Vatican City, Nov 28, 2018 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- The next gathering of the Council of Cardinals, also known as the C9, will take place Dec. 10-12. It will likely be the last meeting of […]
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The US House of Representatives passed Tuesday H.R. 390, a bill titled “Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act,” which seeks to assist with the rebuilding of the Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria.
Having also passed the Senate, the bill now will go to President Donald Trump, who has indicated he is willing to sign it.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 47 members of Congress. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) was the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the bill. The bill was passed unanimously in the House Nov. 27.
H.R. 390 would provide funding to entities, including those who are faith-based, that are assisting with the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery efforts in Iraq and Syria to religious and ethnic minorities in the area.
It would also direct the Trump administration to “assess and address the humanitarian vulnerabilities, needs, and triggers that might force these survivors to flee” the area, as well as identify potential warning signs of violence against religious or ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria.
Additionally, the bill will support entities that are conducting criminal investigations into members of the Islamic State who committed “crimes against humanity and war crimes in Iraq,” and will encourage foreign governments to identify suspected Islamic State perpetrators in security databases and security screenings to assist with their capture and prosecution.
The Senate unanimously passed a slightly amended version of the bill Oct. 11.
“The fact that this bill passed both the House and the Senate unanimously shows that the American response to genocide transcends partisanship and that there is enormous political will to protect and preserve religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians and Yazidis, who were targeted for extinction,” said Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson upon the bill’s passage. Anderson testified at a congressional hearing about the bill.
“We thank Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), the bill’s author, and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), its lead cosponsor, for their leadership in partnership with Knights of Columbus on this important bill,” he said.
Smith noted that “over-stretched groups on the ground” have been “fill[ing] the gap” in providing aid to survivors of Islamic State. He said that so far, Aid to the Church in Need has contributed more than $60 million, and the Knights of Columbus more than $20 million, to the region’s response.
The bill took 17 months to pass, Smith told CNA, and was introduced three separate years. Smith was able to visit Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, and he said he found the work the archbishop was doing there to be inspiring. The congressman said that it was important to include faith-based entities among those receiving funding under the bill.
Since Islamic State came to power in the region, the Christian and Yazidi populations have been decimated, Warda explained to CNA. And even though Islamic State is no longer in power and the area has been liberated, the region’s Christians are still struggling due to the conflict.
Many people have not been able to rebuild their homes, and a lack of job prospects cause
people to leave even though the situation is largely safe, said Warda. In order to provide long-term security for the region’s Christians, he said that there needs to be an emphasis on economic opportunities for young people.
“I’m a shepherd there. I have to really speak to my people there and tell them that it’s safe. It’s safe to be and to prosper at the same time,” he said. “So, providing jobs. Helping and really realizing some of the economical projects for the young people, to help them stay and prosper in the area.”
Many of the area’s Christians fled to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. While Warda said that he would love to work on luring them back to Iraq, he conceded that this task is “really difficult.”
Another effort to ensure long-term safety for religious minorities will require a cultural shift, Warda explained. The deaths or displacement of Christians and Yazidis are considered “collateral damage” by the government, said Warda. This mentality resulted in “the majority of the persecution” faced by those groups.
He laid blame on the public school curriculum used in Iraq, which provides no information at all about religious minority groups in the country.
“There’s nothing about Christians,” he explained, noting that non-Muslims are described as infidels, and conspiracy theories about these groups abound.
Warda was particularly pleased with the inclusion of support for the criminal prosecution of Islamic State members who committed genocide. This, he said, will ensure that “history will not be written by people like ISIS. For the first time, the victims of this genocide will be able to tell their story and to provide history from their side.”
The ability for these groups to have their stories heard will be a way to ensure that this genocide and displacement does not happen again.
“Unless you tell Muslims that there’s something wrong in the way that you teach Islam, the history will repeat itself,” the bishop explained. Even though Islamic State was defeated, “the ideology is still there.”
“Writing the history from the side of the victims; it would help the other (side) to realize ‘okay, never again,” he said.
“Hopefully.”
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a letter last week urging the Senate to pass the bipartisan First Step Act, which aims to “improve the lives of thousands of peop… […]
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 04:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Students for Life has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to defund Planned Parenthood, and encouraged pro-life advocates to ask the administration to do so.
The pro-life organization issued a l… […]
Tijuana, Mexico, Nov 28, 2018 / 03:01 pm (ACI Prensa).- Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón of Tijuana encouraged the faithful Sunday to share “from our poverty” with the Central American migrants arriving in the city.
In his Nov. 25 homily, Archbishop Moreno encouraged sharing “not out of what we have left over but from our poverty. Let us continue to show that solidarity of our peoples.”
Thousands of Central American migrants have reached Tijuana in their attempt to cross the border to the United States. The first migrant caravan, which left Honduras Oct. 13, numbers more than 5,600 people.
Archbishop Moreno said the large number of migrants “took us by surprise” since “we don’t have the conditions to receive them as we have done on other occasions.”
