Category Archives: World News

Saint Padre Pio relic tour kicks off in Jackson

Posted on by
Reply

JACKSON – Thursday, March 1, the relics of St. Padre Pio were on display in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. Bishop Joseph Kopacz wrote about him in this week’s column on page 3. People from across the area came to venerate the relics and participate in a special Mass in his honor that evening. They shared with Mississippi Catholic production manager Tereza Ma what the relics meant to them.
“Being in the presence of St. Padre Pio’s relics was so breathtaking. He has always meant a lot to me ever since I read about him in my religion class and learned about his stigmata. Later, my love for St. Padre Pio grew even more as I learned about his healing ministry, miracles and powers in the confessional. All which proved his great love of God,” said 13-year-old Leah Munoz, a member of Pearl St. Jude Parish. “One of my most prized possessions is a small statue of St. Padre Pio that I keep by my bed, which my grandmother bought me eight years ago. Today, I was able to take it and touch it to Padre Pio’s glove. Now my statue is a genuine third-class relic,” she added.
“I have been following him for quite some time. He is such a great saint. He did so many things. I wish I was able to go to him for confession because to be able to read souls and for him to be able to help people in that way – it would have been wonderful,” said Maureen Murphy.
Luciano Lamonarca is the founder of the St. Padre Pio Foundation. He is leading the tour across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Lamonarca is from the “heel” of Italy’s boot, where St. Pio ministered. Devotion to the saint is pervasive there.
Lamonarca himself called upon the saint for intersession after his wife suffered a series of miscarriages. They are now proud parents to a son.
“Traveling with the relics, you feel a blessing, when there are people who come from around the state or come from other states just to touch the relics for a few days while I have access to them all the time, so how blessed am I? When I travel with the relics I am not afraid. This sense of calm and protection always follows me,” he said.

Christian leaders reopen Church of the Holy Sepulcher after ’emergency’

Posted on by
Reply

By Judith Sudilovsky
JERUSALEM (CNS) – Christian leaders in the Holy Land reopened the Church of the Holy Sepulcher Feb. 28 after the Israeli government set up a negotiating team to resolve a municipal dispute over property taxes.
The heads of Christian churches expressed “our gratitude to all those who have worked tirelessly to uphold the Christian presence in Jerusalem and to defend the Status Quo,” the 19th-century agreement that governs Jerusalem’s holy places.
They said they looked forward to bargaining with the government committee “to ensure that our holy city, where our Christian presence continues to face challenges, remains a place where the three monotheistic faiths may live and thrive together.”
Franciscan Father David Grenier, general secretary of the Custody of the Holy Land, said church leaders felt bad for the pilgrims who tried to visit the church in the three days it was closed, “but we were in a state of emergency.”
He told Catholic News Service that the church’s 10 Franciscan friars continued celebrated Masses for the intensions of the pilgrims who were unable to pray in the church, where tradition holds that Jesus was buried.
“We are really happy to have opened the doors; we had hoped from the beginning to close the doors for the shortest time possible,” he said Feb. 28. “This strong step has been taken … as a way to show if we let things continue, it would be possible that in 10, 50 or 100 years it wouldn’t be closed only for two or three days, we wouldn’t be able to maintain it.”
Although the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was not being taxed, in early February the Jerusalem Municipality announced it would begin collecting $186.4 million in property taxes from some 887 church-owned properties that were not houses of prayer.
He said that while the bank accounts of the Franciscans had not been affected, some of the accounts of other churches, such as the Anglicans and the Assyrians, were frozen in mid-February. The Franciscans did receive a bill for a property they owned, he said, but he declined to disclose which property and the amount. He said some churches has been threatened with confiscation of property if the bills went unpaid, and churches were being charged retroactively for seven years.
Father Grenier noted that the actions had also affected U.N. property in the city.
The Israeli government said the team negotiating the current tax crisis would consist of representatives of the finance, foreign affairs and interior ministries as well as from the Jerusalem Municipality. According to a statement from the prime minister’s office, the Jerusalem Municipality will suspend the collection actions it has taken in recent weeks.

Tourists pray outside the locked doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher Feb. 26 in Jerusalem’s Old City. Protesting several recent actions they described as a “systematic campaign against the churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land,” the heads of Christian churches announced Feb. 25 they were closing of the doors of the church. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill) See CHURCH-HOLY-SEPULCHER-SHUT Feb. 25, 2018.

