Articles by CNA Daily News

Vatican City, Jul 11, 2018 / 01:15 pm (CNA).- A long-time priority of Pope Francis, curial reform – specifically the overhaul of Vatican finances and communications – has been hanging by a thread for the past few years, and some wonder about the pope’s ability to make any meaningful or lasting changes in the Vatican’s way of doing business.

Observers seem to be underwhelmed at the progress Francis has made on major governance issues, among them financial oversight and sexual abuse policy. Some insiders have noted a palpable sense of confusion about what the pope’s reforms are meant to be, and where exactly they are going.

Since June 2017, the man tasked with leading the Vatican’s financial reform, Australian Cardinal George Pell, has been on leave, and is now preparing to face a historic trial for accusations of sexual abuse in his homeland. Some observers have argued that even when Pell was working at full-strength, the financial oversight structures Francis put into place were so tangled by internal power grabs that pursuing meaningful progress had become a delayed goal.

The pope’s communications overhaul seemed to be in shambles after the man charged with overseeing the process, Msgr. Dario Edoardo Vigano, stepped down amid the fallout of March’s “Lettergate” fiasco.

In recent months Francis has also come under fire for inaction on the topic of clerical sexual abuse, specifically in Chile.

Accused of insulting victims and ignoring their complaints, the pope had a major turnaround on the situation in Chile after receiving fresh evidence against a leading abuser priest in the country and launching an investigation which yielded findings frightening enough to make the pope stop dead in his tracks and speed into reverse.

But one of Pope Francis’ closest aides over the past five years, newly-minted Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who is leaving the Secretariat of State for a new position as head of the Vatican’s office for canonizations, said recently that the pope’s reform still lacks an overall vision.

In comments to the press ahead of the June 28 ceremony in which he was given his red biretta, Becciu said that while many steps had been taken, it is still “too early” to give a comprehensive judgment on the Curial reform, since it is not yet finished.

An overall unifying vision is still missing, he said, explaining that “so far we’ve had elements, but not a unified idea.” This vision, he said, will likely be provided in the new apostolic constitution drafted by the pope’s nine cardinal advisors, called “Predicate Evangelium,” or “Preach the Gospel,” which has reportedly been completed and is now awaiting approval from Pope Francis.

A gloomy-seeming outlook for curial reform is often pinned on poor personnel decision-making at the Vatican. But two recent appointments to major posts could mark a turning point for Francis, and provide a much-needed morale boost for Catholics looking for the pope to clean house in Vatican offices.

The first of these is the appointment of a close Francis ally, Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, to take the reigns at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), which oversees the Vatican’s real estate holdings and investments.

During pre-conclave meetings in 2013, APSA was a key point in discussions on curial reform, as many cardinals recognized it had been being plagued by corruption and was in serious need of greater oversight.

Until Galantino’s June 26 appointment, APSA was led by Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, who has been accused of corruption and was, at one point, under investigation for charges of embezzlement in a previous diocese.

It took Francis more than five years to take action on APSA, which has been a sore spot for many who were hoping to see the pope crack down on financial issues. In a recent interview with Reuters the pope admitted that “there is no transparency” at APSA.

“We have to move ahead on transparency, and that depends on APSA,” he said in the interview. Many Vatican watchers are hopeful that Galantino will be able to bring in the accountability and oversight the office has typically resisted.

The second important personnel change is the appointment of Italian layman Paolo Ruffini as head of the Vatican’s communications office, making him the first layperson to lead a Vatican department, also called a dicastery.

Though Ruffini’s nomination was highly celebrated among Italians, who are pleased to have one of their own moving to such an important post, the new prefect is also seen as highly competent, bringing with him professional experience in journalism dating back to 1979.

Until his appointment Ruffini worked as the director of TV2000, the network of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, and he brings with him extensive experience in television, radio, and print, making him a choice perceived as a competent, well-rounded pick for the job.

Ruffini is considered to be in line with key priorities of the current pontificate, and his appointment can be read as follow-through on Pope Francis’ commitment to eradicate a clericalist mentality in the curia and to add more laypeople to the mix.

Despite the fact that Msgr. Dario Vigano, who headed the office until the “Lettergate” scandal, is expected to stay in the dicastery in the advisory role the pope gave him, observers are hopeful that at least some of the pope’s stubbornness in decision-making is gone, and that the days of poor personnel choices will be a thing of the past.

