VOLUME 1, ISSUE 38  •  SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

You need to work toward an honest economy, Pope tells bankers

How do you become a saint? Pope Francis gives a hint

Jesus shows us the path to freedom, not success, Pope says

Refuse to have kids? Then make room for migrants, Pope Francis says

Full text of Pope Francis’ interview with Portuguese radio station

As the cross is lifted high, we must bring ourselves low, Pope says

Pope Francis will likely meet Fidel Castro during Cuba visit

Four American prelates added to synod list by Pope Francis

For Pope Francis, religious fundamentalism diverts us from the true God

Women protect humanity against evil, Pope Francis says

Francis’ Council of Cardinals proposes a new congregation for the Roman Curia

Francis: Sex workers, abandoned children are a result of our indifference

Pope Francis will arrive to Cuba as a ‘missionary of mercy’

No one can play dumb on what’s happening in the Middle East, Pope says

Vatican parish welcomes first refugee family following Pope’s appeal

WORLD NEWS

Seven years after deadly anti-Christian attacks in India, a call for justice

Blessed Benedict Daswa: The South African martyred for rejecting witchcraft

European bishops visit Holy Land to show solidarity and seek hope

Cuban bishops welcome pardon of 3,500 prisoners before Pope Francis’ visit

What adoring the Eucharist looks like – on a massive scale in India

We want solutions, not guns – A Syrian bishop speaks out

Media invent a fake Pope by misusing his words, bishop charges

The story of Japan’s hidden Christians emerges from the Vatican archives

Cubans hope papal visit will rekindle faith

Christ is our only hope – Syrian Christians pray for miracles amid Islamists’ carnage

U.S. NEWS

Dating apps and the death of romance – what’s a Catholic to do?

Resolution introduced in Congress to call Islamic State atrocities ‘genocide’

Here’s your best chance to see Pope Francis in D.C.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Pope Francis, apparently.

Pope Francis names new bishop for Kansas City-St. Joseph

Planned Parenthood feared bad press over alleged selling of baby parts

Here’s what Cardinal O’Malley has to say for Respect Life month

Office Depot apologizes after claiming pro-life flier was ‘hate material’

What’s the point of education? Bishop Conley has some ideas

Over 45 million live in poverty as Pope Francis comes to visit

Chicago archdiocese appoints Commonweal editor as new director of media

What’s behind the White House’s invite to Catholic dissenters

How marriage prep is failing Catholics, and what we can do about it

When Pope Francis comes to the U.S., he won’t just talk about the environment

House votes to transfer federal funding from Planned Parenthood to health centers

Vatican pushes back over White House invite to Catholic dissidents

FEATURES

The Saints and Offenses

The Way of Beauty: Mercy

Your Life Does Not Belong to You

Oliver Cromwell reviled in the annals of Irish history

‘Black Mass’ proves to be empty and depressing

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • September 20, 2015

Monday • September 21, 2015

Tuesday • September 22, 2015

Wednesday • September 23, 2015

Thursday • September 24, 2015

Friday • September 25, 2015

Saturday • September 26, 2015

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Volume 1, Issue 38 • September 19, 2015

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VATICAN NEWS

You need to work toward an honest economy, Pope tells bankers

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • September 12, 2015

Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 23, 2014. (Kyle Burkhart/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis Saturday met with members of Italy’s largest credit union, encouraging them to promote an economy that is rooted in honesty, and to promote a “globalization of solidarity.”

“Concern yourself with the relationship between economy and social justice, keeping the dignity and value of the person at the center,” the pontiff said to representatives of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo (BCC) of Rome.

“Increase the economy of honesty. You are asked not only to be honest – this is normal – but to diffuse honesty,” and help it take root in all areas.

Pope Francis met with BCC managers, employees, and their families in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Sept. 12.

Having met with the members of the credit union earlier in the year, the Pope reiterated his call for the group to promote of social justice, be attentive to youth unemployment, to support families, and to encourage an economy of honesty.

The pontiff also encouraged them to promote new enterprises, find new solutions to welfare in the area of healthcare, and to take part in globalization, in order that it may become a “globalization of solidarity.”

In addition to promoting growth and prudent management of the banking cooperative prudently, what is more important is that managers “seek to humanize the economy, (and) unite efficiency with solidarity,” he said.

Pope Francis went on to address the concept of “subsidiarity” within the Church’s social doctrine, saying that credit unions practice this concept in the way they confront crises, relying on their own resources rather than on social institutions.

“This is subsidiarity: to not put weight on institutions, and therefore on the country, when one can confront problems with ones own strength, with responsibility,” the Pope said. “This is not only because, as one says, union makes strength, but because there is the need to think bigger, to broaden the horizons.”

The BCC, he said, offers the possibility of a network whereby the companies can be started, thus creating jobs needed “to support families, to undergo microcredit, and other means of humanizing the economy.

The Pope concluded his address by encouraging those present to continue with “coherence and joy” as they work toward the common good.

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VATICAN NEWS

How do you become a saint? Pope Francis gives a hint

by CNA/EWTN News • September 12, 2015

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

Vatican City — Find someone who has never spoken ill of another person, someone who has never judged another – and they would qualify for immediate canonization, Pope Francis said.

The Pope celebrated Mass in the Santa Marta residence on Friday, stressing during his homily the importance of the Christian values of humility, forgiveness, and mercy.

His words followed a meditation from St. Paul – “do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.”

“These days, the Liturgy has led us to consider this, to reflect on this path of mercy, of forgiveness, of the Christian way with these sentiments of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience,” Pope Francis said.

With a “generous spirit,” the Holy Father said, Christians should let themselves be animated by this virtue, which will lead them to “give all we have, from our heart – to give love above all.”

The Christian way, according to Pope Francis, requires forbearing one another with an attitude that “leads to love, to forgiveness, to patience.”

However, Pope Francis warned against the evils of hypocrisy, saying that everyone is at risk of becoming too judgmental – even the Pope.

“Men and women who can’t learn how to acknowledge their own faults become hypocrites. All of them? All of them: starting from the Pope downwards,” he noted.

“The first step is to acknowledge our own faults,” he said. He added that Christians everywhere must be aware of their own failings before they can “take the splinter out of our brother’s eye” – a reflection from the gospel words of St. Luke.

Although a beautiful sentiment, the Pope questioned the feasibility of the path one must take towards a life of love, mercy and generosity. “It’s beautiful, but how does one do it?”

Begin by blaming yourself and having the courage to blame yourself before faulting others, he answered – this is the way to mercy.

“If you cannot take this first step, ask the Lord for the grace of conversion,” Pope Francis said, noting that when one stops thinking about the faults of others they will have the time to consider their own downfalls.

For anyone who struggles with gossiping, they should resist the urge to speak about others and look inward – even performing an examination of conscience if necessary, he said..

“Let’s refrain from comments about others and let’s comment about ourselves. And this is the first step along this path of magnanimity.”

“Because a person who can only see the splinters in the eyes of others falls into pettiness: a petty mind, full of pettiness, full of chatter.”

Anyone who continues down the path of hypocrisy will be unable to partake in the Christian vocation of peacemaking, compassion, patience, and mercy, the Pope said. He then said that a person with a judgmental attitude cannot be a Christian.

However, the Christian who forgives with love and mercy will double their return..

“What will you receive? A good, brimming, abundant overflowing amount will be deposited within your bosom, because your journey shall be measured according to the standard with which you judge,” he said..

Pope Francis ended his homily with a prayer, asking the Lord for the strength to follow the example of St. Paul in generosity, forgiveness and mercy.

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VATICAN NEWS

Jesus shows us the path to freedom, not success, Pope says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • September 13, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates New Year’s Day Mass for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on Jan. 1, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — The path Jesus takes as a humble servant isn’t easy, Pope Francis has said, explaining that to follow him doesn’t guarantee earthly success or honor, but rather true freedom and unity with God.

“Following Jesus means taking up one’s own cross to accompany him on his path, an uncomfortable path that is not one of success or earthly glory, but which leads to true freedom, the freedom from selfishness and sin,” the Pope said Sept. 13.

It means clearly rejecting “that worldly mentality which puts the ‘I’ and one’s own interests at the center of existence,” he said, adding that one must also be willing to lose one’s own life “for Christ and the Gospel, in order to receive it renewed and authentic.”

Thanks to Jesus, he observed, we are certain that this is the road leads to the resurrection, and to a full and definitive life with God.

Pope Francis spoke to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address, reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from Mark.

In the passage, taken from Chapter 8, Jesus asks his disciples who people say that he is, which is a question the Pope noted is “addressed directly to those who follow him, to test their faith.”

After hearing them respond with a variety of answers such as the Prophet Elijah or John the Baptist, Jesus is struck by Peter’s faith when the disciple bluntly declares that he is the Messiah, Francis recalled.

However, immediately after, when Jesus begins to tell of his coming Passion, death and resurrection, Peter is scandalized and takes Jesus aside to rebuke him.

“And how does Jesus react? He reproaches Peter to his face, with very severe words: ‘Get behind me Satan!’” Francis said, noting that Jesus says this because Peter is thinking “not as God does, but as men do.”

Jesus sees that in Peter, the grace of the God that allowed him to recognize Jesus as the Messiah “is opposed by the temptation of the Evil One, who wants to turn us away from the will of God,” the Pope said.

Peter wasn’t the only one who faced this temptation, he said, explaining that it was also present inside the other disciples and is “in each one of us!”

By announcing that he must suffer and die, Jesus is making it clear to his followers that he is a Messiah who is a humble servant, and who obeys his Father even to the point of dying on a cross, Francis said.

The Pope then recounted how Jesus gathered the crowd along with his disciples, and told them that whoever wants to follow him must also become a servant, and “deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

To imitate Jesus in his servantly role and to follow him isn’t easy, Pope Francis observed, and requires a strong union with the Lord, an “attentive and diligent listening to his Word, (and) the grace of the sacraments.”

He closed his address by praying that Mary, who accompanied her son to Calvary, would intercede in purifying our faith from false images of God, and helping us to adhere fully to Christ and the Gospel.

After leading pilgrims in the traditional Marian prayer, Francis drew attention to the Beatification of Blessed Samuel Benedict Daswa, which took place yesterday in South Africa.

Daswa, a husband and father, was killed in 1990 for denying witchcraft as the reason for heavy storms in his area. He refused to pay the fee demanded for the investigation to find the “witch” responsible, arguing that his Catholic faith prevented him from participating in activities related to witchcraft.

Many in the village viewed his refusal as a belittlement of traditional beliefs, and a result he was stopped on the side of the road and killed by a mob while on his way home Feb. 2, after taking his sister-in-law and her sick child to the doctor.

“In his life he always showed great consistency, courageously taking on Christian attitudes and refusing worldly and mundane habits,” Pope Francis said, explaining that his witness especially helps families “to spread the truth and charity of Christ.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Refuse to have kids? Then make room for migrants, Pope Francis says

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

Pope Francis embraces a child at the general audience in St. Peter’s square on Sept. 2, 2015. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — In a new, wide-ranging interview Pope Francis spoke at length of the European refugee crisis – saying that incoming migrants are now filling the void left by a sterile continent that refuses to have children.

“The migrant phenomenon is a reality … when there is an empty space, people look to fill it. If a country doesn’t have children, migrants come to occupy that place,” the Pope said in a recent interview with Portugal-based Radio Renascença (Renaissance).

He referred to the staggeringly low number of births in countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain, where the current number of births falls, he said, at “almost zero percent.”

Francis said he is no stranger to the phenomenon of not wanting to have children, and that he encountered it in his own family when some years ago his Italian cousins said they preferred to travel or buy property rather than have children.

“So, if there are no children, there are open spaces,” he said. For him personally, the societal refusal to have children is part of a “culture of ‘well-being,’” in which the assurance that one’s personal needs and wants will be taken care of is emphasized to an exaggerated degree.

Published Sept. 14, the interview was conducted by Vatican journalist Aura Miguel Sept. 8, and touched on a wide variety of themes such as the current refugee crisis, youth unemployment and how often the Pope goes to confession.

In the many questions surrounding the current refugee crisis hitting Europe by the thousands each day, the Pope said that what we’re seeing is just “the tip of the iceberg.”

“We see these refugees, these poor people that are escaping from war, escaping from hunger, but that’s the tip of the iceberg,” he said. In his view, the crux of the problem is an unjust socioeconomic system that removes the human being from the center.

Today’s dominant economic system “removes the person from the center, and at the center is the god of money, it’s the god in fashion today,” the Pope said, noting that this also affects both the political and ecological systems.

No matter where the migrants come from, the criteria spurring them to move are the same, Francis continued, saying that one has to go to the causes of the problems to find solutions.

“Where the causes are hunger, bringing jobs, investments. Where the cause is war, looking for peace, the work for peace.”

One recent phenomenon that deeply pained him was the plight of the “Rohingya” people, an Indo-Aryan ethnic group largely from the Rakhine state of Burma, in west Myanmar.

Since clashes began in 2012 between the state’s Buddhist community and the long-oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority, more than 100,000 Rohingya’s have fled Myanmar by sea, according to the U.N.

In order to escape forced segregation from the rest of the population inside rural ghettos, many of the Rohingya – who are not recognized by the government as a legitimate ethnic group or as citizens or Myanmar – have made the perilous journey at sea in hopes of evading persecution.

In May a number of Rohingya people – estimated to be in the thousands – were stranded at sea in boats with dwindling supplies while Southeastern nations such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia refused to take them in. On Aug. 7, Pope Francis told a group of youth that this “is called killing. It’s true. If I have a conflict with you and I kill you, it’s war.”

In the interview, Francis lamented how countries would allow the Rohingya to land, give them food and water, and then send them back out to sea. “They don’t welcome them,” he said, adding that today “humanity lacks the ability to welcome.”

As a grandson of Italian immigrants who came to Argentina in 1929 along with a wave of other Italian, Spanish and Portuguese migrants starting in 1884, the Pope said that “I know what immigration is.”

However, he also acknowledged that migrants bring various safety concerns with them, and noted that Rome is not “immune” to infiltration from threats such as guerilla groups active near Sicily.

But despite our concerns, Francis said that refugees still have to be welcomed because it’s commanded in the Bible, and turned to Moses’ commission to his people not to “mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

When asked about the response to his appeal during his Sept. 6 Sunday Angelus address for every parish, shrine, religious community and monastery in Europe to welcome a family of refugees has gotten, the Pope said that there have been many.

He said he specifically asked them to take in a family rather than a person because “a family gives more safety,” and the risk of “infiltrations” is lower.

Pope Francis clarified that when he asked for a family to be welcomed, he’s not necessarily asking that they be welcomed into the parish or community house, but that the parish or community finds “a place, a corner of a school to make a ‘small apartment.”

“Or, in the worst case, rent a modest apartment for the family, but that they have a ceiling, to be welcomed, and that they are integrated into the community.”

Many convents are “almost empty,” the Pope observed, and recalled that when he made a similar appeal soon after his election just over two years ago, there were only four responses, one of them being the Jesuits.

This, he said, “is serious,” and noted that the temptation of “the god of money” is also present in this situation when he hears some congregations say “No, now that this convent is empty, we’re going to make a hotel, and we can receive people, and with this we’ll sustain ourselves or earn money.”

If a community wants to do this it’s fine, but “pay taxes,” he said, explaining that a religious school has the title “religious” since religious institutions are exempt from taxes, “but if it works like a hotel then pay taxes like everybody else. Otherwise the business isn’t very healthy.”

Francis was also asked about the two Vatican parishes who were also asked to welcome refugee families, which, he said, have already been found thanks to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Vicar General for the Vatican, and the papal Almoner Bishop Konrad Krajewski.

He said he didn’t know how long the families would stay, but that they would be there “until the Lord wants.”

“No one knows this, how it’s going to end, right? Anyway, I want to say that Europe became conscious, eh? And I thank them, I thank the European countries who have become conscious of this.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Full text of Pope Francis’ interview with Portuguese radio station

by CNA/EWTN News • September 14, 2015

Vatican Journalist Aura Miguel with Radio Renascença interviews Pope Francis Sept. 8, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — In a new, wide-ranging interview Pope Francis touched on a variety of serious and lighthearted topics, such as the current refugee crisis, youth unemployment and how often the he goes to confession.

Aired for the first time Sept. 14, the interview was conducted by Vatican journalist Aura Miguel with Portugal-based Radio Renascença (Renaissance) Sept. 8. The questions were posed in Portuguese and the responses were given by Pope Francis in Spanish.

The following is a CNA translation of Radio Renascença’s full interview with Pope Francis:

Miguel: First of all, Your Holiness, thanks for this interview. It’s really a privilege for Radio Renascença to have this exclusive conversation with you.

Pope Francis: It’s also pleasure for me because these days all the Bishops of Portugal are here and yesterday I spent the whole morning with the Portuguese bishops. So this interview coincides (with that).

Miguel: How does a pope that comes from “the end of the world” see Portugal and the Portuguese people?

Pope Francis: I was only in Portugal one time, in the airport, a few years ago, on my way to Rome in a Varig plane. It made a layover in Lisbon, and so I know the airport, but of course I know a lot of Portuguese (people). And at the Seminary in Buenos Aires there were a lot of employees who were Portuguese immigrants. They are nice people that got along well with the seminarians. And my dad had a Portuguese co-worker. I remember his name, Adelino. Well, and one time I got to meet a Portuguese lady who was more than 80 years old, who also made a good impression on me. So in other words, I never met a bad Portuguese person.

Miguel: That’s lucky! In your address to the Portuguese bishops, besides praising the Portuguese people and taking a serene look at the Church, the Holy Father mentioned two concerns: One regarding the young people and the other concerning catechesis. The Holy Father used an image, saying: “young people don’t need First Communion attire anymore” but “some communities still insist on it.” What’s the issue?

Pope Francis: It’s a form of speech, right? Young people are more informal and they’ve got their own rhythm. You’ve got to let a young person grow. You’ve got to accompany a young person (in life). Don’t just leave him alone. Be there for him. And you need to know how to accompany him with prudence, to know how to talk to him at the right moment, to know how to listen a lot. A young person is restless. They don’t want to be bothered. And in that sense, you could say that First Communion attire just isn’t their style. On the other hand, children, when they make their First Communion, like First Communion attire. It’s something they desire. But young people have other things that excite them which are often very good, but you’ve got to respect that, because they don’t even understand themselves, because they’re changing. They’re growing, they’re searching, right? So, you’ve got to let a young person grow, you’ve got to accompany him, respect him and speak to him in a very fatherly way, right?

Miguel: Because at the same time there is a need to propose, but often this is not attractive!

Pope Francis: That’s why you have to look for what is attractive to a young person and is demanding of him. For example, a concrete case: If you invite a young person — and you see this everywhere — to go on a hike, go camping or on the other hand go on a mission, or to visit an “old folks home,” sometimes to take care of the sick for a week or 15 days, he gets excited because he wants to do something for others. He becomes involved.

Miguel: Involved?

Pope Francis: Yes, he gets into it. He makes a commitment. He doesn’t look around for something else. He gets involved - that is, committed.

Miguel: So, how come he doesn’t keep on (coming to church)?

Pope Francis: Because he’s on a journey.

Miguel: What is the challenge the Church must confront? The Holy Father has spoken also about a catechesis that often remains theoretical and lacks that ability to propose an encounter (with God) …

Pope Francis: Well, it’s important that catechesis not be just purely theoretical. That doesn’t work. Catechesis means doctrine for life, and as such it’s got to be in three ways of speaking, three languages: The language of the mind, the language of the heart and the language of the hands. So, catechesis needs to be conveyed in those three languages so that the young person may think about and know what the faith is, but, at the same time, feel in his heart what the faith is and at the same time do things. If catechesis is missing any one of these three languages, these three ways of speaking, it’s not going to work. The three languages: to think what you feel and what you do, to feel what you think and what you do, to do what you feel and what you think.

Miguel: Listening to Your Holiness, this seems obvious, but looking around, especially looking at the old Europe, the old Christendom, that’s not the way it is. What’s missing? A change in mentality? How is it done?

Pope Francis: No, changing the mindset, I don’t know. Because I don’t know (the whole situation), right? But sure, sometimes catechetical methodology isn’t complete, that’s true. (We need to) seek a catechetical methodology that joins together those three things: the truths you need to believe, what you need to feel, and what you do, what you need to do, all together.

Miguel: Your Holiness, for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, we await you in Portugal. Three popes have already visited us. John Paul II three times. You, who love Our Lady so much, what do you hope for your visit in 2017?

Pope Francis: Well, let’s clear things up. I really want to go to Portugal for the 100th anniversary. Also in 2017 it’ll be the 300th anniversary of the finding of the statue of Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil).

Miguel: … an appointment in stereo sound, in two places! (laughter)

Pope Francis: So. I really want to go there as well. I already promised to go there. Portugal, like I said, I want to go there and I would like to go there. It’s easier to go to Portugal because you can go to the Virgin and come back in one day — a full day, a day-and-a-half, or two days. The Virgin is (our) Mother. She is very much a mother. And, her presence accompanies the people of God. So, I would like to go to Portugal, which is a special place.

Miguel: And what are you expecting from us Portuguese? How can we prepare ourselves to receive you and to follow the requests of Our Lady?

Pope Francis: What the Virgin is always asking us to do is to pray, to take care of our family, to keep the commandments. She’s not asking for strange things. Let us pray for the people who have lost their way, who are called sinners. We’re all sinners, and I’m the first of sinners. But the Virgin asks, and we need to prepare ourselves by responding to those requests of Our Lady, right? Those messages which are so motherly, you know. So motherly, right? And she shows herself to children. It’s a curious thing, but she’s always searching out simple souls. Isn’t that so? Very simple.

Miguel: This interview is taking place right in the middle of the refugee crisis. Holy Father, how are you living this situation?

Pope Francis: This is the tip of the iceberg. We see these refugees, these poor people who are escaping from war, escaping from hunger, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. But underlying that is the cause, and the cause is a socio-economic system that is bad, unjust, because within an economic system, within everything, within the world, speaking of the ecological problem, within the socio-economic society, in politics, the person always has to be the center. And today’s dominant economic system has removed the person from the center, and at the center is the god of money. It’s the fashionable god today. I mean, there are statistics. I don’t remember very well, but — this is not exact and I could be making a mistake — 17% of the population has 80% of the wealth.

Miguel: And this exploitation of the riches of the poorest countries, in the near future, brings this result of all of these people who now want to come to Europe …

Pope Francis: Which is the same thing that happens in big cities. Why are “favelas” (shantytowns) formed in big cities?

