Vatican City, May 17, 2018 / 02:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The notion of “proximate immorality” is the most remarkable news in the just released text by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for the Promotion of the … […]
Vatican City, May 17, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis thanked Chile’s bishops for their “frank” dialogue during a 3-day Vatican meeting on the Chilean abuse scandals, and asked them to focus on serving abuse victims as they return to their dioceses and prepare to implement short and long term resolutions.
“After these days of prayer and reflection I invite you to continue building a prophetic Church, which knows how to put what is important at the center: service to the Lord in the hungry, the prisoner, the migrant and the abused,” the pope said in a letter to Chilean bishops.
Published May 17, the letter was given to each of the bishops by Pope Francis during their final meeting earlier that evening.
He thanked the bishops for their presence and for the “frank discernment” they carried out in terms of how to face the “serious acts that have damaged ecclesial communion and weakened the work of the Church in Chile in recent years.”
“In light of these painful events regarding abuse – of minors, of power and of conscience – we have delved into the severity of these [abuses] as well as in the tragic consequences they have had, particularly for the victims,” he said.
Francis reiterated his heartfelt apology to the bishops and the victims, saying he is close to them and is united with them in “one single will and with the firm intention to repair the damages done.”
He also thanked the bishops for the desire they expressed to both adhere to and collaborate in the changes and resolutions that have to be implemented going forward, which will happen on a short, medium and long-term scale in order to “restore justice and ecclesial communion.”
The three-day gathering between the pope and the 34 Chilean bishops began Tuesday with a day of prayer, and closed Thursday at 6:30 p.m., according to a Vatican communique.
Pope Francis summoned the prelates to Rome last month following an in-depth investigation into abuse cover-up by Church hierarchy in Chile. The investigation was conducted by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, resulting in a 2,300 page report on the situation.
The investigation was initially centered around Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who was appointed to the diocese in 2015 and who has been accused by at least one victim of covering up the abuses of Chilean priest Fernando Karadima.
In 2011, Karadima was convicted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith of abusing minors and sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.
Allegations were also made against three other bishops – Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela – whom Karadima’s victims accuse of also covering the abuser’s crimes.
In the past, Francis had defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. However, after receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis apologized and asked to meet the bishops and more outspoken survivors in person.
In comments to EWTN News Nightly, Bishop Juan Ignacio González of San Bernardo said the pope was very welcoming to each of them, and had voiced concern about the expenses of their trip, as some bishops come from poorer dioceses.
After reflecting on the text they were given the first day, which Gonzalez said was an ecclesial text “on the mission that the Church in Chile has,” each of the bishops was invited in following sessions to share their thoughts about the text and what struck them.
“The theme of the retreat is more of an ecclesial, theological theme which puts Christ in the center again, those things that we may have forgotten, the other things we have to continue doing,” he said, explaining that all of the bishops, including Barros, were able to speak.
Pope Francis himself didn’t say much apart from a few simple things, Gonzalez said, one of which was a comment that the problems they are facing “are not like the problem of Jonas: we’re not throwing Jonas down so he gets eaten by the whale while we continue surfing.”
Naturally the pope will have decisions to make and there will be resolutions, but those will come later, the bishop said, adding that the time they had was one of discernment and returning to their heart of their mission, which is Christ.
“Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones” outlines sound general principles, but also reflects the Church’s present struggle to comprehend modern finance. […]
Vatican City, May 17, 2018 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two Vatican offices called Thursday for the development of new forms of economy and finance with regulations directed to the common good and respect for human dignity.
“It is especially necessary to provide an ethical reflection on certain aspects of financial transactions which, when operating without the necessary anthropological and moral foundations, have not only produced manifest abuses and injustice, but also demonstrated a capacity to create systemic and worldwide economic crisis,” read Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones, (Economic and financial issues), a document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development presented May 17.
The document, signed Jan. 6, presents considerations for an ethical discernment of economics and finances, and argues that profit should not be an end in itself, but must be pursued with the goal of achieving greater solidarity and a more equitable distribution of wealth.
It presents fundamental considerations, such as the need for ethics for the economy to function correctly, and treats at length of specific ethical issues in financial and economic markets.
It was presented during a press conference by Archbishop Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Sitting alongside the prefects were professors Leonardo Becchetti from Rome’s Tor Vergata University and Lorenzo Caprio, from the Catholic University of Milan.
