Vatican

Munich, Germany, Feb 3, 2018 / 09:31 am (CNA).- The president of the German Bishops’ Conference has declared that, in his view, Catholic priests can conduct blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx told the Bavarian State Broadcasting’s radio service that “there can be no rules” about this question. Rather, the decision of whether a homosexual union should receive the Church’s blessing should be up to “a priest or pastoral worker” and made in each individual case, the German prelate stated.

Speaking on Feb. 3, on the occasion of his 10th anniversary as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Marx was asked why “the Church does not always move forward when it comes to demands from some Catholics about, for instance, the ordination of female deacons, the blessing of homosexual couples, or the abolition of compulsory [priestly] celibacy.”

Marx said that, for him, the important question to be asked regards how “the Church can meet the challenges posed by the new circumstances of life today – but also by new insights, of course,” particularly concerning pastoral care.

Describing this as a “fundamental orientation” emphasized by Pope Francis, Marx called for the Church to take “the situation of the individual, … their life-story, their biography, … their relationships” more seriously and accompany them, as individuals accordingly.

Marx has recently called for an individualized approach to pastoral care, which, he has said, is neither subject to general regulations nor is it relativism.

Such “closer pastoral care” must also apply to homosexuals, Cardinal Marx told the Bavarian State Broadcaster: “And one must also encourage priests and pastoral workers to give people in concrete situations encouragement. I do not really see any problems there.”

The specific liturgical form such blessings – or other forms of “encouragement” – should take is a quite different question, the Munich archbishop continued, and one that requires further careful consideration.

Asked whether he really was saying that he “could imagine a way to bless homosexual couples in the Catholic Church,” Marx answered, “yes” – adding however, that there could be “no general solutions.”

“It’s about pastoral care for individual cases, and that applies in other areas as well, which we can not regulate, where we have no sets of rules.”

The decision should be made by “the pastor on the ground, and the individual under pastoral care” said Marx, reiterating that, in his view, “there are things that can not be regulated.”

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Vatican City, Feb 2, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Kevin Farrell has reportedly barred several speakers set to address an annual women’s event inside the Vatican over concerns about their LGBT positions, prompting organizers to find another venue.

First held in 2014, the “Voices of Faith” (VoF) event has taken place inside the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, every March for the past four years.

Established in 2014 in response to Pope Francis’ call to “broaden the space within the Church for a more incisive feminine presence,” the event is scheduled each year to coincide with the March 8 celebration of International Women’s Day, and typically draws speakers from various backgrounds to give testimonies and speak on a specific theme.

Organizers have relocated the 2018 conference, titled “Why Women Matter,” to another location outside Vatican grounds, after two high-profile speakers didn’t meet Vatican approval: Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland, and Ssenfuka Juanita Warry, who runs a non-profit advocating for LGBT Catholics in Uganda.

According to Chantal Gotz, founder and managing director of VoF, the list of speakers required approval from Cardinal Farrell before they could move forward with planning. When he returned a list of approved names, McAleese and Warry were not included.

Farrell heads the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, the office in charge of organizing the World Meeting of Families this August and the 2019 international World Youth Day in Panama. Given the topic of this year’s Synod of Bishops, which will reflect on “Faith, young people and the discernment of vocation,” Farrell’s office is also a key player in organizing that event.

In comments to CNA, Gotz said the conference organizers were not given a reason for having the speakers barred, so “we engaged in dialogue with the cardinal and asked him for an explanation for blocking the names,” however “we were not able to go further since an explanation was not forthcoming.”

While an official reason for blocking the speakers might be lacking, it is widely believed Farrell made the decision because of the proposed speakers’ controversial stances on the question of homosexuality.

McAleese has a son who is gay, and according to the Irish Independent, at one point said her son had gone through “torture” when he learned about the Catholic Church’s position on the issue.

McAleese has previously advocated for same-sex marriage, accusing the Catholic Church of “hypocrisy” for its stance on marriage. She has also publicly advocated for the ordination of women to the priesthood, in opposition to the teachings of the Church expressed in Pope St. John Paul II’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

According to a Feb. 2 press release from VoF, as the former president of Ireland McAleese “is no stranger to the Vatican, having held the highest position in public office in a predominantly Catholic country.”

