VOLUME 3, ISSUE 11  •  MAY 13, 2017

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

VATICAN NEWS

Christians in Africa – Pope Francis’ May prayer intention

Pope to future Romanian priests: Seminary is your ‘gym’ for ministry

Pope Francis: ‘The world is at war,’ but good still remains

The Swiss Guard is more than an army – it’s a school of faith

Cardinal Farrell: Let’s talk about the beauty of the family

Holy Mass with presbyteral ordinations

The Pope’s words at the Regina Coeli prayer

Audience with the Community of the Pontifical Portuguese College of Rome

Don’t let Venezuelans fall into despair, Pope tells bishops

General Audience: The Mother of Hope

Message from the Holy Father Francis to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II on the occasion of the day of friendship between Coptic Orthodox and Catholics

Vatican astronomer: If you’re afraid of science, you don’t have faith

Letter of the Holy Father to the participants in the 36th General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) (9-12 May 2017, San Salvador)

WORLD NEWS

What’s the state of the Church in Cuba?

Kidnapped Indian priest pleads for help in new video

Catholic bishop urges Macron to fight for France’s good

Want to engage secular culture? An Irish bishop provides a guide

Blessing of cross begins rebuilding of Iraqi towns destroyed by Islamic State

France’s new president is a ‘zombie Catholic’

South Korean archbishop voices hope for new president

U.S. NEWS

Despite pro-life provisions, healthcare bill raises serious concerns

Science, compassion, adoption – why Mike Pence says ‘life is winning’ in America

Texas House passes conscience protections for foster care system

Vice President Pence to persecuted Christians: ‘We stand with you’

FEATURES

Movie review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’

‘Embryo jewelry’ a sign we’ve taken the wrong path, IVF critic says

Enduring devotion: the Irish immigrant who never forgot Our Lady of Knock

How to preach like the Apostles

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • May 14, 2017

Monday • May 15, 2017

Tuesday • May 16, 2017

Wednesday • May 17, 2017

Thursday • May 18, 2017

Friday • May 19, 2017

Saturday • May 20, 2017

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Volume 3, Issue 11 • May 13, 2017

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VATICAN NEWS

Christians in Africa – Pope Francis’ May prayer intention

CNA/EWTN News • May 5, 2017

Image from Pope Francis’ prayer video for May. (Vatican Television Center)

Vatican City — In the prayer video for May, Pope Francis challenged the Catholic community to pray that the continent’s Christians will witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.

Beyond the natural beauty of Africa, the Pope said, “we see its joie de vivre, and above all, we see grounds for hope in Africa’s rich intellect, cultural, and religious heritage.”

The May 4 video began with footage expanding over the beautiful landscapes of Africa, and changes to quick scenes of diverse individuals reflected in mirrors – like a doctor with a San Damiano Crucifix hanging beside her, a shop owner reflected among the goods in his shop, and a woman in traditional African attire smiling among vegetables in the market place.

However, as the music became more heartfelt, the Pope admitted, “we cannot fail to see fratricidal wars decimating peoples and destroying these natural and cultural resources,” and the mirror splinters as two men used coarse tools to break apart bricks.

Pope Francis then asked for prayers to assist the Christian communities’ witness to Christ, and promote peace among the countries struck by bloodshed and famine.

“Let us join with our brothers and sisters of this great continent, and pray together that Christians in Africa, in imitation of the merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace,” said Pope Francis, appearing near the end of the video.

Then the video pans to a pair of hands reaching to pick up a piece of broken mirror, fractured in the previous scene, and a man lifts it up to reflect the smile of a woman facing him.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1844 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the Jesuit-run global prayer network has received a monthly, “universal” intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.

Starting in January, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis has elected to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention focused on an urgent or immediate need if one arises.

The Pope’s prayer videos are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope to future Romanian priests: Seminary is your ‘gym’ for ministry

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • May 5, 2017

A Divine Liturgy celebrated at the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy on Sept. 18, 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — On Friday Pope Francis told seminarians studying in Rome to resist complacency and to think of their studies as strength training for their hearts and wills, preparing them for service to others.

“Your College is increasingly a ‘gym’ where you work out to give your life with willingness; your studies are tools of service for the Church, which also embellish the rich cultural tradition of your beloved country,” he said May 5 to the community of the Pontifical Romanian College.

“To treasure, through prayer and intense study, what the Lord has done in his People, is a beautiful opportunity in the years you spend in Rome, where you can breathe the universality of the Church.”

Pope Francis met with the community at the Vatican’s Consistory Hall to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the college’s founding.

In his speech, the Pope reflected on the history of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church of the Byzantine rite which came into full union with the Bishop of Rome in 1700.

In the 20th century the Church was persecuted under communism and forced underground, only re-emerging 40 years later after the fall of the communist regime in 1990.

After these difficulties, the Church in Romania is now experiencing a “beautiful rebirth,” Francis said, with new challenges to face. But “this story, made of great witnesses of faith and moments of trial, of severe winters and of flourishing springs, belongs to you,” he said.

It is good to remember this story, not as way to stay stuck in the past, but embracing each era of the Church as it comes, always remaining open to the actions of the Holy Spirit, the Pope continued.

Remembering the recent history of the Church in Romania will help them to overcome the temptation to settle for mediocrity, trying to lead “a ‘normal’ life,” Francis said, “where everything is without impetus and ardor, and where sooner or later you end up becoming the jealous keepers of your time, your security, your well-being.”

Instead, he urged them, aspire to a “passionate ministry” encouraged by the examples of your great witnesses of the faith.

“A Shepherd, as a disciple configured to Christ who gave his life ‘until the end’ (John 13:1), cannot allow himself to come to terms with a mediocre life or to adapt to situations without risking anything.”

“To guard over the memory, then, is not simply to remember the past, but to lay the foundation for the future, for a hopeful future,” he said.

In addition to preserving the memory of the Church in their country, Pope Francis encouraged them to cultivate hope, saying it was his second wish for them.

“There is so much need to nourish Christian hope, that hope which gives a new outlook, capable of discovering and seeing good, even when it is obscured by evil,” he said.

In the liturgy during the Easter season we hear from the Acts of the Apostles how the early Church “persevered in prayer, communion, and charity,” the Pope said. They never lost sight of hope, and gave it to the world, “even when it is without means, unfinished and opposed.”

“I wish your home to be a cenacle where the Spirit plants missionaries of hope, infectious bearers of the presence of the Risen Lord, courageous in creativity and never disheartened to problems and shortages of means,” he said.

“May the Holy Spirit also arouse in you the desire to seek and promote, with purified heart, the path of concord and unity among all Christians.”

Pope Francis then turned to those present from the Pontifical College of St. Ephrem, which hosts student priests of the Eastern Catholic Churches who speak Arabic, and who are welcomed by the Pontifical Romanian College.

“By meeting you, I think of the situation in which there are so many faithful in your lands, many families, who are forced to leave their home in the face of the collapse of waves of violence and suffering,” he said.

“These brothers and sisters I want to embrace in a special way, together with their Patriarchs and Bishops.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: ‘The world is at war,’ but good still remains

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

Pope Francis gives the homily at Mass for the Solemnity of All Souls in Rome’s Verano cemetery on Nov. 1, 2014. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Vatican City — In a lengthy, off-the-cuff Q&A session with students, Pope Francis said a “culture of destruction” has spread throughout the world, but there is still good in the world, although it often goes unnoticed.

There are many good things and good people in the world, “but the world is at war,” the Pope said May 6. “The world is at war … this bomb falls here, on a hospital, on a school; there are sick people, children, but it doesn’t matter. They bomb.”

Francis then said he is “ashamed of the name of a bomb: ‘the mother of all bombs.’”

The name refers to a massive bomb dropped by the U.S. on ISIS targets in Afghanistan April 13. Nicknamed “the mother of all bombs,” it is one of the United States’ largest non-nuclear bombs, and prior to April had never been used as a weapon.

“A mother gives life, and this destroys!” Pope Francis said, explaining that when the word “mother” is used in this context, he asks himself “what can be happening? The answer is it’s true, we are at war.”

Pope Francis spoke during a May 6 audience with students of the National Coordination of Local Governments for peace and human rights.

In the course of the meeting, the Pope took questions from five people, three men and two women, who asked about modern world crisis and the response – or lack thereof – to these important topics.

The first question was posed by a young woman named Maria, who asked “what is happening?” in the world given the many modern crisis, and “why is it so hard to learn how to love?”

In his response, Francis explained that when God created the world, he made it “to grow, to go forward,” but at a certain point, “a culture of destruction began.”

“This culture of destruction started from the beginning, from the jealously of Cain for his brother Abel … he destroyed him, he killed him,” the Pope said, adding that even today “there is a lot of cruelty.”

History has seen various periods of violence and destruction, he said, but today “we are living a new massacre” of men, women and children who suffer and die due to war and migration, or who are exploited for personal interests.

While in the past we only saw glimpses of this destruction in photos or newspapers, today we see it live on TV, he said, but noted that somehow, it’s only the negative things that make the news.

“We see these things on TV, because the good things that there are aren’t ‘news,’” he said, explaining that often media outlets go for stories that “have a bit of flavor,” but “always on this destruction, because it sells.”

On the contrary, “God created us to build, to give life, to go forward, to make community, to live in peace,” he said, telling the students that while he doesn’t want to “tranquilize” them to the problems of the world, “good things are happening” too.

“There are many people who give their lives for others, who spend time with others, who seek to do good for others. You don’t see this,” he said, and recalled meeting an 84-year-old nun during his visit to the Central African Republic in 2016 who had been serving as a missionary there since she was 24.

“No one knows this, you don’t see it on TV. But there are people who give their lives for others, to help against this massacre of destruction,” he said.

But at the same time that we recognize the good, we must also “denounce these terrible things, so that the world goes forward on the path of making visible the people who right now are hidden.”

The second question was posed by a young man named Michele, who asked why authorities in countries at war seem eager to do something, but in reality do nothing, and what can be done to intervene.

Pope Francis responded to Michele’s query saying the question is a “strong” one, and that the answer lay in the fact that God created man and woman to be the center of creation, but instead, “the god of money” has become the focal point.

Then, “you can’t do anything because there are affairs,” beginning with the trafficking of arms, he said, returning to a point he has often spoken out against.

“If we want peace, why do we make arms, but many more than are necessary to defend ourselves?” he asked, noting that there are countries who sell weapons to both opposing sides in a war to keep their profits up.

He also pointed to the drug trade, “which destroys the minds of youth,” and the various ways in which people are exploited, primarily through work. There are children who work from age 7 with no education, and people who are are paid very little for a day’s labor, he said.

Francis told the students that while it’s easy to be dismissive or think these things only happen in other, faraway countries, this isn’t true, because it happens “here, here in Europe, here in Italy!”

He pointed to the frequent cases in which people are paid “in black,” meaning paid under the table with no official contract, or who are given brief contracts for 8-10 months at a time, but nothing permanent.

“This is called destruction. This we Catholics call a mortal sin, exploitation,” the Pope said, and encouraged the youth to rise to the challenge and “fight against this. Work hard. Help others. Don’t be afraid.”

In his response to the third question, posed by a youth named Luca who asked how the switch from violence to non-violence can be made, Francis pointed to the virtue of “meekness.”

Violence is everywhere, and not just in wars, he said, noting that words can also harm people, and can even lead some to kill.

Using a phrase he has on several previous occasions, the Pope said the “terrorism of gossip” is the most dangerous in this regard, and told the youth that “if you are tempted to say something about someone, to gossip about another, bite your tongue.”

This also goes for insults, which at times seem to be a first impulse toward someone, he said. “It’s enough to go on the street in rush hour, when traffic is full and a motor bike come here, or a car comes from there, and immediately, instead of saying sorry,” expletives come out.

The remedy for this, he said, is meekness, which “doesn’t mean to be stupid, it means to act in peace, with tranquility, to say things in a way that doesn’t hurt.”

“We need to re-learn this, to find it again in our lives. Always with meekness, always with that meek attitude that is opposite of violence.”

The answer also bled into another question asked by Aluizio, a teacher who asked the Pope what can be done to educate youth in becoming artisans of peace.

Francis said the answer is much the same as the previous, and consists of teaching youth how to be meek and listen to others, but also fostering continuity between the different levels of society.

“We must remake the educative pact between the family, society, school, everyone at the service of youth so that they grow well. But everyone united,” he said, because otherwise, “the child will grow poorly.”

The final question was posed by a young woman named Costanza, who asked about his encyclical “Laudato Si,” and what can be done to meet the challenges of caring for creation, especially when world leaders don’t seem to be as committed as they say in achieving the latest set of Sustainable Development Goals.

Pope Francis told Costanza that he appreciated her question, because “we are destroying the most precious gift that God gave us: creation.”

Consumerism is the primary cause of this destruction, he said, but also pointed to litter, the exploitation of resources and the use of certain pesticides or chemicals used to modify food products.

“This is to mistreat creation,” he said, stressing that we must never resign to leaving our planet in ruin, but must move forward in caring for it as God’s gift.

Francis closed by leading the youth in praying a Hail Mary before asking for prayers and telling them to “go forward with courage.”

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VATICAN NEWS

The Swiss Guard is more than an army – it’s a school of faith

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

New Swiss Guards are sworn in at the Vatican on May 6, 2017. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — As 40 new Swiss Guards take an oath to defend and protect Pope Francis, their commander has emphasized that their role is not only to be a security force, but has a spiritual aspect as well.

“If someone in the (job) interview only talks about security and doesn’t know who they are giving security for … for me he is not a candidate,” Christoph Graf, Commander of the Swiss Guard, told journalists May 5.

“For me a candidate must have a foundation in the faith, to be a practicing Catholic” who goes to Mass and prays, he said, adding that if a young man knows nothing of the faith, “I don’t know what he’s looking for (in the Swiss Guard).”

Because of the army’s ties to the Pope and to the Church, he said having a solid faith life is “fundamental,” and explained that it’s even possible “to help some on the path of faith” if they have only a minimal knowledge.

In addition to being a line of defense for the Bishop of Rome, the Guard must also be “missionary,” he said, saying they must protect the Pope “with weapons, but also the faith. With prayer.”

Graf, who has served as the 35th Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard since 2015, spoke at a press conference a day ahead of the official swearing-in of 40 new Swiss Guards, who take a special oath to defend and protect the Pope.

With roughly 100 applicants for 30-35 spots each year, competition to be a Swiss Guard is tough, Graf said – there is a process of filtering the candidates in order to ween the list down to 40 or 50 people, who come to him for a final interview.

After speaking with each of them for 15-20 minutes, “you know” who the real candidates are, he said.

Those who are accepted serve for a minimum of two years, but can also stay in service for an additional year or two, which was the case for many guards during last year’s Jubilee of Mercy.

With a motto of “Courage and Loyalty,” the Pontifical Swiss Guard currently has just over 110 members, making it the smallest, though oldest army in the world.

The official swearing-in ceremony takes place each year on the anniversary of the May 6, 1527 battle that has come to be known as the Sack of Rome, and which was the most significant and deadly event in the history of the Swiss Guard.

In the course of the battle, 147 guards lost their lives while fighting the army of the mutinous Holy Roman Empire in defense of Clement VII, who was able to escape through a secret passageway leading from the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo, which sits next to the Tiber River.

As part of the schedule this year, the family members of the new guards prayed Vespers the evening of May 5 in the church of Santa Maria della Pieta in the Vatican’s Teutonic College. Later, the “deposition of the crown” ceremony took place in commemoration of the guards who died during the Sack of Rome.

