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New York City, N.Y., Apr 26, 2016 / 04:51 pm (CNA).- This week’s #WeAreN2016 Congress aims to call on the world to stop the persecution of Christians and other minorities. Victims of persecution and leaders from around the world will speak about the need for action in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere.

“Christians account for 80 percent of persecuted minorities,” the congress website said. “They are victims of the deliberate infliction of conditions of life that are calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part. They are being murdered, beheaded, crucified, beaten, extorted, abducted, and tortured.”

The congress cited other atrocities like enslavement, forcible conversion to Islam, and sexual violence against women and girls.

The congress’ events will take place April 28-30 at several New York City venues. The Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations is among the conference sponsors, as is the group In Defense of Christians. The congress was organized by the citizen activism website CitizenGo and the Spain-based religious liberty advocacy group MasLibres.

The April 28 events will take place from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council Chamber.

Opening remarks will come from Archbishop Bernardito Auza, who heads the Holy See’s permanent observer mission, and Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, who is the permanent observer of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

They will be followed by a panel discussion on protecting victims of persecution and fostering religious freedom around the world. Archbishop Auza will chair the panel. Panel members include Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus; Lars Adaktusson, Swedish member of the European Parliament; and Dr. Thomas F. Farr, who was the first director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Religious Freedom.

Ignacio Arsuago, president of CitizenGO, will chair a panel about mass atrocities, the exodus of Christians, and those who have suffered due to the Islamic State group. Bishop Joseph Danlami Bagobiri of Kafanchan, Nigeria will be a panelist, as will Sister Maria de Guadalupe, a missionary in Syria, and Father Douglas Al-Bazi, a Chaldean Catholic priest who was kidnapped by the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Carl and Marsha Mueller will also speak. They are the parents of aid work Kayla Mueller, who was kidnapped by the Islamic State group in Syria and killed.

Another panel will discuss Christian and Yazidi women as sexual victims of crimes against humanity. Panelists include a Yazidi who was kidnaped by the Islamic State group.

On April 29, at 10 a.m., backers of the #WeAreN2016 petition will deliver it to the U.N. Secretary General. The petition calls on the international community to recognize the nature of the systematic attacks on Christians and other religious minorities. It also calls on the international community to commit itself to protect them according to international law and previous U.N. resolutions.

That evening, the documentary “Insh Alla—Blood of the Martyrs” will premiere at the Roosevelt Hotel. A 6:30 p.m. reception will precede the 7:30 p.m. showing. The movie is produced by MasLibres and CitizenGo.

On April 30, the final day of the congress will be hosted at the Roosevelt Hotel from 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m.

The daughter and husband of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who faces a death sentence in Pakistan for violating its strict blasphemy law, will speak at the gathering. They will be joined by Syrian missionaries, Fr. Al-Bazi, and Bishop Bagobiri.

Other speakers include Ignacio Arsuaga, president of CitizenGo; Toufic Baaklini, president of In Defense of Christians; and Drew Bowling, communications and policy advisor to U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry(R-Neb.), the congressman who introduced a House resolution against the genocide of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East.

Additional information and registration are available at the site www.wearen.org. All registration fees will support the witnesses of persecution who speak at the conference.

 

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Clericalism is a danger to the Catholic Church not only because on a practical level it undermines the role of laity in society, but because theologically it "tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace" of all believers, whether they are lay or clergy, Pope Francis said.

"No one is baptized a priest or bishop," the pope said in a letter to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. The fundamental consecration of all Christians occurs at baptism and is what unites all Christians in the call to holiness and witness.

In the letter, released at the Vatican April 26, Pope Francis said he wanted to ensure that a discussion begun with members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America March 4 "does not fall into a void."

The topic of the March discussion, he said, was on the public role of the laity in the life of the people of Latin America. In the letter, Pope Francis said that in lay Catholics' work for the good of society and for justice, "it is not the pastor who must tell the layperson what to do and say, he already knows this and better than we do."

"It is illogical and even impossible to think that we, as pastors, should have a monopoly on the solutions for the multiple challenges that contemporary life presents," he said. "On the contrary, we must stand alongside our people, accompany them in their search and stimulate their imagination in responding to current problems."

Pastors are not conceding anything to the laity by recognizing their role and potential in bringing the Gospel to the world; the laity are just as much members of "holy, faithful people of God" as the clergy, the pope said. "We are called to serve them, not use them."

Pope Francis insisted that the discussion on the role of the laity must not fall into the trap of thinking "the committed layperson is one who works for the church or is involved in matters of the parish or diocese" -- creating a "lay elite" -- but must recognize that most Catholic laypeople live their Christian commitment in their homes, neighborhoods, cities and countries.

