Month: May 2018

No Picture
News Briefs

How Meghan Markle’s Catholic school is celebrating the Royal Wedding

May 18, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Los Angeles, Calif., May 18, 2018 / 04:25 pm (CNA).- Flash mobs, sparkling lemonade, and video toasts to the happy couple are just some of the ways that a Catholic high school in California is celebrating their most popular alumna, soon-to-be royal Meghan Markle.

An American actress best known for her role on the T.V. series “Suits,” Markle attended middle school and high school at Immaculate Heart Catholic school outside of Los Angeles.

The school has taken the highly-anticipated wedding as a chance for celebration, including an outdoor pre-wedding celebration on Tuesday, complete with a group dance, fancy hats, toasts to Markle and both American and British flag-waving.  

Current Immaculate Heart students told media that they take inspiration from the fact that one of their own, who is a U.N. advocate for women and known for her humanitarian work, is being celebrated on the world stage.

“The idea that someone like her, who has had an upbringing so similar to ours, will now be able to voice her concerns on a global platform as an internationally recognized figure is a story that impacts so many young women, especially the young women at our school,” student Mia Speier said in a toast to Markle at the Tuesday event.

“She is from Los Angeles, she’s half black, so I feel like no matter what ethnicity you are, no matter where you’re from, you could actually make a big change in the world,” Immaculate Heart senior Chloe Hightower told “Good Morning America.”

While teachers at the school recalled Markle as a bright and compassionate student with a knack for remembering names and stories, Markle says the teachers made a lasting impression on her as well.

Maria Pollia is an Immaculate Heart theology teacher whom Markle remembers especially fondly. In a recent interview, Markle recalled how Pollia inspired her when she said that “life is about putting others’ needs above your own fears.”

“Yes, make sure you are safe and never, ever put yourself in a compromising situation, but once that is checked off the list, I think it’s really important for us to remember that someone needs us, and that your act of giving/helping/doing can truly become an act of grace once you get out of your head,” Markle recalled in an interview for the book “The Game Changers: Success Secrets from Inspirational Women Changing The Game and Influencing The World.”

Pollia said she was humbled and proud to hear of her impact on Markle, whose humanitarian work since high school has impressed her former teacher.

“This is something that I think really fuels her, her joy and her heart. And I think it’s wonderful to know that she is still that person, and that now with her place in the world, she’ll be able to do that on an even greater scale,” Pollia told CNN. “I think that they are both very aware of that. And I think it’s wonderful that they will be companions to each other on that journey.”

“She’s bringing not just beauty and grace and smarts, but she’s bringing this world consciousness,” Christine Knudsen, another former teacher of Markle’s, told ABC News.

Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry has raised eyebrows not only for her Catholic ties, but also for her being half black, divorced, and an American, obstacles which just a few years ago may have disqualified the couple from ascending to the throne.

Father James Bradley, a Catholic priest in the U.K. and a former Anglican, told CNA in November that the excitement surrounding royal weddings “shows that even when, in some sense, the marriage isn’t everything we would want it to be, society as a whole has a natural inclination towards the good and towards what marriage represents.”

“So people see the goodness of marriage, even people who are opposed to the institution of marriage will cheer when a couple like this get married, or get engaged, because it takes a very hardened heart not to be happy that two people are seeking this good.”

Prince Harry and Markle will be married in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday.

Immaculate Heart will be hosting a (early) watch party for students and their families – most coverage of the event begins between 1-2 a.m. Pacific time.

 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Church leaders offer prayers after school shooting near Houston  

May 18, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Houston, Texas, May 18, 2018 / 01:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Church leaders voiced their closeness to victims of a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas on Friday, calling Catholics to pray for all those affected.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston said that he was “deeply saddened” to receive news of the shooting.  

“My prayers, along with the prayers of the faithful of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, are with the victims and families of those killed and injured in this horrific tragedy,” he said in a statement.

“During this most difficult and challenging time, I know the Archdiocesan community will unite to support and offer healing to those affected. As a society, we must strive for a way to end such acts of senseless gun violence in our schools and communities.”

Shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, police were called to respond to a shooting at Santa Fe High School outside of Houston, Texas.

Officials confirmed 10 fatalities in the shooting – nine students and one teacher. At least 13 other people were injured, including at least two law enforcement officers, according to local media reports.

One 17-year-old male suspect is in custody and a second person of interest has been detained. Both are teenagers and are believed to be students at the school.

The Santa Fe Independent School District later reported that possible explosive devices had been found both at the high school and off campus. Law enforcement officials were working to render the items safe, the school district said.

Local officials at a press conference asked for prayers.

In a second statement later in the day, Cardinal DiNardo spoke in his role as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, lamenting the “ever-growing list of those impacted by the evil of gun violence.”

