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Well ahead of Zimbabwe’s 2018 general elections, the country’s Catholic Bishops have issued a Pentecost Sunday pastoral letter titled, “Elections, Peace and Development.” 

“Reject all forms of violence and coercion: Violence and coercion only serve to discredit our elections. Any use of force takes away the credibility and integrity of the elections. People must be able to make free choices according to their own judgement,” the letter reads in part.

The Bishops specifically appeal to the government of President Robert Mugabe to ensure that citizens enjoy their political rights and freedom of expression.

Throughout the letter, the Bishops constantly urge political parties, the government and individuals to strictly adhere to and respect the Constitution of Zimbabwe which was overwhelming approved by a referendum vote of May 2013.

On Friday this week, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was reported by local media to have embarked on nationwide public rallies aimed at rousing support for the ruling ZANU-PF in the 2018 elections. The ZANU-PF party wants incumbent President, Mugabe 93, as its sole presidential candidate. 

The Bishops’ pastoral letter is an attempt to prepare and steer the nation away from a repeat of the 2008 political and electoral crisis. Zimbabwe's 2008 pre and post-election landscape was very volatile and characterised by widescale violence most of which was blamed on state institutions and agents. 

As a way out of the 2008 crisis, the ZANU-PF and the two MDC political parties settled for a power-sharing Government of National Union (GNU) brokered by the then South African President, Thabo Mbeki in 2009.

With this pastoral letter, the Catholic Bishops want Zimbabweans to respect the Constitution and behave peacefully before, during and after the 2018 general elections. 

“As we prepare for 2018, let us respect each other and even mirror in our words and actions the love of God, Father of us all.” The Bishops add, “We now have our own Constitution, a great achievement, and it says in one place, ‘The State and every person, including the juristic persons, and every institution and agency of government at every level, must promote national unity, peace and stability,’” the Bishops say.

All the Bishops signed the pastoral letter which was released Sunday by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC). 

(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Radio Vatican)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Vatican City, Jun 4, 2017 / 11:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Pope Francis said that the grace of the Holy Spirit is for everyone – something we must keep in mind as we continue to walk the path toward Christian unity through prayer and good works.

“Share with everyone in the Church Baptism in the Holy Spirit, praise the Lord without ceasing, walk together with Christians of different Churches and Christian communities in prayer and action for the most needy,” Pope Francis said June 3.

The grace of the Holy Spirit “is for the whole Church, not just for some, and none of us is the ‘master’ and all the others the servants. No. We are all serving this current of grace.”

Pope Francis addressed around 50,000 members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement during an ecumenical prayer vigil inside Rome’s Circus Maximus on June 3. The vigil was part of five days of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the movement.

The May 31-June 4 jubilee was organized by the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services and the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships.

Saturday night’s meeting with Pope Francis, on the eve of Pentecost, was preceded by praise and worship music, readings and testimonies. Papal preacher Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. also gave a meditation. On stage were leaders of the Charismatic Renewal and representatives of Evangelical, Pentecostal and other Christian churches.

During the encounter, the Pope reminded those present that they are in a privileged place for working toward Christian unity, something for which they should never stop striving.

The most precious gift we have all received, he explained, is our Baptism. “And now the Spirit leads us on the path of conversion that goes through the whole Christian world…”

Additionally, praising God should be accompanied by serving those in need.

“To serve the poorest and the sick, this is what the Church and the Pope are expecting from you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, but from all of you, everyone, all of you who have entered this current of grace!”

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the movement is the perfect time, he said, to stop and reflect.

“And I would say to you: It is time to move forward with more force, leaving behind us the dust of time we have left to accumulate, giving thanks for what we have received and facing the new with faith in the action of the Holy Spirit!”

Today, he said, we are gathered in an open-air space, because we are not afraid and because our hearts are open to the promises of the Father. Together, we all profess that “Jesus is Lord.”

People may have come from many different parts of the world, but in the Holy Spirit, we are united, “to announce together the love of the Father for all his children! To announce the Good News to all peoples! To show that peace is possible.”

Showing to the world that peace is possible isn’t always so easy, the Pope continued, “but in the name of Jesus we can prove with our testimony that peace is possible!”

