News Briefs

Iraq gathering aimed to honor Mary, empower women

May 2, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Baghdad, Iraq, May 2, 2018 / 01:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Iraqi women rebuilding their lives after ISIS occupation were invited to a three-day gathering aimed, according to organizers, at empowering Christian women and offering them spiritual support.

Held April 27-29  in Qaraqosh ,the event drew inspiration from the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, added recently to the Church’s calendar by Pope Francis.
The event was meant to “rebuild women in the spiritual side, in the biblical side and in the psychological side,” Fr. Roni Momika told CNA April 30.

Momika, who was ordained a priest in a refugee camp after fleeing Qaraqosh when ISIS took over in 2014, leads a weekly women’s group at St. Ephraim church in Qaraqosh, which was burned and vandalized by ISIS but which has slowly started functioning as a normal parish again.

“This meeting is to empower women,” he said.

Catholics at St. Ephraim Church in Qaraqosh, Iraq.

In comments to CNA after a separate women’s event earlier this year, Momika said he has focused on supporting women “because they are the base of the community.”

“The situation here in Qaraqosh is still difficult because the houses are still burned and destroyed,” he said, adding that rebuilding is currently a slow process due to the extensive damage and a lack of funding.

“Everything is difficult here and we want to rebuild the woman before we rebuild the houses,” he said.

“If you rebuild the woman, you can rebuild the children, and when you rebuild the children, you can rebuild the family, and after that we can rebuild the community here in Qaraqosh,” he said.

In his comments April 30, Momika said the Church in Qaraqosh wants “to allow women to trust in themselves.”

Momika’s regular women’s group draws some 800 attendees weekly. He estimates that as many as 4,500 people, including children, attended some part of the larger April meeting.

Qaraqosh, formerly known as the Christian capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, had a population of nearly 50,000 before ISIS attacked in 2014, prompting the majority of inhabitants to flee in a single night. Most ended up living in crowded refugee camps in Erbil.

According to Momika, some 20,000 people have returned since the city was liberated in 2016, most of whom belong to the Syriac Catholic rite.

Many of these families are trying to establish a new normal in their lives, from the practical to the spiritual.

The decision to hold the recent meeting, Momika said, came after Pope Francis announced his decision to establish the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church.

The program featured lectures, videos, Mass and community time.

A special icon of Mary was written for the occasion, which was done by a local artist who dressed the Virgin in the traditional clothes of women from Qaraqosh.

On the final day of the gathering, Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan, Youhanna Boutros Moshe, celebrated Mass and led attendees in a procession to the city’s cathedral, Iraq’s largest church and the principal church of the Syriac-Catholic rite.

Looking at pictures of the gathering, “all the women are laughing and they are happy because it is the first time we are doing this [meeting] in Qaraqosh” since the city’s liberation, Momika said.

“We want to send a message that ISIS burned the stone but they cannot burn the soul and they cannot burn Christianity and our faith,” he added. “Our faith is big [in] our Jesus Christ and his Mother, the Virgin Mary. This is the message.”

 

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Austrian nuncio laments Church opposition to crosses on Bavarian state buildings

May 2, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vienna, Austria, May 2, 2018 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The apostolic nuncio to Austria said Tuesday that he is “saddened and ashamed” that bishops and priests have been vocal critics of the Bavarian government’s mandate to display crosses in government buildings.

“You know, as nuncio, as a representative of the Holy Father, I am saddened and ashamed, that when in a neighboring country crosses are erected,  it is bishops and priests of all people who think they have to criticize the decision. That is a disgrace! That is unacceptable,” Archbishop Peter Zurbriggen said May 1 at the Benedict XVI Philosophical-Theological University in Heiligenkreuz.

The nuncio, who is 74, lamented such religious and political correctness.

He noted that “We are in Heiligenkreuz,” which means in German “Holy Cross”. He was speaking at a “day of thanks” at the pontifical university, which is operated by Stift Heiligenkreuz, a Cistercian monastery located about 20 miles southwest of Vienna.

