Baltimore, Md., Jul 29, 2019 / 11:35 am (CNA).- Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore issued a statement Saturday rebutting a tweet from President Donald Trump that claimed that the city is infested with both crime and rats.
“It saddens me to … […]
Szczecin, Poland, Jul 29, 2019 / 11:03 am (CNA).- A Catholic priest was severely beaten in an attack by three men in the sacristy of St. John the Baptist church in Szczecin on Sunday, in what was reportedly an attempted robbery.
Fr. Aleksander Ziejews… […]
Vatican City, Jul 29, 2019 / 05:01 am (CNA).- The Vatican reported Sunday that bones discovered in previously hidden ossuaries pre-date the 20th century – and therefore cannot be the remains of a Vatican teen who went missing in the 1980s.
Hundr… […]
Vatican City, Jul 28, 2019 / 05:45 am (CNA).- As up to 150 migrants are feared to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, Pope Francis made an appeal to the international community Sunday to act decisively to ensure the safety and dignity o… […]
Vancouver, Canada, Jul 28, 2019 / 05:00 am (CNA).- St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be canonized a saint, was celebrated by First Nations people throughout Canada on her July feast day as an important cultural bridge between Catholic… […]
Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 27, 2019 / 04:47 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Carlos Garfias of Morelia expressed his solidarity with the Diocesis of Tlapa and with their bishop, Dagoberto Sosa, after a recent attack against a priest that resulted in the death of hi… […]
Denver, Colo., Jul 27, 2019 / 09:32 am (CNA).- Following reports from the Associated Press that several hundred priests protested the Vatican’s recent decision to restore Cardinal George Alencherry to his administrative duties, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar church has disputed the report’s accuracy, and said that people wishing to see the Indian cardinal ousted from his position are publishing “calculated propaganda” against him.
The spokesman also told CNA that despite the cardinal’s involvement in land deals that some have characterized as dubious, Alencherry acted in good faith and has the support of the Vatican.
Father Abraham Kavilpurayidathil, press officer for the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala state, told CNA that only one priest actually took on a hunger strike in protest of the cardinal, and was supported by about ten others— not by 450, as the AP report stated.
Alencherry heads the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in union with Rome and one of the two main Eastern Catholic Churches in India.
In November 2017 the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly’s canonical presbyteral council publicly accused Alencherry of involvement of dubious land deals. The council’s representatives charged that the cardinal, two senior priests and a real estate agent sold land at undervalued prices, for a loss of $10 million. They accused the cardinal of bypassing the canonical body’s authority.
The Vatican suspended Alencherry from his administrative duties “sede plena” in June 2018, meaning Alencherry remained archbishop of the diocese, but a temporary administrator was appointed to lead the diocese in Alencherry’s place. The apostolic administrator sent reports back to the Vatican about diocesan finances.
“The cardinal always remained the archbishop of the diocese, but for administrative matters were entrusted to Bishop Jacob Manathodath,” Kavilpurayidathil explained.
The Vatican put Alencherry back in charge of the administrative duties of the archdiocese last month, but two auxiliaries remain suspended. The results of the Vatican’s investigation have not yet been made public, but Kavilpurayidathil said the cardinal’s reinstatement illustrates the faith the Vatican has in his ability to lead the diocese.
The Syro-Malabar permanent synod, the governing body of that church, was directed in June to assign the two former auxiliary bishops to different ministries during a planned August meeting.
A June 24 letter from the Apostolic Nunciature in India explained that after his reinstatement, Alencherry “is asked to deliver the monthly budget and submit the more relevant administrative documents concerning the temporal goods of the Archeparchy to the Permanent Synod, always complying the civil laws.”
The cardinal’s suspension was related to the sale of land belonging to the archdiocese, also referred to as an archeparcy. The land appeared to have been sold at a significant loss. Kavilpurayidathil disputed the characterization of a “huge loss” for the diocese.
Kavilpurayidathil stated that the finance council for the archdiocese gave permission for the sale, but also said that normally the permanent synod would be consulted before a land sale of this size, which was not done in this case.
Kavilpurayidathil said the sale was made in order to pay the debts of the archdiocese.
“It is not a unilateral decision of the cardinal. It is a collective decision taken by the ruling body of the archdiocese. It can never be a single decision of an archbishop to sell the land,” he said.
“Certain technical things were not completed. But it was done in good faith…and the land was sold in order to repay the debts of the archdiocese,” Kavilpurayidathil said.
