Category Archives: World News

500 years from Reformation: Grace remains key issue

Posted on by
Reply

By Aaron Williams
For Lutherans across the world, this past October 31 was more than just your average Halloween. It was on Oct. 31, 1517, that Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Now, the countdown has begun leading up to the five-hundredth anniversary of Luther’s split with the Catholic Church and the start of modern-day Protestantism.

Williams

Williams

This year is a good opportunity for all Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, to join together in prayer for unification so that “all may be one” (John 17:21) as our Lord intended of his church from the beginning. But, this anniversary also provides for Catholics a moment to reflect on those differences which still cause separation. Especially for we who live in a overwhelmingly Protestant area, it can be helpful to know where the Catholic Church stands on significant issues which divide us from our protestant brothers and sisters.
One such issue is the matter of grace. Grace is not something most Christians often give much thought, but it is a word which we, perhaps deafly, hear preached, read in scripture, or sung in hymns. So, what is “grace”?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2003) states, “Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us.” Grace is that gratuitous gift of God which purifies us and assists us in living the Christian life. Understanding the role of grace requires us to ask why we need grace in the first place and to answer that question we have to consider the role of sin in our lives.
For Catholics, all sin has its root in the original sin of Adam and Eve. God commanded them, “You must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…lest you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). But, we know that Adam and Eve did eat of this fruit and so they and all their children died. The church teaches that the guilt of the same sin of our first parents has been passed down from generation to generation, so that all humanity shares in this guilt. This sin was so significant that it damaged the very nature of humankind so that we were no longer able to do good works.
But, God the Father, in his infinite mercy, gave up his only Son and by the sacrifice of Christ on calvary, grace entered the world — grace enough that for all who are baptized, the guilt of original sin is totally wiped away and human nature is restored to its justified state. Men and women are made sons and daughters of God and are therefore holy and able to freely choose to do good works with the help of God’s grace.
Luther, however, did not share this view. It was his argument that human nature was so harmed by Adam and Eve’s sin that Christ’s sacrifice only served to declare all of us “justified” — even though we remained guilty of sin and incapable of doing good works. For Luther, humankind is incapable of freely choosing to do good things and even though every man and woman is sinful and their nature is turned towards evil, those who have faith in Christ will still be saved on the last day.
His view is similar to that of a child who, instead of sweeping the house, pushes the dust under a rug. For Luther, God does not restore our nature to its previous state but simply declares us “justified” — so that we appear holy from the exterior, while are still guilty of original sin interiorly.
Catholics, however, are so confident that baptism regenerates us from our sinful state that we insist even the smallest among us (infants) be baptized, even though they may not understand what it means at the time. It is a sacrament which fundamentally heals our nature interiorly and not simply from an external appearance.
For Catholics, baptism gives us the gift of faith, by which we may be saved. And since we are all made a part of the Mystical Body of Christ in baptism, all of us are capable of doing good works because we are enabled by Christ. In the words of St. Paul, “It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Martin Luther, a German monk and key figure in the Protestant Reformation, is depicted in this painting at a church in Helsingor, Denmark. Pope Francis will visit Sweden Oct. 31-Nov. 1 for commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. (CNS photo/Crosiers) See VATICAN-LETTER-SWEDEN AND SWEDEN-TRIP-REFORMATION Oct. 20, 2016.

Martin Luther, a German monk and key figure in the Protestant Reformation, is depicted in this painting at a church in Helsingor, Denmark. Pope Francis will visit Sweden Oct. 31-Nov. 1 for commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. (CNS photo/Crosiers) See VATICAN-LETTER-SWEDEN AND SWEDEN-TRIP-REFORMATION Oct. 20, 2016.

