No Picture
News Briefs

Vatican publishes norms on consecrated virgins

July 4, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Jul 4, 2018 / 10:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Almost 50 years after the Church published the new Rite of Consecrated Virginity, the Vatican has issued an instruction on the state of life, its discipline, and the responsibilities of diocesan bi… […]

No Picture
News Briefs

Religious structures next step in Iraqi building process

July 4, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Jul 4, 2018 / 08:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Since 2014 international charity organization Aid to the Church in Need has spent some 40 million euros [$46.6 million] funding relief and reconstruction efforts in Iraq, with the majority of support going toward basic needs such as housing.

However, according to Thomas Heine-Geldem, executive president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), now that the international community chipping in to rebuild Christian villages destroyed when ISIS took over the Nineveh Plains in 2014, the organization’s primary focus will shift from funding basic reconstruction to restoring religious structures such as churches and monasteries, many of which were desecrated and burned under ISIS rule.

With nations such as Hungary, which has long supported for reconstruction efforts in Iraq, and the United States offering financial help, ACN can take a step back and focus on their “pastoral vocation,” Heine-Geldem said, noting how ACN was founded as a means of providing both spiritual and material help to Christians who are persecuted or living in poverty.

The next stage in the rebuilding process in Iraq, then, will center “on the renovation of destroyed churches, there are many, destroyed seminaries and destroyed monasteries. That’s back to our original vocation,” Heine-Geldem said.

In June the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) pledged to give some $10 million to two aid organizations working in Iraq, one of which is Catholic Relief Services, and an additional $25 million will be given later to support “persecuted communities” in Iraq, specifically Christians returning to the Nineveh Plains and Yazidis in Sinjar.

So far, structures being built or restored as part of this “pastoral vocation” include a pastoral center in the village of Kirkuk; a church in each of the villages of Teleskuf, Qaraqosh and Bartella; three convents for Dominican sisters serving in Bartella and Qaraqosh; and the Holy Family orphanage in Qaraqosh.

Representatives from ACN will be making visits to both Iraq and Syria within the next few months to determine what the needs are and to discuss with local ecclesial leaders which structures should be taken up next.

Heine-Geldem was present alongside other ACN representatives, including Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, major penitentiary of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary and president of ACN international, at the July 4 presentation of the organization’s annual activity report for 2017.

According to the numbers in the report, last year ACN spent the majority of funds on projects in mission territories, supporting some 5,357 projects in 149 countries. The rest went toward administrative costs, advertising and fundraising.

The organization, which has offices in 23 countries around the world, had around 368,000 benefactors in 2017, with a large portion of funding also coming from Catholics who donated in exchange for a Mass intention for themselves or a loved one.

In total, ACN gave around 84.6 million euro [$98.5 million] in 2017 to support their mission projects, most of which are in Africa, followed by Asia, Latin America,  Eastern and Central Europe, and the Middle East.

In terms of where most of the money is spent, Africa again took the lead, followed by the Middle East, which Heine-Geldem said was the result of a concrete decision by ACN to provide “exceptional” support to the region to help Christians stay.

“If Christians are not helped to stay there, they will be forced to leave,” he said, adding that “if we don’t have Christians in the Middle East, there is no need to help the pastoral work.”

Most of ACN’s funding in Iraq is going toward their Nineveh Plains Reconstruction Project, and providing spiritual support through Masses, formation and catechesis, as well as food and transport.

The reconstruction project, Heine-Geldem said, has also helped bring different Christian rites in Iraq together and has allowed them to interact in a way that was not typical in the past.

“We have created a platform,” he said, noting that the committee for the project is composed of leaders from the Syriac Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syrian Orthodox Church.

“This is very, very important, because in addition to all these struggles, these tragedies, all this ethnic and religious persecution, we have still found a lack of experience in cooperation among Christians in the Middle East,” he said, noting that the committee as a body evaluates the needs and decides which villages or churches to focus on next.

In Syria, which is second on the list of Middle Eastern aid recipients for ACN, most of the funding still comes in the form of basic humanitarian aid since the country is still at war.

