Catholic News 2
BEIRUT (AP) -- The Syrian government's recapture of Aleppo after a prolonged and punishing air assault is a defining moment in the country's devastating civil war: it leaves President Bashar Assad in control of almost all major urban areas - and poised to petition for a role in the world community's broader war against Islamic State militants clinging to parts of Syria's northeast....
BEIRUT (AP) -- The Latest on the developments in Syria after the cease-fire deal to allow for the evacuation of rebels and tens of thousands of civilians still remaining in the rebel enclave (all times local):...
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Republican Gov. John Kasich signed a bill Tuesday imposing a 20-week abortion ban while vetoing stricter provisions in a separate measure that would have barred the procedure at the first detectable fetal heartbeat....
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Bill Cosby used his fame to gain the trust of women before knocking them out with pills and drinks so he could sexually assault them, prosecutors argued Tuesday as they sought to persuade a judge to allow 13 of his accusers to testify in his upcoming sexual assault trial....
Alan Thicke, a versatile performer who gained his greatest renown as the beloved dad on a long-running sitcom, has died at age 69....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Republicans in Washington bashed President Barack Obama's efforts to secure an Iran nuclear deal last year, Exxon Mobil was watching....
Vatican City, Dec 13, 2016 / 04:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In his homily at Mass Tuesday, Pope Francis spoke harshly about what he considers one of the great dangers of clericalism: that it alienates members of the Church by refusing to be close to them, and reinforces the belief that priests are above the laity.Of course, this isn’t the first time that Pope Francis has spoken out against clericalism – in fact, it could easily be considered one of the most frequently-repeated topics of his pontificate; most recently to a group of Jesuits, but he has also strongly condemned it in the Church in Latin America. The Pope’s homily Dec. 13 was given before members of the Council of Cardinals, an advisory body of the Pope, with whom he has been meeting this week. The Council, which last met Sept. 12-14, has been helping to facilitate Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia.After the September meetings, Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, secretary of the Council of Car...
Vatican City, Dec 13, 2016 / 04:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In his homily at Mass Tuesday, Pope Francis spoke harshly about what he considers one of the great dangers of clericalism: that it alienates members of the Church by refusing to be close to them, and reinforces the belief that priests are above the laity.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Pope Francis has spoken out against clericalism – in fact, it could easily be considered one of the most frequently-repeated topics of his pontificate; most recently to a group of Jesuits, but he has also strongly condemned it in the Church in Latin America.
The Pope’s homily Dec. 13 was given before members of the Council of Cardinals, an advisory body of the Pope, with whom he has been meeting this week. The Council, which last met Sept. 12-14, has been helping to facilitate Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia.
After the September meetings, Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, secretary of the Council of Cardinals, published a summary of their work, linking the Council’s actions to the “needs for a pastoral conversion” that Pope Francis discussed in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.
Francis’ emphasis on the pastoral mission of the priest is again highlighted in his Dec. 13 homily. Criticizing the chief priests and elders found in the Gospels, he pointed out how even when the traitor Judas came back to them repentant, they turned him away, saying, “It’s your problem.”
The reason for this, the Pope said, is that they “had forgotten what it was to be a pastor” and instead “they were the intellectuals of religion, those who had the power, who advanced the catechesis of the people with a morality composed by their own intelligence and not by the revelation.”
In this quote, Pope Francis condemns those who do not heed God’s command in Proverbs 3:5 to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely.”
“Clerics feel they are superior, they are far from the people;” they have no time to hear the poor, the suffering, prisoners, the sick,” Francis said.
Placing it in the context of Advent, and people awaiting the birth of the Savior, Pope Francis said that the Father has “always sought to be close to us: he sent his Son. We are waiting, waiting in joyful expectation, exulting.”
“But the Son didn’t join the game of these people: The Son went with the sick, the poor, the discarded, the publicans, the sinners – and that is scandalous – the prostitutes. Today, too, Jesus says to all of us, and even to those who are seduced by clericalism: ‘The sinners and the prostitutes will go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven’.”
With his focus on the ministry of the priesthood as pastors, it isn’t surprising that Francis has criticized this superior attitude in his addresses to seminarians as well, telling a group from Southern Italy Dec. 10, to be involved and get their “hands dirty.”
“Do not feel different from your peers,” or that you are better than other people, he said. “If tomorrow you will be priests who live in the midst of the holy people of God, begin today to be young people who know how to be with everyone, who can learn something from every person you meet, with humility and intelligence.”
An updated version of the Vatican’s document on priestly formation, released Dec. 7, touched on the issue of clericalism as well, emphasizing that, as Cardinal Beniamino Stella said, to be a good priest “a demonstrated human, spiritual and pastoral maturation is necessary.”
Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, Cardinal Stella was commenting on The Gift of Priestly Vocation, his department’s newest edition of the fundamentals of priestly formation, which says that seminarians “should be educated so that they do not become prey to ‘clericalism,’ nor yield to the temptation of modeling their lives on the search for popular consensus.”
