News Briefs

Australian bishops meet in Rome as Church reels from recent crisis

October 8, 2017 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2017 / 09:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Last week, Church leaders from Australia traveled to Rome to meet with Vatican authorities to discuss the various crises Catholics in the country are currently undergoing, largely tied to a history of clerical sex abuse.

According to an Oct. 7 communique from the Vatican, the leadership of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference traveled to Rome last week to meet with officials from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and other relevant offices of the Holy See “for a wide-ranging discussion concerning the situation of the Catholic Church in Australia at this time.”

Topics covered in the discussions included the ongoing investigations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which recently suggested that the Catholic Church be legally bound to break the seal of Confession when sexual abuse has been disclosed within the Sacrament.

They also recently carried out a third investigation into Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy, who is currently facing multiple charges of past sexual abuse in Australia.

Other topics covered, according to the communique, included the relationship between the Church and society as a whole, the re-establishment of trust following the abuse crisis and a call for greater participation of laypersons in decision-making roles in the Church in Australia.

Members of the Australian delegation were Archbishop Denis James Hart of Melbourne, President of the bishops’ conference; Archbishop Mark Benedict Coleridge of Brisbane, Vice-President of the conference, and Justice Neville John Owen of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council in Australia.

The main discussion took place Thursday, Oct. 5, while a conference on Child Dignity in the Digital World was taking place simultaneously at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

Key participants from the Vatican side were the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin; the Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher; the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S.; and the Secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

The meeting fell just two months after the Royal Commission, established in 2013, released 85 proposed changes to the country’s criminal justice system.

In addition to suggestions tightening the law on sentencing standards in cases of historical sexual abuse, the use of evidence and grooming, the commission recommended that the failure to report sexual abuse, even in religious confessions, be made “a criminal offense.”

The suggestion was met with harsh opposition by Church leaders, who called the decision a “government intrusion” into the spiritual realm, which until now has been respected and upheld.

A day after the meeting took place, news broke that Cardinal Pell, who returned to Australia from the Vatican in June to face several charges of historical sexual abuse, will return to court in March for a hearing in which he will defend himself against witness testimonies.

Police in Victoria, Australia announced at the end of June that they would be charging Pell, 76, after several witnesses had come forward with accusations in 2016.

As the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy since 2013 and a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis, Pell is the most senior Vatican official to ever be charged with abuse.

With the permission of Pope Francis, Pell took leave from his responsibilities in the Vatican in order to return to Australia for the court proceedings. At a brief, preliminary hearing in July shortly after returning, Pell told the court he would be pleading “not guilty” to all charges, and will maintain his innocence, as he has from the beginning.

According to BBC News, the committal hearing will be held March 5, with up to 50 possible witnesses available to give testimony. The hearing is expected to last four weeks, after which the magistrate will decide if there is enough evidence to take the case to trial.

 

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Pope Francis dedicates October to praying for the unemployed

October 8, 2017 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2017 / 06:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Having dignified work is a topic Pope Francis has continuously returned to since his election, and it surfaced again in his latest prayer video, which urges viewers to spend October praying that employees have just working conditions, and for the unemployed.

The video, published Oct. 3, opens showing a young woman in an office searching through files and, when she can’t find the one she is looking for, an older colleague comes over and helps her.

As the scene plays out, Francis speaks in his native Spanish, saying “we should always remember the dignity and rights of those who work, condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and help to ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

The video depicts various scenes of people working in inhumane conditions, before switching to show an unemployed man walking around the city handing out resumes. As he stands on the corner, a pizza delivery man he bumps into sees the folder of resumes and writes down the phone number of his company.

In the next frame, the formerly-unemployed man is shown delivering a pizza to the woman who helped her younger colleague in the first scene, drawing a smiley face on her napkin when he sees that she is stressed out about her work.

Francis closes the video making an appeal to viewers, asking them to “pray that all workers may receive respect and protection of their rights, and that the unemployed may receive the opportunity to contribute to the common good.”

