Raleigh, N.C., Sep 5, 2019 / 04:46 pm (CNA).- With Hurricane Dorian leaving widespread destruction in the Bahamas earlier this week, and now moving up the eastern U.S. coast, Catholic agencies are coordinating response efforts for those affected by the… […]
Tuam, Ireland, Sep 5, 2019 / 04:24 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Church in Ireland has for the first time recognized a miracle attached to the Knock Shrine, where a woman was cured of multiple sclerosis thirty years ago.
Marion Carroll had been bedridden for years until she was healed in 1989 during a blessing with a monstrance at the shrine.
“I recognise that Marion was healed from her long-standing illness while on pilgrimage in this sacred place,” Bishop Francis Duffy of Ardagh and Clonmacnois said in his homily during a Sept. 1 Mass at the shrine, located in Knock, about 20 miles north of Tuam.
“Many have attested to the dramatic change that came about in Marion here and on her return to Athlone in 1989. Without doubt there was a healing, a cure of the illness that beset Marion for several years. Marion was liberated from sickness and its impact on her and on her family. It is also a healing for which there is no medical explanation at present, it is definite and yet defies medical explanation.”
Bishop Duffy was leading a diocesan pilgrimage to the shrine, in which Marion and her family participated.
Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam also spoke at the Mass, saying, “today the Church formally acknowledges that this healing does not admit of any medical explanation and joins in prayer, praise and thanksgiving to God. In these situations, the Church must always be very cautious. This is illustrated by the fact that thirty years have elapsed since this took place, during which time the examination by the Medical Bureau testifies that there is no medical explanation for this healing.”
While many visitors to the shrine have claimed cures or favors, this is the first cure which the Church in Ireland has recognized as miraculous.
Carroll was cured in 1989, when Bishop Colm O’Reilly, then Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, blessed her with a monstrance.
She had been taken to the shrine on a stretcher, as she was paralyzed. Her eyesight was also impaired, and she was epileptic.
After the Mass, she was taken to a rest and care centre, where she asked that her stretcher be opened; when it was, she stood up and was well.
Since her cure, Carroll has volunteered at the shrine, assisting pilgrims.
The Knock Shrine is built on the site of an 1879 apparition of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, angels, and the Lamb of God on the south gable of the town church. For a period of about two hours, a crowd gathered to adore the apparition and to pray the rosary. Despite a rainstorm, the ground around the gable did not get wet.
Unlike most other Marian apparitions, the Virgin Mary was silent the entire time and did not offer any sort of message or prophesy.
Vatican officials found the apparition at Knock to be “trustworthy and satisfactory” after two separate commissions, in 1879 and in 1936.
Shortly after the apparition, Knock became a sight of pilgrimage. Pilgrims chipped away the original wall by taking away pieces of cement as relics.
Sydney, Australia, Sep 5, 2019 / 03:03 pm (CNA).- As the Australian state of New South Wales considers a bill to decriminalize abortion, two members of parliament from the governing coalition are threatening to separate from the majority government if certain limiting amendments to the bill do not pass.
Tanya Davies and Kevin Conolly told the state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, that they will “no longer sit in the party room” if amendments to the bill are not passed, which would push the Liberal Party and National Party coalition into minority government, The Guardian reports.
The government would go from 48 to 46 seats in the lower house, the Legislative Assembly; it is already in the minority in the Legislative Council.
The amendments the MPs are pushing for include the removal of provisions in the bill which require doctors who have a conscientious objection to performing abortions to refer patients elsewhere.
They are also pushing for an amendment to ban sex-selective abortions, which Davies first introduced in August. The amendment was voted down in the Legislative Assembly, with some legislators arguing it could lead to racial discrimination and profiling, and that sex-selective abortion “is not an issue in NSW”, reported The Catholic Weekly, the Archdiocese of Sydney’s publication.
Amendments to the bill will be considered beginning Sept. 17, after which a final vote will occur.