Miguel: The criteria is the same …

Pope Francis: The same. It’s the people who come from the country because they have been deforested. They have made a mono-cultivation. They have no work, and they go to big cities.

Miguel: In Africa it’s the same …

Pope Francis: In Africa … it’s the same phenomenon. So, these people who emigrate come to Europe - it’s the same - looking for a place. And, of course, for Europe right now it’s a surprise, because it’s difficult to believe that this is happening, no? But it’s happening.

Miguel: But Holy Father, when you went to Strasbourg, you said it was “necessary to act on the causes and not only on the effects.” But it seems that no one listened and now the effects are visible …

Pope Francis: You have to go to the causes.

Miguel: And no one listened, most likely …

Pope Francis: Where the cause is hunger, bring sources of work, investments. Where the cause is war, look for peace, work for peace. Today, the world is at war, is at war against itself. That is, the world is at war — as I say — a war in parts, piecemeal. But it is also at war against the earth, because it’s destroying the earth, that is, our common home. The environment, the glaciers are melting. In the Arctic, the polar bear goes increasingly northward to survive.

Miguel: And the concern for man and his destiny, seems neglected … As you see the reaction now in Europe, with many positions taken: there are those who raise walls, others who choose refugees according to their religion, others profit from the situation in order to make populist speeches …

Pope Francis: Each culture draws its own interpretation, no? And sometimes, the ideological interpretation, or that of ideas, is easier than doing things, than reality, no? Let’s go far from Europe, to another phenomenon that has greatly saddened me. The “Rohingya” who were expelled from their country and, well, they are in a boat and they go. They arrive at a port or a beach, they give them water, they give them something to eat, and then out to sea again. They don’t welcome them. I mean, humanity lacks the ability to welcome.

Miguel: Because it’s not tolerating; it’s more than tolerating, it’s welcoming …

Pope Francis: To welcome, to welcome people, no? And to welcome as they come. I am a son of immigrants and I am from the migrant wave of ‘29 (1929), but in Argentina, from ‘84 - 1884 - Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, started to arrive; I don’t know when the first Portuguese “wave” arrived, but Portuguese … above all from those three countries, no? And they arrived there and some had money, others went to the immigrant hotels and there they sent them to the cities. It’s true that in that time there was work, but in my own family, which had work - they arrived in ‘29 - in the year ‘32, with the economic crisis of ‘30, they were left standing in the street, without anything. But, my grandfather bought [a warehouse] with two thousand pesos that he borrowed. And my father, who was an accountant - a “bookkeeper” - “hacia el reparto con la canasta” [Argentinian saying, literally: “made the deal with the basket”]: that is, he was eager to fight, to conquer. I know what immigration is. And afterwards came the immigrants from the Second (World) War, above all from central Europe: many Poles, many Poles, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenians, and also from Syria and Lebanon. And we always get along well there. In Argentina, there was no xenophobia and now there is internal migration in America. They come to Argentina from other American countries, although in recent years it’s decreased due to a lack of work in Argentina.

Miguel: And also from Mexico to the United States … there is a phenomenon.

Pope Francis: The migratory phenomenon is a reality, but I wanted to touch on a theme which … without criticizing anyone, right? but when there is an empty space, people look to fill it. If a country doesn’t have children, migrants come to occupy that place. I think about the level of births in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. I think that it’s almost 0%. So, if there are no children, there are empty spaces. I mean, this not wanting to have children which, in part - it’s my interpretation, I don’t know if it’s correct - is a little bit the culture of “wellbeing,” no? I heard it in my own family, from my Italian cousins, years ago: “No, children no. We prefer to travel on vacations or buy a villa, or this or that.” And then, the elderly are left alone. I think that the great challenge of Europe is to return to being mother Europe …

Miguel: And not the … ?

Pope Francis: … grandmother Europe.

Miguel: (Words in Portuguese, the Pope interrupts the question)

Pope Francis: Excuse me, there are European countries that are young. For example, Albania. Albania impressed me. People 40 years old, 45 years old. Bosnia-Herzegovina. That is, countries that have been remade after a war, right?

Miguel: That’s why the Holy Father visited them …

Pope Francis: Ah, yes, of course. It’s a sign for Europe.

Miguel: But can this challenge of welcoming these refugees who are arriving, in your perspective, become very positive for Europe? Is it a good thing, a provocation? Finally, in a certain way, can Europe wake up, change it’s course?

Pope Francis: It could be. It’s true. I also want to recognize that territorial security conditions today are not the same as other times, because it’s true that 400 kilometers from Sicily we have an extremely cruel terrorist guerilla war, no? So the danger of infiltration is real, right?

Miguel: And that it could reach Rome …

Pope Francis: Ah yes. No one said that Rome is immune to this, right? But precautions can be taken and the people come … all to work. Of course, there is another problem, it’s that Europe has a very big labor crisis. In one country - I speak of three countries, I’m not going to name them, - but important ones in Europe: From 25 years and under, the unemployment for youth of 25 years and under is, in one country, 40%, in another country it’s 47% and in the other it’s 50%. There is a labor crisis. Young people don’t find work. Many things are mixed together. We shouldn’t be simplistic about it. Obviously, a refugee comes with all kinds of security measures and they have to be received because it’s a commandment of the Bible. Moses told his people: “I welcomed the foreigner because remember that you were a foreigner in Egypt,” right?

Miguel: But the ideal (situation) would be that they don’t need to flee, that they stay in their land, right?

Pope Francis: That’s right.

Miguel: Holy Father, in the Sunday Angelus, you made this challenge of a widespread welcome. Are there reactions? What do you expect concretely?

Pope Francis: What I asked was this: that every parish, every religious institute, every monastery welcome a family. A family, not a person. A family gives more assurance of stability, a little to avoid infiltrations of another type. When I speak of a parish welcoming a family, I’m not saying they’re going to live at the rectory, at the parish residence, but that the parish community sees to it there is a place, a corner of a school to make a “small apartment” or, in the worst case, rent a modest apartment for the family, but that they have a roof, to be welcomed, and that they are integrated into the community. And there were many reactions. Many, many, right? There are convents that are almost empty.

Miguel: Two years ago the Holy Father already made this appeal [that empty convents be opened] and what were the results?

Pope Francis: There are only four. One of them, the Jesuits. Very good, the Jesuits. But it’s serious. It’s that here also there is the temptation of the god of money. Some congregations say “No, now that this convent is empty, we’re going to make a hotel, an “albergo,” and we can receive people and with this we’ll support ourselves or earn money.” Well, if you want to do that, pay taxes. A religious school because it’s religious is exempt from taxes but if it works like a hotel then pay taxes like everybody else. Otherwise the business isn’t very healthy.

Miguel: And the Holy Father has already said that here in the Vatican, you will welcome two families …

Pope Francis: Two families, yes. Of course, yesterday they told me that the families were already in place, the two parishes in the Vatican were instructed to search.

Miguel: They are already identified?

Pope Francis: Yes, yes, yes, they are already there. And Cardinal Comastri did this, my Vicar General for the Vatican, with him the head of the Almonry, who is Bishop Konrad Krajewski, who works with the people, with the homeless. It’s he who made the showers under the colonnade, the barber’s service. It’s truly wonderful, that he brings people from the street to see the Museums and the Sistine Chapel.

Miguel: And how long will these families stay?

Pope Francis: Until the Lord wants. No one knows this, how it’s going to end, no? Anyway, I want to say that Europe became conscious, eh? And I thank them. I thank the European countries who have become aware of this.

Miguel: Radio Renascença, this radio interviewing you, has take part in a joint-initiative in Portugal which integrates Christian institutions also (those of) other religions with the desire to welcome and move in favor of the refugees. Holy Father, can you give us some words of support to those who help and also to our listeners and those who work there?

Pope Francis: I congratulate them, I appreciate what they are doing, and I give them a piece of advice: on Judgment Day, we already know over what we will be judged on - it’s written in Matthew Chapter 25 when Jesus tells them “I was hungry, did you give me food?” And they are going to say “Yes.” And when I was without shelter, as a refugee, did you help me? “Yes.” I congratulate them. They’re going to pass the test. One thing I also wanted to say to them. Work with unemployed youth. I think here it’s urgent to do so, above all in religious congregations that have education as a charism, but also laity, lay educators, to create small courses, emergency schools. So, a young person who is unemployed, studies cooking for six months, or studies to be gas or heating technician for six months - so long as rooves keep breaking - or to be a painter. So, with this skill they always have the possibility of finding work, even part-time, for the moment. It’s doing what we call a “changa,” I don’t know how … (journalist asks about the meaning of “changa”) “Changa,” yes. It’s occasional work, right? A good “changa.” And with that not everyone is unemployed. But today is the day. It’s the time of emergency education, which is what Don Bosco did. Don Bosco, when he saw the amount of young people who were in the street, he said that education is needed, but sending the children to middle school, the humanities, no. Trades. So, he prepared carpenters, plumbers, who taught them to work and they had to earn a living. And Don Bosco had that. And now I want to tell an anecdote of Don Bosco. Here, in Rome, close to Trastevere, where …

(Journalist interjects: “it was a poor area) …

Yes, it was a very poor area, but now it’s the popular area for youth to “go out,” right? Ok. Don Bosco passed by there. He was there in a carriage, in a car, I don’t know, and they threw a rock and broke the glass. He stopped and said: “This is the place where we have to establish ourselves.” That is, in the face of an aggression, he didn’t live it as an aggression. He lived it as a challenge to help people, boys, youth, who only knew how to attack. And today, there is a Salesian parish here which forms youth and children, with their schools, their things. Well, this - returning to the theme of youth, right? - what’s important today is to give emergency education about some trade so that they can earn a living.

Miguel: The Holy Father is very critical of the lifestyle of Western Europe, the so-called first world, too centered on well-being. What bothers you the most?

Pope Francis: Well, it’s to say, also in the big American cities, whether in North America or South America, the same problem exists. It’s not only Europe. In Buenos Aires, there is a large sector of the culture of “wellbeing,” right? And because of this there are these strands around the cities, the “favelas” (shantytowns), right? I wouldn’t throw this in Europe’s face so much today. It must be recognized that Europe has an exceptional culture. Truly, there are centuries of culture, right? And this also gives intellectual well-being, and I, in every case, what I would say about Europe is their ability to regain leadership in the concert of nations. That is, it returns to being the Europe that marks paths, because it has the culture to do it.

Miguel: But to keep Europe’s identity today? Are they in a condition to affirm their identity?

Pope Francis: What I said in Strasburg I thought about a lot before I said it. In other words, I would repeat a bit, right? Europe isn’t dead yet. It’s half-grandmother, but it can return to being a mother. And I have confidence in the young politicians. Young politicians “speak another music.” There is a global problem that doesn’t just affect Europe, but the whole world, and it’s the problem of corruption. Corruption on all levels. This also indicates a low moral level, no?

Miguel: The Holy Father speaks of this in his recent encyclical, and asks populations to be more aware. However, a lot of abstention occurs. If we look at election results, abstention is almost greater than a party …

Pope Francis: Because the people don’t … they are disillusioned. In part because of corruption. In part, because of inefficiency. In part, because of previously undertaken commitments. And, anyway, Europe can and should - and I affirm what I said in Strasbourg - Europe has to take on it’s role: that is, to recover her identity. It’s true that Europe went wrong. I’m not throwing it back in her face. I’m reminding of it: nothing more. When I wanted to speak of her identity, I didn’t recognize, perhaps, the deepest part of her identity, which are her Christian roots, right? That was wrong. Ok, but we all make mistakes in life. It’s time to return to her …

Miguel: Holiness, a question for the “simple listener,” also due to this wave of individualism: What can touch the freedom of someone who “does what they want” and who was educated as a child with the concept of happiness of those for whom “happiness is to not have problems?” Generally, children are educated with this desire of those for whom “happiness is not having problems and doing what they want …” (laughs)

Pope Francis: A life without problems is boring. It’s a boredom. Inside, man has the need to face and resolve conflicts and solve problems. Obviously, an education to not have problems is a sterile education, sterile. Make the experiment yourself! Drink a good glass of mineral water, plain water, or “tap” water, and after drink a glass of distilled water. It’ll be gross. Distilled water has no problems. It’s to educate children in a laboratory, right? Please.

Miguel: It’s important to take risks.

Pope Francis: Risk, always set goals. To educate, we need to use both feet — to educate well. Having a foot well planted on the floor, the pavement, that piece of pavement … well supported. Is the other foot well supported there? No, the other foot is a step ahead and seeing if I can support it. And when I have planted the other, I lift and … this is educating. To find support on something secure, but trying to take a step forward until I have security and, from there, [I draw it out.]

Miguel: It’s more tiring to educate like this …

Pope Francis: It’s a risk. Why? Because maybe I take a bad step and I fall. And well, you get up and continue.

Miguel: Holiness, in the wave of individualism in which we are living - the Holy Father spoke of this in Strasbourg - it seems like a whim to demand increasingly more rights separated from the search for the truth. Do you think this is also a problem in the way the faith is lived?

Pope Francis: It could be. And demands … without the generosity of giving. That is, to demand my rights and not my duties toward society, is it not? I think that rights and duties go together, right? Also, this creates a “mirror-education,” because a “mirror-education” is narcissism and today we are in a narcissistic civilization.

Miguel: How do you win? How do you fight?

Pope Francis: With education. For example, rights and duties. With education to the reasonable risks. Looking for goals, making progress, but not by standing still and looking in the mirror, right? What happened to Narcissus will happen to us. Looking at himself so much in the beautiful water, so pretty, bloop, he drowned. (laughs)

Miguel: Holiness, you say you prefer a “accident-prone” Church rather than a sick Church. What do you mean when you say “accident-prone” Church?

Pope Francis: Yes, let me explain: it’s an image of life. If one has a space in his home: a room closed a lot of the time, (there is) humidity, “mold,” the bad odor. If a Church, a parish, a diocese, an institute lives closed in on itself, it becomes sick. The same happens in a closed room. And (what) we have is a rickety Church, with fixed norms, without creativity, safe, more than secure — no, insured by an insurance company, but not secure. On the other hand, if one goes out - a Church, a parish - goes outside to evangelize, the same can happen that happens to any person on the street: an accident. So, between a sick Church and an accident-prone Church, I prefer the accident-prone, because at least it goes out. And here - I want to repeat something that I said before on a different occasion - in the Bible, in the Apocalypse, there is something beautiful from Jesus - I think in the second chapter, the end of the first or the second - where he is speaking about a Church and says: “I stand at the door and knock.” It is Jesus knocking. “If you open for me, I will come in and dine with you.” But I ask myself: “how many times, in the Church, does Jesus knock at the door, but from within so that we leave him to go out and announce the Kingdom.” Sometimes, we position ourselves on the other side of Jesus and we forget that a Church which is not an outgoing Church, a Church which doesn’t go out, holds Jesus prisoner, imprisoned.

Miguel: Was it because of this you were elected Pope? (laughs)

Pope Francis: Ask the Holy Spirit that. (laughs openly)

Miguel: They say that it was with this speech, which earned applause …

Pope Francis: They are … (inaudible words … )

Miguel: Holiness, since you became Pope, do you think that the Church is more accident prone?

Pope Francis: I don’t know. I know that, for what they tell me, God is blessing his Church a lot. It’s a moment that doesn’t depend on my person, but on the blessing that God wants to give to his Church at this time, right? And now, with this Jubilee of Mercy, I hope that many people feel the Church a mother, because the same thing can happen to the Church as to Europe, right? To be too much of a grandmother and not a mother, right? and unable to generate life, right?

Miguel: Is this the reason for the Jubilee of Mercy …

Pope Francis: It’s that everyone may come. That they come and feel the love, the forgiveness of God. In Buenos Aires, I knew a Capuchin friar - a little younger than me - who is a great confessor. He always has a line, many people, yes many people, all day confessing. And he is a great forgiver. And sorry, but, sometimes, he gets scruples for having forgiven a lot. And so, one time talking, he told me: “sometimes I have these scruples.” And I asked him: “What do you do when you have these scruples?” - “I go in front of the tabernacle, I look at the Lord, and I tell him: Lord, forgive me, today I have forgiven a lot, but let’s make it clear, eh? The blame is yours because you gave me a bad example.”

Miguel: Because of this the Holy Father also decided, in this letter to Archbishop Fisichella, to offer forgiveness to the most difficult situations and now you have published these letters (motu proprio) which accelerate the annulment process. Does this also have to do with the Jubilee?

Pope Francis: Yes, to simplify. To facilitate the faith to the people, right? And that the Church may be a mother, right?

Miguel: The reason for these motu proprio letters for annulments is exactly to facilitate?

Pope Francis: To make more “agile,” to streamline the process in the hands of the Bishop. A judge, a Defender of the Bond, only one sentence, because until now there were two sentences. No, only one. If there is no appeal, it’s already done. If there is an appeal, to the Metropolitan (diocese), but to streamline and also cost-free processes.

Miguel: The Holy Father has also thought of the synod in the Jubilee?

Pope Francis: Everything is coming up.

Miguel: I know that you don’t want to speak about the Synod, but in your heart as a universal shepherd, what are you asking?

Pope Francis: I’m asking for lots of prayers. The Synod, you, the journalists, already know the Instrumentum Laboris. This is going to be talked about. From what is there, we will speak. There are three weeks, one theme, one chapter for each week. And many things are expected. Because, obviously, the family is in crisis. Young people don’t marry. They don’t marry. Or with this “provisional” culture, “ok, cohabitating, or I get married, while love lasts, then, see ya.”

Miguel: And what does the Holy Father say to those who live a Christian morality contrary to the instructions of the Church and who are anxious for forgiveness?

Pope Francis: Here, in the Synod, all of the possibilities of helping the family are going to be talked about. May one thing remain clear - which Pope Benedict said clearly, clearly: people who are in a second union are not excommunicated and must be integrated into the life of the Church. This was very clear. And I, in the (Wednesday) catechesis, I said it clearly the other day, right? To get closer to the Mass, to catechesis, to the education of children, to the works of charity, a thousand things, right?

Miguel: Holiness, I would like to finish with questions on your vocation. From the beginning, in March 2013, you were prepared to go “into retirement.” You had already chosen where to live, etc. However, you have become one of the most famous men in the world. How do you live this situation?

Pope Francis: I haven’t lost peace. It’s a gift … peace is a gift from God. It’s a gift that God has given me, something that I never imagined, because of my age, for all that. Moreover, I had planned the return, thinking that no Pope was going to assume (the papacy) during Holy Week. So, if we delayed in choosing him, anticipating the function to the Saturday before Palm Sunday. And I got a return ticket so that Palm Sunday Mass could be celebrated and I left the homily prepared on my desk. It was something I didn’t expect and, already in December, I was leaving the position to which a successor was going to be named. So …

Miguel: There is an entire adventure, now, in front of you …

Pope Francis: Everything … but I haven’t lost peace. I haven’t lost peace.

Miguel: Pope Francis is loved by all the world, your popularity is growing, as the polls reveal, so many want to see you as a candidate for the Nobel Prize … but Jesus warned his followers: “You will be hated because of my name.” How do you feel, Holiness?

Pope Francis: Many times I ask myself what will be my cross, what is my cross. Because crosses exist. You don’t see them but they are there. And Jesus also was very popular at one time, and afterward he ended up like he ended up, right? That is, no one has purchased worldly happiness. The only thing I ask, is that the peace in my heart is preserved and that I am preserved in his grace, because until the final moment one is a sinner and can deny his grace. One thing consoles me: that St. Peter committed a very serious sin - to deny Jesus. After this they made him Pope. If with this sin they made him Pope, with all that I have, I console myself: Okay, the Lord will take care of me as he took care of Peter. But Peter was crucified, so I don’t know how I will finish. Whatever he decides. As long as he gives me peace, he can do what he wants.

Miguel: Holy Father, how do you live your freedom being Pope? How come you have appeared in a morning Mass at St. Peter’s and went to an eye doctor to repair your glasses … Do you miss the people?

Pope Francis: Yes. I need to go out, but it’s still a little … These aren’t the times, right? But, little by little, I have contact with people on Wednesdays and this helps me a lot, right? Yes, the only thing I miss from Buenos Aires is to go out to “stroll around,” to walk down the street.

Miguel: And let’s finish with flash questions: What takes your sleep away?

Pope Francis: Can I tell you the truth? I sleep like a log. (laughs)

Miguel: What makes you run?

Pope Francis: When I have a lot of work.

Miguel: What is never urgent and can wait?

Pope Francis: What’s never urgent? Small things that can wait until tomorrow, the day after. There are things which are very urgent. Others are not urgent. But I couldn’t say specifically this is more urgent that another.

Miguel: How often do you confess?

Pope Francis: Every fifteen, twenty days. I confess to a Franciscan Father, Father Blanco, who has the goodness to come here to hear my confession. And yes, I never had to call an ambulance to take him back, afraid of my sins. (laughs)

Miguel: How and where would you like to die?

Pope Francis: Wherever God wants. Seriously, no … wherever God wants …

Miguel: The last: how do you imagine eternity?

Pope Francis: When I was younger, I imagined it very boring. (laughs). Now I think that it’s a Mystery of encounter. It’s so unimaginable, but must be something very nice, very beautiful to meet with the Lord.

Miguel: Thank you, Holy Father.

Pope Francis: Thanks to you and a big greeting to all the listeners on this radio. And, please, I ask them to pray for me. May God bless you and the Virgin of Fatima watch over you.

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VATICAN NEWS

As the cross is lifted high, we must bring ourselves low, Pope says

by CNA/EWTN News • September 14, 2015

Pope Francis says Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Sept. 14, 2014. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — Today’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reminds us that the way of Christ and his followers is one of humble surrender, Pope Francis said in his homily on Monday.

“(I)f a Christian wants to make progress on the path of the Christian life, he must lower himself, as Jesus lowered himself: this is the path of humility,” the Holy Father said during his Sept. 14 Mass at the chapel of the Saint Martha guesthouse in the Vatican.

He said that while many beautiful images of the crucifixion may help us meditate on the Lord’s sacrifice, what happened was “very different” from what most paintings depict. The reality is that Christ “was all torn and bloodied by our sins,” the Pope said.

To illustrate this point, the Pope turned his attention to the figure of the serpent, which seemed to be the “protagonist of today’s readings.”

