2015-06-30T10:02:00+00:00

Rome, Italy, Jun 30, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA).- More than 10 years ago, Joseph Prever found himself scouring the internet for anything that might help him: he was gay, Catholic, and confused. Resources were scarce for a man struggling with homosexuality and trying to remain faithful to the Church’s teaching. In the intervening years, Catholics experiencing same-sex attraction have become a more vocal presence in the Church. Google the words “gay Catholic” and one of the top sites to appear will be Prever’s own blog, a blog with the tagline: “Catholic, Gay, and Feeling Fine.” There, the 32-year-old writer considers his own experiences as a man struggling with same-sex attraction and trying to live out the virtue of chastity. What follows is an edited version of a conversation about everything from homosexuality and Batman to poetry and football. The interview is published in two parts.Part OneCan you introduce yourself and your blog?   I'm Joe Prever. I used to blog under the pseudonym Steve Gershom. I’ve been doing that for 2 or 3 years now. The blog is about what it’s like to be a gay Catholic – a gay Catholic who is of course, celibate – and I say ‘of course’ because that seems to me like the only option if you’re going to be both gay and Catholic. On the blog I try to stay away from abstract discourse about spirituality and sexuality in general and more towards lived experience: that’s what I see as my niche.  Why did you start writing a blog? I honestly don’t remember the thought process that led me to it, but I do remember wishing at one point that there was somebody blogging like that, and in fact these days there are just a whole lot of people in my situation who are blogging, and that’s really great. It seems liked it’s very much exploded in the last 2-3 years. My friends and I joke that there’s a gay Catholic renaissance on, or actually a gay Christian renaissance on, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of it – or at least we tell ourselves that we’re at the forefront.Did those other people read your blog before they started theirs? Some of them did, yes. In fact, a couple of them have said to me that I was someone who helped to inspire them to start, so I’m very proud of that. This was 2 or 3 years ago. Even at that time there were a fair amount of resources, in the sense that there were people who were writing about it, and you could find various testimonials online if you googled hard enough, but there were very few people who, on a day to day basis were like, ‘here’s what this is like, here’s how you deal with that,’ etc.And so you decided you were going to be that resource? Yes. Because at that time, I was sort of starting to feel for the first time that things were very much manageable, and I think back to this very specific moment in college when I was 18 or 19, and googling this kind of stuff, just to see if there was anybody out there who I could relate to and who would have some wisdom to share about it, and I did in fact find some stuff. It was remembering the feeling of how good it was to find that made me want to pass that along.You blogged pseudonymously for years and then you ‘came out,’ so to speak, last summer. Why did you decide to do that? It was one of those decisions where by the time you make it, you realize that you’ve already made it, if you see what I mean. It was hard in the sense that I’d actually always said that people shouldn’t be public about being gay, because it was not anybody’s business and I felt that it would lend legitimacy to this idea that being gay is a sort of a single way to identify yourself: I actually still sort of hold that position – kind of. (Laughs). It’s hard to describe: I don’t think that being gay is as essential of a way to identify yourself as say, being male is, or being Catholic, or being human. I guess my position right now is that if the cultural atmosphere were different from what it is, then I don’t know whether I would have gone public.   The real reason I did is because of the blog, and talking about these things in general, and the cultural conversation in general that’s happening right now – all of these things have become such a big part of my life... it wasn’t really a question of honesty. It’s just that when something is so much a part of your life, people ask you, ‘oh, so what’ve you got going on?’ or ‘what are you doing these days?’ and I felt really lame saying, ‘oh, you know, programming computers. Watching movies. Hanging out. Stuff.’   