VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3  •  JULY 16, 2016

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Pope separates oversight, administration in ongoing reform of Vatican finances

World Youth Day pilgrims to receive a social doctrine app from the Pope

The Good Samaritan isn’t just a parable, it’s a way of life, Pope says

Pope names American as new Vatican spokesperson

Vatican spokesman wades into ad orientem debate

New press office directors given warm Vatican welcome

Pope Francis grieves over deadly train crash in Italy

Pope taps U.S. religious freedom advocate for Vatican communications team

Pope takes new step in re-launching dialogue with Al-Azhar

Vatican department for Latin America gets surprise visit from Pope Francis

The tale of Fr. Brochero: Gaucho priest, devil’s worst nightmare

Vatican event draws heavy hitters to discuss faith, sports

What the Holy See has to say about conflict in the Middle East

Vatican condemns Nice attack as ‘homicidal madness’

Gammarelli legacy passes to sixth generation of papal tailors

As reforms roll out, Pope Francis proves a man of his word

WORLD NEWS

Venezuelan government blasted for blocking Church aid

With South Sudan on the brink of civil war, here’s what Church leaders are saying

Are these quite possibly the world’s happiest nuns?

Cautious optimism as U.S. troops help to retake Mosul from ISIS

Are religious teachers being eradicated from Belgian schools?

Reports emerge of teens convulsing from ‘Charlie Charlie’ game

U.S. NEWS

Nearly half of U.S. states have sued over transgender bathroom rule in schools

Will new ‘civil rights’ silence churches? In Iowa, the fear is real

Knights of Columbus launch novena for peace in response to U.S. shootings

Wichita seminarian missing after rescuing woman in Arkansas River

U.S. bishops call for legal protection of doctors who won’t perform abortions

You probably know someone who’s been domestically abused

U.S. bishops throw support behind conscience protections on marriage

Doctor Death? A sinister one-stop shop opens in California

Why this bishop from the U.S. is now one step closer to being a saint

FEATURES

What I learned from Catholics with psychological struggles

Catholic coloring books for grown-ups

Pokemon Go: Getting people to Church

The Cross of Jesus: God’s awful work of love

What your local parish and the new hipster bar have in common

The house we live in

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • July 17, 2016

Monday • July 18, 2016

Tuesday • July 19, 2016

Wednesday • July 20, 2016

Thursday • July 21, 2016

Friday • July 22, 2016

Saturday • July 23, 2016

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Volume 2, Issue 3 • July 16, 2016

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope separates oversight, administration in ongoing reform of Vatican finances

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2016

A view of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican City flag from the roof of a nearby building. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — A new set of reforms further clarifying the roles of Vatican financial offices was announced July 9, implementing changes set in motion by Pope Francis’ 2014 edict, “Fidelis dispensator et prudens.”

This new directive, entitled “Temporal goods,” affirms that the role of the Church’s assets center around “divine worship, the just support for the clergy, apostolate, and works of charity, especially for the needy.”

“The Church, therefore, feels the responsibility to pay maximum attention to the administration of their economic resources is always at the service of these purposes,” the document said.

The motu proprio, signed July 4, ensures “the clear and unequivocal distinction between control and vigilance, on the one hand, and administration of goods, on the other,” according to a July 9 statement by the Holy See press office.

“Therefore, the Motu Proprio specifies the competencies pertaining to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See and better delineates the Secretariat for the Economy’s fundamental role of control and vigilance,” it said.

The new document also touched on matters relating to pensions, health care, the payment of staff, and maintenance.

In the earlier stages of reform, the Secretariat of the Economy, headed by Cardinal George Pell, was charged with distributing salaries and benefits to Vatican staff as well as issuing guidelines and maintaining oversight of these areas.

Now the task of administration of Vatican assets will go to the the Administration of Patrimony of the Apostolic See, headed by Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, the original financial body that was in place before the creation of the Council for the Economy, Secretariat of the Economy and Office of the Auditor in 2014.

In 2013, Pope Francis created an investigatory commission to examine the Holy See’s administrative structures, the “Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See.” On it were seven lay experts, one clerical secretary, and external consultants.

The members worked from August of 2013 until May of 2014 and made recommendations to ensure greater simplicity, transparency, integrity, and accounting standards within the Vatican.

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VATICAN NEWS

World Youth Day pilgrims to receive a social doctrine app from the Pope

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2016

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 15, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has established a tech-savvy track record as Pope, and now in addition to breaking records on Instagram and becoming the first Pope to use Google Hangouts, he will give World Youth Day pilgrims a new electronic app.

From the creators of 2011’s “YouCat” youth catechism, a new version of the book called the “DoCat” has been developed, which intends to present the Church’s social teaching in a creative style more attractive and comprehensible to youth. The new book will be launched during World Youth Day in Krakow and given to young pilgrims by Pope Francis in the form of an app.

The YouCat was first distributed at World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 as a way to help extend the experience and knowledge of the faith into young pilgrims’ homes.

Why a new version of a book on social doctrine?

Christian Lermer, CEO of the YouCat Foundation, told CNA in an interview that they wanted to create something that would “make the teaching of the Church readable and attractive, without changing the content.”

Bernhard Meuser, founder of the YouCat Foundation, said that following the YouCat’s publication they received several emails from youth in the United States saying, “now we know what our faith is. What do we do? Please, do a Do-Cat!”

The idea of publishing a new book on how to practically put faith into action initially began with those emails, he said, explaining that the concept was also supported by Vatican officials.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, had suggested that if the YouCat organization wanted to create a new book for Pope Francis, to do it on either the Bible or the Church’s social doctrine, Meuser explained.

Pope Francis himself wrote the preface for the book, which will be launched in Krakow July 23, three days before the July 26-31 youth encounter.

Rather than having a typical news conference for the book’s release, the YouCat Foundation set up an event with 200 youth from across the world who will study the DoCat and lead discussions on social teaching.

Bishops and speakers from around the world “will set them on fire for social teaching as the fruit of the Gospel.” The event will be led by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, and will also include a preparation workshop, outreach, and information spots for catechesis.

According to Meuser, while Pope Francis’ preface for the YouCat provided a strong message about work, his preface for the DoCat focuses on the Roman Pontiff’s dream of “a new generation.”

With many youth too lax when it comes to living the Church’s social doctrine, Francis “dreamed of young people who know everything about justice and peace, the Gospel and the love of God, and mercy.”

“We should be very deep-rooted experts (in social teaching),” Meuser said, explaining that the Pope will share this “strong message” with the youth through a special video on the DoCat book and app that will be played during World Youth Day.

Both Meuser and Lermer met with Pope Francis in the Vatican June 17, where they presented him with the DoCat and recorded the video that will be played during the WYD encounter.

Lermer said the process of creating the DoCat has been “a blessing” for the foundation, because they didn’t know that the Pope wanted to write a preface or that he would be willing to record a video for it.

“There’s a lot of things that could be very different,” he said, “so we have to be thankful … somehow it seems to be led from above.”

World Youth Day participants will see the Pope’s video and will receive pamphlets describing the app and encouraging them to download it.

According to Lermer, the app will have not only the content of the book, but also “some fancy motivation tools to study” it.

While as of now the printed copy of the book is only available in two languages, the app is available in several, including English, Croatian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Polish, Slovak, Czech, and German.

Meuser explained that one of their main desires from the beginning was the direct participation of youth in the project.

Divided into 12 chapters on everything from family and work life to protecting creation and promoting peace, the book was designed with the help of youth and contains direct content from projects and initiatives begun by youth themselves.

Meuser and Lermer specifically looked for content that was “scientific and social material” from youth, as well as youth doing photo projects about social content such as justice and peace.

Inside the book a main text is visible on the side with questions and answers, some of which are accompanied by “funny illustrations,” Meuser said.

Supporting quotations from Blessed John Henry Newman, Benedict XVI, and the Bible are also included, he said, noting that after each chapter short quotations from social doctrine from Leo XIII to Pope Francis can be found.

The youth “gave us a lot of pictures and advice, so we produced the book in a process of participation with young people,” Meuser said, noting that the idea is to engage young people with the world around them, guided by Catholic teaching.

Meuser said his hope for the DoCat is that it will be “a learning moment in social doctrine.”

“We are living in the ruins of two great ideologies: of capitalism and of communism. Both destroyed the world,” he said, explaining that now “we have to change the world.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The Good Samaritan isn’t just a parable, it’s a way of life, Pope says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 10, 2016

Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his jubilee general audience on March 12, 2016. (Alexey Gotovskiy/CNA)

Vatican City — On Sunday Pope Francis said the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t just a nice passage to reflect on, but signifies a concrete choice we make in deciding how to live and treat those around us.

“The Good Samaritan indicates a lifestyle, the center of which is not ourselves, but others, with their difficulties, who we meet on our path and who challenge us,” the Pope said July 10.

It’s us who choose this lifestyle or choose to reject it, he said, explaining that the attitude of the Good Samaritan tests our faith, since faith without works “is dead.”

“Let us ask ourselves: is our faith fertile? Does it produce good works? Or is it rather sterile, and so more dead than alive? Do I make neighbors, or do I just pass by?” Francis asked, adding that these questions would be good to ask ourselves often, since in the end “we will be judged on the works of mercy.”

The Lord, he said, will remind us of the situations in which we saw him in those around us and either helped, or did nothing.

“Do you remember that time on the street of Jerusalem and Jericho? That man who was half dead was me. Do you remember? That hungry child was me. Do you remember? That migrant who many times they wanted to throw out was me.”

“Those grandparents, abandoned in the nursing home, was me. That sick person in the hospital, who no one visited, was me,” the Pope said, explaining that these are the questions we will be asked.”

It is through good works, done with love and joy toward our neighbor, which makes our faith sprout and bear fruit, Francis observed.

He spoke to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square who braved the Roman heat to participate in his Sunday Angelus address, focusing his entire speech on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

In his address, Pope Francis noted how Jesus used the parable to dialogue with the doctors of the law on the twofold commandment of loving God with one’s entire heart and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

When Jesus’ disciples ask him “who is my neighbor?” it’s the same question we must each ask ourselves today, he said.

Turning to the parable itself, the Pope noted how out of the three men who pass the dying man on the road, the first two, who did nothing, were a priest and a Levite. It was the third man, an inhabitant of Samaria “despised by the Jews because they didn’t observe the true religion,” who stopped.

“It was precisely he, when he sees the poor unfortunate man, who had compassion,” Francis said, noting how the Samaritan went above and beyond just rescuing the man, but cared for him and paid for all the expenses involved in curing him.

At this point Jesus asks the doctors of the law which of the three men was a neighbor to the one beaten and left for dead, to which they all naturally respond was “the one who had compassion on him,” the Pope observed.

By doing this, Jesus “completely overturned the initial perspective of the doctors of the law,” which is frequently our own perspective as well, he said.

Francis cautioned that we mustn’t “catalogue others to decide who is my neighbor and who isn’t,” explaining that being a neighbor entails adopting the same attitude as the Samaritan toward the people we meet who need help, “even if they are a stranger or even hostile.”

The Pope then pointed to how Jesus tells his disciples to “go, and also you do the same.” Jesus, he said, repeats the same commandment to each one of us: “go and to the same, be a neighbor to the brother and sister you see in difficulty,” whether they are a stranger, a migrant, elderly or sick.

He closed his address by praying that Mary would help us to walk along the path of the Good Samaritan, which is the path “of generous love toward others.”

“May she help us to live the principal commandment that Christ left us. This is the road to enter into eternal life.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope names American as new Vatican spokesperson

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • July 11, 2016

Pope Francis meets with Greg Burke and Paloma García Ovejero on July 11, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano/CNA)

Vatican City — Greg Burke, the former American journalist and communications adviser for the Vatican, has been named the new director of the Holy See press office, it was announced Monday. The new vice-director will be Spaniard Paloma García Ovejero, the first woman ever to be appointed to the position.

Burke received the appointment from Pope Francis after the current director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., submitted his resignation to the pontiff, the Holy See press office said in a July 11 press release.

“The purpose of my work is very clear: to serve the Pope,” Burke told journalists after the July 11 announcement was made. Francis had said he had “prayed on this appointment,” Burke recounted of his meeting with the pontiff.

Although the appointment was not unexpected, the Missouri native later told CNA it was “an honor to have been given this trust of the Pope.” Burke went on to express his gratitude to Fr. Lombardi — who served as director for ten years — and lauded him for his “dedication, generosity, kindness, and patience.”

“It’s a long list of virtues, so I hope to pick up part of that,” Burke said.

Remarking on being the first woman to hold the position of vice-director, Ovejero told CNA the appointment felt “natural.”

“I’m the first woman: okay,” she said. “Isn’t the Virgin Mary the first woman in the Church? (Aren’t) the women those who ran to announce the resurrection? So it seems to be very natural. We like to announce great news. Let’s do it!”

As vice-director of the Holy See press office under the pontificate of Pope Francis, the task is to “try to transmit exactly what he wants to say,” Ovejero said. “That’s my service, that’s my point. Not to invent, not do it (beautifully): just, what he says, what he wants to say, what he wants the world to know.”

In February of this year, Greg Burke was named vice-director of the Holy See press office where he worked under Fr. Lombardi, amid ongoing reforms by the Vatican Secretariat for Communications. Since 2012, Burke has been the senior communications adviser to the Vatican Secretary of State.

Born Nov. 8, 1959 in St. Louis to a Catholic family, Burke graduated in 1983 from New York’s Colombia University with a degree in comparative literature, with a specialization in journalism.

Burke, who is also a member of Opus Dei, has written for a range of publications, including Reuters and the National Catholic Register. He began working for the prestigious Time magazine in 1990, and was a correspondent when John Paul II was named the magazine’s “person of the year” in 1994. Starting in 2001, Burke became Fox News’ correspondent in Rome, a position he held until his 2012 appointment as communications adviser to the Vatican.

The newly-named vice-director of the Holy See press office, Paloma García Ovejero, has worked as a correspondent in Italy and the Vatican since 2012 for the Spanish radio station, Cadena Cope, Radio Española, among other agencies.

Born Aug. 12, 1975 in Madrid, Ovejero received a degree in journalism from Complutense University of Madrid in 1998, followed by a masters in Basque studies in 2001. In 2006, she earned a specialization in Management Strategies and Communication from New York University.

Starting in 1998, she worked as editor and anchorwoman of Cadena Cope, Radio Española.

Between Burke and Ovejero, the director and vice-director are fluent in Italian, Spanish, French, English, and Chinese.

The new appointments will take effect Aug. 1.

Mary Shovlain contributed to this article.

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican spokesman wades into ad orientem debate

by CNA/EWTN News • July 11, 2016

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Holy See press officer, speaks at a Nov. 19, 2015 press conference. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — The outgoing Holy See press officer has clarified that there are no directives forthcoming from the Vatican directing that priests face in the same direction as the faithful while saying Mass.

Fr. Federico Lombardi’s July 11 communique follows on the appeal by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, asking priests to “implement this practice wherever possible, with prudence and with the necessary catechesis, certainly, but also with a pastor’s confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people.”

Cardinal Sarah’s suggestion was made last week at a conference on liturgy being held in London.

“Cardinal Sarah has always been concerned, rightly, about the dignity of the celebration of Mass, in a way that adequately expresses an attitude of respect and adoration for the Eucharistic mystery,” Fr. Lombardi’s statement said.

He added that some of the cardinal’s words were “misinterpreted, as if he were announcing new indications differing from the liturgical norms given until now, and the words of the Pope on the celebration towards the people and on the ordinary rite of Mass.”

Whatever such misinterpretations were made, Cardinal Sarah himself had made it clear in his July 5 speech that he was neither mandating nor legislation a change to the Mass. He stated: “I believe that it is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction — Eastwards or at least towards the apse — to the Lord who comes, in those parts of the liturgical rites when we are addressing God.”

“This practice is permitted by current liturgical legislation,” Cardinal Sarah stated, adding that “it is perfectly legitimate in the modern rite.”

The cardinal added that priests’ “pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year … may be a very good time to do this.”

In his statement, Fr. Lombardi said it is good to remember that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, n.299, states that “The altar should be built apart from the wall, in such a way that it is possible to walk around it easily and that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the people, which is desirable wherever possible. The altar should, moreover, be so placed as to be truly the center toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns.”

On the other hand, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued a response to a question about GIRM n.299 in 2000, saying it does not exclude that the priest might offer Mass facing the apse – that is, in the same direction as the faithful.

Despite the fact that the celebration of Mass ad orientem is a legitimate option in the ordinary form of the Roman rite, some ecclesial leaders were quick to oppose the suggestion made by the head of the Vatican’s department on worship.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster wrote a letter to the priests of his diocese discouraging them from saying Mass while facing the same direction of the people.

