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Baltimore, Md., Nov 15, 2016 / 02:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After the recent presidential election, the new president of the U.S. Bishops is adamant about standing with all vulnerable persons, including the unborn and immigrants.

“I would want our work as shepherds and leaders to bring Catholics together to recognize the beauty of the human person, even if someone disagrees with you,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston-Galveston, the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said on Tuesday.

“From our point of view, we certainly respect the government,” he noted of the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. However, “we also have a shepherd's heart,” he added, insisting that the Church will continue to serve the hungry and thirsty and welcome the stranger.

Cardinal DiNardo spoke at a press conference at the fall general assembly of the U.S. bishops in Baltimore, Md. As the vice president of the bishops conference, he had been elected president earlier on Tuesday. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles was elected vice president.

A major underlying theme of the meeting was the recent presidential election, with concerns expressed about the polarization and divisive rhetoric, particularly toward minorities and immigrants.

When asked about dealing with negativity towards minorities, the cardinal stated that the Church would continue defending the vulnerable.

He insisted upon “our capacity to look at the human person and to always raise the issue of how can we most respect the human person who’s in our midst, whether he or she is documented or undocumented.”

Concern for the human person is shown in many issues, he said, noting that “the beginnings and ends of life are extremely crucial” but other issues like torture, the treatment of refugees, and the treatment of civilians in wartime “are all important, crucial issues.”

“I think the current situation both invites some hope that there could be a share of perspectives on the common good,” he noted, and added “we are always going to champion those who are voiceless…but we always want to do it respectfully.”

He pointed to the mass of the previous day, where after the first day of the general assembly, bishops boarded buses for a trip across town to West Baltimore. There they concelebrated mass at St. Peter Claver parish, the oldest African-American congregation in the city and a part of the community where riots happened last April over the death of Freddie Gray.

At the mass that focused on continuing racial reconciliation, Cardinal DiNardo noted that “we came to pray” and “we came to also proclaim the importance of the human person.”

It is these two actions that are “extremely important in these at times divisive issues,” he said.

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the newly-elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and former chair of the bishops’ migration committee, agreed that prayer and advocating for human dignity must be top priorities for the bishops.

Latinos living in U.S. churches and communities is an “important aspect to keep in mind,” he insisted.

When asked how the bishops conference would dialogue with the Trump administration on pro-life and religious freedom issues, Cardinal DiNardo admitted he didn’t know with certainty what the policies of the Trump administration would be.

“At this point, I’m not sure where the administration is coming from,” he said, adding that “they haven’t quite yet made known” their specific policies on these issues aside from statements made during the 2016 campaign.

The cardinal expressed hope that with the new Trump administration issues would be discussed like the HHS birth control mandate and the religious freedom of groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, and an extension of the Hyde Amendment which would continue to prohibit federal dollars from funding abortions.

“Pro-life issues are very dear to me. I used to be the chair of the pro-life committee at the bishops’ conference,” Cardinal DiNardo said.

Archbishop Gomez said that promoting a “culture of life” is one of the priorities of the bishops’ 2017-20 strategic plan, and it will be seen as a priority.

Educating Catholics to be good citizens must also be a priority, he said. “We Catholics need to know the faith better,” he said. “That way, we can make good decisions in how we act in public life.”

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Baltimore, Md., Nov 15, 2016 / 03:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Race relations, racism, and violence were on the mind of the United States bishops during their fall general assembly in Baltimore.

“The Church has a tremendous opportunity, and an equally tremendous responsibility, to bring people together in prayer and dialogue to begin anew the vital work of fostering healing and lasting peace,” Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta told the gathering Nov. 14.

The archbishop heads a task force established by the nation's bishops to promote peace following racial tensions and violence. It is trying to address “pervasive challenges” associated with race relations in the country, said the archbishop.

Archbishop Gregory conveyed the recommendations of the task force and its consultants to the bishops’ general assembly on Monday afternoon.

“Many stressed that the Church must find its bold prophetic voice at this time,” he said. “Participants emphasized that race relations and combatting the evil of racism were central issues to be confronted and addressed.”

Archbishop Gregory served as the U.S. bishops’ conference president from 2001 to 2004.

According to Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the outgoing conference president, the task force aimed to combat “the vexing problems of race relations, gun violence, and surrounding issues.”

The U.S. bishops’ general assembly meets in Baltimore Nov. 14-16.

In April 2015, the city was the scene of large protests, some of which became violent, after African-American Freddie Gray died from severe injuries apparently sustained during police custody.

Racial tensions grew after Gray’s death and several other incidents in which African-American men died during encounters with police that became major news stories. Adding to the tensions are several deadly ambushes of police officers.

