Church, to use a more common expression. Granted, even the baptized who persistently remain in un-repented mortal sin still remain related to the Mystical Body — but the theologically laden concept of communion cannot adequately describe the nature of that relationship.

To arrive at such a proposition, in addition to the preceding notions, requires taking more than a bit of theological license with a principle of Catholic moral teaching normally referred to as the law or principle of graduality, or the law of gradualness (hereafter LOG). The principle seems to have come to the fore of the moral theological lexicon particularly when John Paul II referred to it in Familiaris Consortio (in a paragraph which includes an internal quote of a homily he delivered at the close of the sixth Synod of Bishops, October 25, 1980):

And so what is known as “the law of gradualness” or step-by-step advance cannot be identified with “gradualness of the law,” as if there were different degrees or forms of precept in God’s law for different individuals and situations. In God’s plan, all husbands and wives are called in marriage to holiness, and this lofty vocation is fulfilled to the extent that the human person is able to respond to God’s command with serene confidence in God’s grace and in his or her own will (34).

Though not offering a precise formulation of the LOG, John Paul II, in the same exhortation, points to the proper Christian context which forms the framework in which the LOG is to be properly understood:

What is needed is a continuous, permanent conversion which, while requiring an interior detachment from every evil and an adherence to good in its fullness, is brought about concretely in steps which lead us ever forward. Thus a dynamic process develops, one which advances gradually with the progressive integration of the gifts of God and the demands of His definitive and absolute love in the entire personal and social life of man. Therefore an educational growth process is necessary, in order that individual believers, families and peoples, even civilization itself, by beginning from what they have already received of the mystery of Christ, may patiently be led forward, arriving at a richer understanding and a fuller integration of this mystery in their lives (9).

Hence, the LOG, properly understood, has its origin in the very reality of human psycho-moral development: as in most areas of human development, so too in the moral sphere, maturity manifests itself through a gradual process —”steps”— toward an ever deeper appropriation of right moral behavior as instantiated in concrete choices and actions. In the Christian context, it articulates the gradual nature of conversion. Genuine conversion places us necessarily on a course that intends steady progress — notwithstanding human weakness and occasional moral failures — toward an ever more consistent and holistic embrace of the truth of Christ’s moral teaching. Historically, as a “law” or moral principle, the LOG was applied in the Church’s missionary endeavor as a measure for pastorally guiding converts to a steady embrace of moral precepts as presented by the Church. This is the necessary context in which the Church understands the LOG.

But it is vitally important to understand, as noted in Familiaris Consortio 34, that the LOG does not imply that either the convert or the Church should craft and validate individualized and autonomous moral norms “as if there were different degrees or forms of precept in God’s law for different individuals and situations.” That would constitute the very perversion of the law of graduality to which John Paul refers — namely, the “graduality of the law.” Converts to the faith are to be led and assisted in appropriating the new moral requirements of life in Christ in progressive steps of gradual conversion and exigency, assuring them of God’s mercy, presence, and grace, safeguarding against their discouragement, accompanying them in a step by step renewal of life, but without diminishing the full import of the moral requirements.

The authors of the October 2014 synod midterm report creatively attempted to import into this sound principle of moral and pastoral theology another notion of “graduality,” which has its own, very distinct theological context: namely, the degrees of relationship of the different Churches and ecclesial communions (and of persons baptized in those communions) to the Roman Catholic Church. This movement of thought may be discerned in number 17 of that report:

In considering the principle of gradualness in the divine salvific plan, one asks what possibilities are given to married couples who experience the failure of their marriage, or rather how it is possible to offer them Christ’s help through the ministry of the Church. In this respect, a significant hermeneutic key comes from the teaching of Vatican Council II, which, while it affirms that “although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure … these elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward Catholic unity” (Lumen Gentium, 8).

The latter principle regarding degrees of relationship to, or communion with the Church, is articulated in the 2000 Declaration from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus:

On the other hand, the ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery are not Churches in the proper sense; however, those who are baptized in these communities are, by Baptism, incorporated in Christ and thus are in a certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the Church. (17)

That formulation has its roots in the Second Vatican Council’s decree on ecumenism, Unitatis redintegratio, 22, and — as suggested by the authors of the midterm report — in Lumen Gentium, 8.

