Catholic News 2

A Catholic church in the western Japanese city of Nagasaki has become the first in the country to be designated a "minor basilica," a title granted by the pope only to specifically important places of worship.

The Oura Church in 1865 was the site where a group of “hidden Christians” revealed their faith to Father Bernard Petitjean of France.

"The church was the scene of an event that marked a transition from an age when our faith was banned to an age when it became free to follow it, the church will have to play a more central role than ever." said Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, as reported by The Asahi Shimbun.

The Archdiocese of Nagasaki had applied for this status of minor basilica in February and approved by the Vatican on April 26. 

More than 100 followers attended a commemorative mass held Oct. 21 at the Oura Church to offer a prayer of gratitude for the church’s new status. (UCAN)

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Canberra, Australia, Nov 9, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Australian government's proposed permanent ban on visas for refugees and asylum seekers who have recently arrived by boat drew strong criticism from a bishop who is a former refugee himself. 

“Seeking asylum even by boat is not illegal. It is a basic human right. Yet not content with demeaning them, the Australian government now wants to introduce laws that will ban them from ever coming here,” Bishop Vincent Long of Parramatta said.

The bishop is the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Delegate for Migrants and Refugees. He fled Vietnam by boat at a young age.

He spoke against the ban in a Nov. 7 statement on the media blog of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

For Bishop Long, the motives for the measures are “questionable at best and sinister at worst.”

He cited the situations on Manus Island, located in northern Papua New Guinea, and the island Micronesian country of Nauru, where about 1,800 people have been indefinitely detained. Australian authorities typically remove refugees who arrive at the mainland to these islands, in the name of offshore processing.

“Domestic advocates and international agencies have been appalled by the conditions under which asylum seekers live and the effects on their health, spirits and self-respect,” the bishop said. “To single out and punish further a small number of people who came by boat, even if they are found to meet the refugee definition is deliberately cruel and un-Australian. It betrays the tradition, status and character of the country that we are proud of – a richly resourced country with a big heart for migrants and refugees.”

The ban would be in effect for a lifetime, even if a refugee were to establish himself in another country and try to revisit Australia decades later.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke about the proposal Oct. 31 “the door to Australia is closed to those who seek to come here by boat with a people smuggler.”

“That absolutely unflinching, unequivocal message has to be loud and clear,” he told media.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop cited the need to discourage dangerous boat trips.

“I will never forget 1,200 people that we know of drowned at sea coming to Australia under these people smuggling networks,” she said, according to news.com.au. “We cannot have situations where people are drowning at sea.”

Critics of the ban say it may violate the international refugee convention.

Bishop Long urged Australians to reject the “cruel and unnecessary measures” of banning the refugees from applying for visas. He asked political leaders to “resist this latest mean-spirited move against asylum seekers and to reclaim the reputation of a decent, humane and generous country.”

“It is the kind of country that refugees like myself are indebted to and proud to call home,” he said.

“We must find a more just, humane and effective way in dealing with the complex issues of seeking asylum and refugee protection.”

On Manus Island, asylum seekers appear to suffer medical neglect, wasting and severe ill health, the Australian Medical Association has told a Senate inquiry.

While the association said the medical accounts it received could not be independently verified, it accused Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection authorities of failing to respond to its inquiries in a timely and comprehensive way, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Health workers had until recently been under legal sanctions that barred them from speaking about conditions on Manus Island. The medical association’s president Dr. Michael Gannon said there was an “inappropriate degree of secrecy” about the department’s attitude to asylum seeker patients, as well as “hyperbole from refugee advocates.”

“It’s actually very hard to get accurate clinical information,” Dr. Gannon said.

There are presently negotiations underway to resettle the refugees, possibly in Canada and the United States.

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2016 / 06:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said that in order to be more like Jesus, we must not be indifferent to others, but rather meet people where they are and show mercy to those in need, especially the sick and imprisoned.

“We can all be instruments of the mercy of God and this will do more good for us than others because mercy passes through a gesture, a word, a visit and this mercy is an act to restore joy and dignity to those who have lost it,” the Pope said Nov. 9 in St. Peter’s Square.

“Jesus did it,” he said, adding that when we do these things “we do not fall into indifference, but we become instruments of God’s mercy.”

Continuing his catechesis on the corporal works of mercy, which he has been reflecting on the past few weeks, Pope Francis focused on the works of visiting the sick and the imprisoned.

During the three years of his public ministry, Jesus constantly met with people, the sick always having a special place among them, the Pope noted.

“How many pages of the Gospels tell of these meetings! The lame, the blind, the lepers, the possessed, the epileptic, and countless sick of all kinds,” he said. “Jesus became close to each one of them and healed them with his presence.”

Therefore, among the works of mercy, we cannot skip visiting the sick, because “with these works of mercy the Lord invites us to an act of great humanity: sharing.”

“Those who are sick often feel alone,” Francis noted, saying a visit “can make people feel less lonely, and for the sick person a little bit of company is excellent medicine!”

“A smile, a caress, a handshake are simple gestures, but just as important for those who feel to be left on their own.”

Visiting the imprisoned is also an important work of mercy, the Pope said, noting that this one is especially important right now when everyone wants to “point a finger” at someone and lay the blame elsewhere.

