VOLUME 2, ISSUE 16  •  OCTOBER 15, 2016

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Mary imitated God through service, Pope says

Pope Francis: The most godlike people might not be who you expect

Pope Francis announces new consistory to coincide with close of Jubilee

Albanian priest who moved the Pope to be named Cardinal

In service, conversion of heart is the first step, says Pope Francis

The Green Pope isn’t who you think it is

Pope pleads for ceasefire amid ‘inhuman conflict’ in Syria

Cardinal Parolin visits Fatima ahead of Pope’s trip

What’s the thought behind Pope Francis’ choices for cardinals?

When it comes to migration, children are the first to suffer, Pope says

All Christians must follow Jesus closely, Pope Francis tells Lutherans

For Cardinal Vegliò, closing the door to migrants isn’t Christian

Venezuelan Fr. Arturo Sosa elected as new head of Jesuit order

Pope Francis donates $100,000 to Haiti for hurricane relief

Pope visits young children from difficult family situations

Pope Francis grieves over death of Thailand’s king

WORLD NEWS

China’s ‘disgraceful’ human rights record gets worse every year

How should Catholic educators respond to gender ideology?

How do we evangelize the Americas?

Priest shot with rubber bullets during student protest in South Africa

Why millions of girls can’t celebrate the U.N.’s girl awareness day

Christian TV networks in Pakistan ordered to close over lack of permits

How Europe’s bishops plan to guide the Church through murky waters

Carl Anderson: Christian forgiveness is the path to Middle East peace

Boko Haram releases 21 kidnapped Nigerian girls

U.S. NEWS

CatholicVote.org calls for Trump to step down after lewd comments on women

Aquinas College in Nashville marks a year of firsts with on-campus dorm

One fewer Christian-owned bakery after religious freedom fight

Texas bishops: The death penalty is a pro-life issue

Trump tape splits Catholic support

These nuns provide ‘death with dignity’ - but it’s not assisted suicide

Colorado assisted suicide bill criticized for preying upon fear

Detroit Mass highlights need to recognize sin in order to enjoy mercy

Did you know there’s a third party based on Catholic teaching?

Leaked emails show Clinton campaign head discussing ‘revolution’ against bishops

Pray and fast for a culture of life, congressman says

Why religious leaders asked Obama to condemn his civil rights chair’s rhetoric

Massachusetts law could forbid churches to preach on transgenderism

The danger of forcing doctors to perform gender transitions

After ‘Catholic Spring’ email leak, U.S. bishops warn American ideals at risk

New health-share group offers care with Catholic values

FEATURES

The sacred time of death

On praying the psalms on behalf of the world

Knowing who we are; knowing what we are supposed to do

A Tribute to Vin Scully

Priest to donate $250K winnings from ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’

When American Catholic politics split the Church

Nun who witnessed multiple Eucharistic miracles on path to sainthood

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • October 16, 2016

Monday • October 17, 2016

Tuesday • October 18, 2016

Wednesday • October 19, 2016

Thursday • October 20, 2016

Friday • October 21, 2016

Saturday • October 22, 2016

The Catholic Digital News

The Free Weekly Newsmagazine for the Church of the 21st Century

Volume 2, Issue 16 • October 15, 2016

Copyright © 2016 by LGC Publishing. All rights reserved.

News articles and images originating from the Catholic News Agency and other media outlets have been reproduced with the full permission of their respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

Scripture readings for Daily Mass have been reproduced from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1989, 1993 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission through the Gratis Use Policy of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.

Content editing, cover image design, and digital book creation by P. C. Weber

The Catholic Digital News

Website: catholicdigitalnews.com

New issues of The Catholic Digital News are published every Saturday as free e-book downloads that are released exclusively through this website. Although these files are provided gratis to the public, they remain fully protected under copyright law. Consequently, users should be aware that certain actions are expressly forbidden once an issue of The Catholic Digital News has been downloaded onto a device. These include reproduction or distribution of the file at other websites, over the Internet, or through other media; utilization of the file for commercial use or other unauthorized purposes; disassembly of the file or alteration of its internal code or content; modification of the file to create derivate works; or violation of third-party copyrights on text and images contained within the file. For full compliance, please download issues of The Catholic Digital News for personal use only and refer others to this website instead of sharing downloaded copies.

VATICAN NEWS

Mary imitated God through service, Pope says

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • October 8, 2016

A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday General Audience with Pope Francis on April 22, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — During a special Jubilee weekend dedicated to Mary, Pope Francis said Mary was not only Christ’s mother, but also his obedient disciple and a model of concrete service to others.

“Throughout her life, Mary did everything that the Church is asked to do in perennial memory of Christ,” the Pope said Oct. 8.

With her faith, “we learn to open our hearts to obey God; in her self-denial, we see the importance of tending to the needs of others; in her tears, we find the strength to console those experiencing pain.”

In each of these moments, Mary “expresses the wealth of divine mercy that reaches out to all in their daily need.”

Pope Francis spoke to thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate a special Oct. 7-9 Marian Jubilee, which is part of the Pope’s larger Jubilee of Mercy.

The Marian Jubilee opened Oct. 7 with Mass in the Roman Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The Mass was followed by the recitation of the rosary in Saint Peter’s Square and the Prayer to the Queen of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii.

Adoration and confessions were then available until midnight in the parishes of Santa Maria in Valicella, also called “Chiesa Nuova,” and San Salvatore in Lauro.

Jubilee activities continued Saturday morning with a pilgrimage to the Holy Doors of the four Major Basilicas in Rome: St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Wall, St. John Lateran and St. Peter’s.

Groups of various Marian delegations from national communities and shrines then participated in a special procession to St. Peter’s Square, where Pope Francis led pilgrims in praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary before delivering his address.

In his speech, the Pope noted how from the earliest centuries of the Church Mary has been invoked as the “Mother of Mercy,” explaining that the prayer of the rosary in many ways is a “synthesis of the history of God’s mercy, which becomes a history of salvation for all who let themselves be shaped by grace.”

By reflecting on the important moments in Jesus’ life, we see how his mercy is shown to everyone from all walks and stages of life, he said, adding that Mary always accompanies us on this journey, pointing us in the direction of her Son, “who radiates the very mercy of the Father.”

Mary guides us toward the path we are called to take “in order to be true disciples of Jesus,” he said, adding that in praying the rosary, we feel her closeness in each mystery and contemplate her role as “the first disciple of her Son, for she does the Father’s will.

Francis stressed that Mary can help teach us what it means to be a disciple of Christ, because while she was “eternally chosen to be his Mother,” she also learned how to be his disciple.

“Her first act was to listen to God,” he said, noting how she then obeyed the angel’s message and followed Jesus closely, “listening to every word that issued from his lips” and keeping them in her heart.

However, the Pope stressed, “it’s not enough simply to listen.” While this is the first step, it must be followed by concrete action.

“The disciple truly puts his life at the service of the Gospel,” he said, and, recalling Mary’s own actions, pointed to how after the Annunciation, Mary immediately went to her cousin Elizabeth to help her during her pregnancy.

Not only did she then give birth to the Son of God, but she also showed her concern for the young spouses in Cana by interceding for them. When Jesus was crucified on Golgotha, Mary “did not flee pain but stood beneath the cross of Jesus and, by his will, became the Mother of the Church.”

After Jesus rose from the dead, she then “encouraged the apostles assembled in the upper room as they awaited the Holy Spirit, who would make them fearless heralds of the Gospel,” Pope Francis said.

Francis closed his homily invoking Mary’s intercession, praying that she would be “a protection, help and blessing for us all the days of our life.”

“We fly to your protection, holy Mother of God. Scorn not our petitions in the hour of need. O glorious and blessed Virgin, deliver us always from every peril.

Celebrations for the Marian Jubilee will conclude Sunday with a special Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: The most godlike people might not be who you expect

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

Pope Francis prays in front of the icon of Salus Populi Romani during an Oct. 8, 2016 prayer vigil for the Marian Jubilee. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — At the close of the Marian Jubilee, Pope Francis said that it’s often strangers and even people from other religions who remind us of the Christian virtues of humility and thanksgiving, of which Mary is a prime model.

“How many foreigners, including persons of other religions, give us an example of values that we sometimes forget or set aside,” the Pope said Oct. 9.

People who live among us but might be “scorned and sidelined because they are foreigners,” can in fact be the ones who “teach us how to walk on the path that the Lord wishes.”

Not only were the 10 lepers healed by Jesus in the day’s Gospel from Luke foreigners, the only one who gave thanks being a Samaritan, but Mary and Joseph were also strangers in a foreign land, Francis noted.

Mary “knew what it was to live far from home. She too was long a foreigner in Egypt, far from her relatives and friends,” he said, “yet her faith was able to overcome the difficulties.”

“Let us cling to this simple faith of the Holy Mother of God; let us ask her that we may always come back to Jesus and express our thanks for the many benefits we have received from his mercy.”

Pope Francis spoke to the thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate Mass on the final day of the Oct. 7-8 Marian Jubilee, which is part of the Pope’s wider Jubilee of Mercy.

The Marian Jubilee opened Oct. 7 with Mass in the Roman Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The Mass was followed by the recitation of the rosary in Saint Peter’s Square and the Prayer to the Queen of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii.

Adoration and confessions were then available until midnight in the parishes of Santa Maria in Valicella, also called “Chiesa Nuova,” and San Salvatore in Lauro.

Jubilee activities continued Saturday morning with a pilgrimage to the Holy Doors of the four Major Basilicas in Rome: St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Wall, St. John Lateran and St. Peter’s.

Groups of various Marian delegations from national communities and shrines then participated in a special procession to St. Peter’s Square, where Pope Francis led pilgrims in praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary before delivering his address.

Celebrations for the Marian Jubilee concluded Sunday following the Pope Francis’ Mass.

In his homily, the Pope pointed to how when Jesus healed 10 lepers in the day’s Gospel from Luke, all but one came back to give thanks: “a Samaritan, a foreigner living on the fringes of the chosen people, practically a pagan!”

“This man was not content with being healed by his faith, but brought that healing to completion by returning to express his gratitude for the gift received,” he said, adding that to be able to give thanks and praise the Lord for what he has done for us “is important!”

“How many times do we say ‘thank you’ in our family, our community, and in the Church? How many times do we say ‘thank you’ to those who help us, to those close to us, to those who accompany us through life?” he asked, noting that often times “we take everything for granted,” even with God.

Pope Francis stressed that amid our own shortcomings, “we are given a model, indeed the model, to whom we can look: Mary, our Mother,” who gave thanks to God in her “Magnificat.”

It takes humility to be able to give thanks to God, he said, explaining that the heart of Mary “more than any other, is a humble heart, capable of accepting God’s gifts.”

“In order to become man, God chose precisely her, a simple young woman of Nazareth, who did not dwell in the palaces of power and wealth, who did not do extraordinary things,” he said, and urged those present to ask themselves whether or not they are able to receive what God offers.

“Let us ask ourselves if we are prepared to accept God’s gifts, or prefer instead to shut ourselves up within our forms of material security, intellectual security, the security of our plans,” he said.

The Pope noted how despite being far from home and estranged in a foreign land, Mary was able to overcome her difficulties thanks to her faith.

He closed his homily praying that all, like Mary, “may always come back to Jesus and express our thanks for the many benefits we have received from his mercy.”

After Mass, Pope Francis greeted all those who came to Rome for the Marian Jubilee, and offered some words of comfort and solidarity to those suffering due to the Hurricane Matthew before leading pilgrims in the traditional Angelus prayer.

“I have learned of the serious consequences caused by the hurricane which in recent days has hit the Caribbean, in particular Haiti, leaving numerous victims and displaced persons, as well as material damage,” he said.

Francis assured his prayer and closeness to those affected, and voiced his confidence in the solidarity of the international community, Catholic institutions and of all people of good will, inviting them to unite “to my prayer for these brothers and sisters, so sorely tested.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis announces new consistory to coincide with close of Jubilee

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

Participants begin to enter the Vatican’s Synod Hall before the Friday session of the Synod on the Family on Oct. 10, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — On Sunday Pope Francis announced that he will hold a consistory of cardinals on the Nov. 19 vigil of the close of the Jubilee of Mercy, during which he will elevate 17 new cardinals – including three Americans.

“Dear brothers and sisters I am happy to announce that Saturday, Nov. 19 at the vigil for the closing of the Holy Door of mercy, a consistory will take place for the nomination of 13 cardinals from 5 continents,” the Pope said Oct. 9.

“The fact that they come from 11 nations expresses the universality of the Church, which announces and bears witness to the good news of the mercy of God in every corner of the earth.”

Opened Dec. 8, 2015 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – the Jubilee is set to close Nov. 20, with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

Among the 17 new cardinal-elects are three Americans: Archbishop Blasé Cupich of Chicago, Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis and Bishop Kevin Farrell, prefect of the new Congregation for Laity, Family and Life.

Others of voting age include: Archbishop Mario Zenari, who is and will remain apostolic nuncio to the “beloved and martyred” Syria; Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui; Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid; Archbishop Sergio da Rocha of Brazil; Archbishop Patrick D’Rozario of Dakha, Bangladesh; Archbishop Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo of Merida, Venezuela; Archbishop Joseph de Kesel of Malines Brussels; Bishop Maurice Piat of Port-Louis, Mauritius Island; Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes of Tlalnepantla, Mexico and Archbishop John Ribat of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

In addition to the 13 new electoral cardinals, Francis has nominated four others who are of non-voting age due to their notable service to the Church: Anthony Soter Fernandez, Archbishop Emeritus of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Renato Corti, Archbishop Emeritus of Novara and Sebastian Koto Khoarai, O.M.I, Bishop Emeritus of Mohale’s Hoek, Lesotho.

Additionally, he nominated Fr Ernest Simoni, an Albanian priest from the diocese of Shkodra, whose testimony of the persecution of the Albanian Church under the communist regime the Pope cried at during his 2014 daytrip to the country.

The consistory will be the third of Pope Francis’ pontificate, the most recent of which took place last year on Valentine’s Day.

Francis has, as in previous years, stuck close to his vision of having a broader, more universal representation of the Church in the College of Cardinals, elevating many bishops who come from small countries or islands that have never before had a cardinal, as well as from countries which present particular challenges in terms of pastoral outreach, such as those stricken with violence or persecution.

Out of the Pope’s new nominations, seven come from countries that have previously never had a cardinal, including: the Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Mauritius Island, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Lesotho and Albania.

With the 17 new cardinal-elects included, the number of voting cardinals comes to 121, and the number of non-voters to 107, for a grand total of 228.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Albanian priest who moved the Pope to be named Cardinal

by CNA/EWTN News • October 9, 2016

Pope Francis embraces Rev. Ernest Troshani in Tirana’s St. Paul Cathedral, Albania. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — The Albanian priest whose testimony moved Pope Francis to tears in 2014 is one of the 17 international bishops and priests the Pope will elevate to the College of Cardinals Nov. 19.

Father Ernest Troshani Simoni, 86, is one of the last survivors of the terrible Communist persecution in Albania. He shared his testimony with Pope Francis in 2014 during the Pope’s daytrip to Tirana, Albania. Pope Francis was visibly moved by the testimony and gave Fr. Simoni a warm embrace.

Fr. Simoni was a seminarian in December 1944, when an atheistic Communist regime came to power in Albania. The regime sought to eliminate the faith and clergy with “arrests, torture and killings of priests and lay people for seven straight years, shedding the blood of the faithful, some of who shouted, ‘Long live Christ the King,’ as they were shot.”

In 1948, Communists shot and killed Fr. Simoni’s Franciscan superiors. He continued his studies in secret and was later ordained a priest.

Four years later, Communist leaders gathered together priests who had survived and offered them freedom if they distanced themselves from the Pope and the Vatican. Fr. Simoni and his brother priests refused.

On Dec. 14, 1963, as he was concluding Christmas Eve Mass, four officials served him an arrest warrant and decree of execution. He was handcuffed and detained. During interrogation, they told him he would hanged as an enemy because he told the people, “We will all die for Christ if necessary.”

He suffered immense torturing, but said “the Lord wanted me to keep living.”

“Divine Providence willed that my death sentence not be carried out right away. They brought another prisoner into the room, a dear friend of mine, in order to spy on me. He began to speak out against the party,” Fr. Simoni recalled.

“I responded anyway that Christ had taught us to love our enemies and to forgive them and that we should strive to seek the good of the people. Those words reached the ears of the dictator who, a few days later, freed me from my death sentence,” he explained.

The priest was given 28 years of forced labor instead, during which time he celebrated Mass, heard confessions and distributed Communion in secret.

Fr. Simoni was released only when the Communist regime fell and freedom of religion was recognized.

“The Lord has helped me to serve so many peoples and to reconcile many, driving out hatred and the devil from the hearts of men,” he said.

“Your Holiness, with the certainty that I am expressing the intentions of those present, I pray through the intercession of the most holy Mother of Christ, that the Lord grant you life, health and strength in guiding the great flock that is the Church of Christ, Amen.”

After concluding his remarks, a visibly moved Pope Francis dried the tears in his own eyes and embraced the Albanian priest.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

In service, conversion of heart is the first step, says Pope Francis

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 10, 2016

Pope Francis at the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 9, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — In this transitory and often difficult life, it is necessary to have Christ as the center of everything you do, working to increase your own faith in Jesus and the faith of those you serve, Pope Francis said Monday.

“Contemplating the life of Jesus and looking at our life as pilgrims in this world with so many challenges, we feel the need of a profound conversion and the urgency of reviving faith in Him,” he said.

In a private audience Oct. 10 with members of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate – also called Pallottines after their founder St. Vincent Pallotti – the Holy Father spoke about how we can only have love for our neighbor if we have faith in Jesus first.

“Every day we are called to renew our trust in Christ and his life to be inspired to fulfill our mission,” he said.

Quoting the apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, the Pope said this is because “Jesus is the first and greatest evangelizer. In any form of evangelism it is always the primacy of God, who wanted to call us to collaborate with him and inspire us with the power of his Spirit.”

The Society is part of the Union of the Catholic Apostolate, which was founded by the Roman priest St. Vincent Pallotti in 1835. Its charism is to assist all people in finding and living out their apostolic vocation in life.

The Pallottines, made up of around 2,300 priests and brothers, can be found in more than 40 countries. Their motto is taken from the words of St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians: “the love of Christ urges us.”

Pope Francis told the members of the Society that their founder, St. Vincent Pallotti, “has become an enlightening and inspiring beacon in the Church.”

“In this Holy Year of Mercy, I like to remember that Vincent Pallotti was blessed to recognize that Jesus is the Apostle of the Father, rich in mercy and full of mercy, he is the one who fulfills its mission by revealing to everyone the tender love and the infinite mercy of the Father.”

The mystery of the fatherhood of God, the Pope noted, is what opens us all up to the Father’s love and compassion. And this takes on special significance in the current time, when we are constantly encountering scenes of violence, a lack of mercy and “hardened and desolate hearts.”

“So we need to remind ourselves of that Father, whose heart thinks of all and desires the salvation of every man,” he said.

The Pope pointed out how the Society’s founder liked to say that the apostolate call is not reserved for some, but is addressed to everyone, “regardless of their status, their condition, their profession, their luck.”

Calling them to renew their vigor for reawakening the faith and rekindling charity, especially among the materially and spiritually poor, Pope Francis reminded those present that they are supported by the example of their brothers, who were “authentic witnesses of the Gospel.”

In 2005, Pope Francis, then-Cardinal Bergoglio, opened the causes for sainthood for three Pallottine priests and two seminarians who were brutally beaten and shot to death on July 4th, 1976.

Pope Francis sent a message to Argentina July 17 for a Mass marking the 40th anniversary of the death of Servants of God Alfredo Leaden, Pedro Duffau, Alfredo Kelly, Salvador Barbeito Doval and Emilio Barletti.

“I knew Father Alfie Kelly personally, a priest who thought only of God and, as you know, I followed his tragedy with a sense of faith, as this is the key to his life, and also to his death,” Francis wrote.

Pope Francis was Kelly’s spiritual director and confessor at the time of his death.

Speaking to the Pallottines, Francis said it is their job to help those in their ministry to “rediscover the immense love of God” in their lives.

“I encourage you to continue with joy and hope your path, committing yourselves with all your heart and with all your strength, so that the charism of your Founder may bear abundant fruit also in our time.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

The Green Pope isn’t who you think it is

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

Benedict XVI at the Wednesday General Audience on Oct. 24, 2012 in St. Peter’s Square. (Marianne Medlin/CNA)

Vatican City — There once was a Pope called “The Green Pope.”

He earned the title from both the religious and the secular alike, because he wrote frequently about the environment and asked all Catholics to be better stewards of God’s creation.

Under this pope’s pontificate, the Vatican became the world’s first sovereign state to become carbon-neutral, meaning that all of the small country’s greenhouse gas emissions are offset by renewable energies and carbon credits, thanks to extra trees and solar panels. He also made use of a more energy efficient, partially electric popemobile.

No, “The Green Pope” is not Pope Francis.

It’s his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, which may come as a surprise to those who believe Benedict’s legacy was his staunch conservatism.

During the World Day of Peace celebration in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI chose the theme “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.”

“We are all responsible for the protection and care of the environment,” he said.

Drawing on the wisdom from his own predecessors, including Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIII and Pope Paul VI, Benedict in his message implored his flock to view climate change and care for creation as an extension of the Church’s care for humanity. He also addressed the phenomenon of “environmental refugees” several years before Francis noted the environment’s contribution to the current refugee crisis.

“Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions? Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of “environmental refugees”, people who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it – and often their possessions as well – in order to face the dangers and uncertainties of forced displacement? Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources?” Benedict asked in his message.

“All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health and development,” he added.

This was not the only time Pope Benedict addressed the environment and climate change. In Sydney in 2008, he told the young people of World Youth Day in his opening remarks that care for creation and care for humanity are interconnected.

“The concerns for non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity. They cannot, however, be understood apart from a profound reflection on the innate dignity of every human life from conception to natural death: a dignity conferred by God himself and thus inviolable,” he said.

He even managed to work the topic into his 2007 apostolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis”, on the topic of Eucharist as the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church.

In the letter, in a section entitled “The sanctification of the world and the protection of creation”, Pope Benedict XVI noted that even the liturgy reminds the faithful of the importance of God’s creation when “the priest raises to God a prayer of blessing and petition over the bread and wine, ‘fruit of the earth,’ ‘fruit of the vine’ and ‘work of human hands,’” he wrote.

“With these words, the rite not only includes in our offering to God all human efforts and activity, but also leads us to see the world as God’s creation, which brings forth everything we need for our sustenance. The world is not something indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit. Rather, it is part of God’s good plan, in which all of us are called to be sons and daughters in the one Son of God, Jesus Christ,” he added.

His writings on the topic were so prolific and profound that he is quoted numerous times in Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, “Laudato Si”.

Like Benedict and his other papal predecessors, Pope Francis noted that an ecology of the environment was directly related to a proper human ecology.

“There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself. There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology. When the human person is considered as simply one being among others, the product of chance or physical determinism, then ‘our overall sense of responsibility wanes,’” Pope Francis wrote in “Laudato Si”, quoting Benedict XVI.

Care for creation, or for “our common home”, as Francis often calls it, will most likely continue to be one of the primary concerns of his pontificate. Besides his encyclical, Pope Francis frequently speaks about climate change and the environment in various audiences, including when he became the first pope to address the United States Congress last fall.

