Edinburgh, Scotland, Jun 5, 2018 / 12:41 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a pastoral letter for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Archbishop Leo Cushley of St. Andrews & Edinburgh stressed the importance of the Sunday Mass obligation for Catholics.
“It is true that many people think of Sunday as just part of the weekend, a welcome break from the usual routine, and perhaps a day for family, or sporting activities,” the UK archbishop said in the letter.
“Naturally, it’s good to relax and make time for these things, but our culture has largely forgotten that Sunday is a weekly holiday because of its meaning as the Christian holy day,” he continued.
Cushley went on to emphasize the importance of attending Sunday Mass. He noted that missing Mass due to extraordinary circumstance, such as an illness, is acceptable, but under normal circumstances, “attending Mass on Sunday is a solemn and binding obligation.”
“If we deliberately fail in this matter, it is a grave sin and we must go to confession before receiving communion again,” he said.
Sunday, our weekly day of rest, shows God’s people that true fulfilment is only found in the Creator, said Cushley. It is an “earthly reflection of God’s own eternal restfulness,” when people are reminded that “life has a higher goal than physical survival or financial gain.”
Cushley also highlighted the importance of the Eucharist, saying the Sacrifice of the Mass is a “foretaste of heaven” that empowers “us to do real and lasting good in the world.” Without the power of the Mass, we are not only cut off from the mystery of grace, but also from Christ and community, he said.
The archbishop went on to encourage parents to bring their children to Mass every Sunday as a good example of living out the Catholic faith.
“There’s no better thing you can do for them [children] than to bring them to meet the living Lord Jesus at Mass every week,” Cushley said, adding “if you teach them like this to seek the Kingdom of God first, you can be sure He will bless them in all the other ways that you hope for.”
Cushley also encouraged members of his archdiocese to make their Sunday obligation a priority over other commitments, saying Catholics should place Christ in the Eucharist ahead of everything else.
“Coming to Mass only every other week, or occasionally, is not the same as being faithful to his New Covenant. Surely, we cannot treat Christ our Saviour as one option among mothers for us to shuffle at our convenience,” he said.
“I therefore urge you, brothers and sisters, to make the choice to attend Sunday Mass, to make it a priority, and to bring others with you.”
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Armagh, Northern Ireland, Oct 9, 2019 / 02:51 am (CNA).- Health professionals in Northern Ireland are writing to the region’s secretary to protest a liberalization of the region’s abortion laws, which the UK parliament is set to impose on Northern Ireland this month unless Northern Ireland’s parliament reconvenes.
According to the Impartial Reporter, over 800 health professionals in Northern Ireland have written to the Secretary of State expressing concern and opposition to the potential legal change.
“As a Christian my faith in God also plays a major part of my belief in the sanctity of life,” a midwife from County Fermanagh told the Impartial Reporter.
“[God’s] word says we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ and it is my personal conviction that the miracle of life is given by God. But I want to make the point that many midwives who are part of the ‘Midwives for Both Lives’ Facebook group are of non-faith backgrounds and still they believe in protecting the life of the unborn child,” she said.
The British parliament voted in July to add same-sex marriage and a loosening of abortion restrictions as amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, which is designed to keep the region running amid a protracted deadlock in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The Northern Ireland Catholic bishops’ conference has condemned the legislation’s “unprecedented” use of authority to legalize abortion in the region.
The Assembly has been suspended for the past two years due to a dispute between the two major governing parties. The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest, is opposed to changing the law. Sinn Féin, another prominent party in Northern Ireland, backs a liberalization of the abortion law.
If Northern Ireland Assembly is not reconvened by Oct. 21, the expansion of abortion rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage will take effect. Secretary Julian Smith would be mandated to put the laws into effect by March 31, 2020.
The UK government on Tuesday morning published guidelines for health professionals for when the abortion law tentatively goes into effect. The guidelines state that between Oct. 22, 2019 and March 31, 2020, no criminal charges can be brought against those who have an abortion, or against health care professionals who perform and assist in an abortion.
