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Vatican City, Jan 13, 2016 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As things are picking up around the Vatican in the new year, anticipation is buzzing over the release of Pope Francis’ document on the conclusions of the 2014 and 2015 synod of bishops on the family.

Expectations are soaring as to how the Pope will address the major, hot-button issues brought up in the two-year discussion, the biggest of were access to communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, as well as a change in the Church’s stance toward homosexuality.

The Pope is expected to release a final document on the conclusions of the synods sometime this spring.

In a Dec. 29 interview with L’Osservatore Romano’s Italian edition, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, confirmed that the document will take the traditional form of an apostolic exhortation.

Though the exact date has not been announced, sources close to CNA say the document will be published in March, which falls just before first meeting of the new synod council in April.

However, while questions continue to loom on what Francis will say regarding the issues of communion and homosexuality, the Pope himself has recently dropped a few hints as to where he stands in his new book-length interview with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli.

Released Jan. 12, the book, titled “The Name of God is Mercy,” includes nine chapters following the foreword by Tornielli, and consists of questions-and-answers between him and Pope Francis.

In the Q&A, Francis hits on several big themes in his pontificate, including mercy, his distaste for the rigidity of what he calls “the Scholars of the Law” who are obsessed with rules, and confession.

While there is not much in terms of novelty in the text, two parts stand out as significant. The first is an episode the Pope recounts of one of his nieces, who civilly married a divorced man that had not yet obtained an annulment from his first marriage.

Although the man was required to abstain from communion, which is Church practice for persons in his situation, the Pope said that the man was so religious that every Sunday before Mass he went to confession and told the priest, “I know you can’t absolve me but I have sinned, please give me a blessing.”

This, the Pope said, “is a religiously mature man.” While Francis doesn’t say anything explicit on the matter doctrine, his description of the man could be read as an indication that he is likely to emphasize an attitude of welcoming and acceptance, but not necessarily a change in current practice.

This idea is backed up by what Pope Francis says later in his response to a question Tornielli poses on whether there can ever be opposition between doctrine and mercy.

“I will say this: mercy is real; it is the first attribute of God. Theological reflections on doctrine or mercy may then follow, but let us not forget that mercy is doctrine,” the Pope said, signaling that he sees no opposition between the two, but that they are, in fact, entirely compatible.

After making this point, Francis immediately turns to the Gospel story of the adulteress who stands before Jesus while the people around her, faithful followers of the Law of Moses, are prepared to stone her.

He noted that once those ready to cast their stones have dropped them and left, Jesus turns to the woman, who “was probably still frightened,” and tells her “neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin anymore.”

When it comes to this scene, there are those who make a common mistake with Francis.

Many who bask in the Pope’s message of mercy are often tempted to read only as far as the withholding of condemnation, yet at the same time are frequently just as eager to leave out the second part – that of his emphasis on recognizing one’s sin and committing not do it again.

The link between mercy and doctrine is alluded to yet again in the Pope’s advice to priests, when he tells them that while in the confessional, they must “talk, listen with patience, and above all tell people that God loves them.”

If a confessor can’t absolve someone, “he needs to explain why, he needs to give them a blessing, even without the holy sacrament.”

“Be tender with these people. Do not push them away…if we don’t show them the love and mercy of God, we push them away and perhaps they will never come back. So embrace them and be compassionate, even if you can’t absolve them. Give them a blessing anyway.”

Although there are certain situations in which a person cannot be absolved – such as in the case of someone who has been divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment – the Pope’s answer in these cases is to have compassion, but that this compassion doesn’t necessarily mean change.

Pope Francis said that the Church needs “to enter the darkness, the night in which so many of our brothers live…and let them feel our closeness,” but clarified that she must do it “without letting ourselves be wrapped up in that darkness and influenced by it.”

“Caring for outcasts and sinners does not mean letting the wolves attack the flock,” he said. “It means trying to reach everyone by sharing the experience of mercy.”

Another important point is when the Pope comments on his infamous “Who Am I to Judge?” remark, which instantly gained him the world’s attention and seemingly overnight became one of his most misunderstood and misinterpreted phrases.

When asked about the expression, Francis explained that he was “paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” which is the official compendium of the Church’s teaching.

He also said he was glad they were talking about “homosexual people,” and cautioned that “people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies.”

“I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together. You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way, and accompany them along it.”

Given these remarks, it again suggests that the Pope is supportive of a compassionate, inclusive attitude toward those with homosexual tendencies, but that a change in the Church’s long-standing teaching on the topic of homosexuality isn’t up for debate.

So all in all, while the document has yet to be released, if the Pope’s new book is any indication of what’s coming, we can expect no big changes.

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Vatican City, Jan 13, 2016 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The influential Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga has acknowledged the presence of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican. In a new interview, he says that Pope Francis has adopted a gradual approach to address it – and that Catholic teaching won’t change.

