Year: 2019

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Church leaders in Zimbabwe discuss beatification cause of lay missionary

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Harare, Zimbabwe, Sep 6, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- On Thursday the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe began a three-day meeting to consider the cause of canonization of John Bradburne, a lay missionary to the area in the 1970s, who could become the country’s first canonized saint.

At the Sept. 5-7 meeting, Catholic leaders will hear arguments in favor of and against the sainthood cause of Bradburne, who was killed during the Rhodesian Bush War in 1979.

The meeting began on the 40th anniversary of Bradburne’s death and will determine whether his cause for official sainthood can proceed.

Bradburne was born in 1921 in England, the son of an Anglican clergyman. He served in the British army in World War II, and he converted to Catholicism in 1947 after staying with the Benedictines of Buckfast Abbey.

Although he wanted to become a monk at Buckfast, he had not been in the Catholic Church long enough, and so he became a wanderer throughout Europe and the Middle East, living out of one bag. He also became a prolific poet.

During his wanderings, he stayed at other Benedictine abbeys, with Carthusians, the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, and even tried living as a hermit on Dartmoor in England. Bradburne became a Third Order Franciscan in 1956.

According to the John Bradburne Memorial Society’s website, after 16 years of wandering, Bradburne wrote to his friend Father John Dove and asked: “Is there a cave in Africa where I can pray?”

He arrived in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) in 1962, and shortly thereafter he told a Franciscan priest that he had three wishes: to serve leprosy patients, to die a martyr, and to be buried in the habit of St Francis.

Through a Jesuit friend in Southern Rhodesia, Bradburne came to serve at the Mutemwa Leper Settlement in 1969, and would spend the last 10 years of his life there.

Southern Rhodesia declared independence in 1965, and the Rhodesian Bush War was fought from 1964 to 1979 among the white minority government, the Marxist Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army, and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).

ZANU was chaired from 1975 to 1980 by Robert Mugabe, who then served as prime minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987, and as president from 1987 to 2017. Mugabe died Sept. 6.

As the war intensified and ZANU guerrilla forces approached Mutemwa, Bradburne was urged to leave, but he insisted on remaining. According to The Telegraph, even after the white Catholic priests of the area had been evacuated, the white British Bradburne “refused to leave, and continued to attend to lepers, write poetry and play his harmonium in the tin hut in which he lived.”

Bradburne was abducted, and shot and killed Sept. 5, 1979. According to the Memorial Society, during Bradburne’s funeral, a pool of blood could be seen collecting beneath his coffin. After the funeral, the coffin was opened but no sign of blood could be found. However, when it was noticed that Bradburne had not been buried in a Franciscan habit, per his wishes, a Franciscan habit was brought and Bradburne was dressed in it for his burial.

According to Independent Catholic News, two people have claimed miraculous cures through Bradburne’s intercession: a woman in South African who regained the use of her legs, and a man in Scotland cured of a brain tumor.

The Jonn Bradburne Memorial Society is supporting the investigation into his life and virtues. The group was led by Bradburne’s niece, Celia Brigstocke, until her death on August 2018. Brigstocke’s eldest daughter, Kate Macpherson, now leads the efforts.

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News Briefs

Second Buffalo whistleblower says he was abused as seminarian

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Buffalo, N.Y., Sep 6, 2019 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- New allegations have surfaced that the second whistleblower reporting a cover-up of clerical sexual abuse by the Diocese of Buffalo, Fr. Ryszard Biernat, was sexually abused as a seminarian in the diocese by a priest who was later removed from ministry for other credible accusations of abuse.

A new report by the Buffalo-area news station WKBW reveals allegations by Fr. Biernat that when Biernat was a seminarian he was assaulted by a Buffalo priest at St. Thomas Aquinas parish.

Biernat said in an interview with WKBW that he was assaulted by Fr. Art Smith, a diocesan priest whom Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo asked to be kept in ministry in 2015 in a letter to Vatican officials, despite the bishop admitting in that same letter that Smith had groomed a young boy, had been accused of inappropriate touching of at least four young men, had faced boundary problems, and refused to stay in a treatment center.

