Vatican

Vatican City, Oct 21, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- The Church in Belarus has no other task than proclaiming the Gospel. It did so also during the protests that broke out in Belarus following the presidential elections in August, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with the Catholic News Agency.

Since Aug. 31, Kondrusiewicz has been unable to return to his country. He was blocked at the border with Poland, where he had gone for a celebration at a Marian shrine. Later on, the Belarusian government said that the archbishop’s passport was invalid.

Despite many international appeals, the archbishop still cannot return to his country. Pope Francis sent his foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, to Belarus Sept. 11-14. The bilateral meetings zeroed in on the situation in Belarus and also the particular case of the archbishop.

As of now, the archbishop has not been able to return to his country. He visited the Vatican Oct. 19-20.

“I was summoned,” he told CNA, “by the Secretariat of State, and I had meetings with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, and Archbishop Gallagher. We discussed the situation in Belarus and my particular situation. I already knew that, but I am now even more convinced that the Holy See has put in place strong efforts to solve my issue.”

Speaking about the situation in Belarus, Kondrusiewicz recalled that he has made many appeals for reconciliation.

“I am very worried. Belarus’ situation is challenging, but I am more preoccupied with some slogans I hear around that say: ‘We remember, we do not forgive.’ This is not a Christian way of thinking,” the archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev said. 

He stressed that “with no forgiveness, there is no room for reconciliation, no room for peace. Like St. John Paul II said, forgiving is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. When I forgive my enemy, I win because I let enmity go and keep something spiritual. As a bishop, I teach this way of thinking because this is the Gospel.”

Kondrusiewicz noted that the lack of reconciliation stemmed from a deeper problem in Belarusian society.

“The Belarusian generations were first raised in atheism and now in secularism, which does not recognize any spiritual perspective, but focuses on material issues,” he remarked.

He said that, although there is no longer ideological and militant atheism, there is a materialistic atheism. 

“No one openly persecutes the Church,” he explained, “but there are signs of persecution of Christians ‘in white gloves,’ since there are many parliaments that pass laws against the divine law.”

In his country, Kondrusiewicz strived to foster interreligious dialogue, and he organized many meetings of prayer on the issue. He explained that this was a way to help the reconciliation process.

On Aug. 18, the Executive Committee of Justice and Peace Europe asked all Christians to say an “Our Father” for the Belarusian people.

Kondrusiewicz said: “The notice of the initiative did not come so much in advance, and there was no time to deliver the message properly. However, the response was phenomenal. We arranged the recitation of the prayer in the Red Church in Minsk, which is pretty big. The church was overcrowded: there were Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Greek Catholics, Protestants, Jewish people, Muslims.”

In particular, the archbishop was struck by “a Muslim woman that prayed very intensively.”

According to Kondrusiewicz, the meeting “created an interconfessional and interreligious symphony, that is the symbol of a new society, open to different faiths. All the religious confessions gather together and pray together for the same purpose; that is, the peaceful solution of the Belarusian issue.”

He stressed that the event was a twofold sign. On the one hand, it consolidated Belarusian society. On the other, the common prayer was a wake-up call for an increasingly secularized Europe.

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CNA Staff, Oct 21, 2020 / 06:35 am (CNA).-  

In a documentary that premiered Wednesday in Rome, Pope Francis called for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples, departing from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office and the pope’s predecessors on the issue.

The remarks came amid a portion of the documentary that reflected on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT. 

“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film, of his approach to pastoral care.

After those remarks, and in comments likely to spark controversy among Catholics, Pope Francis weighed in directly on the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples.

“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” the pope said. “I stood up for that.”

The remarks come in “Francesco,” a documentary on the life and ministry of Pope Francis which premiered Oct. 21 as part of the Rome Film Festival, and is set to make its North American premiere on Sunday.

The film chronicles the approach of Pope Francis to pressing social issues, and to pastoral ministry among those who live, in the words of the pontiff, “on the existential peripheries.”

