VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3  •  MARCH 18, 2017

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

It’s official: Pope Francis will visit Colombia September 6-11

The Pope’s words at the Angelus prayer

Pastoral visit to the Roman parish of Santa Maddalena di Canossa (Borgata Ottavia)

Conversion is a journey of action, Pope says

How Pope Francis’ sincere humanity has shaped his pontificate

What does it actually mean for a priest to be ‘laicized?’

Holy Father’s message to members of the International Association of Charities

General Audience: Rejoice in hope

What Pope Francis did when guards tried to stop these Chinese pilgrims

Pope Francis: It’s a grave sin to lay people off carelessly

Pope Francis and Lebanese president talk Syrian war

Health care for all isn’t optional, Vatican tells U.N.

Here’s what Pope Francis is doing for Holy Week

Audience with participants in the Course on the Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary

Pope Francis goes to confession

WORLD NEWS

What the world could learn from the witness of Egypt’s Christians

The Church is the ‘only functioning institution’ in South Sudan

Ecuadorians struck by earthquake plead: ‘Don’t forget us’

Among horror stories from Syria, a woman’s unborn baby was cut in half

Nigeria’s bishops call on government to defend human rights

South Sudan bishop says nation’s prayers must provoke change

U.S. NEWS

Divorce numbers rise among older Americans, fall among younger couples

U.S. congratulates Pope Francis on his 4th anniversary

Fr. Stanley Rother, first U.S.-born martyr, to be beatified in September

Despite warnings, assisted suicide bill advances in Hawaii

New South Dakota law could protect religious adoption agencies

New Mexico bishops admonish pro-choice Catholic legislators

What will the U.S. do next for ISIS genocide survivors?

Texas advances bill on transgender bathrooms, but fate unclear

FEATURES

My life isn’t a tragedy – a Rwandan woman’s incredible story of survival

Porn leaves men dissatisfied with real relationships, study finds

Why it matters who Jesus is

‘I had to flee for my life’ – The reality of being a Syrian refugee

The order of Irish Catholics you probably haven’t heard of

Meet the monks who spend their lives praying for Ireland’s priests

Patrick: The saint who knew what it was like to be a slave

Movie review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • March 19, 2017

Monday • March 20, 2017

Tuesday • March 21, 2017

Wednesday • March 22, 2017

Thursday • March 23, 2017

Friday • March 24, 2017

Saturday • March 25, 2017

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Volume 3, Issue 3 • March 18, 2017

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VATICAN NEWS

It’s official: Pope Francis will visit Colombia September 6-11

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 10, 2017

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims during his May 25, 2016 General Audience in St. Peter’s Square. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis will make a six-day trip to Colombia in September with four cities on his itinerary, almost a year after the government and FARC rebels signed a major peace agreement.

“Accepting the invitation of the President of the Republic and the Colombian bishops, His Holiness the Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Trip to Colombia from 6 to 11 September 2017,” a March 10 communique from the Vatican read.

While the official schedule is expected to be released shortly, the Vatican confirmed that Francis will visit the cities of Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín, and Cartagena.

The trip will mark the third time Francis has visited his native South America since becoming Pope, with the first taking place in July 2013 when he traveled to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day. The second tour took place in July 2015, with stops in Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

In August 2016 a peace accord between the Colombian government and the country’s largest rebel group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was finally reached following four years of negotiations in Cuba.

Since 1964, as many as 260,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the civil war.

According to Human Rights Watch, with more than 6.8 million people forcibly displaced due to the conflict, Colombia has the world’s second largest population of internally displaced people, with Syria in first place.

However, the August agreement was narrowly rejected in a referendum Oct. 2, with many Colombians claiming that it was too lenient on FARC, particularly when it came to kidnapping and drug trafficking.

A revised agreement was signed Nov. 24, and sent to Colombia’s Congress for approval, rather than being submitted to a popular vote. The reformed accord was approved Nov. 30, with revised features including the demand that FARC hand over assets to be used for reparations, a 10 year time limit for the transitional justice system, and FARC rebels’ providing information about their drug trafficking.

In December Pope Francis met with Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón and former president Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, at the Vatican, encouraging them to continue working for peace.

When the deal was initially reached, the Pope praised the move, voicing his support “for the goal of attaining the peace and reconciliation of the entire Colombian people, in light of human rights and Christian values, which are at the heart of Latin American culture.”

The Pope’s trip was officially presented in the country March 10 by Bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis, head of Colombia’s military diocese and who is in charge of the preparation committee for the trip.

During presentation, Bishop Suescún said the Pope’s visit “is a moment of grace and joy to dream with the possibility of transforming our country and taking the first step,” according to the Colombian Bishops Conference website.

“The Holy Father is a missionary for reconciliation,” he said. “His presence helps us to discover that yes, it’s possible to re-unite as a nation in order to learn to look at ourselves again with eyes of hope and mercy.”

He pointed to the logo of the trip, which in yellow and white pictures Pope Francis walking next to the thematic phrase “Demos el primer paso,” meaning “Let us take the first step.”

To take the first step, Suescún said, means “to again draw near to Jesus, to meet again the love of our families, to disarm words with our neighbor and to have compassion with those who have suffered.”

According to the Colombian Bishops Conference, after receiving the official confirmation of the Pope’s visit, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his joy saying “we will receive (Francs) with open arms and hearts, as a messenger of peace and reconciliation.”

He noted that on many occasions Pope Francis “gave courage and impelled” the peace process in the country, adding that “he is a messenger of love and faith; he’s a forger of bridges and not walls.”

The president pointed to the fact that the Pope’s trip will be made exclusively to Colombia, whereas there are typically multiple countries included in international papal trips.

“To have the Pope with us for four days, to know that he’s traveling exclusively to give a voice of encouragement and faith to Colombians, is a privilege that fills us with gratitude,” Santos said.

The Pope’s visit, he said, is an “encounter with the teachings of Jesus, the encounter among ourselves, as a society, as compatriots, as human beings and as children of God.”

He voiced his hope that the visit would help Colombians to unite around the “building of a more just and equitable country, with peace and more solidarity.”

“We have already begun to prepare and will continue to prepare so that this apostolic journey of Pope Francis in Colombia will bear the greatest of fruits of harmony and unity in our country.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The Pope’s words at the Angelus prayer

The Holy See Press Office • March 12, 2017

Vatican City — At midday today, Second Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Before the Angelus

The following is the Pope’s introduction to the Marian prayer:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The Gospel of this second Sunday of Lent presents to us the account of Jesus’ Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1-9). Jesus took aside three of the Apostles, Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain, where this singular phenomenon happened: Jesus’ face “shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light” (v. 2). The Lord thus made that divine glory shine in His person, which could be received with faith in His preaching and in His miraculous gestures. The Transfiguration on the mountain was accompanied by the apparition of Moses and Elijah, “talking with Him” (v. 3).

The “luminosity” that characterized this extraordinary event symbolized its purpose: to enlighten the minds and hearts of the disciples, so that they were able to understand clearly who their Master was. It was a sudden flash of light on the mystery of Jesus, illuminating His whole person and His whole story.

By now decisively on the way to Jerusalem, where he will be condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus wishes to prepare His followers for this scandal – the scandal of the Cross – for this scandal that is too strong for their faith and, at the same time, to announce in advance His resurrection, manifesting Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. And Jesus prepares them for that sad moment of great pain. Indeed, Jesus is showing them a Messiah Who differs from their expectations, from what they imagined of the Messiah, of how the Messiah would be: not a powerful and glorious king, but a humble and disarmed; not a lord of great wealth, a sign of blessing, but a poor man with nowhere to rest His head; not a patriarch with many descendants but an unmarried man with neither house nor home. It is truly a revelation of God turned upside down, and the most disconcerting sign of this scandalous reversal is the cross. But it is precisely through the cross that Jesus will attain His glorious resurrection which will be definitive, unlike this transfiguration that lasted a moment, an instant. Jesus transfigured on Mount Tabor wished to show His glory to His disciples not to avoid their passing through the cross, but to show where the cross leads. He Who dies with Christ, will rise again with Christ. And the cross is the door of the Resurrection. Those who fight with Him will triumph with Him. This is the message of hope contained in Christ’s cross, urging fortitude in our existence. The Christian Cross is not an ornament for the home or to wear; the Christian cross is an appeal to the love with which Jesus sacrificed Himself to save humanity from evil and from sin. In this Lenten Season, we contemplate with devotion the image of Jesus crucified on the cross: it is the symbol of the Christian faith; it is the emblem of Jesus, dead and risen for us. Let us therefore regard the Cross as marking the stages of our Lenten journey, to understand increasingly the gravity of sin and the value of the sacrifice with which the Redeemer saved us all.

The Holy Virgin was able to contemplate Jesus’ glory hidden in His humanity. May she help us to be with Him in silent prayer, and may we let ourselves by enlightened by His presence, to keep in our heart, through the darkest nights, a reflection of His glory.

After the Angelus

Dear brothers and sisters,

I express my closeness to the people of Guatemala, who are in mourning for the grave and tragic fire that broke out inside the “Virgen de la Asunción” refuge house, claiming lives and causing injuries among the girls who lived there. May the Lord receive their souls, heal the wounded, console their grieving families and all the nation. I also pray, and ask you to pray with me for all the girls and boys who are victims of violence, mistreatment, exploitation and wars. This is a scourge, a hidden cry that we must all hear, and that we cannot pretend to neither see nor hear.

I address a warm greeting to all of you present here, faithful of Rome and from many parts of the world.

I greet pilgrims from Fribourg and Mannheim in Germany, and those from Lebanon and marathon runners from Portugal.

I greet parish groups from Gioiosa Ionica and Pachino; young people from Lodi preparing for the “Profession of faith”; students from Dalmine and Busto Arsizio - what you say is true: “No to the throwaway culture” [reading from banner]; and the “Goccia dopo goccia” youth choir of Bergamo.

I wish you all a good Sunday. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch, and goodbye.

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Pastoral visit to the Roman parish of Santa Maddalena di Canossa (Borgata Ottavia)

The Holy See Press Office • March 12, 2017

Vatican City — This afternoon, Second Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father Francis made a pastoral visit to the parish of Santa Maddalena di Canossa, in the Borgata Ottavia quarter of Rome.

Upon arrival, at around 15.50, the Pope met with children and young people of the catechism in the parish sports field. Then, in the crypt, the Holy Father greeted the elderly and the sick; then in the parish theatre he met married couples who baptized their children in 2016. In addition, he briefly greeted the altar boys, priests from the 36th Prefecture, to which the parish belongs, and some religious sisters, Daughters of Charity (Canossians), accompanied by the Superior General. Finally, the Holy Father confessed some penitents.

At 18.00, the Pope presided at Holy Mass in the parish Church. After the proclamation of the Gospel, the Pope pronounced an off-the-cuff homily. At the end of his visit, at around 19.45, the Holy Father returned to the Vatican.

The following is the transcript of his homily and the words the Pope addressed to the various groups in the parish.

The Holy Father’s homily

In this passage of the Gospel (cf. Matthew 17:1-9), reference is made twice to the beauty of Jesus, of Jesus-God, of luminous Jesus, of Jesus full of joy and of life. First, in the vision: “He was transfigured.” He was transfigured before them, before the disciples: “His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light.” And Jesus transforms, He is transfigured. The second time, while they are coming down from the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to speak of this vision before He rose from the dead, or rather, the Resurrection that Jesus will have – He had, but that moment He was still not resurrected – the same luminous, brilliant face, it will be like that! But what did He want to say? That between this transfiguration, so beautiful, and that resurrection, there will be another face of Jesus: there will be a face that is not so beautiful, there will be a face that is ugly, disfigured, tortured, scorned, bloodied by the crown of thorns. … All the body of Jesus will indeed be like something to be discarded. Two transfigurations and in the middle Jesus Crucified, the cross. We must look at the cross well! And Jesus-God – “this is my Son,” “this is my Son, the beloved” – Jesus, the Son of God, God Himself, in Whom the Father is well pleased: He annihilated Himself to save us! And to use a very strong, a very strong word, perhaps one of the strongest words of the New Testament, a word that Paul uses: He was made sin (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). Sin is the worst thing; sin is an offense to God, a affront to God; it is like saying to God: “ I don’t care about you, I prefer this … ‘ And Jesus was made sin, He annihilated Himself, He lowered Himself to this … And to prepare the disciples not to be scandalized at seeing Him thus, on the cross, He made this transfiguration.

We are used to talking about sins: when we go to Confession – “I committed this sin, I committed another …” ; and also in Confession, when we are forgiven, we feel we are forgiven because He took on this sin in the Passion: He became sin. We are used to talking about others’ sins. It’s an awful thing … Instead of talking about the sins of others, I don’t say we make ourselves sin, because we can’t, but we should look at our sins and at Him, He Who made Himself become sin.”

This is the path to Easter, towards the Resurrection to go ahead with the certainty of this transfiguration; to see this most luminous and beautiful face, that will be the same in the Resurrection and the same we will find in Heaven, and also to see this other face, which was made sin, He paid in this way for us all. Jesus made Himself become sin, He made Himself God’s malediction for us; the blessed Son, in the Passion became the accursed, because He took upon Himself our sins (cf. Galatians 3:10-14). Let us think about this. How much love! How much love! And let us think also of the beauty of the transfigured face of Jesus we will encounter in Heaven.

And may this contemplation of the two faces of Jesus – the transfigured and the one made sin, accursed – encourage us to go ahead on the path of life, on the journey of Christian life. May it encourage us to ask for forgiveness for our sins, not to sin so much … May it encourage us in particular to have trust, because if He became sin it is because He took our sins upon Himself. And He is always willing to forgive us. We only have to ask.

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Conversion is a journey of action, Pope says

CNA/EWTN News • March 14, 2017

Jubilee audience in St. Peter’s Square with Pope Francis on Nov. 12, 2016. (Lucia Ballester/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis urged Catholics in Tuesday’s homily not only to avoid evil, but to pursue good in concrete actions, likening the Lenten conversion to a journey.

“Avoiding evil and learning to do good: this is the rule of conversion. Because being converted doesn’t come from a fairy who converts us with a magic wand: No! It’s a journey. It’s a journey of avoiding and of learning,” said the Pope during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

Beginning his homily with the first step of the journey, the Pope said that we must recognize “Each one of us, every day, does something ugly.” He emphasized the importance of recognizing our own sins and he referenced to a quote from the book of Proverbs: “For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.”

This sin, he said, “poisons the soul,” but he encouraged the faithful not to worry, for God responds with the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “though your sins should be like scarlet, they will become white as snow.”

Pope Francis insisted that refusing evil is not enough, but we must learn to do good with a child-like attitude. He said, “Along the path of life, of the Christian life … You have to learn every day to do something, to be better than the day before,” and good must be practiced through concrete actions and not just words.

The Pope pointed to the examples of Jesus in the Gospel: to “relieve the oppressed, give orphans justice, defend the cause of the widow.” He also spoke on the “ruling class of the people of Israel,” rebuked by Christ “because ‘they talk and don’t act,’ they don’t know concreteness.”

This Lenten conversion is difficult and doesn’t occur over night, Pope Francis said, but added that the Lord walks “with us to help us, to explain things to us, to take us by the hand” and heal our iniquities.

“And this is the path of Lenten conversion. Simple. It is the Father who speaks, it is the Father who loves us, who really loves us. And who accompanies us on this path of conversion.”

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VATICAN NEWS

How Pope Francis’ sincere humanity has shaped his pontificate

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • March 14, 2017

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 22, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Rather than a weakness, Pope Francis’ humanity – and his acknowledgment of it – has been a source of strength and impact during the four years of his pontificate, said Vatican’s press office director.

“The Pope says something which is very impressive, which is: ‘I am a sinner,’” Greg Burke told EWTN News Nightly. “And I think he says that in every interview he does, that none of us is without fault. I think that’s been part of his strength: how human he is.”

“Yes, he is the Vicar of Christ and yet at the same time he’s a human being like the rest of us.”

Burke reflected on one small moment from Francis’ pontificate that stands out in particular as hugely impactful: which was “when the Pope got down on his knees to go to Confession himself, in front of the cameras.”

The way that Pope Francis leads by example “has done a great service to all of us,” Burke said.

Burke was appointed Director of the Vatican’s press office in July 2016, after just under six months as vice director. Formerly a Rome correspondent for Fox News Channel and Time Magazine, he has worked in the Vatican since June 2012 when he was appointed senior communications advisor to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

March is the month of anniversaries, with March 13 marking the fourth anniversary of Pope Francis’ election as pontiff, and March 19 the anniversary of the start of his pontificate.

Burke said that in these four years there have been many significant moments, but one that stands out to him is the Year of Mercy, “because it wasn’t just that year it was the whole spirit of mercy which I think the Pope has helped remind everyone of.”

“That God is waiting there to forgive us, something he said from the first week of his pontificate, and people knew perhaps, but it’s been a great reminder.”

A few of the trips Pope Francis has taken “where he wasn’t supposed to go” were also important moments, he pointed out. For example, when Typhoon Haiyan – the deadliest typhoon on record – hit the Philippines in November 2013, Francis “insisted on going,” saying “I’m not going to leave those people alone.”

“That was impressive,” Burke said.

The Pope also went to the war-torn Central African Republic, “despite the risks,” Burke noted, because he thought it was important that he go there, “so he did.”

In general, Burke said that he believes the Pope’s impact on the Church the last four years “has been huge.”

“The Pope has helped people rediscover the joy of what it means to believe. That despite anyone’s limitations, despite their sins, despite the crosses one might have to carry, there is an inherent joy in the Christian life.”

His impact on the world at large has been much the same, he said. “Much of what makes a Christian a better Christian also makes a human being a better human being. In terms of taking care of the poor, visiting the lonely or the sick.”

“And I think the Pope has been a huge wakeup call in that sense, for all faiths, of taking better care of their neighbors,” Burke noted.

Despite confusing or misleading headlines at times, Francis’ message has been consistent the last four years, Burke said: “the Pope’s main message is simple and that remains: God loves you, God forgives you, and you just have to be willing to ask for that forgiveness and share God’s love with others.”

A lot of people think that the pace of activities Francis keeps are what makes it a “break-neck papacy,” Burke said, but in reality, what has changed the most is communications.

“I think we keep up with it just like everybody else does. Though it’s not always easy,” he said.

Personally, Burke said that Pope Francis has impacted him in many ways over the last four years, one of which is in how he pays attention to the person right in front of him.

“He has somebody in front of him and for that moment it’s that person and that person is all that counts and I think there’s a lot to learn from that,” he said.

“Quite frankly, most of us are busy with a million things, we’re busy with our cellphones. We’re talking to people and yet at the same time we’re checking Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and maybe that’s what saves the Pope – that he’s not there with his cellphone.”

Mary Shovlain contributed to this story.

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VATICAN NEWS

What does it actually mean for a priest to be ‘laicized?’

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 15, 2017

(Diego Cervo via Shutterstock)

Vatican City — When reports came out recently about Pope Francis’ decision to modify the penalties for several priests found guilty of abusing minors, the question arose as to whether the Pope was being too merciful in his decision.

Another concern was whether priests found guilty of abuse of minors would continue to be dismissed from the clerical state, or “laicized.”

To address these issues and clear up some of the grey area on this topic, CNA spoke with a canonist, Fr. Damián Astigueta, SJ.

A professor at the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University with a specialty in criminal proceedings, Fr. Astigueta offered insights on what dismissal from the clerical state is, why the Church doesn’t always choose to dismiss from the clerical state priests who are guilty of abuse, what those condemned to a life of prayer and penance actually do, the role of bishops in abuse cases, the lessening of sentences, and more.

What is dismissal from the clerical state?