“We still have war, we still have uncertainty, and people still need emergency help in order enable Christians there to remain or to entice them to return,” Heine-Geldem said, reiterating that the organization’s main priority is to help Christians stay in their home country.

“This is not a political statement about immigration, but it is our vocation to do that,” he said, explaining that from even from a geopolitical view, they don’t want the area to become “totally Christian free.”

“Christians are a good backbone of society,” he said, noting that many Muslims have told him Christians are needed in the Middle East, because they form the majority of the middle class, and are educated.

In terms of 2018, Heine-Geldem said Syria and Iraq will continue to be a priority, as will the religious freedom report ACN publishes annually, which will be released in November.

Additionally, India will also be a key focus, with particular attention for Catholics who are members of the “Dalit” class, which is the lowest in the caste and whose members are considered “untouchable” and less than human.

These people are “oppressed and neglected by the system,” and they also face increasing religious persecution from the amplified presence of Hindu extremists, Heine-Geldem said, noting that ACN recently launched a campaign to “open the eyes” of the world to what is happening on the ground.

“From what I’ve seen, they really deserve our help. It is a very serious situation.”

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis asks Catholics to pray for their priests in July

July 3, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Jul 3, 2018 / 11:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his latest prayer video, Pope Francis asked Catholics to dedicate the month of July to giving a spiritual gift to their pastors by praying for them, especially the priests who are tired or lonely.

“The tiredness of priests…Do you know how often I think about it?”

This is the opening line of Pope Francis’ newest prayer video, published July 3 and dedicated to his intention for the month.

As the video flashes scenes of priests working in difficult situations, including war and disaster relief, Francis speaks in his native Spanish, saying, “priests, with their virtues and defects, work in many different areas.”

“Working on so many active fronts, they cannot remain inactive after a disappointment,” the pope said. And when these moments come along, it is good for a pastor to remember “that the people love their priests, need them, and trust in them.”

The video then displays scenes of priests administering the sacraments, visiting the sick, and speaking with parishioners.

After being given a flower by an elderly woman, the priest featured in the video puts it in a vase inside of his parish and prays as members of his congregation bring more flowers to add to the bouquet.

Francis closes the video asking Catholics to join him in praying “that priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests.”

Pope Francis has often spoken of the need for consecrated persons to care for their vocation both spiritually and temporally, especially when he is meeting with priests and religious during international trips.

His specific concern for priests who feel weary on the job goes back to the beginning of his pontificate, and is an issue he has brought up on multiple occasions.

In his homily for the chrism Mass during Holy Week in 2015, the pope spoke to priests directly about getting worn out, saying: “the tiredness of priests! Do you know how often I think about this weariness which all of you experience?”

“I think about it and I pray about it, often, especially when I am tired myself,” he said, and admitted that he prays for every priest and their ministry, especially those who serve “in lonely and dangerous places.”

The tiredness of a holy priest who gives his life in service, Francis said during the Mass, “is like incense which silently rises up to heaven. Our weariness goes straight to the heart of the Father.”

Francis’ prayer intention for priests is part of the monthly “Pope Video” initiative, which is a project of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of Prayer.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces videos on the pope’s monthly prayer intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, universal intention from the pope. In 1929, an additional, missionary intention was added.

However, as of last year, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis opted to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention for an urgent or immediate need should one arise.

The videos are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center and mark the first time the Roman Pontiff’s monthly prayer intentions have been featured on video.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Christians an ‘essential element of balance’ in the Middle East

July 3, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Jul 3, 2018 / 10:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For two cardinals helping to organize Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Bari, the event is a chance to highlight not only the historic religious presence of Christianity in the Middle East, but also the social contribution the various rites and churches bring to the region.

“Christians are an essential element of balance” for the Middle East “not only for religious reasons, but also for political and social reasons,” Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said July 3.

Quoting Benedict XVI’s 2012 apostolic exhortation on the Church in the Middle East, Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, Koch said that “a Middle East without Christians, or with only a few Christians, would no longer be the Middle East, since Christians, together with other believers, are part of the distinctive identity of the region.”

