New York City, N.Y., Mar 9, 2017 / 08:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of New York argued before a federal circuit court this week that it should have the freedom to make employment decisions about Catholic school principals without government i... Read more
Washington D.C., Mar 9, 2017 / 04:45 pm (CNA).- Family members of boxing great Muhammed Ali say they were detained at an airport for their religion and have linked the incident President Donald Trump’s travel ban, which they are challenging on religious freedom grounds. “There shouldn't be a travel ban,” said Khalilah Camacho Ali, the boxer’s former wife. “If I don't speak up now, they're going to keep harassing us.” She said Muhammed Ali’s family has been fighting for religious rights “for a very long time,” adding “We are going to continue to fight for religious justice.” Muhammed Ali, Jr. and his mother Khalilah Camacho Ali, were detained and questioned Feb. 7 at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as they returned from a Black History Month event in Jamaica, the Associated Press reports. They said they were asked if they were Muslim and a family spokesman charged they were flagged for their Arabic-sounding names. While Ali's former wife could produce a photo of herself with her famous ex-husband, her son could not. They were separated and he was detained by immigration officials for about two hours, the family spokesman said, according to the Washington Post. Ali Jr. was born in Philadelphia and has a U.S. passport. Customs officials, however, rejected claims it had discriminated on the basis of religion or ethnicity. “We accomplish our mission with vigilance and in accordance with the law,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Feb. 26, adding “We treat all travelers with respect and sensitivity.” Khalilah Camacho Ali said the incident at the Florida airport has affected her. “I'm paranoid. I'm just waiting for somebody to mess with me. That's not a good feeling when you have to travel,” she said. The ban on new visas for travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily halted the United States' refugee program was revised after facing court challenges. The latest version will take effect March 16 and has removed Iraq from the list of countries, which originally numbered seven. Ali Jr. and Khalilah Camacho Ali visited Washington, D.C. on Thursday to meet with lawmakers and discuss their experience. Democratic members of the House Subcommittee on border security invited them to a forum on the topic. They have launched a campaign against the travel restrictions with support of former boxing stars Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes and Roberto Duran. They are framing the effort as a conflict with the president, using the hashtag “#AlivsTrump.” The three-time boxing heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali also advocated for civil rights. He converted to Islam in 1964 and refused to join the military draft, citing conscientious objections as a Muslim. He was stripped of his heavyweight title and convicted of draft evasion, though the Supreme Court would rule in his favor. He died in 2016. Read more
Denver, Colo., Mar 9, 2017 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- If you’re an Irish Catholic (or any Catholic) living in the United States, you will need to check with your local diocese before indulging in corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s D... Read more
Phoenix, Ariz., Mar 9, 2017 / 02:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Students for Life Group at Arizona State University is planning the nation’s first Pregnant on Campus Week to offer resources, support and information for parents on campus this March 1... Read more
Hollywood, Calif., Mar 9, 2017 / 02:36 pm (CNA).- The path to priesthood doesn’t often include stops on the sets of soap operas. But for Father Don Woznicki, a stint as a production assistant for the NBC soap “Sunset Beach” in 1998 (the same year he entered the Mundelein Seminary to begin his formation as a priest) was a pivotal part of his exploration of his “calling within a calling” – his deep-seated desire to evangelize through the entertainment industry. “While I was in my pretheological studies at Loyola University in Chicago, I sensed the Holy Spirit moving me to somehow be involved in an outreach ministry as a priest to Hollywood,” recalled Father Woznicki. “I always loved entertainment, and it was at that point in my life, as I discerned the priesthood, that I had a deep conviction that somehow the Church needs to be more present because of that influence it can have on people and cultures.” As the South Bend, Indiana-born Father Woznicki assumed an associate pastor role at a Chicago-area parish, he (with the permission of then-Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George) proceeded to trek to Los Angeles three or four times a year, for one week at a time during his spring and summer breaks, to continue his PA job with “Sunset Beach,” work with Act One (a mentorship program for aspiring Christian screenwriters) and soak up as much additional exposure to the entertainment industry that he could get. Twenty years and a handful of IMDB credits later, Father Woznicki is now not only the pastor at Christ the King Church in Hollywood (where he began serving last July), but also the director of New Ethos, an advocacy effort that strives to drum up support throughout the Catholic community for films that, as St. Pope John Paul II (who was an actor in his youth) once put it, “bring us to a personal encounter with truth, goodness and beauty.