While frequently used in the media, the term “laicization” doesn’t really exist anymore among canonists, Fr. Astigueta said, and has been widely replaced by the term “loss of the clerical state.”

When a priest loses his clerical state, either because he requested it or because it was taken from him, he is “‘dismissed from the clerical state,’ because this is a juridical status,” Fr. Astigueta explained.

“He remains in a situation judicially as if they were a layperson. This is where the term ‘laicization’ comes from.”

He clarified that when this happens, it doesn’t mean that a priest is no longer a priest: “the sacrament of Holy Orders isn’t lost; it imprints an ontological sign on the being of the priest that can never be lost.”

What happens instead is that exercising the rights proper to the clerical state are prohibited, such as saying Mass, hearing confessions, and administering the sacraments; as are the obligations, such as that of reciting the Liturgy of the Hours and obedience to their bishop.

However, since a man dismissed from the clerical state remains a priest, there are times at which the Church continues to oblige him to act as a priest.

For example, if he finds someone in danger of death who asks for the sacraments, even though he is no longer in a clerical state, he “must hear (the person’s) confession because the most important thing is the salvation of that person.”

Fr. Astigueta also emphasized the importance of not misinterpreting the process to mean a “reduction to the lay state.” This phrase is not correct, he stressed, since it inaccurately treats laity “in a derogatory way, as if they were lesser.”

Why not all priests guilty of abuse lose the clerical state

For Fr. Astigueta, the answer to the question of why not all priests found guilty of abuse are dismissed from the clerical state has two primary components: not all acts of abuse are the same in terms of severity, and the situation of the priest himself varies.

“Why doesn’t the Church dismiss from the clerical state all abusers? Because not all abuses are the same entity,” he said. Even civil law recognizes a difference in severity between pedophilia – which involves prepubescent children – and ephebophilia – which involves mid-to-late adolescents. In other cases, there may be the appearance of consent with an older teen, he said, which can further complicate the matter. The penalty assessed to the priest takes these factors into account, he added.

When it comes to priests who are found guilty of abuse, there are different types of punishments, including dismissal from the clerical state, or a life of “prayer and penance,” depending on the situation.

“There are certain cases in which dismissal would be the just punishment,” Fr. Astigueta said.

But there are also cases – even with several instances of serious abuse that have caused a lot of damage – when the Church decides against this dismissal, he said, pointing to Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel as an example.

Fr. Maciel was a person “who was proven to have committed a series of very serious crimes, a person who when one knows what he did truly realizes they are in front of a very disturbed person,” the priest said. “Can a disturbed person be punished with the maximum penalty?”

At times the Church prefers to use a different system, prohibiting the person from ministry, particularly in public. Instead, the person is isolated at home, dedicated to prayer “and nothing more.” This means no visits from people, at times not even friends or their congregation.

In the case of Fr. Maciel, even his funeral, for which he had saved enormous funds, was closed to the public.

“Is it a gilded prison? In a certain way, yes,” Fr. Astigueta said. However, he said the Church at times chooses this punishment, which is less strong, because at a certain point, “when I give a person a sanction that destroys them, it’s not a sanction, but revenge.”

Fr. Astigueta also spoke of the importance of mercy in the process, particularly when it comes to elderly priests and the Church’s own responsibility toward her members.

Even in a tragic case when a child has been abused, “the Church is still a mother, and mercy is used for the victims and the priest,” he said, noting that abusers often have serious psychological problems that require treatment.

If a priest chooses to renounce his clerical state, he is often inserted into society without a problem; but when it comes to those who have been dismissed, it can be a lot harder, Fr. Astigueta said, explaining that there is a canon (c. 1350 §2) establishing “that there exists a duty of charity toward them.”

This means “helping them and taking care of them in the measure that the person lets themselves be helped,” he said.

If an 80-year-old priest is dismissed from the clerical state, “where do we send him? Can he find work? He’ll end up living on the street as a homeless man. How long will he last? He won’t last anything,” he observed.

To put a man on the street in this circumstance, unless he has relatives ready to take him on, “is practically to kill him.”

Often, despite the harm done, something good in the person remains, he said, explaining that because of this, sometimes a more just penance is to let him “live with his conscience.” While a life of prayer and reflection might sound comfortable, Fr. Astigueta asked: “reflecting with whom? With your memories before God, with your regrets.”

He noted that in order to avoid pressure from the media in these cases, the Church “is obliged at times to punish, in my view, more seriously than it should.”

Offering help to victims and bringing about justice is always the Church’s top priority when it comes to clerical abuse, but concern must also be shown to the sinner, he said, explaining that if the Church were to immediately dismiss from the clerical state every abusive priest, it could cause more harm.

“Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that if these people are thrown out on the street, I am leaving a possible serial killer,” Fr. Astigueta said, referring to pedophiles. The Church, he said, must also take this into account.

Fr. Astigueta stressed that when it comes to mercy in abuse cases, it “never goes against justice,” and that the first act of mercy is “to tell the truth.”

Once the truth is known, the measure in which the offender can be sanctioned must be taken into account “in order to avoid that the penalty is a revenge,” because this helps no one.

“The pain of the victim is never cured with revenge; the only way to heal the victim’s pain is forgiveness offered freely,” he said, noting that “this can never be forced on anyone; but certainly neither can the spirit of revenge be forced.”

What a life of prayer and penance actually means

Many priests found guilty of abuse, instead of being dismissed from the clerical state, are instead sentenced to a life of “prayer and penance.”

But while the sentence is fairly common, among elderly priests in particular, what it actually involves is at times a bit obscure to the public eye, and it can seem like the priest is getting off easy despite committing heinous crimes.

Fr. Astigueta explained that on a practical level, “the person is isolated, sometimes more, sometimes less.”

Often “the person is isolated, possibly without having direct access to the telephone or the TV, and must dedicate himself to reading, praying and walking around inside the house.”

At times the person might even be barred from leaving the house without permission, under pain of incurring further punishments.

He pointed to the recent case of Luis Fernando Figari, a layman and founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, who was found guilty of an extreme, authoritarian style of leadership as well as several accounts of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse.

As a punishment, the Vatican didn’t expel Figari from the community, but ordered that he live alone, and barred him from any contact with the community’s members and from receiving people.

If a priest who receives this sentence doesn’t want to follow the rules, the Church in this case “can impose the full dismissal” from their clerical status, Fr. Astigueta said, noting that the majority of priests who choose to this life are people who “want to be helped and recognize that this penalty is a table of salvation for them.”

“It’s strong, yes, but at least I have something to eat and I can live my final years in peace,” Fr. Astigueta said, noting that in general it is elderly priests who end up in this situation, whereas younger ones with some sort of major mental health disorder are typically sent to a therapeutic communities.

At times they are able to celebrate Mass with others, but “always with the very clear ban that ‘from here, you cannot go away without permission.’”

The Church, Fr. Astigueta said, “is not a prison … it doesn’t have penitential system like a state, but someone must keep watch over those removed from ministry.”

And this implies “a very heavy duty for the Church, because who is the one that supervises? Who is responsible for him? It’s not so easy, it implies a lot of obligations.”

Fr. Astigueta also noted that there’s a different canonical process for lay founders such as Figari, versus priests who abuse.

“Technically speaking, the case of a layman doesn’t enter into the canon on abuses like the priests,” he said.

Clerics who commit sexual abuse are charged under a canon (c. 1395 §2) which criminalizes those offenses against the sixth commandment which are committed by force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of 16.

But when it comes to the laity specifically, “this lack in the code must be thought of,” because unfortunately “the times are those in which we can’t only think about priest founders, but of many laity who have a position in the Church … who can abuse minors,” such as school directors or professors.

In these cases, he said, the Church applies a canon (c. 1399) which covers the situation in which the criminal “goes against a divine or ecclesiastical law with harm or danger of grave scandal.”

Cases in which the victims are mentally disabled must also be taken into consideration, he said, as well as many other forms of abuse “that should be considered crimes,” and are in many states.

The role of the bishop in cases of abuse

When it comes to the responsibility of bishops in abuse cases, Fr. Astigueta said that while expectations might have been murky in the past, they are clear now, and require the bishop to act immediately.

“When the bishop is informed, when he receives the news that an abuse has been committed, he has the obligation, a serious obligation, to intervene.”

A bishop must first intervene on a judicial level, alerting civil authorities, but also on the pastoral level, he said, explaining that the process looks different for every nation.

On a pastoral level, bishops must from the start turn their immediate attention to the victims “in order to welcome them and to help them understand that we are not against them and we are looking for the truth,” he said.

After the initial investigation has begun, the bishop may, but is not obliged to, apply a “precautionary measure,” which is a type of disciplinary measure enforced in order to avoid “the process from being polluted.”

Giving a theoretical example, Fr. Astigueta said a priest might try to pressure a victim into retracting their statement, so the bishop could decide to “distance” the priest from the process. This choice might also be made in situations where there is risk of a serious scandal, he said.

Once a priest is found guilty, the bishop will have to carry out the sentence, and it may even be the bishop himself to enforce the decree of dismissal from the clerical state with the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Astigueta explained.

Victims must be helped to live a “process of reconciliation, of accompaniment” and one in which they are made to feel that “they are part of the Church,” he said, but stressed that this is at a pastoral level, which must always remain separate from the judicial level.

Fr. Astigueta also spoke on cases of negligence on the part of a bishop, which Pope Francis in his 2016 motu proprio Come una madre amorevole established as grounds for removal from office.

The canon behind the rule (c. 1389 §2), the priest said, states that “A person who through culpable negligence illegitimately places or omits an act of ecclesiastical power, ministry, or function with harm to another is to be punished with a just penalty.”

The issue is also dealt with in a canon (c. 193 §1) which speaks of removal from office “for grave causes.” Removal from office, he explained, is “the act through which a person loses a series of rights which are part of an office.”

“So this person who was the bishop had rights and duties regarding the community. As he has not fulfilled them, this office is removed,” Fr. Astigueta said.

Removal in this sense can either be for disciplinary or penal reasons, Fr. Astigueta said, explaining that in the case of penal removal for negligence, the bishop is dismissed because “he didn’t act as he should have.”

While in the past bishops moved abusive priests around in part because they didn’t understand the severity of the problem, “today no one can say that they don’t know what abuse is and the magnitude of the problem.”

In cases of abuse, then, “it’s already so severe that there is no need for another cause, negligence is enough.” Part of this negligence, Fr. Astigueta explained, could be moving priests, not acting immediately, or letting time pass until more accusations arise: “Here we would have a case of negligence.”

Another instance, he said, would be failing to take precautionary measures against a priest accused of abuse, and it is later discovered that the priest had committed other abuses during that time. Other reasons for removal of office due to negligence could be that the bishop didn’t follow the protocol requested by the state.

He noted that there are a variety of situations, but “the Pope wanted to say that this negligence in itself so important because the damage to the other produced due to negligence, which is almost – even if it can’t be said in a clear way – an act of complicity due to negligence.”

Stronger punishment isn’t always the best way to prevent abuse

No matter the situation of the priest or the bishop, Fr. Astigueta stressed the importance of pursuing the just punishment given the particular situation, and warned against the temptation to immediately impose the maximum punishment – dismissal from the clerical state – on all cases.

To do so, he said, “would be an injustice, it would be a type of witch hunt, and this produces fugitives. If everyone is punished with the maximum, with this you resolve nothing.”

It’s a fact, he said, that all states which have attempted to toughen the penalties in order to prevent further crimes “have failed to do so.”

The only thing that actually makes the crimes diminish, he said, are preventative measures and “the consciousness of the people, the intervention of the people,” specifically through education.

“If the people within the Church were all to work so that there were a healthy environment, not one of suspicion, but healthy and prudent,” these delinquent act would diminish. “Not because the maximum penalty is applied.”

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Holy Father’s message to members of the International Association of Charities

The Holy See Press Office • March 15, 2017

Vatican City — The following is the full text of the Holy Father’s Message to the International Association of Charities (Association Internationale des Charités, AIC)

In this year 2017, you celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first Brotherhoods of Charity, founded by Saint Vincent de Paul in Châtillon. It is with joy that I join with you spiritually in celebrating this anniversary, and I convey my best wishes that this beautiful initiative continue its mission of bringing authentic witness of God’s mercy to the poorest. May this anniversary be an occasion for you to give thanks to God for His gifts and to open yourselves to His surprises, to discern, through the breath of the Holy Spirit, new ways to render the service of charity ever more fruitful.

The Charities were born of the tenderness and compassion in the heart of Mr. Vincent for the poor, often marginalized or abandoned in the countryside and in the towns. His work for and with them was intended to reflect God’s goodness towards His creatures. He saw the poor as representatives of Jesus Christ, as the members of His suffering body; he grasped that the poor, too, were called to build up the Church and in turn to convert us.

In the wake of Vincent de Paul, who entrusted the care of these poor people to the laity, and especially to women, your Association aims to promote the development of the most disadvantaged, and to alleviate the moral, physical, moral, material and spiritual suffering. And it is in God’s Providence that the basis of this commitment is found. What is Providence, if not the love of God Who acts in the world and asks for our cooperation? Today too I would like to encourage you to accompany the person fully, paying special attention to the precarious living conditions of many women and children. The life of faith, the life united with Christ, enables us to perceive the reality of the person, his incomparable dignity, not primarily as limited to material goods, to social, economic and political issues, but rather as a being created in the image and semblance of God, like a brother or sister, our neighbor for whom we are responsible. In order to “see” poverty and to approach it, it is not enough to follow great ideas but rather to live from the mystery of the Incarnation, this mystery so dear to Saint Vincent de Paul, the mystery of this God Who lowered Himself by becoming man, Who lived among us and died to elevate man and to save him. These are not simply fine words, but rather the very being and action of God. It is the reality we are called to live as a Church. This is why human development, the authentic liberation of man, does not exist without the proclamation of the Gospel “for the most sublime aspect of human dignity les in this vocation of man to communicate with God.”

In the Bull for the opening of the Jubilee Year, I expressed my hope that “the year to come will be steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God!” (5). I invite you to follow this path. The credibility of the Church pursues the way of merciful love and compassion that is open to hope. This credibility also depends upon your personal witness: it is not merely a question of encountering Christ in the poor, but also of the poor perceiving Christ in you and in your action. By being rooted in the Christ’s personal experience you can contribute to a “culture of mercy” that profoundly renews hearts and opens them up to a new reality.

Finally, I would like to invite you to contemplate the charism of Saint Louise de Marillac, to whom Monsieur Vincent entrusted the inspiration and coordination of the Charities, and to find in her the finesse and gentleness of mercy that never hurts or humiliates anyone, but instead raises up, restoring courage and hope.

By entrusting you to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and to the protection of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac, I impart to you my Apostolic Blessing and ask you to pray for me.

From the Vatican on February 22, 2017.

Francis

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

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General Audience: Rejoice in hope

The Holy See Press Office • March 15, 2017

Vatican City — This morning’s General Audience took place at 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and all over the world.

In his address in Italian the Pope, resuming his cycle of catechesis on Christian hope, focused on the theme “Rejoice in hope” (cf. Romans 12:9-13). After summarizing his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the groups of faithful present.

The General Audience concluded with the recital of the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostolic Blessing.

Holy Father’s catechesis

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

We are well aware that the great commandment that the Lord Jesus gave us is to love: to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Matthew 22:37-39); that is, we are called to love and to charity. And this is our highest vocation, our quintessential vocation; and it is linked to the joy of Christian hope. He who loves has the joy of hope, of reaching the great love that is the Lord.

The Apostle Paul, in the passage from the Letter to the Romans that we have just heard, warns us against the risk that our charity may be hypocritical, that our love may be hypocritical. We must ask ourselves, then: when does this hypocrisy happen? And how can we be sure that our love is sincere, that our charity is authentic? That we do not give false charity, that our love is not a soap opera: [that it is] sincere and strong love …

Hypocrisy can penetrate anywhere, even in our way of loving. This happens when our love is driven by personal interests; and how much self-seeking love there is; when our charitable service, to which it seems we are committed, is performed to display ourselves, or for our own satisfaction: “But how good I am!” – No, this is hypocrisy! Or when we aim at things which have “visibility” to make a show of our intelligence or our capability. Behind all this there is a false, deceptive idea; that is, if we love, it is because we are good; as if charity were a creation of man, a product of our heart. Charity, instead, is first and foremost a grace, a gift; being able to love is a gift of God, and we must ask for it. And He gives this gladly, if we ask for it. Charity is a grace: it does not consist of making visible what we are, but that which the Lord gives us and that we freely receive, and cannot be expressed in the encounter with others if it is not first generated by the encounter with the gentle and merciful face of Jesus.

Paul invites us to acknowledge that we are sinners, and that our way of loving is also marked by sin. At the same time, though, it is the bearer of a new proclamation, a proclamation of hope; the Lord opens before us a way of liberation, a way of salvation. It is also the possibility of living the great commandment of love, of becoming instruments of God’s charity. And this happens when we let our heart be healed and renewed by the risen Christ. The risen Lord Who lives in our midst, Who lives with us is capable of healing our heart: He does this if We ask Him to. It is He Who permits us, even in our smallness and poverty, to experience the compassion of the Father and to celebrate the wonders of His love. And thus one understands that all that we can live and do for our brothers is none other than the response to what God has done and continues to do for us. Indeed, it is God Himself Who, dwelling in our heart and in our life, continues to draw close to and to serve all those we meet every day of our journey, starting from the least and those most in need, in whom He first identifies.

The Apostle Paul, with these words, does not therefore wish to rebuke us, but rather to encourage us and to revive hope in us. Indeed, we all have the experience of not living the commandment of love fully or as we should. But this too is a grace, as it enables us to understand that by ourselves we are not capable of loving truly: we need the Lord to continually renew in us this gift in our heart, through the experience of His infinite mercy. And only then will we again appreciate small things, simple, ordinary things; only then will we be able to appreciate all these little everyday things and be able to love others as God loves them, wishing them well, that is, that they may be holy, friends of God; and we will be content to have the opportunity to be close to the poor and humble, as Jesus did with each of us when we were distant from Him; of kneeling at the feet of our brothers as He, the Good Samaritan, does with each of us, with His compassion and His forgiveness.

Dear brothers, what the Apostle Paul reminds us of is the secret of, and I use his words, the secret of being able “rejoice in hope” (Romans 12:12): rejoice in hope. The joy of hope, so that we know that in every circumstance, even the most adverse, and even amid our own shortcomings, that God’s love is never lacking. And so, with our heart visited and inhabited by His grace and His faithfulness, let us live in the joyful hope of exchanging with our brothers, for what little we can, the much we receive every day from Him. Thank you.

Greetings in various languages: English

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from England, Sweden, Canada and the United States of America. I offer a special welcome to the many student groups present. With prayerful good wishes that this Lent will be a time of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

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What Pope Francis did when guards tried to stop these Chinese pilgrims

CNA/EWTN News • March 15, 2017

Pope Francis at the General Audience with pilgrims from China in St. Peter’s Square on March 15, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Pope Francis greeted and blessed a group of pilgrims from China who broke protocol and approached him during the Wednesday general audience.

The group of faithful, some of whom approached the Holy Father on their knees, held Chinese flags and amid sobs, asked for him to bless a statue of Our Lady of Fatima they had carried into Saint Peter’s Square.

At first, some Swiss Guards tried to prevent the pilgrims from approaching the pontiff, but Francis quickly stopped them and shared a few moments with the pilgrims.

Among the pilgrims there were some children whom the Pope spent a few minutes with.

China only allows Catholic worship services for the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party, and rejects the authority of the Vatican to appoint bishops or to govern them.

The Catholic Church faithful to the Pope is not completely clandestine, although it faces constant opposition.

Diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican were broken in 1951, two years after the communists came to power and expelled foreign clerics.

For some years the Holy See has been working on an accord for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with China, a rapprochement encouraged by Pope Francis.

In August 2014, while he was on his way to South Korea, the Holy Father sent a telegram to the President of China to express his best wishes when his plane was over Chinese airspace.

The fact that the Pope had received permission to fly over Chinese airspace was considered a small step forward. Pope John Paul II had to avoid the airspace of this country during his trips to Asia.

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Pope Francis: It’s a grave sin to lay people off carelessly

CNA/EWTN News • March 15, 2017

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 22, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — Business is obliged to protect peoples’ dignity – and those who lay off employees solely for economic gain commit a serious sin, Pope Francis told employees of a TV platform in Italy.

“He who shuts factories and closes companies as a result of economic operations and unclear negotiations, depriving men and women from work, commits a very grave sin,” the Pope said in reference to Sky Italy’s recent cutbacks.

Sky Italy is a platform for digital satellite television. Partly owned by 21st Century Fox, they are also a major broadcaster for sports. Sky has recently announced plans to downsize and move 300 employees to Milan from Rome.

The Pope emphasized the dignity work gives to men and women and lamented employers who do not keep their responsibility to access to this dignity.

“Work gives dignity, and managers are obliged to do all possible so that every man and woman can work and so carry their heads high and look others in the eye with dignity.”

Pope Francis has spoken on the accountability of a business to its workers before. Addressing the Italian Christian Union of Business Executives in 2015, he encouraged the estimated 7,000 gathered at the Vatican to look at ethics as a necessity for economics and business.

“You are called to cooperate in order to grow an entrepreneurial spirit of subsidiarity, to deal with the ethical challenges of the market and, above all the challenge of creating good employment opportunities.”

The Pope ended his speech with hope for a quick resolution that “takes into account the respect for the rights of all, especially for families.”

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Pope Francis and Lebanese president talk Syrian war

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • March 16, 2017

Francis with President of Lebanon Michel Aoun in Vatican City on March 16, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — With the 6th anniversary of the start of the Syrian war as backdrop this week, Pope Francis met Thursday morning with the President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun.

Their discussion centered on the large number of Syrian refugees now in Lebanon and the efforts to find a solution to the conflict.

According to a March 16 statement by the Vatican, in the 20-minute meeting, the Pope and President Aoun discussed Syria “with special attention to international efforts to find a political solution to the conflict.”

The Pope expressed appreciation for the many Syrian refugees Lebanon has welcomed during the years of the Civil War. The two leaders also exchanged views on the greater regional context and other ongoing conflicts, particularly the situation for Christians in the Middle East.

Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. Before President Aoun, 82, was elected on Oct. 31, 2016, the Lebanese parliament was under a 29-month deadlock to choose the next president.

During the audience, Pope Francis and Aoun both expressed satisfaction at the efforts of the various political parties to put an end to the long presidential vacancy.

The encounter also “focused on the good bilateral relations between the Holy See and Lebanon, underlining the historic and institutional role of the Church in the life of the country,” the Vatican statement read.

The two emphasized, the statement continued, “the hope for an increasingly fruitful future collaboration between the members of diverse ethnic and religious communities in favor of the common good and the development of the nation.”

At the visit, President Aoun gifted the Pope a statue of the Infant Child of Prague with emblems of the Holy See and of Lebanon and Francis gave Aoun a bronze sculpture of olive branches as a sign of peace, as well as three books: Evangelii Gaudium in French, and Amoris Laetitia and Laudato Si in Arabic.

Since the start of the civil war on March 15, 2011, 400,000 people have died in the conflict between government forces and rebel groups, and over 11 million have been displaced from their homes, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Five million registered refugees have fled the country, at least 2.2 million of these residing in Lebanon and 1 million in Jordan. This has placed considerable strain on the countries, which previously had populations of just 4 million and 6 million, respectively.

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Health care for all isn’t optional, Vatican tells U.N.

CNA/EWTN News • March 16, 2017

A woman receives a tetanus vaccine at the Pissa health center in Central African Republic on January 2008. (Pierre Holtz for UNICEF/HDPTCAR)

Geneva, Switzerland — Health care access is a human right, not just a matter of philanthropy, the Holy See told the United Nations last Friday.

“All our efforts must be directed to ensure human dignity, quality of health and life and to the building of a better world for the generations to come,” said Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, the Holy See’s permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva.

The archbishop spoke to the 34th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 10, under general debate on access to medicines.

Archbishop Jurkovic said health is a fundamental human right that is “essential for the exercise of many other rights” and “necessary for living a life in dignity.”

“Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and of human labor is not mere philanthropy,” he added. “This is a moral obligation.”

He praised efforts to implement sustainable development goals related to medicine. These include support for research and development of vaccines and medicine for diseases that primarily affect developing countries, and support for affordable essential medicines and vaccines.

The archbishop voiced the Holy See’s appreciation for international agreements that provide legal pathways for affordable medicine and that help the most vulnerable meet their needs. He noted the need for treatments for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other epidemics.

“Access to affordable medicines no longer represents a challenge only for the least developed and other developing countries; it has also become an increasingly urgent issue for higher-income countries as well,” he said.

There are problems like antibiotic resistance worldwide and a lack of new medicines in developing countries in the face of budget constraints on health programs, the archbishop noted.

Archbishop Jurkovic said the Catholic Church makes a “major contribution” to health care around the world through local Churches, religious institutions, and private initiatives. These Catholic institutions run over 5,100 hospitals, 16,500 dispensaries, 600 leprosy homes, and 15,600 homes for the elderly, the chronically ill or disabled.

Citing firsthand information from these institutions in the most isolated and poorest parts of the world, the archbishop said that rights to health care are “far from being realized.”

“In order to promote human dignity and to adopt policies rooted in a human rights approach, we need to confront and remove barriers, such as monopolies and oligopolies, lack of access and affordability and, in particular, both overwhelming and unacceptable human greed,” he continued.

“If we fully intend to build a better world and future for the generations that will come after us, we must remedy and correct the misalignments and policy incoherence between the intellectual property rights of inventors, innovators or manufacturers and the human rights of human persons.”

“Pope Francis decries the selfishness and short-term thinking that sabotage progress on saving the environment, on peace building, and on public health crises as well,” Archbishop Jurkovic said. “He insists on dialogue ‘as the only way to confront the problems of our world and to seek solutions that are truly effective.’”

Authentic dialogue cannot allow the individual interests of countries or specific interest groups to dominate discussions, he told the United Nations.

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Here’s what Pope Francis is doing for Holy Week

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2017

Pope Francis holds a penitential liturgy at St. Peter’s Basilica on March 4, 2016. (Alexey Gotovskyi/CNA)

Vatican City — With Easter only a month away, plans have already been set in the Vatican for the celebrations surrounding the big day, and the lead-up to Holy Week will be filled with several papal daytrips, Masses, and liturgies.

The Pope began Lent with his March 5-10 spiritual exercises alongside members of the Curia in Ariccia, a small town just outside of Rome.

Next on the schedule is a March 17 penitential service in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which several individuals will go to confession with the Pope as part of his annual “24 Hours for the Lord” event, which this year takes place the third Friday and Saturday of Lent.

A worldwide initiative led by Pope Francis, the event was launched in 2014 under the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization and points to confession as the primary way to experience God’s mercy.

On March 25, the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, Francis will make a daylong pastoral visit to Milan, where he is scheduled to say Mass, meet with youth who recently received Confirmation, and visit the city’s cathedral and a prison.

After his visit to Milan, the Pope will start the month of April by making another daylong visit to the northern Italian town of Carpi, during which he will commemorate the nearly 20 people who died when an earthquake struck the region in 2012.

One week later Pope Francis will say Mass for Palm Sunday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square April 9, during which he will process with palms from the obelisk in the middle of the square to the main altar, as is tradition.

During the Mass, the World Youth Day Cross will be handed over from Poland to Panama, signaling the location of the next international encounter in 2019. As is customary, the Pope will also deliver his message for WYD at a local level, which this year holds the theme “The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name,” taken from Lk 1:49.

On April 13, Pope Francis will offer the Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at 9:30 a.m., which will be concelebrated with the cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and priests present in Rome.

Then in the afternoon he will say the Mass of the Lord’s Supper with the traditional washing of feet. The location of this year’s Holy Thursday liturgy has yet to be announced, but Francis has typically chosen to hold it either in prisons or centers for the sick and disabled. Last year the celebration was held at a refugee welcoming center on the outskirts of Rome.

On Good Friday the Pope will preside over an afternoon liturgy commemorating the Lord’s Passion in St. Peter’s Basilica at 5 p.m., with the papal preacher Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap., delivering the homily, as usual.

Later that night he will make his way to the Colosseum to pray the Via Crucis with the faithful at 9:15 p.m., extending his blessing to all present. The name of person writing this year’s meditations has yet to be announced.

The following night, Holy Saturday, Francis will celebrate the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica at 8:30 p.m. In previous years he has baptized and confirmed several individuals during the celebration, and is expected to do so again this year.

On April 16, Easter Sunday, the Pope will hold a public Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m. Immediately after, he will give his special “urbi et orbi” blessing, “to the city and to the world.”

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Audience with participants in the Course on the Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary

The Holy See Press Office • March 17, 2017

Vatican City — At 11.30 this morning, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the participants in the 28th Annual Course on the Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary (Rome, Palazzo della Cancelleria, 14-17 March 2017).

The following is the full text of the Pope’s address to those present at the Audience.

Holy Father’s address

Dear brothers,

I am pleased to meet you in this first audience with you after the Jubilee of Mercy, on the occasion of the annual Course on the Internal Forum. I address warm greetings to the Cardinal Major Penitentiary, and thank him for his kind remarks. I greet the Regent, the Prelates, the Officials and the staff of the Penitentiary, the Colleges of the ordinary and extraordinary penitentiaries of the Papal Basilicas in Rome, and all of you, participants in this course.

In reality, I admit, this Penitentiary is the type of Tribunal I truly like! It is a “tribunal of mercy,” to which we turn to obtain that indispensable medicine that is divine mercy.

Your course on the internal forum, which contributes to the formation of good confessors, is more useful than ever, and I would say even necessary in our times. Certainly, one does not become a good confessor thanks to a course, no: that of the confessional is a long education, that lasts a lifetime. But who is a “good confessor?” How does one become a good confessor?

I would like to indicate, in this respect, three aspects.

1. The “good confessor” is, first of all, a true friend of Jesus the Good Shepherd. Without this friendship, it will be difficult to develop that fatherliness so necessary in the ministry of Reconciliation. Being friends of Jesus means first of all cultivating prayer: both personal prayer with the Lord, incessantly asking for the gift of pastoral charity, and the specific prayer for the exercise of the task of the confessor and for the faithful, brothers and sisters who come to us in search of God’s mercy.

A ministry of Reconciliation “bound in prayer” will be a credible response to God’s mercy, and will avoid the harshness and misunderstandings that at times can be generated even in the Sacramental encounter. A confessor who prays is well aware of being the first sinner and the first to be forgiven. One cannot forgive in the Sacrament without the awareness of having been forgiven first. Therefore, prayer is the first guarantee for avoiding harsh attitudes, pointlessly judging the sinner and not the sin.

In prayer it is necessary to implore the gift of a wounded heart, able to comprehend the wounds of others and to heal them with the oil of mercy, that which the good Samaritan poured on the wounds of the poor victim on whom no one took pity (cf. Luke, 10:34).

In prayer we must ask for the precious gift of humility, so that it may appear increasingly clear that forgiveness is a free and supernatural gift of God, of which we are simple, if necessary, administrators, by the very will of Jesus; and He will certainly be glad if we make extensive use of His mercy.

In prayer, then, let us always invoke the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of discernment and compassion. The Spirit enables us to empathize with the sufferings of our sisters and brothers who enter the confessional, and to accompany them with prudent and mature discernment and with true compassion in their sufferings, caused by the poverty of sin.

2. The good confessor is, in second place, a man of the Spirit, a man of discernment. How much harm is done to the Church by a lack of discernment! How much harm is done to souls by a way of acting that is not rooted in humbly listening to Holy Spirit and to God’s will. The confessor does not act according to his own will and does not teach his own doctrine. He is called always to do the will of God alone, in full communion with the Church, of whom he is the minister, that is, a servant.

Discernment allows us always to distinguish, rather than confuse, and to never “tar all with the same brush.” Discernment educates our outlook and our heart, enabling that delicacy of spirit that is so necessary before those who open up the shrine of their own conscience, to receive light, peace and mercy.

Discernment is necessary also because those who approach the confessional may come from the most desperate situations; they could also have spiritual disturbances, whose nature should be submitted to careful discernment, taking into account all the existential, ecclesial, natural and supernatural circumstances. When the confessor becomes aware of the presence of genuine spiritual disturbances – that may be in large part psychic, and therefore must be confirmed by means of healthy collaboration with the human sciences – he must not hesitate to refer the issue to those who, in the diocese, are charged with this delicate and necessary ministry, namely, exorcists. But these must be chosen with great care and great prudence.

3. Finally, the confessional is also a true place of evangelization. Indeed, there is no evangelization more authentic than the encounter with the God of mercy, with the God Who is Mercy. Encountering mercy means encountering the true face of God, just as the Lord Jesus revealed Him to us.

The confessional is therefore a place of evangelization and thus of formation. In the dialogue that is woven with the penitent – although brief – the confessor is called to discern what may be most useful or even necessary to the spiritual journey of that brother or sister; at times it becomes necessary to re-proclaim the most elementary truths of faith, the incandescent nucleus, the kerygma, without which the same experience of God’s love and His mercy would remain as if mute; at times it means indicating the foundations of moral life, always in relation to the truth, good and the will of God. It is a work of prompt and intelligent discernment, that can be of great benefit to the faithful.

The confessor, indeed, is called every day to venture to the “peripheries of evil and sin” – this is an ugly periphery! - and his work is a real pastoral priority. Confessing is a pastoral priority. Please, do not let there be those signs that say, “Confessions only on Monday and Wednesday at such-and-such a time.” One confesses whenever one is asked. And if you are there [in the confessional] praying, stay with the confessional open, which is the open heart of God.

Dear brothers, I bless you and I hope that you will be good confessors, immersed in the relationship with Christ, capable of discernment in the Holy Spirit and ready to seize the opportunity to evangelize.

Always pray for your brothers and sisters who seek the Sacrament of forgiveness. And please, pray for me too.

And I would not like to finish without something that came to mind when the Cardinal Prefect spoke. He spoke about keys, and about Our Lady, and I liked this, so I will tell you something … two things. It was very good for me when I was young to read the book of Saint Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori on Our Lady: “The Glories of Mary.” Always, at the end of each chapter, there was a miracle of the Madonna, who entered into life and sorted things out. And the second thing. On Our Lady there is a legend, a tradition that they told me exists in the South of Italy: Our Lady of the Mandarins. It is a land where there are many mandarins, isn’t it? And they say that she is the patroness of thieves [laughter]. They say that thieves go to pray there. And the legend – they say – is that the thieves who pray to Our Lady of the Mandarins, when they die, they form a line in front of Saint Peter who has the keys, and opens and lets one pass, then he lets another one pass; and the Madonna, when she sees one of these, makes a sign for them to hide. Then, once everyone has passed by, Peter closes up and comes during the night, and the Madonna calls him from the window, and lets him enter through the window. It is a folk tale but it is beautiful: forgiving with the Mother next to you, forgiving with the Mother. Because this woman, this man who comes to the confessional, has a Mother in Heaven who opens the door and will help them at that moment to enter Heaven. Always the Madonna, because the Madonna helps us too in showing mercy. I thank the Cardinal for these two signs: the keys, and Our Lady. Many thanks.

I invite you – it is time – to pray the Angelus together. “Angelus Domini …”

[Blessing]

Don’t say that thieves go to Heaven! Don’t say this! [laughter]

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis goes to confession

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2017

Pope Francis goes to confession during a penitential celebration at St. Peter’s Basilica on March 28, 2014. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — At the end of his annual Lenten penitential service on Friday, Pope Francis was the first to go to the sacrament of confession, afterward hearing the confessions of seven laypeople, three men and four women, in attendance.

Instead of giving a homily during the service, which he has done in years past, Pope Francis led people in a lengthy silence following the readings in order to reflect and pray prior to receiving the sacrament of confession.

Earlier on March 17, Francis spoke with participants of the Apostolic Penitentiary’s annual course on the internal forum about the importance of confessors being available to people and spiritually well-formed.

In his speech, the Pope said that to be a good confessor, a priest must be a man of prayer, a man who is attentive to the Holy Spirit and knows how to discern well, and who also is a good evangelizer.

Held in St. Peter’s Basilica, the penitential service usually takes place on the fourth Friday of Lent, in anticipation of the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative held yearly on the fourth Friday and Saturday of Lent.

This year, however, the Pope’s penitential service was moved to the week prior, March 17. In addition to going to confession and hearing the confessions of seven others, the service included prayers, songs and readings from Scripture.

Afterward, almost 100 priests and bishops were available to hear the confessions of those in attendance.

Led by Pope Francis, “24 Hours for the Lord” is a worldwide initiative which points to confession as a primary way to experience God’s merciful embrace. It was launched in 2014 under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

Taking place on Mar. 24-25, this year’s theme is “I Desire Mercy” (Mt. 9:13). The theme is taken from the verse in Matthew which says: “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Starting in the evening on March 24, churches throughout Rome will remain open for 24 hours to give pilgrims the opportunity to go to confession and take part in Eucharistic Adoration.

While parishes in Rome will be open overnight, churches elsewhere in the world are invited to participate as well, adapting the initiative to suit their local situations and needs.

Additional information on the “24 Hours for the Lord” can be found at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization’s website, novaevangelizatio.va.

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WORLD NEWS

What the world could learn from the witness of Egypt’s Christians

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 11, 2017

Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom. (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — Despite being victims of harassment and violence, Egypt’s Coptic Christians have set a standard of forgiveness that everyone should imitate, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the U.K. has said.

Egypt’s Christians have been loyal, peaceful, and forgiving amid a recent spate of violence that has driven hundreds from their homes, Bishop Anba Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the U.K., told CNA in an interview.

“I take a huge pride in their witness and in their example,” he said.

“And I think that really has given a substantial example for all of us to follow. If they can live with this grace and graciousness in that volatile setting, then in our day-to-day lives and in our day-to-day struggles, we should be able to do the same.”

In the last three months around 40 Egyptian Christians have been killed, including in a bombing of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo in December that killed 29.

Local Islamic State affiliates in Egypt’s Sinai region have been targeting Christians, intending to drive them out of the area. Attacks in al-Arish, a city in the Sinai region, have resulted in seven deaths, with hundreds of Christians leaving their homes.

Their needs are “provided for,” Bishop Angaelos said, from his conversations with local Coptic bishops, and the government is working to provide education for the children.

“Of course they want to go back,” he said of Sinai’s Christians. “No one ever wants to leave their home. Leaving one’s home is traumatic, and especially when this isn’t just leaving. They’ve left sometimes with the very bare necessities, to have left their whole lives behind.”

Yet, he added, “they won’t go back unless the problem has been resolved.” The perpetrators of the attacks are still in the region and could strike again.

Life in Egypt is not easy for its Coptic Christians, who trace their roots as a community to St. Mark, who first evangelized the area. Christians make up 15 percent of the Egypt’s population.

Yet in many ways, especially in the country’s rural areas, they are treated as second-class citizens as they are victims of discrimination or even violence, and their churches have been attacked. Yet the crimes have not been properly investigated and punished by local authorities.

