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(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis last Sunday launched a Europe-wide extraordinary collection aimed at helping those people suffering from the war in Ukraine. The proceeds from that collection went to the Vatican’s dicastery for humanitarian relief efforts, the Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’.

A special commission was instituted within the organization for the distribution of the collection, which aims to ease the humanitarian situation in Ukraine for the benefit of the entire population.

Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso, Secretary of Cor Unum, just returned to Rome from Ukraine and spoke to Vatican Radio’s Roberto Piermarini about the collection.

Basic needs of all

In the interview, Msgr. Dal Toso said his recent visit to Ukraine helped to identify the people and structures with whom Cor Unum can work to best aid the suffering population.

“I spent the last few days in Kiev to identify those persons and that minimum of structure needed to realize in loco [on location] the intentions of the Pope, which is exactly that of being able to help the people. In this first phase, the aid provided will be, above all, of a humanitarian nature to provide for people’s basic necessities, which include having something to eat, a roof over their heads, something to wear, and also some medicine.”

He also said the collection will be for all peoples in need, regardless of race, culture, or creed.

“The collection will be destined concretely for people in need, obviously without distinction of religious, ethnic, or cultural affiliation, as it has always been in the tradition of the Church and as the Pope desired for this collection: to help all those in need and especially help them with their basic needs.”

Ecumenical importance

Msgr. Dal Toso also noted the ecumenical aspect of the extraordinary collection.

He said the collection “above all called for the collaboration of other Christian churches, who had voiced their availability to help and identify the needy. It is also an initiative for the benefit of all. Therefore, it will automatically have a positive impact on the relationship with the Orthodox Churches and within the Catholic Church herself.”

Government response

Asked about the reaction of the Ukrainian government to the initiative, he said “I found primarily a great appreciation from the authorities for this initiative, and a clear desire to collaborate as much as possible. But I would say, however, even more importantly, that this initiative of the Pope has already been successful, for the simple fact that on Sunday, 24 April all of Europe spoke about this situation, unfortunately mostly forgotten. Ukraine is living this conflict in a general silence, and millions of people are suffering in that general silence. This collection has been useful, not just to collect money, but above all to sensitize our Europe to the problems we are living within the continent itself.”

During his trip, Msgr. Dal Toso also visited a refugee camp which houses around 100 internally-displaced people with the Apostolic Nuncio for Ukraine, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti. From one day to the next, he said, their lives were turned upside down.

“They are people who live not knowing what tomorrow holds for them. I believe this is the most difficult condition, even beyond the daily difficulties of living, but it is precisely this lack of prospective which probably wounds them most and makes them suffer.”

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(Vatican Radio) It was announced by the Vatican this week that Ireland is to get a new Blessed. He is the Venerable John Sullivan SJ who was a convert to Catholicism and known for his work with the sick.

But what else do we know about him? Fr Sullivan’s story began in 1861 when he was born into a prominent family in Dublin. His father was a Protestant  barrister who would become Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His mother was a Catholic from an important land-owning family.

John was, therefore, baptized a Protestant and sent to Portora Royal School where excelled as a student.

His education progressed to Trinity College, Dublin, followed by law. He practiced for a time as a barrister. In Dublin he was a frequent visitor to the Hospice of the Dying at Harold’s Cross, bringing comfort, companionship and small tokens of food, drink and clothing to the suffering. He became a teacher and would continue bringing gifts of luxuries to the poor, including tobacco, tea, sugar, and fresh fruit.

To everyone’s surprise, he was received into the Catholic Church in 1896 at the age of 35 and changed his lifestyle dramatically, stripping his room of everything luxurious and trading his fashionable clothes for ordinary street wear. At the age of 40, he entered the Society of Jesus and after 7 years of study was ordained to the Holy Priesthood. He was appointed a college teacher at Clongowes Wood school in Co Kildare where he would spend most of the rest of his life.

His priestly ministry involved an indefatigable care for the spiritual needs of the sick. Fr Sullivan would travel miles by foot or on an old bicycle to make sick calls. Dedicated to prayer, he would spend hours on his knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament or alone in his room praying the rosary. He cared for his students and prayed with and for the sick, especially those with incurable diseases. Even during his lifetime his intercession was credited with many cases of healing.

The vice-postulator for the cause of Fr John Sullivan is Jesuit Fr Conor Harper who gave his reaction to the beatification to Lydia O’Kane.

