Europe

Chartres, France, Jun 13, 2019 / 03:01 am (CNA).- More than 14,000 Catholics walked 62 miles from Paris to Chartres Cathedral in three days in an annual Pentecost pilgrimage of prayer and penance.

Pilgrims from across the globe trekked through the French countryside June 8-10 praying the rosary, singing, and talking together, stopping only for Mass and to camp for the night.

“Each year it is a great moment because we can leave our work, leave Paris, leave everything to concentrate on our faith and prayer. I think it is the spiritual summit of our year,” 31-year-old Parisian Raphaëlle de Feydeau told CNA.

Feydeau has walked the Chartres pilgrimage together with her family over Pentecost weekend annually for the past thirty years. Her mother carried her along the way when she was an infant.

“When we walk sometimes we are in silence, sometimes we sing, we pray, and we have time to speak to each other,” Raphaelle’s mother, Sybil Feydeau, added. “It is a good place to meet Christ, and to look at one’s life and decide what I could do better … What does God want me to do with my life?”

The tradition of walking from Notre Dame to Chartres Cathedral dates back to the 12th century as a stage in the route of the Camino de Santiago. Chartres Cathedral, built between 1194 and 1220, has been an important pilgrimage destination throughout French history due to its relic of the Virgin Mary’s veil and its blue rose window depicting Mary holding Christ.

Today the Pentecost Chartres pilgrimage is the largest of its kind in Western Europe, in both number of participants and distance covered.

The pilgrimage’s opening Mass, traditionally held in Notre-Dame de Paris, was moved this year to Paris’ second largest church, San Sulpice, due to the damage caused by a fire that destroyed Notre-Dame’s spire and timber roof in April.

The pilgrimage is divided into four age groups with varying difficulty and pace, including a “family group” in which parents with children 6 and under camp and walk a portion of the route together.

Many of the pilgrimage participants were part of youth groups or Catholic scouting troops, who walked together carrying flags representing their country or region, crosses, and banners with the image of their chosen patron saint.

A 16 year-old from Ireland carried the Irish flag with babies’ feet painted on it to represent her prayer intention for the unborn after abortion was legalized in her country. An engaged couple from Portugal walked the pilgrimage together to consecrate their state of life to Mary. A delegation from New Zealand carried the banner of a French saint, Peter Chanel, who was martyred as a missionary in Oceania.

Catholics from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries walked the pilgrimage with a group representing the French organization SOS Chrétiens d’Orient. The humanitarian group also organized two coinciding pilgrimages for Catholics in Iraq and Syria over Pentecost weekend in solidarity with the Chartres walk.

Twenty-six year old Majd Kassouha, a Syrian, said his intention for his pilgrimage was a prayer for peace.

“I have prayed for peace, especially in Syria, and in all the world because I don’t want other people to live what I have lived, my experience,” Kassouha told CNA. He and his family remained in Aleppo throughout the country’s civil war and said he witnessed the death of many of his friends and family.

“We have to pray … we cannot do anything without praying. We are so weak. That is my experience,” Kassouha, a 26 year-old Melkite Catholic, said. “We need this time to think about our lives and make a meditation.”

Priest chaplains could often be seen walking behind the pilgrimage groups hearing confessions of the young participants. Each group had a chaplain who provided meditations on the saints and catechesis on the social doctrine of the Church and this year’s pilgrimage theme, “The Peace of Christ through the Reign of Christ,” as they walked.

Since 1983 the Pentecost pilgrimage has been organized by Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, currently led by layman Jean des Tauriers and chaplain, Father Alexis Garnier of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Because so many people come out in the streets to watch the pilgrimage pass by, this year the organizers added an “evangelization team” to engage with curious onlookers, Notre-Dame de Chrétienté Vice President Hervé Rolland explained.

“Each year we have people asking if they can follow us,” Rolland told CNA. “Two years ago there was a lady who was struck by the children walking … she asked, ‘Can I follow you?’ She did, and six months later she asked to be baptized.”

Rolland said that many vocations have also been discovered or confirmed for young people as they prayerfully walk the pilgrimage.

