Rome, Italy, Feb 17, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis will visit All Saints Anglican Church in Rome Feb. 26 to mark the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Anglican parish community in the heart of the Eternal City.
Jonathan Board… […]
Madrid, Spain, Feb 16, 2017 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Eulogio Martínez and Martina Abian are 100 and 95 years-old, respectively.
They were married Nov. 26, 1942, in Guadalajara, Spain, and they will soon celebrate their 75th anniversary. On the occasion of World Marriage Day, which coincides with the feast of Saint Valentine, the Marriage Encounter movement gave them the “2017 Lifetime of Love” award.
But in a world where nuptial unions fall tragically apart – or increasingly fail to happen in the first place – how did this couple stay married, and happily at that?
In an interview with the Spanish ABC daily, Eulogio and Martina both agreed that the key to success that keeps them together and in love after 75 years is “patience” and above all, “loving each other a lot.”
“People don’t put up with anything, with the slightest trouble, it’s over,” Martina lamented. In fact, she finds herself baffled at how marriages can break up so quickly: “We always discuss things, and why not? … You have to have patience.”
Eulogio recalled when they started going out together – she was 18 and he was 23. “I asked her if we could have a relationship and I realized that she had already been looking forward to it,” he laughed.
“Yes, it’s true, I liked him a lot,” Martina responded, “he was very handsome, very formal, he captivated me. He’s 100 years old and look at him!”
They got married a year later. “It was a really big day, as it is for all engaged couples in love that marry – not like today, where people get married and then just change spouses,” Martina said.
They had seven children. Eulogio joined the Civil Guard, a police force in Spain, and because of his work and promotions he had to move several times. “I went with him everywhere,” Martina told ABC.
After a lifetime together, they said they were sure “they couldn’t live without each other,” not because it is a routine, or they are used to it, but because of love. One of their children told the newspaper that Martina recently had a hip operation and Eulogio could not wait to visit her at the hospital.
Even though they still have a lot of energy, Eulogio said that he would prefer “to go before she does so she can enjoy life and look for another man.” Martina laughed, but insisted, “I’m dying with him, there’s no body else like him.”
Marriage Encounter said that Eulogio and Martina “are proof that love can last a lifetime.”
“It’s not a question of luck: You have to want to love, to cultivate the relationship, to work through those differences that any couple has. And also it’s that you can learn to love well,” they said in a statement.
The witness of these spouses stands out in Spain when, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, during 2015, more than 100,000 spouses separated, divorced or obtained an annulment.
Marriage Encounter is a Catholic movement that offers a “Special Weekend” as an experience that contributes to the couple strengthening their love and deepening their relationship. It is open to couple of any religion and also non-believers.
Every year Marriage Encounter gives “A Lifetime of Love” awards to the longest married couples to demonstrate that it is possible to have just one love and have it forever.
Marriage Encounter is present in more than 100 countries and the five continents. Each year, more than 30,000 couples throughout the world are able to renew their love thanks to this experience.
¿Quieres que tu amor dure 75 años? Eulogio, de 100 años, y Martina, de 95, tienen el secreto https://t.co/e3I0kHGPcl #DíaDeLosEnamorados pic.twitter.com/JWxtkFoFvW
— abc_conocer (@abc_conocer) February 14, 2017
Zurich, Switzerland, Feb 16, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Meet Elina Berglund: a nuclear physicist who will be known as the woman who developed the first natural cycle fertility app that is internationally certified to be as effective as contracep… […]
Madrid, Spain, Feb 16, 2017 / 03:17 am (CNA).- Is an exorcist afraid? What is the devil’s favorite sin? These and other questions were tackled in an interview with the Dominican priest, Father Juan José Gallego, an exorcist from the Archdiocese of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain.
Almost a decade after Fr. Gallego was appointed as exorcist, he was interviewed by the Spanish daily El Mundo. The priest said that in his experience, pride is the sin the devil likes the most.
“Have you ever been afraid?” the interviewer asked.
“In the beginning I had a lot of fear,” Fr. Gallego replied. “All I had to do was look over my shoulder and I saw demons… the other day I was doing an exorcism, ‘I command you! I order you!’…and the Evil One, with a loud voice fires back at me: ‘Galleeeego, you’re over-doooing it.’ That shook me.”
