Washington D.C., Jun 13, 2018 / 02:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The American Medical Association voted this week to return to committee a report recommending continued opposition to physician assisted suicide – a move that commentators have called a missed … […]
Miami, Fla., Jun 13, 2018 / 07:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the opening of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general assembly on Wednesday, the conference president issued a statement condemning the Trump administration’s adoption of str… […]
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2018 / 07:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In their latest round of meetings, Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals has finished and approved the first draft of what will be a new apostolic constitution outlining the role and functions of the Roman Curia.
The tentative title of the document is “Predicatae Evangelium,” meaning “Preach the Gospel.” The new constitution will eventually replace Pastor Bonus, the apostolic constitution issued by St. John Paul II in 1988, which currently governs the Roman Curia.
In comments to the press, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the title of the new constitution is subject to change, as is the rest of the text, a first draft of which was voted on and presented to Pope Francis by his Council of Cardinals during their June 11-13 meeting at the Vatican.
Burke stressed that there is “a lot of work to do still” on the text, and that right now the cardinals “are refining” it. The pope, he said, will make whatever changes he sees fit and “can give it to whoever he wants as an expert” for either opinions or contributions.
The bulk of this week’s round of meetings was dedicated to finalizing the draft of Predicatae Evangelium, though updates were given on the status of both the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the Council for the Economy.
British Msgr. Brian Ferme, secretary for the Vatican’s Council of the Economy, gave the group an update on the reform of the financial structures of the Holy See and the Vatican Governorate, which is economically independent from the Holy See and oversees the Vatican museums, the Vatican gardens, and the gendarmerie.
Ferme outlined the goals and fundamental principles of the Vatican’s financial reform, among which are the avoidance of waste, promoting transparency, ensuring that accounting principles are properly applied, and ensuring that international standards and the principle of dual control are followed.
Additionally, Ferme also highlighted several positive aspects of the reform to date, which include a gradual change in mentality on the need for transparency and accountability; a uniform procedure for preparing budgets and final balances; a greater attention to waste and a greater cooperation with and understanding of the financial reform currently in progress.
Each of the nine members of the pope’s advisory body were present for the meeting, apart from Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, who is currently in Australia preparing to face trial for charges of historical sexual abuse, to which he has plead “not guilty.”
Established by Pope Francis shortly after his election in 2013, the Council of Cardinals – colloquially known as the “C9” – is an advisory body on Church governance and reform.
Their next round of meetings will take place Sept. 10-12 at the Vatican, shortly before Pope Francis leaves for a Sept. 22-25 trip to the Baltic states.
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2018 / 05:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has named Michigan-native Msgr. Gerald Vincke as the new bishop of the Diocese of Salina, Kan., pulling him from several roles in the diocese of Lansing.
In a June 13 statement on Vincke’s appointment, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing said the diocese is “very happy” about the priest’s nomination.
“The priests of our diocese as well as myself will deeply miss our brother priest as he moves into this new ministry,” he said, and voiced his “love and gratitude” to Pope Francis for the appointment.
Vincke “is a fine priest, a man of deep faith in Jesus Christ, and a gentle soul,” he said, adding that Lansing’s loss is Salina’s gain.
Born in Sagisaw, Mich., in 1964, Bishop-elect Vincke is the ninth of ten children and has a degree in public relations and marketing from Ferris State University in Big Rapids.
He underwent philosophical studies at the Thomas More College in Crestview, Ken., before going on to study theology at the Athenaeum Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lansing June 12, 1999, after which he served in various pastoral roles. In 2003 he was named as the diocese’s Director of Seminarians and Vocations Director, roles he held until his 2010 appointment as spiritual director at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
Vincke was given the title “monsignor” by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, and in 2015, while still in Rome, he obtained a licentiate in Sacred Theology. The title of his thesis, which places an emphasis on spiritual theology, is “Following the Path of St. John Vianney for the New Evangelization with Evangelii Gaudium as a Guide.”
After returning to Lansing in later on 2015, he was assigned as pastor to Holy Family parish in Grand Blanc. He currently serves on the diocese’s Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors.
Atlantic City, New Jersey, Jun 13, 2018 / 03:09 am (CNA).- While the nation’s largest beauty pageant is proudly covering up in the name of women’s empowerment, Americans increasingly believe pornography to be morally acceptable – a trend th… […]
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2018 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that the greatest danger modern youth face is not the array of problems that surround them, but rather, the temptation to mediocrity – preferring to stay immobile rather than making a leap toward the next step.