The committee is also slated to look at the issue of Jerusalem land sales by the Greek Orthodox Church. Church leaders feared a bill in the Israeli parliament would allow for state expropriation of church land. Media reported that work on the bill was suspended until the committee could present its findings.
Father Grenier told CNS: “We expect to have a dialogue. Now we are happy. The first thing to do is listen to what they have to propose.”
He added that the churches “will speak with one voice and speak together.”
“For us, the important thing is that the measures taken against the churches have been suspended,” Father Grenier said.
He said the measures could have been potentially more damaging for the smaller churches, such as the Ethiopian and Syriac churches, and some Catholic religious congregations would have had to close some of their institutions if the measures had been carried out.
“We are not a business. If we had to pay the bills, of course, we could not keep all our activities. Our schools don’t make a profit, and if you add having to pay the taxes, we would not be able to maintain them,” he said.
Earlier in February, some political commentators suggested that the threat to impose taxes on church property was a ploy by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to try to get more funding for his city from the Ministry of Finance. Prior to this crisis, he had urged municipal workers to go on strike, leaving the city buried in garbage in an attempt to get more funds.
The church leaders’ closing of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during Lent, close to Easter, the busiest time for pilgrims, drew international attention and condemnation.
However, in a Feb. 28 statement, David Nekrutman, executive director of The Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, chastised the church leaders for having likened the recent legislative bill to those enacted by Nazi Germany against the Jews.

A woman kisses the Stone of Unction, or Stone of Anointing, representing where the body of Jesus was prepared for burial after the crucifixion in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City Feb. 28. (CNS photo/Ammar Awad, Reuters) See JERUSALEM-CHURCHES-TAXES-BARGAIN Feb. 28, 2018.

“These remarks are extremely offensive and an apology from them is warranted,” he said. He also condemned what he said were the false accusations of a systematic campaign of abuse against churches and Christians.
“Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians and believers of all faiths have full freedom of religion and worship,” he said.

(Contributing to this story was Dale Gavlak in Amman. Follow Sudilovsky on Twitter: @jsudireports.)

Jesus never abandons people in times of trial

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol Glatz
ROME (CNS) – If people listen to Jesus and do as he urges them, they can be certain that he will see them through even the darkest times, Pope Francis told members of a Rome parish.
“Jesus always prepares us for our trials and he never leaves us alone. Never,” the pope said Feb. 25 during Mass in the Church of St. Gelasius on Rome’s northeast edge.
Following his usual pattern for Sunday parish visits, Pope Francis reached the church in the early afternoon. After shaking hundreds of hands, blessing dozens of babies and posing for a handful of selfies with young people, the pope went to the parish soccer field to meet the children and teens involved in the parish catechism and sports programs.
After morning sunshine, the skies turned gray and cold, and a heavy rain began to fall.
“You’re soaked!” the pope told the youngsters.
“Life is like this,” he said, explaining that some days will be sunny, some rainy and sometimes storms unexpectedly blow in.
“What’s a Christian to do? Go forward with courage,” knowing that Jesus always is near and is always willing to forgive, he told them.
Moving indoors, the pope met with the elderly members of the parish and greeted each of them individually. He asked couples how long they had been married and asked others how they were feeling. One woman told him that she had a cold she just could not shake. He suggested she try some grappa, a strong grape-based alcoholic drink.
Pope Francis thanked the group of elders for all they do for the church and the world. Even if they do not feel like they are accomplishing great things, he said, they have been charged with “keeping the embers of faith alive” with their prayers and their witness.
After hearing confessions, the pope celebrated Mass in the parish church and gave a brief, extemporaneous homily focused on the day’s Gospel account of the transfiguration of Jesus.
By allowing the disciples to see him transfigured, Jesus gave them a preview of the glory that would be his after the crucifixion and resurrection, the pope said. It was a way to fortify and prepare the disciples for the trials and tribulations that were about to begin.
Remembering that vision, he said, the disciples would be able to “bear the weight of the humiliation” of seeing Jesus condemned and crucified.
In the same way, the pope said, Jesus gives all believers the assurance that he will triumph in the end. And, even in the darkest times, “he is always with us. He never leaves us alone. Never.”
In the Gospel account, he said, after the disciples see Jesus transfigured, they hear God’s voice telling them, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Listening to Jesus is key, the pope said. “In our daily lives, maybe we have problems or have many things to resolve. Let’s ask ourselves this: ‘What is Jesus saying to me today?’ And let’s try to listen to Jesus’ voice, how he inspires us. And that way we will follow the advice of the Father: ‘This is my beloved son. Listen to him.’”
But listening is only the first step, the pope said. Christians then must do what Mary told the servants to do at the wedding feast of Cana when the wine ran out: Listen to Jesus, then “do what he tells you.”

Nation, Wold and Vatican news

Posted on by
Reply

NATION
Florida school shooting an act of ‘horrifying evil,’ says Miami archbishop
MIAMI (CNS) – Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski urged community members to come together “to support one another in this time of grief” after a shooting rampage Feb. 14 at a Broward County high school left at least 17 people dead. “With God’s help, we can remain strong and resolute to resist evil in all its manifestations,” the archbishop said in a statement. “May God heal the brokenhearted and comfort the sorrowing as we once again face as a nation another act of senseless violence and horrifying evil.” In a late-night telegram to Archbishop Wenski, Pope Francis assured “all those affected by this devastating attack of his spiritual closeness.” “With the hope that such senseless acts of violence may cease,” he invoked “divine blessings of peace and strength” on the South Florida community. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called for prayer and healing and urged all work for a society “with fewer tragedies caused by senseless gun violence.” Law enforcement officials identified the shooting suspect as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons from the school where he opened fire, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

