Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) A statement from the Vatican issued on Friday said the Holy See and France, have completed the procedures to ratify the Amendment of the diplomatic Conventions of 14 May 1872 and  8 September 1828 and the Amendments of 4 May 1974 , 21 January 1999 and 12 July 2005 concerning Rome’s Trinità dei Monti church and convent.

As a result the Amendment went into effect on 23rd November 2016,.

The complex that overlooks Rome’s famous Spanish Steps has been in the hands of a series of French Catholic Orders from the 19th century up to the present day. It is now being assigned to the care of the  Emmanuel Community, an international public association of pontifical right that was founded in France in 1972. 

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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican announced on Friday that the newly established commission for the study of the female diaconate was holding its first meeting at the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The two day meeting brings together the 12 members of the commission, under the presidency of Jesuit Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, who also serves as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

During the morning and afternoon sessions, members will study the situation of women deacons in the early centuries of Church history.

Pope Francis announced the setting up of the new commission on August 2nd this year, following a May 12th meeting with participants at a plenary assembly of female religious superiors, who asked him about the possibility of restoring the permanent diaconate for women.

The commission includes six men and six women from eight different countries, with a wide variety of theological perspectives. Five of the members teach at pontifical universities in Rome, while four are members of the International Theological Commission.

The full list of commission members includes:

Sr. Nuria Calduch-Benages, M.H.S.F.N., Member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission;

Prof. Francesca Cocchini, Professor at the University "La Sapienza" and at the Patristic Institute "Augustinianum," Rome;

Rev.do Msgr. Piero Coda, Dean of the University Institute "Sophia," Loppiano, and Member of the International Theological Commission;

Rev.do P. Robert Dodaro, O.S.A., Dean Patristic Institute "Augustinianum," Rome

Rev.do P. Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, S.J., professor of ecclesiology at the Pontifical University "Comillas," Madrid;

Sr. Mary Melone, S.F.A., rector of the Pontifical University "Antonianum," Rome;

Rev.do Karl-Heinz Menke, Emeritus Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Bonn and member of the International Theological Commission;

Rev.do Aimable Musoni, S.D.B., professor of ecclesiology at the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome;

Rev.do P. Bernard Pottier, S.J., Professor at the ''Institut d'Etudes théologiques," Brussels, and member of the International Theological Commission;

Prof. Marianne Schlosser, Professor of Spiritual Theology at the University of Vienna and a member of the International Theological Commission;

Prof. Michelina Tenace, Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.

Prof. Phyllis Zagano, Professor at Hofstra University, New York.

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Vatican City, Nov 25, 2016 / 08:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Drug addiction is a contemporary form of slavery, Pope Francis lamented Thursday, emphasizing that a rehabilitation which restores victims' joy and dignity is much needed.

“Drugs are a wound in our society.  A wound that traps many people in the networks. They are victims have lost their freedom to fall into slavery; slavery of a dependency we can call ‘chemistry,’” the Pope said Nov. 24.

It’s certain, he said, that drugs consist “of a new form of slavery, like many others that plague man today and society in general.”

Pope Francis spoke to participants in a Nov. 23-24 workshop organized by the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences titled “Workshop on Narcotics: Problems and Solutions of this Global Issue.”

The two-day gathering focused on the history of drug use and the current global situation, the global impact of the drug trade, methods of prevention such as education, and the risks of medicinal and recreational drug use.

Francis has spoken out against the drug trade frequently, naming it as a primary cause of greed and corruption contributing to the disintegration of society.

In his speech to workshop participants, the Pope noted that there is no “single cause” that leads to drug use, but that the factors are many, and often involve the absence of family, social pressures, propaganda from traffickers, and the desire to have new experiences.

Each person addicted to drugs brings with them “a different personal history which must be heard, understood, loved and, as soon as possible, healed and purified,” he said, cautioning attendees not to fall into “the injustice of classifying the drug addict as if they were an object or a broken mess.”

“The dignity of the person is what we have come to encounter,” he said, noting that the high numbers of addicts isn’t surprising given the wide range of opportunities available to achieve a superficial happiness.

