Catholic News 2

Lincoln, Neb., Oct 5, 2016 / 03:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic leaders in Nebraska spoke out in favor of a vote to maintain a ban on the death penalty, calling it unnecessary and “unjustified.”

“The Catholic Church and Nebraska bishops oppose the death penalty because it is not necessary to protect society,” Tom Venzor, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, said at a Sept. 29 press conference.

“We urge Catholics and all people of good will to vote to retain the repeal of the death penalty on Referendum 426.”

This November, voters can decide whether to approve or reject the Nebraska Death Penalty Repeal Veto Referendum, Referendum 426. The referendum would repeal the Nebraska legislature’s May 2015 vote to ban the death penalty. Gov. Pete Ricketts vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode it.

The Catholic conference is hosting speaking events about the referendum at each cathedral parish and other parishes and venues.

Venzor said Nebraska’s bishops and the Catholic conference will engage in “significant efforts” to ensure Catholics understand Catholic teaching on the death penalty and are encouraged to vote to retain the legislature’s death penalty repeal.

Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha spoke in favor of retaining the ban in an Oct. 3 video.

“In our particular circumstance, the death penalty is unnecessary and therefore unjustified. This principled Catholic response is shaped by our commitment to the life and dignity of every human person and the common good,” he said.

He cited Catholic teaching that the state may impose the death penalty if it is “the only available means to protect society.” The option should not be exercised when “other non-lethal means that are more respectful of human life are available.”

Father Douglas Dietrich also backed a vote to retain the ban. He is pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lincoln, not far from the capitol building,

Human lives are “unrepeatable, intrinsically valuable gifts that we must not deprive others of,” he told the Sept. 29 press conference.

“Along with my brother priests we are taking a principled pro-life stance in proclaiming we do not need the death penalty in Nebraska,” he said adding “what human life God creates, we must not destroy.”

About 49 percent of Americans support the death penalty for convicted murderers, down from 80 percent in 1995. In 1995 only about 16 percent of Americans opposed the death penalty. That figure has risen to 42 percent.

Since 1936, opposition to the death penalty peaked in the mid-1960s when 47 percent of Americans opposed it and only 42 percent supported it, according to the Pew Research Center.

Death penalty opposition is the highest since 1972.

About 72 percent of Republicans support the death penalty, compared to 44 percent of unaffiliated voters and 34 percent of Democrats. 43 percent of Catholics support the death penalty, while 46 percent oppose it. White Catholics are somewhat more likely to support the death penalty.

Fr. Dietrich said alternatives to the death penalty offer the convict the chance at rehabilitation and conversion.

He cited St. John Paul II’s words during his 1999 visit to the United States: “A sign of hope is the Increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.”

Sister Jean O’Rourke, a Sister of Mercy from Omaha, Neb., said that women religious have advocated for the abolition of the death penalty for decades.

She said the death penalty is an “ineffective and unfair” policy, given the risk of executing innocent people, the costs of appeal, and the personal effects of the lengthy appeals process on victims’ families.

“It promises closure, but all too often brings prolonged agony,” Sister O’Rourke said.

“The Death penalty is not merciful, because it views a person as not deserving God’s gift of life,” she said. “When the state kills, in our name, we have blood on our hands.”

The Nebraska Catholic Conference has a webpage about the death penalty measure at http://www.necatholic.org/deathpenalty

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Port au Prince, Haiti, Oct 5, 2016 / 03:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Hurricane Matthew caused severe damage and several deaths in Haiti, and relief workers have already started to evaluate the damage.

“Catholic Relief Services teams are out today to get a sense of the level of damage in Les Cayes and surrounding areas and to determine the greatest needs,” Catholic Relief Services communications director Kim Pozniak told CNA Oct. 5. “Our response is likely to include distribution of potable water, hygiene and kitchen kits and shelter materials.”

The supplies were pre-positioned in a Les Cayes warehouse, Pozniak said, adding that if they are undamaged “we’re ready to respond as soon as we determine the areas of greatest need.”

The hurricane made landfall on Haiti at 7 a.m. local time Oct. 4 with winds up to 145 mph. The storm has passed Cuba and is in the Bahamas, and is set to arrive in Florida by Thursday in a weakened form. Some Florida residents are being evacuated from their homes. The storm is also expected to affect Georgia and the Carolinas.

