Denver Newsroom, Nov 19, 2020 / 04:10 pm (CNA).- Two pro-life groups are suing Washington D.C., alleging that the city discriminated against their pro-life viewpoints by refusing to grant permission to paint or chalk messages on the street, while allow… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Catholic schools in New York City will remain open for in-person learning on a school-by-school basis even as the city’s public schools have closed amid a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We… […]
Vatican City, Nov 19, 2020 / 01:50 pm (CNA).- The Economy of Francesco summit kicked off Thursday with economist Jeffrey Sachs serving as a mentor for young “changemakers” to create a new world economy. Sachs, who has participated in numero… […]
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 19, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The U.S. will be working against the use of technology to suppress religious minorities, the religious freedom ambassador announced this week.
“The United States announced today that we … […]
CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- A cardinal who is convalescing after he was hospitalized with the coronavirus said Thursday that he was praying for those “still in the moment of trial.”
In a Nov. 19 message, Cardinal Gualtiero B… […]
Vatican City, Nov 19, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- For more than 60 years, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa has preached the Word of God as a priest — and he plans to continue doing so, even as he prepares to receive the cardinal’s red hat next week.
&ldquo… […]
Vatican City, Nov 19, 2020 / 07:30 am (CNA).- A Vatican bishop said this week that a committee of outside professionals is being created to help keep Holy See investments both ethical and profitable.
Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), said Nov. 19 that statutes for a new “Investment Committee” were waiting to be approved.
The committee of “high-profile external professionals” will work with the Council for the Economy and the Secretariat for the Economy to “guarantee the ethical nature of investments, inspired by the social doctrine of the Church, and at the same time, their profitability,” Galantino told the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana.
Earlier this month, Pope Francis asked that investment funds be moved out of the Secretariat of State and into APSA, Galantino’s office.
APSA, which functions as the Holy See’s treasury and sovereign wealth manager, administers payroll and operating expenses for Vatican City. It also oversees its own investments. It is now in the process of taking over the financial funds and real estate assets which were, until now, administered by the Secretariat of State.
The 72-year-old Galantino said in the interview that the Vatican’s new law on the awarding of contracts was “an important step forward, then. But that is not all.”
“Transparency, fairness and oversight stop being meaningless words or reassuring proclamations only when they walk on the legs of honest, capable women and men who truly love the Church,” he said.
Galantino has led APSA since 2018. In October this year, he was forced to deny claims that the Holy See was heading for financial “collapse.”
“There is no threat of collapse or default here. There is only the need for a spending review. And that is what we’re doing. I can prove it to you with numbers,” he said, after a book alleged that the Vatican might soon be unable to meet its ordinary operating expenses.
In an Oct. 31 interview with the Italian newsaper Avvenire, Galantino said that the Holy See did not use money from Peter’s Pence or the pope’s discretionary fund to cover its losses in the controversial purchase of a London building, but that the sum came from the Secretariat of State’s reserves.
No “plundering” of accounts intended for charitable purposes had taken place, he insisted.
Galantino said that “independent estimates” put the losses at 66-150 million pounds ($85-194 million) and he acknowledged that “errors” had contributed to the Vatican’s losses.
“It will be up to the [Vatican] court to decide whether it was a matter of errors, imprudence, fraudulent actions, or something else. And it will be for the same court to tell us if and how much can be recovered,” he said.
CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2020 / 05:30 am (CNA).- The archdiocese of Vienna has reported a rise in the number of men training for the priesthood.
Fourteen new candidates entered the archdiocese’s three seminaries this autumn. Eleven of them are f… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2020 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- A law that curtailed pro-life outreach at the last abortion clinic in Mississippi has been repealed by the city of Jackson, leading to the dismissal of a legal challenge against the ordinance.
“This is … […]
Denver Newsroom, Nov 18, 2020 / 06:31 pm (CNA).- The U.S. bishops on Tuesday praised a virtual exhibit created by the Diocese of Green Bay, which features portraits of racially diverse Catholics from the diocese and testimonies about their experiences.
