Vatican

Vatican City, Jun 28, 2018 / 11:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Newly-minted Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu will resign from his post as substitute of the Secretariat of State tomorrow, in anticipation of his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later this summer.

Cardinal Becciu, 70, was elevated to the cardinalate June 28, and will resign his role at the Secretariat of State June 29. His appointment at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will take effect Aug. 31.

Referring to his new post while speaking to the press June 27, Cardinal Becciu said the Church does not exist “to create a system of power to dominate,” but its primary goal is to help humanity to “experience God’s existence.”

The experience with God, he said, is “an experience which transforms, which day by day you make a good journey, and at the end you become a saint.”

The Church’s mission, then, is to remind the world of “the vocation for all men to become saints.”

Because of this, Becciu said, the importance of his new office is to “discover those people who lived the Gospel in such a courageous way, and to propose them to humanity as true models of holiness. It’s a very interesting challenge.”

Becciu was born in 1948 in Pattada, on the island of Sardinia, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ozieri in 1972, at the age of 24.

In 2001 he was consecrated a bishop, and appointed apostolic nuncio to Angola as well as Sao Tome and Principe. He served there until 2009, when he was appointed apostolic nuncio to Cuba.

Since 2011, he has been substitute at the Secretarat of State.

Cardinal Becciu has served as an important aide to Pope Francis, and while meeting with reporters he discussed the pope’s ongoing reform of the Roman Curia.

“It’s still too early to judge the reform,” he said: “The work hasn’t been finished” and it is still “a bit rugged”.

“We’re working toward an apostolic constitution that will bring everything together, giving a unified structure to the whole reform. So far we’ve had elements, but not a unified idea.”

Cardinal Becciu’s role at the Secretariat of State “all at the service of the Holy Father. It meant heping to spread his voice and helping him to carry out his mission throughout the world.”

The cardinal has also served as Pope Francis’ personal delegate to the Knights of Malta, tasked with overseeing a “spiritual and moral” reform of the order.

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Vatican City, Jun 28, 2018 / 09:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At a ceremony for the creation of 14 cardinals Thursday, Pope Francis said the best promotion a person can receive is to serve the person of Christ as seen in the least of his people.

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Vatican City, Jun 28, 2018 / 05:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his latest move on the Chilean clerical abuse crisis, Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca of Talca, and Bishop Alejandro Goić Karmelić of Rancagua, both of whom have come under fire for their reaction to abuse allegations.

Valenzuela, 64, is one of four bishops formed by notorious Chilean abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima, and has long been accused by victims of covering up his mentor’s crimes.

Goić, 78, is over the typical age of retirement for Catholic prelates, which is 75, however, in May he admitted to dropping the ball on abuse allegations brought to him last year. He apologized for having not looked into the charges, and suspended several priests who were accused by Chilean media of inappropriate sexual conduct with minors.

Pope Francis’ decision to accept their resignations was announced June 28, and comes nearly six weeks after every active Chilean bishop offered a written resignation to the pope following a three-day meeting with him at the Vatican in May to discuss the nation’s abuse crisis.

Stepping in as apostolic administrator of Talca, where Valenzuela has served since 1996, is Galo Fernández Villaseca, auxiliary bishop of Santiago.

The apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Rancagua, which Goić has led since 2004, will be Luis Fernando Ramos Pérez, also an auxiliary bishop of Santiago.

With Valenzuela and Goić included, there are now five Chilean bishops who have officially stepped down since presenting their resignations to the pope during their meeting in May, including Bishop Juan Barros, who had been at the center of the nation’s abuse scandal.

Earlier this year Francis summoned Chilean bishops to Rome following an in-depth investigation and report into the Chilean clerical abuse crisis carried out by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in February, resulting in a 2,300 page report on the scandal.

The crisis flared up with Pope Francis’ appointment of Barros to the Diocese of Osorno in 2015, which was met with a wave of objections and calls for his resignation. Dozens of protesters, including non-Catholics, attempted to disrupt his March 21, 2015 installation Mass at the Osorno cathedral.

Opponents, including many of Karadima’s victims, were vocal, accusing Barros, Valenzuela, and two other Chilean bishops who had been close to Karadima – Andrés Arteaga and Tomislav Koljatic – of cover-up.

In 2011 Karadima was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexually abusing several minors during the 1980s and 1990s, and sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

Though Pope Francis had initially backed Barros, after Scicluna and Bertomeu’s investigation he issued a major “mea culpa” for having made “serious mistakes” in judging the case due to “a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

Since then, he has met with two rounds of abuse survivors in addition to his meeting with Chilean bishops, and has sent Scicluna and Bertomeu back to Osorno to offer support and to educate in “best practices” for the handling of abuse accusations.

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Vatican City, Jun 27, 2018 / 04:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Obedience to God’s commandments should flow from a personal relationship with the Father and from a place of gratitude for the good things he has done in one’s life, Pope Francis said … […]

Vatican City, Jun 26, 2018 / 04:45 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis made an unexpected change Tuesday in the structure of the College of Cardinals, adding some curial officials to the rank of “cardinal bishops,” the highest rank within the college.
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Vatican City, Jun 26, 2018 / 01:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The heated debate over immigration in Europe was a central topic of discussion in a meeting between Pope Francis and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Vatican Tuesday.

The June 26 meeting marked the first time the two had met since Macron’s election in May 2017.

