Vatican City, Feb 14, 2019 / 05:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Thursday nominated a new camerlengo, Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, and a former bishop of Dallas.
Farrell’… […]
Vatican City, Feb 13, 2019 / 11:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has sent a letter to Nicolas Maduro responding to a recent invitation to mediate in the Venezuelan political crisis, according to an Italian newspaper.
On Feb. 13, the Milan daily newspaper Corriere Della Sera published a report saying that the pope had written to Maduro reiterating his desire for the avoidance of violence in the country.
According to the article, the pope wrote on Feb. 7 that previous peace efforts in Venezuela were “interrupted because what had been agreed in the meetings was not followed by concrete gestures to implement the agreements.”
“The Holy See clearly indicated what were the conditions for dialogue to be possible” in December 2016 in “a series of requests,” it went on to say.
The Holy See did not comment on the letter, citing the private nature of the correspondence.
The Corriere della Sera report only quoted fragments of the alleged letter, including Francis’ reiteration of his desire to “avoiding any form of bloodshed” and his concern for “the suffering of the noble Venezuelan people, which seems to have no end.”
The newspaper noted, however, that Pope Francis addressed Maduro as “señor,” rather than “president.”
Two men currently claim to be the legitimate president of Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.
After winning a contested election in which opposition candidates were barred from running or imprisoned, wide-spread protests followed Maduro’s Jan. 10 inauguration,
Juan Guaido declared himself as interim president on Jan. 23. Since then, numerous governments across the world, including the United States, have recognized Guaido as the legitimate interim leader of the country, though Maduro remains in effective power supported by the military.
Maduro’s leadership of Venezuela during his previous term was marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation leading millions of Venezuelans to emigrate.
On Monday, Vatican Secretariat of State unofficially received a delegation from Venezuela affiliated with Guaido and discussed human rights, the common good, and “avoiding bloodshed” in Venezuela.
Following international recognition of Guaido in January, Maduro wrote a letter to Pope Francis asking him to mediate in the political situation in Venezuela.
Pope Francis has sought to maintain neutrality on Venezuela, telling reporters Jan. 28 it would be “pastoral imprudence” on his part to choose a side in the current split in Venezuela.
Venezuela’s bishops have taken a less neutral stance, calling Maduro’s election “illegitimate” and backing opposition marches in January. On Feb. 1, Venezuela’s bishops met with Guaido in an effort to mobilize the entrance of humanitarian aid to the crisis-stricken country.
Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, Apostolic Administrator of Caracas, called the proposal for Vatican mediation “non-viable” in a Feb. 6 radio interview.
In a Feb. 8 interview with CNA, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a key advisor and strategist on Venezuela for the Trump administration, said that previous attempts by the Vatican to lead negotiations with Maduro had been a “fiasco.”
Pope Francis said Jan. 28, “I support in this moment all of the Venezuelan people – it is a people that is suffering – including those who are on one side and the other. All of the people are suffering.”
Vatican City, Feb 13, 2019 / 03:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Wednesday approved the canonization of Bl. John Henry Newman, a Roman Catholic cardinal, scholar, and founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England.
Following a Feb. 12 meetin… […]
Vatican City, Feb 13, 2019 / 03:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that one’s prayer should always be a dialogue with God with charitable consideration for others’ needs.
“There is no room for individualism in dialogue with God,” Pope Francis said Feb. 13, noting that there is no “I” in the words of the “Our Father” prayer.
One’s prayer should not contain an “ostentation of one’s problems as if we were the only ones in the world to suffer,” the pope advised.
“In prayer, a Christian brings all the difficulties of the people who live next to him: when the evening descends, he tells God about the pains he has encountered on that day, putting before Him many faces, friends and even enemies,” he said.
In a continuation of his weekly catechesis on the “Our Father,” Pope Francis focused on the prayer’s repeated use of the words “you” and “us,” rather than an individualistic “I” in his Wednesday general audience.
“Jesus teaches us to pray, having first of all ‘You’ on our lips because Christian prayer is dialogue: ‘hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done,’” he said. It is about “you” and then “we,” a community of brothers and sisters.
“If one does not realize that there are many people around him who are suffering, if he does not pity for the tears of the poor, if he is addicted to everything, then it means that his heart is of stone,” he said.
“In this case it is good to beg the Lord to touch us with his Spirit and to soften our heart,” he continued.
The pope warned Catholics not be hypocrites seeking attention through prayer, but to follow Christ’s instructions to pray in “the silence of your room” where one can “withdraw from the world, and turn to God calling him ‘Father!’”
Prayer “at its root, is a silent dialogue, like the crossing of glances between two people who love each other: man and God,” he explained.
Pope Francis said that “there are men who apparently do not seek God, but Jesus makes us pray for them too, because God seeks these people above all.”
“Saints and sinners, we are all brothers loved by the same Father,” Pope Francis said.
Vatican City, Feb 12, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The Vatican’s general auditor has new statutes, conferred recently by Pope Francis, that will bring financial audits of Vatican offices into greater conformity with United Nations agreements.
