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Madrid, Spain, Nov 16, 2016 / 03:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Critics of a Spanish judge say he wrongly dismissed charges against an artist who stole consecrated Hosts for an exhibit that disrespected the Catholic faith.

The Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers announced it would file an appeal and be prepared “to go to the highest court necessary in the face of what is becoming a campaign of serious offenses against the Christian faith and religious freedom.”

Abel Azcona stole more than 240 consecrated hosts from Masses celebrated in the cities of Madrid and Pamplona. He later took nude photos of himself arranging them on a floor to spell the word ‘pederasty.’ In November 2015, he displayed the photos as part of an art display in a city-owned exhibition hall available for public use.

When that exposition was over, the would-be artist sold the consecrated hosts for more than $268,000.

Azcona was charged for an alleged offense against laws respecting religious sentiments. However, Judge Fermín Otamendi of the Pamplona Second District Court of Discovery closed the case against Azcona.

In his ruling, the judge described the consecrated and stolen hosts as “small white round objects.” He claimed that there had been no desecration of the sacred hosts because according to the Spanish Royal Academy dictionary desecration is defined as “treating something sacred without due respect or using it for profane purposes.”

He rejected charges that the accused treated something sacred without due respect, claiming “lack of respect should not be confused with not doing what the Catholic Church requires its faithful to do with the consecrated hosts in the act of Communion.”

The judge claimed Azcona made use of the hosts “discreetly, without his conduct being able to be characterized as disrespectful, offensive or irreverent.” The exhibition of the artwork “does not constitute derision of the beliefs, rites or ceremonies of the Catholic Church nor is it an affront to those who profess or practice said beliefs,” according to the judge.

Polonia Castellanos, president of the Christian Lawyers Association, objected to the ruling. She considered the judge’s description of the consecrated Hosts to be an effort to “rule out deliberate harmful intent.”

Even though the perpetrator stated on several occasions that he used consecrated Hosts, the judge said in his ruling that “nowhere in the exhibit was it indicated that the hosts with which he had spelled out the word 'pederasty' were consecrated hosts.”

The Association of Christian Lawyers cited Article 525 of the Spanish Penal Code, which protects religious freedom against  those who “in order to offend the religious sentiments of the members of a religious confession, publicly deride by word, in writing, or through any type document their dogmas, beliefs, rites or ceremonies.”

The 110,000 petition signatures delivered to the Pamplona city council objecting to the exhibit also constitutes evidence of an offense against religious sentiments, the group said.

The petition asked the city's mayor, Joseba Asirón, to pull the exhibit. There were also numerous public protests against the display. Archbishop Francisco Pérez of Pamplona offered a Mass of Reparation that more than 4,500 faithful attended.

The Association of Christian Lawyers said the facts were sufficiently serious that, at minimum, oral arguments should be held.

“Dismissing the case without even hearing from the parties in court is to have the least consideration for the fundamental right of religious freedom,” the group said.

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Baltimore, Md., Nov 16, 2016 / 05:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Infidelity, divorce, sexual violence, pornography, hook-up culture – all things that have both increased en masse in society over the last few decades, and have seared pain into the lives of individual men and women.

So how do we even begin to address the problem? By people – especially the youth – choosing to live in true, authentic and virtuous community with one another, says Archbishop Chaput.

“We’re getting a culture that’s just hugely preoccupied with sexuality, and being restrained sexually is not considered a virtue anymore, apparently. I think that’s very hurtful to everyone,” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who chairs the U.S. bishops' working group on Amoris laetitia, told CNA on Monday.

The archbishop, who in a lecture in September noted a marked increase in the number and kind of sexual sins he had heard in the confessional throughout his priesthood, told CNA that young Catholics need virtuous relationships to live chastely in the midst of a promiscuous culture.

“I think it’s really important for us to encourage young people to form communities of young people, peers, who can give them support in the face of this culture of cheapening human relationships,” he insisted.

Archbishop Chaput spoke with CNA during the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore Nov. 14. He chairs the U.S. bishops’ working group on Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on love in the family.

The exhortation was the fruit of two synods on the family, which sparked controversy amid speculation over whether there would be a change in the Church’s practice that the divorced-and-remarried may not receive Communion.

Since Amoris laetitia was published, some of its vague language has inspired conflicting interpretations. Some have seen it as a break with the Church's teaching tradition, others as not changing the Church's teaching. Still others consider it a progression toward a new pastoral praxis, or that it need not be interpreted at all.

For his part, Archbishop Chaput noted in pastoral guidelines for his archdiocese that in putting Amoris laetitia into practice, “the Holy Father himself states clearly that neither Church teaching nor the canonical discipline concerning marriage has changed.”

