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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has reiterated his appeal to State leaders to open their doors to migrants.

Speaking during the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square the Pope said “I like to see leaders who open their hearts and their doors" to the many migrants fleeing their countries. 

Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:

There were about 40 thousand pilgrims gathered in the Square for the weekly catechesis which Francis interspersed with many off-the-cuff remarks which highlighted his empathy for the tens of thousands of forced migrants who are struggling to make their way into Europe as they flee violence and poverty back home.

The Pope recalled our many “brothers and sisters who are living a real and dramatic situation of exile, far from their homeland, with the ruins of their homes and the fear still in their eyes, and even, unfortunately, the pain for the loss of their loved ones”.

 “How is it possible that so much pain can strike innocent men, women and children who find doors closed to them when they attempt to go elsewhere? And they are there, on the border, because so many doors and so many hearts are closed. Migrants today are suffering. They are without food and they are not allowed in. They do not feel a welcome” he said.  
God – he said – does not forget the pain of those who are rejected.

In these cases, the Pope continued, it is easy to ask oneself: where is God? 

And Pope Francis reflected on a Reading in the book of the prophet Jeremiah which he described as containing message of consolation.

Jeremiah, he explained, turns to the Israelites who had been exiled. This experience had shaken their faith, yet the prophet proclaims that God, far from abandoning his people, reaffirms his faithful love and his promise of salvation.  
He said Jeremiah’s words of consolation and hope have a particular resonance today in the light of so many tragic situations of exile throughout our world.

He mentioned the recent history of Albania, that after “so much persecution and  destruction has managed to lift itself in dignity and faith.”

Pope Francis concluded saying that Jeremiah’s prophecy finds supreme fulfilment in the coming of Jesus, whose paschal mystery proclaims the triumph of God’s merciful love and his promise of reconciliation, renewal and eternal life.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis offered words of solidarity for those in the Middle East currently suffering from the wars and violence which are affecting the region.

“How many experiences of exile, expatriation, grief, and persecution that pushes us to doubt even the goodness of God, and His love for us,” Pope Francis said while greeting Arab-speaking pilgrims during his Wednesday general audience.

“Doubt which dissipates in front of the truth that God is faithful, close, and keeps his promise to those who do not doubt Him, and for those who hope against hope,” – the Holy Father continued – “The consolation of the Lord is near to those who pass through the agonizing night of doubt, clinging and hoping for the dawn of the Mercy of God, which the totality of the darkness and injustice will never be able to defeat.”

Pope Francis concluded his remarks by saying: “The Lord bless you all, and protect you from evil!”

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Washington D.C., Mar 16, 2016 / 03:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With Palm Sunday right around the corner, Catholics across the globe will soon be handed leaves as they walk into church. Some might fold them into elaborate little crosses. Kids will poke each other with them. But it's safe to say most won't know where they came from.

The feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem the week before his passion and crucifixion. The Gospels attest that as Jesus entered the city, crowds lay down palm branches and cloaks as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

For centuries, Christians have commemorated the feast day that begins Holy Week by waving branches of either palm or another local tree, as well as with liturgical processions and other celebrations.

In the U.S. alone, nearly 18,000 Catholic parishes will celebrate Palm Sunday by blessing and distributing palm branches to the faithful. That makes millions of palm leaves each year – and that doesn’t include all of the Protestant churches that observe the tradition.

Where do all those palms come from? While many Catholics know the final destination of their palms – they are burned to become ashes for next year’s Ash Wednesday – the origin of the leafy branches is less well known.



Credit: Klara Sasova / Unsplash

The journey from tree to church begins with the harvesters around the world who cut and prepare the leaves for their role in worship. The work needed to provide palms for Palm Sunday is so immense that it actually constitutes a full-time year-round job for some harvesters.

Thomas Sowell is one such palm harvester from Florida who has been helping to supply parishes with fresh palm leaves for more than five decades. Sowell began harvesting wild palm leaves from trees as a child to earn extra money in the springtime. Over the past several decades, he has grown his business into a palm supplier that ships the leafy branches to all 50 states and Canada.

Despite the growth in his business, Sowell says he tries to maintain his focus on the purpose behind it all.

“We try to do the best job that we can,” he told CNA. “Every bag that we send out to churches, every individual bag has been examined, cleaned – we go to extreme measures to make sure that everything we do for these churches is done in the honor of Jesus Christ.”

While there are more than 2,600 different species of palm that grow across the world, palm plants cannot survive outside of tropical and subtropical climates. Historically, parishes that could not source palm locally would instead substitute branches of another local tree such as olive or willow, although modern churches also have the option of sourcing palm fronds from other regions of the world.

In the United States and Canada, most parishes seek out suppliers who deliver fresh palms shortly before Palm Sunday, said Fr. Michael J. Flynn, Secretariat of Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Many of these parishes contact church goods suppliers such as Peter Munley of Falls Church, Virginia, who helps provide parishes year-round with supplies like candles and sacramental wine, along with palms for Holy Week.
 
Munley told CNA that in preparation for Palm Sunday, he works to deliver palms from their source to different parishes that place orders around the country. In addition to Florida, palms are sourced from Texas, California and elsewhere in the Southern United States, he said.

