Vatican City, Jan 9, 2019 / 05:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Persevere in prayer, remembering that God the Father is waiting to answer his children – even if the result is to change the person, not the circumstance, Pope Francis said at the general aud… […]
Vatican City, Jan 8, 2019 / 04:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- To serve the poor and sick in a generous manner is a powerful form of evangelization, Pope Francis said Tuesday in a message for the upcoming World Day of the Sick.
“The Church – as a … […]
Vatican City, Jan 7, 2019 / 11:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Upholding the dignity of the human person, and the rule of law, are essential for good politics, Pope Francis said Monday to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.
Such politics promote the common good and establish and maintain peace between nations, he said, by considering “the transcendent dimension of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God.”
The pope made his annual address to the diplomatic corps Jan. 7 in the Vatican’s Sala Regia.
“Respect for the dignity of each human being is thus the indispensable premise for all truly peaceful coexistence,” he said, “and law becomes the essential instrument for achieving social justice and nurturing fraternal bonds between peoples.”
Human rights must be reaffirmed, he added, “lest there prevail partial and subjective visions of humanity that risk leading to new forms of inequality, injustice, discrimination and, in extreme cases, also new forms of violence and oppression.”
Francis emphasized that “politics must be farsighted and not limited to seeking short-term solutions,” noting that political leaders “should listen to the voices of their constituencies and seek concrete solutions to promote their greater good.”
“Yet this,” he said, “demands respect for law and justice both within their national communities and within the international community, since reactive, emotional and hasty solutions may well be able to garner short-term consensus, but they will certainly not help the solution of deeper problems; indeed, they will aggravate them.”
The Holy See has diplomatic relations with 183 states, as well as the European Union and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Of these, 89 states maintain embassies to the Holy See in Rome.
The pope told the diplomatic corps that “fidelity to the spiritual mission” of Christ’s command to the Apostle Peter to “feed my lambs,” impels him and thus the Holy See “to show concern for the whole human family and its needs, including those of the material and social order.”
The Holy See “has no intention of interfering in the life of States,” he stressed, but wants to be an attentive and sensitive listener to the issues involving humanity; “the same concern leads the Church everywhere to work for the growth of peaceful and reconciled societies.”
Structured on St. Paul VI’s 1965 speech of to the United Nations, the pope emphasized in his lengthy address the importance of increasing multilateral diplomacy, promoting justice, defending the vulnerable, and building peace.
Quoting St. Paul VI’s UN address, he said, “You sanction the great principle that relationships between nations must be regulated by reason, justice, law, by negotiation, not by force, nor by violence, force, war, nor indeed by fear and deceit.”
This still an important idea for today, especially as, according to Pope Francis, nationalistic tendencies have grown, many relationships within the international community, and the multilateral system, have entered a difficult period.
Reasons for this include, he said, an “inability of the multilateral system to offer effective solutions to a number of long unresolved situations, like certain protracted conflicts” and to confront present challenges in a satisfactory way.
National policies based on “quick partisan consensus” rather than pursuit of the common good and an increase in powerful and influential interest groups and “new forms of ideological colonization” have also contributed, he said.
“In part too, it is a consequence of the reaction in some parts of the world to a globalization that has in some respects developed in too rapid and disorderly a manner, resulting in a tension between globalization and local realities,” he added. “The global dimension has to be considered without ever losing sight of the local.”
The pope listed several grave issues facing humanity in the coming year, namely, ongoing international conflicts, especially in the Middle East; the refugee and migrant crisis; violence against women; the rights of workers; climate change; and the prevalence of nuclear arms.
He also highlighted the issue of abuse against minors, which he noted has “sadly” involved members of the Catholic clergy. “The abuse of minors is one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable,” he said.
“The Holy See and the Church as a whole are working to combat and prevent these crimes and their concealment,” he said, adding that a February meeting with bishops is intended as a “further step in the Church’s efforts to shed full light on the facts and to alleviate the wounds caused by such crimes.”
Cairo, Egypt, Jan 7, 2019 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent Christmas and New Year’s greetings to Coptic Christians and all Egyptians upon the inauguration of a major Coptic cathedral, jointly opened with a larger mosque at the same … […]
Vatican City, Jan 6, 2019 / 05:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- To be clothed in the divine light of Christ, follow the example of the three magi, who put aside worldly power and success and rose to follow the star to Jesus, Pope Francis encouraged Sunday at Ma… […]
Vatican City, Jan 4, 2019 / 10:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, an Argentine native appointed to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See in 2017, was accused last autumn of sexual abuse, the Holy See announced Friday.
Bishop Zanchetta had resigned as Bishop of Orán Aug. 1, 2017, slightly more than four years after his appointment there.
Alessandro Gisotti, interim Holy See press officer, said Jan. 4 that “at the time of his resignation there had been against [Bishop Zanchetta] accusations of authoritarianism, but there had been against him no accusation of sexual abuse … the accusations of sexual abuse date to this autumn.”
