Vatican City, Jan 24, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Irish bishops are just finishing up their first ad limina visit to Rome in 10 years – a time that’s been marked by a rapid increase in secularism, the legalization of same-sex marriage and the country's tragic clerical sex abuse crisis. However, despite the vast array of challenges the Irish bishops currently face and the many hurdles they have already overcome, one topic stood out, and was mentioned in every single meeting they had with different Vatican departments: the role women in the Church today. “I would say I don't think there was any congregation that we didn't mention it,” Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick told CNA Jan. 20. He called the attention currently being given to women and their role “one of the signs of the times.” The Holy Spirit “is saying something,” Leahy said, adding that while exactly what the Holy Spirit wants is “the big question for us all,” one area that keeps coming up is engaging women more in decision-making processes. Bishop Leahy is just one of the many Irish prelates who gathered in Rome last week for their ad limina visit, which typically serves as a time of rest and prayer for bishops during which they meet with the Pope and have the opportunity to visit each of the Vatican departments. He was one of four bishops who spoke to journalists after their Jan. 20 meeting with Pope Francis, which lasted just over two hours and covered a wide range of topics. Other prelates who spoke were Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh in Northern Ireland and president of the Irish bishops' conference, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin. In his comments to CNA, Bishop Leahy noted that “women are so much at the heart of the Church in Ireland, they are very, very involved in the Church.” However, throughout the past 10 years of meetings, assemblies and, in his case, a diocesan synod, the bishops have been doing a lot of listening, and one thing they’ve consistently heard from women is they want their role to be “more greatly enhanced,” visible, appreciated and articulated. This is a reflection they brought up with each of the Vatican dicasteries they visited, as well as with the Pope, who “recognizes that it is a serious issue.” Leahy said that during their meeting with the Pope, led as a conversation with no prepared text, Francis pointed to Swiss theologian Hans von Balthasar, which has done in the past, offering reflections on two specific dimensions in the Church: the Petrine and the Marian. “Peter, Mary...these two profiles. Because they are complimentary,” he said. “Women bring their way of seeing things, their way of understanding, their way of feeling about issues, their distinctiveness into the life of the Church.” While the topic itself and what it means for the work and life of the Church requires more reflection, “we need to appreciate” the specific qualities that women bring, and “we need to see how we can articulate that more.” However, referring to Pope Francis' advice, Leahy cautioned that while the enhancing the role of women must be pursued, it shouldn’t be approached from a “simply functionalistic perspective.” “We can't just come up with simplistic solutions, and I think women themselves would be the first to say that,” he said, explaining that the next step is to explore together “how best to articulate the life of the Church in such a way that women will feel that their role is genuinely appreciated.” The bishop said that after their meetings in the Vatican, he feels that their concern about the topic “has been heard,” and “to be fair, we’re not the only ones saying it.” Pope Francis himself often says the role of women is something the entire Church needs to look into, he said, explaining that for he and his fellow bishops in Ireland, they will head back with plans for “a tremendous engagement” based on listening and dialogue. Referring to Pope Francis’ constant emphasis on the importance of discernment, Leahy said there’s no quick solution, but it’s something that “needs time, it needs reflection, it needs exploration to discern together.” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin echoed Leahy’s sentiments, telling journalists that one of the “most alienated groups” in Ireland is “young women.” He said that specifically in their meeting with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, they discussed the areas in the Church where “a stronger position” of not only women, but laypeople in general, “is not only licit, but is desirable.” Other issues touched on by the bishops in their meeting with the Pope were youth, vocations, the influx of refugees to the country, and of course the Pope’s upcoming visit to Ireland in 2018 for the World Meeting of Families Although the bishops’ visit comes in wake of the abuse scandal that rocked the country and a rapid increase in secularization, Archbishop Eamon Martin said none of the bishops felt “under investigation” or interrogation during the ad limina. It was “a very different atmosphere,” particularly in their meeting with the Pope, which he called a “fascinating encounter.” “We haven’t received any raps on the knuckles,” but were rather assured that they are “not alone” in the challenges the face, many of which stem from the fact that the voice of the Church and her authority in society and in the lives of individuals has taken a drastic dip, in large part due to the abuse scandal.   Archbishop Diarmuid said the bishops “are realistic about the challenges we are facing in Ireland at the moment,” but are also hopeful that they are moving to “a new place of encounter and dialogue” in Irish society where the Church has an important voice. “Not the dominating voice or domineering voice that perhaps some say we’ve had in the past – but we are contributing to important conversations” on topics such as life, marriage, family, poverty and education. Discussion also focused at length on how to be a bishop, with the Pope comparing their role to a goalkeeper, “and the shots keep coming from everywhere, and you stand there ready to take them from wherever they come.” While there was “a fair bit of laughing and joking,” the bishops all got very serious when talking about abuse. Archbishop Martin said the number of abuses in Ireland “was small compared to society at large,” and noted that the Church has made significant progress since the scandals came out. Referring to their meeting with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Archbishop Eamon Martin pointed to a four-step model Benedict XVI recommended to them when the abuse scandal first broke out in the country: to establish the truth of what happened, put preventative procedures into place, to adhere to justice and to bring healing. “We’ve been working in all four areas,” he said, noting that in the healing process for those abused, “to have their story told” makes a big difference. Ireland is “now speaking from a sense of maturity” and can be a reference point to the rest of the Church from their position, he said, noting that as he was speaking a new report was published in Belfast by leaders of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland on the abuse of children in residential institutions, some run by Catholic religious orders. Overall there was a recognition that Ireland had gone “through a bad time – not for us, but particularly for children who were abused,” he said, adding that there was also an acknowledgment that “anything that we did would inevitably be inadequate in responding to the suffering they experienced.” Read more