“In the case of the sale of land exceeding a certain amount should have been consented with the synod of the Syro-Malabar Church before selling the land…that formality was not done. The bone of contention is not the omissions, or failure of fulfilling the technicalities….in the execution process [of the sale], some of the technicalities were not observed. Ok, there are problems which can be solved within the frame of the Church. And those omissions are those things which could be solved within the Church…the economic side of the archdiocese is being solved now.”
Kavilpurayidathil also said that the land deal was more complicated than is usually reported, and that said that Alencherry’s actions were an effort to make the best decisions in an unexpected situation.
“A few pieces of land under the possession of the Archdiocese were sold, as per the decision taken collectively in the canonical bodies of the Archdiocese to repay the debt of the Archdiocese,” the priest explained.
“But, the broker handed over only a part of the amount to the archdioceses in the stipulated time. When cardinal understood that the broker has not given the expected money, he prevailed on the broker to get two plots of land, which were under the possession of the broker, registered in the name of the archeparchy as security or pawn for the money due from him. By doing so, in fact, Cardinal Alencherry tried his best to save the archeparchy from the loss in the land sale deed. In fact, if the two lands registered in the name of the archeparchy are sold, the archeparchy would get financial profit and not loss.”
Kavilpurayidathil also emphasized that recent protests against Alencherry had nothing to do with the case of a nun who accused another Indian bishop, Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, of raping her in 2014.
The nun who made the accusation is originally from Kerala state, belongs to the Syro-Malabar Church, but is under the jurisdiction of a Latin bishop in the north of India, Kavilpurayidathil said.
The nun called Alencherry and complained, in the local language, of harassment within her congregation. The call was recorded and later broadcast on an Indian television station.
It was reported that Alencherry may have been made aware of the nun’s sexual assault allegation as a result of the call before she filed an official complaint, a report which Kavilpurayidathil says is false because the nun never specifically mentioned sexual assault during the phone call.
Moreover, Kavilpurayidathil said Alencherry would not have had the authority to investigate the nun’s complaints, as her congregation is part of the Latin Catholic Church. As a result, Alencherry referred her to the Archbishop of Bombay and to the apostolic nuncio.
“Cardinal Alencherry has nothing to do with the internal problems of the [nun’s] congregation,” he stated.
“If a nun calls a bishop, the head of the church to which she originally belonged, and tells him ‘I am raped,’ or ‘I am abused’ by a bishop, why didn’t the bishop take action?” Kavilpurayidathil said, posing a question.
“One has to clearly understand that in the telephone conversation…she never said [anything] about abuses, that she’s raped. She merely raises the internal problems of the congregation…internal, administrative problems,” Kavilpurayidathil said.
“Cardinal Alencherry, being the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, has no jurisdiction to look into that, so he rightly tells them to contact Cardinal Oswald Gracias, to contact the nuncio, because in the Latin jurisdiction they are the [correct] persons to take action.”
“We are facing some problems in the Church right now, and the nun’s rape case has nothing to do with these problems,” he added.
Indeed, the priest said that media reports criticizing the cardinal are part of a “calculated move to defame Cardinal within the Church and before the public. In social media, you see almost every day demands that Cardinal should resign and go away. We cannot take these expressions or demands as casual ones. They are part of a calculated move.”
“There have been attempts to defame Mar Alencherry by a small group who constantly demands that he should resign. For this purpose, somebody forged a few documents that show Cardinal transacted money to business firms, that he has membership in famous clubs, that he convened business meetings along with some other bishops of the Latin Church of Kerala in a commercial institution etc.,
Kavilpurayidathil said that the Syro-Malabar Church field a police report about the alleged forgery, and that police have identified two priests and a few lay Catholics as possible suspects.
“The immediate cause for launching the hunger strike at Major Archbishop’s House in Ernakulam by one of the priests of the Archdiocese is continuing police investigation in the forged document case,” the priest told CNA.
“In the discussion, no decision was taken except the assurance given to the priests who represented the protesting group that all the concerns raised would be discussed in the Synod to be held in the month of August 2019.”
Vatican City, Jul 27, 2019 / 09:04 am (CNA).- Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, who served as Archbishop of Havana for more than 34 years, died Friday at the age of 82 after a months-long battle with cancer.
The Cuban cardinal oversaw the papal v… […]
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Jul 27, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA).- The bishops of the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City warned Monday against a false Marian devotion and other deviant ritual practices meant to cast out eavil spirits, according to UCA News.
The local Church’s auxiliary bishops, Joseph Do Manh Hung (who is also serving as apostolic administrator) and Louis Nguyen Anh Tuan, issued a pastoral letter July 22 warning that a priest on the outskirts of Ho Chi Mihn City was purporting to perform healings that thousands of people, Catholic and non-Catholic, have been attending.
