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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has a sent telegramme to Jozef De Kesel, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels following the attacks on Tuesday morning in the Belgian capital Brussels.

In the telegramme signed by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis prays for the victims, the injured and their families and again condemns “blind violence which causes so much suffering.”

Please find below a Vatican Radio translation of the Pope’s telegramme.

Learning of the attacks in Brussels, which have affected many people, His Holiness Pope Francis entrusts to God's mercy those who died and he prays for those who have lost relatives. He expresses his deepest sympathy to the injured and their families, and all those who contribute to relief efforts, asking the Lord to bring them comfort and consolation in this ordeal. The Holy Father again condemns the blind violence which causes so much suffering and imploring from God the gift of peace, he entrusts on the bereaved families and the Belgians the benefit of divine blessings.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin

Secretary of State of His Holiness 

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As the Christians in India are encountering repeated incidents of violence against churches and the Christian faithful, they are asking the government for the protection of churches and safety, in view of the Easter celebrations.

As reported to Fides, the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), say that "protection is necessary during Holy Week", given that "violence against individual Christians and churches continues unabated in different parts of India". The community fears an organized attack against Christian faithful and churches during Holy Week.

As Christians, participating in the liturgies of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask for protection and security for our defenseless community" writes the GCIC.

Christians in India are also concerned about the slow pace of the judicial system in pursuing the perpetrators of the attacks. Among the most recent incidents, on March 18 six Christians, including a four-year-old girl, were wounded in the village of Gopanpally in the state of Telangana, while peacefully participating in a prayer vigil in a Christian Pentecostal hall. The faithful were beaten and forced to flee, chased by a crowd of fanatics. The hall was devastated.

Earlier a joint statement on the situation of religious freedom in the country was signed by Archbishop Anil Couto, of Delhi, Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, of the Faridabad Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy and Bishop Jacob Barnabas, of the Syro-Malankara Catholic church along with many other leaders of Christian denominations in India that discrimination and targeted violence will be ended by strong political will and administrative action.(Fides)

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(Vatican Radio)  The Orthodox Metropolitan of Belgium, Athenagoras (Ecumenical Patriarchate) has called for all religious leaders of Belgium to unite their voices and forces against terrorism. 

Commenting on the attacks of Tuesday morning in Brussels, Athenagoras, President of the Orthodox Episcopal Assembly of Belgium, appealed to every person of good will around the world, Christians and non, to become a shield against terrorism as well as messengers of peace.

“Terrorists today have not struck Brussels. Terrorists today struck throughout Europe. Terrorists today struck once again the whole world” he underlined in his comment. 

“We call upon the whole world, Christian and not, to become a shield against terrorism. To become one body against the storm of grief that overwhelms the planet. In this war that was declared by terrorism in Europe we will become messengers of peace” he said.

“As Bishop and Pastor, as president of the Orthodox Episcopal Assembly of Belgium,  I call upon the religious leaders of Belgium to unite our voices and our power against the wickedness and violence. I call upon the religious leaders of Belgium to condemn any kind of terrorism and to give our own testimony of consolation and sympathy to our affected brothers and sisters” Metropolitan Athenagoras said.

(Nicholas Papachristou)

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Washington D.C., Mar 22, 2016 / 06:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the heart of many of today’s most pressing U.S. religious liberty concerns is the fallout from the sexual revolution decades ago, said one author on the subject at a recent conference.

Mary Eberstadt, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, argued that while atheistic Communism failed in Russia and Eastern Europe, a key error persists today in the form of an intolerant secularism rooted in the sexual revolution.

The “anthropological error” at the heart of Communism, “the notion that man can be man without religious liberty lives on with a vengeance now,” Eberstadt said at a conference in Washington, D.C. on March 17.

“In an unforeseen turn that is not only nationwide but cross-civilizational, religious liberty today appears more precarious in the United States than at any time since the American Founding,” she added.

The Catholic University of America hosted the conference on human ecology, celebrating 125 years of the first modern social encyclical Rerum Novarum. It drew clergy and business leaders from across the U.S. to discuss how businesses can better apply principles of Catholic social teaching to their practices.

