Catholic News 2

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) "The impact of climate change on the Pacific is real. It's not something that's going to happen; it's happening now."

That was the assessment offered by Dame Meg Taylor, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, an intergovernmental organization promoting cooperation of independent Pacific states.

On Wednesday, the United States announced it had made a $500 million payment to the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund, which was set up to help developing countries counter climate change.

In an interview with Devin Watkins, Dame Taylor said any unraveling of the COP 21 Paris Climate Agreement could have "a severe impact on the Pacific" and "would be a disaster for us". 

Listen to their conversation:

Dame Taylor said leaders of Pacific nations played "a very prominent role in working with governments from Europe and the United States to make sure that [the COP 21 Paris Agreement] came to conclusion". 

Severe weather and GDP

She explained that climate change in the Pacific means a worsening of severe weather patterns, particularly cyclones.

"After last year's major Category 5 cyclone that hit Fiji and the losses to the country and the year before Cyclone Pam that hit Vanuatu, what happens in terms of loss of GDP [Gross Domestic Product]? Vanuatu lost 64% of its GDP. Fiji was about 20%. Samoa also had a tsunami and lost 30% of GDP."

She said that, despite being faced with such losses, "what amazes me about these people and the leadership is the determination to survive and the resilience of people, and I think that's what we have to work with and build on."

Not just GDP, but people's lives

Dame Taylor said that people from other parts of the world often ask her, "What's the population of your islands?"

"It doesn't matter if there are three people, thirty people, or three hundred people; it's all the same. They are human beings living on islands which is home."

She said the Pacific comprises 98% of Earth's surface. "Yes, it's not land mass; its water. But they are ocean states... These are resources in the oceans, not just fish, but deep sea resources: the biodiversity of these resources, which are going to be important for humanity."

"Those people who live on those islands are the caretakers, and they are important. They contribute to the livelihoods of others."

Prayer before meetings

On a more cultural note, Dame Taylor said that in the Pacific no meal, meeting of minds, or any gathering of people begins without a short time of prayer for guidance.

"In many of our societies, that's based also on tradition, of asking the Creator for manna to help the conversation, to bring good resolution."

Despite being from many faiths where she works, Dame Taylor said, "You can ask for a time of quiet, so that the mind is settled... It's not just for the sake of it, but it is really to have God's guidance."

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) As we mark the annual week of prayer for Christian Unity, Catholics have much to celebrate because 2016 was “truly an ecumenical year”. That’s the view of Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who accompanied Pope Francis on all his ecumenical journeys throughout the past year.

The cardinal was reflecting on the theme for this week of prayer which is centred on a verse from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians: ‘Reconciliation: the love of Christ compels us’. Members of the Council of Christian Churches in Germany were asked to prepare material on this theme which is set in the context of this year’s 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Cardinal Koch talked to Philippa Hitchen about this year’s event and about the many significant steps towards Christian unity which took place in 2016….

Listen: 

Cardinal Koch says the leitmotif for this week of prayer is reconciliation, proposed by Christians in Germany, where the Reformation began. While we have much gratitude for the Reformation and the rediscovery of all that is in common between Lutherans and Catholics, he says, we must also recognize the painful history of the last 500 years. Though Luther did not want to divide the Church, he notes the “horrible confessional wars” that followed the Reformation “transformed Europe into a red sea of blood”. We must acknowledge both of these pages, he says, working for repentance and reconciliation, but also showing gratitude for the gifts of the Reformation.

Commenting on the Pope’s recent visit to Sweden for a joint commemoration of the Reformation, the cardinal says the meeting in Lund was the fruit of the dialogue that has been taking place between Lutherans and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council, in particular the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 in Augsburg. Without this progress at doctrinal level, he says, the event in Lund would not have been possible. Stressing that the event had two parts, an ecumenical prayer service in Lund cathedral and a celebration of cooperation between Catholics and Lutherans in Malmo stadium, the cardinal noted that it’s “very close to the heart of the Holy Father” that ecumenism is not just about theology but also about concrete collaboration for all of humankind.

While the Reformation is at the heart of this week of prayer, the cardinal says there is a great need for reconciliation to mend relations and heal the splits in other parts of the Church, from the divisions of the 5th century over doctrinal decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, to the split between east and west in the 11th century and the divisions with Anglicans in  the 16th century. Reconciliation, he says, is  the main theme of our faith and in Chapter 5 his 2nd letter to the Corinthians St Paul explains that it is God who reconciles himself with us and, as a consequence, we must be reconciled with one another.