Listen to the interview

“We were delighted after so many years work, preparation, research, it was a great delight and particularly in the two communities both in the Catholic community and in the Church of Ireland, Anglican tradition…”

Asked about what made Fr John Sullivan so special, Fr Harper explained that, “he is one of those extraordinary people whom we refer to as Holy and as a Saint and he was always revered both in his teaching career as a Jesuit in Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare, the former pupils always revered him as a Saint…”

Fr Sullivan died in 1933 at the age of 71 and a cause for his canonization began in 1944. In 1960 his remains were exhumed and placed in St Francis Xavier church in Gardiner Street, Dublin. In November 2014 he was approved by Pope Francis as having a heroic level of virtue and that his life was worthy of imitation by the faithful. A miracle was approved as a result of his intercession on 26 April 2016. The miracle goes back to the 1950’s when a woman was cured of a cancerous growth on her neck after praying to the Jesuit priest.

It is expected that Fr Sullivan’s beatification will take place in Dublin.

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(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 30, 2016 features our weekly report on the general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world and a special feature to mark 'International Labour Day' in which we shine the spotlight on Pope Francis and Saint Joseph the worker. The second part of the programme is dedicated to the two twentieth century popes who were canonised by Pope Francis on Divine Mercy Sunday 2014. As you'll have guessed they are Saints John Paul II and John XXIII.

A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: 

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India’s minority Christian community has come under attack again, and this time it is a Catholic bishop who is the victim.  Matters India news website on Thursday quoted the Federation of Telugu Churches (FTC), saying Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah was attacked by unidentified persons when he was returning from a religious function at Karunagari in Kadapa district.   The incident took place on April 25 but was made public only on Thursday.  

“It is unbelievable that such a violent atrocity is perpetrated on a high ranking religious leader of a minority community,” said Archbishop Thumma Bala of Hyderabad, the president of FTC, the apex body of various Christian denominations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states‎.   Bishop Gallela and his car driver were “blind folded, forcibly confined and brutally attacked for several hours stretching through the night,” Arcbishop Bala said.  He condemned “the ruthless manner” of attack on a religious person who has “fully devoted his whole life to God and is totally dedicated to the service of the needy and marginalized.”  Archbishop Bala also appealed to police and law enforcement authorities to probe the case and arrest those responsible for “the heinous crime so that safety and security of minorities can be ensured and lives of leaders of religious communities be protected.”  Fifty-four year old Bishop Gallela has been heading Cuddapah Diocese since 2008.  (Source: Matters India) 

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Escalating violence across Syria, which has seen a fragile truce agreement unravel and peace talks collapse, could release new levels of horror, the United Nations human rights chief warned on Friday, saying all parties have shown a "monstrous disregard" for civilian lives.  "The cessation of hostilities and the Geneva talks were the only game in town, and if they are abandoned now, I dread to think how much more horror we will see in Syria," U.N. ‎High ‎Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement, urging all sides to step back from a return to all-out war.  "The violence is soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities. There are deeply disturbing reports of military build-ups indicating preparations for a lethal escalation," Zeid said.  

Peace talks in Geneva aimed to end a war that has created the world's worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of Islamic State and drawn in regional and major powers, but the negotiations have all but failed and a cessation of hostilities agreement to allow them to take place has collapsed.  Air strikes late on Wednesday destroyed a hospital and killed dozens of people in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, including children and doctors, in an attack that a U.S. official said appeared to be solely the work of the Syrian government.  Violence over the past week has killed at least 202 civilians across rebel- and government-held areas of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.  "Reports are coming in from Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and Rural Damascus, Idlib and Deir ez-Zour of mounting civilian casualties," Zeid said.  "In the context of such an abysmal situation, the persistent failure of the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court is an example of the most shameful form of realpolitik," he said.  "In the minds of many, the world’s great powers have in effect become accomplices to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of human beings, and the displacement of millions.  There is currently no disincentive for any of the many war criminals in Syria to stop contributing to the wild spiral of killing and destruction that has engulfed the country."  (Source: Reuters)

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(Vatican Radio) Anyone who has visited the Vatican Museums will have inevitably walked through the Gallery of Maps which so happens to lead towards the Sistine Chapel. This long corridor is, however, a jewel in itself and has now been lovingly restored in a project that has lasted four years.

The frescos are a geographical feast for the eye which represent Italian regions and papal properties.

The gallery was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1581. It then underwent changes under Pope Urban VIII between 1632 and 1637. There are 40 maps in all which were illustrated by artists of the day including Ignazio Danti, Matthijs and Paul Bril and Cesare Nebbia.

So what prompted this restoration project? The Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums, Professor Arnold Nesselrath explains. “It badly needed work because with 6 million people going through this long corridor in the course of the year causing the vibration, the plaster gets loose on the walls, there is a risk of it falling down …” He also says, that although  it was not the primary objective, it was decided to clean the maps in order to “get things in the end right again”. 

