Catholic News 2

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

 WASHINGTON-Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on everyone "concerned about the tragedy of abortion" to recommit to a "vision of life and love, a vision that excludes no one" on January 14. His statement marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cardinal Dolan chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"Most Americans oppose a policy allowing legal abortion for virtually any reason - though many still do not realize that this is what the Supreme Court gave us," wrote Cardinal Dolan. "Most want to protect unborn children at later stages of pregnancy, to regulate or limit the practice of abortion, and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of unborn children. Yet many who support important goals of the pro-life movement do not identify as 'pro-life,' a fact which should lead us to examine how we present our pro-life vision to others."

"Even as Americans remain troubled by abortion," wrote Cardinal Dolan, a powerful and well-funded lobby holds "that abortion must be celebrated as a positive good for women and society, and those who cannot in conscience provide it are to be condemned for practicing substandard medicine and waging a 'war on women'." He said this trend was seen recently when President Obama and other Democratic leaders prevented passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, "a modest measure to provide for effective enforcement" of conscience laws.

"While this is disturbing," said Cardinal Dolan, "it is also an opportunity." Pro-life Americans should reach out to "the great majority of Americans" who are "open to hearing a message of reverence for life." He added that "we who present the pro-life message must always strive to be better messengers. A cause that teaches the inexpressibly great value of each and every human being cannot show disdain or disrespect for any fellow human being." He encouraged Catholics to take part, through prayer and action, in the upcoming "9 Days for Life" campaign, January 16-24. More information on the campaign is available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJwfcefUiU

He also cited the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis as a time for women and men to find healing through the Church's Project Rachel post-abortion ministry.

The full text of Cardinal Dolan's message is available online.
---
Keywords: Roe v. Wade, anniversary, Pro-Life, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, 9 Days for Life, USCCB, U.S. bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Year of Mercy, Project Rachel, Pope Francis
# # #
MEDIA CONTACT
Don Clemmer
O: 202-541-3206

Full Article

Full Article

The second West African Catholic Bishops’ regional plenary assembly has concluded in Accra, Ghana with a passionate appeal to Africa’s youth and for the persecuted Christians of the region.

The RECOWA / CERAO Bishops’ regional plenary assembly took place from 22 to 29 February 2016. At the end of the meeting, the Bishops expressed solidarity with countries in the region affected by incessant terrorist attacks. In particular, the Bishops are concerned about persecutions in the region perpetrated against Christians by jihadist and militant groups. Most of the terrorist groups such as Boko Haram are affiliated either with Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.

The Bishops have thus identified insecurity and terrorism as a primary pastoral concern especially in the West African countries of Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

“We reiterate our deep sympathy to the families bereaved by terrorist attacks, the Christian communities persecuted as well as countries affected by these barbaric acts,” say the Bishops in a press statement released yesterday.

Other pastoral concerns tabled at the plenary assembly include themes of reconciliation, development and the family. The central theme of the whole meeting was, "New Evangelization and the specific challenges of the Church-Family of God in Africa; reconciliation, development and family". 

In all, 150 West African Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops from sixteen countries attended the gathering. Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings participated in the opening ceremonies of the plenary while Ghana’s former presidential chief of staff, John Newman represented the Republican president John Dramani Mahama.President Mahama however attended the closing Mass in person. 

In their press statement, the Bishops further express concern for the causes of migration by many young people trekking from Africa to Europe and countries of the Middle East. They urge African countries to address the causes of the  “migratory phenomena (causing) a significant number of young Africans (to go towards) uncertain horizons, often risking their lives.” The Bishops plead with the young people of Africa to continue to believe in the continent and not to lose hope. 

“We call upon young people not to lose hope but to believe in the possibility of thriving in their lives and achieve their happiness on the African continent,” reads the communiqué. 

Other issues of concern include political tensions caused by the manipulation of constitutions and electoral processes deemed inadequate and unfair in some countries; poor governance; corruption; social injustices and their corollaries. The lack of respect for religious freedoms by governments is another area of worry for the Bishops. 

