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Vatican City, Apr 19, 2016 / 06:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has offered his praise to the Jesuits in Italy for their longstanding work with refugees, but asked the foreigners for their pardon on behalf of all who have been closed-minded and indifferent to their plight.

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” the Pope said in a video message directed to refugees and workers who help them, calling to mind Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel.

“Too often we have not welcomed you! Forgive the closure and indifference of our societies, who fear the change of life and mentality that your presence requires,” he said.

Francis noted that after coming to a new country, refugees are frequently treated as burdens and problems which only bring more cost. However, “you are instead a gift.”

“You are the testimony of how our heavenly and merciful God transforms the evil and injustice of those who suffer into a good for all,” the Pope said, explaining that each refugee can be a bridge “that unites peoples who are far away, that makes possible the meeting of cultures and different religions,” and which lead to a path of “rediscovering our common humanity.”

Pope Francis offered his words in a video message for the 35th anniversary of Centro Astalli, the Italian headquarters of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Published April 19, the message coincides with the presentation of the center’s annual report in Rome.

In his brief comments, Francis spoke directly to both the workers and volunteers of the center, as well as the refugees they assist.

He pointed to the first part of the passage in Matthew 25: “I was a stranger.” Each refugee, he said, has “the face of God and the flesh of Christ.”

Speaking directly to the refugees who receive help from the center, Francis told them that their experiences of both pain and hope serve as a reminder that every person on the earth is a stranger and a pilgrim who has been welcomed by someone “with generosity and without any merit.”

“Whoever, like you, has fled from their own land due to oppression, war, nature disfigured by pollution and deforestation, or from the unjust distribution of the planet’s resources, is a brother with whom to share one’s bread, home and life,” the Pope observed.

He said the Astalli Center is prime example of what the daily welcoming of peoples ought to look like, and thanked the workers and volunteers, both lay and consecrated, for their work.

Through their work, they show “in the facts that if we walk the path together there is less fear,” he said, and urged them to be concrete witnesses “of the beauty of encounter. Help our society to listen to the voice of the refugees.”

“Continue to walk with courage at their side, accompany them and be their guide,” Pope Francis said in conclusion, adding that “refugees know the roads that lead to peace, because they know the acrid smell of war.”

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Vatican City, Apr 20, 2016 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Terrorism in the name of religion is a lie, the head of the Holy See’s mission to the United Nations said last week. 

“In the Middle East, in particular, terrorists must never be allowed to destroy centuries of peaceful co-existence of Muslims and Christians in the region,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza said at the United Nations April 14.

The archbishop, who is the apostolic nuncio leading the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, spoke in the U.N. Security Council’s open debate on threats to international peace and security.

Archbishop Auza said terrorist groups which claim to kill in the name of religion show “mendacity and blasphemy” that must be denounced “in the strongest possible terms.” Religious leaders particularly have a grave responsibility to condemn those who seek to instrumentalize religion for violent and oppressive ends, he said.

“No one of whatever religion or culture must ever be allowed to carry out acts of violence and oppression in the name of that religion or culture or under whatever pretext,” he added.

Terrorism represents “a fundamental threat to our common humanity,” the archbishop continued. The fight against it requires “a shared commitment from all nations and people of good will.”

Archbishop Auza noted terrorism’s trans-national character. He cited the 30,000 foreign fighters from 100 U.N. member states who have entered Islamic State-controlled territory.

“Once trained and completely indoctrinated in the most warped and violent ideologies, they travel to sow terror in other countries,” he said.

The archbishop also reflected on how to counter terrorism.

“Any lasting solution to defeat violent extremism and fundamentalist terror must consider the centrality of the inviolable dignity and rights of the human person, regardless of race, religion, political belief and difference,” he said. “Too many individual citizens and groups have suffered and continue to suffer death and all forms of violence and discrimination because of their religion, ethnicity or political beliefs.”

Only a collective international response can counter international terrorism, Archbishop Auza said, stressing that more than military coercion is needed. He praised a “culture of encounter and dialogue that breeds mutual acceptance and promotes inclusive societies.” 

“This is the only way to lasting peace and security,” he said.

He advocated a response to the “root causes” of terrorism, including youth who are disillusioned and feel excluded.

“Together with the legal tools and resources to prevent citizens from becoming foreign terrorist fighters, governments should engage with civil society to address the problems of communities most at risk of radicalization and recruitment and to achieve their satisfactory social integration,” he said.

The archbishop called for action to end internet recruitment of new adherents to terrorist groups. He also called for an end to internet funding for these groups and asked the Security Council for harsh penalties against arms suppliers.

“Collaboration with terror groups, whether for profit or for ideological complicity, must be outlawed. Member states that abet violent extremism or shelter terror groups must be rigorously challenged by this Council,” he said.

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New York City, N.Y., Apr 20, 2016 / 11:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new stage has begun in the process toward possible canonization for Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has opened the canonical “inquiry on the life” of Dorothy Day, the archdiocese announced April 19.
 
Starting this week, the archdiocese will interview some 50 eyewitnesses who had firsthand experience with Dorothy Day. Their testimonies and other evidence will be collected, examined to determine whether Day lived a life of “heroic virtue,” and will eventually be presented to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Saints and to Pope Francis.