So honestly, it was largely a vanity thing. It’s like the scene in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne is doing this, ‘I’m a rich celebrity playboy’ thing, and he’s bathing in fountains and buying hotels and so forth, and Katie Holmes’ (character) is upset with him for being such a wastrel. (Laughs) And I felt like I wanted to be publicly Batman: strictly for vanity-related reasons. I wanted everyone to know how awesome I am.I’m trying not to laugh... Well, it’s perfectly true. And I suppose there are other reasons, like I want to be a public witness and things like that, but I suspect that it’s mostly vanity.What response did you get when you ‘came out’? When people began to associate you with this gay guy who writes a blog? On the day that I made public the post where I came out, I received just piles and piles of comments and emails and text messages. Most were from people I didn't know, except for the text messages, obviously, but a very large portion of them were from people who had known me for a long time and who just wanted to say how pleased they were that I had done this and how proud they were of me to have taken this stance, and how courageous they thought I was and how honored they were to be my friend, and all of this stuff. In other words, I can't think of a single friend, family member, or acquaintance who did not greet this revelation with support. I think I would have had a very, very different response were I not celibate. When I get negative feedback, which I occasionally do from people who disagree with what the Church teaches, they say that I am being made a poster boy and that I'm being used – which is to say, conservative Christians are super happy to have somebody to point to whom they can say, ‘well look, here's one person who agrees with us.’Do you think being accused of being a ‘poster boy’ means that people are people angered by your celibacy? That's an interesting question. I think some people are angered on my behalf for what they perceive to be a sort of ‘Stockholm syndrome,’ and I've actually heard that phrase thrown around more than once. People see me defending the Church’s teachings on marriage, and on sexuality, and what they see is somebody who’s been taught to suppress his own nature for so long that he's actually come to believe the things he’s been told about himself – that’s what they see.What’s really there? I can’t sum myself up, but the point is that if any of the people who accuse me of being the poster boy or of having ‘Stockholm syndrome’ or anything like that were actually to read the things I’ve said, they would see that, number one, I don't sort of unquestioningly accept whatever I'm told about sexuality, but I always bring it back to my own experience. And number two, I very much admit the difficulties inherent in the life I live and I don’t pretend that they don't exist. And I don't think I would do either of those things if I had ‘Stockholm syndrome.’Your blog header is, ‘Catholic, Gay, and Feeling Fine,’ and you’ve been using the word ‘gay’ throughout our conversation so far. Do you have any thoughts on that word, as opposed to ‘same-sex attraction’ or other terms? Absolutely. That is another hard question, and it’s a question about which my position has been continually shifting, so I don’t feel as though I’ve found solid ground yet. I’ve always used the word. It used to be that I would use the word in writing, but sort of in my interior monologue and in private conversation I would say ‘same-sex attracted.’ I used to joke that the only reason I used the word gay was so that I would tend to show up more on Google, which is only partially a joke, because you know if you’re going to use the tools of technology to evangelize, then you have to be savvy about what Google is going to find and what it isn’t.   But I guess the shift mainly happened as I began to approach being more public about it, because as I became more public I also came into contact more openly with people who identified as gay or who struggled with same-sex attraction, or whatever. And what I found was that a lot of them had a lot of resentment towards people who insisted on not using the word gay.Why did they have resentment? For a few reasons. It’s a really complicated topic, and I’m not sure how to distill what is offensive about it. One, is that it’s offensive to be told what you ought to be allowed to call yourself. And in fact, I rarely feel strongly about whether I should use the word gay or not, but the one time I do feel strongly about it is when somebody starts upbraiding me for it. Because it feels incredibly intrusive. This is a topic that gets very political very fast. It’s the sort of thing where people feel, and I think rightly, that they have been constrained to keep silent for most of their lives – and a lot of people have, whether it’s constrained by actual explicit homophobia among the people that they love and/or are related to, or whether it’s just sort of a general culture understanding that you don’t talk about this sort of thing. So you have a set of people who have felt this way for most of their lives, and then you have people saying ‘oh, well it’s sort of cool now if you talk about that, but just be sure you talk about it in this or that way.’ This is frustrating and comes across as very patronizing because these are people who don’t have any insight into the experience of what it is to be gay telling you what it is or is not ok to talk about, and what it is and is not ok to call yourself.Would you also apply that criticism to the Church who never uses the word ‘gay’ in her documents? I understand why She (the Church) doesn’t. I don’t know if that will continue to be the case. I don’t have any bitterness towards the Church as a whole in that way.   