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Washington D.C., May 11, 2017 / 06:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After hundreds more migrants perished last weekend in the deadly Mediterranean passage to Europe, one Catholic expert insisted that the root causes of migration need to be addressed.

“The real tragedy is that these deaths are preventable,” said Bill O’Keefe, vice president of government relations and advocacy for Catholic Relief Services.

“We need to ensure safe passage for all refugees and migrants, but also address the reasons people are migrating in the first place,” he stressed.

The United Nations’ refugee arm reported on Tuesday that 245 were feared dead or missing from two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend, adding to an already steep death toll for migrants headed for Europe from North Africa.

One of the boats carrying migrants, a rubber dinghy, sank on Friday with 132 on board, and “some 50 people were rescued” while 82 others “are feared dead or missing,” the U.N. Human Rights Council said.

Meanwhile, another ship sank off the coast of Libya on Sunday. Seven people were reportedly rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard, while 163 others were feared dead or missing.

Overall, more than 1,300 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa in 2017, the UNHRC said, while “over 43,000 refugees and asylum seekers have used the Central Mediterranean route to reach Italy,” including over 6,000 just last weekend.

Conditions on the boats have become even more dangerous than before, as migrants face overcrowding on small crafts along with other perils.

“I am profoundly shocked by the violence used by some smugglers,” Filippo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees, stated on Sunday. He added that crowding on the ships – and the conditions of the ships themselves – are serious concerns.

“The increasing numbers of passengers on board vessels used by traffickers, with an average of 100 to 150 people, are also alarming and the main cause of shipwrecks, and risks are increased by the worsening quality of vessels and the increasing use of rubber boats instead of wooden ones,” Grandi stated.

For migrants headed to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean Sea crossing is not the only perilous aspect of journey north. Some don’t even make it to the coast but are trapped and sold as slaves in Libya and Niger, according to the International Organization for Migration and reported by Al Jazeera.

Leonard Doyle, chief IOM spokesman in Geneva, stated back in April that migrants have “become commodities to be bought, sold and discarded when they have no more value.”

The migration routes to Europe are deadly, but there’s a serious reason why people are still choosing to make this trip, O’Keefe explained.

“Poverty, conflict, unresponsive governments, and climate change are driving millions of people from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to seek safety and opportunity in Europe,” he said.

“The US must do more to negotiate solutions to conflict, fund programs to fight hunger and poverty, and help the poor adapt to climate change.”

 

 

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Washington D.C., May 11, 2017 / 03:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday pledged his prayers and support for persecuted Christians around the globe, as well as members of other religions who are persecuted for their beliefs.

“Your faith inspires me, it humbles me, and it inspires all who are looking on today.” Pence said, speaking to persecuted Christians including Fr. Douglas Bazi, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Iraq who survived a 2006 kidnapping and torture before ministering to Christian refugees fleeing ISIS in 2014.

“On behalf of the President of the United States, I say from my heart,” Pence continued, “we’re with you, we stand with you.”

The vice president on May 11 addressed the first annual World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians, hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Washington, D.C.

The summit brings together Christian leaders and groups from all over the world, including clerics of Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches, current and former members of Congress, and representatives of Open Doors USA, Samaritan’s Purse, and the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative.

It was meant to bring attention to the plight of persecuted Christians and advocate for their rights in countries where they are targeted or harassed for their beliefs. In attendance were persecuted Christians from 130 countries.

Pence honored Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, from the stage on Thursday. He also honored Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America.

“Each one of you bears witness to the power of truth to transform lives,” Pence told them.

The summit was held at a time when millions of Christians face violence, harassment, and imprisonment in over 100 countries. Pence noted recent Palm Sunday bombings of Coptic churches in Egypt and the destruction of churches in Iraq as examples.

“I believe that ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of the Christian faith, and it is time the world called it by name,” he said.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church, chair of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, also addressed the summit on Thursday.

The 21st century has brought a “new vast wave of persecution of Christians,” he said, “particularly severe in those countries where the dominant religion is Islam.”

“Yet the persecutors are not those moderate Muslims,” he added, “but extremists and terrorists hiding behind Islamic slogans and Islamic rhetoric.”

He called on “Islamic leaders throughout the world to condemn terrorism as something that contradicts the teachings of the Koran,” asking “may this clear and precise condemnation resound from the lips” of leaders of countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.

