Rome, Italy, Jul 2, 2015 / 11:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican recently added the voice of self-described “secular Jewish feminist” Naomi Klein to their discussion on the climate, signaling a wider collaboration in the push for environmental protection. “A new kind of climate movement is fast emerging” – one based on the “courageous truth” proclaimed in the encyclical that “our current economic system is both fueling the climate crisis and actively preventing us from taking the necessary actions to avert it,” Klein said July 1. She pointed out how the encyclical places attention on the world's most vulnerable regions, which have often been disregarded by international politics. In her view, current challenges surrounding the environment provide the opportunity to tackle several issues at once, and creating a more stable climate and a fairer economy can be done “at the same time.” “This growing understanding is why you are seeing some surprising and even unlikely alliances. Like, for instance, me at the Vatican.” The Pope's encyclical “Laudato Si,” meaning “Praise be to You,” was published on June 18. Its name is taken from St. Francis of Assisi's medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which praises God through elements of creation like Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and “our sister Mother Earth.” In early 2014, the Vatican announced the Pope's plans to write on the theme of “human ecology” – a phrase that was previously coined by retired pontiff Benedict XVI. While the 184-page encyclical wades into controversial topics such as climate change, it also argues that it's not possible to effectively care for the environment without first working to defend human life. A progressive Canadian activist known for her harsh criticism of 21st century capitalism, Klein said that she herself was “surprised” to be invited to speak at the launch of a Vatican environmental summit. Her comments came at the July 1 presentation of a two-day Vatican conference titled: “People and Planet First: the Imperative to Change Course.” With concern for the climate on the rise, trade unions, indigenous, faith and environmental groups have been working more closely than ever before, she noted. And while within these coalitions “we don't agree on everything – not by a long shot – we understand that the stakes are so high, time is so short and the task is so large that we cannot afford to allow those differences to divide us.” Set to take place in Rome July 2-3, the summit is being organized by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the department that prepared a first draft of Francis' encyclical, along with the “Catholic International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity,” a network of 17 Catholic development agencies working together for global justice. The meeting's objective is to use Laudato Si to influence several major political gatherings throughout the year, including three key U.N. conferences. Among them are the Addis Ababa meeting on Finance and Development, the U.N. General Assembly to approve the new Sustainable Development Goals in September, and December's COP 21 meeting in Paris to agree on a global climate deal. Klein is set to co-chair the conference alongside the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s president, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana. Originally scheduled to participate in the Wednesday news conference, Turkson was still on his way back from New York, where he addressed a U.N. conference on climate change Tuesday. Both Church leaders and scientists will gather for the conference, which will also draw participants such as Mary Robinson, the current U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Change, and the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The Vatican’s decision to include Klein in the climate discussion is not the first time they have chosen include a perspective considered controversial, and divergent from their own stance on issues. At last month's Rome unveiling of Laudato Si Prof. John Schellnhuber, a scientist who studies climate change and who is also an atheist, was present. He had just been appointed to the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences the day before. Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, is a member of the academy and an adviser on the encyclical, and is known to promote population control. At an April 28 Rome summit on the environment, Cardinal Turkson addressed critics who find issue with the Vatican’s partnership with organizations such as the U.N. that promote population control as a means of combating climate change. In response to the criticism, the cardinal recalled the Second Vatican Council's emphasis on inviting the Church to find “new ways” of ministering to the world. These new methods of engagement don't mean running away from the world, he said, but rather establishing a dialogue that works toward “an effective solidarity” with others. In comments read aloud on his behalf at the July 1 news conference, the cardinal noted that “the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.” He said that important points made in Laudato Si await “the pledges and the will” of the global community during September’s U.N. General Assembly, as well as in other major political gatherings. “The single biggest obstacle to the imperative to change course is not economic, scientific or even technological, but rather within our minds and hearts,” he said. Klein in her address said that Pope Francis' September visit to the United States, during which he will address the U.N. assembly, “could not be better timed.” She criticized those who say that the Pope should leave economics and policy to the experts, saying that many of these experts “have failed us badly” by wielding power and placing “scandalously little value” on human life. Addressing leaders preparing their pledges for COP 21 in Paris, Klein said that to those “getting out the lipstick and heels to dress up another lousy deal, I have this to say: Read the actual encyclical – not the summaries, the whole thing.” “Read it and let it into your hearts,” she said, keeping in mind both “the grief at what we have already lost, and the celebration of what we can still protect and help to thrive.” Read more

