VOLUME 3, ISSUE 20  •  JULY 15, 2017

Table of Contents

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope to maintenance staff: We are all sinners, but Jesus heals us

Vatican calls on Bishops to prevent Eucharistic abuse in their dioceses

When times are tough, turn to Jesus, Pope says

Friends, colleagues remember the ‘gentleman’ Joaquin Navarro-Valls

Are you grateful for the work of sailors? You should be, the Vatican says

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’

Cardinal Müller refutes claims about conversation with Pope

Pope calls catechists to be joyful, creative witnesses of Christ

Former president, treasurer of Pope’s hospital charged with misuse of funds

WORLD NEWS

London hospital seeks another hearing in Charlie Gard case

Marawi conflict is not a religious war, Philippine bishops insist

An answer to prayers: Priestly ordinations reach new peak in Scotland

Missionaries of Charity copyright blue and white sari

Macron scrutinized for blaming Africa’s poverty on high birthrate

In Ukraine, Cardinal Sandri says there’s hope for the future

Yemeni minister: Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil is still alive

Mosul needs help to rebuild, Iraqi official cautions

U.S. NEWS

Don’t send Chaldeans back to persecution in Iraq, advocates plead

Funding for abortion to become more compulsory in Oregon

How should a Catholic bishop tweet?

Bishops preach hope, solidarity amidst opioid epidemic

FEATURES

The art Pope Francis loves

Movie review: ‘Baby Driver’

Holy tattoo! A 700-year old Christian tradition thrives in Jerusalem

Ordained a priest, former Manchester United footballer’s goal is Christ

Gluten and Communion: What’s a celiac to do?

Why this Catholic takes issue with ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ labels

New research: Shroud of Turin bears blood of a torture victim

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • July 16, 2017

Monday • July 17, 2017

Tuesday • July 18, 2017

Wednesday • July 19, 2017

Thursday • July 20, 2017

Friday • July 21, 2017

Saturday • July 22, 2017

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Volume 3, Issue 20 • July 15, 2017

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope to maintenance staff: We are all sinners, but Jesus heals us

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • July 8, 2017

Pope Francis celebrates a private Mass with Vatican maintenance staff on July 7, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City — On Friday Pope Francis said that just like the biblical tax collectors, despite our sinfulness, Jesus seeks us out to be near us and to heal us, as long as we have the humility to recognize that we need him.

“First of all we must recognize this: none of us, none of us here, can say, ‘I am not a sinner.’ The Pharisees said this. And Jesus condemns them,” the Pope said July 7.

“They were proud, vain, they believed themselves to be superior to others. Instead, we are all sinners. It is our title and it is also the opportunity to attract Jesus to us. Jesus comes to us, comes to me, comes to me because I am a sinner.”

Francis spoke at a private Mass Friday morning for the maintenance staff of Vatican City. In his homily, he reflected on the day’s Gospel from St. Matthew, which tells how Jesus called St. Matthew to follow him, dining with him and with other “tax collectors and sinners.”

This scene from the Gospel is also depicted in a famous painting by Caravaggio called “The Calling of Saint Matthew,” which Pope Francis said he used to go and see in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, when he would visit Rome back before he was Pope.

“This consoles me so much,” the Pope said, “because I think Jesus came for me. Because we are all sinners. All.”

This is our consolation and our faith, he continued. That Jesus always forgives us, healing our soul. Even if you think you are weak, that you will just fall into sin again, Jesus will raise you, “heal you always,” he said.

“Jesus came for sinners, not for the righteous. They do not need it. Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, go to find out what it means I want mercy and not sacrifices. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

“When I read these words,” he said, “I feel called by Jesus, and we can all say the same: Jesus came for me. Each of us.”

Even in the bad times, when we slip up or feel the weight of the many things we have done wrong, Jesus loves you regardless. “Do not be afraid,” Francis said.

The Pope explained how it makes him think of a step in the spiritual life of St. Jerome. The saint was praying and working for the Lord, but still something was missing. The Lord wanted him to give him his sins, the Pope said.

“Today, on this first Friday,” he concluded, “we think of the heart of Jesus, who helps us understand this beautiful thing, with a merciful heart, who only says to us: ‘Give me your weaknesses, give me your sins, I will forgive all.’ Jesus forgives everything, forgives always. May this be our joy.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Vatican calls on Bishops to prevent Eucharistic abuse in their dioceses

CNA/EWTN News • July 8, 2017

(Saint Joseph via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Vatican City — In a new letter to bishops, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments denounced abuses against the Eucharist and “lack of respect in the sacred sphere,” and reiterated existing norms regarding the Eucharist at Mass.

The letter, issued at the request of Pope Francis, reminds bishops of the norms concerning the Eucharist matter indicated in the Code of Canon Law and the Roman Missal, and explained in the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum of this Congregation of March 25, 2004.

According to those norms, “the bread used in the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist must be unleavened, of only wheat and made recently, so that there is no danger of it being corrupted.” Therefore, “bread made with other substances” can not constitute the valid matter for the realization of the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.

In addition, they emphasized that “it is a serious abuse to introduce other substances such as fruit, sugar or honey in the manufacture of bread for the Eucharist.”

As for wine, it states that it “must be natural, from the fruit of the vine, pure and without corrupting, without mixing of foreign substances,” and insists that no other drinks “of any kind to be admitted for any reason, as they do not constitute valid matter.”

The letter also addressed norms regarding gluten-free hosts.

“Hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist. Low-gluten hosts (partially gluten-free) are valid matter, provided they contain a sufficient amount of gluten to obtain the confection of bread without the addition of foreign materials and without the use of procedures that would alter the nature of bread,” the letter states.

The Congregation also issued a norm regarding GMOs, saying that “Eucharistic matter made with genetically modified organisms can be considered valid matter.”

In the letter, the Congregation emphasized that it is primarily the responsibility of diocesan bishops to ensure that these norms are being followed and that abuse is not occurring in their parishes.

Finally, it suggests that bishops work together to carry out “the necessary checks on production, conservation and sale of the Eucharistic bread and wine in a given country and for other countries to which they are exported. It is recommended that the bread and wine to be used in the Eucharist be treated accordingly in the places where they are sold.”

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VATICAN NEWS

When times are tough, turn to Jesus, Pope says

CNA/EWTN News • July 9, 2017

Pope Francis during a Wednesday General Audience in 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — When life gets hard, Jesus especially invites us to turn to him, Pope Francis said.

“Jesus knows how hard life can be,” Pope Francis said.

But at those moments, his invitation is: “Come.”

The Pope made his remarks to the audience gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address. He based his reflections on the day’s Gospel passage in Matthew: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

It can be easy to be tempted to turn in on ourselves when things are going badly, Pope Francis said. But Jesus wants to pull us out of this despairing “quicksand” through a loving relationship.

We might be tempted to find our rest in other things of this world, the Pope said, but those things are like fireworks, which burn out quickly.

We must learn to turn outside of ourselves during our times of need, but even this is not enough - we have to know where to go, he said, which must be to Jesus, who says “Come to me.”

However, if we go to Jesus expecting that he will instantly fix all of our problems, we are looking for the wrong thing, he said.

“Jesus does not take the Cross away from us,” the Pope said. “Rather, he carries it with us.”

He helps us bear our burdens and gives us peace of heart even in the most difficult moments of life, the Holy Father said.

We know this because Jesus himself repeats it in the Gospel reading today: “Learn from me … and you will find rest for your life.”

He never says that the burden goes away, but that “my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

“Let us learn to go to Jesus,” Pope Francis said. “And while, in these summer months, we seek some respite from those things that weary the body, let us not forget to find true rest in the Lord.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Friends, colleagues remember the ‘gentleman’ Joaquin Navarro-Valls

by Elise Harris and Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2017

Joaquín Navarro-Valls and St. John Paul II. (opusdei.org)

Vatican City — During his 22 years as spokesman for St. John Paul II, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls became somewhat of a legend in the Vatican – not only for his keen professional abilities and insight into the Pope’s mind, but also for his genuine kindness and deep spiritual life.

In a word, most who knew the late Spanish layman, who died earlier this week, have referred to him as a “gentleman” who was elegant, professional, kind and incredibly savvy.

Fr. John Wauck, a longtime friend of Navarro-Valls, described him as “an old-school gentleman and a consummate professional – capable, discreet, committed, loyal.”

Likewise, Greg Burke, current Director of the Holy See Press Office, said after announcing news of Navarro’s passing on Twitter that “Joaquin Navarro embodied what Ernest Hemingway defined as courage: grace under pressure.”

Burke said that he had met Navarro-Valls while working as a correspondent for Time Magazine the same year that the publication had named St. John Paul II “Man of the Year.”

In dealing with the Pope’s spokesman, Burke said “I expected to find a man of faith, but I found a man of faith who was also a first class professional” that was already well known and respected by his peers in the communications world.

“I didn’t always agree with Navarro, but he always behaved like a Christian gentlemen – and those can be hard to find these days,” Burke said.

Navarro-Valls was born in Cartagena, Spain in 1936. He studied medicine at the Universities in Granada and Barcelona, and worked as a professional psychiatrist and teaching medicine before obtaining degrees in journalism and communications.

He joined Opus Dei after meeting its founder St. Josemaria Escriva, continuing to collaborate with the founder in Rome, where he moved in 1970.

In Rome he was a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC and was twice elected president of the Rome-based Foreign Press Association in Italy.

He was the first lay journalist to hold the position of Director of the Vatican Press Office, which he was appointed to by Pope St. John Paul II in 1984. He served through the Pope’s death and two years into the pontificate of Benedict XVI before retiring in 2006.

After, he served as president of the advisory board of the Opus Dei-affiliated Campus Biomedical University in Rome until his death.

In his tenure at the Vatican Press Office spanning more than two decades, Navarro-Valls helped to modernize Vatican communications, especially as technology advanced. As Burke said, “he lived through the fax to the age of the internet.”

In 1992, he used $2 million to equip the press office with up-to-date technology and to modernize the facilities. He also streamlined the distribution of materials by making archives, documents and the Pope’s activities accessible online.

He died in Rome July 5 surrounded by fellow members of Opus Dei after battling terminal cancer. His funeral was held Friday, July 7 at 11a.m. at the basilica of Sant’Eugenio, and was celebrated by the Vicar General of Opus Dei, Bishop Mariano Fazio.

Mario Biasetti, a journalist under the last five popes and a friend and colleague of Navarro-Valls, said he was a professional journalist, and it showed in everything he did.

Even when a colleague or a journalist would ask him a tough question, “it didn’t faze him,” Biasetti said. “He would tell you exactly what happened, but he would do it with a smile.”

“Joachin Navarro was a very well thought of man all-around. He had no difficulty to speak with anybody, whether officially or not officially.”

Biasetti traveled on many papal trips with John Paul II, and Navarro was always there and always by his side, he said. He was also always willing to pitch in and “always came through” for journalists with whatever they needed.

For Burke, one of the key things that stood out about Navarro-Valls is that he was someone who would work “shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of us,” who “knew the world” and was good with languages.

Burke noted that before coming to the Vatican, Navarro worked as a correspondent, “and his colleagues from around the globe clearly recognized his merits, electing him President of the Stampa Estera in Rome.”

“I remember watching Navarro closely during the U.N. Population Conference in Cairo – one of the best examples of what Pope Francis calls ideological colonization. It was fascinating to see someone who was defending the faith, but he wasn’t on the defensive. He was leading the fight.”

Asked about what, if any, advice he had given Burke on doing the job, the spokesman said the advice he got “was more personal than professional, such as ‘don’t neglect your interior life, and make sure you pray – you’ll need it in this job.’”

This attention to the spiritual life is something that was also obvious to others who worked with Navarro. In Biasetti’s words, the Spaniard “was a journalist, yes, but he was also a churchman.”

Fr. Wauck, a professor of the Institutional Church Communications faculty at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and a fellow member of Opus Dei, recalled that this spiritual dynamic was evident even in Navarro’s work.

The priest said that when he thinks of Navarro, the first thing that comes to mind is “the conversion of the Time magazine reporter Wilton Wynn,” a well-known old-time reporter in the Middle East and Rome during John Paul II’s pontificate.

“Naturally, it was the vibrant Christian example of the Pope that attracted Wilton to the faith, but his long friendship with Navarro-Valls played a key part as well,” Wauck said, adding that Navarro-Valls “maintained an affectionate concern for Wilton’s spiritual well-being for the rest of his life.”

Another memory the priest recalled is “a small act of kindness” that took place over the summer some 15 years ago.

Fr. Wauck said that he had mentioned, in passing, in front of Navarro, that he had broken his swimming goggles. “The next day, I found a new pair on my desk, and they were much better than the ones I’d broken.”

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Navarro-Valls’ immediate successor as Director of the Holy See Press Office, also reflected on his relationship with his late predecessor, calling to mind Navarro’s character and impact on Vatican communications.

Lombardi recalled meeting Navarro after coming to Rome in 1991 to take on the role as Director of Programming for Vatican Radio.

After meeting and working alongside the Spaniard, particularly when the Pope traveled abroad, it immediately became clear that he was “a stable and important component” of the papal entourage, “but also likeable, friendly and cordial,” Lombardi said.

