Europe

Würzburg, Germany, Jul 6, 2018 / 09:58 am (CNA).- The Bishop of Würzburg issued an open invitation to all Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist on July 5 and 6 while attending Masses celebrated for married couples at the Cathedral of St. Kilian.

Referring to inter-denominational marriages as “denomination-uniting,” a press release published by the diocese says that Würzburg Bishop Franz Jung “especially invited” couples in which one spouse is Protestant to receive the Eucharist in his sermon on July 5.

Jubilee Masses are usually celebrated for couples who have been married for 25, 50 years or longer.

In May, the Vatican rejected a set of norms proposed by the German bishops’ conference on the question of intercommunion. Those norms were subsequently published by the conference as “guidance.”

Bishop Jung announced July 5 that he would discuss in detail the “recommendations made by the German bishops’ conference with his diocesan councils.”

“Today however, on the day of jubilees, I would like to express an invitation to receive the Eucharist to all denomination-uniting marriages in which the two partners have been faithful to one another for such a long time,” Jung continued.  

The 51-year-old Jung was installed as Bishop of the Bavarian diocese of Würzburg in June 2018. He is the fifth German bishop to announce an implementation of the bishops’ “orientation document” thus far.

While that document does not universally allow for Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist, it does allows the practice “under specific circumstances” and “in individual cases.”

The Code of Canon Law permits baptized Protestants to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing in “danger of death,” or in another circumstance of “grave necessity,” determined by a diocesan bishop or bishops’ conference. However, the Church’s law requires that those receiving them “manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed.”

The other bishops to announce an “implementation plan” of the German bishops’ guidelines are Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn, who introduced the change with immediate effect on Sunday, July 1st, as did Archbishop Stefan Heße of Hamburg a few days later. Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg has also followed suit, describing certain requirements in addition to the document. Meanwhile Bishops Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg and Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück have declared their intentions but have not implemented the move just yet.

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Portsmouth, England, Jul 5, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a pastoral letter last Friday, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth challenged Catholics to review England’s end-of-life care after a report tied negligent drug prescriptions to hundreds of elderly deaths.  

An independent panel reported June 20 that at least 450 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital died amid “an institutionalised regime of prescribing and administering ‘dangerous doses’ of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified, with patients and relatives powerless in their relationship with professional staff” between 1989 and 2000.

The report added that there had been a “disregard for human life” at the hospital.

Bishop Egan wrote June 29 that “Whilst the lessons to be learnt in this case will be many, it seems clear that as a society we need urgently to review our geriatric care and our end of life care, specifically in relation to fundamental moral principles.”

He urged prayers “for the repose of those who have died, for their families, and for justice and reconciliation” and extended “love, sympathy and prayers” to the bereaved families.

The bishop cited the failed campaign for assisted suicide in Guernsey, and the case of Alfie Evans, as evidence that “we cannot leave awkward decisions to the courts alone. We need to reprise our basic human values.”

He expressed disease with the concept “quality of life”, saying it “seems to invest experts and judges with power over the life and death of an individual.”

Better, he said, is the term “‘dignity of life,’ which reminds us of the absolute good of the person and their infinite worth.”

While the National Health Service is a “huge blessing,” he added that “we must ever be vigilant to the policies, values, priorities and procedures that operate within it.”

He noted the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient, guidelines for palliative care developed in the 1990s and widely used until an independent review led to its abandonment in 2013.

Bishop Egan commended the “noble intentions” of the LCP, but added that in England’s busy hospitals, “the pressure to save money and to utilise beds, together with an emotive empathy for those suffering, might suggest the need to hasten death.”

“We need to go back to basics,” he urged. “As Catholics, we believe that life from conception to natural death is a gift of God. It is sacred, and so every person on earth has an inviolable dignity as God’s creation. Frailty, pain and sufferings are always a difficult trial.”

We must both unite these sufferings with those of Christ, and “turn to doctures and nurses in the hope that … they can alleviate and heal our condition.”

