Vatican City, Dec 12, 2015 / 11:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis officially announced the date he would venerate the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico during his homily for the Marian feast at the Vatican. Speaking at the Dec. 12 Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope said he will venerate the shrine on Feb. 13, 2016, where he will pray that Christian communities may be “oases and sources of mercy,” and a witness to charity “that does not allow exclusions.” The Pope will travel to Mexico from Feb. 12-18, the Vatican announced Saturday. During a recent press briefing, Francis said his next trip would likely be to Mexico, although the details had not been finalized. In his homily for Mass celebrated for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis asked for Mary's intercession in cultivating mercy during this Jubilee year, and entrusting the sufferings and joys of the people of the Americas to her care. “God delights and pleases especially in Mary,” the Pope said, speaking in his native Spanish. “She has experienced Divine mercy, and welcomed the very source of this mercy in her womb: Jesus Christ.” “She who has always lived intimately united with her Son, knows better than anyone what he wants: that all men be saved, and God's tenderness and consolation will not fail anyone.” Pope Francis entrusted to Mary the “sufferings and joys of people throughout the Americas,” who love her as their mother,  under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “We ask (Mary) that this jubilee year will be a cultivation of merciful love in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations.” Pope Francis also appealed to Mary that “we may become merciful, and that Christian communities may be oases and sources of mercy, witnessed a charity that does not allow exclusions.” “I beg her to guide the footsteps of the American people, a pilgrim people looking for the Mother of mercy, and ask her to reveal to us her Son, Jesus.” Veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century, and surrounds a miraculous image of Mary left on a tilma, made from a piece of poor-quality cactus cloth.   As the story goes, a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, on a hill northwest of Mexico City. Over the course of a series of apparitions in 1531, the Woman, who identified herself as the Mother of the True God, instructed Juan Diego to have the bishop build a church on the site. As a sign, the now-famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was imprinted miraculously on his tilma. Both the image and the tilma remain intact after more than 470 years. Pope Francis centered much of his homily Saturday on God's mercy toward sinners. God's loves us with “gratuitous love,” and expects nothing in return, the pontiff said. God's merciful love, which is synthesized in the Gospel message and the faith of the Church, is his most “striking” attribute. Pope Francis explained that the word “mercy” is derived from the words “misery” and “heart.” “The heart indicates the capacity to love,” he said. “Mercy is love which embraces the misery of the human person. It is a love that 'feels' our poverty as its own.” “The Word became flesh” out of a desire to share our frailties, the Pope said. “He wanted to experience our human condition, to carry upon the cross with all the pain of human existence.” “Such is the depth of compassion and mercy,” the Pope said. There is no sin that can take away God's “merciful closeness,” or prevent him “from unleashing the grace of conversion,” provided we ask for it, he noted.   Indeed, sin reveals the radiance of the love of God, who sacrificed his own Son in order to ransom the enslaved. Citing the words of St. Paul, who says “The Lord is near,” the Pope assured those present that there is no reason to worry. “The greatest mercy lies in His being in our midst,” he said. “Walking with us, he shows us the path of love, lifts us up from our falls, sustains us in our weariness, accompanies us in all circumstances of our existence.” The Pope cited Paul's letter to the Philippians, which says “the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” “This is the source of our peaceful and happy life,” the Pope said. “Nothing can steal this peace and joy, despite the sufferings and trials of life. In off-script remarks, the pontiff added: “The Lord, with his tenderness, opens us with his heart, opens us with his love. The Lord is allergic to rigidity.” Pope Francis invited the faithful to cultivate this sense mercy, peace, and hope in the journey through the liturgical season of Advent, illuminated by the light of the recently-begun Jubilee of Mercy. Read more

Vatican City, Dec 11, 2015 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Attention to the poor was one of the greatest of the bishops' contributions during the Second Vatican Council – and is a legacy Pope Francis carries forward with impressive force, according to some. “A true legacy of the Second Vatican Council is being fulfilled in the person and pontificate of Pope Francis,” Father Paulo Anto Pulikkan told CNA Dec. 11. As someone who routinely calls for justice and care for those who are poor and marginalized, the Pope and his plea for “a poor Church for the poor” is a concrete fulfillment of what the bishops of the Second Vatican Council asked for, Fr. Pulikkan said. The underprivileged “was the theme of the council, but this has been recently very clearly stressed by Francis.” Fr. Pulikkan, director of the Chair for Christian studies at the University of Calicut in the Indian state of Kerala, was one of the speakers at a Dec. 9-11 conference in Rome on the protagonists of the Second Vatican Council as seen through the archives. The conference was organized by the Pontifical Committee for Historic Sciences as well as the Pontifical Lateran University's Center for Research and Studies on the Second