Category Archives: World News

Hundreds of calls come in at USCCB HQ seeking to foster detained kids

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Maybe it was the request by the Pentagon for 20,000 mattresses as military bases become, at least partly, shelters for detained border crossers.
Maybe it was the federal government report that 2,342 children had been separated from 2,206 parents at the U.S.-Mexico border between May 5 and June 9.
Maybe it was the now-famous audio recording of children crying after being separated from their parents.

An immigrant entering the U.S. illegally is seen arriving in shackles for a court hearing in McAllen, Texas, June 22. (CNS photo/Loren Elliott, Reuters) See IMMIGRATION-BORDERS June 22, 2018.

Or maybe it was the pictures of kids in cages.
Whatever the reason, hundreds of American adults have called the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops seeking to provide foster care for the separated children.
At first report June 20, 300 calls had come in. And the calls keep coming. “We’re triaging the calls,” said Katie Kuennen, associate director for children’s services for the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services office.
“We’re getting flooded,” Kuennen added. “It’s not just Catholic Charities, but MRS-wide.”
The one hitch: Most of those who have called are not licensed or certified to be foster parents. That’s a process that varies from state to state, according to Kuennen. While most states can train and certify parents for foster care in two or three months, some states can take a lot longer.
Further, while many Catholic Charities USA affiliate agencies are set up to match foster families with children, not all are. MRS, Kuennen said, also partners with Bethany Christian Services in some areas of the country. Agencies wishing to add foster care to their portfolio of services can typically gain state licensing in a month or two, she added.
So what happens when the calls come in? “We’re able to direct them to the nearest ORR foster care program that we have available,” Kuennen told Catholic News Service June 22. ORR is the acronym for the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“The programs aren’t new, the process of bringing foster families on board isn’t new,” she said. “What’s new is the public awareness of the program and the seeing of these images on television to get engaged and to open their homes to these families.”
Even though President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 20 that essentially reversed that part of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that separated kids from their parents, it was silent on the fate of those 2,352 kids already torn from their folks, plus whatever additional children were separated from their parents after June 9.
Moreover, a policy enacted in 1997 sets a 20-day limit for detained children to be detained alongside their parents. A Trump administration request to exceed that limit is before a federal judge in California.
“For years there has not been sufficient capacity in the ORR residential network for foster care placement,” Kuennen told CNS. “Historically they (children) have been going into shelter settings.”
However, “our department is currently responding to a funding opportunity announcement from ORR. I’m sure others (agencies) are as well. We are actively seeking to increase our transitional foster care and our long-term foster care,” she added.
It could be coincidence that the ORR money is being freed up at this time, or it could be consequence.
“My sense is that it was initiated in May, released in May, so the timing does match up,” Kuennen said, “before the family separation issue got a lot of attention after the zero tolerance (policy) was put into effect.”
Although the money won’t be officially freed up until the start of the new federal fiscal year Oct. 1, Kuennen said there is precedent for ORR to retroactively reimburse groups it has funded for expenses incurred if the group can show the money was spent on the specific grant plan.

Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison

Pope ‘ashamed’ by church’s failure to listen to abuse survivors

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By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a letter to Catholics in Chile, Pope Francis expressed shame for the church’s failure to listen and defend survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy.
Released by the Chilean bishops’ conference May 31, the letter from the pope said that the time of “revision and purification” in the church was possible through the efforts of abuse survivors “who, against all hope or painted as discredited, did not tire of looking for the truth.”
They are “victims whose cries reached to heaven. I would like to once again publicly thank all of them for the courage and perseverance,” the pope wrote.
The Vatican announced earlier in the day that “the pope will send the president of the Chilean bishops’ conference a letter written personally by him and addressed to all the people of God, as he had promised the bishops.”
The Vatican also announced that Pope Francis will send Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos back to Chile and visit the Diocese of Osorno “with the aim of advancing the process of reparation and healing of abuse victims.”
Shortly after, Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz of San Bernardo, president of the Chilean bishops’ commission for abuse prevention, and Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez of Santiago, secretary-general of the Chilean bishops’ conference, held a news conference in Santiago to release the eight-page letter.
In his message, the pope said it has been a “time of listening and discernment” for the church to get to the root of the sexual abuse crisis in the Chilean church and to find concrete solutions and not “mere strategies of containment.”
He also acknowledged the church’s shortcomings in not listening to survivors of abuse.
“Here, I believe, lies one our principal faults and omissions: to not know how to listen to victims. Thus, partial conclusions were built that lacked crucial elements for a healthy and clear discernment. I must say with shame that we did not know how to listen and react in time,” the pope wrote.
In January, the pope sent Archbishop Scicluna and Father Bertomeu to Chile to listen to people with information about Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who, according to survivors, had allegedly witnessed their abuse by his mentor, Father Fernando Karadima.
Pope Francis said their visit was made after “verifying the existence of situations that we did not know how to see and listen.”
“As a church, we cannot continue walking while ignoring the pain of our brothers and sisters,” he said.
The church, he continued, must say “never again” to a culture that not only allowed sexual abuses to occur but also “considered a critical and questioning attitude as betrayal.”
“The culture of abuse and cover up is incompatible with the logic of the Gospel given that the salvation offered by Christ is always an offering, a gift that demands and requires freedom,” the pope said.
The pope also encouraged Chilean Catholics to continue their devotion to popular piety which is “one of the few areas where the people of God is above the influence of that clericalism that seeks to control and restrain the anointment of God upon the people.”
Like Christ, who did not hide his wounds after his resurrection but rather showed them to his disciples, the church must also be willing to show its own wounds to “be able to understand and be moved by the wounds of the world today.”
“A church with wounds doesn’t place itself at the center, it doesn’t think itself perfect, it doesn’t look to cover up and conceal its evil, but instead places them before the only one who can heal wounds and he has a name: Jesus Christ.
After the letter’s release, Juan Carlos Cruz, one of three survivors who met with Pope Francis April 27-29, said he was moved by the pope’s letter.
“There are phrases in the letter that are things that we spoke about with the pope, such as the culture of cover-ups. It is an emotional feeling to know that he was listening to us and it wasn’t just a salute,” Cruz said May 31 in an interview with Chilean radio station Tele 13.

(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.)

All economic activity has moral dimension, doctrinal congregation says

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By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Financial and economic decisions – everything from where a family chooses to invest its savings to where a multinational corporation declares its tax residence – are ethical decisions that can be virtuous or sinful, a new Vatican document said.
“There can be no area of human action that legitimately claims to be either outside of or impermeable to ethical principles based on liberty, truth, justice and solidarity,” said the document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The text, “Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System,” was approved by Pope Francis and released May 17 at a Vatican news conference with Archbishop Luis F. Ladaria, congregation prefect, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the dicastery.
Based on principles long part of Catholic social teaching and referring frequently to the teaching of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the document insisted that every economic activity has a moral and ethical dimension.
Responding to questions, Archbishop Ladaria said it is true that Catholic moral theology has focused more on questions of sexual ethics than business ethics, but that does not mean that the economy and finance are outside the scope of Catholic moral teaching. For example, he said, over the centuries the church and the popes repeatedly have intervened to condemn usury.
Pope Francis, he said, supported the development of the document, but the idea of writing it and examining the ethical and moral implications of the current economic scene came from “the grassroots.”
“At stake is the authentic well-being of a majority of the men and women of our planet who are at risk of being ‘excluded and marginalized’ from development and true well-being while a minority, indifferent to the condition of the majority, exploits and reserves for itself substantial resources and wealth,” the document said.
The size and complexity of the global economy, it said, may lead most people to think there is nothing they can do to promote an economy of solidarity and contribute to the well-being of everyone in the world, but every financial choice a person makes – especially if they act with others – can make a difference, it said.
“For instance, the markets live thanks to the supply and demand of goods,” it said. “It becomes therefore quite evident how important a critical and responsible exercise of consumption and savings actually is.”
Even something as simple as shopping can be important, the document said. Consumers should avoid products manufactured in conditions “in which the violation of the most elementary human rights is normal.” They can avoid doing business with companies “whose ethics in fact do not know any interest other than that of the profit of their shareholders at any cost.”
Being ethical, it said, also can mean preferring to put one’s savings in investments that have been certified as socially responsible and they can join others in shareholder actions meant to promote more ethical behavior by the companies in which they invest.
In a statement distributed at the news conference, Archbishop Ladaria said that “the origin of the spread of dishonest and predatory financial practices” is a misunderstanding of who the human person is. “No longer knowing who he is and why he is in the world, he no longer knows how to act for the good” and ends up doing what seems convenient at the moment.
“The strongest economic subjects have become ‘superstars’ who hoard enormous quantities of resources, resources that are distributed less than before and are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people,” he said. “It’s incredible to think that 10 people can possess almost half of the world’s wealth, but today that is a reality!”
Cardinal Turkson told reporters, “a healthy economic system is vital to forge flourishing human relationships.”
“To help generate such healthy system, this joint document reminds us that the resources of the world are destined to serve the dignity of the human person and must be commonly available for the common good,” the cardinal said.
The document takes aim at greed, not capitalism. In fact, it praises economic systems and markets that respect human dignity and promote human freedom, creativity, production, responsibility, work and solidarity.
A healthy economy, it said, promotes all of those goods and realizes that the measure of progress is not how much money people have in the bank, but how many people are helped to live better lives.
One key to judging how well the economy works is how many decent jobs are created, the document said. But too often selfishness gets the upper hand, the rich speculate and gamble, accumulating more money but not creating more jobs.
“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 document said.
“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,” the document said.
The global financial crisis that began in 2007, it said, created an opportunity to review mechanisms of the economy and finance and come up with corrective regulations, but very little has been done.
In addition to the immorality of usury and tax evasion, the document signaled out other ethically problematic practices or practices that require more regulation to ensure ethical behavior: for example, executive bonus incentives based only on short-term profit; the operation of “offshore” financial bases that can facilitate tax evasion and the outflow of capital from developing countries; “the creation of stocks of credit,” like subprime mortgages, and credit default swaps; and the growth of the “shadow banking system.”

