Vatican City, Jan 4, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Australia’s Catholic bishops are considering raising questions with the country’s financial watchdog authority about whether any Catholic organizations were among the recipients of billions of Au… […]
Vatican City, Jan 4, 2021 / 09:30 am (CNA).- Archbishop Georg Gänswein urged Catholic journalists Monday to act with the courage of EWTN founder Mother Angelica.
Preaching at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 4, the personal secretary to Benedict XVI also encouraged those working in Catholic media to convey “the essence of the Christian message” in the spirit of Renaissance artist Michelangelo.
“In doing so, imitate Mother Angelica and Michelangelo. Be brave like Mother Angelica! And reach for the stars like Michelangelo,” Gänswein said, according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, which published the full text of the archbishop’s homily.
Mother Angelica began broadcasting from a converted garage in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1981. By the time of her death in 2016, EWTN had become the largest religious media network in the world.
The Mass, attended by EWTN employees, took place in the Chapel of the Pietà, which houses Michelangelo’s celebrated sculpture of Mary cradling Jesus Christ after the Crucifixion. The artist carved the image out of Carrara marble in 1498–1499, when he was 24 years old. It is the only artwork he ever signed.
Referring to the Pietà, Gänswein said: “The creative act of the sculptor is the removal of everything unnecessary, as we see here. In this respect, sculptors are particularly similar to God, who often only takes away the unnecessary in order to create something new.”
“Michelangelo also removed everything superfluous from the marble block from Carrara, in which this sculpture had been hidden for millions of years. In this sense, this marvel just had to be freed. It was, so to speak, the invisible essence in this raw marble block that Michelangelo recognized and exposed with his genius.”
“Finally, I can and will recommend this technique to you as Catholic media people.”
The 64-year-old archbishop told a German magazine last month that he was “grateful to God that 2020 was over.”
Gänswein, from the Black Forest region of Germany, is prefect of the Papal Household, but has been on leave from his duties as prefect since February in order to be able to dedicate his time exclusively to the former pope as Benedict XVI’s private secretary.
Following treatment for kidney problems in September, Gänswein told the magazine Bunte that he had had a “clarifying, very fortifying and encouraging meeting with Pope Francis” about his removal from active duty as prefect, which he stressed he knew was not a “punishment.”
Gänswein celebrated Christmas and the New Year with the Pope Emeritus at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where the two men and four Italian nuns reside.
In his homily on Monday, the archbishop urged journalists to imitate Michelangelo’s approach to sculpture by omitting “everything unnecessary in your reporting that all media report on anyway.”
“Instead, keep getting to the essence of the Christian message and make it as free as the young Michelangelo, without any competition,” he said.
“Because in all news on Earth — about all tragedies, catastrophes, wars or pandemics — the most important essence is always the good news of the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ.”
“It is precisely this message that we see here before us. Therefore, never cease to tell about it above all and to expose the beauty of this news to the best of your ability.”
CNA Staff, Jan 4, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).- The Polish parliament has declared 2021 the Year of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, in honor of the churchman who helped to preserve and strengthen Christianity under communist rule.
Resolutions of both house… […]
Dublin, Ireland, Jan 3, 2021 / 08:29 am (CNA).- In an interview with the Irish Times published on Saturday, January 2nd, the Archbishop-elect of Dublin, Dermot Farrell announced that he is looking into major administrative changes in the Archdiocese. Farrell addressed other issues such as priestly celibacy and women priests, but the newspaper’s quotes are too short and confusing.
Currently, half of Dublin’s priests are over 70, many of them retiring in the next few years, while congregations are aging and declining. Also, because of COVID 19, income is down by close to 80 percent, and priests’ income cut by 25 percent.
“I come as a pastor. “ “and I am up for the challenge” Archbishop elect Dermot Farrell pic.twitter.com/lQdlnUQb30
— Archdiocese Dublin (@DublinDiocese) December 29, 2020
According to the Irish Times, the newspaper held a “lengthy interview by telephone” with Farrell, which turned into two stories published on Saturday, but both were heavily edited and therefore unclear about the true thinking of the Archbishop-elect.