U.S. bishops who’ve seen gun violence up close call for end to ‘madness’
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput knows all too well the pain left behind after incidents like the 2018 Valentine’s Day shooting that has so far taken 17 lives at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. As archbishop in Denver, he took part in the funerals of Catholic high school students killed by fellow classmates at Columbine High School almost two decades ago. The Feb. 14 Florida killings, which authorities suspect were perpetrated by Nikolas Cruz, a former classmate of many of the dead, seemed to bring back the pain of April 20, 1999. “I sat with the parents of children murdered in the Columbine High School massacre, and buried some of their dead,” Archbishop Chaput said in statement released a day after the Florida high school shootings. “Nothing seems to change, no matter how brutal the cost. Terrible things happen; pious statements are released and the nation goes back to its self-absorbed distractions.” The Washington Post reported Feb. 15 that an analysis of online archives, state and federal enrollment figures, and news stories revealed that “more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus” since the massacre perpetrated by senior high school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine.

Archbishop: Church’s Christian anthropology is basis for social teachings
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) – The Catholic response to today’s widely debated societal issues – from abortion to immigration to racism – must be rooted in the church’s fundamental teaching about human dignity and the “destiny of the human person,” said the archbishop of Indianapolis. In a pastoral letter addressed to the clergy, religious and lay Catholics of central and southern Indiana issued Feb. 14, Ash Wednesday, Archbishop Charles C. Thompson said he explores a number of issues widely debated in society from the perspective of Christian anthropology, which he described as “the way Christians view human dignity and the end or purpose of human society.” Catholics’ response to issues such as immigration, abortion, racism, religious liberty and drug abuse, Archbishop Thompson said, should be “deeply rooted in the church’s understanding of the origin, nature and destiny of the human person as revealed in Jesus Christ. Where we come from, who we are and where we are headed as individuals and as diverse communities of people,” he noted, “determines our rights and responsibilities in human society.”

WORLD
South African bishops: Zuma’s resignation was long overdue
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) – Jacob Zuma’s resignation as president of South Africa is long overdue, the country’s bishops said, noting that his scandal-plagued presidency fostered corruption and dereliction of duty at all levels of government. “The fact that Mr. Zuma has been allowed to hold on to the highest position in the land despite long-standing and overwhelming evidence of his unfitness for office has done immense harm to our country’s international reputation, to its economy and, especially, to its poorest and most vulnerable citizens,” said the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Zuma, 75, resigned Feb. 14 after nine years in office. In a televised address to the nation, he said he disagreed with the way the ruling African National Congress had pushed him toward an early exit, but would accept its orders. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was confirmed as president until 2019 general elections. While for some Zuma’s resignation “may be a painful event, we call on all to accept his decision as part of our democratic process,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement issued by its president, Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town.

VATICAN
Vatican denies report Pope Benedict has degenerative disease
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican denied that retired Pope Benedict XVI has a degenerative neurological disease or paralyzing condition after his brother, 94-year-old Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, told a magazine that Pope Benedict had a debilitating disease. In an interview published Feb. 13 in the German weekly entertainment magazine, Neue Post, Msgr. Ratzinger said Pope Benedict suffered from a nerve disease that was slowly paralyzing him. “The greatest concern is that the paralysis could eventually reach his heart and then everything could end quickly,” Msgr. Ratzinger was quoted as saying. “I pray every day to ask God for the grace of a good death,

Five years a pope: Francis’ focus has been on outreach

Posted on by
Reply

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope just a few days after telling the College of Cardinals that the Catholic Church faced a clear choice between being a church that “goes out” or a church focused on its internal affairs.
After the cardinal from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected March 13, 2013, and chose the name Francis, he made “go out,” “periphery” and “throwaway culture” standard phrases in the papal vocabulary.
Catholics have a wide variety of opinions about how Pope Francis is exercising the papal ministry, and many of his comments – both in informal news conferences and in formal documents – have stirred controversy. But, as he wrote in “Evangelii Gaudium,” the apostolic exhortation laying out the vision for his pontificate: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”
But there are two areas of internal church affairs that he recognized needed immediate attention: the reform of the Roman Curia and the full protection of children and vulnerable adults from clerical sexual abuse.
The organizational reform of the Curia has been taking place in stages, but Pope Francis has insisted that the real reform is a matter of changing hearts and embracing service.
On the issue of abuse, nine months into his pontificate, Pope Francis established the Pontifical Commission for Child Protection to advise him on better ways to prevent clerical sexual abuse and to ensure pastoral care for the survivors.
While Pope Francis has emphatically proclaimed “zero tolerance” for abusers and recently said covering up abuse “is itself an abuse,” as his fifth anniversary approached serious questions arose about how he handled accusations that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, who was a priest at the time, covered up allegations of abuse against his mentor.
The new scandal threatened to undermine the widespread popularity of Pope Francis and his efforts to set the Catholic Church on a new course.
For Pope Francis, that new course involves evangelization first of all.
“Evangelizing presupposes a desire in the church to come out of herself,” he had told the cardinals just days before the conclave that elected him. “The church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents and of all misery.”

