Catholic News 2

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) The funeral Mass of Cardinal Gilberto Agustoni took place in St Peters Basilica at 10am, Tuesday 17 January. The Swiss Cardinal, who served as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura from 1992-1998, died on January 13, aged 94.

The funeral Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Vatican secretary of State and Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Greeting all those present on behalf of Pope Francis, Cardinal Sodano often likened Christian faith to light during his homily.

"In the first reading is Job, who already many centuries before Christ, professed his faith in the final resurrection saying, 'I know that my Redeemer lives, and my eyes will behold him.'"

Touching on Saint Paul's faith that Jesus will bring with him to God all those who have died, Cardinal Sodano then quoted the Gospel of Luke: "'Be ready, dressed for action with your lamps burning,' ready to open the door to the Lord, who comes to call us. This is the Christian vision of life and death, which we wish to profess, especially at the moment a loved one departs from this world. It was this faith which always guided our dear Cardinal Gilberto."

He concluded with a further reflection on faith and light, comparing the "living flame of faith" in Dante's Divine Comedy, with Jesus' words "I came into the world as light, so that he who believes in me will not remain in darkness." Once again, he assured the congregation that this light had illuminated and guided the life of Cardinal Agustino.

Gilberto Agustoni was born in Switzerland in 1922 and ordained a priest in 1946. He held a number of appointments in Rome, beginning in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later becoming secretary of the Congregation for Clergy and finally Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. Pope John Paul II made him a Cardinal in 1994.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) As top political and business leaders gather in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, a report by Oxfam - the international aid and development agency – calls for their attention with its claim that the gap between the rich and the poor is far greater than feared.

The World Economic Forum runs from Tuesday to Friday in Switzerland, and sees the participation of decision makers and world leaders – including Xi Jinping, the first Chinese President ever to attend the Forum.

In its timely report, released one day before the start of the summit and based on data from Forbes and the annual Credit Suisse Global Wealth datebook, Oxfam calls for a crackdown on tax evasion and a shift away from shareholder capitalism that disproportionately favours the rich.

It also echoes Pope Francis’ reiterated call for a global economic system that puts the human person at the center.

Linda Bordoni spoke to Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam about the report.

Listen:

Eight richest men have as much wealth as the poorest half of the world 

Max Lawson explains that new data show that the bottom three and a half billion people in the world – “that’s the bottom half of humanity” – have the same amount of wealth as the eight richest billionaires in the world (and who are all men).

“So eight people have the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity” he says.

Lawson also reveals that the report finds that other measures of inequality are increasing across the world and that the gap between the super-rich and the rest of the population is a problem both in rich nations and in the poorest countries.

He disagrees with the argument that the welfare of the poor is improving and says that data shows that the wealth of the world’s poor is actually lower than we thought.

“What we have seen is a reduction in income poverty meaning that there are less people living on 2 dollars a day than there were 30 years ago, so in this sense there has been real progress, but what we are also seeing is the impact of inequality on that progress” he says.

Lawson says the World Bank and other economic experts are saying that continued progress in reducing the numbers of poor people will not continue “unless we start closing the gap between the runaway rich and the rest of us”.     

Inequality not inevitable

Oxfam, he says, believes that the inequality we are seeing is not inevitable: “there are concrete steps that governments can take to make a real difference”.

He points to some good examples such as the course undertaken by the government in Namibia which has increased taxes for the rich and is spending the extra money on free secondary education for all.

“Both steps that can make a big difference in closing that gap” he says.

Lawson says that across the world the richest are continuing to use tax havens to hide their wealth resulting in the fact that ordinary workers can end up paying higher rates of taxes than a billionaire. This situation, he says, must be turned around to be able to make the world a more equal place.

Davos must increase the pressure for change

He expresses his view that the summit at Davos is an occasion to focus on this situation of extreme inequality and to put pressure on the richest people in the world to do something about it.

Lawson says that, particularly taking into consideration some major issues and trends affecting the world today (from migration, to populist trends) a very large proportion of the world’s population feels ‘left behind’ and angry, and he says they are looking for scapegoats instead of the right solutions.

“It’s the fault of a broken economic system. And by tackling that system and making sure that more of that wealth is spread more evenly to ordinary people, I think you’ll see a lot less interest in racism and in blaming others when we have a more fair world where wealth is better distributed” he says.

