Palermo, Italy, Sep 15, 2018 / 06:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In Sicily Saturday, Pope Francis said the wounds of the Church and the world are the wounds of Christ, and they must be touched and seen.
“To consider the wounds of society and of the Chu… […]
New York City, N.Y., Sep 15, 2018 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic Charities in New York has received a nearly $1 million grant to provide care to opioid addicts in rural counties in the southern part of the state.
This year the Catholic… […]
Oran, Algeria, Sep 14, 2018 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- The Algerian bishops’ conference has announced that the beatification of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in the country between 1994 and 1996, will be held Dec. 8.
The beatification will take place at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Cross in Oran.
The new blesseds “have been given to us as intercessors and models of the Christian life, of friendship and fraternity, of encounter and dialogue. May their example aid us in our life today,” the Algerian bishops wrote.
“From Algeria, their beatification will be for the Church and for the world, an impetus and a call to build together a world of peace and fraternity.”
In January Pope Francis had authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to recognize the martyrdoms.
Claverie was a French Algerian, and the Bishop of Oran from 1981 until his Aug. 1, 1996 martyrdom. He and his companions were killed during the Algerian Civil War by Islamists.
In addition to Claverie, those being beatified are: Brother Henri Vergès, Sister Paul-Hélène Saint-Raymond, Sister Esther Paniagua Alonso, Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín, Fr. Jean Chevillard, Fr. Alain Dieulangard, Fr. Charles Deckers, Fr. Christian Chessel, Sister Angèle-Marie Littlejohn, Sister Bibiane Leclercq, Sister Odette Prévost, Brother Luc Dochier, Brother Christian de Chergé, Brother Christophe Lebreton, Brother Michel Fleury, Brother Bruno Lemarchand, Brother Célestin Ringeard, and Brother Paul Favre-Miville.
The best known of Claverie’s companions are the seven monks of Tibhirine, who were kidnapped from their Trappist priory in March 1996. They were kept as a bartering chip to procure the release of several imprisoned members of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, and were killed in May. Their story was dramatized in the 2010 French film Of Gods and Men, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
The prior, Christian de Chergé, sought peaceful dialogue with the Muslim population of the area and provided employment, medical attention, and education to the locals.
Dom Christian accepted that the current political tensions and violent militias were a threat to his life. According to the Trappist order, he wrote a letter to his community and family, citing the peace felt giving his life to God.
“If it should happen one day – and it could be today – that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church and my family to remember that my life was given to God and to this country,” he said.
After the death of the monks of Tibhirine, Bishop Claverie knew his life was in serious danger. A bomb exploded at the entrance of his chancery Aug. 1, 1996, killing him and an aide, Mohamed Bouchikhi.
Sister Esther Paniagua Alonso and Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín were Augustinian missionaries from Spain who were killed Oct. 23, 1994 in Algiers.
Vatican City, Sep 14, 2018 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Following the allegations made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò about the case of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, many have called for official Vatican files on the former cardinal to be released. Whi… […]
Sokoto, Nigeria, Sep 14, 2018 / 03:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the face of Nigeria’s upcoming general election, the country’s bishops have encouraged politicians and residents to participate in a just voting process.
The Nigerian bishops’ conference met in Sokoto Sept. 6-14, where they discuss the general election which is to be held in February 2019. Their concluding communique called for a respectful electoral process and emphasized its importance to the country’s success.
“We demand that the choice of the electorate, once made, be respected by all. Although elections are not enough to enthrone good governance, they are an important stage in that project,” read the statement.
“Unless we get our electoral process right, elections in Nigeria will only become expensive cosmetic exercises that legitimise corruption and ineptitude.”
The statement challenged citizens to ensure they are equipped with voter cards and to reject illegal voting practices, namely buying and selling votes. The bishops wrote that the voters should be wary of political inducements and not be swayed by the pressures of politicians.
“It is the right of Nigerians to fully participate in the electoral process without intimidation and violence” the bishops said.
The bishops urged politicians to reflect on the purpose of public office and its service to the people. Emphasizing the importance of law, the statement also asked lawmakers to construct just laws, remove unfair regulations, and uphold the equal rights of all citizens.
“We continually encourage the legislators to enact good laws and abrogate bad ones, so as to ensure order, safety, good conduct and safeguard the Common good,” wrote the bishops.
“We also enjoin the judiciary not to allow itself to be used as an instrument of subjugation, oppression, discrimination and injustice…We note that the rule of law connotes equality of all under the law; seeks the protection of fundamental rights of citizens; and guards against abuse of power.”
