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NEW YORK (AP) -- Sandwiched between days that felt like spring last week and the official start of spring next week, a "life-threatening" nor'easter is poised to bring a reminder that winter isn't over yet, with blizzard conditions and a blanket of heavy snow expected in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department faces a Monday deadline to provide lawmakers some evidence of President Donald Trump's unproven assertion that his predecessor wiretapped his New York skyscraper, a claim that has left Trump increasingly isolated within his own administration....
(Vatican Radio). Jorge Bergoglio became the 266th Pope on March 13, 2013. His humble and direct style was immediately clear as he uttered his first words as pontiff: “buona sera.” Four years on, his reform of the Church and of the Curia ploughs ahead, he continues to enjoy the acclaim of cheering crowds every Wednesday at the weekly General Audience and at all public appearances, his call for mercy and his openness and pastoral outreach towards the peripheries and towards the most vulnerable stand out as constant traits of his ministry.The past year of France’s pontificate has given us unforgettable moments and important teachings such as the historic embrace with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Cuba, his silent prayer in Auschwitz, the canonization of Mother Teresa, his ecumenical journey to Lund to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the publishing of his Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris Laetitia”, to name but a few.The Cardina...
(Vatican Radio). Jorge Bergoglio became the 266th Pope on March 13, 2013. His humble and direct style was immediately clear as he uttered his first words as pontiff: “buona sera.”
Four years on, his reform of the Church and of the Curia ploughs ahead, he continues to enjoy the acclaim of cheering crowds every Wednesday at the weekly General Audience and at all public appearances, his call for mercy and his openness and pastoral outreach towards the peripheries and towards the most vulnerable stand out as constant traits of his ministry.
The past year of France’s pontificate has given us unforgettable moments and important teachings such as the historic embrace with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Cuba, his silent prayer in Auschwitz, the canonization of Mother Teresa, his ecumenical journey to Lund to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the publishing of his Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris Laetitia”, to name but a few.
The Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, one of Pope Francis’ closest collaborators looked back on the year gone by with Vatican Radio’s Alessandro Gisotti starting with that unique “buona sera” with which the new Bishop of Rome greeted his flock asking it for prayers, thus entrusting himself not only to the Lord, but to “the holy people of God”.
It was immediately clear, Parolin said, that his vision of a Church going forth, of walking together – shepherd and flock – entrusted to prayer and to the grace and the mercy of God, would be important characteristics of the new Pontificate. A trait that Bergoglio reinforced with the choice of the name “Francis” and his attitude which exudes simplicity, peace and serenity.
Cardinal Parolin highlighted the fact that although Pope Francis continues to call for a Church that goes forth and that is able to accompany men and women in the difficulties and challenges of everyday life, he does so always attentive to the voice and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He also pointed out that although the Jubilee Year of Mercy is concluded, mercy continues to be one of the pillars of Frances’ pontificate. He explained however that the Pope’s insistence on mercy does not derive from a personal sensitivity, but focuses attention on God’s love and on the mystery of salvation.
“The Pope, Parolin said, is directing us to God’s love and making sure the Church acts as a channel for that love and a place of encounter between God’s mercy and man as he lives the concrete joys and sorrows of life on earth.”
Parolin also said that the fruits the Year of Mercy have yielded are many including the ‘re-discovery’ on the part of many Christians of the Sacrament of Confession and a heightened attention towards situations of poverty and need.
Regarding the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris Laetitia”, Parolin described it as a gift that has given great impulse to the pastoral ministry of the family, and has produced fruits of renewal, hope and accompaniment for those in fragile family situations.
Cardinal Parolin also mentioned the reality of some criticism towards the Church and expressions of dissent saying “there have always been critical voices in the Church!”
The important thing, he said, as the Pope himself says is that they be “sincere and constructive, and willing to find a way to make progress together and a better way of putting God’s will to work!”
At the heart of Pope Francis’s pontificate, Parolin concluded, is the desire to continue to reform the Curia because he believes that – to use an evangelical word – “the Church must continuously seek conversion, it must strive to be evermore authentic, get rid of the crusts accumulated in centuries of history and shine forth with the transparency of the Gospel”.