The bishops said Father Joseph Tran Dinh Long abused Divine Mercy celebrations by putting his hands on people’s heads to purportedly heal their illnesses, and he was said to have allowed people to bear witness to having been healed, UCA News reports.
They also warned against Mother Mary’s Message, a Marian devotion movement launched by a lay man named Thomas Mary Nguyen Thanh Viet, who claims that Mary healed him of illnesses in 2010.
The Marian group had spread “appalling” claims that endanger the faith, the bishops said as quoted by UCA News.
The bishops urged their people to follow “mainstream church leaders” rather than engaging in practices to expel evil spirits, and urged unity within the archdiocese.
Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh of Hue, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam, and Auxiliary Bishop John Do Van Ngan of Xuan Loc, head of the Episcopal Commission on Doctrine of the Faith, last month issued a letter urging Catholics to avoid superstitious and fortune-telling practices and abusing the faithful’s simple beliefs for self-interest, UCA News says.
Washington D.C., Jul 26, 2019 / 05:05 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Church’s teachings on economics and government have a tendency to frustrate anyone committed to a political ideology. The Church has condemned both unrestrained capitalism, as well as communism, socialism, and totalitarianism.
But a column recently published in America Magazine, entitled “The Catholic Case for Communism”, by Dean Dettloff, has resurrected questions about whether it is permissible for a Catholic to be a communist.
“Christianity and communism have obviously had a complicated relationship,” Detloff wrote, arguing that even though “communist states and movements have indeed persecuted religious people at different moments in history,” Christians have been “passionately represented” in communist movements.
“These Christians, like their atheist comrades, are communists not because they misunderstand the final goals of communism but [sic] because they authentically understand the communist ambition of a classless society,” he wrote.
Kristina Olney, director of government relations at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said that description is an unreasonable way of presenting the situation.
“It is just simply false,” she said. “The fact is, that every time what [communists] will point to is that the ideas just haven’t being implemented correctly, not the fact that the results are a direct product of the ideology itself,” explained Olney.
Olney believes that communism’s very nature makes it impossible for a Catholic to be a communist.
“There can be no Catholic case for communism, because the dignity of the human person is at the root of the Catholics faith, and communism is an ideology that is anathema to religion,” she said to CNA.
Since modern communism was first developed as a theory in the mid-19th century, popes have condemned the practice and taught the right of private ownership of property. In 1846, Blessed Pius IX wrote that “that infamous doctrine of so-called Communism which is absolutely contrary to the natural law itself” would eventually “utterly destroy the rights, property and possessions of all men, and even society itself.”
His successor, Pope Leo XIII, called communism “the fatal plague which insinuates itself into the very marrow of human society only to bring about its ruin” in his encyclical Quod Apostolici muneris. Pope Pius XI wrote the encyclical Divini Redemptoris, where he also condemned communism. In 1949, Venerable Pius XII issued the Decree Against Communism, which excommunicated all Catholics who professed to be communists.
St. John Paul II made opposition to communism a hallmark of his papacy, and his pastoral visit to his homeland of Poland is credited with jump-starting the Solidarity movement there and the eventual fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
Christians have faced persecution in several countries that transitioned to communist governments.
In 2001, St. John Paul II beatified Nicholas Charnetsky and 24 companions, Byzantine Catholics martyred by communists in Eastern Europe between 1935 and 1973.
The “Red Terror” of the Spanish Civil War saw nearly 7,000 members of the clergy and religious sisters killed for their faith. Nearly 2,000 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War have already been beatified.
Today, the situation for Catholics in communist countries is still difficult.
In China, the Communist Party is involved in the selection of bishops in the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and the state exercises significant oversight of Church activities.
Olney expressed concern that the situation would continue to worsen under present leadership.
“You have a cult of personality that is reminiscent of the Mao era that is reappearing with Xi Jinping,” said Olney. The government is “forcing people to sing songs in praise of the Communist Party, and putting up communist banners in places of worship.”
In the U.S., communism and socialism have grown in popularity in recent years. A majority of young people today say they reject capitalism.
A “real sense of disenfranchisement” could be why Americans are embracing socialism and communism, explained Olney, which is a feeling that she empathizes with, but also chalks up to naivete.
“People saying that socialism can be a solution to the problems that they’re facing, but, you know, the fact is, although socialism is gaining in popularity, people can’t describe what it is,” she said.
Olney said she hopes the Church must “speak the truth about and stand for the dignity of the human person,” as these concepts are the root of the Catholic faith.
“I think that the Church needs to speak out against the regimes that are still committing gross violations of human rights and human dignity in the name of communist ideology today,” she added.
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