Rome, Italy, May 27, 2015 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The sacrament of marriage, characterized as it is by indissolubility, is good news for the people of today, according to a Spanish priest who specializes in family and marriage issues. “The family is in crisis: divorce, models of the family contrary to the Gospel, abandoned children, abortion … it’s true there are problems, but before anything else the family is good news and the indissolubility of marriage is not a burden, but a grace that comes from the Christian Gospel,” Father Jose Granados, DCJM, told CNA. “Christ places marriage at the center of the Gospel,” he continued. “The Church has good news when  speaking of marriage and the family, and that’s becoming more important in the secularized society in which we live.” Fr. Granados is a member of the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious order founded in Spain. He is vice president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, and has authored several books, including, with Carl Anderson, Called to Love: Approaching John Paul II's Theology of the Body. His latest work, Una sola carne en un solo espiritu (One Body in One Spirit), discusses the theology of marriage as being at the service of society and the Church, and is meant to show the beauty of God's plan for marriage and the family. Fr. Granados explained that it focuses on indissolubility and on marriage as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Referring to the upcoming Synod on the Family being held at the Vatican Oct. 4-25, he said: “the big challenge doesn’t come from society, but God presents the Church with a challenge, giving her the gift of family.” “God presents the Church with a challenge because he has given her the gift of family, and asks her to cultivate it, promote it, and make it grow. From this point of view the difficulties can be placed in perspective,” he said. “For example, the issue of divorced persons – you can look with great compassion on the suffering of so many people. And at the same time you can understand that when the Church proclaims the Gospel and the indissolubility of marriage, she doesn’t do it as a theory but as a concrete gift. This is how you can best serve people.” Marriage is “a very special sacrament that has the power to change society,” Fr. Granados reflected, because “through the indissoluble love between man and woman, the basic unit of society is established for the good of children.” Despite the difficulties of living out this indissoluble love, this task is made easier because in the sacrament “Christ gives his own love to the couple, so they can love one another as he loves the Church,” Fr. Granados said. The priest also referred to the issue of admitting the divorced and remarried to Communion, noting that the Church seeks to heal the person’s heart: “in the end, indissoluble marriage is a call to us from God. The great mercy of the Church is that this call can accompany them in their lives so they can respond to it,” he emphasized. He added that one must understand that God's mercy “not only wants to look upon us with compassion, but also to heal our wounds and help us on our journey.” “This makes it possible for the Church to see that giving Communion to the divorced and remarried is not a solution, and that other solutions can be opened: finding other ways to accompany the divorced and remarried so they can meet the requirements for the worthy reception of  the Eucharist.” Read more

Rome, Italy, May 26, 2015 / 03:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Gathered in Rome for their general chapter meeting, members of the Order of Friars Minor – better known as Franciscans – said that while vocations in general have been down in recent years, numbers have begun to rise again after Pope Francis’ election. Polish Friar Fr. Filemon Janka spoke with CNA after the order’s May 26 audience with Pope Francis, saying that his papal name selection “is significant for all Franciscan friars.” In his province of Posen, the effects of having a Pope named Francis have been particularly strong among the youth, he said, adding that the Franciscans “have new vocations because of that.” “It is also the reason that young people love our spirituality, and when the Pope chose the name Francis it was an important issue for these young people, so thanks be to God for new vocations.” The friar said that his small province has nine new novices this year, a significant number considering the size of the province. To have nine new vocations “is a good sign for the future for our order in Poland,” Fr. Janka said, noting that it’s been 10-15 years since his province has had so many new novices. In 2012, the year before Francis’ election, he said they only had two or three, and in the years before that maybe five at the most. “I think it is a sign of Pope Francis choosing this name and young people love him so much,” the friar said. “All people in Poland love Pope Francis.” Founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the early 1200s, the Order of Friars Minor are a religious order committed to living a life of poverty, and can easily be identified by their long, brown, hooded habits often paired with a beard and leather sandals. Due to their name, originally “Ordo Fratrum Minorum” in Latin, the friars were frequently called “fraticelli,” meaning “Little Brothers,” by their founder. The order is currently gathered in Rome for their general chapter meeting, which will conclude June 7. In his May 26 audience