Catholic News 2

Adding an unusual flavor to his pastoral ministry, a Catholic archbishop in the Philippines went undercover to personally find out how parishes under his jurisdiction deal with the poor.   Weeks before assuming his post as the new head of Lipa, Archbishop Gilbert Garcera disguised himself as a farmer and visited parish offices. The archbishop went to great lengths to make sure he wasn't recognized, even wearing dirty and ragged clothes.  "I wanted to know how [parish] secretaries are dealing with the poor," said the prelate. "I went into their offices and I know what is happening there," he said. 

The 58-year old archbishop said he was satisfied by what he saw, but added that some offices continue to face challenges in serving people.  To address issues in his archdiocese, Archbishop Garcera is conducting a survey "to better understand and meet the spiritual needs" of people, especially the youth.  He said the study will involve the clergy and lay people from the archdiocese's 64 parishes and 40 church-run schools.  "I want to reflect on one question: What are you doing to shape the minds and consciences of our young people today," said the prelate.  He said the result of the survey "will help us shape how we could continue to find ways to meet the needs of our people."  The 58-year-old archbishop said he wants to make sure that everyone in his archdiocese finds a home and place in the Catholic Church.   

Garcera was bishop of Daet from 2007 until Feb. 2, 2017, when Pope Francis transferred him to Lipa in Batangas.  He was installed archbishop of Lipa on April 21, taking over from Archbishop Ramon Arguelles who stepped down.  At his formal installation at the San Sebastian Cathedral in Batangas, Archbishop Garcera plans to visit the different parishes, besides visiting Catholic schools and parish organizations as well as examining existing programmes and improving services to the faithful.  “To be an archbishop, to be a bishop, to be a priest is not about position… it’s about pastoral charity. According to Pope Francis it’s about service,” Archbishop Garcera said.   He urged for prayers as he took up the reins of one of the largest archdioceses of the Philippines.  (Source: UCAN)

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As Nepal painfully plods its way to becoming a prosperous secular democracy, the tiny Catholic Church in the impoverished Himalayan state pledges its contribution to social services and education in order to build peace, stability, freedom and human rights.  Fr. G. William Robins, a Japanese-Canadian Jesuit who has spent about 45 years in south Asia, made the remark to the Vatican’s Fides news agency after the largely Hindu nation voted on 14 May for representatives in municipal and village councils. This first local election in two decades is a key step to building democracy ten years after the end of the civil war and two years after the approval of the Constitution in 2015. 

The local vote was divided into two phases due to disorders in the southern plains bordering India, where the major ethnic minority group (which accounts for more than half of the 28.6 million inhabitants) refuses to participate in the elections until an amendment to the constitution is approved, guaranteeing greater representativeness and redesigns the borders of the province where they live.  According to the Constitution, after the local and provincial votes, the national elections will follow. The democratic process should come to an end by 2018.

Secularism vs religion

Fr Robins who worked with Jesuits in Eastern Bhutan for 5 years and then in Nepal, mainly teaching maths and science at a high school, was analyzing the current situation in the nation. "In society there are prejudices related to castes and religions. One of the central themes today is secularism, a secular conception of the state that some interpret as secularism, believing that the secular state is an anti-religious state and therefore oppose a secular Constitution,” he told Fides.  “Religion is important for most Nepalese. But this objection is based on a misinterpretation of the expression 'lay state': this means that the state is not confessional. There is still a minority that promotes a Hindu state and ideally a Hindu kingdom", an ideal which the Jesuit priest said is backed by Hindu movements in India.

Church’s education service seen as ‘conversion’

In this context, Christians have encountered difficulties, but they have been able to work "in the long run" by setting up institutions such as schools that are precious for the nation's future, Fr. Robins noted.  "The Catholic Church in Nepal is known for its good educational service, but often ours is perceived as a 'foreign' service. Some groups complain of conversions to Christianity,” he said. “Other Christian confessions tell us that we are not brave enough to go out and preach. But we have hope that the Church will continue to grow,” Fr. Robins said.

