Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for May 15, 2016 features a selection of readings and reflections relating to the Sunday gospel, a musical meditation focusing on the third Glorious Mystery of the Rosary and a timely spiritual reflection.

A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:

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(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for May 14, 2016 features our report on the weekly general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world. This is followed by echoes of the days when the Papal Palace in Castelgandolfo became a safe haven for tens of thousands of refugees escaping from the battle fronts south of  Rome at the will of Pius XII and the story of Jacob brought alive by scripture scholar Archbishop Mark Benedict Coleridge. In the final segment of the programme Veronica Scarisbrick shares a brief tour of the Roman Forum she once went on with Carmelite Father Reginald Foster.

A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: 

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(Vatican Radio)  Today Pope Francis received in audience the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Beata Szydlo, who subsequently met with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States.

In a statement, the Vatican Press Office described the talks as “cordial” and said the two “noted the positive contribution of the Catholic Church in Polish society.”

Particular reference was made, it said, to the visit that the Holy Father will make to Poland in the month of July for World Youth Day.  Also mentioned were recent celebrations in Gniezno and Poznan for the 1050 anniversary of the Baptism of Poland, that were attended by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, acting as Papal Legate.

Later, the Pope and Prime Minister focused on themes of mutual interest, such as the promotion of the family in the current socio-cultural context and the reception of refugees. Finally, issues of concern to the international community, such as peace and security, the conflict in Syria and the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and the Middle East were also discussed.

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(Vatican Radio) The head of the International Union of Superiors General on Friday shared details of the organisation’s meeting with Pope Francis, including his comments on women in leadership and the possibility of their being readmitted to the diaconate.

Philippa Hitchen reports: 

Sr Carmen Sammut, the president of the UISG and superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, spoke one day after the group of some 900 leaders of women’s congregations had a closed door meeting with the Pope in the Paul VI audience hall.

She said that ahead of the encounter the sisters had asked for a dialogue with the pontiff, rather than simply listening to a speech, as happened on their previous meeting three years ago. The UISG then asked for input from their sisters across the globe and received around thirty questions which they were able to put to Pope Francis.

“We were quite excited by the fact that Pope Francis did not leave any question out – he really wanted to answer each of our questions”

Sr Carmen spoke about two of the questions that have been generating news headlines, including the Pope’s words on the need for more women in positions of leadership in the Church.

Women in decision-making

“He was very strong about the fact that women should be in decision-making processes and positions of the Church and that this should not be linked solely with the priesthood or sacramental status”.

'Feminism' and 'clericalism'

The UISG president noted that Pope Francis warned about two attitudes which do harm to the Church: firstly, what he called a “feminist” position of wanting to be leaders simply because we are women, and secondly, she said, he spoke at length about the problem of “clericalism”. All Catholics, the Pope insisted, should be involved in decision making at parish level and at higher levels including in the Roman dicasteries.

Commission on women deacons

Regarding the question of a commission to study the readmission of women to the diaconate, Sr Carmen said the Pope accepted their proposal and agreed to carry the suggestion forward.

“And I hope that one day there will be a real decision about this – this is my hope”. 

Please find below the full video statement from the UISG 

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(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Holy See’s Press office, Father Federico Lombardi, said Pope Francis did not say in his remarks to the Heads of female religious orders and congregations that he intends to introduce the ordination of women and even less the ordination of women as priests. Father Lombardi’s statement followed the Pope’s widely-reported remarks that he wants to set up a Commission to study the question of female deacons. Pope Francis’ remarks on deaconesses came during a question and answer session on Thursday with some 900 heads of female religious orders and congregations who form part of the International Union of Superiors General. 

During the hour and a half long conversation about the mission and ministry of women in religious life, the Pope responded to several delicate questions, including one where he was asked what prevents the Church from including women among the permanent deacons, just like during the early Church. In his reply, the Pope said understanding about the role of female deacons in the early Church remained unclear and agreed with the sisters that it would be useful to set up a Commission to study the question.

Father Lombardi described the encounter between the Pope and the female religious as a “beautiful conversation”  that was very “encouraging” about women and in particular about consecrated women in the life of the Church, including their role in important positions within the dicasteries where ordination is not implied.

Referring to the Pope’s much reported remark about setting up a Commission to study the question of female deacons, Father Lombardi said this was an issue that has been talked about within the Church in the past and arises from the fact that in the early Church there were women described as deaconesses who carried out certain tasks within the Christian community.  

Father Lombardi said “we need to be honest” when looking at the Pope’s remarks about being willing to set up a Commission to look again at this issue with greater clarity.