“She is known for her staunch support for gay and women’s rights and has often spoken publicly about her frustrations with her Catholic faith.”

Warry is also an active campaigner on issues related to homosexuality.

Gotz told CNA she was “stunned” by Farrell’s decision, as such issues have never been a problem in the past.

In previous years the conference has invited a host of speakers who hold opposing views to the Church’s position on major issues such as abortion, contraception and women’s ordination, she said. Some of them have spoken openly about their positions during the event, however, this marks the first year that any of the speakers have been rejected.

“We have always been respectful of the viewpoints of the Church,” Gotz told CNA, “yet we, like Pope Francis, recognize there is a critical need to open the church to more dialogue.”

In the press release, the purpose of the VoF event is to “empower and advocate for Catholic women to have a seat at the table of decision making in the Catholic Church.”

The statement also voices the organization’s belief that a key solution to various problems the Church faces “lies in having a diversity of thought, expertise and education at the leadership level, skill sets they say can be brought by women and lay people if only they were more welcomed into these structures.”

The conference, she said, “allows us to not only celebrate the wonderful work Catholic women are doing across the globe, but also create discussion and dialogue on the current power and leadership structures of our Church today.”

More than anything, “we hope it will help create a bridge to dialogue between those who have feared that dialogue for too long,” she said.

“Women are willing and ready to share their faith and their gifts. They should be afforded a seat at the table so that women’s voices and perspectives become an integrated part of decision making within the Church.”

Rather than taking McAleese and Warry off of their list of speakers, organizers of VoF opted for a change of location, and the conference will now take place at the Jesuit Curia in Rome.

“The Jesuits, in true form, have welcomed us and our speakers,” Gotz told CNA, explaining that she is unsure if the rift with Cardinal Farrell will affect future VoF events.

Cardinal Farrell could not be reached for comment.

CNA’s Perry West contributed reporting for this story.

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Vatican City, Feb 2, 2018 / 10:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told consecrated men and women Friday that they are called to have real encounters with their brothers and sisters, and that technology should never have a higher priority than time spent with God and others.

“Today’s frantic pace leads us to close many doors to encounter, often for fear of others,” the Pope said Feb. 2. “Only shopping malls and internet connections are always open.”

“Yet that is not how it should be with consecrated life: the brother and the sister given to me by God are a part of my history, gifts to be cherished. May we never look at the screen of our cellphone more than the eyes of our brothers or sisters, or focus more on our software than on the Lord.”

Pope Francis cautioned against getting trapped by the “life of this world,” pointing out how consecrated life, and vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, are about turning away “from fleeting riches to embrace the One who endures forever.”

“The life of this world pursues selfish pleasures and desires; the consecrated life frees our affections of every possession in order fully to love God and other people,” he said. “Worldly lives aim to do whatever we want; consecrated life chooses humble obedience as the greater freedom.”

The Pope’s homily came during Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which also marks the 22nd World Day of Consecrated Life.

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is also sometimes called Candlemas. On this day, many Christians bring candles to the church to be blessed. They can then light these candles at home during prayer or difficult times as a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.

The Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica began with a blessing of the candles in the rear of the church by Pope Francis. He then processed into the darkened church with priests, bishops and cardinals carrying lit candles. Those present in the congregation also held small candles.

This feast, in the Eastern Churches, is sometimes called the “Feast of Encounter,” Francis said. Speaking to consecrated men and women, he noted that their vocation was borne of an encounter with the Lord and his call.

“We journey along a double track: on the one hand, God’s loving initiative, from which everything starts and to which we must always return; on the other, our own response, which is truly loving when it has no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts,’ when it imitates Jesus in his poverty, chastity and obedience,” he said.

Referencing the story of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the pontiff said that like the elderly Simeon, it is good for Catholics to also hold the Lord “in our arms.”

“Not only in our heads and in our hearts,” he explained, “but also ‘in our hands,’ in all that we do: in prayer, at work, at the table, on the telephone, at school, with the poor, everywhere.”