Francis’ exhortation “should therefore be read in continuity with the great treasury of wisdom handed on by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church … and previous magisterial documents,” he said.

In his Sept. 15 Tocqueville Lecture at the University of Notre Dame, Archbishop Chaput had insisted that the task of rebuilding society comes from personal conversion, not politics. Even if presidential candidates might be unpopular and controversial, he noted, they came from a flawed culture and were nominated by the citizens.

As evidence of this cultural decline, he noted that over recent decades the number of sexual sins he heard in the Sacrament of Confession has increased, as well as their “scope,” “novelty,” “violence,” and “compulsiveness”:

“As a priest, what’s most striking to me about the last five decades is the huge spike in people – both men and women -- confessing promiscuity, infidelity, sexual violence and sexual confusion as an ordinary part of life, and the massive role of pornography in wrecking marriages, families and even the vocations of clergy and religious.”

Even more women are now viewing pornography, he said.

All these sins “create human wreckage,” he added, and on a mass scale they bring about “a dysfunctional culture.” Thus, “as families and religious faith break down, the power of the state grows.”

However, given that President-elect Trump has said lewd and degrading things about women, how can the Church begin rebuilding the culture after this election season?
 
It starts with community, the archbishop said. “I don’t think anybody can be chaste alone, so you need to pick a spouse who helps you to be that way.”

These virtuous communities are “really what the Church should be,” he added. “It should be a community of people who think like Jesus and want to act like He calls us to act.”

“So in some ways, that’s the foundational purpose of the Church, to provide us companions in virtue and worship, and care for the poor. We’re supposed to be companions that call one another to all those things that are essentially part of being a Christian,” he added.

The government has a role in protecting this culture, he said, but has abandoned its duty to protect children and families from the effects of pornography by allowing it in the name of “personal freedom.”

Archbishop Chaput also discussed with CNA how Catholics should react to the recent presidential election – with both “gratitude” and “concern,” he said.

“One, gratitude to God for the opportunities it’s going to give us to protect the Church on religious freedom issues,” he said, noting anticipated changes to the HHS birth control mandate. “And also on the life issues, it seems like there’s openness to supporting the Church’s position on life that wasn’t present before.”

However, serious concerns persist on issues such as immigration, he added, with “the possible deportation of people that will undermine family life in a very serious way.”

“There are a lot of people in my diocese who are very much afraid because of the things they’re imagining that’s going to happen. And that can be hugely disruptive and destructive of the life of families,” he explained.

“Fear is not a good way to live your life. And intense fear for children is especially disruptive. So I think sometimes because of our excitement about the pro-life positive news, we can be naïve about the dangers that exist.”

Ultimately, Catholics should be open to working with the Trump administration on areas of agreement with Church teaching, but must also be vigilant for other areas of policy that oppose Catholic social teaching.

“I think it’s really important to do our best to give the new administration the chance to develop its plan and support it in the good things that it proposes, and to express our concerns about the things that are worrisome,” he said.

“But it’s important for us to pray for government officials. The Scriptures call us to do that.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Carol Zimmermann

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said his election as vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 15 may have had more to do with his archdiocese than anything else.

"I'm grateful to my brother bishops for electing me," he said, before adding that he thinks it was "also about the Archdiocese of Los Angeles" -- the largest archdiocese in the country with about 5 million Catholics, 70 percent of whom are Latino. He said the archdiocese represents the universal church because every month there are Masses in 42 languages.

"Really, the presence of Catholics from all over the world is there," he said, adding that the bishops recognize that the archdiocese represents "our church in the United States is becoming more and more diverse."

They are also recognizing the "reality of the Latino presence" in this country, particularly in the Catholic Church, he said.

The Mexican-born archbishop, who is the first Latino to hold the vice president spot in the USCCB leadership, a position which is usually a steppingstone for USCCB president, said his background "helps everybody to understand how important it is to the church to be open and welcoming to the Latino community in the United States."

He said he will continue to speak out in defense of immigrants.

At a prayer service in Los Angeles, two days after the presidential election, Archbishop Gomez said: "Tonight we promise our brothers and sisters who are undocumented -- we will never leave you alone." He also urged those in the congregation at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to "reach out to those who are hurting. Now is the time to build unity and heal communities, through our love for our neighbor and our care for those in need."

He echoed this sentiment in a Catholic News Service interview Nov. 15 at the conclusion of the public session of the bishops' meeting, saying it is important for the church to help everyone in the country understand the value of the human person.

Amid the overall sense of disunity in the nation after the presidential election campaign and vote, he said he has told people the first thing they need to do is pray. "Pray for elected officials, pray for one another and trust in the love of God that everything is going to be OK with trust in the grace of God."