“Sadly, I must yet again point out the obvious brokenness in our culture and society, such that children who went to school this morning to learn and teachers who went to inspire them will not come home,” he said. “We as a nation must, here and now, say definitively: no more death! Our Lord is the Lord of life. May He be with us in our sorrow and show us how to honor the precious gift of life and live in peace.”

Prayers were also offered by Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, where in recent years shootings have taken place at both an elementary school and a facility for those with developmental disabilities.

“My prayers for those who died in this morning’s tragic school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, their families, those injured and the entire school community,” Bishop Barnes said on Twitter. “May they receive God’s strength and His consolation in this time of shock and sadness.”

Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay tweeted that the students and families at the school would be remembered at a previously scheduled Mass taking place Friday morning.

“Our hearts are heavy hearing the news about Santa Fe High School. My prayers are with all those who are impacted by this horrible and senseless act. May the families of the victims experience the healing power of Jesus’ love,” said Archbishop Leonard Blair of Hartford.

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Bishop Robert Cunningham of Syracuse, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Va., and Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver also offered prayers on Twitter.

 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos of Colombia dies at age 88

May 18, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Rome, Italy, May 18, 2018 / 11:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, a Colombian and a former head of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and of the Congregation for Clergy, died in Rome early Friday morning at the age of 88.

Castrillón, who served as the pontifical commission’s president from 2000 until his retirement in 2009 at the age of 80, was instrumental in the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio which acknowledged the right of all priests of the Roman Rite to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962.

Pope Francis sent his condolences for Castrillón’s death in a telegram May 18, noting the late cardinal’s “generous service to the Church.”

Imploring the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the pope prayed that the cardinal would be welcomed into joy and eternal peace with the Lord; he also sent his “apostolic blessing to those who share the sorrow of the loss of such a worthy servant of the Gospel.”

Archbishop Oscar Urbina Ortega of Villavicencio, president of the Colombian bishops’ conference, prayed that the Risen Christ would “welcome into the eternal kingdom him who generously served as Pastor of the people of God.”

Born in Medellin July 4, 1929, Castrillón studied at seminaries in Colombia and at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, receiving a doctorate in canon law. He also studied religious sociology, political economics, and business ethics.

He was ordained a priest  of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos Oct. 26, 1952, at the age of 23. From 1954-1971 he served at two rural parishes in the diocese and was an official of its curia.

He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Pereira in 1971, and succeeded as ordinary in 1976. He remained there until his appointment as Archbishop of Bucaramanga in 1992, where he continued to serve until 1996.

It is said that during his time as bishop in Colombia he would sometimes walk around the streets at night to feed abandoned children and is reported to have entered the home of drug lord Pablo Escobar while disguised as a milkman to demand that Escobar confess his sins.

He incurred disapproval, however, after admitting that he had accepted money from Escobar’s cartel, which most Colombian bishops had refused. He defended the action, saying the money was used for charitable purposes, keeping it from being spend on illegal activities.

He also said at a meeting of the bishops of Latin America in 1984 that he had warned the cartel members that giving money “would not save their souls.”

From 1983-1991 he served as secretary general of the bishops’ conference of Latin America.

At a January 1968 meeting in Lima, Castrillón was among several bishops who denounced liberation theology in Latin America.

In 1996 he was called to work at the Vatican as pro-prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, and two years after was made a cardinal and prefect of the congregation. He remained head of the congregation until 2006.

Castrillón also served as president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei from 2000 until his 2009 retirement. The commission is responsible for institutes and communities which use as their proper Rite the extraordinary form of the Roman rite (the Roman Missal of 1962). It is also responsible for discussion with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a priestly fraternity which is in an irregular situation and whose priests do not legitimately exercise their ministry.

While he was president of Ecclesia Dei, he oversaw the regularization of a traditionalist priestly society in Brazil, which became the Apostolic Administration of St. John Vianney, and of the Transalpine Redemporists (the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer). It was also during his tenure that the excommunications of the SSPX bishops who were illicitly consecrated in 1988 were remitted.

In 2003, Castrillón celebrated the first Pontifical Mass in a Major Basilica since the liturgical reform which followed the Second Vatican Council, at St Mary Major.

He was criticized in 2010 for a letter he had written in 2001, as prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, in which he congratulated a French bishop for not reporting a priest to the authorities for sexual abuse of a minor.

Bishop Pierre Pican, who had received a suspended three-month jail sentence for his failure to report the abuse, had admitted in court that he had kept the priest in parish work even though he had privately admitted to committing acts of abuse.

In the letter, the cardinal wrote that Pican “acted well,” and that he was pleased that a fellow bishop “preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest.”

Castrillón went on to say that he believed relations between a bishop and his priests were more than professional but had “very special links of spiritual paternity,” which therefore did not oblige bishops to testify against their priests.

Castrillón’s funeral Mass will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica May 19. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, will be the principal celebrant. As customary for the funerals of cardinals, Pope Francis will preside over the final commendation.

[…]