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(Vatican Radio)  Jesus’ first miracle, at the Wedding Feast of Cana,  was the focus of Pope Francis’ catechesis at the General Audience Wednesday 8 June 2016.  Following on from his earlier reflections on parables of mercy during this Jubilee Year, the Pope said Christ’s miracles were not performed so that people would “marvel” at them, but rather, through them, Christ revealed the Father’s love for us. They are also, he said, an invitation for the renewal of our faith.

Below, please find Pope Francis’ remarks to English speaking pilgrims:

Dear Brothers and Sisters:  In our continuing catechesis for this Holy Year of Mercy, we now consider the first of Jesus’ miracles, the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana.  Saint John fittingly calls these miracles “signs”, for by them the Lord reveals the Father’s merciful love.  Jesus’ choice of a wedding feast points to the deeper meaning of this miracle.  It is a sign of the new covenant that he came to inaugurate, the messianic banquet promised for the end times, where he is the Bridegroom and the Church his bride.  By changing the water kept for ritual purification into new wine, Jesus signals that he is the fulfilment of the Law and the prophets.  Mary’s command to the servants – “Do whatever he tells you” – can serve as a programme of life for the Church.  We are called constantly to renew our love for the Lord, and to draw new wine, new life, from his saving wounds.  The miracle at Cana reminds us that we are invited, as members of the Lord’s family, the Church, to draw near to him in faith, and thus to share in the joy of the wedding feast of the new and eternal covenant.

            I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England, Scotland, France, the Netherlands, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States of America.  With prayerful good wishes that the present Jubilee of Mercy will be a moment of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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(Vatican Radio)  The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has sent greetings of peace and brotherhood to the world’s Muslims who began the holy period of Ramadan this week.

In a comuniquè, the Latin Patriarchate wrote:

“At the start of Ramadan, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem with the clergy and faithful, send greetings and best wishes to the Muslims during this month of fasting and prayer.

In a Middle East beset by violence, we ask God to help every person to respect one other, to pray and be courageous that hatred and injustice will have no force of law in our region,  the cradle of civilizations.

Our thoughts are with Syria, a country devastated by many years of conflict, to the Iraqi war, to Egypt striving to recover from a difficult political transition, to Jordan or Lebanon destabilized by the daily influx of refugees, and to the Holy Land where ongoing violence continue to raise fears of a worsening conflict. We support all political, humanitarian and religious initiatives to silence the weapons of war and bring about peace to the Middle East.

Our best wishes for peace."

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(Vatican Radio) Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has announced the recipients of its coveted 2016 Egan Journalism Fellowship who will travel to Central America in the autumn to examine the root causes of migration.

Please see below further details of Catholic Relief Services’ press release about the awards:

The journalists represent Catholic and secular media and, for the first time, a Spanish-language journalist.

They are:

•             Mariana Veraza, video journalist, Univision

•             Robert Christian, editor, Millennial

•             Ashley McKinless, associate editor, America Media

•             Judith Sudilovsky, freelance correspondent, Catholic News Service and Our Sunday Visitor

The fellows will travel for 10 days to Honduras and Guatemala to explore the factors that compel people to migrate to safe places, seeing CRS programs that deal with mounting violence and gang activity that cause parents to send their children on the perilous journey to the United States. CRS’ work with at-risk young people reduces child labor and helps children stay in school. Other programs are aimed at young people in some of the toughest neighborhoods in Central America to build life skills, leadership, entrepreneurship and vocational skills to transform their lives and their communities.

“For far too long, children and youth have borne the brunt of these crises – the world needs to hear their plight,” said Kim Pozniak, CRS’ Communications Director. “For the first time this year, we also accepted applications from journalists working in non-Catholic media in order to broaden coverage of the often underreported work of the Church in response to these crises.”

Fellows will also see the effect climate change has on immigration as rising sea levels, erratic rainfall, and changing growing patterns force people from farms. CRS works with farmers to build resilience with improved agricultural techniques that include better seed and crop selection as well as improved conservation and irrigation practices.

