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(Vatican Radio) The Catholic Church in the United States is preparing to celebrate “National Migration Week” at the beginning of the year as it has done for the past 50 years or so.The event, scheduled to take place from 8 to 14 January 2017, is presented as “an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking”. The theme, “Creating a Culture of Encounter” has been chosen to highlight Pope Francis' reiterated appeal to create a culture of encounter, and “in doing so to look beyond our own needs and wants to those of others around us”. The USCCB website cites the Pope’s homily for his first Pentecost as Pope saying that he immediately emphasized the importance of encounter in the Christian faith: "For me this word is very important. Encounter with others. Why? Because faith is an encou...
(Vatican Radio) The Catholic Church in the United States is preparing to celebrate “National Migration Week” at the beginning of the year as it has done for the past 50 years or so.
The event, scheduled to take place from 8 to 14 January 2017, is presented as “an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking”.
The theme, “Creating a Culture of Encounter” has been chosen to highlight Pope Francis' reiterated appeal to create a culture of encounter, and “in doing so to look beyond our own needs and wants to those of others around us”.
The USCCB website cites the Pope’s homily for his first Pentecost as Pope saying that he immediately emphasized the importance of encounter in the Christian faith: "For me this word is very important. Encounter with others. Why? Because faith is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do what Jesus does: encounter others."
The US Bishops point out that “with respect to migrants, too often in our contemporary culture we fail to encounter them as persons, and instead look at them as others. We do not take the time to engage migrants in a meaningful way, but remain aloof to their presence and suspicious of their intentions. During this National Migration Week, let us all take the opportunity to engage migrants as children of God who are worthy of our attention and support”.
You can participate in “National Migration Week” with a series of prayer resources and other tools by clicking here.
(Vatican Radio) “Notwithstanding a return to calm in the South Sudanese city of Yei, those living in rural areas continue to die immersed in the deafening silence of the media and before the indifferent gaze of the international community.”This dramatic statement was made by Catholic Bishop Erkolano Lodu Tombe of Yei in Equatoria region, South Sudan.Bishop Lodu Tombe was speaking to “Radio Easter” in Juba, and the interview was reported on in the Vatican “Osservatore Romano” newspaper.He said that the country has been hit by a wave of murders and massacres, which are believed to have been carried out by mixed military-civilian groups that target suspected supporters of the former vice president, Riek Machar.Lodu Tombe said that hundreds of people have lost their lives in violent attacks in villages on the outskirts of Yei and said they are dying also due to lack of food and medicine.He said the population lives in constant fear of new waves of v...
(Vatican Radio) “Notwithstanding a return to calm in the South Sudanese city of Yei, those living in rural areas continue to die immersed in the deafening silence of the media and before the indifferent gaze of the international community.”
This dramatic statement was made by Catholic Bishop Erkolano Lodu Tombe of Yei in Equatoria region, South Sudan.
Bishop Lodu Tombe was speaking to “Radio Easter” in Juba, and the interview was reported on in the Vatican “Osservatore Romano” newspaper.
He said that the country has been hit by a wave of murders and massacres, which are believed to have been carried out by mixed military-civilian groups that target suspected supporters of the former vice president, Riek Machar.
Lodu Tombe said that hundreds of people have lost their lives in violent attacks in villages on the outskirts of Yei and said they are dying also due to lack of food and medicine.
He said the population lives in constant fear of new waves of violence. He decried the lack of security on the roads and said that villagers are unable to reach the city of Yei and farmers are unable to travel to their fields to be able to cultivate them.
The bishop says the population therefore will be forced to rely on humanitarian assistance throughout the coming year because there are no crops.
He explained that his own Diocese of Yei includes nine parishes located across Yei River State and in villages of Amadi State: “unfortunately only two parishes are functioning. In the others the priests are unable to care for the Christian communities due to the wave of violence that exploded last July and that continues to endanger both the population and the priests”.
The UN Human Rights Council this month warned that South Sudan is "on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war which could destabilise the entire region".
After a recent mission to the nation, the head of a team of UN human rights investigators described a shattered country where children as young as two have been raped and she urged immediate deployment of a 4,000-strong regional protection force "to protect civilians all across South Sudan".
Bishop Lodu Tombe said the people of South Sudan are exhausted and together with the Catholic Church and other religious confessions appeal for an end to hostilities and the restoration of peace in the country.
“We appeal to all parties in the conflict for peace” said Bishop Lodu Tombe “and at the same time we thank the Government for its efforts to establish order”.
At the moment the only two operational parishes in Yei Diocese are those of Christ the King Cathedral and Sacred Heart Parish-Lomin.
Father Emmanuel Lodongo Sebit, General Secretary of the Diocese said that “instability and lack of security do not allow for parish activities or for the assistance of people in difficulty.”
