Catholic News 2

Vatican City, Feb 10, 2017 / 06:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A newly released decree from the Vatican's congregation for religious life states that the founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, Luis Fernando Figari, may not have contact with members of the community.

A Jan. 30 decree of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life addressed to the superior general of the Sodalitium, Alessandro Moroni Llabres, directs him to order that Figari be “prohibited from contacting, in any way, persons belonging to the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, and no way have any direct personal contact with them.”

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is a society of apostolic life which was founded in 1971 in Peru, and granted pontifical recognition in 1997. CNA's executive director, Alejandro Bermúdez, and its global director of operations, Ryan Thomas, are both members of the community.

The decree, obtained by CNA Feb. 10, is a fruit of an apostolic visitation made by Bishop Fortunato Pablo Urcey, Prelate of Chota, who was charged with investigating allegations of sexual and psychological abuse committed by Figari. The dicastery had first received accusations against Figari in 2011.

The visitation resulted “in the conviction that Mr. Figari, during his many years as Superior General of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, had adopted a style of government excessively or improperly authoritarian, directed to impose one's own will, not willing to accept any form of dialogue and fraternal and sincere confrontation, nor sensitive to the convictions and demands of others, and therefore not prone to understand, appreciate and accept, even partially, opinions different from his own.”

In addition, Figari, “in order to obtain the obedience of his brothers, used improper strategies and methods of persuasion, that is to say, underhanded, arrogant and nonetheless violent and disrespectful of the right to the inviolability of one's own interiority and discretion, and therefore to the freedom of the human person to independently discern the proposals or decisions.”

The congregation wrote that they consider it credible that Figari committed the crime of abuse of office, as outlined in canon 1389.

“Numerous witnesses have consistently asserted that, in order to manipulate, to make them dependent and therefore to control more than to direct consciences, especially of young people in formation, Mr. Figari has also asked, in an improper and in any case excessive, confidences in the sensitive field of sexuality, and in some cases has committed acts contrary to the VI Commandment.”

It added, however, that according to documentation that it had received through April 2016 the persons, with whom Figari had violated the commandment that “thou shalt not commit adultery”, all of whom belong in some way to the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, were all “much older than 16” when the events occurred.

Moreover, it added that Figari's abuse, while it could be “considered severely sinful”, cannot be affirmed with moral certainty as constituting child abuse or violence, as outlined in canon 1395.

Yet the decree also states that documentation it found in May 2016 clearly shows that “Figari, before 2001, committed some acts against the VI Commandment with some young people in formation in the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, of which, with certainty at least in one case occurred in 1974, with a person under 16 years of age.”

It stated that Figari and his lawyer have been notified of the charges made against him.

Figari's crime of abuse of office cannot be prosecuted because of a statute of limitations, however, and he cannot be prosecuted for his abuse of minors under canon 1395 because he is a layman, and not a cleric – the only persons covered by that canon.

However, his sexual abuse of minors means he is to be dismissed from his institute, unless “the superior decides that dismissal is not completely necessary and that correction of the member, restitution of justice, and reparation of scandal can be resolved sufficiently in another way.”

The congregation determined that Figari does not have to be expelled from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, citing his abuse having taken place “in the very distant past”; his being the founder of the community “and therefore the mediator of a charisma of divine origin”; his age and poor health; his manifested willingness to collaborate; that Bishop Pablo “verified that there are no current members of the apostolic life Society who support Mr. Figari or who are particularly attached to him in government positions or in the formation”; and that the Sodalits' current government “are clearly aware of the mistakes made in the past by Mr. Figari and that there is firm determination of the General Government to free itself of the style of government and formation adopted by him in the course of the many years in which he has directed the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, as well as remedying, as much as possible and in any case what is just, to the harm caused to anyone.”

It directed that Moroni, in addition to keeping Figari from contacting any Sodalits, is to order that Figari not return to Peru, except for very serious reasons and with written permission; that he be placed in a residence where there are no Sodalits; that a member of the Sodalits be entrusted with the task of referring to Figari, for any eventuality and request; and that Figari be prohibited from granting any statement to the media or from participating in any public demonstrations or meetings of the Sodalitium Christiane Vitae.

The decree bears the signatures of the congregations' prefect, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, and its secretary, Archbishop José Rodriguez Carballo.

Last month, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae announced that 66 persons can be considered victims of abuse of mistreatment by members of the community, and that it has set aside more than $2.8 million in reparations and assistance for victims.

