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(Vatican Radio) The Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic on Wednesday addressed the Executive Committee Meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Vatican diplomat said the international community “must not lose [its] resolve” in the face of the “seemingly insurmountable challenges” of 65.3 million forcibly displaced people around the world.

“We have an urgent social, political and ethical duty to address these issues and their root causes in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity,” Archbishop Jurkovic said.

“The Holy See, while assuring its firm commitment to work with all interested parties to assist the needs of refugees and migrants, wishes to reiterate a strong appeal for the implementation of the existing provisions contained in the Refugee Convention,” – he continued – “From its inception, the UNHCR has been actively involved in promoting protection for refugees and finding solutions to their problems. This is the very reason the three durable solutions were developed: voluntary repatriation, reintegration and resettlement.”

Archbishop Jurkovic  said there is also urgent need for action on the underlying causes, the so-called “push-factors”, be they domestic or international, of large-scale movements of refugees.

“International support is needed to strengthen good governance and the rule of law, and to address structural inequalities,” – the Archbishop said – “The Holy See wishes to reiterate its urgent appeal for political and multilateral efforts to confront the root causes of large movements and forced displacement of populations.”

The full statement is below

Intervention by H.E. Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva

at the 67th Executive Committee Meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Geneva, 4 October 2016

Mr. President,

Appreciating the opportunity to address the Executive Committee of UNHCR this year, my Delegation would like to express its serious concern over the increasingly difficult challenges presented by the various refugee crises in different parts of the world. At the present time we are witnessing the highest levels of displacement ever recorded, with some 65.3 million people who have been forcibly displaced. Of these suffering individuals, a staggering 21.3 million refugees – the majority of them being minors under the age of 18, who, as we know, are frequently victims of modern forms of slavery including trafficking do not have access to education or are imprisoned in dreadful situations. In addition, there are also some 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights. While we must not lose our resolve in the face of these seemingly insurmountable challenges, we must also acknowledge that the increasing trend shows no sign of slowing down. The scale and nature of refugee displacement today “requires us to act in a comprehensive and predictable manner in large-scale refugee movements”. These movements are often the result of old conflicts not yet effectively addressed – we think of many situations in Africa, for example – nevertheless the International Community is still convinced that: “Through a comprehensive refugee response based on the principles of international cooperation and on burden- and responsibility-sharing, we are better able to protect and assist refugees and to support the host States and communities involved.”1

We have an urgent social, political and ethical duty to address these issues and their root causes in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity.

The recent New York Declaration is a positive sign that there remains a willingness on the part of the International Community to address the grave refugee crises unfolding in our world. The Declaration tasks the UNHCR to develop a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, setting out a blueprint for a stronger system with more reliable funding and early engagement of development actors to help those forced to flee their homes and the communities hosting them. With these encouraging developments, we must also be realistic about implementation. Repeated promises and pledges have been made, but effective and durable implementation has been sorely lacking and the rights of refugees, as laid out in various international instruments, continue to be violated. Such violations constitute wounds to the international order, which risk provoking cynicism and the slide towards a true “globalization of indifference.”

Mr. President,

The Holy See, while assuring its firm commitment to work with all interested parties to assist the needs of refugees and migrants, wishes to reiterate a strong appeal for the implementation of the existing provisions contained in the Refugee Convention. From its inception, the UNHCR has been actively involved in promoting protection for refugees and finding solutions to their problems. This is the very reason the three durable solutions were developed: voluntary repatriation, reintegration and resettlement.

In fact, however, in many countries refugees are not allowed to work, while their movements are limited to the immediate surroundings of camps, often located in remote regions. Refugees have become dependent on food supplies, many times insufficient or reduced for budgetary reasons, while at the same time the food basket is not sufficiently varied. The present situation has led to malnutrition in camps that for years have been administrated by the United Nations.

My Delegation believes that it would make all the difference if the existing rights of refugees were guaranteed, with additional economic and financial investments, and especially political will. Then refugees would become ‘agents of development’ even in their host country and not just recipients of aid or merely tolerated guests.

Closely related to respecting the existing rights of refugees is the urgent need for action on the underlying causes, the so-called “push-factors”, be they domestic or international, of large-scale movements of refugees.