Father Lodongo said all the other parishes have been looted and destroyed and many Christians have been forced to flee.
During Christmas Mass Bishop Lodu Tombe and Father Lodongo exhorted all South Sudanese to intensify their commitment to work for peace in Africa’s youngest nation.
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Some parts of the world see swift attentionpaid to victims of sexual abuse and others still experience delays or amishandling of allegations.This imbalance, one Jesuit expert has said, reflects howyears of papal pleas and Vatican mandates have not been received or implementedconsistently everywhere.Because the church's typical top-down approach in gettingthe message out may not be enough, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner is spearheading acomplementary course: a global alliance built and grown from the ground up byindividual priests, religious and laity along with Catholicuniversities, religious orders and bishops' conferences.Father Zollner, president of the Center for ChildProtection at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, told Catholic NewsService in late December of the center's plan to launch the newalliance in the coming months.The center offers a specialized e-learning program and anon-site diploma course in safeguarding ...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Some parts of the world see swift attention paid to victims of sexual abuse and others still experience delays or a mishandling of allegations.
This imbalance, one Jesuit expert has said, reflects how years of papal pleas and Vatican mandates have not been received or implemented consistently everywhere.
Because the church's typical top-down approach in getting the message out may not be enough, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner is spearheading a complementary course: a global alliance built and grown from the ground up by individual priests, religious and laity along with Catholic universities, religious orders and bishops' conferences.
Father Zollner, president of the Center for Child Protection at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, told Catholic News Service in late December of the center's plan to launch the new alliance in the coming months.
The center offers a specialized e-learning program and an on-site diploma course in safeguarding minors. What makes the program's graduates unique is they then use their new skills and local knowledge to train and educate others "back home" on a local, diocesan and even national level.
"It's snowballing," the Jesuit priest said, in a way that the church doesn't normally work.
While "the church has this unique system of flow of information" that trickles "from the top down to the grass-roots level," the church sometimes "doesn't take advantage sufficiently of the potential benefit" of all the expertise, access and sheer numbers of people "on the ground."
The Center for Child Protection-Global Alliance, he said, would be a network of organizations -- starting with some of the pontifical and Catholic universities that have already partnered with the center with its e-learning programs -- committed to working with local experts and exchanging valuable and concrete information.
"Until now, almost, almost every single country had to learn its own lesson the hard way because they did not look to their neighbor" when it was caught off guard, he said. For example, he said, when scandal struck the church in the U.S., Ireland and Germany, neighboring nations did not see it as a warning sign for what may be happening in their own backyard.
He said he hoped the creation of this global alliance could help show how efforts and information become more effective when spread by experts across the front lines.
Father Zollner said he has been impressed with the skills, commitment and enthusiasm at the seminars he has helped lead through the center and as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The commission, which was established in 2014 to provide resources, guidelines and best practices, has more than a dozen members who raise awareness and advocate firm action around the world.
For example, Father Zollner, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta, and Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston spoke in Mexico City at a congress on child protection in November attended by more than 400 people representing 60 dioceses, 40 religious congregations and more.
The three men offered their insight and experience frankly and directly, he said. "You can be sure it wasn't light to take, this is heavy stuff," he said.
Archbishop Scicluna spent years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, handling accusations of clerical sex abuse. He long has insisted that church officials respond to allegations clearly and without creating "a culture of silence or repression."
The center also will host a congress on minors and online abuse, titled "Child Dignity in the Digital World," Oct. 3-6, 2017. Father Zollner said he met with Pope Francis Dec. 21 to tell him about the congress and got "his approval and support."
The pope was "moved and shaken" by estimates the priest provided that in India alone it is expected 500 million more people will go online next year and at least half of them will be minors, "exposing them to all kinds of risks we can hardly imagine."
The organizers are inviting software companies, representatives from government and law enforcement, science experts and policymakers to share ideas on protecting minors from abuse online including looking at how young people abuse the internet and each other, for example, through "sextortion" or extorting others with their sexual information or images.
He said he also presented the pope with a proposal that the 2018 Synod of Bishops on youth include the topic of safeguarding children from abuse.
Despite so much progress, Father Zollner told CNS, one lingering obstacle is "to break the silence."
There's a continued reluctance "to verbalize and intervene" in some places when it comes to abuse, he said. In part, people avoid talking about it, he said, because it's such an "uncomfortable topic" and "so repugnant."
However, sometimes the silence also is the fruit of negligence, he said, such as when "I protect my institution first of all and the rest is secondary. I don't listen to the victim. I put the legal adviser and financial interests first" before the human person in need.
While such a response would be wrong everywhere, it especially should not exist for the church, he said.
