Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) “It’s a real gold mine.”

That’s the reaction of Dr Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College (Front Royal, VA, USA), and a consultor to the Pontifical for the Family, to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris laetitia (the Joy of Love).

Speaking with Vatican Radio, Dr O’Donnell spoke about some of the challenges in Amoris laetitia. “There are so many, so many challenges that are found in there,” he said. “I think probably the most fundamental challenge, and the thing that he really communicates, in I think a very effective way, is the importance of love, and that if you really do love, whatever aspect, as a husband or as a father, or as a wife or as a mother, or even as children. Love has to grow. You can never be complacent in love.”

Listen to the interview of Dr Timothy O’Donnell with Christopher Wells:

The Pope’s Exhortation shows that Pope Francis, precisely as our Holy Father, really “has the heart of a pastor,” Dr O’Donnell said. “And it’s very clear in some of the practical suggestions that he has, that he has a deep and abiding love for family life, and wants to share that. So for me, one of the greatest challenges is the challenge to grow in love.” He said growing in love is “a challenge that’s really worth taking on, and I think our families would be a lot healthier, relationships would be healthier, if that Christ-centred love and that challenge to keep growing and go more deeply into love in all of its aspects was really realized.”

Dr O’Donnell suggested reading Amoris laetitia “prayerfully, slowly” rather than simply jumping to some controversial passage, because, he said, “I think the Holy Father’s mind is beautifully revealed in this document, and that mind is the mind of the man of the Church.” Pope Francis’ teaching in the Exhortation “is placed within the context of the richness of the Church’s teaching concerning marriage and family,” he continued, noting that Francis cites earlier papal documents including Encyclicals like Pius XI’s Casti connubii and Paul VI’s Humanae vitae, as well as John Paul’s teaching on the “Theology of the Body” and the Polish pope’s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio.

It was the Pope’s focus the Lord, though, that was especially moving. Dr O’Donnell said he was “particularly struck” by chapter 3, “which really talked about Jesus, about looking to Jesus to find the vocation of the family. It’s a very Christocentric vision.” He pointed, too, to Pope Francis’ discussion of “love in marriage,” and “the joy that is to be found there,” especially in chapters 3, 4, and 5. “Any couple, Dr O’Donnell whether contemplating marriage or already married, that “would like to do everything they can to continue to strengthen that bond, in this beautiful witness to a permanent and exclusive relationship” would benefit from reading those chapters dealing with “the beauty of human love.”

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(Vatican Radio) On Monday 11th April, a cessation of hostilities between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels was brokered by the UN.

The truce comes after months of heavy fighting in Yemen, which has seen more than 6000 people killed, the majority of which are civilians. Up to 2.5 million people have also been displaced by the conflict, which has left the country in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

Vatican Radio’s Georgia Gogarty spoke with Josephine Hutton, the Regional Programme Manager Middle East at Oxfam, who described the ‘critical’ situation in Yemen as a ‘forgotten crisis’.

Listen: 

Main issues facing the country

Hutton said more than 50% of Yeminis are in need of food and assistance, with more than a quarter ‘at the edge of famine’.

Problems with the commercial sector have resulted in a huge lack of goods and as a result of low income civilians are unable to procure their basic needs in a market where they can afford them.

 Looking to the future

The truce marks the first sign of a resolution in the country, with peace talks being set to take place in Kuwait next week.

Talking about the future hopes for Yemen, Hutton expressed the importance of organisations like Oxfam and governments of the world supporting ‘a peace process that’s functional’ whilst engaging their own populations’ interest in the conflict and being ‘a positive force for change’. Funding must be provided by foreign governments in order to meet the massive humanitarian need.

When asked about the Pope Francis’s appeal for the safe return of an Indian Priest, kidnapped by the Islamic State in Yemen, Hutton spoke about the importance of world leaders in drawing attention to a conflict which the world has chosen to forget.

(Georgia Gogarty)

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said on Tuesday that "persecution is the Church’s daily bread”.

Speaking during morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope recalled the first Christian martyr – Stephen – and said that “still today so many Christians are killed or persecuted for their faith in Christ”.

Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:

Pope Francis said “there are bloody persecutions, like being torn to pieces by wild beasts to the delight of the audience in the stands or being blown up by a bomb at the end of Mass” and there are “velvet-gloved” persecutions that are “cloaked in politeness": the ones that marginalize you, take your job away if you fail to adapt to laws that "go against God the Creator."

