Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, speaks at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, Nov. 18, 2014. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Rome Newsroom, Dec 14, 2022 / 07:47 am (CNA).
Cardinal Joseph Zen has filed an appeal with Hong Kong’s High Court following his conviction last month for failing to register a fund that helped pay for the legal fees and medical treatments of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
The Hong Kong Free Press reported on Dec. 14 that the 90-year-old cardinal and former bishop of Hong Kong filed an appeal of the verdict this week together with four other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund who were fined about $500 (HK$4,000) each.
Zen’s trial from September to November focused on whether it was necessary for the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund trustees to apply for local society registration between 2019 and 2021.
Magistrate Ada Yim ruled on Nov. 25 that the fund was a “local society” and was subject to its rules. In her judgment, she said that the fund “had political objectives and thus it was not established solely for charitable purposes.”
Following the ruling, Margaret Ng, a lawyer and fund trustee who was convicted with Zen, highlighted that this was the first time that anyone had been convicted under Hong Kong’s Societies Ordinance for failing to register a society and said that the case is important for “freedom of association in Hong Kong.”
Along with Zen and Ng, singer-activist Denise Ho, cultural studies scholar Hui Po-Keung, and ex-legislator Cyd Ho have also appealed the conviction.
Sze Ching-wee, the former secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, has not filed for an appeal. Sze was arrested earlier in November under Hong Kong’s national security law. He has been released on bail and is required to report to the police in February.
Days before Zen filed for an appeal, a Hong Kong court sentenced Jimmy Lai, a Catholic pro-democracy advocate and former publisher of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily to an additional five years and nine months in jail for breaching the lease on one of his newspaper’s offices, according to AFP.
Lai, who has been jailed since December 2020 for his involvement in pro-democracy protests, also faces the possibility of being sentenced to life in prison under national security charges.
On Dec. 13, a Hong Kong court delayed Lai’s national security trial, initially scheduled for this month, until September 2023.
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CNA Staff, May 11, 2021 / 03:35 am (CNA).
Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter Tuesday formally instituting the new lay ministry of catechist. The Vatican released the papal letter, Antiquum ministerium (“Anc… […]
Pope Francis presided over Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 2, 2023 / 05:15 am (CNA).
On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis said Jesus voluntarily took on the pain and abandonment of his Passion and Crucifixion so that he could be with us in whatever sorrow or difficulty we might be experiencing.
Jesus “experienced abandonment in order not to leave us prey to despair, in order to stay at our side forever,” the pope said during Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square April 2.
“He did this for me, for you,” he said, “because whenever you or I or anyone else seems pinned to the wall — and we have seen someone pinned to the wall — you see someone lost in a blind alley, plunged into the abyss of abandonment, sucked into a whirlwind of ‘whys’ without answer, there can still be some hope…”
Pope Francis presided over Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis presided over the Palm Sunday Mass one day after being discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
The pope was admitted to the hospital for three days beginning March 29 for treatment for a bronchitis infection, the Vatican said.
An estimated 60,000 people were at the papal Mass, according to the Vatican Gendarmes.
In his homily, Francis spoke in a soft voice as he emphasized that whatever situation of abandonment we find ourselves in, Jesus is at our side.
The pope also said that we will find Jesus in those who are abandoned, recalling the death in November last year of a homeless man from Germany, who was found under the colonnade of St. Peter‘s Square.
Pope Francis presided over Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Jesus “wants us to care for our brothers and sisters who resemble him most, those experiencing extreme suffering and solitude,” he said. “Today, brothers and sisters, there are entire peoples who are exploited and abandoned; the poor live on our streets and we look the other way, we turn around; there are migrants who are no longer faces but numbers; prisoners are disowned; people written off as problems.”
Pope Francis said these people are “Christs” for us: “People who are abandoned, invisible, hidden, discarded with white gloves,” such as the unborn, the isolated elderly, the forgotten sick, the abandoned disabled, and the lonely young.
“Jesus, in his abandonment, asks us to open our eyes and hearts to all who find themselves abandoned,” he said.
Pope Francis entered St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile April 2. He was driven to the central obelisk for the blessing of the palms and the proclamation of a reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew and the singing of Psalm 23.
Pope Francis presided over Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The blessing followed the procession of cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, and laypeople carrying palm fronds, olive branches, and the large weaved palms called “parmureli” to commemorate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. Pope Francis has not led the procession since 2019.
For the start of Mass, the pope was again driven in the popemobile from the obelisk to the altar in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week, which will lead in to the sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, and concludes with the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection beginning at the Easter Vigil.
On Palm Sunday, the Mass includes the reading of the Lord’s Passion from the Gospel of St. Matthew.
In his homily on April 2, Pope Francis focused on a line from the Gospel and repeated in the Psalm — Jesus’ cry of abandonment to the Father — “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ In the Bible, the word ‘forsake’ is powerful,” the pope said.
An estimated 60,000 people attended Pope Francis’ Mass for Palm Sunday April 2, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
He noted how one might feel forsaken “at moments of extreme pain: love that fails, or is rejected or betrayed; children who are rejected and aborted; situations of repudiation, the lot of widows and orphans; broken marriages, forms of social exclusion, injustice and oppression; the solitude of sickness.”
“In a word, in the drastic severing of the bonds that unite us to others,” he said. “There [Jesus] tells us this word: abandonment. Christ brought all of this to the cross; upon his shoulders, he bore the sins of the world. And at the supreme moment, Jesus, the only begotten, beloved Son of the Father, experienced a situation utterly alien to his very being: the abandonment, the distance of God.”
“But, why did it have to come to this? For us. There is no other answer: Us,” Francis underlined. “He became one of us to the very end, in order to be completely and definitively one with us.”
At the end of his homily, Pope Francis remained in silence for over two and a half minutes before the singing of the Creed.
