Baltimore, Md., Nov 15, 2016 / 09:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday elected Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston as its president, and Archbishop Jose Gómez of Los Angeles vice-president. Cardinal DiNardo has served as conference vice-president since 2013. He was elected president at the bishops' fall assembly Nov. 15 in Baltimore, and will serve a three-year term. The bishops’ conference president plays a significant role in coordinating and leading charitable and social work and education, while providing a public face for the Catholic Church in the U.S. Cardinal DiNardo has served as Archbishop of Galveston-Houston since 2006, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007. Archbishop Gómez succeeded as Archbishop of Los Angeles, in 2011. In the vote for president, Cardinal DiNardo received 113 votes. There were 10 candidates, and the nominee with the second-largest number of votes was Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, who garnered 30 votes. Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Gómez had both also been selected (at the 2014 general assembly) by their fellow US bishops to be among the delegates to the 2015 Synod on the Family. Cardinal DiNardo was born in Steubenville in 1949, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1977. He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Sioux City in 1997, succeeding as its ordinary the following year. He was then named coadjutor archbishop of Galveston-Houston in 2004. The cardinal was chosen vice president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference in 2013. He had previously served as the head of the bishops’ pro-life committee, where he was outspoken against the contraception mandate of the Obama administration. In addition, has been a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, and the Pontifical Council for the Economy. Archbishop Gómez heads the largest U.S. diocese, with more than 4 million Catholics. He is the highest-ranking Hispanic bishop in the United States. Born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1951, he was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in 1978. In 2001, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Denver, and made Archbishop of San Antonio in 2004. In 2010 he was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles, succeeding as its ordinary the next year. Archbishop Gomez has worked extensively in Hispanic ministry and played a key role in creating the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders. He has also been outspoken on pro-life issues, immigration, and the death penalty. In 2008, Archbishop Gomez was appointed as a consultant to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He has served in various roles for the US bishops' conference, including in cultural diversity, doctrine, and Hispanics and liturgy. Read more

Washington D.C., Nov 15, 2016 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- American voters wanted change, says one third party presidential candidate who believes that Catholic social teaching will answer many of their desires. “There is most definitely a hunge... Read more

Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2016 / 04:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church needs to “be on the move” to bring Christ to young people in an ever-changing world, Pope Francis’ representative to the U.S. told bishops on Monday. “Mercy i... Read more

Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2016 / 12:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the country recovers from a divisive election and many in the U.S. are living in uncertainty, the Church must offer everyone hope, the outgoing president of the U.S. bishops' conference maintained Monday. “The Church at her best has always been a beacon of hope,” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville stated Nov. 14 at a press conference during the bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore. He added that the Church “advocates for people who feel that they’re disenfranchised or are filled with fear,” and pointed to statements he made earlier in the morning to migrants and refugees, who might be fearful after the recent presidential election. Just as Christ said in the Gospels “I am with you,” he exhorted his fellow bishops to repeat to these persons who have fled violence and persecution: “we are with you.” The bishops are meeting for their annual general assembly Nov. 14-16 in Baltimore. On Monday they heard the final presidential address of outgoing president Archbishop Kurtz, as well as an address by the Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre. Regarding the recent presidential election, Archbishop Kurtz said earlier on Monday that he had written to President-elect Donald Trump expressing a “willingness to work together” for the “protection of life” and the “promotion of human dignity.” The bishops “have been very clear for the right to life of the child in the womb,” Archbishop Kurtz insisted, adding that the Church is defending human dignity by opposing the legalization of assisted suicide, which was recently approved by voters in Colorado and by the city government of Washington, D.C. Trump’s victory has been met with protests in cities across the country, capping what was already a polarizing election cycle. Bishops responded to the protests by stating their respect for freedom of speech while insisting that a “peaceful transition of power” take place. “I think that these can be reconciled,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chair of the bishops’ domestic justice and human development committee, of the protests and peace. There is nothing “more American than a peaceful transition of power,” he stated. The bishops were also asked about the fear of immigrants and refugees. Trump ran on a strong immigration platform that called for, among other things, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison for those deported from the U.S. who try to illegally re-enter. Last year he called for a halt on Muslims being able to enter the country, for national security reasons. He expanded that policy this past summer by saying that the U.S. should not accept refugees from countries “compromised by terrorism.” He said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he plans to deport 2 to 3 million undocumented persons “that are criminal and have criminal records” after he is sworn in as president. Archbishop Wenski recognized the validity of fears many in the U.S. have of being deported, but exhorted them to stay calm. In 1980, when President Reagan was elected, the archbishop recalled he met with Haitian detainees who were crying in fear. He recalled telling them, “don’t worry, nothing’s changed,” pointing to other countries where violent riots might take place during a transition of power. “We have a rule of law,” Archbishop Wenski said on Monday. “Nobody can arbitrarily try to send out of the country, in one fell swoop, 11 million people.” “Those people [Haitians] are still here,” he added, saying that “it’s time to take a deep breath” and to “continue our advocacy.” “If they build a wall, we have to make sure they put some doors in that wall,” he said, referring to Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Catholics should also support those who have been helping immigrants all along, Archbishop Kurtz added. Many Catholic Charities workers have been serving immigrants for a long time, and we must “encourage and even salute in some ways” these workers, he said. Plus, there is public support for immigration reform which would include a “path to permanent residency” and “eventual citizenship,” Archbishop Wenski said. The bishops were also asked about the implementation of Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on love in the family, and if it would uphold Pope St. John Paul II’s teaching in Familiaris consortio that the divorced-and-remarried may receive reconciliation in the sacrament of Confession only if they have repented of having broken the sign of the covenant and, if for serious reasons they cannot separate, they agree to live in complete continence, living as brother and sister. Archbishop Kurtz instructed Catholics to “read first chapter four and five” of the letter, and pointed to what “our Holy Father has said,” that “very clearly that there is no desire on his part to make any canonical changes or any new doctrine.” Read more

Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2016 / 11:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Concrete outreach to those in need should be the focus of the U.S. bishops going forward, as well as “respectful dialogue” with the Trump administration, the bishops’ conference president said Monday. “United with Pope Francis, we are confident and we are hopeful, as we hear once again the echo of the words of Jesus: what you did for one of my least, you did for me,” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville told the U.S. bishops. Archbishop Kurtz is the outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, finishing a three-year term. He spoke at their general assembly in Baltimore, Maryland Nov. 14. The bishops are entering their 100th year of holding plenary gatherings. “Whether it is protecting the child in the womb and her mother or a family seeking a better life as they migrate from another country, it is our task to think not of our own interests but of the common good,” he said. “We embrace that task with enthusiasm and enter respectful dialogue with President Donald Trump and with both houses of Congress.” He said this dialogue would seek “concrete actions.” “There’s been an unprecedented lack of civility and even rancor in the national elections just completed. Now we are required to move forward with respect for those in public office,” he said. “We seek the common good based on truth and charity, without imposing, but strongly proposing, as we have done for 99 years.” The main focus of Archbishop Kurtz’s remarks was not the political elections, but the tasks facing the U.S. bishops today. “Jesus spoke and acted in very concrete ways. Empowered by His grace, so do we,” he told the bishops. He encouraged their outreach to pregnant mothers, to the dying, to the family “fleeing for a better life for their children,” and the inner city family “seeking opportunities and not racial profiling.” He encouraged the bishops’ outreach to those who wish to serve others with “integrity of faith.” Bishops should work to build trust in their neighborhoods, he continued. He predicted they would find “signs of hope from unexpected places” in the future leaders born today and could draw hope from their encounters with others. Archbishop Kurtz recounted his encounter with a refugee family in Ukraine, where he met a young eight-year-old refugee with Down Syndrome. “He instinctively jumped into my arms, gave me a big smile and said in a language that my heart understood: ‘I love you’,” the archbishop recounted. “The lesson is obvious: we bishops and all who serve the Lord need also to open our hearts to the joy that others will give to us. Joy and love are not only to be given but also to be received.” For the archbishop, that boy was “a trusting child of God deserving a chance,” much like many American young people. In February, Archbishop Kurtz met with two dozen unaccompanied minors in El Paso before Pope Francis said Mass on the other side of the border. He asked them their dreams, and they said they wanted only to work, to study and to join their family. “Quickly I asked: ‘not also to pray?’ and without a pause they said ‘Yes, to pray to God to help’,” he recounted. “Our nation is on thin ice when refugees are spoken of in the abstract,” Archbishop Kurtz said. “After I met the unaccompanied youth seeking reunion with their families, the issue became very clear. Surely the situations are complex but the voiceless remain anonymous unless there is a face to the voice.” He encouraged the bishops to find in such people these “flashes of inspiration and encouragement that come to us from God.” The archbishop listed several challenges facing the bishops: threats to the global community, especially religious persecution, and challenges within the United States, related to the dignity of the human person. He also mentioned possible problems for American Catholics, citing “challenges to unity in truth and charity within our Church as we tirelessly announce the good news of Jesus Christ, to draw all to Christ and to walk with all toward conversion.” Archbishop Kurtz recounted the encouragement he had received from his friend and mentor, the late Bishop emeritus David B Thompson of Charleston. He also encouraged the bishops to pay attention to one another and to remember that they are a “family, a ‘communio’ of pastors.” “Just as a family seeks to serve each other as a prerequisite for authentic service beyond, so we do too.  If not, our pastoral hearts will be shallow and short lived with others,” he said. He voiced gratitude to the bishops and the bishops’ conference staff Archbishop Kurtz closed with a reflection on his episcopal motto “Hope in the Lord.” “This is not a pie-in-the-sky hope but a hope grounded in the reality of God's grace in the midst of challenges,” he said. Read more