Moreover, since Christ enables us to do good works and all Christ’s works are pleasing before the Father, our own works can merit us a greater capacity for grace. This is not to say that Catholics think of salvation as if it is “bought” by good works. Humankind is justified once and for all by Christ’s sacrifice through baptism, but after that initial grace of justification, each of us is able to merit more grace to assist us in living a virtuous life and to have a greater capacity to experience God in heaven. Thus, St. Paul writes, “God will render to each according to his works” (Romans 2:6). After baptism, God gives more grace to each person according to the works they do through Christ, because everything that Christ does is pleasing to the Father.
As we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, it would be good for each of us to reflect on those things which make us Catholic — our theology, our liturgy, our faith in the leadership of the church. There are so many blessings in our faith which so few of us understand. Maybe this year each of us can buy a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and commit to reading a little bit each day. And most importantly, we should each pray that “all may be one” once more.
(Aaron Williams is a third-year theologian studying at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He and his classmate, Nick Adam, will be ordained to the the transitional diaconate in the Spring.)

Papal commission steps up work to educate church about abuse

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Members of the pope’s commission for child protection, including an abuse survivor, have been speaking with new bishops and major Vatican offices as part of a mandate to develop and educate the church about best practices.
Pope Francis also approved the establishment of a day of prayer for survivors of abuse, but decided it will be up to each nation’s bishops’ conference to decide when the memorial should be held, according a press release Sept. 12 from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Members of the pontifical commission have spoken recently with officials at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains priests for service in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps.
Pontifical commission members, who were in Rome in early September, were also set to address the Congregation for Clergy and to speak at seminars for recently appointed bishops; the training seminars are organized by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Marie Collins, a commission member and survivor of lerical abuse, was scheduled to be one of a number of commission members to address the Sept. 11-18 session of what is commonly referred to as “new bishops school.”
Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a psychologist and commission member, and Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta, a longtime abuse investigator, already delivered their talks on abuse by clergy and the importance of protecting minors and vulnerable adults during the early September seminar for bishops newly elected to dioceses in mission lands.
The commission has completed a template meant to help all church entities — from bishops’ conferences to Catholic associations — in formulating guidelines in preventing and responding appropriately to abuse.
Pope Francis was set to receive the template “shortly,” according to the commission press release.
At the request of a clerical abuse survivor from Canada, the commission developed a proposal for a universal Day of Prayer because “prayer is one part of the healing process for survivors and the community of believers” and public gatherings for prayer also help raise awareness about the issue, it said.
Pope Francis received the proposal and has asked “that national bishops’ conferences choose an appropriate day on which to pray for the survivors and victims of sexual abuse as part of a Universal Day of Prayer initiative,” it said.
The reason a universal date was not set is because a number of bishops’ conference around the world already have specific days set aside for penance and prayer for victims and their healing, Father Zollner told Catholic News Service.
For example, the church in Australia adopted the nation’s own Day for Child Protection — Sept. 11 — to mark its Day of Prayer.
The Southern African Bishops’ Conferences will dedicate Dec. 2-4 — days which fall during Advent this year — to penance, fasting and prayer, the press release said.
The commission said it has resources like prayers for Mass, liturgical texts and other materials available on request as part of the Day of Prayer initiative.

