ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States "Pope Establishes Dicastery ‘for Laity, Family and Life’..." for Monday, 6 June 2016
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Pope Establishes Dicastery ‘for Laity, Family and Life’ by ZENIT Staff
On Saturday, it was announced that Pope Francis has taken up a recommendation from this Council of Cardinals, and approved ad experimentum the statute of a new dicastery for the laity, family and life.
The new dicastery will merge from 1 September 2016 the existing Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Council for the Family. On that date both dicasteries will cease their functions and will be suppressed, following the repeal of articles 131-134 and 139-141 of the apostolic constitution Pastor bonus of 28 June 1988.
The new statute establishes, among other things, that the dicastery shall have competence in those areas pertaining to the Apostolic See for the promotion of life and the apostolate of the lay faithful, for the pastoral care of the family and its mission according to God’s plan and for the protection and support of human life.
It will be presided over by a prefect, assisted by a secretary, who may be a layperson, and three lay under-secretaries, and will be granted a suitable number of officials, both clerical and lay, chosen as far as possible from different regions of the world, in accordance with the current legislation of the Roman Curia.
The dicastery will be divided into three sections: for the lay faithful, for the family, and for life, each one guided by an under-secretary.
The section for the lay faithful will inspire and encourage the promotion of the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world, as individuals, married or unmarried, or as members of associations, movements and communities. It will also promote studies to contribute to the doctrinal examination of themes and issues regarding the lay faithful. It will encourage the active and responsible presence of the laity in the advisory organs of governance present in the Church at universal and particular levels; it will evaluate the initiatives of Episcopal Conferences that make requests to the Holy See, in accordance with the needs of the particular Churches, for the institution of new ministries and ecclesiastical offices, and will erect aggregations of faithful and lay movements of an international character and approve or acknowledge statutes without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State.
The section for the family, in the light of papal teaching, will promote family pastoral ministry, protect its dignity and well-being based on the sacrament of marriage, and will promote its rights and responsibility in the Church and in civil society, so that the family institution may be increasingly able to perform its functions in both ecclesial and social contexts. It will monitor the activity of the Catholic institutes, associations, movements and organisations, both national and international, which aim to serve the good of the family. It will offer guidelines for courses preparing couples for marriage and for pastoral programmes to support families in the education of young people in faith and in ecclesial and civil life, with special attention to the poor and the marginalised. It will encourage openness of families to adoption and fostering of children and care for the elderly, with a presence also in civil institutions in support of these practices.
The section for life will support and coordinate activities to encourage responsible procreation and the protection of human life from conception to natural end, bearing in mind the needs of the person in the different phases of development. It will promote and encourage organisations and associations helping women and families to welcome and protect the gift of life, especially in the case of difficult pregnancies, and to prevent recourse to abortion. It will also support programmes and initiatives intended to help women who have terminated a pregnancy. On the basis of Catholic moral doctrine and the teaching of the Church, it will study and promote formation on the main issues of biomedicine and of the law regarding human life and the ideologies developing in relation to human life and gender identity.
Pope Specifies Rules for Removing Negligent Bishops From Office by ZENIT Staff
Pope Francis on Saturday released an apostolic letter in the form of a Motu Proprio, stipulating that bishops who have been negligent in protecting their flock from sexual abuse can be removed from office.
The letter, Come una madre amore vole, affirms that the Church, like a loving mother, loves all her children, but treats and protects with special affection the smallest and most helpless. This is a task that Christ Himself entrusts to all the Christian community as a whole. Although this care and protection is the responsibility of all the Church, the Holy Father emphasises that it is to be carried out in particular through her pastors. Therefore, diocesan bishops, eparchs and those who are responsible for a particular Church must act with special diligence in the protection of the weakest among those entrusted to them.
He goes on to note that canon law already provides the possibility of the removal from ecclesiastical office “for grave causes” and this refers also to diocesan bishops, eparchs and those of equivalent status by law. By this Motu Proprio, the Pope specifies that these “grave causes” include the negligence of a bishop in the exercise of his role, especially in relation to cases of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, as referred to in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, promulgated by St. John Paul II and amended by Benedict XVI, and establishes a series of procedures to be followed in these cases, as follows.
The diocesan bishop or eparch, or he who even on a temporary basis is responsible for a particular Church, or another community of faithful, may legitimately be removed from office for acts committed or omitted by negligence, resulting in the provocation of grave damage to others, either physical persons or a community as a whole. The damage may be physical, moral, spiritual or patrimonial. The diocesan bishop or eparch may be removed from office only if he may be shown objectively to have lacked the diligence required for his pastoral office, even without grave moral culpability on his part. In the case of abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, it is sufficient for the lack of diligence to be grave. Major superiors of religious institutes and societies of apostolic life of Pontifical right are to be considered equivalent to the diocesan bishop or eparch.