A genuine encounter with the Lord in this way helps to correct “saccharine piety and frazzled hyperactivity.” It also helps remedy the “paralysis of routine,” he said.

“The secret to fanning the flame of our spiritual life is a willingness to allow ourselves to encounter Jesus and to be encountered by him,” he continued. “Otherwise we fall into a stifling life, where disgruntlement, bitterness and inevitable disappointments get the better of us.”

In an encounter with Jesus and with our brothers and sisters our hearts can rest in the present moment, the Pope said, not worried about the past or the future.

He also drew attention to another encounter with Jesus from the Gospels that can inspire those in consecrated life –  that of the women who go to the tomb to anoint Jesus after his death.

“They had gone to encounter the dead; their journey seemed useless,” he said. “You too are journeying against the current; the life of the world easily rejects poverty, chastity and obedience.”

“Like those women, be the first to meet the Lord, risen and alive. Cling to him and go off immediately to tell your brothers and sisters, your eyes gleaming with joy,” he concluded.

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Vatican City, Feb 2, 2018 / 08:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis met with participants in a conference on violence committed in the name of religion, emphasizing that to use God as justification for sin is one of the worst blasphemes, and … […]

Vatican City, Feb 2, 2018 / 07:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis has added two day-trips in Italy to his schedule for spring 2018, including his already-scheduled visit to the towns of Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo for the 50th anniversary of Padre Pio’s death.

He will visit Alessano and Molfetta April 20 marking the 25th anniversary of the death of Antonio (Tonino) Bello, an Italian bishop whose cause for beatification was opened in 2007.

On May 10 Francis will visit Nomadelfia, a Catholic community of families and lay unmarried people who adopt a lifestyle inspired by the Acts of the Apostles. The same day he will visit Loppiano, near Florence, the location of the international complex of the Focolare Movement.

Francis’ schedule for his visit to Alessano and Molfetta, which both lie in the south of Italy, will begin with a short flight from Rome’s Ciampino Airport to the Galatina military airport. From there, he will travel by helicopter to Alessano.

He will visit the tomb of Bishop Tonino Bello, afterward meeting with the faithful of the town, where he will give a speech. He will then go by helicopter to the port town of Molfetta, where he will say Mass in the cathedral. He will return to Rome by helicopter around 1:30 pm.

The Pope’s program for May 10 begins with a transfer by helicopter from the Vatican to Nomadelfia. He will first stop will be to the local cemetery to visit the tomb of Fr. Zeno Saltini, the founder of the community at Nomadelfia.

Afterward he will meet with community members in the church, followed by an encounter with youth, where he will give an address. Transferring to Loppiano, he will stop for a prayer at the Maria Theotokos Sanctuary, located in the Focolare Movement complex.

In the yard outside of the sanctuary he will meet with the community, including answering questions from community members and giving a speech. He will also greet a community representative. Francis will return to Rome by helicopter around 12:30 pm.

These pastoral visits are in addition to his planned day-trip March 17 to Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo, which are the towns where St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was born and lived. This visit marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the saint, one of the most beloved in Italy.

The visit will include a meeting with faithful in the square outside the church in Pietrelcina, where Francis will give a speech.

Afterward he will transfer to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he will visit the pediatric oncology department of the local private hospital, which was founded by Padre Pio and is considered one of the most efficient in Italy and in Europe.

From there he will go to the Church of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, celebrating Mass in the square outside. He will also greet the local community of Capuchins and a group of faithful. He will return to Rome around 1:45 pm.

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Vatican City, Feb 1, 2018 / 10:26 am (CNA).- Pope Francis in his latest prayer video places a spotlight on the problem of corruption, saying that it is the root of most societal evils and praying that those in power would be able to resist its allure.

The video, released Feb. 1, opens with the dramatic image of a young girl with a dirty face and clothes holding an infant, and who appears to be part of a group of migrants or refugees.

This image is followed by a series of others showing child laborers and buildings destroyed by bombs as the Pope speaks in his native Spanish, asking, “What is at the root of slavery, unemployment and disregard for nature and goods held in common?”

As the music transitions to the sound of shattering glass, the Pope says the answer is “corruption,” which he describes as “a process of death that feeds the culture of death.” This, he says, is “because the thirst for power and possessions knows no limits.”

