Catholic News 2

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2016 / 04:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Dec. 17, Pope Francis will celebrate his 80th birthday, which he will spend doing what he normally does: offering Mass and meeting with various heads of State and members of the Roman Curia.

However, as a novelty of this year’s papal birthday festivities, the Vatican has invited faithful from around the world to send their well-wishes to the Pope through a special email address in different languages.

According to a Dec. 13 communique from the Vatican, Francis will kick off his special day by offering Mass as usual. However, instead of the 7a.m. celebration in the Saint Martha Guesthouse, he’ll hold Mass inside the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace with all of the resident cardinals in Rome.

The rest of the day business will proceed as usual, since Pope Francis has several meetings on his agenda.

Among those he’ll meet are Marie Louise Coleiro Prec, President of the Republic of Malta; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Bishop Vitus Hounder of Chur, Sweden and the Nomadelfia Community of Italy.

The Vatican is also promoting the Pope’s birthday on social media, encouraging users to take to their accounts with the hashtag: #Pontifex80.

For those who want to send Pope Francis a note, they can write to him at following email addresses, divided by language:

Latin: Papafranciscus80@vatican.va
Italian: PapaFrancesco80@vatican.va
Spanish/Portuguese: PapaFrancisco80@vatican.va
English: PopeFrancis80@vatican.va
French: PapeFrancois80@vatican.va
German: PapstFranziskus80@vatican.va
Polish: PapiezFranciszek80@vatican.va

While the Pope’s birthday this year might be a “normal” day on the job, he will likely be greeted by a chorus of “Happy Birthday” at some point, and could be given a cake, which has happened in previous years.

When he turned 78 in 2014, shouts of “Tanti auguri” – or, “Happy Birthday!” – filled St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis circled around throngs of pilgrims on his popemobile during his weekly general audience.

He stopped to blow out candles on a giant cake given to him by group of Legionaries of Christ seminarians. He also paused to take a sip of mate tea – a traditional South American drink popular in Argentina – offered to him by pilgrims.

As he turned 79, he was greeted a burst of 'Happy Birthday' and the smell of birthday cake as a crowd of young people from the Italian lay movement 'Azione Cattolica' gathered to festively wish him a happy birthday.

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Little Rock, Ark., Dec 13, 2016 / 05:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Children’s birth certificates must be linked to biological parentage, the Arkansas Supreme Court has said in a ruling that involved the federal redefinition of marriage to recognize same-sex unions.

“It does not violate equal protection to acknowledge basic biological truths,” Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Judge Jo Hart wrote in the Dec. 8 decision.

The four-member majority ruling reverses a December 2015 ruling of Little Rock Circuit Judge Tim Fox who said that the state requirement to identify both a biological mother and a biological father of a child infringed on the constitutional due process rights of adoptive same-sex couples, Arkansas News reports.

Three female couples in same-sex civil marriages brought the case. Some of the women had conceived using anonymous sperm donors. Insurers denied health insurance to the biological mothers’ children because of requirements that the parent-child relationship be proven by listing a parent on the child’s birth certificate.

“The purpose of the statutes is to truthfully record the nexus of the biological mother and the biological father to the child,” Judge Hart said.

Identifying a biological parent is also an “important governmental objective” to track public health trends and to assist the child in finding genetic information for medical purposes, the judge said.

In a dissent from the majority decision, Arkansas Associate Justice Paul Danielson said the ruling was “simply and demonstrably wrong.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recognized gay marriage, he said, required that a parent’s name be listed on birth certificates “even when biological ties do not exist” as having a parent’s name listed on a birth certificate is a constitutionally guaranteed benefit associated with marriage.

He said state law requires the husband of the mother to be listed on a birth certificate, which should mean the legal parent-child relationship is based on marriage and not biology.

 

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to participants in the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In the message, sent through the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and published in the Osservatore Romano, the Holy Father “encourages governments and regional political authorities to confront the crisis provoked by the mass movement of people”.

Pope Francis reminded them that migratory phenomena and development are closely connected “with the urgent questions of poverty, war, and human trafficking”, thereby requiring “a sustainable environmental and human development”.

The 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development is organized by member states of the United Nations and took place on 10-12 December.

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Westchester, N.Y., Dec 12, 2016 / 11:02 pm (CNA).- What if proof for God's existence – and our very souls – could be found within our DNA?

Published in September of this year by Howard Books, Bruce Buff's novel “The Soul of the Matter” is the first in his three-part fictional series that grapples with faith and reason. In an interview with CNA, Buff discussed his reasons and inspirations behind this unique thriller. He reflected on how his faith has affected this novel, the importance behind faith and reason, and the influences which have gone into the creation of his new book.