Homeless invited to jubilee dinner

Posted on by
Reply

By Jane Chambers
SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) – Outside the cathedral, Ricardo Reyes, dressed in a black tracksuit, waited with nearly 250 other homeless people to pass through white metal barriers for a special dinner to celebrate the Year of Mercy. Inside the nave, 10 tables were covered with red and white tablecloths, waiting for the food and guests.
“I have been homeless for the last three years. My family kicked me out because I have problems with alcohol and drugs. It’s tough living on the streets, because everyone thinks you are worthless and doesn’t care about you. They don’t want to give me work, so it is really hard to get by,” he told Catholic News Service as he waited.
People like Reyes had traveled from all over Santiago, invited by volunteers in different parishes around the city. At 5 p.m. Aug. 19, Santiago Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati greeted the guests and invited them into the cathedral. Many became emotional as they streamed into the church and took in their surroundings: ornate gold leafing; red-veined marble columns and high ceilings with frescoes illustrating biblical stories; freshly polished floors and altar arrangements of yellow lilies and red and white roses.
Some embraced the cardinal, their eyes filled with tears of joy and disbelief to be in such a place.
Reyes walked purposefully up to the front of the nave and made sure he was as close to the cardinal as possible. The heavy wooden pews were soon filled with all of the guests.
Reyes’ friend, Jorge Alfaro, was sitting beside him in a wheelchair, wearing a checked yellow scarf. He has been homeless for five years.
“Being homeless when you are in a wheelchair is very tough, because it makes it more difficult to find food and somewhere to stay, but my friends help me,” he said. While he was explaining what coming to the cathedral meant to him, his sunken face crumpled and he started to cry, saying: “It is a very special moment which touches me deeply. It really means something for me to know that people care about us and want to help us and invite us in. Finally, we feel like we are valued.”
In a little patio at the back of the cathedral, head chef Marcela Valdes had been busy preparing the Aug. 19 feast. Valdes knew that many of her guests would not have eaten all day and would be hungry. For hygiene reasons, the food was prepared off site, and she and other helpers packed dinner into white polystyrene boxes.
The menu included soup, Chile’s famous empanadas, roast chicken, rice and creamed vegetables. It was washed down with a Chilean favorite: endless quantities of red and orange fizzy drinks.
Valdes has spent 25 years working for the Home of Christ, a network of shelters for homeless children established by St. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, a Jesuit, who died in 1952. As well as cooking for the bishops, she cooks for the homeless.
“I really love my work because I know these people have nothing and I find working for them very fulfilling,” she said.
Reyes and Alfaro took two empanadas, saving one for later when they were back on the streets. But, as well as eating delicious food, the evening was about creating bonds and recognizing the work of volunteers in ministering to homeless people.
Cardinal Ezzati recognized their work in front of their peers and the people they help. Each person – volunteer and guest – received a wooden cross. People sang and waved their hands in the air as the atmosphere turned festive.
Cardinal Ezzati told CNS that the Chilean church was responding to Pope Francis’ call for the Year of Mercy.
“These people need to feel valued and loved and not like they are something that society has thrown aside,” he said. “They have much to teach us about the spirit of solidarity and charity, which is what this year is all about.”
The cathedral is in Plaza de Armas, in the heart of Santiago. It’s where Peruvian, Haitian and Colombian immigrants hang out.
Cardinal Ezzati said the homeless “are always welcome to come to the cathedral” and noted that they “often use it as a place to rest and escape the heat in summer or the cold in winter.”
“But for us the refuge they have in their own parishes is also very important; that is where they live and that is where they can create bonds with our volunteers and be helped,” he added.

Mercy isn’t an abstract word, it’s a way of life, pope says

Posted on by
Reply

By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Mercy is not an abstract concept but a lifestyle that invites Christians to make an examination of conscience and ask themselves if they place the spiritual and material needs of others before their own, Pope Francis said.
A Christian who chooses to be merciful experiences true life and has “eyes to see, ears to listen, and hands to comfort,” the pope said June 30 during a Year of Mercy audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“That which makes mercy alive is its constant dynamism to go out searching for the needy and the needs of those who are in spiritual or material hardship,” he said.
By being indifferent to the plight of the poor and suffering, the pope said, Christians turn into “hypocrites” and move toward a “spiritual lethargy that numbs the mind and makes life barren.”
“People who go through life, who walk in life without being aware of the needs of others, without seeing the many spiritual and material needs are people who do not live,” he said. “They are people who do not serve others. And remember this well: One who does not live to serve, serves nothing in life.”
Instead, he continued, those who have experienced the mercy of God in their own lives do not remain insensitive to the needs of others. Far from theoretical issues, the works of mercy are a “concrete witness” that compel Christians to “roll up their sleeves in order to ease suffering.”
Pope Francis also called on the faithful to remain vigilant and to focus on Christ present, especially in those suffering due to a globalized “culture of well-being.”
“Look at Jesus; look at Jesus in the hungry, in the prisoner, in the sick, in the naked, in the person who does not have a job to support his family. Look at Jesus in these brothers and sisters of ours. Look at Jesus in those who are alone, sad, in those who make a mistake and need advice, in those who need to embark on the path with him in silence so they may feel accompanied,” he said. “These are the works that Jesus asks of us. To look at Jesus in them, in these people. Why? Because Jesus also looks at me, looks at you, in that way.”
Concluding his catechesis, Pope Francis recalled his visit to Armenia June 24-26, thanking the people of Armenia who, throughout their history, “have given witness to the Christian faith through martyrdom.”
While thanking Armenian Apostolic Catholics Karekin II for his hospitality, the pope stressed that in making the visit alongside the patriarch, he was reminding Catholics of the importance of strengthening bonds with other Christians as another way “of giving witness to the Gospel and being leaven for a more just and united society.”
The late June audience was the last one the pope was scheduled to hold before a reduced summer schedule. (Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.)