He also said the church's message reminds us "of the value of the human person." With that understanding, he said: "We need to go out of ourselves" and try to get to know other people, something that happens a lot, he said, in parishes where there are different ethnic communities.

"There is a sense of 'who are these people?' but then, when they get to know each other they love each other," he added.

"That's what is important for us at this time. Instead of just being afraid, let's break the ice in a sense," he said, stressing that this has been the message of Pope Francis, who frequently talks about the culture of encounter.

"I think that's what the church is called to do at this time in the United States" he said, adding that this outreach should also extend beyond our borders "to go out all over the world to support our brothers and sisters."

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.

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Rome, Italy, Nov 16, 2016 / 11:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the election of Archbishop Jose Gómez as vice president of the U.S. bishop’s conference will serve as a great resource on immigration, especially in wake of the presidential election of Donald Trump – known for his “fiery” comments on the issue.

Head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archbishop Gómez “has written and spoken very clearly on the rights of migrants and the need to respect their family structure, the family unit,” Archbishop Tomasi told EWTN News Nightly Nov. 16.

When it comes to immigration, the archbishop said he believes Gómez will be “a good resource” not only for the Latino community, but for the entire Church due to “his own personal experience and also because of his flock, because the huge diocese of Los Angeles is made up of a lot of immigrants, millions of them.”

Archbishop Tomasi was present at a news briefing for the international conference “Business leaders, agents of social and economic inclusion,” organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Former Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Tomasi currently serves as secretary-delegate of the Council for Justice and Peace, which is set to merge with several other Vatican dicasteries in January.

His comments come after Tuesday's election of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston as president of the USCCB and Archbishop Gomez as its vice-president.

With more than 4 million Catholics, Los Angeles is the largest U.S. diocese. Gómez himself is the highest-ranking Latino bishop in the United States.

Born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1951, Gómez was appointed auxiliary bishop of Denver, and made Archbishop of San Antonio in 2004. In 2010 he was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles, succeeding as its ordinary the next year.

In all of his roles Gómez has worked extensively in Hispanic ministry and played a key role in creating the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders. He has also been outspoken on pro-life issues, immigration, and the death penalty.

In 2008, he was appointed as a consultant to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He has served in various roles for the U.S. bishops' conference, including in cultural diversity, doctrine, and Hispanics and liturgy.

Significantly, the election of Gómez and the rest of the U.S. bishops’ new leadership team took place just one week after Donald Trump was elected the next president of the United States following a campaign that was at times especially hostile to immigrants.

In his comments to EWTN, Archbishop Tomasi noted that the rhetoric of Trump’s campaign was “is a bit fiery because of the nature of the campaign itself, to shake up the voters and force them to take a stand.”

“The language used by Trump has been very incendiary regarding the question of immigration,” he said, but observed that in his most recent statements after claiming victory the president-elect has been “much more balanced and moderate.”

“We hope that this line will prevail both in his own personal attitude and in the selection of persons responsible to administer the different sectors of the life of the United States,” whether it be for the migration issue, the economy or relations with other countries.

Archbishop Tomasi noted that the Church in the United States has always kept an open channel of communication with the government, which is essential because she “is arguing from the evidence and the experience on the ground.”

The advantage of the faith communities, both Catholics and those from other Christian denominations, is that “they represent the grassroots, they are in touch with the families and their everyday problems.”

“They can argue for the good of the country, both the good as the image, the humanitarian tradition, of the United States, and the good of the economy,” he said, noting how many undocumented immigrants are now “in the structure of the economy” and contribute by paying taxes, working and consuming goods produced in the U.S.

In this sense, the various Christian Churches “can be really a good service to both the country and the immigrants.”

When it comes to relations with the Trump administration, Tomasi, who spoke at the U.S. Bishops’ plenary assembly Monday, said that since it was largely white Catholics who elected Trump, “now they can ask in return (for) a sense of balance in addressing the issues that are important for them.”

Mary Shovlain contributed to this report.

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Vatican City, Nov 16, 2016 / 11:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead of the next international exposition, to be held in Kazakhstan during the summer  of 2017, the Vatican  announced Wednesday its participation under the theme “Energy for the Common Good: Caring for our Common Home.”

The Church is the only religious group to be formally present at the Expo, participating in its capacity as a sovereign state, which it has done since the first “world’s fair,” known as the “Great Exhibition” in London in 1851.

In keeping with their unique position, the Vatican’s exhibit at the Expo will include both a practical and a spiritual aspect, said Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which is responsible for the organization of the Vatican’s presence at the Expo.

The overall theme of Expo 2017, being held in Astana June 10 - Sept. 10, is “Future Energy: Energy for All.” The Vatican gladly accepted the invitation to participate, Cardinal Turkson said.

