Campaign seeks to unite a million children in praying the rosary

Fulda, Germany, Sep 25, 2018 / 04:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, chairman of the German bishops’ conference, personally apologized Tuesday for “failure and pain” following an extensive report that German clergy had abused thousands of children between 1946 and 2014.

“For too long in the church we have looked away, denied, covered up and didn’t want it to be true,” said Cardinal Marx at a news conference in Fulda, as reported by Reuters. “For all the failure, pain and suffering, I must apologize as the chairman of the Bishops’ Conference as well as personally.”

“Those who are guilty must be punished,” he added.

The report detailing the abuse in Germany was leaked to the German press Sept. 12.

The report, commissioned by the German bishops in 2014 and officially released Sept. 25, found allegations against 1,670 German clerics, or “4.4 percent of all clerics from 1946 to 2014 whose personnel records and other documents were reviewed in the dioceses.” Nearly 63 percent of the 3,677 alleged victims were male.

According to the German bishops’ conference, the aim of the study, in which all 27 dioceses of Germany took part, was “to obtain more clarity and transparency about this dark side in our church, not only for the sake of those affected, but also in order to be able to see the misdemeanours for ourselves and do everything possible to ensure that they do not repeat themselves.”

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Knock, Ireland, Aug 26, 2018 / 05:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday during a quick visit to Knock Shrine in county Mayo, Pope Francis entrusted the Irish people to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
    
“Mary our Mother is also … […]

Albano Laziale, Italy, Nov 1, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis will visit on Thursday an Italian cemetery for American personnel killed in World War II, where he will say Mass for All Souls’ Day.

The Pope’s Nov. 2 Mass will be held at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, a little more than 20 miles south of Albano Laziale.

Cemetery Superintendent Melanie Resto said that for Francis to choose to commemorate the fallen soldiers at the cemetery is “the biggest honor I can imagine.”

“We didn’t expect the Pope, but it is a great honor,” she added.

Pope Francis “will be here to pray for the service members, not only the service members here, but all those who have died in wars.”

According to Resto, the cemetery is visited every week by family members of the soldiers whose bodies are buried there.

It is open every day, except Christmas and New Years Day. Staff are available to answer questions and to escort relatives to grave sites.

Rasto said many of the cemetery staff have been employeed at the memorial for more than 25 years; there are already three employees whose fathers worked on the grounds before them. They feel that “it’s an honor to work here,” she said, “and we’re proud to have them.”

The Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, dedicated in 1956, covers 77 acres, and 7,860 servicemen are buried there. In a chapel on the grounds are the names of 3,095 who were missing in action.

Most of those who are buried in the Nettuno cemetery died in the liberation of Sicily, the landings at Salerno and Anzio, and in air and naval support of these operations in 1943 and 1944.

In recent tradition, the Popes have said an All Souls’ Day Mass at Rome’s Campo Verano cemetery, founded in the 19th century.

Pope Francis did this the first three years of his pontificate, and in 2016 said an All Souls’ Day Mass at Rome’s Prima Porta Cemetery.

Material from EWTN News Nightly was used in this report.

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