Priority should be given to addressing the root causes of displacement and to preventing them. Early warning and response systems that can foster reconciliation are needed when tensions emerge. International support is needed to strengthen good governance and the rule of law, and to address structural inequalities. The Holy See wishes to reiterate its urgent appeal for political and multilateral efforts to confront the root causes of large movements and forced displacement of populations. As Pope Francis has said, this “would mean rethinking entrenched habits and practices, beginning with issues involving the arms trade, the provision of raw materials and energy, investment, policies of financing and sustainable development, and even the grave scourge of corruption.”2

Prevention, protection and solutions are strongly interlinked, to the extent that if one fails, the others will not be able adequately to deliver. Political will and leadership, both at the national and the global level, are essential for the effectiveness in these three areas.

Mr. President,

[ I am particularly glad to mention a decision that further emphasizes Pope Francis’ concern for uprooted peoples. In instituting the new Dicastery for promoting Integral Human Development in September last, Pope Francis placed pro tempore under his personal guidance the section that specifically oversees matters concerning refugees and migrants.]

Refugees need our solidarity, compassion and protection. In seeking to respond effectively to the challenges posed by unprecedented movements of refugees, while respecting the legitimate concerns of societies and countries, let us never lose sight of the real men, women and children involved in this human drama.

Thank you, Mr. President.

1 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, doc. A/71/L.1, Annex I, par.1

2 Pope Francis, Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See for the traditional exchange of New Year greetings. Vatican, 11 January 2016

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday received in audience the Archbishop of Louisville and the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Joseph Kurtz.

Archbishop Kurtz was meeting the Holy Father in this Jubilee Year of Mercy and while the US Church has been heeding the Pope’s call to go out into the periphery and put the works of mercy into practice.

As part of the year Holy Doors around the world have been a primary focus for pilgrims and the Archdiocese of Louisville has been no exception, giving the faithful no less than 20 Holy Doors to pass through in a number its' parishes.

Lydia O’Kane spoke to Archbishop Kurtz to find out more about how his diocese has been entering into the spirit of the year and how young Americans have been inspired by it.

Listen: 

The Archbishop said the feedback he has been getting from his priests has been incredibly positive, especially with regards to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a key theme of the Jubilee Year.  “… I think the Year of Mercy is what brought many of them (people) to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”

Another initiative in his diocese to promote the year has been a “passport”. “Someone came up with this notion of a passport on acts of mercy and works of mercy,” he said. The idea is that people can experience doing good works throughout the year and have them stamped in a passport like document. There were also increased pastoral visits to the home over the last number of months in the diocese, which the Archbishop noted was spurred on by the Year of Mercy, and “our Holy Father asking that we go to the periphery, that we not wait for people to come into the Church but rather we go out into the home”.

One of the key events in this Extraordinary Holy Year was World Youth Day in Krakow which the Archbishop attended as a catechist. “Our Holy Father”, he said, “appealed to the idealism of young people, … and that whole notion of idealism that I think has characterized youth, I guess for time and memorial was tapped into by this Year of Mercy and that would be my fond hope that what has been begun, encounters with Jesus, both in receiving mercy and in sharing mercy will be continued especially in the local Church…”

The Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy ends on the 20th November, the Feast of Christ the King.

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Agatha Thapa a Catholic woman has been recognized for decades of work promoting early child development in Nepal, at an event held in Kathmandu on Oct. 5.

Nepal's former prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli presented Agatha Thapa with the award at the Child Nepal event in the suburb of Chahabil.

The award honored Thapa's work performed through Seto Guras, an early child development center, which she founded in 1979. Thapa said it was her Catholic faith that guided her to help Nepal's children.

"My faith directed me to work for the children of lowest classes and poorest sections of Nepal's population," said Thapa at the event.

"Christ did all his good work and suffered via crucifixion, but I have just done small work and have been awarded, I am embarrassed in front of Him [Christ]," she said.

Thapa said that she believes that early childhood is the foundation of overall human development.

Among the 300 people that attended the event were local lawmakers, NGO representatives, and children representing various networks.

Agatha Thapa is a Nepali who taught primary and secondary grades in Lalitpur in the 1960s and early 1970s, and who has since founded two pre-primary schools and an organization that introduces, champions, and helps others take up pre-primary child care and educational reforms. Her focus is on poor mothers and their children. (UCAN)

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(Vatican Radio) True doctrine is not a rigid attachment to the Law, which bewitches like ideologies, but is rather the revelation of God, that allows itself to be discovered more and more fully each day by those who are open to the Holy Spirit. That was the message of Pope Francis at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

The readings of the day speak of the Holy Spirit, the “great gift of the Father,” the power that allows the Church to go forth courageously even to the ends of the earth. The Spirit, Pope Francis said, “is the protagonist of this ‘going forward’ of the Church.” Without the Spirit, the Church would be shut up within itself, fearful.