This is reason that I haven’t yet come to a solid opinion on this question – because the problem is that secular people and Christian people mean two different things by the word ‘gay.’Could you explain that a little more? It’s really hard to distill. But you know what’s at the heart of it? When I told my roommate I was gay, the first thing that he said to me was, ‘do you mean same-sex attracted?’ And that was actually the precisely wrong thing to say, and I don’t hold it against him. (Laughs) But the heart of it is that I was telling him this incredibly personal thing, and he was instructing me in the right way to feel about it, immediately, from the get-go. Now I think that one reason Christians tend to dislike the word ‘gay’ is because if somebody says that they are gay, then they are usually implying that it is an unchangeable aspect of their personality. Whereas the sort of default position among a lot of Christians is that homosexuality is changeable. The unspoken implication is that if you identify yourself as ‘gay,’ then you’re probably not trying hard enough to be straight. And I believe that this why it is so offensive to be told that they shouldn’t use the word gay.   It might be true that some people can change to some extent, but it’s extremely offensive to assume that the only reason somebody hasn’t changed is because they haven’t tried. And even though very few people would have the chutzpah to make that explicit, I do believe that that’s the belief that’s behind it.What do you think we should be doing as a Church, as a Christian community, to be helping people who struggle with homosexuality? That’s a really good question! I’ll start first by saying that I’m extremely grateful for the organization People Can Change, which is an organization founded precisely on the idea that radical change with respect to homosexuality is possible. I’m grateful for them not because they ‘made me straight’ or something, but because they gave me a space in which to work out some of my issues, many of which turned out not to be related precisely to homosexuality in particular, but were just sort of emotional issues that needed dealing with. I think a lot of gay men and women do have emotional issues that aren’t going to be dealt with if they’re told that everything is already ok. But on the other hand, this is dangerous because you have a lot of Christian people already assuming from the get-go that if somebody is homosexual, then they must have various and many emotional issues that need working on, and that’s not necessarily the case. (Laughs) So you see why this is difficult!If the understanding in the Christian world is that homosexuality is a “disorder,” and homosexual activity is a sin, then logically it would seem like as Christians, we would want to help our fellow Christians who are “dis-ordered” to be “ordered.” Do you think there’s a problem with that logic? I think there’s a problem with that phraseology. There’s a subtle but importance difference in saying that somebody has a disordered inclination and saying that somebody is disordered. The Church has to be clear with respect to ‘what is the nature of homosexuality itself,’ but can’t make a pronouncement on whether it is a mental disorder, for example. Many people assume that when the Church says ‘homosexuality consists of a disordered inclination,’ they take that word ‘disorder’ and assume that She means ‘mental disorder.’ But I think the Catechism has purposely phrased it in such a way that you can’t actually conclude that if you’re reading carefully. But it takes careful reading. The Church never changes her underlying principles, but when something new happens, it’s always a question of, ‘well, what do the underlying principles dictate in this particular situation?’ And a lot of the times it turns out that it doesn’t dictate what we thought it did but it takes a while to figure that out.What do you think the underlying principles are that are dictating what the Church is saying about homosexuality? That men are men, and women are women, and the two are not the same.Do you want to expound on that at all? Nooooo. (Laughs).   Well, what I think is that one, at the bottom of it, men and women are different. Number two, that eros is different from friendship, and number three, that physical acts have spiritual meanings. I think those things are the fundamental axioms that we have to work with here. And I think those things are precisely the things that are being argued about. I don’t think the Church is arguing about them, and I don’t think She should, because as far as I’m concerned, those things are absolutely essential to what the Church believes about people. But those things are very much being debated in the broader culture. I'll tell you how I see myself and what I do, which is not only with respect to homosexuality but with how I try to live the Catholic faith in general. I try to live my life by those principles that make sense to me as a human being, and are consonant with what I know about human nature and with what the world at large has discovered about human nature. However, I also believe that if anything is true, it is Christian: that every truth is a Christian truth, and that there can be no truth about human nature which is not consonant with what the Church teaches about human nature. Read more

