- Pope: We All Enter the Church as Laypeople
- Mass of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
- Holy See Offers Clarifications on Suspension of Audit
- Text of Pope’s Letter to Pontifical Commission for Latin America
- Patriarch of Jerusalem: Can a Gazan Child Ever Grow Up to Be Healthy?
- Why You Should Read ‘The Great Divorce,’ by CS Lewis
- Bishop Named for Springfield, Missouri
- Who’s Being Ordained to the Priesthood These Days?
- Holy See at UN: Legalizing Narcotics Isn’t Answer to Drug Problem
- US Bishops File Amicus Brief in Missouri Religious Discrimination Case
Pope Francis is warning against clericalism, reminding priests and consecrated that no one is baptized into the Church as a bishop, but rather that we all enter the Church as laity.
He said this in a letter, extracts of which were published by the Vatican today. The letter was received on 19 March by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., as president of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
On Friday 4 March the Holy Father granted an audience to the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (CAL), who met in the Vatican to examine the theme of the “indispensable commitment of the lay faithful in the public life of Latin American countries”. On that occasion the Pope made some extemporaneous remarks.
The letter to Cardinal Ouellet was a follow-up to the meeting.
Here is a Vatican translation of extracts:
Related: ZENIT translation of full text: https://zenit.org/articles/text-of-popes-letter-to-pontifical-commission-for-latin-america/
“To evoke the Holy faithful People of God is to evoke the objective we are invited to look towards and reflect upon. … A father cannot conceive of himself without his children. … A pastor cannot conceive of himself without a flock, whom he is called upon to serve. The pastor is the pastor of a people, and the people need him within. … Looking at the Holy faithful People of God and being aware we are an integral part of it positions us in life, and as a result the themes we we consider, in a different way. … Looking at the People of God is remembering that we all enter the Church as laypeople. The first sacrament, that which seals for ever our identity, and of which we must always be proud, is baptism. … No-one is baptised a priest nor a bishop. We have been baptised as laypeople and it is an indelible sign that no-one can ever cancel. It is good for us to remember that the Church is not an élite of priests, consecrated people and bishops, but that we all form the Holy faithful People of God. Forgetting this leads to various risks and deformations in our experience, both personal and in the community, of the ministry the Church has entrusted to us. … The Holy faithful People of God is anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and therefore, at the moment of reflecting, thinking, evaluating and discerning, we must be very attentive to this anointment”.
“We cannot reflect on the theme of the laity while ignoring one of the greatest deformations that Latin America must face – clericalism. … Clericalism leads to a homogenisation of the laity; treating it as an ’emissary’ limits the various initiatives and efforts and, I dare say, the boldness necessary to be able to bring the Good News of the Gospel to all areas of social and above all political activity. Clericalism, far from inspiring various contributions and proposals, gradually extinguishes the prophetic flame of which the entire Church is called to bear witness in the heart of her peoples”.
“There is a very interesting phenomenon that has emerged in Latin America. … I refer to popular pastoral ministry. … Pope Paul VI uses an expression that I consider fundamental: the faith of our people, its orientations, searches, desires, yearnings, when they are heard and guided, end up showing us the genuine presence of the Spirit. We trust in our People, in its memory and sense, we trust that the Holy Spirit acts in and with it, and that this Spirit is not merely the ‘property’ of the ecclesial hierarchy. … I have taken this example of popular pastoral ministry as a hermeneutic key that can help us understand better the action that is generated with the Holy faithful People of God prays and acts. An action that does not remain linked to the intimate sphere of the person but, on the contrary, is transformed into culture; ‘An evangelised popular culture contains values of faith and solidarity capable of encouraging the development of a more just and believing society, and possesses a particular wisdom which ought to be gratefully acknowledged’.
“So, at this point we may ask ourselves: what is the meaning of the fact that laypeople are working in public life? It means looking for a way to encourage, accompany and stimulate all attempts and efforts that today are already being made to keep hope and faith alive in a world full of contradictions, especially for the poorest, and especially with the poorest. It means, as pastors, working in the midst of our people and, with our people, supporting faith and its hope. ‘We need to look at our cities’ – and therefore all the spaces where our people live their lives – “with a contemplative gaze, a gaze of faith which sees God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares’. … It is never the pastor who should say to the layperson what he must do and say; he knows well, and better than we do. It is not for the pastor to establish what the faithful must say in various spheres. As pastors, joined to our people, it is good for us to ask ourselves how we are encouraging and promoting charity and fraternity, and the desire for good, for truth and for justice. How can we ensure that corruption does not take root in our hearts”.
“Very often we give in to the temptation to think that the committed layperson is one who is engaged in the works of the Church and/or in issues of the parish or diocese, and we have reflected little on how to accompany a baptised person in his or her daily public life. … Without realising, we have generated a lay élite, believing that committed laypeople are only those who work in relation “priests’ matters”, and we have forgotten and neglected the believer who very often exhausts his or her hope in the daily struggle to live the faith. … It is illogical, even impossible, to think that we as pastors should have a monopoly on the solutions to the many challenges that contemporary life presents to us. On the contrary, we must stay on the side of our people, accompanying us in their searches and stimulating that imagination capable of responding to the current problems. This means discerning with our people and never for our people, or without our people. As St. Ignatius would say, according to the needs of the places, times and people. … Inculturation is a process that we pastors are required to promote, encouraging the people to live their faith where and with whom they are. Inculturation is learning to discover how a specific part of today’s people, in the here and now of history, lives, celebrates and announces its own faith”.
