Vatican City, Sep 24, 2014 / 08:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis made an appeal for prayer and aid for the victims of the Ebola outbreak which has been sweeping through several West African countries. Speaking during his General Audience Sept. 24, the Pope expressed his closeness “to the many people affected by this terrible disease. I invite you to pray for them and for the many who have so tragically lost their life.” The Pope also called on the international community to help mobilize aid for the victims of the disease. Aid agencies estimate that nearly 3,000 people have been killed and thousands more infected by the disease which has spread through Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Addressing the crowds who had gathered in Saint Peter's Square for the audience, Pope Francis spoke at length about his trip to Albania this Sunday. The Apostolic Journey, he said, was inspired by his desire to visit a country in which a “peaceful coexistence” of members of different religions had followed a long period of oppression under an “atheistic and inhuman regime.” During his meeting with inter-religious leaders which took place during his visit, the Pope recounted: “I was able ascertain, with lively satisfaction, that the peaceful and fruitful coexistence among persons and communities belonging to diverse religions and is not only desirable, but concretely possible and practical.” Such “peaceful coexistence” addresses an “authentic and fruitful dialogue which avoids relativism”, one which neither downplays nor belittles the respective identities. Pope Francis recalled in particular his meeting with the now elderly persons who had lived and suffered through the persecution of Albania's past. These persons, he said “echoed the heroic witness of faith” of those who followed Christ until the end. It is from the “intimate union with Jesus,” and the “loving relationship with him,” that they received the strength “to confront the painful circumstances which led to their martyrdom.” The strength which the Church grants the faithful does not come from its organizational capacity or structures, the Pope said, although these are necessary. Rather, “our strength is the love of Christ! A strength which sustains us in moments of difficulty, and which inspires current apostolic action by offering goodness and forgiveness to everyone, thus witnessing the mercy of God.” While en route from the airport to the central square of Tirana, the Pope recalled seeing the images of the priests who were killed during the communist dictatorship, and for whom the cause for beatification has begun. These images, he said, represent “the hundreds of religious Christians and Muslims killed, tortured, imprisoned and exiled, solely because they believed in God.” During those “dark years”, he said, religious liberty was “razed to the ground”, and belief in God was forbidden. “Millions of Churches and Mosques were destroyed and turned into stores and cinemas which propagandized the Marxist ideology, religious books were burned, and parents were forbidden to give their children the religious names of their ancestors.” Pope Francis said that remembering “these dramatic events” was “essential for the future of a people.”   “The memory of the martyrs who resisted in the faith” guarantees Albania's destiny, because their blood was not spilled in vain, but a “seed which will bear fruits of peace and fraternal collaboration.” Albania is an example both of the “rebirth of the Church” and of “peaceful coexistence between religions. The martyrs, therefore, were not the “defeated but the victors.” “In their heroic witness God's omnipotence which always consoles his people shines forth, opening new paths and horizons of hope.” Entrusting the Albanian people to the message of hope which is founded on “faith in Christ and the memory of the past,” Pope Francis encouraged them to “always draw new energy from the Risen Lord, that they might be the evangelical leaven in society” through their charitable and educative work. The Pope thanked the Lord for the opportunity to encounter these strong and courageous people during his journey. Renewing his invitation to the Albanian people to courage to work toward building their country and all of Europe, both in the present and in the future. He entrusted the fruits of his visit to Our Lady of Good Council who he venerated during his visit, “that she may guide the path of this martyr-people. “The bitter experience of the past is ever more rooted in the openness towards brothers, especially the weakest, and makes it the protagonist of which that dynamism of charity which is so needed in today's social cultural context.” The Pope concluded by offering a solute to the “courageous, hard-working people who seek unity in peace.” Read more

