Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves. / Office of Communication Society of Jesus.
Vatican City, Jan 28, 2022 / 05:33 am (CNA).
Donations to Peter’s Pence fell by around 15% in 2021, the Vatican announced on Friday.
In an interview with Vatican News published on Jan. 28, Fr. Juan A. Guerrero, S.J., prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, said that, while donations were still arriving from some countries, there was a marked decrease compared to 2020.
“Roughly speaking, I can say that in 2021 there has again been a decrease compared to the previous year, which I would venture to quantify at no less than 15%,” he said.
“If in 2020 the total collection of the Peter’s Pence was 44 million euros [around $49 million], in 2021 I do not think it will amount to more than 37 million euros [approximately $41 million].”
“The decrease in 2021 is in addition to the 23% decrease between 2015 and 2019 and the 18% decrease in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.”
Peter’s Pence is the Holy See’s annual collection to finance the pope’s charitable works and other priorities, including the Roman Curia.
The annual collection is usually taken up in Catholic churches around the world on a weekend close to the June 29 Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
“We are very dependent on uncertain income, which we see decreasing every year in this time of pandemic,” Guerrero said.
“It has to be this way, since the way we receive most of the donations from the faithful is through the collection of the Peter’s Pence in the churches, and the attendance in times of COVID has been reduced.”
“This should make us think about other methods of soliciting the help of the faithful and receiving donations.”
Guerrero said that he would present the final figures for Peter’s Pence in 2021 after the accounts are closed at the end of February.
The interview with the Spanish Jesuit was published as the Vatican released more information about its budget for 2022.
The total deficit expected for 2022 is €33 million (around $37 million), compared to the €42 million ($47 million) shortfall budgeted for 2021.
More to follow…
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Vatican City, Mar 30, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, has tested positive for coronavirus. He is the first cardinal known to have the virus.
The cardinal has been admitted to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome with a fever. He is reportedly in good condition, and his close collaborators are reported to be self-isolating, according to a statement from the Vicariate of Rome.
“I feel serene and confident amid this trial,” the cardinal said in a statement March 30. “I entrust myself to the Lord and to support from the prayers of all of you, dear faithful of the Church in Rome.”
“I live this moment as an occasion given to me in Providence so that I can share the sufferings of so many brothers and sisters. I offer my prayers for them, for the whole diocesan community and for the inhabitants of the city of Rome,” the cardinal added.
While Pope Francis is the Bishop of Rome, the day-to-day leadership of the diocese is provided for by De Donatis, who enjoys broad vicarious authority delegated by the pope.
The cardinal, 66, was chosen by Pope Francis in 2014, while not yet a bishop, to offer the Lenten spiritual exercises to the Roman Curia, a job traditionally given to a cardinal. In 2015 he became an auxiliary bishop in Rome, and became vicar general of Rome in 2017. He was created a cardinal in 2018.
Vatican City, Oct 18, 2018 / 11:52 am (CNA).- An Italian magazine has raised new questions about a Vatican official mentioned in the August “testimony” of Archbishop Carlo Vigano. The report from L’Espresso, an Italian newsweekly, could be seen to provide support for at least one claim made in Vigano’s controversial testimony.
L’Espresso, an Italian newsweekly, reported Oct. 12 that Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, 58, who began serving Oct. 15 as “sostituto” of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, might have been dismissed from a seminary where he studied because he was thought by seminary administrators to have a homosexual orientation.
As ‘sostituto’, the archbishop is tasked with overseeing much of the day-to-day business of the Vatican’s Curial offices.
The magazine published a February 1985 letter from Archbishop Domingo Perez, then Archbishop of Maracaibo, the archdiocese in which Parra was later ordained. The letter was written to the rector of the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, at which Parra did the first part of his seminary studies before being dismissed.
In the letter, Perez said that he had received negative reports about Parra from the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, and acknowledged that Parra had been dismissed from studies there. Perez said that he had subsequently sent the student to another seminary in Caracas, and had received positive reports about him there.
However, Perez wrote that he had received an anonymous letter alleging that Parra had been expelled from his first seminary because he had a homosexual orientation and was, he wrote “a sexually sick person.”
Perez asked the seminary rector to make inquiries into those allegations. L’Espresso did not report any additional communications between the archbishop and the seminary rector. Parra was ordained six months after Perez sent his letter him.
Parra is among the bishops mentioned in Vigano’s Aug. 25 “testimony” regarding Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. In that document, Vigano claimed that while he oversaw personnel for Vatican diplomatic offices, he had received “worrisome information” about Parra, who worked at that time in the Vatican diplomatic corps.