However, he stressed that getting Christians to stay after having their lives uprooted and, in many cases, torn apart, will only happen “if peace is re-established.”

This peace largely depends on the political climate, he said, adding that “this is why, since the beginning of the crisis, the Catholic Church has tirelessly called for the restoration of peace, above all through the search for a political solution.”

Koch spoke to the press alongside Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, at a briefing on Pope Francis’ July 7 trip to Bari for an ecumenical gathering aimed at promoting peace in the Middle East.

Located in the southern Italian region of Puglia, Bari is known as the “porta d’Oriente,” or the “Eastern Gate,” because of its connection to both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches through the relics of St. Nicholas.

The ecumenical gathering will include leaders of Eastern Catholic Churches and Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as ecclesial communities.

Eastern Catholic Churches present will include the Coptic Catholic Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Maronite Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Armenian Catholic Church.

Among the Eastern Orthodox participating are Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who will attend on behalf of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

From the Oriental Orthodox Churches there are Tawadros II, Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, as well as representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church.

There will also be representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and from the Middle East Council of Churches.

Sandri said the gathering came about as the result of requests from several patriarchs and heads of Churches in the Middle East.

The trip, he said, is an illustration the pope’s attention to the Eastern Catholic community in the Middle East and the well-being of Orthodox Churches in the region, and his relationship with heads of Orthodox Churches, as well as his concern for the Muslim community and for regional minorities.

Bari, Sandri said, will be “an appeal to prayer,” but also an appeal for unity in prayer, which is the only thing that “can change hearts.”

But in addition to joint prayers, participants will also have a collective discussion, which will be opened by Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and which will take place behind closed doors.

Sandri said there is no plan to release a joint statement after the meeting, but that some highlights might be provided.

Koch stressed the importance of interreligious dialogue for the peace process in the Middle East, and urged greater protection for minorities in the law.

“The primacy of law, including respect for religious freedom and equality before the law, based on the principle of citizenship regardless of ethnic origin or religion, has been repeatedly emphasized by the Catholic Church as a fundamental principle for the realization and for the maintenance of a peaceful and fruitful coexistence among the various communities of the Middle East,” he said.

Dialogue, he said, quoting a letter from Pope Francis to Christians in the Middle East, “is all the more necessary when the situation is more difficult.”

“There is no other path. Dialogue based on an attitude of openness, in truth and in love, is also the best antidote for the temptation of religious fundamentalism, which is a threat for believers of all religions.”

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis names three new auxiliary bishops for Chicago

July 3, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Jul 3, 2018 / 04:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis has named three new auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Chicago, appointing Fr. Ronald Hicks, Fr. Robert G. Casey and Fr. Mark Bartosic to the positions.

The July 3 announcement of the priests’ appointments coincided with the news that two of Chicago’s six current auxiliary bishops, George Rassas and Francis Kane, would be retiring. With Hicks, Casey and Bartosic, there will now be seven auxiliaries serving in the archdiocese.

Born in Chicago in 1967, Hicks has until now served as the archdiocese’s vicar general.

In 1985 he graduated from Quigley Seminary South, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy four years later from the University of Chicago. He also has a master of divinity degree and a doctor of ministry degree from the University of St. Mary of the the Lake in Mundelein.

Hicks was ordained a priest in 1994 for the Archdiocese of Chicago, after which he served in various pastoral roles throughout the diocese.

After a stint as dean of formation at St. Joseph College Seminary from 1999-2005, the bishop-elect received permission from his then-archbishop, the late Cardinal Francis George, to move to El Salvador, where he served a 5-year term as regional director of the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos home for orphaned and abandoned children.

From 2010-2014 he served as dean of formation at Mundelein Seminary, while also helping with weekend Masses at St. Jerome Parish in Rogers Park. He was named vicar general for the archdiocese by the current archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich in 2015.

Casey, also a Chicago native, was born Sept. 23, 1967, and is currently serving as pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Church in Chicago.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in English from Niles College of Loyola University Chicago in 1989, Casey went on to pursue a master of divinity, which he received from the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein in 1994.

