Vatican City, Mar 6, 2016 / 05:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis lamented the world’s indifference to the recent killing of four Missionaries of Charity, calling them the ‘martyrs of today’ and asking that Bl. Mother Teresa intercede in bringing peace.  “I express my closeness to the Missionaries of Charity for the great loss that affected them two days ago with the killing of four religious in Aden, Yemen, where they assisted the elderly,” the Pope said March 6. The sisters who were killed “are the martyrs of today…they gave their blood for the Church, (yet) they are not in the papers, they are not news,” he said. Francis lamented that the sisters are not only the victims of their killers, but “also of the indifference of this globalization of indifference, which doesn't care.” He prayed for the sisters and the other 12 people killed in the attack, as well as their families, asking that Mother Teresa would accompany her “martyr daughters of charity” in paradise, and intercede in obtaining peace “and the sacred respect of human life.” Pope Francis’ spoke to pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his March 6 Angelus address, just two days after a March 4 attack at a Missionaries of Charity convent and nursing home for the elderly and disabled persons in Aden, the provisional capital of Yemen, left 16 dead. Four of the victims were sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, the community founded by Blessed Mother Teresa. Other victims of the attack included volunteers at the home, at least five of whom were Ethiopian. Many were Yemenis. The nursing home had around 80 residents, who were unharmed. Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian priest from India who had been staying with the sisters since his church was attacked and burned last September, has been missing since the attack, Agenzia Fides reports. Sources close to CNA say the priest was abducted from the convent chapel. In his address, Pope Francis pointed to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which was recounted in the day’s Gospel from Luke. A better name for the parable could be that of “the merciful Father,” the Pope said, noting how the father in the passage is “a man always ready to forgive and who hopes against all hope.” In tolerating the younger son’s decision to leave home when he could have easily opposed, the father is respecting his son’s freedom, as God does with us, Francis explained. “God lets us be free, even to make mistakes, because in creating us he gave us the great gift of freedom,” he said. However, the father continues to carry the younger son in his heart, “faithfully awaiting his return,” Francis said, explaining that the father has the same attitude of tenderness toward his older son. He reminds the older son not only of how they have been together and what they have in common, but he also expresses the need for the older son to welcome his brother with joy. Francis then pointed to a third, “hidden son” in the parable, describing him as the one who “did not deem equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” This “Servant-Son,” Jesus, is the extension of God’s hand and heart, the Pope said, explaining that he is the one who welcomed the prodigal son, prepared his “banquet of forgiveness” and taught us to be merciful like the father. Turning to the image of the father in the parable, Pope Francis said that he reveals the heart of God, and shows us “the merciful Father who in Jesus loves us beyond all measure, always waiting for our conversion each time we err.” Just like the father in the parable, God continues to consider us his children even when we are lost, the Pope said, explaining that even the most serious mistakes we make “don't scratch the fidelity of his love.” The Sacrament of Confession, he said, is our opportunity to start again, and is the place where God welcomes us and “restores to us the dignity of his children.” Pope Francis closed his address with an appeal to intensify their path of interior conversion throughout the rest of Lent. “Let us allow ourselves to be reached by the gaze of our father, full of love, and return to him with our whole heart, rejecting any compromise with sin,” he said.  After leading pilgrims in the traditional Marian prayer, Francis gave a shoutout to the new pilot program “Humanitarian Corridors,” aimed at helping refugees. An joint-ecumenical initiative of the Sant'Egidio Community, the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, the Italian government and the Waldensian and Methodist churches, the projects provides aid and safe passage to those fleeing war and violence. The first 100 out of the 1,000 refugees who will come from camps in Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia, have already transferred to Italy. Among them are sick children, disabled persons, elderly and widows of war with children. Read more

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2016 / 04:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cultural trends and hardened hearts can obscure the value of human life. But true virtues, compassion and beauty are the way for Christians to overcome this, Pope Francis in a recent talk at the Vatican. “In our time, some cultural orientations no longer acknowledge the imprint of divine wisdom either in the created reality, or in mankind,” the Pope said March 3. “Human nature is thus reduced to mere matter that may be molded according to any design. Our humanity, however, is unique and so precious in God’s eyes. For this reason, the first nature to protect, so that it may bear fruit, is our human nature itself.” The Pope spoke with participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The academy was founded in 1994 by St. John Paul II to defend human life from the perspective of Christian morals and Catholic teaching. The defense of human life is done most effectively when we show the beauty of life, he said according to Vatican Radio. “By displaying a genuine compassion and the other virtues, you will be precious witnesses of the mercy of the God of life,” he said. “Virtue is the most authentic expression of the good that man, with God's help, is able to