VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2  •  MARCH 11, 2017

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis is going on retreat – and you can join in

The Pope receives the participants in the International Congress on Sacred Music

Angelus: Familiarize ourselves with the Bible to rise, victorious, above temptation

Vatican event to highlight key role of women in peace-building

The death penalty doesn’t solve problems, archbishop tells U.N.

For women, Vatican’s new female advisory group ‘a good start’

Pope Francis has some ideas on how to fix the priest shortage

She grew up in the art world – now she’s leading the Vatican museums

He’s back! Pope Francis returns to Rome grateful for spiritual retreat

WORLD NEWS

Why is gendercide wrong and screening for Down syndrome okay, advocates ask

The horror of Ukraine’s forgotten famine still casts a shadow

Croatia will soon hold one of the largest Marian statues in the world

Peruvian marches against gender ideology attract 1.5 million

Bishop rejects South Sudan president’s day of prayer as a political move

More than 200 Korean martyrs are up for beatification

Critics of church demolitions in Sudan pressured to keep silent

Echoes of St. Benedict as Norcia monks rebuild after earthquake

U.S. NEWS

Trump pushes education choices in visit to Florida Catholic school

Supreme Court sends transgender student case back to lower court

Minnesota diocese, facing abuse lawsuits, files for bankruptcy

What the U.S. bishops want to see in health care reform

Arizona State University to hold first Pregnant on Campus Week

N.Y. archdiocese defends right to make hiring decisions

FEATURES

He used to spit on those going to Mass – now he’s a priest

Love is both tolerant and intolerant

Meet the four-legged Franciscan ‘friar’

Where it’s OK to eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day this Lent

Movie review: ‘Kong: Skull Island’

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • March 12, 2017

Monday • March 13, 2017

Tuesday • March 14, 2017

Wednesday • March 15, 2017

Thursday • March 16, 2017

Friday • March 17, 2017

Saturday • March 18, 2017

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Volume 3, Issue 2 • March 11, 2017

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis is going on retreat – and you can join in

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • March 4, 2017

Pope Francis in prayer. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — As Pope Francis leaves Sunday to begin his annual Lenten retreat, Fr. Giulio Michelini, the priest leading this year’s spiritual exercises, said he hopes Christians around the world will be inspired to join in.

“I will be grateful to all those that are listening to us, that these exercises will be shared by all who believe in Jesus Christ,” Fr. Michelini told CNA. “We can do them together.”

“I know that people will go to work, will go to school, will be busy during these days,” he said, but “we can read the Passion according to Matthew’s Gospel, and that can be a way to pray to the Holy Spirit so that the Church will be more united.”

Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia will make their annual five-day spiritual exercises retreat at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, a city located some 16 miles outside of Rome. Located on Lake Albano, it is just a short way from the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

This year’s retreat, which runs March 5-10, will be led by Fr. Giulio Michelini, a Franciscan of the Seraphic Province of the Friars Minor of Umbria.

He said that his preaching for the week will be an in-depth examination and reflection on the Gospel of Matthew, starting with the Last Supper and moving through the Passion to the Resurrection.

“I will try to go deep into the Jesus that the disciples saw and followed,” he said. “So there will be a reflection on the humanity of Jesus,” as well as a meditation on relationships.

Most importantly, the retreat “will be a time of restoration,” Fr. Michelini said. “We will quit working, talking, doing the usual things that the Pope, Bishops and Cardinals, and households do.”

They will pray, and there will be time to walk around the beautiful grounds and lake outside the retreat house, he said, “a time to quit, to stop and to reflect.”

This is the fourth consecutive year the Pope and Curial members have held their Lenten retreat at the house in Ariccia.

While the practice of the Roman Pontiff going on retreat with the heads of Vatican dicasteries each Lent began some 80 years ago under the pontificate of Pius XI, it was customary for them to follow the spiritual exercises on Vatican ground. Beginning in Lent 2014, Pope Francis chose to hold the retreat outside of Rome, true to his background as a Jesuit.

This time of Lent, Fr. Michelini said, is a good period to slow down and to reflect on our spiritual lives and how they may be in need of enrichment. “It is helpful to remember that we are only human,” he said. “We need to eat, we need people to help us too.”

“And so the 40 days are a way for us to reflect not only on the poor, but also how we are poor, in a different sense.”

Especially in wealthy Western countries, where we have enough food and money, we don’t necessarily know what it is like to experience need, he said.

“Fasting and praying is not only a way for those who believe to be more in touch with God, and to have the same experience that Jesus did in the desert, but it’s also a way to be more human. Because we normally have everything.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The Pope receives the participants in the International Congress on Sacred Music

The Holy See Press Office • March 4, 2017

Vatican City —”Music and Church: Cult and Culture 50 years after Musican sacram,” is the theme of the International Congress on Sacred Music, organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, and whose participants were received in audience by the Pope this morning in the Clementine Hall.

The organizers of the event, which took place in Rome from 2 to 4 March, also include the Congregation for Catholic Education, in collaboration with the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of the St. Anselm University. The Pope thanked all those present, along with Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and expressed his hope that “the experience of encounter and dialogue during these days, in joint reflection on sacred music and particularly on its cultural and artistic aspects, be fruitful for ecclesial communities.”

Half a century after the Instruction Musicam sacram, the convention sought to explore, from an interdisciplinary and ecumenical perspective, the current relationship between sacred music and contemporary culture, between the musical repertoire adopted and used by the Christian community and prevailing musical tendencies. Of great significance, too, was the reflection on the aesthetic and musical formation of both clergy and religious, and laypeople involved in pastoral life, and more directly in the scholae cantorum.

In his address, Francis mentioned that the first document to emerge from Vatican Council II was indeed the Constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. “The Council Fathers were well aware of the difficulty of the faithful in participating in a liturgy whose language, words and signs they did not fully understand,” he remarked. “To implement the fundamental guidelines of the Constitution, the Instructions were issued, including that on sacred music. Since then, although new documents of the Magisterium have been produced on the issue, there have been various and significant pontifical interventions that have guided reflection and pastoral engagement.”

The Pope emphasized the contemporary relevance of the Instruction, which states that “Liturgical worship is given a more noble form when it is celebrated in song, with the ministers of each degree fulfilling their ministry and the people participating in it. Indeed, through this form, prayer is expressed in a more attractive way, the mystery of the liturgy, with its hierarchical and community nature, is more openly show, [and] the unity of hearts is more profoundly achieved by the union of voices.”

Several times the document, following Council indications, highlights the importance of participation of all the assembly of the faithful, defined as “full, conscious and active,” and clearly underlines that “the true solemnity of liturgical worship depends less on a more ornate form of singing and a more magnificent ceremonial than on its worthy and religious celebration.” “This means first and foremost, therefore, participating intensely in the Mystery of God, in the ‘theophany’ that is achieved in every Eucharistic celebration, in which the Lord makes Himself present in the midst of His people, called to participate truly in the salvation put into effect by Christ, Who died and rose again. Active and conscious participation consists, then, in knowing how to enter deeply into this mystery, in knowing how to contemplate, adore and welcome, in perceiving the meaning, thanks in particular to religious silence and the musicality of the language with which the Lord speaks to us.”

The Church is therefore called to pursue a dual mission in this field. “On the one hand,” explained the Pope, “to safeguard and promote the rich and variegated patrimony inherited from the past, using it in equilibrium with the present and avoiding the risk of a nostalgic or ‘archaeological’ vision. On the other hand, it is necessary to do so in such a way that sacred music and liturgical song are fully inculturated in current artistic and musical languages; that they are able, that is, to incarnate and translate the Word of God into song, sound and harmonies that resound in the heart of our peers, also creating an emotional climate conducive to faith and which inspires acceptance of and full participation in the mystery that is being celebrated.”

“Certainly, the encounter with modernity and the introduction of spoken languages in the liturgy gave rise to many problems: of musical language, form and genre. At times a certain mediocrity has prevailed, superficial and banal, at the expense of the beauty and intensity of liturgical celebrations. Therefore the various protagonists in this field – musicians and composers, directors and choristers of scholae cantorum, animators of the liturgy – can offer a valuable contribution to the renewal, especially in a qualitative sense, of sacred music and liturgical song. To favor this approach, it is necessary to promote adequate musical formation, also in those preparing to become priests, in dialogue with the musical currents of our time, with the demands of different cultural areas, and with an ecumenical attitude.”

Francis concluded by commending the participants in the Congress to the Virgin Mary who “in the Magnificat sang the mysterious holiness of God.” “I urge you not to lose sight of this important objective: helping the liturgical assembly and the people of God to perceive and to participate, with all their senses, physical and spiritual, in the mystery of God. Sacred music and liturgical song have the task of giving us a sense of God’s glory, of His beauty, of His holiness that envelops us like a ‘luminous cloud.’”

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Angelus: Familiarize ourselves with the Bible to rise, victorious, above temptation

The Holy See Press Office • March 5, 2017

Vatican City — The temptations of Jesus during his forty days in the desert were the theme of the Holy Father’s meditation before praying the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square at midday today.

The episode, narrated by St. Matthew, takes place in a precise moment in Jesus’ life: immediately after His baptism in the river Jordan and before His public ministry, and He confronts His declared enemy, Satan, face to face. “The devil appeals to His title of ‘Son of God’ to dissuade Jesus from fulfilling His mission … and suggests that He perform miraculous gestures – that He be a ‘magician’- such as transforming stones into bread to satisfy His hunger, and throwing Himself from the walls of the temple to be saved by the angels. These two temptations are followed by a third: to adore him, the devil, to have dominion over the world.”

With these three temptations, Satan seeks to divert Jesus from the way of obedience and humiliation, “because he knows that on this way evil will be defeated – and lead Him on the false shortcut of success and glory. However, the devil’s poisonous arrows are all deflected with the shield of the Word of God, which expresses the will of the Father. Jesus does not say a word of His own: he responds only with the Word of God. And thus the Son, filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit, emerges victorious from comes out victorious from the desert.”

“During the forty days of Lent, to follow in Jesus steps and face the spiritual combat against the Evil One with the strength of the Word of God. Not with our word, which is useless. The Word of God: that which has the strength to defeat Satan. Therefore, it is necessary to draw confidence from the Bible: to read it often, meditate on it and assimilate it. The Bible contains the World of God, which is always current and effective.”

“It has been said,” continued the bishop of Rome, “What would happen if we treated the Bible as we treat our mobile phone? If we always carried it with us, or at least a small pocket Bible, what would happen? If we went back to look for it when we forgot it, if we opened it several times a day; what would happen if we read God’s messages contained in the Bible as we read our phone messages? The comparison is clearly paradoxical, but it makes us reflect. If we had the Word of God always in our heart, no temptation would be able to estrange us from God and no obstacle would be capable of making us deviate from the path of goodness; we would be able to overcome the daily suggestions of evil that are in us and outside us; we would be more capable of living a resurrected life according to the Spirit, receiving and loving our brothers, especially the weakest and most in need, and also our enemies.”

“May the Virgin Mary, perfect icon of obedience to God and of unconditional trust in His will, sustain us on our Lenten journey, so that listen in docility to the Word of God, to undertake a true conversion of the heart.”

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Vatican event to highlight key role of women in peace-building

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2017

Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday General Audience on Oct. 1 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — To mark International Women’s Day, the Vatican invited women from across the globe to discuss not only their work as peacemakers in a conflict-filled world, but their contributions to the Church as well.

“Women understand, intuitively and by experience, that other people need their attention,” Dr. Scilla Elworthy, co-founder of the organization “Rising Women, Rising World,” told CNA March 6.

This intuition is seen concretely in how women interact with their children, their families and the communities they are a part of, she said. This ability “is what makes them such incredible peacemakers and peacebuilders: that ability to step into the shoes of the other in compassion, and to actually listen.”

“You’ll notice that some women have this lovely presence that makes them very alive and very engaged and engaging,” which isn’t just the result of their intuition, but also of the five characteristics of what she called “feminine intelligence.”

A term coined by Elworthy and her organization, feminine intelligence, or, as she calls it, “FQ,” is something that represents the specific qualities that stand out in women, but that men can learn through observation and practice.

Defined by Elworthy, “feminine intelligence” first of all consists of compassion, as well as inclusivity, referring to the sense that “no one is left out.”

Another quality is nurturing, which means “looking after (and) caring for” people, she said. Finally, the characteristic that stands out for Elworthy as the most important is the ability to really listen to others.

“We all think we’re good listeners, but most of us are not,” she said, adding that “that’s the greatest gift we can give to another person, is to hear them, and it’s the fastest, most effective way to resolve conflicts.”

“To listen to the person we’re in conflict with, feed back to them what they’ve said, check if they’ve got it right, and then ask them to do the same with us” is one of the most secure ways to end misunderstandings and confrontations, she said.

Elworthy was one of four panelists at a March 6 press conference on the Vatican’s annual Voices of Faith (VoF) women’s conference, held every year on March 8 to coincide with International Women’s Day.

First held in 2014, the VoF conference was established in response to Pope Francis’ call to “broaden the space within the Church for a more incisive feminine presence.”

Gathering women from around the world, this year’s VoF will take place at the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV and will gather women from around the world, including Syria and Burundi, to highlight the role women play in building a culture of peace within a world at conflict.

In her comments to CNA, Elsworthy, who is not Catholic but will be a panelist for a discussion on the topic of “Building Effective Leadership for Peace,” said the unique qualities women have at times risk of being lost in a society which, at various levels, often pushes them to be more like men.

“In corporate life, women are definitely expected to adopt a male, aggressive, competitive (attitude) and it doesn’t suit them, they get very stressed,” Elsworthy said, noting that “a lot of them are packing it in, they don’t like it.”

Politics is another field that can be “very harsh” for women, she said, explaining that women need to look for what she called a “deep inner power of the feminine,” but which is “not feminism.”

Instead, for Elsworthy this “feminine power” involves the five characteristics of her notion of feminine intelligence as well as “also the ability to self-inspect.”