Pope Francis greets an elderly woman as he meets with people of the Banado Norte neighborhood in Asuncion, Paraguay, in this July 12, 2015, file photo. The pope has shown special concern for the aged, the sick and those with disabilities. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-FIFTH-ANNIVERSARY Feb. 13, 2018.

Mercy is the first thing the Catholic Church is called to bring to those peripheries, he says.
Although in 2013 he told reporters he would not be traveling as much as his predecessors, Pope Francis has continued their practice of literally “going out,” making 22 trips outside of Italy and visiting 32 nations.
But he also regularly visits the peripheries of Rome, both its poor suburbs and its hospitals, rehabilitation centers, prisons and facilities for migrants and refugees.
His desire to reach out has inspired innovations that were noteworthy at the beginning of the papacy, but now seem to be a natural part of a pope’s day. For example, after beginning with Vatican gardeners and garbage collectors, the pope continues to invite a small group of Catholics to join him most weekday mornings for Mass in the chapel of his residence.
The residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, is a guesthouse built by St. John Paul II with the intention of providing decent housing for cardinals when they would enter a conclave to elect a new pope. Pope Francis decided after the 2013 conclave to stay there and not move into the more isolated papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
On Holy Thursday each year, he has celebrated Mass at a prison, care facility or refugee center and washed the feet of patients, inmates or immigrants, both men and women, Catholics and members of other faiths. He also ordered the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to clarify that the feet of both women and men can be washed at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
During the 2015-16 Year of Mercy, he made a visit one Friday a month to people in particular need, including those at a school for the blind, a neonatal intensive care unit, a community of recovering alcoholics, a children’s group home and a community for women rescued from traffickers who forced them into prostitution. Once the Year of Mercy ended, the pope continued the visits, although not always every month.
In September 2015 as waves of migrants and refugees were struggling and dying to reach Europe, Pope Francis asked every parish and religious community in Europe to consider offering hospitality to one family. The Vatican offered apartments and support to a family from Syria and a family from Eritrea. Then, seven months later, Pope Francis visited a refugee center on the island of Lesbos, Greece, and brought 12 refugees back to Rome on the plane with him.
In the first three years of his papacy, he published three major documents: “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel); “Laudato Si, on Care for Our Common Home,” on the environment; and “‘Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), on Love in the Family,” his reflections on the discussions of the Synod of Bishops in 2014 and 2015.
People skeptical about the scientific proof that human activity is contributing to climate change objected to parts of “Laudato Si’,” but the criticism was muted compared to reactions to Pope Francis’ document on the family, especially regarding ministry to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics and the possibility that, under some conditions, some of those Catholics could return to the sacraments.
The strongest criticism came from U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke and three other cardinals, who sent to the pope and then publicly released in November 2016 a formal, critical set of questions, known as “dubia,” insisting that allowing those Catholics to receive the sacraments amounted to changing fundamental church teaching about marriage, sexuality and the nature of the sacraments.
Pope Francis has not responded to the cardinals, two of whom have since died. But in December, the Vatican posted on its website the guidelines for interpreting “Amoris Laetitia” developed by a group of Argentine bishops, as well as Pope Francis’ letter to them describing the guidelines as “authentic magisterium.”
The guidelines by bishops in the Buenos Aires region said the path of discernment proposed by Pope Francis for divorced and civilly remarried couples “does not necessarily end in the sacraments” but, in some situations, after a thorough process of discernment, the pope’s exhortation “opens the possibility” to reception of the sacraments.
In the document and throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has emphasized God’s mercy and the power of the sacraments to spur conversion and nourish Christians as they try to progress in holiness.
Like all popes, Pope Francis frequently urges Catholics to go to confession, telling them it is not a “torture chamber.” And he repeatedly gives priests blunt advice about being welcoming and merciful to those who approach the confessional.
Like St. John Paul did each Lent, Pope Francis hears confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica. But, he surprised even his closest aides beginning in 2014 when, instead of going to the confessional to welcome the first penitent, he turned and went to confession himself.
He also has surprised people by being completely honest about his age. In April 2017, when he was still 80 years old, he told Italian young people that while they are preparing for the future, “at my age we are preparing to go.” The young people present objected loudly. “No?” the pope responded, “Who can guarantee life? No one.” From the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis has expressed love and admiration for retired Pope Benedict XVI. Returning from South Korea in 2014, he said Pope Benedict’s honest, “yet also humble and courageous” gesture of resigning cleared a path for later popes to do the same.
“You can ask me: ‘What if one day you don’t feel prepared to go on?'” he told the reporters traveling with him. “I would do the same, I would do the same! I will pray hard over it, but I would do the same thing. He (Pope Benedict) opened a door which is institutional, not exceptional.”
Follow Cindy Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