“Jubilee, cheerfulness, joy, fruit of the same action of the Holy Spirit! The Christian either experiences joy in his heart or there is something that does not work. The joy of announcing the Good News of the Gospel!”

Francis also commented on the unity found in the “ecumenism of blood,” a phrase he has used before, in speaking about the number of Christian martyrs there are today. When Christians are killed for their faith, he said, they aren’t asked, “Are you Orthodox? Are you a Catholic? Are you evangelical? Are you Lutheran? Are you a Calvinist?”

“Today, it is more urgent than ever before, the unity of Christians, united by the Holy Spirit, in prayer and action for the weak. Walk together, work together. Love each other,” he said.

“And now we are here and we are many!” he continued. “We have come together to pray together to ask for the coming of the Holy Ghost over each of us to go out into the streets of the city and the world to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”

 

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London, England, Jun 4, 2017 / 12:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic Cardinals and bishops throughout the world are offering their prayers after the terrorist attack in London last night that left seven dead and dozens more injured.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said on Twitter last night that the victims of the attack were in his prayers.

All involved in disturbing and violent incidents in #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket and #Vauxhall are in my prayers this night.

— Cardinal Nichols (@CardinalNichols) June 3, 2017 Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM, Archbishop of Durban, South Africa, responded to Cardinal Nichols' tweet with his prayers and condolences.

Cardinal Vincent, please accept my sincere sympathies for all affected by recent acts of terror in London & Manchester!

— Cardinal Napier (@CardinalNapier) June 4, 2017 Seven people were killed and 48 others injured last night when three men drove a van into a crowd of people on London Bridge around 10 p.m. local time last night. The men then went on a stabbing spree in nearby Borough Market where people were enjoying a Saturday night out at restaurants and pubs.

The three men reportedly shouted “this is for Allah” during the attack. The three attackers were shot dead by police within eight minutes of the first emergency call.

According to police, 12 more people have been arrested in connection to the attacks.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also offered their prayers and condolences to the victims and their families in a statement released Sunday.

“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 the 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."

"At the same time," he added, "we see in the courage of the first responders the true and courageous spirit of our brothers and sisters, the people of Great Britain. 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."

"Together with my brother bishops and with Catholics throughout the United States, we join the prayerful intercession made already by Pope Francis: ‘May the Holy Spirit grant peace to the whole world. May He heal the wounds of war and of terrorism, which even this (Saturday) night, in London, struck innocent civilians: let us pray for the victims and their families.’"

Many dioceses and churches also offered their prayers and condolences over social media.

In your hands, Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. #LondonBridge #Pray4London #pray4peace pic.twitter.com/ACueFEx20J

— DC Archdiocese (@WashArchdiocese) June 4, 2017
 

 

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Holy Spirit continues to give Christians different gifts and to call them to share those gifts with each other in a community marked by forgiveness and "unity in diversity," Pope Francis said on Pentecost.

"In a way both creative and unexpected," the pope said, the Holy Spirit "generates diversity, for in every age he causes new and varied charisms to blossom. Then he brings about unity: he joins together, gathers and restores harmony."

With tens of thousands of Catholic charismatics from around the world and with dozens of Pentecostal and evangelical leaders present, Pope Francis celebrated Pentecost Mass June 4 in St. Peter's Square and concluded a five-day celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Catholic charismatic renewal.

In his homily at the Mass, the pope said Christians can block the unity in diversity desired by the Holy Spirit by focusing on their differences rather than on what they share.

"This happens when we want to separate, when we take sides and form parties, when we adopt rigid and airtight positions, when we become locked into our own ideas and ways of doing things, perhaps even thinking that we are better than others," he said.

"When this happens," the pope said, "we choose the part over the whole, belonging to this or that group before belonging to the church" and taking pride in being "Christians of the 'right' or the 'left' before being on the side of Jesus."

The other temptation, he said, is to seek unity without tolerating diversity. "Here, unity becomes uniformity, where everyone has to do everything together and in the same way, always thinking alike."

When the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost, he said, the first gift the Spirit brought was forgiveness for their sins and the grace to forgive others.

"Here we see the beginning of the church, the glue that holds us together, the cement that binds the bricks of the house: forgiveness," he said.

Forgiveness "preserves unity despite everything, prevents collapse and consolidates and strengthens," he said. "Forgiveness sets our hearts free and enables us to start afresh."