In the first reading, from the book of Numbers, the Lord’s instructions for Moses to raise up the bronze serpent to save the people from the serpent’s venom illustrates “a promise that is not easy to understand.”

The Lord chose “this bad, ugly figure” of the serpent to prefigure Christ on the Cross “because Jesus came to take all our sins on himself,” the Holy Father said. Focusing on the second reading, Philippians 2:6-11, he said Christ became as “the greatest sinner, without having ever committed a sin.”

In the Gospel reading, John 3:13-17, “Jesus himself explained Moses’ act a bit further to Nicodemus.” Just as the prophet had “lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

It is through this image that we understand that, “this is the way that (Jesus) has taken in order to defeat the serpent in his field”, he said.

If we ask God for help on our Christian journey, the Roman Pontiff concluded, he “gives us the grace that we ask of Our Lady who was under the Cross: the grace to cry, to cry out of love, to cry out of gratitude, because our God loved us so much that he sent his Son to lower himself and allow himself to be crushed in order to save us.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis will likely meet Fidel Castro during Cuba visit

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

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on May 28, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — While Pope Francis is in Cuba next week chances are high that he will meet with former president Fidel Castro, though no specific time has been set, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has announced.

Anticipating questions on whether a meeting between the Pope and the former Cuban president would happen, Fr. Lombardi said that “in all likelihood it’s very predictable that it will happen, clearly during the day in Havana.”

However, he stressed that it hasn’t put in the schedule at a specific time, “so we have to see when is easier, or when it’s possible to organize it. But it’s very likely that it will happen.”

“The desire has also been expressed by the State, also when President Raul Castro came here to Rome, so it’s quite normal.”

Fr. Lombardi made his comments during a Sept. 15 press briefing on the Pope’s upcoming trip to Cuba and the United States.

Pope Francis will arrive at the Cuban capital of Havana this Saturday, Sept. 19, where he will receive an official welcome. The next morning he is set to meet with Raul Castro, current Cuban president and younger brother to Fidel, leader of Cuba’s communist revolution.

He will travel to Holguín Sept. 21, where he will celebrate Mass and bless the city before flying to Santiago that evening. He departs from Santiago at 12:30 p.m. on the 22nd, and is scheduled to land in Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. local time.

Raul Castro met with Francis at the Vatican May 10, where the two spoke about the Pope’s role in bettering relations between Cuba and the United States. They also spoke of Francis’ visit to Cuba, which falls directly ahead of his week-long trip to the United States.

Last fall Pope Francis helped to broker improved relations between Cuba and the United States, culminating in the full restoration of diplomatic ties after 50 years of strained relations.

After their May meeting, Castro thanked the Pope “for his active role in the development of the improvement of relations between Cuba and the United States of America.”

He also suggested he could return to the Church in the future. “I will start praying again and return to the Church” if the Pope continues what he has been doing, Raul Castro said.

Fr. Lombardi also announced during the press briefing that Pope Francis will administer First Communion to five children during Sunday’s Mass in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución.

The Pope giving First Communions is a first for him on a trip abroad, the spokesman said, noting that it serves as a sign “of hope and growth” for Church in Cuba.

Lombardi also noted how the Pope’s visit Monday to Santiago’s shrine for Our Lady of Charity falls during the 100th anniversary of the letter sent to Pope Benedict XV by veterans of the Cuban war for independence, asking him to declare her Patroness of Cuba. This detail, he said, makes the visit more significant for the Cuban people.

A press conference during the 3.5 hour flight from Cuba to the United States is also a possibility, he said, but stressed that it will be done only if it’s possible, and if the Pope agrees.

Pope Francis lands in Washington D.C. the evening of Sept. 23, where he will be welcomed by President Obama, the First Lady and likely their two children. He will speak to them and U.S. authorities in English the next morning.

Following his private meeting with the president, Francis will speak with the more than 400 bishops of the U.S., giving them a general speech before heading to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where he will canonize Bl. Junipero Serra.

Francis will address the U.S. Congress Sept. 24 around 10a.m. in English, which Fr. Lombardi said will be an opportunity for him to speak to all U.S. citizens, “not just the Catholics.”

The Pope’s visit to the headquarters of the United Nations in New York the following morning will take place in Spanish, the spokesman said, and will be followed by an interreligious gathering at Ground Zero.

Pope Francis’ visit to the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks will be different than that of Benedict XVI when he went in 2008, he said, because since then the memorial and museum have been finished.

Fr. Lombardi stressed that the fundamental character of the Pope’s visit to Ground Zero is the interreligious encounter set to take place there, adding that “the ecumenical, interreligious moment of the trip is at Ground Zero.”

Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. will culminate with his participation in the Philadelphia World Meeting of Families, which is expected to draw large crowds, especially for Francis’ closing Mass Sept. 27.

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VATICAN NEWS

Four American prelates added to synod list by Pope Francis

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

Bishops with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 6, 2014. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk)

Vatican City — The official list of participants in this year’s synod of bishops on the family has been released, showing 45 new names personally appointed by Pope Francis – four of whom are Americans.

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, and Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio have officially been added to the list of voting participants in the October gathering.

They will join four other American prelates already elected by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, raising the number of American participants to 8.

Those previously appointed by the USCCB are Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville and President of the USCCB; Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia; Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Cardinal Daniel N. Di Nardo of Galveston-Houston, who is vice president of the USCCB.

Other participants chosen by the Pope represent a diverse group of Church leaders from Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, including Cardinal Soane Mafi of Tonga, who was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in February.

Pope Francis’ new additions included a total of 279 cardinals, bishops, and priests from all over the world, who will be able to actively take part in the synod, voting on documents and specific issues.

Released by the Vatican Sept. 15, the list also includes the names of the synod’s 34 auditors, which includes 17 individuals and 17 couples. Although auditors are allowed to attend synod sessions and participate in the discussions, they are not able to vote.

Among the 17 individual auditors – 13 of whom are women – is American Sr. Maureen Kelleher of the Sacred Heart of Mary.

A member of the International Union of Superiors General, Sr. Kelleher is a civil attorney who has worked extensively with low-income families, immigrants and women and children that have faced violence.

Philadelphia couple Catherine and Anthony Witczak will also be auditing, and are in charge of Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s International Ecclesial Team. The organization is a faith-based movement dedicated to building stronger marriages.

Other Americans involved in the synod include Archbishop William Skurla of the Ruthenian Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Archbishop Skurla will represent one of the 15 Eastern Catholic Churches participating in the synod. He will be joined by Patriarch Youssif III Younan of the Syriac Catholic Church; Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai O.M.M. of the Maronite Catholic Church; Patriarch Luis Raphael Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church; Gregoire Pierre XX Ghabroyan of the Armenian Catholic Church; and Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, among others.

Four Americans will also be among the 32 assistants helping the syond’s General Secretariat, headed by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri. They are Fr. Jonathan Flemings, L.C., Fr. Brian Needles, Fr. Stephen Prisk and Fr. William Donovan, who for the past two years has served as Archbishop Charles Chaput’s liaison to the Pontifical Council for the Family on behalf of the World Meeting of Families.

Dr. John Grabowski, Professor of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America will also join the synod as a collaborator.

In addition to the various Church leaders filing in for October’s meeting, there will also be a number of non-Catholic observers, including Robert K. Welsh of the Church for Disciples of Christ, who heads that ecclesial community’s Council on Christian Unity.

In total, there will be 18 Americans – participants, auditors and collaborators included – among those gathered in the Vatican for the three-week October meeting, plus Fr. Manuel Dorantes of Chicago, who will be assisting with the Spanish-speaking media.

Other participants appointed by Pope Francis include: Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals; Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop emeritus of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium; Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Archbishop of Vienna and president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference; Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity; Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Archbishop of Durban, South Africa; Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras and President of the Honduran Episcopal Conference; Cardinal Peter Erdo, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, President of the Hungarian Episcopal Conference and President of the Council for European Episcopal Conferences; Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, Archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil; Cardinal Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Milan, Philippines and President of Caritas Internationalis; Cardinal Alberto Suarez Inda, Archbishop of Morelia, Mexico; Archbishop Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto, Italy; Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina; Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, Dean of the Roman Rota; Jesuit Fr. Francois-Xavier Dumortier, head of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Italian Catholic magazine “La Civiltà Cattolica.”

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VATICAN NEWS

For Pope Francis, religious fundamentalism diverts us from the true God

by CNA/EWTN News • September 16, 2015

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

Vatican City — Religious fundamentalism keeps God at a distance, and keeps believers from building bridges with others, Pope Francis reflected on Sunday during a radio interview.

“Our God is a God who is close, who accompanies. Fundamentalists keep God away from accompanying his people, they divert their minds from him and transform him into an ideology. So in the name of this ideological god, they kill, they attack, destroy, slander. Practically speaking, they transform that God into a Baal, an idol,” he said in a radio interview that aired Sept. 13.

“No religion is immune from its own fundamentalisms,” he said. “In every religion there will be a small group of fundamentalists whose work is to destroy for the sake of an idea, and not reality. And reality is superior to ideas.”

The Pope said that no religion is immune from the possibility of fundamentalism. He said fundamentalism, instead of creating a bridge, creates a wall that blocks encounter with another person. It seeks ways to disagree. With fundamentalism, he said, “you can’t have friendship between peoples.”

His comments came in a wide-ranging interview with Marcelo Figueroa, an evangelical Protestant who is a personal friend of the Pope and journalist at Buenos Aires’ Radio Milenium.

In his other comments, the Pope noted that many of the faithful pour out their lives to him when he meets them.

“A priest has to be a bridge, that’s why they call him a pontiff,” he said, alluding to the original, literal meaning of “pontifex” as “bridge-builder.”

He warned of the temptation for priests and bishops to withdraw from “from those kinds of people Jesus spent Mathew 25 talking about.” The Pope compared them to legalists, the Pharisees and the Sadducees who taught the law and thought themselves to be pure.

The Pope also discussed his encyclical Laudato si, on care for our common home.

“It’s obvious we’re mistreating creation. We’re not the friends of creation, we treat her sometimes like the worst enemy,” he said.

He noted problems like deforestation, water misuse, the depletion of fertile croplands and mineral extraction using poisonous chemicals. He stressed mankind’s mission to care for the earth and warned against “misusing creation to carry out his purposes.”

Mankind is also part of creation, and the Pope’s concerns include abuse of mankind by “a system set up to make money.”

The Pope also spoke about his firsthand experience of people who abuse friendship, something “very sacred,” for personal gain. This form of friendship “pains me,” he said.

“I have felt used by some people who have presented themselves as ‘friends’ with whom I may not have seen more than once or twice in my lifetime, and they used this for their own gain. But this is an experience which we have all undergone: utilitarian friendship,” the Pope said.

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VATICAN NEWS

Women protect humanity against evil, Pope Francis says

by Ann Schneible and Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • September 16, 2015

Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his Oct. 1, 2014 General Audience. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Women have a special God-given role in protecting each generation against the evils of its time, Pope Francis said in characteristically off-the-cuff remarks during his weekly Wednesday general audience.

Reflecting on Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, Pope Francis noted that this first man and woman failed at protecting the creation that had been entrusted to them by God, resulting in the inheritance of original sin for all of mankind.

However, God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve as a “gesture of tenderness,” to show that He did not wish us to be left “naked and abandoned to our destiny as sinners,” Pope Francis said.

Rather than abandoning us to this “disease” of original sin, God set up a woman as a “protective barrier” against the evils of every generation, he added.

“This means that the woman carries a secret and special blessing” for defending us against evil, the pontiff said, recalling the woman from the book of Revelation who hid her son from the dragon.

“Think about that depth which is opened here! There exist many stereotypes – which are often offensive – about the temptress woman who inspires evil.”

“Rather, there is a place for a theology of woman who has the height of this blessing from God for her and for her generation!”

Christ himself was “born of a woman,” the Pope said, and “is the tenderness of God on our wounds, on our mistakes, on our sins. But God loves us as we are, and he wants to carry us forward with this great plan.”

Good families, too, serves as a protection against evil when men and women are in a “conjugal-familial” alliance.

“(The family) saves us from many, many attacks, destruction, colonizations – such as (the colonization) of money,” or those “ideologies which greatly threaten the world,” he said.

The Pope made his off-the-cuff comments in Italian during his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 16.

Since last year, the pontiff has been dedicating his Wednesday catechesis on themes of marriage and family as part of the lead-up to the World Meeting of Families in September, as well as October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family.

“Both (of these events) have a global importance, which corresponds to the universal dimension of Christianity, but also to the universal scope of this fundamental and irreplaceable human community which is, precisely, the family,” the Pope said.

At the end of the general audience, Pope Francis asked for prayers ahead of his upcoming trip to Cuba and the United States.

Highlights of his trip, which will span from Sept. 19-28, will include the canonization of Blessed Junipero Serra at Washington D.C.’s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, his visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York, and the World Meeting of Families in Washington, D.C.

The Pope asked for “light and strength of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary Most Holy, Patroness of Cuba as the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, and Patroness of the United States of America as the Immaculate Conception.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Francis’ Council of Cardinals proposes a new congregation for the Roman Curia

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • September 16, 2015

View of St. Peter’s Basilica from inside the Vatican on October 27, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — The Council of Cardinals finally submitted to Pope Francis on Wednesday a proposal to establish a new congregation for laity, family, and life in the Roman Curia, after widespread discussion and anticipation.

The council of nine cardinals, who are advising the Pope on reform of the Roman Curia, met at the Vatican Sept. 14-16.

Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Emeritus Archbishop of Milan, had prepared for Pope Francis a study on the feasibility of creating a congregation for laity, family, and life, and presented his findings to the council.

Having formally recommended the creation of the laity-family-life congregation, the Council of Cardinals is still discussing the proposal of another new congregation, for charity, justice, and peace.

It is planned that the congregation for laity, family, and life would absorb the Pontifical Councils for the Laity and Family, and the Pontifical Academy of Life. A congregation for charity, justice, and peace would take on the tasks of the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Migrants, Cor Unum, and Health Care.

It is now up to Pope Francis to decide how to receive and implement the council’s recommendations.

At the Sept. 16 press briefing presenting the findings of the council, Fr. Federico Lombardi, Holy See press officer, noted that that work of the council “is not only focused on curial reform: the cardinals are also called to advise the Pope on the government of the universal Church.”

To that end, they also discussed a possible reform of the procedure for the appointment of bishops, in particular discussing “the qualities and requisites for candidates in view of the needs of today’s world, and on the related issue of information gathering.” Fr. Lombardi added that this will be discussed further, and with the relevant dicasteries.

The Council of Cardinals also heard from Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, prefect of the recently established Secretariat for Communications.

Msgr. Viganò explained that the secretariat has appointed a group of experts, drawn from the involved institutes, to draft its statutes. The statutes are to emphasize the legal and administrative aspects of the Holy See’s communications.

During the last meeting of the Council of Cardinals, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors advanced a proposal to establish a new judicial section in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to judge eventual wrongdoing of bishops in cases of abuse. The Pope accepted the proposal and established a five year period for further development of these proposals and for completing a formal evaluation of their effectiveness.

This theme was raised during the last Council of the Cardinals. Fr. Lombardi said that “the matter of how to implement proposals was explored in further depth, especially with regard to the possibility of accelerating the resolution of the many cases still pending.”

There was also discussion about a draft preamble of the new apostolic constitution defining the Roman Curia, which will replace St. John Paul II’s Pastor bonus.

The 12th meeting of the Council of Cardinals will take place Dec. 10-12.

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VATICAN NEWS

Francis: Sex workers, abandoned children are a result of our indifference

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

Homeless children on the street in Manila, Philippines on Jan. 18, 2015. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — On Thursday Pope Francis said that abandoned children and exploited sex workers forced to live on the street are a “shameful reality” in modern society, and encouraged efforts to find more concrete ways to help them.

“(These) sad realities … are the result of indifference, poverty, family and social violence, and human trafficking,” the Pope said Sept. 17.

“They involve the pain of marital separations and the birth of children out of wedlock, frequently doomed to a life of vagrancy.”

Children and women subjected to life on the street, he said, “are not numbers or ‘packets’ to be traded; they are human beings, each with his or her own name and face, each with a God-given identity.”

Francis’ words were addressed to participants in the International Symposium on the Pastoral Care of the Street. Held in Rome Sept. 13-17, the gathering was organized by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

“No child chooses to live on the streets,” the Pope said, noting that even in a modern, globalized world numerous children are still robbed of both their childhood, rights and their future.

A lack of legal protection and inadequate structures aggravates the situation, he said, since often these children have no true family or access to health care and education.

Every child either abandoned or forced to live on the streets, many “at the mercy of criminal organizations, is a cry rising up to God,” Francis said. “It is an indictment of a social system which we have criticized for decades, but which we find hard to change in conformity with criteria of justice.”

Pope Francis also said that it is “troubling” to see the increasing number of young women and girls who are “forced to earn a living on the street by selling their own bodies.”

Frequently these women are victims of exploitation either by criminal organizations or even parents or family members, he observed, saying this is “a shameful reality in our societies, which boast of being modern and possessed of high levels of culture and development.”

The Pope faulted widespread corruption and greed as the root causes for these injustices, which rob the innocent and vulnerable of having a dignified life, and help sustain criminal organizations.

“No one can remain unmoved before the pressing need to safeguard the dignity of women, threatened by cultural and economic factors!”

Francis told participants not to be discouraged by the depth of the challenges they face in their work, and encouraged them to turn to Christ, who always maintained a special love for the weak and outcast.

The Church “cannot remain silent, nor can her institutions turn a blind eye to the baneful reality of street children and street women,” he said, and charged Christian communities in every country to get involved “at all levels” to everything that causes women and children to live on the streets.

Mercy, the Pope noted, is “the supreme act by which God comes to meet us; it is the way which opens our hearts to the hope of an everlasting love.”

Pope Francis concluded by praying for the participants and their work, before entrusting them to the care and intercession of Mary.

“May the sweetness of her gaze accompany the efforts and the firm purpose of all those who care for street children and street women.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis will arrive to Cuba as a ‘missionary of mercy’

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

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

Vatican City — On the eve of his arrival to Cuba Pope Francis sent a video message to the small island nation, expressing his desire to be a witness of God’s mercy in the country, and to encourage locals to do the same.

“I want to be among you as a missionary of mercy, of the tenderness of God, but allow me also to encourage you to be missionaries of this infinite love of God,” the Pope said in his message.

Broadcast Sept. 17, the Pope’s message was in Spanish, and aired on Cuban television at 8:30p.m. local time in Havana.

Francis is scheduled to visit Cuba Sept. 19-22, where he will meet with the current president, Raul Castro as well as the island’s bishops and Catholic population. He is also expected to meet with former president and older brother to Raul, Fidel Castro.

In the video, Pope Francis said that he is coming in order “to share faith and hope, so that we can strengthen each other mutually in following Jesus.”

The Pope said his message for Cuba was simple, yet important: “Jesus loves you very much, Jesus loves you, but seriously.”

Jesus, he said, “always carries you in his heart; he knows better than anyone what each person needs, what they yearn for, what the deepest desires of our hearts are; he never abandons us and when we don’t behave as he hopes, he always stays by our side, ready to welcome us, comfort us, and give us new hope, a new opportunity, a new life. He never goes away, he is always there.”

Francis then thanked the country for the prayers they have been offering ahead of his visit as the behest of local bishops.

He said one prayer that has brought him a lot of joy is the daily repetition of the children’s prayer: “Sacred Heart of Jesus, make my heart like yours.”

Pope Francis concluded his message by noting how he will visit the Cuban Shrine of the Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, and said that he is going “as a pilgrim, but even more, as a son who wants to arrive to the house of his Mother.”

He entrusted the visit and all Cubans to her care, and asked that they continue to pray for him.

On Sept. 17 Pope Francis also participated in special television program with American and Cuban youth, organized by Scholas Occurrentes as a lead-in to his Sept. 19-17 trip to Cuba and the United States, according to a Sept. 17 communique from the Vatican.

Scholas was founded by Pope Francis while he was still archbishop of Buenos Aires as an initiative to encourage social integration and the culture of encounter through technology, arts and sports.

In addition to hosting two google-hangout sessions with the Pope and youth from around the world, one with special needs children, Scholas also played a key role in organizing Pope Francis’ interreligious soccer match for peace in 2014.

Two different groups of youth participated in the Sept. 17 program with the Pope, one with five students from New York, and the other with five students from different schools in the Cuban capital of Havana.

During the conversation, which was held via satellite connection, the youth expressed their hopes and expectations, while Pope Francis responded, and answered questions posed on various themes.

The program was done in collaboration with The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and was filmed by CNN in New York, and by Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center on the part of the Pope.

It is scheduled to be broadcast on CNN Friday evening, Sept. 18 at 8p.m. local time in New York.

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VATICAN NEWS

No one can play dumb on what’s happening in the Middle East, Pope says

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

Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 3, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — While the international community can’t seem to find solutions to the current crisis ravaging the Middle East, thanks to the media it’s caught the world’s attention and can’t be ignored, Pope Francis said.

He referred to the “overwhelming human tragedies” taking place in Iraq and Syria as a result of ongoing conflicts, which have caused millions to flee their homes.

The Pope’s words were addressed to participants in a Sept. 17 meeting sponsored by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum to address the current humanitarian crisis in Iraq and Syria.

He said that Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey are bearing the brunt of the weight, having received millions of refugees, he noted, saying they have been generous in welcoming those seeking to escape violence.

“Faced with such a situation and conflicts that are expanding and disturbing in an alarming way the internal and regional equilibrium, the international community seems unable to find adequate solutions while the arms dealers continue to achieve their interests.”

However, unlike in the past, the terrible atrocities and human rights violations which characterize the conflicts “are transmitted live by the media. Therefore, they captured the attention of the whole world.”

“No one can pretend not to know!” Francis said, adding that in his view, it’s obvious to see that those most affected by the wars are the poor. A non-violent solution is needed, “because violence only creates new wounds,” he said.

In attendance at the Cor Unum were several Middle Eastern bishops and representatives of various Catholic charitable organizations who work in the region. Among them were Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso, secretary of Cor Unum; Msgr. Alberto Ortega Mart?n, Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq and Jordan; Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; Msgr. Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria and Bishop Antoine Audo, Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo.

Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations, was also present.

Pope Francis urged attendees not to miss their “vital commitment” in caring for both the spiritual and material needs of the most weakest and most defenseless, particularly families, children and the elderly.

In Iraq and Syria, he said, evil doesn’t just destroy buildings and infrastructure, but also and especially “the conscience of man.”

