News Briefs

Underground bishop, vicar general detained in China’s Hebei province

March 29, 2019 CNA Daily News 3

Xuanhua, China, Mar 29, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- A bishop of the underground Church in China’s Hebei province and his vicar general were placed in detention this week, and a lay Catholic activist was jailed in Hong Kong.

According to UCA News, Coadjutor Bishop Augustine Cui Tai of Xuanhua and his vicar general, Father Zhang Jianlin, were detained by officials of Hebei province this week.

“The government’s aim is to paralyze the diocese. If the diocese fails to manage the community, then the government will use this as an opportunity to take it over,” an anonymous priest from the underground Church told UCA News.

According to the UCA News, the bishop had been taken in custody the morning of March 29 after he received a text message in regards to his arrest. He had also been detained for indoctrination in April last year and was recently released in January.

UCA News reported that Father Zhang was seized March 28 for violating a traveling restriction. Since his identity papers were confiscated, the priest has not been allowed to travel even to a neighboring city.

In November two of Bishop Cui’s priests, Fr. Su Guipeng and Fr. Zhao He, were abducted to be “indoctrinated on the religious policy of the Chinese government … because they refuse to enroll in the Patriotic Association.” Two priests of the Diocese of Chongli-Xiwanzi, also in Hebei, were also taken.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Yip Po-lam, a member of the Justice Peace Commission of the Diocese of Hong Kong, was jailed March 28. A court had refused to hear an appeal regarding a conviction she received five years ago for disturbing the peace during a protest.

The peaceful demonstrations were protesting the controversial Northeast New Territories Development Plan, which displaced villagers and damaged property. Chairman of the Hong Kong Catholic Institution Staff Association, Alexander Yu, decried the court’s decision, stating Yip had acted justly, according to UCA News.

“We agree with Yip’s action as her motives were genuine when calling on the general public to examine the injustices of the development plan,” he said. “The social teaching of the Catholic Church points out that our love for neighbors urges us to seek social justice.”

The Church in mainland China has been divided for some 60 years between the underground Church, which is persecuted and whose episcopal appointments are frequently not acknowledged by Chinese authorities, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a government-sanctioned organization.

In September 2018 the Holy See and Beijing reached an agreement meant to normalize the situation of China’s Catholics and to unify the underground Church and the CPCA.

The agreement has been roundly criticized by human rights groups and some Church leaders, including Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.

In December, two bishops of the underground Catholic Church agreed to step aside in favor of bishops of the CPCA, in the wake of the September agreement.

One test of the result of the Holy See-Beijing agreement may be the appointment of a bishop to the Diocese of Jining (Wumeng) in Inner Mongolia.

The South China Morning Post reported March 29 that the diocese is nearing its selection of episcopal candidates, making it the first time that the Vatican and Beijing might agree on a bishop appointment since the September 2018 accord.

Religious freedom is officially guaranteed by the Chinese constitution, but religious groups must register with the government, and are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party. The Sinicization of religion has been pushed by President Xi Jinping, who took power in 2013 and who has strengthened government oversight of religious activities.

In 2017, Xi said that religions not sufficiently conformed to communist ideals pose a threat to the country’s government, and therefore must become more “Chinese-oriented.” Since he took power, crosses have been removed from an estimated 1,500 church buildings.

Reports of the destruction or desecration of Catholic churches and shrines have come from across China, including the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, and Shandong.

The US Commission on International Religion wrote in its 2018 report that last year China “advanced its so-called ‘sinicization’ of religion, a far-reaching strategy to control, govern, and manipulate all aspects of faith into a socialist mold infused with ‘Chinese characteristics.’” Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners have all been affected.

[…]

Pope Francis: ‘Sacramental confession is the way of sanctification’

March 29, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Mar 29, 2019 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Pope Francis told priests and seminarians Friday that the sacrament of penance is “the way of sanctification” in which miraculous conversions occur.