During the 57-minute conversation, which took place in the Vatican’s apostolic palace and was described as “warm” and “friendly,” Francis and Macron spoke on a variety of topics.

Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis was a key part of the discussion. Macron has made headlines in recent days by vocally opposing the Italy’s new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, who has turned away refugee boats at the harbor and called for strict immigration policies. 

Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken on the topic of immigration, calling on nations to find ways to welcome and protect migrants. 

The pope and the president also discussed other topics of global interest, such as the contribution of religion to the common good in France and a multilateral commitment to prevent and resolve conflict, especially related to disarmament.

The two leaders also exchanged views on conflicts happening around the world, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, as well as the status and future of Europe.

Macron and Francis exchanged gifts before the president moved on to a meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

Macron, a baptized Catholic but not a regular churchgoer, is France’s youngest president. He had never been elected to political office before running for president, and ran as the head of a new political party “En March!” He has described himself as a “centrist liberal” who hopes to transcend political boundaries.

In comments during his campaign last year, Macron at one point said “we have a duty to let everybody practice their religion with dignity,” though he voiced his belief that “when one enters the public realm, the laws of the Republic must prevail over religious law.”

Speaking to the French bishops in April this year, Macron underscored the important role of religion in fighting the relativism and nihilism present in the modern world. He praised the contribution of the Church in public life, especially in upholding human dignity.

In a telegram congratulating Macron on his election in May 2017, Francis prayed that God would support the leader, “so that your country, faithful to the rich diversity of its moral traditions and its spiritual heritage marked also by the Christian tradition, may always endeavor to build a more just and fraternal society.”

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Vatican City, Jun 26, 2018 / 07:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Tuesday Pope Francis’ appointment of Bishop Michael Gerard Duca, of the northern Louisiana diocese of Shreveport, to be the newest bishop of Baton Rouge.

Duca, 66, who led the Shreveport diocese since 2008, will take over in Baton Rouge from Bishop Robert William Muench, whose resignation the pope accepted June 26 after Muench turned 75 in December.

In a June 26 statement on his retirement, Muench said his 16 years as head of the Baton Rouge diocese were “a profound honor and joy,” and that he will forever hold the clergy, religious, seminarians, and lay Catholics of the diocese “deep in heart and mind, in spirit and prayer.”

Bishop Duca, as his replacement, will be welcomed “with open hearts and open arms,” Muench continued, noting the Louisiana bishop’s training in the areas of theology, spirituality, canon law, psychology, seminary ministry, health care, ecumenism and administration.

“By nature, person, character, disposition, education and experience, Bishop Duca is eminently qualified for this position as one who radiates the love and joy of Jesus Christ,” he said, also extending his personal support.

Duca’s installation as the sixth bishop of Baton Rouge will take place Aug. 24 at St. Joseph Cathedral.

Born June 5, 1952 in Dallas, Texas, Duca studied at the city’s Holy Trinity Seminary before being ordained a priest for the diocese April 29, 1978.

From 1994-1996 he studied for a license in canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also called the “Angelicum,” in Rome.

In addition to his ministry at various Dallas-area parishes, Duca has served as the diocese’s vocations director, the director of ongoing formation of priests, and as a campus minister at Southern Methodist University.

He has also been a member of the diocese’s personnel board, priests’ council, and College of Consultors. In 2004 he was given the title of monsignor by Pope John Paul II.

Duca was rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas from 1996 until his appointment as bishop of Shreveport in 2008. For two years he served as president of the National Association of College Seminaries.

The bishop is currently a member of the United States and Louisiana bishops’ conferences and was formerly president of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference.

He is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus and a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

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Rome, Italy, Jun 26, 2018 / 06:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Though Humanae vitae has faced frequent dissent in the 50 years since it was published, that dissent does not detract from its truth, a law professor said at a recent conference on the encyclical.
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Vatican City, Jun 26, 2018 / 05:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis has accepted the retirement of Cardinal Domenico Calcagno as head of the body managing the Vatican’s assets and real estate holdings, appointing Italian Bishop Nunzio Galantino to take his place.

Calcagno, who turned 75 in February, was appointed APSA’s secretary by Benedict XVI in 2007, and was later named its president by Pope Francis in 2011.

For a year before that appointment, the cardinal was also part of a commission tasked with the supervision of the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), known as the “Vatican Bank.” Though he was appointed for a five-year term, he was removed by Francis before that term was up.

Calcagno, who at one point was investigated for embezzlement in his previous diocese of Savona,  stepped down after reaching the typical age of retirement for bishops, who are required to submit their resignations after their 75th birthday.

APSA is the office that handles the Vatican’s investment portfolio and its real estate holdings, as well as serving as the Vatican employment office and procurements agency.

The man taking Calcagno’s place is Bishop Nunzio Galantino, 69, who since December 2013 has served as secretary general of the Italian Bishops Conference, known by its Italian acronym as the “CEI.” Before that appointment, he led the small Italian diocese of Cassano all’Jonio.

Galantino is not generally seen by Italians as belonging to any specific camp in the Church. However, since stepping into his role at the CEI, he has been vocal on hot topics, such as migration and family issues, though he has at times been criticized for being too outspoken.

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Vatican City, Jun 26, 2018 / 12:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A healthy human ecology begins with a respectful and holistic view of the body as God created it, Pope Francis told participants of the 24th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

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