Nevertheless, he knows that the devil is not more powerful than God. The exorcist recalled that “when they appointed me, a relative told me, ‘Whoa, Juan José, I’m really afraid, because in the movie ‘The Exorcist,’ one person died and the other threw himself through a window. I said to her ‘Don’t forget that the devil is (just a) creature of God.’”
When people are possessed, he added, “they lose consciousness, they speak strange languages, they have inordinate strength, they feel really bad, you see very well-mannered people vomiting and blaspheming.”
“There was a boy whom the demon would set his shirt on fire at night and things like that. He told me what the demons were proposing him to do: If you make a pact with us, you’ll never have to go through any more of what you’re going through now.”
Father Gallego also warned that “New Age” practices like reiki and some yoga can be points of entry for the demons. He also said that addictions are “a type of possession.”
“When people are going through a crisis they suffer more. They can feel hopeless. People feel like they’ve got the devil inside,” he said.
This article was originally published on CNA Aug. 25, 2015.
Madrid, Spain, Feb 16, 2017 / 01:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Alberto Gaton is the chaplain of a Spanish ship that combats human trafficking by rescuing people in the Mediterranean Sea. In the span of almost 5 months, his team has managed to rescue more than 3,000 people.
“Seventy percent of them are Christians fleeing from persecution in their countries,” he told CNA. “They’re fleeing persecution from Boko Haram in Nigeria, the terrorists groups, the situation in their countries.”
From September 2016 through January 2017, the priest was aboard the “Frigate Navarra” in Operation Sophia, the EU anti-migrant smuggling operation in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship had a crew of 208 sailors.
“We were also collaborating to rescue people that the mafias have abandoned to their fate in the sea – we on the Frigate Navarra, along with other NGOs and other European naval forces, collaborated to make rescues,” he said.
In precarious make-shift boats of rubber and wood, hundreds of people try to cross the Mediterranean every day, the chaplain said. “Heavy storms frequently come up, and if we’re not there, they would die.”
The main goal of Operation Sophia is to “combat the mafias which are trafficking in souls on the Mediterranean,” he said, and “always help to rescue those at sea, because they are the poor people of the land who embark from all points in Africa hoping to reach the coasts of Europe and who many times end up on the bottom of the sea.”
Sometimes, it happens that due to wind, rough seas or nightfall, the rescue is hindered, he said. “Thanks be to God, we were able to rescue all the boats we were responsible for, even though some of them were in very bad sea conditions.”
Fr. Gaton recalled his first rescue: “once inside the ship, they began to dance, it was a happy day because nobody died. It was marvelous to see those who were rescued safe and sound dancing.”
But the joy of days like that is offset by the profound sadness of seeing “what point this world has come to in wickedness of heart, which when God is forgotten, is capable of sending little children, pregnant mothers and babies in inflatable boats that are like shoe boxes, floating coffins with no other fate than to be rescued or lost.”
When they rescue refugees, he said, “the first thing is to recover from injuries, have something to eat, treat dehydration…But meanwhile I am always there with the families, with the sick.”
At one point, an old woman who had been rescued asked him to bless her and the girl she was carrying.
“The parents of the little girl had gone missing before the rescue and now it was the old woman who took care of her. She just asked me to bless them. We prayed together in the infirmary,” he recalled.
On another occasion, a Protestant pastor had fled his homeland due to persecution. “I helped him in everything I could,” the chaplain said, adding that most of the time, people don’t ask for anything material. “They just want a prayer, a smile.”
Fr. Gaton told CNA that his work as a chaplain has been difficult. “You are faced with death, with suffering, with violence. If you’re far from home and the priest introduces himself as another shipmate for the believers and non-believers with whom they can unburden themselves, they can talk and share like they can’t do with the naval officers.”
In addition to carrying out the same tasks as the other sailors, his unique task is “to be with the parishioners without forgetting that you are a soldier, but giving your all as a priest. “
The priest said that every day, Mass was celebrated on the ship. However, since there was no chapel, it was celebrated on the deck, or else inside if there was bad weather.
