Fr. James Keenan writing in Crux this week makes his own a question raised (last July, it seems) by Rocco Buttiglione in L’Osservatore Romano: “Is there any contradiction between the popes who excommunicated divorced and remarried persons and Saint John […]
Washington D.C., Apr 22, 2017 / 06:12 am (CNA).- On a Monday evening in Washington, D.C., well over a hundred women – and a few men too – gathered together to take up some of the most intense questions from earlier in 2017: Can feminists be… […]
Moscow, Russia, Apr 21, 2017 / 08:01 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been banned as an extremist group in a Thursday Supreme Court decision that observers feared signaled a further step back for religious liberty.
“For Jehovah’s Witnesses, this is going to be a frightening time,” Lorcan Price, ADF International legal counsel in Strasbourg, told CNA April 21.
“It effectively means that holding their beliefs and manifesting them is tantamount to a criminal act in Russia. They risk new levels of persecution by the Russian authorities.”
Price saw the move as continuing the reversal of positive trends in post-Soviet Russia.
“What we’re seeing really is the slide back into the type of attitude that characterized the worst of oppression in the 20th century by the Soviet regime in Russia,” he added. “It’s obviously very sad and disheartening to see that happening again.”
Russia’s Justice Ministry in March ordered that the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination be liquidated and disbanded. Judges ordered the closure of the denomination’s Russian headquarters and almost 400 local chapters. The denomination’s property would also be seized.
The denomination’s lawyer, Viktor Zhenkov, said the group would appeal the court ruling upholding the order.
“We consider this decision an act of political repression that is impermissible in contemporary Russia,” Zhenkov told the New York Times.
Russia has duties under the European Court of Human Rights to protect freedom of worship and belief.
The Russian Orthodox Church is predominant in Russia, and some of its members have pushed to outlaw or curb the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, also holds the denomination under deep suspicion.
Svetlana Borisova, who represented the Justice Ministry in the Supreme Court, charged that the denomination’s members had shown “signs of extremist activity that represent a threat to the rights of citizens, social order and the security of society.”
Price said the ruling was “very disappointing and shocking,” but not surprising given negative trends.
“Last year in particular the government adopted some very draconian and far-reaching legislation that has severely disrupted the right of worship and freedom of belief in Russia,” he said.
Anti-terrorism measures have given Russian police powers to disrupt private worship services, to arrest and detain individuals handing out unapproved religious materials, and to outlay any publish preaching without prior approval from Russian authorities.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered intense persecution under the Soviet era until the fall of communism in 1991. A 2002 anti-extremism law and a broader definition of extremism in 2006 once again put legal pressure on the denomination
Price said an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights could produce a positive response, but Russia has “a long history of ignoring decisions” from that court, which relies on diplomatic pressure to enforce its decisions.
“For Christians and minority faiths in Russia this is a frightening time,” he said. “Obviously we hope that people will pray for them.”
“What we hope is ultimately the Russian government will take notice of international condemnation and reverse these policies.”
Denver, Colo., Apr 21, 2017 / 05:23 pm (CNA).- It’s only been out for a few weeks, but that’s enough time for “13 Reasons Why” to have become the latest teenage Netflix binge craze.
Based on the 2007 young adult novel by the sa… […]
Recent remarks by Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga have been making some waves, and for good reason—even though there isn’t much good or reasonable about them. Interviewed on March 25th by RSI—a Swiss public broadcasting organization broadcasting […]
Rome, Italy, Apr 21, 2017 / 10:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- India’s Catholic bishops have strongly condemned a violent police disruption of a Good Friday service at a small parish in the south of the country.
The Dhalit Catholic community in the village of Sogandi was holding a liturgy for the Passion of the Lord April 14 when they were disrupted by the Tehsildar – local tax and revenue officers – as well as police during the Veneration of the Cross and distribution of Holy Communion.
“The Catholic Church in India is very distressed and saddened by the happenings in Sogandi, Tamil Nadu, on Good Friday, a day very sacred to Christians everywhere,” the April 19 press release stated.
“The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India expresses its full solidarity with the people of Sogandi and condemns in very strong terms the brutal action of the Tehsildar.”
The statement, signed by the secretary general of the bishops’ conference, Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, said that they are proud of their country and the major part of the Hindu community has always treated them with respect and goodwill.
However, recently, fundamentalist forces have disturbed “the traditional peace and harmony” of the country, they said.
The bishops expressed concern at rising intolerance in India toward people of all religions from “fundamentalist fringe” groups, calling on the government to ensure that everyone in the country continue to feel safe and “enjoy the basic right to worship freely and without fear.”
Concern about religious intolerance has grown across India particularly since the May 2014 election of Narendra Modi as prime minister, which saw a spike in the number of attacks against Christians and Muslims.
After Modi took office the country saw a sharp rise in attacks against people and property, most of them perpetrated by the radical Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, also referred to as the RSS, or the “the Sangh.”
