Vatican

Vatican City, Oct 3, 2019 / 01:37 pm (CNA).- U.S. diplomats asked the Holy See to join the multilateral International Religious Freedom Alliance Wednesday, underscoring the contributions of faith-based organizations to flourishing and free societies around the world.

Faith-based institutions unleash “spiritual capital into a society,” Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told CNA. He said these non-governmental organizations “bring the heart and hands,” helping the parts of society where governments or big institutions cannot reach.

“Governments are not real good about ‘Hey, let us help you get out of alcoholism,’ but churches are. That is just one quiet example,” Brownback said.

A symposium held at the Vatican Oct. 2 focused on the unique role that faith-based organizations play in providing humanitarian aid, combatting human trafficking, and advancing religious freedom in different parts of the world.

“Faith communities have been foundational, that is, fundamental to our work,” U.S. Ambassador-at-large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons John Cotton Richmond said at the symposium.

“Governments are limited by borders. They are limited by jurisdictions, election cycles, political will, and sometimes their self-imposed political struggles. But faith communities are not similarly bound,” Richmond said.

The ambassador said that faith-based organizations have the advantage of being able to “operate through networks that extend beyond any government or regime.”

“They do not last for just a cycle … They can build and plant for the long term,” he said.

“Faith-based communities with their contributions to philosophy have contributed to the foundation of the modern human rights movement. Faith-based groups have advanced the idea that all people have inherent value and intrinsic worth regardless,” Richmond said.

Representatives from Aid to the Church in Need, Caritas, Talitha Kum, the Community of Sant’Egidio, AVSI, Adyan Foundation, and the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development participated in the symposium, “Pathways to Achieving Human Dignity,” co-hosted by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich announced at the symposium that the embassy will be awarding financial grants to each of the faith-based organizations that participated in the event.

“There has never been a more critical time to work with and to support faith-based organizations,” Gingrich said in her opening address Oct. 3.

“Today, religious freedom is under attack in nearly every part of the world. Faith-based organizations, through their unique ability to build trust and encourage dialogue, can play a critical role in turning the tide,” Gingrich said.

“Faith-based organizations are advocates for the most vulnerable among us, including those enslaved by human trafficking. They are also providers of humanitarian assistance, helping governments deliver aid effectively and honestly to those most in need,” she said.

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Vatican City, Oct 3, 2019 / 10:15 am (CNA).- Speaking at a press conference Thursday on the Vatican’s upcoming Amazon synod, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, head of the Synod of Bishops, played down the importance of the synod’s working docume… […]

Vatican City, Oct 3, 2019 / 09:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the preservation of Christian communities in the Middle East and the promotion of religious freedom on Thursday.

According to State Department… […]

Vatican City, Oct 3, 2019 / 05:27 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Thursday approval of a miracle attributed to Venerable Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the former primate of Poland known for his heroic resistance to Communism.

The miracle involved the he… […]

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- A Jesuit priest from Burkina Faso has made history as the first African to win the prestigious Ratzinger Prize, which honors the work and academic contribution of theologians and other Catholic intellectuals.

“I am very surprised to have been awarded this prize, and I am very grateful to the scientific committee for this honor of being at the forefront of Africa for this prize,” Fr. Paul Béré, SJ told Vatican News shortly after the announcement.

“I think this is an encouragement for all theological work done in Africa.”

African Catholic theology is “attentive to what the Christian community is living in our territory,” the priest added.

The president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation, Fr. Federico Lombardi, along with the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi announced the winners of the 2019 Ratzinger Prize earlier this week.

The honorees are chosen by Pope Francis, based upon the recommendations of a committee composed of five cardinals who are members of the Roman Curia.

The Ratzinger Prize was begun in 2011 to recognize scholars whose work demonstrates a meaningful contribution to theology in the spirit of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Bavarian theologian who became Benedict XVI.

Béré, who is a lecturer at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, explained that he received the award for his work on the figure of the prophet Joshua.

“As an African Biblical scholar, I worked on the figure of Joshua,” he said

The priest explained that the prophet Joshua, who was formed through his relationship with his predecessor Moses, is a source of inspiration for the Church in Africa, especially regarding the transmission of values from one generation to another.

“This is also an inspiration that can help the Church in Africa to work towards the transmission from one generation to another of the mission that we received from the Lord in the ecclesial and political spheres,” he said.

Beré, who is a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) spoke last month on the need for an “Africanness” within the Catholic approach to addressing regional problems.

“Africa can find a solution to all its problems within, what we (Africans) simply need is the slightest desire to share the solutions across the continent,” Beré told ACI Africa at the Nairobi tri-party conference on the status of the evangelization mission in Africa .

Béré will be awarded the Ratzinger Prize on Nov. 9, 2019 at the Vatican Apostolic Palace from Pope Francis. The philosopher Charles Taylor, a Canadian Catholic intellectual, will be awarded the Ratzinger prize on the same day.

