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Aleppo, Syria, Aug 11, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As rebel factions continue to fight Syria's Assad government for control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, Christians in the metropolis are praying and fasting for peace to come to their homes.

“We don't know what's going to happen. We announced to all the priests , since yesterday, and we've also told the people, that we want to fast and pray the next 72 hours so that the will for peace always prevails and so that it wins over the will for war,” Father Ibrahim, a pastor in Aleppo, told Vatican Radio Aug. 9.

Rebels in the city claim to have broken government siege of Aleppo, where some 250,000 people live in rebel-held areas. Air strikes on rebel positions in the city have intensified in recent days.

Fr. Ibrahim said the situation is very difficult “because the bombardments, which are are intensified at night, continue, but there are also missiles falling on the western side of the city, where we're living.”

He said Aleppo's inhabitants  “are afraid, don't have electricity or water,” and “everything is expensive and in recent days two areas were evacuated and many people have slept and continue to sleep on the streets or in tents.”

The priest expressed his doubts that the humanitarian truce called for by the United Nations will take place. The arrival of more troops suggests “a total war,” he said.

“The army for its part wants to retake the parts (of the city) it lost in recent days, while these military groups are getting ready to advance further  toward Hamdaniya and the entire western area of the city,” he said.

In the midst of this situation Fr. Ibrahim said the Church continues caring for the population and “it's a miracle” they can still distribute food packages to “thousands of needy families.”

“It's a miracle and divine providence that we bought everything before Aleppo's main street was closed off,” he reflected.

Fr. Ibrahim noted that he does not use the word “rebels” to refer to those fighting the Assad government “because today, as we see and hear, within the city it's more the jihadists than the rebels who are taking the helm of these military groups which are very, very diversified.”

There are several coalition of rebels in Aleppo, the largest of which is the Army of Conquest, which includes Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – the successor to al-Nusra Front.

The Syrian civil war began in March 2011 with demonstrations against Assad. The war has claimed the lives of more than 280,000 people, and forced 4.8 million to become refugees. Another 8 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the violence.

The civil war is being fought among the Syrian regime and a number of rebel groups. The rebels include moderates, such as the Free Syrian Army; Islamists such as the Army of Conquest and the Islamic State; and Kurdish separatists.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Apostolic Penitentiary has nothing to do with a jail cell and everything to do with ensuring repentant sinners experience God's mercy.

Established in the 12th century when penitential pilgrimages to Rome began to bring thousands of faithful to the city seeking absolution of their sins, much of the office's work is covered by anonymity and the absolute secret of the confessional seal.

But this summer the office, officially a tribunal, offered a little glimpse into its main areas of concern when it published "Sin, Mercy, Reconciliation: A Theological-Pastoral Dictionary."

The book, available only in Italian for now, features a presentation by Pope Francis, who lauds the staff's "service, which by its nature unfolds in the most discreet silence."

However, he wrote, "this ancient dicastery's numerous initiatives to tell the world of the marvels of the mercy of God have not gone unnoticed."

One of those projects is the dictionary, which, the pope said, "is based on the contribution of scholars used to pastoral practice."

That experience, the pope wrote, is translated into practical suggestions, particularly for the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation, which plays "a fundamental role in the marvelous embrace between return (to God) and forgiveness."

"God's faithfulness is unchanging, infinite and continues to exist and produce fruits despite the infidelity of creatures," Pope Francis said.

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, said the book was written to help pastors and Catholic faithful "discover the beauty and efficacy" of confession.

The book has 60 entries beginning with "accoglienza" -- on the importance of giving a warm "welcome" to penitents when they arrive for confession -- to "viaticum," which refers to the Eucharist given to a person about to die.

The entry on divorced and civilly remarried Catholics noted that their eventual admission to the sacraments has been the subject of theological and public debate. But, even citing Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the family, the book said such couples cannot receive absolution in confession and Communion without an annulment of their original marriage or without abstaining from sexual relations in their new union.

Msgr. Livio Melina, president of Rome's Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, wrote the dictionary's entry, which insisted divorced and civilly remarried Catholics are still members of the church and are to be welcomed, accepted and accompanied.

Like Pope Francis, Msgr. Melina said the personal situation of each couple must be examined and dealt with in a way appropriate to that couple. However, he wrote, even if a divorced and civilly remarried Catholic is "not subjectively culpable" for violating his or her sacramental marriage vows, objectively the person is living in a state of sin and cannot receive the sacraments.

