News Briefs

Soon-to-be beatified nurse, laywoman lived for others

April 27, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Krakow, Poland, Apr 27, 2018 / 01:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Hanna Chrzanowska, a 20th-century Polish nurse and laywoman who will be beatified in Krakow Saturday, is a model of how to give of oneself for the good of others, said a priest involved with her canonization cause.

“The laity know well the reality of everyday life,” Fr. Pawel Galuszka said. “Hanna, as a nurse, knew in person and from experience the problems of the sick, alone, abandoned and disabled.”

A Polish priest responsible for the pastoral section of the beatification cause of Hanna Chrzanowska, Galuszka told CNA via email that “in today’s culture the logic of the market prevails… In every aspect of life we tend to calculate profit or utility.”

Chrzanowska, on the other hand, “teaches us how important it is to make a sincere gift of oneself, even sacrifice, for the good of the other. This is, and will be, the very legacy of Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska.”

Galuszka noted that St. John Paul II, then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, knew Chrzanowska during her life, and when he presided over her funeral said: “We thank you, Miss Hanna, for having been among us… a particular incarnation of Christ’s blessings from the Sermon on the Mount, above all that he said ‘blessed [are] the merciful.’”

“The bishop of Krakow [St. John Paul II] had no doubt that Hanna in a heroic way fulfilled the commandment of love of neighbor,” Galuszka noted.

Meeting Cardinal Wojtyla was one of the special moments in Chrzanowska’s life, the priest recounted, adding that the then-bishop of Krakow gave her “real moral and material help” during her organization of various parish infirmaries throughout the city and archdiocese.

“Equipped with a charismatic personality, she concentrated a significant group of collaborators and volunteers around her work, among them nurses, nuns, seminarians, priests, doctors, professors and students,” Galuszka said.

“With their help, she organized retreats for her patients that brought back the joy and the strength to face everyday life. Thanks to her efforts, the tradition of celebrating Holy Mass in the homes of the sick, and going to visit patients during pastoral visits, spread.”

Chrzanowska was born in Warsaw on October 7, 1902 to a family known for their charitable work. She finished high school at a school run by Ursuline sisters in Krakow and after graduating in 1922 attended nursing school in Warsaw.

She became an oblate with the Ursuline Sisters of St. Benedict.

From 1926-1929 she worked as an instructor at the University School of Nurses and Hygienists in Krakow. For 10 years she held the position of editor of the monthly “Nurse Poland” magazine, also publishing her own work in the field of nursing.

During this period, she also grew closer to God, joining in the work of the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses in 1937.

In 1939, Poland saw the outbreak of World War II. After the war and after the opening of a university school of maternity and nursing in Krakow, she worked as the head of the department dedicated to home nursing.

Chrzanowska was especially dedicated to the proper formation and preparation of her students, including offering advice and assistance while accompanying her students on visits to patients confined at home.

In 1966 she contracted cancer. Despite operations, the disease spread and eventually led to her death on April 29, 1973 in Krakow.

Her cause for canonization was opened Nov. 3, 1998, and her beatification Mass will take place at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Krakow April 28.

Galuszka said that the miracle which paved the way for Chrzanowska’s beatification was the healing of a 66-year-old woman, who had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and mild heart attack.

The woman had become paralyzed in both legs and a hand and was considered to have no chance of surviving.

While in a coma, she had a dream that Hanna Chrzanowska appeared to her and said, “Everything will be fine.” Waking soon after, she surprised the doctors, because not only could she speak normally, but she could move her limbs, Galuszka said.

It was later discovered that on the same day she was miraculously healed, the woman’s friend, a nurse, had attended a Mass and prayed for her healing through the intercession of Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska.

 

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Vatican’s financial watchdog says progress slow, but steady

April 27, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Apr 27, 2018 / 06:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s annual financial report this year showed that monitoring systems put into place nearly five years ago continue to be effective, however, there is still room to grow in terms of prosecution for questionable activities.

In comments to journalists during a May 27 press briefing, Rene Bruelhart, president of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF), said the report for 2017 shows “a clear commitment from our side to continue to report in the most transparent way possible on our activities.”