“Many know that my episcopal motto is ‘Sancta Crux, mihi lux’: Holy Cross, my light,” he added.

Archbishop Zurbriggen added that it is similarly shameful that some bishops have removed their pectoral crosses while visiting sites in the Holy Land.

“But then I think of … Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who recently visited Saudi Arabia and was received by the king. He wore a cross that was twice as big as that cross which I am wearing now. That is good!”

Cardinal Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, had met with King Salman in Riyadh April 18.

Archbishop Zurbriggen’s comments come after Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising criticized the Bavarian government’s move, saying the cross is “a sign of opposition to violence, injustice, sin and death, but not a sign [of exclusion] against other people.” The cross can be misunderstood as purely a cultural symbol, he said, and thus misused by the state.

Cardinal Marx said the Bavarian government had triggered “division, unrest and adversity”.

But Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg had applauded the government’s decision, saying that “the cross is the epitome of Western culture. It is the expression of a culture of love, compassion and affirmation of life. It belongs to the foundations of Europe.” Its public presence – which in traditionally Catholic Bavaria is near ubiquitous – should be seen as such, welcomed, and appreciated, he said.

This is the reason, Bishop Voderholzer said, Christians have placed crosses atop the peaks of Bavarian mountains: “Not the national flag or other symbols of human rule, as others might have liked to see at other times, but the cross. It should be widely visible, the cross, the sign of salvation and life in which Christ is heaven and earth, God and reconciled people, victims and perpetrators.”

The requirement that every entrance to state buildings display up a cross was announced by the office of Markus Söder, Bavaria’s premier. The directive to hang the crosses by June 1 has sparked a public debate in Germany, tapping into deeper angst about culture, values, and Christian roots in a country divided by questions of heritage, religion, and identity.

The accusation that the government would attempt to misappropriate the cross or designate it as a purely cultural symbol was flatly rejected by Söder, a Lutheran who hails from the Protestant region of Franconia in northern Bavaria.

“Of course the cross is primarily a religious symbol,” Söder told German media. However, the premier continued, the cross, in the wider sense, also carries with it basic foundations of a secular state.

Making the announcement April 24, Söder’s office had said the decision is meant to “express the historical and cultural character of Bavaria” and to present “a visible commitment to the core values of the legal and social order in Bavaria and Germany.”

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Meeting abuse survivors, Pope apologizes for being ‘part of the problem’

May 2, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, May 2, 2018 / 11:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After meeting with Pope Francis over the weekend, Chilean survivors of clerical sexual abuse said the pontiff was open, sympathetic and deeply impacted by the situation, at one point voicing sorrow for having been “part of the problem.”

Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of Chilean abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima who met with Pope Francis privately Saturday, said he spoke to the pontiff for at least three hours, and found him “sincere, attentive and deeply apologetic for the situation.”

“For me, the pope was contrite, he was truly sorry,” Cruz said. “I felt also that he was hurting, which for me was very solemn…because it’s not often that the pope says sorry to you…he said, ‘I was part of the problem, I caused this and I am apologize.’”

Cruz was joined by fellow abuse survivors James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, each of whom suffered abuse at the hands Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, who in 2011 was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexually abusing several minors during the 1980s and 1990s, and subsequently sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

Chilean civil authorities investigated Karadima but ultimately dropped charges since his crimes were beyond the statute of limitations.

Hamilton, Cruz and Murillo were invited to come to the Vatican after the pope received a 2,300-page report from Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, highly regarded as the Vatican’s top abuse investigator, who had traveled to the United States and Chile in February to investigate allegations of cover-up in the Chile case.

Initially the investigation centered on Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who was appointed to the diocese in 2015 and who has been accused by Cruz and several others of not only covering up Karadima’s abuses, but at times also participating.

Allegations were also made against three other bishops – Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela – whom Karadima’s victims accuse of also covering the abuser’s crimes.