Archbishop Ladaria said the aim of the document is to provide a correct anthropological vision for the current market, since “the common good has disappeared” from many areas of economics and finance.
According to Becchetti, the document also identifies a major problem in the global economy: “we have a growing global wealth, which is a good thing, but we have a huge problem of distribution.”
“Regulation is key” to bringing more balance, he said, citing the need to be attentive to a growing dependence on technology while also ensuring people have work. The main problem, he said, “is fiscal,” and he stressed the need to give attention to areas with fewer resources.
The document frequently cites Pope Francis and Benedict XVI, but also includes citations from Pius XI, the Second Vatican Council, and the subsequent magisterium.
Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones cites the growing influence of financial markets, saying there is a need for “appropriate regulation of the dynamics of the markets and, on the other hand, a clear ethical foundation that assures a well-being realized through the quality of human relationships; rather than merely economic mechanisms, which by themselves cannot attain it.”
The recent global financial crisis, the text read, is an invitation to “develop a new economy, more attentive to ethical principles, and a new regulation of financial activities that would neutralize predatory and speculative tendencies and acknowledge the value of the actual economy. ”
What is at stake is the well-being of men and women throughout the planet who risk being excluded and marginalized from true well-being, while a small minority, “indifferent to the condition of the majority, exploits and reserves for itself substantial resources and wealth.”
The document said the time has come to begin recovering “what is authentically human,” and to expand minds and hearts to they recognize what is both true and good, “without which no social, political and economic system could avoid bankruptcy, failure, and, in the long term, collapse.”
Competent and responsible authorities, the text read, have the duty “to develop new forms of economy and of finance, with rules and regulations directed towards the enlargement of the common good and respect for human dignity along the lines indicated by the social teachings of the Church.”
The text flagged erroneous and misguided approaches to the economic and financial markets such as consumerism, materialism, and an over-emphasis on profit, citing them as mentalities which endanger the common good and increase inequalities throughout the world.
“Our contemporary age has shown itself to have a limited vision of the human person, as the person is understood individualistically and predominantly as a consumer, whose profit consists above all in the optimization of his or her monetary income. The human person, however, actually possesses a uniquely relational nature and has a sense for the perennial search for gains and well-being that may be more comprehensive, and not reducible either to a logic of consumption or to the economic aspects of life.”
“No profit is in fact legitimate when it falls short of the objective of the integral promotion of the human person, the universal destination of goods, and the preferential option for the poor,” the text said, stressing that a legitimate economic system “thrives not merely through the quantitative development of exchange but rather by its capacity to promote the development of the entire person and of every person.”
On this basis, the document urged that universities and business schools provide as a foundation an education by which students will “understand economics and finance in the light of a vision of the totality of the human person”, avoiding “a reductionism that sees only some dimensions of the person.”
Well-being has to be measured by more than just Gross Domestic Product but must also take into account safety and security and “the quality of human relationships and of work. Profit should be pursued but not ‘at any cost’, nor as a totalizing objective for economic action.”
Profit and solidarity “are no longer antagonists,” the document said. However, “where egoism and vested interests prevail, it is difficult for the human person to to grasp the fruitful interchange between profit and gift, as sin tends to tarnish and rupture this relationship.”
“It is impossible to ignore the fact that the financial industry, because of its pervasiveness … is a place where selfishness and the abuse of power have an enormous potential to harm the community.”
The documented lamented that “Capital annuity can trap and supplant the income from work, which is often confined to the margins of the principal interests of the economic system. Consequently, work itself, together with its dignity, is increasingly at risk of losing its value as a ‘good’ for the human person and becoming merely a means of exchange within asymmetrical social relations.”
It pointed out an inversion between means and ends, in which work has become an instrument, and money an end.
Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones said that credit has an “irreplaceable social function,” but that “applying excessively high interest rates, really beyond the range of the borrowers of funds, represents a transaction not only ethically illegitimate, but also harmful to the health of the economic system. As always, such practices, along with usurious activities, have been recognized by human conscience as iniquitous and by the economic system as contrary to its good functioning.”
Instead, financial activities are called to serve the real economy, “to create value with morally licit means, and to favour a dispersion of capital for the purpose of producing a principled circulation of wealth.”
“What is morally unacceptable is not simply to profit, but rather to avail oneself of an inequality for one’s own advantage, in order to create enormous profits that are damaging to others; or to exploit one’s dominant position in order to profit by unjustly disadvantaging others, or to make oneself rich through harming and disrupting the collective common good.”