Not everyone agrees with his assessment. For example, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, whom Pope Francis chose to present "Amoris Laetitia" ("The Joy of Love") to the public in April, said, "It is possible, in certain cases, that the one who is in an objective situation of sin can receive the help of the sacraments."

In an interview in July with La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit journal reviewed by the Vatican prior to publication, the cardinal said the pope's exhortation "takes greater account of those elements that suppress or attenuate imputability" of a Catholic in a second union and seeks a path that would move that person closer to the fullness of what the Gospel demands. Absolution and Communion could be the medicine such a person needs, he said.

Less controversially, the Apostolic Penitentiary's book includes detailed instructions for pastors who encounter a penitent confessing a sin whose absolution is reserved to the Holy See. Those sins, which result in automatic excommunication, include: profanation of the Eucharist, violation of the seal of confession, absolving someone the priest had sex with, a physical attack on the pope, the consecration of a bishop without papal mandate and the attempted ordination of a woman.

The confessor must write to the Apostolic Penitentiary for authorization to absolve the penitent and lift the excommunication; usually, it said, the office will mail a response within 24 hours. Delivery time, of course, depends on the local post office.

The book suggested the letter be written on a typewriter or computer to guarantee it is legible. It can be written in any language, but the office is best with "Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Slovakian or Latin," it said.

To preserve the secret of the confessional, "cases are always presented with fictitious names," the book instructed.

And, it said, "recourse to this tribunal is absolutely free, and voluntary offerings are not accepted."

While the vast majority of Catholics will never have any direct contact with the Apostolic Penitentiary, each year tens of thousands of people receive the sacrament of reconciliation from a priest who answers directly to the office: the full-time confessors who offer the sacrament in a dozen languages at St. Peter's Basilica and the Rome basilicas of St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran and St. Paul Outside the Walls.

For Pope Francis, getting people to confession is a key part of the Year of Mercy. "Even in the darkness of sin, a minimum of openness to divine grace can be truly important for our inner transformation," he wrote in the book.

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Follow Wooden on Twitter @Cindy_Wooden

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a luncheon that was part reunion and part progress report, Pope Francis invited 21 Syrian refugees to join him at the Vatican Aug. 11.

The pope's lunch guests included the 12 refugees -- three married couples and six children -- Pope Francis brought back to Rome with him from Lesbos, Greece, in April and another nine Syrian refugees who arrived in Rome in mid-June with Vatican assistance.

While the Vatican is covering the living costs of the 21 refugees, they are being housed and resettled by the Community of Sant'Egidio, a lay community based in Rome. The community runs a large Italian language school for refugees, which the Syrians are attending.

Greg Burke, Vatican spokesman, said both the adults and the children had a chance to talk to Pope Francis about beginning their new lives in Italy. "The children gave the Holy Father a collection of their drawings, and the pope reciprocated with toys and other gifts."

Joining Pope Francis and the refugees for the lunch in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where the pope lives, were: Archbishop Angelo Becciu, a top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State; Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, and other community members; Domenico Gianni and two other members of the Vatican police force, who assisted in getting the families from Lesbos to Italy.

Members of the Sant'Egidio Community helped the Vatican interview refugees in Greece and choose families that both the Greek and Italian governments would provide with the necessary travel papers in time for the papal flight. Of the 21 refugees, one married couple is Christian, the others are Muslim.

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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Jer 38: 4-6, 8-10; Heb 12: 1-4; Lk 12: 49-53

