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IMAGE: CNS/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Members of the pope's commission for child protection, including an abuse survivor, have been speaking with new bishops and major Vatican offices as part of a mandate to develop and educate the church about best practices.

Pope Francis also approved the establishment of a day of prayer for survivors of abuse, but decided it will be up to each nation's bishops' conference to decide when the memorial should be held, according a press release Sept. 12 from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Members of the pontifical commission have spoken recently with officials at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains priests for service in the Vatican's diplomatic corps.

Pontifical commission members, who were in Rome in early September, were also set to address the Congregation for Clergy and to speak at seminars for recently appointed bishops; the training seminars are organized by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Marie Collins, a commission member and survivor of clerical abuse, was scheduled to be one of a number of commission members to address the Sept. 11-18 session of what is commonly referred to as "new bishops school."

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a psychologist and commission member, and Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta, a longtime abuse investigator, already delivered their talks on abuse by clergy and the importance of protecting minors and vulnerable adults during the early September seminar for bishops newly elected to dioceses in mission lands.

The commission has completed a template meant to help all church entities -- from bishops' conferences to Catholic associations -- in formulating guidelines in preventing and responding appropriately to abuse.

Pope Francis was set to receive the template "shortly," according to the commission press release.

At the request of a clerical abuse survivor from Canada, the commission developed a proposal for a universal Day of Prayer because "prayer is one part of the healing process for survivors and the community of believers" and public gatherings for prayer also help raise awareness about the issue, it said.

Pope Francis received the proposal and has asked "that national bishops' conferences choose an appropriate day on which to pray for the survivors and victims of sexual abuse as part of a Universal Day of Prayer initiative," it said.

The reason a universal date was not set is because a number of bishops' conference around the world already have specific days set aside for penance and prayer for victims and their healing, Father Zollner told Catholic News Service.

For example, the church in Australia adopted the nation's own Day for Child Protection -- Sept. 11 -- to mark its Day of Prayer.

The Southern African Bishops' Conferences will dedicate Dec. 2-4 -- days which fall during Advent this year -- to penance, fasting and prayer, the press release said.

The commission said it has resources like prayers for Mass, liturgical texts and other materials available on request as part of the Day of Prayer initiative.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a brief outdoor ceremony, Pope Francis administered the sacrament of confirmation to 16-year-old Giuseppe Chiolo, who had come to the Vatican by ambulance from Florence.

Chiolo, who is being treated in the oncology ward of a Florence hospital, had written to Pope Francis with a request to meet him.

The teenager was given his wish, and the sacrament, Sept. 10 before the pope joined about 30,000 people for a special Year of Mercy general audience in St. Peter's Square.

The young man's parents, Carmelo and Maria Giuseppina, and his sister, Dafne, also were present, as was the chaplain of Meyer Children's Hospital, where Chiolo is receiving treatment.

In his audience talk, Pope Francis said that in God's mercy he sent Jesus into the world "so that we could receive a new life marked by pardon, love and joy."

"Certainly, it is true that life puts us to the test and sometimes we suffer because of it," the pope said. "Nevertheless, at those moments we are called to fix our gaze on the crucified Jesus who suffers for us and with us as proof that God will never abandon us."

"The love of God is boundless," he said. "Our whole life, although marked by the fragility of sin, is placed under the gaze of God who loves us."

Pope Francis continued talking about the reality of sin and the greatness of God's love Sept. 11 when he led the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter's Square.

"Jesus shows us the true face of God: a father with open arms who treats sinners with tenderness and compassion," he said.

The most striking thing about the parable of the prodigal son, he said, "is not so much the sad story of a young man who falls into degradation, but his decisive words: 'I shall get up and go to my father.' The path of his return home is the path of hope and new life."

Like the father in the parable, the pope said, God awaits the return of his children, not so he can take the opportunity to scold or humiliate them, but so he can shower his love on them.