In the second article of the Motu Proprio, the Pope specifies that in all cases in which serious indications, as listed in the previous article, are present, the competent Congregation of the Roman Curia may initiate an investigation on the issue, notifying the interested party and providing him the possibility of producing documents and witnesses. The bishop will be given the opportunity to defend himself using the means provided by the law. He will receive communication of all phases of the investigation and will always be granted the possibility of meeting the Superiors of the Congregations. If the bishop does not take the initiative, such a meeting shall be proposed by the dicastery itself. Following the arguments presented by the bishop, the Congregation may decide whether to proceed with a further investigation.
Before making its decision, the Congregation may meet, as appropriate, with other bishops or eparchs belonging to the Episcopal Conference, or the Synod of Bishops of the sui iuris Church to which the bishop or eparch in question belongs, with the objective of discussing the case. The Congregation will make its decisions in ordinary Session.
The fourth article specifies that should the Congregation consider it appropriate to remove the bishop from office, it will determine on the basis of the circumstances of the case whether to issue, as soon as possible, the decree for removal, or to fraternally exhort the bishop to present his resignation within a period of fifteen days. If the bishop does not respond within the indicated period, the Congregation may issue a degree for removal from office.
Finally, the decision of the Congregation must be subject to specific approval by the Roman Pontiff who, prior to assuming a definitive decision, will be assisted by a special College of legal experts, designated for the purpose.
The Motu Proprio, dated 4 June, will come into effect from 5 September 2016.
Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, clarifies in a note that the “investigation” in cases of negligence will be performed by the competent Congregations, of which there are four: Bishops, Evangelisation of Peoples, Oriental Churches, and Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not included as this does not regard cases of abuse, but rather of negligence in office. He also emphasises the novelty of the establishment of a “college of legal experts” to assist the Holy Father in arriving at a definitive decision, and adds that this College will likely be constituted of Cardinals and Bishops.
The full text of the letter is currently only available in Italian at the Vatican web site: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/motu_proprio/documents/papa-francesco-motu-proprio_20160604_come-una-madre-amorevole.html
In Morning Homily, Pope Suggests One Beatitude in Particular Can Lead Us Close to Jesus by Kathleen Naab
One of the Beatitudes in particular, while not being the “key to all” of the Beatitudes, nevertheless “induces us to much reflection,” says Pope Francis. “And it is: Blessed are the meek. Meekness.”
The Pope said this today during his morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Vatican Radio reported. The Gospel for today’s Mass is the recounting of the Beatitudes in Matthew.
The Holy Father, who often refers to the Sermon on the Mount in his teaching, spoke of the Beatitudes and their opposing “woe to you” statements in Luke, as steps that lead “forward in life” or to perdition.
The Beatitudes are a roadmap for Christian life, he said. And the “four woes” — Woe to the rich, to the satiated, to those who laugh now, to you when all speak well of you — are an “anti-law, the wrong navigator.”
These are the “three slippery steps that lead to perdition, just as the Beatitudes are the steps that take us forward in life,” he said.
And elaborating on that thought the Pope said the three steps that lead to perdition are: “the attachment to riches, because I need nothing;”
“Vanity – that all must speak well of me, making me feel important, making too much of a fuss … and I am convinced [that I am] in the right,” he said, referring also the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the Tax Collector: “O God I thank you that I am such a good Catholic, not like my neighbor…”
“The third – he said – is pride, the satiation and the laughter that closes one’s heart.”
Something to think about
Of all the Beatitudes – the Pope said there is one in particular: “I’m not saying it is the key to all of them, but it induces us to much reflection and it is: Blessed are the meek. Meekness”.
“Jesus says of himself: ‘learn from me for I am meek of heart,’ I am humble and gentle at heart. To be meek is a way of being that brings us close to Jesus,” he said.
“The opposite attitude,” Pope Francis concluded, “always causes enmities and wars … lots of bad things that happen. But meekness, meekness of heart which is not foolishness, no: it’s something else. It’s the capacity to be deep and to understand the greatness of God, and worship Him.”
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Readings provided by the US bishops’ conference:
Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 359
Reading 1 1 KGS 17:1-6
Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab:
“As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve,
during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.”
The LORD then said to Elijah:
“Leave here, go east
and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
You shall drink of the stream,
and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”
So he left and did as the LORD had commanded.
He went and remained by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning,
and bread and meat in the evening,
and he drank from the stream.
Responsorial Psalm PS 121:1BC-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (see 2) Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
Indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of Israel.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.
