Month: March 2018

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US bishops voice support for First Amendment Defense Act

March 14, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Mar 14, 2018 / 03:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops have voiced their strong support for a bill protecting individuals and institutions from discrimination by the federal government based on their beliefs about marriage, regardless of what those beliefs are.

“We welcome and applaud the recent reintroduction of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA),” wrote Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln in a March 14 statement. Archbishop Kurtz chairs the US bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, while Bishop Conley is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

“In a pluralistic society, faith-based charitable agencies and schools should not be excluded from participation in public life by loss of licenses, accreditation, or tax-exempt status because they hold reasonable views on marriage that differ from the federal government’s view,” explained the bishops.

“FADA is a modest and important measure that protects the rights of faith-based organizations and people of all faiths and of no faith who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

The bill, which was introduced March 8 by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), provides legal protections for individuals or institutions facing federal discrimination based on their definition of marriage or beliefs about premarital sex.

“What an individual or organization believes about the traditional definition of marriage is not – and should never be – a part of the government’s decision-making process when distributing licenses, accreditations, or grants,” said Senator Lee. “And the First Amendment Defense Act simply ensures that this will always be true in America – that federal bureaucrats will never have the authority to require those who believe in the traditional definition of marriage to choose between their living in accordance with those beliefs and maintaining their occupation or their tax status.”

FADA equally protects those with differing views of marriage. For example, “All Federal definitions of marriage are protected under FADA. FADA would protect a liberal institution that promoted gay marriage, just as it would protect a conservative institution that wanted to promote traditional marriage,” according to Senator Lee’s website.

The bill was previously introduced in the Senate in 2015, but did not make it out of committee. However, the current bill no longer includes protections for federal employees and publicly traded for-profit companies.

The 2015 version of the bill would have protected only those who believe marriage to be the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.

Archbishop Kurtz and Bishop Conley wrote a letter to Lee March 12 expressing their gratitude and support for the bill.

“In a climate of increasing intolerance, these protections are urgently needed,” wrote the bishops, “Persons who believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman are increasingly having their religious freedoms jeopardized and even forfeited.”

“The teaching of the Catholic Church about marriage is based on both faith and reason. Using right reason, one can know that given the nature of the human person, created as male and female, marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The leadership of our Church will continue to promote and protect the natural truth of marriage as foundational to the common good,” the bishops concluded.

FADA currently has 22 co-sponsors, including Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Jim Risch (R-ID), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Rounds (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY), Ben Sasse (R-NE), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Thune (R-SD), Rand Paul (R-KY), David Perdue (R-GA), Tim Scott (R-SC), Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Boozman (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Jerry Moran (R-KS).

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How some Catholic schools approached the National School Walkout over guns

March 14, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Denver, Colo., Mar 14, 2018 / 03:09 pm (CNA).- On Wednesday, thousands of students throughout the United States walked out of classrooms as part of National School Walkout, a demonstration calling for safer schools and increased gun control, in the wake of the February high school shooting that left 17 Florida students dead.

Many of the walkouts were planned to last 17 minutes, in honor of each of the students who were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14. Many Catholic schools used the day as a chance to call their students to prayer, either in addition to or instead of a walkout.

Schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans were asked to hold 17 minutes of prayer in solidarity with shooting victims and the walkouts. The prayer services included the rosary, as well as the archdiocesan prayer against violence, murder and racism, which is recited regularly at Masses in the region.

“We didn’t hear of any schools or students participating (in the walk-out), but we were hearing from our school communities, ‘What could we do, what could we offer in support of lessening gun violence?’” Dr. RaeNell Houston, superintendent of Catholic Schools in New Orleans, told the Clarion Herald.

“Our children deserve to be safe in our school communities,” Houston added. “But we felt intentional, dedicated prayer would yield more fruitful results than a walkout. I am a witness to how God answers prayer. And we felt our time was best utilized and our statement would be bold if we dedicated that 17 minutes of prayer on behalf of the Florida victims and our country and for the safety of our children.”