Rome, Italy, Jul 2, 2015 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Beginning in the spring of 2016, Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University will begin offering an intensive one-semester diploma program on the safeguarding of minors and the prevention of sex abuse by clergy. A new one semester diploma course in the protection of minors is being offered by the Center for Child Protection in Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, and is set to welcome its first round of applicants in February, 2016. “There are not courses like this diploma in pontifical universities in Rome. Certainly programs in secular universities and in UK have them, but (this is a) first in pontifical and Catholic universities,” Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ said at the June 24 announcement of the course. Fr. Zollner is the president of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection (CCP) and is a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, created by Pope Francis last autumn. He was present alongside three other panelists for a press conference at the conclusion of the center’s June 21-24 annual Anglophone Conference, during which the diploma course was announced. The diploma will be awarded at the close of a one-semester residential course on the safeguarding of minors. The program aims to form persons who will eventually become child protection officers for dioceses, religious congregations, and similar organizations, as well as advisors and trainers in the field of safeguarding. Broken down into six two-week seminars, the first course is set to run from February – June 2016. Seminars will delve into topics including terms and definitions surrounding the protection of minors, child rights, development and safety, safeguarding and prevention, theology, truth and justice, and care for those who have been abused. Comprised of 30 credits, the course will welcome between 15 and 18 applicants. The diploma will be awarded by the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University, which founded the CCP in 2012. Fr. Zollner emphasized that the program is “not meant mostly for America or Canada, but is flexible enough to take in a cultural component,” due to the different concept of boundaries in particular cultures. He expressed his hope that participants would come not just from Western nations where policies are already in place, but especially “from countries where there are no or very little such initiatives, especially in Africa, Asia and South America.” In addition to exploring the psychological, pastoral, canonical, and practical approaches to safeguarding minors, the course will also address a systematic theological approach to the topic. The spiritual and theological approach to child protection was the theme of the CCP’s conference, and is a topic Fr. Zollner noted has “not been substantially reflected upon” since the full gravity of the clerical abuse crisis began to surface 40 years ago. In an interview with CNA, Fr. Zollner said that “strangely enough,” no theologian has really taken on the task of developing a theological understanding of the issue, and that while preparing for last week’s conference none of the five speakers were able to find a single study on it. “We have spiritual literature, pastoral literature, psycho-pastoral literature, we have practical theological literature and a little bit on moral theological literature, but theological, Christological, ecclesiological, almost nothing. And this is really a surprise,” he said. The CCP began exploring the theological perspective after Cardinal Joseph Levada, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, pointed out that it was missing from the center’s preparations for their first conference in 2012. “Whereas we have done much on the therapeutic and prevention side, and we’ve tried to come up with new judicial norms, strangely enough (the theological) side seemed, at least to me, split off, and you don’t find literature in this field,” Fr. Zollner reflected. So this year’s conference “was an attempt to really set the stage” for further development of this perspective. Since resources on the theological take on child protection are slim outside of a few writings on moral theology, each of the conference’s speakers were invited to make their own study on the topic and to present their reflections. Among the speakers were Sr. Sara Butler, president of the Academy of Catholic Theology in Washington D.C. and Fr. James Corkery, SJ, professor of Systematic Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Both were present at the conference alongside Fr. Zellner and Bishop Edward Burns of Juneau, who was recently appointed chairman of the US bishops' child and youth protection committee. Other speakers included Fr. Robert J. Geisinger SJ, Promoter of Justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and acclaimed American author Fr. Robert Barron. Topics covered in the speeches included the biblical framework of how God himself deals with offenders and offenses. The topic of mercy and justice was also brought up, particularly in how it extends to offenders and those who cover up offenses, such as in cases of bishops’ accountability. The sacramental structure of the priesthood was also touched on, as well as the theme of salvation as it applies to victims of abuse, particularly in terms of the whole and happy life they are called to live, and Christ's closeness to them, being himself an innocent victim who suffered violence. Fr. Zollner also referred to a reflection from Sr. Sara on an 11th century practice of accountability for abuse put into place by St. Peter Damian, a process that involved not only priests, bishops, and the Pope, but also the laity. This emphasis on the role of the laity in the reform of the Church at that time was a very interesting point, Fr. Zollner said, explaining that both clergy and the laity have the responsibility within their communities of helping to create a safe environment. He revealed that since there is no literature on the theological approach to safeguarding children, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has created working groups studying the various theological and spiritual implications of the topic. “There are different aspects: spirituality, prayer life, and also theological reflections,” he said, explaining that currently the working group for theology “is more probably on the modeled theological side.” A working group within the commission dedicated to organizing a day of prayer for abuse survivors has also been formed. “I hope this is a starting point for something new,” he said, and noted that though there are no plans as of yet, a future hope of the commission is to invite doctoral students to work on the theme. “Theologians should really reflect on how God acts in this, what the Church is, what the life of the Church and the faithful is in this,” no matter how difficult the task may be, the priest continued. He said that one short-term goal in developing this new perspective could be for the commission to invite theologians to come and speak about the topic. He also said that some publications could be made and handed out to dioceses and religious congregations. “What we have learned here is that if the leaders are convinced it could also come down to those who work with children in parishes, in schools, in orphanages, etc., (so) that they are motivated not only because the law obliges you, but because you are convinced that this a part of the mission of the Church,” Fr. Zollner reflected. The fact that the Church acts on this issue not out of legal binding but out of conviction in her mission is something Fr. Zollner said he believes is “not really appreciated or even understood.” “Whatever we can do for the poor and the little ones is part of the mission of Jesus Christ … the first step is to realize that Jesus has come, as he says, for the sick, for those who are in need, not for the healthy,” he said. “The mission of the Church is precisely this: to represent this to the world, and especially to those who are most wounded.” Read more