According to the 2014 statistics, Catholics in the Apostolic Vicariate of Nepal number some 7,000, and are served by 18 diocesan priests and 60 religious in 11 parishes.   (Source: Fides)

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CUAMM ‘-Doctors with Africa,’ an Italian non-governmental organisation has expressed satisfaction with the election of Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as new World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General.

"On the eve of Africa Day, (25 May)” declared Fr. Dante Carraro the Director of CUAMM, "this appointment strongly highlights the centrality of Africa when it comes to the health of the world," he said.

On Tuesday this week, member states of WHO elected Ethiopian national Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as its new Director-General.

According to WHO, before his election, Dr Ghebreyesus served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and later as Minister of Health. He was also chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board.

During his tenure as health minister, Dr Ghebreyesus is credited with leading a comprehensive and successful reform of Ethiopia’s health system, including the expansion of the country’s health infrastructure. He is said to have spearheaded the creation of 3500 health centres, 16 000 health posts and expanded the health workforce by 38 000 health extension workers. He also initiated financing mechanisms to expand health insurance coverage.

In a statement to Vatican Radio, CUAMM said having worked closely with Dr Ghebreyesus in Ethiopia; the organisation is confident that he is the right person for the job.

“To Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, we offer hearty congratulations and wish him well in his new position –this from all of us at CUAMM both those in Africa and in those in Italy.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus takes over from Dr Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, a Chinese-Canadian physician.

“Doctors with Africa,” CUAMM  is based in Italy. The NGO is composed of volunteer medical personnel and collaborators. It is a medical mission started by the Italian Catholic Diocese of Padua, 65 years ago. The NGO is considered a leading medical organisation that focusses mainly on working with sub-Saharan Africa and is to be found in 7 African countries, namely, Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The late Fr Luigi Mazzucato is credited as the man behind CUAMM's success and longevity.

CUAMM says its mission is to improve the wellbeing and health of vulnerable communities in Africa.

(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)

Source: CUAMM, WHO

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Representatives from Myanmar's ethic rebel groups and the government gathered in the capital on 24 May for peace talks aimed at ending decades of ethnic rebellions in the country.  Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, faces high expectations from ethnic groups and the international community to end conflicts between ethnic armed groups and the army that have lasted for nearly seven decades. Delegates filled a conference hall in Naypyitaw for the start of the five-day talks, which come nine months after a first round of talks was held.

Suu Kyi said that her government would not pressure the ethnic groups into a peace deal, and would allow for open negotiations.  ``We will not resort to exerting pressure through populist politics to achieve our goals, but we will instead strive to reach an agreement acceptable to all with open, frank and inclusive dialogue,'' she said during her opening speech.

Despite overtures made by Suu Kyi, ongoing clashes between the army and the ethnic armed groups continue in some parts of Myanmar. In Kachin State, in the country's north, more than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes over the past six years due to ongoing fighting between the groups and government troops.

Suu Kyi's government has invited ethnic armed groups that have not signed a nationwide cease-fire agreement as ``special guests'' at the peace conference, but did not guarantee that they would have equal rights to participate in the dialogue. The United Nationalities Federal Councils, which represents non-signatories, refused to attend the conference.

In October 2015, eight ethnic armed groups signed the cease-fire agreement. But more than a dozen others, including some of Myanmar's largest armed groups, did not endorse the pact, which they viewed as lacking inclusiveness.  (Source: AP)

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has told pilgrims that God walks with us always, “even in the most painful moments” of our lives as he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. 

Pope Francis continued his series of reflections on Christian hope at his Wednesday General Audience shortly after his meeting with US president Donald Trump. The Pope spoke about the disciples’ meeting with Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, in Luke’s Gospel, as “a journey of hope”. 