“Rather, let us all be instruments of mercy, with attitudes of sharing and respect,” Francis said, recalling times when he has witnessed prisoners cry, probably for the first time, because they finally felt loved and cared for.

Combined with the often inhumane conditions of prisons, “a lack of freedom is undoubtedly one of the greatest hardships for a human being,” he said, adding that a Christian must do “everything to restore their dignity.”

Of course if someone is imprisoned because they broke the law then it is just for this person to serve his or her sentence, the Pope noted, “but whatever a prisoner may have done, he still remains loved by God.”

Who are we to judge the depths of his conscience, his remorse? Francis asked, explaining that too often it’s easy to wash our hands by saying that he or she was wrong. However, we can’t forget that Jesus and his apostles were also prisoners at different points, he said.

Jesus was even “captured, dragged like a criminal, mocked, scourged, crowned with thorns” and crucified even though he was completely innocent, the Pope noted.

He explained that whether or not we are physically free, an encounter with the mercy of Jesus is what gives us spiritual freedom and a new perspective on our personal situation. The same goes for visiting the sick and imprisoned.

“When done in the name of the Lord, then it also becomes an eloquent and effective expression of mercy.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Shawn Thew, EPA

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Congratulating Donald Trump for his victory in the U.S. presidential election, the Vatican secretary of state expressed hope that people would work together "to change the global situation, which is a situation of serious laceration, serious conflict."

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis' top aide, spoke about the election early Nov. 9 during a meeting at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University. The Vatican then released a transcript of his remarks.

"First of all," he said, "we respectfully must take note of the will expressed by the American people in this exercise of democracy that, they tell me, was characterized by a large turnout at the polls."

"We send our best wishes to the new president that his administration may truly be fruitful," the cardinal said. "And we also assure him of our prayers that the Lord would enlighten and sustain him in his service to his country naturally, but also in serving the well-being and peace of the world."

Cardinal Parolin was asked about the polemics that arose earlier in the year between Trump and Pope Francis over the question of immigration, especially concerning the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Let's see how the president acts," Cardinal Parolin said. "Normally, they say, it is one thing to be a candidate and another to be president, to have that responsibility."

"It seems premature to make judgments" until Trump is inaugurated and begins making decisions, Cardinal Parolin said.

During an in-flight news conference Feb. 17 after a trip to Mexico, the pope was asked about his reaction to Trump's proposal that the United States extend a fence along the full length of the border and his comments to Fox Business Network that Pope Francis is a politician and is being used by Mexicans.

"As far as being 'a pawn,'" the pope said, "that's up to you, to the people, to decide."

But one thing Pope Francis said he did know was that "a person who thinks only of building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, isn't Christian."

Asked if a Catholic could vote for such a candidate in good conscience, the pope told reporters: "I'm not going to get mixed up in that. I'll just say, this man is not Christian if he says this" about building walls.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Stefano Rellandini, Reuters

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Visiting the sick and the imprisoned are works of mercy that not only benefit the suffering and the abandoned, but benefit the visitors who are enriched by being with those who suffer like Christ, Pope Francis said.

While the works of mercy are ancient, they still are relevant today for those who are deprived of freedom and "suffer one of the greatest hardships of human beings," the pope said Nov. 9 at his weekly general audience.

When the living conditions "often devoid of humanity" in which many prisoners are housed are added to the equation, "then it is indeed the case that a Christian should feel the need to do everything to restore their dignity," he said.

Continuing his series of talks on the works of mercy, the pope began with visiting the sick and highlighted Jesus' ministry as an example of the Christian duty to be close to them, especially since "they often feel alone."

Simple gestures such as smiling, caressing or shaking their hand, he added, can go a long way for those who feel abandoned.

"Do not leave sick people alone!" he said. "Let us not prevent them from finding relief and for us to be enriched by the closeness to suffering. Hospitals are the true 'cathedrals of suffering,' where, nonetheless, the strength of charity that supports and proves compassion becomes evident."

Turning his focus to the imprisoned, the pope said that visiting those who are incarcerated is "above all, an invitation to not be anyone's judge" and a reminder that while prisoners are paying the price for their crimes, they "will always remain loved by God."

"I think often of the imprisoned, I think of them often, I carry them in my heart," he said. "I feel they are all in need of closeness and tenderness because the mercy of God works wonders. How many tears I have seen fall from the cheeks of prisoners who have never cried in their lives; and this is only because they feel welcomed and loved."

Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis recalled a visit from a group of prisoners from Padua after the Holy Year celebration for prisoners Nov. 6.

The pope asked them where they were going before returning to Padua, and they said they wanted to visit the ancient Mamertine jail where Sts. Peter and Paul had been imprisoned.

"It's beautiful. Hearing this did me much good. These prisoners wanted to go in search of the imprisoned Paul," the pope said. "Even there, in prison, they prayed and evangelized."

Pope Francis called on Christians not to fall prey to "indifference" and instead follow Christ's footsteps and "become instruments of God's mercy."

"We all can be instruments of God's mercy and this would do us more good than to others because mercy passes through a gesture, a word, a visit. And this mercy, it is an act to restore joy and dignity," the pope said.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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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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