Rome Newsroom, Sep 8, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- The Italian president and a senior Vatican official visited the Holy House of Loreto Tuesday for the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, said Sept. 8 in Loreto: “We are here to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the occasion of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this glorious sanctuary, where, according to tradition, are enshrined the stones of the Holy House of Nazareth, where the greeting of the angel resounded.”
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the celebration of Mary’s birth, is of particular importance to the Holy House in Loreto, Italy, as tradition holds that it contains parts of the walls of the home in which the Virgin Mary was born, raised, and greeted by the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation.
Historical documentation shows that the Holy House of Mary was brought from Palestine to Italy in the 13th century.
“In this Marian sanctuary, intimately linked to the Apostolic See and considered through the centuries the Marian heart of Christianity, you breathe the spiritual air of Nazareth. Therefore we are today like pilgrims. Encouraged by the light of the Word of God and strengthened by the Eucharistic food, we will glorify the Father, who has desired for us to be intimately part of His divine life,” Gallagher said in his homily.
Following the Mass presided over by the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, Italian President Sergio Mattarella lit a lamp for peace near the altar of the basilica, while Archbishop Fabio Dal Cin, the rector of Loreto, invoked a blessing for Italy and for the whole world.
A few days prior, the Italian president had visited Milan Cathedral, where Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass was performed in honor of victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
Throughout the pandemic, Loreto has offered a daily livestream of the rosary prayed inside of the Holy House of Mary.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto is currently celebrating a jubilee year marking the 100th anniversary of the official proclamation of Our Lady of Loreto as the patroness of pilates and air passengers. There was a blessing of the Italian Air Force after the Mass Sept. 8.
According to tradition, the Holy House of Mary was transported by angels from the Holy Land to the Italian hill town overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Due to this connection with flight, Pope Benedict XV declared Our Lady of Loreto patroness of aviators in March 1920.
Last month Pope Francis approved the extension of this jubilee year until Dec. 10, 2021, due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus crisis. Catholics visiting the basilica during the jubilee can obtain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.
“Here in the Holy House of Loreto we experience in a particular way the presence and power of Mary. How many times some of us have called upon the presence of Mother Mary in our own lives, the presence of a mother who infallibly guides us always to a more profound union with her Son,” Gallagher said.
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Pope Francis addresses the Italian bishops’ conference in Rome, Nov. 22, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Rome, Italy, Nov 23, 2021 / 05:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis spoke with the Italian bishops’ conference on Monday afternoon in what was a “strictly priv… […]
Rome, Italy, Jul 14, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Just days after Iraqi forces completed their recapture of Mosul from the Islamic State, the nation’s ambassador to the Holy See has said that they are eager to rebuild the city and have people return home, but it will require help to do so.
“We reiterate our need for greater cooperation and greater help for the reconstruction and stability of the freed areas, including Mosul, because there is no complete victory until the displaced are returned to their homes and guaranteed essential services,” Omer Ahmed Karim Berzinji said July 13.
“The most important challenge now is the effort for the reconstruction and the stability of the city through the construction of infrastructures in order for the displaced to return. We have need of international support to bring back stability and to prevent the return of the terrorists.”
Berzinji spoke to journalists at a press conference in Rome July 13.
The presser was held in response to the July 9 declaration that Mosul had been recaptured. The government operation to free Mosul, one of the Islamic State’s remaining key strongholds, had been underway for nine months. The group still controls areas around the Iraqi cities of Tal Afar, Hawija, and Al-Qa’im, as well as portions of Syria.
During this time, thousands were killed and nearly 1 million residents fled the city, the major part of it destroyed.
Fr. Ghazwan Baho, a parish priest in Alqosh – the last major Christian city on the Plain of Nineveh not taken by the Islamic State – told CNA they are thankful Mosul has been freed, but the future of the city is still uncertain.
“We thank God that the evil was overcome, but Mosul is a city almost 80 percent destroyed. The future is dark. There isn’t much hope of reconstruction.”