Vatican Council. In his speech, titled “English speaking bishops on the Church in the modern world,” Fr. Pulikkan noted how the English-speaking council fathers, particularly those from Asia and the developing world, pushed for a greater inclusion of the poor in the council's final documents. The council, he told CNA, “is the council for the poor,” which can be particularly seen in the pastoral constitution “Gaudium et Spes,” dedicated to the Church in the Modern World. In the initial draft, “the concern for the poor was neglected,” he said noting that the same held true for the council's fourth session in 1965. Despite the fact that the session took place right after the 1964 Eucharistic Congress in Bombay, which focused heavily on solidarity with the poor and was attended by many of the councils protagonists, concern for the poor was “totally neglected.” “The situation of the farmers, the question of poverty, the question of our population, all these were neglected or not discussed at all properly in the draft,” he said, noting that the duty of rich nations to share and allow people to migrate with equal opportunity were rarely spoken about. Fr. Pulikkan stressed that the poor “should be able to migrate, the agricultural farmers should be given opportunity to develop agriculture because normally it is a very disorganized profession,” and also pointed to other key themes such as fighting against racism and in favor of human dignity. “These were the concerns of the Indian English speaking Bishops. Not only them, but all the English speaking Bishops from the English speaking world in the Council,” he said. It was after hearing these voices that the draft Gadium et Spes was reworked to include the concerns of the poor, making for “a much more satisfactory” text in the council. Pope Francis’ desire for a Church in the midst of her people is firm continuation of this legacy, he said, explaining that the Pope’s concern isn’t just limited to the Church, but extends to the entire world. Other than his constant pleas in favor of the poor, another concrete sign of this is the concern he expressed for creation in his environmental encyclical “Laudato Si,” as well as his focus on inter-religious dialogue. However, while much has already been done in this area, particularly under Pope Francis, Fr. Pulikkan said that there’s still a long way to go. He emphasized that the Church “should not run away” from problems surrounding the poor and impoverished nations, but must instead “identify with the joys, hope, anguish and concerns of the people,” which is what Gaudium et Spes and the Second Vatican Council are all about. “I think today it’s our duty to go forward and as Gaudium et Spes number 4 says ‘we have to scrutinize, we have to discern the signs of the times and interpret them like the Gospel.’” Pope Francis, he said, “is doing simply that. He understands today’s situations and interprets them in light of the Gospel.” Read more

Vatican City, Dec 11, 2015 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Though it “is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery,” Jews can participate in salvation without confessing Christ explicitly, a Vatican committee said in a document released on Thursday. A committee of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued a document Dec. 10 which discusses theological questions regarding Catholic-Jewish relations. In particular, it deals with the tension between the universality of salvation in Christ and God's unrevoked covenant with the Jewish people. “Another focus for Catholics must continue to be the highly complex theological question of how Christian belief in the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ can be combined in a coherent way with the equally clear statement of faith in the never-revoked covenant of God with Israel,” the document states. “The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable,” as the Dec. 10 document is known, also discusses the Church's mandate to evangelize in relation to Judaism. It says that the Church does not support “any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews,” though “Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews.” The document marks the 50th anniversary of Nostra aetate, the Second Vatican Council's declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions. It was produced by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, an office of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The document aims “at looking back with gratitude on all that has been achieved over the last decades in the Jewish-Catholic relationship, providing at the same time a new stimulus for the future.” The text is careful to note that it “is not a magisterial document or doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church,” but merely “a reflection prepared by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews on current theological questions that have developed since the Second Vatican Council.” It begins by noting Nostra aetate's role in effecting a “new direction” for the Church, and recounts the development of Catholic-Jewish dialogue since its promulgation. Reflecting on the declaration's historical context, it comments that “the dark and terrible shadow of the Shoah over Europe during the Nazi period led the Church to reflect anew on her bond with the Jewish people.” Dialogue between the religions has “led with increasing clarity to the awareness that Christians and Jews are irrevocably interdependent, and that the dialogue between the two is not a matter of choice but of duty as far as theology is concerned.” The document goes on to note the “special theological status” of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, given Christianity's roots in Judaism. In noting the historical context of Christianity, its reflects, “The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities of his time is ultimately not a