Catholic News 2

Hagatna, Guam, Oct 31, 2016 / 03:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Monday appointed Bishop Michael Byrnes as the successor to Guam's archbishop, who has been accused of sexual abuse of minors.

Bishop Byrnes has until now served as an auxiliary bishop in Detroit. His apointment as coadjutor comes with special faculties.

As Coadjutor Archbishop of Agaña, Bishop Byrnes possesses the right of succession and will automatically be appointed Archbishop of Agaña when it's current ordinary, Archbishop Anthony Apuron, retires.

Though he is still formally archbishop, Apuron was relieved of his pastoral and administrative authority in June. Since then, the Agaña archdiocese has been cared for by an apostolic administrator, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai.

“I am humbled by the Holy Father’s decision to entrust the Archdiocese of Agaña to my pastoral care,” Bishop Byrnes said upon his Oct. 31 appointment. “The great spiritual writer, Blessed Columba Marmion, wrote, 'The task of the priest is to give Jesus to the world.' That is what I have endeavored to do as an auxiliary bishop here in Detroit, and I look forward to giving Jesus to the thousands of people who live in the island of Guam.”

The Archdiocese of Agaña serves Catholics in Guam, a U.S. island territory in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Bishop Byrnes commented that “I have learned that the Catholic faith has long been embraced on the island, and the faith of the people is rooted in a rich history of devotion to Jesus and to His Blessed Mother.”

“At the same time, there are always challenges to face,” he added. “With my brother priests and deacons, with the catechists and other pastoral workers, and above all with the spiritual gifts of the People of God, I trust we will persevere in faith, hope and love, and will exercise the 'wisdom from above' to meet these challenges.”

Bishop Byrnes was born in Detroit in 1958, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1996. He earned a doctorate in sacred theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and served as a pastor and as vice rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

He was consecrated a bishop and appointed auxiliary bishop of Detroit in 2011. As an auxiliary bishop, he has had oversight of the northeast region of the archdiocese and has directed its evangelization initiative and synod.

“Archbishop Byrnes has given exemplary pastoral service,” reflected Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit. “Now God has chosen him for a challenging mission almost a half-a-world away. Pope Francis, in sending Archbishop Byrnes to Guam, has recognized that he possesses not only the talents, but above all the deep faith in Jesus Christ that make him suitable for this apostolic work. He goes with our love and our prayers.”

In Guam, allegations against Archbishop Apuron, 70, surfaced in May with accusations from a former altar boy, who said that he was molested at age 12 when he spent the night at a rectory with then-Father Apuron. Other allegations have since surfaced, all of which Archbishop Apuron has denied.

Archbishop Apuron has also been acused of failing to implement strong policies on the handling of clerical sex abuse.

Guam's legislature is considering a bill which would strike down the current two-year statute of limitations for civil claims involving the sexual abuse of minors.

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Baton Rouge, La., Nov 1, 2016 / 03:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic priests do not have to break the seal of Confession to report the alleged abuse of minors, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

The Diocese of Baton Rouge, at the center of the case, responded that they were “very pleased” with the court’s Oct. 28 opinion, “which affirms the sanctity of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”

The case of Fr. Jeff Bayhi, a priest of the Baton Rouge diocese, made national news after he was sued for not reporting the alleged sexual abuse of a child to authorities. The woman who said she was abused, Rebecca Mayeux, claimed that in 2008, when she was a minor, she told Fr. Bayhi during Confession that she had been abused by someone at his parish.

In 2009, she sued the now-deceased parishioner, the diocese, as well as Fr. Bayhi for allegedly knowing about the abuse but not reporting it under the state’s mandatory reporting law.

Fr. Bayhi said he could not testify as to whether the conversation he had with Mayeux even took place, because of the seal of Confession. Priests may not reveal the contents of a sacramental confession or even say whether the confession even took place.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1467 states regarding the Sacrament of Confession:

“Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives.”

According to the Code of Canon Law, “a confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; one who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the delict.”

Louisiana has a mandatory reporting law that an adult, if told of a possible case of sexual abuse of a minor, must report the case to the authorities, even if the adult is a member of the clergy. However, an exemption in the law does exist in cases of “confidential communication.”

The court had earlier said it had not resolved the question of whether Fr. Bayhi met the exemption or was a “mandatory reporter” under the state’s law. It decided on the former last Friday.

Their opinion stated that in cases of alleged abuse of a minor, “priests are not mandatory reporters of information acquired”, so long as their “communication is confidential communication” as described in the state’s law, “the priest in the course of the discipline or practice of that church, denomination, or organization, is authorized or accustomed to hearing the confidential communication,” and if he “under the discipline or tenets of the church, denomination, or organization has a duty to keep such communication confidential.”

“Accordingly, any communication made to a priest privately in the sacrament of confession for the purpose of confession, repentance, and absolution is a confidential communication,” the court added, “and the priest is exempt from mandatory reporter status in such circumstances by operation of La. Child. Code art. 603, because ‘under the … tenets of the [Roman Catholic] church’ he has an inviolable ‘duty to keep such communications confidential.’”

