Catholic News 2

Bishop Angelo Pagano was last Sunday consecrated as the Vicar Apostolic of Harar in Ethiopia. The colourful ceremony took place at Diredawa St. Augustine Catholic Church. The new Bishop was welcomed to his Vicariate on 28 May at the Diredawa airport by the Archbishop of Addis Ababa, Cardinal Berhaneyesus, C.M., and Archbishop Luigi Bianco, the Apostolic Nuncio to Ethiopia. Also present were other Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia, the Mayor of Diredawa City Administration, students of Diredawa and hundreds of Catholics as well as people of good will.

On the occasion of his consecration Bishop Angelo, who has chosen “Love one another” (Jn 15:12-17) as his Episcopal motto, asked the congregation present to support him in his ministry with prayer.

“I humbly ask you to pray for the Christian community in the Apostolic Vicariate of Harar and for me so that God may give me a heart able to love and give consolation to his flock according to the feelings and will of Jesus the good shepherd,” he said.

The new Vicar Apostolic of Harar also took the time to pray for recently deceased Bishop Yohannes Miglioratti of Hawassa. He also prayed for Bishop Angelo Moreschi, the Apostolic Vicar of Gambella and for the Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Somalia, Giorgio Bertini, who are currently admitted in hospitals receiving medical attention.

Speaking at the same occasion, Bishop Emeritus of of Harar, Woldetensaé Ghebreghiorghis expressed his great joy for passing on the Catholic community of Harar to their new shepherd.

“Today when I pass on my spiritual children, all priests, religious women and men and all the faithful of Harar to Bishop Angelo, I consider him to be as lucky as I have been all these 29 years to have worked with you in spreading and witnessing the Good News to the people,” he said.

Bishop Woldetinsae also recalled some of the challenges experienced in the Vicariate. He appealed to the faithful to continue growing spiritually in prayer.

 “Together we have been through a lot, but with your prayers we have passed the hardships and reached this stage; it is my wish that very soon we will grow even more, and I hope to see that day while I am still alive.”

At the time of his appointment, the new Vicar Apostolic of Harar was serving as parish priest in the Diocese of Kumbo, Cameroon. He was born on 15 January 1954, in Asmara, Eritrea and ordained priest on June 25, 1988.

The consecration ceremony was attended by 23 delegates from Cameroon including Archbishop Cornelius Fonteni Esua, the Archbishop of Bamenda and Bishop George Nkuo of the Diocese of Kumbo in Cameroon. Others in the company of the Bishops were priests, sisters and the faithful of Cameroon.

Harar lies far in the east of Ethiopia. The Apostolic Vicariate of Harar includes the Harar Regional State, the Diredawa City Administration, the Somalia Regional State, part of Afar Regional State and Western Hararghe of Oromiya Regional State under its jurisdiction.

(Makeda Yohannes, Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Rome, Italy, Jun 1, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Irene Bertoni was 18 years-old during World War II. And it was at this tumultuous time that she discovered God's vocational call for her to be a mother.

She adopted two abandoned children, and with the blessing of her bishop founded the Catholic charitable work Nomadelfia, along with a priest named Father Zeno Saltini.

Mama Irene fully lived out her calling and died on May 15, the Solemnity of Pentecost, at 93 years-old. She was the adoptive mother of 58 children and an example for dozens of women who followed in her path.

Irene died in the home that Blessed Paul VI donated to her in the 1960s. Hundreds of people, including Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, attended the funeral which was held at the Nomadelfia community, founded in 1948 and which currently is comprised of more than 50 families that take in abandoned children as their own.

Saint John Paul II visited this community in 1989 and praised their way of life, saying it reminded him of the early Christians. The community has also received Pope Francis' blessing.

Bishop Rodolfo Cetoloni of Grosseto, Italy, conveyed Pope Francis' condolences and said that with Irene “a new and prophetic form of motherhood was born, that of mothers by vocational calling, mothers who during their lives took care of children who would not have had any other affection, and raised them to become Christian men and women.”

He added that “the first mother of Nomadelfia” took seriously the Gospel's call to “loving and taking care of the least...which today are called by Pope Francis those 'thrown away' by a society that continues to marginalize and seeks to exclude.”

“We must thank Irene and all the mothers by vocational calling for this service that Nomdelfia has raised up and offered for our time,” he said.