Cardinal Ritter College Prep, a Catholic urban high school in St. Louis, participated in an organized school event.
 
Students left campus at 9:30 am and walked to nearby St. Francis Xavier Church on the campus of St. Louis University. Ronnie Robinson, the father of a recent graduate, was invited to participate in the march. Robinson and his family have lost two sons to gun violence in recent years.

After a period of prayer and silence, students returned to their classrooms to discuss the events of the day, to review the school’s active shooter policy, and to resume classes.

Elias Mendoza, principal of St. Francis Catholic High School in Sacramento, California sent a memo to parents in early March, in anticipation of the walkouts, noting that school officials recognized both the students concerns and as well as their own obligation as school employees to remain politically neutral.

Instead of a walkout, St. Francis offered a prayer service for peace and healing, noting safety concerns regarding students leaving campus in the middle of the school day.

“Together with students and school leaders, we’re working to provide students with an alternative avenue to express their viewpoints in a constructive and meaningful way, while remaining on campus, where safety measures are in place to ensure supervision and security,” Mendoza said in his letter.

“At St. Francis, we care about our (students), our families, and the faith-based community we represent.  Moving forward, I ask for your prayers and partnership in doing all that we can to reassure our students and to make them strong resilient young women,” he concluded.

The Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey said on Twitter that several of the schools participated in the national walk out, and held prayer services afterward.

 

 

Today, #Catholic Schools throughout the Archdiocese of Newark took a stand against gun violence by participating in the #NationalWalkoutDay. Several schools, including St. Mary of the Assumption and Saint Dominic Academy, held prayer services following the #Walkout. #Enough pic.twitter.com/sk9Xcf1Q14

— Newark Archdiocese (@NwkArchdiocese) March 14, 2018

 

 

Sister Brittany Harrison, FMA, is the Theology Department Chair at Mary Help of Christians Academy in New Jersey.

In an interview about the walkouts with Relevant Radio, Harrison said that she was inspired by the students throughout the country who were “deciding to rise up, make their voices heard, and make social change.”

“As a Salesian, that’s what I believe in, the power of young people. So to see them doing that is just an incredible thing for me,” she said.  

Harrison said that while the official walkout, sponsored by the organizers of the national Women’s March, was focused on gun control legislation, her students wanted to make their event less political and more focused on school safety in general.

Rather than the walkout, the school held a prayer service and also gave students time to write government officials about the changes they’d like to see.

“As Catholics we can really model what it is to affect social change, and our young people really want to do that,” she said.

The Diocese of Peoria, Illinois encouraged its students to take part in some kind of alternative, prayerful show of solidarity rather than the walkout, citing concerns about some of the sponsors of the national walk-out as well as safety concerns.

“Unfortunately, some of the sponsors of the National School Walkout advocate for positions that are contrary to the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life in all of its stages,” the Office of Catholic Schools stated in a letter to diocesan Catholic school officials.  

“Due to this fact, as well as concerns for student safety on this day of national attention, our schools are directed to not permit students to stage a walkout.”

Instead, the letter suggested that diocesan schools hold Masses or prayer services for the victims.

Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit held memorial services for the victims of the Parkland shooting, including posters with pictures and brief biographies of the victims.

 

Students and faculty at @Shrine_Schools gathered this morning for a memorial service in honor of the victims of the #ParklandSchoolShooting #NationalWalkoutDay pic.twitter.com/IR3ZIijecZ

— Detroit Archdiocese (@DetroitCatholic) March 14, 2018

 

 

Queen of Angels elementary school in the Archdiocese of Atlanta said on Twitter that they were hosting a “walk in” rather than a walkout, and used the day as a time to encourage their students to focus on ways they could be kinder and more inclusive.

