Articles by CNA Daily News

Denver, Colo., Jul 27, 2019 / 09:32 am (CNA).- Following reports from the Associated Press that several hundred priests protested the Vatican’s recent decision to restore Cardinal George Alencherry to his administrative duties, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar church has disputed the report’s accuracy, and said that people wishing to see the Indian cardinal ousted from his position are publishing “calculated propaganda” against him.

The spokesman also told CNA that despite the cardinal’s involvement in land deals that some have characterized as dubious, Alencherry acted in good faith and has the support of the Vatican.

Father Abraham Kavilpurayidathil, press officer for the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala state, told CNA that only one priest actually took on a hunger strike in protest of the cardinal, and was supported by about ten others— not by 450, as the AP report stated.

Alencherry heads the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in union with Rome and one of the two main Eastern Catholic Churches in India.

In November 2017 the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly’s canonical presbyteral council publicly accused Alencherry of involvement of dubious land deals. The council’s representatives charged that the cardinal, two senior priests and a real estate agent sold land at undervalued prices, for a loss of $10 million. They accused the cardinal of bypassing the canonical body’s authority.

The Vatican suspended Alencherry from his administrative duties “sede plena” in June 2018, meaning Alencherry remained archbishop of the diocese, but a temporary administrator was appointed to lead the diocese in Alencherry’s place. The apostolic administrator sent reports back to the Vatican about diocesan finances.

“The cardinal always remained the archbishop of the diocese, but for administrative matters were entrusted to Bishop Jacob Manathodath,” Kavilpurayidathil explained.

The Vatican put Alencherry back in charge of the administrative duties of the archdiocese last month, but two auxiliaries remain suspended. The results of the Vatican’s investigation have not yet been made public, but Kavilpurayidathil said the cardinal’s reinstatement illustrates the faith the Vatican has in his ability to lead the diocese.

The Syro-Malabar permanent synod, the governing body of that church, was directed in June to assign the two former auxiliary bishops to different ministries during a planned August meeting.

A June 24 letter from the Apostolic Nunciature in India explained that after his reinstatement, Alencherry “is asked to deliver the monthly budget and submit the more relevant administrative documents concerning the temporal goods of the Archeparchy to the Permanent Synod, always complying the civil laws.”

The cardinal’s suspension was related to the sale of land belonging to the archdiocese, also referred to as an archeparcy. The land appeared to have been sold at a significant loss. Kavilpurayidathil disputed the characterization of a “huge loss” for the diocese.

Kavilpurayidathil stated that the finance council for the archdiocese gave permission for the sale, but also said that normally the permanent synod would be consulted before a land sale of this size, which was not done in this case.

Kavilpurayidathil said the sale was made in order to pay the debts of the archdiocese.

“It is not a unilateral decision of the cardinal. It is a collective decision taken by the ruling body of the archdiocese. It can never be a single decision of an archbishop to sell the land,” he said.

“Certain technical things were not completed. But it was done in good faith…and the land was sold in order to repay the debts of the archdiocese,” Kavilpurayidathil said.

“In the case of the sale of land exceeding a certain amount should have been consented with the synod of the Syro-Malabar Church before selling the land…that formality was not done. The bone of contention is not the omissions, or failure of fulfilling the technicalities….in the execution process [of the sale], some of the technicalities were not observed. Ok, there are problems which can be solved within the frame of the Church. And those omissions are those things which could be solved within the Church…the economic side of the archdiocese is being solved now.”

Kavilpurayidathil also said that the land deal was more complicated than is usually reported, and that said that Alencherry’s actions were an effort to make the best decisions in an unexpected situation.

“A few pieces of land under the possession of the Archdiocese were sold, as per the decision taken collectively in the canonical bodies of the Archdiocese to repay the debt of the Archdiocese,” the priest explained.  

