Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in a gathering of senior citizens and their caregivers on Saturday, in the context of Italy’s national Grandparents’ Day celebrations. Grandparents’ Day in Italy – the Festa dei nonni – is marked each year on October 2^nd, with events continuing throughout the month.

The gathering was organized by the Italian ANLA association, founded in 1949 as an advocacy group for seniors in the employ of major industrial companies. The association has grown and expanded to include members of every age throughout the country: seniors, their family members, and their professional caregivers.

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In remarks prepared for the occasion, Pope Francis said, “The Church regards the elderly with affection, gratitude, and high esteem. They are an essential part of the Christian community and of society: in particular they represent the roots and the memory of a people.”

The Holy Father went on to call on political leaders and social actors to recommit to the protection and full appreciation of senior citizens.

“There is still a much that institutions and social structures can do to help older people to make the most of their abilities, to facilitate their active participation, particularly to ensure that their personal dignity is always respected and appreciated,” said Pope Francis. “To do this,” he added, “we must counter the harmful throw-away culture that marginalizes the elderly, considering them unproductive.”

Before concluding with his Apostolic Blessing upon all the participants and their works, Pope Francis said, “Those responsible for the public weal, cultural, educational and religious leaders, as well as all people of good will, are called upon to commit to building a more and more welcoming and inclusive society. It is also important to promote the bond between generations. The future of a people requires the encounter between young and old: the young people are the vitality of a people “on the way” and the elderly reinforce this vitality with memory and wisdom.”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has named the Archpriests of three Papal Basilicas to close the Holy Doors at their Basilicas at the end of the Holy Year of Mercy.

• Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint John Lateran, will preside of the closure of the Holy Door of the same Basilica during a liturgy on November 13, 2016.
• Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, the Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, will preside of the closure of the Holy Door of the same Basilica during a liturgy on November 13, 2016.
• Cardinal James Michael Harvey, the Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, will preside of the closure of the Holy Door of the same Basilica during a liturgy on November 13, 2016.

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The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni will visit Zambia next month as part of celebrations marking 125 years of the Catholic Church in Zambia.

Although the first Catholic missionaries to attempt the evangelisation of what is today Zambia were the Jesuits in 1879, their mission faltered due to several challenges. The Jesuits crossed the Zambezi river from the south. A second attempt in the early 1900s would be more successful. 

The White Fathers (Missionaries of Africa) entering the north of Zambia in 1891, had greater success. 

Cardinal Filoni will be in Zambia from 7 to 10 November 2016. Bishop Clement Mulenga, SDB  of Kabwe Diocese and Bishop-in-charge of the laity apostolate recently announced details of the Cardinal’s visit to Zambia. 

While in Zambia, Cardinal Filoni will attend the National Catholic Forum. Zambia’s National Catholic forum held every three years brings Bishops, priests and the religious as well as the laity to a roundtable discussion of salient pastoral challenges and initiatives facing the country. Cardinal Filoni will also celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of Child Jesus in the capital Lusaka on 9 November 2016. During the visit, the Cardinal is further expected to hold private discussions with the Bishops of Zambia as well as staff members from the three major seminaries of Zambia respectively.

Before coming to Zambia, Cardinal Filoni is scheduled to visit neighbouring Malawi as the Holy Father Pope Francis’ special envoy at the consecration of Karonga Diocese’ Cathedral in Malawi. The consecration in Karonga is scheduled to take place on 5 November 2016.

(IMPACT magazine)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday afternoon visited Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo at the Villa Betania nursing home in Rome.

Cardinal Montezemolo, 91, served as archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls from 2005 to 2009. Before this, he provided a long service to the Holy See in the diplomatic corps, and was the first Apostolic Nuncio to the State of Israel after the signing of the Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and Israel in 1993. His final diplomatic posting was as Nuncio to Italy and San Marino.

Pope Francis visited the Cardinal after making a trip to Rome’s “SOS Village,” a residential complex that cares for children coming from difficult personal, family or social backgrounds.

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(Vatican Radio) On Saturday, 25 March 2017, Pope Francis will travel to northern Italy to visit the Archdiocese of Milan.

News of the upcoming visit came in a  statement released by the Holy See Press Office.

Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop of Milan described the event as “a sign of closeness and esteem for the Church of Saint Ambrose, for the Metropolitan Church of Milan and for the entire region of Lombardia”.

He also expressed his gratitude for the Pope’s decision to “come and confirm us in our faith” and said that “we await the Holy Father in prayer, in preparation for this great gift”. 

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Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct 15, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Dutch government is set to legalize euthanasia for people who don’t want to live anymore but are not necessarily terminally ill or experiencing extreme suffering.