The Archbishop of Tijuana asked Mexican federal authorities to allocate resources to the area “so that we can attend to this extraordinary human emergency,” as well as “international aid, particularly from those humanitarian agencies who always are on scene in these particularly difficult moments.”
The prelate asked the United States to “take the initiative to invest” in Central American countries “so that in the future these disorganized human exoduses that cause so much suffering will not continue.”
Meanwhile, he said, “we as people of faith, only want to recognize the face of Jesus, a migrant face, and give these brothers an response of love.”
“We have a migrant face, we are a migrant Church, a border, a migrant Tijuana and that is why we are more sensitive to giving a hand to these brothers,” he said.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Maracaibo, Venezuela, Nov 28, 2018 / 02:07 pm (ACI Prensa).- Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala of Maracaibo on Wednesday condemned the abuse of a female minor by Fr. Iván Marino Padial, for which the priest has been arrested.
According to local media the priest, a member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects and parochial vicar of Most Holy Trinity parish, was arrested Nov. 24 having been caught in the act in his car with a 12-year-old girl.
The case is in the hands of prosecutor’s department for the protection of children.
Archbishop Azuaje and his auxiliary bishop, Ángel Francisco Caraballo Fermin, asked “forgiveness of the minor girl, her relatives, and the entire ecclesial community for the harm they have suffered in our very midst, which could lead them to doubt their faith because of the sin of someone who is called to care for them and encourage them on the path of faithfully following Jesus Christ.”
In a Nov. 28 statement they also expressed their “vigorous and outright condemnation of this lascivious act and of all sexual abuse, especially if such an act is committed by a priest.”
They said the Augustinian Recollects have already begun “the process provided by the Code of Canon Law … so that justice is restored, the scandal repaired, and the guilty cleric reformed.”
This is done “in compliance with and respecting” Venezuelan law, they said.
The statement added that Fr. Marino is prohibited from “the exercise of the priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of Maracaibo.”
The archdiocese reiterated its commitment that these cases would not happen again. After noting that the majority of priests “give their lives out of love,” the prelates encouraged prayer that “the Holy Spirit grant us a Church that ‘would be a living witness of truth and freedom, of peace and justice so all men would be encouraged with new hope.’”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 12:47 pm (CNA).- A second miracle attributed to Blessed John Henry Newman has reportedly been approved by the Vatican, fueling expectation that his canonization could occur as early as next year.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom wrote in email newsletter to his diocese last week that he had received a copy of the relatio, or official report, about the second miracle needed for Newman’s canonization.
“It looks now as if Newman might be canonised, all being well, later next year,” wrote Egan in the newsletter.
According Fr. Ignatius Harrison, the postulator of Newman’s cause for canonization, there are now two more steps to be taken before Newman can be canonized. First, a commission of bishops has to approve of the canonization, and then Pope Francis must declare him a saint.
Harrison told the U.K.’s Catholic Herald that he too hopes that this will occur in 2019, but added that “there’s no way of knowing” if, or when, this will happen. The Catholic Herald reported that the canonization could occur after Easter 2019.
Newman’s second miracle concerned the healing of an American pregnant woman. The woman prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover.
This miracle was investigated by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and apparently has new been confirmed.
Sr. Kathleen Dietz, FSO, is a Newman scholar, and vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Erie.
“Cardinal Newman was a man of integrity,” she told CNA. “A word you don’t hear too often, but it simply means that he followed what God wanted him to do, no matter the cost. And it cost him a lot.”
Newman was an Anglican priest and theologian who converted to Catholicism in 1845 at the age of 44. His conversion was very controversial, Dietz explained, and resulted in him losing many of his friends. Even his own sister never spoke to him again.
He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847, and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, although he was not a bishop.
Newman was particularly dedicated to education and was a prolific writer. He also founded two schools for boys. Dietz told CNA she suspects that if he were canonized, he could be named the patron of scholars and students.
“He was very much a scholarly person,” she explained, but this did not mean he led an isolated life. “He was extremely practical, and translated a lot of his scholarship into life,” she said.
Newman believed that evangelization of the faith could be done through quality education, Dietz said. Today, Catholic student organizations at non-Catholic universities are often called “Newman Societies” or “Newman Centers” in his honor.
He was beatified in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. The first miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession involved the complete and inexplicable healing of a deacon from a disabling spinal condition.
Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 28, 2018 / 12:41 pm (CNA).- Controversial “caravans” of Central American migrants have made headlines in recent weeks, and a quagmire at the U.S. southern border remains unresolved.
As policymakers and migrants consider their next steps, some have asked why migrants leave Central America to make a dangerous journey with an uncertain outcome.
Rick Jones, senior adviser on Migration and Public Policy for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Latin America, pointed to “three main reasons: violence, climate change and the lack of opportunities” in their countries of origin.
