Vatican City, Sep 11, 2018 / 10:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ group of cardinal advisors have issued a statement saying the Holy See is preparing an answer to current debates, presumably referencing questions raised following allegations … […]
I came to the Jewish-Catholic dialogue by a serendipitous path. […]
Jerusalem, Sep 10, 2018 / 07:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A religious vocation to serve in the Holy Land is demanding, but there is nothing like walking where Christ walked to strengthen the life of a Christian, the Franciscans of the Holy Land maintain.
Fr. Benjamin Owusu, O.F.M., told CNA he decided to join the Franciscans of the Holy Land out of “a love for the land which received our Lord and a love to serve in this unique place, to meet people from all walks of life.”
“If you really don’t have the passion to be in that place, you will definitely leave, especially in hard times,” Owusu said.
Owusu, who is from Ghana, has been a Franciscan for 20 years. He presently works with the pilgrimage office at the Washington, D.C.-based Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America.
“The holy places have a big draw. It is very powerful,” said Father Athanasius Macora, O.F.M. “When you come here, people are very moved by the experience. It puts the gospel in perspective… It’s a very powerful tool for evangelizing or re-evangelizing Catholics.”
Macora, an American who grew up in a military family, has spent two years in Jordan, three years in Damascus, and the last 20 years in Jerusalem, where he now serves as guardian of the Flagellation Monastery.
The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is among the oldest and largest Catholic institutions in the Holy Land. The province was founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1217, just eight years after he founded the Franciscan order.
The Custody’s primary role is care of the Holy Places and for pilgrims, while the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has pastoral responsibility for Latin-rite Catholics who live in the region.
As of 2016 the Custody had 216 friars. Their main presence is in Israel, but there are also friars in Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, and Egypt.
“I have always been fascinated by the Holy Land and it is a very rich and stimulating environment. I have gotten a lot out of it personally. It is very different from the U.S.,” Macora told CNA. “Of course, some periods have been better than others. A few times it has been really hard. There are many positive things about the U.S. that I miss, but I committed myself to being here.”
Macora said he is most struck by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over both the place of the Crucifixion and the tomb in which Christ’s body was buried.
“The Church is the place where the death, burial and Resurrection (of Jesus Christ) took place and therefore it serves as a memorial to the Paschal mystery and the three most important days on the Christian calendar,” Macora said. “I think that Calvary and the Tomb are my favorite parts, but I like it when it is really quiet there.”
Macora has witnessed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’s impact on pilgrims, like those who “decide to go to confession after 20 or 30 or even 40 years.”
Like many places of Catholic mission, the Holy Land Franciscans are also in need of vocations.
“We do need more brothers,” Macora added. “The shrines need friars because sometimes it gets really busy, and you need to give the guys a rest. A presence is really important in the shrines and that requires a lot of friars.”
Besides accompanying pilgrims and staffing the shrines, Franciscan friars also work in areas like parish ministry and as directors of schools.
“A vocation is from God and so if one feels called to serve here they have to consider it,” Macora said.
For Owusu, knowing the Holy Land and developing a particular attachment to it helps contribute to one’s vocation and desire to serve there.
“Serving in the Holy Land opens one to the reality of the world,” said Owusu, who said this service opens one to others who do not necessarily share one’s faith.
Israel itself is majority Jewish, with a predominantly Muslim Arab Palestinian minority. Many Christians have emigrated in recent decades, and now make up about two percent of the population.
Jerusalem itself is politically contested, with many in the Palestinian Authority hoping to secure East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
“It is a place where you meet different people, and different people have different views,” Owusu continued, tying this diversity to the Franciscan mission.
“It has opened me to accepting different people, because we are international,” he said. “You meet a lot of friars, even within our monastery, who come from different backgrounds. It has enriched me more, as far as my Franciscan vision is concerned.”
Macora was 15 years old when his father retired from the military in Texas, and he began exploring a religious vocation a few years later.