While acknowledging that the Congregation for Divine Worship has confirmed that liturgical law allows priests to offer Mass while turned in the same direction as the people, he nevertheless suggested this is an illegitimate personal preference.

Mass is “not the time for priests to exercise personal preference or taste,” Cardinal Nichols wrote, according to the Catholic Herald.

Fr. Lombardi also used his statement to add in a comment that Pope Francis “has expressly mentioned that the ‘ordinary’ form of the celebration of Mass is that provided by the Missal promulgated by Paul VI, whereas the ‘extraordinary’, which was permitted by Pope Benedict XVI for the purpose and in the manner explained by him in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, must not take the place of the ‘ordinary.’”

In Summorum Pontificum Benedict XVI had, in fact, clarified rather that the extraordinary form was “never abrogated” and “in principle, was always permitted”.

Fr. Lombardi then reiterated that “there are therefore no foreseen new liturgical directives starting next Advent, as some have improperly deduced from some of Cardinal Sarah’s words.”

He added that “it is better to avoid using the expression ‘the reform of the reform’, in referring to the liturgy, since it can at times be a source of misunderstandings.”

Cardinal Sarah had said we cannot “dismiss the possibility or the desirability of an official reform of the liturgical reform,” adding that “if we are to implement Sacrosanctum Concilium more faithfully, if we are to achieve what the Council desired, this is a serious question which must be carefully studied and acted on with the necessary clarity and prudence.”

The cardinal had also recommended that a “full and rich celebration” of the extraordinary form of the liturgy “should be an important part fo liturgical formation of clergy,” reasoning that “how can we begin to comprehend or celebrate the reformed rites with a hermeneutic of continuity if we have never experienced the beauty of the liturgical tradition which the Fathers of the Council themselves knew?”

Fr. Lombardi concluded, saying, “all this was expressly agreed during a recent audience granted by the Pope to the same Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.”

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VATICAN NEWS

New press office directors given warm Vatican welcome

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 12, 2016

Greg Burke and Paloma Garcia Ovejero, the newly-appointed director and vice-director of the Holy See press office, with Pope Francis on July 11, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — After the appointment of two laypersons as the new directors of the Holy See Press Office, Msgr. Dario Vigano said that while their roles haven’t yet been clearly defined amid ongoing reforms, the two will play a key role in Vatican communications.

Following the July 11 announcement of Greg Burke and Paloma Garcia Ovejero as director and vice director, respectively, of the Holy See Press Office, Msgr. Dario Viganò – prefect of the Secretariat for Communications – said the two could count on him to “lend a hand in the building of this great family of communications.”

He told journalists the new appointments are an occasion to “discuss some aspects” of what the role of director and vice director of the press office will be amid the ongoing reform of Vatican communications, adding that these roles “will be fully understood later.”

He pointed out that the Press Office is one of the five sections of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, and as head of the department, assured Burke and Ovejero of his support.

On Monday the Vatican announced that after 10 years at the helm, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, would be retiring from his position as Director of the Holy See Press Office and chief Vatican spokesperson.

Replacing him will be former American journalist and Vatican communications adviser Greg Burke, who in February took over as the number two official in the Holy See Press Office. Burke’s deputy will be Paloma Garcia Ovejero, the former Rome and Vatican correspondent for Spanish broadcaster COPE and the first woman ever to hold the position of Vice Director to the Press Office.

The appointments will officially go into effect Aug. 1, following Pope Francis’ July 27-31 visit to Poland for World Youth Day.

Both Burke and Garcia Ovejero will wade into their new positions amid the ongoing process of streamlining Vatican communications, which is currently being carried out according to a 4-year plan overseen by the Secretariat for Communications.

Established June 27, 2015, the Secretariat for Communications oversees all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Internet Service, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service, and the Vatican publishing house.

With the reform barely a year underway, the full extent of the responsibilities Burke and Ovejero will inherit remains unclear; however, with Fr. Lombardi’s long tenure as a foundation and with Vigano’s guidance, it likely won’t take long for them to jump into action.

In his brief speech after the announcement of Burke and Ovejero’s appointment, Msgr. Vigano noted how the news coincided with the exact day of Fr. Lombardi’s 10 year anniversary as press office director.

Lombardi’s tenure, he said, is “a long period of time” which has been marked by significant events such as the resignation of Benedict XVI and the encounter between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana.

In comments to journalists after the announcement of his appointment as director of the press office, Burke said the decision wasn’t entirely “out of the blue” given his previous position as vice director, but that he was “honored and moved” by the trust that placed him in the new role.

He voiced his thanks to Fr. Lombardi, whom he called “an old style Jesuit, a scholar and a gentleman.”

Burke said that for him, the purpose of his new role is clear: “to serve the Pope.” After meeting with Francis July 11 before the official announcement was made, Burke said the encounter was both moving and very personal, and that the Pope told them he had prayed a lot about the appointment.

For her part, Garcia Ovejero believes the Pope’s choice to nominate her and Burke to fill the slots is “coherent with what he preached from the beginning.”

“A man and a woman, two laypersons, one North American, one from the Spanish language,” she observed, explaining that the decision is “a logical choice … it’s natural.”

Pope Francis, she said, “is coherent with his words and with his vision of the Church. A Church that goes out, a Church that’s not clerical, which all of us feel a part of and feel responsible in announcing the Gospel. The mission is to announce the Gospel.”

Speaking of their meeting with the Pope, Garcia Ovejero said that Francis was “tender,” but also “serious and firm. He said clearly that fidelity, loyalty, and transparency are the most important things in communications.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis grieves over deadly train crash in Italy

by CNA/EWTN News • July 12, 2016

Pope Francis in Vatican City on March 2, 2016. (Alexey Gotovskiy/CNA)

Vatican City — After a head-on train collision killed 20 people in the southern Italian region of Puglia, Pope Francis voiced his grief over the incident and offered prayers for the victims and their families.

“His Holiness Pope Francis expresses his heartfelt and genuine participation in the sorrow striking so many families,” Vatican secretary of state Archbishop Pietro Parolin wrote on the Pope’s behalf.

“He assures his fervent prayers of repose for those who tragically died and, while invoking the Lord for a swift recovery for the injured, entrusts to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary the many who are affected by dramatic grief, and sends the comfort of his Apostolic Blessing.”

Dozens were injured – some critically – and at least 20 people killed when two trains crashed while apparently traveling towards each other on the same track. The collision happened around 11:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday while the trains were moving through an olive grove between the towns of Corato and Ruvo di Puglia, the New York Times reported.

Rescue teams worked throughout the day in sweltering heat to pull survivors from the wreckage. One passenger extracted from the mangled cars was a small child, who was airlifted to a hospital, the BBC reported.

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was in Milan during the accident, telling local media that he would be returning to Rome as soon as possible and that he had ordered an investigation.

“We won’t stop until we clarify what happened,” he told Milan reporters, according to the New York Times. “There is an absolute need to understand who is responsible and to shed total light” on the incident.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope taps U.S. religious freedom advocate for Vatican communications team

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

Kim Daniels. (CNA)

Vatican City — On Wednesday the Vatican released the names of 16 people appointed by Pope Francis to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, among whom is American religious freedom and prolife attorney Kim Daniels.

A graduate from Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School, Daniels is an attorney whose practice is focused on religious freedom and prolife issues, and is also a lay consultant to the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

She is the former spokesperson for the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, having served under both Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. She is also a founder and director of Catholic Voices USA.

Announced in a July 13 communique from the Vatican, Daniels’ appointment came alongside that of 15 others, including six cardinals, seven bishops and two laypersons, and falls just two days after the announcement of another American, Greg Burke, as the new director of the Holy See Press Office.

The move signals Francis’ next step in his sweeping reform of Vatican communications.

Established June 27, 2015, the Secretariat for Communications is headed by Msgr. Dario Vigano and oversees all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service and the Vatican Publishing House.

When Pope Francis began his reform of the Roman Curia in 2013 with the help of his council of nine adviser cardinals, one of the most immediate areas that needed attention were the Vatican communications operations.

In order to map out what a possible reform of Vatican communications would look like, Francis established an international commission headed by British Lord Patten to study the current process and provide suggestions.

Upon completing its mandate, the commission provided a plan for reform largely centered on streamlining the various communications departments for better integration and unification.

Overseen by the Secretariat for Communications, the plan is currently being carried out over a 4-year period, and Francis’ newest appointments are part of the ongoing process.

In addition to Daniels, other new members of the secretariat include Cardinals Béchara Boutros Raï, Lebanese Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites; John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya; Chibly Langlois, Bishop of Les Cayes, Haiti; Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar; Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches and Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.

Bishops appointed were: Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin; Gintaras Gru_as, Archbishop of Vilnius, Lithuania; Marcello Semeraro, Bishop of Albano, Italy; Stanislas Lalanne, Bishop of Pontoise, France; Pierre Nguyên Van Kham, Bishop of My Tho, Vietnam; Ginés Ramón García Beltrán, Bishop of Guadix, Spain and Nuno Brás da Silva Martins, Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon, Portugal.

The other two laypersons nominated are Markus Schächter, professor of ethics in the mass media and in society at the Faculty of Philosophy S.I. München, Germany, and Leticia Soberón Mainero, a psychologist and expert in communications who had already a consultant for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope takes new step in re-launching dialogue with Al-Azhar

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

Pope Francis at the Divine Mercy Vigil in St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Less than two months after one of Sunni Islam’s highest authorities came to the Vatican following several years of icy relations, Pope Francis has sent a representative to Egypt’s Al-Azhar University in a bid to relaunch dialogue between the two.

In accordance with “the explicit wish of Pope Francis,” Bishop Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, is currently in Egypt for an official visit to the Al-Azhar University, according to a July 12 press release from the Vatican.

Bishop Ayuso will be accompanied by the Vatican’s ambassador to Egypt, Archbishop Bruno Musarò, for a July 13 meeting with Sunni academic and politician Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk, who is a member of the university’s Council of Senior Scholars, director of the Al-Azhar Center for Dialoge and Egypt’s former minister of religious endowment.

According to the Vatican’s press release, the meeting “will consider how to resume dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Al-Azhar University.”

The Imam of al Azhar, currently Ahmed al Tayyeb, is considered by some Muslims to be the highest authority the 1.5-billion strong Sunni Muslim world and oversees Egypt’s al-Azhar Mosque and the prestigious al-Azhar University attached to it.

He paid a visit to the Vatican May 23 for a meeting with Pope Francis, which marked a seismic step in thawing relations between the al-Azhar institution and the Holy See, which were strained in 2011 with claims that Pope Benedict XVI had “interfered” in Egypt’s internal affairs by condemning a bomb attack on a church in Alexandria during the time of Coptic Christmas.

Founded in the Fatimid dynasty in the late 10th century together with the adjoining mosque, the university is one of the most renowned study centers for the legal principals of Sunni Islam.

The 30-minute encounter between the Pope and the Imam focused largely on the commitment of both faithful and authorities of major religions in working for peace, the rejection of violence and terrorism and the protection of Christians in the Middle East given their current state of persecution.

In an interview given to Vatican Radio after the meeting, Tayyeb said his first impression of Pope Francis was that the Pope was “very strong,” and “a man of peace, a man who follows the teaching of Christianity, which is a religion of love and peace.”

Francis, he said, is also a man “who respects other religions and shows consideration for their followers.”

He also decried terrorism carried out by Islamic extremists, stressing that while it exists, “Islam has nothing to do with this terrorism, and this applies to Ulama Muslims and to Christians and Muslims in the East.”

“Those who kill Muslims, and who also kill Christians, have misunderstood the texts of Islam either intentionally or by negligence.”

Many hope that the meeting between the Vatican and Al-Azhar will lead to increased cooperation in the fight against terrorism, as well as for other urgent questions between the two religions.

While this has yet to be seen, what is clear is that relations with Islam have improved with Francis’ constant appeals for interfaith dialogue, which began shortly after his election when he sent a personal message to Muslims marking the end of the first month of Ramadan.

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican department for Latin America gets surprise visit from Pope Francis

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 4, 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — After a trip to the dentist Wednesday, Pope Francis made the spontaneous decision to stop by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America – a visit one official says demonstrates his close pastoral concern for those in his care.

“It was a very exciting moment for everyone,” Fr. Jose Tola, an official of the department, told CNA July 13 following the Pope’s visit.

Fr. Tola, who was present to welcome the unexpected guest, said it was the first time he’s met the Pope in a non-protocol situation.

“He’s a person with a very special charism and has a very sincere way of approaching people,” Tola said, explaining that for him the visit was “a very edifying experience” from a personal, human, and spiritual perspective.

While he’s met the Pope before in formal situations, what made this visit special was “the spontaneity,” the priest said, because protocol visits such as a plenary meeting or Masses are foreseen, so everything is arranged beforehand.

“Instead, today the Pope met us without preparation and I felt like he was not only the Supreme Pontiff, but a pastor who is close the people” Fr. Tola said.

The visit was “something done for pastoral reasons, for sincere pastoral reasons for his workers, for the people entrusted to his care,” he added.

The commission, headed by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, is located only 330 yards from the Apostolic Palace. According to an article posted to the commission’s website after the visit, work was going about as usual when Francis unexpectedly showed up at the door at exactly 9:10 a.m.

Officials had been in a meeting planning an upcoming continental celebration of the Jubilee of Mercy in Bogota when the doorbell rang, the article said, noting that the person who went to the door was “stunned” to see the Vicar of Christ standing in front of them.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, was completely natural, telling them, “Good morning! Can I come in?”

After getting a heads-up from a woman who had passed by and happened to see the Pope walk in, the other officials in the meeting jumped to their feet as Pope Francis made his way down the hall to the office where the meeting was taking place.

Guzman Carriquiry, the commission’s secretary, quickly made his way to the front of the group just in time to greet the Pope as he walked up, telling Francis, “Good morning, do you have time to speak a little bit?”

According to the article, the rest of the officials waited “impatiently” outside while the Pope and Carriquiry spoke in private, and were “noticeably surprised and excited” for the spontaneous visit.

The security officer who accompanied the Pope told the officials that as Francis was leaving the Vatican’s Department for Health and Welfare after a visit to the dentist, he said that he had the idea “to pass by the Commission for Latin America” before returning to Santa Marta.

When the security officer recalled how when he told Pope the visit would be “very complicated,” Francis simply replied by calmly saying, “I am the Pope; don’t worry, we are in God’s hands.”

The Swiss Guards standing watch at the Saint Anne’s Gate entrance to the Vatican made “a solemn and half shocked salute” as they saw the Pope drive away, the officer said, jesting with the commission that it was “the first such mischief” Pope Francis had done.

After the private conversation between Francis and Carriquiry ended, the Pope accepted the commission’s invitation for coffee, greeting each member personally.

The commission’s article recounts how although the conversation was brief, it was “pleasant and enjoyable,” and that in addition to sharing some stories and jokes, Francis demonstrated an “impressive memory” when he met officials whom he had greeted on previous occasions.

After a leisurely visit, the commission members took some photos with Pope Francis before accompanying him to the door.

The commission in their article stressed that the visit was completely casual and spontaneous, and was not part of the Pope’s scheduled visits to the different departments and entities of the Roman Curia.

Pope Francis has so far made several rounds in his visits to the curial offices, but has yet to make his official visit to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

For that, the commission said, “we are still waiting.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The tale of Fr. Brochero: Gaucho priest, devil’s worst nightmare

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • July 14, 2016

Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero. (Public domain)

Vatican City — If Jose Brochero doesn’t sound like a Gaucho name, nothing does.

Earlier this year, Pope Francis announced Oct. 16 as the canonization date for Blessed Brochero, a fellow countryman from Argentina also known as the “Gaucho priest.”

He was beatified in Sept. 2013 by Pope Francis, who said Fr. Brochero was a priest who truly “smelled of his sheep.”

Blessed Brochero was born Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero in Argentina in 1840, the fourth of ten children to Ignacio Brochero and Petrona Davila.

Bl. Brochero entered seminary at the age of 16, and was ordained a priest at the age of 26 for the Archdiocese of Cordoba.

As a priest, after teaching philosophy at a seminary for a few years, Fr. Brochero was assigned to the large diocese of St. Albert – 1,675 square miles with 10,000 far-flung parishioners in the rural, Great Highlands region of Argentina.

Not deterred by altitude, distance or bad weather, Fr. Brochero was known for riding throughout the countryside of his parish on the back of a mule to bring his people the sacraments, always wearing a poncho and sombrero in the style of a gaucho, or Argentinian cowboy.

On muleback, he carried an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mass kit and a prayer book on his travels so that he was always prepared to offer the sacraments. He established a House of Exercises where his people could participate in spiritual exercises, and helped found a school for girls.