This, she said, is where religion comes in, “because all the great religious traditions … demand that we spend time every day in silence.”

Also present at the news conference was Marguerite Barankitse, founder of the Maison Shalom foundation, which she established in response to the aftermath of the 1972 and 1993 genocides of both the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in Burundi as a means of ending the country’s cycle of violence.

In comments to journalists, Barankitse said that for her, even while the mass killings of Tutsis were taking place in 1993, being a Christian and going to Church “was more important than being Tutsi.”

She recounted that at one point during the genocide she had gone to the archbishop’s house in her village to seek refuge, thinking that because of Christianity’s emphasis on forgiveness, members of her parish community would be more balanced, but instead found that the people were filled with hatred.

After this experience and seeing the prejudice coursing through the country at the time, Barankitse said she decided to become teacher after genocide, because in doing so “I can teach children love and compassion.”

Barankitse said that some 60 percent of her family were killed by Hutus during the genocide, but that instead of retaliating, she wanted to establish the Shalom foundation in order to “create a new generation.”

Chantal Gotz, founder and organizer of VoF, also spoke at the news conference, telling journalists that part of the reason for establishing the organization, in addition to giving women a platform in the Church to highlight their contributions, was to break a somewhat negative image of the Church when it comes to women.

When VoF was founded, she said, a journalist had mentioned to her that while more space needed to be created for women in the Church, particularly when it comes to leadership roles, “we have no idea what Catholic women are doing in the Church.”

“The fact was also that four years ago, the image of the Catholic Church was always viewed in a quite negative way, nothing was highlighted on what is the Church doing in a positive way,” she said, adding that they are hoping to “bring new stories” to light showing what women already do.

Media is key in sharing these stories, she said, explaining that they hope to “highlight the positive, not just in Catholic press, but we also need secular press to spread the message of what women are doing and the great work that they’re already doing.”

Kerry Robinson, founding executive director and global ambassador of the Leadership Roundtable, was also present at the news conference. Founded in 2005 after the sex abuse crisis broke, the roundtable is made up of professionals from various fields and is dedicated to promoting best practices in the fields of management, finances and human resources in the Church.

In her comments to journalists, Robinson said she sees Pope Francis as “a reason to be hopeful” given his emphasis on mercy, the poor and his general closeness to people.

When it comes to women, she said one of the “signature motivations” for work of the roundtable is to ensure that their daughters and other young women have more of a voice and a stronger place in the future.

However, she said the push for women’s priestly ordination (which continues to be advocated for despite the fact that Pope Francis has already definitively closed the door) can be distracting from other initiatives that actually help women.

“The ordination question stops every other creative idea that could be implemented right away and nothing happens,” she said, explaining that “unless we bracket it,” none of the ideas for how to enhance the role of women in the present will be possible.

In her comments, Gotz said that finding ways to highlight the role of women and build them up within the Church is something that everyone should be responsible for, not just Pope Francis.

“We expect a lot from just from one person, from Pope Francis, and he was calling to all of us to bring in ideas of new initiatives,” she said, and pointed to VoF as an example.

The organization has not only enjoyed strong success, but also has the support of the Pope, she said, stressing that “we have to trust and we can support him in bringing in new ideas and not expecting that he has to change all of it by himself.”

Similarly, Barankitse said many wait for Pope Francis to act, “but what are the women doing?”

If we constantly wait for something to come “on a silver platter, we will never get it,” she said, adding that “it’s up to us women to support this extraordinary Pope, who is a blessing for our century, and we stand tall.”

But for Robinson, the discussion limited to just women, but involves the laity as a whole, including lay men, whose presence is also frequently missing from within the Vatican ranks.

She told journalists that as far as the Roundtable goes, it’s primarily a movement “to help the Church leaders, ordained and religious, avail themselves of the talent of laity, and that is very intentionally women and men.”

“That’s really our signature: to recognize that the talent and expertise of lay Catholics is an under-utilized resource that the Church can benefit from.”

In comments to CNA, Robinson said the “diversity” of having men and women work together “is a gift, and often we tend not to ensure that there’s true diversity at the tables of deliberation and decision-making.”

“Leadership Roundtable is about helping Church leaders avail themselves of the talent of laity, whether it’s laity who are CEO’s or captains of industry, or its emerging leaders like the talented young adults who are in colleges all over the world who love the Church and want to continue in a meaningful leadership way,” she said.

She stressed that “in no way would I want just women to be running things,” but instead it ought to be “our collective wisdom and experience that matters. It informs a better discussion and a better outcome.”

However, Robinson said she’s happy to see women “claiming their own” and stepping up in leadership roles in various sectors and professions, but noted that there’s still “a long way to go.”

Particularly in the Catholic Church, she said, opportunities need to be sought which ensure that “women and men together are seen as leaders, contributing to the discussion, being models of faith and excellence for younger generations.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The death penalty doesn’t solve problems, archbishop tells U.N.

by CNA/EWTN News • March 7, 2017

(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Wikipedia CC 2.0)

Geneva, Switzerland — The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations reiterated the Vatican’s defense of all human life in a meeting with UN Human Rights Council on the death penalty.

“My Delegation reaffirms that life is sacred ‘from conception to natural death,’ and recalls the words Pope Francis, that ‘even a criminal has the inviolable right to life,’” said Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic last Wednesday.

He cited the words of Pope Francis: “For a constitutional state the death penalty represents a failure, because it obliges a State to kill in the name of justice. But justice is never reached by killing a human being.”

The archbishop also expressed concern for possible failures in human justice which may bring about the death of the wrong person.

“In this regard, one should consider that human justice is fallible and that the death penalty per se is irreversible. We should take into account that capital punishment always includes the possibility of taking the life of an innocent person.”

He also said that there is “insufficient evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime.”

Globally, recent years have seen a trend against the death penalty.

Recent studies have shown a decrease in popular opinion of capital punishment. Some 80 percent of the American population favored the death penalty for convicted murders in 1995, but a 2010 poll by Lake Research Partners found that support had dropped to 39 percent.

Fighting this trend is the Philippines, which is considering reinstating the death penalty, after it had been abolished in the country’s 1987 constitution.

Archbishop Jurkovic addressed the need for different avenues aimed at rehabilitation and society’s safety while also respecting life.

“My Delegation believes that more humane measures are available to address crime, ensuring the victim the right to justice and giving the criminal the chance to reform,” he said.

The archbishop reemphasized the goal of ending capital punishment and said that the Vatican supports “as an interim measure, the moratoria established by the 2014 General Assembly resolution.” He ended with an encouragement for better prison conditions and fair trials, regardless of criminal status.

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VATICAN NEWS

For women, Vatican’s new female advisory group ‘a good start’

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 8, 2017

Sunset over St. Peter’s Basilica. (Vladimir Wrangel via Shutterstock)

Vatican City — A new advisory group for the Pontifical Council for Culture is being hailed as the beginning of a greater representation of women in leadership at the Vatican.

On March 7 the Council presented their 37-member “Women’s Consultation Group,” which they established in 2015 as a way to give women a voice in places where it can frequently be lacking in the Vatican.

Member Donna Orsuto, director of the Rome-based Lay Center, called the the group “a good start.”

“I think there are many other ways, or in the future there will be many other ways in which women can be more present, more involved in the Church, especially in the Roman Curia,” she told CNA, “but I think this is a very good start.”

Orsuto voiced her hope that as they carry out their work, the group would be able to “work together … as women, but also with the council.”

“This idea of men and women working together for the good of the Church and society” is key, she said, adding that she’s “very pleased that the focus isn’t just on women and women’s issues.”

Council president Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said that like many other Vatican departments, “inside of my dicastery, I didn’t have any women at the management level. They were only there in an administrative sense as secretaries.”

And while the women who are part of the consultative group aren’t necessarily department managers, the presence of the group serves as a response to “this lack of the presence of women in the Roman Curia.”

Ravasi said he didn’t form the group to recriminate those who were angry about the lack of women, and nor did he want the women to be “a ‘cosmetic’ element in the sense that they were (only) a symbolic presence” or a mere viewpoint on “an only male horizon.”

Instead, the cardinal said he simply wanted “a feminine perspective” over every activity the dicastery does, including official documents.

A woman’s viewpoint, he said, “can see beyond our gaze” and offers a perspective that’s different and at times unexpected.

“It’s a question about interpretation, of prospective, of analysis, of judgment, above all, and also of proposal,” he said, explaining that the group will participate actively in both the preparation and duration of the council’s next plenary meeting.

Cardinal Ravasi stood beside some 20 of the 37 women who are currently part of the group at its official March 7 presentation. Coming from different cultures and professional backgrounds, the women serve a three-year term and meet three times annually to discuss ideas and possible projects.

Initially started in June 2015, the group was born from the Pontifical Council for Culture’s Feb. 5-7 plenary assembly that year, which was dedicated to the theme “La Cultura Femminile,” or, “The Feminine Culture.”

Several women were asked to help prepare for the plenary, and worked in two separate groups with members of the council to organize the event and define specific topics of conversation.

After the plenary, Ravasi decided to establish the group as a permanent entity. He invited the women who prepared the plenary to stay, and reached out to several others from various professions, including ambassadors, journalists, doctors, professors, actresses and teachers, among others.

In their annual meetings, the group focuses their discussion on proposals surrounding the dicastery’s work in the fields of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, sport and human anthropology.

Consuelo Corradi, coordinator of the Women’s Consultation Group and vice rector for research and international relations at the LUMSA University of Rome, told journalists that they waited to present the group because they wanted to be able to show something that was already well established and running.

The theme that links all of the members together, she said, is “the female difference,” because “there’s a perspective from women (and) there’s a way of living human life that’s specific to women.”

“It’s not a theological discourse, what we do inside the group. One can have an ideological discourse on feminine and masculine, but we try to avoid it,” she said. Instead, the women seek to bring their concrete experience as wives, mothers, friends and professionals in order to discuss “universal themes from a feminine perspective.”

Released during the official presentation of the group was their first project – a magazine titled “Cultures and Faith” including contributions from various members of the group in different languages that reflect on a variety of different topics.

Group members from various fields and cultures who attended the presentation – including Irish ambassador to the Holy See Emma Madigan – voiced their hope that the group would provide a platform to generate creative ideas given their professional backgrounds, and to foster greater collaboration with men on important issues.

In her comments to CNA, Orsuto said the variety of backgrounds and expertise of the members is “an enrichment for the Council,” especially given the fact that there were no women in senior positions in the dicastery beforehand.

Since last year’s plenary, the women have had a chance to evaluate various projects of the council and “and give some insight into doing things with a ‘feminine touch,’” she said, explaining that for her, the group is a concrete example of Pope Francis’ call for a more “incisive” feminine presence in the Church.

Italian psychologist and psychotherapist Dr. Laura Bastianelli touched on the necessity of collaboration between men and women as “a creative process.”

“We want to set up a process that is really cooperating” with one another, she said. “This is a way to build together, not trying to compete.”

“Competition is not the key to the resolution of solving problems between women and men. It’s a cooperation, so we want to co-create starting from the group in the dicastery and then to print a model that can be replicated.”

Bastianelli said she also sees the establishment of the group as a direct response to Pope Francis’ call for a greater inclusion of women in the life of the Church, and is hoping to use her background in psychology to help shape the council’s projects.

Currently a professor at Salesian university, Bastianelli trains psychotherapists and specializes in youth psychology. She is the founder of an association dedicated to working with youth and preventing diseases in children and young people.

“It’s a big work, it’s very demanding, because there’s a lot to do,” she said, explaining that the consultation group’s magazine includes an article from her on youth culture in which she reflects on difficulties today’s youth face.

Specifically, she delved into the topic of neuroscience and what it says about “the use and abuse of the internet (and) what the impact of these technologies on our youth is.”

“This is a big problem,” she said, explaining that the result of the current expansion of technologies among youth will start to be visible in the coming years.

But in addition to speaking just about the challenges, Bastianelli said she also explored the “richness” of today’s youth, “because we have young people very rich and full of competencies, but they can’t find space and they can’t develop because of many bad influences.”

She also spoke during the 2015 plenary for the Council for Culture, focusing on the topic of “generativity (procreativity) as a symbolic code,” meaning how we generate life without necessarily giving birth.

Bastianelli said her greatest hope for the consultation group is that it would spread to other realities even outside of the Church so the “richness of this experience can be replicated. It’s like leaven.”

Emma Madigan, Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, told CNA that she also hopes to use her diplomatic experience to help foster dialogue and open channels within the Vatican.

As an ambassador, “you want to understand better your interlocutors,” she said, explaining that for a diplomat, “dialogue is a core value and activity.”

“You’re basically furthering the bonds between the two countries, or in this case with a global religion, and seeing what you can bring to the table from your experience,” she said, noting that she has worked in a number of different fields where she’s had to encounter the problems people face on a daily basis.

When it comes to the Vatican, “you’re interacting with priests, dealing pretty much with the pastoral issue. You can understand some of what they’re going through,” she said, explaining that she also tries to present and discuss issues important to Ireland and to share information in order to foster greater mutual understanding.

Madigan said she was invited to join the group by Cardinal Ravasi around the same time as the 2015 plenary when he was thinking of establishing it, and initially had reservations about joining for fear of appearing to advise the Church on what they were doing.

However, since it was specifically working with one dicastery in particular, she said yes, since it speaks to people from all walks of life, including Catholics, non-Catholics and even non-believers.

“That’s something I’m really interested in,” she said, noting that she’s been invited to join “because of my position, but I’ll be representing my own perspective.”

“I do feel it was courageous in bringing this up,” she said, explaining that to have 37 women gather around the same table can get “a bit chaotic,” as each one brings their own experience and contribution.

Madigan said that when she initially came to Rome, she thought she would be the only woman ambassador, but quickly found out that wasn’t the case, and “already it means you’re not the only woman in the room.”

For the Vatican, “it is a leadership that is male, but it is changing,” she said, noting that especially when working with the Vatican, women “naturally gravitate towards other women to be interlocutors, share experiences.”