The text then highlights the need for greater communion, collaboration, and solidarity in the market, and offers suggestions for ways in which these can be implemented.
In a healthy market “it is easier to respect and promote the dignity of the human person and the common good,” the Vatican offices wrote.
The experience of recent decades has demonstrated the need for both ethics and regulation, the document states.
With an increased globalization of financial markets, the system “requires a stable, clear and effective coordination among various national regulatory authorities,” allowing them to share binding decisions when necessary, especially when it comes to threats against the common good.
“Where massive deregulation is practiced, the evident result is a regulatory and institutional vacuum that creates space not only for moral risk and embezzlement, but also for the rise of the irrational exuberance of the markets, followed first by speculative bubbles, and then by sudden, destructive collapse, and systemic crises,” Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones states.
The text condemned the tendency of business managers to establish policies which aim “not at increasing the economic health of the companies that they serve, but at the mere profits of the shareholders, damaging therefore the legitimate interests of those who are bearing all of the work and service benefiting the same company, as well as the consumers and the various local communities (stakeholders).”
The document suggested that ethical committees be established in banks to support the administration, and to help cushion them from the impact of losses.
The text then pointed to financial instruments such as derivatives and credit default swaps, which going unchecked, can lead to “unacceptable” consequences from an ethical point of view, essentially gambling with a person’s future.
Use of offshore accounts as tax havens was also condemned, though it was noted that tax systems throughout the world are not always equal, which can damage weaker parties in favor of wealthier ones.
Despite the fact that more nations are cracking down on offshore accounts, penalties have not been enforced and norms have either not been applied or they have not proved effective due to the political powers pulling the strings.
All of these problems are “not only the work of an entity that operates out of our control,” but are “in the sphere of our responsibilities.”
Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones states that it is “therefore quite evident how important a critical and responsible exercise of consumption and savings actually is.”
As an example, the text said shopping is a daily task by which we can choose to avoid purchasing products produced by chains which violate “the most elementary human rights,” such as sweat-shops.
“Through the gesture, apparently banal, of consumption, we actually express an ethics and are called to take a stand in front of what is good or bad for the actual human person.”
Likewise, persons are called to direct their savings to “those enterprises that operate with clear criteria inspired by an ethics respectful of the entire human person, and of every particular person, within the horizon of social responsibility.”
“Each one is called to cultivate procedures of producing wealth that may be consistent with our relational nature and tend towards an integral development of the human person.”
The document concludes with a call to hope in light of the challenges of the economy, saying, “every one of us can do so much, especially if one does not remain alone.”
“Today as never before we are all called, as sentinels, to watch over genuine life and to make ourselves catalysts of a new social behavior, shaping our actions to the search for the common good, and establishing it on the sound principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.”
Gaza City, May 16, 2018 / 12:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis lamented the latest violence in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, expressing his distress that the region is “increasingly moving away from the path of peace, dialogue and negotiations.”
More than 100 Palestinians protesting at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel have been killed by Israeli soldiers in the past six weeks, according to Palestinian officials. Some 10,000 more have been injured.
I express my great sorrow over the dead and wounded in the Holy Land and the Middle East. Violence never leads to peace. Therefore, I call on all sides involved and the international community to renew efforts so that dialogue, justice and peace may prevail.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) May 16, 2018
The Vatican has long supported a two-state solution established via peaceful negotiations. When the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to recognize the State of Palestine in 2012, the Holy See began referring to Palestine as such. Saint John Paul II first opened Vatican diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1994, and met with PLO leader Yasser Arafat on numerous occasions.
Most recently, during a United Nations debate on “the Palestinian question,” the Holy See representative, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, reiterated the Vatican’s support for a two-state solution, calling it “only viable way of fulfilling the aspirations for peaceful co-existence among Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
“Every Israeli and Palestinian has the right to live in peace and security,” continued Archbishop Auza.
“To have the best chance of success, peace talks must take place in an atmosphere free from violence. The ongoing violence simply underlines how overdue a just and lasting resolution is,” Auza said in the UN Security Council open debate April 26.
Palestinians in Gaza had been protesting on a weekly basis since March 30. These protests culminated May 14 when tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied near the fence dividing Gaza from Israel. Palestinians were reported to have hurled explosives and flaming kites at Israel, and rushed at the fence. They were met by Israeli army sniper fire and tear gas.
