Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) Why bother remembering the Holy Innocents every year on the 28th of December? Why spoil the Christmas season by bringing to mind such a horrendous episode? As Monsignor Peter Fleetwood explains : "...these young boys lost their lives because somebody realised how powerful Jesus Christ really was: He didn't understand why Jesus was powerful , or how he would eventually exercise that power, but he knew there was something special about Jesus , and recognised there was not enough room in the kingdom for both of them- or so he thought."...

Listen to Monsignor Peter Fleetwood in a programme produced by Veronica Scarisbrick for the series: "Why Bother? Staying Catholic despite it All" :

In this refelction Father Peter  highlights the meaning of this feast for us today:"...It is important to ask whose patron saints the Holy Innocents are. The answer is quite shocking . This has become the day when Catholics in many countries remember innocent lives that are destroyed in our own day because there is no room for them in our society, This is the day when children whose lives were deliberately terminated before birth are remembered . They had no choice. They could not defend themselves. It is good to remember them on this day , but I cannot remember them without thinking of the women who live with what must have been an excruciating decision. Never forget that....This is also a day to remember the innocent victims of war, the thousands of children who die every year because they do not have enough to eat, children who were born with HIV-AIDS, those who have been killed because they were made to fight as soldiers....I am sure we should remember other innocent people whose lives have been ruined , even if they have not died ...refugees, far from their home country , just like Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus. They are innocent but often hated and despised in the countries were they eventually find refuge .."

While Father Peter concludes by saying he doesn't wish to cast a shadow on Christmas , he also insists it is worth remembering some people's experience of Christmas is totally different from ours; don't ask "who were the Holy Innocents' but "who are they today ?"

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family and the Jubilee of Families in the context of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. In his homily, the Holy Father focused on the family on pilgrimage – in ways great and small, making its way through life, toward the ultimate goal of perfect joy in the House of the Father, forever.

The Holy Father drew on the readings of the day, which told of the Old Testament figures, Elkanah and Hannah, who brought their son Samuel to the Temple of Shiloh to consecrate him to the Lord (cf. 1 Sam 1:20-22, 24-28), and of Joseph and Mary, who went with Our Lord in His boyhood as pilgrims to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover (cf. Lk 2:41-52).

Click below to hear our report

“How important it is for our families to journey together towards a single goal,” said Pope Francis.  “We know that we have a road to travel together,” he went on to say, “a road along which we encounter difficulties but also enjoy moments of joy and consolation,” especially in the moments of shared prayer that punctuate our days – or ought to punctuate them – and thus help us maintain contact with the sacred rhythm of life. “What can be more beautiful than for a father and mother to bless their children at the beginning and end of each day, to trace on their forehead the sign of the cross, as they did on the day of their baptism?” reflected Pope Francis, who also indicated meal times as a privileged moment in which to express gratitude for God’s provident goodness and learn to share what we have received with those in greater need. “These are all little gestures,” he said, “yet they point to the great formative role played by the family in the pilgrimage of everyday life.”

Reflecting in a moment of spiritual imagination that envisioned the scene once the Holy Family had returned home, Pope Francis suggested that it is not impossible that even Our Lord might have asked His mother and foster father to excuse (It. chiedere scusa) Him the worry and consternation He caused them while he was about His Father’s business in the Temple, teaching the Teachers of the Law.

“In the Year of Mercy,” said Pope Francis, “every Christian family can become a privileged place on this pilgrimage for experiencing the joy of forgiveness: forgiveness is the essence of the love which can understand mistakes and mend them,” and, “ – how miserable we would be if God did not forgive us,” Pope Francis asked, in pointed departure from his prepared text. “Within the family we learn how to forgive, because we are certain that we are understood and supported, whatever the mistakes we make.”

The Holy Father concluded with an exhortation: “Let us not lose confidence in the family!” he said. “It is beautiful when we can always open our hearts to one another, and hide nothing.  Where there is love, there is also understanding and forgiveness.  To all of you, dear families, I entrust this most important mission - the domestic pilgrimage of daily family life - which the world and the Church need, now more than ever.”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent his heartfelt condolences to those affected by a tragic explosion at a gas plant in Nigeria.

As many as 100 people were killed by an explosion at a gas plant in southeastern town of Nnewi on Thursday when a truck was discharging butane gas while customers were refilling their gas bottles.

Many others were injured.

