Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- In a video released on Thursday by Vatican Media, Pope Francis announced that his prayer intention for the month of March is for “the unity of Christians in China.”
“Let us pray together t… […]
Dublin, Ireland, Mar 5, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Mary McAleese has written to Pope Francis about the allegations of sexual misconduct against L’Arche founder Jean Vanier. The former Irish president told the pope she could leave the Catholic Church if the Holy See is found to have failed to act in the case.
McAleese wrote to Pope Francis Feb. 26 asking for an explanation about how Varnier was able to rise to such acclaim in the Church despite his sexual misconduct. The letter was published on her own website.
On Feb. 22 L’Arche International announced the conclusions of an internal report which found Vanier had abused his position and relationship to sexually coerce six women over a period of decades. Vanier died on May 7, 2019, at the age of 90. After his death, Pope Francis issued a statement mourning Vanier, and praising his work with persons with intellectual disabilities.
“I am conscious that you yourself have publicly praised Vanier and indeed spoke to him and of him in glowing terms just before his death,” McAleese wrote to the pope, noting that by 2019 the Vatican was aware that one of Vanier’s associates had a history of sexual predation.
Vanier, a Catholic layman, founded L’Arche, which is an organization that assists people with intellectual disabilities through the creation of communities. L’Arche has no official ties to the Catholic Church.
“Given that vulnerable men and women were the intended beneficiaries of L’Arche, and that Vanier was consistently lauded by the Church at the highest level without the remotest suggestion that there was anything worrying in his character it is essential that the Holy See now explains how it came to so publicly commend a man whose predatory proclivities it was aware of,” said McAleese in the letter.
McAleese said that she had “regarded Vanier as inspirational for decades” and was devastated by the report stating he had engaged in sexually manipulative relationships with six women over a 45 year period. None of the women had intellectual disabilities.
The former Irish president said that while she had “reason to despair at the failures at papal, episcopal and Curial level” in recent abuse crises, she would be unable to reconcile any knowledge that the Vatican shielded Vanier.
“If however it transpires that the Holy See failed to protect members of L’Arche community by alerting them to the known predatory activities of Vanier and (Fr. Thomas) Philippe, I have to say that this will be my final line of least resistance,” she said.
“I could not in conscience continue to support an institution capable of such gross negligence.”
Vanier’s spiritual mentor, Fr. Thomas Philippe, O.P., was a French Dominican who died in 1993. Philippe was accused of sexual misconduct and was suspended from public ministry following a canonical process in 1956. He ignored this suspension.
As part of his penalty, Philippe was ordered to inform all of his lay companions, including Vanier, about his suspension from public ministry.
In 2014, L’Arche received new reports regarding Philippe’s misconduct, and requested an additional canonical inquiry, which concluded in March 2015. A report by L’Arche investigating the professional relationship between Vanier and Philipe was published in June 2017.
“Now that both Philippe and Vanier have been unmasked, the spotlight moves to the Holy See,” wrote McAleese. She asked the pope to explain what the Vatican knew, and what they did “to prevent Vanier and Philippe living their grand lie.”
“What did it do or not do which allowed Vanier to grow into the uncontested legend of folk saint and icon, a reputation which must have made it so very difficult for victims to come forward,” she wrote.
McAleese said there is “undoubtedly a cloud of doubt over the Holy See,” and she urges the Church to deal with it “as openly, courageously and honestly as L’Arche dealt with the investigation into its founder.”
In addition to being an outspoken critic of the Church in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis, especially in Ireland, McAleese has in the past clashed with the Church on doctrinal issues, advocating both for the ordination of women to the priesthood and for Church recognition of same-sex marriage.
In November 2019, while serving as Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, McAleese stated that the Catholic priesthood was based on a “fundamental lie” and that many potential priests have a “deeply problematic” sexuality.
“The number of fake-hetero misogynistic homophobic gays I met frightened me,” said McAleese, recounting her time living in Rome among seminarians.
In June 2018, three months before she was awarded a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University, she described the practice of baptizing infants as “coercion” and said it should be stopped.
In March 2018, she was forbidden from speaking at the Voices of Faith conference, which was typically held in the Vatican. The conference was then moved outside the Vatican, and held as scheduled. In her keynote speech, McAleese accused the Church of maintaining a misogynistic attitude which seeks to drown out women.
Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 01:58 pm (CNA).- The International Theological Commission this week published a study into the question of whether two “baptized non-believers” can contract sacramental marriage or whether the absence of faith im… […]
Chicago, Ill., Mar 5, 2020 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- As national pro-abortion groups pour money into a Chicago primary race to unseat one of the last pro-life Democrats in Congress, pro-life groups say they will be fighting back.