The bishop-elect was ordained a priest in 1994, after which he served as associate pastor of St. Ita parish in Edgewater until his 1998 appointment by Cardinal George as the part-time, associate director of Casa Jesus. In 1999, he was named the organization’s full-time director.

After a 40-day pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 2003, Casey began serving as pastor of Our Lady of Tepeyac in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. In 2008, he co-founded the Taller de José ministry, which is sponsored by the Congregation of St. Joseph and provides accompaniment to those in need.

Casey then served in a number of other pastoral roles before being named to the Placement Board of the archdiocese, a role in which he helps assign priests to parishes.

The only non-Chicago native of the new appointments, Bartosic was born in Neehah, Wis., in 1961, and is currently serving as pastor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Chicago and as director and chaplain of the Kolbe House, Cook County Jail.

Raised in Ashland, Ohio, Bartosic obtained a bachelor’s degree in theater from Ashland University in 1983, and went on to earn a both a master of divinity degree and a licentiate degree in sacred theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake.

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in 1994, and has served in several pastoral roles since, including his position as chaplain of the Kolbe House jail ministry.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Trafficking victims’ advocate honored by US State Department

July 2, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Jul 2, 2018 / 11:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A young Nigerian woman who escaped from forced prostitution in Italy was honored by the U.S. State Department last week as a 2018 Trafficking in Persons Hero.

Blessing Okoedion “is an example that through perseverance and support, trafficking victims can overcome, thrive, and help others to do so as well,” said U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich in a June 30 statement.

“She is a survivor, an activist, an author, and a fierce protector of victims suffering under the evil of human trafficking. She has helped a multitude of women escape horror. Her advocacy on their behalf has quite literally saved lives.”

Every year, alongside the release of its report on global human trafficking, the U.S. State Department honors individuals who work to fight trafficking, though raising awareness, working with victims, or pushing for tougher laws against perpetrators.

Okoedion, originally from Nigeria, was one of 10 Trafficking in Persons Heroes honored this year. She was recognized at a June 28 ceremony with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and presidential advisor Ivanka Trump.

Shortly after graduating from college with a degree in computer science, Okoedion was contacted by a recruiter through her local church in Nigeria. She was offered a job in a tech store in Spain.

She accepted the offer, but when she arrived in Spain, she discovered it was a fraudulent promise by traffickers, who forced her into prostitution in Naples, Italy. She eventually escaped to a shelter run by Ursuline nuns, who cared for her and offered her help.

Today, Okoedion works to fight modern slavery. According to the U.S. State Department, “Okoedion plays an integral role in pushing Italian authorities to ensure that survivors, especially Nigerian women and girls, receive the services they deserve during their healing process and that law enforcement and service providers engage with survivors in an increasingly culturally informed, victim-centered manner.”

She also works with a local shelter run by Ursuline sisters, where she acts as cultural mediator for trafficking victims, and travels throughout Nigeria to educate women and girls about how to detect trafficking schemes.

In a book published last year – entitled Il Coraggio della Libertà or The Courage of Freedom – she tells her story and calls for greater awareness surrounding the modern plague of trafficking.

In her statement, Ambassador Gingrich stressed that “human trafficking is a global crisis,” with more than 25 million victims worldwide, “often lured with false promises by people they trust…and forced into prostitution, domestic servitude, or other forms of modern slavery.”

“The path to ending human trafficking demands action, but also cooperation. No single government or individual can do it alone,” she said. “Governments, faith-based organizations, civil society, and survivors must work together.”

Gingrich said the fight against modern-day slavery is a “top priority” for the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

“We have a great ally in Pope Francis who has called for a victim-centered approach to human trafficking,” she said, also noting that U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to use the “full force and weight” of government to fight trafficking.

In March, Okoedion spoke to Pope Francis at the start of the pre-synod youth meeting in Rome. Okoedion was one of five young people who presented questions to the pope.

She told the pope that while she was being trafficked, many of the men soliciting prostitutes were Catholic and asked about how to raise awareness of the problem and fight the “sick” mentality that exploits women.

In his response, the pope called human trafficking “a sickness of mentality, it’s a sickness of social action, it’s a crime against humanity.”