The bill passed the Legislative Assembly Aug. 8 by a 59-31 vote; votes on the bill have been delayed several times because of opposition and concerns it has been rushed through without proper consideration.
The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 would allow abortions for any reason up to 22 weeks of pregnancy; after that, it would allow for abortions if two doctors believe an abortion should be performed, considering physical, social, and psychological circumstances.
It would require medical practitioners to offer counseling to a woman seeking to procure an abortion, if they believe it would be beneficial.
According to supporters of the bill, it clarifies what they believe were previously ambiguous terms in penal code with regard to abortion.
But opponents believe it opens the possibility of elective abortion at any time, as long as two doctors consent.
Under current law, abortion is only legal in NSW if a doctor determines that a woman’s physical or mental health is in danger. “Mental health” has been interpreted by courts to include “economic and social stress.”
The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church of Australia, and the NSW Presbyterian Church all oppose the bill.
When the bill passed the lower house, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney expressed his disappointment, stating that “if a civilisation is to be judged by how it treats its weakest members, New South Wales failed spectacularly today.”
The bill “still allows abortion right up to birth. It conscripts all medical practitioners and institutions into the abortion industry by requiring them to perform abortions themselves or direct women to an abortion provider. It still does nothing to protect mothers or their unborn children or to give them real alternatives,” he said.
Bishop Richard Umbers, an auxiliary bishop of Sydney and the Australian bishops’ delegate for life, said that despite the bill’s advancement, “the Catholic Church will continue to provide support, advise and care for all women facing any decision surrounding her pregnancy.”
He thanked all who “rallied to oppose the culture of death,” saying: “The graces given by God to the people of Sydney as a result of your fervent and tireless prayers and support for life will bring about great good for NSW in ways we will be blessed to witness and in many unknown ways.”
Washington D.C., Sep 5, 2019 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- Pro-life leaders have denounced Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) statement that he would repeal the Mexico City policy and promote abortion in “poorer countries” in response to a question on po… […]
Berlin, Germany, Sep 5, 2019 / 12:02 pm (CNA).- The German bishops are pressing forward with a controversial synodal program, creating a new Synodal Assembly in partnership with an influential German lay group. The decision […]
Rome, Italy, Sep 5, 2019 / 11:24 am (CNA).- More than 20 years ago, Ann Pollak traveled to Calcutta, hoping to volunteer alongside Mother Teresa. The experience would spark a years-long process that would eventually lead her to adopt a severely handicapped child from one of the care centers run by the Missionaries of Charity.
“It has not been easy, at all, but the blessings have far, far outweighed the sacrifices,” Pollak told CNA. “Oddly, in adopting a blind child, I began seeing the world through my own eyes from a different perspective.”
Nearly 18 years ago, Pollak adopted a child from one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages. But adoption was not initially her intent.
In 1995, Pollak travelled to India in order to meet Mother Teresa. She spent two weeks doing volunteer work and was impressed with Mother Teresa’s constant smile, and the fact that despite winning a Nobel Prize and being globally famous, the religious sister was very approachable.
Pollak would return to do volunteer work numerous times in the years that followed. In 1997, about a month before Mother Teresa’s death, she was working with handicapped children. She was assigned to feed one little girl, Rekha, who was blind, autistic and mentally delayed.
“She had the sweetest smile on her face,” Pollak recalled of Rekha. “I just fell in love with her.” She also believed that the child had potential to develop and grow, if she was able to get the proper care and attention from a family.
A year later, Pollak returned to India to see if the little girl was still there. She was.
Pollak said that she wanted to find the young girl a family, or at least a school, somewhere that would be able to offer the proper care for someone with her particular needs.
But as time went on, she became frustrated with her inability to find anyone to care for the girl. She began praying every day, asking God for a solution. Although she had not previously considered adoption, she began to feel an inner call to adopt Rekha.
“I couldn’t find any other solution,” she reflected.
It took almost a year to prepare and get everything in order. Numerous complications arose. Pollak recalled praying what Mother Teresa had termed her “Little Novena” – a series of 9 Memorare prayers offered consecutively.