"The faith we have received is a gift that came to us, in many cases, from our mothers and grandmothers. They were the living memory of Jesus Christ within our homes. It was in the silence of family life that most of us learned to pray, to love and to live the faith," the pope wrote. Ignoring the role the laity always have played in passing on the faith is dangerous, he said.

In societies where "the disposable culture is established, leaving little space for hope," the pope wrote, committed Catholic laity and their families "seek not only to survive, but among the contradictions and injustices, they seek the Lord and desire to give witness to him."

"What does it mean for us pastors that the laity are working in public life?" the pope asked. "It means we must try to encourage, accompany and stimulate all the attempts and efforts that they already are making to keep alive hope and faith."

Pastors must be close to their people, he said, "opening doors, working with them, dreaming with them, reflecting and, especially, praying with them."

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(Vatican Radio) Catholic and Anglican theologians have been meeting together near Rome to discuss ordination rites within the two communions, as well as the significant ecumenical implications of Pope Francis’ recent document ‘Amoris Laetitia’.

A meeting of the Malines Conversation group took place from April 17th to 22nd at Rocca di Papa, south of Rome, culminating in an ecumenical evensong celebrated by Archbishop Arthur Roche of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

A communique issued after the encounter said the theologians from seven different countries discussed “contemporary and historic ordination rites” and the developments that have taken place in both communions since Pope Leo XIII declared Anglican orders to be “null and void”.

To find out more about the conversation and about prospects for progress in the dialogue, Philippa Hitchen spoke to one of the Catholic participants, Fr Tony Currer of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

Listen: 

Fr Tony notes the original Malines group started around 20 years after the publication of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical “to see how things could be taken forward”. He describes it as “a remarkable development” given the position of the Catholic Church which was not involved in the new ecumenical endeavours that were taking shape at the start of the 20th century.

In a similar way today, he says, Anglicans and Catholics are facing major obstacles which require “a lot of exploration in an atmosphere of friendship, honesty and frankness to see where progress might be made”.

Fr Tony recalls that the documents of the Second Vatican Council recognized those elements of the Church which exist beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church, adding that recent ecumenical efforts have been looking at the implications of that statement in the search for reciprocal recognition of ministry.

Theology needs to 'catch up' with gestures

While he notes that such recognition is still not fully possible, he cites many gestures to show a growing respect and recognition of the ministry exercised by Anglican bishops. In particular he recalls the gesture of Pope Paul VI, 50 years ago, of giving his own episcopal ring to the Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. Theology, Fr Tony says, “needs to catch up” and find the “theological underpinnings to these gestures”.

He adds “I think it’s true to say we don’t use the language of ‘null and void’ any more” as that’s “clearly not what is spoken by the gestures, generosity, and warmth which we see time and time again”.

Please find below the full text of the communique:

THE MALINES CONVERSATIONS GROUP 2016

The fourth international meeting of the Malines Conversations Group took place in Rome and at the Villa Palazzola, Rocca di Papa, between Sunday 17th April and Friday 22nd April. Under the patronage of Cardinal Godfried Danneels (Archbishop Emeritus of Malines-Brussels) and The Right Reverend and Right Honourable The Lord Williams of Oystermouth (former Archbishop of Canterbury), this informal group comprises Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians from seven different countries and meets with the blessing and support of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and Lambeth Palace, and keeps in close contact with the official mandated ecumenical bodies in both communions. It includes members of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). Last year’s meeting at Boston College,  Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA, considered questions of sacramentality and ordination, whilst this year’s gathering continued to develop these themes. 

The Group was welcomed to the Vatican, and greatly benefited from discussion with Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, and with Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. Additionally, they were warmly received by the British Ambassador to the Holy See, at the Anglican Centre in Rome (currently celebrating its Golden Jubilee year), and by the Prior of the monastic community at the Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio from which St Augustine was sent to England by Pope St Gregory the Great. 

During seminars and conversations at Palazzola, the group reflected on the first fifty years of the ARCIC dialogue and the harvesting of its many fruits, the sacramentality of life and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the relationship between the local and the universal Church, and explored the dynamics of theological thinking about the sanctity and future of the Church. The group continued its exploration of contemporary and historic ordination rites, considered more deeply questions arising from Apostolicae Curae and Saepius Officio (both in relationship to the context of the original Malines Conversations, and within the framework of subsequent developments in both communions), reflected on the riches to be shared in future thinking about the life of the Church, and discerned mutual learning about priesthood and ministry in a shared late modern context. Additionally, the Group reflected on some ecclesiological and ecumenical implications of Pope Francis’ recent Post Synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia. 

This year the group was joined by several invited guests, including The Right Reverend Dr Geoffrey Rowell (former Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe and noted scholar of the nineteenth century), The Right Reverend David Hamid (co-Chair of IARCCUM and suffragan bishop in the Church of England Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe) and Monsignor Kevin W. Irwin, former Dean of Theology at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., USA.

