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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his sadness following the death of Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli, Archbishop of Florence between 1983 and 2001.

In a telegramme to the current Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the Pope says he shares in the grief of the Cardinal’s family and in that of the entire diocesan community.

Cardinal Piovanelli, aged 92, passed away following a long illness which he had tackled “with serenity and trustful abandonment in the will of the Lord”.

In the telegramme the Pope remembers “his dear brother who served the Gospel with joy and knowledge, loving the Church tenaciously”. 
 
The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, also expressed his condolences for the death of Cardinal Piovanelli describing him as a “point of reference for the faith and the life of the city of Florence”.

Born in Tuscany in Ronta of Mugello on February 21, 1924, already by age 11 Piovanelli was attending the Florence Seminary. He was ordained on July 13, 1947, and worked for 12 years as Vice-Rector of the Minor Seminary. In 1960, Piovanelli became the parish priest of Castelfiorentino, an area known for its anticlerical and atheist sentiments. He has been credited with considerable success in healing the fractures in the community. In 1979 Cardinal Benelli called Piovanelli to the Curia in Florence, initially as Pro-Vicar, and then as Vicar General. On May 28, 1982, Piovanelli was appointed Bishop of Tubune of Mauritania by Paul VI. The same year, after the death of Benelli, Piovanelli became Archbishop of Florence. John Paul II made him a cardinal during the Consistory of May 25, 1985.

Following the death of Cardinal Piovanelli, the College of Cardinals decreases in number to 212 of whom 112 are Cardinal Electors and 100 are Cardinal Non Electors.

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Pakistan on Saturday buried one of its most loved and admired sons who was revered as a ‘living saint” and “Pakistan’s Mother Teresa”.  The state funeral of Abdul Sattar Edhi, one of Pakistan’s best-known philanthropists, was held at the National Stadium in Karachi, before he was buried on the outskirts of the city.  

Edhi died July 8, at age 88 at a hospital in Karachi, where he was suffering from renal failure.  In an outpouring of grief, the nation of 190 million paid its last respects to a man whose service transcended social, ethnic and religious divisions.  For over nearly 60 years Edhi's charitable arm, the Edhi Foundation, established clinics and orphanages across Pakistan and ran a vast fleet of ambulances, offering help to poor communities failed by inadequate public health and welfare services. 

At his funeral, Fr. Saleh Diego, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Karachi, laid a wreath of flowers on behalf of the Catholic Church. The priest said he had visited him in hospital. "He was very happy to see us. Together with his family we prayed for him," Fr. Diego said   The Archdiocese organized prayer vigils in all the churches..

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan had lost "a great servant of humanity", and announced Saturday as a national day of mourning.  Many others took to social media to grieve over the loss of the much loved person, who’s death was marked with a 19-gun salute. The foreign minister of India, Pakistan's historic foe, said Edhi "was a noble soul who dedicated his life in service of mankind", while Pakistani teenage Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai told the BBC she had nominated him for the same Peace prize. 

Born in Gujarat in British India, Edhi and his Muslim family moved to Pakistan in 1947 during the violent partition of the subcontinent.  He built up his charity solely through donations, focusing on addicts, battered women, orphans and the disabled.  Renowned for an ascetic lifestyle and recognised by his long white beard and traditional black cap, Edhi was a hero to the poor but infuriated some religious leaders for his refusal to give preferential treatment to Muslims above minorities.  He also berated radical Islamist groups for attacking civilians, criticised the government for incompetence and corruption, and denounced tax-dodging by the rich. The Edhi foundation was at the forefront of the response last year when a devastating heatwave struck Karachi, a city of about 20 million people.

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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is expecting an “explosion of mercy” at the ‎‎3rd Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE3) that will be held in Manila next week. ‎This year’s theme is “Awa, Unawa, Gawa: The Filipino Experience of Mercy” and PCNE 3 is ‎recorded in the Vatican as an official activity for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.‎ 

The three-day event, from July 15-17 will be held at the University of Santo Tomas ‎Quadricentennial Pavilion in España, Manila. The Manila archbishop will be moderating a sharing of ‎personal stories of mercy and celebrating the Liturgy of Mercy on the first day, and giving the main ‎conference talk on “Missionaries of Mercy” on the third day.‎

Cardinal Tagle sees this PCNE3 as a way of going deeper into mercy. At the Mass for the ‎organizers, staff, volunteers and workers, he said PCNE3 “can be dangerous because it will ‎confront the facts.” “We talk about mercy, we proclaim mercy, but is our evangelizing mode, spirit ‎and action, all the structures that accompany them, are they bearers of mercy?” he asked. He lamented ‎the violence that has gripped the world in the past weeks alone: bomb attacks in Turkey, ‎Bangladesh, Baghdad and how much the world is in need of mercy and compassion.‎  (Source: CBCP)

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Des Moines, Iowa, Jul 9, 2016 / 06:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An Iowa church fears the state civil rights commission could penalize it for preaching and following its views on homosexuality and transgender issues – including penalties for single-sex bathrooms.

