Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio)  The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Journey to Colombia from 6 to 11 September 2017.

Listen to our report:

A communique from the Holy See Press Office confirmed that the Holy Father will visit the cities of Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín, and Cartagena:

“Accepting the invitation of the President of the Republic and the Colombian bishops, His Holiness the Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Trip to Colombia from 6 to 11 September 2017, visiting the cities of Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín and Cartagena. The programme for the trip will be published shortly.”

Official Logo and Motto

The logo of the Journey contains the motto of the Pope’s Apostolic Journey: “Let’s take the first step” [Demos el primer paso].

A message accompanying the logo says the words refer to "the more than 50 years of violence" which divided Colombia.

“The visit of Pope Francis to Colombia is a moment of grace and happiness in order to dream about the possibility of transforming our country and taking the first step. The Holy Father is a missionary of reconciliation.”

The message goes on to say the logo represents the Pope’s visit “with the image of the Holy Father walking, as a symbol of action, taking a step to begin to build and to dream, because every change begins with the conversion of the heart (individual) and every change requires a moment to return to encountering one another (collective). It is the moment in our history to discover our identity as a country, which is reflected in the depiction of Colombia’s pre-Columbian figure.”

Full Article

Amatrice, Italy, Mar 10, 2017 / 06:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Benedictine monks in Norcia, Italy rebuild their monastery from the rubble caused by devastating earthquakes last year, they do so in the spirit of their founder, Saint Benedict.

“For us, it’s very symbolic, that is, being at the birthplace of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, St. Benedict being the founder of Western monasticism,” said Fr. Martin Bernhard, O.S.B. of the Benedictine Monks of Norcia.

He noted that St. Benedict (480-547) lived amidst “the collapse of the Roman empire” and the “collapse of society and structures.”

“Montecassino was destroyed once when he was there as abbot,” Fr. Martin added of St. Benedict, but the saint “didn’t give up, and he knew that the real answer was still the worship of God, that the primary thing he could do is just give back to God and to center our lives and build our lives around Him in a declining culture and world.”

“And I think in many ways we find ourselves in kind of a similar situation,” he told CNA. “So we find great consolation in that we have this opportunity in a way to follow the spirit of our founding father.”

Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, has been seriously damaged by earthquakes last year.

An earthquake rocked the region in August, causing 247 deaths in Italy. Then a 6.6 magnitude tremor in October caused massive damage to the town and the Benedictine monastery. The Basilica of St. Benedict was totally destroyed and the town was rendered unsafe to dwell in.

Norcia’s main street has re-opened for business but much of the town is still a “red zone” inaccessible to people, Fr. Martin noted. However, the monks’ brewery, which produces “Birra Nursia” has remained largely intact.

A Benedictine monastery had existed for centuries in the town until they were suppressed in 1810 by the Napoleonic laws of the time. In the year 2000, monks based in Rome returned and re-founded the monastery.

Now, the monks have moved outside of the town to a property two kilometers away, the site of an old Capuchin monastery. They lived in tents for several weeks before moving into shelters suitable for the winter months.

However, conditions are quite crowded in the two buildings of only 96 square meters where the 14 monks sleep, eat, and pray. Their biggest need is simply a more suitable place to live and pray as they rebuild the main monastery, especially if the community wants to grow. The basilica will probably take years to rebuild.

The whole ordeal has actually drawn the monks closer to God, however. “It’s been a very humbling and purifying process,” Fr. Martin said.

“The earthquake and kind of the destruction that we had seen of material things has really reminded us of the fact that we’re pilgrims here on earth, and that this world will pass away, and that the biggest, most glorious things man can build, one day they will come to dust, and it’s the soul that endures, and it’s God.”

“So even living in…more physically poor conditions, cold conditions due to winter, has really made us rely upon Him [God] even more,” Fr. Martin continued.

“There’s been a lot of graces for the monks of the monastery. There’s actually a great peace and joy among the monks despite the great trials and hardships.”

The monks started brewing beer in 2012 and sold “Birra Nursia” to support the monastery, and sales expanded into the U.S. in 2016. The monks brew two types of Belgian-style ales, “Blonde” and “Extra.”