But the important intellectual and practical groundwork laid by his predecessors, and particularly by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, cannot be overlooked.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope pleads for ceasefire amid ‘inhuman conflict’ in Syria

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 12, 2016

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 13, 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — On Wednesday Pope Francis begged for an end to the terrible conflict in Syria, asking for an immediate ceasefire to allow the evacuation of civilians, especially children.

“I want to emphasize and reiterate my closeness to all victims of the inhuman conflict in Syria. With a sense of urgency I renew my appeal, pleading, with all my strength,” the Pope said at the end of his general audience Oct. 12.

“(May) those responsible ensure arrangements are made for an immediate ceasefire, which is imposed and respected at least for the time necessary to allow the evacuation of civilians, especially children, who are still trapped under the bloody bombing.”

The Pope’s comments come amid the backdrop of intensified fighting in Aleppo, with hundreds of children having been killed in airstrikes in recent weeks.

The already dire situation in Syria has only worsened in recent days and weeks as an attempted ceasefire collapsed and other diplomacies failed. Less than two weeks ago, hundreds of airstrikes left neighborhoods in rebel-held eastern Aleppo battered, killing an estimated 100 people and leaving at least 50 more, including children, trapped under the rubble.

The recent use of so-called bunker-busting bombs, which weigh about a ton and can blast through two meters of underground, reinforced concrete have only added to the horror and destruction in the past few days.

A humanitarian truce, called for by the United Nations and brokered this month by the United States and Russia, fell apart less than a week after its institution after U.S. forces struck a Syrian position killing dozens of soldiers, though the move was reportedly unintentional.

The Syrian civil war, which began in March 2011, has claimed the lives of between and estimated 280,000 and 470,000 people, and forced 4.8 million to become refugees, about half of them children. Another 8 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the violence.

In his catechesis, the Pope focused on both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, as found in the Gospels, emphasizing that it is through these small works that people can change the world.

“The works of mercy awaken in us the need and the ability to make a living and active faith with charity. I am convinced that these simple everyday actions can make a real cultural revolution, as it was in the past,” he said.

The Church has a “preferential love for the weakest,” Francis said, emphasizing that it is often those who are closest to us who need our help the most. But it doesn’t have to be through complicated or “superhuman gestures.”

“It is best to start from the most simple,” he said, adding that the Lord shows us what is “most urgent.”

In a world “unfortunately stricken with the virus of indifference,” Pope Francis said the works of mercy “are the best antidote.”

“How then can we be witnesses of mercy?” he asked, noting how “Jesus says that every time we feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, clothe a naked person and welcome a stranger, visit a sick person or someone in prison, we do it to Him.”

And the spiritual works of mercy are equally important to the corporal especially today, Francis said, “because they touch the soul and often make people suffer more.”

“‘Bear wrongs patiently.’ It might seem like a minor thing, which makes us smile, but instead it contains a feeling of deep love,” he said.

“And so also for the other six, which it is good to remember: to counsel the doubtful, to teach the ignorant, to admonish sinners, to comfort the afflicted, to forgive offenses, to pray to God for the living and for the dead.”

Promising to focus on these in his next catechesis, Francis explained that these spiritual and corporal works of mercy are given to us by the Church as a concrete way to live out compassion.

“Over the centuries, many simple people have put them into practice,” such as the newly canonized St. Teresa of Calcutta.

Her works of mercy, the Pope said, “are the traits of the face of Jesus Christ who takes care of his younger siblings to bring everyone the tenderness and closeness of God,” something we should all try to put into practice.

At the audience, Pope Francis also spoke about the Oct. 13 International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, asking for everyone to protect “our common home, promoting a culture of prevention” in order to reduce the risk to the most vulnerable among us.

These natural disasters could be avoided or limited, he said, since their effects “are often due to environmental care deficiencies on the part of man.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Cardinal Parolin visits Fatima ahead of Pope’s trip

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 12, 2016

Pope Francis with Our Lady of Fatima at the General Audience on Wednesday May 13, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, is traveling to Fatima, Portugal ahead of Pope Francis’ own visit, which will take place next year for the 100-year anniversary of Mary’s appearance there.

Cardinal Parolin’s Oct. 11-13 visit occurs seven months before the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, the anniversary of her first appearance.

Pope Francis confirmed during an in-flight press conference returning from his trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan earlier this month that he would travel to Fatima on May 13, 2017, but that he did not know whether or not he would go a day earlier on May 12 for the vigil celebration.

Cardinal Parolin’s itinerary for the trip included a stop in Lisbon, where he gave a talk on “The Identity of Europe” at a conference at the Catholic University of Portugal, which will mark the 50th anniversary of its founding in 2017.

He also visited several churches and had dinner with Cardinal Manuel José Macário do Nascimento Clemente, the Roman Catholic Patriarch of Lisbon.

At Fatima, Cardinal Parolin will participate in an Oct. 12 blessing of the candles and praying the holy rosary at the Little Chapel of Apparitions before processing to the altar to celebrate a candlelit Mass in front of the Basilica of the Holy Rosary.

On Oct. 13, there will again be a procession to the Basilica with Mass and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. It is likely that the Pope’s visit will look similar to Cardinal Parolin’s, although Francis said Oct. 2 he would go to Fatima only.

Three years ago on Oct. 13, 2013, Pope Francis received the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which usually resides in the Little Chapel of Apparitions. He invited those present at Mass in St. Peter’s Square to meditate on the gaze of Mary.

“O Mary, let us feel your gaze as a Mother,” he said. “Lead us to your Son, as we are not Christians ‘for show,’ but who can ‘get their hands dirty’ to build with your Son, Jesus, his Kingdom of love, joy and peace.”

“How important it is,” the Pope said of Mary’s gaze. “How many things can be said with a look! Affection, encouragement, compassion, love, but also reproach, envy, pride, even hatred.”

“Often,” he added, “the look says more than words, or says what words cannot or dare not say. Who looks at the Virgin Mary? She looks at all of us, each of us … She looks at us like a Mother, with tenderness, with mercy, with love.”

On May 13, 2013, at the Holy Father’s personal request, his pontificate was consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima by Cardinal Jose Polycarp, the then-Patriarch of Lisbon. The consecration took place at the Portuguese shrine dedicated to Our Lady, with thousands of the faithful present.

Addressing Our Lady of Fatima during the ceremony, Cardinal Polycarp asked that Pope Francis be granted the gift of discernment “to know how to identify the paths of renewal for the Church.”

He also prayed that she would “grant him the courage to not falter in following the paths suggested by the Holy Spirit, protect him in the difficult hours of suffering, so that he may overcome, in charity, the trials that the renewal of the Church will bring him.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

What’s the thought behind Pope Francis’ choices for cardinals?

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

Cardinals gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica for a consistory on Nov. 4, 2012. (Lewis Ashton Glancy/CNA)

Vatican City — With the Consistory of Cardinals in November, Pope Francis will shape the College of Cardinals to give the widest representation to the countries of the world and to minimize the possibility of encouraging any sort of careerism.

Why can we say this?

The first of these criteria was publicly acknowledged by the Pope during the press conference on his flight returning from Azerbaijan Oct. 2.

There, the Pope explained that criteria of consistory include choosing cardinals “from all over the world” because “the Church is everywhere.”

He added: “There is a long list, but we have 13 slots. And a balance will be needed. I do like that the College of Cardinals shows the universality of the Church: not only the so-called European center, but every part.”

This standard was followed in the latest picks for the “red hat.”

The Pope appointed 17 new cardinals. Thirteen of them are under the age of 80 and eligibleto vote in a conclave.

Out of the 13 voting cardinals, three come from the United States: Bishop Kevin Farrell, prefect of the to-be-established Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life; Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis; and Archbishop Blaise Cupich of Chicago.

These three are the first U.S. cardinals Pope Francis has created in his papacy. With them, the U.S. could be represented by 10 cardinals in a future conclave.

Three cardinals out of 13 come from Europe: Archbishop Jozef de Kesel of Brussels; Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid; and Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Italian-born apostolic nuncio to Syria.

Africa will be represented by two new cardinals: Archbishop Dieduonné Nzapalainga of Bangui in the Central African Republic; and Archbishop Maurice Piat, of Port Louis, Mauritius, a tiny island nation east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

Another three cardinals come from the Latin America: Archbishop Sergio da Rocha of Brasilia, Brazil; Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes of Tlalnepantla, Mexico; and Archbishop Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo of Mérida, Venezuela.

Oceania is represented by Archbishop John Ribat of Port Moresby, New Guinea, while Archbishop Patrick D’Rozario of Dhaka, Bangladesh is the only Asian cardinal.

How does this change the composition of the College of Cardinals?

At the end of 2016, cardinals eligible to vote in a Conclave will number 120, the maximum limit set by Paul VI to elect a Pope. Out of these 120 cardinals, 44 were created by Pope Francis, 56 by Benedict XVI, and 20 by St. John Paul II.

In three consistories, Pope Francis was thus able to strongly shape the College of Cardinals according to his wish of a more universal Church from the peripheries.

A future conclave could draw 54 cardinals from Europe and 34 from the Americas, with 17 from North America, four from Central America, and 14 from South America. Another 14 cardinals could come from Asia, 15 from Africa and four from Oceania.

Pope Francis showed great attention to Oceania, whose membership increased by three new cardinals under Pope Francis. The Pope has named a cardinal from Oceania for each consistory of his pontificate.

Italy is still the most represented country, with 25 cardinals. However, the European weight in a future conclave is diminished: in 2005, there were 57 European cardinals, in 2013 there were 59, and now there are only 54.

For the first time ever, Bangladesh, Central African Republic and Papua New Guinea are represented by a cardinal.

These numbers show Pope Francis’ interest in emphasizing the role of peripheries.

When a list of cardinals is released, the order of Cardinals is also noteworthy.

For example, when Pope Francis announced the Feb. 22, 2014 Consistory, the first name on the list was Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, but the second name on the list was Lorenzo Baldisseri, General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, and not that of Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was a signal that Pope Francis wanted to emphasize synodality rather than a curial post. This major focus on synodality rather than on a doctrinal office was then proved by the convocation of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family and the 2015 Synod on the same topic.

The list of this latest consistory is opened by Archbishop Mario Zenari, nuncio to Syria, and the second in the list is Archbishop Nzapalainga of Bangui, while the Archbishop of Madrid – an important seat indeed – is only third in the list.

Because of this order, we can surmise that Pope Francis wants the focus of this consistory on the populations who suffer the outcomes of a long term war. Nuncio Zenari, considers himself a veteran of wars. He was papal nuncio in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka while both of these countries were stricken by conflicts. He will stay as nuncio to the “beloved and martyred Syria,” as Pope Francis said when he announced the list.

As a cardinal, the nuncio may even be characterized as a sort of special envoy from Pope Francis. That was the role of Cardinal Fernando Filoni when the Pope sent him to Iraq in 2014 after it had been shocked by Islamic State group violence.

Turning to the appointment of Archbishop Nzapalainga, it is noteworthy to remember that Pope Francis opened the first Holy Door of the Year of Mercy in Bangui in November 2015. The Archbishop of Bangui is also well known for his role in the country’s peace talks.

Number six on the list of new cardinals – after Archbishops Osoro Sierra, da Rocha and Cupich – is Archbishop Patrick D’Rozario of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

To understand more deeply how Pope Francis is changing the shape of the College of Cardinals, another data point should be noted.

In three consistories, Pope Francis created 44 new red hats, and only five of them went to curial positions: the 2014 consistory gave three red hats to the curia, the 2015 consistory gave just one. This upcoming consistory will see the elevation of Bishop Kevin Farrell, who has just taken the post of Prefect of the Dicastery Laity, Family and Life.

This way, Pope Francis has broken the tradition that a bishop was going to get a red hat once he reached a particular post. Another move to break careerism was the choice to avoid considering some dioceses as automatic cardinal seats, a traditional view. This is the reason why the Archdioceses of Turin, Bologna and Palermo in Italy, traditionally led by a cardinal, are still without a red hat, as well as the Patriarchate of Venice.

Even the U.S. archdioceses of Philadelphia and Los Angeles are not led by a cardinal, as they once were.

This way, Pope Francis wants to show that there are no “rank A” and “rank B” dioceses, and that every bishop – no matter where he comes from or how important and large the diocese he administers – can become a cardinal.

Pope Francis will also elevate four bishops who have already turned 80, but even in this case the red hat is not simply an honorific sign. With Archbishops Anthony Soter Fernandez, emeritus of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Sebastian Koto Khoarai, emeritus of Mohale’s Hoek in Lesotho, Pope Francis has once more emphasized his focus on the Church of the peripheries.

With Archbishop Renato Corti, emeritus of Novara, the Pope awarded a passionate preacher who preached St. John Paul II’s final Lenten Spiritual Exercises for the curia in 2005. Pope Francis called on him to write the Good Friday Meditation at Rome’s Coliseum this year.

Finally, the Pope will elevate Father Ernest Simoni, the Albanian priest who moved the Pope to tears for his testimony about the persecution he endured under Albania’s atheistic regime. The persecuted and peripheral Church of Albania, the first European Church Pope Francis visited during his pontificate, is thus in the spotlight again.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

When it comes to migration, children are the first to suffer, Pope says

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

Pope Francis with a group of disabled children, led by Unitalsi Lazio, in Santa Martha on May 29, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — As images of children crushed by bombs or washed up at sea are becoming an increasingly daily sight, Pope Francis’ decision to focus his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on child migrants rings in as particularly timely and appropriate.

“I feel compelled to draw attention to the reality of child migrants, especially the ones who are alone,” Francis said in his message.

Young migrants, he noted, are particularly vulnerable and defenseless primarily because “they are children, they are foreigners, and they have no means to protect themselves.”

He pointed to Jesus’ insistence in the Gospels that whoever receives a child “in my name receives me,” as well as his warning that for those who cause a child to sin, “it is better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

“How can we ignore this severe warning when we see the exploitation carried out by unscrupulous people?” he asked.

“Such exploitation harms young girls and boys who are led into prostitution or into the mire of pornography; who are enslaved as child laborers or soldiers; who are caught up in drug trafficking and other forms of criminality; who are forced to flee from conflict and persecution, risking isolation and abandonment,” he noted.

“I ask everyone to help those who, for various reasons, are forced to live far from their homeland and are separated from their families.”

Titled “Child Migrants, the Vulnerable and the Voiceless,” Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees was presented to journalists during an Oct. 13 news conference in Rome. The day will be celebrated in the Church Jan. 15, 2017.

In his message, the Pope noted that children are the first to pay the price of emigration, often caused by violence, poverty, environmental problems, as well as the negative impact of globalization.

An “unrestrained competition for a quick and easy profit” brings with it “scourges” such as child trafficking, the exploitation and abuse of minors, and the deprivation of rights “intrinsic to childhood,” such as the right to a secure family environment guided by “a mother and a father,” the right to education and that of recreation.

However, frequently child migrants are left “invisible and voiceless” because the precocity of their situation “deprives them of documentation, hiding them from the world’s eyes,” and the absence of an adult to accompany them “prevents their voices from being raised and heard.”

“In this way, migrant children easily end up at the lowest levels of human degradation, where illegality and violence destroy the future of too many innocents, while the network of child abuse is difficult to break up.”

Pope Francis called the phenomena of migration a “sign of the times.” To resolve the problem, one recognize that it is connected to salvation history, he said, and pointed to several versus in the Bible encouraging the welcome strangers and foreigners.

“Each person is precious,” he said, stressing that “persons are more important than things, and the worth of an institution is measured by the way it treats the life and dignity of human beings, particularly when they are vulnerable, as in the case of child migrants.”

He cautioned that the line between migration and trafficking “can at times be very subtle,” and noted that the most prominent cause of the abuse and exploitation of children “is demand.”

“If more rigorous and effective action is not taken against those who profit from such abuse, we will not be able to stop the multiple forms of slavery where children are the victims,” he said.

Francis encouraged the international community to work together in sharing information to end such phenomena, and focused on the need to integrate children and youth migrants into their new communities.

Often times instead of focusing on welcome and integration, programs attempt “to curb the entrance of migrants, which in turn fosters illegal networks; or else immigrants are repatriated to their country of origin without any concern for their best interests.”

The condition of child migrants “is worsened when their status is not regularized or when they are recruited by criminal organizations,” he said, noting that in such cases “they are usually sent to detention centers.”

While there, “it is not unusual for them to be arrested, and because they have no money to pay the fine or for the return journey, they can be incarcerated for long periods, exposed to various kinds of abuse and violence.”

Francis stressed that in these cases, it is the right of each state to control migratory movement,” but that protecting the “common good of the nation” must be seen “in conjunction with the duty to resolve and regularize the situation of child migrants,” rather than contrary to it.

Long-term solutions which target the problems at their source are needed, he said, and pointed to phenomena such as war, violence corruption, poverty and human rights violations in migrants’ home countries as examples.

In these cases, “children are the first to suffer, at times suffering torture and other physical violence, in addition to moral and psychological aggression, which almost always leave indelible scars.”

The Pope closed his message by thanking the organizations and institutions who work with migrants, particularly children, and urged the international community to step up their efforts in ending the conflicts and violence that force people to flee their homeland.

Entrusting all child migrants, their families and communities to the intercession of the Holy Family, Pope Francis prayed that they would “watch over and accompany each one on their journey.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

All Christians must follow Jesus closely, Pope Francis tells Lutherans

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 13, 2016

Pope Francis addresses a group of Lutheran pilgrims in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Oct. 13, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — On Thursday, asked about what he likes and doesn’t like in the Lutheran ecclesial community, Pope Francis said he likes Lutherans who are active followers of Christ, while he dislikes Christians who are hypocritical or who have a lukewarm faith.

“I like all the good Lutherans, eh?” he said. “There are many good ones, the Lutherans who really follow Jesus Christ. On the other hand, I don’t like lukewarm Catholics or lukewarm Lutherans.”

The Pope’s response was made during an audience with Lutheran pilgrims at the Vatican Oct. 13. During the meeting, he condemned those Christians, who, he said, have a “hypocritical attitude,” stating that you can’t be a Christian without living as a Christian.

The audience with Lutherans took place ahead of the Pope’s trip to Sweden for a joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The meeting in Sweden will also highlight 50 years of official dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans.

The trip will close what has been a month filled with ecumenical visits for Pope Francis, including meeting with Patriarch Ilia II, the leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and the more recent meeting at the Vatican with the head of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

Commenting on hypocrisy as it regards the issue of refugees, Pope Francis said there is a contradiction between wanting to defend Christianity in the Middle East while also being against helping refugees and those of other religions, wanting to “kick out” someone “who really needs my help.”

“If I say I am Christian but do these things, I am a hypocrite,” he stated.

An example of “Christian coherency,” on the other hand, can be found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. “A doctor of the law passed, looked and left. A priest passed, looked and left.” But “a sinner passed, felt mercy and drew close and helped him,” he said.

“This is the path that we must follow, this ecumenical path between us. To help others, to help the needy, to help the brothers and sisters in need, and to pray.”

Cracking down on those who just “say,” instead of “do,” Pope Francis called proselytism “the strongest poison against the ecumenical path.”

“The last thing you should do is ‘say,’” he emphasized. “It’s not licit to convince them of your faith. You must give witness of your Christian life.”

When we are witnesses of the faith, it stirs up a restlessness in the hearts of those who see it and calls to mind the question: “but why does this man, this woman, live like this?”

This is the most powerful form of teaching because it prepares the heart for the work of the Holy Spirit, the Pope said. Because it is the Holy Spirit who ultimately converts hearts, not us.

Addressing young people at the audience, the Pope encouraged them to be “witnesses of mercy” in promoting the faith.

“While theologians carry on the dialogue in the doctrinal field, continue to look with persistence for opportunities to meet each other, to get to know each other better, to pray together, and to offer your help to each other and to all those who are in need.”

Pope Francis acknowledged that the Church must always be reformed – that the Church “progresses, matures,” but that some reforms in history were “mistaken” or “exaggerated.”

“The greatest reformers of the Church are the saints,” the Pope said. Those men and women “who follow the Word of the Lord and practice it.”

They may not be great theologians or teachers, they may just be humble people, but “those who have hearts full of the Gospel are those who truly reform the Church,” Francis said, noting that both the Lutheran community and the Catholic Church have had men and women of this type.

What unites Lutherans and Catholics is our identity as Christians, he said. “We didn’t choose Jesus Christ, it’s he who chose us, and this is grace, pure grace,” he emphasized.

We aren’t justified by ourselves or by other people, “only the blood of Christ has saved and justified us.”

Cracking a joke at the end of the meeting, the Pope inquired if he could take a turn with a question, asking the Lutheran pilgrims, “Who are better? The Evangelicals or the Catholics?” The response was a hearty laugh, but no answer.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

For Cardinal Vegliò, closing the door to migrants isn’t Christian

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

A CRS tent aiding refugees and migrants in Europe. (Sean Callahan/Catholic Relief Services)

Vatican City — On Thursday the Vatican’s longtime point-man on the topic of migration said that the issue is an urgent one that can’t be solved by the “human egoism” that closes doors and fosters a xenophobic attitude toward foreigners.

“It’s not Christian to be xenophobic, it’s not Christian to not welcome a migrant, who has rights and also duties,” Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, told journalists Oct. 13.

When an immigrant arrives “they need to be recognized by the country who welcomes them,” he said.

He emphasized that a migrant must respect “the traditions and identity of the culture where they go, just as the country where they arrive must respect the dignity and the identity of the immigrant.”

“Each one, whether it is the welcoming country or the migrant, has rights and duties,” he said, noting that the controversy over the phenomenon is unfortunately reflected at a political level.

“We see it here in Europe. We see it also a bit in the United States,” he said, explaining that in his opinion, everyone “wants his own backyard, their corridor, their sacred space and they don’t want to be disturbed.”

This attitude, he said, is “very egotistical … (it’s) human egoism, which isn’t human if you don’t consider (migrants) as children of God, as we are.”

Cardinal Vegliò, who has headed the pontifical council since 2009, spoke following the release of Pope Francis’ message for the 2017 World Day of Migrants, “Child Migrants, the Vulnerable and the Voiceless.” The day will be celebrated Jan. 15, 2017.

In comments to CNA, the cardinal said that ahead of the presidential elections in the United States, it’s important for Christians to remember that “a migrant is a person as we are, a person with inalienable rights just as ours, but at the same time the state has the sacred right to defend their own citizens.”

“It’s a delicate choice between respect for one’s own identity and the welcoming of others,” he said, explaining that these are “the fundamental principles that go [not only] for the United States on the vigil of the presidential elections, but that go for all. The Church has always taught this.”

When asked by journalists about the situation of migrants, particularly unaccompanied minors, who cross the border from Mexico into the United States, Cardinal Vegliò acknowledged that Mexico “isn’t an exemplary country for what regards migrants.”

Although Mexican citizens “justly protest the closure of that wall that would separate them from the United States,” the migrants who come to Mexico from Central America don’t necessarily “find themselves in better conditions,” he said.

“All of us know how many problems there currently are in the world that center on migration,” he said, noting that it’s a global issue affecting not only Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, but also Europe.

“All over the world there is this problem, in some places more serious, in some less. But it’s a problem that won’t go away right away. It will also continue to get worse than what it is now,” the cardinal observed.

He stressed the need to find realistic solutions, but recognized that while welcoming migrants is a duty, “it’s not possible to receive everyone.”

“Migration isn’t resolved welcoming everyone, which is impossible because every state has the right to and duty protect their citizens,” he said, but noted that the problem can’t be solved “saying ‘get out, no one can come’,” either.

