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Angola’s Archbishop Emeritus of Lubango,  Archbishop Zacarias Kamwenho celebrated this year’s Pentecost Sunday in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Lubango.

In his homily, Archbishop Kamwenho told the faithful that the celebration of Pentecost was about the renewal of their commitment to building a better society and community, according to the charisms of the Holy Spirit.

"When we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, what happens to us is that we release the Holy Spirit (received during the Sacrament of Confirmation). This is precisely the same Holy Spirit that the Apostles received and which they transmitted to us. We now have the responsibility of passing it on to others. The Holy Spirit, in turn, asks of every one of us to build a better society or community -right where we live," Archbishop Kamwenho said. 

Upon reaching the age of 75, in 2009, the Pope accepted the resignation from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Lubango presented by Archbishop Kamwenho in accordance with canon. 401 § 1 of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law.

In 2001 Archbishop Kamwenho acted as mediator in the Angolan Civil War between MPLA and UNITA. For his role in the peace process, he was named co-winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament in 2001.

(Radio Vatican/Radio Ecclesia, Angola)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Rome, Italy, Jun 5, 2017 / 11:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Last week the Order of Malta hosted diplomats and politicians from throughout Europe for a discussion on the effects of violent conflict on children.

Participants said the topic is increasingly urgent since children all over the world are growing up surrounded by war.

“It’s self-explanatory that the well-being of children is key for the future of humanity, and on the other hand the first victims of conflicts, of disasters, of any kind of turmoil, are the weakest in society, and these are women and children,” Order of Malta Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager told CNA.

Because of this, he said the order tries to concentrate the relief they give to “the weakest...especially, children.”

Providing educational opportunities and psychological care for children affected by violent conflict are among the top priorities “because the lack of education and the effect of traumas very often have very long-term effects, and sometimes they turn up only later and have a deteriorating effect on countries.”

The Grand Chancellor was one of several European leaders participating in a June 1 conference titled “Children Victims of Armed Violence” commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Lidice massacre in the Czech Republic.

Nazi troops stormed the village in 1942 on the order of Adolf Hitler in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking German official and the main architect of the Holocaust, a few months earlier. Nazi intelligence had erroneously linked the village to Heydrich's assassins.

The men were rounded up and killed, and the women and 88 children of the village were gathered and sent to the Chelmno extermination camp, where they were gassed to death. Only a few children considered racially suitable for “Germanization” – the spreading of the German language and culture – survived, and were handed over to SS families.

To mark the anniversary, a Czech group came on pilgrimage to Rome last week. They met Pope Francis during his general audience May 31, and later had Mass with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who offered the liturgy for children who are victims of armed conflicts. The group then participated in the half-day conference Thursday, followed by a Mass said by Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague.

During the conference, Veronika Rymonova, a survivor of the Lidice massacre, shared her testimony. Although she was just five months at the time of the attack, Rymonova said the soldiers hit her on the face, leaving a scar on her forehead, and tore her earlobes.

She was one of the few children to survive, and said that despite the fact she has no memories of her village, she is proud of it because Lidice has become a “symbol against Nazism.”

“This unprecedented act of evil and hatred did not remain without a response,” she said, noting that after the massacre “a wave of solidarity arose all over the world,” with countries naming squares, streets, and towns after the village, and even sending donations to survivors.

“The fact that I am here today proves the fact that you are not indifferent to the fate of a small village in the heart of Europe, even 75 years after its massacre,” Rymonova said, voicing her hope that what happened in Lidice “would be a warning for the next generation” so that innocent lives “would never become a wasted sacrifice.”

In an opening address, Vaclav Kolaja, the Czech deputy foreign minister, told participants that while contemporary European youth have lived in relative peace, armed conflicts “remain part of everyday life in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

Armed conflicts are “leaving behind a growing number of victims, devastated countries and wounded families,” he said, noting that the situation “is even worse for the millions of children growing in war or post-war countries.”

These children “become the passive witnesses and victims of human cruelties, or accept an active role in armed conflicts, becoming child soldiers,” he said. They also face rape and other forms of abuse.

Many times children in conflict areas will lack access to basic food, healthcare, shelter, and education, as well as access to a stable family life.

In his comments, Kolaja noted that if war is the only reality children experience growing up, “this naturally shapes the future of the world.”