The inviolability of the seal had also been affirmed by a state appeals court in August.

The diocese praised the decision to respect the religious exemption to the reporting law, saying it “protects religious freedom, while leaving in place our state's rigorous reporting requirements which serve to protect our children from harm.”

Earlier this year, Bishop Robert Muench of Baton Rouge offered prayers for the victim in the case and for all victims of abuse:

“I extend my compassion and offer prayer not only for the plaintiff who may have been harmed by the actions of a man who was not an employee of the church, but also for all who have been abused by anyone.”

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Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2016 / 04:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Several black Christian leaders suggested the “Catholic Spring” leaked emails showed “open contempt for religious freedom” and asked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton whether their own communities would be safe.

“The black church has served the poor for over two centuries; our response to Christ’s call to care for all people has strengthened the black community and contributed to civil society in important ways. Freedom to do all this must be guaranteed to the Black Church,” more than two dozen leading black clergy, activists and intellectuals said.

The leaders from Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian denominations signed the Oct. 30 letter, “An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton Regarding Religious Freedom for Black America.”
 
For the signers of the open letter, several hacked emails published on Wikileaks indicated an effort “to subvert Catholic teaching on sexuality by planting externally funded groups in the church to advance a politically correct agenda.”

The February 2012 emails exchanged between Clinton’s present campaign manager, John Podesta, and progressive leader Sandy Newman questioned whether a controversy over mandated contraceptive coverage could be an opportunity to “plant the seeds of revolution” among Catholics against their bishops, in Newman’s words. The emails invoked the imagery of the “Arab Spring” revolts.

Podesta indicated Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United had been created for this purpose, but lacked leadership. He suggested former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend be consulted.

The emails troubled the signers of the open letter, who stressed the value of black churchs' freedom to serve their neighbors and communities in accordance with their faith.

“Will black pastors and intellectuals be free to lead and guide our communities in accordance with our widely accepted faith-based knowledge tradition?” they asked. “How will your policies encourage or discourage our authority to lead?”

They requested a meeting with Clinton during her first 100 days in office to discuss critical issues in the black community such as education and employment, religious freedom, violence, and “justice for the unborn.”
 
According to the letter, about 80 percent of 41 million American blacks are members of historically black churches.

The letter’s signers said that where religious freedom and conscience is at stake, “we are prepared, for the sake of the gospel, to suffer the consequences of standing on our convictions.”

“We must resist what Pope Francis has called the ideological colonization of people of faith,” they added. “We do not organize to suppress the freedom of other groups. We do, however, insist upon having freedom to fulfill our call to righteous living and service to humankind.”

“A well-financed war is now being waged by the gay and lesbian community in the U.S. and abroad on the faith of our ancestors,” they charged. The letter questioned “the drive to normalize immoral sexual behavior.”

“Their argument that religious freedom laws are historically and existentially equivalent to Jim Crow laws rests on false assertions. Partisans who make these arguments have declared war on the truth of the black experience as well as on the freedom of faithful Americans to follow their consciences.”

The letter’s signers said a fundamental concern is their right as religious leaders to minister to their congregants and to the black poor regardless of religious belief “in a manner consistent with their faith convictions.”

The open letter to Clinton also voiced a Christian view against abortion.

“The vast majority of black churches hold biblical teaching, which is eternal, as authoritative for doctrine and practice,” the letter said. “Abortion is the deliberate destruction of a human life in its most vulnerable state … For the same reasons that we as black Christian leaders oppose racism, unjust wars, capital punishment and euthanasia, we oppose the violent denial of life to the unborn through abortion.”

The letter’s signers said abortion has had a “catastrophic impact” in the black community, with 365 black babies aborted for every 1,000 born. In 2013, more black babies were aborted in New York City than were born.

“How do you justify your unconscionable silence in the face of such destruction of innocent black life?” they asked Clinton. “Don’t black lives matter? What policies would you pursue as president to reverse the soaring abortion rates among black women?”

The letter called for justice in cases of “egregious behavior” by police officers, citing the death of the New York man Eric Garner, who died when police officers attempted to detain him and appeared to use a prohibited chokehold. It voiced an urgent concern about police violence against blacks that appears to go unpunished. It also lamented the high murder rate among black men.

The open letter cited concern about unemployment, especially among young black men, whose unemployment rate is as high as 33 percent.

The letter also cited overseas religious freedom problems, including the displacement of millions of Christians from their homes in the Middle East.

The letter’s signatories include Pentecostal Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake of the Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles; Jacqueline C. Rivers, executive director of the Boston-based Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies; Bishop Frank Reid III, chairman of the Social Justice Committee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Lemuel F. Thuston, vice chairman of the general assembly of the Church of God in Christ; and Prof. Frederick L. Ware of Howard School of Divinity.