“It’s a problem that needs to be resolved, that needs a solution,” he said, noting that unfortunately Europe is “very egotistical, it bothers everyone to have one more” migrant in their midst.

“For migrants, however many there are, it’s something that disturbs our lives, in the beautiful area, in the things we have, and we don’t want to be disturbed. It’s not human, it’s not Christian,” he said, adding that the Church “tries to raise awareness” of this fact.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Venezuelan Fr. Arturo Sosa elected as new head of Jesuit order

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

Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ. (Jesuit’s 36th General Congregation)

Vatican City — After several weeks of discussion and discernment, the Jesuit order has elected Fr. Arturo Sosa as their new Superior General, who will be taking over after the resignation of their former leader, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás.

Former head of the Venezuelan Jesuit province, Fr. Sosa entered the Society of Jesus in 1966 and was ordained a priest in 1977.

He has obtained degrees in philosophy, theology and political science, and was a member of the Social Center of the Venezuelan province from 1977-1996, when he was appointed as Superior of the Jesuits in Venezuela, guiding through the stormy waters of Hugo Chavez’s dictatorship.

In 2004, he was named General Counselor of the Society of Jesus, a position he held until 2011. He has until now served as president of the University in the State of Táchira, a role he has also held since 2004.

Fr. Sosa’s election as the 31st General Superior of the Jesuits marks the first time a Latin American has led the Society, and he takes the helm under the Catholic Church’s first Jesuit and Latin American Pope.

Founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus always holds a general congregation upon the death or resignation of the Superior General in order to choose his successor. They can also be called if the Superior sees the need to take action on a serious matter that he either can’t or doesn’t want to decide on alone.

In this case, the Jesuits called their 36th General Congregation after Fr. Adlofo Nicolás, from Spain, submitted his resignation at the age of 80 after running the order for eight years.

Deliberations began Oct. 2 when 215 delegates from around the world gathered at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, located just a few feet from the Vatican. Out of the total 215 delegates, 212 participated in the voting.

On Oct. 10 participants began the centuries-old practice of the “murmuratio,” which is a four-day process of one-on-one conversations and information gathering aimed at preparing for the election by discussing the merits of the various candidates.

Jesuits – who in addition to making the usual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience – make additional special vow of obedience to the Pope “in regards to mission,” and swear an oath to never seek higher offices within the Church. Thus, any Jesuit who discovers someone campaigning must report them immediately.

However, while they are not allowed to pursue positions of authority, their vow of obedience to the Pope means they must submit when he calls. Such was the case with Pope Francis, who was named auxiliary bishop and then Archbishop of Buenos Aires by St. John Paul II.

The Church’s first Jesuit Pope, Francis entered his novitiate with the Society of Jesus in 1958. He received a philosophy degree in 1963 and spent the next three years teaching literature and psychology.

The now-Bishop of Rome then studied theology from 1967 to 1970, during which time he was ordained a priest. His priestly ordination was Dec. 13, 1969.

He did the final state of Jesuit formation from 1970 to 1971, and was novice master at the Jesuit seminary in San Miguel, a Buenos Aires suburb, from 1972 to 1973, where he taught theology.

In 1973, he made his perpetual vows in the Society, and that year was elected provincial for Argentina. After his time as provincial, from 1980 to 1986, he served as rector of the seminary at San Miguel, where he had studied, and was pastor of a parish in the city.

He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992, Archbishop in 1998, elevated as a cardinal in 2001, and elected to the papacy March 13, 2013.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis donates $100,000 to Haiti for hurricane relief

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 14, 2016

Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti on Oct. 4, 2016. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Vatican City — Pope Francis has decided to send an initial contribution of $100,000 to Haiti to help with emergency recovery in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, the Vatican announced Friday.

Donated through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the money will be used to support flood victims, and “is intended as a first and immediate concrete expression of the feelings of paternal spiritual closeness and encouragement of the Holy Father toward the people and territories affected,” an Oct. 14 communique from the Vatican read.

Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti in the morning on Oct. 4. A category four storm with winds racing at 145mph, it is the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade, devastating Haiti, which is still reeling from the catastrophic earthquake that crushed much of the country in 2010.

With more than 1,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, according to the BBC, Haiti was hardest hit in the southeast, with many in towns and fishing villages killed by debris, falling trees and swollen rivers.

The Pope’s contribution to the relief effort is part of aid activated throughout the Catholic Church immediately following the storm.

Numerous bishops’ conferences and charitable organizations have all stepped in to help Haiti, including Caritas Haiti, in collaboration with Caritas Internationalis, which has now launched a first appeal for emergency aid to 2,700 families for the purchase and distribution of food and hygiene kits, the communique says.

After the storm, Pope Francis assured his prayers and solidarity with all those affected: “Learning of the devastation wrought by hurricane Matthew, which has caused numerous victims and considerable damage, His Holiness Pope Francis expresses his sadness and assures his prayer for all those who have lost a loved one,” an Oct. 7 telegram read.

Signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and addressed to the president of the Haitian Bishops Conference, Cardinal Chibly Langlois, the letter expressed the Pope’s “deep sympathy in these painful circumstances.”

According to the BBC, some 1.4 million people are in need of assistance. The United Nations has pledged $120 million in emergency funds to support medical help, shelter, water and sanitation.

The latest crisis is the fear of another cholera outbreak, such as the one that occurred after the devastating 2010 earthquake, which caused the deaths of 10,000 people, the BBC reported.

The World Health Organization is sending a million doses of the cholera vaccine to Haiti, where more than 200 cases of the disease have already been reported since the hurricane hit.

In his initial telegram, the Pope entrusted the deceased to the mercy of God, asking that the Lord would “welcome them into his light.” He assured his closeness to the injured and those who have lost their homes, and encouraged solidarity.

The Pope entrusted the Haitian people to the “maternal protection” of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and gave them his Apostolic Blessing.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope visits young children from difficult family situations

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 14, 2016

Pope Francis visits children at the SOS Village in Rome on Oct. 14, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — On Friday Pope Francis visited with young children at the “SOS Village” in Rome, a community made up of homes for children who are in positions of family or social hardship, as recommended by social services.

The Village, as it is called, is made up of five houses, each holding up to six boys and six girls, 12 years of age and under. They live in the house with an “SOS Mother.” The Village aims to support the children and nurture their growth in the same way a family would.

The Oct. 14 visit is the latest in the Pope’s “Mercy Friday” initiatives to spend time with various groups each month during the Jubilee of Mercy.

In previous trips, he has made surprise stops at places including an elderly home, a drug and alcohol rehab center, and a facility for retired priests.

During this month’s visit, the Pope was shown around the Village by the boys and girls, accompanied by staff. They showed off the greenspace of the Village, which includes a football field and a playground.

Pope Francis was also shown the children’s rooms and their toys, where he listened to their stories and shared a snack with them.

The children living at the Village are accompanied to school, go to church, and play sports. The professionals, residents, non-residents, and volunteers who work at the Village each work with the same child for several years to allow for the creation of stable human relationships and development.

The first SOS Children’s Village was founded in Austria in 1949 as a way to educate children orphaned by the war in a warm family environment, in contrast to the orphanage model prevalent at the time.

After his stop at the SOS Village and before returning to the Vatican, Pope Francis went to visit Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the archpriest emeritus of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, who has been admitted to the Villa Betania nursing home.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis grieves over death of Thailand’s king

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 14, 2016

Pope Francis (l) and Bhumibol Adulyadej (r). (Daniel Ibanez/CNA and public domain/Wikipedia)

Vatican City — Friday Pope Francis expressed his sorrow to learn of the death of the King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died Thursday at a hospital in Bangkok.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to the Members of the Royal Family and to all the people of the Kingdom at this sorrowful time,” the Pope’s letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha read.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, reigned over the Kingdom of Thailand since 1946 and was the longest-reigning living monarch in the world at the time of his death. He is also the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.

“I pray that, as a fitting tribute to the late King’s legacy of wisdom, strength and fidelity, all Thais may work together to further the path of peace, and I willingly invoke upon all who mourn his passing the consolation of divine blessings,” the Pope’s letter stated.

King Adulyadej died just before 4 p.m. local time on Oct. 13 in the capital city of Bangkok. He had been in poor health for some time, and had spent most of the past six years in Bangkok’s Siriraj hospital.

There is no official state religion in Thailand, guaranteeing religious freedom in the country, although the king is required by law to be Buddhist. The population of Thailand is a majority Buddhist at 93.2 percent with Muslims making up the next largest religious demographic.

As of 2014, there were only about 400,000 Catholics in Thailand, out of a population of 65 million.

King Adulyadej was highly respected and beloved throughout Thailand. A police spokesman told CNN that it was estimated over 100,000 people were at the Grand Palace to witness the King’s funeral ceremony Oct. 14.

The monarch of Thailand had a positive relationship with the Vatican. In 1960 the he, along with the Queen of Thailand, visited St. Pope John XXIII while on a trip to Europe. During the visit, the King invited the Pope to visit Thailand.

St. Pope John Paul II’s visit to Thailand in 1984 was, in part, a fulfillment of that invitation. While there, St. John Paul II met with the King and with refugees at the Phanat Nikhom camp in Thailand. He also visited a Buddhist temple, making him the first pope to ever do so.

On May 11, 2014, the bishops of the 10 dioceses of Thailand were received by King Adulyadej at the royal palace where he was presented with relics of both St. John XXIII and St John Paul II, one month after they were both canonized together by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.

The relics, a vial of blood from St. John Paul II and a small piece of skin from St. John XXIII, remain in Thailand and rotate among parishes throughout the country.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

China’s ‘disgraceful’ human rights record gets worse every year

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • October 8, 2016

(Tomas Roggero via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — China’s “utterly disgraceful” human rights record is not just bad, it’s getting worse every year, a new Congressional report has warned.

“The Chinese government’s human rights record is utterly disgraceful, continuing a downward trend over the past three years,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Committee on China, which published the report, stated on Thursday.

“The Chinese government took extraordinary and unprecedented steps last year to decimate the ranks of human rights lawyers, crush independent civil society and religious groups, and expanded controls over the Internet and the press.”

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China released its 15th annual report on China on Thursday. Created in 2000 by the U.S.-China Relations Act, the commission “is mandated to monitor human rights and rule of law developments in China,” the report stated.

“China – now ranking as the world’s second largest economy – has benefited greatly from the international rules-based system in driving its economic transformation and growth,” the report’s executive summary stated.

However, it added, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has not improved its human rights record and respected the rule of law as it has been expected to by the international community. From suppression of religious freedom to detaining dissidents and human rights activists to forced population control, the Chinese state “has run roughshod over human rights” Rep. Smith stated, and it must be held accountable.

“The stakes could not be higher for the Christian pastor unjustly imprisoned and devastated by the loss of his church, the rights lawyer languishing under house arrest and forced to confess to crimes she did not commit, and the Hong Kong student activists fighting for their city’s future,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

“This report is dedicated to these people and their aspirations – it is vital that they know the United States, despite its economic relationship with China, will stand with that country’s reformers and dissidents and press the Chinese Government and Communist Party to respect basic human rights and uphold the rule of law, just as we expect of any responsible country.”

For instance, the party announced in 2015 that its decades-old one-child family planning policy – which resulted in widespread forced abortions and sterilizations and a massive gender gap – would be changed, but only to a two-child-per-family policy.

The old policy was infamous for its human rights abuses. In addition to the forced abortions, non-compliant citizens and their families were detained or beaten by local officials, women died during violent forced abortions, and the extraordinary ratio of males to females led to an underground sex trafficking industry.

Human rights advocates said that same human rights abuses that occurred under the old policy would continue under the new one, with the only difference being one more child allowed per family.

“Families that want a third child will still face the pressure to abort their child or pay exorbitant fines,” Rep. Smith stated. “The sad reality is that policy change will have little effect on China’s shrinking workforce, the social problems of a rapidly aging population, or the human trafficking problems caused by China’s massive sex-ratio imbalance – it is a matter of too little, too late.”

The Chinese government also cracked down on the rise of non-sanctioned religious groups in 2015, the report said, and on Friday it exerted greater control over the practice of religion through its new regulations of religion.

“In both law and practice, the Chinese government continued to violate the rights of its citizens to religious freedom,” the report said, noting the state has “broad discretion over religious practice, internal affairs, and interpretations of faith, which is often exercised based on Party and government policy interests.”

Party officials warned at April’s National Conference on Religious Work that religious groups must be loyal to the state and signaled that they will exercise tighter control on religion in the future to guard against the supposed infiltration of foreign powers through religion.

When the party released its religious regulations on Friday, Rep. Smith called it “stunning, but not surprising.”

“Religious practice is exploding in China, particularly among Christians, and the religious life of Tibetan Buddhist, Uyghur Muslim, and Falun Gong practitioners persist despite decades of the worst abuses,” he said.

However, religious groups must register with the government, and in China there is a state Catholic Church and an “underground” Catholic Church. Local and national officials have harassed or persecuted Catholics who are not part of the state Catholic Church, destroying churches and detaining or harassing bishops and priests.

They have also refused to recognize some bishops appointed by the Vatican because they require that bishops be appointed by state religious groups, a conflict that is in the long process of being resolved.

“After Pope Francis assumed the papacy in 2013, the Holy See and the Chinese government reportedly began a series of discussions regarding the system of bishop appointments in China,” the report noted.

“In April 2016, Chinese and Holy See representatives formed a working group to discuss the selection and ordination of bishops in China; as of July 2016, both sides reportedly acknowledged that talks were continuing,” the report added.

The country also keeps thousands of political or religious prisoners and uses “black jails” to “arbitrarily detain” people outside the justice system.

According to the commission’s Political Prisoner Database, there were over 8,000 “cases of political or religious imprisonment in China” with 1,383 of those current cases of imprisonment; the remaining 7,000 cases involved prisoners who “have been released, or executed, who died while imprisoned or soon after release, or who escaped.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

How should Catholic educators respond to gender ideology?

by CNA/EWTN News • October 8, 2016

(Areipa.lt via Shutterstock)

Birmingham, England — A rising push for gender ideology will have deep consequences, but Catholics can respond in the right way, an English bishop has told education leaders in his diocese.

“We must always show genuine love and understanding to those who are swayed or fall victim to the errors of our times,” Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury said.

“However, we can never compromise the truth of our faith nor allow the truth about the human person to be obscured, for that would be a false charity.”

The letter, released Oct. 6, is dated Sept. 29, the Feast of the Holy Archangels. It is addressed to head teachers, school governors and heads of religious education in his diocese in western England.

“There are now many questions arising in the world of education concerning the ideology of gender which underlies transgenderism,” he said, distinguishing the ideology from caring for those who are confused or suffering.

Bishop Davies said Catholics have a duty to welcome people who may “experience difficulty identifying with their biological sex.”

“Our Christian approach to persons in any kind of confusion and suffering must always be one of respect, compassion and understanding, together with a commitment to seeking appropriate help,” he said.

The bishop warned schools against accepting and promoting gender ideology, saying the mindset is “beginning to permeate social consciousness with far-reaching consequences.”

Among gender ideology’s claims, the bishop indicated, is the claim that physical characteristics do not determine who a person is as a man or a woman; the claim that gender is merely a “social construct”; and the claim that personal choice is sufficient to determine a person’s gender.

“And yet we know that sex is determined by physical characteristics which start to develop from conception,” he countered.

“Today, the Church is being called to defend this very truth of the human person,” Bishop Davies said. “We find ourselves at a moment when we must ponder more deeply God’s love for us revealed in the human nature he gives us in creation - it is the same human nature which, in the mystery of the Incarnation, God the Son took to himself in becoming flesh.”

Bishop Davies said the Scriptures, like the Book of Genesis, describe sexual difference as something willed by God from the beginning. These differences “come into existence when we are conceived, as science universally affirms.”

The bishop said the complementarity of the sexes is “ordered to procreation in which father and mother collaborate with God in the coming to be of a new person.”

Bishop Davies cited the writings of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II, as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a March 2016 statement by the U.S. bishops on federal education rules.

In Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si,” for instance, the Pope said learning to accept one’s body and to respect its “fullest meaning” is “an essential element of any genuine human ecology.” This includes valuing one’s body in its femininity or masculinity. He criticized the attitude that would “cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”

In the Pope’s exhortation “Amoris Laetitia,” the pontiff criticized education programs and legislation that promote “a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female.”

Bishop Davies said the diocese hoped to organize opportunities for reflection on the implications of this “radical, ideological challenge.”

His letter was released days after Pope Francis criticized gender theory as “a great enemy of marriage.” During his visit to the country of Georgia, he advocated the countering of “ideological colonization.”

At an Oct. 2 in-fight press conference en route to Rome, the Pope stressed the need to accompany those who struggle with their sexuality or sexual identity. He also rebuked “wickedness which today is done in the indoctrination of gender theory,” citing a story of a man who believed his 10-year-old son was being taught gender theory in school.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

How do we evangelize the Americas?

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • October 11, 2016

(Jessie Eldora Robertson via Shutterstock)

Rome, Italy — As society becomes increasingly global, the question of how to spread the Gospel, particularly in the U.S., depends more and more on how effectively we engage with the varying cultures around us – just as the many missionaries to America did before, say Catholic leaders.

“The whole point is, as the world globalizes, the Church becomes Christ himself, and the community of the Church become a center around which the world can find a certain kind of unity. And we need unity,” Dr. Jonathan Reyes told CNA.

“I think of evangelization as (Pope) Paul VI emphasized – it’s the evangelization of culture. And so you have to have sensitivity to cultures, as well as a shared sense of a common identity regionally, and in this case, in the Americas,” he said.

Reyes, Executive Director of the USCCB Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, was a presenter at the symposium, “Witnesses of Mercy in the Americas,” held in Rome Sept. 24.

The event was put on jointly by the Archdiocese of Denver and the Pontifical Council for Latin America with the purpose of highlighting the lives of four missionaries to the Americas and increasing devotion to them as examples for how to spread the faith today.

According to Reyes, many of the challenges faced by America today, such as the movement of people, economic changes, and the rise of theological secularism, are “failures of solidarity.” As we globalize, we also become less unified, he said. The Church alone holds the key to perfect human solidarity.

“I think in the United States it’s particularly important, because we have our own challenge with globalization and our own borders,” Reyes said. “But we’ve got to find our way to solidarity, and a way to a continental vision of evangelization as well.”

St. John Paul II’s vision for solidarity in America, which he wrote about in his Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America, is that it be brought about through integral evangelization.

This vision of evangelization starts with caring for both the material and spiritual needs of individuals, leading to conversion, followed by the forming of community, or communion, and eventually resulting in a new culture.

Reyes calls the culture we aspire to a culture with “diversifying unity.”

By the term ‘diversifying unity’ he’s trying to draw the line between two things, he said. “One is a certain kind of unity that’s uniformity, where everyone has to be the exact same, and the other is a kind of diversity that has nothing in common.”

“The Church brings those two things together,” he said. “We’re unified, but we’re not uniform, we’re not the exact same thing. And that’s precisely the kind of sort of ebullient, joyful unity that Christ brings to the whole human race.”

One example of unity found in Christ is from the missionary Fr. Eusebio Kino, known as the “priest on horseback.” He was an Italian Jesuit who lived from 1645-1711, who during the last 24 years of his life worked with indigenous people in parts of Mexico and Arizona, establishing over 24 missions.

Fr. Kino is an example, Reyes said, for how he treated the people he encountered, who were all from completely different cultures than himself.

“He didn’t just come preaching, he came and he actually brought a flourishing of everything human: social, political, the economic, all these things grow,” Reyes pointed out. “The mission of Christ is a mission of the renewal of everything human, it’s setting the world right.”

“And so, Kino, and many of his comrades, and many of the other first missionaries of the continent, they’re models of bringing the whole of reality under the Lordship of Christ, into human flourishing.”

Though America is a very different place from what it was in Fr. Kino’s time, there are many good lessons we can learn from him and from other missionaries, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of the Archdiocese of Denver told CNA.

“I think what you really need to look at are the virtues that they had, such as perseverance, their deep faith, their willingness to come out of themselves, and to really serve whoever they were called to serve at that time,” he said.

“But at the heart of all of them is humility” and dependence on God.

“That is something that each one of them did, in their own time in history, was have that very deep knowledge and awareness of God’s love for them,” Archbishop Aquila said, “of being created in his image and likeness and that it was pure gift and then living that out.”

Another witness to mercy in the U.S. is Julia Greeley, a woman born into slavery in the mid-1800s.

While enslaved, she received brutal treatment, including the destruction of her right eye when the tip of a slave master’s whip hit her while he was beating Greeley’s mother.

Freed through Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, she was brought from Missouri to Denver, CO by the wealthy family she worked for, eventually converting to Catholicism.

Throughout her life, though very poor herself, Greeley would always collect food and clothing for poor families around her, including many white families. Sensitive to their embarrassment, she would often deliver the items at night, using a red wagon.

A proper understanding of mercy, said Archbishop Aquila, is probably the greatest challenge to evangelization in the U.S.

There is either a permissiveness that says someone doesn’t have anything to repent of or change in his or her life, which condones sin and evil. “Or the other one is to be too harsh,” he said, “which is to say that you’re beyond mercy.”

“And so it causes confusion – it’s not the mercy of the Father, it’s not the mercy of Jesus.”

For Archbishop Aquila, the way to achieve unity as Christians in America is found in Christ. “That no matter where I go, I’m at home, because I know Christ is with me and I know that I’m serving Christ.”

No matter where we go, when we share the faith with someone, “whether they’re poor, whether they’re rich, whether they’re homeless, whether they’re sick, whether they’re suffering,” we should see the face of Christ in them, he said.

“And because of that, we see that we truly are brothers and sisters. And yes, our history is different, our cultures can be different, and very rich and beautiful, in many ways, in terms of the difference in the cultures, but also, there’s that unity there.”

“So,” Reyes said, “we’re bringing the idea that culture matters, cultural difference matters, cultural transformation matters, but evangelization, the centering on Christ, and the bringing together of peoples and regions with a common mission also matter.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Priest shot with rubber bullets during student protest in South Africa

by CNA/EWTN News • October 11, 2016

Father Graham Pugin after being shot at the University of the Witwatersrand on Oct. 10, 2016. (Times Live/YouTube)

Johannesburg, South Africa — A Jesuit priest was shot in the face with rubber bullets by police in Johannesburg while trying to protect student protestors in a violent clash with authorities on Monday.

South African students have been protesting in recent weeks after the government proposed increasing university tuition by eight percent in 2017. They are now demanding free education.

Father Graham Pugin, a priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Braamfonein neighborhood near the University of the Witwatersrand, was trying to block police Oct. 10 from entering the church, where some students had taken refuge. Reportedly, his hands were up when he was shot at close range by police with rubber bullets.

Though there has not been an official report on his condition, a video shows Fr. Pugin, his mouth bloodied and dripping on his alb, walking with other students to receive care.

University students in South Africa have been protesting for four weeks over the proposed tuition rate hike. On Monday, students with the #FeesMustFall protestors lashed out after tough restrictions were placed on protests on campus.

The protests had begun peacefully, but students turned to disrupting classes and throwing stones and bottles at police and security guards. Protestors had also set a bus on fire.

“The students started throwing sizeable rocks that could have maimed or killed people. The police dispersed the crowd using stun grenades, teargas and water cannons. Some of the crowd remain outside the Great hall while others have since dispersed into Braamfontein,” a University spokesperson told Times Live, a South African news agency.