“Naturally I already knew him for his fame as a brilliant and competent ‘spokesman’ for the Pope,” he said, noting that the official title for someone in Navarro’s position is “Director of the Holy See Press Office.”

However, in the case of Navarro-Valls, spokesman “was an entirely appropriate name.”

According to Lombardi, it was Navarro himself who often stressed that it was “absolutely necessary to have – and to indeed have – a direct relationship with the Pope, in order to know his thinking and line of thought with surety and clarity, and to be able to present himself to the world, to the Press Office and to public opinion as an authoritative interpreter of that thought, and not just hearsay.”

Throughout Navarro’s lengthy tenure working in the Vatican, there was absolutely “no doubt” that “he was very close to the Pope, so close that he must be considered one of the most important figures of that extraordinary pontificate.”

This, Lombardi said, is “not only because of his evident public visibility, but also for his role in intervention and advice. Certainly John Paul II had great confidence in him and held his service in high esteem.”

Burke, who is Lombardi’s successor as Director of the Holy See Press Office, referred to this relationship when he announced Navarro’s passing, posting a photo of him standing next to John Paul II with a big smile.

“I tweeted out a photo of Navarro-Valls and John Paul II smiling together, saying ‘Navarro, keep smiling.’ But I actually took that quote from John Paul II,” he said.

It was after a meeting between the Pope and the editors of Time Magazine, Burke explained. Navarro was standing off to the side a little, but smiling, happy with how things had gone and Pope St. John Paul II, noticing, said to him in English: “keep smiling.”

“You could tell that they had a very, very good relationship,” he said.

When it came to Navarro’s professional abilities, Lombardi said that at U.N. conferences the Spaniard would end up playing a primary and even diplomatic role, thanks to his “experience and communicative ability.”

“His intelligence, elegance and relational abilities were prominent. To that is added a great knowledge of languages and a true genius in presenting news and information content in a brilliant, attractive and concise way,” Lombardi said.

These are all gifts that made Navarro “an ideal person as a point of reference in the Vatican for the international information providers, but also for relations” with people in the public, communications and political spheres.

As both a layman and a consecrated member of Opus Dei, Navarro could be counted on as a competent and respected professional, but also as someone “whose dedication and faithful love of the Church could really be counted on, for the effective availability of both time and heart.”

For Lombardi, the lengthy duration of Navarro’s service as Director of the Press Office, his authoritativeness, efficiency and the quality of his work make his tenure “an age that will likely remain unique in the history of the Press Office and of Vatican communications.”

“Certainly, the dimension of communications and public relations in the immense pontificate of John Paul II cannot in any way be independent of Dr. Navarro’s work and personality,” he said. “It was an invaluable service to the Church.”

Lombardi voiced his gratitude to Navarro, specifically for the “courtesy and attention” he showed during the time they worked together.

“I always considered him a teacher in the way of carrying out his service and I never would have imagined to be called to succeed him,” Lombardi said, adding that his predecessor was “totally inimitable.”

“In the context of a different pontificate I tried to interpret and carry out the task assigned to me as best as I knew how, but preserving, for what was possible, his precious legacy,” he said.

Lombardi and Navarro remained friends even after the latter stepped down. For Lombardi, his predecessor was always “an example of a discreet, true and deep spiritual life, fully integrated with his work, a model of dedication to the service of the Pope and the Church, a teacher in communications.”

“Even for me – as I already said, but I willingly repeat – he was inimitable.”

Material from EWTN News Nightly was used in this article.

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VATICAN NEWS

Are you grateful for the work of sailors? You should be, the Vatican says

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

(O. C. Ritz via Shutterstock)

Vatican City — On Sunday, the Catholic Church held a special day to remember the hard work and challenges surrounding the occupation of sailors and other maritime workers, who are responsible for transporting roughly 90 percent of the world’s goods.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, sent a message for “Sea Sunday” July 9, urging people to remember in prayer sailors and their families, who work under challenging conditions in order to make our lives better.

“In our daily lives, we are surrounded by and use many objects and products that at some stage of their journey towards us have been transported on vessels. It is difficult for us to imagine behind these objects the faces of the many seafarers who have secured a smooth sailing for the vessel to deliver these commodities to the port safely,” Cardinal Turkson wrote.

“On Sea Sunday we are invited to recognize and express our gratitude to this force of more than 1.5 million seafarers, (the majority of them coming from developing countries), who with their hard work and sacrifices are making our life more comfortable …”

Though sailors are indispensable to the transportation of the world’s goods, there are often many challenges to their dignity, alongside the many difficulties in their lives and the lives of their families, the cardinal pointed out.

He drew attention to five of these difficulties in particular, including the long periods away from their families and the increased risk of isolation and loneliness.

“In spite of the great progress in technology, which has improved communication between seafarers and their loved ones, the long months away from the family are still a huge sacrifice that often reflects negatively on family life,” he said.

“Mothers are left alone, forced to play multiple roles with children growing up with an absent father. It is important that in our pastoral ministry, we pay special attention to the families of seafarers by initiating and supporting the creation of seafarer’s wives groups to provide mutual care and assistance.”

Though social media and technology may give seafarers a greater connection to people around the world, he pointed out, on the other hand it may also create a greater distance from their fellow crew members.

This can lead to isolation, loneliness, and depression, which is a common ailment in this profession, illustrated by the sobering rates of suicide, the foremost cause of death among seafarers.

For those who work in maritime ministry, “our function especially during visits on board is to try to create a ‘human connection’ and strengthen the ‘human communication,’” Cardinal Turkson said.

Another challenge is the increase in security at ports, brought about by the rise in terrorism. This increase may restrict seafarers’ access to the port, keeping them from disembarking. It may also restrict the access of welfare visitors, preventing them from coming on board.

We understand the need for security for the protection of people and goods, Cardinal Turkson noted, but “on the other hand, we must make sure that no one will be discriminated against and prevented to go ashore because of nationality, race or religion.”

We must also “advocate for the fundamental right of the crews to ‘have access to shore-based facilities and services to secure their health and well-being,’” as per Maritime Labor Convention regulations.

Despite the minimum international requirements of the human and labor right of seafarers, crews may still be cheated out of their salary, exploited, abused in their work, unjustly criminalized for maritime accidents and even abandoned in foreign ports, Cardinal Turkson continued, calling on the maritime authorities to be vigilant in preventing these abuses.

And lastly, though the threat of piracy has decreased in recent years, the “danger of armed attacks and hijackings is still very high in some geographical areas.”

“We would like to invite the maritime community not to let down the guard and to implement all the necessary measures that will guarantee the safety and the protection not only of the cargo but most of all, of the crew.”

Apostleship of the Sea, or Stella Maris, is a Catholic organization which provides pastoral care for seafarers and their families. Their next World Congress, held every five years, will take place in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in October of this year.

The focus of the congress this year is fishermen and fishing, Cardinal Turkson said. Like seafarers, fishermen also spend a long time at sea. And despite being considered one of the most dangerous professions in the world, they still receive low wages and benefits.

The congress, with qualified speakers and presenters, will increase awareness of and attention to this issue and the issues of human trafficking and forced labor in fishing, as well as Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

“We will strengthen our network with the objective to increase cooperation between the Apostleship of the Sea of the different nations; we will share resources and best practices to develop specific skills, particularly in the fishing sector,” he concluded.

“Let us ask Mary, Star of the Sea, to sustain our service and dedication to seafarers, fishermen and their families and to protect all the people of the sea until they reach the ‘safe port’ of heaven.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • July 11, 2017

Pope Francis addresses paralympians in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Oct. 4, 2014. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Though similar to martyrdom, this definition fits those Servants of God who have in some way given up their life prematurely for charity, though the circumstances may fall outside the strict definition of martyrdom, which requires the presence of a persecutor.

The changes were issued in a Motu proprio July 11, which formally added the particular case to the paths by which a person under investigation for beatification may be discerned to be worthy, in addition to the traditional three paths: martyrdom, a life of heroic virtue and the very rare “exceptional cases.”

The change in norms was made with the support of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which studied the matter during a plenary session Sept. 27, 2016.

In the apostolic letter, Pope Francis wrote that “They are worthy of special consideration and honor, those Christians who, following in the footsteps and teachings of the Lord Jesus, have voluntarily and freely offered their lives for others and have persevered until death in this regard.”

“It is certain that the heroic offering of life, suggested and supported by charity, expresses a true, full and exemplary imitation of Christ, and therefore deserves the admiration that the community of the faithful usually reserves to those who have voluntarily accepted the martyrdom of blood or have exercised in a heroic degree the Christian virtues,” the Pope continued.

The document is titled “maiorem hac dilectionem,” or “greater love than this,” after the verse from the Gospel of John which says: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

There are six new articles, including the first making “the offering of life” a new particular case in the beatification and canonization process, as distinguished from the particular cases of martyrdom and heroic virtue.

There are four criteria this case must meet in order to be “valid and efficacious” for the beatification of a Servant of God.

The first, that it is a “free and voluntary offer of life and heroic acceptance” – for the sake of charity – of a certain and non-lengthy death, showing “a connection between the offering of life and premature death.”

There also must have been the exercise, at least of an ordinary level, of the Christian virtues before the offering of life and up until the moment of death, as well as the existence of signs of and a reputation of holiness, at least after death.

And finally, the usual requirement of a confirmed miracle springing from the intercession of the Servant of God for beatification, after his or her death, must be in place.

The burden of responsibility for showing that an offering of life took place is on the diocese or eparchy submitting the positio – the collection of documents which give the evidence supporting the cause for sainthood – to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The remaining changes are largely an amendment of the pertinent norms from the 1983 documents “Divinus perfectionis Magister,” Official Acts of the Holy See Vol. LXXV, and “New Laws for Causes of Saints,” to include the term “offering of life” alongside that of “martyrdom” and “virtues.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Cardinal Müller refutes claims about conversation with Pope

CNA/EWTN News • July 12, 2017

Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — Cardinal Gerhard Müller has strenuously denied media reports alleging Pope Francis asked the German prelate five pointed questions before informing him that his term as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was not being renewed.

The claims have been widely reported on social media.

Citing an unnamed German source, who in turn claims to have received the information from another person, the US-based news site One Peter Five and Italian Vaticanista Marco Tosatti have reported that Pope Francis, when meeting Cardinal Müller June 30, allegedly asked the then-prefect five questions about his views on a range of topics, including the introduction of a female diaconate and priesthood, the abolition of clerical continence, his stance regarding Amoris laetitia, and his stance on Francis sacking three members of staff in the congregation.

According to these reports, after hearing the German cardinal’s answers, Francis then informed him his mandate was ending and left the room, leaving behind a patiently waiting Cardinal Müller, who was expecting the Holy Father to be retrieving a token of gratitude, until an embarrassed Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the Papal Household, told the stumped cardinal that the meeting was in fact over.

Now Cardinal Müller has told Vaticanista Guido Horst that none of these claims are true. Writing in a guest editorial published at CNA Deutsch, Horst describes personally meeting the German clergyman the morning of July 11 in Rome.

The journalist, chief correspondent of the “Tagespost” newspaper, describes showing a surprised cardinal a printout of the reports: Müller himself had not seen the reporting on the Internet (his secretary, who provides the 69-year-old with online access, is on leave).

The cardinal was “flabbergasted to read this description of his meeting with the Pope,” Horst writes, quoting Cardinal Müller as stating: “This is incorrect.”

In fact, the whole meeting had run very differently Cardinal Müller asserted, and the claims made by the “anonymous German source” were quite false.

The comments echo a brief email sent by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, to both One Peter Five and Marco Tosatti yesterday. In it, Burke states that the claimed “reconstruction is totally false” and requests that the story be updated.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope calls catechists to be joyful, creative witnesses of Christ

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 12, 2017

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

Vatican City — In a message sent to catechists from all over the world, Pope Francis stressed the need to not only make Christ the center of their lives, but to be creative and adaptable in finding ways to reach the people in their area.

“The catechist is creative; they search for different means and forms of announcing Christ,” the Pope said in his July 12 message.

Believing in Jesus is “beautiful,” he said, because Jesus is the way, truth and life “who fills our existence with joy and gladness.”

“This quest to make Jesus known as supreme beauty leads us to find new signs and ways of transmitting the faith,” he said, noting that while the means might be different, what’s important is to imitate “the style of Jesus, who adapted to the people he had before him in order to make them close to the love of God.”

To change and adapt oneself in order to make the message closer to the people is necessary, he said, but stressed that at the same time, the message being transmitted is “always the same, because God doesn’t change, but renews all things in him.”

Pope Francis said that in the quest of making Jesus known to the world, “we must not be afraid because he precedes us in this task. He is already in the man of today, and there awaits us.”

The Pope sent his message to participants in the First International Symposium on Catechesis, which is taking place July 11-14 in Buenos Aires.

The event is being offered through the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), and is organized by the Episcopal Commission for Catechesis and Biblical Pastoral Care.

Pope Francis opened his message, sent in Spanish, by referencing a quote from his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.

He noted that at a certain point, when one of St. Francis’ followers asked to be taught how to preach, the saint responded by saying: “Brother, when we visit the sick, help children and give to the poor, we are already preaching.”