Metropolitan Hilarion also pointed to the Middle East and North Africa as areas where Christians are especially targeted, and lie “in the pathway of the political and/or economic interests of those forces who are not afraid to use terrorists in pursuit of their goals, pretending that they are fighting for freedom and democracy.”

Inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogue is key to the international community uniting to aid persecuted Christians, he insisted.

A need for action

Pence pledged his prayers and the support of the Trump administration for persecuted Christians. And this support extends to persons of all faiths who are targeted because of their beliefs, he continued.

“Rest assured, in the Middle East, North Africa, anywhere terror strikes, America stands with those who are targeted and tormented for their belief, whether they are Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Sunni, or any other creed, the president’s commitment to protecting people of faith,” he said.

“Adherents of other religions across the world have not been spared [persecution],” he added, “and we will speak and pray for them as well. For as history attests, persecution of one faith is ultimately persecution of all faiths.”

However, his pledge comes as religious freedom advocates have decried the absence of prominent administrative positions that promote religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy and advocate for persecuted religious minorities.

The Lantos Foundation recently sent a letter to President Trump asking him to “move swiftly” and nominate an Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom, as well as a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combatting anti-Semitism. These two positions have remained vacant since Trump took office.

“The perilous state of religious freedom around the globe confirms the wisdom of America’s leaders in creating a legal framework for addressing these abuses and ensuring that our foreign policy remains focused on protecting and advancing these fundamental rights,” the foundation insisted, saying the ambassador and Special Envoy positions “are absolutely critical components of the legal framework.”

President Obama did not nominate an Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom until over a year after he took office. When his first ambassador, Suzan Johnson Cook, stepped down in 2013, no other ambassador was nominated until July of 2014, with Rabbi David Saperstein who served for the rest of Obama’s term.

Russia has also drawn serious concerns for its religious freedom abuses.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom just noted, in its 2017 annual report, that “in mainland Russia in 2016, new laws effectively criminalized all private religious speech not sanctioned by the state, the Jehovah’s Witnesses stand on the verge of a nationwide ban, and innocent Muslims were tried on fabricated charges of terrorism and extremism.”

Russia’s restrictive laws were reportedly an impetus for the World Summit moving from Moscow to Washington, D.C., Deseret News reported.

Rev. Franklin Graham noted on Thursday that the summit was originally set to be in Moscow, where Christians suffered greatly under Communism. However, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reportedly moved the location from Moscow to Washington, D.C. last year.

 

 

 

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Fatima, Portugal, May 11, 2017 / 05:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While Fatima is famous for the mystifying candlelight procession and vigil that take place annually the night between May 12 and 13, there is an essential element that can easily be overlooked, but which bears special significance: silence.

“Silence is important, because only in silence can we listen to the Word of God, only in silence can we listen to the whispers of God in our hearts,” Fr. Francisco Pereira, chaplain of the Fatima Shrine, told CNA in an interview.

It’s been this way in Fatima since the very beginning, he said, noting that the bishop who arrived on site after the diocese was established in 1918 immediately wrote a letter to all parish priests in Fatima saying the shrine “is a place of silence, of prayer and of sacrifice.”

Because of this, it’s forbidden to set off fireworks, play music or sell alcohol on the property, Fr. Pereira said, stressing that that the shrine wants to preserve Fatima as much as possible as a place “of silence to pray and make sacrifices.”

Fr. Pereira, who oversees all of the shrine’s liturgies, said the presence of silence in Fatima is especially seen and felt during the annual vigil marking Mary’s first apparition at the site.

On May 13, 1917, Mary appeared to three shepherd children – Lucia dos Santos, 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, 9 and 7 – in a field in Fatima, Portugal, bringing requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a three-part secret regarding the fate of the world.

After her initial appearance May 13, she requested that the children return on the 13th of each month until October, making similar requests in each conversation with the shepherds.

In 1930, Bishop Dom Jose Aleves Correia da Silva of the Diocese of Leiria declared that based on the results of the investigative commission, the apparitions at Fatima were “worthy of belief,” the highest recognition a Marian apparition can receive from the Church.

