Post #35

Excerpt from CBC News: Quebec City cardinal says abortion never justified

The Harper government is distancing itself from anti-abortion remarks made by the Catholic Church's top Canadian official over the weekend.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Josee Verner called the comments "unacceptable. It is well-known that I am pro-choice," the minister told reporters in Quebec city on Monday. "To suggest that we could reopen the debate on abortion is unacceptable."

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, attending the Campagne Pro-Vie conference in Quebec City on Saturday, suggested that abortion can never be justified, even in cases where a woman has been raped. He called abortion a "moral crime" as serious as murder.

Ouellet said he understands how a sexually assaulted woman has been traumatized and must be helped, and that her attacker must be held accountable. "But there is already a victim," he said. "Must there be another one?"

The comments from Ouellet come as the abortion issue, long dormant in national politics, has begun heating up again. Ouellet applauded the Harper government for its stance against funding abortions in the developing world.

Canadian officials say they will instead focus the G8 plan on other measures aimed at improving the health of women and children in poor countries — including safe drinking water, nutrition and immunization programs. But, Verner replied that the government isn't looking for endorsements like the one from Ouellet.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/05/17/ouellet-marois-abortion-rape.html

Post #34

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

For the 44th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY Sunday, 16 May 2010

"The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word"

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The theme of this year’s World Communications Day - The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word – is meant to coincide with the Church’s celebration of the Year for Priests. It focuses attention on the important and sensitive pastoral area of digital communications, in which priests can discover new possibilities for carrying out their ministry to and for the Word of God. Church communities have always used the modern media for fostering communication, engagement with society, and, increasingly, for encouraging dialogue at a wider level. Yet the recent, explosive growth and greater social impact of these media make them all the more important for a fruitful priestly ministry.

All priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and the communication of his saving grace in the sacraments. Gathered and called by the Word, the Church is the sign and instrument of the communion that God creates with all people, and every priest is called to build up this communion, in Christ and with Christ. Such is the lofty dignity and beauty of the mission of the priest, which responds in a special way to the challenge raised by the Apostle Paul: “The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:11, 13-15).

Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies. The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.

The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. They will best achieve this aim if they learn, from the time of their formation, how to use these technologies in a competent and appropriate way, shaped by sound theological insights and reflecting a strong priestly spirituality grounded in constant dialogue with the Lord. Yet priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a “soul” to the fabric of communications that makes up the “Web”.

God’s loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging. Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries, especially the many people in our day who experience uncertainty and confusion, “that God is near; that in Christ we all belong to one another” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, 21 December 2009).

Who better than a priest, as a man of God, can develop and put into practice, by his competence in current digital technology, a pastoral outreach capable of making God concretely present in today’s world and presenting the religious wisdom of the past as a treasure which can inspire our efforts to live in the present with dignity while building a better future? Consecrated men and women working in the media have a special responsibility for opening the door to new forms of encounter, maintaining the quality of human interaction, and showing concern for individuals and their genuine spiritual needs. They can thus help the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord’s presence, to grow in expectation and hope, and to draw near to the Word of God which offers salvation and fosters an integral human development. In this way the Word can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different “highways” that form “cyberspace”, and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own. Thanks to the new communications media, the Lord can walk the streets of our cities and, stopping before the threshold of our homes and our hearts, say once more: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).

In my Message last year, I encouraged leaders in the world of communications to promote a culture of respect for the dignity and value of the human person. This is one of the ways in which the Church is called to exercise a “diaconia of culture” on today’s “digital continent”. With the Gospels in our hands and in our hearts, we must reaffirm the need to continue preparing ways that lead to the Word of God, while being at the same time constantly attentive to those who continue to seek; indeed, we should encourage their seeking as a first step of evangelization. A pastoral presence in the world of digital communications, precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, non-believers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute. Just as the prophet Isaiah envisioned a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Is 56:7), can we not see the web as also offering a space – like the “Court of the Gentiles” of the Temple of Jerusalem – for those who have not yet come to know God?