While on the ground, Scicluna interviewed some 64 people, most of whom were victims, but the scale of the investigation went beyond Barros. The final report is said to be much more extensive, including details from other cases.

Pope Francis had previous defended Bishop 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. However, just days after he made the comments, news broke that Cruz in 2015 had sent the pope an 8-page letter through the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors with his testimony detailing Barros’ presence and involvement in the abuse.

After receiving Archbishop Scicluna’s report, Francis issued a major “mea culpa” April 11, saying he had made “serious errors in the judgment and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

He invited Cruz, Hamilton and Murillo to meet with him privately at the Vatican, and summoned all of Chile’s 32 bishops to Rome in the third week of May, where they will discuss the conclusions of Scicluna’s report as well the pope’s own conclusions on the matter.

Each of the three men met with Pope Francis individually with no time limit over the weekend, and then again as a group on Monday.

In a joint statement issued May 2, the survivors said they have been treated as “enemies” of the Church for nearly 10 years for their outspoken criticism of abuse and cover-up in the Church, but that this weekend’s meetings allowed them to meet “the friendly face of the Church, completely different form the one we had seen before.”

Pope Francis, they said, asked for forgiveness in his name and on behalf of the entire universal Church.

“We were able to speak frankly and respectfully with the pope,” they said, explaining that major themes brought up included not only sexual abuse, but also cover-up and abuse of power, which they said are not isolated to Chile, but are “an epidemic” that has affected thousands of people throughout the global Church.

Despite their abuse, the survivors said they have met many priests and men and women religious who are fighting for justice, and called them “courageous” people who have made progress in the fight against abuse and cover-up.

Pope Francis, they said, was “very attentive, receptive and very empathetic during the intense and long hours of conversation.”

During the audiences, the pope also asked the men for their opinion on both “specific and theoretical” aspects of the issue, and asked to stay in touch with them to hear their thoughts and recommendations for the future.

The victims also called for action, saying that the Church “has the duty to become an ally and a guide in the global fight against abuse, and a refuge for the victims,” something that they said is not sufficiently happening today.

“We hope that Pope Francis transforms his loving words of forgiveness into exemplary actions. Otherwise, all this will be in vain.”

In comments to the press during a May 2 news briefing on their meetings, the survivors unanimously said they believed the pope had been grossly misinformed about the situation by those around him, and was truly repentant for the mistakes he made.

Cruz said he didn’t ask about whether Francis had read his letter from 2015, but said he was able to communicate everything he had wanted during their face-to-face meeting.

“We spoke very frankly and very directly,” he said, adding that “it was clear that the pope was misinformed.”

Cruz said he told the pope that “it hurt tremendously” when he said their accusations against Barros were “calumny,” and told him to watch out for “these toxic people that surround him.”

In his comments to the press, Hamilton pinned a large part of the blame on Archbishop Ivo Scapolo, nuncio to Chile since 2011, and Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago and a member of Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisors.

Hamilton said that Errazuriz failed to act upon the abuse reports he raised, despite being told by the Chilean Promoter of Justice that they were credible and should be followed up with canonical prosecution.

“So Cardinal Errazuriz was covering up for more than 5 years the criminal of Karadima and all of his acts,” Hamilton said.

After their conversations, Hamilton said he believes Francis is now well informed on the situation, which is why he asked for the visit. “Everybody deserves a second chance, especially in this case,” he said.

However, all three men stressed the importance of following up with action after the meetings.

Murillo told journalists that he does not see the trip as “a triumph,” but rather as “a step further in a process.”

“Even if we saw the forgiveness that Pope Francis asked of us,” he said, “we are waiting for actions. We are not here for public relations, we are here for actions.”

He described the trip as long and tiring, “because I constantly work with children who were victims of abuse [and] during this trip I thought of them, but not only – I thought of all minors and adolescents who suffer abuse…also from professors, at home, in athletic training…I continue to think of all of them and I have to say, I am truly tired.”