To mark the day of the first apparition, each year on the night of May 12 the Fatima shrine holds a large-scale version of their nightly candlelight vigil and rosary, followed by Mass. This year, Pope Francis will preside over the vigil to mark the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s first appearance.

The night begins with a blessing of the candles and a procession in which the shrine’s resident statue of Our Lady of Fatima is carried up to the main altar, often with hymns being sung in the background. The rosary is then prayed and Mass offered before the statue is returned to its place in the Chapel of the Apparitions at the center of the shrine’s large square, marking the place where Mary appeared.

However, rather than being accompanied by music and hymns, this return procession is done completely in silence, Fr. Pereira said, adding that “it’s amazing that even when the shrine is full of people, all the people make absolute silence because it’s a sign that we want to listen to the presence of God.”

“We always have a night of vigil in silence,” he said, explaining that they try to maintain this silence for as long as possible.

While the rest of the vigil, which ends at 7 a.m., is filled with different prayers including Masses, the Stations of the Cross and the Liturgy of the Hours, to start this vigil in silence is key to placing oneself in the presence of God.

It’s an opportunity, the priest said, “to stop a moment in our life, in our agitated lives, to stop a moment,” and focus on what’s essential.

To be able to sit in front of Our Lady and pray in silence, even when surrounded by other people, is “very impressive,” he said, but noted that it’s not always easy to keep this silence with the buzz of people and pilgrims constantly coming through.

However, he said the shrine always tries to help pilgrims see the place as “a big church, even in the open … so that we can see this place as a place of silence, so that we can pray and meditate on this message of Our Lady.”

“Seeing the image of Our Lady in silence is impressive because after five or ten minutes in silence, we can see something that is born in our heart,” he said. “We can feel something very profound: this connection with God, with Our Lady.”

This silence is also a key time to reflect on how to live “after our conversion,” because after going on pilgrimage to any holy place, “when we return to our homes we always return changed, as changed persons in our hearts, in our souls, in our minds, in our spirits.”

“And this silence,” he said, “is an important condition so that we can change ourselves.”

Pope Francis will preside over the vigil after a meeting with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and a brief visit to the chapel at the Monte Real airbase where he lands.

He’ll open the night with a prayer before going to dinner, and then return to bless the candles used during the vigil and to lead pilgrims in the rosary.

The Pope is expected to leave around 10 p.m., but Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin will then offer Mass for the pilgrims gathered.

According to official estimates from the shrine itself, some between 500,000 and 800,000 pilgrims are expected to participate in the vigil and Mass with Pope Francis the next morning, during which he will canonize Fatima visionaries Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

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By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Faith is a journey guided by the Holy Spirit, who helps the church grow in understanding the sinful nature of once-accepted practices like slavery and the death penalty, Pope Francis said.

While people once even used religious reasons to justify practices such as slavery, the death penalty and "wars of religion," over time the Holy Spirit has deepened the church's understanding of the Gospel, the pope said May 11 in his homily during morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Slavery "is a mortal sin; today we say this. Back then, some would say that this could be done because these people did not have a soul!" he said. The number of people enslaved today is "even more, but at least we know that it is a mortal sin. The same goes for the death penalty; for a time, it was normal. Today, we say that the death penalty is inadmissible."

Reflecting on the day's first reading in which St. Paul recounts God's works throughout history, Pope Francis said the Lord "guides his people in good times and in bad times, through freedom and slavery."

Like the people of Israel, he said, God also guides the church along the path toward the fullness of time "with many saints and many sinners; between grace and sin."

It is those saints, some well-known and others who are "hidden," who "clarify faith and clarify morals," the pope said.

However, Christians who choose to stop along the path "become a prisoner in a stable, like a donkey," and end up not deepening their faith and understanding God's love in their own lives, he said.

Individually, he said, each person also is moving toward the fullness of their own time, the point when they die and come face to face with the Lord.

When Catholics go to confession, he said, they should consider not only the shame they feel for their sins, but they should recognize that confession as another step they need to make in preparation for meeting the Lord.

"Asking God's forgiveness is not automatic," he said.

By understanding their sins and asking God for forgiveness, Christians will discover that they are part of "a people on the way and that one day -- perhaps today, tomorrow or in 30 years -- I will find myself face to face with that Lord who never leaves us alone, who accompanies us on the way."

"This is the great work of God's mercy," he said.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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