“In university I started to have strong feelings about serving the Church, feelings I could not dispel even though I tried,” he said. “So I started to think about where to serve, and the international dimension of the Franciscans and the Holy Land really appealed to me since we grew up in many places because of my father’s military career.”
Owusu said being a Holy Land Franciscan means “there’s always something to learn.”
“You need to learn, first of all, to accept other people,” he said. “You need to learn languages, and languages open you to culture, and culture also brings you that reality of the place. There is a lot to learn.”
“Of course, you don’t have to understand all these things to be a friar,” he added. “What you have, will be developed. What you have as a friar can be developed from there. There is always room to learn more.”
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land have resulted in some vocations. Owusu said one such vocation is a California priest who was drawn by the organ played at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
“We have another one who came from France on a pilgrimage. Afterwards he came back, and is now a friar over there,” said the D.C.-based friar.
Macora is also Secretary of the Status Quo Commission of the Custody of the Holy Land. In that role, he takes part in agreements and negotiations among the Churches with claims to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Status Quo agreement, reached in 1852, concerns the ownership and rights of Catholic and Orthodox Christian communities at important sanctuaries including the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem.
Macora said the Franciscans of the Custody have a clear mission rooted in their history.
“We have a very specific identity which involves a heavy institutional burden, because we have to run so many projects,” he said. “The institutional part is not seen as very Franciscan by the Franciscans themselves, but we are here for 800 years now and the existence of the shrines and the large institutional Catholic presence is due also to those guys hundreds of years ago, so we just have to keep doing it.”
Abusers such as Archbishop McCarrick profit from our disregard of Christ’s warning that “he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in […]
Santiago, Chile, Sep 10, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Santiago in Chile has requested that the country’s Court of Appeals send an “exhorto” or judicial request, to the Vatican Secretary of State, asking the Vatican to provide all available information about the abuses perpetrated by Fr. Fernando Karadima. The request comes amid litigation following a lawsuit that has accused the archdiocese of covering-up Karadima’s actions.
“This request seeks to obtain all the information that may help determine the facts of the case,” the archdiocese wrote in a statement.
In Chilean judicial proceedings, an “exhorto” is akin to a subpoena for documents or information.
In 2011, Karadima was declared guilty of sexual abuse by the Vatican, which sentenced him to “a life of prayer and penance, also in reparation of the victims of his abuse.” In addition, the Vatican prohibited him from “the public exercise of any ministerial act, in particular confession or the spiritual direction of all categories of persons.” Controversially, he was not laicized.
In 2015, Juan Carlos Cruz, José Andrés Murillo and James Hamilton, three of Karadima’s victims, filed a lawsuit for “moral damages” against the Archdiocese of Santiago and requested the compensation of 450 million pesos (about $640,000) in addition to a public apology by the Church for the alleged cover-up of abuses.
In March 2017, after an investigation and more than 30 statements given, the Chilean court determined that there was no cover-up by the archdiocese and so dismissed the case.
The plaintiffs appealed the ruling and the lawsuit is now being reviewed by the Court of Appeals.
Archdiocese of Santiago spokesman Nicolas Luco said in a recent statement that “the judicial proceedings have not shown any evidence of cover-up as the lower court determined and for that reason it’s important to discover any new evidence in this matter.”
On April 28-29, the victims of Karadima met with Pope Francis in the Vatican. Those attending said that “the pope formally asked forgiveness in his own name and in the name of the universal church.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Sep 10, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh have suggested that a reference to birth control pills as “abortion-inducing drugs” during Senate confirmation hearings last week represented the judge’s own view on contraceptives.
During last week’s hearings, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Kavanaugh about a 2012 lawsuit filed by the pro-life organization Priests for Life against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. Kavanaugh wrote a dissenting opinion in response to a lower court’s refusal to re-hear the case.
The mandate obliged insurers to include chemical contraception in a list of medications that would be covered without a copay. Cruz asked Kavanaugh to explain the case, and his opinion on the matter.
“Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the question was, first, was this a substantial burden on the religious exercise? It seemed, to me, quite clearly, it was,” said Kavanaugh.