“But, the broker handed over only a part of the amount to the archdioceses in the stipulated time. When cardinal understood that the broker has not given the expected money, he prevailed on the broker to get two plots of land, which were under the possession of the broker, registered in the name of the archeparchy as security or pawn for the money due from him. By doing so, in fact, Cardinal Alencherry tried his best to save the archeparchy from the loss in the land sale deed. In fact, if the two lands registered in the name of the archeparchy are sold, the archeparchy would get financial profit and not loss.”

Kavilpurayidathil also emphasized that recent protests against Alencherry had nothing to do with the case of a nun who accused another Indian bishop, Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, of raping her in 2014.

The nun who made the accusation is originally from Kerala state, belongs to the Syro-Malabar Church, but is under the jurisdiction of a Latin bishop in the north of India, Kavilpurayidathil said.

The nun called Alencherry and complained, in the local language, of harassment within her congregation. The call was recorded and later broadcast on an Indian television station.

It was reported that Alencherry may have been made aware of the nun’s sexual assault allegation as a result of the call before she filed an official complaint, a report which Kavilpurayidathil says is false because the nun never specifically mentioned sexual assault during the phone call. 

Moreover, Kavilpurayidathil said Alencherry would not have had the authority to investigate the nun’s complaints, as her congregation is part of the Latin Catholic Church. As a result, Alencherry referred her to the Archbishop of Bombay and to the apostolic nuncio.

“Cardinal Alencherry has nothing to do with the internal problems of the [nun’s] congregation,” he stated.

“If a nun calls a bishop, the head of the church to which she originally belonged, and tells him ‘I am raped,’ or ‘I am abused’ by a bishop, why didn’t the bishop take action?” Kavilpurayidathil said, posing a question.

“One has to clearly understand that in the telephone conversation…she never said [anything] about abuses, that she’s raped. She merely raises the internal problems of the congregation…internal, administrative problems,” Kavilpurayidathil said.

“Cardinal Alencherry, being the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, has no jurisdiction to look into that, so he rightly tells them to contact Cardinal Oswald Gracias, to contact the nuncio, because in the Latin jurisdiction they are the [correct] persons to take action.”

“We are facing some problems in the Church right now, and the nun’s rape case has nothing to do with these problems,” he added.

Indeed, the priest said that media reports criticizing the cardinal are part of  a “calculated move to defame Cardinal within the Church and before the public. In social media, you see almost every day demands that Cardinal should resign and go away. We cannot take these expressions or demands as casual ones. They are part of a calculated move.”

“There have been attempts to defame Mar Alencherry by a small group who constantly demands that he should resign. For this purpose, somebody forged a few documents that show Cardinal transacted money to business firms, that he has membership in famous clubs, that he convened business meetings along with some other bishops of the Latin Church of Kerala in a commercial institution etc.,

Kavilpurayidathil said that the Syro-Malabar Church field a police report about the alleged forgery, and that police have identified two priests and a few lay Catholics as possible suspects.
  
“The immediate cause for launching the hunger strike at Major Archbishop’s House in Ernakulam by one of the priests of the Archdiocese is continuing  police investigation in the forged document case,” the priest told CNA.

“In the discussion, no decision was taken except the assurance given to the priests who represented the protesting group that all the concerns raised would be discussed in the Synod to be held in the month of August 2019.”

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Jul 27, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA).- The bishops of the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City warned Monday against a false Marian devotion and other deviant ritual practices meant to cast out eavil spirits, according to UCA News.

The local Church’s auxiliary bishops, Joseph Do Manh Hung (who is also serving as apostolic administrator) and Louis Nguyen Anh Tuan, issued a pastoral letter July 22 warning that a priest on the outskirts of Ho Chi Mihn City was purporting to perform healings that thousands of people, Catholic and non-Catholic, have been attending.

The bishops said Father Joseph Tran Dinh Long abused Divine Mercy celebrations by putting his hands on people’s heads to purportedly heal their illnesses, and he was said to have allowed people to bear witness to having been healed, UCA News reports.

