Month: March 2018

Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- If Vatican-brokered agreements negotiated under his leadership are any indication, it seems clear that when a deal is on the table, Pope Francis usually tries to take it.

In Colombia, with the U.S. and Cuba, and in China, it seems that Francis generally prefers to take an imperfect patch job that might at least begin to restore broken ties, even if it faces opposition, rather than waiting for perfect diplomatic agreement to arise.

A clear example of this is the Vatican’s pending agreement with China on the appointment of bishops, which many sources, including the Vatican’s own Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, have said is “imminent.”

In negotiations with China, the Vatican is reportedly using an approach similar to the one that led to a 1996 accord Parolin brokered with Vietnam. In China, the Holy See would apparently have the final say in appointing bishops, choosing from a selection of candidates put forward by the government-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the legally recognized Catholic body in the nation.

The proposal has been harshly criticized by some, including Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen. However, many, including Zen’s successor Cardinal John Tong Hon, himself also Emeritus Bishop of Hong Kong, have supported an accord, saying the situation for religion in China has generally improved, and that while there might be problems in some areas, China is a large nation, and incidents of arrest or imprisonment are generally rare and limited to certain regions.

Similar conversations happened when the Vatican helped the Colombian government and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reach a peace agreement in September 2016, intended to an end five decades of violent armed conflict that left some 260,000 people dead and millions displaced.  

The Vatican helped to broker the agreement, which allowed the incorporation of some FARC leaders into the government, in exchange for the group’s disarmament and renunciation of kidnapping and drug trafficking.

The deal marked a breakthrough in what had been a long-time stalemate in which neither side was willing to budge.

However, it was met with mixed reactions from Colombian citizens and Church leaders, with some priests, bishops, and cardinals voicing dissatisfaction, arguing that the deal’s stipulations were too lenient on the guerrilla fighters.

Though voters rejected the deal in an October 2016 referendum, the Colombian government and FARC renegotiated its terms, implementing a plan in November 2016. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos Calderón was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the peace process.

Despite debate on the ground, Cardinal Parolin traveled to Colombia for the official signing of the accord in a show of support, and in September 2017 Pope Francis visited Colombia himself, making a 6-day trip to the South American nation to recognize steps made in the peace process.

The peace deal remains controversial, and critics note that 250 activists and political leaders have been murdered in Colombia since the agreement was struck. But there remain opportunities to build on the groundwork laid by the accord.

Francis was also an active player in helping broker the 2015 restoration of ties between the United States and Cuba, bringing an end to a freeze in diplomatic relations severed in 1961.

Secret talks between diplomats from each side began in 2013, and were aided by support from the Vatican.

The Vatican’s role was largely unknown until the process had already been mostly formalized, but the Vatican’s role in helping broker the deal was significant.

Francis showed just how invested the Holy See was in restoring relations between the two nations that he added a stop in Cuba ahead of his visit to the United States in September 2015.

For the China deal currently being discussed, the biggest concern is how much religious freedom Catholics will actually have if it’s signed and implemented.

Opponents such as Cardinal Zen have questioned whether it’s possible to have genuine dialogue with the Chinese government, and whether Beijing will in fact allow Catholics to have a longer leash should a deal come to fruition.

However, others, such as Cardinal Tong, have argued that China is a large country where incidents of arrests or imprisonments are largely isolated to certain areas.

Cardinal Zen has often said that “no deal is better than a bad deal,” and in a recent blog-post called the proposal an act of “suicide” and a “shameless surrender” to the communist government.

On the other hand, in an interview with CNA last week, Cardinal Tong said opposing the deal was “unreasonable.” He argued that the Chinese government has generally become more tolerant, and called the deal “far-sighted,” saying that at times, sacrifice is necessary in order for Catholics to become “members of one family.”

Compounding the debate is yesterday’s arrest of Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin of Mindong, who is recognized by the Vatican but not the government, and who was taken into custody by police alongside the diocesan chancellor. He was held overnight but was later released, and was barred from celebrating any Mass as a bishop, including Holy Week liturgies.

According to Asia News, Guo was detained for refusing to concelebrate this week’s Chrism Mass with Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu, one of seven illicit bishops backed by the Chinese government.