“The Pope did not say he intends to introduce the ordination of female deacons and even less did he talk about the ordination of women as priests.” In actual fact, the Pope made clear in his preaching during the course of the Eucharistic celebration that he was not considering this (question) at all.”  

Father Lombardi also said it was wrong to reduce all the many important things said by the Pope during his meeting with the religious sisters to this one question.  

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India has four of the 10 cities in the world with the worst air pollution, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.   But while WHO experts acknowledge India faces a "huge challenge", many countries are so bad that they have no monitoring system and cannot be included in its ranking.  The dirtiest air was recorded at Zabol in Iran, which suffers from months of dust storms in the summer, and which clocked a so-called PM2.5 measure of 217.  The next pair were Indian - Gwalior, Allahabad, followed by Riyadh and Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia, then two more Indian cities, Patna and Raipur.   India's capital New Delhi was the survey's 11th worst city, measured by the amount of particulate matter under 2.5  micrograms found in every cubic metre of air.  Delhi had an annual average PM2.5 measurement of 122.

Tiny particulate matter can cause lung cancer, strokes and heart disease over the long term, as well as trigger symptoms such as heart attacks that kill more rapidly. The WHO says more than 7 million premature deaths occur every year due to air pollution, 3 million of them due to outdoor air quality.

New Delhi was ranked worst in 2014 with a PM2.5 reading of 153. It has since tried to tackle its toxic air by limiting the use of private cars on the road for short periods.  Maria Neira, head of public health, environmental and social determinants of health at the WHO, praised India's government for developing a national plan to deal with the problem when others have been unable to.   She noted that probably some of the most polluted cities in the world are not included in the WHO list simply because they do not even have a good system of monitoring of air quality, so it's unfair to compare or give a rank. 

Common causes of air pollution include too many cars, especially diesel-fuelled vehicles, the heating and cooling of big buildings, waste management, agriculture and the use of coal or diesel generators for power.   On average, pollution levels worsened by 8 percent between 2008 and 2013, although most cities in rich countries improved the state of their air over the same period.  The WHO data, a survey of 3,000 urban areas, shows only 2 percent of cities in poorer countries have air quality that meets WHO standards, while 44 percent of richer cities do.  (Source: Reuters)

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(Vatican Radio)  Two canonization ceremonies, including that of Mother Teresa of Kolkata and two foreing visits are among the highlights of the schedule of Pope Francis in the coming months.   The Office for the Liturgical Celebration of the Surpreme Pointiff on Friday released the Pope’s June- 4 September schedule. 

On June 5, the Pope will declare as saints, Polish priest Fr. Stanislaus of Jesus-Mary and Swedish nun Sr. Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad, and on Sept. 4 he will canonize Mother Teresa.  Both ceremonies will be held in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.  

The Pope has two foreign trips.  He will visit Armenia, June 24-26, and Poland, July 27-31, for the 31 World Youth Day in Krakow.  In June he has two Year of Mercy Jubilee celebrations -  that of priests on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 3, and that of the sick and persons with disabilities on June 12. ‎  On June 29, the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, he will confer the pallium on new metropolitan archbishops. On Mother Teresa’s canonization day, Sept. 4, the Pope will mark the Jubilee of workers and volunteers of mercy.    

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Vatican City, May 12, 2016 / 10:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Thursday Pope Francis said he would be open to the idea of forming a commission to study the historical context of the female deaconate, as well as the possibility of women serving as deacons today.

He spoke to some 800 members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), who are meeting in Rome May 9-13 for their Plenary Assembly, which focuses largely on the role of women in the Church, and obstacles hindering it.

According to Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, during their May 12 audience with the Pope, Francis, in addition to other topics, spoke about the role of women, both consecrated and lay, which is “still weak both in decision-making processes in the Church” and in preaching.

He briefly touched on the temptations of both feminism and clericalism, as well as the question of the presence of women in the permanent diaconate of the Church, saying it would be “useful to establish a commission to study” the topic.

Part of the Church’s sacrament of Holy Orders, the diaconate is currently only open to men.

However, in the lengthy May 12 question-and-answer session with the plenary participants, one of the religious sisters asked the Pope “Why not construct an official commission that might study the question” of opening the diaconate to women.

In response, Francis said he had spoken some time ago with “a good, wise professor” who had studied the topic of female deacons in the early centuries of the church, and noted that their role was primarily linked to assisting the bishop in full-body immersions of women for baptism.

The Pope said that the exact role female deacons played in the early Church is still unclear to him, and recalled asking the professor “What were these female deacons? Did they have ordination or no?”

He said the precise answer “was a bit obscure,” and questioned aloud the possibility of forming an official commission to study the question.

