News Briefs

‘It touches every family’:  Israeli man says niece among those kidnapped by Hamas

October 17, 2023 Catholic News Agency 0
Rocket shells are left on the grass outside a house where civilians and soldiers were killed by Hamas militants days earlier, Oct. 11, 2023 in Be’eri, Israel. / Credit: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2023 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

An Israeli man told EWTN News this week that his niece is among those who were kidnapped by Hamas, stating that Israeli citizens are “strong” and “resilient” but admitting that his family is struggling with “unbearable” thoughts of the young woman’s captivity. 

Elad Levy told “EWTN News Nightly” host Tracy Sabol on Monday that his 19-year-old niece Roni Eshel was last heard from on Saturday, Oct. 7, just prior to the beginning of the attacks.  

“We saw the attacks. We went to our shelters and went to our safe rooms here where we live,” he said. “There was a barrage of rockets like we haven’t seen — I have never seen something like it in terms of the quantity in the areas that it spanned.” 

“And the last time that we heard from Roni was at 9:30 a.m.,” he said, describing his niece as a “typical” teenager who likes Taylor Swift and who is fun to be around.

Asked by Sabol if the family has received “any confirmation” of the young woman’s whereabouts, Levy said they have not confirmed her location but believe she was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and is being held in Gaza.

“Her parents on Sunday, just after the Oct. 7 attacks that Saturday, went to all the hospitals in Israel, and we couldn’t find her as well,” he said. “And we got a formal notice that she is missing. We are under the belief that she’s hostage in Gaza, held by the Hamas terrorists.”

Levy said Eshel and her mother exchanged brief texts before the former’s disappearance. “Mom, don’t worry, I’m okay,” he said Roni Eshel wrote. “Her mother replied, ‘I love you.’ And she said again, ‘Don’t worry. I’m okay. I love you.’”

Asked what the family’s biggest concern is as it awaits word from Eshel, Levy said it was “a very difficult question to answer.” 

“I think we’re concerned,” he said. “Where is she now? Is she hurt? If Hamas, you know, holds her — you’ve seen these terrorists, what they are capable of. I’m sure you’ve seen all the videos, the cruelty, the brutality, the savageness.” 

“And so being held by this group of terrorists, it’s unbearable thinking,” he said.

The Israeli people “can’t sugarcoat it,” Levy said. 

“You know, 1,300 people are believed to be dead right now,” he said. “It touches every family. I heard that a good friend of mine from high school was confirmed dead;  another friend of mine, his son was confirmed dead. So it touches everybody.”

“At the same time, you know, we’re resilient people,” he said. “We are very strong, the spirit is high with that respect. And for the coming days, we’re ready for everything.” 

“We trust our troops, we trust our military, our army, to finish and to do the job,” he said. 

The full interview with Levy on “EWTN News Nightly” can be viewed below.

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Pope Francis in new interview: ‘Church has to change’ in favor of human dignity

October 17, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
Pope Francis smiles during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 27, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Oct 17, 2023 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis, speaking in a new interview published by a media outlet in his native Argentina, said the Church must change “in favor of the dignity of the people.”

But in the same interview, conducted late last month and published Tuesday by state-owned news agency Telam Digital, he stressed that change must take place “without recanting the essence of the Church.”

“Since the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII had a very clear perception: The Church has to change. Paul VI agreed, just like the succeeding popes,” Francis said in the interview.

“It’s not just changing ways, it’s about a change of growth, in favor of the dignity of people. That’s theological progression, of moral theology and all the ecclesiastical sciences, even in the interpretation of Scriptures that have progressed according to the feelings of the Church,” he continued.

But, he added, using the image of a tree and its roots, “always in harmony. Rupture is not good. We either progress through development or things don’t turn out right. Rupture leaves you out of the sap of development.”

The pope went on to reference the writings of Vincent of Lérins, a fifth-century monk who stated that changes in the Church must be consolidating, growing, and ennobling.

