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(Vatican Radio)  A news conference was held in the Holy See's press office on Tuesday to brief journalists on the first ever global conference on Faith and Sport that opens in the Vatican this week. Called ‘Sport at the Service of Humanity,’ leading figures from the world of sport, religion and culture are among those attending the 3-day conference (Oct. 5th-7th) hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture with the support of the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee.

Pope Francis will be presiding over the conference’s opening ceremony and the guests include the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach.

In addition to discussing how faith and sport can work together, the Vatican conference aims to launch a movement to develop – through sport – life skills, character, values and enjoyment of life, inspiring people to live in accordance with six principles. These 6 principles are: compassion, respect, love, enlightenment, balance and joy. Organisers said participants will be focusing in particular on how to use the benefits of sport to empower and help the poor and disadvantaged.

Among the speakers present at the Vatican press conference was Kashif Siddiqi, a professional soccer player and co-founder of the movement, Football for Peace. Siddiqi spoke with Vatican Radio’s Hayley Susino about his mission and organization.

Listen to the interview with Kashif Siddiqi:  

Kashif Siddiqi spoke about the aims of the Football for Peace movement that he helped to set up:

“It’s a movement that is working with the United Nations and platforms such as ‘Sport at the Service of Humanity’, which is standing up for and really uniting faith and cultures. I think it is a perfect opportunity for people to come together at a time like this when there is so much tension and conflict around the world,” said Siddiqi.

Siddiqi reflected on his background and how that influences his role in the faith and sport community. “I think it is important for me as a British Muslim to be here and to really be a catalyst to show that faith and sport can work together.”

He went on to describe how Football for Peace is involved in making a difference in the global community.

“Football for Peace is a platform which really shows sports diplomacy at a high level. It connects and puts some peace matches, working all the way down to grassroots and helping kids understand how they can work together.”

Siddiqi also explained how he thinks faith and sport can work together;

“I think a perfect example is my own life. Growing up in a faith household and the values that it’s taught me and the discipline and the consequence, but at the same time staying true to myself and what I am trying to do. It is something that runs throughout and if you put both together it can be very powerful.”

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The Northern Development Forum (NDF), an advocacy group in Ghana, has called on the youth of the three Northern Regions of the country to ignore any person or group of people who attempt to use them to foster conflicts just to achieve their regional political ambitions.

Ghana is experiencing political campaigns ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 7 December 2016.

Dr Hakeem Wemah, Chairman of the NDF, appealed for dialogue with all political parties who were seeking the mandate of Ghanaians to govern the country.

“We would like to meet with the leadership of registered political parties for them to elaborate on the development programme that they intend to roll out for the three northern regions of Ghana,” he noted, expressing the hope to have an interaction with parties on 20 October.

Launching the Northern Ghana Development Status Report dubbed: “Sustaining the Northern Ghana Development Agenda in Ghana’s Public Domain,” in Accra on 29 September, Dr Wemah, noted that one of the major goals of NDF is unity and peace for efficient and effective development.

The launching, attended by members of the NDF, Development partners, diplomatic missions, political parties and religious bodies, was meant to draw attention to the general public through the publication of the Report, the status of the three Northern Regions.

“It is about providing opportunities for all; it is about upholding fundamental human rights nurtured by good governance; it is about addressing inequalities, sustainability, equilibrium, tranquillity and national cohesion.”

As one of the few African countries that have not experienced large-scale violence or civil war since independence, he said Ghana was generally considered a stable and peaceful country within the West African sub-region.

(Damian Avevor, the Catholic Standard, Ghana)

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Amatrice, Italy, Oct 4, 2016 / 03:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday Pope Francis made an unannounced private visit to the small Italian city of Amatrice to offer support  areas devastated by a massive earthquake in August, where he offered a message of comfort and hope.

“I let a bit of time pass, so that some things could be repaired such as the school, but from the first moment I felt that I had to come to you. Simply for nothing more than to pray. I pray for you,” the Pope said during his Oct. 4 visit.

He said that “closeness and prayer” were the offering he brought, and prayed that the Lord would bless those affected, and that the Virgin Mary would “comfort you in this moment of sadness, pain and trial.”

“Go forward, there is always a future, there are many loved ones who have left us. They have fallen here, let us pray to the Virgin for them. Let us do it together.”

According to the Holy See Press Office, after arriving to Amatrice at 9:10 in the morning, the Pope, accompanied by Rieti’s Bishop Domenico Pompili, went directly to the city’s school, where he offered his brief words, comforted survivors and asked the children to join him in praying the Hail Mary.