Human ecology was the focus of the second part of the conference. Eberstadt’s talk was on “religious liberty vs. the sexual revolution” and the profound implications this fight has for the poor and the vulnerable in the U.S.

Eberstadt is the author of the 2012 book “Adam and Eve after the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution.”

In her talk, she said that secularist forces are trying to close down or de-Christianize religious charities because they won’t comply with their demands for access to contraception and abortion, rooted in the sexual revolution.

If these activists succeed, she added, the consequences will be disastrous for the poor.

This fight is seen most clearly in the administration’s contraception mandate, Eberstadt said. The administration’s “absolutism” in insisting that employers provide contraception coverage for employees – and that religious charities provide it indirectly against their conscience – has led to hundreds of lawsuits, diverting resources away from helping the needy toward legal fees.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, the most prominent plaintiff in these lawsuits, should have won the compassion of everyone in their fight to stay open, Eberstadt said. Their mission of helping the poor elderly “can soften the hardest heart” and yet “even among other people engaged in full-time charity work, the Little Sisters are spoken of with harsh tones.”

“From the point of view of sheer public relations, taking on the Little Sisters of the Poor ought to have been the political equivalent of slapping babies,” she continued, yet the administration is opposing them in court.

“Nothing stopped an American government animated by secularist progressivism from trying to make even the Little Sisters of the Poor knuckle under to whatever is being demanded today in the name of the sexual revolution,” she said.

She gave other examples of this intolerance. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Catholic hospitals, as well as immigration services of the U.S. Bishops Conference, for not providing abortions. The National Abortion Rights Action League has sponsored legislation to force pro-life pregnancy centers in California to tell patients about abortion and contraceptive options.

These groups may just claim that they are “pro-choice” and in favor of women’s access to these products and procedures, but “something deeper is afoot,” Eberstadt said. These antagonists are “not only despisers,” she added, but “they are, and act like, affiliates of a rival faith.”

This “faith,” is the belief that an autonomous individual should have access to sex, contraception, and abortion and that no entity, including religious charities, should deny them this right.

If these forces win and religious charities must close, the cost would be steep, particularly to the poor people these charities serve, Eberstadt continued. They “cannot be replaced, not overnight, not by government agencies,” she insisted, and their particular love of the poor rooted in Christianity cannot be replicated by the state.

“How is disrupting these supply lines even remotely in the interest of public humanity?” she asked.

How can Catholics respond to these attacks? We must go on the offensive, the speaker stressed. “We need to point out that people who attack charities,” she said, “are subverting the public good.”

“It’s wrong to lay siege to pregnancy centers,” she said of efforts to make pro-life pregnancy centers tell clients about abortion options. “It is wrong to hold desperate immigrants hostage at the Southern border” to comply with secularist demands of access to abortion contraception, she said of the ACLU lawsuits against the U.S. Bishops Conference.

“The attacks on religious charities prove that they do not stand on the high ground,” she said. One faith is “hurting the poor. The other side is doing the opposite,” she concluded.

 

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Vatican City, Mar 22, 2016 / 08:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of attacks at an airport and metro in Belgium, condemning the acts as “blind violence” and praying for peace.

“Upon learning of the attacks in Brussels, which have affected many people, His Holiness Pope Francis entrusted to the mercy of God the people who have lost their lives and joins those close to them in prayer for the death of their relatives,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin March 22.

The Vatican’s Secretary of State signed the letter, which was addressed to the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Jozef De Kesel, on behalf of the Pope.

He said that Francis expresses “deep sympathy for the wounded, for their families and for all those contributing to relief efforts,” and prayed that the Lord would bring them comfort and consolation.

Pope Francis, he said, “again condemns the blind violence which has caused so much suffering, and he implores God for the gift of peace, invoking upon the grieving families and on all Belgians the benefit of divine blessings.”

The Pope’s prayers come after at least 34 people were killed and 170 more injured in March 22 attacks at Brussels Zaventem international airport and a city metro station near buildings belonging to the E.U.

Twin blasts hit the airport around 8 a.m. local time, tearing through the departure section. The BBC reports that a Belgian prosecutor said the blasts were likely caused by “a suicide bomber.”