There is “still plenty of room for growth in this area,” she said, but recognized the group as “a practical example of saying ‘we want a woman’s perspective.’”

While many say that “we value women and want to bring them into the fold,” the group “is actually a practical sign that that’s happening. It’s a beginning. You have to start somewhere.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis has some ideas on how to fix the priest shortage

by CNA/EWTN News • March 8, 2017

Pope Francis during his retreat on March 4, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — In a newly-released interview Pope Francis discussed the shortage of vocations to the priesthood, saying the first response must be prayer. He also mentioned working with youth, the low birthrate, and the ordination of married men.

“The first [response] – because I speak as a believer – the Lord told us to pray. Prayer, prayer is missing,” Pope Francis said in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit published March 8.

He called the lack of priests, to the point that some parishes are cared for by female “community leaders” in Switzerland, “a problem that the Church must resolve.”

After prayer, he recommended working “with youth who are seeking orientation. And this is very difficult, the work with youth, but it must be done because they ask for this: the youth are the great discarded ones in modern society, because they have no work in many countries.”

“For vocations, there is also another problem,” he said, “the problem of the birthrate. If there are no young men there can be no priests.”

He repeated his caution against “proselytism,” saying, “You can’t gain vocations with proselytism. ‘Proselytism’ – as if it were a charity society that makes you a partner.”

Without priestly vocations “the Church is weakened, because a Church without the Eucharist doesn’t have strength: the Church makes the Eucharist, but the Eucharist also makes the Church. The problem of vocations is a serious problem.”

Turning to the question of relaxing permissions for the ordination of married men and the requirement of priestly celibacy, he said that “optional celibacy is discussed, above all where priests are needed. But optional celibacy is not the solution.”

His interviewer asked if the permission for the ordination of viri probati – older married men – to the diaconate could be expanded to the priesthood.

While saying making celibacy optional for priests is not the solution, Pope Francis also signalled an openness to discussing the possibility.

“We must think yes, viri probati are a possibility. But then we must also consider what tasks they could perform, for example in isolated communities.”

The interview opened with a discussion of Pope Francis’ devotion to Our Lady, Untier of Knots, and also touched on faith, populism, the Roman Curia, and his international trips.

Regarding faith, he said that “one can’t grow without crisis … crisis is part of the life of faith; a faith which doesn’t enter into crisis to grow, remains juvenile.”

Turning to populism, he expressed his concern over the movement’s expansion in Europe. “Populism is evil and ends badly, as the past century has shown … Behind populism there is always a messianism: always.”

He reminded people that he is imperfect, saying: “I am a sinner, I am limited. We must not forget that the idealization of a person is a subtle form of aggression, it’s a way to subtly attack a person. And when I am idealized, I feel attacked.”

Francis was also asked about recent tensions with American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who in September joined three other prelates in penning a letter to the Pope voicing five “dubia” on his Apostolic exhortation “Amoris Letitia,” which was subsequently published.

Tensions spiked again in December when Burke, Patron of the Order of Malta (a quasi-liaison role between the Order and the Vatican), was reportedly involved on the ousting of Knights’ Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager.

A public row between the Order and the Holy See eventually resulted in resignation of the Order’s Grand Master, Matthew Festing, at Pope Francis’ request, the reinstatement of Boeselager as Grand Chancellor and the appointment of a papal delegate to oversee the “spiritual reform” of the Order, prompting rumors that Francis had either fired Burke or sidelined him in favor of his own man.

In his response to the question, Pope Francis said Cardinal Burke “is not my enemy,” and affirmed that the American prelate still has his job.

“I didn’t take his title as Patron of Malta: he continues to be the Patron of Malta. But someone must repair the Order, and to do this I named a delegate capable of repairing it, with a charisma that Cardinal Burke didn’t have.”

Pope Francis also discussed international trips he hopes to take, and mentioned that he won’t plan to go to Germany this year, or the next.

“I can’t go to Russia because I would also have to go to Ukraine,” he added.

“The important one would be to go to South Sudan, which I don’t think I’ll be able to do – it was in the schedule to go to the two Congos: with Kabila [president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo] things aren’t going well, I don’t think I’ll be able to go; but I will go to India and Bangladesh, for sure, to Colombia, and then a day in Portugal, in Fatima, and then I think that there’s another trip being studied, to Egypt: it seems like a full calendar, no?”

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VATICAN NEWS

She grew up in the art world – now she’s leading the Vatican museums

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • March 9, 2017

Barbara Jatta at the Vatican. (Vatican Museums)

Vatican City — Barbara Jatta, the newest director of the Vatican museums, and the first woman to hold the position, said that working with art was a natural path for her to follow – and she can’t imagine a better place to do so.

On her extensive background in art, Barbara Jatta told CNA: “I don’t think I chose it.” Her mother and sister are both restorers, her grandmother was a painter and her grandfather was an architect, she said. “All my family is in the art world …”

“So I grew up in art, looking at art, going to museums with my family. It was really something so natural for me to choose this,” Jatta said.

“I don’t feel I have a career, I have the privilege of working with what I like. With what I really think is important for me to do and I’m doing it in the best place I can ever imagine.”

Asked what she thinks will be the greatest challenge in her new position, she said bringing “harmony in to this place.” She wants to “give the visitors the idea that they are in a privileged place with privileged people that work here.”

“I mean, all the people working here know that they work for the Pope, they work for a mission, rather than just having a simple work. And I would like to focus on this more and more,” she said.

Another challenge Jatta faces is balancing preservation of the art in the museums with accessibility to the public.

“I do think that it’s very important to preserve what we have received from the past,” she said, “and at the same time, sharing it is one of our focuses. So it’s important also to share the beauty in what we have here.”

The museums have recently made other changes as well, including launching an updated website at the end of January that is more user-friendly and includes an “Explore” section, where website visitors can view museum content right from their homes.

Expanding accessibility to the extensive collections of the museums, whether through the website or for in-person visitors is a major focus, Jatta said.

“The idea is to let the people and the visitors arriving spread out in the different museums … and so let them go into the different part of the museums that are not as often visited. We have wonderful parts of the museum that visitors generally do not go to, do not visit,” she said.

And the number of visitors to the museums continues to grow. In 2016, six million people visited the Vatican, she said, but that number is predicted to be even greater in 2017.

In Jan. and Feb. of 2017, “we had an increase of 18,000 people in the two months, compared to the other years,” she noted.

The large number of visitors is excellent for the museums, but not always great for protecting the artworks themselves.

Because of this, “we have a very important program for preservation of the entire spaces of the museum,” Jatta said, “which costs a lot in effort and money, but we do think that it’s a very important part of our organization.”

Why should someone visit? The Vatican museums are a unique place, she said. For instance, it isn’t just one museum, but in fact many, all joined together. “So it’s not only a museum of archeology – you have many other archeology museums in Rome or in other parts of Italy.”

What makes the Vatican museums unique is “the idea of having the different witnesses of the culture, art and faith, that’s an important part, a fundamental part of this museum.”

For example, the ethnological museum has more than 80,000 pieces, from different continents, and all witnessing to the faith, she said. This museum is comprised of pieces that were given as gifts to the popes, especially Pius XI.

“But it really is an ongoing museum that is still receiving items from all over the continents and that’s probably the most important aspect of our museums. The idea that they preserve witnesses of faith.”

Jatta was vice-director of the museums starting in June 2016, but before that, since 1996, she worked and led the prints section of the Vatican Library. “So I was always an art historian working within the Vatican walls,” she said.

She met Pope Francis while in her former job when she presented him with a work of art for the Jubilee of Mercy. “For sure, Pope Francis is very interested in art,” she continued, highlighting how he brought homeless to visit the Sistine Chapel because “he thought that they would never have the opportunity to see it and this is very important.”

He speaks “about art very often, and the sense that beauty and art link people is something very, very important that he tells us … and it’s one of my ideas in leading these museums,” she said.

Mary Shovlain contributed to this story.

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VATICAN NEWS

He’s back! Pope Francis returns to Rome grateful for spiritual retreat

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • March 10, 2017

Pope Francis thanks Fr. Giulio Michelini at the end of his Lenten retreat in Ariccia on March 10, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — After spending a week in Ariccia with members of the Curia for their annual Lenten spiritual exercises, Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Friday with words of gratitude and his own brief reflection.

Shortly before leaving the Casa Divin Maestro retreat house in Ariccia, the Pope voiced his gratitude to Franciscan priest Giulio Michelini, who led the meditations for the week, saying “I want to thank you for the good you have wished us to have and for the good you have done us.”

He thanked the friar first of all for his openness and for being “natural” during the preaching, sharing himself “without artifice.”

Francis also gave thanks for all of the work Michelini put into preparing the meditations. “It’s true, there is a mountain of things to meditate on,” he said, but noted that as St. Ignatius says in the Exercises, when one encounters feelings of consolation or desolation, you must “stop there” to meditate on it.

Surely everyone has found one or two things to deeply reflect on after hearing Fr. Michelini’s meditations this week, the Pope continued, saying the rest “will serve for another time.”

“Sometimes, the simplest words are the ones that help us, or the more complicated ones: to everyone, the Lord gives the right word,” he said.

Concluding his remarks, the Pope voiced his hope and prayer Fr. Michelini can “continue to work for the Church, in the Church, in teaching, in so many things that the Church entrusts to you. But above all, I wish you to be a good friar.”

Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Friday with members of the Roman Curia at the conclusion of their March 5-10 Lenten spiritual exercises. He began the tradition of leaving the Vatican for the retreat after his election, choosing instead to spend it in Ariccia, just a short ways outside of Rome.

According to a Vatican communique, after offering the final March 10 Mass for Syria, the Pope and members of the Curia left, arriving back at the Vatican just before 11:30a.m.

At the conclusion of the Mass, Pope Francis sent 100,000 euros to the poor in Aleppo, thanks to a contribution from the Roman Curia.

For this year’s spiritual exercises, the Pope chose personally chose Fr. Michelini, a Franciscan of the Seraphic Province of the Friars Minor of Umbria, to do the preaching.

The meditations for each day were focused on the story of Christ’s Passion as recounted in the Gospel of Matthew. Each day included two meditations, each on a different part of the story.

For example, reflecting on Jesus’ silence in the face of his accusers, Fr. Michelini spoke about the different kinds of silence: the good kind, such as silence in prayer and the bad kind, which is remaining silent in the face of wrongdoing, because we are worried what others will think of us.

Reflecting on Christ’s passion, Fr. Michelini in one meditation said, “I wonder if I have the courage to go all the way to follow Jesus Christ, taking into account that this brings to bear the cross.” As Jesus said, “‘if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.’”

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WORLD NEWS

Why is gendercide wrong and screening for Down syndrome okay, advocates ask

by CNA/EWTN News • March 4, 2017

(Denis Kuvaev via Shutterstock)

London, England — Is it ok to abort a baby who has been diagnosed with Down syndrome? What about if you find out the baby is a girl, and you wanted a boy?

One UK ethics watchdog recently endorsed early pregnancy tests to screen for Down syndrome but opposed the same tests to find out the baby’s sex, lest it lead to gendercide.

And that logic is far too widespread, says a disabilities rights group, which is challenging such thinking in a recent petition.

“While many denounce gendercide and few would argue that parents should be free to abort a girl because they prefer a boy, when it comes to Down syndrome, the logic tragically changes. It becomes a valued individual ‘free and accepted choice’ to discriminate against people with genetic variations. How is this possible?,” asks a petition from Stop Discriminating Down, a project of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation and DownPride.

This week, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics published its findings on non-invasive prenatal testing, recommending it should not be used to reveal the unborn child’s sex, lest it promote sex-selective abortion.

However, it also recommended that NIPT be accessible to parents who wish to find out whether their child “has a significant medical condition or impairment, but only within an environment that enables them to make autonomous, informed choices.”

The test involves taking a blood sample from the mother at around 9 or 10 weeks of pregnancy. It is a non-invasive way of testing for genetic conditions and variations in the unborn child, and is thus safer than invasive measures such as amniocentesis, which carry a risk of miscarriage and other harms to the child.

The Nuffield Council’s recommendations would encourage the use of NIPT to screen for Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome, and Patau syndrome – “fetal anomalies” that in England, Wales, and Scotland are grounds for abortion under the Abortion Act 1967. The National Health Service will offer NIPT to pregnant women whose unborn children have a high risk of these anomalies from 2018.

The Nuffield Council noted that 74 percent of pregnant women in the UK currently choose to have a screening test for Down syndrome, and that between 89 and 95 percent of women abort their child after receiving a Down syndrome diagnosis.

It estimates that annually, nearly 200 more fetuses with Down syndrome in the UK will be identified, and there will be an estimated 17 fewer miscarriages related to procedures such as amniocentesis.

However, an additional 200 fetuses who are identified as having Down syndrome means, given the figures provided by the Nuffield Council, that nearly between 178 and 190 of those fetuses will be aborted.

“To offset the possibility that the increased use of NIPT might adversely affect disabled people, the Government … have a duty to provide disabled people with high quality specialist health and social care, and to tackle discrimination, exclusion and negative societal attitudes,” the Nuffield Council wrote in its report.

The council acknowledged, however, that introducing NIPT could affect the specialist health and social care received by disabled persons, and the importance attributed to research into their conditions.

And “Making NIPT available on the NHS could be perceived as sending negative and hurtful messages about the value of people with the syndromes being tested for,” it added. “Disabled people and their families might be more vulnerable to discrimination, stigma or abuse if NIPT gives rise to perceptions that people are ‘to blame’ for having a baby with a disability.”

The council also recommended that NIPT be accompanied by “accurate, balanced and non-directive information for women and couples,” and that private providers of the test be monitored to ensure their advertising is neither misleading nor harmful.

Turning from screening for “fetal anomalies,” the Nuffield Council said that “NIPT should not generally be used to find out whether a fetus has a less significant medical condition or impairment, has an adult onset condition, or carries a copy of a gene tht does not cause a condition on its own. Nor should it be used to reveal non-medical features of the fetus, such as sex.”