“Amid our people we are asked to safeguard two memories. The memory of Jesus Christ and the memory of our ancestors. The faith we have received is a gift that has reached us in many cases from the hands of our mothers and our grandmothers. … It is this faith that has accompanied us many times in the many vicissitudes of our journey. Losing this memory means uprooting ourselves from the place we come from and then not knowing where we are going. This is fundamental; when we uproot a layperson from his or her faith, from that of his or her origins; when we uproot the Holy faithful People of God, we uproot them from their baptismal identity and thus deprive them of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Our role, our joy, the joy of the pastor, resides precisely in helping and encouraging, as many have done before us: mothers, grandmothers and fathers, the true agents of history. … The laity are part of the Holy faithful People of God, and are therefore the protagonists of the Church and the world; we are called to serve them, not to make use of them”.
ZENIT translation of full text: https://zenit.org/articles/text-of-popes-letter-to-pontifical-commission-for-latin-america/
Mass of Our Lady of Perpetual Help by Fr. Edward McNamara
Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy and dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: June 27 is the feast day of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH), whose miraculous icon is enshrined in Rome. Copies of the icon are found in almost every Catholic parish throughout the world, and many parishes practice the weekly OLPH devotions. The Redemptorists, who are the custodians of the icon, have a proper Mass of OLPH, which is used on June 27 in their parishes and communities. This Mass is found in their liturgical supplement and is not included in the “Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” There are other parishes, either diocesan or staffed by other religious orders, which are under the patronage of OLPH or practice the weekly OLPH devotions. Would it permissible for these parishes to use the proper Mass of OLPH on June 27 as well? — G.L., Madera, California
A: This is quite a thorny question from the legal point of view. Indeed, while the question of the celebration of the blesseds and saints has been clarified, that of Masses for universally popular Marian invocations is not so clear.
It must also be pointed out that this celebration coincides with the optional memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria in the universal calendar and is not even included in the calendar of the Diocese of Rome.
However, if there is a particular devotion to this title in a particular community, it could always be celebrated as a votive Mass using one of the most appropriate Masses of the Blessed Virgin found in the missal. For example, the collect of formula No. 6 in the Common of the BVM says, “May the venerable intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin come to our aid, we pray O Lord, and free us from every danger, so that we may rejoice in your peace ….”
It is a different question as to whether the proper formulas approved for the Redemptorists may be adopted universally.
The Introduction to the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary says the following:
“19. The Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, approved by Pope John Paul II and promulgated by the Congregation for Divine Worship, has a specific purpose with regard to the cultus of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Collection seeks to promote celebrations that are marked by sound doctrine, the rich variety of their themes, and their rightful commemoration of the saving deeds that the Lord God has accomplished in the Blessed Virgin in view of the mystery of Christ and the Church.
“20. The Collection of Masses is made up principally of the texts for Marian Masses that are found in the propers of the particular Churches or of religious institutes or in The Roman Missal.
“21. The Collection of Masses is intended for: Marian shrines where Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary are celebrated frequently, in accord with the provisions to be indicated in nos. 29-33; ecclesial communities that on the Saturdays in Ordinary Time desire to celebrate a Mass of the Blessed Virgin, in accord with the provision to be indicated in no. 34. As will be pointed out in no. 37, use of the Collection of Masses is permitted on days on which, according to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the Priest is free to choose which Mass he will celebrate.
“22. Promulgation of the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary introduces no change in the General Roman Calendar, issued 21 March 1969, in The Roman Missal, second editio typica, issued 27 March 1975, in the Lectionary for Mass, second editio typica, issued 21 January 1981, or in the system of rubrics currently in force.”
These norms indicate that they do not contain all possible Masses of particular Churches or of religious institutes. A selection has been made and every selection means a renunciation. Thus there is no formula for Our Lady of Perpetual Help yet there is one for Our Lady Help of Christians. Perhaps this invocation was preferred because of its connection to the papacy and because it is invoked as patron of Australia, New Zealand and New York.
The proviso of No. 22 would indicate that the general norms would be observed. In general these norms require the approval by the bishops’ conference of any translation that is to be used in its territory. Exceptions to this rule are precisely those texts, and their translations, that have been approved directly by the Holy See for the use of religious institutes within their houses and churches. Although it is not to be presumed that they can be used outside of these contexts, they do not require the explicit approval of the bishops’ conference.
In most cases the texts refer to blesseds and saints of the institute, and hence they have a limited use. Occasionally they refer to the titular feast or patron of the institute, but then the Mass formulas are often quite specific to its particular spirituality and so are not suitable for universal use.
Nevertheless, any saint in the Roman Martyrology may be celebrated on his or her feast day, provided there is no other feast or obligatory memorial on the same day. I believe it is fairly safe to say that if the saint has a duly approved proper collect for Mass, even though it is obviously not in the Roman Missal, then that saint’s collect can be used.
Following this logic, I think that it should be possible to use an approved text for a Marian title not present in the Roman Missal but with a recognized feast day. In this case one must always be sure that the text used in the liturgy is approved by the Holy See. For example, the texts of some Marian titles are approved only in the language of the country where Mary is venerated under that title, and there is no original Latin version. It is not possible to use a private translation of the original but one must necessarily use the common of the Blessed Virgin.
In the present case I have only been able to track down the specific texts of this feast used before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. I am unaware if they correspond to the actual formulas used today by the Redemptorists. However, given that the current texts have received the approval of the Holy See they surely fit the bill with regards to the doctrinal and spiritual qualities mentioned in No. 19 above.
An unofficial translation of the texts from before Vatican II is:
Opening prayer: “Let us pray. Almighty and merciful God, Who hast given us a picture of Thy most blessed Mother to venerate under the special title of Perpetual Succor, mercifully grant us to be so fortified, among all the vicissitudes of this wayfaring life, by the protection of the same immaculate, ever virgin Mary, that we may deserve to attain the rewards of Thine everlasting redemption.”