“Indeed, in today’s world, we can thank God for amazing advances in modern health-care, and not least in palliative care and pain-management at the end of life.”

The bishop made three concluding points, beginning with an exhortation to pray daily “for our doctors, nurses and health-care professionals, asking God to bless and guide the wonderful and generous work they do. Pray too for the sick, the dying, those in hospital, and anyone suffering pain mental, emotional or physical. If a Catholic is seriously ill … please call the priest so that s/he can be offered the sacraments.”

Bishop Egan then recommended that “if you or a loved one is terminally ill, consider whether it might be praticable to die at home. Ask whether it is possible for drugs to be used that do not totally withdraw consciousness and a chance to pray and commune with family and friends. As next of kin, gently insist on being involved in decisions. It might be appropriate to ask staff for a second opinion or a re-evaluation of treatment.”

While life “cannot be prolonged indefinitely … it is not morally permissible until the very last to withdraw feeding and hydration. If the medical team suggests there is little more they can do, that is the moment, if not done already, to call the priest to offer the sacraments.”

Finally, he urged that everyone pray daily “for a happy death, that is, to die in a state of grace, aided by the sacramental care of Mother Church and supported … by family and friends.”

“Let us accept whatever death the Lord has prepared for us … let us prepare ourselves by persevering in the practice of our Faith, by attending Mass and making a regular confession, by daily prayer and faith-formation, and by living a good life in justice and charity.”

“Indeed, as a child, I was taught every night to pray the following prayer, which I also commend to you: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace with you.”

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London, England, Jul 3, 2018 / 05:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the UK plans to ban conversion therapy as a result of a government-sponsored survey of LGBT people, a Catholic author who identifies as having same-sex attraction said families should maintain the right to pursue pastoral responses framed by Church teaching.

In July 2017, the British government of Conservative prime minister Theresa May launched a survey to gather information about the experiences of LBGT people in the UK.

More than 108,000 people participated, and as a result the government issued a 75-point LBGT Action Plan to improve the lives of LGBT people. Through March 2020, GBP 4.5 million ($5.9 million) will be allocated to implement the plan, and additional funding will be sought for future years.

The plan would introduce an official LGBT health adviser, fight discrimination, promote diversity in educational institutions, and improve responses to LGBT-based hate crime.

The government will “consider all legislative and non-legislative options to prohibit promoting, offering or conducting conversion therapy.”

Penny Mordaunt, Minister for Women and Equalities, told BBC Radio 4 July 3 that it is a “very extreme so-called therapy that is there to try and ‘cure’ someone from being gay.”

“That’s very different from psychological services and counselling. It’s pretty unpleasant, some of the results we found, and it shows that there’s more action to do.”

Daniel Mattson, author of Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay, told CNA that “This is having the state step in and interfere in the rights of parents and children to determine their own choice of action in the name of supposedly protecting people from harm.”

“We as Catholics, we have to defend the rights of our families and young people to find the sort of therapy that is going to help them in accordance with the Church’s teaching.”

Mattson is familiar with some of the dangers in trying to change the sexual orientation of an individual. He said there have been “extreme measures” in therapy which exasperate mental health.

“I think there has been some damage in the name of trying to ‘change someone’s sexual orientation,’” he said. “There are some people who say if you have enough faith and you can pray and these thing would be resolved. Well, that’s not healthy and that’s not helpful and it leads to false promises.”

Mattson said the goal of conversion therapy should not be to change a person’s sexual orientation. Rather, he said a proper therapeutic response should be based in chastity and virtue, leading someone to embrace a natural and virtuous view of the person.

“I think what is very helpful is virtue based therapy, chastity based therapy, guided by Catholic anthropology, where a young person comes in to try and help them with their God given identity,” he said. “It would help someone accept their true sexual nature as revealed to them in their body.”

A part of the problem, Mattson said, is that the homosexual debate is split into a false dichotomy: “either affirming someone in this gay identity or else [engaging] in sexual orientation change efforts.”