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), an eight-term Catholic pro-life congressman, narrowly defeated pro-abortion primary challenger Marie Newman in a contentious 2018 race in the safely-Democratic district, but now he faces a rematch with a campaign backed by outside pro-abortion groups.
Newman, a Catholic Democrat who supports taxpayer-funded abortion and criticized Lipinski in 2019 for not supporting the Equality Act, raised more than $1.4 million in the 2018 race while focusing on Lipinski’s pro-life record. Having lost to Lipinski last time, she is now eyeing a victory in a 2020 rematch.
During the 2020 cycle, Newman’s campaign has received direct contributions from the pro-abortion groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Planned Parenthood, and EMILY’s List, a group that works to get pro-abortion women elected to offices around the country.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), EMILY’s List made the maximum-allowable $5,000 contribution to Newman’s campaign, and in addition has earmarked more than $90,000 in contributions to Newman’s campaign from individuals all over the country.
On Feb. 24, a coalition of pro-abortion groups announced a $1.4 million investment in the race to unseat the “Anti-Choice, Anti-Obamacare” Lipinski. The “independent expenditure” campaign includes direct mail, and both television and digital ads, and is backed by pro-abortion groups including NARAL, EMILY’s List, and Planned Parenthood.
Lipinski told CNA in early January that he had hoped for more support from pro-life groups in a tough primay battle.
“I’ve gotten some support from pro-life groups, but honestly, not as much as I’d like to see,” Lipinski told CNA on Jan. 9.
Now in early March, less than two weeks before the March 17 Illinois Democratic primary, pro-life groups say they will be supporting the embattled Democrat.
FEC filings show that Lipinski’s campaign has received the maximum $5,000 from the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, in December. There are no records of direct contributions from other pro-life groups Democrats for Life of America and National Right to Life.
SBA List also told CNA that they are “bundling” for Lipinski, a practice of collecting various individual donations and orchestrating for them to be sent to the campaign all at once as part of a bundle.
Meanwhile, Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) told CNA they will be working with around 10 to 15 volunteers from the group Students for Life, to canvass for Lipinski in his district in the days leading up to the vote.
Lipinski’s primary race is “Ground Zero for pro-life Democrats,” Kristen Day, executive director of DFLA, told CNA, “because he has just been so, just attacked by our own party, and really just disrespected.”
Some of the group’s members have donated to his campaign, Day said, but “there’s not as much pro-life Democrat money as there is pro-abortion money.”
National Right to Life political director Karen Cross told CNA that the group does not contribute directly to candidates, but rather makes “independent expenditures” such as direct mail campaigns.
NRLC does not usually get involved in primaries, she said, but has made an exception for Lipinski whom they have endorsed and previously supported in 2018.
The group has sent mail to “thousands of pro-life supporters in the district,” while “encouraging them to support him [Lipinski] in this primary,” Cross told CNA.
“Marie Newman is a hardcore, unlimited-abortion-through-birth” candidate, Cross said, noting the difficulty of finding other pro-life Democratic candidates down ballot.
“You’ve got extreme pro-abortion activists actively working in primaries to get a pro-abortion candidate,” she said. “They’re spending, together, almost a couple hundred million dollars in elections to get these candidates through.”
The group CatholicVote.org also said it will support Lipinski. According to records on OpenSecrets.org, the group’s candidate fund made $7,168 in independent expenditures for Lipinski in the 2018 election cycle.
“Dan Lipinski is a pro-environment and pro-labor Democrat. He’s been an outstanding friend of the unborn,” stated Joshua Mercer, editor of The Loop at CatholicVote.org.
His pro-life stance “drives the abortion lobby crazy,” Mercer said, which is why they have rallied behind Newman, “their ‘mini AOC’,” referring to the freshman progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) who has endorsed Newman.
However, in the face millions of dollars in negative ads, pro-life supporters of Lipinski will have their work cut out for them before March 17.
Unlike in 2018, Newman is reportedly shying away from emphasizing abortion in her challange this year—she apparently instructed reporters in a 2019 interview that they could only ask one abortion-related question, and clarified that “[t]his campaign is about the income divide, paid leave, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, transportation, and infrastructure jobs, period.”
At the same time, while not talking openly about her faith in interviews, she has referenced her Catholic upbringing in recent online ads to emphasize her roots in the heavily-Catholic district.