Murillo said he hopes to that legal action will be taken against the bishops guilty of cover-up in the Chile case.

“I hope the governments of the rest of the world begin to think first of the victims…so that these events don’t repeat themselves.”

 

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In South Sudan, Catholic hospital to receive new surgical, maternity units

May 2, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Yambio, South Sudan, May 2, 2018 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Medical Mission Board is adding a new surgical unit and a blood bank to a hospital in South Sudan, offering better care to a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates.

“We look to build the capacity of the hospital to make sure they are well equipped and well-staffed and well trained to the meet the needs of pregnant mothers and children coming in for services,” CMMB’s Director of Partnerships, Robert Wuillamey, told CNA.

“One of the initiatives we are undertaking is building and equipping the hospital with an operating theater. Currently, the hospital does not have the capacity to do even simple surgeries in a clean and an efficient way.”

Located in Nzara, fewer than 20 miles northwest of Yambio, St. Theresa Hospital is managed by the Comboni Missionary Sisters and owned by the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio. Specializing in maternal health, the clinic provides most of its medical aid to women and children. It serves some 300,000 people in southwestern South Sudan as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

The hospital will receive not only a surgical operating theater, but a maternity ward as well. Additionally, the hospital will be implanting a blood donation program for patients with malaria and anemia. A psychiatrics program has also been installed to aid the reintegration of child soldiers into civilian life.

In a 2015 estimate, South Sudan had a maternal mortality rate of 789 deaths per 100,000 live births, similar to several other sub-Saharan countries. Maternal mortality rates range from 1,360 in Sierra Leone, to 3 in Finland, Poland, Iceland, and Greece. The rate in the US is 14.

Serious discussions for the new facilities began around a year ago, shortly after the hospital received consistent sources for electricity and clean water. Having broken ground April 7, Wuillamey said the operating theater will hopefully be completed by October

After the facilities are completed, the clinic will be able to conduct such surgeries as caesarean sections. Currently, the hospital has doctors capable of minor surgeries, but an anesthesiologist and a doctor capable of more complicated surgeries will also be needed.

Last year, the hospital received between 21,000 and 28,000 out patients attendances and 7,000 admissions, but Wuillamey said the number is expected to rise as the new facilities become operational.

He noted that because of its civil war, South Sudan has poorly functioning government services, which will likely encourage people to seek out this private facility.

“The state has a hospital in Yambio, but due to the conflict and the poor resourcing by the government, the hospital has really reached a near collapsed state. So there are not a lot of functioning services at Yambio,” he said.

South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013. The war has is being fought between forces loyal to the country’s president and those loyal to its former vice president, and is largely drawn along ethnic lines. Peace agreements have been short-lived, with violence quickly resuming.

Wuillamey said South Sudan’s medical and educational systems have been greatly weakened because of the country’s conflicts. He also pointed to communities who live in fear as both rebels and government forces destroy villages and displace communities.

“On a conflict level, the conflict has really created a sense of fear and uncertainty in the communities. It has destabilized communities, in the sense that armed rebels, and even government forces, have come in and closed down entire communities.”

When asked about the safety issues, he agreed that there is a level of concern but said that CMMB has also conducted a risk assessment for this mission and has safeguards in place to minimize that risk.  

Regardless of the concerns, Wuillamey said the South Sudanese need health care and solidarity, noting it is the Christian faith which motivates people to accompany these communities.

“When I think about what we are doing with this hospital and with this operating theater, it’s part of a broader context of sharing solidarity with the people and creating a safe and healthy environment in which people can thrive.”

“We appreciate the need for organizations to remain committed to the work that they have undertaken. We, as an organization, go into risky situations, knowing that is where the need is greatest, where stability is critical to future of these countries, and these communities. Our faith drives us to walk that path with the people of South Sudan and the Western Equatoria State.”