While the brewery suffered little damage from the earthquake, the poor condition of the buildings surrounding it mean that the monks cannot yet use it for brewing. Beer is still available for purchase online, however, with proceeds going to the monastery rebuilding effort and 15 percent going to the needs of local residents “who lost their livelihood because of the earthquake.”

“We’re anxious to get back in there,” Fr. Martin said, noting that the monks hope to start small-batch brewing again soon. The beer is a pride of the town, he added.

“It’s very important for us, not only for financial reasons,” he said, “but also because of the sign and the symbol that it gives to the town and to the community.” Local restaurant owners who sell the beer have been asking the monks when they will start brewing again.

If the monks could come back to the town, that “gives a very tangible sign of hope to the town and to the people,” he added.

The community’s needs are both material and spiritual, he noted.

“I would say the town needs continued hope and faith, that is, the challenge for them now is to not lose that patience, perseverance, and endurance and to really trust in God and to move forward and trust that He has a bigger plan for, really, the care of their souls.”

In addition to the clean-up and rebuilding efforts, the town also needs “tourism,” he said, an important source of revenue for businesses before last year’s disasters but one that has been put on hold as many businesses have not yet re-opened.

Those interested in donating to the monastery’s rebuilding efforts can either do so at the website www.nursia.org or through the purchase of Birra Nursia.

“We live in a Western world that has many struggles and trials, and in many ways is collapsing, at least perhaps morally. Now around us, very physically, it has collapsed,” Fr. Martin noted.

“And we now have an opportunity to renew our faith and to rebuild with that spirit of centering everything around the worship of God, the most important thing for us.”

 

 

Full Article

Vatican City, Mar 10, 2017 / 08:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis will make a six-day trip to Colombia in September with four cities on his itinerary, almost a year after the government and FARC rebels signed a major peace agreement.

“Accepting the invitation of the President of the Republic and the Colombian bishops, His Holiness the Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Trip to Colombia from 6 to 11 September 2017,” a March 10 communique from the Vatican read.

While the official schedule is expected to be released shortly, the Vatican confirmed that Francis will visit the cities of Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín and Cartagena.

The trip will mark the third time Francis has visited his native South America since becoming Pope, with the first taking place in July 2013 when he traveled to Rio de Janiero for World Youth Day. The second tour took place in July 2015, with stops in Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

In August 2016 a peace accord between the Colombian government and the country's largest rebel group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was finally reached following four years of negotiations in Cuba.

Since 1964, as many as 260,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the civil war.

According to Human Rights Watch, with more than 6.8 million people forcibly displaced due to the conflict, Colombia has the world's second largest population of internally displaced people, with Syria in first place.

However, the August agreement was narrowly rejected in a referendum Oct. 2, with many Colombians claiming that it was too lenient on FARC, particularly when it came to kidnapping and drug trafficking.

A revised agreement was signed Nov. 24, and sent to Colombia’s Congress for approval, rather than being submitted to a popular vote. The reformed accord was approved Nov. 30, with revised features including the demand that FARC hand over assets to be used for reparations, a 10 year time limit for the transitional justice system, and FARC rebels' providing information about their drug trafficking.

In December Pope Francis met with Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón and former president Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, at the Vatican, encouraging them to continue working for peace.

When the deal was initially reached, the Pope praised the move, voicing his support “for the goal of attaining the peace and reconciliation of the entire Colombian people, in light of human rights and Christian values, which are at the heart of Latin American culture.”

The Pope’s trip was officially presented in the country March 10 by Bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis, head of Colombia's military diocese and who is in charge of the preparation committee for the trip.

During presentation, Bishop Suescún said the Pope’s visit “is a moment of grace and joy to dream with the possibility of transforming our country and taking the first step,” according to the Colombian Bishops Conference website.

“The Holy Father is a missionary for reconciliation,” he said. “His presence helps us to discover that yes, it's possible to re-unite as a nation in order to learn to look at ourselves again with eyes of hope and mercy.”

He pointed to the logo of the trip, which in yellow and white pictures Pope Francis walking next to the thematic phrase “Demos el primer paso,” meaning “Let us take the first step.”

To take the first step, Suescún said, means “to again draw near to Jesus, to meet again the love of our families, to disarm words with our neighbor and to have compassion with those who have suffered.”

