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(Vatican Radio) The Archbishop of Westminster said that many people in the UK would be “coping with a combination of anxiety and enthusiasm” as the Prime Minister signed a letter marking the official divorce of the UK from the European Union.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols is the Vice-President of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE). He made his remarks from Barcelona on Wednesday as British Ambassador Tim Burrows handed the letter triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council.

His Eminence is currently taking part in a symposium on young people in Spain. He said that his country had been divided on the issue of Brexit since the launch of the referendum. He added that, since the decision had been made, “we need to move on.”

He spoke about two major issues. The first is “the economic and financial repercussions” of the decision to leave the EU; the second is “the question of the movement of people across borders that are bound to change.” In particular, he referred to the “delicate issue involving Eire and Northern Ireland.”

Making the distinction between the EU and Europe, Cardinal Nichols insisted that “it should be pointed out that England does not want to leave Europe,” but instead, “the issue at stake is the European Union.” He reflected on two factors in particular that have played an important role in the decision-making process. “First of all, the feeling of distance and separation that citizens have constantly perceived from Brussels and Strasbourg. Second, the way in which the European Union has addressed the question of diversity.”

The President of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales highlighted that his nations still has a place in Europe. Concerning the relationship between the UK and the rest of Europe in the future, he said “we intend to be good neighbours for European countries.” In this respect, he spoke about the ties between the Catholic Churches in other European countries.

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Washington D.C., Mar 30, 2017 / 09:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops have criticized President Donald Trump’s recent executive order which rolls back environmental protections, noting their concern that it offers no alternative for effective environmental stewardship.

“The USCCB, in unity with Pope Francis, strongly supports environmental stewardship and has called consistently for ‘our own country to curtail carbon emissions,’” said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

“This Executive Order places a number of environmental protections in jeopardy and moves the U.S. away from a national carbon standard, all without adopting a sufficient plan for ensuring proper care for people and creation,” the bishop said in a March 29 statement. “Yesterday’s action means that, sadly, the United States is unlikely to meet its domestic and international mitigation goals.”

On March 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that revokes a half-dozen executive orders from the Obama Administration targeted at halting the progress of climate change and regulating carbon emissions. Under particular scrutiny are the policies put in place by Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce emissions from power plants – one of the largest sources of pollution and greenhouse gasses in the United States – by 32 percent from 2015 to 2030. Other rules set for re-examination are rules regarding fracking and those restricting greenhouse gas emissions from oil and natural gas operations.

The new order will also roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s “social cost of carbon” calculations that had previously guided rule making surrounding environmental concerns.

President Trump has not yet taken a public stance on withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, but the new order, without additional regulations to take their place, will effectively remove the policies the United States had put in place to meet its commitments.

While the U.S. bishops do not specifically support any one set of policy or technical approaches to climate change, they have offered their support for several of the Obama Administration’s carbon emission standards in recent years. Bishop Dewane reinforced in his statement that while the Clean Power Plan is not the only means of addressing climate change or reducing carbon emissions, he is concerned by the Trump Administration’s failure to present an alternative plan in its place.

The bishop also echoed previous statements by EPA officials and other environmental experts that environmental policies can both protect the environment and foster growth. “An integral approach can respect human and natural concerns and still achieve these aims, if properly done,” he said.

Bishop Dewane pointed to states that have already made steps towards doing both under the previous Clean Power Plan, adding that “this momentum ought to be encouraged and not hindered.”

He pointed to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical letter Laudato si as highlighting the importance of protecting the environment for the sake of all humanity.

“With this recent order,” the bishop commented, “the Administration risks damage to our air, our waters and, most importantly, our people, particularly the poor and vulnerable, without proposing a concrete and adequate approach to meet our stewardship obligations as a nation.”

 

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IMAGE: CNS/Junno Arocho Esteves

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Recent popes have had a special affection for Our Lady of Fatima, but no pope's connection can match that of St. John Paul II.

"We cannot forget that he was saved by Our Lady of Fatima from the assassination attempt here in St. Peter's. This is fundamental and central. It is never forgotten," Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, told Catholic News Service March 29.

Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk, shot Pope John Paul at close range as the pope was greeting a crowd in St. Peter's Square on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, 1981.

Two bullets pierced the pope's abdomen, but no major organs were struck; a bullet had missed his heart and aorta by a few inches.

St. John Paul would later say, "It was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path."

That miracle, the cardinal said, is key in "understanding well Pope John Paul's devotion to Our Lady of Fatima."

Given the date of the assassination attempt, the pope specifically credited Our Lady of Fatima with his miraculous survival and recovery. Several months later, he visited the site of the apparitions, the first of three visits he would make as pope to Fatima.

For St. John Paul, Cardinal Saraiva Martins said, "Our Lady of Fatima was everything," and his three visits to the Portuguese town were those of a grateful son to the mother who saved his life.

"I still remember -- I'll never forget it -- when he arrived at the little chapel of the apparitions where (the statue of) Our Lady of Fatima was," Cardinal Saraiva Martins recalled.

