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 WASHINGTON-Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico, urged Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Ambassador Susan Rice to take renewed action to build on steps toward peace in the Middle East and work toward long term stability in the region in separate letters, January 20.

Bishop Cantú, who chairs the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to Secretary Kerry that the United States should build on the success of the Iran nuclear deal by pursuing peace in Syria and greater political stability in in the region. This could be aided, he wrote, in large part through increased humanitarian assistance.

"If peace talks are successful, the United States and the international community will need to provide robust assistance to help rebuild Syria so that refugees can return and the social fabric can be repaired," wrote Bishop Cantú. "Post-war desperation will only fuel renewed conflict and extremism. It is particularly important that Syrian refugees in Lebanon have the opportunity to return to their country so as to restore the delicate demographic balance necessary for stability in Lebanon."

In his letter to Ambassador Rice, Bishop Cantú noted that his recent visit to Israel, Palestine and Jordan showed him that the status quo is "dangerous for both Israelis and Palestinians." He also noted that the conflict has been harmful to the Church in the Holy Land and that the situations in Gaza and the Cremisan Valley required urgent attention.

"As Pope Francis has said on a number of occasions, we need to build bridges, not walls. I pray that the United States will help build a bridge to peace between Israelis and Palestinians," Bishop Cantú wrote. "We cannot forget their plight."

Full text of the letters to Secretary Kerry and Ambassador Rice are available online.
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Keywords: Bishop Oscar Cantú, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Ambassador Susan Rice, peace, Middle East, Committee on International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon
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(Vatican Radio) Migration, as well as monetary matters, has been dominating discussions at the World Economic Forum taking place this week in Davos, Switzerland. The annual three-day event, which concludes on Saturday, brings together politicians, business leaders and opinion makers to share analysis of global financial trends, as well as key challenges facing the world today.

In a message to the meeting, Pope Francis urged the world leaders to heed the cry of the poor, saying that the present moment offers an opportunity “to build inclusive societies based on respect for human dignity, tolerance, compassion and mercy”.

Among the faith leaders attending the summit is the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Norwegian pastor Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the focus of this year’s forum and about a meeting on the migration crisis that the WCC convened with several UN agencies earlier in the week….

Listen: 

The WCC leader says the Davos meeting is focused on the 4th industrial or technological revolution, which he believes is an opportunity to discuss how such technology and cooperation between different sectors can be used in a new way for the common good.

Asked whether he believes the Davos participants are listening to the voices of faith leaders, he says they too live in a world of crises and conflict, where inequality is a problem for whole societies and not only for the poor. Inequality, he insists, “is destabilizing, it leads to terror, it leads to violence, it leads to refugees”. The majority of business leaders, he believes, understand that they need the stabilizing contribution of civil society if they are to be successful and sustainable.

Regarding the statement "Europe’s Response to the Refuge Crisis, From Origin to Transit, Reception and Refuge, A Call for Shared Responsibility and Coordinated Action”, released at the end of the January 18th to 19th meeting in Geneva, Dr Fykse Tveit notes it is a unique statement by the World Council of Churches and three UN organisations (UNICEF, UNFPA and UNHCR). He says it also calls in a unique way for a shared effort by all sectors of society. The migration crisis in Europe, he says, cannot be solved “by closing borders and ignoring the human rights” of refugees to seek safety and protection.

Many churches in many countries, the WCC leader says, are providing a lot of advocacy and practical support for migrants, especially women and children. He describes the crisis as a “struggle for the soul of Christianity and the soul of Europe”. Noting the “strong tendency” to exclude Muslim migrants on nationalistic or religious grounds, he asks, “Do we really stand for the humanitarian values of caring for the most vulnerable” at the heart of our Christian faith?

Noting that this meeting was held as the start of the annual week of prayer for Christian Unity week, he says ecumenical cooperation around the migrant crisis “is stronger than we have seen for years”. Stressing that there are many examples of common prayer leading to common collaboration for the needy, he mentions especially the Protestant community in Italy working with the Catholic St Egidio community to ensure safe passage for migrants fleeing from North Africa and the Middle East. 

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Vatican City, Jan 22, 2016 / 11:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his annual speech to the Holy See's main court on Friday, Pope Francis affirmed the indissolubility of marriage and clarified that poorly developed “personal faith” is not itself a grounds for finding that a marriage is null.

“It should be clearly affirmed that the quality of faith is not an essential condition for matrimonial consent,” the Pope said in his Jan. 22 address to the judges of the Roman Rota at the Vatican's Clementine Hall.