Christians have seen “many positive things” in the national government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Bishop Angaelos noted, but “what we’re not seeing done is a robust system of law and order at the local level” where security forces can curtail criminal acts and then the local judiciary can hold the perpetrators accountable.

“Because otherwise what happens is an overwhelming sense of impunity, and a criminal confidence that continues escalating the violence and the attacks,” he said.

Yet the international community must also be aware of the importance of promoting peace in the country so Christians can remain in their homes, he insisted.

“The tragedy is that the number of Christians in the Middle East has dwindled,” Bishop Angaelos said, “because every other country where there was a significant Christian presence has been devastated by war or conflict and they have moved.”

He estimated Egypt’s Christian minority to make up around 80 percent of the overall Middle Eastern Christian population.

What can be done to help the embattled Coptic Christians?

“First and foremost prayer,” the bishop explained. However, advocacy is also vital in a time when ongoing conflicts can be supplanted in the news cycle by even more terrible and explosive tragedies.

“Just because it’s not the top item in your newsfeed doesn’t mean it’s [not] still happening,” he maintained.

It is important “to keep the issue alive and to keep it in peoples’ minds and in peoples’ hearts, and to keep people aware that it continues to be a struggle,” he said, “because they do feel very voiceless, and they sometimes feel very unsupported. And it’s up to us, I think, to make sure that they don’t feel that.”

The U.S. must also pressure Egypt to ensure that Christians enjoy equal rights as the rest of the citizenry, he said.

International partners could accomplish a great deal of good through foreign investment and supporting tourism in the country, he explained. What is most needed is “not handouts,” he insisted, “but an investment in the country and in the people of the country.”

“This isn’t just about governments. This is about individuals feeling vulnerable economically, and so therefore the weaker elements also become vulnerable to radicalization,” he said.

The poor and the unemployed are more vulnerable to radicalization, he explained. “And we find that it is poor, unassuming people who are manipulated into these situations and unable to push back enough, unable to withstand the pressure. And they become prey.”

“What we see in the Christian community, of course, is that they suffer. The Christian communities suffer because those who work in private industry or in tourist industry are suffering.”

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WORLD NEWS

The Church is the ‘only functioning institution’ in South Sudan

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 13, 2017

Children in South Sudan. (John Wollwerth via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — Amid war and famine in South Sudan, the Catholic Church is still serving the most vulnerable even as the government has collapsed.

The Church is the “only functioning institution in civil society,” Neil Corkery, president of the Sudan Relief Fund, told CNA in an interview, and “is really the only thing that’s left trying to help people” who live “in the remotest parts of the country.”

Famine was recently declared in parts of South Sudan, where there has been an ongoing civil war, interrupted by tenuous peace, since December 2013.

42 percent of the population, an estimated 4.5 million people, are facing “severe food insecurity,” Corkery said, and that number is expected to rise to half the country’s population – or 5.5 million – by July.

There have been 2.5 million refugees created by the conflict, he added. A confidential UN report warned that the conflict had reached “catastrophic proportions for civilians,” the South China Morning Post reported last month.

“This crisis is man-made, the direct consequence of a conflict prolonged by South Sudanese leaders who are unwilling to put aside political ambitions for the good of their people,” State Department acting spokesperson Mark C. Toner stated on February 21.

“We call on President Kiir to expeditiously make good on his promise that humanitarian and developmental organizations will have unimpeded access to populations in need across the country,” Toner added.

Recently, President Salva Kiir called for a day of prayer for the country ahead of a national dialogue. The auxiliary bishop of Juba, however, dismissed it as a “political prayer” and “a mockery” amid violence inflicted by government troops.

Because of the conflict and the “scorched earth” policies of government troops, many have been “unable to plant their crops,” Corkery said.

At a parish in the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, in the southwestern portion of the country and an area that is “very fertile” and was once a bread basket for the country, “these people are now in hiding, or taking refuge in the parish compound, and unable to plant crops,” he said. “Things are obviously just getting much worse.”

“It is a real crisis that’s coming down the pike,” Corkery warned.

The country’s bishops have spoken out against the violence there, accusing soldiers of committing war crimes and saying that the violence has interrupted the harvesting of crops.

“Despite our calls to all parties, factions, and individuals to STOP THE WAR, nevertheless killing, raping, looting, displacement, attacks on churches and destruction of property continue all across the country,” the bishops of South Sudan stated in a Feb. 23 pastoral message.

“Much of the violence,” they added, “is being perpetrated by government and opposition forces against civilians,” especially those of ethnicities deemed to be in alliance with rebel factions. And those victims “are prevented from harvesting their crops,” the bishops added.

Some members of the government have frustrated local peace deals brokered by the Church, the bishops said, and churches, priests, and nuns have been attacked.

The U.S. has sent “$2 billion since 2014 in humanitarian aid alone,” Corkery said, but the United Nations humanitarian workers only operate in “certain pockets” of the country.

Amid this crisis and growing famine, Catholic priests, nuns, and missionaries have been laboring to bring food and supplies to remote areas and are “reaching these people who are truly destitute and starving.”

It is not an easy task. Aside from the ongoing conflict where soldiers could seize food and supplies if they were aware they were being transported, the country’s logistical infrastructure is so poor there are no paved roads outside the capital city of Juba, Corkery noted. During the country’s rainy season, this problem is expanded.

“The real heroes that I see there,” Corkery said, are the “missionaries toiling away on the front lines.”

“These people are looking at the long-term solution in terms of the eternal scheme of things, people’s souls.”

Several aid workers with Samaritan’s Purse were detained or kidnapped by opposition fighters near Mayendit March 13.

South Sudan announced earlier this month it plans to charge $10,000 per visa for foreign aid workers.

“The government and the army have largely contributed to the humanitarian situation. And now, they want to create profit from the crisis they have created,” Elizabeth Deng, South Sudan researcher with Amnesty International, said in reaction to the announcement.

Despite the heroic efforts of missionaries, the Sudan Relief Fund, and other aid groups like Aid to the Church In Need and Samaritan’s Purse, a long-term peace is the only lasting solution to the country’s problems, Corkery insisted.

Prayer is the most important thing Catholics in the U.S. can do to help the situation, he said, as peace can only come about through “prayer and grace working in the hearts and the minds of these warring tribes and factions.”

However, citizens can also ask members of Congress to “push the U.S. government to put more pressure” on South Sudanese leaders. The U.S. has already begun listing “top leaders as war criminals” there, he said.

Pope Francis has spoken about the crisis in the country and has expressed his desire to visit there. No details of the trip have yet been released, Corkery said.

“The Pope and the Church,” he said, “are the only people that have the ability to convene, bring the parties together” for a peaceful solution. Pope Francis will try to “refocus the international community on the gravity of this crisis that’s there” and “convene the warring parties to try to bring them to the table to get some peace.”

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WORLD NEWS

Ecuadorians struck by earthquake plead: ‘Don’t forget us’

by Mónica Zorita (Aid to the Church in Need) • March 15, 2017

A church damaged in Ecuador’s April 2016 earthquake. (Aid to the Church in Need)

Portoviejo, Ecuador — Almost one year has passed since a devastating earthquake struck Ecuador on April 16, 2016: more than 660 died and many thousands lost their homes and livelihoods.

Grave suffering persists, as countless people remain homeless or have been living in bamboo huts and pre-fabricated containers that were only supposed be a very temporary solution.

“About 1,500 to 2,000 people are suffering from these circumstances,” said Father Walter Coronel, who oversees the rebuilding projects for the Archdiocese of Portoviejo, which was hard hit.

“Most of them live in very poor rural areas, where conditions were already difficult before the earthquake. Now things are even worse. It is absolutely impossible for them to manage without outside help,” the priest told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Full recovery will take a long-time, even as aid has been pouring in for the past year. Fr. Coronel remains anxious about the current situation: “A lot still needs to be done. Please do not forget us. We need more help.”

He explained that 52 churches in the Portoviejo archdiocese in Manabí Province were affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake. “Most of them were completely destroyed. Only 25 are being rebuilt. There isn’t enough money for the other churches.”

On the bright side, the reconstruction and repair of churches and church-related facilities are creating employment opportunities.

Fr. Coronel reported that many people are approaching priests on the street, telling them: “We must not remain without a church.”

“Many of them may not even have a roof over their heads, but they want to have their church,” the priest said, adding that “in Ecuador, churches are our social identity, our outward expression.”

“At the moment, Holy Mass is being held on the street; if we are lucky, in tents. Services often have to be interrupted due to heavy rains or because of the winds typical for this region on the Ecuadorian coast. Several weeks ago, there was heavy flooding in the areas that had been hit by the earthquake,” he continued.

ACN is currently carrying out various co-funded projects to rebuild parish structures in Ecuador. Fr. Coronel confirmed that such aid is crucial for enabling the Church to continue its work of evangelization and providing pastoral care.

He said that “it is very difficult to receive support for this purpose from other sources.”

Last year, ACN spent some $1.2m in projects in Ecuador, more than half of which was spent on reconstruction efforts in the wake of the earthquake.

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WORLD NEWS

Among horror stories from Syria, a woman’s unborn baby was cut in half

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 15, 2017

(PhotoUnit via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Aleppo, Syria — Warning: The following article contains graphic depictions of violence that readers may find disturbing.

As the Syrian Civil War begins its seventh year, Syrian doctors told members of Congress of the “unspeakable horrors” they have witnessed while serving patients in Aleppo.

“In the month leading up to our displacement, I can only describe the events as hell,” said Dr. Farida, an OB/GYN who formerly worked in Aleppo.

Speaking to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, she explained that her hospital “treated many women with severe injuries.” One pregnant woman survived, with the medical efforts of the staff, but shrapnel in her body from an explosion cut her unborn baby in half.

Many other women died because they were not able to make the trip to the hospital due to “the lack of ambulances and fuel,” she continued, and they “bled to death in their home, along with their unborn children.”

Three doctors from the Syrian American Medical Society testified before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday about the human toll of Syria’s Civil War which began on March 15, 2011. Two of them wore breathing masks and withheld their full names to avoid any hostile detection.

In six years, 400,000 have died in the conflict between government forces and rebel groups, and over 11 million have been displaced from their homes, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Five million registered refugees have fled the country and 6.6 million displaced are still residing within Syria.

Also, “at least 13.5 million are in dire need of humanitarian assistance,” USCIRF noted.

“The al-Assad regime continues to indiscriminately target and forcibly displace Sunni Muslims. In 2016 alone, the Syrian government forcibly displaced 125,000 Sunni Arab civilians from the Damascus suburbs, as well as another 250,000 from Eastern Aleppo,” they stated, adding that the regime was reportedly “repopulating” those areas with Shi’a Muslims “and government sympathizers.”

“In addition, the regime since 2011 has detained or killed prominent Christian civil rights activists, humanitarian workers, and religious leaders,” USCIRF added.

Meanwhile, forces of the Islamic State in the country have waged war against almost all religious minorities, and the U.S. declared last March that ISIS was committing genocide in Syria and Iraq against Christians, Yazidis, and Shi’a Muslims.

Many rebel groups, some affiliates of terror groups, have entered the conflict, as well as regional powers waging a proxy war within the country.

The doctors told of how, despite their efforts to move hospitals underground to avoid destruction, pro-government forces waged a total war on health care in Aleppo, from dropping bunker-busting bombs to using chemical attacks to force patients and medical staff to flee. Two doctors alleged that the scale of the attacks on hospitals escalated when Russia involved itself in the conflict.

“Throughout the last six years, I have witnessed unspeakable horrors,” Dr. Farida said. The “hospital was the most dangerous place in Aleppo.” With the danger continuing to rise, she left Aleppo, with her husband and eight year-old daughter, in December.

Other doctors echoed her testimony of the lack of medical supplies and transport due to the conflict. Besieged cities like Aleppo and Homs have not been able to receive the humanitarian aid patients so desperately need, and airstrikes on hospitals destroy the only access they may have to life-saving health care.

Dr. Abdulkhalek, another doctor who testified at the hearing, pleaded with the senators. “Do not let these acts continue,” he implored. “Do not let more innocent civilians suffer. Do not forgot the human toll of this war, the refugees, the education gap.”

“The UN system is clearly broken, as it has no means to enforce its mandates and hold perpetrators accountable for these crimes,” Dr. Abdulkhalek said in his testimony. He told of how he had to negotiate an evacuation plan for hospital patients with the UN and the World Health Organization, but “as the regime and its allies began to take more territory, the cooperation disappeared” and the “evacuation never occurred.”

“We need sustained humanitarian access,” he insisted.

In the Syrian city of Homs, he said, medical supplies including blood and serum bags and antibiotics couldn’t reach the people from the outside amidst the three year-long siege, and in the last six months there has been a “complete lack of movement for all materials and medications.”

In another city besieged by pro-government forces, Dr. Abdulkhalek said, over 30 patients needed kidney dialysis medication. After the supply evaporated, “we pleaded with the UN to deliver the life-saving medication,” he said. It came – but not by a UN convoy – only after three patients died.

Hospitals were bombed with no regard to the vulnerable civilians that lay within. There have been three hospitals bombed in the last two weeks, Dr. Farida said.

While she worked at the hospital in Aleppo, she was in the middle of performing a caesarian section when a bombing collapsed the ceiling. She had to stay in the dangerous situation to clean debris from the collapse “out of the patient’s abdominal cavity,” she said.

Amidst all the violence, her eight year-old daughter once fled into the room where she was performing an operation, crying and unable to breathe.

“How I’m supposed to explain all of this to an eight year old who has known nothing about violence, killing, and destruction? How am I supposed to protect her?” she asked. “This broke my heart. That feeling of powerlessness to protect my child has broken me to this day.”

Dr. Abdulkhalek described how the hospital he was working in was the target of a chlorine bomb “after repeated attempts” by regime forces and their allies to drop barrel bombs on it.

Staff were able to save the lives of three men suffocating from gas where they were hiding, but many others died in the attack, he said.

After that, “many hospital staff had to leave, fearing for their lives,” he said. A second chlorine bomb hit the hospital later, claiming many child victims. There was “only one unit of oxygen” available, he said, and the oxygen mask had to be passed around to the children present one at a time.

When asked if there was “more frequent targeting of your hospitals when Russia got involved” in the Syrian conflict, Dr. Abdulkhalek replied “Yes.”

“They are locating the hospital position,” he said, and they “start targeting it many times” until civilians flee.

There were reportedly 600,000 people in Syria living under siege last year, and in February the UN warned of a “looming humanitarian catastrophe” in four besieged towns that had not been reached by a UN convoy since November.

The perpetrators of these atrocities must be held accountable, the doctors and human rights advocates insisted.

USCIRF on Thursday called for the U.S. to push for the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes committed by the Assad regime and by ISIS in Syria.

“An entire generation has been lost. The world failed Aleppo,” Dr. Abdulkhalek concluded his testimony, begging the international community not to leave other Syrians to the same fate.

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WORLD NEWS

Nigeria’s bishops call on government to defend human rights

CNA/EWTN News • March 16, 2017

(Andrei Tudoran via Shutterstock)

Abuja, Nigeria — At a recent meeting, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gave a bleak summary of the state of their country, lamenting humanitarian crises including violence at the hands of Boko Haram and other extremist groups, poverty, government corruption, and a lack of respect for human rights or dignity.

“Since the end of Nigeria’s tragic civil war, at no other time in the history of our dear country has the issue of our common citizenship been subjected to more strain,” the bishops said in a statement at the conclusion of their plenary assembly, held in Abuja March 4-10.

“We have found the outright disdain for the sanctity of human life totally at variance with both our cultural traditional norms and our religious sensibilities. Life has never looked so cheap,” they said.

While Nigeria’s civil war ended in 1970, the country has recently undergone a period of extreme violence and instability, with the rise of Boko Haram and other Islamist terrorist groups.

Since 2009, changing government relations and radicalization within Boko Haram have resulted in a dramatic increase in violent attacks against civilian targets, including the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok. In 2015, the Global Terrorism Index named Boko Haram the world’s deadliest terrorist organization, greater than the Islamic State.

A 2016 report from the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative said Nigeria was a ticking time bomb of violence and ethnic tensions that could tear the country apart.

The country’s bishops decried the ethnic divides that are tearing the country apart, and warned about the dangers of raising a generation of young people who are continually witnessing violence.

“… more and more of our young children are losing their innocence as they watch their parents being randomly slaughtered and their properties vandalized,” the bishops said.

They also called on the government to work to improve the economy, and lamented that many recent graduates are unable to find jobs, making them more likely to end up on the streets or to be recruited or trafficked by extremist groups.

“Today, we are losing our children to the streets, to gangs and drugs. As long as these young people roam the streets with so much despondency, so long will they remain exposed and perhaps recruited to join such evil groups like kidnappers, drug and human trafficking gangs or Boko Haram. Our nation must reverse this ugly trend in our society,” they said.

While the recent violence erupted under Boko Haram, the bishops also noted the 2015 Zaria massacre, during which the Nigerian army killed hundreds of Shia Muslims, as well as the killings in Southern Kaduna and the victims of the Fulani herdsmen, who since September 2016 have burned 53 villages, murdered more than 800 people, and destroyed more than 1,400 houses and 16 churches.

Christians and moderate Muslims living in the northern part of the country have been especially vulnerable to terrorist attacks at the hands of Islamist extremists.

The bishops thanked the current government administration for their efforts in stopping the terrorism and for helping the victims, including recovering some of the Chibok girls, but they also urged the government to speed up the resettlement process for those fleeing the violence.

They also called on the government to “put into effect its unfulfilled commitments such as ending poverty, feeding the nation, and providing accessible education,” and to uphold and reinforce the rights of religious freedom for everyone in the country.

In conclusion, the Nigerian bishops offered their prayers for President Muhammadu Buhari, who recently was on an extended sick leave, raising political and economic tensions in the country. They also offered their prayers that Nigeria would put its vast resources at the service of all of its people.

“The equitable distribution of our resources for the common good must be the definite goal of those who hold this trust. This will help to restore our dignity as human beings and our integrity as a nation and our loyalty as citizens. God bless Nigeria.”

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WORLD NEWS

South Sudan bishop says nation’s prayers must provoke change

CNA/EWTN News • March 16, 2017

(UNAMID via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Juba, South Sudan — Amid war, displacement and hunger, South Sudan’s day of prayer must lead to true repentance, a leading Catholic bishop has said.

“Our call to prayer must be sincere and honest!” Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro of Tombura-Yambio emphasized. “For this prayer to become historical and meaningful for us today we must repent and sin no more!”

Bishop Hiiboro, president of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, spoke in Yamibo on the March 10 day of prayer.

The country has been embroiled in civil war since December 2013, when South Sudan’s President Salva 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.

The conflict has created 2.5 million refugees. At present an estimated 4.5 million people face severe food insecurity, a number expected to rise one million by July.

President Kiir had called for the day of prayer. A three-day national dialogue on the country’s future began March 15.

Bishop Hiiboro said the whole country will be watching the president closely to see whether his attitude will trend towards peace.

The country’s people should also watch themselves, the bishop said: “All of us who have prayed today will also be watched whether we renounce our sinfulness of hate, violence, tribal difference, for love of South Sudan and peace.”

Bishop Hiiboro said South Sudan must commit itself to God every year as a way to unite the country.

“Continual prayers help us in stepping forward to embrace the su ffering of our country, through unified, concrete action animated by the love of Christ, to nurture peace and build bridges of communication and mutual aid in our own communities throughout South Sudan,” he said.

He encouraged efforts to explore other ways to nurture open dialogue on issues of ethnic relations, justice, forgiveness, poverty, cultural power, mental health, economic opportunity and a “pervasive culture of violence.”

“The suffering is not somewhere else, or someone else’s. It is our own, in our very homes,” the bishop said.