However, rather than bringing satisfaction, this ephemeral satisfaction “in the end becomes a venom, corrodes, corrupts and kills,” he said. “The person is destroyed and, with them, everything around them.”

Pope Francis stressed the importance of knowing the full scope of the drug problem, “which is essentially destructive,” above all in terms of the vast production of drugs and the system of distribution.

The cartel networks “enable the death of a person,” he said, noting that it is not necessarily physical death,  but “psychological death, social death” in the “discarding of a person.”

Distribution systems, even more than production, represent “an important part of organized crime,” Francis said, explaining that a key challenge is knowing how to find a way to monitor the different circuits of money laundering and corruption, because “they are united.”

The only way to do this, he said, is to trace the line that runs from a small-scale drug market up to “the most sophisticated forms of laundering that nest in financial capital and in the banks which are dedicated to the laundering of dirty money.”

Francis recalled the story of a judge he knew in Argentina who had several thousand kilometers of border territory under his jurisdiction. As soon as this judge began working seriously to eradicate the problem, he got a letter in the mail with a photo of his family saying nothing more than “your son goes to this school, your wife does this.”

When you one begins to search and climb up through the distribution networks, “one finds that word of five letters: mafia,” the Pope said, because just as in the distribution the one who is a slave to drugs is killed, “so too whoever wants to destroy this slavery is killed.”

In order to curb the demand for drugs, Pope Francis said strong efforts are needed, coupled by extensive programs aimed at promoting health, family support and education, which he said “is fundamental.”

“Integral human formation is the priority” because it gives people the ability and means of knowing how to discern, so that when the moment comes, “they can discard the different offers and help others.”

This type of formation is particularly important for the vulnerable in society, such as children and youth, he said, noting that it’s also valuable for families and others who suffer from various forms of marginalization.

However, the Pope lamented that the problem of drug prevention as a program “is always slowed down by a thousand and a factor of the ineptitude of governments: by a sector of the government here, there or there.”

Drug prevention programs “are almost non-existent,” he said, adding that once the problem of drugs has advanced and settled into society, “it’s very difficult” to overcome.

Rehabilitation of the victims was also something brought up by the Pope, which he said is a priority in terms of restoring to the victims the joy and dignity they had lost. While it might not be assured by the state or its legislation, “recovery will be difficult and the victims could be re-victimized,” he said.

Pope Francis closed his speech by encouraging attendees to continue their work and “to realize, within your own possibilities, the happy initiatives you have undertaken in the service of those who suffer most in this field of war.”

“The fight is difficult,” he said,  noting that whenever one “gives face” and begins to work seriously, they run the same risk as the judge from Argentina, of getting “a little card with some insinuation.”

However,  he stressed that despite the risks,  “we are defending the human family, defending the youth, children...It’s not a matter of momentary discipline, it’s a thing that is projected forward.”

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Montpellier, France, Nov 25, 2016 / 09:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An attack at a French retirement home for missionaries to Africa late on Thursday has left dead one caregiver. The residents have been evacuated and are now safe, but the perpetrator is still at large.

The attacker, armed with a shotgun and a knife, entered the retirement community of Green Oaks in Montferrier-sur-Lez, six miles north of Montpellier, the night of Nov. 24.

The Montpellier prosecutor, Christophe Barret, has said the attack is not believed to be linked to Islamist terrorism, but was a “local” crime with an identified suspect who has ties to the home, the BBC reports.

The community, home to 60 residents, is run by the Society of African Missions. Most residents are members of the Society of African missions, though there are some members of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles and a few laywomen.

Police were notified of the attack after a nurse escaped the scene. The attacker had fled, however. He had stabbed to death one woman, who was 54.

“For us Christians, faced with an absurd gesture that can't be explained, there is only prayer,” Fr. Francois du Penhoat, provincial of the Society of African Missions, told La Croix after the attack.

Fr. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, secretary general of the French bishops' conference, tweeted: “Our prayers reach out also to the missionaries attacked in their retirement home in Herault. May God grant his Peace to all.”

France has been under a state of emergency since Islamic State attacks killed 130 in Paris last November.

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