Three Masses took place over the course of the pilgrimage, each in the extraordinary form, though many private Masses were said as well. On Pentecost Mass took place in a field in the countryside midway through the day’s 20 mile walk.

The culminating Mass was celebrated in Chartres Cathedral by Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard, the emeritus Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel.

“I want to tell the pilgrims something: the Catholic Church, no matter what anyone says, remains the most beautiful multinational of the world, that is the multinational of faith, hope and charity. Even if we are going through difficult times, we must always say the creed with conviction: I believe that the Church is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. We must remember it is holy,” Archbishop Léonard told EWTN.

“In troubled times like ours, everywhere but especially in countries like France or Belgium, my country, there is a lot of confusion after the series of scandals we’ve faced, people definitely need to hang on to something sound. I think that an initiative like the Chartres Pilgrimage helps people to become stronger in faith and hope.”

[…]

Paris, France, Jun 12, 2019 / 03:28 pm (CNA).- The first Mass in Notre-Dame de Paris since the cathedral’s April fire will be said Saturday evening in a side chapel that houses the crown of thorns.

The June 15 Mass will be of the feast of the dedication of Notre-Dame, which is held June 16. It will be said by Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris.

“It is very important to be able to make the world aware that the role of the cathedral is to show the glory of God,” said Msgr. Patrick Chauvet, rector of the cathedral.

“Celebrating the Eucharist on that day, even in very small groups, will be the sign of this glory and grace,” he told La Croix International.

About 20 people will assist at the Mass, including canons of the cathedral and other priests. They will be expected to wear hard hats for safety.

Vespers may be held beforehand in the square in front of the cathedral, where a Marian shrine will soon be set up.

A fire broke out in the cathedral shortly before 7 pm April 15. The roof and the spire, which dated to the 19th century, were destroyed. Shortly after midnight April 16, firefighters announced that the cathedral’s main structure had been preserved from collapse.

The major religious and artistic treasures of the cathedral were removed as the fire began, including a relic of the crown of thorns.

Originally built between the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, the landmark cathedral in the French capital is one of the most recognizable churches in the world, receiving more than 12 million visitors each year.

The cathedral was undergoing some restorative work at the time the fire broke out, though it is unknown if the fire originated in the area of the work.

Officials had been in the process of a massive fundraising effort to renovate the cathedral against centuries of decay, pollution, and an inundation of visitors. French conservationists and the archdiocese announced in 2017 that the renovations needed for the building’s structural integrity could cost as much as $112 million to complete.

Last month the French Senate passed a bill mandating that Notre-Dame be rebuilt as it was before the fire. President Emmanuel Macron had called for “an inventive reconstruction” of the cathedral.

Since the adoption of the 1905 law on separation of church and state, which formalized laïcité (a strict form of public secularism), religious buildings in France have been property of the state.

[…]

Rome, Italy, Jun 11, 2019 / 09:01 am (CNA).- The recently installed head of the Knights of Malta directed Monday that all liturgical ceremonies within the community must use the ordinary, and not the extraordinary, form of the Roman rite.

“I have thus decided, as supreme guarantor of the cohesion and communion of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem of which Providence made me Grand Master, that henceforth all the liturgical ceremonies within our Order must be performed according to the ordinary rite of the Church (rite of St. Paul VI) and not the extraordinary rite (Tridentine rite),” Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre wrote in a June 10 letter to the order.

“This decision applies to all the official liturgical celebrations such as investitures, masses [sic] during our pilgrimages, memorial masses, [sic] as well as the feasts and solemnities of the Order.”

Dalla Torre was elected grand master of the Knights of Malta in May 2018, after serving as interim leader for a little over a year.

His appointment as interim grand master was part of ongoing reform of leadership after the Knights’ former grand master, Matthew Festing, resigned at Pope Francis’ request Jan. 24, 2017.

Festing’s resignation in early 2017 had marked the end of a month-long back and forth between the Order of Malta and the Holy See, beginning with the forced dismissal of Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager from both his position and his membership in the order in early December 2016. Boeselager, whose brother Georg von Boeselager was appointed a member of the Board of Superintendents of the IOR in 2016, was reinstated after Festing was pressured to resign.