Offertory: “By Thy clemency, O Lord, and the intercession of blessed Mary, ever a virgin, may this oblation profit us unto eternal and also present well-being and peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son ….”
Prayer after communion: “Let us pray. May the august intercession of Mary, Thy glorious Mother, ever a virgin, help us, O Lord, that those whom it hath heaped with benefits it may deliver from all peril and by her tender kindness, make to be of one mind. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, For ever and ever.”
I would say that the collect, at least, would seem to be somewhat tied to membership of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer who are custodians of the original image in Rome. These prayers, probably of relatively recent composition, do not follow the general custom of addressing liturgical prayers to the Father and not to Christ.
If these correspond to the current prayers, albeit in a more modern translation, they do not seem so easily transportable to parish situations beyond the confines of the institute.
However, if the current texts are suitable, a church dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in which case the feast day is a solemnity in the Church itself, could probably use these texts.
It would probably be the same situation for a church were the image is venerated but dedicated under some other title if the Mass is celebrated as a votive Mass.
After all, if the formulas of an approved Marian Mass are not intimately tied to the spirituality of a particular institute, it would not seem logical that it could be prayed in a church of the institute and be forbidden in a church a few miles down the road especially considering that an obscure saint of the same institute could be legitimately honored.
I believe this is the correct response but must admit that the rules are somewhat obscure in this and similar cases.
* * *
Readers may send questions to zenit.liturgy@gmail.com. Please put the word “Liturgy” in the subject field. The text should include your initials, your city and your state, province or country. Father McNamara can only answer a small selection of the great number of questions that arrive.
Holy See Offers Clarifications on Suspension of Audit by ZENIT Staff
The Holy See today released a statement on the suspension of the financial audit that was announced some days ago.
According to the statement, there were issues regarding the “meaning and scope of certain clauses of the contract” with the auditors, which are now to “undergo the necessary examination.”
Here is the full text of the statement:
Statement of the Holy See Press Office re: Auditing Firm
With regard to the contract with the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), it would appear opportune to offer the following clarifications. The suspension of auditing activities is not due to considerations linked to the integrity or quality of the work initiated by PwC, let alone the intention of one or more entities of the Holy See to block the reforms in progress. However, issues have emerged regarding the meaning and scope of certain clauses of the contract and their methods of implementation. Such elements will undergo the necessary examination. The decision to proceed in this way was taken after suitable consultations between the competent bodies and experts in the field. It is hoped that this phase of reflection and study may take place in an atmosphere of serenity and collaboration. The commitment to adequate economic and financial auditing remains a priority for the Holy See and for Vatican City State.
Text of Pope’s Letter to Pontifical Commission for Latin America by ZENIT Staff
Last March 4, Pope Francis received in audience the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, at the end of their assembly dedicated to the “indispensable role of the lay faithful in the public life of Latin American countries.”
Afterwards, the Pope sent a Letter to the President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, H. E. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S.. The Vatican released the March 19 letter today. Here is a ZENIT translation:
To His Eminence Cardinal
Marc Armand Ouellet, P.S.S.
President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America
Eminence:
At the end of the meeting of the Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, I had the opportunity to meet with all the participants of the assembly, where ideas and impressions were exchanged on the public participation of the laity in the life of our nations.
I would like to take up what was shared in that instance and continue through this means the reflection lived in those days so that the spirit of discernment and reflection “will not fall on deaf ears,” that it help us and continue to stimulate us to serve better the Holy People faithful of God.
It is precisely from this image that I would like to begin our reflection on the public activity of the laity in our Latin American context. To evoke the Holy People faithful of God is to evoke the horizon to which we are invited to look and from whence to reflect. The Holy People faithful of God is that which we as Pastors are continually invited to look at, protect, accompany, support and serve. A father is not understood on his own without his children. He might be a very good worker, professional, husband, friend but what makes him a father has a face: it is his children. The same happens with us, we are Pastors. A Pastor is not conceived without a flock, which he is called to serve. The Pastor is Pastor of a people, and the people are served from within. Often one goes forward indicating the path, at other times behind so that no one is left behind, and not infrequently one is in the middle to hear well the people’s palpitation.
To look at the Holy People faithful of God and to feel an integral part of them positions us in life and, therefore, in the subjects we address in a different way. This helps us not to fall into reflections that can be very good in themselves but that end up by functionalizing the life of our people or theorizing so much that speculation ends by killing action. To look continually at the People of God saves us from certain slogans that are beautiful phrases but which do not succeed in supporting the life of our communities. For instance, I remember now the famous expression: “it’s the time of the laity,” but it seems that the clock has stopped.
To look at the People of God is to remember that we all entered the Church as lay people. The first Sacrament, the one that seals our identity forever and of which we should always be proud is Baptism. By it and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, (the faithful) are consecrated as spiritual house and holy priesthood (LG) 10). Our first and fundamental consecration sinks its roots in our Baptism. No priest or Bishop has baptized anyone. Lay people have baptized us and it is the indelible sign that no one will ever be able to eliminate. It does us good to remember that the Church is not an elite of priests, of the consecrated, of the Bishops, but we all form part of the Holy People faithful of God. To forget this brings in its train various risks and deformations both in our own personal as well as in communal living of the ministry that the Church has entrusted to us. We are, as Vatican Council II well points out, the People of God, whose identity is the dignity and the freedom of the children of God, in whose hearts dwells the Holy Spirit as in a temple (LG) 9). The Holy People faithful of God is anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit; therefore, when it comes to reflecting, thinking, evaluating, discerning we must be very attentive to this unction.
