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The Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill have ended their 16th General Chapter with the new Superior General, Fr. Thulani Victor Mbuyisa, telling delegates that the Holy Father, Pope Francis told him: “Tell your confreres to be faithful to the spirituality of your founder (Abbot Francis Pfanner).” Fr. Thulani narrated this during the General Chapter’s closing Mass at the Mariannhill Generalate in Rome at the weekend. 

Fr. Thulani accompanied by the outgoing Superior General, Fr. Damian Weber, met Pope Francis last week on Wednesday in St. Peter’s. 

After passing on the message of the Holy Father to the delegates, Fr. Thulani then proceeded to officially send the delegates from the Chapter back to their regions. He encouraged them to share the experiences of the Chapter with other brothers who had sent them to Rome as representatives. 

During the same Mass, Fr. Thulani commissioned and gave the mission cross to Fr. Brian Nonde, a Zambian Mariannhill priest, who has been tasked to go to the Mariannhill Mission of Papua New Guinea.

Speaking earlier to Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service, Fr.Thulani, who hails from South Africa and is the first African to hold the office of Superior General in the congregation, described his election as a call to service. 

“This election for me is a calling within a wider call. I have received it as a call to serve. It is not a career since religious life, and the priesthood are not careers but vocations. The Church teaches us that we have to be open to the will of God in our lives, even if we have our own personal preferences. It is in this light that I have responded and entrusted myself to God who calls and who has called me in this special moment in the life of the Church and our world through the voice of my confreres,” he said. 

Fr. Thulani described the just ended Chapter as a process of listening again to the will of God and evaluating the life and activities of the Congregation. It was also an opportunity to look back and to the future, to the year 2022 when the mandate of the new leadership team will be due for renewal. 

“During the Chapter, we were asking ourselves the questions: How do we fulfil our mission mandate in this day and age? What kind of leadership and style of leadership do we want? What is the Church especially Pope Francis calling us to be and do today? What is our relevance in the world today?” he explained. 

The new leadership team headed by Fr. Thulani comprises Fr. Wenceslaus Kwindingwi from Zimbabwe; Fr. Michael Mass, Germany; Fr. Patrick Chongo, Zambia and Brother Hansel Jaison of Zimbabwe. 

Born in Exobho (Ixopo), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on the 13 February 1973, Fr. Thulani had at the time of his election completed serving as the Vicar in the Congregation. 

The Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill also known as the Missionaries of Mariannhill is an international religious missionary congregation of religious brothers and priests.  The members describe themselves as contemplatives in action.

Although Abbot Francis Pfanner, the founder, was already a Trappist monk, the congregation started in 1909 when Pope Pius X decided to separate the Mariannhill from the Order of the Reformed Cistercians. The Mariannhill are still a community that believes in the ancient motto of their roots: “Ora et Labora” (Pray and work). The motto, they say, encourages them to be praying workers and working worshippers – contemplative missionaries.

The Missionaries of Mariannhill are in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, USA, Canada, Colombia and Papua New Giunea.

(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican issued a statement on Tuesday announcing the work of the cataloguing and digitalizing of the archival material possessed by the Episcopal Conference of Argentina, the Apostolic Nunciature in Buenos Aires, and the Vatican’s Secretariat of State related to Argentina’s Military Dictatorship Period (1976-1983) has ended.

The statement said the Executive Committee of the Episcopal Conference of Argentina met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States, on Saturday, 15 October, to assess the project.

The Executive Committee of the Episcopal Conference of Argentina is composed of the President, Archbishop of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz, José María Arancedo; the First Vice President, Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina, Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli; the Second Deputy, Archbishop of Salta, Mario Antonio Cargnello; and the Secretary General, Bishop of Chascomus, Carlos Humberto Malfa.

The statement noted the process of organization and digitization, “which was performed in accordance with the decisions and directives of the Holy Father, and is the continuation of work already started years ago by the Episcopal Conference of Argentina, has ended.”

It went on to say “based on a protocol to be established soon,” the documents will be able to be accessed and consulted by the victims, the immediate family members of the desaparecidos (disappeared) and detained, and – in the case of religious and ecclesiastical personnel – their superiors.

The statement said those involved wanted to “emphasize this work was performed by having it its heart the service of truth, justice, and peace by continuing a dialogue open to the culture of encounter.”

It concluded by saying “the Holy Father and Episcopate of Argentina entrust their homeland to the merciful protection of Our Lady of Luján, trusting in the intercession of the beloved Saint José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero.”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday November 4th at 11.30 am in memory of all the Cardinals and Bishops who have passed away during this year.  

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Lima, Peru, Oct 25, 2016 / 06:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the National Prayer Breakfast in Lima, Peru on Friday, the nation’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, consecrated the country, his family and himself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Taking part in the National Day of Prayer at the Swissôtel in Lima, Kuczynski in his capacity as president offered the prayer of consecration, written by the Mission for the Love of God in the Whole World.

“By the authority vested in me, I make an act of consecration of myself, my family and the Republic of Peru, to the love and protection of Almighty God through the intercession of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” the president said.