Organizers’ advice to World Youth Day pilgrims: Pack good walking shoes

Posted on by
Reply

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) – Young people attending World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland, may have to walk up to nine miles to and from one of its key sites, event organizers said.
“They’ll have to be ready for a long foot journey of several hours, but this has always been a feature of World Youth Days,” said Anna Chmura, WYD’s communications coordinator.
“There’ll be several designated routes, mostly from Krakow, and they’ll all be used heavily. But we’re confident the logistics and security have now been carefully worked out,” she told Catholic News Service.
The event, which runs July 26-31, is expected to bring 2 million people from 187 countries to the southern Polish city. They will be accompanied by 47 cardinals, 800 bishops and 20,000 priests. The July 30-31 vigil and Mass, on the fourth and fifth days of Pope Francis’ visit, will require nearly all of the participants to make the nine-mile journey to Campus Misericordiae, near Poland’s Wieliczka salt mine, Chmura said.
Buses will be available only for the 2,000 handicapped people registered for the event, elderly pilgrims and those with special needs, she added.
“Although we don’t have a final number for the buses, there’ll certainly be dozens, but the foot pilgrimage theme is central to the WYD,” Chmura explained.
“All registered groups from the various sectors will have their paths precisely indicated, to keep people moving and avoid logjams or safety hazards.”
The closing events include an evening prayer vigil July 30 at the campus as pilgrims stay overnight at the site. World Youth Day concludes the morning of July 31 with Mass and recitation of the Angelus before Pope Francis departs for Rome.

Where silence should reign: Pope will pray, not speak, at Auschwitz

Posted on by
Reply

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Tears and not words. Prayers and not greetings.
During his trip to Poland for World Youth Day, Pope Francis will go to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp. He said he wants to go alone and say nothing.
When Pope Francis speaks, he can delight fans and frustrate critics. He can wax poetic or be bluntly funny about human quirks.
But in the face of great suffering and horror, his first and strongest inclinations are silence, a profoundly bowed head and hands clasped tightly in prayer.
Pope Francis had asked that there be no speeches during his visit to Armenia’s genocide memorial June 25. At times, even the prayer service there with the Armenian Apostolic patriarch seemed too wordy. An aide gently cupped his elbow when it was time to end the silent reflection and begin the service.
The Vatican’s schedule for the pope’s visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau July 29 had him giving a speech at the international monument at Birkenau, just as St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI did.
But on the flight back to Rome from Armenia, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told Pope Francis, “I heard that you want to live that moment more with silence than words.”
The pope responded by reminding reporters that in 2014 when he went to Redipuglia in northern Italy to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I, “I went in silence,” walking alone among the graves. “Then there was the Mass and I preached at Mass, but that was something else.”
Speaking about his planned visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, “I would like to go to that place of horror without speeches, without crowds – only the few people necessary,” he said. “Alone, enter, pray. And may the Lord give me the grace to cry.”
Father Lombardi confirmed June 30 that the official program had been changed and the pope would not give a speech at the death camp. But it is not that Pope Francis has nothing to say about the horror of the Shoah, the importance of remembering it and the need to continue fighting anti-Semitism.
“The past must be a lesson to us for the present and the future,” he said Jan. 17 during a visit to Rome’s synagogue. “The Shoah teaches us that maximum vigilance is always needed in order to intervene quickly in defense of human dignity and peace.”
In the book “On Heaven and Earth,” written in 2010 with Rabbi Abraham Skorka, the future pope and rabbi discussed the Holocaust at length.
While the question “Where was God” is an important theological and human question, the pope said, “Where was man?” is an even bigger question. “The Shoah is genocide, like the others of the 20th century, but it has a distinctive feature,” an “idolatrous construction” in which the Nazis claimed to be god and embracing true evil tried to eradicate Judaism.
“Each Jew that they killed was a slap in the face to the living God,” the future pope wrote.
In a very formal, very solemn commemoration, Pope Francis visited the Shoah memorial, Yad Vashem, in Israel in 2014. He laid a wreath of flowers in memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, clasped his hands and stood in silence before slowly walking back to his place. He met six survivors of Nazi camps, kissing their hands in a sign of deference and recognition of their suffering.
Protocol for the occasion required a speech and, led to the podium, Pope Francis spoke softly, reflecting on the question of “Where was man?” and how could human beings have sunk so horribly low.
In his speech, he prayed to God, “Grant us the grace to be ashamed of what we men have done, to be ashamed of this massive idolatry, of having despised and destroyed our own flesh which you formed from the earth, to which you gave life with your own breath of life. Never again, Lord, never again!”
“Here we are, Lord, shamed by what man, created in your own image and likeness, was capable of doing,” he said. “Remember us in your mercy.”
After finishing the speech, the pope stood in silence at the lectern for almost three minutes, writing in the Yad Vashem guestbook.
His message: “With shame for what man, who was created in the image of God, was able to do; with shame for the fact that man made himself the owner of evil; with shame that man made himself into god and sacrificed his brothers. Never again! Never again!”
(Editor’s note: Mississippi Catholic would like to hear from any pilgrims from the Diocese of Jackson who are planning to attend World Youth Day. Send photos and reflections to editor@mississippicatholic.com.)