2015-06-30T06:08:00+00:00

Vatican City, Jun 30, 2015 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Internet content and and video production will assume a greater role in Vatican communications in the years to come, suggests the establishment and – particularly – the leadership of the newly established Secretariat for Communications. At the same time, traditional media, such as the Vatican's newspaper and radio, are likely to diminish in prominence. On June 27, Pope Francis established the new secretariat via a motu proprio. From June 29, it will oversee the all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Internet Service, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service, and the Vatican publishing house. Each of these offices “must continue their own activities, in accordance, however, with the indications given by the Secretariat for Communications.” The current head of Vatican Television, Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, has been named prefect of the new dicastery, while Fr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz of the Vatican Internet Service, has been appointed its secretary. The Roman Pontiff also named Paolo Nusiner, director of the Italian newspaper Avvenire – a project of the Italian bishops, rather than the Vatican – as director general. Giacomo Ghisani, head of Vatican Radio’s International Relations Office and Legal Affairs and a member of the board of Vatican Television, is vice-director general. The absences in the board are perhaps as noteworthy as the inclusions. The leadershiop of the Secretariat for Communications has no place for Msgr. Paul Tighe, an official of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, though he was a member of the committees and commissions established to evaluate and reform Vatican communications. The Vatican's publishing house is also poorly represented, and it had not been included in the previous committees beginning the communications reform. On the other hand, Gian Maria Vian, editor of L’Osservatore Romano. was part of the committee chaired by Lord Patton, but was not included in the subsequent commission. The Vatican's newspaper is expected to become more digital, and its content to be put under central coordination, which should affect Vatican Radio as well. Vatican Radio is represented by Ghisani, who was also a member of the committee. Ghisani, however, is not a journalist – no members of the board have formation in journalism – and mostly deals with legal issues. Vatican Television is likely to assume the bulk of the Vatican's communications strategy. A source who works in Vatican communications told CNA June 27 that “Pope Francis is really aware of the power of images, and is constantly in touch with Msgr. Viganò in order to understand how images are delivered. This gives Vatican Television a prominent role among the Vatican media branches.” It might be foreseen that the narration of the pontificate will be provided by images and a central management of contents, to be delivered via the Vatican internet platform, which would combine all the Vatican's news content, centralized under a single editorial control. Additional expenses will be cut step by step, though at the moment there are no plans to remove staff. Read more

2015-06-29T18:18:00+00:00

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2015 / 12:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Mass for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on Monday, Pope Francis called on the Church's new archbishops to be courageous witnesses who are not ashamed of Christ, and who are convinced by what they themselves teach. “Kingdoms, peoples, cultures, nations, ideologies, powers have passed, but the Church, founded on Christ, notwithstanding the many storms and our many sins, remains ever faithful to the deposit of faith shown in service,” the Roman Pontiff said during the homily for his June 29 Mass, addressing the 46 new metropolitan archbishops installed over the past year. During the Papal Mass for Saints Peter and Paul, the Bishop of Rome bestows a vestment known as a pallium on the archbishops who have been installed within the past year. The pallium, a white woolen vestment worn around the neck and above the chasuble, is a symbol of archbishops' communion and close ties with the Church of Rome. “Today there is no great need for masters, but for courageous witnesses, who are convinced and convincing; witnesses who are not ashamed of the name of Christ and of his cross; not before the roaring lions, nor before the powers of this world.” The Pope added that, in being witnesses to the faith, archbishops should practice what they preach. “The most effective and authentic witness is one that does not contradict, by behaviour and lifestyle, what is preached with the word and taught to others!” Drawing from the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which recounts St. Peter's imprisonment, the Pope, not wishing “to dwell on these atrocious, inhuman and incomprehensible persecutions,” the likes of which still occur today, instead focused on the courage of the apostles and the early Christians. “This courage carried forward the work of evangelisation, free of fear of death and martyrdom, within the social context of a pagan empire,” the Pope said. Pope Francis centered his homily on three examples in the life of these early Christians and apostles – prayer, faith, and witness – which today's Christians are called to follow. First, the “call to prayer”: citing the account of St. Peter's imprisonment, and the Church's “earnest prayer for him,” the Roman Pontiff reflected on the importance of persistent prayer within the Christian community. “The community of Peter and Paul teaches us that the Church at prayer is a Church on her feet, strong, moving forward! Indeed, a Christian who prays is a Christian who is protected, guarded and sustained, and above all, who is never alone.” The Pope spoke of the angel rescuing St. Peter from prison, as recounted in Acts, and the “many times the Lord has heard our prayer and sent us an angel” during difficult times. “Who comes to snatch us from the hands of death and from the evil one; who points out the wrong path; who rekindles in us the flame of hope; who gives us tender comfort; who consoles our broken hearts; who awakens us from our slumber to the world; or who simply tells us, 'You are not alone'.” “Prayer is the encounter with God, with God who never lets us down; with God who is faithful to his word; with God who does not abandon his children.” Next, Pope Francis spoke on the “call to faith” demonstrated by the early Christians, turning to the day's second reading in which St. Paul speaks of God rescuing him “from every evil.” “How many forces in the course of history have tried, and still do, to destroy the Church, from without as well as within, but they themselves are destroyed and the Church remains alive and fruitful!” Finally, Pope Francis spoke of how Saints Peter and Paul give Christians today the “call to witness” to the faith. “A Church or a Christian who does not give witness is sterile; like a dead person who thinks they are alive; like a dried up tree that produces no fruit; an empty well that offers no water!” The Pope continued: “The Church has overcome evil thanks to the courageous, concrete and humble witness of her children.” Pope Francis then turned to the archbishops, calling them to be “masters of prayer,” “masters of faith,” and “men of witness." He explained to them the significance of the palliums, saying: “It is a sign which represents the sheep that the shepherd carries on his shoulders as Christ the Good Shepherd does … a symbol of your pastoral mission.” “I wish to entrust you with this call to prayer, to faith and to witness.” Pope Francis blessed the archbishops' palliums during Monday's Mass; however, the archbishops will be officially imposed with the vestments in their respective dioceses by the local apostolic nuncio, rather than by the Pope in the Vatican. Read more

