Europe

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- In 2013, Franz Salm-Reifferscheidt made a life-changing visit to Rome. The retired Austrian businessman had an appointment with the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta, an almost 1,000-year-old Catholic lay religious order.

After working for 30 years for a baby food company, Salm had settled into a comfortable retirement. 

“I had a nice life, making a walk with my dog, and so on, and journeys with my wife and grandchildren,” he told CNA. 

“And then this friend, the president of the [order’s] German association, said: ‘Come on! You have time. You are fit. Couldn’t you do something for the order?’”

Salm joined the Order of Malta when he was 26. But as he was now in his late 60s, he wasn’t sure what he could offer the organization which, as a sovereign body, has diplomatic relations with more than 100 states, and engages in charitable work in 120 countries.

When he arrived for the meeting in Rome, the Grand Chancellor spoke about the order’s diplomatic work.

“Then all of a sudden, he said: ‘What would you do better?’ And I thought about the Roma, because these people are the biggest minority in Europe with 12 million people. They are segregated. Nobody likes them. They live in terrible conditions in settlements without running water and electricity,” he recalled.

Salm suggested that the order could combine its diplomatic and social missions if it extended its outreach to the Roma people — commonly known as Gypsies — because their plight was also a political issue. 

“The Grand Chancellor said: ‘That’s what we are really looking for.’ And two weeks later, I was appointed Ambassador for the Roma People at Large,” he said.

Salm quickly realized that he had accepted a staggeringly difficult challenge. Ever since the Roma arrived in Europe from northern India around the ninth century, they have suffered from hardship and persecution. Locals named them “Gypsies,” mistakenly believing that they came from Egypt.

Today, despite their nomadic reputation, Roma are overwhelmingly sedentary. More than 70% of Roma households live in poverty and just one in four Roma children graduate from high school. 

Despite these daunting facts, Salm set to work with an energy that impressed members of the order. Building on the organisation’s previous work with Roma communities, he developed initiatives in Albania, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

As a roving ambassador, he was able to link the projects together, drawing on his experience of building up the market for baby food in Eastern Europe.

Salm (pictured above) explained that a fully equipped center offers seven services: washing facilities, health checks, a kindergarten and playground, tutoring for children, counseling for mothers, apprenticeships, and a music school or other cultural endeavor. 

One of the biggest obstacles to improving the wellbeing of the Roma is that parents take their children out of school in order to work. Salm believes that the Order of Malta has found a way of overcoming this problem that could serve as a model across Europe. 

“Our donors ask: ‘How do you measure the success of your work?’ And it’s always the same: the children have more self-esteem, are clean and friendly — because that’s what we teach them every day — and, finally, much better in school.”

Salm cites a school run by the order in Romania. 

“This school was within the last rank of all the schools in this district. And after four or five years, it went better and better. And now, seven years later, this school is in the upper third, far above the average. No kid in the last two years failed the class,” he said. 

“And in our center, we could really come to the point where no kid misses the school. Of course, because they want to come to us.”

On Aug. 29, Salm will open the order’s 19th center for Roma people, in Croatia. 

“The hardest part is to convince the mayors of the area that this work is necessary,” he said, because they believe that offering any help to the Roma encourages them to settle permanently. 

But it is possible to win local officials over. The ambassador cited the example of a settlement in Romania, where the order has opened a riding school, giving children the opportunity to learn skills such as equestrian vaulting, or gymnastics on horseback.

When lockdown was imposed on the country this spring, some Roma communities resisted quarantine measures, leading to clashes with police. 

“Almost everywhere there was an aggressive reaction, unfriendly. So for the authorities not a very easy situation, very unpleasant. But not in this center where we have this horse riding. The mayor was from the beginning against this center, always, until this year when there had to be quarantine for this center,” he said.

“The Roma people in this settlement understood the situation, understood that it was necessary to put the settlement under quarantine. They accepted the situation. So the mayor excused himself officially that he changed his mind. Now he is not, I would say, a friend of the Roma, but now he understands that this work is successful.”

Another major concern for Salm is fundraising. He currently has a budget of 1.5 million euros ($1.8 million). But given the economic uncertainty resulting from the coronavirus crisis, he is not sure if he will be able to replenish it when it runs out. 

He said: “I have to do the fundraising myself. I would say this is the most difficult work. My wife is always astonished that it is possible for me to find donors. But this year it’s 1.5 million euros and I have it. I can finance the work for this year. But what will be next year?”