Consent – the typical basis for a tribunal investigating the validity of a marriage – “according to the longstanding doctrine, can be undermined only at a natural level,” Pope Francis reminded the judges.

“Indeed, the habitus fidei (habit of faith) is infused in the moment of Baptism and continues to flow mysteriously into the soul, even when the faith is not developed or psychologically appears to be absent.”

He added that “it is not unusual for newlyweds, drawn to marriage by the instinctus naturae, at the moment of celebration have a limited awareness of the fullness of God's plan, and only later, in family life, discover all that God the Creator and Redeemer has established for them.”

“The lack of formation in faith and also an error regarding the unity, indissolubility and sacramental dignity of marriage may vitiate matrimonial consent only if they determine the will. It is precisely for this reason that errors regarding the sacramental nature of marriage must be evaluated very carefully.”

The question of the necessity of a “mature faith” or “minimum of faith” for a valid marriage between the baptized has been raised in recent years. It has arisen primarily because of the large numbers of “baptized non-believers”: those who were baptized as infants but have not personally appropriated the faith they received at baptism.

The dilemma was raised as early as the 1970s by the International Theological Commission, an advisory body to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. And it was voiced several times by Benedict XVI, who in his last address to the Roman Rota, in 2013, affirmed that “The indissoluble pact between a man and a woman does not, for the purposes of the sacrament, require of those engaged to be married, their personal faith; what it does require, as a necessary minimal condition, is the intention to do what the Church does. However, if it is important not to confuse the problem of the intention with that of the personal faith of those contracting marriage, it is nonetheless impossible to separate them completely.”

The question was also brought up at the two recent Synods on the Family, and speculation about requiring a “minimum of faith” increased in September 2015 when Pope Francis released two motu proprio reforming the codes of canon law regarding annulments.

In one of them, Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus, the Pope wrote that “the defect of faith which can generate simulation of consent or error that determines the will” is among the circumstances that can allow a case for nullity to be handled by a new, more brief process.

However, his words today to the Roman Rota are significant for affirming that a “minimum of faith” is not required for a valid marriage between the baptized.

The Pope delivers a speech to the members of the Rota, a court of higher instance at the Holy See, each January to inaugurate the court's judicial year.

“The family, founded on indissoluble marriage, unitive and procreative, belongs to the ‘dream’ of God and of his Church for the salvation of humanity,” Pope Francis said.

Both the family and the Church assist in “accompanying the human person until the end of their existence”, he said, noting that they do this “certainly with the teachings that they transmit, but also with their very nature as communities of love and life.”

He noted that along with its definition as the “Tribunal of the Family,” the Rota can also be considered “the Tribunal of the truth of the sacred bond.” These two qualities, he said, are complementary.

“Indeed the Church can show the merciful and indefectible love of God for families, especially those wounded by sin and by the trials of life, and at the same time, proclaim the essential truth of marriage according to God's plan.”

Francis pointed to the 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family. The two-year reflection has made possible a “profound and wise discernment” on family life, he said, indicating to the world that “there can be no confusion between the family beloved by God and any other type of union.”

By their “work of the truth,” the Pope told the judges, the Church “proposes to declare the truth on marriage in a concrete case, for the good of the faithful, she keeps in mind at the same time those who, by their free choice or through unhappy circumstances live in a state of objective error, continue to receive Christ's merciful love, and therefore that of the Church herself.”

He affirmed that the Church continues to propose marriage “in its essential elements – offspring, the good of spouses, unity, indissolubility, sacramentality.”

These conditions are not simply “an ideal for the few,” but constitute a reality that, with Christ’s grace, “can be lived by all baptized faithful.”

Francis pointed to the “pastoral urgency” in the Church for an adequate preparation for marriage, and called for a “new catechesis” on marriage, repeating the phrase for added emphasis.

He closed his speech by recognizing that “the time in which we are living is very challenging both for the family, and for us pastors who are called to accompany them,” and wished them a good start to the new year.

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Washington D.C., Jan 22, 2016 / 01:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite weather forecasts calling for what might end up being the worst blizzard in over a century, tens of thousands flooded the nation’s capital Friday to support the dignity of life.

Rosalie Rwamakuba, a 20-year-old woman from upstate New York, told CNA that she wants “to march for those who can’t.”

“I’ve been wanting to come on the March for Life for a long time. I think it is a really important cause, because the value of life is nothing nowadays,” she said. “I think we should take a stand.”