It added that “the Government should ensure that private NIPT providers stop offering fetal sex determination,” and that it should establish that “whole genome sequencing of fetuses is not offered outside research environments.”

The report of Nuffield Council acknowledged “the offer of NIPT to determine the sex of the fetus at an early stage of pregnancy may increase the risk of sex selective terminations taking place,” which they said “there is some evidence that sex selective terminations have happened in the UK, and they are known to occur in other countries.”

Sex-selective abortions are illegal in the UK, but in recent years the government has been criticized for a lack of enforcement.

The UK’s Department of Health has expressed concern for the pressure on pregnant women in some south Asian immigrant communities to have boys, and former Minister of Parliament Paul Uppal has said “the expectation is there – I’ve seen it firsthand myself.”

Advocates for persons with Down syndrome are strongly opposed to the expansion of NIPT.

Stop Discriminating Down says that “Government encouraged selective abortion, the refusal to provide health-benefits, or the refusal to provide adequate medical care equal to that provided to their typical peers is a social and moral crime against all people with disabilities and their families who thanks to developments in research, medical care, and social acceptance have many possibilities. The expansion of government sponsored prenatal screening and abortion stand in stark contradiction to the social progress made over the past 40 years towards an inclusive and equal society.”

“While throughout the world we petition, walk, and meet together to fight against discrimination and to protect biodiversity, no-one should have to defend threats to their life because of his or her genetic make-up. In a humane world aware of the need for acceptance and inclusion of differences, people with Down syndrome should not be discriminated against.”

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WORLD NEWS

The horror of Ukraine’s forgotten famine still casts a shadow

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • March 5, 2017

Frosty winter in the countryside near Kyiv, Ukraine. (Sergey Kamshylin via Shutterstock)

Kyiv, Ukraine — Parents forced to choose which of their children will eat dinner that day. Children watching as their parents succumb to the gruesome effects of starvation. Farmers having their crops snatched up and taken away while neighbors lie emaciated on the roads, too exhausted to move.

Thousands of documented instances of cannibalism.

This is the story of the Holodomor, the “death by hunger” that gripped Ukraine between 1932 and 1933 – leaving between 2.5 and 7 million people dead in its wake.

“The story is really horrific: the amount of people who went through life and were forced to eat horrible things just to stay alive,” Ukranian Greek Catholic priest Fr. Mark Morozowich told CNA.

“People talk about (how) there would just be some water with a little bit of fat in it that they were able to eat,” said Fr. Morozowich, who also serves as dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America.

“And then the stories of people dying: the young people, the old people, in some cases, if there were protests, people were shot and killed,” he recalled. “It was really a demonic reality in some ways.”

An overlooked history

The Holodomor, or “death by hunger” in Ukrainian, was a man-made famine that terrorized the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic – a Soviet state under the USSR – between the spring of 1932 until the summer of 1933. Through a combination of decreased crop requisition and a series of policies that restricted rations and seized food throughout the country, between an estimated 2.5 to 7.5 million Ukrainians starved to death in one of the most agriculturally productive areas of the USSR.

Contributing factors to the famine across the Soviet Union were the Soviet collectivization movements, which consolidated land and labor onto collective state farms as well as changes in crop production from grain to non-native species like sugar beets. Meanwhile, much of the grain that was grown was either not harvested, or mismanaged during production or shipping.

However, while food shortfalls were experienced in pockets across the Soviet Union, policies enacted in Ukraine in November 1932 specifically contributed to widespread death and starvation. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s policies required that Ukraine produce a third of the Soviet Union’s grain stocks, even though it consisted of just a fraction of the union’s arable land.

In addition, peasants and collective farms who did not meet their grain quotas were severely punished, forced to turn over livestock or surrender up to 15 times the food they originally owed the Soviet government. Those who could not turn over the required amount of goods found their farms raided by party officials.

After these policies were put into place, Ukrainian borders were closed, prohibiting starving citizens from leaving. These policies remained in effect, with food continuing to be seized, even after the Soviet government met its food requisition goals in early 1933. As a result of these factors, tens of thousands of Ukrainians died every day during the winter of 1932-1933. Citizens turned to drastic measures just to survive – including thousands of documented cases of cannibalism.

The classification of the Holodomor as a “genocide” is contentious today, due to questions over the extent of Stalin’s intention to specifically target and extinguish the Ukrainian people, as well as differing definitions of what constitutes genocide. Currently, the Holodomor is recognized as a genocide by 24 countries – including the Vatican.

Despite these questions, Stalin’s complicity in causing and then perpetuating the starvation in Ukraine has been well-documented.

“I don’t think that the way to think about the Holodomor is as something that there was a clear blueprint for and that the blueprint was just put into action,” said Prof. Michael Kimmage, a history professor at the Catholic University of America.

“It was a number of competing agendas and, of course, the willingness of Stalin and those in his inner circle to inflict tremendous suffering on the population of the Soviet Union.”

While there was an “anarchic” element of administrative errors and unorganized policies, Kimmage said, there was also “certainly a form of political coercion to minimize access to food.” In addition, many within the Soviet government experienced and perpetuated fears and paranoias of secret enemies within the state – particularly within Ukraine, he said.

“You have a moment of genuine political terror, of state-sponsored, state-driven violence across the Soviet Union, but it has this particular chapter, particular element within Ukraine which is dictated and guided by Stalin’s paranoia about, perhaps Ukrainian loyalties being outside of the Soviet Union.”

In addition to the scope of the famine, what also sets the Holodomor apart is the degree of state complicity – not only in the creation of the famine, but in its refusal of any aid once news of the famine started to spread, Kimmage noted.

“The state was aware of the problem, it could have allocated resources differently,” he told CNA.

“The fiendish reality of the Holodomor is that it wouldn’t have happened if the Soviet state had not made it happen. There was no way that once it was underway that the state was going to come to the rescue of its starving subjects and citizens, and that’s perhaps the core tragedy of this event.”

The Soviet’s denial of wrongdoing lasted beyond the famine itself, Kimmage pointed out. Ukrainian people were prohibited from speaking or writing about the famine and its unique impact on their people until the Soviet Union broke apart in the 1990s.

“The thing that the Soviet Union wanted to prevent after the Holodomor was the usage of this event for any nationalist purposes – so to classify the Holodomor as a specifically Ukrainian tragedy, that was impermissible in Soviet times.”

Echoes of the Famine

While the Holodomor was a verboten topic of conversation in Ukraine, it is now an important touchstone both for the Ukrainian American community and for post-soviet Ukraine, who can now speak freely and remember publicly what happened.

“What has been forbidden to be spoken about until 1991 is very much spoken about after 1991,” Kimmage said.

For Ukrainians, said Fr. Morozowich, talking about the famine is also a means of commemorating the deep dehumanization experienced by the Ukrainian people during that period.

“When we look at what a famine does, it strips a person, it destroys networks, it brings them down, it pits neighbor against neighbor,” Fr. Morozowich said.

The perversion of these relationships and the choices people were faced with to survive destroyed not only society, but persons as well. “It was a whole dehumanization of the person. All that was good was stripped away and a stripping away the identity of the Ukrainian people.”

‘Who is going to remember Ukraine?’

The footprint of the Holodomor today is not only in the people’s reclamation of their identity, but in the people’s response to the situation and conflicts facing Ukraine today.

“It’s difficult for people who don’t live here or don’t know the history of these areas to understand,” Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, told CNA/EWTN News.

He spoke of Ukrainian’s fears that the conflicts facing the country today will be overlooked again not only by those imposing the violence, but also the world.

“The fact that they are afraid of being alone, of being forgotten: this is a fact that we cannot not take into consideration.”

Since 2014, conflict has raged between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian government in Eastern Ukraine. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed by the violence, and over 1.5 million people have registered as displaced, according to the United Nations. Nearly two million people face shortages of water and restrictively high food and medicine prices in the areas of the most fighting, according to UN reports.

“Our present situation is not the Holodomor, but it is extremely difficult, and there are areas where, I wouldn’t say they starve, but they are at the minimum level of surviving,” Archbishop Gugerotti said.

He described that in many places, citizens hide and store basic food items like bread for fear of scarcity or theft. Social cohesion has eroded in the eastern part of the country, particularly between ethnic and language groups as well as between the different Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches. This has limited the churches’ ability to respond to the needs of the people, and heightened citizens’ feelings of hopelessness and paralysis.

“These kind of tensions are overwhelming, so the possibility of proper reaction is limited to the minimum.”

The challenges facing both Russia and the West has left many people in Ukraine feeling that their needs are being overlooked.

“When one is afraid, certainly one doesn’t want to meet with people who are more afraid than he or she is,” Archbishop Gugerotti said. “We have a disastrous situation in the whole world and who is going to remember Ukraine?”

Fr. Morozowich reflected that the lesson of the Holodomor still echoes in the challenges the Ukrainian people are facing today.

“When we look at history and we look at things that have happened, unfortunately in many cases, political power sometimes speaks louder than historical realities. We need to continually bring the stories forward,” he said, pointing to recent attention to the Holodomor in film and in research, as a hopeful sign.

Fr. Morzowich also spoke about the renewed attention to the atrocities of the Armenian genocide as another example of stories now receiving the attention they need.

Ultimately, however, both the Holodomor and the current Ukrainian conflict ask the same question, he said: “Are we really ready to listen to the plight of our brothers and sisters?”

In the Holodomor, the Soviets imposed a new reality for the Ukrainian people through the starvation and suffering of the famine.

“One that was devoid of God, stripping of their dignity, stripping of their culture, stripping of their culture, stripping of their intellectual past, stripping of their wonderful melodies,” Fr. Morozowich said. “They were deprived and then they were rebuilt into agents of the system.”

Similarly, the violence, hunger and displacement of today’s Ukrainian conflict makes people fear the same kind of deprivation, he added. “It’s a it’s a large part of the struggle of yesterday, it’s a large part of the struggle that’s going on today.”

“We have to ask if we’re ready to stand with our brothers and sisters to help them be free, to be able to live a decent life without the fear of a bomb falling, without the fear of hunger, and how do we as a people, a society for the voices of the innocent to rise above the military machinery that is just subjecting these people.”

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WORLD NEWS

Croatia will soon hold one of the largest Marian statues in the world

by CNA/EWTN News • March 7, 2017

Construction at the future site of a 55-foot Marian statue in Primosten, Croatia. (Municipality of Primosten/Total Croatia News)

Sibenik, Croatia — A giant 55-foot statue of Our Lady of Loreto is in the works in the coastal city of Primosten, Croatia, which will be known as one of the largest Marian sites in the world when it is completed.

“This project is unique in Croatia and beyond,” stated the Municipality of Primosten, according to Total Croatia News.

“It has been an object of considerable interest and acclaim, and a blessing has been given by the Holy See and Pope Francis,” they continued.

The larger-than-life statue of Our Lady of Loreto is being constructed along the coastline of Primosten, a hill-city about 20 miles south of _ibenik. Primosten is known for its vineyards and beaches, and will now also be marked as the site of one of the biggest Marian statues in the world.

The citizens of Primosten are known to have a particular devotion to Our Lady of Loreto, and the townspeople hold a traditional feast in honor of Our Lady every May 9-10, with a festive procession around the boats and coastline.

On a clear day, the facing coast of Italy will be able to see the Marian monument after its completion.

The construction of the statue has been in collaboration with Cammini Lauretani, which works to connect the dots among Marian shrines across Europe, in a joint effort with the European Cultural Itinerary of the European Council Initiative.

Mayor Stipe Petrina of Primosten has been meeting with leaders from Cammini Laurentani in an effort to link Marian shrines in Italy and Croatia, with the overarching goal of creating sustainable religious tourism and development.

Their most recent meeting took place in Gaj hill, where the organizations were able to see the progress of the statue.

The Croatian municipality has yet to declare when the Marian site will be complete, although they did note that the statue is in the final stages of construction.

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WORLD NEWS

Peruvian marches against gender ideology attract 1.5 million

by David Ramos (CNA/EWTN News) • March 7, 2017

(Fieldwork via Shutterstock)

Lima, Peru — Under the theme “Don’t Mess With My Children,” more than 1.5 million Peruvians demonstrated on Saturday against gender ideology in the nation’s schools.

Organizers said that total attendance surpassed 1.5 million, at demonstrations throughout the country.

Among those present were Congress members Julio Rosas, Carlos Tubino, Nelly Cuadros, Juan Carlos Gonzales, Marco Miyashiro, Roberto Vieira, Federico Pariona and Edwin Donayre.

“Don’t Mess With My Children” is a campaign against recent attempts to promote a national curriculum of gender ideology, which teaches that one’s ‘gender’ is chosen and has no connection with one’s biological sex.

In January of this year, the Peruvian Bishop’s Conference told the government that it “urges the removal from the new National Curriculum those notions coming from gender ideology.”

At 2 p.m. on March 4, massive crowds gathered to march toward San Martín Plaza in the center of Lima.

The demonstrators, bearing various signs and slogans, marched down the main districts of the Peruvian capital.

Other cities throughout the country, including Arequipa, Trujillo, Iquitos and Cusco, also saw heavily attended demonstrations.

Fr. Luis Gaspar, episcopal vicar of the Family and Life Commission for the Archdiocese of Lima, stressed that “education as the first right of parents concerning their children is not negotiable.”

“We are in a war over morals, a spiritual war, and the battlefield is the minds of their children, and we are going to defend it till the day we die.”

Fr. Gaspar also invited the demonstrators to participate in the March for Life which will be held March 25 in Lima.

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WORLD NEWS

Bishop rejects South Sudan president’s day of prayer as a political move

by CNA/EWTN News • March 8, 2017

A ditch filled with sewage and garbage in a street of South Sudan. (John Wollwerth via Shutterstock)

Juba, South Sudan — The call by South Sudan’s president for a national day of prayer was met with derision by one of the country’s bishops, who called it a “political prayer” and a mockery.