He is also credited with building post and telegraph stations, for building nearly 125 miles of roads, and for helping plan the railroad in the area.

“Woe if the devil is going to rob a soul from me,” he is held to have said, capturing his determined spirit to be close to his people no matter what.

Fr. Brochero was known for being particularly close to the poor and the sick, and helped care for those who contracted cholera during the epidemic in 1867. Eventually, he contracted leprosy from a leper in his parish, causing him to eventually become blind and deaf and to relinquish his parish duties, spending his last few years living with his sisters at home.

Fr. Brochero died on Jan. 26, 1914. His last words were: “Now I have everything ready for the journey.”

A few days after his death, the Catholic newspaper of Cordoba wrote: “It is known that Father Brochero contracted the sickness that took him to his tomb, because he visited at length and embraced an abandoned leper of the area.”

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI approved a healing miracle attributed to Fr. Brochero, in which 13-year-old Nicolas Flores, who was in a vegetative state after a car accident, was cured through the intercession of the gaucho priest.

Blessed Fr. Brochero will be canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 16 of this year, along with Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio, a 14-year-old Mexican boy martyred for refusing to renounce his faith during the Cristero War of the 1920s.

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican event draws heavy hitters to discuss faith, sports

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 14, 2016

(Public domain)

Vatican City — Alongside other global institutions such as the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee, German-based insurance carrier Allianz has partnered with the Vatican for a sports conference aimed at exploring the benefits of faith and sport, and to put these into action.

Announced in a July 14 press release from the Pontifical Council for Culture, the partnership between the Vatican and Allianz, a European financial service company with headquarters in Munich, centers on an Oct. 5-7 conference titled “Sport at the Service of Humanity.”

Set to take place in the Vatican, the conference will draw 150 leaders from the world of sport, faith, business and civil society to establish the principles for “a new movement” in sports.

Leaders, the press release states, will discuss “how sport and faith working together can improve and enhance the lives of those who most need it in many different walks of life.”

According to Vatican Radio’s Chris Altieri, who is handling media for the conference, leaders and organizers share one common conviction: “that sport helps people become their best selves, and that a healthy sporting culture helps build strong communities.”

The conference, then, seeks to give “robust expression to that vision” by bringing together athletes from all levels of sport alongside leaders from different faith, business, political, academic, policy and cultural communities, he told CNA/EWTN News July 14.

The shape the conference is taking, he said, is designed to encourage participants to share best practices which can then be presented to the broader public “in a helpful manner: to help build a sporting culture that is capable of responding to the needs of today’s society.”

The Pontifical Council for Culture, who conceived the idea for the conference, is engaging with various leaders around the world to ensure their participation. Among those whose presence is already confirmed are U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon and Thomas Back, president of the International Olympic Committee.

In the press release, Msgr. Melchor Sanchez de Toca, undersecretary for the Council for Culture, thanked Allianz for their partnership, noting that “this is the first time that there has been such a high level meeting in the Vatican on sports and faith.”

“It is not a one-off event. The idea is to create a movement that will resonate with everyone, regardless of faith, culture and geography,” he said.

Oliver Bäte, CEO of Allianz SE, said his organization is proud to partner with the council, adding that the movement “aligns with Allianz’s desire to support those who choose to live life with courage.”

With the help of the conference, he said, “we will be laying the cornerstone of a global movement that builds bridges between people and helps transform lives.”

According to the official website for the conference, the initial inspiration came from the desire to explore the interconnectedness of faith and sport, as well as the “scope and limit” of the combination.

In order to turn the concept into a reality, the Vatican in September 2015 invited 30 individuals representing the various stakeholders to a two-day working session in order to come up with a strategy and an agenda, as well as ideas on how to bring the concept to life.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Council for Culture, then brought together a core group of sport and marketing experts to form a management team tasked with supporting the council in terms of strategy and partnerships.

According to Altieri, the vision of the October gathering follows the same one outlined by leaders in the 2015 workshop, who, after completing their discussion, “saw the need to continue their conversation.”

The main purpose of the October conference, then, “is to articulate the contours and the content” of this new movement in sports, “and to decide on the next steps.”

One concrete step backed by Allianz in particular will be the Humanity Sports Club, which, according to the conference website, is a global initiative geared toward encouraging youth “to adopt the principles of the movement and demonstrate that commitment” both on the field and in life.

The club promotes six fundamental principles they believe ought to govern sports behavior, but which can be adopted by all: joy, compassion, respect, love, balance and enlightenment.

Cardinal Ravasi on the conference website said the event will be an opportunity to join together in facing “the great challenges” of modern society, which are “shared interests for the world’s sporting and religious communities.”

How to live with respect for all, with an increased understanding of others’ traditions and values, how to live healthier lives and how to foster more integrated communities are topics of interest for everyone, he said.

Sport, the cardinal added, is also key for education, since it allows youth to “open up to the trials of life, putting themselves to the test, crossing boundaries, meeting opponents on a fair playing field while striving to be the best they can be, in some sense aiming for the Transcendent.”

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VATICAN NEWS

What the Holy See has to say about conflict in the Middle East

by CNA/EWTN News • July 15, 2016

St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vigil of Divine Mercy on April 2, 2016. (Alexey Gotovskiy/CNA)

Vatican City — If peace is to be achieved in the Middle East, it will be a joint effort, requiring the cooperation of political authorizes, religious leaders and civilians, said the Holy See’s representative at the United Nations.

“The Holy See believes that peace processes do not depend solely on formal negotiations, no matter how indispensable these may be,” said Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the U.N.

With its rich cultural, religious and intellectual history, the Middle East has the resources to be a fertile ground for civil society and diplomacy, he said.

This includes faith-based “informal diplomacy,” he said, which must play a part “in promoting the values of encounter and mutual acceptance, thereby equipping all citizens to become active protagonists in peacemaking and peacebuilding in the region.”

The archbishop spoke July 12, delivering remarks during the U.N. Security Council’s discussion on the situation in the Middle East.

“Religions and believers, in particular, must prove themselves worthy of their rightful place in the whole process of pacification in the region,” he said. “They must put an end to any form of mutual hatred that could lend credence to a ‘clash of civilizations’.”

Archbishop Auza stressed that “the more religion is manipulated to justify acts of terror and violence, the more religious leaders must be engaged in the overall effort to defeat the violence that attempts to hijack it for purposes antithetical to its nature.”

“Spurious religious fervour must be countered by authentic religious instruction and by the example of true communities of faith. It is only then that faith-based ‘informal diplomacy’ can fruitfully compliment the formal diplomacy of States and multilateral bodies.”

Focusing his attention on Syria and the “unspeakable suffering” of its people, the archbishop highlighted “the continued persecution of Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic and religious minority groups by non-State actors in parts of Syria and Iraq.”

He noted Pope Francis’ strong denunciation of all those participating in “the senseless slaughter of civilians,” on whatever side of the conflict.

“The Pope also denounces those who supply substantial amounts of money and weaponry to the fighters who kill and maim the innocent population and destroy civilian institutions and infrastructure,” he said. “One cannot but lament the duplicity of simultaneously talking peace while supplying arms to those who kill, on every side of the conflict.”

Archbishop Auza asked the international community to end the illegal supply of weapons to non-state actors, who have committed crimes against humanity and other atrocities. He raised ethical and legal questions about technologically advanced weapons, including remote-controlled assassinations that lack due process of law and cause collateral damage to civilians.

The archbishop also commented on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, reiterating the Holy See’s support for a two-State solution as the best available option.

“Durable peace will remain a distant dream and security will remain an illusion if Israel and Palestine do not agree to exist side-by-side reconciled and sovereign within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders,” he said. “Let the two States be created now, for the sake of the Israelis and Palestinians who, in the depths of their hearts, desire nothing greater than peace and security.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican condemns Nice attack as ‘homicidal madness’

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 15, 2016

Fr. Federico Lombardi speaks about Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation on Feb. 11, 2013. (Stephen Driscoll/CNA)

Vatican City — After a truck plowed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing 84, Pope Francis voiced his sorrow for the act of “blind violence,” and assured the French people of his prayers.

In a July 15 letter signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope expressed “his deep sorrow and spiritual closeness to the French people,” entrusting the dead to God’s mercy and uniting himself in the pain of grieving families.

He offered his sympathy to the wounded and to rescuers, praying that the Lord “sustain each one in the event” and grant “the gift of peace and harmony” to the grieving and to the entire French nation.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ also expressed his grief and solidarity with the victims, firmly condemning all acts of terrorism and hate.

“We condemn in the most absolute way every manifestation of homicidal madness, of hate, of terrorism and of every attack against peace,” he said in a July 15 statement.

Having followed news of the attack with “great concern,” the spokesman, on behalf of Pope Francis, expressed the Vatican’s participation and solidarity in the suffering of the victims and of the French people as a whole on “what should have been a day of great celebration.”

The Vatican’s statement comes the day after a large truck ploughed through crowds along 1.2 miles of the Promenade des Anglais in the southern French city of Nice, killing 84, including several children, and wounding roughly 50 others, 18 of whom remain in critical condition, according to BBC News.

Crowds had been celebrating Bastille Day, which marks the day of France’s independence and is traditionally the country’s biggest public holiday.

Shortly after the end of a fireworks display on the seaside, the truck turned onto the pavement and began driving through the crowd at 25-30 mph, zigzagging in an attempt to hit as many people as possible.

When stopped by police, the driver, believed to be a French-Tunisian criminal known to police but not on a terrorist watch list, opened fire before being shot dead by officers. Upon searching the vehicle, police reportedly found guns and grenades inside the truck.

The attack prompted French president Francois Hollande to extend the countrywide state of emergency imposed after a chain of attacks in Paris left nearly 130 people dead Nov. 13, 2015. The state of emergency will now be effective until July 26.

In a nationwide address, President Hollande said France was in tears and had been “badly hit,” but was strong. “We need to do everything we can to fight against” such attacks, he said, adding that “all of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”

He announced that “operational reserves” would be deployed to support the army and security forces throughout France, particularly on the country’s borders.

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VATICAN NEWS

Gammarelli legacy passes to sixth generation of papal tailors

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 15, 2016

The Gammarelli store-front after the announcement of a consistory of cardinals in October, 2010. (Lawrence OP via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Vatican City — For five generations the Gammarellis have dressed and shod the Vicar of Christ through their family business, Rome’s historic Ditta Annibale Gammarelli.

Now, after the recent death of manager Annibale Gammeralli, the business will pass to the hands of the sixth generation.

Established in 1798 by Giovanni Antonio Gammarelli, the “Ditta” was founded under Pius VI as a tailor for the Roman clergy. After Giovanni died, management of the shop passed to his son Filippo, and then to Filippo’s son Annibale.

In 1874 Annibale moved the shop from its original location to its current spot on Via Santa Chiara 34, just steps away from the Pantheon. It’s located inside the building of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the institute that forms future Vatican diplomats.

When Annibale died, his sons Bonaventura and Giuseppe decided to keep the name “Ditta Annibale Gammarelli” as a homage to their father – a name that has since become known to clergy throughout Italy and the world.

In an additional act of homage, Bonaventura decided to name his own son after his father: making the late Annibale Gammarelli the second to carry the name of the family business and to carry it forward.

Annibale passed away July 12 in Rome after a long career managing the sartorial workshop, leaving it in the care of his son Stefano Paolo and his nephews Maximillian and Lorenzo, who are the sixth generation to sew garments for the Pope.

During each conclave the Gammerellis are charged with making three white cassocks in different sizes – small, medium and large – which sit ready and waiting for the new Successor of Peter.

And though Francis doesn’t use it, the white cassocks are always accompanied by the red mozzetta (the papal half-cape of choir dress that buttons in the front and covers the shoulders), as well as the white pellegrina (the buttonless white shoulder cape worn with a cassock and open in front), the white fascia (the waistband typically embroidered with the papal coat of arms, though Francis opted out of this), and the white zucchetto (or skullcap).

(A point worthy of noting is that Popes typically change cassocks more or less every two months, since the silver cross they wear oxidizes, leaving a stain on the white fabric).

In 2000 the Ditta Annnibale Gammarelli was added to the list of historic shops in the city of Rome, and is likely the oldest shop to still be managed by the direct descendants of its founder.

The shop has served thousands of priests and hundreds of bishops and cardinals, and sewn garments for the Roman Pontiffs since Blessed Pius IX, who was elected Bishop of Rome in 1846.

Photos of the past nine Popes decorate the walls inside the workshop, which will continue to dress Popes under the guidance of yet another generation of Gammarellis.

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VATICAN NEWS

As reforms roll out, Pope Francis proves a man of his word

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 15, 2016

General Audience with Pope Francis on April 17, 2013. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Vatican City — Several recent appointments by Pope Francis to Vatican departments show that his reform of the Roman Curia is in tune with what he’s said from the beginning about his vision for the Church.

When we look at what Francis has preached about since practically his first day in office, three biggies come to mind: a Church that’s less clerical, has a stronger lay involvement and a greater presence of women.

With his decision this week to appoint several lay persons to important Vatican posts, among whom are Americans Greg Burke and Kim Daniels, as well as Spaniard Paloma Garcia Ovejero, Francis has made good on his intentions.

On Monday it was announced that Pope Francis had appointed Burke as the new director for the Holy See Press Office, with Garcia Ovejero as his number two.

After the retirement of what’s considered to be the “old guard,” the new appointments represent a shift from traditional standards. While previously there has typically been a priest and an Italian in the mix, now it’s two laypeople in charge, both of whom are non-Italians.

Also worthy of note is that just two days later the Pope scored more points with the laity by nominating Daniels, a high profile U.S. religious freedom and pro-life advocate, to this Secretariat for Communications alongside German professor Markus Schächter and Spanish psychologist Leticia Soberón Mainero.

The appointments are significant because while laity have always been named as consultors to pontifical councils and congregations, Daniels, Schächter and Soberón were appointed members.

Under St. John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic constitution Pastor bonus – which regulates and defines responsibilities, duties and the composition of the offices of the Roman Curia but is being reconsidered in Francis’ reform – membership to councils and congregations was exclusive to cardinals and bishops.

As Garcia Ovejero put it shortly after her appointment was announced, the Pope’s decision to appoint her and Burke was “coherent with what he preached from the beginning.”

Garcia Ovejera, the first woman to ever be appointed to the position of Vice Director of the Holy See Press Office, said that to have two laypersons working in a man-woman duo for the press office was “a logical choice.”

Pope Francis, she said, “is coherent with his words and with his vision of the Church. A Church that goes out, a Church that’s not clerical, which all of us feel a part of and feel responsible in announcing the Gospel. The mission is to announce the Gospel.”

If we take a look at what Francis has said from the beginning, we see that Garcia Ovejero is right.

Clericalism

Getting rid of the notion that the Church, and the Vatican in particular, is divided into the classes of commoners versus a higher “spiritual elite” has been a priority for Francis even during his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

In a 2011 interview with a Catholic Argentinian news agency, then-cardinal Bergoglio warned against the temptation of priests to “clericalize the laity” and to “infect them with our own disease” without realizing it. “We cannot fall into that trap – it is a sinful complicity,” he said.

This is an idea he has pushed with full force since the beginning of his pontificate. In his first major event after being elected as Successor of Peter in 2013, Pope Francis told a group of Argentine youth during WYD in Rio de Janiero that he hoped “for a mess … that the Church takes to the streets. That we defend ourselves from comfort, that we defend ourselves from clericalism.”

He has consistently spoken out about the issue since, most recently in an April 26, 2016, letter to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in which he skewered the clerical mentality on the continent as “one of the greatest distortions” facing the local Church.

“We’d do well to recall that the Church is not an elite (group of) priests, of consecrated people, of bishops but all of us make up the faithful and Holy People of God,” he said, explaining that it’s “illogical and even impossible for us as pastors to believe that we have the monopoly on solutions for the numerous challenges thrown up by contemporary life.”

Given his recent appointments, Francis is following through and letting his words become actions by allowing the laity to have more space in decision-making posts in the Vatican.

Laity

Coupled with Francis’ desire to suppress a clericalist attitude has been his great push to have a stronger, louder lay voice within the Church.

In the same 2011 interview with the Argentine agency, Bergoglio said that the reform that’s needed in the Church is “neither to clericalize nor ask to be clericalized,” but to encourage laypeople to embrace their role, evangelizing in everyday life within their families, workplaces, schools and neighborhoods.

This idea has been present since the Pope first began his reform by establishing the Council of Cardinals as an advisory body on Church governance and reform. During the council’s first round of meetings in October 2013, the topic of the laity came up as one of the most urgent issues to address.

In a press briefing after the conclusion of the meetings, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. said the council planned “to give more specific attention” to the laity, so that so that issues surrounding them could be “properly and effectively recognized and followed by the governance of the Church.”