 

 

#WalkIn-Today at 10 AM while students across the nation #walkout in protest of gun violence, QA students will spend 17 minutes reaching out to others that we don’t spend enough time getting to know, and praying that all young people feel included in their communities. pic.twitter.com/civ6qR3JTC

— QA Catholic School (@QASchool) March 14, 2018

 

 

In Erie, Pennsylvania, two Catholic schools – Cathedral Preparatory School and Villa Maria Academy – held school-wide Masses and prayer services for the victims and for peace. Father Scott Jabo, president of the schools, told Fox News that the schools considered how they could approach the walkout day differently as a Catholic school.

“By praying for the victims, we could bring a great focus to the victims in this situation, and by unified prayer, we could have a powerful impact,” Jabo said.

He added that at the prayer service, the names and a short biography of each of the 17 Parkland victims would be read aloud, “to make it real that these are real people who died.”

“(We’re) doing something that was a Catholic school we can and should do and that is pray, and unleash that power of prayer,” he said.

 

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News Briefs

Argentine Church to release baptismal records from dictatorship period

March 14, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 14, 2018 / 02:03 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Argentine Bishops’ Conference will release to the justice system, in accordance with Pope Francis’ wishes, dozens of baptismal records from the country’s dictatorship period.

The conference said it will release the records of 127 baptisms performed in the Stella Maris chapel of the Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada, a naval school for technical instruction in Buenos Aires.

The school functioned as one of the largest clandestine centers for detention, torture and extermination during the military dictatorship in power from 1976 to 1983.

The Military Diocese recently found the records, which will be turned over to federal judge Sergio Gabriel Torres and attorney general Pablo Parenti.

According to the Associated Press, local courts have discovered a “systematic plan of stealing the children of disappeared women and illegally adopting them out during the dictatorship.” After detained women gave birth, the children were reportedly given new identities and illegally adopted out to military families.

However, the records to be turned over by the local Church are not believed to be illegally adopted children of the detained-disappeared, but rather children of soldiers who were baptized, said Bishop Santiago Olivera of the Military Diocese.

He clarified to the Argentine National News Agency Telam that an investigation into the records will bring certainty on this point.

“Sharing the sentiments and earnest desire of the Holy Father, the Argentine Bishops’ Conference is making available to the justice system the totality of the recorded information and the aforementioned documentation, in continuity with the procedures of this conference as to the requirements of the justice system in recent years,” the committee said in a statement.

They also stressed that “these records can be accessible to well-recognized human rights organizations and researchers from various academic fields.”

“We have the firm conviction that the Church must maximize its efforts to contribute to the path of remembrance, truth and justice in all fields, especially in face of the gravity of the crimes against humanity perpetrated under State Terrorism,” the statement said.

The Executive Committee of the Argentine Bishop’s Conference also stressed its “commitment to immediately inform the judicial authorities of any data and information that may come forth in the future.”

In January this year, Pope Francis authorized the publication of the chapel’s baptismal records when he met in the Vatican with the Bishop for the Military Diocese, Santiago Olivera, Telam reported.

Also with the Holy Father’s authorization, the Vatican initiated a system in October 2016 for relatives of those who were detained-disappeared to access the archives that the Holy See has on the dictatorship in Argentina.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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From policeman to permanent deacon – a story of service

March 14, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Oviedo, Spain, Mar 14, 2018 / 01:24 pm (ACI Prensa).- Alberto José Gonzalez is a 50-year-old retired police officer, married with two daughters, who recently began his ministry as the first permanent deacon in the Diocese of Gijón, Spain.

Whether it is in the National Police Force or as a member of the clergy, “a service is provided to the people and that is precisely my vocation,” he told the newspaper El Comercial.

Gonzalez said he was always a believer and since his youth, “the great mysteries such as life, the universe, and things related to God always greatly impressed me.”

After some health problems prevented him from continuing his work as a policeman, he decided to take an early retirement.

It was while he was on sick leave that the possibility of becoming a permanent deacon matured.

Key to his discernment was an “intense conversation” with a priest who had experienced a conversion and been ordained following a life of drug use far from the Church.