Lawson agrees that in fact the middle class is also increasingly bearing the brunt of inequality with the ‘super rich’ shooting ahead in the last 30 years “and the top 1% now earning more than everyone else in the world put together”.

So, he says, this is a problem that is impacting ordinary workers across the globe, and especially women who are in some of the lowest paid, precarious employment.

Women at the bottom of the ladder

“It’s always men who are the richest and are at the top while women are the poorest. So we really need to see action to redress that balance and get back to a more even society that will benefit everybody” he says.

Lawson concludes pointing out that Pope Francis’ voice on the inequality issue has been absolutely invaluable: “we share his vision for a more human economy”.

The force of Pope Francis' call for economic system that puts humans at the center

“We believe that humanity has the talent, the imagination and the ability to build a much better world; we should not be happy with the world we are in – this isn’t the best we can do” he says. 

We have the resources to make it a lot fairer, Lawson says: “so we share his vision that we must fight inequality and also believe that we have the possibility of humanity of doing a lot better than this.”    

Full Article

Vatican City, Jan 17, 2017 / 09:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the latest development in an ongoing feud between the Vatican and the Knights of Malta, the Holy See has issued a statement affirming their support for the Order and their work, but saying they expect full cooperation with an investigation into the dismissal of the Knights’ former Grand Chancellor.

“In relation to the events of recent weeks concerning the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Holy See wishes to reiterate its support and encouragement for the commendable work that members and volunteers carry out in various parts of the world,” a Jan. 17 statement from the Vatican read.

However, it is for the “support and advancement” of the Order’s essential mission in service of the poor, sick, and the defense of the faith that the Holy See voiced a reaffirmation of “its confidence” in the five member group appointed by Pope Francis “to inform him about the present crisis of the Central Direction of the Order.”

The Vatican said it also “rejects, based on the documentation in its possession, any attempt to discredit these members of the group and their work.”

The line refers to recent reports that in the past few days the Knights have voiced their intention to launch an inquiry into the Vatican’s investigative group on the grounds that they have a “conflict of interest,” citing links between certain group members to a fund in Geneva.

The statement is the latest move in what has turned out to be a heated feud between the Knights of Malta and the Vatican over the ousting of the Order’s former Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, in early December.

Shortly after Boeselager was dismissed the Knights released a Dec. 13 statement saying his removal was due to the “subsequent concealment … from the Grand Magistry” of “severe problems which occurred during [his] tenure as Grand Hospitaller of the Order of Malta.”

Since then it has come to be known that the problem cited refers to when the Order's charity branch, under Boeselager’s watch, had inadvertently been involved in distributing condoms in Burma to prevent HIV.

In comments to CNA, the Order’s Communications Director confirmed that while the Burmese incident was part of why Boeselager was asked to resign, the full list of reasons is “more complex.” However, he did not reveal what the full motivations were, saying “the reasons for the dismissal are confidential.”

The Vatican announced Dec. 22 that Pope Francis had formed a group of five senior officials shortly after the forced resignation to investigate the matter. Members of the group include Archbishop Silvestro Tomasi, Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda S.J., Jacques de Liedekerke, Marc Odendall, and Marwan Sehnaoui.

In response, the Knights issued a Jan. 10 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 is “legally irrelevant” given the Order’s sovereignty.

The Order voiced both their refusal to cooperate in the investigation as well as their encouragement for members questioned by the Vatican group to not take a stance other than that of the Grand Magistry.

“Considering the legal irrelevance of this group and of its findings relating to the legal structure of the Order of Malta, the Order has decided that it should not cooperate with it,” they said in their Jan. 10 statement, insisting this refusal is meant to protect the Order’s sovereignty against “initiatives which claim to be directed at objectively (and, therefore – quite apart from its intentions – reveals it to be legally irrelevant) questioning or even limiting said Sovereignty.”

They also charged that depositions individual members might give to the Vatican’s investigative group “cannot, in their terms and judgments, be in contradiction, directly or indirectly,” with the decision to remove Boeselager from his position.

However, despite the ongoing tensions, the Vatican in their Jan. 17 statement said the Holy See “counts on the complete cooperation of all in this sensitive stage.”

In addition, it said the Holy See “awaits the report of the above-mentioned group 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.”

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Jonathan Luxmoore

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Catholic and Orthodox leaders have pledged to stand together against fundamentalism and terrorism, as well as resisting forces working to erode and destroy religious belief in Europe.