“In this beautiful lesson is enclosed the vocation and task of the catechist,” he said, explaining that catechesis is not simply a job or a task external to the person of the catechist.

Rather, “their whole life revolves around this mission,” he said, noting that to be a catechist is “a vocation of service in the Church, which is received as a gift on the part of the Lord and must in turn be transmitted.”

To do this, one must return to the first encounter with Christ that changed their life. This moment, Francis said, is “the fundamental announcement that must resonate again and again in the life of the Christian, and even more in the one who is called to announce and teach the faith.”

The Pope then pointed to the importance of respecting popular piety in the people, saying it’s important to “care for the potential of piety and love that popular religiosity holds so that they transmit not only the contents off the faith, but a true school of faith is created which cultivates the gift of the faith that has been received.”

A catechist is also someone who journeys both from and with Christ, he said. “They are not a person who starts from their own ideas and preferences, but who allows themselves to look to him, to this gaze that makes their heart burn.”

The more that Jesus is the center of our lives, the more he teaches us to go out of ourselves, Francis said, adding that we are then “decentralized” and able to be close to others.

“This dynamism of love is like the movement of the heart,” and Jesus himself gives us an example of how to live this when he retreats to pray, and then “immediately goes to the encounter of those who are hungry and thirsty for God in order to heal and save them.”

“From here arises the importance of the ‘mystagogical’ catechesis, which is the constant encounter with the Word and with the sacraments, and not something merely occasional prior to the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation,” he said.

Pope Francis closes his speech by thanking catechists for their work, “above all because you walk with the People of God,” and encouraged them “to be joyful messengers, guardians of the good and the beauty that shines forth in the faithful life of the missionary disciple.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Former president, treasurer of Pope’s hospital charged with misuse of funds

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2017

A view of the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica from the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. (Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — The Vatican announced Thursday that an investigation involving the former president and treasurer of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome will proceed to trial before the Vatican court.

The former president, Giuseppe Profiti, and former treasurer, Massimo Spina, have been charged with the illicit use of hospital funds in the amount of 422,005.16 euros ($480,600.58) for the refurbishment of the apartment where Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone lives.

The crime is said to have been carried out during the period of November 2013-May 28, 2014 and to have benefited the construction firm of Italian businessman Gianantonio Bandera, which was carrying out the renovations on the apartment.

Profiti and Spina were summoned to appear before the court by a June 16, 2017 decree from the president of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe Dalla Torre. The first hearing will take place July 18.

The Vatican reported it was conducting an investigation into this matter in 2016 after documents were published implicating that there may have been the illicit transfer of funds from the hospital’s foundation.

Just over one week ago, the Vatican held a press conference on the hospital to confirm that though it has had problems in the past, the Vatican has worked to resolve them.

The operations of the Bambino Gesù Hospital had come under scrutiny after a report by the Associated Press, which examined the hospital’s operations under its previous 2008-2015 administration, finding among other things that the Vatican-owned hospital had shifted its focus from its patients to profits and had some subpar standards of care.

In 2014, the Vatican conducted its own report on the hospital after fielding several complaints, and found many of the same things, including a focus on profits and breaches in accepted medical protocols including the reuse of disposable equipment, early awakening from surgery and risk of infection due to overcrowding.

After the report, a widespread overhaul of the hospital staff and administration was conducted, and a 2015 report found that many of the previous issues had been resolved.

“For what regards the problems that were found, there was serious attention and effort to resolve them,” Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said at the July 4 press conference.

The hospital Bambino Gesù was founded in Rome in 1869 as the first pediatric hospital in Italy. In 1924 it was donated to the Holy See and became the “Pope’s Hospital.” While it receives funding from the Italian government, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Italian government’s health authorities.

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WORLD NEWS

London hospital seeks another hearing in Charlie Gard case

CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2017

Charlie Gard. (GoFundMe page for Charlie Gard)

London, England — Great Ormond Street Hospital in London is applying for a new hearing with the high court after new evidence suggests the critically ill baby could benefit from an experimental treatment.

The decision comes after a team of seven international medical experts alerted the hospital that fresh, unpublished data suggested that an experimental drug could improve Charlie’s brain condition.

One of the signatories of the letter is a researcher and neurologist with the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome, which offered to transfer Charlie to their facilities earlier this week. Great Ormond Hospital said they denied the transfer for legal reasons.

“Two international hospitals and their researchers have communicated to us as late as the last 24 hours that they have fresh evidence about their proposed experimental treatment,” a hospital spokesman said, according to the BBC.

“We believe, in common with Charlie’s parents, it is right to explore this evidence,” they said.

“Great Ormond Street Hospital is giving the High Court the opportunity to objectively assess the claims of fresh evidence … It will be for the High Court to make its judgment on the facts,” they said.

Charlie has been diagnosed with mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease thought to affect just 16 children in the world. The disease causes progressive muscle weakness and can cause death in the first year of life.

Charlie’s case has caught international attention for the various legal battles that his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have fought in an attempt to save their son’s life.

The current decision of the hospital to apply for the appeal comes as a surprise after Charlie’s parents were denied their request by the High Court to take Charlie to a hospital in the United States to seek experimental treatment, even after they had raised over $1 million to take him there. Charlie’s parents were also denied their request to take their son home to die.

Both the Vatican pediatric hospital and Pope Francis have expressed their support for Charlie.

“The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the story of Charlie Gard and expresses his own closeness to his parents,” read a July 2 statement issued by Vatican spokesman Greg Burke.

“He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.”

On June, the day the Charlie’s life support was initially scheduled to be disconnected, the Pope also used his Twitter account to send a clear pro-life message in the infant’s favor:

“To defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all.”

Charlie’s case will be heard by Justice Francis on Monday at 2 p.m. local time (9 a.m. Eastern) according to a High Court listing.

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WORLD NEWS

Marawi conflict is not a religious war, Philippine bishops insist

CNA/EWTN News • July 10, 2017

(Zoltan Voros via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Marawi, Philippines — As violent conflict unleashed by Islamic militants in the Filipino city of Marawi continues to rage, the nation’s bishops have stressed that the problem is not a religious one, and have urged all faiths to work together for peace.

“We all cry from our hearts: War in Marawi, never again! War in Marawi, no more!” the Philippine bishops said in a July 10 statement.

They called for a return to peace and normalcy in Marawi as soon as possible, and questioned whether “the continued state of Martial Law, much more its extension, will bring this about.”

Furthermore, the bishops stressed their belief that the conflict, which has been raging since May, “is not religious.”

Despite the fact that Islamist militants incited the violence, the bishops pointed to “truly stunning stories of how Muslims have protected and helped Christians to escape from almost certain death.”

“Even now Christians are assisting thousands of Muslims who have fled from Marawi for safety. These are indisputable signs that there is no religious war,” they said, and condemned the militants “in the strongest terms possible, as did Islamic religious scholars in Mindanao.”

Militants of the Maute group stormed the city of Marawi, on the island of Mindanao, May 23. The group, formed in 2012, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2015.

Violence began after a failed army and police raid to capture Isnilon Hapilon, a local Islamist leader. The initial attack launched by Maute burned several buildings, including the Catholic cathedral and the bishop’s residence.

The militants still have about 100 civilian hostages, whom they use as human shields, ammunition carriers, and stretcher-barriers.

In a video released shortly after the attack, the vicar general of the Marawi territorial prelature, Fr. Teresito “Chito” Suganob, was featured in a video released one week after his capture appealing to President Rodrigo Duterte to withdraw the army and stop the airstrikes. Although he has yet to be released, he was seen alive a few days ago.

The majority of the city’s 200,000 people – mostly Muslim – have fled since its occupation. Nearly 400 people have been killed in the fighting in Marawi.

The government has said some of the militants appear to be from abroad, including countries like Russia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. However, according to officials there are indications other slain militants have come from the Middle East.

According to the Philippine bishops, the Maute group and its leaders, in pledging allegiance to ISIS, “have contradicted the fundamental tenets of Islam by abducting and hostaging, maiming and killing the innocent.”

The bishops urged Christians and all people of goodwill to be proactive in promoting interfaith dialogue “so that our various faiths may not be exploited and abused for the sake of terrorism or violent extremism.”

“Let parents, schools, churches and mosques ensure that none may be lured by the recruitment efforts of terrorists. Let us teach the young and the old that our faiths are meant for peace,” they said, adding that “no religion teaches the killing of innocent people simply because they belong to another religion.”

Quoting a 2007 letter on “the Common Word” issued by Islamic leaders throughout the world calling for peace between Muslims and Christians, the bishops said “the basis for peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God and love of neighbor.”

They then cited several biblical passages on love of God and neighbor before urging action in showing solidarity with those who have fled Marawi and those who have been taken hostage.

“Let us be vigilant and alert, helping our security forces thwart the threats of terrorism in other areas of Mindanao. Let us help the government rebuild the city of Marawi so that its citizens may return and restore their broken lives.”

The bishops then entrusted efforts for peace and religious harmony to the intercession of Mary, who is “praised and honored” not only by Christians, but also in the Quran.

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WORLD NEWS

An answer to prayers: Priestly ordinations reach new peak in Scotland

CNA/EWTN News • July 11, 2017

Priests and bishops at the Canonization Mass of the Martins, Fr. Grossi, and Sister Maria on October 18, 2015 in St. Peter’s Square. (Martha Calderon/CNA)

Edinburgh, Scotland — Twelve men are set to be ordained priests in Scotland this year, a 20-year high that Catholic leaders credited to prayers and other work to encourage vocations.

“It is great news to see the biggest number of ordinations to the priesthood for over two decades,” said Bishop John Keenan of Paisley. “I want to thank our people who have been praying faithfully in their daily rosary groups for vocations all these years and who now have the joy of seeing God answer their prayers.”

Since the year 1997, when 12 men were ordained priests, Scotland has averaged five ordinations a year. In 2008, there were no ordinations.

Bishop Keenan heads Priests for Scotland, the national vocations office for the Catholic Church. He told the Scottish Catholic Observer that there seems to be a rise in the numbers of men approaching vocations directors to apply for seminary.

The bishop credited prayer, as well as vocations directors for new ideas, creating new structures, and using social media and monthly informal gatherings that helped identify and support those who feel a call to the priesthood.

He also noted “growing numbers of women with new interest in the religious life to provide for the many needs of the marginalized or excluded in our society.”

The bishop said the country needs spiritual leaders, rather than political leaders, “in order to guide us out of a cultural decline that is now beyond the power of politics to solve.”

“There is a huge amount to be done to restore to Scotland the Christian strength whose absence lies at the heart of so many of our recent and most perplexing anxieties and there is a sense that God is raising up just such leaders for this task of our times.”

Four men have been ordained in the last two weeks.

One of the new ordinands, Father Jonathan Whitworth, reflected on how to best encourage vocations to the priesthood.

“I have to say that young men are calling out for something that is radical because they have been sold something of a false reality by the world at the moment,” he told the Scottish Catholic Observer.

“By radical I mean you give your all to it; you take your chance with God. If you want more priests, show our youngsters good, holy priests and they will want to be a part of it.”

Five priests are set to be ordained for the Diocese of Motherwell, one for the Archdiocese of Glasgow, one for the Diocese of Paisley, two for the Diocese of Aberdeen, two for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and one for the Salesian religious institute.

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WORLD NEWS

Missionaries of Charity copyright blue and white sari

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • July 11, 2017

(Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Kolkata, India — The Missionaries of Charity have patented the white and blue sari designed by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, obtaining a legal copyright recognizing the pattern as the intellectual property of the order.

Although it was never officially announced, the copyright had been granted the same day as Mother Teresa’s Sept. 4, 2016 canonization as the culmination of a three year legal process.

According to the Press Trust of India, intellectual property attorney Biswajit Sarkar said that “the blue-designed border on the sari worn by nuns of Missionaries of Charity was recognized as Intellectual Property for the organization on September four, 2016, the day the Mother was canonized.”

“The Missionaries of Charity does not believe in publicity and as such it was not publicized,” he said, while stressing that “we are witnessing unscrupulous and unfair usage of the design across the globe” and so are trying “to spread awareness among people about the trademark.”

The sari, which is the habit of the Missionaries of Charity sisters, was designed by Mother Teresa when she went to the streets in 1948 to serve the poor. It is white with three blue stripes, the outer stripe being larger than the inner two.

Mother Teresa’s blue border pattern “is a distinctive symbolic identity of (the) Missionaries of Charity under the concept of color trade mark protection,” Sarkar said.

The sisters sent their application to the Trade Marks Registry of the Indian government in December 2013, and after a three-year “stringent test of legal proceedings” the copyright registration was granted to coincide with the same day as Mother Teresa’s canonization, despite the fact that it was a Sunday.

According to Sarkar, the copyright of the pattern of the saris worn by the Missionaries of Charity is unique, and marks the first time a uniform has been protected under intellectual property rights.

In an explanation of the meaning of the saris on the Missionaries of Charity website, Sr. Gertrude, the second nun to join the Missionaries of Charity after their foundation and who is since deceased, reflected on the symbolism of the design and how it came about.