The development of the new technologies and the larger digital world represents a great resource for humanity as a whole and for every individual, and it can act as a stimulus to encounter and dialogue. But this development likewise represents a great opportunity for believers. No door can or should be closed to those who, in the name of the risen Christ, are committed to drawing near to others. To priests in particular the new media offer ever new and far-reaching pastoral possibilities, encouraging them to embody the universality of the Church’s mission, to build a vast and real fellowship, and to testify in today’s world to the new life which comes from hearing the Gospel of Jesus, the eternal Son who came among us for our salvation. At the same time, priests must always bear in mind that the ultimate fruitfulness of their ministry comes from Christ himself, encountered and listened to in prayer; proclaimed in preaching and lived witness; and known, loved and celebrated in the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation.

To my dear brother priests, then, I renew the invitation to make astute use of the unique possibilities offered by modern communications. May the Lord make all of you enthusiastic heralds of the Gospel in the new “agorà” which the current media are opening up.

With this confidence, I invoke upon you the protection of the Mother of God and of the Holy Curè of Ars and, with affection, I impart to each of you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 24 January 2010, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales.

BENEDICTUS XVI

Post #33

Excerpt from The Associated Press: Pope Benedict visits Fatima

by Nicole Winfield

FATIMA, Portugal (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called abortion and same-sex marriage some of the most “insidious and dangerous” threats facing the world today, asserting key church teachings as he tried to move beyond the clerical abuse scandal.

Benedict made the comments to Catholic social workers, health providers and others after celebrating Mass before an estimated 400,000 people in Fatima. The central Portuguese farming town is one of the most important shrines in Christianity, where three shepherd children reported having visions of the Virgin Mary in 1917.

Benedict’s visit to Fatima on the anniversary of the apparitions was the spiritual centerpiece of his four-day visit to Portugal, which ends Friday. It was cast by Vatican officials as evidence that he had turned a page in weathering the abuse scandal, which has dogged him for months.

Benedict admitted to the “sins within the church” on the first day of the trip, his most explicit admission of Church culpability in the scandal. By Thursday, however, he had moved on to stressing core church teachings in the largely Roman Catholic country, where abortion on demand has been available since 2007 and where Parliament in January passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage. In addition, a judge in 2008 made it easier to obtain divorce even when one spouse objects.

Benedict told the gathering of lay Catholics that he appreciated their efforts fighting abortion and promoting the family based on the “indissoluble marriage between a man and woman” — the Vatican’s way of expressing its opposition to divorce and same-sex unions.

Such initiatives “help respond to some of the most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good today,” he said. “Alongside numerous other forms of commitment, such initiatives represent essential elements in the building of the civilization of love.”

Pope Paul VI visited Fatima in 1967. Pope John Paul II — who was shot in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981 — came three times before his death, believing that the Virgin’s “unseen hand” had saved him.

During his third and final visit in 2000, the Vatican announced the “third secret” of Fatima: the third part of the message the Virgin is said to have told the three children: a description of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

The first two secrets of Fatima were said to have foretold the end of World War I and the outbreak of World War II and the rise and fall of Soviet communism. After the third secret was revealed, the Vatican essentially implied the Fatima case was closed. But on Thursday, Benedict said its message continued to be relevant.

“We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete,” Benedict said in his homily during the Mass. Lombardi was asked if such comments were merely an effort to keep Fatima’s fascination relevant to the faithful at a time when the Cold War and John Paul’s assassination attempt are no longer front-burner issues.

Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2010/05/13/13933996.html

Post #32

Excerpt from National Catholic Reporter: Benedict Should Be Called Leo

by Michael Sean Winters
May 12, 2010

I love Pope Benedict, but I am beginning to think he chose the wrong papal name. He should have picked Leo. When the Council of Chalcedon met in 451, it was said “Peter has spoken through Leo.” In 1049, Pope Leo IX assumed the papal throne and began a reform of the Church, starting with the curia, in to which he recruited the best and brightest of his day. And, of course, Leo XIII, in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, laid the groundwork for the development of the Church’s social justice tradition in the modern world.