Parishes grow only when people are welcomed, heard

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By Cindy Wooden
ROME (CNS) – After months of study and discussion, the parishes of the Diocese of Rome have recognized “a general and healthy exhaustion” with doing the same things over and over, touching the lives of fewer and fewer people as time goes on, Pope Francis said.
Changing the way parishes – and their priests and involved laity – operate will not be easy, the pope said, but members of the diocese must set out to follow the Lord more closely, deal with the reality in their neighborhoods and learn how to show everyone living within the parish boundaries that they are recognized and loved.
Pope Francis addressed some 1,700 diocesan leaders, both clergy and laity, May 14 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the diocese of Rome.
In the process of identifying the “spiritual illnesses” of the diocese, the pope said, the priests and parish leaders made it clear that they are tired of being content with what they have been doing for years.
A renewed outreach, the pope said, must begin by “learning to discern where God already is present in very ordinary forms of holiness and communion with him.”
There are people in the parishes, he said, who might not know their catechism, but they see the basic interactions in their lives through a lens of faith and hope. Calling for a “revolution of tenderness” in parishes and the diocese, Pope Francis said that while “guiding a Christian community is the specific task of the ordained minister – the pastor – pastoral care is based in baptism and blossoms from brotherhood and is not the task only of the pastor and priests, but of all the baptized.”
The pope’s speech marked his formal reception of a diocesan report on “spiritual illnesses” afflicting the city. Through a process that began in Lent, parishes identified the main challenges as “the economy of exclusion, selfish laziness, comfortable individualism, wars among us, sterile pessimism and spiritual worldliness,” according to a statement from the diocese.
The priest who summarized the findings at the evening meeting told the pope that a lack of education in the faith was identified by many of the groups; that lack was seen regarding basic church teachings but also regarding how the Gospel and its values could be brought to bear on modern problems.
Pope Francis told them the process of identifying the problems had two benefits: a recognition of “the truth about our condition as being in need, sick,” but, at the same time, a recognition that even if people have failed, God is still present and is calling his people to come together and to move forward.
“Our parishes,” he said, “must be capable of generating a people, that is, of offering and creating relationships where people feel that they are known, recognized, welcomed, listened to, loved – in other words, not anonymous parts of a whole.”
To move forward, he said, Catholic communities must look at “the slaveries – the illnesses – that have ended up making us sterile.”
Often, he said, parishes are slaves to doing things the ways they always have been done and to investing time and energy in projects and programs that no longer meet the needs of the people.
“We must listen without fear to the thirst for God and to the cry that rises from the people of Rome, asking ourselves how that cry expresses the need for salvation, for God,” he said. “How many of the things that emerged from your studies express that cry, the invocation that God show himself and help us escape the impression that our life is useless and almost robbed by the frenzy of things that must be done and by time that keeps slipping through out hands?”
Too often, he said, evangelization also is stifled by “faith understood only as things to do and not as a liberation that renews us at every step.”
Pope Francis asked the diocesan leaders to dedicate the next year to “a sort of preparation of your backpacks” for setting off on a multiyear process that would lead to a “new land,” a place marked by new pastoral action that is “more responsive to the mission and needs of Romans today, but also more creative and liberating for priests and those who directly collaborate in their mission and in the building up of the Christian community.”