The health professionals’ letter of concern also lamented a lack of conscience protections in the bill for medical personnel who object to participating in abortions. The new guidelines instruct those health professionals with a conscientious objection to direct women to information about where to obtain an abortion elsewhere.
The guidelines go on to say that health professionals may object to participating “hands-on” in an abortion, but this does not include the “ancillary, administrative and managerial tasks” related to the procedure.
“You must not express your personal beliefs (including political, religious and moral beliefs) to patients in ways that exploit their vulnerability or are likely to cause them distress,” the guidelines state.
Last year, the Republic of Ireland held a referendum in which voters repealed the country’s pro-life protections, which had recognized the life of both mothers and their babies. Irish legislators then enacted legislation allowing legal abortion in what had long been a Catholic and pro-life stronghold.
Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, while currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.
Leaders of the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Irish Council of Churches, have called on their congregations to lobby their locally elected representatives, and ask them to reconvene the assembly before the deadline.
“We are, along with others, gravely concerned that the imposition of this Westminster legislation,” the leaders wrote, calling for two special days of prayer over the weekend of October 12-13 for the unborn and for women facing difficult pregnancies and their families.
The religious leaders also objected that the people of Northern Ireland were not consulted about the measure, and there is no evidence that it reflects the will of the citizens.
Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, has reiterated her party’s stance in its opposition to abortion, and she called for the restoration of the devolved government in the region.
Four men carry a statue of St. Bonaventure during a candlelight procession on July 14, 2023, in Bagnoregio, Italy, his birthplace, on the vigil of the saint’s feast day. / Patrick Leonard/CNA
Bagnoregio, Italy, Jul 15, 2023 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
The birthplace of St. Bonaventure, a 13th-century intellectual giant now revered as a doctor of the Church and the “second founder” of the Franciscans, paid homage to its patron Friday night on the vigil of his feast day with music, prayers, and a candlelight procession.
For the citizens of Bagnoregio, an idyllic town nestled in Italy’s Lazio region about a 1½ drive north of Rome, the July 15 feast is both a solemn holy day and a wellspring of civic pride. Bonaventure’s “braccio santo,” or holy arm — the only surviving relic of the saint — is kept in a silver, arm-shaped reliquary housed in a side chapel of Bagnoregio’s Cathedral of San Nicola and San Donato.
Religious sisters participating in a candlelight procession on July 14, 2023, in Bagnoregio, Italy, in honor of the town’s patron saint and native son, St. Bonaventure. Patrick Leonard/CNA
Friday’s procession, which commenced at the cathedral, was led by the town’s confraternities of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Francis, and St. Peter. Following them were a brass band, a statue of the saint adorned with flowers and carried by four men, and a priest carrying the holy arm. Then came Cardinal Fortunato Frezza, numerous priests, and this year’s first communicants, followed by other religious and residents.
As the participants made their way down the candlelit Via Roma, onlookers watched from windows, balconies, and restaurants bustling with patrons on a warm summer evening.
A resident of Bagnoregio, Italy, watches a candlelight procession through the streets of the town in honor of its patron saint, St. Bonaventure, on July 14, 2023. Patrick Leonard/CNA
Arriving at the piazza Sant’Agostino, Cardinal Frezza, standing beneath a monument of Bonaventure, offered a brief reflection on the importance of the saint and of procession as a form of popular devotion.
The relic “gives us strength to sustain our weakness … It is a relic that is alive and active,” observed the cardinal, a noted biblical scholar. It is “an arm that teaches,” he said, the very right arm that “wrote his works of great intellect and wisdom.”
The cardinal closed his brief catechesis by saying “our life is a holy procession, an itinerary of the mind towards God.” Here he was playing on the title of one of Bonaventure’s most important theological works, Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, “The Journey of the Mind to God.” Following a benediction with the relic, the procession continued down Via Fidanza, looping around the main gate and then back up Via Roma to the cathedral. The faithful entered and Cardinal Frezza imparted the final blessing, again with the relic.