Cardinal Koch reflects on the events of 2016 which he says was “truly an ecumenical year” with so many key encounters, beginning with the historical meeting between the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch in Havana, followed by his pilgrimage to Lesbos with Patriarch Bartholomew and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Hieronymus of Athens, which he describes as “a very important sign”  that refugees are at the heart of the church. Finally he stresses the importance of the pan-Orthodox Synod in June, and the new document produced by the Catholic-Orthodox joint commission in September, as well as the Pope’s journeys to Armenia, to Georgia and to Sweden.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) For fifty years the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza have languished under occupation. An occupation – reads the final communiqué of the Holy Land Coordination 2017 – that violates the human dignity of both Palestinians and Israelis.

As the group of Catholic Bishops who make up the “Holy Land Coordination” wrap up this year’s pilgrimage in support of those enduring the occupation, it is calling for justice and peace in the Holy Land and reminding the rest of us that “it is a scandal to which we must never become accustomed”.

The theme of this year’s pilgrimage focused on the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Palestine. 

As the Bishop of Clifton and Chair of the Holy Land Coordination, Declan Lang, told Linda Bordoni, we all have a responsibility to show our solidarity, to encourage non-violent resistance, to promote a two-state solution and to help the local Church in the land where Jesus was born.

Listen:

Bishop Lang says the group has been able to spend time listening to the stories of those who have lived under the occupation;  he recalls, in particular, the students of Bethlehem University, whom he says, have never known any other reality.

He says the Bishops have also had the occasion to speak to families and representatives of different communities, something that has helped them to understand and reflect on the effects of the continuing occupation and how it has restricted people’s lives.

“Perhaps that was most seen in Hebron where there is a great restriction on people’s lives, on where they can walk, where they can live, where they can shop…” he said.

The aim of the annual pilgrimage of the Holy Land Coordination is to show solidarity with and to support, especially Christian, communities in the area. Bishop Lang says the group was able to visit Christian communities, to celebrate Mass in the Parishes and Seminaries, to meet with Church leaders and with ordinary Catholics.

“But I think one of the things we are especially aware of this year is our responsibility to help bring to an end the occupation so that people can live with dignity” he said.   

So, Bishop Lang says, once back in our various countries (the participants of the Holy Land Coordination pilgrimage come from different nations across the globe) we will be encouraging people to do three things: 

“one is to keep the Middle East Churches in their prayers – that’s something they’ve  always been asking for;  to become more aware of the situation in Palestine and Israel – because I think sometimes, because people’s lives are so busy, they become unaware of the wider world, and we are asking Christians to become more aware of the situation; and then to follow that by action – which can be coming on pilgrimage and supporting the local economy, it can be by buying goods from the Holy Land; and perhaps also writing to their MPs and telling them that we must support the bringing about of the end of the occupation and the achievement of a peaceful solution because living in fear does no good either to the Israelis or to the Palestinian people themselves” he said.

Bishop Lang who has returned each year to the Holy Land says the situation has changed little with perhaps more tension to be felt, today,  in Hebron.

In Bethlehem, he says, people seem to be almost resigned to the occupation. Unfortunately, he points out, there seems to be no progress or very little progress. However, with the political changes in other countries, the people are waiting to see what impact these will have, especially as regards to the United States.

But as regards the inauguration in the Vatican of the first Palestinian State Embassy to the Holy See Bishop Lang says this is seen as a very positive event and “it gives the Palestinians a standing they are not accustomed to, and it gives them the recognition that they have a cause that is just.”

“What Pope Francis has said and what Pope Francis has done has been very significant to the people here and it is much appreciated” he said. 

Full Article

Warsaw, Poland, Jan 18, 2017 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Poland's government has adopted multiple resolutions establishing 2017 as a Jubilee Year for the country, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the first canonical coronation of the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

“Polish Sejm, convinced of the special importance of Marian devotion for our homeland – not only in the religious aspect, but also social, cultural and patriotic – establishes 2017 the Year of the 300th anniversary of the Coronation of the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa,” the resolution of the lower house of parliament stated.

More than 94 percent of Poland’s population being Catholic, the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, also called the “Black Madonna,” has a significant meaning for Poles and is highly venerated throughout Europe.

In a resolution adopted Dec. 15, 2016, the Polish parliament called “the image of the Mother of God at Jasna Góra… one of the most important religious and material national treasures.”

Although the image was crowned Queen and Protector of Poland by King John II Casimir in 1652, its first canonical coronation was by Clement XI on Sept. 8, 1717, which is the date of the anniversary. Additional coronations of the image were also issued by St. Pius X in 1910 and St. John Paul II in 2005.