In response, Catholics should better define homosexuality and conversion therapies, he said, noting that the presence or absence of same-sex attractions should not be the focus, but rather to embrace the whole truth of the human person as seen by the Church.

“This is a question where parents want their son or daughter to know what it means to be fully comfortable in their own sexual identity as a man or women,” he said.

“What the Church is doing is calling men and women and teenagers to live out the Church’s teaching on chastity and the virtues, and our young people need to have the right to be able to have therapy that might help them with that.”

[…]

Rome, Italy, Jul 3, 2018 / 03:07 pm (ACI Prensa).- Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes Solorzano of Managua believes the two month-long open conflict in Nicaragua will come to an end through genuine dialogue and by listening to the voice of the people, many of whom are calling for early elections.

Protests against president Daniel Ortega have resulted in 309 deaths, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights. The country’s bishops have mediated on-again, off-again peace talks between the government and opposition groups.

Protests began April 18 after Ortega announced social security and pension reforms. The changes were soon abandoned in the face of widespread, vocal opposition, but protests only intensified after more than 40 protestors were killed by security forces initially.

The Church in Nicaragua was quick to acknowledge the protestors’ complaints. Barricades and roadblocks are now found throughout the country, and clashes frequently turn lethal. Bishops and priests across Nicaragua have worked to separate protesters and security forces, and have been threatened and shot.

While in Rome to brief Pope Francis on the situation in Nicaragua and to participate in the June 28 consistory, Cardinal Brenes spoke to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister agency, describing the
state of affairs as “very painful.”

“We bishops have said ‘not one more death’, but nevertheless they continue. The prophetic voice of the bishops on many occasions has not been listened to, but we will go on insisting. One death, two deaths, three deaths and already there are more than 300 deaths. I have always said that behind the death of every Nicarguan, the pain affects many more,” he said.

“One day I read a banner that a mother was carrying during a demonstration. It said, ‘giving birth to a child is painful, but losing a child is much more painful.’ When a mother gives birth, she suffers at that time, but when the child is born she is filled with joy. However, when that mother loses a child, especially when he is murdered, that sad expression on her face lasts a lifetime. And it just doesn’t hurt her, but also the siblings, and if he is married, his wife, his children; but it also goes beyond the families, because it affects neighbors and friends.”

The cardinal described the bishops’ relationship with Ortega’s government as “one of pastors with president to whom we have said we are not enemies, and we don’t want them to see us as enemies.”

“As pastors we are supporting a common cause. As pastors we don’t want to form a political party; no one aspires to be president of the country or have a position in the government. We agreed to be part of the national dialogue as mediators and witnesses, and if tomorrow this gets resolved, we’ll be happy.”

The Church’s mediation of dialogue between the government and the opposition is “a service which we want to offer for the governability and democratization of our country,” he said.

Cardinal Brenes added that “we have felt the confidence of the people in the bishops’ conference” and  noted, “there’s no bishop in particular who is setting the guidelines. Perhaps at some point they will want to make some bishop stand out, but in reality it’s the entire bishops’ conference. What’s important is to see a bishops’ conference that is very united.”

The cardinal believes the resolution of the conflict is going to take  “both the civic alliance and the delegates from the government  learning to dialogue, because with shouts, complaints, and insults, nothing gets done.”

“We have now entered into that process, but the first few days were really intense, and we had to call for a truce, and say: ‘let’s think this through.’  But then they began to talk again.”

“We are organizing small working groups, in which there are usually six members from the government and another six from the alliance, and in another working group three and three, with their respective advisers, and a coordinator who represents us bishops,” Cardinal Brenes said, explaining the current configuration of the talks.

“The primary thing is to begin to learn how to speak and to have as a common goal the good of the country leading to its democratization. The people are calling for early elections and we as a bishops’ conference have taken up that sentiment of the people and have presented the project, that route to take, to the president of the government. Everything is in his hands,” he stated.

The Church in Nicaragua “is an institution the people trust,” he said, “and that is a challenge for us, because it means we are answerable to that trust.”