Listen to Lydia O'Kane's interview with the Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums, Professor Arnold Nesselrath 

With the restoration project now complete visitors will be able to view, in a new light, islands that don’t belong to Italy anymore such as Corsica and Malta and the territory of Avignon which belonged to the Holy See until 1789.

Funding for the project came in the form of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican, most notably the Patrons’ California Chapter who generously supported the restoration work.

Arnold Nesselrath describes all the scenes in this gallery as “enchanting” and he hopes that people who come to the museums will remember it, because he says, “there is the danger that it merely becomes a corridor to go through to the Sistine Chapel, people have no time to reflect on the beauties of that room, to contemplate all the little scenes…”

He also says, that in times like these it is very important that "people learn again to contemplate works art" and the gallery, he adds, is the perfect place to do that.

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Washington D.C., Apr 29, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Obama administration’s new rule for faith-based partnerships has drawn various reactions: one observer warned they could cause problems for partnering religious groups, while another said the action also strengthens these groups’ protections against government abuse.

H. James Towey, the president of Ave Maria University, was a strong critic of the new rules.

“They will seek to secularize all faith-based providers that want to play ball with the government,” he told CNA.

Towey directed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2002 to 2006, under President George W. Bush. He said the rules would have a “chilling effect” on organizations that “really care about the souls of the people they serve.”

Melissa Rogers, special assistant to the president and executive director of the White House Faith-based Neighborhood Partnerships, summarized the new federal rule in a March 31 statement.

The rule applies to nine federal departments, and aims to clarify that faith-based organizations are eligible to take part in federally funded programs “on the same basis as any other private organization.” All decisions of federal funding to faith-based organizations must be based “solely on merit” and “free from political interference, or the appearance of such interference.”

The rule also aims to clarify that “explicitly religious activities” cannot be supported with direct financial assistance. The organization must separate privately funded religious activities from federally funded activities.

The rule bars faith-based organizations that receive federal assistance from discriminating against beneficiaries based on “religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to attend or participate in a religious practice.” The rule requires these faith-based organizations to notify beneficiaries of these protections.

Towey said the rule should be read in a broader political context.

“If this were all they have done, you could hope to take them at face value. But this is part of an eight-year campaign,” he said. “They drove the bishops’ conference out of refugee resettlement. They attempted to get faith-based organizations into the business of promoting abortion if they wanted to resettle refugees. This has been a drumbeat out of the Obama administration.”

In early 2011, political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office issued instructions indicating there would be a “strong preference” for grants to organizations that refer for the “full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care.” The U.S. bishops’ program would not refer for abortions and other procedures and drugs that violate Catholic ethics.

Later that year the federal government declined to renew a $19 million grant to the U.S. bishops’ program for human trafficking victims. Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services decided against the grant, though the department staff had recommended the grant renewal based on the scores of an independent review board.

The rule change has other consequences. Beneficiaries must be told that they can report rule violations to the federal agency or intermediary in charge of the program. If a beneficiary or potential beneficiary who objects to a funded organization’s religious character, the organization must take “reasonable efforts” to refer them to an alternative provider.

In Towey’s view, the new rule could easily be abused.

“If you’re a faith-based group, you’re now wondering is it worth partnering with the government and having these handcuffs on.”

“Faith-based groups knew where the lines and boundaries were. But there wasn’t bureaucratic red tape,” Towey added.

Brian W. Walsh, a religious freedom advocate who is the president of Civil Rights Research Center, was more positive about the rule.

He told CNA that the new regulations “reaffirm a large majority of the even-handed standards for faith-based partnerships that were established by both the Clinton and second Bush administrations.”

“The rules help prevent federal agency demands that faith-based partners deny their religious identity simply because they are using federal grants to care for the needy,” he said. “Partners need not, for example, purge their facilities of all religious symbols.”

The rules also protect faith-based organizations’ rights to hire staff who adhere to their religion.

However, Walsh noted that federal rules already allow a needy person with federal benefits support to choose a service provider.

“It is therefore questionable why the rules open the door for a recipient to pick and choose which portions of a faith-based provider’s program he does not want to participate in,” he said.

Stanley Carlson-Thies of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance said the rule was positive, though he saw cause for concern in the rule’s new regulations for programs that receive indirect funding.

In an April 4 commentary at the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, he said that previous regulations forbade religious discrimination against beneficiaries. The new rule expands this regulation to programs that receive indirect funding, such as a federal voucher for a job training program.

If any parts of such a program are framed and taught from a specifically religious perspective, a beneficiary must be allowed to opt out of these portions even if they are considered integral to the program.

