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Shrines are places of God’s mercy, Pope Francis says

November 29, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Nov 29, 2018 / 09:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Shrines and sanctuaries should be places of welcoming and mercy where the sacraments can be received, Pope Francis said Thursday to an international gathering of shrine rectors and pastoral workers.

“The shrine,” the pope said Nov. 29 in the Vatican’s Sala Regia, “is a privileged place to experience mercy that knows no boundaries.”

“In fact, when mercy is lived, it becomes a form of real evangelization, because it transforms those who receive mercy into witnesses of mercy,” he said.

Pope Francis also told the group he hopes each shrine has the presence of one or more “missionaries of mercy” to help with this evangelical work, and if they do not, to ask the Pontifical Council for the Promoting the New Evangelization to help.

Missionaries of mercy are the approximately 1,000 priests from around the world Francis authorized during and after the 2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy to spread the message of God’s mercy and forgiveness, particularly through the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Pope Francis spoke to priests and lay people participating in an international convention on the daily work and operation of shrines. Held Nov. 27-29 at the Vatican, it brought together 586 participants from five continents. The group plans to hold similar conventions once every three years.

The theme of the gathering was “The shrine: an open door to the new evangelization”; it took place following Pope Francis’ February 2017 decision to move the competency for shrines and sanctuaries under the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

Speaking to participants, Francis said shrines are irreplaceable because through catechesis and the “testimony of charity” they help sustain popular piety.

He noted two important aspects of a Catholic shrine: prayer and hospitality. He said hospitality is important because when pilgrims come to a shrine, often after having made a long journey, “it is sad when it happens that, on their arrival, there is no one to give them a word of welcome.”

He also warned against paying more attention to the material needs of the shrine than to visitors. Pilgrims, he said, should be made to feel “‘at home,’ like a long-awaited family member who has finally arrived.”

Keep in mind, he said, that some people visit religious shrines for reasons beside piety or devotion. For example, because of local tradition, the art present, or the beautiful natural setting.

When people are welcomed, their hearts become more open to being “shaped by grace,” he stated. “A climate of friendship is a fertile seed that our Shrines can throw into the soil of the pilgrims, allowing them to rediscover that trust in the Church.”

Above all, a shrine is a place of prayer, he emphasized, adding that with many of the world’s shrines being devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, there she “opens the arms of her maternal love to listen to everyone’s prayer and to fulfill it.”

He urged sanctuaries to celebrate the sacraments frequently, since they are the universal prayers of the Church and to “nourish the prayer of the individual pilgrim in the silence of his heart,” since many people visit a shrine wishing to receive a specific grace or the answer to a particular prayer.

“With the words of the heart, with silence, with his formulas learned by heart as a child, with his gestures of piety…everyone must be able to be helped to express his personal prayer,” he said.

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Vatican approves second miracle for Blessed John Henry Newman

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 12:47 pm (CNA).- A second miracle attributed to Blessed John Henry Newman has reportedly been approved by the Vatican, fueling expectation that his canonization could occur as early as next year.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom wrote in email newsletter to his diocese last week that he had received a copy of the relatio, or official report, about the second miracle needed for Newman’s canonization.

“It looks now as if Newman might be canonised, all being well, later next year,” wrote Egan in the newsletter.

According Fr. Ignatius Harrison, the postulator of Newman’s cause for canonization, there are now two more steps to be taken before Newman can be canonized. First, a commission of bishops has to approve of the canonization, and then Pope Francis must declare him a saint.

Harrison told the U.K.’s Catholic Herald that he too hopes that this will occur in 2019, but added that “there’s no way of knowing” if, or when, this will happen. The Catholic Herald reported that the canonization could occur after Easter 2019.

Newman’s second miracle concerned the healing of an American pregnant woman. The woman prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover.

This miracle was investigated by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and apparently has new been confirmed.

Sr. Kathleen Dietz, FSO, is a Newman scholar, and vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Erie.

“Cardinal Newman was a man of integrity,” she told CNA. “A word you don’t hear too often, but it simply means that he followed what God wanted him to do, no matter the cost. And it cost him a lot.”

Newman was an Anglican priest and theologian who converted to Catholicism in 1845 at the age of 44. His conversion was very controversial, Dietz explained, and resulted in him losing many of his friends. Even his own sister never spoke to him again.

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847, and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, although he was not a bishop.

Newman was particularly dedicated to education and was a prolific writer. He also founded two schools for boys. Dietz told CNA she suspects that if he were canonized, he could be named the patron of scholars and students.

“He was very much a scholarly person,” she explained, but this did not mean he led an isolated life.  “He was extremely practical, and translated a lot of his scholarship into life,” she said.

Newman believed that evangelization of the faith could be done through quality education, Dietz said. Today, Catholic student organizations at non-Catholic universities are often called “Newman Societies” or “Newman Centers” in his honor.

He was beatified in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. The first miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession involved the complete and inexplicable healing of a deacon from a disabling spinal condition.

 

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