Vatican City, Feb 10, 2015 / 12:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis encouraged the bishops of Greece to engage in dialogue and solidarity, values he said are particularly necessary in fighting pessimism during the country's ongoing financial crisis. Fraternal communion is “indispensable for the growth of the Church in Greece, as well as for the progress of all of society,” he said Feb. 5 to the Greek bishops, who had come to Rome for their ad limina visit. “This is even more true in your nation,” he continued, “which at the moment has more than ever the need for dialogue among its diverse political and cultural components, for the safeguarding and promotion of the common good.” Greece's financial crisis began in 2010, when it was discovered that the nation's public debt was unsustainably high – it is currently 174 percent of the national GDP. The country was bailed out by several other nations and institutions, and the government has taken unpopular austerity measures to reign in the debt. But in January elections, an anti-austerity party won elections on a platform of rolling back austerity measures and rejecting international bailout extensions. In the face of the ongoing crisis, Pope Francis told the bishops: “do not tire of exhorting everyone to confidence in the future, in contrast to the so-called culture of pessimism. The spirit of solidarity, which all Christians are called to give witness to in the concreteness of daily life, is a leaven of hope.” “It is important to maintain constructive relations with the authorities of your nation, as well as with the diverse components of society, in so as to spread this perspective of solidarity, in an attitude of dialogue and collaboration also with other European nations.” The Pope encouraged the strengthening of Greek cultural traditions and of the “Christian roots of Greek society,” while at the same times encouraging openness to the cultural and spiritual values brought by the many immigrants to Greece “without distinction of race, language, or religious creed.” The united witness of Christians can welcome the disadvantaged and “truly contribute to the transformation of society, with the aim of making it more closely resemble the Gospel ideal,” he said. “I am glad to know that you are already engaged in this pastoral and charitable activity, especially in favor of immigrants, including those who are undocumented, many of whom are Catholic.” Pope Francis said dialogue was also important for the Greek bishops with regard to the Orthodox – an estimated 97 percent of Greeks are Eastern Orthodox. Ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox, he said, is an “indispensable prospect for a serene and spiritually fruitful future for the whole of your nation.” He asked that the bishops encourage priestly vocations, “to address the insufficient number of clergy.” “In this regard, I ask you to convey to the priests of your dioceses, many of whom are elderly, all my affection and my appreciation for their apostolic zeal, despite their limited means.” He lamented “the weakening of the family, caused also by the process of secularization, which requires the commitment of the Church to persevere in programs of formation for marriage.” In conclusion, Pope Francis said that “I wish to express my acknowledgement of the work of evangelization that, despite many difficulties, you are carrying out in Greece … I encourage you to persevere in your mission with evangelical joy.”   Read more

Vatican City, Feb 9, 2015 / 05:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Raymond Burke said he was “responding to a hypothetical situation” when he stated that he would resist any possible move by Pope Francis away from Catholic doctrine. “I simply affirmed that it is always my sacred duty to defend the truth of the Church's teaching and discipline regarding marriage,” Cardinal Burke told CNA Feb. 9. “No authority can absolve me from that responsibility, and, therefore, if any authority, even the highest authority, were to deny that truth or act contrary to it, I would be obliged to resist, in fidelity to my responsibility before God.” Cardinal Burke said his interview with the French television channel France 2, broadcast Feb. 8, was “accurately reported” concerning a question and answer about resisting Pope Francis. According to a translation of the interview on the blog Rorate Caeli, the cardinal stressed the need for attentiveness to the power of the office of the papacy in Catholic understanding. Papal power is “at the service of the doctrine of the faith,” he explained, “and thus the Pope does not have the power to change teaching, doctrine.” The interviewer then asked: “In a somewhat provocative way, can we say that the true guardian of doctrine is you, and not Pope Francis?” “We must, let us leave aside the matter of the Pope,” the cardinal replied. “In our faith, it is the truth of doctrine that guides us.” “If Pope Francis insists on this path, what will you do?” the interviewer then asked. “I will resist. I cannot do anything else,” he said. The cardinal’s statement about resistance drew significant coverage. Cardinal Burke went on to tell France 2 that the Catholic Church is facing “a difficult time” that is “painful” and “worrisome.” At the same time, when asked wither the Church as an institution was being threatened, he voiced confidence. “The Lord assured us, as he assured Saint Peter in the Gospel, that the forces of evil will not prevail – ‘non praevalebunt,’ we say in Latin. That the forces of evil will not achieve, let us say, victory over the Church.” Asked whether Pope Francis is his friend, the cardinal replied, “I would not want to make of the pope an enemy, certainly!” The cardinal, a former Archbishop of St. Louis, served from 2008-2014 as Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Roman Rota, effectively the Supreme Court of the Catholic Church. He also sat on the Congregation for Bishops for several years. Pope Francis removed him from his curial positions and assigned him as Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a 900-year-old institution focused on the defense of the faith and care for the poor. The order has a presence in over 120 countries, with 13,000 members and 80,000 volunteers. Cardinal Burke was a leading figure during the October 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family. At the time, he told CNA that much of the media had been inaccurately presenting Pope Francis as being in favor of allowing Holy Communion to be distributed to those who are divorced and remarried, along with other proposals.   Read more