According to the paper, Farrell believes that in a world “where there are fewer priests”, every parish in the archdiocese will have to change and some will amalgamate, but this will be done in consultation with priests and parishioners, not over their heads.
“[It is about] talking to the people, it’s talking to the priests, listening. These are their churches, their faith communities. It’s not going to be the Archbishop, or Archbishop’s House going round saying, ‘Close this church’,” the Archbishop-elect is quoted as saying.
Also according to the Irish Times, the future Archbishop of Ireland’s capital city supports women deacons, “shows some flexibility” about priestly celibacy, and opposes women priests. But the quotes provided by the newspaper hardly include more than a few words and rarely a full paragraph. CNA has reached out to the author of the interview for the full version.
Pope Francis appointed Dermot Farrell (66) of Ossory, Ireland, as the next archbishop of Dublin. The Archbishop-elect is the Finance secretary to the Irish Bishops’ Conference, a position he was appointed to in March 2019.
Vatican City, Jan 3, 2021 / 06:15 am (CNA).- Less than two weeks after Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk was allowed to return to Belarus after a four-month exile, the Vatican announced Sunday that Pope Francis had accepted the archbishop’s resignation on his 75th birthday.
In a statement Jan. 3, the Holy See Press Office said that the pope had accepted the archbishop’s resignation in accordance with the Church canon that requests that a bishop offers his resignation to the pope at the age of 75.
The Vatican did not name a successor metropolitan archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev, but appointed 75-year-old Bishop Kazimierz Wielikosielec, the current auxiliary bishop of Pinsk, to serve as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese.
In Belarus, Catholics celebrated Kondrusiewicz’s 75th birthday on Jan. 3 by creating a video honoring his life of service to the Church and holding signs of congratulations.
Kondrusiewicz returned to Belarus on Dec. 24, nearly four months after he was barred from entering his native country after he had spoken in defense of protesters following a disputed presidential election.
Belarusian authorities permitted his return to the country to celebrate Christmas at the request of Pope Francis, according to the nunciature in Belarus.
“The challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and the socio-political crisis call us to return to true religiosity, which shows that we are created for something more than just caring for earthly affairs and pleasures,” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said Dec. 24.
“The doors of the former Soviet Union, where militant atheism has prevailed for three generations, have opened to Christ. We got freedom, including religion. Unfortunately, we soon forgot that freedom is not only a gift, but also a responsibility,” he said in his homily, according to the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus.
Protests in Belarus began Aug. 9 after president Alexander Lukashenko was declared to have won that day’s election with 80% of the vote. Electoral officials said that the opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, earned 10% of the vote. The opposition claims that she actually garnered at least 60% of votes.
Thousands of protesters against the election results were detained, including a number of priests. Archbishop Kondrusiewicz prayed outside of a prison where protesters were being held on Aug. 20.
Later that month Kondrusiewicz, who had been visiting Poland, was blocked from returning to Belarus by Belarusian border guards. His passport had been invalidated.
Lukashenko, who has served as president of Belarus since the position was created in 1994, suggested that Kondrusiewicz might be a citizen of more than one country — a claim that the archbishop denied.
The U.S., U.K., and EU no longer recognize Lukashenko as the Belarusian president. Canada, the U.K., and the EU have placed sanctions on senior Belarusian figures.
Lukashenko secured a $1.5 billion loan from Russian president Vladimir Putin in December as Putin denounced “external pressure” on Belarus.
Relations between the Holy See and Belarus have been strained over claims the Church in Belarus is being used to exert foreign influence, as well as Archbishop Kondrusiewicz’ exile.
Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, apostolic nuncio to the United Kingdom, acted as a special envoy of Pope Francis to Lukashenko, delivering a letter Dec. 17 with a request regarding Archbishop Kondrusiewicz.
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said that when he was finally allowed to cross the border and return to Belarus on Dec. 24 he knelt down, prayed and kissed the ground.
Kondrusiewicz had served as metropolitan archbishop of Minsk since 2007 and as president of the Belarusian bishops’ conference since 2015.
He was consecrated as a bishop by St. John Paul II on Oct. 20, 1989 in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. As bishop, Kondrusiewicz founded the Grodno Higher Theological Seminary and reopened about 100 churches that had been closed during the communist persecution, according to the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus.