Catholic press faces ‘double mandate’

Posted on by
Reply

By Julie Asher
ST. LOUIS (CNS) – Catholic communicators “have a double mandate: the First Amendment of the Constitution and the Gospel,” Greg Erlandson told the Catholic Media Conference in St. Louis.
Erlandson, former president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, (OSV) received the Bishop John England Award June 2 from the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada.
“These are perilous times,” he said in his acceptance remarks. “We are looking at competing ideological agendas that too often are incompatible with the Gospel and that too often threaten the weakest among us – both born and unborn – the undocumented, the terminally ill, the poor and neglected.”
Catholic communicators’ vocation “is to be their voice,” said Erlandson. “Our vocation is to be the voice of the church. That is our responsibility and our privilege.”
Our Sunday Visitor, based in Huntington, Indiana, was founded 104 years ago “to be a voice for the church and the rights of Catholics.” he said.
He said that in that role, he “sought to defend the church’s right to speak out on all the issues of the day, to defend the church’s right to participate in the debates that animate the public square, but to do so without rancor or histrionics, to do so without blinders or defensiveness, but in the spirit of loyalty, honesty and intelligence that I hope has defined all that we published.”
In editorials and articles, OSV Newsweekly “has spoken out in defense of religious liberty and supported – both in court and in our pages – the opposition to the HHS (Health and Human Services) mandate regarding contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. We have addressed religious freedom issues worldwide, and defended the rights of migrants and refugees.”
The publication also has addressed the sex abuse crisis, he said, “both saluting the church for the policies it has instituted in the wake of the crisis, but also addressing the failures of leadership that occurred and that so wounded our church.”
He noted the publication’s defense of Catholic organizations “that have endured unjust attack,” he said, pointing in particular to Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency. CRS “has been the target of malicious and shameful witch hunts,” Erlandson said.
The England award is named for the Irish-born bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, who founded The Catholic Miscellany in 1822. As publisher of the newspaper, Bishop England defended separation of church and state, saying it was good for both entities. He also espoused freedom of religion. Presented annually, the award recognizes publishers in the Catholic press for the defense of First Amendment rights, such as freedom of the press and freedom of religion. It is the CPA’s highest award for publishers.
In 2015, Erlandson received the CPA’s St. Francis de Sales Award.
Mississippi Catholic production manager and creative services coordinator Contyna McNealy was recognized at this year’s Catholic Media Conference with a second place award for the design of the diocesan Saltillio Mission collection ad. Editor Maureen Smith attended the conference on behalf of the department of communications.