During the October 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family, Pope Francis announced his decision to establish a new Vatican department dedicated to Laity, Family and Life, set to go into effect Sept. 1, 2016.

While explaining the structure of the new department, he made it clear that the members would include not only consecrated persons, but also laypeople, both men and women, who work in different fields from around the world.

Though it’s not yet certain who will head the new office, the Pope has said on previous occasions that a department dedicated to the topics of family and the laity could be headed by either a married couple or a lay individual.

His decision to put two laypeople in charge of the Holy See Press Office, then, shows that he means what he says, and that as his reform continues to move forward, he won’t be shy in breaking away from traditional structural compositions.

This is also evident in Francis’ appointment of Daniels, Schächter and Soberón, which, strictly speaking, breaks with the outline that has since 1988 governed the Curial structure. However, while the rules of Pastor Bonus remain intact, a whole new set of guidelines is expected to come out of Pope Francis’ reform.

Women

The fact that Garcia Ovejero is the first woman – and a laywoman for that matter – to ever be appointed as deputy spokesperson for the Holy See is a prime example of what Pope Francis has asked for several times in calling for a more “incisive” feminine presence in the Church.

He first garnered headlines for the phrase in a 2014 address to Italy’s members of the “Centro Italiano Femminile,” telling them that “I hope that more spaces are widened for a feminine presence in the Church that is more widespread and incisive.”

It was the Pope himself who widened that space mere months later with the September 2014, appointment of four women to the International Theological Commission. Women now comprise 16 percent of the Commission’s members, which is a greater representation than they’ve ever had before.

In April of that year Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, revealed that his department was looking for another secretary after the former had been reassigned.

He recalled that in a conversation with Pope Francis, the pontiff gave the green light for the position to be filled by a woman. However, the position remains empty as the office prepares to merge with several others to form a larger dicastery as part of the ongoing reform.

Typically the position of secretary has always been filled by a man, with one modern exception being the 2012 appointment of Flaminia Giovanelli as the undersecretary for council for Justice and Peace, making her the highest ranking laywoman in the Roman Curia and the first laywoman to hold the position of undersecretary.

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

“I think we are at a point of seeing (a different model) … a springtime for new forms of leadership … in the Church,” Turkson had said, but cautioned that while the role of women is increasing in the life of the Church, it’s a process that “takes time.”

However, given the course Francis is taking, it appears that the time is now – or that the process has at least accelerated under his leadership.

In a 2015 address to the Pontifical Council for Culture, Francis said that women “know how to incarnate the tender face of God, his mercy, which translates into availability to give time more than to occupy spaces, to welcome instead of excluding.”

So overall, while Pope Francis has often said that his reform won’t be a quick process, but will rather be carried out over a period of several years, we’re already starting to get a clearer picture of what the process will look like.

And if this past week is any indication, we can see Francis’ vision beginning to unfold, showing a Church that truly “goes out” and is open to the “newness” of the Holy Spirit. As a man who follows through on what he says, Pope Francis, we can see, is doing what he was elected to do.

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WORLD NEWS

Venezuelan government blasted for blocking Church aid

by CNA/EWTN News • July 12, 2016

Venezuelan flag. (Alex Lanz via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Caracas, Venezuela — A top Venezuelan prelate slammed president Nicolás Maduro’s lack of “moral authority” in calling for peace while preventing the Church and other institutions from relieving the country’s severe food crisis.

“The interests of the government are not the interests of the country,” said Archbishop Diego Padrón of Cumaná, who heads the Venezuelan Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The archbishop made his remarks during his opening speech at the Venezuelan Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent plenary assembly.

Venezuela’s socialist government is widely blamed for the crisis. Since 2003, price controls on some 160 products, including cooking oil, soap, and flour, have meant that while they are affordable, they fly off store shelves only to be resold on the black market at much higher rates.

“The ungovernability, aside from the brutal repression, the lack of serious and stabilizing responses that would be more than improvisational and provisional, create the widespread perception that the global crisis is getting more acute and is being prolonged with no end in sight,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Padrón warned that this perception creates in the population “uncertainty, hopelessness, depression, anger and social violence.” He cited the example of looting and riots over food shortages which took place in Cumaná in mid-June and in Tucupita between June 30 and July 1, with dozens of arrests and clashes with the National Guard.

These cities as well as others, he said, “have experienced the effects of the wrong economic and social policies and the indolence of the authorities.”

“It seems like a new edition of the ‘Caracazo’ coming out in chapters,” Archbishop Padrón warned in reference to the protests and riots that occurred in Caracas between Feb. 27 and March 8, 1989 during the government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez. At that time the country was facing another economic crisis, with protests that ended with around 300 deaths.

During his remarks, Archbishop Padrón restated the Church’s request that through Caritas, it could bring in “the medications needed by many Venezuelans requiring heightened medical attention.”

“The ability of Caritas Venezuela to pull together resources and the cooperation of private institutions – and not of government entities – makes us capable of receiving and adequately distributing the many offers we receive daily from the outside.”

“This is not the ultimate solution but it would provide relief that we shouldn’t be waiting for any more,” he said.

In May of this year, Caritas Venezuela’s director Janeth Marquez told CNA that as of that time, her organization had made three attempts to reach out to Maduro’s regime asking that food and medicine be allowed into the country.

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WORLD NEWS

With South Sudan on the brink of civil war, here’s what Church leaders are saying

by CNA/EWTN News • July 12, 2016

Sudanese people. (UNAMID via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Juba, South Sudan — Heavy fighting in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, prompted Church leaders in the country to issue a statement this week condemning the violence and asking for prayers.

“We condemn all acts of violence without exception. The time for carrying and using weapons has ended; now is the time to build a peaceful nation,” the South Sudan Council of Churches said in a July 10 statement.

Since Thursday, heavy fighting has been reported between the forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, loyal to President Salva Kiir, and the SPLA in Opposition, loyal to First Vice President, Riek Machar.

“We make no judgement as to how or why they occurred, nor who is to blame, but we note with concern that there have been a number of incidents recently, and that tension is increasing,” the Church leaders wrote.

There is not yet an official toll, but several hundred people are believed to have died in the fighting of the past few days, and several thousand more have fled their homes.

“We pray for those who have been killed, and for their families, and we ask God’s forgiveness for those who have done the killing. However we also urge repentance and a firm commitment from all armed individuals, forces and communities, and from their leaders, to create an atmosphere where violence is not an option,” the Church leaders wrote.

On Monday, President Kiir and Vice President Machar issued a ceasefire, which appears to be holding.

A fairly new country, South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. In its brief history, the African country has been marred by an ethnically motivated civil war, with the Dinka supporters of Kiir fighting against the Nuer followers of Machar.

The recent fighting ended a peace deal signed last year between Kiir and Machar last August, and has local and international leaders fearing that the country may fall into another civil war.

The Church leaders in their statement also expressed their concern that the fighting is not limited to the capital city, and has been taking place in other places in South Sudan, including Yei, where the missionary Sister Dr. Veronika was killed in May.

“We are encouraged by the statements from both President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar calling for calm. We add our voices to theirs, and urge soldiers and civilians to refrain from provocative words and actions, and to do everything in their power to avoid escalating the situation,” the Church leaders said.

“We assure you of our prayers during these difficult times, and once again call for calm and hope.”

Besides the Church leaders, the United Nations Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Mission in South Sudan, Intergovernmental Authority on Development also voiced their condemnation of the violence and their hope to return to peace.

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WORLD NEWS

Are these quite possibly the world’s happiest nuns?

by Diego López Marina (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

The Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father. (YouTube)

Cali, Colombia — Watch them sing, and you might be convinced of it.

The Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father are a community of nuns from Colombia who have a great passion for music and an intense desire to announce God through the gifts he has given them.

Sister María Victoria de Jesús told CNA the mission of their apostolate “is to evangelize through as many means of communication as possible,” and added that the charism of the sisters “is to communicate the love of God the Father.”

They have released a Spanish-language album Yo le Canto, or “I Sing”, as well as numerous music videos online.

They are currently producing new songs for a 2017 release, and have been featured regularly on Catholic stations in Colombia, Peru, and Los Angeles.

The Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father were formed in 2004 by Mother Gabriela del Amor Crucificado and Father Antonio Lootens, from two communities of hermits. They are based in the Archdiocese of Cali, in southwestern Colombia, and the community includes 65 religious women dedicated to evangelization through social media.

Sister Maria of Nazareth, who founded the musical group within the community, recalled “the words of Paul VI that the Church would be culpable if it did not use the powerful medium of television, and that John Paul II said there should be a group of consecrated persons dedicated to communications media: and thus our community was born.”

Sister María Victoria de Jesús noted that their music ministry “began three years ago, when we produced our first CD with the help of some lay persons.”

“In the past year, we began producing music videos so as to reach many more people. We work in all that is artistic and audiovisual: radio, film, music, television, and social media.”

While the community was principally founded to work in communications media in 2004, “the musical power emerged spontaneously with the sisters who were given musical talents.”

Sister Maria of Nazareth commented that “before bringing a message, it is necessary to have a witness of life, to be faithful to the Lord, and to his call. Really, our vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity help us to give of ourselves. The first medium of communication is our life and it is this that the world needs – living gospels. Then the rest follows.”

The texts, production, direction, and recording are done by the sisters themselves, who are prepared within their community to be able to perform these tasks.

“Visually we develop it all; we are trained to make a good audiovisual product. We develop it as a producer because we want the content to be high quality, to be the best for the Lord,” she said.

“Our goal is to support all the dioceses so that there is strength in the Church, and not just in Cali. To have a presence wherever there are persons who do not believe, do not know God, to look for the lost sheep and to strengthen those who are in the fold,” noted Sister Maria of Nazareth.

“When people listen to us they say they feel great peace, the love of God the Father, and some even cry. The sisters by their life of prayer touch hearts … which need a voice of encouragement, to feel loved by God. We seek to give people hope,” she concluded.

This article was originally published by the Catholic News Agency on April 14, 2016.

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WORLD NEWS

Cautious optimism as U.S. troops help to retake Mosul from ISIS

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

Iraqi and U.S. army members look over a bridge damaged by a vehicle-borne IED in Mosul, Iraq on March 22, 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Robertson)

Washington, D.C. — As the United States sends more troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul from the Islamic State, Catholics can view the action as just even while remaining vigilant about the long-term mission, one moral theologian said.

“Political order is a good that the just war theory affirms, and our efforts to assist the Iraqi government in bringing increased stability to Iraq is part of our ongoing responsibility that traces all the way back to our original intervention in Iraq,” Dr. Joseph Capizzi, a professor of moral theology and ethics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., told CNA.

The move should be seen as the U.S. trying “to remove ISIS from Iraq,” he said, noting that the terror group is “a threat to the stability of that entire region,” as well as that of Europe and the U.S., “and stability is a good,” he added.

On Monday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the U.S. would be sending 560 troops to Iraq to help the Iraqi Security Forces. Part of the mission would provide “infrastructure and logistical capabilities” at an airfield recently captured by Iraqi troops 40 miles south of Mosul, to help the Iraqis retake the country’s second-largest city from the Islamic State.

“So the idea is that these new U.S. forces would be used to secure the airfield and essentially get it up and running as a logistics hub that would support ongoing operations by Iraqi security forces,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at the July 11 press briefing.

Some troops would also act as a “security envelope” for the Iraqi forces, Carter said.

Mosul, in the northern part of the country, has been in the hands of the Islamic State since the summer of 2014 when its forces displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, many of whom left with little to no possessions.

The 560 newly deployed U.S. troops will join the more than 4,000 already in Iraq.

Catholics should be wary about increases to the number of soldiers there and of any “mission creep” that results from the U.S. presence, Capizzi warned.

“There’s just a lack of forthcoming about how many troops are there, and what the nature of the commitment is,” he noted. “And that’s not a good thing. It sort of shadows how involved the U.S. military is or needs to be.”

“It’s something Americans should be vigilant about,” he added, saying citizens should be “tracking the nature of America’s involvement here” since “it’s not going away.”

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WORLD NEWS

Are religious teachers being eradicated from Belgian schools?

by Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

(Lia Koltyrina via Shutterstock)

Brussels, Belgium — Religion classes in Belgium’s French-speaking primary and secondary schools will be cut in half starting in October 2016 and replaced with a weekly hour of citizenship classes.

Critics worry that the new classes will promote abortion and homosexuality, and that the change could end up pushing teachers with a religious education or background out of the schools.

The decision was announced by the Belgian government in a July 7 decree, despite the fact that 97 percent of students had said they wanted the religion classes to be maintained.

Last month, amid debate over the measure, the Belgian Bishops Conference released a statement emphasizing the importance of religious study in schools.

“Indeed, removing the Catholic religion classes would mean relegating religious belief to the private sphere, which, for a democratic state, would be an impoverishment,” they said.

The Belgian state curriculum includes religion classes, with students having the choice of Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Protestant or “a-confessional morality.”

The classes normally consist of two weekly hours of teaching.

Last year, the government started a procedure to cut in half the weekly hours of religion in the curriculum. The new citizenship classes – entitled “Education of philosophy and citizenship” (EPC) – will go into effect in October 2016 in primary schools and October 2017 in secondary schools.

The government decision will apply only to the French-speaking schools in Belgium. Each of the country’s three main language communities – French, Flemish and German – have authority over their respective educational programs.

Announcement of the new policy has prompted concern from some in the academic system.

One religion teacher, who requested anonymity, told CNA that “these citizenship classes are part of a real ideological indoctrination.”

Instead of simply being neutral, the teacher charged, “these classes are filled with ideological topics: gender theory, homosexuality, euthanasia and abortion are not presented in a neutral way.”

Segments of the Belgian press have also criticized the content of the new classes, labeling them cours de rien, or “classes of nothing.”

The change is controversial for other reasons as well, particularly because it could result in religion teachers being forced out of the educational system altogether.

The new citizenship classes must be taught by “neutral teachers” – those without any religious education in their background, including a degree from a Catholic university.

Since many of the religion teachers have graduated from Catholic colleges or other religious institutions, they are considered “non-neutral,” and are therefore ineligible to teach the citizenship class.

And since teachers are required to maintain a certain number of hours to keep their jobs, those with religious backgrounds could find their jobs at risk once their religion classes are reduced to half their current hours to accommodate the new citizenship courses.

The government maintains that no teachers are at risk of losing their jobs.

However, critics charge that part-time teachers – often members of a religious minority – will be slowly eradicated from the schools, since they will be unable to maintain the necessary number of hours to continue teaching.

The Collectif des Enseignants de Religion dans l’Enseignement Officiel – better known by the French acronym of Cereo – is a group of religion teachers in Belgium’s state schools. The group has argued against the removal of religion from the state curriculum.

Citing the hatred and fanaticism of the modern world, the group argued that it is more important than ever to “cultivate in each student an intelligent relationship to religion.”

In a June 30 letter, the members of Cereo defending the teaching of religion, saying, “We are confident that our courses help combat indifference, fanaticism, dogmatism, intolerance, and violence in times of crisis.”

“The courses of morality and religion are places of education that respect all particular beliefs, and promote integration in a pluralistic society,” the teachers said. “They are a place of freedom, exchange and debate, respecting the full person of the student.”

Cereo is appealing to the Belgian Constitutional Court, with the claim that the religion and morality classes already cover the topic of citizenship.

“We believe that a critical but benevolent religious instruction, taught by masters and teachers combining a journey of faith and a serious training, is in the current circumstances the safest way to develop civic virtue and moderation of our students search for meaning and identity,” they said.

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WORLD NEWS

Reports emerge of teens convulsing from ‘Charlie Charlie’ game

by CNA/EWTN News • July 15, 2016

Charlie Charlie. (Maggie Lawson/CNA)

Bogotá, Colombia — A Colombian news outlet has reported convulsions and other strange behaviors in 22 local teenagers who allegedly played “Charlie Charlie,” a simplified version of Ouija that became popular a year ago.

The game consists of a pair of pencils or pens, a piece of paper and the invocation of a demonic spirit named “Charlie” who answers “yes” or “no” to questions put to him.

Several days ago, almost two dozen young people between 12 and 15 years-old from the same school started to convulse and behave strangely. They were taken to the health center in the town of Nóvita in Colombia, not far from the Pacific coast and Panama border.

Caracol News reported that the girls may have been “possessed” due to playing the game.

One of the affected youths, whose identity has been withheld, told the outlet: “you can end up dying from those games because you know this is something from the devil, and you don’t play around with the devil.”

Claudia Patricia Asprilla, the mother of one of the girls involved, said that her daughter “said she doesn’t want to go to school because she’s afraid, she’s frightened and last night she started to (get scared again). I’m worried about this because this is a scary thing. It’s something you can’t explain.”