Historians’ approval moves Father Tolton’s sainthood cause forward

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Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized U.S. diocesan priest of African descent, is pictured in an undated photo. Father Tolton’s cause is moving forward after receiving positive news from the Vatican’s historical consultants. (CNS photo/courtesy of Archdiocese of Chicago Archives and Records Center)

By Joyce Duriga
CHICAGO (CNS) – The canonization cause of Father Augustus Tolton received important approval from the Vatican’s historical consultants earlier this year, moving the cause forward.
Father Tolton, a former slave, is the first recognized U.S. diocesan priest of African descent. Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George opened his cause for canonization in 2011, giving the priest the title “servant of God.”
The consultants in Rome ruled in March that the “positio” – a document equivalent to a doctoral dissertation on a person’s life – was acceptable and the research on Father Tolton’s life was finished, said Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry, postulator for the cause.
“They have a story on a life that they deem is credible, properly documented. It bodes well for the remaining steps of scrutiny – those remaining steps being the theological commission that will make a final determination on his virtues,” Bishop Perry explained.
It now goes to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, he said. Once the congregation’s members “approve it, then the prefect of that congregation takes the case to the pope,” he added.
If the pope approves it, Father Tolton would be declared venerable, the next step on the way to canonization. The last two steps are beatification and canonization. In general, two approved miracles through Father Tolton’s intercession are needed for him to be beatified and canonized.
Six historical consultants ruled unanimously on the Tolton “positio,” compiled by a team in Rome led by Andrea Ambrosi, based on hundreds of pages of research completed in Chicago.
While working on the document, Ambrosi’s team asked Bishop Perry why it took so long to open a cause for Tolton, who died in 1897.
“We told them that African-Americans basically had no status in the church to be considered at that time. Some people didn’t think we had souls. They were hardly poised to recommend someone to be a saint,” Bishop Perry said. “And then in those days there were hardly any saints from the United States proposed.”
The fact that the historical consultants approved the “positio” unanimously is a positive sign, he said. The cause is scheduled to go before the theological commission in February 2019.
Two miracles through Father Tolton’s intercession have been sent to Rome.
“We’re hoping and our fingers are crossed and we’re praying that at least one of them might be acceptable for his beatification,” Bishop Perry said.
Born into slavery, young Augustus fled to freedom with his mother and two siblings through the woods of northern Missouri and across the Mississippi River while being pursued by bounty hunters and soldiers. He was only 9 years old.
The small family made their home in Quincy, Illinois, a sanctuary for runaway slaves.
Growing up in Quincy and serving at Mass, Augustus felt a call to the priesthood, but because of rampant racism, no seminary in the United States would accept him.
He headed to Rome, convinced he would become a missionary priest serving in Africa. However, after ordination he was sent back to his hometown to be a missionary to the community there.
He was such a good preacher that many white people filled the pews for his Masses, along with black people. This upset the white priests in the town, who made life very difficult for him as a result. After three years, Father Tolton moved north to Chicago to minister to the black community, at the request of Archbishop Patrick Feehan.
Father Tolton worked tirelessly for his congregation in Chicago, to the point of exhaustion. On July 9, 1897, he died of heat stroke while returning from a priests retreat. He was 43.
Since the cause was opened, Bishop Perry and his team have given more than 170 presentations on Father Tolton around the country. They also have received inquiries about the priest from Catholics in the Philippines, Germany, Australia, Italy, France and countries in Africa.
People receive Father Tolton’s story well, Bishop Perry said.
“There’s also the element of surprise. … People always presume that we had black priests,” he told the Chicago Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper.
Father Tolton did not speak out publicly against the racist abuse he encountered from his fellow Catholics. Rather, throughout his ministry, he preached that the Catholic Church was the only true liberator of blacks in America.
“I think people generally are touched by his story, especially regarding his stamina and perseverance given what appears to be a different mood today. People don’t accept stuff thrown in their faces anymore,” Bishop Perry said.
(Duriga is editor of the Chicago Catholic, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago.)

Vatican issues new rules for contemplative nuns

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By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican released an instruction with new norms for contemplative orders of nuns, encouraging cooperation among their monasteries and outlining procedures for communities left with only a few members.
The document, “Cor Orans” (“Praying Heart”) is a follow-up instruction on implementing Pope Francis’ 2016 document “Vultum Dei Quaerere” (“Seeking the Face of God”), which issued new rulings and mandates for monasteries of women around the world. The aim of both, the Vatican said, is to safeguard the identity and mission of contemplative women religious. The pope charged the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life with creating the new instruction, which seeks to fill the legislative gaps left since Pope Pius XII’s apostolic constitution “Sponsa Christi,” from 1950, and facilitate carrying out the mandates in “Vultum Dei Quaerere.” The instruction was released by the Vatican May 15 and went into effect immediately.
Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, secretary of the congregation, told reporters one of the most significant changes is requiring a monastery or contemplative community of women religious to have at least eight professed religious women in order to maintain their autonomy. If that number drops to five professed religious, they lose their right to elect a superior, the Vatican congregation is informed of the situation and an ad hoc commission is formed to name an administrator, he said.
The outside intervention is meant to assess whether the community’s difficulties are “temporary or irreversible” and, if temporary, help them overcome the problems so as to avoid their suppression, the archbishop said.