In May 2016 Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark was appointed as the Vatican's delegate to oversee ongoing reform of the society.

The month prior, an ethics commission created to investigate and offer proposals surrounding accusations of abuse against Figari had released a report which detailed an internal culture of extreme “discipline and obedience to the founder” which was “forged on the basis of extreme physical demands, as well as physical punishments, constituting abuses which violated the fundamental rights of persons.”

The commission charged that Figari’s arbitrary use of authority led to “an organizational culture based on the cult of personality.” Those who discerned out of the community were hindered from doing so, and were treated as if they were “treasonous,” the report suggested: “In many cases, this has led to grave psychological effects and even the rejection of the Catholic faith, even after being incorporated into life outside the community, obliging them to suffer unmerited spiritual conflicts.”

In addition to Peru, the Sodalitium Christiane Vitae operates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, the U.S. and Italy.

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Washington D.C., Feb 11, 2017 / 06:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. has made significant strides in promoting religious freedom abroad in the last two years, says the outgoing U.S. religious freedom ambassador.

One “success” of his tenure at the State Department was “the work that we’re quietly doing day in and day out on behalf of prisoners of conscience,” the former Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rabbi David Saperstein insisted at a panel discussion on religious freedom, held Thursday in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Religion News Foundation.

These “prisoners of conscience” might be religious leaders, political dissidents or human rights activists jailed because of their public beliefs and advocacy. The State Department helps obtain “security” or “legal support” for these people, or helps them leave their country, Saperstein said. Their lawyers and defendants have credited the United States’ advocacy with the release of their clients from prison, he noted.

Rabbi Saperstein, who led the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism before his time at State, was confirmed by the Senate as the State Department’s Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom in December of 2014, filling a 14 month-long vacancy in the position.

The ambassador is charged with promoting religious freedom as part of U.S. foreign policy, reporting on human rights abuses, and holding foreign actors accountable for how they treat religious minorities.

The office was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which also mandated the State Department publish an annual global report on religious freedom.

In March of 2016, during Rabbi Saperstein’s tenure as ambassador, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the Islamic State – also known as Daesh, ISIS, and ISIL – was committing genocide against Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims in Iraq and Syria.

The genocide declaration was hailed as a key act in the resettlement of the persecuted minorities in the region, one that could help them obtain needed humanitarian aid, priority resettlement status, and a safe return home if they chose to do so. It came almost two years after ISIS swept across Northern Iraq, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of ethnic and religious minorities that inhabited the region.

Advocates had insisted for months that the U.S. declare genocide had taken place. According to reports, the agency originally planned to declare that only Yazidis in Northern Iraq were genocide victims, based off of a Holocaust Museum fact-finding mission in the region that focused only on atrocities committed on the Nineveh Plain during the summer of 2014.

However, after a request by Ambassador Saperstein, the Knights of Columbus and the advocacy group In Defense of Christians published an almost 300-page report from a fact-finding mission to Iraq, documenting atrocities committed by ISIS against Christians and other minorities, and featuring interviews with genocide survivors and legal documents.

A week later, Secretary Kerry issued the genocide declaration. In an interview with CNA, Saperstein revealed that the declaration came about at Kerry’s insistence.

“That genocide finding took place because the Secretary wanted it,” Saperstein said. “He demanded far more information than had been available when he began this process, when there clearly wasn’t enough information available to make a finding.”

Saperstein noted that the situation in Iraq and Syria differed from previous instances where the U.S. declared genocide, like in Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia.

“Here, most people fled before ISIL came in and the ones left under ISIL control were not available to people. Just now in Mosul, we’re just learning about the extent of the brutality of what was going on under ISIL’s control,” he explained. “So we didn’t have the same information available.”

Former Secretary Kerry “really deserves the credit for this finding,” he continued, noting that the U.S. “had already been acting as if there was such a finding” by intervening to send supplies to Yazidis cut off from food and water on Mt. Sinjar in August of 2014, and establishing a military coalition to counter the Islamic State.

The global state of religious freedom is still dire, he insisted, noting that three-fourths of the world’s population still lives in countries like China, India, and Pakistan where freedom of religion is significantly restricted.

In these countries “religious communities, particularly religious minorities, still face significant threats from social hostilities, from other religious groups, or repressive actions of the government in controlling what they can say or how they can worship or what they can do as part of their religious communities,” he said, giving examples of anti-blasphemy laws, onerous registration requirements for minority religions, and laws prohibiting conversion.