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LOS ANGELES I Holy-wood: How one priest supports films that ‘promote truth, beauty and goodness.’ <a href="https://t.co/1dMBdAymxd">https://t.co/1dMBdAymxd</a> <a href="https://t.co/4ml5D1CdML">pic.twitter.com/4ml5D1CdML</a></p>— Angelus News (@AngelusNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/AngelusNews/status/839957753082736640">March 9, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> “There is great power in film and television, because much of our senses are acted upon through visuals (cinematography, special effects, movement), hearing (screenplay, musical score, sound) and a personal connection with the actors,” explained Father Woznicki. “Our celebration of the Mass and sacraments carry through its beauty the ultimate power to act on our senses, to have a personal encounter with our Lord and Savior and transform our minds and hearts. When one encounters an overarching spirit of the true, good and beautiful in entertainment, one also is encountering Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life.” And while many on the outside looking in have a preconceived notion of Hollywood being a spiritual wasteland, Father Woznicki has found that Hollywood is, in fact, inhabited by its fair share of faith-filled industry professionals who, though they may not agree with all of the Church’s teachings, have an “attraction to, and appreciation for, the Church’s age-old and sophisticated approach to the arts through the holy Mass, in sacred art and in the various other traditional and progressive mystical expressions of faith.” In order to support filmmakers and screenwriters who share his passion for truthful, beautiful storytelling, Father Woznicki and his core team of film reviewers collaborate with studio marketing executives in a number of capacities to galvanize support throughout the Catholic community for films that fit the bill. His ultimate goal is for New Ethos to become an esteemed, respected voice for the films it wants to promote, and has not only a hand in production and development, but also “a place at the table of major studios and independent production companies to have a meaningful influence on developing entertainment.” To this end, New Ethos is in the planning stages of working with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications to coordinate a two-day retreat at the Vatican for accomplished industry artists and establishing a “New Ethos Film Festival,” a Sundance-esque event to be held annually in Los Angeles. For the time being, however, New Ethos’ primary efforts involve recognizing quality films and awarding them the New Ethos “Logo of Excellence,” which promoters can in turn use for marketing purposes. New Ethos’ two most prestigious awards, the “New Ethos Excellence Award” and the “New Ethos Selection” are awarded to films that excel in the categories of religion, values and art. Father Woznicki hopes that, by recognizing films that succeed as much in their efforts to explore universal human truths and propel the craft of filmmaking forward as they do in telling stories concerning matters of faith, that New Ethos will help shake the filmgoing public’s tendency to equate “Catholic” with “G-rated” and/or “hokey.” “New Ethos is not about just supporting films and entertainment media because a Catholic made it,” stated Father Woznicki. “Would you get on an airplane just because you heard a Catholic made it? Quality is the rule. Christ is constantly calling us to conversion, hope and to be transformed into his image, and the reality is that a vast majority of us are works in progress, made holy in Christ’s mercy, but with many rough and hard edges to be smoothed out. “New Ethos films are not about promoting sanitized Christian propaganda, rather to that conversion, hope and transformation,” he continued. Just as we are all works in progress, so is New Ethos in its early stages. But Father Woznicki firmly believes that New Ethos’ earnest intention to focus on promoting the best attributes of Hollywood, the goodness waiting to emerge in films hidden beneath the slog, will lead to a flourishing, symbiotic relationship between New Ethos and the entertainment industry. “The mission’s philosophy was founded on transforming Hollywood not through a self-righteous ‘Hollywood takeover’ to form a ‘Catholic Hollywood,’ but rather encouraging and supporting and uplifting the true, good and beautiful in secular Hollywood productions, where much of God’s talent operates,” said Father Woznicki. “[It’s not] about going to Hollywood yielding a stick to point out where they are leading our children into hell,” he continued. “Rather, [it’s] to form positive collaborative relationships, where the Church lets Hollywood be who they are: the most talented and creative storytellers in the world, which the Church needs, while Hollywood can use the Church not only for its large market potential, but also to tap into the Church’s wisdom to help guide the art-making process. It’s is a win-win mission!” This article originally appeared in Angelus News. Reprinted with permission. Read more