A nun holds a copy of “Cor Orans,” a new instruction for contemplative women religious, during a news conference for its release at the Vatican May 15. The instruction concerns the life, autonomy, supervision and formation of contemplative women religious. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The instruction also details the roles, rights and responsibilities federations will have.
Pope Francis’ new ruling included a mandate that all monasteries are to be part of a federation with the aim of facilitating formation and meeting needs through sharing assets and exchanging members; however, a monastery can request an exception from the Vatican.
The new instruction said monasteries have one year to comply until the dicastery assigns them a federation or other form of association.  
Father Paciolla said the documents do not change the autonomy of the monasteries or the purpose of a federation, but are meant to bring “balance” to how they can better work together.
The aim, Father Paciolla said, is to open up another channel of communication with the Vatican and foster dialogue and communion when it comes to oversight.
Archbishop Rodriguez Carballo said the instructions, like Pope Francis’ document, are built on the responses received from a questionnaire sent to all contemplative women religious a few years ago.
(Editor’s note: Because these rules are so new, it will take some time to review them to see how they might apply to local communities, including the Carmelite community in the Diocese of Jackson.)

Obispos mexicanos prometen nuevo enfoque pastoral acompañando a la gente

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Por David Agren
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO, Mex. – La conferencia episcopal mexicana ha prometido buscar una nueva visión pastoral en la cual la iglesia es considerada cercana a las necesidades de la gente, los pobres son la prioridad y los prelados se expresan proféticamente en asuntos como la violencia, la desigualdad y la corrupción entre las élites que actualmente cuentan con la jerarquía como aliados.
La conferencia presentó su plan pastoral el 13 de mayo diciendo que este responde al estado actual del país y a los cambios sociales. El plan también responde a la amonestación del papa Francisco, quien regañó a los obispos de México en 2016 por descansar en sus laureles, mostrar timidez mientras la violencia aumentaba y no poder encontrar unidad entre ellos.

A federal policeman keeps watch at a cemetery as relatives of missing persons look for mass graves in Ahuihuiyuco, Mexico, May 10. (CNS photo/Daniel Becerril, Reuters)

“Reconocernos que ser iglesia pueblo, trae consigo la necesidad de ajustar y actualizar nuestros conceptos teológicos y asumirlos en sus consecuencias prácticas, tanto personalmente, como al interior de la vida de nuestras comunidades cristianas.”, dice el documento de los obispos, titulado Proyecto Global de Pastoral 2031-2033. Las fechas coinciden con el quinto centenario de las apariciones de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, santa patrona del país, a san Juan Diego y con el segundo milenio de la resurrección de Cristo.
“Actitudes de individualismo, celos pastorales, pretensiones principescas, arrogancia, soberbia y comportamientos que contradicen una vida de comunión y participación, ya no tienen lugar en la vida de la iglesia pueblo”, dijeron los obispos.
Según los datos del censo, aproximadamente el 83 por ciento de los habitantes del país todavía se identifica como católico, algo que un editorial de la Arquidiócesis de México señaló al cuestionar el regaño del papa a los obispos de México y preguntaron quién lo asesoró sobre el discurso.
Sin embargo, la conferencia episcopal tomó el discurso como un llamado a la acción. Su documento se expresó con candor y tristeza de que un país tan católico y tan fervoroso en su fe pueda experimentar tanta violencia y tolerar altos niveles de desigualdad y corrupción.
Las medidas contra los carteles de la droga, comenzadas hace 11 años, han cobrado más de 200,000 vidas y han dejado más de 30,000 desaparecidos. Aunque México ha superado la gobernación de un solo partido, la percepción de corrupción ha aumentado aun cuando el país se volvió más democrático.
A menudo los obispos han preferido no hablar sobre temas complicados o controversiales, parcialmente por riesgo que corren si dicen algo. Sacerdotes están entre las víctimas de la violencia. A veces los obispos han comentado solamente después que el gobierno haya hablado primero.
“Lamentamos profundamente la desaparición y muerte de miles de jóvenes en los últimos tiempos, los feminicidios, verdaderos ríos de sangre nueva que han corrido por nuestros pueblos y ciudades”, dice el documento.
“La introducción de una narcocultura en nuestra sociedad mexicana, de conseguir dinero rápido, fácil y de cualquier forma, ha venido a dañar profundamente la mente de muchas personas”, dice el documento, añadiendo que hay factores que han afectado la situación como “la pérdida de valores, la desintegración familiar, la falta de oportunidades, los trabajos mal remunerados, la corrupción galopante en todos los niveles, la ingobernabilidad, la impunidad”.
El documento de los obispos ofrece momentos de autocrítica, incluyendo el reconocimiento de que ellos no han atendido suficientemente el abuso sexual por clérigos. El propio comportamiento de los obispos se mencionó con el reconocimiento de que “en algunos momentos parecemos más jueces, dueños o líderes de una estructura humana que agentes dóciles al Proyecto del Reino de Dios”.
Los obispos añadieron: “Vemos con inquietud que nuestro pueblo reclama un mayor acompañamiento espiritual y un especial coraje profético frente a las circunstancias actuales”.
Otros defectos reconocidos incluyen su trabajo con las poblaciones indígenas, con los jóvenes y con los residentes urbanos. Muchos de estos últimos se han mudado de los sectores aislados pobres de México en busca de oportunidades pero “perdiendo sus raíces”, sufriendo exclusión y viviendo la explotación.
“La iglesia se ha visto rebasada para atender y acompañar a esta multitud desamparada”, dice el documento.
La piedad popular se ha arraigado en muchas partes de México, mientras que muchos de los bautizados entienden poco sobre el credo.
“Hay un analfabetismo religioso preocupante en un gran número de creyentes”, dijeron los obispos. “Esto se manifiesta en la superficialidad de sus compromisos sacramentales y en la ligereza de la vivencia de los valores del Evangelio en su vida diaria”.
El nuevo plan pastoral presentó 193 observaciones acerca del estado de las cosas en México, pero también acciones para la iglesia mexicana. Los obispos se comprometieron a defender los derechos humanos, proteger a los migrantes e incorporar “la doctrina social de la iglesia … en la formación de los agentes de pastoral”.
El documento también prometió dar acompañamiento para los que practican la piedad popular y también para las víctimas de la violencia, promover la participación en los sacramentos con énfasis en la Eucaristía y ser “una iglesia incluyente donde se acoja con misericordia a esposos vueltos a casar, homosexuales, madres solteras, ancianos, indigentes y migrantes, entre otros”.