Asia News reports that after refusing to concelebrate the Chrism Mass with Zhan, Guo organized a separate, earlier Chrism Mass for the “underground” faithful in Mindong, who form the majority of the local Church, and was seized in order to prevent him from moving forward with the liturgy.

In January, Asia News reported that a Vatican delegation asked Bishop Guo voluntarily to accept a position as auxiliary bishop, serving under Bishop Zhan. The request was made as one of the conditions of an eventual agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese government.

Details or an official timeline for a deal in China have not been made public, and no declaration has been made on the seven illicit bishop, meaning that for the moment, they are still excommunicated. Under the terms of the proposed deal, the Vatican would reportedly regularize each of the seven illicit bishops, bringing them into communion with Rome.

Though it is unknown what impact, if any, Guo’s overnight detainment will have on an agreement between China and the Vatican, many who are close to the situation, including Cardinal Parolin, have in recent weeks said things are moving forward, and it may only be a matter of months before a deal is made.

Cardinal Zen recently met with Pope Francis during a last-minute trip to Rome in January, after Guo and another bishop were asked to step down in favor of bishops backed by the Chinese government.

Francis’ willingness to meet with Cardinal Zen, just as he met with many Colombian prelates ahead of the 2016 peace deal, some of whom shared reservations, indicates that he is willing to hear out other perspectives on these matters, and talk things through, even if he chooses to move forward anyway.

So while a deal with China, if it is made, will certainly be met with mixed reactions, one thing is certain: there is likely not much that will stop Francis from going after it, so long as he sees the potential of real change for the better.

For Francis, something is always better than nothing, and if there’s a shot, even with problems unresolved, he prefers to try. Whether this approach bears good fruit or not, we can probably expect to Francis to have a similar approach moving forward.

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Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 10:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Peter Lombardi was diagnosed with leukemia in 2015, his wish was to get a kiss from Pope Francis, but his family’s plans to see him at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia fell through when Peter was in the hospital.

His wish came true March 28 when Francis saw Peter, 12, who has Down syndrome, in the crowd of people and stopped the popemobile to have him lifted in. Peter not only got a kiss from the Pope, but a blessing, and a ride twice around the crowded square during the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“If the Pope could have just waved to him I would have been happy,” Peter’s mother, Brenda, told CNA. Peter said that he likes the Pope and that getting a kiss from him made him feel better.

“I rode with him and he gave me a kiss and blessing,” he said. He was also happy to have received a balloon animal after the experience.

In remission since June, Peter is visiting Rome and Medjugorje for two weeks with his parents, Brenda and Matt, and his three brothers, “to thank our Lord for his healing and to thank the Blessed Mother; for their faithfulness, for their love and mercy upon our family,” Brenda said.

“God protected him throughout his leukemia,” she continued. “God’s mercy is so infinite and his grace through the heavy crosses are even bigger and better in the end when you put your trust in him.”

Peter originally asked for the kiss from Pope Francis when he was sick and watching the Pope on TV from the hospital. Brenda recounted how the people from the Make-A-Wish Foundation came into Peter’s room and asked him what he wanted.

They were really surprised, she noted, when he said, “see that man on TV, kissing all those kids? I want a kiss from him!”

While the Make-A-Wish Foundation could not grant that one, his other wish will be granted soon: a lightsaber fight with Darth Vader at Walt Disney World.

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Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 06:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has named Fr. Robert F. Christian, O.P., a Dominican friar and a native of San Francisco, as the next auxiliary bishop for his home diocese in California.

In a statement coinciding with the March 28 announcement from the Vatican, San Francisco’s Archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, said he was “overjoyed to welcome Fr. Christian back to his native San Francisco.”

“We first met while studying in Rome some forty years ago and we are now all blessed that Bishop-Elect Christian joins us to serve our priests, religious, deacons and all the people of the Archdiocese.”

On his part, the bishop-elect said he is “delighted to minister in the area where I was born and raised, and where I have numerous relatives and friends. I know I can count on the prayers of many people, and I am eager to serve the people of the City and Archdiocese that I call home.”

Born in San Francisco in 1948, Christian attended Catholic school for the entirety of his school years, and graduated from Ignatius High School in 1965. Five years later, in 1970, he graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in literature.

Christian entered the Dominican novitiate in Oakland the same year, and continued his ecclesiastical, philosophical and theological studies at Saint Albert College and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.

