Month: April 2018

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope: Relationship with Jesus is our own personal love story

April 8, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Apr 8, 2018 / 04:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Second Sunday of Easter, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis said that our relationship with God is a personal one, filled with his love and mercy, where we proclaim like St. Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”

“To enter into Jesus’ wounds is to contemplate the boundless love flowing from his heart. It is to realize that his heart beats for me, for you, for each one of us,” the pope said April 8.

“Just like in a love story, we say to God: ‘You became man for me, you died and rose for me and thus you are not only God; you are my God, you are my life. In you I have found the love that I was looking for, and much more than I could ever have imagined.’”

Francis reflected on St. Thomas’ exclamation in the Gospel of John during his homily for Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday in St. Peter’s Square. He pointed out that it may feel strange at first to say “my Lord and my God.”

But he noted how God himself said, at the beginning of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God” showing that he desires a personal relationship with each one of us, to be possessed by us, just like a jealous lover.

The Mass also marked the start of an April 8-11 meeting in Rome of some-600 Missionaries of Mercy, who were first commissioned on Ash Wednesday 2016 during the jubilee. Their mandate was extended by Pope Francis at the close of the holy year and the meeting is focused on spiritual formation and fellowship-building.

“As today we enter, through Christ’s wounds, into the mystery of God, we come to realize that mercy is not simply one of his qualities among others, but the very beating of his heart,” Francis said.

“Then, like Thomas, we no longer live as disciples, uncertain, devout but wavering. We too fall in love with the Lord! Don’t be afraid of this word, in love with the Lord!”

How can we savor this love that Jesus bestows on us? How can we touch his mercy with our own hand? the pope asked. First, he said, is through the Sacrament of Confession, where we let ourselves be forgiven by God.

Francis outlined three roadblocks we put up in our hearts about confession: shame, discouragement, and believing we are unforgiveable.

“Before God we are tempted to do what the disciples did in the Gospel: to barricade ourselves behind closed doors,” he said. “They did it out of fear, yet we too can be afraid, ashamed to open our hearts and confess our sins.”

When we feel ashamed of our sins, this can be a gift, the pope said, because it is an invitation to our soul to let God overcome the evil in our lives, and we should not be afraid to experience shame, he said, but instead, “pass from shame to forgiveness!”

Another struggle we might face, he said, is one of resignation or discouragement, letting ourselves think: “I’ve been a Christian for all this time, but nothing has changed; I keep committing the same sins.”

“Then, in discouragement, we give up on mercy,” he continued. “But the Lord challenges us: ‘Don’t you believe that my mercy is greater than your misery? Are you a backslider? Then be a backslider in asking for mercy, and we will see who comes out on top.’”

When we fall into the same sin again and again, we may experience great sorrow, but even this sorrow is beneficial, because it “slowly detaches us from sin,” he said.

Thirdly, another “closed door” we may put up to keep ourselves from confession is not wanting to forgive ourselves, the pope said. Someone who has committed a grave sin may think that if they cannot, or do not want to, forgive themselves, how could God want to forgive them?

“This door, however, is only closed on one side, our own; but for God, no door is ever completely closed,” he said.

“As the Gospel tells us, he loves to enter precisely ‘through closed doors,’ when every entrance seems barred. There God works his wonders. He never chooses to abandon us; we are the ones who keep him out.”

“Let us today, like Thomas, implore the grace to acknowledge our God: to find in his forgiveness our joy, and in his mercy our hope,” he said.

Following the Mass, Pope Francis led faithful in praying the customary Regina Coeli prayer. In his brief message before the prayer, the pope thanked all the Missionaries of Mercy gathered in Rome for their meetings.

He also wished a happy Easter to those who are members of the Orthodox Church and are thus celebrating Easter today. “May the Risen Lord fill them with light and peace, and comfort the communities that live in particularly difficult situations,” he said.

Francis also denounced the use of chemical bombs, following an attack in Douma, Syria that killed over 40 men, women, and children, saying, “there is no such thing as a good war or a bad war. Nothing justifies the use of such bombs.”

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Cardinal Burke: Pope’s authority is derived only from obedience to God

April 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 3

Rome, Italy, Apr 7, 2018 / 03:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking Saturday in Rome, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke said that the pope is the highest authority in the Church, but because his power is derived from the divine law, the faithful are obligated to reject his teaching if it falls outside that divine law.  