She wrote that when she joined Mother Teresa April 26, 1949, “it was then that for the very first time in my life I saw her in her white sari with three blue borders.”

“And what a shock it was for me – Mother Teresa, a Loreto nun, my Headmistress was now dressed like a poor Bengali woman in a simple white cotton sari with three blue borders!” she said.

The shops where the nuns bought their first habits sold the white sari with either red, green or blue borders, and “Mother selected the blue border, for we associate the color blue with Mother Mary. It stands for purity.”

“Also in those days women who swept the streets used to wear a similar kind of a sari,” she said. “So Mother adopted a religious dress that was both symbolic and practical – it not only helped to identify ourselves with the poor, but was also suitable to Calcutta’s searing climate.”

The sisters initially paid about 2.50 rupees ($0.04) for their saris, but once the order began to grow, it became hard to get them in large numbers.

Because of this, when the sisters in 1958 started the Gandhiji Prem Niwas project for leprosy patients, they noticed that many were out of work, and so bought looms and began paying the lepers to weave the saris for the order.

Since leprosy can’t survive outside of human flesh, there was no danger of the nuns getting infected. The patients continue to work under strict medical supervision, and are paid by the sisters, who provide them with food, clothing, and medical care.

Regarding the significance of the colors chosen for the sari, the white stands for truth and purity, while the three blue stripes on the border signify the vows that the nuns take: the first represents poverty, the second obedience, and the third, broader band, represents the vows of chastity and wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor.

The cross sewn onto the left shoulder of the habit is symbolic of the fact that for the Missionaries of Charity, Christ on the Cross is the key to the heart.

Novices who join the order wear plain white saris with no stripes. Only after four years of formation, when they are ready to take their vows, do they receive the sari with the blue stripes. Each sister has only three saris.

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WORLD NEWS

Macron scrutinized for blaming Africa’s poverty on high birthrate

CNA/EWTN News • July 11, 2017

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

Hamburg, Germany — French President Emmanuel Macron has been under attack for identifying Africa’s development issue as a problem of overpopulation, ignoring the effects of France’s imperialism.

In response a question on Africa’s needs by a reporter at the G20 Summit July 7, Macron said, “it’s by a more rigorous governance, a fight against corruption, a fight for good governance, a successful demographic transition when countries today have seven or eight children per woman.”

The event took place in Hamburg July 7-8, and was the twelfth meeting of G20, the top government leaders with major influence in the world’s economy.

When a reporter with roots in Ivory Coast, once a French colony, inquired into a possible plan for Africa similar to the Marshall Plan to reconstruct post-World War II Europe, Macron said, “The challenge of Africa is totally different and a lot more profound, it’s civilizational today.”

He added that a similar investment of money would not be helpful in this case, but the problem is rather certain aspects of the civilization of Africa. The comment has led to charges the president blames Africa’s poverty on its women, while ignoring the effects of France’s colonization of much of the continent.

Macron aligns to the theory of overpopulation, according to the French newspaper Liberation, in light of a book published last March by the political scientist Francoise Verges.

The theory, she said, makes “Third World women … responsible for underdevelopment,” noting its ignorance towards the effects of France’s colonialism in Africa. Rather, she said that “most studies show today that it is underdevelopment that causes overpopulation.”

Verges also addressed the forced abortions and sterilization of black women which occurred in the 1970s on Reunion, an island and overseas department of France in the Indian Ocean located east of Madagascar.

She said that while abortion was still illegal in France at the time, newspapers and radio propaganda advocated for birth control and limits to larger families among African countries.

“For their part, the doctors of the clinic arrive on the island with the conviction that the women of ‘these countries’ should not make children,” she said.

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WORLD NEWS

In Ukraine, Cardinal Sandri says there’s hope for the future

CNA/EWTN News • July 13, 2017

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, on Sept. 17, 2015. (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

Kyiv, Ukraine — Shortly after Pope Francis donated money to help those suffering from Ukraine’s ongoing conflict, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri arrived in the country, saying that while pained, he sees hope for the future.

In comments to local Catholic media after landing in Ukraine July 11, Cardinal Sandri recalled that when he made his first trip to the country several years ago, it was because “in this land was born and is growing, a great hope, a great vision of the future for this Christian country.”

“Today, unfortunately, I also bring pain for a country that ought to be the vanguard of peace in the life of Europe, but which instead is suffering, in all of it’s inhabitants, many deprivations and many victims of this situation,” he said, referring to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine’s eastern region.

Because of this, he said, “I also come with a desire for hope for life and a great future of this beloved country.”

Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches, is currently on an official July 11-17 visit to Ukraine to participate in the national Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Zarvanytsia.

He offered his comments to Zhyve TV, which is the Catholic TV Station of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, after his arrival.

His visit falls in the midst of ongoing upheaval in the country, largely the result of political instability and tensions surrounding the Russian invasion of their eastern region in 2014, which prompted a conflict that has endured three years, claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions of others.

Conflict erupted in Ukraine in November 2013, when the former government refused to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union, leading to months of violent protests.

Tensions deepened in February 2014, when the country’s former president was ousted following the protests, and a new government appointed. In March of that year, Ukraine’s eastern peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Russia and pro-Russian separatist rebels have since taken control of eastern portions of Ukraine, around Donetsk and Luhansk.

Fighting continues, with more casualties reported daily. More than 10,000 people, including civilians, have died in the fighting between Ukraine’s military and pro-Russian separatists. Roughly two million others have been forced to flee due to violence and a lack of basic humanitarian necessities, and those who remain lack access to food, heating and medical supplies.

Last April Pope Francis announced that he would be taking up a special collection in all European churches in order to provide relief from those who are still suffering. In December 2016, the Pope made an initial donation of 6 million euros from the funds collected, asking that it be distributed to different charitable projects.

In his comments to Zhyve TV, Cardinal Sandri said it was “an immense joy” for him to be back in the country after three previous visits, including one with St. John Paul II.

“I come particularly because I was invited to the celebration of the Madonna of Zarvanytsia, so I come to bring to her, the Queen of Ukraine, all the veneration we have for her in the Roman Church, but which we know summarizes the Marian identity of the Ukrainian people,” he said.

The cardinal also offered to Archbishsop Shevchuk and all bishops and faithful in Ukraine, “the greeting, blessing and closeness of the Pope, Francis.”

After his arrival, Sandri traveled to the capital city of Kyiv alongside the Vatican’s nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, and Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine.

While there, he had a moment of silent prayer in front of the Cross of Maiden Square, where he laid flowers in honor of those who lost their lives during the bloody riots of 2014.

From there, he visited the Museum of the Holodomor, making a symbolic gesture in memory of the more than 100 victims.

On Wednesday, July 12, which marks the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on the Giulian calendar, he will participate in the Pontifical Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Resurrection, offering the homily. After, he is expected to pray at the tomb of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Marjor Archbishop Emeritus of Kyiv-Halych and former head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, who died May 31.

Later, the cardinal will hold a meeting with seminarians before leaving for the central-eastern city of Kharkiv, where he will visit the local Caritas.

The next day, July 13, Cardinal Sandri will take part in the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral of the Exharkate of Kharkiv before heading to lunch with priests and various other guests.

He is then expected to meet with the Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nicodemus. In the afternoon he will travel roughly 124 miles to Kramatorsk, where on Friday morning he will celebrate Mass and meet with the local bishops and priests of Donesk.

After paying a visit to the local Caritas and a community center, Sandri is scheduled to stop in the town of Sloviansk, where he will meet with several individuals who have been internally displaced by the conflict.

On Saturday, July 15, the cardinal will hold a meeting with the Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Bishop Volodymr Viytyshyn before joining the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Zarvanytsia.

That night, as part of the pilgrimage, Sandri will lead a special meeting with young people before leading a reflection at the close of the procession of candles.

Cardinal Sandri will then preside over Mass Sunday before traveling to Lviv, where he is scheduled to visit the Greek-Catholic Cathedral Saint George and pray at the tombs of Metropolitan Bishop Andrey Sheptytsky and of Cardinal Joseph Slipyj, heads and fathers of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for a large portion of the 20th century.

He will then hold a brief meeting with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lviv, Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, before heading back to Rome.

According to the website of the apostolic nunciature in Ukraine, Pope Francis has, through Cardinal Sandri, offered all Catholic and Orthodox faithful in Ukraine, his personal greeting and blessing.

The Pope also expressed his “affection and closeness to the population for the sufferings and deprivations they have and are enduring during the well known conflict,” and encouraged those working for peace and reconciliation, as well as those engaged in assisting the displaced.

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WORLD NEWS

Yemeni minister: Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil is still alive

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

Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil. (ANS Agenzia Info Salesiana)

Rome, Italy — After nearly a year since his kidnapping, Yemen officials say that Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil is in fact alive and efforts are being made for his release.

“The Yemeni deputy prime minister conveyed that as per available information, Father Tom was alive and the Yemen government has been making all efforts to secure his release,” Gopal Baglay, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in India said July 11.

The statement was made after Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulmalik Abduljalil Al-Mekhlafi, told Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that the Salesian priest was in fact alive, and that continued efforts were being made to obtain his release.

According to India’s Deccan Herald news service, Al-Mekhlafi met Swaraj during his current tour to New Delhi. Swaraj had inquired about Fr. Tom, voicing concern for his safety.

Baglay said Al-Mekhlafi “assured all cooperation” in working for the priest’s freedom.

The confirmation comes more than a year after Fr. Tom’s abduction. He was kidnapped in Yemen in March of last year during an attack on a Missionaries of Charity house that left four sisters dead.

He garnered international attention when rumors spread that he was to be crucified on Good Friday, which were later discredited. Since then, numerous photos and videos have been released picturing Fr. Tom, thin and with an overgrown beard, pleading for help and for his release.

The videos were never officially authenticated, however Al-Mekhlafi’s assurance that the Kerala priest is alive confirms the likelihood the man shown was in fact Uzhunnalil.

In the most recent video, published in May, Fr. Tom spoke slowly in English, saying 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.”

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.

Although some attribute the kidnapping to ISIS, no one has claimed responsibility, which has made 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

Mosul needs help to rebuild, Iraqi official cautions

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

Two siblings walk in an area near Mosul’s front line on June 14, 2017. (EU/ECHO/Peter Biro via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Rome, Italy — Just days after Iraqi forces completed their recapture of Mosul from the Islamic State, the nation’s ambassador to the Holy See has said that they are eager to rebuild the city and have people return home, but it will require help to do so.

“We reiterate our need for greater cooperation and greater help for the reconstruction and stability of the freed areas, including Mosul, because there is no complete victory until the displaced are returned to their homes and guaranteed essential services,” Omer Ahmed Karim Berzinji said July 13.

“The most important challenge now is the effort for the reconstruction and the stability of the city through the construction of infrastructures in order for the displaced to return. We have need of international support to bring back stability and to prevent the return of the terrorists.”

Berzinji spoke to journalists at a press conference in Rome July 13.

The presser was held in response to the July 9 declaration that Mosul had been recaptured. The government operation to free Mosul, one of the Islamic State’s remaining key strongholds, had been underway for nine months. The group still controls areas around the Iraqi cities of Tal Afar, Hawija, and Al-Qa’im, as well as portions of Syria.

During this time, thousands were killed and nearly 1 million residents fled the city, the major part of it destroyed.

Fr. Ghazwan Baho, a parish priest in Alqosh – the last major Christian city on the Plain of Nineveh not taken by the Islamic State – told CNA they are thankful Mosul has been freed, but the future of the city is still uncertain.

“We thank God that the evil was overcome, but Mosul is a city almost 80 percent destroyed. The future is dark. There isn’t much hope of reconstruction.”

“It’s not enough to win the war, but we need to rebuild,” he said. “We are afraid of the future, of revenge; our area is a land of conflict. Let’s hope for the best.”

The Islamic State had controlled Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, since June 2014. It has imposed a rigid version of sharia in territory it controls, but its rule also features arbitrary violence, including killing and enslavement.

A 2016 U.N. report said that 800 to 900 children in Mosul have been abducted and put through Islamic State religious and military training. There have been accounts of child soldiers who were killed for fleeing fighting on the front lines of Iraq’s Anbar province.

The U.N. also estimates that as of Jan. 2016 the group held about 3,500 slaves, mainly women and children of the Yazidi religion. Some of the women are killed for trying to escape or for refusing sexual relations with Islamic State fighters.

The Iraq ambassador couldn’t give specifics on the government’s plan for how to free the women, but told CNA that it will certainly be one of their top objectives. Regarding the Islamic State, he said he considers the victory in Mosul the “beginning of their end.”

“I am very enthusiastic to take all of that (remaining) occupied territory,” he continued.

Another result of the battle, he told journalists, has been the unification of the various “factions” of the Iraqi army who “joined together for the liberation of Mosul.”

The ambassador emphasized that Iraqis worldwide are celebrating the victory, saying that “the first thing after the liberation of Mosul, the most important thing, was that all Iraqis were united.”

Berzinji also noted the help from outside forces, saying “friends and allies have played a distinct role in supporting the efforts of the Iraqi government in this battle through the intervention of the international coalition or outside it.”

“That is why victory in Mosul is a victory for all those who have helped and have collaborated with us in the fight against this criminal organization.”

