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(Vatican Radio) The Holy See delegation pointed out the role Catholic institutions play in post-conflict peacebuilding around the world in an address to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

“The Holy See, as  a subject of International Law, has always been a promoter of peace between countries,  actively participating in the work of the UN, while the local Catholic churches have always been a factor  of  reconciliation  at  the  national  level,” said Monsignor Simon Kassas, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York.

“Churches, as well as many faith-based organizations and development NGOs, have always been at the vanguard of pacification and reconstruction of regions and  countries struck by wars and conflicts,” the Vatican diplomat continued.

The delegation from Venezuela had sponsored an Open Debate in the UN Security Council on Post-conflict Peacebuilding: Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture.

“The actions of the Holy See, and of Catholic institutions worldwide, are fully consistent with the pleas of this Chamber, and other United Nations fora, to limit the use  of arms and implement strategies of dialogue and negotiation to bridge the way to peaceful co-existence, in diversity, and to use the world’s industrial might and technological prowess to bring about the peacebuilding aspirations of all,” Msgr. Kassas said.

The full text of Msgr. Kassas’ remarks are below

Intervention of Monsignor Simon Kassas

Chargé d’Affaires a.i.

Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations

during the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on

Post-conflict Peacebuilding: Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture

New York, 23 February 2016

Mr, President,

My delegation wishes to thank  the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for convening this Open Debate on  “Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture.”

Eleven years ago, drawing on the experience of the first 50 years of the United Nations, the  High-level  Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change identified “a key institutional gap: there was no place in the  United  Nations  system  explicitly  designed  to  avoid  State  collapse  and  the  slide  to  war  or  to  assist  countries in their transition from war to peace” (Report, paragraph 261). Consequently, following the  2005 World Summit Outcome document, the General Assembly and the Security Council created the Peacebuilding  Commission  (PBC),  as  a  subsidiary  body  of  both  UN  organs.  Afterwards  the  Peacebuilding  Fund  (PBF)  was  put  in  place  and  a  Peacebuilding  Support  Office  (PBSO)  was  also  created.

The PBC and the PBSO should be praised for the work accomplished in many countries [-Burundi, Sierra  Leone,  Guinea,  Guinea-Bissau,  Liberia  and  the  Central  African  Republic-],  while  the  PBF  deserves a generous and constant financial support from the UN members.

However,  the  conclusions  of  the  Secretary  General’s  Advisory  Group  on  the  Review  of  the Peacebuilding Architecture  show the complexity and difficulty of peacebuilding efforts. The ability of  the  PBC  to  engage  with  the  host  government,  as  well  as  civil  society  and  the  most  important  stakeholders on the ground, in the conduct and implementation of  coordinated actions remains crucial.

In addition, there are several factors largely dependent on  the Security Council’s,  and other UN bodies’, substantive  and  coordinated  engagement  on  each  situation.  Furthermore,  the  ultimate  success  of  peacebuilding relies on the attention given to the PBC by the whole International Community.

Appropriately,  the  Addis  Ababa  Action  Agenda  and  the  2030  Agenda  for  Sustainable  Development  address the special need of financial, trade and development assistance for countries in post-conflict  situation.  Goal  16  of  the  same  2030  Agenda  is  devoted  to  the  promotion  of  peaceful  and  inclusive  societies, and all its targets are relevant for situations of post-conflict. However, in his address to the  70 Th session of the General Assembly, Pope Francis that “…solemn commitments… are not enough, even  though they are a necessary step toward solutions. …Our world demands of all government leaders  a  will  which  is  effective,  practical  and  constant,  concrete  steps  and  immediate  measures…”  not  forgetting “that, above and beyond our plans and programs, we are dealing with real men and women  who live, struggle and suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights”  (Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to United Nations Organization, 25 September 2015).

The Addis Ababa Action Agenda recognizes “the importance for achieving sustainable development of  delivering quality education to all girls and boys” including “migrant and refugee children, and those  in  conflict  and  post-conflict  situations,  and  providing  safe,  non-violent,  inclusive  and  effective  learning environments for all” (N. 78). The same Agenda stresses that “Capacity development will be  integral to achieving the post-2015 development agenda”.  It calls  “for enhanced international support  and  establishment  of  multi-stakeholder  partnerships  for  implementing  effective  and  targeted  capacity  building”,  especially  “in  countries  in  conflict  and  post-conflict  situations”  (N.  115).  In  his  speech to the General Assembly Pope Francis noted that integral human development “presupposes  and requires the right to education –  also for girls (excluded in certain places) –  which is ensured first  and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of families to educate their children, as  well as the right of churches and social groups to support and assist families in the education of their  children. Education conceived in this way is the basis for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda”.