Vigano did not specify what “worrisome information” he had received, but the questions raised about Parra’s seminary formation could seem to fit with the tenor of Vigano’s testimony.
The archbishop’s testimony made claims about the sexuality of other Vatican officials, while arguing that “the virtue of chastity must be recovered in the clergy and in seminaries. Corruption in the misuse of the Church’s resources and of the offerings of the faithful must be fought against. The seriousness of homosexual behavior must be denounced. The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated.”
The credibility of Vigano’s claims has come under fire lately, as some Vatican officials have denounced his testimony as an attack on Pope Francis.
Nevertheless, an Oct. 7 letter from Cardinal Marc Oullet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, corroborated Vigano’s central claim, that McCarrick had been directed by the Vatican to withdraw from public life because of reports about his alleged sexually abusive behavior toward priests and seminarians.
On the other hand, Oullet’s letter refuted the notion that the measures against McCarrick were formal “canonical sanctions,” a claim initially made by Vigano that seems to mostly have been disproven.
A September report from Catholic News Service corroborated Vigano’s claim that the Vatican had received at least some reports about McCarrick as early as 2000.
CNA independently confirmed another Vigano claim, that McCarrick had been ordered by a Vatican official to move out of the Washington, DC seminary where he had been living after his retirement.
On Oct. 18, L’Espresso added to its report, noting that Parra had a longtime close relationship with Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, the coordinator of the pope’s C9 Council of Cardinals. Vigano had also noted their friendship.
The magazine also claimed that the archbishop had developed a friendship with Bishop Juan Jose Pineda, former auxiliary bishop of Maradiaga’s Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, who in recent months had been accused of sexual misconduct involving seminarians and other adult men.
L’Espresso reported Oct. 18 that the Vatican declined to respond to its questions about Parra.
Saint Peter’s Chapel and Native American Museum at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. / Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site
Chicago, Ill., Jul 13, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Shrines to various saints can be found in every part of the world, including every state in the U.S. Each one is dedicated to faith and prayer, but one shrine in the northeastern United States also has a distinct mission of connecting pilgrims with Native American culture and sharing the fascinating history of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first American Indian to be canonized a saint.
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York, honors not only the life of St. Kateri, whose feast day is July 14, but also the life and history of the local Indigenous people to whom she belonged.
“We have cultivated strong ties to both the Catholic Mohawk community and the traditional Mohawk community,” said Melissa Miscevic Bramble, director of operations at the St. Kateri Shrine, in an interview with CNA. “We see it as our mission to educate about her Mohawk culture as well as her Catholic faith.”
Who was St. Kateri?
Called the Lily of the Mohawks, Kateri Tekakwitha was the child of a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother but was orphaned at age 4 when the rest of her family died of smallpox. Her own early bout with the illness left lasting scars and poor vision.
She went to live with an anti-Christian uncle and aunt, but at age 11 she encountered Jesuit missionaries and recognized their teaching as the beliefs of her beloved mother. Desiring to become a Christian, she began to privately practice Christianity.
Beginning at about age 13, she experienced pressure from her family to marry, but she wanted to give her life to Jesus instead. A priest who knew her recorded her words: “I have deliberated enough. For a long time, my decision on what I will do has been made. I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary, I have chosen him for husband, and he alone will take me for wife.”
At last, she was baptized at about age 19, and her baptism made public her beliefs, which had been kept private up until then. The event was the catalyst for her ostracism from her village. Some members of her people believed that her beliefs were sorcery, and she was harassed, stoned, and threatened with torture in her home village.
Tekakwitha fled 200 miles to Kahnawake, a Jesuit mission village for Native Amerian converts to Christianity to live together in community. There, she found her mother’s close friend, Anastasia Tegonhatsiongo, who was a clan matron of a Kahnawake longhouse. Anastasia and other Mohawk women took Kateri under their wings and taught her about Christianity, and she lived there happily for several years until her death around age 23 or 24.
Although she never took formal vows, Tekakwitha is considered a consecrated virgin, and the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins took her as its patron. She is also the patron saint of traditional ecology, Indigenous peoples, and care for creation.
A shrine with a special mission
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site has a unique mission of archaeological and historical research related to Kateri Tekakwitha and her people. Welcoming several thousand visitors per year, the shrine ministers not only to Christians but also to all American Indians.
According to its website, the shrine and historic site “promotes healing, encourages environmental stewardship, and facilitates peace for all people by offering the natural, cultural, and spiritual resources at this sacred site.” Describing itself as a sacred place of peace and healing with a Catholic identity, its ministry and site are intended to be ecumenical and welcome people of all faiths.
