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Vatican City, Aug 15, 2016 / 03:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis marked the feast of the Assumption of Mary by praying for the dozens of people massacred over the weekend in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and decrying the “shameful silence” which surround these attacks.

“To the Queen of Peace, whom we contemplate today in heavenly glory, I wish to entrust once again the anxieties and sufferings of the people who, in many parts of the world, are innocent victims of persistent conflict,” the Pope said during Monday's Angelus address.

Saturday's attacks in the DRC's North Kivu province have long been “perpetuated in shameful silence, without even drawing our attention,” he said, and its victims include the “many innocent people who have no influence on global opinion.”

“May Mary obtain for everyone sentiments of understanding, and a desire for harmony!”

At least 36 civilians were killed late Saturday during an attack blamed on the Rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Reuters reports, although other estimates have the death toll as high as 42. Local authorities say it is the deadliest attack in the conflict-ridden region this year.

Pope Francis held the special Angelus in St. Peter's Square on Monday for the Feast of the Assumption, a day which commemorates the Virgin Mary being assumed into heaven, body and soul.

In his reflection, the Pope spoke of the day's Gospel reading which recounts Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Annunciation, and reciting what the Church refers to as the Magnificat.

“She was the first to believe in the Son of God, and is the first to have been assumed into heaven body and soul,” the pontiff said.

Mary was the first to welcome and take the child Jesus in her arms, “and is the first to have been welcomed by his arms to be introduced into the Eternal Kingdom of the Father.”

“Mary, a humble and simple girl from a remote village in the outskirts of the Empire, because she welcomed and lived the Gospel, was permitted by God to stand next to the throne of the Son for all eternity.”

Pope Francis spoke of the relevance of Mary's Assumption for each of us. “Today's feast promises a 'new heaven and a new earth', with the victory of the risen Christ over death and the final defeat of the evil one.”

“The exaltation of the humble girl from Galilee, expressed in the song of the Magnificat, becomes the song of the whole of humanity,” he said.  The Lord bends over “all men and all women, humble creatures, and takes them with him in heaven.”

Pope Francis reflected on the relevance of the Magnificat prayer for those who live in “painful situations.” He spoke particularly of “women overwhelmed by the weight of life and the drama of violence, women enslaved by the arrogance of the powerful, girls forced into inhuman work, women forced to surrender themselves in body and in spirit to the greed of men.”

“May the beginning of a new life of peace, justice, and love begin as soon as possible” for these women, who await the day in which they will finally “feel seized by hands which do not humiliate, but which, with tenderness, lift them up and guide them on the path of life, up to heaven.”

“Mary, a young maiden, a woman who suffered much in her life, makes us think of these women who suffer so much,” the Pope said. “We ask the Lord himself to guide them by the hand, and carry them on the path of life, liberating them from this slavery.”

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San Salvador, El Salvador, Aug 15, 2016 / 05:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his role as Vicar General, Monsignor Ricardo Urioste was one of the closest collaborators of Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador who was martyred for the faith in 1980 and beatified just this past year.

And this monsignor has some stories to tell.

Among the most fascinating involve details surrounding the day Romero was killed, what the late archbishop really thought about the controversial and problematic Liberation Theology, and the fact that the martyr’s insides hadn’t decomposed when they were exhumed three years after his death.

Archbishop Romero was brutally killed while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980 – a time when El Salvador was on the brink of civil war. In February 2015, Pope Francis officially recognized his death as having been for hatred of the faith and gave the green light for his beatification.

Msgr. Urioste, who currently heads up the Archbishop Romero Foundation, said that during the time the martyr lived, whenever “he preached, spoke, was a pastor, they accused him of being communist, Marxist, a politician, and a thousand things."

However, he noted how after 12 years of extensive study on the life and writings of the archbishop, the Vatican never found anything that supported these claims.

In an interview with CNA, Msgr. revealed some the of the lesser known facts surrounding the new blessed, as well as his continuing legacy on the Church and the world at large.

What happened on the day Archbishop Romero died

Msgr. Urioste can easily recall the day that Archbishop Romero was killed, saying that it was “an ordinary day of work” for him.