Mr. President,

The Holy See, as  a subject of International Law, has always been a promoter of peace between countries,  actively participating in the work of the UN, while the local Catholic churches have always been a factor  of  reconciliation  at  the  national  level.  Churches,  as  well  as  many  faith-based  organizations  and  development NGOs,  have always been at the vanguard of pacification and reconstruction of regions and  countries struck by wars and conflicts.

Moreover, the  almost 100,000 elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities  throughout the world, that are run by Catholic organizations, are an essential contribution to building  and maintaining peace.  The Catholic healthcare network encompasses more than 25,000 hospitals,  dispensaries, clinics, homes for the elderly, the chronically ill or disabled, orphanages and childcare  centers.  All  are  a  part  of  maintaining  locally  stable  and  secure  environments  essential  for  the  comprehensive approach to peacebuilding as recommended in the 2015 Review of the United Nations  Peacebuilding Architecture.

The actions of the Holy See, and of Catholic institutions  worldwide, are fully consistent with the pleas  of this Chamber, and other United Nations fora, to limit the use  of arms and implement strategies of  dialogue and negotiation to bridge the way to peaceful co-existence, in diversity, and to use the world’s  industrial might and technological prowess to bring about the peacebuilding aspirations of all.

Mr. President,

In  his  recent  visit  to  Mexico,  Pope  Francis  addressed  the  civil  authorities  and  diplomatic  corps  (13  February 2016) and discussed the building blocks of peace. He said: “Leaders of social, cultural and  political life have the particular duty to offer all citizens the opportunity to be worthy contributors of  their own future, within their families and in all areas were human social interaction takes place. In  this  way,  they  help  citizens  to  have  real  access  to  the  material  and  spiritual  goods,  which  are  indispensable:  adequate  housing,  dignified  employment,  food,  true  justice,  effective  security,  a  healthy and peaceful environment.” It seems to my delegation that these words of Pope Francis are of the very essence of the architecture  of peacebuilding, which we are discussing here today.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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South Africa's main house of parliament took a first step on Tuesday towards enabling the state to make compulsory purchases of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership.

Land is an emotive issue in South Africa, where most of it remains in white hands 22 years after the end of apartheid and many commercial and small-scale farmers are currently facing tough times because of the worst drought in at least a century.

The main house of parliament passed a bill that will enable the state to pay for land at a value determined by a government adjudicator and then expropriate it for the "public interest."

The bill, which still needs to be passed by South Africa's other house of parliament and signed into law by President Jacob Zuma, effectively scraps the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach to land reform.

But it does not signal the kind of often violent land grabs that took place in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where white-owned farms were seized by the government for redistribution to landless blacks.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the bill, criticised by opposition parties and farming groups, "will intensify the land reform programme and bring about equitable access to South Africa's land, natural resources and food security."

(Reuters)

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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital has conducted the first implantation of a HeartMate III magnetically levitated centrifugal heart pump in a pediatric patient.

The surgery was performed on a 16-year-old girl on 7 January as a “bridge,” until she could receive a human heart transplant on 11 January.

The new device uses magnetic levitation to eliminate friction between the magnetic parts and the blood circulating through the heart, which reduces wear  to the device, as well as helping prevent phenomena such as hemolysis in the blood.

The device, which is still undergoing trials in the United States, was approved for use in Europe in October 2015. The European trial showed a survival rate of 98% at 30 days after implantation and of 92% at 6 months.

Dr. Antonio Amodeo – who directed the surgery – said the girl was in danger of sudden death due to severe cardiomyopathy.

“Today, the young lady is doing well, and was discharged from the hospital on 1 February after receiving her heart transplant,” he said.

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Washington D.C., Feb 24, 2016 / 03:12 am (CNA).- For Fr. Stephen Thorne, Black History Month is not only a chance to remember the struggles faced by the African-American community throughout the centuries.

It’s also an opportunity to learn from the witness of one of the oldest communities of Catholics in the U.S.

This witness of Black Catholics, in the face of discrimination and animus, is a gift all Catholics can learn from, said Fr. Thorne, an African-American priest in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

“The resilience of African-American Catholics today is a sign of (their) great faith,” he told CNA.

Fr. Thorne is an administrator for the National Black Catholic Congress, which dates back to the late 19th century. The organization aims to promote the evangelization of African-American communities and improve their spiritual and physical conditions.

The history of Black Catholics in America reaches back centuries.

“African Americans have been Catholics since the earliest days of the colonies. We’ve been a part of the Church since the beginning. We’re not newcomers to the Catholic Church,” Fr. Thorne stressed.