"Terrorist violence against people considered unbelievers or infidels is the extreme degree of religious intolerance -- we unreservedly condemn it and deplore that such acts have developed in the soil of a misguided religious culture," the church representatives said in a joint message Jan. 13.

"The constitutions of our states guarantee the fundamental rights of the human person. Nevertheless, in our societies, forces are always at work to marginalize or even erase religions and their message from the public space. We believe Europe needs more than ever the breath of faith in Christ and the hope it provides."

The 14-point message was published after a Jan. 9-12 meeting of the European Catholic-Orthodox Forum, co-chaired in Paris by Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, former president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, and Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

It said Catholic and Orthodox bishops deplored "crimes that may have been committed in the name of religion," but believed their churches should not be blamed "for attitudes of intolerance that are inadmissible nowadays, but used to be shared by societies in the past."

"Our Catholic and Orthodox churches proclaim the centrality of the human person and of its dignity created in the image of God. ... Human freedom is exercised to the utmost in the act of religious faith, which must always remain free," said the statement from the forum, which was attended by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk and bishops, archbishops and cardinals from 20 countries.

"Political power should not favor a particular religion but respect the supreme divinity which each religion names according to its convictions. ... The state guarantees religious freedom for all, but is itself subject to a natural ethical order from which it cannot escape."

The four-day meeting, co-hosted by Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris and Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, was the first since East-West ties deteriorated over Russian involvement in Ukraine.

The message said the meeting's aim was "to demonstrate the convergence of Catholics and Orthodox on major issues of social ethics" and the will of both churches to stand together in the face of "unprecedented challenges and threats against Christianity."

It added that the churches had no intention of "stigmatizing the religion of Islam." Noting that terrorists often were "socially disengaged young people," it invited all youths to "commit themselves to building a fraternal world that excludes no one. We call on Muslim religious authorities to ensure there is no propagation of a systematically hostile image of the non-Muslim world."

The forum message said 80 percent of religious persecutions worldwide currently targeted Christians, adding that Catholic and Orthodox leaders shared solidarity with Christian targets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

However, it added that religious freedom also faced "restrictive interpretation" and "more subtle forms of discrimination" in European countries, such as when Christians were "excluded from certain roles or professions," denied the right to conscientious objection and subjected to "the media's denigration of what is most sacred to some."

The message said children should be "properly educated in their own religion and at the same time educated to respect the religion of others," adding that schools not be places "for experimentation with anthropological theses without scientific foundation, like gender theories or certain ecological ideologies that go as far as transhumanism."

A press statement from the Council of European Bishops' Conferences said the forum had not tackled theological or doctrinal matters or replaced a separate Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue commission, which is finalizing an agreed document on papal primacy.

- - -

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

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican confirmed its trust in the papal commission investigating the forced resignation of the Order of Malta's former grand chancellor following a letter by the order's grand master to discredit the group.

In a statement released Jan. 17, the Vatican said it "reaffirms its confidence" in the five-member group established by Pope Francis "to inform him about the present crisis of the central direction of the order."

The Vatican also rejected "any attempt to discredit these members of the group," led by Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, former Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva.

Other members of the commission are: Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a canon lawyer and former rector of Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University; Jacques de Liedekerke, former chancellor of the Order of Malta; Marc Odendall, counselor of the order; and Marwan Sehnaoui, president of the Order of Malta in Lebanon.

In a letter to members, obtained and reported Jan. 16 by The Tablet, a London-based Catholic news weekly, the order's grand master, Fra Matthew Festing, accused three of the commission members of having links to "a fund in Geneva."

While admitting that there was no immediate evidence of "anything untoward," Festing said that "personal and financial links make the commission members clearly unfit to address the situation objectively."

The Tablet also reported that Festing said he would establish his own "commission of inquiry into the situation," adding that the papal commission will be kept "at arm's length" until his inquiry is concluded.

Despite the increasing tensions with the order, the Vatican reiterated its support for "the commendable work that members and volunteers" with the Order of Malta carry out in various parts of the world in defense of the faith and in service to the poor and the sick.

However, it also called on all members of the order to cooperate with the commission and its work.

"The Holy See counts on the complete cooperation of all in this sensitive stage and awaits the report of the above-mentioned group 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 Vatican said.

- - -

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

Full Article