As millions of migrants including unaccompanied minors, continue to pour into Europe, greater concern is mounting not only for how to ensure them safe passage, but also for how to help them integrate into their new societies.

In their recent “A child is a child” report, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that the global number of migrant and refugee children who move alone has reached a record high. At least 300,000 unaccompanied minors and separated children were recorded in around 80 countries for 2015-2016, a massive jump from the 66,000 recorded for 2010-2011.

UNICEF Italy Team Leader for Refugee and Migrant Response, Gianfranco Rotigliano also spoke at the conference, telling participants that we are “losing generations” to armed conflicts.

“There is no sanctity anymore for hospitals,” he said, noting that they have often become targets, with numerous children among the casualties.

He also lamented the fact that children from warring countries often stop going to school, saying: “when children do not go to school, they are out of society, or they become the last part of society. They will not participate in the process of development in their own country and in their own society.”

Tomas Bocek, the Council of Europe's Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees, noted that children who grow up with war generally suffer from anger and often drift into criminal activities.

Children also simply disappear, many times because of poor organization in refugee camps, or out of fear of deportation, he said, stressing the need to focus on systemic problems “so children do not fall through the net.”

Good and effective systems must be put into place, he said, noting that 1 in 3 asylum seekers in Europe is a child.

Because trafficking is such a huge risk, especially for unaccompanied minors, Bocek said the rapid identification of victims is essential so that they are accounted for before they disappear.  

Stories from other panelists during the conference provided a shocking dose of reality in terms of what children go through.

One panelist recounted how in a visit to a warring country, she met a child who was waiting for the electricity to come back on after a bombing, not realizing that she had in fact lost her sight.

Other stories told of children who suffered from nosebleeds every time a bomb would go off, as well as the cases of children who, after coming home from school to see their homes destroyed and their family killed, wanted to commit suicide so they could be with their relatives.

In comments to CNA, Bocek said that of all the discussions taking place right now on global conflicts, the topic of how they affect children is one of the most important because “they are the most vulnerable ones, they are without protection, especially when they are on their own.”

One of the “most problematic areas” unaccompanied migrant children face is guardianship and obtaining basic information, he said, explaining that a plan of the Council for Europe provides for age-assessment, family reunification, and integration.

Integration, Bocek said, is key, and begins with learning the language, followed by education.

“They need to go to school. They not only need it, this is their basic right. So we really have to facilitate this, that all children who are coming are educated and can go to school.”

Responding to Pope Francis' many appeals to European leaders to not only be generous in accepting the number of migrants they can reasonably welcome, but also to facilitate their integration, Bocek said he views the Roman Pontiff's words as an encouragement for leaders.

“All these pushes, encouragements for our action,” he said, “will help to convince the leaders of European States, not only me, but in Europe, to really think twice and show more solidarity, because now this is really needed most.”

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Mosul, Iraq, Jun 5, 2017 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- As government forces pry apart the Islamic State's three yearlong grip on Mosul, Muslims and Christians have united to rebuild a damaged monastery.

A Facebook page called “This is Christian Iraq” – dedicated to connecting Iraqi Christians and maintaining the faith amid ISIS threat – recently posted a series of photos showing the joint effort.

The May 27 post said that young Muslims from the northern neighborhood joined Christians at the Monastery of Saint George, participating in cleaning and repairs.

The monastery belongs to the Chaldean Catholic tradition, an Eastern Catholic rite in full communion with the Vatican. ISIS militants vandalized the monastery – smashing windows, damaging the church's dome, and discarding its cross.



Although still in need of repairs, the17th century monastery gathered Chaldeans for Easter celebration this year, according to the Irish Times.

“God willing, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ will also mark the return and rising-up of the Christians in Iraq,” Kyriacos Isho, an attendee of the service, told the newspaper.

A new cross has now replaced the old one, and the coming together of Christians and Muslims marks a promising time for both religions as reports announce a final push against the Islamic terrorists.

Residents have seen U.S.-backed Iraqi forces gathering around the local Grand al-Nuri Mosque in the 48 hours leading up to May 31, in what Reuters reports to be a “final showdown.”



The nearly 1000 year old mosque has flown the terrorist's black flag since the group captured the capital city in 2014. The site is where Islamist caliphate was declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announcing the reign of a new Muslim leader.