Featuring interviews with Vatican figures including Cardinal Luis Tagle and other collaborators of the pope, “Francesco” looks at the pope’s advocacy for migrants and refugees, the poor, his work on the issue of clerical sexual abuse, the role of women in society, and the disposition of Catholics and others toward those who identify as LGBT.

The film addresses the pastoral outreach of Pope Francis to those who identify as LGBT, including a story of the pontiff encouraging two Italian men in a same-sex relationship to raise their children in their parish church, which, one of the men said, was greatly beneficial to his children.

“He didn’t mention what was his opinion on my family. Probably he’s following the doctrine on this point,” the man said, while praising the pope for a disposition and attitude of welcome and encouragement.

The pope’s remarks on civil unions come amid that part of the documentary. Filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky told CNA that the pope made his call for civil unions during an interview the documentarian conducted with the pope.

The pope’s direct call for civil union laws represents a shift from the perspective of his predecessors, and from his own more circumspect positions on civil unions in the past.

In 2010, while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis opposed efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. While Sergio Rubin, the future pope’s biographer, suggested that Francis supported the idea of civil unions as a way to prevent the wholesale adoption of same-sex marriage in Argentina, Miguel Woites, director of the Argentinian Catholic news outlet AICA, dismissed in 2013 that claim as false.

But the pope’s mention of having previously “stood up” for civil unions seems to confirm the reports of Rubin and others who said that then-Cardinal Bergoglio supported privately the idea of civil unions as a compromise in Argentina.

In the 2013 book “On Heaven and Earth,” Pope Francis did not reject the possibility of civil unions outright, but did say that laws “assimilating” homosexual relationships to marriage are “an anthropological regression,” and he expressed concern that if same-sex couples “are given adoption rights, there could be affected children. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help them shape their identity.”

In 2014, Fr. Thomas Rosica, who was then working in the Holy See’s press office told CNA that Pope Francis had not expressed support for same-sex civil unions, after some journalists reported that he had done so in an an interview that year. While a civil unions proposal was debated in Italy, Rosica emphasized that Francis would not weigh in on the debate, but would emphasize Catholic teaching on marriage.

In 2003, under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and at the direction of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith taught that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society.”

“Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself,” the CDF added, calling support for such unions from politicians “gravely immoral.”

“Not even in a remote analogous sense do homosexual unions fulfil the purpose for which marriage and family deserve specific categorical recognition. On the contrary, there are good reasons for holding that such unions are harmful to the proper development of human society, especially if their impact on society were to increase,” the document said.

The Vatican’s press office did not respond to questions from CNA on the pope’s remarks in the film.

While bishops in some countries have not opposed same-sex civil unions proposals, and tried instead to distinguish them from civil marriage, opponents of civil unions have long warned that they serve as a legislative and cultural bridge to same-sex marraige initiatives, give tacit approval to immorality, and fail to protect the rights of children to be parented by both a mother and father.

Afineevsky told EWTN News this month that he tried in “Francesco” to present the pope as he saw him, and that the film might not please all Catholics. He told CNA Wednesday that in his view, the film is not “about” the pope’s call for civil unions, but “about many other global issues.”

“I’m looking at him not as the pope, I’m looking at him as a humble human being, great role model to younger generation, leader for the older generation, a leader to many people not in the sense of the Catholic Church, but in the sense of pure leadership, on the ground, on the streets,” Afineevsky added.

The documentarian said he began working with the Vatican to produce a film on Pope Francis in 2018, and was given unprecedented access to Pope Francis until filming completed in June, amid Italy’s coronavirus lockdowns.

Afineevsky, a Russian-born filmmaker living in the U.S., was in 2015 nominated for both an Academy Award and an Emmy Award for his work “Winter on Fire,” a documentary that chronicled Ukraine’s 2013 and 2014 Euromaidan protests. His 2017 film “Cries from Syria” was nominated for four News and Documentary Emmy Awards and three Critics’ Choice Awards.