A version of this story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s partner news agency in Africa. It has been adapted by CNA.

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Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 12:43 pm (CNA).- An Italian news magazine has reported that five Vatican employees have been suspended following an Oct. 1 raid of offices within the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

An Oct. 2 internal memo from the go… […]

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 06:00 am (CNA).- U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo spoke out Wednesday about China’s religious freedom violations during a visit to the Vatican.

“When the state rules absolutely, God becomes an absolute threat to authority … human dignity is trampled … moral norms are crushed completely,” Pompeo said Oct. 2 in Vatican City’s Old Synod Hall.

The U.S. Secretary of State said this is why “China has put more than a million Uighur Muslims … in internment camps” and “why it throws Christian pastors in jail.”

Pompeo was at the Vatican Oct. 2 for the symposium “Pathways to Achieving Human Dignity: Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations,” co-hosted by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

An embassy source told CNA that Secretary Pompeo will meet Pope Francis on Oct. 3 in the Vatican library.

Pompeo’s speech at the Vatican began and ended with an example of a Uyghur Muslim who experienced persecution from the Chinese government in Xinjiang. 

The Holy See marked last week the one year anniversary of a provisional agreement with the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of bishops.

Secretary Pompeo said that countries around the world should “follow the wisdom of Jesus: ‘Be not afraid’” in defending religious freedom where it is under threat.

Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said that the US is calling on the Chinese government to “move away from this war on faith.”

“We are deeply concerned about what China is doing,” Brownback told CNA.

Brownback said that the State Department is particularly concerned with the Chinese government’s use of advanced technologies, like facial recognition and a social credit score system, to marginalize people of faith in the society.

“That system is starting to be exported to other places, other authoritarian repressive regimes … I think that is why the secretary talks about it, and it is certainly why I talk about it,” Brownback said.

Pompeo also singled out the governments of Iran, Myanmar and Syria for their repression of religious freedom, and denounced Cuba’s cancellation of National Catholic Youth Day this year.

The symposium was convened at the Vatican to highlight the world of faith-based organizations in advancing religious freedom, combatting human trafficking, and providing humanitarian aid.

“The stakes today are arguably higher than they were even during the Cold War,” Pompeo said.

“More than 80% of mankind lives in places where religious freedom is threatened or entirely denied. Approximately 71 million people around the world are displaced as refugees, roughly 25 million people are caught in human trafficking situations, and it is not coincidence that this has happened as unfree societies have proliferated,” he said.

The US Department of State this year launched the International Religious Freedom Alliance, a multilateral organization to advance religious freedom issues worldwide. “We humbly ask the Holy See to join us,” Pompeo said. “What could be more powerful than our voices all together calling for the freedom to worship God?”

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States spoke at the symposium opening about the need to “promote peaceful coexistence and peaceful societies.” He highlighted Pope Francis’ joint declaration on human fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi, and said that the Holy See seeks to develop an international network of religious leaders to promote “healthy pluralism.”

Pompeo commended Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis for speaking out in defense of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Catholic woman whose life was threatened under a blasphemy law.

As U.S. Embassy to the Holy See marks its 35th anniversary this year,  Pompeo spoke fondly of St. John Paul II and US President Ronald Reagan’s partnership during the Cold War.

“Think of the millions of believers who can live with dignity and purpose, who can now worship without fear, thanks to the joint efforts of a pope and a president,” Pompeo said.

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Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 05:34 am (CNA).- Guidance by the Holy Spirit is integral to sharing the Gospel with others and bringing them to Christ, Pope Francis said during the general audience Wednesday.

To try to convince people that Jesus is God wi… […]

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 04:40 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has nominated Maltese Bishop Mario Grech pro-secretary general of the Synod of Bishops to work alongside secretary general Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri.

In a declaration to journalists Oct. 2, Balidisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops since 2013, said the pro-secretary general will “walk alongside” him in his role and participate in this month’s Amazon synod as a member.

Baldisseri said Grech will then assume the full position of secretary general at the time his own mandate “expires,” though there was no indication of when that will be.

Baldisseri, who turned 79 last month, has been secretary general of the Synod of Bishops since September 2013. In that role, he has led the two synods on the family in 2014 and 2015, and the youth synod held in October 2018.

Grech, 62, was bishop of the Maltese diocese of Gozo since January 2005. He will remain apostolic administrator of the diocese until Pope Francis appoints a new bishop.

Born in Qala, Malta, Grech was ordained a priest in 1984 at the age of 27, for the Diocese of Gozo.

Grech was one of two authors of the Maltese bishops’ controversial pastoral guidelines on Amoris Laetitia, which stated divorced-and-remarried Catholics, in certain cases and after “honest discernment” could receive communion.

