Month: March 2018

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2018 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A March 8-11 “hacking marathon” at the Vatican is in full swing, with 120 students of different backgrounds, faiths, and disciplines working to “hack” into global social problems in 36 hours of innovative brainstorming.

“VHacks” is the first-ever Vatican hackathon, and the young participants and organizers have said that the location is an integral part of the event’s impact and appeal.

“It still sounds so strange: a hackathon at the Vatican,” said Cameron, a 21-year-old participant. “And that’s what makes it so amazing – the fact that you wouldn’t expect it.”

Cameron is an electrical engineering student at Harvard and on the organizing committee of VHacks. He told CNA that fact that VHacks is taking place at all says a lot “about how the Vatican, especially with Pope Francis’ style, is embracing technology a little bit more than it has before.”  

Hailing from 60 different countries, participants work in teams to tackle challenges related to the broader themes of social inclusion, interfaith dialogue, and refugees and migrants.

Each team chooses a challenge to “hack” during the conference, working nearly round-the-clock to come up with creative, technological solutions. At the end, all the teams will present their solutions to judges who choose the top projects and the final winners.

Ibrahim, 21, is from Pakistan and is studying industrial engineering and management at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany.

He told CNA that the themes of VHacks are good in and of themselves, “but to have [the event] at such an important place just adds to it and adds to how serious we are in figuring out and solving these problems.”

A Muslim, he considers the Vatican a “landmark,” and a “sacred place,” which adds to the overall environment of the hackathon. “I think this is an extremely amazing initiative,” he said.

Hailing from Buenos Aires in Argentina, Sebastian, 24, told CNA that he has participated in hackathons before, but this one is “on another scale,” and that’s what first piqued his interest.

As a Catholic, he was also glad to see the Church getting involved in something like a hackathon, he said, noting that he has been invited to different hackathons before but decided against participating because compared to VHacks, “something was always missing.”

Lucy, 29, told CNA that she is really excited by “how invested this hackathon is in the human perspective and understanding what the user’s needs are.” She is a master’s student studying human-centered design thinking at Georgetown University.

Her team members, who all came from Georgetown, a partner in the event, chose the migrants and refugees challenge. “When you think about refugees in the big scope, it seems like there’s no point of entry that’s going to succeed,” she said.

“So how do we as individuals or as groups find an entry into that? I really think it is through this human-centered design” that VHacks is focused on.

The hackathon is also interspersed with educational opportunities, including panels and workshops on topics related to the themes. Participants can also avail themselves of advice and guidance from experienced “mentors” present to help throughout the conference.

“It’s not just a hackathon but a learning experience and a team-building experience,” Lucy said.

The event will conclude with Mass and sightseeing in St. Peter’s Basilica March 11, followed by attendance at the Pope’s Sunday Angelus and his papal blessing in St. Peter’s Square.

Dominican Fr. Eric Salobir, a co-chairman of VHacks and a consultor for the Secretariat of Communications, told CNA that having the hackathon at the Vatican is very symbolic, and allows big issues to be tackled from the global perspective offered by the Church.

Salobir is also the founder of the OPTIC network, a disruptive technology think-tank which frequently collaborates with the Holy See.

Explaining the term hackathon, Cameron clarified that while the words “hack” or “hacking” can have negative connotations, the phrase in this case is used to mean “hacking into a problem that has no clear start.”

“It just comes down to finding an entry point and saying, ‘This is where we’re going to start looking at it.’”

He acknowledged that it is unrealistic to think that solutions to these problems can possibly be found in just 24 or 36 hours. But what they want to do is “plant a seed” and create something to expand on in the future.

The environment of the hackathon, which lacks the usual pressures found in a career setting, makes it really “conducive to innovation,” he stated.  

In the end, it is hoped that some of the new ideas produced will be brought to fruition by the corporations, foundations and private donors sponsoring the hackathon.

A lofty goal, Salobir said they even hope to have some examples “of how technology can help to solve problems” in place by the time of the synod on the youth in October. “We hope to be able to show very practical, useful solutions,” he said.

