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(Vatican Radio)  A member of the newly-established commission set up by Pope Francis to study the question of the Diaconate for women spoke of her delight over the Pope's move.  Dr Phyllis Zagano, who teaches at Hofstra University in Hampstead, New York, is one of the six female members of the Commission whose formation was announced on Tuesday.  She is the author of some 20 books on religious studies including several on the issue of the Diaconate for women. Dr Zagano spoke to Susy Hodges about her reaction to her appointment and explained why she feels it is such an important and positive move on the part of the Pope.

Listen to the interview with Dr Phyllis Zagano, member of the Commission set up by Pope Francis to study the question of the Diaconate for women: 

Pope Francis had first announced in May his intention to set up such a commission to study the question of the Diaconate for women during the course of a meeting with the Superior Generals of female religious orders. 

Deacons are ordained ministers who can preach and preside at weddings, baptisms and funerals but unlike priests cannot celebrate Mass.  

Describing herself as “honoured” to have been named as a member of this Commission, Dr Zagano said she hopes it will lead to deciding that women should be included in the office of the Deacon.  She also believes such a move will enable the Catholic Church “to speak more forcefully to the world about the dignity and place of women, not only in the Church but also in society.”  

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed sadness over the death of Polish Cardinal Franciszek Macharski who died earlier Tuesday after an ilness at age 89. 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

With pictures and somber yet hopefull music Polish media have begun mourning Cardinal  Macharski. He held one of the top positions in Poland's Catholic church in an difficult era when the church played a leading role in 
opposing Communism. 

Poles believe that those actions helped to eventually end the Communist regime's hold on power. 

The popular Macharski served for many years as archbishop of Krakow, inheriting the position opened by the election of then Pope John Paul II.

He was appointed Krakow archbishop in 1978 by John Paul and served in that position until 2005. He retired two months after John Paul died after a 27-year pontificate. 

POPE IN "PAIN" 

From the Vatican, Pope Francis wrote that he received the news of Macharski's death "with pain."  In a letter to the current Krakow archbishop, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope said that Macharski in his words "guided the church in Krakow in the not easy period of political and social changes with wisdom."

Pope Francis was also among the last people to see the frail cardinal. Last week he made a surpise visit to University Hospital in Krakow where Cardinal was receiving care for what was described as a protracted illness.

The pope reportedly made it a point to pray for the frail Cardinal, who now leaves behind a more confident church which still faces challenges in post-Communist Poland.   

President Andrzej Duda called the cardional's death a "huge loss" and called Macharski a "great Pole (and) an outstanding man of the Church."

In Krakow, the Royal Sigismund Bell at the Wawel Cathedral tolled for several minutes. The bell is a national symbol that only tolls on certain feast days and national holidays and is otherwise reserved for special occasions.

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Rome, Italy, Aug 2, 2016 / 10:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Italian bishops' conference has issued an advisory to pilgrims, after a young Italian girl died of meningitis while she was returning home from World Youth Day in Poland.

The Italian publication Corriere della Sera identifies the girl as Susanna Rufi, 19, who died Monday in Vienna, Austria, as she was returning home to Italy.

“She had been preparing for WYD for a year,” recounted Fr. Alessandro, the parish priest of her local Saint Polycarp parish in Rome, according to Corriere della Sera. “She was a wonderful girl, very active in the parish,” he said, adding that she got good grades, and was active in the choir.

Rufi had reported feeling ill on Sunday evening, after arriving in Vienna with some 50 young people from the parishes of Saint Polycarp and Our Lady of Good Counsel, reports the Italian agency.

Meningitis is an infection-based inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include a headache, fever, and stiff neck. Meningitis, which can be fatal, is spread through respiratory droplets, for example through coughing or sneezing.

According to an Aug. 1 statement issued by the Italian bishops' conference, the members of the girl's pilgrimage group have taken a prophylaxis as a precaution.

The conference advised all World Youth Day pilgrims who passed through the Italian House – the center in Krakow which served Italian pilgrims – to undergo the same prophylaxis, per the advice of the Vienna hospital.

Those at risk of exposure who experience a high fever, headache, sore throat, vision problems, or loss of consciousness should go immediately to the hospital, as these symptoms could indicate an infection, the statement advised.

The bishops' conference offered its condolences to the girl's family, “at the conclusion of an experience which was a lesson in fraternity and sharing.”

Tens of thousands of Italians were among the many pilgrims to attend World Youth Day in Krakow, which at its peak was attended by as many as 2 million people during its final days.

 

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New York City, N.Y., Aug 2, 2016 / 01:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Today's feast of Our Lady of the Angels of Porziuncola and its associated indulgence is a way to focus on the importance of Mary and the Franciscan tradition in the Church, said one friar.

The Aug. 2 feast is found in the Franciscan tradition, and marks the dedication of the parish church, called Porziuncola or “little portion,” which is one of those Italy's St. Francis of Assisi rebuilt in obedience to Christ's command to “rebuild my church.”

“The Porziuncola is at the heart of the Franciscan journey,” Father David Convertino, the development director for the Holy Name Province of the Observant Franciscans, told CNA.

“For Francis, it was his most beloved place. He lived near it with the early followers … and he loved the Porziuncola, as it was part of his devotion to Our Lady.”