According to a statement by Fr. David Rowan with the Ignatian Solidarity Network, Fr. Pugin was a facilitator, along with other clergy and former student leaders, in working towards an agreement among students, management, and other stakeholders at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The shooting of Fr. Pugin, who was working to create an atmosphere of trust, has “shocked and distressed many”, but the community is still hopeful that a peaceful solution can be achieved.

Fr. Rowan noted that the Jesuit community is grateful for the prayers and well-wishes on behalf of Fr. Pugin, as well as the support they have received from the Jesuit General Congregation currently meeting in Rome and Archbishop Peter Wells, apostolic nuncio to South Africa.

Fr. Rowan added that while the Jesuit community is in favor of working toward a peaceful agreement in the fees crisis, it is just the first step of addressing the problems that exist in South Africa’s education system.

“We believe there needs to be a concerted effort, involving all sectors of society, to deal with the historical context and systemic problems which make higher education inaccessible and unaffordable for millions of poor South Africans,” he said.

“We appeal to all involved to pledge themselves to restore peace on and around our campuses.”

The South African bishops’ conference released a statement following the shooting of Fr. Pugin, extending their “sincere sympathy and prayers for a speedy recovery” for the priest who was “offering refuge to frightened students.”

The bishops added that while they support the students’ right to demand a good and affordable education, they do not condone the violence and looting associated with the protests.

They also said they believe the best course forward is for students and educators to continue with the academic year while working out a compromise for the future.

“… the solution suggested by the students at the moment is beyond the financial and organizational capabilities of university authorities. However, it must remain on our agenda as the priority for the future,” the bishops wrote.

“What is to be done is for the government to ensure that this academic year is completed in peace. The government and students must now iron out their difficulties. A compromise must be considered as the huge financial demands of university free education cannot be found instantaneously.”

South Africa’s government had proposed a similar tuition hike of 10-12 percent in 2015, but froze fees after similar protests.

The student protests are the country’s largest since the 1994 end of apartheid. According to the BBC, protestors claim the rate hikes are discriminatory against black students, as the average income of black families is much less than that of white families in South Africa.

In a Sept. 27 statement, the South African bishops’ conference had voiced hope that there would be found “a realistic plan of making it possible for the poor and working class families to have access to higher education after the year 2017” and that the private sector would “look into other ways of increasing their financial support to make education affordable to the poor and working class families.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Why millions of girls can’t celebrate the U.N.’s girl awareness day

by CNA/EWTN News • October 11, 2016

(Itsmejust via Shutterstock)

New York City, N.Y. — Today is International Day of the Girl Child, declared by the United Nations as a day to raise awareness of programs and services that are needed to empower girls around the world, particularly in the areas of health, safety, education, and rights.

But millions of girls won’t experience this day, because their right to be born was never acknowledged.

That’s what Reggie Littlejohn, president of advocacy group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said in her message about the International Day of the Girl Child.

An estimated 200 million girls in the countries of India and China, where male children are valued more than female children, have fallen victim to sex-selective abortions.

“The message of sex-selective abortion is that girls and women do not deserve to live. The selective elimination of 200 million women demands the passionate outrage of the women’s movement. It should be the number one priority of the international women’s movement,” Littlejohn said in a message marking the day.

Sex-selective abortions are not just limited to underdeveloped countries – it is a persistent problem around the world, including in the United States.

A study released by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, analyzed U.S. census data from 2000 and found that third births in families of foreign-born Chinese, Indians, and Koreans in the U.S. who already had two daughters displayed a ratio of 151 boys to 100 girls – an extreme male-biased ratio. The normal ratio for boys to girls is 103 to 106 per 100.

But the situation is especially dire in China, where families were asked to limit their offspring to just one child since 1980. Many families who desired male offspring to carry on the family name aborted female children in hopes of bearing a son.

The policy was only recently changed to a two-child policy in October 2015, but the perception that males are more valuable continues.

That’s why Women’s Rights Without Frontiers launched their “Save a Girl” Campaign in China, which rescued hundreds of baby girls from gendercide and spared their mothers from forced or coerced abortions.

The campaign offers struggling mothers a monthly stipend for a year to help with expenses as they care for their newborn girls.

In her message, Littlejohn described the story of Lian, a little girl who was saved through the campaign. Her mother, who lived in a rural village in China and was already helping with medical expenses for other family members, was told when she found out she was pregnant that it was not a good time for the family to have a baby. When she found out her baby was a girl, the pressure to abort increased.

Lian’s mother did not want an abortion, and reached out to Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, who sent a fieldworker to her home to help.

“(The fieldworker) told Lian’s mother that girls are just as precious as boys. She offered Lian’s mother a monthly stipend for a year to empower her to keep her daughter,” Littlejohn recalled.

“Lian’s mother gratefully accepted our offer of help. She gave birth to Lian, a beautiful and healthy baby girl, and she is delighted with her new daughter. Lian’s mother told our fieldworker that, without our help, she ‘would have no chance to see her daughter, who now makes her so happy.’”

On the International Day of the Girl Child, Littlejohn asks: “In honor of the International Day of the Girl Child, won’t you help us save more girls like Lian? So far, we have saved more than 200 girls, and yet there are millions more who are being aborted and abandoned just because they are girls. Each one of these girls is infinitely precious.”

Donations to the campaign can be made here.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers also works to help combat a host of issues that constitute violence against women, including forced abortion and sterilization, female suicide and sexual suicide.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Christian TV networks in Pakistan ordered to close over lack of permits

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

(Santi Villamarin via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)

Lahore, Pakistan — Several Christian television stations in Pakistan were ordered to stop transmitting last month, after the nation’s media regulator found that they didn’t have the legal permit required to broadcast their materials.

“It’s true that we didn’t have permission for the radio,” Alessandro Monteduro, president of the Italian branch of Aid to the Church in Need, told CNA Oct. 12.

For two years Monteduro’s branch has been supporting a specific project on Catholic TV, the television network of the Archdiocese of Lahore.

While Monteduro admitted they didn’t have the necessary legal permit in order to broadcast their content, he said the network had been following the proper legal procedures, but that the procedures had been changed and that they were unaware of the changes.

In Monteduro’s opinion, the absence of the permit was used as an excuse to close Catholic TV and the other 10 networks, preventing the Christian message from being heard in Pakistani society.

He said such acts are the daily bread of Christians in the country, and that by now they “are used to it.”

The order to close the networks was issued by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which is a body of the Pakistani government.

Issued Sept. 22, the citation included Catholic TV and 10 other Christian television networks broadcasting in Urdu considered to be illegal, terming them “unauthorized TV.”

The citation said that “all the Regional Directors General are invited to take the necessary steps to immediately stop the illegal transmission of TV channels in their respective regions.”

Monteduro expressed his regret for the 11 people working for Catholic TV in Lahore who are now out of a job. He was sceptical about the possibility of re-opening the network, saying that “without a collective indignation I don’t think we will be given the possibility of reopening.”

“A form of indignation is needed,” he repeated, but said that, although the prospects are difficult, it might be possible for the network to start again from zero, re-establishing themselves anew with the proper legal permits.

Fr. Robert McCulloch, an Australian priest and member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, spoke to CNA about the closing of the networks, cautioning that “it’s important not to overreact” to the situation.

Having lived in Pakistan for 34 years, from 1978-2011, the priest was decorated by the Pakistani government in 2012 for his services to health and education in the country.

Although the closing of the networks is sad to see, Fr. McCulloch noted that “these are not big TV channels … they’re small diocesan networks or even parish networks that are being set up, maybe in a particular locality,” so for the most part “they’re not national.”

He said that rather than making the decision out of direct malice toward Christians, it’s possible the government is cracking down more on organizations without proper permits for telecommunications activities due to their intensifying conflict with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been tense since a Sept. 18 attack by militants on an army base in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Some in India believe the militants were were backed by Pakistan, and India has claimed to have carried out “surgical strikes” against suspected militants along the “line of control” between Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Given the situation, the priest noted that “things are rather tense there at the present time.”

With Lahore sitting within 100 miles of Kashmir, “anything concerning telecommunications, anything like that is being heavily monitored.”

Fr. McCulloch emphasized the need to be “very careful” when it comes to describing the situation of Christians in Pakistan, saying that while they certainly face “intense discrimination,” which at times includes violence, the situation is “not one of persecution.”

“Our hospitals are open, we’ve got a major seminary in Karachi for the last four years where there are 84 seminarians coming in and out, that’s open,” he said, stressing that the situation isn’t nearly the same as in other countries, such as North Korea, China, Saudia Arabia, Iran, or Afghanistan.

“People have got to be careful in terms of what words they use in describing the situation there. Discrimination certainly, but persecution not.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

How Europe’s bishops plan to guide the Church through murky waters

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

(Symbiot via Shutterstock)

Rome, Italy — Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco has been elected the new President of the European Bishops Conference – a move which makes a clear statement in terms of how the continent’s leaders plan on facing a broad spectrum of current crises.

An outspoken voice on many current issues, Bagnasco has come out as a hard-hitter on several biggies, including gender theory, abortion, civil unions and communion for the divorced and remarried.

He has a powerful presence in the European Church, and his election can be seen as planting the Church’s foot firmly toward the right in a socio-economic context pulling hard to the left.

Also the President of the Italian Bishops Conference and Archbishop of Genoa, Bagnasco was elected by the Council of Catholic Episcopal Conferences in Europe (CCEE) during their Oct. 6-9 Plenary Assembly and will take over for Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, who has been at the helm since 2006.

The CCEE is a gathering of the presidents of the individual European Bishops Conferences. In his role as president, Bagnasco will be responsible not so much for political procedures, but will head a wide range of activities the individual bishops conferences oversee, including catechesis.

Alongside him were the significant elections of two vice presidents: Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, and Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, Poland.

In front of the backdrop of shady proposals made during the recent Synod of Bishops on the Family that deviate from Church doctrine as well as the increase of secularism in Europe, the selections altogether make a clear statement as to which direction the continent’s leaders want the Church to go.

In one sense the bishops are striving toward unity, particularly in the appointment of Nichols, who serves as a bridge between Europe and the UK in the age of Brexit and within an increasingly fractured Europe rife with problems caused by migration and economic instability.

Gadecki, for his part, is a significant pick given his stance in the recent 2014-2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family.

With several pockets, primarily from among the German bishops, pushing for a change in the Church’s position on both homosexuality and communion for the divorced and remarried, Gadecki represents the opposite, coming from among those Eastern European bishops who stood firmly in favor of Church doctrine during the two-year gathering.

The individual profiles of Bagnasco, Nichols and Gadecki, and the election of the trio to head the CCEE sends a clear signal as to the tone Europe’s bishops want to set for the discussion.

Effective immediately upon their election, the new president and vice presidents will serve a five year term, either stepping down at the next voting session, or staying on should they be re-elected.

Considered by some to be “papabile” – meaning he’s in the running to be elected Pope during the next conclave – Cardinal Bagnasco’s personal positions are similar to those of Francis himself, from pastoral action to political involvement.

In 2008 he urged Catholics to be more active in the public square, taking on a more courageous and coherent presence, as Francis has often done.

“Catholics must bring the contribution of spiritual and ethical values into the public square,” he said in an interview published in L’Osservatore Romano.

“The presence (in the public square) must be assumed by Catholics with greater persuasiveness and a greater capacity to respectfully explain our convictions, knowing that they come both from the Gospel and from a common understanding of the value of life,” he added.

Catholics “do not want to impose a religious vision of society, but to propose universal values,” he said, adding that “the most credible argument, of course is the witness of our own personal life.”

Bagnasco has consistently taken his own words to heart. A year later, when Italian healthcare officials in 2009 approved the sale of the abortion drug RU-486, he urged doctors opposed to the drug to exercise their right to conscientious objection, calling for “an end to corruption and injustice.”

More recently, in 2014 the cardinal responded to threats on the life of an anti-mafia priest, offering his support and calling for an end to corruption and injustice.

In May of this year, Bangasco came in swinging at the push for civil unions in Italy, throwing a firm punch at the bill approving civil unions which had just passed in the nation’s parliament.

In a powerful speech ahead of the annual Plenary Assembly of the Italian Bishops’ conference, he stressed that the law “certifies an equivalence” between civil unions and marriage, even “though the law affirms that civil unions and marriage are different things.”

Such “differences are only tricks of terminology or juridical artifacts, which can be easily bypassed.”

The cardinal said the topic of civil unions is of trivial interest to most, and that people “want the parliament to be committed” to tackling real issues, such as Italy’s high unemployment rate and poverty.

“These are the real problems of the country, of the people. So, is not understandable why (the Italian Parliament) spent so much emphasis and energy on causes that do not tackle these issues, and merely respond to ideological schemes.”

When it comes to touchy subjects brought up more recently such as communion for the divorced and remarried, Bagnasco has been a strong opponent of the “Kasper Proposal,” referring to German Cardinal Walter Kasper’s push to allow access on a case by case basis, particularly in the lead-in to the 2014 Synod of Bishops on the Family.

However, long before Amoris Laetitia and the 2014-2015 Synod, Bagnasco was already speaking out on the issue, presenting theories as to how the Church could be more mother-like while still not allowing access to the Eucharist.

In June 2008, while presenting a book on the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Genoa, Bagnasco came out in strong opposition to the reception of communion for the divorced and remarried, saying it was “impossible” for couples in the state to receive the Sacrament.

The fact that these couples can’t receive “does not depend on an external disposition but rather comes from the interior of the sacrament of the Eucharist itself, the sacrament of the perennial unity between the love of Christ and humanity,” he said.

He pointed to the example of Catholics who are separated and who “suffer from this difficult situation, but nonetheless live in fidelity to the indissolubility of the sacrament and desire to meet and pray together, to exchange experiences and encourage one another.”

This situation “is one of the ways in which the maternity of the Church is expressed,” he added.

He has also spoken out about Christian persecution and assisted suicide, which are both things Pope Francis himself has harshly condemned.

In his speech at the Eucharistic Congress in Genoa in September, Bagnasco said these things are the result of “a world order without God.”

“Even today Christians experience martyrdom,” not only in the bloody, “classical” way, but also in new forms, “refined, but not less cruel; legalized, but not less unjust,” he said, referring to the legalized killing of Christians in countries such as Pakistan, whose blasphemy laws still allow the practice.

Cardinal Bagnasco pointed his finger at a Europe that considers Christianity as “divisive” and at the world which “in the name of values like equality, tolerance and rights” claims to “marginalize Christianity” and establish “a world order without God.”

In comments to CNA at the time, he criticized the practice of assisted suicide, citing the recent euthanasia of a minor in Belgium – a terminally ill 17 year-old boy – as “definitely one of the outcomes of a world order without God.”

Clearly on top of current issues and fearless in speaking out on them, Cardinal Bagnasco has proven himself to be a solid figure that won’t be easily moved.

Though he tends toward the Church’s more conservative side, he takes a balanced approach and is willing to listen, yet won’t back down from a fight if needed, even if it should come from within the Church itself.

The election of Bagnasco alone is proof that many of Europe’s individual bishops’ conferences are well aware of the issues at stake, and have made it clear how they want to tackle them. And if Bagnasco’s tenure so far is any indication, it won’t take long for him or his two sidekicks to get to work.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Carl Anderson: Christian forgiveness is the path to Middle East peace

by CNA/EWTN News • October 14, 2016

Supreme Knight Dr. Carl A. Anderson address the 129th Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention during the States Dinner. (Peter Zelasko/CNA)

New York City, N.Y. — Christianity is at a crossroads in the Middle East, and only a dedicated campaign of aid and activism can help Christians survive as a merciful, forgiving leaven in the region, said the head of the Knights of Columbus Wednesday.

“Either Christianity will survive and offer a witness of forgiveness, charity and mercy, or it will disappear, impoverishing the region religiously, ethnically and culturally,” Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight and CEO of the Knights of Columbus, said Oct. 12.

His remarks came at the awards banquet for the Path to Peace Award.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the apostolic nuncio heading the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the U.N., conferred the award in recognition of the Knights of Columbus’ work in the Middle East and their humanitarian work throughout the world. The award is granted by the Path to Peace Foundation, which supports the Holy See’s U.N. mission.

Anderson outlined three steps to aid the Christians of the Middle East.

“The first step on the path to peace in this region has been taken,” he said. “Christians have forgiven their persecutors. The second step must be a level of government funding directed to those communities that have faced genocide, so that they, and their witness, can survive. The third step must be the creation of real equality regardless of religious belief.”

“If we take these steps, we will not only have saved the faith of a people, we will have ensured that their witness of mercy and reconciliation – which is the only authentic path to peace – continues to be a leaven in this region.”

The Knights’ support campaign began in 2014, raising millions of dollars for Christians and other minorities suffering from war or persecution in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria. The organization was a leader in the successful effort to persuade Congress to recognize the persecution of Christians as genocide. This designation triggered additional protections and programs under U.S. law.

Anderson stressed the need to preserve religious pluralism in general and Christianity specifically.

“The Christian witness of mercy and forgiveness is the true path to peace in the Middle East,” Anderson said, noting Christianity’s ancient roots there.

He cited Melkite Catholic Archbishop Jean-Celement Jeanbart of Aleppo’s frequent reminder that St. Paul did not baptize Syrian Christians. Rather, they baptized St. Paul.

“And I would add this. They had to forgive him before they baptized him,” Anderson said. “When asked to visit Paul, (the) Syrian Christian Ananias’ first reaction was to remind the Lord that Paul had persecuted Christians. Ananias had to forgive, then embrace his former persecutor.”

Anderson said Christians have lived “heroically” in the Middle East for 2,000 years.

“This is the history of Christians indigenous to the Middle East. They forgive, and by doing so they open the path to peace,” the Supreme Knight continued. “Today, they have given up everything but their faith, for their faith. But even having lost so much, they have given a great gift, to their fellow citizens and to the world. The gift they have given is the example of forgiveness and mercy – the fundamental building blocks of peace.”

He cited the example a young girl severely burned by members of the Islamic State group in Mosul who was dying of her injuries in a hospital. Before she died, she asked her mother to forgive them.

Another girl told ABC’s 20/20 News she also forgives ISIS.

“Jesus said ‘forgive each other, love each other the way I love you,’ that is what we need to learn. Forgiveness,” she said.

A Chaldean Catholic Iraqi priest, Father Douglas Bazi, was captured by terrorists for nine days. They tortured him, knocked out his teeth, and broke his back with a hammer.

During the torture, the priest prayed the rosary, using the chain links on his shackles as beads. He still tried to minister to his torturers, telling one that if they crossed paths again, “I will buy you a cup of tea.”

“This Christian witness of mercy and forgiveness is having an effect,” Anderson said, citing a Yazidi family who told a Knights of Columbus team that almost all the assistance they have received have come from Christians.

Anderson continued to stress the vital role of Christians in the region.

“A true path to peace in the region requires the presence of Christians within a pluralistic society in which they are full and equal citizens. This means they must survive, and they must be treated equally,” he said.

The Supreme Knight called for direct funding to communities who are victims of genocide. U.S. and U.N. officials in Iraq have said they prioritize aid to individuals in the most need, but do nothing for groups as such, even if the groups have been targeted for genocide.

“Victims and survivors of genocide should be prioritized,” Anderson said, adding that communities facing extinction should not be ignored.

Aid channels have failed and government delivery systems are unreliable, he reported, advocating that financial aid be delivered directly to threatened communities through new channels and new partnerships with religious organizations.

“If it is not done, the genocide begun by ISIS will likely succeed by our own inaction,” Anderson warned.

He suggested that given the vast amounts of foreign aid to the region from the U.S. and other countries gives leverage to secure real equality and human rights for threatened minorities.

“We must insist that Christians and other non-majority communities are no longer marginalized,” he said.

Anderson invoked the Knights of Columbus’ long history of humanitarian relief, advocacy and public awareness work.

The Knights aided persecuted Christians in Armenia and the Middle East in the early 20th century and supported persecuted Mexican Catholics around the same time. The organization advocated for Jews in Germany before World War II and for religious freedom in Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

Previous recipients of the Path to Peace Award include U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former President Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines, and former President Lech Walesa of Poland.

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternity, has about 1.9 million members worldwide. The Knights’ relief fund for Middle East Christians and other minorities is accepting donations through its webpage at kofc.org/iraq.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

WORLD NEWS

Boko Haram releases 21 kidnapped Nigerian girls

by CNA/EWTN News • October 14, 2016

Nigerian school girls. (European Commission DG ECHO via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)

Washington D.C. — Radical Islamist militant group Boko Haram has released 21 schoolgirls kidnapped from the Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014 in a deal with the national government.

Their release was confirmed as “the outcome of negotiations between the administration and Islamist militants” by Garba Shehu, spokesman for Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari.

The BBC had been told by a security official that several captive militants were released in exchange for the birls, but the Nigeran government has since denied this.

The girls were among 276 teenage girls, now mostly ages 16 to 18, kidnapped in April 2014 from their school in Chibok, located in Nigeria’s Borno state. Their abduction sparked global outrage and a social media hashtag “#BringBackOurGirls.”

Since 2014, 58 of the girls have escaped, but the majority have remained missing. In April 2016, CNN obtained footage of the girls, allegedly recorded in December 2015 of 15 of the girls identifying themselves.

Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group whose name means “Western education is sinful,” is regarded as being among the deadliest terror groups in the world.

The group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and has been in contact with the Nigerian government and has appeared in video messages about the kidnappings. Other video messages filmed by Boko Haram members have claimed that the girls have converted to Islam and threatened to force the girls into marriages and slavery.

Based in northern Nigeria and active in Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, Boko Haram has been responsible for attacks on villages, schools, and churches and has killed tens of thousands of Christians and other Muslims in recent years.

The group has also resorted to using children and girls in suicide bombing missions as parts of territory controlled by the group have come under attack by local forces seeking to reclaim the area.

In March 2015, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

CatholicVote.org calls for Trump to step down after lewd comments on women

by CNA/EWTN News • October 8, 2016

Donald Trump. (Christopher Halloran via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — The Catholic political advocacy group CatholicVote.org has joined calls for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to step down following his lewd comments about women in a leaked audio recording from 2005.

“Newly released comments by Donald Trump … are disgusting and simply indefensible,” the organization wrote in an Oct. 8 statement. “Catholic voters rightly will be unnerved by these developments.”

“In our own opinion the viability of Donald Trump’s candidacy is now in question. Furthermore, the good many hoped to achieve, in spite of Trump’s many well-known flaws, is also now in doubt. If Donald Trump is unwilling to step aside, the Republican National Committee must act soon out of basic decency and self-preservation.”

CatholicVote.org isn’t the only organization calling for Trump to step down from presidential race. Many leading Republicans have withdrawn their endorsements of Trump following the leak.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal Saturday that despite these calls to step down, there is “zero chance I’ll quit.”

In the leaked video, Trump uses graphic language in bragging to “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush about kissing, groping and trying to seduce married women. Trump tells Bush “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”

CatholicVote.org has said Trump’s comments in the recording are indefensible.

“Christians should not waste their breath defending them,” the organization said. “The mere fact that this conversation is occurring in the context of a presidential campaign impoverishes us all.”

Until now, Catholics have had mixed reactions to the GOP candidate. Pro-life advocates have questioned Trump’s commitment to the pro-life cause, due to his strong pro-choice statements in 1999 and 2000. Trump has also described his sister Maryanne Trump Barry as an ideal Supreme Court nominee, despite her striking down New Jersey’s ban on partial-birth abortions as a judge.