In one ad, Newman says she was born at Little Company of Mary hospital in the Evergreen Park neighborhood of south side Chicago, and baptized at nearby St. Barnabas parish—“just a real south side girl,” she is called in the ad.
In another video ad, two Catholic religious sisters gave their endorsement of Newman. Sister JoAnn Persch and Sister Pat Murphy, two Sisters of Mercy based in Chicago, said they would support Newman because of her “incredible power to listen” and because of her presence in the district.
Newman is “touting her Catholic upbringing in an attempt to mask her radical anti-Catholic agenda,” Mercer stated, saying that despite her efforts to snag the endorsements of nuns she “will become a rubber stamp for the radical left-wing.”
“That’s why these groups are pouring millions into this District,” Mercer said of outside pro-abortion groups.
“CatholicVote knows this District well. We helped Dan come up big in 2018, and we’re working overtime to bring him to victory again,” he said.
The hostility to Lipinski from within his own party is yet more evidence of the party’s leftward lurch on abortion, pro-life advocates said.
“I think we’re finally really forcing this issue to the surface within the Democratic Party,” said Terrisa Bukovinac, founder and executive director of Pro-Life San Francisco and a co-leader of Secular Pro-Life.
Bukovinac identifies as an atheist and a Democrat who is “whole life.” Pro-lifers in the Democratic Party “had a place at the table” for a while, she said, “but it was almost just like lip-service, to keep us in line.”
Now, however, presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and DNC chair Tom Perez are saying there is no more room in the party for pro-lifers.
“We see in the 2019 Marist poll that everyone keeps referencing that the majority of Democrats actually want abortion restrictions, but we’ve had the most extreme leadership we’ve ever had,” she said.
The staunch abortion support of progressive candidates such as Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders show the desperation of the abortion lobby, she said.
“We want to break that relationship between the abortion industry and the Democratic Party that is the pillar of power for the abortion industry,” she said.
“Once pro-life Democrats really take that power and stop giving aid in the form of a direct vote, we will be able to transform our party.”
Los Angeles, Calif., Mar 5, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- When *Maya was just 19 years old, ISIS soldiers invaded her home in Baghdad, Iraq, and ordered that she and the rest of her Christian family either convert to Islam or pay a heavy fee to stay in their home. If they refused, they would be killed.
The family did not convert, but they tried to pay the fee. It wasn’t enough.
When the soldiers came back, they shot Maya’s brother in front of the family and kidnapped her sister. They warned that they would come back and kill the second daughter if the family did not leave or convert to Islam.
The remaining members of Maya’s family fled to Jordan, and happily learned that their kidnapped daughter had escaped to Australia.
It was stories like Maya’s that inspired Gia Chacon last year to found For the Martyrs, a non-profit organization that raises awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians throughout the world and advocates for religious freedom.
“I was so deeply impacted by the face of this young girl who is only 19, so scared,” Chacon told CNA.
“She had everything ripped from her, and lost family members, and still she had faith and she had hope in God, and she knew that nothing – nothing – was worth renouncing her faith. That Christ would pull her through.”
Through humanitarian work with refugees from Iraq and Syria, Chacon heard many stories like Maya’s, of Christians persecuted for their faith to the point of threats to their life and safety.
But she found that Christians in the West are largely unaware that Christians in 50 countries around the world face high levels of persecution.
Some of the countries with the worst persecution include North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan – countries where extreme ideas like communism or radical Islamism fuel hate towards Christians, she added.
“The Lord placed a heavy burden on my heart for the persecuted church,” Chacon said.
“I wanted to do something in the United States for the people of the West, to not only wake them up to the reality of what’s going on around the world, but also connect them to know that we’re one body of Christ. When one member suffers, we all suffer.”
This May, For the Martyrs will host the first March for the Martyrs on May 9 in Long Beach, California.
Chacon said she hopes the event “starts a movement” of Christians in the West who want to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians throughout the world, and who want to do all they can through prayer and action to help them.
“In talking to the refugees, the number one thing that they would say is, ‘Thank you for remembering me. Thank you for knowing about my suffering and thank you for your prayers for me,’” Chacon recalled.
“So I think it’s really important for Christians of the West and the people of the West and the United States to know that one of the most important things we can do is just stand in solidarity, be the voice for the voiceless, and use our platform to raise awareness about Christian persecution.”
The march will be immediately followed by a ‘Night of Prayer for the Persecuted’ featuring speakers such as Sean Feucht from Bethel Music, Father Benedict Kiely, and others who will highlight the plight of persecuted Christians and what can be done for them.
