Vancouver, Canada, May 14, 2018 / 06:01 am (CNA).- The meteoric rise of Jordan B. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has resulted in a popular book, 12 Rules for Life, published by Random House Canada in January. Peterson… […]
Valparaiso, Chile, May 13, 2018 / 03:52 pm (ACI Prensa).- As infants, Monica and Cristian Moya were hovering on the verge of death. But after their mother consecrated them to the Virgin Mary, they recovered from a severe case of pneumonia.
Today, Cristian Moya is a priest. Sister Monica Moya made her final vows with the Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence – founded by Saint Luis Guanella – last year.
In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, Sister Monica recalled that their mother told them the story of their consecration to Mary just a few years ago.
The twins were born January 15, 1974 in San Antonio Province in the Valparaiso Region of Chile.
They were struck with a severe case of pneumonia when they were about three months old. In critical condition at the hospital, doctors informed their parents “that a blood transfusion was the last thing they would do for us,” the sister said.
Their mother – who had lost her first child at the age of one due to a heart condition – decided to consecrate the twins to the Virgin Mary, under her title of Nuestra Señora Purísima of Lo Vasquez (Our Lady Most Pure), a very well-known and beloved Marian title in Chile.
“My mom says that the only thing that came to her mind was to offer us to the Virgin and leave us in her hands. After that our recovery occurred,” Sister Monica said.
“Maybe you can look at this as a simple coincidence, but now one of her children is a priest and the other a nun,” she reflected.
Also notable, she added, is that Cristian “did his priestly formation in the seminary that is next to the Shrine of Nuestra Señora Purísima de Lo Vásquez,” the same church where their mother had gone to beg for the recovery of her children.
Sister Monica said that her mother’s offering “impacted me a lot and has made me think that the Lord took charge of taking me on this path, which… my parents also contributed to through prayer, Christian formation, and by themselves as a married couple.”
Besides the Virgin Mary, the nun’s vocation was also strongly tied to the person of Saint Joseph, patron of her congregation and whose solemnity coincides with the day she became a postulant, then a novice and also when she made her first vows.
While it is customary for a bishop to officiate the ceremony of final vows, Sister Monica was able to obtain permission for her twin brother to preside at the Mass.
Sister Monica considers her vocation “a gift and a miracle.”
“It’s something that has surpassed everything my mind can understand, it is a very particular grace that helps me say ‘yes’ every day.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Vatican City, May 13, 2018 / 06:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After multiple bombings at churches in Indonesia left 11 dead dozens more injured, Pope Francis prayed for the repose of the souls of those who died and asked God to bring an end to hatred and violence.
“I am particularly close to the dear people of Indonesia, in a special way to the Christian communities of the city of Surabaya who have been strongly hit by the serious attack against places of worship,” the pope said May 13.
He offered his prayer for the victims and their relatives, and asked pilgrims to pray with him for “the God of peace to stop these violent acts, and that in the heart of all may be found space not for hatred or violence, but for reconciliation and fraternity.”
The pope’s appeal came after 11 people were killed and at least 40 injured in three separate May 13 suicide bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, which took place at churches as worshipers were gathered for Sunday services.
According to BBC News, the first explosion took place between services at Santa Maria Catholic Church around 7:30a.m. local time and involved a motorbike. The second blast took place at a Pentecostal church, and at a third location, witnesses say the attack was carried out by one or more veiled women who came into a church with children.
Sunday’s attacks were the deadliest the country has seen since 2005, when suicide bombings in Bali killed 20 people.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, which took place within minutes of each other, however, according to ABC News, police have determined that the attacks were each carried out by members of the same family who had been radicalized by ISIS in Syria before moving to Indonesia.
More than 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslim, however, there are a large number of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists in the country.
In his reflection on the day’s readings, which spoke of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, Pope Francis noted how on one hand the text directs the reader to heaven, while on the other it reminds Catholics of the Church’s mission on earth.
Jesus’ ascension, then, serves as a reminder to both look to heaven, and also to be attentive to the task the Risen Lord has entrusted to his disciples.
This mission, Francis said, is “a boundless mission – that is, literally without limits – which overcomes human strength.”
“It really seems too daring that Jesus entrusts the task to a small group of simple men without great intellectual abilities!” he said, noting that despite this fact and despite the powers of the world, they were able to bring Jesus’ message to “every corner of the world.”
However, this task “can only be realized with the strength that God himself grants to the apostles,” the pope said, adding that light of this, Jesus in the Gospel assures them that their mission will be sustained by the Holy Spirit, telling them that they will receive the “strength of the Holy Spirit” and will bear witness to him throughout the world.
This mission was passed on and continues to this day, Francis said, explaining that each person, by virtue of their baptism, has the ability to announce the Gospel.