Before taking their official oath in the afternoon, the guards had 7:30 a.m. Mass with Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

They then met with Pope Francis before getting ready for the swearing-in ceremony, which took place in the San Damasco courtyard of the apostolic palace and was attended by Graf and representatives of the Swiss Army and the Swiss government, as well as the Bishops Conference of Switzerland.

During the event, each new recruit approaches the flag of the Swiss Guard when his name is called out. Firmly grasping the banner with his left hand, the new guard raises his right hand and opens three fingers as a sign of his faith in the Holy Trinity.

As he holds up his fingers, the guard proclaims this oath: “I, (name), swear diligently and faithfully to abide by all that has just been read out to me, so grant me God and so help me his saints.”

In English, the full oath reads: “I swear I will faithfully, loyally and honorably serve the Supreme Pontiff Francis and his legitimate successors, and also dedicate myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing if necessary also my life to defend them. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the see is vacant. Furthermore, I promise to the Commanding Captain and my other superiors respect, fidelity and obedience. This I swear! May God and our Holy Patrons assist me!”

In comments to CNA, one of the new guards, Filippo Inches, spoke of the connection between his service and the faith, saying that “without doubt my faith has increased and has been fortified.”

“Because living 24/7 in this environment, in the context of the Vatican, surrounded by all these monsignors, archbishops and the Pope himself; participating at least one or twice a week in one of his events, listening to his preaching – inevitably and involuntarily something sticks,” he said.

Inches, who has served as a Swiss Guard for the past 11 months, is from the small Swiss town of Vacallo, which sits on the border with Italy, just 37 miles north of Milan. He took his official oath to protect and defend Pope Francis alongside 39 other guards this year.

By serving in the small army, “you also realize increasingly how important the role of the Church is as an institution,” he said, suggesting that while the Church is often criticized from the outside, being on the inside shows a different story.

“On the inside, you are aware of how many efforts are made to seek for dialogue, and peaceful solution to the various controversies and conflicts, whether on a political level, an economic level, cultural with different forums and also at the scientific level,” Inches said.

The guard explained that he had wanted to join ever since he was young. He traveled to Rome often as a child, where he always noticed the Swiss Guard, but it wasn’t until he was studying humanities in university that he decided to jump into the “adventure” of becoming one.

He said that for him, defending the Pope means “being a part of history” given the army’s ancient roots.

“So belonging to this corps I am very proud,” he said, “you see the universality, both of the Church and of history.”

Inches said he has had the opportunity to see the Pope and speak with him on several occasions during events or while standing guard outside his room.

“It can happen that he greets you, extending his hand and exchanging some joke,” he said, adding that what moves him most is when he sees the Pope coming in and out of his room, because “he gives this look like there is always a certain familiarity between him and the guards.”

In his speech to the guards and their families before the official swearing-in ceremony, Pope Francis told the guards that while they might not be called to give their lives like the 127 who died during the Sack of Rome, they are called “to another sacrifice no less arduous: to serve the power of faith.”

“This is a true barrier to resist the various strengths and powers of this world and above all he who is the ‘prince of this world,’” the Pope said, telling the guards they are called to be “strong and valorous, sustained by faith in Christ and by his Word of salvation.”

He invited them to live their time in Rome with “sincere brotherhood,” supporting each other in an exemplary Christian life that is “motivated and supported by your faith.”

“I’m sure that the strongest push to come to Rome to fulfill this service was given to you precisely by your faith,” he said, explaining that their mission comes primarily from their baptism, which allows them to bear witness to their faith in Christ.

He urged them to practice charitable service toward one another, being “missionary disciples” in the daily tasks which might seem repetitive, but to which “it is important to always give new meaning.”

During his speech at the swearing-in, Graf noted that this year marks the 600th anniversary of the birth of one of the patron saints of the Swiss Guard, St. Nicholas of Flue, known as the “defensor Pacis et pater patriate,” or, “the defender of peace and the father of our country.” Other patron saints are St. Martin and St. Sebastian.

Graf encouraged the guards to look to Scripture and the lives of the saints for examples of how to give their lives generously and with humility, saying “whoever wants to successfully guide must first learn how to love people.”

He pointed to various economic and political crises taking place throughout Europe, including those of poverty, unemployment, terrorism, migration and “a growing Islamophobia,” which are causing “a certain sense of impotence and disorientation.”

“Must not a cause for this crisis also be sought in the growing disappearance of faith, in the growing lack of God?” he asked.

“Wake up, dear Christians!” he said. “The present world has a new need for examples, especially in our Europe.”

“The present world needs simple and humble people who live and bear witness to the faith. People who carry out their daily duties with love, who pray and do penance,” he said, asking for both prayer and fasting, saying “you will be surprised at what you can do with that.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Cardinal Farrell: Let’s talk about the beauty of the family

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

Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Prefect of Laity, family and Life, speaks with CNA on May 3, 2017. (Lucia Ballester/CNA)

Vatican City — The Vatican’s point-man on family and life issues says rather than just complaining about problems we see in society, we need to focus on the Church’s rich, beautiful take on marriage and the family.

“We criticize the times we live in, we criticize governments about laws. … This is an opportunity to do something positive for the family, not just to sit back and say ‘they’re all wrong,’” Cardinal Kevin Farrell told CNA May 3.

“This is a moment for us to convey our message, what we believe about the family and what we believe about human love and what we believe about human life,” he said. “Let’s not just always focus on the negative, and focus on what’s wrong … let’s do something to educate.”

Prefect of the Vatican’s new mega-dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal Farrell was one of three Americans to get a red hat from Pope Francis during his Nov. 19 consistory. He was previously the bishop of Dallas before being tapped by Francis to lead the new department.

The cardinal is in charge of preparing for three major events that will take place in 2018 and 2019: the World Meeting of Families, which will take place Aug. 22-26, 2018, in Dublin, Ireland; the Synod on youth in October 2018 and the Jan. 22-27, 2019, international World Youth Day encounter in Panama.

Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia will form the basis for the catechesis sessions during the World Meeting of Families, “but we will accentuate the positive,” he said.

Controversy has surrounded footnote 351 of Chapter 8 of Amoris – which addresses the reception of the sacraments for divorced and remarried couples – and Farrell said that people within the Church can and should discuss it.

“We criticize, we object – which we rightfully should – I don’t say we shouldn’t do that, but I do say that we need to do a little more,” he said. “We need to not just criticize, but we need to say what our teaching is, and that’s not a yes and no answer.”

For him, Amoris Laetitia is about the beauty of marriage and family life – it’s also “Chapters 2,3,4,5 …”

“So that’s what I hope and that’s what I hope we would do, not just on the question of marriage, but … the question of human life, many questions today,” he said.

In addition to Amoris Laetitia and the need to showcase the beauty of the Church’s teaching on marriage and family, Cardinal Farrell also spoke about the ongoing restructuring of his dicastery, which merged several other departments together, and preparations for World Youth Day, the Synod and the World Meeting of Families.

Please read below for excerpts of CNA’s interview with Cardinal Farrell:

You’ve been here a little over six months now. How has it been?

It’s been a rather intense six months, it’s been a period of great learning for me because I’ve never worked in the Vatican before, so there’s a lot of things you have to learn. And I never knew too much about the dicastery or the pontifical council for the laity, for the family and for human life. I really never had any involvement whatsoever, although I was ordained a priest by Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, who at one time was the prefect of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. But it has been six months of rather listening to people and trying to understand exactly what it is that we do here, and what laity does and what family does and what human life does as a dicastery, as a department of the Holy See. So it has been a learning curve for me to understand what’s happening, and naturally the new statute of this new dicastery which brings all three departments together, is a little different than what was actually done in the past. And it’s also a question of bringing more lay people in to work here. Everybody has commented that this is the first time that Vatican law stipulates in the constitution of the dicastery, that the undersecretaries must be laypeople, and the secretary of the dicastery can in fact be a layperson. So we’re in the process of trying to identify people and inviting them to consider working here, which obviously is the first step. I hope that we will have a secretary and undersecretaries by September or October. Obviously I had to know what we were doing before we could start doing anything, and it has been quite an interesting time. At the same time this dicastery is responsible for World Youth Day, it’s responsible also for the gathering of the family, which took place two years ago in Philadelphia and next year will take place in Dublin, Ireland, and of course in between we have the synod on young people. So I would say we have enough to do.

Is there a particular strategy you guys have for merging everything into one? I imagine it’s got to be a pretty intense task …

Yes, it is a pretty intense task, but I would say we will do this gradually and we have already integrated many of the services, many of the different departments … many aspects of the merger have already taken place. It is now a question of establishing it according to the new statute, which will begin to take shape, my guess is September sometime until the following June. I would hope that it would be completed by June of next year. That would be my plan. I don’t know what God’s plan is, but that would be mine. But of course, all of this is so new to me. I was the bishop of Dallas, Texas, and nobody was more surprised about this than I was, but you just keep going.

As you mentioned, you are going into a lot of things. You have the World Youth Day, you have the World Meeting of Families, and then in between you have the synod. All of these things are sort-of connected, so is there a certain type of synergy in terms of how you are planning for these events?

Of course. I think that everybody in this dicastery will cooperate on all three events. Some people ask me many times, why did Pope Francis decide to merge these three? Well, there is an internal logic to laity. If you think for one moment, the majority of lay people in the Catholic Church do not pertain to lay ecclesial movements, but are just ordinary Catholics who go to Church on Sundays or practice their faith. And laity live out the Christian life, normally, not everybody, but the vast majority, in marriage and the family, which brings about human life, which brings about young people, which brings about World Youth Day. So there’s an internal logic for why these three separate departments come together, and there’s a certain synergy that should exist between all events that I just mentioned. So obviously we all work in making a great effort to make these moments of evangelization. They are not just gatherings, they have a purpose, they have a reason for being, and we hope to make them even better in the future.

Pope Francis during the vigil for youth before Palm Sunday said we need to listen to youth and their contributions. What would you say is the contribution of youth, what is their mission in the Church and in society today?

Obviously Pope Francis, when he was speaking about that at Saint Mary Major, we had just had a whole week-long meeting of young people and representatives of conferences of bishops, and the vast majority here were young people, to address the question of World Youth Day in Panama, obviously, and the question of the synod. The Holy Father is very interested in hearing what young people have to say. It’s not a synod of bishops about bishops. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have to listen to anybody else, whereas this synod, there will be wide consultation and Pope Francis is determined that the voice of young people be heard. That is why Cardinal Baldisseri and officials from the synod office attended our week-long event and had hours on hours of interaction with, these are all the leaders from all over the world, there were from all over the world, there were 360 people from all over the world. The majority of the young people who were there to talk about the Church and young people, and that’s what they did, and they gathered a vast amount of information. On top of that, Pope Francis wants this survey to be widely distributed, not to the bishops of the United States or any other country in the world, but to the young people. We already know what the bishops are going to say, we already know what priests are going to say, we want to know young people are going to say. The synod is about young people. That’s why Pope Francis was so animated that night at Saint Mary Major, and that’s he insisted that they have to stand up and be heard, and they had to speak up and shouldn’t just think ‘it’ll be the same as always.’ They need to be involved. Just recently, I think on Sunday, he said that young people need to get off the couch, it’s bad for the cholesterol. They need to do something; be active, get involved … we want to make this consultation as wide as possible. It’s on the internet, anybody can subscribe, anybody can answer the questions or give comments and say what they think.

How will these contributions from the youth be incorporated into the synod, but also in World Youth Day?

They will also be included when the synod takes place before World Youth Day. Obviously somebody is going to have to analyze these hundreds of thousands of comments which we hope we will receive. Conferences of bishops will have to put them in order, but they’re not going to be interpreting them, they’re going to just be sending them to the office of the synod here in the Vatican. They have a vast staff that they will coelute and put them into the working document of the synod. The working document will then be prepared based on what young people have said, just like what we did for the synod on the family, which was a great change. In the past, every bishop had 10 minutes to say something and that was it. Now, the working document is to be built by the young people. Obviously that will be the central theme of the synod, it will also be the theme of World Youth Day and, to a certain extent, the World Meeting of Families will be the next event that takes place. It takes place in August of 2018, and October 2018 is the synod and January of 2019 is the World Youth Day. So we’ll have many sleepless nights between now and then.

I’m sure you will. Has the Vatican started to receive any of the answers to the questionnaires yet?

We haven’t, but I’m sure the office of the synod has. They listened to 350 young people at our gathering – the title of it was “From Krakow to Panama,” which we hold every year, which is the transfer of the cross to the young people of Panama and Central America. It’s not just Panama, but all the bishops of Central America, which is very important. It’s in January this year, not in the summertime, and we hope that many people will attend, that we have made it in such a way that they can attend Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They don’t have to stay the whole week if they can’t do that if they’re coming from the northern hemisphere, which should be in school, and the southern hemisphere is in summer vacation. So yes, they have gathered quite a lot of information. I’m sure they continue to gather it, and have been for the last couple of weeks, and eventually it will all be put together.

Given the scope of responsibilities for your dicastery, will you be contributing in a special way to the synod?

We already have and will continue to. Yes, one of the staff here is a permanent member, Father Joao. He’s from Brazil. He is a permanent staff member of the synod, and he is a representative. Of course we all have input, and this dicastery has had and will continue to have a lot of input on the synod. That’s our particular expertise, so yes we will have a large amount to say on the question of young people in the Church.

Turning to the World Meeting of Families, as an Irishman you’ll get to go back to your roots …

It’s been so long ago since I’ve lived in Ireland that I’ve even forgotten about my roots. Not really, but yes, it’s interesting that the first event that I will have to chair, so to say, will be in Dublin, Ireland. Who would have ever thought that when I left Ireland back in 1966, or ‘65, did I ever think that one day I would return? Absolutely not. But that’s what’s happening. So I will be returning for the World Meeting of Families, which takes place in August of next year, 2018.

As an Irishman, a Pope hasn’t visited for almost 40 years, so how significant will the visit of Pope Francis be to the country, particularly given some of the challenges they’ve faced in recent years?

The way I always look at this is, I think that we have to go back to what the basic principles of our doctrine really are. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth. That’s what we believe, that’s what we say when we speak in the credum. I believe it, and I think that when he visits any country, just like when he went to Egypt, he brings a sense of peace and a sense of hope to wherever he is. I believe this will be a great gift for the Church not just of Ireland, but I would say of all of northern Europe. He will go there to gather with families, but he will also bring his presence and he will bring, as the Vicar of Christ on earth, he will bring the thought of the Holy Spirit, the thought of God Almighty, there to the people, and that’s why people … why is he so popular? Because he really, truly lives the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I do think this will be a great moment for the Church in Ireland, I think it will be a great moment for families and Catholic families all over the world, and not just Catholic families but all families. Because the family is going through a rough time these days. Whether you’re a Catholic or a non-Catholic, the state of family is having a difficult time, and I this will bring a new impulse. We spend an awful lot of time criticizing culture. We criticize the times we live in, we criticize governments about laws and things like this. This is an opportunity to do something positive for the family, not just to sit back and say ‘they’re all wrong.’ This is a moment for us to convey our message, what we believe about the family and what we believe about human love and what we believe about human life. Let’s not just always focus on the negative, and focus on what’s wrong, and what’s wrong with our societies and what’s wrong with our governments. Let’s do something to educate. I fear many times that we become so involved in protesting and fighting against laws and ideologies that we forget that we haven’t educated our younger generations about the basic, fundamental beliefs about our faith. And that’s what we need to do and that’s why this gathering on the family is so important. It’s an opportunity for us to showcase what we believe about marriage and the family. We know all the problems that exist, we know all the criticisms from one side or from the other side. We know them all. This is not a time for us to fight against the left or to fight against the right, this is a time when we need to say what we believe in. And how great, and how important the family is, and marriage is, to the future of our world and the future of our society. We’re not going to change the culture unless we change individuals one at a time. And we cannot sit back and criticize when things don’t go the way we want them to go, whether in the political world or the relationship to the family, of course, I don’t speak about anything else. When we criticize this law or that law, why did they permit that, or these other people permitted it. Stop. It’s time for us to tell people about the value of marriage, the value of human love, what it means and the value family. That’s our future. If we are just going to criticize, I fear that the Lord is going to repeat to us the parable in the Gospel or Martha and Mary. You’ve been worried about many things, but only one thing was important and you didn’t do it. So that’s why I believe this is so important for us. Stop all the criticism, and focus on the positive, focus on faith. It’s like what happens in Amoris Laetitia. Just recently I spoke to a priest from the United States. He’s a good friend, he’s a theologian who teaches theology in the United States … but I finally got him down to say he knew all about Chapter 8, but finally confessed to me that he had only glimpsed at Chapters 2,3,4,5 and 6. I rest my case.