Cinco años del papa: El enfoque de Francisco ha sido en el acercamiento

Posted on by
Reply

Por Cindy Wooden
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO – El cardenal Jorge Mario Bergoglio fue elegido papa sólo unos pocos días después de decirle al Colegio de Cardenales que la Iglesia Católica enfrentaba una elección entre ser una iglesia que “sale al encuentro” de otros o una iglesia enfocada en sus asuntos internos.
Después su elección el 13 de marzo del 2013, el cardenal de Buenos Aires, Argentina escogió el nombre Francisco, e hizo comunes las frases “salir al encuentro,” “periferia” y “cultura del descarte” parte del vocabulario papal.
Los católicos tienen una amplia variedad de opiniones acerca de cómo el papa Francisco está ejerciendo el ministerio papal y muchos de sus comentarios — durante informales conferencias de prensa y en documentos oficiales — han creado controversia. Pero, como él mismo escribió en “La alegría del Evangelio”, la exhortación apostólica que expone la visión para su pontificado: “Prefiero una iglesia accidentada, herida y manchada por salir a la calle, antes que una iglesia enferma por el encierro y la comodidad de aferrarse a su propia seguridad.”
Pero hay dos áreas de asuntos internos de la iglesia que él reconoce que necesitan atención inmediata: la reforma de la Curia Romana y la plena protección de niños y adultos vulnerables al abuso sexual del clero.
La reforma organizacional de la Curia se ha llevado a cabo en etapas, pero el papa Francisco ha insistido en que la reforma verdadera es cuestión de cambiar corazones y acoger una vida de servicio.
En cuanto al tema del abuso, con nueve meses en su pontificado, el papa Francisco estableció la Comisión Pontificia para la Protección de los Menores para que lo asesore sobre las mejores formas de prevenir el abuso sexual por parte del clero y asegurar el cuidado pastoral para los afectados.
Mientras el papa Francisco ha proclamado enfáticamente no tolerar a los abusadores y recientemente dijo que encubrir el abuso “es en sí mismo un abuso,” cuando se acerca su quinto aniversario como papa emergen serias preguntas sobre cómo manejó las acusaciones de que el obispo chileno Juan Barros, quien era sacerdote en ese momento, encubrió las denuncias de abuso contra su mentor.
El nuevo escándalo amenazó con enfriar la amplia popularidad del papa Francisco y sus esfuerzos por establecer un nuevo rumbo en la Iglesia Católica.
Para el Sumo Pontífice, el nuevo camino abarca la evangelización.
“Evangelizar presupone un deseo en la iglesia de salirse de sí misma,” le dijo a los cardenales sólo unos días antes del cónclave que lo eligió. “La iglesia está llamada a salir de sí misma e ir a las periferias, no sólo geográficamente sino también a las periferias existenciales: el misterio del pecado, del dolor, de la injusticia, de la ignorancia y la indiferencia a la religión, de las corrientes intelectuales y de toda miseria.”
Misericordia es lo primero que la Iglesia Católica está llamada a llevar a esas periferias, dice el papa.
Su deseo de acercamiento ha inspirado innovaciones que fueron notables al inicio del papado, pero ahora parece ser parte natural del día a día de un papa. Por ejemplo, comenzó invitando a jardineros y recolectores de basura del Vaticano a su Misa de la mañana en la capilla de su residencia y ahora el papa continúa invitando a un pequeño grupo de católicos a que se unan a él la mayoría de las mañanas.
La residencia, Casa de Santa Marta, es una casa de huéspedes construida por san Juan Pablo II con la intención de brindar vivienda decente a los cardenales, cuando participen en un cónclave para elegir un nuevo papa. El papa Francisco decidió, después del cónclave del 2013, vivir allí y no mudarse a los más aislados apartamentos papales en el Palacio Apostólico.
Cada año en Jueves Santo, él ha celebrado misa en una prisión, un hospital o un centro de refugiados y ha lavado los pies de pacientes, presos o inmigrantes, hombres y mujeres, católicos y miembros de otras corrientes religiosas. También dio indicaciones a la Congregación para el Culto Divino y la Disciplina de los Sacramentos para que clarifique que los pies de, tanto mujeres como hombres, pueden ser lavados en la Misa de la Última Cena del Señor en Jueves Santo.
Durante el Año de la Misericordia 2015-16, visitó un viernes al mes a gente necesitada, incluyendo a aquellos en una escuela para ciegos, una unidad de cuidado intensivo de recién nacidos, una comunidad de alcohólicos en recuperación, un hogar de menores y una comunidad para mujeres rescatadas de los traficantes que las forzaban a la prostitución.
En septiembre del 2015, cuando olas de inmigrantes y refugiados estaban luchando y muriendo para llegar a Europa, el papa Francisco le pidió a cada parroquia y comunidad religiosa en Europa que considerara ofrecerle hospitalidad a una familia.
A menos de tres meses en su pontificado, empezó denunciando “la cultura del descarte” como una en la cual el dinero y el poder eran los primordiales valores y algo o alguien que no progrese por dinero o poder era desechable.
En los primeros tres años de su papado, publicó tres documentos importantes: “Evangelii Gaudium” (La alegría del Evangelio); “‘Laudato Si’ (Alabado Seas), sobre el Cuidado de la Casa Común”, enfocado en el medioambiente; y “‘Amoris Laetitia’ (La Alegría del Amor), sobre el amor en la familia”, sus reflexiones sobre las conversaciones del Sínodo de los Obispos en 2014 y 2015.
Personas escépticas sobre las pruebas científicas de que la actividad humana está contribuyendo al cambio climático, se opusieron a partes de la encíclica “Laudato Si,”, pero las críticas fueron mínimas si se comparan con las reacciones al documento del papa Francisco sobre la familia, especialmente en lo relativo al ministerio para divorciados y los católicos que se han vuelto a casar por civil y la posibilidad de que, bajo ciertas condiciones, algunos de esos católicos pudieran volver a recibir los sacramentos.
La mayor crítica vino del cardenal estadounidense Raymond L. Burke y otros tres cardenales, quienes le enviaron al papa, y luego difundieron públicamente en noviembre del 2016, una lista formal de preguntas claves, conocidas como “dubia,” insistiendo que permitir que esos católicos reciban los sacramentos equivale a cambiar la enseñanza fundamental de la iglesia sobre el matrimonio, sexualidad y la naturaleza de los sacramentos.
El papa Francisco no ha respondido a los cardenales, dos de los cuales han muerto desde entonces. Pero en diciembre, el Vaticano publicó en su portal de internet los lineamientos generales para interpretar “La Alegría del Amor,” desarrollado por un grupo de obispos argentinos, así también como una carta del papa Francisco a ellos describiendo los lineamientos como “magisterio auténtico”.
Como san Juan Pablo hacía cada cuaresma, el papa Francisco escucha confesiones en la Basílica de san Pedro, pero, sorprendió incluso a sus asistentes más cercanos a inicios del 2014 cuando, en vez de ir al confesionario a recibir al primer penitente, se regresó y fue él mismo a confesarse.
También ha sorprendido a la gente por ser honesto sobre su edad. En abril del 2017, cuando tenía todavía 80 años, le dijo a jóvenes italianos que mientras ellos están preparándose para el futuro, “a mi edad, estamos preparándonos para irnos.” Los jóvenes objetaron a viva voz. “¿No?” -respondió el papa-“¿Quién puede garantizar la vida? Nadie.”

