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FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) -- Canada's Prime Minister arrived in wildfire-ravaged Fort McMurray on Friday and after taking a helicopter tour to assess the damage said he doesn't think most Canadians comprehend yet the scope of what happened in the oil sands capital, where more than 88,000 people were forced to evacuate....
Tulsa, Okla., May 13, 2016 / 10:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Friday named Father David Austin Konderla, the longtime campus ministry director at Texas A & M University, as the next Bishop of Tulsa.He will succeed Tulsa’s Bishop Edward Slattery, who turned 75 last August.“My prayer of petition to God the Father is for the good health and spiritual strength of the new bishop,” Bishop Slattery said May 13. “I know our people have been praying that Pope Francis would send us an energetic and prayerful man to be our shepherd, and I believe God has heard our prayer.”The bishop-designate has served as pastor and director of campus ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A & M University since August 2005, the Austin diocese said.Bishop-designate Konderla was born June 3, 1960 in Bryan, Texas, 100 miles northeast of Austin. He was the second of twelve children and has 25 nieces and nephews. He graduated from Bryan High School in...
Tulsa, Okla., May 13, 2016 / 10:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Friday named Father David Austin Konderla, the longtime campus ministry director at Texas A & M University, as the next Bishop of Tulsa.
He will succeed Tulsa’s Bishop Edward Slattery, who turned 75 last August.
“My prayer of petition to God the Father is for the good health and spiritual strength of the new bishop,” Bishop Slattery said May 13. “I know our people have been praying that Pope Francis would send us an energetic and prayerful man to be our shepherd, and I believe God has heard our prayer.”
The bishop-designate has served as pastor and director of campus ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A & M University since August 2005, the Austin diocese said.
Bishop-designate Konderla was born June 3, 1960 in Bryan, Texas, 100 miles northeast of Austin. He was the second of twelve children and has 25 nieces and nephews. He graduated from Bryan High School in 1978 and worked for several years as a machinist. He entered the seminary in 1985, and graduated from the University of Dallas in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Austin June 3, 1995.
He has a masters of divinity from the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary’s Seminary, and has also cultivated skills in woodworking and carpentry.
The bishop-designate has served on the Austin diocese’s College of Consultors, its presbyteral council, and its priests’ personnel board.
He served at St. Louis Parish in Austin and St. Luke’s Parish in Temple, Texas. He then served for four years as associate pastor of St. Mary’s before being named vocation director for the Diocese of Austin.
Bishop-designate Konderla’s ordination is tentatively scheduled for the end of June.
Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin said he was “filled with joy” at the appointment.
“I invite the Diocese of Austin to join me in prayer as Father Konderla transitions from our diocese to shepherd the people of the Diocese of Tulsa.”
Bishop Slattery said his heart “turns to Christ with sentiments of gratitude and joy for his constant Presence in my life and in the life of the Church.”
The Tulsa diocese has 78 parishes and missions across the 31 counties of eastern Oklahoma.
Rome, Italy, May 13, 2016 / 12:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday afternoon Pope Francis made a surprise visit to a community in Italy which houses and cares for persons who have severe mental disabilities, where he visited both the care-givers and the beneficiaries.The visit was part of his “Mercy Friday” initiative, in which he carries out one act of mercy a month on a Friday throughout the Jubilee of Mercy.The Pope's visit to Il Chicco was announced in a May 13 communique from Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Holy See press officer.Pope Francis sat at table and ate with the volunteers and the disabled, and listened to their testimonies.“He also visited the most severely disabled, showing signs of deep affection and tenderness; in particular to Armando and Fabio, who were the first to be accepted,” Fr. Lombardi related.Il Chicco is located in Ciampino, a town just outside of Rome. It was founded in 1981 by L'Arche, a federation dedicated to making kno...
Rome, Italy, May 13, 2016 / 12:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday afternoon Pope Francis made a surprise visit to a community in Italy which houses and cares for persons who have severe mental disabilities, where he visited both the care-givers and the beneficiaries.
The visit was part of his “Mercy Friday” initiative, in which he carries out one act of mercy a month on a Friday throughout the Jubilee of Mercy.
The Pope's visit to Il Chicco was announced in a May 13 communique from Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Holy See press officer.
Pope Francis sat at table and ate with the volunteers and the disabled, and listened to their testimonies.
“He also visited the most severely disabled, showing signs of deep affection and tenderness; in particular to Armando and Fabio, who were the first to be accepted,” Fr. Lombardi related.
Il Chicco is located in Ciampino, a town just outside of Rome. It was founded in 1981 by L'Arche, a federation dedicated to making known the gifts of persons with intellectual disabilities. It houses 18 persons with disabilities.
L'Arche was founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier, when he welcomed two disabled men to leave the institutions where they were living and come live with him instead. His desire attracted others, and L'Arche now has more than 100 communities in 29 countries around the world.
The movement focuses on recognizing the gifts of the disabled, and so each house includes a workshop where they are able to work.
Pope Francis visited the workship at Il Chicco, and afterwards went to the chapel to pray with the community. He spent an hour and a half with the community, and before he left he gifted them with a monetary contribution and a basket of seasonal fruits, including cherries and peaches.
The Pope “has expressed with this visit one of the most salient points expressing his pontificate: attention to the simplest and weakest,” Fr. Lombardi wrote. “Bringing them tenderness and affection, he wished to give a concrete sign of how to live the Year of Mercy.”
