Catholic News 2

One million people from Uganda and beyond gathered on Friday 3 June to celebrate Martyrs Day at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda.

Given the immense importance that the celebration of the Solemnity of the Uganda Martyrs holds for the people of Uganda and beyond, the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of Sacraments, in the Vatican, gave the Ugandan Church approval to transfer the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from Friday 3 June 2016 to Friday 10 June 2016.

Uganda’s New Vision daily newspaper reports that the main celebrant, Bishop Joseph Anthony Ziwa of Kiyinda Mityana Diocese called upon the Faithful to emulate the Uganda Martyrs by sticking to the truth. He said only the truth would save society from evils witnessed today. He made the appeal during the homily to pilgrims at the Namugongo shrine.

 "We know that the absence of the truth leads man to commit social evils in society, but we cannot be witnesses of Christ in the world when our speech is packed with lies," Bishop Zziwa told pilgrims. He also warned Christians against living a ‘double life.’

“Some people are Christians during the day and at night behave like pagans.  Let us be truthful, and the truth shall make us free, Let us be renewed by this pilgrimage to Namugongo and resolve to witness to the truth," added Bishop Ziwa.

Quoting Pope Francis, Bishop Zziwa said that the strength of the Christian community of Uganda depends on the Martyrs who testified that the truth shall set humankind free.

In light of that message and in the spirit of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the theme of this year's Uganda Martyrs Day celebration was, "Truth shall set you Free." Bishop Zziwa explained that Jesus used this message while preaching to the disciples who were facing opposition from the Pharisees and the scribes.

According to Bishop Zziwa, Christians should be identified by their witness to the truth just as the Martyrs did many years ago, reports the New Vision of Uganda.

Uganda’s Martyrs Day, which falls on 3 June, every year commemorates the heroic faith of the 45 Martyrs, both Catholic and Anglican, who were burnt to death on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II, the then King of Buganda between 1885 and 1887. Twenty-two Catholic Martyrs were beatified on 6 June 1920, by Pope Benedict XV, and on 18 October 1964, Pope Paul VI canonised them as Saints.

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(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis on Saturday welcomed deacons from the International Diaconate Center in a private audience, reminding them of Jesus’ commandment of love and their vocation to service as an expression of that love.

Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:

In remarks to the delegates from the International Diaconate Center, Pope Francis focused on the early Church’s foundation of the diaconate as a concrete expression of Jesus’ new commandment of love.

He also said their 50th anniversary, which takes place in this Jubilee of Mercy, provides “a spiritual context aimed at renewing in us awareness of the importance of mercy in our lives and in our ministry”.

The Holy Father said Jesus Himself is the newness of the new commandment of love in the Gospel of John.

“The Lord Jesus entrusted the Apostles with a new commandment: “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”. Jesus Himself is this ‘newness’. He gave us an example so that, as He did, we should also do… By loving one another, the disciples continue the mission for which the Son of God came into the world. They understand, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that this commandment involves service to our brothers and sisters.”

This realization of the necessity of service along with the concrete needs of the early Christian community, the Pope said, led the disciples to implement the diaconate, a word which literally means service.

He said, “Deacons manifest the commandment of Jesus in a particular way: imitating God in the service of others; imitating God who is love and desires to serve us. The manner of God’s acting – that is, His acting with patience, goodness, compassion, and willingness to make us better persons – these must also characterize all ministers. It is especially deacons who are the face of the Church in the daily life of a community, which lives and journeys in the midst of the people and in which the greatest is not the one who commands, but the one who serves”

Pope Francis concluded by telling the deacons, “May the Lord sustain you in your service and help you arrive at an ever deeper faith in His love, so that you may live it in joy and dedication.”

Below is Vatican Radio's English translation of the Pope's remarks:

Dear Brothers,

It’s my pleasure to welcome you in occasion of the 50th anniversary of the International Center of the Diaconate, which you celebrated at the end of last year. Your visit takes place during the Holy Year of Mercy, which provides a spiritual context aimed at renewing in us awareness of the importance of mercy in our lives and in our ministry. I thank you all for your presence, and I especially thank Mons. Fürst and Prof. Kießling for their kind words.