In addition, Cardinal Dolan will appoint experts to review the published and unpublished writings of Dorothy Day, considering their adherence to doctrine and morals.

George B. Horton, liaison for the Dorothy Day Guild, noted that this will be an extensive project.

“Dorothy Day created or inspired dozens of houses of hospitality throughout the English-speaking world, but she was also a journalist who published The Catholic Worker newspaper,” he said.

“Her articles in that paper alone total over 3,000 pages. Add her books and other publications and we will probably surpass 8,000 pages of manuscripts.”

Born in Brooklyn and eventually raised in Chicago, Day was baptized Episcopalian at the age of 12. She displayed signs at a young age of possessing a deep religious sense, fasting and mortifying her body by sleeping on hardwood floors.

Her life soon changed as the 1910s brought about a stark shift in the U.S. social climate. A key turning point in her life and personal ideology came when she read “The Jungle,” Upton Sinclair's scathing depiction of the Chicago meat-packing industry.

Day dropped out of college and moved to New York, where she took a job as a reporter for the country's largest daily socialist paper, The Call. After fraternizing with the Bohemians and Socialist intellectuals of her time – and after a series of disastrous romances, one of which included an abortion that she later deeply regretted – Day fell in love with an anarchist nature-lover by the name of Forster Batterham.

She eventually settled in Staten Island, living a peaceful, slow-paced life on the beach with Batterham in a common law marriage. Conflict arose, however, when Day became increasingly drawn to the Catholic faith – praying rosaries consistently and even having their daughter, Tamar, baptized as a Catholic. Batterham, a staunch atheist, eventually left them and Day was received into the Catholic Church herself in 1927.

She returned to New York City as a single mother where her deep-rooted and long-standing concern for the poor resurfaced. Along with French itinerant Peter Maurin, she founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933. Living the Catholic notion of holy poverty and practicing works of mercy, the two started soup kitchens, self-sustaining farm communities and a daily newspaper. In the course of her 50 years working among the poor and marginalized, Day never took a salary.

Her legacy lives on today in some 185 Catholic Worker communities in the U.S. and around the globe.

In a 2012 meeting of U.S. bishops, Cardinal Dolan called Dorothy Day “a saint for our time,” describing her as “a living, breathing, colorful, lovable, embracing, warm woman who exemplifies what’s best in Catholic life” and shows the Church’s commitment to both the dignity of human life and social justice.

The Vatican opened the canonization process for Dorothy Day, naming her a “Servant of God,” in 2000.

The road to canonization is a lengthy one, normally requiring many years and several stages, including examination by a diocesan tribunal and a Vatican congregation, as well as the approval of two miracles attributed to the saint’s intercession. Ultimately, the Pope has the final say in canonizing saints.  

 

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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- For decades, Congress and U.S. presidents -- both Republican and Democrat -- have approved federal laws "protecting conscientious objection to abortion," but it is increasingly clear current laws "offer far less protection in practice than in theory," said a group of faith-based, health care and pro-life organizations.

A group of 26 organizations made the comments in a joint April 19 letter to members of the House of Representatives urging them to pass the Conscience Protection Act of 2016, or H.R. 4828.

"Even many 'pro-choice' Americans realize that the logic of their position requires them to respect a choice not to be involved in abortion," the group said.

"We represent millions of Americans and tens of thousands of health care professionals with a profound concern about abortion, and particularly about the conscience rights of health care professionals and facilities," it added.

The letter pointed to several loopholes in current law that it said would be addressed by the Conscience Protection Act, introduced March 22 by Reps. John Fleming, R-Louisiana, and Vicky Hartzler, R-Missouri. Fleming is a medical doctor.

One example of such a loophole is taking place in California, it said. In 2014, the state began demanding that all health plans under the jurisdiction of the state's Department of Managed Health Care -- "even those purchased by churches and other religious organizations" -- cover elective abortions for any reason, "including late-term abortions and those performed for reasons of 'sex selection.'"

The state allows no exemption of any kind, the letter said, noting that such a policy "flagrantly violates" the Weldon Amendment, a federal law enacted in 2005 to protect the conscience rights of institutions and individuals.

The California Catholic Conference filed a complaint about the policy in September 2014 with the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. To date, that office has not acted on the complaint, the letter said.

H.R. 4828 "is very similar to the abortion nondiscrimination provision that for the last three years has been part of the House's Labor/HHS appropriations bills," the letter said. "It takes the core policy of Weldon -- protecting those who decline to perform, pay for, refer for, or provide coverage for abortion -- and writes it into permanent law. It clarifies the protections of Weldon, and adds a private right of action to enforce this law and other long-standing conscience laws on abortion."

Among the signers of the letter are the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Christian Medical Association and Catholic Medical Association; the National Council of Catholic Women; the March for Life Education and Defense Fund; the National Association of Evangelicals; the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; the Knights of Columbus; National Right to Life; and several associations of physicians and nurses.

The group's letter follows a March 31 letter to House members from the chairmen of two U.S. bishops' committees urging support for H.R. 4828 and noting its "modest scope."

"While existing federal laws already protect conscientious objection to abortion in theory, this protection has not proved effective in practice," wrote New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, who chair, respectively, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities and Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

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