On Thursday, Afineevsky will be presented in the Vatican Gardens with the prestigious Kineo Movie for Humanity Award, which recognizes filmmakers who present social and humanitarian issues through filmmaking. The award was established in 2002 by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Rosetta Sannelli, the creator of the Kineo Awards, noted that “every trip of Pope Francis to various parts of the world is documented in Afineevsky’s work, in images and news footage, and reveals itself as an authentic glimpse into the events of our time, a historical work in all respects.”

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Vatican City, Oct 21, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that Christians should pray from the heart and not “like parrots.” 

In his general audience address in the Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 21, he said: “The wo… […]

Vatican City, Oct 20, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis appointed a New Jersey-based bishop as the administrator of a Canadian eparchy Tuesday.

The Holy See press office announced Oct. 20 that the pope had named Bishop Kurt Burnette as the apo… […]

CNA Staff, Oct 20, 2020 / 03:30 am (CNA).- Exiled Belarusian Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz met with senior Vatican officials Monday.

The website of the Catholic Church in Belarus reported Oct. 19 that Kondrusiewicz held talks with Cardinal Pietro P… […]

CNA Staff, Oct 19, 2020 / 04:27 pm (CNA).-  

Catholic likely voters support Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination as a Supreme Court justice by a nearly 20-point margin over those who oppose the appointment, according to a new poll released M… […]

Vatican City, Oct 18, 2020 / 05:13 am (CNA).- Catholics, by virtue of their baptism, must affirm to the world God’s primacy in human life and in history, Pope Francis said Sunday.

In his weekly Angelus address Oct. 18, the pope explained that &l… […]

Vatican City, Oct 17, 2020 / 06:59 am (CNA).- The Holy See press office said Saturday a resident of the Vatican hotel where Pope Francis also lives has tested positive for COVID-19.

The person has been temporarily moved out of the Casa Santa Marta residence and placed in isolation, the Oct. 17 statement said. Anyone who came into direct contact with the person is also observing a period of isolation.

The patient is so-far asymptomatic, the Vatican said. It noted that in recent days, three other positive cases among residents or citizens of the city state have recovered.

The statement also added that pandemic health measures issued by the Holy See and the Governorate of Vatican City continue to be followed and “the health of all Domus [Casa Santa Marta] residents is constantly monitored.”

The case within Pope Francis’ residence is added to  the active coronavirus cases among Swiss Guards.

The Pontifical Swiss Guard announced Oct. 15 that a total of 11 members had now contracted COVID-19.

The army of 135 soldiers said in a statement “the isolation of positive cases was immediately arranged and further checks are being carried out.”

It also emphasized that the guard is following strict new Vatican measures to contain the virus and would offer an update on the situation “in the next few days.”

Italy was one of Europe’s worst-hit countries during the first wave of the coronavirus. More than 391,611 people total have tested positive for COVID-19 and 36,427 have died in Italy as of Oct. 17, according to government statistics. Cases are once again rising with more than 12,300 active cases recorded in Rome’s region of Lazio.

Pope Francis met Oct. 17 with members of the Carabinieri, Italy’s national gendarmerie, who serve in a company responsible for an area near the Vatican.

He thanked them for their work in keeping the area of the Vatican safe during events with pilgrims and tourists from around the world, and for their patience with the many people, including priests, who stop them to ask questions.

“Even if your superiors do not see these hidden acts, you know well that God sees them and does not forget them!” he said.

Pope Francis also noted that every morning, when he enters his study in the Apostolic Palace, he goes first to pray before an image of Our Lady, and then he looks out of the window onto St. Peter’s Square.

“And there, at the end of the square, I see you. Every morning I greet you with my heart and thank you,” he said.

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Vatican City, Oct 17, 2020 / 05:46 am (CNA).- Pope Francis accepted Saturday the resignation of the Bishop of Kalisz in central Poland, Edward Janiak, who is under investigation for his handling of an abuse case.

Since June, Janiak’s diocese has… […]

Vatican City, Oct 16, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- In a video message for World Food Day Friday, Pope Francis expressed concern that tons of food is being thrown away while people continue to die for lack of food.

“For humanity, hunger is not only a … […]