At the end of the plenary, Nigeria’s Archbishop of Jos and President of the of the Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Ignatius Kaigama was elected President of the RECOWA / CERAO region. He takes over from Cardinal Théodore Adrien Sarr of Senegal.
 
The Bishops say they shared fraternity, prayed together and reflected on the universal theme of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy promulgated by Pope Francis. In a closing Mass, the Bishops unveiled a pastoral communique in which they affirm the values of reconciliation, marriage and family life in nation building. (See pastoral statement below this article)

The Conference Episcopale Regionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CERAO) and the Anglophone Catholic Bishops Region in West Africa (AECAWA) merged to form one union in 2007. 

(email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

Pastoral Message At The End of The Second Plenary Assembly of The Regional Episcopal Conference Of West Africa (RECOWA-CERAO)

0. Greeting and Introduction: Dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, we your Bishops at the end of our Second Plenary Assembly of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA-CERAO), which we held here in Accra, Ghana from Monday, 22  to 29 February 2016, bring you greetings of the season.

We greet you in this special season of Lent in the Jubilee Year of Mercy for the universal Church (from December 08, 2015 to November 20, 2016), and in the Year of Reconciliation for Africa (from July 29, 2015, to July 29, 2016). This Second Assembly was attended by 120 delegates made up of Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals, from all the 16 countries of West Africa, together with invited guests of the Regional Union of Priests of West Africa (RUPWA), and the Regional Union of Religious of West Africa (URCAO), the Regional Council of the Laity of West Africa (RLCWA) as well as from our several partner agencies such as the Catholic Relief Service (CRS), Missio-Germany, CAFOD of the UK and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

1. The theme of the Plenary: We, your bishops from West Africa, have spent this one week of Lent in prayer and reflection on the Word of God, celebrating the Holy Eucharist and worshiping the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We have also been privileged to listen to various speakers from home and abroad including the representative of the President of the Republic of Ghana, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana representing the Holy Father on our theme for this plenary assembly, namely: “The New Evangelization and the specific challenges for the Church, Family of God in West Africa: Reconciliation, Development, Family Life”.

We have also taken time to listen to one another and share the rich experiences of our brother bishops, priests, religious, laymen and women; the joys and successes, pains, anxieties and challenges and opportunities open to our Church, Family of God in West Africa in the current socio-political and cultural development of the region. Coming together as bishops of the Catholic Church has been a kairos, a time of special grace from God. We feel very enriched and are most grateful to God for the gift of a unified regional expression of the Church universal.

As your pastors in the footsteps of Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the Eternal High Priest, Good Shepherd and Teacher of salvation, at the end of our deliberations, we would like to share the following pastoral concerns with you, dear People of God, with our governments and with all men and women of goodwill living in our region.

2. Church: Family of God and the New Evangelization: Since the First Special Assembly on Africa of the Synod of Bishops which took place in the Vatican City, from April 10 to May 08, 1994, we accepted with the blessing of Pope St. John Paul II to work hard to make our Church become truly Church: family of God (see Ecclesia in Africa 63). We are still committed to working hard to make this model of Church a reality in our countries and beyond; and we have also embraced the Church universal’s call for the New Evangelization in the face of the rapid socio-cultural developments in the societies where the Church is called to bring the light of Christ Jesus in a new and more radical and transformational way.

This New Evangelization, which was first called for by the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI in his Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi 4, according to the official teaching of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI when he set up the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization in June 2010, is not a call to bring a new gospel, but rather to bring Christ Jesus and his timeless and yet always new message of salvation in response to the new challenges of the contemporary world.

The New Evangelization is therefore a call to bring the Good News of Christ Jesus as he mandated the apostles in Mt. 28:18-20 in a fresh new way, a more convincing way, a new and faith-filled way, by a life of authentic conversion and new witnessing in service to humanity. It is to be Christ-centered and the responsibility of all the baptized; it is to be directed not only to those who have never heard of Jesus Christ in primary evangelization, but also to those who have heard of and lost their earlier love for Jesus Christ and his Church; the New Evangelization is aimed not only at the individual, but more at a cultural transformation of humanity into the kingdom of God.

Dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, in our West Africa region, we are being called in the spirit of the New Evangelization to be evangelized and to evangelize through the empowering of all you the baptized to take up your roles as salt of the earth and light of the world wherever you find yourselves, be it in the families and in family life as married persons, in the public space as civil servants at the service of our fellow country men and women, in traditional and political as well as professional leadership, in the security service of our various countries etc.

The New Evangelization demands that like salt of the earth and light of the world, we in the Church penetrate all corners of human life and endeavour, and contribute our quota to the transformation and development of our villages, markets and towns, our countries, etc., bringing about the kingdom of God wherever we find ourselves and especially in our region and anywhere else.

3. Lent in the Year of Reconciliation and the Jubilee of Mercy: In this special season of Lent, especially in the Jubilee Year of Mercy and in the Africa Year of Reconciliation, we your bishops make our own the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians that “… whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation…entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. … For he says: ‘in the acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you’. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation”(2 Cor. 5:17-6.2).

Observing what is happening in our region and from listening to each other, we have come to realize that we stand more and more in need of Pope Francis’s message in calling the Jubilee of Mercy, and most especially in need of reconciliation in our Church as much as in our countries, in all aspects of public and social life. We again exhort you in the words of St. Paul, “we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God”.

Dearly beloved, let us use this favourable season of grace, Lent in the Jubilee Year of Mercy and in the Africa Year of Reconciliation, to be converted and to be reconciled to God and to each other in Christ Jesus, our Reconciliation. Let us also become ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors for Christ, which we are by virtue of our baptism. In the words of Pope Francis, let us become “missionaries of God’s mercy” wherever we find ourselves. In fact, we your bishops offer ourselves to be missionaries of God’s mercy, ministers of Christ’s reconciliation and ambassadors of peace in any part of our region and beyond where there is tension, crisis or conflict and even wars, etc.

In this regard, we recommit ourselves to the work for peace before, during and after political elections in our region; furthermore, we recommit to pursuing inter-religious dialogue for peaceful co-existence with our brothers and sisters of other religious traditions; we also reaffirm our solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters who today are victims of various forms of religious persecution in Africa and other parts of the world; we pray for them and ask the powers-that-be to ensure respect for the religious and fundamental rights of all.

4. Marriage and Family and Family Life: From our deliberations, we want to reaffirm that when a nation is not a people reconciled with each other and at peace with itself, true and holistic development eludes it. Furthermore, when in the society marriage, family and family life, that basic nucleus of humanity, is not guaranteed its proper development in peace, that society is condemned to socio-political, cultural and moral instability.

We are therefore very convinced that in the face of the current socio-cultural developments, the Church-Family of God must rise up and defend the truth about marriage and family life as God the Creator has given it (see Gen. 1 & 2; Mt. 19:1-6 etc.). We defend the inalienable dignity and rights of all persons, as children of God, created in his image and likeness; we must safeguard the rights of all, especially the most vulnerable in society such as those conceived (the unborn), the aged and infirm throughout earthly life to natural death.

We in the Church uphold and defend that marriage is a gift of God created for man and woman, nothing more and nothing less, and that all human life is sacred and must be respected, accompanied and supported, protected and defended from the womb to the tomb.   We stand up for the culture of life and we are ready to defend it in the public spaces of our countries against the incipient culture of death being offered as development.

5. Concluding exhortation: Finally, we have recommitted ourselves to the better faith-formation of our Church members and pastoral agents. We admit that there is still a lot to do to strengthen some of our Church members in the Catholic faith and its practices. We encourage our Catholics to avail themselves of efforts for their on-going formation in order to equip them to take up their social and political as well as cultural responsibilities in their societies. We encourage our Church members not to shy away from the noble service of politics and political leadership. In fact, we deem it a duty that must be fulfilled in the spirit of Christ Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life in ransom for many.