After the day of prayer, people should walk like penitent sinners. They should stop their hateful and vengeful attitudes and free prisoners. They should reach out to refugees and the South Sudan diaspora in other countries and create a ground for all South Sudanese to dialogue, he said.

The president’s call for a day of prayer had drawn some criticism.

Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale, Auxiliary Bishop of the national capital Juba, characterized it as “a political prayer” and “a mockery.”

“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 told Voice of America, according to the Sudan Tribune.

He charged that the government army has displaced many people from their ancestral homes. The bishop said that President Kiir, who is Catholic, does not even go to church anymore.

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U.S. NEWS

Divorce numbers rise among older Americans, fall among younger couples

CNA/EWTN News • March 10, 2017

(George Hodan CC0 1.0)

Washington D.C. — The divorce rate has doubled for Americans over age 50, and tripled among Americans over 65, a new survey shows.

“At a time when divorce is becoming less common for younger adults, so-called ‘gray divorce’ is on the rise,” the Pew Research Center said.

In 2015, the divorce rate among married persons over 50 was 10 in 1,000, an increase from 5 in 1,000 in 1990. Among those 65 and older, the divorce rate has tripled to 6 per 1,000.

Pew said the divorced rate among those 50 and older is partly linked to the aging of the Baby Boomer generation, the age cohort 51-69 in 2015. As young adults, this generation had unprecedented levels of divorce. Remarriages tend to be less stable than first marriages, with the divorced-and-remarried having twice the divorce rate as those married once. Among the divorces of adults age 50 and older, 48 percent were in a second or later marriage.

The risk of divorce is also higher among those who have been married for a shorter time.

At the same time, Pew said a “significant share” of divorces are among those 50 and older. About 34 percent of those divorcing after 50 years old had been married for at least 30 years, and 12 percent were married for over 40 years. Many of these divorcees cited dissatisfaction in their marriages and a desire to seek opportunities to pursue their own interest and independence late in life.

These older divorcees, especially women, face more financial insecurity than married and widowed adults.

As for younger age cohorts, the divorce rate slightly increased among married adults age 40-49.

Divorce rates have dropped 21 percent among those aged 25-39, from 30 in 1,000 to 24 in 1,000 from 1990 to 2015. According to Pew, this decline is in part attributed to younger generations’ delay in marrying. It is also attributed to the phenomenon of the college-educated being more likely to marry and also being less likely to divorce.

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U.S. NEWS

U.S. congratulates Pope Francis on his 4th anniversary

CNA/EWTN News • March 13, 2017

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 28, 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — On Monday, the anniversary of Pope Francis being elevated to the papacy, the United States offered its congratulations and wishes for collaboration in the future.

“On behalf of President Trump and the people of the United States, I offer my congratulations to His Holiness Pope Francis on the fourth anniversary of his election as Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church,” said U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a statement.

On March 13, 2013, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected Pope.

“The United States and the Holy See have worked together for decades to face global challenges such as trafficking in persons, food insecurity, epidemics, and the exploitation of religion as a tool to incite hatred and divide nations,” Tillerson said in his statement. “Together we have built vital partnerships and cooperated to advance peace, liberty, and human dignity around the world.”

“On this day I join millions of Americans, and people around the world, in congratulating the Holy Father and wishing him continued success in leading the Catholic Church to make a better world for all.”

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U.S. NEWS

Fr. Stanley Rother, first U.S.-born martyr, to be beatified in September

CNA/EWTN News • March 13, 2017

Fr. Stanley Rother. (Fr. David Monahan/Archdiocese of Oklahoma City Archives)

Oklahoma City, OK — Father Stanley Rother, the Oklahoma-born martyr who served as a priest in Guatemala, will be beatified in Oklahoma City on Sept. 23, 2017.

The beatification announcement was made by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City on March 13. Fr. Rother was a priest of the archdiocese. The beatification Mass will take place at 10 a.m. at the Cox Convention Center.

In December 2016, Pope Francis officially acknowledged Fr. Rother’s martyrdom, making him the first recognized martyr to have been born in the United States.

Fr. Rother was from the unassuming town of Okarche, Okla., where the parish, school and farm were the pillars of community life. He went to the same school his whole life and lived with his family until he left for seminary.

Surrounded by good priests and a vibrant parish life, Stanley felt God calling him to the priesthood from a young age. But despite a strong calling, Stanley would struggle in the seminary, failing several classes and even out of one seminary before graduating from Mount St. Mary’s seminary in Maryland.

Hearing of Stanely’s struggles, Sister Clarissa Tenbrick, his 5th grade teacher, wrote him to offer encouragement, reminding him that the patron of all priests, St. John Vianney, also struggled in seminary.

“Both of them were simple men who knew they had a call to the priesthood and then had somebody empower them so that they could complete their studies and be priests,” Maria Scaperlanda, author of The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run, a biography of the martyr, told CNA in an interview last year.

“And they brought a goodness, simplicity and generous heart with them in (everything) they did.”

When Stanley was still in seminary, St. John XXIII asked the Churches of North America to send assistance and establish missions in Central America. Soon after, the dioceses of Oklahoma City and Tulsa established a mission in Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala, a poor rural community of mostly indigenous people.

A few years after he was ordained, Fr. Stanley accepted an invitation to join the mission team, where he would spend the next 13 years of his life.

When he arrived to the mission, the Tz’utujil Mayan Indians in the village had no native equivalent for Stanley, so they took to calling him Padre Francisco, after his baptismal name of Francis.

The work ethic Fr. Stanley learned on his family’s farm would serve him well in this new place. As a mission priest, he was called on not just to say Mass, but to fix the broken truck or work the fields. He built a farmers’ co-op, a school, a hospital, and the first Catholic radio station, which was used for catechesis to the even more remote villages.

“What I think is tremendous is how God doesn’t waste any details,” Scaperlanda said. “That same love for the land and the small town where everybody helps each other, all those things that he learned in Okarche is exactly what he needed when he arrived in Santiago.”

The beloved Padre Francisco was also known for his kindness, selflessness, joy and attentive presence among his parishioners. Dozens of pictures show giggling children running after Padre Francisco and grabbing his hands, Scaperlanda said.

“It was Father Stanley’s natural disposition to share the labor with them, to break bread with them, and celebrate life with them, that made the community in Guatemala say of Father Stanley, ‘he was our priest,’” she said.

Over the years, the violence of the Guatemalan civil war inched closer to the once-peaceful village. Disappearances, killings and danger soon became a part of daily life, but Fr. Stanley remained steadfast and supportive of his people.

In 1980-1981, the violence escalated to an almost unbearable point. Fr. Stanley was constantly seeing friends and parishioners abducted or killed. In a letter to Oklahoma Catholics during what would be his last Christmas, the priest relayed to the people back home the dangers his mission parish faced daily.

“The reality is that we are in danger. But we don’t know when or what form the government will use to further repress the Church … . Given the situation, I am not ready to leave here just yet … But if it is my destiny that I should give my life here, then so be it. … I don’t want to desert these people, and that is what will be said, even after all these years. There is still a lot of good that can be done under the circumstances.”

He ended the letter with what would become his signature quote:

“The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom.”

In January 1981, in immediate danger and his name on a death list, Fr. Stanley did return to Oklahoma for a few months. But as Easter approached, he wanted to spend Holy Week with his people in Guatemala.

“Father Stanley could not abandon his people,” Scaperlanda said. “He made a point of returning to his Guatemala parish in time to celebrate Holy Week with his parishioners that year – and ultimately was killed for living out his Catholic faith.”

The morning of July 28, 1981, three Ladinos, the non-indigenous men who had been fighting the native people and rural poor of Guatemala since the 1960s, broke into Fr. Rother’s rectory. They wished to disappear him, but he refused. Not wanting to endanger the others at the parish mission, he struggled but did not call for help. Fifteen minutes and two gunshots later, Father Stanley was dead and the men fled the mission grounds.

Scaperlanda, who has worked on Fr. Stanley’s cause for canonization, said the priest is a great witness and example: “He fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, visited the sick, comforted the afflicted, bore wrongs patiently, buried the dead – all of it.”

His life is also a great example of ordinary people being called to do extraordinary things for God, she said.

“(W)hat impacted me the most about Father Stanley’s life was how ordinary it was!” she said.

“I love how simply Oklahoma City’s Archbishop Paul Coakley states it: ‘We need the witness of holy men and women who remind us that we are all called to holiness – and that holy men and women come from ordinary places like Okarche, Oklahoma,’” she said.

“Although the details are different, I believe the call is the same – and the challenge is also the same. Like Father Stanley, each of us is called to say ‘yes’ to God with our whole heart. We are all asked to see the Other standing before us as a child of God, to treat them with respect and a generous heart,” she added.

“We are called to holiness – whether we live in Okarche, Oklahoma, or New York City or Guatemala City.”

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U.S. NEWS

Despite warnings, assisted suicide bill advances in Hawaii

CNA/EWTN News • March 13, 2017

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Honolulu, HI — Although critics said an assisted suicide bill would put vulnerable people at risk and change the nature of medicine, the Hawaii Senate has given it strong support.

“Physicians are seen as trusted health advisors, and this bill undermines this relationship, creating suspicion and uncertainty for Hawaii’s patients,” said Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, executive director of the Hawaii Catholic Conference.

“The Senate’s approval of assisted suicide ignores the tremendous strides we have made as a community to promote the value of hospice and palliative care to care for those with terminal illnesses and to ensure everyone has access to quality end of life care.”

Deacon Yoshimitsu said the Catholic conference has worked to uphold the sanctity of life.

“Those in favor of assisted suicide have framed this as an issue about individual autonomy and freedom of choice, when it fact it is nothing more than a veiled attempt to make it legal for physicians to murder their patients with immunity,” he said.

The bill, modeled on an Oregon law, presents itself as an “aid in dying” bill. It would allow adults who have a prognosis of six months or fewer to live to ask for a fatal prescription of drugs. It passed by a vote of 22-3 on March 7.

State Sen. Breene Harimoto voted against the proposed bill. He spoke about facing his possible death after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and said he was glad he did not have the option to take pills to kill himself when he was at a low point of pain and suffering, the Associated Press reports.

“Life is a precious gift,” he said. “No matter how bad things may seem to be, that sense of hope is what keeps us all going. And unexplained miracles happen.”

State Sen. Rosalyn Baker, a backer of the bill, said it gave people the choice in how they would die.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for debate in committee.

Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu wrote a Jan. 31 letter to the Catholics of Hawaii linking assisted suicide to the “throwaway culture” criticized by Pope Francis.

Eva Andrade, president of the Hawaii Family Forum, there was “strong opposition” to the assisted suicide bill and the number testimonies submitted against the bill “far exceeded” those in favor.

“We are perplexed why the concerns raised by individuals over the adverse impact such a law would have on Hawaii’s people are being dismissed by some members of the House and Senate. Yet, we remain prayerfully optimistic. Hawaii’s legislative session does not end until early May, and we will continue to closely monitor these bills and mobilize the community.”

She said Hawaii has one of the fastest-growing older adult populations in the U.S. She charged that the bill would allow elder abuse if it becomes law.

Five U.S. states presently allow assisted suicide.

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U.S. NEWS

New South Dakota law could protect religious adoption agencies

CNA/EWTN News • March 13, 2017

(AndreyUG via Shutterstock)

Pierre, S.D. — While religious adoption agencies have been shut down in various parts of the United States after facing pressure to place children with same-sex couples, they now have a few more legal protections in South Dakota because of a new law.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed S.B. 149 after it passed the House of Representatives by a 43-20 vote and the Senate by 27-8.

The governor said he was concerned that private child placement agencies acting in a child’s best interest could face a lawsuit if South Dakota bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the Associated Press reports.

Backers of the law cited the fate of adoption agencies in other states that have faced the revocation of their license to operate, funding cuts, and the denial of contracts under strict anti-discrimination policies and laws.

South Dakota’s Catholic Social Services has been placing children in adoptive homes for 43 years.

Jim Kinyon, executive director of Catholic Social Services, said that the legislation would help ensure that the state does not discriminate against faith-based organizations with sincerely held beliefs.

The bill drew opposition from the American Civil Liberties’ South Dakota affiliate and the LGBT activist group the Human Rights Campaign. The ACLU said it is considering legal challenges. Libby Skarin, policy director of ACLU South Dakota, contended that the governor’s action showed more concern for private agencies than for the needs of children.

Adoption agencies, including Catholic adoption agencies, have shut down because of anti-discrimination laws or funding policies in Washington, D.C., Boston, Illinois and California. The agencies’ policies like placing children only with married husband and wife couples have conflicted with expanding legal requirements to place children with same-sex couples.

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U.S. NEWS

New Mexico bishops admonish pro-choice Catholic legislators

CNA/EWTN News • March 14, 2017

The New Mexico State Capitol building in Santa Fe. (Cmh2315fl via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Santa Fe, N.M. — New Mexico Bishops released a statement last week discouraging public advocacy from Catholic legislators for abortions and assisted suicide on behalf of their Catholic faith.

“We are concerned by public statements by some legislators that seem to say that a faithful Catholic can support abortion or doctor-assisted suicide,” New Mexico’s bishops stated March 6.

“Support for abortion or doctor-assisted suicide is not in accord with the teachings of the Church. These represent the direct taking of human life, and are always wrong.”

State Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero invoked her Catholic faith earlier this month as a factor in her decision to oppose a bill that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

And last month State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, also Catholic, introduced a bill which would force religious hospitals and individuals to act against their conscious and perform abortions.

The bishops wrote that “It is not appropriate for elected officials to publicly invoke their Catholic faith and to present their personal opinions as official Church teaching. This misrepresents Church teaching and creates a public scandal for the faithful.”

The bishops upheld Catholic teaching that “all human life is sacred, from the moment of conception to natural death, and must be protected,” and emphasized that “support for abortion or doctor-assisted suicide is not in accord with the teachings of the Church.”

“Even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in His own image, destined to live forever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect,” the bishops stated, repeating the words of Pope Francis.

“It is not morally permissible for a Catholic to support abortion or doctor-assisted suicide,” they emphasized.

Recognizing Catholic legislators who support laws directed at supporting immigrants and the impoverished, the message applauded “their work giving voice to the voiceless.”

Citing the damages done to the soul by receiving, performing, or supporting abortions, the bishops acknowledged that “God’s forgiveness is always available to us if we seek it, so that we may heal our soul and be reconciled with God, the Church and others.” They promoted the sacrament of confession and the Project Rachel ministry for men and women who are in need of support after participating in an abortion.

“We want to be clear,” the bishops concluded. “Individuals and groups do not speak for the Catholic Church. As bishops, we do.”

“We visit the New Mexico Legislature when it gathers and host a time when together the priorities of the Church are made known to the legislators. We take the Gospel to the public square in public meetings and hearings as well as in private meetings and conversations with elected officials.”

“We pray for all legislators and through the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops are here to aid in the formation of consciences,” they noted. “We will continue to collaborate with many others to uphold the dignity of the human person through a consistent ethic of life from conception to natural death.”

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U.S. NEWS

What will the U.S. do next for ISIS genocide survivors?

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • March 16, 2017

Syrian refugee girl. (Thomas Koch via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — One year after the U.S. declared that ISIS was committing genocide in Iraq and Syria, advocates for religious and ethnic minorities are asking the Trump administration what the U.S. will do next to protect the vulnerable.

“This is a call for action,” said Professor Robert Destro of the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America.

On Thursday, Destro announced a joint statement of “recommended actions” for the administration to take to protect genocide survivors.

The document was a call “to stand up constantly” for minorities “who are being targeted today by ISIS and all of its affiliates around the world,” he said.

Its signers include former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Robert George; former Congressman Frank Wolf; Bishop Francis Kalabat, eparch of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Detroit; and Bishop Barnaba Yousif Benham Habash of Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic diocese of the U.S. and Canada.

On March 17, 2016, the U.S. declared that ISIS was committing genocide against Christians, Yazidis, and Shi’a Muslims in Iraq and Syria. Professor Destro called it the “first truly formal declaration of genocide in American history.”

In the summer of 2014, ISIS had swept across Northern Iraq and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Militants raped, enslaved and killed thousands of Yazidis – including women and children – and surrounded 40,000 more on Mount Sinjar who were in danger of dying of starvation and thirst until the U.S. military intervened and sent them supplies in August of 2014.

Other religious and ethnic minorities on the Nineveh Plain, including Chaldeans, Assyrians, Turkmen, and Shabak, fled their homes when they realized they were defenseless against the ISIS onslaught. Christians in Mosul were given a choice to convert to Islam, flee, be killed, or stay and pay a jizya tax.

Experts noted that the jizya tax option was not a viable option, however, as the tax could be too high and could not sufficiently guarantee the safety of Christians who agreed to pay it.

Many have not yet returned to their homes – around 70,000 Christians are living in and around the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, east of Mosul and the Nineveh Plain. Many genocide survivors are living in temporary shelters and are reliant on churches and aid groups for their basic needs.

As ISIS forces have been cleared from some areas in the region, those who have returned to their villages have found their homes vandalized and damaged, their property confiscated, churches destroyed, and even deadly IEDs set for them.

Now, one year after the U.S. declared that genocide was taking place, the Genocide Coalition – a group of congressmen, genocide experts and human rights advocates have announced the steps they would like to see the administration of President Donald Trump take to protect these genocide survivors.

Destro hailed the meeting as the “first annual commemoration of the genocide resolution.”

The coalition is advocating on behalf of all the minorities in the region who were victims of ISIS, not just Christians, insisted Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project, one of the sponsors of the document.

“We’re very much focused on the broader community of genocide victims,” he told CNA. “This isn’t only about protecting Christians.”

“Since the genocide has been recognized, we are still waiting, but no big steps have been taken and not a lot has been changed,” Yazidi genocide survivor Nadia Murad stated at the U.S. Capitol at a Thursday event marking the one-year anniversary of the declaration.

“The mass graves that they found, they are still not being protected. There has not been an effort to investigate the mass graves and recognize the victims,” she said.

ISIS still holds much of the Sinjar region where the Yazidis lived, Murad said, as well as thousands of Yazidi captives including around 1,000 children who are being “trained and brainwashed” in Syria to become suicide bombers.

What can be done about all this? The Genocide Coalition is asking the Trump administration to take three steps.

First, the U.S. should work to help secure the region and resettle many of these minorities displaced from their homes, providing them the assistance they need to make a living.

The Defense and State Departments should work “to secure, stabilize, and revitalize the ancestral homelands of indigenous religious minority communities targeted by ISIS for genocide in northern Iraq – particularly in the Sinjar, Nineveh Plain, and Tal Afar areas.”

Additionally, the U.S. must make sure that humanitarian aid from the U.S. and UN reaches those who need it most, the coalition said.

The Christians in Erbil have not received much aid from the U.S. and UN and are reliant on groups like the Knights of Columbus for food, water, shelter, blankets, and medical needs.

Andrew Walther, vice president of strategic planning at the Knights of Columbus, noted on Thursday that on his trips to Iraq in the last year, staff of the U.S. government and the UN admitted that they had not dispersed money to displaced Christians living in Erbil. One family told Walther they had received only two kilos of lamb from the UN.

This aid must also “include funding for trusted faith-based” groups that are “close to the people” like Caritas International and Catholic Relief Services, Steve Colecchi, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said on Thursday.

Private investment should also be encouraged once the communities are rebuilt and local businesses re-open, he added.

Stephen Hollingshead of The Haven Project of the group In Defense of Christians said that Western businesses should trade, provide mentorship, and do business with Iraqi entrepreneurs to help them “earn their daily bread,” which is what many of the displaced want.