The Nigerian bishops advocated for the government’s aid in releasing the captives of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
“We advise the Federal Government to ensure the safe release of the remaining Chibok girls and all other persons in captivity.”
The path toward an ideal Nigeria must overcome ethnic and religious boundaries, the bishops said.
“We desire that mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence becomes a model for the adherents of all religions in the country,” the statement read. “This would enable us to collectively build the great Nigeria of our dreams.”
The bishops emphasized the power of prayer and encouraged all members of the Church to participate in continuous prayer for the upcoming election.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the power of prayer during his earthly life. He prayed incessantly, especially, at very decisive and significant moments of his life.”
“Following his footsteps, we direct that our Church at various levels continue to pray, especially as we approach the election year.”
New York City, N.Y., Sep 14, 2018 / 11:40 am (CNA).- Cardinal Timothy Dolan has spoken about how the extended sexual abuse scandals facing the Church have taken a personal toll on him. The Archbishop of New York said that his own mother is “embarrassed to be Catholic.”
Dolan made the comments to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a Sept. 13 interview. He said that his mother, who lives in an assisted-living home, told him that people knew her son was a priest and that she was ashamed of the scandals.
“If you don’t think that’s wrenching, I tell you, it’s awful. This summer has been anything but a church picnic for us. It’s been a disaster–one crisis after another,” he said.
Dolan also said that, while scandals involving sexual abuse among the clergy were “not new,” he had listened to many survivors face-to-face throughout the years and that the damage done to them and to the Church was terrible.
The cardinal explained that when people came to him in anger and frustration about the revelations he told them how he shares their pain and outrage. Dolan also expressed his anger at how his fellow bishops could be “so negligent” in failing to properly respond to allegations of abuse.
Despite this anger at members of the Church hierarchy for mishandling or ignoring abuse claims, Dolan gave a strong vote of personal support to Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.
Dolan said that Wuerl had a strong record as a reformer who has taken tough action against clerical abuse.
Cardinal Wuerl has faced numerous calls for his resignation in the fallout of the revelations concerning his predecessor, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, and a Pennsylvania grand jury report on allegations of sexual abuse in several dioceses in that state.
“I’ve got to be personal,” Dolan said of Wuerl, “he’s a good friend and he’s a tremendous leader. I kind of hope he doesn’t resign. We need him. He’s been a great source of reform in the past.”
Dolan did, however, say that he would “trust” Wuerl’s decision if he felt it was necessary to resign.
Wuerl, the former bishop of Pittsburgh, was named over 200 times in the Pennsylvania grand jury report. In addition to persistent questions about his knowledge of the accusations against McCarrick, he has faced criticism for his handling of some cases involving accused priests during his time in Pittsburgh.
Cardinal Wuerl submitted his resignation to Pope Francis following his 75th birthday three years ago, as is required by canon law. By not accepting the resignation, Pope Francis has allowed him to continue in office past the normal retirement age.
While it was widely thought that Wuerl hoped to continue in post at least until the U. S. Bishops’ conference met for their general session in November, an Archdiocese of Washington spokesman recently confirmed to CNA that he plans to travel to Rome “soon” to request that the pope accept his resignation.
As Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan was responsible for overseeing the preliminary investigation into allegations that Archbishop Theodore McCarrick groped a 16 year old boy in 1971. McCarrick was serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of New York at that time.
That investigation, which began in 2017, determined the accusation to be credible and forwarded the charge to authorities in Rome. The public disclosure of that finding in June 2018 triggered a succession of public accusations that McCarrick had sexually assaulted or abused seminarians and priests over a period of decades, as well as a further accusation that he had sexually abused a minor.
Since then, numerous bishops in the United States and Rome have faced questions about when accusations against McCarrick had first been made known to Church authorities, and how he had been allowed to continue in ministry despite widespread rumors of his misconduct.
Dublin, Ireland, Sep 14, 2018 / 10:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told a group of Jesuits during his visit to Dublin last month that elitism and clericalism in the Church are a cause of the abuse scandals in places such as the United States and Ireland.
“There is something I have understood with great clarity,” he said. “This drama of abuse, especially when it is widespread and gives great scandal – think of Chile, here in Ireland or in the United States – has behind it a Church that is elitist and clericalist, an inability to be near to the people of God.”
During his visit to Ireland last month, Pope Francis continued his tradition of stopping to meet with local Jesuits during a papal trip. The Aug. 25 meeting was closed to media, but the pope’s remarks were published by the Jesuit-run journal La Civilta Cattolica Sept. 13.