The letter was also critical of Clinton’s April 2015 remarks before the National Organization of Women. That speech discussed girls’ education, women’s mortality rate, and access to safe childbirth and “reproductive health care,” a common euphemism for abortion.

Clinton said rights must be put into practice and “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

The open letter construed this as a denial of religious freedom.

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Cindy Wooden

MALMO, Sweden (CNS) -- The Catholic Church continues to insist that sharing the sacrament of Communion will be a sign that Christian churches have reconciled fully with one another, although in some pastoral situations, guests may be invited to the Eucharist, said Cardinal Kurt Koch.

During Pope Francis' trip to Sweden Oct. 31-Nov. 1, the Swiss cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was asked about the possibility of Catholics and Lutherans receiving Communion together.

The Catholic Church, he told reporters, makes a distinction between "eucharistic hospitality for individual people and eucharistic communion."

The term hospitality is used to refer to welcoming guests to the Eucharist on special occasions or under special circumstances as long as they recognize the sacrament as the real presence of Christ. Eucharist communion, on the other hand, refers to a more regular situation of the reception of Communion by people recognized as belonging to the same family.

"Eucharistic communion, for us Catholics, is the goal" of ecumenical dialogue and will be "a visible sign of ecclesial communion" or full union, Cardinal Koch said at a news conference. "The other question -- hospitality in the case of a mixed marriage -- is a pastoral question," which will require discussion, particularly on the level of dioceses.

"It is very difficult to give a universal declaration because the pastoral situations are very different" from country to country, the cardinal said.

Earlier Oct. 31, Pope Francis and Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation signed a joint declaration, which included recognition that "many members of our communities yearn to receive the Eucharist at one table as the concrete expression of full unity."

Catholic-Lutheran married couples, in particular, "experience the pain" of sharing their whole lives, but being separated at the table of the Lord. "We acknowledge our joint pastoral responsibility to respond to the spiritual thirst and hunger of our people to be one in Christ," they said.

The two leaders did not authorize further opportunities for shared Communion, but expressed longing "for this wound in the body of Christ to be healed" with the help of increased theological dialogue.

Speaking at the news conference with Cardinal Koch, the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, told reporters, "At this point in time we don't have a concrete model of how we would go about" making pastoral provisions for couples in mixed marriages.

However, he said, "it is around the table where people in our communities experience the fragmentation of the church the hardest, and that requires a response."

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Dominican Father Lawrence Lew

By Rhina Guidos

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The tension and frustration that the country feels over an election season filled with insults and rancor, feels a bit more amped up in Washington, the city where the winner of the presidential race will reside.

With days to go before Election Day, the feast of All Saints seemed like a good occasion for the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, about three miles from the U.S. Capitol, to provide some respite for the weary.

While some attended Halloween festivities Oct. 31, the Dominicans filled their chapel in the evening with candles, prayer and people, as hundreds gathered for an event focused on the saints on the vigil of their Nov. 1 feast. They listened to the words of St. Catherine of Siena, St. John Paul II and St. John Chrysostom as well as Pope Francis' remarks on one of the newest saints of the church: St. Teresa of Kolkata.

Recognizing the tension in the country, Dominican Brother Isaac Morales said he hoped the evening would provide "a sense of hope" and connection with the saints during a tough period. After all, he said, the saints, too, faced seasons of trouble. He recalled St. John Paul's trials and tribulations as well as Mother Teresa's.

He said it was edifying to see the chapel packed with those seeking prayer and serenity.

"I came seeking spirituality," said Yorgos Schwartzmann, who attended the event for the first time and said the meditation helped him find a better understanding of others.

Rachelle Nigro told Catholic News Service she attended because of the peace the event brings, particularly in the serenity of the chapel, where the Dominican brothers offered their prayer in song while celebrating the saints.

Rachael Osborne, of Washington, held a candle in one of the hallways and concentrated on the Litany of the Saints as one of the brothers blessed the hundreds who lined the cloister walk.

"I'm grateful to celebrate this," said Osborne, who said the event helped her feel close and connected to the saints.

During the vigil, Dominican Brother Irenaeus Dunlevy said the saints help people find mercy and goodness, they help people see the face of Jesus in others, and that this can help people grow in mercy. To participate in God's mercy is to act, he said, adding that God's mercy is not a thing but an action: giving life, redeeming, strengthening, empowering and elevating others.

"The saints exemplified this acting of mercy," he said.

The saints also reflect God's light into the world, he said.

"We need that light today," he said. "Because without it, we're capable of committing the darkest acts in the name of mercy."

He reminded those present that the District of Columbia's city council was voting, on the feast of All Saints, on a bill that "suggests it is merciful to kill those who are near death. Without the light of wisdom, we might kill in the name of mercy," he said.

He asked those present to call out to the saints, "our friends," to be transformed in the image of mercy, reflecting God's love "toward all those we meet."

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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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