The Honduran newspaper El Heraldo asked the cardinal whether there actually was an attempted or successful “infiltration of the gay community in the Vatican.”

Cardinal Maradiaga responded: “Not only that, also the Pope said: there was even a ‘lobby’ in this sense.”

“Little by little the Pope is trying to purify it,” he continued. “One can understand them, and there is pastoral legislation to attend to them, but what is wrong cannot be truth.”

Cardinal Maradiaga is the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Nicaragua and the coordinator of the Council of Cardinals who advise Pope Francis on the reform of the Curia.

HIs interview, published Jan. 12, also touched on some perceptions about Pope Francis.

The newspaper said some people have interpreted Pope Francis’ other remarks to think there was a possibility the Church would support same-sex marriage.

The cardinal rejected this possibility.

“No, we must understand that there are things that can be reformed and others cannot,” he said. “The natural law cannot be reformed. We can see how God has designed the human body, the body of the man and the body of a woman to complement each other and transmit life. The contrary is not the plan of creation. There are things that cannot be changed.”

A previous report about the Pope working to counter the “gay lobby” was widely read, but its accuracy was uncertain.

In June 2013 the left-leaning Chilean Catholic website “Reflexión y liberación” claimed that Pope Francis had told a meeting of the Latin American Confederation of Men and Women Religious that there is a “gay lobby” in the Church and “we have to see what we can do (about it).”

However, the Latin American Confederation of Men and Women said that this report rested on a summary account that relied on the memory of participants, not a recording. This summary was intended for meeting participants and was not intended for publication. The confederation said the reported assertion “cannot be attributed with certainty to the Holy Father.”

Pope Francis in a July 28, 2013 in-flight interview returning to Italy from Brazil briefly discussed this alleged lobby in the context of penitence, confession and God’s forgiveness.

“So much is written about the gay lobby. I have yet to find anyone who can give me a Vatican identity card with 'gay' [written on it]. They say they are there,” the Pope said.

He said that all lobbies are bad and “the gravest problem for me.” Citing the Catechism’s teaching against marginalizing homosexual persons, he said, “If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, well who am I to judge them?”

Cardinal Maradiaga also spoke to El Heraldo about reform and changes to the Church.

“We should not expect there will be major reforms in the doctrine of the Church,” he said. “The reform is the organization of the Curia.”

He acknowledged resistance to Curia reform, saying there are people who “resist any changes” precisely because “they do not know the life of the Church.”

The Church is “not merely a human institution,” he explained. Rather, it is “humane-divine” and “natural and supernatural.” This means “there are things that do not really depend on what is human.”

The cardinal’s remarks on a “gay lobby” follow years of increasingly prominent agitation for doctrinal change from non-Catholics and some Catholics.

As CNA has reported previously, LGBT activists have backed conferences and advocacy events to counter the narrative of the Catholic Church, especially during its synods on the family. These actions include the formation of a coalition called the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics and an advocacy campaign that targeted synod attendees in hopes of countering the influence of bishops from West Africa.

 

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EL PASO, Texas (CNS) -- The Diocese of El Paso has scrapped plans for a border Mass that would have taken place at the same time as the closing Mass of Pope Francis' visit to Mexico in February.

However, the Feb. 17 papal Mass at the fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, is still going to take place as scheduled.

Elizabeth O'Hara, a spokeswoman for the El Paso Diocese, said security concerns over the size of the anticipated crowd for a U.S.-based Mass taking place at the same time as the Juarez Mass prompted the change in plans.

"The pope is still considered a head of state," O'Hara told Catholic News Service Jan. 13. The Juarez fairgrounds where the closing Mass of Pope Francis' Feb. 12-17 visit will be held is about a quarter-mile from the U.S.-Mexico border.

"It became apparent that we didn't know how many people we could potentially house on the border, which posed a safety risk to those in attendance," O'Hara added in a Jan. 13 email.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz had announced plans Dec. 12 for a concurrent Mass at the border. However, the diocese has been allotted 5,000 tickets for the Juarez Mass, O'Hara said.

Plans are underway for some kind of substitute event on the U.S. side of the border to mark the papal trip. O'Hara said Bishop Seitz had polled Catholics in the diocese, and many asked for an event at the 45,000-seat Sun Bowl football stadium.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review

By Jennifer Brinker and Dave Luecking

PERRYVILLE, Mo. (CNS) -- Perhaps it was merely coincidence.

Or perhaps not.

"I'd call it Providence," said Vincentian Father Robert Brockland, who along with Amy Naeger, her brother Neal Gremaud, St. Louisan Bob Klump and Vincentian Father Walter Reisinger were at the center of this story in the last week of December and the first weekend of January.