According to reports, shots and shouts in Arabic could be heard before the blasts, and an undetonated suicide belt was found after the attacks.

An hour later, in the middle of rush hour, another explosion struck the Maelbeek metro station in Brussels.

The attacks have prompted Belgium to raise its terrorism threat to the highest level, and fall just four days after Salah Abdeslam, primary fugitive in the Paris attacks, was arrested in Brussels.

In a March 22 statement, the Belgian bishops said they were “appalled” to learn of the attacks, and said they share in “share the anguish of thousands of travelers and their families, aviation professionals and the first responders who are once again called to service.”

They offered prayers for all those affected by this “new dramatic situation,” and stressed that airport chaplains are available to provide the necessary spiritual support.

 

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IMAGE: CNS/Libreria Editrice Vaticana

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When he told Pope Francis that writing the meditations for the papal Way of the Cross service was tough, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve said the pope told him, "Remember, you aren't doing it for me, but for the church."

The Good Friday service, which takes places at night at Rome's Colosseum, is broadcast around the world. Tens of thousands of people gather with the pope around the ancient Roman amphitheater to meditate on the last moments of Jesus' life.

Each year the pope asks a different person to write the meditations and prayers that are read out after each station is announced. Cardinal Bassetti was chosen for the March 25 service.

"For every station I tried to make a reference to current events because, as Pope Francis says, 'God is real and shows himself today,'" the cardinal told the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

Reflecting on Christ's passion, the cardinal also urged people to reflect on how human sin and suffering continue today. His meditations refer to modern martyrs being killed "in every corner of the globe" just because they are Christians. He refers to the suffering of migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and persecution but risking disease and death as they make the perilous journey toward a new life.

"Without a doubt, though, it was most difficult to write about violence against children," both those reduced to slavery in forced work and those abused by adults, he said. "When I wrote those lines I felt like I was not using a pen on paper, but a chisel on marble, such was the suffering in writing about those plagues."

Reading and praying about the stations in preparation for writing, the cardinal said he was struck particularly by portrayals of the use and abuse of power.

In the first station, "Jesus is condemned to death," Pilate has political power and can "give or take a life according to his own interests," he said. In the fourth station, "Jesus meets his mother," one sees the power love has to give life; and the 11th station, "Jesus is nailed to the cross," illustrates divine power in "the ability of the Lord to open the path to eternal life when human eyes see only death and humiliation."

Standing before Pilate, the cardinal wrote in the first station, "Jesus is alone before the power of this world. And he submits to human justice completely."

Pilate and the crowds -- including men and women today -- hand him over to be crucified, he wrote. They are "dominated by a sensation that is common to all people: fear -- the fear of losing their security, their goods, their lives."

The Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, printed booklets with the complete texts of the prayers and meditations. They were to be handed out free of charge to people joining the pope at the Colosseum and available for sale at the Vatican bookstore.

By participating in the Via Crucis service and remembering Christ's passion, Christians assert their faith that suffering is not absurd and that, in the end, Christ is victorious over both evil and death, Cardinal Bassetti told L'Osservatore Romano.

At the same time, he said, it means "recognizing that in our daily crosses, Jesus is with us."

Most of the cardinal's meditations and prayers were designed to help Catholics recognize how much they need God's mercy, the great cost paid by Jesus for their salvation and how Christ continues to suffer today in the lives of so many people.

In his meditation for the third station, "Jesus falls for the first time," Cardinal Bassetti asks a question countless have asked throughout history, "Where is God?"

"There are situations that seem to negate God's love," he wrote. "Where is God in the death camps? Where is God in the mines and factories where child slaves work? Where is God in the rickety boats that sink in the Mediterranean?"

Cardinal Bassetti's prayer for that station is "for all those situations of suffering that seem to have no sense," including for "Christians killed in hatred of the faith, for victims of every kind of persecution, for children who are slaves, for the innocent who die in wars."

The prayers for the seventh and ninth stations, when Jesus falls again, are likewise prayers for lists of people who find themselves thrown or pushed down to the ground under the weight of almost unbearable suffering: abused women, orphans, those whose families have broken up and the unemployed.