Bishop Zanchetta, 54, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Quilmes in 1991. He remained there until his 2013 appointment by Pope Francis as Bishop of Orán.
Gisotti noted that the bishop was not removed from Orán, but that he himself chose to resign, saying the decision was “linked to his difficulty in managing relations with the diocesan clergy and in very tense relations with the priests of the diocese,” and that he had “an incapacity to govern the clergy.”
In announcing his resignation, Bishop Zanchetta had cited “a problem of health”.
Between his resignation and his appointment to APSA nearly four months later, Bishop Zanchetta spent some time in Spain, Gisotti reported.
“After the period in Spain, in consideration of his capacity for administrative management, he was nominated as assessor of APSA.”
APSA manages the Holy See’s assets and real estate holdings.
Gisotti also noted that when the bishop was appointed to APSA, the accusations of sexual abuse had not yet come to light.
“On the basis of these accusations and of the news which recently emerged in the media, the Bishop of Orán has already collected some testimonies, which have yet to arrive to the Congregation for Bishops. If the elements needed to proceed are confirmed, the case will be referred to the special commission for bishops.”
The accusations of abuse against the bishop have apparently been levied by priests and seminarians.
While the investigation is ongoing, Gisotti stated, Bishop Zanchetta will not be working in his capacity as assessor.
Vatican City, Jan 3, 2019 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- “Pope for Ukraine” is a Vatican initiative that aims to collaborate with non-Catholic entities to respond to the emergency humanitarian situation amid conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The Pope for U… […]
Vatican City, Jan 3, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published Thursday a response clarifying that a hysterectomy is a licit act when a woman’s womb is not suited for procreation and medical experts are certain an eventual pregnancy will bring about a spontaneous abortion before viability.
The CDF’s Response to a question on the liceity of a hysterectomy in certain cases was published Jan. 3. It was signed Dec. 10, 2018, by Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., prefect, and Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary of the congregation.
The CDF said its response regards “situations in which procreation is no longer possible,” and it completes responses, “which retain all of their validity,” given in 1993 to questions proposed concerning “uterine isolation” and related matters.
The 1993 responses stated that hysterectomy is licit when there is a grave and present danger to the life or health of the mother (because it is chosen for therapeutic reasons; its aim is to curtail a serious present danger such as hemorrhage which cannot be stopped by other means), but that hysterectomy and tubal ligation are illicit when they are intended to make impossible an eventual pregnancy which can pose some risk for the mother (because they are direct sterilization).
In an illustrative note accompanying its response, the CDF said the question at hand is different from the cases of direct sterilization discussed in the 1993 responses because of “the certainty reached by medical experts that in the case of a pregnancy, it would be spontaneously interrupted before the fetus arrives at a state of viability.”
“Here it is not a question of difficulty, or of risks of greater or lesser importance, but of a couple for which it is not possible to procreate,” the CDF wrote.
The congregation wrote that the “object of sterilization is to impede the functioning of the reproductive organs, and the malice of sterilization consists in the refusal of children: it is an act against the bonum prolis.”
By contrast, in this case “it is known that the reproductive organs are not capable of protecting a conceived child up to viability,” or that the reproductive organs “are not capable of fulfilling their natural procreative function.”
“The objective of the procreative process,” the CDF said, “is to bring a baby into the world, but here the birth of a living fetus is not biologically possible.”
“Therefore, we are not dealing with a defective, or risky, functioning of the reproductive organs, but we are faced here with a situation in which the natural end of bringing a living child into the world is not attainable.”
In such a case a hysterectomy “should not be judged as being against procreation, because we find ourselves within an objective context in which neither procreation, nor as a consequence, an anti-procreative action, are possible. Removing a reproductive organ incapable of bringing a pregnancy to term should not therefore be qualified as direct sterilization, which is and remains intrinsically illicit as an end and as a means.”
The CDF noted that whether a pregnancy could continue to viability is a medical question, and that morally, “one must ask if the highest degree of certainty that medicine can reach has been reached.”
The congregation added that its response “does not state that the decision to undergo a hysterectomy is always the best one, but that only in the above-mentioned conditions is such a decision morally licit, without, therefore, excluding other options (for example, recourse to infertile periods or total abstinence).”
“It is the decision of the spouses, in dialogue with doctors and their spiritual guide, to choose the path to follow, applying the general criteria of the gradualness of medical intervention to their case and to their circumstances.”
The response also noted that it had been approved by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.
Outdoors, a night of mist and drizzling rain on the slopes of Tai Ping Shan (otherwise known to Hong Kongers as Victoria Peak). But here indoors, good food, good red wine, and good conversation, and […]
Vatican City, Jan 2, 2019 / 03:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When praying, remember the words of Jesus when he taught the ‘Our Father,’ Pope Francis said Wednesday, meeting God as his beloved child and speaking from the heart.
Some think that to… […]
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