Pope Francis began his Pentecost celebrations at an ecumenical vigil June 3 with some 50,000 Catholic charismatics and Pentecostals from more than 125 countries gathered for praise and worship at the site of the ancient Roman Circus Maximus.

Although less exuberantly, the pope, too, sang with his hands cupped open or with his hands raised. He stood between Michelle Moran, president of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, and Patti Mansfield, who was present when the Catholic charismatic renewal was born. In February 1967 Mansfield was one of the Duquesne University students, who experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit during a retreat.

The charismatic renewal is "a current of grace," Pope Francis told the crowd at the Circus Maximus. "It is a work that was born -- Catholic? No. It was born ecumenical," with similar results in many denominations and with Pentecostals providing support and education to new Catholic charismatics.

"It was born ecumenical because it is the Holy Spirit who creates unity," the pope said. The Holy Spirit drew Catholics and Pentecostals together to profess that Jesus is Lord and "to proclaim together the Father's love for all his children."

In ancient Rome, Pope Francis said, Christians were martyred in the Circus Maximus "for the entertainment of those watching." He urged the crowd to remember how many Christians are being killed for their faith today and to recognize that their murderers are not asking them their denomination, just whether or not they are Christian.

If those who want to kill Christians believe they are one, he said, it is urgent that Christians be "united by the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer and in action on behalf of those who are weaker."

"Walk together. Work together. Love each other," Pope Francis told them.

Being baptized in the Spirit and knowing how to praise God, he said, "are not enough" if Christians don't also help those in need.

An Italian Pentecostal pastor, Giovanni Traettino, a friend of Pope Francis' since they met at an ecumenical charismatic gathering in Buenos Aires in 2006, told the crowd that as Christians grow in their love for God, they should simultaneously grow in love for one another.

"The movement of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Pentecostal movement, has in its DNA -- its life in the Holy Spirit -- the vocation to build Christian unity," he said.

Pentecostals and Catholic charismatics have not always gotten along, Traettino said. But "the election of Pope Francis clearly opened a new season, especially in relations with us."

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, offered a reflection also focusing on the ecumenical vocation of the charismatic renewal.

How many of the divisions among Christians "have been due to the desire to make a name for ourselves or for our own church more than for God," he asked. "A renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit will not be possible without a collective movement of repentance on the part of all Christians."

Tens of thousands of people gathered for hours of song and prayer before the pope arrived. As Rome's summer sun beat down on the pilgrims, Elaine Pollard and Sandra Mobley from Holy Cross parish in Brooklyn, New York, found space in the shade under one of the few trees on the edge of the crowd. They had traveled to Rome with group of 88 people.

Both women are lifelong Catholics who discovered the charismatic renewal in 1989. Pollard said she has stayed with it "because my whole life changed. The first night I went I wasn't impressed." That was a Saturday and when she went to work on Monday, "I started to hum one of the songs and my heart just broke open, like living water" flowing forth. "It changed my whole life."

As she spoke to Catholic News Service, the choir on stage started singing, "10,000 Reasons," a song of praise. Pollard started to cry.

"We were singing this song when my husband died" 15 months ago, she said. He was in the hospital, dying, and her adopted daughter started singing it. Other relatives, who couldn't be there in person, were connected by Skype and they were singing it, too, as he passed away.

It is still difficult, she said, but "he wanted me to come and be here."

Kaye and George Balsam and Terry Mroz from St. Gabriel the Archangel parish in McKinney, Texas, were at the Circus Maximus as part of a 130-person pilgrimage that visited the Holy Land before arriving in Rome for the Pentecost celebrations.

The trip was George's first with charismatics and he was enthused. "This is what we need to reinvent the church," he said. Getting people excited about the faith is what is needed if "we want the church to get straightened out and stop losing people," he said.

Mroz said, "We receive baptism as babies and then we're confirmed," but so many people experience the sacraments only as "ritual" and are unaware of the power the sacraments hold. The charismatic renewal "reawakens those gifts you received at baptism and confirmation. Until you get the Holy Spirit, you don't get this reawakening. That's what it is -- a reawakening of the gifts given you before."

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Contributing to this story was Carol Glatz.

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