Catholic News 2

Full Article

Kayla Mueller was a human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker from the United States, who ‎lived her life for the needy, out of a deep conviction of God in her and in others.  She was taken ‎captive in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria, while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital. She was ‎held  in brutal captivity by the extremist group ISIS for 18 months before she was killed in February ‎‎2015.  She was 26.  It was reported that Kayla had been forced into marriage to ISIS head, Abu Bakr ‎al-Baghdadi who tortured and raped her repeatedly, and that she was a "personal captive" of Abu ‎Sayyaf, the high level ISIS commander who oversaw the terrorist group’s lucrative gas and oil ‎operations.  ‎

Since Kayla’s death, her parents Carl and Marsha Mueller, have been the voice of their daughter and ‎what she stood for.  The couple was recently invited to share their testimony at a special event at the ‎United Nations headquarters in New York on April 28, organized by Archbishop Bernadito Auza, ‎Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.  The theme of the ‎event was, “Defending religious freedom and other human rights: stopping mass atrocities against ‎Christians and other believers.”  In our edition of THE BACKGROUNDER, we bring you excerpts ‎from the heart-breaking testimony of Carl and Marsha Mueller, who at times choked with emotion ‎talking about their daughter, Kayla.  To begin with, Carl Mueller: ‎

Listen: 

(Source: UN)

Full Article

(Vatican Radio)  “Citizenship is a question of pluralism, a question of recognizing the identity of the other on the basis of respect:” That’s what Jordan’s Prince El Hassan bin Talal has told Vatican Radio following an interfaith meeting in the Vatican on the theme “Shared values in Social and Political Life.”

The two day closed-door meeting 3-4 May was organized by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and included Christian and Muslim delegates.  His Royal Highness, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Institute of Interfaith Studies (RIIFS), headed a delegation of men and women involved in interfaith dialogue.

RIIFS is a non-profit, non-governmental organization which offers a space for the interdisciplinary study of intercultural and interreligious issues with the aim of reducing tensions and promoting peace at regional and global levels.

Prince El Hassan was one of thirty members of RIIFS received in audience Wednesday by Pope Francis.  In speaking to them, the Pope recalled “with great joy” his visit to Jordan and said the group’s work “is a task of construction” that comes at a time “in which we are accustomed to the destruction wrought by war."  And, he urged them to continue on the “journey” of dialogue “and of bringing people together” which “always helps us to construct.”

A journey of Interfaith dialogue

“I believe that rising to the higher values referred to by His Holiness Pope Francis on Wednesday is my expectation of this dialogue. To rise to constructive values …simply put.  Broadly put: psychological and physical rebuilding of our mindset towards the issue which is an issue of territoriality, identity and migration worldwide as I see it, is the challenge that we face: how to look at human dignity without discrimination and without silos,” he said.

“What I mean by silos,” Prince El Hassan added,  “is that there are international organizations that deal on a binary basis with this organization or that organization, with this group of beneficiaries, migrants, refugees, stateless persons – we’ve even now entered into the immoral reference to some groups of people as ‘un-people.’”

“And I think in this regard, stripping people of their nationality is not going to improve the chances of losing large numbers of young people who join radical groups simply because they feel they do not have any other option or because they feel that the incentives are the way they are.  So I think that this dialogue - and we announced a decalogue of dialogue in 2014 in Amman - is actually achieving certain objectives.  And among those objectives is the practical work being done by the monitoring facilities of academics who are looking at the Arab Christian and Muslim image vis-a-vis the world in which we live and correspondingly, asking those who are concerned with projecting the European concerns or the Western concerns: how can we meet in a middle ground whereby we look at liberties in the context of a good neighborhood policy on the one side, and the Eurasian policy on the other?”

Asked if enough is being done in the region to foster citizenship and diversity, His Royal Highness stressed:

“In the case of Jordan we were supposed to be 2 and a half million people in 1991.  Today we are over 9 million people.  We’ve had a war practically every decade since 1948, ’56, ’67, ’73 and the list goes on to include the Iraq wars and the Iraq-Iran war.  And every war has meant that Jordan and Lebanon for example, have paid the price with the forced migration and of course before that, the Palestinian forced migration. So the question of citizenship is a question of pluralism, a question of recognizing the identity of the other on the basis of respect.”