The Catholic Church teaches that after a sin is forgiven, an unhealthy attachment to created things still remains. Indulgences remove that unhealthy attachment, purifying the soul so that it is more fit to enter heaven. Indulgences are either plenary (full) or partial.

A plenary indulgence also requires that the individual be in the state of grace and have complete detachment from sin. The person must also sacramentally confess their sins and receive Communion up to about 20 days before or after the indulgenced act.

Anyone who visits a Catholic church with the intention of honoring Our Lady of the Angels and recites the Creed, the Our Father, and prays for the Pope's intentions, may receive a plenary indulgence on Aug. 2.

“Any kind of a prayer form that helps people come closer to God is obviously a good prayer form, and certainly an indulgence is one way,” Fr. Convertino said.

“It helps us focus on, in this case, the meaning of the Porziuncola and the Franciscan tradition, how it's situated in the greater idea of the Church.”

The Porziuncola was built in honor of Our Lady of the Angels in the fourth century, and by St. Francis' time had fallen into disrepair. The church, which was then located just outside of Assisi, became the “motherhouse” of the Franciscan orders.

“Although Francis realized that the kingdom of heaven is found in every dwelling on earth … he had learned nevertheless that the church of Saint Mary at Portiuncula was filled with more abundant grace and visited more frequently by heavenly spirits,” says the life of St. Francis written by Friar Thomas of Celano, read today by Franciscans.

“Consequently he used to say to his friars: 'See to it, my sons, that you never leave this place. If you are driven out by one door return by the other for this is truly a holy place and God’s dwelling.'”

Fr. Convertino added that the Porziuncola “was the place he chose to lie next to on his deathbed, and at that time of course you could have looked up to the city of Assisi, which he also loved so well.”

The Porziuncola, a rather small chapel, is now located inside a large basilica which was built around it, to enclose and protect it.

“You have this large basilica built over this teeny tiny little chapel,” Fr. Convertino reflected. “If that chapel wasn't there then the basilica wouldn't be there, but if the basilica wasn't there, the chapel probably wouldn't be there either, given 800 years of war, weather, and turmoil.”

For Fr. Convertino, the duality of the big church and the little church is a reflection of the relationship between the world-wide Catholic Church and the smaller communities which make it up.

“We feel the Franciscans kind of convey, we're the ones at the heart of the Church, the little church there.”

He said that each time he visits Assisi, the “experience” of the Porziuncola is “compounded more and more,” and added that “it's such a magnificent place, and the friars there are wonderful.”

Fr. Convertino also discussed the fresco now painted around the entrance of the Porziuncola, which shows St. Francis, together with some of his followers, receiving the indulgence from Christ and Our Lady.

“The idea behind the story is that Francis is asking Jesus for a Porziuncola indulgence, and Jesus is saying to Francis, 'Well, you really better ask Mary, ask my mother.'”

This article was originally published Aug. 2, 2013.

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By Junno Arocho Esteves

KRAKOW, Poland (CNS) -- The memory and pain of the world's silence during the Shoah should be a call to action for Jews to defend those suffering persecution today, especially Christians, said the chief rabbi of Poland.

While Jews have experienced expulsions and holocausts for the past 2,000 years, today there "are many more attacks on Christians -- just because they are Christians -- than on Jews," Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Catholic News Service July 28.

"What it means to me is that the pain that we Jews still feel because of the overwhelming silence of the world -- not everyone but the majority were silent -- during the Shoah, means that we have to be the first ones to step up to the plate. We have to be the first ones to yell and scream and say, 'No,'" he said.

The rabbi spoke on the eve of Pope Francis' visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp. Used by the Nazis from 1940 to 1945, the camp was the Nazi's largest and consisted of three parts: Auschwitz I, where many were imprisoned and murdered; the Birkenau extermination camp -- also known as Auschwitz II; and Auschwitz III (Auschwitz-Monowitz), an area of auxiliary camps that included several factories.

The pope crossed the infamous "gate of death" July 29 and prayed in silence at several areas of the camp where over 1 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, as well as 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and thousands of Polish citizens of different nationalities.

Among those killed were St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, and Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

The pope's silence at the site of one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century is a common reaction for those who visit, Rabbi Schudrich said.

"Standing there in Birkenau, no words can really be said. We are silent, which teaches us that once we walk on the other side of the 'gate of death,' (once) we're outside of Birkenau, we must spend the rest of our lives screaming and yelling and fighting against all kinds of injustices," he told CNS.

Today, he continued, history has taken "a bizarre turn," with attacks on Christians being more common than attacks on Jews.

Rabbi Schudrich said that while "there's not a silence" at the persecution of Christians around the world as there was during the Shoah, "there is not enough yelling and screaming."

The chief rabbi of Poland said that although the visits to the death camp by the Polish St. John Paul II and the German Pope Benedict XVI took a personal dimension, the visit from the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years also has significance.

"For Pope Francis, he's from far away, he doesn't have to come to Poland -- in terms of his own personal background. The fact that he's coming here, I think for Poland is very important. In Poland, he is one of the great heroes of the world," he said.

"And for the Jews, he's coming to Auschwitz and you can't come to Poland without visiting Auschwitz. You don't have to come to Poland. But once you're here, you also have to go to Auschwitz, the worst killing site of human history."

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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