And with several decisions made that seem to indicate reform is moving in the right – or at least a better – direction when it seemed to be on the brink of failure, a natural question comes to mind: what changed?

Some believe the turning point was the pope’s reaction to the Chilean abuse crisis. After initially defending the bishop at the center of the debate, calling accusations of cover-up on the part of the bishop “calumny” and claiming that no evidence of the prelate’s guilt had been brought forward, Francis had a major turnaround when news came out that evidence had been presented years prior which he either never got, or potentially ignored.

It was a serious blow to Francis’ credibility in the fight against sex-abuse in the Church, and to his public image. Soon after he sent his top investigator on abuse to Chile to look into the situation, and after receiving a 2,300 page report, the pope issued a letter to Chilean bishops saying he had made “serious errors” in judging the situation due to a lack of “truthful and balanced information.”

Many observers pinned the blame on 84-year-old Chilean Cardinal Javier Francisco Errazuriz, who is a member of the pope’s nine-member Council of Cardinals and who has come under heavy fire from victims for covering up abuse while archbishop of Santiago, and for trying to discredit victims’ testimonies.

In his recent interview with Reuters, Pope Francis said his council of cardinal advisors, called the “C9” and whose mandate will be up in October, would be refreshed with new members.

Though such a decision is natural after term limits end, some observers have pondered whether the Chilean crisis and the accusations against Errazuriz, the absence of Cardinal Pell and separate accusations of financial misdealing on the part of Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, also a member of the advisory team, have, to a certain degree, awakened Francis to the need to be more selective with his inner circle.

The answers to these questions, of course, are pure speculation, but if one thing can be said about the pope’s latest round of appointments, it’s that while his track record on reform efforts has not been the best, and while there are still loose ends to tie up, he is at least aware of the problems and he seems intent on making good on his promises, even if that does not happen immediately.

And if the first five years of Pope Francis’ curial reform have largely been seen as ineffective, the appointment of Ruffini and Galantino just might give the flicker of hope needed for Catholics to decide that the jury is still out on the long-term process. However, as with any reform, really only time will tell.

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Vatican City, Jul 11, 2018 / 05:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Wednesday Pope Francis’ appointment of Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico to be coadjutor bishop of San Jose, California.

As coadjutor, Cantú will assist Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, 73, in the administration of the Diocese of San Jose. It is customary for the coadjutor bishop to succeed the diocesan bishop upon his retirement or death.

Cantú, 51, has served as bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico since February 2013. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, and French.

In 2016, the bishop was one of two delegates chosen to represent the U.S. bishops’ conference during Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico. After the pope’s visit, the bishop told CNA it showed Mexico “that the Holy Father cares about you, and that God is with us even in difficult moments, even in the darkness of life.”

Cantú has served as chairman of the United States bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace and is a member of the subcommittees on the Church in Latin America and Hispanic Affairs.

Born in Houston Dec. 5, 1966, he is the fifth of eight children. His parents, Ramiro and Maria de Jesus Cantú, are from small towns near Monterey, Mexico.

“There’s no dichotomy in being a Mexican-American. We love both countries because we have part of ourselves in both countries,” Bishop Cantú told CNA in a February 2016 interview

Houston Catholic schools were vital to the bishop’s formation and the formation of six of his siblings. Although Bishop Cantú’s father only received schooling up to 6th grade, he taught the value of education to his children, four of whom graduated college and three of whom have earned master’s degrees.

As a seminarian, Cantú worked on a committee with then-Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo to promote Hispanic ministry.

Ordained to the priesthood May 21, 1994, Cantú was made a bishop in 2008, at the age of 41, when Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop of San Antonio.

During his 14 years as a priest of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, he was involved in the Christian Family movement leading youth retreats; Engaged Encounter ministry; and the Metropolitan Organization (TMO), which addresses social issues in the community.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Dallas, and a master’s in divinity and a master’s in theological studies from the University of St. Thomas in Houston. He also earned his Doctorate of Sacred Theology in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Before being ordained a bishop, he was pastor of his childhood parish, Holy Name, in Houston. He also served as parochial vicar of St. Christopher Parish and taught at the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary’s Seminary.

The Diocese of San Jose was canonically established in 1981 and belongs to the ecclesiastical province of San Francisco.