Two keywords that can sum up the AIF activities for 2017, he said, are “consolidation and normalization,” particularly in terms of implementing a sustainable regulatory and reporting system, as well as growing relations with domestic and international bodies.

Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer, was tapped to head the AIF after it was established by Benedict XVI in 2010 to supervise the Vatican’s financial activity and prevent and counter money laundering.

Carried forward under Francis, the AIF works alongside other financial entities in the Vatican, such as the Secretariat for the Economy and the Council for the Economy, both of which were established by Pope Francis as part of his ongoing reform of the Roman Curia.

With full autonomy the AIF also monitors and reviews actions carried out by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), which oversees the Vatican’s real estate, and the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), more often referred to as the “Vatican bank.”

Bruelhart was present alongside AIF director Tommaso Di Ruzza at a May 27 press briefing on the AIF’s 6th annual report, which covered 2017 and summed up their continued efforts to build relationships with other states and crack down on suspicious financial activity within the Vatican.

Most notably, the report detailed that it was the AIF which first flagged the diversion of significant funds from the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Children’s hospital to renovate Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment in Rome.

The case exploded in the media, and in October 2017 the former president of the hospital, Giuseppe Profiti, and former treasurer, Massimo Spina, were been charged with the illicit use of hospital funds in the amount of 422,005.16 euros ($480,600.58) to refurbish the flat.

In total for 2017, 150 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) were filed with the AIF, compared to last year’s 207. The reason for the decrease, according to AIF Director Tommaso Di Ruzza, is that the quality of the entity’s reporting system has improved, “showing a growing awareness and strengthening of the control functions of the reporting subjects.”

Of the 150 flagged transactions, 8 were submitted by the AIF to the Vatican Office of the Promoter of Justice during 2017, of which nearly all involved potential financial crimes with foreign individuals or entities either within or in connection with a foreign jurisdiction.

The potential crimes flagged include international fraud, including fiscal fraud and market abuse.

In only one case did the Vatican tribunal freeze an account after a questionable cross-border transaction amounting to roughly 1,757 euro, or $2,122, which took place in 2016, which the AIF said it had flagged and submitted in 2015.

According to the report, none of the activities or transactions reported in 2017 were related to terrorism.

Since 2015, the AIF has presented some 54 reports to the Promoter of Justice. When asked why there has not been a higher number of cases prosecuted in the Vatican courts, which in the past has been identified as an area of weakness, Bruelhart said it will take time to adequately develop the system put into place, and is up to the Promoter of Justice to determine how to act on reports submitted by the AIF.

It is unclear how many of the 54 transactions flagged and sent to the Promoter of Justice have been looked into or investigated. However, “it’s important to remember where we’re coming form,” Bruelhart said, noting that the current system has been built only within the past 5-6 years, and new entities have been established, including the secretariat and council for the economy.

“It has been a new world” for the Promoter of Justice, he said, adding that in his view, the chain of activities that has taken place “has moved in the right direction” and “a lot of progress” has been made.

Noting how the first conviction took place just last year, he said “work is ongoing” in this area, and he expects to see more progress in the future.

“There is a very good dialogue with the office of the promoter of justice,” he said, adding that “it’s about building a dialogue together,” but ultimately the office is the only one responsible for what they decide to do.

Responding to criticism that the Vatican’s financial reform has made little progress, Bruelhart pointed to all the steps that have been taken so far in the past six years, saying if each of them are broken down, one can see that “a lot has been done in a very very short amount of time.”

Change, he said, takes time and at times one needs to take a step back to fully appreciate the progress and continue to go forward. “Its a process, but there is life in this process,” he said.

In addition, the AIF in 2017 also cracked down on transparency and accountability for donations made for institutional and charitable purposes, as well as interactions with what they have dubbed “high risk states” which do not have proper monitoring systems in place.

The crack down on transactions for charity and donations comes after a law was introduced Nov. 22, 2017, on the “Registration and Supervision of Non-Profit Organizations.”

The AIF also signed an additional 19 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with foreign counterparts, bringing the bringing the number to 57, and exchanged information in some 282 cases.

In an April 27 press release on the AIF report, Di Ruzza stressed the importance of these relations, saying that “considering the potential risks linked to the universal projection of the Holy See, international cooperation is pivotal.”

