Washington D.C., Sep 4, 2018 / 04:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh began Tuesday. Before Kavanaugh could utter a word, Senate Democrats repeatedly interrupted the proceedings and attempted to delay the hear… […]
Chicago, Ill., Sep 4, 2018 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Two priests from the Archdiocese of Chicago were arrested Monday in Miami, after the men were reportedly found engaged in a sex act within a parked car. At least one of them was a participant in a program for Hispanic seminarians that was suspended by the Archdiocese of Chicago.
One of the priests, Fr. Diego L. Berrio, is the pastor of Mision San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He was also appointed this summer the interim “coordinator of the Office for Extern and International Priests.”
The other priest, Fr. Edwin Cortes listed the parish as his address when he was arrested. A Sept. 4 statement from the Archdiocese of Chicago said that Cortes is “an extern priest from Soacha, Colombia who served at St. Aloysius Parish in Chicago for one month, August 1 to August 31, 2018.”
The statement said that Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago “has removed Fr. Berrio from ministry and withdrawn his faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago, effective immediately. The archdiocese will appoint an administrator for the Misión San Juan Diego as soon as possible.”
“Archdiocese representatives have been in contact with Fr. Cortes’ home diocese of Soacha, Colombia and informed them that Fr. Cortes will not be granted additional faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago,” it said.
The priests were both charged with lewd conduct, and Cortes was also charged with indecent exposure.
Berrio was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2008. The priest, a native of Colombia, came to Chicago through the Casa Jesus program, a “house of discernment” in which prospective seminarians from Latin America were invited to consider the priesthood during a year-long program sponsored by the archdiocese. The program was founded in 1987.
The Casa Jesus program was suspended in 2016. In that year, NBC 5 Chicago reported homosexual activity among Casa Jesus participants, and said that in 2015 three participants had been dismissed after visiting a gay bar.
In September 2016, Fr. Octavio Munoz was arrested on child pornography charges. Munoz was the rector of Casa Jesus from 2008 to 2015, when he was transferred to a parish in the archdiocese.
On July 7, 2015, Fr. Kevin Hays, who had been appointed to replace Munoz as rector, toured the priest’s apartment with a Church employee, according to an ABC 7 report.
The employee claimed that a laptop belonging to Munoz was streaming child pornography while he and Hays were in the apartment. The employee reportedly contacted archdiocesan officials about the pornography more than a week later, and was surprised to learn that Hays had not yet reported the matter.
The archdiocese contacted private investigators after the matter was reported, but did not contact police until July 28, the same day Munoz was removed from ministry, according to the Chicago Tribune.
ABC 7 reported that Hays told archdiocesan officials he had not seen pornographic videos playing while visiting the apartment. Hays is now the pastor of Notre Dame de Chicago Parish in Chicago.
In a statement issued shortly after Munoz was charged, the Archdiocese of Chicago said that: “On July 28, 2015, Archbishop Blase J. Cupich removed Father Muñoz from ministry and withdrew his faculties, his authority to minister, after the archdiocese learned that the inappropriate material might involve minors. Given the nature of that material, the archdiocese reported it promptly to the civil authorities and have cooperated fully with their investigation.”
Another Chicago priest, Fr. Clovis Vilchez-Parra, was also arrested on child pornography charges in 2015. The priest had been serving as parochial vicar at Mision San Juan Diego, where Berrio is currently pastor. Vilchez-Parra was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017.
NBC 5 Chicago reported in 2016 that Vilchez-Parra had ties to Casa Jesus, but did not say whether he had been a participant in the program.
Also in 2015, the Archdiocese of Chicago removed Fr. Marco Mercado, who had been a Casa Jesus participant, from his position as pastor of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, Illinois. The archdiocese said that Mercado had had an “inappropriate relationship with an adult man.”
The Archdiocese of Chicago could not be reached for comment.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after a Sept. 4 statement from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Kottayam, India, Sep 4, 2018 / 11:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic priest in India spoke to a Muslim congregation on Friday to thank them for bringing food, water, and medicines for the more than 500 people who sought shelter in his church amid devastating flooding in Kerala in recent weeks.
Severe rains led to flash floods and landslides in Kerala in recent months, with some 400 people killed and more than 1 million displaced from their homes.
Press Trust of India reported that more than 580 people took refuge at Fr. Sanu Puthussery’s St. Antony’s parish in Achinakom, and the church soon ran out of food and water.
“I straightaway went to the Masjid, apprised the maulvi about our difficulty and requested his help. After the day’s prayers, Muslim brothers came to the church with a large quantity of food and water,” Fr. Puthussery told PTI.