There are several confirmed deaths in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic. Several thousand people have been displaced from their homes.

Relief workers feared heavy rains and a storm surge that can cause heavy damage in a city with many hills and ravines and poor drainage infrastructure. Hill-dwellers faced risks from high winds and landslides.

Many people rejected calls to evacuate, fearing looters would steal their belongings.

CRS reported that crop damage and the destruction of stored food supplies could cause a short-term spike in food prices and long-term problems with food supplies. Les Cayes, in southwest Haiti, is a major agricultural center.

The hurricane is the worst disaster to hit Haiti since the massive 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince killed hundreds of thousands of people. The country is also suffering a cholera outbreak.

Haiti’s presidential election is scheduled for Sunday.

Chris Bessy, the agency’s country representative based in Port-au-Prince, said Oct. 4 that the infrastructure of Les Cayes is unable to handle immense rainfall in low-lying areas.

Bessey later told the Washington Post that the storm blew off part of the roof of Catholic Relief Services’ two-story building in Les Cayes and knocked out the generator. The storm cut off the main road to southern Haiti by washing out a bridge at Petit-Goave.

CRS is repairing damage to the facility in addition to evaluating the needs of area residents.

Catholic Relief Services said it has a “robust network of logistical and human resources.”  It was prepared to provide emergency shelters in the hardest-hit areas and provide cash to those affected in the regional capitals of Jeremie and Les Cayes for critical supplies.

Before the storm made landfall, the agency was working with local governments to inspect and secure shelters and to move people there.

CRS has worked in Haiti since 1954’s Hurricane Hazel.

The agency is seeking support for its hurricane response.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Andres Martinez Casares, Reuters

By Dennis Sadowski

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Haitian first responders and nongovernmental aid workers were assessing the damage from Hurricane Matthew even as they scrambled to deliver food, water and shelter materials to communities isolated by washed-out bridges and blocked roads.

The storm left southwestern Haiti in shambles after slamming into the country's Caribbean coast Oct. 4. The cities of Les Cayes, on the southwest coast, and Jeremie, in the northwest, were said to be particularly hit hard by the strongest storm to strike the Caribbean region in a decade.

Water stood shoulder-deep in some communities. Electrical service, the internet and cell phone service disruptions were widespread. Makeshift wooden homes were splintered, and even concrete block houses were wrecked by the storm.

A bridge on the main road to the peninsula had been washed away, effectively isolating people living in the region southwest of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Eleven deaths, including five in Haiti, were blamed on the storm in the region. The number of casualties was expected to climb because Jeremie was said to have sustained heavy damage, and little information had been received from the area, said Mary Durran, Haiti program director for Development and Peace, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' aid and development agency.

"Nobody knows right now what went on in Jeremie. They suspect it's bad," Durran told Catholic News Service Oct. 5.

She said numerous nurseries that were preparing to harvest vegetables were destroyed by the storm and that Haitians were facing serious food shortages. Reports from one co-op, known as Determined Women, indicated that its crops were wiped out by winds and flooding, Durran said.

"It's very difficult to get information at the moment because communities are very poor. Cellphone (towers) are down and, even when cellphone (towers) are working, there is no electricity, and people can't charge their cellphones," she said.

Chris Bessey, Haiti country director for Catholic Relief Services, told CNS that the agency's staff had begun to distribute food, water and hygiene kits from its base in Les Cayes to people who lost their homes to the storm. He said assessments of the extent of damage continued the day after the storm.

Roads remained blocked by floodwaters, downed trees and mudslides, he said, making transportation in the city and outlying communities difficult.

The storm also affected CRS operations when winds tore off part of the roof of the agency's offices and a warehouse in Les Cayes. After that, CRS staffers relocated to higher ground because of the threat of rising waters and were attempting to deliver emergency supplies, Bessey said.

"And we believe that part of the warehouse roof was also damaged. We're hoping that that isn't the case, because that is where we have some of the nonfood items," Bessey said.

Caritas Haiti responded with hot meals, water and hygiene products. An emergency team was in place in Les Cayes before the storm hit and began distributing blankets, bedding and toiletry kits as the winds and rain subsided.