At the same time, I must add another element that I consider fruit of a bad living of the ecclesiology posed by Vatican II. We cannot reflect on the subject of the laity ignoring one of the strongest deformations that Latin America must address — and to which I ask for your special attention – clericalism. This attitude not only annuls the personality of Christians, but it has a tendency to diminish and devalue the Baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit put in the heart of our people. Clericalism leads to the functionalization of the laity, treating them as “messengers,” restricts different initiatives and efforts and I even dare to say the necessary boldness to be able to take the Good News of the Gospel to all the ambits of the social and especially political endeavor. Far from stimulating the different contributions, proposals, little by little clericalism extinguishes the prophetic fire that the Church is called to witness in the heart of her peoples. Clericalism forgets that the visibility and sacramentality of the Church belongs to the whole People of God (cf. LG 9-14), and not just to a few chosen and enlightened.
A very interesting phenomenon has happened in our Latin America and I dare to say: I believe it was one of the few areas where the People of God was sovereign of the influence of clericalism: I am referring to the popular pastoral. It has been one of the few areas where the people (including its Pastors) and the Holy Spirit have been able to meet without that clericalism that seeks to control and brake God’s unction on His own. We know that the popular pastoral, as Paul VI well wrote in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, certainly has its limits. It is frequently exposed to many deformations of religion, but it continues, when it is well orientated, especially through a pedagogy of evangelization, <and> it contains many values. It reflects a thirst for God that only the poor and the simple can experience. It makes possible generosity and sacrifice to the point of heroism, when it comes to manifesting the faith. It entails a deep sense of God’s profound attributes: His paternity, providence, and loving and constant presence. It engenders interior attitudes that can rarely be observed in the same degree in those who do not have that religiosity: patience, sense of the cross in daily life, detachment, acceptance of others, devotion. Taking these aspects into account, we gladly call it “popular piety,” that is, religion of the people, rather than religiosity … Well oriented, this popular religiosity can be increasingly, for our popular masses, a true encounter with God in Jesus Christ (EN 48). Pope Paul VI uses an expression that I consider key, the faith of our people, its orientations, searches, desire, longings, when we are able to hear them and orientate us, end by manifesting a genuine presence of the Spirit. Let us trust our People, in their memory and their “intuition,” let us trust that the Holy Spirit acts in and with them, and that this Spirit is not only the “property” of the ecclesial hierarchy.
I have taken this example of the popular pastoral as hermeneutic key that can help us to understand better the action generated when the Holy People faithful of God prays and acts – an action that does not remain linked to the person’s intimate sphere but, on the contrary, is transformed into culture; an evangelized popular culture contains values of faith and of solidarity that can spark the development of a more just and believing society, and it has a peculiar wisdom that must be able to be recognized with a grateful look (EG 68).
Then, from here, we can ask ourselves, what does it mean that the laity is working in public life?
Today many of our cities have become real places of survival. Places where the disposable culture seems to be installed and leaves little room for apparent hope. We find our brothers there, immersed in those struggles, with their families, trying, not only to survive, but who, in the midst of contradictions and injustices, seek the Lord and want to witness this. What does it mean for us,Pastors, that the laity is working in public life? It means to seek a way to be able to encourage, accompany and stimulate all their attempts and efforts, which already today are carried out, to keep hope and faith alive in a world full of contradictions especially for the poorest, especially with the poorest. It means that, as Pastors, we must be committed in the midst of our people and, with our people, sustain their faith and their hope – opening doors, working with them, dreaming with them, reflecting and especially praying with them. We need to recognize the city – and hence all the areas where the life of our people unfolds – from a contemplative look, a look of faith that discovers the God that dwells in their homes, in their streets, in their squares … He lives among the citizens promoting charity, fraternity, the desire of the good, of truth, of justice. That presence must not be fabricated but discovered, revealed. God does not hide from those that seek Him with a sincere heart. (EG 71). It is never the Pastor who tells the layman what he must do or say; they know it better than we do. It is not the Pastor that must determine what the faithful must say in the different realms. As Pastors, united to our people, it is good for us to ask how we are stimulating and promoting charity and fraternity, the desire of the good, of the truth and of justice. What we can do so that corruption does not nest in our hearts.
We have often fallen into the temptation of thinking that the committed layman is one who works in the tasks of the Church and/or in the things of the parish or of the diocese, and we have reflected little on how to accompany a baptized person in his public and daily life; like him, in his daily task, with the responsibilities he has he commits himself as a Christian in public life. Without realizing it, we have generated a lay elite, believing that only they are committed laymen who work in the things “of the priests,” and we haver forgotten, neglected the believer who often burns his hope in the daily struggle to live the faith. These are the situations that clericalism cannot see, as it is more concerned to dominate areas more than to generate processes. Therefore, we must recognize that the layman, because of his own reality, his own identity, his being immersed in the heart of social, public and political life, his being in the midst of new cultural forms continually gestated, is in need of new forms of organization and of the celebration of the faith. The present-day rhythms are so different (I do not say better or worse) from those lived 30 years ago! This requires imagining areas of prayer and communion with novel, more attractive and significant characteristics – especially – for urban inhabitants. (EG 73). It is obvious, and even impossible, to think that we, as Pastors, should have the monopoly of the solutions for the multiple challenges that contemporary life presents to us. On the contrary, we must be at the side of our people, accompanying them in their searches and stimulating an imagination capable of responding to present-day problems. And we do so by discerning with our people and never for our people or without our people. As Saint Ignatius would say, “ according to the places, times and persons,” that is, not standardizing. General directives cannot be given for the organization of the People of God within their public life. Inculturation is a process that we Pastors are called to stimulate, encouraging the people to live their faith where they are and with whom they are. Inculturation is to learn to discover how a determined portion of the people of today, in the here and now of history, lives, celebrates and proclaims its faith, with its particular idiosyncrasy and in keeping with the problems it must address, as well as all the reasons it has to celebrate. Inculturation is a work of artisans and not a factory of serial production of processes that are dedicated to “to fabricate Christian worlds or areas.”