“The Ascension of the Lord into heaven, while inaugurating a new form of the presence of Jesus in the midst of us, asks us to have open eyes and open hearts to encounter him, to serve him and to bear witness to others.
And to do this means being men and women of the ascension, who look for Christ in the signs of modern times and who bring his message of salvation to everyone, above all the poor, Francis said.
Just as the Risen Christ sent his apostles out with the strength of the Holy Spirit, “today he is also sending us, with the same strength, to propose concrete and visible signs of hope,” he said.
After his address, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims present from different countries and associations. He also noted how Sunday marked the World Day of Social Communications, and prayed that journalists and those who work in media would “seek the truth of the news, contributing to a more peaceful and just society.”
Durban, South Africa, May 13, 2018 / 03:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of a mosque attack that left one dead and two other critically injured, the Catholic bishops of South Africa have offered their prayers and condolences to the victims, and stro… […]
Chicago, Ill., May 12, 2018 / 03:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The first African American priest in the U.S. could become the country’s first African American saint as his cause took another step forward this week.
A document summarizing the life, virtue, and alleged miracles of Servant of God Fr. Augustus Tolton, known as the positio, was unanimously approved as historically correct by a committee of six Vatican officials this week, clearing the way for the priest’s cause for canonization to continue moving forward.
Bishop Joseph N. Perry, auxiliary bishop of Chicago and diocesan postulator for the Tolton cause, called the approval a “very positive sign going forward” and noted its significance for the African American Catholic Community.
“Fr. Tolton lived during a particularly tumultuous time in American history especially for race relations,” Perry said in a statement.
“He was a pioneer of his era for inclusiveness drawing both blacks and whites to his parish in Quincy. However, due to his race, he suffered discrimination and condemnation. The beatification and canonization of Fr. Tolton will signal a significant milestone in the history of black Catholicism in the United States.”
Born in Missouri on April 1, 1854, John Augustine Tolton fled slavery with his mother and two siblings in 1862 by crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois.
“John, boy, you’re free. Never forget the goodness of the Lord,” Tolton’s mother told him after the crossing, according to the website of St. Elizabeth’s Church in Chicago.
The young Tolton entered St. Peter’s Catholic School with the help of the school’s pastor, Fr. Peter McGirr. Fr. McGirr would later baptize him and instruct him for his first Holy Communion. Tolton was serving as an altar boy by the next summer.
The priest asked Tolton if he would like to become a priest, saying it would take 12 years of hard study. The excited boy then said they should go to church and pray for his success.
After graduating from high school and Quincy College, he began his ecclesiastical studies in Rome, because no American seminary would accept him on account of his race.
On April 24, 1886 he was ordained in Rome by Cardinal Lucido Maria Parocchi, who was then the vicar general of Rome. Newspapers throughout the U.S. carried the story.
Fr. Tolton was ordained for the southern Illinois Diocese of Quincy. Upon his return in July 1886, he was greeted at the train station “like a conquering hero,” the website of St. Elizabeth’s Parish says.
“Thousands were there to greet him, led by Father McGirr. A brass band played church songs and Negro Spirituals. Thousands of blacks and whites lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the new priest wearing a black Prince Albert and a silk hat. People marched and cheered his flower-draped four-horse carriage. Children, priests and sisters left the school joining the procession heading towards the church.”
Hundreds waited at the local church where people of all races knelt at the communion rail.
Fr. Tolton served in Quincy before going to Chicago to start a parish for black Catholics. The new church was named for St. Monica and opened in 1893.
On July 9, 1897, Fr. Tolton collapsed during a hot day and died from sunstroke at the age of 43.
His cause for canonization was officially launched in 2010, and he was given the title “Servant of God” by the Vatican in February 2011. The research phase of his cause concluded on September 29, 2014.
The next step in his cause for canonization will be in February 2019, when a theological commission with the Congregation for Causes of Saints will further investigate his life and virtue, and consider granting him the title of “Venerable,” which must receive papal approval.
After that step, Tolton’s cause would move forward toward beatification, for which a miracle through his intercession must be approved.
More information about Fr. Tolton can be found on the website for his cause: www.toltoncanonization.org
Vatican City, May 12, 2018 / 05:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- From May 15-17 Pope Francis will meet with 33 Chilean bishops to share his personal take on the country’s massive clerical abuse crisis and help the local Church to find a way forward implementing processes of healing and prevention.
During the discussion, Francis will share his reflections on the results of an investigation into abuse cover-up by Church hierarchy in Chile conducted by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna earlier this year, and the subsequent 2,300 page report he drafted on conclusions of the investigation.
According to a May 12 Vatican communique, Pope Francis, “questioned by the circumstances and the extraordinary challenges that the sexual abuse and abuses of power and conscience planted in Chile in recent decades, considers it necessary to profoundly examine their causes and consequences, as well as the mechanisms which in some cases have led to the cover-up and serious omissions from the victims.”