He made his solemn vows in 1974 and began attending courses at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome. He was ordained in 1976, and immediately began his teaching career at Dominican College in San Rafael.

After later receiving his doctorate in theology from the Angelicum, Christian began what would be a long teaching career at the university, lasting from 1985-1997.

The bishop-elect then made his way back to California, where he served in a variety of roles, including vicar and administrator of the Western Dominican Province, university professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and as a member of the Clergy Education Board for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Christian then held the role of deputy dean of the Angelicum from 1999-2014. After taking a year-long sabbatical, in 2015 he became master of students for the Western Dominican Province.

He was a “peritus,” or expert, at the Synod of Bishops on Priestly Formation in 1990, and is currently a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

In addition to English, he also speaks Italian, Spanish and French, and he knows Latin.

Bishop-elect Christian’s episcopal ordination will likely take place at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco near the beginning of the summer.

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Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said the Easter Triduum is the most important time of year for Christians, and stressed that those who truly allows themselves to be transformed by Jesus’ resurrection, while still being sinners, cannot be corrupt.

“A Christian, if he truly allows himself to be washed by Christ, if he truly lets himself be stripped of the ‘old man’ to walk in a new life, even while remaining a sinner, he cannot be corrupt,” the Pope said March 28. “He can no longer live with death in the soul, nor can he be the cause of death.”

The justification Jesus offered by dying on the cross “saves us from corruption,” he said, stressing, as he often has, that while everyone is a sinner, Christians must never be corrupt.

Francis said it is “sad and painful” to see “fake Christians” who claim to be walking according to the path given by Jesus after his resurrection, but who, in reality, are living a corrupt life.

“These fake-Christians will end poorly,” he said, adding that “a Christian, I repeat, is a sinner, we all are, I am, but we have the certainty that when we ask for forgiveness the Lord will forgive us. The fake Christian pretends to ask for forgiveness, but in their heart is rotten.”

He then asked pilgrims to join him in praying for these “mafia-Christians,” who say they follow Christ, but in reality harm themselves and others. “Let us pray for them,” he said, “that the Lord would touch their heart and soul.”

Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims gathered for his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square. He dedicated his catechesis to the Easter Triduum, which he said are “the most important days in the liturgical year,” and signify “the fundamental phases of our faith and of our vocation in the world.”

All Christians, he said, “are called to live the three holy days as, so to speak, the ‘matrix’ of their personal and community lives.”

He pointed to St. Paul’s assertion in the Second Book of Corinthians that “the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” Later, in his letter to the Romans, Paul describes the Easter transformation in a different way, saying Christ “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

“The only, the only one that justifies you, the only one that makes you born again is Jesus Christ, no one else!” the Pope said in off-the-cuff remarks, adding that “this is the greatness of the love of Jesus: he gave his life to make us holy, to renew us, to forgive us. And this is precisely the core of the paschal mystery.”

In the Triduum, the memory of Christ’s death and resurrection is celebrated and at the same time renews in those who are baptized during the liturgy “the meaning of their new condition,” he said.

This is why there are always people who are baptized during the Easter vigil, Francis explained, noting that during this week’s vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica he will baptize eight people “who will begin their Christian life” in the Church.

Easter is also a time for solidarity with those who suffer, he said, noting that Christians can see the face of Christ in the vulnerable and those experiencing pain, and are able to love them with the same love Jesus offered through his sacrifice on the cross.

In another aside, Francis noted how in many countries, including Argentina, mothers will take their children to wash their face and eyes on Easter morning as a symbol of being able to see “in a new way, to see things in the way of Jesus.”

He encouraged everyone with children to try this, seeing it as a concrete “sign of how to see Jesus risen.”

Pope Francis closed his speech by asking that Mary would accompany everyone as the Triduum begins, that they may be “more deeply inserted into the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection for us.”

Mary “followed Jesus in his Passion, was present and united to him on the Cross, and received in her maternal heart the immense joy of the resurrection,” he said, and prayed that she would obtain for all “the grace of being internally moved by the celebrations of the coming days, so that our heart and our lives will truly be transformed.”

After his speech, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims in different languages from around the world. In his greeting to Spanish-speaking pilgrims, he encouraged them to “have the courage to go to confession in these days, make a good confession!”

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