These type of cross-border agreements are designed to crack down on money laundering and tax evasion, ensuring that the IOR does not become a tax haven.

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Memorial to the Unborn moves forward in Tennessee legislature

April 26, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Nashville, Tenn., Apr 27, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A bill approving a memorial to the unborn was passed by the Tennessee Senate on Monday by a 23-3 vote.

If approved, the memorial will be privately funded but erected on the state’s capitol grounds, and will include the inscription: “Tennessee Monument to Unborn Children, In Memory of the Victims of Abortion: Babies, Women, and Men.”

The bill, HB 2381, is sponsored by Republican legislators Rep. Jerry Sexton and Sen. Steve Southerland and was first introduced in March.

Tennessee has some of the strongest pro-life laws in the nation, including legislation requiring women to receive in-person informed consent counseling, a 48-hour waiting period prior to getting an abortion, hospital admitting privileges for abortion doctors, and parental consent for teen abortions.

In 2014, the legislature passed a pro-life state constitutional amendment which says:
“Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.”

The amendment is currently being challenged in federal court.

If passed, the proposed monument will be the second such memorial to the unborn in the state of Tennessee. In 1994, the National Memorial for the Unborn was built in Chattanooga on the site of a closed abortion clinic. It is “dedicated to healing generations of pain associated with the loss of aborted and miscarried children” and includes a wall of names “where anyone who has lost a baby to abortion may come to honor their child and find forgiveness, hope, and healing.”

When the bill for the new memorial was first introduced, state Rep. Bill Dunn said the monument is in the same vein as other memorials to African slaves or victims of the Holocaust, which also “recognize the atrocities occurred because human beings were treated as less than human,” he said, according to Memphis Daily News.

“In both cases, the vulnerable and defenseless were subjected to the will of the powerful. The taking of life of the baby in the womb is related to this brand of inhumanity,” Dunn added.

“While the baby can be seen as the obvious victim, this memorial will also be for other victims, the women coerced into abortion, the fathers who can’t protect their unborn child, the brothers and sisters who lose a sibling and the society as a whole who becomes coarsened because life is cheapened.”

A version of HB 2381 passed the Tennessee House last week by a 63-15 vote. It will now be sent back to the House for approval of amendments before heading to the desk of Tennessee governor Bill Haslam (R).

 

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Colombia drug route battle leaves residents trapped in homes

April 26, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Catamarca, Argentina, Apr 26, 2018 / 07:23 pm (ACI Prensa).- Residents of the Catatumbo region of Colombia, which borders Venezuela, are trapped in their own homes due to an ongoing conflict between two guerilla groups fighting over drug trafficking routes.

“People are trapped in their own homes and the people who dare to go out are intimidated by motorcycle riders who tell them, ‘You have to obey the order to strike.’ They simply cannot go out or open their businesses,” Bishop Gabriel Ángel Villa Vahos of Ocaña told RCN Radio April 23.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) and the People’s Liberation Army (EPL), two Marxist-Leninist guerilla insurgents, declared war some 40 days ago for control of the drug trafficking routes for about 62,000 acres of coca in Catatumbo, which is a sub-region in northeast North Santander.

The problem worsened with the “armed strike” decreed last week by the EPL which has restricted commerce and people’s free movement in the area.

The United Nations has estimated that the conflict has caused more than 4,000 people in the rural areas to leave the region since March 14, El Tiempo reports. It is estimated that there are more than 145,000 people affected in 11 townships.

Bishop Villa appealed to the armed groups to leave the civil population out of their confrontations, “because they are those most affected at this time.”

The bishop stressed that the government needs to make a major effort to address social problems. He said he hopes “there will be an immediate response to the emergency,” that respects the safety of civilians.  

 

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

 

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New report paints worrying picture of global religious freedom

April 26, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Apr 26, 2018 / 10:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Religious freedom conditions worsened across the globe in the past year, according to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom’s 2018 report, released April 25.

Violations against religious freedom were particularly acute under authoritarian regimes in the Eastern Hemisphere. With the exception of Cuba, all of the 28 countries USCIRF designated as the worst perpetrators in 2017 lie east of the prime meridian.

