Catholic News 2
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- The family of an unarmed black man fatally shot by police is like thousands who have transformed the suburban San Diego city of El Cajon: Refugees from a strife-torn country....
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- A moment-by-moment breakdown of events shown in two videos released Friday showing an El Cajon, California, police officer shooting and killing Alfred Olango, an unarmed black man....
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- Alfred Olango, the unarmed black man shot and killed by police in a suburb of San Diego, will be remembered in a demonstration Saturday organized by clergy members and supporters of Olango's family....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the body count mounts in the Philippines' deadly war on drugs, and its combative president's rhetoric plumbs new depths, the mood in Washington toward a key Asian ally is hardening....
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Hurricane Matthew grew into a powerful Category 5 storm late Friday as it crossed the Caribbean Sea on a course that could have it pounding Jamaica within days....
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- The Latest on a police shooting of an unarmed black man in a San Diego suburb (all times local):...
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- Police released two videos Friday showing an officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man in a San Diego suburb and said they hoped showing the footage would ease escalating tensions....
Lincoln, Neb., Sep 30, 2016 / 03:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics who can't in good conscience vote for either major presidential candidate are well within their rights to pick a third option, says Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska.Voters need to discern whether there is a candidate in each race who can “advance human dignity, the right to life and the common good,” he said in his Sept. 30 column for the Southern Nebraska Register.“When there is, we should feel free to vote for that candidate – whether they are a member of a major party or not,” he said. “No Catholic should feel obliged to vote for one candidate just to prevent the election of another.”The bishop advised a prudent course that avoids dangerous forms of “blind partisanship” and misleading political rhetoric and media alarmism. He acknowledged the possibility that “in extraordinary circumstances” some Catholics may decide there is no sui...
Lincoln, Neb., Sep 30, 2016 / 03:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics who can't in good conscience vote for either major presidential candidate are well within their rights to pick a third option, says Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Voters need to discern whether there is a candidate in each race who can “advance human dignity, the right to life and the common good,” he said in his Sept. 30 column for the Southern Nebraska Register.
“When there is, we should feel free to vote for that candidate – whether they are a member of a major party or not,” he said. “No Catholic should feel obliged to vote for one candidate just to prevent the election of another.”
The bishop advised a prudent course that avoids dangerous forms of “blind partisanship” and misleading political rhetoric and media alarmism.
He acknowledged the possibility that “in extraordinary circumstances” some Catholics may decide there is no suitable candidate for a race and abstain from voting in that particular race.
There are reasons in good conscience for some people to vote for a candidate who “would be most likely to do some good, and the least amount of harm,” on foundational issues like life, family, conscience rights and religious liberty, he said.
Others may in good conscience vote for the candidate who “best represents a Christian vision of society, regardless of the probability of winning,” while others may vote for no candidate at all.
“Catholics will make different judgments about those questions, and come to different conclusions – this reflects the fact the Lord has given us free intellects and free wills,” he said.
The bishop also offered some basic guidelines about voting. He said voting helps the government achieve its “important purpose” of supporting the common good.
“There are some issues in which the common good is clear and some issues which require careful discernment and prudent judgment. This discernment can, therefore, lead to different conclusions and ideas among people of good will,” Bishop Conley said, praising “robust discussion” among people who have the same goals.
However, Mother Teresa's stand for the right to life should guide Catholics in the voting booth, he said, adding that there are “abundantly clear” moral obligations in voting.
“For example, no Catholic can vote in good conscience to expand legal protection for abortion, or to support the killing of unborn children.”
Bishop Conley cited Mother Teresa’s words in a 1994 letter to the U.S. Supreme Court. There, she said the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion has “deformed a great nation.”
“The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men,” she wrote. “It has shown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts – a child – as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience.”
“The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign,” wrote the founder of the Missionaries of Charity.
Bishop Conley echoed the newly canonized saint, saying “abortion is a grave, unconscionable, and intolerable evil, and we cannot support it in the voting booth.”
Citing negative trends in American culture, the bishop also stressed the need for citizens to fulfill their broader public obligations and opportunities outside of the voting booth.
“Americans today are, in many ways, disengaged, discouraged, and divided. Much of our political rhetoric is unhelpful. And family, community, and public life are in decline,” Bishop Conley continued.
“We need a broader vision of public life, which values and proclaims the dignity of every human life, and which aims for the flourishing of individuals, families, and communities,” he said.