The parable -- like the day's Gospel stories about the shepherd who finds his lost sheep and the woman who finds her lost coin -- ends with celebrations because that which was lost has been found, he said.

"I want to ask you something," the pope told the crowd. "Have you ever thought that each time we approach the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven?"

The parables, he said, should fill people with hope and courage because, with the grace of God, there is no sin from which a person cannot rise again.

"No one is past redemption," the pope said. "No one!"

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PARIS (AP) -- France's latest efforts to reduce pollution will also affect nature lovers hitting the countryside for an outdoor meal: Under a controversial new ban, picnickers won't be able to buy plastic goblets to drink their beloved wine, or plastic knives to make ham and butter baguette sandwiches....

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BERLIN (AP) -- A leading member of Alternative for Germany, the nationalist party whose recent election successes have shaken the country's political system, faced fierce criticism Monday after calling for a racially charged term once favored by the Nazis to be rehabilitated....

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FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) -- Someone set fire to the mosque once attended by Omar Mateen, the man who opened fire at an Orlando nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, authorities said Monday. No one was injured....

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BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed on Monday that his government would take back land from "terrorists" and rebuild the country in remarks made just hours before the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia....

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(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) met in Plenary Assembly last week, September 8-11 focusing their attention on the three key areas of education, a Day of Prayer and the Holy Father's MOTU PROPRIO “As a Loving Mother”, on the accountability of Church leadership. The Plenary also recognised the importance of digital technology and have announced the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors will be going live with its own website.

The Working Group meetings focused on the updates for current projects, and developing draft proposals for  Pope Francis. 

Lydia O'Kane spoke to Commission member Gabriel Dy-Liacco from the Philippines about the Commissions work.

Listen: 

Please find below the full press statement from the Commission:

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors [PCPM] works throughout the year and came together in Rome from September 5 through 11 for a week of Working Group meetings, [Guidelines, Healing and Care, Education, Formation, Theology and Spirituality, Canonical and Civil Norms] and for its Plenary Assembly. 

The Working Group meetings focused on the updates for current projects, and developing draft proposals for the Holy Father, Pope Francis.   For example, the Commission has developed a template for guidelines in the safeguarding and protection of children, adolescents and vulnerable adults, which we will shortly present to the Holy Father for his consideration.  

Education is key

Highlights of this Plenary Assembly were the members’ reports on the progress of on-going education programs, both at a local level and in the Vatican.

These initiatives are part of the Commission’s effort to be of service to the Holy Father by placing their expertise at the disposition of local churches and church leaders.  Commission members have also been invited to give talks and take part in various conferences and workshops on all five continents.

These include: talks and workshops held in Australia, in the Archdiocese of Melbourne; in South Africa (SACBC), an orientation program for New Missionaries; in the Philippines [CBCP], a workshop for the Archdiocese of Manila; in Colombia, a talk with clergy of the Archdiocese of Bogotá, a workshop with religious communities, workshops with the Major Seminary and a workshop with evangelization leaders; USA, a talk with “United States National Safe Environment and Victims Assistance Coordinators”; a workshop in Fiji; in New Zealand a series of talks and workshops with the bishops and religious leaders; in Ghana a meeting with the secretary generals of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar from the Association of [SECAM]; a meeting in Tanzania with child protection practitioners from the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa [AMECEA]  in Argentina, a discussion with seminarians and clergy of the Diocese of Moron, Buenos Aires; In Santo Domingo, a meeting with fifty formators from thirteen different nations belonging to the Council of Latin American Bishops Conferences  [CELAM]; a meeting with Bishops and canonists of Slovakia and Czech Republic;  in Italy, a seminar for Abbots of the Benedictine Confederation and participation in the Anglophone Safeguarding Conference.

In the context of the Vatican, Commission members were invited to address meetings of the Pontifical Ecclesiastic Academy and the Congregation for Consecrated Life. 

