Author’s note: After the Sunday Angelus on September 1st, Pope Francis announced that he will create 13 new Cardinals at a consistory to be held on October 5th. Ten of the Cardinal-elects are of voting […]
Newark, N.J., Sep 4, 2019 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the Archbishop of Newark, blessed a group of protesters on Wednesday, as a they demonstrated in front of the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.
The g… […]
Washington D.C., Sep 4, 2019 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, grand chancellor of Rome’s Pontifical Institute John Paul II and president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has responded to controversy over a plan to restructure the school’s faculty and curriculum.
“We will be able to address and overcome the concerns and the hesitancies that have greeted the renewed structure of the Academy, and I might add of its sister entity, the John Paul II Institute as well,” Paglia said Sept. 3 at Loyola Marymount University in California.
Paglia said that concern can be overcome through the “solid and loving theological basis” outlined for the Academy in a January letter from Pope Francis, written to commemorate the Academy’s anniversary.
In the letter, Paglia said, “the Pope recalls for us the great theological truth that must be our guiding principle—all of creation is brought into being by God’s love, a love that is so profound that itself it is a family, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and that it is a family so fruitful that it has produced on Earth a family that mirrors it.”
Paglia emphasized that the school must “participate in dialogue with everyone” while working to fulfill its mission.
In his address, Paglia spoke about the importance of a Catholic perspective in the study of bioethics, saying linguistic and cultural differences, as well as different theological and philosophical approaches, can condition the way subjects are studied and taught, even when they are foundational to the Catholic faith.
Paglia acknowledged the recent conflict which has engulfed the pontifical institute, following the approval of new statutes for the school in July, and reiterated the pope’s stated aims for its reform.
The new statutes were issued in response to a 2017 announcement by the pope that he would legally refound the institute to broaden its curriculum, from a focus on the theology of marriage and the family to an approach that will also include the study of the family from the perspective of the social sciences.
After the new statutes, students, alumni, and faculty raised concerns about the role of faculty members in the institute’s new governing structure, about the reduction of theology courses and the elimination of some theology disciplines, and about the dismissal of some faculty members, especially Fr. José Noriega and Msgr. Livio Melina.
Critics of the changes voiced their concern that the essential purpose of the institute was being diluted, and a group of 49 academics from universities around the world wrote to the administrators of the Institute asking for the reinstatement of the dismissed faculty.
Yesterday, it was reported that the vice-president of the Institute proposed a compromise between university administrators and concerned faculty members.
Noting an apparent “impasse” between faculty and administrators, Fr. Jose Granados suggested a “proposal for a constructive solution” in an Aug 27 letter to Paglia and the school’s president, Msgr. Pierangelo Sequiri.
Granados’ proposal is that a chair of fundamental moral theology, scheduled for elimination from the university’s faculty, be retained, and that a new chair be added to the university’s faculty to complement it.
In his speech Wednesday, Paglia reiterated Francis’ stated aims in refounding the school, saying that “the Pope wants the Academy, and the Institute, to widen its scope of reflection: not limiting itself to addressing specific situations of ethical, social or legal conflict; articulate an anthropology that sets the practical and theoretical premises for conduct consistent with the dignity of the human person; and make sure it has the tools to critically examine the theory and practice of science and technology as they interact with life, its meaning and its value.”
Concluding his speech, Paglia said that “wisdom and boldness” were essential to both the Academy and Institute’s mission to “understand our heritage of faith with a rationality that is worthy of man.”
“It is for this reason that the Academy, and the Institute, without in any way abandoning the tradition and accomplishments of their founders, will participate in dialogue with everyone,” Paglia said, “so that the development and use of the extraordinary resources that the Pope speaks of is oriented toward promoting the dignity of the person and the human family in the light of the passionate Divine love that brought it into being and will lead it safely home.”
Vatican City, Sep 4, 2019 / 05:45 pm (CNA).- Two cardinals have sent letters to fellow members of the College of Cardinals, raising concerns about the working document for an upcoming synod of bishops on the pan-Amazonian region.
“Some points of the synod’s Instrumentum laboris seem not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it,” Cardinal Walter Brandmüller wrote to fellow cardinals in an Aug. 28 letter obtained by CNA.
“The nebulous formulations of the Instrumentum, as well as the proposed creation of new ecclesial ministries for women and, especially, the proposed priestly ordination of the so-called viri probati arouse strong suspicion that even priestly celibacy will be called into question,” the cardinal wrote.