“All life, no matter how conceived, or how the child comes out, is valuable. We’re all unique. There’s never going to be anyone like you, there never was anyone like you.”

Eighteen-year-old Benjamin Swanson traveled from Nebraska to attend the march because he wanted to fight the complacency that so many people have toward abortion.  

He recalled how a girl in his sophomore high school class left early for Christmas break. When she came back and people asked where she had been, she casually responded that she had gotten an abortion.

“It just shocked me how … it didn’t even phase people that she was gone having an abortion. It was almost just like she was getting her wisdom teeth or tonsils out,” Swanson said.

“The reason why I march is really because I don’t want abortion to become a norm … I don’t want to have any unborn child not have their story told. Everyone deserves a chance to live.”

He also noted the importance of supporting women in difficult pregnancies. When his sister got pregnant her first semester of college, their aunt kicked her out of the house, he said. Had she not had a support system, “she probably wouldn’t have chosen to keep her baby and I wouldn’t have my nephew.”

Held every year on or around Jan. 22, the March for Life in Washington, D.C., marks the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion throughout the country. In recent years, estimated attendance at the march has ranged from 250,000 to more than half a million.

Weather forecasts of up to 30 inches of snow beginning the day of the march forced some groups to cancel their trips this year. Nonetheless, huge crowds spilled out across the National Mall as thousands upon thousands of marchers – primarily young people – braved the blizzard to show their support for life.

Patrick Koehr, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, serves on the school’s March for Life Commission and was planning to lead a group of over 800 students – the largest yet, he said.

However, the administration was concerned about liability with the blizzard warning, and the trip ended up getting canceled.

“But I’ve been in the march every year of my life – including when I was a fetus – so I couldn’t miss it,” Koehr told CNA. Instead he drove down to D.C. with a few friends to attend.

Directly preceding the march, a rally on the National Mall featured speeches by religious, cultural and political leaders.

March for Life president Jeanne Mancini reflected on the theme of this year’s event: “Pro-life and pro-woman go hand-in-hand.”

“A woman’s capacity to have a child is an incredible beautiful and amazing thing. It’s something inherent to women,” she said, adding that it is degrading when women are treated as though their capacity to bear children is “a liability.”

“Abortion is not good for women – psychologically or physically … science and research strongly support this reality,” Mancini continued. “I don’t want any woman to every have to go through that.”

For Yohanka, a Cuban woman who now lives in Florida, the march is personal. Raped repeatedly by her stepfather in Cuba, she was forced to have an abortion as a teenager. A year later, she again became pregnant from rape, and this time gave birth to a son.

“He’s an amazing son. He’s my life. He’s actually the only son that I was able to conceive because I never got pregnant ever again,” she told CNA.

“He’s 25 years old (now). My husband adopted him as his own.”

Yohanka explained that she came to the march to stand up for those conceived in what are known as “exception” cases. When people say that abortion is ok in cases of rape and incest, she hears them saying that her son would be better off dead.

“Why should my son pay for the crime of somebody else? Why should he be killed just because someone decided to rape me? He is my child, he has nothing to do with what happened,” she said.

“I regret my first abortion and I will always regret it,” she continued. “I didn’t have much of a choice. I was a child, and I was dragged (into the abortion clinic) by someone who was in authority…It wasn’t my choice, but it was my son or my daughter. God knows.”

Ann Marie Coyle of Rockford, Illinois, said that she sees abortion as pitting mothers against their children, creating an opposition that is unfair to both.

Coyle views the annual march as an important source of strength and support for pro-life participants.  

“I think it’s important for us to be united in this country and to know that we’re not alone, because the media doesn’t promote life, and to know that there are thousands of people out there…and that we’re not alone in this battle,” she told CNA.

This idea of unity also made a strong impression on Brother Elias, a 20-year-old member of the Legionaries of Christ.

Attending his first march this year, he said he was struck by the sheer numbers of people in the crowds, as well as their enthusiasm.

“It’s been amazing seeing how many people really believe that life is worth living,” he said. “Even though there may be difficulties, crosses, things that are hard, life is worth living because of love.”

 

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By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis said there can be no confusion between God's plan for marriage as an indissoluble bond between one man and woman who are open to life, and other sorts of unions.

"The church, in fact, can demonstrate God's unwavering merciful love toward families, especially those wounded by sin and life's trials, and at the same time proclaim the essential truth of marriage according to God's plan," the pope said Jan. 22, in a meeting with members of the Roman Rota. The pope holds the annual meeting to inaugurate the Vatican court's judicial year.