In his homily on Jan. 1, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz called on Catholics in Belarus to entrust the year ahead to God “so that it may be a time of successful resolution of socio-political and epidemiological crises and a time of blessing that will bring many spiritual fruits to us and our society.”
Bridgeport, Conn., Jan 2, 2021 / 04:35 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has announced that Bishop Frank Caggiano is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday.
Bishop Caggiano has been systematically testing for COVID… […]
Vatican City, Jan 2, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).- Coronavirus vaccines are scheduled to arrive in Vatican City next week, according to the Vatican director of health and hygiene.
In a statement released Jan. 2, the head of the Vatican health service, Dr. A… […]
CNA Staff, Jan 1, 2021 / 10:42 pm (CNA).- A Catholic bishop in Nigeria, who was kidnapped on Sunday, has been released unharmed, according to the Archdiocese of Owerri.
The diocese, which is in southeastern Nigeria, announced in a social media post la… […]
CNA Staff, Jan 1, 2021 / 04:09 pm (CNA).- During his upcoming administration, presumed President-Elect Joe Biden will have to deal with the issue of abortion, and Catholics must engage with him says Charles C. Camosy in an op-ed published by First Things on the last day of 2020.
Camosy, an associate professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University, says that “Biden doesn’t agree with the U.S. bishops about everything, but he does care about what they say and regularly tries to fit their concerns into Democratic policy proposals.”
“Perhaps Biden’s newly-created office dedicated to reaching out to conservatives should at least be something worth paying attention to,” writes the theologian, but warns that “if there is to be any outreach, then the Biden administration will need to address the greatest problem with today’s Democratic party. And that is abortion.”
“No one supports a consistent life ethic more strongly than I do,” says Camosy, author of ‘Resisting Throwaway Culture: How a Consistent Life Ethic Can Unite a Fractured People.’ “But in advocating for the full vision of St. John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, it does not follow that we must give all issues equal weight.”
“The U.S. bishops, though they rightly have many priorities, are quite right to claim that abortion must remain the ‘preeminent priority.’ How could ‘the greatest universal genocide’ be anything else?” Camosy writes.
The author observes that “Joe Biden used to be something close to a pro-life Democrat, but he has dramatically changed his views in recent years, especially in the lead-up to the 2020 campaign. If his administration shifts the so-called Mexico City Policy so that U.S. tax dollars fund abortions overseas, as he has promised to do, Biden will become more directly complicit in abortion than at perhaps any other time in his life. He has also reversed himself on the Hyde Amendment, which means he is in favor of forcing pro-life citizens to pay for abortions with their tax dollars.”
But, “Biden has supported Hyde and even late-term abortion bans in the past. He has said he believes there should be room in the Democratic Party for pro-lifers. In the past he has supported conscience protections,” writes Camosy, asking: “Is there any hope we can get that guy back?”
“Given what is at stake for millions of prenatal lives—as well as their mothers (who are often coerced into abortions they don’t want)—Catholics have no choice: We must engage Biden after his inauguration.”
Reminding readers that “Biden is a political animal,” Camosy argues that Catholics could push for “a grand bargain” that would entail “much lower thresholds for legal abortion and much higher levels of support for pregnant women and families. The combination of socially conservative and economically progressive policies fits well with Catholic teaching. And it would save hundreds of thousands of prenatal lives by reducing both supply and demand for abortion.”
“Catholics committed to the fullness of the teaching of the Church have an opportunity. We can encourage Biden to return to his pro-life roots, pointing out the moral urgency of the pro-life cause.”
Charles Camosy resigned from the board of Democrats for Life of America (DFLA), writing in a column in the NY Post that the Democratic Party’s extreme support of abortion left him “no choice” but to leave his party.
Read Comosy’s full op-ed here: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/12/catholics-and-the-incoming-biden-administration
Vatican City, Jan 1, 2021 / 09:37 am (CNA).- The Virgin Mary’s motherly care encourages us to use our God-given time for building up the world and peace, not destroying it, Pope Francis said on New Year’s Day.
“The reassuring and com… […]
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