Pope Benedict’s remarks in Portugal, and on the flight there, have been chronicled ably by John Allen below. There was none of the defensiveness about the sex abuse scandal we have seen among those who have been speaking on behalf of the Pope the last few months; instead there was a forthright admission that the fault lay within. On shudders to think what the Pope really thinks of the evident corruption that surrounded his predecessor in his last years. In his speech on culture, there is none of the distrust towards the modern world that we see, sadly, too often among the more outspoken American bishops; instead, the Pope spoke of engaging the secular mind and seeking a common, redemptive humanism with it. And, of course, he has continued the Church’s social justice teaching in the encyclical Caritas in Veritatem.

Let’s hope that Benedict has the energy and the strength to bring his vision to fruition. Like Leo IX, he needs to reform the curia or else his vision will be still-born. That is easy for me to say: I do not have to work there. But, if everyone in the Vatican curia spoke with the openness and confidence of Pope Benedict, I dare say the Church would find herself in a better spot than the one in which we do find ourselves.

Post #31

Excerpt from The Huffington Post: Why Real Penance in the Church Is "Necessary"

by Fr. James Martin, S.J.

Serious sin creates a rupture between the sinner and God, between the sinner and the community, and between the sinner and the one sinned against. That rupture must be healed. But without true penance, true healing will never take place. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its lengthy section on penance, says bluntly, "The sinner must [...] make amends for the sin."

This may be one reason why many victims, victims' families, and advocacy groups (as well as many Catholics) are so angry with church leaders who seem to have done no real penance. For penance demonstrates not only to God but to the one sinned against (in these cases victims and their families) the seriousness with which the person takes his (or her) sins. Penance shows that you mean business when it comes to being forgiven.

Some argue that the Catholic Church has already done "penance" by paying out large legal settlements to victims and their families; or that the church has done "penance" by being forced to close schools and parishes and sell church property to pay legal fees; or that the universal church has done "penance" by seeing its stature seriously reduced in the public square. But those are involuntary actions in which the church had no choice. Penance, on the other hand, must be voluntary. The one seeking absolution willingly accepts penance and fully understands its theological and spiritual importance.

More disturbing are penances directed to the wrong people. Occasionally bishops will invite all Catholics in their diocese to commit themselves to a general period of communal penance in "reparation" for the sins of sexual abuse by clergy. Pope Benedict's recent pastoral letter to the Irish church mentions this. In addition to proscribing penances for the clergy and members of religious orders, the pope exhorts "the faithful" to offer their "Friday penances" for one year.

On the one hand, the idea of the whole people acting together, as one, is theologically sound. One of the central images of the church is the "Body of Christ." The church, unified as a body, rejoices and suffers together. Thus the crime of sexual abuse tears at the body of the entire church. But this theological approach, when applied in this case, is misdirected, even offensive. Why should the Catholic "faithful" (the laity) repent for anything? They were not the guilty ones. It would be as if a penitent entered the confessional, confessed his sins, sought absolution, and said, "Could you give the penance to someone else?"

My point is not to proscribe individual penances. I don't know who has sinned and who hasn't; I cannot look into someone's soul. (And I'm sure victims would have ideas for even stronger penances.) The point is that the hierarchy, seeking a way toward healing, has a spiritual resource that it overlooks at its peril. And that is the sacrament of reconciliation, instituted at the behest of Jesus Christ himself, and which lies at the heart of Catholic theology. And penance, part of that sacramental model, will help to begin to heal the serious rupture in the church.

But there is a difference in this case: the one who forgives. In the confessional the priest grants absolution in the name of God to the layperson. When it comes to these sins, it is the layperson who must grant absolution to those clergy who are seeking forgiveness.

James Martin SJ is a Jesuit priest and author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-martin-sj/catholic-church-penance_b_542263.html

Post #30

Excerpt from National Catholic Reporter: Pope, Cardinal Rodé: no time for world's women religious leaders
By Thomas C. Fox

The Holy Father today, (Monday, May 10), according to the Vatican Press Office, received in separate audiences: two prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Belgium, Bishop Lucas Van Looy of Ghent, and Msgr. Koen Vanhoutte, the diocesan administrator of Bruges. He also received Italian Bishop Valentino Di Cerbo of Alife-Caiazzo, accompanied by members of his family.