President Salva Kiir addressed South Sudan via state-owned media last week to announce a day of prayer on March 10. The country has been embroiled in civil war since December 2013, when Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup. The war has been fought between their supporters, largely along ethnic lines, and peace agreements have been short-lived.

“I have been praying for South Sudan every day. This morning, I prayed for South Sudan. That prayer called by Salva Kiir; I will never and never understand. Unless they carry me as a corpse but I will never attend that prayer. It is a political prayer. It is a mockery,” Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale, Auxiliary Bishop of Juba, told Voice of America, according to the Sudan Tribune.

“Why should I go [to] pray where there is no holiness, where there is no forgiveness? It is a joke to hear the president of the country calling prayers while at the moment, the soldiers are hunting people across South Sudan.”

He cited the government’s army’s displacement of numerous people from their homes. “People are being thrown away from their ancestral land. There have been a lot of robbery of the resources of the people.”

Bishop Doggale also charged that Kiir, who is Catholic, “does not even come to church these days.”

Kiir’s proposed national day of prayer precedes the March 15 launch of a three-day national dialogue.

“Our time … is now ripe to turn to God and ask him for forgiveness and blessings. We have not been that perfect and we need to submit ourselves to the Almighty through prayers,” Kiir said. “It should be the day we all pray to God and ask Him for forgiveness so that we start a new chapter in our relations as citizens of this nation.”

The national dialogue is being directed by Kiir. One of his spokesmen has said that Machar, the former vice-president, may attend once he has denounced violence. Kiir’s direction of the dialogue has been criticized, given his role in the country’s civil war.

In January 2016, Bishop Doggale told CNA that the government of South Sudan, as well as that of Sudan, puts political agendas over its people’s interests.

“We have crossroads of displaced people in both countries suffering from the political elite who don’t take their people in heart,” he said.

The bishops of South Sudan recently called for dialogue between the country’s warring factions, and charged that the forces of both sides are targeting civilians.

“Those who have the ability to make changes for the good of our people have not taken heed of our previous pastoral messages,” the said in their Feb. 23 message. “We need to see action, not just dialogue for the sake of dialogue.”

The bishops said the war has “no moral justification whatsoever,” and expressed concern that some government officials seem to be suspicious of the Church.

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WORLD NEWS

More than 200 Korean martyrs are up for beatification

by CNA/EWTN News • March 9, 2017

An image of Blessed Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 companions, who were beatified on Aug. 16, 2014. (Preparatory Committee for the 2014 Papal Visit to Korea)

Seoul, South Korea — The first Bishop of Pyongyang, an American born-bishop, and numerous priests and laity are among the 213 who could be beatified and advanced on the process to sainthood under a process begun in South Korea.

Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik of Daejon predicted it will take at least ten years before any beatification or canonization, “but for our people, these people are already holy.”

The bishop heads the Korean bishops’ committee considering the beatifications. He told Asia News that important parts of the path to beatification are the Catholic faithful’s prayer and “desire to follow the spirit of the martyrs.”

One group under consideration for beatification includes Servant of God Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho and 80 companions. This broad group ranges from the martyrs of the 1901 Jeju massacre, in which about 300 Catholics were killed, to the victims of persecution following the division of Korea following the Second World War.

Bishop Hong, born in 1906, was ordained a priest in 1933 under Japanese occupation. He was named the first native Bishop of Pyongyang in 1944. He was an apostolic vicar to a region considered mission territory by the Church. With the rise of communism, he was imprisoned in 1949. His fate is unknown, but he is believed to have died in a concentration camp in North Korea.

Until 2013, when he would have been 107, the Vatican considered him missing. Acknowledgment of his death opened the path to possible beatification.

Bishop Patrick James Byrne, a native of Washington, D.C., is also among the group. The Maryknoll missionary was born in 1888. He was ordained a priest in 1915, then served in Korea and Japan before the Second World War. In April 1949 he was named the first apostolic delegate to Korea, and ordained a bishop at the age of 60 in 1949.

In July 1950 he was arrested by communists and put on trial. He and other priests were put on forced marches. During a four-month-long forced march, suffering from bad weather and a lack of food and shelter, he died Nov. 25, 1950.

Altogether, the group associated with Bishop Hong includes two bishops, 48 priests, three seminarians, seven religious sisters, and 21 lay people.

The second group, Servant of God John Baptist Yi Byeok and his 132 companions, were all lay people killed for their faith between 1785 and 1879. Yi was from a family of court dignitaries who under the Joseon dynasty converted to Catholicism and helped evangelize Korea. He was martyred at the age of 33.

One of their number, Alexius Hwang Sa-yeong, died by martyrdom when his arms and legs were tied to four animals which were then driven away in opposite directions, dismembering him.

Another in the group died in exile and his martyrdom must be verified.

The Korean bishops’ conference has set up a special committee for the causes of saints with a Vatican mandate to consider martyrs who belong to different dioceses.

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WORLD NEWS

Critics of church demolitions in Sudan pressured to keep silent

by CNA/EWTN News • March 10, 2017

Sudanese Church of Christ after apparent razing and looting in Um Bartumbu, South Kordofan, Sudan on June 16, 2012. (Eyes and Ears Nuba)

Khartoum, Sudan — Christians who are criticizing government action against churches are facing pressure from Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services.

“They told me not to talk about the demolition of churches or the two church leaders who are in jail,” Rev. Mubarak Hamad, chairman of Sudan’s Council of Churches, told Radio Tamazuj, a broadcaster in Sudan and South Sudan.

The Sudanese government plans to demolish 25 church buildings in and near the capital of Khartoum, which it says were built on illegal lands which are zoned for other uses. The targeted churches include both Catholic and Protestant buildings.

The order to demolish the churches was made in June 2016. Government officials notified several congregations in September to vacate their property.

Christian officials have challenged the claims, saying the properties were legally obtained and have legal titles.

“This is not an isolated act but should be taken with wider perspective,” Yahia Abdelrahim Nalu, moderator of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church’s Sudan Evangelical Synod, told Morning Star News last month.

One Christian critic of the demolitions plan, Milad Musa, is allegedly facing retaliation. The security services have required him to report to their offices from 6 a.m. to midnight since Feb. 15. Sometimes he has food in his custody, sometimes he does not.

He is a member of the Sudanese Church of Christ.

Rev. Hamad faced similar requirements to report to the custody of the security services from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily after he held a press conference Feb. 11 calling on the government to reconsider the demolitions. He noted at the press conference that mosques in the same area were not ordered to be demolished.

Security services lifted that requirement Feb. 26, but then ordered him not to speak publicly about the persecution of Christians and the demolition of church buildings unless he had authorization from security forces.

Since 2012 Sudan has bulldozed church buildings and harassed and expelled foreign Christians, according to Morning Star News. It was announced in April 2013 that no licenses would be granted to build new churches.

Two Christian leaders in Sudan have been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of espionage.

At least 90 percent of Sudan’s population is Muslim, and sharia is the source of the nation’s legislation. Apostasy from Islam is punishable by the death penalty.

Since 1999, the U.S. state department has listed Sudan as a country of particular concern due to religious freedom violations.

International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need noted in its 2016 Religious Freedom Report that Sudan’s constitution was amended to “widen and increase” the power of the National Intelligence and Security Services, which has impacted “human resources issues and the prosecution of individuals, media outlets and organizations for alleged breaches of the law.”

Sudan scored a 12 out of 100 in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking ahead of only Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia.

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WORLD NEWS

Echoes of St. Benedict as Norcia monks rebuild after earthquake

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 10, 2017

The Basilica of St. Benedict in the main square of Norcia, before the earthquake. (CNA)

Amatrice, Italy — As Benedictine monks in Norcia, Italy rebuild their monastery from the rubble caused by devastating earthquakes last year, they do so in the spirit of their founder, Saint Benedict.

“For us, it’s very symbolic, that is, being at the birthplace of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, St. Benedict being the founder of Western monasticism,” said Fr. Martin Bernhard, O.S.B. of the Benedictine Monks of Norcia.

He noted that St. Benedict (480-547) lived amidst “the collapse of the Roman empire” and the “collapse of society and structures.”

“Montecassino was destroyed once when he was there as abbot,” Fr. Martin added of St. Benedict, but the saint “didn’t give up, and he knew that the real answer was still the worship of God, that the primary thing he could do is just give back to God and to center our lives and build our lives around Him in a declining culture and world.”

“And I think in many ways we find ourselves in kind of a similar situation,” he told CNA. “So we find great consolation in that we have this opportunity in a way to follow the spirit of our founding father.”

Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, has been seriously damaged by earthquakes last year.

An earthquake rocked the region in August, causing 247 deaths in Italy. Then a 6.6 magnitude tremor in October caused massive damage to the town and the Benedictine monastery. The Basilica of St. Benedict was totally destroyed and the town was rendered unsafe to dwell in.

Norcia’s main street has re-opened for business but much of the town is still a “red zone” inaccessible to people, Fr. Martin noted. However, the monks’ brewery, which produces “Birra Nursia” has remained largely intact.

A Benedictine monastery had existed for centuries in the town until they were suppressed in 1810 by the Napoleonic laws of the time. In the year 2000, monks based in Rome returned and re-founded the monastery.

Now, the monks have moved outside of the town to a property two kilometers away, the site of an old Capuchin monastery. They lived in tents for several weeks before moving into shelters suitable for the winter months.

However, conditions are quite crowded in the two buildings of only 96 square meters where the 14 monks sleep, eat, and pray. Their biggest need is simply a more suitable place to live and pray as they rebuild the main monastery, especially if the community wants to grow. The basilica will probably take years to rebuild.

The whole ordeal has actually drawn the monks closer to God, however. “It’s been a very humbling and purifying process,” Fr. Martin said.

“The earthquake and kind of the destruction that we had seen of material things has really reminded us of the fact that we’re pilgrims here on earth, and that this world will pass away, and that the biggest, most glorious things man can build, one day they will come to dust, and it’s the soul that endures, and it’s God.”

“So even living in … more physically poor conditions, cold conditions due to winter, has really made us rely upon Him [God] even more,” Fr. Martin continued.

“There’s been a lot of graces for the monks of the monastery. There’s actually a great peace and joy among the monks despite the great trials and hardships.”

The monks started brewing beer in 2012 and sold “Birra Nursia” to support the monastery, and sales expanded into the U.S. in 2016. The monks brew two types of Belgian-style ales, “Blonde” and “Extra.”

While the brewery suffered little damage from the earthquake, the poor condition of the buildings surrounding it mean that the monks cannot yet use it for brewing. Beer is still available for purchase online, however, with proceeds going to the monastery rebuilding effort and 15 percent going to the needs of local residents “who lost their livelihood because of the earthquake.”

“We’re anxious to get back in there,” Fr. Martin said, noting that the monks hope to start small-batch brewing again soon. The beer is a pride of the town, he added.

“It’s very important for us, not only for financial reasons,” he said, “but also because of the sign and the symbol that it gives to the town and to the community.” Local restaurant owners who sell the beer have been asking the monks when they will start brewing again.

If the monks could come back to the town, that “gives a very tangible sign of hope to the town and to the people,” he added.

The community’s needs are both material and spiritual, he noted.

“I would say the town needs continued hope and faith, that is, the challenge for them now is to not lose that patience, perseverance, and endurance and to really trust in God and to move forward and trust that He has a bigger plan for, really, the care of their souls.”

In addition to the clean-up and rebuilding efforts, the town also needs “tourism,” he said, an important source of revenue for businesses before last year’s disasters but one that has been put on hold as many businesses have not yet re-opened.

Those interested in donating to the monastery’s rebuilding efforts can either do so at the website nursia.org or through the purchase of Birra Nursia beer.

“We live in a Western world that has many struggles and trials, and in many ways is collapsing, at least perhaps morally. Now around us, very physically, it has collapsed,” Fr. Martin noted.

“And we now have an opportunity to renew our faith and to rebuild with that spirit of centering everything around the worship of God, the most important thing for us.”

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U.S. NEWS

Trump pushes education choices in visit to Florida Catholic school

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • March 3, 2017

Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on July 18-21, 2016. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Orlando, FL — President Donald Trump visited a Florida Catholic school on Friday, praising the Catholic education system and touting his support for school choice programs.

“You understand how much your students benefit from full education, one that enriches both the mind and the soul. That’s a good combination,” the president told Bishop John Noonan of Orlando at St. Andrew Catholic School March 3.

He toured the pre-K-8th grade school, located in Orlando’s Pine Hills neighborhood, and spoke with students, who presented him with two cards. He visited a fourth grade class, the Associated Press reports.

President Trump responded to a girl who told him she wanted to own her own business, saying she’s “gonna make a lot of money. But don’t run for politics.”

His tour was followed by public comments attended by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Florida Gov. Rick Scott, various Catholic school officials and Bishop Noonan.

There, President Trump reflected on the contributions of Catholic education.

“St. Andrew’s Catholic school represents one of the many parochial schools dedicated to the education of some of our nation’s most disadvantaged children, but they’re becoming just the opposite very rapidly through education and with the help of the school choice programs,” he said.

He praised the school principal, Latrina Peters-Gipson, for her work, saying, “The love of what you do is really fantastic.”

The visit marked the president’s first official trip to a school since he took office. According to the Washington Post, about 300 of the school’s 350 students are beneficiaries of a Florida tax credit program that funds scholarships for families with limited resources.

Henry Fortier, superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Orlando, said the visit was an “exciting opportunity to share the good news and the work that we do.” He said school choice has also been an important part of his career in previous administrative roles in the archdioceses of New York and Baltimore.

“I know that there’s a lot of controversy about school choice for parents and lots of people have different opinions, but I see it as a partnership,” Fortier said. “It’s not a situation of us versus them, it’s a situation of us providing opportunities to our parents so that they have the right to choose an education that is appropriate for their children.”

“It shouldn’t be for just the wealthy that can afford it,” he said, lamenting that many working class families do not have the opportunity to choose the education for their children.