In the 16th and 17th century, Spanish laws freed slaves who converted to Catholicism. Some of these freed slaves and their descendants formed their own settlement in the region that would become Florida.

Meanwhile, in Maryland in the decades before the American Revolution, Jesuit missionaries evangelized black slaves and freed men. Over the centuries, large African-American Catholic populations settled in cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago and numerous cities throughout the South.

However, the Catholic Church did not escape the country’s history of racism and segregation – a history that made many Black Catholics feel unwelcome.

“A lot of things came about, like in our (broader) American culture, because African Americans were not welcome,” Fr. Thorne said. In many places, Jim Crow laws and discriminatory practices applied to some parts of the Church, particularly in the South.

Parishes were segregated with separate Mass times or even separate physical parishes for white and black parishioners. Even in parishes where black attendees were welcome, they would sometimes have to sit at the back of the church and receive Communion after the rest of the congregation.

The Knights of Columbus was one major group that pushed for racial equality long before it was socially acceptable.

The Catholic fraternal benefit society was founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882, during a time when Catholics faced suspicion and hostility.

When the Ku Klux Klan rose to prominence in the 1920s, its members targeted Catholics along with blacks and Jews. The Klan burned crosses to protest the presidential run of Catholic – and Knight of Columbus – Al Smith.

The Knights took strong action for racial integration under John W. McDevitt, its Supreme Knight from 1964-1977. When he learned that the New Orleans hotel hosting the Knights’ 1964 Supreme Convention did not allow African Americans, he threatened to move the convention to another venue. The hotel changed its policy.

McDevitt also played a role in ensuring that local councils were not racially exclusive. Some southern chapters of the organization failed to comply with national directives, and in some areas, racism kept black men out of the society.

“When it became apparent that some councils were not following the national policy on integration, John McDevitt really forced the issue and made it very clear that this was not going to be tolerated,” Andrew Walther, Vice President for Communications and Media at the Knights of Columbus, told CNA in a 2013 interview.

Meanwhile, Catholic groups specifically serving the African-American population had also formed. The National Black Catholic Congress first gathered in 1889. The Knights of Peter Claver, a Catholic fraternal society for men of color, was formed in 1909 when racism in some parts of the South prevented them from joining the Knights of Columbus.

The society is named after Saint Peter Claver, the patron saint of African Americans. A 17th-Century Jesuit missionary, he ministered to African slaves in Spanish colonies.

The Knights of Peter Claver worked to support various parish, diocesan and community objectives, including ministry and aid to those in need. They worked alongside the National Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in their aims for the advancement of civil rights, Blackmon said. They also opened auxiliary and junior divisions for women and for youth, and remained open to people of all ethnicities.

“Even while American priests were sent as missionaries to Africa, blacks in the United States were treated as second class citizens all those many decades ago,” recalled Fredron DeKarlos Blackmon, Supreme Knight and CEO of the Knights of Peter Claver.

“The history of the Knights and our presence in the Church today is an example of how we are many parts, but we are all one Body in Christ,” Blackmon told CNA.

Fr. Thorne said it is important for Catholics to grapple with the history of discrimination within the American Church. With these mistakes, he said, “the only way we’re going to never repeat them is to know them.”

In the meantime, although much has changed, “a lot still needs to change,” Fr. Thorne urged.

“Even if we don’t have overt racism, there’s still a lot of people who feel disconnected from the Church,” he said, pointing to what he sees as “systemic” problems that remain, such as a lack of African-American principals and other models of leadership in Catholic schools and other Catholic institutions.

Fr. Thorne also suggested a general need for “a greater sense of welcome” in the Church that respects both cultural differences and the liturgy.

“The Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. It’s what we profess on Sundays. Now we have to live it,” he said.

He cited Pope St. John Paul II’s 1987 remarks to black Catholics in New Orleans. The Pope said that the Church must be a home for all persons regardless of culture or race.

Fr. Thorne said this is a goal that he aims to create in his own parish. The key to such hospitality is “getting to know people.” This approach is common in many African-American parishes. It’s a “gift that African Americans bring to the Church,” the priest said.

Black bishops of the United States, in their 1984 letter “What We Have Seen and Heard,” highlighted other gifts African-American communities offer. These include forgiveness, contemplation, community, and holistic spirituality.

“Those are things I think very much the Church is hungering for today,” Fr. Thorne said.

He praised the witness of faithful African-American Catholics as a gift to the Church.

The Church in the United States, he said, has a “wonderful, great history of people who overcame such great oppression and sin, in terms of how they were treated, but knew the Lord and continued to serve the Lord.” These witnesses overcame “such tremendous odds because they knew God loved them.”