Another especially moving moment for the chaplain was evening prayer, offered each day “at the moment of sunset, to the Lord of the calm and the storm.” Even the atheists would join in when there was a bad storm or if they had a sick relative.
The priest said that in the months spent at sea on the Frigate Navarra, they celebrated a First Communion, and several sailors took marriage or Confirmation prep classes.
“I always say that at sea, the atheists become agnostics; the agnostics become non-practicing Catholics, and the non-practicing, at least for a while, they practice. That’s my experience.”
Fr. Gaton was ordained a priest at the age of 29, after exercising his ministry in Santander, Spain; Rome; and the United States, and at the advice of his bishop, he decided to join the army. When he began this service, he was already 45 years old.
Currently, he is Major Chaplain of the southern military region, a permanent major, and as such he belongs to the military archdiocese.
Fatima, Portugal, Feb 14, 2017 / 11:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions approaches, Portuguese Catholic Church officials announced on Monday that thousands of pages have been gathered to testify to the holiness of… […]
Paris, France, Feb 14, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).-
A complaint brought by a Catholic group against a dating site that promotes extramarital affairs was thrown out by a French court last week.
The suit was dismissed after a Paris court determined that the National Confederation of Catholic Family Associations could not file the complaint, since infidelity complaints can only be filed within a private marital relationship, and because an affair does not always constitute a civil violation, according to reports from the AP.
The website, Gleeden, advertises itself as “The first extramarital dating site made by women,” with a logo featuring a half-eaten apple referencing the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Launched in 2009, the website claims to be a world leader in coordinating extramarital affairs, with a million users in France and 2.4 million throughout the world.
Catholic Family Associations first filed a legal complaint against the site’s U.S. based publisher, Black Divine, in a Paris court in February 2015. The group said the advertisements for the site were crude and immoral and constituted a breach of an article in French civil code.
While adultery was decriminalized in France in 1975, article 212 of the French Civil Code states, “Married partners owe each other the duty of respect, fidelity, help and assistance.” Many family lawyers believed the suit would succeed for this reason.
Despite France’s secularism and typical laissez faire attitude towards sexual mores, Gleeden scandalized many with the release of its public advertisements in 2015, highlighting a cultural divide within the country. Several towns and bus companies opted to remove the advertisements after receiving numerous complaints.
“There are plenty of other websites out there which promote sexual contact between individuals, but what makes Gleeden different is that its very business model is based on marital infidelity,” Jean-Marie Andres, president of the Association of Catholic Families, told the BBC in 2015.
“It states quite openly that its purpose is to offer married women opportunities to have sex outside the marriage,” she said.
“But here in France, people and parliament are all in agreement that marriage is a public commitment. It’s in the law. What we are trying to do with our suit is show that the civil code – the law – has meaning.”
Gleeden argued in the case that it was merely facilitating affairs, and that the demand for them already existed.
A spokesperson for Catholic Family Associations told the AP that the group had not yet decided whether it would appeal the decision.
London, England, Feb 8, 2017 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- When the fetal ultrasound gained popularity in the 1970s, it was hailed as a “window to the womb.” But now, new technology could offer a much more in-depth view of babies before birth.
Courtesy of a new multimillion dollar project based out of London, some parents are able to see clear scans of every movement and organ of their babies in the womb starting as early as 20 weeks, using advanced MRI technology.
“There is nothing quite as emotional as seeing your unborn child moving inside you, and these MRI scans are taking images to the next level,” stated Cathy Ranson, the editor of ChannelMum.com, a website that is distributing videos of the MRI scans.
“They are truly breathtaking,” Ranson continued.
Traditionally, ultrasounds are used during pregnancy to check in on growing babies in the womb using high frequency sound waves. Although useful, ultrasounds usually produce limited visual scopes of the womb and can vary in quality depending on various factors, such as age, weight, and position.
However, a curious team of medics pushed the limits of the ultrasound to find out if there was a better way to get in-utero scans.
Top minds from Kings College London, St. Thomas’ Hospital, Imperial College London, University of Firenze, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Philips Health were given £10 million from the Wellcome Trust and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to see if they could advance antenatal scans.