The telegramme, addressed to the Apostolic Nuncio in Nigeria. was signed by Vatican Secreatary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of the Holy Father.

Please find below the full text of the Pope’s telegramme:

The Most Reverend Augustine Kasujja 
Apostolic Nuncio in Nigeria
ABUJA

The Holy Father was deeply saddened to learn of the tragic explosion at a gas plant in Nnewi, in which so many people died or were seriously injured.  He send heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the deceased and injured, to the authorities and to the entire Nation. His Holiness, commending the souls of the departed to the tender mercy of God, invokes the abundant divine gifts of consolation and strength upon those who mourn and upon all who have been affected by this tragedy.

                        Cardinal Pietro Parolin
                        Secretary of State

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(Vatican Radio) Reiterating his appeal to all believers to reject violence in the name of God, Pope Francis has sent his condolences to the families of those killed on the island of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines.

The killings were perpetrated by a  breakaway Muslim rebel group who killed nine Christian civilians in a series of attack on Christmas eve.

The Pope’s prayers for the families of the victims and his appeal for dialogue, tolerance and peace came in a telegramme signed by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and addressed to the Apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines.     

Please find below the full text of the telegramme:

The Most Reverend Giuseppe Pinto
Apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines
MANILA

The Holy Father was deeply saddened to learn of the senseless killing of innocent people in Mindanao, and he sends condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.  His Holiness prays that security and safety will be established for all people in the region, so that dialogue, tolerance and peace may enable each person to live free from fear.  He asks all believers to reject violence in the name of God who is love, and invokes abundant divine gifts of consolation, mercy and strength upon those affected by this tragedy.

                            Cardinal Pietro Parolin
                            Secretary of State

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Fort Wayne, Ind., Dec 27, 2015 / 09:35 am (CNA).- Ever since entering the Church 27 years ago, theologian Lance Richey had always known about the Catholic social activist Dorothy Day in passing.

“It's hard not to run across her name, but I honestly had not paid much attention to her,” Richey told CNA in a phone interview earlier this year.

“I viewed her as, just kind of a social activist, and someone who probably didn't have much to say to a theologian like myself.”

But this May, Our Sunday Visitor released his edits to the 75th anniversary edition of Day's journal from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement, “House of Hospitality.”

On top of that, he organized the annual Dorothy Day Conference at University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he serves as Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

So how did he go from having a cursory knowledge of Day to editing her personal journal – that had been out of print for decades – and organizing an annual conference about her?

“Several years back, I picked up her writings and started reading them,” he said. “My opinion of her changed dramatically. I discovered her for the first time.”

From her writings, including the then nearly impossible to find, “House of Hospitality,” Richey said he discovered a “profoundly spiritual woman” whose work and prayers “flowed from a very deep conversion to Christ and a deep love for the Church.”

The new edition of her diary covers the first six years of the Catholic Worker Movement which Peter Maurin founded with Day in 1933 to serve the poor, unemployed and homeless of New York City. Today there are some 228 Catholic Worker communities in the U.S. and around the world.

Oftentimes Day's social works and advocacy for the poor are upheld while her profound spiritual life gets downplayed or even forgotten altogether, which is the result of man-made divisions within the Church, he said.

Catholics “tend to divide ourselves into Democrats and Republicans, and liberals and conservatives, and social justice or orthodox,” said Richey, who hold doctorates in both philosophy and theology from Wisconsin's Marquette University.

And Day “tends to be championed by people on one end of the spectrum who ignore her deep spirituality and her utter commitment and fidelity to the Church.”

This approach takes away from the whole picture of who Day really was – namely, a deeply faithful woman who “defined her life around the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”

Richey said that in his studies he learned that “for Dorothy Day you can't divide Catholicism into 'kinds.' There aren't 'kinds of Catholics.' You're either Catholic or you're not, and being Catholic entails social obligations and theological obligations,” he said.

This is something he had in mind when speakers for the annual Dorothy Day Conference he organizes were selected, saying that his goal is that “everyone who attended the conference should be offended by somebody.”

“We should make sure we have something that we disagree with because usually in the moment it doesn't change much,” he said, “but as we have to kind of process it, we come to challenge our own preconceptions and to expand our understanding of what does it really mean to be Catholic? What does it really mean to want to imitate Dorothy Day?”

This year's conference included presenters such as Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review; Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles; and Martha Hennessy, Day's granddaughter.

It's important now to see the whole picture of who this woman really was, especially in preparation for the upcoming Year of Mercy, of which Richey says Day would be the perfect patron.