The sun shall not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and forever.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Alleluia MT 5:12A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and be glad;
for your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MT 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Fr. Lombardi’s Note on Document Clarifying Removal of Bishops Due to Negligence by ZENIT Staff
Explanatory Note by Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, on the Apostolic Letter “Like a loving mother” (June 4, 2016)
The Apostolic Letter insists on the importance of vigilant care in the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, which requires a “special diligence”. Therefore, it specifies that negligence regarding cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults is included among the “grave causes” that justify the removal from ecclesiastical offices, including Episcopal office.
It is a Law that establishes the procedure to be followed for the implementation of a Canon already present in the CIC and the CCEO (193§1 CIC, 975§1 CCEO). It is not a criminal procedure since it does not regard a “crime” committed, but rather cases of negligence on the part of bishops or religious Superiors.
The “investigation” in cases of negligence is to be carried out by the competent Congregations, of which there are four:
Bishops
The Evangelization of Peoples
Oriental Churches Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not included as this does not regard cases of abuse, but rather of negligence in office.
Disciplinary or similar Offices already exist within the Congregations.
Two points are noteworthy:
– Diligence may be lacking even “without grave moral culpability” on the part of the Bishop (art. 1§2).
– For removal from office, in the case of abuse of minors, “it is sufficient for the lack of diligence to be grave” (art.1§3), while in other cases a “very grave” lack of diligence must be demonstrated (art.1§2).
Since this relates to important decisions involving bishops, specific approval depends on the Holy Father (which is not a novelty).
However, a new aspect is the constitution of a dedicated special College of legal experts, to assist the Holy Father before assuming a definitive decision. It is expected that this College will be constituted of Cardinals and Bishops.
Note: as this law regards procedure, it does not present issues as to whether application will be retroactive or otherwise, since the law providing for removal for office on the grounds of “grave causes” already exists. From now on the procedure for the application of Canon 193 §1 is that which has hereby been established.
Pope’s Address to Pontifical Missionary Societies ZENIT Staff
On Saturday, Pope Francis received in audience participants in the Assembly of the Pontifical Missionary Societies, on the centenary of the foundation of the Work.
Here is a ZENIT translation of the Pope’s address.
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Lord Cardinal,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I welcome you all, National Directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies and collaborators of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. I thank Cardinal Fernando Filoni for the words he addressed to me, and all of you for your valuable service to the mission of the Church, which is to take the Gospel “to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
This year our meeting takes place on the centenary of the foundation of the Pontifical Missionary Union. The Work is inspired in Blessed Paolo Manna, missionary priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. Supported by Saint Guido Maria Conforti, it was approved by Pope Benedict XV on October 31, 1916, and, forty years later, the Venerable Pius XII qualified it as “Pontifical.” Through the intuition of Blessed Paolo Manna and the mediation of the Apostolic See, the Holy Spirit has led the Church to have an increasingly greater awareness of her missionary nature, led then to maturation by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.
Blessed Paolo Manna understood well that to form and educate to the mystery of the Church and to her intrinsic missionary vocation is an end that concerns all the holy People of God, in the variety of states of life and of ministries. “Of the tasks of the Missionary Union, some are of a cultural nature, others of a spiritual nature, others in fine practical and organizational. The Missionary Union has the task to illumine, inflame and act organizing priests, and by them all the faithful, in order of the missions,” so expressed the Founder of the Pontifical Missionary Union in 1936, during his historic intervention, held during the Work’s second International Congress. However, to form Bishops and priests to the mission does not mean to reduce the Pontifical Missionary Union to a simply clerical reality, but to support the hierarchy in its service to the missionary nature of the Church, proper to all: faithful and Pastors, the married and consecrated virgins, the universal Church and the particular Churches. Carrying out this service with the charity proper to them, the Pastors maintain the Church always and everywhere in a state of mission, which, in the last analysis, is the work of God and, thanks to Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, is participated in by all believers.
Dear National Directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies, the mission makes the Church and maintains her faithful to the salvific will of God. Therefore, although it is important that you are concerned with the collection and distribution of the economic aid that you diligently administer in favor of so many Churches and needy Christians, a service for which I thank you, I exhort you not to limit yourselves to this aspect. “Mysticism” is necessary. We must grow in evangelizing passion. I am afraid — I confess to you — that your work may remain very organizational, perfectly organizational, but without passion. This can also be done by an NGO, but you are not an NGO! Your Union is no good without passion, without “mysticism.” And if we must sacrifice something, let us sacrifice organization and go ahead with the mysticism of the Saints. Today, your Missionary Union is in need of this: of the mysticism of the Saints and Martyrs. And this is the generous work of permanent formation to the mission that you must undertake, which is not only an intellectual course, but is inserted in this wave of missionary passion, of martyrs’ witness. The Churches of recent foundation, helped by you for the permanent missionary formation, will be able to transmit to the Churches of ancient foundation, sometimes weighed down by their history and somewhat tired, the ardor of a young faith, the witness of Christian hope, sustained by the admirable courage of martyrdom. I encourage you to serve with great love the Churches that, thanks to the martyrs, witness to us how the Gospel renders us participants in God’s life, and they do so by attraction and not by proselytism.
