Europe

Frosinone, Italy, Sep 24, 2019 / 09:53 am (CNA).- Pope Francis and Andrea Bocelli made a surprise visit Tuesday to a rehabilitation center outside of Rome.

Arriving in a blue Ford Focus, the pope visited the headquarters of the “Nuovi Orizzonti,” or “New Horizons,” community, in Frosinone, Italy, Vatican News reported Sept. 24.

New Horizons is an Italian non-profit organization recognized by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, that provides support through a faith-based “rehabilitative therapeutic program” for the poor and destitute on the streets.

For 25 years, the organization founded by Chiara Amirante has served the poor with a faith-centered appraoch to rehabilitation from substance abuse, while also providing sheter for homeless youth, aid to women in prostitution, and a ministry of street evangelization. With its headquarters in Frosinone, the organization has grown to have 200 training centers.

“I knew that Christ could bring life back where I saw death. They asked me to take them away with me, to know that Jesus I was talking about. What happened next went beyond my imagination,” Amirante said of her ministry in the streets before the founding of New Horizons, according to Italian media.

Pope Francis visited the New Horizons’ headquarters and site of the “Cittadella Cielo,” or Heavenly Citadel project, an initiative to construct a “small village” to house single mothers and their children, teach vocational skills to homeless, assist people with AIDS, and train evangelization teams to volunteer in prisons or with at-risk youth.

The Italian newspaper Avvenire posted photos of Pope Francis celebrating Mass at the New Horizons headquarters with Andrea Bocelli and other Italian celebrities present.

Bocelli has been a supporter of New Horizons for a number of years. The celebrity singer attended the inauguration of the Heavenly Citadel project in 2018 and is called a “Knight of Light of New Horizons.”

Bocelli told Avvenire why he supports New Horizons: “Because I love the truth and I have decided to always be in the forefront of bringing it to others.”

“Holy Father, his first words after the white smoke were ‘Pray for me’. I don’t know why, but I cried a lot that night. And again this morning,” Bocelli said Sept. 24 during the visit to Frosinone with the pope.

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has made surprise visits, customarily on Fridays, to organizations practicing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Originally planned once per month during the Church’s Jubilee of Mercy in 2016 as “Mercy Fridays,” the pope continued these surprise visits, meeting with refugees, the terminally ill, and women freed from sex trafficking, among others.

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Madrid, Spain, Sep 24, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The Spanish bishops’ conference said that the “mindfulness” movement and other eastern meditation techniques cannot be considered a “properly Christian” practice of prayer.

The Spanish bishops’ commission on doctrine approved  April 3 “’My soul thirsts for God, for the living God’: A doctrinal orientation on Christian prayer. ” The document was officially published Sept. 3.

The bishops’ document discusses the “nature and richness of prayer, and the spiritual experience rooted in Christian Revelation and Tradition.”

The document also aims to offer “criteria to discern which elements of other widespread religious traditions can be integrated into a Christian praxis of prayer.”

In particular, the bishops noted that “the thirst for God accompanies each and every human being,” while “today’s culture and society, characterized by a secularized mentality, hinder the cultivation of spirituality and everything that leads to the encounter with God.”
 
“Our rhythm of life, marked by activism, competitiveness, and consumerism, generates emptiness, stress, anguish, frustration, and multiple concerns that fail to alleviate the means that the world offers to achieve happiness,” the bishops wrote.

In this context, “not a few feel a pressing desire for silence, serenity, and inner peace.”

The bishops warned, however, that “we are witnessing the resurgence of a spirituality that is presented in response to the growing ‘demand’ for emotional well-being, personal balance, enjoyment of life or serenity to face challenges.”

That spirituality, they said, is too often “understood as the cultivation of one’s own interiority so that man finds himself, and which often does not lead to God.”

“To this effect, many people—even those who grew up in a Christian environment—resort to meditation, prayer techniques and methods that have their origin in religious traditions outside Christianity and the rich spiritual heritage of the Church.”