Fr. Smith was suspended in 2018, after the diocese received a new substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. He denied the accusation that he assaulted Biernat, but told WKBW that he simply told Biernat that he “liked him more than he would ever know.”

WKBW reported that a letter sent by Bishop Malone to the Vatican included Biernat’s allegations.

After Biernat told Bishop Edward Grosz, then-auxiliary bishop of Buffalo, his allegations of assault by Fr. Smith, Grosz allegedly responded by threatening Biernat’s vocation if he kept talking about it.

“He said [it] was my fault because I [didn’t] lock the door,” Biernat quoted Bishop Grosz, as reported by WKBW. “And then he said, ‘and Ryszard, if you don’t stop talking about this, you will not become a priest. You understand me? You understand me?’” Biernat said.

The Diocese of Buffalo did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

Biernat—currently on a personal leave of absence—eventually became the vice chancellor of the diocese and Bishop Malone’s secretary. On Sept. 4, WKBW reported conversations of Biernat with Malone and others that the priest secretly taped.

The conversations from Aug. 2, 2019 and March 2019 appeared to show that Malone not only knew of allegations made against Fr. Jeffrey Nowak, then-pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Cheektowaga, but that Malone believed the allegations—months before Fr. Nowak was reportedly removed from ministry.

The allegations were raised by then-seminarian Matthew Bojanowski; the seminarian sent a letter to Bishop Malone detailing his allegations against Fr. Nowak that was dated Jan. 24; Bishop Malone reported on Wednesday that the diocese’s receipt of the letter was on Jan. 28, 2019.

WKBW reported Aug. 7 that the Diocese of Buffalo had removed Fr. Nowak from ministry. At a Wednesday press conference, Bishop Malone said Nowak “was removed from ministry until he would go for that assessment,” but did not say when. On Aug. 28, the diocese announced that Fr. Nowak had been placed on “administrative leave.”

In the conversations, Malone appears to instruct Biernat not to say anything about Nowak, telling him, “[y]ou’re an American citizen you’re free to do what you want. I think we’re gonna blow this story up into something like an atom bomb if we start talking about that.”

Biernat’s lawyer told WKBW that Malone’s comments constituted blackmail, “directly or at a minimum indirectly.” His lawyer Barry Covert did not respond to CNA’s interview request by the time of publication.

Back in March, Malone considered sending Fr. Nowak to an institute for mental health treatment, but acknowledged the difficulty of doing so, saying he could “go ballistic” at the request.

In the recorded conversation on Aug. 2, Malone appeared to acknowledge that it was a “crisis” for the diocese, and that if the news was made public it could spell the end of his tenure as bishop.

“We are in a true crisis situation. True crisis. And everyone in the office is convinced this could be the end for me as bishop,” Malone said in the recorded conversation.

Malone held a press conference Sept. 4 for local reporters selected by the diocese. The bishop said the scandal is a “convoluted matter,” according to WIVB4.

“I’m not a masochist—I’m here because I feel an obligation…to carry on,” the bishop told reporters.

In the press conference, Bishop Malone said that Fr. Nowak first agreed in July to go to St. Luke’s Institute in Maryland for an assessment, but “did not comply.”

In the beginning of August, Nowak again said he would go for an assessment, according to Malone, but again did not go; after the diocese gave Nowak a third opportunity on Aug. 25, he “did not go,” Malone said, “and that is when I put him on administrative leave.”

In the taped Aug. 2 conversation, Malone allegedly said that Fr. Nowak “has agreed by the way to go to Southdown,” an institute for religious and clergy that specializes in mental health and addiction problems. “Cause I told him it’s that or leave of absence,” Malone said according to abridged transcripts of the conversation reported by WKBW.

“I think if we bring Jeff [Nowak] in, that gets very, who knows what he’s gonna do,” Malone said. “Even I know he’s a loose cannon.”

Bishop Malone has been the center of controversy in the diocese for almost a year; in November 2018, his former executive assistant Siobahn O’Connor leaked confidential diocesan documents related to the handling of claims of clerical sexual abuse.