In the coming week members have also been invited to address the training for new bishops held by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a meeting of the Congregation for the Clergy and the training for new Bishops held by the Congregation for bishops. 

Other education programs planned in the coming months include workshops in Mexico, Ecuador and with the Colombian Bishops Conference.  The Commission has also been asked to address the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in the US and to hold a workshop for the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences [FABC].

Day of Prayer

A survivor of clerical child sexual abuse made the proposal of a Day of Prayer to the Commission. The Commission believes that prayer is one part of the healing process for survivors and the community of believers. Public prayer is also an important way of consciousness raising in the Church.

The Holy Father has requested that National Bishops Conferences choose an appropriate day on which to pray for the survivors and victims of sexual abuse as part of a Universal Day of Prayer initiative. 

The Commission was happy to learn that many Bishops Conferences have already taken steps to enact the proposal.

We were informed that in Australia, the Church throughout the country marked the Day of Prayer on Sunday September 11, in conjunction with their National Day for Child Protection.

The Bishops of the Philippines have already begun to discuss how best to implement the Day of Prayer and will soon announce a date.

The Southern African Bishops Conferences [SACBC] have embraced the proposal dedicating three days to the initiative from Friday December 2 to Sunday December 4., the second Sunday of Advent.  Friday will be observed as a day of fasting, there will be a penitential vigil on Saturday and on Sunday a statement prepared by the SACBC, will be read out in all parishes.

The PCPM has prepared resources and materials for the Universal Day of Prayer and we are happy to make them available on request.

MOTU PROPRIO “As a Loving Mother”

The Holy Father’s motu proprio “As a Loving Mother” was discussed.  Accountability in dealing with the scandal of child sexual abuse by clergy has been a major concern for the Commission from the outset. In February 2015, the Commission made a proposal to the Holy Father regarding bishop accountability.   In “As a Loving Mother”, Pope Francis goes beyond the accountability of bishops broadening it to other Church leaders.  The Commission has welcomed this.

Coming soon the PCPM Website

Our presence in the digital world is seen as key to furthering the Commission’s efforts to collaborate with local Churches and disseminate the importance of the protection and safeguarding of minors and vulnerable adults.  In the coming months the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors will be going live with its own website.  It is also our hope that it will be a useful resource for the Church and all people of good will in our common goal, which is to make our Church and our society a safe home for all.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was created by Pope Francis in March of 2014. The Chirograph of His Holiness Pope Francis states specifically, “The Commission’s specific task is to propose to me the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults, in order that we may do everything possible to ensure that crimes such as those which have occurred are no longer repeated in the Church. The Commission is to promote local responsibility in the particular Churches, uniting their efforts to those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults.”

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(Vatican Radio) Divisions destroy the Church, and the devil seeks to attack the root of unity: the celebration of the Eucharist. That was the message of Pope Francis on Monday morning at the daily Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, on the feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Commenting on the reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians — where St Paul rebuked the Corinthians for their contentiousness — Pope Francis said, “The devil has two very powerful weapons to destroy the Church: divisions and money.” And this has happened from the beginning: “ideological, theological divisions that lacerate the Church. The devil sows jealousy, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or greed.” And, as happens after a war, “everything is destroyed. And the devil is pleased. And we, naïve as we are, are his game.” “It is a dirty war, that of divisions,” he repeated. “It’s like terrorism,” the war of gossiping in the community, that of language that kills”:

“And the divisions in the Church do not allow the Kingdom to grow; they do not allow the Lord to be seen as He is. Divisions make you see this part, this one against the other. Always against! There is no oil of unity, the balsam of unity. But the devil goes elsewhere, not only in the Christian community, he goes right to the root of Christian unity. And this happens here, in the city of Corinth, to the Corinthians. Paul rebukes them precisely because divisions arise, right at the heart of unity, that is, in the Eucharistic celebration.”