“I do think that it’s a very providential time for Dorothy Day's message. Pope Francis is calling the Universal Church to what Dorothy Day called the American church to be,” he said. “I mean, everything about her was, 'how are we called to be merciful to others?’ and ‘how every day of my life can I carry out these works of mercy?'”

Now that she has been recognized a “Servant of God” – meaning that the Vatican sees no objection in her cause for canonization progressing – he thinks that the chances of her becoming “Venerable” are “very good.”

While the miracles needed to prove to the Church that she can be called a saint are “in God’s hands”, Richey said he personally thinks that Day “led a heroically holy life of orthodox belief and sustained a consistent living out of the Gospel in very difficult conditions.”

This article was originally published on CNA June 20, 2015.

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Vatican City, Dec 27, 2015 / 10:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on the Feast of the Holy Family reflected on the power of forgiveness in families and compared everyday family life to an ongoing pilgrimage of prayer and love.

“How important it is for our families to journey together towards a single goal! We know that we have a road to travel together; a road along which we encounter difficulties but also enjoy moments of joy and consolation,” the Pope said Dec. 27 in his morning homily at St. Peter’s Basilica.

“A pilgrimage does not end when we arrive at our destination, but when we return home and resume our everyday lives, putting into practice the spiritual fruits of our experience.”

“Let us not lose confidence in the family!” he said. “It is beautiful when we can always open our hearts to one another, and hide nothing. Where there is love, there is also understanding and forgiveness.”

The Pope connected the Feast of the Holy Family to the Catholic Church’s Year of Mercy.

“In the Year of Mercy, every Christian family can become a privileged place on this pilgrimage for experiencing the joy of forgiveness,” he said. “Forgiveness is the essence of the love which can understand mistakes and mend them. How miserable we would be if God did not forgive us! Within the family we learn how to forgive, because we are certain that we are understood and supported, whatever the mistakes we make.”

Pope Francis encouraged the congregation in St. Peter’s Square to share moments of family prayer.

“What can be more beautiful than for a father and mother to bless their children at the beginning and end of each day, to trace on their forehead the sign of the cross, as they did on the day of their baptism?” he said. “Is this not the simplest prayer which parents can offer for their children?”

It is also important for families to join in a brief prayer before meals “in order to thank the Lord for these gifts and to learn how to share what we have received with those in greater need.”

“These are all little gestures, yet they point to the great formative role played by the family in the pilgrimage of everyday life,” he said.

Pope Francis said it is comforting to think of Mary and Joseph teaching Jesus how to pray.

“And it is comforting also to know that throughout the day they would pray together, and then go each Sabbath to the synagogue to listen to readings from the Law and the Prophets, and to praise the Lord with the assembly.”

He described family life as “a series of pilgrimages, both small and big.”

The Pope reflected on the Sunday reading from the Gospel of Luke in which a young Jesus stayed in Jerusalem in the Temple, causing great distress to Mary and Joseph when they could not find him.

“For this little ‘escapade,’ Jesus probably had to beg forgiveness of his parents,” the Pope suggested. “The Gospel doesn’t say this, but I believe that we can presume it.”

He said that Mary’s question to Jesus, “why have you treated us like this?” contains “a certain reproach, revealing the concern and anguish which she and Joseph felt.” The Pope that Jesus “surely remained close” to Mary and Joseph as a sign of his “complete affection and obedience.”

“Moments like these become part of the pilgrimage of each family; the Lord transforms the moments into opportunities to grow, to ask for and to receive forgiveness, to show love and obedience,” Pope Francis said.

“To all of you, dear families, I entrust this most important mission--the domestic pilgrimage of daily family life - which the world and the Church need, now more than ever.”

Later on Sunday in his Angelus remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said that the example and witness of the Holy Family provides valuable guidance for life. In the Holy Family, families can find “strength and wisdom for the journey of every day.”

“Our Lady and Saint Joseph teach us to welcome children as a gift from God, to get them and rear them, cooperating in a wonderful way with the Creator’s work and giving to the world, in every child, a new smile.”

He stressed the virtues of love, tenderness, mutual respect, mutual understanding, forgiveness and joy.

After the Angelus he voiced his thoughts for the many Cuban migrants stranded on the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. He said many of them are human trafficking victims. He invited the region’s countries to take “all necessary efforts” to resolve the humanitarian crisis.

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