Not just what you see: Some issues behind the Israel-Palestinian violence

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By Judith Sudilovsky
JERUSALEM (CNS) – A Sometimes, news is not just what meets the eye on the TV screen or a social media post.
Catholic political analyst Wadie Abunasser noted that while neither Israel nor the Palestinian political movement Hamas is interested in starting a war at the moment, both are interested in delivering strong messages to the other side on various issues being negotiated through backdoor channels. Internal politics also contribute to the situation, he said.
One issue on the table, he said, is a prisoner exchange being negotiated by the Egyptians. The exchange involves the bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas since the last Gaza war and three Israeli civilians – an Israeli-Ethiopian and two Israeli Bedouin – held by Hamas. All three civilians crossed into Gaza willingly, and two have mental health issues.
“(Israel and Hamas) are trying to press each other, and there is no real mutual understanding,” said Abunasser, director of the International Center for Consultations in Haifa. “What I am afraid of is not a prepared war, but of incidents getting out of hand if this continues.”
Egyptian negotiators are also at work trying to calm the current situation, he said.
The demonstrations were first called to protest the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem, and to mark the 70th year since al-Naqba, or what Palestinians call their catastrophe – the creation of the State of Israel.
“We are talking about two neighbors who dislike each other,” said Abunasser.
The status of Jerusalem was one of the issues to be discussed when the two sides finally returned to the negotiating table, and neither side was to take unilateral action, he said. Though it was the U.S. decision to move the embassy, Israel is seen as having lobbied strongly for it and for the relocation of other embassies as well.
“The fact that (U.S. President Donald Trump) is downgrading and avoiding any relations is bringing the Palestinians to a very embarrassing situation. They are basically boycotting the USA and have brought back their representative from Washington,” Abunasser said. “Many people believe Trump is not a good friend of Israel. He is pretending (to be), but he is causing more problems than solutions.”
Abunasser also said internal Palestinian politics is playing a role in the growing tensions. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been cutting funds to Gaza, which is under control of Hamas, Abbas’ rival. Abbas wants to force the Hamas leadership to comply with his conditions for reconciliation, said Abunasser.
“So Hamas is trying to kill two birds with one stone. They are pressing back on Israel … (about) concessions to Hamas on the prisoner exchange, and Hamas is pressing against the Palestinian Authority (with the protests) and, if people are killed, the PA has to pay (their families),” he said. “Hamas, Israel and the PA are fighting each other until the last Gazan. It is very sad, really.”
He said 2 million people live in the cage known as Gaza, which has been blockaded for 11 years, since Hamas took control there. Much of the infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed by the Israeli military.
Abunasser said Hamas does not want to risk Gazans taking out their anger on political leaders, so it is trying to divert the anger instead toward Israel. Gazans are pawns in the confrontation, he said.
Numerous children have been killed in the demonstrations, including an 8-month-old baby, who died of tear gas inhalation.
While Palestinians have been calling the protests “peaceful,” Hamas leader Salah Bardawil was shown on Palestinian TV saying that of 62 people killed in the Gaza demonstrations, 50 were from Hamas, which is listed as terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union. More than 2,000 people have been injured in the demonstrations.