Archbishop Gregory discussed “the need for empathy and compassion on the part of law enforcement” and the role of the Church in promoting dialogue and accountability.

The task force also discussed class distinctions as a factor in social relations, alongside difficulties related to the education system, poverty, lack of jobs, domestic violence, gun violence, incarceration and migration.

Among successful programs to respond to such problems, the task force identified efforts to help at-risk youth achieve full-time employment and basketball outreach to gang members.

The task force advocated “intentional efforts to encounter one another” and forums in which individuals and families can “speak their pain” at the parish and diocesan level. It said the bishops’ National Day of Prayer for Peace in Our Communities should be made permanent and it recommended the U.S. bishops make a statement on racism.

The task force said prayer is essential, encouraging bishops to initiate opportunities to pray for peace in their communities throughout the year at Masses, rosaries, and interreligious work. It recommended  dialogues with local community members, including religious leaders, law enforcement officers and youth, about issues that move towards concrete action. The task force also discussed funding opportunities for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

Other task force members included Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami; Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux; Bishop Emeritus John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee; and Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento.

The bishops decided to say Mass on Monday at West Baltimore’s St. Peter Claver Church, which dates back to 1888 and has a long tradition of civil rights activism.

The church is in the Sandtown neighborhood, just blocks away from where the riots following the death of Freddie Gray took place.
 
The protests of Gray’s death were on the mind of Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who delivered remarks ahead of Mass at St. Peter Claver Church on Monday.

He recounted the morning after the unrest in Baltimore, when he saw the church’s pastor Fr. Ray Bomberger and parishioners cleaning the neighborhood. They were “helping each other reclaim their community while setting a peaceful and a loving example for those around them and for the whole community,” he said.

“This parish is that field hospital, envisioned by Pope Francis, where the Lord’s mercy is shared day in and day out alongside people struggling in many, many ways,” he continued. “Many who are in need, many devoid of hope, many desperate to encounter Jesus.”

Archbishop Lori prayed that the bishops’ presence at St. Peter Claver will convey the Church’s solidarity with everyone committed to bringing about “the change that is needed to ensure just and peaceful communities for God’s people.”

Archbishop Kurtz delivered the homily for the Mass.

“We need to head into the deep and announce the good news if we are to reverse the rising violence and the falling civility that plagues our nation,” he began.

“We know that announcing the good news of Jesus is more than simply a quick visit on a bus,” he said, stressing the importance of dialogue that is rooted in the gospel and that fosters responsible action.

“These acts will occur only if each of us recognizes the inherent dignity of every human being. Citizens young and old, black and white, in uniforms of blue, and every human being,” the archbishop added.

He invoked the parish’s patron saint, Peter Claver, as a guide. The 17th century Jesuit missionary spent his life in the service of African slaves who had been brought against their will to South America.

“He knew 400 years ago that a presence accompanied by prayer would move hearts away from violence as a solution to terrible conditions,” Archbishop Kurtz said.

“Peter Claver did not come with the feel of a distant observer, but as one who had heard the voice of Jesus, as one with a heart moved to engagement,” he continued. “So for violence to fall and civility to rise, everyone must do a part. The dignity that is ours as children of God is a gift, but it is also a task, a mission. “

He told the bishops that their difficult path begins “with prayerful witness and humble beseeching.”

“Lord Jesus, change our hearts,” the archbishop prayed. “We are sent on the mission by the voice of Jesus Christ, risen and glorified, who confidently says ‘head into the deep’.”

“May the peace of Christ reign, violence fall, and civility rise,” Archbishop Kurtz said.

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Rome, Italy, Nov 15, 2016 / 05:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Religious freedom is under threat worldwide from phenomena like Islamic “hyper-extremism,” but there are also other dangers, a new report from Aid to the Church in Need says.

“The importance of religious freedom is for me the difference between life and death,” Father Jacques Mourad said in the report’s foreword.

The Christian monk was held by the Islamic State group in Syria for five months before his escape in October 2015.

“Our world teeters on the brink of complete catastrophe as extremism threatens to wipe out all traces of diversity in society,” Fr. Mourad said. “But if religion teaches us anything it is the value of the human person, the need to respect each other as a gift from God.”

Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic pastoral charity. Every two years it publishes a report that analyzes the state of religious freedom in 196 countries.

The latest report, published Nov. 15, covers the period from June 2014 to June 2016.

It shows major threats to religious freedom from the rise of “Islamist hyper-extremism,” with the Islamic State group being the prime example.

The extremist phenomenon is described as “a process of heightened radicalization, unprecedented in its violent expression.” It is characterized by “an extremist creed and a radical system of law; systematic attempts to annihilate or drive out all groups that don’t conform to their outlook, including co-religionists; cruel treatment of victims; use of social media to recruit followers and to intimidate opponents by parading extreme violence.”
 