More than 60 people from Palestine were killed and thousands injured. It was the largest death toll in a single day in the ongoing conflict since 2014.
One official of Hamas, the Islamist organization which governs the Gaza Strip, has said that 50 of the 62 Palestinians killed May 14-15 were members of the group.
In an emergency security council meeting May 15, the U.N. human rights office acknowledged Israel’s rights to defend its borders, but said that Israel’s use of lethal force violated international norms. It suggested that Israel arrest any protester who reached the fence.
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said May 15 that “An attempt to approach or crossing or damaging the fence do not amount to a threat to life or serious injury and are not sufficient grounds for the use of live ammunition.”
“This is also the case with regards to stones and Molotov cocktails being thrown from a distance at well-protected security forces located behind defensive positions,” he continued.
Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton and Christopher Chessun, the Anglican Bishop of Southwark, said in a May 15 joint statement that “The terrible loss of life in Gaza caused by the Israeli army’s use of live fire against civilians is to be condemned unequivocally.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself but also has the moral and legal responsibility not to use disproportionate force and not to prevent the injured from receiving medical treatment,” they continued.
They concluded by calling for a “peaceful two state solution with Jerusalem as the shared capital.”
Pope Francis reacted with sorrow for the dead and the wounded, and publically prayed to Mary, the Queen of Peace, asking “all the parties involved and the international community to renew their commitment so that dialogue, justice and peace prevail,” in his May 16 General Audience.
May 14 was a significant date in both Israel and Gaza. It marked the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel. For Israelis, this day gained added significance with the U.S. embassy opening in its new location in Jerusalem, which Israel has long viewed as its capital despite the absence of international recognition.
Palestinians remember this anniversary as “Nakba Day” on May 15, a pained remembrance of the refugee crisis created by the 1948 founding of Israel, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were uprooted from their homes, either fleeing or being forced to leave.
Following President Donald Trump’s December announcement that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy, Pope Francis issued an appeal that the international community respect the “status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant Resolutions of the United Nations,” on December 6.
The U.N. had previously proposed that Jerusalem should eventually become the capital of the two states of Israel and Palestine.
U.S. bishops also wrote a letter to the then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in January urging that the U.S. embassy remain in Tel Aviv, expressing their concern that the move would erode the U.S. commitment to the a two-state solution, which “USCCB has long supported.”
“Only the emergence of a viable and independent Palestinian state living alongside a recognized and secure Israel will bring the peace for which majorities of both Israelis and Palestinians yearn. This two-state solution enhances Israeli security, preserves Israel as a Jewish majority democratic state, gives Palestinians the dignity of their own state, allows access to the Holy Sites of all three faiths, promotes economic development in the region, and undermines extremists who exploit the conflict,” wrote the U.S. bishops in a previous 2015 statement outlining their position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The ongoing conflict assaults the dignity of both Palestinians and Israelis, with the suffering people in Gaza carrying a particularly heavy burden,” continued the bishops’ statement.
1.8 million Palestinians live in Gaza, where Monday’s violence occured. It is a densely populated Palestinian strip of land surrounded by Israel and currently under Israeli blockade. The impoverished area often experiences power cuts, and it is difficult for goods to get into or out of Gaza due to its restricted access.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster spoke with a Catholic parish priest in Gaza, Father Mario da Silva, May 16, who told him that life is hard and “everyone is desperate with shortages of water and other basic necessities.” The Gaza priest also said that he was encouraged to hear that people were praying for the people of Gaza.
Gaza is governed by Hamas, an Islamist group recognized as a terrorist organization and which has called for the destruction of Israel. The group has repeatedly used rockets and suicide bombings to attack Israel since its founding in 1987. Hamas in Gaza is split from the PLO, which governs the West Bank, further complicating any potential peace negotiations with Israel.
The Holy See and Catholic bishops continue to advocate for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict urging recognition of the human dignity of the people caught on both sides of the conflict.
The previously mentioned U.S. bishops’ statement continued: “The path to peace in the Holy Land requires respect for the human rights and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians. People of good will on both sides of the conflict want the same thing: a dignified life worthy of the human person.”
Vatican City, May 16, 2018 / 04:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Expressing his sorrow for those who have lost their lives, Pope Francis Wednesday called for peace and dialogue in the Middle East, which has faced increased violence during the transfer of the U…. […]
Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 02:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- This week 34 Chilean bishops are meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the country’s clerical sexual abuse scandal, which involves at least one of the bishops attending the meeting. The meeting is significant, but not unprecedented.