Salm emphasized that the Roma community in Europe is not homogenous. There are different subgroups in different countries. 

“You have the very proud Lovari in Hungary. ‘Ló’ means ‘horse.’ You have the very poor Băieși living in Romania. You have many, many different groups,” he explained.

This diversity extends to religion. 

“They take the religion of the country they live in,” Salm said. “So in Hungary they are Catholic. In Bucharest [Romania] they are Orthodox. In Bosnia they are Muslims. But most of the Roma are Catholic. They are Catholic in Hungary, Transylvania in Romania, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, France, Spain, Italy — in all the Catholic countries they are Catholic.”

Salm is now 76, but he is determined to keep serving the Roma people until his 80th birthday.

“I want to do it four years more, if God allows me and gives me the power and the help to do it. And then I have to find somebody else who does it,” he said. 

In the coming weeks, Salm will not only celebrate the opening of the new center in Croatia. He will also mark the 50th anniversary of his wedding — coronavirus restrictions permitting — with his four children, seven grandchildren, and other close family. 

Asked if his Catholic faith helped him in his work, he said: “Very much. I really pray for these kids, these families, and I have to live with the knowledge that every human being has the same dignity. And if you believe in this dignity, then it’s not a question if you help, it’s just a question how to help.”

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Rome Newsroom, Aug 20, 2020 / 05:30 am (CNA).- The archbishop of Minsk prayed outside of a prison in Belarus Wednesday where detained protesters were reported to have been tortured.

With a rosary in his hands, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz walked t… […]

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 04:30 am (CNA).- A restoration project at a country house in Norfolk has uncovered items that shed new light on the steadfast faith of a Catholic family in the wake of the English Reformation. 

The discoveries include a … […]

CNA Staff, Aug 19, 2020 / 01:29 pm (CNA).- A conservationist charity is calling for the preservation of George Mayer-Marton’s The Crucifixion, a 1955 mosaic and fresco work located in a church that was closed in 2017 amid a diocesan reorganization.

The artwork “is increasingly at risk of vandalism, theft, and the threat of redevelopment,” according to an Aug. 17 statement from Save Britain’s Heritage.

The 26 foot mosaic depicts the crucified Christ in front of a gold mandorla. It is flanked by paintings of Our Lady and Saint John on a background of blue ombré.

The fresco was painted over in off-white in the 1980s, according to Save Britain’s Heritage “new evidence has concluded that the fresco remains intact under the paint and that it is possible to restore the mural to its original condition.”

It is behind the altar of the Church of the Holy Rosary in Oldham, about 12 miles northeast of Salford.

“This is an incredibly rare, well executed and important mural for Oldham and for England by a leading 20th century artist and lecturer – it needs protection and national recognition through listing and SAVE is ready to help find a secure future for it,” the director of Save Britain’s Heritage, Henrietta Billings, said.

The charity has asked that Historic England designate Holy Rosary as a listed building because of the mural.

The public body told the BBC that it is considering a request for listing, but that when it was asked to do so when the church was closed in 2017 it “advised that, although of some interest, it didn’t have enough special interest to meet the high benchmark for listing post-war artwork”.

A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Salford said preservation of The Crucifixion has been “of paramount importance” since the church closure, the BBC reported.

She said that “we have taken action to improve the security of the building to ensure the safety of the work and have co-operated with parties who have shown an interest in it,” and that the diocese would “continue to explore options to find a place where it can be permanently displayed” and is “committed to finding a new home” for the mural.

Another of Mayer-Marton’s mosaics, depicting Pentecost, was transferred in 1989 from Holy Ghost church in Netherton to the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Several groups have indicated an interest in preserving The Crucifixion since Holy Rosary’s closure.

A November 2018 piece at The Mallard reported that the Christian Heritage Centre had received permission from Bishop John Arnold of Salford to raise money to transfer the mosaic to its retreat center, the Theodore House.

The article indicated that the mosaic would dissembled and reassembled at its new location, at a cost of about GBP 250,000, or about $329,000. About $26,000 had been raised at the time of The Mallard’s article.

When Holy Rosary was designated for closure, the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association commented that the mosaic’s loss would be “very regrettable,” according to The Guardian.

Mayer-Marton was born in Hungary in 1897 to an agnostic family of Jewish heritage. He studied art in Vienna and Munich and was prominent among Viennese artists, but fled Austria in 1938 after its annexation by Nazi Germany. He and his wife settled in England, and he taught for the Arts Council of Great Britain and then, beginning in 1952, at the Liverpool College of Art. He died in 1960.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 19, 2020 / 12:10 pm (CNA).- A new survey of neonatal medical professionals in the Belgian region of Flanders has found that nearly nine out of ten approve of euthanizing newborn children diagnosed with serious, non-lethal, medical conditions. 