In this Holy Year of Mercy, may the missionary ardor that consumed Blessed Paolo Manna, and from which the Pontifical Missionary Union flowed, continue still today to burn, to impassion, to renew, to rethink and to reform the service that this Work is called to offer the whole Church. Your Union must not be the same next years as this year; it must change in this direction, it must be converted to this missionary passion. While we thank the Lord for its hundred years, I hope that the passion for God and for the mission of the Church will also lead the Pontifical Missionary Union to rethink itself in the docility of the Holy Spirit, in view of an appropriate reform of its ways — an appropriate reform, namely, conversion and reform – implementing and of genuine renewal for the good of the permanent formation to the mission of all the Churches. With gratitude we entrust your service to the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Missions, to Saints Peter and Paul, to Saint Guido Maria Conforti and to Blessed Paolo Manna. I bless you from my heart and I ask you, please, to pray for me, so that I do not slide into ‘blessed stillness,” so that I also have the missionary ardor to go forward.
And I invite you to pray together the Angelus.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Pope’s Address to International Diaconate Center by ZENIT Staff
On Saturday, Pope Francis received in audience a delegation of the International Diaconate Center, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its institution.
Here is a ZENIT translation of the Pope’s address.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am happy to receive you on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the International Diaconate Center, event that you celebrated at the end of last year. Your visit takes place in the Holy Year of Mercy, a spiritual context to renew in ourselves the awareness of the importance of mercy in our life and in our ministry. I thank you for your presence, and a special thank you goes to Monsignor Furst and to Professor Kiebling for their kind words.
The Lord Jesus entrusted a new commandment to the Apostles: “that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus Himself is this “novelty.” He has given us an example, so that we should do as He has done to us (cf. John 13:15). This commandment of love was Jesus’ last will, given to the disciples in the Cenacle after the washing of the feet. And He stresses once again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). In loving one another, the disciples continue the mission for which the Son of God came into the world. And, helped by the Holy Spirit, they understand that this commandment implies service to brothers and sisters. To be able to take care concretely of persons and their needs, the Apostles chose some “deacons,” that is, servants. Deacons manifest in a particular way Jesus’ commandment: to imitate God in the service of others; to imitate God who is love and pushes Himself even to serve us. God’s way of acting, His acting with patience, benevolence, compassion and willingness to make us better, must also distinguish all ministers: the Bishops as successors of the Apostles, the priests, their collaborators, and, concretely, deacons “to serve tables” (Acts 6:2). In fact deacons are the Church’s face in the daily life of a community that lives and walks among the people and where the greatest is not he who commands but he who serves (cf. Luke 22:26).
Dear deacons, I hope that your pilgrimage to Rome during this Jubilee is an intense experience of God’s mercy and that it will help you to grow in your vocation of ministers of Christ. May the Lord support you in your service and make you attain an ever greater faith in His love, to live it with joy and dedication. Know that my prayer and my blessing accompany you always and please, please — this is a diaconal service that I ask of you — do not forget to pray for me.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Vatican Official to Participate in Divine Liturgy at Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Patriarch’s Name Day by ZENIT Staff
The programme includes his participation in the Divine Liturgy in the Phanar, upon invitation by His Holiness Bartholomew, in the morning of Saturday, 11 June, the Patriarch’s name-day. The feast day of St. Bartholomew is also marked that day by the Latin Church.
Since about 1600, the Church of St. George in the Phanar district of Istanbul has been the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In the afternoon, in the Latin Cathedral, the Eucharistic celebration with the ordination of Msgr. Tierrablanca will take place. The co-celebrants will be Archbishop Lorenzo Piretto, O.P., metropolitan of Izmir, and Bishop Paolo Bizzeti, S.J., vicar apostolic of Anatolia.
On Sunday 12 June, Cardinal Sandri will preside at the Holy Mass at the “Ma Maison” residence, managed by the Little Sisters of the Poor, for elderly residents, to be joined by a group of young Syrian and Iraqi refugees, normally assisted by the Salesians of Istanbul. The prelate will then lunch with all the Catholic Ordinaries of Turkey.
The Cardinal will be accompanied on his trip by Msgr. Angelo Accattino, ad interim chargé d’affaires of the apostolic nunciature in Turkey, and will stay at the local seat of the Papal Representation, which was the residence of the apostolic delegate Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, later Pope St. John XXIII.
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