The U.S. must also “bring to justice both the perpetrators of this genocide and their accessories,” the coalition insists. This would include the “collaborators, affiliates, financiers, and facilitators” of ISIS and Al Qaeda.

Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project, one of the signers of the document, explained that the U.S. could push for an international tribunal to be set up to try ISIS perpetrators for their crimes.

“When impunity prevails, violence will proliferate,” Naomi Kikoler of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum said. She noted that atrocities in Iraq have continued for years because perpetrators have not been held accountable.

“Until now, there is no international committee or a team to investigate what ISIS has done. A year has passed, and not a single ISIS fighter has been brought to justice,” Murad stated on Thursday. “They [ISIS] are still free in Iraq, and they move among many countries. Without any court or tribunal to bring them to justice.”

For the International Criminal Court to try the genocide perpetrators, the United Nations Security Council would have to refer the matter to the court. A UN human rights inquiry found last summer that Yazidis were genocide victims of ISIS, but did not include Christians and Shi’a Muslims in the genocide designation.

The Trump administration can also help the situation by making important appointments to the National Security Council and State Department, the coalition claimed.

They must “get the political people in place … to get this job done,” Destro said.

In addition, the U.S. could accept its “fair share” of the “most vulnerable refugees,” Colecchi maintained, and these would include genocide survivors.

Also, the U.S. could push the Iraqi central government to strengthen the rule of law and ensure the “protection of all, including vulnerable minorities,” he added.

“To focus attention on the plight of Christians,” he insisted, is “not to ignore others” but by protecting most vulnerable, to strengthen society as a whole.

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U.S. NEWS

Texas advances bill on transgender bathrooms, but fate unclear

CNA/EWTN News • March 17, 2017

(AR30mm via Shutterstock)

Austin, Texas — The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would require people to use bathrooms based on the sex on their birth certificate, but it faces significant opposition from influential corporations and LGBT activists.

The Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 6 by a vote of 21-10 on March 15. It has been characterized as a “bathroom bill.”

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said the bill “reflects common decency and common sense and is essential to protect public safety.”

He said the bill “codifies what has always been common practice in Texas and everywhere else – that men, women, boys and girls should use separate, designated restrooms, locker rooms and showers in government buildings and public schools.”

Gov. Greg Abbott has not taken a clear stand on the bill. Republican House Speaker Joe Straus has been critical and said its passage could harm jobs and be bad for business, the Associated Press reports.

State Sen. John Whitmire objected that the bill would require self-identified transgender women who are “as feminine as any woman on the Senate floor” to use men’s restrooms, the Texas Tribune reports.

The bill has opposition from corporations including Google, Amazon, American Airlines, Microsoft, Intel and Hilton. The National Football League and the National Basketball Association have said passage of the bill could cause them to decline to schedule events such as the Super Bowl and the All-Star Game in the state, Texas’ ABC 13 reports.

In some parts of the U.S., anti-discrimination laws and policies that protect gender identity have required facilities to allow people who identify as the opposite sex to use the restrooms or locker rooms they identify with.

The Obama administration had begun to implement a rule requiring schools to implement transgender bathroom policies or lose federal funding, but the Trump administration withdrew the rule.

The Texas bill’s author, State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, cited the Obama administration’s push as a justification for the bill.

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FEATURES

My life isn’t a tragedy – a Rwandan woman’s incredible story of survival

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • March 13, 2017

Mirreille Twayigira in Rome on March 8, 2017. (Lucia Ballester/CNA)

Vatican City — She begged and scrounged for food in the forest; she drank water from a stream with dead bodies in it; she wrapped grass on her feet in order to walk long distances in the hot sun in order to survive, facing starvation and malnourishment, all before the age of six.

Now, Mirreille Twayigira is a licensed medical doctor hoping not just to save lives, but to inspire young women worldwide – particularly those in her same situation – by showing them there’s hope, and that life is more than the tragedies they face.

While some might label her life “a tragic story” due to the suffering and loss she faced as a young child, Twayigira said others might choose to call it “a story of courage and perseverance.”

However, “I choose to call it a story of hope, a story of God … from ashes to beauty, (like) a beautiful stained glass window.”

Twayigira was among several speakers at the March 8 Voices of Faith women’s gathering in the Vatican, marking 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 took place at the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, and featured testimonies of women from around the world, including Syria and Burundi, who shared their stories of perseverance, highlighting the importance of building peace in a world filled with conflict.

In her testimony, Twayigira noted that when war broke out between Tutsis and members of the Hutu majority the government, leading to mass killings of the Tutsi tribe, she was just three years-old.

Although she doesn’t remember much about the war itself when it started, she remembers the day she got the news that her father had been killed.

“I remember being told that my father had been killed, his body being brought home wrapped in this blue tent,” she said, noting that she was too young to fully understand what was happening on the day of his burial.

Before the war, “we were a big, happy family. Our house was next to our grandparent’s house, so my sister and I used to spend our days with uncles and aunts … so it was a beautiful and happy childhood,” she said.

After her father’s death, however, this changed dramatically.

“My family knew that it was no longer safe for us, so they had to pack and leave,” she said, explaining that at first, they fled to another district of Rwanda, thinking they would be safe.

However, after just a short time her younger sister, who was just one-year-old at the time, got sick and, because her family didn’t have access to medicine or proper nourishment due to the war, she passed away.

After her sister’s death – which marked the second time she had lost a sibling, since an older sister had died before Twayigira was born – the family fled through Burundi to a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“In the camp I was a very happy kid,” she said, “but this all ended when I encountered more loss.”

While in the camp, her mother fell ill and “one night she was gone.” However, Twayigira said that despite the tragic death of her mother, “life had to go move on,” so she and her grandparents continued to move forward.

But just two years later, in 1996, they had to leave because of war in the DRC, which is when “I began to experience a life that is unimaginable,” she said, recalling how she had her grandparents fled the camp with bullets flying over their heads, and took refuge in the forest.

“We only survived by begging for food,” she said. Her grandparents begged from locals in nearby villages, and at times were given moldy bread to eat. When begging wasn’t enough, “we even had to eat roots from the forest.”

“I remember sometimes we had to drink water from rivers with dead bodies floating in it,” she said, noting that their situation had become one of the “survival of the fittest.”

They had long distances to walk going from village to village and in search of another camp, many times walking on rough terrain. When the weather was too hot for their bare feet, they bunched up grass and tied it to their feet in order to be able to walk.

“We escaped death from so many things: from hunger, bullets, drowning, wild animals, you name it. No child should go through what I went through. In fact, nobody should go through what I went through,” she said.

Eventually the family made their way to another refugee camp, “but life would not be better there,” she said. While there were some soldiers protecting them, they would take young boys and train them to fight, and would take girls either as companions for the night or, at times, as wives.

Most of the boys leave refugee camps “with some sort of trauma,” she said, noting that when it came to the girls, some got pregnant, and others were made to be servants.

“The only reason I survived this is because I was very little,” Twayigira said. Due to the ongoing war, she and her grandparents traveled to nearby Angola before eventually ending up back in the DRC for a period of time.

However, with no improvement to the situation and no end to the war in sight, they again made their way to Angola for the second time. But when they arrived, “my grandma was very tired, and as for me, I was very malnourished.”

“You can imagine a big tummy and thin brown hair, and swollen cheeks and feet,” she said, describing herself as a young girl.

Twayigira recalled that her grandmother died shortly before they reached the refugee camp in Angola, and that had they not arrived when they did, “I was also almost gone.”

With just the two of them left, Twayigira explained that her grandfather eventually decided to travel to a different refugee camp in Zambia, because he heard they had a better school.

Despite such a long journey and so much loss, her grandfather moved again for no other reason “than to give his granddaughter a better education,” Twayigira said. She recalled that her grandfather “really believed in me so much. He never once said, ‘she’s just a girl, let me not waste my time on her.’”

After spending a few years in Zambia, the pair decided to make yet one more move, this time heading to a camp in Malawi that had better living conditions and even better schools. They arrived in September 2000.

Twayigira immediately enrolled in school once she arrived, making several new friends and, for the first time since they had left, was happy to have adequate food and shelter.

Being able to do well in her classes “would give me joy. Because at least I got to make some people proud, and I was very happy,” she said. Twayigira was eventually selected to join a Jesuit-run school, with all fees paid for by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

When she finished school in 2007, Twayigira’s grandfather fell ill, passing away just a few days after.

“I cried uncontrollably, badly, but life had to go on, and although I was in so much pain with the loss of my loved ones, it did not stop me from working hard,” she said, “because I knew that my future, it was not certain, I did not know what my future had, but I knew that my hard work would pay off.”

In 2009 she studied for the national final exam in Malawi, and finished among the top 6 students in the country. At the awards ceremony, the Chinese embassy offered a number of full-ride scholarships to study in China for the top students.

Twayigira was one of the students selected and, despite being a refugee with no citizenship status or passport, was able to get her paperwork in order with the help of the Jesuits at her school, a Catholic radio station and even the Malawian parliament.

She then moved to China and studied the language for a year before officially beginning classes in Chinese. She has since graduated and is currently working as a medical intern in Malawi.

While there were many times she wanted to give up along the way, Twayigira said she persisted, because at a certain point she realized that “God spared my life” not to keep it for herself, but because “there are people that I was meant to serve.”

“Before I went to China, I used to think I was just this girl with a tragic past … but when I got to China I realized that I’ve got a story to tell; a story of God and his love, a story that can change somebody’s life.”

As a doctor, Twayigira said she feels she can give even more. But in addition to her medical duties, she also looks for opportunities to speak in schools to try and “raise hope among the youth, especially refugee youth.”

She said that in the future, she hopes to work more directly with refugees, “because I believe I have a lot to share, having gone through what they’ve gone through.”

“Now this is my story … but unfortunately for many, theirs is just in the tragedy part,” she said, explaining that many refugee children don’t even have access to adequate housing let alone higher education.

Even those who do get a good education don’t necessarily have the same opportunities, Twayigira said, so “their hopes are just crushed.”

In order to change the situation, she said war itself has to end: “why not end all this violence, and I’m not talking about people from other countries coming in to invade our own countries, I mean why wait for an outsider to come to stop hurting, and killing?”

“Is the money or power at the expense of their blood really worth it? I don’t think so,” she said, adding that the only way to really resolve conflict is with “forgiveness, mercy and love.”

“Is there such humanity in us, or have we become robots?” she asked. “What is happening to innocent kids is completely unfair, and it needs to stop and I believe it starts from within us: from love, forgiveness and mercy.”

People in situations similar to hers need to know “that they are loved by God and people around them. They need to know that they matter, that there is hope for them, that they have a purpose in life,” she said, noting that this stems not only from having the basic needs met, but above all from education.

In an interview with CNA after her talk, Twayigira stressed the importance of education, saying it’s “really the key to everything, because if not educated, many girls don’t even know their value.”

However, with a good education women learn that “okay, I’m not worthless and someone can’t just come and step on my foot. I am somebody,” she said, adding that a proper education helps women to step into decision making positions where they can change things.

“I believe that once a girl is educated, that means you’re actually educating the whole family. Because a woman, you raise your children, they’re with you all the time, you know that whatever they get is what you teach them,” she said.

“So if a woman is educated that means the whole family will get quality advice from their mothers. So educating a girl is actually educating the whole country.”

Twayigira said she was happy to be able to speak at the Vatican, since the event was streamed live. She voiced her hope that people can hear her story “and not just feel sorry for me, but also see ways they can help other people like me to get a better education or a safe place, or open their homes to refugees like me.”

She said she also hopes other young women and girls from around the world will be able to see and hear her story, and to know that “it’s all possible … I believe that I’m a pillar of hope for them.”

She said one of her hopes coming out of the conference is not only to encourage young women in her situation to have hope, but also that the people who have the power and resources to change things will see that they “can actually do something under-privileged people like I was.”

“Their actions can change somebody’s life for the better, never to be the same,” she said.

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Porn leaves men dissatisfied with real relationships, study finds

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • March 14, 2017

(PureSolution via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — A recent analysis of 50 studies found that pornography was negatively associated with sexual and relational satisfaction among men.

The paper, entitled Pornography Consumption and Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis, concluded that “Pornography consumption was associated with lower interpersonal satisfaction outcomes in cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal surveys, and experiments.” Specifically, pornography was linked to significant “lower sexual and relational satisfaction” among male viewers.

The analysis included a combined 50,000 participants across 10 countries, and contradicts another recent study that claimed that pornography has a positive impact on its consumers.

“Pornography is sex-negative,” Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), said in a statement about the new analysis.

According to their website, the NCOSE is a national organization dedicated to opposing pornography by highlighting the links to sex trafficking, violence against women, child abuse, and addiction.

“Pornography rewires an individual’s sexuality to pixels on a screen rather than to a real person, which is inherently inconsistent with healthy, organic relationships. A wide body of research is bringing attention to the various ways pornography negatively impacts both women and men, and this latest meta-analysis contributes important findings to that on-going dialogue.”

Hawkins noted that the analysis contradicted a recent study, Porn Sex Versus Real Sex: How Sexually Explicit Material Shapes Our Understanding of Sexual Anatomy, Physiology, and Behavior, which claimed that pornography positively affected relationships and sexuality after asking participants about the perceived impact pornography was having on their life.

“Those researchers asked survey participants questions about the effects of their pornography consumption using a faulty methodology which could only yield positive results, and then presented the results as unbiased and valid despite the skewed methodology,” Hawkins added.

Pornography has been receiving increasingly negative attention as more groups and individuals highlight its destructive effects on people’s well-being and relationships.

Last year, the GOP at the Republican National Convention declared pornography a public health crisis as part of their platform, a few months after the state of Utah declared the same.

British comedian Russel Brand, actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rashida Jones, and former NFL player and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor Terry Crews are just some of the celebrities that have recently spoken out against pornography, its addictive properties and its harmful effects on relationships.

Smartphones and other technology have made pornography more accessible than ever before, increasing the prevalence of pornography addiction. However, in response, numerous online community groups, smartphone apps and educational videos - both secular and faith-based - have launched, with the goal of helping people quit porn.

Still, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, strong biases in favor of pornography as a healthy part of sexuality still exist.

“Pornography is so pervasive today that many individuals grew up watching it and therefore assume it is a normal and healthy part of sexuality,” Haley Halverson, director of communications for NCOSE, told CNA.

“Yet, like cigarettes in the 1950s, we know that just because a practice is popularly accepted doesn’t mean it is healthy or beneficial.”

There have also been recent arguments made that pornography simply needs to be produced more ethically. However, Halverson said, it is not possible to make an “inherently unethical” practice more ethical.

“Pornography inherently involves dehumanizing a person by reducing them to a mere collection of body parts for one’s own selfish sexual pleasure. This is an inherently unethical way to view or treat another person,” she said.

“Some people may try to make pornography ‘less’ unethical in different ways, but such attempts can never change the fact that pornography objectifies human beings. Only a society that rejects pornography can fully respect the human dignity of each person.”

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Why it matters who Jesus is

by Bishop Robert Barron • March 14, 2017

I have been reading, with both profit and delight, Thomas Joseph White’s latest book, The Incarnate Lord: A Thomistic Study in Christology. Fr. White, one of the brightest of a new generation of Thomas interpreters, explores a range of topics in this text — the relationship between Jesus’ human and divine natures, whether the Lord experienced the beatific vision, the theological significance of Christ’s cry of anguish on the cross, his descent into Hell, etc. — but for the purposes of this article, I want to focus on a theme of particular significance in the theological and catechetical context today. Fr. White argues that the classical tradition of Christology, with its roots in the texts of the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul, understood Jesus ontologically, that is to say, in terms of his fundamental being or existential identity; whereas modern and contemporary Christology tends to understand Jesus psychologically or relationally. And though this distinction seems, prima facie, rather arcane, it has tremendous significance for our preaching, teaching, and evangelizing.

In the famous scene at Caesarea-Philippi, Jesus turns to his Apostles and asks, “Who do people say that I am?” He doesn’t ask what people are saying about his preaching or his miracle-working or his impact on the culture; he asks who they say he is. St. John’s Gospel commences with a magnificent assertion regarding, not the teaching of the Lord, but rather his being: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us.” In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes, “Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God a thing to be grasped at,” implying thereby an ontological identity between Jesus and the God of Israel.

Following these prompts — and there are many others in the New Testament — the great theological tradition continued to speculate about the ontology of the Founder. Councils from Nicea to Chalcedon formulated ever more precise articulations of the being, nature, and person of Jesus, and the most significant theologians of the early centuries — Origen, Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, Augustine, etc. — tirelessly speculated about these same matters. This preoccupation with the being of Jesus signals, by the way, a major point of demarcation between Christianity and the other great religions of the world. Buddhists are massively interested in the teaching of the Buddha, but they are more or less indifferent to the ontology of the Buddha; no self-respecting Muslim worries about the existential make-up of Muhammad; and no Jew is preoccupied with the “being” of Moses or Abraham. Fr. White points out that the time-honored practice of ontological speculation regarding Jesus comes to a kind of climax with the meticulously nuanced teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas in the High Middle Ages.

However, commencing in the eighteenth century with the thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christology took a decisive turn. Attempting to make the claims of the Christian faith more intelligible to a modern audience, Schleiermacher explained the Incarnation in terms of Jesus’ relationship to and awareness of God. Here is a particularly clear articulation of his position: “The Redeemer, then, is like all men in virtue of the identity of human nature, but distinguished from them all by the constant potency of his God-consciousness, which was a veritable existence of God in him.” Armies of theologians — both Protestant and Catholic — have raced down the Schleiermacher Autobahn these past two hundred years, adopting a “consciousness Christology” rather than an “ontological Christology.” I can testify that my theological training in the seventies and eighties of the last century was very much conditioned by this approach. Fr. White strenuously insists that this change represents a severe declension in Christian theology, and I think he’s right.

The abandonment of ontological approach has myriad negative consequences, but I will focus on just a few. First, it effectively turns Jesus into a type of super-saint, different perhaps in degree from other holy people, but not in kind. Hence, on this reading, it is not the least bit clear why Jesus is of any greater significance than other religious figures and founders. If he is a saint, even a great one, well people can argue so is Confucius, so is the Buddha, so are the Sufi mystics and Hindu sages, and so in their own way are Socrates, Walt Whitman, and Albert Schweizer. If Jesus mediates the divine to you, well and good, but why should you feel any particular obligation to propose him to someone else, who is perhaps more moved by a saintly person from another religious tradition? Indeed, if “God-consciousness” is the issue, who are we to say that Jesus’ was any wider or deeper than St. Francis’ or Mother Teresa’s? In a word, the motivation for real evangelization more or less dissipates when one navigates the Schleiermacher highway.

More fundamentally, when the stress is placed on Jesus’ human consciousness of God, the spiritual weight falls overwhelmingly on the side of immanence. What I mean is our quest for God, our search for the divine, and our growth in spiritual awareness become paramount, rather than what God has uniquely accomplished and established. When the Church says that Jesus is God, she means that the divine life, through the graceful intervention of God, has become available to the world in an utterly unique manner. She furthermore means that she herself — in her preaching, her formal teaching, in her sacraments, and in her saints — is the privileged vehicle through which this life now flows into human hearts and into the culture. It is easy enough to see that the transition from an ontological Christology to a consciousness Christology has conduced toward all manner of relativism, subjectivism, indifferentism, and the attenuation of evangelical zeal.

One of my constant themes when I was professor and rector at Mundelein Seminary was that ideas have consequences. I realize that much of what Fr. White discusses in his book can seem hopelessly abstract, but he is in fact putting his finger on a shift that has had a huge impact on the life of the post-conciliar Church.