“Pope Francis had said build bridges, not walls. The devastating floods has now given us an opportunity to destroy the walls and build the bridges of togetherness,” Fr. Puthussery told the 250 Muslims Aug. 31 at the Juma Masjid in Vechoor, about 15 miles northwest of Kottayam, during Friday prayers.
“I cannot express my gratitude to them in words,” the priest said, for the “help and support they had extended during the time of difficulties.”
He said youth of the mosque had also brought medicine to his parish.
Fr. Puthussery said he had gone to thank the Muslim leaders personally, but that “they invited me to their prayer hall and offered me their platform to speak. It was a rare gesture of togetherness.”
Those now returning to their flooded homes in the southwestern Indian state are encountering snakes and insects, contaminated water, and ruined crops.
Water-borne diseases are now a threat to Keralites. The state has declared a health alert, after 11 people died of leptospirosis, the BBC reported.
Washington D.C., Sep 3, 2018 / 04:49 pm (CNA).- At a time when labor unions are weak, Catholics still have a place in the labor movement, said a priest who emphasized the Church’s historic efforts to teach the rights of labor and train workers to… […]
Vatican City, Sep 3, 2018 / 05:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said Monday that to division and scandal the answer should be silence and prayer; and asked the Lord for the grace to discern when it is better to speak or to remain quiet.
“Wit… […]
Venice, Fla., Sep 3, 2018 / 04:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The provision of just wages for all workers is a critical component of a moral economy, said the head of the U.S. bishops’ Domestic Justice and Human Development committee in his Labor Day message.
“Today, there are many families who, even if they have technically escaped poverty, nevertheless face significant difficulties in meeting basic needs,” said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice. “Wages for lower income workers are, by various accounts, insufficient to support a family and provide a secure future.”
In his 2018 Labor Day statement, the bishop emphasized that all Christians share the responsibility of building a human-centered economy.
“The economy must serve people, not the other way around,” he said. “Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of participating in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected, including the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to organizing and joining unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.”
In recent years, Dewane noted, the economy has seen significant progress, with declines in poverty and unemployment, and record highs in production, stocks and profits.
However, he said, these statistics do not show the full story of the modern economy, specifically the daily struggles of many unemployed, underemployed, and low-wage workers.
“It is encouraging that poverty has gone down, but still almost one in three persons have a family income below 200 percent of the federal poverty line,” Dewane said.
He pointed to recent studies showing that an average two-bedroom apartment is out of reach for minimum wage earners in all 50 states, and that 40 percent of adults would be unable to cover a $400 emergency expense without borrowing or selling something.
Also concerning, the bishop said, are “the continuing disparities in median incomes between different racial and ethnic groups and between women and men.”
Faced with these challenges, Christians have an obligation to work for a more just society and to “stand in solidarity with our poor and vulnerable brothers and sisters,” Dewane said.
He called both business owners and workers to operate with integrity, recalling the words of Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exultate: “Do you work for a living? Be holy by laboring with integrity and skill in the service of your brothers and sisters…Are you in a position of authority? Be holy by working for the common good and renouncing personal gain.”
Business owners must pursue human flourishing rather than seeking profit alone, Dewane said. “[P]art of this obligation is to pay a just wage, which provides a dignified livelihood for workers and their families to meet their basic needs.”
The Church has traditionally taught that a worker’s willingness to work for a certain wage is not sufficient to make that wage just, the bishop noted. Rather, justice in wages must be evaluated “in the context of the well-being and flourishing of the individual, the family and society.”
“Every worker has a right to a just wage according to the criterion of justice, which St. John XXIII described as wages that, ‘give the worker and his family a standard of living in keeping with the dignity of the human person’.”
Implementing just wages in practice will require a change of heart, Dewane said. He suggested that politicians should address structural causes of low wages and unjust disparities, and society should give “due consideration for what justly ensures security for employees to establish and maintain all significant aspects of family life, and care for family members into the future.”
He also highlighted the rights of unions to advocate for just wages, health benefits, adequate rest, and protection against wage theft.
“[W]e live in the hope that our society can become ever more just when there is conversion of heart and mind so that people recognize the inherent dignity of all and work together for the common good.”
Santa Clara, Calif., Sep 2, 2018 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic Charities of Santa Clara has partnered with the local county to launch a shared housing program, connecting renters with housing providers amid California’s high housing costs… […]
Vatican City, Sep 2, 2018 / 06:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics should listen to the scripture readings at Mass with an open heart, so that the Word of God can take root in their lives and bear good fruit, Pope Francis said Sunday.