The first “migrant caravan” of 2018 left Oct. 13 from San Pedro Sula in Honduras. By the time they reached Mexico City in early November, they numbered more than 5,600 people. Other caravans followed in their steps.
“El Salvador and Honduras are among the five most violent countries in the world. In San Pedro Sula, for example, the homicide rate is 100 per 100,000 inhabitants,” Jones said.
For comparison, Jones said that in Los Angeles, “the homicide rate is 6 per 100,000 inhabitants.
“The difference in the levels of violence is overwhelming.”
Regarding climate change, Jones noted that “most rural people in Central America plant corn and beans which require a certain level of rainfall. If there’s too much water, they lose [their crop], if there’s no rain they lose [their crop]. And in Honduras, in the last five years they have had four years of drought, and this year 2018 they had drought followed by flooding. The people lost everything.”
“Finally, the people don’t have many options for work. Most people in El Salvador, for example, work ‘off the books’ and make two or three dollars a day. That’s not enough to meet basic needs.”
Jones said that the migrants “suffer along the way” to the United States. “They walk between eight and nine hours a day and their feet blister, their shoes have holes in them. At this point, many are sick, with respiratory infections and even pneumonia due to the low temperatures in northern Mexico.”
“We’re working with some sisters who are caring for them, but that’s not enough,” he said.
Jones said that CRS works in Central America with rural people, business owners, and young people looking for employment. Programs look to improve circumstances before people feel the need to migrate toward an uncertain future.
“We have a program called ‘Young Builders’ where we help young people get jobs. And we’ve placed about 15,000 young people in jobs throughout the last ten years. But it’s a drop in the ocean.
There’s more than a million youths who aren’t studying or working.”
They also help rural people “have real alternatives to planting corn and beans.”
“In El Salvador we’re supporting the reintroduction of the production of cocoa and that’s generating income, and helps to better manage the water and the issue of the land,” he said.
With these kind of projects, he said, people can hope to earn income and an improve the quality of their lives within their native countries.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Geneva, Switzerland, Nov 28, 2018 / 12:18 pm (CNA).- A Vatican representative to the United Nations called on the international community to ban killer robots – known as Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) – in a speech in Geneva last … […]
Newcastle, Australia, Nov 28, 2018 / 11:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Lawyers representing Archbishop Philip Wilson, who was convicted in May of failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse disclosed to him in the 1970s, appealed his conviction this week in a Newcastle court.
Archbishop Wilson was convicted May 22 of failing to report abuse committed by Fr. James Fletcher when Fletcher was charged with child sex abuse in 2004. The victims of the scandal, Peter Creigh and another altar boy who is unnamed for legal reasons, said they both had told Wilson in 1976 of their abusive experience with Fr. Fletcher.
The archbishop has maintained his innocence throughout the process, saying he had no recollection of the accusations, and insisting that if he had been notified of the scandal, he would have offered pastoral care to the victims and their families, and reported the event to his superiors.
Archbishop Wilson’s lawyer, Stephen Odgers, argued Nov. 27-28 that Creigh may not have clearly communicated to Wilson that he had been indecently assaulted, suggesting that under the law in 1976, the act described to Wilson was an indecency, but not an assault.
The ABC reported that Newcastle District Court Judge Roy Ellis countered that it was an assault under 1970s law, saying, “I don’t think, in this case, that this is going to be a problem for the prosecution. You have some problems, but this isn’t one of them.”
Odgers also questioned the archbishop’s memory of a conversation held 28 years before Fletcher was charged, and that he may not have known the information could be of assistance to the police.
Ellis stated, “We have all experienced having forgotten something and being reminded about it and realising you had made a mistake and you were wrong,” according to the ABC.
Ellis also noted that Archbishop Wilson’s behavior with a priest who asked him for advice relating to the abuse of another boy by Fletcher was inconsistent with him knowing and failing to report Creigh’s story.
Fr. Glen Walsh approached the archbishop in 2004, who “advised Father Walsh he … should be reporting it to police,” Ellis said.
“The way he acted in my mind runs completely contrary to him realising and then not remembering Peter Creigh’s evidence.”
Archbishop Wilson did not appear in court for the appeal.
Ellis is to deliver his judgement Dec. 6. He has allowed the archbishop not to attend the judgement in person, but rather electronically.
Wilson was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest July 3, and has been serving the sentence at the home of a relative in New South Wales, wearing a tracking device.
9News reported that if Ellis upholds Archbishop Wilson’s conviction, there will be sentencing appeals from both the defence and prosecutors.
Archbishop Wilson resigned as Archbishop of Adelaide July 30, after having said initially he would only do so if his appeal failed.
He said he changed his mind because “there is just too much pain and distress being caused by my maintaining the office of Archbishop of Adelaide, especially to the victims of Fr. Fletcher,” and he had become “increasingly worried at the growing level of hurt” his conviction had caused.
Wilson was ordained a priest in 1975, and consecrated a bishop in 1996.
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