The article, titled, “Healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards termination of pregnancy at viable stage” was published in the journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica on August 2. The research was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders and Ghent University.

The researchers mailed a survey to physicians and paramedical professionals who are involved in “late termination of pregnancy decision-making” at each of Flanders’ eight neonatal intensive care units. Flanders is a region in northern Belgium. 

The term “late termination of pregnancy” (TOP) refers to abortions that take place past the point of fetal viability. Abortion is legal in Belgium until the 12th week of a pregnancy, unless there are fetal defects or a risk to the life of the mother. 

Seventy-nine percent of those mailed a survey responded. The respondents were nearly evenly split between physicians and paramedic professionals. 

In the survey medical professionals were asked for their opinion on late-term abortions for unborn babies with lethal conditions, serious conditions that are not lethal, and for the healthy unborn babies of mothers with psychological or economic issues. 

“Almost nine out of ten respondents (89.1%) agreed that in the event of a serious (non‐lethal) neonatal condition, administering drugs with the explicit intention to end neonatal life was acceptable,” said the article’s abstract. 

“Neonatal” is defined as the first four weeks of a child’s life after they are born.

Neonatal medical professionals in Belgium widely approve of late-term abortion for a multitude of reasons. 

For unborn babies with lethal conditions, 100% of the respondents agreed that it would be acceptable for a late-term abortion. That figure dropped to 95.6% for unborn children with serious, nonlethal diagnoses. Nearly one out of five respondents, 19.8%, agreed that late-term abortion was acceptable for a woman with psychological problems, and 13.2% said that they would agree with a post-viability abortion for a woman experiencing socio-economic problems. 

Physicians, rather than paramedic professionals, were more likely to prefer late-term abortion rather than neonative palliative care for an unborn child diagnosed with a serious condition. More than two thirds of the physicians who responded said they “preferred feticide,” compared to 53.2% of paramedical professionals.

Dr. Charlie Camosy, a professor at Fordham University, told CNA that he was not shocked by these numbers, given Belgium’s promotion of euthanasia for the elderly and sick. 

“Belgium is an example of what happens when fundamental human equality and dignity is abandoned in favor of a utilitarian calculation about what makes certain lives valuable and what make others able to be discarded and thrown away. Sometimes violently,” said Camosy.

Camosy noted that a recent New York Times article highlighted Belgian hospitals refusing to care for elderly or disabled COVID-19 patients, despite there being beds available.

With that context, “it is not surprising to learn that certain newborn babies don’t ‘count’ the same as the result of us and may be abandoned or killed,” he added.

[…]

Rome Newsroom, Aug 19, 2020 / 11:10 am (CNA).- A Benedictine abbot who helped to revive traditional monasticism and Gregorian chant in France was buried Wednesday in the 11th-century Abbey of Fontgombault, the monastery he led for more than 30 years.

Dom Antoine Forgeot died Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption and the 65th anniversary of his profession of vows. He was 87.

At his funeral Aug. 19, Forgeot was remembered for his courage, simplicity, and paternal affection for his monks. He led the Abbey of Notre-Dame, Fontgombault, from 1977 to 2011.

“Despite being abbot during a period where the Church struggled to find young men willing to pursue the vocation to the priesthood, Dom Antoine received such a large number of vocations that he found it necessary to found no less than four new monasteries, all the while overseeing renovations and construction projects on an aging medieval monastery in the central west part of France,” Fr. Joseph Hudson, OSB told CNA.

Hudson is a Benedictine of Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, which was founded by Forgeot in 1999 with 50 monks.

He said that the surge in vocations for the Benedictine congregation of Solesmes can be traced back to when Forgeot was assistant to the novice master, nurturing at least 150 vocations from 1965 to 2011.

Forgeot oversaw the growth of the congregation, which led to the establishment of Benedictine abbeys in Triors and Gaussan, France and the founding of Clear Creek Abbey. 

Dom Forgeot reparti au Ciel en ce samedi 15 août. La Vierge Marie était là pour l’accueillir.

Qu’il repose en Paix. Il contemple dorénavant Jésus qu’il connaissait déja tant sur Terre. #DomForgeot #Fontgombault

??? pic.twitter.com/2ypWDjoKJS

— Samuel POTIER (@samuel_potier) August 16, 2020

Fontgombault Abbey is well known for its traditional liturgy and Gregorian chant.