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Chilean Church opens greenhouse to employee youth with Down syndrome

May 1, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Concepción, Chile, May 2, 2018 / 12:03 am (ACI Prensa).- The Archdiocese of Concepcion in Chile has begun construction on a greenhouse to grow vegetables, a new project which will contribute to the inclusion of young people with Down syndrome in the workforce.

The vegetables will be raised using organic methods. The soil will be enriched with compost.

This initiative builds on an August 2014 initiative, where young people with Downs syndrome provide personalized service for clients from businesses and institutions. 

The greenhouse will span 1400 square feet. Its roofing will be made of long-lasting polycarbonate. It is expected to be ready within a month and a half.

The project will at first bring in “a small group of young people, which will be increased over time. The idea is that this project, with this model, can be imitated in schools and parishes,” said activity coordinator, Fr. Pedro Gomez.

Directing the project will be a deacon who is an expert in the environmental field, a layman in charge of setting up the facility, and Fr. Gomez, who has done studies in ecological conversion, agriculture and afforestation.

Fr. Gomez, who is also the vicar general of the archdiocese, said that in the future, the greenhouse will create a seed bank and recycling networks.

The initiative takes its direction from the encyclical Laudato Si’ which “has a lot to do with the care of our common home and its connection to social issues,” the priest said.

The project does not have a name yet, but Archbishop Fernando Chomali of Concepcion suggested “Simon of Cyrene.” Fr. Gomez explained that “today, we see that we can help carry the cross of other brothers – in this case, young people with Down syndrome – accompany them and offer them a source of work.”

It is Christ who “helps us carry our own weaknesses and fragility and invites us to be more compassionate and merciful, to also be an expression of the works of mercy that Pope Francis invites us to,” the priest said.

 

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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As bishops say he’s ‘failed,’ Nigeria’s president meets with Trump

May 1, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., May 1, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House Monday, President Donald Trump expressed his concern about recent attacks on Christians in Nigeria.

“We’ve had very serious problems with Christians who have been murdered, killed in Nigeria,” President Trump said during the meeting, “we can’t allow that to happen.”

The Nigerian leader’s visit to the White House came just days after an attack on a Catholic church killed at least 15 people, including two priests, during a morning Mass when nomadic herdsmen opened fire on the congregation.

In response to the attack, Nigeria’s Catholic bishops’ conference issued a statement April 26 calling President Buhari to step down because “he has failed in his primary duty of protecting the lives of the Nigerian citizens.”

The bishops continued: “How can the Federal Government stand back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the cries and wails of helpless and armless citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, highway and now, even in their sacred places of worship?”

Nigerian bishops have frequently expressed criticism of Buhari’s response to violent attacks by nomadic Fulani herdsmen, which killed more than 140 Christians in central Nigeria’s Benue State in 2017. The bishops have said that Buhari is unwilling to act on the ongoing problem.

The U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom labeled Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) in its April 2018 report. “Sectarian violence between predominantly Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farmers increased, and the Nigerian federal government failed to implement effective strategies to prevent or stop such violence or to hold perpetrators accountable,” according to the USCIRF report.
The country’s Catholic bishops met with President Buhari on Feb. 8, urging him to address the deadly violence and kidnappings in Nigeria.

Several priests have been abducted in Nigeria in recent months. Most recently, a parish priest in Benin City, Fr. Omorogbe, was kidnapped by gunmen on April 18. He was released on April 22.

President Trump also asked the Nigerian leader about Boko Haram kidnapping of over 100 schoolgirls in February. Most of the girls were returned in March, however one girl remains in captive.

The Boko Haram have not released 15-year-old Leah Sharibu, a Christian, because she refused to renounce her faith and convert to Islam.

“We haven’t given up,” President Buhari told Trump on April 30, “We are trying to get everybody back to join their families and their schools.”

President Buhari’s three-day visit to Washington marked the first visit by an African president to the White House during Trump’s presidency.

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