None needs to be convinced of heavenly intervention, though the Army Corps of Engineers might need convincing after an unknown force or flawed human prediction kept the Mississippi River on its side of the levee and Bois Brule Bottom farmers dry in the flood straddling 2015 and 2016.

After heavy rains on Christmas weekend, the National Weather Service forecast the Mississippi River to crest at about 50 feet -- the height of levee on the Missouri side of the river after being fortified with two feet of rock. A breach in the levee would have spelled disaster for acres of farmland and the few remaining to live in the bottomland since the record flood of 1993, with a crest of 49.74 feet.

The actual crest Jan. 2, was 4 feet lower than predicted. An engineer told Gremaud that the Corps "didn't understand it; the Mississippi did not act like it should have" with a crest of "only" 45.99 feet.

For the Vincentian priests, the siblings Gremaud and Klump, the reason was simple: the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

"I don't think it's any coincidence," Naeger said Jan. 1 while sitting in her mother-in-law's restaurant -- Al's Place in McBride.

Neal Gremaud got the prayer ball rolling Dec. 27, driving the northern portion of the 26-mile levee with Father Reisinger from nearby Perryville. They prayed and invoked the intercession of Mary, who was represented by a smartphone picture of a plaque that had been in Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Belgique and now resides in a shrine at the old church's cemetery a third of mile away on a Missouri highway. They had wanted to bring the actual plaque, but to their dismay, it had been removed for safekeeping.

Independently, Naeger decided the levee needed to be blessed as well but that a statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help needed to come along. Why a statue?

"It just came to me," she told the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

She enlisted the help of Father Brockland, who served as administrator of St. Joseph Mission in Highland for 16 years and now lives in St. Louis. The priest stopped at Catholic Gifts and Books in Chesterfield Dec. 29 to purchase the statue, which owner Mary Bachinski had ordered a few year ago merely because an Our Lady of Perpetual Help statue is rare.

"It's always a plaque or a picture," she said. "I put it in a corner and forgot about it."

Until Father Brockland called. With statue in hand, he and Klump drove to Perry County, and Naeger met them at the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal, where the statue was blessed.

Then, with Naeger driving, Father Brockland riding shotgun and Klump in the backseat, they spent the next two-and-a-half hours driving along the southern portion of the levee, praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the "Memorare." They stopped every 10th of a mile for Father Brockland to bless the levee with holy water.

"We didn't talk very much," Father Brockland said. "We were all praying."

The drive, at just 6 or 7 mph, was harrowing. Water was lapping up on the side of the levee, where a man was swept away in his truck when the levee broke while he patrolled in the flood of '93. He survived two hours in flood water, but now Naeger, Father Brockland and Klump drove over the same spot.

"Around the bends, the water was really deep," said Naeger, who juggled the steering wheel, the 12-inch statue and a rosary -- three items in two hands. "I was worried."

And overcome with emotion.

"When we started processing, it was ... really overwhelming, " she said, choking up three days after the drive.

She chuckled about her next thought.

"This is the Blessed Mother of our Lord in a (Chevrolet) Tahoe," she said, with a laugh. "She should be traveling in something more elaborate."

But Naeger then felt a sense of calm.

"After that, I wasn't afraid anymore, because I knew she had taken care of everything," she said.

Afterward, they stopped at Al's Place, where Father Brockland enthroned the statue of Our Lady and recited the "Blessing of a Community Against Floods," from the Roman Ritual, an official book of prayers and ceremonies used in administering the sacraments. His favorite part of the blessing is the final line: "And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come upon these waters and keep them always under control."

"The Blessed Mother is the intercessor for her Incarnate Son, Jesus," Father Brockland said. "She is mother most powerful, and she comes to intercede for us. Jesus cannot refuse His mother."

The devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help dates back at least a century among the Catholic farming community in the Perryville area. After a flood in 1943, the Belgique church got the plaque and processed with it along the levee, praying for the Blessed Mother's intercession.

With the one notable exception, the bottomland has remained dry since. The plaque was absent when the Flood of '93 covered farmland and destroyed homes and the old Blessed Nativity Church, which had been closed just the year prior. Gremaud now owns the parish property; he parks farm equipment in a shed where a rectory, a convent and a school stood beside and behind the church.

After closing, the church and its contents were auctioned, but in advance of the '93 flood, Gremaud learned the history of plaque, and he and others sought its return. They barely had repurchased the plaque -- the auctioneer found it for them -- before the levee broke. After the flood, the shrine was built, and though the plaque was high and dry this time around, the Gremaud siblings and Vincentian priests were proactive in making sure Our Lady of Perpetual Help was on board to help them.

"The farmers look to Our Lady of Perpetual Help for safety from accidents, for their farm equipment and financial interests," Father Brockland said. "They are dedicated to Mary."

For good reason.

"We drove the levee all the way north and all the way south, and no one lost anything," he said.

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Brinker and Luecking are staff reporters at the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

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