The group, which has been described as “fundamentalist” and “violent,” sits on the right-wing and has no official, legal registration in India. However they maintain strong ties with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Modi has been criticized for his silence regarding the mostly small-scale attacks, which have continued to take place.
The event in Sogandi on Good Friday was only the latest in a string of escalating anti-Christian incidents in the village, Bishop A. Neethinathan of Chingleput wrote in a report April 19.
The Catholic parish there, under the patronage of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, was erected in 2007. It has 125 families, who also make up the population of the village.
In order to help foster strong Marian devotion, when the parish was built 10 years ago, the priest also developed a portion of a nearby hill into a little grotto with a covering and a statue of Our Lady.
The grotto and other public religious symbols have been at the center of the clashes between the Christian village and a nearby Hindu village, also of a different caste identity. The Hindu village is known to have temples and houses erected on the other side of the same hill, Bishop Neethinathan stated.
On April 14, the parish gathered at the grotto at 3 PM to celebrate the Lord’s Passion service. Many police were stationed around the area throughout the service, the bishop’s report states.
As the service continued, the local Tehsildar disrupted the Veneration of the Cross and the distribution of Holy Communion, not allowing them to finish.
The disturbance and subsequent disorder resulted in reactions from some of those present. Most of the local men, as well as some priests, have been booked for serious offences by the police, Bishop Neethinathan wrote.
The following day, April 15, the revenue department bulldozed large ditches around the area, preventing access.
It is believed that the recent incidents are the result of planned and systematic operations by anti-Christian Hindutva and anti-Dhalit caste fundamentalists, including pressure on the police and revenue departments.
Other recent actions include the demolition and removal from the hill Dec. 31, 2016 of many of the statues and crosses of the parish by more than 500 police officers “under the pretext of illegal occupation,” according to Bishop Neethinathan. The statues were not returned until April 19.
In February, every stone and boulder on the hill was found marked with the Hindu symbol and the Palm Sunday procession, though able to conclude, was also interrupted by objections and disturbances.
Jefferson City, Mo., Apr 21, 2017 / 08:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Stronger medical standards for abortion clinics were thrown out in Missouri by a federal judge who cited a Supreme Court decision on a similar law in Texas.
The Missouri law required abortion clinics to have the same standards as similar outpatient surgical centers. The clinics’ doctors were also required to have hospital privileges.
U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs of the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City said April 19 that “relief should be prompt, given the needs of women seeking abortions and the need for available clinics to serve their needs.” He cited the 5-3 ruling of the 2016 Supreme Court decision Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said he would appeal the decision, the St. Louis Dispatch reports.
“Today a federal court struck down large portions of Missouri law that protect the health and safety of women who seek to obtain an abortion,” he said. “Missouri has an obligation to do everything possible to ensure the health and safety of women undergoing medical procedures in state-licensed medical facilities.”
The surgical center standards, implemented for abortion clinics in 2007, include wide halls and doorways that can accommodate emergency personnel and equipment; separate male and female changing rooms for personnel; and a recovery room with space for at least four beds with sufficient clearance around each bed.
The law was credited for closing some abortion clinics in the state that could not meet the surgical standards.
There had been only one abortion provider in the state before the judge’s decision.
Now, Planned Parenthood has said it would start to restore abortion services in Columbia and Kansas City. It plans to begin performing the procedures in Joplin and Springfield.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling said that the Texas law under consideration placed an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to an abortion and posed a “substantial obstacle” to that right without showing the benefit of regulation.
At the time of the decision, Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, said the court “rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety.”
Chicago, Ill., Apr 21, 2017 / 06:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A promise from the governor of Illinois to veto an abortion funding bill drew the gratitude of Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, who called it a “principled stand.”
“Abortion i… […]
Fatima, Portugal, Apr 21, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The canonization of Fatima visionaries Francisco and Jacinta Marto has been hailed as an exciting moment for the Church, but the rector of the Marian shrine has said that it bears an even greater significance in terms of putting a spotlight on Our Lady’s message.
“I think the canonization in a certain way helps to give credibility to the apparitions and to the message of Fatima,” Fr. Carlos Cabecinhas told CNA.
This is an “indirect credibility,” he said, but one which nonetheless “makes us look to the protagonists of the events of Fatima and to see their holiness, the holiness with which they challenge us to live this message.”
Mary appeared to Francisco, Jacinta and their cousin Lucia May 13, 1917, for the first time, asking them to pray the rosary and make sacrifices for the conversion of sinners, which they did with decisive commitment.
Our Lady continued to appear to them on the 13th of each month until October of that year, making constant appeals for an increase in faith, hope, conversion and prayers for peace. In addition, she also revealed to the children three “secrets,” which are now known to be a vision of hell interpreted as scenes from World War II, the rise and fall of Soviet Communism, and what was a foreshadowing of the 1981 assassination attempt on St. John Paul II.
After the apparitions, Francisco and Jacinta Marto died in 1918 after a serious bout of the Spanish flu at 9 and 11, but were known to pray often and offered up daily sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and an increase in love for God.