We are asked to take care of two memories of our people: the memory of Jesus Christ and the memory of our forbearers. We have received the faith; it is a gift that has come to us in many cases from the hands of our mothers, of our grandmothers. They have been the living memory of Jesus Christ in the heart of our homes. It was in the silence of family life where the majority of us learned to pray, to love and to live the faith. It was within family life, which afterwards took the form of parish, school, communities, that faith came to our life, becoming flesh. It was also that simple faith that has often accompanied us in the different ups and downs of the path. To lose the memory is to be uprooted from where we come and, therefore, we will not know either where we are going. This is key, when we uproot a layman from his faith, from that of his origins; when we uproot him from the Holy People faithful of God, we uproot him from his Baptismal identity and thus deprive him of the grace of the Holy Spirit. The same happens to us, when as pastors we uproot ourselves from our people, we lose ourselves.
Our role, our joy, the joy of the Pastor lies precisely in helping and stimulating, as many did before us, whether mothers, grandmothers or parents — the real protagonists of history. Not by a concession of ours of good will, but by proper right and statute. The laity is part of the Holy People faithful of God and, therefore, the protagonists of the Church and of the world, to which we are called to serve and not to make use of.
In my recent trip to the land of Mexico I had the opportunity to be alone with our Mother, letting myself be looked upon by her. In that time of prayer I was also able to present to her my heart as a son. You and your communities were also there at that moment. In that moment of prayer, I asked Mary not to fail to sustain, as she did in the first community, the faith of our people. May the Holy Virgin intercede for you, look after you and accompany you always.
Vatican, March 19, 2016
FRANCIS
[Original text: Spanish]
[Translation by ZENIT]
Patriarch of Jerusalem: Can a Gazan Child Ever Grow Up to Be Healthy? by Luca Marcolivio
A touching testimony full of hope was given earlier this month by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, on the situation of Christians in the Holy Land.
Patriarch Twal was meeting with students and docents of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which covers a very vast territory, includes Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus, and gathers within it “the descendants in direct line of the Christians of the very first Christian community, the Mother Church of Jerusalem,” recalled Patriarch Twal.
A small community, which shortly after evolved into two branches: theEcclesia ex circumcisione (Judeo-Christians) and the Ecclesia ex gentibus (Romans, Greeks, Aramaeans, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Philistines, Nabataeans, Moabites, Ammonites, etc.). Their universal language was Aramaic but in the cities Greek and Latin were also spoken.
Around the 7th century, when by this time the whole of Palestine was Christianized, the Judeo-Christians disappeared from the Holy Land, the community ex gentibus continued to expand notably, even evangelizing the Bedouins.
Again in the 7th century, with the arrival of Islam, the scene began to change “slowly but radically”: the language and culture became Arabic and Christianity began to withdraw.
Various regimes followed one another in the centuries: Arab, crusader, Mameluke, Ottoman and English, up to the present day, in which native Christians of the Holy Land are “aware, yesterday as today, of the historic-salvific importance of what happened close to their homes and how, in time, this happy proclamation was spread from here.”
“Simple, people,” “lovers of peace” and “hospitable,” the Christians of the Holy Land also have an “extraordinary gift of endurance,” commented Patriarch Twal.
At present, Christians number 450,000, hence less than 2% of the entire population of the Holy Land, while in Jerusalem their number does not reach 12,000.
Despite the connotations of “little flock,” sadly and constantly, moreover, in diminution, the Christians remain “an integral and essential part of their community,” revealing themselves a “pad” between the two “majority presences” Jewish and Muslim.
Today’s problems
Hence the Patriarch reflected on the specifics of the most recent problems of his territory, which are added to the historical hardships: beginning with the wall of separation that — more than 700 kilometers long and eight meters high, in addition to isolating the Palestinian population — “limits the freedom of movement, of study, of work, of travelling and of medical care.”
Then there is the phenomenon of the “intifada of knives,” which involves very young kids of 12-13 years age that, thus armed, fight for reasons that have nothing to do with politics.
For their part, the Israeli military have “broken nerves” and, sometimes, open fire with much ease when it would be far more “human” to capture the delinquents and deliver them to the courts, stressed the Patriarch.
In regard to the tragic situation of Gaza, Patriarch Twal lamented the “numberless painful consequences, especially among the youngest population, the profound psychic, relational and existential wounds left by the traumas suffered: following the three conflicts of 2008, 2010 and 2014, for whose reconstruction, the 5 billion dollars allocated were never released, the reason being that peace is the conditio sine qua non.
At this point the Patriarch asked: “Who can really heal an eight-year-old child who has seen his parents die, or his grandmother, who could not come down from the house because she couldn’t walk, or was too deaf to be aware of the danger? Who can make of this child a healthy, normal citizen, who feels affection and respect for all?”
However, a sign of hope for the Holy Land comes from the agreement between the Holy See and Palestine, sealed on June 26, 2015. When the Apostolic Nuncio in Jerusalem, Monsignor Giuseppe Lazzarotto, asked him for his opinion on the matter, Patriarch Twal’s answer was: “In keeping with its conscience and spirit of justice, the Holy See must recognize the State of Palestine now and not wait for the whole of Europe to pronounce its recognition, otherwise it would have no merit. By recognizing the State of Palestine now, it will have the gratitude of the whole Muslim world.”
Turning to the “mad and meaningless” project of the construction of a new section of wall in the Valley of Cremisan, the Patriarch stressed the contrary decision of the Israeli Court of Justice that, a year ago, declared such a wall “not necessary for Israel’s security.”
A decision for which “we cried victory: victory of the Israeli judges that obeyed the military orders, victory of the Saint Yves Legal Society, which took the case in hand, victory of the Christians that prayed every Friday in the field to impede the construction of the wall,” said Patriarch Twal.