However, to import the latter notion of gradualness into the law of graduality, is to open up a space for the very “graduality of the law” denounced by Familiaris Consortio. To further suggest that in such a conflation of meanings the synod fathers should discover “a significant hermeneutic key” that would enable them to affirm the “positive elements” discoverable in intrinsically disordered behaviors — or to affirm that Catholics who, in deliberate contradiction of the Church’s moral tradition, engage in such behaviors yet remain nonetheless (albeit “imperfectly”) in a communion of life with the Church — is not only intellectually dishonest but also incompatible with the Church’s received understanding of how our deliberately chosen behaviors shape us as moral beings and affect our relationship with the Author of the moral order. In a word, such a project is — through and through — incompatible with moral truth as consistently taught by the Church guided by the Holy Spirit. Genuine pastoral concern for men and women on the road of conversion can never be served by infidelity to that truth.

Diakonia veritatis

In the end, the synod fathers bear the grave responsibility of the diakonia veritatis — the ministry of truth, so eloquently elaborated by Pope St. John Paul II in his encyclical Fides et Ratio (Cf. nn. 49-56). As the same Pontiff observed in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, “Being responsible for that truth also means loving it and seeking the most exact understanding of it, in order to bring it closer to ourselves and others in all its saving power, its splendor and its profundity joined with simplicity” (n. 19). Notwithstanding the evident and ever-growing complexity of the manner in which the Church attempts to communicate truth to a post-modern secular culture, we can only hope that the synod fathers will think well, think carefully, and think with the Church — sentire cum Ecclesia.

The Instrumentum Laboris for Synod 2015 gives some tentative assurance that these very problematic ideas can and will be eschewed by the synod fathers. The notion of graduality operative in the working-document seems sound and consonant with the Magisterium. As for specific proposals that have seemed in tension with the Church’s received teaching and pastoral practice, I would note:

1. The “journey of reconciliation or penance” for the divorced and civilly remarried (through which they might be admitted to Holy Communion) about which the document suggests “a great number agree” in paragraph 123 is nothing other than a reaffirmation of the pastoral elements already outlined in Familiaris Consortio, 84: guidance of the local bishop, the couple avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance, investigation into the nullity of the prior bond, and commitment to live as brother and sister.

2. While paragraph 123 also refers to a second more problematic conception of a “way of penance” leading to communion (one that would place discernment of their situation in the hands of a priest designated for the purpose, and rely largely on the couple’s and the priest’s assessment of the validity of their prior bond) it is mentioned only in passing.

3. For the divorced and civilly remarried who are not on such a penitential path, the document does push the notion of pastoral “inclusion” of such persons in their local Christian communities to an extreme, even appearing to suggest (paragraph 121) that the exclusion of persons in these irregular situations from liturgical ministries (e.g., lectoring at mass) should be “re-examined.”

4. The possibility of the Church assuming some form of the practice of the Orthodox Church in blessing second marriages (oikonomia) is only given a brief, and less than enthusiastic, mention in paragraph 129.

5. With regard to persons with homosexual tendencies, the working document simply reaffirms (paragraphs 130-132) what should be current pastoral practice in the Church, namely, that such persons are to be received with respect, gentleness, and sensitivity. At the same time, the working document strongly reaffirms that “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.” It also affirms that the world’s bishops are not to succumb to cultural pressures on this question.

Fully certain that the Holy Spirit is constantly assisting the Church, and particularly the successor of Peter, we pray that the synod fathers — in the form of a final synod report, along with the Holy Father’s eventual post-synodal apostolic exhortation itself — will not back away from the moral imperative of articulating fundamental truths about the human person: that all share a common human nature whose fulfillment comes about by participation in intelligible human goods pursued through choice and action in accord with right reason, and that human persons can know universal truths about our human nature and about what does and does not fulfill that nature, and what consequently is incompatible with Divine charity in this life and in eternity.

Father Thomas Berg is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and Professor of Moral Theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie). More of Fr. Berg’s publications are available at www.fatherberg.com.

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Is Life a Cabaret or a Pilgrimage?

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

Most of us have heard the refrain: “Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the cabaret.” The 1972 film, “Cabaret,” was set in the night life at the KitKatKlub, a decadent restaurant in 1931 Berlin just as the Nazi regime was rising to power.

In stark contrast, Jesus describes life as a journey. Speaking through Luke’s gospel, he cautions his disciples to travel lightly — detached from material things. Though the word pilgrimage doesn’t appear in Jesus’ treasure trove of words, he is nevertheless on a sacred journey. Jerusalem and Calvary are on the way to his final destination, the empty tomb.