The screen, showing an image of a prostitute soliciting customers, is dissolved and replaced by an image of a beach filled with waste, which in turn is followed by an image of an Italian monument commemorating the 1992 “Strage di Capaci,” referring to a massacre in which Sicilian mafia branch Cosa Nostra killed anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falconi, his wife and their three bodyguards.

This image is then replaced by someone opening a briefcase of money and passing a handful to another person behind his back.

“Corruption,” Francis says, “is not countered with silence. We must speak about it, denounce its evils and try to understand it so as to show our resolve to make mercy reign over meanness, beauty over nothingness.”

As he speaks, images of nature, the Pieta and the Sistine Chapel are shown. Francis then closes his video asking viewers to join him in praying “that those who have material, political or spiritual power may resist any lure of corruption.”

Corruption is one of the topics Pope Francis has been most outspoken about since the beginning of his papacy almost five years ago, saying in one 2016 general audience that to be corrupt “is to become a follower of the devil, the father of lies.”

He recently returned to the topic during his Jan. 18-21 visit to Peru, which is one of several Latin American countries to be hit with a wide-scale corruption scandal involving several of their former presidents, and accusations against sitting President, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard.

In his address to diplomats and civil authorities, the Pope said Peru is a country that has a lot of hope, but warned that “a shadow is growing” through corruption that could smother the potential to do good.

Corruption “increasingly contaminates the whole system of life,” he said.

In a forward for “Corrosion,” a book-length interview of Cardinal Peter Turkson published in June 2017, Pope Francis said corruption is a “cancer that (burdens) our lives.”

He said phenomena such as exploitation, human trafficking, weapon and drug trafficking, social injustices, slavery, unemployment, and carelessness for nature can all be traced back to corruption, which is “a profound cultural question that needs to be addressed.”

And the Church, he said, “must listen, raise herself and bend herself on the sorrows and hopes of people according to mercy, and must do so without fear of purifying herself, assiduously seeking a way to improve.”

An initiative of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of Prayer, the Pope’s prayer videos are filmed in collaboration with Vatican Media and Argentinian marketing association La Machi.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, universal intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.

However, as of last year, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis opted to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention for an urgent or immediate need should one arise.

In a press release for the new video, Cardinal Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said “we shouldn’t speak about resolving the issue of corruption in theory.” Rather, “we should confront corruption in every sector. It is the poor who pay for the parties of the corrupt.”

According to the release, the video is the latest in a series of initiatives from the dicastery aimed at drawing attention to the worldwide problem of corruption.

Among these initiatives was a June 15, 2017 conference on corruption that coincided with the release of Turkson’s book. The dicastery will also be hosting a conference on corruption in Naples Feb. 3, where the Pope’s prayer video will be shown.

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Vatican City, Feb 1, 2018 / 09:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Spending time reflecting on your own death can be a freeing experience, and one that can even help us to become better people, Pope Francis said in a homily at the Casa Santa Marta Thursday.

Death… […]

Vatican City, Jan 31, 2018 / 10:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The annual Lenten retreat for the Pope and members of the Roman Curia will this year focus on the theme, “Praise of Thirst.”

Themes of meditation during the week-long spiritual exercises include: Apprentices of Amazement, the Science of Thirst, The thirst of Jesus, and Listen to the Thirst of the Peripheries.

Held this year Feb. 18-23, the retreat will be led by Fr. José Tolentino de Mendonça, a Portuguese priest, poet, and Biblical theologian, who was selected by Pope Francis to prepare and deliver meditations during the spiritual exercises.

De Mendonça is vice-rector of the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon and has been a consultant of the Pontifical Council for Culture since 2011.

Ordained a priest in 1990, he completed his Master’s degree in Biblical Studies in Rome, before obtaining his doctorate in Biblical Theology from the Portuguese Catholic University, where he later taught as an assistant professor.

From 2011-2012 he was a Straus Fellow at New York University studying the topic of “Religion and Public Space.”

His books, well-known in Portugal, are beginning to be translated into other languages. De Mendonça is also an award-winning poet and essayist. In 2015, he won the Italian Res Magnae Literary Prize for his book, “A Mística do Instante” (The Mystique of the Instant).