With St. Paul we exhort you: “finally, brothers (and sisters), whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you!” (Phil. 4:8-9).

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican on Tuesday morning. In remarks to the faithful following the readings of the day, the Holy Father spoke on the season of Lent as a privileged time in which to prepare our hearts to receive God’s forgiveness and to forgive our neighbors in turn, forgetting the faults of others.

The Holy Father’s address focused on God’s infinite capacity for forgiveness as a perfection of his nature, which contrasts sharply with the inability of fallen human nature to make even the slightest concession to its own frailty.

Without memory

Taking as his starting point the Gospel account of Peter’s well-known question to Jesus regarding how many times we are to forgive a brother who has sinned against us – seventy times seven times (cf. Mt. 18:22) –   and the account from the 1^st reading of the young Azaria, sentenced to death in a furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol, who, from the flames of the fiery furnace invokes God's mercy for the people at the same time as he implores forgiveness for himself (cf. Dn. 3:25,33-43), the Holy Father offered the young Azaria’s prayer as an especially apt illustration of the way we ought to trust in the goodness and mercy of the Lord:

“When God forgives, his forgiveness is so great that it is as though God forgets. Quite the opposite of what we do, as we chatter: ‘But so-and-so did such-and-such,’ and we have the complete histories of many people, don’t we? From antiquity through their Middles Ages, their modernity, and even down to their present – and we do not forget. Why? Because we do not have a merciful heart. ‘Do with us with us according to your clemency,’ says this young Azaria ‘according to Thy great mercy Save us.’ It is an appeal to the mercy of God, that He might give us forgiveness and salvation and forget our sins.”

The equation of forgiveness

In the Gospel passage, explaining to Peter that we must always forgive, Jesus tells the parable of the two debtors, the first who gets a pardon from his master, while owing him a huge fortune, and who even shortly afterward was himself unable to be as merciful with another, who owed him only a small sum:

“In the Our Father we pray: ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.’ It is an equation: the two sides go together. If you are not able to forgive, how will God forgive you? He wants to forgive you, but He will not if you have closed hearts, where mercy cannot enter. ‘But, Father, I forgive, but I cannot forget the bad turn that so-and-so did me ...’. Well, ask the Lord to help you to forget. That, however, is another matter. We can forgive, but we cannot always forget. Sometimes we say, ‘I forgive you,’ when we mean, ‘you’ll pay me later’. This, never: forgive as God forgives – to the utmost.”

Mercy which “forgets”

Pope Francis went on to stress that mercy, compassion, forgiveness, repeated the Pope, are most Godly, and recalled that heartfelt pardon given and received is always an act of Divine mercy:

“May Lent prepare our hearts to receive God’s forgiveness – but let us receive it and then do the same with others: forgive heartily. Perhaps you never even greet me in the street, but in my heart I have forgiven you. In this way, we get closer to this thing so great, so Godly, which is mercy. Forgiving, we open our hearts so that God’s mercy might come and forgive us, for, we all have need of pardon, need to ask forgiveness. Let us forgive, and we shall be forgiven. Let us have mercy on others, and we shall feel that mercy of God, who, when He forgives, [also] ‘forgets.’”

Full Article

(Vatican Radio)  Catholic faithful in Turkmenistan make up only a tiny proportion of the central Asian country's predominately Muslim population, of which most are diplomats or descendants of Polish immigrants.

The Holy See in 1997 entrusted the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) with the Church's mission to Turkmenistan, creating an Apostolic Nunciature in the capital city, Ashgabat, and nominating Fr. Andrzej Madej, OMI, its Chargé d'Affaires. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan.

Fr. Louis Lougen, Superior General of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, recently visited the Oblate mission in Turkmenistan. He spoke to Devin Watkins about his experience of the small but vibrant Church there. 

