Archbishop Romero: Symbol of church leaders’ efforts to protect flocks

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who will be beatified in San Salvador May 23, has become a symbol of Latin American church leaders’ efforts to protect their flocks from the abuses of military dictatorships.
However, his life and the 35 years it took the Vatican to recognize him as a martyr also reflect decades of theological and pastoral discussion over the line dividing pastoral action from political activism under repressive regimes.
Archbishop Romero was assassinated March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in the chapel of Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador, the city he served as archbishop for three years.
The intense turmoil in El Salvador coincided with a period of intense questioning within the church as pastors in countries under military dictatorships, civil war or communist oppression tried to find the best ways to be faithful to their mission of ministering to their flocks while defending their rights.
The Vatican made frequent calls in those years for priests and bishops, especially in Latin America and in Africa, to stay out of partisan politics. But repressive regimes easily decided churchmen who denounced widespread human rights abuses were meddling in politics.
Jesuit Father James R. Brockman, author of a biography of the archbishop, like many historians and supporters of Archbishop Romero’s beatification, said that when Bishop Romero was chosen as archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, he was known as a “conservative” and there was a widespread assumption that he would not directly challenge the country’s rulers. His background was not that of a political activist.
Oscar Romero was born Aug. 15, 1917, in Ciudad Barrios, the second of seven children. Although not considered poor, the family did not have electricity or running water in their home, and the children slept on the floor. Oscar began working as a carpenter’s apprentice when he was 12 years old, but then decided to enter the minor seminary and continue his formal education.
Once he finished his studies at the San Miguel minor seminary, he transferred to the major seminary in San Salvador and was sent to Rome where he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained to the priesthood April 4, 1942, in the chapel of the Latin American College.
Returning to El Salvador in 1944, he worked as a parish priest in the Diocese of San Miguel, later becoming secretary of the diocese, a position he held for 23 years. During that time — long before becoming archbishop of San Salvador and famous for the radio broadcasts of his homilies – he convinced local radio stations to broadcast his Sunday Masses and sermons so that Catholics in more rural areas could listen and grow in their faith.
In 1970, when the priest was 52, Pope Paul VI named him an auxiliary bishop of San Salvador. Four years later, he became bishop of Santiago de Maria, the diocese that included his hometown of Ciudad Barrios. Social and political tensions in El Salvador were growing worse; when five farmworkers were hacked to death in June 1975 by members of the Salvadoran National Guard, then-Bishop Romero consoled the families and wrote a letter of protest to the government.
“Before Romero was archbishop for a month, his deeply admired friend, the Jesuit Rutilio Grande, was killed,” wrote Thomas Quigley, a former official at the U.S. bishops’ conference, in the foreword to the English translation of Archbishop Romero’s audio diary.
Father Grande’s strong advocacy for the poor as he ministered in rural communities in northern San Salvador strongly influenced Archbishop Romero, say many of those who knew him. The Jesuit used his pulpit to denounce actions of the government and of the death squads in his country, as well as the violence used by some opponents of the government.
After consultation with the priests’ council, Archbishop Romero “ordered only one public Mass celebrated in the archdiocese on the Sunday following Grande’s funeral,” Father Brockman wrote in the introduction to the diary. “It turned out to be the largest religious demonstration in the nation’s history and for many a profound religious experience.
But it also led to a serious clash with the Vatican’s ambassador, the papal nuncio, who had pressured Romero not to hold the single Mass lest the government think it provocative. It was the beginning of an enduring lack of understanding and support on the part of the nuncio.”
Archbishop Romero continued having his Sunday Masses and homilies broadcast by radio and, increasingly, he used them as opportunities to explain to Salvadoran citizens what was going on in their country and what their response as Christian should be. He always condemned violence and he urged conversion, particularly on the part of members of the government death squads.
Quigley wrote that Archbishop Romero’s homilies “rarely lasted less than an hour and a half” and included his account of “the events of the week,” both good and bad, “proclaiming the good news of the liberating Gospel and, with the prophets of old, denouncing the evils of the day.”
His homilies and his letters to government officials made him a frequent target of death threats and often put him at odds with several of the other Salvadoran bishops and even with Vatican officials who believed he had crossed the line into politics and was placing the church’s pastoral work in jeopardy.
He lived in a small residence on the grounds of the Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador and frequently celebrated Mass, vespers and benediction there with the sisters who ran the hospital. He was shot and killed in the chapel, a day after he challenged army soldiers for killing their fellow citizens.

Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee

Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father, and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him.
Show us your face and we will be saved.

Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money; the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things; made Peter weep after his betrayal, and assured Paradise to the repentant thief.
Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us, the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman:
“If you knew the gift of God!”

You are the visible face of the invisible Father,
of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified. You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error: let everyone who approaches them feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.

Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing, so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord, and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed, and restore sight to the blind.

We ask this through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy, you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
Amen.

Vatican unveils logo, prayer, details of Holy Year of Mercy

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Holy Year of Mercy will be an opportunity to encourage Christians to meet people’s “real needs” with concrete assistance, to experience a “true pilgrimage” on foot and to send “missionaries of mercy” throughout the world to forgive even the most serious of sins, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella.
The yearlong extraordinary jubilee also will include several individual jubilee days, such as for the Roman Curia, catechists, teenagers and prisoners, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, the office organizing events for the Holy Year of Mercy.
During a news conference at the Vatican May 5, Archbishop Fisichella unveiled the official prayer, logo, calendar of events and other details of the special Holy Year, which will be celebrated from Dec. 8, 2015, until Nov. 20, 2016.
The motto, “Merciful Like the Father,” he said, “serves as an invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure.”
Pope Francis announced in March his intention to proclaim a holy year as a way for the church to “make more evident its mission to be a witness of mercy.”
One way the pope wants to show “the church’s maternal solicitude” is to send out “missionaries of mercy” – that is, specially selected priests who have been granted “the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See,” the pope wrote in “Misericordiae Vultus,” (“The Face of Mercy”), the document officially proclaiming the Holy Year.
Archbishop Fisichella said the priests will be chosen on the basis of their ability to preach well, especially on the theme of mercy, and be “good confessors,” meaning they are able to express God’s love and do not make the confessional, as Pope Francis says, like “a torture chamber.”
The priests will also have to “be patient” and have “an understanding of human fragility,” the archbishop said.
Bishops can recommend to the council priests from their own dioceses to serve as missionaries of mercy, he said, and priests themselves can submit their request to serve, he said.
When a priest volunteers, however, the council will confer with his bishop to make sure he would be “suitable for this ministry” and has the bishop’s approval to serve temporarily as a missionary of mercy, he said.
The archbishop emphasized the importance of living the Holy Year as “a true pilgrimage” with the proper elements of prayer and sacrifice.
“We will ask pilgrims to make a journey on foot, preparing themselves to pass through the Holy Door in a spirit of faith and devotion,” he said.
More than a dozen individual jubilee celebrations will be scheduled in 2016, such as a jubilee for consecrated men and women Feb. 2 to close the Year of Consecrated Life; a jubilee for the Roman Curia Feb. 22; a jubilee for those devoted to the spirituality of Divine Mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday April 3; and separate jubilees for teenagers; for deacons; priests; the sick and disabled; and catechists.
A jubilee for “workers and volunteers of mercy” will be celebrated on Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata’s feast day Sept. 5 and a jubilee for prisoners will be celebrated Nov. 6.
Archbishop Fisichella said the pope wants the jubilee for inmates to be celebrated not only in prisons, but also with him in St. Peter’s Basilica. He said the council is discussing the possibility with government authorities and is not yet sure if it can be done.
The Vatican is asking bishops and priests around the world to conduct “similar symbolic gestures of communion with Pope Francis” and his vision of reaching out to those on the margins.
“As a concrete sign of the pope’s charitable love,” he said, “effective measures will be taken to meet real needs in the world that will express mercy through tangible assistance.”
At the news conference, the council distributed copies in several languages of the Holy Year prayer and logo, which features Jesus – the Good Shepherd – taking “upon his shoulders the lost soul, demonstrating that it is the love of Christ that brings to completion the mystery of his incarnation culminating in redemption,” the archbishop said.
The image, created by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, also shows one of Jesus’ eyes merged with the man’s to show how “Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ.”
The council has joined with the United Bible Societies to distribute to pilgrims 1 million free copies of the Gospel of Mark; the texts will be available in seven languages.
The Jubilee of Mercy has an official website in seven languages at www.im.va; a Twitter handle @Jubilee_va; a Facebook page; and accounts on Instagram, Flickr and Google+.

