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(Vatican Radio) A key U.S. official is meeting with Hungary's government after some 70,000 people rallied in Budapest against new legislation that they fear will force the closure of the famed Central European University (CEU) founded by American billionaire George Soros. The university is among several institutions and groups targeted by hardline Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor  Orbán who views them as a threat to his declared "illiberal" policies.  

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Tens of thousands of protesters, many of them students and professors, marched to the Hungarian Parliament into the early hours of the morning.

They asked Hungarian President János Áder not to sign a new education law which was rushed through parliament on Tuesday. The legislation will require the Budapest-based CEU to change its name and open a campus in the United States. 

It also calls for binding agreements about the University between Hungary and the United States.

Hungary's effort to close the CEU is seen by critics as another step in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's plan to transform the country into an "illiberal state" and he has mentioned Russia and Turkey as models.    

NARROWER VIEW

It is a narrower view of democracy which contrasts with the "open society" ideals promoted by Hungarian-American billionaire and philanthropist George Soros who founded the Central European University in 1991 to aid the country's transition from Communism to democracy.

The Central European University has more than 1400 students from 108 countries and views itself as a champion of free speech. 
Protest organizer Kornel Klopfstein isn't surprised that the CEU is targeted by the government. "The current Hungarian government wants to silence pretty much everyone who thinks otherwise, who doesn't think the same as them, who thinks freely," he said.    

Ironically the prime minister won a scholarship as a young man sponsored by Soros to study at Oxford university. And they were allies in the days immediately following the fall of communism.

But that has changed with  Orbán   accusing Soros and other groups of intervening in Hungary's domestic affairs. 

Relations between Soros and  Orbán - a keen supporter of the US president - also became strained when  Orbán accused him of wanting a role in Hungarian politics and supporting the influx of migrants into Europe.

"UNDER SIEGE"

Orbán recently claimed Hungary was "under siege" from asylum seekers. 

On Monday the United Nations refugee agency urged European Union countries to suspend returning asylum seekers to Hungary citing is mandatory detentions, including in container camps. 

Though  Orbán is a supporter of the US president Donald Trump, Washington has expressed concerns about the developments in Hungary.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Hoyt Yee was meeting with government officials, in part to discuss the CEU. Yee was also expected to talk with University officials.           

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Vatican City, Apr 11, 2017 / 10:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The caresses born of love are the most important medicine, Pope Francis told a group of patients, families, and doctors from Rome's Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital on Monday.

“There is the danger, the risk of forgetting the most important medicine that only a family can give: caresses! It is a form of medicine that is too costly, because to have it, to be able to do this, you must give everything, you must give all your heart, all your love,” Pope Francis said April 10. “And you give them this affection, the caresses of the doctors, the nurses, the director, everyone.”

The patients, ages 5-18, met with Pope Francis at the Vatican, where he told them that “Each of you is a story. Not only the sick children, but also the doctors, the nurses, those who visit, the families.”

He recalled his Dec. 15, 2016 meeting with the group, saying that on that occasion the physicians “introduced the people to me. They all knew everyone’s names: 'This one is fighting this disease…'.”

“They also knew what was happening in their lives. And I perceived … that more than a hospital this is a family, that is one of the words you said. The most important thing was the name, the person, and only at the end was the disease mentioned, but almost incidentally, a secondary matter. It is a family, isn’t it?”

The Pope also recalled that “you were a bit ashamed of getting up and not looking good in front of the camera, and the director, who is a bit like a mother, came up to you and said, 'Come', and she encouraged you. This is the beauty of a family, this is beautiful.”

“Entering in a hospital always makes us afraid, and I see this when I come up to some children, not all, but some very little ones, and they see me in white, and they begin to cry; they think it is a doctor who has come to give them a vaccine, and they cry and are afraid. I stroke them a few times and they calm down. Because there is always the function of the hospital … one must do this …”

He said Bambino Jesu “has grown a lot lately, and has become a family. … The child, the patient finds a family there. Family and community, two words that you have said and repeated, and I wish to thank you for this, because Bambin Gesù offers witness, human witness. Human.”

“It is a Catholic hospital, and to be Catholic, first you must be human, and you give human witness today. Please, continue always on this path, grow in this way.”