The Pope pointed out three “attitudes” that we can have with regard to the Spirit. The first is that which Saint Paul rebuked in the Galatians: the belief that one can be justified through the Law, and not by Jesus, “who makes sense of the Law.” And so they were “too rigid.” They are the same kind of people who attack Jesus and who the Lord called hypocrites:

“And this attachment to the Law ignores the Holy Spirit. It does not grant that the redemption of Christ goes forward with the Holy Spirit. It ignores that: there is only the Law. It is true that there are the Commandments and we have to follow the Commandments; but always through the grace of this great gift that the Father has given us, His Son, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so the Law is understood. But don’t reduce the Spirit and the Son to the Law. This was the problem of these people: they ignored the Holy Spirit, and they did not know to go forward. Closed, closed in precepts: we have to do this, we have to do that. At times, it can happen that we fall into this temptation.”

The Doctors of the Law, the Pope said, “bewitch with ideas”:

“Because ideologies bewitch; and so Paul begins here: ‘O stupid Galatians, who has bewitched you?’ Those who preach with ideologies: It’s absolutely just! They bewitch: It’s all clear. But look, the revelation is not clear, eh? The revelation of God is discovered more and more each day, it is always on a journey. Is it clear? Yes! It is crystal clear! It is Him, but we have to discover it along the way. And those who believe they have the whole truth in their hands are not [just] ignorant. Paul says more: [you are] ‘stupid’, because you have allowed yourselves to be enchanted.”

The second attitude is making the Holy Spirit sad: it happens “when we do not allow Him to inspire us, to lead us forward in the Christian life,” when “we don’t let Him tell us, not with the theology of the Law, but with the liberty of the Spirit, what we should do.” That, the Pope said, is how “we become lukewarm,” we fall into “Christian mediocrity,” because the Holy Spirit “cannot do great works in us.”

The third attitude, on the other hand, “is to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, and let the Spirit carry us forward. That’s what the Apostles did, [with] the courage of the day of Pentecost. They lost their fear and opened themselves to the Holy Spirit.” In order “to understand, to welcome the words of Jesus,” the Pope said, “it is necessary to open oneself to the power of the Holy Spirit.” When a man or a woman opens themself to the Holy Spirit, it is like a sail boat that allows itself to be moved by the wind and goes forward, forward, forward, and never stops.” But this happens when we pray that we might be open to the Holy Spirit:

“We can ask ourselves today, in a moment during the day, ‘Do I ignore the Holy Spirit? And do I know that if I go to Sunday Mass, if I do this, if I do that, is it enough?’ Second, ‘Is my life a kind of half a life, lukewarm, that saddens the Holy Spirit, and doesn’t allow that power in me to carry me forward, to be open?’ Or finally, ‘Is my life a continual prayer to open myself to the Holy Spirit, so that He can carry me forward with the joy of the Gospel and make me understand the teaching of Jesus, the true doctrine, that does not bewitch, that does not make us stupid, but the true [teaching]?’ And it helps us understand where our weaknesses are, those things that sadden Him; and it carries us forward, and also carrying forward the Name of Jesus to others and teaching the path of salvation. May the Lord give us this grace: to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, so that we will not become stupid, enchanted men and women who make the Spirit sad.” 

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Maiduguri, Nigeria, Oct 6, 2016 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid the apparent decline of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, a Nigerian bishop who had a vision of Christ has repeated his belief that praying the rosary will bring victory over the group.

Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri said his vision of Christ encouraged the people of his diocese to believe “that the rosary would ultimately give us victory over this evil.

“Boko Haram is evil, ISIS is evil,” he told the U.K. newspaper the Catholic Herald. “So as long as we go to a place with His Mother, especially by praying the rosary, which is the most pronounced form of Marian devotion, we will be victorious.”

According to the bishop, “Boko Haram will soon fizzle out, mostly because of the prayers of the people.”

“Before, Boko Haram members were everywhere. But now they are not everywhere,” he continued. “They have been pushed to the forests.”