Nothing unusual – except for a mention of who he did not receive in audience.

Who the Holy Father did not receive in audience was any (or all) of the 800 general superiors of international women religious orders who are in Rome from all corners of the globe for a once in three-year general assembly. These women religious represent close to 1 million women religious worldwide.

The women have been meeting here in Rome since last Friday.

For the record, the Vatican Press Office reports that the Holy Father last Friday (the day the meeting of the women began) received in separate audiences five prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Belgium. Again, for the record, they are Bishop Patrick Hoogmartens of Hasselt, Bishop Aloysius Jousten of Liege, Bishop Gur Harpigny of Tournai, Msgr Jean-Marie Huet, diocesan administrator of Namur, who was accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Pierre Warin.

The Holy Father Friday also received Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia.

According to the Vatican Press Office, that meeting “provided an opportunity to examine various bilateral questions, and other important matters concerning life in Georgia, restating the commitment of the parties in favor of intercultural exchange.”

The women’s meeting is being held at the Ergife Hotel, a few kilometers from the Vatican. They are examining the topics of Mysticism and Prophecy in order to reach deeper into their souls to pull out even more courage and commitment.

Courage? Commitment?

On Saturday, one women religious from the Congo, Sr. Liliane Sweko, in passing, in an address on prophecy, told a stunned assembly that many of her co-religious have been assassinated, 235 in the year 2003 alone. “By the end of last year,” she added, “the number of assassinated women religious greatly increased”

For many of the women religious who had come from African and parts of Asia and elsewhere, their trips to Rome for this plenary assembly of the International Union of Superior Generals is a once in a life time event.

And, yes, it would have been inspiring for many to see the Holy Father.

Three years ago, when the plans for this women's meeting were first underway, an audience was put on the conference agenda. It was to be on Tuesday, May 11. However, subsequent to the announcement of the plan, the Vatican announced the Holy Father would fly to Portugal May 11 for a four-day visit, including a visit to Fatima. So the audience with the 800 women religious had to be canceled.

What the women did receive was a telegram from the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertrone, Secretary of State, saying the Holy Father is “present in spirit” and that he sends his “cordial wishes."

You’d think the women would be disappointed. I suspect some were, but few dwelt on it. I spoke with one who shrugging it off, saying “when you work on the margins, you really don’t expect much recognition at the center. This is the choice I made.”

Nevertheless, allow me: what a missed opportunity! It should be no secret to NCR readers that tension exists between women religious in various parts of the world and prelates in the Vatican.

Our church’s sacramental and liturgical life is built on symbols. We are very good at symbols. Know this expertise, one is left wondering. How could such a spectacular oversight ever occur? What were the pope’s handlers (or the Holy Father) thinking?

At one point, I thought to myself that had the Holy Father decided at any time during the past four days to trot over to the Ergife hotel for even a ten minute visit he could have opened a flood gate of good will and offered incalculable inspiration to women who, frankly, can use it. They deserved to be recognized. Had the Holy Father greeted them many of the women would have gone home with an inspirational story that would energize countless more.

But it was not to be.

Source: http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/pope-cardinal-rod%C3%A9-no-time-worlds-women-religious-leaders

Post #29

Excerpt from The Tablet: Church in the World

Cardinal Schönborn criticizes Cardinal Sodano and urges reform

by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
8 May 2010

"The head of the Austrian Church has launched an attack of one of the most senior cardinals in the Vatican, saying that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, “deeply wronged” the victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy when he dismissed media reports of the scandal. In a meeting with editors of the main Austrian daily newspapers last week, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, also said the Roman Curia was “urgently in need of reform”, and that lasting gay relationships deserved respect. He reiterated his view that the Church needs to reconsider its position on re-married divorcees.