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO – El papa Francisco aparece por primera vez en el balcón central de la Basílica de San Pedro en el Vaticano en esta foto de archivo del 13 de marzo de 2013. (Foto CNS-Paul Haring)

Pope to religious: Your hearts must be open 24-7

Posted on by
Reply

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Lift up your eyes from your smartphones and see your brothers and sisters, those who share your journey of faith and those who are longing for the Word of life, Pope Francis told consecrated men and women.
“Today’s frantic pace leads us to close many doors to encounter, often for fear of others,” the pope said in his homily for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the World Day for Consecrated Life. “Only shopping malls and internet connections are always open.” Yet believers’ hearts must be open as well, because every believer receives the faith from someone and is called to share it with others, the pope said at the Mass Feb. 2 in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The feast day commemorates the 40th day after Jesus’ birth when, in accordance with ancient Jewish practice, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple and presented him to the Lord. The feast’s Gospel reading from St. Luke recounts how the aged Simeon and Anna, who were praying in the temple, recognized Jesus as the Messiah.
The Mass, attended by thousands of women and men belonging to religious orders, began with the traditional blessing of candles and a prayer that God would guide people toward his son, “the light that has no end.” In his homily, Pope Francis focused on a series of encounters: between people and Jesus; between the young Mary and Joseph and the elderly Simeon and Anna; and between individuals and members of their religious communities or their neighborhoods.
“In the Christian East,” the pope explained, “this feast is called the ‘feast of Encounter’: It is the encounter between God, who became a child to bring newness to our world, and an expectant humanity.”
The pope told the religious that their own journeys were “born of an encounter and a call” which, while highly personal, took place in the context of a family, a parish or a community.
Members of religious orders must realize that they need each other – young and old – to renew and strengthen their knowledge of the Lord, he said. They must never “toss aside” the elderly members because “if the young are called to open new doors, the elderly have the keys.”
One’s brothers or sisters in the community are a gift to be cherished, he said before adding a plea: “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 said strengthening the intergenerational bonds in a religious community also is an antidote to “the barren rhetoric of ‘the good old days’” and the only way “to silence those who believe that ‘everything is going wrong here.’”
Religious life, with its vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, always has been countercultural, he said. And yet it is the source of true freedom because while “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.”