He told pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square that Christians today are a bit like those two disciples: so often we find ourselves “a step away from happiness” but then experience sadness and disappointment.

The Pope said Jesus’ accompaniment of the two disciples shows a “therapy of hope” which “gradually opens us to trust in God’s promises”. Hope, the Pope said, is “never a small price” to pay and always involves defeats and sufferings. However, walking with the disciples in a discreet way, he said, Jesus is able to rekindle their hope.

Pope Francis explained that it was only when the disciples witnessed Jesus breaking the bread that he is revealed to them as the Risen Lord, who is present in their midst. This, the Pope said, “shows us the importance of the Eucharist in which, like the bread, Jesus ‘breaks our lives’ and offers them to others”.

Noting how the disciples return to Jerusalem after their encounter with the Risen Lord to proclaim the good news, the Pope said that “we too are sent forth to encounter others, to hear their joys and sorrows, and to offer them words of life and hope, based on God’s unfailing love.”

“All of us,” the pope said, have had difficult and dark times, when there is “just a wall in front” of us. But “Jesus is always beside us to give us hope, warm our hearts and say, "Go forward, I'm with you. Go forward.”

Listen to Richard Marsden’s report here:

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St. Louis, Mo., May 24, 2017 / 06:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A St. Louis city ordinance that could force Catholic schools and pro-life pregnancy centers to hire employees who support abortion has drawn legal opposition from the Archbishop of St. Louis and several pro-life organizations.

“As Catholics, we know that all life is a gift from God and our parents, and must be protected at any cost,” St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said May 22. “Sadly, legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed by the Supreme Court in 1973.”

“Now, some of our St. Louis politicians have made a protected 'class' out of 'reproductive health,' which is merely a politically correct euphemism for abortion,” the archbishop said at a press conference on the steps of the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

He said the archdiocese will not comply with the “vile bill.”

Archbishop Carlson was joined by Peggy Forrest of Our Lady’s Inn, which promotes abortion alternatives for pregnant women, archdiocesan newspaper the St. Louis Review reports. Also present was Sarah Pitlyk, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, which has filed the lawsuit seeking judicial review.

The Archdiocesan Elementary Schools of St. Louis, Our Lady’s Inn, and the private company O’Brien Industrial Holdings, LLC are parties to the lawsuit concerning St. Louis Ordinance 70459, also called Board Bill 203 Committee Substitute. The ordinance, enacted in February, creates a protected status for anyone who has “made a decision related to abortion,” even in cases where the abortion was not their own. The protections apply to corporations and all businesses, not only individuals.

Opponents said the bill would bar any individual or entity, including Christian organizations, from refusing to sell or rent property to individuals or businesses that promote or provide abortions. It could require Catholic schools to hire abortion supporters or potentially be sued.

The lawsuit notes the archdiocesan schools require teachers and employees to sign a statement saying they will not publicly support abortion and will otherwise live in harmony with Catholic teachings in their professional and personal lives. Organizations that require such a statement face criminal fines under the city bill, while individuals who enforce it face a fine and even jail time.

“The passage of this bill is not a milestone of our city’s success. It is, rather, a marker of our city’s embrace of the culture of death,” said Archbishop Carlson.

Pitlyk of the Thomas More Society further criticized the ordinance.

“The City of St. Louis, by pushing an abortion agenda, is clearly out of step with the rest of the state,” she charged. “The city has taken the protections typically granted to prevent discrimination for ‘race, age, religion, sex or disability’ and applied them to those who have made or expect to make ‘reproductive health decisions’,” she said.

Forrest said that the ordinance would bar Our Lady’s Inn from hiring only individuals who support its mission to provide abortion alternatives.

She said that since the ordinance was passed, her organization has received several suspicious calls that seemed like possible legal traps. She said there is a great possibility “that women either pretending to need services or knowing full well they don't want the services that we provide will engage us just to see if they can catch us in violating the ordinance.”