“Our purpose for that night is to pray for the persecuted, worship the Lord for victory and for protection over the persecuted, but also to gain insight into the reality of Christian persecution and learn what we can do as a body of Christ in America for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world,” Chacon said.
The march and night of prayer come at a critical time.
A recent poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of Aid to the Church in Need-USA found a 10% decline in the number of US Catholics who say they are “very concerned” about global anti-Christian persecution.
“The softening of the level of concern about Christian persecution among US Catholics is also evident in their ranking of the importance of global issues,” Aid to the Church in Need USA said in a March 4 statement.
“Global Christian persecution is ranked as less urgent an issue than human trafficking, poverty, climate change and the global refugee crisis. Catholics who identify themselves as being very devout are most concerned about the persecution of Christians, but even this group has ranked human trafficking the issue of greatest concern for three consecutive years,” the group added.
This decline in concern is coupled with an uptick in persecution – according to For the Martyrs, the persecution of Christians has increased by 20% in just two years, with more than 260 million Christians worldwide now facing high levels of persecution.
The issue of Christian persecution has gotten scant attention in the mainstream media in the United States, Chacon added. Part of the reason for that, she said, is because of a “misconception that Christians have some sort of privilege.”
“This is something that we hear kind of often. Last year there was a hashtag that was trending that said #Christianprivilege. It was talking about how if you’re Christian, you somehow have this religious privilege or you don’t struggle for your faith,” Chacon said.
“There’s an idea that Christians don’t suffer, when in reality, one-third of the world faces religious persecution and religious oppression, and 80% of that one-third are Christians. So, an overwhelming majority of people around the world are suffering for their faith in Christ,” she said.
That’s why she and For the Martyrs are working so hard to bring this issue back to the forefronts of the minds of Christians in the U.S., she said.
“Never underestimate the power of your voice, and especially joining with the voices of other people who are advocating for the cause of Christians.”
*Name has been changed to protect privacy
Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 04:09 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Thursday appointed Bishop Gregory Hartmayer of Savannah to be the next archbishop of Atlanta, Georgia.
Hartmayer is a member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and has been bishop of Savannah since 2011.
In Atlanta, Hartmayer follows Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who was appointed to head the Archdiocese of Washington in early 2019, after leading the Georgia archdiocese for almost 15 years.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta covers 21,445 square miles in the northern half of Georgia. The archdiocese has over 100 parishes and serves around 1.2 million Catholics.
It is also the metropolitan see of the province of Atlanta, which encompasses the suffragan dioceses of Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina.
This means, according to Pope Francis’ 2019 norms Vos estis lux mundi, if a bishop in one of these dioceses were to be accused of sexual abuse or coercion, or of interfering in investigation of such conduct, it would fall to Hartmayer to investigate.
There are currently several ‘Vos estis’ investigations going on in dioceses in the U.S.
Hartmayer was born in 1951 in Buffalo, New York, one of four children.
He joined the Conventual Franciscan novitiate in Ellicott City, Maryland in 1969 and made his solemn profession in 1973.
He was ordained a priest for the Franciscan order in 1979.
In addition to a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from St. Hyacinth College and Seminary in Massachusetts, Hartmayer holds three master’s degrees: a master of divinity degree from St. Anthony-on-Hudson, in Rensselaer, New York; a master of arts degree in pastoral counseling from Emmanuel College, Boston and a master of education degree from Boston College.
Prior to being named bishop of Savannah, Hartmayer had spent 16 of his 32 years of priesthood in Catholic high school education, with the remaining in parish ministry.
He spent many years in New York and Massachusetts, but in 1995, he moved south to teach at a Catholic high school in Florida, before being asked to serve as pastor of St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro, Georgia.
Hartmayer was appointed bishop of Savannah in 2011.
Tokyo, Japan, Mar 4, 2020 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- Some Japanese dioceses have suspended Masses for several weeks due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic across the country.
Last week, the Archdiocese of Tokyo cancelled all public Masses for more than two w… […]
Manila, Philippines, Mar 4, 2020 / 06:18 pm (CNA).- After a recent military attack in the southern Philippines, a bishop has called on the government and rebel forces to withdraw soldiers from tribal communities.
Bishop Valentin Dimoc, Vicar Apostolic of Bontoc-Lagawe and the Filipino bishops’ chair for indigenous peoples, has asked both state and non-state military to leave tribal lands alone following reports on displaced communities and civilian violence.
Nearly 100 families were reportedly forced to flee from Diatagon, a village in the Surigao del Sur province, Feb. 29. Government troops had swept through the area looking for communist rebels, the human rights group Karapatan said, according to UCA News.