Launched as a special project for the Jubilee of Mercy, the videos are part of a larger initiative of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of Prayer, and are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center (CTV) and the Argentinian marketing association La Machi.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, “universal” intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.

However, as of January, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis decided to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – adding a second intention for an urgent or immediate need if one arises.

The prayer intentions typically highlight issues of importance not only for Pope Francis, but for the world, such as families, parishes, the environment, the poor and homeless, Christians who are persecuted and youth.

Work is something that is especially important for Francis, and has been since his election. Not only has he highlighted the dignity of work and the need for humane working conditions regularly in his speeches, but in nearly every trip he’s taken within Italy he has met with the local working force.

In his speeches, he typically advocates for a more just society with equal opportunity, for managers to be honest and to steer away from temptations of corruption, and for everyone to have the right to a fare wage.

He has also spoken out frequently on common problems in the working world that impact Italy specifically, condemning businesses that pay employees “under the table” with no set contract or benefits, or employers who only hire workers for 10-month contracts that don’t include the summer months, so as to avoid paying them a full year’s wage.

In his latest trip within Italy, which he made to the dioceses of Cesena and Bologna, the Pope again met with workers, unemployed persons and union representatives, telling them that to seek a more just society “is not a dream of the past but a commitment, a job that everyone needs today.”

We cannot grow accustomed to the number of unemployed people in our communities as if they are a mere number or a statistic, he said, but instead, we must help the poor and needy around us to find work, thus restoring their dignity.

He said we must also dethrone the profit-mentality that often governs our intentions, instead placing the human person and the common good at the heart of what we do. But for this to happen, “it is necessary to increase the opportunities for decent work.”

“This is a task that belongs to the whole society,” he said. “At this stage in particular, the whole social body, in its various components, is called upon to make every effort, because work, which is the primary factor of dignity, is a central concern.”

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The ‘novelty’ of Christianity is love, not revenge, Pope Francis says

October 8, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2017 / 04:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said the new and unique perspective offered by Christianity is an attitude of love, rather than revenge, which God continues to adopt even in the face of our sins and errors.

“Here is the great novelty of Christianity: a God who, though disappointed by our sins and our errors, does not go back on his word, he does not stop and above all does not take revenge!” the Pope said Oct. 8.

“God loves, he doesn’t take revenge! He loves, and waits to forgive us,” Francis said, explaining that like the Israelites in salvation history, God calls each of us to form a relationship, and alliance, with him.

And “the urgency of responding with good fruits to the call of the Lord, who calls us to become his vineyard, helps us to understand what is new and unique in Christianity,” he said.

“This is not so much the sum of prescripts and moral norms, but it is first of all a proposal of love that God, through Jesus, made and continues to make through humanity,” he said. “It’s an invitation to enter this story of love, becoming a living and open vine, rich in fruit and hope for all.”

Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address, which he centered on the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew that recounts how the master of a vineyard hires tenants to oversee it.

However, the tenants mistreat and kill his servants when the master sends them to collect the fruits. The tenants, Francis said, “assume a possessive attitude: they don’t consider themselves simple managers, but owners,” and refuse to hand over the crop. Even when the master sends his son, the tenants kill him in hopes of taking the son’s inheritance.

In his speech, the Pope noted that this parable offered by Jesus illustrates in “an allegorical way” the warnings and rebukes given by the prophets in the history of Israel.

This is also a story that belongs to us, he said, because it speaks of the alliance God wanted to establish with humanity, and which he also calls each of us to participate in. However, like any “love story,” this history of alliance with God “has its positive moments, but it is also marked by betrayals and refusals.”

To understand how God responds to the refusals opposed to his love and his proposed alliance, the Gospel passage puts forth the question on the lips of the master: “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”

Both this question and Jesus’ response about the stone rejected by the builders becoming the “cornerstone” of a new foundation, Francis said, highlight “that God’s disappointment for the wicked behavior mankind is not the last word!”

“Through the ‘discarded stones’ – and Christ is the first stone that the builders rejected – through situations of weakness and sin, God continues to circulate the ‘new wine’ of his vineyard, which is mercy,” he said.