According to the Colombian Bishops Conference, after receiving the official confirmation of the Pope’s visit, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his joy saying “we will receive (Francs) with open arms and hearts, as a messenger of peace and reconciliation.”

He noted that on many occasions Pope Francis “gave courage and impelled” the peace process in the country, adding that “he is a messenger of love and faith; he's a forger of bridges and not walls.”

The president pointed to the fact that the Pope's trip will be made exclusively to Colombia, whereas there are typically multiple countries included in international papal trips.

“To have the Pope with us for four days, to know that he's traveling exclusively to give a voice of encouragement and faith to Colombians, is a privilege that fills us with gratitude,” Santos said.

The Pope's visit, he said, is an “encounter with the teachings of Jesus, the encounter among ourselves, as a society, as compatriots, as human beings and as children of God.”

He voiced his hope that the visit would help Colombians to unite around the “building of a more just and equitable country, with peace and more solidarity.”

“We have already begun to prepare and will continue to prepare so that this apostolic journey of Pope Francis in Colombia will bear the greatest of fruits of harmony and unity in our country.”

 

(This article was updated at 5:06p.m. local time in Rome with the words of Bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos).

Full Article

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When facing criticism, a sense of humor and the grace to remain at peace are always the best response, Pope Francis said in an interview with Germany's Die Zeit newspaper.

In the interview, published March 8 online and in print March 9, the pope laughed and said the Roman dialect featured in posters that were plastered around the Rome city center criticizing him "was great."

The poster, featuring a stern-faced picture of the pope, said: "Ah Francis, you've taken over congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored cardinals ... but where is your mercy?"

"There is this prayer -- which is attributed to (St.) Thomas More -- that I pray every day: 'Lord, give me a sense of humor!' The Lord preserves my peace and gives me a great sense of humor," Pope Francis said.

Vatican Radio released a brief summary with selected quotes from the nearly 6,000-word interview, in which the pope discussed several issues and events.

Among the areas of discussion was his relationship with Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, current patron of the Order of Malta, who is often viewed as one of Pope Francis' most vocal critics.

The pope denied rumors that Cardinal Burke was sent to Guam as a form of "exile" to be the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana.

Instead, he was chosen, the pope said, because the former head of the Vatican's highest court is "an excellent jurist" and the allegations were "terrible incidents." He said he was grateful for the cardinal's service to address "a serious abuse case."

"I do not regard Cardinal Burke as an adversary," the pope said.

The pope was asked about the recent change of leadership at the Knights of Malta, in which Fra Matthew Festing, the former grand master, resigned at the pope's request, after the order's forced ouster of its grand chancellor, Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager.

While Cardinal Burke remained the order's patron, the pope appointed Archbishop Angelo Becciu as his special delegate and sole spokesman to the Knights of Malta.

"The problem with the Order of Malta was more that (Cardinal Burke) was unable to deal with it," he said. "I have not removed his title of patron. He is still the patron of the Order of Malta."

The pope suggested it was a question of "clearing things up a bit in the order, and that is why I sent a delegate with a different charism than (Cardinal) Burke."

Pope Francis has been outspoken in his criticism against populist rhetoric that views refugees escaping war, violence and poverty as "unworthy of our attention, a rival or someone to be bent to our will."

When asked by Die Zeit about the rise of populism -- particularly from those on the right of the political spectrum -- the pope said he uses the word "populism" in the sense defined in Latin America as way "to use the people" to gain power.

Recalling Germany's history, the pope said Adolf Hitler rose to power promising to return Germany to its former glory after a serious economic crisis.

"He convinced the people that he could. Populism always needs a messiah and a justification: 'We preserve the identity of the people!'" the pope said.

"Great politicians," such as Germany's first post-war chancellor, Konrad Adenauer and former French Prime Minister Robert Schuman, envisioned a Europe united in brotherhood, and that "had nothing to do with populism," he said.

"These men had the gift of serving their country without placing themselves in the center, and this made them great leaders. They did not have to be a messiah. Populism is evil and ends badly, as the past century has shown," Pope Francis said.