“It’s insincere and takes up time for women who really are interested in our services,” Forrest added. “We support women who have already made a choice for life. And if that's not the choice they’ve made then our services don’t match them.”  

The ordinance would also require businesses to include abortion coverage in employee health care plans, even if owners object. The Thomas More Society said this requirement is unlawful under the 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Hobby Lobby’s challenge to a federal rule mandating coverage of contraceptive drugs, including drugs that can cause abortion.

The Catholic-owned O’Brien Industrial Holdings, LLC, was also part of the Hobby Lobby case.

The St. Louis legal complaint said the ordinance violates other constitutional protections involving free speech, free association, the religion clauses of the First Amendment, due process rights, and equal protection, as well as several state laws.

Pitlyk also faulted the ordinance’s “extremely limited” religious exemptions for housing and employment, and its lack of exemptions for individuals who have “sincere religious, moral or ethical objections to abortion.”

“That is unconstitutional, and directly violates both federal and state law,” she said.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson defended the law in a statement, saying, “We don’t believe the ordinance infringes on the rights of the Archdiocese,” according to the Associated Press.

While backers of the ordinance said it aimed to address discrimination against individuals who have had, or were planning to have abortions, they could not find examples of such.

Pitlyk said the ordinance was “a remedy in search of a problem.”

 

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Vatican City, May 24, 2017 / 08:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said that no matter what trials we might face, we have hope because Jesus is always by our side, just like he was for the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

“All of us, in our lives, have had difficult, dark times; moments in which we have walked sad, thoughtful, without horizons and (with) only a wall in front,” Pope Francis said May 24.

However, even in these moments “Jesus is always beside us to give us hope, warm the heart and say, ‘Go ahead, I'm with you. Go ahead,’” the Pope said, adding that “the secret of the road leading to Emmaus is all here: even through unfavorable appearances, we continue to be loved.”

The Pope met with thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience, immediately following his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Francis said that no matter what, God always wants the best for us and “will walk with us.”

“Even in the most painful moments, even in the worst moments, even in moments of defeat: the Lord is there. And this is our hope. Let's go ahead with that hope! Because he is next to us and walks with us always!”

The Pope reflected on hope as it is found in the story of Christ’s appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when they feel sad, discouraged and defeated because Jesus has been killed, but they do not yet know about his Resurrection.

All of their hopes from before the crucifixion have been shattered, but this is because they “cultivated only human hope,” Francis said.

It is on this scene that Jesus appears. “This scenario – the road – had already been important in the accounts of the Gospels,” he explained, but “now it will become even more, as they begin to recount the story of the Church.”

This encounter of Jesus with the disciples seems “fortuitous,” he said, in the way it resembles the many times we are carrying our own crosses or burdens of sorrow and disappointment. But Jesus joins them, even though they do not recognize him, and he begins what Pope Francis called a “therapy of hope.”

The first step in this therapy, he said, is to “ask and listen: our God is not an intrusive God. Even though he already knows the reason for the disappointment of those two, he leaves them time to be able to gauge the depth of the bitterness that he has undergone.”

Then, listening to their words, we hear “a chorus of human existence: ‘We hoped, but…We hoped, but….’”

“How much sadness, how many defeats, how many failures there are in each person's life!” the Pope said, noting that “we are all a bit like those two disciples.”

“How many times in life we hoped, how many times we felt a step away from happiness, and then we found ourselves disappointed,” he reflected.

“But Jesus walks with all discouraged people who go forward with head down. And walking with them, in a subtle way, he succeeds in returning hope.”

When he does speak to them, Jesus does it first through the Scriptures. In the Bible, you will not find stories of “easy heroism, thunderous campaigns of conquest,” the Pope said. “True hope is never cheap: it always goes through defeats.”

In fact, Francis said, Jesus models this for us by not being the kind of leader that drags his people to victory by violently destroying his opponents. Instead, he takes a position of disdain himself.