The objective of the 3-day “synodal process,” the Vatican said, is for the pope and Chilean bishops to place themselves in the presence of God and discern together the culpability of both individuals and of the local Church as a whole “in these devastating wounds.”
They will also study “the adequate and lasting changes” which ought to be implemented in order to prevent the repetition “of these always reprehensible acts.”
Set to take place in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, the meeting will also be attended by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
The meeting with Chilean bishops falls just two weeks after he held individual meetings with three survivors of clerical sexual abuse from Chile: Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo.
After their meetings with the pope, Cruz, Hamilton and Murillo said they believed Francis was largely misinformed by people around him, and called out 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, as main agents in the cover-up.
Notably, Errazuriz will not be present for the meeting with Pope Francis this week, saying he would be skipping the event due to “personal reasons.”
Pope Francis invited the survivors to meet with him and at the same time summoned Chilean bishops to Rome April 8 after reading the concluding report of Scicluna’s investigation, assisted by Spanish Fr. Jordi Bertomeu of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and admitting to having made “serious mistakes” in judgment of the situation given a lack of “truthful and balanced” information.
Initially the investigation was centered around 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 – who 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. It is said to be much more extensive, including details from other cases, such as the Marist Brothers, who are currently under canonical investigation after allegations of sexual abuse by some of the members surfaced in August 2017.
Pope Francis had previous 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.
However, after receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis issued his major “mea culpa” and asked to meet the bishops and more outspoken survivors in person.
In the May 12 communique, the Vatican said Pope Francis is grateful to his brother bishops in Chile for “being attentive to the docile and humble listening to the Holy Spirit,” and he renews his appeal to Catholics in Chile “to continue in a state of prayer so that the conversion of all might take place.”
No public statement or press release is expected after the encounter in order to ensure confidentiality.
Dublin, Ireland, May 11, 2018 / 09:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Internet giant Google has decided to bar all ads related to a fast-approaching referendum on legalizing abortion in Ireland. The decision drew much fire from pro-life critics, and some observer… […]
Ottawa, Canada, May 11, 2018 / 04:31 pm (CNA).- An estimated 15,000 people attended the Canadian March for Life on Thursday in Ottawa.
James Hughes, national president of the Campaign Life Coalition, said marchers were upbeat, and the cl… […]
Vatican City, May 11, 2018 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a meeting with the leader of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church Friday, Pope Francis recalled two of the saints the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches have in common – Sts. Cyril and Methodius – remarking on the holiness both Churches have inherited.
The Bishop of Rome noted that according to tradition, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the great evangelists of eastern Europe in the ninth century, brought relics of St. Clement, one of the first successors of St. Peter, to Adrian II.
This gesture “reminds us Christians that we have inherited – and we continually need to share – an immense common heritage of holiness,” Francis said in a May 11 meeting with Metropolitan Rastislav, the Eastern Orthodox Archbishop of Prešov.
The Orthodox bishop celebrated Divine Liturgy at the tomb of St. Cyril in the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterno before his visit with Francis.
There have been many witnesses and countless martyrs who have “professed fidelity to Jesus,” over the centuries, including St. Clement, the Bishop of Rome said. But even in recent times, there have been martyrs, such as when atheistic persecution affected Czechoslovakia.
“Even today the sufferings of many brothers and sisters, persecuted because of the Gospel, are an urgent appeal, which challenges us to seek greater unity,” he continued, asking that the example of Sts. Cyril and Methodius would help Christians “to enhance this heritage of holiness that already unites us!”
Francis noted how the two saints, sometimes called the “Apostles of the Slavs,” also succeeded in overcoming divisions between Christian communities of different cultures and traditions, acting as, in the words of St. John Paul II, “authentic precursors of ecumenism.”
“May the witness of Saints Cyril and Methodius accompany us on the journey towards full unity, encouraging us to live this diversity in communion and to never be discouraged in our journey, which we are called to do by the Lord’s will and with joy,” the Bishop of Rome said.
In translating the Gospel message into the Slavic language of the Moravian people, Francis noted, the brothers were incarnating the Gospel in a particular culture, “thereby giving development to that culture itself.”
The Spirit will similarly inspire “new and courageous ways to evangelize our contemporaries,” he added, “even in traditionally Christian countries marked now by secularization and indifference.”
During the meeting, Metropolitan Rastislav said that he appreciates the work of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which Francis invited his Church to take part in actively.
Rastislav also spoke about the “heroic missionary work of the Saint brothers Cyril and Methodius” and reflected on the story of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus in Luke’s Gospel.