An increase in its budget and staff has boosted the office’s efforts, Saperstein noted. In his two years as ambassador, he said the office’s budget doubled, its “programmatic money quintupled,” and its staff doubled in size.

The Office on Religion and Global Affairs also has done key work in studying “the role of religion” in all areas of life from public policy to economics to “conflict resolution,” he said.

“You ended up with a situation at the end of this administration where there were some 50 people working day in and day out on nothing other than religious issues in the United States government,” he said. “It’s probably more dedicated staff just to that issue than all the governments of the world put together” on international religious freedom.

“That’s quite a vote of confidence as to the importance of religious issues in the United States,” he added, noting that “across the globe…many of the cardinals and bishops that I met with were very encouraged” by this.

And the State Department has crafted an “international coalition” to help genocide victims resettle in their homes, stay where they currently are like in Iraqi Kurdistan, or move elsewhere, he said. “The UN is playing a key role in achieving that with significant American support.”

The coalition is dealing with issues like “security measures” for genocide victims to live peacefully, “economic development” in the region, empowering them to have a role in rebuilding Iraq, preserving their cultures, and punishing the perpetrators of genocide.

 

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Vatican City, Feb 11, 2017 / 09:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Saturday appointed Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warszawa-Praga as a delegate of the Holy See to look into the pastoral situation at Medjugore, the site of alleged Marian apparitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The mission has the aim of acquiring a deeper knowledge of the pastoral situation there and above all, of the needs of the faithful who go there in pilgrimage, and on the basis of this, to suggest possible pastoral initiatives for the future,” stated a Feb. 11 communique from the Vatican Secretariat of State.

“The mission will therefore have an exclusively pastoral character,” it added.

Greg Burke, the Holy See press officer, strenuously reiterated the pastoral, and not doctrinal, nature of Archbishop Hoser's mission, while speaking at a press conference.

“The special envoy won’t enter into the substance of the Marian apparitions, which is a doctrinal question in the competency of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” he said.

The alleged apparitions originally began June 24, 1981, when six children in Medjugorje, a town in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, began to experience phenomena which they have claimed to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to these six “seers,” the apparitions contained a message of peace for the world, a call to conversion, prayer and fasting, as well as certain secrets surrounding events to be fulfilled in the future.

These apparitions are said to have continued almost daily since their first occurrence, with three of the original six children – who are now young adults – continuing to receive apparitions every afternoon because not all of the “secrets” intended for them have been revealed.

Since their beginning, the alleged apparitions have been a source of both controversy and conversion, with many flocking to the city for pilgrimage and prayer, and some claiming to have experienced miracles at the site, while many others claim the visions are non-credible.

In April 1991, the bishops of the former Yugoslavia determined that “on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.”

On the basis of those findings the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directed in October 2013 that clerics and the faithful “are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such 'apparitions' would be taken for granted.”

In January 2014, a Vatican commission completed an investigation into the supposed apparitions' doctrinal and disciplinary aspects, and was to have submitted its findings to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

When the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will have analyzed the commission's findings, it will finalize a document on Medjugorge, which will be submitted to the Pope, who will make a final decision.

Pope Francis visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 2015, but declined to stop at Medjugorje during his trip.

During his return flight to Rome, he indicated that the process of investigation in the apparitions was nearly complete.

When journalists noted this point at Saturday's press conference, Burke responded that the doctrinal question of the alleged apparitions “are still being studied … this is neither a recognition nor a negative judgement. That is always a doctrinal question separate from this, which is pastoral. If you read [the communique], you can’t read any doctrinal judgement” in the pastoral appointment of Archbishop Hoser.

Rather than being involved in the doctrinal questions, Archbishop Hoser's mission is a matter of “people’s needs,” Burke emphasized: “pastoral life, liturgy, catechesis, sacraments and the experience of devotion they have there,” but not the management of local parishes.

“It’s important to note that it’s not an apostolic visitation,” Burke concluded. “Look at the words. This is more 'for' than 'against'. It’s for the life of the pilgrims who go there.”

Archbishop Hoser will remain Bishop of Warszawa-Praga, and is expected to complete his role at Medjugorje by the summer.

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Washington D.C., Feb 11, 2017 / 04:33 pm (CNA).- After President Donald Trump pushed for the creation of safe zones for refugees in the Middle East, advocates and humanitarian aid groups are divided over whether the policy will work.