The story of the martyrdom of Stephen, described in the Acts of the Apostles in the liturgy of the day, led the Pope to remark on how persecution is a reality that has been part of the history of Christian faith for 2000 years.
 
"Persecution, I would say, is the daily bread of the Church. Jesus said so himself” he said.

He pointed out that there are tourist sites in Rome like the Colosseum which remind us of the martyrs who were killed there by lions. But – he said – they are not the only ones. There are ordinary men and women of today: 

“Today, on Easter Sunday, just three weeks ago… Those Christians who were celebrating Easter in Pakistan were martyred because they were celebrating the Risen Christ. Thus, the history of the Church goes ahead with its martyrs” he said.

Pope Francis pointed out that the martyrdom of Stephen sparked a cruel anti-Christian persecution in Jerusalem similar to the persecution suffered by those who are not free to profess their faith in Jesus today.

“But – he noted - there is another persecution which is not much spoken about," a persecution "camouflaged by culture, by  modernity, by progress in disguise":

"It is a persecution I would 'ironically describe as polite” he said.

It’s when someone is persecuted – he explained - for wanting to manifest the values of the Gospel: “It’s persecution against God the Creator in the person of his children!”

And the Pope said that every day the powers that be promulgate laws that oblige one to take certain routes and that nations that do not follow these indications or do not want them to be part of their legislation, are accused and politely persecuted. It’s the kind of the persecution that deprives one of freedom, and of the possibility of conscientious objection.

“This – Pope Francis said - is the persecution of the world" that "takes away freedom" whilst “God made us free" to bear witness to "the Father who created us and to Christ who saved us.” 

This persecution he said is perpetrated by the prince of this world.

Referring to the “great apostasy” the Pope said that the life of Christians goes ahead notwithstanding these two persecutions.

Urging the faithful to "be careful,” to not fall into the spirit of the world, Pope Francis assured us of his closeness: “I will be with you” he said.

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(Vatican Radio) The British Ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker, said he hopes Shakespeare’s treating of humanity will lead people to “universal values” ahead of the first full performance of a Shakespearean play at the Vatican.

A special production of Hamlet was scheduled to be performed on Wednesday in the Vatican’s Palazzo della Cancelleria.

Listen to the interview with Britsh Ambassador Nigel Baker:

The Globe Theatre of London began the international tour in 2014 to mark the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare. The tour – called Globe to Globe – ends this year, which is the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death.

Ambassador Baker spoke to Vatican Radio about the significance of bringing Hamlet – Shakespeare’s “greatest…in many ways most difficult” play – to the Vatican.

“It tackles extraordinary complex issues around human relationships, around revenge, around mercy, around madness, around families, around dysfunction in families,” Ambassador Baker said. “It will be a challenge for the audience as well as for the Globe theatre production.”

Although no Shakespeare play has been performed in full before in the Vatican, there was a Shakespearean performance in 1964. The Royal Shakespeare Company performed excerpts of different plays for Pope Paul VI in the Vatican’s Palazzo Pio.

“I hope that one of the things people will take away is very much this insight Pope Paul VI had: It is through Shakespeare’s treating of humanity - with all of its foibles, and its ups and its downs, and its good and its evil - actually brings us to the great moral issues,” – Ambassador Baker said – “That in turn, potentially, leads us to universal values, and to transcendence and faith. I think that if anything, people will see that although Shakespeare was not a religious writer, he was a writer who treats the big issues that religion treats and focus on.”

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(Vatican Radio)  Just weeks after the historic meeting in Havana between Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, their two Churches are for the first time joining forces to provide humanitarian assistance to the Middle East’s Christians suffering from conflict and to rebuild churches damaged or destroyed during Syria’s five year war.

A joint Vatican and Moscow Patriarchate delegation visited Syria and Lebanon 6-7 April to coordinate humanitarian aid for refugees and the displaced and begin drawing up a list of Christian sites in need of repair.

Urgent measures needed to improve conditions of Middle East's Christians

In a statement, the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church said  "everyone knows that the tragedy in the Middle East, which has caused suffering to different Christian denominations and other groups, and the need to take urgent measures to improve the situation there were the focus of the meeting in Havana 12 February 2016."

 The comuniquè further states "the need to draw up a detailed list of Christian places destroyed and damaged during the war in Syria and the strengthening of the common Christian witness of the Syrian tragedy have been recognized as a short term priority."