Pope Francis said the court, which hears requests for marriage annulments, helps support families and the truth about the sacred bond of marriage.

In evaluating and judging marriage cases and contributing to formation, the Roman Rota helps promote and proclaim the truth, he said.

When the church, through the court's service, seeks to declare the truth about marriage in each specific case, it always bears in mind that those "who, through free choice or unfortunate circumstances in life, live in an objective state of error continue to be the object of the merciful love of Christ and therefore of the church, too."

The two gatherings of the Synod of Bishops focused on the family were occasions of "in-depth, knowledgeable discernment" and they gave the church a chance to tell "the world that there can be no confusion between the family desired by God and any other kind of union," the pope said.

"The family, based on indissoluble, unitive and procreative marriage, is part of God's 'dream' and the church's for the salvation of humanity," he said.

The church will always offer the truth about marriage, he said, "not as an ideal for the few, despite modern examples based on what is fleeting and transitory, but as a reality that, with Christ's grace, can be lived by all the baptized faithful."

That means there is great pastoral urgency for adequate marriage preparation, for example, he said, with a kind of marriage "catechumenate" that was suggested during the synods on the family. A catechumenate would entail a longer process of formation before marriage, as well as during the years right after the wedding.

While the family is considered to be a "domestic church," he said, the church is the family of God. Therefore, the church must be filled with a loving, "family spirit," where people are "no longer strangers and sojourners," but members of God's family, he said.

The church -- as both mother and teacher -- knows that not every one of her children is perfect, he said.

"The church knows that some Christians have a faith that's strong, formed from love, strengthened by good catechesis and nourished by prayer and a sacramental life," the pope said, "while others have a faith that's weak, neglected, unformed, poorly taught or forgotten."

The pope reiterated church teaching that the level of a person's faith "is not an essential condition of matrimonial consent" and in fact, he said, it is not unusual for engaged couples to go into a marriage with a limited understanding of the fullness of God's plan.

"The lack of formation in the faith and even error concerning the unity, indissolubility and the sacramental dignity of marriage invalidate matrimonial consent only when they determine" or condition a person's will, he said.

Precisely for this reason, "errors which concern the sacramentality of marriage must be evaluated very carefully," he said.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A baby in a manger is proof enough for Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York that Americans can express a culture of life.

And it wasn't the Christ child. Instead, it was a newborn infant left by his mother in the crib of a manger scene at a parish in the New York City borough of Queens.

Calling it "a sad but gripping tale" in his homily during the opening Mass Jan. 21 of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Cardinal Dolan, said, "No one knew where the baby had come from, or who left him there ... until, a week later, the sobbing mother, a young Mexican woman, remaining anonymous, told her story to a journalist."

Cardinal Dolan, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee, recounted the mother's words, noting the irony that the woman had left her baby at Holy Child Jesus Church:

"I was so afraid, and, all alone in the house, suddenly went into labor. I must have been in excruciating pain for at least two hours. I started pushing because, each time I did, the pain would let up. I pushed for 15 minutes and finally the baby, a boy, finally came out. He didn't cry at first, so I was afraid he was not all right. I didn't know what to do, so I left the umbilical cord on. I wrapped him in a clean towel and started to look for some place safe and warm.

"I'm very religious," the woman had continued, "so right away I thought of my church, Holy Child Jesus (in the Brooklyn Diocese). I go there a lot, and the priests and people are so good. I just knew if I left him in God's hands, my baby would be OK. So, I ran into my church and put him in the empty crib. Then he started crying. I just hoped he was warm enough. I hid in the back of church, knowing Father would find my baby and the people would care for him. They did."

"True story," Cardinal Dolan said, "and I submit it to you, the jury, this evening, as Exhibit A in our case for promoting the culture of life."

He added, "It's not far-fetched to imagine another scenario, what might have happened: that mother's legitimate and understandable apprehension and isolation could have led her to Planned Parenthood.

"She could have been going to a parish which she found cold, unwelcoming and, impersonal, where she did not feel safe, and where she would not have been inclined to turn in her crisis," Cardinal Dolan said. "Or, in those fretful minutes after her baby's birth, she might have run to a church only to find it bolted-up, with a sign on the outside telling her, probably in English, to come back during office hours. Thank God that scenario remains only a 'might-have-been.'"