“I believe yes. It would do good for the Church to clarify this point. I am in agreement. I will speak to do something like this,” he said, adding later that “it seems useful to me to have a commission that would clarify this well.”

CNA asked the Vatican for confirmation of the Pope’s remarks, but did not receive a response by deadline.
 
While Pope Francis has suggested a new commission could be helpful in studying the question further, the International Theological Commission, an advisory body to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, released a document on the diaconate in 2002 in which they addressed the question of whether women might be also be eligible.

The document overwhelmingly concluded that female deacons in the early Church had not been equivalent to male deacons, and had no liturgical or sacramental function.

It reflected what the professor to whom Pope Francis had spoken said, referring to the Constitutiones Apostolorum, or the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles from around 380, which stressed that deaconesses had “no liturgical function,” but rather devoted themselves “to their function in the community which was service to the women.”

The function of a deaconess, the document read, was summed up in the constitutions thus: “The deaconess does not bless, and she does not fulfil any of the things that priests and deacons do, but she looks after the doors and attends the priests during the baptism of women, for the sake of decency.”

While deaconesses were able to carry out the anointing of women in baptism for decency’s sake and to visit sick women in their homes, “they were forbidden to confer baptism themselves, or to play a part in the Eucharistic offering.”

Even in the fourth century, the document read, “the way of life of deaconesses was very similar to that of nuns.”

While history proves that the ministry of female deacons did indeed exist, the text noted that it was “developed unevenly” in the different parts of the Church, and that affirmed that it is clear “that this ministry was not perceived as simply the feminine equivalent of the masculine diaconate.”

Divided into seven chapters and a conclusion, the document’s second to last paragraph addresses the question of the ordination of women to the diaconate today.

While the general tone was that the question needed further study, the document offered two points of reflection for future consideration.

First, it mentioned that the deaconesses referred to in the ancient Church, “as evidenced by the rite of institution and the functions they exercised – were not purely and simply equivalent to the deacons.”

Secondly, it asserted that “the unity of the sacrament of Holy Orders…is strongly underlined by ecclesial tradition, especially in the teaching of the Magisterium,” and stressed the “clear distinction” between the ministry of priests and bishops versus that of deacons.

The document concluded with no clear indication either way, but instead simply stated that the question “pertains to the ministry of discernment which the Lord established in his Church to pronounce authoritatively on this question.”

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Vatican City, May 13, 2016 / 04:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Yesterday Pope Francis raised eyebrows around the world after declaring his openness to establishing a commission to study the female diaconate, but a careful look at his full response is less of a shocker, and points to nothing new.

In fact, in addition to giving a brief summary of a deaconesses duties in the ancient Church, the Pope suggested that in modern times, nuns perhaps already fill the role.

“(The question) touches the problem of the permanent diaconate. One could say that the 'permanent deaconesses' in the life of the Church are the sisters,” he said May 12, with a laugh.

"What were these deaconesses? Were they ordained or no?” he asked, and noted that the Council of Chalcedon in 451 spoke about the topic, but was “a bit obscure.” It is because of this obscurity the Pope said he wanted to form a commission to study the topic.

Francis’ comments came in response to a question posed by a sister and member of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), who met with the Pope May 12 as part of their May 9-13 Plenary Assembly, which focuses largely on the role of women in the Church, and obstacles hindering it.

Francis’ lengthy discussion with the sisters consisted of four questions that touched on the lack of consecrated and lay women in decision-making roles in the Church, how to better insert women into the life of the Church, as well as the temptations of both feminism and clericalism.

In the question on deaconesses, the sister asked why the Church doesn’t include women in the permanent diaconate, since they already work with the poor and sick, and, in some cases where there is no priest, distribute Communion, lead prayer services and even give the equivalent of a small homily.

“What stops the Church from including women from being permanent deacons, like in the ancient Church? Why not form an official commission to study the question?” the sister asked.

Part of the Church’s sacrament of Holy Orders, the diaconate is currently only open to men.

Pope Francis said the topic of the female diaconate was something that interested him a lot when he came to Rome for meetings. He usually stayed at the Domus Paolo VI residence on this trips, and there met a Syrian theologian who was an expert on the topic of the permanent diaconate.

After asking the man, whom he described as “a good professor, wise, a scholar,” about the role of female deacons, Francis said the answer he got was that their role in the early Church was “to help in the baptism of women, in the immersion…for decency,” and to anoint women's bodies.

In addition to assisting with the full-immersion baptisms of women, deaconesses would also serve as an aide to the bishop in determining the authenticity of domestic abuse, he said.

The Pope recalled how the Syrian professor told him that “when there was a matrimonial judge because the husband beat the wife and she went to the bishop to complain, the deaconesses were in charge of looking at the bruises on the woman’s body from her husband’s beatings and informed the bishop.”

