Catholic News 2

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2017 / 02:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Knights of Malta have confirmed that Matthew Festing, the Prince and Grand Master of the Order, has agreed to submit his resignation after being asked to do so in a meeting with Pope Francis Tuesday.

“The Grand Master met the Pope yesterday evening and (Francis) asked him to resign,” Eugenio Ajroldi di Robbiate, Communications Director for the Order of Malta, told CNA Jan. 25.

He said the decision “wasn’t anticipated...no one knew anything,” but Festing was cooperative and agreed to submit his resignation to the government of the Order.

The Grand Master’s resignation would cut short his lifetime appointment, to which he was elected in 2008.

However, according to the Order’s constitutions, if a Grand Master wants to resign he must convoke the governing council, submit his resignation request to them, and they must then approve it in order for the resignation to be official.

Until then, Festing “technically is still Gran Master,” Robbiate said, explaining that the vote is set to take place on Saturday.  

He said that given the Order’s constitutional requirement for a Grand Master’s resignation to be accepted, there is “absolutely theoretically” a possibility that Festing’s request will be rejected, however, “it’s improbable.”

Robbiate had no comment on the current Vatican investigation into the Order’s dismissal of their former Grand Chancellor, saying “I honestly can’t say” if Festing’s resignation would in any way affect the Vatican’s inquiry.

According to Vatican blog “Il Sismografo,” while waiting for Festing's resignation to be made official and the subsequent election of a new Grand Master, the Order will in the interim be guided by their Grand Commander, Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein.

Festing's agreement to resign follows a conflict between the Order of Malta and the Holy See over the dismissal of the Knights' former Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, in December 2016. Among the reasons for the dismissal was that under Boeselager’s watch the Order's charity branch had inadvertently been involved in distributing condoms in Burma to prevent the spread of HIV.

The Holy See announced Dec. 22, shortly after Boeselager's dismissal, that Pope Francis had formed a group to investigate the matter.

On Jan. 10 the Knights issued a statement defending their decision, calling Boeselager’s dismissal “an internal act of governance,” making the group established by the Holy See to investigate the decision “legally irrelevant” given the Order’s sovereignty.

The Holy See, in turn, reiterated Jan. 17 its confidence in its investigative group and indicated it was awaiting the group's report “in order to adopt, within its area of competence, the most fitting decisions for the good of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and of the Church.”

The Order of Malta is a chivalric order which was founded in 1099, originally to provide protection and medical care to Holy Land pilgrims. It now performs humanitarian work throughout the world, and its two principle missions are defense of the faith and care for the poor.

It maintains sovereignty, holding diplomatic relations with more than 100 states and United Nations permanent observer status.

Festing had been elected Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta March 11, 2008.

He was born in Northumberland in the United Kingdom in 1949 and as a child lived for a period of time in both Egypt and Singapore where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was posted.

The former Grand Master studied history at Ampleforth and St. John’s College Cambridge. Also an art expert, he has spent the majority of his professional career working at an international art auction house.

Festing served in the Grenadier Guards and still holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was also appointed by the Queen as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), a role in which he served as one of her deputy lieutenants in the country of Northumberland.

Officially becoming a member of the Order of Malta in 1977, Festing took solemn religious vows in 1991, becoming a professed knight. In 1993 he became the Grand Prior of England, a position he held until 2008.

In this role, Festing led humanitarian aid missions in several countries, including Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia, and was head of the British delegation during the Orders’ annual international pilgrimage to Lourdes.

In addition to his other roles, Festing has been made an honorary citizen of the cities of Rapallo and Pompeii in Italy, and Birgu in Malta. He was also awarded honorary degrees by the Catholic University of America, the Northumbria University, John Cabot University, the Fu Jen Catholic University of Taiwan and the Catholic University Santa Maria La Antigua of Panama.

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Vatican City, Jan 25, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The theological commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved last week a miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Catalina de María Rodríguez, foundress of the Slaves of the Heart of Jesus.

Following the Jan. 19 approval, the next step for her beatification is approval of the miracle by a commission of cardinals in the congregation.

The miracle is the healing, 19 years ago, of a woman in Argentina's Tucuman province who had severe heart disease.

In the event that the miracle is approved by the commission of cardinals, they must draw up the decree of beatification to be presented to Pope Francis.

Saturnina Rodríguez de Zavalia, who took the name Catalina de María in religious life, was born in Cordoba, Argentina in 1823. Her mother died when she was three, and her father when she was nine. Thereafter she was cared for by her aunts.

She did the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius at age 17 and felt a call to an active religious life, but in Argentina at the time, there were only contemplative orders of women.

She dedicated herself to promoting the spiritual exercises and in 1852 she married Manuel Antonio de Zavalía, a widower with two children. She was strongly encouraged to do so by a secular priest, Fr. Tiburcio López, whom she had taken as her spiritual director when the Jesuits were expelled from Cordoba.

Zavalia had threatened suicide if Saturnina refused him, and Fr. López declared her responsible for the salvation of his soul, and she took the marriage to be God's will.

Saturnina conceived one child, who was stillborn, and Zavalia died in 1865.

After her husband's death, her desire to enter religious life re-emerged, as she was adoring the Blessed Sacrament. She was inspired to  form a community serving following the rule of St. Ignatius Loyola and forming vulnerable women with its spirituality.

After seven years of trials and setbacks, she still maintained her spirits because  “that idea was embedded in my soul and even if I wanted to I could not do away with it” and in those attempts to pursue her dream said, “I found consolation in God, from whom I hoped for everything, and I never lacked confidence in him.”