Later that same night, when the disciples have invited him to eat dinner with them, they recognize him when he breaks the bread, repeating the gesture of the first Eucharist.

“In this series of gestures, is there not the whole story of Jesus? And is there not, in every Eucharist, the sign of what the Church must be? Jesus takes us, blesses us, ‘breaks’ our lives – because there is no love without sacrifice – and offers it to others, offers it to everyone.”

Jesus’ encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus is quick, he said, but in it we find “the fate of the Church.”

“He tells us that the Christian community is not locked up in a fortified citadel, but walks in its most vital environment; namely, the road. And there it meets people, with their hopes and their disappointments, sometimes heavy.”

“The Church listens to the stories of everyone, as they emerge from the depths of personal conscience, in order then to offer the Word of Life, the testimony of love, faithful love to the end,” he concluded. “And then, the hearts of people return to burning hope.”

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IMAGE: CNS/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- If it seems hard to find God in this world, it is because he chooses to be with the defeated and dejected and in places where most people are loath to go, Pope Francis said.

"God does not like to be loved the way a warlord would like, dragging his people to victory, debasing them in the blood of his enemies," the pope said May 24 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

The audience began just after Pope Francis had met U.S. President Donald Trump.

"Our God is a dim flame that burns on a cold and windy day, and, for as fragile as his presence seems in this world, he has chosen the place everyone disdains," Pope Francis told the crowd in the square.

Continuing his series of talks on Christian hope, the pope looked at the Gospel of Luke's account of the two disciples traveling on the road to Emmaus after Jesus had been crucified and buried.

In the story, the pope said, the disciples, are struggling to understand how such a fate could have befallen the man they had faith in: the son of God.

Their hope was merely human, he said, and it easily shattered after such an unforeseen defeat of God, who appeared "defenseless at the hands of the violent, incapable of offering resistance to evil."

"How much unhappiness, how many defeats, how many failures there are in the life of every person. In essence, we are all like those two disciples," he said. Just when life seems to be going well, "we find ourselves struck down, disappointed."

But just as Jesus was on the road with the disciples, the pope said, he is also walking with everyone on their journey through life.

"Jesus walks with all those who are discouraged, who walk with their head down," so he can offer them renewed hope, he said.

But he does so discreetly, the pope said. "Our God is not an intrusive God."

Even though he knows what is bothering the disciples, he asks them a question and listens patiently, letting them tap into the depths of their bitterness and sadness.

Whoever reads the Bible will not find stories of "easy heroism, blazing campaigns of conquest. True hope never comes cheap -- it always comes through defeat."

In fact, he added, the hope felt by those who have never suffered may not even be hope at all.

The disciples initially didn't recognize God on the road because their hope had been in a victorious, conquering leader, the pope said. They only recognize him when he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them -- exactly like he did with his own life.

The church should be this way, too, Pope Francis said, by letting Jesus "take us, bless us, 'break' our lives -- because there is no love without sacrifice -- and offer it to others, offer it to everyone."

The church needs to be just like Jesus, not staying in a "fortified fortress," but out where everything is alive and happening -- on the road.

"It is there (the church) meets people, with their hopes and disappointments," listens patiently to what emerges from their "treasure chest of personal conscience" and offers the life-giving Word and witness to God's love, he said.

This is how people's hearts are rekindled with real hope, the pope said.

Just when the way seems blocked by "a wall ahead, Jesus is always next to us to give us hope and strengthen our hearts to go ahead, 'I am with you. Go on.'"

Christ's "therapy of hope" is that despite all appearances to the contrary, "we continue to be loved and God will never stop loving us," the pope said. "He will walk with us always, always, even during the most painful times, even in the most terrible moments, moments of defeat. That is where the Lord is."

At the end of the audience, the pope greeted pilgrims from Hong Kong on a day dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan in Shanghai.

Pope Benedict XVI established a world day of prayer for the church in China on the feast day.

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