The Iowa Civil Rights Commission has produced a self-described guide to Iowa law for public accommodations providers concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.

The brochure-sized guide says the 2007 Iowa Civil Rights Act applies to churches “sometimes.” It acknowledged that the law does not apply to religious institutions in the matter of a “bona fide religious purpose.”

“Where qualifications are not related to a bona fide religious purpose, churches are still subject to the law’s provisions. (e.g. a child care facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public),” the pamphlet says.

The pamphlet says the law bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in services, facilities or goods for any place of public accommodation. It bars harassment including “intentional use of names and pronouns inconsistent with a person’s presented gender.”

According to the commission, the law requires locker rooms, restrooms and living facilities in places of public accommodation to be open to persons based on their self-identified “gender identity.”

Those who believe they have suffered discrimination may file a complaint with the civil rights commission, the pamphlet says, adding that it is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice.

The Fort Des Moines Church of Christ “fears that speaking publicly about the church’s beliefs on human sexuality or making known its facility use policy could trigger enforcement action by the commission and substantial penalties,” said Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Christina Holcomb.

“If this law is not challenged, then the commission retains unchecked power to violate basic constitutional rights,” Holcomb told CNA July 6.

The Alliance Defending Freedom legal group said the commission’s interpretation could ban churches from voicing their views if doing so would “directly or indirectly” make persons of any gender identity feel “unwelcome” in church services, events and other religious activities.

“Regardless of our personal views on human sexuality, we should all be able to agree that the state has overstepped its bounds when it tries to control the internal communications and operations of a church,” Holcomb said. “These are the very types of intrusions that Jefferson’s ‘wall of separation between church and state’ was designed to prevent.”

The legal group filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Des Moines church against members of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the Iowa attorney general, and the city of Des Moines, which has a law similar to the State of Iowa’s. The lawsuit is a “pre-enforcement challenge” intended to challenge a law before it is potentially used against the church.

“No church should have to live in fear that, at any time, the commission could declare that something the church said or did violated state law,” Holcomb said. “No one, including church leaders, must wait for fines or punishment before challenging an unconstitutional law.”

The lawsuit charged that the anti-discrimination law as interpreted by the civil rights commission would compel the church to “communicate government messages to which it objects” and force the church to “use its building in violation of its religious beliefs.”

Some experts criticized the church’s legal action, but acknowledged there was ground to believe the law could affect church operations.

Prof. Paul Gowder, a constitutional expert at the University of Iowa Law School, said it would be “blatantly unconstitutional” for state officials to try to regulate church sermons. He told the Des Moines Register it is “absurd on its face” to think the commission would prohibit a church from sermonizing.

However, he said access to church bathrooms by those who identify as transgender is more complicated, given jurisprudence that sees churches as non-exempt from general laws that apply to everyone under the U.S. Constitution.

“So I guess the honest answer to the bathroom question would be I am not sure,” Gowder said.

Law professor Maura Strassberg of Drake University said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public facilities’ decisions on allowing someone to use a restroom are not considered free speech and would not be protected by the First Amendment.

She argued that there are situations where a preacher’s remarks could become harassment.

“There is a line: You can go from, ‘This is what God believes’ … to ‘You are bad, so we don’t want you here’,” she said.

However, Holcomb said these professors overlooked the “critical” constitutional principle of church autonomy.

“The Supreme Court has recognized again and again that the state has no jurisdiction to intrude into internal church matters, which include not only teaching its religious beliefs, but also operating its house of worship consistently with those beliefs,” she said.

“Churches order their houses of worship to reflect and reinforce their religious teaching. They are not businesses, they are not public accommodations: they are inherently sacred spaces, and enjoy special protections under the religion clauses.”

Ben Hammes, a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad responded to the legal challenge. He said that Governor Branstad “has confidence in the commission to enforce the laws we currently have that protect religious institutions' right to exercise a religious exemption while protecting personal rights.”

 

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