Jorge Hurtado Bonilla of Nóvita’s Family Protective Services explained that “last year we had a similar situation because the girls at a school apparently played what’s called ‘Charlie Charlie’ and there were about seven isolated cases, but since then nothing on this large a scale has happened.”

Father Wilson Tamayo, pastor of Divine Child Church in Istmina, about 15 miles from Nóvita, told Caracol News that “all this happens precisely because we have closed the door of our hearts to God, and so I invite you to welcome God’s message which is salvation, mercy and freedom.”

Caracol News reported that local authorities are visiting the affected girls’ homes, bringing psychological, social and spiritual help.

Last spring, Charlie Charlie became popular among young people worldwide, as social media posts of the invocation went viral, prompting a wave of concern over the potential risk of being exposed to demonic possession.

Consulted by CNA in May 2015, noted Spanish exorcist Father José Antonio Fortea warned that the so-called #CharlieCharlieChallenge “does indeed involve the invocation of spirits.”

Even though he believes that those who play it “won’t be possessed” necessarily, the spirit invoked “will stay around for a while.”

Frequently playing the “game,” the Spanish priest pointed out, may make “other spirits enter into even more frequent communication. And then yes the person can suffer much worse consequences from the demons.”

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U.S. NEWS

Nearly half of U.S. states have sued over transgender bathroom rule in schools

by CNA/EWTN News • July 8, 2016

Bathroom stalls. (Martin Haas via shutterstock.com)

Washington, D.C. — Ten states have announced that they are suing the federal government over a rule that would allow students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their choice, rather than those that match their biological sex.

The July 8 lawsuit was filed in Nebraska federal court. In addition to the state of Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming joined in the legal challenge.

Friday’s lawsuit follows an earlier lawsuit by 11 states challenging the same federal directive.

“When a federal agency takes such unilateral action in an attempt to change the meaning of established law, it leaves state and local authorities with no other option than to pursue legal clarity in federal court in order to enforce the rule of law,” said a statement by Nebraska’s attorney general, announcing the new lawsuit.

“Current state law and federal regulations allow schools to maintain separate facilities based upon sex,” the announcement said.

“The recent action by these two federal agencies to require showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms be open to both sexes based solely on the student’s choice, circumvents this established law by ignoring the appropriate legislative process necessary to change such a law. It also supersedes local school districts’ authority to address student issues on an individualized, professional and private basis.”

In May, the Department of Justice and Department of Education sent a letter to all U.S. school districts announcing a new federal guidance, which instructed every public school in the country to allow students who identify as transgender to use the facilities – including restrooms and locker rooms – that match their self-determined “gender identity.”

“A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so,” the directive said. It added “a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.”

The federal guidance may also affect sex-segregated athletics and roommate assignments on trips.

Although the directive does not have the force of law, it implicitly threatens schools that do not comply with lawsuits or a loss of federal aid, according to the New York Times.

For the purpose of Title IX compliance, the federal departments said they “treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex.” The guidance said gender identity is “an individual’s internal sense of gender” that may differ from “the person’s sex assigned at birth.”

In the last two months, the federal guidance has sparked controversy, with critics warning that it has a wide potential for abuse and endangers the safety and privacy of students.

The U.S. bishops responded to the “deeply disturbing” federal guidance by warning that it “contradicts a basic understanding of human formation so well expressed by Pope Francis: that ‘the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created’.”

The bishops’ May 16 statement was authored by Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, and by Archbishop George Lucas, who chairs the bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education.

“Children, youth, and parents in these difficult situations deserve compassion, sensitivity, and respect,” they said. “All of these can be expressed without infringing on legitimate concerns about privacy and security on the part of the other young students and parents.”

However, the federal guidance fails to achieve this balance, the bishops said, citing Pope Francis’ caution that “biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.”

They stressed that the Catholic Church “consistently affirms the inherent dignity of each and every human person and advocates for the wellbeing of all people, particularly the most vulnerable.”

“Especially at a young age and in schools, it is important that our children understand the depth of God’s love for them and their intrinsic worth and beauty. Children should always be and feel safe and secure and know they are loved,” they added.

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U.S. NEWS

Will new ‘civil rights’ silence churches? In Iowa, the fear is real

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2016

Church pews. (Public domain)

Des Moines, Iowa — An Iowa church fears the state civil rights commission could penalize it for preaching and following its views on homosexuality and transgender issues – including penalties for single-sex bathrooms.

The Iowa Civil Rights Commission has produced a self-described guide to Iowa law for public accommodations providers concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.

The brochure-sized guide says the 2007 Iowa Civil Rights Act applies to churches “sometimes.” It acknowledged that the law does not apply to religious institutions in the matter of a “bona fide religious purpose.”

“Where qualifications are not related to a bona fide religious purpose, churches are still subject to the law’s provisions. (e.g. a child care facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public),” the pamphlet says.

The pamphlet says the law bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in services, facilities or goods for any place of public accommodation. It bars harassment including “intentional use of names and pronouns inconsistent with a person’s presented gender.”

According to the commission, the law requires locker rooms, restrooms and living facilities in places of public accommodation to be open to persons based on their self-identified “gender identity.”

Those who believe they have suffered discrimination may file a complaint with the civil rights commission, the pamphlet says, adding that it is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice.

The Fort Des Moines Church of Christ “fears that speaking publicly about the church’s beliefs on human sexuality or making known its facility use policy could trigger enforcement action by the commission and substantial penalties,” said Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Christina Holcomb.

“If this law is not challenged, then the commission retains unchecked power to violate basic constitutional rights,” Holcomb told CNA July 6.

The Alliance Defending Freedom legal group said the commission’s interpretation could ban churches from voicing their views if doing so would “directly or indirectly” make persons of any gender identity feel “unwelcome” in church services, events and other religious activities.

“Regardless of our personal views on human sexuality, we should all be able to agree that the state has overstepped its bounds when it tries to control the internal communications and operations of a church,” Holcomb said. “These are the very types of intrusions that Jefferson’s ‘wall of separation between church and state’ was designed to prevent.”

The legal group filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Des Moines church against members of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the Iowa attorney general, and the city of Des Moines, which has a law similar to the State of Iowa’s. The lawsuit is a “pre-enforcement challenge” intended to challenge a law before it is potentially used against the church.

“No church should have to live in fear that, at any time, the commission could declare that something the church said or did violated state law,” Holcomb said. “No one, including church leaders, must wait for fines or punishment before challenging an unconstitutional law.”

The lawsuit charged that the anti-discrimination law as interpreted by the civil rights commission would compel the church to “communicate government messages to which it objects” and force the church to “use its building in violation of its religious beliefs.”

Some experts criticized the church’s legal action, but acknowledged there was ground to believe the law could affect church operations.

Prof. Paul Gowder, a constitutional expert at the University of Iowa Law School, said it would be “blatantly unconstitutional” for state officials to try to regulate church sermons. He told the Des Moines Register it is “absurd on its face” to think the commission would prohibit a church from sermonizing.

However, he said access to church bathrooms by those who identify as transgender is more complicated, given jurisprudence that sees churches as non-exempt from general laws that apply to everyone under the U.S. Constitution.

“So I guess the honest answer to the bathroom question would be I am not sure,” Gowder said.

Law professor Maura Strassberg of Drake University said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public facilities’ decisions on allowing someone to use a restroom are not considered free speech and would not be protected by the First Amendment.

She argued that there are situations where a preacher’s remarks could become harassment.

“There is a line: You can go from, ‘This is what God believes’ … to ‘You are bad, so we don’t want you here’,” she said.

However, Holcomb said these professors overlooked the “critical” constitutional principle of church autonomy.

“The Supreme Court has recognized again and again that the state has no jurisdiction to intrude into internal church matters, which include not only teaching its religious beliefs, but also operating its house of worship consistently with those beliefs,” she said.

“Churches order their houses of worship to reflect and reinforce their religious teaching. They are not businesses, they are not public accommodations: they are inherently sacred spaces, and enjoy special protections under the religion clauses.”

Ben Hammes, a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad responded to the legal challenge. He said that Governor Branstad “has confidence in the commission to enforce the laws we currently have that protect religious institutions’ right to exercise a religious exemption while protecting personal rights.”

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U.S. NEWS

Knights of Columbus launch novena for peace in response to U.S. shootings

by CNA/EWTN News • July 9, 2016

A man leaves a note at a makeshift memorial honoring the five police officers killed in a July 7, 2016 shooting in Dallas, Texas. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

New Haven, CT — In the wake of violence across the nation this week, the Knights of Columbus have issued a campaign encouraging people to join them in praying for peace.

“The violent episodes of the past week have shocked the conscience of our country,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson.

On July 7, five Dallas police officers were killed in what authorities called a “sniper ambush” at the end of a peaceful protest against police shootings of African Americans earlier in the week.

Two days earlier, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot and killed after an encounter with police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The following day, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black man, was shot and killed during a traffic stop for a broken tail light in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. His fiancée, Diamond Reynolds, livestreamed the aftermath on Facebook as her four-year-old daughter sat in the car’s back seat.

In a July 9 announcement, Anderson invited Knights, their families, and all people of goodwill to join in praying a novena for peace by praying St. Francis of Assisi’s “Prayer for Peace” from July 14 to 22.

“Through this prayer, each of us has the opportunity to help transcend hatred and violence by personally committing to the concepts of love of neighbor, peace and forgiveness that are central to an authentic embrace of Christianity,” he said.

“It is our hope that, from coast to coast, those who pray this prayer will become true instruments of peace.”

Supreme Chaplain of the Knights, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, also encouraged people to join in prayer for “an end to violence and senseless killings.”

“Through our prayers and good works, may we help build a society that is merciful, just, and peaceful.”

St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer for peace can be found below:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

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U.S. NEWS

Wichita seminarian missing after rescuing woman in Arkansas River

by CNA/EWTN News • July 11, 2016

Brian Bergkamp. (Diocese of Wichita)

Wichita, KS — The Diocese of Wichita is offering prayers for a seminarian who is missing after rescuing a woman in the Arkansas River on Saturday.

Brian Bergkamp, age 24, had finished his second year at seminary. He was scheduled to be ordained a priest in 2018.

The seminarian was kayaking with four friends July 9 on the Arkansas River. They hit rough water, and one of the women in the group fell out of her kayak.

Bergkamp plunged in after the woman and was able to help her reach safety, but he was then pulled under by the strong current, according to officials.

Search crews are still looking for the missing seminarian, and prayer services are being held every evening at St. Anne Catholic Church in Wichita until he is found.

Those who knew the seminarian described him as selfless and said they were not surprised by his act of self-sacrifice to save the life of another.

“He would go out of his way to help someone and forget about his own, probably, self in the process. So what he did was a very natural thing for him,” said Mt. St. Mary’s University Vice Rector, Father Kenneth Brighenti, to KSN News.

“He said he just had a desire to help people, to save people. He thought about being a fireman or a paramedic or a policeman, but decided the priesthood was what he wanted to do,” added Jan Haberly, director at Lord’s Diner, which serves meals to those in need. Bergkamp had been an intern at the diner this summer.

Fellow seminarian Jimmy Schibi described Bergkamp as deeply faithful and generous.

“He was never about himself, always looking to do something for others, never thinking of himself,” Schibi told the Wichita Eagle. “He cared. He totally cared about each little individual job he was doing.”

“He gave up his life to be a priest, but before he could do that, he gave up his life for another,” Schibi said. “Probably one of the most selfless individuals that I’d ever met.”

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U.S. bishops call for legal protection of doctors who won’t perform abortions

by CNA/EWTN News • July 11, 2016

The United States Capitol building at sunset. (Vgm8383 via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Archbishop William Lori are once again calling on the House of Representatives to enact the Conscience Protection Act to defend the rights of health care workers.

Back in March, the chairmen the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty sent a letter to the House asking for their support.

According to the letter, the Conscience Protection Act would make sure people providing health care would be able to do so “without being forced by the government to help destroy innocent unborn children.”

After three recent examples of the government failing to protect the rights of conscientious objection, a new letter was sent July 7 explaining that federal laws providing protection in theory have not “proved effective in practice.”

Since their letter sent in March, the bishops said, “three new developments make the need for immediate action to pass the Conscience Protection Act even more urgent.”

On June 21, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the California’s Department of Managed Heath Care could continue covering “elective abortions.” In 2014, the state had mandated all health plans to cover abortions. Though religious employers objected, no changes were made.

The New York Department of Financial Services then did the same, ordering all small group employers – including faith-based companies – o cover abortions as of the first of this year.

Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori cited the last incident from Washington state.

On June 21, the Skagit County Superior Court ordered public hospitals providing maternity care to also provide abortions on-site. The ruling came after Skagit Regional Heath sent women to abortion clinics because its employees did not want to perform the operations.

“These disturbing new actions to force healthcare providers to participate in the destruction of human life cry out for an immediate federal remedy,” the chairmen said.

Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori explained that a difference in opinion should be respected, writing, “Even those who disagree on the issue of abortion should be able to respect those who wish not to participate in abortion.”

“As we continue to bask in the glow of our Forth of July celebrations,” they concluded, “we strongly urge you to uphold the rights to life and liberty which our Founding Fathers wisely asserted as most fundamental to our nation’s existence.”

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You probably know someone who’s been domestically abused

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 12, 2016

(Antonio Guillem via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — Every minute, 20 people in the United States alone are victims of intimate partner violence.

Nearly 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have been victims of sexual violence other than rape at some point in their lives.

The numbers are staggering. But amid the silent epidemic of domestic violence, Catholics are banding together to work for change.

“Now is really a privileged moment in the Church,” said Dr. Christauria Welland, founder of the group Pax in Familia, which works to prevent domestic abuse.

Dr. Welland spoke with CNA at the “Help, Hope, and Healing” symposium exploring a Catholic response to domestic abuse and violence, held July 7-8 in Washington, D.C.

She recalled how the Vatican had sent out a questionnaire ahead of the synods on the family, asking about challenges for families around the world. She looked at the questions, reached out to her bishop, and talked to him about the challenges of domestic violence. It was an opportunity to bring the issue from the shadows into the spotlight, she said.

“That was the first time that I can remember that anyone asked me as a Catholic for feedback,” she said, noting that she eventually spoke on domestic violence at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. “Maybe this will go somewhere really great.”

The symposium was hosted by the National Catholic School of Social Service at The Catholic University of America. Other organizations also helped with the conference, Catholic Charities USA, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Catholics for Family Peace.

The event was a response to the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family Amoris Laetitia, the university noted. In paragraph 204 of the letter, Pope Francis insisted that “good pastoral training is important ‘especially in light of particular emergency situations arising from cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse’.”

Shocking statistics, devastating consequences

Violence and abuse within families is everywhere, Dr. Welland said in her Thursday address on awareness.

An estimated 35 percent of women have been victims of physical or sexual violence some time in their lives. “Some national studies,” U.N. Women reports, “show that up to 70 percent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.”

Globally, 30 percent of women who have been in a relationship have been abused by an intimate partner, according to the World Health Organization.

And as much as 38 percent of the murders of women worldwide were committed by an intimate partner, according to WHO. In 2010 in the U.S., 1,095 women were murdered by intimate partner, according to the CDC.

Women aren’t the only victims: 28 percent of men in the U.S. have been raped, stalked, or physically assaulted by an intimate partner at some point, the CDC says. However, women reportedly suffer from the physical and emotional consequences of abuse at a rate of three times that of men.

Domestic abuse takes several forms – most notably physical, sexual, or emotional. Pope Francis, noted this in his recent apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia:

“I think particularly of the shameful ill-treatment to which women are sometimes subjected, domestic violence and various forms of enslavement which, rather than a show of masculine power, are craven acts of cowardice. The verbal, physical, and sexual violence that women endure in some marriages contradicts the very nature of the conjugal union.”

The impacts of abuse also take multiple forms, as Dr. Welland noted at the conference.

There are the immediate physical injuries stemming from physical abuse, but also severe disabilities, as in one case when a woman’s husband ran her over with his car and gave her a lifelong physical disability, she said.

Women can also contract sexually-transmitted infections from sexual abuse.

Stress-related injuries, like gastrointestinal problems, heart issues, chronic pain, and migraine headaches, can result from domestic violence.

The hidden problems – like mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder – are no less real. Anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, low self-esteem, trust issues, sleep disturbances, and ineffective parenting can all be consequences for victims of spousal abuse and child abuse.

And the children suffer greatly, both from being abused themselves and from witnessing spousal abuse, noted Dr. Mindy Thiel, a social worker in Maryland who spoke at the conference.

“Those who grow up with domestic violence are 6 times more likely to commit suicide and 50 times more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol,” the Childhood Domestic Violence Association says. Such children are also “74 times more likely to commit a violent crime against someone else.”