Pointing to the Gospel reading from Mark in which a rich young man kneels in front of Jesus and asks how to obtain eternal life, the pope said this question “is the challenge of every existence: the desire for a full, infinite life.”
Many young people today seek life, but end up destroying themselves by pursuing worldly desires, he said, noting that some people would say it is better “to turn this impulse off, the impulse to live, because it’s dangerous.”
However, “I would like to say, especially to young people: our worst enemy is not concrete problems, no matter how serious or dramatic: the greatest danger is a bad spirit of adaption, which is not meekness or humility, but mediocrity, timidity.”
A young person who is mediocre has no future, Francis said in off-the-cuff remarks, explaining that “they don’t grow, they won’t be successful” because they are “afraid of everything.”
“We need to ask the heavenly Father for the youth of today to receive the gift of a healthy restlessness, the ability not to be satisfied with a life without beauty, without color,” he said, adding that “if young people are not hungry for an authentic life, where will humanity end up?”
Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during his weekly general audience, during which he began a new series of catechesis dedicated to the Ten Commandments.
The dialogue between Jesus and the rich young man in Chapter 10 of Mark’s Gospel, the pope said in his address, is “a pedagogical process” in which Jesus wants to guide the man from youth into maturity, beginning with a question about the commandments, and ending with an invitation for the man to sell his belongings.
This process of maturity, Francis said, can only take place “when one begins to accept their own limits. We become adults when we become aware of what is lacking.”
When Jesus asked the man to sell everything he had and give it to the poor, the man could not do it, and was forced to recognize that what he was able to give could not go beyond a certain margin.
The truth of mankind’s limits is one that has been rejected throughout history, often with “tragic consequences,” the pope said, noting that in the Gospels, Jesus offers his help, saying he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to “fulfill them.”
“Jesus gives fulfillment, he comes for this,” he said, adding that the rich man was taken to “the threshold of a leap, where the possibility was opened of ceasing to live for himself and his own works, his own goods, and – precisely because he lacked eternal life – to leave everything to follow the Lord.”
The invitation to the man to sell everything he owned was not a proposal of poverty, but rather “of wealth, the true kind,” Francis said, asking: “who, being able to choose between an original and a copy, would choose the copy?”
“This is the challenge: to find the original, not the copy. Jesus does not offer surrogates, but true life, true love, true wealth!”
In his closing remarks, Pope Francis also prayed for the beginning of the World Cup, which will take place June 14-July 15 in Russia.
Francis offered his greeting to the players and organizers of the games, as well as those who will watch the matches on television or through social media. He prayed that the event would be “an occasion of encounter, of dialogue and fraternity between different cultures and religions, favoring solidarity and peace among nations.
Washington D.C., Jun 13, 2018 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A ruling by the U.S. attorney general that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence may no longer qualify for asylum could “close the door” on the most vulnerable, warned a refug… […]
Washington D.C., Jun 12, 2018 / 04:41 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Americans who think abortion is morally wrong outnumber those who see it as morally acceptable, said a new Gallup poll, released Monday.
This result is consistent with Gallup’s findings since it first started surveying Americans about the issue in 2001.
In this year’s poll, 48 percent of respondents believe abortion to be wrong, and 43 percent say it is acceptable.
Abortion, said the poll report, is one of a small handful of issues “about which Americans’ views have not become more liberal over the past two decades.”
Asked whether they identify as “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” respondents were evenly split, with 48 percent siding with each label. Over the last three years, “pro-choice” respondents outnumbered “pro-life” respondents by an average of about three percentage points.
Most Americans favor at least some restrictions on abortion, the poll found. Fifty percent said abortion should be legal “only under certain circumstances,” while 29 percent said it should be legal in all circumstances, and 18 percent said it should be illegal in all cases.
“In a follow-up question asked of those [50 percent] in the middle ‘legal under certain circumstances’ group, most of these respondents say it should be legal ‘only in a few’ rather than in ‘most’ circumstances.”
The poll on abortion was part of the Gallup’s Values and Beliefs survey, which is conducted yearly. The poll was based on telephone interviews of 1,024 adults ages 18 and up, conducted in early May. The margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points.
Osorno, Chile, Jun 12, 2018 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The archbishop tasked with investigating the Chilean clerical abuse crisis said the main objective of his current visit to the diocese of Osorno is not only to express Pope Francis’ closeness to the local Church, but to help provide the legal structures needed to handle abuse accusations.