“This would inevitably lead them to fall short in exercising their ministry as leaders of the community, leading them to think about the Church as a merely human institution.”
The document reiterates that priestly ordination, while making its recipient “a leader of the people,” should not “lead him to ‘lord it over’ the flock.”
At the heart of this message is an echo of what Pope Francis continues to repeat in his words to priests: there is a need for clergy who walk with the people, just as Jesus did, discarding no one.
Failing to live up to this calling results in priests afflicted with “the spirit of clericalism,” which in the words of Pope Francis, is “a very ugly thing.”
San Rafael, Argentina, Dec 13, 2016 / 05:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, has been found guilty by the Vatican of sexual improprieties with adults, the community's home diocese announced on Monday.The accusations against Fr. Buela “regarded actions in sexual matters which harmed religious and seminarians of the Institute,” a spokesman of the Diocese of San Rafael announced Dec. 12.“The competent Congregation of the Holy See, having ensured the exercise of the legitimate right of defense of the accused, determined, in conformity with the canonical procedures in force, the veracity of the accusations and the imputability of Father Buela of improper behavior with adults,” he stated.The diocese made clear, however, that there are no “cases of the abuse of minors attributable to him.”Fr. Buela founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), a religious institute of diocesan right...
San Rafael, Argentina, Dec 13, 2016 / 05:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, has been found guilty by the Vatican of sexual improprieties with adults, the community's home diocese announced on Monday.
The accusations against Fr. Buela “regarded actions in sexual matters which harmed religious and seminarians of the Institute,” a spokesman of the Diocese of San Rafael announced Dec. 12.
“The competent Congregation of the Holy See, having ensured the exercise of the legitimate right of defense of the accused, determined, in conformity with the canonical procedures in force, the veracity of the accusations and the imputability of Father Buela of improper behavior with adults,” he stated.
The diocese made clear, however, that there are no “cases of the abuse of minors attributable to him.”
Fr. Buela founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), a religious institute of diocesan right, in San Rafael, Argentina in 1984. Associated with the community is a women's institute, the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara.
The Vatican also ruled that Fr. Buela, who retired as general superior of the IVE in 2010, “is absolutely forbidden to have any contact with members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word.”
“Neither can he make statements, appear in public, or participate in any activity or meeting, whether it is personally or by any other means of communication.”
In late November, the Mendoza Digital website presented the case of a man identified as “Luis” who reported being sexually abused by a priest inside IVE's Mary Mother of the Incarnate Word Major Seminary in the Diocese of San Rafael.
The San Rafael diocese stated that as soon as they were informed by the victim, they proceeded with an investigation “with responsibility and speed” and brought the case “to the competent authority of the Holy See.”
The Argentine diocese said that they are currently awaiting the decision of the Holy See and “maintaining a cordial dialogue with Luis.”
Bishop Eduardo Maria Taussig of San Rafael emphasized that “these problems do not tarnish everything that is most important that unites us, which is belonging to the same diocesan Church, to Jesus Christ, and the Gospel.”
“I certainly understand and make my own the pain of all the Incarnate Word family in face of this news, and also as the father of each one of them I am at their disposal,” he said.
Bishop Taussig said that “the Institute of the Incarnate Word has a rule approved by the authority of the Church which ensures that whoever follows it can be holy and have a recognized charism, and has in fact a great many works and in very many parts of the world that are commendable” including “the brothers and sisters who are in Syria under bombardment, with very heroic and noble testimonies.”
The prelate pointed out that IVE “has had difficulties, not just regarding Fr. Buela, but also with governance,” and so the Holy See intervened in the election of the highest authorities of the institute.
The IVE, he said, “is in a process, accompanied and guided by the supreme authority of the Church, which is a good sign that it will be able to promote everything that is good and put in order the things that have to be corrected.”
The Bishop of San Rafael also pointed out that “a fallen tree should not make one lose sight of the forest that is growing. There are so many good Christians, so many good religious, so many good priests, the bishops and the Pope.”
In addition, he recalled that “the Catholic Church leads the world in procedures and regulations to avoid this kind of abuse of minors and has created a process in the last 15 years which is exemplary and goes to the forefront of everything that is being done in the world.”
“Every measure is being taken so that this does not happen again, and in the Diocese of San Rafael, like the Church in general, we have all the resources and alerts well in place to act immediately and if there were someone to wanted to have or had what I call new information he not only has the freedom but also the obligation to make it known and we will do everything that can and ought to be done.”
NEW YORK (AP) -- Kanye West returned to social media for the first time since his hospitalization to talk about his meeting with Donald Trump....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Huston Street believes in some of baseball's oldest, tried-and-true traditions, and the reliever knows team building can be a real benefit, so he considers the elimination of rookie dress up in the new labor deal the loss of "a healthy ritual."...