“This, I remember,” he said, noting that while the Church has already published documents on the topic of the permanent diaconate which touch on the topic of deaconesses, including a 2002 document from the International Theological Commission, the conclusion for modern times was still “unclear.”

The document, which gave a thorough historical context of the role of the deaconess in the ancient Church, overwhelmingly concluded that female deacons in the early Church had not been equivalent to male deacons, and had “no liturgical function,” nor a sacramental one.

It also maintained that even in the fourth century “the way of life of deaconesses was very similar to that of nuns.”

However, given the lack of clarity on the issue today and due to the fact he was only speaking on the basis on his conversation with the Syrian professor, Francis said that “I think that I’ll ask the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to refer me to the studies on the issue.”

He also voiced his desire “to establish an official commission to clarify this point. I am in agreement, and I will speak to do something of this kind.”

“To me it seems useful to have a commission that clarifies this well, above all regarding the ancient times of the Church.”

In her question, the sister also asked the Pope to give an example of where he sees “the possibility of a better insertion of women and women consecrated in the life of the Church.”

While concrete areas of insertion didn’t immediately come to his mind, the Pope said that “consecrated women must participate” in consultations and assemblies with religious, “this is clear.”

Women, he said, see things “with a different originality than that of men, and this enriches: both in consultations and in decisions, and in concreteness.”

The work consecrated women carry out with the poor and marginalized, in teaching catechesis and accompanying the sick and the dying, “are very maternal works, where the maternity of the Church can be expressed more,” he said.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Larry Burgess, University of Dayton

By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Dominic Sanfilippo, one of 12 students who graduated with a degree in human rights May 8 at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said he has grown accustomed to explaining his major to people over the years.

He's often been asked: "What do you plan to do with that?"

Or he has picked up the unspoken question from "the uncle who says, 'Oh that's nice'" when Sanfilippo says what he's studying.

He understands the reaction, pointing out: "Business majors do business and engineering majors do engineering." But even if there are not specific human rights jobs available, he said the degree equips graduates to navigate careers they choose where they can apply learned skills of critical thinking, compassion and advocacy.

Sanfilippo, who spoke to Catholic News Service May 3, less than a week before graduation, said when he was looking at colleges four years ago, Dayton's human rights program appealed to him. The new graduate, who is from Chicago, also majored in philosophy.

The University of Dayton, a Marianist university, started the nation's first undergraduate human rights studies program through the Department of Political Science in 1998 and then 10 years later it became one of the first universities to offer bachelors' degrees in human rights studies. Since then, more than 100 students at Dayton have graduated with human rights degrees and have pursued careers as human rights advocates and academics or work in legal, governmental and nonprofit groups.

Other colleges offering human rights degrees include Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Bard College and Columbia University in New York, and Trinity College in Connecticut. Other Catholic colleges with human rights programs include Boston College and Georgetown University.

The University of San Francisco is one of the few colleges in the country offering a master's degree in human rights and the law schools at several Catholic and private colleges have a human rights focus including the University of Notre Dame and Fordham University.

Mark Ensalaco, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton, who helped get the human rights studies started on campus and was its first director, sees tangible results from the program, which added a human rights center in 2013 that focuses on raising awareness about issues such as human trafficking.

The university's human rights center has had a "unique mission" from the get-go, Ensalaco said, pointing out that it was not just going to be another center that provided an occasional film series, but one truly involved in advocacy work such as its recent efforts to eradicate slave labor in Brazil for products sold in the U.S.

So when people ask what does one do with human rights studies, it turns out there are some tangible answers.

And for the next year, Sanfilippo already has plans that more or less coincide with his degree. He expects to spend a year in a newly launching Marianist service program based in Dayton called PULSE where he will live in a community, akin to a Catholic Worker House with other participants doing essentially volunteer work across the city.

Sanfilippo will be spending his time at Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School in Dayton, a Marianist-run school, where he plans to mentor students on social justice issues and help with community outreach.

"They're essentially creating a job for me since it's the first year of the program," he said.

Sanfilippo notes that he is at a unique time in his life and that during the upcoming year he will figure out if he will go on to graduate school, political work or something else.

"I'm excited about it," he said, about the service year. He also admits that it took him awhile to get to this spot because a few years ago he wouldn't have imagined not looking for a great job or applying for a fellowship.

Now he says he's lucky to have the chance to share his work and faith with others.

"It makes all sense in world," he added, noting that the unknown future path after next year doesn't overwhelm him.

Then adding something not every college graduate could, he said: "I've become more comfortable with ambiguity."

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.

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