Gonzalez retired from the National Police Force in August 2011. In September that same year, he enrolled in the San Melchor de Quirós Higher Institute of Religious Studies in Oviedo, Spain where he studied for three years.

He was ordained on Dec. 13 last year, along with two other men who had studied alongside him – one to the permanent diaconate and the other to the transitional diaconate.

Deacon Gonzalez explained to El Comercial that he can preach, administer Baptism, bring Viaticum to the sick, and officiate at weddings and funerals, but he stressed that what he likes the most is relating to people.

“After all, that was what I liked the most during my time in the National Police Force. I don’t deny that the car chases and making traffic stops were [exciting], but what always stayed with me were the words of thanks from the people I helped and the good friends I made throughout that time,” he said.

The diaconate is one of the three degrees of Holy Orders. The word “deacon” mean “he who serves.” The mission of the deacon is to serve the bishop and his priests in the liturgy, with preaching the Gospel, and performing works of charity.

The minimum age is 35, and the upper limit is determined by the local bishop, usually around 60 years of age. Unlike the transitional diaconate, in which men are preparing for priesthood, the permanent diaconate allows married men. They must be married for at least five years and have their wife’s consent. If they are later widowed they may not marry again.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

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News Briefs

Vatican office altered photo of Benedict’s comments on Francis

March 14, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Mar 14, 2018 / 01:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Vatican office has acknowledged blurring portions of a letter written by Benedict XVI regarding Pope Francis’ philosophical and theological formation, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The Secretariat for Communications released the photo March 12 along with a press release announcing a “personal letter of Benedict XVI on his continuity with the pontificate of Pope Francis.”

Altered photo of a letter from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, released March 12 by Vatican Secretariat of Communications. Credit: Vatican Media

 

The AP’s Nicole Winfield wrote March 14 that the Vatican has admitted “that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards.”

Winfield added that “The Vatican admitted Thursday [sic] that it blurred the two final lines of the first page … The Vatican didn’t explain why it blurred the lines other than to say it never intended for the full letter to be released. In fact, the entire second page of the letter is covered in the photo by a stack of books, with just Benedict’s tiny signature showing, to prove its authenticity.”

The full text of the letter was published March 13 by Sandro Magister, an Italian journalist who has long followed the Vatican.

The text shows that Benedict’s letter, dated Feb. 7, was written to acknowledge receipt of the gift of a series of 11 volumes on “The Theology of Pope Francis,” and to respond to a request that the Pope Emeritus write a theological reflection on the books.

The series is published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican publishing house overseen by the Secretariat.

“I applaud this initiative which is intended to oppose and react to the foolish prejudice according to which Pope Francis would be only a practical man devoid of particular theological or philosophical formation, while I would be solely a theoretician of theology who could understand little of the concrete life of a Christian today,” Benedict wrote.

“The little volumes demonstrate, rightly so, that Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation, and they therefore help in seeing the interior continuity between the two pontificates, albeit with all the differences of style and temperament.”

The Pope Emeritus then added, “Nonetheless, I do not feel that I can write a brief and dense theological page about them because for my whole life it has always been clear that I would write and express myself only on books that I had also truly read. Unfortunately, even if only for physical reasons, I am not able to read the eleven little volumes in the near future, all the more so in that I am under other obligations to which I have already agreed. I am sure that you will understand, and I extend to you my cordial greeting.”

Though it was written in early February, the letter was not released by the Secretariat for Communications until mid-March when the book series was released, on the eve of the anniversary of Pope Francis’ election as Bishop of Rome.

The secretariat’s press release quoted portions of the letter praising the booklets, but did not include Benedict’s admission that he has not read them in full.

The letter was presented at a press conference announcing the series of booklets on Pope Francis’ theology.

The prefect of the communications secretariat, Monsignor Dario Viganò, read portions of Benedict’s letter at the press conference, “including the lines that were blurred out”, the AP reports. The portion of the letter which was blurred out is the beginning of Benedict’s explanation that he has not in fact read all the volumes which were sent him.