The meeting took place within the context of prayer, and culminated in a beautiful Ecumenical Evensong at the Oratory of S Francis Xavier del Caravita in Rome celebrated by Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and sung by the choir of St James, King Street, Sydney, Australia, at which the preacher was Bishop David Hamid. 

The Group’s steering committee is chaired by Fr Thomas Pott OSB of the Monastery of Chevetogne, and includes The Revd Dr Jamie Hawkey, Dean of Clare College, Cambridge, and The Revd Professor Keith Pecklers SJ, of the Gregorian University. The Group is grateful to all its supporters and sponsors. A fifth meeting is planned for next Spring, in Cambridge, UK.  

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IMAGE: CNS/Nancy Wiechec

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis named Archbishop Juan Garcia Rodriguez, who has worked quietly to help rebuild the Cuban church, physically and spiritually, to be the new archbishop of Havana.

He succeeds 79-year-old Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana, whose retirement was accepted by the pope the same day. The Vatican made the announcements April 26.

The 67-year-old native of Camaguey has been described as a bishop in the style of Pope Francis. Known for his missionary spirit and as a man of prayer, he has the ability to remain calm in the midst of any storm.

He was among the Cuban church officials who worked helping the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who lost their homes and belongings during one of the worst natural disasters in the country's recent history -- Hurricane Ike in 2008.

At the time, Archbishop Garcia was president of the Cuban bishops' conference, but he was on the scene loading up sacks of beans, rice and "guayaba" paste, a popular type of fruit jam, to take to the people of the province of Pinar del Rio, which had been hard hit by the hurricane.

He found ways to help catechize Cuba after nearly 50 years when religious practice was discouraged by the communist government. Funding from U.S. Catholics helped support projects throughout Cuba, including work by Archbishop Garcia, who enlisted grandparents -- who grew up at a time when they were taught about the church -- to help educate their grandchildren about the faith.

He told U.S. visitors in 2009 that grandparents teaching the youngest generation had been an effective system of catechesis "because they remember. Then the children help teach their parents," whose generation missed out on religious education during the government's most restrictive period.

He said efforts as simple as showing religious-themed films and television programs also were useful catechesis tools.

In 2008, Archbishop Garcia asked Pope Benedict XVI to visit Cuba in 2012, which he did, to help celebrate the 400th anniversary of Cuban devotion to Our Lady of Charity.

"Despite many years of silence about God, in Cuba there is a growing religious thirst and an ever-increasing devotion, especially to Our Lady of Charity, the patron of the country," Archbishop Garcia said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper in 2008.

A new wave of evangelization has begun among Cuba's children, and groups of teens and young adults are "living the commandments and the beatitudes despite being mocked and marginalized," he told the paper.

Archbishop Garcia said the Cuban bishops wanted Pope Benedict to witness "our healthy pride in the people who have remained faithful to Christ and his church throughout the long years in which they were criticized" for believing.

"The Cuban church is a small and fragile flock. But at the same time, it is faithful, open, serving, joyful and happy to live its faith and proclaim it," the archbishop said.

"In our churches, you find Catholics and potential Catholics, people who follow popular religions and syncretistic believers, as well as diverse political opinions," he said. "The church welcomes them as a mother and guides them on the path toward Jesus Christ, prince of peace and teacher of truth."

Archbishop Garcia said the Catholic Church in Cuba suffers from a serious lack of priests; at the time he spoke, the nation had about 11 million residents, but only about 340 priests.

"It is clear that the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few," he said. "Yet the thirst for God continues to grow."

Archbishop Garcia also said that since the late 1980s, when the government began allowing Catholic pastoral workers to visit prisoners, the church's prison ministry has grown enormously.

During the bishops' "ad limina" visit to Rome in 2008, he told Pope Benedict, "At this moment in Cuba there is talk of changes, which the people and the church greet with hope."

"We ask the Virgin of Charity that these changes would make Cuba a more fraternal and peaceful land, guided by the principles of the common good, subsidiarity, participation and solidarity and by the fundamental values of truth, charity, justice and freedom," he said.

Born in Camaguey in 1948, he was ordained in his home archdiocese in 1972 and served in a number of parishes there. He was also the founder and director of a school for missionaries in the archdiocese.

He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Camaguey in 1997 and was elevated to archbishop in 2002. He served as president of the Cuban bishops' conference and represented Cuba in the meeting of Latin American and Caribbean bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007.

Cardinal Ortega served as archbishop of Havana since 1981, a period that saw openings under the communist government. He hosted Pope Benedict, St. John Paul II and Pope Francis on visits to Cuba. Under his leadership, the church worked quietly to provide social services to Cubans affected by the more-than-50-year U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, and the cardinal worked to help thaw chilly relations between the two countries.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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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.

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