Last month, a RICO lawsuit was filed against the diocese and the bishop, alleging that the response of the diocese was comparable to an organized crime syndicate.

In the Aug. 2 conversation, Malone also referenced his fear of Biernat going public with the news because of the existence of a letter between Biernat and Bojanowski. Nowak, he said in the taped conversations, was jealous of a supposed relationship between Biernat and Bojanowski. Malone called it “a very complex, convoluted matter,” in his Wednesday press conference.

A letter between the Biernat and Bojanowski dated from 2016 was reportedly found by Fr. Nowak in Bojanowski’s apartment, the Buffalo News reported. The letter was reported to be a love letter, which Biernat’s lawyer has denied.

Crux also reported a 2018 real estate transaction under both Biernat’s and Bojanowski’s names.

O’Connor, the 2018 whistleblower, said she believes the letter was between friends and not a love letter, and that it has been circulated to distract from the Fr. Nowak scandal.

“I do not believe it is a love letter. I genuinely believe that it was a letter of friendship, which is a form of love and a very important one at that,” she wrote on her blog on Friday.

Fr. Biernat was counseling Bojanowski on how to get out of an abusive, grooming relationship, O’Connor argued, noting that she talked to Bojanowski directly about the letter and the house transaction, and that he responded without guile.

“Fr. Ryszard recognized a young man was being groomed by a priest, and he recognized it because it happened to him,” she said, adding that both Biernat and Bojanowski have shared that with her.

Regarding one line in the letter where Biernat wrote Bojanowski, “I am afraid that all that you know about me may compromise your freedom to love or to leave,” he was simply telling the seminarian that he would not stalk Bojanowski if he left the seminary, and would not use his position of influence to do so, O’Connor said.

Biernat shared the news of his house purchase with O’Connor last year, she said, and he was not secretive about it and even conducted the transaction with the help of the diocese’s lawyer. The house had been owned by a family member of Bojanowski’s, she said, and as Bishop Malone was moving to a new residence, Biernat did not want to move with all his belongings with the knowledge that Malone might be retiring soon and he would then have to move again, so he decided to purchase the home with Bojanowski.

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News Briefs

Argentine bishops ask government to declare food emergency

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sep 6, 2019 / 03:49 pm (CNA).- Catholic bishops in Argentina are calling on the government to declare a food and nutrition emergency in response to heightened inflation and rising poverty rates.

“Faced with a severe increase in homelessness, poverty, unemployment and the indiscriminate increase in the price of the basic food groups, we find ourselves in an emergency food and nutrition situation which essentially affects the most vulnerable, especially children,” said the Bishop’s Commission for Pastoral Social Ministry.

The commission asked the government to “provide the necessary measures to declare a food and nutrition emergency throughout our country” and take swift action to remedy the situation.

The bishops asked the government to create early childhood baskets, to be distributed free or at a subsidized cost, offering diapers, medications, vitamins and dietary essentials including milk, meat, fish, eggs, legumes, fruits and vegetables.

They also asked the government to increase “the budget allocated for soup kitchens and schools, community and family gardens, and family and social farming ventures, guaranteeing equity and the quality of the federal food and nutrition assistance services.”

“Pope Francis reminds us that fraternity is the main foundation of solidarity and that effective policies are also needed to promote the principle of fraternity, ensuring people—equal in their dignity and in their fundamental rights—access to goods so that everyone has the opportunity to fully develop themselves as persons,” they said.

In addition, the bishops called on volunteers to help out where they can.

Bishop Carlos Tissera, president of the local Caritas chapter, stressed that food aid from the government “is not enough to alleviate the deficiencies of this time.”

Faced with the current crisis, he said, “Caritas is making their…resources available to the community so more aid can arrive quickly, through their soup kitchens, food stands, neighborhood centers and volunteer teams from all over the country.”

Tissera, who is also bishop of Quilmes, noted that Caritas “is day by day alongside the most vulnerable communities creating hope and encouraging everyone to recognize their dignity, fostering the culture of work, solidarity and the common good.”

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, who took office in 2015, introduced austerity measures including cuts to years-worth of government subsidies, leading to sharply increasing gas and electrical bills.