Three years ago the Islamic State made roads into the Iraqi's Nineveh Plain, and since then over 3.3 million Iraqis have been displaced internally. Christians and moderate Muslims were also subject to persecution. They were often forced to pay heavy taxes or even offered a choice of conversion or death.

Over 2016, internal and international forces reclaimed parts of the city, and Eastern Mosul had been retaken in early January of this year.

The government forces are now focusing on Western Mosul, where the mosque is located at the Old City center, and the three districts near the Western side of the Tigris River.

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Rome, Italy, Jun 5, 2017 / 01:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Adorning the crypts hidden among Rome’s catacombs are frescoes which reveal 1,600 year-old history, as well as the life of early Christians, which are regaining vividness through new technology.

The paintings had been masked by a veil of algae and calcium deposits, and blackened by the smoke of oil lamps until lasers were used to strip the paintings of centuries of grime without damaging their integrity.

“Until recently, we weren’t able to carry out this sort of restoration – if we had done it manually we would have risked destroying the frescoes,” said the head of the restoration project, Barbara Mazzei, in a comment to The Telegraph May 30.

“When we started work, you couldn’t see anything – it was totally black. Different wavelengths and chromatic selection enabled us to burn away the black disfiguration without touching the colors beneath.”

About a dozen crypts out of the 70 buried in the Catacombs of St Domitilla have been restored so far. The underground labyrinth extends 10 miles, and is decorated with both Christian and pagan images which demonstrate the process of conversion from Roman paganism to Christianity. The frescoes were painted around the year 360.

“It’s a fusion of older pagan symbols with new Christian images. The family had only recently converted to Christianity,” said Mazzei.

The superintendent of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, Fabrizio Bisconti, said wealthier Romans were among the last to convert to Christianity.

Shortly before the frescoes were painted, Christians were hunted and killed – including Saints Nerius and Achilleus, whose basilica sits above the crypts and is the entrance to the catacombs.

These two Roman soldiers of the imperial guard were martyred for confessing their faith. They were victims to the military persecutions conducted by the Emperor Diocletian at the very beginning of the fourth century – about 60 years before the frescoes were painted.

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Washington D.C., Jun 5, 2017 / 02:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Supreme Court of the United States, in an 8-0 decision on Monday, ruled that the pension plans of religious hospitals meet religious exemptions from costly regulations.

“The Supreme Court got it right,” Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel at Becket, a legal firm which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Catholic health care networks, stated June 5. “Churches – not government bureaucrats and certainly not ambulance chasers – should decide whether hospitals are part of the church.”

Justice Elena Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court in Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton, a consolidation of three cases involving religious hospitals like St. Peter’s HealthCare System in New Jersey and Advocate Health Care Network. Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a concurring opinion.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, the newest member of the Court, did not join in the ruling as he had not yet been confirmed to the Court when oral arguments in the case took place March 27.

Employees of the health care networks had sued when the institutions tried to have their pension plans, which were regulated for years like the plans of for-profit corporations, re-classified under the religious exemption allowed by federal law, the Earned Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

This “church plan” exemption meant that the plans would not have to be subject to regulations of the plans of for-profit corporations. One such requirement was that employers have a pension reserve fund of a certain amount.

Requirements like this one, however, would take away resources from religious non-profits that could be spent elsewhere, like helping further the mission of the religious institutions, Becket argued.

Furthermore, it is important to see these religious institutions, which further the mission of churches, as part of churches, Rassbach said.

“It is simple common sense that nuns, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, seminaries, nursing homes, and orphanages are a core part of the church and not an afterthought,” he said.

One of the hospitals, St. Peter’s, is sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen. Mass is offered at the hospital daily, Catholic devotionals are provided, and some board members are appointed by the local bishop.

Justice Kagan, in the Court’s opinion, explained that under ERISA, not only “church plans,” but also the pension plans of “church-affiliated nonprofits,” were considered to be religiously exempt, “even though not actually administered by a church.”

“The question presented here,” the opinion continued, “is whether a church must have originally established such a plan for it to so qualify. ERISA, we hold, does not impose that requirement.”

This meant that even though churches did not directly set up pension plans of Catholic or Christian hospitals, they could be considered “church plans” if they were maintained by a “principal-purpose organization,” or a religious non-profit.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops insisted, in a previous amicus brief submitted on behalf of the religious hospitals, that the ministries of the religious hospitals should ensure that they are considered part of churches.