The Lord Jesus entrusted the Apostles with a new commandment: “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13,34). Jesus Himself is this ‘newness’. He gave us an example so that, as He did, we should also do (cf. Jn 13,15). That commandment of love is the last will of Jesus, given to the disciples in the upper room after the washing of the disciples’ feet. Shortly afterwards he underlines: “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15,12).  By loving one another, the disciples continue the mission for which the Son of God came into the world. They understand, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that this commandment involves service to our brothers and sisters. In order to provide for the concrete care of people and their necessities, the Apostles chose several “deacons”, that is, servants. Deacons manifest the commandment of Jesus in a particular way: imitating God in the service of others; imitating God who is love and desires to serve us. The manner of God’s acting – that is, His acting with patience, goodness, compassion, and willingness to make us better persons – these must also characterize all ministers: Bishops as successors of the Apostles, priests – their collaborators – and deacons in the concrete “serving at table” (Acts 6,2). It is especially deacons who are the face of the Church in the daily life of a community, which lives and journeys in the midst of the people and in which the greatest is not the one who commands, but the one who serves (cf. Lk 22,26).

Dear deacons, I hope your pilgrimage to Rome during this Jubilee Year is an intense experience of the mercy of God and that it helps you to grow in your vocation as ministers of Christ. May the Lord sustain you in your service and help you arrive at an ever deeper faith in His love, so that you may live it in joy and dedication. Know that my prayer and my blessing is with you always, and please do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.

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Marianists in Ivory Coast recently celebrated 200 years of their foundation with Holy Mass and festivities at the National Marian Shrine of Abidjan, Attécoubé.

Marianists are a worldwide family of Catholic religious sisters, priests, brothers and committed lay persons. The Daughters of Mary Immaculate and the Marianist lay community were founded in France in 1816 by Venerable Adela de Batz de Trenquelléon while Blessed William Joseph Chaminade similarly founded the Society of Mary with brothers and priests, a year later in 1817.

In Ivory Coast, Fr. Georges Gbézé presided over the Marian celebrations at a colourful Eucharist attended by many members of this big Marian religious family.

At the celebrations, the sisters, priests and lay persons of Ivory Coast pledged to use the occasion to recommit themselves to their calling. They noted that the bicentennial celebration was a milestone that marked yet a new beginning in their mission entrusted them by Christ through their founders.

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(Vatican Radio) On Saturday Pope Francis met with National Directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies and those who work with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

The encounter took place in the context of the one hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Pontifical Missionary Union (PMU), which was inspired by Blessed Paolo Manna, a missionary priest of the Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions. In his address to the group, Pope Francis said that, “through the intuition of Blessed Paolo Manna and the mediation of the Apostolic See, the Holy Spirit has led the Church to have an every understanding of her own missionary nature, later brought to maturation by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.”

Blessed Paolo Manna emphasized the importance of forming Bishops and Priests, and through them, the laity, for the missions. But, the Pope insisted, the emphasis on the formation of clergy does not mean “reducing the PMU to a simply clerical reality.” Rather, it has the mission of “supporting the hierarchy in its service to the missionary nature of the Church,” which is proper to everyone, in their own way, in the Church. In this way, he said, the “Pastors of the Church help to keep the Church, always and everywhere, in a state of mission.”

“Mission makes the Church,” the Pope said, “and keeps her faithful to the salvific will of God.” He asked the directors and collaborators to focus on the commitment to “permanent formation in mission,” with “the intention of serving and nourishing the missionary identity of the whole Church.” He noted especially the importance of newer Churches, which can transmit to “the Churches of ancient foundation” some of “the ardour of young faith, the witness of Christian hope, sustained by the admirable courage of martyrdom.” He encouraged them to serve these new Churches with great love, helping them bring people to the Gospel “through attraction, and not through proselytism.”

Concluding his address, Pope Francis called for the directors and collaborators to engage in a “re-thinking” of their mission, with the goal of an “adequate reformation of methods,” and “an authentic renewal.” He expressed his gratitude for the work of the PMU, entrusting its service to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Missions; to Saints Peter and Paul, to Saint Guido Maria Conforti, and to Blessed Paolo Manna.”

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(Vatican Radio) In a new Apostolic Letter, issued motu proprio, Pope Francis has established new norms providing for the removal of Bishops (or those equivalent to them in Canon Law) from their offices in cases where they have “through negligance, committed or omitted acts that have caused grave harm to others, either with regard to physical persons, or with regard to the community itself.”

The Apostolic Letter “Come una madre amorevole” (As a Loving Mother) also clarifies that, with regard “to abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, it is sufficient that the lack of diligence be grave.”

The full text of the Apostolic Letter, in Italian, can be found here.

In a note explaining the new procedures, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, said, “The Apostolic Letter insists on the importance of vigilant care for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, calling for a ‘particular diligence.” Therefore, he continued, “it clarifies that negligence regarding cases of sexual abuse committed against children or vulnerable adults are among the ‘grave causes’ that justify removal from ecclesiastical Offices, even of Bishops.”