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2017 / 03:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his annual message to communicators around the world, Pope Francis again condemned the tendency for media to focus on the “bad news,” saying journalists, while being accurate, must also offer a message of hope. “We have to break the vicious circle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear resulting from a constant focus on ‘bad news,’” such as war, terrorism, scandal and other human failures, the Pope said in his message for the World Day of Social Communications. It was published Jan. 24 to mark the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of writers, journalists and the Catholic press. The actual day of communications will be celebrated May 28, and will focus on the theme of the Pope’s message: “Fear not, for I am with you: Communicating Hope and Trust in our Time.” In his message, the Pope said steering clear of bad news “has nothing to do with spreading misinformation that would ignore the tragedy of human suffering,” and neither does in involve “a naive optimism blind to the scandal of evil.” “Rather, I propose that all of us work at overcoming that feeling of growing discontent and resignation that can at times generate apathy, fear or the idea that evil has no limits,” he said. Pointing to those in the communications industry who operate with the mentality that “good news does not sell,” and where evil and human suffering often become a form “entertainment,” Francis stressed that “there is always the temptation that our consciences can be dulled or slip into pessimism.” He urged those who work in the field of communications to pursue “an open and creative style of communication that never seeks to glamourize evil,” but rather tries to focus “on solutions and to inspire a positive and responsible approach on the part of its recipients.” “I ask everyone to offer the people of our time storylines that are at heart ‘good news,’” he said. Pope Francis’ appeal for a more positive take on the news isn’t the first time he’s made such a request, nor is it the first time he’s condemned journalists who always focus on negativity and scandal. In an interview with Belgian weekly magazine “Tertio” published Dec. 7, 2016, the Pope gave a stern warning to journalists to steer clear of the temptations of slander, defamation, misinformation and focusing excessively on scandal. Using vivid language, he compared the latter to the disease of “coprophilia,” a mental illness in which a person has an abnormal interest in feces. A few months earlier, Francis dedicated his prayer intention for October 2016, to praying for journalists, specifically asking that they be truthful and ethical in their reporting. In his message for the world day of communications, the Pope noted that thanks to modern technology, media “makes it possible for countless people to share news instantly and spread it widely.” “That news may be good or bad, true or false,” he said, recalling how early Christians compared the human mind to a “constantly grinding millstone.” In this image, it is up to the miller to decide what grind: “good wheat or worthless weeds.” For those who are constantly “grinding out information” in their personal and professional lives, it’s important to engage in “constructive forms of communication that reject prejudice toward others and foster a culture of encounter,” he said, adding that this will help everyone “to view the world around us with realism and trust.” When it comes to reporting the good news rather than always focusing on the bad, Francis said we have to change the lens thought which we view reality. For Christians, he said, this above all means viewing reality through the lens of “the Good News par excellence: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God.” “This good news – Jesus himself – is not good because it has nothing to do with suffering, but rather because suffering itself becomes part of a bigger picture,” he said, noting that this suffering is “an integral part of Jesus’ love for the Father and for all mankind.” With Christ, “even darkness and death become a point of encounter with light and life,” he said, adding that from here a hope “accessible to everyone” is born and “does not disappoint,” since from this hope God’s enters our hearts. “Seen in this light, every new tragedy that occurs in the world’s history can also become a setting for good news, inasmuch as love can find a way to draw near and to raise up sympathetic hearts, resolute faces and hands ready to build anew,” he said. Pope Francis then used Jesus' Ascension into heaven as an example of what our hope is based on, saying that even though the Lord might appear distant at the moment, “the horizons of hope expand all the more.” With the help and power of the Holy Spirit, we can become both “witnesses and communicators” of a renewed and redeemed humanity throughout the world, he said. Confidence in “the seed of God’s Kingdom” spread throughout the world ought also shape the way we communicate, he said, adding that this confidence allows everyone in the communications field to carry out their work with the conviction “that it is possible to recognize and highlight the good news present in every story and in the face of each person.” In a Jan. 24 news briefing for the publication of the Pope’s message, Msgr. Dario Eduardo Vigano, Prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, stressed the importance of having “constructive communication,” that leans neither toward scandal nor optimism, but is realistic. It’s important to not “make evil the protagonist,” even when reporting on tragic events, he said, and also warned journalists to steer clear of hypocrisy, which he called an “impure gaze” of reality that “impedes charity.” Also present at the briefing was Delia Gallagher, Vatican correspondent for CNN, who said the Pope’s document was “an opportune message” that’s important for news agencies to keep in mind. She focused specifically on the need to be accurate when reporting the news, saying one “can’t be a good journalist if they are not certain of the facts.” Pope Francis’ message provides a path “if not of truth, precision – to give the news accurately,” she said, and used the Pope himself and how he is often reported as an example. While it’s not always easy to convey his message due to translations and a variety of other challenges, it’s important to stick to the facts and “to give the context when he says something,” rather than just reporting on snippet of what he said without offering the reader the full picture. “It’s a job that seems easy, but requires experience,” she said, encouraging her colleagues to be accurate and precise, adding that “from the good news can also come from this.” Read more

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2017 / 08:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday the Vatican announced that Msgr. Michael J. Boulette, founder of an organization dedicated entirely to giving spiritual direction and training spiritual directors, will now be an Auxilia... Read more