Relatives in the Gaza Strip mourn a Palestinian killed at the Israel-Gaza border May 16. (CNS photo/Mohammed Salem, Reuters)

Israel has been criticized by the international community for its use of snipers and live fire against the demonstrators. Israel says its soldiers are trying at all costs to prevent Palestinians who would carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets from crossing into Israel.
Israel also says millions of dollars of damage has been caused to Israeli crops as Palestinians send kites with Molotov cocktails flying over the border fence, burning agricultural fields.
Abunasser said Israelis along the border live under constant tension of such possible attack. Numerous underground Hamas tunnels leading from Gaza into nearby Israeli communities have been destroyed by the Israeli in the past, making the fear of infiltration very real.
Gazans, said Abunasser, are under the constant tensions of the blockage, electricity shortages, no work, a lack of commodities and the inability to leave.
“People live on a day-by-day basis. But the Palestinians have it worse. In Israel there is a functioning government, and if there is a war, farmers will be compensated by the state. They can escape to the north,” he said. “Gaza Palestinians have no place to escape, financially or physically.”

World Briefs

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NATION
Trump signs order to give faith groups stronger voice in government
WASHINGTON (CNS) – In front of a small crowd of cabinet members and religious leaders at the White House Rose Garden May 3, President Donald Trump announced, and then signed, an executive order giving faith-based groups a stronger voice in the federal government. “It’s a great day,” he said after signing the order and passing out pens to religious leaders who surrounded him outside on the spring morning for the National Day of Prayer event. No details about the order were given at the ceremony, but religious leaders were reminded of the work they do in caring for those in need and were assured by the president that their religious freedom would continue to be protected by the federal government. A White House document posted online after the order was signed said its purpose was to ensure that faith-based and community organizations “have strong advocates” in the White House and the federal government. It said the “White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative” would provide recommendations on programs and policies where faith-based and community organizations could partner with the government to “deliver more effective solutions to poverty.”

States file lawsuits to end DACA
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Continuing the legal drama against a program that protects some 800,000 young adults brought into the country without legal documentation as minors, seven states have filed a lawsuit attempting once more to end it. Joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia, the state of Texas is leading the charge in a lawsuit filed May 1 that says then-President Barack Obama and his administration unlawfully and unilaterally granted what amounts to “citizenship” to “otherwise unlawfully present aliens” when it approved in 2012 the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Popularly known as DACA, the program grants a renewable work permit and other temporary documentation to the young adults if they meet certain conditions. Saying it was unlawful, President Donald Trump announced the program’s end in September and asked Congress to hash out a legislative solution by March, but lawmakers have not done so. Since Trump’s announcement, DACA has been on a legal roller coaster. Most recently, a federal district judge from the District of Columbia ruled on April 24 that the Trump administration did not explain why DACA was “unlawful” when it announced it was going to rescind it. Until it can do so – the administration was given 90 days to justify its action – the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, must continue to accept new applications and renew documents for those already enrolled, the judge said.

Iowa legislature sends fetal heartbeat bill to governor
DES MOINES, Iowa (CNS) – A bill described by some observers as the most restrictive abortion legislation in the nation has been sent to the desk of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. The governor has not said whether she will sign the bill, which the Iowa Legislature passed in the middle of the night May 2. Depending on when the legislature adjourns, Reynolds will have three days or 30 days to sign it. The so-called fetal heartbeat bill would prohibit abortions after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected. The legislation began as an amendment to an Iowa Senate bill that would stop trafficking in the fetal body parts that remain following an elective abortion. “As Pope Francis has said, ‘Let us respect and love human life, especially vulnerable life in a mother’s womb.’ We call upon the judiciary to once again recognize that all life should be protected from the moment of conception to natural death,” Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, said after the bill’s passage. The bill spells out specific steps that must be followed when a woman seeks an abortion. Specifically, it requires a physician to perform an abdominal ultrasound when testing for a detectable fetal heartbeat and to inform the pregnant woman in writing whether a fetal heartbeat was detected, and if so, that an abortion is prohibited.