achieve…It is not merely a habit, but the constantly renewed decision to choose good.” It's also “the highest expression of human freedom” and “the best that the human heart offers,” the Pope said. “When the heart drifts away from the good and the truth contained in the Word of God, it runs many risks. It is without direction and risks mistaking good for bad and bad for good,” he continued. “Those who embark on this slippery slope fall into the trap of moral error and are oppressed by growing existential anguish.” Pope Francis said that contemporary culture still has the principles to affirm that man is to be protected. However, this value is often threatened by “moral uncertainties that do not allow life to be defended in an effective way.” “Not infrequently it can happen that 'splendid vices' are disguised under the mask of virtue,” he said. He stressed the necessity to cultivate virtues through continual discernment. Virtues must be rooted in God, the source of all virtue. “The good that man does is not the result of calculations or strategies, or even the product of genetic programming or social conditioning. It is rather the fruit of a well-disposed heart and of the free choice that tends to true goodness.” The virtues are not a “beautiful façade.” Rather, they help root out dishonest desires from our hearts and help us seek good. The Pope reflected on how Scripture depicts the hardened heart. “(T)he more the heart tends towards selfishness and evil, the more difficult it is to change,” he said. “As Jesus affirms, ‘Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.’ And when the heart is corrupt, there are grave consequences for social life, as the prophet Jeremiah reminds us.” “This condition cannot change either through theories, or by the effect of social or political reforms. Only the work of the Holy Spirit may change our hearts, if we collaborate: God himself, in fact, assures his effective grace to all those who seek it and those who convert with all their heart.” Pope Francis praised the many institutions that serve life. He also warned of many other institutions that are more interested in economic interests than in working for the common good. The Pope echoed his previous warnings against “a new ideological colonization” that takes over human and Christian thought “in the form of virtue, modernity, and new attitudes.” These “take away freedom” and are “afraid of reality as God created it.” The Pope closed his remarks with a prayer. “We ask the help of the Holy Spirit, who draws us out of selfishness and ignorance,” he said. “Renewed by him, we can think and act according to God’s heart and show his mercy to those who suffer in body and spirit.” Read more

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2016 / 01:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Leading his annual penitential service on Friday, Pope Francis told attendees to stand tall and be open to forgiveness, and not to let themselves remain under the heavy burden of sin. “Let us cast off...all that prevents us from racing towards him, unafraid of leaving behind those things which make us feel safe and to which we are attached,” the Pope said March 4. He told attendees not to “remain sedentary, but let us get up and find our spiritual worth again, our dignity as loved sons and daughters who stand before the Lord so that we can be seen by him, forgiven and recreated.” Pointing to the word “recreated,” Francis said it arrives to the heart of each person present, because it’s a reminder of what God said when he created man: “Rise! God has created us to stand. Arise.” The Pope’s homily was part of the annual “24 Hours for the Lord” event, which takes place the fourth Friday and Saturday of Lent inside St. Peter’s Basilica. A worldwide initiative led by Pope Francis, the event points to confession as a primary way to experience God's merciful embrace. It was launched in 2014 under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. Cardinals, bishops, priests and religious are invited by the Vatican to participate in the event by gathering around the Altar of the Confession inside the basilica. As part of the penitential service, Pope Francis went to confession himself before administering the sacrament himself to a number of individuals. Following the service in the Vatican, Churches throughout Rome will remain open for 24 hours to give pilgrims the opportunity to go to Confession and take part in Eucharistic Adoration. In his homily, the Pope focused on the Gospel passage from Mark Chapter 10, in which a blind man named Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing by and calls out to him. As those around try to silence him, Bartimaeus cries out even louder. Jesus hears him, stops and asks his disciples to bring Bartimaeus to him. When Bartimaeus arrives and asks to receive his sight, Jesus heals him immediately. Pope Francis said the passage “has great symbolic value for our lives,” since each person finds themselves in the place of Bartimaeus. “His blindness led him to poverty and to living on the outskirts of the city, dependent on others for everything he needed,” the pontiff said, explaining that sin has the same effect: “it impoverishes and isolates us.” The blindness of sin leads us little by little to concentrate on what is superficial and to be indifferent to others, he said, noting that there are many temptations which have the power “to cloud the heart’s vision and to make it myopic!” The Pope admitted that it is easy to be misguided, but cautioned that when we give into the temptation of only looking at ourselves, “we become blind, lifeless and self-centered, devoid of joy and true freedom.” Jesus, however, passes by us and stops to listen in the same way that he did in the Gospel, the Pope said, explaining that like Bartimaeus, “our hearts race, because we realize that the Light is gazing upon us...which invites us to come out of our dark blindness.” The closeness of Jesus makes us realize that something is missing when we are far away from him, Pope Francis said, adding that it is the presence of God which makes us feel the need for salvation and which “begins the healing of our heart.” However, Francis lamented