Cardinal Brenes emphasized the importance of well-formed youth, citing their role in standing up to Ortega’s government.

“This entire situation we’re going through broke out because of them, because it was from that social commitment which they have that they began the protests, which then spread throughout the country,” he explained.

“We also have a great challenge: How to form young people so that come tomorrow, we don’t fall back into the same errors of today. They are the ones who have in their hands the destiny of Nicaragua” and therefore it is important to ask ourselves “how to make a better Nicaragua.”

Anti-government protesters have been attacked by “combined forces” made up of regular police, riot police, paramilitaries, and pro-government vigilantes.

The Nicaraguan government has suggested that protestors are killing their own supporters so as to destabilize Ortega’s administration.

The pension reforms which triggered the unrest were modest, but protests quickly turned to Ortega’s authoritarian bent.

Ortega has been president of Nicaragua since 2007, and oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2014.

He has shown resistance to calls for elections, which are not scheduled until 2021, to be held early.

Ortega was a leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which had ousted the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and fought US-backed right-wing counterrevolutionaries during the 1980s. Ortega was also leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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London, England, Jul 2, 2018 / 12:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The High Court of England and Wales ruled Monday that a buffer zone around an abortion facility in the London borough of Ealing is legal, in a move that will likely encourage similar buffer zones in the United Kingdom.

While the ban was found to interfere with the human rights of pro-life protesters, it was ruled July 2 that the local government had a right to decide it was a “necessary step in a democratic society.”

“There was substantial evidence that a very considerable number of users of the clinic reasonably felt that their privacy was being very seriously invaded at a time and place when they were most vulnerable,” said Justice Turner.

He added that the Ealing council was “entitled to conclude that the effect of the activities of the protesters was likely to make such activities unreasonable and justified the restrictions imposed.”

The “public space protection order” (PSPO) that was passed in April was challenged by Alina Dulgheriu, a woman who was assisted by people she met at a pro-life vigil. Dulgheriu is now the mother of a six-year-old girl.

“I am devastated for those women that since the introduction of the Ealing PSPO, have not been able to access the loving help that I did,” said Dulgheriu after the ruling.

The PSPO effectively bans public prayer and counselors who assist women within 100 meters (330 feet) of the Marie Stopes clinic, a leading abortion provider in London which performs around 7,000 abortions annually.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has said he is “deeply concerned” by the imposition of such “no-prayer zones.”

“To remove from the environment of the abortion clinics alternative voices is to limit freedom of choice. Indeed, research shows that many women have been grateful for the last-minute support they have thereby received,” he said in April.

The High Court ruling comes in the days after the council in Glasgow proposed a motion that would look into the creation of a buffer zone around hospitals and abortion facilities.

This past Lent, there were a series of peaceful protests outside of hospitals and abortion facilities in Glasgow and throughout the U.K. as part of the 40 Days for Life campaign. Now, at least three Glaswegian councillors have supported a motion that would look into the creation of a buffer zone around these hospitals, where protests and prayer vigils would be prohibited.

The motion was proposed by Councilor Elaine McSporran of the Scottish National Party. McSporran argued for the creation of a buffer zone to “allow individuals entering [the hospital] to feel safe and without prejudice.”

Although the councillors acknowledged that the prayer vigils and protests were entirely peaceful, and there were no reports of any sort of violent incidents, they support the idea of a buffer due to fears that there could be violence in the future.

“Normally these are peaceful and respectful individuals exercising their rights to protest and, although I am not aware of any incidents, it doesn’t mean that they won’t progress to be so,” said Labour councillor Aileen McKenzie.

It is unclear whether the council has the ability to actually enact this motion and create the buffer zone.

Pro-life groups in Scotland have spoken out against the proposed buffer zone, saying that they have the same right as any other organization to protest for something they believe in.

The buffer zones are “against the principles we hold dear in our democracy,” said John Deighan, Scottish chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, the U.K.’s oldest pro-life group. Deighen noted that trade unions are free to protest wherever they wish, and pro-lifers should be allowed to as well.