“Though he adhered to and promoted the older form of liturgical worship, the usage of Latin and the so-called Tridentine Mass, he made a commitment to always do so under the direction of the Holy Father and the monastery was known far and wide for its orthodoxy and fidelity to the Holy See,” Hudson explained. 

The abbey was founded as a Benedictine monastery in 1091. It was plundered and damaged by Calvinists in 1569 and later sold during the French Revolution as “national property” in 1791.

The Benedictines did not return to Fontgombault until 1948, when monks from the Abbey of Solemes worked to restore the abbey following World War II. 

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the patronal feast of the monastery, and the date that Forgeot made his profession of vows in 1955.

Monks at the abbey noted that Forgeot had said that he wanted to die on the Marian feast day. He had been taken to the hospital on the morning of Aug. 13 with an accelerated heartbeat.

After his death Aug. 15, Forgeot’s body was brought to the monastery, where two monks continuously prayed the Divine Office at his side for the next three days. 

He was buried in a solemn ceremony with chants, incense, and prayers in the apse of the church of Our Lady of Fontgombault.

[…]

CNA Staff, Aug 18, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- A Catholic archbishop urged the embattled government of Belarus Tuesday to allow priests to visit imprisoned protesters. 

According to an Aug. 18 report on the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus, … […]

CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2020 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev called Tuesday for an end to the violent clashes occurring across Belarus following a disputed presidential election.

“At this crucial moment in our history, in the name of the God of boundless mercy, love, and peace, I call on all parties to the conflict to end the violence. May your hands, created for peaceful work and fraternal greetings, lift neither weapons nor stones. Let the force of argument, based on dialogue in truth and mutual love, prevail over the argument of force,” Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who chairs the Belarusian bishops’ conference, wrote Aug. 11.

Protests began Aug. 9 after president Alexander Lukashenko was declared to have won that day’s election with 80% of the vote. Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the position was created in 1994.

Electoral officials said that the opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, earned 10% of the vote. She was detained for several hours after complaining to the electoral committee, and has fled to Lithuania.

Protests have taken place across the country, and thousands of protesters have been detained.

Belarusian athorities say demonstrators have used metal rods, and police forces have used tear gas, stun grenades, and batons on them. Police in Brest, 110 miles west of Pinsk, shot live bullets at protesters Aug. 11.

Journalists from the BBC were harassed by police in Minsk, and other journalists were reportedly detained there and in Brest and Grodno.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Aug. 10 that the election “was not free and fair,” citing “severe restrictions on ballot access for candidates, prohibition of local independent observers at polling stations, intimidation tactics employed against opposition candidates, and the detentions of peaceful protesters and journalists.”

“We urge the Belarusian government to respect the rights of all Belarusians to participate in peaceful assembly, refrain from use of force, and release those wrongfully detained. We strongly condemn ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters,” he added.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz wrote that Belarus has “witnessed unprecedented tensions” related to the election, saying: “There were clashes between citizens and law enforcement officers. As a result of the active confrontation, unfortunately, the first blood has been shed and there are victims on both sides. For the first time in the modern history of Belarus, a brother raised his hand against his brother.”

“Why do we, a nation with more than a thousand years of Christian history, today seem to have forgotten about love of neighbor and our inherent tolerance towards dissenters,” he asked.

Appealing to the Slavic tradition of veche, or popular assemblies, the archbishop said, “I propose to convene immediately an emergency round table to decide the future of our fatherland behind it, and not at the barricades,” so as “to overcome the crisis in society and stop the violence as soon as possible.”

“I encourage all people of good will to pray fervently for peace and harmony in our country,” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz concluded.

Lithuania, Poland, and Latvia have also offered to mediate between the government and protesters.

Tsikhanouskaya entered the presidential race after her husband, Siahei Tsikhanouski, was blocked from running and was arrested. Tsikhanouski is a pro-democracy activist.

[…]

Rome Newsroom, Aug 11, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- While Assisi was largely sheltered from a major coronavirus outbreak during Italy’s lockdown, ten Franciscan friars and eight novices at the  landmark pilgrimage destination tested positive this… […]

CNA Staff, Aug 7, 2020 / 05:37 pm (CNA).- Commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis, the Catholic bishops of Poland released a reflection on the priests and nuns who ministered to the needs of the Polish people during … […]