He asked forgiveness “for all the Catholics who commit this criminal act” and asked young people in particular to take a stand against it, saying, “This is one of the battles that I ask you young people to do, for the dignity of women.”

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis: Fear sin, not death

July 1, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2018 / 05:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics have no reason to fear death, because Christ the Lord has power over death; instead, they should fear sin, which hardens and kills the soul, Pope Francis said Sunday.

“Jesus is the… […]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope: Don’t be afraid of the cross – there is no glory without it

June 29, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2018 / 03:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For Jesus, suffering and glory go hand in hand, Pope Francis said Friday, urging Christians not to fall into the temptation of running from the cross, but to imitate Christ in bending down to embrace the weak and vulnerable.

In his homily for the June 29 Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the official patrons of Rome, the pope said that in Jesus, “glory and the cross go together; they are inseparable.”

“Once we turn our back on the cross, even though we may attain the heights of glory, we will be fooling ourselves, since it will not be God’s glory, but the snare of the enemy.”

He pointed to the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew, in which Peter declares that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Though Jesus applauds Peter for this recognition, telling him he is the rock on which he will build the Church, a few lines later Jesus chastises Peter for swearing that he will not allow the crucifixion to happen.

By doing this, Peter “immediately becomes a stumbling stone in the Messiah’s path,” Francis said, because while he believes that he is defending Jesus, “Peter, without realizing it, becomes the Lord’s enemy; Jesus calls him ‘Satan.’”

In contemplating Peter’s life and his confession of faith in the day’s Gospel, Catholics are also invited to reflect on the daily temptations that every disciple faces, the pope said.

“Like Peter, we as a Church will always be tempted to hear those ‘whisperings’ of the evil One, which will become a stumbling stone for the mission,” he said, explaining that he used the word “whisper” because “the devil seduces from hiding, lest his intentions be recognized.”

“He behaves like a hypocrite, wishing to stay hidden and not be discovered.”

Christians, he said, can often be tempted to keep a “prudent distance” from the wounds of Christ, whereas Jesus himself bends down to touch humanity’s brokenness and asks Christians to join him in touching “the suffering flesh” of others.

“To proclaim our faith with our lips and our heart demands that we – like Peter – learn to recognize the ‘whisperings’ of the evil one,” he said. “It demands learning to discern and recognize those personal and communitarian pretexts that keep us far from real human dramas, that preserve us from contact with other people’s concrete existence and, in the end, from knowing the revolutionary power of God’s tender love.”

By choosing not to separate his glory from his death on the cross, Jesus frees both his disciples and the Church from “empty forms of triumphalism” which are void of love, service, compassion, and, ultimately, people, he said.

Jesus, Francis said, wants to free the Church from “grand illusions that fail to sink their roots in the life of God’s faithful people or, still worse, believe that service to the Lord means turning aside from the dusty roads of history.”

To contemplate and follow Christ, then, means opening one’s heart to God the Father and to all those he chose to identify with, “in the sure knowledge that he will never abandon his people.”

Pope Francis closed his homily urging attendees to imitate Peter in confessing that “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

This is the daily chorus that every disciple ought to profess, he said, saying it should be done “with the simplicity, the certainty and the joy of knowing that the Church shines not with her own light, but with the light of Christ.”

“Her light is drawn from the Sun of Justice, so that she can exclaim: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’”
 
Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, during which he gave new metropolitan archbishops appointed throughout the past year a white wool vestment called the “pallium.” Though there were 30 who will receive the pallium, only 26 made it to the Mass in Rome.

Adorned with six black silk crosses, the pallium dates back to at least the fifth century. The wearing of the pallium by metropolitan archbishops is a symbol of authority and of unity with the Holy See, and it serves as a symbol of the metropolitan archbishop’s jurisdiction in his own diocese as well as the other particular dioceses within his ecclesiastical province.

The title of “metropolitan bishop” refers to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis, namely, the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or regional capital.

The “pallium Mass” also fell the day after Pope Francis created 14 new cardinals in a June 28 consistory, 11 of whom are of voting age.

[…]