“It was a technical matter of filling out a form, in that case. But they said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to.”
In 2015, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Priests for Life suit along with six others, in the consolidated case Zubik v. Burwell, eventually remanding the individual cases back to the lower courts. In 2016 the government settled with Priests for Life, agreeing not to enforce the mandate and its associated fines, and to pay Priests for Life’s legal fees.
Kavanaugh’s remarks referred to the organization’s description of the contraceptives; he did not characterize them as his own views. However, many opposed to Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court have said the exchange illustrates pro-life bias by the nominee.
The Women’s March called the statement an “emergency, all-hands-on-deck moment for women” and said that “now we know he thinks birth control is abortion.” A statement issued via email did not clarify that Kavanaugh had been offering a summary of the case, not a personal view.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who is considered to be a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, said via Twitter that while Kavanaugh “chooses his words very carefully,” his response to Cruz was a “dog whistle for going after birth control.”
Harris also said that Kavanaugh “was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions,” and that his nomination was “about punishing women.”
The tweet included a video of Kavanaugh saying: “Filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to.” The video left out the part of the exchange where the judge clarified that it was the group that believed this, not himself. The fact-checking website PolitiFact rated Harris’ characterization as “false.”
Kavanaugh, a practicing Catholic, has not publicly stated his thoughts about birth control or the Church’s teaching on the topic. He has rather affirmed his commitment to judicial precedent and the need for judges to apply the law to each case with dispassion.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Sep 10, 2018 / 04:51 pm (ACI Prensa).- A pro-life demonstration in the Dominican Republic on Sunday voiced opposition to a bill to reform the Criminal Code that would open the door to abortion in the country.
Abortion is illegal in all instances in the Dominican Republic. However, the National Congress is considering an effort to legalize abortion in the cases of rape, incest, and fetal deformity.
Led by Archbishop Francisco Ozoria Acosta of Santiago, pro-life marchers gathered September 9 in front of the National Congress in the country’s capital. Under the theme “Let’s Save Both Lives,” the demonstration argued against the legalization of abortion, with speakers giving presentations from legal, scientific, and medical perspectives.
While the march was organized by the Catholic Church, large crowds of Evangelical Christians also participated.
The Archdiocese of Santo Domingo explained in a statement that “our obligation is to warn what will happen if abortion on three grounds [of fetal deformity, rape and incest] is approved.”
In other countries where abortion has been legalized on narrow grounds, the archdiocese said, “the culture of death groups demand that unrestricted abortion be approved, maternal mortality does not go down, neither do teen pregnancies.”
After the legalization of abortion, the archdiocese warned, “the rich countries will still be rich and the poor countries will still be poor. Our country would be no exception.”
The legalization of abortion in the Dominican Republic is being heavily promoted by international groups, including Planned Parenthood, Women on Waves, George Soros’ Open Society, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Population Fund.
Other pro-life efforts are also in the works. An annual walk called “A Step for My Family” is planned for November this year. In addition, the CitizenGo international platform has collected more than 7,000 signatures demanding the Dominican Congress “pass without further delay the Criminal Code without the three grounds that seek to legalize abortion.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Sep 10, 2018 / 04:38 pm (ACI Prensa).- The U.S. State Department announced Monday it will close the Palestinian Liberation Organization office in Washington because it says Palestine has failed to take “steps to advance the start… […]
Harrisburg, Pa., Sep 10, 2018 / 04:28 pm (CNA).- An allegation of misconduct has been filed against Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend and is being investigated by the district attorney’s office. The nature of the alleged misconduct is not clear.
“Bishop Rhoades adamantly denies any validity to this accusation and the insinuation of inappropriate behavior. He did nothing wrong, and is confident any investigation will bear this out,” the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend said.
According to PennLive, the Harrisburg diocese – where Rhoades served as bishop from 2004-2009 – reported the allegation to the office of District Attorney Fran Chardo and to the child protective services program, PA ChildLine.