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Don’t send Chaldeans back to persecution in Iraq, advocates plead

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

(Gustave Deghilage via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Detroit, MI — After a federal judge again halted the deportation of over 1,000 Chaldeans from the U.S., advocates for the detainees insisted their deportations should be stopped until conditions in Iraq improve.

“We’re just hopeful that people continue to pray for these that are being detained, and understanding that this is a humanitarian crisis and that the administration steps in and puts a halt to these deportations,” Martin Manna of the Chaldean Community Foundation told CNA.

On July 6, U.S. district court judge Mark Goldsmith extended by two weeks a halt on the deportations of Iraqi nationals from around the country.

He wrote that “there is good cause to extend the stay order beyond July 10, 2017. The Court orders that the stay of removal for all members of the class, both original members and those added by way of the expanded definition, shall now expire on July 24, 2017 at 11:59 p.m., unless otherwise ordered by the Court.”

Advocates for the detainees insisted that the stay of deportation was important, as they need extra time to prove to a judge their credible fear of persecution if deported back to Iraq.

Beginning on June 11, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement began rounding up Iraqi nationals living in the Detroit metropolitan area, at their homes in front of their families or in public places. The Chaldeans, mostly Christian, had come to the U.S. legally, and were expected to complete a five-year process for eventual citizenship.

However, the Iraqis either failed to complete the process by applying for green cards, or committed a misdemeanor or felony which disqualified them from eventual citizenship. They received a final order of deportation from a federal judge.

Many of the crimes committed were decades ago, Martin Manna of the Chaldean Community Foundation insisted, and the Chaldeans served their time in jail and have been responsible members of the community since then, regularly checking in with ICE as they are required to do.

They make up a “community of entrepreneurs,” he said, contributing almost $11 billion per year to the state’s economy and are involved in their communities.

“The overwhelming majority of this population poses little or no threat to the United States,” former acting director of ICE John Sandweg stated in a June 6 conference call with reporters.

“The use of discretion in this case is more than appropriate. When you’re talking about 30-year-old nonviolent offenses, in no way, shape or form does it make sense to remove them at this time.”

For instance, one of the detainees is a woman who came to the U.S. as a 5 year-old and now has three children who are U.S. citizens. She received her final order of removal in 1986 and had committed misdemeanor fraud, serving probation time and being released “on an order of supervision.”

She had been “complying with this order,” Manna said, yet now she is set to be deported to Iraq.

Iraq had initially refused to accept the Chaldeans, but recently agreed to do so as a condition of the U.S. removing Iraq from the list of countries on President Donald Trump’s travel ban. In that executive order on national security, President Trump had listed several countries from which nationals could not enter the U.S. except with certain diplomatic visas.

Since June 11, over 1,000 Iraqi nationals from all over the U.S. have been detained by ICE and slated for deportation to Iraq.

U.S. bishops have advocated for a halt to the deportation of the Chaldeans, at least until they would no longer have a credible fear of persecution in Iraq.

In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, chair of the bishops’ migration committee, and Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M., chair of the bishops’ international justice and peace committee, insisted that the administration stop the deportations.

“Returning religious minorities to Iraq at this time, without specific plans for protection, does not appear consistent with our concerns about genocide and persecution of Christians in Iraq,” they wrote.

“For decades, many of these Christians sought legal refuge in the United States. Like other refugees from various countries of origins, they have become integrated into American communities.”

Advocates for the Chaldeans have also been in talks with officials in the Trump administration, and have asked for a temporary protected status to be granted to the detainees from the President or the Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly.

Overall, the situation for Christians in Iraq has deteriorated significantly since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and fell sharply with the rise of ISIS in 2014. While an estimated 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq in 2003, less than 200,000 live there now. There were over 340 churches in Iraq in 2003, and only just over 40 today.

Christians have also been victims of genocide. In 2016, the U.S. State Department declared that the Islamic State was committing genocide against Christians, Shi’a Muslims, and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria. ISIS still controls territory in Iraq.

And recently, a prominent Shi’a leader in Iraq, Sheikh Alaa al-Moussawi, was sued by Christian families for remarks he made that Christians there were “infidels.” He called for “jihad” against Christians.

“The threat of persecution is real and severe in this case,” Sandweg insisted of the deportations of the Iraqis, adding that “the U.S. government has long used its discretion to delay the removal of vulnerable populations until such time as those individuals face no threat in their home country.”

“Iraq cannot guarantee the safety of these Christians and many face persecution and death for their religious beliefs,” Martin Manna stated on a June 6 conference call with reporters. “There is no homeland remaining for the Christian community in Iraq because of the ongoing persecution.”

The ACLU of Michigan, which represented some of the Detroit-area Chaldeans in court, applauded the additional two week stay, adding that “we must ensure that our immigration policy doesn’t operate as a death sentence for anyone.”

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Funding for abortion to become more compulsory in Oregon

CNA/EWTN News • July 12, 2017

(Ray Dumas via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

Salem, OR — The Oregon governor is expected to sign into law a proposal requiring Oregon insurers to cover abortion on demand and increasing taxpayer funding for abortion, drawing strong criticism from Catholic leaders.

“By insisting on complete insurance coverage of abortion, including late-term and sex-selective abortions, the legislature shows itself intolerant of widely-held opposing views and will compel thousands of Oregonians to support what their conscience rejects,” the Oregon Catholic Conference said.

“House Bill 3391 forces insurance companies to cover abortion on demand and it forces all Oregon taxpayers to help finance an extremist abortion agenda that does not enjoy majority support.”

The Oregon House of Representatives passed the bill July 5 by a 33-23 vote. The Senate passed the bill 17-13.

The initial version of the bill’s religious exemptions were so narrow that the Catholic-run Providence Health System threatened to exit the state’s insurance market. The bill’s backers increased exemptions to the bill, but some objecting lawmakers said the provisions did not go far enough, the Catholic Sentinel reports. The exemptions apply to churches and other religious nonprofits.

Under the bill, the Oregon Health Authority must now provide abortion coverage where religious organizations will not.

The bill aims to counter expected changes in federal health care policy. It increases state spending by $10.2 million, most of the funding aiming to provide free coverage of exams, drugs, devices, and procedures. Abortion is considered a procedure under the law.

Under the Oregon Medicaid program, over $2 million is spent each year to pay for about 3,500 abortions, the Associated Press reports. The proposed bill sets aside about $500,000 over the next two years to expand free reproductive health coverage, including abortion, to immigrants.

The Oregon Catholic Conference voiced hope that Oregon Gov. Kate Brown will not sign the law.

The conference encouraged citizens opposed to H.B. 3391 to support the proposed 2018 ballot initiative called the Stop Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. The proposal would bar state funds for any abortion that is not medically necessary or when spending is required by federal law.

The petition needs 117,000 signatures from registered Oregonian voters in order to qualify for the ballot.

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How should a Catholic bishop tweet?

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • July 12, 2017

(Twin Design via Shutterstock)

Orlando, FL — The Catholic Church may be thousands of years old, but its bishops are rapidly adjusting to the demands of 21st-century communication.

If the Church is to effectively evangelize in the modern world, a group of bishops argue, its leaders must be engaged online – but in the right way.

What’s most important is for Catholics engaging online, particularly priests and bishops, is to be sure to bring Christ with them online, said Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas.

“If we aren’t talking about the Gospel and what Jesus said today, then all the other stuff is going to be simply polemical, and our young people are tired of polemics,” he said during a panel discussion.

Young people, he added, want to know what Jesus has to say about the various issues and discussions happening online.

“I think, actually, we have kind of an obligation to sanctify social media,” the bishop said.

Bishop Flores spoke on social media use at a press conference during the “Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America” event on July 2 in Orlando, Florida. Joining him in the press conference were Dr. Hosffman Ospino, associate professor of theology and religious education at Boston College; Archbishop Wilton Daniel Gregory of Atlanta; and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

Consultant and member of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication Kim Daniels also brought up the opportunity presented by social media in a July 3 speech at the convocation. In many ways, she commented, social media is a modern “periphery” where many whose needs are overlooked gather together.

“It’s clear that we need to engage people where they are, and the place where people are is social media on their own devices,” she said. “We know this is a great advantage for us to have this opportunity to reach out.”

Daniels also said that the Church has millennia of experience in communicating and bringing people together that it can give to online spaces.

“We know what it is to be a global interconnective network. We know that these kinds of communities need stability, and they need fidelity, and they need mercy, and relation and we can bring those gifts there.”

For an example of these kinds of gifts being used in the Church today, Daniels said to look at Pope Francis as an “extraordinary communicator.” His enthusiasm, honesty, frank discussion, and resistance to jargon makes him effective at bringing the Gospel to the peripheries, even online, she said.

“He brings something very substantive.”

Bishop Flores agreed with the need to bring substance and Christ to online spaces. “There’s one thing I do every day, and that’s that I will tweet out the Gospel of the day,” he said of his own personal Twitter use.

“If there’s anything I want people to know about the bishop it’s that the first thing he does in the morning is tell you about something Jesus said in the Gospel, because that’s the context from which we have to speak.”

“Maybe you’re not going to get a lot of followers if you comment on the Gospel every day, but it has an effect.”

However, bishops and Catholics can use social media in other worthwhile ways, Bishop Flores stressed. “I have a Twitter and I probably have more fun with it than I should,” he joked.

He said that he often takes group pictures of his confirmation classes, and the confirmande will share his photos online and discuss their confirmation.

“It gives them a chance to say that they’re happy to be Catholic.”

Their diocese also helps high school students utilize social media to develop skills in journalism through the diocese’s Mobile Journalism Project.

“We help get some mobile equipment for high school students who want to learn about journalism, because they’re out there everywhere,” Bishop Flores said.

After the students take pictures or write stories, the diocesan communications office will share them and give feedback. “It helps them get the idea that they can do this,” he said of the program’s impact on students.

Cardinal Wuerl also pointed to the need for bishops to play a more active role on social media, acknowledging the challenges it brings for those who didn’t grow up online.

“We need to be able to be a part of the conversation,” he urged. “If the Church is not part of their conversations, we’re not speaking to them.”

Dr. Ospino pointed out, however, that in many places in the country, this collaboration between generations is not the norm for social media use in the Church. He noted that there is a large “discrepancy” between people in leadership positions in the Church and those who are using the media constantly, with most lay leaders, priests and religious being in their mid 50s, 60s, and 70s, respectively.

“It is more than likely that these people are not tweeting day and night,” he said. Instead, he encouraged Catholic leaders to learn how young people are interacting with social media and the kinds of conversations they are having.

Archbishop Gregory had a different warning. While he agreed that bishops and Catholics should use social media more effectively, he also worried that it has its limitations.

“There is a great challenge though with social media and I think it’s that it emphasizes one-on-one relationships. It doesn’t provide the opportunity of a sense of belonging to a group larger than yourself,” he said.

He noted that in his diocese, many young people will say that they don’t need to attend Mass because they can watch Mass on their smartphones, which runs counter to the Church’s understanding of Mass and the Church.

“The Church is this community that is comprised of all of us together, and without that capacity to highlight that and to give expression to that, the best social media in the world will be missing a unique dimension of what it means to be the Church,” Bishop Gregory said.

“It doesn’t mean that we don’t use it, but we also have to recognize its limitations in delivering the Gospel message.”

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Bishops preach hope, solidarity amidst opioid epidemic

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • July 12, 2017

(David Smart via Shutterstock)

Washington D.C. — Amidst a growing epidemic of drug overdose and opioid addiction, Catholic bishops have been speaking out on the need for prayer and solidarity with those suffering from addiction.

“The closer you get to the Catholic Church, the closer you get to the wounds of Christ,” Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas said during a June 14 press conference at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent meeting in Indianapolis.

“And it’s important for us to recognize that we accompany many people who are wounded,” he added. “It’s the very essence of the Church to reach out to those who are wounded.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have declared that opioid abuse is an “epidemic” in the United States. Every day, 91 Americans die of an opioid-related overdose. The drugs include those used in prescription painkillers like oxycodone, codeine, and morphine, but also heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Overdoses have also become the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50. Opioids are involved in over 60 percent of overdoses nationwide, the CDC noted, and opioid-related overdoses quadrupled between 1999 and 2015.

Many Americans have reported first using prescription drugs before they used heroin, and rates of “past month” and “past year” heroin use, as well as heroin addiction, went up among 18-25 year-olds from 2002-2013, the CDC found, as heroin has become more widely available and purer.

Heroin-related deaths have more than tripled between 2010 and 2015, driven in part by an increase in synthetic opioids like fentanyl being added to heroin and cocaine to increase the potency of the drugs, the CDC reported.

At the U.S. bishops’ annual spring meeting in Indianapolis, held June 14-15, several bishops addressed the rising opioid crisis and discussed what the Church is doing to help those addicted to opioids, and their families. “The problem is becoming just so massive,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

In Vermont, parishes are trying to reach out to victims on the local level, but are making sure to reach the families of victims as well, Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vt. explained at the June 14 press conference.

“Oftentimes we are kind of limited in what we can do on a state level,” he acknowledged. “But at our parishes, and in our agencies in our parishes, we can continue to reach out to addicted families,” he noted, stressing, “not just those who are in recovery, but also their families.”