El Señor de la vida ha resucitado

EL VATICANO (CNS) – ¡Jesucristo ha resucitado! Ahora la iglesia se concentra en celebrar con alegría y júbilo los 50 días del tiempo pascual que abarca desde el domingo de Resurrección hasta el domingo de Pentecostés. La iglesia nos invita a celebrar estos días de Pascua con profundidad y nos anima a aprovechar las gracias que Dios nos ha dado para crecer en nuestra fe y ser mejores cristianos.
En la Misa de la Pascua de Resurrección en la Plaza de San Pedro en Roma, el Papa Francisco reconoció que “con su muerte y resurrección, Jesús muestra a todos la vía de la vida y la felicidad: esta vía es la humildad, que comparte la humillación”. Igualmente aseguró que los cristianos “tratamos de vivir al servicio de los demás, de no ser altivos, sino disponibles y respetuosos. Esto no es debilidad, sino auténtica fuerza”, dijo.
En su mensaje, el pontífice le pidió a las miles de personas reunidas en la plaza que imploraran al Señor resucitado la gracia de no ceder al orgullo que fomenta la violencia y las guerras. “Pedimos a Jesús victorioso que alivie el sufrimiento de tantos hermanos nuestros perseguidos a causa de su nombre, así como de todos los que padecen injustamente las consecuencias de los conflictos y la violencia que se está produciendo. Son muchas.

Este crucifijo de Jesucristo resucitado está en el altar de la Parroquia Santa María en Jackson. En 1994, cuando la nueva iglesia fue construida, el comité que se encargó del proyecto decidió que se colocara un Cristo resucitado en el centro del altar.

Este crucifijo de Jesucristo resucitado está en el altar de la Parroquia Santa María en Jackson. En 1994, cuando la nueva iglesia fue construida, el comité que se encargó del proyecto decidió que se colocara un Cristo resucitado en el centro del altar.

El Papa Francisco oró ese domingo de Resurrección por que Jesucristo alivie el sufrimiento de tantos hermanos nuestros perseguidos a causa de su nombre”, en especial en Irak y Siria. Pidió la paz también para palestinos e israelíes y el fin de los conflictos en Libia, Yemen, Nigeria, Sudán del Sur y diversas regiones del Sudán y la República Democrática del Congo. Se acordó en especial de los 147 estudiantes universitarios asesinados el miércoles anterior por terroristas yihadistas en Kenia y pidió también el fin del conflicto en Ucrania.
Al final de su discurso, imploró porque la voz consoladora y sanadora del Señor Jesús llegue a los marginados, los presos, los pobres y los emigrantes, tan a menudo rechazados, maltratados y desechados; a los enfermos y a los que sufren; a los niños, especialmente aquellos sometidos a la violencia; a cuantos hoy están de luto; y a todos los hombres y mujeres de buena voluntad.
El 1 de abril, Miercoles Santo, el El Papa Francisco dedicó la catequesis de la Audiencia General a explicar el significado del Triduo Pascual, para invitar a los fieles a no limitarse sólo a conmemorar la Pasión del Señor sino entrar en el misterio, haciendo propios los sentimientos y actitudes de Jesús, “como nos invita a hacer el apóstol Pablo”.
Sobre el domingo de Resurrección dijo, “Nuestra vida no termina delante de la piedra de un sepulcro, nuestra vida va más allá, con la esperanza del Cristo que ha resucitado, precisamente de aquel sepulcro. Como cristianos estamos llamados a ser centinelas de la mañana para que sepamos advertir los signos del resucitado, como han hecho las mujeres y los discípulos que fueron al sepulcro en el alba del primer día de la semana”.
“Lleven a sus casas y a quienes encuentran el alegre anuncio que ha resucitado el Señor de la vida, llevando consigo amor, justicia, respeto y perdón”.
(Derechos de autor © 2014 Servicio de Noticias Católicas (CNS)/ Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos. Los servicio de noticias de CNS no pueden ser publicados, transmitidos, reescritos o de ninguna otra forma distribuidos, incluyendo pero no limitado a, medios tales como formación o  copia digital o método de distribución en su totalidad o en parte, sin autorización previa y por escrito del Servicio de Noticias Católicas)