In keeping with this mission, the shrine’s grounds include an archaeological site, the village of Caughnawaga, which is the only fully excavated Iroquois/Haudenosaunee village in the world. St. Kateri lived in this village, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can also visit the Kateri Spring, where Kateri Tekakwitha was baptized.
“The water from the Kateri Spring is considered holy water by the Catholic Church,” Bramble said. “People are welcome to come take the waters, and we regularly get reports of healing. We’ve sent that water all over North America to folks who have requested it.”
Besides the archaeological site, the main grounds of the shrine include St. Peter’s Chapel, housed in a former Dutch barn built in 1782; museum exhibits of Native American culture and history; St. Maximilian Kolbe Pavilion; a Candle Chapel dedicated to St. Kateri; Grassmann Hall and the Shrine office; a friary; a gift shop; an outdoor sanctuary; and maintenance facilities. The 150-acre property includes hiking trails that are open to the public year-round from sunrise to sunset.
Peace Grove at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine and Historic Site
Outside the Candle Chapel, which is always open for prayer, visitors can participate in a ministry of “Kateri crosses.”
“St. Kateri was known for going into the forest, gathering sticks, binding them into crosses, and then spending hours in prayer in front of crosses she created,” Bramble said. Sticks are gathered from the shrine grounds and visitors are invited to make their own “Kateri crosses” and take them home to use as a prayer aid. Bramble shared that the shrine sends materials for Kateri crosses to those who aren’t able to visit, including recently to a confirmation group.
The feast day weekend
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine has a schedule of special events planned for St. Kateri’s feast day on July 14. Bramble said they anticipate several hundred visitors for the feast day events this year, which include Masses, a healing prayer service, and talks. (A listing of the full schedule can be found here.)
The weekend Masses, which include special blessings and the music of the Akwesasne Mohawk Choir, “incorporate American Indian spiritual practices in keeping with the Catholic Church,” Bramble said. “The Akwesasne Mohawk Choir is made up of descendants of St. Kateri’s community who lived in the area historically.”
Bramble described numerous events each year that partner with the local American Indian community, such as the fun-filled “Three Sisters Festival” in May (celebrating corn, beans, and squash — the “three sisters” that were staples of Native cuisine), healing Masses during Indigenous Peoples’ Week in October, and a recent interfaith prayer service with Mohawk elders.
“There is a reestablished traditional Mohawk community a few miles west of the shrine, and we feel very blessed that we’ve been able to cultivate a very cooperative and mutually respectful relationship with the folks there,” Bramble said.
The Saint Kateri Shrine is also a great place for families. Events often include activities and crafts for children, there is an all-ages scavenger hunt available at the site, and the shrine’s museum is “a phenomenal educational opportunity.”
Bringing together American Indian archaeology and history with the story of St. Kateri, the shrine and its programs shed light on the saint’s story and keep alive the traditions and history of her people.
As a note on the convoluted tangle of worldly with clerical events, we might recall that the Peter’s Pence collection began as a funding source for the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome (recently inhabited by Pachamama!). But, when conveyance of these funds from Germany to Rome was blocked by the emerging German nation-state, a more aggressive local sale of indulgences resulted, igniting the explosive ecclesial grievances of one Martin Luther.
And, today, we witness the continuing turmoil in Germany, far beyond anything even Luther imagined, where failure to pay the state’s church-tax (!) is branded as “apostasy” (!!) and is cause for automatic excommunication (!!!). No sacraments for disloyal peasants!
Meanwhile, what’s left of the Church in Germany (many intend a German Church awash in rising funds even as membership erodes year by year), there’s this post-Luther thingy called the German “synodal way”—which history will record as the drop of cyanide in the punchbowl called the global Synod on Synodality.
Moreover, the corrupted tin-cup marketing of indulgences in the 16th century by a priest named Tetzel pales in significance compared to the mass-media marketing corruption of a priest named James Martin, and his tribe of other enablers, and worse, now metastasized throughout all echelons of clericalism.
Since 2015, is the sorry slide in Peter’s Pence charitable collections due only to COVID lockdowns?
First priority of the clerical movers and shakers in charge is to keep the money flowing.
-Guerrero states regarding the decline in Peter’s Pence revenues,
“This should make us think about other methods of soliciting the help of the faithful and receiving donations.”
“The Catholic Church was simply very good at jumping through the bureaucratic hoops required to get a PPP loan. Diocesan finance offices proved to be very competent. Good for them.