that there are always people like those in the Gospel who don’t want to stop when they see someone else suffering. These people, he said, prefer “to silence and rebuke the person in need who is only a nuisance.” Francis said that by brushing these people off, we not only keep ourselves far from the Lord, but others as well. He prayed that everyone would realize that “we are all begging for God’s love, and not allow ourselves to miss the Lord as he passes by.” The Pope then turned to role of pastors in the confessional, saying they are called in a special way “to hear the cry, perhaps hidden, of all those who wish to encounter the Lord.” He encouraged them to re-examine behaviors that can get in the way of helping others draw close to Jesus, and to ask themselves if they are putting schedules, programs and regulations ahead of the desire for forgiveness. Touching on the topic of God’s tenderness, the Pope said pastors must “certainly not water down the demands of the Gospel,” but at the same time they can’t risk “frustrating the desire of the sinner to be reconciled with the Father,” he said. “We have been sent to inspire courage, to support and to lead others to Jesus,” he said, adding that their ministry “is one of accompaniment, so that the encounter with the Lord may be personal and intimate” and without fear. Pope Francis concluded by noting how at the end of the Gospel, Bartimaeus immediately received his sight after speaking with Jesus, and then followed him. When we draw near to Jesus like Bartimaeus did, “we too see once more the light which enables us to look to the future with confidence,” and which gives us the strength and courage to move forward, he said. Francis encouraged attendees to follow Jesus “as faithful disciples,” so that they help everyone they meet to have the same experience of joy in receiving God’s his merciful love. After “the embrace of the Father, the forgiveness of the Father,” in confession, the Pope told attendees to “celebrate in our hearts, because he is celebrating.”   Read more

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2016 / 10:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi cautioned Friday that the recent Oscar-win for “Spotlight” and the lengthy deposition of a top Vatican official on institutional responses to clerical sex abuse could paint a false picture of how the Church has responded to the issue. “The sensationalistic presentation of these two events has meant that, for much of the public, especially if less informed or of short memory – thinking that the Church has done nothing or done very little to respond to these horrible tragedies,” Fr. Lombardi said in a March 4 statement. An objective consideration of the facts, he said, “shows that this is not true.” Fr. Lombardi referred to the media frenzy garnered by the film “Spotlight,” which recently won the Oscar for best picture for its portrayal of a journalistic investigation of the sex abuse crisis in Boston, as well as the Feb. 29-March 3 deposition of Cardinal George Pell before Australia’s Royal Commission. As prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy and a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on reform of the Roman Curia, Cardinal Pell is the most senior Vatican official to have testified before a legal body on clerical sexual abuse. In his statement, Fr. Lombardi said the events shouldn’t lead people to think that the Church has remained silent on the issue, and outlined several initiatives and reforms that have taken place since the Boston crisis broke out in 2002. He said that we ought “to give credit” to Cardinal Pell and the group of 15 abuse survivors who traveled from Australia to Rome for the deposition, both for the cardinal’s “dignified and consistent” testimony, as well as the survivors’ willingness “to establish a constructive dialogue.” Three of the abuse survivors from Catholic Diocese of Ballarat – David Ridsdale, Andrew Collins and Peter Blenkiron – took time to meet with Fr. Hans Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, while in Rome. They met with him twice, once Wednesday before meeting with Cardinal Pell, and then Friday morning before returning to Australia. In a March 4 statement on the encounters, Fr. Zollner said the victims wanted to meet primarily to discuss ideas they have about “healing and the future to protect children from institutional abuse.” Although they admitted that the problem of abuse is “wider than the Catholic Church,” they are most familiar the problems related to Church structures, and are eager to form partnerships to help address the issue. Fr. Zollner said the victims spoke at length about models of education for children, parents and teachers so that effective changes can be made to ensure the safeguarding of children. On his end, Fr. Zollner discussed his work on the commission in the areas of abuse prevention within the Church and outside of it, as well as his role as president of the Center for Child Protection at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.  The Ballarat survivors were also able to meet with a number of the students enrolled in of the Diploma-program in Safeguarding of Minors currently being offered at the Gregorian University. Fr. Zollner ensured that he will take the victims’ proposals to the rest of the commission in order to both learn from their experience, and to “better understand how to prevent sexual abuse by those in service to the Church from happening again in the future.”Below is CNA’s full English translation of Fr. Lombardi’s statement: Cardinal Pell's deposition before the Royal Commission in direct transmission from Rome to Australia and the simultaneous administration of an Oscar for Best Film of Spotlight, on the role of the Boston Globe in denouncing the cover of numerous crimes of pedophile priests in Boston (primarily in the 1960s-80s), have been accompanied by a new wave of media attention and public opinion on the dramatic topic of the sexual abuse of minors, in particular on the part of clerics. The sensationalistic presentation of these two events has meant that, for much of the public, especially if less informed or of short memory – thinking that the Church