Carlson-Thies, who served at the White House Office of Faith Based & Community Initiatives from 2001-2002, also served on a task force under President Obama to draft recommendations on how to clarify church-state rules and federal funding.

The new rule becomes effective 30 days after April 4, while recipients of federal funding have 90 days after April 4 to comply. The rule is intended to implement a Nov. 17, 2010 executive order from Obama.

That executive order explicitly allowed groups that receive federal funding to display religious iconography in their facilities, maintain religious references in the names of their programs, choose board members on the basis of their religion, and make reference to faith in their mission statements and internal documents.

CNA sought comment from Catholic Charities USA, which was not able to comment as it was in the process of reviewing the regulations and their impact on its agencies.

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Vatican City, Apr 29, 2016 / 07:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis told participants in a Vatican stem cell summit that a renewed sense of empathy ought to fuel their work and research, ensuring that no person goes without access to proper care.

“It is fundamentally important that we promote greater empathy in society, and not remain indifferent to our neighbor’s cry for help, including when he or she is suffering from a rare disease,” the Pope said April 29.

While it’s not always possible to find a fast cure to complex diseases, it is possible to be prompt in caring for the people that suffer from them, who often feel “abandoned and ignored,” Francis said.

He stressed the need to attentive to all, regardless of their culture, social standing or religious beliefs, and expressed his hope that individuals in developing countries would also have access to the care they need.

Pointing to his Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” the Pope noted how in it he emphasized the value of human progress made in fields such as health care, education and communications, while at the same time stressing the need to oppose “an economy of exclusion and inequality.”

This mentality “victimizes people when the mechanism of profit prevails over the value of human life,” he said, adding that “this is why the globalization of indifference must be countered by the globalization of empathy.”

Pope Francis spoke to participants in an April 28-30 conference at the Vatican entitled “Cellular Horizons: How Science, Technology, Information and Communication Will Impact Society.”

Co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the U.S.-based Stem for Life Foundation, a non-profit based in New York that promotes healing treatments with the use of adult stem cells, the event is the third conference that has been organized in the Vatican on regenerative medicine. The first was held in 2011, and the second in 2013.

A large part of this year's discussion is focused on rare diseases that affect children, as well as how to make top-of-the-line treatments available to people in developing countries.

The conference gathers scientists, physicians, patients, religious leaders, philanthropists and government officials to discuss healing options that involve different forms of stem cell therapy, specifically with the use adult stem cells.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau passed away from brain cancer last year, was also present as a VIP guest and speaker as part of his “Moonshot” campaign tour to promote a cure for cancer.

Pope Francis spoke to participants after Biden’s keynote speech on the second day of the conference, recognizing how in in their discussions, the participants have been sure to take ethical, anthropological, social and cultural questions into consideration, as well as “the complex problem of access to care for those afflicted by rare conditions.”

Many patients “are often not given sufficient attention, because investing in them is not expected to produce substantial economic returns,” he said, noting that he frequently meets people suffering from these diseases in his ministry.

“These illnesses affect millions of people throughout the world, and cause suffering and anxiety for all those who care for them, starting with family members.”

Francis said that in addition to the sense of empathy for those who suffer from rare diseases and ensuring that each person has access to the care they need, another aspect of treatment involves research, which is carried out through both “education and genuine scientific study.”

“Today more than ever we see the urgent need for an education that not only develops students’ intellectual abilities, but also ensures integral human formation and a professionalism of the highest degree,” the Pope said.

He said that coming from this “pedagogical perspective,” it is necessary in both medical and life sciences to offer interdisciplinary courses which provide the needed space “for a human formation supported by ethical criteria.”

“Research, whether in academia or industry, requires unwavering attention to moral issues if it is to be an instrument which safeguards human life and the dignity of the person,” he said.

Pope Francis stressed that each person throughout the world is called to draw attention to the issue of rare diseases, to invest in education and to increase funding for research on causes and cures.

It’s also important to promote necessary legislation “an economic paradigm shift,” he said, because “in this way, the centrality of the human person will be rediscovered.”

The Pope concluded his speech by encouraging the participants to continue to integrate more people and institutions throughout the world into their work, and prayed that during the Jubilee they would be “capable and generous co-operators with the Father’s mercy.”

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Vatican City, Apr 29, 2016 / 09:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden went to the Vatican for a summit on regenerative medicine, where he offered praise to Pope Francis and advocated for a global push to cure cancer.

Biden opened his speech by recalling how while visiting the U.S. last September, Pope Francis had comforted him for the loss of his eldest son Beau, who passed away last summer at the age of 46 from brain cancer.