These were Catholics like Servant of God Fr. Augustus Tolton, who was born a slave. He became the first publicly-known black priest when he was ordained in 1886.

Fr. Thorne called his story a “great testimony,” noting that the priest had faced challenges even to attend seminary. Instead of becoming bitter or stumbling over the obstacles in his way, he “heard that call that was even stronger than the reality of racism.”

Other examples of African-American Catholics with open causes for sainthood include Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Mother Henriette Delille and Mother Mary Lange.

Their witnesses are among the myriad gifts that the African-American community provides the Church, Fr. Thorne continued.

“If all of us can increase our knowledge of African-American Catholics, not just in the twenty-nine days of February, but throughout the year, how much better would we be as Catholics and as people?” he asked.

The National Black Catholic Congress provides more information on the history of black Catholics and other resources at its website http://nbccongress.org.


Photo credit: John Gomez via www.shutterstock.com

 

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Vatican City, Feb 24, 2016 / 05:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis cautioned that unless wealth and power are put at the service of society, especially the poor, they risk becoming instruments of corruption, private interests and various forms of abuse.

“Wealth and power are realities which can be good and useful for the common good, if they are put at the service of the poor and of everyone, with justice and charity,” the Pope said Feb. 24.

However, when they are instead lived “as a privilege with egoism and power, as too often happens, they are transformed into instruments of corruption and death.”

Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience, which he dedicated to his ongoing catechesis on mercy in scripture.

In his speech, the Pope noted that throughout scripture, stories are told about different prophets, kings and men who are at the top of the ladder, as well as the “arrogance and abuses” they frequently commit.

Turning to the story of Naboth in the First Book of Kings, who was killed for refusing to sell his vineyard to the king Ahab, Francis used the passage as the center of his reflections.

While the king’s initial offer to purchase the vineyard seemed legitimate and even generous, properties in Israel were considered inalienable, Francis noted, explaining that since Naboth’s land was considered a sacred gift from God to be guarded and preserved, he refused to sell it.

Ahab reacted with “bitterness and outrage” and was offended because “he is the king, he is powerful! He feels belittled in his sovereign authority, and frustrated in his ability to satisfy his desire for possession,” the Pope said.

He noted that as a result, Ahab’s wife Jezebel, who was involved with cults and had killed several prophets, writes letters in the king’s name to the nobles and elders asking them to accuse Naboth of cursing God and the king, and to stone him.

“This is how the story ends: Naboth dies and the king can take possession of his vineyard,” Francis observed, explaining that this isn’t just “a story of the past, it's a story of today.”

It’s the story, he said, “of the powerful who, in order to get more money, exploit the poor, exploit people; it's the story of the trafficking of persons, of slave labor, of poor people who work in black with the minimum, it's the story of corrupt politicians who always want more and more and more.”

This, Francis continued, where authority is exercised with no justice, mercy or respect for life. “And this is what brings the thirst for power: it becomes greed and wants to possess everything.”

Pope Francis pointed to Jesus’ declaration to the apostles in the Gospel of Matthew that “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.”

He cautioned that when the dimension of service is lost, “power becomes arrogance, domination and abuse. This is exactly what happens in the episode of the vineyard of Naboth.”

God, however, is greater than the evil and “dirty games” of humanity, he said, noting that in his mercy the Lord sends the prophet Elijah to help Ahab convert.

Although God saw the king’s crime, “he knocks at the heart of Ahab. And the king, placed in front of his sin, understands, humbles himself and asks forgiveness,” the Pope said, adding that it would be nice if the “the powerful exploiters of today” imitated the king’s gesture.

However, Francis cautioned that just because the Lord accepted Ahab’s penance, an innocent person was killed, which is an act that will continue to have “inevitable consequences.”

“The evil done in fact leaves its painful traces, and the story of mankind bears the wounds,” he said, but noted that God’s act of mercy shows us the main path that must be pursued.

Mercy can heal wounds and can change the course of history, the Pope said, and encouraged pilgrims to open their hearts to God’s mercy. He said that divine mercy “is stronger than man's sin,” and that the power of the true king, Jesus Christ, “is completely different” than that of the world.

“His throne is the Cross...His going to everyone, especially the weak, defeats the loneliness and fate of death which sin leads to.”

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Rome, Italy, Feb 24, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- What’s next for ecumenism? After the recent meeting between Pope Francis and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has emphasized that “the first thing is to free religion from politics.”

 
“We cannot reconcile with geopolitics, but we can reconcile with our brothers,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych told CNA Feb. 23.
 