The new Letter, according to Father Lombardi, establishes a procedure for carrying out a Canon already present in both the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of Eastern Churches. It is not a penal procedure, he said, because it concerns cases of negligence, rather than with a crime that has been committed. For the same reason, the Dicasteries charged with following through on the procedures include the Congregations for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples, for Oriental Churches, and for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, instead of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Father Lombardi drew attention especially to two points in the Apostolic Letter. First, the “lack of diligence” necessary for removal from office can exist even be “without grave moral fault” on the part of the Bishop.

Second, in cases concerning the abuse of minors “it is sufficient that the lack of diligence be ‘grave,’ while in other cases it is required that the lack of diligence be ‘very grave’.” This effectively lowers the standard necessary for a Bishop to be removed from office when there is negligence with regard to cases of sexual abuse.

In cases involving important decisions regarding Bishops, including those foreseen in the Apostolic Letter, the specific approval of the Holy Father is necessary. Father Lombardi noted that this is not a new disposition.

However, the Apostolic Letter does introduce a new “dedicated College of jurists” (It.: “apposite Collegio di giuristi"), which will assist the Holy Father before he makes a definitive decision. Father Lombardi said the College would be expected to be composed of Cardinals and Bishops.

Finally, Father Lombardi noted that because the Apostolic Letter concerns new procedural norms, the question of retroactivity does not apply, as law on the possibility of removal from office “for grave cause” already exists. The Letter simply establishes procedures for the application of the already existing law. 

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jun 4, 2016 / 05:11 am (CNA).-

What began with glowing rosaries and the rediscovery of a statue of the Virgin Mary in Argentina has now been approved by the local bishop as a series of apparitions that are “of supernational origin” and worthy of belief.

And the designation is deeply significant, recognizing the messages of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas, which exhort peace and give dire warnings, one miracle researcher says.

Bishop Hector Cardelli of San Nicolas in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province made the announcement May 22 at the conclusion of a Mass during the well-attended pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas.

The bishop has investigated the contents of the apparitions through 1990.

“(I)n my twelfth year of pastoring San Nicolas and, having followed with faith and responsibility the Marian events that I have known about since the very beginning, I have reached the decision to recognize them for my diocese,” Bishop Hector said.

“I recognize the supernatural nature of the happy events with which God through his beloved daughter, Jesus through his Most Holy Mother, the Holy Spirit through his beloved spouse, has desired to lovingly manifest himself in our diocese.”

Michael O’Neil, a miracle researcher and author who runs the website MiracleHunter.com, told CNA that the approval is significant. It means that the messages from the apparitions are not only approved for the faithful to read, he explained: the bishop is saying the events were in fact actual miraculous apparitions.

“That puts it on par with Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe,” O’Neil said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">12.00 Santo Rosario <br>12.30 Santa Misa pedimos por las intenciones pedidas a la Virgen del Rosario de San Nicolás. <a href="https://t.co/oUymGE2za9">pic.twitter.com/oUymGE2za9</a></p>&mdash; BasilicaNtraSra BsAs (@BasilicaSraBsAs) <a href="https://twitter.com/BasilicaSraBsAs/status/691397156025036800">January 24, 2016</a></blockquote>
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The apparitions began after some rosaries in homes throughout San Nicolas de los Arroyos in Buenos Aires Province began to glow without any explanation.

A wife and mother named Gladys Quiroga de Motta saw these glowing rosaries and began to pray to the Virgin Mary. The Virgin appeared to her on Sept. 25, carrying the infant Jesus and wearing a blue gown and veil. Her figure glowed with light.

With only a fourth-grade education, Gladys had no great knowledge of the Bible or theology. She is a mother of two daughters and a grandmother.  

At various times, the Virgin Mary apparition referred the woman to several Bible verses. One month after the first appearance, the apparition gave Gladys a white rosary and said, “Receive this Rosary from my hands and keep it forever and ever. You are obedient; I am happy because of it. Rejoice, for God is with you.”

The Virgin Mary asked Gladys to go look for a statue that had been blessed by a Pope and was forgotten away in a church. She found the statue on Nov. 27, 1983. It was in the belfry of the diocesan cathedral.

The statue in question was of the Mother of God holding the Child Jesus. It had been brought from Rome after it was blessed by Pope Leo XIII. Following the Virgin’s instructions, it was found in the bell tower of the church. The statue resembled the apparition.

