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IMAGE: CNS photo/Kevin J. Parks, Catholic Review

By Erik Zygmont

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Mourners from near and far, and all walks of life and various creeds, filled the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland March 28 for the funeral Mass of Cardinal William H. Keeler, 14th archbishop of Baltimore.

Thirty prelates, including six cardinals, and dozens of priests and deacons mourned Cardinal Keeler, who died March 23 at 86, and commended his soul to God.

Dignitaries and officials came to pay their respects, including Maryland Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr., Baltimore County Executive Kevin B. Kamenetz, retired U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and State Sen. James "Ed" DeGrange Sr.

In his closing remarks, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori ranked Cardinal Keeler among the most illustrious of his predecessors, including Archbishop John Carroll, the nation's first archbishop, Cardinal James Gibbons (1877-1921) and Cardinal Lawrence Shehan (1961-1974).

While he was a churchman of the highest stature, to be sure many came to Cardinal Keeler's funeral to remember a man who had simply never forgotten them.

"He always remembered who I was and what church I came from," said Jo Anne Harris, mother of Father Raymond Harris, who was ordained by Cardinal Keeler and now is pastor of Holy Family Parish in Randallstown. "You would always get a smile and a handshake, and you knew it wasn't phony. It was from the heart."

Sheila Peter, a cathedral parishioner, remembered bringing her son, Tommy, then 10, to see Cardinal Keeler in the sacristy after a Good Friday veneration of the cross.

"I said, 'Here's a big fan of yours,' and the cardinal held his (zucchetto) over Tommy's head and we took a picture," she told the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan news outlet.

In his homily, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York described the "indefatigable, friendly, ever-unflappable gentleman of faith, William Cardinal Keeler," who took to heart a bit of advice to priests from St. John Paul II:

"Love for Jesus and his church must be the passion of your life."

"He not only knew the quote, he lived it and radiated it," Cardinal Dolan said.

He and others acknowledged that Cardinal Keeler's passion overflowed, particularly in the ecumenical and interreligious arena.

When he stepped down as moderator for Jewish affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a position that included co-chairing key dialogue between the two faiths, Cardinal Keeler asked Cardinal Dolan to take over, the latter recalled.

"I had rehearsed my 'No,' having just arrived in New York and obviously preoccupied, but he described the dialogue with such zeal and excitement, it sounded like he was inviting me to a game at Camden Yards, with all the cold beer and hotdogs, kosher, I could eat," Cardinal Dolan said.

Cardinal Keeler's "zeal and excitement" for working with the Jewish community was reciprocated.

Before the funeral Mass, Rabbi Abie I. Ingber, executive director of the Center for Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier University in Cincinnati, reflected on what the cardinal had meant to him.

"We could start with the word 'everything,'" Rabbi Ingber said, recalling how Cardinal Keeler had introduced him to St. John Paul II in 1999, a meeting that "directed" the next 18 years of his life, inspiring him to help build an exhibit on the saint and the Jewish people, "A Blessing to One Another."

Over the years, Rabbi Ingber and Cardinal Keeler continued their correspondence and visits, and the rabbi visited the cardinal, when his health was failing, at St. Martin's Home for the Aged.

"I asked for his blessing and I gave him mine," Rabbi Ingber said.

As he looked around the cathedral, he noted that his grandparents had been murdered in the Holocaust.

"Here I am, the grandchild of Jews who were killed at the Holocaust, lovingly seated at the funeral of a cardinal of the Catholic Church," he said. "That's a good world."

The liturgy included a message from Pope Francis, read by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., in which the pope expressed his condolences for the loss of the "wise and gentle pastor."

The readings and Gospel held special meaning for the cardinal, who chose them himself.

In the first reading, from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses exhorts the Israelites to "love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, your whole being, and with your whole strength."

The cardinal's episcopal motto, "Do the work of an evangelist," came from the words of the second reading from St. Paul's Second Letter to Timothy: "But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry."

The Gospel described Jesus' call to his first apostles, Peter, Andrew, James and John, who left their work as fishermen to follow him.

At the conclusion of Mass, Archbishop Lori, the main celebrant, thanked members of the cardinal's family "for sharing Cardinal Keeler with us all these many years, and sharing him so generously."

He also thanked the Little Sisters of the Poor, who operate St. Martin's Home, "for welcoming him into your home as you would welcome Christ." The sisters received a standing ovation.

The archbishop also reflected on the last four or five years of Cardinal Keeler's life, drawing a parallel between it and the "grand silence," a former seminary tradition that called for silence from 9 p.m. every evening until Mass was celebrated the following day.

It was not the most popular rule, the archbishop remembered, "and rumor has it there were many infractions -- I wouldn't know about that."

