Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 01:58 pm (CNA).- The International Theological Commission this week published a study into the question of whether two “baptized non-believers” can contract sacramental marriage or whether the absence of faith im… […]
Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 04:09 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Thursday appointed Bishop Gregory Hartmayer of Savannah to be the next archbishop of Atlanta, Georgia.
Hartmayer is a member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and has been bishop of Savannah since 2011.
In Atlanta, Hartmayer follows Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who was appointed to head the Archdiocese of Washington in early 2019, after leading the Georgia archdiocese for almost 15 years.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta covers 21,445 square miles in the northern half of Georgia. The archdiocese has over 100 parishes and serves around 1.2 million Catholics.
It is also the metropolitan see of the province of Atlanta, which encompasses the suffragan dioceses of Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina.
This means, according to Pope Francis’ 2019 norms Vos estis lux mundi, if a bishop in one of these dioceses were to be accused of sexual abuse or coercion, or of interfering in investigation of such conduct, it would fall to Hartmayer to investigate.
There are currently several ‘Vos estis’ investigations going on in dioceses in the U.S.
Hartmayer was born in 1951 in Buffalo, New York, one of four children.
He joined the Conventual Franciscan novitiate in Ellicott City, Maryland in 1969 and made his solemn profession in 1973.
He was ordained a priest for the Franciscan order in 1979.
In addition to a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from St. Hyacinth College and Seminary in Massachusetts, Hartmayer holds three master’s degrees: a master of divinity degree from St. Anthony-on-Hudson, in Rensselaer, New York; a master of arts degree in pastoral counseling from Emmanuel College, Boston and a master of education degree from Boston College.
Prior to being named bishop of Savannah, Hartmayer had spent 16 of his 32 years of priesthood in Catholic high school education, with the remaining in parish ministry.
He spent many years in New York and Massachusetts, but in 1995, he moved south to teach at a Catholic high school in Florida, before being asked to serve as pastor of St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro, Georgia.
Hartmayer was appointed bishop of Savannah in 2011.
Vatican City, Mar 4, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- Rome’s pontifical universities will temporarily shut down tomorrow, after Italy’s death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 100 people March 4.
Italian officials announced March 4 that all schools and universities in the country will be closed March 5-15 because of the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
Pontifical universities in Rome – Vatican-accredited schools teaching theology, philosophy, and other related disciples – are expected to follow the government directive.
The Pontifical University Santa Croce issued a statement Tuesday, telling students that “following the announcement of the Italian government,” the university will suspend classes until March 15.
“The same will happen for conferences and congresses, which are postponed to new dates that will be communicated by their organizers,” the university added, noting that online distance education classes would continue.
The Pontifical University of St. Thomas, the Angelicum, posted on its website March 4 that it will suspend its classes until March 15. The university also cancelled March 9 events which had been scheduled to celebrate the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas
With 107 coronavirus-related deaths since Feb. 22, Italy has surpassed Iran in having the most documented mortalities outside of China.
Most of the confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been in the northern regions in Italy. In Lazio, the region surrounding Rome, there are 30 infected with the coronavirus as of March 4.
Italy has the oldest population in the world after Japan; more than 23% of Italy’s population is 65 years old or older in 2020.
As of March 3, the youngest Italian to die of Covid-19 was 55 years old. The majority of those who have died with coronavirus have been older than 60.
The Vatican has responded to the outbreak by postponing large spring events with significant anticipated international attendance to the fall.
Among them, the pope’s economic summit, “The Economy of Francesco.” Originally scheduled for March 26-28, the economic conference in Assisi will now take place Nov. 2.
The Vatican announced March 3 that Pope Francis’ Global Compact on Education, scheduled to take place in May, will be postponed until October 11-18.
“The uncertainty linked to the spread of Coronavirus, along with the decisions taken by public authorities on a global scale, have led to the decision to postpone the anticipated meeting in order to allow the widest and most serene participation possible,” the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education said in a statement.
“The Global Pact is not limited to educational and academic institutions but rather, in the belief that commitment to education must be shared by all, involves representatives of religions,
international bodies and the various humanitarian institutions, of the academic, economic, political and cultural world,” it added.
Holy See press office director Matteo Bruni also shared that steps have been taken in Vatican City as precautionary measures to protect against the virus.
Hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed in Vatican City offices, and there is a nurse and a doctor on call at a Vatican clinic to give immediate assistance, Bruni told Vatican News.