“In the name of Jesus, who came into the world to heal the wounds of humanity, the Church feels called to respond to evil with good by promoting an integral human development,” the Pope said, and encouraged Catholics to strengthen intra-ecclesial ties and collaborative efforts.

“Please: do not abandon the victims of this crisis, even if the world’s attention were to lessen.”

According to United Nations, so far more than 200,000 people have been killed and over 1 million injured since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011. And 8.6 million people are currently in need of immediate humanitarian assistance in Iraq, while in Syria the number is 12.2 million.

Those internally displaced by violence number 7.6 million in Syria and 3.2 million in Iraq, while 4.1 million Syrians alone have fled since 2011, and are taking refuge in neighboring countries.

United Nations statistics show that currently there are 1.9 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, 1.1 million in Lebanon and more than 600,000 in Jordan.

An annual survey carried out by the Information Focal Point – formed by several Catholic aid agencies in 2014 and which is based at Cor Unum – Church entities in 2014 raised $126 million for humanitarian efforts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus, the countries involved in the survey.

While funding has gone up to $150 million so far in 2015, participants in the meeting expressed concern that the trend won’t last long, and that donors will soon tire of continuous giving.

The extent that aid reaches is widespread, ranging throughout almost the entire crisis areas, including internally and externally displaced persons, as well as areas that are risky and hard to access.

Organizations contributing to the survey note that the aid is distributed via at least 2,000 professionals and 5,000 volunteers, in addition to the volunteers, priests, and religious who work daily within dioceses and communities.

Key areas of intervention have been education, food aid, assistance in non-food items, healthcare and rent and shelter. Areas deemed insufficiently covered in the 7 countries covered by the survey were education, livelihoods, psychological and social support and rent and shelter assistance.

Priorities for the future were identified as education psychological support for children and families, healthcare, food aid, livelihoods and rent and shelter.

In comments made to CNA/EWTN News, Sept. 17, Msgr. Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, said that the Pope’s words on putting a stop to the arms trade hit on the essence of what needs to change if the current conflicts are to come to an end.

“I think it’s at a critical point to stop the flow of weapons to the Middle East,” he said, and cautioned that after years of war, “hate is gaining and gaining in the hearts of people.”

“People, they don’t trust each other. There is too much hate,” the nuncio continued, adding that “everybody sees this happening.”

“I think the international community must multiply the efforts in order to convince or to oblige the conflicting parties to see that they are able to reach some compromises.”

Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations, told journalists during the conference that working with Catholic charities has been crucial in getting aid to those in need, thanks to the vast network they have.

Speaking to CNA/EWTN News, he said that the Catholic Church “has got a vast network, and it’s that network of people deep in their communities who have been there for generations who really know what is going on locally.”

He stressed the need to listen “very carefully to the expertise, the knowledge, the experience” of those who have been on the ground locally for generations as well as the charities that offer support from abroad.

“So it’s been a very, very important discussion to look at the intensifying of our partnership with such a strong network, as clearly the Catholic Church and the Catholic charities represent.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican parish welcomes first refugee family following Pope’s appeal

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

St. Anne’s parish in Vatican City. (Author Lalupa via Wikimedia Commons 3.0)

Vatican City — A family of four has been welcomed by the community of the Vatican’s St. Anne parish after Pope Francis’ made an appeal earlier this month for every church in Europe open their doors to refugees.

Papal Almoner Bishop Konrad Krajewski issued a Sept. 18 statement that the family – a father, mother and two children – have already been received.

Syrian Christians of Catholic Greek-Melkite rite, the family fled their war-torn city of Damascus, and arrived to the Vatican Sept. 6, the day that Pope Francis, during his Sunday Angelus, made his appeal for every parish, religious community, monastery and shrine in Europe to take in a family.

“Faced with the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing death on account of war and hunger, and who are traveling toward a hope for life, the Gospel calls us to be ‘neighbors’ to the smallest and abandoned, (and) to give them a concrete hope,” the Pope said that day.

“Therefore, in the imminence of the Year of Mercy, I make an appeal to the parishes, to religious communities, to monasteries, and sanctuaries of all Europe to express the concreteness of the Gospel, and to welcome a family of refugees.”

According to the papal almoner’s statement on Friday, the family will stay in an apartment inside the Vatican near St. Peter’s Basilica. All necessary procedures requesting international protection for the family were started immediately.

Since current legislation doesn’t allow asylum applicants to apply for paid work for the first six months after the request, the family will be assisted by the St. Anne parish community during that time.

The almoner stressed that no further information can be given about the family until Italy makes the decision as to whether the family’s status as refugees will be granted. It was also asked that the family’s privacy be respected during this time, particularly with regard to media attention and interviews.

Bishop Krajewski said he could provide no further information regarding the accommodation status of a second family for St. Peter’s parish in the Vatican at the present time.

However, in a in a Sept. 8 interview with Vatican journalist Aura Miguel of Portugal-based Radio Renascença (Renaissance), the Pope affirmed that families have already been found for both parishes – St. Anne’s and St. Peter’s – thanks to both Bishop Krajewski and Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Vicar General for the Vatican.

In the interview, published Sept. 14, Francis said he specifically asked for parishes and communities to take in a family rather than a person because “a family gives more safety,” and the risk of “infiltrations” is lower.

He clarified that when he asked for refugees to be welcomed, he’s not necessarily asking that they be welcomed into the parish or community house, but that the parish or community finds “a place, a corner of a school to make a ‘small apartment.”

“Or, in the worst case, rent a modest apartment for the family, but that they have a ceiling, to be welcomed, and that they are integrated into the community.”

The Vatican communique also underlined the fact that for many years Popes, via their Almoner, have offered assistance to refugees for the payment of taxes for the issue of stay permits through the Jesuit-run Centro Astalli.

It was also noted that the papal almoner, on behalf of the Pope, offers daily assistance to numerous individuals and families of refugees in addition to meeting various needs, including healthcare, at reception centers throughout Rome.

Also noted was the fact that a mobile clinic given to the Pope a few years ago, and which has so far been used only during events that the Pope participates in, has now been made available several times a week in order to help refugees in reception centers, irregular ones included, on the outskirts of Rome.

The volunteers at the clinic, all of whom are doctors, nurses and Swiss Guards, are employed by Vatican City State institutions, the University of Rome at Tor Vergata, and are also members of the Association of the “Medicina Solidale Onlus” Institute.

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WORLD NEWS

Seven years after deadly anti-Christian attacks in India, a call for justice

by CNA/EWTN News • September 12, 2015

Christian families displaced by the violence in India’s Odisha state in 2008. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Bhubaneswar, India — Victims say that they are still waiting for justice, seven years after some of the most violent anti-Christian attacks in India’s recent history.

“Justice has alluded us,” Fr. Ajay Singh of the Kandhamal Committee for Peace and Justice said, Reuters Foundation reported.

“After knocking on every door within the state government, we found no one willing to come forward to secure justice for the victims of Kandhamal.”

Following the August 2008 murder of Swami Lakshmanananda, leader of the right-wing Hindu nationalist organization Vishna Hindu Parishad, Hindu fundamentalists attacked the Christian minority in Kandhamal district of Odisha, whom they blamed for the murder.

In the months that followed, nearly 100 Christians were killed for refusing to convert to Hinduism and 56,000 people were displaced, while 6,500 houses and 395 churches were destroyed. About 10,000 people have still not returned due to fear of reprisals.

Fr. Singh’s group said that although more than 3,000 complaints have been submitted, only 827 of them were registered by the police, with 237 having been dismissed for a lack of evidence because many witnesses are still afraid to come forward with their stories.

Of those complaints, only 33 have been given a judgement.

On the anniversary of the attack last year, Fr. Thomas Chellan, a survivor of the violence, recounted to the charity Aid to the Church in Need his narrow escape from a mob of hundreds that descended on his parish pastoral center in August 2008.

“We could see our home going up in flames. The mob broke open all the doors and windows, thinking we were hiding inside,” he said.

He and a religious sister were able to hide in the home of a Hindu man who took them in despite the huge threat he faced from the radicals seeking out Christians.

The mob came and searched the man’s house and found the sister and Fr. Chellan in a shed in the backyard. The priest said he was beaten with sticks and iron rods while the religious sister was brutally raped. When the priest tried to intervene, the mob doused him in gasoline and threatened to set him on fire.

The two eventually escaped and found refuge at a local police station.

Local government official Yamini Sarangi denies any neglect of the victims, telling the Thomson Reuters Foundation that “Everybody had returned back home” and victims have been justly compensated.

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Blessed Benedict Daswa: The South African martyred for rejecting witchcraft

by CNA/EWTN News • September 14, 2015

Blessed Benedict Daswa, who was martyred in 1990 and beatified on Sept. 13, 2015. (namronpeter via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Tzaneen, South Africa — Benedict Daswa, a South African catechist whose Christian opposition to witchcraft led to his murder in 1990, was beatified on Sunday as Catholic leaders praised his heroic witness to the faith.

Pope Francis in his beatification decree described him as “a zealous Catechist, all-round educator who gave heroic witness to the gospel, even to the shedding of blood.”

When Daswa was declared blessed at the Sept. 13 Mass, the crowd applauded and blew traditional animal horns to celebrate, Vatican Radio reports.

About 30,000 people, including Blessed Daswa’s eight children and his 91-year-old mother, attended the beatification at his shrine in his home village of Tshitanini, more than 100 miles northeast of Tzaneen. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concelebrated the Mass with many bishops and priests.

Millions of Catholics in Africa are believed to have followed the ceremony on television. Daswa is the first South Africa-born Catholic to be beatified.

Bishop Joao Rodrigues of Tzaneen praised Dawsa (using his full name), saying that “by his courage and his fidelity to the Catholic faith, Tshimangadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa is a model for all the people in Africa.”

Benedict Daswa was born in 1946 and belonged to the Jewish Lemba tribe in rural Limpopo, the northernmost province of South Africa. He grew up observing Jewish customs, then converted to Christianity and was baptized in the Church at the age of 17. He took the name Benedict after the sixth century monk and after Benedict Risimati, his catechist who instructed him in his faith as a teen.

Daswa was a husband, and the father of eight. He helped build a parish, and was principal of the primary school and a teacher.

He refused to take part in anything related to witchcraft or the occult. This would lead to his violent murder in 1990 at the age of 43, when he refused to join his neighbors in paying a sorcerer who claimed to be able to end severe storms.

A group of men ambushed him for his stance; he prayed on his knees as they killed him.

According to the diocese investigation into his death, when Daswa saw a man coming towards him with a club to deliver the final blow, he said, “God, into your hands, receive my spirit.”

His grave, located in a small cemetery near his home, has become a site of pilgrimage. He was officially recognized as a martyr in January.

Mutshiro Michael, 33, one of Daswa’s sons, reacted to the beatification.

“Proud is an understatement to describe what I feel,” he told Agence France Presse. He added that he had forgiven his father’s murderers.

Bishop Rodrigues said that Daswa’s death “makes him a hero for all Christians in Africa and elsewhere who are struggling to break free from the enslavement of the world of witchcraft.”

Cardinal Amato also reflected on the beatified man’s life.

“The Holy Spirit transformed this young South African into an authentic hero of the Gospel. His heart was full of love for God and neighbor. Benedict Daswa is like the first martyrs of the Church who, during the persecutions of the Roman emperors, defended their faith with prayer, courage and forgiveness of enemies,” he said in an interview.

The cardinal said the beatification invites the faithful “to nourish only feelings of love, of brotherhood, harmony, solidarity beyond any ethnic, social and religious divisions.”

A spokesperson for South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, also spoke at the beatification ceremony, as did South Africa’s vice president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Pope Francis has declared Feb. 1 as Blessed Benedict Daswa’s feast day.

During his Angelus address Sunday, the Pope praised Daswa’s great consistency, his courageous assumption of Christian attitudes, and his refusal of “worldly and pagan customs.”

He said Daswa’s witness is united with “the testimony of so many of our brothers and sisters, young, old, children, children, persecuted, driven out, killed for confessing Jesus Christ.” The Roman Pontiff encouraged Catholics to “thank them for their witness and ask them to intercede for us.”

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European bishops visit Holy Land to show solidarity and seek hope

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

Crucifix inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Jerusalem, Israel — European bishops are gathering in the Holy Land Sept. 11-16 to show closeness to Christians in the Middle East and to trace a path of hope for them, in an unprecented assembly.

“We are here to rediscover the source of our identity as people of God and of our mission as successors of the Apostles,” Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest said Sept. 11.

Cardinal Erdo is president of the Council of the European Bishops Conferences, which gathers together 39 bishops’ conferences from across Europe. The umbrella organization was founded in 1971 with the aim of realizing closer communication and cooperation between the European bishops and episcopal conferences, to promote evangelization in the European region.

The council customarily holds its plenary assembly in one of its member states each year. This year, its leaders decided to hold the assembly to the Holy Land at the invitation of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal.

Patriarch Twal told CNA Sept. 14 he is grateful that the president of the bishops’ conferences in Europe came to visit in “a moment when the attention on us is overshadowed.”

The Patriarch said that “Christians come to visit us and to pray with us and for us.” He noted the Arab world’s problems in Syria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

He said “all the world’s attention is now focused toward the east,” especially regarding the threat of the Islamic State group dominant in parts of Iraq and Syria. The patriarch said “no one is talking anymore of the situation in the Holy Land.”

The patriarch said the presence of European bishops in the Holy Land aims to shed light on this peculiar situation, and eventually “to trace the path of hope for the Church in the Middle East.”

Among the problems at stake in the Holy Land is the construction of the wall in the Cremisan Valley on the border between Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli government has confiscated lands from 58 Christian families in order to build a security wall. The move has drawn protests of Christian communities there.

Echoes of this could be glimpsed in the lecture of Father Jamal Khader, rector of the Patriarchal Seminary in Beit Jala. He addressed the European Bishops Sept. 11 at Korazim, the place traditionally considered the location of Jesus Christ’s Sermon of the Mount.

“Promises of the Old Testament do not justify grabbing the land of one people and pass it to another people in the name of God … the recent history of Europe does not justify the silence over the injustices committed against Palestinian people,” he said.

Fr. Khader underscored that “Jesus did not respect the sensitivity of the powerful, he was not a diplomat, he did not look for a balance between oppressed and oppressors. He helped the poor people, and called the powerful to conversion and compassion.”

The first part of the gathering was held in Domus Galileae, a guesthouse in Korazim that St. John Paul II inaugurated in 2000. From Korazim, the bishops moved to Nazareth Sept. 12 and to the Melkite village Mil’iya in Northern Galilee the next day.

The plenary assembly had a two-part goal: to return to the very roots of Christianity in order to find a new evangelizing way for Europe; and to show that European bishops are close to the worries and preoccupations of the bishops of the Middle East, and particularly of the Holy Land.

Among the causes of concern for Christians in the Holy Land is the situation of the Christian schools, whose existence is in peril.

Over the past six years, the Education Ministry has reduced funding to Israel’s 47 Christian schools, which are attended by some 33,000 Arab-Israeli children. The schools have shuttered since the academic year began on Sept. 1 as a protest against the cuts.

“Christians are not asking for privileges, we are asking for what law has guaranteed us,” Bishop Giacinto Marcuzzo, auxiliary of Nazareth and general vicar for Israel, told CNA Sept. 12.

He said Israel has had a “well-balanced education system” since its founding in 1948.

“According to law, the state had to give every family the possibility of educating their children according to their beliefs, life styles, and way of living,” the bishop explained.

The church schools fall into the category of “recognized but unofficial.” This means they are not part of the state school system, but are accredited by the government. They normally receive 75 percent of the funding given to regular state schools. The remainder comes from tuition payments that average 4,000 shekels ($1,000) a year. Both Christians and Muslims attend these schools.

With the funding cuts, families would have to pay a higher tuition, but often this is not possible.

Awsi Bathish, a school principal and negotiator for the Church with the government, told CNA “families cannot afford it, as it would mean to pay two thirds of their monthly average income for each child.”

Bishop Marcuzzo added that for Israel’s Christians, school is “very important.”

“We are just 2 percent of the population. If we do not have a school system, we are going to lose our young people, as young people wants to emigrate. To keep them in our land, we try to provide them a qualified education so that they are able to find a job, marry, raise up a family and so stay here.”

Bishop Marcuzzo said the schools are high quality. Six of the 10 top-ranked schools in Israel are Christian, while 60 percent of university students attend Christian schools.

The issue was a topic of the Sept. 3 meeting between Pope Francis and Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin.

The European bishops when they arrived in Nazareth discovered a spontaneous sit-in at the Basilica of the Annunciation courtyard on the issue of Christian schools, which became a main topic of discussion. In Mil’ya, bishops took part in the annual procession for the Exaltation of the Cross, which ended in a Christian school courtyard.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, made a speech at the end of the procession. He told those gathered that “European bishops have come here to stay close to you, and now we know more about you. We have learned of your problems, also about your problems in the field of education. We support you.”

Another major topic of discussion was the migration of peoples from the eastern and southern Mediterranean into the European Union has also been a hot topic of discussion. In his initial remarks to the assembly, Cardinal Ouellet described the movement of peoples as “a very difficult and delicate moment.”

He said this is the reason holding the assembly in the Holy Land is “not a choice like any other.” He noted: “this is the place where every Christian is born.”

Patriarch Twal also discussed the scenario of the immigration in Israel. “Here, we live the dramatic situation of many Asians who come here to search for a job, with no legislation to defend them; but we also live the dramatic situation of Christians who leave the country in search of dignified life conditions.”

The European bishops were scheduled to move their assembly to Jerusalem Sept. 14. On their agenda is a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and with Israeli president Reuven Revlin. They were to visit Christian works of charity in Bethlehem on Sept. 15 and their assembly will close the next day.

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Cuban bishops welcome pardon of 3,500 prisoners before Pope Francis’ visit

by CNA/EWTN News • September 15, 2015

Pope Francis meets Cuban president Raul Castro at the Vatican, May 10, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Havana, Cuba — The Cuban bishops’ conference stated on Friday they “received with profound satisfaction” the decision of the nation’s government to pardon 3,522 prisoners “as a humanitarian gesture on the occasion of the visit of Pope Francis to our country.”

Cuba’s state-run daily newspaper Granma reported Sept. 11 that the government, “on the occasion of the visit of His Holiness, Pope Francis, and as also happened when the Supreme Pontiffs John Paul II and Benedict XVI visited us, agreed to pardon 3,522 prisoners, taking into account the nature of their actions for which they were sentenced, their behavior in prison, how much of their sentence they had served, and health reasons.”

The Cuban bishops stated that each of their dioceses had received “ numerous requests from prisoners or their relatives asking for the Church’s mediation in securing the prisoners’ release,” and that these requests had been forwarded to government authorities.

Accordingly, “the news of the prisoner release is a cause for joy and provides spiritual relief for the prisoners themselves and their relatives, as well as for the Prison Ministry partners and the National Committee leadership.”

“This merciful action anticipates the fruits that the visit of Pope Francis, who comes as a Missionary of Mercy, will bear for the well-being of all our people,” the bishops’ statement concluded.

The Cuban government had indicated that those pardoned include those over 60; minors under 20 years old without a previous offense; the chronically ill; women; those due for release in 2016; and foreign prisoners, provided their home country guarantees their repatriation.

Those sentenced for murder, rape, the corruption of minors, drug trafficking, robbery with assault, and crimes against state security – which is likely to exclude high-profile political prisoners – were excluded from the gesture of leniency.

The prisoner release is the largest in Cuba since the communist revolution of 1959.

Pope Francis will visit the island nation Sept. 19-22. He will travel to the cities of Havana, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba, saying Mass in each of them. In addition, he will meet with officials of the government and the Communist party, as well asl clergy and youth, and visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre. It is also likely that he will meet with the nation’s former president, Fidel Castro.

He has been notable to the Church in Cuba particularly for his role in the country’s diplomatic rapprochement with the United States.

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What adoring the Eucharist looks like – on a massive scale in India

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

A Eucharistic procession held in Mumbai in 2014. (Archdiocese of Bombay)

Mumbai, India — The upcoming National Eucharistic Congress of India, being held in Mumbai in November and expected to draw thousands, is meant to deepen the understanding, appreciation, and love of the Eucharist.

The event will be held Nov. 12-15 at the Archdiocese of Bombay’s St. Piux X seminary, and is centered on the theme “The Eucharist: Nourished by Christ to Nourish Others.”

According to Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, “the national congress will give a tremendous boost, and spur Eucharistic devotion all over the country, showing the importance of participation in the liturgy and exploring the true essence of Christian life as participating in the Paschal Mystery of the Eucharist.”

“The focus is therefore that we are nourished by Christ scripturally, that is, by the Word of God and the table of the Eucharist, but it should also have an impact on our lives – our personal life, family life, parish life – in our service to the country and in reaching out,” Cardinal Gracias told CNA.

The cardinal has encouraged all the faithful to “appreciate the Eucharist, live the Eucharist, and share the Eucharist.”

“The summary of the message is also to proclaim and share in true meaning in the Mass, which is the ‘source and summit’ of our lives as Christians,” said Cardinal Gracias.

As many as 5,000 people from across India are expected to attend the congress. Each of the 167 dioceses in India are sending five representatives to Mumbai for the event, where the Eucharist will be celebrated in the Latin, East Syrian, and West Syrian rites.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo has been appointed the Holy Father’s special envoy to the event, and Pope Francis is also expected to relay a video message to its participants.

Cardinal Gracias noted that the Bombay archdiocese hosted the 38th International Eucharistic Congress in 1964, and the significance of Bl. Paul VI’s participation for the Church in India.

Eucharistic congresses began in the late 19th century as a form of pilgrimage centered on the Eucharist.

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We want solutions, not guns – A Syrian bishop speaks out

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

Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, Syria, in Rome on Sept. 16, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — Outside entities who drive the Syrian war – either through the selling of arms or their own political and strategic interests – must stop, and the country should look inside itself to resolve the conflict.

These are the words of the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, who has watched the destruction of his country through fighting between its government and various rebel factions over the last four years.

“I think the solution is political,” he told CNA. “We have to stop giving arms and money to those groups, and to find a way for a political solution from the Syrian (people), from inside and not from outside.”

The Chaldean bishop’s words came ahead of a Sept. 16 news conference titled “Syrian Christians: help us to stay,” hosted by Aid to the Church in Need and the Foreign Press Association.