“In respect to our pastoral mission, we wish in first place to be a sign of the closeness of the pope to the people and Church of Chile,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna said in a June 12 statement read aloud to the press in Osorno.
Another goal of the visit, he said, is “to provide concrete technical and legal assistance to the diocesan curias of Chile, so that they can give adequate responses to each case of sexual abuse of minors committed by priests or religious.”
The archbishop stressed Francis’ particular closeness to the Diocese of Osorno, saying the visit will be carried out in a spirit “of service and of communion, in a context of prayer, of liturgical celebration and of mutual listening and cordiality.”
Scicluna, who heads the Archdiocese of Malta, is the Vatican’s top authority on sex abuse appeals cases. In addition to his post in Malta, Scicluna in 2015 was tapped by Francis to oversee the team in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith charged with handling appeals filed by clergy accused of abuse. He served as the congregation’s Promoter of Justice for 17 years beginning in 1995, and is widely known for his expertise in the canonical norms governing allegations of sexual abuse.
The archbishop is currently on a June 12-19 pastoral mission to the Chilean Dioceses of Osorno and Santiago with Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican’s doctrine office.
The two men, who have been tasked with advancing “the process of healing and reparation for victims of abuse” in Chile, will spend June 14-17 in the Diocese of Osorno, and the remainder of their time in the Archdiocese of Santiago.
In February the pair was sent to Santiago to investigate the clerical abuse crisis in Chile, which in the beginning largely surrounded accusations of cover-up on the part of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, who was named to the Osorno diocese in 2015. His appointment was widely opposed, with many accusing the bishop of covering the crimes of notorious Chilean abuser, Fr. Fernando Karadima.
The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis has accepted Barros’ resignation and that of two other Chilean bishops. Every active bishop in Chile had submitted his resignation at the close of a May 15-17 meeting between the pontiff and the country’s bishops, during which Francis chastised them for systematic cover-up.
Francis had initially defended Barros, saying he believed the accusations against him were “calumny” during a visit to Chile in January. However, after new evidence was presented and news of old evidence resurfaced following his trip, the pope sent Scicluna and Bertomeu to Chile to investigate, resulting a 2,300 page report on the crisis which prompted the pope to pen a letter to Chilean bishops in April saying he had made “serious errors” in judging the case.
Since then, Pope Francis has met with all Chilean bishops and two groups of Chilean abuse survivors at the Vatican.
In his statement to the press, Scicluna entrusted the Osorno mission to the intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to the Venerable Servant of God Francisco Valdes Subercaseaux, first bishop of Osorno, and to Chilean Saints Alberto Hurtado and Teresa of the Andes.
Quoting from Pope Francis’ recent letter to Chilean Catholics, Scicluna said the pope’s appeal for them to take action “is not a functional resource or a gesture of goodwill; on the contrary, it is to invoke the anointing that as God’s people they possess.”
“With you, the necessary steps can be made for ecclesial renewal and conversion which healthy and long-term. You can generate the transformation that is so needed. Without you, nothing can be done,” the archbishop said.
Continuing to quote the text, he urged all Chilean Catholics “not to be afraid to get involved and walk impelled by the Spirit in search of a Church which is everyday more synodal, prophetic and hopeful; less abusive because it knows how to put Jesus at the center in the hungry, in the prisoner, in the migrant, in the abused.”
Scicluna closes his statement thanking Chilean Catholics for their welcome and for the opportunity that “in community, we will give in these days of grace to continue rebuilding justice and ecclesial communion in Chile, as Pope Francis has asked us all.”
Washington D.C., Jun 12, 2018 / 03:58 pm (CNA).- At a highly-anticipated summit on June 12, President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un signed a joint-statement making commitments “to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
The meeting on Singapore’s Sentosa Island was the first time that an American president met with a North Korean leader.
South Korean Archbishop Kim Hee-Jung of Gwangju called the outcome of the summit “a surprise and a joy,” in a June 12 statement in Korean.
Peaceful negotiation is an ongoing process, the archbishop said, quoting the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et spes:
“Peace is never attained once and for all, but must be built up ceaselessly.”
The line from Gaudium et Spes continues: “Moreover, since the human will is unsteady and wounded by sin, the achievement of peace requires a constant mastering of passions and the vigilance of lawful authority.”
The South Korean bishops have called for Catholics to pray a novena for North Korea from June 17 – 25 with specific prayer intentions for each day. This includes prayers for the North Korean people, separated families, North Korean refugees, evangelization of the North, and the peaceful reunification of the peninsula.