Msgr. Viganò, who was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Milan, has been prefect of the Secretariat for Communications since that office was established in June 2015.

The secretariat was formed as part of Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia, and is meant to consolidate the Vatican’s media arms and to increase their presence among digital platforms.

The secretariat oversees all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, Vatican Internet Service, the Vatican Typography office, the Vatican’s Photography Service, and Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

 

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Pope: In praying the Our Father, do you know who you’re talking to?

March 14, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Mar 14, 2018 / 06:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the general audience Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of the recitation of the Our Father at Mass, asking if when we pray it, we understand who we are praying to and the relationship we are called to have with him.

“How many times there are people who say, ‘Our Father,’ but do not know what they say!” the Pope said March 14.

“Do you feel that when you say ‘Father,’ that he is the Father, your Father, the Father of humanity, the Father of Jesus Christ?” he asked. “Do you have a relationship with this Father?”

When we pray this prayer, we are connecting with a loving Father, he continued, explaining that it is the Holy Spirit which gives us this connection with him, the feeling of being God’s child.

What better prayer can there be for giving us sacramental Communion with God, he asked, than the one taught by his son, Jesus?

Pope Francis continued his general audience catechesis on the part of the Mass called the Rite of Communion, which begins with the recitation of the ‘Our Father,’ followed by the sign of peace, the breaking of the host by the priest, and the invocation of the “Agnus Dei,” or “Lamb of God.”

In particular, the Pope noted the appropriateness of the Lord’s Prayer as a preparation for receiving Holy Communion, because in the prayer we pledge our forgiveness of others and ask God to forgive our own sins.

This request opens our hearts to God, but “also disposes us to fraternal love,” he said, noting that this is not always an easy thing to say.

“It’s not easy to forgive those who have hurt us. It’s a grace to say: Forgive me as I have forgiven [others]… it’s a grace…” the Pope said. “The Lord gives us peace, he also gives us the grace to forgive.”

“The peace of Christ cannot take root in a heart incapable of living fraternity and of repairing it after having wounded it,” he said.

In the prayer we also ask God to “deliver us from evil,” which is another cause of separation between us and God and us and our brothers and sisters, he continued. Each of these “are very suitable requests to prepare us for Holy Communion.”

He also pointed to the line where we ask God to “give us our daily bread,” which is something “we need to live as children of God.”

After the ‘Our Father,’ we exchange the sign of peace with those around us, a concrete sign expressing “ecclesial communion and mutual love,” Francis said, quoting from the Roman Missal.

He also emphasized that this peace is Christ’s gift to us – a different peace from that offered by the world, it helps the Church to grow in unity and peace “according to his will.”

Next in the Mass, the priest breaks the host, which has already been consecrated and transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and places it in the chalice. This is accompanied by our prayer to the “Lamb of God.”

“In the Eucharistic Bread, broken for the life of the world, the prayerful assembly recognizes the true Lamb of God, that is Christ the Redeemer, and begs him: ‘Have mercy on us… give us peace,’” the Pope said.

“‘Have mercy on us,’ ‘give us peace,’” he continued, “are invocations that, from the prayer of the Our Father to the breaking of the Bread, help us to dispose our mind to participate in the Eucharistic banquet, a source of communion with God and with our brothers.”

He concluded by asking everyone to pray the Our Father together, each “in their own language.”

In his speech, the Pope did not mention the line of the Our Father which says in English, “lead us not into temptation.”

In an interview he gave in December 2017, Francis said that he believes the Italian translation of this line, which says, “non ci indurre in tentazione,” is incorrect, because God does not actively lead us into temptation.

He also praised in the interview a new translation of this line by the French bishops’ conference, which says “et ne nous laisse pas entrer in tentation” – “let us not enter into temptation.” It replaces the previous translation “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation” – “do not submit us to temptation.”

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