Within days, the complications had been resolved and the adoption process was complete. “I attribute that to the intercession of Mother Teresa and also the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Pollak said.
Rekha was seven-and-a-half years old at the time of her adoption. Now, almost 18 years later, Pollak said that her daughter has come a long way. While some of her conditions can never be cured – for example, she was born without eyes, and therefore has no chance of ever being able to see – there are other areas in which she has developed significantly.
Despite autism and mental delays, Rekha was able to start speaking at age 15. Once she started speaking, she began picking up more and more words, and now has a basic vocabulary.
But the transition was not easy. For years after she was taken away from India, Rehka had frequent, violent fits.
“During these fits, she would bite herself, rip off her clothes, throw herself on the floor…and she also physically hurt me,” Pollak said, recalling times that her daughter would bite her or tear out her hair.
Pollak believes that these fits were caused by Rekha’s inability to communicate her needs, combined with insecurity at being transported to a new and unknown life, as well as hormonal changes as she went through puberty.
Thanks to medication and a great deal of devotion and time, Pollak said that “Rekha is today a much calmer individual – the fits still occur but they are much less intense and much less frequent.”
“Rekha has helped me to become a more patient person!” she added.
Many of Pollak’s friends and family were not initially supportive, with some of them believing that she was making a serious mistake. A dear friend told her that she was ruining her life.
Her younger sister was married to an adoptee and was sympathetic and supportive, she recalled. But her older sister made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the adoption, including assuming any responsibility if anything were to happen Pollak.
But over time, Pollak said she seen how her daughter has brought out the best in humanity.
“Over the…years that she’s been with me, I have witnessed the graciousness, kindness and love of other human beings, from people whom we’ve met maybe only on a bus ride to people who have become a part of our life,” she said, pointing specifically to the caregivers they had worked with over the years.
“People frequently stare at us in public because we are sort of an ‘odd couple’ and because Rekha is often very boisterous, but those stares are so often accompanied by smiles.”
On Sept. 4, 2016, Pollak and Rehka were both able to attend Mother Teresa’s canonization, an opportunity that Pollak considers incredibly special.
“Today, I believe that my mission to meet Mother Teresa indirectly led me to Rekha,” she said, reflecting on her own journey to adoption. While there were many factors in her decision, which unfolded over several years, she said that watching the saint’s work more than 20 years ago was part of the inspiration that led to her become more deeply involved in the life of the girl she would go on to adopt.
“Seeing Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta and in other places in the word has a strong impact, and can turn a casual observer into a protagonist,” she said.
An earlier version of this story was originally published on CNA Sept. 5, 2017.
Maputo, Mozambique, Sep 5, 2019 / 09:44 am (CNA).- Pope Francis urged Church leaders in Mozambique Thursday to avoid being part of conflicts and divisions, but to go out of their way to visit others and to encourage dialogue and solutions.
“The Church in Mozambique is invited to be the Church of the Visitation,” the pope told Mozambican bishops, priests, seminarians, religious men and women, consecrated, and catechists in Maputo Sept. 5.
The Church in Mozambique, he continued, “cannot be part of the problem of rivalry, disrespect and division that pits some against others, but instead a door to solutions, a space where respect, interchange and dialogue are possible.”
“You, at least the older ones among you, witnessed how division and conflict ended in war. You must always be ready to ‘visit’ to shorten distances,” like Mary did at the visitation to her cousin Elizabeth, he said.
The meeting took place in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the afternoon of the first full day of Pope Francis’ visit to three African countries Sept. 4-10.
Before the meeting at the cathedral, he met privately with a group of people from the port city of Xai-Xai, which is about 139 miles north of Maputo.
In February 2000 the city, which sits on the Limpopo river, was hit by flooding and submerged in nearly 10 feet of water and mud.
Francis told the roughly 2,500 people present, all active in the Church’s ministry, that they “are called to face reality as it is.”