And while the GOP candidate says he opposes same-sex marriage, he has attracted criticism from defense-of-marriage groups who note that he has bragged in the past about having affairs with other married women. Additionally, Trump’s casino was the first in Atlantic City to have an in-house strip club.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Aquinas College in Nashville marks a year of firsts with on-campus dorm

by Maggie Maslak (CNA/EWTN News) • October 9, 2016

Siena Hall, the new on-campus dorm at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee. (Aquinas College)

Nashville, TN — Five decades into their establishment as a college, Aquinas College in Nashville is breaking ground on campus for the first time in over forty years, making a landmark addition to their school: a new residence hall.

“We are now able to house all full time students on campus, which allows us to draw from outside the Nashville metropolitan area,” the school’s president, Sister Mary Sarah, told CNA in an email interview.

“At present we are drawing from 28 states in the US and hope to increase that number in the coming years,” she continued.

Aquinas College was established in 1961 as a two-year Catholic, liberal arts college, later changing to a four-year college in 1994. Rooted in the Dominican discipline, Aquinas College has been owned and administered by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation since its beginning. Their mission is “to serve the Church by transforming lives for the Gospel of Christ,” according to their website.

Although dorms are a staple for many colleges, Aquinas College’s residential life was non-existent before 2012, and it was essentially known as a commuter college. The Aquinas students usually rented nearby apartments, or lived at home if they were from the area.

In 2012, the adjacent St. Thomas West Hospital offered Aquinas College a building called Seton Lodge and the school began to use the lodge to house men on one floor, and women on another floor. However, as the school continued to grow, so did its need for additional student housing.

“Aquinas has been planning to build residence halls on campus for many years,” Sister Sarah noted, pointing to the construction of a brand new women’s dormitory called Siena Hall.

Just in time for the 2016-2017 academic year, Siena Hall was completed, and is set to be dedicated Nov. 7, the Feast of All Saints of the Order of Preachers. The women have moved into the 93-bed residence, while the men are continuing to use Seton Lodge for their housing.

Siena Hall marks the first new construction on Aquinas campus in over forty years, and is the only dorm located on Aquinas property. The namesake of the building, St. Catherine of Siena, has a particular significance to the Dominican community, as St. Catherine herself was of the Dominican order.

Before 2012, Aquinas College had been successful without any on-campus dorms, but they are now able to cater to a wider audience, currently drawing students from 28 different states and abroad. The average student who attends Aquinas has traveled an average of over 500 miles.

“We currently enroll 344 students with plans to expand to a population of approximately 1,000 students,” Sister Sarah noted.

In addition to the new dorm, Aquinas College is marking their year with a number of other firsts. They have added their first dining hall, which offers catered lunches and dinners, and hired five additional faculty members and three new majors: mathematics, marketing, and psychology.

Although the college has an intimate feel, with the average class size of about 11 students, Aquinas also has plans to further expand in the future, outlined in their Vision 2020: Truth and Charity strategic plan. This project is grounded in the Four Pillars of Dominican Education: prayer, study, community, and service, “which serves as the roadmap for Aquinas’ future,” Sister Sarah stated.

“Since releasing the plan in 2014, many of the strategic goals have been implemented, including a study abroad program in Bracciano, Italy, five new majors, international mission trips, more vibrant student life, a House system, perpetual adoration chapel, expanded chapel space to accommodate the increased attendance at daily Mass and Siena Hall, a women’s residence hall.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

One fewer Christian-owned bakery after religious freedom fight

by CNA/EWTN News • October 10, 2016

(Bikeriderlondon via Shutterstock)

Portland, OR — A Christian couple has closed their Oregon bakery, which faced heavy fines after they declined to make a cake for a same-sex “wedding” ceremony.

“We have closed Sweet Cakes,” the bakery said on its Facebook page Sept. 29. “We appreciate everyone’s continued prayer and support!”

The announcement did not give further explanation for the closure. Its storefront in Gresham, Oregon was closed in 2013 but the owners, married couple Aaron and Melissa Klein, had continued to operate at home, Portland’s Q13 Fox News reports.

Hiram Sasser, deputy chief counsel for the First Liberty Institute, the legal group representing the couple, said they closed the bakery “months ago” but they still received inquiries about possible orders.

“Aaron and Melissa simply wanted to update their Facebook page to eliminate any confusion,” Sasser said. “We believe in tolerance and respect for the variety of beliefs we have in our society and are hopeful we can restore freedom of tolerance and belief in this case.”

At one point, the Kleins refused to pay a $135,000 fine ordered by the State of Oregon for declining to make a cake for a same-sex wedding in 2013. They later paid the money, but it is in an escrow account pending legal appeals.

“We lost our business,” Melissa Klein said in a February 2016 video produced by First Liberty Institute. “You work so hard to build something up, and something you’ve poured your heart into and was your passion, to lose that has been devastating for me.”

“We served these two women in the past, we had a great time,” Klein said. “When I do a cake, I feel a part of what these people are celebrating. For me to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding would fully go against what I believe.”

Supporters of the Kleins raised over $500,000 for them through an online campaign.

In 2013, Aaron Klein declined to make the cake for the same-sex couple who had previously patronized the bakery. He told the Oregonian newspaper he chose not to make the cake because he believes marriage is “a religious institution between a man and woman as stated in the Bible.”

Klein said his bakery sold its pastries and cakes to all customers, regardless of sexual orientation, but they turned down requests for cakes for same-sex ceremonies specifically. The bakery had crosses on its walls and the New Testament passage John 3:16 on its website.

Rachel Cryer, the woman who filed the complaint against the bakery, claimed Klein said she and her partner were “abominations to the Lord” and that their money was not equal to others.

Klein denied making those statements.

“I apologized for wasting their time and said we don’t do same-sex marriages,” he told the ABC television affiliate KATU in 2013. “I honestly did not mean to hurt anybody, didn’t mean to make anybody upset.”

Laura Bowman, whose partner filed the legal complaint, said Cryer was “reduced to tears” when she heard the bakery would not bake the cake.

The couple had previously bought a wedding cake at the store several years before for one of the women’s mothers and her husband.

The complaint was filed with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Same-sex “marriage” was not recognized in the state at the time, but there were strict anti-discrimination provisions in law like the Oregon Equality Act.

“It is unfortunate the state of Oregon cannot simply leave people alone when it disagrees with their beliefs,” Sasser said. “America is a multicultural society with people of many different beliefs. The government is demanding everyone believe the same thing rather than tolerating the diversity of ideas and lifestyles that represent American multiculturalism.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Texas bishops: The death penalty is a pro-life issue

by CNA/EWTN News • October 10, 2016

(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Wikimedia CC BY 2.0)

Austin, Texas — The abolition of the death penalty is “undeniably a pro-life issue” that would better serve society and lead criminals to penitence, the Texas bishops have said.

“Our call to abolish the death penalty is not a call to deny justice. On the contrary, it is a call to the whole community to recognize that the death penalty does not fulfill justice, nor does it console the inconsolable,” the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops said Oct. 10. “Capital punishment vitiates our hearts’ capacity for mercy and love.”

In their statement, the bishops said the death penalty is disproportionately used on the poor, racial minorities, the vulnerable, people with limited mental capacity, and those who cannot afford an adequate legal defense.

“These realities contribute to a callous disregard for the dignity of human life. The death penalty negatively influences our children’s moral formation and our culture as it fails to allow for mercy and redemption.”

The bishops also had a warning: “innocent people are killed by the government on our behalf.” At least 23 known innocent people have been executed since 2000.

Public resources that are dedicated to defending the death penalty could be better spent elsewhere, the bishops continued. Citing the Death Penalty Information Center, they said the cost to house a prisoner for a life sentence is 33 percent the costs of legal appeals for a death row prisoner.

Texas has executed 538 people since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. It has carried out the most executions in any U.S. state. Oklahoma has performed the second-most executions since 1976, with 112 uses of the death penalty.

The Texas bishops reflected on crime and punishment.

“Due process for the accused, the incarceration of the guilty, and the protection of the community serve justice and mercy,” they said. “As a Church, we strive to walk with those who have time to repent,” they said, stressing the importance of prison ministry.

The bishops also spoke about crime victims.

“As a Church we accompany our brothers and sisters, children, parents and loved ones as we see them suffer from the heinous and violent actions of others,” they said. “Only God can console them, yet we offer what comfort we can with our presence and prayer. The healing that comes from forgiveness has been a powerful force in the lives of many families who have experienced violence.”

The Texas bishops spoke of the death penalty in the context of the U.S. Catholic Church’s Respect Life Month:

“During this time, we pray and reflect on the precious gift of life and recommit ourselves to working toward a culture that truly welcomes and protects human life in our society, from conception to natural death.”

For these bishops, Saint John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” is a guide. It said that the conditions for legitimate death penalty use are “very rare, if not practically non-existent.”

They also cited Pope Francis’ October 2014 statement to an international gathering of lawyers: “it is impossible to imagine that states today cannot make use of another means than capital punishment to defend people’s lives from an unjust aggressor.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that non-lethal efforts to preserve public order are better in keeping with the common good and the dignity of the human person.

Furthermore, the catechism does not recognize deterrence as a justification for the death penalty, the bishops said. Crime statistics comparisons with other states without the death penalty appear to show Texas’ death penalty is not an effective deterrent.

The message of Texas’ bishops coincided with a message from Pope Francis. On Oct. 10, he tweeted against the death penalty, saying “punishment should necessarily include hope!”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Trump tape splits Catholic support

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • October 10, 2016

Donald Trump. (Christopher Halloran via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — Recently released audio of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women in 2005 has created a split in his Catholic supporters – with some continuing to back him and others pulling away from the GOP nominee.

Joseph Cella, Catholic liaison to the Trump campaign and founder of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, called the comments “repulsive and undignified” and said they “cannot be condoned or defended.”

He reiterated his support for Trump, however.

“Donald Trump and Mike Pence remain the only candidates in this election who will bring jobs back home where they belong, keep our families and communities safe, defend the right to life, the right to fully and freely exercise our religious freedom, and other issues of great importance to Catholics – and most importantly, they will appoint Supreme Court justices who will do the same for future generations,” he stated.

Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House came under fire over the weekend after comments he made in 2005 surfaced in the media. Trump had bragged to “Access Hollywood” about trying to grope, kiss, and seduce women, claiming that “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”

That report follows other reports from earlier in the campaign of Trump’s past statements about women that were degrading, from lewd talk about their bodies to saying which ones he would or wouldn’t have sex with.

On Sunday night’s presidential debate in St. Louis, Trump was asked about the remarks by moderator Anderson Cooper.

“You called what you said ‘locker room banter’. You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault,” Cooper told Trump. “You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”

“No, I didn’t say that at all,” Trump responded, reiterating that “this was locker room talk” and that “I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family, I apologize to the American people. Certainly, I’m not proud of it.”

He then shifted focus to global war and terrorism, saying that “I will take care of ISIS, and we should get onto much more important things, and much bigger things.”

Cooper pressed him on whether or not he had admitted to kissing and groping women “without consent.” Trump replied that “I have tremendous respect for women. And women have respect for me” before finally saying that he had not committed those offenses.

On Saturday, CatholicVote.org had released a statement calling the remarks “disgusting and simply indefensible.” While they acknowledged having “defended” some of Trump’s policy proposals like “on school choice and parental leave, his pledges on judicial nominations, and his recent commitment to defend and protect religious liberty,” the group has never officially endorsed his candidacy. They have said instead that “although we remain unsure of Trump’s dedication to Catholic values and have not officially endorsed him for President, we do believe Catholics can in good conscience vote for Donald Trump.”

On Saturday, however, the group struck a different tone.

“In our opinion, the viability of Donald Trump’s candidacy is now in question,” they stated. “Furthermore, the good many hoped to achieve, in spite of Trump’s many well-known flaws, is also now in doubt. If Donald Trump is unwilling to step aside, the Republican National Committee must act soon out of basic decency and self-preservation.”

Other Christian leaders who have endorsed Trump either expressed hesitation over continuing to support him, or stopped publicly supporting him over the weekend.

Prominent Evangelical theologian Wayne Grudem withdrew his support for Trump’s candidacy and asked Trump to drop out of the race.

“His vulgar comments in 2005 about his sexual aggression and assaults against women were morally evil and revealed pride in conduct that violates God’s command, ‘You shall not commit adultery’,” he stated. “God intends that men honor and respect women, not abuse them as sexual objects.”

R.R. Reno, the editor of the journal First Things and a Catholic, recently endorsed Trump along with several other writers, but explained to the Washington Post over the weekend that he could not finish writing an op-ed endorsing Trump after the news broke of his 2005 comments.

“It’s not just that I’m jammed up with deadlines, but Trump has hit new moral lows (who thought that possible???) and I’m beginning to regret signaling any public support,” he said in an email to the Post.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, has insisted that pro-lifers should support Trump for his pro-life policy proposals and promise to nominate pro-life Supreme Court justices.

However, the group has issued no public statement on Trump’s comments, and did not respond on Monday when CNA requested comment.

Some Catholics stood by the candidate, insisting that he remained the best option.

Fr. Frank Pavone, speaking personally and not as president of Priests for Life, insisted that “the lewd comments, made over a decade ago and for which Mr. Trump has apologized, and which I, like everyone else, find repulsive, do not in the least change my intentions of voting for him, of urging others to do so, and of advising his campaign.”

Trump will advance a greater agenda for the common good than will his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, Fr. Pavone continued, and to vote for him is not to endorse all of his private behavior.

“I hope my doctor is virtuous, but when it comes to treating me, whether he has made lewd comments doesn’t enter into the equation,” he explained his support.

And Trump is actually making “reparation” for his comments now, he added.

“What an incredible reparation Mr. Trump is making now for any past faults by the very fact that he is running as the Republican nominee for President, and is ready to nominate the right kind of judges and sign the right kinds of legislation, which will steer our nation away from so many morally corrupt public policies. A penitent sinner could hardly have a more substantial opportunity to make reparation.”

“It takes a great deal of moral courage, actually, to take the step Mr. Trump is taking by running for public office,” he continued. “He knows his past and knows what will be brought up about it. Yet he is willing to move forward both personally and professionally for the good of the country.”

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.), a Catholic member of Congress who is on Trump’s Catholic advisory board, stated his disgust for the comments, but still expressed his support for Trump’s candidacy over Clinton’s.

“I’m a father of five daughters. I am disgusted by the comments” he told WSAW. However, he added, “I didn’t agree to support him because of what he’s done in his personal life” bur rather “because I agree with his policies more than Hillary Clinton’s policies.”

A growing list of GOP officials have called for Trump’s resignation. The nominee has said that he will not step down.

Also mentioned in Sunday’s debate were issues of religious freedom, abortion, and the nomination of Supreme Court justices.

When asked about Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim refugees, Clinton responded that “we are a country founded on religious freedom and liberty. How do we do what he has advocated without causing great distress within our own country? Are we going to have religious tests when people fly into our own country?”

Clinton herself has come under fire for her support of measures that critics say would choke freedom of religion, including the HHS mandate – which requires employers to fund and facilitate contraception, even if they have religious objections – and requirements that vendors cater to same-sex wedding ceremonies.

On the question of which Supreme Court justice she would nominate to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Clinton insisted that the justice should be support abortion and same-sex marriage.

“I want a Supreme Court that will stick with Roe v Wade and a woman’s right to choose, and I want a Supreme Court that will stick with marriage equality,” she said.

“Now Donald has put forth the names of some people that he would consider. And among the ones that he has suggested are people who would reverse Roe v. Wade and reverse marriage equality. I think that would be a terrible mistake,” she added.

Trump, for his part, said that he would nominate “people that will respect the Constitution of the United States” and “also the Second Amendment.” He made no specific mention of marriage or life issues, but pointed to Scalia as a model justice.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

These nuns provide ‘death with dignity’ - but it’s not assisted suicide

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • October 11, 2016

Little Sisters of the Poor. (Becket Fund for Religious Liberty)

Washington D.C. — As states around the country consider legalizing physician-assisted suicide, “death with dignity” looks markedly different for patients under the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

In her nearly 30 years with the order that cares for the “elderly poor,” Sister Constance Veit, L.S.P. says she has never seen or heard a patient asking for a lethal prescription.

“I think that’s because they are surrounded with a caring human and spiritual presence in our homes,” she told an audience at the Heritage Foundation.

Sister Constance was part of a 2015 panel in Washington, D.C., on caring respectfully for the elderly sick. The event was titled “Living Life to Its Fullest.”

End-of-life care was placed in the national spotlight the previous year, when 29 year-old Brittany Maynard publicly announced her decision to take a lethal prescription rather than suffer terminal cancer.

In describing her situation, Maynard used terms that Sister Constance says she has never heard from the patients under her care, like “purposeless prolonged pain” and “prolonged involuntary suffering and shame.”

“I have never heard any of our residents use the word ‘shame’ in the context of their suffering and dying,” she said.

Maynard’s story caught the attention of many and brought about a national debate on physician-assisted suicide, which is already legal in some states. The Colorado state senate defeated an assisted suicide bill last year, but now voters this fall will be faced with a ballot measure seeking to legalize it. Washington, D.C. City Council will also consider an assisted suicide proposal in the coming days.

The Death With Dignity National Center is pushing for these laws around the country.

Critics say the laws would unfairly pressure the elderly and disabled to end their lives. They charge such laws would normalize suicide as a solution to problems and decrease respect for life in American culture.

Caring for the elderly in their final days, the Little Sisters of the Poor say that a patient and his or her loved ones can experience a tremendous amount of good in their last days together that would be lost if they decided to take their life prematurely.

Patients of the Little Sisters are cared for and pain is relieved – all that can be done for the sick patient is attempted. The patient is accompanied around the clock.

“I would say that the room of a dying person almost becomes the spiritual center of our house at that point for those days,” Sister Constance said. “Our home is their home.”

The sisters make sure to provide a “peaceful, prayerful presence” for the dying patient “for as long as it takes until they make that passage from this life to the next.”

And it can be a rich time of healing for the family. Sister Constance recalled how the sisters kept an eight-day vigil for one dying woman. Although she was not conscious, members of her family reconciled with each other during that time, and some even came back to the faith who had fallen away.

“There’s so much to be shared, learned, and gained through these intense moments that you cheat people out of when a life is ended prematurely,” the sister reflected.

“The majority of the family members involved with the residents who pass away in our homes experience it as a moment of grace and a thing of beauty,” she added, “it’s rare that they feel it was anything other than a very powerful spiritual and human moment.”

A version of this article originally ran April 1, 2015.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Colorado assisted suicide bill criticized for preying upon fear

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • October 11, 2016

(Charles Williams via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Denver, CO — A Colorado ballot proposal to legalize assisted suicide relies too much on fear and anxiety and ignores the ways better hospice care can provide for the terminally ill, a local hospice leader has said.

“Hospice is the antidote to physician assisted suicide because it’s a highly specialized area of medicine that focuses on education, symptom management and compassionate support,” said Kevin Lundy, CEO at the Colorado-based Divine Mercy Supportive Care.

He warned that the promotion of assisted suicide ignores realities at the end of life.

“People are amazingly resilient and every terminal illness situation is completely different based on the individual responses to the disease and the treatment they’re receiving,” Lundy said.

“People facing end of life can be inspiring, more honest than any time in their lives and completely selfless,” he added. “Their pain truly is manageable, but fear and anxieties have a tendency to impact ‘others’ who strive to alleviate all suffering for their loved ones.”

This year, Colorado voters will weigh the ballot proposal Proposition 106, known as the Colorado End-of-Life Options Act. It would allow an adult at least 18 years of age with a terminal illness to request a lethal prescription from his or her physician. The person must be deemed mentally competent and two physicians must diagnosis the person as having of six months or fewer to live. The measure also requires that such adults self-administer the drug, called secobarbital, which is also used for lethal injections in some states.

Lundy objected that the proposed law would require physicians “to lie on death certificates” and not recognize suicide as a cause of death. The law requires physicians to list a patient’s underlying condition, not suicide.

The ballot measure would have a broader impact, given trends in society and government, he predicted.

The Affordable Care Act of 2010, for instance, stops federal funding for individuals over age 80.

“When you begin to look at cost as a primary driver of care, then you find yourself operating in an environment where those without perceived value (by government or insurance companies, or others) are pressured into taking the cheaper way out,” Lundy commented.

He worried that legal assisted suicide could lead to a situation where hospices are forced to allow assisted suicide procedures or lose funding from government or private insurance. There could be legal action from patients who believe a refusal to provide assisted suicide violates their rights.

Lundy emphasized that Divine Mercy Care would never provide assisted suicide services, as it violates Catholic ethics and religion.

“Our hospice agency cares for individuals regardless of their financial abilities and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Depression can be a problem for people with a terminal illness, especially where they suffer a lack of faith or support from a “loving” community or hospice program, Lundy reported.

“Sometimes people are suddenly aware they’re going to die and need time to process that reality. Other times, they are afraid of being alone or leaving their loved ones alone,” he said. “Because dying has become a taboo subject in our culture, depression accompanies fear, anxiety and uncertainty.”

According to Lundy, a “loving and faith-based approach” like that of Divine Mercy Care can help diminish these fears and anxieties. The hospice often witnesses depression “transition into joy, acceptance and a celebration of life.”

Education about hospice would better help people with terminal illnesses, Lundy said. Only about half of individuals eligible for hospice benefits under Medicare are aware of it, with minority communities in particular lacking knowledge.

“Many people still believe that hospice is simply too expensive or that they have to leave their homes to be cared for,” he said. “In fact, it’s all provided at no cost to the patient, or the patients’ family, and it is provided wherever the person resides.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Detroit Mass highlights need to recognize sin in order to enjoy mercy

by CNA/EWTN News • October 12, 2016

(Lars Hallstrom via Shutterstock)

Detroit, MI — Seeking God’s forgiveness for generations of failures in the Church, the Archdiocese of Detroit held a Mass of Pardon asking God for grace and mercy.

“Repent and believe in the Good News, this is an inseparable prayer,” Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said in his homily for the Oct. 7 Mass.

He said the Mass is about “transforming those faults in our sins, the wounds we bear that bear death, and transforming those wounds into new sources of life.”

“That’s what pardon is in the Kingdom of God. It’s not about forgetting, it’s about transformation. Transforming our lives though Jesus Christ, now and forever,” the archbishop said, according to the Michigan Catholic.

Auxiliary Bishops Michael Byrnes, Arturo Cepeda and Donald Hanchon concelebrated the Mass with the archbishop at Detroit’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

At the start of Mass, the archbishop and bishops processed in and laid prostate before the altar as a long litany of sins and failures was recited between sung portions of the Kyrie, “Lord have mercy.”

The litany asked forgiveness for sins committed throughout the years, by clergy and faithful. They asked forgiveness, as a Church, for “ignoring the Word of God … and hiding behind policies and procedures,” for failures to protect children from sex abuse and for failing “to take to heart the Lord’s condemnation of those who scandalize ‘the little ones’.”

They sought pardon for “turning a deaf ear to the cries of the poor,” abandoning the widow and orphan, and institutionalized racism. Their other objects of penitence included “cowardice in confronting the culture of death,” “turning a blind eye to corruption,” and even for ill-prepared homilies.

They sought pardon for “tearing each other to pieces by our choosing bitterness, vanity, self-glory and worldly ways” and for “not picking up our crosses and following Jesus, for avoiding the purifying pains that come with a life of faith, hope and love.”

Archbishop Vigneron’s homily further reflected on penitence as an inherent part of Christian life.

“We’re repenting so that we can receive the Good News and share the Good News,” the archbishop said. “To be a band of joyful missionary disciples, we must first be evangelized. And to be evangelized, we must first repent.”

The Archdiocese of Detroit said the event was “an act of repentance before God.” It was an opportunity for the archbishop to represent the archdiocese before God and repent of “all the sins that have been committed, and in many cases were part of the culture of the Archdiocese, over many decades.”