The exhibit, Open Wide Our Hearts, was developed by Peter Weiss, the Living Justice Advocate for the Diocese of Green Bay. Weiss told CNA that his job is primarily a teaching role, seeking to promote Catholic social teaching and raise awareness of problems of injustice.
In 2017, the same year Weiss started at his current position, the U.S. bishops formed the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism in response to increasing racial tensions and an outburst of violence in Charlottesville, when a white nationalist attacked counter-protesters of a far-right gathering, killing three and injuring 19.
Since its formation, the committee has produced an award-winning children’s book on healing and reconciliation, as well as organizing a day of prayer and fasting in reparation for sins of racism this summer. The bishops this week voted overwhelmingly to renew the ad hoc committee for another three-year period.
Weiss started to consider how he could use his position to help to bring the issue of racial justice into the conversation in Green Bay— a diocese which, he notes, is probably “about 90% white.”
“The experiences of particular racial or ethnic groups is not the same as what the vast majority of people are having within our diocese. And I think it’s important to reach out and find those stories, learn a little more, and find out what they can tell us about our understanding of ourselves as Catholics,” he said.
On a personal level, Weiss said, reports of various killings of black men by police was disturbing to him, in no small part because he has several biracial nieces and nephews.
Around 2018, Weiss attended a traveling photo exhibit in his community chronicling the experiences of racially diverse people, and was inspired to create a similar project for the diocese.
Weiss admits that he had no prior experience as a photographer or a curator of art exhibits. So, that November, he enlisted the help of several leaders of various ethnic groups within the diocese as an advisory team.
The exhibit was inspired in part by the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter Open Wide Our Hearts, which condemns racism as a failure to acknowledge others as children of God.
The exhibit features the portraits and testimonies of African Americans, Africans, Native Americans, Asians, and others, all of whom are Catholics who live in the diocese.
One of the portraits in the virtual gallery is of Gerry Martins, who is originally from India and who came to the U.S. as a Catholic missionary.
Martins told CNA that he was glad Weiss approached him to invite him to be a part of the project, adding that he is an amateur photographer in addition to being a missionary and father.
The exhibit seeks to convey the honest experiences of diverse people within the Church, Weiss said, and is not explicitly “about” racism, though some of the subjects do talk about racism they have experienced firsthand.
Though Martins said he has not experienced any overt racism since he arrived in Wisconsin, moving to such a predominantly white area made him feel like he “stuck out” occasionally at Mass and at Catholic functions.
He said the project has been “prophetic” in a way, since the Catholic Church has, since the events of 2020, been focusing more and more on the topic of racism. Martins recently moved with his family to Savannah, and he has shared the virtual gallery with many of his fellow Catholics in his new diocese. A lot of the feedback has been positive, he said.
Martins encouraged Catholics to be open to listening to other people’s experiences, rather than staying closed in stereotypical views. He said he hopes Catholic people of various ethnicities will be open to talking about their culture and traditions.
“We need to be open to listening…it will be good to have these conversations so people feel included. We are an inclusive Church, and everyone is welcome in the body of Christ. I’m definitely hoping we can get the conversation started,” he said.
The exhibit launched as a traveling in-person gallery during November 2019, and ran until March 2020, when it was forced to close amid the coronavirus pandemic.
When protests erupted during the summer of 2020, Weiss said he was inspired to work with the diocesan communications team to adapt the exhibit into an online presentation.
Weiss said he hopes people from all around the country will find the photos and stories compelling and relatable, even if they are specific to people within Green Bay. He said he also hopes that other dioceses may see the online exhibit and be inspired to create their own.
Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, chair of the U.S. bishops’ ad hoc committee against racism, praised the virtual exhibit Nov. 17 during the U.S. bishops’ annual fall meeting.
© Catholic World Report