This year’s application pool was an impressive group of highly-qualified candidates of secular and Catholic journalists in English- and Spanish-language media. The diverse and experienced investigative journalists, video journalists and broadcasters who applied had high-stake interests in covering these issues.

The fellows were selected based on the quality of their coverage and their demonstrated motivation to report on the issues that affect the poor and marginalized around the world.

For more than 20 years, the Egan Journalism Fellowship program has aimed to foster increased international reporting in Catholic – and now secular – media that will educate people in the United States about their role in living a life of solidarity with others. The fellowship is named after Eileen Egan, CRS' first professional staff layperson, who devoted four decades of her life to assisting refugees and helping the poor in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

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John Cardinal Njue, the Archbishop of Nairobi last weekend signed up for the HeForShe Campaign that seeks to build a global solidarity movement for gender equality.

“Today I commit to supporting the HeforShe campaign as a strategy to strengthen the call for gender equality which will go a long way in supporting the boy-child initiative in our Archdiocese of Nairobi,” Cardinal Njue said.

The Cardinal signed up for the campaign during the Annual General Meeting of the Catholic Men Association of the Archdiocese of Nairobi.

“The Catholic Church has never shied away from issues of gender inequalities that face our society today. This inequality exists even in the Church because men and women sometimes forget they cannot be fully human without one another. We are all equal in the eyes of God,” the Cardinal emphasised.

In his speech addressed to the Catholic Men Association, Cardinal Njue urged men to mentor the boy-child.

“I am happy to note that today we are launching a boy-child support program in partnership with the UN Women.  We are called to be good examples and positive models to foster mentorship to the boy-child in the society.  I wish to remind you our dear fathers that you have a responsibility to head your homes, lead and guide your families. This is a role that cannot be fulfilled effectively without mentoring the future generations,” the Cardinal said. He added, “This is a responsibility that you cannot kind of give to someone else; it is your primary responsibility,” he stressed.

Introducing the HeForShe campaign, Kenya’s UN Women Country Director Ms Zebib Kavuma noted that “The purpose of this campaign is to build a global solidarity movement for gender equality that engages men and boys as advocates and stakeholders to break the silence, to raise their voices and take action for the achievement of gender equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination.”

HeForShe, unlike other campaigns, is born out of the recognition that gender equality is not only about women and girls but rather about inclusivity meaning men and women boys and girls.

The HeForShe global campaign was launched on 20 September 2014 by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York. In Africa, Kenya was the second country to start the campaign.

The campaign seeks to engage men and boys as advocates and agents for change in the achievement of gender equality and women rights.

(CISA in Nairobi)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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In a historic development,  Joice James, a father of four has been conferred with permanent diaconate by Card. Alencherry, of the Syro-Malabar Church at a ceremony held on June 6.  

Though the Church has conferred deacon status on laymen in the past, it is for the first time that a permanent diaconate is being conferred on a married man after the Syro-Malabar Church became an independent Church.

Deacon Joice belongs to the St George Parish at Muthalakkulam under the Kothamangalam diocese. His wife Jibi and children were present at the function. Joice had been working in the education sector in London for the last 15 years.

Joice had pursued a total of five years of seminary study in India and London. He will serve in the Ujjain diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church.

A person who is made deacon can perform services except certain sacraments. (UCAN)

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has has established a working group coordinated by the Secretary General of the Italian Bishops’ Conference – the CEI – regarding the implementation in the country of the Holy Father’s Apostolic Letter Motu proprio, Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus, which deals with the adjudication of cases of marital nullity.

Italy faces particular challenges in implementing the Pope’s changes, due to the number of dioceses in Italy and the inter-diocesan structure of regional and provincial tribunals in place – challenges the CEI addressed in a recent plenary meeting.

The working table is set up to encourage and, in fact, define the “main interpretation and application issues of common interest.”