“The Church has to change. Let’s think of the ways it has changed since the [Second Vatican] Council until now and the way it must continue changing its ways, in the way to propose an unchanging truth,” he said. “That is, the revelation of Jesus Christ does not change, the dogmas of the Church do not change, they grow and ennoble themselves like the sap of a tree. The person who does not follow this path follows a path that takes steps backward, a path that closes on itself.”

“Changes in the Church take place within this identity flow of the Church. And it has to keep changing along the way, as challenges are met. That is why the core of change is fundamentally pastoral, without recanting the essence of the Church.”

Pope Francis emphasized the role of dialogue. “I believe dialogue cannot be just nationalist, it must be universal, especially nowadays with the advanced communication systems we have. That is why I speak of universal dialogue, universal harmony, universal encounter. And of course, the enemy of this is war. Since the end of World War II up until today, there have been wars everywhere. That’s what I meant when I said we are living a World War in pieces.”

‘I’m going to do a heresy’

The pope’s on-camera remarks touched on a wide range of topics, including the Synod on Synodality, the Oct. 22 presidential election in Argentina, and his personal prayer life.

In answer to a question about his future travel plans, Francis alluded to the possibility of returning to his home country for the first time as pope — and perhaps continuing on to and even going so far as the South Pole.

“I’d like to go [to Argentina],” he said. “When it comes to more distant countries, I still haven’t visited Papua New Guinea. Somebody said that if I go to Argentina, I should stop at Rio Gallegos, then head to the South Pole, land in Melbourne and visit New Zealand. It would be a rather long journey.”

Asked if it was “hard being the representative of God on Earth” at this time, Francis replied: “I’m going to do a heresy. We are all representatives of God. Every person who believes must testify to what they believe and, in this sense, we are all representatives of God.”

“It is true that the pope is a privileged representative of God,” he added, laughing, “and I must testify to an inner coherence, to the truth of the Church and the pastorality of the Church. That is, a Church that keeps its doors open for everybody.”

‘People without a sense of humor are boring’

Asked about his personal prayer life, the pope described it as child-like and “old-fashioned.”

“I maintain the piety I had as a child. My grandmother taught me how to pray and I maintain that simple piety of praying, as we say in Argentina ‘the faith of a coal miner,’” Pope Francis said.

“I’m not complicated when I pray. One might even say I have an old-fashioned spirituality,” he said.

“My religious consciousness has grown a lot, that’s different, it has matured, but the way I express myself to God has always been simple. Being complicated is not in me,” he said.

“Sometimes I say [looking up], ‘You fix this, because I can’t.’ And I ask the Virgin and the saints to intercede, to help me,” he said. “And when I have to make a decision, I always pray … to the light above. But the Lord is a good friend, he has been good to me. He takes care of me, as he takes care of all. We must pay attention to the way he takes care of each of us; he has a different style with each of us. That is beautiful.”

Pope Francis also spoke in the interview about the importance of having a sense of humor.

Responding to a question about what amuses him, he said with a laugh: “A sense of humor is a certificate of good health.”

Every day for the past 40 years, he said, he has prayed St. Thomas More’s “Prayer for Good Humor,” which begins: “Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.”

“People who don’t have a sense of humor,” the pope said, “are boring.”

[…]

Rome remembers 80th anniversary of Nazis’ expulsion of the city’s Jews 

October 17, 2023 Catholic News Agency 0
The ancient Portico d’Ottavia in the heart of Rome’s Jewish ghetto was the site of the March for Remembrance on Oct. 16, 2023. / Credit: Camelia.boban|Wikimedia|CC BY-SA 4.0

Rome, Italy, Oct 17, 2023 / 12:37 pm (CNA).

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Rome on Monday evening to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nazi roundup and deportation of more than 1,200 Jews from Rome to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. 

The March of Remembrance commenced at the Piazza del Campidoglio, home to Rome’s city hall, and concluded in front of the ancient Portico d’Ottavia in the heart of the Jewish ghetto. This annual event has been held for the past 30 years and is jointly organized by the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio and the Jewish Community of Rome. 