That was actually going to be my next question. There has been a lot of criticism, but this document will be the foundation of the catechesis …

Absolutely. Chapters 1 through 7 are the catechesis that will be spoken about and will be preached in the world gathering of the family. We all know that there are all kinds of difficulties and problems, and human beings cannot be put into … we’re all different. Even though I came up in the same family with the same education when I was a young kid as my three other brothers, we’re all different and we all think different ways. So you can’t put the whole world into the same category and say ‘this is what you will all do.’ This gathering of the families will be based on Amoris Laetitia, but we will accentuate the positive. The greatest writings in modern history on the family and on human love are in this document. And it’s not different than any other document, it’s just expressed in a way that equates to the reality of the culture and the world we live in today. If you pick up the documents of the Council of Trent, a normal person would not really understand what they’re all talking about. Why? Because you don’t live in that culture and in that moment in history. This is what Amoris Laetitia does. It addresses the question of marriage, human love and family in our present culture and present historical moment. And the catechesis will all be about that, yes, that’s what it will be about.

So would you say that the core of this document, the heart of this document, is about the beauty of marriage and the family?

Yes, of course. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not about a canonical question in Chapter 8, footnote whatever-it-is. It’s about Chapters 2,3,4,5. Ask your colleagues in the news media, have they ever read anything besides Chapter 8? And if they’re honest, they will say no, we’ve never read it. We’ve read summaries, we’ve read bits and pieces, but we’ve never really read it … So that’s what I hope and that’s what I hope we would do not just on the question of marriage, but the question of marriage, the question of human life, many questions today. We criticize, we object – which we rightfully should – I don’t say we shouldn’t do that, but I do say that we need to do a little more. We need to not just criticize, but we need to say what our teaching is, and that’s not a yes and no answer.

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VATICAN NEWS

Holy Mass with presbyteral ordinations

The Holy See Press Office • May 7, 2017

Vatican City — At 9:15 today, Fourth Sunday of Easter and 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, the Holy Father Francis presided in the Vatican Basilica at Holy Mass during which presbyteral ordination was conferred to ten deacons from Roman diocesan seminaries (Pontifical Roman Major Seminary, Pontifical Roman Minor Seminary, “Redemptoris Mater” Diocesan College, and Seminary of Our Lady of Divine Love), and from other colleges.

The following concelebrated with the Holy Father: Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome; His Excellency Msgr. Filippo Iannone, vicegerente; the auxiliary bishops; the superiors of the seminaries represented; and the ordinands’ parish priests.

The homily pronounced by the Holy Father during the Eucharistic celebration was substantially the ritual homily given in the Italian edition of the Roman Pontifical for the Ordination of Presbyters, to which he added some further considerations.

Homily of the Holy Father

Dear brothers,

These our sons are now to be advanced to the Order of Priests. Let us consider carefully the nature of the ministry to which they are about to be raised. It is true that God has made His entire holy people a royal priesthood in Christ. Nevertheless, our great Priest Himself, Jesus Christ, chose certain disciples to carry out publicly in His name, and on behalf of mankind, a priestly office in the Church. They were elected by the Lord Jesus not to embark on a career, but to undertake this service.

For Christ was sent by the Father, and He in turn sent the Apostles into the world, so that through them and their successors, the Bishops, to whom are given as co-workers the priests, joined to them in the priestly office, and called to the service of the people of God.

After mature deliberation, these our brothers are now to be ordained to the priesthood in the Order of the presbyterate so as to serve Christ the Teacher, Priest, and Shepherd, by whose ministry His body, that is, the Church, is built and grows into the people of God, a holy temple of the Holy Spirit.

In being configured to Christ the eternal High Priest and joined to the priesthood of the bishops, they will be consecrated as true priests of the New Testament, to preach the Gospel, to shepherd God’s people, and to celebrate the sacred Liturgy, especially the Lord’s sacrifice.

Now, dear sons and brothers, you are to be raised to the Order of the Priesthood. For your part you will exercise the sacred duty of teaching in the name of Christ the Teacher. Impart to everyone the word of God which you have received with joy. Meditating on the law of the Lord, see that you believe what you read, that you teach what you believe, and that you practice what you preach.

In this way, let your doctrine be nourishment for the people of God: simple, as the Lord spoke, reaching the heart. Do not give homilies that are too intellectual and elaborate: speak in a simple way, speak to hearts. And this preaching will be true nourishment. Let the holiness of your lives be a delightful fragrance to Christ’s faithful, so that by word and example you may build up the house which is God’s Church. The word without example of life is no use; it is better to turn back. The double life is an ugly disease in the Church.

Likewise you will exercise in Christ the office of sanctifying. For by your ministry the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful will be made perfect, being united to the sacrifice of Christ, which will be offered through your hands in an unbloody way on the altar, in union with the faithful, in the celebration of the sacraments. Understand, therefore, what you do and imitate what you celebrate. As celebrants of the mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection, strive to put to death whatever in your members is sinful and to walk in newness of life. A presbyter who has perhaps studied a lot of theology and has one, two, three degrees, but has not learned to bear Christ’s cross, is of no use. He will be a good academic, a good professor, but not a priest.

You gather others into the people of God through Baptism. You forgive sins in the name of Christ and the Church in the sacrament of Penance. Please, I ask you in the name of Christ and the Church to be merciful, always; do not load the faithful with burdens they cannot bear, and do not to so to yourselves either. Jesus rebukes the doctors of the law for this, and calls them hypocrites. You will comfort the sick with holy oil and celebrate the sacred rites. One of your tasks – perhaps boring, even painful – is going to visit the sick. Do this. Yes, it is good for the lay faithful and deacons to go, but do not neglect to touch the flesh of the suffering Christ in the sick: this sanctifies you, and brings you closer to Christ. When you offer prayers of praise and thanks to God throughout the hours of the day, not only for the people of God but for the world – remember then that you are taken from among men and appointed on their behalf for those things that pertain to God. Carry out the ministry of Christ the Priest with constant joy and genuine love, attending not to your own concerns but to those of Jesus Christ. Be joyful, never sad. Joyful. With the joy of service to Christ, even in the midst of suffering, misunderstandings, one’s own sins. Keep always before your eyes the example of the Good Shepherd Who came not to be served but to serve, and Who came to seek out and save what was lost. Please, do not be “Lords,” do not be “clerics of state,” but shepherds, shepherds of the people of God.

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

The Pope’s words at the Regina Coeli prayer

The Holy See Press Office • May 7, 2017

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

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

Before the Regina Coeli

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In the Gospel reading (cf. John 10:1-10) of this Sunday “of the Good Shepherd,” Jesus presents Himself with two images that complement one another: the image of the shepherd and the image of the door of the sheepfold. The flock, of which we are all part, inhabits a sheepfold that serves as refuge, where the sheep dwell and rest after the exhaustion of their journey. And the sheepfold is an enclosure with a door, where there is a guardian. Different people approach the flock: one enters the enclosure passing through the door and one “climbs in by another way” (v. 1). The former is the shepherd; the latter is a stranger, who does not love the sheep and wants to enter for other reasons. Jesus identifies Himself with the former and manifests a relation of familiarity with the sheep, expressed through His voice, with which He calls them and which they recognize and follow (cf. v.3). He calls them to lead them out to grassy pastures, where they find good nourishment.

The second image with which Jesus presents Himself is that of the “door of the sheep” (v. 7). Indeed, He says: “I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved” (v. 9), that is, he will have life, and have it abundantly (cf. v. 10). Christ, the Good Shepherd, became the door of humanity’s salvation because He offered His life for His sheep.

Jesus, Good Shepherd and door of the sheep, is a leader Whose authority is expressed in service, a leader Who gives His life to command and does not ask others to sacrifice it. We can trust such a leader, like the sheep that hear the voice of their shepherd, because they know that with him they go to good and abundant pastures. A signal suffices, a call and they follow, obey, set out on the way guided by the voice of the one they sense as a friendly presence, strong and gentle at the same time, who directs, protects, consoles and medicates.

Christ is thus for us. There is a dimension of the Christian experience that, perhaps, we leave somewhat in the shade: the spiritual and affective dimension, our feeling of being connected by a special bond to the Lord as the sheep to their shepherd. Sometimes we rationalize faith too much and we risk losing our perception of the tone of that voice, of the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, Who inspires and fascinates, as happened to the two disciples of Emmaus, whose heart burned while the Risen One was speaking along the way. It is the wonderful experience of feeling that you are loved by Jesus. Ask yourselves the question: “Do I feel loved by Jesus?” For Him, we are never strangers, but friends and brothers. Yet it is not always easy to distinguish the voice of the Good Shepherd. Be careful. There is always the risk of being distracted by the din of so many other voices. Today we are invited not to allow ourselves to be diverted by the false wisdom of this world, but to follow Jesus, the Risen One, as the only sure guide Who gives meaning to our life.

On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations – in particular for priestly vocations, so that the Lord will send us good Pastors — we invoke the Virgin Mary: may she accompany the ten new priests I ordained a short while ago. I have asked four of them from the diocese of Rome to come to give the blessing together with me. May Our Lady support with her help all those called by Him, so that they are prompt and generous in following His voice.

After the Regina Coeli

Dear brothers and sisters,

Yesterday, in Gerona, Spain, Antonio Arribas Hortigüela and six companions of the Religious of the Congregation of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were proclaimed Blessed. These faithful and heroic disciples of Jesus were killed out of hatred for the faith at a time of religious persecution. May their martyrdom, accepted out of love for God and fidelity to their vocation, awaken in the Church the desire to witness with fortitude the Gospel of Charity.

I greet you all, Roman faithful and pilgrims, in particular those from Warsaw, Aalen (Germany), Liebenau (Austria), Chennai (India) and Texas (United States of America), as well as the teachers and students of the “Corderius College” of Amersfoort (Netherlands).

I greet the “Meter” Association, which for over twenty years has opposed every form of abuse of minors. Thank you. Thank you so much for your commitment in the Church and in society, and go ahead with courage!

I greet the participants in the national gathering of the Arm of Carabineers, the delegation from the Independent Police Union, the faithful of Pomezia and Palestrina, the Holy Sepulchre Association of Foligno, the Valsolda Philharmonic and young people from Modica. [The Valsolda Philharmonic Orchestra performed, and the Pope commented: “Good!”].

Tomorrow we will address our Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii. In this month of May we pray the Rosary for peace, in particular. Remember: let us pray the Rosary for peace, as requested by the Virgin of Fátima, where I will go on a pilgrimage in a few days, on the occasion of the centenary of the first apparition.

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

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Audience with the Community of the Pontifical Portuguese College of Rome

The Holy See Press Office • May 8, 2017

Vatican City — At 11:40 this morning, in the Consistory Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the Community of the Pontifical Portuguese College of Rome.

The following is the full text of the Pope’s address to those present:

Holy Father’s Address

Dear brothers and sisters,

Thank you for coming to see me; welcome! I greet you all, especially the rector Fr. Caldas, thanking him for the kind words he addressed to me on behalf of the whole community. I also wish to express my gratitude to his colleagues, the religious sisters and the staff. I thank you especially for your prayers; For my part, I wish peace and hope in the Lord to each of you and your families and nations of origin.

In Portugal, this wish will bring - God willing - in person, in my now imminent pilgrimage to the Shrine of Fatima, where a hundred years ago the Madonna appeared to the three little shepherds. The encounter with Our Lady was for them an experience of grace that inspired their love for Jesus. As tender and good teacher, Mary introduced the little seers to the intimate knowledge of Trinitarian love and led them to savior God as the most beautiful reality of human existence. I cannot but wish the same to all of you, dear friends. Beyond every other goal that has brought you to Rome and keeps you here, may there always be this: knowing and loving Christ - as the apostle Paul would say – trying to conform increasingly to Him unto the total gift of self.

In a concrete sense you, dear priests, are called to progress, without tiring, in your Christian, priestly, pastoral, and cultural formation. Whatever your academic specialization, your first concern always remains that of growing on the path of priestly consecration, through the loving experience of God: a close and faithful God, as Blessed Francisco and Jacinta and the Servant of God Lucia felt Him to be. Today, contemplating their humble yet glorious lives, we feel drawn to entrust ourselves, too, to the care of the same Master. And this is not a novelty. We always pray for this in to the most ancient Latin antiphon to Our Lady: “Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix.” It invites us to seek shelter under the mantle of a mother who takes us by the hand and teaches us to grow in the love of Christ and in fraternal communion.

I liked hearing Fr. Caldas say that since 1929, in the College Chapel, the gaze of the Mother of God has accompanied the supplications of those who approach the altar. Look to her and let her look upon you, because she is your Mother and loves you greatly; let her look upon you, to learn how to be more humble and also more courageous in following the Word of God; to welcome the embrace of her Son Jesus and, strengthened by this friendship, to love every person following the example and the measure of the Heart of Christ, to which the College is consecrated, finding love, hope and peace in Him. Let us look, brothers and sisters, at our Mother, who is in God’s heart. The mystery of this girl from Nazareth is not extraneous to us. It is not a question of “She is there and we are here.” No, we are connected. In effect, God turns His loving gaze (cf. Lk, 1:48) also to every man and every woman, calling them by name and surname! His gaze of love rests upon each one of us.

The relationship with Our Lady helps us to have a good relationship with the Church: both of them are Mothers. You know, in this respect, the comment of St. Isaac, the abbot of Stella; what can be said about Mary can be said about the Church, and also about our soul. All three are female, all three are Mothers, and all three give life. We must therefore cultivate the filial relationship with Our Lady because, if this is missing, there is something of the orphan in the heart. A priest who forgets the Mother, and especially in moments of difficulty, is lacking something. It is as if he were an orphan, while in reality he is not! He has forgotten his mother. But in moments of difficulty a child always goes to his mother. And the Word of God teaches us to be like children, weaned in the arms of the mother (cf. Sal 131:2).

In conclusion, I hope that your priestly community may continue to be a seedbed of apostles, a point of union between the Churches of your countries and Rome, joined in charity and in the living witness of God’s love for humanity. With these wishes for the best future for the Pontifical Portuguese College, I impart my heartfelt apostolic blessing to the superiors, students, colleagues and to your families. And I pray to Our Lady of Fátima, that she may teach you to believe, worship, hope and love like Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, and the Servant of God Lucia. And please, do not forget to pray for me.