A canonical coronation is a pious institutional act, wherein the Pope, through a bull, designates a crown or stellar halo be added to a Marian image under a specific devotional title in a particular area or diocese. The crowning of Our Lady of Czestochowa was the first such coronation to take place outside Rome.  

For the Jubilee, the Polish bishops’ conference has created a free smartphone app that sends out a “Marian thought” every day just before 9pm, the hour of the “Jasna Góra Appeal,” a special prayer for the intercession of Our Lady prayed by Poles.

Faithful are also encouraged to participate in the Jubilee by offering “spiritual gifts” to Mary, such as a commitment to say certain prayers, to return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or to give up an addiction, such as drugs or pornography.

To inaugurate the Jubilee Year, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan said Mass Sept. 8, 2016 at the Jasna Góra Monastery, the shrine where the image is located. On a website dedicated to the anniversary, there is a countdown to the celebrations to take place Aug. 26, the feast day of the image.

Fr. Marian Waligóra, prior of the monastery, said the resolution of the Senate and Sejm recognizes “the achievements of this place in the history of the whole of our land, the importance of Jasna Góra as a place in our history and religious center for the whole Church and all Catholics,” the Polish Catholic News Agency KAI reported.

The resolution adds a “luster” to the Jubilee, Fr. Waligóra said, because it reminds them that the importance of Our Lady of Czestochowa goes beyond merely religious or spiritual importance to Poles – although that is the most important aspect – but that the image of Our Lady is woven into the entire history of Poland.

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz

By Anna Capizzi

NEW YORK (CNS) -- This year's New York Encounter drew a crowd of 10,000 for a three-day cultural gathering of presentations, exhibits and performances centered on the theme "Reality has never betrayed me."

What struck first-time participant Giovanna Maiello was the "bridge of intellectual and heart and life" that allowed her to "enter into these talks and feel like you can really get a lot out of it for your own personal journey, your own faith life."

The Jan. 13-15 public event, now in its ninth year, was organized by the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation and held at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

Maiello told Catholic News Service that she hoped to take away "little things" that "help me to realign my mind back to the right reality." How to be a sound consumer, for instance, she said, referring to Carolyn Woo's comments during a panel discussion, "Economy With a Truly Human Purpose: Is it Possible?"

Woo, the former president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, said, "We underestimate our power as consumers," pointing to the need for informed choices even with small purchases like shrimp or seafood, whose industry has "a lot of slave labor embedded" into it.

Another panel -- "An American Dream ... Come True!" -- highlighted the lives of saints with historical roots in North America, like St. Katharine Drexel and the eight North American martyrs, who include St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brebeuf and St. Charles Garnier.

New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan recounted the life of St. Damien of Molokai, the 19th-century Belgian missionary who ministered to people with Hansen's disease in Hawaii before dying of the disease. The cardinal also spoke of Detective Steven McDonald, the New York City police officer who was shot and paralyzed 30 years ago, and forgave his assailant. He died Jan. 10. McDonald, the cardinal said, "teaches us that saints are for now."

The weekend brought together a range of ages. Anujeet Sareen, father of eight and member of the Communion and Liberation movement, brought a group of middle schoolers from Pennsylvania. The aim, he said, "is getting them to use their reason. What did you see? Why was it interesting? What did you take away from it?"

For middle school, high school and college students, "ultimately the purpose," Sareen explained, "is to say, look, whatever faith we've commuted to you as your parents, you have to start to make it your own."

The way to do this, at Encounter and beyond, he said, is through connecting youth with experiences in their lives, music, movies, and getting them to discuss those experiences with their peers and other adults. Otherwise, "it's not going to stick."

That method originates from the approach of Father Luigi Giussani, who founded the Communion and Liberation movement in 1954 in Italy, when he saw a need for high school students to take ownership of their faith and see its relevance in their everyday experiences. The movement is now headed by Father Julian Carron.

The theme of the weekend -- "Reality has never betrayed me" -- "speaks to all of us," said Father Jose Medina, the U.S. coordinator of Communion and Liberation.

It means "one very simple thing, that you have to be willing and certain and eager to trust reality -- meaning the things that happen in your life -- as a sign of goodness," he told CNS. The jump then to experiencing the goodness of God is easy because "once you experience a sense of goodness toward you," Father Medina said, "you recognize it as divine."

Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who celebrated Mass along with Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, told CNS he comes to the New York Encounter each year. Cardinal O'Malley's relationship to Communion and Liberation began through his close friend, the late Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, former U.S. leader of the movement.