Children can also develop anxiety disorders, eating and sleeping disorders, or fears of leaving an abuse victim at home with the aggressor. They can exhibit depression by either withdrawing or “acting out” at school.

Stress can take its toll on children’s health. In one case where an angry father punched a hole in the wall above a baby in a crib, the child’s body essentially shut down for several days from the stress of witnessing the incident, Thiel noted.

Anger can be a “huge emotion” for children, she added, noting that they might grow up taking out their anger on others and even become abusers themselves.

For the Church, an issue ‘very much on the radar’

Recent popes – and the U.S. bishops – have spoken out forcefully against domestic violence, and the issue is “very much on the radar” of Pope Francis, Dr. John Grabowski, an associate professor of theology at the Catholic University of America, said at the conference.

In his 1995 letter to women, Pope St. John Paul II wrote that “the time has come to condemn vigorously the types of sexual violence which frequently have women for their object and to pass laws which effectively defend them from such violence.”

Pope Francis, in Amoris Laetitia, cited the bishops of Mexico in saying that “violence within families breeds new forms of social aggression.” He added that “surely it is legitimate and right to reject older forms of the traditional family marked by authoritarianism and even violence.”

The U.S. bishops had released a statement on domestic violence, “When I Call for Help,” in 1992, condemning violence against women as “never justified” and offering resources for parishes and priests to combat the problem.

What recourse is out there for women who are abused or who see their children abused? Oftentimes they are not met with the sympathy and support that they need.

If a victim’s mother was herself an abuse victim, noted Kathy Bonner of the National Council of Catholic Women, she might advise her daughter that the abuse was simply part of marriage and part of her cross she has to carry.

While ignorant of the abuse, the woman’s pastor might know the abusive husband as a leader in the parish. He might suggest couples’ counseling for their predicament. The husband may then twist the counseling sessions to strengthen his own position of authority in the marriage.

This is a common problem, Dr. Eileen Dombo told CNA. Dr. Dombo is the Assistant Dean and Chair of Masters of Social Work Program at The Catholic University of America’s National Catholic School of Social Service.

The abuser needs personal therapy to overcome his own problems, she said. With couples counseling, however, it often becomes an opportunity for the abuser to justify him or herself and “attack the victim through the lens of therapy.”

Other members of a parish or family members might be ignorant of the extent of domestic violence in their locality, and might even normalize it as just a part of marriage. Simply telling an abuse victim “it is your Cross and you must bear it” can be harmful and contradict Catholic Social Teaching, Dr. Welland emphasized.

Local solutions

More can be done on the parish and diocesan level to help embattled women and children, leaders insisted at the conference. The purpose of the July 7-8 event – the first national Catholic symposium on domestic violence in recent memory, one organizer said – was to connect leaders from across the country on the issue.

Resources should be available to support and empower abuse victims to make the best decision they can for their well-being and the good of their family, experts agreed.

Fr. Chuck Dahm, O.P., who directs the Archdiocese of Chicago’s domestic violence outreach, was blunt about “one of the major challenges” to fighting domestic violence at the parish level – “our priests.”

Priests may be overworked or feel like they are not an expert on the issue, he acknowledged, and therefore may be reticent to speak out from the pulpit. Some fear they might appear to be “promoting divorce” if they speak out against domestic violence, he added.

Yet Fr. Dahm works hard to pitch his ministry any way he can on the parish level. If he succeeds at convincing his way into the parish, he might preach at Mass.

“After I preach, then the priests get it,” he said. Once he speaks at a parish, he calls a meeting afterward where anyone can show up – he usually gets 12 to 45 people – and the issue is discussed in the open.

The goals of his ministry, he said, are first, to create awareness through preaching and parish meetings, and then to connect the parish to domestic violence agencies close-by.

Laura Yeomans is another Catholic working to fight domestic violence. She is the Parish Partners Program Manager for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington, and explained how domestic violence ministry must be “survivor-focused.”

That “means that we listen to the survivor. We listen to her needs,” she said of her ministry. “We don’t know the safety consequences of any recommendations that we might have.”

A victim knows her situation and her family better than anyone, Yeomans continued, so simply leaving the house could prove to be a fatal mistake for a victim who lives with an angry abuser.

Rather than simply tell a victim what to do, “we develop a fierce respect for the survivor,” she said, and look to “empower them” and “offer choices,” including “information about what women might have found.”

Such information can include local domestic violence agencies, but also national centers like the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the National Domestic Violence Resource Center, and LoveIsRespect.org.

Dr. Dombo at the National Catholic School of Social Service recommended those national resources as part of a compassionate response by a parish worker to an abuse victim.

Parish workers should be trained to recognize signs of a healthy relationship versus signs of an abusive relationship, she stressed. “A lot of times people will talk about what’s going on in their relationship, and they won’t necessarily identify what’s going on as abuse.”

So a worker can “think through the lens of power and control” to help someone understand abusive behavior directed at them.

In a healthy relationship, there’s equality, she said. “Your opinion is valued, your desires are validated, there are decision-making processes that are shared.”

In an abusive relationship, it’s dictatorial, she continued. “One person wants to centralize all that power” over the couple’s living situation, the social life, and other areas.

Abuse victims generally don’t “want the relationship to end,” she maintained, but just “want the abuse to end.” They should be helped to understand that they “can’t fix” their abuser.

Resources – like domestic violence hotlines and signs of an abusive relationship – can also be posted in “safe spaces” like women’s restrooms, she said.

There is progress being made at the parish and diocesan level in fighting domestic violence, Fr. Dahm maintained. Local parishes have met and shared information on successes and challenges. And there will be a Mass said for domestic violence at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral, which Fr. Dahm called a “major victory.”

He would like the issue to be discussed in greater depth in more seminaries, and to be incorporated into marriage preparation programs. He noted the efforts of dioceses which are planning or wanting to train clergy on domestic violence, including Kansas City, Portland, Kalamazoo, Laredo, Oklahoma City, and Washington, D.C.

Ultimately, helping victims of domestic violence is about empowerment, and being honest about the problem is an important step in fighting it, Dombo said.

“I just think that the more you’re able to validate for people that nobody deserves to be treated that way, and … that behavior is not part of a healthy relationship, that’s emotional abuse or psychological abuse … .to name that, the more that empowers somebody who is feeling powerless, feeling victimized, to come forward,” she stated.

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U.S. bishops throw support behind conscience protections on marriage

by CNA/EWTN News • July 14, 2016

The U.S. Capitol building. (Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Two leading U.S. bishops have spoken out in favor of a proposed law which would ensure federal religious freedom protections to individuals and faith-based organizations who disagree with same-sex marriage.

In a joint statement released Tuesday, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore voiced support for the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA).

The legislation “is a modest but important step in ensuring conscience protection to faith-based organizations and people of all faiths and of no faith who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” they said.

Archbishop Cordileone chairs the U.S. bishops’ committee on the promotion and defense of marriage, while Archbishop Lori heads the committee on religious liberty.

The First Amendment Defense Act was introduced by Representative Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) in response to the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling last year. The proposed law would protect individuals and organizations from being penalized for their views on marriage.

The Obergefell v. Hodges ruling last June federally validated marriage licenses between same-sex couples and has since been a source of concern for individuals, small businesses and faith-based organizations who could lose their tax-exempt status or licenses for upholding their beliefs on traditional marriage.

Over the past year, various small business owners have worried about losing their businesses, and other faith-based organizations are wondering if their tax-exempt statuses are in jeopardy.

“The increasing intolerance toward religious belief and belief in the conjugal meaning of marriage makes these protections essential for continuing faith-based charitable work, which supports the common good of our society,” the bishops’ statement said.

“Faith-based agencies and schools should not lose their licenses or accreditation simply because they hold reasonable views on marriage that differ from the federal government’s view.”

Although controversy has swirled around the First Amendment Defense Act as an anti-LGBT provision, both Archbishop Cordileone and Archbishop Lori stated that the definition of marriage “has nothing to do with disrespect for others, nor does it depend on religious belief.”

“Rather, it is based on truths about the human person that are understandable by reason,” the archbishops wrote, stating that marriage between one man and one woman is “foundational to the common good.”

Archbishop Cordileone and Archbishop Lori said that the Catholic Church will continue to be a beacon of moral conviction and stand behind the right to exercise religious beliefs without fear.

“We are pleased to support the First Amendment Defense Act, and we urge Congress to pass this important legislation.”

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Doctor Death? A sinister one-stop shop opens in California

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • July 14, 2016

(Ashley rose via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Oakland, CA — You can’t put a price on most things in life. But you can, apparently, put a price on death - $2,000.

That’s what Dr. Lonny Shavelson is charging patients at his brand-new physician-assisted suicide clinic in Berkeley, California.

Last month, California became the fifth and most populous state to adopt a law legalizing physician-assisted suicide. The state’s End of Life Option Act went into effect June 9.

Shavelson, who had retired from practicing medicine, was drawn back after Calif. Governor Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act last year. Shavelson recently opened the state’s first End of Life Options clinic in the Bay Area, where he will consult with and provide lethal prescriptions for patients who request them – and who may not be given the prescription by other doctors who refuse to write such prescriptions.

Under the California law, two doctors must agree that a mentally competent patient has six months or fewer to live. The patient then agrees in writing to administer the lethal prescription themselves. Currently, the law does not mandate doctors to provide lethal prescriptions if they choose not to do so.

Shavelson’s sudden reappearance in medicine and his past advocacy for assisted suicide has left many critics skeptical of his motivations.

“I think that what we have said about assisted suicide is predictably happening, which is [that] some individuals in the healthcare industry will take advantage (of these laws) and see this as a business opportunity, and take advantage of people and families at their most vulnerable time,” Tim Rosales, political director for the Patients Rights Action Fund, told CNA.

One of Shavelson’s most vocal critics is Wesley Smith, a lawyer, author, and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.

In the ‘90s, Shavelson wrote a book called A Chosen Death, in which he chronicles the deaths of five people who had asked for assisted suicide. Shavelson was present for each person’s death.

In the book, Shavelson recounts how he watched the murder of a man who is suffocated to death, and how he did nothing to stop it. Smith takes Shavelson to task in his own book Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and the New Duty to Die.

In it, Smith writes of Shavelson: “The right, proper, ethical, and humane thing for Shavelson to do as he watched Sarah asphyxiate Gene would have been to knock Sarah off the helpless man and then quickly dial 911 for an ambulance and the police. But Shavelson did not do anything … as he watched the Sarah-Gene tableau, just before the old man tried to rip the bag off his face …”

Critics of legalized assisted suicide argue that it overwhelmingly targets the poor, elderly and disabled, that it creates a slippery slope to doctor-enforced euthanasias, and that there can never be enough safeguards in place to prevent abuse.

Although the California law only applies to the mentally competent and terminally ill, a terminal diagnosis can be uncertain, with many people living well beyond their initial prognosis.

Countries such as the Netherlands, where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been legal since 2002, have recently witnessed the erosion of such safeguards as mental competence. Earlier this year, a young woman in her 20s was euthanized in the country because doctors had determined her mental health condition was “insufferable.”

Rosales said he hopes that states considering legalizing assisted suicide or euthanasia will find Shavelson’s practice troubling.

“It’s targeting folks and seeing this as something that is profitable or a business venture, and that certainly is troubling, and I think instructive for states that are considering similar laws.”

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Why this bishop from the U.S. is now one step closer to being a saint

by Tonia Borsellino (CNA/EWTN News) • July 15, 2016

Venerable Alphonse Gallegos, who was auxiliary bishop of Sacramento from 1981 to 1991. (Order of Augustinian Recollects)

Sacramento, CA — On July 8 Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Servant of God Alphonse Gallegos, who was auxiliary bishop of Sacramento from 1981 to 1991.

The late bishop is now called Venerable, and only one miracle worked through his intercession is needed before he can be beatified.

“This is wonderful news for all those who knew him,” Fr. Eliseo Gonzalez, vice-postulator of Venerable Gallegos’ cause of canonization, told CNA.

Fr. Gonzalez is a member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, in which Bishop Gallegos was ordained a priest in 1958. Since the cause for canonization opened in December 2005, Fr. Gonzalez has been working to tell the bishop’s story.

He explained that many people who knew Bishop Gallegos considered him a “living saint.”

The bishop was born Feb. 20, 1931 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was the eighth of 11 children. His mother and father, Caciana and Joseph Gallegos, were very pious according to a biography from Fr. Gonzalez. The family prayed daily rosaries together and often had lessons on the catechism.

Bishop Gallegos was born with a “severe myopic condition” impacting his eyesight. Though he had many surgeries, the bishop’s poor vision “remained chronic.”

In an effort to seek “better educational opportunities for their children as well as medical treatment for him,” Venerable Gallegos’ parents moved the family to Los Angeles in the early 1930s.

It was there that Bishop Gallegos found his religious vocation. The family put down roots in an area known as “Watts”, and they began attending San Miguel parish, which was run by the Order of Augustinian Recollects. Bishop Gallegos began “nurturing a deep desire to follow the religious life.”

Venerable Gallegos entered the Order of Augustinian Recollects as a novice in 1950. A year later, he professed his first vows, and his solemn vows three years later.

“His visual handicap, however, limited his ability to read and to master all the study requirements for the advancement to the priesthood,” his biography explained.

In 1954, Venerable Gallegos was moved to the order’s major seminary, Tagaste Monastery, in Suffern, New York. But his vision worsened, making his studies more difficult. He could not read his breviary so he would instead pray the rosary.

“His situation was such that doubts were raised concerning his preparation for the priesthood,” but he was ordained a priest May 24, 1958, given his holiness, humility, and community spirit.

Venerable Gallegos’ ministry as a priest began at Tagaste Monastery. He spent eight years working with the neighboring hospitals and religious communities. After, he was appointed novice master for the Augustinian Recollects’ Province of St. Augustine in Kansas City, Kansas. In 1972, he returned home to be pastor at his home parish in Watts.

The neighborhood was predominantly African-American and poor. Riots in the 1960s had left the area divided and filled with gangs, crime, and poverty. The priest made it his priority to focus on the local children, greeting them daily at the parish’s school.

On the weekends, Venerable Gallegos would spend time with the lowriders of the community, blessing their cars and encouraging the Hispanic youth to pursue a college education. He also took care of the elderly and opened his home to anyone in need. He later served at Cristo Rey parish.

Word spread of his service, and in 1979 Venerable Gallegos was appointed director of the newly-created Hispanic affairs office of the California Catholic Conference. In this role he worked with bishops in both New Mexico and California on such issues as immigration and evangelization. His work there led to his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Sacramento in 1981.

“He was Hispanic, yet he ministered to a very diverse group of people,” Olympia Nunez, Venerable Gallegos’ long-time secretary, told CNA.

“We had a Korean community, Chinese, African-American, Hispanic, and he was the person in charge of all these groups.”

Nunez said the bishop was incredibly kind and outgoing, and never complained about his disability.

“Once a year for his birthday, everyone got together and celebrated with different ethnic foods and customs,” Nunez reflected. “He brought all these people together.”

The bishop’s episcopal motto was “love one another.” He advocated for the culture of life, and personally paid Catholic school tuition for the poor.

Fr. Gonzalez called Bishop Gallegos an inspiration and example of hope and fortitude for all.

“If he was able to accomplish such great things, why can’t we? With God’s help we can also accomplish great things.”

On Oct. 6, 1991, Bishop Gallegos and his driver were returning home from Gridley, about 60 miles north of Sacramento. They had car troubles, so the two got out and started pushing the car to the side of the road. Another vehicle, driving in the same direction, struck the bishop.

More than 2,000 people were present at his funeral, and lowriders formed one of the longest funeral processions ever documented.

In addition to his pastoral concern for the poor, Venerable Gallegos was known for his commitment to the culture of life. He had been at a gathering in Gridley to pray the rosary for an end to abortion the day he died.

With the announcement of the bishop’s cause advancing, Nunez said: “He doesn’t belong to just Sacramento or California, he now belongs to the United States in general, and to the world, as an example of a good, humble, generous human being.”

In order for him to be canonized, two miracles through the intercession of Venerable Alphonse Gallegos must be verified.

The faithful are encouraged to visit Venerable Alphonse Gallegos’ body at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in downtown Sacramento, his life-size statue in Bishop Gallegos Square, and a mini-museum displaying the bishop’s personal items in Oxnard, some 65 miles west of Los Angeles.

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FEATURES

What I learned from Catholics with psychological struggles

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2016

(Lolostock via Shutterstock)

Denver, CO — A few weeks ago, I put out a little blurb on my personal Facebook wall.