In the morning the archbishop had a meeting with a group of priests, and then they ate lunch together. After the meeting he went to confession with his usual confessor, which was a priest named Fr. Segundo Ascue.

Once he confessed, Archbishop Romero went to celebrate a 6 p.m. Mass in San Salvador’s hospital of Divine Providence, which was staffed by nuns. The Mass, Mons. Urioste recalled, had been widely publicized throughout the diocese.

While he was celebrating Mass in the hospital’s chapel, the archbishop was shot in the chest from outside.

Msgr. Urioste said that after getting a phone call informing him of what happened, “I immediately went to the hospital, and he was already taken to the polyclinic. A television set arrived, they interviewed me, and after I went to the hospital where he was."

He recalled how as the sisters were going to embalm Archbishop Romero’s body, he told them “please be careful not to drop his insides anywhere, but that they pick them up and bury them, and they did, burying them in front of the little apartment he had in the hospital where he lived."

Three years later, on the occasion St. John Paul II’s visit to the country, the nuns of the hospital “made a monument to the Virgin in the same place where we had buried (Romero’s) insides.”

“When they were digging they ran into the box and the plastic bag where they had placed the insides, and the blood was still liquid and the insides didn't have any bad smell,” he revealed.

“I don't want to say that it was a miracle, it's possible that it's a natural phenomenon, but the truth is that this happened, and we told the archbishop at the time (Arturo Rivera y Damas), look monsignor, this has happened and he said 'be quiet, don't tell anyone because they are going to say that they are our inventions,'” he said.

However, “Pope John Paul II was given a small canister with Archbishop Romero’s blood,” he noted.

Msgr. Urioste recalled that when John Paul II arrived to San Salvador, the first thing he did “was go to the cathedral without telling anyone. The cathedral was closed, they had to go and look for someone to open it so that the Pope could enter and kneel before the tomb of Archbishop Romero.”

John Paul II asked during his visit that no one manipulate the memory of Archbishop Romero, Msgr. Urioste recalled, and lamented how “they politicized him.”

“The left had politicized him, putting him as their banner. And the right politicized him, saying things that are untrue about the bishop, that are purely false, they denigrated him.”

One of the things that the Church in El Salvador wants, Msgr. Urioste said, is that “the figure of the archbishop, known now a little more than he was before, is a cause for reflection, a motive for peace, a motive for forgiveness, a motive for reconciliation with one another, and that we all have more patience to renew ourselves and follow the paths that Archbishop Romero proposed to us.”

“I think that (Romero’s) figure is going to contribute a lot to a better meeting and reconciliation in El Salvador,” he said.

What Archbishop Romero really thought about Liberation Theology

Despite the many accusations leveled against the archbishop of San Salvador, his Vicar General said that Romero “never had a Marxist thought or Marxist ideology in his mind.”

“If there had been, the Vatican, which has studied so much, would not have beatified him, if they had found that he had Marxist interests.”

The real backbone of his closeness to the poor, he said, was the Gospel and the teaching of the Church.

“He was a servant of the Gospel, he never read anything from Liberation Theology, but he read the Bible.”

Msgr. Urioste noted that the archbishop's library, “had all these books from the early Fathers of the Church, from the current Magisterium of the Church, but (he) never even opened any of the books from Liberation Theology, or Gustavo Gutiérrez, or of anyone else.”

“He read the Bible and there he encountered a Jesus in love with the poor and in this way started walking toward him,” he said.

What set Archbishop Romero apart

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Archbishop Romero was “his great sense of work. He was an extremely hardworking man and devoted to his work day and night – until midnight and until dawn,” Msgr. Urioste said.

He recalled how the archbishop would begin to prepare his Sunday homilies the day before, and would always include three reflections on the Eucharist. When Romero preached, he made frequent reference to the Fathers of the Church, based his comments on Church teaching and related his thoughts to the country's current reality.

“A homily that doesn't have this relation with what is happening sounds the same here as in Ireland, in Paris, as anywhere,” the priest said.

He recalled how in Romero's time the government was “a ferocious military dictatorship, which had 'national security' as it's theme.”