Boeselager had been dismissed because of allegations that under his tenure the order’s charity branch  had inadvertently been involved in distributing condoms in Burma to prevent the spread of HIV.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a Catholic lay religious order originally founded as the Knights Hospitaller around 1099 in Jerusalem. Now based in Rome, it is present in 120 countries with over 2,000 projects in the medical-social field and more than 120,000 volunteers and medical staff.

Dalla Torre said that as religious superior, it is his duty to ensure that “the communion that unites all the members of our religious family” is “present in every aspect of our Order’s life.”

“Among all the elements which constitute our spiritual life, the question of the liturgy to use in our celebrations has a particular significance.”

He wrote that “As you all know, Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificium, [sic] albeit leaving every priest the freedom to celebrate privately in an extraordinary form, nevertheless states that inside a religious institute the matter is to be decided by the Major Superior according to the norm of law and their particular statues (Summorum Pontificium, [sic] art. 3).”

Summorum Pontificum states that “If communities of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, whether of pontifical or diocesan right, wish to celebrate the conventual or community Mass in their own oratories according to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, they are permitted to do so. If an individual community or an entire Institute or Society wishes to have such celebrations frequently, habitually or permanently, the matter is to be decided by the Major Superiors according to the norm of law and their particular laws and statutes.”

Dalla Torre asked that all members of the Knights be informed of the decision, in particular the head chaplains, so that it may be respected.

[…]

Barcelona, Spain, Jun 10, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- After 137 years of ongoing construction, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia received a building permit Friday.

Construction on the basilica is expected to be completed in 2026.

Architect Antoni Gaudí began his work on Sagrada Familia in 1883, and in 1914 stopped all other projects to work exclusively on  the basilica, to which he dedicated himself until his death in 1926.

“It was a historical anomaly that La Sagrada Familia did not have a license,” said Janet Sanz, deputy mayor for Ecology, Urbanism and Mobility, according to NPR.

“They were working on the church in a very irregular way,” she said. “And we were very clear that, like everyone else, La Sagrada Familia should comply with the law.”

A permit had been applied for in 1885, but the city’s council never responded to the application. Three years ago, the authorities discovered that the building did not have the proper paperwork.

La Sagrada Familia foundation purchased the building permit and signed a contract with the city June 7. It is the most expensive building permit in the city’s history, at about $5.1 million dollars.

Per the agreement, the city will be involved with the preservation and completion of the basilica. The foundation will also be co-responsible for the revenue the building brings to the city.

Though unfinished, Sagrada Familia was consecrated in 2010 by Benedict XVI.

The church receives about 4 million visitors per year. Under the contract, the foundation will not seek to increase the amount of the visitors. A new metro station will also be built to provide visitors with direct access to the church and to help decrease traffic in the surrounding area.

A date for the project’s completion has been set for 2026, 100 years after Gaudí died in a car accident. Since his death, the progress has been based off the artist’s plaster models and copies of his drawings, which had been partially destroyed in a fire set during the Spanish Civil War, and which were later reconstructed.

The architect was a devout Catholic and has numerous modernist architectural pieces throughout Barcelona. His cause for canonization was opened in Rome in 2003.

 In 2005, Sagrada Familia was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[…]

Wrocław, Poland, Jun 10, 2019 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- A Catholic priest in Wrocław is in stable condition after reportedly being stabbed before morning Mass on Monday, Polish sources are reporting.

A spokesperson with University Clinical Hospital in Wrocław told the Polish press agency PAP that the priest, Fr. Ireneusz Bakalarczyk, was recovering well from surgery that treated internal injuries in his chest and abdomen that he reportedly sustained during the June 10 stabbing.

Fr. Bakalarczyk was on his was to celebrate Mass at the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Sand, in the city center of Wrocław, when a 57 year-old man approached him and started a conversation about the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, before allegedly pulling out a knife and stabbing the priest in the chest and abdomen, according to local news channel TVP Info.