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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‘I had to flee for my life’ – The reality of being a Syrian refugee

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • March 15, 2017

Omar al-Muqdad. (Omar al-Muqdad)

Washington D.C. — Omar al-Muqdad wanted to help the Iraqi refugees who were displaced from their homes in 2004. He volunteered to help with refugee resettlement, aiding those who came in finding housing, clothing and schools in Syria, where he lived.

Little did he know that just a few years later, he himself would be a refugee fleeing civil war in his own country.

“I had to flee for my life,” Omar told CNA. Six years ago, the Syrian journalist ran away from security forces who were threatening him. His crime? Reporting on the early days of what would come to be the Syrian Civil War.

First, he found refuge in Turkey. Then, once his refugee claim was processed, he found permanent resettlement in the United States.

March 15 marks the sixth anniversary of the start of the Syrian Civil War. What began as peaceful demonstrations protesting ongoing human rights abuses and suppression of free speech erupted into a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions from their homes.

Today, six years later, an end to the violence is nowhere in sight. The majority of Syria’s population has been displaced. New threats that have grown out of the situation – most prominently ISIS – have only added to the chaos. Together with other conflicts and famines in Somalia, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic and elsewhere, the world is now facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

For refugees like Omar, leaving home wasn’t something they had wanted or were prepared for: it was a choice between life and death.

Now 37 years old, and a resident of the United States for five years, Omar hopes Americans can come to understand some of what he experienced.

“Refugees are not your enemy,” he said. “They don’t know they are coming to the US,” he added, explaining that often refugees have little choice in where they are sent once they flee home. Instead, he urged compassion and acceptance as “a human responsibility as Americans.”

Maggie Holmesheroan, program manager for Catholic Relief Services’ operations in Jordan, agreed. “These are normal people like you and me,” she said.

“They lived normal lives before the conflict. They are now in a position where they’ve lost everything. Frankly, they’ve displayed incredible resilience in the face of a terrible situation.”

“Sometimes the instinct is to feel that they’re very different from us,” she continued, “but we should definitely find our common humanity.”

The seeds of a crisis

Before March 2011, Syria and its people looked very different from the images of rubble and terrified citizens associated with the country today.

Holmesheroan told CNA that before the war, the Syrian people were very similar in many ways to Americans, in terms of education, industry and social class.

“They had a very highly educated population – very diversified in terms of industry,” she said, noting that in her work, she regularly encounters refugees who were former government bureaucrats, blue collar workers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and nurses. “It’s really a representative range, just like we have here in the United States,” she said.

In fact, less than 15 years ago, some of the areas most damaged by airstrikes and bombing raids were the very places refugees from other conflicts were sent for safety and a new life.

“Syria back then was considered a safe country,” explained Omar.

However, many people – including Omar – were unsatisfied with the ruling Assad family’s policies. The family and its Ba’ath party had held control of the country since 1971. Critics from a range of religious sects and ethnic backgrounds have protested against both former president Hafez al-Assad and his son and current president, Bashar al-Assad for their anti-democratic policies and denial of basic human rights like freedom of speech and assembly. In addition, the Assad family has drawn strong opposition from Islamist movements who objected to various aspects of the family’s rule.

In his work as a journalist, particularly reporting on economic and human rights struggles in the south of Syria, Omar ran into opposition from the government. “The Syrian authorities don’t generally tolerate any form of criticism against the government and institutions,” he said. “They consider that an act of treason if you dare to say something against the government or you ask for reforms.”

For reporting on these issues, as well as starting up a private magazine not controlled by the State, Omar was apprehended by Syrian security forces. After questioning and a military trial, he was sentenced to three years in a military prison. “They did not like what I was writing there and they considered it an act of treason against the state,” he said.

By March 2011, Omar had been released from prison and was working again as an undercover journalist, when protests began. Many of these demonstrations were initially focused on the government’s treatment of underage student protesters in the southern city of Daraa, and other political prisoners. Socioeconomic inequality, intense droughts and food shortages also heightened the tensions within Syria in the months leading up to the start of the conflict.

On March 15, 2011, protesters filled the streets of Damascus to demand the release of political prisoners and other human rights reforms. Within a few days, more and more demonstrators started gathering to demand broader democratic and human rights reforms. When the Syrian government cracked down in response to the initial protests, the demonstrations only grew stronger, bolstered by the success of pro-democracy movements elsewhere in the Middle East.

“The peaceful demonstration started taking over the streets, and people started demanding freedom,” Omar recalled. “I was covering this event.” But then he realized that he was once again being followed by Syrian security forces.

“I knew that if they could catch me, that would be the end.” Omar fled to Turkey.

Meanwhile, tensions continued to escalate in Syria and various opposition groups solidified against the Assad regime. Both government and opposition forces began to take up arms against one another as the conflict grew. By early 2017, it was estimated that at least 400,000 Syrians had been killed, at least 6.3 million displaced internally, and some 5 million had fled the country as refugees.

Close to home – yet far from it

When Omar fled to Turkey as a refugee, he registered immediately with the U.N. Human High Commissioner for Refugees. While his claim was being processed, he was able to work as a freelance journalist for CNN and other news outlets covering the war.

At the same time, other refugees from Syria started to leave, pouring into neighboring countries. More than 1 million refugees have fled to Jordan, and at least 2.2 million are now residing in Lebanon. This has placed considerable strain on the countries, which previously had populations of just 6 million and 4 million, respectively.

In some areas, refugees have moved into camps administered by various aid agencies. In other areas, like Jordan, the majority of refugees live in cities and urban areas. Still others take refuge in unofficial settlements.

Maggie Holmesheroan and her colleagues at Catholic Relief Services work with refugees who are trying to integrate in urban areas of Jordan. Refugees here face a number of challenges just getting by from day to day. “They’re trying to live life in a city, but basically, with no resources,” she said.

Many of the refugees fled violence at a moment’s notice with nothing but the clothes on their backs. In many cases, families were split up, and the men were often forced to stay behind. In most cases, documents, identification, birth certificates, diplomas, and bank cards were left behind.

When the refugees reach a safe place and apply for refugee status, they are generally not allowed to work, and must live off the allotment granted by the United Nations. Often, that is not enough to buy food and clothing, pay rent, cover medical expenses and send their children to school.

“You don’t have access to any of your resources, even if you were diligent and saved up money,” Holmesheroan said. “All those safety nets are gone for people. So they’re just surviving on whatever help they can get from a wide variety of organizations that are here.”

In Jordan, CRS works with Caritas Jordan and Caritas Internationalis to provide refugees with aid in finding a livelihood, healthcare, non-food humanitarian support, psychological and social services, rent and cash subsidies to help make ends meet.

Recently, the situation in Jordan has improved slightly for some refugees, due to the country’s policy change allowing refugees to seek work permits in the garment manufacturing, agriculture, domestic work and construction industries. However the hundreds of thousands of refugees without those skills – for example, those who previously worked in the fields of teaching or medicine – still don’t have employment opportunities.

“They’re in limbo,” Holmesheroan said, with a very long wait ahead of them: the average refugee stays displaced for 17 years. Many of the refugees wish to return home, but there is no end in sight to the wars in Syria or Iraq.

“So, how do you handle the day-to-day stress of living in a situation where you’re in extreme poverty, you don’t have access to the resources that you need to do basic life, and then on top of that, you have no idea when anything might change?”

Until the conflict is resolved, the countries and agencies helping aid the millions of war refugees need adequate support and funding, Holmesheroan said. “We need to have a conversation about our fair share.”

She also stressed the importance of realizing that refugees are victims of violence. “The people who have run away from this war are running for their lives and are running away from extremism,” she said. “They are largely minorities and moderates who are running away from the violence. They don’t want to live in a country of extremists any more than we do.”

Permanent refuge

After a year of waiting in Turkey, Omar made it through the immigration process. Although the wait was long, he believes he “was one of the lucky ones” – the average waiting time for most refugees applying for resettlement is between 18 and 24 months. Omar added that he knows several people who have waited over three or even five years to be resettled.

In this time, Omar underwent interviews and waited for his status to be processed. Eventually his case was picked up by the International Catholic Migration Commission, which helped link his case with his new home country – the United States. Originally, Omar al-Muqdad expected to be sent to Canada or a different country for resettlement, so the news was a surprise. “I didn’t know I would be sent to the United States,” he said.

After he was referred to the United States, Omar underwent what he described as “extreme vetting,” consisting of interviews, health screenings and numerous background checks. In addition to the rigorous 20-step vetting process for those whose applications are initially accepted, Syrian refugees face further screening review from U.S. Immigration Services.

After passing all of these steps, Omar finally made it to the United States. “I was sent to Northwest Arkansas, to a small town called Fayetteville, where I started my life here.”

Ashley Feasley, director of policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services, described to CNA the process of helping to resettle refugees in communities like Fayetteville around the country.

The bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services is one of nine private agencies that oversee all the resettlement of refugees in the United States. For the last five years, the agency has placed between a quarter and a third of all refugees who come to the U.S.

After refugees are placed with a community, the local office – typically run through Catholic Charities or another Catholic organization – is responsible for welcoming them and providing or linking them with basic services, such as housing, food, and medical care while they acclimate to the United States. Churches and other groups help them learn English, find employment, and integrate into their new community.

This year, Trump’s executive order is expected to reduce the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. from 85,000 to at most 50,000. The administration’s 120-day freeze on all refugee admissions will also impact total refugee numbers, as well as the bishops’ ability to process and place them, due to a lack of reimbursements and personnel losses during the freeze.

Feasley objected to these policies. “There are so many vulnerable individuals who have been in the pipeline starting the process, who really are seeking refuge,” she told CNA. “This is obviously going to prevent them from doing that here in the United States.”

“In some cases, it really is going to prevent family reunification.”

Feasley also noted that in her experience, many refugees have been “benefits not only to their parishes, but to their communities.” She pointed to a number of former refugees who are now social workers in Catholic Charities and resettlement offices as an example.

Within the community of Syrian refugees specifically, she noted that the bishops have “seen great heartbreak but also great resiliency.” Most of them have fled extreme circumstances, and yet built stable lives here in the United States.

In this regard, she praised the Trump administration’s second executive order for removing the ban on Syrian refugees that was found in the initial order. “I think that it’s very important to welcome all nationalities,” she said.

Settling in

When he was first assigned to resettle in Arkansas, Omar said he was concerned because of stereotypes he had heard about the South being unwelcoming to newcomers. Fortunately, he learned that that was a misconception.

“My experience there was really incredible. People there were very warm,” Omar said, adding that in his first few weeks in Fayetteville, he was welcomed into the community, and even into one of the local family’s homes. “Back then there wasn’t ISIS … so, people were really open to helping refugees.”

Surrounded by warmth and welcomed into the community, Omar said that he “didn’t really feel alone.” A key part of the friendly atmosphere were the parish and Church agencies who helped with his resettlement. “I’m still grateful for them,” he said.

Eventually, Omar moved to the Washington, D.C. area in order to resume his career as a journalist. That path has not been easy.

“I had to start over from nothing,” he said. Although he already had a college degree in political science from Damascus University, he left his diploma at home when he fled Syria. When he came to the U.S., he had to start college over again.

Starting from scratch in his 30s was difficult. Still, in between reporting for a variety of national newspapers, Omar is on track to complete his studies soon. He plans on pursuing a Master’s degree next.

Obaida Omar, a community supervisor and health case manager at the Catholic Family House in Rochester, NY, described the challenges of leaving one’s entire life behind and trying to start over.

She herself fled as a refugee from Afghanistan 25 years ago. Later, she became a social worker. “I just love helping refugees,” she told CNA. “They’re really good people. They’re very strong.”

Today, she aids people from Syria as well as other countries. Obstacles abound. Few of her clients have family or friends in the area, and it can take time to settle into a new community. Interpreters are provided as refugees learn the language of their new home, but building trust with the interpreter takes time.

Her clients also face a range of medical issues from the violence they have experienced. Some have lost limbs in war. Others are wheelchair bound or suffer from PTSD and other mental health challenges. And still others have various levels of hearing loss, creating an extra layer of difficulties when trying to arrange for an interpreter.

CNA attempted to contact a number of dioceses, Catholic Charities offices and relief agencies to talk to other Middle Eastern refugees. Many refugee families – both in the United States and abroad – declined to be interviewed, fearing discrimination or negative repercussions of being identified in print as a refugee or a Middle Easterner.

Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, located in the Archdiocese of Detroit, was one of several agencies that cited recent changes in government policy as causing personnel cuts, which meant that remaining staff were unable to contact families due to other increased responsibilities.

Resettling more than 700 refugees in 2016 alone, Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan is one of the largest resettlement projects in the United States. The area has a significant existing Middle Eastern population.

Between 2014 and late 2016, the overwhelming majority of the refugees directed to the area were Chaldean Catholics from Iraq – most of whom were fleeing persecution at the hands of ISIS. In late 2016, the office experienced a surge of Syrian refugees coming into the area.

However, the rapid decline in refugee admissions for 2017 has resulted in a budget shortfall of $131,000, the agency said. Bill Blaul, institutional advancement director, told CNA that the group was “hanging onto our absolute core in the hope that we can start relocating refugees here again.”

And other agencies around the country are facing similar budget constraints. Many staff members have been laid off. In some cases, vital programs will be able to continue for a few more months.

Omar al-Muqdad is one of the lucky ones. While other refugees are still waiting to hear if they will be accepted by a host country, he is ready to make his residence in the U.S. permanent.

“I just filed my citizenship application and America is my new home,” he said. He added that he felt he owed it to the Arkansas community who took him in “to pay the community back for the kindness that they showed to me when I first came here.”

“I’m trying, but it’s not easy,” he said of his journey so far. “I’m trying to do my best here.”

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The order of Irish Catholics you probably haven’t heard of

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2017

A Celtic cross in Ireland. (Materod via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Denver, CO — They’re Irish, they’re Catholic, and they’re proud. But you maybe haven’t heard of them.

They’re the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, the oldest and largest Irish Catholic organizations in the United States.

Non-Irish need not apply to the orders – membership is reserved for those who can prove that at least some Irish blood flows through their veins. The word ‘Hibernian’ is another word for Irishmen, taken from ‘Hibernia,’ the classical Latin term for Ireland.

Members also must be practicing Catholics willing to stand up for and support the Catholic Church.

Today, the order functions similarly to other Catholic charitable organizations, such as the Knights of Columbus, but with an Irish twist. They support many Catholic causes such as vocations and pro-life work, but they also promote Irish culture and education on Irish history, and help modern-day Irish immigrants to the U.S. and support a free and united Ireland.

“If you had a group of us in a room you’d have twice as many opinions as you’d have people,” Danny O’Connell, National Vice President for the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, told CNA.

“But the thing that pulls us all together is our culture, our music, our traditions, many of which came from the immigrants.”

Why the Ancient Order?

The orders come from a time when secret societies were in vogue, and the stakes were much higher.

After the Protestant Reformation, the English, who had conquered Ireland, tried fiercely to convert the stubborn Irish Catholics, to little avail. Irish Catholics soon became accustomed to “Mass rocks,” where a priest would say Mass outside on a rock and quickly be able to hide the altar cloth and feign a picnic if they were found out.

At this time, secret groups with names like the Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, and Defenders supported rights for Catholics, but their first job was to protect their clergy. Despite persecution, the Catholics clung fiercely to their faith.

As Catholic oppression continued and crop failures struck Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Irish began to move, and their secret societies, now a learned defense mechanism, came with them. It was around this time that the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland and the UK was born.

Many Irish also immigrated to the United States, with more than 1 million doing so around the time of the Irish potato famine between 1845-1852. So many sick Irish died on the trip that the boats that brought them over began to be referred to as “coffin ships.”

“When people refer to the famine, most of the Irish see it as a genocide,” O’Connell explained. “It was the Great Hunger. They were exporting more food from Ireland than they are today, yet the Irish Catholics were dying and their teeth would be stained green because the only thing they could even try and eat was the grass. It was the British government starving the people who weren’t allowed to eat the food on their land except for the potatoes, and it was land that the British stole from us.”

But despite promises of religious freedom, the Irish found that United States was also hostile to Catholicism, under the guise of patriotism.

Since colonial times, Americans had been suspect of Catholics from all immigrant groups, suspicious that their allegiances to the Pope would trump their loyalty to the U.S.

“Like any immigrant group, when you were new in the U.S., you were low on the totem pole, you were the ones abused and beaten and robbed and not given good jobs,” O’Connell said.

“And people didn’t understand Catholicism, so they would prevent you from practicing your religion. So if you were having a Mass, they would beat up or often kill the priest … so the Hibernians would stay outside or wherever they were, and stand guard. Back in those days that’s what you did, you stood outside and protected the life of your priest, and that was the only way you could continue practicing your religion,” he said.

The Hibernians also helped their own to overcome discrimination when they were looking for housing and employment. In 1894, the Daughters of Erin, which eventually became the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, was founded in order to protect young Irish immigrant women in the United States.

The Hibernians today

A strong Irish Catholic identity, forged in the overcoming of numerous adversities, can still be felt strongly in many parts of the United States, and is what bonds the Hibernians together today.

Marilyn Madigan, the National Treasurer for the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, said the camaraderie among the early Hibernians can still be felt strongly in the organization today.

“It’s the best organization I’ve ever belonged to, we’re like a second family,” she said.

Madigan said one of the most important things the orders do today, besides their Catholic charitable work, is to help undocumented Irish immigrants in the United States, of whom there are an estimated 50,000. Most of them entered the country legally, but are now here on overstayed visas.

Fears and anxiety are even higher among this group after the election of President Donald Trump, who promised to crack down on illegal immigration.

“There are a lot of undocumented Irish in this country, and most of the Irish organizations do work to try to document those Irish, so we haven’t forgotten where we came from, we hold that country dear to our hearts, as well as our religion,” Madigan said. In fact, the two are really inextricably linked.

“Most of the famine Irish were Catholic, their religion was taken away from them, they had to go to Masses behind rocks, so our Irish and Catholic heritage is very important,” she said.

Because the orders are non-profit groups, they do not engage in any kind of lobbying for Irish immigration, and they also declined to comment politically on the immigration situation of other undocumented immigrants in the United States.

A completely free and independent Ireland is another cause near and dear to the Hibernian heart, and the group hopes to see a peaceful and legal reunification of the country soon, though Brexit has raised some doubts.

“We’re very involved with Brexit, the fear is that we could see a return to a hard border between the North and the Republic,” O’Connell explained. Ireland and Northern Ireland (the six northern counties that still belong to the U.K.) have enjoyed relatively open borders since the 1990s, to the benefit of both countries’ economies, he added. Several members of the order will be travelling to Europe to voice their support for an open border.

The diversity of causes that the order supports and the faith that undergirds it continues to tie them together, O’Connell said.

“The culture, the music, the song, that brings us all together, and it’s kind of like with a family … and it’s driven by being Catholic. There’s not another Irish group in the country that has that diversity, and that’s why we’re so strong.”

But membership is waning. The women’s and men’s orders combined have a membership of about 80,000 in the U.S., at a generous estimate. It’s something that has both O’Connell and Madigan concerned.

“It seems like the younger generations do not join organizations like we have in the past,” Madigan said. “It seems like the younger generation, while they’re proud of their heritage, they don’t join, or they may join or not be as active.”

“We’re trying to do a better job of welcoming people who are younger than 60,” O’Connell said.

“We’re in the process of really kicking off what’s going to be a several-year membership campaign. We’ve never really done that before, and we realize how many people say, ‘I don’t know anything about this, why don’t I?’”

What a Hibernian wants you to know about St. Patrick’s Day

While you might think you’d find a Hibernian dressed in green and drinking steadily like the stereotypical St. Patrick’s Day celebrant, there are a few things the Hibernians wish the general population understood about the holiday.

“First and foremost, to a true Irishman, St. Patrick’s Day is a feast day,” Madigan said.

