New York City, N.Y., Aug 19, 2019 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- A New York City public arts program has said it will not build a statue in honor of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, despite the saint receiving the most nominations in a public poll.
She Built NYC… […]
Washington D.C., Aug 14, 2019 / 09:30 am (CNA).- On Aug. 15, Catholics around the world mark the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, commemorating the end of her earthly life and assumption into Heaven.
But while the feast day is a relatively new one, th… […]
Rome, Italy, Jul 31, 2019 / 03:01 am (CNA).- Each year the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as other Eastern Christians, participate in a fasting season Aug. 1-14 in preparation for the Aug. 15 feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (which is ce… […]
Last fall I cheered the impending news of John Henry Newman’s canonization, for which we now have a date: October 13 of this year. October happens to be the month in which, after many years […]
Washington D.C., Jul 26, 2019 / 05:05 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Church’s teachings on economics and government have a tendency to frustrate anyone committed to a political ideology. The Church has condemned both unrestrained capitalism, as well as communism, socialism, and totalitarianism.
But a column recently published in America Magazine, entitled “The Catholic Case for Communism”, by Dean Dettloff, has resurrected questions about whether it is permissible for a Catholic to be a communist.
“Christianity and communism have obviously had a complicated relationship,” Detloff wrote, arguing that even though “communist states and movements have indeed persecuted religious people at different moments in history,” Christians have been “passionately represented” in communist movements.
“These Christians, like their atheist comrades, are communists not because they misunderstand the final goals of communism but [sic] because they authentically understand the communist ambition of a classless society,” he wrote.
Kristina Olney, director of government relations at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said that description is an unreasonable way of presenting the situation.
“It is just simply false,” she said. “The fact is, that every time what [communists] will point to is that the ideas just haven’t being implemented correctly, not the fact that the results are a direct product of the ideology itself,” explained Olney.
Olney believes that communism’s very nature makes it impossible for a Catholic to be a communist.
“There can be no Catholic case for communism, because the dignity of the human person is at the root of the Catholics faith, and communism is an ideology that is anathema to religion,” she said to CNA.
Since modern communism was first developed as a theory in the mid-19th century, popes have condemned the practice and taught the right of private ownership of property. In 1846, Blessed Pius IX wrote that “that infamous doctrine of so-called Communism which is absolutely contrary to the natural law itself” would eventually “utterly destroy the rights, property and possessions of all men, and even society itself.”
His successor, Pope Leo XIII, called communism “the fatal plague which insinuates itself into the very marrow of human society only to bring about its ruin” in his encyclical Quod Apostolici muneris. Pope Pius XI wrote the encyclical Divini Redemptoris, where he also condemned communism. In 1949, Venerable Pius XII issued the Decree Against Communism, which excommunicated all Catholics who professed to be communists.
St. John Paul II made opposition to communism a hallmark of his papacy, and his pastoral visit to his homeland of Poland is credited with jump-starting the Solidarity movement there and the eventual fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
Christians have faced persecution in several countries that transitioned to communist governments.
In 2001, St. John Paul II beatified Nicholas Charnetsky and 24 companions, Byzantine Catholics martyred by communists in Eastern Europe between 1935 and 1973.
The “Red Terror” of the Spanish Civil War saw nearly 7,000 members of the clergy and religious sisters killed for their faith. Nearly 2,000 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War have already been beatified.
Today, the situation for Catholics in communist countries is still difficult.
In China, the Communist Party is involved in the selection of bishops in the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and the state exercises significant oversight of Church activities.
Olney expressed concern that the situation would continue to worsen under present leadership.
“You have a cult of personality that is reminiscent of the Mao era that is reappearing with Xi Jinping,” said Olney. The government is “forcing people to sing songs in praise of the Communist Party, and putting up communist banners in places of worship.”
In the U.S., communism and socialism have grown in popularity in recent years. A majority of young people today say they reject capitalism.
A “real sense of disenfranchisement” could be why Americans are embracing socialism and communism, explained Olney, which is a feeling that she empathizes with, but also chalks up to naivete.
“People saying that socialism can be a solution to the problems that they’re facing, but, you know, the fact is, although socialism is gaining in popularity, people can’t describe what it is,” she said.
Olney said she hopes the Church must “speak the truth about and stand for the dignity of the human person,” as these concepts are the root of the Catholic faith.
“I think that the Church needs to speak out against the regimes that are still committing gross violations of human rights and human dignity in the name of communist ideology today,” she added.
Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Jul 26, 2019 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI left Vatican City Thursday to make a surprise visit to Castel Gandolfo.
The pope emeritus visited the Pontifical Villa July 25 for the first time in four years, and walked the garden paths where he used to pray, according to Italian media.
Benedict XVI then went to the 15th century Sanctuary of the Madonna of Tufo in Rocca di Papa for a short prayer before traveling to the town of Frascati in the Alban Hills outside of Rome.
In Frascati, Benedict had a private dinner with Bishop Raffaello Martinelli of Frascati at the Bishop’s Palace. Benedict’s private secretary and Prefect of the Papal Household Archbishop Georg Gaenswein accompanied them.
Since his resignation in Feb. 2013, Benedict has led a life of prayer, occasionally consulting with and meeting with his successor. At age 92, he currently resides in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within Vatican City State, where he has few private meetings with guests for breakfast or lunch.
During his pontificate, Benedict XVI used to spend his summers at the Pontifical Villa in Castel Gandolfo, which was conceded to the Holy See as an extraterritorial possession under the Lateran Pact of 1929.
The villa has served as the papal summer residence since the reign of Pope Urban VIII during the 17th century.
Pope Francis broke the tradition after his election in 2013, choosing to spend his summers in Rome in his residence in Vatican City’s Domus Sanctae Marthae guest house.
The Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo was opened to the public in 2016. Visitors can see the papal library, private study, throne room, consistory hall, and private chapel in the papal residence, as well as the bedroom where Popes Pius XII and Paul VI died.
The villa also has a small farm created by Pope Pius XI, which produces eggs, milk, oil, vegetables and honey either for local employees, or for sale in the Vatican supermarket.
During his stay at Castel Gandolfo in July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Here I find everything: mountains, the lake, and even the sea; a beautiful church with a renewed façade and good people. For these reasons, I am happy to be here.”
Editor’s note: This essay was presented in a slightly different form as a plenary address to the Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America in Philadelphia on July 3, 2019. Introduction In some Anglican […]
Editor’s note: During the week of May 28 to 31, 2019, several hundred Catholic lay faithful, priests, deacons, nuns, and three bishops gathered at Spokane, Washington, for the annual Sacred Liturgy Conference. The conference was […]
Vatican City, Jun 8, 2019 / 11:01 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Saturday he wants people to recognize the Church as their home and a place where they are always welcome.
“How I wish,” he said June 8, that people would recognize the Church “for this more than mercy, for this more than humanity and tenderness, of which there is so much need!”
That “you would feel at home, the ‘maternal home’ where you are always welcome and where you can always come back,” he said.
“You would always feel welcomed, listened to, interpreted well, helped to take a step forward in the direction of the kingdom of God… As a mother knows how to do, even with her now-grown children.”
Pope Francis preached on the motherhood of the Church during an evening Mass for the Vigil of Pentecost for Catholics of the Diocese of Rome.
“What are we celebrating today, all together, in our city of Rome?” he asked. “We celebrate the primacy of the Spirit, which makes us dumb before the unpredictability of God’s plan, and then startled with joy: ‘Then this was what God had for us!'”
Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to take the gifts of the Holy Spirit with them, bringing them in the midst of their brothers and sisters, especially those living in the city of Rome.
“Hear their need for salvation, the cry that comes to Him and that we usually do not hear,” he said. “It is about opening eyes and ears, but above all the heart, listening with the heart.”
“Then we will really get going,” he continued. “Then we will feel within us the fire of Pentecost, which drives us to cry out to the men and women of this city that their slavery is over and that it is Christ the way that leads to the city of Heaven.”
The vigil Mass will conclude with Rome Catholics carrying an icon of Our Lady of Divine Love in procession from St. Peter’s Square to Porta Capena square, which is near Circus Maximus.
The diocese also invited people to join afterward in a traditional night-time pilgrimage ending at Rome’s Shrine of Divine Love, which is located in the far southern outskirts of the city and is the home of the icon of Our Lady of Divine Love.
In his homily, Pope Francis recalled the image and Pope Pius XII’s “special act of thanks and supplication to the Virgin, for the protection of the city of Rome” 75 years ago, on June 11, 1944.
“Divine Love is the Holy Spirit, which springs from the Heart of Christ. It is the ‘spiritual rock’ that accompanies the people of God in the desert, so that drawing from the living water, they can quench their thirst along the way,” he said.
In Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within, Dr. Taylor Marshall purports to show that the Catholic Church has been infiltrated by Freemasons and Communists. Already ahead of its release, the hardcover was […]
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