Catholic News 2

To make the liturgical celebrations more meaningful, active and participatory, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) has published “The Directives for the Celebration of the Liturgy”.

The ‘Liturgical Directives’ was released by Oswald Cardinal Gracias, the President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India and the President of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference (FABC) at a small function held during the 75th Executive Committee meeting of the CCBI on Tuesday 20th September 2016 at St. John’s National Academy of health Sciences, Bangalore. Its first copy was handed over to Archbishop Dominic Jala, the Chairman of the CCBI Commission for Liturgy and the Archbishop of Shillong.

The 27th Plenary Assembly of the CCBI which was held from 3 to 9 February 2015 deliberated on the theme “Liturgy and Life. The members of the Assembly requested the Liturgical Commission to prepare directives for the celebration of the liturgy for liturgical renewal in the Church in India. The CCBI Commission for Liturgy headed by Archbishop Dominic Jala and Rev. Dr. Ayres Fernandes prepared the Liturgical Directives and the Bishops discussed it during the 28th Plenary Assembly. The 73rd and 74th Executive Committee of the CCBI, proposed suggestions and amendments. Incorporating the numerous suggestions, the Commission presented the final draft and it was approved by the National Episcopal Conference.

“Liturgy is the font from which all power flows and the summit towards which the entire activity of the Church is directed.” Archbishop Jala explained. “These directives are important and would give new impetus in liturgical celebrations. The Directives for the Celebration of Liturgy is an essential and fundamental reference book for all our ecclesiastical institutions and places wherever liturgy is being celebrated. The Commission is planning various strategies to implement the directives at the diocesan, regional and national levels” added  Archbishop Dominic Jala.

Report by Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary General, CCBI 

Full Article

Vatican City, Sep 24, 2016 / 09:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the face of the devil's assaults, we must respond as God would, promoting respect for others and extending love and forgiveness to those who have harmed us, Pope Francis said in a Saturday audience with survivors of the terror attack in Nice, France in July.

“When the temptation to turn in on themselves, or to answer hatred with hatred and violence with violence is great, authentic conversion of heart is necessary,” he said Sept. 24. “This is the message that the Gospel of Jesus addressed to all of us.”

Pope Francis received the nearly 1,000 survivors of the July 14 attack in Nice in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican. After his speech he greeted them each one by one.

Eighty-six people were killed and over 400 were wounded in the Nice terror attack in July after a Tunisian man, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, intentionally drove a large truck through the crowded seafront Promenade des Anglais.

The crowds had been celebrating Bastille Day, which marks the day of France’s independence and is traditionally the country’s biggest public holiday.

“I wish to share your pain, a pain that becomes even stronger when I think of the children, even entire families, whose lives have been torn suddenly and dramatically. To each of you I assure my compassion, my closeness and my prayer,” the Pope told those gathered.

“The Church remains near and accompanies you with great mercies,” he said. “With its presence next to you in these moments so heavy to deal with, she asks the Lord to come to your aid and to put in your hearts feelings of peace and brotherhood.”

In his speech, Pope Francis praised all those who went to the aid of the wounded, the victims, and their families, after the attack, both Catholic and organizations of other religions.

“I am glad to see that among you interreligious relations are very much alive, and this can only help to alleviate the hurt of these dramatic events,” he said.

“In fact, establish a sincere dialogue and fraternal relations among all, particularly among those who confess one and merciful God, it is an urgent priority that those responsible, both political and religious, should seek to encourage and which everyone is called to implement around him.”

Pope Francis also met with the Hospital Sisters of Mercy Sept. 24, praising them for their dedication to serving the sick and dying, regardless of race or religion.

“In front of the weakness of the disease can be no distinctions of social status, race, language and culture; Everybody grows weak and we must trust the other,” he said.

“You dedicated your life above all to the service of brothers and sisters who are in hospitals, who thanks to your presence and professionalism will feel better supported in the disease,” the Pope said. “And to do this there is no need for long speeches: a caress, a kiss, stand by in silence, a smile.”

“On that hospital bed always lies Jesus, present in the person who is suffering, and it is he who asks for help from each of you.”

Full Article

Phoenix, Ariz., Sep 24, 2016 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic-run conference aims to help clergy, lay ministers, and medical and mental health professionals provide better support for people who experience same-sex attraction or confusion about sexual identity.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix and Father Paul Check, the executive director of Courage International, invited to the conference clergy, vowed religious, lay ministers and other relevant professionals in a Sept. 15 letter.

“The ‘Truth and Love’ project endeavors to bring the clarity and charity of Catholic teaching to challenging questions, while never losing sight of individual people,” they said. The event aims to offer “sound practical and pastoral guidance.”

The Truth and Love Conference, now in its third edition, will be held Jan. 9-11, 2017 in Phoenix, Ariz. at St. Paul Catholic Church. The conference’s sponsors are the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, the Catholic apostolate Courage, and the Catholic publishing company Our Sunday Visitor.

Among the clergy to speak will be Bishop Olmsted, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, and auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Byrnes of Detroit. Fr. Check will speak, as will Courage associate director Fr. Philip Bochanski.

Other speakers include Deacon Timothy Flanigan, M.D., a Brown Medical School professor who has been a leader in HIV care; Dr. Andrew W. Lichtenwalner, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; and Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the Ruth Institute.

Several of those who appeared in the Courage documentary “Desire of the Everlasting Hills” will speak at the conference, including writer and speaker Daniel Mattson and Rilene Simpson.

The conference will include testimony from people who experience same-sex attractions on how the Church and chaste friendships have helped them journey towards chastity and sanctity, organizers said.

Experts will speak on a Christian view of humanity, natural law, Scripture, chastity and the psychology of homosexuality.