with the friars, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of “minorita,” or “smallness” for a Franciscan, saying the call to be “minor” means “to be and to feel small before God, completely entrusting oneself to his infinite mercy.” Mercy is something incomprehensible for those who do not see themselves as small, needy sinners before God, the Pope said, adding that “the more aware we are of this, the closer we are to salvation; the more convinced we are of being sinners, the more we are able to be saved.” Pope Francis explained that this “smallness” also means going outside of oneself and letting go of personal plans and opinions. A friar, he said, must be able to go beyond habits and securities, so that he can bear true witness to the poor, needy and marginalized. Pope Francis also spoke of the importance of fraternity for the friars, noting that in the time of the early Church, people “were amazed” to see how united the Christians were in love, service, benevolence and reciprocal help. The Franciscan spiritual family “is called to express this concrete fraternity,” the Pope continued, through a recovery of mutual trust “in interpersonal relationships, so that the world may see and believe, acknowledging that the love of Christ heals wounds.” The Pope warned against losing oneself amid disputes and gossip, saying that instead the friars must always seek to foster peaceful dialogue with gentleness, meekness and humility. He also encouraged them to be content with what is given to them, which he said “requires a strong commitment to transparency, ethics, solidarity of goods, in the style of sobriety and dispossession.” “If instead you are attached to goods and to worldly richness, and your security there, it will be precisely the Lord who strips this worldly spirit off in order to preserve the precious heritage of ‘smallness’ and poverty to which he has called you through St. Francis,” the Pope continued. “You have inherited an authority among God's people with ‘smallness,’ with fraternity, meekness, humility, poverty. Please, conserve it! Don't lose it!” The Holy Father concluded by telling the Franciscans that their spirituality is important and needed in the world. He said that while society views it as acceptable to sneer at priests in general, Franciscans have gained “authority” due to their commitments to ‘smallness’ and helping the poor. Francis closed by entrusting the order to the protection and intercession of the Virgin Mary, and asked that they pray for him.   Read more

Rome, Italy, May 26, 2015 / 03:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While the Synod of Bishops' ordinary council gathered to discuss the upcoming Synod on the Family this week, a private group of bishops and experts convened separately behind closed doors in Rome to consider the most controversial issues at the synod, particularly support of gay unions and Communion for the divorced and remarried. Pope Francis chaired the May 25-26 meeting of the Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops, which is preparing for this October's synod on “the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in contemporary society.” The council, meeting at the Vatican, examined the synod's instrumentum laboris, or working document, which was produced by last year's Synod of Bishops, and integrated it with the responses to questions which were sent to dioceses worldwide. “An extensive and detailed study of the text has generated proposals and contributions for its integration and improvement,” the Vatican Information Service noted, adding that the working document's final text will be prepared and translated by the Secretariat General within the next few weeks. The council also considered modifications to the synod's modus operandi. The Synod of Bishops' secretary general, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri – who was appointed in September 2013 – had changed the synod's working rules. Prior to Cardinal Baldisseri's leadership, the synod had provided summaries in many languages of each scheduled intervention from the synod fathers. That system was suppressed under Cardinal Baldisseri, and replaced with a brief summary presented daily by Holy See press officer Fr. Federico Lombardi. In the face of criticism that this change negatively affected the synod's transparency, Cardinal Baldisseri claimed that “information is provided by a verbal summary” and is transparent, and that synod fathers were “not forbidden to speak to the press,” though they were prohibited from publishing their interventions, as any synod text “is property of the synod.” On the other hand, the impossibility of seeing the extent of the discussion within the synod paved the way for media speculation. This autumn's synod may re-present the same dynamic, given that while the Synod of Bishops' ordinary council was meeting with Pope Francis, a “shadow council” held a seperate closed-door meeting regarding the most contentious issues of the Synod on the Family, which include approval of gay unions and Communion for the divorced and remarried. The May 25 discussion was held in a conference center of the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University – though the meeting itself was not managed by the university. Bishops and theologians spoke before a select audience of 50, according to French daily Le Figaro. The conference was called the “Mutual Convention of the French, German and Swiss Bishops Conferences concerning the issues of the pastoral care of marriage and family at the