The report says this hyper-extremism has had “a global impact.” It is able to affiliate with extremist groups and has “well-resourced support networks.”

The report shows that radical Islamism is on the rise. Attacks have occurred in one out of five countries around the world, including Switzerland, Australia and 17 African countries.

However, the Middle East is the region that is most of all suffering from the rise of this extremism.

Aid to the Church in Need explained: “this hyper-extremism is eliminating all forms of religious diversity and is threatening to do so in parts of Africa and the Asian Sub-continent.” It aims “to replace pluralism with a religious monoculture.”

This extremism also fueled the refugee crisis in countries like Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.  

Major Islamic leaders have condemned this extremism, speaking out in many public declarations.

Fr. Mourad reflected on the future of religion in the world.

“If we are to break the cycle of violence threatening to engulf our world, we need to replace war with peace,” he said. “In this day and age more than ever, it is time to cast aside religious hatred and personal interests and learn to love one another as our faiths call us to do.”

Islamic extremism is not the only threat.

The report says that countries where one particular religion is identified with the nation state have “stringent religious freedom restrictions.” These include Hindu India, Islamic Pakistan and Buddhist Burma.

Aid to the Church in Need highlighted 38 countries where religious freedom at risk. Of these, 23 are ranked among the most at risk.
 
In 12 of these 23 countries, the threat to religious freedom is driven by non-state actors. There, discrimination and persecution involve organized non-government groups.
 
Religious freedom has worsened in 37 percent of the world’s countries. In 55 percent of the world’s countries, there have been no changes on state of religious freedom in comparison with the 2014 Aid to the Church in Need report.

Religious freedom improved just in three countries: Egypt, Bhutan and Qatar.
 
The worst places in terms of religious freedom are Eritrea and North Korea. In China, religious minorities are considered threats to the stability of the country. This is why the Chinese government pushes for these groups to come under State control, with grave consequences for groups that do not toe the party line.
 
For instance, in the Chinese province of Zheijang, government authorities issued a series of new rules in 2015 that led to the demolition of crosses and the removal of symbols of faith. According to the new rules, religious buildings cannot be taller than 78 feet. Crosses cannot be placed at the top of the church tower, but they must be placed on buildings’ walls. Their size on the wall can only be one tenth the size of the building.

These new rules were part of a campaign to demolish crosses and churches that began in 2013 in Zheijang.

While Chinese officials claimed that the buildings torn down in the demolition campaign violated construction rules, both Catholics and Protestants showed that many of the buildings were built after local authorities had given permission.

Over 2,000 crosses and churches had been destroyed by March 2016.

The process of “Sinicization,” that is, making everything Chinese, has harmed other religions. In China’s Xinjiang region, Muslims who were students, teachers and civil servants were forbidden to fast during Ramadan.

Aid to the Church in Need’s 2014 report had found religious freedom dwindling in Europe and the U.S., mainly due to pressure from extreme feminist and LGBT lobby groups.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Robert Duncan

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Even though Cardinal-designate Kevin J. Farrell had asked his secretary to hold all phone calls so he could finish his work, one caller insisted on getting through.

"She came in and said that the pope was on the telephone, and I kind of laughed and said, 'Sure, the pope's on the telephone,'" he said, adding that the secretary continued to insist it really was the Holy Father because she knew his voice from television.

"And it was the pope," he told Catholic News Service Nov. 15.

Pope Francis made that surprise call in May to tell the then-bishop of Dallas he was the papal pick to lead a new super-dicastery bringing laity, family and life together under one roof.

"Well, I nearly had to call 911 because I did not expect that and I mustered my energy, my mind, to tell him a couple of reasons why I did not think I was the person for that job," he said.

The then-bishop said he breathed a sigh of relief when the pope said to just think about it and he would call again in three days, because he was sure the pope would never call back.

But he did.

The cardinal-designate said he gave the pope even more excuses for not accepting the job, but then the pope said, "'Well, you'd better come talk to me.' And it was over," meaning resistance was futile "and here I am" in Rome as of October.

The pope told him there were separate Vatican congregations for bishops, religious and clergy and more, but there was no congregation for the men and women who make up 98-99 percent of the Catholic Church -- the laity.

"So I want to give emphasis to the family and emphasis to the role of laypeople in the church today, I want them to take their place within the church," he said the pope told him.

Naming him to the College of Cardinals, he said, was a special hat tip to the laity because putting a cardinal at the helm tells people the pope considers this focus of laity, family and life to be "very important." Cardinal-designate Farrell will be one of 17 new cardinals elevated Nov. 19, joining two others from the United States.

Though he is very familiar with Rome, having studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas as well as from his frequent and regular visits to his brother Bishop Brian Farrell who is secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, actually living in the Eternal City to head up a new office was still taking some getting used to, he said.