The delegation visited refugee camps and met with local church leaders. The envoys included Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), secretary of the Department for External Relations of the Patriarchate, and Msgr. Paolo Pezzi, the Latin rite Archbishop of the Mother of God Archdiocese in Moscow, and representatives of the charity Aid to the Church in Need.

In an interview with a Russian news outlet, Hieromonk Stefan described as “unprecedented” the joint humanitarian effort in favor of the Middle East’s Christians;  "this is undoubtedly a result of the agreements reached in Havana." 

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(Vatican Radio) One charity organization welcoming Pope Francis’ visit to the Greek island of Lesbos is Caritas Internationalis, the helping hand of the Catholic Church with its confederation of local aid agencies present on the ground with emergency operations, development and advocacy in more than 150 nations across the world.

A delegation from Caritas Internationalis and the local Caritas Hellas Office will be in Lesbos to greet the Pope to be with him together with the refugees and migrants waiting to be relocated.

A statement says that "Caritas has been providing emergency aid on the island through Caritas Hellas and in other hotspots in Greece since the start of the crisis last year”. 

It also runs a hospitality centre in Lesbos for the most vulnerable.
 
“Over a million people crossed to Greece last year and 150,000 in 2016. Nearly half came to Lesbos. Most were fleeing war and poverty. Over 55 percent were women and children” it reads.

“The refugees and migrants are very excited about the visit of Pope Francis. They’re making bouquets of flowers and they want to meet him,” said Tonia Patrikiadou, Caritas Hellas Field Manager for a Caritas run hotel on Lesbos.

She said “The pope’s visit is a symbol of hope and solidarity for the refugees. It’s a sign that the world has not forgotten them and help is a possibility.”

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(Vatican Radio) Is non-violent protest an effective means of combatting war and oppression? Are today’s conflicts caused by deep rooted problems of poverty, injustice and exclusion? And can Catholics continue to support the Just War theory in the face of modern, high-tech militarization? These are just some of the complex questions facing participants at a Rome conference organised jointly by the Catholic peace network, Pax Christi International and the Vatican’s Justice and Peace Council.

Papal message to the meeting

In a message sent to the opening of the meeting on Monday Pope Francis praised the initiative of “revitalizing the tools of non-violence”, particularly during this Jubilee Year of Mercy. 

The three day encounter brings together some 80 theologians and peace activists from many conflict zones, including Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, Colombia, Pakistan and the Philippines. Its goal is to explore ways in which their positive experiences of non-violent activism can shape theological thinking and Catholic teaching in schools, universities, seminaries and parishes, moving away from ‘Just War’ towards the concept of a ‘Just Peace’.

Philippa Hitchen sat down with Pax Christi co-president Marie Dennis  to find out more about the origins of the conference and the questions that participants will be discussing at the closed door meeting….

Listen: 

Marie Dennis notes that in the last part of the 20th century, the successful experiences of non-violent struggle in many countries moved Church teaching on this subject more centre-stage, alongside the Just War theory.

But many in the peace movement, she says, believe that the Just War theory has been “used and abused by political leaders”, raising the question whether its continued application “prevents creative thinking” about non-violent alternatives.

She recalls that in the context of 1st century Palestine, in the face of “a very threatening and violent occupation and a strong movement to overthrow the oppressors”, Jesus consistently modelled and called for a non-violent response.

She says the meeting will listen closely to the first hand experiences of peacemakers from places of war and oppression across the globe. In many of today’s conflicts, she stresses, experience has shown that “violence really does beget violence”, adding that “we’ve failed to focus on early warnings or to develop non-violent ways of protecting people in danger”.

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(Vatican Radio) Caritas Internationalis’ special advisor on HIV/Aids said tens of thousands of HIV positive children are dying each year because of a lack of access to antiretroviral treatment. An estimated 3.2 million children are living with HIV but only a third of those children are diagnosed and put on antiretroviral treatment to keep them healthy.

Father Bob Vitillo was among the participants at a meeting of faith-based groups in Rome discussing how to strengthen their engagement in diagnosing and treating children living with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.  Caritas has joined efforts with UNAIDS, the U.S. President’s Plan for Aids relief (PEPAR) and the Vatican’s Paediatric Hospital, Bambino Gesù to plan a roadmap for achieving this aim.