"The very name of the movement," Cardinal O'Malley said, "tells everything. Communion at a time when there's so much individualism in our country and the autonomous self is seen as the ideal."

This name, he said, "highlights the themes that are so precious and important for the church today." Looking at reality with faith, said Cardinal O'Malley, "helps us to penetrate the appearances and discover what really is authentic, what really is beautiful, what really is true."

John's Gospel is filled with the word "remain," said Father Medina. "And that's what we have to offer. A place where you can remain," he said, "a place to be and remain and be moved and changed."

"You can tell how much it's a community feel, with the kids running around, all the strollers, and all the people coming in and out," Maiello said. "Even though I don't know any of them," she admitted. "It's very much like we're all just one."

- - -

Follow Capizzi on Twitter: @annamcapizzi.

- - -

Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Prayer has the power to awaken hope in men and women, even in the face of death and destruction, Pope Francis said.

People often feel unworthy to turn to God when they are in need "as if it were a self-interested prayer and, thus, imperfect," the pope said Jan. 18 during his weekly general audience.

"But God knows our weakness; he knows that we remember him to ask for help and, with the indulgent smile of a father, he responds graciously," he said.

Greeting thousands of people in the Paul VI audience hall, the pope seemed to lose his balance several times as pilgrims clasped his hand and tried pulling him toward them, hoping for a hug or a blessing.

Still, the pope took time to greet people, stopping to bless a pregnant woman's belly and embracing a young boy in tears, who was overcome with emotion at meeting him.

The audience took place at the beginning of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which for 2017 had the theme: "Reconciliation: The love of Christ compels us."

Addressing the different language groups, the pope prayed that all Christian communities would "be open more to reconciliation" and communion.

"In this same spirit of hope and with gratitude for the progress already made in the ecumenical movement, I ask your prayers for this important intention," the pope told the English-speaking pilgrims.

During the audience, the pope reflected on the prophet Jonah, a man who first tried to run away from God's call and initially refused "to place himself at the service of the divine plan of salvation."

Nevertheless, the story of Jonah is a "great lesson about the mercy of God who forgives," the pope said.

Jonah fled from his task of preaching salvation to the people of Ninevah who -- in the eyes of the Israelites -- "deserved to be destroyed, not to be saved," the pope said. But when a dangerous storm hit, the pagans aboard his ship immediately prayed to their gods; a just reaction in the face of death because only then "man experiences his own frailty and his own need of salvation," he said.

"The instinctive horror of death awakens the need to hope in the God of life," the pope said. People think, "'Perhaps God will think of us and we will not perish.' These are the words of hope that become a prayer, that plea full of anguish raised by the lips of man in front of an imminent danger of death."

The storm passed once Jonah accepted his responsibility and asked to be thrown into the sea, the pope continued, which moved the pagans to a sincere fear of God and "to recognize the one true Lord of heaven and earth."

The people of Ninevah, he added, also had the experience of facing death yet being saved in the end, which led them to know and experience the truth of God's love.

This experience of God's divine mercy is a reminder for all men and women to recognize the "surprising occasions of knowing hope and encountering God," Pope Francis said.

"Prayer brings you to hope," the pope said. "And when things become dark, with more prayer there will be more hope."

- - -

Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

- - -

Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS photo/Jonathan Bachman, Reuters

By

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee said Jan. 18 that a repeal of the federal health care law should not take place without immediate passage of a plan that preserves people's access to adequate health care and also protects human life, conscience rights and the poor.

"Important gains brought about by the Affordable Care Act must be preserved" as millions of people now rely on the law for their health care, said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

At the same time, he said, any replacement measure also must safeguard human life from conception to natural death, protect conscience rights and provide adequate health care for immigrants, the poor and others on society's margins.

Bishop Dewane made the comments in a letter sent to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. bishops "supported the general goal of the law to expand medical coverage for many poor and vulnerable people," but they "ultimately opposed the Affordable Care Act because it expanded the role of the federal government in finding and facilitating abortion and plans that cover abortion," Bishop Dewane wrote.

"It also failed to provide essential conscience protections and access to health care for immigrants," he added.

"We recognize that the law has brought about important gains in such coverage and those gains should be protected," he continued. In the days ahead, the U.S. bishops "will examine health care proposals in greater depth and from various perspectives in the days ahead," he said.

President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law March 23, 2010.

"We remain committed to the ideals of universal and affordable health care and to the pursuit of those ideals in a manner that includes protections for human life, conscience and immigrants," Bishop Dewane told the lawmakers. "We urge you to approach the important debates in the days ahead seeking also to honor these principles for the good of all."

- - -

Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article