Nevertheless, Archbishop Lori said, the grand silence was valuable as a time of prayer and rest which "taught the important lesson of preparing one's mind and heart for the next day and the important responsibilities each new day brings."

Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and former archbishop of Baltimore, offered the final commendation, and Cardinal Keeler's eight pallbearers carried his remains out of the cathedral, where deacons, priests, bishops and cardinals chanted "Salve Regina."

A funeral procession took his remains to their final resting place, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption in Baltimore.

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Zygmont is on the staff of the Catholic Review, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

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(Vatican Radio) Five months on from the joint commemoration of the Reformation by Pope Francis and Lutheran leaders, the President of the Lutheran World Federation says he believes the ecumenical energy of that event is penetrating hearts and minds of Christians across the globe.

Speaking to Philippa Hitchen at his Jerusalem residence last week, Bishop Munib Younan said that working for unity within the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities is the only way to “cut the roots of extremism and sectarianism” which threaten society today.

Listen: 

Reflecting on the joint commemoration in Lund cathedral and Malmo arena last October 31st, Bishop Younan describes it as “a blessed moment” where “the Holy Spirit was guiding us”. He recalls that he and Pope Francis “promised each other that we will continue this journey of unity and ecumenism, locally and internationally”.

Incarnating spirit of Lund at local level

Commenting on the fruits of that event, the LWF leader gives examples of Churches, such as France, Germany and Italy, that have incarnated its spirit into their local communities through conferences, joint liturgies and healing services.

In Jerusalem, he goes on, Catholic and Lutheran leaders have held two joint services in Arabic, the first in a packed Lutheran church in Amman, Jordan, and the second in the Catholic church dedicated to St Catherine inside Bethlehem’s Basilica of the Nativity.

Unity can combat sectarianism

These are vital signs “that we are fighting extremism and sectarianism,” Younan says. He cites the words of Muslim leader, Dr Mohammad Sammak, who said his community “should learn from Lutherans and Catholics, from the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation, how to combat sectarianism as Muslims”.

He describes the process as a rolling snowball that is “becoming bigger and bigger”, explaining that reception means “not only to leave it in Geneva and in the Vatican, but we should have it infiltrated, penetrating into the hearts and minds, that there is no other way than unity”.

Ecumenism in the Holy Land

Speaking of the importance of this work In the Holy Land, the LWF president says “if ecumenism succeeds in the Holy Land, it succeeds in the whole world”.  At the grass roots in Palestine, Israel and Jordan, he says, people are “yearning for unity and sometimes they are ahead of us” as church leaders.  The remaining theological disagreements, he says, “are minor” compared to the “main doctrine which is Christ and his salvation”.

“What we have done in Lund,” Younan says, is a challenge for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike: “how can we cut the roots of extremism, sectarianism and denominationalism?” We Christians should be “vanguards in carrying the message of unity,” he adds.

Energy of Lund brings results

Finally Bishop Younan insists that “ecumenism is not only dependent on theological, scientific dialogue, but also on trust and friendship”. Thanks to “openness and energy of Lund”, he concludes “I believe in 10 or maximum 15 years” Catholics and Lutherans may sign an agreement on mutual recognition at the Eucharistic table. “This is my prayer,” he concludes, “and I believe the Holy Spirit is guiding us in the right way.”

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Phoenix, Ariz., Mar 29, 2017 / 11:01 am (National Catholic Register).- When a Phoenix mother lost her eyesight due to a rare medical condition, she feared she would never be able to see her four children again. But then St. Charbel came to her aid.

Dafne Gutierrez suffered from benign intracranial hypertension (BIH), a condition that causes increased pressure in the brain. In 2012, the increased pressure caused her to lose vision in her right eye. Three years later, in November 2015, the Catholic mother lost sight in her left eye, as well.

Phoenix’s local CBS affiliate, KPHO, quoted Gutierrez’s plea to God:

“For me, I was like, ‘Please God, let me see those faces again. Let me be their mother again.’ Because I feel like [my kids] were watching me, taking care of me 24/7.”

 

Phoenix Mother: St. Charbel Cured My Blindness https://t.co/J9FXeruQUR

— N. Catholic Register (@NCRegister) March 25, 2017


 

For more than a year, Gutierrez struggled to adjust to her disability, which now included occasional seizures, as well as blindness. Then, in January 2016, when Phoenix’s St. Joseph Maronite Church announced that the relics of St. Charbel Makhlouf (also spelled “Sharbel”) would be visiting the church, Gutierrez’s sister encouraged her to visit and to pray for the saint’s intercession.

Although she is not a member of the Maronite rite, Gutierrez visited the church Jan. 16, prayed before the relics, went to confession and was blessed with holy oil by the pastor, Father Wissam Akiki. Gutierrez recalled that, immediately afterward, her body felt “different.”

The following morning, she rose and returned to the church for Sunday Mass. Again, she experienced a different sensation.