Everyone who either sided with the poor or expressed concern for them “was accused of being communist, they were sent to be killed without thinking more. There were 70 thousand deaths like this in the country at that time,” Msgr. Urioste noted.

“The social economic reality was of a lot of poverty, of a great lack of unemployment, of low wages.”

Ultimately, Archbishop Romero’s beatification, the monsignor said, is “a triumph of the truth.”

It is a triumph, he said, of the truth of “who Archbishop Romero really was, what he did, how he did it, from the Word of God, from the Magisterium of the Church, in defense of the poor, who were the favored ones of Jesus Christ and who were were also the favored ones of Archbishop Romero.”

A verison of this article was originally published May 23, 2015.

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Paris, France, Aug 15, 2016 / 12:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Following the wave of Islamist terror attacks that have bloodied France since last year, the country’s bishops have decided to offer all Masses on the Feast of the Assumption for France.

In an Aug. 1 communique, the president of the French Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, noted how the Aug. 15 Solemnity of the Assumption has always held “a special place” in the heart of Catholics.

“In this celebration of hope, we suggest that the general intercessions of the Mass that day mention this intention,” he said, and asked that at noon sharp, “the bells of our churches sound” in unison.

“May God bless our country in the trials that she is enduring,” the archbishop said, referring to the recent terrorist attacks that have crippled the nation.

From the Jan. 7, 2015 slaughter of 12 journalists at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly that has published insulting cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, to the Nov. 13, 2015 series of bombings in Paris that claimed more than 100 lives, to the July 14 truck attack that killed 84 in Nice, and finally the brutal July 26 murder of Fr. Jaques Hamel, the French people have suffered much in recent months.

As a response, both the French bishops and the country’s Muslim community have launched several initiatives aimed at praying for France, its people and for Christians.

Friday, July 29, was declared by the bishops as a day of fasting after two armed gunmen stormed a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in the Normandy region of France July 26, slitting Fr. Hamel’s throat as he celebrated Mass.

After the priest’s murder, which was claimed by the Islamic State, Muslims across France and Italy attended Mass the following Sunday in a sign of solidarity with Catholics.

The initiative was created by the French Center for Muslim Worship, which was joined by the Italian Muslim Religious Community.

The dedication of every Mass on the Feast of the Assumption to France and her intentions, then, marks the latest initiative of the bishops in offering prayers for peace and stability.

Dogmatically defined in 1950, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary's body into heaven is celebrated Aug. 15 every year, and is one of the most important Marian feast days in the Catholic Church.

 

 

 

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Philippe Vaillancourt, Presence

By Philippe Vaillancourt

QUEBEC CITY (CNS) -- For Father Gaston Ndaleghana Mumbere, the feast of the Assumption represents his hope for better tomorrows for Congo.

In his recently published book, this 35-year-old Assumptionist priest describes the violence that plagues his home country. But mostly, he writes to allow a people used to crying from under the rubble of chaos to speak once again.

Father Mumbere is from North Kivu, a Congolese province that, for 20 years, has been at the heart of a conflict that has killed up to 8 million people in the East African nation.

Sent to Quebec City by his religious order in 2009 to study theology, he eventually took up writing to tell of the Congolese drama. His French-language book, "La cloche ne sonnera plus a l'eglise de Butembo-Beni" ("The Bell Won't Ring Anymore at Butembo-Beni's Church"), is written like a series of letters addressed to his Aunt Assumpta, a fictitious name that serves two purposes: to protect her identity, and to have a constant reference to the feast of the Assumption.

"Mary has walked the path that awaits us: the path of the Resurrection," said Father Mumbere. "The path toward the Father. She's like a model that encourages us, that tells us it's possible to make it. Stay strong. Mary is not the path. Jesus is."

In this sense, he said, the Assumption is not just a devotion, "It's something real, alive."

Father Mumbere bases his Marian reflection on the Bible, and he used it as a basis for preaching in August at the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart, also known as the Canadian Montmartre. He said the New Testament tells of how Mary feels the pain of others.

"It's at this moment that this woman is a model, an inspiration. Mary becomes important, not because I must venerate her, but because she shows me how I must care for the others, for what is lacking in their lives."

He said he wanted his book to rely on this "path" of the Assumption to tell about the harsh Congolese reality.