“According to the Holy Scriptures and the Sacred Tradition, the Successor of St. Peter enjoys a power that is universal, ordinary and immediate on all the faithful,” Burke said at a conference on confusion within the Church, held in Rome April 7.

“Since this power comes from God himself, it is limited by natural law and by divine law,” he continued, “which are the expressions of the eternal and immutable truth and goodness that come from God, are fully revealed in Christ and have been transmitted in the Church uninterruptedly.”

“Therefore, any expression of doctrine or practice that is not in conformity with the Divine Revelation, contained in the Holy Scriptures and in the Tradition of the Church, cannot constitute an authentic exercise of the Apostolic or Petrine ministry and must be rejected by the faithful.”

Burke spoke alongside Cardinal Walter Brandmueller, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, philosopher Marcello Pera, professors Renzo Puccetti and Valerio Gigliotti, and journalist Francesca Romana Poleggi.

The conference, which was put on partly to honor the last wishes of the late Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, archbishop emeritus of Bolona, was titled: “Church, where are you going?”

The subtitle, “Only the blind would deny there is confusion in the Church,” was taken from one of Caffara’s last interviews before his death on Sept. 6, 2017.

Topics at the conference included questions about the Church’s doctrine on matters of sexual morality; the issue of conscience and the concept of “discernment;” and the limits of papal authority and infallibility, which the Church teaches is applicable only in cases of certain public statements on faith and morals.

Cardinal Burke presented a lengthy speech outlining both what papal power is and what its limits are. He also discussed what he believes to be the role of the bishops and the faithful when the pope is thought to have stepped outside these bounds.

Burke explained that while it is both the pope and the bishops who share in the care of the universal Church, it is only the pope who “exercises the fullness of power, so that the unity of the universal Church may be effectively safeguarded and promoted.”

“It is clear that the fullness of power has been given by Christ himself and not by any human authority or popular constitution, and that, therefore, it can only be exercised in obedience to Christ,” he continued.

He argued that from the beginning of the Church, this idea of the “fullness of power” has been well-defined and that it was well understood that it did not allow certain actions to be performed by the Roman Pontiff.

“For example,” Burke stated, “[the pope] could not act against the Apostolic Faith. Moreover, for the good of the good order of the Church, it was a power to be used sparingly and with the greatest prudence.”

Asking how we should correct the pope if he does overstep the limits of his power, Burke pointed to two steps, which he called “a brief and preliminary answer, based on natural law, on the Gospels and on the canonical tradition.”

First, he said, “the correction of the presumed error or abandonment of his duty should be addressed directly to the Roman Pontiff; and then, if he continued to err or not answer, a public declaration should be made.”

“The Roman Pontiff is – like all the faithful – subject to the Word of God, to the Catholic faith and is the guarantor of the obedience of the Church and, in this sense, servus servorum [servant of the servants].”

He noted that he believes devout Catholics must always teach and defend the fullness of power that Christ gave to “His Vicar on earth.” But at the same time, they must teach and defend the power “within the teaching of the Church and the defense of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.”

Cardinal Joseph Zen, a bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, was not present, but sent a brief video message recorded in February 2018, stating that though he was not able to travel to the conference, he was there with his prayers and with his heart.

Zen, who has spoken out strongly against a possible forthcoming agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese government, said that the Church is a great family, and that at the center of the family is the Holy See, which is very important.

He noted how Pope Francis likes to emphasize the importance of the peripheries, but said that “in this moment, our periphery, China… is in much difficulty, great difficulty,” and that “many voices from this periphery do not arrive at the center [of the Church.]”

“We have a great desire to have more communication between the center and the periphery,” he continued, “because if one wants to help the Church in China, one should know [the country]” and not only statistics or what can be read in books.

“At the moment, we are afraid that at the center they do not bring a decision that will truly help to grow the Church. This is the worry of many,” he stated.
 

 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

US, Mexican bishops oppose Trump’s plan to send National Guard to border

April 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 4

Washington D.C., Apr 7, 2018 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishops in both the US and Mexico have criticized the Trump administration’s plan to send National Guard troops to the southern border of the United States.