Below is the full text of the interview:

CNA: What is your faith background, and how does it inform the novel?

Buff: I'm a practicing Catholic whose initial faith formation – grammar school religious ed and two years of Catholic high school – was enough to teach me the basics though without a lot of understanding. I had this view that if I was generally good to others, that was enough. Then my faith changed and deepened dramatically starting in the summer 1994 when I picked up my father-in-law’s copy of C.S. Lewis's “The Problem of Pain.” Reading that was extraordinary, and started a search that continues today. After reading Peter Kreeft’s “Making Sense Out of Suffering,” I saw that he was teaching at BC. Since I was working in eastern Connecticut, I was able to take Kreeft's night course, “The Three Greatest Men Who Lived: Socrates, Buddha and Jesus.” For me, nothing has been the same since. Themes and questions that Lewis and Kreeft discuss, about the seeming incompatibility of a loving, all powerful God with widespread and horrific suffering, and what that means God wants from us, are raised in “The Soul of the Matter” series.

CNA: What does this have to say about the relation between faith and reason, and religion and science?

Buff: That science, properly understood, points clearly to God's existence and our spiritual nature, that rather than being an exception, the supernatural is all around us. Consequently, faith and reason, religion and science, based on a good understanding of God will agree. Now of course there can appear to be significant differences between religion and science, such as the Biblical description of the origin of both the universe and humanity. I think there are good answers to this and other apparent differences but I’ll leave that to others to discuss.

CNA: Who do you hope to reach with this novel?

Buff: Anyone who likes thought-provoking thrillers. Beyond that, I want to reach people open to the idea that God exists. For those who share my Judeo-Christian beliefs, I hope my book helps strengthens some aspect of their thinking about science and faith. For others, I'd like them to understand that every moment of their life is their soul in action, that we are here by intent, and that God’s apparent, but not actual, absence means some important things about Him and His expectations for us that are worth further exploration.

CNA: How did you develop the science behind the book?

Buff: November 1999, sitting in my father-in-law’s office, working on my computer, the question of what connects bits inside a computer into words, or how pixels on the screen are transformed into images in our minds, popped into my mind and got me off and running on consciousness. Eventually, I concluded that if physics exists as scientists believe it does, then the material world alone cannot be the source of perceptions, awareness, cognitive thinking, and feeling. Therefore we have immaterial minds and every moment of our lives is our souls in action. I then realized that the immaterial mind challenges the Darwinian view of a completely naturalistic, unguided process as the complete explanation for human origin. In looking for a plausible sounding way, strictly for purposes of the story, that something could be encoded in DNA, I soon realized that there isn’t enough DNA to direct human development, turn a fertilized egg into an adult human, unless complex processing greatly expands the 3 billion DNA “letters” into a much larger set of information.

CNA: Where did you get the idea for the novel?

Buff: In 1986 or so, I saw a magazine cover that said that all humans have an identical 20 percent of DNA in common. I then thought that the idea that information could be deliberately hidden in DNA, and what that would be, could make for an interesting thriller. It was strictly fictional.

CNA: Which character do you feel like best expresses the message of the book?

Buff: Dan Lawson. He starts off with traditional religious training, becomes a person of today’s secular world, finds himself struggling with his state of mind and happiness, which causes him to choose between an exploration for ultimate truth or acceptance of despair.

CNA: Which authors are some of your major influences?

Buff: C.S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft, Walker Percy, Michael Crichton, and the Bible. I only began studying the latter in recent years, unfortunately. I’ve learned that a good companion guide is invaluable to help with context and meaning. Otherwise, it’s easy to misinterpret.

CNA: What influences did you draw the characters from?

Buff: I wanted them to reflect different worldviews and use their respective journeys and interactions as a way to explore ideas while hoping that readers will care about them. I imagined Dan as someone who has many gifts, everything has always come easy to him, and he’s tried to live the modern version of happiness. In one sense, he was headed towards what many now would consider the “ideal” life. His anger about some of the things he’s experienced has also shaped him sharply. Stephen started from the same place as Dan but is not angry, more open to self-examination, and choose a life that was a hybrid of the traditional and modern worldviews. Consequently, he was at different place. Trish is someone who seems like a naturally good person, who’s never thought about religion, but now is being exposed to ideas that are challenging her as well. Some readers have commented that there is more to Trish than meets the eye and that might be true.

CNA: Does “The Commission” or the “bad guy” Sarastro reflect a certain evil in the world today?

Buff: Absolutely. They are the logical extension of today’s predominant view that science, meaning the material world, is the sole explanation for everything. Once you buy into that, and deny God in the process, anything becomes possible. It’s ironic how much internal inconsistency there is with atheistic beliefs and behaviors. Of course Christians do a poor job of being Christians but that is consistent with being fallen creatures in need of redemption and grace. Few atheists recognize the contradictions inherent in their beliefs because, although they deny its existence and origin, they still possess the nature God gave them.