Speaking to a group of 63 Jesuits, mostly from Ireland, the pope said, “Elitism, clericalism fosters every form of abuse.” He asked for their help in putting an end to abuse, explaining that he meant more than to “simply turn the page.”
“Seek out a cure, reparation, all that is necessary to heal the wounds and give life back to so many people,” he said.
Francis went on to say that he believes “sexual abuse is not the first [abuse],” but that “the first abuse is of power and conscience. I ask you to help with this. Courage! Be courageous!”
Asked about concrete actions they could take against abuse, he said, “we have to denounce the cases we know about” and reiterated that “sexual abuse is the consequence of abuse of power and of conscience.”
Equating authoritarianism and clericalism, he asked, “who among us does not know an authoritarian bishop? Forever in the Church there have been authoritarian bishops and religious superiors.”
He emphasized that to be sent on mission “decisively and with authority” can be confused with authoritarianism, but they are two different things and need to be separated.
During the brief meeting, the pope also referenced an encounter he had immediately beforehand with eight survivors of sexual abuse, at which he also heard about the cases of Irish mother and baby homes. He said these cases particularly touched his heart.
“I really was unable to believe the stories that I have seen well documented,” he said. “I heard them now in the other room and was deeply upset. This is a special mission for you: clean this up, change consciences, do not be afraid to call things by their name.”
He also told the members of the Society of Jesus that “we need to work so that the freshness of the Gospel and its joy are understood.”
“Jesus came to bring joy, not moral casuistry. To bring openness, mercy. Jesus loved sinners. But now I am preaching … I didn’t intend to! Jesus loved sinners … he loved them! He had a strong dislike of the corrupt! The Gospel of Matthew in chapter 23 is an example of what Jesus says to the corrupt.”
He commended a confessor who, he says, makes confession “an encounter with Jesus Christ, not a torture room or a psychiatrist’s couch.”
“We need to be the reflection of merciful Jesus,” the pope stated.
“And what did Jesus ask of the adulteress? ‘How many times and who with?’ No! He simply said, ‘Go and sin no more.’ The joy of the Gospel is the mercy of Jesus, indeed, the tenderness of Jesus. And Jesus liked the crowd, the simple, ordinary people. The poor are at the heart of the Gospel. The poor follow Jesus to be healed, to be fed.”
Strasbourg, France, Sep 14, 2018 / 08:45 am (CNA).- A personal encounter with Mother Alphonse Marie Eppinger inspired “conversions which were far more miraculous than the raising of the dead,” recounted her spiritual director, Father Jean-David Reichard. The nineteenth century French mystic and religious founder was beatified this week in her native Strasbourg after a miraculous physical healing through her intercession was confirmed.
Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Causes of the Saints, celebrated the beatification Mass in the Cathedral of Notre Dame on Sept. 9 in Strasbourg, France.
Mother Alphonse Marie had “the gift of seeing people, what is in their souls,” wrote Abbe Glöckler, who knew Eppinger personally and later wrote her biography.
“She had a right word and advice for everyone. God gifted her with a good mind and right judgment. Many left her with the decision to change their lives and to walk the right path.”
Eppinger was able to “scrutinize human hearts” and “reveal things that were hidden,” using these spiritual gifts to advise the priests who would “visit her in abundant numbers” seeking counsel.
“God gave her a specific commission for priests,” Glöckler continued, “She told them about dignity and the grandeur of the priesthood. She prayed a lot for priests, the Holy Father, and the Diocesan Bishop.” Eppinger also composed many several prayers for confessors.
Speaking at the Mass of beatification, Cardinal Becciu called the occasion a “providential opportunity to rediscover, 150 years after her death, … the testimony of an authentic Christian life and a deep spirituality.”
The eldest of eleven children, Elizabeth Eppinger, was born into a peasant family on Sept. 9, 1814, in Niederbronn, France.
Her devotion to Christ’s passion stemmed from an episode in her childhood, which Cardinal Becciu recounted in his homily:
“As a child – when she was still called Elizabeth – one day on the way to a station of the Stations of the Cross, she asked her mother, ‘Why did they crucify Jesus?’”
“‘My little one, he was killed because of our sins,” he replied her mother.”
“‘But what is a sin?” insisted Elizabeth. ‘It’s an offense to God …’”
“‘Well, I do not want to offend him anymore!’” she replied.”
Eppinger’s devotion deepened through her experience of suffering through a serious illness with which she struggled intermittently throughout her life. It kept her bedridden for years at a time, prayerfully “immersed in the mystery of the cross.”