Bambino Gesu (which translates to the child Jesus) is the largest pediatric hospital and research center in Europe. Owned by the Holy See and known as the Pope’s hospital, Bambino Gesu also serves children from all over the world.

The Holy Father is a popular figure at the hospital, where children write him letters and know many details of his life, including words from his homilies and facts about his home country and favorite soccer team.

Pope Francis has visited the facility several times, as did Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II, and Benedict XVI.

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Vatican City, Apr 11, 2017 / 10:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis will hold an ordinary public consistory on April 20, where the cardinals of the Church are expected to pave the way for the canonization of the Fatima visionaries.

There are five causes of canonization waiting for approval by the cardinals. Most prominent is the cause of Francesco and Jacinto Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the 1917 Marian apparitions at Fatima.

The cardinals’ approval at the consistory is the final step in the process leading up to canonization. Pope Francis has already given approval for the causes to move forward. Following the consistory, canonization dates will be set.

It has been widely speculated that Pope Francis will canonize the Fatima visionaries during his trip to Fatima for the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions there. That trip will take place May 12-13.

Francisco, 11, and Jacinta, 10, were the youngest non-martyrs to be beatified in the history of the Church.

The brother and sister, who tended to their family's sheep with their cousin Lucia Santo in the fields of Fatima, Portugal, witnessed the apparitions of Mary, now commonly known as Our Lady of Fatima.

During the first apparition, which took place May 13, 1917, Our Lady asked the three children to say the Rosary and to make sacrifices, offering them for the conversion of sinners. The children did, praying often, giving their lunch to beggars and going without food themselves. They offered up their daily crosses and even refrained from drinking water on hot days.

In October 1918, Francisco and Jacinta became seriously ill with the Spanish flu. Our Lady appeared to them and said she would to take them to heaven soon.

Francisco died April 4, 1919. Jacinta died the following year, Feb. 20, 1920.

Pope John Paul II beatified Francisco and Jacinta May 13, 2000, on the 83rd anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima.

The canonization cause for Sister Lucia Santo – the third Fatima visionary – is currently underway. Sr. Lucia lived to the age of 97, much longer than the other two visionaries, and the Vatican is currently examining information about her life that has been collected over the past eight years since her cause was officially opened.

In addition to the Fatima children, other causes of canonization set for approval at next week’s consistory are Cristóbal, Antonio, and Juan, young martyrs of Mexico in 1529; Fr. Faustino Míguez, the Spanish priest who founded the Calasanzian Institute of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess; Fr. Angelo da Acri, an Italian Capuchin priest who died in October 1739; and Fr. Andrea de Soveral, Fr. Ambrogio Francesco Ferro, Matteo Moreira, and their 27 companions, martyrs of Natal, Brazil in 1645.

 

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/EPA

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As extraordinary as the apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, nearly 100 years ago were, the sanctity of the shepherd children did not hinge on their having seen Mary, a cardinal said.

"The apparition of the Virgin Mary was an occasion, but it has nothing to do with or has not influenced the reason" Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto will be declared saints, Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, told Catholic News Service.

"It was the children's heroism in their lives, their life of prayer, their turning to God that was truly holy," he said.

The Vatican announced April 11 that Pope Francis has convened cardinals living in Rome for a consistory April 20 to approve the canonizations of the two Fatima children.

With the approval of a miracle attributed to their intercession and the announcement of the consistory, many people are hoping Pope Francis will preside over the canonization ceremony during his visit to Fatima May 12-13.

The pope's pilgrimage will mark the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions, which began May 13, 1917, when 9-year-old Francisco and 7-year-old Jacinta, along with their cousin Lucia dos Santos, reported seeing the Virgin Mary. The apparitions continued once a month until Oct. 13, 1917, and later were declared worthy of belief by the Catholic Church.

A year after the apparitions, both of the Marto children became ill during an influenza epidemic. Francisco died April 4, 1919, at the age of 10, while Jacinta succumbed to her illness Feb. 20, 1920, at the age of 9.

As the prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes from 1998 to 2008, Cardinal Saraiva Martins oversaw the process that led to the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto by St. John Paul II in 2000.