“We think it’s within the United States’ national security interests to support the creation of safe zones to at least stop the exodus of people leaving Syria and move that conflict more toward a resolution which is favorable to Christians,” Phillippe Nassif, executive director of the group In Defense of Christians, told CNA of Trump’s proposal.

However, Bill O’Keefe, vice president of government relations and advocacy at Catholic Relief Services, said that “the Syrian conflict is such a hornet’s nest of proxy wars, and to think that in the midst of that a safe zone will be safe indefinitely is just unlikely.”

President Trump was expected to call for the establishment of safe zones in the Middle East in his recent executive order that halted U.S. refugee admissions, but that policy was left out of the final draft of the order.

Nevertheless, Trump has reportedly discussed setting up safe zones in Syria and Yemen with regional leaders, the King of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

“Safe zones” would be areas set up in the war-torn countries for various innocent persons displaced by the conflict to live in security as they wait to return home.

They would require “troops on the ground and a no-fly zone” to maintain security, Nassif explained. They wouldn’t exclusively be set up in rural areas, but could be placed on fertile land or in urban areas to provide economic incentives for the population and even return displaced persons to their homes.

The Syrian conflict between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel factions has lasted for almost six years with the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. It has created the world’s largest refugee crisis, with around five million refugees having fled the country and over six million displaced persons living within the country’s borders.

One million registered refugees live in neighboring Lebanon – with about half a million unregistered refugees, Nassif told CNA – and many have also fled to Turkey, Jordan, and Europe as well.

This has created an unsustainable refugee situation, Nassif argued, one that threatens to destabilize the region around Syria and spread the conflict to those countries as well.

“We’re really concerned about Lebanon,” he said of the country, where an estimated one in four persons is a refugee.

“It is a perfect example of a country where Christians and Muslims co-exist in the region. There’s a Christian president in the country, but we’re very worried that this huge burden on the state and economic and a security burden is not alleviated any time soon, that Lebanon will have its own problems and potential collapse.”

Safe zones, he argued, would stem the flow of refugees from Syria by giving them a temporary secure place to reside. It would ease the burden on neighboring countries that shelter refugees, and would keep Syrians relatively close to their homes to one day return there.

However, Catholic Relief Services expressed that they are “circumspect” on the U.S. establishing safe zones in Syria and Yemen, while still praising the Trump administration for their “interest” in caring for the most vulnerable populations in Syria.

“Once you declare a safe zone, you’re responsible for keeping the people inside safe for as long as necessary,” Bill O’Keefe told CNA, adding that they “can be extremely expensive and difficult to sustain.”

With so many regional actors like Turkey and Iran involved in the Syrian conflict and waging “proxy wars” there, people inside safe zones could still be at high risk of bombings and attacks, he said.

Placing so many refugees in one place could make these vulnerable populations even more of a target to terror groups and entities that want to kill them, he added.

“When you concentrate the innocent and the vulnerable together, they can become more of a target and even if there’s a sincere effort at providing a security umbrella, you have a lot of vulnerable people concentrated in a very defined area, and for those who want to harm those people, in some ways it’s actually easier,” he said.

And if they are set up for an indefinite period of time, safe zones may not be a lasting solution for families who just want to live a “normal life.”

If the conflict does not end, the zones may instead be dead-ends “where families can’t earn a living, where children can’t go to school,” he said, and the situation “doesn’t prepare them to rebuild their society and to go back and play a productive role in wherever they are.”

Rather, the U.S. should put its energy into pursuing peace at the local and regional levels in Syria and the Middle East, he insisted.

“We certainly urge our government to expend the last ounce of diplomatic energy on working with the parties to the conflict” as well as the “regional and global actors that are, in one way or another, engaged in various proxy battles” in Syria, O’Keefe said.

“Adequate humanitarian assistance” must also be provided to displaced persons in Syria and neighboring countries, he insisted.

However, although safe zones may be risky they are still preferable to the current situation on the ground for many embattled religious and ethnic minorities, Nassif said.

“It’s basically a free-for-all in Syria. And it’s total chaos on the ground. All of these minorities are being targeted left and right by everybody and they’re being scapegoated,” he said, noting the “exodus” of Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, and Alowites from the country.

“The longer the conflict goes in Syria, the more likely Christians are going to just be continuing to leave at the rate they’ve been leaving from the country,” he said.

 

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Rome, Italy, Feb 12, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- One year ago marked a historic first meeting between a Pope and a Russian Orthodox Patriarch.