On Easter Day, Cardinal Sodano called the mounting reports of clerical sex abuse “petty gossip”. This had “deeply wronged the victims”, Cardinal Schönborn said, and he recalled that it was Cardinal Sodano who had prevented Joseph Ratzinger, then a cardinal, from investigating allegations of abuse made against Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, the previous Archbishop of Vienna, who resigned in disgrace in 1995.

Cardinal Schönborn said that Pope Benedict was “gently” working on reforming the Curia but he had the whole world on his desk, as the cardinal put it, and his way of working and his style of communication did not make it easy to advise him quickly from outside.

Cardinal Schönborn studied under Joseph Ratzinger at Regensburg University and is known to be close to him.

Questioned on the Church’s attitude to homosexuals, the cardinal said: “We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships,” adding: “A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous.”

The cardinal also said the Church needed to reconsider its view of re-married divorcees “as many people don’t even marry at all any longer”.

The primary thing to consider should not be the sin, but people’s striving to live according to the commandments, he said. Instead of a morality based on duty, we should work towards a morality based on happiness, he continued.

Cardinal Schönborn said clergy had often primarily protected perpetrators of abuse instead of the victims. “It was said in the Church that we must be able to forgive, but that was a false understanding of compassion,” the cardinal insisted. Since the Groer affair 15 years ago, however, the Austrian Church had appointed an ever-increasing number of lay people, especially women, to investigate abuse cases. However this new openness on the part of the Church was not shared by everyone in the Vatican, he said.

Asked if he thought celibacy was one of the causes of clerical sex abuse, Cardinal Schönborn said he had no answer and psychotherapists were divided on the issue."

Source: http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/14678

Post #28

Excerpt from BBC Online: Pope accepts bishop's resignation

"Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of a German bishop accused of hitting children, the Vatican said.

Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg said in his resignation letter last month that his diocese needed a "new start".

The bishop at first denied hitting children at an orphanage in the 1970s and 1980s, but later apologised.

He has not been accused of any sexual abuse. However, on Friday prosecutors said they were investigating other allegations but gave no details.

The Catholic Church has come under severe pressure over child sexual abuse allegations emerging across the world in recent weeks.


'Causing grief'

A short, Vatican announcement on Saturday cited no reason for accepting Bishop Mixa's resignation.

The Church has also set up an investigation into alleged financial irregularities at a children's home which was under Bishop Mixa's responsibility, amid reports that large sums of money had been spent on antique paintings, garden furniture and wine.

After denying the accusations of abuse for weeks, Bishop Mixa issued an apology, saying he was "sorry for causing many people grief", without elaborating.

Then, in his letter to the Pope, he asked for the forgiveness "of all those to whom I may have been unfair and to those who I may have caused heartache".

He said he was "fully aware" of his own "weaknesses".

On Friday, the Augsburg diocese said in a statement it had provided information to prosecutors over allegations involving the bishop, but declined to give details.

Prosecutors would only confirm that a preliminary investigation against the bishop had been launched."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8669747.stm

Post #27

Excerpt from National Catholic Reporter: "The urgent need to return to being the church of the poor"

By Jon Sobrino, SJ

Envisioning the Church as "poor and powerless" has never prospered much among us. Not even Vatican II, as important and decisive as it was in other matters, made it a central concern. The Latin American bishops' conference at Medellín (1968) did indeed make it a key issue, and the Puebla conference (1979) also stressed it, even in the face of serious opposition. For the last three decades, however, the abandonment of the vision has been only too apparent. As Fr. José Comblin says: "After Puebla there began the Church of silence. The Church began to have nothing to say." Although the Aparecida conference (2007) slowed down the decline a bit, the Church has still not experienced that "turning around of history" that Fr. Ignacio Ellacuría said was needed in order to heal a society that is gravely ill. The conclusion is that we need to return to being a Church of the poor and to work hard for that. In El Salvador, since the death of Archbishop Romero, the erosion has been clear, as has been the need for ecclesiastical regeneration.

