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Vatican City, Dec 5, 2016 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis endorsed a recent conference dedicated to the conservation and restoration of art and heritage within the Middle East as a means to defend the rights of the human person. 

The Pope gave his support for the Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage Conference, which occurred at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, on Dec. 2-3. Supported by UNESCO, France and the UAE set up the conference in hopes of protecting the heritage of the countries torn by war within the Middle East. 

Identifying the theme as “unfortunately starkly current,” the Pope said that “the protection of cultural treasures constitutes an essential dimension in the defense of what it is to be human.”

In countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, and Syria – each exposed to centuries of war – looting, destruction to cultural monuments, and illicit trading are commonplace. Within these cultures, all of which extend over a millennium back, many culturally significant pieces and property have already been damaged or obliterated. National Geographic has reported on specific pieces which have faced or are facing extinction, including the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and the toppled statues of the Mosul Museum in Iraq by ISIS militants. 

Both the president of France, François Hollande, and the crowned prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, have organized the conference with over 40 representatives from other countries. 

The conference is supported by UNESCO, an organization within the UN dedicated to protecting and rehabilitating damaged art, cultural monuments, and natural wonders. Since its establishment in 1945, UNESCO has retained significant art and nature all over world. Having already helped restore the Old Walled City of Shibam, Yemen and even Yellowstone National Park within the US, UNESCO will be an important piece in enforcing and organizing the restoration. 

“This will be a historical initiative to pass down our legacy of tolerance and value of heritage,” said the organization's chairman of tourism, Mohammad Khalifa Al Mubarak, who added that the project would need to raise $100 million in order to do so. 

Partnering with UNESCO and relying on their previous expertise, countries will look to establish the Global Fund for Culture in order to reconstruct places like Nimrud or Palmyra. France and a few other countries have also shown interest in housing artifacts until it is safe for their return.

For the countries of the Middle East under violence and constraints to religious freedom, the Pope trusts this conference will bring about a greater concern for the human person. “I hope that this event marks a new step in the process of the implementation of human rights,” he said. 

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Washington D.C., Dec 5, 2016 / 03:46 pm (CNA).- Senate Republicans agreed to remove a religious liberty amendment from a defense bill earlier this week, after a fierce campaign was waged against it by secular groups.

“The leadership of the 115th Congress must double down against, not concede to, ridiculous, fact-free accusations meant to derail legitimate lawmaking,” Kristina Arriaga, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, stated in response to the news that the Russell Amendment was pulled from the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

Back in 2014, President Obama signed an anti-discrimination executive order that prohibited any federal contractor from making employment decisions based on someone’s sexual orientation. There were no religious exemptions.

Thus, any religious group or charity contracting with the government might have to recognize same-sex marriages, for example.

In response, the Russell Amendment, named for the sponsor Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) established protections for religious groups against this order.

For instance, under the proposed amendment the government would not be able to cancel a contract with a Christian group just because they only hired persons who lived in accordance with their church’s teaching.

However, Senate Democrats threatened to hold up the $618.7 defense authorizations bill unless the amendment was removed. Secular advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union also pushed for its demise.

The ACLU led a social media campaign against the amendment, #RejectRussell. The group also delivered over 340,000 petitions to Congress asking that the amendment be removed from the bill.

Rep. Russell told WORLD magazine that he was still “confident we will see this brought to a complete resolution in the near term,” and that he had seen “positive signs” on the matter from the incoming administration of President-elect Trump.

The Russell protections didn’t just affect groups. Military chaplains who use contractors to obtain supplies for their religious mission would have benefitted from it, explained Mike Berry, senior counsel at the First Liberty Institute, in an op-ed for The Hill.

Chaplains using contractors who conflict with their religious beliefs could face backlash from their “endorsing body,” he wrote. “Any chaplain who runs afoul of the tenets and teachings of their endorser is likely to forfeit their endorsement, meaning they can no longer serve as a chaplain.”

The poor and the vulnerable will suffer without the contribution of certain contractors and their religious mission, the Becket Fund insisted.

“Now, because Congress ducked this important issue, more service providers will be unable to continue offering their critical services, services that are sometimes only offered by religious groups,”  Arriaga said.

“It is the refugees, homeless, trafficking victims, veterans, and other vulnerable populations who will suffer the most from Congress’s choice to prioritize political expediency over principled governance.”

 

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Arlington, Va., Dec 5, 2016 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Gospel is the answer to a wounded society, the new bishop of Arlington said in the wake of the presidential election.