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Don’t let Venezuelans fall into despair, Pope tells bishops

CNA/EWTN News • May 8, 2017

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

Vatican City — In response to Venezuela’s violent riots, inflated prices, and political mistrust, Pope Francis urged the country’s bishops to continue promoting a culture of encounter.

“Dear brothers, I wish to encourage you to not allow the beloved children of Venezuela to allow themselves to be overcome by distrust or despair since these are evils that sink into the hearts of people when they do not see future prospects,” Pope Francis said in a May 5 letter to the bishops.

“I am persuaded that Venezuela’s serious problems can be solved if there is the desire to establish bridges, to dialogue seriously and to comply with the agreements that were reached.”

Riots have spiked in Venezuela in recent years, resulting from unemployment, food and medicine shortages, and President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian policies.

Price controls in 2003 caused inflation rates to skyrocket on basic necessities, baring the access of food and medicines to the people. Poor socialist policies have effected an estimated 160 products, and while they remain affordable on the shelf, they are soon swept off and sold on the black market at a triple digit inflation rate.

Violent riots have fluctuated since the death of the previous president Hugo Chavez in 2013, but gained even more traction after opposition leaders were arrested last year and Maduro’s attempt for more power by dissolving the legislature in March of this year.

Archbishop Ubaldo Santana of Maracaibo spoke gravely on the situation in an interview with Alpha and Omega news weekly earlier this year, calling it a “bloodbath of considerable proportions” fueled by riots and criminally charged activities.

“We’re talking about 30,000 people murdered a year, and if we don’t manage to find peaceful ways to understand each other, that number can increase.”

In the letter, Pope Francis commended the pastors who have shared in the suffering of their flock.

“I also know that you, dear brothers, share the situation of your people, who along with the priests, consecrated women and men and the lay faithful are suffering for the lack of food and medicines, and that some have even endured personal attacks and acts of violent acts in your Churches.”

But hunger and lack of basic necessities has also fueled violence among the people and looting has notably increased. According to The New York Times, shopping carts full of food and other supplies were stripped from supermarkets and liquor stores during riots among poor and working class communities.

Opposition leaders have also struggled with the violent riots, trying to channel the political unrest into peaceful demonstrations, but even the peaceful protests have been greeted by rubber bullets and tear gas.

Archbishop Diego Padrón Sánchez of Cumaná, President of Venezuela’s bishop conference, said the government “carried out violence with the various persecutions conducted against different opposition leaders” in response to peaceful protests late last year.

Venezuela is noted to be one of the most politically corrupt countries in Latin America, and anger recently arose after the Supreme Court’s attempted to strip legislative power from the National Assembly. The move was identified by the United States and the United Nations as a power grab by Maduro, whose supporters hold seats in most of the court.

However, despite the political unrest the bishops have continuously called for people to avoid “any form of violence, to respect the rights of citizens and to defend and promote human dignity and fundamental rights,” Pope Francis said.

“I urge you to continue doing everything necessary so that this difficult path may be possible, convinced that the communion among you and your priests will give you the light to find the right path.”

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VATICAN NEWS

General Audience: The Mother of Hope

The Holy See Press Office • May 10, 2017

Vatican City — This morning’s General Audience took place at 9:25 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 focused on the theme “The Mother of Hope” (cf. John 19:25-27).

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 Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

Catechesis of the Holy Father

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In our catechesis on Christian hope, today we look to Mary, Mother of hope. Mary went through more than one dark night on her journey as a mother. From her earliest appearance in the history of the Gospels, she stands out as if she were a character in a drama. It was not easy to answer “yes” to the angel’s invitation: yet she, a woman still in the flower of youth, answers with courage, despite knowing nothing about the fate that awaited her. Mary at that moment appears to us like one of the many mothers of our world, brave to the extreme when it comes to welcoming in her womb the story of a new person to be born.

That “yes” is the first step in a long list of acts of obedience – a long list of acts of obedience! – who will accompany her mother’s itinerary. So Mary appears in the Gospels as a silent woman who often does not understand all that is happening around her but ponders every word and every event in her heart.

In this arrangement there is a beautiful outline of Maria’s psychology: she is not a woman who is discouraged by the uncertainties of life, especially when nothing seems to go in the right direction. Nor is she a woman who protests with violence, who inveighs against the destiny in life that often reveals a hostile face. Instead, she is a woman who listens: do not forget that there is always a great relationship between hope and listening, and Mary is a woman who listens. Mary welcomes existence just as it is given to us, with its happy days, but also with its tragedies we would never have wished to encounter. Up to the supreme night of Mary, when her Son is nailed to the wood of the cross.

Until that day, Mary had almost disappeared from the story of the Gospels: the sacred writers leave implicit this slow eclipse of her presence, her remaining silent faced with the mystery of a Son Who obeys His Father. But Mary reappears precisely at that crucial moment, when a good number of His friends have fled out of fear. Mothers do not betray, and at that moment, at the foot of the cross, none of us can say what was cruelest passion: that of an innocent man who dies on the scaffold of the cross, or the agony of a mother who witnesses the last moments of her son’s life. The Gospels are laconic, and extremely discreet. They record in a simple verb the presence of the Mother: she “stood” (John 19:25). She was standing. They say nothing of her reaction: whether or not she wept … nothing; not even a brushstroke to describe her grief: the imagination of poets and painters were to seize upon these details, giving us images that have entered the history of art and literature. But the Gospels just say, she was “standing.” She was there, in the worst moment, in the cruelest moment, and suffered with her son. “She stood.”

Mary “stood,” she was simply there. Here she is again, the young woman of Nazareth, now with her hair greyed by the passing of the years, still coming to grips with a God who must only be embraced, and with a life that has reached the threshold of the deepest darkness. Mary “stood” in the deepest darkness, but she “stood,” she stayed. She did not go away. Mary is there, faithfully present, every time that there needs to be a lighted candle in a place of mist and fog. Not even she knows the destiny of resurrection that her Son was at that instead opening up for all humanity: she is there out of fidelity to God’s plan, to which she proclaimed herself a servant in the first day of her vocation, but also due to her instinct as a mother who simply suffers, every time that there is a son who goes through a passion. The sufferings of mothers: we have all known strong women, who have faced so many sufferings for their children!

We find her again in the first day of the Church, she, mother of hope, in the midst of that community of disciples, so fragile: one had renounced, many had fled, and all had been afraid (cf. Acts 1:14). But she was simply there, in the most normal of ways, as if it were something entirely natural: in the first Church enveloped in the light of the Resurrection, but also in the tremors of the first steps that she needed to take in the world.

This is why we all love her as a Mother. We are not orphans: we have a Mother in heaven, Who is the Holy Mother of God. Because she teaches us the virtue of waiting, even when everything seems to be without meaning; she is always trustful in the mystery of God, even when He seems to be eclipsed by the evil in the world. In moments of difficulty, may Mary, the Mother who Jesus gave to all of us, always be able to sustain our steps, may she always be able to say to our heart, “Arise! Look ahead, look to the horizon,” because she is the Mother of hope. 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, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Finland, Mainland China, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. In the joy of the Risen Christ, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Message from the Holy Father Francis to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II on the occasion of the day of friendship between Coptic Orthodox and Catholics

The Holy See Press Office • May 10, 2017

Vatican City — The following is the Message the Holy Father Francis sent to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II on the occasion of the day of friendship between the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.

Message of the Holy Father

To His Holiness Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark

Dear Brother,

After my visit to Egypt and the blessed encounter with Your Holiness in Cairo, and recalling the fourth anniversary of our fraternal meeting in Rome on 10 May 2013, I take this opportunity to offer my prayerful best wishes for your peace and health, as well as my joy and gratitude for the spiritual bonds uniting the See of Peter and the See of Mark.

I once more express my profound appreciation for your hospitality and for our moving meeting and common prayer as brothers in Christ. I am especially grateful that we have strengthened our baptismal unity in the body of Christ by declaring together “that we, with one mind and heart, will seek sincerely not to repeat the baptism that has been administered in either of our Churches for any person who wishes to join the other.” Our bonds of fraternity “challenge us to intensify our common efforts to persevere in the search for visible unity in diversity, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

Along this path we are sustained by the powerful intercession and example of the martyrs. May we continue to advance together on our journey towards the same Eucharistic table, and grow in love and reconciliation.

I assure Your Holiness of my continued prayers for you, and for peace in Egypt and the Middle East. In this Easter season I pray that the Holy Spirit, the strength and tenderness of God, may fill our hearts with his grace and kindle in them the fire of his love. May the Spirit of peace bestow on us an increase of hope, friendship and harmony.

With these sentiments, on this special occasion which has rightly become known as the day of friendship between the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, I exchange with Your Holiness a fraternal embrace of peace in Christ our Lord.

From the Vatican, 10 May 2017

FRANCIS

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

VATICAN NEWS

Vatican astronomer: If you’re afraid of science, you don’t have faith

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

(NASA)

Vatican City — The Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, who has worked as an astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican for more than 20 years, told journalists Monday that faith and reason are hardly at odds.

“If you have no faith in your faith, that is when you will fear science,” Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., said May 8.

He spoke to journalists at a press conference ahead of a May 9-12 summit on “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Space-Time Singularities” being held in Castel Gandolfo at the Vatican Observatory, just outside Rome.

“The Vatican Observatory was founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII to show that the Church supports good science, and to do that we have to have good science,” Br. Consolmagno said, explaining the reasoning behind the conference.

The hope is that the encounter will foster good science, good discussion, and even friendship. Among the speakers will be a Nobel Prize winner in physics and a Wolf Prize winner.

Among the topics of papers being presented at the conference are Strong evidence for an accelerating universe; Black hole perturbations: a review of recent analytical results; and Observing the Signature of Dynamical Space-Time through Gravitational Waves.

“Those of us that are religious, will recognize the presence of God, but you don’t have to make a theological leap to search for the truth,” Br. Consolmagno said. “There are many things we know we do not understand. We cannot be good religious people or scientists if we think that our work is done.”

The summit is also taking place in recognition of Fr. Georges Lemaître, the Belgian physicist and mathematician who is widely credited with developing the “Big Bang” theory to explain the origin of the physical universe.

Addressing common misconceptions surrounding the Big Bang, such as the idea that it did away with the need for a creator, Br. Consolmagno said the solution isn’t just to put God at the beginning of things and call that good, either.

“The creative act of God is not something that happened 13.8 billion years ago,” he said. “God is already there before space and time exist. You can’t even say ‘before’ because he is outside of time and space.”

The creative act is happening continuously: “If you look at God as merely the thing that started the Big Bang, then you get a nature god, like Jupiter throwing around lightning bolts.”

“That’s not the God that we as Christians believe in,” he went on. “We must believe in a God that is supernatural. We then recognize God as the one responsible for the existence of the universe, and our science tells us how he did it.”

The organizer of the conference, Fr. Gabriele Gionti, S.J., said Fr. Lemaître always distinguished between the beginnings of the universe and its origins.

“The beginning of the universe is a scientific question, to be able to date with precision when things started. The origins of the universe, however, is a theologically charged question.”

Answering that question “has nothing at all to do with a scientific epistemology,” he added.

Br. Consolmagno commented that “God is not something we arrive at the end of our science, it’s what we assume at the beginning. I am afraid of a God who can be proved by science, because I know my science well enough to not trust it!”

“An atheist could assume something very different, and have a very different view of the universe, but we can talk and learn from each other. The search for truth unites us.”

He suggested that to demonstrate that the Church and science are not at odds, those who are both church-goers and scientists should make that fact more known to their fellow parishioners.

He threw out some practical ideas, such as setting up a telescope in the church parking lot or leading the parish’s youth group on a nature hike.

The Church, in a sense, developed science through the medieval universities she founded, he explained. For example, Bishop Robert Grosseteste, a 13th century Bishop of Lincoln and chancellor of Oxford University, helped develop the scientific method and was often cited by Roger Bacon.

“If there is a rivalry” between the Church and science, Br. Consolmagno said, “it’s a sibling rivalry.”

“And it’s a crime against science to say that only atheists can do it, because if that were true, it would eliminate so many wonderful scientists.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Letter of the Holy Father to the participants in the 36th General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) (9-12 May 2017, San Salvador)

The Holy See Press Office • May 11, 2017

Vatican City — The following is the letter sent by the Holy Father Francis to the participants in the 36th General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), taking place from 9 to 12 May in San Salvador on the theme: “A poor Church for the poor.”

Letter of the Holy Father

To my brother Bishops at the CELAM Assembly

Dear brothers,

I wish to address you in these days of the Assembly, which has as its background music the celebration of the 300 years of Our Lady of Aparecida. And, with you, I would like to “visit” this Shrine. A visit of sons and disciples, a visit of brothers who, like Moses, wish to tread barefoot on this holy land that was the setting for the God’s encounter with His people. Likewise, I would also like it to be our “visit” to the foot of the Mother, so that she may engender hope in us and temper our hearts as sons. It will be like “returning home” to look upon and contemplate, but above all to let ourselves be looked upon and to encounter He Who loved us first.

Three hundred years ago a group of fishermen went out as usual to cast their nets. They went out to earn a living, and were surprised by a discovery that changed their path: in their nets they found a small image, all covered in mud. It was Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, an image that for fifteen years remained in the house of one of them; the fishermen went there to pray and she helped them grow in faith. Today, three hundred years later, Our Lady of Aparecida makes us grow, and places us on the path of the disciple. Aparecida is above all a school of discipleship. And, in this respect, I would like to indicate three aspects.

The fishermen are the first. There were few of them, a little group of men who every day went out to face the day and the uncertainty that the river held for them. Men who lived with the uncertainty of never knowing what the catch of the day would be; uncertainty that is not easy to deal with when it relates to bringing home food, and especially when there are children to feed. The fishermen are these men who know first-hand the ambivalence between the generosity of the river and the aggressiveness of its floods. Men accustomed to facing inclemency with the vigor and a certain holy obstinacy, of those who never fail to cast their nets, day by day, as they cannot do otherwise.

This image brings us to the center of the life of many of our brothers. I see the faces of people who go out to earn a living from very early until well into the night. And they do so with the insecurity of not knowing what the result will be. And what hurts the most is seeing that, almost regularly, they go out to face the inclemency generated by one of the gravest sins that currently afflicts our Continent: corruption, that corruption that sweeps through lives, submerging them in the most extreme poverty. Corruption that destroys entire populations, subjecting them to precariousness. Corruption that, like a cancer, eats away at the daily life of our people. And there are many of our brothers who, in an admirable fashion, go out to fight against and face the excesses of many who have no need to do so.

A second aspect is the Mother. Mary knows first hand the life of her children. A mother who is attentive and accompanies the life of her children. She goes where she is not expected. In the account of Aparecida, we find her in the river, surrounded by mud. There she awaited her sons, there she stays with her sons in the midst of their struggles and their searches. She is not afraid to immerse herself with them in the vicissitudes of history and, if necessary, to “get dirty” in order to renew hope. Maria appears where the fishermen throw the nets, where those men try to make a living. She is there.

Finally, encounter. The nets filled not with fish, but with a presence that filled their life and gave them the certainty that in their endeavors, in their struggles, they were not alone. It was the encounter of these men with Mary. After cleaning and restoring the image, they took it to a house where it remained for a long time. That house, that home, was the place where the fishermen of the region went to encounter Our Lady of Aparecida. And that presence became community, Church. The nets were not filled with fish, they became a community.