“The new measures on the border US-MX. Once again a senseless action and a disgrace on the administration,” tweeted Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio April 5.

“These measures manifest represion, [sic] fear, a perception that everyone is an enemy, and a very clear message: we don’t care about anybody else. This is not the American Spirit.”

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order Wednesday to deploy the National Guard.

“A key and undeniable attribute of a sovereign nation is the ability to control who and what enters its territory,” said Trump in the April 4 memo. “The situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis. The lawlessness that continues at our southern border is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people. My administration has no choice but to act.”

The Pentagon stated Thursday that a “security support cell” was being developed to aid coordination between the Homeland Security and the Defense departments. The expected financial costs, number of troops, and time frame have not been announced, but the Pentagon said the cell will support U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.  

Both the Obama and Bush administrations had ordered the National Guard to attend to the border, but critics of the deployment have questioned the reasons behind this recent move when illegal border crossing is, broadly speaking, at historically low levels.

Fiscal Year 2017 saw nearly 304,000 people caught trying illegally to cross the border, the lowest number of since 1971. The number of apprehenions in March (37,393) is more than double from a year ago, but is less than in 2013 and 2014.

The Mexican bishops’ conference tweeted against the militarization of the border, expressing concern that the move may put more Latin Americans at risk.

“It is extremely risky for our Mexican and Latin American people, to have a semi-militarized border. #JesusChrist #migrant, could be executed again for trying to cross #frontier.”

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso wrote April 5 that it is his understanding that “the National Guard is a military force intended for the protection of our nation. They assist in times of natural disasters or respond to an armed threat from a foreign military force.”

“I am left with many questions to which there appear to be no reasonable answer,” he continued. “To what threat are the citizen soldiers of our powerful nation responding? Why are we placing a military force on the border when the vast majority of those in our country without documents are here because they have overstayed their visa? Why are we further militarizing a border that we share with a peaceful neighbor at a time when undocumented immigration across our border is at a low ebb? Is our nation reacting to a ragtag group of Hondurans who are fleeing for their lives seeking refuge? They are fleeing from a nation controlled by narco-trafficking gangs flush with cash provided by our nation’s insatiable appetite for illegal drugs.”

The bishop noted that many of those entering the country are seeking asylum, “following international asylum laws which our country had a major role in writing, to assure that people fleeing persecution and organized violence would be able to find safe refuge.”

“Have we become so fearful and hypocritical that we would expect a country like Lebanon to accept a number 30% the size of their population from Syria, but we ourselves cannot accept a fraction of one percent of those fleeing from the countries with the highest homicide rates in the world?” he asked. “If you were a Honduran whose children were being raped and told that they would have to do the gang’s bidding or die, what would you do?”

Bishop Seitz urged that Trump “stop playing on people’s unfounded fears.”

“I live on the border and my city is year after year one of the safest in the country. These troops are being asked to leave their families and their employment to come to our border where they can do battle against the wind. They will find no enemy combatants here, just poor people seeking to live in peace and security. They will find no opposition forces, just people seeking to live in love and harmony with their family members and neighbors and business partners and fellow Christians on both sides of the border.”

“I pray that our President will reconsider this rash and ill-informed action,” he concluded.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Parents in Ohio ask court to recognize personhood of embryos

April 6, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Cleveland, Ohio, Apr 6, 2018 / 05:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After an in vitro fertilization clinic in Ohio lost more than 4,000 eggs and embryos, one of the couples is suing the clinic, asking a court to recognize an embryo as a person.

Wendy Penniman was one of many people to file a lawsuit against University Hospitals Fertility Center  after a malfunctioning cryogenic tank increased temperatures the weekend of March 3.

“We are asking the court to declare that an embryo is a person and that life begins at conception,” said the Penniman’s lawyer, Bruce Taubman, according to News 5 Cleveland.

Having first filed a lawsuit March 12, Taubman filed an additional complaint March 30, asking for a declaratory judgment on the legal status of an embryo. If embryos are recognized as persons, wrongful death suits could be brought against the fertility center.

Taubman has referred to a 1985 Ohio Supreme Court case, Werling v. Sandy, in which the court held that a viable fetus is a person.