“This broader vision won’t come through an election. It will come through life in Jesus Christ. The most important part of being good citizens is living as faithful and active missionary disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Tbilisi, Georgia, Sep 30, 2016 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on his visit to Georgia will find a country where dialogue among Christians is particularly difficult, with cool relations between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the country’s tiny Catholic minority.For this reason his trip is “ecumenical, but not according to the common meaning of the word ecumenism,” a top official of the Catholic Church in Georgia told CNA.The Georgian Orthodox Church – an Eastern Orthodox Church to which more than 80 percent of Georgians adhere – is considered part of the national identity. While it is not an established religion, the Georgian constitution does acknowledge Georgian Orthodoxy's special role in the nation.Catholics, meanwhile, constitute only one percent of Georgia's population, while members of the Armenian Apostolic Church (which is Oriental Orthodox) are three percent, and Muslims are more than 10 percent.Fr. Akaki Chelidze, a Camill...
Tbilisi, Georgia, Sep 30, 2016 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on his visit to Georgia will find a country where dialogue among Christians is particularly difficult, with cool relations between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the country’s tiny Catholic minority.
For this reason his trip is “ecumenical, but not according to the common meaning of the word ecumenism,” a top official of the Catholic Church in Georgia told CNA.
The Georgian Orthodox Church – an Eastern Orthodox Church to which more than 80 percent of Georgians adhere – is considered part of the national identity. While it is not an established religion, the Georgian constitution does acknowledge Georgian Orthodoxy's special role in the nation.
Catholics, meanwhile, constitute only one percent of Georgia's population, while members of the Armenian Apostolic Church (which is Oriental Orthodox) are three percent, and Muslims are more than 10 percent.
Fr. Akaki Chelidze, a Camillian Father who serves as chancellor of the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus, spoke about the situation in Georgia.
He said the Orthodox Church in Georgia has always considered itself the “necessary glue to keep the nation together.” This is probably why it considers other religious denominations as “rivals, or even obstacles, for the unity of the country.”
The delicate situation with the Georgian Orthodox Church could overshadow the papal visit there.
Relations between Catholics and Orthodox are cool: It is no coincidence that there will be no common prayer celebrated by Pope Francis and Patriarch Ilia II, though it is a sign of goodwill that the patriarch was present at the Pope's arrival at Tbilisi airport on Friday.
The way from the airport to downtown Tbilisi, as well as the streets where the Pope passed, were decorated with Vatican and Georgian imagery, but there was no sign or banner to signal the arrival of the Pope.
Not until Sept. 29 was a banner celebrating the Pope’s visit set up on the side of the Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. The banner went up while Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, Apostolic Administrator of the Caucasus, was saying Mass in the cathedral.
Fr. Chelidze spoke about the broader cultural context.
“The Georgian Orthodox Church is very much linked (even senselessly) to the Russian form of anti-Catholicism,” explained the priest, adding that this anti-Catholic attitude has increased in the course of the years.
The Catholic portion of the population does not expand, due in part to the Georgian Orthodox Church's regard for Catholic baptisms as invalid: If a Catholic wants to marry a Georgian Orthodox, they must submit to an (attempted) second baptism.
“Pope Francis will not perhaps have the warm welcome he had in Armenia, as the word ‘ecumenism’ cannot even be pronounced in Georgia,” Fr. Chelidze stressed.
There will not be a common prayer of the Pope and Ilia II, but neither was there a common prayer back in 1999, during the visit of St. John Paul II.
Fr. Chelidze said it is still a positive development that the patriarchate said the Pope will be “welcomed in the best way possible.” It is also positive that some people of Georgia, even non-Catholics, are happy for the visit.
Given the delicacy of the issue of Catholic-Orthodox relations, the Pope will likely not mention it during his speeches.
According to Fr. Chelidze, Pope Francis’ visit will mostly concern meeting with the local Catholic Church, to which Pope Francis will provide guidance concerning pastoral care and commitment to charity.
Considering the Caucasus situation, peace will certainly be a core issue.
The most known conflicts in the Georgia are the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia; they were the subject of a war with Russia in 2008. They have declared their independence from Georgia, and are administered by Russia.
Fr. Chelidze said that given the political and socio-economic difficulties, the Georgian people are “waiting to be encouraged.”
According to the priest, the papal trip fills the heart of the Catholic Church in Georgia with hope and recalls the prayer of Jesus Christ for his disciples.
“It will be good to hear the Holy Father talking about ‘that they may be one,’ that is, the communion among the different Catholic rites,” Fr. Chelidze said.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A not guilty plea has been entered on behalf of an Oklahoma police officer charged with first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man....