Other topics the pope touched on in the interview included the shortage of priests and the possibility of female deacons.

"The call for priests represents a problem, an enormous problem," especially in Germany and Switzerland, he said.

"The problem is the lack of vocations. And the church must solve this problem," the pope said.

He expressed the view that an increase in prayer and outreach to youth could change the situation.

"The Lord has told us: Pray! That is what's lacking: prayer. And also lacking is the work with young people who are seeking direction. Service to others is missing" and low birth rates are also a factor, said the pope. "Working with young people is difficult, but it is essential, because youth long for it."

He added that youths are the ones who lose most in many modern societies because of a lack of employment.

Asked whether the vow of celibacy could be optional for the priesthood, but not for higher offices like bishop or cardinal, the pope said, making clerical celibacy optional "is not the solution."

When asked about ordaining married men of proven virtue, known in Latin as "viri probati," Pope Francis replied that was a topic, like others, theologians needed to study more in depth.

"Then we must determine what tasks they could undertake, for example in remote communities," he said.

Pope Francis spoke about the commission studying women deacons and the exact roles they played in early church history. The commission is an ongoing project, he said, dedicated to open dialogue.

"It was about exploring the subject, and not to open a door" on automatic approval, Pope Francis said of the commission.

"This is the task of theology -- it must research to get to the foundation of things, always. That also goes for the study of the sacred Scriptures. ... What does that mean today? Truth is to have no fear. That is what historical truth and scientific truth tell us: Do not be afraid! That makes us free."

Pope Francis also discussed his personal faith experiences and beliefs about God's mercy, saying that an individual's faith grows throughout a lifetime.

"Faith is a gift. It will give itself," said the pope, adding that faith is to be prayed for.

He said he does not like to be idealized by others, saying that idealizing a person leads to aggression.

"I am a sinner and I am fallible," he said. "When I am idealized, I feel attacked."

He said that he views himself as a normal person trying to do his best.

He also added that he does not become angry at people who disagree with his opinions and believes that diverse opinions are good for the world.

"Since I was elected pope, I have never lost my peace. I can understand if some people do not like my own way of going about things, and that is completely normal," said Pope Francis.

"Everyone may have their own opinion. That is legitimate and humane and enriching," he said.

In response to a question, Pope Francis said he is not able to visit Germany this year for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, despite an invitation from Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The appointment calendar is very full this year," he told Die Zeit.

Asked whether he would visit Russia, China, India or other countries perhaps this year, Pope Francis replied: "To Russia I cannot travel, because then I would also have to travel to Ukraine.

Even more important would be a trip to South Sudan, but I don't believe that is possible. Also, a trip to the Congo was planned, but that will also not work with (President Joseph) Kabila. So, remaining on the program are India, Bangladesh and Colombia, one day for Fatima in Portugal, and as far as I know, a trip to Egypt is being studied. Sounds like a full calendar, right?"

- - -

Contributing to this story were Zita Fletcher in Germany and Carol Glatz in Rome.

- - -

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.

Full Article

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis will be visiting Colombia in mid-September as the Latin American nation works to implement a new peace deal and rebuild after 52 years of war.

The Vatican announced March 10 that the pope had accepted the invitation of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Colombian bishops.

The trip, Sept. 6-11, will include visits to the cities of Bogota, Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena. Details of the trip were to be published at a later date.

Pope Francis will be the third pope to visit the nation after Blessed Paul VI and St. John Paul II. The previous papal visit there was 31 years ago in 1986.

The bishops' conference posted on their website the trip logo: the pope smiling and walking flanked by the white and yellow colors of the Vatican on one side and an early indigenous symbol on the other. The motto is "Let us take the first step" ("Demos el primer paso").

Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio to Colombia, said: "The pope wants to come to meet the Colombian people; he comes for those who live in the cities and for those who live in the countryside and have a different culture and needs; for the rich and for the poor; for the youth and for the elderly."

Archbishop Balestrero also noted that the pope will only visit Colombia on this trip, he said in a statement he gave at a news conference and published online on the conference website.

"It is rare that the pope visits only one country and that he stays there for four days. This shows the importance that (Pope) Francis attributes to this visit and, ultimately, to Colombia," he said.

- - -

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.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article