Bishop Doeme heads the Diocese of Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State. In 2009, there were around 125,000 Catholics under his guidance. A surge in violence from Boko Haram displaced tens of thousands of his people.

Due to the conflict, 2.6 million people in total have been displaced. An estimated 800,000 people are living in burned-out villages and camps across Borno. About 3.8 million people in the region suffer from malnutrition and as many as 49,000 children will die without assistance, a recent Unicef report said.

Last year Boko Haram pledged alliance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or Daesh.

However, there are reports of a power struggle and a split within the organization, CNN reports. The Nigerian army says the group has been significantly weakened, and some civilians are returning home.

In December 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari told BBC News that Boko Haram could no longer make conventional attacks, though some critics have questioned the degree of military success against the group.

Bishop Doeme said the rosary “has worked wonders, and has liberated nations.” He cited the 1571 Battle of Lepanto which defeated a Turkish fleet, and the deposition of President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines in 1986.

He told the Catholic Herald he believes Christ appeared to him in 2014 “in order to console his people, that His mother is there for us.”

In April 2015 he recounted his vision to CNA.

“Towards the end of last year I was in my chapel before the Blessed Sacrament… praying the rosary, and then suddenly the Lord appeared,” he said.

In the vision, the bishop said, Christ didn’t say anything at first, but extended a sword toward him, and he in turn reached out for it.

“As soon as I received the sword, it turned into a rosary,” Bishop Doeme said, adding that Christ then told him three times: “Boko Haram is gone.”

“I didn’t need any prophet to give me the explanation,” he said. “It was clear that with the rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram.”

The bishop said he didn’t want to tell anyone about the vision, but he “felt that the Holy Spirit was pushing him to do so.”

He told CNA, “prayer, particularly the prayer of the rosary, is (what) will deliver us from the claws of this demon, the demon of terrorism. And of course, it is working.”

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Vatican City, Oct 6, 2016 / 04:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis and Anglican Primate Archbishop Welby have signed a joint-declaration emphasizing that while topics such as homosexuality and the ordination of women still constitute points of division, they are committed to working together in their pursuit of full unity.

“The declaration is a forward-looking commitment to doing everything we can together, and continuing to struggle without fear, but with determination for the things that divide us,” Archbishop Welby told CNA Oct. 5.

He said he doesn’t know if Catholics and Anglicans are closer to full unity than they were 50 years ago, but stated simply that “we are where we are.”

One thing that is certain, he said, is that “we serve the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, which means we are always full of hope.”

The archbishop and Pope Francis met to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark encounter between Bl. Paul VI and Michael Ramsey, as well as the institution of the Anglican Center of Rome.

In 1966 Bl. Pope Paul VI met with Dr. Michael Ramsey, who was Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, at the Roman Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Until 1960, when St. John XXIII met with Geoffrey Fisher in a private encounter, there had been no meeting between a Pope and an Archbishop of Canterbury since King Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534.

The meeting between Paul VI and Ramsey, however, was the first public meeting that had taken place.

This meeting and declaration led to the eventual creation of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic), which was responsible for theological dialogue between the two churches. It also marked the opening of the Anglican Centre in Rome, which serves as not only the headquarters of Rome’s Anglican community, but also as a center committed to advancing dialogue between the two Churches.

The current director of the Anglican Center, Archbishop David Moxon, serves as Welby’s personal Representative to the Holy See.

Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby prayed First Vespers together in the historic Roman church of San Gregorio al Cielo Oct. 5, during which they signed their own joint-declaration and commissioned 19 pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops, who will symbolically serve together throughout the world.

 

#PopeFrancis & @JustinWelby enter San Gregorio al Cielo side by side, where they will pray Vespers & sign joint declaration pic.twitter.com/3VKHWRgXnQ

— Elise Harris (@eharris_it) October 5, 2016


 

It was from San Gregorio that Pope Gregory the Great sent the monk Augustine with 40 companions to evangelize Britain in 597. Because of its historic roots, Anglicans widely consider the church to be their "motherhouse."

In their joint-declaration, Welby and Pope Francis recognized that both Catholics and Anglicans “are heirs of the treasure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the call to share that treasure with the whole world.”

They noted that since that first public meeting in 1966, “much progress” has been made in terms of overcoming the obstacles that stand in the way of unity.