Mercy sisters embark on solidarity week with immigrants via social media

Posted on by
Reply

By Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a strongly worded message prior to National Migration Week Jan.7-13, the president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas expressed solidarity with migrants and called on others to stop “blaming migrants and fanning anti-immigrant sentiment that divides our nation.”
“We renew our call for an immediate end to the unjust and immoral treatment of migrants and refugees, recognizing that decades of failed U.S. political and economic policies have contributed to the reasons people have fled homelands,” said the Jan. 3 statement by Mercy Sister Patricia McDermott from the sisters’ headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The statement says the Sisters of Mercy “stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers who are forced by poverty, persecution or violence in their native countries to flee their homes, loved ones and livelihoods, desperately seeking safety and the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families.”
The sisters ask for passage of laws to help young adults who came to the United States without documentation, for continuation of a temporary immigration status for migrants from Haiti and Central America, and for an end to expedited deportations, travel bans and long-term detention of immigrants.
“As Pope Francis reminds us: ‘How can we not see the face of the Lord in the face of the millions of exiles, refugees and displaced persons who are fleeing in desperation from the horror of war, persecution and dictatorship?'” the statement says.
The Mercy Sisters kicked-off National Migration Week on social media, recalling their religious order’s migration journey from Ireland to the United States in the 1800s. The next day, they explored some of the “anti-immigrant sentiment in the 19th century, mirrored so often in the rhetoric of our own times,” the statement says.
During subsequent days, they highlighted how their religious community responded to a variety of immigration waves and how U.S. policies abroad drove migration to the U.S., from the 1970s until today.

Rohingya refugees reach to receive aid Sept. 14 at a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (CNS photo/Danish Siddiqui, Reuters)

National Migration Week began under the auspices of the U.S. Catholic bishops as a way “to honor and learn about the diverse communities of the church, as well as the work that the church undertakes to serve immigrants and refugees,” said a Jan. 5 press release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“National Migration Week allows for reflection upon the biblical teaching concerning welcoming the newcomer and allows us to share the journey with our brothers and sisters who have been forced from their homes,” said Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration.
A statement about the week by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called it a “time of prayer and reflection on our history as a migrant church and nation.”
The cardinal urged Catholics to think about the pope’s message on World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, when he said that migrants and refugees “bring their courage, skills, energy and aspirations, as well as the treasures of their own cultures; and in this way, they enrich the lives of the nations that receive them.”
Many organizations and groups plan to participate in National Migration Week with a focus on Caritas Internationalis’ “Share the Journey” migration campaign, a two-year effort by the humanitarian organization that urges Catholics to understand and get to know refugees and migrants who have fled poverty, hunger, violence, persecution and the effects of climate change in their homeland.
Educational materials and other resources for National Migration Week are available at www.justiceforimmigrants.org/take-action/national-migration-week.

(Editor’s note: The Diocese of Jackson sponsored a number of National Migration Week activities.)

Don’t confess other’s faults, own up to sins, pope says at audience

Posted on by
Reply

By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Fear and the shame of admitting one’s own sins leads to pointing fingers and accusing others rather than recognizing one’s own faults, Pope Francis said.
“It’s difficult to admit being guilty, but it does so much good to confess with sincerity. But you must confess your own sins,” the pope said Jan. 3 at his first general audience of the new year.
“I remember a story an old missionary would tell about a woman who went to confession and she began by telling her husband’s faults, then went on to her mother-in-law’s faults and then the sins of her neighbors. At a certain point, the confessor told her, ‘But ma’am, tell me, are you done?’ ‘No… Yes.’ ‘Great, you have finished with other people’s sins, now start to tell me yours,’” he said.
The pope was continuing his series of audience talks on the Mass, reflecting on the penitential rite.

Pope Francis hears a confession in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy, Aug. 4. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Recognizing one’s own sins prepares a person to make room in his or her heart for Christ, the pope said. But a person who has a heart “full of himself, of his own success” receives nothing because he is already satiated by his “presumed justice.”
“Listening to the voice of conscience in silence allows us to realize that our thoughts are far from divine thoughts, that our words and our actions are often worldly, guided by choices that are contrary to the Gospel,” the pope said.
Confessing one’s sins to God and the church helps people understand that sin not only “separates us from God but also from our brothers and sisters,” he added.
“Sin cuts. It cuts our relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters, in our family, in society, in the community,” the pope said. “Sin always cuts, separates, divides.”
The penitential rite at Mass also includes asking the intercession of Mary and all the angels and saints, which, he said, is an acknowledgement that Christians seek help from “friends and models of life” who will support them on their journey toward full communion with God.
Christians also can find the courage to “take off their masks” and seek pardon for their sins by following the example of biblical figures such as King David, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman and St. Peter.
“To take measure of the fragility of the clay with which we have been formed is an experience that strengthens us,” Pope Francis said. “While making us realize our weakness, it opens our heart to call upon the divine mercy that transforms and converts. And this is what we do in the penitential act at the beginning of Mass.”