WORLD
Philippine cardinal urges daily bell tolling to call attention to murders
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) – Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle called for church bells in the archdiocese to toll at 8 p.m. each day to protest the continuing spate of killings in the country. He said the tolling of the bells will “haunt the perpetrators of violence and killing to remember their victims, never to forget them,” reported ucanews.com. “The bells beckon us to remember the dead … and to ask God to remember them,” said a statement from the cardinal. Ucanews.com reported a Catholic priest and a broadcast journalist were the most recent victims of assassinations. Father Mark Ventura was shot to death after celebrating Mass in Cagayan province April 29. Cardinal Tagle invited the faithful “to pause, remember and pray” for Father Ventura, the second priest to be killed in four months. In December, Father Marcelito Paez was shot dead in the province of Nueva Ecija. “It’s sad that a priest was killed … and even if he’s not a priest, a person. Isn’t he a gift from God? Is it that easy nowadays to just kill and throw someone away?” asked Cardinal Tagle.

VATICAN
Vatican issues instruction on improving canon law studies
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The changes in canon law Pope Francis made to ensure that marriage annulment cases were handled more quickly, more pastorally and with less expense mean that some changes should be made in the way church law is taught, said the Congregation for Catholic Education. The congregation published an instruction May 3 urging Catholic universities to strengthen their canon law programs and urging bishops to send more of their priests “and, if possible, laypeople” to Catholic universities to earn canon law degrees. The new rules, which go into effect for the 2019-2020 academic year, require all students in what is known as the “first cycle” of studies for church licenses in theology to take at least three semesters of canon law courses, including at least one devoted exclusively to church law regarding marriage and the process of recognizing the nullity of a marriage. The instruction also strongly encourages schools and faculties of canon law to offer courses designed for bishops, who have greater responsibility in determining the nullity of a marriage under the rules introduced by Pope Francis in 2015.

Update: Date set for final approval of canonization of Blesseds Paul VI, Romero
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican announced that final approval would be given May 19 for the canonizations of Blesseds Paul VI, Archbishop Oscar Romero and four others. Pope Francis already cleared the way for their canonizations earlier this year with the publication of decrees recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of each one of the blesseds. The Vatican said May 3 that an “ordinary public consistory” – a meeting of the pope with cardinals resident in Rome and invited bishops and other dignitaries – would be held May 19 to finalize the approval of six canonizations. This meeting of cardinals and promoters of the sainthood causes formally ends the process of approving a new saint. The dates and locations for the canonization ceremonies are expected to be announced shortly after the consistory. Meanwhile, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, has said that Blessed Paul’s canonization will take place at the end of the Synod of Bishops on youth and discernment, scheduled for Oct. 3-28.

Catholic media must not fall behind in digital age, pope says

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By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In an age when technology is ever-evolving, Catholic news organizations must be willing to adapt to effectively proclaim the Gospel to all, Pope Francis said.
Speaking to directors and employees of Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, the pope said that the use of new digital platforms not only requires significant technological updates but also a willingness to accept that “the attachment to the past may prove to be a dangerous temptation.”
“Authentic servants of tradition are those who, while keeping memory alive, know how to discern the signs of the times and open new paths,” he said May 1.
Marking the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and International Workers’ Day, which is a public holiday in Italy and many other countries, Pope Francis noted that Jesus’ foster father was a “man of silence,” which at first “may seem the opposite of a communicator.”
But, he said, Catholic journalists and news organizations must realize that “only by shutting down the noise of the world and our own gossip will it be possible to listen, which remains the first condition of every communication.”
Particularly in today’s world where “the speed of information surpasses our capacity of reflection,” he said, church members are exposed “to the impact and influence of a culture of haste and superficiality” and risk reducing the church’s mission to a “pastoral ministry of applause, to a dumbing down of thought and to a widespread disorientation of opinions that are not in agreement.”
The example set forth by St. Joseph, he added, is a reminder for all Christians working in the field of communications to “recover a sense of healthy slowness, tranquility and patience.”
“With his silence, he reminds us that everything begins from listening, from transcending oneself in order to be open to another person’s word and history,” the pope said.
Recalling the words of Blessed Paul VI, Pope Francis said that Catholic newspapers shouldn’t just report news to “make an impression or gain clients” but rather to educate their readers “to think, to judge” for themselves.
“Catholic communicators avoid rigidities that stifle or imprison,” he said. “They do not cage the Holy Spirit, but seek to let it fly, to let it breathe within the soul. They never allow reality to give way to appearances, beauty to vulgarity, social friendship to conflict. They cultivate and strengthen every sprout of life and goodness.”
Pope Francis encouraged Avvenire’s directors, journalists and employees to be heralds of the Gospel and, like St. Joseph, be true guardians who protect society’s well-being and dignity.

(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.)