Trump faced several questions in the press conference following the summit about whether he had addressed North Korea’s human rights abuses in his private discussion with Kim Jong Un. The question of whether to prioritize peace negotiations, security, or human rights concerns has been a frequent point of contention among North Korea experts.
Trump replied that human rights were “discussed relatively briefly compared to denuclearization.” However, he also said that North Korea’s abduction of Japanese citizens, and the regime’s persecution of Christians were brought up in his conversation with Kim. The roughly 45 minute conversation was unrecorded and through an interpreter.
“Christians, yes. We … brought it up very strongly. You know, Franklin Graham spent and spends a tremendous amount of time in North Korea. He’s got it very close to his heart. It did come up, and things will be happening,” said Trump. Franklin Graham is the son of the late American evangelist Billy Graham and the CEO of the Samaritan’s Purse organization.
After a one-on-one meeting with Kim Jong Un, Trump participated in an expanded bilateral meeting, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, Ambassador Sung Kim, and National Security Council Senior Director for Asia Matt Pottinger joined after for a working lunch.
The outcome of these meetings was a joint-statement signed by both leaders with four specific parts to the agreement.
First, both the U.S. and North Korea agreed to “establish new U.S.-DPRK relations.”
Trump said that he sees himself meeting with Kim again in the future, and told the press, “I also will be inviting Chairman Kim, at the appropriate time, to the White House.”
Second, “the United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
In part, this seems to include the end of U.S. military exercises with North Korea, which Trump called “war games.” It does not mean a reduction in military capabilities, he clarified.
Third, Kim Jung Un committed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” a reaffirmation of the Panmunjom Declaration, the statement he signed with South Korean President Moon Jae-In on April 27.
As with the Panmunjom Declaration, many scholars critiqued this June 12 joint-statement for lacking concrete details and a timeline to ensure the complete implementation and verification of denuclearization.
Lastly, the two leaders committed to “recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.”
This relatively unexpected outcome came as the result of “countless calls and letters and tweets” the president said he received from Americans that wanted “the remains of their sons back.” To his suggestion that the remains be repatriated, Trump said that Kim Jung Un replied, “It makes sense. We will do it.”
The American president seemed confident that the North Korean leader will keep his promises.
“We signed a very, very comprehensive document, and I believe he’s going to live up to that document,” said Trump.
Trump also said that Kim had a “great personality and very smart — good combination.”
Trump attempted to help Kim envision a brighter economic future for North Korea through a short video, which he said he showed the North Korean leader on an iPad toward the end of their meeting.
“The past doesn’t have to be the future. Out of the darkness can come the light, and the light of hope can burn bright,” said a voice in the video over images of the planet, prosperous urban cities, and photos of Trump and Kim.
Trump also claims to have attempted to persuade Kim to see his situation “from a real estate perspective.”
North Korea has “great beaches” said Trump, who continued “You see that whenever they’re exploding their cannons into the ocean, right? I said, ‘Boy, look at the view. Wouldn’t that make a great condo behind?’ And I explained, I said, ‘You know, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there.’”
President Trump said that he already has plans to meet next week with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and his “entire team” to begin implementing the negotiated terms.
“The biggest challenge will be developing a robust verification and inspection regime — an endeavor that will test the resilience of the fledgling U.S.-North Korea working partnership,” said John Park, the director of Harvard’s Korea Working Group, in a statement released by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
“A key obstacle ahead will be some actors’ use of the “Sentosa Statement” as a justification to further ease implementation of sanctions without linkage to denuclearization actions to maximize narrow national interests,” Park continued.
In the press conference, Trump said that he would not consider removing the current sanctions on North Korea until “we are sure that the nukes are no longer a factor” and there is “significant improvement” in the human rights situation.
“You can imagine how anxiously the Korean people and the church here in Korea are experiencing this truly historic moment,” Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, apostolic nuncio to South Korea and Mongolia, told Vatican News June 12.
“It marks the beginning of a still long and arduous journey, but we are hopeful because the start has been very positive, very good,” he said.
South Korea’s novena will end June 25, South Korea’s memorial day, and an annual day of prayer in South Korea for reunification of the Korean Peninsula. The day will likely be celebrated with particular urgency this year.
“Since 1965, the Korean Catholic Church has been praying for the true peace of the two Koreas and the reconciliation of the nation on June 25 every year,” wrote Archbishop Kim following April’s Inter-Korean summit.
In recent months, the country’s bishops have also called for daily rosaries for peace each day at 9pm in South Korea, which are expected to continue after today’s meeting.
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