Today's visit to Il Chicco is the fifth 'sign of mercy' done by Pope Francis to mark the months of the Jubilee of Mercy: in January he visited a nursing home, in February a community for addicts; in March, a refugee center, and in April, refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos.
The Jubilee of Mercy is an Extraordinary Holy Year that began Dec. 8, 2015, and will close Nov. 20, with the feast of Christ the King.
Lima, Peru, May 13, 2016 / 12:53 pm (CNA).- The superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae announced in a statement today that Archbishop Joseph William Tobin of Indianapolis has been appointed by the Vatican as the delegate to oversee the order’s ongoing reforms.According to the statement, Archbishop Tobin was appointed to the task by the Congregation for the Institutios of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life. As delegate, Archbishop Tobin’s responsibilities include advising and supporting the Superior General and the governance of the Sodalitium in the fulfillment of all of its responsibilities, including all of the decisions made in the sessions of the Superior Council of the order.At the end of each semester, Archbishop Tobin will inform the Holy See of the decisions, initiatives and results of the Governance of the Sodalitium in the areas of community life and fraternity, vocation and discernment of candidates, initial and permanent format...
Lima, Peru, May 13, 2016 / 12:53 pm (CNA).- The superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae announced in a statement today that Archbishop Joseph William Tobin of Indianapolis has been appointed by the Vatican as the delegate to oversee the order’s ongoing reforms.
According to the statement, Archbishop Tobin was appointed to the task by the Congregation for the Institutios of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life. As delegate, Archbishop Tobin’s responsibilities include advising and supporting the Superior General and the governance of the Sodalitium in the fulfillment of all of its responsibilities, including all of the decisions made in the sessions of the Superior Council of the order.
At the end of each semester, Archbishop Tobin will inform the Holy See of the decisions, initiatives and results of the Governance of the Sodalitium in the areas of community life and fraternity, vocation and discernment of candidates, initial and permanent formation and the management of apostolic projects. He will also oversee the administration of the goods of the community.
The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is a society of apostolic life which was founded in 1971 in Peru, and granted pontifical recognition in 1997. Alejandro Bermúdez, executive director of CNA, is a member of the community.
In April 2016, an ethics commission created to investigate and offer proposals surrounding accusations of abuse against the founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae released its report, which detailed an internal culture of extreme “discipline and obedience to the founder.”
This culture was “forged on the basis of extreme physical demands, as well as physical punishments, constituting abuses which violated the fundamental rights of persons,” the commission wrote in its April 16 report.
The Ethics Commission for Justice and Reconciliation was formed in November 2015 at the request of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. It is formed of two lawyers, a bishop, a psychiatrist, and a journalist.
Members of the community have suffered physical, psychological, spiritual, and moral damage, the ethics commission reported.
Figari stepped down as superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae in 2010, following allegations of abuse. The current superior general, Alessandro Moroni Llabres, confirmed Figari's guilt last month.
Archbishop Tobin has been the Superior General for the Redemptorists, Secretary for the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and has come to know first-hand religious life on a global scale. His experience includes having been responsible for the visit and reform of the masculine communities in Ireland during the sex abuse crisis in the country.
According to the statement, as delegate, Archbishop Tobin may also select his own collaborator, who can act in the position of delegate in Archbishop Tobin’s absence.
It was also announced in the statement that the Sodalitium has decided to close the house in Rome where Luis Fernando Figari has been living, in order to move him to a more isolated place in agreement with the requirements that the Holy See has set to be able to continue with the investigation of the order.
“With this Vatican Decree and the naming of Archbishop Tobin, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae reaffirms its decision to carry out a profound reform, to attend and assist the victims and to fully take up again our mission of apostolate and evangelization,” Moroni said in the statement.
In addition to Peru, the community operates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, and Italy.
IMAGE: CNS/EPABy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the Year of Mercy continues, PopeFrancis has a full calendar of jubilee events and special Masses with priests, thesick and people who regularly perform the corporal works of mercy.The calendar of papal liturgies in June, July and Septemberalso includes the canonization Sept. 4 of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata and thecanonizations June 5 of Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, who refounded the BridgettineSisters in the early 1900s, and Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski, founder of theMarian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.The calendar, released by the Vatican May 13, includes:-- Mass June 3, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, andthe conclusion of the jubilee for priests.-- Mass June 5 for the canonizations of Blesseds Hesselbladand Papczynski.-- Mass June 12 for the jubilee for the sick and personswith disabilities.-- An ordinary consistory June 20 to vote on severalcanonization causes.-- A papal trip to Armenia June 24-26.-- M...
IMAGE: CNS/EPA
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the Year of Mercy continues, Pope Francis has a full calendar of jubilee events and special Masses with priests, the sick and people who regularly perform the corporal works of mercy.
The calendar of papal liturgies in June, July and September also includes the canonization Sept. 4 of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata and the canonizations June 5 of Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, who refounded the Bridgettine Sisters in the early 1900s, and Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski, founder of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.
The calendar, released by the Vatican May 13, includes:
-- Mass June 3, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the conclusion of the jubilee for priests.
-- Mass June 5 for the canonizations of Blesseds Hesselblad and Papczynski.
-- Mass June 12 for the jubilee for the sick and persons with disabilities.
-- An ordinary consistory June 20 to vote on several canonization causes.
-- A papal trip to Armenia June 24-26.
-- Mass and the blessing of palliums for new archbishops June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
-- A papal trip to Poland July 27-31 for World Youth Day in Krakow.
-- Mass Sept. 4 for the canonization of Blessed Teresa and the conclusion of the jubilee for those engaged in the works of mercy.
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