“Every single confession is always a new and definitive step towards a more perfect sanctification; a tender embrace, full of mercy, which helps to expand the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of love, truth and peace,” Pope Francis said March 29 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. He was addressing participants in a course on the internal forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary.

“Sacramental confession is the way of sanctification for both the penitent and the confessor. And you, dear young confessors, you will soon experience it,” he said.

“As confessors, we have the privilege of constantly contemplating miracle conversions,” Francis said.

“Grace operates within the secrecy of the confessional miracles of which only and the angels will be witnesses,” he added.

Before turning to his prepared text, Pope Francis emphasized the gravity of the internal forum: “This is not a nonsense expression: it is said seriously. The internal forum is an internal forum, and cannot come out into the open.”

“I say this because I have realized that some groups in the Church, appointees, superiors, let us say – mix the two things and take decisions made in the internal forum for those taken in the external one, and vice versa. Please, this is a sin!”

The pope’s discussion of the blurring of the distinction between the internal and external fora would appear to be aimed at religious superiors and seminary formators.

This “is a sin against the dignity of the person who trusts the priest, who expresses their own reality to ask for forgiveness, and then uses it to put things in order for a group or a movement, perhaps – I don’t know, I am making it up – perhaps even a new congregation, I don’t know. But the internal forum is the internal forum. And it is sacred. This I wanted to say, because I am concerned about this,” Francis stated.

Francis then explained that the wisdom of the Church has always safeguarded the sacramental seal with all its moral and juridical strength: “Reconciliation itself is a good that the wisdom of the Church has always safeguarded with all her moral and legal force with the sacramental seal. Although not always understood by the modern mentality, it is indispensable for the sanctity of the sacrament and for the freedom of conscience of the penitent; who must be certain, at any time, that the sacramental conversation will remain in the secrecy of the confessional, between one’s conscience that opens to grace, and God, with the necessary mediation of the priest.”

“The sacramental seal is indispensable and no human power has, nor may it claim, jurisdiction over it,” he emphasized.

Pope Francis said that many perceive the sacrament of penance – and with it a sense of sin — to be in crisis in the contemporary world. To this he said that formation of priests is necessary to overcome the crisis to “offer an ever more qualified service capable of really manifesting the beauty of the Divine Mercy.”

The pope also encouraged priests to frequent the sacrament of penance themselves, as a means of sanctification in order to be better confessors.

“Let us always remember – and this will help us a lot – before going to the confessional, to be first forgiven sinners and, only later, ministers of forgiveness,” he said. “Humbly, like all sinners, we kneel before the confessor and implore for ourselves the Divine Mercy.”

“Sacramental absolution, validly celebrated, gives us baptismal innocence, full communion with God,” he explained.

He said the importance of the “ministry of mercy” necessitates adequate formation of confessors, so that each encounter in the confessional is “always a real meeting of salvation, in which the embrace of the Lord is perceived in all its power.”

“We must always recognize the powerful action of grace, which is capable of transforming the heart of stone into a heart of flesh, of changing a sinner who fled far away into a repentant son who returns to his father’s house,” he said.

“Jesus came to save us by revealing to us the merciful face of God and drawing us to him with his Sacrifice of love,” Pope Francis said.

The sacrament of penance is “the efficacious sign that Jesus left to the Church so that the door of the Father’s house would always remain open and that the return of men to Him would always be possible,” he said.

[…]

Chilean archdiocese: court judgement for sex abuse victims a step toward reform

March 28, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Santiago, Chile, Mar 28, 2019 / 06:24 pm (CNA).- The Santiago archdiocese has accepted a court ruling that the Catholic Church in Chile must compensate victims of former priest and serial sex abuser Fernando Karadima, voicing hope the action can help restore trust and prevent further mishandling of abuse.

The Santiago archbishop’s office said it would not appeal the decision, saying the ruling “marks an important step in our process of re-establishing justice and trust in our Church of Santiago, because it points directly to the errors that we made in this case.”