“We saw from our experiences [putting on hackathons] in San Francisco and Paris that the students are incredibly creative in the way to use technology positively, in a way the older generations cannot imagine. They were born in this time of digital technology and sharing economy and they can provide a lot.”

“I have no clue what they will do practically, I have just the experience of other hackathons. But at other hackathons they really came with amazing ideas. I hope that this time it will be the same and they will really blow our minds with their creativity.”

[…]

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2018 / 12:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At his annual Lenten penitential service on Friday, Pope Francis said that it is not God who abandons us when we sin, but we who separate ourselves from him by choosing to sin, and that no matter what we do, God never stops loving us.

“We know that the state of sin distances us from God. But in fact, sin is the way that we distance ourselves from him. Yet that does not mean that God distances himself from us,” the Pope said March 9.

“The state of weakness and confusion that results from sin is one more reason for God to remain close to us,” he continued. “The certainty of this should accompany us throughout our lives.”

Pope Francis gave a brief homily during an annual Lenten penitential service in St. Peter’s Basilica. He reflected on a passage from the first letter of John, which speaks about God’s love for his children.

God’s love is greater than anything we can imagine, reaching beyond even the worst sins we find within us, he said.

“His is an infinite love, one that knows no bounds,” he reflected. “The words of the Apostle are a reassuring confirmation that our hearts should trust, always and unhesitatingly, in the Father’s love: ‘No matter what our hearts may charge us with, God is greater than our hearts’ (1 Jn. 3:20).”

Following the homily, Pope Francis led a silent examination of conscience. Then, as in other years, the Pope was the first to go and make his confession to a fellow priest before hearing the confessions of several others.

Other priests were also available throughout the basilica to hear individual confessions.

The penitential service also marked the beginning of the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative held yearly on the fourth Friday and Saturday of Lent.

Led by Pope Francis, “24 Hours for the Lord” is a worldwide initiative that points to confession as a primary way to experience God’s merciful embrace. It was launched in 2014 under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

The event gives Catholics an opportunity to go to confession and take part in Eucharistic adoration at participating churches. This year’s theme is “With you is forgiveness” taken from Psalm 130.

Earlier on March 9, Pope Francis spoke to participants in the Apostolic Penitentiary’s annual course on the internal forum, which is attended primarily by young priests, seminarians, and penitentiary priests specifically appointed to hear confessions and administer penance.

This year, ahead of the Synod of Bishops on youth, the course focused on the relationship between sacramental confession and vocational discernment.

In his speech, Francis noted how young priests have an “advantage – so-to-speak” when it comes to hearing the confessions of other young people, a proximity of age “favors even sacramental dialogue.”

On the other hand, there are limitations and challenges to being at the beginning of their ministry and therefore lacking in the experience of an older confessor, he said.

With these thoughts in mind, he asked, how do we go about listening to sacramental confessions, especially of the young, when it comes to vocational discernment?

“First of all, I would say that it is always necessary to rediscover, as St Thomas Aquinas says, the instrumental dimension of our ministry,” he said. “The priest confessor is not the source of Mercy or of Grace; he is certainly the indispensable tool, but always just an instrument!”

Being intentionally aware of this can help keep priests from becoming what Francis called “masters of consciences” instead of humbly listening to the Holy Spirit. He emphasized that seeing oneself as an instrument is not a lessening of the priest’s role in confession, but “the full realization of [the ministry].”

The Pope also stressed that confessors should listen carefully to any questions before offering answers, and when these two elements come together in sacramental dialogue, it can help to open up the journey of prayer and prudence that is vocational discernment.

Concluding, he encouraged the present and future confessors to be “witnesses of mercy, humble hearers of young people and God’s will for them, always respectful of the conscience and freedom of those who approach the confessional.”

He reminded them to entrust penitents to Mary, “who is the Refuge of sinners and Mother of mercy.”

[…]

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2018 / 09:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A women’s conference in Rome this week called for changes in Church teaching that organizers say would promote equality, but the head of a Catholic women’s organization cautioned that true equality must adhere to truth.

First held in 2014, the “Voices of Faith” conference has taken place annually on March 8 in honor of International Women’s Day. The title for this year’s event was “Why Women Matter.”