In a September 2016 letter, Archbishop Vigneron explained the Mass of Pardon. He would go “personally before God to repent on behalf of the Archdiocese for the sins committed over the generations by our bishops, our priests, our lay ministers, our institutions, and all the faithful - sins which, all too often, have become embedded in our church-culture.”

He described the Mass of Pardon as a chance for “repentance and humility for every member of the archdiocese,” linking it to the Catholic Church’s Year of Mercy

The archbishop compared the Mass of Pardon to the Sacrament of Confession. The Mass is “a vital step in our imploring the Holy Spirit to grant us all the graces of a New Pentecost in our Archdiocese.”

“In God’s unfathomable wisdom, He gave us, sinners though we are, the responsibility of spreading the Good News, knowing that in our humanity we would err – but promising us deliverance from sin and death with our heartfelt repentance,” the Archbishop said.

The archbishop invited the faithful to join in prayers for forgiveness by saying a rosary, offering a day of fasting, visiting the Door of Mercy at the cathedral, or going to confession.

The Mass comes ahead of the upcoming archdiocesan synod, set for Nov. 18-20. It follows the example of St. John Paul II, who celebrated a similar Mass in March 2000.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Did you know there’s a third party based on Catholic teaching?

by CNA/EWTN News • October 12, 2016

(Unsplash/Catholic News Agency)

Washington D.C. — In a country long entrenched in a two-party political system, Mike Maturen faces an uphill battle.

He’s the 2016 presidential candidate for the little-known American Solidarity Party, which holds views rooted in Catholic social thought.

But while Maturen’s name won’t even be on the ballot in most states – he’s running a write-in campaign in several locations – he thinks this November is the time for Americans to voice their dissatisfaction with Republicans and Democrats alike, and create a better option.

Founded in 2011 as the Christian Democracy Party USA, the party later changed its name to better reflect its principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

“The party itself is a secular party that is informed by faith,” Maturen says. While its members come from various religious backgrounds, and some with no faith background at all, the party’s platform is based upon three pillars of Catholic social thought: solidarity, subsidiarity and distributism.

The American Solidarity Party does not find that it fits comfortably into “conservative” or “liberal” camps. Its platform is staunchly pro-life, but adds that this conviction must also include opposition to the death penalty, as well as social services for mothers in need. Its beliefs on marriage and religious liberty would be considered conservative, while its views on the environment, health care and immigration would be considered more liberal.

Maturen himself was raised Catholic, but left the Church in college and spent years as an evangelical Protestant and later an evangelical Episcopalian before returning to the Catholic Church in 2002. His story has appeared on the EWTN show, The Journey Home.

A few months ago, the party had just 200 members. Now it has 1200, in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. That’s still incredibly small by political party standards, but Maturen believes that dissatisfaction over the current election cycle is driving interest in third party candidates.

“(W)e will be a force to be reckoned with in the future,” he says.

CNA spoke to Maturen about the American Solidarity Party and its goal of creating a platform based upon Catholic Social Teaching. His comments are below:

Can you give a brief overview of your basic platform? Would you consider yourself conservative, liberal, or something else?

Politically, I lean to the conservative side, having spent most of my adult years as a conservative Republican. However, after meditating upon my religious faith and my political beliefs, I realized that the two didn’t always match up. I decided to research further what the Church teaches about the various issues our country deals with. It was then that I discovered the richness of Catholic Social Teaching. I began to work to align my politics with my faith. In that process, I discovered the American Solidarity Party. Our platform is based on Catholic Social Teaching. We could best be described as “centrist” as a party … but not centrist by today’s definition … Politically, we would be considered center-right on social issues and center-left on economic issues. We believe in the economic concept of distributism as taught by GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. We also believe in solidarity (we are all in this together) and subsidiarity, which teaches that problems are best solved where they reside – at the most local level possible. Higher levels of government should only intervene if asked, or if necessary. For instance, national security issues are best handled at the Federal level, while education issues are best handled at the local/parental level.

The American Solidarity Party calls itself a “whole life party.” What does that mean, and how does it differ from the two major parties today?

The term “whole life” is a short descriptive of believing in the sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death … the WHOLE life. We subscribe to what is often referred to as a “consistent life ethic.” When describing the positions of the two major parties, I like to use the analogy of a bowling alley. The Republican Party by and large has settled into the extreme right, while the Democrats have largely settled into the extreme left. We call these in bowling “the gutters.” Republicans are pro-life in that they are anti-abortion, but often they forget that life does not end when the umbilical cord is cut. The Democrats only seem to care about the babies AFTER they are born. Until then, they are free to sacrifice the unborn on the altar of convenience. Once the baby is born, the left is very good at providing for their care, with a social safety net, etc. We like to think that we take the best of both parties. We need to ensure that the unborn are protected. I believe that we need to have a constitutional or legal definition of personhood for the unborn. That will ensure their right to life. Once that baby is born, we need to be certain that tools are in place for their proper care, to include medical, social, etc. We also believe that a social safety net for the elderly, impoverished and disabled is a key component to the pro-life stance. Finally, we also believe that part of the consistent life ethic is to oppose euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research and the death penalty.

Your economic plan involves the distributism model. Can you explain a little more about what this would practically look like?

There really are several ways this can be implemented, either fully or incrementally. The core of distributism is to bring the economic engine closer to home. Rather than having a huge portion of our economy wrapped up in the hands and control of a few major corporations, we believe that it is the small business – the mom and pop shops – that drive the economy best. We would propose to re-write regulations to favor the small businesses and family farms, rather than the major corporations that also just so happen to be the major donors to our government officials. Regulations, taxes, etc all need to be re-thought and revamped.

How would you assess the state of the country right now? What are its most pressing needs?

I think our country is still among the greatest in the world. However, our society has become coarse. The current election cycle and the antics of the two major party candidates is really what is driving the growth of third parties and independents. The vulgarity, coarseness and pure venom of this presidential election is disgusting. Our politics should reflect our national ethic. What is missing today are the qualities of statesmanship and diplomacy. We can no longer have a national discussion without it devolving into insults, lies and mudslinging. While these things have always existed in politics, it has risen to a level never before seen. It is time to change the face of American politics and bring a fresh new perspective. We intend to be a catalyst for that change. Our pressing needs are many and varied. We need to reform immigration. We need to have a healthcare system that is fair and just. We need for taxes to be fair and equitable. We need to ensure that a social safety net is in place to care for those among us who are unable to care for themselves. We need to replace our current culture of death with a culture of life. We can do this by guaranteeing the right to life for ALL human beings, born and unborn. We believe in a hope for a future of peace, following the Just War theory. We also believe that we need to care for our shared home, the earth.

After economic issues, terrorism is the topic that ranks highest in voter concern this election. What is your plan to deal with ISIS?

ISIS is a tough pill to swallow. Our constant intervention in the affairs of other countries has led, at least partially, to the creation of ISIS. We do not believe in preemptive strikes. However, we do believe in a secure nation. If attacked, we will defend ourselves, and do so with force. We also need to use diplomacy to reduce the conditions that allow for ISIS to exist. Working with the leadership of the countries where ISIS lives and works, we can help to reduce this threat to not just the United States, but to nations in every corner of the world … and we can do so without interventionism and foreign entanglements, which the Founding Fathers warned us about.

Have you seen growth in your party over this past year?

Yes. We really only got started at gaining ballot access in July. We have grown from a handful of members in a few states to members in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. We have caught the attention of media, large and small … including mentions in publications from Ireland, Italy and the UK. While still comparatively small, we will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

What would you say to voters who are disillusioned by their choices in this election?

There is a better way. Don’t be stuck in the rut of the two party system. Voting for the lesser of two evils is STILL voting for evil, and only perpetuates the mindset that has gotten us to this point in our political history. The only wasted vote is a vote that is not cast. Do not listen to the apologists of the two-party system that a vote for a minor party candidate is a vote for Hillary, or a vote for Donald. These things are simply not true. A vote for Mike Maturen is a vote for Mike Maturen. The American Solidarity Party offers people of goodwill an opportunity to vote with a clear conscience. Take advantage of that opportunity, and help us to reshape the face of American politics.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Leaked emails show Clinton campaign head discussing ‘revolution’ against bishops

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • October 12, 2016

(Jeremy Noble via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington D.C. — In a leaked email hacked from a private account, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign appears to discuss with a progressive figure whether it is possible to “plant the seeds of the revolution” against the U.S. bishops and their stances.

The email exchange, entitled “Catholic Spring,” also suggests that two organizations – Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United – were created for such a purpose.

“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church,” wrote Sandy Newman, president of progressive organization Voices for Progress, in the first of two emails in the February 2012 exchange.

The recipient of the email, John Podesta, is Catholic and a graduate of Georgetown University. He currently serves as the head of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for presidency. Previously, Podesta served as president and CEO of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, and as the chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.

The emails were released by anti-secrecy site Wikileaks as part of an ongoing leak of emails hacked from Podesta’s email account. Podesta has echoed rumors that Russian intelligence officials were responsible for the hack, and has further alleged that some of the emails may not be authentic.

In the exchange between Newman and Podesta, the former began by asking if contraceptive coverage and the then-newly announced HHS mandate could be used as a wedge issue to place between Catholics and the bishops.

The U.S. Bishops’ Conference, numerous Catholic institutions, and other employers of faith have challenged the mandate since its inception in 2011. They have argued that the regulation’s requirement that employers provide and pay for contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs and procedures violates their deeply-held religious beliefs.

In the email, Newman went on to say, “Of course, this idea may just reveal my total lack of understanding of the Catholic church … Even if the idea isn’t crazy, I don’t qualify to be involved and I have not thought at all about how one would ‘plant the seeds of the revolution,’ or who would plant them. Just wondering …”

Podesta responded to the inquiry by saying, “We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up.”

At the time of these emails, Catholics United was headed by executive director James M. Salt. Salt also serves on the board of directors of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

In 2012, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good was headed by Alexia Kelley. She has also served as the senior advisor and deputy director in the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, as well as the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She currently serves as president and CEO of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, a Catholic grant-making organization.

Christopher Hale, the current executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, told CNA that “the emails that were written in 2011 … do not reflect the mission of the organization.”

“I’ve think we’ve proven during my time here that we are a strong messenger for the full social magisterium of the Catholic Church. We fought against the HHS mandate, we fought against Planned Parenthood when the tapes were released in 2015. We fought time and again for the dignity of the unborn child.”

“We try our best to challenge both parties to be more consistent in their values so we take pride in getting criticism from both the left and the right,” he said, adding that they have criticized the Democratic party for a “politics of exclusion” particularly on the issue of life. “If our job is to be a front group in for the Democratic party, then we’re doing a pretty terrible job at it.”

“I think John’s email from 2011 doesn’t reflect our work day in and day out.”

Hale acknowledged that in the past, the organization has received funding from philanthropist and liberal activist George Soros, but added that the organization has not received a grant from Soros in 10 years. Hale also noted that the organization has changed its emphasis in recent years, speaking out more against abortion currently than it has in the past.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good promotes tenets of the Catholic faith including a respect for life, preferential option for the poor, peace, and stewardship of creation.

During the 2016 election, members of the organization have published numerous prominent articles criticizing Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Republican ticket, and have routinely denounced many of the Trump campaign’s positions.

The group has also criticized Democratic stances on issues such as abortion, however, it generally refrains from directly naming or criticizing Hillary Clinton.

Asked about this imbalance, Hale told CNA that the organization criticizes both parties and campaigns.

“We’re not letting Clinton off the hook,” he stated, adding that the organization has “relationships with both campaigns” and has also brought up their concerns directly to the campaigns.

Catholics in the Alliance for the Common Good is also affiliated with Pennsylvania advocacy organization Keystone Catholics, which was the recipient of a $75,000 grant from the Catholics United Education Fund, dedicated to “pushing forward an LGBT equality agenda within the Catholic Church, in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States.”

Catholics United did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

In the leaked email, Podesta also suggested Newman consult Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Governor of Maryland and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy Townsend has also served on the board of the National Catholic Reporter, and gave a 2008 keynote address to the national conference of Call to Action, which dissents from Church teaching on issues of sexuality and women’s ordination. In the speech, she further criticized the bishops’ teachings on same-sex “marriage,” stem cell research, abortion, and called the election of President Barack Obama “a wonderful rebuke to the hierarchy.”

Kevin Jones contributed to this report.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Pray and fast for a culture of life, congressman says

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

(Kzenon via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — In the closing weeks of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Catholics should pray and fast for “a culture of life,” one Catholic member of Congress has said.

“Like in the time of Queen Esther, the faithful and faith-filled need to pray and fast for God’s mercy, healing, justice, humane laws and policies and conversion. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, told pilgrims on the International Day of Prayer and Fasting on Monday.

“For a time such as this, the urgency now is for persevering prayer including the Rosary and Chaplet of Mercy, asking God in Jesus’ name for protection for the weakest and most vulnerable – unborn children, persons with disabilities, and the frail elderly,” he continued.

The 24th International Week of Prayer and Fasting took place from Oct. 2-10. It culminated in an all-day prayer vigil on Monday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Washington, D.C.

Leaders of the prayer and fasting campaign were joined this year by the Marians of the Immaculate Conception and the pro-life group Priests for Life.

Global crises – including a record number of refugees and deadly natural disasters – were cited as the week began to emphasize the need for prayer. The current the Jubilee Year of Mercy was also cited.

The week’s prayer intentions were the “conversion of peoples and nations,” “to build a culture of life,” “to defend the sanctity of marriage and family life,” and “for peace and to implore God’s mercy.”

Maureen Flynn, who chaired the event’s coalition, said in a statement that “peace can only come to us from the return of humanity to God through means of conversion, to which we are being called this day by means of prayer, fasting, and penance. Prayer and fasting can stop wars and will obtain for our nation and our world great graces from God.”

Rep. Smith was joined by Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life group Live Action, in addressing pilgrims on Monday at the basilica, and Fr. Chris M. Alar, MIC, gave the homily at the Mass on the International day of Prayer and Fasting.

Jesus commanded his followers to fast in the Gospel. He himself fasted for 40 days in the desert, and he said that certain demons could only be driven out through prayer and fasting. Rep. Smith noted.

The need for this is all the more dire because of current problems, he said, pointing to pro-life legislation being overturned in the courts, a movement to eliminate the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition on federal funding of abortions, and moves to force churches to include abortion coverage in health plans, like in California.

Yet Smith exhorted the faithful not to lose heart but to continue praying and working to build a culture of life.

“Discouragement is a luxury we can’t afford,” he said. “We must become even more determined to protect the least of our brethren and expose the grand deception so effectively executed by the abortion industry.”

Catholics should also remember that in protecting the unborn, they are protecting Jesus, he stressed. “Finally, Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that whatever we do for the least of these, we do it to Him. To defend the unborn child is to defend Jesus.”

And he added that Catholics must pray for not only the unborn, but also for mothers who have suffered from abortions.

“Post-abortive women need our prayers today – everyday – as the Church strives to reach them with ministries like Project Rachel, Rachael’s Vineyard, and the Silent No More awareness campaign,” he said.

“I would argue that the past and present need not be prologue. We can rally. We can surge in support of the culture of life,” he continued. “By the grace of God – through prayers, fasting, and hard work, the culture of life must be established – saving tens of millions.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Why religious leaders asked Obama to condemn his civil rights chair’s rhetoric

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

The White House. (Sean Pavone via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — A coalition of religious and civic leaders has denounced a report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights which said appeals to religious freedom are usually just discrimination-in-disguise.

“We took no position on the great cultural and moral debates facing our nation, except the position that in America everyone has a voice,” Dr. Tom Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute and director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University, stated of the letter that he and other leaders signed.

“Our founding generation would be scandalized that a government agency has asserted, in effect, that Americans who exercise their religious freedom are doing so with evil intent, and that the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion should be considered null and void. Every American should condemn this report,” Dr. Farr continued.

In September, a report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – “Peaceful Coexistence: reconciling non-discrimination principles with religious liberties” – explored the supposed conflicts between appeals to religious freedom by churches, religious groups, and employers, and claims of discrimination by employees, customers, and other members of society.

Some of the common examples of conflict highlighted in the report were businesses declining to serve same-sex weddings for religious reasons – while their customers might claim they are being discriminated against for not being served – and churches refusing to include contraceptives in employee health plans, while their female employees might claim discrimination for not having birth control coverage.

The report claimed that many persons, businesses, and groups “use the pretext of religious doctrines to discriminate” and sided against religious exemptions for persons and groups in many cases.

“Civil rights protections ensuring nondiscrimination, as embodied in the Constitution, laws, and policies, are of preeminent importance in American jurisprudence,” it stated, noting that “religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights.”

The commission’s chair Martin R. Castro, appointed by President Obama, actually decried many appeals to “religious liberty” in his own remarks, saying that “the phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”

In response, a coalition of Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Baha’i, and Mormon leaders – and even leaders of non-religious groups – sent a letter Oct. 7 to President Obama, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate President Pro Tempore Orrin Hatch.

“In light of this, we call upon each of you to renounce publicly the claim that ‘religious freedom’ and ‘religious liberty’ are ‘code words’ or a ‘pretext’ for various forms of discrimination,” the coalition stated. “There should be no place in our government for such a low view of our First Freedom – the first of our civil rights – least of all from a body dedicated to protecting them all.”

Signers included Farr; Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty; Charles Haynes, vice president of the Newseum Institute; Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; Bishop Gregory John Mansour of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn; Nathan J. Diament of the Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson, president of Zaytuna College.

“We write to you as the authorities responsible for appointing members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,” the letter stated, noting that the report in question “stigmatizes tens of millions of religious Americans, their communities, and their faith-based institutions, and threatens the religious freedom of all our citizens.”

The leaders insisted that “each of us opposes hateful rhetoric and actions.”

“We believe in the equality of all Americans before the law, regardless of creed or community. But we are both determined and unafraid to speak the truth about beliefs we have held for millennia,” they stated.

Religious freedom is “the first of our civil rights,” the letter insisted, and differences of opinion on matters of conscience is part of what should be a vibrant public square.

“The genius of American democracy is that it invites everyone into the public square, on the basis of full equality, to contend over the laws and policies that reflect our values and our understanding of the common good,” the letter stated.

The government must not infringe upon this debate and refer to one side as bigoted, the leaders maintained: “Slandering ideas and arguments with which one disagrees as ‘racism’ or ‘phobia’ not only cheapens the meaning of those words, but can have a chilling effect on healthy debate over, or dissent from, the prevailing orthodoxy.”

And religious beliefs cannot be a private matter, but can and should be brought into the public square, the leaders continued:

“Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King – indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history – were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.”

“So to say that men and women should not inject their ‘personal morality’ into public policy debates is a practical absurdity.”

The commission’s report also called for the repeal of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which would result in a dramatic shift of jurisprudence on religious freedom cases.

When it was published, one of the commissioners dissenting from the report, Gail Heriot, issued a scathing rebuke of the report and of Castro’s statements.

She stated that “the Commission majority takes a complex subject and tries to make it simple – far too simple. Not many legal or constitutional issues come down to good guys vs. bad guys.”

“In some ways, I envy anyone who can dismiss those who disagree with him as mere hypocrites,” she added.

“Does Chairman Castro really believe that the Little Sisters of the Poor, whose case is currently before the Supreme Court, are just a bunch of hypocrites? Does he believe that they are making up their concern over being compelled to finance their employees’ contraception? Does he think they really just want to save money?”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

Massachusetts law could forbid churches to preach on transgenderism

by CNA/EWTN News • October 13, 2016

(Orangecatteam via Shutterstock)

Boston, MA — Four churches and their pastors are challenging a Massachusetts law which they say could regulate their speech regarding gender identity.

“This case is about who controls Massachusetts churches,” said the churches’ legal motion to halt enforcement of the law. “Are pastors and churches still free to teach their religious beliefs and use their houses of worship to reflect and reinforce those beliefs?”

The four churches and their pastors filed the motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Eastern Division. They have also filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts officials.

“The First Amendment forbids government intrusion into ecclesiastical matters like church teaching and administration,” the legal motion continued. “Yet Massachusetts officials have ignored these boundaries and injected themselves into what churches teach, believe, and promote. Fearing devastating financial penalties and imprisonment, Massachusetts churches and their pastors are now forced to seek judicial protection of their most basic First Amendment rights.”

In July 2016, the Massachusetts legislature added “gender identity” as a class protected under anti-discrimination law.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and Attorney General Maura Healey have interpreted the law in a way that would force churches to open their changing rooms, showers, and restrooms to someone based on their perceived gender identity, not on their biological sex.

The legal prohibition against discrimination or incitement also regulates the churches’ speech and would silence churches and pastors if their religious views on gender identity differ from those of the law, the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom said.

Each violation of the law may be punished by up to $50,000 in fines, 365 days in jail, and attorneys’ fees.

Healey, the state attorney general, is named in the lawsuit. Her spokeswoman, Jillian Fennimore, said the law is about civil rights and is “critical for people who were without full protection and equality under the law for too long.”

Attorneys with the legal group representing the plaintiffs were critical.

“The government shouldn’t encroach on the internal, religious practices of a church,” said Steve O’Ban, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. “Neither the commission nor the attorney general has the constitutional authority to dictate how any church uses its facility or what public statements a church can make concerning a deeply held religious belief, such as on human sexuality.”

The law applies to places of public accommodation. However, guidance from state officials said a church could be included in that definition “if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public.”

According to the lawsuit, the legislature and the anti-discrimination commission failed to provide a religious exemption and failed to define what events fell under the law’s parameters.

The proposed “spaghetti supper” test, in the lawsuit’s view, was “woefully inadequate and confusing.” The guidance’s suggestion that legal charges against religious institutions would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis also drew criticism. The lawsuit said this would result in pastors, church leaders or courts guessing about the application of the law and its penalties.

“All events held at a church on its property have a religious purpose, and the government has no authority to violate the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of religion and speech,” said Christiana Holcomb, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. “Government officials have no business determining which church activities are religious and which ones aren’t.”

Opponents of the state law have also gathered enough signatures to place a repeal of the law on the 2018 ballot. However, the law itself appears to have significant support. A May 2016 Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll appeared to show that 53 of voters favored it while only 30 percent were opposed.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

The danger of forcing doctors to perform gender transitions

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • October 14, 2016

(Guschenkova via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — A recent federal rule has come under fire for denying doctors the ability to exercise discretion in deciding whether to perform gender transition surgeries in particular cases.

The regulation requires doctors to perform the surgeries when asked to do so – including on children – even if it is their medical opinion that the procedure could end up harming the patient.

Dozens of lawmakers voiced their objections to the mandate, saying that it could end up harming the “most vulnerable.”

“Children are some of the most vulnerable in our population, and this rule strips doctors of their ability to counsel and advise the best course of medical care in their professional judgment if they believe gender transition procedures to be harmful,” an Oct. 7 letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell from 47 members of Congress stated.

Over the summer, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that health providers could not refuse treatment for “gender transition” services if they were asked for them.

There is no clear religious exemption in the mandate. Religious health providers like the Franciscan Alliance hospital network and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, have filed a lawsuit against the mandate. Five states – Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Wisconsin – joined the lawsuit.

The mandate could apply to over 900,000 physicians, the HHS has estimated.

Last Friday, 47 members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Burwell outlining their concerns with the mandate. Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, led the group.