This also involves finding foster parents for children of addicted parents, particularly those whose parents have overdosed and those who suffer from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

Ultimately, Catholics must “recognize that it’s not just the addicts; it’s the whole family that suffers,” he continued.

Catholic Charities in the Galveston-Houston archdiocese is “already on to this question,” Cardinal DiNardo noted, and is providing “the kinds of charity and help and counseling for them and their families that Catholic Charities by its professional expertise brings.”

On June 29, Bishop Edward Malesic of Greensburg, Pa. published a pastoral letter on the opioid crisis. In his diocese in Western Pennsylvania, over 300 opioid-related deaths had ravaged the communities in the previous year.

In his “Pastoral Letter on the Drug Abuse Crisis from Death and Despair to Life and Hope,” Bishop Malesic affirmed that in response to the crisis, “we can either sink down into despair or rise up in hope.”

“This is a plague that has come into the homes and families of every city, town, and even the rural areas of our diocese,” he acknowledged. Yet Catholics must choose hope, he added.

“Hope is the certain belief that God will provide what we need to overcome the struggles we are now facing. If we are not guided by hope, we will give up before the battle is won. We must have hope!” he insisted.

And Catholics must give hope to those mired in the despair of addiction, he said. “We accompany them with courageous faith. We offer them the comforting presence and power of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Jesus will provide.”

Bishop Malesic exhorted priests, religious, and deacons to “reach out” in Christ’s name to those suffering from drug addiction, and “let them know that they are not alone.”

Catholics must pray for and with those suffering from addictions, he added.

“With the power of prayer, we can lift up our needs and the needs of those who are addicted to a loving God who is concerned for all of us. We know that prayer, this heartfelt and intimate communication with God, can make a dramatic difference in the life of someone coping with an addiction crisis.”

The bishop also announced initiatives the diocese was taking to respond to the crisis, including educational initiatives at the parish level and developing family recovery groups.

Last March, Massachusetts bishops also issued a statement in response to the state’s rising drug-overdose crisis, after the rate of overdose deaths had reached record levels there.

“We encourage our sisters and brothers who are suffering addiction or the addiction of loved ones to turn to their faith community for support, counsel and compassion, and we pray that those most affected will receive the physical, emotional and spiritual help that they need,” the state’s bishops stated.

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The art Pope Francis loves

CNA/EWTN News • July 7, 2017

The Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio. (Public domain via Wikipedia Commons)

Vatican City — What is Pope Francis’ idea of art?

A new documentary titled ‘Pope Francis – My idea of art,’ delves into the Roman Pontiff’s artistic side and explore what art personally means to the Pope through a series of his favorite works.

“The art of mercy is truly Pope Francis’ idea of art,” stated Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums, according to Vatican Radio.

“It is the art that is directed toward the humble. And the Vatican Museums correspond directly to the Pope’s message on art,” Jatta continued.

The documentary was produced by the Vatican Museums and Imago Film and is based on the 2015 book written by the Holy Father and journalist Tiziana Lupi with the same title. While the book is currently only published in Italian, the new documentary will be made available in 6 languages through subtitles.

The film highlights eleven works of both classical and contemporary art from the Vatican’s collection that embody Pope Francis’ ideal message of art, which is “evangelizing and contrasting a throwaway culture.”

The documentary features drone shots and unique cinematography of St. Peter’s Square and Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Gardens. The film is narrated by Pope Francis himself and also features excerpts from Sandro Barbagallo, curator at the Vatican Museums, and from the author of the book, Tiziana Lupi.

Among the Pope’s chosen works of art are the Belvedere Torso, the Sistine Chapel, a 1984 Renault, a scrap metal statue of Our Lady of Luján by Argentine sculptor Alejandro Marmo, and The Deposition by Caravaggio.

According to the Holy Father, these featured works of art contrast the current culture of waste and point toward a way of evangelization.

“The artist is a witness of the invisible and works of art are the clearest proof that the incarnation is possible,” Pope Francis narrates in the documentary.

The previous two pontificates have also been vocal about their appreciation for art, and both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have written about the importance of beauty. However, this is the first time that a pope has been featured in a film for his vision on art.

The 45-minute documentary will be released worldwide over the next few months and will also be featured in various theaters across the globe, although there is no official release date. The Vatican also has plans to submit the film for the 2018 Academy Awards.

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Movie review: ‘Baby Driver’

by Carl Kozlowski • July 8, 2017

There are few greater visceral joys in movies than an expertly choreographed car chase, and the film “Baby Driver” is packed with them. Following the insanely fast-paced adventures of an ace driver nicknamed Baby (Ansel Elgort) who is trapped working off a huge debt to a crime boss by serving as the getaway driver for heists, “Driver” combines rapid action, snappy dialogue and an eclectic soundtrack to create a feast for the senses.

However, it also winds up taking some ruthless twists and turns on its race to the finish line that give the film an occasionally nasty, amoral edge as well. Overall, though, it’s a refreshing blast of fresh air in a summer loaded with sequels and reboots.

The movie puts the pedal to the metal from its opening moments, as Baby excitedly sings along to the music playing through his constantly-worn ear buds, while a team of robbers burst into a bank. His ensuing race across Atlanta to outrun dozens of cops winds up with a quick switch to another vehicle and a rendezvous at the headquarters of a crime boss named Doc (Kevin Spacey).

Doc has had Baby under his thumb for a decade, ever since he stole a car from Doc as a teenager. Baby has been forced to work off the offense by serving as Doc’s getaway driver ever since, the one constant among constantly changing robbers, but is down to his final job.

That’s good news to Baby’s elderly, deaf roommate and former foster father Joseph (CJ Jones), who’s concerned that the dangerous lifestyle will catch up with him. He’s a perfect match for Baby, who rarely speaks and constantly listens to music because he contracted tinnitus in a childhood car accident that killed his parents. Baby is also motivated to move on by meeting a pretty and sassy waitress named Debora (Lily James), who shares his love of classic pop tunes and finds him mysterious.

But before Baby can break free, the last gig forces to team up with a vicious thug named Bats (Jamie Foxx), as well as a drugged-out thief named Buddy (Jon Hamm) and his wife Darling (Elza Gonzalez). With the quick-tempered Bats annoyed by Baby’s idiosyncrasies, Baby will have to think faster than he drives to stay alive.

“Driver” was written and directed by British filmmaker Edgar Wright, who has previously brought new life to zombie flicks with “Shaun of the Dead” and buddy-cop films with “Hot Fuzz” by creating a wildly inventive mix of laughs and action. Even when the action and twists risk becoming ridiculous here, he brings just enough serious menace and depth to the proceedings to place viewers on the edge of their seats all the way to the end.

As Baby, Elgort has the interesting task of being the calm center of a storm of eccentric characters, and manages to pull off making an often-silent guy be more compelling than the brash souls around him. Wright gives him plenty to work with by making Baby unexpectedly kind at the most unlikely of moments, until the last half-hour forces him to get tough with those who wish harm to himself and his loved ones.

Foxx, Spacey and Hamm all have fun chewing the scenery as the masters of mayhem that Baby has to contend with, and their witty banter helps considerably. James’ Debora is the perfect foil for Baby, another young soul feeling trapped in her own life who embraces the chance to escape diner life in Atlanta, even if it means risking everything, and she brings a sultry sweetness to the part that makes it easy to see why Baby falls for her instantly.

Aside from its spectacular driving sequences, “Driver” is also notable for the moments of heart that Wright weaves throughout. Baby comes from an extremely troubled background, and his exchanges with Joseph and Debora as his only emotional connections have a quiet beauty that resonates because it is unfortunately rare to see a loud movie also know how to handle thoughtful times.

Yet it’s the soundtrack that makes the film an instant classic, as Wright has woven dozens of songs from across the past five decades and every imaginable genre of pop music to create a tapestry of sound that fits every single second perfectly. From the Beach Boys to Beck, and Sam & Dave to Queen and plenty of other cult favorites, the song selection was perfectly considered by Wright to fit each scene and the attention pays off with pure sonic joy.

“Driver” winds up going off the rails with some nasty yet not-too-graphic violence in its final stretch, toeing the line on how much one can really root for Baby to succeed. There are, of course, countless car crashes along with a few surprising shootouts that wind up with characters lying in pools of blood and the “F” word is used as liberally as one might expect in an R-rated action movie without going nearly as crazy as a Tarantino or Scorsese film. Most adults ought to be able to handle it, but this is not a movie for children.

But as the movie reveals at key moments, Baby’s got a heart underneath that beats with passion, and that is more than enough to make up for the roughest patches and make this a movie well worth seeing for those who wants some summertime fun at the cinema.

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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Holy tattoo! A 700-year old Christian tradition thrives in Jerusalem

by Adelaide Mena (CNA/EWTN News) • July 9, 2017

Work of Razzouk Tattoo in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. (Addie Mena/CNA)

Jerusalem, Israel — In the Old City of Jerusalem it’s hard to escape the ancient history that’s still alive within its walls.

A simple smartphone search can send you on a walk to a centuries-old shop, bring you to the steps of a millennium-old Church, or lead you past the 3,000 year-old Temple Mount – all bursting with people and energy.

But it’s only within the stone walls of Razzouk Ink that the modern pilgrim can have that history etched onto his or her body for the rest of their lives.

And Christian pilgrims have come to the tattoo artists of the Razzouk family since the Crusades to receive ancient signs of Christian identity and pilgrimage.

Even today, as the family uses up-to-date procedures and incorporates contemporary trends into some of their artwork, the Razzouk family still draws upon the history and skills passed down through the generations for nearly three-quarters of a millennium. They also incorporate instruments and designs dating back several hundred years, carrying on one of the world’s oldest tattoo traditions.

A family legacy, written in ink

Wassim Razzouk, 43, is a tattoo artist descending from a centuries-long line in the trade: 700 years to be exact.

“We are Copts, we come from Egypt, and in Egypt there is a tradition of tattooing Christians, and my great, great ancestors were some of those tattooing the Christian Copts,” he told me.

The first evidence of a Christian tattoo tradition traces back to the Holy Land and Egypt as early as the 6th or 7th Century. From there, the tradition spread throughout Eastern Christian communities such as the Ethiopian, Armenian, Syriac and Maronite Churches. To this day, many Coptic Churches require a tattoo of a cross or other proof of Christian faith to enter a church. (Tattoo traditions among groups such as Celtic and Croatian Catholics emerged separately and at a later date.)

With the advent of the Crusades beginning in 1095, the existing practice of tattooing pilgrims to the Holy Land expanded to the European visitors. Numerous accounts dating back to the 1600s describe Christian pilgrims taking part in already long-existing customs of receiving a tattoo upon completing a visit to the Holy City – a custom that survives to this day.

While in the tattoo parlor, I witnessed the Razzouk family help a Roman Catholic bishop from Europe plan a tattoo he hopes to receive once he completes a personal pilgrimage later this year. Only weeks prior, Theophilos, the Coptic Bishop of the Red Sea, came to the Razzouk Family receive a pilgrimage tattoo. Other patrons of the Razzouk family have included Christian leaders of Ethiopia, persecuted Christians, and Christian pilgrims of all denominations from around the globe.

The Razzouk family themselves placed their roots in Jerusalem as pilgrims. After many pilgrimages and several generations of tattooing pilgrims and Christians of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, the Razzouk family relocated permanently to the Holy City around 1750.

“A lot of them decided to come to the Holy Land as pilgrims themselves and decided to stay,” Wassim said. “For the past 500 years, we’ve been tattooing pilgrims in the Holy Land, and it’s been passed down from father to son.”

Artifacts and application

The walls of the shop bear witness to this family legacy. Alongside framed newspaper clippings highlighting the work of Wassim and his father, Anton, are shadow boxes with pictures of the Razzouk tattoo artists that preceded them: Wassim’s grandfather, Yacoub, and great-grandfather, Jirius. And artifacts like an early tattoo machine and a traditional hand tool for manually applying tattoo ink are preserved behind glass.

Historically, Christian tattoo artists created their own inks and used stamps to apply images to the skin, before tracing over them with the tattoo implements. While Wassim does not use the old family ink recipe of soot and wine – using instead sterile inks produced specifically for tattoo application – many of the family’s 168 historic wooden stamps are still in use today.

In ages past, the tattooist would use the carved wooden stamp directly upon the pilgrim’s skin, and then use it as a guide for the traditional tattoo instruments. Today, Wassim stamps the design onto transfer paper, which is then applied to the skin for tracing, similar to the process for more contemporary design transfers.

Over the course of my interview with Wassim, nearly every customer used one of these ancient artifacts as part of their tattoo design. Two women from western Armenia – lands now controlled by eastern Turkey – came in and explained that they had just completed their pilgrimage to the Holy Land and wanted to get a traditional pilgrim’s tattoo with no alterations.

They both picked a stamp of the traditional Armenian Cross, a small crucifix that incorporates delicate floral design elements. Razzouk’s work was finished by adding the year “2017” underneath the image of the cross to commemorate the year of their pilgrimage. If they ever return, Wassim explained, the year of each additional pilgrimage will be added underneath.