Following a drop in investor confidence, the Argentinian peso has dropped in value by more than 20% against the dollar in the last two months, while inflation has climbed above 50%.

Data from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina’s Social Debt Observatory estimates that some 35% of the population is living in poverty.

Archbishop Jorge Lozano of San Juan de Cuyo lamented in a recent statement that “having a job today doesn’t ensure getting above the poverty line.”

“Having a job today doesn’t ensure getting above the poverty line. There are a lot of people that don’t have quality of life in terms of their food, their education. They have a job… but that job is not enough to be able to cover basic necessities.”

Lozano said that there are neighborhoods in the province where “the number of children coming to the soup kitchens has doubled.”

“Food deliveries have been bolstered and in the Church there are several initiatives that Caritas is promoting, but we’re overtaxed,” he said.

The archbishop voiced optimism that the national government would respond to the bishops’ call for a food and nutrition emergency to be declared in the country.

“I hope that the necessary means to assure quality food for the entire population will soon be organized,” he said.

 

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The Dispatch

A pope, a president, and a Divine Plan

September 6, 2019 Derya M. Little 5

Learning history in secular universities often results in a detached attitude toward God’s involvement in human affairs. It is an inevitably anthropocentric way of looking at the world and our place in the flow of […]

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What is the state’s role in promoting virtue?

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Sep 6, 2019 / 10:30 am (CNA).- The debate over competing culturally conservative visions for the future of the U.S. continued Thursday night at the Catholic University of America, as Sohrab Ahmari and David French offered their prescri… […]

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Pope commends Mozambican HIV clinic community as Good Samaritans

September 6, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Maputo, Mozambique, Sep 6, 2019 / 04:06 am (CNA).- Visiting the Zimpeto health clinic Friday, Pope Francis told the community that their care for the suffering recalls for him the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Zimpeto DREAM clinic, which opened in 2002, is focused on HIV prevention and antiretroviral treatment. The facility is run by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement centered on peace and helping the poor.

“I cordially greet the director, the healthcare workers, the patients and their families, and all those present. Seeing the competence, professionalism and love with which you receive and care for so many suffering persons, particularly patients with HIV-AIDS, and especially mothers and children, makes me think of the parable of the Good Samaritan,” the pope said in his prepared remarks Sept. 6 at the clinic in Maputo.

“All those who come here, with despair and anguish, are like the man lying on the side of the road. Those of you here have refused to walk by or continue on your way … This Centre shows us that there are always people ready to stop and show compassion, who do not yield to the temptation to say ‘There is nothing to be done’ or ‘It’s impossible to fight this scourge’. Instead, you have set about finding solutions.”

He commended them for heeding the “almost inaudible” cry of marginalized women: “That is why you opened this house, where the Lord lives with those lying on the side of the road – to those suffering from cancer or tuberculosis, and to hundreds of the malnourished, especially children and young people.”

Francis told the community that each of them are “a sign of the heart of Jesus,” and that in hearing the cry of the suffering they “realize that medical treatment, however necessary, is not enough. So you deal with the problem in its entirety, restoring dignity to women and children, and helping to point them towards a better future.”

He affirmed their humility, and their efforts “to find sustainable means in the search for energy and for gathering and storing supplies of water.”

“The parable of the Good Samaritan ends with his bringing the wounded man to an inn and entrusting the innkeeper with part of the expenses and a promise to pay the remainder upon his return,” the pope recalled.

He said those cured at the hospital “are part of the payment that the Lord has left with you. Having emerged from the nightmare of suffering, and without concealing their condition, they are now a sign of hope for many persons. Their willingness to dream can serve as an inspiration to many people lying on the wayside who need a welcoming hand.”

“For your part, you will be repaid by the Lord ‘when he returns’, and this should fill you with joy,” Francis said.

He exhorted the community to “keep receiving those who come to you, go out and look for the wounded and helpless in the peripheries… Let us not forget that their names are written in heaven with the inscription: ‘These are the blessed of my Father’. Renew your efforts to ensure that this hospital will always be a place that gives birth to hope.”

 

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