For the 13th station, "Jesus is taken down from the cross," the cardinal focuses on Joseph of Arimathea who requested permission to bury Jesus. Taking Jesus while he is still "a loser," Joseph of Arimathea shows "the strength of faith, a faith that becomes acceptance, gratuity and love. In a word: charity."

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden

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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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IMAGE: CNS photo/Reuters, handout

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis, condemning the "blind violence" of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, offered his prayers to the victims, the injured, their families and all those offering assistance in the aftermath of the bombings.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent the pope's condolences March 22 to Archbishop Jozef De Kesel of Mechelen-Brussels.

"The Holy Father again condemns the blind violence which causes so much suffering, and he implores from God the gift of peace," the message said.

The pope "entrusts to God's mercy those who died and, in prayer, he shares the pain of their loved ones," the message said. "He expresses his deepest sympathy to the injured and their families, as well as for all those providing assistance, "asking the Lord to give them comfort and consolation amid this ordeal."

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters the attacks in Brussels would not lead to any changes in Pope Francis' Holy Week and Easter schedule. Already for the Year of Mercy, especially after the November terrorist attacks in Paris, the Italian police presence at the Vatican has been increased.

Three nearly simultaneous attacks -- two at the Brussels airport and one on the Brussels area of Maalbeek, near where much of the European Union is based -- left at least 31 dead and dozens more injured. At least one of the airport attacks was attributed to a suicide bomber.

The Associated Press reported that a spokesman for the Brussels Metro said 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured in an explosion on a train, and Belgian media reported at least 11 dead in two explosions at the airport, with many others injured. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but European security officials had been bracing for an attack for weeks, AP reported.

After the attacks, Belgium raised its terror alert to the highest level.

Belgium's Catholic bishops said they shared "the anguish of thousands of passengers and their families, aviation professionals and aid teams called to the breach once more."

The bishops said airport chaplains were "at the daily service of all," and would "offer the necessary spiritual service," adding that it counted on the whole country to "live through these days with great civic responsibility."

Brussels Auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols told the church's Cathobel news agency he was shocked by the savagery of the "completely absurd attacks."

"We must support the efforts of the public authorities we've elected and mandated to serve the common good and maintain law and order -- it's not for us to start polemicizing and making accusations today as to whether they fulfilled their duties and did all they could," Bishop Kockerols said.

"It's a great mystery that this has all happened on the threshold of Holy Week, the most sacred time for Christians, when we are about to mark Good Friday and Easter. In the face of such madness, we should adopt the courageous attitude of Mary, who remained at the foot of the cross in silence."

Cathobel issued an emergency number for those seeking information about missing family members and said it had been in contact with Father Michel Gaillard, the Brussels airport chief chaplain.

Meanwhile, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the Brussels-based Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, or COMECE, said Catholics would be "praying especially in Holy Week" for victims of the violence.

In a statement, he said he had been concerned about COMECE staffers, who later issued a message confirming that all personnel were safe.

A bishops' conference staffer, Father Geert Lesage, told Catholic News Service he expected Catholic clergy to visit sites of the attacks to offer pastoral care, as well as to organize special Masses as soon as security conditions permitted.

However, he added that all mobile phone connections were now down in Brussels, making it impossible to obtain news of Catholic victims or damage to church property.

Father Charles De Clercq, a Brussels priest, told Cathobel he had been in the first car of the bombed Metro train, which had been "plunged into darkness and filled with smoke" after the explosion.

"Smashed windows fell on my knees -- there was light, smoke and shouts. The driver arrived after two minutes with a lamp and made the passengers leave via an emergency window," the priest said.

"On the floor, passengers were curled up, obviously in pain, who could have been crushed by those in flight. I knew there'd been two explosions in the morning at Zaventem (airport), so I knew there was a real possibility this was also an attack."

A day earlier, gunmen in Bamako, Mali, targeted a hotel that was serving as the headquarters of an EU troops who were there to train the country's military. Mali and other West African countries have been under attack by Islamic extremists.

Catholic Relief Services, which has programs in Mali, announced March 22 that its staffers were safe after the attack.

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Contributing to this story was Jonathan Luxmoore in Oxford, England.

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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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