“First, this rule for the first time in history requires doctors to perform gender transition procedures or treatments on patients including children, even if the doctor believes the procedures could be harmful,” the members wrote. If doctors refuse to obey the mandate, they could be subject to “massive financial penalties and even job loss,” they added.

The evidence is not conclusive that gender transition is healthy, and some studies show it can cause harm to adults long after a surgery, the letter insisted.

“HHS’ own experts have acknowledged that the clinical literature is ‘inconclusive’ on whether gender reassignment surgery improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with gender dysphoria, and that some studies have ‘reported harms,’” the letter noted.

For instance, guidance from a group cited by the HHS – the World Professional Association for Transgender Help – listed studies showing that for the vast majority of children with gender dysphoria, the experience is only temporary.

Another report released over the summer by the journal The New Atlantis agreed, finding that “only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood.”

Among its findings were that “compared to the general population, adults who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery continue to have a higher risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes. One study found that, compared to controls, sex-reassigned individuals were about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die by suicide.”

Johns Hopkins University, once a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, has since ended the practice, finding that it was actually damaging to those who undergo it.

In light of studies like these showing possible harm for those undergoing gender transition, the HHS should not be coming down on one side of the debate by mandating such procedures, the letter insisted.

“Sensitive, difficult medical decisions should be between a family and their doctor, not government bureaucrats,” Lori Windham, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, stated in the letter.

“The government continues to speak out of both sides of its mouth,” she continued. “The military rightly gives doctors freedom to care for patients according to their medical judgment because it acknowledges the risks of transgender medical procedures, particularly for children; yet HHS tramples on doctors’ medical judgment, even for potentially harmful procedures for children.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

After ‘Catholic Spring’ email leak, U.S. bishops warn American ideals at risk

by CNA/EWTN News • October 14, 2016

The United States Capitol building. (Trekandshoot via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — Following a leaked email from prominent political actors about a possible “Catholic Spring” movement to plant “seeds of the revolution” within the Church, the U.S. bishops’ conference has rebuked interference in the Church and a political discourse that marginalizes the faithful and demeans women.

“There have been recent reports that some may have sought to interfere in the internal life of the Church for short-term political gain,” said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, the U.S. bishops’ conference president. “If true, this is troubling both for the well-being of faith communities and the good of our country.”

“In our faith and our Church, Christ has given us a precious gift. As Catholics, we hold onto our beliefs because they come to us from Jesus, not a consensus forged by contemporary norms,” he said Oct. 13.

“We also expect public officials to respect the rights of people to live their faith without interference from the state,” the archbishop continued. “When faith communities lose this right, the very idea of what it means to be an American is lost.”

Archbishop Kurtz did not directly mention the controversy over a leaked email exchange from Feb. 10-11, 2012 between Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s current campaign manager, John Podesta, and Sandy Newman, president of the progressive organization Voices for Progress.

Newman appears to have initiated the email exchange, titled “Opening for a Catholic Spring? Just musing.” He cited the controversy over Catholic objections to mandatory coverage of contraception in employers’ insurance plans, which would force Catholics to provide drugs, including some abortion-causing drugs, the use of which they recognize as sinful and unethical.

“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church,” Newman said, asking whether contraception coverage could be a rally point for such a movement.

Newman told Podesta he has a “total lack of understanding of the Catholic Church,” adding, “Even if the idea isn’t crazy, I don’t qualify to be involved and I have not thought at all about how one would ‘plant the seeds of the revolution,’ or who would plant them. Just wondering …”

Podesta’s email suggested that two political organizations were intended for such advocacy.

“We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now,” he said. “Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up.”

Podesta suggested consultation with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Governor of Maryland and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. Townsend has served on the board of the National Catholic Reporter and gave a 2008 keynote address to the national conference of Call to Action, which dissents from Church teaching on issues of sexuality and women’s ordination.

The emails were released by the anti-secrecy site Wikileaks as part of an ongoing leak of emails reputedly hacked from Podesta’s email account. Podesta has echoed rumors that Russian intelligence officials were responsible for the hack. He has further alleged that some of the emails may not be authentic.

For Archbishop Kurtz, the controversy was a time to reflect on the state of political life.

“Politicians, their staffs and volunteers should reflect our best aspirations as citizens. Too much of our current political discourse has demeaned women and marginalized people of faith,” he said. “This must change. True to the best hopes of our founding fathers, we are confident that we can and will do better as a nation.”

He encouraged Catholics and all people of good will to be “good stewards” of the rights of Americans.

“The Gospel is offered for all people for all times. It invites us to love our neighbor and live in peace with one another,” the archbishop continued. “For this reason, the truth of Christ is never outdated or inaccessible. The Gospel serves the common good, not political agendas.”

The political players involved in the email exchange have had great influence. Newman, the originator of the “Catholic Spring” suggestion, once hired a young Barack Obama to run a voter registration project in Illinois in 1993.

Podesta is past president of the Center for American Progress think tank and served as chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.

In recent years, the Center for American Progress has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the Arcus Foundation to “reclaim” religious freedom as a progressive value that “includes LGBT equality and women’s reproductive health and rights.” The Center for American Progress also hosts Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson as a senior fellow. The first openly gay bishop’s 2003 election as Bishop of New Hampshire caused massive rifts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

Christopher Hale, the current executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, told CNA Oct. 12 that the emails “do not reflect the mission of the organization.”

“I’ve think we’ve proven during my time here that we are a strong messenger for the full social magisterium of the Catholic Church,” he said. “We fought against the HHS mandate, we fought against Planned Parenthood when the tapes were released in 2015. We fought time and again for the dignity of the unborn child.”

“If our job is to be a front group for the Democratic Party, then we’re doing a pretty terrible job at it,” Hale said.

Hale acknowledged that in the past, the organization has received funding from philanthropist and liberal activist George Soros. He claimed that the organization has not received a grant from Soros in 10 years.

Catholics in Alliance’s associated group Catholics United, however, has taken funds from wealthy LGBT activists such as the Gill Foundation, founded by the wealthy businessman Tim Gill, and billionaire heir Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation. Grant listings and annual reports from the foundations show grants from 2012 through 2015.

The Newman-Podesta emails concerned the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services rule, first announced in late 2011, that health care plans must include coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including some drugs that can cause abortions. The move caused widespread outcry among Catholics across the political spectrum. The Obama administration has gradually made various purported accommodations that have appeased some objectors.

Hobby Lobby, which is owned by a Christian family with objections to abortifacient contraceptives, successfully challenged the rule. It won a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 2014 that said religious freedom protections apply to closely-held private businesses.

However, some Catholic organizations, dioceses, and other non-profits are still challenging the HHS mandate on religious freedom grounds, including the Little Sisters of the Poor and CNA’s parent organization, the EWTN Global Catholic Network.

In a May 2016 unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sent the Little Sisters’ case back to lower courts and their case is still pending, though opponents of the HHS mandate took encouragement from the decision.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

U.S. NEWS

New health-share group offers care with Catholic values

by Maggie Maslak (CNA/EWTN News) • October 14, 2016

(Alexkich via Shutterstock)

Phoenix, AZ — When the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, it immediately prompted concerns about freedom of conscience.

From this seemingly adverse situation sprouted a new cost-sharing organization, Solidarity HealthShare, which aims to place Catholic values, the common good, and affordable healthcare at the center of its mission.

“The inspiration of it was when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Some Catholic leaders in Phoenix realized that our religious liberty and our consciences were going to be violated if Catholics had to follow these mandates,” the company’s CEO Bradley Hahn told CNA.

“So that kind of led the journey to find an ethical and affordable way to pay for medical costs,” Hahn continued.

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. It includes a mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services requiring insurance plans to fund contraception, sterilizations and early abortion pills. The mandate has prompted lawsuits from more than 300 plaintiffs, including companies, non-profits, U.S. states, and individuals who say that it violates their religious beliefs. Many of these lawsuits are still in the process of litigation.

In response to religious freedom concerns – as well as concerns about rising insurance costs – some Americans began turning to health care-share organizations, which have grown in popularity over the past few years.

Solidarity HealthShare, based in Phoenix, Arizona, was founded in 2012 in conjunction with a pre-existing healthshare group called Melita Christian Fellowship Hospital Aid Plan. Solidarity HealthShare facilitates health-sharing among individuals and families across the country, who are looking to opt out of traditional healthcare for a more ethical and faith-centered option.

Solidarity HealthShare is not health insurance. Rather, it is a ministry intended to share the financial burden of those who pay for their own healthcare through voluntary, financial sharing of eligible medical costs between its members.

Rather than paying premiums to an insurance company, every member pays a monthly “share,” which is directly matched to another member’s medical bills.

Solidarity HealthShare is a non-profit organization and exempt from federal regulations, protecting it from the contraception mandate.

Its members are also exempt from a separate mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.

Since their official launch last week, Solidarity HealthShare has gained about 50 members in total, but Hahn expressed that they are looking to “add about a thousand members in the next couple of months.” Although they began taking members in July, Solidarity HealthShare didn’t formally launch until Oct. 4.

Within a week, there was an incredible outpouring of support for Solidarity HealthShare. Hahn said “the response from Catholics across the country has been very incredibly positive and grateful that Catholics now have an option that’s available to them.”

Solidarity HealthShare welcomes any members who agree with the “moral, ethical teachings of the Catholic Church,” Hahn noted, saying that the whole backbone of the organization is founded upon the Catholic Church’s teachings.

The namesake of the organization points to the Catholic Church’s teachings on solidarity, Hahn explained, saying “we aren’t just committed to ourselves, we are committed to the common good and to help others.”

Hahn also said that the idea behind solidarity encompasses problem-solving at the lowest level possible. In this case, Solidarity HealthShare is aiming to “restore that relationship where the doctor and the patient decide what is best for medical care.”

Following their launch, Solidarity HealthShare is looking forward to gaining more members and spreading the word about alternative health care sharing through evangelization.

“We want to use Solidarity as an evangelization tool. We want to reach out to other groups and ministries to help basically catechize and explain why certain medical procedures are objectionable morally,” Hahn stated.

“We want to use Solidarity more as an outreach so we can educate everyone, because the healthcare system touches everybody.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

The sacred time of death

by Rebecca Ryskind Teti • October 6, 2016

My grandfather’s brother was an atheist. Not a smug, proselytizing sort – just an unbeliever.

When he was in the end stages of cancer, heavily medicated, he would spend his few lucid moments visiting with family and then be wheeled off to his room to rest.

In his drug-affected reverie, he often spoke aloud quite clearly, saying things like:

“Really, Lord? … Then it was all true? … I am sorry … . I never knew.”

This happened several times over the course of his last days and many people heard it.

My cousins – devout evangelicals who’d been praying hard all their lives for their dad to come to the Lord – are unshaken in their conviction that my great uncle had a road to Emmaus experience in the privacy of his own conscience days before he passed away.

A dear friend began to take her faith seriously only after the sorrow of a failed marriage that left her estranged from her children.

A gentle soul who came to profound friendship with God in middle age, she knew she was forgiven for her sins, but nonetheless carried the ache of missing her children as a permanent personal purgatory.

What joy and peace were hers in the final months of her life when the kids who wouldn’t approach her for years one by one made the sad good-bye pilgrimage! Both she and they were able to enjoy a short time of “things as they ought to be!” The necessary words were said on all sides, the pain in their hearts was mended.

My grandmother died in my and my siblings’ arms moments after we conditionally baptized her. There’s a longer story to tell, but I believe she clung to life until she received the baptism she’d been promised in a series of discussions a priest friend of mine and I had with her when it became obvious she was failing.

The brother of a friend lived a life of dissipation and promiscuity. On the last day of his life, not only he, but also his homosexual partner, went to Confession.

Through these and a couple of other close encounters with death, I have become convinced that not only is approaching death a period of great emotional importance for families and individuals, but it is literally sacred time.

I believe the Lord in his mercy actively works in the soul into the last moments, drawing it to himself, even in cases like my great-uncle’s, where the person is objectively beyond the reach of human interaction.

What would have become of all these people and their survivors if shortly after their difficult diagnoses they’d been given shots or pills to hasten the inevitable?

Allowing doctors to kill puts medicine at cross-purposes with itself and puts an unfair burden on medical professionals. Permitting regulators to decide the value of the lives of others is inconsistent with individual liberty and further undermines the principle of self-government. When to kill us is not a decision we want in the hands of either doctors or governments. Most seriously ill people are not suicidal, they’re depressed, and are not to be taken advantage of. Elderly and handicapped persons should be accepted as they are, not made to feel they are wasting our resources. Accepting suicide as a good will further coarsen a society already losing its belief in the value of individual persons. Pain can be well-controlled. Interspersed with pain can be beautiful moments of relational healing as well.

These are the things I want to say to voters in Colorado, where an assisted suicide measure is on the ballot in November, and to members of the D.C. City Council about to take up one of the most aggressive assisted-suicide measures ever to be proposed (aggressive because it doesn’t require depression screening or even pretend to offer the most vulnerable among us any protection against bullying or manipulation from greedy heirs or hostile guardians, making it a death penalty for depression; find out more here.) It’s the case against assisted suicide we can make in the public square, where arguments from faith aren’t always the most effective. Who knows what an unbeliever would make of the incidents I’ve just described?

It strikes me, though, that maybe we Christians need to do a better job evangelizing our own, telling the stories we all know of grace at work in the sacred time, helping people be less fearful of death, more respectful of it, and more convicted that end of life decisions matter.

Rebecca Ryskind Teti is Operations Coordinator for the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Busch School of Business & Economics at CUA, though the opinions are her own. This column is modified from an earlier version that first appeared in Faith & Family magazine.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

On praying the psalms on behalf of the world

by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion • October 10, 2016

The Psalms are the most famous poems in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Yet praying them can often be difficult for the reason that they express sentiments that do not reflect the mindset of the one praying them at that moment. Indeed, some people are put off by the Psalms and abandon them completely.

Is there a solution to this problem? I suggest that there is (and I am not being particularly original here).

Take the opening words of Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” This Psalm is very powerful when the one praying it is distressed and overcome by a sense that God is far away.

But, what does it mean to pray this Psalm when life is experienced as positive, fulfilled, and happy, and the supplicant has a strong sense of the closeness of God?

The answer may be found in the truth that the Psalms are always prayed on behalf of the whole Church, indeed the whole world. One may not oneself find the opening phrase of Psalm 130 particularly relevant to one’s spiritual outlook at the moment, but someone in the circle of family, friends, and fellow parishioners may.

Or, if a pastor knows of a person in his parish who is depressed and whose life is full of trouble, he can pray the Psalm on that person’s behalf, putting the words of the Psalm, on that person’s lips, so to speak.

Or, one can pray on behalf of the whole Church in time of crisis – and especially the suffering Church in places where war and oppression hold sway. For a moment, the one praying the opening phrase of Psalm 130 becomes the whole Church.

One can also pray the first words of Psalm 130 for that part of humanity which experiences the broad range of joy, elation, peace, on the one hand, and tragedy, sadness, and psychological oppression, on the other.

Hebrew poets composed the Psalms. Accordingly, the Jewish people have a special claim on the Psalms – notably Jews for whom the horror of the Holocaust is seared into their hearts and souls to this very day. Many Jewish people lost their faith because of the Holocaust and feel that God abandoned them – if there is a God. Praying the Psalms on behalf of downcast Jews is a good and worthy act.

One can also put the words of the Psalms on the lips of the faithful Christians and Muslims of the Middle East who are suffering terribly, with seemingly no let-up. They may not be able to pray, but we can pray of their behalf.

In all of this, there is an important lesson: Even in the most private prayer there is always a public, communal dimension – a dimension that incorporates all the spiritually needy of the world.

Parishes, for that reason, appropriately pray the Liturgy of the Hours publicly, even if only a handful of people are present. This kind of public recitation of the Psalms was recommended for all Catholics by Vatican II. Even in personal prayer the Psalms are always communal, worldly, even cosmic.

Monastic and other religious communities build their day around the recitation of the Psalms, praying not just for their own members, but for the whole church and the whole world.

The opening phrase of Psalm 130 is a good example of a Psalm that may not always meet the personal needs of those who recite it, but is a prayer that one can recite on behalf of humankind.

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

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

Knowing who we are; knowing what we are supposed to do

by Bishop Robert Barron • October 11, 2016

This fall I am giving presentations to all of the high school teachers, staff and administrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. These talks take place on an annual basis, and they are dedicated to a regular cycle of topics. This year, the theme is morality. Lucky me! My guess is that disquisitions on doctrine or church history or pastoral practice wouldn’t raise too many hackles, but ethics is practically guaranteed to rile people up, especially now when issues of same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and assisted suicide are so present to the public consciousness.

I am not sure whether I’m delighting or disappointing my audiences, but I am not ordering my talks to address these hot-button questions. Indeed, it is my conviction that a good deal of mischief and confusion is caused precisely by characterizing Catholic morality primarily as a matrix for adjudicating such matters. A purely rational or deductive approach to controversial ethical choices is largely an exercise in missing the point. For to know how to behave as a Christian is a function of knowing, first, who we are as Christians. Understanding how to act is, if I can pun a little, a function of understanding what play we are in. The great Biblical scholar, N.T. Wright, has said that most of us are like actors who are dressed up for Hamlet, who have memorized all of the right lines from Hamlet, and who thoroughly grasp the thematics of Hamlet. The only problem is that we are in Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, what I am sharing with the good teachers of the L.A. Archdiocese is largely Christian anthropology, a fancy way of saying the articulation of what play we’re in and what role we’ve been given in that production.

Like the great Shakespeare plays, the drama of salvation history consists of five acts: Creation, the Fall, the Formation of Israel, the Coming of the Messiah, and the Church. Comprehending the dynamics of all five acts is indispensable to knowing how to behave. So let’s take things one step at a time. According to the still breathtaking poetic account in the first chapter of Genesis, all created things come forth in an orderly and harmonious manner from the hand of the Creator. Sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth itself, animals, even those things that crawl upon the earth, come into existence as a sort of stately liturgical procession. What the author is showing, first, is that none of these things — all of which at one time or another in the ancient world were the object of worship — is divine. What he is demonstrating, secondly, is that all of them find their purpose in giving praise to the Creator. It is of crucial significance that the final element in the parade — like the last figure in a liturgical procession — is the human being. We are meant to see our identity and our task: to give praise to God on behalf of all creation. Before the Fall, Adam was the first priest.

So what is the Fall? What takes place in act two is the loss of our priestly identity. Grasping at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we end up worshipping our own egos rather than God, and from this misdirected praise, chaos follows. Things fall apart, both inside and outside, that is to say, in our hearts and in the natural order — and the Garden becomes a desert. Throughout the Bible, the basic problem, though it manifests itself politically, culturally, psycho-dynamically, etc., is always bad praise.

But God does not abandon his people; on the contrary, he sends a rescue operation. Beginning with the covenant with Abraham, God shapes a nation according to his own mind and heart; he teaches a particular tribe to worship him aright, to be his priestly people. His ultimate intention is to use Israel for the instruction of all the nations of the world. Mt. Zion, the locale of the Temple, the place of right worship, is meant to become a magnet to the whole of humanity: “There all the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord” (Psalm 122:4). The entire drama of Israel is the content of act three.

But we hear, over and again, that Israel does not live up to its high calling, that it falls short of its vocation to worship the Lord alone. And so the best and the brightest among the chosen people commence to dream of a Messiah, a figure who would represent the full realization of Israel’s mission and identity. The coming of this anointed one is the central drama of act four. The still startling claim of the first Christians is that Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, is this long-awaited Messiah, the one in whom faithful Yahweh finally meets faithful Israel. Notice, please, how Jesus is consistently presented as a priestly figure. John the Baptist declares him to be the “Lamb of God;” at the climax of his life, he comes into the holy city of Jerusalem and cleanses the Temple, declaring, “I will destroy this place and in three days rebuild it,” referring to the Temple of his own body; and on the cross, bearing the sins of the world, he offers a final priestly sacrifice, offering right praise to his Father and bringing sinful humanity back on line with him. This is precisely why, in the light of the Resurrection, St. Paul would refer to Jesus as “the new Adam,” which is to say, the one who restores the human race to correct praise.

Now, we are ready for act five and the proper context for speaking of morality. Act five is the life and work of the Church. Grafted on to Jesus, members of his mystical body, all of the baptized are meant to do what Jesus did and be who Jesus was. We are meant, as Paul put it, to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord.” This implies that we are to turn every aspect of ourselves — our minds, our wills, our personal affairs, our jobs, our recreation, and yes, our sexuality — into acts of worship. To make it more pointed, our bodies and their desires do not belong to us; they are not intended to serve our selfish purposes. They are designed to be turned to God’s purpose, which implies that they be placed under the aegis of love. Now we can understand why the Church is so demanding in regard to sex, why it stands so staunchly athwart divorce, contraception, same-sex marriage, masturbation, etc. It is not because the Church is against sex or against pleasure or against self-determination. It is because the Church is for turning the whole of life into an act of radical love. And its dearest hope is that the very quality of its right praise will attract the whole world to Christ. I realize that it sounds strange to put it this way, but the moral lives of the baptized are not meant finally for them; they are meant to be salt and light for the rest of humanity.

What I’m telling the Catholic high school teachers of L.A. is what I want to tell all Catholics: you won’t know how to behave until you know who you are. And you won’t know who you are until you realize what play you’re in!

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.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

A Tribute to Vin Scully

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • October 12, 2016

He’s been dubbed: “The Poet-Philosopher of Baseball,” “A Voice for the Ages,” “The Velvet Voice.” He’s been compared to Walter Cronkite, Mark Twain, and Garrison Keilor.

In 1982, the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored him with a star among the Greats of stardom in the same year the National Baseball Hall of Fame enshrined his name among the Greats of baseball.

Vin Scully may be the very model of sartorial perfection, but it’s not the wardrobe that has endeared him to baseball for sixty-seven years. It’s his deep baritone voice and the power of his words.

A Catholic Education

There’s much to be said for childhood dreams. At eight, when he wrote an assignment about his future, Vin imagined himself as a sports commentator. That dream has come true.

Vin Scully was born in the Bronx, N.Y. and received his elementary school education from the Sisters of Charity. At Fordham Prep and Fordham University, both conducted by the Jesuits, his eager mind opened itself wide to the liberal arts, to Latin and Greek, science, literary and refining arts. He acted in plays, engaged in debate, learned to read and write well, and above all, to speak well; this is eloquentia perfecta, the hallmark of Jesuit education. When his head was not in books, he took up menial jobs to make ends meet delivering beer, pushing garment racks, and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. Vin Scully, the Renaissance man graduated from Fordham in 1949 with a major in communications.

With the Brooklyn Dodgers

In 1947, baseball executive Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play infield on the Brooklyn Dodgers team. Against a tide of opposition, Rickey was determined to integrate the ball club. Against a tide of opposition, the all-round athlete broke the color barrier in major league baseball at a great personal cost to him and his wife Rachel. If you wanted to see electricity personified, you went to Ebbets Field where you could fix your eyes on Jackie at home plate and on the base pads tantalizing the opposing team. There was nothing like it. Said Rickey, “There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker than Jackie Robinson.”

Three years later, a twenty-two year old Vin Scully joined veteran Dodgers announcers, Red Barber and Connie Desmond to complete the broadcasting team. As the rookie, Scully was assigned to announce only two innings. Before long, he was announcing World Series games. He was not yet thirty.

Scully called Jackie Robinson “perhaps the most exciting, most driven player I’ve ever seen.” He spoke fondly of two other players: “Gil Hodges was probably my all-time favorite. He was as straight an arrow as they come.” Duke Snider was “a true star. Subject to teasing from teammates. Great talent.”