During his short ministry, Jesus shared his life and teachings with others, and he invited them to discipleship and to fullness of life. This royal road has drawn men and women since the early days of Christianity, and the invitation to join him remains open to all.

Pilgrimage as Life’s Journey

A pilgrim is one who is at home everywhere and at home nowhere. This is why one of the Prefaces of the Mass reads: “Strengthen your Pilgrim Church on earth.” We live in the ‘city of man,’ but it is no lasting city … no cabaret. We are a Church on the way to the ‘city of God.’

When infants are born, there is no telling what their journeys will be like. As with most people, they will weave together their hopes, dreams, and fears. People of faith grasp the metaphor of pilgrimage: at home everywhere, at home nowhere. Others may subscribe to the philosophy of ‘here today, gone tomorrow.’

Films with a Travel Theme

In the “Wizard of Oz,” a young girl in Kansas engages in daydreaming and soul-searching to discover that life in Kansas is not so bad. In fact, it’s just fine. In “The Way,” a father walks Spain’s Camino de Santiago Trail (Pilgrimage to St. James of Compostela) to honor his son, recently deceased. The experience opens his eyes in a deeply emotional experience when he is forced to make friends with complete strangers and to examine his life. “Around the World in 80 Days” tests the resolve of an English gentleman to win a wager. In the course of traveling in 80 days by any means, his life and that of his valet are changed.

Ups and Downs

In good times, we sprint and even skip, and in the bad, we stumble, fall, and get hurt. These are times when decisions, bitter losses and betrayals have jolted us and halted our stride. It becomes necessary to pause, take stock, heal, and recoup our energies before resuming the journey.

Occasionally we hear someone say, ‘That chance meeting gave me a fresh perspective on life.’ Or, ‘if this event hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have changed for the better.’

Sometimes tragedy transforms lives. In 1971, Charles Krauthammer was a brilliant first-year medical student in psychiatry at Harvard University. One summer day, while diving into a pool, he hit his head at the bottom and severed his spinal cord. He took his exams lying flat on his back, earned his medical degree with his class, and then spent his residency in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. Today, Dr. Krauthammer, confined to a wheel chair, is a psychiatrist, author, journalist, and syndicated writer for The Washington Post.

The Way and Different Ways

Without a moral compass, it’s easy to lose one’s way. The only religious figure who ever described himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” was Jesus Christ. Fix your eyes on him, Psalm 123 tells us, and he will make a safe path for us; his way is perfect.

Spiritual writers, philosophers and theologians described life as a journey. Saints Gregory of Nyssa, Bonaventure, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross wrote in terms of “ascents and descents” within oneself. Their message was intended for those who were circumscribed by a monastic way of life.

By contrast, St. Ignatius’ spirituality was designed especially for people who work in a fast-moving world. In fact, Ignatius was a recovering, battle-scarred soldier on the verge of conversion when he composed his Spiritual Exercises in a cave at Manresa, Spain.

The Daily Examen was, and continues to be, a most powerful spiritual exercise found within these Exercises. This short time of prayer of ten to twenty minutes keeps busy people spiritually balanced throughout the day. It helps them seek and find God in the midst of their daily journey, whether in the home or at business, in the hospital, or when making critical decisions in the light of faith. The Daily Examen has strengthened many to live as effective and affective disciples in the midst of today’s challenges and demands.

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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America needs a new ‘Baltimore Catechism’

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • July 9, 2015

The religious formation of Catholic children and young people before Vatican II generally followed a deductive method, one that understands education as an organized process of imparting clear, well-defined concepts and principles.

The tool of this system was the Catechism: a relatively short compendium of Catholic teaching in question-and-answer form. The Catechism was comprehensive, precise, and concise. All answers were given in one sentence. Memorization was the mode by which the contents were mastered.

Following the Second Vatican Council, a new approach took over in the religious education of children and young people. The method was an inductive one, which sought not so much to impart clear doctrinal information, as the Catechism did, but to draw out the student’s own religious experience and shape it in the light of Jesus’ life and teaching.

In recent decades, many have criticized the post-Vatican II experience-centered catechetical methods. Some texts seem to be short on content. They fail to impart a thorough and comprehensive grasp of Catholic belief, and, by spurning memorization of concise formulations, they leave children with inadequate verbal mastery of the fundamental concepts of faith.