"For me, the first thing, the urgency, is to liberate the word," he said in French, giving his sentence a double meaning, since it could translate as "to speak freely" or as "to free the Word of God."

"It's not enough to say: 'Bah, 8 million people died in Congo and that's it.' I vouch for the word. The muffled word."

The priest compared the Congolese people to victims stuck under rubble. They cannot talk; they can only cry out, hoping someone will hear them.

Father Mumbere reminded people that in a context of terror, such as in North Kivu, it is difficult to speak freely.

Without delving in all the atrocities, Father Mumbere's book tells of the dehumanizing violence, such as an incident with his grandmother's neighbors, when armed men raped the mother and her daughters, before forcing the husband and sons to rape them as well to have their lives spared.

"I wish free speech for them," said the priest. "We must speak 'for' these raped women, and not 'of' them. I wish the readers to enter the dynamic of also speaking for these women. For me, it's biblical. To speak for the others is like a place of salvation."

Among the victims he wants to speak for, Father Mumbere remembers his Assumptionist friends, kidnapped Oct. 19, 2012. Fathers Jean-Pierre Ndulani, Anselme Wasukundi, and Edmond Bamutupe were all ministering at the Mbau parish, in the Butembo-Beni Diocese, when they were taken. Although many people think the priests have been killed, their fate remains unknown.

"It was a motivation to speak out. I cannot just stay in my sacristy. My prayer, I want it to be active. To pay tribute to these priests is to speak of the chaotic situation in Congo," he said.

"They give me the energy to write, to speak. And if they're dead, I think they pray for Congo. They pray for the Assumption. For the church. If they're alive, it will be a great joy to see them again," he added, his voice stifled with emotion.

"And to speak with them."

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Vaillancourt is editor-in-chief of Presence info based in Montreal.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Aaron P. Bernstein, Reuters

By

MILWAUKEE (CNS) -- Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee called the violence that broke out in the city as part of protests over the fatal police shooting of an African-American man "a self-inflicted wound."

"Violence is never tolerated. Protests are certainly the right of every American, but violence such as looting, burning is never tolerated," Archbishop Listecki told the Catholic Herald in an Aug. 15 telephone interview. "It only creates a self-inflicted wound on the community."

Protesters burned down six businesses in the city, including a gas station, and also torched a police car late Aug. 13 in response to the police shooting of Sylville K. Smith as he fled a traffic stop earlier that day.

Police said Smith, 23, had a gun in his hand and had refused police orders to drop the weapon.

Father Timothy L. Kitzke, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's vicar general for urban ministry, told the Catholic Herald Aug. 15 that what happened Aug. 13 could be looked at one of two ways.

"One the one hand it could be Armageddon; on the other hand, it could be seen as mission territory. I see it as a latter," he said. "Now, more than ever, it is important that people from all of our parishes, including those in the suburbs, must pull together. The problems of racial divisiveness and helplessness must be addressed by everyone."

Father Kitzke, who also is pastor of a Milwaukee parish and administrator of two others, said he has been in contact with the pastors of the four inner-city parishes asking them to meet with him to continue to address the concerns of the community.

"What do we do with the anger?" the priest said. "We need to address the issues that cause the anger and the hopelessness that lead to violence. And the church has to be a part of that."

An Aug. 14 statement from Religious Leaders for Racial Reconciliation in Milwaukee, formed last year to address race issues in the city, said the city "was taken to another level of violence where the devil is trying to lead us."

The group identified three issues that need to be address with the city's dispossessed: "We need to build relationships with them, look for the root causes of what is going wrong in their lives, and then we need to empower them to change!"

"Have you ever lost your keys? Think about that feeling you had when you couldn't find them, looking all over, and retracing your steps backwards," the statement said. "That is how the lost are feeling, that pit in their stomach, and emptiness in their heart, the yearning for something that they don't yet even know what it is. They are waiting for one of us to show them his love and lead them to their Savior, Jesus!"

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Wisconsin's put the National Guard on standby in case of a repeat of the violence Aug. 14, but after-dark protests were peaceful.

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Contributing to this story was Maryangela Layman Roman.

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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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