When, in 1955, the Brooklyn ‘Bums’ won their only World Series, Scully stood and proclaimed: “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world.”

Heartbreak in Brooklyn

In 1957, the Dodgers relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. For years, Walter O’Malley, the team’s major co-owner, had been searching for a more suitable land on which to build a new ballpark. When he and Robert Moses, the controversial construction coordinator of New York City, could not agree on a real estate price for a new Brooklyn location, O’Malley lost no time in accepting the offer of Los Angeles officials to purchase land suitable for building the ballpark he had wanted to build in Brooklyn. Their departure triggered a virtual depression in Brooklyn. The fans lost not only their team but also their beloved announcer. Scully had pledged his loyalty to the team and followed them to Los Angeles.

When, in 1959, the Los Angeles Dodgers honored Roy Campanella, one of the stars on the Brooklyn team, he was wheeled onto the field for a ceremony of lighting candles in his honor. (He had been injured in a car accident leaving him paralyzed). Vin Scully stood, and in tribute, spoke these memorable words:

“The lights are now starting to come out, like thousands and thousands of fireflies, starting deep in center field, glittering to left, and slowly, the entire ballpark. A sea of lights at the Coliseum. Let there be a prayer for every light, and wherever you are, maybe you, in silent tribute to Roy Campanella, can also say a prayer for his well-being. Campanella, for thousands of times, made the trip to the mound to help somebody out: a tired pitcher, a disgusted youngster, a boy perhaps who had his heart broken in the game of baseball. And tonight, on his last trip to the mound, the city of Los Angeles says hello.”

Honorary Doctorate from Alma Mater

In May, 2000, Vin Scully received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fordham University. In his address to the graduates, he shared some memories of his years at Fordham. …”I was once you. I walked the halls you walked. I sat in the same classrooms. I took the same notes and sweated out the final exams. I played sports on your grassy fields. I hit a home run here — in Jack Coffey Field against CCNY — the only one I ever hit.”

Fordham, he said, evoked three words for him: home, love and hope. Home, because he spent eight years at Fordham both in the preparatory school and as an undergraduate. Love, because he made lifelong friends, and hope because Fordham is where his dreams thrived.

He urged all present “to take some time away from the craziness around you to foster the things that are important. Don’t let the winds blow away your dreams or your faith in God. And remember, sometimes your wildest dreams come true.”

In presenting the award, Michael T. Gillan, dean of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, noted that “when Jesuit schoolmasters developed their plan of studies in the 16th and 17th centuries, they defined “the goal of Jesuit education as eloquentia perfecta … which connotes a mastery of expression that is informed by good judgment and consistent principles. Those Jesuit schoolmasters of another age, if they had known anything about baseball, would certainly have approved the rhetorical gifts of the man who has been the voice of the Dodgers for the past fifty-one years, Vincent E. Scully.”

The Scully Anaphora

For years, every Scully broadcast has repeated the same avuncular opening: “It’s time for Dodger baseball! Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant afternoon/evening to you, wherever you may be. Pull up a chair and relax;” The poet-philosopher announced the games painting vivid word pictures with his musical voice, tinged with Irish inflection.

Scully held himself to three rules: Avoid criticizing managers and umpires; keep your personal opinions to yourself; avoid using clichés to describe a play. The Scully trademark, he insists, is silence — silence to allow the roar of the crowd to touch the listening audience.

Scully in His Own Words

There are numerous quotes attributed to Mr. Scully. In describing Tom Glavine as a strike-out pitcher, he mused: “He’s like a tailor, a little off here, a little off there, and you’re done, take a seat.” The talent of Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals amazed Scully: “How good was Stan Musial? He was good enough to take your breath away.”

Vin was known to spin some philosophy out of the play at the moment. In 1991, he remarked: “Andre Dawson has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day (Pause). Aren’t we all?”

Then there were his philosophical quips: “Good is not good enough when better is expected.” “Statistics are used much like a drunk who uses a lamp post — for support, not illumination.” “Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”

One day, when Vin joked that Joe Torre might be apprehensive about returning from third base to catcher after getting hit by a foul tip. “If he were apprehensive, Torre would forever be known as “Chicken Catcher Torre.” At this, the crowd groaned.

Awards

Listed among Vin Scully’s many awards are:

1976 - Most Memorable Personality in L.A. Dodger history by Dodger fans

1982 - Induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the Ford C. Frick Award recipient.

Four times, voted as the country’s Outstanding Sportscaster.

Twenty-two times, voted as California Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

2009 - NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame

2009 - Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission

2014 - The Gabriel Personal Achievement Award from the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals.

Personal Life

Vin Scully has not been one to wear his feelings in the open. Yet, he has experienced two family tragedies. In 1972, after fifteen years of married life, his wife died from an accidental medical overdose. The next year, his thirty-three old son Michael was killed in a helicopter crash while working for the ARCO Transportation Company. A chemist, he was inspecting oil pipelines for leaks near Fort Tejon.

Vin credits his strong Roman Catholic faith for helping him cope with family grief and then to resume his work as an announcer. “As long as you live,” he reflects, “keep smiling because it brightens everybody’s day.”

The Final Inning

The longevity of Vin Scully’s baseball life has drawn to a conclusion. As part of a conference call before the Dodgers played the Giants on Sept 19th, Scully he spoke about all the attention he had received in the closing days of his long career: “First of all, I attribute it to one thing and one thing only,” Scully reflected, “God’s Grace to allow me to do what I’ve been doing for 67 years. To me, that’s really the story. Not really me, I’m just a vessel that was passed hand-to-hand, down through all those years. So I don’t take it to heart as some great compliment. I just realize that because I’ve been doing this for 67 years, that’s why everybody wants to talk about it. So I think I’ve kept it in proper perspective” (Courtesy of MLB Network).

Finally, a favorite Irish prayer and blessing from Mr. Scully:

May God give you for every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song

And an answer for each prayer.

Dear Mr. Scully, ad multos annos.

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.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

Priest to donate $250K winnings from ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’

by Church Pop • October 12, 2016

(Disney/ABC Domestic Television via Wikipedia)

Washington D.C. — A priest from West Virginia recently won a quarter of a million dollars on the trivia TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and pledged to donate the money to a Catholic elementary school.

Fr. Bill Matheny had been trying to get on the trivia show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for 17 years. This last summer, he finally fulfilled his dream, promising that he’d donate his winnings to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in St. Alban, West Virginia, which he attended as a child.

Using all three of his lifelines, he successfully won $250,000 before the show ran out of time.

He returned the next day to go for $500,000. Though he was leaning toward a particular answer, he wasn’t confident enough to go for it and decided to walk away with the $250,000. After making that decision, the show revealed that his guess would have been correct.

“If I were playing only for myself, I would’ve gone for it,” the priest told his local TV station in West Virginia.

“It seemed like that logical answer but I watch the show enough to know that when someone gets to this level what seems logical is not always the right answer. So I was concerned. If it were me, I would’ve risked it because I could’ve lived with $50,000 but for the school I couldn’t jeopardize $200,000.”

Though the show was recorded last summer, it was showed on TV in September.

A video of the priest correctly answering the $50k, $100k, and $250k questions can be viewed here, and a video of the priest facing the $500,000 question on the next day can be viewed here.

This post originally appeared on Churchpop.com.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

When American Catholic politics split the Church

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • October 13, 2016

John F. Kennedy (l) and Al Smith (r). (Public domain and United States Library of Congress)

Denver, CO — For history professor Christopher Shannon, Catholics in American politics have a long history, yet this legacy is overshadowed by a troubling disunity in the present.

“This rupture in the Church and the change in American politics has only hardened divisions within the Church,” said the Christendom College professor. “What frustrates me or troubles me is that they seem to be more concerned about ‘where’s our country going?’ than ‘where’s our Church going?’.”

“They seem much more comfortable and happy to work for a better America, with their liberal friends or their conservative friends, than [to] really restore unity in the Church,” he said. “The political divisions in the Church have only hardened and worsened the theological divisions and the division in general.”

Prior to the 1960s, the unity that people see in the Church was also reflected in a political unity, Shannon thought.

“Catholics, for all of their infighting, could see themselves as a united people in the Church, and also because they were united in their politics,” he said in a Sept. 9 interview with CNA.

Catholics in America through the 19th century

Catholic politicians, though always a minority, have a long history in the United States. Maryland’s Charles Carroll, for instance, was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.

But by the mid-19th century the average Catholic in America was an immigrant, and poor. Unlike in Europe, no Catholic party had emerged in the United States.

For Shannon, Archbishop John Hughes of New York, who headed the archdiocese from 1842-1864, came closest to creating a Catholic politics in the 19th century. He would never have considered himself to be acting as a Catholic politician, but his actions regarding the public school system certainly had a political edge.

The public school system was de facto Protestant, with religious education based on reading the King James Version of the Bible. Catholics objected to this, and bishops sought that Catholics could be excused from reading the Protestant Bible.

The archbishop’s stand was simply based on “self-preservation and defense of his community,” according to Shannon. Archbishop Hughes did start a political party over the issue to split the Democratic Party vote in New York politics, but he eventually resolved the controversy by starting the Catholic school system.

There were no Catholic politicians in the 19th century of the same stature as Archbishop Hughes. Rather, these politicos played smaller roles in patronage and influence networks like New York City’s Tammany Hall.

Such a politician was “not a man of principle in the modern sense … but very much a man of the people,” Shannon explained. “These type of politicians have a bad reputation today for their corruption and such, but for them politics was about delivering the goods and not about high principles: The widow Murphy needs coal, or she will freeze to death. Old Joe Riley he can make sure she got coal.”

“That was Catholic politics, really, through most of the 19th century,” Shannon summarized. “That was good enough for those people.”

At the time, there weren’t Catholic principles that applied to democratic institutions. The Church itself had doubts about democracy. The first social encyclicals aiming to engage modernity on positive grounds had little impact, except for a small but growing number of priests who used them to try to articulate a Catholic politics – most clearly exemplified by Msgr. John Ryan, who became especially prominent as an ally of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The venue for most Catholics was also geographically localized.

“Catholic politics is urban politics,” Shannon said. “It was all urban, it was all about the political machines that ran the cities.”

Irish immigrants especially dominated politics. They came largely fluent in English, and their homeland was politicized in the wake of Catholic emancipation. Their dominance was at time resented by other Catholic groups, not to mention other Americans.

Al Smith, four-time New York governor

Since the late 19th century, Catholics had become a force in the Democratic Party. New York governor Al Smith, a Democrat, became the first Catholic candidate for president in 1928.

While Smith had come out of a Tammany Hall environment, he was not considered corrupt. He was also sympathetic to some concerns of the Progressive Era, which saw the need for a programmatic approach to social problems instead of case-by-case acts of charity.

Smith was not directly influenced by the social teachings of the papacy. At one point, a leading writer in The Atlantic challenged his candidacy and wondered his presidency would be negatively influenced by papal encyclicals.

Possibly apocryphally, Smith replied: “What the hell is an encyclical?”

“He was trying to develop a Catholic politics without calling it a Catholic politics,” Shannon said. “I think the most important thing about Smith, the great contrast with Kennedy later, is that when he would say, ‘I’m an American, I’m not trying to impose my faith on people,’ he would be attacked and attacked, but he would never back down from his commitment to the Church and from identifying himself as a Catholic.”

“For him, Catholic politics was a kind of identity politics: ‘I’m Catholic and I can be Catholic and American, I can be a Catholic and a good president, and I’m not going to renounce my faith by silence or by denying or ignoring my faith’.”

Smith sought votes not for his religion, but for his political positions.

Al Smith failed win the presidency, but his career peak as New York governor was a tremendous step for Catholics in America.

JFK: A president who happened to be Catholic

The presidency of John F. Kennedy was another watershed moment for Catholics in the United States.

“He in some sense, more through his assassination than his actual election, puts to rest the idea that Catholics cannot be good citizens,” Shannon said.

However, his method of engaging the issue of Catholic faith and politics was different from that of Smith, particularly in how he addressed the concerns of those sceptical of a Catholic in the White House.

Kennedy, in his Sept. 12, 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, said, “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic.”

“I do not speak for my Church on public matters; and the Church does not speak for me,” Kennedy continued. “Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views – in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.”

For Shannon, this represents a privatization of Kennedy’s Catholic faith. His example often flowed into popular interpretations of the Second Vatican Council.

“The Church is not saying that your faith should be purely private, but it is endorsing what looks like an American model in terms of disestablishment and religious pluralism,” Shannon said.

“The big thing is, when Kennedy becomes this great martyr, Catholics feel they’ve finally arrived,” he added. “On what terms? On American terms. They’re accepted as Americans, they’re not accepted as Catholic Americans. And certainly not accepted because as Catholics they have something distinct to contribute to the country, as Catholics.”

Shannon held that a politician like Smith would never have claimed to be a Catholic politician or to have had the right to impose his faith on others. However, “he would never have renounced the Church in the way that Kennedy did. It was a matter of tone and style.”

For Shannon, Kennedy’s statement is a harsh one – he could have taken the same stand without so strongly distancing himself. Those who say their faith has nothing to do with their politics must answer the question, “Where do you draw your guidance from?”

The situation after Vatican II

With the example of Kennedy, and popular interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, both conservative and liberal Catholics would cite the pluralistic nature of democracy as a reason to privatize their faith.

“They start saying ‘various positions are rooted in my faith, and therefore they are private’,” Shannon said.

Both liberal and conservative Catholics started making the distinction. Even on abortion, the conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr. in March 1966 column, claimed that the principal meaning of the Second Vatican Council was that other men must be free to practice their conscience, and if they do not believe abortion is wrong then anti-abortion laws would contradict the Church’s position.

“That kind of distinction gathers steam through the mid-60s and ‘70s, and is given its most famous formulation by Mario Cuomo at Notre Dame, significantly, as he is seeking national office,” Shannon said.

In his Sept. 13, 1984 speech sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Theology, Cuomo justified his pro-abortion rights position by saying Catholic public officials live a “political truth” which holds “that to assure our freedom we must allow others the same freedom, even if occasionally it produces conduct by them which we would hold to be sinful.”

“I accept the Church’s teaching on abortion. Must I insist you do? By law? By denying you Medicaid funding? By a constitutional amendment? If so, which one? Would that be the best way to avoid abortions or to prevent them?” the governor asked.

Shannon summarized Cuomo’s position as “personally opposed but publically agnostic.” The governor said his duty as a public servant was to uphold “the law of the land,” but he does not give consideration to his ability to change the law.

This built on the deep rupture within the Church over Bl. Paul VI’s reaffirmation that the use of artificial birth control is sinful, including use of the then-novel birth control pill.

“Those issues are the basic ones that divide liberal and conservative Catholics to this day,” Shannon said.

This in turn has led to deeper divisions.

Where we are today

Pro-life advocates first sought a home in the Democratic Party on the assumption that its policies focused on caring for people and were consistent with Catholic social justice tradition.

This effort continued through the mid-1970s, when pro-life Democrats, stymied by feminist resistance, started to migrate into the Republican Party as it slowly converted to a pro-life view.

However, Shannon noted, these former Democrats then adopt “a whole range of political positons that most Catholics would have never thought have adopting, because they saw them as ‘un-Catholic’: a general endorsement of the free market, a comparative lack of concern for the poor, a tendency to blame the poor for their poverty.”

“In earlier times, the Catholics were the poor and they were being blamed for their poverty,” Shannon said. “Today, they are clearly divided in their Church, just as they are divided in their politics”

He acknowledged that a united Catholic position would face difficulty finding a home in either party at present.

“The cultural positions of the Church are going to offend the Democrats, the economic positions of the Church are going to offend Republicans,” he said, pondering the state of Catholics today.

“What troubles me is that they’re seeking the solution to this division more through politics than through the Church itself. They’re thinking: ‘If our side wins at politics then we’re going to drive the others out of the Church, and we’ll win in the Church’.”

Shannon proposed another path.

“Why not heal the wounds and divisions in the Church first? Certainly, be good citizens, be involved in the political process, but do so from a united Catholic position.”

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

FEATURES

Nun who witnessed multiple Eucharistic miracles on path to sainthood

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

Tyburn Convent in London, founded by Servant of God Marie Adele Garnier and home of the Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre. (CindyP12 via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

London, England — Mother Marie Adele Garnier led no ordinary life.

Marked with spiritual and physical suffering, visions of Christ, political upheaval, and a dramatically thwarted engagement early in her life, she eventually became the foundress of an order of sisters based in London that has now spread throughout the world.

Due to her remarkable life and virtue, Mother Marie Adele Garnier, founder of the Benedictine Tyburn Convent in London, has now been given the title “Servant of God” by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, the title given to individuals whose cause has officially opened – the first step to canonization.

Her sisters have been trying to open her cause for 20 years, but lack of funds prevented them – vow of poverty, and all.

“But, in more recent times, on account of the increasing widespread fame of her holiness and her powerful intercession in obtaining both spiritual and temporal favours in response to prayers through her intercession, we firmly believe that the time has come to go forward with her Cause for Canonisation,” the order explains on their website.

Mother Garnier was born Marie Adele Garnier on August 15, 1838 in Grancey-le-Château, in the Diocese of Dijon, one of five children. For a long time she felt a desire to be close to Christ, but she did not always know her vocation was to be a nun.

At the age of six, Adele’s mother had passed away. Two years later, Adele was sent to boarding school, where she would complete her education at age 16.

Shortly after she returned home from school, a young man asked for her hand in marriage, and Marie accepted.

But it didn’t last long.

According to a recollection of her life by a Benedictine monastery in France, Adele once overheard her fiance joking with a friend that he would “get rid” of Adele’s piety once they were married.

Adele couldn’t stand it, and she stormed down the stairs and hurled back: “Sir, you will not have to take the trouble – I will never be your wife!”

An argument ensued, and in a dramatic display of despair, the young man plunged a pair of scissors into his chest. It wasn’t a fatal injury, but suffice it to say that the two never married. (Eventually the young man married someone else.)

For years after the incident, Adele worked as a beloved governess for a French family at chateau of Aulne. During her time there, she enjoyed serving as the chateau’s sacristan. It was there that a vision of Christ appeared to her on her Host, which would eventually be the image on her order’s medals.

Soon after this vision, France was in the throes of the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in the end of France’s Second Empire. On December 12, 1871, Adele wrote in her diary: “For France: to pray, expiate, suffer, love!”

The political upheaval of her country caused Adele great spiritual suffering and desolation, which her spiritual director ordered her to take to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. After a time of prayer, she was struck “wild with a joy that stripped me of reason, I felt as though struck by lightning, and remained in the grip of a rapture I cannot describe.”

Soon after this experience, and after the war had ended, Adele read an article in 1872 of a devout couple planning to build a church in honor of the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary.

She heard Christ calling her to be at this particular church, and over the next several years she consulted with her spiritual director and with the archbishop to establish perpetual adoration there, which has now been happening nonstop at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmarte since August 1, 1885.

Adele longed to establish a community of sisters devoted to perpetual adoration at Montmarte, but her health and other logistical issues prevented her for several more years.

Finally, in March 1897, Adele and two other sisters set up residence in an apartment in Montmartre, dedicating their lives to prayer and apostolate work and wearing white scapulars under their secular clothing.

On March 4, 1898, Cardinal Francois-Marie-Benjamin Richard de la Vergne of Paris authorized the establishment of the new order, and the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre were founded.

A few years later though, in 1901, the anti-clerical French government passed the Law of Associations, which greatly expanded the state’s authority over religious orders and regulated their educational work. As a result, the sisters went into exile in London, where they were able to freely wear a habit for the first time.

They eventually settled at Tyburn, the “mons martyrum” (“mount of martyrs”) in London where in the 16th and 17th centuries, several hundred martyrs – priests, religious, and lay men and women – were executed by the Protestant state for their refusal to give up their Catholic faith.

Throughout her life as a religious, Mother Garnier, who now went by Mother Mary of St. Peter, experienced intense physical suffering, so much so that when she went more than two hours without suffering, she wondered if Christ had forgotten her.

Despite her sufferings, which included debilitating migraines, her sisters say she remained cheerful and gentle with everyone, and counseled other sisters through their trials.

She once told a particularly distraught young sister: “My poor little daughter, I have such pity for you. When you suffer so much, drag your cross on all fours if you must, and then, when things are a little better, try to get up and carry it more valiantly.”

The order as a whole also suffered financial problems and strange demonic attacks, including instances of possession or objects being picked up and thrown across the room. But Christ promised Mother Mary of St. Peter that he would not let the order dissolve.

According to a report from The Catholic Herald, Fr. Gianmario Piga wrote a spiritual biography of the nun in 2012, in which he relayed the story of Mother Mary’s witnessing of a Eucharistic miracle.

In a letter to Fr. Charles Sauvé, Mother recalled how she saw the Blessed Sacrament turn to bloody flesh.

“At the moment in which the priest took a particle of the Holy Host and put it into the chalice I raised my eyes to adore and to contemplate the holy particle,” she wrote.

“Oh, if you could know what I saw and how I am still moved and impressed by this vision,” she continued.

“The fingers of the priest held not a white particle but a particle of striking red, the colour of blood and luminous at the same time … The fingers of the priest were red on the right of the particle, as from a blood stain that seemed still wet.”

In 1922, Christ appeared to Mother Mary of St. Peter and told her that she would suffer and die soon. For the next two years, she suffered intense chest pains and congestion problems, until she became bedridden.

In spite of her sufferings, she once said: “I believe that I will be cheerful up to the final moment!” She said she offered her sufferings “so that all nations might become Catholic.”

On November 15, 1923, on a Host a priest brought her, she saw the Heart of Jesus, alive in the Eucharist. She died June 17, 1924.

Today, the contemplative order has spread throughout the world, with convents in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Italy, Nigeria, and France.

In 1947, some sisters from Tyburn formed a new congregation, the Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre, who serve at the Basilica of Montmartre and other places of pilgrimage in France.

The Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre remain dedicated to “Eucharistic adoration for the glory of God and prayer for the needs of the whole human family.”

The next step in Mother Garnier’s canonization will be for her to be declared Venerable, which means that the Pope recognizes that she led a life of heroic virtue.

Share this article

Link to original article with sharing options:  catholicnewsagency.com

SUNDAY • OCTOBER 16, 2016

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 17:8-13; NRSVCE)

Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men for us and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword.

Second Reading (2 Tm 3:14-4:2; NRSVCE)

As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.

Gospel Reading (Lk 18:1-8; NRSVCE)

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

MONDAY • OCTOBER 17, 2016

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch

First Reading (Eph 2:1-10; NRSVCE)

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Gospel Reading (Lk 12:13-21; NRSVCE)

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

TUESDAY • OCTOBER 18, 2016

Feast of Saint Luke

First Reading (2 Tm 4:10-17b; NRSVCE)

Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message.

At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

Gospel Reading (Lk 10:1-9; NRSVCE)

The Lord Jesus appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 19, 2016

Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues

First Reading (Eph 3:2-12; NRSVCE)

Surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Gospel Reading (Lk 12:39-48; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

THURSDAY • OCTOBER 20, 2016

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Eph 3:14-21; NRSVCE)

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Gospel Reading (Lk 12:49-53; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

FRIDAY • OCTOBER 21, 2016

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Eph 4:1-6; NRSVCE)

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Gospel Reading (Lk 12:54-59; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

“And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

SATURDAY • OCTOBER 22, 2016

Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Eph 4:7-16; NRSVCE)

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said,

“When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;

he gave gifts to his people.”

(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Gospel Reading (Lk 13:1-9; NRSVCE)

At that time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”