And the only thing that can impede the “tenacious and tender” will of God, he said, is “arrogance and presumption, which at times even become violence!”

Faced with these attitudes, rather than going back on his promise, God “retains all his power to rebuke and admonish,” telling the arrogant and presumptuous that “the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and it will be given to a people that will bear fruit.”

We too are invited to become part of God’s vineyard and to bear good fruit, Pope Francis said, but stressed that in order to do so, we must be open.

“A vine that is closed can become wild and produce wild grapes,” he said. “We are called to go out of the vineyard and put ourselves at the service of our brothers who are not with us, to shake up and encourage each other, to remind each other that we must be the vine of the Lord in every environment, even the  most distant and uncomfortable.”

The Pope closed his address asking for Mary’s intercession in helping each of us “to be everywhere, especially on the peripheries of society, the vine that the Lord has planted for the good of all.”

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Spanish religious who help trafficking victims celebrate order’s 75th anniversary

October 6, 2017 CNA Daily News 1

Madrid, Spain, Oct 6, 2017 / 11:08 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Helpers of the Good Shepherd, an order of religious sisters dedicated to helping victims of sexual exploitation, drew praise from Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid for their witness to the dignity of women.

The order recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of their founding with a Mass celebrated by the cardinal.

The charism of the sisters focuses on “promoting, restoring, and respecting the dignity of women,” Osoro said. They work to provide homes for victims of sexual exploitation and organized slavery.

The sisters operate Villa Teresita Homes, which are small communities of sisters living alongside women fleeing sexual exploitation and their children. The homes are dedicated St. Therese of Lisieux.

Cardinal Osoro noted in his homily that the Helpers of the Good Shepherd were founded “to eliminate the exploitation of women who are treated as objects, and who suffer a lack of respect for their dignity.”

“You have given the best of your lives to improve the lives of those who are victims of trafficking, exploitation and organized slavery,” he said.

Cardinal Osoro also stated that the lives of the sisters and their programs are “for redemption and liberation,” and said that “every woman is a bearer of love, a teacher of mercy, a builder of peace, a communicator of warmth and humanity in this world which often judges the value of a person with the cold criteria of exploitation and profits.”

“God offers life so that we can make an offering of it always to others. That is what you Helpers of the Good Shepherd are doing,” the cardinal said.

He encouraged the sisters to to announce Christ as witnesses, reminding them that “what is opposed to the true faith is not unbelief but the lack of witness in our lives.”

The cardinal invited those at the Mass to “translate into deeds the beauty and joy of the Gospel” and thanked the sisters for their work. “There’s no disconnect between what we often say with words and what we live out in our everyday lives,” he said.

The Helpers of the Good Shepherd had their beginnings in Pamplona, Spain, in 1942. Isabel Garbayo, their foundress, opened the first Villa Teresita home, forming a small community of consecrated women, with a special concern for serving the most disadvantaged and marginalized women.

Garbayo wanted all women to know that “the home that we offer them is the home of God, to which all are invited, welcomed with joy and gratitude by sisters who love them, and look upon their arrival at the home as if a treasure walked in.”

The Helpers of the Good Shepherd have homes in the Spanish cities of Seville, Pamplona, Valencia, Madrid, and Las Palmas and conduct emergency interventions through a hotline they have established.

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Recent rector of a Legionaries of Christ-run seminary fathered two children

October 6, 2017 CNA Daily News 6

Rome, Italy, Oct 6, 2017 / 05:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Legionaries of Christ announced Friday that Fr. Óscar Turrión, who was of the Pontifical International College Maria Mater Ecclesiae until earlier this year, has fathered two children and intends to leave priestly ministry.

Fr. Turrión had been rector of the seminary since 2014, and a formator there since 2007.

“As those responsible for an institutions that is dedicated to the formation of candidates to the priesthood, we are conscious of the impact that the negative example of a formator and rector has on them and the Christian faithful,” the Legionaries said in an Oct. 6 statement.