It went something like this:

“Hi friends! I’m working on a story about whether Catholics tend to over-spiritualize psychological problems, and whether there’s a stigma in the Church against those with mental health illnesses. If you have had experience with this and would like to comment, feel free to shoot me a personal message!”

Normally my friends on social media are actually pretty good at responding to these sorts of requests, but the response I got to this little Facebook post was overwhelming. So many people either messaged me to share their own experiences, or were able to refer me to professionals they knew. Family, close friends, people I haven’t talked to in awhile, friends of friends of friends – I heard from people across the board.

The topic has been on a to-do list of features that we have at the office, but it was a particularly personal story for me to work on because depression runs in one side of my family. I also have several close friends who have depression, anxiety and other psychological illnesses.

It’s a topic that’s not easy. It’s a topic that required some extra prayers to Mary and the Holy Spirit, pre-and-post-interviews, so that the peace of Christ would reign over these difficult but necessary conversations.

An article can only be so long, and can only delve into so much (I’ve seen the analytics on page views – y’all have short attention spans).

So here are some things I learned while working on this piece that couldn’t fit into my article.

1. If you’re dealing with psychological illness as a Catholic, you’re not a failure, and you’re not alone. There are so many people who, at sight of a Facebook post, were willing to share their experiences with me.

It’s also important to remember that despite appearance, nobody has it all together. As Dr. Jim Langley told me:

“The most common thing I see is the families that are at the church, and everybody thinks they’re just the most wonderful, put together family that’s out there. And I’m seeing half of them in therapy probably because no family is perfect. The problem is when families are so focused on appearances or coming across as this wonderful catholic family that they just don’t want to deal with it.”

2. The intention of my first piece was not to de-emphasize the power of prayer. On the contrary, prayer is a very powerful and necessary part of psychological healing. What I meant to emphasize was that just as you wouldn’t tell a cancer patient to “just pray it away,” you also should not tell someone with mental illness to “just pray it away.”

That said, there are powerful forms of healing and deliverance prayers that I didn’t get a chance to mention in my article, but that I have personally seen work small miracles in people’s lives – including my own.

One of the women that I spoke to for my article shared with me that it was soon after praying a deliverance prayer that she was hospitalized for her depression. She doesn’t consider this a coincidence – she considers it the moment when she finally allowed Jesus to enter those places of her life that she hadn’t let him enter yet, and through that prayer he led her to the miracle of modern medicine and psychological help that she needed to begin to fully heal.

A great source for healing and deliverance prayers is the book “Unbound: A practical guide to deliverance” by Neal Lozano. This is the book (and corresponding ministry) that I have seen most often endorsed by reliable, holy priests. (There are likely other healing books and ministries available as well, but I would ask a trusted priest to review them before engaging with any of them.)

Some parishes are also starting to offer healing Masses specifically for intentions of healing of various kinds, where there are often priests and lay faithful available to pray very intentionally with you, and it seems like the Church is just starting to unlock the power and graces available through these particular Masses.

3. If a friend or family member reaches out to you about mental illness, don’t dismiss them, love them. Listen to their concerns, talk with them when they are lonely, reach out frequently even if your friend might not always respond or want to go out.

“People don’t enjoy time spent with depressed and anxious people. Yet we need people to sit with us, to pull us out of the dark mess that is our minds,” one interviewee told me.

“That can mean sitting silently during a movie, or reading in the same room, or trying to take me out for a walk and understanding I’m not being a jerk if I don’t respond much or seem surly – I’m sick. I need accountability to do the most basic human activities.”

Help them get connected to sources – priests and psychologists – that can offer them expert help. If you’re looking for Catholic psychologists, your local diocesan office or Catholic Charities office is a good place to start.

But it’s also ok to recognize your limits. One person I interviewed said she appreciated it when her friends established clear boundaries for the sake of their own peace of mind and for the sake of the friendship. Being up front about boundaries and establishing them early is the best approach, rather than realizing after the fact that you’ve crossed a line.

It’s also important to remember that God, through both prayer and mental professionals, is the ultimate healer. While it’s so very important to be like Christ to them, it’s ok to recognize that you are not Christ, and will not be their ultimate source of healing or happiness. As a friend with depression once told me, it’s not worth dragging other people down with you, so it’s perfectly ok to recognize your limits.

4. Someone in a comment box asked about whether priests are given sufficient training to deal with these situations. While the psychologists I spoke with had, for the most part, excellent relationships with many local priests, I also spoke with several lay faithful who had less than desirable responses from priests when it comes to mental illness.

When I spoke with a recently-ordained friend of mine, he said that most seminaries in his experience have a house counselor who speaks with every seminarian at some point, and does ongoing work with seminarians. He also said that everything in his training has taught him to not overstep his bounds when it comes to psychological issues.

So it seems that while the training is there, in practice it does not always play out perfectly. Perhaps ongoing training throughout the priesthood is necessary, as well as more open relationships between Catholic psychologists and priests.

5. The prayer life of someone struggling with mental illness might look rather different than someone without mental illness. It’s probably going to be rather difficult for someone with severe anxiety to meditate in front of the Blessed Sacrament for long periods of time. Those who have been hurt by the Church may find going to Mass difficult, or sometimes impossible, and the best way that they can love God in their circumstances is to follow what their psychologists have told them.

“Sometimes one of the most spiritual things I do in a day is take my anxiety medicine,” an interviewee told me.

6. This is an important topic and conversation that needs to continue. Someone I spoke to for this article put it best:

“We are so comfortable as Catholics talking about theology of the body and human dignity, but what about theology of the mind? I think Catholics with mental health problems can pave a way to balancing the spiritual and the practical by being vulnerable. The problem I have seen is that we lean one way or the other in our world, and we need both.”

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Catholic coloring books for grown-ups

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • July 10, 2016

Cover of The Mysteries of the Rosary coloring book. (Daniel Mitsui/CNA)

Chicago, IL — Coloring books for adults have exploded onto the bookstore scene in the past two years. What was once considered a hobby for the kids is now all the rage for people who are full-grown.

While the most popular books out there feature images of gardens, forests and beautiful patterns, Ave Maria Press and Catholic artist Daniel Mitsui are creating adult coloring books that draw from something else: the tradition of medieval Catholic art.

Mitsui, who lives in Chicago with his wife and their three children, specializes in ink drawing and describes his style as very graphic, with “precise edges and sharp outlines.” He’s heavily inspired by Catholic art from the 14th and 15th century, but is also influenced by the graphic elements of Japanese art, particularly with how it treats light and shadow.

While Mitsui told CNA that he hadn’t paid much attention to the adult coloring book trend at first, he has done a lot of work in black and white, which works well for the medium. He would print a lot of images in black and white and then color them in to sell as hand-colored images, and he would give his children the extra prints, or the prints that didn’t turn out just right, for them to color.

“I would save all of the ones that didn’t pass my quality control, and I would give them to my kids to color at Mass,” he told CNA.

“I have small children who have a hard time paying attention so I would give them some of these coloring sheets. And friends of mine started asking for them and I thought, you know, I should really make this available to the public.”

With this in mind, Mitsui started adding the black and white images – usually of saints or other religious images – to his website, so that parents could access them for their kids and leave a little donation. Almost immediately, he was contacted by Ave Maria publishing company about creating a book for adults.

His first book features images from the mysteries of the rosary. Mitsui had been privately commissioned for a project on the rosary a few years back, and so he said it was easy to compile those images and create a coloring book with a unifying theme.

There are plans for another book soon, featuring colorable images of the Saints. While the book will include many of the main players – the Virgin Mary, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Michael the Archangel – it will also include some more obscure figures like St. Robert of Newminster, St. Gobnait, and St. Hugh of Lincoln.

While many of Mitsui’s images in the coloring books come from privately commissioned pieces he’s done in the past, some of them also come from images he’s created as part of lessons for his children, who are homeschooled.

Mitsui added that he finds it unnecessary to divide coloring books into categories for children and adults. Children deserve, and equally enjoy, the beautiful and more intricate images that are often only marketed to adults, he said.

“I don’t think that you should say well, we have these really sophisticated coloring books with detailed art, and we’re going to give these to adults, and then we present things that have artwork in them that we don’t really think is that good, and then give those to kids,” he said.

“There’s so many children’s picture books that are really beautiful and really sophisticated and intelligent artwork, but they kind of get drowned out by so many ones that are sort of insipid, and I don’t think that that’s right,” he added.

“Kids like to see detailed images, they can actually appreciate serious art, and a good way to introduce them to it is to look through what coloring books are being sold for the adults.”

The sudden upsurge in the popularity of coloring books for adults has fascinated everyone from researchers to art therapists to yoga and meditation connoisseurs.

Mitsui said he’s excited about the trend, because it may mean that more adults are acknowledging their desire to express themselves creatively.

“It seems there’s an idea that a lot of adults have that drawing or making art is something that you do when you’re a child, and then unless you become a professional you kind of give it up,” he said. “And I think that’s just sort of a poverty … I don’t know why there’s a reluctance on the part of so many adults to create artwork.”

Drawing used to be the fashionable thing for adults to do in the Victorian era, he added. Many adults, particularly women, had their own sketchbooks and honed their drawing skills. Some of these sketchbooks have been preserved, and some of the work is quite good.

“I think what that demonstrates is that a lot of what goes into being an artist is skill that is learnable with practice,” Mitsui said. “People have this idea that somehow when it comes to art, you’re given this measure of ability from the beginning and you can never do anything to increase or decrease that, and I don’t think that’s true.”

For Catholics in particular, a Catholic adult coloring book is a way to become familiar with the rich tradition of Catholic art in a way that is different than viewing a painting in a museum, he said.

“The Catholic church has such a superabundance of wealth in terms of its artistic tradition, that sometimes it can get lost when it’s just sort of viewed as data,” he said.

“I’m interested in medieval religious art, and I think the art of that era certainly is very rich in terms of what it can teach you about the Catholic religion in that it’s very precise theologically, it corroborates the writings of the Church fathers, it corroborates the liturgy. So you see all of the Catholic tradition more clearly if you’re familiar with its presentation,” he said.

Having a book that you’re able to look at closely, and an image that you’re engaging not just with your eyes but also your hands, forces you to slow down and really concentrate on the image, he added.

“It’s a way to train yourself to really look at art and I think to really look at anything,” he said. “That more concentrated vision is something that is quite peculiar to a mass media age.”

Mitsui’s book, “The Mysteries of the Rosary” is available for purchase online. His book featuring the Saints will be available through Ave Maria Press in November.

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Pokemon Go: Getting people to Church

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • July 11, 2016

Pikachu. (Etnyk via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Lincoln, NE —”I caught one!”

Someone screamed this outside of Fr. Ryan Kaup’s rectory window the other night, waking him up at 12:30 a.m.

That’s because Fr. Kaup’s parish, Cristo Rey in Lincoln, Neb., is a Pokestop.

What’s a Pokestop, you say? It’s part of Pokémon Go, the newest app craze released last week by Niantic Labs. The app - part geocaching, part exercise-tracking, part game - takes users through their real-life neighborhoods in order to “catch them all”. It’s become so popular that just two days after its release last Thursday, the time people spent on the game surpassed time spent on other popular apps like Whatsapp, Snapchat and Instagram.

Points, prizes and levels are gained by catching Pokémon and by going to Pokestops - tagged locations in the real world where users can stock up on gear and points for the game.

And many of those stops, it turns out, are located at churches.

The reason for this? Niantic Labs was once part of Google, and their founder and CEO once worked on the technology that powers Google Maps. That technology was used in Ingress, a geolocation game similar to Pokemon Go. The locations that appear in the game are either famous landmarks, locations based on geo-tagged photos from Google, or locations that were submitted as suggestions by players. Pokemon Go is currently not accepting Pokestop location applications.

Still, the phenomenon has some pastors and youth ministers, who are experiencing increased foot and road traffic to their churches, wondering how they can harness the popularity of the game for the good of the Gospel.

“I figured out I lived at a Pokéstop when I downloaded the game,” Fr. Kaup told CNA.

“I heard a bunch of kids in the parish talking about the game after Mass, rejoicing in the fact that they had caught a Charmanderzar in the parish hall. After that I had to check it out,” he said.

Fr. Kaup’s parish is located in a residential neighborhood, a bit off the path, so it’s not one that people typically stumble upon. But since the breakout of Pokémon Go, Father said he’s noticed several cars slow down as they go by, or pull up into the parking lot for a few minutes to gather their Pokéballs.

He said he explained the game to his secretary, and told her to expect to see some increased traffic around the parish in the coming days and weeks as the game picks up.

“I told her that it’s a great opportunity to engage them and invite them in to pray,” he said.

He’s also wondering how he can make his Pokéstop parish more inviting.

“Anytime we have an encounter with another human being it is an opportunity for evangelization,” he said. “Cristo Rey being a Pokéstop brings people to our doors who never would have come otherwise … I’m toying with the idea of putting up a sign outside that says ‘Pokéstop. Come in and say hello!’ or something along those lines. Any chance we get to share the Gospel is a good thing.”

Phil, who works in Catholic ministry in Denver, told CNA that he thinks the game still has the potential to be too individualistic. People need to be intentional about how they use the app, and churches need to be intentional about welcoming Pokémon “trainers”, as they’re called, for the game to have any real impact, he said.

Some Catholics who have used the app said it’s simply a good tool to meet other people in an organic way.

Allan Phan, a seminarian at St. Charles Borromeo who is teaching summer catechesis with Totus Tuus this summer, said the game has helped his team bond with each other and with people they’ve encountered.

“It can be a good tool to spark a conversation and start a relationship with another human being,” he told CNA.

Craig de Aragón, a Catholic who works as the assistant director for a group of radio stations in Denver, told CNA that whether at a church or elsewhere, the game is a good chance for people to connect.

“I think Pokemon Go has the potential to connect people. Whether at churches or any random Pokéstop, it’s on us Catholics to connect and reach out to others.”

The Wardrobe Door, a Christian blog out of Tennessee, even has eight tips for churches that want to capitalize for the Kingdom using their Pokéstops , including putting out signs and having greeters, drinks and snacks available for whoever Poké-stops by.

Time will tell how long the game craze will last, but until then, if you see someone wandering around your parish parking lot with a phone in their face, you might want to ask them if they’re hunting some Pokémon.

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The Cross of Jesus: God’s awful work of love

by Bishop Robert Barron • July 12, 2016

I would like to continue reflecting on Fleming Rutledge’s extraordinary book The Crucifixion, which I consider one of the most insightful theological books of the decade. In a previous article, I drew attention to Rutledge’s bracing insistence on the awfulness and shame of the crucifixion. In the ancient world, there was no punishment more painful, terrifying, and de-humanizing than the cross. It is not simply that Jesus died or even that he was put to death by corrupt people; it was that he endured the death reserved only for the lowest and most despised. In the light of the resurrection, the first Christians looked back on this horrific event and saw in it something commensurate with the weight of sin. Somehow, on that instrument of torture and humiliation, the Son of God was addressing what could not be adequately addressed in any other way; he was paying the requisite price.

Now Rutledge knows that to recover this dimension of the cross of Jesus is to bring us close to the thought of one of the most influential and controversial theologians of the Christian tradition, namely, Anselm of Canterbury. As even casual students of theology know, Anselm is the author of the so-called “satisfaction” theory, according to which Jesus’ death was a sacrifice sufficient to satisfy the just demand of God the Father vis-à-vis the sinful human race. Because Jesus was fully human, he could act as representative of fallen men and women, and because he was fully divine, he could assuage the infinite anger of the Father. This is why, according to the neat logic of Anselm, the Son of God became human: Cur Deus Homo (Why the God-Man) is the title of Anselm’s treatise in which this theory is laid out.

Critiques of this theory emerged even during Anselm’s lifetime, and they have become especially pointed in our time. I remember attending a high-level meeting of theologians many years ago and hearing a paper that pilloried Anselm as the proponent of “cosmic child-abuse,” since he held that the Father took delight in the suffering of his Son. Others have complained that Anselm’s God is like a pathetic tin-pot dictator whose offended honor has to be restored, or like a raging alcoholic parent whose anger has to be quieted at all costs. Rutledge is especially good at answering these objections and also in showing that the facile turning away from Anselm in much of contemporary theology has produced superficial interpretations of the cross.

Let’s deal with the difficulties first. Like all of his medieval colleagues, Anselm was convinced that God is immutable. This means, of course, that God does not pass in and out of emotional states, moving from anger to serenity or from offended pride to self-satisfaction. Further, Anselm knew perfectly well what is articulated in the Gospel of John: “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son …” The Incarnation was not prompted by a desire for retribution, and the cross does not result in the restoration of a disturbed divine psyche. Rather, from beginning to end, God’s activity in Christ was marked, through and through, by love. Another way to put this is that the Father and the Son acted always in unison, indeed in the unity of the Holy Spirit, even when they seemed, on the cross of Jesus, most alienated from one another. So any talk of alcoholic fathers and divine child abuse is beyond silly and deeply unfair to Anselm.