Israel
The Israeli government is such that, although proclaiming itself “secular and democratic,” in reality is behaving increasingly as a “Jewish confessional military regime,” lamented the Patriarch, referring, among other things, to the school system, in which all pupils, including the non-Jewish, receive only the teaching of the Jewish religion and the Christians thus risk “losing their roots,” while subsidies to Catholic schools have been reduced.
All this notwithstanding the agreement signed with the Holy See in 1993, in which the State of Israel committed itself “to freedom of religion and conscience, to the promotion of mutual understanding between nations, to tolerance between the communities and to respect for life and human dignity.”
Israel, therefore, has put in place a true and proper occupation that, in itself, is “always an odious reality: it harms the occupier who loses the sense of respect and of the dignity of others, as it does to the one occupied, in whom the sense of rejection, of rancour and of rebellion grows.”
A paradoxical aspect of this state of things is that, although with a notable flow of tourists from all over the world (China and Japan included), to come to the Holy City with his community the parish priest of Ramallah must ask for the government’s authorization two months ahead of time and the government itself decides at its discretion if he can go, also leaving at home and allowing to depart members of the same family.
If Israel would like to become a truly “democratic” and not “Zionist” State, the hope should be for the birth of “two States” Israeli and Palestinian, with clear and secure borders, as desired by the International Community and also by the Holy See.
In this tragic scenario, the Christians of the Holy Land continue to live an “ecumenical dimension” of dialogue and to be “living witnesses of the history of salvation.” Moreover, “with their prayer and their love, with their trials and with their faith,” they can impede “the Holy Places themselves from being reduced to being only archaeological sites.”
God’s call to Europe
Responding to a question of ZENIT on the situation of the refugees in the Middle East and in Europe, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem stressed that in Jordan alone, the refugees constitute 20% of the whole population, hence a percentage some twenty times higher than the numbers of the Old Continent.
Therefore, according to Patriarch Twal, Europe should open itself more to the evangelical precept: ”I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). “Our way of welcoming and receiving will be the criterion with which the Lord will judge us,” he stressed, recalling that the last Iraqi refugees in Jordan were “all Christians”: they “lost everything but they never lost the faith. They could have saved themselves by converting to Islam, but they preferred to lose everything.”
“You have everything in Europe, but not the courage to deprive yourselves of something. I was in Austria, where I saw tens of abandoned country houses, which remained empty. If we don’t want the refugees to come to us, the International Community and politics must make peace in their home, and they will gladly stay. If, however, we, out of interest, sell arms and make war in their home, those will be the consequences. We can’t play with the destiny of peoples!” added the Patriarch.
Why You Should Read ‘The Great Divorce,’ by CS Lewis by Bishop Robert Barron
In my capacity as regional bishop of the Santa Barbara pastoral region, which covers two entire counties north of Los Angeles, I am obliged to spend a good deal of time in the car. To make the long trips a bit easier, I have gotten back into the habit of listening to audio books. Just recently, I followed, with rapt attention, a book that I had read many years ago but which I had, I confess, largely forgotten: C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. The inspiration for this theological fantasy is the medieval idea of the refrigerium, the refreshment or vacation from Hell granted to some of the souls abiding there. So Lewis’ narrator leaves the dreary streets of the underworld and, with a coterie of other ghosts, journeys by flying bus to a lovely land that he comes to realize is the forecourt of Heaven. In that enchanted place, the ghosts meet a number of denizens from the heavenly world, who attempt to lure the poor souls out of their misery.
Lewis was that rare sort of genius, able to combine high theological insight with vivid imagination, and it is precisely this coming-together that makes his writing so memorable. I would like to rehearse a number of motifs from this story that struck me as being of particular spiritual significance. The first has to do with the paradox of the grandeur and nothingness of Hell. Lewis’s narrator tells us that the streets and residences of Hell stretch out so far that it requires centuries of travel to get from one end of the city to the other. This immensity is due to the fact that the citizens of that awful place just want to get as far away from one another as possible. Further, when the bus travels from Hell to Heaven, it seems to go far up into the air and to cover an enormous distance. However, when the narrator, in dialogue with a heavenly spirit, wonders where precisely Hell is in relation to the heavenly realm, the spirit bends down, pulls a single blade of grass and uses its tip to indicate a tiny, barely perceptible, fissure in the ground. “That’s where you came in,” he explains. All of Hell, which seemed so immense to the narrator, would fit into a practically microscopic space in Heaven. Lewis is illustrating here the Augustinian principle that sin is the state of being incurvatus in se (curved in around oneself). It is the reduction of reality to the infinitely small space of the ego’s concerns and preoccupations. Love, on the contrary, which is the very life of Heaven, is the opening to reality in its fullness; it amounts to a breaking through of the buffered and claustrophobic self; it is the activity of the magna anima (the great soul). We think our own little ego-centric worlds are so impressive, but to those who are truly open to reality, they are less than nothing.
One of the sad ghosts that Lewis describes carries on his shoulder a rather loathsome reptile who whispers suggestions in companion’s ear. It is eminently clear—even to the ghost himself—that this creature is doing nothing but harm. An angel approaches and places his hands around the lizard and calmly asks the ghost, “May I kill it?” At this, the fallen spirit recoils and commences to make excuses for the thing on his shoulder. “May I kill it?” the angel solemnly asks once again. The ghost balks and becomes uneasy. “May I kill it?” inquires the angel. Finally, the ghost acquiesces and the angel crushes the life out of the reptile, at which point the ghost begins to harden into something greater and more substantial. And the lizard, thought to be dead, begins to metamorphose into a stately stallion. When both ghost and reptile have been thoroughly transformed, the man mounts the horse and the two ride off together with brio and purpose. The creepy and insinuating reptile is symbolic, it becomes clear, of lust, that vice which continually suggests self-destructive courses of action. Yet not even an angel of God can kill it without the conscious permission of the will. Once killed, however, it can rise into what it originally was meant to be: the erotic desire which is a source of tremendous energy, indeed a stallion which the soul can gleefully ride. What I especially appreciate in this episode is Lewis’ spot-on representation of how the soul clings desperately to what is actually killing it, preferring, in W.H. Auden’s phrase, “to be ruined rather than changed.”