Likewise, the hierarchy is “simply very good” at and proving “very competent” at wrecking architecture, ignoring liturgical protocol, facilitating sexual sins and endorsing sacrilege.
I thought first priority should be praying and making sacrifice for the sins of their flocks – concern for the salvation of souls.
Just wondering if it has ever occurred to Guerrero, Reese, Cupich, Marx, Bergolio, Dolan and their ilk, that the dear faithful are coming to realize that the care and salvation of souls is not even on the radar of the shepherds at large. In other words, the little ones on the peripheries are wising up, so we’ll have to look for revenues elsewhere and hold forth with the New Synodal Way.
I think decline in Peters Pence funds has not much to do with the lowly virus, as the little flocks have always been a generous lot and would have found other ways to contribute to the PP collection.
Today the Church should be conducting a root cause analysis; “The decrease in 2021 is in addition to the 23% decrease between 2015 and 2019 and the 18% decrease in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.”
Considering the absolute trainwreck that is the Francis Pontificate, with it’s nonstop doctrinal confusion, attacks on the laity, and scandals involving financial corruption and sexual abuse, not to mention the closure of Churches during the Lockdowns, my only surprise is it didn’t fall further than 15%.
“Peter’s Pence is the Holy See’s annual collection to finance the pope’s charitable works and other priorities, including the Roman Curia.”
The quote, sans rhyme, implies reason for an intellect remaining open.
One notes a cause for thanks and praise due the Vatican: It expects a 2022 deficit of only 37 US million. A mere pittance.
As a note on the convoluted tangle of worldly with clerical events, we might recall that the Peter’s Pence collection began as a funding source for the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome (recently inhabited by Pachamama!). But, when conveyance of these funds from Germany to Rome was blocked by the emerging German nation-state, a more aggressive local sale of indulgences resulted, igniting the explosive ecclesial grievances of one Martin Luther.
And, today, we witness the continuing turmoil in Germany, far beyond anything even Luther imagined, where failure to pay the state’s church-tax (!) is branded as “apostasy” (!!) and is cause for automatic excommunication (!!!). No sacraments for disloyal peasants!
Meanwhile, what’s left of the Church in Germany (many intend a German Church awash in rising funds even as membership erodes year by year), there’s this post-Luther thingy called the German “synodal way”—which history will record as the drop of cyanide in the punchbowl called the global Synod on Synodality.
Moreover, the corrupted tin-cup marketing of indulgences in the 16th century by a priest named Tetzel pales in significance compared to the mass-media marketing corruption of a priest named James Martin, and his tribe of other enablers, and worse, now metastasized throughout all echelons of clericalism.
Since 2015, is the sorry slide in Peter’s Pence charitable collections due only to COVID lockdowns?
First priority of the clerical movers and shakers in charge is to keep the money flowing.
-Guerrero states regarding the decline in Peter’s Pence revenues,
“This should make us think about other methods of soliciting the help of the faithful and receiving donations.”
-Fr.Thomas Reese when he speaks of diocesan offices applying for grants during the Covid lockdown at https://www.ncronline.org/news/coronavirus/signs-times/yes-catholic-church-benefitted-federal-ppp-loans-good-them.
“The Catholic Church was simply very good at jumping through the bureaucratic hoops required to get a PPP loan. Diocesan finance offices proved to be very competent. Good for them.
Likewise, the hierarchy is “simply very good” at and proving “very competent” at wrecking architecture, ignoring liturgical protocol, facilitating sexual sins and endorsing sacrilege.
I thought first priority should be praying and making sacrifice for the sins of their flocks – concern for the salvation of souls.
Just wondering if it has ever occurred to Guerrero, Reese, Cupich, Marx, Bergolio, Dolan and their ilk, that the dear faithful are coming to realize that the care and salvation of souls is not even on the radar of the shepherds at large. In other words, the little ones on the peripheries are wising up, so we’ll have to look for revenues elsewhere and hold forth with the New Synodal Way.
I think decline in Peters Pence funds has not much to do with the lowly virus, as the little flocks have always been a generous lot and would have found other ways to contribute to the PP collection.
Today the Church should be conducting a root cause analysis; “The decrease in 2021 is in addition to the 23% decrease between 2015 and 2019 and the 18% decrease in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.”
Considering the absolute trainwreck that is the Francis Pontificate, with it’s nonstop doctrinal confusion, attacks on the laity, and scandals involving financial corruption and sexual abuse, not to mention the closure of Churches during the Lockdowns, my only surprise is it didn’t fall further than 15%.
Though government and ‘other’contributions no doubt more than made up for the decline