“We are deeply saddened that the recent history of our congregation has quenched the fervor of some of our members. We are firmly committed to accompanying our brothers in moments of difficulty. Likewise, we reiterate our commitment to the path of renewal that we continue to follow led by the Church.”

Mater Ecclesiae was founded in 1991, and is operated by the Legionaries of Christ.

The Legionaries of Christ has faced difficulties since it was discovered that the community’s founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, had been leading a double life. In 2006 the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith imposed upon Fr. Maciel “a retired life of prayer and penance, renouncing any form of public ministry.”

Benedict XVI initiated a process of reform for the Legionaries, and in 2010 the then-Archbishop Velasio de Paolis was appointed as their papal delegate. New constitutions for the order were approved by Pope Francis in 2014.

The Legionaries’ Oct. 6 statement was accompanied by a letter from Fr. Turrión explaining his situation.

“Due to certain circumstances in the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ and many other circumstances in the Church, I began to lose my grounding and became more and more disillusioned,” he wrote.

During what he called “a thorough and peaceful process of discernment,” he said he re-established contact with a woman he had gotten to know while he was a priest.

“From this relationship was born first a son and, a few months ago, a daughter.”

Fr. Turrión told his superiors March 27 about the recent birth of his daughter, and asked them to maintain confidentiality, the Legionaries’ statement said. The superiors then asked for the appointment of a new rector of the seminary, who began his term in August.

The priest then sought, and was granted, permission to live outside of community for a time of reflection and prayer, during which he could not exercise public priestly ministry.

It was on Oct. 5 that Fr. Turrión acknowledged that he had had another child with the woman several years ago. He expressed his intention to leave priestly ministry, and asked for a dispensation from the obligations of ordination.

In his letter, Fr. Turrión stated he had already decided to leave the priesthood while he was still rector of Mater Ecclesiae.

“Out of love and respect for my companions at Mater and the seminarians and their bishops, or out of weakness and shame as well, I did not ask to be relieved of my responsibilities. I did do it, though, when my three-year term as rector was up. I ask everyone forgiveness for the lack of trust that this implies.”

Fr. Turrión also noted in his letter that he had not used money from his position as rector to support his children, but only “donations that my friends gave me for my personal use.”

“I accept my responsibility. Without fear of the future, I put everything in God’s hands and am resolved to continue ‘doing the truth’ in my life. Yes, the truth, since although I have hidden this until recently out of weakness, when I began the canonical process a few weeks ago, I am ‘doing the truth’ before God,” Fr. Turrión wrote. “I am at peace and in harmony with God through the sacrament of confession. I am at peace because I have prayed, asking Our Lord to give me light and to come clean with myself and my superiors.”

Fr. Turrión wrote that “I write this to take full responsibility for my actions. I do not blame anyone except myself. With this text I want to leave things clear, ask forgiveness for the scandal, and request your prayers. I never felt I was above anyone else, and therefore I can consider my actions in great peace and humility and ask God and you for pardon.”

“I ask forgiveness for my bad example and the negative witness I have given … As always, I ask, if possible more than ever, that you pray for me and remember me before the Lord.”

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Religious, secular experts unite in call to protect child safety online

October 6, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Rome, Italy, Oct 6, 2017 / 12:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a joint declaration on the need to protect youth on the internet, leaders and experts from various fields stressed the need Friday to raise awareness of digital dangers and to collaborate on child protection.

“Every child’s life is unique, meaningful and precious and every child has a right to dignity and safety,” an Oct. 6 joint declaration from participants in a Rome conference on promoting online safety for children read.

However, “today, global society is failing its children.” Instead of being protected, “millions of children are being abused and exploited in tragic and unspeakable ways, and on an unprecedented scale all over the world,” the declaration lamented.

Titled “Pope Francis – A society can be judged by the way it treats its children,” the declaration was drafted by the participants in the conference and presented to Pope Francis during their audience with him Oct. 6.

The conference, held Oct. 3-6 and dedicated to the theme “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” was the first of its kind on a global scale, drawing social scientists, civic leaders, religious leaders, and representatives from major tech companies.