In this context, Fr. Cabecinhas said he believes the canonization of siblings Francisco and Jacinta “has this value: not only two Saints in the Church, but two Saints who challenge us to look to the message of Fatima and to understand that Fatima is also a school of holiness for each one of us.”
Fr. Cabecinhas has been the rector of the Fatima Marian Shrine since 2011, and is in charge of the bulk of preparations for the Pope’s May 12-13 visit.
He said the centenary of the apparitions, the canonization and the growing anticipation of Pope Francis’ visit “is a moment of great joy” for the people of Portugal, but also for him personally.
“For me it has been a great gift of God to be able to live this moment before the shrine and to have in my hands the decisions of the Shrine. It’s a gift of God, but also a great responsibility,” he said, explaining that they are in the midst of making final preparations.
In general, preparations are going “very well,” he said, noting that all of the big decisions have been made and things are falling into place, so it’s down to the final, last-minute work of getting ready to host an estimated 500-800,000 pilgrims during the May celebrations.
Speaking of the reason why pilgrims choose to visit Fatima in particular, the priest said it’s “without a doubt” because “they seek a strong experience of God, a strong encounter with God.”
“This is specific to Fatima,” he said, noting that while other shrines and holy sites are associated with physical healings or other fruits, the people who come to Fatima “come to have a strong experience with God, they come to change their lives, and many times this is the experience they transmit.”
“We say that at Fatima there are no physical healings – there are some, but (what is) specific to Fatima is the change of heart, the change of life, orienting one’s life toward God,” he said, saying that another characteristic unique to Fatima is “silence.”
Cabecinhas said that when pilgrims speak to him about their experience visiting the shrine, many of them comment on how silent and prayerful the environment is, which is something he hopes each person who comes is able to experience.
The shrine has also been a popular place for Popes to visit, with Bl. Paul VI being the first pontiff to do so in 1967. St. John Paul II followed suit in 1982, making a trip that was largely intended to pay homage to Our Lady of Fatima, whom he credited with saving his life when he was shot May 13, 1981.
Benedict XVI also visited the Fatima shrine in 2010, continuing the papal tradition of traveling to the holy site, and cementing even further it’s link to the Pope.
Fr. Cabecinhas said he believes Popes come to Fatima so often is because it has “a universal message, a message for the entire Church,” which is something each one of them have understood.
“They have seen that Fatima has something to say to the entire Church on the place of God in the life of the believer, and it’s because of this they have come, to highlight this message,” he said, adding that he has no doubt that the presence of Popes at the shrine “has helped to then diffuse the message in the entire world.”
With an entire year of celebrations extending beyond just the May celebrations, Cabecinhas said he hopes those who come even after Pope Francis’ visit get to experience and understand Our Lady’s message on a deeper level.
The priest said he wants pilgrims to have “a joyful experience of being at Fatima” and to have “an experience of encounter with God through the Madonna.”
“She is presented here as a path toward God and a refuge in our hardship,” he said, so “what we want is that each pilgrim who visits this year can have this experience and can say, ‘yes, I went to Fatima, and the Madonna for me was a refuge in difficult moments, but a path that guided me to God.’”
Mendoza, Argentina, Apr 21, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Holy Thursday Father Alejandro Béjar, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mendoza, narrowly escaped being killed by a train. He attributes his survival to consecrated Hosts he was transporting on his way to visit the sick.
The April 13 incident took place at a railroad crossing in San Roque as Fr. Béjar was on his way to visit several sick persons, in addition to saying three Masses in the communities under his care.
Fr. Béjar, 50, told CNA that he crossed the railroad tracks that day for lack of a signal and got trapped. He explained he did not see the rails because of some bushes, and that there was no railroad crossing barrier.
Trapped on the tracks he could hear the train’s horn, and saw the train appear, coming around a curve.
Within seconds, he tried moving his car. He was unable to, so he quickly unfastened his seat belt and ran from the car.
His Ford Escort was struck, and dragged some 80 feet by the train, which was unable to brake in time. The vehicle was destroyed but the priest could not get over his astonishment that the bag holding the consecrated Hosts on the front passenger seat was undamaged and remained in place.
“That’s strange because in the back of the car there was a bag of fine flour I was taking for the community where I was going to celebrate Mass. That bag opened up and (the flour) spread all over, but the bag (with the Hosts) didn’t even move,” he said.
Fr. Béjar said he was ashamed he did not take with him the consecrated Hosts when he abandoned the vehicle, but he thanked God for saving him from the onslaught of the train.
“I thank God because I was calm and didn’t despair. It was a sign from God that he was present at that moment and helped me have those reflexes to stay calm and not give up hope,” he said.
The priest was unable to get the first Mass on his schedule for that day.
Fr. Béjar noted that eight years ago two women died in similar circumstances, and so he hopes the authorities will clean up the area from bushes and put up appropriate railroad crossing signage.
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