This is a judgment with which I generally concur, and is constantly reinforced by my experience with Catholic school children and those who attend weekly religious education classes. I often hear it said that Catholic children today “know nothing” of the faith, and are unable to explain or account for it.

The Catechism with which pre-Vatican children and young people in the U.S. was the Baltimore Catechism, promulgated by the U.S. bishops at the Third Council of Baltimore and published in final form in 1885. This Catechism was notably comprehensive, clear, and precise.

As a result of the perceived inadequacies of post-Vatican II catechesis, some parents and religious educators have returned to the Baltimore Catechism similar publications. (In 2010, Tan Publishers reprinted the Baltimore Catechism, which, I am told, is becoming increasingly popular in some quarters.)

While I would not recommend the use of the Baltimore Catechism in its 1885 explanation of the faith — chiefly because Vatican II has intervened — I suggest the time has come to revisit the genius of the Catechism system of education — as the core, but not the whole, of an adequate curriculum. The best of the newer catechetical systems would be used alongside the Catechism.

A new Catechism for the young would have to be grounded in the 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was promulgated as the model for all newer Catechisms. It would be evident that there exists, as Pope Benedict XVI has often stated, a fundamental unity between pre-Vatican and post-Vatican expressions of faith, not least in publications for the formation of adults, youth, and children.

There exists already a text adapting the Catechism of the Catholic Church for youth. This is the YOUCAT (Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church), edited by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, with a foreword by Pope Benedict XVI, and published in 2011. The YOUCAT could become the theological basis of a new, updated Baltimore Catechism, wedding the format of the Catechism and the contents of the YOUCAT.

Why do I propose the Baltimore Catechism as the model for the way forward? Because it was the normative Catechism in the U.S. for nearly a hundred years, is still well known by many, and symbolizes a particular kind of catechetical method.

Highlighting the Baltimore Catechism makes clear what I am fundamentally proposing: a complete overhaul of contemporary catechetical theory and practice. The need is urgent if we are not to produce another generation of illiterate Catholics.

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

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‘Amy’ makes for a fascinating and tragic documentary

by Carl Kozlowski • July 10, 2015

Amy Winehouse’s entire life was a cautionary tale. A British singer who came blasting out of nowhere at the age of 21 with her 2003 debut album “Frank,” she instantly won acclaim and popularity in her homeland, and built on that with the international smash hit “Rehab” three years later.

But this vibrant, unique young woman with a cheeky sense of humor and a voice that could rival some of the greatest soul and jazz singers of all time achieved that fame through a tune that mocked the very treatment she needed to break free from intense addictions to booze and drugs. And as she wagged her finger and coyly scoffed at the camera in her video for that song and in her countless TV appearances singing it, the world responded with a fascination reserved for watching aberrant behaviors and trainwrecks alike.

The more Winehouse sang and said that she didn’t have an addiction, the further she spiraled into the disease. And the more money music fans and record labels gave her, the more she sowed the seeds of her own destruction, with the world media egging her on the entire way.

When she died in 2009 at the tender age of 27, she joined other rock and pop icons who died at the same age ranging from Kurt Cobain to Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin. Her tragedy made no sense – that is, until now.

The fascinating and tragic new documentary “Amy” illuminates what happened to her, using an impressive array of video footage and voiceover interviews from people in seemingly every corner of her life: her parents, friends, ex-husband, and the music managers and executives. The filmmaker behind it all is Asif Kapadia, who previously made a splash with the 2012 documentary “Senna,” in which he tracked the impressive career and ultimately tragic end of world-class race driver Ayrton Senna using a similar non-stop barrage of video footage in lieu of traditional talking heads.

The effect of both movies’ stylistic approach is to draw viewers fully into the world and mindset of their subjects, eliminating the cold distance felt in most documentaries. Yet while “Senna” had some truly exciting footage of the Formula One world of racing, “Amy” surpasses it with a vast array of deeply personal moments that offer heartbreaking insight into what drove Winehouse’s artistry and ultimately, her self-destructiveness.

The film opens with footage of Winehouse as a 14-year-old hanging out at her best friend’s birthday party. While the other kids sang “Happy Birthday” weakly, Winehouse’s stunningly soulful voice burst forth, putting them all to shame while she coyly smiled at the home video camera. Soon, we see and hear her singing with a national youth choir and taking the lead to magical effect as people who knew her described her passion from an early age for legendary African-American singers Sarah Vaughn and Dinah Washington.