Cardinal Saraiva Martins told CNS that the process leading up to the beatification was stalled for decades and wasn't easy because of a general assumption that children "do not have the capacity to practice Christian virtue in a heroic way."

The church's declaration of heroic sanctity, he added, "is fundamental for beatification."

While he knew the children's devotion to the Eucharist and to Our Lady of Fatima were well-known, the cardinal said one specific event during the apparitions left him "convinced" of their holiness.

At the time of the apparitions, the Portuguese government was strongly anti-Catholic. Artur Santos, mayor of the town where Fatima was located and president of the Masonic lodge of nearby Leiria, sent law enforcement officials to block the entry to the site of the apparitions.

He also kidnapped the three children to force them to deny Mary was appearing at Fatima after news of the apparitions spread, the cardinal said.  

Santos separated Jacinta and Francisco from Lucia, telling the two children that their cousin was boiled in hot oil and that they would share the same fate if they didn't say they didn't see Our Lady and that "it was all a fantasy," Cardinal Saraiva Martins said.

"What was the response of those two children? 'You can do what you want but we cannot tell a lie. We have seen her (Our Lady),'" the cardinal said.

"I asked myself, 'How many adults would have done the same?'" the cardinal said. "Maybe 90 percent of adults would probably say, 'Yes, of course, it was a lie, it was all a fairy tale.'"

While the fact that the apparitions of Mary contributed to their sanctity "is evident and obvious," Cardinal Saraiva Martins said, it was Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta's "personal holiness that counts."

"They were beatified because their heroic virtue was historically established; to prefer death rather than to say a lie," he said. "For me, that fact of having preferred death instead of telling a lie, that is a heroic act. As I said before, an adult would probably not be able to do that."

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters

By Cindy Wooden

ROME (CNS) -- Two weeks after the U.S. State Department honored her as a Woman of Courage, a Salesian sister from Syria told reporters President Donald Trump's decision to bomb a Syrian air base is another step back from peace.

"I always hope for peace," said Salesian Sister Carolin Tahhan Fachakh, who runs a nursery school in Damascus, Syria, and received the International Woman of Courage Award award from first lady Melania Trump March 29 in Washington.

"Everything ends," she told reporters in Rome April 11. The war will end, too, she added.

"Every time we say there is hope for peace and let's move forward, something happens to set us back. The situation is ugly now," Sister Carolin said, referring to Trump's decision to bomb government military installations.

The Syrian nun, who stopped in Rome on her way back to Syria from the United States, said she truly doubts that Syrian President Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapon attack in early April. The attack is why Trump said he decided to bomb Shayrat Air Base, the alleged source of the attack.

Sister Carolin said Assad and his wife have supported and protected the Salesians and other Christians in the country. "I like my president," she said.

The ongoing fighting means Syrian children are being raised in a "culture of war," she said. One of her 4-year-old students taught her how to recognize the difference between a cannon shot, which simply thuds when it lands, and a missile, which makes a whistling sound before impact.

"When our children are like this, what will we will do for our future?" she asked journalists during a meeting at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. The embassy nominated Sister Carolin for the prize while President Barack Obama was still in office; the award winners were confirmed by Trump's secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

The country's children "are all damaged by the war, they are afraid," but the Muslim and Christian children in her school often are more than just afraid. Many of them, she said, no longer speak.

"In our school, we offer them a climate of serenity and peace, where every child who is in need can play in the big courtyard and study," she said.  

Although she works in Damascus, Sister Carolin is from Aleppo. She hasn't been to her hometown since 2010 because she wants to remember it as it was. But a friend went to visit her family, and they made a little video for Sister Carolin. In it, she said, her nephew says, "Aunt, look what we gathered," and shows the camera a box of spent shells of different sizes.

"That hurts," she said.

Sister Carolin said peaceful coexistence, friendship and mutual help continue to mark the relations between the vast majority of Muslims and Christians in the country. The problem is terrorism, not Islam, she said.

The Salesians run a school to train women in sewing and tailoring. "Since 2010 more than 500 women have entered our home and frequented the sewing course," she said. "The majority are Muslims. If I said we would only choose Christians, then I would become a fanatic."

"When a missile falls or there's an explosion," she said, "many Muslims knock on our door and ask, 'Sister, are you OK? Do you need anything?'"

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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