Grech was also one of two Maltese bishops to speak out against divorce and in defense of the Christian view of marriage in 2010.

Baldisseri was born in 1940 in the Italian town of Barga, and in 1963 was ordained a priest, while still only 22 years of age, for the Archdiocese of Pisa.

He holds a license in dogmatic theology, a doctorate in canon law, and is a pianist who studied at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music under the late Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci. From 1971 to 1973 he studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy to become a Vatican diplomat.

Baldisseri served in numerous nunciatures, including those to Guatemala, El Salvador, Japan, Brazil, Paraguay, France, Zimbabwe, and Haiti.

In 1992 he was consecrated a bishop and appointed apostolic nuncio to Haiti, which had just experienced a coup. He subsequently served as apostolic nuncio to Paraguay, India, Nepal, and Brazil.

In Brazil, Baldisseri achieved an agreement regulating the juridical status of the Church in the country, and which is now a model for every religion wishing to forge an agreement with the Brazilian state. In reaching the agreement, Baldisseri had to coordinate with 11 different ministries of the Brazilian administration.

After the achievement of the agreement, Benedict XVI appointed him in 2012 secretary of the Congregation for Bishops, as well as secretary of the College of Cardinals.

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Vatican City, Oct 1, 2019 / 02:35 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis opened the Extraordinary Missionary Month Tuesday invoking St. Therese of Liseux, the patron saint of missionaries.

“Saint Therese of the Child Jesus shows us the way: she made prayer the fuel for missionary activity in the world,” Pope Francis said Oct. 1 during his homily at Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“This is also the Month of the Rosary: how much are we praying for the spread of the Gospel and our conversion from omission to mission?” the pope asked.

October is dedicated to reflection and prayer for the missionary work of the Church. Pope Francis chose October 2019 to be an Extraordinary Missionary Month for the Church to mark the centenary of Benedict XV’s apostolic letter Maximum illud, on the propagation of the faith throught the world.

Fr. Fabrizio Meroni of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions told CNA that “when Pope Francis entrusted to us the preparation and implementation of the Extraordinary Missionary Month … he stated: ‘do not forget that prayer is the real soul, the beating heart, of all missionary work of the Church.’”

“If the missio ad gentes, if the missionary life of the Church, the evangelization, is really facing a serious crisis, it is because faith and Church and structures are less and less interested in the salvation of the world,” Meroni said.

“The Church is meant to be the sacramental beginning of the salvation of the world,” he said.

Fr. Meroni said that his advice to local churches who seek to renew their missionary approach to the pastoral work of their communities, parishes, and diocese is to take into serious consideration the central key role of cloistered contemplative life, which can “rekindle their missionary passion and zeal for the salvation for the world.”

Pius XI declared St. Therese of Liseux, a 19th century cloistered Carmelite sister, the patroness of missions in 1927. The saint, who died at the age of 23, offered prayer and sacrifice for the sake of missionaries and wrote of her burning desire to save many souls in her spiritual autobiography The Story of a Soul.

Pope Francis led Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica to begin the Extraordinary Missionary Month on the feast of St. Therese of Liseux.

Frédéric Fornos Fornos, the director of the Pope’s World Prayer Network, said at a Vatican press conference: “On this day when we celebrate St. Therese of Lisieux, patron of missions, who learned to pray for the mission of the church with the apostolate of prayer, it is beautiful to remember that prayer is a way to love.”

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said, “October is traditionally considered the month of missionaries; we proposed that [this year] it would be an Extraordinary Missionary Month, extraordinary in its intensity and extraordinary in its vision.”

Filoni explained that this month is not about doing philanthropy because philanthropy is “not the first dimension of missionary life.” The first dimension of missionary life is “a passion for Jesus” and “a passion for people,” he said.

The theme of the Extraordinary Missionary Month is “Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ on mission in the world.” Pope Francis stressed that this means that “no one is excluded from the Church’s mission.”

“In this month the Lord is also calling you, because you, fathers and mothers of families; you, young people who dream great things; you, who work in a factory, a store, a bank or a restaurant; you who are unemployed; you are in a hospital bed… The Lord is asking you to be a gift wherever you are, and just as you are, with everyone around you,” the pope said.

Pope Francis pointed to the example of two other missionaries as exemplars of zeal for the Gospel. The first was St. Francis Xavier, whom the pope said is “perhaps, after St. Paul, the greatest missionary of all time.”

The other was Venerable Pauline Jaricot, a 19th century French lay woman who helped to found the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and supported the Church’s missionary work with the offerings she made from her wages.

“This extraordinary Missionary Month should jolt us and motivate us to be active in doing good,” Pope Francis said.

“Can we, who have discovered that we are children of the heavenly Father, keep silent about the joy of being loved, the certainty of being ever precious in God’s eyes? That is a message that so many people are waiting to hear. And it is our responsibility,” he said.

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