God sends His prophets to give the world His message in every century. Blessed Oscar Romero, Blessed Mother Teresa, Pope St. John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dom Helder Camara, Maura Clark, Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Jeanne Donovan, and Ella Baker were all twentieth century prophets who had the courage of their Christian convictions to follow Jesus and proclaim his undiluted message which cast fire on earth and caused healthy division in the society as today’s Gospel points out.  In 1980, in the midst of a U.S.-funded genocidal war against the so-called leftist rebels in El Salvador, Archbishop Blessed Oscar Romero who sided with the poor, exploited farm workers, declared: “If they kill all your priests and the bishop too, each one of you must become God's microphone, each one of you must become a prophet. I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people."  Amid overarching violence, Romero wrote to President Jimmy Carter pleading with him to cease sending military aid to the brutal military regime because, he wrote, "it is being used to repress my people."  The U.S. sent $1.5 million in aid every day for 12 years. Archbishop Romero’s letter went unheeded.  Two months later, he was assassinated.  Ending a long homily addressed to the pro-government land owners and peasants and the military and broadcast throughout the country, his voice rose to breaking, "Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasants . . . .  No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God.”  There was thunderous applause; he was inviting the army to mutiny.  Then his voice burst out, "In the name of God then, in the name of this suffering people I ask you, I beg you, I command you in the name of God: stop the repression."  Oscar Romero gave his last homily on March 24, 1980, moments before a sharpshooter felled him at the altar of a hospital chapel.  Reflecting on the day’s Scripture, he had said, "One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives."  In an interview as he was flying to Brazil in May, 2007 Pope Benedict told the reporters, “Romero as a person merits beatification.”  In July 2007, the new Salvadoran conservative government said it would formally request the Vatican to beatify Romero although it will not accept responsibility for his slaying. Pope Francis beatified the martyred Archbishop Romero on May 23, 2015.  Today’s readings remind us that the Church needs prophets like Romero and cautions contemporary prophets that their course will not be easy. 

Introduction: The central theme of today’s readings is that we should courageously live out our religious convictions and principles in our lives, as Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus did theirs, even if doing so should result in our martyrdom and turn society upside down.   If no one is ever offended by the quality of our commitment to Christ, that commitment may not be authentic, and if our individual and communal living of the Good News casts no fire and causes no division, then perhaps we are practicing “inoffensive Christianity."  Jeremiah, in our First Reading, is presented as experiencing the consequences of the burning word of God within him. Jeremiah's preaching divided the city and incited such opposition that people sought his death.  He showed the courage of his prophetic conviction by telling King Zedekiah that the Lord God said he had to surrender to the mighty army of Babylonian empire to save Israel.  The result was that Jeremiah was thrown into a deep, muddy cistern to die for his "treason." Standing in this prophetic tradition, Paul, in the second reading, challenges the Judeo-Christians to stand firm in their Faith in Jesus, ignoring the ostracism imposed on them by their own former Jewish community.  Jesus, too, in today’s Gospel, preaches the word of God which continues to divide families, a word which, he knew, would ultimately lead to his death.  The fire Jesus came to bring is the fire of love and the fire of hope.  The disruption, division and revolution Jesus and his true followers cause in society by the fire of sacrificial love and the fire of justice is necessary to re-set what's fractured, put right what's dislocated, and cleanse what's infected.  In other words, the curative pain caused by Jesus’ ideas and ideals is necessary for the establishment of real shalom of God.  Even though Jesus brings a sword and causes division, he is the bringer of true and lasting peace.  In pursuing his mission, Jesus brings division because some follow him and others oppose him. We must make a decision to follow him or not, to share his "baptism" or not.  This choice can result in division, even within families. 

First reading, Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10: The first reading warms us up to hear today's Gospel, where Jesus speaks with prophetic bluntness about how his mission will divide those who accept him from those who don't.  The prophet Jeremiah lived from about 650 B.C. to perhaps 580 B.C.  It was during this period that Babylon, becoming the supreme power in Mesopotamia, demanded tribute from all the smaller kingdoms, including Judah.  While the princes urged King Zedekiah, to seek military help from Egypt against Babylon, the Lord God, through His prophet Jeremiah, told them to pay the tribute to avoid a greater evil. Jeremiah had been predicting the impending destruction of Jerusalem as a judgment from YHWH because most of the kings of Judah had fallen further and further away from God and from their religion and because they had entered into unholy political alignment with neighboring countries, instead of trusting in their God. The prophet’s death sentence described in the first reading occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians about 587 B.C.  Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonian army, the Lord God, through Jeremiah, had told the king and the military leaders to surrender and pay tribute to the Babylonians.  That way the king might save his life and the lives of his people.  But Jeremiah sounded unpatriotic and even seditious, defeatist and treasonable to the military leaders who complained to King Zedekiah.  The king turned Jeremiah over to them, and they put him into a dry cistern with fairly deep mud at the bottom to die.  Jeremiah was saved by the sympathy of an Ethiopian courtier named Ebed-melech who evidently held a position of considerable authority at the royal court. Since the king did not listen to God’s counsel given by His prophet, Babylon captured and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 and took all the able-bodied citizens to Babylon as prisoners.  The cost of following God’s word, experienced by Jeremiah as a life so marked by suffering and opposition that he cursed the day he was born (20:14), points to the division Jesus brings (today’s Gospel).