But Winehouse came from a severely broken home, in which her father largely abandoned her family when she was 9 and inspired her to engage in all manner of wild behavior to get attention from her parents. At one point later in the film, her eventual husband and fellow addict Blake Fielder says that he felt she was saw and used sex like a man and was highly promiscuous, and throughout we see and hear her talk about drinking and smoking weed on a frequent and eventually constant basis.

Yet “Amy “ rightly keeps its focus on her undeniable genius as a singer and surprising depth as a songwriter, particularly as a lyricist. From her earliest teen years, Winehouse had the ability to write about broken relationships in a way that belied a lifetime of hard lessons.

She was clearly ahead of her time, both as an artist and as a human being, often stating “life is short” to rationalize her quest for thrills and her dangerous relationship with Fielder, who eventually introduced her to a horrifying addiction to crack cocaine. If only she knew just how short her life would actually be, perhaps she would have slowed down and cried for help.

Instead, she scoffed at the idea of rehab, even in her biggest hit song. And people around the world cheered her on as both an entertainer and as ghoulish entertainment – obsessively reading and watching tabloid coverage of her every move, dancing all the way to her grave.

Despite its potentially lurid subject matter, “Amy” was crafted with as much taste as possible. There is only a smattering of foul language overheard throughout the film, with about 5 to 10 F-words in more than two hours of running time and nothing else noticeable. Some of her lyrics reflect a casual attitude towards adultery and promiscuity, but she manages to write those with inventiveness and humor, rather than the base and directly sexual lyrics found in much of today’s pop music.

Winehouse is seen canoodling and groping with her boyfriend-turned-husband Fielder at several points in the film, but no actual sex or nudity is shown. The most harrowing images of the film concern her drug abuse, with a couple of photos showing her with crack vials and several videos of her looking disoriented in interviews and even onstage, but again these are shown with maximum restraint, giving viewers just enough to realize the depths to which she had fallen without exploiting her.

What shines through throughout is that Winehouse never was raised with a proper sense of God and traditional values in her life. Her parents betrayed her by being neglectful when she was a child, and told her she was fine when she asked if she needed help for bulimia and her addictions as an adult. What also shines through, however, is a stunning voice, clever lyrics and snappy music - even if you’re not a fan, you can see this film and come away with an appreciation for talent lost and an urgent need to buy her two CDs up at once.

Both a celebration of her musical genius and a tragic recounting of her loss as a person, “Amy” is a powerful and compelling view. But more importantly, it’s a sonically soaring primer about an incredible voice that will hopefully never be silenced completely.

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 • JULY 12, 2015

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Am 7:12-15; NRSVCE)

Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”

Second Reading (Eph 1:3-14; NRSVCE)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Gospel Reading (Mk 6:7-13; NRSVCE)

Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

MONDAY • JULY 13, 2015

Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 1:8-14, 22; NRSVCE)

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 10:34 — 11:1; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his apostles, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

“For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

TUESDAY • JULY 14, 2015

Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

First Reading (Ex 2:1-15a; NRSVCE)

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian.

Gospel Reading (Mt 11:20-24; NRSVCE)

Then Jesus began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum,

Will you be exalted to heaven?

No, you will be brought down to Hades.

For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”

WEDNESDAY • JULY 15, 2015

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure

First Reading (Ex 3:1-6, 9-12; NRSVCE)

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

God continued, “The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 11:25-27; NRSVCE)

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

THURSDAY • JULY 16, 2015

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 3:13-20; NRSVCE)

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

This is my name forever,

and this my title for all generations.

Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 11:28-30; NRSVCE)

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

FRIDAY • JULY 17, 2015

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 11:10 — 12:14; NRSVCE)

Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 12:1-8; NRSVCE)

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

SATURDAY • JULY 18, 2015

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 12:37-42; NRSVCE)

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed crowd also went up with them, and livestock in great numbers, both flocks and herds. They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. That was for the Lord a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations.

Gospel Reading (Mt 12:14-21; NRSVCE)

The Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus, how to destroy him.

When Jesus became aware of this, he departed. Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them, and he ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,

my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit upon him,

and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not wrangle or cry aloud,

nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

He will not break a bruised reed

or quench a smoldering wick

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”