After the women left, I was shown a drawer filled with dozens of the carved wooden stamps, each holding a unique design. Several stamps were based upon the Jerusalem cross: a cross with arms of equal lengths, with smaller crosses in each of its quarters. Others offered representations of the Virgin Mary, St. Michael the Archangel, the Resurrection, lambs, roses, or the star of Bethlehem. Each of them held deep Christian symbolism and a story behind its meaning.

Most of these wooden blocks, carved from olive and cedar wood, are believed to date back to the 17th century, before the Razzouk family relocated permanently to Jerusalem. However, since only two of the stamps have confirmed dates of carving – from 1749 and 1912 – it’s difficult to say for sure. However, Wassim’s mother, Hilda, told me that it’s believed many of the blocks may date back at least 500, maybe 600 years, to the Razzouk family’s early days of tattooing in the Holy Land.

Saving a centuries-old tradition

Despite the deep roots of this ancient art form and rite of passage for Christians coming to the Holy Land, traditions of Christian tattooing in Jerusalem have come close to extinction on several occasions.

In the 1947 War for Israeli Independence, many of the Palestinians who practiced tattooing fled from Jerusalem for their safety, including the Razzouk family. After the war, the Razzouk family returned, but they were nearly alone in doing so: few other Christian tattoo artists decided to return, leaving Razzouk Ink as the last ancient Christian tattoo parlor.

The Razzouk family tradition came under threat again a little more than ten years ago, when Wassim and his siblings decided to pursue other professions.

“I didn’t really want to do this,” Wassim told me. “I wasn’t into tattooing and since this was sort of a responsibility, I didn’t want to do it.”

Instead, Wassim studied hospitality and pursued other interests.

“One day I was reading something online, an old article where my father was being interviewed,” Wassim recalled.

“He was saying he was really sad: he thought this tradition and this heritage of our family was going to end because I didn’t want to do it.”

Until a decade ago, Wassim’s father, Anton, was the primary tattooist of the Razzouk family, but none of his children had followed him into the ancient profession. The article and the realization of what it would mean to lose his family’s heritage weighed heavy on Wassim.

“I didn’t want to be that guy whose name was written somewhere in history as the guy who discontinued this – the guy who killed it.”

Wassim began to apprentice under his father as well as contemporary tattoo artists, and made some changes to the business, modernizing its health, safety and sterility procedures and business model. He also moved the shop from its location deep in the alleys of the city’s Christian Quarter to its current place in on ancient St. George’s Street, near the busy Jaffa gate. Today, Wassim and his wife Gabrielle work together at the parlor and have begun to train their children in the craft, though they are careful not to place too much pressure on them to take over the family business.

Visitors to the shop are happy that the Razzouk family legacy has endured. “I don’t think there’s any way that you could better commemorate a pilgrimage than at this shop,” Matt Gates, a pilgrim from Daphne, Alabama told me after he received a tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross.

After a spiritually engaging experience in the Holy Land, Matt said that his new tattoo will hold a particularly special meaning. “That’s just such a cool heritage to come into for me getting tattooed with a 500-year-old stencil,” he said. “I’ve got a ton of tattoos, but this one will mean so much more.”

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Ordained a priest, former Manchester United footballer’s goal is Christ

CNA/EWTN News • July 10, 2017

Fr. Philip Mulryne, O.P. is ordained a priest by Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia at a July 8, 2017 Mass in Dublin, Ireland. (Irish Province of the Dominican Order/dominicans.ie)

Dublin, Ireland — Former Irish soccer pro Philip Mulryne was ordained a priest of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans, on Saturday.

Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, O.P., an assistant secretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ordained him to the priesthood at Dublin’s Saint Savior’s Church July 8.

“In a real sense, your experience as an athlete has helped to prepare you for this moment: you have known the meaning of working hard to attain a goal, and now the goal is Christ,” Archbishop Di Noia said at the ordination Mass, according to The Irish News.

“Impart to everyone the word of God which you have received with joy,” the archbishop continued. “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 teach.”

As a Dominican, the new priest has professed vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.

He will join the chaplaincy at Newbridge College in Ireland’s County Kildare. He said his first Mass Monday at his home parish of St. Oliver Plunkett Church in the Lenadoon area of Belfast.

In a video interview published by the U.K. newspaper Daily Mail in 2016, Mulryne said he was attracted by the ideals of the Dominican life: “To give oneself completely to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels, to take him as our example and despite our weakness and our defects, trust in Him that he will transform us by his grace, and thus being transformed, communicate the joy in knowing him to everyone we meet.”

Father Mulryne’s soccer career began when a talent scout for the prominent Manchester United Football Club saw him play for his parish soccer team and invited the then-14-year-old to try out for the club’s youth team.

He played soccer for Manchester United for only one game in 1997, sharing the field with star David Beckham. He later moved to the Norwich City club. The Irish native, born in Belfast, brought fame to Northern Ireland’s international team by achieving 27 caps – international appearances – in his athletic career. His career earnings topped $600,000.

After suffering major injuries in 2008, he began to question how he would spend his days after his 2009 retirement.

Fellow soccer pro Paul McVeigh told the U.K. newspaper the Catholic Herald that Mulryne began to engage in charitable work and helped the homeless on a weekly basis.

Bishop Noel Treanor of the Diocese of Down and Connor became influential in his life and later invited him to enter the seminary. He first entered the diocesan seminary at Saint Malachy’s Belfast.

He began studies at the Irish Pontifical College in Rome in 2009, then entered the Dominican Novitiate House in Cork in 2012.

On Oct. 30, 2016, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin ordained him a deacon in Belfast.

The Irish Dominicans welcomed his ordination to the priesthood.

“We rejoice with Fr. Philip and his family on this beautiful day. Please keep Fr. Philip O.P. in your prayers as he starts the next step of his life as a Dominican in his priestly vocation!” the Irish Dominicans said on their website July 8.

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Gluten and Communion: What’s a celiac to do?

by Mary Rezac (CNA/EWTN News) • July 11, 2017

(Lauren Cater/CNA)

Vatican City — The norms regarding gluten and Communion hosts that went viral this weekend are nothing new in the Catholic Church.

On Saturday morning, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a circular letter to bishops reiterating existing norms regarding the matter of the Eucharist, including the norm that Communion hosts must contain some amount of gluten to be valid matter for consecration.

By Saturday night, the (misconstrued) news had spread like wildfire: “Catholic Church bans celiacs from Communion!” many media outlets declared. It was such a hot topic that Twitter declared it a “moment” in world news.

But these were existing norms - there was no change, no announcement of new norms, nor banning of celiacs from the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Gluten-free hosts have always been invalid matter for the sacrifice of the Mass, meaning that Catholics with celiac disease have already grappled with other options for Communion.

Usually, such “reminder” letters are issued when someone, generally a bishop, has raised a question or has been alerted of a possible abuse of the norm.

Still, the letter left lingering questions regarding people with celiac disease (or those with other serious allergies to wheat) and Communion. Here’s what the Church, and Catholics with celiac disease, have to say about going gluten free for Communion.

Why must a Communion host contain at least some gluten?

Wheat bread and wine of the grape are the matter of the sacrament of the Eucharist because Christ instituted the sacrament under these species. Moreover, Christ compared himself to a grain of wheat, and to the vine.

At some point along the line the question of gluten came arose, and whether the bread used for Holy Communion necessitated at least some gluten (and its accompanying protein gliadin) to be considered wheat bread that was valid matter for the sacrament.

A July 2003 circular letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, noting documents from the 1980s and ‘90s, recalled that “Hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist.”

It added that “Low-gluten hosts (partially gluten-free) are valid matter, provided they contain a sufficient amount of gluten to obtain the confection of bread without the addition of foreign materials and without the use of procedures that would alter the nature of bread.”

And in 2004 the Congregation for Divine Worship wrote in its instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum that “The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition. It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.”

That said, the Church recognizes that it mustn’t exclude from receiving Communion Catholics with celiac disease, and has made accommodation for those who are unable to consume normal bread.

Options celiacs have for Communion: Advice from a priest with celiac disease

A layperson affected by celiac disease who is unable to receive even a low-gluten host may receive Communion under the species of wine only.

A priest in a similar situation, when taking part in a concelebration, may with permission of the Ordinary receive Communion under the species of wine only. But such a priest may not celebrate the Eucharist individually, nor may he preside at a concelebration.

Father Joseph Faulkner, a priest of the diocese of Lincoln, was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2008.

Already a priest, he had to receive special permission from his diocese to use low-gluten hosts in order to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Fr. Faulkner told CNA he was surprised that the letter regarding communion norms exploded so quickly on Twitter, but he saw it as a teachable moment.

The problem of gluten is especially pressing for priests, who must consume Communion under both species at a Mass which they celebrate individually.

For Father Faulkner, he has found that the best low-gluten hosts are made by the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. The sister’s website includes a page about proper storage and distribution of low-gluten hosts so as to avoid cross-contamination.

While the hosts are not low-gluten enough to be considered gluten free (which is understood to be less than 20 parts per million), they are low enough to be approved by the Celiac Support Association, which has some of the most stringent guidelines available on what celiacs can safely consume, Father said.

“I throw up if I eat bread, but I consume 8-9 large, low gluten hosts per week, and have done that for 9 years, and I don’t get sick from them,” he told CNA.

Father Faulkner said he recommended that any celiac wary of the low-gluten hosts obtain a few of them, unconsecrated, and try tiny particles to see if they are able to safely consume them.

For celiacs who are unable to receive these low-gluten hosts, Fr. Faulkner said “the safest and most certain thing a person could do would be to ask to receive (the Precious Blood) from a chalice other than the chalice that the priest uses.”

That’s because the chalice of wine that the priest uses contains the frumentum - the little bit of Host dropped in during the Angus Dei. To avoid any cross-contamination, a separate chalice is necessary.

“That’s the most certain way, and when you receive the Precious Blood, you receive Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity, so you don’t have to worry” about only receiving part of the sacrifice, he said.

For those who are able to receive the low gluten hosts, travelling with a sleeve of unconsecrated hosts can be a way to ensure that they can receive Communion in different parishes, Fr. Faulkner said.

“Just go up to the pastor and explain, ‘Hi, I’m a celiac, can I have one of these hosts consecrated on a separate paten?’” he said. “Because parishes want to be accommodating, but if they don’t have a celiac in their parish they’re probably not going to stock (low-gluten hosts) in their fridge.”

The lay Catholic experience: What it’s like finding gluten-free Communion

Michelle De Groot is a layperson with celiac disease in the Diocese of Arlington. She said that for a long time, she would approach priests in the sacristy before Mass to ask them to consecrate a separate chalice of wine, so that she could safely receive without cross-contamination.

“That was always kind of stressful because sometimes the priest would understand what I was talking about and sometimes not. And they didn’t always have a second chalice handy,” De Groot told CNA.

“So sometimes I’d just receive anyway from the cup with (the frumentum) and sometimes I’d make a spiritual communion instead,” she said. A spiritual communion is a uniting of oneself to the Sacrifice of the Mass through prayer, and can be made whether one is able to receive Communion or not.

Then, De Groot found out about the low-gluten altar breads made by the Benedictine Sisters. After doing her research, she decided to try these hosts, since they are approved as celiac-safe.

“I’ve never had any symptoms,” she said. De Groot says she also travels with her own supply of low-gluten hosts and a pyx (a small, round container for hosts) that allow her to receive Communion at parishes that may otherwise be unprepared.

She said while her celiac diagnosis was an emotional one for her at first, it has allowed her to establish relationships with priests and Eucharistic ministers at her parish and other churches she frequents.

“At my home (parish), it’s even not the end of the world if i’m running a few minutes late because they know me and my needs - whereas when I was first diagnosed, I had to get to church 15 minutes ahead to give time for the awkward explanations,” she said.

“If anything, celiac has been good for me in terms of my relationship to my parishes - I’m not an isolated stranger there, I’m known!”

Molly O’Connor is also a Catholic with celiac disease, who expressed similar frustrations with trying to make sure the Communion she received was both valid and safe. Having lived in six local Churches throughout the country, she said experiences varied widely from parish to parish.

“I typically just receive the cup at Communion, and I try both to sit in a part of the church where Communion is distributed by a priest so I may receive a blessing and near a cup that doesn’t have part of the host in it. If that sounds complicated, it is!” she said.

Travelling can be difficult, she said, as it can be hard to know whom to approach about receiving Communion. Parishes also often don’t announce whether they have low-gluten hosts, or how low-gluten they are, and not all parishes are conscious about cross-contamination, she said.

The U.S. Bishops issued a letter in 2012, updated in April 2016, regarding low-gluten and gluten-free communion options, as well as guidelines to avoid cross-contamination that can be found here.

O’Connor said the best situations have been when priests consecrate a separate chalice for her, and when parishes announce specifics about low-gluten or gluten-free options.

“As the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith, I think making Communion accessible to celiac and gluten-sensitive Catholics, in a manner consistent with Vatican and the U.S. Bishop’s norms, is paramount,” she said.

“How diminished is our faith life if we are unable to share in the paschal mystery with our fellow Catholics?”

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Why this Catholic takes issue with ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ labels

by Perry West (CNA/EWTN News) • July 13, 2017

Book cover for Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay. (Ignatius Press)

Denver, CO — Chastity actually means fulfillment, not suffering – and labeling people in terms of their sexual inclinations or attractions first is ultimately a reduction of their human dignity.

These ideas form the basis of a provocative new book by Daniel Mattson, a Catholic who finds identifying as “gay” unhelpful in the dialogue on the issue, and who also believes that living the Church’s teaching on sexuality leads to the most profound experience of peace and freedom.

“The Church must truly have a missionary zeal in proclaiming chastity as an invitation to a more fulfilling life for all men and women,” Mattson told CNA.

He said that Catholics need to reach out “to those who identify as LGBT to truly ‘come out,’ and let the masks of the world’s sexual identity labels fall from them, and see themselves as God sees them: solely as men and women, beloved children of God.”

“The dividing line of human sexuality is not between gay and straight, but rather between male and female, as we see in the Creation account of Genesis,” said Mattson.

In his new book, “Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay,” Mattson delves into the story of his upbringing: how he was raised in a Christian family, his experience of sexual confusion and social rejection in his early childhood, an addiction to pornography and an anger towards God. Living out his same-sex desires later in his life only made him more unhappy and lonely, and it wasn’t until he turned to the Church that he found true fulfillment.

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has called Mattson’s book “powerful” and Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, said Mattson’s voice is one “seldom heard” in discussions surrounding same-sex attraction.

Mattson said a major reason why he wrote the book was to take on the notion of people identifying themselves first in terms of straight or gay. When Mother Teresa was asked about “homosexuals” in an interview, he said she refused to refer to anyone with same-sex attraction as anything else but “a child of God.”

“Even though men and women may be living outside of God’s plan for them, their dignity as children of God calls them to love others as Christ loved us,” Mattson said. “As a Christian, that means sex must always be reserved for use only in true marriage, which is always open to life. The Church needs to have enough confidence in Her beautiful vision of human sexuality to help people believe God says no to sex outside of marriage because He loves us.”

In the book, he describes how he can trace the contours of his life that lead to his same-sex attractions, which contrasts with the assumption that homosexuality is innate.

But while understanding where his same-sex attractions came from was helpful for Daniel, he says it’s not necessary for everyone. Though the Church teaches in the Catechism that homosexuality has a “psychological genesis,” how same-sex attractions come into a person’s life is a minor question. The Church, Mattson says, is “more concerned about providing a path to a fulfilling life in the future.”

In his interview with CNA, Mattson emphasized that his adherence to the Catholic view on human sexuality isn’t rooted in moralism or a suppression of desire.

“The biggest reason I have embraced the Church’s teaching as good, true and beautiful is because following the world’s vision of happiness in the realm of human sexuality brought far more suffering into my life,” he said. Today, he finds in the Church’s vision of human sexuality true happiness and liberation.

“The Church recognizes that there is a ‘theology of the body,’ and our bodily reality as male and female points to the path of both what is normal and healthy in human sexuality, as well as to what is moral.”

In his book, Mattson references the self-identified lesbian feminist and scholar Camille Paglia, who agrees that same-sex attraction is not of the norm, but as a self-labeled pagan, says that the fulfillment of man comes with conquering what she sees as the confines of nature. Mattson disagrees with her view of morality, but he finds her acknowledgment of the true nature of sexuality refreshing.

“At least she’s honest about the fact that everyone’s sexuality is truly ordered toward procreation.” Mattson said.

But what Paglia’s view of sexual liberation ignores, Mattson argues, is that “there is far more pain and suffering in the lives of those who live outside of God’s design and ordering for human sexuality than those who choose to live within it.”

He also noted that self-denial is an essential part of chastity, which everyone – not just people with same-sex attraction – are called to. For example, single men and women attracted to the opposite sex “are taught by the virtue of chastity to refrain from any sexual activity, too, and though this can be challenging, there is less suffering – and even more importantly, more peace – in one’s life when one follows the path set before us by God than if we go our own way.”

It’s not an issue of who suffers more but rather a shared connection of “the common human experience of suffering,” which stems from “rejection from other people, dashed hopes and dreams, heartbreak and loneliness.”

Mattson said that one reason he wrote his book is to help pave a path forward for those who have suffered from heartbreak and loss in their own relationships.

These sufferings, Mattson said, are universal to the human experience and not something particular to people with same-sex attraction. He referenced Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1986 “Letter on the Pastoral Care of the Homosexual Person,” which helped him refrain from self-pity and “thinking that somehow my various forms of suffering associated with living out a single and celibate life are more challenging than anyone else’s challenges.”

Through his book, Mattson says he wants to help the Church to, as he puts it, “reclaim sexual reality” and to help the Church and the world move beyond a view of the person which is ultimately “based on a reductionist label of sexual identity rooted in one’s sexual attractions and feelings.”

“In the eyes of the Church, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them,’ there is just us, and this is one of the great gifts of the Church.”

Mattson also offered a key distinction between Catholics being welcoming and shifting on magisterial teaching. He said that often the homosexual community has viewed the Church as ostracizing “for the reason that the Church won’t affirm them in their chosen way of living their lives.”

“The Church must be as welcoming and as loving as possible, but we cannot be more welcoming or loving than Jesus was who does not condemn us for our sins, but always calls us to go and sin no more.”

This call to change one’s moral life can be challenging, but it’s a calling which invites people to conversion and “is a sign of true love and compassion.”

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New research: Shroud of Turin bears blood of a torture victim

CNA/EWTN News • July 14, 2017

Shroud of Turin featuring positive (l) and negative (r) digital filters. (Dianelos Georgoudis via Wikimedia Commons)

Turin, Italy — New research indicates that the Shroud of Turin shows signs of blood from a torture victim, and undermines arguments that the reputed burial shroud of Jesus Christ was painted.

Very small particles attached to the linen fibers of the shroud “have recorded a scenario of great suffering, whose victim was wrapped up in the funeral cloth,” said Elvio Carlino, a researcher at the Institute of Crystallography.

These particles, called “nanoparticles,” had a “peculiar structure, size and distribution,” said University of Padua professor Giulio Fanti.

And the nanoparticles are not typical of the blood of a healthy person. Rather, they show high levels of substances called creatinine and ferritin, found in patients who suffer forceful multiple traumas like torture.

“Hence, the presence of these biological nanoparticles found during our experiments point to a violent death for the man wrapped in the Turin Shroud,” Fanti said.

The shroud’s latest researchers published their findings and measurements in the U.S. open-access peer-reviewed journal PlosOne, in an article titled “New Biological Evidence from Atomic Resolution Studies on the Turin Shroud,” the Turin-based newspaper La Stampa’s Vatican Insider reports.

The findings contradict claims that the shroud is a painted object – claims which are common among those who suggest it is a medieval forgery. The characteristics of these particles “cannot be artifacts made over the centuries on the fabric of the Shroud,” Fanti said.

Among the most well-known relics believed to be connected with Jesus Christ’s Passion, the Shroud of Turin has been venerated for centuries by Christians as the burial shroud of Jesus. It has been subject to intense scientific study to ascertain its authenticity, and the origins of the image.

Appearing on the 14-foot long, three-and-a-half foot wide cloth a faintly stained postmortem image of a man – front and back – who has been brutally tortured and crucified. The image becomes clear in a haunting photo negative.

The study of particles took place on the nanoscale – ranging from one to 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth the length of a meter.

“These findings could only be revealed by the methods recently developed in the field of electron microscopy,” said Carlino. He said the research marked the first study of “the nanoscale properties of a pristine fiber taken from the Turin Shroud.”

Researchers drew on experimental evidence of atomic resolution studies and recent medical studies on patients who suffered multiple acts of trauma and torture.

The research was carried out by the Instituo Officia dei Materiali in Trieste and the Institute of Crystallography in Bari, both under Italy’s National Research Council, as well as the University of Padua’s Department of Industrial Engineering.

Vatican Insider said the research confirms the hypotheses of previous investigations, like that of biochemist Alan Adler in the 1990s.

The Catholic Church has not taken an official position on the relic’s authenticity. The shroud is presently housed at Turin’s St. John the Baptist Cathedral. During his June 21, 2015 visit to the cathedral, Pope Francis prayed before it.

“The Shroud attracts (us) toward the martyred face and body of Jesus,” he said in a noontime Angelus address at a Turin plaza. “At the same time, it pushes (us) toward the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person. It pushes us in the same direction as the gift of Jesus’ love.”

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SUNDAY • JULY 16, 2017

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Is 55:10-11; NRSVCE)

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14; NRSVCE)

R: (Lk 8:8) The seed that falls into good soil will produce a hundredfold.

You visit the earth and water it,

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water;

you provide the people with grain,

for so you have prepared it.

R: The seed that falls into good soil will produce a hundredfold.

You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with showers,

and blessing its growth.

R: The seed that falls into good soil will produce a hundredfold.

You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills gird themselves with joy.

R: The seed that falls into good soil will produce a hundredfold.

The meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they shout and sing together for joy.

R: The seed that falls into good soil will produce a hundredfold.

Second Reading (Rom 8:18-23; NRSVCE)

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Gospel Reading (Mt 13:1-23; NRSVCE)

That day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand,

and you will indeed look, but never perceive.

For this people’s heart has grown dull,

and their ears are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes;

so that they might not look with their eyes,

and listen with their ears,

and understand with their heart and turn —

and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

MONDAY • JULY 17, 2017

Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 1:8-14, 22; NRSVCE)

A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8; NRSVCE)

R: (8a) Our help is in the name of the Lord.

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side

— let Israel now say —

if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

when our enemies attacked us,

then they would have swallowed us up alive,

when their anger was kindled against us.

R: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

Then the flood would have swept us away,

the torrent would have gone over us;

then over us would have gone

the raging waters.

Blessed be the Lord,

who has not given us

as prey to their teeth.

R: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

We have escaped like a bird

from the snare of the fowlers;

the snare is broken,

and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

R: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

Gospel Reading (Mt 10:34 — 11:1; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to his apostles, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

“For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

TUESDAY • JULY 18, 2017

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 2:1-15a; NRSVCE)

A man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34; NRSVCE)

R: (see 33) Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

I sink in deep mire,

where there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters,

and the flood sweeps over me.

R: Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.

At an acceptable time, O God,

in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me

with your faithful help.

R: Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

But I am lowly and in pain;

let your salvation, O God, protect me.

I will praise the name of God with a song;

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

R: Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

Let the oppressed see it and be glad;

you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

For the Lord hears the needy,

and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

R: Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

Gospel Reading (Mt 11:20-24; NRSVCE)

Jesus began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum,

Will you be exalted to heaven?

No, you will be brought down to Hades.

For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”

WEDNESDAY • JULY 19, 2017

Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 3:1-6, 9-12; NRSVCE)

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

God continued, “The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 103:1b-2, 3-4, 6-7; NRSVCE)

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

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and do not forget all his benefits.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the Pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

The Lord works vindication

and justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,

his acts to the people of Israel.

R: The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Gospel Reading (Mt 11:25-27; NRSVCE)

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

THURSDAY • JULY 20, 2017

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 3:13-20; NRSVCE)

Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

This is my name forever,

and this my title for all generations.

Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 105:1 and 5, 8-9, 24-25, 26-27; NRSVCE)

R: (8a) The Lord is mindful of his covenant forever.

O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples.

Remember the wonderful works he has done,

his miracles, and the judgments he has uttered.

R: The Lord is mindful of his covenant forever.

He is mindful of his covenant forever,

of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

the covenant that he made with Abraham,

his sworn promise to Isaac.

R: The Lord is mindful of his covenant forever.

And the Lord made his people very fruitful,

and made them stronger than their foes,

whose hearts he then turned to hate his people,

to deal craftily with his servants.

R: The Lord is mindful of his covenant forever.

He sent his servant Moses,

and Aaron whom he had chosen.

They performed his signs among them,

and miracles in the land of Ham.

R: The Lord is mindful of his covenant forever.

Gospel Reading (Mt 11:28-30; NRSVCE)

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

FRIDAY • JULY 21, 2017

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading (Ex 11:10 — 12:14; NRSVCE)

Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 116:12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18; NRSVCE)

R: (13) I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

What shall I return to the Lord

for all his bounty to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the Lord.

R: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

Precious in the sight of the Lord

is the death of his faithful ones.

I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.

You have loosed my bonds.

R: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice

and call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people.

R: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

Gospel Reading (Mt 12:1-8; NRSVCE)

Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

SATURDAY • JULY 22, 2017

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

First Reading (Sgs 3:1-4b; NRSVCE)

Upon my bed at night

I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

“I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.”

I sought him, but found him not.

The sentinels found me,

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

Scarcely had I passed them,

when I found him whom my soul loves.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9; NRSVCE)

R: (2) My soul thirsts for you, O Lord.

O God, you are my God, I seek you,

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

R: My soul thirsts for you, O Lord.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

R: My soul thirsts for you, O Lord.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,

and my mouth praises you with joyful lips.

R: My soul thirsts for you, O Lord.

For you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

My soul clings to you;

your right hand upholds me.

R: My soul thirsts for you, O Lord.

Gospel Reading (Jn 20:1-2, 11-18; NRSVCE)

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.