“The question of identity is one of recognizing the other, recognizing that the Christian population is dwindling in the region as a whole which is quite alarming…” added the Prince.

Jordan shelters hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees

Jordan has generously offered refuge to hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled the war in their country. Asked if the international community has assumed its fair share of the burden, Prince El Hassan said he looks “forward to the realization of the pledges and the delivery of those pledges as they were made in the [recent] London conference – on assisting the countries that have suffered the consequences of the Syrian debacle and the Syrian civil war.”

The 4 February 2016 conference set itself ambitious goals on education and economic opportunities to transform the lives of refugees caught up in the Syrian crisis – and to support the countries hosting them.   Over US$ 11 billion was raised in pledges – $5.8 billion for 2016 and a further $5.4 billion for 2017-20.

“These consequences, I believe - whether in infrastructure, education, jobs, economy -should be looked at in terms of a regional stabilization plan. In that regard, I am quite impressed by the statement of [U.S.] Senator Lindsey Graham calling for a Marshall Plan.  I hope he is taken seriously as indeed I hope that the Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF are taken seriously in their call for a stabilization fund.  But to be pro-active, I think that a regional bank for reconstruction and development should be encouraged. I can’t understand why our region is the only region in the world where we don’t have a regional bank where we have to respond to the initiative taken by others beyond our region,”  stated His Royal Highness.

“I think that a time may come when we begin to recognize refugees as they truly are: as victims rather than as perpetrators of violence.  I think it’s too much to ask of the poorest countries in the region, the non-oil producing countries in particular, to bear the greatest burden of the folly of others.”

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schultz, said Pope Francis is a worthy recipient of this year’s International Charlemagne Prize for helping to remind us of the traditional European values of solidarity, compassion and tolerance. The Pope was to be formally presented with the prize on Saturday in the Vatican by a high profile delegation made up of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, Martin Schultz and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. Schultz was interviewed by Vatican Radio’s Gudrun Sailer about this award to the Pope. 

"Reminds us of our traditional values"

Schultz said as the son of Italian immigrants in Argentina, and then later as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis has known a very different world from the “very privileged one” that Europeans live in today and applauds him for reminding the people of Europe in his messages about the continent’s traditional values of solidarity, responsibility and respect for others. He said this makes him a great European and a worthy recipient of the 2016 Charlemagne Prize.

“Brexit is not rational”

Asked about the upcoming referendum being held in Britain in June on whether the nation should leave the European Union or not, Schultz said he hopes that the British voters will vote to stay in the EU. 

“I hope that we can avoid a Brexit.” (Britain leaving the EU), saying he is convinced that the EU is stronger with Britain as a member just as Britain is stronger within the EU and therefore in his view “a Brexit is not rational.”

Pope Francis was selected last December to be the 2016 recipient of the prestigious award by the Charlemagne Prize’s executive committee in the German city of Aachen. Named after the first Holy Roman Emperor, the Charlemagne Prize is given to “public figures or bodies distinguished by their outstanding work towards European unity or cooperation between its states.”

The prize citation commended the Pope’s message of “peace and understanding” as well as “compassion, tolerance, solidarity and the integrity of creation throughout his pontificate.”

Previous winners of the Charlemagne Prize include St. Pope John Paul II who received a special edition of the award in 2004, the wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Czech dissident and Statesman Vaclav Havel and Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the ecumenical community of Taizé.

Listen to the interview with Martin Schultz, President of the European Parliament:  

Full Article

Pakistani Christians held a protest in front of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday, against the Punjab government's plans to take over the land of four churches in order to build the Orange Line Metro Train project. The demonstrators demanded that the government review its plans, saying they would not give up their holy places.

They waved placards, and were holding crosses, while chanting slogans such as: "we won't give an inch of our holy places", and "we want our rights." The Punjab government intends to acquire large portions of Cathedral Church, Naulakha Church, St Andrew's Church and Bohar Wala Church. The Christian community is determined not to let their churches be destroyed, as they are not only holy, but are a part of Lahore's history and have been in place since before the partition.

Nasir Saeed, Director of (Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement) CLAAS-UK, which campaigns for the rights of Christians in Pakistan, expressed his grave concerns over the ongoing situation of Christians in Pakistan. He said: "There is no respite for them and one problem after the other seems to follow Pakistani Christians.