Abuse prevention conference highlights continuing efforts

ATHLONE, Ireland (CNS) – The Catholic Church is “no longer a safe haven for child abusers,” said a top priest psychologist who advises the U.S. bishops on child sexual abuse.
Msgr. Stephen Rossetti told hundreds of Irish delegates to the first national conference on safeguarding children that the Catholic Church in the United States spent $43 million on child abuse prevention and education just last year.
The priest told Catholic News Service following his keynote address that secular organizations and other churches in the United States were now coming to the Catholic Church to learn from its policies.
More than 5.2 million adults and children have gone through the safe environment training in the United States, and more than 3 million priests, lay employees and volunteers have gone through background checks.
He highlighted that in the United States, child abuse rates are dropping throughout society and the church.
“At the recorded height, the John Jay Study said 4 percent of clergy were involved as perpetrators. That number has fallen to less than 1 percent. We have turned the corner, but we shall not rest until the number of abused children is zero,” he said.
Msgr. Rossetti spoke at a Feb. 27-28 conference organized by Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding in the Catholic Church. April is child abuse prevention month nationally. The Office for the Protection of Children sent resources to the parishes earlier this month.
Msgr. Rossetti told participants in Ireland, who included laypeople, religious and bishops: “Good response policies are important. But the heart of the matter is education — stopping abuse before it occurs.”
Msgr. Rossetti, a professor at The Catholic University of America and a visiting professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, thanked Marie Collins, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and a victim of clerical sex abuse, “and all those like you who have stood up and told your story. More than anything, this is what is turning the tide.”
Ireland’s safeguarding board was established in a bid to restore public confidence in the church’s handling of allegations of abuse against priests and religious after a series of judicial reports uncovered serious failings. Four Irish bishops have resigned following severe criticism of their failures in relation to handling allegations of abuse.
(Copyright © 2014 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

Pope enjoys lively visit to Naples

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – At the end of Pope Francis’ spontaneity-filled meeting with priests, seminarians and religious in the cathedral of Naples, Italy, the vial of dried blood of the city’s patron saint appeared to miraculously liquefy.
After Pope Francis blessed the congregation with the reliquary holding the vial, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples announced, “As a sign that St. Januarius loves the pope, who is Neapolitan like us, the blood is already half liquefied.”
The thousands of people present in the cathedral applauded, but the pope insisted on taking the microphone. “The bishop said the blood is half liquefied,” he said. “It means the saint loves us halfway; we must all convert a bit more, so that he would love us more.”
The blood of the fourth-century martyr is Naples’ most precious relic. The townspeople gauge the saints’ pleasure with them by awaiting the blood’s liquefaction three times a year: in the spring during celebrations of the feast of the transfer of the saint’s relics to Naples; Sept. 19, his feast day; and Dec. 16, the local feast commemorating the averting of a threatened eruption of Mount Vesuvius through the intervention of the saint.
Entering the cathedral, Pope Francis’ white cassock and his arms were yanked repeatedly by priests, seminarians and nuns wanting to touch him or attract his attention. Calmed reigned briefly after the pope reached the altar, but then Cardinal Sepe told the pope that, in accordance with canon law, he had given formal permission for the nuns in Naples’ seven cloistered convents to go out for the day.
The nuns, who had been seated in the sanctuary, broke free, running to the pope, surrounding him, hugging him, kissing his ring and piling gifts on his lap.
“Sisters, sisters, not now, later!” the cardinal shouted over the microphone to no avail. “Look what I have done,” he said, exasperated. “And these are the cloistered ones, imagine what the non-cloistered ones are like! Ay. They’re going to eat him alive.”
When order was restored, Pope Francis stood with several sheets of paper and told the congregation, “I prepared a speech, but speeches are boring.” So, he put the papers aside, sat down and began talking about how Jesus must be at the center of a consecrated person’s life, about life in community, about poverty and mercy.
“The center of your life must be Jesus,” he said. Too often, people – including priests and religious – have a difficulty with a superior or a confrere and that problem becomes the real center of their lives, robbing them and their witness of joy.
Addressing seminarians, he said, “if you do not have Jesus at the center, delay your ordination. If you are not sure Jesus is the center of your life, wait a while in order to be sure.”
Money definitely cannot be the center of the life of a priest or nun, he said. Even a diocesan priest, who does not take vows of poverty, must make sure “his heart is not there” in money.