"The effect of the hurricane in the south of Haiti is catastrophic," Father Jean-Herve Francois, Caritas Haiti director, said in a statement from the agency. "There have been deaths from drowning and collapsed buildings. Some communities are under water. Many buildings are damaged. People have lost everything."

Among the greatest fears were water-related diseases and malnutrition. Aid workers reported that people lost stored food when their homes were destroyed. Farmers were preparing to harvest crops as the storm hit, but lost fields of vegetables and groves of mangos, bananas and avocados.

The government and aid workers also were concerned about the increased risk of cholera because of the heavy rains and the lack of access to clean drinking water. After the cholera rate declined for months, the country witnessed an increase in reported cholera cases in the first seven months of the year. With floodwaters and overflowing rivers, the conditions are set for a widespread outbreak of the water-borne disease in many corners of Haiti.

While Matthew's effects in Port-au-Prince were not as severe, flooding posed problems for resident of Cite Soleil, the poorest community in the capital.

Kathrin Jewert, program coordinator in Haiti for Malteser International, the aid organization of the Order of Malta, said the agency has been working with residents flooded out of their makeshift homes in the slum community. A barrier that protected communities nearest Port-au-Prince Bay was breached by storm waters, flooding some of the community's narrow streets, she said.

Jewert credited a disaster risk-reduction program involving the schools and parents for helping families prepare for Matthew.

"They had 48 hours to prepare the community," she said. "They tried to make a way that this community can try to protect itself."

After pounding Haiti, Matthew moved over easternmost Cuba, destroying dozens of homes in Baracoa and damaging hundreds of others, the Associated Press reported. Tweets from Baracoa seemed to indicate that fierce winds and a high storm surge did most of the damage.

Forecasters were watching the storm as it moved over the Bahamas and took aim on the southeastern United States. States of emergency were declared for all of Florida and coastal areas of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The storm was expected to begin affecting the U.S. mainland as early as the night of Oct. 5.

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Editor's Note: For a list of agencies accepting donations for hurricane relief read the CNS Blog at bit.ly/2cTLQeg.

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Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Wednesday presided at the celebration of Vespers in the Rome church of St Gregory on the Caelian Hill to mark the 50th anniversary of Anglican-Catholic relations.

During the liturgy the two leaders signed a common declaration and sent out on mission together 19 pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops from countries around the world.

Please find below the text of the Common Declaration of Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby

Fifty years ago our predecessors, Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey met in this city hallowed by the ministry and blood of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Subsequently, Pope John Paul II with Archbishop Robert Runcie, and later with Archbishop George Carey, and Pope Benedict XVI with Archbishop Rowan Williams, prayed together here in this Church of Saint Gregory on the Caelian Hill from where Pope Gregory sent Augustine to evangelise the Anglo-Saxon people. On pilgrimage to the tombs of these apostles and holy forebears, Catholics and Anglicans recognize that we are heirs of the treasure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the call to share that treasure with the whole world. We have received the Good News of Jesus Christ through the holy lives of men and women who preached the Gospel in word and deed and we have been commissioned, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be Christ’s witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 8). We are united in the conviction that “the ends of the earth” today, is not only a geographical term, but a summons to take the saving message of the Gospel particularly to those on the margins and the peripheries of our societies.

In their historic meeting in 1966, Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Ramsey established the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission to pursue a serious theological dialogue which, “founded on the Gospels and on the ancient common traditions, may lead to that unity in truth, for which Christ prayed”. Fifty years later we give thanks for the achievements of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which has examined historically divisive doctrines from a fresh perspective of mutual respect and charity. Today we give thanks in particular for the documents of ARCIC II which will be appraised by us, and we await the findings of ARCIC III as it navigates new contexts and new challenges to our unity.