During a question and answer session for the event, the bishop said that “at an international level, (there is) a determination to continue the war, to destroy, to divide, until everything has been leveled to the ground, like they did in Iraq, like they did in Libya, like they are doing in Yemen.”

The reality of the Syrian war, he said, is one bent on destruction and division that serves both regional and international interests.

“I think the first interest is, and Pope Francis has spoken of this on several important occasions, the selling of arms. Economic interests at the regional and international level, and then strategic interests.”

Russia has been a leading importer of arms in Syria, donating millions in weapons, including missile systems, which critics have said help keep Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in power, according to Rueters.

The United States has also been a generous contributor to the conflict, mostly via a secret CIA operation aimed at training and arming Syrian rebels, the Washington Post reports. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the main supporters of the rebels in the Middle East.

Since the war first broke out in 2011, 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives, among whom are 11,000 children. Four million Syrians have fled abroad and are living as refugees, while an additional 8 million are internally displaced.

Close to 3 million children have stopped going to school, and life expectancy in the country has dropped from 79 in 2011 to 55 today.

Bishop Audo told CNA the situation on the ground is one “of war, of danger everywhere, not only for Christians but for everybody,” particularly in Aleppo, which sits near the Turkish border and is more vulnerable to attacks.

“It’s a very hard situation of danger and poverty. For instance, we’re still living for more than a month or two with no water or electricity,” he said.

In his speech, the bishop said that poverty is drastically increasing, and that “when I walk out onto the street I see an aggressive poverty. Misery.”

He noted how there is one well in Aleppo where people go to get water, of which there is a shortage. Children can frequently be seen in the streets with empty bottles in hand looking for water, he said, adding that the hot summer has aggravated the situation.

“All of those who can leave do, because this region is in immense poverty … how can one live without dignity and quality of life?” he asked.

This is the situation that leads many to gather what funds they can and travel to Turkey to pay for a trip across the sea, which all too often end in “these terrible accidents and deaths … because there isn’t a horizon for a solution.”

As the authority who oversees Aleppo’s Chaldean Catholic population, Bishop Audo said that he understands why they are leaving, but wants to do everything possible to help them stay.

“It’s not easy,” he confessed, adding that to see Christians leaving is “an experience of death, an experience of the end of our presence.”

“Not for me as a Chaldean bishop, but for all patriarchs, all bishops, for the whole community,” he said, but conceded that “we don’t have another choice in front of us. This is the drama we are living today.”

However, he told CNA that the presence of Christians “is very important for Syria, for the universal Church, for Arabic Christianity in dialogue with Islam, and for our Eastern Churches rooted in this country,” and because of this he will continue to do what’s possible for Christians to stay.

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Media invent a fake Pope by misusing his words, bishop charges

by CNA/EWTN News • September 17, 2015

Pope Francis aboard the papal flight from Rome to Quito, July 5, 2015. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Palmares, Brazil — A Brazilian bishop has criticized the mainstream media for manipulating and confusing their readers regarding Pope Francis’ recent moves in the reform of the annulment process and special permissions regarding confession during the Jubilee of Mercy.

Bishop Henrique Soares da Costa of Palmares warned that proceeding in this fashion, what the world wants is “to become the guide for the faith of Catholics, inventing a Pope who doesn’t exist.”

Bishop Soares wrote on his Facebook page that “the communications media report on certain events in the life of the Church with shameful disinformation and sensationalism.”

Regarding the reforms established for the annulment process announced on Sept. 8, the bishop explained that contrary to what was said in Brazilian media, the Church has neither the capacity nor the power to end a marriage, but rather discovers that a supposed marriage was, in fact, null.

He founds headlines like “Pope simplifies process of ending a marriage”, “Pope Francis’ reform allows a marriage to be ended in 45 days”, or “Pope Francis facilitates and lowers cost of ending a marriage in the Church”.

Addressing the question, Bishop Soares noted that “the Church doesn’t end marriages. Christ did not give her that power.

He also explained that the Church recognizes that “under certain circumstances there really wasn’t a marriage,” and that those cases are declared null.

“A lasting and consummated marriage, with everything in order, continues and will continue to be indissoluble, and the Church can’t do anything about it because her Lord and Master did not grant her that authority. We are all disciples before Christ: only one is the Master, only one is the Guide, only one is the Lord,” he affirmed.

The Bishop of Palmares emphasized that the measures enacted by Pope Francis are intended to simplify the process of recognizing the nullity of a marrage, which does not affect the indissolubility of marriage.

“Summing up: the pope is doing nothing extraordinary or contrary to the faith of the Church,” he emphasized.

Bishop Soares also referred to the media coverage of Pope Francis; letter on the Year of Mercy, in which Pope Francis granted every priest the faculty to absolve of the sin of abortion during the Year of Mercy.

“First of all the crazy idea that abortion would now be a less serious sin for Catholics … abortion is a most grave sin, it’s a mortal sin,” the Brazilian prelate wrote.

The bishop explained that “normally, pardon for this kind of sin depends on certain guidelines from the bishops” and in the Year of Mercy, the Pope is allowing any priest to forgive this sin.

“This was a very beautiful gesture on the part of the Pope, and expresses how great is the Lord’s forgiveness for those who repent of such a grave sin,” he said.

Finally, Bishop Soares exhorted Catholics, “let us never forget: the Church belongs to Christ and not to a Pope. The Pope is the first guardian of and witness to the faith of the Church, along with the bishops in communion with him. Catholics should always remember this and be at peace.”

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The story of Japan’s hidden Christians emerges from the Vatican archives

by Angela Ambrogetti (CNA/EWTN News) • September 17, 2015

A text of the Fondo Marega. (Vatican Library and Secret Archives)

Vatican City — Collected by a Salesian missionary to Japan in the early 20th century, letters and documents showing the history of Christians in the land of the rising sun have been recently restored by the Vatican archives and library.

The collection conveys the story of the persecution of Christians in Japan, a story that Pope Francis has often recalled when speaking of the “hidden Christians” who knew how to keep and pass on the faith in a time of persecution, and even when deprived of priests.

The Vatican Library and Secret Archives contain precious testimonies of those Christians who between the 16th and 19th centuries lived under violence and humiliation, thanks to the missionary Fr. Mario Marega, and now the Marega Fund.

Fr. Marega, a Salesian from Croatia, arrived in Kobe in 1929 to begin his missionary life. Through the 1950s, in addition to his evangelistic mission, his passion for study led him to learn of the prohibitions that Christians in northern Kyushu underwent due to their faith, which the feudal shogun enforced politically. Despite this, some Japanese converted with the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.

The Marega Fund has an immense number of documents collected by its namesake, many of which were long held in the Salesian University. Among them are two large boxes which Fr. Marega wanted to give to Venerable Pius XII in 1953.

The letters have now returned to light through the restoration work of the Vatican Library. A recent exhibition helped to open up new perspectives on what really happened with the history of the ‘Kakure Kirishitan’ (hidden Christians).

Stories of the first Japanese priests intersect with tragic events that didn’t frighten a community which chose to remain faithful.

The exhibition is the fruit of a cooperation among the Vatican Library, the archives of Japan’s National Institute for the Humanities, and the civic authorities of Oita and Usuki, two cities on Kyushu. Among the topics discussed is the conservation of the texts, which are written on delicate Japanese rice paper.

Nagasaki Teruaki, Japan’s ambassador to the Holy See, recalled on the opening day of the exhibition that the ‘Kakure Kirishitan’ were “discovered” 150 years ago, when Japan was reopened to the world.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès, head of the Vatican Library and Secret Archives, recalled that Christianity arrived to the Japanese archipelago more than four centuries ago, “but the shogun authorities, even before the penetration of European traditions and customs in the closing of pre-modern Japan, quickly grasped it’s political significance, and arranged for it’s eradication.”

“This decision resulted in a complex bureaucratic mechanism,” the archbishop said, “whose meanderings are now explored by the composite team of historians, archivists, and restorers who wander through the plots, passing through the sieve thousands of archival documents, produced in four centuries by the feudal Usuki administration.”

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Cubans hope papal visit will rekindle faith

by Eduardo Berdejo (CNA/EWTN News) • September 18, 2015

Cuban pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the General Audience on April 22, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Havana, Cuba — The Church in Cuba has undertaken a movement of spiritual and missionary preparation for Pope Francis’ arrival tomorrow, which has led to hope for a rekindling of faith, according to one prominent priest.

Pope Francis will be in Cuba Sept. 19-22, visiting the cities of Havana, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba, saying Mass in each of them. In addition, he will meet with officials of the government and the Communist party, as well asl clergy and youth, and visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre.

Catholics on the island hope that the Pope’s visit will bring “greater communication and mercy among Cubans, and reconciliation,” said Father Orlando Montes de Oca, executive secretary of the Cuban bishops’ priests committee.

Speaking to CNA the priest, who is a pastor in Maizil in the country’s south, indicated, “we’re hoping he’ll rekindle the faith of the Cuban people, as well as their hope” and “make the Cuban people feel and experience more of God’s predilection for this land.”

He noted that the Church in Cuba, taking into account the proximity of the Year of Mercy and the theme of the Pope’s visit as a “Missionary of Mercy,” invited the faithful to prepare themselves “by living out with greater intensity the works of mercy,” as well as through a novena to Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, patroness of Cuba, whose feast day was Sept. 8.

“And so there’s been a spiritual preparation, a missionary preparation,” Fr. Montes de Oca said, referring to the youth missions taking place in Havana city parks and the house-to-house visits made by the children in a missionary children program.

“It’s been a preparation movement in itself to receive Pope Francis and to welcome the message he’s going to bring to the Cuban people as a Missionary of Mercy,” he said.

Fr. Montes de Oca indicated that for the Mass Pope Francis will say in Revolution Square on Sunday, estimates suggest attendance will be around 200,000, and for the Mass in Holguín the next day, around 150,000.

During the Mass in Havana, Pope Francis will give, for the first time on one of his trips abroad, First Communion to five children; an event that “for the Church in Cuba is a sign of hope.”

“The children are the present and the future of the Church and our country,” the priest noted. He said that by his actions, the Pope “is telling the Cuban people bring your children to the Church, your children need to receive Jesus in Communion.”

He said “on the other hand it’s also an initiation into the life of faith in these children and as well a sign of a new stage in the missionary life of the Church in Cuba. Without a doubt it represents hope.”

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Christ is our only hope – Syrian Christians pray for miracles amid Islamists’ carnage

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

Prelates survey the damage following an attack on Christians in Aleppo. (Melkite Archdiocese of Aleppo)

Washington, D.C. — Syrian natives who have ministered to refugees from the civil war there are trusting in God to protect their fellow Christians.

There are many “satans” in the world, but “there’s a lot right now in Syria and Iraq,” Christian minister Joseph Sleman told an audience Sept. 18 at a religious freedom summit co-sponsored by Baylor University and hosted by the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.

Sleman and his wife Hannah described a list of horrors perpetrated by the Islamic State against Christians in Syria amid a years-long civil war. “The blood is shouting from this land,” Hannah said.

Yet they added that the Gospel originally spread to much of the world from Syria thanks to St. Paul, and that “we believe that God can do it again.”

“The only hope that we have is Jesus,” Hannah said, noting that prayer and fasting have sustained the Christians in Syria far longer than expected. “We believe that the power of the Lord is working a lot in our country,” she said.

The Syrian civil war has continued since 2011, internally displacing 8 million, and forcing more than 4 million to flee the country as refugees. More than 250,000 have died in the war.

The Slemans hail from Syria but moved to the United States for Joseph to continue his theology education.

They have ministered to refugees in Syria for years, though; first from the Iraq War, and now from the Syrian civil war.

Before the civil war, Christians and Muslims lived together peacefully and were free to worship, they maintained. Joseph described how his childhood friends were Muslims.

“As Christians and Muslims, we have one enemy,” he said, “it’s Satan.”

Now that the civil war has erupted and the Islamic State is ravaging portions of the country, Syrian Christians live in the constant face of death, they explained, and they are “waiting for the time they will die.”

Fathers say goodbye to their families when they leave the house, knowing it could be the last time they do so. Parents cry after their children leave the house for school in the morning.

The Slemens described their own hellish experience in Syria as they endured an hour-long shelling of mortar rounds in the area of their residence as they cried and prayed on the floor. “Many children died that day,” Joseph said, adding that “many families face the same things every day.”

Islamic State militants can eviscerate whole villages in 24 hours, he explained, and they are notorious for not only mass killings but rape as well. Their trail of terror has grown so great that some Christians have planned to kill themselves and their families rather than fall into their hands. One of Hannah’s friends armed his house with explosives in case the Islamic State took over the area, she noted, and this would have killed intruders along with his family.

It’s good to hear that countries have opened to welcome refugees from the conflict, they maintained. The Polish embassy in Syria, for example, opened its doors for refugees seeking visas.

But more could be done.

The White House says the United States has taken in 1,500 Syrian refugees since the beginning of the conflict, and the president pledged to increase to accept 10,000 refugees over the course of the next year. However, more than 20 former senior White House officials urged the administration to increase that number to 100,000, citing the gravity of the situation.

Joseph and Hannah are pseudonyms, used to preserve the couple’s safety and privacy.

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Dating apps and the death of romance – what’s a Catholic to do?

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • September 13, 2015

(Danupol Noodam via shutterstock.com)

Denver, CO — This month’s issue of Vanity Fair contains a pretty disheartening prediction for single people: the “dating apocalypse,” brought on by wildly popular dating apps like “Tinder,” is upon us.

Young singles are too busy swiping left and right on their phones making shallow, transient connections, rather than finding real love with real people. Romance is dead, proposes author Nancy Jo Sales.

What sets Tinder apart from most other dating app or online dating experiences is speed and brevity. Based on a photo, first name, and age alone, users decide whether to swipe left (to pass) or right (to like). With GPS tracking, the app also tells users exactly how far away potential matches may be, making life even easier for those just looking for a quick hook-up.

Shallowest dating app ever?

The biggest criticism of Tinder? It’s a seriously shallow app that turns people into quickly-judged commodities on a screen.

In a 2013 article by The Guardian, “Tinder: the shallowest dating app ever?” author Pete Cashmore explains the ick-factor, yet addictiveness, of Tinder when compared to another dating app called Twine. “Of the two apps, though, Tinder sounded worse, just because it seemed so contemptuously superficial.

There are hundreds upon thousands of women, about whom you know almost nothing, and you snap-appraise them with a single swipe. It’s a finger-flicking hymn to the instant gratification of the smartphone age. It’s addictive.”

Matt Fradd is a Catholic speaker and author and founder of The Porn Effect, a website with a mission to “expose the reality behind the fantasy of pornography and to equip individuals to find freedom from it.” In his ministry, he’s heard a lot of stories from young people about their struggle to overcome objectifying people through porn.

Fradd had some harsh words for Tinder.

“Tinder exists for those who would rather not purchase a prostitute,” he told CNA.

“I would imagine most people who use that app aren’t there because they’re looking for a chaste relationship,” he added.

And indeed, quite a bit of colloquial evidence backs him up. Alex in the Vanity Fair article said dating apps have turned romance into a competition of “Who’s slept with the best, hottest girls?”

“You could talk to two or three girls at a bar and pick the best one, or you can swipe a couple hundred people a day — the sample size is so much larger,” he said. “It’s setting up two or three Tinder dates a week and, chances are, sleeping with all of them, so you could rack up 100 girls you’ve slept with in a year.”

But Tinder doesn’t always have to be that way, users argue. It is possible to find people on the app who want to go on some good old-fashioned dates.

Tinder users speak

Ross is a twenty-something Nebraska-to-New York City transplant and a cradle Catholic who’s used his fair share of both dating apps and sites. When signing up for Tinder, Ross said, probably the most important factor in whether someone will find potential dates or hook-ups is location, location, location.

“Your region matters so much,” he told CNA in an e-mail interview. “In Nebraska, women date on Tinder. They really do … .In New York, (most) want a distraction, attention, and/or a hook up. Not emotion or connections.”

Holly, a twenty-something devout Catholic living in Kansas City, said she has had success finding a date – and a pretty decent one at that – on the app.

“I went on a great Tinder date. Granted it was the only Tinder date, but we even went out a few times before things ended. At the time Tinder sort of freaked me out, but I decided to jump in head first and it was an enjoyable experience over all,” she said.

Many young people who’ve used Tinder also argue that the “shallow” critique is a bit overblown, considering that dating always takes into account whether or not a potential mate is physically attractive.

“How is me swiping right on a guy that I find attractive, and swiping left (on those) that I’m not that into any different than someone approaching a guy that I find attractive in a bar? We make snap judgements all the time. Why is it suddenly so much worse if I’m doing it online?” asked Michelle, a twenty-something practicing Catholic who lives in Chicago.

While she’s definitely experienced the creepier side of Tinder – with guys sending her “rankings” on a scale of 1 to 10 and other, um, less-than-endearing messages, she said she found the app could be used as a way to maybe meet some new people in person and to get recommendations of things to do in the city.

“I think to immediately classify Tinder or any other dating app as a ‘hook-up’ app or as a very bad thing goes against the idea that things are morally neutral,” Michelle said. “Just like alcohol is not inherently bad but can be used for evil, I don’t think Tinder is inherently evil as well. I definitely think you can use Tinder if you’re using it to meet people – not to hook up with people.”

The morality of Tinder

It’s admittedly a bit difficult to find someone who can speak with moral authority specifically to dating apps in the Catholic world. Because of the very recent explosion of smartphones, followed by the subsequent explosion of dating apps, or because of vows of celibacy, many clergy and moral experts have actually never used dating apps themselves.

Fr. Gregory Plow, T.O.R., falls into that category. Even though he’s a young priest and friar who’s never used Tinder, Fr. Plow works with hundreds of young people every day as the director of Households at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio (kind of like Greek houses, but faith-based).

Fr. Plow said when Catholics determine the morality of any act or tool, like Tinder, three things must be considered.

“Whenever discerning the morality of an act not explicitly defined by Church teaching, we must examine the object, the intention, and the circumstances,” he said, referencing paragraph 1757 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Regarding the ‘object,’ apps – in general, as an invention – are not bad in and of themselves. Like most other technologies, they are morally neutral in and of themselves,” he said. “Apps do, however, possess a certainly quality of being transitory that can factor in to the other two components (intention and circumstances) that factor in to judging the morality of an act.”

The transitory, cursory nature of swiping based on one picture in Tinder can be morally dangerous if that same mentality transfers to relationships with people, he said. Instead of pausing and taking the time to form real relationships, some people may decide to move on to the next best thing because they have so many options.

“Therefore, in as much dating apps are impersonal and transitory, or are used with the intention for receiving gratification and pleasure, they are immoral,” he said. “If, however, online dating apps or services assisting people in leading them to find another person to share the love of God with in the uniqueness of a dating relationship or marriage, it can be (morally) good.”

Mary Beth Bonacci, a Catholic speaker and author on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, said what’s concerning about Tinder when compared to online dating sites such as CatholicMatch is the rapidity with which people can be turned into objects.

“The entire realm of dating is full of opportunities to turn a human person into a commodity. We get so wrapped up in thinking about what we want for ourselves that we forget we are dealing with another human person – and image and likeness of God. It’s always been a temptation,” she said.

“But the rapid-fire nature of Tinder’s ‘scan and swipe’ makes it easy to turn many, many human persons into commodities in a short period of time. That is what is scariest to me.”

Bonacci said while it’s possible to find someone who’s interested in a virtuous dating relationship through apps like Tinder, the chances of that happening are probably pretty low when compared with online dating sites that have more extensive profiles.

Meeting someone in person as soon as possible is also key, she said, in determining whether or not a match made online or in an app has a chance of turning into a dating relationship. But apps like Tinder aren’t exactly helping breathe new life into romance, she said.

“Everything is instant. The nearly-anonymous sex is of course the antithesis of anything romantic or respectful. In the old days of the ‘meat market’ singles’ bar, a person had to get dressed up, leave the house, but a few drinks and at least pretend to have some real interest in the other person.”

The Church has a duty, she said, to offer young people better alternatives in the dating world than the instant gratification that they find in the current culture.

“The Vanity Fair article reminded me once again that we have to offer teens and young adults an alternative to the degrading, hook up world that surrounds them. We can’t scare them out of it. They need to be inspired, to fall in love with the real beauty of the Christian vision of human sexual morality,” she said.

“They need to see their own dignity, their own importance, and how respecting their bodies and the beautiful language of human sexuality is the only way to finding real love. We have to. We can’t allow another generation of kids to fall into this cesspool.”

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Resolution introduced in Congress to call Islamic State atrocities ‘genocide’

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

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

Washington, D.C. — Members of Congress introduced a resolution on Thursday to label the atrocities committed by the Islamic State against Christians and other religious minorities “genocide.”

“Christians in Iraq and Syria are hanging on in the face of the Islamic State’s barbarous onslaught. This is genocide,” stated Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), who helped introduce the resolution. Fortenberry is co-chair of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus.

“The international community must confront the scandalous silence about their plight. Christians, Yezidis, and other religious minorities have every right to remain in their ancestral homelands,” he continued.

Six representatives – three Democrats and three Republicans – introduced the bi-partisan resolution. On Thursday, advocates with the non-partisan group In Defense of Christians met with more than 250 congressional offices asking them to support the resolution.

Quoting from the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the document states that the atrocities committed against Christians and the other religious minorities in the Middle East meet the convention’s definition of genocide.

In this case the perpetrators, Islamic State, have specifically targeted ethnic and religious groups with the intent of permanently displacing them or exterminating them, the resolution insisted.

The resolution also called for governments to stop the atrocities, and for U.N. member states to sign on to a “concurrent resolution” and “with an urgent appeal to the Arab States that wish to uphold religious freedom, tolerance, and justice.” The parties must also help set up “domestic, regional and international tribunals to punish those responsible for the ongoing crimes.”

The document also cited Pope Francis’ July 10 plea for “our brothers and sisters” in the Middle East who face “a form of genocide.”

“Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities have been murdered, subjugated, forced to emigrate and suffered grievous bodily and psychological harm, including sexual enslavement and abuse, inflicted in a deliberate and calculated manner in violation of the laws of their respective nations, the laws of war, laws and treaties forbidding crimes against humanity,” the resolution acknowledged.

“Christianity in the Middle East is shattered,” Fortenberry stated after introducing the resolution. “The ancient faith tradition lies beaten, broken, and dying.”

The six congressmen who introduced the measure were Republicans Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.), Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.), and Rep. Jeff Denham (Calif.), and Democrats Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (Calif.), Rep. Juan Vargas (Calif.), and Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.).

