Catholic News 2

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2017 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two works painted by Renaissance master Raphael have been newly identified after art experts restored famous frescoes in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City.

Arnold Nesselrath, an art historian who heads technical and scientific research at the Vatican Museums, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that 16th century sources had offered clues. These sources said that Raphael had indeed painted two figures in the Apostolic Palace’s Hall of Constantine as tests of his oil technique.

In Nesselrath’s words, these figures were described as being “of a much higher quality than the ones around them.”

The exact identity of these figures was forgotten until the 21st century.

In an art restoration process that began in 2015, experts cleaned the works and removed the effects of centuries of previous restoration work.

They discovered that Raphael himself had painted two figures of women who serve as allegories for the virtues of Friendship and Justice. Only the art restoration made apparent Raphael’s oil technique.

The Hall of Constantine was intended to serve as a reception room in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City. It depicts the life of the Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to seek baptism. The four frescoes depict The Vision of the Cross, the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the Baptism of Constantine, and the Donation of Constantine.

The Vision of the Cross fresco depicts a key event said to have been a step towards Constantine’s conversion to Christianity during his battles to become emperor. The fresco depicts the emperor in a military camp looking towards giant cross in the sky that is surrounded by Greek words saying, “In this sign, conquer.”

At one side of this fresco, a woman labeled as Friendship wears a blue gown. She is seated to the left of St. Clement I, a first century Pope, the art blog Hyperallergic reports.

Another figure believed to be painted by Raphael is on the far right side of the fresco depicting Constantine’s battle at the Milvian bridge with his brother-in-law Maxentius, a rival imperial claimant. This woman’s image is labeled as Justice and bears a set of scales, at which she is staring.

Raphael, working under a commission from Julius II, had sketched plans for the Hall of Constantine before his death in 1520. The frescos’ completion was left to his students.

“They continued in the traditional method and have left only these two figures, autographs of the master,” Nesselrath told La Stampa.

Three other rooms in the Apostolic Palace feature Raphael’s work, including his famous depiction of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle in his work “School of Athens.” Known as the "Raphael Rooms," the frescoes can be seen by visitors to the Vatican Museums.

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(Vatican Radio) European Union leaders are meeting in Italy with their Western Balkan counterparts amid concerns about Russia's growing influence in the region and Wednesday's failure to settle a long running border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia. The EU's European Commission is expected to announce plans to boost economic growth in especially the countries of former Yugoslavia.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel aboard a spectacular ship as he began hosting Wednesday's summit in the northern port city of Trieste,  seen as a symbolic bridge city between the European Union and the Balkans amid new tensions.

The EU has made clear it wants to press ahead with economic integration at a time when Russia is increasing its political and military influence in the volatile region. 

Brussels also faces Brexit, a reference to Britain's plans to exit the 28 nation block, as well as migration and security fears. 

This gathering is the fourth summit since German Chancellor Angela Merkel launched the series of annual meetings with EU aspirants Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. 

FUNDING ANNOUNCED

The European Commission, the EU's executive, was is expected to announce new funding to boost economic growth in the Balkans. Several Balkan leaders were also due to sign a treaty on integrating their transport networks and adopt a plan to create a regional economic area.

Undermining these efforts are indications that the wounds of the Balkan wars of the 1990's have not yet healed completely. 

On Wednesday, EU members Slovenia and Croatia failed to reach an agreement on implementing an international arbitration ruling in their long-standing border dispute that has caused tensions between the European Union neighbors.

The Slovenian and Croatian prime ministers, Miro Cerar and Andrej Plenkovic, met for the first time since The Netherlands-based panel in June granted Slovenia unhindered access to the Adriatic Sea and ruled on several other disputed border issues stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

ARBITRATION RULING

Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic warned that Croatia would not implement the arbitration court's decision and insisted that territorial issues should be resolved between the two states.

Claiming violations of the tribunal rules by Slovenia, Croatia walked out of the process in 2015 and does not recognize its findings.

Slovenia considers the ruling final and obligatory.  

However, with the international community looking over their shoulders, both prime ministers agreed to continue their dialogue.  
 