2015-06-29T14:32:00+00:00

Washington D.C., Jun 29, 2015 / 08:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the continued use of a drug that has been accused of causing excruciating pain in several controversial state executions. The 5-4 ruling in Glossip v.... Read more

2015-06-28T22:39:00+00:00

Denver, Colo., Jun 28, 2015 / 04:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After receiving thousands of complaints about the adverse effects of the birth control implant Essure, the FDA announced late Wednesday that it has updated the list of risks and complications ass... Read more

2015-06-28T14:59:00+00:00

Vatican City, Jun 28, 2015 / 08:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Pope focused on the virtue of faith during his Sunday Angelus address, saying the whole gospel is written in its light. “Faith is this: to touch Jesus and to draw from him the grace which saves,” Pope Francis explained June 28 at St. Peter's Square, reflecting on the healing of a haemorrhaging woman in the day's Gospel reading. She believed that if she could but touch Christ's clothes, she would be healed. “And so it is,” said Pope Francis. “The need to be freed drives her to dare, and faith 'snatches', so to speak, healing from the Lord.” He waxed on the Gospel reading, saying that the Father, through Christ's healing, in a sense, said “Daughter, you are not cursed, you are not excluded, rather, you are my daughter!” “And every time Jesus comes to us, when we go to him with faith, we hear this from the Father: 'You are my son, you are my daughter! You are healed, you are healed. I forgive all, all. I heal everyone and everything.'” Pope Francis also discussed Christ's raising of a 12 year old girl who had died, saying that in her father's appeal to Jesus, we feel “the great faith which this man has in Jesus.” Christ's reaction – “Do not fear, only have faith” – give courage, the Pope said. “He says to us, so often: 'Do not fear, only have faith!'” “These two episodes – a healing and a raising from death – have a single center: faith. The message is clear, and can be summarized in one question: do we believe that Jesus can heal and can raise from the dead? The whole Gospel is written in the light of this faith: Jesus is risen, has conquered death, and because of this victory we too will be resurrected.” Francis lamented that “this faith, which for the first Christians was secure, can tarnish and become uncertain, to the point that some confuse resurrection with reincarnation.” “The word of God this Sunday invites us to live in the certainty of the resurrection: Jesus is the  Lord, Jesus has power over evil and over death, and wants to take us to the Father's house, where life reigns. And there we will meet all, all of us in this square today, we will meet in the Father's house, in the life that Jesus gives us.” He added that Christ's resurrection “acts in history as a principle of renewal and of hope. Anyone who is desperate and weary unto death, if they rely on Jesus and on his love, can begin to live again … faith is a force of life, it gives fullness to our humanity; and who believes in Christ must be recognized precisely because they promote life in all situations, so that everyone, especially the weakest, can experience the love of God which frees and saves.” Concluding, Pope Francis said, “We ask the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the gift of a strong and courageous faith, which drives us to speakers of hope and of life among our brethren.” Read more

2015-06-28T12:03:00+00:00

Chicago, Ill., Jun 28, 2015 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Seven monks of St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Ill. have filed suit against the leadership of Illinois’ Benedictine University, saying that the leadership has denied them their rights to help... Read more