Eshoo and Fortenberry are co-chairs of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, while Franks and Vargas are co-chairs of the International Religious Freedom Caucus.

The U.S. “should provide humanitarian aid, protection, and faster refugee processing” for victims of the atrocities, insisted Eshoo.

“These crimes against humanity must be properly acknowledged in order for the global community to appropriately respond to these infringements on religious freedom,” stated Vargas.

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Here’s your best chance to see Pope Francis in D.C.

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • September 15, 2015

Pope Francis greets the faithful of Naples from the Popemobile, March 21, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — All official events for Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Washington, D.C. are ticketed, but there is a new opportunity for the public to see the Pope without needing a ticket.

After his visit to the White House on the morning of Sept. 23, Pope Francis will step into the Popemobile for a parade around The Ellipse on the south side of the White House, and onto the National Mall. Viewers can line the sides of the route to see Pope Francis without a ticket – they’ll just need to pass through a security check first.

“This will be an opportunity for the estimated tens of thousands of people expected to gather in Washington to see the Holy Father while he is visiting the nation’s capital, September 22-24,” the Archdiocese of Washington announced.

Participants will presumably have to arrive early to get a good spot, though – gates open at 4 a.m. ET. The website WalkWithFrancis.org has a list of “restricted items” that cannot be brought into the viewing area.

Pope Francis will afterwards head to St. Matthew’s Cathedral to meet and pray with the U.S. bishops at 11:30 a.m. ET, followed by the canonization mass for Bl. Junipero Serra outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at 4:15 p.m. ET. The public can view telecasts of both events from giant screens on the National Mall, around the Washington Monument.

Can viewers picnic while watching Pope Francis’ day? Yes, as long as they abide by National Park Service regulations, the Washington archdiocese said.

The parade is the first public event in a D.C. tour that is exclusively ticketed. For Pope Francis’ address to Congress on Sept. 24, members of Congress received only one guest ticket to view the address inside the House gallery, and 51 tickets to watch a live broadcast of the address outside the U.S. Capitol building.

Tickets for the canonization Mass, which will be said in Spanish, are extremely hard to come by, even for Catholics in or near the District. Only 25,000 tickets are available, and a portion of those will be reserved for the Hispanic community.

The rest of the tickets are being distributed through parishes in the area. The Archdiocese of Washington is home to 620,000 Catholics and almost 140 parishes, and the neighboring Diocese of Arlington, which will also receive tickets, has more than 400,000 Catholics and almost 70 parishes.

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Knock, knock. Who’s there? Pope Francis, apparently.

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • September 15, 2015

Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square on Aug. 4, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

New York City, N.Y. — The Pope, a priest, and Bill Murray walk into a bar …

Just kidding. Sort of.

But if you can come up with a funny ending to that joke, you should “donate” it to the just-launched Joke with the Pope campaign, sponsored by the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.

The campaign is an effort to raise awareness and funds for three pontifical missions throughout the world, just ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. and the organization’s launch of their new app, Missio.

Jokes can be written or filmed and submitted online at jokewiththepope.org, and the person voted as the funniest jokester will get to choose which of the three missions will receive a $10,000 donation.

Oh, and they’ll also receive the title of “honorary comedic adviser to the Pope,” the first-ever person in the history of the Church to receive such a title. Probably.

Father Andrew Small, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, said he thought the campaign would be a fun way to raise awareness of the missions in the spirit of Pope Francis.

“I’ve met him several times and there’s that great spirit of warmth and connection that he has, so we thought this would be sort of an off-beat way to introduce people to the Church’s missionary activity and to create this sort of spirit of connection, which comes from Pope Francis,” he told CNA.

Francis, of course, is the same Pope who wrote “The Joy of the Gospel” encyclical, in which he wrote that missionaries especially should not be known for being “sourpusses,” Fr. Small said.

At the time this article was written, the campaign already received 400 jokes from people – Catholics and non-Catholics – from 22 countries throughout the world. It has also attracted some big-name contributors, including late-night television host Conan O’Brien, who joked on his show: “The California drought is so bad, people in Napa are asking the pope to change the wine into water.”

Other well-known Pope jokesters include Cardinal Timothy Dolan, EWTN TV host Raymond Arroyo, and even actor Bill Murray, who is kind of the “godfather” of the project and will help judge which joke is the funniest, Fr. Small said.

“God works in mysterious ways,” Fr. Small said when asked how Murray became involved. “When we spoke to him about it he was very excited, he has a Catholic background, one of his sisters is a Dominican nun, so he’s got that in his bones and in his blood.”

The three causes that the winner will be able to choose from are helping children in need in Argentina, housing the homeless in Ethiopia, or feeding the hungry in Kenya.

The Argentinian cause, based out of Buenos Aires, has a special connection to Pope Francis. Father Pepe, the parish priest in the area, is a long-time acquaintance of the Pope’s back when he was Archbishop of the diocese, and considers Francis his spiritual father.

Fr. Small said besides being a fun way to spread the spirit of Pope Francis before his U.S. visit, the campaign is a way to raise awareness of the new Missio app, which helps connect people to similar causes throughout the world.

“Pontifical Mission Societies is responsible for missionary activity in 1150 dioceses around the world, mostly in Africa and Asia, and also in Latin America,” Fr. Small said.

The app will help connect users to people throughout the various missions, and from there they can learn about the people involved and offer prayers or financial support.

“Humor gets us over that initial bump of trying to meet new people who are not your family and friends, he said. “You tell a joke, you learn about the good causes that the Church is engaging in throughout the world, and then you stay connected through the app.”

Jokes can be donated to the campaign on jokewiththepope.org through Oct. 2, and the winner will be announced Oct. 5. The Missio app is available for free download in the App Stores and Google Play.

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Pope Francis names new bishop for Kansas City-St. Joseph

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

Bishop James V. Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph. (Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau)

Vatican City — The Vatican announced today that Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr. of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has been selected as the new head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese.

Announced in a Sept. 15 communique from the Vatican, Bishop Johnston’s nomination falls just five months after the diocese’s former bishop, Robert W. Finn, stepped down after becoming first U.S. bishop convicted of a misdemeanor in failing to report suspected child abuse by a priest in his diocese.

The fact that Bishop Johnston has formerly served on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Child and Youth Protection, then, is no small detail.

Since Bishop Finn’s resignation in April, Archbishop of Kansas City Joseph F. Naumann has served as Apostolic Administrator of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Archbishop Naumann will officially present Bishop Johnston to the chancery staff at 10:00 a.m. local time in the diocese’s Catholic Center. He will continue to act as administrator until Bishop Johnston’s formal installation Nov. 4.

Bishop Johnston, 55, was born Oct. 16, 1959 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended both Catholic elementary and high schools, and in 1982 earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

In 1985 the bishop left his engineering career in order to pursue the priesthood. He attended St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana, where he obtained a Master of Divinity Degree in 1990.

He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Knoxville June 9, 1990, and six years later went on to earn a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America.

As a priest in Knoxville, Bishop Johnston served both in parish ministry and as chancellor and moderator of the curia.

In 2005, he and two other priests were awarded the Citizens Award for Bravery by the U.S. Department of the Interior for helping save a family in that was in danger of going over a waterfall in Glacier National Park.

He was consecrated a bishop for the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau March 31, 2008, where he worked to encourage vocations to the priesthood, and helped to found Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri. He also supported the Catholic Worker movement.

The bishop also served on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Child and Youth Protection and is currently Episcopal Liaison to the National Council of Catholic Women.

His episcopal motto is “The love of Christ urges us on.”

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Planned Parenthood feared bad press over alleged selling of baby parts

by CNA/EWTN News • September 15, 2015

(Ray Dumas via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Washington D.C. — The tenth video from a pro-life group investigating whether abortion providers like Planned Parenthood are illegally selling fetal tissue shows the nation’s largest abortion provider was conscious of the possible damage its affiliates’ practices could cause if it became news.

David Daleiden, who is leading the investigation project for the Center for Medical Progress, charged that “the lengths to which Planned Parenthood leadership will go to cover-up their illegal sale of aborted baby parts are nothing less than the desperation of a guilty conscience.”

“Planned Parenthood runs their abortion and baby parts business in open disregard for the law and should be prosecuted immediately,” he said Sept. 15. He said the abortion provider’s taxpayer funding should go to Federally Qualified Health Centers that do not perform abortions.

The Center for Medical Progress contends that its videos show the abortion provider violates federal laws against profiting from the sale of human fetal tissue.

The latest video, released on Tuesday, shows several discussions between an investigator posing as a prospective fetal tissue buyer and Deborah VanDerhei, national director of the Consortium of Abortion Providers at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The discussions focus on how Planned Parenthood affiliates and other abortion clinics receive compensation for fetal tissue sales.

VanDerhei, apparently speaking of Planned Parenthood affiliates, said “If they are going to do it, that’s fine, but we want them to think about, really, the New York Times headline.”

She indicated that Planned Parenthood affiliates are advised to consider “carefully” the topic of remuneration for fetal tissue. She said the national Planned Parenthood federation has no policy on the topic “and that’s relatively intentional.” She said the policy the national federation does have for affiliates “suggests that you just really think about what you’re doing, vet your procurement service.”

Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, the national Planned Parenthood federation’s senior medical advisor, discussed how clinics have been working in fetal tissue procurement.

“We’ve just been working with people who want particular tissues, like, you know, they want cardiac, or they want eyes, or they want neural,” she said to an undercover investigator. “Certainly, everything we provide – oh, gonads! Oh my God, gonads. Everything we provide is fresh.”

She said the provision of tissue would have “the potential for a huge P.R. issue” if it became public.

VanDerhei said affiliates that decide to engage in remuneration “really need to think that through.” She mentioned on two separate occasions that affiliates should consider how their actions would look in a New York Times headline when they create their policy.

Her comments indicated that fetal tissue procurement is a topic across the abortion industry.

“I have been talking to the executive director of the National Abortion Federation, we’re trying to figure this out as an industry, about how we’re going to manage remuneration, because the headlines would be a disaster,” she said, as recorded in the video.

VanDerhei said Planned Parenthood is “not that comfortable” talking about the issue in email but prefers in-person conversations.

She added that she knows non-Planned Parenthood abortion clinics involved in fetal tissue provision who “generate a fair amount of income doing this.”

Planned Parenthood has denied the charge that it profits from tissue donation. It has hired a high-powered public relations firm and has said the Center for Medical Progress

Other videos from the Center for Medical Progress suggest that babies whose organs and other tissues were harvested may have been delivered alive at a Planned Parenthood clinic before the abortion procedure was complete. Another Planned Parenthood official was recorded suggesting that the abortion procedure is modified in order to secure an “intact specimen.”

Another video includes an account from a former technician at a California-based fetal tissue supplier StemExpress who said she harvested tissue from a baby whose heart was beating after an abortion. The killing of a child who is born alive during an abortion is illegal under federal law.

The Center for Medical Progress’ videos have led the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the House Judiciary Committee, to launch investigations into Planned Parenthood and its practices. Several members of Congress have called for an end to federal funding of the organization, which is the largest abortion provider in the United States.

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Here’s what Cardinal O’Malley has to say for Respect Life month

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • September 16, 2015

Cardinal Sean O’Malley at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Jan. 22, 2015. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — While people might think of illness, disability age or inconvenience as something that detracts from human dignity, every life is “worth living,” says Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee.

“An elderly man whose health is quickly deteriorating; an unborn baby girl whose diagnosis indicates she may not live long; a little boy with Down syndrome; a mother facing terminal cancer – each may have great difficulties and need our assistance, but each of their lives is worth living,” the Boston cardinal said in his statement for October as “Respect Life Month.”

“We were made to love and be loved; we are meant to depend on one another, serving each other in humility and walking together in times of suffering,” he added. “Our relationships are meant to help us grow in perfect love.”

October is “Respect Life Month” as observed by U.S. Catholics. It marks the beginning of a year-long program for Catholics to learn more about respect for the dignity of human life, as well as encouraging prayer for a greater respect for life.

The theme for the 2015 Respect Life Month is “Every Life is Worth Living.” The U.S. Bishops’ Respect Life Program has provided reading materials for Catholics on topics like abortion and end-of-life care.

Some of the articles included are titled “Supporting families who receive a prenatal diagnosis,” “10 ways to support her when she’s unexpectedly expecting,” and “Maggie’s story,” the personal testimony of a woman who attended to her terminally ill father.

Many might judge a life based upon a person’s accomplishments or status, Cardinal O’Malley said, but to judge a life according to this standard would be a false judgment. Rather, the true worth of a life is found in the human dignity bestowed by God on each person.

“So often, as a society and as individuals, we identify ourselves by what we do. We base our worth on how productive we are at work or at home, and we determine our lives to be more or less good depending on the degree of independence or pleasure,” he stated.

However, God has created each person in His “image and likeness” and to spend eternity with Him in heaven, he added.

We are all called to the challenge of caring for those suffering around us, he added.

“This might mean slowing down and taking the time to listen. It might mean providing respite care or preparing meals for a family facing serious illness. It might mean simply being present and available. And of course, it always means prayer – bringing their needs before the Father and asking him to work in their lives,” he explained.

Ultimately, we must rid ourselves of our notions that life can be perfected, he concluded.

“Let us learn to let go of our own standards of perfection and instead learn more deeply how to live according to God’s standards,” he said. “He does not call us to perfect efficiency or material success; he calls us to self-sacrificial love.”

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Office Depot apologizes after claiming pro-life flier was ‘hate material’

by CNA/EWTN News • September 17, 2015

(Mike Mozart via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Chicago, IL — Office Depot officials have apologized to a pro-life Catholic woman in Illinois after their store refused to print her pro-life flier on fetal organ harvesting and prayer for the conversion of the Planned Parenthood abortion provider.

The apology followed company officials’ claims that the flier was “hate material,” “graphic,” or advocated “persecution of people who support abortion rights.”

“I am grateful that God has used this situation to unite countless people in prayer for the conversion of Planned Parenthood,” Catholic pro-life advocate Maria Goldstein said Sept. 11.

Office Depot chairman Roland Smith had issued an apology earlier that day for the store’s refusal to print her fliers.

“We sincerely apologize to Ms. Goldstein for her experience and our initial reaction was not at all related to her religious beliefs,” he said, inviting her to return to Office Depot to have her fliers printed.

The Chicago-based legal group The Thomas More Society represented the 42-year-old Goldstein, who wanted to print 500 of the fliers to distribute at her parish.

“We are grateful that Office Depot has apologized for discriminating against Maria Goldstein based on the content of her flyers,” Tom Olp, an attorney with the Thomas More Society, said Sept. 11.

“This situation is a reminder that religious liberty is increasingly under attack today, but it is a fundamental American right that every one of us should value and defend.”

Goldstein’s flier included a prayer for the conversion of Planned Parenthood published by Priests for Life, a Catholic pro-life organization. The prayer asked God to “bring an end to the killing of children in the womb” and an end to the sale of their body parts.

“Bring conversion to all who do this, and enlightenment to all who advocate it,” the prayer continued.

The flier cited reports from the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life citizen journalism organization that has now released ten videos of Planned Parenthood officials and others discussing how fetal organs and tissues are harvested from aborted babies.

The flier also cited statistics about the more than 300,000 abortions that Planned Parenthood committed in 2013, the millions of dollars in federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and the decline in the number of its cancer prevention services.

Employees at the Office Depot in Schaumburg, Ill., a suburb located 35 miles northwest of Chicago, told Goldstein during a an August visit to their store that copying the prayer would violate company policy, the Chicago Tribune reported. The employees told her she could use the self-serve copiers, which Goldstein said would have inconvenienced her. She instead went to a different print shop.

Before the apology, Office Depot spokeswoman Karen Denning had said company policy bars “the copying of any type of material that advocates any form of racial or religious discrimination or the persecution of certain groups of people.” She said the flier had material that “advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights.”

In a Sept. 11 letter to the Thomas More Society, Office Depot assistant general counsel Robert A. Amicone justified the store’s initial response.

He said the flyer discussed “the killing of children in the womb” and “the grisly trade in baby body parts.” He said that the prayer on the flyer had “strong language presumably condemning those who perform or obtain abortions.” Amicone contended that the prayer characterizes such individuals as evil and he objected to its description of abortion clinics as “death camps in our midst.”

“It is this type of language that led to the decision to refuse your client’s copying request,” he said, saying the material fell under prohibited “graphic material” and/or “hate material.”

Amicone also suggested the employees were also unsure whether the material was subject to copyright protection. He rejected claims that the refusal was based on Goldstein’s religious beliefs.

The Thomas More Society in a Sept. 10 letter had asked the company to reconsider its policy and print the fliers. Olp had said that if the company did not respond he would file complaints with the Cook County Human Rights Commission and Illinois Department of Human Rights. Olp argues that the refusal to print the fliers may have been an act of illegal religious discrimination.

On Sept. 11 the Thomas More Society said its attorneys and Goldstein are still in discussion regarding Office Depot’s alleged discrimination against her.

Goldstein said that because of the help of the Thomas More Society “I was able to stand up for my rights as a Christian, and I hope other people are empowered to stand up for their religious freedom, as well.”

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What’s the point of education? Bishop Conley has some ideas

by Kate Veik and Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • September 17, 2015

(Chris Zielecki via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Lincoln, NE — Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Neb. vividly remembers his father asking him what on earth he planned to do with his English degree.

“Open up an English shop?” Bishop Conley said with a laugh.

Most English majors can probably relate.

But even today – decades after his undergraduate studies – Bishop Conley stands by his belief that a liberal arts curriculum is the foundation of a well-founded education and the true calling of the education system.

“We live in an age that is so pragmatic, so utilitarian,” he said. “People go to university primarily to learn a skill in order to build a career and because of that hyper-emphasis on career paths, I think students lose out on really what universities have always been. And that is really the liberal arts.”

“For students to really have a well-rounded education, to be truly educated in the best sense of the world, they need to be familiar with these great works (of Western Civilization).”

A liberal arts education is precisely what Bishop Conley hopes to provide students at the University of Nebraska through his latest initiative in the Diocese of Lincoln: The Newman Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture.

Starting next fall, the institute will offer fully accredited academic courses on Catholic intellectual tradition and the humanities – particularly literature, history and philosophy – through a joint initiative with the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and St. Gregory the Great Seminary in neighboring Seward, Neb. The courses are designed for students of any major and faith background.

Bishop Conley inaugurated the institute Wednesday with a discussion on wonder and a reading of poetry. However, he was quick to stress that a liberal arts education “is not just a dreamy kind of poetic education.”

“We want this program to be an experience of delight and wonder; something that (students) will long to go and be immersed in,” he said. But “there is a practical aspect to this as well.”

“The broader your education is and the wider read you are in literature and poetry and music … the more marketable your talent is going to be. It’s almost paradoxical! These classic works present to the students what centuries of students have benefited from.”

The institute is named for Blessed John Henry Newman, who founded the Catholic University of Ireland in the 19th century. Bishop Conley described Newman as a champion for the liberal arts in education.

“Newman wanted students to experience the great richness of Western Civilization,” Bishop Conley said. “A liberal education means someone who is liberated by the fullness of the truth.”

Bishop Conley experienced this liberation firsthand as an undergraduate involved in the short-lived Pearson Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas.

“The (program) was the impetus for my conversion to the Catholic faith,” he said. “I used to tell people that I read my way into the Catholic Church. That was true to a certain extent, but when I look back at it, it was more than that. It was the whole experience: relationships, friendships and the community I was a part of. It really had a tremendous impact on my life.”

Students involved in the Integrated Humanities Program not only explored classic literature but also star-gazed, travelled the world, memorized and recited poetry together and even learned how to waltz. Bishop Conley said students can expect similar things from the Newman Institute.

“This is not just an academic program,” he said. “We’re going to offer opportunities that will engage the whole person.”

The Newman Institute’s thoroughly Catholic underpinning will set it apart from the Integrated Humanities program and even the humanities program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where the Institute is based.

“We want to teach these courses in the full vision of philosophy, history, art, architecture, music,” he said. “And theology is woven in all of these.”

The Institute will host three additional public lectures this fall with speakers including First Things magazine editor Dr. R.R. Reno and a literature professor from Wyoming Catholic College.

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U.S. NEWS

Over 45 million live in poverty as Pope Francis comes to visit

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • September 17, 2015

(Catholic Charities, USA)

Washington, D.C. — Carolyn Smith of Dayton, Ohio was living without food or working utilities and in “in an utter, total state of depression” when a Good Samaritan brought her to the local Catholic Social Services.

She received help and is now working a steady job with a “reason to get up in the morning” and “get out of the house,” as she describes it. Her story is one of millions that Catholic Charities, USA hopes to tell Americans about poverty with the “#End45” campaign.

“We started the campaign because we believe that most Americans don’t know the extent of the problem in this country,” Sister Donna Markham, O.P., president of Catholic Charities, USA, said at the National Press Club on Thursday, announcing the campaign.

The title #End45 refers to the approximately 45 million Americans living in poverty (it’s actually 46.7 million, according to the latest Census data). Catholic Charities hopes that by “raising their hands” – participants can take a picture of “#End45” written on their palm and post it to social media – people can simply raise awareness about poverty.

“I think most people don’t realize the extent of it (poverty), or if they do know that there are poor people, they see somebody on the street begging, but they don’t understand the complexity,” Sister Markham explained.

“There are a lot of judgments made about people who are poor,” she added, like the cliché that they should just get a job. “Sometimes they are too distraught to be able to get to that place.”

So Catholic Charities, USA is trying to tell their stories. They have seven videos of persons helped out of poverty by the organization available on the campaign’s website. Perhaps this could start an avalanche of awareness of poverty. More Good Samaritans could bring the needy like Carolyn Smith to the local Catholic Charities for aid.

Obviously, Pope Francis’ visit may be the ultimate catalyst of this awareness, Sr. Markham noted. The Pope will visit Catholic Charities sites in Washington, D.C. and New York City where food and beds are provided to the homeless and immigrants are welcomed.

“He’s really underscoring the importance of us coming together, not only as Catholic Charities but as human beings, to address the throwaway culture,” she said. Particularly, Americans could improve “how we interact with each other” and with the poor, she said, especially becoming “a little more compassionate in our discourse.”

However, she also thinks that Pope Francis will have a wake-up call for Congress, especially with regard to “social policy” and the budget.

