Fr. Brian Nunes (left), Fr. Matthew Elshoff, Fr. Slawomir Szkredka, and Monsignor Albert Bahhuth (right) have been named auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. / Angelus News/Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Vatican City, Jul 18, 2023 /… […]
Pope Francis blesses the crowd in St. Peter’s Square after praying the Angelus on Sunday, July 16, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome, Italy, Jul 16, 2023 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
At the Angelus on Sunday, July 16, Pope Francis reflected on the parabl… […]
A worshipers waves the flag of China as Pope Francis leaves following the weekly general audience on June 12, 2019, at St. Peter’s square in the Vatican. / Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images
Rome Newsroom, Jul 15, 2023 / 06:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has decided to approve the appointment of the bishop of Shanghai who was previously installed by Chinese authorities without the Vatican’s approval.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin announced on Saturday that Pope Francis wanted to “remedy the canonical irregularity created in Shanghai, in view of the greater good of the diocese and the fruitful exercise of the bishop’s pastoral ministry.”
Parolin said that the pope’s “intention is fundamentally pastoral” and will allow the bishop to “work with greater serenity to promote evangelization and foster ecclesial communion.”
Bishop Joseph Shen Bin was installed in Shanghai in April in violation of the Holy See’s provisional agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops. It was the second unauthorized appointment by Chinese authorities in the past year.
Pope Francis formally confirmed Shen Bin for the Shanghai post on July 15. Parolin said that the Vatican intentionally made “the decision to take time before publicly commenting on the case” to evaluate the pastoral situation in Shanghai, which has been without a bishop for over a decade.
In an interview with Vatican News published with the announcement of the Chinese bishop’s appointment, Parolin underlined that it is “indispensable, that all episcopal appointments in China, including transfers, be made by consensus, as agreed, and keeping alive the spirit of dialogue” between the Holy See and China.
The Holy See first entered into a provisional two-year agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops in 2018, which was renewed in 2020 and again in 2022.
One month after the Holy See agreed to renew the deal last October, the Vatican said that Chinese authorities violated the terms stipulated in the agreement by installing Bishop John Peng Weizhao as an “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese that is not recognized by the Vatican.
Parolin explained that the text of the provisional agreement has been kept confidential “because it has not yet been definitively approved.”
“It revolves around the fundamental principle of consensual decisions affecting bishops,” he said.
“We are, therefore, trying to clarify this point, in an open dialogue and in a respectful confrontation with the Chinese side.”
When asked what other topics need to be discussed in the Vatican’s dialogue with China, Parolin listed evangelization, the bishops’ conference, and the communication between Chinese bishops and the pope.
The cardinal called for a Chinese bishops’ conference with “statutes appropriate to its ecclesial nature and pastoral mission” and the establishment of regular communication between Chinese bishops and the pope.
“In fact, it must be said that too many suspicions slow down and hinder the work of evangelization: Chinese Catholics, even those defined as ‘underground,’ deserve trust, because they sincerely want to be loyal citizens and to be respected in their conscience and in their faith,” Parolin said.
Despite the repeated violations, Parolin added that the Holy See is “determined” to continue dialogue with China.
“Indeed, the dialogue between the Vatican side and the Chinese side remains open and I believe that it is a path that is in some way obligatory,” he said.
“In order to make it smoother and more fruitful, it seems to me that the opening of a stable liaison office of the Holy See in China would be extremely useful. I take the liberty of adding that, in my opinion, such a presence would not only favor dialogue with the civil authorities, but would also contribute to full reconciliation within the Chinese Church and its journey towards desirable normality.”
Bishop Joseph Shen Bin
Shen Bin, 53, was consecrated as a Catholic bishop in 2010 with the consent of both the pope and Chinese authorities, according to the Vatican. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Haimen until April 2023 when he was transferred to Shanghai “without the involvement of the Holy See.”
Since 2022, Shen Bin has been the president of a group called the Council of Chinese Bishops, a state-sanctioned bishops’ conference not recognized by the Vatican. He previously was the vice president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association established by the Chinese Communist Party and under the control of the United Front Work Department.
One month after Shen Bin’s installation, officials from the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) visited Shanghai to evaluate the progress of “Sinicization” in the diocese.
In his installation ceremony, the bishop said that he would, “continue to carry forward the fine tradition of patriotism and love of the Catholic Church in Shanghai, adhere to the principle of independence and self-government, adhere to the direction of my country’s Catholicism in China, and better promote the healthy inheritance of Shanghai Catholic evangelization.”
The Diocese of Shanghai
The Diocese of Shanghai is the largest Catholic diocese in the country and home to the Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians, also known as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan. The shrine, consecrated in 1873, is considered the first Basilica of East Asia and is one of the main pilgrim sites on the Mainland for Catholics.
The diocese was the hub of Catholic counter-revolutionary activity in the 1950s (and the city where the CCP was founded in 1921). Following Mao’s victory in 1949 Bishop Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei helped establish the apparatus of Catholic resistance that would become the underground Catholic church. On the night of September 8, 1955, Bishop Kung, along with several hundred other clergy and lay Catholics, were arrested for their defiance of the regime and their refusal to renounce union with the pope. By the end of the month, some 1,2000 Shanghai Catholics were arrested. Kung was imprisoned for a total of 30 years before coming to the United States in 1988.