Now, the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate will celebrate the meeting’s anniversary with a conference at Switzerland’s Freibourg University.

The conference will take place Feb. 12, exactly one year after the meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill at the St. Marti airport at the Havana.

Christian brotherhood and unity were the focus of the 2016 meeting.

“We spoke as brothers,” Pope Francis said of the meeting last year. “We have the same baptism. We are bishops. We spoke of our Churches.”

Patriarch Kirill said their private discussion was conducted “with full awareness of the responsibility of our Churches, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization” and provided a chance to understand each other. He said the two Churches will work against war.

Now, one year later, Catholic and Russian Orthodox leaders will gather in Switzerland for a conference. The event is held by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, and Metropolitan Hilarion, president of the department of the external ecclesiastical relations of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate.
 
Cardinal Koch and Metropolitan Hilarion both led the negotiations that led to Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill’s joint statement in Havana. At the Switzerland conference they will talk about progress and rapprochement between the two Churches.
 
It is probable that Cardinal Koch’s lecture will follow the approach of Fr. Hyacinthe Destivelle, who is in charge of the Eastern relations desk at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the Christian Unity.
 
In Jan. 19 essay for L’Osservatore Romano, Fr. Destivelle emphasized the advances in the dialogue between the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate.

The 2016 meeting was not framed by theological dialogue, which is instead the competence of the International Roman Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue. Rather, it was framed instead “by the dialogue of charity, and more precisely by pastoral ecumenism.”
 
The priest reiterated that the joint declaration between the Pope and the Patriarch was “a pastoral one.” He rejected interpreting their declaration through “geopolitical lenses” and said it would be incorrect to see in them an excessive theological impact.

The declaration focused at length on anti-Christian persecution, especially in in the Middle East and North Africa. It lamented the hostilities in Ukraine. The declaration also voiced concern about the threat of secularism to religious freedom and the Christian roots of Europe.

Other topics of the discussion between the Pope and the Patriarch included poverty, the crisis in the family, abortion and euthanasia. The Pope and the Patriarch exhorted young Christians to live their faith in the world.
 
Fr. Destivelle also noted that the declaration drew criticisms from both Orthodox and Catholic sides.

In particular, from Ukraine the Greek Catholic Church expressed “strong reservations” focused on some passages.

The priest said more time is needed for the Havana meeting and the joint declaration to bear fruit.

As for the upcoming anniversary, Fr. Destivelle listed a series of concerts, exhibitions and even exchanges of gifts that will show strengthened relations.

He noted that Metropolitan Hilarion visited Rome four times in the last year and met with Pope Francis twice, on June 15 and Oct. 21. The metropolitan has met with other Vatican leaders. He had a June 26 meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, and several meetings with Cardinal Koch.

Fr. Destivelle wanted to reiterate that the Havana declaration was a “pastoral declaration” that intended to soften the polemics, even the polemics raised after the declaration was issued..
 
The declaration was at that time considered “Russophile” in some quarters. The Ukrainian religious agency RISU described it as such in its introduction to an interview with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
 
Asked about his strong criticism of the declaration, Major Archbishop Shevchuk said that “some considered my words to be too harsh,” but he then noted that the Pope himself “affirmed that that the declaration’s text was not infallible, that it is not ‘a page of the Gospel’.”

“It should not be underestimated but it should also not be exaggerated,” the archbishop said.
 
For Major Archbishop Shevchuk, an important result of the Havana meeting was that the Ukrainian Church began a conversation with the Holy See on these points.

“Certainly, even before this event, we always strove to inform the Vatican regarding the truth concerning the war in Ukraine,” the archbishop said. “Nevertheless, after Havana, the global community was able to perceive our distress once again, by being reminded of the ‘forgotten war’ in Ukraine. Our pleas also resounded anew in the Vatican.”
 
Archbishop Shevchuk also voiced appreciation for the progress of the Holy See, and recalled Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s trip to Ukraine. On the other hand, he emphasized that Ukraine should invest more in relations with the Holy See.
 
Russia too is investing much in relations with the Holy See. While in Paris for the European Meeting between Catholic and Orthodox Bishops, Metropolitan Hilarion granted an interview to Italian Bishops Conference’s news agency SIR.
 
In the interview, he underlined the good relations with the Holy See and in particular with Pope Francis. Though he said that another meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill is “not in the agenda,” he said there are many things both Churches can do together.