“Let’s do an examination of conscience to see how we welcome the Word of God. On Sunday we listen to it in the Mass. If we listen to it in a distracted or superficial way, it will not help us much,” the pope said Sept. 2.
“Instead, we must welcome the Word with open mind and heart, as a good ground, so that it is assimilated and bears fruit in concrete life.”
Speaking before the Angelus, Francis reflected on when Jesus said that the Word of God is like a grain of wheat: “it is a seed that must grow in concrete works. Thus the Word itself purifies our heart and our actions and our relationship with God and with others [and it] is freed from hypocrisy.”
In the day’s Gospel, Jesus addresses authenticity of obedience to the Word of God and hypocrisy, which he said, “is one of the strongest adjectives that Jesus uses in the Gospel.”
The Gospel passage opens with the scribes and Pharisees objecting to Jesus that his disciples do not follow the ritual precepts. But Jesus replies to them, saying, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.”
With these words, Jesus is trying to “shake” the scribes and Pharisees from the mistake of neglecting God’s commandments in favor of observing human traditions. If his reaction seems severe, it is because something important is at stake, Francis said: “The truth of the relationship between man and God.”
The pope said the Lord invites each person today to “flee the danger of giving more importance to form than to substance.”
“He calls us to recognize, again and again, what is the true center of the experience of faith, that is, the love of God and love of neighbor, purifying it from the hypocrisy of legalism and ritualism,” he said.
By telling Christians to visit orphans and widows, the Lord is saying to practice charity beginning with the neediest, with the most fragile, Francis said.
“‘Do not let yourself be contaminated by this world’ does not mean isolating oneself and closing oneself to reality,” he continued. “No. Here too it should not be an external but interior attitude, of substance: it means to be vigilant so that our way of thinking and acting is not polluted by the worldly mentality, that is, by vanity, greed, pride.”
He concluded by asking for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary to help people to always honor the Lord with their heart, “bearing witness to our love for him in concrete choices for the good of our brothers and sisters.”
After reciting the Angelus, the pope noted Saturday’s beatification of Bl. Anna Kolesárová, virgin and martyr, who was killed “for resisting those who wanted to violate her dignity and her chastity.”
Comparing her to St. Maria Goretti, he said the courageous girl “helps young Christians to remain steadfast in fidelity to the Gospel, even when it requires going against the current.”
Francis also renewed his prayers for Syria and asked those in leadership in the country to use “diplomacy, dialogue and negotiations,” to safeguard human lives.
Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sep 2, 2018 / 04:22 am (ACI Prensa).- A new crisis pregnancy center in Buenos Aires will welcome women facing difficult pregnancies, offering resources, counseling, and medical support.
The “Home of the Motherly Embrace” is being opened in response to a July proposal by a group of priests who work in the poorest areas of the cities. The goal is to meet the needs of pregnant women living in shanty towns without basic utilities such as electricity or running water.
Creators of the home hope to show the Church’s committed response to defend both the mother and the unborn child. They hope to open up additional homes in the future.
The Home of the Motherly Embrace is located in the former catechetical center of the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish and in the Don Orione Neighborhood. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and will be served by volunteers, who will welcome women in crisis pregnancies as well as those who have had an abortion.
Women will be offered food, healthcare, psychological support, legal aid, and counseling during their pregnancy and their babies’ first years, up to the start of early childhood education.
The home will also seek to facilitate access to government maternity policies and programs and if needed, the process of adoption through the legal system.
The plan for the crisis pregnancy center arose amid a legislative push to legalize on-demand abortion up to 14 weeks gestation, and through the ninth month of pregnancy on the grounds of rape, if doctors deem the mother’s life or health to be endangered, or if the baby receives a diagnosis of non-viability.
Although the bill was ultimately rejected by the nation’s senate, the fierce debate surrounding it divided Argentinian society and highlighted the need to offer additional resources to women facing difficult pregnancies.
An Aug. 27 Mass was celebrated to inaugurate the Home of the Motherly Embrace. Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Carrara of Buenos Aires presided over the Mass. The homily was given by Fr. Hernán Martin, the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish, where the women’s center is located.
Fr. Martin stressed that in times of division, “we want to bring people together” to “contribute our grain of sand, and sow a seed of hope for the love we have for God and his plan.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Newark, N.J., Sep 1, 2018 / 08:41 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Joseph Tobin told a journalist Friday that he heard rumors shortly after his 2017 arrival in the Archdiocese of Newark about the sexual misconduct of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. He said he did no… […]
© Catholic World Report