Established in 1555, the Jewish ghetto of Rome is one of the oldest in Europe. It is located in the city center, bordered by the Tiber River and the Trastevere neighborhood on the south and Piazza Venezia on the north. 

On Sept. 10, 1943, two days after Italy’s surrender, the German Wehrmacht occupied Rome. The city remained under Nazi control until its liberation by Allied forces a year later, on June 4, 1944. 

On Oct. 16, 1943, the Gestapo raided the ghetto, rounding up 1,022 Jews who were subsequently deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. 

“Two hundred were children. Sixteen of them returned, only one woman among them,” Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the crowd at the event’s concluding ceremony.

Among the speakers on the stage were the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella; the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri; Di Segni; Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome organization; Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio; representatives of the Italian Parliament; and members of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet. 

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference; Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life; and Ambrogio Spreafico, bishop of Anagni-Alatri, were also present. 

This was an opportunity to remember “one of the most shocking and inhuman events that our city experienced in the 20th century,” Gualtieri said in his remarks. 

“It is necessary to always recognize and fight the virus of anti-Semitism when it appears in its multiple metamorphoses,” he continued. “This is also why it is important to be here today.” 

The mayor also took a moment to honor two survivors of the Holocaust, Tatiana Bucci and Sami Modiano, 85 and 92 years old, respectively, who were present at the event.

“The novelty of the Shoah [the Holocaust] was that of the systematic and technological organization of the extermination,” Di Segni told the crowd assembled in front of the Portico d’Ottavia. “But the massacres of the Jews had infamous precedents throughout the world,” he continued. 

“After the Shoah, we had the illusion that the world had changed. But no,” he said.

At the end of his speech, Di Segni took a moment to comment on Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7. 

“What happened nine days ago in Israel … reopened the bleeding wounds of events that occurred in this square and spread a sense of insecurity throughout the world. I am not going to insist on the essential message, which should also be clear, that the attack on the Jews as such because that is what it was, is an attack on the foundations of civil society and social peace.” 

Riccardi of Sant’Egidio, an organization known for its far-reaching humanitarian work, made the event’s closing remarks.

“War and violence and terrorism are being reevaluated,” Riccardi declared. 

“And so, dear friends, in this climate between the memory of ’43 and the horror of the massacres and kidnappings of the innocent caused by the barbaric attack of Hamas on the whole of Israel, sharing the anxiety for the future of our friends, we rally around the Jewish community with great effect and with faithfulness,” he said.

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Pastor removed from ministry after report about $200,000 in sex abuse hush money

October 16, 2023 Catholic News Agency 1
A view of Baltimore’s Basilica nestled amid the city’s famed row houses. / Public domain

CNA Staff, Oct 16, 2023 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Benedictine order have removed a decadeslong pastor from public ministry and suspended his priestly faculties after he confirmed to a local media outlet that years ago he entered a confidential $200,000 settlement to quiet allegations of male adult sexual assault and financial fraud.

“I just wanted to keep him quiet, to be rid of him, because he was just stirring up trouble,” Father Paschal Morlino, OSB, told The Baltimore Banner in its October report. “My conscience is clear; it’s all stuff that he made up.”

The archdiocese said in a statement Sunday that after being made aware of the report, it immediately began an investigation and decided within 24 hours, along with the Benedictine order, to remove Morlino as pastor and suspend his priestly faculties.

Morlino, who was the pastor for more than 30 years at St. Benedict Church in Baltimore, has since returned to his religious community, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. 

A lawyer for the archabbey declined to comment on Monday. CNA reached out to the American-Cassinese Congregation, which oversees the archabbey, for comment but did not hear back by time of publication.

CNA also reached out to the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where the archabbey is located, but a spokesman said that Morlino is not a diocesan priest and therefore does not have any faculties in the diocese.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore said in its statement that both the archdiocese and the Benedictines “intend to conduct further investigation.”

The allegations

Kathy Durm-St. Amant, a former parishioner from Morlino’s Baltimore church, told The Baltimore Banner that a friend once confided in her that many years prior he had taken a cruise with Morlino in which the priest sexually assaulted him.