Finally, on Sept. 29, 1872, she founded the Slaves of the Heart of Jesus, the first congregation of apostolic life in Argentina.

The order spread across Argentina, and is today also present in Chile, Spain, and Benin.

Mother Catalina de María worked during her religious life with Saint José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the “Gaucho priest”, sending 16 sisters of her congregation to a school he had founded.

She died April 5, 1896 at the motherhouse of her congregation, when more than 200 women had joined her community.

Her cause for canonization was opened in 1941, and she was named a Venerable in 1997. The acknowledgement of a miracle worked through her intercession opens the way to her beatification.

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Denver, Colo., Jan 25, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In an effort to meet the Church's growth in diversity, the Catholic women's apostolate Endow has announced a new program that will cater to various demographics in the church, including Latino women and millennials.

“With the advent of new technologies, rapidly changing social issues, and changing demographics in the Church, we recognize the need to remain flexible, leveraging the new tools and data available via digital to test unique approaches, while continuing to support the core audiences who have come to benefit from our ministry,” said Martha Reichert, the president of Endow, in a recent press release.

Endow was founded in 2003 in a collaborative effort between lay women and Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. Now, the program is a leading women's apostolate that is present in over 130 dioceses and reaches approximately 33,000 women.

Endow's goal is to inspire, uplift and educate women through the teachings of the Catholic Church, mainly drawing from Pope St. John Paul II's “Letter to Women.” Their programs also offer a space for community and encouragement, where women from all areas of life can meet and learn more about themselves through the lenses of church teaching.

“Endow has paved the way over the last 15 years, bringing the Church's beautiful teaching on the 'genius' of women and the 'new feminism' to women all across the United States,” said Archbishop Gomez in the press release.

Now, Endow is revamping their outreach in a big way to include programs in Spanish, which has already been implemented in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles – an area that is about 70 percent Latino.

“Through our Hispanic Program, developed on the ground in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and our new visual identity and social-data driven approach for online outreach, we believe we have found the right strategy to allow us to reach new women, while at the same time providing a better way to connect with our core constituency of women across the country,” Reichert stated.

So far, the program has produced about 45 groups, reaching over 2,000 women.

Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles spoke highly of Endow's new effort, saying that he has been inspired by the Latino program, and has high hopes for future endeavors.

“The great success of Endow's outreach to Hispanic women and parishes here in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California has been inspiring. I am hopeful that we can continue to grow and bring this beautiful teaching to Hispanic women in every diocese in the country,” Archbishop Gomez said.

In addition to the Hispanic program, Endow has also made steps to update the overall digital underworkings of the program, giving a facelift to their website and kick starting a newly revised social media strategy.

By implementing these steps, Endow hopes to also reach the new millennial generation of women in the Church, while maintaining their current audience of women.

Endow is hopeful that their new steps in creating a more diverse outreach will only bring more women together in the name of Christian education. More information about Endow can be found at www.endowgroups.org.

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Manila, Philippines, Jan 25, 2017 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic leaders have spoken out against a drug war that has left thousands dead, and the Philippines' new president is not taking the criticism well.

President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war is “not any more in accord with the legal processes, and the moral norms are being violated and so now is the time for the Church to speak up,” Jerome Secillano, public affairs chief for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, told Agence France Presse last week.

He added that many priests and bishops are afraid to speak out against the killings, as well as the laity.

Baclaran church put on an exhibit of poster-size pictures of Filipinos dying in pools of blood in a campaign against the killings of the war on drugs. Some churches have put up banners denouncing the extrajudicial killings.

“When you speak to people on the ground, there is a lot of fear...many people, especially the urban poor, feel that anybody can be tagged and killed,” Auxiliary Bishop of Manila Broderick Pabillo said.

Duterte's violent crackdown on drug use has claimed more than 6,000 lives in the six months since he took office. At least 2,250 drug suspects have been reported killed by police, while at least 3,700 others were murdered by unknown suspects who sometimes accused their victims of being drug dealers or addicts, according to AFP.

“I am ashamed of the things I read about the Philippines in the international media and more ashamed of what I hear from our leaders,” the bishops' conference president, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, said.

For his part, President Duterte called on the Church to rebuke drug users. “Most people here are Catholic. If you are a good priest, make them understand that they will die,” he said.

The president also engaged in polemical attacks against the clergy. “You criticize the police, you criticize me. For what? You have the money. You are all crazy,” the president continued, making insinuations about sexual abuse by clergy.

The president challenged the Church to a “showdown” and threatened to expose abuse and corruption in the Church, Reuters reports.

One of the president's top advisers, Jesus Dureza, met Pope Francis the day previously to deliver a letter that thanked the Pope for his 2015 visit to the Philippines. The Pope had said he would bless the country and “also bless your president.”

One Catholic bishop responded to his controversial comments, defending the Church's right to criticize the president’s wrongdoing even if some clergy are corrupt.

“Even a sick doctor must still try to cure ailments of others, and, of course, his too,” Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa said Jan. 20.

He said the Church is also determined to counter internal corruption.

“Bishops and priests, who hide serious misdeeds, are harming the Church by their infidelities. If anyone has concrete evidence of misdeed, the authorities better know it and clean the ranks,” Archbishop Arguelles said.

“Churchmen are not perfect. Nevertheless, they are supposed to proclaim what is right and proper even if they themselves fall short of what they teach.”

“The fault of some should not be blamed on all,” he added.

The controversy over the drug war killings had also surfaced over the holidays, when Cardinal Luis Tagle's Christmas message was taken as an implicit criticism of the killings.

“Why is there room for destroying lives but minute space for saving them?” he asked.

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