In a briefing to parliament on Wednesday, the health and justice ministers said that people who “have a well-considered opinion that their life is complete, must, under strict and careful criteria, be allowed to finish that life in a manner dignified for them.”

The option would be limited to “the elderly,” though the briefing did not define an age limit.

The move is the latest expansion of the country’s euthanasia policy, which critics have already have said does not protect vulnerable populations, including children, the disabled and those with mental illnesses.

Earlier this year, critics decried a case in which a Dutch woman in her 20s was euthanized after her mental health condition was declared “insufferable” by a team of doctors and psychiatrists in the Netherlands.

She had suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and other mental illnesses as a result of being a victim of sexual abuse. Multiple reports classified her condition as “incurable,” thus legally justifying the woman's death by euthanasia under Dutch law. The woman was just one of many who have been legally euthanized due to mental illness since the law began.

The country’s law also provides provisions for children ages 12-15 to request euthanasia or assisted suicide with parental permission, a safeguard that does not apply to minors age 16-18. There is also a provision for newborn infants to be euthanized if a certain set of criteria are met.

The neighboring country of Belgium became the first country to legalize the euthanasia of minors without an age limit, with parental consent and the consultation of other medical professionals.

The Netherlands was the first country to decriminalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2002. Euthanasia differs from physician-assisted suicide in that a third party – a doctor, a family member – may administer lethal drugs to the patient. Under physician-assisted suicide, the patient’s doctor provides the means of death, such as lethal prescriptions, but legally only the patient can administer the drugs to themselves.

In 2002, the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act decriminalized euthanasia and assisted suicide for physicians who were acting under a certain set of criteria, which included the nature of the patient's request (that it be persistent and voluntary), that the patient's suffering is unbearable with no prospect of recovery, and the conditions of the request were confirmed by at least two doctors.

According to reports from The Guardian, the new “completed life” proposal came as a surprise after a commission tasked with studying the policy concluded there was no need for it.

But the health and justice ministers disagreed.

“The cabinet is of the opinion that a request for help (in dying) from people who suffer unbearably and have no hope without an underlying medical reason can be a legitimate request“.

The push for legal euthanasia and assisted suicide has increased in Western countries in the past few years. In June of this year, Canada legalized physician-assisted suicide, as did the state of California, joining the states of Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont.

Also in June of this year, Pope Francis denounced physician-assisted suicide as part of a “throwaway culture” that offers a “false compassion” and treats a human person as a problem. Addressing medical professionals from Spain and Latin America at the Vatican, the Pope criticized “those who hide behind an alleged compassion to justify and approve the death of a patient.”

“You are well aware of the meaning of the triumph of selfishness, of this ‘throwaway culture’ that rejects and dismisses those who do not comply with certain canons of health, beauty and utility,” he said.

“True compassion does not marginalize anyone, nor does it humiliate and exclude – much less considers the disappearance of a person as a good thing.”

The “completed life” extension is expected to go into effect in the Netherlands by the end of 2017.

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Vatican City, Oct 15, 2016 / 05:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After having to postpone the trip earlier this year, because of an over-full schedule for the Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis will travel to Milan on March 25, 2017, the Vatican announced Saturday.

“This visit of the Holy Father is a sign of affection and esteem for the Ambrosian Church, the city of Milan and the whole of Lombardy,” Milan’s Archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Scola, said in a statement about the visit.

“We want to express to the Pope our gratitude because he will come to confirm us in the faith. We live from now on waiting for the Pope in prayer, in preparation for this great gift,” Archbishop Scola said.

The Vatican announced back on Dec. 10, 2015, that due to Pope Francis’ busy schedule during the Jubilee of Mercy he had decided to postpone his May 7, 2016 visit to the Archdiocese of Milan until the following year.

A Dec. 10 communique from the Vatican announced that Archbishop Scola received a note from the Secretariat of State saying that due to “the intensification of the Jubilee commitments,” Pope Francis has decided “to postpone his pastoral visits in Italy.”

“As a result, the visit to Milan already officially scheduled and announced for May 7, 2016, will be postponed until the year 2017.”

In the coming days the Milan Bishops’ Council will begin organizational work to set up and coordinate a special commission for the Pope’s visit.

Archbishop Scola informally announced the Pope’s visit to Milan in an Oct. 27 communique posted on the diocese’s website, after first making it known during a meeting with Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Béchara Boutros Raï earlier that morning.

Milan is the second largest city in Italy, and serves as the capital of the country’s northern Lombardy region. The last Pope to visit Milan was Benedict XVI in 2012, when he traveled to the diocese June 1-3 for the 7th World Meeting of Families.

Pope Francis officially inaugurated the Jubilee Dec. 8 on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception by opening the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. It will close Nov. 20, 2016, the Solemnity of Christ the King.

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