In Aparecida, we encounter the dynamic of the believing people that confesses itself sinner and saved, a vigorous and obstinate people, aware that their nets, their life, is filled with a presence that encourages them not to lose hope; a presence that is concealed in the daily life of the home and families, in those silent spaces where the Holy Spirit continues to underpin our Continent. All this is presented to us by a beautiful icon that we pastors are invited to contemplate. We come as sons and as disciples to listen and to learn what today, three hundred years later, this event continues to tell us.

Aparecida (whether the apparition and, today, the experience of the Conference) does not bring us recipes, but rather keys, criteria, certainties both small and great to enlighten and, above all, to “ignite” the desire to remove all unnecessary baggage and to return to the roots, to the essential, to the attitude that planted the faith in the beginnings of the Church and has ever since made our Continent a land of hope. Aparecida seeks simply to renew our hope in the midst of so many “inclemencies.”

The first invitation that this icon offers us as pastors is to learn to look at the People of God. To learn to listen and to know them, to give them their importance and place. Not in a conceptual or organizational way, nominative or functional. Although it is true that today there is greater participation of the lay faithful, we have often limited them to intra-ecclesial commitment alone, without giving a clear incentive for them to permeate the social, political, economic, and university environments with the force of the Gospel. Learning to listen to the People of God means to rid ourselves of our prejudices and rationalism, our functionalist mindsets, so as to understand how the Spirit acts in the hearts of so many men and women who with great zeal do not cease to throw nets and to fight to make the Gospel credible, to know how the Spirit continues to move the faith of our people; that faith that does not consider gain or pastoral successes, but rather solid hope. How much we have to learn from the faith of our people! The faith of mothers and grandmothers who are not afraid to “get dirty” to help their children move ahead. They know that the world they live in is plagued with injustice; everywhere they see and experience the shortcomings and fragility of a society that is increasingly fragmented every day, where impunity for corruption continues to take lives and destabilize cities.

They not only know this – they live it. And they are the clear example of the second reality that as pastors we are invited to take on: let us not be afraid to get dirty for our people. Let us not be afraid of the mire of history, so that we can rescue and renew hope. Only the one who is not afraid to risk and commit to his own will catch the fish. And this is not born of the heroism or the kamikaze character of some, nor is it the individual inspiration of one who wishes to immolate himself. It is the whole community of believers that goes out in search of the Lord, because only by coming out and leaving behind securities (which are often “worldly”) does the Church find her focus. Only by ceasing to be self-referential are we able to re-focus on Him, He Who is the source of Life and Fullness. In order to live in hope it is crucial that we re-center ourselves on Jesus Christ, Who already dwells at the center of our culture and comes to us always new. He is the center. This certainty and invitation helps us as pastors to focus on Christ and His People. They are not antagonistic. To contemplate Christ in His people is to learn to be a part of ourselves, to focus on the one Shepherd. To re-focus with Christ with His People is to have the courage to go to the peripheries of the present and the future, trusting in the hope that the Lord is still present and that His presence will continue to be a source of abundant life. From here will come the creativity and the strength to reach where there arise the new paradigms that are setting out the guidelines for the life of our countries and to reach, with the Word of Jesus, the deepest nuclei of the soul of the cities where the experience of feeling not like citizens but instead like “half-citizens” or “urban surplus” grows day by day (Cf. EG 74).

It is true, and we can not deny it, that reality is becoming more complicated and disconcerting, but we are called to live as disciples of the Master without allowing ourselves to be aseptic and impartial observers, but rather men and women passionate about the Kingdom, eager to infuse the structures of society with the Life and Love we have known. And we must do this not as colonizers or dominators, but rather by sharing the good odor of Christ; may it be this scent that continues to change lives.

I repeat to you, as a brother, what I wrote in Evangelii Gaudium (49): “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from cling to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).

This will help reveal the merciful dimension of the motherhood of the Church that, following the example of Aparecida, is between the “rivers and the mud of history,” accompanying and encouraging the hope that each person, wherever he is, may feel at home, can feel that he is a beloved, sought after and awaited son.

This look, this dialogue with the faithful People of God, offers the pastor two very beautiful attitudes to cultivate: courage to proclaim the Gospel, and endurance to overcome the difficulties and troubles that preaching itself causes. To the extent that we involve ourselves in the lives of our faithful people and feel the depths of their wounds, we can look without “clerical filters” at the face of Christ, turn to His Gospel to pray, think, discern and let ourselves be transformed, by His face, into pastors of hope. May Mary, Our Lady of Aparecida, continue to lead us to her Son so that our people may find life in Him … and in abundance.

And, please, I ask you not to forget to pray for me. May Jesus bless you and the Blessed Virgin care for you. Fraternally.

The Vatican, 8 May 2017.

Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana (vatican.va)

WORLD NEWS

What’s the state of the Church in Cuba?

CNA/EWTN News • May 5, 2017

The Cuban flag. (Steward Cutler via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba — Following the Cuban bishops’ ad limina meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday, one of the nation’s bishops commented that the island is eagerly awaiting change.

“Cuba is waiting for change. Some changes happen faster than others, but we Cubans, whatever our personal ideas may be, realize that the people can live in better spiritual and material conditions, and that things must change,” Archbishop Dionisio García Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba told Vatican Radio May 4.

“They are economic and social changes, which necessarily go together … There are cultural changes which are rather rapid, especially among the youth who have familiarity with digital means of communication and have another mode of thinking. This makes the world come to Cuba and come to know better its reality. Political change is also to be expected: it is the structures, and above all the legal one, which have to change.”

Cultural change has been the most visible effect of the opening between the United States and Cuba, Archbishop García commented, saying that “there are now more possibilities for travelling abroad, and tourists can more easily come to Cuba. Although it is still limited, the population has a greater access to new communications technologies and this produces a cultural change which is the condition for any other change, because it makes it possible for persons to chance their own criteria for judgement.”

He said there has been a change for the Church in that “there is a better understanding of religion, and the people can express their own faith.”

“Cubans are a religious people, but we also see there is little faith formation. For us bishops, it is a difficult problem to face. However, we are a creative Church which has been close to its people and who is now witnessing their faith.”

Archbishop García also noted that “we have vocations, although there are not enough. Thanks be to God, we have fidei donum missionaries, both diocesan and religious, but we still need more. But I would like to say that any missionary who come to Cuba and who wishes to work, has much to do because he finds receptive persons.”

An important and positive change for the bishops has been an easing of permits for visas and residency for missionaries, he added: “The situation has changed a lot. I can say that now there are no more obstacles than before, because when a bishop asks for an entry visa for a missionary he does not encounter problems.”

Asked about the buildings the Church is recovering, the bishop said that “this process has just begun. It’s already a positive thing. In certain dioceses they have returned some buildings, but it’s a slow process.”

“We are working with the state in order that, after 50 years in which the population has grown, we might be able to have the places for worship that we need.”

While they wait for this to move forward, the archbishop explained, “we have houses of prayer, that is, the faithful make their homes available for their communities to gather there. There aren’t parish churches with their pastoral buildings, but nevertheless the Church lives.”

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WORLD NEWS

Kidnapped Indian priest pleads for help in new video

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

Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil. (ACS Agenzia Info Salesiana)

Vatican City — Fourteen months after his kidnapping in March 2016, Salesian priest Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil has appeared in another video asking for help in obtaining his release, criticizing the response of a local bishop and the Indian government.

Opening with a word of thanks, Fr. Tom apparently references either a message he’s received, or the general concern surrounding his case.

“I received the message of concern that you sent to me, my dear family people. I’m thankful to you. Thank you very much,” he said in the video, published on YouTube May 8.

The video, which has not yet been authenticated, shows a cardboard sign with the date April 15, 2017, sitting on the lap of a thin-looking Fr. Tom, who appears with overgrown hair and a beard.

Speaking slowly in English, Fr. Tom said the Indian government has been contacted several times concerning his release. The bishop of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates has also been contacted, he said, claiming that he’s seen their responses, and they were “very, very poor.”

The priest indicated that he is in poor health, saying: “my health condition is deteriorating quickly, and I require hospitalization as early as possible,” he said.

He then made an appeal for his release, asking “my little family people” to do what they can “to help me be released. Please, please do what you can to help me be released. May God bless you for that.”

Fr. Tom was kidnapped in Yemen in March of last year during an attack on a Missionaries of Charity house that left 4 sisters dead. He garnered international attention last spring when rumors spread that he was to be crucified on Good Friday. Those rumors were later discredited.

A video was posted to YouTube Dec. 26, 2016, showing Fr. Tom personally appealing to Pope Francis, and bishops all over the world, for help.

“Dear Pope Francis … as a father, please take care of my life,” Fr. Tom said. The five-minute video was the first communication from Fr. Tom since his abduction. The priest had overgrown hair and spoke slowly from a prepared script.

Pope Francis did appeal for the priest’s release April 10, 2016, after his Sunday Regina Coeli address in St. Peter’s Square.

“I renew my appeal for the freeing of all kidnapped persons in armed conflict zones,” the Pope said. “In particular, I wish to remember Salesian priest Tom Uzhunnalil, who was abducted in Aden, Yemen last March 4.”

Since his kidnapping, Salesians in the Bangalore province of India have made continued efforts for his safety and release, including holding a prayer vigil Jan. 4 and a worldwide novena Jan. 15-23.

No one has claimed responsibility for the priest’s kidnapping, making it difficult for the Indian government to broker the priest’s release. In addition, the situation has been exacerbated by the political instability in Yemen.

Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since March 2015, when Shia rebels attempted to oust Yemen’s Sunni-led government. Saudi Arabia has led a pro-government coalition. Both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have set up strongholds in the country amid the power vacuum. More than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

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WORLD NEWS

Catholic bishop urges Macron to fight for France’s good

CNA/EWTN News • May 9, 2017

French President Emmanuel Macron. (Frederic Legrand COMEO via Shutterstock)

Paris, France — After Emmanuel Macron won the presidential elections in France, the head of the country’s bishops urged the new leader to help alleviate local woes such as unemployment and political division.

“Macron’s election was significant. … We have to wish him success for the good of our country,” Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseilles said.

“Tensions are such … the changes, the uncertainties are such that he must succeed.”

On May 7, 39-year-old centrist Macron beat Marine Le Pen, the far right candidate of the National Front party with 66 percent of the vote.

Macron will take office May 14 and will have to deal with a slate of difficulties for the country such as unemployment, terrorist threats and political division.

Speaking to Vatican Radio, Archbishop Pontier said one of the priorities for Macron’s government to fight unemployment, as “this is certainly most destructive for persons, families, for prospects, projects, and especially for young people who see nothing on the horizon.”

“In these circumstances there is a confidence that is destroyed and it is a matter of regaining this confidence and people will regain this confidence by actions that produce fruits,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Pontier noted that the upcoming legislative elections held June 11 and 18 “will determine the makeup of the new parliament.”

“We would need to recover a certain wisdom, that’s for sure. And then we are aware our country must not be put in an ungovernable situation. So the president and his government have to work,” he said.

He added that “the fight over ideas often divides while initiative in action brings us together, and it is certainly that course that we must look to.”

Archbishop Pontiers reflected that the election represented “a change in society,” given the amount of blank ballots. “More than usual, a lot more than usual,” he said, which “shows this dissatisfaction and shows this change.”

The prelate also voiced his opinion that France should stay in the European Union and “continue to give this Europe the means to manage the European entity such that each people is respected, of course, and at the same time in creating a coherent whole providing benefits for everyone.”

“We need to put in place confidence-building mechanisms and at the same time mechanisms addressing the issues such as taxation and wages, which have too great a gap between countries,” he said, “with the challenge as well of welcoming foreigners in view of the current world situation.”

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WORLD NEWS

Want to engage secular culture? An Irish bishop provides a guide

CNA/EWTN News • May 9, 2017

(Smilla4 via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Norwich, England — Neither the narrow narrative against religion nor the real failings of the Church should define the role of Catholics in public life, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh has said.

“Our challenge is to present to the world the edifying and inspiring witness of people of faith,” said the archbishop. “We are impacted by the process of secularization. We live, breathe, work and believe alongside people of other traditions, faiths and none and the pressure on believers to conform, to become just like everyone else, is often immense and overpowering.”

The Northern Ireland-based Archbishop Martin, who is Primate of All Ireland, delivered the 2017 Newman Lecture May 8 at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. He gave an Irish perspective on the Church in the public sphere, and his speaking notes were published on the website of the Irish bishops’ conference.

About 78 percent of Ireland’s 4.76 million citizens self-identify as Catholic, according to the most recent census. This is a decline of five percentage points over a five-year period.

While Archbishop Martin noted that this is still a remarkable number of Catholics, he said social commentary in Ireland has focused on “the decline of the Church.” Some have again called to remove the Church’s perceived influence in schools, health care, and public policy.

“Such a narrative clearly challenges the Church to find new ways of presenting the Joy of the Gospel, and for example the Gospel of the Family, in the public sphere,” the archbishop said.

“There is no question that the practice of faith in Ireland has been hugely exposed to, and challenged by, the prevailing culture,” he said, according to the notes. At the same time, there seems to be little appetite for “any substantial critique of culture by people of faith,” especially if this means presenting serious questions about the “almost compulsory consensus on controversial issues.”

Archbishop Martin said scandals in the Church should not be used as an excuse to silence well-founded religious critiques of society, nor should they be allowed to conceal the dedication of Catholic priests and religious.

“When we attempt as Church to speak in the public sphere about the right to life of the unborn, some are quick to point to the scandals and to shameful stories of the past,” he said. “Decades of service by countless religious sisters and priests to the education and healthcare of the people of Ireland and all over the world is almost obliterated by a revised and narrow narrative that religious ethos cannot be good for democracy and stands against the progress and flourishing of society and the rights of citizens.”

At the same time, the archbishop said the Church has been too defensive in its reaction to criticisms. These responses show simple denial or claim unfairness or conspiracy “rather than being thankful that the lid has been lifted on a terrible and shameful chapter of our history and at last giving a voice to those who for years have been carrying a lonely trauma.”

“I am convinced, however, that the failures of the past must not be allowed to define us, but should instead help all of us in the public sphere learn lessons for the present about where Church and society might today be similarly marginalizing the poor, stigmatizing the unwanted or failing to protect the most vulnerable.”

As a model for striking a positive tone in the public sphere, Archbishop Martin cited the French bishops’ October 2016 statement to the nation, in which they cautioned against aspirations to be a “church of the pure” or “a counterculture removed from society, posing as a judge from above.”

“They speak as people of faith, but also as fellow French citizens, pastorally accompanying their troubled people with empathy and concern,” the archbishop said. “With faith and conviction we will sometimes bring uncomfortable questions into the public sphere e.g. about the impact of economic policies on the most vulnerable, or to point out the contradictions of populism, all the while being careful not to become too sensitive to criticism or always claiming to be offended.”

He rejected false claims that the Church desires to create a “theocracy.” At the same time, “the Church does expect that in a true pluralist democracy or republic, religion and faith will continue to have an important part to play in the national conversation.”

The archbishop was critical of tendencies to see faith-related institutions, like hospitals and schools, as unconnected to reason. Every Catholic position on morals is argued from reason, even when there is biblical justification.

He also countered claims that the bishops are overly interested in sexual morality, saying bishops in both north and south “makes it clear that the Bishops seek to bring the Joy of the Gospel to bear on a whole range of issues.”