Listen to the interview with Father Bob Vitillo, Special Advisor on HIV/Aids for Caritas Internationalis:

Speaking with Susy Hodges, Father Vitillo explained how we need to find the children who could have been exposed to the virus through their mothers and test them as soon as possible so they can begin treatment. He said it’s a difficult process because it is more complicated to test very young babies  than it is adults as sometime the results are not accurate and need to be repeated.

“Life-saving treatment”

Father Vitillo reminded his listeners that the antiretroviral treatment is vital to help keep these babies  alive. 

“A third of them (babies who are living with HIV) die before their first birthday if they’re not on the treatment and half of them die before their second birthday, so it is life-saving.”  

Asked for the reasons why two thirds of children with HIV do not receive this life-saving treatment, Father Vitillo explained that it’s a twin problem of lack of funds in poor countries and the distance from health centres. He said governments in many of these poor sub-Saharan countries “do not have the money to buy all the antiretroviral treatments” whose cost is often way over their health budgets.  

When it comes to the issue of distance and accessibility, Father Vitillo explained how surveys have shown that a greater decentralization of health services often leads to “a much better adherence” in terms of following the treatment as local community health service workers can play a more effective role here than staff at a distant hospital.     

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Vatican City, Apr 12, 2016 / 06:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Social media can be a place for evangelization.

The proof? The giant audience for Pope Francis’ new Instagram profile. More than 1 million people followed his “Franciscus” account in the first 12 hours after its March 19 launch. As of April 11, he has over 2.2 million followers on the photo-centered network.

Reflecting on this success, and on what it means for the Church in the social media age, Monsignor Dario Edoardo Vigano, prefect of the Secretariat for Communication, offered his thoughts.

“The astonishing success of Pope Francis’ Instagram profile was a real surprise to all of us, and also to Instagram itself, which made it a case study,” Msgr. Vigano told CNA.
 
He credited the success to “the fact that people want to see the Pope and want to have the Pope on their side.”

“This is one of the characteristics of the entire pontificate, which social media helps to emphasize,” he said.
 
Papal involvement in social media began with Pope Benedict XVI.

“Benedict XVI said that life on the internet is an apostolic activity,” Msgr. Vigano said. “We must live in these spaces with responsibility, as the internet spaces are neither good nor bad… they are simply different than the usual spaces for traditional communication.”
 
He criticized the claim that social media is not important, saying that people who make this argument are unusually older and have “lived in an era without social media.”

“But we should overcome this thought,” he emphasized.
 
The monsignor noted areas of social media where evangelization can take place.
 
“There are often groups of young people who attend catechesis and then continue their dialogue on the social networks. And there are people who find in social networks the motivation to have a personal meeting in catechesis.”
 
He stressed that social networks offer the opportunity to “enlarge our communities, expanding the possibility to reach out to people.”

Msgr. Vigano noted that social media audiences can skew young. “Especially Instagram. Ninety percent of Instagram users are under 30,” he observed.
 
This provides a very useful channel for the message of the Pope, the Gospel and the Church, he continued.

For Instagram, the message is in an image that “speaks emotionally.” For Twitter, which provides a 140-character limit on text messages, the message is “very short.”

“But this does not make the message less valuable,” Msgr. Vigano stressed.
 
He compared the brevity of a Tweet to the recommendations of the Catholic tradition that praise “even very short moments of prayer.”

Saying a “Glory Be” prayer takes the same time as typing 140 characters, he said.

The monsignor compared the rapidity of social media to “a continual firing of spiritual arrows into the heart of God.”

“I believe that social media really can help to welcome the grace of God.”
 
Beyond Instagram, the Pope’s Twitter profile “Pontifex” is an important success. The tweets are written by the Secretariat for Communication and then personally approved by the Pope.
 
Msgr. Vigano said that a series of tweets are drafted for the Pope from paraphrased excerpts of papal documents or homilies or from quotes from the Gospel.

“The Pope personally approves each of the tweets by signing them with an ‘F.’ When there is an ‘F,’ we know that we can tweet that.”

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Peter Ringenberg, Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture

By Ann Carey

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- A standing ovation in a packed Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame greeted the Little Sisters of the Poor who were on campus April 9 to receive the Evangelium Vitae Award for outstanding service to human life.

The Little Sisters operate 30 homes in the United States that offer health care and assisted living for more than 13,000 low-income seniors.