“Times change and we need to realize that often we do not know how to find our place in new scenarios,” he noted, advising people to look to Mary’s ‘yes’ at the Annunciation as an example of what to do.
“The announcement of the incarnation is made in Galilee, in a remote and conflict-ridden region and a little town – Nazareth,” he said.
“It takes place in a house, not a synagogue or a religious place, and is made to a layperson and a woman. What has changed? Everything. And in this change, we find our deepest identity.”
The pope addressed the crisis of priestly identity, noting that what he would say is also applicable to bishops, seminarians, and consecrated men and women.
He said sometimes, without necessarily meaning to, priests can start identifying with their daily activity as priests, with certain activities, meetings, rituals, and with certain important and solemn places.
Instead, he said, the image of Mary, “that simple young woman in her home, as opposed to all the activities of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, can be a mirror in which we see the complications and concerns that dim and dissipate the generosity of our ‘yes.’”
“Renewing our call has to do with choosing to say yes and to let our weariness come from things that bear fruit in God’s eyes, things that make present and incarnate his son Jesus.”
“The priest is the poorest of men unless Jesus enriches him by his poverty, the most useless of servants unless Jesus calls him his friend, the most ignorant of men unless Jesus patiently teaches him as he did Peter, the frailest of Christians unless the Good Shepherd strengthens him in the midst of the flock,” Francis said.
He drew a contrast between Mary and Zechariah, who, when he was told his wife Elizabeth would bear a son, “could not overcome his desire to control everything.” Instead Mary, “surrendered herself; she trusted.”
The weariness of a priest should not be from expending energy measuring one’s work against one’s “due” from God, he argued, but should be related to the “ability to show compassion.”
“We are to rejoice with couples who marry; we are to laugh with the children brought to the baptismal font; we are to accompany young fiancés and families; we are to suffer with those who receive the anointing of the sick in their hospital beds; we are to mourn with those burying a loved one,” he urged.
“Take this, eat this…” he said. “These are the words the priest of Jesus whispers repeatedly while caring for his faithful people: Take this, eat this; take this, drink this… In this way our priestly life is given over in service, in closeness to the People of God… and this always leaves us weary.”
The pope said he hopes young people will find in their priests an example of how to follow Jesus “radiant with the joy of a daily commitment, not imposed but fostered and chosen in silence and prayer.”
He also encouraged Mozambican women to live out their baptismal call to evangelize.
Pope Francis quoted a catechist, who had spoken earlier in the meeting and said: “‘We are a Church that is part of a heroic people’ that has experienced suffering yet keeps hope alive.”
“With this holy pride that you take in your people, a pride that invites a renewal of faith and hope, all of us want to renew our ‘yes,’” he said. “How happy is Holy Mother Church to hear you manifest your love for the Lord and for the mission that he has given you!”
At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis said a prayer for vocations and led the Our Father before giving his apostolic blessing.
His next stop will be to make a private visit to the Matthew 25 House, a charity run by the local Catholic church with the apostolic nunciature and about 20 religious congregations. It provides warm food and hygienic and health services to street children and youth.
Maputo, Mozambique, Sep 5, 2019 / 05:02 am (CNA).- Pope Francis encouraged young people of different faiths in Mozambique Thursday to not give up in the face of their country’s challenges, but to confront them with joy and hope.
“How do yo… […]
Maputo, Mozambique, Sep 5, 2019 / 03:13 am (CNA).- In his opening speech in Mozambique Thursday, Pope Francis encouraged the country’s authorities to work diligently for peace.
“Peace is not merely absence of war but a tireless commitment … […]
Booneville, Mississippi, Sep 5, 2019 / 03:05 am (CNA).- After a wedding venue employee in Mississippi cited her Christian beliefs in refusing to host the wedding of a mixed-race couple, a Catholic scholar clarified that “marriage is a colorblind institution.”