At the time of Vatican II, Pope John XXIII wanted the Council to recognize that the Church is "a Church of the poor." Cardinal Lercaro gave a lucid, heartfelt discourse on that theme at the end of the first session in 1962, and Bishop Himmer expressed it in unmistakable terms: "The first place in the Church must be reserved for the poor." Even in October 1963, however, Bishop Gerlier was complaining of the little importance being accorded the poor in the schema on the Church. The more progressive Latin American bishops also soon realized that the great majority of bishops at the Council did not feel comfortable discussing the topic. Nevertheless, there was always a group of bishops who wished to be faithful to the inspiration of John XXIII, among them a good number of Latin Americans. They met regularly and quietly in Domus Mariae to discuss the topic of "the poor Church."

On November 16, 1965, a few days before the end of the Council, about 40 of the bishops celebrated the Eucharist together in the catacombs of Saint Domitila. They asked for the grace "to be faithful to the spirit of Jesus," and at the end of the celebration they signed what they called "the Pact of the Catacombs."

The "Pact" was conceived as a challenge to the "brothers in the episcopacy" to lead a "life of poverty" and to be a "poor servant" Church, as was the desire of John XXIII. The first signers were mainly Brazilians and other Latin Americans, but others soon joined them. By signing, they made a commitment to live in poverty, to reject all symbols or privileges of power, and to place the poor at the center of their pastoral ministry. The text was to have a strong influence on the liberation theology that arose a few years later.

[Jesuit Fr. Jon Sobrino is a theologian and author of several books. In 1989 six members of his community at the University of Central America were murdered by the Salvadoran government]
 
Source" http://ncronline.org/news/justice/urgent-need-return-being-church-poor
 
Image: http://www.borgenproject.org

Post #26

Excerpt from: Western Catholic Reporter: "The Church requires a fresh outbreak of holiness"

by Glen Argan, Editor

The Second Vatican Council asserted that the Church, as a matter of faith, is "unfailingly holy" because Christ loved her as his bride, giving himself up for her and sanctifying her continually. To say, as the council did, that this sanctity is real though imperfect is likely to be of no consolation to victims of clerical sexual abuse.

But as the Church continues her process of repentance, the faithful ought to remember that the Church has continued to grow and spread the Good News through 2,000 years despite grave sins of her members and leaders. Paradoxically this growth is a sign of her holiness, a sign that Christ sanctifies her.

When the Church is most drenched in sin, Christ purifies her and draws out new signs of her holiness. Such was the case at the end of the Middle Ages when the moral degradation in the Church reached such a high pitch that the schism of the Protestant Reformation ensued. We still reap its consequences.

But of near-equal importance at that time was the Counter-Reformation, which brought not only internal reforms but also the greatest outpouring of saintliness since the age of the martyrs. The 16th and 17th centuries were a messy time, but the spiritual rebirth in the Church was real and profound.

Vatican II trumpeted the universal call to holiness, a clarion call that has still not drawn an appropriate response. No more can we get away with saying that holiness is reserved for priests and religious, while the rest of us are entitled to muddle through life.

Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount apply to all his disciples: "You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5.14, 16).

The Church is holy by nature. She is also holy because she sanctifies her members. The holiness of the Church further requires those disciples to become the light of the world.

The ways to holiness are many, as many as there are people in the world. Now is the time for a new explosion of holiness. The Church requires it.

Glen Argan

Source: http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/editorials/2010/editorial050310.shtml

Post #25

Pope expected to create new dicastery to re-evangelize Europe, US

EWTN News/CNA

Pope Benedict XVI is about to release a letter announcing the creation of a new Vatican dicastery called the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. The new department will be aimed at bringing the Gospel back to Western societies that have lost their Christian identity.

 Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican correspondent for the daily Il Giornale who is usually well-informed on new appointments at the Vatican, wrote today that “Benedict does not cease to surprise: in the upcoming week the creation of a new dicastery of the Roman Curia dedicated to the evangelization of the West will be announced, and be presided over by Archbishop Rino Fisichella.”