So what exactly is happening on the cross? Rutledge draws attention to Anselm’s interlocutor in Cur Deus Homo, a fellow monk named Boso, who plaintively asks the master why God could not simply have pronounced a word of forgiveness from heaven and dispensed with all of the blood and horror of the crucifixion. Anselm replies, “You have not considered the weight of sin.” On a Biblical reading, sin is not simply a series of peccadillos that can be dealt with through earnest repentance or political reform or psychological manipulation. Sin is rather like a disease or an addiction, a state in which we find ourselves stuck. In point of fact, our thrashing around will serve only to make the situation worse, which can be seen over and again in human history. A power must come from outside of sin but at the same time, it must enter into sin, battling it, reversing it, breaking it from the inside. Work has to be done; a war has to be won; a price has to be paid — again, not to satisfy God, but to set things right for us. Indeed, Anselm specifies that the Son of God went all the way to the bottom of the muck of human dysfunction in order to recover the diamond (the image of God in us) and polish it to a shine. A mere word of forgiveness, uttered from the safety of heaven, would never have affected such a transformation. On that terrible cross, Jesus took upon himself the worst of humanity and swallowed it up in the ever greater divine mercy.

Please read Fleming Rutledge’s treatment of St. Anselm, or better yet, plow through the still compelling text of the Cur Deus Homo, or best of all, spend some time in contemplation of the cross of Jesus. See in that awful event the work of love that God performed on our behalf.

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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What your local parish and the new hipster bar have in common

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2016

(Baimieng via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — It’s a story seen across the nation – a neighborhood formerly known for rundown houses, empty shops and limited resources now finds flocks of millennials coming to the area’s trellised cafes and bars for brunch and drinks on weekends.

What formerly made the neighborhood “sketchy” or caused outsiders to steer clear is now marketed as a selling point of its “character” to new investors and residents.

It’s a change called “development” by many of the investors seeking to move in, and called “gentrification” by some who are skeptical of the impact that the rapid inflow of money has on longtime residents of a neighborhood.

Yet, many of these conversations about the challenges – and opportunities – of gentrification have left out the institutions at the heart of many of these neighborhoods: the churches.

“It’s been a mixed blessing,” said Fr. Michael Kelley of St. Martin’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.

Established in 1901, St. Martin’s is located in the middle of the Bloomingdale neighborhood of D.C. In recent years, the predominantly African-American neighborhood has experienced rapid economic change, as investors have started paying higher prices for land in the area, and new shops, bars and other amenities have sprung up in the middle of what used to be a major drug market.

In the midst of these changes, St. Martin’s has remained committed to its mission of hospitality and outreach to the larger community – both new residents and old residents. “We work hard to be a good neighbor,” Fr. Kelley said.

Their efforts to help their neighbors have actually been a factor in making the area enticing for the investors now moving into Bloomingdale. Local Christian pastors, working together and with the city, helped to diminish the drug trade and offer aid to those with addictions, the priest explained. In a way, the churches began a process that gentrification finished.

However, new residents don’t always give credit to the vital role the parishes have historically played in the communities – and still do to this day.

“You all just really need to move your church, you’re getting in the way of what we’re doing here,” new residents have told Fr. Kelley and other Bloomingdale pastors. The priest recalled one interaction with a new homeowner who criticized the churches’ presence in the area. “I remember saying to someone, ‘How long have you been here?’”

“Oh I moved in about six months ago,” the man responded.

“I’ve been here for 24 years,” Fr. Kelley told the new resident. “I remember when people were shooting up heroin in my backyard, breaking into my house and stealing our TVs and computers. I remember when there were drive-by shootings every night and I almost got hit once. I lived here when it was a very dangerous place to be.”

“If it wasn’t for the churches being here as the anchors of the community, you wouldn’t have the community to move into that you have today.”

“Development” by any other name

Gentrification is a broad term for the movement of wealthier residents into an existing urban area, a demographic shift which changes a district’s character and culture, often affecting neighborhoods that have previously been home to ethnic minorities or immigrants.

The result: historically working-class neighborhoods are transformed into up-and-coming “hipster” or “arts” districts, and eventually, to high-demand – and usually high-rent – neighborhoods.

The gentrification process can be characterized by an increase in median income and housing prices, as well as a decrease in the neighborhood’s proportion of racial minorities. Crime rates often drop, while investments in high-end businesses and infrastructure often soar.

Sociologists argue over the root causes of this phenomenon and the ways in which it is different, historically, from other kinds of demographic changes in cities. What is undeniable, however, is that the shift from primarily minority, lower-class neighborhoods to majority white, upper-class districts brings challenges for long-term residents as well as the benefits of increased resources and new businesses.

As an integral part of many developing neighborhoods, local parishes are also feeling the strain of these changes.

New Mission Territory

Fr. Mark Doherty is an associate pastor at St. Peter’s in the Mission District, San Francisco’s oldest neighborhood, and an area of the city that has been predominantly Hispanic for decades.

He told CNA about the changes the Mission District is facing as millennial tech moguls like Mark Zuckerberg and programmers for startups like Dropbox and Airbnb have bought up properties in the neighborhood.

“The young tech professionals, they want to live in the city, and a certain number of them – the more hipster type – want to live in the Mission District” because of its “grungier” feel, Fr. Doherty explained.

But the stark economic divide is making life, and parish ministry, more challenging for the Latin American immigrants who have called the neighborhood home for generations.

Many members of St. Peter’s are facing housing issues due in part to the arrival of wealthy property-owners and tenants looking for luxury accommodations, Fr. Doherty explained.

“You have a fair number of first-generation arrivals who are having to move because property owners are either selling the buildings or redesigning them to make them more appealing to the younger set of professionals that are coming in.”

Parish ministry has also been impacted as the changing neighborhood demographics have, in a sense, turned St. Peter’s back into mission territory.

Most of the parishioners at St. Peter’s are Mexican-American and speak Spanish as their first language. “Our time is mostly dedicated to meeting the sacramental needs of theses first-generation immigrants who live in the neighborhood,” Fr. Doherty said, citing Masses, weddings, baptisms, quinceaneras and funerals as among the focuses of parish resources.

“That means that the other folks who are moving in – the young tech professionals who now make a substantial part of the neighborhood – it means we don’t have nearly the kind of time available or the resources at hand to try to engage that population.”

“These young professionals who have moved into the neighborhood generally have no connection to the Church whatsoever, and more generally seem to have none or very little religious experience or background to speak of,” Fr. Doherty continued. “It means that engaging them is very, very challenging and it comes down to one-on-one encounters more than anything else.”

While these personal encounters “have the opportunity to become significant and deep,” the priest said, they take a significant amount of time and effort – a difficulty in a large parish with an already-established community and many sacramental needs.

One parish that has seen some degree of success at merging different communities is St. Dominic’s in the Highland neighborhood of Denver, Colorado.

The old Victorian houses in the area had long been home to a large Vietnamese and Hispanic population, many of whom were parishioners at St. Dominic’s. But as housing prices have risen with the influx of technology companies, startups and other incoming industries, some long-time residents have had to move to other neighborhoods while a new young adult population moves in.

“The families who have been pushed out – they come back,” said Fr. Luke Barder O.P., parochial vicar for St. Dominic’s. He told CNA that some parishioners will “drive 30-40 mins to come to Mass.”

Since many of the longtime parishioners have remained engaged in the parish despite moving to new neighborhoods, St. Dominic’s has refocused its efforts on integrating and welcoming new residents into its existing parish ministries.

To refocus on its changing role in community, the parish has updated its mission statement, Fr. Barder said, and started targeting some ministries to the young adults in the area, including an Octoberfest beer festival and the Frassati Society, a group for fellowship and prayer.

“Families and homes go together”

The limited availability of affordable housing is an issue that the U.S. bishops have aimed to address for decades, said Dr. Jonathan Reyes, executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development for U.S. bishops’ conference.

Reyes told CNA that within the Catholic Church, “for the last 10 years, housing has actually been one of the top three issues for community concerns and engagement, from the neighborhoods themselves.”

“The way the Church has always framed it is that families have the right to decent housing,” he continued. This drive to protect families – and to defend parishes as spaces in a community – has led the bishops’ conference to be explicitly involved in affordable housing initiatives since 1975.

In the document “The Right to a Decent Home,” the U.S. bishops lay out guidelines for Catholics on how to think about the need to ensure affordable housing. This concept was reinforced this past year in Pope Francis’ letter, “Amoris Laetitia,” in which the Pope asserted that “Families and homes go together,” and warned that housing difficulties may lead couples to delay starting a family.

Reyes pointed to efforts by the U.S. bishops’ conference to help ensure fair rents, promote the building of good housing and prevent homelessness.

In particular, he highlighted several initiatives by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an anti-poverty program of the bishops’ conference which has set up land trusts enabling local communities to own and control land in their neighborhood to keep it affordable for future generations.

Helping people – old and new

In Washington, D.C., St. Martin’s parish is still working hard to meet the needs of the predominantly African American community and its “very clear Black Catholic identity,” while also reaching out to the influx of white young adults.

“Our philosophy is: everyone is welcome; all gifts are needed; everyone can help build up the Church,” Fr. Kelley explained.

All parishioners are welcomed and encouraged to serve in all areas of parish life, from the gospel choir to the parish council. St. Martin’s is also looking at expanding childcare services and other ministries to accommodate the increasing population of young families.

At the same time, the parish has been careful not to stall its current ministries, particularly its role as the D.C. meeting location for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. In addition to hosting the meetings, St. Martin’s also subsidizes the cost of utilities and operations.

“Even though the neighborhood is changing, people are coming from all over to come to the meetings,” Fr. Kelley said, emphasizing their importance both as a ministry and as a catalyst for change in Bloomingdale.

The influx of new residents has brought some benefits to the community. With the help of new parishioners, the parish been able to help secure housing protections for current residents against rapidly skyrocketing rental and property prices. In the 1990s, Fr. Kelley recalled, a row house in Bloomingdale could be bought for less than 10,000 dollars. Today, the same house could go for nearly 1 million dollars.

New residents in the neighborhood have also helped to attract attention to Bloomingdale’s longstanding issue with sewage flooding during heavy rains.

“For a long time, no one responded to the problem and plight of poor black folks complaining that we’re getting sewage in our basement when it rains,” Fr. Kelley said. New residents, though, had the resources and know-how to place enough political pressure on the city to jump-start repairs on the aging sewer and waste system in the neighborhood.

Still, challenges do remain for the community, with some new residents failing to understand the history of the area, and some older residents feeling like they are not respected and do not have a voice in the neighborhood as it evolves.

In the midst of these continuing tensions, Fr. Kelley said the parish must resist the narrative of “us against them.”

“I want us as a Church to continue to be involved, to share the Good News of Jesus, to continue to welcome everyone who comes and to try to meet people’s needs as best we can with our resources,” he said. “Our basic principles are hospitality, generosity, using God’s abundance to make a difference in the neighborhood locally and in the larger community.”

“It’s not like I’m trying to keep anyone out,” Fr. Kelley said of St. Martin’s role among the neighborhood’s many changes. “If anything, I’m trying to connect people more.”

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The house we live in

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • July 13, 2016

The photos tell heartrending stories of a nation and a world in great pain. In America, racial division and violence; elsewhere, religious persecution, economic chaos, political intrigue — you cannot read about or listen to the daily reportage without thinking for a moment: “The world is a mess.” For a template of this unrest, one need only look to the Mideast — whether in Lebanon, Syria, or Israel. Powder kegs are ready to explode at any given moment — anywhere. No one should be surprised at our collective anxiety and heightened alertness.

One Body

We are all members of the Body of Christ, the metaphor used by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12. We are all members of the same Body with different ministries to build up the Body; when one member hurts, we all hurt. No greater harm can be done than to hate or harm another member of the Body. Similarly, no greater support can be given than to fulfill the precept of patient love for every member. How many times have we listened to these words in Sunday sermons?

One House

In 1945, Frank Sinatra made famous the song, “The House I Live In,” an image of the American dream. Originally intended to combat racial prejudice and anti-Semitism at the end of World War II, the song pays tribute to all Americans. The lyrics for “The House I Live In” were written two years before by Abel Meeropol who used the pseudonym, Lewis Allen. The music was composed by Earl Robinson. Sadly in this very same house, it is easy to learn hatred of others through fear. Last week, so much blood was spilled, and we are “blind with weeping,” to quote Shakespeare.

The original lyrics of “The House I Live In” are printed below. Given the events of the past week, they are particularly poignant and worthy of reflection.

“The House I Live In”

What is America to me? A name, a map, the flag I see,

A certain word, “Democracy.” What is America to me?

The house I live in, the friends that I have found,

The folks beyond the railroad and the people all around,

The worker and the farmer, the sailor on the sea,

The men who built this country, that’s America to me.

The house I live in, my neighbors white and black,

The people who just came here, or from generations back

The Town Hall and the soap box, the torch of Liberty,

A place to speak my mind out, that’s America to me.

The words of old Abe Lincoln, of Jefferson and Paine,

Of Washington and Douglas, and the task that still remains,

The little bridge at Concord where Freedom’s fight began,

Our Gettysburg and Midway, and the story of Bataan.

The house I live in, the goodness everywhere,

A land of wealth and beauty with enough for all to share,

A house that we call Freedom, the home of Liberty,

And the promise for tomorrow, that’s America to me.

The town I live in, the street, the house, the room

The pavement of the city or the garden all in bloom

The church, the school, the clubhouse, the million lights I see

But especially the people, that’s America to me. …

The things I see about me, the big things and the small,

the little corner newsstand and the house a mile tall.

The wedding and the churchyard, the laughter and the tears,

and the dream that’s been a-growing for a hundred-fifty years.

The place I work in, the worker at my side,

the little house or city where my people lived and died,

the howdy and the hand-shake, the air and feeling free,

and the right to speak my mind out, that’s America to me.

The town I live in, the street, the house, the room,

the pavement of the city and the garden all in bloom,

the church, the school, the clubhouse, the million lights I see,

but especially the people, but especially the people,

That’s America to me.

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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SUNDAY • JULY 17, 2016

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Gn 18:1-10a; NRSVCE)

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on — since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”

Second Reading (Col 1:24-28; NRSVCE)

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Gospel Reading (Lk 10:38-42; NRSVCE)

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

MONDAY • JULY 18, 2016

Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Mic 6:1-4, 6-8; NRSVCE)

Hear what the Lord says:

Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.

Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,

and you enduring foundations of the earth;

for the Lord has a controversy with his people,

and he will contend with Israel.

“O my people, what have I done to you?

In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

and redeemed you from the house of slavery;

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and Miriam.

“With what shall I come before the Lord,

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

Gospel Reading (Mt 12:38-42; NRSVCE)

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!”

TUESDAY • JULY 19, 2016

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Mic 7:14-15, 18-20; NRSVCE)

Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

show us marvelous things.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over the transgression

of the remnant of your possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in showing clemency.

He will again have compassion upon us;

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our ancestors

from the days of old.

Gospel Reading (Mt 12:46-50; NRSVCE)

While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

WEDNESDAY • JULY 20, 2016

Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Jer 1:1, 4-10; NRSVCE)

The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’;

for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

and you shall speak whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

says the Lord.”

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,

“Now I have put my words in your mouth.

See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:1-9; NRSVCE)

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

THURSDAY • JULY 21, 2016

Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Jer 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13; NRSVCE)

The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord:

I remember the devotion of your youth,

your love as a bride,

how you followed me in the wilderness,

in a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the Lord,

the first fruits of his harvest.

All who ate of it were held guilty;

disaster came upon them,

says the Lord.

I brought you into a plentiful land

to eat its fruits and its good things.

But when you entered you defiled my land,

and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”

Those who handle the law did not know me;

the rulers transgressed against me;

the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and went after things that do not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the Lord,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns

that can hold no water.

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:10-17; NRSVCE)

Then the disciples came and asked Jesus, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand,

and you will indeed look, but never perceive.

For this people’s heart has grown dull,

and their ears are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes;

so that they might not look with their eyes,

and listen with their ears,

and understand with their heart and turn —

and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

FRIDAY • JULY 22, 2016

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

First Reading (Sgs 3:1-4b; NRSVCE)

Upon my bed at night

I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

“I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.”

I sought him, but found him not.

The sentinels found me,

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

Scarcely had I passed them,

when I found him whom my soul loves.

Gospel Reading (Jn 20:1-2, 11-18; NRSVCE)

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

SATURDAY • JULY 23, 2016

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Jer 7:1-11; NRSVCE)

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”— only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord.

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:24-30; NRSVCE)

Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”