According to the World Health Organization, Italy has the third highest number of reported cases of novel coronavirus after China and South Korea.
Covid-19 is a new strain of coronavirus, which can cause fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. In some cases, it can lead to pneumonia, kidney failure, and severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Most of the cases are in the Lombardy region in the north, followed by the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. Of these cases, many are mild and being treated at home.
The Italian Health Ministry reports that as of March 4, 276 people in the country have recovered from Covid-19.
Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 09:57 am (CNA).- Pope Francis is calling on Catholics to participate in “Laudato si’ Week” in May to encourage care for our common home.
“I renew my urgent call to respond to the ecological crisis. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor cannot wait anywhere,” Pope Francis said in a video message published March 3.
The video shows young protesters yelling, “Climate justice, now” juxtaposed with images of wildlife in Africa and a beached whale.
Laudato si’ Week, sponsored by the Dicastery for Integral Human Development will take place May 16-24. The date marks the 5th anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical on integral human ecology.
The Global Catholic Climate Movement and Renova + are facilitating the campaign.
The Laudato si’ Week website recommends Catholics participate by engaging elected representatives, conducting an energy audit, or divesting in fossil fuels. It also recommends the option to “represent your commitment with a symbolic gesture,” such as planting a tree or attending a climate strike.
Laudato si’, which means “Praise be to You,” was published June 18, 2015, and was dated May 24. Pope Francis took the name for the encyclical from St. Francis of Assisi’s medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which praises God through elements of creation such as Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and “our sister Mother Earth.”
The encyclical argues that it is not possible to effectively care for the environment without first working to defend human life.
It states that it is “clearly inconsistent” to combat the trafficking of endangered species while remaining indifferent toward the trafficking of persons, to the poor and to the decision of many “to destroy another human being deemed unwanted.”
Pope Francis also highlighted that concern for the protection of nature is “incompatible with the justification of abortion.”
“How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?” he asked.
The pope also addressed the highly-debated topic of population control, a proposed solution to problems stemming from poverty and maintaining a sustainable consumption of the earth’s resources.
“Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate,” Francis lamented.
He denounced the fact that developing countries often receive pressure from international organizations who make economic assistance “contingent on certain policies of ‘reproductive health.’”
“In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life,” Pope Francis wrote in Laudato si’.
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together … for we know that things can change,” he said.
Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 07:24 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Tuesday appointed Spanish-born Idente Missionary Fr. Luis Miguel Romero to be an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York.
The bishop-elect is a priest of the Institute Id … […]
Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- The Vatican is sending Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeo to Mexico this month to meet with sex abuse victims and to strengthen the Mexican bishops’ fight against sexual abuse.
“We have tried to fight in a responsible, transparent and clear way against the culture of abuse and cover-up that allows it to perpetuate itself. This conviction, which stems from accompanying the victims in their pain, seeking justice and healing, led us to request support from the Holy See through the Apostolic Nunciature,” the Mexican bishops’ conference said in a statement March 2.
Scicluna and Bertomeu will travel to Mexico March 20-27. This team from the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith previously investigated the Church in Chile’s response to sex abuse allegations in 2018, which eventually led every Chilean bishop to submit their resignations to Pope Francis.
During their trip to Mexico, the two are scheduled to meet with all of the country’s bishops in Casa Lago outside of Mexico City on March 20. They will meet with the superiors of religious orders in Mexico on March 23.
For the remaining five days, Scicluna and Bertomeu will be available at the Mexico City nunciature to meet with sex abuse victims or “anyone who would like to share their experiences.” A statement put out by the Apostolic Nunciature provides a phone number and email address for people who would like to schedule a meeting.
In the past decade, 271 priests in Mexico have been investigated for sexual abuse and 152 priests have been removed from ministry due to incidents of abuse, according to the Mexican bishops’ conference president Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera.
A report released in December by the Legionaries of Christ religious order stated that since the group’s founding in Mexico in 1941, 33 priests of the Legionaries of Christ committed sexual abuse of minors, victimizing 175 children.
Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta, is widely known for his expertise in the canonical norms governing allegations of sexual abuse. In 2015 he was named by the pope to oversee the team in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith charged with handling appeals filed by clergy accused of abuse. He served as the congregation’s promoter of justice for 17 years and conducted the investigation into the Legionaries’ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel in 2002-2003.