The worst abuses against religious freedom included genocide, enslavement, rape, imprisonment, forced displacement, forced conversions, property destruction, and bans on religious education of children.

The commission recommended that 16 countries be recognized by the State Department as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a label that identifies foreign governments that engage in or tolerate “systemic, ongoing, and egregious” religious freedom violations. Receiving this designation from the State Department opens the door to consequences including trade and funding sanctions.

These 16 are the same countries that USCIRF recommended last year with the State Department going on to recognize 10 as CPCs in December 2017: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

However, the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom urges that religious freedom violations in Pakistan, Russia, Syria, Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Central African Republic were so severe that these countries also merit CPC designation.

Of these six unrecognized countries, USCIRF Chair Daniel Mark is particularly concerned about the state of religious freedom in Pakistan.

“What we have said for many years is that Pakistan is the worst country in the world that’s not designated for CPC. Pakistan is a world leader in imprisonment and convictions, prosecutions for blasphemy and apostasy, and those sorts of things,” Mark told CNA.

According to the report, approximately 40 people sentenced under blasphemy laws are awaiting the death penalty or serving life sentences, including Asia Bibi, a Christian mother and field laborer.

In December 2017, Islamic State affiliated suicide bombers attacked a church in Quetta, Pakistan killing nine people.
The upcoming national elections in July 2018 have exacerbated religious tensions in the country.

“Conditions in Pakistan are not just bad at the level of law, where for example, Amadis are out in the Constitution for second-class citizenship, but also at the level of civil society where a culture of impunity has grown,” continued Mark, who explained that vigante mobs have been attacking people on the basis of blasphemy accusations.

In lieu of CPC designation, Pakistan was placed on a “Special Watch List” by the State Department in December 2017. This list is a new category created by the 2016 amendments to the International Religious Freedom Act.

“Matters concerning Pakistan are very sensitive on account of the fact that they are a partner of ours in combating terrorism around the world in the war in Afghanistan and so on. But, given the rise of extremism in Pakistan…we really do think that pressure should be kept up, notwithstanding the cooperation that our two countries need,” said Mark.

The USCIRF chairman told CNA that he is concerned that both Russia and China intensified repression of religious freedom over the course of 2017.

“Russia, which we recommended for designation for the very first time last year, continued to deteriorate. The repression in some of the post-Soviet Central Asian states have followed Russia’s model, sadly,” said Mark.

The report notes that Russia is the only country to have expanded its repressive policies to a neighboring territory by means of military invasion. Crimean Tatar Muslims are being kidnapped, tortured, and imprisoned in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

“Russia is such a big player on the world stage. It is really important that the message be sent clearly,” said Mark referring to religious freedom.

The report also mentioned religious persecution in China, including persecution of Catholics, noting that 2017 marked 60 years since the creation of the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

In 2017, China increased government control over its recognized religions as a part of President Xi Jinping’s campaign to “manipulate all aspects of faith into a socialist mold infused with ‘Chinese characteristics.’”

Two regions of China with significant ethnic and religious minority populations, Xinjiang and Tibet, “increasingly resemble police states,” the report said.

“Monks and nuns who refuse to denounce the Dalai Lama or pledge loyalty to Beijing have been expelled from their monasteries, imprisoned, and tortured.”

The report also cites mounting revelations of the Chinese authorities torturing other prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders to force confessions and compel individuals to renounce their faith.

In its 2018 report, USCIRF also recognized 12 additional countries with a Tier 2 status of less severe or systemic religious freedom violations: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, and Turkey.

USCIRF recommends in the report that the U.S. government prioritize efforts to advocate for the release of prisoners of conscience. Chairman Daniel Mark pointed to the recent trip of Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback to Turkey on behalf of imprisoned Christian pastor Andrew Brunson as a good example.

Mark also highlighted that there have been some improvements in international religious freedom efforts during the past year.

“The pushback against ISIS in Iraq and recapturing all or almost all of the territory from them has been absolutely critical in saving lives. And another thing that gets much less noticed is international cooperation. It was great to see that on January 1st Denmark opened a new office with an ambassador representative covering this issue and we hope to see more countries follow,” he said.