(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju)

Cardinal Bernard Law’s death leaves conflicting legacy

Posted on by
Reply

JACKSON – The death of Cardinal Bernard F. Law on Dec. 20, at the age of 86, brought forth a range of conflicting reactions and emotions in the Diocese of Jackson and around the world. Cardinal Law began his priestly ministry in this diocese and was well known here for his fervent support of the Civil Rights Movement, social justice and pro-life issues. He was most famous, however, as the face of the Church’s sex abuse scandal after he became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston said in a statement Dec. 20, “As archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law served at a time when the church failed seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities.”
Cardinal O’Malley also recognized that his predecessor’s death “brings forth a wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones. To those men and women, I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing.”
Cardinal Law was buried in Rome, where he had his last assignment.
Bernard Francis Law was born on Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, where his father, a career Air Force officer, was then stationed. He attended schools in New York, Florida, Georgia, Barranquilla, Colombia, and the Virgin Islands.
He graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. before entering St. Joseph Seminary in St. Benedict, La. in 1953. He later studied at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio.

Cardinal Bernard F. Law, second from right, is pictured during a 1969 march to the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., for a memorial service for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Cardinal Law, who had been one of the United States’ most powerful and respected bishops until his legacy was blemished by the devastating sexual abuse of minors by priests in his Archdiocese of Boston, died early Dec. 20 in Rome at the age of 86. (CNS file photo)

Bernard F. Law was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson (now Jackson) in 1961. His first assignment was as associate pastor at Vicksburg St. Paul Parish from 1961-1963. In January 1963 he was appointed associate pastor of Jackson St. Therese Parish and in March became the editor and business manager of the diocesan newspaper, then The Mississippi Register. At the same time, he held several other diocesan posts, including director of the family life bureau and spiritual director at the minor seminary.
A civil rights activist, he joined the Mississippi Leadership Conference and Mississippi Human Relations Council. He received death threats for his strong editorial positions on civil rights in The Mississippi Register.
His work for ecumenism in the Deep South in the 1960s received national attention, and in 1968 he was tapped for his first national post, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
In 1973, Blessed Paul VI named him bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo. He made headlines in 1975 when, amid an influx of Vietnamese refugees arriving in the United States, he arranged to resettle in his diocese all 166 refugee members of the Vietnamese religious order, Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix.
Continuing his ecumenical work, he formed the Missouri Christian Leadership Conference. He was made a member of the Vatican’s Secretariat (now Pontifical Council) for Promoting Christian Unity and served in 1976-81 as a consultor to its Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. He also chaired the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs in the late 1970s.
St. John Paul II made him archbishop of Boston in January 1984 and the following year made him a cardinal.
A constant advocate of the right to life of the unborn, he denounced the pro-abortion stance of the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, a Catholic, during the 1984 presidential race.
It was his proposal for a worldwide catechism, in a speech at the 1985 extraordinary Synod of Bishops, that led to development of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” Cardinal Law also oversaw the first drafting of an English translation of the catechism, and unsuccessfully defended the inclusive-language version that the Vatican ultimately rejected and ordered rewritten.
The collapse of Cardinal Law’s authority and status began in January 2002 with the criminal trial of serial child molester John Geoghan and the court-ordered release of archdiocesan files on Geoghan to the media. Geoghan had been allowed to stay in active ministry for three decades before he was finally removed and subsequently laicized.
The released files showed that when complaints against Geoghan were made in one parish he would be removed, but soon assigned to another parish. The files gave firsthand proof of how such complaints were handled and demonstrated a pattern of protecting and transferring abusive priests by the cardinal and his aides.
In the first weeks following the revelations, Cardinal Law publicly apologized on several occasions and announced a series of major policy changes – most importantly, permanently removing from ministry any priest ever credibly accused of sexual abuse and turning over to district attorneys the names of all priests against whom any abuse allegation had been made.
A series of investigative reports by the Boston Globe made national headlines, and other newspapers and television news teams across the nation began investigating how their local dioceses dealt with abusive priests.
Mary Woodward, diocesan chancellor and long-time friend, remarked Cardinal Law had the ability to listen to and understand people from all walks of life. “He had an immense vocabulary and keen intellect that he used to decipher and diffuse often difficult situations,” Woodward said.
“Though his time in Boston became marred by some bad decisions and oversight, he was still a pastor at heart trying to heal and reconcile until his resignation and even beyond that. There were times when he would sneak out of his residence late at night and visit the sick in nearby hospitals. He genuinely cared about each person and I know he grieved over the immense pain endured by victims of sexual abuse at the hands of church personnel,” she added.
St. John Paul II appointed Cardinal Law in 2004 to be the new archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of the four major basilicas of Rome.
(Contributing to this story were Mary Woodward, chancellor for the Diocese of Jackson and Catholic News Service reporters Cindy Wooden and Junno Arocho Esteves in Rome.)