The importance of culture was also a focus. While the Church may be “counter-cultural,” she is not “extra-cultural.”

Archbishop Martin noted three potential possibilities for Catholics: a “culture of openness,” which some fear dilutes Catholic beliefs and leads to unjustified compromise; a “culture of identity” that stresses Catholic distinctiveness instead of what Catholics have in common with all people of good will; and the “culture of engagement,” with two-way critical interaction and conversations between religious traditions and the broader culture.

“Despite the voices nowadays which might tempt the Church into pointless culture wars, or even suggest that Christians might opt out of the public square to some sort of ‘parallel polis,’ I am completely convinced that the voice of faith can and should remain engaged in the public square,” the archbishop said.

“Our faith is not simply for the privacy of our homes and churches. The Gospel is meant for mission. It is not to be cloistered away from the cut and thrust of public discourse.”

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WORLD NEWS

Blessing of cross begins rebuilding of Iraqi towns destroyed by Islamic State

by David Ramos (CNA/EWTN News) • May 9, 2017

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe of Mosul blesses a newly erected cross in Bakhdida, Iraq on May 2, 2017. (SOS Chretiens Orient)

Mosul, Iraq — With the blessing of the cross raised up in the city of Bakhdida May 2, the reconstruction of the towns in the Plain of Nineveh in Iraq destroyed by the Islamic State officially began.

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe of Mosul blessed the cross on a joyous morning with emotive dances by Christians. There are 13,000 damaged houses – 669 of which were completely destroyed by the Islamists – which will be rebuilt in three towns on the Plain of Nineveh: Bartella, Karemlesh, and Bakhdida.

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which is collaborating on the reconstruction, estimated the total cost of the program to be in excess of $250 million.

To date ACN has provided around $500,000 to the Nineveh Reconstruction Commission.

Work has already begun on the rebuilding of 100 Christian homes in the communities, and during a May 8 ceremony the owners of each of the homes were given olive trees to be planted as symbols of peace and reconciliation.

Speaking to CNA Fr. Luis Montes, a missionary priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word In Iraq, said that “Christians are very hopeful with the beginning of the reconstruction of the cities of the Plain of Nineveh.”

“Most of those who have remained in Iraq – some estimate that they are half of those that originally fled from ISIS more than two years ago, the other half have probably already left the country – want to stay and return to their cities,” he said.

However, he pointed out, “you can’t say the drama is over for several reasons, including the fact that the community has been greatly reduced and that is cause for sadness and for greater weakness both now and especially for the future.”

“In addition recovering all the territories that ISIS has taken doesn’t mean defeating them, because they will continue on as a clandestine group with attacks, just like the other terrorist groups,” he pointed out.

According to the research firm RAND, the Islamic State has lost about 60 percent of the territory it controlled at the height of its power in late 2014.

The largest offensive against the Islamist group conducted since in October 2016 by combined groups of the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga militia, recovered villages in the Plain of Nineveh. Currently, the combined groups are fighting for control of Mosul.

Fr. Montes noted that “Iraq has had dozens of attacks a month for more than ten years and that will continue. And you mustn’t forget that once the battle for Mosul is over tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan autonomous region will sharply pick up again.”

“Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that this reconstruction process and the soon return of Christians to their homes isn’t big news. Very big news! But we must keep praying because it’s still a very long road,” he urged.

Fr. Andrzej Halemba, head of ACN’s Near East division, said that with the start of reconstruction work in Bartella, Karemlesh, and Bakhdida, “we want to send a clear signal to the thousands of Christian families driven from their homes in the Plain of Nineveh who now are living in an improvised and provisional way in Erbil, and other localities in Iraqi Kurdistan.”

“This is a decidedly historic moment. If we now miss the opportunity to help Christians return to their homes in the Plain of Nineveh, these families could make the decision to leave Iraq forever, and this would be a huge tragedy.”

For Fr. Halemba “the presence of Christians in this region is of vital importance, but not just from the historical point of view, but also from the political and cultural stance,” since “Christians represent a bridge of peace between the different Muslim groups at odds with each other; they make a crucial contribution to the education system and are respected by all the moderate Muslims.”

The priest appealed for both financial aid and prayers for the Christians in Iraq.

“From all our brothers and sisters in the West we are not just asking for financial aid, but also prayers with which to support the courage of thousands of Iraqi Christians who have made the decision to return to their towns and remain in Iraq.”

By the end of June 2017 ACN, which says it is the only international organization to consistently support the Christian exiles from the Nineveh plain since its capture by the Islamic State, will have spent more than $35 million in supporting the 12,000 Christian internally displaced persons in Kurdistan. Assistance has come in the form of monthly food aid, money for rent, medical help, the construction of schools, and the support of displaced clergy and women religious.

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WORLD NEWS

France’s new president is a ‘zombie Catholic’

CNA/EWTN News • May 10, 2017

French President Emmanuel Macron. (Frederic Legrand COMEO via Shutterstock)

Paris, France — Newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron, according to one of his biographers, embodies a new phenomenon in France known as “zombie Catholicism.”

Once among the most Catholic countries in the world, sometimes called the “eldest daughter of the Church,” France has seen serious decline in churchgoing numbers in modern times. While more than 50 percent of people still identify as Catholic, only 5 percent regularly attend Mass.

Still, in France’s recent presidential election, a latent Catholic identity in many of France’s citizens proved to be a powerful political tool.

Sociologists Emmanuel Todd and Hervé Le Bras were the first to label the phenomenon in their book “Le mystère français” in which they explain that “Catholicism seems to have attained a kind of life after death. But since it is a question of a this-worldly life, we will define it as ‘zombie Catholicism.’”

“Zombie Catholics” of France share certain characteristics, the sociologists noted. They typically come from regions of the country where resistance to the French Revolution was the strongest.

“Highly educated and meritocratic, they also privilege a traditional ordering of professional and domestic duties between husbands and wives; strong attachment to social, community, and family activities; and a general wariness over the role of the state in private and community affairs, including ‘free schools’ (Catholic private schools),” they wrote.

According to Marc Endeweld, a biographer of Emmanuel Macron, the new president embodies this “zombie Catholic” phenomenon. Although born into a secular family, Macron asked to be baptized at age 12. While not a regular churchgoer, Macron symbolizes “those territories of Christian tradition that benefit from social structures and economic systems capable of counterbalancing globalization, in contrast to the more Jacobin territories that have lost the protection of the state.”

In the “zombie Catholic” stronghold region of Brittany, Macron won 3 out of every 4 votes. Having never been elected to any other political office, he ran as the head of a new movement, En March!, instead of an established political party. His politics have been described as liberal and progressive, though he has said he hopes to transcend the divides of the left and right political parties. At 39, he is the youngest president to ever be elected in France.

He was not the only candidate who appealed to the latent Catholics of France during the election season. François Fillon, former prime minister of France and a practicing Catholic, shocked pundits and political commentators throughout the country when he pulled ahead in the Republican party and beat out the moderate former Prime Minister Alain Juppé (himself a self-described “agnostic Catholic”) by a wide margin.

His Catholicism was such a strong part of his political identity that a headline in the newspaper Libération proclaimed: “Help, Jesus has returned!”

President-elect Macron has said that he supports the French principle of secularism (laïcité). He has also said that “we have a duty to let everybody practice their religion with dignity,” though he believes that “when one enters the public realm, the laws of the Republic must prevail over religious law.”

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WORLD NEWS

South Korean archbishop voices hope for new president

CNA/EWTN News • May 10, 2017

(T. Dallas via Shutterstock)

Seoul, South Korea — An archbishop in South Korea encouraged the country’s new president to bring unity to a nation struggling both from recent scandals and fears over North Korea’s weapons tests.

“I would like him to promote balanced development of the nation, and to appoint his staff in a fair and impartial manner so that all selected competent persons may take part in the new government administration,” Archbishop Hyginus Hee-joong Kim of Gwangji said in a May 10 statement.

“We also would like him to propose a clear vision and governmental management philosophy for the future which can make all Korean people in the North and South Korea reconcile and coexist in peace.”

The statement congratulated President Moon Jae-in in his victory on Tuesday. He won with over 41 percent favor of South Korea’s population against two other candidates, according to the South Korea’s National Election Commission.

President Moon replaced the former president Park Geun-Hye who was ousted after a scandal broke last November, leading to her impeachment and ultimately her imprisonment this year. The scandal involved bribery and abuse of power with one of her close friends, Choi Soon-sil, who together used their positions to demand money from major companies in South Korea.

Geun-Hye has been accused of using her power to coerce companies in donating nearly 70 million dollars, which was funneled through two foundations run by the former president. The National Assembly began stripping her of power last December and prosecution began with 13 criminal charges in March. Since then the charges have increased to 18.

The archbishop acknowledged the difficult times surrounding the months of angry mobs demanding for the ex-president’s resignation, and expressed the need for a president capable of uniting South Korea.

“Now we are in urgent need of a credible leader who keeps principles and steps towards true peace and justice beyond today’s conflicts and confrontations. May the new president be a great leader who can make democracy take root in this country, and bring peace and prosperity to the Korean people.”

President Moon’s landslide victory still faces the aftermath of political corruption, but he is also challenged by the looming issue of North Korea’s recent missile and nuclear tests.

North Korea has continued to pursue nuclear and ballistic missile tests, despite a ban from the United Nations and trade restrictions from China. The country has so far conducted five missile tests in 2017, including a failed attempt on April 28. Most successful tests have landed missiles into the Sea of Japan, but spectators have agreed that the tests are steps to extend North Korea’s reach of nuclear weapons to other areas of the world.

South Korea’s new president has vowed to immediately tackle the issues regarding their northern neighbor. During his first speech as president, Moon said he would aim to sooth tensions between Beijing and Washington. He even said he would be willing to meet with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un if the conditions were right.

Controversy over a U.S. anti-missile defense system, which was recently implemented in Korean peninsula, has caused for skepticism from China, whose leaders say the system threatens the security of their country as well.

Along with his promises to tackle serious international issues, Moon said he would cut ties with South Korea’s conglomerates and leave the office uncorrupted.

“I take this office empty-handed, and I will leave the office empty-handed,” President Moon said during his May 10 inauguration speech, according to Reuters.

Archbishop Hyginus Hee-joong Kim further encouraged the new leader to attend to the dignity of all citizens: “the vulnerable and disadvantaged in the society can be treated with human dignity and respect, where everyone enjoys the right to freedom of thought and conscience.”

The archbishop ended his statement promising to pray for the good of Korea’s people under the leader’s service.

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U.S. NEWS

Despite pro-life provisions, healthcare bill raises serious concerns

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • May 4, 2017

(Sfam photo via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. — The House passed a repeal of the Affordable Care Act and a replacement health care bill on Thursday, but one bishop warned that the new bill poses serious problems for the vulnerable.

Bishop Frank Dewane, chair of the domestic justice committee for the U.S. bishops’ conference, said the legislation “still contains major defects, particularly regarding changes to Medicaid that risk coverage and affordability for millions.”

In a May 4 statement, he called it “deeply disappointing that the voices of those who will be most severely impacted were not heeded.”

“Our health care policy must honor all human life and dignity from conception to natural death, as well as defend the sincerely-held moral and religious beliefs of those who have any role in the health care system,” Bishop Dewane said.

The House voted on Tuesday afternoon to pass a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with the American Health Care Act. The bill passed narrowly, by a vote of 217 to 213.

The American Health Care Act was introduced in the House in March, but ultimately failed to reach the House Floor for a vote. It replaced the ACA’s individual insurance mandate with a 30 percent premium fine for having a significant gap in coverage. More tax credits would be offered and the allowable contributions to health savings accounts would also be expanded.

Bishop Dewane expressed serious concerns about the legislation although he commended its pro-life provisions. The sick and the elderly could end up paying far more for health care, he warned of the original AHCA bill in March.

As the revised health care bill re-surfaced recently in the House, Bishop Dewane said that “serious flaws” still remained, like changes to Medicaid that eventually capped the Medicaid expansion and a lack of conscience protections for doctors and health care providers.

Revisions to the bill included allowing states to determine “essential health benefits,” or benefits that health plans had to include under the ACA which included hospitalizations and maternity care.

Also, under the new bill states could charge more per person based on their health history, which the ACA forbade, provided they set up high-risk pools.

Bishop Dewane warned that proposed amendments “could severely impact many people with pre-existing conditions while risking for others the loss of access to various essential coverages.”

The bill “as it now stands, creates new and grave challenges for poor and vulnerable people, including immigrants,” he said April 27. “The House must not pass the legislation as it is. Members should insist on changes, especially for the sake of those who are struggling in our communities.”

Several pro-life leaders applauded the bill’s passage.

“The March for Life congratulates the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the American Healthcare Act and for reaffirming their commitment to life,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life.

Pro-life groups noted that the bill barred federal funding of Planned Parenthood and instead funded health care providers that do not perform abortions.

These health care providers, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, “provide comprehensive primary and preventative care to women and girls.”

That redirection of funding would amount to $422 million, she said. The bill also established protections against taxpayer funding of abortions in health care plans.

“We urge the Senate to keep these non-negotiable provisions and quickly advance this bill to the President’s desk,” Dannenfelser said.

The Christ Medicus Foundation (CMF) CURO, a Catholic health care ministry, said the new health care bill would “offer truly affordable, patient-centered health care.”

“This is a hugely important step, but it is just the first step to improving health care for all Americans, especially the vulnerable,” Louis Brown, director of CMF CURO, said.

“The American Health Care Act begins the process of increasing meaningful medical access for individuals and families across the country by returning focus to the doctor-patient relationship.”

And, the group added, “there is much more work to be done to protect the right of conscience and religious freedom in health care.”

The White House announced on Thursday that the bill provided billions in funding for vulnerable populations, including $15 billion “for the care of maternity, newborn, mental health, and substance abuse.”

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U.S. NEWS

Science, compassion, adoption – why Mike Pence says ‘life is winning’ in America

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • May 4, 2017

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. (Gino Santa Maria via Shutterstock)

Washington, D.C. —”Life is winning in America,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told attendees at a pro-life gala on Wednesday evening in Washington, D.C.

“Life is winning through the steady advance of so many areas of science” that provide a glimpse at the unborn baby in the womb, the vice president said, “through the generosity of millions of adoptive families,” and “through the compassionate caregivers and volunteers at crisis pregnancy centers and faith-based organizations, who minister to women in cities and towns across America.”

“Compassion is overcoming convenience, hope is defeating despair,” he said.

Pence delivered the keynote address at the 10th annual gala of the Susan B. Anthony List on May 3rd in Washington, D.C.

The pro-life group honored Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) with the Marilyn Musgrave Defender of Life Award, and Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of The Federalist Society, with the 2017 Distinguished Leader Award.

SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, in a statement, praised Black’s “tireless efforts to investigate and defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s #1 abortion business, and redirect their taxpayer dollars to real, comprehensive health care for women.”

Black sponsored a joint resolution, ultimately signed by President Trump, that nullified an Obama administration rule which pro-life leaders had called the President’s “parting gift to the abortion industry.” Black’s resolution allowed states to, once again, block clinics from receiving federal Title X grants if they performed abortions.

Vice President Pence had cast the tiebreaking vote in the U.S. Senate to ensure the passage of the resolution.

Leo, meanwhile, was credited for his work to help the Trump administration nominate Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, a pick that pro-life leaders applauded.