“The Gospel is a disturbing message,” she said, and Pope Francis will probably “make everyone uncomfortable” when he speaks in the House Gallery on Sept. 25.

Pope Francis will visit the United States Sept. 22-27, where he will canonize Blessed Junipero Serra, visit an inner-city school, address a joint session of Congress, meet with President Barack Obama, visit the United Nations, and close with a Mass for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

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Chicago archdiocese appoints Commonweal editor as new director of media

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • September 17, 2015

(PRNewsFoto/Archdiocese of Chicago)

Chicago, IL — The Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday named Grant Gallicho as its director of publications and media, a newly created position. Effective Nov. 1, Gallicho’s duties in his new position will include reviewing the archdiocese’s publications strategy and managing its print and digital properties.

Gallicho is a Chicago native and currently serves as an associate editor of Commonweal, an independent, lay-run Catholic journal. He has also been published in America, The National Catholic Reporter, The Tablet, El Ciervo, Religion Dispatches, Religion News Service, The New York Observer, The New York Times, and elsewhere.

“I welcome Grant back home to Chicago and look forward to working with him,” Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago said in a Sept. 17 statement.

“He comes to this new position with years of proven publishing experience and digital-era savvy, and combines those skills with a deep faith and love for the Church.”

Archbishop Cupich was appointed by Pope Francis one year ago, upon the retirement of Cardinal Francis George. Cardinal George died April 17 at the age of 78, after a long battle with cancer.

Since his appointment to the Chicago archdiocese, Archbishop Cupich has taken steps to distance himself from Cardinal George, and to instead align himself with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who preceded Cardinal George as leader of the third-largest archdiocese in the nation.

For example, in an August column on the Planned Parenthood videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, Archbishop Cupich referred to the “consistent ethic of life,” a phrase coined by Cardinal Bernardin and popularly known as the “seamless garment” understanding of faith’s role in the public square.

“While commerce in the remains of defenseless children is particularly repulsive, we should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighborhoods; or who are executed by the state in the name of justice.”

The videos, which show Planned Parenthood officials describing the harvesting of body parts from aborted babies at their clinics, offer “the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment as a nation to a consistent ethic of life,” the Chicago archbishop said.

Archbishop Cupich was also personally chosen by Pope Francis earlier this week to attend the 2015 Synod on the Family in Rome, along with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and Bishop George Murry of Youngstown.

These delegates join those approved by the United States bishops: Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville; Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia; Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles; and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.

The Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family is set to take place Oct. 4-25, with the theme “Jesus Christ reveals the mystery and vocation of the family.” The conclusions of the gathering will be used by Pope Francis to draft his first Post-Synodal Exhortation, which can be expected in 2016.

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What’s behind the White House’s invite to Catholic dissenters

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

The White House in Washington, D.C. (Diego Cambasio via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The White House will host a welcoming ceremony for Pope Francis next week, but it has invited several LGBT activist allies who are working to target Catholic beliefs and to influence the Synod on the Family.

On Sept. 23, the White House will host hundreds of people on the South Lawn for a welcoming ceremony for Pope Francis’ first visit to the U.S. as Roman Pontiff. The Pope and President Barack Obama will then have a private meeting.

The White House directly invited some guests to the ceremony, including former Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson. His election as the first openly gay Episcopalian bishop helped split the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

The White House also invited the LGBT activist group GLAAD to the reception. GLAAD’s Sept. 16 announcement of the invitation asked its allies to “Help send a message to Pope Francis” by taking part in an advocacy campaign.

GLAAD has released a media guide for the papal visit that encourages journalists to consult dissenting Catholic groups. It also portrays negatively several Catholic bishops and Catholic commentators and researchers who are opposed to LGBT political aims. Its guide seeks sympathetic press attention for employees of Catholic institutions fired for violating Catholic moral standards.

The media guide criticized Catholic groups such as Courage, which supports people with same-sex attraction to live chastely. The GLAAD guide contended that Catholic teaching can be “extremely harmful” to young people who identify as LGBT.

Other guests to the reception were invited by other leaders or groups.

GLAAD said that they would be joined at the White House by Frank DeBernardo, executive director of the dissenting Catholic activist group New Ways Ministry, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, S.L., the organization’s co-founder. New Ways Ministry received a specific rebuke from the Vatican in 1999, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith permanently barred Sister Gramick from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons. In February 2010, then-president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said the group rejects central aspects of Catholic teaching.

The dissenting group Call to Action in a Sept. 14 blog post said an unnamed staffer had been invited to the reception. Mateo Williamson, a past transgender caucus co-chair with the dissenting group Dignity USA will also attend, CNSNews.com reports.

GLAAD has also invited a former intern, Nicholas Coppola. Coppola had volunteered at his New York parish and continued as a catechist after he contracted a same-sex marriage. The matter was brought to the attention of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 2013.

Auxiliary Bishop Robert Brennan of Rockville Centre voiced concern to Coppola’s pastor that he was teaching religion to children. Coppola was removed from his position; he then launched a petition campaign protesting the action, with the aid of several activist groups.

Sean Dolan, director of communications for the Rockville Centre diocese, told the New York Times in 2013 that the Church “has the right to have people in public positions who accurately represent its teachings” and that someone who decides to enter such a union appears not to understand or follow Catholic teaching.

The papal visit comes ahead of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the role of the family in the new evangelization. Both events have been the focus of well-funded activism.

The Arcus Foundation, which has poured millions into LGBT advocacy and efforts to counter religious freedom protections, has dedicated hundreds of thousands of dollars to projects that support LGBT activists to counter the synod. The foundation’s grantees include the Equally Blessed Coalition, whose members include New Ways Ministry, Dignity USA and Call to Action. New Ways Ministry and Dignity USA are also involved in a global network of LGBT Catholic activists which is holding an assembly and advocacy conference in Rome ahead of the synod.

In February, New Ways Ministry touted its presence at a Wednesday papal audience as unprecedented and won news headlines claiming the group had received VIP treatment. In fact, the organization took advantage of a ticketing process available to almost anyone. New Ways Ministry did not present itself as an organization, but rather identified as “a group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loretto.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) invited Sister Simone Campbell to attend the White House reception for Pope Francis. Sister Campbell is executive director of NETWORK Lobby. She addressed the Democratic National Convention and was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Dignity USA convention.

NETWORK Lobby helped undercut the U.S. bishops’ concerns about abortion in the 2010 health care bill backed by President Obama and other Democrats. Sister Campbell helped organize the Nuns on the Bus campaign, whose partners include the media group Faith in Public Life. That organization conducted a media campaign against the U.S. bishops’ efforts to defend religious freedom in the ongoing controversy over mandated insurance coverage for drugs and procedures that violate Catholic morals.

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U.S. NEWS

How marriage prep is failing Catholics, and what we can do about it

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • September 18, 2015

(SunKids via shutterstock.com)

Denver, CO — The Church needs to seriously consider changing the way it approaches marriage preparation say John and Claire Grabowski, a couple who serve on the Pontifical Council for the Family.

The Grabowskis are one of only two couples from the United States to serve on the council, which assists the Pope by focusing on issues related to marriage and the family.

As a couple, they have been helping young people with marriage preparation for about 20 years, including their own son and his wife, recently.

John Grabowski, PhD, has also been teaching classes on marriage and family at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. for the past 24 years to “mixed” classes – meaning he teaches lay people alongside seminarians and those in various stages of religious life.

He likes to point out to his classes the disparity in formation between those entering the priesthood and religious life, compared to those entering the vocation of marriage, he said.

“The people in seminary formation or entering religious life are going to go through 6-10 years of formation to enter into a lifelong vocation, and then they’re going to receive ongoing regular formation after that,” John said.

“Marriage is also a lifelong vocation, yet we give couples six weeks at the most, or six evenings, or maybe a weekend or a Saturday afternoon, and we say, ‘Go have a great life together,’” he said. “That’s not enough.”

Currently, marriage preparation for Catholics in the United States is handled at the parish or diocesan level and the basic requirements vary. Claire said that as members of the Pontifical Council for the Family, they are working to deepen and strengthen marriage preparation across the board in the United States, and are hoping to move toward ongoing formation.

“There’s not a lot of great stuff out there at the parish level, at least not that we’ve seen, and this is something that we’re working on,” Claire said. “Not only for engaged couples, but all married couples need to continue with their formation.”

“This is something the universal Church is really waking up to,” John added. “We need ongoing formation for married couples. We can’t stop with the wedding. We can’t just have pre-Cana, we need post-Cana formation.”

When asked about the state of marriage in the nation, the Grabowskis said there are several reasons for concern, though they may not be the first things that Catholics think of.

“A lot of people point to the recent Supreme Court decision on … same-sex marriage. And we’ll say ‘Oh the court redefined marriage’; but actually marriage got redefined 60-70 years ago when we as a culture embraced widespread contraception,” John said.

“So we took fertility out of marriage, and then we embraced no-fault divorce, so we took permanence out of marriage … marriage has been redefined for a while,” he added.

Despite these reasons for concern, the Grabowskis said, they have also seen in their work preparing young people for the sacrament plenty of reasons to hope.

“Because of what’s going on in the country, people are seeing that there’s something wrong, and they’re choosing to use natural family planning, they’re choosing to have big families, they’re choosing to get involved in church,” Claire said.

“And maybe we needed this wake-up call to get back to the foundation of our lives, the truth, and the sacraments,” she said. “We need to support each other, because families can’t make it on their own. We need the help of the Church, the priests, the couples who’ve been married for a while, we need to support each other, and grow together.”

The Grabowskis will both be attending the World Meeting of Families next week, where John will give a talk on Wednesday, Sept. 23 to the Adult Congress entitled “The Other Side of Mount Sinai: Growing in Virtue.”

John has also been appointed by Pope Francis to attend the 2015 Synod on the Family as an expert. The Synod of Bishops scheduled is for Oct. 4-25, and the theme is “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World.”

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U.S. NEWS

When Pope Francis comes to the U.S., he won’t just talk about the environment

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

(Catholic News Agency CC0 1.0)

Washington, D.C. — Pope Francis’ ecology encyclical is about a lot more than recycling – it speaks to man’s deepest relationships – and the Pope will emphasize all this in his upcoming U.S. visit, said one leading U.S. bishop.

Laudato si is ultimately about “integral ecology,” or the connection between human relationships and nature, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami explained at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

This means that a person’s relationships with himself, others, God, and nature are all connected – “when any one of these relationships suffer” the others will suffer too, Archbishop Wenski explained.

Archbishop Wenski is chair of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the U.S. Bishops. He, along with Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, and Carolyn Woo, head of Catholic Relief Services, was explaining U.S. Catholics’ response to the encyclical in light of the Pope’s upcoming visit to the U.S. from Sept. 22-27.

The encyclical was published in June, with the title taken from St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun,” and meaning “Praise be to you.” While it strongly upholds man’s duty to care for the environment and calls for human action against climate change, the letter also connects environmental stewardship to care for human life in matters such as abortion, population control, and transgender issues.

During his U.S. visit, Pope Francis will certainly address the environment, Archbishop Wenski said, but he won’t stop there.

“Integral ecology demands that rainforests be protected because of what they do for the flourishing of the human species on this earth. And likewise, families should be protected, family life should be protected,” the archbishop said. “Marriage, understood for millennia as the union of one man and one woman ought to be protected.”

“Our throwaway culture has extended to the very lives of human beings as well. We throw away life in the womb,” he added, noting that Pope Francis even cites “detrimental impacts of the destruction of embryos and of abortion in his encyclical.”

“He [Pope Francis] decries how we neglect the disabled and show little respect for the lives and contributions of the elderly, and how we discard those that are poor,” he noted. “In our current age, human beings find themselves commodities and desires, as evidenced by human trafficking.”

And just as we have distaste for environmental pollutants, the archbishop said, “should we not be just as concerned about the toxic waste of pornography?”

When Pope Francis visits Philadelphia and addresses pilgrims at the World Meeting of Families, he will also include family life and religious liberty in his message, the archbishop said.

“Certainly talking about the family in the context of our culture today is just as difficult, if not more so, than talking about the climate.”

In his homily at the closing mass of the Fortnight for Freedom on July 4, Archbishop Wenski had emphasized the need to protect religious liberty so Catholic institutions could have the freedom to put into practice the teachings in Laudato si.

He reiterated the importance of religious liberty on Wednesday and expects Pope Francis to do the same when he speaks at Independence Hall in Philadelphia – where the both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were adopted.

“Here in this country, at Independence Hall Pope Francis will address religious freedom here in the World Meeting of Families,” he said.

“Independence Hall is certainly a symbolic place to address that theme, and one that needs to be addressed because again, we keep hearing politicians speak of religious liberty only in terms of freedom of worship, and it’s got to be larger than freedom to worship.”

“We also are faced with an attitude today of which religion is seen as somehow to be private, to be practiced only in the privacy of one’s own home as if it were some other type of vice that people do in their homes,” he added. “We belong to a public institution, a Church, so religion cannot be private.”

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U.S. NEWS

House votes to transfer federal funding from Planned Parenthood to health centers

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • September 18, 2015

A student-organized Women Betrayed rally at the U.S. Capitol urging the defunding of Planned Parenthood on July 28, 2015.. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — In a 241-187 vote on Friday, members of the United States House of Representatives voted to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood for one year, following months of political debate surrounding information revealed in a series of undercover videos on the abortion provider.

“This is about ensuring that laws are followed, that Americans know how their money is being spent, and that the conscience rights of taxpayers are respected,” Rep. Diane Black (R. - Tenn.), sponsor of the bill, said Sept. 18 on the House floor before the vote.

Black added that the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 (H.R. 3134) will redistribute more than $235,000 saved from funding the organization to more than 13,500 health care clinics around the country.

The vote was largely along party lines, though three Republicans (Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), Robert Dold (R-Ill.) and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.)) voted against the bill, and two Democrats voted in its favor: Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.).

Meanwhile the House of Representatives will continue an investigation into allegations that the abortion provider has broken federal laws banning the profit off of human body parts harvested during abortions, changes in abortion procedures in order to harvest body parts, the use of illegal “partial birth abortion” techniques to harvest body parts, and the refusal of medical care to infants who survive abortion attempts.

The vote and the investigation follow a string of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing modification of abortion procedures, suggesting that some victims of abortion are born alive at Planned Parenthood clinics, and a former technician recounting an incident where organs were harvested from an intact deliver that still had a beating heart.

The House also passed 248-177 H.R. 3504, which would add the criminal penalty of first-degree murder to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, a law which ensures that babies who survive failed abortion attempts recieve adequate healthcare care and protection.

One representative, Steve King (R-Iowa), voted as “present” for both H.R. 3134 and H.R. 3504, objectingthat the bills allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, and risks to the mother’s life.

The Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life organization, commented that the lack of Democratic support for both bills “are evidence of just how wedded to the idea of abortion on-demand, at any time, for any reason, that the Democratic Party has become.”

“Only five Democrats – five out of 188 – could bring themselves to vote to protect a baby who survived a failed abortion,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement. “Where is the compassion and concern for ‘the little guy,’ the abortion survivor, whose heart is beating and alive?”

While both bills passed the House, neither is expected to pass the Senate or to be signed into law by president Barack Obama. The Senate failed to bring a similar bill to the floor in early August.

“Tragically, President Obama – the Abortion President – has vowed to veto this pro-child, human rights legislation, a position that is extreme, anti-child, inhumane and indefensible,” wrote Rep. Chris Smith (R.- N.J.) of H.R. 3504 in a statement.

In August Alabama, New Hampshire, and Louisiana each voted to strip Planned Parenthood of funding from their state budgets.

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U.S. NEWS

Vatican pushes back over White House invite to Catholic dissidents

by CNA/EWTN News • September 18, 2015

The White House in Washington, D.C. (Sean Pavone via shutterstock.com)

Washington, D.C. — The presence of LGBT activists and other controversial guests at the White House welcoming ceremony for Pope Francis has reportedly drawn concern at the Vatican.

A senior Vatican official has said the Holy See is concerned that any photos of the Pope with the controversial guests could be interpreted as an endorsement, Wall Street Journal writer Francis X. Rocca reported Sept. 17.

The White House directly invited some guests to the Sept. 23 South Lawn ceremony, including retired Episcopal Bishop V.Gene Robinson. His election as the first openly gay Episcopalian bishop helped split the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

The White House also invited the LGBT activist group GLAAD to the reception. The organization is circulating a media guide for the papal visit that encourages journalists to consult dissenting Catholic groups. It also portrays negatively several bishops and Catholic commentators and researchers who are opposed to LGBT political aims. The media guide contended that Catholic teaching can be “extremely harmful” to young people who identify as LGBT.

GLAAD said that they would be joined at the White House by Frank DeBernardo, executive director of the dissenting Catholic activist group New Ways Ministry, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, S.L., the organization’s co-founder. The organization was rebuked by the Vatican and the U.S. bishops’ conference for rejecting Catholic teaching.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest, speaking to reporters on Thursday, warned against drawing conclusions about specific attendees “because there will be 15,000 other people there too,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

However, DeBernardo told the Washington Blade Sept. 16 he thought the presence of LGBT Catholics and activists “sends a strong message that LGBT people are a great concern of this administration.”

GLAAD also invited its former intern Nicholas Coppola, who has protested New York’s Diocese of Rockville Centre after he was removed as a catechist when he contracted a same-sex civil marriage.

Mateo Williamson, a past transgender caucus co-chair with the dissenting group Dignity USA will also attend.

The Catholic dissenting groups benefited from a 2014 grant of $200,000 from the Arcus Foundation. The foundation’s grant listing said the funding was “to support pro-LGBT faith advocates to influence and counter the narrative of the Catholic Church and its ultra-conservative affiliates” ahead of the Synod on the Family.

The foundation is an LGBT advocacy partner of the U.S. State Department’s Global Equality Fund. The foundation’s executive director, Kevin Jennings, is a former Obama administration official. The foundation has dedicated over $2 million to target religious freedom protections in the U.S.

New Ways Ministry and Dignity USA are also involved in a global network of LGBT Catholic activists which is holding an assembly and advocacy conference in Rome ahead of the 2015 synod.

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FEATURES

The Saints and Offenses

by Alice von Hildebrand • September 15, 2015

Alas, rare are those among us that have never been offended by our fellow men. The most fortunate are usually those who are in the background and keep a very low profile. They do not challenge anyone and are thereby fairly protected from nasty and offensive remarks, many of which are triggered either by “rivalry”, or by “jealousy” or by a radical incompatibility of temperament.

Whatever the reason may be, remarks, whether cynical, or unkind, or wounding, or aiming at ridiculing another person, are rightly experienced as painful and “offensive”.

In our complex human life, there are events and situations that can be differently interpreted; but there are also Weltanschauungen that radically clash. In the narrow context of this article, I will concentrate exclusively on the fact that certain words aim at wounding the adversary, and are not directly related to the disagreement at stake.

They clearly aim at shooting arrows at one’s adversary with the definite intention of “wounding” him. I recall someone telling me that “thanks to my sensitivity, I know exactly where others are most vulnerable, and therefore know where to direct my arrows”. The attitude of those who pride themselves of having this “talent”, is definitely immoral for it is loaded with poison.

One thing is to disagree with another’s views – something inevitable on this earth – another is to intend to “offend”. The gamut of possibility is very large: one can ridicule another person’s physical appearance, one can ridicule his background and parentage, one can ridicule his so-called talents or lack of talents. Whatever has a poisonous note is radically incompatible with love of neighbor and should be condemned.

As briefly mentioned above, there are, however, radically different kinds of disagreements: many of them refer to prudential judgments such as those related to financial, military, economic or purely political decisions. It is conceivable that each position has some merit, and it is wise to choose the most prudent one. Some people are wiser, more far sighted, or are better informed than others. One should beware however to be motivated by one’s “unbaptized” emotions and irrational reactions.

These cases should be sharply distinguished from those clearly related to moral issues and in such cases, the views we should defend are those dictated by the moral law – of universal validity – or for Catholics, by the Magisterium of the Holy Church. How many Catholics, alas, forget that they and they alone are blessed by a Magisterium – that is being guided by God’s authority they are guaranteed that they possess the truth. This certainty is an unfathomable gift. Anyone who defends a position which tramples upon the natural law, must be opposed with every possible means. Any candidate to the Presidency who officially endorses abortion – the murder of the innocents – or sees homosexuality as simply another “lifestyle”, and for this “reason” defends the rights of homosexuals to get married, is to be thrown out of court, without further discussion for he is in fact sapping the very foundation of any sound society.

But whatever problem we face, there is always a danger that, in the course of a discussion one of the opponents – often time the one defending the illegitimate position – turns to insults, hoping thereby to throw his opponent off his horse.

What is of crucial interest for us is to examine the responses given by saints to offenses and learn from them. They joyfully follow their Master, a man of sorrow, who was rejected, offended, insulted, slapped in the face, and crucified. Only those quietly hiding in unknown monasteries, are usually protected from such treatments, even though it is naïve to assume that the Evil one who hates these places consecrated to God, does not try to find a back entrance. To have a religious vocation does not mean that one is a saint; it only means that he sincerely intends to strive for holiness.

The first question that we should raise is the following: Should one “let” oneself be offended? That is, allow the wounding words to truly affect us, and make us lose our peace? Or should we wear a “holy protective armor” which immediately deflects the arrows, and turns one’s attention away from oneself to the moral stain that the offender brings on his own soul?

Are saints “insensitive” just as there are people who have very thick skin and therefore do not feel offenses? The answer is a radical “no”. Holiness certainly does not make one insensitive, on the contrary, but cures us from self-pity and self-centeredness. The saint or the one sincerely striving for holiness will, as soon as the poisonous arrow has wounded his heart, “baptize it by charity”, and will turn his attention to the grave offense of God which every poisonous word necessarily implies. Moreover, he should be grieved for the offender who is animated by hatred and a spirit of revenge. This attitude protects one from letting the offense wound his soul. The offender, on the other hand, has stained his and unless he begs both God and his neighbor for forgiveness, he is the one that Angels pity. It cannot be repeated enough: man is his own worst enemy. No other human being – vicious as his actions may be – can harm one as gravely as one can harm oneself.

The inner gesture of deflecting a painful blow received into an act of charity is one of the great lessons that saints teach us. I once was told the story of a saint, who following the example of St. John the Baptist, kept warning a sinner that he was harming his soul. As in this case, the sinner was not a powerful man, he could not possibly order that this man’s head be chopped up. Instead he gave him a brutal slap in the face. The latter’s response was: “hit me as much as you please, but stop offending God and harming your own beloved soul”. The latter touched by grace, asked him for forgiveness, and changed what is today called his “lifestyle”. Love of neighbor had conquered – a love which possible only if one makes a holy detour through our Savior, a man of sorrow.