The Church in Mexico has expressed its support in 2020 for several bills to eliminate the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of minors, which stands now at ten years.
The Mexican bishops’ conference said they hope the visit by Scicluna and Bertomeu will help to protect and benefit “the most vulnerable.”
“We trust that it will serve to improve the response to these cases, seeking the action of civil and canonical justice under the principle of ‘zero tolerance’ so that no case goes unpunished in our Church,” Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera of Monterrey and Auxiliary Bishop Alfonso G. Miranda wrote in a statement.
“We pray to God and Our Lady of Guadalupe, so that this important mission helps us as a Church to act promptly and fairly to eradicate these crimes and all forms of abuse against minors, inside and outside the Church; and to strengthen the faith, hope and charity of the people of God who pilgrimage in Mexico,” the bishops said.
Vatican City, Mar 3, 2020 / 04:10 am (CNA).- Pope Francis was reportedly tested for the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, with negative results, an Italian newspaper said Tuesday.
Last week, the pope began to show symptoms of a cold. “His doctors imm… […]
Vatican City, Mar 2, 2020 / 10:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ international economic summit, “The Economy of Francesco,” has been postponed until November due to the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.
The three-day conference, named for St…. […]
Vatican City, Mar 2, 2020 / 06:15 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Monday accepted the resignation of Bishop Edward Grosz, the auxiliary bishop of Buffalo, who has been accused of mishandling a sex abuse allegation.
Grosz, who turned 75 on February 16, offered his resignation at the age required by canon law. The Vatican’s March 2 announcement accepting Grosz’s resignation did not indicate whether it will conduct any investigation into the allegation against the bishop.
His retirement comes following a year of allegations of a cover-up of clergy sex abuse made against the leadership of the Diocese of Buffalo, including an allegation of negligence on the part of Grosz himself.
In September, a priest who was sexually abused as a seminarian alleged that Grosz responded to his 2003 report of the abuse by threatening his vocation. Fr. Ryszard Biernat, who was abused as a seminarian in Buffalo by a priest who was later removed from ministry for other credible accusations of abuse, told Buffalo-area news station WKBW of the auxiliary bishop’s response:
“He said [it] was my fault because I [didn’t] lock the door,” Biernat quoted Bishop Grosz, as report in ed by WKBW. “And then he said, ‘and Ryszard, if you don’t stop talking about this, you will not become a priest. You understand me? You understand me?’” Biernat said.
Bishop Joseph Malone, who led the diocese from 2012 until last year, resigned in December, following a Vatican-ordered investigation of the diocese.
That investigation was conducted in October by Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. The details of DiMarzio’s apostolic visitation have not been released, but, according to statements by the apostolic nuncio, the visitation was not conducted under Vos estis lux mindi, Pope Francis’ recently promulgated norms for treating accusations of of negligence in sexual abuse cases by bishops. Although Malone’s resignation was accepted, the Vatican has not suggested that Malone was found guilty of any particular canonical crime.
Following Malone’s resignation, Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany was appointed by Pope Francis to oversee the diocese until a replacement was named.
Grosz told local media in December that his role under Scharfenberger’s administration of the diocese would be “primarily sacramental and in assistance to priests,” and said that he planned to submit his resignation in February after his 75th birthday.
As auxiliary bishop, Grosz and Malone met with Pope Francis on November 15 during the ad limina visit of bishops from New York.
Grosz had been an auxiliary bishop of Buffalo since 1989. A native of Buffalo, he studied at St. John Vianney Seminary in New York, and was ordained a priest in 1971.
The Diocese of Buffalo announced on Feb. 28 that it is declaring bankruptcy as hundreds of abuse lawsuits have been filed against it in the last several months. Following the opening of a window in the state statute of limitation last summer, hundreds of abuse lawsuits filed against the diocese in New York courts.
Earlier in February, Scharfenberger announced the decision to close Buffalo’s Christ the King Seminary. The seminary was reportedly facing an annual $500,000 average deficit over a period of a decade.
The diocese said it was formally filing for Chapter 11 reorganization under the U.S. bankruptcy code to provide the most compensation for victims of clergy sex abuse while continuing the day-to-day work of its Catholic mission.
Vatican City, Mar 1, 2020 / 07:08 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Sunday to follow Christ’s example when dealing with the temptation to sin: send the devil away or answer with the Word of God, but never engage in debate.
When being tempted by the d… […]
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