2015-06-27T22:07:00+00:00

New York City, N.Y., Jun 27, 2015 / 04:07 pm (CNA).- Growing unrest in the Middle East is causing great concern for the Christian community around the world, and author George J. Marlin is hoping to enlighten Western Christians on how seriously matters are progressing, as their brethren in the Middle East continue to undergo persecution. His latest book, Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy, was published earlier this month by St. Augustine's Press, and details the rise of radical Islamism and its impact on Christians throughout the Middle East. “Western civilization was built on Christianity which, sadly enough, is being forgotten for Western Europe, and even in this nation here,” Marlin told CNA. “I think the Church’s job is to remind the West that its civilization was based on the concept that man is a creature made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore is entitled by his very nature … basic rights, including the freedom to practice one’s religion.”   Marlin is chairman of Aid to the Church in Need- USA, a Catholic charity under the guidance of the Pope that supports and aids the persecuted and suffering Church around the world. Last year, Aid to the Church in Need raised $100 million internationally. As chairman, Marlin is given information daily about struggling Christians around the world, particularly in the Middle East. “I’ve been able to see and speak firsthand to bishops and archbishops in the area, and other people who are often persecuted in the area,” Marlin said. Marlin says that for the Christians, their “most daunting task is to survive.”     “They’re concerned about survival, they’re concerned about getting three meals a day, they’re hoping they can educate their kids someday. They’re hoping they can come back to their home.” “More importantly, we have to keep in mind that these Christians are beginning to feel abandoned by the Christian world because, although the Pope has come out and made some statements, Cardinal Dolan of New York has made some statements … in the Western media, a lot of this is being ignored,” Marlin stated.   The book examines the history of both Christianity and Islam in the Middle East; followed by an in-depth look at eight countries in the region where Christians are particularly persecuted; it then includes perspectives of various experts from the region. “It’s eye-opening for me as I am talking right now to so many other Americans that they’re shocked to learn that there are Christians in the Middle East,” Marlin stated.  “So I thought it was important to take this data and put together a story of what exactly is happening in Middle East at this point in time.” He added that Christians can often regard only Europe as historically Christians, and “sometimes forget that the first center [of the Church] was in Antioch, Syria before St Peter moved it to Rome, and so the apostles and early martyrs of the Church were in the Middle East.” Marlin said that it is important for people to realize that even before the Islamic State “came on the scene two years ago,” the 21st century has continually experienced “systemic persecution of Christians.” Marlin’s hope is that the book, as well as the work of Aid to the Church in Need, “jolts the conscience of the West, because too many people in Europe and in the United States have their head in the sand trying to ignore this problem here.”   Marlin emphasized that persecution isn't restricted to the brutal, attention-grabbing ways the Islamic State uses to execute its captives. Christians in the Middle East are also persecuted through pressure to convert, employment and education discrimination, church bombings, murder, destruction of homes and businesses, kidnapping, and being treated as second-class citizens. Documents and manuscripts dating back thousands of years have also been destroyed. “We have Christians being driven out, they may never come back,” Marlin stated. “We have the institutional Church being destroyed, and we have the patrimony of the Church being destroyed.” “These same tactics are used in these countries and are profiled in this book,” Marlin said. “It’s going on every day and it has been going on throughout this century and obviously centuries before this. It’s time, I’m hoping, that people begin to catch on, particularly the Christians in the United States.” An example he gave was the Chaldean Archeparchy of Mosul: in 2004, a year after the US invasion of Iraq, it had 20,600 members. By 2013 the number had dropped to 14,100, and last summer, most of the remaining Christians in the city and its environs fled before the Islamic State. In January, its bishop, Amel Nona, was transferred to the Chaldean eparchy for Australia, leaving the Mosul archeparchy vacant, perhaps fated to become a titular see. Marlin suggested that in light of the scale of persecution faced by many Christians in the Middle East, “the President of the United States to appoint a special Middle East envoy just to deal with these Christian persecutions.” He also raised the possibility of economic sanctions, and denying foreign aid to countries who persecute their citizens. He said that the only way groups such as the Islamic State “are going to be put out of business is if modern Islam stands up and says 'this is wrong'. These radical groups, if they are not tamed, if they are not destroyed or eliminated, they may destroy the Christian presence in the Middle East.” Marlin's book concludes with an epilogue and an appendix that provides important documents pertaining to the persecution of Christians, including addresses from Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Read more