He later visited the “red zone” of the city, which is where the majority of the destruction took place and is closed off due to reasons of security. Piles of rubble that have yet to be cleared away and half-destroyed buildings are still visible.

The Pope later went to the "San Raffaele Borona" assisted living home in Rieti, where he greeted 60 patients - most of whom are elderly who lost their homes in the earthquake - one by one, and ate lunch with them.

After spending nearly two hours there, the Pope made a brief stop at the Command of the Fire Brigade in Cittareale, which serves as the base camp for the earthquake zone.

 

Pope and Pastor#PapaFrancesco greets a man who lost his wife and two children in the earthquake pic.twitter.com/7rxgE00Mci

— Greg Burke (@GregBurkeRome) October 4, 2016


 

He then traveled to Accumoli, another of the cities hardest hit, where he greeted different groups of people, including the mayor, and prayed in front of the church of St. Francis, which was destroyed by the quake.

From there he went to Pescara del Tronto, making three breif stops along the way to greet small groups of people. He was accomnpanied by the Bishop of Ascoli Piceno, Giovanni D’Ercole, who then accompanied the Pope to the nearby town of Arquata del Tronto, arriving shortly before 2p.m.

The Pope was accompanied by the Bishop of Ascoli Piceno, Giovanni D’Ercole

In Arquata del Tronto, Pope Francis he greeted more than 100 people, speaking breifly to them and praying with them before visiting a school that has been set up in the tent camps.

Francis told the people that he carries them in his heart, and knows of their "suffering and your anguish."

"I also know of your deaths and I am with you and because of this I wanted to be here," he said, and led the group in praying a Hail Mary for both the survivors, and those who "went to heaven."

"Have courage, always go forward, always forward," he said, adding that "times will change and you will be able to move forward. I am close to you, I am with you."

In the afternoon the Pope made the final stop in his visit to the earthquake zones, pausing in San Pellegrino di Norcia, in Umbria, where he prayed in the "red zone" in front of the church of S. Pellegrino, which was badly damaged during the quake.

Accompanied by the Archbishop of Spoleto-Norcia, Renato Boccardo, he greeted the people gathered, telling them "I have been close to you and I feel very close in the moment of sadness, and I pray for you and I ask the Lord to give you the strength to go forward."

He led them in praying the Hail Mary before set out for Rome at 3:30p.m.

On Sunday while on board his return flight from Baku, Azerbaijan to Rome, Pope Francis said that three dates had been proposed to him, and that while he didn’t remember the first two, one was the first Sunday of Advent, and that he needed “to choose” the date he wanted to go.

Regardless of the day, Francis said he wanted to make the visit “privately, alone, as a priest, as a bishop, as Pope, but alone, that's how I want to do it. I would like to be close to the people.”

Close to 300 people were killed when a 6.2-magnitude quake hit the town of Norcia Aug. 24, at 3:36a.m. with several strong aftershocks following. Out of those who died, more than 230 were from Amatrice.

At one point after the initial quake, the mayor of Amatrice, one of the worst-hit areas, said “the town is gone.”

The day of the earthquake Pope Francis was scheduled to hold his weekly general audience, however, instead of giving his usual catechesis, he put the speech aside and led those present in praying a rosary for the victims of the earthquake.

In his Aug. 28 Angelus address, the Pope expressed his “spiritual closeness to the inhabitants of Lazio, delle Marche and Umbria, which have been greatly affected by the recent earthquake.”

He offered special closeness to the people of Amatrice, Accumoli, Arquata and Pescara del Tronto and Norcia, telling them that “the Church shares their suffering and their concern.”

Rumors have circulated in the media saying that Pope Francis could stop in Assisi while on his way back to the Vatican to mark the Oct. 4 feast his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, but it has yet to be confirmed.

 

Pope Francis with elderly left homeless by the #Amatrice earthquake pic.twitter.com/XAfcBnaz8t

— Greg Burke (@GregBurkeRome) October 4, 2016


 

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Vatican City, Oct 4, 2016 / 05:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has tapped two active bishops to head new dioceses, naming Bishop Paul D. Etienne of Cheyenne as the new Archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska, and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh as Bishop of Arlington, Virginia.

Announced in an Oct. 4 communique from the Vatican, the appointments came as the former bishops of Anchorage and Arlington go into retirement, after having reached the age limit.

Archbishop-elect Paul D. Etienne, 57, is an Indiana outdoorsman with many relatives also in the priesthood or religious life.

Born in Philadelphia in 1959, the bishop grew up as one of six children to parents who have been married more than 50 years. Two of his brothers are priests, and his sister is a religious.