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Washington D.C., Jul 12, 2017 / 10:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amidst a growing epidemic of drug overdose and opioid addiction, Catholic bishops have been speaking out on the need for prayer and solidarity with those suffering from addiction.

“The closer you get to the Catholic Church, the closer you get to the wounds of Christ,” Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas said during a June 14 press conference at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent meeting in Indianapolis.

“And it’s important for us to recognize that we accompany many people who are wounded,” he added. “It’s the very essence of the Church to reach out to those who are wounded.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have declared that opioid abuse is an “epidemic” in the United States. Every day, 91 Americans die of an opioid-related overdose. The drugs include those used in prescription painkillers like oxycodone, codeine, and morphine, but also heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Overdoses have also become the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50. Opioids are involved in over 60 percent of overdoses nationwide, the CDC noted, and opioid-related overdoses quadrupled between 1999 and 2015.

Many Americans have reported first using prescription drugs before they used heroin, and rates of “past month” and “past year” heroin use, as well as heroin addiction, went up among 18-25 year-olds from 2002-2013, the CDC found, as heroin has become more widely available and purer.

Heroin-related deaths have more than tripled between 2010 and 2015, driven in part by an increase in synthetic opioids like fentanyl being added to heroin and cocaine to increase the potency of the drugs, the CDC reported.

At the U.S. bishops’ annual spring meeting in Indianapolis, held June 14-15, several bishops addressed the rising opioid crisis and discussed what the Church is doing to help those addicted to opioids, and their families. “The problem is becoming just so massive,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

In Vermont, parishes are trying to reach out to victims on the local level, but are making sure to reach the families of victims as well, Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vt. explained at the June 14 press conference.

“Oftentimes we are kind of limited in what we can do on a state level,” he acknowledged. “But at our parishes, and in our agencies in our parishes, we can continue to reach out to addicted families,” he noted, adding, “not just those who are in recovery, but also their families.”

This also involves finding foster parents for children of addicted parents, particularly those whose parents have overdosed and those who suffer from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

Ultimately, Catholics must “recognize that it’s not just the addicts; it’s the whole family that suffers,” he continued.

Catholic Charities in the Galveston-Houston archdiocese is “already on to this question,” Cardinal DiNardo noted, and is providing “the kinds of charity and help and counseling for them and their families that Catholic Charities by its professional expertise brings.”

On June 29, Bishop Edward Malesic of Greensburg, Pa. published a pastoral letter on the opioid crisis. In his diocese in Western Pennsylvania, over 300 opioid-related deaths had ravaged the communities in the previous year.

In his “Pastoral Letter on the Drug Abuse Crisis from Death and Despair to Life and Hope,” Bishop Malesic affirmed that in response to the crisis, “we can either sink down into despair or rise up in hope.”

“This is a plague that has come into the homes and families of every city, town, and even the rural areas of our diocese,” he acknowledged. Yet Catholics must choose hope, he added.

“Hope is the certain belief that God will provide what we need to overcome the struggles we are now facing. If we are not guided by hope, we will give up before the battle is won. We must have hope!” he insisted.

And Catholics must give hope to those mired in the despair of addiction, he said. “We accompany them with courageous faith. We offer them the comforting presence and power of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Jesus will provide.”

Bishop Malesic exhorted priests, religious, and deacons to “reach out” in Christ’s name to those suffering from drug addiction, and “let them know that they are not alone.”

Catholics must pray for and with those suffering from addictions, he added.

“With the power of prayer, we can lift up our needs and the needs of those who are addicted to a loving God who is concerned for all of us. We know that prayer, this heartfelt and intimate communication with God, can make a dramatic difference in the life of someone coping with an addiction crisis.”

The bishop also announced initiatives the diocese was taking to respond to the crisis, including educational initiatives at the parish level and developing family recovery groups.

Last March, Massachusetts bishops also issued a statement in response to the state’s rising drug-overdose crisis, after the rate of overdose deaths had reached record levels there.

“We encourage our sisters and brothers who are suffering addiction or the addiction of loved ones to turn to their faith community for support, counsel and compassion, and we pray that those most affected will receive the physical, emotional and spiritual help that they need,” the state’s bishops stated.

 

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