This team of medics composed a new series of algorithms and magnetic fields to go beyond the limits of the ultrasound. This new technology is allowing clear pictures of the entire womb, making details like a 20-week heart valve crystal clear.
A video, produced by the iFIND project, shows just how detailed the scans are: the baby is stretching, turning, and even playing with the umbilical cord. They also recorded the reverberations of the baby’s movements, which could be seen rippling through the mother’s belly.
In addition to creating the optimal scan, the MRI technology also has a mechanism that auto corrects any small movements to produce an overall smooth image.
Dr. David Lloyd, a Clinical Research Fellow at King’s College London, said the new MRI scans “can see the structures inside the body, regardless of whether there’s bone, muscle or fat in the way.”
“It is also one of the few imaging techniques that is safe to use in pregnancy,” Dr. Lloyd continued.
This new technology is more than just a great picture for excited parents to see. The MRI scans could also reveal complications or growth deficiencies earlier in the pregnancy, which could allow for advanced treatment even before the baby is born.
The MRI scans have already kicked up some debate, especially in the UK where abortion is legal up to 24 weeks. These new scans, showing how babies actively move around at 20 weeks, is making the current abortion limit even more questionable.
Moving forward, the iFIND project wants the MRI scans to become available for all pregnant women around the world.
Glasgow, Scotland, Feb 8, 2017 / 05:53 am (CNA).- A Glasgow priest says he firmly believes he survived a recent near-fatal health scare thanks to the miraculous intercession of Venerable Margaret Sinclair, the poor Edinburgh girl turned nun who died in 1925.
“For 32 years of priesthood, I’ve been preaching the resurrection of Christ and this is a sign for me that I am doing something which is true and not wasted,” said Monsignor Peter Smith, parish priest of St Paul’s in Whiteinch, during an exclusive interview with this month’s edition of Flourish, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Glasgow.
“I don’t want to be the center of attention, but if I’ve been granted this favor then I have to let it be known and allow the Church to judge it.”
Since being diagnosed with cancer last May, 58-year-old Monsignor Smith has been urging friends and family to pray to Venerable Margaret to aid him. His request was enthusiastically supported by his neighboring Glasgow priest, Father Joe McAuley, who is in charge of promoting Venerable Margaret’s cause for beatification.
Two months ago, though, Monsignor Smith’s health took a turn for the worse when medics discovered a blood clot on his lung and a deadly infection attacking body tissue from his hips to shoulders. Doctors decided not to operate as it would kill him. They suspected the Glasgow priest wouldn’t survive 48 hours.
Incredibly, he did, with his surgeon assuring him that there is “no medical explanation” for the remarkable recovery. Monsignor Smith, however, believes that it was the work of Venerable Margaret – something he now wants to tell the world about.
“When you ask someone for a favor and they grant it, it is only right to say thank you,” he said.
“We don’t expect miracles – and I’m not sure I expected one either – after all, my cancer hasn’t gone away – but I’ve been around long enough in ministry not to be surprised. I’ve seen it happen.”
“If this helps people, in the light of faith, grow closer to the Gospel, then I am doing my job. In illness I am able to live my priesthood and help other people.”
Venerable Margaret Sinclair was born in the Edinburgh’s Cowgate in 1900, one of six children who grew up in poverty in a two-room basement. Her father was a dustman and she left school at 14, whereupon she worked as a French polisher and became a trade union activist.
In 1923 she entered a Convent of the Order of Poor Clares in London, becoming Sister Mary Francis of the Five Wounds, where she helped the poor before dying of tuberculosis in 1925. She now lies in rest in her home parish of St Patrick’s in the Cowgate.
“Margaret Sinclair is a wonderful example of an ordinary Scottish woman, close to our time, who lived the Gospel in the everyday, in a poor family home in Edinburgh, at school, in St Patrick’s parish, the word of industry and into the convent,” said Monsignor Smith.
In 1978 Pope Paul VI declared Margaret Sinclair to be “Venerable”. If the Catholic Church now authenticates Monsignor Smith’s cure to be truly miraculous it could pave the way for Margaret to become “blessed,” just one step away from sainthood which would, normally, require a further miracle.