 The new dicastery is aimed at evangelizing “countries where the Gospel has been announced centuries ago, but where its presence in their peoples' daily life seems to be lost. Europe, the United States and Latin America would be the areas of influence of the new structure,” Il Giornale says.

 According to Tornielli, the new dicastery would be “the most important of Pope Benedict’s pontificate, a Pope that, according to the expectations, was supposed to slim down the Roman Curia.”

 Tornielli says that the idea of such a dicastery was first proposed to Pope John Paul II by Msgr. Luigi Giussani, the late founder of the Italian-born movement Comunione e Liberazione (Community and Liberation), but the idea did not move ahead.

Source: http://www.ewtnnews.com/new.php?id=490

Image source: http://www.dioceseofprovidence.org/
Bishop Fisichella: More background

Post #24

Excerpt from National Catholic Reporter: "Abuse crisis is actually a hierarchy crisis"

"The sex abuse crisis is actually a hierarchy crisis, it is a crisis of a culture that can no longer maintain its superiority by dint of office or by claim of some ontological difference from the rest of humankind. The overwhelming evidence shows that from parish priest to pope, those charged with protecting the community, on hearing that children were being sexually abused, acted first to protect the institutional church.
A central, sad truth runs through the story that has been unraveling for the past 25 years: When the community most needed its leaders to act as pastors they chose instead to act as princes, ignoring the problem all around them while employing every means available to spare the realm.

Church leaders have suggested an array of defenses. Most of them point to influences outside the clerical culture, to secularism, materialism, relativism, an oversexed society, hostile media, anti-Catholic lawyers, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and most absurd of all, the defense that what occurred in the church is being unduly highlighted since abuse of children occurs in every sector of society.

Surely some among the hierarchy must be figuring out by now that their response to the crisis is steeped in the very secularism and relativism that they condemn. Who among the bishops would stand in a pulpit and admonish a congregation to follow their example in dealing with serious sin: deny, attack the accuser, hide the crime, pay for silence if discovered, and admit “mistakes were made” only when public pressure makes disclosure inevitable?

One need not look outside the confines of the community for causes. It is beyond dispute now, as reporting of the crisis spreads worldwide, that the bishops used the secrecy of their privileged culture, the trust that those within the church and even the wider society conferred on them, as well as the labyrinthine and hidden protocols of their culture to shuffle offending priests and to avoid scrutiny by civil authorities.

The bishops’ strategy grew out of a model of governance owing more to the concept of royalty and to court behavior than to the demands of the Gospel. The royal model admits no wrong, requires absolute loyalty and is accountable to no one. Compassion has little place in the prince’s world.

History shows, however, that kings and princes have a difficult time of it when the subjects become educated and understand that they have a right to know what’s going on, to be part of the governing process and to demand accountability of those in charge.

The ecclesial empire no longer functions well because the people who do its work and project its message into the world no longer trust that their leaders will, perforce, do the right thing. It doesn’t work because the 21st century demands accountability of its institutions and leaders.

The fact that the crisis seems unending and in this latest round of reporting reaches to the papal apartment should come as no surprise given the Vatican’s record during the last papacy.

No better example exists of the corruption that extended to the highest levels of the church than the late Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado, founder of the secretive order called the Legionaries of Christ.

In recent weeks NCR has documented some of the seamier elements of Maciel’s rise to power, a rise fueled by lavish gifts and an endless stream of cash for powerful figures in the curia. The late Pope John Paul II exemplified the blindness of the clerical culture, refusing for most of his long papal reign to acknowledge the persistent cries of abuse victims throughout the world. His action in the Maciel case was especially unfortunate. He aborted a Vatican investigation of Maciel, despite abundant warnings from a host of credible sources that Maciel had repeatedly sexually abused young seminarians in his charge. Instead, John Paul hailed Maciel as an “efficacious guide to youth” and bestowed special honors on the Legion. All the while, Maciel was making a mockery of the church and everything it should stand for, even as he manipulated the curia to his own ends.

We want our pastors back. We’ve had quite enough of princes."

Source: http://ncronline.org/blogs/examining-crisis/abuse-crisis-actually-hierarchy-crisis