In the case of Corinth, riches make divisions between the rich and the poor precisely during the Eucharist. Jesus, the Pope said, “prayed to the Father for unity. But the devil seeks to destroy it” even there:

“I ask you to everything possible to not destroy the Church with divisions; they are ideological, they come from greed and ambition, they come from jealousy. And above all to pray, and to keep the founts, the very roots of the unity of the Church, which is the Body of Christ; which we, every day, celebrate [in] His sacrifice in the Eucharist.”

Saint Paul speaks about the divisions among the Corinthians, two thousand years ago:

“Paul could say this to all of us today, to the Church of today. ‘Brothers, in this I cannot praise you, because you are gathered together not for the better, but for the worse!’ But the Church gathers everyone together — for the worse, for divisions: for the worse! To soil the Body of Christ in the Eucharistic celebration! And the same Paul tells us, in another passage: ‘He who eats and drinks the Body and the Blood of Christ unworthily, eats and drinks his own condemnation.’ Let us ask the Lord for the unity of the Church, that there may not be divisions. And for unity also in the root of the Church, which is precisely the sacrifice of Christ, which we celebrate every day.”

Among those present at the day’s Mass was Archbishop Arturo Antonio Szymanski Ramírez, the Archbishop emeritus of San Luis Potosí in Mexico, who turned 95 in January. Pope Francis noted his presence at the beginning of his homily, recalling that the Archbishop had taken part in the Second Vatican Council, and that he still helps in a parish. The Holy Father had received Archbishop Szymanski in an audience on Friday.

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The third Pan-African Congress on Divine Mercy, which started at the weekend, is underway in the Rwandese town of Kabuga at the Shrine of Divine Mercy. Kabuga is located less than thirty minutes away from the Rwandese capital of Kigali.

Present at the weeekend official ceremonies were 3 African Cardinals namely, the Special envoy of Pope Francis to the Congress, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya;  Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo, the Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Also present were ten Archbishops and Bishops; several priests, the religious and the Catholic faithful from all over Africa.

In his welcome address to participants, Nigerian Bishop, Martin Igwe Uzoukwu of Minna Diocese gave the history of the Congress on Divine Mercy in Africa. He outlined how it all started and how the Congress has been growing over the years. Bishop Uzoukwu spoke about the meaning of the term mercy and how Africa was in great need of the mercy of God.

Cardinal Laurent Monsegwo, the special envoy of Pope Francis in Kigali accompanied by the Archbishop of Kigali, Thaddeus Ntihinyurwa and Bishop Martin Ouzoukwu then symbolically lit the candles of divine mercy at the Shrine. The candles will remain lit throughout the Congress.

Making his presentation at the start of the Congress, Secretary General of the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops, Fr. Cleophas Lungu, a Biblical scholar, gave a talk on the "Biblical Foundations of Divine Mercy in the Old Testament." He outlined how God’s mercy, again and again, manifested itself through His chosen people, Israel.

The Congress also took time to pray for peace and unity in Gabon. Pope Francis, at his usual Sunday Angelus also prayed for Gabon which is going through a time of severe political crisis.

(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

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The funerals of some of the dead from Tanzania’ Saturday earthquake have been held in Bukoba’s Kaitaba stadium on Sunday. Bukoba, the city worst-hit by the quake is part of Tanzania’s Kagera province which borders Uganda and Rwanda.

By Monday, the death toll of people killed in the quake stood at 15. This is according to the Spanish EFE news agency. The agency quoting local police sources also said 253 people were reported injured others seriously.  

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.9 degrees on the Richter scale was also followed by Aftershocks Sunday night. Several families are said to have spent nights in the open. 

About 850 houses have been destroyed while several buildings collapsed; Twitter pictures show main roads with huge craters and many houses in the area have large cracks.

83 patients have been discharged from hospital after treatment, and the local government has appealed to citizens to donate blood to help the wounded in critical condition.

Saturday’s earthquake, which occurred around 15.30 lasted two minutes and was felt with intensity as far as the south-east of Uganda.  

(Info compiled by: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

 

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