“It’s not enough to win the war, but we need to rebuild,” he said. “We are afraid of the future, of revenge; our area is a land of conflict. Let’s hope for the best.”
The Islamic State had controlled Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, since June 2014. It has imposed a rigid version of sharia in territory it controls, but its rule also features arbitrary violence, including killing and enslavement.
A 2016 U.N. report said that 800 to 900 children in Mosul have been abducted and put through Islamic State religious and military training. There have been accounts of child soldiers who were killed for fleeing fighting on the front lines of Iraq’s Anbar province.
The U.N. also estimates that as of Jan. 2016 the group held about 3,500 slaves, mainly women and children of the Yazidi religion. Some of the women are killed for trying to escape or for refusing sexual relations with Islamic State fighters.
The Iraq ambassador couldn’t give specifics on the government’s plan for how to free the women, but told CNA that it will certainly be one of their top objectives. Regarding the Islamic State, he said he considers the victory in Mosul the “beginning of their end.”
“I am very enthusiastic to take all of that (remaining) occupied territory,” he continued.
Another result of the battle, he told journalists, has been the unification of the various “factions” of the Iraqi army who “joined together for the liberation of Mosul.”
The ambassador emphasized that Iraqis worldwide are celebrating the victory, saying that “the first thing after the liberation of Mosul, the most important thing, was that all Iraqis were united.”
Berzinji also noted the help from outside forces, saying “friends and allies have played a distinct role in supporting the efforts of the Iraqi government in this battle through the intervention of the international coalition or outside it.”
“That is why victory in Mosul is a victory for all those who have helped and have collaborated with us in the fight against this criminal organization.”
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to journalists, Dec. 9, 2022 / Marcin Mazur
Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec 10, 2022 / 00:00 am (CNA).
Every effort for peace in Ukraine coming from Pope Francis and the Holy See is welcome, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister said Friday, whether it is helping to mediate for the exchange of prisoners or in assisting migrants and refugees.
However, the time for broad negotiations after the Russian aggression has not come yet, Dmytro Kuleba told a small delegation of journalists visiting Ukraine on Dec. 9 that his country has requirements for any such mediation to eventually take place.
The interview lasted about 40 minutes, and the questions dealt with Holy See-Ukraine relations, Holy See efforts for peace, and how Ukraine would welcome this effort.
Though appreciating Pope Francis’ constant mention of the Ukrainian situation and expressing an open invitation to the pope to visit the country, Kuleba also told CNA that some of the pope’s words have been “painful” for Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to journalists, Dec. 9, 2022. Marcin Mazur
Pope Francis has often stressed that the Holy See is available to facilitate broad negotiations. Kuleba told journalists that “the protocolar response would be that a negotiation would be more than welcome,” but “the sad truth is that the time for this broad mediation hasn’t come yet and the reason for that is President [Vladimir] Putin.”
If you want peace, Kuleba said, “you do not send 100 missiles every week to destroy infrastructure. You do not send one wave of your soldiers after another into the Donbas. You don’t do all these things when you seek a peaceful solution.”
And so, he concluded, “the day for a big mediation will come, but we are not there yet, to our deepest regret.”
Kuleba told CNA that mediation should have some requirements, as any other commitment the Holy See would undertake. He said he also tackled this issue in the last meeting with the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.
Gallagher, whose role is equivalent to that of a foreign minister, spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart on Dec. 2 in Lodz, during the OSCE Ministerial Council.
I met with Secretary for Relations with States of the Holy See Mons. Paul R. Gallagher. I briefed Archbishop on Ukraine’s efforts to alleviate the global food crisis through our #GrainFromUkraine program and details of President @ZelenskyyUa’s Peace formula. pic.twitter.com/SNAc3iGbq4
Kuleba said he told Gallagher that the Vatican could choose which aspect to help with.