“In some cases, this is accompanied by the abandonment of the Catholic faith, even inadvertently. In other cases, people try to incorporate these methods as a ‘supplement’ of their faith to achieve a more intense experience of it. This assimilation is frequently done without proper discernment about its compatibility with the Christian faith, the anthropology that derives from it and with the Christian message of salvation,” the bishops warned.

The bishops warned that “in many spheres of our society, the desire to find inner peace has favored the diffusion of meditation inspired by Zen Buddhism.”
 
“The reduction of prayer to meditation and the absence of a you as its end, turn meditation into a monologue that begins and ends in the subject itself,” the bishops said.

“The Zen technique consists in observing the movements of one’s own mind in order to pacify the person and bring them into union with their own being.”

The meditation technique described by the bishops is often referred to as “mindfulness” in the West.

 But techniques focused on the self “can hardly be compatible with Christian prayer, in which the most important thing is the divine You revealed in Christ,” the bishops said.

“Many times these meditation techniques, such as mindfulness, try to hide their religious origin and spread in movements that could be described as ‘new age,’ because they are proposed as an alternative to the Christian faith,” the bishops said.

They also explained that such techniques often disregard the difference “between the self and what is outside, between the sacred and the profane, between the divine and the created” and “the personal face of the Christian God cannot be recognized.”

“When the divine and the world are conflated, and there is no orientation towards another, any kind of prayer is useless.”

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Foggia, Italy, Sep 23, 2019 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Padre Pio, who had the physical marks of Christ’s passion on his body, showed Christ crucified to the world, Minister General Fr. Roberto Guerin, OFM Cap., said during a Mass for the saint’s fe… […]

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Sep 23, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- Arlene Foster, the leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, wrote Saturday that the party is ‘resolute’ in its opposition to abortion, and she called for the restoration of devolved government in the region.

“The DUP’s position on abortion remains resolute and unchanged since the Party’s inception,” Foster wrote in a Sept. 21 opinion piece at The News Letter, a Belfast daily. “We are a pro-life party and will continue to support the rights of both the mother and the unborn child.”

“We will continue to devote our energies to finding a resolution on both abortion and the restoration of a Northern Ireland Government, preferably before the 21st October.”

The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 and its amendments legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage, a law passed by the British parliament, will take effect only if the Northern Ireland Assembly, which has been suspended the past two years due to a dispute between the two major governing parties, is not functional by Oct. 21.

Abortion is legal in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, while currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.

Foster noted her participation in a Sept. 7 demonstration protesting the impending legalization of abortion in Northern Ireland. Tens of thousands joined in the protest; she said that “the law on abortion is a devolved matter. It should be decided upon by the Northern Ireland Assembly.”

Devolution refers to legislative reforms passed in 1999 which introduced levels of legislative autonomy for the different countries of the United Kingdom and created the Scottish Parliament and national Assemblies for Wales and Northern Ireland.

Foster said that while the Northern Ireland bill was being debated in Westminster, the DUP’s 10 MPs “were ridiculed both inside and outside Parliament for their pro-life stand.”

“The Act will not come into force if the Northern Ireland Executive is restored by October 21, but for some, this is now being portrayed as a false choice between ‘language or life’,” she stated.

Among the problems that led to the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly was the Irish Language Act, which would give Irish equal status to English in the region. It is supported by the nationalist parties Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and opposed by the unionist DUP and Ulster Unionist Party.

Sinn Fein has said that it will not participate in the formation of a Northern Irish government without an Irish Language Act.

Foster commented that “it is a mistake to think there is a simple trade-off between” the Irish Language Act and the region’s abortion law.

“Language or life,” she said, “is an over-simplification and conveys a belief that if the DUP were to agree to every Sinn Fein demand, including an Irish Language Act, then devolution would be restored immediately and Northern Ireland’s abortion laws would remain unchanged.”

Foster said the DUP strongly desires “an immediate return of devolution,” and that its restoration does not lie “only in the hands of the Democratic Unionist Party.”