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Rome, Italy, Dec 13, 2016 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A traveling exhibit currently set up in Rome’s St. Silvester Square highlights the difficulties – as well as the strength, resilience, and hope – of Ukrainians who have had to flee their homes due to ongoing conflict in the country’s eastern regions.

“Through this exhibition we want to share with you our hopes, energy, and ideas for the future,” the introduction to the display reads. “We, as Ukrainians, have our rights and responsibilities – we want to be part of our nation that lives in peace and security.”

Displaying about 10 stories of individuals and families from different professions and situations, the exhibit shows the common theme of longing for home and the freedom to live a normal life.

“We are internally displaced people who left our homes, but this doesn’t make us different. We were, and are, citizens of Ukraine,” the introduction continues. “We don’t ask the state for anything more than our right to live and be treated the same as others. To have the possibility to work for ourselves and help build our country’s future.”

Launched by the British government through the British Embassy and the British Council in Ukraine, the exhibit was first opened in Kyiv in Nov. 2015 and has stopped in other places in the Ukraine, as well as London and Brussels. It is in Rome Dec. 5-14.

The display consists of large photographs of individuals or families with their own messages superimposed.

Each story and message is unique, expressing the man or woman’s own particular struggles and fears – but through many of them is the same desire – not for charity, but for work, so that they can contribute to and thank their new communities.

Conflict erupted in Ukraine in Nov. 2013, when the former government refused to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union, leading to months of violent protests.

Tensions deepened in Feb. 2014, when the country’s former president was ousted following the protests, and a new government appointed. In March of that year, Ukraine’s eastern peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Russia, and pro-Russian separatists have since taken control of eastern portions of Ukraine.

More than 9,700 people, including civilians, have died in the fighting between Ukraine’s military and the separatists. Roughly 2 million others have been forced to flee due to violence and a lack of basic humanitarian necessities, such as food and medicine.

“They ask me ‘what is it like to lose your home?’” wrote Yana Cherkas, a mother of six. “How should I answer? I don’t know. I don’t have time to think about it. We have lived in five towns in six months. Everything’s destroyed.”

“I want to be home so badly,” she wrote. “I ask myself, does anybody want us. What for? We have no right to vote, no normal life. I just want to settle. With no need to go further, no need to ask anyone for help, no need to survive.”

“I say to myself: tomorrow is a new day, and everything will be fine. Everything will come together, it’s that now it’s difficult. It will get easier. Donetsk remains home for us and one day I dream of returning. But they hate us there fiercely, they hate us here politely.”

Though Cherkas and her family have had trouble settling in the villages, others say they have been welcomed by the people in Kyiv – although the government does nothing to assist them.

One is Olga Todorova, a graphic designer and volunteer from Stakhanov, in  the Luhansk Oblast, which is controlled by the separatists. She said that since arriving in Kyiv, she and her family “have met kind people who helped us,” although the government “less so.”

“Our position is this,” she wrote: “if you can’t help, at least don’t hinder.”

“When you see total lawlessness and chaos, you don’t simply leave – you run,” she expressed. “The very beginning is the most difficult, the adaptation. When you think of what you had and what you left behind.”

“Over there, we were ‘Ukry,’ betrayers who left Luhansk to go to Ukraine. But we were luckier than most. I know seven people who were killed because of their pro-Ukrainian position. This is horrifying.”

Anzhelika Ostapenko, a pharmacist also from Luhansk, wrote about the fear of living and working in the middle of conflict, like a bomb that hit a nearby government building while she was working.

“At night I would come to my window, look at all these people with machine guns and realize – this is it, it cannot continue like this any longer.”

“When people shoot near your windows and your child starts trembling with fear, the only thing you can think of is how to save your family,” she wrote. “So we packed our children’s stuff, got on the train and left.”

She noted that people in Kyiv have accepted them very well, but other people have stayed behind in the east, either because of commitments or circumstances.

One is her mother: “she says that relocating at her age is like uprooting an old tree.” But for Ostapenko, “home is where my children are.”

“The only thing I ask now is to have the opportunity to earn money so that we can get a mortgage at normal interest rates,” she wrote. “The rest will follow. Everything else will mend in time.”

In the meantime, one young mother, Elena Lusenko, wrote as if speaking a word of encouragement to her young son: “You will have a wonderful and a very happy life.”

“You will never be an internally displaced person because it is impossible to lose what you have inside your heart. The most important thing is that we are together, where we are truly happy.”

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