“I wish every grieving parent, brother, sister, mother, father, would have the benefit of his words, his prayers, his presence. He provided us with more comfort that even he, I think, will understand,” Biden said, and voiced his gratitude to the Pope for his time and generosity.

What his family experienced through their tragedy is how faith “can turn loss into hope, and hope into action,” the Vice President said, noting that Pope Francis “has given hope to so many people in every part of the world with his strong words and humble ways.”

He thanked the participants for their “tenacity” in seeking to find cures and better treatments for rare diseases and cancer, and voiced his confidence that “we stand on the cusp of unprecedented scientific and technological change” in the field.

Vice President Biden delivered a 25 minute keynote speech on the second day of an April 28-30 conference at the Vatican entitled “Cellular Horizons: How Science, Technology, Information and Communication Will Impact Society.”

The event gathered together scientists, physicians, patients, religious leaders, philanthropists and government officials to discuss healing options involving of different forms of stem cell therapy, specifically adult stem cells.

The conference is being co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the U.S.-based Stem for Life Foundation, a non-profit organization based in New York that was initially created to promote healing treatments with the use of adult stem cells.

It is third conference that has been organized in the Vatican on regenerative. The first was held in 2011, and the second in 2013.

Biden’s presence as a VIP guest of the conference is part of his “Moonshot” campaign to cure cancer, which he announced last October at the same time he said that he would not be running for president.

The Vice President’s speech in the Vatican marks the most recent stop on his tour, which has also taken him to Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University.

In an April 26 news conference on the Vatican summit, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, stressed that Biden’s presence “has no political meaning in the strict sense, but it has a political meaning in a noble sense.”

Biden, who identifies himself as a Roman Catholic despite offering political support for issues contrary to Church teaching such as abortion and gay “marriage,” met with Pope Francis briefly after speaking.

The Pope himself delivered his own address after Biden, stressing the need to develop a greater sense of empathy when pursuing treatments for cancer and rare diseases, as well as the need to ensure that all people, including those in developing countries, have access to quality and advanced care.

In his address, Vice President Biden noted how there have been “unimaginable breakthroughs” in the fight to cure cancer, even compared to just five years ago.

He pointed to former U.S. president Richard Nixon’s “war on cancer,” which has since boosted investment in scientific research, medical centers and doctors who work tirelessly to slow the spread of cancer.

Different genres of science and medicine are beginning to work together where previously they never have, he said, but noted that there is still more progress to be made.

“Our goal in the U.S. is to do in the next five years what would otherwise take a decade, but that’s the work of all of us,” he said, and called for “an international commitment” to eliminating cancer and deaths related to the disease.

Top-of-the-line treatments “can’t belong to just the privileged and the powerful, it has to belong to everyone,” he said, and encouraged both governments and philanthropists to invest in research, data sharing and treatments that improve patient outcome.

Cancer, he said, “is not a national problem, it’s an international problem, it’s a human problem,” and urged participants to use their intelligence to make things “a little bit better,” and to comfort and heal those who are “frightened and in need.”

Photo credit: www.shutterstock.com.

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By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Italian authorities arrested six suspects who allegedly received orders from the Islamic State terrorist group to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.

The arrests made in Lombardy and Piedmont April 28 were the result of a joint operation coordinated by the district attorney of Milan and the Italian anti-terrorism agency.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, authorities arrested Abderrahim Moutaharrik and his wife, Salma Bencharki; Abderrahmane Khachia, and three people who have maintained contact with a couple that left Italy to join the Islamic State in Syria. All of the suspects are of Moroccan origin.

A warrant has been issued for the couple, Mohamed Korachi and his Italian wife, Alice Brignoli, who are believed to have left for Syria in 2015.

Authorities monitored a series of conversations between the suspects via WhatsApp. One of the messages sent to Moutaharrik said: "Dear brother Abderrahim, I send you ... the bomb poem ... listen to the sheik and strike," ANSA reported.

Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told reporters authorities believe the word "sheik" is a reference to Islamic State leader Abu-Bakir Al-Baghdadi. He also said the messages, intercepted in February and March 2016, mentioned a strike against the Israeli embassy as well as against Christian pilgrims in Rome for the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

"I swear I will be the first to attack them in this Italy of crusaders, I swear I'll attack it, in the Vatican God willing," a message from one of the arrested suspects stated, according to ANSA.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, expressed his confidence in the current security measures in place for the Holy Year.

"The preventative security measures in place to protect pilgrims during the jubilee year are serious and functioning properly, as everyone can see and have witnessed. Therefore, there appears to be no need to modify them," he told Catholic News Service April 29.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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