St. John Paul was holding one of the bullets that had struck him and slowly approached the statue, finally placing the bullet in her crown, he said. "It is still in the crown today. I witnessed these gestures, how he expressed his devotion to Our Lady. He would just walk closer and closer to Our Lady and would repeat: 'You saved me, you saved me.'"

As the prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes from 1998 to 2008, Cardinal Saraiva Martins also oversaw the process leading to the beatification by St. John Paul of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the three young shepherd children, who saw Mary at Fatima.

The cardinal also shared a personal friendship with the third seer, Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, who died in 2005.

It was Cardinal Saraiva Martins who, two years after Sister Lucia's death, urged Pope Benedict XVI to waive the five-year waiting period before her sainthood cause could be opened.

"The pope was very kind. He said, 'Yes, you know more about this than I do. We will do as you say,'" the cardinal recalled.

Pope Benedict, the cardinal added, was a "great devotee" of Our Lady of Fatima, even before his election to the papacy.

Interviewed in his apartment near St. Peter's Square, Cardinal Saraiva Martins grabbed a copy of part of the interview then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger did in 1985 with Vittorio Messori, an Italian journalist.

"Before becoming pope, he said: 'A stern warning has been launched from that place ... a summons to the seriousness of life, of history, to the perils that threaten humanity,'" the cardinal read.

The special papal bond with Our Lady of Fatima continues today with Pope Francis, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires, was a frequent visitor to a shrine in the Argentine city devoted to her, Cardinal Saraiva Martins said. Pope Francis will visit Fatima May 12-13 to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.

The cardinal recalled Pope Francis' "beautiful" words to Portuguese-speaking pilgrims on May 13, 2015, the 98th anniversary of the apparition: "Entrust to her all that you are, all that you have, and in that way you will be able to become an instrument of the mercy and tenderness of God to your family, neighbors and friends."

"This an example of the words of Pope Francis, so he is a great devotee of Fatima," the cardinal said. "And for this reason, he will go to Fatima. For him, it will be an extraordinary day in which he will fulfill this great desire that has been expressed in so many ways."

Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima is emblematic of the popes of the last century who have "always recognized" the relevance of Mary's message, particularly its emphasis on faith, conversion, hope and peace, the cardinal said.

"Today we need faith, to be closer to God and our brothers and sisters -- not hate each other -- we need hope and we need peace," Cardinal Saraiva Martins said. "In short, the message of Fatima given 100 years ago is of extreme relevance."

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IMAGE: CNS/World Meeting of Families

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis urges families to discover God's love and be generous, forgiving, patient, helpful and respectful.

Family life will be better if people use the words "please," "thank you," and "I'm sorry" every day, he said, and the world will be a better place if the church reaches out to the imperfect and the wounded.

The pope's reflection was part of a letter to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, which is helping plan the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Aug. 21-26, 2018. The Vatican released the text of the pope's letter March 30.

When asked about the pope's plans to attend the event next year, Cardinal Farrell told reporters at a Vatican news conference, "We hope. I can't say absolutely" since it depends on the pope's schedule, but the pope has expressed his desire to go.

The letter was meant to help Catholic families and parishes around the world prepare for the gathering, which will focus on the theme, "The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World." The pope said he hoped the event would help families reflect on and share his apostolic exhortation, "Amoris Laetitia."

"Does the Gospel continue to be a joy for the world? And also, does the family continue to be good news for today's world?" the pope asked.

The answer is, "yes," he said, because God's love is his "yes" to all of creation and a "'yes' to the union between man and woman, in openness and service to life in all its phases; it is God's 'yes' and his commitment to a humanity that is often wounded, mistreated and dominated by a lack of love."

"Only starting from love can the family manifest, spread and regenerate God's love in the world. Without love, we cannot live as children of God, as couples, parents and brothers," he said.

Making sure family life is "based on love, for love and in love" means "giving oneself, forgiving, not losing patience, anticipating the other, respecting. How much better family life would be if every day we lived according to the words, 'please,' 'thank you,' and 'I'm sorry.'"

Every day, people experience fragility and weakness, Pope Francis said. All families and pastors need humility so they will become better disciples and teachers, better at helping and being helped, and able to accompany and embrace all people of goodwill.

"I dream of an outbound church, not a self-referential one, a church that does not pass by far from man's wounds, a merciful church that proclaims the heart of the revelation of God as love, which is mercy," he said.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told reporters that the pope's letter shows the clear, central role families have in the pope's great dream of renewal of the church and society.

"The family is called to be a place of encounter with that divine mercy which heals and liberates," he said. The family is where spouses learn to love "not in vague romantic terms but in terms of their everyday realities and difficulties."

"The pope's vision of the mission of the family does not attempt to hide the fact that families experience challenges, weakness, fragility and even breakdown," the archbishop said. "Families need a church which is with them, accompanying them in a process of discernment and integration though helping them to respond with a 'yes' to the divine love."

Happy, loving families should be recognized and be a resource for the renewal of the church and world, he said.

But the church, Archbishop Martin said, also must be "a place where those who have failed can experience not harsh judgment, but the strong embrace of the Lord which can lift them up to begin again to realize their own dream even if only imperfectly."

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