Three people were injured during a shootout among the houses of the village. The attack also injured a five-year-old child.
Army spokesman Ezra Balagtey blamed the rebels for the violence in the village. He said they were trying to prevent “the establishment of a government school for tribal children,” UCA News reported.
Bishop Dimoc issued an appeal to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. He encouraged the establishment of “peace zones” which would prohibit any arm groups from entering the tribal areas.
“The military and the communist (rebels) must honor such policy,” said the bishop, noting that it will help diminish displacement, violence, and bloodshed, LICAS News reported.
On Feb. 29, communist leader Jose Maria Sison said the group was still open for peace talks but not with government officials. He said he would rather negotiate with clergymen than politicians.
Three Filipino bishops accepted roles as negotiators at the 43rd Samar Island Partnership for Peace and Development.
Bishop Crispin Varquez of Borongan expressed hope that these peace talks would lead to an end to the insurgency, which has affected Samar’s economy and development.
“We are more than willing to cooperate and do the work for peace and progress of the island,” Bishop Varquez said, according to Philippine News Agency.
Belley, France, Mar 4, 2020 / 04:37 pm (CNA).- People should be more concerned about the epidemic of fear than the coronavirus outbreak, Bishop Pascal Roland of Belley-Ars has said.
“More than the epidemic of coronavirus, we should fear the epidemic of fear! For my part, I refuse to yield to the collective panic and to subject myself to the principle of precaution that seems to be moving the civil institutions,” Bishop Roland wrote in a column at his diocesan website.
“So I don’t intend to issue any specific instructions for my diocese. Are Christians going to stop gathering together for prayer? Will they give up going see and help their fellow man? Apart from measures of elementary prudence that everyone takes spontaneously to not contaminate others when you’re sick, it’s not advisable to add on more,” he said.
Many Churches around the world have issued precautionary guidelines for Masses, or cancelled public Masses entirely, because of the coronavirus outbreak which originated in China late last year.
The new strain of coronavirus causes a respiratory disease, COVID-19, and has a fatality rate of roughly 3%. There have been more than 93,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 81 countries, and nearly 3,200 deaths. The vast majority of cases and deaths have been in China.
France has had 212 confirmed cases, and four deaths.
Bishop Roland pointed out that during the great plagues of the past, Christians joined together in common prayer, ministered to the sick, attended the dying, and buried the dead. They did not turn away from God or their neighbor.
“Doesn’t the collective panic we are witnessing today reveal our distorted relationship to the reality of death? Does it not manifest the anxiety-inducing effects of losing God?” he asked.
Bishop Roland said that “we want to hide from ourselves the fact that we’re mortal, and having closed off the spiritual dimension of our life, we’re losing ground. Because we have more and more sophisticated and efficient techniques available, we claim to master everything and we obscure the fact that we’re not the masters of life!”
Coronavirus is an occasion to “remind ourselves of our human fragility,” the French bishop noted, saying that “this global crisis at least has the advantage of reminding ourselves that we live in a common home and that we’re all vulnerable and interdependent and that it’s more urgent to cooperate than to close our borders!”
The bishop observed that “it seems we’ve all lost our minds! And in any case we’re living in a lie. Why suddenly focus our attention on just the coronavirus?”
He pointed out that in France the ordinary seasonal flu sickens 2-6 million people, and causes about 8,000 deaths.
Continuing, the bishop said that he has no intention of ordering “churches to be closed, Masses to be canceled, eliminating the sign of peace at the Eucharist, or imposing such and such a way of receiving Communion reputed to be more hygienic (that said, everyone can do as they want!) because the church is not a place at risk, but a place of health. It’s a place where we welcome the one who is Life, Jesus Christ, and where through him, with him and in him we together learn to be the living. A church has to remain what it is: a place of hope!”
The Bishop of Belley-Ars asked, “Should you shut yourself up at home? Should you raid the neighborhood supermarket to stock up on reserves to prepare for a siege? No! Because a Christian doesn’t fear death. He’s not unaware that he’s mortal, but he knows in whom he has placed his trust.”
“And a Christian doesn’t belong to himself, his life is given, because he follows Jesus Christ who teaches ‘For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.’”
“So let’s not give in to the epidemic of fear! Let’s not be the living dead! As Pope Francis would say: don’t let them steal your hope!” Bishop Roland concluded.
Buffalo, N.Y., Mar 4, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The day before he left his office, Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo forbade his former priest secretary from celebrating sacraments, after the priest leaked audio recordings that showed Malone knew about cl… […]
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