The Islamic State was one of the non-state actors that USCIRF report recommended to be designated as an Entity of Particular Concern, along with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and al-Shabaab in Somalia. The Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act passed in December 2016 requires the U.S. government to also identify these non-state actors as Entities of Particular Concern or EPCs.

 

 

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Nigerian herdsmen kill 19 in Catholic church attack

April 26, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Jos, Nigeria, Apr 26, 2018 / 03:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At least 19 people, including two priests, were killed on Tuesday when nomadic cattle farmers in central Nigeria opened fire at morning Mass in a Catholic parish.

Reports indicated that Fulani herdsmen attacked Saint Ignatius Church in Ayar-Mbalom, a town within Nigeria’s Benue State, on April 24. According to officials, the herdsmen killed 17 worshipers and two priests: Father Joseph Gor and Father Felix Tyolaha.

After the attack on the church, the herdsmen proceeded to shoot residents in the area and set fire to around 50 homes, according to survivor Peter Iorver, whose stepmother had been a victim.

“The herdsmen came and opened fire on the church while morning mass was going on,” Iorver told New Telegraph, a local newspaper. “After they attacked and killed those in the church, they left and started shooting sporadically, killing residents around the area.”

“They burnt over 50 houses and destroyed food and farm crops as they retreated to their base. My stepmother was one of the victims; she was at the mass when the attack happened.”

The attack took place near Nigeria’s middle belt, where the Muslim north meets the southern Christian area.

While none of the attackers have been arrested so far, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to find those responsible for the shooting.

“This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable. Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting,” he tweeted. 

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable. Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting.</p>&mdash; Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) <a href=”https://twitter.com/MBuhari/status/988799479632596993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

U.S. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), chair of the House Subcommittee on Africa, also decried the violence.

“Tuesday’s killing of priests and parishioners on the grounds of St Ignatius Catholic Church in the Makurdi Diocese signals that the religious violence in Nigeria is escalating,” he said. “It’s imperative that Nigerian authorities punish those who are culpable, lest violence worsen during the upcoming election cycle.”  

“Nigeria should explore justice system reforms that address grievances so that herdsman – the perpetrators of much of the recent violence – cease targeting farmers, exacerbating religious and ethnic tensions in the process,” Smith continued, adding that the creation of a religious equity commission would also be timely.

Violence between Fulani herdsmen and farmers has increased in recent years, as climate issues have pushed herders further south.

By mid-January this year, more than 100 deaths had been attributed to the herdsmen.

The Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Nigeria voiced grave concern about the violence in a January statement. They recognized the challenges faced by the herdsman, but expressed the need for better alternatives to open grazing.

“Government should rather encourage cattle owners to establish ranches in line with international best practice,” the bishops said.

“Farmers and herdsmen have a lot to contribute to the socio economic prosperity of our nation. A more enduring strategy must be worked out for their peaceful co-existence and mutual respect.”

 

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Argentina homeless shelter named after bishop who loved the poor

April 25, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Apr 26, 2018 / 12:35 am (ACI Prensa).- A men’s homeless shelter in Zeballos, Argentina has been named after a local bishop known for his attention to the poor.

The Jorge Novak, Friend of the Poor Homeless Shelter was inaugurated April 24.

The name commemorates the first bishop of Quilmes, Jorge Novak, who denounced the human rights violations committed by the military during the 1970s and ‘80s.

Bishop Novak loved the poor and led an austere life of deep spirituality. He was co-founder of the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights. In late 2017, the investigation to initiate his process of beatification was begun.

The Jorge Novak Homeless Shelter is run by Caritas Quilmes. It welcomes men over 18 years of age.

Men hoping to benefit from the shelter’s services must have an admissions interview and accept the shelter’s rules. Opportunities are offered for bathing, eating, and sleeping.

When fully functional, the shelter will also offer job training, spiritual and ethical formation, and counseling on health and employment.

The hope is that in addition to providing for basic physical needs, the shelter will be able to help homeless men regain self-esteem, reestablish ties with the community, and eventually reintegrate.

The Jorge Novak Homeless Shelter has a capacity for 30 people and is supported by donations from individuals, institutions and the Diocese of Quilmes.

The diocesan secretary for communications asked for prayers “so this work may be a real concrete commitment to the poorest and most needy.”
 

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

 

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