Participating in the event were important business and political leaders in the country, including the President of Congress, Luz Salgado, who also offered a prayer asking God for his help and protection.

Of the 21 prayer breakfasts that have been held in Peru, this is the first time a president has attended. The theme chosen for this year was “the Mercy of the Love of God” in accordance with the Year of Mercy called for by Pope Francis.

Event organizer Aldo Bertello Costa said that the intent of the breakfast is to pray for the leaders as well as to “bring to all Peruvians a message of optimism and reconciliation. Everyone united together for our beloved country.”

During the ceremony, President Kuczynski entrusted to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary “my government with all its workers and citizens who are under my responsibility. I offer to Almighty God my thoughts and decisions as president so that he may use them for the good of our country and always bearing in mind the Ten Commandments in governing it.”

He asked God’s forgiveness “for all the transgressions I may have committed in the past, all those committed by the Republic in the past, and for all those decisions that may have been made contrary to his commandments and I ask for his help in changing everything that separates us from Him.”

The consecration received a mixed reaction on social media. Some celebrated the gesture, while others noted that some members of Kuczynski's party have recently promoted initiatives to decriminalize abortion, homosexual unions and gender ideology in the schools.

Days earlier, Congressman Alberto de Belaúnde, a member of Kuczynski's party, told RPPTV that “it is absolutely irrelevant” where the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations stand on a bill that he is co-sponsoring to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape.

 

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Vatican City, Oct 25, 2016 / 09:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released an instruction Tuesday regarding burial and cremation, reiterating the Church's teaching that cremation, while strongly discouraged, can be permissible under certain restrictions – and that scattering the ashes is forbidden.

Ad resurgendum cum Christo, or “To rise with Christ”, published Oct. 25, states that while cremation “is not prohibited” the Church “continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased.”

The document explains that after “legitimate motives” for cremation have been ascertained, the “ashes of the faithful must be laid to rest in a sacred place,” such as in a cemetery or church. It goes on to state that is not permitted to keep the ashes in a home or to scatter them “in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects.”

“The burial, the last liturgy for us, is an expression of our hope for the resurrection,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the congregation wrote, “and therefore the Church continues to teach that the normal burial of the body is the normal form.”

As the document explains, “by burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity.”

“She cannot, therefore, condone attitudes or permit rites that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe.”

Rather, burial in a cemetery or another sacred place “adequately corresponds to the piety and respect owed to the bodies of the faithful departed who through Baptism have become temples of the Holy Spirit and in which ‘as instruments and vessels the Spirit has carried out so many good works.’”

The Vatican originally answered the question of whether or not cremation was allowed in 1984, but with the increase in both its popularity and in practices such as scattering the ashes or keeping them in the home, it found it necessary to provide a new set of norms as guidance for bishops.

The instruction emphasized that “following the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried.”

A proper respect for the dignity of the body, according to Fr. Thomas Bonino, an official at the CDF,  promotes the hylomorphic understanding of the human person as being composed of both body and soul.

“One must perhaps start from the idea of ecology,” Fr. Bonino told CNA, “meaning respect for nature. But the body is part of our nature, so a true ecology is also an ecology which takes into account the corporality of man.”

Fr. Bonino explained that because “the body forms part of our identity” together with the soul, this teaching “must be reaffirmed” in preaching and in catechesis.

Practices such as scattering the ashes in nature can be a form of “pantheistic confessions, as if nature were a god,” Fr. Bonino said. Or it can express the false ideology “that after death nothing of the person remains, that the body just returns to the earth and there is nothing more.”

The new norms address these issues, he said, while also reacting against the idea that death is only about the individual or the immediate family. “Death also deals with the community to which the deceased belonged,” he pointed out.

The Vatican document highlighted several other reasons for the importance of the burial of the dead, including that the Church considers burying the dead to be one of the corporal works of mercy.

“From the earliest times, Christians have desired that the faithful departed become the objects of the Christian community’s prayers and remembrance. Their tombs have become places of prayer, remembrance and reflection,” it stated.

By reserving the ashes of the deceased in a sacred place, we can be assured that they are not excluded from the prayers of their family and the Christian community, it continued, as well as provide a more permanent marker for posterity, especially after the immediately subsequent generation has passed away.

“We are Catholics … and we must try to understand all elements of our life in the sense of the Christian faith,” Cardinal Müller said.

“We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and also we have the hope for our resurrection of our body… And therefore the big tradition as Christians has always been burial.”

Mary Shovlain contributed to this piece.

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By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY -- God's kingdom is not a well-organized structure where only strict adherents of the law can enter but a path that is walked upon every day with meekness and docility, Pope Francis said.

Christians are called to walk that path of the kingdom and not fall victim to "a behavior of rigidity" that prevents the Holy Spirit from growing, the pope said in his homily Oct. 25 during his morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

"The kingdom does not grow in this way and neither do we grow. It is docility to the Holy Spirit that makes us grow and be transformed," he said.

The pope reflected on the day's Gospel from St. Luke, in which Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows into a large bush and like yeast that is mixed with flour "until the whole batch of dough is leavened."