That men often disagree is necessarily linked to our earthly situation. Some human situations are so complex that they inevitably lead to conflict of opinion. Without claiming any competence on this topic, let us mention one : immigration. The very moment the word is mentioned, people’s blood pressure will immediately rise. One can concentrate on the dangers involved: for example that opening borders is to in invite undesirable characters invade the U.S whether drug dealers or criminals. The problem is already a serious threat to the country. That this has happened, is a threat and a legitimate concern. Others are conscious of the fact that there are laws which brutally tear families apart: father in one country, mother in another: children not knowing there they belong. In many cases, one must choose the lesser evil. Alas, this is often the case when the citizens of a free country go to the polls. There are obviously clear cases when making a decision is dictate by moral factors: any person with any moral sense and intelligence could not possibly vote for a Hitler, even if the other candidate is far from being satisfactory.

There are clear cases: when a candidate endorses abortion, homosexuality or homosexual marriages, one’s choice is morally dictated: “No” is the only proper response, for the endorsement of immorality is a poison of such danger that it menaces the very survival of a country. But in such cases, it is alas, often the case that the real issue is clouded by arguments that “sound” convincing, such as “a woman has a right to decide what she will do with her own body”, as if one’s body – a gift – was a piece of property acquired through one’s own labor, or any “love” is legitimate and should be protected, failing to mention that the word “love” implies a sincere concern about the welfare of another and this is why any homosexual practice, in fact, denies the dignity of the human person in endorsing attitudes which while “normal” on the animals level, sin against the dignity of persons.

Let me go back to my theme: it should be stated emphatically that certain disagreements are not only legitimate and even morally obligatory, but this does not justify shifting from an intellectual debate to personal insults.

Disagreements about ideas are one thing. But how often does it degenerate into personal attacks? The issue is then blurred by a note of rancor which totally obscures the real question. More than once this occurs when one of the two parties is being clearly defeated and then turns to insults.

Alice von Hildebrand is a lecturer and an author whose works include The Privilege of Being a Woman (2002) and The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich von Hildebrand (2000), a biography of her late husband. She was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of St. Gregory by Pope Francis in 2013.

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The Way of Beauty: Mercy

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • September 16, 2015

Mercy is active compassion. This concise definition from the Encyclopedia of Catholicism drives the Hebrew Scriptures where the title “Lord of Mercy” is often ascribed to God. In the Christian Scriptures, mercy assumes wide meaning from “God the Father of mercy” to the mercy we must offer to one another.

Pope Francis has worked among the poor, serving and accompanying them, advocating and defending them. His witness of mercy speaks volumes. And the world has taken notice. This Pope of mercy is about to make his first-ever visit to our country.

Works of Mercy

Isaiah 58:6-10 provides the scriptural basis for the Matthean works of mercy (25:34-40). The corporal works of mercy enjoin on us as the Lord’s disciples to: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, elderly, and homebound, bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy also ask us to: admonish the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive all injuries, to pray for the living and the dead.

One Family, One Shining Example

Last Sunday, the New York Times Sunday Business featured an interview with Patty Stonesifer who is currently the chief executive of Martha’s Table, a provider of food and clothing for low-income families in Seattle. She and her siblings were raised to participate in the soup kitchen. After work, her father would pick up excess food from the local grocery market, repackage it, and distribute it to the needy. On Sundays he drove a bus for the deaf children who were coming to Mass. Here is one contemporary example of doing the corporal works of mercy.

Poverty of Soul and Mind

In addition to the physically poor, there are other kinds of poor among us. The poverty of the rich is not always apparent but no less needy. Yet it is the wealthy who are among the Church’s financial donors to raise up the physically downtrodden.

Then there are the intellectually poor many of whom no longer believe in the human capacity to know truth. These may be found on college campuses, in graduate and professional school, and especially in law schools. Politicians, most of whom are lawyers, are also part of this group.

Today, Catholic educators worry that our greatest problem is the poverty of the mind. Worse, our whole educational system has failed in training the mind to seek truth. Empty minds cannot generate wisdom. If we do not educate the mind, we perpetuate physical poverty. You cannot preach the Gospel to someone who does not believe in the capacity of the mind to know the truth,’ they say. There is further concern that our youth lack the desire for truth and learning that nourishes the mind. Instead, the social media, indulging in drugs, risky behavior have claimed their time and attention. Their motto? ”Whatever!”

Recently, in Crisis Magazine Online, Father James Schall, S.J. wrote an essay, “Why Silencing Christians Will Continue.” In it, he notes that truth is basic to virtue. He observes that “we no longer want to hear speech if it ‘offends’ someone’s feelings or self-defined identity. We have become infinitely tolerant of anything but truth itself. Speech is not directed to truth or falsity of an issue but to the ‘sensitivity’ and ‘compassion’ of those who hear it.” Without truth, there is no virtue, no sensitivity, and no compassion.

Poverty of the Emotions

Americans suffer from the poverty of emotional maturity. Too many of us live with the erroneous assumption that emotions are the best guide of human behavior. ‘Emotions can’t be controlled.’ ’We can’t be chaste.’ ’We should admire people who simply let their hearts rule their heads.’

In 1936, Edward VIII abdicated the British throne and followed his heart to wed the twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. The whole world watched as emotivism was caught up in its own needs. The whole world watched as Edward’s brother, George VI accepted the burden thrust on him during World War II.

Reason and faith are the twofold engines that should drive emotional maturity.

Mercy in Action: Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Schools

Last week, Pope Francis spoke with the students at Cristo Rey Chicago via satellite. What are the Cristo Rey schools?

In the mid-nineties, Cristo Rey, a Catholic college-prep school serving low-income students, took shape as the creation of Father John O. Foley, S.J. and a few other Jesuits in Chicago.

The scriptural text that inspired the Cristo Rey vision was that from Acts 9:6: ”[Paul], get up and go into the city where you will be told what you must do.” Like the Apostle, the Jesuits went into the streets, but of Chicago’s Pilsen district and asked the residents how they, the Jesuits, could best respond to the unserved needs of the Mexican and Latino immigrants living there. The response was unanimous. They wanted their children to attend a college-prep high school that would educate them for a better future. In August 1996, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago was born.

Every Cristo Rey school is permeated with Catholic faith and values with biblical and Catholic social teaching forming the centerpiece of the celebration of Mass, retreat experiences, and community service. It is Christ the King who leads the way.

Genius of Cristo Rey: High School and Going to Business at Fourteen

The parents of Cristo Rey schools cannot afford large tuition bills, but herein lies the genius of the Cristo Rey plan. The schools function as a vast work-study agency in which clusters of five students each rotate working as interns one day a week at a job in a business like Pfizer and American Express. Part-time salaries cover a portion of each student’s tuition. Parents pay approximately $1,000 a year to defray some of the cost of that tuition. Here they are, young people, beginning to build their resumes at age fourteen. Business ‘boot camp’ calls for wearing suitable attire, learning telephone etiquette and skills, team work, precision, accountability, technical skills, and how to conduct oneself in business. The other four days of the week, students are immersed in a rigorous course of academic studies.

In this way, study and work are integrated, and tuition is covered. Students gain exposure to the corporate world while receiving a first-class education in a thoroughly Catholic environment. Of the 9,000 students enrolled in Cristo Rey schools across the country, 40% of them are not Catholic and need not convert to Catholicism.

Enterprising Sponsors

In addition to the Jesuits, many religious groups endorse and run Cristo Rey schools. Each is independently owned, each is explicitly Catholic in mission, and each has received official Church approbation. From the endorsing group to the president, principal, and teachers, down to the youngest freshman, a common four-fold mission is actively promoted: (1) commitment to the Catholic character of the school, a character that permeates the curriculum, (2) admitting only students from lower income families, (3) using a college-prep curriculum, (4) work-study.

Currently, there are approximately twenty-eight schools in the Cristo Rey Network, but new schools are in the planning. Empty buildings are being bought up and renovated for the 400-600 students who will study there and from there go to business one day a week as interns. The Cristo Rey Network based in Chicago ascertains that all the schools are adhering to the four-fold mission.

Course of Studies and Transforming Urban Education

Students in Cristo Rey schools have a longer school day and year. What course of studies do the students follow? Across the United States, the college-prep, academic curriculum is rigorous experience. Students take four years each of English, mathematics, religion, and science, three years each of a foreign language and history, two plus years in health and physical education, at least one year of the arts, and computer science.

Cristo Rey schools are transforming urban education through Catholic values through Catholic values, rigorous study and student-internships. By 2001, Cristo Rey’s education model became known to educators and community leaders throughout the country. As of 2014, twenty-eight Cristo Rey schools have enrolled 9,000 low-income students, and every year, every student is accepted into college. Many of these college graduates are asked to give back to Cristo Rey, by teaching in the very schools that lifted them out of poverty.

The primary long-range goal of Cristo Rey schools is to have their students enter and graduate from college. Eight goals emerge from Cristo Rey schools:

I. Academic excellence and lifelong learning are essential. As important keys, they unlock doors to a meaningful future for the students.

II. Importance of well-trained teachers equipped to engage their students. As leaders, they must be committed to the Catholic vision.

III. Character is developed largely through faith experiences.

IV. All-in. Every person is committed to the program.

V. Belief in every student that he or she has the ability to enter and graduate from college. This attitude prompts students to believe in themselves.

VI. The importance of community — students together with parents.

VII. Importance of data. Test scores are used by the schools themselves to improve their programs and by outside groups to assess the impact of Cristo Rey education.

VIII. Cristo Rey pursues a culture of high expectations of everyone. (Adapted from Megan Sweas: “How a Jesuit Network Is Transforming Urban Education”).

Conclusion

Catholic education gives human beings a vision of the Transcendent as well as an appreciation of their lives on earth. Thus, they can realize their destiny in the life to come. A Catholic education that attempts to achieve less than this is an incomplete Catholic education and short-changes those students enrolled in a particular Catholic school.

Cristo Rey schools have fast become a cherished institution of the American Catholic Church. They are leading young men and women to fulfill their potential as God’s works of art.

The inherent generosity of Americans and of American Catholics will not escape the Pope’s recognition when he visits us next week.

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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Your Life Does Not Belong to You

by Bishop Robert Barron • September 16, 2015

It was revealed this week that, for the first time in its history, Harvard University, which had been founded for religious purposes and named for a minister of the Gospel, has admitted a freshman class in which atheists and agnostics outnumber professed Christians and Jews. Also this week, the House and the Senate of California passed a provision that allows for physician-assisted suicide in the Golden State. As I write these words, the governor of California is deliberating whether to sign the bill into law. Though it might seem strange to suggest as much, I believe that the make-up of the Harvard freshman class and the passing of the suicide law are really related.

I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised that non-believers have come to outnumber believers among the rising cohort of the American aristocracy. For the whole of their lives, these young people have been immersed in the corrosive acids of relativism, scientism, and materialism. Though they have benefited from every advantage that money can afford, they have been largely denied what the human heart most longs for: contact with the transcendent, with the good, true, and beautiful in their properly unconditioned form. But as Paul Tillich, echoing the Hebrew prophets, reminded us, we are built for worship, and therefore in the absence of God, we will make some other value our ultimate concern. Wealth, power, pleasure, and honor have all played the role of false gods over the course of the human drama, but today especially, freedom itself has emerged as the ultimate good, as the object of worship. And what this looks like on the ground is that our lives come to belong utterly to us, that we become great projects of self-creation and self-determination.

As the Bible tells it, the human project went off the rails precisely at the moment when Adam arrogated to himself the prerogative of determining the meaning of his life, when he, in the agelessly beautiful poetry of the book of Genesis, ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Read the chapters that immediately follow the account of the Fall, and you will discover the consequences of this deified freedom: jealousy, hatred, fratricide, imperialism, and the war of all against all. The rest of the Biblical narrative can be interpreted as God’s attempt to convince human beings that their lives, in point of fact, do not belong to them. He did this precisely by choosing a people whom he would form after his own mind and heart, teaching them how to think, how to behave, and above all, how to worship. This holy people Israel - a word that means, marvelously, “the one who wrestles with God” - would then, by the splendor of their way of life, attract the rest of the world. On the Christian reading, this project reached its climax in the person of Jesus Christ, a first-century Israelite from the town of Nazareth, who was also the Incarnation of the living God. The coming-together of divinity and humanity, the meeting of infinite and finite freedom, Jesus embodies what God intended for us from the beginning.

And this is precisely why Paul, one of Jesus’ first missionaries, announced him as Kyrios (Lord) to all the nations, and why he characterized himself as doulos Christou Iesou (a slave of Christ Jesus). Paul exulted in the fact that his life did not belong to him, but rather to Christ. In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote, “there is a power already at work in you that can do infinitely more than you can ask or imagine.” He was referencing the Holy Spirit, which orders our freedom and which opens up possibilities utterly beyond our capacities. To follow the promptings of this Spirit is, for Paul and for all the Biblical authors, the source of life, joy, and true creativity.

All of which brings me back to Harvard and legalized suicide. The denial of God - or the blithe bracketing of the question of God - is not a harmless parlor game. Rather, it carries with it the gravest implications. If there is no God, then our lives do indeed belong to us, and we can do with them what we want. If there is no God, our lives have no ultimate meaning or transcendent purpose, and they become simply artifacts of our own designing. Accordingly, when they become too painful or too shallow or just too boring, we ought to have the prerogative to end them. We can argue the legalities and even the morality of assisted suicide until the cows come home, but the real issue that has to be engaged is that of God’s existence.

The incoming freshman class at Harvard is a disturbing omen indeed, for the more our society drifts into atheism, the more human life is under threat. The less we are willing even to wrestle with God, the more de-humanized we become.

Bishop Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries (wordonfire.org). He is the creator of two award-winning documentary series, Catholicism and Catholicism: The New Evangelization.

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Oliver Cromwell reviled in the annals of Irish history

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

No figure has been more hated by the Irish people than Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), the fanatical and puritanical Lord Protector of England, who in 1649 led a most vicious genocidal assault on Ireland. His campaign was intended to wipe out the Catholic religion and consolidate English rule in Ireland. In particular, Cromwell’s assault was focused on the subjugation of the Catholic Norman-Irish aristocracy which had come to Ireland in the 12th century and after.

The most drastic aspect of the Cromwellian expedition was a concerted confiscation and destruction of food supplies, leading to the death from starvation of about 20% of the Irish population.

Part of the Cromwellian campaign was to move the whole Catholic population to the western province of Connaught in order to make way in the three other provinces for new English settlers. Those who refused to go west were subject to death. Thus the war cry ascribed to Cromwell, “To death or to Connaught.” From this came the Irish curse — used in some places even today —”The curse of Cromwell be upon you.”

Cromwell’s hatred of Catholicism led systematically to the destruction of Catholic properties and churches. An account of the Cromwellian assault on Catholic faith and culture is most poignantly set out in a book titled, The Diocese of Meath Ancient and Modern, by Rev. A. Gogan, and published in 1860.

Cogan writes: “Yes, we were robbed of all this world [of Catholic tradition]. The Catholic charities of our forefathers were torn from us and confiscated. Our churches were levelled, our altars overturned, and our sanctuaries profaned. Our priests were hunted to the caverns of the wilderness, and the same price was fixed upon them as upon the head of a wolf. After having robbed us, they reproached us with our poverty; after having burned our books, levelled our schools, and murdered and banished our teachers, they belied our history and taunted us with our ignorance.”

Cogan continues: “All these ancient [churches and monasteries] have been swept away. The hand of the spoiler has torn up these sanctuaries of the faith and charity of our fathers. Their halls are no longer filled; the door of hospitality is no longer open to the poor man, the traveler, or the wayfarer. Silence, the silence of the grave, reigns around those holy places, where the cheerful laugh of youth, the pious chant of the months, the sacred song and the holy sacrifice, amidst incense and ceremony, once resounded. All that the powers of this world could effect has been done. The monastery, the gorgeous temple, the abbey church have disappeared. The abbey lands have been seized, the patrimony of the poor was confiscated.”

The historic relationship between Ireland and England is massively complex, and it takes careful study to figure out the various alliances that were made, reconfigured, and reversed over the centuries. Fairness to the English requires the student to recognize the strong opposition to Cromwell that arose in the English parliament. After Cromwell’s death, he was dug up, decapitated, and displayed publicly in London. Centuries later, Winston Churchill, probably England’s greatest prime minister, did not hesitate to condemn Cromwell in the British parliament in the most unambiguous terms.

The state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland in 2011 was the first time a British monarch had set foot in Ireland since Irish independence nearly a century ago. The Queen acknowledged the “the sad and regrettable mistakes” in the British relationship to Ireland. Her visit was a moment of extraordinary healing.

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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‘Black Mass’ proves to be empty and depressing

by Carl Kozlowski • September 18, 2015

Johnny Depp is an actor who knows how to completely submerge himself in a role, and for most of his career, he has been putting those skills into the service of quirky movies kids could enjoy, ranging from “Pirates of the Caribbean” to “Alice in Wonderland” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” But in the last few years, he’s had one flop after another with flicks like “Dark Shadows” and “The Lone Ranger,” and many fans have been wondering when he’s going to try something completely different than being whimsical and painted in makeup.

Well, he’s delivered that switcheroo this weekend, with the unfortunately titled “Black Mass,” in which he plays the real-life, legendary crime lord Jim “Whitey” Bulger, who terrified Boston for years before abruptly disappearing when the feds closed in on him. Bulger lived in hiding for a dozen years before the law caught up with him in Santa Monica, California in 2011 and finally brought him to justice.

Before I get into the plot or anything else, I do want to address that I think Hollywood’s timing in putting out the movie is, well, interesting. The release date for “Black Mass” was set right around the time that Pope Francis’ American visit was first announced by the Vatican, and so it’s at best odd timing that His Holiness will have to travel around big cities with the movie’s poster and its title constantly shoved in his face.

But the title of the movie may not be as nefarious as it seems. It’s the same as the book it’s based upon, and that book referred to “Black Mass” not for any direct Satanic purpose but as a hint towards Bulger’s odd dual life as a man who was a ruthless killer and drug kingpin at the same time he attended Mass and sat silently in his local parish even amidst his worst reign.

The movie kicks off in the 1970s and South Boston, aka “Southie,” the same kind of place seen in Ben Affleck’s far more involving films “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town” (for my money, the best heist movie of the past 20 years next to “Heat.”) An FBI agent named John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) wants to bring down the Italian Mob from the north side of Boston, and decides the fastest and easiest way to do it is by teaming up with his old childhood buddy, Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp).

When they first talk, Bulger is still a fairly small-time street king, but as he provides info that can take down the Italians and other criminals, Connolly starts looking the other way about his criminal activities. Soon, the Mob is brought down and Bulger has managed to take over much of their trade – and all the lies, double-talk and other help Connolly has provided comes back to haunt him when a new FBI boss notices just how chummy he and Whitey are.

From there, the movie is a slow-burn examination of corruption and what the lines are that good men will cross and that bad men ultimately won’t. While this is interesting philosophical and moral territory (albeit STRICTLY for adult viewers, and even then, only those not easily offended), it’s ultimately empty and depressing as well.

The problem with a true-crime picture is that it’s almost impossible to hide the ending from viewers, because their sensational subjects often made national news when they were finally shot dead or apprehended. So the point of watching the movie has to lie in how well it casts its spell along the way to that foregone conclusion, and providing moviegoers with a fascinating portrait of how someone becomes evil.

Usually, Hollywood remembers to include a heroic lawman to root for along the way. Yet while the movie is beautifully shot, has a fantastic score that would be worth listening to aside from the film, and has terrific acting across the board, it’s strangely offputting at best and scummy at worst. When everyone in it is evil, and their actions get progressively worse throughout the movie, it’s impossible to sympathize with anyone.

As you’ll see in another movie column coming over this weekend or Monday at the latest, there are plenty of more uplifting movies out there now. In fact, there’s likely to be three Christian-themed movies at the box office this weekend – “War Room,” “90 Minutes in Heaven,” and “Captive” – and any of those will put your mind in a better pre-Papal-visit place than “Black Mass.”

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.com 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 re-launching it in January 2014 after a five-month sabbatical. He lives in Los Angeles.

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SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 20, 2015

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Wis 2:12, 17-20; NRSVCE)

The wicked say,

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;

he reproaches us for sins against the law,

and accuses us of sins against our training.

Let us see if his words are true,

and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,

and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

Let us test him with insult and torture,

so that we may find out how gentle he is,

and make trial of his forbearance.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death,

for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”

Second Reading (Jas 3:16 — 4:3; NRSVCE)

Where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Gospel Reading (Mk 9:30-37; NRSVCE)

Jesus and his disciples went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

MONDAY • SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Feast of Saint Matthew

First Reading (Eph 4:1-7, 11-13; NRSVCE)

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

Gospel Reading (Mt 9:9-13; NRSVCE)

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

TUESDAY • SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ezr 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20; NRSVCE)

King Darius commanded, “Let the work on this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God: the cost is to be paid to these people, in full and without delay, from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province Beyond the River. I, Darius, make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

So the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia; and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. Then they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the Passover. For both the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were clean. So they killed the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.

Gospel Reading (Lk 8:19-21; NRSVCE)

The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

WEDNESDAY • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina

First Reading (Ezr 9:5-9; NRSVCE)

At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God, and said,

“O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as is now the case. But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, who has left us a remnant, and given us a stake in his holy place, in order that he may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery. For we are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem.”

Gospel Reading (Lk 9:1-6; NRSVCE)

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money — not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

THURSDAY • SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Hg 1:1-8; NRSVCE)

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. Then the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord.

Gospel Reading (Lk 9:7-9; NRSVCE)

Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen. Herod said, “John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he tried to see him.

FRIDAY • SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Hg 2:1-9; NRSVCE)

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.

Gospel Reading (Lk 9:18-22; NRSVCE)

Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.”

He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

SATURDAY • SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Zec 2:5-9, 14-15a; NRSVCE)

I looked up and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him, and said to him, “Run, say to that young man: Jerusalem shall be inhabited like villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and animals in it. For I will be a wall of fire all around it, says the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.”

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst.

Gospel Reading (Lk 9:43b-45; NRSVCE)

While everyone was amazed at all that Jesus was doing, he said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.