Los Angeles, Calif., Nov 14, 2016 / 10:03 am (CNA).- Archbishop José H. Gomez called for mercy and an end to deportations during an interfaith prayer service Nov. 10 for peace, solidarity and unity at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. “In this country, we need to start building bridges and bringing people together,” he said. “We need to reach out to those who are hurting. Now is the time to build unity and heal communities, through our love for our neighbor and our care for those in need. That’s what tonight is about. Not politics. It’s about people.” The archbishop and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti organized the prayer service as a sign of unity and solidarity amid the uncertainty and fear that has followed the Nov. 8 elections. The archbishop drew particular attention to immigrant communities. “Tonight in America, children are afraid. Men and women are worried and anxious, thinking about where they can run and hide. This is happening tonight, in America,” the archbishop said. “The answer is not angry words or violence in the streets. It never solves anything. It only inflames it more. We need to be people of peace, people of compassion. Love not hate. Mercy not revenge,” he added. “These are the tools to rebuild our nation and renew the American dream. Tonight we promise our brothers and sisters who are undocumented — we will never leave you alone.” During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to undo what he called President Barack Obama’s “overreaching” executive orders. Those executive actions included protections for children of undocumented immigrants. Despite Obama’s measures, as the archbishop noted, more than two million have been deported in the last eight years. “No one seems to care. Except that little girl or little boy who comes home at night — and he or she knows his or her father isn’t there anymore,” he said. The U.S. bishops have been calling for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system for more than 15 years. “Let’s pray tonight, in a special way — that our leaders will find it in their hearts to make a beautiful, humanitarian gesture,” the archbishop added. “Let’s pray that they can come together, in a spirit of national unity, and agree to stop the threat of deportations — until we can fix our broken immigration system.”   Mayor Garcetti called for solidarity among all people of faith. “People turn to God in moments like this, he said. “The divisions of this last week, and for these past months, have in many ways torn us apart.” While hundreds prayed in the cathedral, hundreds of Trump protestors gathered in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles for a second consecutive night. The mayor, while applauding the “new generation” for “expressing themselves,” asked that they “respect people’s property” and be more careful with where they marched. “It’s never good to play on the freeway,” he said, referring to the Nov. 9 protestors who blocked the 101. “I hope President-elect Trump will hear our feelings, not just in this city, but in our country, and that he will seek to understand.” The archbishop and the mayor were joined by Rabbi Sharon Brous, founder and senior rabbi of the Ikar Jewish Community of Los Angeles, Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Reverend Najuma Smith-Pollard of the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement and Father Alexei Smith, a Melkite Greek Catholic priest who heads the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. “These are no longer ordinary times,” Rabbi Brous said. “Now it is upon all of us to respond to the millions of immigrants, to the Muslims, to the people of color, to LGBT people and people with disabilities — all of those who have been threatened by the vicious rhetoric of the past year and a half. We are with you now and every day for the next four years and far beyond that.”This story originally ran on L.A.'s Angelus News. Read more