“We’ll continue to preach the Gospel,” Bishop Michael Burbidge told CNA at a Dec. 5 press conference when he was asked what he would do as bishop to promote unity in society and in the Church after a tumultuous and divisive election cycle.

“Reminding us that we are all created in God’s image and likeness,” he continued. “We are all united as brothers and sisters.”

Bishop Burbidge will officially be installed as the new Bishop of Arlington, Va. in a Dec. 6 Mass at St. Thomas More Cathedral, with Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who serves as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore both present.

Formerly the bishop of Raleigh for 10 years, Bishop Burbidge was born in Philadelphia and served as Honorary Prelate to Pope St. John Paul II before his ordination as auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia in 2002. His motto which he chose as bishop in Philadelphia was “walk humbly with your God.”

He was also the rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary until 2004, and has continued to have an influence on vocations after that, having served on the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations and advising the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors.

Bishop Burbidge insisted that listening will be a key part of his first days as bishop, especially to rebuild unity within society and the Church.

“We are a part of the human family, and share the common responsibility to build up the common good,” he said.

“And we can only do that when we respect and listen to one another, even when we disagree, even when we have different perspectives, that we do not label, we do not dismiss one another, but truly listen and respectfully engage each other.”

When asked about his “vision for the pro-life cause,” Bishop Burbidge answered that “we are united in protecting, at all times, the sacredness of life and the dignity of every human person without exception.”

Speaking to the Latino community in the diocese, he said that “they should be reassured that the bishops of the country are working behind the scenes and in the public arena to do everything to make sure the dignity of all human persons is being respected.”

He also outlined how he would engage and dialogue with local, state, and national public officials. The Arlington diocese spans 21 counties, has a population of 400,000, and sits just across the river from the nation’s capital.

“As a bishop, I am mandated to bring the Gospel into the public arena,” he said, noting that such engagement might not always be public, but “many times privately and personally, where you can – where we have a true dialogue.”
 

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Catholic Charities

By Rose Ybarra

MCALLEN, Texas (CNS) -- Blessing the ground for a new respite center in McAllen is a sign of the Catholic Church's commitment to be available and helpful to immigrant families, who "are enduring many, many tragic situations in their lives," said Brownsville Bishop Daniel E. Flores.

"It's the work of the church to be a presence and to make available a space for people to feel welcome, where people can be attended to and dealt with in their humanity," the bishop said Dec. 1. "People are not statistics, people are not just numbers, people are not problems, ultimately, people are people."

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley hosted the ground-blessing ceremony for its new respite center.

Bishop Flores conducted the blessing. He was joined at the ceremony by Sister Norma Pimentel, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, who is executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in the Brownsville Diocese, and McAllen Mayor Jim Darling.

All three expressed their gratitude to Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, its pastoral team and parishioners for their generosity in housing the current respite center for the last two-and-a-half years.

"God asked the church especially to be a sign of his love by continuing to open up a space where our service to one another can be manifested," the bishop said.

"The (Rio Grande) Valley is one of the poorest areas in the whole United States and yet, they share the little that they have to make sure that someone who has less will be able to have something that they need," Sister Pimentel said in her remarks.

"Because of that sacrifice, we have been able to help so many thousands and thousands of immigrant families," she continued. "And so today is a very special day because it marks the continuation of this act of kindness, compassion and love."

She thanked the city of McAllen, Catholic Charities and "the thousands of volunteers who have taken part and continue to take part to show the world that we are a community with compassion and with a heart."

Darling in his remarks noted the recent "rhetoric about sanctuary cities in the media," and pointed out that those who receive assistance at the respite center, "are here as legally as you and I."

The immigrants, who are mostly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, are in the legal process of seeking asylum or residency.

"I keep hearing in the press that it's an illegal immigrant situation," he said, but "it's people seeking asylum."

"We have received a lot of kind of negative publicity over the last two and half years alluding to an unsafe border, the need to protect the border, those kinds of things," Darling added, "but really what you're seeing is the spirit of McAllen and the Catholic Church helping people in need who are here; many times for reasons we can't even fathom what they have gone through."

In June 2014, Sister Pimentel heard there were immigrant families huddled at the bus station in downtown McAllen with only the clothes on their back, nothing to eat or drink and nowhere to shower or sleep. The families had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, released with a court date and dropped off at the bus station with permission to continue to their final destinations.

Sister Pimentel opened the respite center in the parish hall of Sacred Heart Church, located just two blocks away from the bus station, to provide food, clean clothing, showers, medical attention, supplies for the road, phone calls, overnight lodging and more for the immigrants.

More than 57,000 immigrants have passed through the center.

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Ybarra is assistant editor at The Valley Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Brownsville.

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