Gladys also received 68 visits and messages from Jesus.

According to reports, Gladys shared the apparitions’ messages from the beginning. She was always at the disposal of the church authorities. Gladys now lives a life of great devotion, always keeping a low profile. She reportedly received the stigmata on her wrists, feet, side and shoulder.

There have been several documented healings related to the apparitions, including the healing of a boy with a brain tumor.

Gladys has shared about 1,800 messages from the Virgin Mary, O’Neil said. Many focus on topics like peace, repentance, returning to the sacraments, and drawing people closer to Christ. But there are also messages in an apocalyptic theme, predicting great turmoil for humanity ahead.

“So that’s the tricky part with all of this,” O’Neil said. “It’s not as simple as some of the other apparitions that just draw people closer to Christ… there are some dire warnings as well.”

Father René Laurentin, an expert on Marian apparitions, recounted the apparitions’ messages in his book, “An Appeal from Mary in Argentina.”

At one point, Mary said, “Many hearts do not accept my invitation to prayer and to conversion. That is why the work of the devil is growing and expanding.”

The warnings said that mankind is “in the process of falling in to a progressive self-destruction” and the Virgin Mary represents hope. “It is up to you to set your eyes and your heart on God,” she said.

“I want to cure my children from this illness which is materialism; an illness which makes many suffer. I want to help them discover Christ, and I want to make it known to them that Christ prevails over everything,” Mary said in the apparition. She stressed the importance of prayer, especially the rosary.

The apparition of Jesus told Gladys, “If this generation will not listen to my mother, it will perish. I ask everyone to listen to her. Man’s conversion is necessary.”

“Today I warn the world, for the world is not aware: souls are in danger. Many are lost,” Jesus said in a 1987 apparition. “Few will find salvation unless they accept me as their Savior. My mother must be accepted. My mother must be heard in the totality of her messages. The world must discover the richness she brings to Christians.”

“The children of sin will grow up in sin if their unbelief increases. I want a renewal of the spirit, a detachment from death, and an attachment to life. I have chosen the heart of my mother, so that what I ask will be achieved. Souls will come to me through the means of her Immaculate Heart.”

The diocese’s successive local bishops have discussed the apparitions several times. Bishop Domingo Salvador Castagna ordered the construction of a shrine as the Virgin had requested. Construction began in 1987 and the shrine was consecrated in 1990. That year, he approved the publication and dissemination of the messages of Our Lady of the Rosary in San Nicolas.

Every year, a massive pilgrimage to the shrine takes place on May 22.

O’Neil said it is unique that the bishops have approved the apparition messages from 1983-1990, even though the apparition is continuing today.

“So we have an apparition where we have a living visionary, who’s approved as authentic by the bishops,” he said. “Usually they wait until the messages end or the visionary dies, but in this particular case they decided to go ahead with the approval.”

Bishop Cardelli explained the process that led him to make his latest decision. He consulted experts and witnesses and was conscious of his duty to monitor or intervene in such apparition claims.

He said that he judged the events according to two criteria: “Positive and negative, and in both cases there were not, nor are there errors.” He said that he made his discernment using three specific criteria: “Were the events of natural origin? Could it be a work of the Enemy? Are they of supernatural origin?”

“The answers to these questions gave me the certainty that the fruits are real and positive and go beyond mere human action,” the bishop stated.

O’Neill said that the process for approving apparitions evaluates their messages to ensure there is nothing to contradict Scripture, tradition or the faith and morals of the Catholic Church. Apparitions are “private revelation” that do not add to the public revelation of Sacred Scripture. The investigation also evaluates the visionary to confirm that they are of sound mind and moral character.

The declaration that an apparition is “worthy of belief” does not mean the faithful are obliged to believe the apparition or that it happened. O’Neil said that there was no evidence that Pope Francis was involved in evaluating this apparition when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Bishop Cardelli’s decree states that he recognized the apparition with “moral certitude, good intention and hope” and after fulfilling the Holy See’s suggested requirements for discernment. He said the decree is “seeking the greater glory of God and the good of our Church.”

Accompanying the bishop’s decree is the presentation of the book “The Spiritual School of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas.” The book says the most important teachings in the Virgin Mary’s messages are that “she offers us for our adherence to everything He tells us, because He is the culmination of revelation.”

“Finally, and as Our Holy Mother has requested, I implore Heaven in the name of the entire diocese, that she be forever the Queen and Lady of San Nicolas de los Arroyos,” the bishop concluded.

Credit: Myibean via www.shutterstock.com.

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