The new dicastery should have a full slate of members and consultors from all over the world early next year and a majority of them will be laypeople, he said. He expects it will take a year for the new structure to be "completely settled."

What is new is that most of the senior positions will also have to be staffed by laity, as mandated by the statutes, and while that is a big change for a Vatican dicastery, "I don't think it's going to be unique for dicasteries in the future," he said. "That is the intention of the Holy Father, to have laypeople involved in the administration of the church."

His new role and the role of the new office, he said, is to be a sounding board, listening to the needs of the laity across the world and providing bishops' conferences with possible ways to engage the laity, have them participate more in the church and promote the lay apostolate and solid formation of Catholics.

"One of the crises we face in the United States," he said, "is the lack of laity trained to pass on the faith, to pass on the teaching of our church and traditions."

So many people rely on older parents or grandparents for faith education and witness in the family, he said, "because we haven't trained young people" and they are the ones who "are going to convince people, they are the witnesses who are going to attract others in the church."

Despite his varied and vast experience, especially in finance and administration, the Dublin-born prelate said what has prepared him best for his new job are all the years spent working in parishes.

"The most important part of my training," he said, "was pastoral work, forget all the administration part, that's the least important." It was the ability and desire to do outreach and get laypeople involved in the church and help young people go out and meet youths from other backgrounds and economic classes, he said.

"I think we need to be a little more pastoral today," to reach out to the people like Jesus did, not "afraid of speaking to public sinners and to cure the poorest of the people."

The cardinal-designate's job and the task of the whole church, he said, is that same mission of going out to meet everyone, especially those who are hurting, and bringing them back to the church.

Pope Francis, too, has been showing through his own gestures, words and style that "we need a more loving, a more caring church," Cardinal-designate Farrell said.

"But we keep pushing rules and regulations," perhaps even to excess, and yet people still fail at being good at following rules, he said.

Standards and limits are needed, but as Pope Benedict XVI said often, "our Catholic faith is not about commandments or a moral code. It's about an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ."

And it is only from that encounter that "we derive our doctrine. But it's not the rules and regulations first, it's the encounter with Jesus Christ first."

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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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IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Rhina Guidos

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The Catholic Church is one of the most culturally diverse institutions in the United States and Catholic institutions and ministries need to adapt and prepare for growing diversity, said a report presented to the country's bishops Nov. 15.

The report, by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church in 2013 to help identify the size and distribution of ethnic communities in the country.

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio, chairman of the committee, called the study "groundbreaking" because he said it combined, for the first time all available data from Catholic and non-Catholic sources and mapped the multicultural and ethnic diversity of the church nationwide.

Of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Catholics, the study found, less than 6 percent live in the United States.

Of the U.S. Catholic population: 42,512,591, are white (non-Hispanic); 29,731,302 are Hispanic or Latino; 2,905,935 are Asian, Native Hawaiian; 2,091,925 are black, African-American, African, Afro-Caribbean; and 536,601 are American Indian or Alaskan Native.

"The Catholic Church in the United States has always been a very diverse entity, but it is the first time that all available data was brought together to map this diversity nationwide in remarkable detail," said Archbishop Garcia-Siller. "It is also the first time that parish life was looked at from the point of view of the experience of diversity. Multicultural parishes are a growing phenomenon in the United States. This is what makes this study so fascinating and groundbreaking."

To arrive at the numbers, Archbishop Garcia-Siller said, it identified 6,332 parishes with "particular racial, ethnic, cultural and or linguistic" communities, about 36 percent of U.S. parishes. In 2014, CARA says it began conducting "in-pew surveys" at those parishes and by May 2016, surveys had been completed at most of those parishes

Of those who responded to the survey, the median age was 52 and considerably higher, 62, for non-Hispanic white Catholics. Latino Catholics conversely had a median age of 39.

Another distinction in the report: Catholics born before and after the Second Vatican Council.

The report said three-quarters of those U.S. Catholics born before the Vatican II are non-Hispanic white Catholics. And more than half, 54 percent, of what it calls the millennial-generation Catholics (born 1982 or later) are Hispanic or Latino.

"The thought and behavior of today's millennial Catholics will likely have a profound effect on the future of the church in the United States," said CARA in a statement., given that millennials are "removed from pre-Vatican II Catholicism."

Many of those have Catholics parents with "little or no experience with the traditional Catholic practices and catechesis," the CARA statement said, adding that this doesn't mean they are "anti-religious" yet.

Archbishop Garcia-Siller asked the bishops to look at the data, see how it speaks to their regions, and said it could help dioceses plan, set priorities and allocate resources.

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Follow Guidos on Twitter: @CNS_Rhina.

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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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