Elderly religious overlooked in Belgium’s early COVID-19 vaccination programs

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nov 15, 2017 / 12:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Pope Francis visited Bosnia and Herzegovina two years ago, he found a country still healing from a devastating conflict two decades earlier.

The three-year Bosnian War killed around 100,000 people and displaced a million more. Although ethnic and religious violence tapered off after the peace treaty of 1995-96, deep cultural and religious divides are enduring.

Now, a historic master’s program has been created in Sarajevo that primarily focuses on Interreligious Studies and Peacebuilding, taught by the three major theological seminaries of Catholic, Islamic and Orthodox thought.

“This program represents efforts of the three faculties to work, on a scientific basis, on peace-building and reconciliation in this country,” said Darko Tomasevic, the dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University in Sarajevo.

“Above all, we want to ensure as good a foundation as possible for a better future for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the capacity that we, as institutions within religious communities and churches, can provide,” Tomasevic said.

The first of its kind in the region, the master’s program was coordinated by Catholic Relief Services, in conjunction with the Faculty of Islamic Sciences, the Catholic Theological Faculty and Orthodox Theological Faculty of St. Basil of Ostrog.

According to Zuhdija Hasanovic, the dean of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences at the University in Sarajevo, the program is an effort to be more intentional about healing the country’s divisions with an attitude of respect.

“Each of the faculties works on developing a sense of respect for ‘others,’ or different ones, but this study program is something special and it will, hopefully, yield results,” he said.

The first class began on Oct. 26, and the program will run over the course of the next year. Professors and teachers from all three seminaries will lead the program, which now includes 23 students. The course is aimed at students who are have backgrounds in theology, social sciences and humanities, and are interested in interreligious studies and peacebuilding.

“Joint-study programs like this one offer a unique opportunity to use religious as a catalyst for peace,” stated Marc D’Silva, the CRS country representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“This program will show how religious institutions can train a new generation of religious and civil society leaders to be advocates for a more just and better society,” D’Silva continued.

The master’s program is currently only being offered to local students, but there are hopes of expanding the course to international students. CRS is also promoting scholarships, internships and job opportunities with local government officials and civil society organizations in the country.

The official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the U.S., Catholic Relief Services has had a presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1993, when it began offering emergency relief services to victims of the war in Sarajevo. Post-war, CRS continued to offer aid by helping displaced families return to their homes. The organization has a continued presence in the country today through education, psychological support, rebuilding homes and promoting livelihoods.

Pope Francis’ pastoral visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015 was seen as an important step in unity, in a nation where religion is closely tied to ethnicity. Forty percent of the country’s 3.8 million population are Muslim/Bosniak and another 40 percent are Orthodox/Serbian. Fifteen percent are Catholic/Croats.

“There is no other foundation on which the culture of peace can be based, but on interreligious dialogue,” stressed Vladislav Topalovic, dean of the Orthodox Theological Faculty “St. Basil of Ostrog” of the University in East Sarajevo.

“It is our only exit, our only path on which we can base that culture of peace, and trust among all of us in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

[…]

Paris, France, Mar 4, 2019 / 01:19 pm (CNA).- France’s European affairs minister encouraged the Holy See last week to aid in an investigation of the apostolic nuncio to France, who has been accused of sexual assault in Paris.

Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, is accused of having inappriately touched a young male staffer of Paris City Hall during a Jan. 17 reception for the New Year address of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. He is being investigated by Parisian authorities.

Nathalie Loiseau, France’s Minister of European Affiars, told French television channel CNews March 1 that “this inquiry needs to be allowed to reach its conclusion, what matters is that the truth be known.”

“At this point, [Archbishop Ventura] benefits from diplomatic immunity, but the Holy See is clearly aware of the serious accusations that have been brought against the apostolic nuncio and I don’t doubt for a second that the Holy See will do the right thing … I’m waiting for the Holy See to take its responsibilities in hand.”

The deputy in the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs added that “if the facts are proven, they are very serious because when you are a religious leader you are supposed to have a moral authority, so I would say that’s an aggravating circumstance.”

Diplomatic immunity, which allows diplomats in a country to do their work without fear of interference from the host country’s laws or lawsuits from the host country, is based in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

The need for the practice has been highlighted by various accusations of spying or other wrongdoing between two countries with strained relationships. But the standard diplomatic protections can be removed by the diplomat’s home country, in special circumstances and at the country’s discretion.

In recent years, the Holy See’s practice has generally been to recall diplomats accused of civil crimes in their host countries. They are then tried by the civil court in the Vatican and by a canonical court, and they may later be stripped of diplomatic immunity so they can also be prosecuted by the host country.

For example, allegations of sexual misconduct arose against the apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic in 2013. The nuncio, Archbishop Józef Wesołowski, resigned later that year.

Wesołowski was found guilty of sexual abuse by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in June 2014, and was subjected to dismissal from the clerical state. Vatican City then decided also to hold a criminal trial for the former diplomat on charges of pedophilic acts and possession of child pornography. Wesołowski died in August 2015 while awaiting his criminal trial.

In August 2014, then-Holy See press officer Fr. Federico Lombari said that Wesołowski may “be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him” in the Dominican Republic, and that he no longer had diplomatic immunity as he had been removed from his post as nuncio.

Lombardi added that the Vatican had “from the very first moments that this case was made known to them, moved without delay and correctly in light of the fact that former nuncio Wesołowski held the position of a diplomatic representative of the Holy See,” particularly in recalling the former nuncio to Rome for canonical trial.

Similarly, in April 2018 Vatican police arrested former diplomat Fr. Carlo Alberto Capella, who was being investigation for the violation of laws concerning the possession of child pornography and its distribution or sale.

Capella was recalled from the US Nunciature in September 2017 after the Vatican was informed by the US State Department that there was a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by a member of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps.

The US State Department requested that the Vatican lift Capella’s diplomatic immunity, which requeste was declined. However, information regarding the findings of the US State Department was passed along to the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice.

Ventura has served as nuncio to France since 2009.

He was also accused last month of sexual misconduct against an adult male in Canada in 2008.

Christian Vachon, who was 32 at the time of alleged incident, says Ventura touched his buttocks at least twice during a banquet held at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec.

Ventura was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brescia in 1969. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978 and was stationed in Brazil, Bolivia, and the UK. From 1984 to 1995 he was appointed to serve at the Secretariat of State in the Section for Relations with States.

After his episcopal consecration in 1995, Ventura served as nuncio to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chile, and Canada, before his transfer to France.

[…]

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe views the reliquary with the blood of St. Januarius in 2009. / Paola Migni via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CNA Staff, May 3, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The blood of St. Januarius, patron of the southern Italian city of Naples, liquef… […]