He said later, "We are summoned to be such agents of conversion." The way to do that, Cardinal Dolan said, was "by imitating those priests and people of Holy Child Jesus Parish in New York City, by acknowledging that Jose, that abandoned newborn baby (named for St. Joseph, Jesus' foster father), Jose was nowhere more at home than in the empty manger of their parish nativity scene, because he, too, is a child of God."

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, in introductory remarks, welcomed "the many, many, many young people" at the Mass, as they serve as "a reminder for every generation" that all are "called to show respect for the gospel of life."

The prospect of a major storm carrying heavy snow and high winds made the national shrine slightly less impossibly crowded. Compared to the 11,000 who were packed in for the opening mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life last year, only 9,000 were on hand Jan. 21, according to Jacquelyn Hayes, a shrine spokeswoman.

Clergy turnout was similarly smaller for the Mass. Unlike the entrance processions in recent years, which lasted a half-hour, the Jan. 21 procession took 20 minutes.

One indication of a reduced turnout for the vigil was an announcement Jan. 19 by the Archdiocese of St. Louis' Catholic Youth Apostolate that as a precaution, it was canceling its annual Generation Life bus caravan that would have sent hundreds of youths to Washington.

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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz

By Kurt Jensen

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic admonitions about inclusion mixed with strong political language before the March of Life got underway Jan. 22 in Washington.

At a Jesuit-sponsored Mass for life at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church that morning, Father Paddy Gilger's homily reminded a small group of students that because Jesus made an effort to be inclusive when he chose his disciples, they, too, should be respectful of others' opinions.

"As we join in the fight against the scourge of abortion, our differences remain, and that's OK," he said.

Father Gilger also told the students to combine prayer and penance to create a culture of life. "Our efforts are to be able to create the same amount of space for people to change their hearts."

Later, at the March for Life rally at the Washington Monument, attended by nearly 50,000, Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, stuck to her standard political stump speech.

She drew loud cheers with her claim, "You can bet that I will win this fight against Hillary Clinton."

The next president, Fiorina said, "will decide whether we force taxpayers to fund the political arm of the abortion industry," meaning Planned Parenthood.

"Make no mistake, ladies and gentleman," she added, "this election is a fight for the character of our nation."

Fiorina also expressed her continued support for the series of videos released last summer by David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress that purport to show California representatives of Planned Parenthood discussing the sale of parts of aborted fetuses.

A lawsuit against Daleiden and the center over the videos has reached the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the National Abortion Foundation and Planned Parenthood accusing him of misrepresenting his organization and illegally taping without permission, and aiding in violent threats against abortion clinics and the women who go there.

Planned Parenthood officials claim the videos were edited to manipulate the interviews and any mention of money for tissue and body parts is related to customary handling fees. But Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress stand by its videos.

"Ours is a fight for the character of our nation," Fiorina said. "For the value of life. It is a fight that we must win to take our country back, and citizens, we must take our country back."

Patrick Kelly, the Knights of Columbus vice president for public policy, said opponents of the pro-life movement, "insist on dividing and bullying those who disagree with them by speaking of a fictional war on women. Our movement, the movement to protect human life, is different. It is built by you, the grass roots. ' We come her to show that we cannot be intimidated."

Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, praised efforts by state legislatures. "The gains have been historic -- 282 pro-life laws have been enacted since 2010 including laws to stop dismemberment abortions, require a 72-hour waiting period, and informed consent."

Smith, a Catholic, said the House override vote of President Barack Obama's recent veto of a bill removing all federal funding from Planned Parenthood was scheduled for next week.

The rally was the first formal involvement in March for Life, which is held on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion, by the evangelical community.

"We are grateful for your leadership on the culture of life," said Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family. "It's taken us time to come to the party, but we are here with you!"

Daly also was headlining the first major pro-life conference for evangelicals to be held in conjunction with the March for Life.

After the rally, participants marched up Constitution Avenue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Marchers headed to the court as snow fell -- the beginning of a snowstorm that was to turn into a major blizzard and leave at least 2 feet of snow in the Washington region.

Over the years, pro-lifers participating in the March for Life have endured freezing rain, snow and sub-zero temperatures and there might have been more than one blizzard that swept through the nation's capital on or around the Roe anniversary.

But 19 years ago, the circumstances Jan. 22 were a carbon copy of what marchers faced this year. CNS reported that a blinding snowstorm "whited out the view of the U.S. Capitol" and "sent federal employees home from work before noon."

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