Fortier said the diocese’s schools work closely with their public school counterparts.

He said 25 percent of students in the Diocese of Orlando are in the state of Florida’s Step Up tax credit scholarship program. Of those 25 percent, 727 graduated in 2016, a graduation rate of 100 percent with a 99 percent placement in college or the military.

The superintendent touted the schools’ higher-than-average school scores on college entrance exams and student tests.

President Trump, repeating a campaign phrase, said education is “the civil rights issue of our time.”

“It’s why I’ve asked Congress to support a school choice bill. We’ve come a long way, I think. We’re ahead of schedule in so many ways when it comes to education.”

He predicted schools like St. Andrew would have “a fantastic relationship” with the Secretary of Education that would create “a lot of good things for your school and for the entire system.”

Bishop Noonan prayed for the president, his family, and everyone present.

“We pray for this day in dialogue that we may share the good news, and the future of our students,” he said.

President Trump thanked the bishop for his “uplifting prayer” and praised the bishop’s support for schools like St. Andrews.

The president’s visit drew criticism from some public school advocates like Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who characterized the president’s visit as a continuation of an “ideological crusade.”

Weingarten said that many voucher programs do not improve students’ academic outcomes and are not transparent in their spending and teaching policies.

Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor at The Catholic Association, said the president’s visit was appropriate given Catholic schools’ “record of success.” She said Catholic high school students are twice as likely as public school students to graduate college and their high school education is half the cost as public schools.

According to Ferguson, Catholic high schools in inner cities have a 99 percent graduation rate.

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U.S. NEWS

Supreme Court sends transgender student case back to lower court

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2017

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Washington, D.C. — The Supreme Court will not hear the case of a transgender student’s demand to access public school single-sex bathrooms, instead sending it back to the lower courts for reconsideration.

Announced Monday, the decision to send the case back to a lower court was based on the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it was withdrawing the Obama-era guidance which had stated that students should have access to the facilities of their self-perceived gender identification.

“The first duty of school districts is to protect the bodily privacy rights of all of the students who attend their schools and to respect the rights of parents who understandably don’t want their children exposed in intimate changing areas like locker rooms and showers,” Kerri Kupec, legal counsel for the group Alliance Defending Freedom, stated in response to the Court’s decision.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled last April that Gavin Grimm, a transgender student in Virginia’s Gloucester County School District, must be allowed access to public school single-sex male facilities. Grimm was born a girl but currently identifies as a boy, receiving hormone therapy and a name change.

The school district board had decided to allow Gavin access to a unisex bathroom facility at school, after proposing that students in the district had to use locker room and restroom facilities according to their birth gender.

Grimm’s lawyers rejected this policy, saying it would “make him feel even more stigmatized” and that “being required to use separate restrooms sets him apart from his peers, and serves as a daily reminder that the school views him as ‘different.’”

The case was about how transgender persons can “participate in public life” through access to public facilities, Chase Strangio, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project, stated in a Feb. 23 conference call with reporters.

Grimm asked for an injunction on the policy, but that was denied by a district court. The Fourth Circuit overruled that decision and sent it back to the lower court, which eventually ruled in Grimm’s favor. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed in October to hear the case.

The Obama administration last year stated that public schools should allow transgender students access to single-sex facilities – like locker rooms and restrooms – of their current gender identity.

However, after a federal court ruled against this guidance, the administration of President Donald Trump refused to challenge that decision, and eventually withdrew the guidance. Based on this action, the Supreme Court sent Grimm’s case back to the Fourth Circuit for reconsideration.

“The Fourth Circuit Court, which will now rehear the case, should allow local schools to find solutions that benefit everyone’s safety and privacy,” said Ryan Anderson, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Kupec praised the Trump administration for rejecting “the faulty directive.”

Furthermore, she added, federal Title IX law doesn’t mandate such access to single-sex facilities for transgender students, as the Fourth Circuit had previously decided. Rather, it “protects boys’ and girls’ privacy in locker rooms, showers, and restrooms.”

“School officials should be free to protect their students’ privacy, safety, and dignity without federal government interference,” she said.

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U.S. NEWS

Minnesota diocese, facing abuse lawsuits, files for bankruptcy

by CNA/EWTN News • March 7, 2017

Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New Ulm, Minnesota. (Jonathunder via Wikipedia)

Minneapolis, MN — Facing over one hundred lawsuits concerning sex abuse claims dating back to the 1950s, the Diocese of New Ulm has filed for bankruptcy and plans a reorganization.

“I have come to the conclusion that financial reorganization is the fairest way to compensate victims and survivors of sexual abuse while continuing the good work of the Church in our communities,” Bishop John LeVoir of New Ulm said March 3.

“Filing for financial reorganization is not an effort to avoid responsibility. But rather, it is the only way the diocese can assure that available assets are fairly utilized to resolve all the pending sexual abuse claims against it,” the bishop said.

“If we were to resolve the cases on a piecemeal basis, available diocesan assets could be exhausted in the first few cases, leaving nothing for the remaining claimants.”

There are a total of 101 lawsuits against the New Ulm diocese and some of its 75 parishes. The diocese, located in south-central Minnesota, serves about 60,000 Catholics.

Most of the lawsuits concern incidents that allegedly took place from the 1950s through the 1970s. The suits were filed under a Minnesota law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for cases of sexual abuse of children. The diocese said no priests accused of abuse are presently in public ministry.

Bishop LeVoir acknowledged concerns about the reorganization. He said parishes, schools and other Catholic organizations are not part of the reorganization.

The bishop described the reorganization as “a step towards the future … a future that I pray brings healing for victims and survivors as well as renewed hope for parishioners and our communities.”

He again voiced his “deepest apologies” to those sexually abused by clergy.

“It takes great courage to come forward to share your experiences. You deserve not only our compassion but also fair compensation to help you in your healing,” Bishop LeVoir said.

He added that abuse victims are in the diocese’s daily prayers.

The bishop cited “great strides” in efforts to provide safe environment for children, noting the diocese’s training for young people, volunteers and employees.

“We must remain faithful to Jesus Christ and diligent in this work, so that this tragic chapter in our Church’s history is never repeated,” he said. “Guided by our faith in the Lord, let us move forward together as a church family, never forgetting the past but always hopeful for the future.”

He prayed that God’s grace may bring “hope, healing and peace.”

The New Ulm diocese is the third in Minnesota to file for bankruptcy. Fourteen U.S. dioceses have declared bankruptcy, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

Minnesota is one of four states to approve a temporary legal window to allow the filing of historic sex abuse claims.

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U.S. NEWS

What the U.S. bishops want to see in health care reform

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 8, 2017

(Alexkich via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — As Congress considers a new health care law, the U.S. bishops are calling for a plan that does not fund abortion, but respects conscience rights, while also ensuring universal access to affordable health care.

“The Bishops of the United States continue to reject the inclusion of abortion as part of a national health care benefit,” four committee chairs for the U.S. bishops’ conference said in a letter to Congress this week, while adding that “all people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health care.”

The bishops’ letter, sent to all members of Congress on Tuesday, was signed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chair of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee; Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chair of the bishops’ religious liberty committee; Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, chair of the bishops’ migration committee; and Bishop Frank Dewayne of Venice, chair of the bishops’ domestic justice and human development committee.

In the letter, the bishops responded to House Republicans’ recently unveiled plan to take the place of the Affordable Care Act.

Entitled the American Health Care Act, the proposed plan would scrap the old individual and employer mandates and expand the available tax credits available to purchase health insurance.

However, those who drop their plans and delay too long in buying a new one could see a penalty of up to 30 percent of their new plan’s premiums for having a gap in coverage. Critics charge that this could unfairly penalize those who choose to go without health insurance, or even deter them from buying a new plan when they get sick.

The bill would also double the amount that could be contributed to health savings accounts, or tax-free accounts to save money for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

At a Tuesday press conference introducing the plan, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said that the bill is only the first phase of a three-part program that includes deregulation of the health care market and additional reforms, giving consumers the “freedom to buy” the health coverage they want.

Abortion controversy

Pro-life groups have hinged their support of a replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act on whether any taxpayer subsidies or tax credits would fund abortions.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, told EWTN News Nightly’s Jason Calvi that he expected Senate staffers to work to ensure no abortion coverage is funded in the law through subsidies or tax credits.

In addition, the proposed bill would defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest performer of abortions, for one year, around $400 million.

Abortion funding has long been a controversial subject in health care. The Hyde Amendment – a policy passed yearly by Congress as part of appropriations bills – prohibits federal funding of abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake.

This policy “must extend to any relevant health care plan,” the bishops insisted on Wednesday. No federal subsidies for health insurance coverage – or even tax credits for coverage – should pay for any “health care plans that cover abortion,” they stated.

While President Barack Obama signed an executive order stating that an enforcement mechanism must be found to ensure no abortion funding under the Affordable Care Act, a 2014 report by the Government Accountability Office found that this might not have been the case.

The report found that 15 insurers and one state exchange were not itemizing abortion coverage in health plans offered on the exchanges and did not indicate that such abortion coverage was billed separately. Thus, federal subsidies could very well have paid for abortion coverage.

Also, in five states, all the health plans offered on the exchanges covered abortions, offering no alternative to those conscientiously objecting to paying for abortion coverage in their plans.

The U.S. bishops’ conference had originally opposed the Affordable Care Act because they believed the executive order would not be enough to prevent abortion funding. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, then-president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, had stated of the bill that “there is compelling evidence that it would expand the role of the federal government in funding and facilitating abortion and plans that cover abortion.”

Changes in coverage

Universal access to health care, including for those immigrants left out of coverage under the Affordable Care Act, must also be part of new legislation, the bishops insisted.

“Any modification of the Medicaid system as part of health care reform should prioritize improvement and access to quality care over cost savings,” they added.

Some of the biggest changes under the proposed bill would be to federal subsidies, ending the expansion of federal Medicaid grants to states after several years, and determining Medicaid grants to states based on their numbers of Medicaid patients.

The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion had helped those caring for elderly parents and drug addicts, argued Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee. This would be cut in the new health care bill.

The Medicaid expansions provided many low-income Americans with coverage and these expansions should not be erased, the U.S. bishops said, noting that “those who are essentially the working poor or who find themselves one crisis away from falling into deep poverty” were covered “for the first time” under the Medicaid expansion.

If the expansion is rolled back, these families should be exempt from premiums “through some other means,” they said.

Furthermore, the bishops advocated for health-sharing ministries, saying, “Those who choose to participate in alternative approaches like health sharing ministries should retain the ability to do so and be further supported.”

Louis Brown, director of one such Catholic ministry, called CMF Curo, stressed that health-sharing ministries must have “equal access to health savings accounts” so participants can save like everyone else for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Other concerns in health care

A number of policies in the Affordable Care Act remain in the bill, or will be phased out over the period of several years. Young adults are still allowed to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26, and insurers are still prohibited from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions.

Brown told CNA that the plan “is a first step to restoring an American health care system where the dignity of the person is at the center, not the mandates of the government.”

Under the current system, he said, “the federal government was dictating so much of what the market looks like, and it wasn’t doing a good job of that,” thus driving up health insurance premiums even more in some areas.

The average “benchmark silver” premiums were reportedly set to rise 22 percent in 2017, it was predicted in October. Although federal subsidies would offset cost increases for eligible Americans, others saw their premiums rise but were not eligible for these subsidies.

Also, in more than 1,000 counties, there was only one insurer offering plans on the exchanges, and in some counties all insurers had pulled out of the exchange.

There were also serious religious freedom concerns with the health care system, in part because of government mandates like the birth control mandate.

The Affordable Care Act had mandated preventative coverage in employee health plans, which the Department of Health and Human Services later interpreted to include employer coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives, and drugs that can cause early abortions.

And the recent transgender mandate that doctors perform gender-transition procedures if asked to do so, despite any concerns they might have about the patient’s health, was another example of this, said Brown.

“Too much of the Affordable Care Act was used as a vehicle to undermine the right of conscience and religious freedom in health care,” he said.

The bishops also pushed for the conscience rights of health care professionals in their letter. The bishops’ conference has previously pushed for the passage of the Conscience Protection Act, which would establish federal protections for doctors or hospitals conscientiously objecting to performing abortions.

“Such protections should extend to all stakeholders, including insurers, purchasers, sponsors, and providers and should cover any regulatory mandates,” the bishops said in their letter.

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U.S. NEWS

Arizona State University to hold first Pregnant on Campus Week

by CNA/EWTN News • March 9, 2017

(noBorders Brayden Howie via Shutterstock)

Phoenix, AZ — The Students for Life Group at Arizona State University is planning the nation’s first Pregnant on Campus Week to offer resources, support and information for parents on campus this March 13-16.

“Pregnant and parenting students should never feel forced to choose between their children and their education,” said Beth Rahal, national director of the Pregnant on Campus Initiative.

She applauded the initiative’s student leaders for supporting their peers in difficult and vulnerable moments, and for “empowering women to succeed as parents, as students, and as valuable members of our communities.”

Pregnant on Campus Week will include table displays at Hayden Lawn, a central part of Arizona State University’s campus, offering information on resources for pregnant and parenting students.

These resources include breastfeeding rooms on campus and childcare options, as well as information about Title IX rights. The university’s Family Resources department will also be available to discuss school aid for students with families.

Additionally, a donation area will be set up for a baby shower drive to support pregnant moms on campus. Attendees will be able to write letter of encouragement to pregnant peers, learn more about fetal development, and utilize social media frames showing their support for parenting students.

Mariah Martinez, chair of the ASU Pregnant on Campus Initiative, explained in a press release the motto for the week: Fearlessly pursuing family and education.

“Our initiative exists to be a light of hope, empowerment, community, and resources for those students who find themselves pregnant and about to be a parent while completing their degree,” she said.