They also warned against Mother Mary’s Message, a Marian devotion movement launched by a lay man named Thomas Mary Nguyen Thanh Viet, who claims that Mary healed him of illnesses in 2010.

The Marian group had spread “appalling” claims that endanger the faith, the bishops said as quoted by UCA News.

The bishops urged their people to follow “mainstream church leaders” rather than engaging in practices to expel evil spirits, and urged unity within the archdiocese.

Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh of Hue, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam, and Auxiliary Bishop John Do Van Ngan of Xuan Loc, head of the Episcopal Commission on Doctrine of the Faith, last month issued a letter urging Catholics to avoid superstitious and fortune-telling practices and abusing the faithful’s simple beliefs for self-interest, UCA News says.

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Manila, Philippines, Jul 26, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Catholic leaders in the Philippines are calling on Catholics and lawmakers to resist President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to revive the death penalty.

The president called for its reinstatement during a lengthy State of the Nation Address in Manila July 22, while activists, clergy, seminarians, and nuns protested the president in the rainy streets, according to UCA News.

Church leaders have said that despite his claims of success, Duterte has helped bring about “the most trying period in the nation’s history.”

“A vision of a country where peace and justice reigns, sovereignty is cherished and human rights are upheld … has been sliding into oblivion,” an ecumenical group said in a statement, according to UCA News.

The country, the group noted, is undergoing a crisis that is not only social and political, but moral and spiritual as well.

“The regression of our country’s democracy, the emboldenment of a tyrannical regime and the oppression of the people are fueling a national catastrophe,” they said.

Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, urged caution for lawmakers when considering legislation that would reinstate the death penalty.

“We urge them to study the bills thoroughly and determine if they will really address the problems of drug trafficking and plunder,” he said, according to CBCP News.

Diamante also urged lawmakers not to reinstate the death penalty as a quick fix, or in order to appease Duterte.

“They have been elected by the people to work for their welfare, not the President’s,” he said. “Don’t give our people an illusion and a quick fix ‘solution’ to our problems. They deserve something better.”

The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines under the country’s 1987 constitution. In the 1990s, the policy underwent varying periods of moratorium and reinstatement, until it was abolished again under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006, according to Human Rights Watch.

The last time death penalty legislation was considered by the country’s Congress in 2017, it faced strong opposition from lawmakers, UCA noted.

The Philippines is a majority-Catholic nation, with roughly 86% of the country’s 104.9 million people identifying as Catholic.

In August 2018, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a new draft of the catechism’s paragraph regarding capital punishment. Quoting Pope Francis’ words in a speech of Oct. 11, 2017, the new paragraph states, in part, that “the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”

Reasons for changing the teaching, the paragraph says, include: the increasing effectiveness of detention systems, growing understanding of the unchanging dignity of the person, and leaving open the possibility of conversion.

Fr. Thomas Petri, O.P., a moral theologian at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., told CNA at the time of the revision that he thinks this change “further absolutizes the pastoral conclusion made by John Paul II.”

“Nothing in the new wording of paragraph 2267 suggests the death penalty is intrinsically evil. Indeed, nothing could suggest that because it would contradict the firm teaching of the Church,” Fr. Petri added.

Duterte has a rocky relationship with the Catholic bishops and clergy of his country, frequently calling them various names and even calling for them to be killed, in large part because they have resisted his war on drugs, which has lead to a spike in extrajudicial killings since he took office in 2016.

Bishop Antonio Tobias of Novaliches hosted a “Mass for Truth” for activists before Duterte’s SONA address. Tobias, along with two other bishops, was recently charged with libel and sedition for allegedly accusing Duterte’s family of having connections to the illegal drug trade, UCA reported.

Tobias said that the war on drugs was gotten worse since Duterte came to power in 2016, despite his vows to quash it.

 “After three years, the number of drug users increased and many have died,” Tobias told UCA News.

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