The conference will also discuss how pastors, family and friends can best love those who experience same-sex attractions or sexual identity confusion. It aims to provide “practical recommendations and tools” for communicating Catholic teaching on homosexuality and sexual identity to parishes, schools and students. These recommendations aim to be “an integral part of the New Evangelization,” the conference said.

The conference will open and close with a Mass.

Registration and more information is available at the conference website: www.truthandlove.com.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

(Vatican Radio)  The Serb mini-state within Bosnia-Herzegovina is holding a referendum this weekend despite international concerns that it could be part of an attempt to secede from the already volatile country and spark a proxy war between Russia and the West. Sunday's referendum on a national holiday is held more than 20 years after the end of Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

The vote asks residents of Bosnia's Serb Republic, known as Republika Srpska, whether to maintain a national holiday on January 9, despite a Constitutional Court ruling against the referendum. 

Bosnia's top Court said the proposed date discriminates against Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats since it falls on a Serb Orthodox Christian holiday.

The referendum on "Statehood Day" is Bosnia's first since a 1992 vote on secession from then-Yugoslavia ignited three years of ethnic war in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Balkan observers see it as a dress rehearsal for an attempt to secede from Bosnia, which was divided after the war between the Serb-run region and the Bosniak-Croat Federation. 

East-West tensions

The vote has also sparked wider tensions between Western nations which are supporting the Bosniaks and Croats and Russia, which is backing the Serbs.

In a statement, the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo threatened unspecified "consequences" if the referendum is not canceled, while the Russian ambassador openly supported the referendum, calling it is an "act of democracy".

And in an act of defiance, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, met in Moscow ahead of the referendum on Thursday officially to discuss the situation in the Balkan Peninsula.  

Bosnian Serbs declared in 1992 the creation of their own state within Bosnia on January 9. That's no surprise as it is the traditional Serb Patron Saint's Day.

During the war that followed, Bosnian-Serb forces expelled non-Serbs from the territory they controlled in an effort to make it part of neighboring Serbia.

Statehood day

Although Republika Srpska ended up not independent but an autonomous region of Bosnia, they still celebrate January 9 as a national holiday.

Yet, non-Serbs living there the date is a symbol of their expulsion and a sign that Republika Srpska is still a place meant just for Serbs. 

The region saw much bloodshed, including Europe's worst single massacre since the Second World War in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed there after Serb forces overran in the town in 1995.

Despite the controversies, Bosnian Serb prime minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has made clear that the vote should be held anyway. Especially Muslim Bosniaks now fear fear that the disputed referendum is a test for a more serious one in 2018 — on Republika Srpska's independence from Bosnia.

The referendum is also closely watched internationally as the central authorities of the divided country seek membership of the European Union.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received family members of the victims of the Bastille Day terror attacks in Nice, renewing his condolences and promises of prayer for their healing and for the souls of their loved-ones.

“It is with profound emotion that I meet you,” said Pope Francis, “who suffer in body or in soul because, one festive evening, violence blindly struck you – you, or one of your dear ones – without regard for origin or religion.” The Holy Father went on to say, “I desire to share your pain, a pain that becomes even stronger when I think of the children, even entire families, whose lives have been so suddenly and so dramatically torn away: to each of you I assure my compassion, my closeness and my prayer.”

Click below to hear our report:

“Dear families,” he continued in his address to the roughly 1 thousand people gathered in the Paul VI Hall for the occasion, “I invoke our Heavenly Father, the Father of all, that He might welcome your loved ones, that they might soon find rest and the joy of eternal life.”

“For us Christians,” the Pope went on to say, “the foundation of hope is Jesus Christ crucified and risen. The Apostle Paul assures him there: ‘If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, risen from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him. (Rom 6:8-9)’ May the certainty of eternal life, which also belongs to believers of other religions, be for you consolation in life, and constitute a powerful motive for perseverance to continue with courage on your way here on earth.”

Pope Francis went on to offer promises of prayer for all those injured in the attack, whether in body or in spirit, especially remembering those who could not make the trip to Rome because of their injuries, some of whom are still in hospital.

“The Church remains close to you and accompanies you with immense compassion, he said. “With her presence next to you in moments such as these, which are so weighty to face, she asks the Lord to come to your aid and to put in your hearts sentiments of peace and brotherhood.”

Then Pope Francis recalled how the drama that unfolded in Nice has moved people from every quarter to significant gestures of solidarity, and thanked all those, who acted as first responders and who continue to be devoted even today to serving and lending support to all the families affected.

“I think of course the Catholic community and to their bishop, André Marceau, but also to the care services and volunteers, in particular the Alpes-Maritimes Fraternité association, present here, which gathers representatives of all religious confessions,” he said, adding, “and this is a very nice sign of hope.”

The Holy Father went on to say he is relieved to know that interreligious relations in Nice have not been allowed to deteriorate in the wake of the attack. “I am glad to see that among you interreligious relations are very much alive, and this can only help to alleviate the hurt of these dramatic events,” he said.

“In fact,” Pope Francis continued, “establishing a sincere dialogue and fraternal relations among all, particularly among those who confess a God who is one and merciful, is an urgent priority that those in leadership positions both political and religious should seek to encourage, and which everyone is called to realize in his own space.”

Then the Holy Father went on to warn against giving in to temptations to turn inward, or to answer hatred with hatred and violence, saying that when such temptations are great, authentic conversion of heart is necessary. “This,” he said, “is the message that the Gospel of Jesus addresses to all of us: you can respond to the assaults of the devil only with the works of God that are forgiveness, love and respect for your neighbor, even if he is different.”

Watch a video of the event:

Full Article