Pope invites all to confession, conversion

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As Catholics are encouraged to make going to confession a significant part of their lives during Lent, Pope Francis offered some quick tips to help people prepare for the sacrament of penance.
After a brief explanation of why people should go to confession — “because we are all sinners” — the pope listed 30 key questions to reflect on as part of making an examination of conscience and being able to “confess well.”
The guide is part of a 28-page booklet in Italian released by the Vatican publishing house. Pope Francis had 50,000 free copies distributed to people attending his Angelus address Feb. 22, the first Sunday of Lent.
Titled “Safeguard your heart,” the booklet is meant to help the faithful become “courageous” and prepared to battle against evil and choose the good.
The booklet contains quick introductions to Catholic basics: it has the text of the Creed, a list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. It explains the seven sacraments and includes Pope Francis’ explanation of “lectio divina,” a prayerful way of reading Scripture in order to better hear “what the Lord wants to tell us in his word and to let us be transformed by his Spirit.”
The booklet’s title is based on a line from one of the pope’s morning Mass homilies in which he said Christians need to guard and protect their hearts, “just as you protect your home — with a lock.”
“How often do bad thoughts, bad intentions, jealousy, envy enter?” he asked. “Who opened the door? How did those things get in?”
The Oct. 10, 2014, homily, which is excerpted in the booklet, said the best way to guard one’s heart is with the daily practice of an “examination of conscience,” in which one quietly reviews what bad things one has done and what good things one has failed to do for God, one’s neighbor and oneself.
The questions include:
— Do I only turn to God when I’m in need?
— Do I take attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation?
— Do I begin and end the day with prayer?
— Am I embarrassed to show that I am a Christian?
— Do I rebel against God’s plan?
— Am I envious, hot-tempered, biased?
— Am I honest and fair with everyone or do I fuel the “throwaway culture?”
— In my marital and family relations, do I uphold morality as taught in the Gospels?
— Do I honor and respect my parents?
— Have I refused newly conceived life? Have I snuffed out the gift of life? Have I helped do so?
— Do I respect the environment?
— Am I part worldly and part believer?
— Do I overdo it with eating, drinking, smoking and amusements?
— Am I overly concerned about my physical well-being, my possessions?
— How do I use my time? Am I lazy?
— Do I want to be served?
— Do I dream of revenge, hold grudges?
— Am I meek, humble and a builder of peace?
Catholics should go to confession, the pope said, because everyone needs forgiveness for their sins, for the ways “we think and act contrary to the Gospel.”
“Whoever says he is without sin is a liar or is blind,” he wrote. Confession is meant to be a sincere moment of conversion, an occasion to demonstrate trust in God’s willingness to forgive his children and to help them back on the path of following Jesus, Pope Francis wrote.

God wants you to find real love, pope tells youths

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christianity is not a set of prohibitions, but a “project for life” that can lead to true happiness in building better relationships and a better world, Pope Francis told Catholic young people.
“Do you realize how much you are worth in the eyes of God?” the pope asked youths in his annual message for local celebrations of World Youth Day. “Do you know that you are loved and welcomed by him unconditionally?” The ability to love and be loved is beautiful and is a key to happiness, but sin means it also can be “debased, destroyed or spoiled” by selfishness or the desire for pleasure or power, he said in the message, published Feb. 17 at the Vatican.
In preparation for the next international celebration of World Youth Day, which will be held in Krakow, Poland, July 25-Aug. 1, 2016.
The Poland gathering will focus on the beatitude from St. Matthew’s Gospel, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” The 2015 theme chosen by Pope Francis is the beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The “beatitude” or blessedness for which God created human beings and which was disrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve “consists in perfect communion with God, with others, with nature and with ourselves,” the pope wrote. God’s “divine light was meant to illuminate every human relationship with truth and transparency.”
But with sin, he said, Adam and Eve’s relationship with each other, with God and with creation changed. “The inner compass which had guided them in their quest for happiness lost its point of reference and the attractions of power, wealth, possessions and a desire for pleasure at all costs led them to the abyss of sorrow and anguish.” God still loved the human creatures he created and still wanted them to find happiness, the pope said, so he send his son to become one of them and to redeem them.
Jesus taught that impurity or defilement was not something that happened because of what someone ate or who they touched, but was something that came from inside the person. Jesus listed “evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness,” the pope said, pointing out that most of the things on the list have to do with a person’s relationship with others.
“We need to show a healthy concern for creation, for the purity of our air, water and food,” the pope told young people, “but how much more do we need to protect the purity of what is most precious of all: our heart and our relationships. This ‘human ecology’ will help us to breathe the pure air that comes from beauty, from true love, and from holiness.” Through prayer, speaking to Jesus ”as you speak to a friend,” and reading the Bible, he said, people can draw closer to God and allow him to purify their hearts, discovering God’s call to live a life of love in marriage, the priesthood or religious life.