International deacons gather in Rome, share reflections on ministry, challenges

Posted on by
Reply

By Cindy Wooden
ROME (CNS) – Thousands of permanent deacons and their wives began their Year of Mercy celebration by cutting straight to the heart of what it means to be a deacon, how the ministry impacts their families and the challenge of explaining their vocation to others, including bishops and priests.
The pilgrims divided into language groups and hundreds of English-, German- and Portuguese-speaking deacons and their families gathered May 27 at Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.
Whether alone or with their wives, dressed in clerical collars or T-shirts because of the afternoon heat, they began sharing experiences of formation, homiletics training and ministry assignments even before the formal program began.
The Jubilee of Deacons concluded May 29 with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.
In the informal conversations and the sharing afterward, the women were active participants. Many of them had accompanied their husbands to formation classes, and all of them are directly impacted by their husbands’ ministries.
Deacon James Keating, director of theological formation at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska, said deacons are born in families, most of them fall in love and start families before discerning a vocation to the diaconate, and they often are called upon to minister to other families.
Deacon Keating insisted that a deacon who has had proper formation in prayer, theology and the sacraments “will become a better husband,” his wife “will actually fall more in love” because he will be converted to a closer relationship with Jesus and a greater availability to others.
However, he said, that availability is not so much about time and activity, as it is about “being” a deacon. It’s about “relationships, not ministries,” Deacon Keating insisted.
Kimberly Norman, whose husband, James, is a deacon at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago, said Deacon Keating was right. Speaking of her husband, she said: “Yes, he is a better man. Yes, he is a better husband.” The preparation and ministry “has strengthened our marriage.”
Deacon Norman said his wife has changed, too, and is a particularly good example and reminder to him to make more time for prayer.
The jubilee for deacons began just two weeks after Pope Francis told members of the International Union of Superiors General that he thought it was a good idea to establish a commission to study the role of New Testament deaconesses and the possibility of women serving as deacons today.
The Normans said that was a great idea. “I’m very hopeful,” Kimberly Norman said. Deacon Norman agreed, saying, “Clearly, women have had leadership in the church, but it’s not recognized by ordination.”
Deacon Anthony Gooley of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, and a lecturer in theology at the Broken Bay Institute, told the crowd that deacons were instituted in the early Christian community to minister to people whose particular needs were not being met by the disciples.
They have the same mission today to reach unserved or underserved populations, he said. In fact, their potential contribution to the new evangelization “is limited only by imagination and by the will of those who engage in placements and pastoral planning in the dioceses.”
“Too often a deacon is left to work out the details of his own pastoral ministry,” Deacon Gooley said, and arrangements are made with “a handshake deal with the parish priest.”
His remarks led to a ripple of agreement around the basilica.
Deacon Greg Kandra of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, a popular blogger and multimedia editor for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, focused on the ministry of deacons in the workplace. Many of the almost 45,000 permanent deacons in the world continue to work in secular jobs in to support their families even after ordination.
But a deacon is a deacon no matter where he is, Deacon Kandra said. He is called by the church to be on the “front line,” wherever he is.
“The deacon is called to be a witness to compassion,” helping those who are hungry or poor, whether materially or spiritually. “They might work in the cubicle next to yours,” he said.
As a witness to the dignity of work, Deacon Kandra said, the deacon is called to stand up for just wages and decent working conditions, but also to improve the workplace environment by “quieting gossip,” listening to grievances, speaking up for those without a voice.
“Some of the most important missionary activity in the world today may begin in unlikely places, not in a jungle or desert of some far-off country, but around the water cooler, or on a bus, or over coffee in the company cafeteria,” he said.
“What began on the altar on Sunday,” Deacon Kandra said, “continues in the world and in the workplace on Monday.”

