Vatican City, Aug 21, 2018 / 08:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis is likely to meet with victims of clerical sexual abuse later this week, a papal spokesman announced on Tuesday. The proposed meeting would take place as part of the Holy Father&rsquo… […]
Vatican City, Aug 20, 2018 / 05:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis called Monday for every member of the Catholic Church to pray and fast in penance for the evil of clerical sex abuse, and to be involved in needed change within the Church.
“Th… […]
Vatican City, Aug 16, 2018 / 02:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy See on Thursday denounced sexual abuse and called for accountability for both perpetrators and leaders who covered up their crimes, following the release of a report detailing alleged cle… […]
Vatican City, Aug 15, 2018 / 07:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, Pope Francis entrusted any person who is suffering, in mind or body, to the care of the Mother of God.
Invoking “Mary, Consoler of the af… […]
Vatican City, Aug 15, 2018 / 04:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Wednesday named Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, a member of the Vatican diplomatic corp for over 25 years, the ‘sostituto,’ or ‘substitute,’ of the Secretariat of State.
Apostolic nuncio to Mozambique since 2015, Pena will start in the position of substitute Oct. 15, according to a Vatican statement Aug. 15.
Pena, 58, began diplomatic service to the Holy See on April 1, 1993, and has served in Kenya, Yugoslavia, the United Nations Office in Geneva, and in apostolic nunciatures in South Africa, Honduras, and Mexico. He was nuncio to Pakistan from 2001 to 2014.
Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, he was ordained a priest in 1985, and made a bishop in 2011. He studied canon law and speaks Spanish, Italian, English, French, Portuguese and Serbo-Croatian.
Pena takes over the position from Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who resigned June 29 in anticipation of beginning his assignment as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later this summer.
Becciu, 70, who was elevated to the cardinalate June 28, served in the Secretariat of State, under both Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, beginning in 2011. He will start at the congregation for saints Aug. 31.
It is yet unknown if Pena will join Pope Francis as part of the papal entourage on his trip to Dublin Aug. 25-26.
The Secretariat of State is the central governing office of the Catholic Church and the department of the Roman Curia which works most closely with the pope.
Since the publication of Pastor Bonus, Pope John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic constitution which introduced a reform of the Roman Curia, the Secretariat of State has been divided into two sections: the Section for General Affairs and the Section for Relations with States.
The substitute, who must be a bishop, acts as head of the Section for General Affairs, which is responsible for the everyday affairs and service of the pope, including overseeing the facilitation of appointments within the Roman Curia, the duties and activity of representatives of the Holy See, and the concerns of embassies accredited to the Holy See.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher is the secretary for Relations with States, often described as the Vatican’s “foreign minister.”
As of November 2017, Pope Francis established a third section of the Secretariat, specifically to oversee the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, stationed around the world.
Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawlowski is at the helm of the third section, called the “Section for Diplomatic Staff.” Previously apostolic nuncio to Gabon, in 2015 Pawlowski was appointed head of the Office for Pontifical Representations, a sort of human resources office within the Secretariat of State.
Vatican City, Aug 12, 2018 / 05:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It is not enough for Catholics to not do bad things, they must counter evil by actively living out charity in the performance of good deeds, Pope Francis told young people and others in St. Peter&… […]
Vatican City, Aug 11, 2018 / 09:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis held a meeting on the abuse scandal in Chile and will continue to follow the actions of the country’s bishops’ conference in response to the crisis, the Vatican press offi… […]
Vatican City, Aug 9, 2018 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis’ trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families will be likely his first international trip not to include the “sostituto,” or deputy, of the Vatican Secretariat of State am… […]
Vatican City, Aug 9, 2018 / 01:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an interview with Vatican News marking the 25th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis splendor, Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella said that “the magisterium must never be used instrumentally to place a contrast in the development of the doctrine.”
Veritatis splendor, written on some fundamental questions of the Church’s moral doctrine, encouraged a renewal of moral theology and taught that there are intrinsically evil acts, that absolute truths exist across various cultures. It also urged sharp caution against moral relativism and the misuse of conscience to justify false or subjective morals.
Archbishop Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, stated that “when we speak about the truth, we must always have a dynamic concept.”
“The truth is not a ‘fixistic’ dimension. The truth, for the Christian, is first of all that living Word that the Lord has left us. Let us not forget Jesus who says: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’,” the archbishop said.
“Therefore, the dimension of truth opens to a personal encounter: it is the truth of the Gospel, it is the truth represented by the person of Jesus Christ. All that is the content that Jesus wanted to transmit to His disciples, and that comes from the Apostles to us, is a truth that opens up more and more to a discovery of the mystery that has been revealed.”
He said that “There are some fundamental points that remain as milestones in the dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church. These are elements that remain in their immutability,” and that
“All this then requires from the theologians … a great work of interpretation,” Archbishop Fisichella stated.
Immutuable norms “must, however, be continuously opened through the discovery of the truth of the Word of God.”
The archbishop said that in his opinion, the Church “cannot accept an idea of truth closed in on itself. Truth, by its very nature, refers to fidelity and also to freedom: ‘The truth will set you free.’ A truth that opens up more and more is a truth that makes every believer, every man, discover a more profound freedom. However, this also requires fidelity. The link between fidelity and truth is a typical link in the biblical conception of truth.”
Asked about fidelity to truth and those who criticize Pope Francis for, they believe, diverging from Catholic doctrine, and who refer to Veritatis splendor, Archbishop Fisichella said that “I don’t think there are any grounds that justify challenging the teaching of Pope Francis in the light of the previous Magisterium.”
The question is an implicit reference to the ‘dubia letter’ sent by four cardinals to Pope Francis in September 2016. The letter asked the Pope to clarify some passages of Amoris laetitia, and four of the five dubia quoted Veritatis splendor and noted that Francis’ apostolic exhortation could be interpreted as contrasting with St. John Paul II’s encyclical.
Pope Francis has not responded to the dubia.
The Vatican News interview also comes on the heels of a change to the text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding capital punishment, which has been widely interpreted as a change in doctrine.
Archbishop Fisichella said that “when there is an instumental use” of the Magisterium, “then I fear there is no desire for a discovery of the truth, and also that there is no fidelity to the tradition of the Church. I don’t think there are any grounds that justify challenging the teaching of Pope Francis in the light of the previous Magisterium. On the contrary, we need to reiterate how much continuity there is in development.”
“I think, however, that it is also important to carefully consider the whole teaching of Pope Francis and not just a single particular aspect of it: the mosaic is produced by the whole deck, not by a single card.”
For Archbishop Fisichella, the teaching of Pope Francis is “a great openness in the work of evangelization” without “anticipating the norm of the proclamation.”
According to the prelate, Francis’ pontificate is about “being able … to accompany our contemporaries, to walk beside them in order to help them understand, to really understand its application, and sometimes also, perhaps, to take a step back. And so this dimension emerges together with the need for mercy. The Jubilee of Mercy was the concrete sign of how Pope Francis identifies and orients his Pontificate.”
Vatican City, Aug 8, 2018 / 04:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Attachment to idols is a failure to trust totally in God – and to reject them, Catholics must accept their weaknesses, inviting Christ to heal their hearts, Pope Francis said Wednesday.
Heal… […]
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