Avvenire, the Italian bishop conference's newspaper, quoted Elisa Tirabassi, the adopted great-granddaughter of Irene who said that her “life mission was always to do what is good.”

She also recalled that her great grandmother's kitchen “had the warm smell of coffee and a relaxed atmosphere where calm reigned and we lived in peace.” Tirabassi said that Irene would wait until evening for them to come home from work, and take great pains to make sure they had everything they needed.

“Finally when dinner was served, she sat down in front of me with her wonderful and disarming smile which shown from a face from which seemed to disappear all the signs left by time and her intense life,” she said.

Mamma Irene fue madre adoptiva de 58 hijos y ejemplo para mujeres que siguieron su camino https://t.co/I8Ze38AqJE pic.twitter.com/49Qd6qjQhk

— ACI Prensa (@aciprensa) May 29, 2016

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(Vatican Radio) The office of the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) has condemned the execution of three men by authorities in Gaza.

Listen to Peter Kenny’s report from Geneva:

The May 31 executions came despite serious and widespread concerns that international fair trial standards were not respected, and in spite of appeals by many local and international actors to halt the executions.

UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville said the executions were carried out without the approval of Palestinian President Mamoud Abbas as required under Palestinian law, effectively denying the men their right to seek pardon or commutation of their sentence.

“We remain deeply concerned about further planned executions in the near future,” Colville said. “We reiterate that death sentences carried out pursuant to unfair trials are in violation of international law.”

“We urge the authorities in Gaza to halt any future executions and to uphold their obligations under national and international law to respect the rights to life and to a fair trial.”

The UN rights body called on the Palestinian president to urgently establish a moratorium on the death penalty in line with the global trend, with a view to its abolition.

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(Vatican Radio) Preparations are underway in the French capital Paris for a new refugee camp in the city with the mayor expressing concern about the mounting death toll among people fleeing war and poverty.

She made the  remarks after officials said at least 1,000 or more migrants perished in the Mediterranean.

Listen to Stefan Bos’s report:

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Jerusalem, Israel, Jun 1, 2016 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Israeli government's policies for Christian schools and unfair education budget cuts put them at risk of collapse, the Office of Christian Schools in Israel has charged.

Fr. Abdel Masih Fahim, general secretary of the Catholic Church’s Office of Christian Schools in Israel, urged the Israeli government to recognize the importance of continued Christian education in Israel. These schools are a “vital component of the Christian presence in the Holy Land,” he said in a May 23 statement.

“Christian schools in Israel are now in immediate danger of collapsing financially,” he warned.

Fr. Fahim voiced concerns to the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Social Equality and others. These concerns focused on three imminent issues.

He called on the government to fulfill immediately the transfer of 50 million shekels, about $13 million. He said the government must decide on a fixed annual sum to be paid to Christian schools to “compensate for the drastic cuts.”

He called for new legislation to “create a new status for the Christian schools that will ensure sufficient funding and take into consideration their uniqueness and long service in the land.”

The statement said that about 47 Christian school educate around 33,000 Christian, Muslims, Druze, and Jewish students around Israel. These schools are owned by various groups from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, as well as the Anglican Church of Scotland, Christ Church, and the Baptists.

The Christian schools criticized the Israeli government, saying it drastically reduced the budget allocation for Christian schools.  Over the past six years the national budget allocation for the schools has been cut by 45 percent.  Furthermore, the education ministry has issued regulations to restrict the limit on the collection of school tuition fees from parents.

In September 2015 Christian schools made a continuous 27-day protest about the measures, and constraints on their ability to raise funds. The demonstrations ended after the government promised an agreement with the Christian schools, and to supply the $13 million by the end of March 2016 to compensate for budget cuts in previous years.

This promised agreement has remained unfulfilled.
 
A special commission has been established to deliberate on proposed changes and to make recommendations for the Christian schools.  

The commission recommended that the schools join the Israeli public school system, but the Christian schools have expressed their reservations about the proposal.

The commission proposals suggested an additional three hours per class be dedicated each week to “strengthen and preserve the Christian identity and the special style of living in Christian schools.”

The collection of tuition fees in Christian schools will be determined by the committee from the ministry of education.

Fr. Fahim decried the way the education department has handled these concerns, saying the recommendations do not solve the financial crisis and further force Christian institutions to join the public school system.

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