matter of an individual transgression of the law, but of Jesus’ claim to be acting with divine authority. The figure of Jesus thus is and remains for Jews the ‘stumbling block’, the central and neuralgic point in Jewish-Catholic dialogue.” The document says that Nostra aetate “unequivocally professes, within a new theological framework, the Jewish roots of Christianity. While affirming salvation through an explicit or even implicit faith in Christ, the Church does not question the continued love of God for the chosen people of Israel.” On that basis, it says that “a replacement or supersession theology which sets against one another two separate entities … is deprived of its foundations.” It also represents supersessionism, which it adds gained favor among many of the Church Fathers, as holding that “the promises and commitments of God would no longer apply to Israel because it had not recognised Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, but had been transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ which was now the true ‘new Israel’, the new chosen people of God.” The document then turns to recounting salvation history and the Word of God. It asserts that “for Jews this Word can be learned through the Torah and the traditions based on it. The Torah is the instruction for a successful life in right relationship with God. Whoever observes the Torah has life in its fullness. By observing the Torah the Jew receives a share in communion with God.” “Judaism and the Christian faith as seen in the New Testament are two ways by which God’s people can make the Sacred Scriptures of Israel their own. The Scriptures which Christians call the Old Testament is open therefore to both ways. A response to God’s word of salvation that accords with one or the other tradition can thus open up access to God, even if it is left up to his counsel of salvation to determine in what way he may intend to save mankind in each instance.” It adds, “That his will for salvation is universally directed is testified by the Scriptures. Therefore there are not two paths to salvation according to the expression 'Jews hold to the Torah, Christians hold to Christ'. Christian faith proclaims that Christ’s work of salvation is universal and involves all mankind. God’s word is one single and undivided reality which takes concrete form in each respective historical context.” Then the document discusses the relationship between the Old and New Testaments and Covenants. It begins by noting that God's covenant with Israel is irrevocable and that “the permanent elective fidelity of God expressed in earlier covenants is never repudiated. The New Covenant does not revoke the earlier covenants, but it brings them to fulfilment.” It adds that “The term covenant, therefore, means a relationship with God that takes effect in different ways for Jews and Christians. The New Covenant can never replace the Old but presupposes it and gives it a new dimension of meaning.” In exploring the relation of the Old and New Covenants, it states, “for the Christian faith it is axiomatic that there can only be one single covenant history of God with humanity,” and then recounts the history of God's covenants, saying “each of these covenants incorporates the previous covenant and interprets it in a new way.” For Christians, it says, the New Covenant “is the final eternal covenant and therefore the definitive interpretation of what was promised by the prophets of the Old Covenant. The Church is the definitive and unsurpassable locus of the salvific action of God. This however does not mean that Israel as the people of God has been repudiated or has lost its mission.” Thus “it should be evident for Christians that the covenant that God concluded with Israel has never been revoked but remains valid on the basis of God’s unfailing faithfulness to his people, and consequently the New Covenant which Christians believe in can only be understood as the affirmation and fulfilment of the Old.” “Christians are therefore also convinced that through the New Covenant the Abrahamic covenant has obtained that universality for all peoples which was originally intended in the call of Abram. This recourse to the Abrahamic covenant is so essentially constitutive of the Christian faith that the Church without Israel would be in danger of losing its locus in the history of salvation. By the same token, Jews could with regard to the Abrahamic covenant arrive at the insight that Israel without the Church would be in danger of remaining too particularist and of failing to grasp the universality of its experience of God. In this fundamental sense Israel and the Church remain bound to each other according to the covenant and are interdependent.” From there, the document turns to the universality of salvation in Christ, noting that “there cannot be different paths of approaches to God's salvation.” “The theory that there may be two different paths to salvation, the Jewish path without Christ and the path with the Christ, whom Christians believe is Jesus of Nazareth, would in fact endanger the foundations of Christian faith. Confessing the universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith. So too does the confession of the one God, the God of Israel, who through his revelation in Jesus Christ has become totally manifest as the God of all peoples.” It adds, however, that though “there can be only one path to salvation …. it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.” “That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery.” It further reflects on “the belief of the Church that Christ is the Saviour for all. There cannot be two ways of salvation, therefore, since Christ is also the Redeemer of the Jews in addition to the Gentiles. Here we confront the mystery of God’s work, which is not a matter of missionary efforts to convert Jews, but rather the expectation that the Lord will bring about the hour when we will