And early in the morning Jan. 18, Gutierrez awoke with a searing pain in her eyes. She remembers how much they burned. And when her husband turned on the lights, she said the brightness hurt her eyes. She claimed, at 4 a.m., that she could see shadows; but her husband insisted that was impossible because she was blind. He later described what he called “an odor of burned meat” coming from her nostrils.

According to The Maronite Voice, the newsletter of the Maronite Eparchies of the U.S., “That morning she called her ophthalmologist, and she was evaluated the next day. Her exam showed that she was still legally blind, with abnormal optic nerves. Two days later, she saw a different ophthalmologist, and her vision was a perfect 20/20, with completely normal optic nerves. Subsequently, she saw her original ophthalmologist one week later, and her vision was documented to be normal, with completely normal exam.”

No Medical Explanation

Dr. Anne Borik, a board-certified internal medicine physician who later testified regarding Gutierrez’s healing, was called in by the Church to review the case. Earlier this month, Borik – a member of St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic parish nearby, but who attends St. Joseph Maronite frequently – talked by phone with the Register about her findings. She explained that the brain condition Gutierrez suffered from causes the optic nerve to constrict. Once the optic disc – the spot at which the optic nerve enters the eyeball – is damaged, it’s too late to fix. Because, when the pressure in the brain reaches high levels, as it did in Gutierrez’s case, the optic nerves become strangulated.

“Unfortunately, once the blindness occurs,” said Borik, “it’s irreversible.”

Images of Gutierrez’s optic disc revealed significant damage: “We have pictures,” said Borik, “to confirm that the optic disc was chronically atrophied. There was significant swelling, or papilledema.”

But after Gutierrez’s vision returned, Borik reported, there was no evidence of the aberrations that were evident on earlier images. “In the post-healing pictures,” Borik said, “her optic disc is back to normal. Her vision is completely restored. She has no more seizures. That is why I, as a medical doctor, have no explanation.”

A medical committee, led by Borik, undertook a thorough review of Gutierrez’s medical records, as well as repeated examinations. The committee wrote, “After a thorough physical exam, extensive literature search and review of all medical records, we have no medical explanation and therefore believe this to be a miraculous healing through the intercession of St. Charbel.”

Unexpected Healing Strengthens Faith

Borik is enthusiastic about the healing, telling the National Catholic Register, “It has changed my practice! It has changed how I relate to patients. Now,” she said, referring to her relationship with those entrusted to her care, “prayer is such an important part of what we do.”

Father Wissam Akiki, pastor of St. Joseph Maronite Church, had a devotion to St. Charbel, and he installed a large picture of the saint in the parish shortly after his arrival in 2014. Then, in 2016, he arranged to bring St. Charbel’s relics to his parish as part of a U.S. tour.

Father Akiki remembers when Gutierrez showed up to venerate the relics. Father Akiki approached her. “I heard her confession,” he told the National Catholic Register. “We prayed together, and I said to her daughter, ‘Take care of your mom, and your mom is going to see you soon.’ Then, in only three days, she called the church to report that she could see.”

Father Akiki acknowledged that Gutierrez’s healing has strengthened the faith and changed the face of St. Joseph Maronite Church. “People are coming here to pray, traveling from Germany, Bolivia, Canada, Australia, Jerusalem.”

Following the healing, Father Akiki planned to erect a shrine to St. Charbel at his parish, with a two-ton sculpture of the saint cut from a single stone and imported from Lebanon. The shrine will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Father Akiki expected that the dedication of the shrine March 26 would draw crowds, including Maronite Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted and many local dignitaries.

Bishop Zaidan attributed Gutierrez’s recovery to the intercession of St. Charbel. “May this healing of the sight of Dafne,” he wrote in The Maronite Voice, “be an inspiration for all of us to seek the spiritual sight, in order to recognize the will of God in our lives and to act accordingly.”

Cristofer Pereyra, director of the Hispanic Office of the Phoenix Diocese, told Fox News that Bishop Olmsted spoke with the doctors and reviewed the case. “The bishop wanted to make sure there was no scientific explanation for the miraculous recovery of Dafne’s sight,” Pereyra reported.

The greatest change, of course, has been for Gutierrez and her children. Since her eyesight was restored, Dafne’s life has changed dramatically: She can once again check her children's homework, watch them at play with friends, and manage her household chores without extra assistance.

Her prayer was answered.

Who Was St. Charbel?

Born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf in the high mountains of northern Lebanon in 1828, St. Charbel (also spelled Sharbel) was the youngest of five children in a poor but religious family. His baptismal name was Joseph; only when he entered a monastery at the age of 23 was he given the name Charbel, after an early martyr. He studied in seminary and was ordained a priest in 1858. For 16 years, Father Charbel lived with his brother priests; theirs was a communal life of prayer and devotion to God.