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Vatican City, Jul 10, 2018 / 02:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- St. Catherine of Siena Church was built by immigrants in a Catholic Boston neighborhood, in the late nineteenth century. For more than a century, it welcomed the poor, the lost, and the searching. Then in 2008, the church was closed.

A decade later the building opened its doors again, welcoming a new generation of seekers. But while the sanctuary is empty, the basement of the building has become a Dollar Tree, and those who enter are searching mostly for a bargain.

Around the world, with demographic shifts and a decline of worshippers in some countries, a growing number of church buildings are being closed. Safeguarding the sanctity of the once-hallowed ground where believers prayed and worshiped is becoming a perplexing problem for Church leaders.

To answer the tough question about what to do with shuttered churches, the Vatican has decided to host a conference from Nov. 29-30, addressing the issue from a multi-disciplinary perspective, in light of a growing interest in protecting the historic and cultural significance many churches still hold, even if they are unused.

The“God No Longer Lives Here?” conference is being organized by the cultural goods department of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Italian bishops conference, and the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Church.

At a July 10 press conference announcing the November event, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Vatican’s culture office, said the problem of what to do with churches or sacred places that are no longer used is a “transversal” problem, with historic, spatial, socio-cultural and even academic and legal dimensions.

When the idea to host a conference about the topic was initially pitched, Ravsi said he was skeptical, thinking the issue would only be of interest to a small pool of experts, however, instead there was an “extraordinary reaction” not only from bishops conferences, but also academics and even UNESCO, who in the past has sent representatives to episcopal conference meetings to hear their thoughts on the closing of ancient religious structures believed to hold special cultural and historic significance.

In comments to the press, Ravasi said that while the issue of what to do with churches that have been closed has always been an issue, the current increase in interest is “one of the mirrors of the decline of religious practice, of secularization,” and of “a lack of priests.”

The prime reasons churches are shut down is due to the small size of the congregation that attends services, to a lack of priests, or when parishes merge for pastoral reasons, Ravisi said.

The conference, then, will help to highlight the crisis in the decline of belief, but it will also ensure that churches and other sacred places are not sold off to buyers who will but them to profane use given the history of the structure.

Part of the goal of the November conference will be to draft guidelines for what to do with churches that are de-consecrated and potentially sold.

The first day of the conference will be dedicated to several talks pitching ideas for solutions, followed by discussion. The second and final day will be dedicated to further discussion and the drafting of the guidelines, which will either be published as a directive from the Vatican’s Council for Culture, or they will be adopted and published at a more universal level as a document from the Holy See, though modifications will likely be made if the latter is the case.

Representatives of bishops’ conferences, the Vatican’s culture office and university professors will add their voice to the discussion, offering their own contribution for what the guidelines should include.

Conference organizers also announced a photo contest that will take place primarily on Instagram, with the hashtag “#nolongerchurches,” and will encourage photographers to document what happens to de-consecrated churches. The photos selected will also be displayed in an exhibit, and they will be published in the Italian Magazine “Arte cristiana, Casabella e Chiesa: architettura e communicazione.”

In comments to the press, Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA) and until now secretary general of the Italian bishops conference, said the topic of what to do with de-consecrated churches is a “salient issue,” and one that is important for the Italian bishops.

Though the question of what to do with an increase in churches being closed is primarily a problem in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzerland, according to a press release on the conference, Italy, the United States and Canada have also faced similar dilemmas.

And opposition to the sale of sacred spaces has increased even among non-believers, many of whom believe churches, even if unused, add historic, cultural and artistic value to their communities.

“What is the situation today? We have a change of context,” he said, pointing to the problem of decreasing Mass attendance, priest shortages and the closing of rural churches which have gone unused for years.

The issue is a social, cultural and economic problem, he said, explaining that when these churches belong to dioceses and parishes, it is easier to keep them in use and take care of them, but when these churches are no longer associated with a diocese or parish, often and unfortunately “there is a private interest” involved in what happens to it.

Professor Ottavio Bucarelli, who works at the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Church at the Gregorian University in Rome, was also present at the press conference, and told journalists the “sacred nature” of places of worship must always be respected.

“A church remains a church even when it is no longer a church, even when it has been transformed into something else,” he said, “so at a certain point we have to respect the faith of so many believers who have prayed and worshiped there for centuries.”

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