The program for the spiritual exercises will begin Sunday evening with adoration and the recitation of vespers, also called Night Prayer. The remaining days will each follow a basic schedule of Mass at 7:30 a.m., followed by the first meditation of the day.

In the afternoon will be a second meditation, again ending with adoration and vespers. The final day will have only a morning meditation.

The week of prayer and meditation will take place at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, a town just 16 miles outside of Rome.

Located on Lake Albano, the retreat house is just a short way from the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. It will be the fifth consecutive year the Pope and members of the Curia have held their Lenten retreat at the house in Ariccia.

While the practice of the Roman Pontiff going on retreat with the heads of Vatican dicasteries each Lent began some 80 years ago, it had been customary for them to follow the spiritual exercises on Vatican ground. Beginning in Lent 2014, Pope Francis chose to hold the retreat outside of Rome.

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Vatican City, Jan 31, 2018 / 05:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis spoke about the importance of the Liturgy of the Word, and therefore, also the importance of having lectors who can proclaim the readings and the Responsorial Psalm well…. […]

Vatican City, Jan 30, 2018 / 07:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After recently affirming his support for a Chilean bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse, Pope Francis has named a delegate to examine information that, the Vatican said, has since been brought forward.

According to a Jan. 30 Vatican statement, “following some information recently received regarding the case of Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid,” the Pope has asked Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta to travel to Santiago “to listen to those who have expressed the desire to submit items in their possession.”

In addition to overseeing the Diocese of Malta, Scicluna in 2015 was named by the Pope to oversee the doctrinal team charged with handling appeals filed by clergy accused of abuse in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Scicluna served as the congregation’s Promoter of Justice for 17 years, beginning in 1995. He is widely regarded for his expertise in the canonical norms governing allegations of sexual abuse.

The Pope’s decision to send Scicluna to Santiago follows comes after fresh controversy on the appointment arose during Pope Francis’ Jan. 15-18 visit to Chile.

Francis named Barros as head of the Osorno diocese in Chile in 2015. The move continues to draw harsh criticism from activists and abuse victims who accuse the bishop of covering up the crimes of his longtime friend, Father Fernando Karadima.

Karadima, who once led a lay movement from his parish in El Bosque, was convicted of sexually abusing minors in a 2011 Vatican trial, and at the age of 84, he was sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

Barros has repeatedly insisted that he knew nothing of the abuse, and Pope Francis has backed him, naming him head of the Diocese of Osorno in southern Chile in 2015.

The decision set off a wave of objections and calls for his resignation from several priests. Dozens of protesters, including non-Catholics, attempted to disrupt his March 21, 2015 installation Mass at the Osorno cathedral. However, Francis has insisted on keeping Barros in his post.

On his last day in Chile, before heading to Peru, the Pope responded to a Chilean journalist who asked about the Barros issue, saying “the day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I’ll speak. There is not one shred of proof against him. It’s all calumny. Is that clear?”

The comment was met with uproar from Barros’ critics, several of whom are victims of  Karadima’s abuse. It also prompted Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, one of the Pope’s nine cardinal advisors and head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, to release a statement saying the words were painful to victims.

When asked about it by reporters on his Jan. 21 flight back to Rome, Pope Francis apologized, saying “the word ‘proof’ was not the best in order to draw near to a suffering heart.”

He asked for forgiveness from victims he may have wounded, saying any unintentional harm he may have caused “horrified” him, especially after having met with victims in Chile and in other trips, such as his visit to Philadelphia in 2015.

“I know how much they suffer, to feel that the Pope says in their face ‘bring me a letter, proof,’ it’s a slap,” he said.

Francis also said he is aware that victims may not have brought evidence forward either because it is not available, or because they are perhaps frightened or ashamed.

He insisted that Barros’ case “was studied, it was re-studied, and there is no evidence…That is what I wanted to say. I have no evidence to condemn him. And if I condemn him without evidence or without moral certainty, I would commit the crime of a bad judge.”

“If a person comes and gives me evidence,” he said, “I am the first to listen to him. We should be just.”

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