Łukasz Dutkowiak, a spokesperson for the local police, told PAP that the attacker was detained by witnesses immediately after the incident until the police arrived.

Rafal Kowalski, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Wrocław, told PAP that he could not confirm whether the homeless man actually spoke to the priest before attacking him. He added that the alleged stabbing did not seem to be motivated by a personal grievance against Bakalarczyk, and that the attacker seemed to have been willing to attack any “man in a cassock.”

The attacker is in custody, and charges will be brought against him Tuesday, officials told PAP.

Last month’s release of a documentary on clergy sex abuse in Poland had prompted a national conversation in Poland. The film presents allegations that abusive priests were shifted between parishes, and shows people confronting elderly priests alleged to have abused them as children.

The nation’s bishops are speaking out against sexual abuse, pledging to continue to “eliminate factors conducive to crime” as well as to adopt a more sensitive attitude toward victims than in the past.

A study commissioned by the Polish bishops’ conference and released in March revealed nearly 400 Polish priests were accused of sexual abuse of more than 600 people from 1990 until 2018. Just over half of reported victims were under the age of 15. Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, called the report’s findings “tragic.”

In a May 22 letter, the Polish bishops urged: “Let us not let the good, that is done in the Church through their ministry, be obscured by the sins of particular persons.”

“On the principle of collective responsibility, let us not also convey the guilt of particular people in cassocks to all priests. These people committed these acts and they should be punished for their actions. Let us support in these difficult times the priests who work with sacrifice so that they don’t lose their enthusiasm and receive encouragement from the lay faithful.”

[…]

Bayeux, France, Jun 6, 2019 / 02:27 pm (CNA).- Marking Thursday’s 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings during World War II, bishops from across the world said the operations recall the need for peace and the duty of gratitude to veterans.

Some 156,000 Allied forces landed on five beaches of Normandy June 6, 1944 to liberate the European continent from Nazi German occupation. About 4,400 Allied servicemen died that day, and there were between 4,000 and 9,000 German casualties.

Within a year of D-Day, Nazi Germany had been defeated.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, gave an address June 5 at the Abbey of Saint-Étienne in Caen, not far from the landing sites.

“Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War, the memory of the victims of this massacre imposes on us a homage of respect and a duty to prevent conflicts by all means,” he said.

“Believing in peace” implies “an increased rational commitment to transform the world according to the imperative of unconditional respect for the dignity of the human person, unfortunately undermined by ideological colonization hostile to the sanctity of human life,” he said.

“In this difficult context, believing in peace also means relying on the efficiency of prayer for peace, since the Spirit of God directs human history towards its transcendent accomplishment with the imperfect but voluntary support of human freedoms.”

Cardinal Ouellet lamented the terrible cost of the World Wars: “The bitter feeling of the monstrous cost of these conflicts remains a heavy legacy that does not erase what has been achieved in the positive and generous achievements in European reconstruction. That is why remembering the end of the last great conflict is a duty of respect for the too many victims of these tragedies and a permanent requirement for reflection and commitment to prevent such disasters from happening again in the future.”

“There is a constant need for reflection and commitment to prevent such tragedies,” he stated. “But man does not seem to have learned much from his past sufferings: we are experiencing a globalization of oblivion and indifference to the victims of today, and conflicts have not ceased to increase and fragment on all continents.”

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the US Military Services marked the anniversary saying: “On my last visit to Normandy in 2015 I was struck by the number of French men and women who came up to me and said: ‘We will never forget what your countrymen did here.’ Indeed it is important to remember and give thanks for the sacrifices made on the beaches of Normandy and elsewhere in Europe and in the Pacific Theater.”

“We are continually reminded of the commitment of those who have gone before us and we pause on this 6th day of June to give thanks for those who 75 years ago made the ultimate sacrifice on the beaches of Normandy to liberate Europe from the Nazis and to defend the cause of freedom for all humanity. As we pause to honor their memory, we thank them for their sacrifice. As Christians, we pray for the repose of their souls and pray for their families. Can we forget all who lost their lives because of their religion or ethnic group? We recognize that all people are created in the image of God and pledge to live that belief in the day-to-day activities of ordinary life.”