The event is known to annually include at least a few speakers who oppose Catholic teaching on key topics such as homosexuality and women’s ordination. This year, however, a dissenting tone was much more prominent among conference presenters.

Past events have featured also positive stories about women and the Church, such as a testimony last year from a Rwandan genocide refugee who received an education with the help of Salesian missionaries.

This year’s event, in contrast, focused heavily on a push to change Church teaching, with not a single speaker defending Church doctrine and practice.

Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese, herself a Catholic, delivered a keynote speech accusing the Church of maintaining a misogynistic attitude, saying Church leaders are trying to drown women out due to fear.

“We are here to shout, to bring down our Church’s walls of misogyny,” she said, and, referring to the Church hierarchy, added that “I hope that all the hearing aids are turned up today!”

McAleese, who has previously advocated publicly for same-sex marriage and women’s ordination to the priesthood, argued that “misogyny and homophobia” have been present since the Church’s establishment and have “kept Christ out and bigotry in.”

The Catholic Church “lags noticeably behind” other nations in the advancement of women and uprooting of discrimination, she said, calling this “a disgrace” for an organization “that claims to be created by God.”

Although new jobs and positions have opened up to members of the laity, both women and men, since the Second Vatican Council, McAleese said that “these have simply marginally increased the visibility of women in subordinate roles, including in the Curia,” and have “added nothing to their decision-making power or their voice.”

Ultimately, she said, not allowing women to be ordained to the priesthood, “has locked women out of any significant role in the Church’s leadership, doctrinal development and authority structure since these have historically been reserved to or filtered through ordained men.”

Other speakers took up similar topics, focusing on exclusion and calling the Church to change its teaching on homosexuality.

However Mary Rice Hasson, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C., warned that events such as the Voices of Faith conference do not effectively foster dialogue if they openly reject Church teaching.

“Dialogue and accompaniment have to be a walk towards the truth, in confidence that living in the truth is what brings happiness,” she told CNA.

Hasson, who was not affiliated with the conference, stressed that women should certainly discuss differences and try to understand points of conflict. But she cautioned that true constructive dialogue about women’s role in the Church “needs to take the Church’s teaching as its starting point.”

McAleese also complained that no cardinals or members of the curia were attending the event, despite a social media campaign by Voices of the Faith calling on them to do so.

“No Church leader bothers to turn up not just because we do not matter, but because their priestly formation prepares them to resist treating us as full equals,” she said.

In past years, a few Vatican officials have attending the Voices of Faith panel. This year’s event, however, drew controversy over some of the speakers.

The event has traditionally taken place inside the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences. This year, however, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, objected to two of the speakers: McAleese and Ssenfuka Juanita Warry, a LGBT advocate in Uganda.

The event required the cardinal’s approval in order to take place at Casina Pio V. Rather than adjusting their roster of speakers, Voices of Faith opted for a change of venue, and held the gathering at the headquarters of the Jesuit Curia in Rome rather than the Casina, which is located inside Vatican City State.

At the March 1 launch of the book “A Pope Francis Lexicon,” edited by Vatican journalists Cindy Wooden and Josh McElwee, Cardinal Farrell responded to a question about the dispute, saying events held within the Vatican are “presumed to be sponsored by the pope” and people assume that the pope “is in agreement with everything that is said.”

Farrell said that when he found out what the conference was about, “it was not appropriate for me to continue to sponsor such an event.”

In comments to CNA, Hasson said the Church is not just a human institution, but a supernatural gift, meaning its teachings “are true.”

“Unfortunately, the question of women’s ordination hijacked the conversation about women and the Church for decades,” she said. “It’s time to move past that.”

Similarly, Hasson said the Church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality will not change, “so agitation for change in those areas is counterproductive and is more likely to confuse people or give scandal.”

Hasson is also director of the Catholic Women’s Forum, an international network of women dedicated to amplifying the role women both in the Church and in society in support of Church teaching.

“Women are already contributing to the Church’s evangelical mission in significant ways – and have for centuries,” she said, but acknowledged that there is a need for women to be included in more high-level conversations, “because the Church needs our insights and gifts in order to accomplish its mission.”