While nearly all of the palms Munley sells are individually pre-cut, church goods suppliers also helps to source decorative palms for altar centerpieces and larger palm fronds as well. Dealers also work to ensure that palms get burnt and ground into ashes for Ash Wednesday, for parishes that cannot burn the palms for ashes themselves.

Munley also stressed that although many American-based palm sources are not labeled as “eco-friendly,” the practices of many major U.S. palm harvesters are indeed environmentally sustainable.

“Our guys don’t kill the palm,” he said, adding that by sourcing palms from American harvesters as opposed to internationally-certified “green” farmers, they help to reduce the ecological impact of shipping and transportation.


Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

Sowell said that the palm trees he works with “are 100 percent wild.” He works with local ranchers and landowners to remove palmetto leaves from trees that grow naturally on local farmland.

Some of the trees Sowell harvests from have been producing palm leaves since he first started gathering palm leaves to sell as a boy.

“I know that there are trees that are still being cut today that I cut when I was twelve,” he said.

Originally, Sowell cut everything himself. Over the years, however, his growing cooperation with the caretakers who supply palm led him to focus more on preparing palms for church supply dealers and for shipment.

Cooperation with ranchers and landowners is critical. Sowell says the process of cutting, cleaning and preparing the strips of palm is incredibly labor intensive, and he could not complete it without local partnerships. “There’s no way that you could grow this much palm and just do it (alone). It’s hard.”

The work is so intensive that the Palm Sunday celebrations require an entire year’s work. “We work twelve months out of the year, in one aspect or another, for one day,” Sowell said.

He also supplies palm leaves for Eastern Orthodox Churches, which use a different calendar for Easter and Lent. After the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Catholic Church and other Western churches, “we’ll turn around in a couple of weeks and gather more palms so they’re fresh for the Orthodox,” he said.

The participation of Christians in Palm Sunday celebrations not only provides work and a living for Sowell and his employees, but financial support for the local ranchers who work with him.

“There are so many families that help us that can earn money in a way that otherwise they couldn’t.”

Ultimately, Sowell sees his job harvesting and preparing palm leaves – and the service he is able to offer to parishes across the country – as a blessing.

“There would have been no way we could have done this if it hadn’t been for God helping us,” he said.

 

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Altoona, Pa., Mar 16, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Three former heads of a TOR Franciscan province in Pennsylvania face criminal charges for their alleged role in enabling a friar who sexually abused more than 100 minors.

The Immaculate Conception province of the Franciscan Friars, Third Order Regular said it is “deeply saddened” to learn of the charges.

“The province extends its most sincere apologies to the victims and to the communities who have been harmed,” the province said in a March 15 statement. It encouraged prayer “for healing and understanding, and for all the priests and brothers who honor their vocations and the Church.”

The Pennsylvania attorney general has announced charges against Fathers Giles A. Schinelli, Robert J. D’Aversa and Anthony M. Criscitelli. From 1986 to 2010, they were the successive leaders of the Franciscan province.

The charges include child endangerment and criminal conspiracy, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

The former provincials supervised Brother Stephen Baker, TOR, who was an athletic trainer at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown, Pa. from 1992 to 2001.

Father Schinelli, 73, allegedly assigned Brother Baker to the high school despite a warning that the friar should not have individual contact with students. Father D’Aversa, 69, allegedly removed the brother due to a credible sexual abuse allegation but reassigned him to another ministry where he had contact with young people. Father Criscitelli, 61, allegedly continued to allow Baker access to children without supervision.

All three priests now live out of state.

According to the grand jury report, there was no indication that administrators at the high school knew of Brother Baker’s offenses.

The charges against the provincials are based on testimony and documents seized from St. Bernardine Monastery, the headquarters of the TOR Franciscan province.

The grand jury said the province knew of at least seven other friars who had sexually assaulted minors dating back to the 1960s. Only one of the friars is still alive. He is 93 years old.

After Brother Baker left his position at the high school, he continued to abuse boys there and at Mount Aloysius College. He would routinely lead retreats with young people.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane charged that the provincials “knew there was a child predator in their organization.”

“Their silence resulted in immeasurable pain and suffering for so many victims. These men turned a blind eye to the innocent children they were trusted to protect,” she said.

The province said it cooperated with the investigation “with compassion for the victims and their families” in hopes of shedding light on events that the province “struggles to understand.”

In 2014 the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown reached an $8 million settlement with 88 former Bishop McCort high school students who had made abuse claims involving Brother Baker. The friar had worked in Diocese of Youngstown, which has also made settlements. Brother Baker killed himself in 2013 when the Ohio settlements became public knowledge.

The attorney general’s review of the case resulted in a March 1 grand jury report on the alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 priests who had served in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in cases dating back to the 1940s. The report charged that previous bishops put abusive priests back to ministry.

In a March 6 letter Bishop Mark Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown said that the Catholic response to the grand jury report must be mercy, rightly understood.

“Please do not think for one moment that it simply means to forgive and forget,” he said. “There is a lot more hard work to be done in identifying and responding to the misery of our diocese at this time, including the wounds of all our brothers and sisters.”

He said the grand jury report was “filled with the darkness of sin … I deeply regret any harm that has come to children, and I urge the faithful to join me in praying for all victims of abuse.”

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