The archbishop said that “Christ reminds us there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. We give thanks to God Almighty for all the brave servicemen and women who have faithfully kept the Lord’s commandment to love their compatriots even to the point of death throughout the course of our nation’s history from the time of its birth.”

He added that “we ask God that their sacrifice not be in vain. We beg Him to transform our power to turn war into a force for peace, to transform our weapons into plowshares, to give us the ability to negotiate, to talk, and to listen. We pray to remain vigilant against the forces of evil in our troubled world, and to pour our energies into building lasting peace and justice among nations.”

Pope Francis, in a May 31 letter to Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger of Bayeux-Lisieux, reflected that the Normandy landings were “decisive in the struggle against Nazi barbarism and that they opened the way to the end of this war which so profoundly wounded Europe and the world.”

“That is why I remember with gratitude all the soldiers who, coming from several countries including France, had the courage to commit themselves and to give their lives for freedom and peace. I entrust them to the infinitely merciful love of the Lord, as well as the millions of victims of this war, without forgetting those who, on the German side, fought in obedience to a regime animated by a deadly ideology.”

[…]

Lourdes, France, Jun 6, 2019 / 10:09 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has appointed a special delegate to oversee the pastoral care of pilgrims and other management at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France.

Pope Francis named Bishop Antoine H&eacu… […]

Blaj, Romania, Jun 2, 2019 / 08:45 am (CNA).- The history of humanity still echoes the relationship of Cain and Abel, Pope Francis told the Romani community on Sunday.

In the final stop of his three-day apostolic trip to Romania, the pope met with the… […]

Iaşi, Romania, Jun 1, 2019 / 10:00 am (CNA).- At a Marian meeting with young people and families in Romania Saturday, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of personal vocation, authentic human relationships, and the freedom given to each person to serve the other.

“The Lord gives us a vocation, a challenge to discover the talents and abilities we possess and to put them at the service of others,” the pope said June 1 in the square before the Palace of Culture in Iaşi.

“He asks us to use our freedom as a freedom to choose, to say yes to a loving plan, to a face, to a look. This is a much greater freedom than simply being able to consume and buy things. It is a vocation that sets us in motion, makes us fill in trenches and open up new avenues to remind us all that we are children and brothers and sisters to one another.”

Francis’ speech was preceded by an introduction from Bishop Petru Gherghel of Iaşi, and the testimony of a number of Romanian families.

The pope noted the variety of peoples and languages in Romania, and said that “the Holy Spirit has called us here and he helps us discover the beauty of being together, of being able to meet to journey together.”

At Pentecost “the Spirit embraces our differences and gives us the strength to open up paths of hope by bringing out the best in each person,” and he said this task of “journeying together” is not an easy one.

He emphasized the importance of rootedness in family: “It is the same dream, the same advice that Saint Paul gave to Timothy: to keep alive the faith of his mother and grandmother. As you continue to grow in every way … do not forget the most beautiful and worthwhile lesson you learned at home.”

“When you grow up, do not forget your mother and your grandmother, and the simple but robust faith that gave them the strength and tenacity to keep going and not to give up,” Pope Francis said. “It is a reason for you to give thanks and to ask for the generosity, courage and selflessness of a ‘home-grown’ faith that is unobtrusive, yet slowly but surely builds up the Kingdom of God.”

Faith is not a tradeable commodity, but “gift that keeps alive a profound and beautiful certainty: that we are God’s beloved children. God loves with a Father’s love. Every life, and every one of us, belongs to him,” he recalled.

“The Evil one divides, scatters, separates; he sows discord and distrust. He wants us to live ‘detached’ from others and from ourselves. The Spirit, on the contrary, reminds us that we are not anonymous, abstract, faceless beings, without history or identity. We are not meant to be empty or superficial,” the pope said.

Francis stated that the “very strong spiritual network that unites us”, connects and sustains us, “its roots: the realization that we belong to one another, that each of our lives is anchored in the lives of others.”