“A man and a woman, regardless of their race, can unite as one-flesh as husband and wife, and that marital union can give rise to new life and connect that life with his or her mother and father,” said Ryan T. Anderson, the John Paul II Teaching Fellow at the University of Dallas and a co-author of “What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense.”
Anderson told CNA that race is not relevant to the nature of marriage, and the race of a person does not negate any of the requirements of a valid marriage.
His comments come after a woman in charge of a wedding event venue in Mississippi apologized for declining to host the wedding of a mixed-race couple, something she had claimed violated her “Christian belief.”
According to the Washington Post, a black groom-to-be and a white bride-to-be had scheduled their wedding celebration to be held at Boone’s Camp Event Hall in Booneville, Mississippi. They were finalizing plans when they were informed that the venue retroactively declined to host their celebration because the wedding would violate the owner’s Christian beliefs.
The groom’s mother and his sister, LaKambria S. Welch, drove to the venue to demand answers. In a filmed exchange first posted by the website Deep South Voice, Welch can be heard calmly asking a woman in a gray shirt about the cancellation.
“Well we don’t do gay weddings or mixed race,” the woman in the video said. “Because of our Christian race – I mean our Christian belief.”
Welch told the woman that she, too, is a Christian, and asked the woman from where in the Bible her belief came.
“Well, I don’t want to argue my faith,” the woman responded. “We just don’t participate. We just choose not to.”
“Ok. So that’s your Christian belief, right?” Welch said.
“Yes ma’am,” the woman replied.
After the video spread on social media, the venue issued an apology that has apparently since been deleted. According to The Washington Post, the apology was reportedly written by the woman in the video, who said she did not know that the Bible did not condemn mixed-race marriages.
“As my bible reads, there are 2 requirements for marriage and race has nothing to do with either!” the apology post said, according to the Washington Post. “All of my years I had ‘assumed’ in my mind that I was correct, but have never taken the opportunity to research and find whether this was correct or incorrect until now.”
The incident drew intense criticism on social media as well as from Booneville city officials, who said on Facebook that they were “aware of the comments recently made by a privately owned business located within the city of Booneville. The City of Booneville, Mayor, and Board of Aldermen do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status. Furthermore, the City of Booneville, Mayor, and Board of Aldermen do not condone or approve these types of discriminatory policies.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not object to interracial marriages. In fact, when the Catechism speaks about “mixed marriages,” it is in reference to couples of mixed creeds who marry – for example, a Catholic marrying a Protestant (or other baptized non-Catholic).
“Difference of confession between the spouses does not constitute an insurmountable obstacle for marriage, when they succeed in placing in common what they have received from their respective communities, and learn from each other the way in which each lives in fidelity to Christ,” the Catechism states.
“But the difficulties of mixed marriages must not be underestimated. They arise from the fact that the separation of Christians has not yet been overcome. The spouses risk experiencing the tragedy of Christian disunity even in the heart of their own home,” it adds.
The Catechism, and other Catholic documents, do not mention interracial marriages as immoral for any reason.
The Catholic Church does teach, however, that the sacrament of marriage must be between one man and one woman: “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”
The Catechism adds that men and women must give themselves to each other in marriage freely, totally, and fruitfully, meaning that the couple must be open to life. The sacrament of marriage also “requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses.”
For a same-sex couple, marriage is impossible according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, because sexual acts between same-sex couples are “contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved,” the Catechism states.
Instead, people with same-sex attractions “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and are “called to chastity,” the Catechism states.
Anderson clarified that interracial marriage differs from same-sex marriage, because the biological sex of the individuals involved is directly relevant to the nature of marriage, unlike their race.
Because the Catholic Church is concerned for the good of spouses, children, and the greater society, Anderson said, it teaches that marriage must be between a man and a woman.
“While marriage must be a colorblind institution, it can’t be sex-blind. Only a man and a woman can unite as one-flesh, and every child has a mother and a father,” he said.
“So it’s for good reason that marriage is about uniting the two halves of humanity–male and female–for a common good they participate in that, in turn, benefits the general common good.”
© Catholic World Report