“Indeed, charity has always been a core component of the Catholic Church’s activities, ‘as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel’,” the USCCB said, quoting Benedict XVI’s 2005 encyclical Deus caritas est.

This charity is lived out “through myriad Catholic ministries” like health care providers, they added, which should be treated as part of the Church.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Missionaries are entrusted with bringing hope to poor Christian communities while building bridges with Muslims and protecting human rights, Pope Francis told a group of men and women missionaries.

Meeting with members of the Consolata Missionaries at the Vatican June 5, the pope also encouraged them to push the boundaries of their missionary activity, especially in "defending the dignity of women and family values."

"You are called to further your charism, to project yourselves with renewed zeal in the work of evangelization, in view of pastoral urgencies and new forms of poverty," he said.

Founded by Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, both the men's and women's congregations aim to evangelize in remote areas of the world and form Christian communities.

Consolata missionaries want to bring the world true consolation, which is found in Jesus and his Gospel, according to the order's website. They carry out their mission by being with marginalized and abandoned people, comforting the suffering and the afflicted, caring for the sick, defending human rights and promoting justice and peace.

Pope Francis urged both congregations to carry out their work with "careful discernment" and to bring "comfort to the populations who are often marked by great poverty and acute suffering, as for example in many parts of Africa and Latin America."

"An increasing awareness" of God's mercy, he added, can help them carry out their mission. "It is much more important to be aware of how much we are loved by God, than of how we love him ourselves!" he said.

A journey of the "progressive rediscovery of divine mercy," the pope said, can help consecrated men and women imitate Christ's virtues in their missionary work.

"This will enable you to be actively present in the new arenas of evangelization, favoring -- even if this may lead to sacrifices -- openness toward situations that, with their particular needs, reveal themselves to be emblematic for our time.

Pope Francis encouraged them to continue along the path of Blessed Allamano, who served those in need with generosity and hope.

"May your missionary consecration always be a source for the life-giving and sanctifying encounter with Jesus and with his love, wellspring of consolation, peace and salvation for all humanity," he said.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Neil Hall, Reuters

By

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. Catholics joined Pope Francis and the rest of the world in expressing sorrow for those killed and severely injured in the latest terrorist attacks in London the night of June 3.

"The vigil of Pentecost had barely begun when the world was burdened yet again, this time by the sinister attacks on innocent men and women in the heart of London," Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an early June 4 statement.

"In such tragic hours, we implore the Holy Spirit to pour out his gift of comfort on those who grieve the loss of loved ones and on the dozens who were so tragically injured in this horrible attack," he said. "At the same time, we see in the courage of the first responders the true and courageous spirit of our brothers and sisters, the people of Great Britain."

After celebrating Mass on Pentecost, June 4, with an estimated 60,000 people in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis offered public prayers for the victims of the attacks in London that left seven people dead and 48 others injured.

"May the Holy Spirit grant peace to the whole world," he said. "May He heal the wounds of war and of terrorism, which even last night in London struck innocent civilians. Let us pray for the victims and their families."

In his statement, Cardinal DiNardo said U.S. Catholics joined in the pope's prayers for the victims and survivors, and he added: "May God grant strength, wisdom and protection to the men and women who safeguard our families and may he convert the hearts of all who follow the path of evil extremism. Our solidarity in Christian hope and commitment to peace is a bond that cannot be broken."

In New York, WABC-TV's "Eyewitness News" reported that a college student from Brooklyn who attends Jesuit-run Boston College was at a pub with some of his classmates in London's Borough Market when terrorists came in with long knives and started attacking people.

The attackers first mowed people down on the London Bridge in a white van, then left the van to go on a killing spree in Borough Market, according to news reports.

As others fled the pub scene or huddled in fear, Mark Kindschuh, 19, of Bay Ridge, stayed to help a man he saw fighting for his life, the TV station reported.

"All I could see was one man at the front on the ground with a pool of blood forming," Kindschuh told WABC-TV. "You couldn't really see it, because there was so much blood around his head, but I searched around with my hands, and it was on the back of his head."

Kindschuh said he took his belt and wrapped it around the victim's head to slow the bleeding, then shouted to the crowd asking if anyone was a doctor. He stayed with the victim and a short while later police entered the bar.

His father, Dr. Mark Kindschuh, who is director of Coney Island Hospital's Emergency Department, told WABC he was proud that his son stayed with the injured man and showed such selflessness amid the panic.

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