Second Reading, Hebrews 12:1-4: This letter was written to the Judeo-Christians who had been rejected by their fellow Jews and cut off from family and old friends. Separated from the comforting rituals and institutions they had known, these folks needed their faith bolstered.  Hence, a long list of faithful Jews from the past are praised, particularly Abraham, detailing some of the difficulties they had faced. Those heroic figures are the great "cloud of witnesses" mentioned in today's passage.  The author wanted his Judeo-Christians (the Hebrews), to think of themselves as athletes in a race in a stadium, where their ancestors in the Faith would be spectators, surrounding them and cheering them on because their descendants were now running the same race they had run in their day.  These ancestors were “witnesses” to the power of Faith to endure against every temptation to apostasy.  The Hebrew Christians are asked to run the race, keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus the “leader and perfecter of our faith.”  In his earthly life, Jesus was the pioneer because he initiated the way of Faith—the way through suffering to glory (v. 2)—and its perfecter because he completed his ”course,” thus enabling believers to run the same race, through suffering to glory.  We, too, are called to do our best until our great run for the Faith is crowned with victory.

Exegesis: Today’s Gospel passage consists of two sections: in the first section (vv 49-50), Jesus speaks of his Divine destiny to endure suffering, and in the second section (vv 51-53), he prophesies the breakup of families resulting from his  message.  Jesus explains his Divine destiny by highlighting his role of “setting the earth on fire” and being “baptized” in the waters of suffering.  The images of fire and baptism refer to his mission, both in terms of the cost that it will exact from him and the decision it will require of people.

“I have come to 'set the earth on fire." In the Bible, fire is sometimes symbolic of purification (for example, Nm 31:23; Ez 22:19-22), and, more often, is associated with God’s judgment (for example, Jdt 16:17; Is 66:16; Am 7:4; 2 Pt 3:7).  The image of fire is also used to symbolize God's glory (Ez 1:4, 13), His protective presence (2 Kgs 6:17), His holiness (Dt 4:24), His righteous judgment (Zec 13:9), and His wrath against sin (Is 66:15-16).  The image of fire is also used of the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11 and Acts 2:3).  Fire has many characteristics: it warms, purifies, refines, transforms, and burns.  As a purifying force, fire burns up what is useless and refines what is impure besides giving warmth and energy.  Elijah brought the fire of judgment on the prophets of Baal (1 Kgs 18:36-40) and the soldiers of King Ahaziah (2 Kgs 1:10-14).  John the Baptist promises that Jesus "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire"(Matt 3: 11), and that promise was fulfilled at Pentecost.  James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans who rejected Jesus, but Jesus would not permit it (Lk 9:54).  We are also reminded of the prophet's words, "For he is like a refiner's fire…" (Mal 3:2).  The fire burns hot, removing impurities and leaving only that which is desirable.  These meanings suggest that the fire which Jesus brings will consume or purify the world.  However, it is also possible that he means that his baptism will be a baptism of fire.  In the Aramaic language the word translated as “earth” can also mean “earth-oven,” the common stove in Mediterranean villages, heated by burning dried and salted camel-dung patties.  The salt in the dried camel dung acted as a catalyst keeping fire burning for a long time.  In that sense, Jesus acts as a catalyst in his believers’ life

“I must be baptized with a baptism": The cup and baptism are metaphors for Jesus’ suffering and death when Jesus asks James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?’ What Jesus means by his statement is “I have a terrible experience through which I must pass, and life is full of tension until I pass through it and emerge triumphantly from it.” Our Baptism is an immersion in Christ’s death in which we die to sin and are reborn to the new life of grace: “We were indeed buried with him through Baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life”(Romans 6:4). In the same way, our Eucharistic celebration is a recollection of Jesus’ baptism (immersion) in suffering, death and the anguish these caused him, not simply a celebration of the community with the risen Christ and with other believers.