Brandmüller said that the leaders of the pan-Amazonian synod have given him concern about its proceedings.
“The sole fact that Cardinal (Claudio) Hummes is the president of the synod and thus will exercise a grave influence in a negative sense, suffices to have a well founded and realistic concern, as much as in the case of bishops (Erwin) Kräutler, (Franz-Josef) Overbeck, etc.”
Hummes, a native of Brazil, was prefect of the Congregation for Clergy from 2006-2010. Bishop Krautel, 80, is the emeritus bishop of the Brazilian Prelature of Xingu in the Amazon, and has been a long time proponent of married priests. Bishop Overbeck, 55, is the Bishop of Essen. Overbeck is known in Germany as an advocate for a re-examination of the Church’s teaching on ordination and sexual morality.
Brandmüller, 90, was for three decades a professor of Church history, and was president of the International Commission for Contemporary Church History from 1998 until 2006. He was made a cardinal in 2010, but, at age 81, he had passed the age limit for participation in the election of a pope.
“We must face serious challenges to the integrity of the Deposit of the Faith, the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church and its Apostolic Tradition. With all this has been created a situation never before seen in the Church’s history, not even during the Arian crisis of the fourth and fifth century,” Brandmüller added.
Brandmüller said that all cardinals must consider how they will react to “any heretical statements or decisions of the synod.”
“I would hope, therefore, that Your Eminence, for your part, will seize this opportunity to correct, according to the teachings of the Church, certain positions expressed in the Instrumentum laboris of the pan-Amazonian synod,” the cardinal concluded.
Also on Aug. 28, Cardinal Raymond Burke wrote to fellow cardinals, telling them that he “shares completely the deep concerns of Cardinal Brandmüller on the upcoming Synod on the Amazon, based upon its Instrumentum laboris.
Noting that the synod’s Instrumentum laboris “is a long document marked by language which is not clear in its meaning, especially in what concerns the Depositum fidei,” Burke added that it “contradicts the constant teaching of the Church on the relationship between the created world and God, the uncreated Creator, and man, created in the image and likeness of God to cooperate with him as guardian of the created world.”
Cardinal Burke also claims that the Instrumentum laboris “characterize the teaching regarding the unicity and universality of the salvation brought by Christ alive in the Church as relative to a particular culture and emblematic of what they call ‘petrified doctrine’ (n. 38).”
In the synod’s working document, Burke added, “the truth that God has revealed Himself fully and perfectly through the mystery of the Incarnation of the Redeemer, the Son of God, is obscured, if not denied.”
“Cardinal Brandmüller indicated in his letter the serious difficulties regarding the ordained ministry and perfect continence of the clergy. These proposals, as the cardinal indicates, attack the ‘hierarchical-sacramental structure’ and ‘the Apostolic Tradition of the Church.’”
The “disturbing propositions of the Instrumentum laboris” Burke said, “portend an apostasy from the Catholic faith.”
The synod is scheduled to take place in Rome, Oct. 6-27.
Popayan, Colombia, Sep 4, 2019 / 05:29 pm (CNA).- The secretary general of the Colombian bishops’ conference has deplored the assassination of Karina García, a mayoral candidate in the country’s southwest, and called for an end to the bloodshed in the country.
García, 31, was running for mayor of Suárez, in Cauca Department. She was killed in a Sept. 1 ambush along with her mother and four others.
Bishop Elkin Fernando Álvarez Botero, auxiliary bishop of Medellin, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, Sept. 3 that “as a Church we receive with profound sorrow this murder of one of the candidates for local office. We sent a message in the past few days with an appeal to avoid all forms of violence in the political campaigns, but this murder is a sign that we’re returning to those ways of violence which do not allow us to move forward.”
According to BBC World News Spanish edition, prosecutors indicated that the vehicle the victims were riding in was ambushed by another car crosswise in the middle of the road. Several men got out with high powered weapons, who fired on García and those accompanying her. They then pulled the bodies out of the vehicle and incinerated it.
The Colombian Liberal Party candidate had been warning for several weeks that her life was in danger. She began to get worried when unidentified persons began painting her campaign posters black.
Garcia also charged that fake news started to appear about her saying that if she becomes the mayor of Suárez, she would bring in paramilitaries and take away land from the people, accusations which she denied.
“I ask the other candidates and their supporters to not continue making, in face of these armed groups, irresponsible commentaries about my candidacy (…) For God’s sake, don’t be irresponsible! This could have consequences for me, even fatal ones,” García said in a video posted a few days ago.