has done nothing or done very little to respond to these horrible tragedies and that we have to start again. An objective consideration shows that this is not true. The former archbishop of Boston (Cardinal Bernard Law) resigned in 2002 following the events which Spotlight speaks about (and after a famous meeting of American cardinals gathered in Rome by Pope John Paul II in April 2002), and since 2003 (13 years) the archdiocese has been governed by Cardinal Sean O'Malley, universally known for his rigor and wisdom in dealing with issues of sexual abuse, so much so that he was nominated by the Pope as one of his counselors and as President of the Commission he founded for the protection of minors. The tragic events of sexual abuse in Australia are also the subject of investigations and legal and canonical procedures, (and have been) for many years. When Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008 (8 years ago) he met a small group of victims from the same archdiocese governed by Cardinal Pell, given that the story was already a strong topic and the Archbishop (Pell) felt that such a meeting was highly appropriate.  Just to give an idea of the attention with which these problems were followed, the only section of the Vatican website dedicated to “Abuse of Minors: The Church's response,” was started around 10 years ago, and contains some 60 documents or speeches. The courageous commitment popes have dedicated to confronting the crisis manifested in different countries and situations – such as the United States, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, the Legionaries of Christ – has been neither small nor indifferent. The renewal of procedures and universal canonical norms; guidelines requested and formed on the part of episcopal conferences, not only to response to abuses committed but also to prevent them adequately; apostolic visits to intervene in the most serious situations and the profound reform of the Legionaries of Christ have all been actions intended to respond in-depth and with foresight to a plague that was manifested in surprising and devastating severity, above all in certain regions and certain periods. Benedict XVI's letter to Irish faithful from March 2010 probably remains the most eloquent reference document, well beyond just Ireland, to understand the attitude and the judicial, pastoral and spiritual response of popes to these tragedies of the Church of our time: the recognition of the serious mistakes made and asking forgiveness; priority attention and justice for the victims; conversion and purification; commitment to prevention and renewed human and spiritual formation. The meetings of Benedict and Francis with groups of victims have accompanied this now long path with the example of listening, of asking for forgiveness, of consolation and of the personal involvement of popes.  In many countries the results of the commitment for renewal are encouraging; cases of abuse have become very rare and so the majority of cases we are dealing with today and which continue to come to light belong to a relatively distant past, from several decades (ago). In other countries, usually for reasons of cultural situations that are very different and still characterized by silence, there is still a lot to do and there is not lack of resistance and difficulty, but the way forward has become clearer.  The formation of the Commission for the Protection of Minors announced by Pope Francis in December 2013, composed of members of every continent, indicates the maturity of the Catholic Church’s path. After having established and internally developed a decisive response to the problems of the sexual abuse of minors (on the part of priests or other Church workers), the problem arises systematically of not only how to respond well to the problem in every part of the Church, but also of how to more broadly help the societies in which the Church lives to confront the problems of abuse and violations committed against minors, given that – as everyone should know, even if there is often still a considerable reluctance to admit it – in every part of the world the vast majority of abuse cases don’t come from ecclesial contexts, but outside of them (in Asia one can speak of dozens of millions of abused children, certainly not in Catholic contexts). Therefore, the Church, wounded and humiliated by the plague of abuse, intends to act not only for her own recovery, but also to make available her strong experience in this field, to enrich her educative and pastoral service to society as a whole, which generally still has a long way to go to realize the seriousness of the problems and to address them.  In this perspective the events in Rome the past few days can in the end be read in a positive light. We must give credit to Cardinal Pell for a dignified and consistent personal testimony (some 20 hours of dialogue with the Royal Commission!) which shows once more an objective and lucid picture of the mistakes made in many ecclesial environments (in this case Australia) in past decades. And this acquisition is not useless in the perspective of the common “purification of memory.” We must also give credit to different member of the group of victims who came from Australia for having shown a willingness to establish a constructive dialogue with the same cardinal and with the representative of the Commission for the Protection of Minors Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ, from the Pontifical Gregorian University – with which they deepened the prospects for an effective commitment for abuse prevention. If therefore the appeals followed by Spotlight and the mobilization of victims and organizations for the deposition of Cardinal Pell contribute to supporting and intensifying the long march in the fight against child abuse in the universal Catholic Church and in the world today (where the dimension of these tragedies is boundless), they are welcome.    Read more

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The movie Spotlight’s Best Picture win at the Academy Awards has brought renewed attention to the Catholic sex abuse scandals that broke in 2002. But while the Church’s failures are wel... Read more