”He said he went on that cruise, he was in bed. He woke up with Paschal on top of him,” Durm-St. Amant said.

That man worked for Morlino, now 85, carrying out different duties for the pastor’s church such as fundraising, cooking, and cleaning, the outlet reported.

She encouraged her friend, whom the outlet did not name, to contact a lawyer. 

That friend died in 2020, but after his death, Durm-St. Amant discovered negotiation letters between attorneys relating to the incident, the outlet reported. The letters were provided to the outlet.

One of the letters, dated Jan. 24, 2018, was from the man’s attorney Joanne Suder. 

That letter demanded $375,000 in exchange for forgoing a lawsuit, but it also accused Morlino of forging the man’s signature on bank records, the outlet reported.

“You stole all of his cash from checks telling him his expenses exceeded the balances of his checks,” Suder wrote.

In that letter, the man’s attorney also accused the priest of raping the man on the cruise in September 2000. Additionally, the letter accuses Morlino of “multiple rapes” in the years following the cruise, according to the outlet.

“His physician has opined that your sexual, physical, emotional, and fraudulent behavior has caused him such injuries that he may never recover,” Suder wrote, referring to her client.

Suder declined to comment to CNA on Monday.

A letter from Morlino’s attorney, Salvatore Anello III, responded to Suder’s demands saying, “Although Father Paschal is indeed not a rich person, in conjunction with his family and friends, he has managed to raise $25,000 to try and settle this matter.” 

“There would have to be a release and total confidentiality agreement. As you can see whatever we do here, we are in an untenable position since the mere accusation, whether it be true or not, and it is not true, can end his ministry at St. Benedict’s,” the letter said.

Both parties settled for $200,000 in February 2018, documents show. The pastor confirmed the deal to the outlet.

Anello could not be reached by CNA for comment by time of publication.

Durm-St. Amant, the man’s friend, told the outlet that she notified the Archdiocese of Baltimore of the sexual assault allegations in August 2018 and added that she then met with Monsignor James Hannon, then-director of the division of clergy personnel, and Jerri Burkhardt, director of the office of child and youth protection.

But she said she felt ignored. 

“What did he say? They’re going to meet with [Morlino] and counsel him?” the woman told the outlet about Hannon. “Not, ‘We’re going to shut him down.’ Not, ‘We’re going to take him out of service.’ That he needs counseling.”

In that August 2018 complaint to the archdiocese, Durm-St. Amant also alleged that Morlino had sexually assaulted a different man on a separate cruise. That man had died prior to the complaint being brought. 

The archdiocese told the outlet that Morlino denied the assault and the church could not corroborate the allegation because the man had died.

In the archdiocese’s statement Sunday, it said that in 2018 an individual brought a complaint against Morlino but that it related to sexual harassment — not sexual assault — of an adult man who had died by the time of the complaint, and therefore could not be corroborated.

CNA reached out to the archdiocese for comment on Monday but did not receive a response. 

Denying the allegations

Morlino denies all the allegations made against him. 

He told The Baltimore Banner that he did in fact go on a cruise with the man, Durm-St. Amant’s friend, along with three other friends, but had no sexual contact with him or in the following years.

Morlino also denies the fraud allegations. He told the outlet that there was an agreement that the man’s paychecks would be deposited into a church account that would cover his health care costs.

“I took care of his medical insurance; that was the deal,” the priest said. “He didn’t have any money; he played on my sympathy.”

The outlet also reported that Morlino paid the tax debt on the man’s home. But eventually, their relationship ended when the priest dismissed the man from his duties at the church. 

Morlino said he was stunned when the accusations came. 

A new administrator is being chosen to run St. Benedict Church in Baltimore, according to the archdiocese.

Anyone with information about sexual misconduct by any representative of the Church is encouraged to to contact the Baltimore Archdiocese by calling the Ethics line at 1-888-572-8026 or by visiting the archdiocese’s website.

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