“Firstly, I am delighted to learn of Monsignor Smith’s dramatically improved health and assure him of my continued prayers in his ongoing battle with cancer,” said Archbishop Leo Cushley, “potentially, though, this could be a major landmark in the bid to beatify Margaret Sinclair, a great contemporary witness to the desirability and possibility of daily holiness.”
Read more at www.flourishnewspaper.co.uk
For more information on Venerable Margaret, go to:www.margaretsinclair.scot
Rome, Italy, Feb 8, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As human trafficking continues to be a supremely important issue during Pope Francis’ pontificate, with an estimated 20 million victims worldwide, St. Josephine Bakhita, enslaved during her own childhood, has emerged as a patron not only for her home country of Sudan, but for all victims of trafficking.
St. Josephine was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 7, undergoing immense suffering throughout her adolescence before discovering the faith in her early 20s. She was baptized, and after being freed entered the Canossian Sisters in Italy.
Feb. 8, St. Josephine’s feast day, marks the third international day of prayer and reflection against human trafficking. This year the day focuses on the plight of children, with the theme: “We are children! Not slaves!”
The first year, celebrated in more than 154 countries, was strongly supported by Pope Francis.
If Pope Francis visits the African countries of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in November, as he is rumored to do, the focus of the trip will likely be on the issue of human trafficking, a growing problem the Pope has highlighted over the last four years.
South Sudan and the D.R. Congo have high levels of trafficking, both as a source and destination, due largely to the two countries’ ongoing conflicts and high numbers of internal displacement, creating a prime environment for traffickers to take advantage.
Both countries have received less-than-stellar reviews from the U.S. government based on the seriousness of their trafficking problems and their governments’ efforts to curb the practice.
The U.S. government, in cooperation with embassies around the globe, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations, researches the practice of trafficking worldwide and ranks countries in a tier system.
Tier 1 countries meet the “minimum standards” of fighting trafficking, set forth in a 2000 law, which include prohibition of and sufficient punishment for trafficking. Tier 3 countries, the lowest tier, not only fail to meet the U.S. government’s trafficking standards but are also considered to not be doing enough to prevent trafficking.
According to the U.S. State Department’s latest annual report, released June 30, South Sudan is considered a “Tier 3” country, while the D.R. Congo is considered to be on “Tier 2” or the “Watch List.”
Regardless, if the Pope visits, he will likely reference in some way the example of St. Josephine Bakhita, who is highly regarded in South Sudan.
Born in 1869 in a small village in the Darfur region of Sudan, Bakhita was kidnapped by slave traders at the age of 7. So terrified she could not even remember her own name, her kidnappers gave her the name “Bakhita,” which means “fortunate” in Arabic.
This was the last time she saw her natural family, being sold and resold into slavery five different times.
She was tortured by her various owners who branded her, beat and cut her, suffering especially during her adolescent years. Despite not knowing Christ or the redemptive nature of suffering, she bore her pain valiantly.
Bakhita recorded having a certain awe for the world and its creator: “Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself: ‘Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?’ And I felt a great desire to see Him, to know Him and to pay Him homage,” she wrote.
Eventually she was purchased by the Italian consul Calisto Legnani, who later gave her to a friend of the family, Augusto Michieli, who brought her to Italy as a nanny to his daughter. In the Italian families was the first time she was not mistreated.
While she was with the Michieli family she discovered the Crucified Christ through the gift of a small silver crucifix, given to her by the family’s estate manager. Looking at it, she felt something she could not explain, she would later say.
This was her first introduction to Jesus, whom she called “The Good Master.” In 1888, when she was almost 20 years old, she and the Michieli daughter were sent to be guests at the Institute of the Catechumens run by the Canossian Sisters in Venice. There she began her journey of faith.
Soon after she was baptized, taking the name Josephine Margaret. Desiring to dedicate her life to God, she won a legal battle to remain in Italy (though her master wanted her to return to Africa with him) and entered the Canossians in 1896.
She dedicated the rest of her life to assisting her community and teaching others to love God, and she died on Feb. 8, 1947.
St. Josephine was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2000 by St. John Paul II. She is the first person to be canonized from Sudan and is the patron saint of the country.
© Catholic World Report