“As Orthodox and Roman Catholics, due to historical reasons, we are not able to break the Bread of Life together at the present moment,” he said. “However, we still remain fellow disciples who walk together as fellow pilgrims on the way.”
And though we may not realize it clearly, we have “our Lord and Master walking with us, comforting us, expounding the Scriptures to us and giving us new hope, courage, and renewing our trust,” he continued.
“We may still have a long walk before us, Your Holiness, to reach Emmaus and break the Bread of Life together. Yet we walk together and, moreover, we are not alone. He, our Lord Jesus, walks with us, and we should not be afraid.”
During the visit, Metropolitan Ratislav gave Francis an icon of Sts. Cyril and Methodius along with St. Rastislav, the prince of Great Moravia who invited the missionaries to evangelize his territory. The metropolitan said that he hoped the gift could be a token of friendship and good will and “a sign of hope for the future.”
Denver, Colo., May 11, 2018 / 11:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After a New York judge said that courts must seriously consider whether animals deserve some legal protections afforded to people, Catholic philosophers say that human beings are unique, and that, when it comes to law and ethics, that matters.
“Chimps are amazing living beings… and it could be a big mistake to just think of the chimps as things or instruments,” said Dr. John Crosby, a philosophy professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.
“Undeniably, there is something there mysterious [about them]. There is something of worth, but there is not a person. And therefore, because they are not a person, there are no real rights the chimp has,” he told CNA.
Nonhuman Rights Project has sought to release two New York-based chimpanzees, Tommy and Kiko, from the cages of private owners, and into a wild animal sanctuary. Steven Wise is the lawyer in charge of the animals’ defense.
In March 2017, Wise filed for habeas corpus relief, citing the similarities between mankind and primates. The filing alleged that chimps’ captivity constituted a kind of unlawful imprisonment.
On May 8, New York’s highest court rejected an appeal from Wise aimed at freeing the chimpanzees. The Court of Appeals voted 5-0 in favor of an intermediate appellate court in Manhattan that denied the chimps’ legal status in June 2017. The appellate court ruled that chimps are not legal persons.
“The asserted cognitive and linguistic capabilities of chimpanzees do not translate to a chimpanzee’s capacity or ability, like humans, to bear legal duties, or to be held legally accountable for their actions,” wrote Justice Troy Webber last year, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Judge Eugene Fahey, who voted against the chimps’ rights to habeas relief on Tuesday, argued that while a chimp might not be considered a person, animals might have the right to legal redress.
“While it may be arguable that a chimpanzee is not a ‘person,’ there is no doubt that it is not merely a thing,” he said in an opinion statement. “In elevating our species, we should not lower the status of other highly intelligent species.”
“The Appellate Division’s conclusion that a chimpanzee cannot be considered a ‘person’ and is not entitled to habeas relief is in fact based on nothing more than the premise that a chimpanzee is not a member of the human species,” Fahey wrote.
There are a lot of similarities between chimps and people, Fahey said, drawing attention to chimps’ advanced cognitive skills, ability to self-recognize, and a high percentage of shared DNA with humans, at least 96 percent.
He asked whether some animals should have the right to readdress wrongs committed against them. Animals are not morally culpable or legally responsible, he said, but neither are infants and some ill people, and therefore they might enjoy similar legal rights.
“Even if it is correct, however, that nonhuman animals cannot bear duties, the same is true of human infants or comatose human adults, yet no one would suppose that it is improper to seek a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of one’s infant child.”
Dr. Crosby agreed that animals should not be treated poorly, and he lamented over the mistreatment of animals by farms and luxury product testing. However, he disagreed with the judge’s argument about babies and comatose adults, noting chimpanzees permanently lack moral culpability.
Babies grow into morally responsible adults and comatose patients may potentially get better, he said. Even if the patient does not get better, he added, people “are the kind of being that in the normal instance has moral agency and something is blocking exercise of it.”
Animals do not have moral agency or free will, he said, while highlighting a few major differences between chimpanzees and people.
“A person is a being that possesses himself and is capable of originating action, where he freely determines himself,” said Crosby. “It’s very difficult to claim that any chimp, however amazingly skilled, is a free agent.”
Cautioning against conferring upon them the status of persons, Crosby said people should instead remember their moral obligations towards animals.
“These animals merit a certain reverence. We ought to think of ourselves not just as users of them, but somehow custodians of them,” he said. “There are right and wrong ways of acting towards chimps and other animals, but they are not the subject of rights since they are not persons.”
Father Brian Chrzastek, a philosophy professor at the Dominican House of Studies, also reflected on the difference between chimps and people. He said that humans have a higher potential for abstract thought and originality. While animals act by instinct, he said people engage rationally with the world.
“Humans are different in kind. It’s not like we are just smart chimpanzees or something. We’re an entirely different level of thought, an entirely different kind of species,” he told CNA.
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