The Diocese of Shanghai has been functionally vacant since the death of Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian in 2013. Jin had been imprisoned and sent to reeducation camps, only to be fully freed in 1982. He was made bishop of Shanghai in 1985, during Deng Xiaoping’s period of opening up, but it wasn’t until 2005 that he was recognized by the Holy See. He played a critical role in reestablishing the Sheshan Seminary and in rebuilding the local Church in Shanghai.
Bishop Joseph Xing Wenzhi, who was ordained with papal approval and government approval, was made auxiliary bishop of Shanghai in 2005 and disappeared from the public in 2011.
Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, Xing’s successor, denounced the CCPA during his ordination mass on July 7, 2012; later that night he was put under house arrest in the Sheshan Seminary, where he remains to this day.
From the Netflix documentary series, "Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi" / Netflix
Vatican City, Jul 13, 2023 / 09:46 am (CNA).
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Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 28, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2023 / 04:02 am (CNA).
The Vatican announced Wednesday the creation of a commission to research and catalog the stories of Christian martyrs from the third millennium.
In a letter published July 5, Pope Francis said he has established the “Commission of New Martyrs — Witnesses of the Faith” within the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints.
The commission’s task will be to create an archive of the lives of Christian martyrs, both Catholic and non-Catholic, killed in the last quarter century, the pope said.
Pope Francis noted that he is not modifying canon law on the formal recognition of martyrdom in the Catholic Church, but wants the testimonies of those killed for being Christian to stand “side by side with the martyrs officially recognized by the Church…”
“As I have said many times,” he wrote, “the martyrs ‘are more numerous in our time than in the early centuries:’ they are bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, lay people and families, who in the different countries of the world, with the gift of their lives, have offered the supreme proof of charity.”
The pope said he created the commission in light of the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, which will focus on the theme of hope.
“Hope keeps alive the deep conviction that good is stronger than evil because God in Christ has overcome sin and death,” he said.
Francis also recalled that St. Pope John Paul II had formed a similar commission on new martyrs for the Great Jubilee 2000.
The earlier commission, which received 13,000 testimonies of men and women who gave their lives for Christ in the 20th century, shared some of the stories during an ecumenical prayer service in the Colosseum on May 7, 2000.
Pope Francis said the 2025 Jubilee Year will include a similar event in order to remember what he has called the “ecumenism of blood.”
“Even in our time, in which we are witnessing a change of epoch, Christians continue to show, in contexts of great risk, the vitality of Baptism that unites us,” the pope said.
He noted that some Christians, though aware of the danger to their lives, have yet publicly lived their faith and participated in the Sunday liturgy; others have been killed while performing works of charity to the poor; and still others have been “silent victims,” losing their lives in violent upheavals.
“To all of them we owe a great debt and cannot forget them,” he emphasized.
The pope referenced St. John Paul II’s 1994 apostolic letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, which said that “everything must be done so that the legacy of the cloud of ‘unknown soldiers of the great cause of God’ is not lost.”
“In a world in which it sometimes seems that evil prevails, I am certain,” he said, “that the elaboration of this catalog, also in the context of the now upcoming Jubilee, will help believers to also read our time in the light of Easter, drawing from the treasure chest of such generous faithfulness to Christ the reasons for life and goodness.”
Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, pictured here in 2014, is the archbishop of La Plata, Argentina. He will take up his new post as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in September 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Ju… […]
The Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio, the seat of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. / Jim McIntosh via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0).
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 3, 2023 / 14:02 pm (CNA).
A bishop accountability group that tracks sexual a… […]
Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 28, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Jul 3, 2023 / 04:35 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has spoken to Al-Ittihad in his first interview granted to an Arabic news outlet, according to the United Arab Emirates newspaper.
In the July 3 interview, the pope praised UAE authorities and spoke about interfaith cooperation, peace-building, and his 2019 Document on Human Fraternity.
Francis also commented on a protester’s burning of a Quran in Sweden on June 28. The Muslim holy book was burned by an Iraqi-born refugee outside a mosque in Stockholm. The incident has sparked outrage among Muslims around the world and led to a raid on the Swedish embassy in Iraq by Shia Muslim protestors.
After other recent permit requests were denied due to plans to burn copies of the Quran, the Swedish courts ruled that the protests should be allowed on the basis of freedom of expression, the BBC reported.
“I have been outraged and disgusted at such deeds,” Pope Francis said in response to a question about last week’s incident. “Any book considered sacred by its people must be respected out of respect for those who believe in it. The freedom of expression should never be used as an excuse to offend others. Allowing that is [to be] rejected and condemned.”
The papal interview was published in Arabic by Al-Ittihad with an English transcript provided to journalists.
In the interview, Pope Francis said “the future of interfaith cooperation is based on the principle of reciprocity, respect for the other and the truth.”