Vatican City, Sep 24, 2014 / 02:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Announced Tuesday, Pope Francis' appointments to the International Theological Commission include a greater number of women than before, and come from more diverse locales, vocations, and charisms. “Women now constitute 16 percent of the Commission’s members, a sign of growing female involvement in theological research,” noted a Sept. 23 statement from the commission. “In 2014 it was also decided to further diversify the ecclesial provenance of the members, in relation to their religious status and the particular charisms they represent.” The group also stated that “there is an increased number of extra-European appointees in the new composition of the Commission,” highlighting that the numbers from Europe, Asia, and Australia were static, while there were increases in the members from South America, Africa, and North America. The International Theological Commission is an advisory body which assists the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in examining questions of doctrine, and members are nominated for five-year terms. The members are theologians “eminent for their scientific excellence and fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church”; they were chosen by the Pope after receiving a list of candidates from the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who had consulted with the world's bishops, both from the Roman and the Eastern Catholic Churches. The commission was established in 1969 by Paul VI, and has published 27 documents; among them are “Propositions on the Doctrine of Christian Marriage – Christological Theses on the Sacrament of Marriage,” “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptized,” and, most recently, “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church.” It was also announced that the commission has recently renovated and enriched its webpage, where “all the documents published by the Commission are available for consultation, usually in ten or more languages.” “It is hoped that this new and easier to use page will be a useful tool for stimulating dialogue by enabling an increasingly effective communication of the Commission's theological patrimony both within and beyond the Church,” the International Theological Commission stated. Fr. Serge Bonino, O.P., who is French, is secretary general of the commission for the 2014-2019 term. The North American appointees are: Sr. Prudence Allen, R.S.M., who has authored the multi-volume work “The Concept of Woman”; Fr. Mario Flores Ramos, rector of the Pontifical University of Mexico and a close collaborator of Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera; Moira McQueen of Canada; and Fr. Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M. Cap., who until recently was executive director of the U.S. bishops' secretariat of doctrine and canonical affairs. African appointees are: Fr. Terwase Akaabiam of Nigeria; Fr. Koffi Kpogo of Togo; and Fr. Nicholaus Segeja M'hela of Tanzania. Appointees from Europe are: Sr. Alenka Arko, Loyola Community, from Russia; Msgr. Piero Coda of Italy; Fr. Lajos Dolhai of Hungary; Fr. Peter Dubovsky, S.J., of Slovakia; Fr. Kryzsztof Gozdz of Poland; Fr. Karl-Heinz Menke of Germany, a professor of dogmatic theology greatly esteemed by Benedict XVI; Fr. Bernard Pottier, S.J., of Belgium; Fr. Javier Prades Lopez, an expert in the personalism of St. John Paul II and president of Spain's Pontifical Ecclesiastic University of San Damaso; Marianne Schlosser of Austria; Fr. Pierangelo Sequeri of Italy; Fr. Zeljko Tanjic of Croatia; Fr. Gabino Uribarri Bilbao, S.I., of Spain; and Fr. Philippe Vallian of France. Those appointed from South America are: Msgr. Antonio Luiz Catelan Ferriera of Brazil; Fr. Carlos Galli of Argentina; Fr. Oswaldo Martinez Mendoza of Colombia; and Gustavo Sanchez Rojas, S.C.V, of Peru. The members of the commission from Asia are: Fr. Gaby Hachem of Lebanon; Fr. Thomas Kollamparampil, C.M.I., of India; Fr. John Park Jun-yang of Korea; and Fr. Gerard Timoner III, O.P., of the Philippines. The lone Australian member of the International Theological Commission is Tracey Rowland, a dean at the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne, who has authored such works as “Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI,” which includes a foreword by Cardinal George Pell.   Read more

Vatican City, Sep 23, 2014 / 05:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy See press officer announced Tuesday that Jozef Wesolowski, the former apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic who was laicized earlier this year, has been put under house arrest amid an official investigation into charges of pedophilia. He is accused of having paid for sex with minors while nuncio to the Dominican Republic. “The seriousness of the allegations has prompted the official investigation to impose a restrictive measure that … consists of house arrest, with its related limitations, in a location within the Vatican City State,” Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., said Sept. 23. “The initiative taken by the judicial departments of Vatican City State is a result of the express desire of the Pope, so that a case so serious and delicate would be addressed without delay, with just and necessary rigor, and with full assumption of responsibility on the part of the institutions that are governed by the Holy See.” Wesolowski, 66, has been placed under house arrest, rather than being jailed in Vatican City's prison, due to his health condition. His house arrest is linked to the opening of a criminal trial being held against him in Vatican City. He was summoned by a Vatican prosecutor and informed of the criminal charges he faces. In June, 2014, Vatican officials ruled that Wesolowski was guilty of accusations that arose in late 2013 that the former nuncio had engaged in sexual misconduct, which had previously led him to resign from the position of nuncio to the Dominican Republic on Aug. 21, 2013. After the printing of the original accusations, a 13-year-old boy came forward with further allegations that Wesolowski had solicited him for sexual favors in exchange for money. The nuncio was then taken into protective custody by Dominican Republic officials. After the guilty verdict, the Vatican ruled that Wesolowski would be laicized, a serious canonical penalty that renders one unable to celebrate the sacraments. Though there is no extradition treaty between the Vatican and the Dominican Republic, Vatican officials had expressed their willingness to hand over Wesolowski to civil authorities in the Dominican Republic. In August 2014, Fr. Lombardi clarified that as the nuncio had been removed from his post, he no longer has diplomatic immunity. Fr. Lombardi said last month that the Vatican “from the very first moments that this case was made known to them, moved without delay and correctly in light of the fact that former nuncio Wesolowski held the position of a diplomatic representative of the Holy See,” particularly in recalling the former nuncio to Rome for canonical trial. He added that the recall of Wesolowski to the Vatican for trial and the consideration “demonstrates the full and direct undertaking of the Holy See's responsibility even in such a serious and delicate case,” saying that the case is one that Pope Francis “wishes to address justly and rigorously.”   Read more

Vatican City, Sep 23, 2014 / 04:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- All Christians must recognize Jesus Christ in migrants and refugees, and welcome them with “respect and solidarity” while avoiding “suspicion and prejudice,” Pope Francis h... Read more