The theme of future energy “would involve a lot of technological presentation,” he said, which the Vatican is “not competent in.”

Therefore, they have taken the theme in a direction which they thought the Church could contribute to, focusing on themes found in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si' of using earthly resources for the common good of humanity.

According to a statement issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Vatican’s pavilion will focus on four areas. The first will be on the energy at the origin of man and how “the cosmic display of energy and light” was also “the beginning of God’s creation out of love.”

The second will be on how energy has been used in the history of man, employed both for good and bad by being “wasted in wars” and by injustice. The third will show how to use and produce energy ethically and in care of our “common home,” as it is called by Pope Francis.

The fourth area focuses on the spiritual, particularly on the “energy” found through prayer and the awe of God.

Recent Expos in which the Holy See participated were in Milan in 2015, regarding “food for man”, and the 2008 Expo in Zaragoza on “water and sustainable development.”

The Vatican usually focuses on making a “cultural and ethical contribution” to the Expo, said Tebaldo Vinciguerra, an official of the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice.

This year will be no different, he said with “a program, everything, about energy as a common good and taking care of our common home.”

The Expo 2017 currently has more than 100 countries signed up to participate, and Kazakhstan expects around 3 million people to attend, mostly from the surrounding countries.

The Catholic Church is a minority in Kazakhstan, at just over one percent of the population. The majority of the country practices Islam, with the Orthodox Church being next largest.

Traditionally, each participant at the expo has a “national day” during the exhibition, Cardinal Turkson said. The Vatican intends to use their national day to host an interreligious conference with representatives from Orthodoxy and Islam to discuss ecology and Laudato si'.

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace puts on the exhibition with the help of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Caritas, and Cor Unum. They will also collaborate with Catholic officials in Kazakhstan.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Jeffrey Bruno, EWTN

By Dennis Sadowski

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour called on the bishops of the United States to bring wider attention to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East to their parishes and political leaders.

Addressing the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 15, the Maronite leader said he hoped that the new four-year strategic plan adopted by the conference earlier in the day would incorporate a robust advocacy for religious freedom in the rest of the world.

"People do look to America and religious freedom is our greatest freedom and we ought to be able to export it ...The more we export it throughout the world, the happier our world will be," said Bishop Mansour, who heads the Eparchy of St. Maron in Brooklyn, New York.

While referring to the acts of kidnapping, torture and killings by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, Bishop Mansour said that attention must be given to attacks on the religious freedom of Christians throughout the Middle East.

He encouraged the bishops to take several steps to "increase our communion with our brothers and sisters there" including raising funds for the humanitarian work of organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Knights of Columbus.

He also said the U.S. church could play a major role in developing a plan with Catholic bishops around the world to rebuild churches and restore the livelihoods of Christians in the region.

A third suggestion revolved around the possibility of organizing a program in which U.S. parishes match up with parishes to create bonds of unity and solidarity. Such an effort, he said, could be extended to Orthodox, Protestant and other Christian congregations.

Bishop Mansour also called for advocacy with the U.S. Department of State to boost aid for refugees and displaced people who do not find their way to established camps but are taken in by individual families, hospitals and churches.

In response, several bishops acknowledged the importance of raising the profile of Christian persecution in the world. The leader of a Syriac Catholic diocese in the U.S. urged bolder action in their dioceses.

"Now you should continue your work not in the parish only, but the media end and to lead your parishioners to pray, to pray," said Bishop Yousif B. Habash of Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Diocese of the U.S. and Canada, which is based in New Jersey.

"Today it's a big privilege for the Catholic Church in America to support the persecuted Christians, the African Church, the Latin American Church ... to be a strong church, not just to make America great, but to make great peace for the world," Bishop Habash said. "This is our task. This the task of you, of the Catholic Church ... to make a peaceful world."

Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, said the suffering of Middle East Christians is not often acknowledged as a pressing issue for the church to consider.

"My hope is that we as a conference will keep the issue of religious freedom in the Middle East and the suffering of our brothers and sisters always before our eyes. I think it would be a great mistake to let this fade into the background."

He described a pin that he wears on his lapel. It depicts the Arabic symbol for the letter 'N', a marking that often appears on the homes of Christians to single them out for persecution, he said.

When asked about the pin, the archbishop said, he explains its meaning and shares the story of the dwindling population of Middle East Christians.

Bishop Francis Kalabat of St. Thomas the Apostle Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of the United States based in Detroit described a September visit to Iraq, including Baghdad and the Kurdish region in the north, where he met some of the "most beautiful people on earth" despite the violence.

He said he met with lay Christians running a home for the elderly and a Missionaries of Charity home for orphaned and abandoned children, most of whom are Muslim.

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Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.

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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.

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