He graduated from the University of St. Thomas/St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. with a degree in Business Administration before studying at the North American College in Rome and receiving a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Following his priestly ordination in 1992 for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Fr. Etienne worked as an associate pastor and assistant vocation director before returning to Rome to receive his License in Spiritual Theology.

Upon his return to the U.S. in 1995, he served as the vocation director for the archdiocese, vice-rector of the Bishop Simon Brute College Seminary in Indianapolis and as a parish priest.

He also served as a member of the Council of Consultors and Council of Priests for the diocese before being appointed as Bishop of Cheyenne in 2009. No date has yet been announced for when he will take over as Archbishop of Anchorage.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, 59 and who until now has served as the bishop of Raleigh, North Carolina, will be present in Arlington to announce his appointment as the fourth bishop of the diocese.

Born June 16, 1957, he attended Catholic grade schools and graduated from Cardinal O'Hara High School, Springfield, PA, in 1975. He then entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by John Cardinal Krol in 1984.

The bishop holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Masters in Theology from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, as well as a Masters in Education Administration from Villanova University. He also holds a doctorate in Education from Immaculata College.

He served as a parish priest for St. Bernard Church in Philadelphia before being named to the faculties of, successively, Cardinal O'Hara High School, Archbishop Wood High School and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he also served as Dean of Students until 1992.

In 1992 he was named Administrative Secretary to Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, Archbishop of Philadelphia, a role that he held until 1999. A year earlier, he was made Honorary Prelate to Pope John Paul II, receiving the title of Monsignor. He then served as Rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary until 2004.

Bishop Burbidge was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia in 2002, and in 2006 was named the fifth Bishop of Raleigh. The bishop currently serves as Chair of the USCCB Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, which he has been a member of since 2007.

He is also a member of the Administrative and Communications Committees, and is an advisor for the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors.

The bishop is also a current member of the Board of Trustees for The Catholic University of America, and has recently completed a 5-year term as Co-Chair of the International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue, which is sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

In an initial Oct. 4 statement on his appointment as the new Bishop of Arlington, Burbidge said serving in Raleigh has been a “profound pleasure,” and that he has never forgotten the “warmth and love” he was welcomed with.

He thanked the priests, deacons, religious and lay people for their support and kindness, and voiced his certainty that he will be welcomed to Arlington with “the same joy and love” he found in his former diocese.

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Brighton, U.K., Oct 4, 2016 / 06:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- What is the proper Catholic response to the Jubilee Year of Mercy? Put simply, the answer is “action,” Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton, England told the members of his diocese last week.

“The corporal works of mercy are, simply, the outflowing of the love out of which God our Father has created us,” Bishop Moth stated in a Sept. 25 pastoral letter.

“We know from St. Matthew’s Gospel that the yardstick by which we shall be judged is that of our mercy to others,” he continued, asking the faithful to perform mercy through good works.

The corporal works of mercy are the charitable acts that respond to the basic needs of individuals. They are found in the Gospel of Matthew, and include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison and burying the dead.

“These works are called ‘corporal’ because they are concerned with the physical well-being of our brothers and sisters,” Bishop Moth noted, underscoring the active aspect of their nature.

“We cannot simply wish others well and then leave them to manage for themselves.”

The bishop placed a particular emphasis on these deeds, especially during the Year of Mercy, saying that the corporal works of mercy “will be used as the measure for our lives.” He also warned against being like the rich man in the Gospel who “does nothing. He looks only at himself,” while Lazarus begs for food.

He went on to give examples of living out the works of mercy within the diocese, saying that volunteer work at local food banks, prisons, and giving time to those in need – such as refugees – are all considered corporal works. He also highlighted the need to “tune in to the needs of those around us.”

An understanding of mercy will also nourish the driving motivation behind these charitable deeds, the English bishop noted, saying “to love God and love our neighbour is the key to our understanding of mercy.”

“We are enabled to be merciful to our brothers and sisters because we recognise them as people created by a loving God; because we recognise the dignity of the other. When we are prompted by the loving relationship that we have with God, we cannot but be merciful to others.”

Although financial giving is one way to offer charitable works, Bishop Richard encouraged the faithful to act beyond “the easy option” of writing a check. He asked his diocese to dig deeper, and examine their consciences to find the specific way that God is asking them to perform the corporal works.

“We must abandon any hardness of heart and reach out to all. To fail in this area of our lives is not an option, for Jesus calls us to this and we cannot but respond to the one who died for us,” Bishop Moth said.

“May this Jubilee Year continue to be a time of great blessing for us all and a time when we respond with renewed energies to the call to service that is at the heart of the Christian life.”

 

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