all be united.” While noting Nostra aetate's importance as a breakthrough theological overview of the relationship of the Church to the Jews, the document notes that because of this it “is not infrequently over-interpreted, and things are read into it which it does not in fact contain.” Turning to the Church's mission of evangelization, it says the Church is “obliged to view evangelisation to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views. In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews.” “While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God’s Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah.” The document concludes by discussing the goals of dialogue with Judaism, listing first an increase in mutual knowledge between Jews and Christians; it recommends in particular that Nostra aetate be included in seminary curricula. “Another important goal of Jewish-Catholic dialogue consists in jointly combatting all manifestations of racial discrimination against Jews and all forms of anti-Semitism, which have certainly not yet been eradicated and re-emerge in different ways in various contexts,” the documented stated. It added that “history teaches us where even the slightest perceptible forms of anti-Semitism can lead: the human tragedy of the Shoah in which two-thirds of European Jewry were annihilated.” The document concluded that saying that Catholic-Jewish dialogue can result in joint engagement on issues such as justice, peace, ecology, and reconciliation. “When Jews and Christians make a joint contribution through concrete humanitarian aid for justice and peace in the world, they bear witness to the loving care of God.” Read more

Vatican City, Dec 10, 2015 / 03:33 pm (CNA).- With the launch of the Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis’ reforms to the annulment process have gone into effect, giving more of a role to the local bishop, dropping automatic appeals, and ensuring that the process is free of charge.   The new process is aimed at streamlining the system for granting annulments out of concern “for the salvation of souls” while affirming the longstanding Catholic teaching on marriage indissolubility.   Originally announced in September, the changes went into effect Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the opening day of the Jubilee for Mercy.   The changes were initially published in two motu proprio - or letters issued by the Pope “on his own initiative.” The documents were entitled “Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus” (The Lord Jesus, a meek judge), which deals with modifications in the Latin Rite's Code of Canon Law, and “Mitis et misericors Iesus” (Jesus, meek and merciful), which outlines changes for Eastern Churches who, although in full communion with Rome, have historically had a different process.   Both documents reflect many of the same changes, however instead of bishops, “Mitis et misericors Iesu” refers to Eastern patriarchs and eparchies.   In a brief introduction, Pope Francis stressed that his adjustments “do not favor the nullifying of marriages but the promptness of the processes.”   He said that he decided to make the changes in line with the desire of his brother bishops, who during last year’s extraordinary synod on the family called for the process to be “faster and more accessible.”   Many have criticized the current process of obtaining an annulment for being long, complex and in some places, too expensive.   Reform was also required due to “the enormous number of faithful who…too often are diverted from juridical structures of the Church due to physical or moral distance,” the Pope said, adding that “charity and mercy” require the Church as mother to draw close to her children who consider themselves far off.   Among the more significant changes the Pope made were dropping the automatic appeal needed after a decision on nullity has been reached, as well as allowing local bishops to make their own judgements on “evident” cases of marriage nullity.   Until now, once a decision had been made to declare a marriage null, the ruling was automatically appealed to another body, a practice many have blamed for unnecessary delays in the process.   With Francis’ new changes, only one judgement will be needed. However, in the case that it is appealed, the Pope said that appeals can be done in the nearest metropolitan diocese, rather than needing to go to Rome.   He also decided that each diocese throughout the world will have the responsibility to name a judge or tribunal to process incoming cases.   The bishop can be the only judge, or he can establish a three-member tribunal. If a three-member tribunal is established, it must have at least one cleric, while the other two members can be laypersons.   Francis has also declared that the annulment process will be free of charge. Although the practice is already in place in many dioceses around the world, the new change makes it universal.   In his introduction, the Pope recognized that the streamlined process, particularly the new procedures surrounding the decisions made by bishops, could raise concern over the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.   “It has not escaped me how an abbreviated judgment might put the principle of indissolubility of marriage at risk,” he said.   “Indeed, because of this I wanted that in this process the judge would be composed of the bishop, so that the strength of his pastoral office is, with Peter, the best guarantee of Catholic unity in faith and discipline.”   The Pope also explained that he wanted to offer the new process to bishops so it can be “applied in cases in which the accused nullity of the marriage is sustained by particularly evident arguments.” Photo credit: isak55 via www.shutterstock.com.A version of this article originally ran on CNA Sept. 8, 2015, with the headline, "Revamped annulment process focuses on speed, role of local bishops."   Read more