It was organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection in collaboration with the UK-based global alliance WePROTECT and the organization “Telefono Azzurro,” and addressed concerns surrounding abuse prevention, pornography, the responsibility of internet providers and the media, and ethical governance.

The declaration included 13 action points for the future directed at different sectors of society, including technology companies, law enforcement, governments, and religious leaders.

Key areas highlighted for protecting minors in the future were the fields of education and building awareness of the internet and the risks involved. Participants also advocated for more stringent laws and accountability for online crimes, training of medical and educational personnel in how to look for signs of abuse, and swifter reporting of suspected instances of abuse.

They also asked that major tech companies invest in developing new technologies aimed at protection and identification of online victims, as well as broader efforts to rescue victims and educate youth on what behaviors could put them in harm’s way.

“Technology’s exponential advancement and integration into our everyday lives is not only changing what we do and how we do it, but who we are,” the declaration read.

And while many of these changes are positive, “we face the dark side of this new-found world, a world which is enabling a host of social ills that are harming the most vulnerable members of society.”

Numerous benefits have come from the internet, but alongside these have also grown content that is “increasingly extreme and dehumanizing is available literally at children’s fingertips.”

“The proliferation of social media means insidious acts, such as cyber-bullying, harassment and sextortion, are becoming commonplace,” the document read, noting that both the range and scope of online child sexual abuse and exploitation “is shocking.”

“Vast numbers of sexual abuse images of children and youth are available online and continue to grow unabated,” participants said, adding that the “detrimental impact of pornography on the malleable minds of young children” is yet another increasing and “significant online harm.”

“We embrace the vision of an internet accessible by all people. However, we believe the constitution of this vision must recognize the unwavering value of protecting all children,” the said. And while the challenges are “enormous,” the response “must not be gloom and dismay.”

Instead, “we must work together to seek positive, empowering solutions for all. We must ensure that all children have safe access to the internet to enhance their education, communications and connections.”

Technology companies and governments have shown great leadership in this fight, they said, stressing that representatives of this field “must continue to innovate to better protect children.”

Families, neighborhoods and various communities around the world must also be awakened to the issue and the reality of the impact of the internet on children, including the risks.

Emphasizing the need for collaboration, participants stressed that online abuse and exploitation “is a problem that cannot be solved by one nation or one company or one faith acting alone, it is a global problem that requires global solutions.”

“It requires that we build awareness, and that we mobilize action from every government, every faith, every company and every institution.”

The declaration concluded saying that “the world faces unprecedented challenges if it is to preserve the rights and dignity of children and protect them from abuse and exploitation.”

These challenges “require new thinking and approaches, heightened global awareness and inspired leadership,” it read, and issued a global appeal for everyone “to stand up for the protection of the dignity of children.”

In an Oct. 6 news briefing with journalists after the audience with Pope Francis closing the conference, Fr. Hans Zollner SJ, president of the CCP, said the conference was “very intense and very successful.”

“There was a unique sense of unity” among participants across the board, he said, explaining that he “felt absolutely enthused about the way people were interacting, networking and comping up with interactive proposals.”

Also present at the news briefing was Baroness Sheila Hollins, a professor and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

In her comments, she said that when historians look back at the digital age, they will most likely say it was the age that “changed the world in one generation,” and we’ll be judged on “did we do enough?”

She spoke of the need to engage at various levels in order to address the problem, particularly with youth themselves, who are the “digital natives” most familiar with new forms of technology and therefore are the best interlocutors.

Another suggestion that came out of working groups was a possible encyclical on “on childhood and the social environment,” given the rapid changes society is undergoing.

Hollins also noted a proposal made by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, who during a keynote speech suggested an in-depth study be made on childhood from an anthropological, philosophical, and theological perspective, keeping in mind the different cultural perceptions of childhood, and that while some things are forbidden in some cultures, they might be acceptable in others.

Dr. Ernie Allen, Chair of the International Advisory Board for WePROTECT, said that the organization intends to get the topic of the digital world and safety concerns on the table at relevant events in the coming years, such as the 2018 Synod of Bishops on youth, the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, and the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama.

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