A final image is one of the most beautiful in the book. The narrator spots a stately procession making its way toward him. A woman is being carried, in the manner of a queen, with great reverence, and all around her people are offering tokens of respect and admiration. So impressed is he that the narrator turns to one of the heavenly citizens and wonders whether this might be the Blessed Virgin Mary. “No,” says his interlocutor, “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith.” It turns out that this one so highly honored in Heaven was a very ordinary person during her earthly life. But through her love, she became a spiritual mother to hundreds, indeed to every person she met. Even the lowly animals were embraced by her affection and came more to life. The point is that what is honored on earth is by no means the same as what is honored by God and the saints. Here below, we hold up achievements in education, business, finance, entertainment, the military, etc. But none of this matters in the grand scheme of things. What matters, what, in St. Paul’s language, lasts, is love. We recall the Lord’s words: “Don’t store up treasures for yourself on earth…but store up treasure in heaven.” The relevant spiritual questions suggested by this scene: Whom do we honor? How and by whom do we want to be honored?
These sketches give you but a hint of the riches contained in this little but powerful book. May they inspire you to pick up The Great Divorce and savor it.
Bishop Named for Springfield, Missouri by ZENIT Staff
Pope Francis has named Bishop Edward M. Rice, 55, as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Bishop Rice has served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis since 2010. He succeeds Bishop James V. Johnston, who was appointed bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, September 15, 2015.
The appointment was publicized in Washington today by Msgr. Walter Erbì, chargé d’ affaires of the nunciature of the United States.
Edward M. Rice was born in St. Louis, July 28, 1960. He attended St. Mary’s High School in St. Louis and studied for the seminary at the archdiocese’s Cardinal Glennon College and Kenrick Seminary. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, January 3, 1987, and named a chaplain of his holiness with the title “monsignor” in 2008.
Following ordination he served as associate pastor, Our Lady of Presentation Parish, Overland, Missouri, 1987; associate pastor, St. Mary Magdalen Parish, St. Louis, and teacher at St. Mary High School, 1991; assistant to the director of Cardinal Glennon College (while continuing to teach at St. Mary’s), 1994; director of Cardinal Glennon College Program of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, 1995; pastor, St. John the Baptist Parish, St. Louis, 2000; director, Office of Vocations, 2008; and interim director of the Office of Consecrated Life (continuing as vocations director), 2009.
The Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau comprises 25,719 square miles in the State of Missouri. It has a total population of 1,353,859 people, of whom 65,978, or 5 percent, are Catholic.
Who’s Being Ordained to the Priesthood These Days? by ZENIT Staff
Members of the 2016 class of men ordained to the priesthood in the United States report that they were, on average, about 17 when they first considered a vocation to the priesthood and encouraged to consider a vocation by an average of four people.
Seven in 10 (70 percent) say they were encouraged by a parish priest, as well as friends (48 percent), parishioners (46 percent), and mothers (42 percent). On average, they lived in the diocese or eparchy for which they will be ordained for 15 years before entering seminary. Religious ordinands knew the members of their religious institute an average of five years before entering.
The total number of potential ordinands for the class of 2016, 548, is slightly down from 595 in 2015 and up from 477 in 2014.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh, North Carolina, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, found that the data gave reason for hope but also provide areas for further growth.
“Each path to the priesthood begins with a call from Christ. In fact, 93 percent of priests ordained this year were encouraged to consider whether God was calling them to priesthood by someone close to them,” Bishop Burbidge said. “This is a powerful reminder of how we are all able to be instruments in helping others to discern God’s Will.”
The Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) gathered the date for “The Class of 2016: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood.” CARA collects the data annually for the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. Approximately 80 percent of the 548 potential ordinands reported to CARA. These 440 respondents include 352 ordinands to the diocesan priesthood, from 140 different dioceses and archdioceses, and 88 ordinands to the religious priesthood.
The full report can be found online: www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/ordination-class/index.cfm
Among the survey’s major findings:
″ The average age for the Class of 2016 is 35. The median age (midpoint of the distribution) is 32. Eight in 10 respondents are between 25 and 39. This distribution is slightly older than in 2015, but follows the pattern in recent years of average age at ordination in the mid-thirties.
″ Two-thirds (66 percent) report their primary race or ethnicity as Caucasian/European American/white. Compared to the adult Catholic population of the United States, they are more likely to be of Asian or Pacific Islander background (15 percent of responding ordinands), but less likely to be Hispanic/Latino (14 percent of responding ordinands). Compared to diocesan ordinands, religious ordinands are less likely to report their race or ethnicity as Caucasian/European American/white.
″ Three in 10 of the ordinands (30 percent) were born outside the United States, with the largest numbers coming from Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland and Vietnam. On average, respondents born in another country have lived in the United States for 13 years. Between 20 and 30 percent of ordinands to diocesan priesthood for each of the last ten years were born outside of the United States.
″ Most ordinands have been Catholic since infancy, although 8 percent became Catholic later in life. Eighty-two percent report that both of their parents are Catholic and more than a third (35 percent) have a relative who is a priest or a religious.