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Washington D.C., Jun 8, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Deep in the heart of Texas, a campus chaplain is busy making his final spiritual and practical preparations for becoming a bishop.

However, unlike many of his soon-to-be brother-bishops, Fr. David Konderla is carving his very own staff – or crosier – to signify his new position and duty as a teacher and head of a diocese.

“Every Jedi has not completed his training until he’s made his own light saber that he uses to fight evil with – so this is my light saber,” Bishop-elect David Konderla told CNA in an interview.

On June 29, Fr. David Konderla will be ordained and installed as the Bishop of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Currently, the Bishop-elect serves as the Director of Campus Ministry for St. Mary’s Catholic Center, the campus chaplaincy for Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

A crosier is a hooked staff – based on the shape of a shepherd's staff – carried by bishops in the Catholic Church to symbolize their pastoral function in the Church. Other important symbols of a bishop’s position are the pectoral cross worn on a bishop’s chest, the mitre- or hat, and the episcopal ring.

“Of course it was natural when I found out I was going to be made a bishop that I would want to make my own myself,” Fr. Konderla said.

He noted that he's already made four crosiers in the past for his soon-to-be brother bishops: Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico; Bishop George Sheltz, Auxiliary Bishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas; Bishop Mark Joseph Seitz of El Paso, Texas; and Bishop Daniel Garcia, Auxiliary Bishop of Austin, Texas.

Bishop-elect Konderla’s own crosier will be the fifth he'll construct.

Previously, Fr. Konderla has used wood that bears special significance to the bishop-elect in constructing the crosier. For instance, when making the crosier for Bishop Seitz, Fr. Konderla used the wood from the front yard of the rectory at St. Mary's Catholic Center, where they were both serving as priests at the time.

For his own crosier, the bishop-elect will be able to take a bit of the campus’s Catholic Center with him as well: he said he was able to use trees which were taken down to build the campus’s new student center in his own staff. “I was able to incorporate some of that wood into this crosier so it will have that special meaning.”

The bottom sections of the crosier will be detachable so the staff can fit easily into a traveling case. This part of the staff’s construction was relatively simple, forming the pieces by turning the rod on a lathe to cut and shape it. However, forming the crosier’s hook is a more involved process he said..

To start the hook’s formation, the bishop-elect took thinly-sliced strips of wood, called laminations, and placed them in a steam box powered by the steam from a tea kettle on his stovetop. Once the strips were softened by the steam, the laminations can be shaped by quickly bending them around a form and left to cool, he elaborated. After cooling, these strips can maintain their shape long enough to be glued together with other bent wood strips, in order to finish the shaping process.

This block of molded strips of laminate is called a blank, Fr. Konderla continued, an “ugly” square piece of wood. However, this shaped block of wood is what will then be whittled and smoothed into its final, hooked, form.

The bishop-elect is also using the same process to create rings, or “beads” of different-colored woods to decorate the staff of the crosier. The beads on the crosier will be made of three strips of different-colored woods, an element which Konderla sees as “representing the trinity.”

After all the pieces are carved and shaped, the staff will be stained and polished, resulting in its final form.

Bishop-elect Konderla’s episcopal ring will also have a special meaning, and the soon-to-be bishop will also have a hand in making it. His youngest brother is a jeweler, Konderla and together the pair designed a ring based on St. Pope John Paul II’s fisherman’s ring. The ring will also incorporate elements from Konderla’s devotions to the Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy and Mary, as well as gold from their mother’s wedding ring.

The bishop-elect’s brother has made a model of the ring, and next will make a mold that will be filled with the gold. Then, Fr. Konderla explained, his brother will add final touches such as adding the heart-shaped stone and carving elements into the ring.

Fr. Konderla said that he sees this project of creating his own crosier fitting and reflective of the beauty God creates in the world.  

“Art is expressive of the divine,” and woodwork in particular is an art form that must respect God’s own beautiful creations, he said.

“The nice thing about working in wood is that even a dead tree, in a way is a living medium. The wood does simply do whatever you want, but you have to cooperate with the kind of medium that it is.”