Cardinal Fortunato Frezza leads a prayer service on July 14, 2023, in Bagnoregio, Italy, in honor of the town’s patron saint and native son, St. Bonaventure. Patrick Leonard/CNA
The Franciscans’ ‘second founder’
Born in 1217 (or 1221, according to some accounts) as Giovanni Fidanza in Civita di Bagnoregio (then in the territory of the Papal States), he displayed great acumen and intellectual curiosity. He was, however, plagued by ill health in his youth. His mother called upon the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, and he was, according to the legend, miraculously cured.
The young Bonaventure studied at the nearby Franciscan convent. Given his great talent, at 18 he left Bagnoregio to study in Paris, then the intellectual capital of Europe.
He joined the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1243. At the University of Paris, he studied under the renowned Franciscan theologian Alexander de Hales; in 1257 he earned his teaching license (magister cathedratus) in theology there. Bonaventure was a contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom he met as they were both teaching at the university. The two future doctors of the Church were united in defending the then-nascent Franciscan and Dominican orders, whose orthodoxy was called into question by the secular clergy.
A statue of St. Bonaventure is shown during a candlelight procession on July 14, 2023, in Bagnoregio, Italy, his birthplace, on the vigil of the saint’s feast day. Patrick Leonard/CNA
Bonaventure’s teaching career was cut short; in 1257 when he was appointed minister general of the Franciscan order, which was then plagued by internal factionalism due to divergent understandings of Francis’ spirituality following his death.
To rectify this, Bonaventure spent much time traveling around Europe to help maintain the unity of the order. In 1260 went to Narbonne, France, to solidify the rule of the order and that same year he started writing (which was completed three years later in 1263) the Legenda Maior, “The Major Legend,” considered the definitive biography of St. Francis. For Bonaventure, the key to righting the order lie in Francis’ ideals of obedience, chastity, and poverty, which he re-established as the Franciscans’ guiding principles.
A woman venerates the “braccio santo,” or holy arm, of St. Bonaventure on July 14, 2023, the vigil of the saint’s feast day, at the Cathedral of San Nicola and San Donato in his hometown, Bagnoregio, Italy. Patrick Leonard/CNA
Enduring influence
In addition to his contributions as the “second founder” of the Franciscans, Bonaventure had a profound impact on the papacy. Following the chaos of the three-year conclave in Viterbo that elected Gregory X in 1271 (the longest papal election in the history of the Church), the new pontiff, also a Franciscan, entrusted Bonaventure with preparing many of the key documents for the Second Council of Lyon (1272-1274) which sought to unify the Latin and Greek Churches.
He was made a cardinal in the consistory of May 28, 1273. He did not, however, see the end of the council, as he died on July 15, 1274. He was canonized in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Sixtus V in 1588.
A candlelight procession through the streets of Bagnoregio, Italy, on July 14, 2023, honors the town’s native son and patron saint, St. Bonaventure. Patrick Leonard/CNA
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI, who was a great admirer of Bonaventure, visited the saint’s birthplace to venerate the relic and address the faithful. In 2010 he dedicated three consecutive Wednesday audiences on the saint, outlining the importance of his governance of the Franciscans and his theological, philosophical, and mystical works. Bonaventure’s writings, Benedict observed, demonstrate that “Christ’s works do not go backwards, they do not fail but progress.”
“For St. Bonaventure, Christ was no longer the end of history, as he was for the Fathers of the Church, but rather its center; history does not end with Christ but begins a new period,” Benedict said.
“The following is another consequence: Until that moment the idea that the Fathers of the Church were the absolute summit of theology predominated, all successive generations could only be their disciples,” Pope Benedict explained.
“St. Bonaventure also recognized the Fathers as teachers forever, but the phenomenon of St. Francis assured him that the riches of Christ’s word are inexhaustible and that new light could also appear to the new generations,” he said. “The oneness of Christ also guarantees newness and renewal in all the periods of history.”
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