It was during her illness that Eppinger received her first vision of Christ and that her mystical gifts became well known.
At the request of her bishop, Eppinger founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Saviour in 1848, taking the religious name Sister Alphonse Marie, in honor of her great devotion to Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, whom she made patron of the new congregation.
She asked her sisters to meditate daily on the passion of Christ, and she encouraged devotion to Eucharistic adoration. In addition to their devotions, the sisters also aided the sick during epidemics, including a cholera outbreak in 1854.
Mother Alphonse Marie died in 1867. Ten years after her death, the congregation she founded had grown to include 550 sisters in 88 religious houses throughout Europe. Today the sisters are present in 68 dioceses accross 16 countries, and they continue to serve others through the ministries of health care, social services and education
In his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis expressed gratitude for Mother Alphonsus Marie’s beatification:
“Let us thank God for this courageous and wise woman who, in suffering, in silence, and in prayer, witnessed the love of God especially to those who were sick in body and in spirit.”
London, England, Sep 13, 2018 / 04:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The British Home Secretary has rejected proposals for buffer zones around abortion clinics throughout England and Wales as disproportionate, after finding that most abortion protests are peaceful and passive.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said in his Sept. 13 decision that after reviewing the evidence, which included “upsetting examples of harassment … what is clear from the evidence we gathered is that these activities are not the norm, and predominantly, anti-abortion activities are more passive in nature.”
The typical activities of those protesting outside of abortion clinics “include praying, displaying banners and handing out leaflets,” Javid noted.
He added that there were “relatively few” reports of more “aggressive activities”, such as “handing out model foetuses, displaying graphic images, following people, blocking their paths and even assaulting them.”
Furthermore, he noted that in 2017, only 36 of the 363 hospitals and clinics in England and Wales that offer abortions have experienced pro-life demonstrations near their facilities.
Because the majority of protests are peaceful, enforcing buffer zones throughout the country “would not be a proportionate response,” he said.
Be Here for Me, a group of mothers who have received pro-life help outside of abortion clinics and oppose buffer zones, applauded Javid’s decision in a statement on their website.
“This carefully considered decision represents the common sense we have been calling for all along. It demonstrates Sajid Javid’s commitment to fundamental civil liberties as well as ensuring that women will continue to be offered much needed help and support. It will mean that people offering this vital support will not be criminalised,” said Elizabeth Howard, spokeswoman for the Be Here For Me campaign.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, of the Labour Party, denounced the decision as having “given the green light for women to be harassed and abused for exercising their right to choose,” according to the BBC.
“This is a disgusting failure to uphold women’s rights over their own bodies. Sajid Javid must urgently reconsider,” she said.
The decision to reject nationwide buffer zones comes after the High Court of England and Wales upheld a buffer zone imposed by Ealing Council, in west London, around a Marie Stopes abortion clinic. The zone prevents any pro-life gathering or speech, including prayer, within about 330 feet of the clinic.
Two pro-life London women are working to have the decision appealed, including Alina Dulgheriu, who chose to forgo an abortion at the Ealing clinic in question after being offered pro-life support.
Dulgheriu told CNA in July that clinics like the ones in Ealing do not offer women any alternatives to abortion. She said out that her efforts to see the buffer zones overturned are as much for the protection of mothers as for children.
“If the vigils are removed – who will look out for the mothers who desperately do not want to go ahead with an abortion? These mothers can be in very vulnerable circumstances, sometimes in abusive relationships, and vigils can offer them housing and refuge that abortion clinics could never provide,” she said.
The other woman in the court challenge has filed for anonymity in the court proceedings. The women, who have crowdfunded more than £40,000 ($52,000) so far for court expenses, have said they are willing to take their appeal to the UK’s Supreme Court if necessary. The appeal is expected to be heard sometime later this year.
In his decision, Javid said that there are already laws in place to protect people against intimidation and harassment in public spaces, including the Public Order Act 1986 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
He also noted that the Ealing case is an example of a local government using civil legislation “to restrict harmful protest activities.”
Javid noted that England and Wales should support both the right to free speech and individual’s rights to be safe from harassment and intimidation, and noted that the police are free to act in cases where the law has been violated.
“In this country, it is a long-standing tradition that people are free to gather together and to demonstrate their views. This is something to be rightly proud of,” he said.
However, he added, “I am adamant that where a crime is committed, the police have the powers to act so that people feel protected.”
Washington D.C., Sep 13, 2018 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Sept. 20 on whether or not to recommend Judge Brett Kavanaugh for confirmation to the Supreme Court, committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced on … […]
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