While the creation of the crosier might be one of the last woodworking projects he creates before his ordination, Bishop-elect Konderla looks forward to taking his love of woodworking with him to his new residence in Tulsa.

He said he’s already visited his new residence, and was happy to see that it has a two-car garage – just large enough to fit his woodworking workshop.

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Vatican City, Jun 8, 2016 / 05:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In an in-depth look at Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, Pope Francis pointed to several key moments in the scene that illuminate our understanding of Christ.

One of these key moments, he said, comes with Mary’s observation that newlywed couple’s resources have depleted, and that at a certain point “they have no wine.”

“How is it possible to celebrate the wedding and have a party if you lack what the prophets indicated was a typical element of the messianic banquet?” the Pope asked.

While water is necessary to live, “wine expresses the abundance of the banquet and the joy of the feast,” Francis said, noting that “a wedding feast lacking wine embarrasses the newlyweds – imagine finishing the wedding feast drinking tea? It would be an embarrassment!”

“Wine is necessary for the feast,” he said, and pointed to how Jesus, in turning the water into wine, makes “an eloquent sign,” because “he transforms the Law of Moses into the Gospel, bringer of joy.”

Pope Francis spoke to the thousands of pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience. He continued his ongoing catechesis on mercy, turning from Jesus’ parables to his miracles.

However, before beginning his address, the Pope took a moment to greet to a group of couples present celebrating 50th year of marriage.

“That's the good wine of the family!” he said of the couples, and told them that “yours is a witness that the newlyweds I'll greet after and the youth must learn. It's a beautiful witness. Thank you for your testimony!”

Francis then turned to the second chapter in the Gospel of John, which recounts the miracle that began Jesus’ public ministry: turning water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana, upon the request of his mother.

This miracle, the Pope said, serves as “an ‘entry point’ in which are engraved the words and expressions that illuminate the entire mystery of Christ and open the hearts of the disciples to the faith.”

In the expression that Jesus was “with his disciples,” it’s made clear that the ones Jesus has called to follow him are now bound together as a community and as a family, he said.

By initiating his public ministry at the wedding at Cana, Jesus both reveals himself as the bridegroom of the People of God who had been announced by the prophets, and he also shows “the depth of the relationship which unites us to him: it’s a New Covenant of love.”

Francis said that the foundation of our faith is “an act of mercy with which Jesus has bound us to himself.” The Christian life, then, “is a response to this love, it’s the story of two lovers.”

Another key point in the passage is when Mary, after informing Jesus that the newlywed couple had run out of wine, tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you.”

Pope Francis said “it’s curious” that these are the last words spoken by Mary in the Gospels, and that as such “they are her legacy which she presents to all of us. This is the legacy that she has left us and it’s beautiful!”

He noted how Mary’s expression is similar to another -- ‘What the Lord has said, we will do!’ – which was used by the people of Israel when they received the covenant with God on Mount Sinai.

In the wedding at Cana, a New Covenant is “truly stipulated” and the servants of the Lord, who are “the entire Church,” are entrusted with a new mission, the Pope explained.

This mission, following Mary’s directive to “Do whatever he tells you,” means serving the Lord by listening to his Word and putting it into practice, Francis continued, adding that “it’s the simple but essential recommendation of the Mother of Jesus and it’s the program of the Christian life.”

Jesus began his public works at Cana, revealing his glory to his disciples and cementing their belief in him, the Pope observed. Given these facts, “the wedding of Cana is much more than a simple story about Jesus’ first miracle.”

“Like a treasure chest, (Jesus) guards the secret of his person and the purpose for his coming,” Pope Francis said, explaining that it is through this wedding that Jesus binds his disciples to himself “with a new and definitive covenant.”

Francis closed his address by noting how Cana marks the place where Jesus’ disciples become his family and “the faith of the Church is born,” adding that “we are all invited to that wedding, because the new wine will never be lacking!”

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