With a Feb. 9 motu proprio issued the new norms for the Vatican’s Office of the General Auditor; they will become become effective on Feb. 16.
The general auditor oversees an annual financial assessment of each department, or dicastery, of the Roman Curia, the group of offices that assists the pope in his governance of the Church.
Signed by Pope Francis on Jan. 21, 2019, the new statutes describe general auditor’s office as the “Vatican anti-corruption body.”
The former statutes of the office were published on Feb. 22, 2015.
While the auditor had previously been charged with working in “full autonomy and independence,” the new norms call for the auditor to collaborate with the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, which is charged with approving the auditor’s annual audit procedure.
Despite the change, the Vatican has insisted that the new norms do not diminish the authority of the auditor’s office.
In a Vatican News op-ed Feb. 9, Vatican spokesman Andrea Tornielli, said the norms give the auditor more authority to review financial records than he previously had.
What is the guiding principle of the reform, then?
In the first place, the new statutes fulfill the Holy See’s international agenda by placing the auditor in the context of international law governing financial oversight. The statutes describe the auditor as the “anti-corruption authority,” a term that complies with the United Nation’s Mérida Convention, the anti-corruption multilateral legal tool the Holy See signed in 2016.
The Mérida Convention also provides some rules to control public procurements. The Holy See complies with those norms by giving the auditor the task to “review particular situations about: anomalies in the employment or attribution of material and financial resources; irregularities in assigning public procurements or in operating transfers or alienation of goods; acts of corruption and fraud.”
The issue of public procurements is crucial in the Vatican, where there is no market, nor private sector.
The statutes and rules of reporting harmonize the work of various entities involved auditing the Vatican finances. All of these entities are now given a specific and well outlined task.
The auditor is also requested to “inform the Council of the Economy via the review committee of the council, about mishandling it might find out,” and to send “a report to the Financial Intelligence Authority when there are grounded reasons to suspect that funds, goods, activities, economic initiatives or transactions are connected to money laundering or financing of terrorism.”
The auditor must also report the “the Vatican City State’s judicial authority every crime detected during its activity”.
The statutes also commit the auditor to “report every three month to the review committee of the Council of the Economy on its work done and ongoing.”
The statutes also regulate the activities of external auditors and subject them to clear oversight,
The issue of using external auditors has been a point of discussion since 2016. At issue was the question of whether, given that Vatican City is a sovereign state, and not a company, it is appropriate that its financial books undergo external auditing.
The Holy See’s sovereignty insists on the independent, albeit small, territory of the Vatican City State, which like any other independent nation has its internal jurisdiction and legislation, and is involved in international relations.
This sovereignty implies that the Vatican dicasteries are considered on par with the ministries of any other country – which includes a level of confidentiality in handling their budgets.
The discussion was about how introduce international accountability standards within a state system, finding a balance between the needs of a manager and those of a governor.
This discussion led to the new statutes. In a first phase, the Vatican financial reform marked certain discontinuity, and raised some issues. As a response, the reforming process was not halted, but was rather included in a wider framework, which involves the Curia and the Vatican City State.
The next step will be that of appointing a general auditor. Between 2015 and 2017, Libero Milone was the auditor, but he was fired after grave allegations of espionage and embezzlement.
In 2018, Vatican prosecutors informed Milone’s lawyers that a criminal investigation against him was closed and no charges were going to be filed.
Vatican City, Feb 11, 2019 / 12:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican Secretariat of State received Monday a delegation from Venezuela affiliated with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized by the United States and a dozen other countries as the country’s interim president.
In the meeting, the Vatican’s “grave concern was underlined that a just and peaceful solution be urgently sought to overcome the crisis, respecting human rights and seeking the good of all of the inhabitants of the country and avoiding bloodshed,” Holy See Press Office Interim Director Alessandro Gisotti said Feb. 11.
The Venezuelan delegation was in Rome to meet with Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in their bid for official recognition. Francisco Sucre, the head of the Venezuelan National Assembly’s commission on foreign affairs and Antonio Ledezma, former mayor of Caracas and a former political prisoner, met with Salvini Monday, as well as an undisclosed member of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
The Holy See Press Office did not state who took part in the meeting, but confirmed that it took place.
Pope Francis has sought to maintain neutrality on Venezuela, telling reporters Jan. 28 it would be “pastoral imprudence” on his part to choose a side in the current split in Venezuela.
Both Guaido and Nicolas Maduro currently claim to be the Venezuela’s legitimate president. Maduro was inaugurated at the start of his second term Jan. 10, following a contested 2018 election. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops’ conference declared Maduro’s reelection to be invalid. Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, declared himself the nation’s interim leader Jan. 23. He has pledged a transitional government and free elections.
“The proximity of the Holy Father and of the Holy See to the people of Venezuela was reaffirmed, particularly in regard to those who are suffering,” Gisotti stated.