2015-06-27T20:09:00+00:00

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2015 / 02:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s nine communications offices will soon be consolidated under the authority of the newly-established Secretariat for Communications, per a Saturday directive of Pope Francis. The Roman Pontiff instituted the new secretariat with a motu proprio titled The current communication context, promulgated June 27.  The letter states that the new management body will take effect June 29. “The current communication context, characterized by the presence and the development of digital media, by the factors of convergence and interactivity, requires a rethinking of the information system of the Holy See and dedication to a reorganization which … must proceed decisively towards integration and a unified management,” the Pope wrote. “For these reasons, I desire that all organizations which, thus far have dealt with communications in different ways, be brought together in a new Dicastery of the Roman Curia … thus, the communication system of the Holy See will respond in an ever more efficacious manner to the needs of the mission of the Church.” The new dicastery will oversee the all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Internet Service, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service, and the Vatican publishing house. Pope Francis added these offices “must continue their own activities, in accordance, however, with the indications given by the Secretariat for Communications.” The secretariat will also assume responsibility for the Vatican's website, vatican.va, and the Pope's Twitter account, @pontifex. He writes also that he established the secretariat as a result of consultation with the Council of Cardinals, a group of nine cardinals tasked with advising the Roman Pontiff on reform of the Roman Curia. The current head of Vatican Television, Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, has been named prefect of the new dicastery, while Fr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz of the Vatican Internet Service, has been appointed its secretary. The Roman Pontiff also named Paolo Nusiner, director of the Italian newspaper Avvenire, as director general. Giacomo Ghisani, head of Vatican Radio’s International Relations Office and Legal Affairs, is vice-director general. The Secretariat for Communications will be temporarily headquartered on the premises of Vatican Radio.   Read more

2015-06-27T17:48:00+00:00

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2015 / 11:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Greeting a delegation of the leader of Eastern Orthodoxy on Saturday, Pope Francis voiced hope that Catholics and Eastern Orthodox would encounter each other more often, so as to overcome prejudices. “I hope, therefore, that opportunities may increase for meeting each other, for exchange and cooperation among Catholic and Orthodox faithful, in such a way that as we deepen our knowledge and esteem for one another, we may be able to overcome any prejudice and misunderstanding that may remain as a result of our long separation,” the Bishop of Rome said June 27 at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. He was receiving representatives of Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who are in Rome to observe the June 29 feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who were martyred in the city and who are the principal patrons of the Church of Rome. “Your presence at the celebrations of our feast testifies once again to the deep relationship between the sister Churches of Rome and Constantinople, foreshadowed by the bond which unites the respective patron Saints of our Churches, the Apostles Peter and Andrew, brothers in blood and faith, united in apostolic service and martyrdom,” Francis told them. He recalled his own visit to Constantinople and to Patriarch Bartholomew, for the feast of St. Andrew, that Church's patron, saying, “The embrace of peace exchanged with His Holiness was an eloquent sign of that fraternal charity which encourages us along the path of reconciliation, and which will enable us one day to participate together at the altar of the Eucharist.” “Attaining that goal, towards which we have set out together in trust, represents one of my main concerns, for which I do not cease to pray to God,” reflected the Bishop of Rome. “It is my desire that we may be able to face, in truth but also with a fraternal spirit, the difficulties which still exist.” He mentioned his support for the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, adding that “the problems which we may encounter in the course of our theological dialogue must not lead us to discouragement or resignation.” “The careful examination of how in the Church the principle of synodality and the service of the one who presides are articulated, will make a significant contribution to the progress of relations between our Churches.” The Pope looked forward to the Pan-Orthodox Synod, assuring the delegates of his prayers “and that of many Catholics,” adding that “I trust also in your prayers for the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church, on the theme of the family, which will take place here in the Vatican this coming October, at which we are looking forward also to the participation of a fraternal delegate from the Ecumenical Patriarchate.” “I renew my gratitude for your presence and for your cordial expressions of closeness,” he concluded. “I ask you to convey my fraternal greeting to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew and to the Holy Synod, together with my most heartfelt appreciation for having desired to send eminent representatives to share our joy.” “Please pray for me and for my ministry.” Read more




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