The medal has been presented annually since 2011 by the university's Center for Ethics and Culture. Awardees are announced on Respect Life Sunday in October, with the honor being conferred the following spring.

The 2016 award event took place about two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the lawsuit brought by the Little Sisters, Catholic dioceses and other entities, and other faith-based groups against the federal mandate that requires most employers, including religious employers, to offer employee health insurance that covers contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs -- even if the employer is morally opposed to such coverage.

The unusual standing ovation erupted early in the homily of Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend at the Mass preceding the award banquet. He alluded to the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, comparing the sisters' witness to that of the apostles who were called before the Sanhedrin, a religious court, and told to stop teaching in the name of Jesus.

"At this Mass, there is a community of sisters with us who, in the face of a terribly unjust mandate of our federal government, have stood up, and by their actions have said what St. Peter and the apostles said to their government in the earliest years of the church: 'We must obey God rather than men,'" the bishop said.

He added: "I wish to say to the Little Sisters of the Poor who will receive the Evangelium Vitae medal this evening, thank you for your courageous witness!"

The enthusiastic ovation then erupted in the congregation heavy with Notre Dame students. The response reflected some of the high emotions that have swirled on campus since Notre Dame's administration announced March 5 that the university's 2016 Laetare Medal would be given at the May 15 graduation ceremony to Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner. The Democrat and Republican, respectively, are both Catholic.

The Laetare Medal, inaugurated in 1883, is the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics in recognition of outstanding service to the church and society. Past recipients have included people such as President John F. Kennedy, Dorothy Day and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

Some members of the Notre Dame community strongly object to the 2016 choice because Biden has a record of disagreeing with Catholic teaching on abortion and marriage. The Notre Dame Chapter of University Faculty for Life unanimously approved a statement opposing the decision to give Biden the award, and a student petition with the same sentiment has been circulating.

Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, has said the two men are not being honored for policy positions but for their public service and dedication to civility in public discourse.

However, Bishop Rhoades, in whose diocese Notre Dame is located, had a different reaction. In a March 14 statement, he noted that when Father Jenkins discussed with him the consideration of the two men for the medal, he told Father Jenkins it is wrong to honor any "pro-choice" public official, even if that person has positive accomplishments in public service.

"The church has continually urged public officials, especially Catholics, of the grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that supports or facilitates abortion or that undermines the authentic meaning of marriage," the bishop wrote in his March statement. "I disagree with awarding someone for 'outstanding service to the church and society' who has not been faithful to this obligation."

Bishop Rhoades did not refer to the controversy in his homily at the April 9 Evangelium Vitae Mass, but people who had been following Notre Dame news recognized that the bishop alluded to the situation, particularly in a section of the homily where he said: "Preaching with our life, with our witness, is necessary, and it takes courage.

"The church's credibility is undermined, Pope Francis says, when there is an inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what we say and what we do, between word and manner of life," said the bishop.

"There must be a consistency between what we profess and the way we live, and this includes not only our personal lives," he continued, "but also the lives of our communities, in our dioceses and parishes, our Catholic schools and universities, our Catholic health care facilities and other institutions."

At the banquet after the Mass, the Evangelium Vitae medal was conferred on Little Sister of the Poor Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, who as U.S. mother provincial of the international order, represented the sisters. Over a dozen Little Sisters of the Poor and some residents from several of the sisters' homes also attended.

Conferring the medal was Notre Dame law professor Carter Snead, director of the Center for Ethics and Culture. Recently, he was named to the Pontifical Academy for Life, which advises the pope on life issues.

Sister Loraine Marie said the Little Sisters were "honored beyond words" to receive the award, and she thanked the sisters' residents for making the sisters' ministry -- and the award -- possible.

She related that the sisters had faced many challenges in their legal battle, but also had "received many graces and an outpouring of love and support" and had come to "a new level of faith and trust in God's Divine Providence over us."

Sister Loraine Marie credited the power of prayer for helping the Little Sisters through the recent difficult months, saying that prayer is essential for being able to show acceptance and respect for others with a different belief system, while also witnessing to the truth.

She urged supporters at the banquet to consider "our common commitment to the Gospel of life in this 'Year of Mercy'" by following Pope Francis's encouragement to "gaze even more attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father's action in our lives."

The Evangelium Vitae Award is accompanied by a $10,000 prize. Past winners include the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life.

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Carey writes for Today's Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

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