Seoul, South Korea, Mar 9, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The first Bishop of Pyongyang, an American born-bishop, and numerous priests and laity are among the 213 who could be beatified and advanced on the process to sainthood under a process begun in South Korea. Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik of Daejon predicted it will take at least ten years before any beatification or canonization, “but for our people, these people are already holy.” The bishop heads the Korean bishops’ committee considering the beatifications. He told Asia News that important parts of the path to beatification are the Catholic faithful’s prayer and “desire to follow the spirit of the martyrs.” One group under consideration for beatification includes Servant of God Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho and 80 companions. This broad group ranges from the martyrs of the 1901 Jeju massacre, in which about 300 Catholics were killed, to the victims of persecution following the division of Korea following the Second World War. Bishop Hong, born in 1906, was ordained a priest in 1933 under Japanese occupation. He was named the first native Bishop of Pyongyang in 1944. He was an apostolic vicar to a region considered mission territory by the Church. With the rise of communism, he was imprisoned in 1949. His fate is unknown, but he is believed to have died in a concentration camp in North Korea. Until 2013, when he would have been 107, the Vatican considered him missing. Acknowledgment of his death opened the path to possible beatification. Bishop Patrick James Byrne, a native of Washington, D.C., is also among the group. The Maryknoll missionary was born in 1888. He was ordained a priest in 1915, then served in Korea and Japan before the Second World War. In April 1949 he was named the first apostolic delegate to Korea, and ordained a bishop at the age of 60 in 1949. In July 1950 he was arrested by communists and put on trial. He and other priests were put on forced marches. During a four-month-long forced march, suffering from bad weather and a lack of food and shelter, he died Nov. 25, 1950. Altogether, the group associated with Bishop Hong includes two bishops, 48 priests, three seminarians, seven religious sisters, and 21 lay people. The second group, Servant of God John Baptist Yi Byeok and his 132 companions, were all lay people killed for their faith between 1785 and 1879. Yi was from a family of court dignitaries who under the Joseon dynasty converted to Catholicism and helped evangelize Korea. He was martyred at the age of 33. One of their number, Alexius Hwang Sa-yeong, died by martyrdom when his arms and legs were tied to four animals which were then driven away in opposite directions, dismembering him. Another in the group died in exile and his martyrdom must be verified. The Korean bishops' conference has set up a special committee for the causes of saints with a Vatican mandate to consider martyrs who belong to different dioceses. Read more
Vatican City, Mar 9, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Barbara Jatta, the newest director of the Vatican museums, and the first woman to hold the position, said that working with art was a natural path for her to follow – and she can’t imagine a better place to do so. On her extensive background in art, Barbara Jatta told CNA: “I don't think I chose it.” Her mother and sister are both restorers, her grandmother was a painter and her grandfather was an architect, she said. “All my family is in the art world…” “So I grew up in art, looking at art, going to museums with my family. It was really something so natural for me to choose this,” Jatta said. “I don't feel I have a career, I have the privilege of working with what I like. With what I really think is important for me to do and I'm doing it in the best place I can ever imagine.” Asked what she thinks will be the greatest challenge in her new position, she said bringing “harmony in to this place.” She wants to “give the visitors the idea that they are in a privileged place with privileged people that work here.” “I mean, all the people working here know that they work for the Pope, they work for a mission, rather than just having a simple work. And I would like to focus on this more and more,” she said. Another challenge Jatta faces is balancing preservation of the art in the museums with accessibility to the public. “I do think that it's very important to preserve what we have received from the past,” she said, “and at the same time, sharing it is one of our focuses. So it's important also to share the beauty in what we have here.” The museums have recently made other changes as well, including launching an updated website at the end of January that is more user-friendly and includes an “Explore” section, where website visitors can view museum content right from their homes. Expanding accessibility to the extensive collections of the museums, whether through the website or for in-person visitors is a major focus, Jatta said. “The idea is to let the people and the visitors arriving spread out in the different museums…and so let them go into the different part of the museums that are not as often visited. We have wonderful parts of the museum that visitors generally do not go to, do not visit,” she said. And the number of visitors to the museums continues to grow. In 2016, six million people visited the Vatican, she said, but that number is predicted to be even greater in 2017. In Jan. and Feb. of 2017, “we had an increase of 18,000 people in the two months, compared to the other years,” she noted. The large number of visitors is excellent for the museums, but not always great for protecting the artworks