“If our Churches speak joining their voices, our message is certainly stronger and of more impact,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.
 
These are all the issues on the table that will likely be developed in the conference in Freibourg on Sunday. From Cuba to Switzerland, from Havana to the great hall of the university, many things have changed. But what has not changed is the strong desire for dialogue between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow.

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Vatican City, Feb 12, 2017 / 09:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christ's Sermon on the Mount shows that he wanted to fulfil the law of Moses, not abolish it, Pope Francis said Sunday during his Angelus address.

He “wants to help his listeners to achieve a reinterpretation of the Mosaic law. What was said in the Old Covenant was true, but it was not all: Jesus came to fulfill and to enact definitively the law of God, down to the last iota,” the Pope said Feb. 12 in St. Peter's Square.

“He manifests the Law’s original purposes and He fulfils its authentic aspects – and He does all this by His preaching and even more by offering Himself on the Cross.”

Christ “teaches how to do the will of God fully – and   He uses this expression: with a 'justice superior' to that of the scribes and Pharisees – a justice animated   by love, charity, mercy, and therefore capable of realizing the substance of the commandments, avoiding the risk of formalism,” he said, calling us to “more”.

The Gospel passage the Pope considered included Christ's words on homicide, adultery, and oath swearing.

Christ explained that the commandment against murder “is violated not only by actual homicide, but also by those behaviors which offend the dignity of the human person, including insulting words. Certainly, these injurious words do not have the same gravity and sinfulness of killing, but they are placed on the same line, because they are the premises of the more serious acts and they reveal the same malevolence.”

We are invited “not to establish a gradation of offenses, but to consider them all harmful, insofar as they are all moved by the intention to do harm to one’s neighbor,” he said, urging: “Please, do not insult! We earn nothing by doing so.”

“Another fulfilment is made to marriage law,” Pope Francis said. “Adultery had been considered a violation of a man’s property right to his wife. Jesus, however, goes to the root of the evil. Just as one comes to murder through injuries, offenses, and insults, so one comes to adultery through intentions of possession with respect to a woman other than one’s wife.”

“Adultery, like theft, corruption and all other sins, are first conceived in our hearts and, once the wrong choice is made in the heart, they are actuated in concrete behavior. And Jesus says: He who looks with a possessing spirit at a woman who is not his own is an adulterer in his heart, he has begun to go down the road to adultery. Let us think a little on this: on the bad thoughts that are in this line.”

The Pope then turned to Christ's words on swearing oaths, noting that Christ advised against it because “the oath is a sign of insecurity and duplicity with which human relations are conducted. Oath-swearing exploits the authority of God to give assurance to our human affairs. Rather we are called to establish among ourselves, in our families and in our communities, a climate of clarity and mutual trust, so that we can be considered honest without resorting to higher interventions in order to be believed. Mistrust and mutual suspicion always threaten serenity!”

Pope Francis concluded by turning to Mary, “a woman of docile listening and joyous obedience, might help us to approach the Gospel, to be Christians not in name, but in substance! And this is possible with the grace of the Holy Spirit, who permits us to do everything with love, and so to fulfil the will of God.”

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New Orleans, La., Feb 12, 2017 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Venerable Henriette DeLille, born a “free woman of color” before the Civil War, had all the makings of a life of relative ease before her.

Born in 1812 to a wealthy French father and a free Creole woman of Spanish, French and African descent, Henriette was groomed throughout her childhood to become a part of what was then known as the placage system.

Under the placage system, free women of color (term used at the time for people of full or partial African descent, who were no longer or never were slaves) entered into common law marriages with wealthy white plantation owners, who often kept their legitimate families at the plantations in the country.  It was a rigid system, but afforded free women of color comfortable and even luxurious lives.

Trained in French literature, music, dancing, and nursing, Henriette was prepared to become the “kept woman” of a wealthy white man throughout her childhood.

However, in her early 20s, Henriette declared that her religious convictions could not be reconciled with the placage lifestyle for which she was being prepared. Raised Catholic, which was typical for free people of color at the time, she had recently had a deep encounter with God, and believed that the placage system violated Church teaching on the sanctity of marriage.

Working as a teacher since the age of 14, Henriette’s devotion to caring for and educating the poor grew. Even though she was only one-eighth African and could have passed as a white person, she always referred to herself as Creole or as a free person of color, causing conflict in her family, who had declared themselves white on the census.