Bishop to priests: God makes big demands, provides love

Posted on by
Reply

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Catholicism is a faith of extremes, where God makes tough demands while always offering his unconditional love, a U.S. bishop told priests taking part in their jubilee for the Year of Mercy.
When preaching or communicating church teaching, some priests might emphasize the high ideals needed for holiness, whereas others might underline God’s loving, inclusive embrace of even his wayward children, Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron of Los Angeles told Catholic News Service June 2.
But these two poles are not mutually exclusive, he said.
“We are not an ‘either-or’ religion, we’re the great ‘both-and’ religion” in which nothing can get in the way of divine mercy – “it moves into the arena of sin, it can never be trumped,” he said.
Bishop Barron was one of seven priests chosen to offer a catechesis on mercy during the Jubilee for Priests and Seminarians in Rome June 1-3. He presented his talk to English-language speakers at the Basilica of St. Andrea della Valle June 1.
He said he centered his talk on the Samaritan woman at the well in t John’s Gospel as a way to present four dimensions of mercy:
– “God’s mercy is relentless. It crosses all boundaries and borders. It can never be stressed enough,” he said.
– “God’s mercy is divinizing. It’s more than just patting us on the head or healing our wounds, it’s drawing us into the very life of the Trinity.”
– “Divine mercy is demanding, he said. “It affects a change in us, calls us to conversion.”
– “It inspires those who receive it to share the good news, embarking on mission,” he said.
Jesus “makes this very strong moral demand” on the woman and “calls her out” for living with a man who is not her husband, the bishop said.
But Jesus has also “won her over” with his pleasant approach and appealing offer of grace, he continued. And yet “that grace is not cheap, that grace is a demanding grace.”
This was the message he sought to tell the priests in his catechesis: “that it’s the great ‘both-and’ logic of Catholicism that ought to govern us here, and we shouldn’t fall into the trap of the zero-sum game.”
The “genius of the church,” he said, is that it includes all these facets and allows for a “great symphony of voices” in which some who preach the Gospel really emphasize “the inviting, inclusive side–others, that embody this demanding side.”
“Both should be part of the same chorus. The danger is reducing the symphony to a monotony,” he said.
He said a lot of what Pope Francis says reminds him of his spiritual mentor, the late Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago.
He said the cardinal once told seminarians at Mundelein Seminary, where Bishop Barron taught for more than 20 years, that he greatly admired them for their devotion to the truth.
“But then he said, ‘Remember, you can’t just drop the truth on people then walk away. You have to give them the truth and then be willing to walk with them to help them implement it.’”
“I think that’s precisely (Pope Francis’) message. He’s not softening the truth, but he’s saying you don’t just drop it on people, you walk with them,” he said.
Contributing to this story was Robert Duncan.
(Editors note: A video to go with this story can be found at https://youtu.be/DCzvPZjG3oY)

Teen jubilee: ‘go back to church, not your phone’

Posted on by
Reply

By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Sharing and celebrating the joy of faith with thousands of Catholic teenagers from around the globe was a rare moment that not many people are able to experience, a U.S. teen said.
“It was a different atmosphere than what I’m used to, but it’s good because it shows that the beauty of the Catholic Church is there,” Emily Sullivan told Catholic News Service April 25.
Emily, her brother Ryan and parents Matt and Susan, came from North Carolina to participate in the Year of Mercy celebration for young teens April 23-24 in Rome.
Both siblings, who are preparing to receive the sacrament of confirmation, said that despite the language barrier, they were able to join in singing and praying during the April 23 youth rally at Rome’s Olympic Stadium.
“It was awesome; the energy was insane,” Emily said. “The people knew all the lyrics and they were jamming out. So we came up with a couple of words that we could sing along. It was really cool to be in that atmosphere.”
To see so many Catholic teens in one place was “definitely encouraging,” she added.
For Ryan, attending the April 24 Mass in St. Peter’s Square was the highlight of his pilgrimage. “It was great seeing the pope,” and “meeting other people and seeing the city” was “all good,” he told CNS.
“We will make our confirmation in two weeks so it was definitely great to see the history of the church and (meet) other people who are Catholic because where we live, there’s not as big of a following,” Emily said.
In his homily, Pope Francis told the more than 100,000 teens present that happiness “is not an ‘app’ that you can download on your phones” and that love leads to true freedom, which is a gift that comes from “being able to choose good.”
The pope’s message, Emily said, encouraged people “to go back to the church at the end of the day, not your phone.”
Their mother Susan told CNS she hopes that attending the jubilee event will give her children a “fuller and richer experience” as they prepare to receive confirmation in two weeks.
“It was really important for me and for them to have this experience,” she said. “To be that close (to Pope Francis) as he was celebrating Mass was truly, I hope, a life-changing experience for them that reaffirms their faith.”