By Junno Arocho EstevesVATICANCITY (CNS) -- While Pope Francis' recent comments on the subject of marriedpriests made headlines around the world, his response falls clearly in linewith the thinking ofhis predecessors. In aninterview with German newspaper Die Zeit, published in early March, Pope Francis was askedif allowing candidates forthe priesthood to fall in love and marry could be "an incentive" forcombatting the shortage of priestly vocations. He was alsoasked about thepossibility of allowing married"viri probati" -- men of proven virtue -- to become priests. "Wehave to study whether 'viri probati' are a possibility. We then also need todetermine which tasks they could take on, such as in remote communities, forexample," Pope Francis said. Expressing a willingness to study the question of allowingmarried men to become priestswas hardly a groundbreaking response giventhat the topic was explored in two meetings of the Synod of Bishops and by bothPope Benedict XVI and St. John P...
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While Pope Francis' recent comments on the subject of married priests made headlines around the world, his response falls clearly in line with the thinking of his predecessors.
In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, published in early March, Pope Francis was asked if allowing candidates for the priesthood to fall in love and marry could be "an incentive" for combatting the shortage of priestly vocations.
He was also asked about the possibility of allowing married "viri probati" -- men of proven virtue -- to become priests.
"We have to study whether 'viri probati' are a possibility. We then also need to determine which tasks they could take on, such as in remote communities, for example," Pope Francis said.
Expressing a willingness to study the question of allowing married men to become priests was hardly a groundbreaking response given that the topic was explored in two meetings of the Synod of Bishops and by both Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II.
During the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, the possibility of ordaining men of proven virtue was raised as a way to provide priests for areas of the world where Catholics have very limited access to Mass and the sacraments.
"Some participants made reference to 'viri probati,' but in the end the small discussion groups evaluated this hypothesis as a road not to follow," a proposition from the synod said.
Eight years before he was elected pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that while married priests in the Catholic Church were not on the horizon in "the foreseeable future," it was not an entirely closed subject.
In "Salt of the Earth," an interview-book with Peter Seewald published in 1997, the future Pope Benedict said, "One ought not to declare that any custom of the church's life, no matter how deeply anchored and well founded, is wholly absolute. To be sure, the church will have to ask herself the question again and again; she has now done so in two synods."
The question of mandatory celibacy for most priests in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church has been debated heavily in recent years, with some people seeing it as a way to encourage more men to enter the priesthood since they would be able to serve without giving up marriage and the possibility of having a family.
Pope Benedict said celibacy in the priesthood is difficult to understand today "because the relationship to marriage and children has clearly shifted."
To have children, he explained, was once viewed as a "sort of immortality through posterity."
"The renunciation of marriage and family is thus to be understood in terms of this vision: I renounce what, humanly speaking, is not only the most normal but also the most important thing," he said.
The celibacy rule is a church discipline, but its roots are found in the Gospel when Jesus speaks to his disciples about the possibility of remaining celibate for the kingdom of God.
"Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it," Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew (19:12).
In his apostolic exhortation, "Pastores Dabo Vobis" ("I will give you shepherds"), written in response to the 1990 Synod of Bishops, St. John Paul II wrote that Jesus wished to not only affirm the "specific dignity and sacramental holiness" of marriage, but also to show that another path for Christians exists.
This path, he said "is not a flight from marriage but rather a conscious choice of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."
Expanding on the subject, Pope Benedict told Seewald that to view priestly celibacy as a way for priests to have more time for ministry without dealing with the duties of being a husband and a father is "too primitive and pragmatic."
"The point is really an existence that stakes everything on God and leaves out precisely the one thing that normally makes a human existence fulfilled with a promising future," he said.
Pope Francis response to the question of allowing young men thinking about the priesthood to marry as an "incentive" followed in the same line.
"Voluntary celibacy is often discussed in this context, especially where there is a lack of clergy. However, voluntary celibacy is not a solution," the pope told Die Zeit.
In the book "On Heaven and Earth," originally published in Spanish in 2010, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, acknowledged that while he is in favor of maintaining celibacy in the priesthood, it "is a matter of discipline, not of faith."
St. John Paul II had said the same. During a general audience July 17, 1993, he said that while celibacy "does not belong to the essence of priesthood," Jesus himself proposed it as an ideal.
Similarly, then-Cardinal Ratzinger said the celibacy requirement "is not dogma" but rather a "form of life" that involves the priests' faith and not his dominion over his own nature.
"I think that what provokes people today against celibacy is that they see how many priests really aren't inwardly in agreement with it and either live it hypocritically, badly, not at all, or only live it in a tortured way. So people say," he said.
When all is said and done, Pope Francis' openness to considering an expanded possibility for married priests is not revolutionary at all, but is a continuation of a conversation that has gone on for decades and is likely to continue for some time.
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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.
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