The other major obstacle, he said, is getting people to realize what is at stake: the lives and future of children and young people who are meant to grow up "having opportunities, be educated, to play, to cry, to be joyful," and not scarred by the trauma of abuse.
So even if abuse, prevention and correction are talked about, the talk risks just being "lip service" if it's not taken seriously or "not really followed up" with concrete help and effort on every church level, like youth programs, pastoral planning, the selection of priests and so on, he said.
It's there that Father Zollner hopes their global alliance will make its impact -- getting the church's talented and dedicated members on the ground to work.
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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @carolglatz.
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Copyright © 2016 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.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Jonathan Drake, ReutersBy FARGO, N.D. (CNS) -- The CatholicBenefits Association, the Diocese of Fargo and Catholic Charities NorthDakota filed a lawsuit Dec. 28 in U.S. District Court in North Dakota against a federal regulationscheduled to take effect Jan. 1 that redefines "sex" foranti-discrimination purposes to include sexual orientation and gender identity.The regulation from theDepartment of Health and Human Services requires that Catholichospitals and health care providers perform or provide gender transitionservices, hormonal treatments and counseling as well as a host of surgeriesthat would remove or transform the sexual organs of men or women transitioningto the other gender. The HHS regulation requires group health plans to cover theseprocedures and services."We ask only for the freedom toserve consistent with our conscience and our Catholic faith," Bishop John T.Folda of Fargo said in a statement, released by the Catholic BenefitsAssociation. "While we do...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Jonathan Drake, Reuters
By
FARGO, N.D. (CNS) -- The Catholic Benefits Association, the Diocese of Fargo and Catholic Charities North Dakota filed a lawsuit Dec. 28 in U.S. District Court in North Dakota against a federal regulation scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 that redefines "sex" for anti-discrimination purposes to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
The regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services requires that Catholic hospitals and health care providers perform or provide gender transition services, hormonal treatments and counseling as well as a host of surgeries that would remove or transform the sexual organs of men or women transitioning to the other gender. The HHS regulation requires group health plans to cover these procedures and services.
"We ask only for the freedom to serve consistent with our conscience and our Catholic faith," Bishop John T. Folda of Fargo said in a statement, released by the Catholic Benefits Association. "While we do not discriminate against individuals because of their orientation, our Catholic values will not permit us to pay for or facilitate actions that are contrary to our faith."
The Catholic Benefits Association is made up of Catholic dioceses, hospitals, school systems, religious orders and other entities that offer their employees insurance and benefit programs that adhere to Catholic teaching.
The regulation, which also mandates abortions be performed, affects health insurers, hospitals and health plans administered by or receiving federal funds from HHS. There is no religious exemption.
The final HHS regulation was published in May. It applies to implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which provides that individuals cannot be subject to discrimination based on their race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.
It cites Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. Title IX states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
Title IX does have an exemption for religious organizations, but the HHS regulation does not include that language.
"For decades, Congress and the courts have understood the term 'sex' in federal law to mean biological sex -- male and female," Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the Catholic Benefits Association, said in a statement.
"By redefining 'sex' to mean both 'gender identity' and 'termination of pregnancy,' the Obama administration is not only trying to sidestep Congress and impose radical new health care mandates on hospitals and employers, it is creating a moral problem for Catholic employers that must be addressed," he added.
In their lawsuit the plaintiffs argue that among other federal laws, the new regulation violates:
-- The Administrative Procedure Act, a federal statute that governs the way administrative agencies of the U.S. government may propose and establish regulations.
-- The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, prohibits the federal government from substantially restricting a person's religious freedom, except when it can demonstrate "a compelling government interest" and that the government's action is "the least restrictive means" of furthering that interest.
-- The religious freedom protections of the First Amendment.
Two other lawsuits have been filed. The Washington-based Becket Fund filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Wichita Falls on behalf of Franciscan Alliance, a religious hospital network sponsored by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, defending them from the new government regulation. The states of Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska and Wisconsin also joined in the suit.
The District Court heard arguments in the case Dec. 20. The plaintiffs' motion is for partial summary judgment to dispose of the case without a trial. The lawsuit was first filed Aug. 23; three other states -- Louisiana, Arizona and Mississippi -- later joined as plaintiffs in the case.
The Becket Fund filed another lawsuit Nov. 7 in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy; the University of Mary, a Catholic university near Bismarck, North Dakota; and SMP Health System. The state of North Dakota has since joined the suit. In this case, the plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the mandate from going into effect.
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Copyright © 2016 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.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Deliberating jurors at a major racketeering trial of the purported leaders of Chicago's notorious Hobos gang sent a note to the presiding federal judge on Thursday saying they are deadlocked on at least one count after four full days of deliberations....
The number of police killed in the line of duty rose sharply in 2016, driven by shootings of police around the country, most notably ambushes in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana....
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