In 1836, wanting to dedicate her life to God, Henriette used the proceeds of an inheritance to found a small unrecognized order of nuns, the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her non-white heritage had barred her from admission to the Ursuline and Carmelite orders, which only accepted white women at the time.

This group would eventually become the Sisters of the Holy Family, officially founded at St. Augustine's Church in 1842. Like Henriette, the other two founding sisters had denounced a life in the placage system.

The Sisters taught religion and other subjects to the slaves, even though it was illegal to do so at the time, punishable by death or life imprisonment.

They also encouraged free quadroon women (women of one-fourth African descent) to marry men of their own class, and encouraged slave couples to have their unions blessed by the church.

The Sisters also established a home to care for elderly women, many of them likely former slaves. It was the first nursing home of its kind established by the Church in the U.S., and it was there that the early Sisters cared for the sick and the dying during the yellow fever epidemics that struck New Orleans in 1853 and 1897.

Homes for orphans and eventually schools were also established by the order, which continued to grow and spread its mission throughout the South.

Henriette Delille died in 1862 at the relatively young age of 50, probably of tuberculosis. At the time of her death, the order had 12 members, but it would eventually peak at 400 members in the 1950s.

The Sisters of the Holy Family are still an active order in Louisiana today, with sisters working in nursing homes and as teachers, administrators and other pastoral positions.

In 1988, the Mother Superior of the order at the time requested the opening of Henriette Delille’s cause for canonization. She was declared a Servant of God, and then was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI on March 27, 2010. A miracle through her intercession is needed for her beatification, the next step in the process before canonization.

Throughout her life, Henriette was inspired by this prayer, which she wrote in one of her religious books when she first founded her order: "I believe in God, I hope In God. I love. I want to live and die for God."

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Vatican City, Feb 13, 2017 / 10:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of several contentious events surrounding the Vatican recently, Pope Francis' advisory board in his ongoing reform of the Roman Curia affirmed their support of the Pope and his work.

On behalf of the group, Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga greeted Pope Francis at the start of the councils of cardinal's Feb. 13 meeting.

He thanked the Pope for his Christmas address to the Roman Curia Dec. 22, and acknowledging “his encouragement and direction for the work of the council,” a Vatican communique stated.

“In relation to recent events, the Council of Cardinals expresses its full support of the work of the Pope, while ensuring full adhesion and support to his person and his Magisterium,” it added.

The statement comes just over one week after posters criticizing the Pope were plastered on walls of the city center of Rome Feb. 4.

Depicting a dour looking Pope Francis, they read: “Ah Francis, you've taken over congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals…but where’s your mercy?”

After hearing about the posters, the Pope himself was reportedly unfazed. According to Italian news agency ANSA, Pope Francis received the news of the posters with “serenity and detachment.”

The brief phrase included on the posters was written in the Roman dialect, and indicates the culprit is someone who comes from more conservative sectors of the Church, many of whom have been in sharp disagreement with the Pope regarding his decisions and ongoing reform of the curia, which he is doing with the help of the Council of Cardinals.

Established by Pope Francis shortly after his pontificate began in 2013, the council, also called “the Council of Nine,” serves as an advisory body on Church governance and reform, with special emphasis on the reform of Pastor Bonus, the 1988 apostolic constitution of St. John Paul II that regulates the competencies and work of the Roman Curia.

The anti-Francis posters clearly referenced several contentious issues from his pontificate, such as the letter written to him by four cardinals in September asking for clarification on five points – called “dubia” – in Amoris Laetitia. The letter was subsequently published in November, after the Pope did not respond.

Another recent one was the Pope’s request at the end of January for the Order of Malta’s former Grand Master, Matthew Festing, to resign while ousted Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager be reinstated.

The cardinals' council is currently holding their 18th session at the Vatican Feb. 13-15 for what is their usual three days of meetings with Pope Francis. A session is generally held every few months.

Their last session was held Dec. 12-14, and focused on synodality and the Church’s “missionary drive” forming the basis of the discussion on how reform of the curia’s various departments will move forward.

Discussion largely centered around the role of the Secretary of State and the Congregations for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fides), for Bishops, and for Oriental Churches.

In the past, the council has also emphasized the need for greater harmonization and simplification in the curia.

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Vatican City, Feb 13, 2017 / 10:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Monday spoke about what it means to kill your brother in your heart, which, may be something as small as envy or bitterness, and if left to grow, can lead to even worse things, such as war or actual murder.