Álvarez told ACI Prensa, “This is a very serious situation. Just as we are saddened by the death of this candidate we are also grieved by all the lives that are being ended in Colombia because of the violence.”
“We have to get back to valuing life as a gift from God. Not just that of the community leaders, whose deaths are painful because they’re ending the hopes of the country, but of all human lives,” he said.
The bishop recalled the importance of participating in elections, and encouraged the candidates to run “political campaigns according to democratic principles that actually help and not divide.”
“The message we want to send to the candidates and the voters is let’s not polarize the country any more, let’s seek unity and let’s run principled democratic campaigns.”
Álvarez asked “those who still continue to take the path of violence, to be very aware that with violence, death and eliminating people, we’re not going to achieve anything for the country.”
“The violence has got to end. No more bloodshed,” he concluded.
Regional and municipal elections will be held in Colombia at the end of October. To be elected are governors for the 32 administrative districts representatives to the district assemblies, mayors of 1,099 towns, city council members, and members of the local administrative boards of the national territory.
The BBC also reported that different institutions maintain that between 200 and 400 community leaders have been killed in the last three years.
San José, Costa Rica, Sep 4, 2019 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Thousands participated in Saturday’s March for Life in the Costa Rican capital, urging that the president not sign a technical regulation for the performance of therapeutic abortion.
The Aug. 31 event was organized by Wake Up Costa Rica, Democracy in Action, and the Autonomous University of Central America.
Joining the march were politicians who urged president Carlos Alvarado not to sign the “Technical Norm for Non-Punishable Abortion” which would regulate Article 121 of the Criminal Code for the performance of therapeutic abortion in public and private clinics nationwide.
The government announced in early 2019 that the technical norm was being drafted by a team from the Department of Health and was going to be signed by the president during this year, though an exact date has not yet been set.
Pro-life groups however charged that the norm could be a window to allow abortion on demand.
Costa Rica’s Criminal Code considers abortion a crime, decriminalized only in cases of risk to the life of the mother. The Political Constitution states in Article 21 that “human life is inviolable.”
Carmen Chan, an opposition legislator of the New Republic Party, said while attending that march that “life is inviolable and no one has the right to put an end to it and our duty is to promote laws and policies that contribute to the improvement of living conditions for Costa Ricans.”
“But no, the direction and the defenses that this government has chosen are quite different, that’s why we’re on the front lines today as a people, defending the most basic right of all—the right to life – which goes hand in hand with all those social guarantees that correspond to the state to offer,” she said.
Democracy in Action posted on social media that the activity “ended in success” and that “it brought together thousands of people who marched peacefully.” They also said that for 2020 there will be “a lot more.”
“The pro-life people of Costa Rica took to the streets to demonstrate that we’re against abortion on demand, and we’re not going to remain silent in face of the pretensions of abortion advocates, that we’re going to defend life from conception and do so because we are indeed a people of pure life,” Democracy in Action added.
Days prior to the march, the Costa Rican bishops’ conference invited all citizens to participate, and thanked the secular organizations that “with great dedication and zeal for promoting the culture of life, have organized this event.”
Hong Kong, China, Sep 4, 2019 / 03:49 pm (CNA).- Despite Hong Kong’s chief executive announcing that she will withdraw a controversial extradition bill, protests are continuing, with demonstrators demanding additional government and police reforms, said the leader of local Catholic student group.
“I don’t think that they will [be] satisfied with the withdrawal of the bill…people are too angry at the government and the police,” said Edwin Chow, acting president of the Hong Kong Federation of Catholic Students.
Chow told CNA that demonstrators are angry not only about the bill, but also about police brutality shown in recent months and what they describe as unjust limits on democracy.
“So they will keep protesting, of course. And what has happened the last weekend is that on the 31st of August, actually we had a large protest, which originally the government did not allow, but we still [went] on the street, protesting. And the police used tear gas, and they used water cannons on the people,” he said.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam announced Wednesday via a video message that she is officially withdrawing a bill that, if passed into law, would have allowed extraditions of alleged criminals to mainland China.
The controversial bill sparked widespread protests on the island territory, beginning in earnest with a demonstration June 6 that saw an estimated 1 million Hong Kongers take to the streets. Many more large protests have taken place since, with police occasionally resorting to forceful tactics such as tear gas and water cannons.
Lam had suspended, but not fully withdrawn, the bill on June 15 after first introducing it in February. The process of withdrawal will officially start in October when the territory’s legislature next meets.