SBA List highlighted Pence’s past pro-life record as a U.S. congressman and as governor of Indiana, sponsoring “more than two dozen pro-life bills in the U.S. House of Representatives” as well as signing pro-life legislation into law in his state.

He also became the first sitting vice president to address the March for Life, this past January.

White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway briefly addressed the gala attendees at the beginning of Wednesday’s event, thanking them for their help in defending human life and promising that more would be done by the administration to protect life.

Pence, in his keynote speech, emphasized that “life is winning” in many ways, including “through the quiet counsel between mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters,” he continued, “friends across kitchen tables.”

He exhorted those in attendance to carry on the work of Susan B. Anthony, known for her activism for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and women’s rights, and temperance. “Let us strive with all our might to finish the work that Susan B. Anthony started,” he said.

Susan B. Anthony fought against injustices, too many of which “still survive to this day,” Pence said, “and abortion is the worst of them.”

“I truly believe that we’ve come to a pivotal moment in the life of this movement, the life of our nation,” he said, asking those in attendance to “continue to stand up and speak out.”

“We need every ounce of your energy and enthusiasm,” he said. “We need your prayers.”

The recent passage of Rep. Black’s joint resolution was only “the beginning” of the fight, Pence said, and “we’re going to see that fight all the way through.”

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U.S. NEWS

Texas House passes conscience protections for foster care system

CNA/EWTN News • May 11, 2017

(Pkproject via Shutterstock)

Austin, Texas — Catholic groups have welcomed the Texas House of Representatives’ passage Wednesday of a bill that would provide conscience protections for groups and individuals involved in the foster care system.

“When this becomes law, Catholic Charities will be able to bring our expertise and resources to the aid of some of our most desperate and needy children,” said Sara Ramirez, CEO for Catholic Charities of Central Texas.

“We are willing to return to the field and work side-by-side with all people of good will so that no child is further traumatized by an inadequate foster care system,” she said in a statement from the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops.

The 93-49 vote on May 10, largely along party lines, sends the bill to the Senate, where a similar version has been stalled in committee, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

The bill would allow organizations and individuals in Texas’ foster care system who have sincerely held religious beliefs to remove themselves from actions that would directly violate their faith.

Its multiple applications would allow groups to avoid helping a minor obtain an abortion or providing foster services, including child placement, to same-sex couples.

Jennifer Carr Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference, supported the bill.

“We look forward to a swift approval by the Senate and the Governor’s signature, as this is a critical element of the foster care system reform,” she said.

Cynthia Colbert, CEO of Catholic Charities Houston, said the conscience protections will “enable pastors to encourage loving families to be part of a caring network for these children” and will allow faith-based providers to be involved with Texas family protection service “without worrying that potential lawsuits will take limited resources away from the people we should be helping.”

Bill sponsor State Rep. James Frank, a Republican from Wichita Falls, said the bill aimed “to give quick, clear certainty to providers so they can take care of children instead of fighting lawsuits.”

“We need everyone to the table to help with the foster care situation,” he said.

Bill opponents have characterized it as a license to discriminate that would favor Christian beliefs over others. They objected that it would allow foster parents the right to deny contraceptives and abortion or medical care like vaccines to their children if these are against their religious beliefs.

Rep. Mary Gonzalez objected to the bill, saying tax dollars “should never be used to discriminate against any Texan.”

In other states and the District of Columbia, long-serving Catholic adoption agencies have been shut down by laws against sexual orientation discrimination or new requirements in state funding that would have required them to place children with same-sex couples.

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U.S. NEWS

Vice President Pence to persecuted Christians: ‘We stand with you’

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

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. (Evan El-Amin via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday pledged his prayers and support for persecuted Christians around the globe, as well as members of other religions who are persecuted for their beliefs.

“Your faith inspires me, it humbles me, and it inspires all who are looking on today.” Pence said, speaking to persecuted Christians including Fr. Douglas Bazi, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Iraq who survived a 2006 kidnapping and torture before ministering to Christian refugees fleeing ISIS in 2014.

“On behalf of the President of the United States, I say from my heart,” Pence continued, “we’re with you, we stand with you.”

The vice president on May 11 addressed the first annual World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians, hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Washington, D.C.

The summit brings together Christian leaders and groups from all over the world, including clerics of Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches, current and former members of Congress, and representatives of Open Doors USA, Samaritan’s Purse, and the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative.

It was meant to bring attention to the plight of persecuted Christians and advocate for their rights in countries where they are targeted or harassed for their beliefs. In attendance were persecuted Christians from 130 countries.

Pence honored Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, from the stage on Thursday. He also honored Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America.

“Each one of you bears witness to the power of truth to transform lives,” Pence told them.

The summit was held at a time when millions of Christians face violence, harassment, and imprisonment in over 100 countries. Pence noted recent Palm Sunday bombings of Coptic churches in Egypt and the destruction of churches in Iraq as examples.

“I believe that ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of the Christian faith, and it is time the world called it by name,” he said.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church, chair of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, also addressed the summit on Thursday.

The 21st century has brought a “new vast wave of persecution of Christians,” he said, “particularly severe in those countries where the dominant religion is Islam.”

“Yet the persecutors are not those moderate Muslims,” he added, “but extremists and terrorists hiding behind Islamic slogans and Islamic rhetoric.”

He called on “Islamic leaders throughout the world to condemn terrorism as something that contradicts the teachings of the Koran,” asking “may this clear and precise condemnation resound from the lips” of leaders of countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.

Metropolitan Hilarion also pointed to the Middle East and North Africa as areas where Christians are especially targeted, and lie “in the pathway of the political and/or economic interests of those forces who are not afraid to use terrorists in pursuit of their goals, pretending that they are fighting for freedom and democracy.”

Inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogue is key to the international community uniting to aid persecuted Christians, he insisted.

A need for action

Pence pledged his prayers and the support of the Trump administration for persecuted Christians. And this support extends to persons of all faiths who are targeted because of their beliefs, he continued.

“Rest assured, in the Middle East, North Africa, anywhere terror strikes, America stands with those who are targeted and tormented for their belief, whether they are Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Sunni, or any other creed, the president’s commitment to protecting people of faith,” he said.

“Adherents of other religions across the world have not been spared [persecution],” he added, “and we will speak and pray for them as well. For as history attests, persecution of one faith is ultimately persecution of all faiths.”

However, his pledge comes as religious freedom advocates have decried the absence of prominent administrative positions that promote religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy and advocate for persecuted religious minorities.

The Lantos Foundation recently sent a letter to President Trump asking him to “move swiftly” and nominate an Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom, as well as a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combatting anti-Semitism. These two positions have remained vacant since Trump took office.

“The perilous state of religious freedom around the globe confirms the wisdom of America’s leaders in creating a legal framework for addressing these abuses and ensuring that our foreign policy remains focused on protecting and advancing these fundamental rights,” the foundation insisted, saying the ambassador and Special Envoy positions “are absolutely critical components of the legal framework.”

President Obama did not nominate an Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom until over a year after he took office. When his first ambassador, Suzan Johnson Cook, stepped down in 2013, no other ambassador was nominated until July of 2014, with Rabbi David Saperstein who served for the rest of Obama’s term.

Russia has also drawn serious concerns for its religious freedom abuses.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom just noted, in its 2017 annual report, that “in mainland Russia in 2016, new laws effectively criminalized all private religious speech not sanctioned by the state, the Jehovah’s Witnesses stand on the verge of a nationwide ban, and innocent Muslims were tried on fabricated charges of terrorism and extremism.”

Russia’s restrictive laws were reportedly an impetus for the World Summit moving from Moscow to Washington, D.C., Deseret News reported.

Rev. Franklin Graham noted on Thursday that the summit was originally set to be in Moscow, where Christians suffered greatly under Communism. However, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reportedly moved the location from Moscow to Washington, D.C. last year.

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FEATURES

Movie review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’

by Carl Kozlowski • May 5, 2017

Ever since “Iron Man” exploded at the box office in 2008, a non-stop parade of Marvel Comics-based superhero films have taken over Hollywood. While most of these flicks have centered on traditional superstar heroes like Thor, Captain America and The Hulk, the series took a sharp left turn in 2014 by focusing on a lesser-known band of misfits who save the universe with a sharply comedic undertone in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

That film featured plenty of quirky alien characters, including a wisecracking genetically-engineered raccoon bounty hunter named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and his tree-like humanoid sidekick named Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a green beauty named Gamora (Zoe Saldana) who’s seeking redemption for her evil past. But amid all the galactic goofiness, the film’s heart was an earthling named Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), who was abducted by a spaceship as a boy and raised to become a smuggler in space, building this oddball team by accident while chasing an orb that holds the key to creating – and potentially destroying – the universe.

The film was tremendous fun and a huge hit, but it did have to deal with a convoluted setup in establishing its universe, while leaving open the intriguing question of Peter’s quest to learn the identity of the father he never met. That personal quest becomes the center of its sequel “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2,” as Peter comes face to face with a self-professed god named Ego (Kurt Russell) who claims to be his dad, and has to decide if he can trust this wise-cracking mystery figure to really be who he claims.

Free from the constraints of introducing its oddball coterie, “Vol. 2” kicks off in whiz-bang style with the team battling a huge space beast that has stolen super-powered batteries from a race of gold-colored aliens called the Sovereign. The fight sets the action-packed battle royale in which Peter, Gamora, Rocket and Drax use everything from swords to machine guns to ELO’s bouncy ‘70s pop hit “Mr. Blue Sky,” while the now-tiny Baby Groot dances obliviously amid the mayhem.

This mix of catchy pop classics counterpointing comically insane action was key to the first film’s success, and writer-director James Gunn shows that he’s got the swagger of greater confidence on his side in the new film. Things turn hairier quickly for the Guardians when Rocket sneaks some of the batteries out with him as the gang departs, even though they had collected their reward: Gamora’s evil sister Nebula (Karen Gillan), whom they plan to collect a big bounty on from the planet Xandar for her destructive behavior in the first film.

Chased by Sovereign spaceships as their queen seeks to regain the batteries, Peter’s ship is severely damaged and crash-lands on an obscure planet. Moments later, another ship arrives, with Ego descending to tell Peter he’s his father and inviting him to get to know him on his own planet – taking Drax and Gamora along for the ride as they are also hosted by Ego’s female servant Mantis (Pom Klementieff).

While Peter is eager to find his roots, Gamora is concerned to find that a lot of things don’t seem to add up about Ego. Meanwhile, Rocket and Groot were left amid the wreckage to oversee Nebula, only to find themselves under attack by a team of scavengers led by Yondu (Michael Rooker), one of the prime villains in the first film. When Nebula tricks Groot into setting her free to help them fight, she winds up being an even greater evil, and sets off in a ship to kill Gamora once and for all after a lifetime of rivalry.

Thus, the stage is set for a hearty dose of action that is set against a surprisingly strong theme of family, and how much one can trust and even forgive those who should be closest to you but have betrayed you. These aspects lend a greater emotional weight to the sequel that is impressive, considering that Gunn and his cast have managed to amp up the fun stuff as well.

While these are positive values, and the relationship between Ego and Peter touches on the vital need for a good father, there are some things to be aware of morally, including over 30 swear words (particularly the “S” word and “B” word), and it also features more sexual innuendos than the first, including some pretty direct lines about male anatomy. Parents should definitely take those into consideration for kids younger than teens.

There are also a couple of scenes that border on grisly, including a scene where numerous people are forced into space without protective suits and result in very unpleasant deaths. And the idea of a god named Ego discussing his creation of the universe, and the questions that arise about him, could also be seen as having some satirically critical undertones about our real God and His creation.

Russell and the rest of the cast are clearly having a blast, and their infectious sense of fun should leave fans grinning the entire time. Overall, alongside “Beauty and the Beast,” “Vol. 2” might just be the most fun to be found in a movie theatre thus far this year. It’s a great sign that there’s plenty of inventive life left to be found in the saturated superhero genre.

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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FEATURES

‘Embryo jewelry’ a sign we’ve taken the wrong path, IVF critic says

by Kevin Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • May 5, 2017

Human embryo. (Firstbrook Just Click 100 via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Sydney, Australia — For one critic, a report that IVF-conceived embryos are being cremated and turned into jewelry for their mothers shows the basic problem with the artificial creation of human embryos.

“I have no words. I have no category for who would think this would be something good to do,” said Jennifer Lahl, the founder and president of the California-based Center for Bioethics and Culture.

“It’s so undignified that these embryos have been destroyed to become jewelry,” she told CNA. “I thought, ‘My gosh, it really has hit rock-bottom.’”

Lahl, who has a background as a pediatric critical care nursing and hospital administration, has long been a critic of egg donation and IVF.

Now, the small Australian company Baby Bee Hummingbirds is turning embryos into keepsake jewelry.

A story in the Australian mothers’ website Kidspot portrays the process as a solution to “extra” embryos that are created in the in-vitro fertilization process. It recounts the story of a couple who had conceived three children, including twins, but faced financial strain in paying for the annual storage of the leftover embryos and could not imagine disposing of them or donating them.

“I don’t believe there is any other business in the world that creates jewelry from human embryos, and I firmly believe that we are pioneering the way in this sacred art, and opening the possibilities to families around the world,” Amy McGlade, the founder of Baby Bee Hummingbirds, told Kidspot.

Families send the jeweler IVF straws containing the embryos, which are cremated into embryo ash, which is then incorporated into the jewelry.

Since 2014, Baby Bee Hummingbirds has made 50 pieces of jewelry with embryos. About 4,000 of its other works of jewelry use breastmilk, placenta, hair, ashes, or umbilical cord stumps.

The pieces cost from $80 to $600.

“It’s special because the embryos are often signifying the end of a journey, and we are providing a beautiful and meaningful way to gently close the door,” McGlade said.

For Lahl, however, the process is no solution to frozen embryos.

“The solution is to stop creating surplus embryos. The solution is to stop freezing human embryos, so that parents aren’t left with these ethical dilemmas of what to do with them when they decide they don’t want any more children,” she said.

“If anything it creates even more complex ethical problems, a new novel way of disrespecting human life.”

Lahl objected that “creating life and calling it surplus” is “an undignified view of early, nascent human life.” She worried that IVF treatment and the creation of human embryos is the consequence of the belief that parents have “a right to pursue that child at whatever cost, and at whatever manner.”

“It loses sight of the fact that children are intended to be gifts and blessings, not something we have a right to.”

McGlade, the jewelry business founder, promoted the use of embryos in jewelry.

“Reactions from families who understand the journey are amazing and heartfelt. They are so grateful for our service,” she said. “What a better way to celebrate your most treasured gift, your child, than through jewelry? It’s about the everlasting tangible keepsake of a loved one that you can have forever.”

Kidspot cited one mother who had her embryos turned into jewelry through the business.

“I’d heard others had planted them in the garden but we move a lot, so I couldn’t do this,” said the mother, who had the seven embryos placed in a heart-shaped pendant. “I needed them with me.”

She said the six years of IVF treatment was “painful, tormenting, a strain on our marriage and just plain hard.”

“Finding this has brought me so much comfort and joy,” she said. “I finally at peace and my journey complete.”

“My embryos were my babies – frozen in time,” she said. “When we completed our family, it wasn’t in my heart to destroy them. Now they are forever with me in a beautiful keepsake.”

The Catholic Church stresses that all human life – including those in the embryonic state – have an invaluable human dignity. Catholic teaching opposes IVF.

However, Lahl stressed the need for compassion for those who have used IVF to treat infertility.