He said the message of every religion should be not only to call out evil, but also to promote peace: “Our task, without giving in to conciliatory measures, is to pray for one another, asking God for the blessing of peace, and to meet, dialogue and consolidate harmony in a spirit of cooperation and friendship.”
“Our task is to transform the religious sense into cooperation, fraternity, tangible acts of good,” he added.
The pope said fraternity, and caring for others, “must be directed to everyone without distinction.”
“If I only do good to those who think or believe like me, my benevolence is hypocrisy,” he said, “because good knows no discrimination nor exclusion.”
Francis called his Document on Human Fraternity, which he signed in 2019 in Abu Dhabi with the Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, an important text “for the peaceful coexistence of all human beings.”
“I would like to say that the document is a light that guides all men and women of good will on the path of coexistence and encounter. It is a roadmap for anyone who courageously chooses to be a peacemaker in our world torn apart by war, violence, hate and terror,” he said.
“Human fraternity,” he continued, “is the antidote the world needs to heal itself from the poison of these wounds.”
The pope also addressed young people and the onslaught of negativity, prejudice, and fake news they are faced with today.
He said youth need to know how to use the tools of “freedom, discernment and responsibility.”
“Freedom is what distinguishes man,” Francis said. “God created us free even to reject him. Today we can no longer force our youth not to think, to ask the question, to be skeptical, because the question is the way to the truth. And because freedom of conscience, freedom of belief, freedom of thought and freedom of expression are essential to help them grow and learn.”
“We can no longer force the youth of today, who hold in their hands cell phones that allow them to access any information, into darkness, ignorance, hatred and isolation,” he added.
Pope Francis also spoke about discernment, which he called a “gift from God” and “the ability to distinguish between the false and the true.”
Pope Francis praised Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House, which provides a common place for the three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — to worship.
The complex, which has a church, a synagogue, and a mosque, opened earlier this year.
“The Abrahamic Family House is a place for respecting diversity, which God willed, and not turning difference into contempt or a cause for conflict,” he said.
“It is a place of coexistence, tolerance and faith. Each of us can live his faith with respect for the other;s faith and human freedom,” he added. “Only those who are not sure of their faith live in fear of meeting others and rush into confrontation. A true believer lives his faith without feeling threatened by others and without the need to threaten others.”
Pope Francis blesses the crowds in St. Peter’s Square after praying the Angelus on July 2, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 2, 2023 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Every baptized person is called to be a modern-day prophet, living as a witness of Jesus to others, Pope Francis said on Sunday.
In his Angelus address July 2, the pope recalled that at our baptism, each of us received “the gift of the prophetic mission.”
The pope, addressing an estimated 15,000 pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square, said a prophet is not a kind of magician who can tell the future.
“This is a superstitious idea and a Christian does not believe in superstitions, such as magic, tarot cards, horoscopes and other similar things,” he said, lamenting that “many, many Christians go to have their palms read.”
“A prophet is a living sign who points God out to others, a prophet is a reflection of Christ’s light on the path of his brothers and sisters,” he explained, inviting everyone to ask themselves: “Do I live as a witness of Jesus?”
“Do I bring a little bit of his light into the life of another person? Do I evaluate myself on this? I ask myself: What is my bearing witness like, what is my prophecy like?” he said.
Pope Francis gave his weekly Sunday address, and recited the Marian prayer the Angelus, from a window of the Apostolic Palace.
He said not only are each of the baptized called to be prophetic witnesses of Christ, they also should welcome other Christians in their identity as prophets.
“It is important to welcome each other as such, as bearers of God’s message, each one according to his state and vocation, and to do it right where we live — that is, in the family, in the parish, in the religious community, in other places in the Church and in society,” he said.
“The Spirit,” he added, “has distributed gifts of prophecy in the holy People of God. This is why it is good to listen to everyone.”
His advice for making an important decision is to pray about it first of all and to call on the Holy Spirit.
“But then listen and dialogue trusting that each person, even the littlest, has something important to say, a prophetic gift to share,” Francis said. “Thus, the truth is sought and the climate of listening to God and our brothers and sisters is spread…”
People should feel accepted and valued because they are gifts, he said, not only because they say what we like to hear.
Pope Francis said we could avoid or resolve a lot of conflicts by listening to others with the desire to understand.
“So, finally, let us ask ourselves: Do I know how to welcome my brothers and sisters as prophetic gifts?” he said. “Do I believe that I need them? Do I listen to them respectfully, with the desire to learn? Because each of us needs to learn from others.”
After praying the Angelus, Pope Francis recalled the importance of continuing to pray for peace around the world.
“Even in this summer time, let us not tire of praying for peace, in a special way for the Ukrainian people, [who are] so worn out.”
“And let us not neglect the other wars, unfortunately often forgotten,” he added, “and the numerous conflicts and clashes that bloody many places on earth.”
“Let us take an interest in what is happening, let us help those who are suffering, and let us pray, for prayer is the gentle force that protects and sustains the world,” he concluded.
Pope Francis celebrates Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 29, 2023 / 09:24 am (CNA).
Archbishop George Leo Thomas of the newly created Archdiocese of Las Vegas fo… […]
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