Hong Kong— a “special administrative region” of China, meaning it has its own government but remains under Chinese control— has total freedom of worship and evangelization, while in mainland China, by contrast, there is a long history of persecution for Christians who run afoul of the government.
Many Christians feared that the bill would provide a means for the mainland Chinese government to tighten its grip on the free exercise of religion in Hong Kong, as well as a means to persecute those in Hong Kong who support persecuted Christians on the mainland.
The island is only about 8% Catholic, but that represents a population of over half a million.
Protesters have articulated five demands for the government of Hong Kong, one of which was the withdrawal of the bill.
The other demands include Lam’s resignation; an independent inquiry into police brutality; the release of arrested protesters, who number nearly 1,200 in total; and an expansion of democratic freedoms, including universal suffrage. Under the current system, the territory’s chief executive is not elected directly by the people of Hong Kong, but rather a 1,200 member election committee.
“I think if we have true universal suffrage, maybe the chief executive…will really listen to people, because she’s elected by the people,” Chow said.
“The people [should] have the power to impeach him or her. The chief executive should be responsible to the people. But now…because now the government is selected by Beijing, they only can be loyal to Beijing, but not Hong Kong people. So this is why I think the people will keep protesting.”
Chow said beginning on Sept. 2, many university students boycotted their classes. He said the plan originally was to boycott for nearly two weeks, until Sept. 13. The boycott was “not well-planned,” he acknowledged, and right now it is “not very obvious that we are having a strike,” but student groups are planning to hold assemblies and meetings during the class boycott.
Chow said there is another large protest planned for this coming weekend, this time at the airport, where a large group of protesters gathered last weekend. He said many people have been arrested at subway stations.
He said he does not know of any members of the Catholic student groups that have been arrested or injured in the protests.
The auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong, who has been a vocal supporter of the protests, told CNA last week that he hopes prayer will help transform the area into “a channel of God’s peace.”
Many Catholic clergy in Hong Kong, including apostolic administrator Cardinal John Tong and bishop emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen, have expressed support for the protesters.
“We’re urging fellow parishioners to join our ‘Friday fasting’ movement,” Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing told CNA on Aug. 30.
“It’s been a tradition for us to fast on Fridays. However, this tradition somehow was abolished. With fasting and prayers, we hope that we can help ourselves to strengthen our mind and soul to fight evil thoughts. Then, we would be in a better position to help fellow Hongkongers.”
Bishop Ha, who has taken part in ecumenical prayer rallies with protesters in the past, urged an increase in prayer and said he is concerned for the safety of the many young people involved in the protests.
“I do worry about the safety of the protesters, especially the young ones,” he said. “Youth is not just our future, they are also our present as Pope Francis said. Feeling sad, helpless and sometimes even furious is not unusual. However, we must prevent sadness developing into hopelessness, prevent anger turning into hatred.”
Washington D.C., Sep 4, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it will send almost $2 billion in grant funding to the states to fight the opioid crisis.
The administration will disburse $1.8 billion in grant fundi… […]
Vatican City, Sep 4, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a frequent collaborator of Pope St. John Paul II, has died at 96.
Etchagaray, from the French Basque region, was born in Espelette on September 25, 1922.
He attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, obtaining licentiate in theology and a doctorate of canon law.
He was ordained a priest in 1947 and incardinated in the Diocese of Bayonne.
In 1961 he began working in the French bishops’ conference, and from 1966 to 1970 was its general secretary.
In 1969, Pope Paul VI appointed him an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Paris.
On Dec. 22, 1970 he became the Archbishop of Marseille. In 1975 he was elected president of the French episcopal conference.
In 1979, Pope St. John Paul II named him a cardinal.
In April 1984 Pope John Paul II named him the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the president of the pontifical council Cor Unum, he retained this second post until 1995.
In 1994 he was taken with overseeing the Church’s observance of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
He served often as de facto “ambassador” of John Paul II in delicate diplomatic missions: in 2003 he worked on behalf of the pope to avoid the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that began the Second Gulf War.
On April 30, 2005, Benedict XVI approved his election as Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals.
In January 2017, he left the Vatican to return to his native Diocese of Bayonne.
After the death of Cardinal Pimiento Rodriguez , which occurred yesterday, he was, briefly, become the oldest living cardinal.
A version of this story was first published by ACI Stampa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Everyone loves a comeback, especially when it’s a beloved actor finding his way back from big struggles via a TV show or movie that has special meaning on its own terms as well. Shia LaBoeuf—the […]
© Catholic World Report