In her opinion, Hasson said Voices of Faith “is, in part, a well-intentioned effort” to acknowledge both the gifts of women and the valuable role they play in the Church. She pointed to how previous events have drawn attention to the work women have done to assist the poor and marginalized.

Where Voices of Faith fails to serve the Church well, she said, “is in its support of advocacy agendas, proposed by women who dissent from the Church’s teaching.”

She pointed to the presence of McAlesse at this year’s conference as well as the inclusion of Sr. Simone Campbell, known for her involvement in the “Nuns on the Bus,” who works in legal advocacy for the poor yet supports the legalization of abortion, contraception and has pushed for women’s ordination.

Hasson said the organization’s demand for power is also problematic, since, as Pope Francis has emphasized, “participation is not a question of power but of service.”

She said she does not find it helpful “to measure women’s participation in the institutional Church by corporate measures,” such as keeping a tally of the number of women in leadership roles and how many of them have power and authority.

At the same time, Hasson said it is good “to open the Church’s consultative structure to make room for women,” but to do so in ways that recognize the unique needs of mothers.

Addressing the argument made by Voices of Faith conference participants that young women are leaving the Church in droves because they can’t find adequate leadership opportunities, Hasson said she doesn’t buy it.

“Women, especially young women, are leaving because they have not been brought into relationship with the Lord,” she said. “Their hearts are not converted, they don’t know the faith and don’t see the Church as a supernatural gift from God to help us live better and more fully human lives.”

“A woman who loves God doesn’t leave the Church because she doesn’t see a career path for herself in the Church.”

[…]

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2018 / 04:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Rumors of a papal visit to the Baltic states this year have been going around for months, however, the Vatican confirmed the news Friday, announcing that Pope Francis will visit Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in September.

According to the March 9 communique, the Pope will travel to the three nations from Sept. 22-25, visiting the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas in Lithuania, Riga and Aglona in Latvia and Tallinn in Estonia.

The logo and motto for the visits were released along with the dates of the trip. Currently there is no official program for the visit, however, it is expected to be published shortly.

Francis’ September visit marks the first papal trip to the countries in a quarter of a century. He will be the second pope to travel to the Baltic states, exactly 25 years after St. Pope John Paul II, who visited the three countries in September 1993.

The theme for his visit to Lithuania is “Christ Jesus – Our Hope.” The motto for his visit to Lativia is “Show Thyself a Mother” in honor of the Virgin Mary, and the theme for Estonia is “Wake up, my heart!”

Each of the countries is predominantly Christian, with a mix of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox populations, meaning that Francis’ visit, in keeping with his style, will likely have a strong ecumenical focus.

Both Estonia and Latvia have large Lutheran and Orthodox populations. Lithuania, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly Catholic, influenced largely by its historical connection to Poland.

More than 75 percent of the nearly 3 million people in Lithuania are Catholic, while Orthodox Christians make up about 4 percent of the population.

Latvia and Estonia, though historically Lutheran, have become increasingly non-religious. In Latvia, Lutheranism still accounts for about 34 percent of the population of just under 2 million and Catholics make up 25 percent, primarily in the eastern portion of the country. The third largest church in the nation is the Latvian Orthodox Church.

In Estonia, around 54 percent of the population of 1.3 million identify as non-religious. The Eastern Orthodox church accounts for about 16 percent and Lutheranism for almost 10 percent.

Francis’ visit also holds historical significance for the three countries, as the trip will take place during the centenary year of their establishment as independent states.

Until 1917, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed part of the Russian empire. They gained independence in 1918, and remained independent until 1940, when they became part of the Soviet Union and endured Nazi domination from 1940-1944.

After their years under Nazi control, they were returned to the Soviet Union in 1945, and regained democratic independence in 1991. They have been members of the European Union since 2004.

St. John Paul II had a special fondness for Lithuania in particular, and shortly after his election famously declared that “half of my heart is in Lithuania.”

The Lithuanian capital of Vilnius is also linked to the image of Divine Mercy, as it was the city in which St. Faustina Kowalska received the visions of Jesus requesting the painting of the Divine Mercy image, and is where the original Divine Mercy image is located, to which John Paul II had a special devotion.

[…]