 “I have come to establish division on earth, not peace.” As Jesus walked the road to Jerusalem, the disciples had to decide whether to go with him or not.  To be with or against Jesus is a decision which has the effect of judgment and division.  Since Luke emphasizes peace as the gift that Jesus brings (1:79; 2:14; 19:38), we are shocked when Jesus declares that he has come not to bring peace on earth but division, splitting even families apart.  Jesus’ teaching caused division in families, in communities and in the Church.  For the Palestinian Jews of the first century, a person's place in the family conferred personal identity, protection, a support system, and a place in the community.  To separate oneself from one's family or clan was, literally, a matter of life and death.  But Christianity tore families in two, because a follower of Christ had to decide whether he loved better his kith and kin or Christ.  In Christianity, the loyalty to Christ has to take precedence over the dearest loyalties of this earth. Belief in Jesus and commitment to him cause fires of arguments to erupt between believers and non-believers in the same family or community, resulting in the division of families and conflict in society.  Standing up for what is right, working for justice and truth are higher aims than unity, and working for those aims will sometimes cause division.  Hence, Christians today may cause division and rouse opposition because they share through their Baptism the prophetic charism of speaking God’s word, no matter how unpopular, and of giving a voice to those who have no one to speak for them.  Let us remember that Jesus’ sense of justice brought him into conflict with those who exploited the weak and the poor.  His integrity invited confrontation with the dishonest and hypocritical leaders, and his love for the poor, for sinners and for the outcast alienated him from the narrow-minded and self-righteous. C. S. Lewis once said that the Gospel was concerned to create "new people" not just "nice people."

Life messages: 1:  Let us learn to appreciate the contemporary prophets in the Church: The Jesuit Cardinal Avery Dulles, writing about the role of prophecy in the modern Church communities in his book Models of the Church, remarks: “Christianity is not healthy unless there is room in it for prophetic protest against abuses of authority.” God continues to send such prophets to every parish community and it is the duty of the bishop, pastor and parish council to listen to the well-intended and constructive criticisms of such Jeremiahs. The words of the late Archbishop Helder Camara, the champion of Brazil’s poor, serves as a prophetic warning, to all members of the Church: “When I give bread to the poor they call me a Saint. But when I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me Communist.”

2: We should have fire in our hearts: On the day of our Baptism, we received the light of Christ and were instructed to keep that torch burning brightly until the return of Christ Jesus. Further, the Holy Spirit was sent into our hearts at Confirmation to help set us on fire. The old proverb should be applicable to all baptized and confirmed Christians: “He /She who is on fire cannot sit on a chair.” Our Lord Jesus continues to cast fire on the earth, the fire of the Spirit, through the ministry of Word and Sacraments. As Christians, we should have fire to inflame people to care, to serve, and to bless each other with all the gifts of Faith. We should work with the Holy Spirit to allow that fire to burn off the impurities in us and to bring out the purity of the gold and silver within us. We need Divine fire to inflame our hearts with the love of God and love for His children. We Christians should blaze with the same fire with which Jesus wished his disciples to burn: “I came to cast fire upon earth, and would that it were already kindled” (Luke 12: 49). Hence, let us remember the old saying, “He/She who is on fire cannot sit on a chair,” and let us carry the fire of the Holy Spirit wherever we go. The scientist-cum-theologian Teilhard de Chardin said: “Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity we shall harness the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire.” “An 'adult' faith is not a Faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty (“dictatorship of relativism”); a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth” (Benedict XVI, April 18, 2005). Such a Faith will enable the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn in us and give us the courage of our Christian convictions.

In the 1920s, an English adventurer named Mallory led an expedition to conquer Mount Everest. His first, second and even his third attempt with an experienced team met with failure. Upon his return to England, the few who had survived held a banquet to salute Mallory and those who had perished. As he stood up to speak he looked around he saw picture frames of himself and those who had died. Then he turned his back on the crowd and faced a large picture of Mount Everest looming large like an unbeatable giant. With tears streaming down his face, he spoke to the mountain on behalf of his dead friends. “I speak to you Mt. Everest, in the name of all brave men living, and those yet unborn. Mt. Everest, you defeated us once, you defeated us twice; you defeated us three times. But Mt. Everest, we shall someday defeat you, because you can’t get any bigger, but we can.” Today’s Scripture challenges us to confront the world with prophetic courage of our Christian convictions (John Rose in John’s Sunday Homilies).

(Source: Homilies of Fr. Anthony Kadavil)

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