Jesus' comparison of the kingdom to a mustard seed and the yeast, the pope said, is a reminder that in order for the Holy Spirit to grow, it must first "die" and transform into something great in one's life.

However, it can only grow "through docility to the strength of the Holy Spirit," he said.

"The flour ceases to be flour and becomes bread because it is docile to the strength of the yeast, and the yeast allows itself to be mixed in with the flour" and becomes bread for everyone, the pope said.

Men and women who are docile to the action of the spirit, he continued, also become like the mustard that, "although it loses its identity as a seed, becomes something else, something bigger, it transforms."

Christians who do not walk this path of transformation, he warned, will instead become rigid and orphaned.

"A rigid person only has masters and no father. The kingdom of God is like a mother that grows and is fertile; she gives of herself so that her children have food and lodging, according to the example of the Lord," Pope Francis said.

"It is docility to the Holy Spirit that makes us grow and be transformed like the yeast and the seed. May the Lord give us all the grace of this docility," he said.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Professing belief in the resurrection of the dead and affirming that the human body is an essential part of a person's identity, the Catholic Church insists that the bodies of the deceased be treated with respect and laid to rest in a consecrated place.

While the Catholic Church continues to prefer burial in the ground, it accepts cremation as an option, but forbids the scattering of ashes and the growing practice of keeping cremated remains at home, said Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"Caring for the bodies of the deceased, the church confirms its faith in the resurrection and separates itself from attitudes and rites that see in death the definitive obliteration of the person, a stage in the process of reincarnation or the fusion of one's soul with the universe," the cardinal told reporters Oct. 25.

In 1963, the congregation issued an instruction permitting cremation as long as it was not done as a sign of denial of the basic Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead. The permission was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law in 1983 and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1990.

However, Cardinal Muller said, church law had not specified exactly what should be done with "cremains," and several bishops' conferences asked the congregation to provide guidance.

The result, approved by Pope Francis after consultation with other Vatican offices and with bishops' conferences and the Eastern churches' synods of bishops, is "Ad resurgendum cum Christo" ("To Rise with Christ"), an instruction "regarding the burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation."

Presenting the instruction, Cardinal Muller said, "shortly, in many countries, cremation will be considered the ordinary way" to deal with the dead, including for Catholics.

Cremation, in and of itself, does not constitute a denial of belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, the instruction says. Nor does it "prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life."

However, the Catholic Church wholeheartedly recommends continuing the "pious practice of burying the dead," Cardinal Muller said. It is considered one of the corporal works of mercy and, mirroring the burial of Christ, it more clearly expresses hope in the resurrection when the person's body and soul will be reunited.

In addition, he said, when a person is buried in the ground -- and, at least to some extent -- when the urn of the person's ashes is placed in a columbarium or tomb, the final resting place is marked with the person's name, the same name with which the person was baptized and by which the person is called by God.

"Belief in the resurrection of the flesh is fundamental," he said. "A human cadaver is not trash" and an anonymous burial or scattering of ashes "is not compatible with the Christian faith. The name, the person, the concrete identity of the person" is important because God created each individual and calls each individual to himself.

In fact, when asked if there was any way to rectify the situation when a person's ashes already had been scattered, Cardinal Muller suggested making a memorial in a church or other appropriate place and including the name of the deceased.

What is more, he said, labeling an urn or tomb in a public place is an expression of belief in the "communion of saints," the unending unity in Christ of all the baptized, living and dead.

"Other believers have a right to pray at the tomb" and to remember deceased members of the Catholic Church on the feast of All Saints and All Souls.

Keeping ashes at home on the mantel, he said, is a sign not only of love and grief, but also of not understanding how the loved one belonged to the entire community of faith and not just to his or her closest relatives.

"Only in grave and exceptional cases," the instruction says, local bishops may give permission for ashes to be kept in a private home. Cardinal Muller said it was not up to him, but to local and national bishops' conferences to determine what those "grave and exceptional" circumstances might be.

Placing the ashes in a sacred place also "prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten or their remains from being shown a lack of respect," which is more likely to happen as time goes on and the people closest to the deceased also pass way, the instruction said.

Asked specifically about the growing trend in his native Germany of "forest burials," where people pay to have their ashes in urns interred at the base of a tree in a designated forest burial ground, Cardinal Muller said the German bishops were not thrilled with the idea, but accepted it with the proviso that the tree be marked with the name of the person buried at its base.

In the United States and other countries, a growing number of Catholic cemeteries set aside sections for "green burials" for bodies that have not been embalmed and are placed in simple wooden caskets that eventually will biodegrade along with the body.

"We believe in the resurrection of the body and this must be the principle of our understanding and practice," Cardinal Muller told Catholic News Service, noting that there is a difference between allowing for the natural decay of the body while protecting the environment and seeing the body of the deceased primarily as fertilizer for plants and trees.

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Editors: The English text of the instruction can be found at: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20160815_ad-resurgendum-cum-christo_en.html

The Spanish text is here: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20160815_ad-resurgendum-cum-christo_sp.html

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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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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