″ More than half completed college (59 percent) before entering the seminary. One in six (18 percent) entered the seminary with a graduate degree. The most common fields of study for ordinands before entering the seminary are theology or philosophy (20 percent), liberal arts (20 percent), and business (13 percent).
″ Nearly half of responding ordinands (45 percent) attended a Catholic elementary school, which is a rate slightly higher than that of all Catholic adults in the United States. In addition, ordinands are somewhat more likely than other U.S. Catholic adults to have attended a Catholic high school and they are much more likely to have attended a Catholic college (41 percent, compared to 7 percent among U.S. Catholic adults).
″ Five in ten ordinands (52 percent) report some type of full-time work experience prior to entering the seminary, most often in education. Five percent of responding ordinands report prior service in the U.S. Armed Forces. About one in seven ordinands (14 percent) report that either parent had a military career in the U.S. Armed Forces.
″ Seven in 10 (70 percent) indicate they served as an altar server and about half (53 percent) reporting service as a lector. One in six (17 percent) participated in a World Youth Day before entering the seminary.
″ About seven in 10 report regularly praying the rosary (73 percent) and participating in Eucharistic adoration (73 percent) before entering the seminary.
″ About half (51 percent) indicated that they were discouraged from considering the priesthood. On average, one to two individuals are said to have discouraged them.
Holy See at UN: Legalizing Narcotics Isn’t Answer to Drug Problem by ZENIT Staff
The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, last Thursday “firmly” rejected the use of illegal drugs and the legalization of the use of narcotics.
Archbishop Auza was addressing a UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem.
Here is the full text of Archbishop Auza’s speech:
__
H. E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza
Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations
United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly on the
World Drug Problem
New York, 21 April 2016
Mr. President,
My delegation welcomes the convening of this United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly on the World Drug Problem and wishes to thank all those who participated in the preparatory process leading to this Special Session.
The Holy See firmly rejects the use of illegal drugs and the legalization of the use of narcotics. In his Address to the Thirty-first Edition of the International Drug Enforcement Conference,1 Pope Francis affirmed that “a reduction in the spread and influence of drug addiction will not be achieved by a liberalization of drug use; rather, it is necessary to confront the problems underlying the use of these drugs, by promoting greater justice, educating young people in the values that build up life in society, accompanying those in difficulty and giving them hope for the future.” For the Holy See “attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called recreational drugs are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint but they fail to produce the desired effect.”
In addition, His Holiness insisted that “the fight against drugs cannot be won with drugs. Drugs are an evil, and with evil there can be neither surrender nor compromise.” In saying “no to every type of drug use,” we must at the same time “say ‘yes’ to life, ‘yes’ to love, ‘yes’ to others, ‘yes’ to education, ‘yes’ to greater job opportunities. If we say ‘yes’ to all these things, there will be no room for illicit drugs, for alcohol abuse, for other forms of addiction.”
The Holy See cannot emphasize enough the importance of the family as the cornerstone of prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, reintegration and health strategies. The family forms the very basis of society. When a member is addicted, the whole family suffers. The grave consequences of substance abusing members lead in so many cases to imbalance in household relationships and places severe strain on family life. The negative effect of illicit drug use on the family extends to the community, and leads ultimately to the destabilization of civil society.
Research continually reinforces the key role that the family plays in the fight against drug abuse, as it confirms that the core principles of social interaction are learned in the home. Thus, children who have nurturing family environments generally receive the education necessary to help them say “no” to illicit drugs. The scourges associated with the production and trafficking of illicit drugs exist because of the demand of addicted individuals. Thus, educating our children and young people on the harm of drug abuse is one important element in the fight against drug use on the demand side.
Even within families with strong ties and in communities living harmoniously and peacefully, some individuals sadly do fall into drug abuse. They, too, need the support and care of their family and community. People suffering from drug abuse require all the support we can give them, including comprehensive health and social services that are accessible, effective and affordable.
Not all crimes related to illicit drugs are of equal gravity. International drug traffickers, local pushers and drug users have to be treated differently according to the principle of proportionality. Disproportionate responses would be against the spirit of justice, and would not help in the rehabilitation of those who have become addicted to illicit drugs.
The drug problem and its related evils transcend borders and affect citizens worldwide. Hence international cooperation towards an integrated and balanced strategy is required in order to counter them. The most basic understanding of human dignity compels the international community,
particularly through the norms and mechanisms of international law, to do all that it can to protect all citizens of the world from the scourge of illicit drugs.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(from Vatican Radio)
US Bishops File Amicus Brief in Missouri Religious Discrimination Case by ZENIT Staff
On April 21, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Missouri Catholic Conference, and other Catholic and non-Catholic organizations filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case entitled Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley.
The case involves a Free Exercise Clause challenge to a decision by the State of Missouri denying a grant for playground resurfacing to an otherwise eligible religious school solely because of its religious affiliation.
The brief says: “Missouri’s religious discrimination not only contravenes the First Amendment, it is profoundly demeaning to people of faith. Official discrimination based on religion is no less invidious or stigmatizing than discrimination based on other protected traits. It sends a message that religious people and their institutions are second-class citizens who deserve special disabilities and are not entitled to participate on equal terms in government programs. Allowing illusory Establishment Clause concerns to trump the prohibition on religious discrimination would invite state officials to invoke those concerns as a pretext for penalizing religious groups whose beliefs or practices diverge from government-prescribed orthodoxy.”
Other organizations joining the brief are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, National Catholic Educational Association, Salvation Army National Corporation, and General Synod of the Reformed Church in America.
The full text of the amicus brief is available at: www.usccb.org/about/general-counsel/amicus-briefs/upload/Trinity-Luthern-Church-v-Pauley.pdf.
Our mailing address is:
Innovative Media Inc.
30 Mansell Road, Suite 103
Roswell, Georgia 30076, United States
---------------------
---------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment