The death penalty doesn’t solve problems, archbishop tells UN

Pope Benedict XVI on April 21, 2007, in Vigevano, Italy. / Credit: miqu77/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 15, 2023 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
A supposed comment by the late Pope Benedict XVI concerning Spain and the devil has been circulating on soci… […]

Barletta, Italy, May 11, 2018 / 12:16 am (ACI Prensa).- The investiture of Sister Maria Vittoria della Croce last month marked the first ceremony of its kind to be held in the Italian city of Barletta since the 1940s.

“The monastery of San Ruggero [in Barletta] had been reduced to a very few elderly nuns, but three years ago it was re-founded with the arrival of several young sisters, which revitalized it in terms of vocations,” explained Deacon Riccardo Losappio, head of communications for the Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie.

Losappio told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, that these new religious, including the current abbess, come from the Santa Maria delle Rose (Saint Mary of the Roses) Benedictine monastery located in the town of Sant’Angelo in Pontano in the Marche region in eastern Italy.

Now, with the admission of Sister Maria Vittoria della Croce, “the Benedictine monastic community of San Ruggero is comprised of six nuns that have made solemn vows, four nuns who have made temporary vows, two novices and one postulant,” he said.

Sister Maria Vittoria della Croce – whose baptismal name is Carmen D’Agostino – is 27 years old.

Her induction ceremony into the San Ruggero Benedictine monastery took place April 27 in the co-cathedral Basilica of Saint Mary Major and was presided by the Archbishop of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie, Leonardo D’Ascenzo.

The photographs of the event were posted by the archdiocese on its Facebook page, where they reached more than 2 million users and drew more than 11,000 shares, 3,700 “likes” and 650 comments.

Losappio explained that “for Benedictine nuns, presenting oneself dressed as a bride is part of the rite of investiture for the religious.”

“They always enter dressed that way because they are spouses of Christ who are going out to meet him and they become brides to anticipate in time what one day will be in the fullness of God.”

During the investiture ceremony, novices who were previously dressed in a wedding gown “have their hair cut, put on the Benedictine habit and receive the crucifix to indicate their joyful renunciation of all that is vain and ephemeral.”

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During the ceremony, Archbishop D’Ascenzo wished the new religious “the great beauty of this presence of Jesus maturing more and more in you and to express it as a witness to the outside world through the relationship with the Church and with your community. May you have a blessed path to holiness and I hope that you can be ever more beautiful in the sense of this witness to the Church and with your sisters.”

Sister Maria Vittoria della Croce shared her testimony in the archdiocesan newspaper “In Comunione.”

The new nun was born in January 1991 in the Italian town of Melfi and finished her studies in nursing at the University of Foggia in 2014. She grew up in a strong Catholic family belonging to the Neocatechumenal Way and has three siblings.

“When I was 15, my mother went to heaven after a long illness which she endured with faith. It was not easy for me, but I can bear witness that the Lord has always provided for my family and me,” she stated.

“Thinking about my mother made me look to heaven, to paradise. More than having made a choice, I was chosen by him: at a youth encounter, and then also through others, I felt the love of Christ manifested on the cross,” she said.

“I simply accepted this love, this call to fight for the kingdom of heaven, and with the help of the Church to discern this call, I entered the monastery,” she said.

For Sister Maria Vittoria della Croce, this vocational call “opened heaven to me” and she is certain that God “loves me as I am, and I am for him a precious pearl.”
 

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Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov 26, 2018 / 04:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Ukrainian parliament voted to introduce martial law after Russian forces seized three of its naval vessels, Christians in the country are asking for prayer and solidarity to de-escalate the conflict.

Russia captured three Ukrainian vessels together with their 23 crew members Nov. 25 in the Kerch Strait, between Crimea and Russia’s Taman Peninsula. Crimea, a Ukrainian territory, was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine’s parliament voted Nov. 26 to impose martial law in 10 oblasts, most of them bordering Russia, for 30 days beginning Nov. 28. Martial law allows military rule and the restriction of rights, including the freedoms of assembly and expression.

In response to the situation, the Baptist Union of Ukraine has asked that Christians around the world pray for Ukraine, for its protection and for the protection of ministers who serve in areas of occupation and military conflict.

“We don’t know all the details of what happened,” said Igor Bandura, First Vice President of the Baptist Union of Ukraine, or what are the intentions of Russian president Vladimir Putin. “But the situation is extremely serious. We are asking for your prayer for our situation in Ukraine as we believe in our Christian solidarity.”

Some have noted the religious dimension of Russian actions.

“The Russian Orthodox Church has broken off relations with Constantinople and is ready to defend its ‘canonical territories’ by any means,” said Michael Cherenkov, Mission Eurasia’s Executive Field Director.

“Ukrainian Baptist churches in the occupied territories are outlawed as extremists. And in Russia itself, the persecution of evangelical believers is intensifying. All of this suggests that Russia is preparing for a big war in which the religious factor will have a major role,” Cherenkov observed.

Ukraine called the Nov. 25 incident in the Kerch strait an “act of agression” on the part of Russia.

The three vessels captured were going from Odesa to Mariupol, in the Sea of Azov – a seaport only accessible by the Kerch strait. Russia claimed the boats had illegally entered its territorial waters, and fired on the Ukrainian vessels. Three Ukrainian crewmen have been hospitalized, according to the Kyiv Post.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have been fighting government forces since April 2014, shortly after the Russian annexation of Crimea. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people, and displaced more than 1 million.

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