A similar buffer zone law in the United States was struck down by the Supreme Court in the 2014 case McCullen v. Coakley. The court unanimously ruled that the Massachusetts law prohibiting protests and prayers within a 35-foot radius of an abortion facility was a violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech.

The United Kingdom does not have similar protections of speech.

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Bari, Italy, Jul 2, 2018 / 09:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ visit to Bari this Saturday to pray for peace in the Middle East will have a strong ecumenical focus, the city’s archbishop has said.

Taking place July 7, the day of prayer and reflection will include leaders of Catholic and Orthodox Churches in the Middle East, and will have an “authentically ecumenical breath,” Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari-Bitonto told Vatican News.

He said the day’s events will “combine the ecumenical vision of the Christian Churches and [give] particular attention to the Middle East, to invoke peace, but also to be close to our Christian brothers, who live in suffering.”

Pope Francis announced April 25 he would hold the day primarily for “prayer and reflection on the dramatic situation of the Middle East which afflicts so many brothers and sisters in the faith.”

Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, has confirmed he will be in attendance, as will Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who leads the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Which other patriarchs will attend has not yet been confirmed.

During his Angelus address July 1, Pope Francis said he and the other Christian leaders in Bari “will implore with one voice: ‘Peace be upon you,’” as it says in Psalm 122. “I ask everyone to accompany with prayer this pilgrimage of peace and unity,” he said.

Bari is often called the “porta d’Oriente” or the “Eastern Gate” because of its connection to both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox through the relics of St. Nicholas, venerated by members of both Churches.

Historically, many Eastern Churches have been present in the city, Archbishop Cacucci said, but an ecumenical culture was imprinted upon it most strongly after the Second Vatican Council, when the archbishop of the time opened the crypt of the Basilica of St. Nicholas to the Orthodox by creating a small chapel dedicated to them.

“It was the first such act in the world,” he said. “And so, the journey continued through a constant dialogue with the other Christian confessions but, above all, with the Eastern world, that continually comes here to St. Nicholas to venerate the relics of the thaumaturge [wonder-worker].”

He said both the Russian Orthodox and other Eastern Christian Churches are present in Bari, as well as
Anglican and evangelical ecclesial communities.

All of these will be present for and participate in the pope’s visit July 7. A bishop for 31 years, Cacucci said he has “always lived in the light of St. Nicholas, who is the saint of unity.”

“The choice of Bari [to host the meeting] was a decision of the pope that I received with gratitude and with anticipation,” he said.

The main program for July 7 will begin at the Basilica of St. Nicholas, where Francis will greet the patriarchs and a local community of Dominican friars.

From there, the pope and patriarchs will go down into the basilica’s crypt to venerate a relic of St. Nicholas and to light a lamp, the flame representing unity.

The main prayer service will take place at Bari’s beachfront. Afterward, Francis and the patriarchs will return to the basilica for a private dialogue and lunch. The trip will conclude around 4:00 p.m.

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Paderborn, Germany, Jul 1, 2018 / 02:22 pm (CNA).- According to a regional newspaper report, Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn has decided to allow Protestant spouses of Catholics living in his diocese to receive holy Communion "in individ… […]

Madrid, Spain, Jun 29, 2018 / 12:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Spain’s lower house of parliament has agreed to consider a bill that would legalize euthanasia in the country.

Members of the Congress of Deputies voted 208-133 on Tuesday to consider the … […]

Pamplona, Spain, Jun 28, 2018 / 10:32 am (CNA).- Outrage has been sparked in a town in northern Spain over the botched renovation of a 16th-century wooden sculpture of St. George, which was repainted by a local arts and crafts teacher.

The Church of S… […]

Leicester, England, Jun 28, 2018 / 02:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The label of “Trappist” is among the most exclusive designations of beer worldwide, with only 11 breweries around the globe qualifying for the title.

But that number is about to… […]