"The Christians who are still in mourning after the Easter Sunday attack and are still trying to deal with that trauma, are now faced with the issue of the demolition of their four historic churches in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the province where Christians suffer most.

"These churches were built pre-Pakistan and these all churches are located at very expensive and prime locations which politicians and Islamists are jealous of. They cannot stand that Christians have such prime property and they do not, so try to use any excuse to grab the land and belittle Christians.

Mr Saeed said although on several occasions present and former presidents, prime ministers and some other politicians have praised the Christians' role in creation and development of Pakistan, nobody seems sincere towards them. Z A Bhutto's government nationalised Christian schools and colleges and despite an order from the supreme courts, the government still failed to hand back the churches.

"A few years ago the present government tried to grab the Gosha E Aman church property in Lahore - again at a prime location - near the governor house but failed, and now it wants four churches. This will never be acceptable by the Christians," said Mr Saeed.

He added that it is very unfortunate that instead of protecting the properties, honour and lives of the minorities, the government and in particular the Punjab government, is working to annihilate them.

Mr Saeed said: "We are aware that just to save some government buildings the Government has changed its original plans. This is a controversial project and it faces a lot of opposition.

"But Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab, seems adamant to execute this project despite of the all the opposition. He can continue this project but he must change his plan to save our churches. The Government shouldn't play with Christians' religious feelings and should avoid further aggrieving pressurizing the Christian minority of Pakistan."

A report released on Monday by the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found that the Pakistani government last year "continued to perpetrate and tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations".

USCIRF has recommended Pakistan be designated a 'country of particular concern' by the US since 2002 and its new report is damning about Pakistan's failures. "For years, the Pakistani government has failed to protect citizens, minority and majority alike, from sectarian and religiously-motivated violence," it said.

"Pakistani authorities also have failed to consistently bring perpetrators to justice or take action against societal actors who incite violence,” the report adds.

 (Source: CLAAS report) 

Full Article

Rome, Italy, May 5, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- To observe the Jubilee Year of Mercy and to connect it with past Jubilee Years, the pilgrimage office of the Diocese of Rome is displaying historical documents proclaiming the jubilees dating back to 1300.

“Holy Pilgrimage: The Jubilee Bulls from the Vatican Secret Archives” is an exhibition of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi which displays papal bulls of indiction of the Jubilee Years from 1300 to 2000.

The bulls are normally not available to public view, and are restricted to scholars and conservationists who work with the Vatican Secret Archives – the historical archives of the papacy.

The exhibition also features bulls from the archives of the Chapter of St. Peter kept in the Vatican Library, as well as incunabula – books printed before the year 1500 – stored at the Biblioteca Casanatense.

Beginning today, the exhibition is on display daily through July 31, from 10 am to 9 pm, at the Palazzo del Vicariato Vechio on the Via della Pigna, a two-minute walk south of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Each bull is accompanied by explanatory texts in English and Italian which provide historical context for the jubilees.

Papal bulls are a kind of letter, named for the lead seal, or bulla, which were appended to the letters to verify their authenticity.

Jubilee years were historically established by papal bulls. The practice of jubilees has biblical roots, as the Mosaic era established jubilee years to be held every 50 years for the freeing of slaves and forgiveness of debts as manifestations of God's mercy.

The practice was formally re-established in 1300 by Boniface VIII. Pilgrims to Rome were granted a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions. Between 1300 and 2000, 29 jubilee years were held in Rome.

Pope Francis opened the Jubilee of Mercy, an Extraordinary Holy Year, Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The Holy Year will close Nov. 20, 2016, with the Solemnity of Christ the King.
The Jubilee was officially inaugurated by the by the Pope when he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pilgrims who pass through the door – which is only opened during Jubilee years, ordinarily every 25 years or when a Pope calls for an extraordinary Jubilee – can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

The current Jubilee of Mercy was opened by Pope Francis Dec. 8, 2015, and will close Nov. 20, 2016.

The Jubilee was officially inaugurated when Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pilgrims who pass through the door – which is only opened during Jubilee years – can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has been sharing a theology of tears: tears of compassion, compunction and consolation.