Fifty years ago our predecessors recognized the “serious obstacles” that stood in the way of a restoration of complete faith and sacramental life between us. Nevertheless, they set out undeterred, not knowing what steps could be taken along the way, but in fidelity to the Lord’s prayer that his disciples be one. Much progress has been made concerning many areas that have kept us apart. Yet new circumstances have presented new disagreements among us, particularly regarding 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. These are today some of the concerns that constitute serious obstacles to our full unity. While, like our predecessors, we ourselves do not yet see solutions to the obstacles before us, we are undeterred. In our trust and joy in the Holy Spirit we are confident that dialogue and engagement with one another will deepen our understanding and help us to discern the mind of Christ for his Church. We trust in God’s grace and providence, knowing that the Holy Spirit will open new doors and lead us into all truth (cf. John 16: 13).

These differences we have named cannot prevent us from recognizing one another as brothers and sisters in Christ by reason of our common baptism. Nor should they ever hold us back from discovering and rejoicing in the deep Christian faith and holiness we find within each other’s traditions. These differences must not lead to a lessening of our ecumenical endeavours. Christ’s prayer at the Last Supper that all might be one (cf. John 17: 20-23) is as imperative for his disciples today as it was at that moment of his impending passion, death and resurrection, and consequent birth of his Church. Nor should our differences come in the way of our common prayer: not only can we pray together, we must pray together, giving voice to our shared faith and joy in the Gospel of Christ, the ancient Creeds, and the power of God’s love, made present in the Holy Spirit, to overcome all sin and division. And so, with our predecessors, we urge our clergy and faithful not to neglect or undervalue that certain yet imperfect communion that we already share.

Wider and deeper than our differences are the faith that we share and our common joy in the Gospel. Christ prayed that his disciples may all be one, "so that the world might believe" (John 17: 21). The longing for unity that we express in this Common Declaration is closely tied to the desire we share that men and women come to believe that God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to save the world from the evil that oppresses and diminishes the entire creation. Jesus gave his life in love, and rising from the dead overcame even death itself. Christians who have come to this faith, have encountered Jesus and the victory of his love in their own lives, and are impelled to share the joy of this Good News with others. Our ability to come together in praise and prayer to God and witness to the world rests on the confidence that we share a common faith and a substantial measure of agreement in faith.

The world must see us witnessing to this common faith in Jesus by acting together. We can, and must, work together to protect and preserve our common home: living, teaching and acting in ways that favour a speedy end to the environmental destruction that offends the Creator and degrades his creatures, and building individual and collective patterns of behaviour that foster a sustainable and integral development for the good of all. We can, and must, be united in a common cause to uphold and defend the dignity of all people. The human person is demeaned by personal and societal sin. In a culture of indifference, walls of estrangement isolate us from others, their struggles and their suffering, which also many of our brothers and sisters in Christ today endure. In a culture of waste, the lives of the most vulnerable in society are often marginalised and discarded. In a culture of hate we see unspeakable acts of violence, often justified by a distorted understanding of religious belief. Our Christian faith leads us to recognise the inestimable worth of every human life, and to honour it in acts of mercy by bringing education, healthcare, food, clean water and shelter and always seeking to resolve conflict and build peace. As disciples of Christ we hold human persons to be sacred, and as apostles of Christ we must be their advocates.

Fifty years ago Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Ramsey took as their inspiration the words of the apostle: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3: 13-14). Today, “those things which are behind” –  the painful centuries of separation –have been partially healed by fifty years of friendship. We give thanks for the fifty years of the Anglican Centre in Rome dedicated to being a place of encounter and friendship. We have become partners and companions on our pilgrim journey, facing the same difficulties, and 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.

We are impatient for progress that we might be fully united in proclaiming, in word and deed, the saving and healing gospel of Christ to all people. For this reason we take great encouragement from the meeting during these days of so many Catholic and Anglican bishops of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) who, on the basis of all that they have in common, which generations of ARCIC scholars have painstakingly unveiled, are eager to go forward in collaborative mission and witness to the “ends of the earth”. Today we rejoice to commission them and send them forth in pairs as the Lord sent out the seventy-two disciples. Let their ecumenical mission to those on the margins of society be a witness to all of us, and 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.

In this Church of Saint Gregory the Great, we earnestly invoke the blessings of the Most Holy Trinity on the continuing work of ARCIC and IARCCUM, and on all those who pray for and contribute to the restoration of unity between us.

Rome, 5 October 2016

HIS GRACE JUSTIN WELBY                                   HIS HOLINESS FRANCIS

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