Becoming cardinal – call to greater love, patience

Pope Francis greets new Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after presenting a red hat to him during a consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica Feb. 14. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope Francis greets new Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after presenting a red hat to him during a consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica Feb. 14. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a Valentine’s Day ceremony to create 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis offered a meditation on Christian love and, especially, what it means for those who guide and minister in the church.
Retired Pope Benedict XVI attended the ceremony, sitting in the front row of St. Peter’s Basilica alongside the already existing members of the College of Cardinals.
Pope Francis’ meditation at the ceremony focused on the famous passage about love from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (13:4-7), which begins: “Love is patient, love is kind.”
“All of us, myself first,” should be guided by St. Paul’s words, he said, because every Christian ministry “flows from charity, must be exercised in charity and is ordered toward charity.”
The patience Christian love calls for, he said, is a call to catholicity. “It means being able to love without limits, but also to be faithful in particular situations and with practical gestures. It means loving what is great without neglecting what is small.”
St. Paul says love is “not jealous or boastful” and truly being neither, the pope said, “is surely a miracle of love since we humans – all of us, at every stage of our lives – are inclined to jealousy and pride since our nature is wounded by sin.”
Not being “irritable or resentful” can be a challenge for a pastor, especially when dealing with other clerics, Pope Francis told the new cardinals.
“Charity alone frees us” from the temptation of snapping at others and, especially, from “the mortal danger of pent-up anger, of that smoldering anger which makes us brood over wrongs we have received,” he said. “This is unacceptable in a man of the church.”
St. Paul’s statement that love rejoices over what is right, the pope said, means “those called to the service of governance in the church need to have a strong sense of justice, so that any form of injustice becomes unacceptable, even those which might bring gain to himself or to the church.”
The new cardinals and all Christians, he said, can find a synopsis of their calling in St. Paul’s affirmation that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Christians, the pope said, should be “persons always ready to forgive; always ready to trust, because we are full of faith in God; always ready to inspire hope, because we ourselves are full of hope in God; persons ready to bear patiently every situation and each of our brothers and sisters, in union with Christ, who bore with love the burden of our sins.”
After the new cardinals professed their faith by reciting the Creed and formally swore fidelity and obedience to the pope and his successors, they approached Pope Francis one by one to receive their biretta, their cardinal’s ring and the assignment of a “titular” church in Rome, which makes them part of the Roman clergy.
(Copyright © 2014 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

Call to protect women, girls taken to United Nations

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) – The plight of women and girls living in conflict zones who often are targeted for violence, including rape, must be addressed without delay, said an official with the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations.
Msgr. Janusz Urbanczyk, charge d’affaires at the mission, called upon the U.N. Security Council to identify programs “to eradicate this scourge,” in an intervention Jan. 30 as the council discussed challenges to the protection of women and girls in armed conflict and post-conflict settings.
Citing Catholic social teaching on human dignity, Msgr. Urbanczyk said all violence is an affront to that dignity, but that women and girls are particularly vulnerable when violence arises.
He said sexual violence against women “tears at the very fabric of society.”
The Vatican official recalled the words of Pope Francis, who told members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See in an address Jan. 12 that humanity must not overlook the fact that wars involve the crime of rape, which the pope described as “a most grave offense against the dignity of women, who are not only violated in body but also in spirit.”
Msgr. Urbanczyk also pointed to violence perpetrated against women and girls because of their faith.
The Vatican’s U.N. delegation “remains concerned about the continued lack of attention and priority to the protection of women and girls who are targeted and attacked purely because of the faith they profess,” he said. “The lack of focus and priority for protecting them is troubling when Christians face extinction in some regions of the world and in other regions Christian schools for girls are targeted and attacked.
“This is a shared reality of members of all faiths and therefore requires the shared commitment of members of all faiths and governments to condemn and confront such violence,” Msgr. Urbanczyk said.
The kidnapping of girls is of particular concern, he added, because they are often trafficked for sex or labor around the world. “This is an abominable trade that must come to an end. This scourge must be eradicated since it strikes all of us, from the individual families to the entire international community,” he said.
Msgr. Urbanczyk called upon world leaders to “reject the ‘culture of enslavement,’ which is incapable of doing good or pursuing peace and accepts as inevitable the spread of war and violence.”
“We must redouble our efforts to replace this ‘culture’ with a culture of life and peace in which governments and the international community fulfill their fundamental responsibility to protect all people,” he said.