“In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court held that an embryo is not a person, but that was solely for the purposes of obtaining an abortion,” said Taubman, according to News 5 Cleveland.

“I see this case ending up in front of the Ohio Supreme Court, and I would like to think that they are going to follow my line of reasoning and declare an embryo a person.”

But Harvard Law Professor Glenn Cohen told News 5 Cleveland, “Ohio has already had a case where they basically said you can’t use this statute unless you’re talking about a viable fetus, and this is so much earlier than that.”

The Pennimans chose to use IVF after suffering 11 miscarriages. Through the clinic, the couple had two children and was hoping to have a third with another one of the frozen embryos.

Having a degree in biochemical engineering herself, Penniman felt betrayed to hear how the lab handled liquid nitrogen and the malfunction.

Reportedly, an employee had turned off the alarm system so none of the staff offsite had been notified, and an issue occurred with the tank’s autofill valve, which replenishes the freezers with liquid nitrogen to keep the embryos cool.

“You think to yourself, ‘How can this be going on behind the scenes?’” said Penniman, noting that the clinic should treat embryos and eggs with the same care as other patients.

“They trusted them with the most important thing they have: the future of their families. With the flip of a switch, they’ve lost the future,” Taubman added. 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Wuerl: On “Humanae Vitae” anniversary, we renew fidelity to the pope

April 6, 2018 CNA Daily News 4

Washington D.C., Apr 6, 2018 / 05:14 pm (CNA).- “The Church, from the very beginning, has always recognized the special and unique role of Peter,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl at the closing Mass of a Catholic University of America symposium on the 50th anniversary of papal encyclical Humanae Vitae.

The role of Peter – as an authoritative teacher of faith and morals – was reaffirmed, Wuerl believes, by the US bishops’ response to initial controversy over Humanae Vitae.

During the Mass, celebrated in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Wuerl spoke of his personal experience as a young priest at the time of Humanae Vitae’s promulgation. He noted that he was taken aback by negative attitudes towards the encyclical.

“As a newly-ordained priest, I came very quickly in ministry to recognize that not every encyclical or apostolic exhortation meets with immediate acceptance,” he said, to laughter among the congregation.

Having begun his first priestly assignment just the year before, Cardinal Wuerl said that he was “surprised” by the “vehement rejection” of the encyclical, particularly in the archdiocese he now leads.

The Archdiocese of Washington, he said, was “one of the largest flashpoints of opposition.”

“I remember attending a lecture on this very campus [The Catholic University of America] in which it was explained to us that the teaching of Paul VI was his own personal views, and that it was not truly a part of the papal magisterium,” said Wuerl.

However, the dissent was far from universal, he said. Priests who agreed with the document and supported the pope as the “universal shepherd” were assisted by the United States Catholic Conference (a precursor to the USCCB) in writing a pastoral letter to help better explain and support the teachings outlined in Humanae Vitae. This letter, titled “Human Life In Our Day,” was published about four months after the encyclical was released.
    
Wuerl said this experience helped to confirm his beliefs in the importance of the teaching ministry of the pope, in addition to the overall teachings of the document.

“I was impressed then with the alacrity of the response in defense of the teaching office of Saint Peter and therefore the validation of the teaching of Humanae Vitae,” explained Wuerl.

“But there was another lesson that I saw confirmed in those days of dissent from Humanae Vitae – the importance of the teaching role of Peter. The issue was not just what was said, but also who said it.” The pope, regardless of which pope, is “Peter” and has the role of Christ’s vicar, Wuerl said.

Wuerl conceded that there is still much to be done in terms of implementing the teachings of Humanae Vitae for the good of the faithful.

“One half century later, we continue to set forth the teaching of Blessed Pope Paul VI concerning the proper regulation of the propagation of offspring, and over these five decades we have learned that it is not sufficient simply to announce the teaching and repeat the words of the encyclical.”

To assist with this endeavor, the cardinal suggested that this 50th anniversary be viewed as “a call to [….] whom we go out, announce, engage, and walk with as we try to help them grasp and appropriate the teaching of this encyclical.”

“Today then, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we commemorate the encyclical letter, Humanae Vitae, we renew our own fidelity to the Vicar of Christ. It is his voice that gives us assurance of the truth of what we profess.”

[…]