The Vatican might help with negotiating an exchange of prisoners, for instance, or the “return of thousands of kids kidnapped from Russia,” or also participating “in the implementation of the peace formula.”
However, Kuleba added that “picking an issue is the first step, while the second step is how you address the issue,” adding that “mistakes” needed to be avoided.
Among such “mistakes,” according to Kuleba, are the notion of a brotherhood between Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian people.
“We are not brothers and if you insist on the concept you are misled,” the Ukrainian minister told journalists since Russians “came to Kyiv to rape, to violate all the laws of God on the land of Ukraine.”
Kuleba also said hat one cannot be “neutral in public comments” and should “always remember that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim of the aggression.”
Any attempt at making both sides somehow evenly responsible created “a completely wrong message,” the minister warned.
In his Oct. 2 Angelus, Pope Francis appealed to Russia’s President Vladmir Putin to stop the war, and to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be seriously open to the pope’s proposal.
Kuleba explained why he was somewhat critical of such appeals by Pope Francis: While saying President Putin should stop the war made “perfect sense,” calling on President Zelenskyy to be open to serious peace proposals made it sound like Zelenskyy was “not open to peace.”
In other words, Kuleba added, the pope’s words wrongly “create the impression that both sides are guilty: one is guilty because of the attack, and the other is guilty because [it is] not open to peace proposals.”
Ukraine’s Foreign minister called on journalists to be pay attention when writing about a “serious peace proposal” being “based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine”, including Crimea.
“Every time you write or read or say that Ukraine insists on the restoration of Crimea, you send a message that Crimea is a special case. But for us and international law, there is no difference between [the towns of] Sebastopol and Kherson, Yalta and Donetsk.”
Speaking about the role religion can play in helping to reconstruct the country, the Ukrainian foreign minister said that the “Russian aggression caused big fractures” among religions. He also pointed to differences in viewpoints between Muslims in Russia and in Ukraine, and Russian and Ukrainian Jews.
Kuleba said that the “first and foremost expectation from confessions is to console people, to help them spiritually.” Most people turned to God “only in times of hardship,” he added.
“When everything is fine, you forget about God. Now, there is a higher demand for spiritual help, to be consoled by the Church.”
Kuleba also spoke to CNA about sanctions imposed on Dec.1 against some Orthodox clerics and moves to legislate against Russian influence through religious means.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to journalists, Dec. 9, 2022. Marcin Mazur
The Ukrainian government will draw up a law banning churches affiliated with Russia under moves described by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as necessary to prevent Moscow being able to “weaken Ukraine from within,” according to Reuters.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council told the government to draft the law following a series of raids on parishes that Kyiv said might be taking orders from Moscow.
Such moves, Kuleba told CNA, were motivated by “unacceptable” behavior by some clerics, such as the blessing of Russian soldiers for success on the battlefield.
Kuleba, however, praised the role of the churches, especially the presence of chaplains on the front.
Speaking about Pope Francis’ position on the Ukrainian issue, Kuleba said that he saw improvements.
“The truth,” he said, “is that this war shattered many foundations of the global political order.”
A big disappointment, he added, was what Pope Francis had said about NATO “barking” at the gates of Russia.
Kuleba stressed that he understood how and why the pope used the expression, but he noted that this argument was forged in Russia, so even mentioning served to legitimize it.
While it was “painful that the pope said something like that, I have to commend the pope for understanding”, Kuleba added, saying he was grateful to the pontiff for not sticking to “concepts that do not work and do not meet the reality check.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister said he was moved by the public prayer of Pope Francis for Ukraine on Dec. 8 in Rome. “[The] pope’s compassion means a lot to us and goes directly to the heart of Ukrainians,” Kuleba said.
He added that “obviously, we are waiting for his visit. He has many followers in Ukraine”, not only from the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic communities: “The visit of the pope will be welcomed by a bigger part of Ukrainian society. So we are looking forward to welcoming him.”
Happy Feast. Blessed Virgin Mary – Pray for us.