Francis summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome in an April 8 letter admitting he had made “serious mistakes” in judgment of the nation’s abuse crisis, and which was a follow-up to the results of an in-depth investigation into accusations of abuse cover-up carried out by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top prosecutor on clerical abuse.
In April 2002, Pope St. John Paul II called 13 U.S. cardinals and bishops to discuss a large-scale clerical sexual abuse crisis. Benedict XVI followed suit when the abuse crisis in Ireland came to light in 2009, inviting high-ranking Irish prelates and members of the Roman Curia to meet at the Vatican in February 2010.
It is practically unheard of, at least in recent history, that the pope would summon an entire bishops conference – or even the leading bishops and cardinals of a country – to Rome for a previously unplanned emergency visit. But sexual abuse, and cover-ups within ecclesial environments, seems to have merited that treatment more than other issues.
While John Paul was the first of the three most recent popes to make such a drastic request, Vatican observers say that a letter sent by Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland in March 2010 set the tone for the Vatican’s approach to sexual abuse crises around the world.
The letter, which was published after Benedict met with Irish prelates, is still widely read, taught, and referenced as a clear example of how the Vatican should respond to instance of abuse and cover-up.
According to veteran Vatican journalist John Allen, when the American bishops came to the Vatican in April 2002 to discuss the abuse crisis exploding in the U.S., the final results of the meeting were a mixed bag.
On one hand, John Paul II’s declaration that “people need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young” empowered American bishops to develop the June 2002 “Dallas Charter,” which set national standards in place for the prevention and reporting of child abuse.
On the other hand, Allen says, the documents outlining resolutions made by US bishops and the Vatican going into the future were rushed, and were considered by most in both the U.S. and Vatican delegations to be an inaccurate account of the discussion, and the plans that had been made.
In all, it would seem that the Vatican communiques following the meeting were a missed opportunity for the Church to send a strong, unified message to the world on the issue of clerical abuse.
However, Benedict XVI, who was present for the meeting with U.S. bishops in his capacity as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, got a first-hand account of the scope of the problem, the failures that allowed the abuse, the steps that needed to be taken in the future, and the damages done to individuals and to the credibility of the Church in an entire nation.
He likely drew from the experience when dealing with Ireland’s abuse scandal in 2009, and his insights seemed to guide his own discussion with Irish prelates, his handling of the conclusions of their meeting, and his 2010 letter to Irish Catholics.
During a May 14 press conference ahead of the meeting with Pope Francis to discuss their own country’s abuse crisis, Chilean bishops Fernando Ramos and Juan Ignacio González said they and their brother bishops had recently read Benedict’s 2010, and that it provides essential guidelines for them to follow in their own country.
In the letter, Benedict addressed Catholics in Ireland not only with the concern of a father, but also “with the affection of a fellow Christian, scandalized and hurt by what has occurred in our beloved Church.”
He divided the letter into sections addressed to particular groups of people, including victims and their families, parents, priests and religious guilty of abusing children, children and youth from Ireland, priests and religious from Ireland, Irish bishops themselves, and Irish Catholics on the whole.
Benedict apologized to victims, saying that nothing could undo the wrongs they had endured, and that it was understandable if they were unable to forgive and reconcile with the Church.
“In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. At the same time, I ask you not to lose hope,” he said.
Among other things, Benedict urged greater formation on the issue of abuse for priests and religious, which was echoed by the Chilean bishops during their press conference.
He also highlighted several factors he said were causes in the abuse crisis. In addition to a rapidly changing and secularized cultural landscape, he said the procedures for finding suitable candidates for the priesthood and religious life were “inadequate,” and cited “insufficient human, moral, intellectual and spiritual formation in seminaries and novitiates” as one of the causes of institutional failure.
Also a problem, he said, was clericalism and an exaggerated respect for those in authority, as well as a “misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties and to safeguard the dignity of every person.”
In terms of concrete action, Benedict proposed a number of concrete initiatives, the first of which was to do penance.
He asked Ireland’s bishops to dedicate Lent of that year, 2010, as a time “to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of holiness and strength upon the Church in your country.”