“We need to approach anybody struggling with infertility with a lot of grace and mercy,” she said. “We need to understand that infertility is a real grief. People just naturally assume that when they are ready to start their family that children will come. We have to be incredibly understanding.”

“We also have to be prepared with the facts on what is really involved in reproductive technology. People are uninformed about the risk of these technologies, the ethics of using these technologies and all the problems that come about.”

She said in-vitro fertilization is “fraught with ethical problems” due to the health risks to the mother, the conceived children, the cost, and the way in which the use of medicine creates more problems, rather than treats and heals conditions.

“Most of the people who enter into the assisted reproductive technology enterprise don’t get a baby,” she said. “Overwhelmingly, IVF cycles fail.”

The process has a high failure rate and typically costs six figures to successfully conceive and bear a child through IVF.

Lahl said others should consult resources about the field, such as the website of the CBC Network. Her network covers topics like infertility issues, egg donation, sperm donation, surrogacy, assisted reproductive technologies and their health risks to women.

Although she is not Catholic, she said Church teaching on these issues was “rich and important.”

“I think the Catholic Church has gotten these issues quite right. If you really look at the evidence and the medical literature, it will only reinforce the teaching of the Catholic Church.”

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FEATURES

Enduring devotion: the Irish immigrant who never forgot Our Lady of Knock

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • May 7, 2017

The Knock Shrine. (Public domain)

New York City, N.Y. —”I remember it as well as I do last night.” Those were the words of an aged Irish immigrant named John Curry in 1940s New York, who had seen the apparitions at Knock, Ireland when just a boy.

Now, his remains will be re-interred at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City.

“Like most of the witnesses, John Curry went on to live out his life in a quiet way, never highlighting what he experienced in Knock, unless asked to speak about it,” Father Richard Gibbons, rector of Ireland’s Our Lady of Knock Shrine, told CNA. “This shows a quiet, humble kind of faith which was characteristic of the Irish people.”

“He served Mass everyday right up until before his death and had an unwavering devotion to Our Lady and said that she never refused him anything that he asked for,” the priest said.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York will celebrate an 11 a.m. Mass of Thanksgiving May 13, followed by Curry’s reburial on the church’s grounds in Manhattan.

The apparition took place on the evening of Aug. 21, 1879 in the presence of fifteen men, women, and children, mainly from the village of Knock in County Mayo. They ranged in age from 5 to 74 years old.

Some of the witnesses reported figures that appeared to be the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and St. John at the parish church’s gable wall. Amid luminous lights, they saw the figure of a lamb and a cross on an altar.

Curry’s older cousin, Patrick Hill, was at the vision too. He placed the young boy on his shoulders so he could see.

In the pouring rain, the witnesses stayed, praying the rosary.

When the Church launched an official inquiry in October 1879, young John Curry’s testimony was among the fifteen official witness testimonies. His first account is brief.

“The child says he saw images, beautiful images, the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph,” said the document, posted on the Knock shrine’s website. “He could state no more than that he saw the fine images and the light, and heard the people talk of them, and went upon the wall to see the nice things and the lights.”

Years later, in a 1936 letter to Fr. Dan Corcoran, who was then curate of Knock Parish, Curry said of the event: “I remember it as well as I do last night.”

Curry reaffirmed his testimony before a second Church inquiry held in New York in 1937. He described the figures:

“It appeared to me that they were alive, but they didn’t speak. One of the women there, Bridget Trench, kissed the Blessed Virgin’s feet and tried to put her arms around the feet but there was nothing there but the picture. I saw her do that. The figures were life-size and I will remember them till I go to my grave.”

Fr. Gibbons said the apparition took place at a troubled time for Ireland. Land reform efforts had provoked heated controversy and even violence, while scattered famines recalled the fearful times of Ireland’s Great Hunger.

This is the background of the traditional prayer: “Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland, you gave hope to your people in a time of distress and comforted them in sorrow.”

“Our Lady of Knock was, and continues to be an icon of hope, forgiveness and compassion for all,” Fr. Gibbons said, calling the reburial “a wonderful opportunity” to recognize Curry.

“He, like many others at the time, was forced to emigrate in search of work and was unable to travel home again.”

Curry had emigrated to New York in 1897 at the age of 25, then was in London in 1900 before returning to the U.S. in 1911. He worked as railway laborer near Milwaukee, then moved to New York in the 1920s and worked an attendant at the City Hospital on what is now New York’s Roosevelt Island.

He never married.

When his health began to decline, he moved to live with the Little Sisters of the Poor on Long Island.

Not until shortly before the second inquiry began did he tell the sisters that he was one of the witnesses to the apparition at Knock.

Late in life, Curry would recount the stories of the apparition and of serving Mass for Archdeacon Bartholomew Cavanaugh, the parish priest of Knock. Just before the apparition began, the priest had completed a series one hundred Masses for the souls in Purgatory whom the Virgin Mary wished to be released.

Curry died in the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Manhattan in 1943, aged 69. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Pine Lawn Cemetery in Long Island. Curry’s cousin, Patrick Hill, passed away in Boston in 1927 at the age of 60.

The modern-day rector of the shrine, Fr. Gibbons, spoke about Curry’s unmarked grave to Cardinal Dolan when the cardinal led a 2015 pilgrimage to Knock.

Initially, he asked the cardinal to help bless the grave when a gravestone was provided. The cardinal then offered to bring Curry’s remains to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. When this proved impossible, the grounds of the historic cathedral was chosen.

Fr. Gibbons said Knock is extremely grateful to the cardinal for his support and encouragement. In an unusual reversal, 130 pilgrims will be flying from Knock to New York City. Their numbers include some of Curry’s relatives.

Tom Beirne, a New York resident who is co-chairing the reburial committee, told CNA the reburial means that Curry “will finally get the recognition that he so greatly deserves at this point.”

He suggested that the reburial and focus on Our Lady of Knock would increase Marian devotion, combined with the centenary of the Marian apparition known as Our Lady of Fatima.

Beirne said Our Lady of Knock has continuing significance to Irish-Americans. He pointed to the St. Patrick’s Day Mass with Cardinal Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, when the singer Cathy Maguire sang “an amazing rendition” of Dana Rosemary Scallon’s song “Our Lady of Knock,” which went viral on the internet.

Beirne said that St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral is “hugely significant” to the Irish community and the Irish-American Catholic fraternity the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which is assisting in the reburial.

“Archbishop John Hughes, ‘Dagger Hughes.’ called on the Ancient Order of Hibernians to physically defend St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on a couple of occasions against the planned destruction by Nativists and the ‘Know Nothings,’” he said.

The group and its counterpart, the Ladies’ Ancient Order of Hibernians, host an annual pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Knock Shrine in East Durham, New York.

Today, Knock is the National Marian Shrine of Ireland and hosts the largest pilgrimage in the country. The shrine is surrounded by gardens with five churches.

“Pilgrims often comment on the great sense of peace that they experience here,” Fr. Gibbons said.

The National Novena to Our Lady of Knock takes place Aug. 14-22 every year, bringing guest speakers, workshops for pilgrims, and a candlelight rosary procession around the shrine grounds each evening.

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FEATURES

How to preach like the Apostles

by Bishop Robert Barron • May 9, 2017

I have always loved the Acts of the Apostles and have often recommended it to those who are approaching the Bible for the first time. Filled with colorful narratives, adventure, martyrdom, persecution, journeys by sea, etc., it makes for stimulating reading indeed. But I love it especially because it shows us the excitement of being a follower of Jesus. Long before there were parishes and dioceses and the Vatican and other institutional structures, there was this band of brothers and sisters who were so overwhelmed and energized by the fact of the resurrection that they went careening around the world and to their deaths with the message of Jesus.

It also features some wonderful exemplifications of Christian preaching, for it relates to us some of the earliest kerygmatic proclamations of the apostles. If we attend carefully to these speeches, we can learn a lot about good preaching, but also a lot about the nature of Christianity. A particularly fine example is the sermon given by St. Peter on Pentecost morning and described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. We hear that Peter stood up with the Eleven and raised his voice. First lesson: all legitimate Christian teaching and proclamation is apostolic, which is to say, grounded in the witness of the first intimate followers of Jesus. Bishops are entitled to preach precisely because they are successors of the apostles; priests and deacons are formally commissioned to preach by bishops. This is to assure that what preachers say is not just a matter of private opinion or the fruit of the present cultural consensus, but is rather rooted in the experience of those who knew Jesus personally.

So what does apostolic preaching sound like? Peter says, “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Notice, first, the strength, confidence, and edginess of this proclamation. There is nothing weak, vacillating, or unsure about it. This is not a preacher sharing his doubt with you or reveling in the complexity and multivalence and ambiguity of faith. This is a man speaking (in a loud voice) about his absolute conviction. And what is he convicted about? “That God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Christos, the Greek term for Messiah from which we derive the English word Christ, has the sense of anointed, which implies the new David, which means the fulfillment of the expectation of Israel. Good preaching always puts Jesus in relation to Israel, for he makes sense only kata ta grapha (according to the Scriptures). A Jesus abstracted from the history of Israel devolves in short order into a mere religious teacher or teacher of timeless spiritual truths.

And not only is he Christ; he is also Kyrios (Lord). This term had, at the time of Peter and Jesus, both a Jewish and a Roman sense. On the Jewish reading, it designated Yahweh, the God of Israel, for Adonai (Lord, in Hebrew) was the typical substitute for the unpronounceable tetragrammaton, YHWH. Paul, who continually calls Jesus “Lord,” says that Jesus was given the name above every other name, by which he means the name of God. Preaching that leaves the divinity of Jesus aside or in the shadows is, therefore, not Apostolic preaching. Now Kyrios also had a Roman sense, since Caesar was called kyrios, meaning the one to whom final allegiance is due. Do you see how edgy and subversive it was to declare that Jesus is Lord, and by implication, Caesar is not? And do you see why those who made that claim usually ended up imprisoned and/or put to death? A twentieth century Anglican bishop memorably expressed the insight as follows: “When Paul preached, there were riots; when I preach, they serve me tea.”

Notice, next, that Peter is not tickling the ears of his hearers: “God has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.” He’s not pulling any punches or trying to win friends and influence people. About as bluntly and clearly as he possibly can, he names the sin of his audience. And this is precisely what “cuts to the heart” of his hearers. Trust me when I tell you that abstract spiritual principles, tired bromides, and timeless moral truths don’t cut people to the heart. And so they cry out, “What are we to do?” Peter’s sermon continues: “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” Every truly evangelical sermon should be a call to repentance, to turn one’s life around. If it doesn’t lead to contrition and a conviction to change, it has not cut to the heart. Mind you, this doesn’t entail moralizing in a brow-beating way, but rather the presenting of the message of Jesus in such a clear and compelling way that people naturally see how they’ve fallen short and want to change.

Peter concludes: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Followers of Jesus are a holy nation, a people set apart. We have renewed minds and wills; we should profile ourselves distinctly against the backdrop of the world. If we think and act like everyone else, we haven’t taken in the Gospel. Relatedly, if all we hear from the pulpit is what can be heard on talk-shows and in discussion groups and in political conversations, we haven’t heard the Gospel. Finally, we are told that, “Three thousand persons were added [to the Church] that day.” I know that everyone and his brother tells us not to worry about numbers and there is indeed truth to that. For God wants us to be, not successful, but faithful, as Mother Teresa said. However, like it or not, the Bible is interested in numbers. And good preaching, if it is truly evangelical, is meant to draw people into the Church. That they are staying away from the Church in droves today says, I would suggest, something rather negative about the quality of our preaching.

To all preachers, I might recommend a careful consideration of the kerygmatic sermonizing in the Acts of the Apostles. If you preach like Peter, they might not serve you tea after every homily, but they will know that they’ve been cut to the heart.

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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SUNDAY • MAY 14, 2017

Fifth Sunday of Easter

First Reading (Acts 6:1-7; NRSVCE)

During those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; NRSVCE)

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

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.

Praise befits the upright.

Praise the Lord with the lyre;

make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.

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

For the word of the Lord is upright,

and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

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

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

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

on those who hope in his steadfast love,

to deliver their soul from death,

and to keep them alive in famine.

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

Second Reading (1 Pt 2:4-9; NRSVCE)

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the very head of the corner,”

and

“A stone that makes them stumble,

and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Gospel Reading (Jn 14:1-12; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

MONDAY • MAY 15, 2017

Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 14:5-18; NRSVCE)

When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone Paul and Barnabas, the apostles learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country; and there they continued proclaiming the good news.

In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been crippled from birth. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man sprang up and began to walk. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice. When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, “Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good — giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 115:1-2, 3-4, 15-16; NRSVCE)

R: (1ab) Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give glory.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

Why should the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

R: Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give glory.

Our God is in the heavens;

he does whatever he pleases.

Their idols are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

R: Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give glory.

May you be blessed by the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

The heavens are the Lord’s heavens,

but the earth he has given to human beings.

R: Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give glory.

Gospel Reading (Jn 14:21-26; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

TUESDAY • MAY 16, 2017

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 14:19-28; NRSVCE)

Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.

Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21; NRSVCE)

R: (see 12) Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

and all your faithful shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,

and tell of your power.

R: Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

To make known to all people your mighty deeds,

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

R: Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,

and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

R: Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Gospel Reading (Jn 14:27-31a; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

WEDNESDAY • MAY 17, 2017

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 15:1-6; NRSVCE)

Certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 122:1-2, 3-4ab, 4cd-5; NRSVCE)

R: (see 1) Let us be glad and go to the house of the Lord!

I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Our feet are standing

within your gates, O Jerusalem.

R: Let us be glad and go to the house of the Lord!

Jerusalem — built as a city

that is bound firmly together.

To it the tribes go up,

the tribes of the Lord.

R: Let us be glad and go to the house of the Lord!

As was decreed for Israel,

to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

For there the thrones for judgment were set up,

the thrones of the house of David.

R: Let us be glad and go to the house of the Lord!

Gospel Reading (Jn 15:1-8; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

THURSDAY • MAY 18, 2017

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 15:7-21; NRSVCE)

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written,

‘After this I will return,

and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen;

from its ruins I will rebuild it,

and I will set it up,

so that all other peoples may seek the Lord —

even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called.

Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago.’

Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10; NRSVCE)

R: (3) Declare God’s marvelous works among all the peoples.

O sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless his name.

R: Declare God’s marvelous works among all the peoples.

Tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples.

R: Declare God’s marvelous works among all the peoples.

Say among the nations, “The Lord is king!

The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.

He will judge the peoples with equity.”

R: Declare God’s marvelous works among all the peoples.

Gospel Reading (Jn 15:9-11; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

FRIDAY • MAY 19, 2017

Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 15:22-31; NRSVCE)

The apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

So they were sent off and went down to Antioch. When they gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. When its members read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 57:8-9, 10 and 12; NRSVCE)

R: (10a) I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples.

My heart is steadfast, O God,

my heart is steadfast.

I will sing and make melody.

Awake, my soul!

Awake, O harp and lyre!

I will awake the dawn.

R: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;

I will sing praises to you among the nations.

For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;

your faithfulness extends to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.

Let your glory be over all the earth.

R: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples.

Gospel Reading (Jn 15:12-17; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

SATURDAY • MAY 20, 2017

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter

First Reading (Acts 16:1-10; NRSVCE)

Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went from town to town, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 100:1b-2, 3, 5; NRSVCE)

R: (2a) Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come into his presence with singing.

R: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

R: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

R: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Gospel Reading (Jn 15:18-21; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his disciples, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world — therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”