The meeting came after Pope Francis confirmed last week that he had received a letter from Maduro asking him to mediate in Venezuela, where both
In response, the pope said Feb. 5 that mediation would require the willingness of both parties and “little steps” diplomatically to “start the possibility of dialogue.”
Before becoming Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin served as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, where he took part in meetings between the bishops’ conference and the Venezuelan government under Hugo Chavez. Parolin was Venezuela’s nuncio from 2009 until 2013, the year that Maduro assumed the presidency.
Maduro’s leadership in Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation leading millions of Venezuelans to emigrate.
The status of Venezuela’s governance is currently split, as the United States, Canada, and more than a dozen European and South American nations no longer recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president. China and Russia are among the countries that continue to support Maduro’s leadership.
“I support in this moment all of the Venezuelan people – it is a people that is suffering – including those who are one side and the other. All of the people are suffering,” Pope Francis said Jan. 28.
Vatican City, Feb 11, 2019 / 06:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will travel to Naples in June to discuss the impact of the apostolic constitution, Veritatis Gaudium, on theological studies.
In Naples, the pope wi… […]
Vatican City, Feb 10, 2019 / 08:15 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis on Saturday called on Italian judges to better society through their work, emphasizing the virtue of justice in building a healthy public life.
“We live in a context afflicted by tension… […]
Vatican City, Feb 10, 2019 / 04:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis called Sunday for an end to human trafficking, encouraging Catholics to pray for the intercession of St. Josephine Bakhita, the patron of trafficking victims.
“We all can and m… […]
Vatican City, Feb 9, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An environmental group is asking Pope Francis to abstain from all animal products during Lent, promising a $1 million donation to a charity of his choice if he does so.
“Today, Pope Francis, I am asking you to join me in abstaining from all animal products throughout Lent, and to endorse the Million Dollar Vegan campaign,” Genesis Butler wrote in a Feb. 6 open letter to the Roman Pontiff.
“Should you join me, the Blue Horizon International Foundation will donate $1 million to a charity or charities of your choice as a gesture of their utmost gratitude for your commitment.”
While a vegan fast is not now prescribed by the Church, the practice would hearken back to practices of the early Church, and of the Christian east.
Butler, 12, is an animal rights and environmental campaigner. Her letter is backed by Million Dollar Vegan, a non-profit group which highlights the effects of animal farming on climate.
She recalled that in Laudato si’, his 2015 encyclical on care for our common home, Francis “stated that every effort to protect and improve our world will involve changes in lifestyle, production, and consumption.”
She also expressed her appreciation for his “speaking out on climate change, habitat loss, and pollution, and for reminding the world that Earth is a home we all share.”
Butler said that “the current eating habits of predominantly richer nations are causing global destruction and devastation,” as animal farming is resource-intensive relative to calories yielded.
The activist said that “moving towards a plant-based diet will have substantial environmental benefits.” She said it would protect the environment, “help feed the world’s most vulnerable,” and “benefit human health.”
An accompanying petition asking Pope Francis to try vegan for Lent and to encourage others to do the same has garnered more than 33,000 signatures.
This year, the Lenten season begins March 6; Easter Sunday will be April 21.
Under the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Catholics aged 18-59 are to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. And Catholics 14 and older are to abstain from meat on all Fridays; this rule allows the use of eggs, milk products, and condiments made of animal fat.
But in times past, a vegan Lent would not have been so different from Catholic practice.
According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, “during the early centuries the observance of the [Lenten] fast as very strict.”
The reference work says that in the early Church the Lenten fast allowed one meal per day, taken towards evening, and that “flesh-meat and fish, and in most places also eggs and lacticinia, were absolutely forbidden,” but that the practice “began to be considerably relaxed” in the west from the 9th century.
The 12th century Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of ecclesiastical law, includes the text of a letter which was believed by Gratian to be from St. Gregory the Great to St. Augustine of Canterbury. This letter says that during Lent “we abstain from flesh meat and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, eggs.” A critical edition of the Decretum calls the source of the quote Pseudo-Gregory, and according to Dr. Mark DelCogliano, an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, the quoted text “first appears in Gratian.”
Writing in the late 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas said that it was “common custom” that those fasting abstained from meat, eggs, and dairy products, but were allowed fish.
It is said that the practice of calling “Fat Tuesday” the day preceding Ash Wednesday derived from a period when the use of animal products was barred during Lent. “Fat” Tuesday was thus the last day to use up the meat, cheese, and animal fat stored in the home.
And while not precisely vegan, the traditional Byzantine fast barred the use of meat, dairy, eggs, and fish. Animal-based foods that were permitted included honey and invertebrates.
In the Byzantine rite, Lent is preceded by a pre-Lenten period known as Fore-Lent. The last two Sundays of this preparatory period are known as Meatfare Sunday and Cheesefare Sunday.
Under traditional fasting rules, Meatfare Sunday was the last day before Easter to consume meat, and Cheesefare was the last day to use dairy products. The Lenten fast then began on the Monday after Cheesefare.
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