“We start out with Mass, with the majority of us participating in parades prior to or on the day itself, where we highlight our Irish heritage.”

Getting drunk, she said, is not part of the plan.

“The things that upset me the most is that people think it’s just a day to go out and celebrate and imbibe in alcoholic beverages, and maybe be overserved,” she said.

“They wear shirts that are very denigrating to the Irish, making us look like we’re a race of drunks. We’re not, we’re a proud Irish race that has spread Christianity throughout the world through our missionaries. And I don’t think that the general public really sees what we do.”

O’Connell said that he is also “very disturbed” by the T-shirts and decorations that denigrate the Irish.

“What I try to tell people when I talk to them about it, is I say change it to a different nationality, change it to a different race … can you imagine?”

St. Patrick’s Day is also an Irish-American holiday, he added. We eat corned beef and cabbage because that’s what the Irish immigrants in America ate because they couldn’t afford other cuts of meat. They wanted to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in a big way because they wanted to feel close to their Irish heritage. It wasn’t until recently that the holiday became anything more than any other feast day in Ireland, and they only started holding big celebrations for tourism purposes.

Still, he said, it’s hard to completely blame those who want to be Irish for a day.

“Being Irish is just so much fun.”

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Meet the monks who spend their lives praying for Ireland’s priests

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2017

Benedictine monks of Silverstream Priory. (Silverstream Priory)

Dublin, Ireland — Prayer, reparation and praising God are the focus of a new Benedictine priory in Ireland, which focuses especially on reparation for the sins of priests.

“It was never our predetermined plan to come to Ireland,” Silverstream Priory’s Father Benedict Anderson, O.S.B., told CNA. “But we believe that, through circumstances that we could never have foreseen, Divine Providence placed us here to play some sort of role, however modest, in the life of the Irish Church.”

Silverstream Priory is the home of the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

The priory is a former residence of the Visitation Sisters in Stamullen, a village about 22 miles north of Dublin. It is believed to be the first monastery established in Ireland’s County Meath since King Henry VIII suppressed them.

“The Reformation, which was ruthlessly enforced in Ireland, dealt a near fatal blow to the monastic life, and it almost seems as if certain contemporary forces and trends are conspiring to finish it off completely,” said Father Benedict, who hails from Colorado.

There are many Americans at the priory. The prior, Dom Mark Daniel Kirby, is from Connecticut. Tulsa, Okla. native Dom Elijah Carroll also comes from the U.S. The priory has a postulant from Toledo, Ohio and a priest from the Archdiocese of St. Louis. One member is from County Meath, while one novice is from Australia and another from Denmark.

According to Father Benedict, one of the glories of the Benedictine order is that their sole reason for existence is “the lifelong search for God in separation from the world, and the perpetual praise of God in the Sacred Liturgy.”

The monk himself was baptized Catholic as an infant in 1980. Both his parents came from very large Catholic families, but for various reasons they became estranged from the Church and began practicing an Evangelical, charismatic form of Christianity.

In his own words, Father Benedict “rebelled” against this upbringing by seeking the depths of ancient Christianity. He became an Orthodox Christian for his twenties and studied at an Orthodox seminary. He returned to full communion with the Church “as a positive desire to be in full communion with the principal Petrine See, ‘Old Rome’ (as the Orthodox call it), the Church of my baptism.”

Dom Kirby and Father Benedict moved to Ireland in 2012 as the only members of their Benedictine community, which began in Tulsa, Okla.

“I must say that we have been received very well, from the very beginning until now,” Father Benedict said. “While there are of course major differences, I feel very much at home.”

In Father Benedict’s eyes, contemporary Irish culture is heavily Americanized, “sometimes for good but increasingly, I’m afraid, for the worst.”

The monk sees an “immense cultural shift” following the unprecedented success of the Irish economy in the 1990s. He suggested this success “had the downside of greatly accelerating the decay of Irish Catholic faith and practice since the Second Vatican Council.”

The “horrors” of Ireland’s sexual abuse scandals by clergy gave an “incalculable blow” to the Church’s credibility, he added.

“This island was once dotted from east to west, north to south, with monasteries. The heartbeat of the Irish people was the heartbeat of the monastic round of prayer,” Father Benedict said.

Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 Letter to the Catholics in Ireland noted the role of monasteries in promoting Eucharistic Adoration and their ability to revitalize priestly life through retreats.

“We have, as it were, our marching orders from the Holy See, and while we cannot physically leave the cloister, we are dedicated to an unseen, spiritual battle for the soul of this country, and specifically for its priests,” Father Benedict said.

The monks dedicate their time and energies to prayer, Mass and the eight hours of the Divine Office.

“Our approach to the faith and the spiritual life relies to a great extent on our study of the Scriptures (particularly the Psalter) and the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western,” the monk explained. “Our monastic customs are thoroughly traditional, yet we are always aware of St. Benedict’s spirit of moderation and adaptation to various circumstances.”

The Benedictines of Silverstream Priory have adopted the charism of Mother Catherine-Mectilde de Bar, who founded the Benedictine Nuns of Perpetual Adoration in the 17th century.

“Mother Mectilde established her particular Benedictine family to adore the Blessed Eucharist in a spirit of reparation for offenses and abuses committed against the Sacrament of Christ’s love,” Father Benedict said. “As monks, however, we have a particular focus on reparation for the sins of priests which, especially of late, have so disfigured the Face of Christ in the eyes of the world.”

“Out of weakness and defeat, and yes, even sin and infidelity, can come power and victory,” he continued. “May God hold our country close once again to his Sacred Heart, beating in the Sacred Host.”

Bishop Michael Smith of Meath presided at the monastery’s canonical establishment Feb. 25, saying he was “delighted to recognize the unique presence of this new monastery.”

“Through their prayer, study and hospitality, the monks are ‘speaking to the heart’ and their quiet witness is a reminder that the Lord continues to provide the Church with new gifts and grace,” the bishop said, the newspaper The Irish Catholic reports.

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Patrick: The saint who knew what it was like to be a slave

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • March 17, 2017

Stained glass image of St. Patrick by C. E. Kempe in the Church of St. John the Baptist. (Lawrence OP via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Washington D.C. — Many know that Saint Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, was once a slave – but few know of his heartfelt plea on behalf of girls and boys abducted into slavery.

“The pathos of St. Patrick’s description of the fate of his victims is something I think we can identify with now,” said Jennifer Paxton, a history professor who teaches at The Catholic University of America’s Irish Studies program. “The girls stolen by Boko Haram are very similar in their fates, I think, to captives of Coroticus.”

St. Patrick’s Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus was intended to shame the fifth century general whose raiding soldiers the saint declared to be “blood-stained with the blood of innocent Christians, whose numbers I have given birth to in God and confirmed in Christ.” He denounced those who “divide out defenseless baptized women like prizes.”

Patrick said he did not know what grieved him more: those who were slain, those who were captured, or the enslavers themselves – “those whom the devil so deeply ensnared.”

The plea is all the more poignant because St. Patrick was himself a former slave. In his letter he wrote that Irish raiders once took him captive and slaughtered the men and women servants of his father’s household.

“He would have known acutely what these slaves were going through, because he was the victim of just such a raid,” Paxton told CNA. “In the fifth century this kind of raiding was endemic, all around the British Isles. He was stolen from someplace, we’re not sure where, in western Britain, and taken to captivity in Ireland.”

He spent six years tending sheep for his master.

“Obviously he did not enjoy his time as a slave and wanted it to end,” Paxton said. “So he would have definitely identified with these victims.”

The saint’s letter is a unique witness in medieval history.

“We do not have any other first person account of someone who was captured by barbarians and survived,” the history professor explained. “We have nothing else quite like it.”

The letter was written to be read aloud elsewhere, with the hope that Coroticus and his men would eventually hear of it and come under popular pressure. St. Patrick said those who hear the letter should “not fawn on such people” and should not share food or drink with them until they release their captives and “make satisfaction to God in severe penance and shedding of tears.”

Paxton said St. Patrick’s style is “somewhat defensive” because “he is up against tremendous odds, and he knows it.”

“He does not, as far as we know, ever get these captives back,” Paxton continued. “What we have is this cri de coeur that has resonated down through the ages. But he doesn’t manage to save them.”

She speculated that St. Patrick must have felt “the tragedy of seeing these people newly saved from damnation by baptism, and (then) taken away into slavery.”

Modern slavery is an enduring problem. Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria have enslaved Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities. In Nigeria, where St. Patrick is a patron saint, the militant Islamist group Boko Haram became infamous for the April 2014 abductions of several hundred girls from a school in the country’s northeast.

In December 2014 major religious leaders including Pope Francis signed a joint declaration at the Vatican urging the eradication of modern slavery. A 2014 report from the organization Walk Free estimated that almost 36 million people worldwide suffer some form of slavery, with 61,000 people held in slave conditions in the United States.

As for St. Patrick, his letter seeking the release of slaves was not widely circulated. It was preserved in a few places, including the Book of Armagh. Paxton said the letter played little role in Christian debates over slavery, which was taken for granted for centuries.

Slavery’s decline in Europe doesn’t owe much to Church efforts, she said. “It was more economic forces that led to its decline, I’m sad to say,” Paxton remarked, adding that Coroticus himself was probably a Christian.

St. Patrick became known for his life of sacrifice, prayer and fasting. Although he was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, he is widely regarded as the most successful.

Paxton noted that St. Patrick’s letter and his other known work, the Confession of St. Patrick, are “steeped in the scriptures.”

“He basically writes in scriptural quotations. That’s the way Patrick thinks,” she said.

St. Patrick’s use of the Bible is rare in a medieval text because he quotes from many different sections of the Bible: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and numerous prophetic books.

Paxton said she found Patrick “a really fascinating figure.” In later legends he became a “wonder-working superhero” who expelled the snakes from Ireland and defeated druids in battle.

“But the real St. Patrick of his own words is really a far more moving and inspiring example for Christians of today,” she added.

“Ireland was never the same as a result of what he did. That’s something I think we should all be impressed by, somebody who himself was very marginal, who was not a major figure in his own Church, persevered in the face of all these obstacles and achieved something really wonderful.”

This article was originally published on CNA March 17, 2015.

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FEATURES

Movie review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’

by Carl Kozlowski • March 17, 2017

When the animated version of “Beauty and the Beast” was released in 1991, it became an instant classic. In fact, it was the first full-length animated feature in movie history to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and grossed over $400 million worldwide, truly sparking the modern-day renaissance in Disney animation.

Now, 25 years later, Disney is releasing a live-action version of the spectacular musical. Bringing to life some of the most remarkable moments in movie cartoon history – in particular, an utterly stunning recreation of the show-stopping musical number “Be Our Guest,” in which everything from candelabras to exquisite furniture comes to life – the new movie is an artistic triumph.

However, the new film has been dogged by controversy for the past couple of weeks, since its director Bill Condon said that it has “a nice, exclusively gay moment.” There has understandably been a lot of concern from Christian groups and parents as to what that connotes. I’ll get to a description of the scene and my thoughts on it in a moment.

The movie opens on an arrogant young man (Dan Stevens) getting primped for a lavish party. But when an elderly woman enters his castle during the festivities, seeking some refuge from a storm and offering a perfect red rose in exchange for the favor, the man denies her.

It turns out the woman is an enchantress, and she subjects him and the friends attending the party to a terrible curse, turning him into a beast and his friends — the grand bouteiller Lumiére (Ewan McGregor), his sweetheart Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), court composer Maestro Cadenza (Stanley Tucci), the grand maitre Cogsworth (Ian McKellen), the head of the kitchen Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), her son Chip (Nathan Mack) and the maestro’s wife, opera singer Madame de Garderobe (Audra McDonald) – into household items.

Lumiére becomes a candelabra; Cogsworth a clock; Cadenza a harpsichord; Potts a teapot, and Chip a chipped tea cup. She then leaves the Beast with the red rose, warning him that he and his friends will be trapped in their current conditions forever if he cannot find true love with a woman before the last petal drops.

Years later in a small town, a young woman named Belle (Emma Watson) is more interested in books than boys. When a dumb hunk ex-soldier named Gaston (Luke Evans) attempts to woo her, she shoots him down, leaving him to be cheered up by his constant sidekick, LeFou (Josh Gad).

Meanwhile, Belle’s father Maurice (Kevin Kline), heads out on a journey, promising to return with a rose for Belle. Chased and nearly eaten by wolves, he races to presumed safety at a castle, only to find that it’s the beast’s home and that he is taken prisoner when he tries to leave with the rose.

Belle learns of his predicament and races to save her father, and winds up offering herself as a prisoner in exchange for him. Thus, an evolving relationship is born- one that goes from complete antipathy for each other to a blossoming romance, and one that is endangered when Gaston leads a horde of townspeople to try and slay the beast.

Director Bill Condon and his ace team of filmmakers and effects wizards do a fantastic job in transforming the imagery from animation to realistic life. They have also attempted to flesh out the storyline and the characters’ emotions more, with the addition of three new songs to the classic Oscar-winning score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.

But the controversy over the “gay moment,” which one survey has found could drive 95 percent of “faith-driven consumers” (aka Christian conservatives) from seeing the movie, threatens to overshadow all of that. What it boils down to is that throughout the movie, Gaston’s sidekick LeFou is seen basically fawning over him without it being quite clear that there is more than friendship involved in his feelings. The comments he makes are played for subtle laughs, and should largely go over kids’ minds.

Yet in a final celebratory dance scene, LeFou is seen dancing at first with a woman amid a sea of male-female couples. When the couples all switch partners, another effeminate man who was briefly seen earlier in the movie spins into LeFou’s arms and they both smile at the camera for a split second before dancing off together into the crowd.

It’s basically about 20 seconds of the movie, though it does build on the several quick side comments and glances earlier in the film. The question that parents and other concerned viewers will have to decide for themselves is whether that quick moment and the general vibe of LeFou’s character should invalidate the rest of a film that is otherwise outstanding family entertainment.

In my opinion, it shouldn’t ruin the overall film for anyone. But there is the possibility that if a movie or TV show opens the door to troublesome content a little bit and succeeds financially, then the door keeps getting pushed over the years until blatantly immoral content is normalized.

In this case, I believe that the moment is so short and that the one gay couple are amid a sea of straight ones, thus making it highly unlikely that anyone will be propagandized or have a harmful moral result. I think the bigger shame would be to miss out one of the sweetest, and otherwise family-friendly, movies to come out in a long time.

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 19, 2017

Third Sunday of Lent

First Reading (Ex 17:3-7; NRSVCE)

The people thirsted for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; NRSVCE)

R: (8) O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

O come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

R: O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

O come, let us worship and bow down,

let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

R: O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

O that today you would listen to his voice!

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

when your ancestors tested me,

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

R: O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

Second Reading (Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; NRSVCE)

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

Gospel Reading (Jn 4:5-42; NRSVCE)

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest?’ But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

MONDAY • MARCH 20, 2017

Solemnity of Saint Joseph

First Reading (2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; NRSVCE)

That night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29; NRSVCE)

R: (37) The line of David shall continue forever.

I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever;

with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.

I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;

your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

R: The line of David shall continue forever.

You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,

I have sworn to my servant David:

‘I will establish your descendants forever,

and build your throne for all generations.’”

R: The line of David shall continue forever.

He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,

my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’

Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him,

and my covenant with him will stand firm.

R: The line of David shall continue forever.

Second Reading (Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22; NRSVCE)

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

Gospel Reading (Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a; NRSVCE)

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.

TUESDAY • MARCH 21, 2017

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Dn 3:25, 34-43; NRSVCE)

Azariah stood still in the fire and prayed aloud:

For your name’s sake do not give us up forever,

and do not annul your covenant.

Do not withdraw your mercy from us,

for the sake of Abraham your beloved

and for the sake of your servant Isaac

and Israel your holy one,

to whom you promised

to multiply their descendants like the stars of heaven

and like the sand on the shore of the sea.

For we, O Lord, have become fewer than any other nation,

and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins.

In our day we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader,

no burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense,

no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy.

Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted,

as though it were with burnt offerings of rams and bulls,

or with tens of thousands of fat lambs;

such may our sacrifice be in your sight today,

and may we unreservedly follow you,

for no shame will come to those who trust in you.

And now with all our heart we follow you;

we fear you and seek your presence.

Do not put us to shame,

but deal with us in your patience

and in your abundant mercy.

Deliver us in accordance with your marvelous works,

and bring glory to your name, O Lord.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9; NRSVCE)

R: (6a) Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;

teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth, and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation.

R: Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,

for they have been from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

according to your steadfast love remember me.

R: Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord;

therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

He leads the humble in what is right,

and teaches the humble his way.

R: Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord.

Gospel Reading (Mt 18:21-35; NRSVCE)

Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

WEDNESDAY • MARCH 22, 2017

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Dt 4:1, 5-9; NRSVCE)

Now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20; NRSVCE)

R: (12a) Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

For he strengthens the bars of your gates;

he blesses your children within you.

R: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

R: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

He declares his word to Jacob,

his statutes and ordinances to Israel.

He has not dealt thus with any other nation;

they do not know his ordinances.

R: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Gospel Reading (Mt 5:17-19; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

THURSDAY • MARCH 23, 2017

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 7:23-28; NRSVCE)

This command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.” Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than forward. From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.

So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; NRSVCE)

R: (8) O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

O come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

R: O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

O come, let us worship and bow down,

let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

R: O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

O that today you would listen to his voice!

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

when your ancestors tested me,

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

R: O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.

Gospel Reading (Lk 11:14-23; NRSVCE)

Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? — for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

FRIDAY • MARCH 24, 2017

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

First Reading (Hos 14:2-10; NRSVCE)

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Take words with you

and return to the Lord;

say to him,

“Take away all guilt;

accept that which is good,

and we will offer

the fruit of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us;

we will not ride upon horses;

we will say no more, ‘Our God,’

to the work of our hands.

In you the orphan finds mercy.”

I will heal their disloyalty;

I will love them freely,

for my anger has turned from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;

he shall blossom like the lily,

he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon.

His shoots shall spread out;

his beauty shall be like the olive tree,

and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.

They shall again live beneath my shadow,

they shall flourish as a garden;

they shall blossom like the vine,

their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress;

your faithfulness comes from me.

Those who are wise understand these things;

those who are discerning know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right,

and the upright walk in them,

but transgressors stumble in them.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 81:6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17; NRSVCE)

R: (see 11 and 9a) I am the Lord your God. Hear, O my people.

I hear a voice I had not known:

“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

your hands were freed from the basket.

In distress you called, and I rescued you.”

R: I am the Lord your God. Hear, O my people.

“I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!”

R: I am the Lord your God. Hear, O my people.

“There shall be no strange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

I am the Lord your God,

who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

R: I am the Lord your God. Hear, O my people.

“O that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would walk in my ways!

I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

R: I am the Lord your God. Hear, O my people.

Gospel Reading (Mk 12:28-34; NRSVCE)

One of the scribes came near and heard the Sadducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ — this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

SATURDAY • MARCH 25, 2017

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

First Reading (Is 7:10-14; 8:10; NRSVCE)

The Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11; NRSVCE)

R: (8a and 9a) Here I am, Lord. I delight to do your will.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,

but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

Then I said, “Here I am.”

R: Here I am, Lord. I delight to do your will.

“In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

R: Here I am, Lord. I delight to do your will.

I have told the glad news of deliverance

in the great congregation;

see, I have not restrained my lips,

as you know, O Lord.

R: Here I am, Lord. I delight to do your will.

I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

R: Here I am, Lord. I delight to do your will.

Second Reading (Heb 10:4-10; NRSVCE)

It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body you have prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’

(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Gospel Reading (Lk 1:26-38; NRSVCE)

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.