“We have put down no preconditions or ‘red lines’ ahead of the restoration of the Executive. We would nominate Ministers today,” she noted.

The DUP leader said she offered in August 2017 to seek “a reasonable and balanced accommodation for the Irish Language,” but that “that offer was rejected by both Sinn Fein and the SDLP within 90 minutes.”

She also noted that even were devolution restored, it would not of itself be “an absolute safeguard against abortion liberalisation.”

“The DUP is the only pro-life party in the [Northern Ireland] Assembly” besides Jim Allister, the Traditional Unionist Voice’s sole member of the legislative assembly, she said. “We have 28 seats out of 90.”

Sinn Fein supports the liberalization of abortion law, while the remaining parties allow their MLAs a conscience vote on the topic.

Foster said that while abortion law “would come before the Assembly quickly after devolution is restored,” the change effected by the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 “is far beyond anything any NI Assembly would ever have endorsed. Having the NI Assembly back up and running before the 21stOctober would give all MLAs the opportunity to shape any future laws.”

Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.  

“Anyone who cares about the legislative framework governing abortion in Northern Ireland must also look beyond 21st October and ask all MLAs what they believe the law should say,” Foster said.

The DUP “want to see the Assembly restored so that local elected representatives can frame the laws for the people of Northern Ireland,” the party leader stated.

“Both getting devolution back and defending a pro-life policy have been and will continue to be, fundamental priorities for the Democratic Unionist Party, but it is unfortunately simplistic and mistaken to assume progress on one will resolve the other in the manner we all require.”

Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.

The Northern Ireland bill was passed by the British parliament in July.

The abortion amendment was introduced by Stella Creasy, a Labour MP who represents a London constituency. Earlier this year Creasy intended to propose an amendment to a draft Domestic Abuse Bill that would give the British parliament jurisdiction over abortion laws throughout the United Kingdom. However, the bill’s scope was restricted to England and Wales by the Conservative government.

Creasy also introduced an amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Act 2018 to repeal Northern Irish law on abortion and gay marriage, which was defeated.

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Fulda, Germany, Sep 23, 2019 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- The German bishops are set this week to vote upon statutes for a “binding synodal process,” days after Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference, held talks abo… […]

Madrid, Spain, Sep 20, 2019 / 03:07 pm (CNA).- A top UK rabbi has criticized secular groups in Britain for their remarks against religious practices and faith-based schools.

Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Great B… […]

Birmingham, England, Sep 20, 2019 / 03:01 am (CNA).- The Oratories of England are organizing a novena next month leading up to the canonization of Blessed John Henry Newman, in thanksgiving for his life and holiness and asking his intercession.

“This is a time of special grace for us to join together and form links in a great chain of prayer, where we call upon the soon-to-be-Saint to crown our prayers with his intercession in heaven,” Newman Canonisation said on its website.

“We encourage you to form links in that chain by joining in our Novena with Newman.”

The Oct. 4-12 novena will precede Newman’s Oct. 13 canonization.

Newman was a 19th century theologian, poet, priest, and cardinal. Originally an Anglican priest, he converted to the Catholic Church in 1845. He was ordained a priest in 1847, and was made a cardinal in 1879.

His works are considered among the most important contributions to the thought of the Church in recent centuries. Among his writings are The Idea of a University, Loss and Gain, and a Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.

He founded in England the Oratory of St. Philip Neri; the confederation now has three houses in the country, at Birmingham, London, and Oxford.

The novena highlights each day an aspect of Newman’s character: an example of humility, child of Mary, priest of God’s altar, man of prayer, guardian of conscience, counsellor of converts, educator of the laity, servant of the Church, and model of friendship.