In 1875, Father Charbel was granted permission to live a hermit’s life. In his rugged cabin, for the next 23 years, he practiced mortification and sacrifice – often wearing a hair shirt, sleeping on the ground, and eating only one meal a day. The Eucharist was the focus of his life. The holy priest celebrated daily Mass at 11 a.m., spending the morning in preparation and the rest of the day in thanksgiving.

Father Charbel was 70 years old when he suffered a seizure while celebrating Mass. A priest assisting him was forced to pry the Eucharist out of his rigid hands. He never regained consciousness; and eight days later, on Christmas Eve in 1898, Father Charbel died. His body was interred in the ground without a coffin and without embalming, according to the monks’ custom, dressed in the full habit of the order.

For the next 45 nights, a most unusual event occurred: According to many local townspeople, an extraordinarily bright light appeared above his tomb, lighting the night sky. Finally, after the mysterious light persisted, officials at the monastery petitioned the ecclesiastical authorities for permission to exhume Charbel’s body. When the grave was opened four months after Charbel’s death, his body was found to be incorrupt. Twenty-eight years after his death, in 1928, and again in 1950, the grave was reopened, and his body was also found to be without decay.

Numerous medical researchers were permitted to examine the remains, and all confirmed that the saint’s body was preserved from decay. For 67 years, the body remained intact, even when left outdoors unprotected for an entire summer – although it consistently gave off a liquid that had the odor of blood. Finally, though, Charbel’s body followed the natural course. When the tomb was again opened at the time of his beatification in 1965, it was found to be decayed, except for the skeleton, which was deep red in color.

The inexplicable restoration of Dafne Gutierrez’s eyesight is not the first healing credited to St. Charbel. Dr. Anne Borik reported that there have been hundreds – perhaps thousands – of miracles attributed to the saint.

Pope Francis is said to have a deep devotion to St. Charbel. Last Christmas, Borik reported, the Holy Father asked to have a relic of St. Charbel sewn into the hem of his vestments.

 

This story was originally published at the National Catholic Register.

 

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Jesús María, Mexico, Mar 29, 2017 / 12:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Felipe Altamirano Carrillo, an indigenous priest who served in the Mexico's western state of Nayarit, was murdered Sunday while returning from saying Mass in one of the towns in which he served.

Fr. Altamirano Carrillo was killed March 26, apparently the victim of assault during a theft.

“We are seized by the pain of his loss, so premature , and the way it happened,” read a statement of the Territorial Prelature of Jesús María del Nayar, which the priest served.

“Although so far we don't have the details of this incident, we have been informed that he was returning from celebrating the Sunday Mass in the community of Cofradía, which is part of his parish, accompanied by some other people. He was driving his vehicle and at some point during the trip, they came upon some armed persons, presumably with the intention of assaulting them.”

The prelature said that “it is known that the only person who died was Fr. Felipe, and some of those accompanying him are injured.”

“Our prelature is mourning the loss of a very beloved brother, and we again express our most heartfelt condolences to Father Felipe's family. May Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Most Holy Mother console them in this time of sorrow, since we trust that our brother, who has shared the cross of Christ,  will now be able to enjoy his glorious resurrection,” it said.

Fr. Altamirano Carrillo, of the Cora people, was born July 23, 1963 in Jesús María. The oldest of eight children, he was ordained a priest in 1989. He was president of the Indigenous Pastoral Ministry of the prelature and at the time of his death he was serving as pastor in Mesa del Nayar, about 15 miles southwest of Jesús María.

Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega of Guadalajara, president of the Mexican bishops conference, issued a statement March 27 asking God for the eternal rest of Fr. Altamirano Carrillo, and that “the Lord may grant his relatives and friends the strength, the hope, and the consolation of the faith.”

“The Mexican Bishops' Conference expresses its condolences and joins in prayer with Bishop José de Jesús González Hernández, O.F.M., the clergy, those in consecrated life, and the lay faithful of the Nayar prelature, the parents and relatives of Fr. Felipe Altamirano Carillo.

Cardinal Robles stated that “in these times in which a Catholic priest is again struck by crime, we turn our gaze to the Risen Christ who confers on us the strength to fight to build a world that is reconciled, and at peace, is just and fraternal.”

“Death is not the end of the message of love brought to us by Our Savior, but life to the fullest. With his priesthood, Father Felipe embodied these certainties which faith give us,” the cardinal wrote.

Fr. Altamirano Carrillo is the second priest to have been murdered in Mexico in 2017.

Fr. Joaquín Hernández Sifuentes of the Diocese of Saltillo, in northern Mexico, was killed in January, also seemingly while being robbed.

Drug trafficking has led to increased murder and kidnapping in Mexico, with priests not unaffected. In recent years, 17 priests in the country have been murdered.

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