eve of the Synod of Bishops.” The meeting was in fact not for all the bishops of the interested countries, but only  for some of them –  while others were not even informed of the meeting. Among the speakers at the meeting were Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey of Sion; Bishop Jean-Luc Brunin of Le Havre; the theologian Eva Maria Faber; Anne-Marie Pelletier, who won the 2014 Ratzinger Prize for Theology; Fr. François Xavier Amherdt, professor of pastoral theology at the University of Freiburg; Eberhard Schockenhoff, professor of moral theology in Freiburg; and the theologian Alain Thomasset. The final remarks were given by Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising. One person who took part in the discussion stressed to CNA May 26 that “the tune was that of a pastoral opening on issues such as communion for the divorced and remarried, and the pastoral care of homosexuals.” One of the speakers, who asked to be kept anonymous, refused to comment on the purpose of the conference and the tone of the discussion, as “it is unfortunately forbidden to us by the organizers to give any interview or explanation about yesterday's conference.” Read more

Rome, Italy, May 25, 2015 / 10:03 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- The Christian message can't be shaken by a national vote, but Ireland’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage is forcing Catholic leaders to rethink how they have been keeping the faith alive among the nation's young people. “This vote has certainly changed the landscape in which the Church ministers in Ireland and the outcome offers it new and brave challenges,” said Dublin native Monsignor John Kennedy, speaking after Friday's referendum to allow same-sex couples in Ireland to marry. Msgr. Kennedy, an official of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told CNA in a May 25 email interview that he believed the pro same-sex marriage – or “Yes” – campaign was successful because of the sizable number of young voters who are in favor of the legislation. “For Catholics it raises serious questions about the depth of faith and conscience formation, and the link between the practice of the faith and its relevance in and to society as a whole,” he said. The monsignor’s observations about the influence of young voters are echoed in an interview given by Dublin’s archbishop Diarmuid Martin following the news that the referendum had passed. “The Church needs a reality check right across the board, to look at the things we are doing well and look at the areas where we need to say, have we drifted away completely from young people?” the archbishop told RTE. “Most of these young people who voted yes are products of our Catholic school system for 12 years,” Archbishop Martin said. “I’m saying there’s a big challenge there to see how we get across the message of the Church.” The results of Friday’s vote was 62 percent in favor of same-sex marriage, and 38 percent opposed. While 18 other countries have already legalized same-sex marriage, Ireland is the first to adopt the law through popular vote. Msgr. Kennedy said that while he did not think the “Yes” campaign was unstoppable, he was not surprised that the referendum passed in the end. “I believe that many had made up their minds quite a long time ago,” he said. The popular vote to allow same-sex marriage is significant in Ireland on account of its long history of fidelity to the Catholic Church, shaken only in recent decades by scandals among the clergy and religious. Nonetheless, Msgr. Kennedy said the new legislation should not be cause for discouragement, but for a stronger commitment to disseminating the Christian message. “Instead of perhaps feeling downcast by the decision, or wondering about the role of the Church in the world today, I believe that Catholics must now pause, focus, pray and advance with even greater energy,” he said. He added that Catholics should be “conscious that what they have received in the Lord's teaching, in its entirety and not just on marriage, is not something that can be altered by a national vote, by a certain percentage of those in favor of a change.” Around 60 percent of the 3.2 million eligible voters throughout the Republic of Ireland took part in the referendum. The new law comes 22 years after Ireland decriminalized homosexual acts. In 2010, the country enacted the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. “The late Saint John Paul II once said that every generation is a continent to be conquered for Christ,” Msgr. Kennedy said. “I had some difficulty understanding the radical tone of his statement but now I appreciate what he meant.” One of the main players in the “No” campaign opposing the constitutional amendment was the Iona Institute, a Catholic advocacy group based in Ireland which promotes the role of religion and family in society. In a press release following Saturday’s announcement that the referendum had gone through, the Iona Institute director David Quinn said the campaign “was always going to be an uphill battle.” Quinn expressed concern that the hundreds of thousands of voters who opposed the referendum were not represented by Ireland’s political parties, which all supported the “Yes” campaign. He concludes: “Going forward, we will continue to affirm the importance of the biological ties and of motherhood and fatherhood. We hope the Government will address the concerns voters on the No side have about the implications for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.” Read more