Each day of the novena includes an intention, an extract from his writings, a decade of the rosary, and this prayer: “O God our heavenly Father, we offer you heartfelt thanks for the life and holiness of John Henry Newman. In him you give us an inspiring example of priest and teacher, heroic and humble in his labour for the salvation of souls and the pursuit of holiness. Through his intercession we ask you to lead us by the kindly light of the Holy Spirit, and so grant us peace and joy, in the one fold of the Redeemer. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Father Ignatius Harrison, provost of the Birmingham Oratory, said that “Newman’s lifelong success in bringing others to Christ shows us that the apostolate of Christian friendship achieves much more by attracting people to the Lord than by aggressive polemic. Newman’s long and incremental spiritual pilgrimage shows us that God leads us to Himself step by step, in ways that He customises to our individual needs, and in His own good time.”

Newman was beatified in Birmingham by Benedict XVI in 2010. At the Mass of beatification, Benedict said that Newman’s “insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only of profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and enlighten many all over the world.”

The first miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession involved the complete and inexplicable healing of a deacon from a disabling spinal condition.

His second miracle concerned the healing of a pregnant American woman. The woman prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover.

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London, England, Sep 19, 2019 / 06:39 pm (CNA).- Family members of an 80-year-old woman in England are advocating for legalized assisted suicide after the woman was found not guilty by a U.K. court in an apparent “mercy killing” of her husband.

Mavis Eccleston, 80, was accused of killing her husband Dennis, 81, with a lethal dose of prescription medicine.

Prosecutors claimed that Mavis had done so without Dennis’ knowledge or permission.

But, according to the BBC, Mavis told jurors at the Stafford Crown Court that she and her husband had both intended to take their lives with the medication, and that they had decided to do so after Dennis’ diagnosis of terminal cancer.

The couple was found in their apartment by family members on Feb. 19, 2018, after they had taken the drugs. The couple was rushed to the hospital and given an antidote to the medication. Mavis survived; Dennis did not.

After the hearing, Joy Munns, a daughter of Dennis and Mavis, called for the legalization of assisted suicide “so that dying people aren’t forced to suffer, make plans in secret or ask loved ones to risk prosecution by helping them,” the BBC reported.

Both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are illegal under U.K. law. According to the U.K.’s National Health Service, euthanasia could be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while physician-assisted suicide carries with it a maximum punishment of 14 years imprisonment.

In 2015 the U.K. parliament rejected a bill that would have legalized assisted suicide for patients with a terminal diagnosis, by a vote of 330 to 118.

The U.K.’s Suicide Act 1961 was challenged in High Court in 2017 by a terminally ill man, Noel Conway, who wanted a doctor to be able to prescribe him a lethal dose. His case was dismissed.

Some disability groups in the U.K. and throughout the world have argued against legalized physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, saying that such legislation would put vulnerable populations such as the elderly, physically disabled and mentally ill at risk for coercion.

The Catholic Church teaches that assisted suicide and euthanasia are a violation of the dignity of all human life, and therefore morally impermissible.

“Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible. Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.

“Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded,” it adds.

The Catechism similarly states that suicide or the cooperation in suicide is morally unacceptable, though it notes that: “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.”

In the recent U.K. hearing, Mavis told jurors that her husband wanted to end his life after receiving a terminal diagnosis of bowel cancer. He had stopped treatment except for pain management medication, and he had reportedly talked about going to Switzerland to take advantage of legal assisted suicide in the country.

The couple decided to end their lives together with a lethal dose of medication, and reportedly wrote a note to their family explaining their decision.

According to the BBC, Mavis said she handed the medicine to her husband before taking it herself, and that Dennis “knew full well” what he was doing as he gave himself the medicine.

Mavis said after she took the medicine herself, she kissed her husband and covered him before lying down, and remembers nothing else until she woke up in the hospital.

One of the couple’s children said outside of the courthouse that while they were “grateful and relieved” for the court’s ruling of not guilty, they said that if there “had been an assisted dying law here in the UK our dad would have been able to have the choice to end his suffering, with medical support, and with his loved ones around him.”

The case is similar to a 2017 case in which an English chemist was cleared after administering lethal drugs to his 85-year-old father, who had reportedly wanted to die. A judge at the time ruled that the chemist’s actions “were acts of pure compassion and mercy.”
 