Benedict also asked that Irish Catholics offer their Friday penances for that intention for a year – from Lent 2010 to Easter 2011 – requesting that they offer their regular prayer, fasting and acts of charity for healing and renewal for the Church of Ireland, and that they go to confession more frequently.
He said special attention ought to be paid to Eucharistic adoration, especially in parishes, seminaries, religious houses and monasteries in order to “make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm” and to ask for the grace of a renewed sense of their mission.
Benedict also announced that he would carry out an apostolic visitation to certain dioceses, seminaries and religious congregations and said he would implement a mission for bishops, priests and religious from Ireland.
The hope for the mission, he said, was that by access to holy preachers and with a careful rereading of conciliar documents, liturgical rites of ordination and recent pontifical teachings, consecrated persons would “come to a more profound appreciation of your respective vocations, so as to rediscover the roots of your faith in Jesus Christ and to drink deeply from the springs of living water that he offers you through his Church.”
During the press conference Monday with Chilean bishops, Ramos and González called Benedict’s letter “a precious and beautiful text full of guidelines that we will follow or are following.”
They also made comments reminiscent of the sentiments voiced by Benedict XVI, saying they are coming into the meeting this week with “shame and pain,” but they also voiced hope that the discussion will be a fresh start for the bishops, and will provide a decisive direction going forward.
However, while they have Benedict’s guidelines in mind, the bishops said that as far as this week goes, they are in Rome at the beckoning of Pope Francis, and their task “is to listen to Peter, to listen to the pope.”
“Conclusions will come, new paths will come out,” González said, adding that “the pope gives us light” indicating the path to be taken.
Meetings between Pope Francis and the Chilean bishops began early in the afternoon Monday, and will continue through Thursday, May 17. Unlike the 2002 meeting, the Vatican has already said there will be no communique or press release after the meeting, in order to keep the discussion confidential.
Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican published an instruction Tuesday aimed at applying norms established in Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic constitution on women’s contemplative orders, which emphasizes the need… […]
Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 12:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At the end of his morning homily Tuesday, Pope Francis asked Catholics to pray for priests, bishops, and the pope, who he said, must learn to leave their posts when it becomes necessary.
Pr… […]
Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 11:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On their first day of meetings with Pope Francis, Chilean bishops have been asked to make a 24-hour retreat, using the time to pray and reflect on specific themes provided by Pope Francis until their next audience on Wednesday.
According a May 15 Vatican communique, Pope Francis met with the Chilean bishops today at 4pm local time, marking the first session of the May 15-17 gathering.
Francis gave the bishops a text “with different themes for meditation.” Those themes have not been made public.
From the moment they received the text, “a time dedicated exclusively to prayer and meditation” was inaugurated, which will last until their next meeting Wednesday afternoon.
After Wednesday’s session, the bishops will have two additional meetings on Thursday. Meetings have been planned as a group; it is unknown whether Pope Francis will also hold private audiences with particular bishops.
In a May 14 press conference ahead of the 3-meeting, two Chilean bishops said they came to Rome with “pain and shame” given the magnitude of the abuse scandal in Chile.
The bishops – Fernando Ramos, auxiliary bishop of Santiago, and Juan Ignacio González of San Bernardo – said clerical sexual abuse is “unacceptable” and “intolerable,” and is something they are committed to eradicating.
They said their main goals are to listen to what Francis has to say and to find a way forward which brings both healing and reparation for victims, as well as stricter prevention measures.
Pope Francis summoned the bishops to Rome last month following an in-depth investigation into abuse cover-up by Church hierarchy in Chile conducted by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna earlier this year, which resulted in a 2,300 page report on the investigation’s conclusions.
The investigation was centered around Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who was appointed to the diocese in 2015 and who has been accused by Cruz and several others of covering up Karadima’s abuses, and of participating in acts of abuse. Allegations were also made against three other bishops – Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela – who Karadima’s victims accuse of also covering the abuser’s crimes.
Scicluna interviewed some 64 people, many of whom were victims or potential victims, but the scale of the investigation went beyond Barros. It is said to be much more extensive, including details from other cases, such as those involving the Marist Brothers in Chile, who are currently under canonical investigation after allegations of sexual abuse by some of the members surfaced in August 2017.
Pope Francis had previous defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. However, after receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis issued his major “mea culpa” and asked to meet the bishops and more outspoken survivors in person.
Although updates might be published throughout the 3-day encounter, the Vatican has said there will be no final document or communique in order to ensure confidentiality.
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