However, the modern times have led to new hiccups in the process, particularly surrounding the topics of the ordination of women and “more recent questions regarding human sexuality.”

“Behind these differences lies a perennial question about how authority is exercised in the Christian community,” the declaration read, recognizing that these concerns constitute “serious obstacles to our full unity.”

Yet while solutions to these questions remain in question, Francis and Welby said they are “undeterred” in their quest for unity.

These differences “cannot prevent us from recognizing one another as brothers and sisters in Christ by reason of our common baptism,” nor should they “hold us back” from discovering the faith and holiness of each other’s traditions, they said.

Neither should differences get in the way of common prayer, the prelates cautioned, and urged their respective clergy and faithful “not to neglect or undervalue that certain yet imperfect communion that we already share.”

A shared faith and joy in the Gospel are stronger than the differences, they said, stressing that “the world must see us witnessing to this common faith in Jesus by acting together.”

Common points of collaboration mentioned include working together to protect creation and promote “a sustainable and integral development for the good of all, and to uphold the dignity of the human being in all states and stages of life.

Centuries of painful separation have been “partially healed by 50 years of friendship,” they said, adding that “we have become partners and companions on our pilgrim journey.”

As fellow Christians, the Churches are facing the same difficulties, while also strengthening each other “by learning to value the gifts which God has given to the other, and to receive them as our own in humility and gratitude.”

The two prelates made reference to the 19 pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops commissioned during the Vespers ceremony, praying that their ecumenical mission would be “a witness to all of us.”

“Let the message go out from this holy place, as the Good News was sent out so many centuries ago, that Catholics and Anglicans will work together to give voice to our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring relief to the suffering, to bring peace where there is conflict, to bring dignity where it is denied and trampled upon.”

The two exchanged gifts at the close of the ceremony. Pope Francis gifted Archbishop Welby a replica of the hook-like head of the crozier of St. Gregory, while the archbishop in a strong show of unity took his pectoral cross made out of nails from the roof of the Anglican Coventry Cathedral and gave it as a gift to Pope Francis, who kissed it.

Both Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby gave homilies during Vespers, which was prayed in Latin. The prelates both emphasized that while their traditions might be different, a shared baptism and commitment to spreading the Gospel unites them.

Pope Francis in his homily prayed that the encounter would give rise to “a renewed impetus toward communion and mission,” while Welby, for his part, noted that while it might be tempting to look back, the prophets “compel us to look forward...we cannot be bad shepherds.”

In a follow-up to Vespers and the signing of the declaration, two met privately at the Vatican Oct. 6. Archbishop Welby has already met with Pope Francis twice in the Vatican, the first time being June 14, 2013, and the second June 16, 2014. Welby was also a special guest at the World Day of Prayer for Peace held in Assisi Sept. 18-20.

In his brief speech during the meeting, Pope Francis focused on the importance of prayer, witness and mission between the two Churches.

“Let us never grow tired of asking the Lord together and insistently for the gift of unity,” he said, stressing that “ecumenism is never an impoverishment, but a richness.”

“Now is the time in which the Lord challenges us, in a particular way, to go out from ourselves and our own environs, in order to bring his merciful love to a world thirsting for peace,” he said, and encouraged members of both confessions to help one another “to keep at the center the demands of the Gospel and to spend ourselves concretely in this mission.”

In his own speech, Welby thanked the Pope for his “leadership and example” given throughout the world, particularly when it comes to care for the poor, the enslaved, those suffering from human trafficking as well as care for the environment.

However, despite the mutual concern for these and other threats to modern society, the lack of full unity between the Catholic and Anglican Churches “grieves” God and damages “every aspect of our lives in Christ.”

Yet it is Christ who “breaks down divisions,” he said, and noted that despite the things that divide them, the Churches are “publicly determined to press forward where we may, together with all other Christians.”

“Jesus has gone before us. He calls us to be courageous. Let us walk closer together so the world sees new life and energy in the Church’s worship, mission and witness.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Welby jested with the Pope, saying “What's the difference between a terrorist and a liturgist? You can dialogue with a terrorist,” prompting boisterous laughter from both.



 

Brotherly Love, Brotherly Laugh#PopeFrancis with @JustinWelby #Anglican #Catholic pic.twitter.com/HMh5H0LsaY

— Greg Burke (@GregBurkeRome) October 6, 2016


 

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