He reflected on the joint declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill in Havana Feb. 12. The Pope and the Patriarch stressed that “it is our hope that our meeting may also contribute to reconciliation wherever tensions exist between Greek Catholics and Orthodox.”
 
Archbishop Shevchuk said the declaration has many positive points, while also emphasizing some critical points of the declaration. He considered it too imbalanced toward the Russian Orthodox positions, and in general excessively politically oriented.
 
The archbishop had also voiced his criticism in a Feb. 14 interview on the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church’s web site.
 
Speaking to CNA, Archbishop Shevchuk maintained that “the meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis was very important, according to my mind and to what I heard from the Ukrainian population.”
 
“I agree to call that meeting historical, as we need to meet in order to discuss and to carry forward our path to unity,” the archbishop said.
 
However, he underscored that “the meeting in Havana is just the beginning of the path.”

“We must not fix our attention on one only point. We must think what to do after. The first thing is to free religion from politics. We cannot reconcile with geopolitics, but we can reconcile with our brothers,” he said.

Archbishop Shevchuk is Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and a member of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. The dicastery was directly involved in drafting the joint declaration. However, Archbishop Shevchuk was not involved in the drafting process, nor was he asked for recommendations.
 
The archbishop said that for him, “it was important that the voice of the local Church was heard, since it was called up in the declaration.”
 
“There are two points of view: that of the universal Church, and that of the local Church, that might see the same problems, but from a different point of view. For this reason, to us, to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, it was important to listen to the Holy Father and at the same time to be listened to by the Holy Father,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Shevchuk became close to Pope Francis when both were in Argentina. He served as a bishop in the Ukrainian Eparchy of Santa Maria del Patrocinio in Buenos Aires from 2009-2011, while Bergoglio served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The Pope recalled their friendship during his inflight press conference Feb. 18.
 
Archbishop Shevchuk said he was “moved by the paternal, sincere Holy Father’s words” toward him. He said that Pope’s trust and frankness with his friends is one of his strong characteristics. This is the reason why he feels “free to be frank, sincere and transparent” when speaking with the Pope.
 
“I want to be the spokesperson of the sentiments, pains and even doubts of the Ukrainian people. I want to be the mediator between simple-minded believers and the Holy Father,” the archbishop said.
 
Archbishop Shevchuk will meet with the Pope March 5, at the end of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
 
He described the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church as composed of two realms. On one side, it shares “the same liturgy, theology and also some history with Orthodox Churches, especially with the Patriarchate of Moscow.” On the other, it is in full communion with the successor of Peter.
 
Because of this identity “we have always been stigmatized by the Orthodox. But being in Communion with the Holy Father is pivotal to us.”
 
According to Archbishop Shevchuk, “it is natural that nowadays being Catholic means being ecumenical,” and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church thus has a mission to promote Christian unity.

St. John Paul II used to say that Europe had to breathe with two lungs, a saying cited by the archbishop.
 
“The fact that there are so many Eastern Churches in the Catholic Church is a richness. And we, as an Eastern Church, are called to share this richness, as our particularity makes us prepared, and encouraged, to undertake a sincere, true and authentic dialogue with the Orthodox Churches,” Archbishop Shevchuk said.
 
He stressed that “being united in faith does not mean being subdued to someone else.”
 
“The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church can testify that communion with the Successor of Peter does not take anything out of the richness of the Eastern tradition,” he explained. “It is the contrary! It helps this tradition to grow. It brings this tradition out of provincialism, out of strict nationalism. It opens to the universal horizons of the Church of Christ.”
 
The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has lived through difficult situations. Although it is fully recognized as a self-governing Eastern Catholic Church, the Orthodox did not acknowledge its right to exist.
 
“Orthodoxy must acknowledge our right to exist,” Archbishop Shevchuk said.
 
He noticed that “The joint declaration by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill in the end makes this acknowledgement, and this is positive.”

But on the other hand, the joint declaration referred to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church as among the “ecclesial communities.”

“The ecumenical vocabulary of the Catholic Church uses the phrase ‘ecclesial communities’ to refer to Protestant Churches, that is to label those communities which do not bear all the richness of the apostolic tradition,” explained Archbishop Shevchuk.
 
He added that this is why “professors of ecclesiology, but also common people, raised concerns and doubts about the use of this expression referred to the Greek Catholic Community.”
 
“In the end, we are not called to ask anyone permission for our right to exist,” the Major Archbishop emphasized.
 
He said the meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow is “a starting point, and not the end of a path.”

“Now it is time to commit ourselves so that the ecumenical path will lead to a full and visible unity of the Church of Christ.”

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