The district attorney said the accuser, who died in 1996, was a male and about 18 years old when the alleged incident occurred. He said there is no first-hand account of the incident, but that the report received by his office “alleged that they perceived the relationship as odd” but “did not witness any inappropriate conduct.”
According to PennLive, the district attorney’s office is investigating the allegation against Rhoades, who has not been charged.
“We would stress that this is an allegation,” Mike Barley, a Harrisburg diocesan spokesman, told PennLive. “We will have no further comment until the investigation of the Office of the District Attorney is concluded.”
The alleged incident involving Rhoades took place before he became a bishop. His previous work in Harrisburg included serving as assistant chancellor, pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, and a faculty member and later rector at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary.
The diocese of Harrisburg was one of the six dioceses covered in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report that was released last month. The report found more than 1,000 allegations of abuse at the hands of some 300 clergy members in six dioceses in the state. It also found a pattern of cover up by senior Church officials.
Bishop Rhoades said last month that he would release the names of priests in his Ft. Wayne-South Bend diocese who have been accused of child sexual abuse.
“As leaders, we have an obligation to protect the vulnerable who cannot protect themselves. As a bishop, I have worked to expose and punish those responsible for abuse,” Rhoades said.
“If the Pennsylvania grand jury report taught us anything, it’s that victims deserve to see the names of their abusers made public for all to see. For everyone to know the pain caused by these priests.”
Oviedo, Spain, Sep 10, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the third known act of egregious artistic restoration of Spanish Catholic art in recent history, a 15th century statue of Christ and Mary has been given a fresh – and loud – coat of paint, simultaneously sparking hilarity and outrage online.
The wooden statue, from a chapel in the village of El Ranadoiro, about 35 miles west of Oviedo, depicts Christ on the lap of who appears to be his grandmother, St. Anne, with his mother the Blessed Virgin Mary standing to the side.
The figures, once plain wood, now sport bright colors, with St. Anne in a hot pink veil and sky blue robes, Christ in lime green, and Mary in a light turquoise veil and deep red robes. Each face dons lined eyes and bold red lips; St. Anne’s fingernails are painted a muted pink.
Amatuer artist and local resident Maria Luisa Menendez said she offered her talents to the parish priest, who gave her permission to paint the statues. She also painted two smaller figurines in the parish collection, one of Mary holding Christ, and one of St. Peter, each with similarly bold strokes.
“I’m not a professional, but I always liked to do it, and the figures really needed to be painted. So I painted them as I could, with the colours that looked good to me, and the neighbors liked it,” Menendez told local newspaper El Comercio, as quoted by AFP.
The saintly snafu has some comparing Menendez’ work to that of Cecilia Gimenez, who ‘restored’ the now-infamous Ecce Homo painting in Spain in 2012. Her fuzzy, monkey-like depiction of Christ spawned its own SNL skit and a comedic tributary opera, and continues to draw thousands of visitors a year from all over the world.
Luis Suarez Saro, who had restored the El Ranadoiro sculptures in 2002-2003 with local government approval, has called Menendez’ paint job “crazy.”
Suarez Saro told AFP that Menendez “likes to draw and paint, she did some courses… and she felt the sculptures looked better this way.”
Genaro Alonso, Councilor of Education and Culture of the Principality of Asturias, the region in which the statues are located, reacted strongly, telling local sources that Menendez’ work was “not a restoration, it was a revenge.”
Reactions to the restoration on Twitter ranged from the amused to the outraged.
Spanish art conservation group ACRE bemoaned the botching of yet another piece of historic Spanish art.
“Does no one care about this continued plundering in our country? What kind of society stands by as its ancestor’s legacy is destroyed before its eyes,” the group tweeted.
The incident also called to mind the uproar over a similarly botched statue earlier this summer, when a 16th century St. George statue was ‘restored’ by a local arts and crafts teacher in Estella, another town in northern Spain.
The bright colors and odd expression on the refinished statue’s face left some comparing it to the Belgian comic character Tintin.
“It shows a frightening lack of training of the kind required for this sort of job,” ACRE said at the time of the St. George restoration.
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