We flourish in love “because love draws us out of ourselves and invites us to take root in the lives of others,” he said.

The pope quoted from Romania’s national poet, Mihai Eminescu, and referred to a story told about the monk Galaction Ilie of Sihăstria Monastery, a prominent institution of Romanian Orthodoxy, to illustrate that “when there is no more Christian love and understanding between brothers and sisters, relatives, Christians and between peoples … when persons lose all their love, then it will truly be the end of the world. Because without love and without God, no one can live on the earth!”

Reiterating the importance of journeying together, Francis said: “Life begins to wilt and droop, our hearts stop beating and wither, the elderly no longer dream and young people no longer prophesy when pathways between neighbours disappear.”

While there are many “challenges that can discourage us and make us close in on ourselves … that cannot make us forget that faith itself offers us the greatest challenge of all: a challenge that, far from enclosing or isolating us, can bring out the best in us all,” Francis said.

“The Lord is the first to challenge us. He tells us that the worst comes when there are no more paths between neighbors, when we see more trenches than roads. The Lord is the one who gives us a song more powerful than all the siren songs that would paralyze us on our journey. And he always does it the same way: by singing a more beautiful and challenging song.”

The pope concluded focusing on the importance of “allowing faith to grow.”

“As I mentioned to you at the beginning: faith is not transmitted only by words, but also by gestures, looks and caresses, like those of our mothers and grandmothers; with the flavour of those things we learned at home in a straightforward and simple way.”

Mary, he said, “is a Mother who encourages her children’s dreams, who cherishes their hopes, who brings joy to their homes. She is a tender and true Mother who cares for us. You are that living, flourishing and hope-filled community that we can offer to our Mother. To her let us consecrate the future of young people, families and the Church.”

[…]

Edinburgh, Scotland, May 31, 2019 / 11:44 am (CNA).- A priest in Edinburgh has written to oppose a suggestion in Edinburgh council to strip voting rights from religious representatives on the education committee.

The Scottish government has decided that while religious representatives must be appointed to council areas’ education committees, they do not have to be afforded voting rights on those committees. The Humanist Society Scotland is urging the country’s 32 council areas to deny religious representatives a vote on education committees.

Perth and Kinross Council withdrew religious representatives’ voting rights earlier this month.

The Edinburgh Evening News reported May 30 that City of Edinburgh council members from the Scottish Green Party, supported by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, proposed that religious representatives on the education, children and families committee lose their voting rights. They also proposed that parents and youths be given more representation, though also without voting rights.

Msgr. Anthony Duffy, a priest of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, wrote the council to call the proposal “deeply disappointing and a very sad development”.

He added that it “endangers the very harmonious and positive relationship which has existed for many years between the council and the church,” and lamented that “there have been no formal discussions regarding this matter.”

“The church hopes that the views of people of faith continue to be important to members of Edinburgh City Council,” Msgr. Duffy wrote. “When making a decision on this matter we would ask that councillors note that almost 20 per cent of the school estate and pupil population of Edinburgh City Council is within their Catholic schools, chosen by members of the electorate, who are from all faiths and none.”

Councillors of the Scottish Conservative Party have called any decision on the matter to be postponed until August, after an appeal of Perth and Kinross’ decision can be sorted.

The Edinburgh council is administered by the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Labour Party.

Mary Campbell, the Green councillor who made the proposal, said that “the Catholic Church representative is out of touch with councillors.”

She added: “It’s 2019. It’s no longer appropriate for religious representatives to have special status on education committee, although they will still be able to take part in debate, just as parents can currently do.”

Catholic schools in Scotland are part of the state system, and are not owned by the Church. The Church does have rights over the content of religious and moral education at its schools.

The head of the Scottish Catholic Education Service has said that its representatives on education committees “do not vote on matters that will not impact on Catholic schools” and that “the Church representative on the education committee has an invaluable role in articulating the official response of the Catholic Church on these matters.”

The Bishop of Dunkeld has met with Perth and Kinross councillors to discuss that council’s decision to remove voting rights from religious representatives.

[…]