Although Pope Francis does not mask his emotions in public, he rarely is seen to cry. One obvious exception was in Albania in September 2014 when he came face to face with a priest who had been imprisoned and tortured for his faith under the country's communist regime. After a long embrace with the priest and some whispered words, the pope turned from the congregation to wipe the tears from his eyes.

Pope Francis encourages people to pray for "the grace of tears" when pleading to God to help others, when recognizing their own sinfulness, when contemplating the greatness of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and when experiencing God's mercy.

As part of the Holy Year of Mercy, the pope scheduled a May 5 prayer vigil "to dry the tears" of those who are weeping, inviting parents who have lost a child, victims of war and torture, the seriously ill, the desperate, those enslaved by addiction and everyone else in need of consolation.

Sometimes, he has said, tears are the only true response to the question of why the innocent suffer.

In January 2015, the pope listened to a 14-year-old boy in Manila describe life on the streets as a struggle to find food, to fight the temptation of sniffing glue and to avoid adults looking for the young to exploit and abuse.

A 12-year-old girl, rescued from the streets by the same foundation that helped the boy, covered her face with her hand as she wept in front of the pope. But she managed to ask him, "Why did God let this happen to us?"

Pope Francis said a real answer was impossible, but the question itself was important and the tears that accompanied the question were even more eloquent than the words.

"Certain realities of life," he said, "are seen only with eyes that are cleansed by tears."

For people who are safe, comfortable and loved, he said, learning how to weep for others is part of following Jesus, who wept at the death of Lazarus and was moved with compassion at the suffering of countless others.

"If you do not know how to weep, you are not a good Christian," the pope said in Manila.

When the pope talks about tears, he's "very Latin and very Ignatian," said Jesuit Father Daniel Huang, the order's regional assistant for Asia and the Pacific. A flow of tears indicates that the person's heart is involved, not just his or her mind.

In his Spiritual Exercises and his Spiritual Diary, St. Ignatius of Loyola -- founder of the Jesuits -- urges his confreres to request the gift of tears and recounts how often in prayer and in celebrating Mass the gift of tears was given to him.

In the first week of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius suggests those making the retreat may want to pray for the grace "to weep abundantly either over one's sins or over the pains and sorrows endured by Christ our Lord."

Crying in grief over one's sins or out of compassion for Christ's suffering, Father Huang said, are moments when "I overcome my self-preoccupation or my hardness of heart or my indifference -- that's what the pope talks about all the time."

The tears of compassion for Christ's suffering by extension becomes weeping for the suffering of refugees, or the sick or people in mourning, he said.

"Tears presumably come from a deep place within and tears suggest you are not just thinking, you are feeling, your heart is involved," the Jesuit said.

The ability to shed tears is "a grace" that allows a person to express his or her humanity and connection to other human beings, he said. It expresses "what is best in humanity -- that we feel compassion for people and that we are moved by people's suffering."

Returning to Rome in mid-April after a one-day visit with refugees in Greece, Pope Francis told reporters traveling with him that the situation of the refugees, what they experienced getting to Greece and how they are living in the refugee camp "makes you weep."

Going to the back of the plane where the media were seated, the pope carried some of the drawings the refugee children had given him. He explained the trauma the children had experienced and showed one picture where the child had drawn the sun crying.

"If the sun is able to cry, we should be able to shed at least one tear," he said. "A tear would do us good."

In meetings with priests, Pope Francis repeatedly asks if they are able to weep when pleading to God in prayer to help their parishioners. He told priests of the Diocese of Rome in 2014 that the old Missal had a prayer that "began like this: 'Lord, who commanded Moses to strike the rock so that water might gush forth, strike the stone of my heart so that tears'' -- the prayer went more or less like this. It was very beautiful."

"Do you weep?" he asked the priests. "Or in this priesthood have we lost our tears?"

In Pope Francis' teaching, tears -- and the suffering that causes them -- also can be a step toward renewed faith and clarity about the love of God.

"You see, sometimes in our lives, the glasses we need to see Jesus are tears," he said at a morning Mass early in his papacy. "All of us in our lives have gone through moments of joy, pain, sadness -- we've all experienced these things."

"In the darkest moments, did we cry?" he asked his small congregation, which included Vatican police and firefighters. "Have we received that gift of tears that prepares our eyes to see the Lord?"

- - -

Follow Wooden on Twitter @Cindy_Wooden

- - -

Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article