Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) The former Director of Vatican Radio and ex Director of the Holy See Press office Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, last night received France’s highest order the Legion d’Honneur.

It was in recognition of a career devoted to communicating the message of the Holy See but also for his attention to the French language especially through its diffusion through the airwaves of Vatican Radio.

Speaking at the ceremony in Rome, Fr Lombardi who is now President of the Ratzinger Foundation underlined the importance of circulating the Pope's message in the media.

He also added that the coverage of  international news by the media of the Holy See was an indispensable condition for understanding the major concerns of the Church.

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Caracas, Venezuela, Feb 23, 2017 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After speaking against alleged government misconduct, human rights abuses and delay of free elections, Catholic churches and clergy around Venezuela are facing a wave of protests from pro-government supporters.

A string of incidents began on the morning of Jan. 29, as supporters of the current government interrupted a Mass at San Pedro Claver Church in a poor neighborhood of Caracas, Reuters reported.

The crowd of around 20 people hurled insults at the clergy, calling them “Satan in a cassock!” and “Fascist!” The protesters also used the chant “Chavez lives!” – in honor of late president and former leader of the ruling Socialist party, Hugo Chavez.

After the death of the socialist leader from cancer in 2013 and his succession by current Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the country has faced both increases in violence and a number of social and political challenges, including the delay of the country's regional elections.

The bishops' strong stance against the current Venezuelan government – and other opinions echoed by priests around the country– has prompted backlash not only in the capital of Caracas, but in around the country. The cathedral of Caracas was hit with rocks, and protestors went to the home of the Archbishop Antonio Lopez of Barquisimeto after he said in a speech that socialism has brought “misery” to the country.

The same day as the protests in the Caracas parish of San Pedro Claver, police interrupted Mass in the city of Maracaibo. In the last week of January, gun-toting robbers attacked, threatened monks and stole from a Trappist monastery in the state of Merida.

Current head of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Diego Padron, told Reuters that “this list, in my opinion, shows they are not isolated events.”

One of the most contentious issues the country faces is the economy, where the world's highest inflation rates, price controls and failed economic policies have resulted in severe shortages of basic necessities like medicines, milk, flour, toilet paper and other essentials.

The shortages have their roots in policies enacted by Chavez in 2003 that control the price of nearly 160 products such as flour, milk, oil and soap. While these products are affordable at the government listed price, they are in short supply and fly off the shelves, ending up on the black market at much higher rates.

To complicate matters further, there have been numerous reports of the Venezuelan army’s use of their position in guarding food supply and distribution as a means of participating and making money off the black markets. The supply shortages and other opportunities for corruption have also allowed other government officials and businesspeople to profit off of the troubles facing the Venezuelan people.

Since Maduro took office, Venezuela has also experienced a spike in violent crime, with one of the world’s highest murder rates. Opponents of the Maduro regime also report that the government has used its power to jail protesters and circumvent elections – essentially becoming a dictatorship.
Some of these opponents include the Venezuelan Bishops.

In a Feb. 7 interview with the archdiocese, the Archbishop of Caracas, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino criticized the suspension of regional elections and his displeasure with the government’s approach to political processes.  

“Without a doubt, it’s not a modern democracy,” the cardinal said. “Democracy is respect for the people, observance of the constitution, division and functioning of public powers, enforcement of all the promises, absence of political prisoners, free elections.”

“It’s already a dictatorship.”

The regional elections – which were scheduled for late 2016 and then delayed by the government – will take place later this year. According to the government, the delays were put in place to allow time for the reorganization of political organizations.

Before the delay of the elections, the Church helped to facilitate talks between the Maduro government and the opposition coalition. However, the talks collapsed with tensions and accusations from both sides.

The former president of of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, Bishop Ovidio Pérez Morales has also criticized the government and assured that the Church cannot remain quiet in the face of the government’s human right abuses.

“Morally, I cannot accept the violation of human rights,” he said in a Feb. 1 interview with Union Radio. “I can't accept that the state considers itself the owner of persons.”

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Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Feb 22, 2017 / 06:09 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- In the wake of an attack on a Catholic seminary, the leader of the Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has issued an appeal about “the alarming security situation” in his country.

In a message sent to international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Cardinal Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, the country’s capital, reported on a Feb. 18 “arson attack” on the Malole major seminary. The prelate charged the perpetrators were “violent thugs, who have [also] sown terror among the Carmelite Sisters” in nearby Kananga.

The cardinal described the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as marked by a “resurgence of fear, anger and insecurity” among the population. He stressed that the Catholic Church in particular has come under attack recently.

On Feb. 19, the parish church of St. Dominic in the Limete municipality of Kinshasa was desecrated by a gang of youth. Cardinal Pasinya wrote that “they overturned the tabernacle, ransacked the altar, smashed some of the benches and attempted to set fire to the church. The material damage is considerable.”

The archbishop believes the Catholic Church is “being targeted deliberately, in order to sabotage her mission of peace and reconciliation.”

The Church played a crucial role as mediator in negotiations that led to a Dec. 31, 2016 agreement that DRC President Joseph Kabila will step down following elections to be held late this year. The agreement brought the country back from the brink of renewed civil war.

In his message, Cardinal Pasinya called on the country’s politicians to assume their responsibility of leadership, reminding them that the country’s bishops were only acting as mediators.

He wrote: “It is now down to the men of politics to acknowledge with humility, both before the nation and before the international community, their political weakness and the turpitude of their selfish choices that have led to a political impasse and the paralysis of the institutions.”

He called on each and every political leader to “demonstrate wisdom, self-restraint and a democratic spirit in order to resolve the question regarding the designation of the Prime Minister and the other related issues” in order not to risk “imperiling the planned elections scheduled for the end of this year.”

ACN supports a number of projects in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, providing funding for the building of rectories and churches as well as priestly formation programs.

The Daughters of the Resurrection, an order of African Sisters that was founded with the aid of ACN, receives special support in the form of living expenses for the sisters. The community has been hard-hit by violence in the past decade; a number of convents were forced to close and several sisters were killed.

ACN also supports yearly retreats for priests, in an effort to give them some respite from the intense psychological stress of performing their ministry in a highly stressful and often violent settings.
 

Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN) www.acnmalta.org (Malta)

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