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Madrid, Spain, Sep 19, 2019 / 05:50 pm (CNA).- The head of the migration commission for the Spanish Bishops’ Conference emphasized that love of neighbor is essential for Christians, and this includes a care for migrants and refugees.

“We don’t love God if we don’t love our brothers,” stressed Bishop Luis Quinteiro of Tuy-Vigo in a presentation on the bishops’ preparations for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

Observed in the Church since 1914 as an opportunity for prayer and awareness, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees will be held Sept. 29. Pope Francis has chosen as this year’s theme, “It’s not just about migrants.”

Normally observed in January, the day will instead by marked on the last Sunday of September this year.

Quinteiro called migration “a decisive issue” and said he hopes that this World Day of Migrants and Refugees will help remind people that foreigners are “not a danger, but help to enrich us.”

In a message, the Spanish bishops called for the most vulnerable to be protected and for human rights of migrants to be respected regardless of their legal status.

They also called for the closure of detention centers where migrants who cross the border illegally are held. The detention centers have drawn significant criticism for poor living conditions.

“It’s not just about migrants, it’s about humanity,” said Fr. José Luis Pinilla, secretary general of the Spanish Conference of Religious.

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Foggia, Italy, Sep 19, 2019 / 04:58 pm (CNA).- More than 50 years after the death of Padre Pio, one of the last journalists to interview the saint has reflected on the saint’s hope and suffering.

Renzo Allegri, the author of the biography “Man of Hope,” visited the Italian saint a year before he died in 1968. He said Pio’s suffering was difficult to witness, but the experience emphasized the saint’s silent strength.

“It was hard for me to watch him walking in the sacristy or the corridors of the monastery, bent over, dragging his swollen feet, and holding on to the walls so that he would not fall down,” wrote Allegri.

“His suffering was tremendous, but he bore it without complaining as he continued to give himself to those who needed him. When he would lift his head and look around, his big eyes looked like they were burning, not from pain but from a goodness that he could not contain.”

Allegri said that during his stay at San Giovanni Rotondo in 1967, he was able to speak with Pio twice. He said he witnessed an “extraordinary moral strength that emanated from [Pio’s] whole being.”

Following the saint’s death, Allegri wrote a long newspaper piece on Pio’s life and works. During his research, the journalist was given thousands of unpublished documents regarding the saint’s hardships.

“I discovered something about Padre Pio that few people knew: he had endured incredibly enormous suffering throughout his life, consisting of more persecution, humiliation, accusations, slanders, trials, and condemnations than one can imagine,” he said.

He said many people will focus on Pio’s intense life of penance and characterize him as a dark and medieval. However, he said the saint is better labeled as “a man of hope.”

“Throughout his life, in the midst of the most difficult trials, he always looked to the future with a spirit of optimism, faith, and love,” said Allegri.

The saint was born in 1887 to farmers Grazio Mario Forgione and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio. During his childhood, Pio was known for his zealous spirituality, and, when he was 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in Morcone.

World War I broke out in 1914 and Pio was drafted into the 10th Company of the Italian Medical Corps. He was released shortly thereafter due to medical reasons. In 1916, he moved to the Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary located in San Giovanni Rotondo.

Many miracles and extraordinary sufferings have been attributed to Pio’s life. Beside experiencing bilocation and levitation, he also had the stigmata – a miraculous exhibition of the wounds of Christ – and underwent physical attacks from the devil.

In his recent reflection, Allegri pointed to the words of Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, archbishop emeritus of Genoa, who highlighted Christ’s redemptive suffering as essential to the faith. In times when this is misunderstood, Siri said God will send men like Padre Pio.

“With the stigmata which he bore throughout his life and with the other physical and moral sufferings he endured, Padre Pio calls our attention to the body of Christ as a means of salvation,” Siri told Allegri in an interview for “Man with Hope.”

“In our time the temptation to forget about the reality of the body of Christ is enormous. And God has sent us this man with the task of calling us back to the truth.”

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