“Whether informing them about their Title IX rights, pointing them to local pregnancy resource centers for low-cost prenatal care, informing them on the resources ASU already offers, or simply being there for emotional support, the Pregnant on Campus Initiative recognizes that pregnancy while going to school is a real occurrence, and we want to celebrate both.”

The Pregnant on Campus Initiative is a project of Students for Life of America, a pro-life organization with over 1,100 high school and college groups. Pregnant on Campus offers resources for pregnant and parenting students at more than 500 schools.

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U.S. NEWS

N.Y. archdiocese defends right to make hiring decisions

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 9, 2017

St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. (Sean Pavone)

New York City, N.Y. — The Archdiocese of New York argued before a federal circuit court this week that it should have the freedom to make employment decisions about Catholic school principals without government intervention.

“It is important that church-sponsored schools like St. Anthony’s be able to ensure that each student receives the best education in math, science, art as well as the Catholic faith,” Mercedes Lopez Blanco of the Archdiocese of New York stated on Tuesday.

“To do that, we must have the freedom to choose leaders – without government interference – who are dedicated to our mission.”

Blanco made her statement after oral arguments took place in Fratello v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York on Tuesday. That case involves a lawsuit filed by a Catholic school principal whose contract with the archdiocese was not renewed, and who says the decision was made on the grounds of unlawful gender discrimination.

The archdiocese, represented by Becket Fund, says that they decided not to renew the contract of former principal of St. Anthony School Joanne Fratello because of her insubordination to the pastor of the parish and the archdiocese. The archdiocese says it has First Amendment protections in its hiring decisions of Catholic school principals, because it falls under the “ministerial exemption.”

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents the archdiocese, argues that it is an important case for the religious freedom of all faiths against government coercion.

St. Anthony School is part of the Archdiocese of New York, which had a contract with Fratello. The principal at St. Anthony’s is responsible not only for the education of the students but for leading the student body in prayer every day, hiring teachers based on their use of religion in the school curricula, and for inviting students and parents to attend Mass.

Fratello claims that her contract was not renewed because of sex-based discrimination, and that she was not hired by the archdiocese in a ministerial capacity but in a “lay” capacity.

This, her lawyer argued, made her case different from the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor case, where the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of churches’ employment decisions of ministers, saying the government could not interfere with those decisions.

In that decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that a Lutheran church had the right to make employment decisions in its school that was directly connected to the church, as the grade school teacher who was fired had served in a ministerial capacity and had the title “minister of religion.”

The federal government, specifically the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, could not intervene in such decisions out of concern for discrimination, the Court said in that 9-0 decision.

In Fratello’s case, the principal’s record was “replete” with religious duties including leading students in prayer each day, Rassbach said. Furthermore, the archdiocese has made it clear that the duty of a principal at St. Anthony’s is ministerial by nature.

That Fratello was hired in a “lay” capacity did not mean that her job was a secular one, he emphasized. Rather, it meant that she was not part of a religious order, where her contract would not have included a salary.

Because she was a lay Catholic and her contract included a salary, Fratello was hired on a “lay” contract even though her job would be ministerial. A diocesan priest would have received a similar contract, Rassbach noted.

And Fratello emphasized her religious credentials when she applied to be the principal at St. Anthony’s, Rassbach said. She praised herself as an “excellent religious leader.”

Fratello’s lawyer, Michael Diederich, has written openly of his disdain for the Church. He wrote a scathing reply to a “friend of the court” brief filed by the Orthodox Church of America on behalf of the archdiocese, where he expressed contempt for “organized religion” as a threat to “enlightened rationality.”

Fratello should have been kept in her position by the archdiocese because as a secular employee, she could protect students against religious indoctrination, he argued.

He said that “our American democracy” would be “undermined if religious groups can propagandize and indoctrinate school children without the constraint of a loyal American citizen and educator (e.g., a lay school teacher or principal) insisting that secular curriculum be properly taught.”

Diederich disparaged “organized religion” in the U.S., and warned that the Roman Catholic Church is “the most powerful church on Earth,” and that by the archdiocese getting the Orthodox Church to file a brief the Roman Catholic Church “has sounded the alarm to enlist the support for organized religion in an effort to gain even more power and influence that organized religion already has in civil society.”

America’s founders, “people of the Age of Enlightenment – would not approve of judicial advancement of religion,” he continued. According to Diederich, the founders believed “that organized religion and religious dogma are dangerous to a society, and what a society needs is enlightened rationality.”

And he hypothesized about the Orthodox Church indoctrinating children with “Stalinist beliefs” if its school teachers operate in a ministerial capacity.

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He used to spit on those going to Mass – now he’s a priest

by Blanca Ruiz (CNA/EWTN News) • March 6, 2017

(Public domain via Pixabay)

Madrid, Spain — After an anti-clerical childhood and adolescence, filled with hatred for the Church, Fr. Juan José Martínez says he discovered “that God exists and wants me as his priest.”

“Sunday mornings I would peer out of the balcony of my house, and when the people were going by on their way to Mass, I would spit on them. I told them that the Church was a sect that wanted their money,” explained the priest, who ministers in the Diocese of Almeria, Spain.

Fr. Juan José’s parents were not believers, and he had received no religious formation, but he said they did not raise him to be intolerant. In fact, he says he does not know where he got all those ideas, because the perception he had of the Church and God was that of a “multinational corporation with branches in every neighborhood to extract money, like a sect.”

“I was absolutely anticlerical, I was the first student in my school and the town of Carboneras, Almeria Province, to never be taught Religion because when I was 8 or 9, I chose the alternative course which was Ethics. In the following years, I went on convincing my friends to quit Religion classes and to take Ethics with me. In the end, my whole class ended up being taught Ethics and none of them Religion.”

But what he never imagined is that the end of his journey would be to help his friends to come back to the Church. Fr. Juan José remembers quite well that the first day he went into a Catholic church, “I went to make fun of those who had invited me.”

“It was in January 1995, some friends from class invited me to a Catholic Charismatic Renewal prayer group at the parish. Obviously I told them I wasn’t planning on going because I didn’t want them to brainwash me. For a whole month they persisted. I finally gave in – it was a Thursday in February 1995 when I went into a Catholic church for the first time.”

A golden box

A lot of his friends were there, and he was surprised because “they were all looking at a golden box at the back of the church. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it was where the parish priest kept the money.”

That golden box was the Tabernacle.

Fr. Juan José says that he came to make fun of them because “I thought they were crazy. Inside, I was laughing at them a lot, but I was polite and concealed it. But I decided to come back the following Thursday to laugh at them some more.”

And so one Thursday after another, Fr. Juan José was letting go of his prejudices against the Church and religion.

“The pastor seemed to me to be a very wise man who was helping the people,” he told CNA. And little by little, the love of God was penetrating his heart: “I was 15 years old and I started to sing at Mass, which meant I would attend Mass on Saturdays. I liked being in front of the tabernacle and little by little, I realized that God existed and loved me. I felt the love of God. The Charismatic Renewal group, which I had come to make fun of, helped me a lot.”

“My eyes were being opened and I saw that God was not a legend or story for the weak, but that he existed and that he was supporting and guiding me. I experienced that he loved me so much that he wanted me for himself and was calling me,” he recalled.

“I am yours for whatever you need”

Fr. Juan José had been baptized and made his First Communion because of his grandparents’ wishes, but he did not have a relationship with God after that. “I made my Confirmation as I was right in the midst of the process of conversion, and it was a genuine gift. That day I told the Lord, ‘I am yours for whatever you need.’ My mother came but my father did not. It was a unique moment in my life to receive the Holy Spirit and to put my trust in the Lord.”

For months, the young Juan José was resisting the call to the priesthood. “I told the Lord that I didn’t want any hassles and to quit talking to me. Until I had to make a decision and it was to follow him, becoming a priest.”

One Saturday afternoon when he was 17, Fr. Juan José told his father he wanted to go to the seminary. His father beat him and said that “he would be a priest over his dead body.”

“They did not understand that I would want to be a priest. In fact, my father offered to pay for me to go to college in the United States but (he told me) he would never pay for the seminary.”

In such a difficult moment, Fr. Juan José recalled that all he could think of was the prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila: “Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. All you need is God” and when his father stopped rebuking him, the young man gave him a hug and said to him, “I knew you were going to react like that, but I also knew that one day you’d understand.”

“Welcome”

In fact, his father went so far as to threaten to report the pastor to the police if kept helping his son discern his vocation. “My father was trying everything, but the Lord is stronger,” he said.

To obey his father, Fr. Juan José could not start the seminary, and so he began to study teaching at the University of Almeria. For years he was patient, and continued to be faithful to his vocation to the priesthood. Until one day in May 1999, as he recalled, his mother told him that she had spoken to his father and that finally he would let him enter the seminary. “I began to cry and cry. I remember when I told the pastor about it he said “welcome” and gave me a great big hug.”

In September 2000, he finally entered the seminary.

In 2006, Fr.Juan José was ordained in the Almeria cathedral and his father even attended the ceremony. “In no way did he want me to become a priest, but he saw that I was happy and even though he was totally anticlerical, he decided that the happiness of his son came before his ideology and if I was happy, even though he didn’t understand it, he would have to accept it. “

In fact, he recalled that two years ago, “before dying, my father received the Anointing of the Sick. And it was I who administered it to him.”

“When somebody tells me he doesn’t believe in God, I always tell him that neither did I believe in Him, but I was mistaken, because I have discovered the genuine happiness that Jesus has given to me. If you’re not completely happy, ask the Lord to help you, because only He will give you the happiness that your heart needs.”

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FEATURES

Love is both tolerant and intolerant

by Bishop Robert Barron • March 7, 2017

Every community, inevitably, has a value or set of values that it considers fundamental, some basic good which positions every other claim to goodness. For most of the modern liberal democracies, for example, freedom and equality play this determining role in the moral discourse. In Communist societies, economic justice, construed as the elimination of the class structure, would provide such a foundation. In the context of German National Socialism, the defense of the Fatherland and the will of the Führer anchored the moral system, however corrupt. There is a rather simple means of identifying this ultimate value: in regard to any particular moral or political act, keep asking the question, “Why is this being done?” until you come to the point where you find yourself saying, “Well, because that’s just a good thing.” The “just a good thing” is the value that your society or culture considers non-negotiable and which in turn determines all subordinate values.

As a liberal society, ours has been, as I stated above, largely shaped by the values of liberty and equality, but in recent years, the ground has shifted a bit. Even a casual survey of the contemporary cultural scene reveals that the non-negotiables, the values undetermined and all-determining, seem to be inclusivity, tolerance, and diversity. If you asked most people today, especially the young, why should you be inclusive, tolerant, and accepting of diversity, the answer, I imagine, would be a puzzled, “Well, those are just good things to be.”

And here I would like to draw a contrast with the community of the Church. Within a properly Christian context, the ultimate value, which positions and determines any other value is neither tolerance, nor diversity, nor inclusivity, but rather love. I’ll admit that things can get confusing at this point, for the fundamental goods of the secular society today do have much in common with love, which is indeed often inclusive, tolerant, and encouraging of diversity. But not always — and thereupon hangs a tale.

To love is to will the good of the other as other. It is to break out of the black hole of one’s own self-regard and truly desire what is best for another. Therefore, to be sure, love is inclusive in the measure that it recognizes the essential dignity of each individual; love is tolerant, inasmuch as it respects the goodness of even those who hold errant points of view; and love encourages diversity, to the degree that it eschews the imperialistic imposition of one’s own ego upon another. However, sometimes love is exclusive, intolerant, and unaccepting of diversity — precisely because it wills the good of the other.

To illustrate this counter-intuitive proposition, let me begin with a rather ordinary example. Suppose you are the coach of a college baseball team, and you are presiding over tryouts. You survey a number of players of varying skill levels, and you are compelled to make your selection of, say, twenty players out of a hundred candidates. Your choices will exclude far more than they include; they will sow unhappiness more abundantly than joy. But if you are a good man, they will be done out of love. You will be willing the good of those advanced players who can and should practice their skills through heightened competition and who will delight the fans who will attend their games; and you will be willing the good of those less advanced players who should not be permitted to compromise the integrity of the team and who should probably enter into some other arena of endeavor. In a word, both inclusion and exclusion will be acts of love, which proves that love is a more fundamental and positioning value.

Now a somewhat more elevated example. The Church of Jesus Christ is radically inclusive, for its ultimate purpose is to draw all people to the Lord. The Bernini Colonnade in St. Peter’s Square, reaching out like arms to embrace the massive crowds, is evocative of this aspiration. Jesus said, “Go and teach all nations,” and “declare the Gospel to the ends of the earth.” Thus, inclusivity is without doubt one of the dimensions of the Church’s love. However, the Church is also exclusive and intolerant, for it discerns that certain forms of behavior are repugnant to its own integrity. Thus, for a variety of reasons, it excludes people from receiving communion, and in extreme cases, it formally excommunicates others. It solemnly declares that those who are in the state of mortal sin are not worthy to approach the Eucharistic table unless they first receive sacramental absolution. And it unapologetically asserts that the Christian life has a formal structure, which by its very nature excludes certain styles of life that are incompatible with it. These discriminations, judgments, and exclusions are, if I might put it this way, modes of “tough love.” Though they seem harsh, they are ways of willing the good of the other.

A song that has been widely played in Catholic circles these past twenty years or so includes the line, “All are welcome in this place.” Cardinal Francis George once archly remarked, “Yes, all are welcome in the Church, but on Christ’s terms, not their own.” Real love both includes and excludes; real love is both tolerant and intolerant.

Bishop Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries (wordonfire.org). He is the creator of two award-winning documentary series, Catholicism and Catholicism: The New Evangelization.

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FEATURES

Meet the four-legged Franciscan ‘friar’

by CNA/EWTN News • March 8, 2017

Friar Carmelo. (CNA)

Cochabamba, Bolivia — The newest member of St. Francis Monastery in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is furry and has four legs.

His name is Friar Carmelo, but they’ve nicknamed him Friar Bigotón (Spanish for mustache).