themselves. Because of this, “we have a very important program for preservation of the entire spaces of the museum,” Jatta said, “which costs a lot in effort and money, but we do think that it's a very important part of our organization.” Why should someone visit? The Vatican museums are a unique place, she said. For instance, it isn’t just one museum, but in fact many, all joined together. “So it's not only a museum of archeology – you have many other archeology museums in Rome or in other parts of Italy.” What makes the Vatican museums unique is “the idea of having the different witnesses of the culture, art and faith, that's an important part, a fundamental part of this museum.” For example, the ethnological museum has more than 80,000 pieces, from different continents, and all witnessing to the faith, she said. This museum is comprised of pieces that were given as gifts to the popes, especially Pius XI. “But it really is an ongoing museum that is still receiving items from all over the continents and that's probably the most important aspect of our museums. The idea that they preserve witnesses of faith.” Jatta was vice-director of the museums starting in June 2016, but before that, since 1996, she worked and led the prints section of the Vatican Library. “So I was always an art historian working within the Vatican walls,” she said. She met Pope Francis while in her former job when she presented him with a work of art for the Jubilee of Mercy. “For sure, Pope Francis is very interested in art,” she continued, highlighting how he brought homeless to visit the Sistine Chapel because “he thought that they would never have the opportunity to see it and this is very important.” He speaks “about art very often, and the sense that beauty and art link people is something very, very important that he tells us…and it's one of my ideas in leading these museums,” she said.Mary Shovlain contributed to this story. Read more
Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 9, 2017 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The deaths of seven inmates in a fire at a police station in Pergamino, Argentina has brought renewed criticisms of the “inhumane situation” experienced in prisons in the country. On March 2, seven people died inside Police Station No. 1 in Pergamino in an incident ending with a fire that was caused, according to preliminary information, by a fight between the prisoners. In their statement entitled “Where is your brother?” the National Secretariat of Prison Pastoral Care invited “everyone to become aware of this inhumane situation that so many of our brothers live in, and we make an urgent demand to those directly and immediately responsible: ‘Don't put off actions that cannot wait!’” The secretariat expressed its sorrow to the families and renewed its “commitment for life” in addition asking that “God in his great mercy may grant us the gift to discover every person as a brother and act accordingly.” “We cannot remain indifferent. These are seven lives taken away by the fire, they have names: Sergio, Federico, Alan, Franco, John Mario, Juan Carlos and Fernando Emanuel, they have families, they have histories, they are from our homeland,” the statement said. According to reports, a fight among the prisoners broke out and led to mattresses being set on fire. The firefighters arrived late on the scene, and seven prisoners died. However, the secretariat of prison pastoral care said, “We can't just stop at a simplistic account of what happened” and “much less can we think…'seven less thieves.' With shame, much grief and indignation we want to ask forgiveness for expressions like that.” “In such a tragic event, there are many questions that have been waiting for answers for a long time, they require urgent decisions and concrete actions.” “Even when there are so many overcrowded prisoners and in inhumane conditions in the police stations, how can it be that they are not prepared for this? This reality has been going on for some time and it is increasing even though it has been repeatedly pointed out as inadmissible and therefore prohibited,” the statement said. “Police stations are not a suitable place for long term detentions, far from minimum standards,” it continued. “Police stations don't have the preparations and the requirements demanded by the needs of a prison program.” The prison ministry secretariat reiterated that places of detention must protect life, “preserve and maintain psycho-physical integrity,” and have adequate sanitation, potable water, places for eating, resting, and access to education, among other things. “Can it be admitted that there is no emergency protocol for situations like these, knowing that it is a public place, a police station, and even more so where there are people imprisoned under the responsibility of the state?” the secretariat said. Read more
Washington D.C., Mar 8, 2017 / 03:29 pm (CNA).- As Congress considers a new health care law, the U.S. bishops are calling for a plan that does not fund abortion, but respects conscience rights, while also ensuring universal access to affordable health ... Read more
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mar 8, 2017 / 01:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church in Ethiopia is mourning the deaths of four religious sisters who died in a car accident that critically injured three other sisters. The accident involved members of the Congre... Read more
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