Listen to the interview:

"Going to Turkmenistan was like living or being in the church of the Acts of the Apostles." Fr. Lougen said, "It's a church of signs and wonders. It is amazing. We've been there 18 years. When we first went, there were a few Catholics in the country, and some of them were descendants of Polish families who had gone there, I think, before World War II. The memory of being Catholic was in their families."

Humble beginnings

Turkmenistan's government greatly restricts the establishment of religious groups so in 1997 Fr. Andrzej Madej, OMI, and Fr. Radoslaw Zmitrowicz, OMI, entered the country as diplomatic representatives of the Holy See. These two Oblates were the first Catholic presence in Turkmenistan since the Catholic churches were destroyed by Russian revolutionaries almost 100 years ago.

Fr. Lougen recalled the humble beginnings of the Church's mission in Turkmenistan. "The first Oblate who went there, with the help of a layman, got together all these families that were Catholic... Some were families that had been Catholic but with Communism had lost the opportunity to practice. [Fr. Andrzej] got them together - I think that was about 15 or 20 people - and began to catechize, invite them to RCIA faith formation."

Fresh growth

From that small beginning, the Holy See/Oblate mission to Turkmenistan has grown considerably, with Mass and Eucharistic Adoration being celebrated daily by 3 priests serving the community.

"Today I would say we have 200 Catholics in 3 different communities. Many of them are Muslims who've embraced the faith, Orthodox, and people who had no religion," Fr. Lougen said.

During his visit, Fr. Lougen had the opportunity to have breakfast with a group of Muslim families that had become Catholic. "We were sharing, and they were telling me about their lives. So at one point I asked Fr. Andrzej to ask them why they became Christian, why did they ask for baptism."

"One of the ladies - I could see her face went on like a light, filled with joy and a smile - and he translated for me. And she was saying, 'It's Jesus. We discovered a God of love, compassion, and mercy, and we never knew this kind of a God before.' You could just feel the joy bubbling out of her heart."

As the woman shared, Fr. Lougen said there was a man in the back, sitting quietly, just watching. At a certain point, he raised his hand and asked Fr. Andrzej if he could say something. The man said, "I'm not Christian; I'm a Muslim, but could I say something? Father, I know that this Christian religion is really good and really changes people because my wife's tongue used to be this long and now she keeps it in her mouth!"

Everyone laughed but Fr. Andrzej later told Fr. Lougen that this man was making a journey to become a Catholic.  

"At this little chapel at our house, even though the Church is such a small minority, all day long, all day long, people are coming to pray. [...] People are looking for somebody to talk to; they're looking for confession; they want to know about the faith. And you just feel something very good is going on there."

Ecumenical experience

Fr. Lougen also told of 2 evangelical pastors whom Fr. Andrzej had him meet. "When they came over, we were in the chapel doing [the Chaplet of] Divine Mercy in Russian language. So they joined in. [...] Afterwards we went up for tea, and they said, 'Father General, you're the successor of St. Eugene [de Mazenod, founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate]! We want to know, how do we evangelize the poor in Turkmenistan today? The government is watching us; they won't let us in the prisons. We want to get in the prisons and evangelized. What can we do?' We had a long discussion."

At the end of their hour and a half discussion, Fr. Lougen asked them if he could say a prayer with St. Eugene's own cross which he had with him. The ministers expressed surprise, at which point "One of the ministers grabbed it, and he raised it up, and said, 'I claim Turkmenistan for Jesus Christ, with the intercession of St. Eugene de Mazenod.' Now these men are journeying with Fr. Andrzej. He's like their spiritual director, and you can just see the ecumenism, the brotherhood, a real openness to support each other in the faith in a country that is suspicious of religion." 

Regarding relations with the Orthodox Church, around 9% of the population of Turkmenistan, Fr. Lougen said, "So often the Orthodox don't like the Roman Catholics, but again Fr. Andrzej is their spiritual director, they come over, we do things together. So as I said, signs and wonders all over the place. It's like there's a fire there; it's like the Acts of the Apostles."

To read more about the OMI mission to Turkmenistan, click here.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article