The friars found the stray schnauzer on the streets and decided to adopt him as one of their own, even going so far as to outfit the pup with his own Franciscan habit.

“Sometimes we brothers have a laugh among ourselves and there is a brother here that is also called Carmelo, who has a moustache, so that was sort of the inspiration [behind his name],” one of the friars told local television channel ATB.

In Facebook photos posted by Franciscan friar Kasper Mariusz Kapron which have been shared hundreds of times, Friar Carmelo can be seen running and playing throughout the monastery grounds, and even “preaching to the fish” in the monastery pond.

“His life is all about playing and running,” friar Jorge Fernandez told The Dodo. “Here, all of the brothers love him very much. He is a creature of God.”

The adoption was made possible by animal rescue group Proyecto Narices Frías (Cold Nose Project). The animal group stated in a post on Facebook that they hoped more religious groups would be inspired by the story to adopt animals in need.

“If only all the churches of our country adopt a dog and care for him like Friar Bigotón,” the group wrote in a post on Facebook, “we are sure that the parishioners would follow his example.”

The friars told local media that the dog has a bit of a naughty side, and has been known to chew things or hide them in the monastery garden. Still, he remains a beloved part of monastery life.

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Where it’s OK to eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day this Lent

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • March 9, 2017

Corned beef and cabbage. (Brent Hofacker via Shutterstock)

Denver, CO — If you’re an Irish Catholic (or any Catholic) living in the United States, you will need to check with your local diocese before indulging in corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day this year.

The popular feast day, whose traditional fare is the salty, stringy red meat, poses a predicament for Catholics this year as it falls on a Friday in Lent, when the faithful are required to abstain from meat.

The last time this conundrum cropped up was in 2006, when roughly half of the United States’ 179 Roman Catholic dioceses granted some form of dispensation to the faithful on the memorial of the patron saint of Ireland. (Ironically, corned beef is generally not eaten in Ireland on St. Patrick’s day - it’s usually lamb or bacon).

This year, more than 80 dioceses have announced some form of dispensation on St. Patrick’s Day. However, Catholics should check with their local diocese before partaking in the celebratory meats.

“In some places, abstinence from meat is dispensed on St. Patrick’s Day, but those who consume meat that day are required to abstain the next day,” said J.D. Flynn, a canon lawyer and Special Assistant to Bishop James Conley in Lincoln, Neb.

“In some places, a dispensation has been granted for parish or diocesan events. So it would be important to know what the bishop has determined in the place where you are.”

In many cases of dispensation this year, the bishops have requested that the faithful offer up some alternative penance or perform an additional act of charity in lieu of their abstinence from meat. Some dioceses have additional stipulations.

Many Archdioceses have already announced that they will be granting a general dispensation, including Atlanta, Georgia, Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C. and the Military Services, USA.

The following Archdioceses and Dioceses have dispensations, but with additional stipulations:

In some places, like the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, the faithful are required to transfer their day of abstinence to the next day if they choose to eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day.

In other Archdioceses, including Detroit, Michigan and Portland, Oregon, as well as the Dioceses of Trenton, N.J., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Grand Island, Nebraska, the archbishops and bishops have stipulated that the faithful must ask a priest’s permission if they want a dispensation. These priests can either dispense or commute the required abstinence from meat “for a just cause.”

In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, dispensations are being granted on a case by case basis for certain parish or diocesan groups or events that have successfully petitioned the bishop.

Many Dioceses have also publicly granted a dispensation for St. Patrick’s Day, including Bridgeport, Connecticut; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; Jefferson City, Missouri; Oakland, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Providence, Rhode Island; Savannah, Georgia; Worcester, Massachusetts, and Venice, Florida.

Only two dioceses, the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado and the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, have publicly announced that they will not be granting any dispensations for the day.

So, technically, could a Catholic in Denver with a hankering for meat on St. Patrick’s Day drive south for an hour and dine on corned beef once they are in the Diocese of Colorado Springs?

“Generally speaking dispensations, like other kinds of administrative acts, are territorial in the Church, they determine the obligations of those in a territory. There are many exceptions to this, but this is the general principle,” Flynn said.

“In this case, a traveler who is in a place where a law has been dispensed is not bound to observe the law. It doesn’t matter why the person goes to a diocese, just that they’re there. A person should take a look at what the dispensation really says, though,” he added.

What about extremely proud Irish grandmothers (my own) who declare a dispensation for themselves and all their Irish kin, regardless of where they reside?

“Your grandma was, with all due respect to her Irish brilliance, mistaken,” Flynn said.

The Archdioceses and Dioceses listed here are not comprehensive. Catholics wanting to eat meat on St. Patrick’s day should check with their local diocese regarding whether or not they are dispensed, and under what conditions.

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Movie review: ‘Kong: Skull Island’

by Carl Kozlowski • March 10, 2017

Monster movies have been part of Hollywood folklore since its beginnings, and one of the most memorable has been the giant ape known as Kong, from the original “King Kong” in 1933, on through remakes in 1976 and 2005. The big beast has come a long way from the stop motion creature scaling a tiny model of the Empire State Building in the original, surviving the dud Seventies edition, and the overblown, butt-numbing, three-hour version by Peter Jackson.

This weekend, Kong returns in the utterly bizarre, thoroughly loopy and undeniably entertaining “Kong: Skull Island.” Starring an oddly yet effectively matched cast of ace actors, the new film manages to combine some of the most amazing effects I’ve ever seen with surprisingly touching character-driven moments to create an experience that demands to be seen on the big screen.

The movie opens with a showdown between two pilots, one American and one Japanese, in 1945 when both men crash their planes on an island while flying missions in WWII. As the men battle with guns and swords, they suddenly are interrupted by the giant hands of Kong swinging wildly in their direction.

Cut to the day in 1973 that the truce was announced ending the Vietnam War. A mysterious blowhard named Bill Randa (John Goodman), who is seeking approval to lead a purported geological exploration to a mysterious place called Skull Island.

Randa works for a company called Monarch that specializes in seeking out and exploiting “extraterrestrial creatures,” meaning all manner of odd earthbound beings, and believes the island is home to countless undiscovered creatures. He is given authorization to fly his team into the island with a battalion of military choppers, under the pretense that the US should explore the island before a Soviet spy satellite flies over it in three days.

Lt. Col. Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), who is eager to score a quick success after being disappointed at America’s withdrawal from Vietnam, leads the escort team. Along for the ride are a British jungle guide named James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and a Life magazine photographer named Mason Weaver (Brie Larson – smartly building on her 2015 Best Actress Oscar for the tiny indie “Room” with her first blockbuster role), who quickly draws Packard’s ire for having been part of the antiwar media.

With these juicy conflicts in place, they fly in, only to find themselves attacked by Kong. With only a few survivors left after the choppers all crash amid the battle, two teams spread out and find that they have far more than Kong to worry about – including giant spiders, vicious birds, monstrous yaks, and dinosaur-like beasties called “skull crushers” by Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly), the American pilot who crashed there 28 years before.

“Kong: Skull Island” is absolutely ridiculous, but in all the right ways. Its dialogue often clunks with exposition, yet it also has a slyly self-referential sense of humor that makes it a hoot to watch, and its slumming stars are having infectious fun.

But a movie like this rises or falls on its special effects, and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has overseen a team that is likely to set the standard for Oscar voters in technical categories next year. The movie alternates between full-bore action, impressive slow-motion, pounding sonic fury and moments of quiet silence, all combining for jaw-dropping moments throughout that are custom-made for 3D magic.

There are only about 10 “S” words in the movie, one or two “GD”s, and one use of “F” word in what’s intended as a comical rather than prurient context. The violence, however, is really, really graphic a lot of the time, including a guy with a giant piece of bamboo down his throat after Kong surprises him, a silhouetted man who has an arm lopped off by an ugly bird with a razor-sharp beak, and a whole lot of scenes where the various giant monsters get shot at or otherwise pulverized, leading to huge amounts of monster body fluids to be released. In other words, this is definitely a movie for at least 13 year olds on up, as befits the PG-13 rating, but parents whose kids and teens might have a hard time handling major monster gore should likely steer clear anyway.

On the other hand, unlike “Logan” or the atrociously nihilistic “John Wick: Chapter Two,” most viewers – especially teens – will just be in awe of the utterly amazing creatures, with the complete lack of real-world realism rendering this impossible to scar anyone’s minds. This is “Jurassic Park” or “Jurassic World” on steroids, Red Bull and Monster drinks.

This is one movie that absolutely demands to be seen on the big screen, preferably with the full glasses effect, yet is solid enough entertainment to stand on its own in 2D as well. After a dire opening to the year, the back-to-back punch of the late-February thriller “Get Out,” the epic superhero flick “Logan” and now this monstrous treat are enough to inspire hope that this might be a good year for fun movies after all.

Carl Kozlowski has been a professional film critic and essayist for the past five years at Pasadena Weekly, in addition to the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the conservative pop culture site Breitbart.com’s Big Hollywood, the Christian pop culture magazine Relevant, and New City newspaper in Chicago. He also writes in-depth celebrity interviews for Esquire.com and The Progressive. He is owner of the podcasting site radiotitans.com, which was named one of the Frontier Fifty in 2013 as one of the 50 best talk-radio outlets in the nation by talkers.com and will be re-launching it in January 2014 after a five-month sabbatical. He lives in Los Angeles.

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SUNDAY • MARCH 12, 2017

Second Sunday of Lent

First Reading (Gn 12:1-4a; NRSVCE)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22; NRSVCE)

R: (22) Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

For the word of the Lord is upright,

and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

R: Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,

on those who hope in his steadfast love,

to deliver their soul from death,

and to keep them alive in famine.

R: Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Our soul waits for the Lord;

he is our help and shield.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

R: Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Second Reading (2 Tm 1:8b-10; NRSVCE)

Join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Gospel Reading (Mt 17:1-9; NRSVCE)

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

MONDAY • MARCH 13, 2017

Monday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Dn 9:4b-10; NRSVCE)

“Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

“Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 79:8, 9, 11 and 13; NRSVCE)

R: (see Ps 103:10a) The Lord does not deal with us according to our sins.

Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;

let your compassion come speedily to meet us,

for we are brought very low.

R: The Lord does not deal with us according to our sins.

Help us, O God of our salvation,

for the glory of your name;

deliver us, and forgive our sins,

for your name’s sake.

R: The Lord does not deal with us according to our sins.

Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;

according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.

Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,

will give thanks to you forever;

from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

R: The Lord does not deal with us according to our sins.

Gospel Reading (Lk 6:36-38; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

TUESDAY • MARCH 14, 2017

Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Is 1:10, 16-20; NRSVCE)

Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of Sodom!

Listen to the teaching of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings

from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,

says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be like snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

If you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be devoured by the sword;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23; NRSVCE)

R: (23b) To those who go the right way, I will show the salvation of God.

“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;

your burnt offerings are continually before me.

I will not accept a bull from your house,

or goats from your folds.”

R: To those who go the right way, I will show the salvation of God.

“What right have you to recite my statutes,

or take my covenant on your lips?

For you hate discipline,

and you cast my words behind you.”

R: To those who go the right way, I will show the salvation of God.

“These things you have done and I have been silent;

you thought that I was one just like yourself.

But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me;

to those who go the right way

I will show the salvation of God.”

R: To those who go the right way, I will show the salvation of God.

Gospel Reading (Mt 23:1-12; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father — the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

WEDNESDAY • MARCH 15, 2017

Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Jer 18:18-20; NRSVCE)

The people of Judah said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah — for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words.”

Give heed to me, O Lord,

and listen to what my adversaries say!

Is evil a recompense for good?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 31:5-6, 14, 15-16; NRSVCE)

R: (17b) Save me, O Lord, in your steadfast love.

Take me out of the net that is hidden for me,

for you are my refuge.

Into your hand I commit my spirit;

you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

R: Save me, O Lord, in your steadfast love.

For I hear the whispering of many —

terror all around! —

as they scheme together against me,

as they plot to take my life.

R: Save me, O Lord, in your steadfast love.

But I trust in you, O Lord;

I say, “You are my God.”

My times are in your hand;

deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.

R: Save me, O Lord, in your steadfast love.

Gospel Reading (Mt 20:17-28; NRSVCE)

While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

THURSDAY • MARCH 16, 2017

Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Jer 17:5-10; NRSVCE)

Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

and make mere flesh their strength,

whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,

and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,

in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,

whose trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,

sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else;

it is perverse —

who can understand it?

I the Lord test the mind

and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; NRSVCE)

R: (Ps 40:5a) Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.

Happy are those

who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread,

or sit in the seat of scoffers;

but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law they meditate day and night.

R: Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.

They are like trees

planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.

R: Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

R: Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.

Gospel Reading (Lk 16:19-31; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

FRIDAY • MARCH 17, 2017

Friday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a; NRSVCE)

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”

So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”— that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21; NRSVCE)

R: (5a) Remember the wonderful works the Lord has done.

When the Lord summoned famine against the land,

and broke every staff of bread,

he had sent a man ahead of them,

Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

R: Remember the wonderful works the Lord has done.

His feet were hurt with fetters,

his neck was put in a collar of iron;

until what he had said came to pass,

the word of the Lord kept testing him.

R: Remember the wonderful works the Lord has done.

The king sent and released him;

the ruler of the peoples set him free.

He made him lord of his house,

and ruler of all his possessions.

R: Remember the wonderful works the Lord has done.

Gospel Reading (Mt 21:33-43, 45-46; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes?’

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

SATURDAY • MARCH 18, 2017

Saturday of the Second Week in Lent

First Reading (Mi 7:14-15, 18-20; NRSVCE)

Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

show us marvelous things.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over the transgression

of the remnant of your possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in showing clemency.

He will again have compassion upon us;

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our ancestors

from the days of old.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12; NRSVCE)

R: (8a) The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and do not forget all his benefits.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the Pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

He will not always accuse,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

so far he removes our transgressions from us.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Gospel Reading (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32; NRSVCE)

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus told them this parable:

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe — the best one — and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”