Jesus, the pope said, “has endured the distance of abandonment in order to take up into his love every possible distance that we can feel. So that each of us might say: in my failings — each of you has fallen many times — and I can say in my failings, in my desolation, whenever I feel betrayed or I have betrayed someone, when I feel cast aside or I have cast aside others, or when I feel forsaken or have forsaken others, we can think that Jesus was abandoned, betrayed, cast aside.”
An estimated 60,000 people attended Pope Francis’ Mass for Palm Sunday April 2, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
In our failures, we can remember that Jesus is at our side, Pope Francis said. “When I feel lost and confused, when I feel that I can’t go on, he is with me, he is there. In the thousand fits of ‘why…?’ and with many ‘whys’ unanswered, he is there.”
At the conclusion of Mass, Pope Francis led the Angelus, a traditional prayer honoring Mary.
In a brief message before the prayer, he invited Catholics to live Holy Week “as the tradition of God’s holy faithful people teaches us, that is, accompanying the Lord Jesus with faith and love.”
“Let us learn from our Mother, the Virgin Mary,” he said. “She followed her Son with the closeness of her heart; she was one soul with him and, although she did not understand everything, together with him she surrendered herself fully to the will of God the Father.”
“May Our Lady help us to be close to Jesus present in the suffering, discarded, abandoned people. May Our Lady take us by the hand to Jesus present in these people,” he said. “To all, happy journey toward Easter.”
From the popemobile, Pope Francis greeted those gathered in the square and in the adjoining thoroughfare after the Mass.
The full text of Pope Francis’ homily for Palm Sunday 2023 can be read here.
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the outgoing president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaking on Nov. 15, 2022, at the conference’s fall assembly in Baltimore. / Screenshot from USCCB video
Washington D.C., Jan 6, 2023 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
At a Jan. 5 memorial Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Archbishop José Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said that while the late pope will be remembered for his great intellect, his real legacy will be the love he had for Jesus and those he led to Jesus.
His homily, delivered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, follows:
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We thank the loving God today for the life and witness of our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, as he was laid to rest earlier this morning in Rome.
With the words of Pope Francis from the funeral Mass, we pray for Benedict: “May your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever!”
I’ve had the privilege to know and minister under three popes — St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and now the Holy Father Pope Francis.
Each has his own distinctive personality and pastoral style. In my own ministry, I draw inspiration and guidance from all of them, from their words, and even more from their example.
I will always be grateful to Pope Benedict because he chose me to be archbishop here in Los Angeles. It has been the blessing of my life to be your shepherd and pastor.
In my experience, Pope Benedict was a gentle soul, a beautiful man. It is true that he was a great teacher and biblical theologian, and one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the Church and Western civilization.
But I will remember him, most of all, for his kindness to me and his deep humility.
I remember his smile as he was imposing the pallium on me on the altar at the St. Peter Basilica on June 29, 2011. He asked me about my archdiocese. And as I said Archdiocese of Los Angeles, he smiled and said: “It is a big archdiocese!” I responded, “Yes, please pray for me!” He then assured me that he would pray for me and for the archdiocese.
Our pope emeritus put Jesus Christ at the center of his life. And leading men and women to friendship with Jesus was the purpose of his life.
In his first homily as pope, Benedict told us: “Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. … There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with him.
We see this beautiful encounter in the Gospel today, the story of the calling of Nathanael.
Our Christian life, the life of faith, always begins with an invitation.
It begins in friendship, in witness. One heart speaking to another heart about the love that they have found in Jesus.
This story that we hear today is from the early days of Jesus’ public ministry. Philip has just met Jesus and begun to follow him. Now he goes to invite his friend, Nathanael.
They both know the Scriptures, the writings of Moses and the prophets, and Philip tells Nathanael that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah they’ve been taught to hope for.
As we heard, Nathanael doesn’t believe him at first. But Philip is not discouraged. He says, simply: “Come and see.”
Philip makes this gentle invitation, and Jesus does the rest.
My brothers and sisters, Pope Benedict XVI is right: There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel! Nothing more beautiful than to meet Jesus!
He understood that the modern world is moving away from God, that faith is fading from the hearts of many people, that our society is growing cold and intolerant toward religion.
But he also knew that God is not finished with his creation, not done building his kingdom on earth. Jesus is still calling, still knocking at the door of every human heart.
Pope Benedict reminded us: the Church’s mission is Christ’s mission — to seek and to save the lost. It’s not just about popes and bishops, priests and religious. All of us share in this mission! Every one of us who has been baptized.
Each of us is called — in our own way and in our own lives — to be like Philip. Speaking to others of our love for Jesus and our friendship with him. Calling others to “Come and see.”
It really is true: when we meet the living God in Jesus Christ and follow him, our life changes.
To be surprised by the Gospel is to discover the truth about where we come from, and what we are living for.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus knows and loves each one of us, just as he knew and loved Nathanael. We heard in the first reading today: “God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.”
And Jesus makes the same promise to you that he made to Nathanael: when you come to him, “you will see greater things.”
When we allow his love to fill our hearts — the gate of heaven stands open before us. We see with certainty that we walk in the light of his presence, in the company of angels and saints. The little things in our everyday lives become like a ladder leading us to heaven.
I am confident that Pope Benedict will be remembered among “the great names in the history of God’s dealings with mankind.
But as he looks on the face of God and hears his voice, his legacy will not be one of great words and important books.
His legacy will be the countless souls who found friendship with Jesus through his love, through his gentle invitation to “Come and see.”
Let us honor his memory by renewing our own friendship with Jesus, and dedicating ourselves once more to the beautiful task of bringing others to be surprised by the Gospel!
May Mary Most Holy pray for us, and keep us all under the mantle of her protection.
Wheres Papa?