The appeals court in Santiago unanimously ruled that the Church owes “moral damages” to abuse victims Juan Carlos Cruz, Jose Andres Murillo, and James Hamilton, and must pay them $146,000 each, the Associated Press reports.

The victims said they were sexually abused by Karadima, an influential Santiago-area priest who for decades led a lay movement from his parish. He is considered to have personally fostered around 40 vocations to the priesthood.

The archdiocese said the ruling excluded a cover-up of abuse by the archbishop, but attributed responsibility to the institution for errors recognized “from the beginning” in how complaints were processed, their “inadequate evaluation,” and the “lack of accompaniment” shown towards victims.

It voiced hope the ruling will “contribute to healing the suffering of Fernando Karadima’s victims.”

The court ruling cited “negligence” in the Church’s official investigation of abuse reports, saying church authorities “discarded” the reports instead of considering whether they had elements of truth.

“Today, the Chilean state puts on the record that all institutions are guarantors and should protect the rights of its citizens. And that no one, however powerful they might be, can abuse and cover-up sexual abuses with impunity,” said Hamilton, one of Karadima’s victims.

The archdiocese said the ruling shows the necessity “to make deep reforms” to prevent other failures. The ruling could mean many more civil lawsuits against the Church, Reuters reports.

Although Karadima was not charged under civil law due to statutes of limitations, he was found guilty in 2011 of sexual abuse of minors by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. At that time he was sentenced to a life of penance and prayer, and barred from from any public exercise of ministry. Pope Francis dismissed Karadima from the clerical state in September 2018.

The former priest is now 88-years-old and living in a nursing home in Santiago. He has denied the accusations of sexual abuse.

Karadima’s abuse became the focus of attention in Chile after the 2015 appointment of one of his protégés, Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid, who at the time headed the Military Ordinariate of Chile, to a new position Bishop of Osorno. Barros had been accused of covering up Karadima’s abuses.

Pope Francis initially defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. He later sent Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to investigate the situation in Chile.

After receiving Scicluna’s report, the pope apologized, said that he had been seriously mistaken, and asked to meet the country’s bishops and some survivors in person.

In May 2018 he met with Chile’s bishops and asked all of them to offer their resignations, to be accepted or rejected later. He rebuked them for systemic cover-up of clerical abuse and called them to make deep changes.

Chilean officials have investigated 120 allegations of sexual abuse or cover-ups involving 167 Church officials or church workers, Reuters reports.

On March 22 Pope Frances accepted the resignation of Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, the 77-year-old Archbishop of Santiago. He is the eighth Chilean bishop to have his resignation accepted since last May.

The reason for the pope’s decision was not stated, but some news reports placed it in the context of the abuse scandal. However, the cardinal was also two years past the retirement age of 75 set by Church law.

The cardinal has come under scrutiny by Chilean authorities for the possible cover-up of the crimes of abusive priests Fernando Karadima, Rigoberto Tito Rivera Muñoz, and Oscar Muñoz Toledo. He denies covering up any abuse.

Chilean police raided several archdiocesan offices last summer after Father Rigoberto Tito Rivera Muñoz was linked to a suspected network of 14 abuser-priests in the Diocese of Rancagua. In August 2018 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found the priest guilty of sexual abuse of adults. In 2015 he had sexually assaulted a man who was about 40 years old in a room of Santiago’s cathedral.

A different priest, Fr. Oscar Muñoz Toledo, the former chancellor of the Santiago archdiocese, was arrested in July 2018 following allegations he sexually abused minors.

Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, who was Archbishop of Santiago from 1998-2010, immediately before Cardinal Ezzati, in November 2018 said he left Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals in what he characterized as the end of his term.

Cardinal Errazuriz is accused of covering up sex abuse. Some of Karadima’s victims have filed a complaint charging that he gave false testimony for the case.

He has also been accused of misinforming Pope Francis about Bishop Barros’ alleged role in covering up abuse,

[…]