Most people have never actually killed someone, the Pope said in his homily for Mass at the chapel of Casa Santa Marta Feb. 13, but “if you have a bad feeling toward your brother, you killed him; if you insult your brother, you killed him in your heart. Killing is a process that starts from little things.”

Reflecting on the story of Cain and Abel, the Pope said it is one “which begins with a little jealousy: Cain is irritated because his sacrifice does not please the Lord and he begins to cultivate a feeling of resentment, a feeling he could control but does not.”

“The speck of sawdust becomes a plank in our eye,” he continued, “our life revolves around it and it ends up destroying the bond of brotherhood; it destroys fraternity.”

When we let even these little things, like resentment or jealousy or annoyance, continue, Francis said, the sin can grow into something even worse. “This is what happened to Cain, who ended up killing his brother.”

This is why we must try to stop, at the very first sign of bitterness and resentment, he said. “Bitterness is not Christian. Pain is, but not bitterness. Resentment is not Christian.”

If we do not do this, “this enmity ends up destroying families, people, everything!” he said. Giving an example from war, where people may say that casualties of bombs or other violence, even children, are not their fault.

“It all begins with that feeling that makes you break away, saying to each other: ‘This is some guy, this is so and so, but it is not a brother…’” he said, or when we say “here are those who are bombarded” or “who are driven out” but “these are not brothers.”  

The Pope gave his homily to the members of the Council of Cardinals. The council, an advisory board to the Pope made up of nine cardinals, started their 18th session today, which runs through Feb. 15.

Pope Francis created the group at the start of his pontificate to act as an advisory body on Church governance and reform of the Roman Curia.

The Pope offered the Mass for Father Adolfo Nicolás, the Superior General of the Jesuits from 2008 to 2016, who will be leaving Rome Wednesday.

This lack of brotherhood infects even the priesthood, the Pope warned: “little things… rifts.”

Cain’s answer “is ironic,” because when the Lord asks him where his brother is, he says, “I don’t know: am I my brother’s keeper?” Francis said. “Yes, you are your brother’s keeper,” the Pope emphasized.

Let us ask the Lord, the Pope concluded, to remember this question: “Where is your brother?” and to help us think about “all those who in the world are treated as things and not as brothers, because a piece of land is more important than the bond of brotherhood.”

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Washington D.C., Feb 13, 2017 / 01:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- President Donald Trump’s administration will stop fighting in court to implement the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom policy, leading to applause from a religious freedom legal group.  

“This is good news for the privacy, safety, and dignity of young students across America,” stated Gary McCaleb, senior counsel with the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.

On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it was dropping the government’s appeal on behalf of the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom guidance. That guidance had directed schools to allow students to use the bathroom or locker room of the gender they currently identify with, not the facilities of their birth or biological sex.

In August, the Northern District of Texas federal court placed an injunction on the policy, halting it from going into effect.  

In response to the injunction, the Obama administration appealed its case to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal was dropped on Friday, a decision McCaleb praised as “the first steps to end” the Obama administration’s “error.”

The guidance in question was an interpretation of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination “on the basis of sex” within “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

In its interpretation, the administration said the Title IX anti-discrimination protections include those for gender identity, meaning that transgender students had to have access to facilities of the gender with which they identified, like single-sex locker rooms and bathrooms.

In response to the Trump administration’s decision to drop the government’s appeal, McCaleb said the Obama administration’s policy had “radically distorted” Title IX, which “was intended to equalize educational opportunities for women.”

Leading U.S. bishops had expressed serious concerns with the guidance, saying that it “contradicts a basic understanding of human formation so well expressed by Pope Francis: that ‘the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created’.”

“Children, youth, and parents in these difficult situations deserve compassion, sensitivity, and respect,” said Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo and Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, chairs of the committees on youth and Catholic education, respectively.

“All of these can be expressed without infringing on legitimate concerns about privacy and security on the part of the other young students and parents. The federal regulatory guidance issued on May 13 does not even attempt to achieve this balance.”

The August injunction by the Texas district court came weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court had halted from going into effect a Fourth Circuit Court ruling that a transgender student had to be able to access the public school bathroom of their choice. The Court will hear that case of Gavin Grimm this term.

“It is only common sense to ensure privacy for all students by keeping boys out of girls' locker rooms and vice versa,” McCaleb said. “It’s right to respect the real differences between boys and girls, because that protects the privacy, safety, and dignity of all students.”

 

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