Vatican City, Feb 9, 2015 / 04:23 pm (CNA).- Set to finish his encyclical on the environment next month, Pope Francis said during his daily Mass at the Vatican on Monday that Christians who fail to safeguard nature do not care about God's handiwork. “A Christian who does not protect creation, who does not allow it to grow, is a Christian who does not care about God's labors” which are borne out of God's love for us, the Pope said Feb. 9. His remarks were based in part on the day's first reading from Genesis 1:1-19, comparing God's creation of the universe with the Jesus' “re-creation” of that which “had been ruined by sin.” Pope Francis announced to journalists on his way to the Philippines last month that plans to have his much-anticipated encyclical on man's relationship with creation finished in March. A year ago this month, the Vatican had announced the Pope's plans to write on the theme of “human ecology” – a phrase that was originally coined by retired pontiff Benedict XVI. This expression, spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said at the time, describes not only how the faithful must respect the environment, but also how the nature of the person – masculine and feminine as created by God – must also be defended. Pope Francis' first encyclical, entitled “Lumen Fidei,” or “Light of Faith,” was released in 2013. It was written by the pontiff as a completion of the work initiated by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who resigned before the document was finished. During his homily Monday, Pope Francis turned to the day's Gospel reading from Mark 6:53-56, reflecting on the account of Jesus curing the sick, with those receiving healing simply by touching is cloak. This healing marks the “second creation” the Pope said, which “is even more wonderful than the first.” But while the “second creation” is more important, Pope Francis said that God has given the faithful the “responsibility” to care for the “first” creation – the earth – by helping it “to grow according to its laws.” That said, “we are the lords of creation, not its masters,” and are therefore called to protect it. With regard to the “second creation” brought about by Jesus, Pope Francis said we are told by Saint Paul in the Bible to become “reconciled to God” – adding that “reconciliation is the work of Christ.” Pope Francis explained that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all engaged “in this re-creation.” In response, we are “to safeguard and nurture Creation,” allowing “ourselves be reconciled with Jesus.” Read more

Vatican City, Feb 9, 2015 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The reform of the Roman Curia must be an example for the spiritual renewal of the entire Church, the prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote in an essay published Saturday in the Vatican's newspaper. “A true reform of the Roman Curia and of the Church has the objective of rendering the mission of the Pope and of the Church in the world of today and of tomorrow more radiant” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller wrote Feb. 7 in L'Osservatore Romano. In the article, “Purifying the Temple,” Cardinal Mueller identified the final goal of  Church reform as enlightening the mission of the Church; stressed the differences among the Roman Curia, the College of Cardinals, the Synod of Bishops, and the administration of Vatican City; and warned against the temptation of over-spiritualizing the Church, thereby relegating it to an environment of ideals divorced from reality. Cardinal Mueller’s article was published on the eve of a meeting of the Council of Cardinals, and a subsequent consistory convoked by Pope Francis to discuss curial reform. The Council of Cardinals are meeting for the eighth time Feb. 9-11, and under discussion are several proposals concerning the way the curia may be outlined in the future. A first comprehensive draft designed the establishment of two super-congregations, each of including five secretariats that would take over functions and competences of several existing curial bodies: the Congregation for Justice and Peace, with the Secretariats of Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Migrants, Pastoral Health Care, Human ecology and life; and the Congregation for Family and Laity, which would include the secretariats for Laity, Family, Married Couples, Youth and Ecclesial Movements. Other proposals were that of a substantial role for the Synod of Bishops in the general government of the Church, and a sort of common administration between the Holy See and Vatican City. In his article, Cardinal Mueller implicitly addresses all of these proposals. “At the heart of the Church stand the Gospel, truth, and salvation. History has taught us that any time the Church was freed from a worldly mentality and from earthly models of the exercise of power, the path to her spiritual renewal in Jesus Christ, her head and source of life, has opened,” he began his essay. This has emerged in all attempts at Church reform, he said, noting the Gregorian reform of the 11th century, the Tridentine reform of the 16th, and the new springtime of Vatican II. The temporal power of bishops was often corrupting, he said, yet “even more devastating were the systems in modern times of state Churches, such as Gallicanism … and the subjection of the Church to the State through royal patronage.” “The Lord instituted the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation for the world … the Church cannot understand herself, or justify herself, by the worldly standards of power, wealth, and prestige: reflection on the nature and mission of the Church of God is, then, the basis and premise of any true reform.” However, Cardinal Mueller warned against the temptation, in the face of man's fragility, of “spiritualizing the Church,” thus relegating it “to an ambit of mere ideals and dreams, beyond the abyss of temptation, of sin, of death and of the devil, as though to reach the glory of the resurrection, we did not have to pass through the valley of pain and suffering.” The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith turned to Benedict XVI’s discourse about the need for the Church to free herself from forms of worldliness, and underscored that “Pope Francis has certainly continued this thought, speaking of a poor Church for the poor: the Church must never cede to the temptation of self-secularization, adapting to secular society and to a live without God.” Discussion on curial reform has largely dealt with a desire to streamline the number of Vatican offices and employees, but Cardinal Mueller offered different criteria for reform: “the spirit of love through which the Church serves people through preaching, the sacraments, and charity.” Cardinal Mueller explained that Roman Curia “is not a mere administrative structure, but is rather a spiritual institution rooted in the specific mission of the Church of Rome.” The prefect stressed that the “organization and functioning of the Roman Curia depend on the specific mission of the Bishop of Rome.” “Since it is only through the light of revealed faith that we can distinguish the Church from any religious community of merely human nature, likewise only through faith are we able to understand that the Pope and bishops enjoy a sacramental and mediating power which connects us with God,” the cardinal maintained. He pointed out that “in the local Church, the bishop, constituted by the Holy Spirit, is not a delegate or a representative of the Pope, but the vicar and legate of Christ,” and that “the relationship between the universal Church and particular Churches cannot be compared to the relationship which exists among secular organizations.” “The universal Church is not born as the sum of the local Churches, nor are local Churches mere branches of the universal Church,” explained Cardinal Mueller, saying there is a “mutual interiority” between particular Churches and the universal Church. The Pope makes visible the unity and the indivisibility of the bishops and the Church, and this is why “he presides over the local Church of Rome” while at the same time presiding over the universal Church. “The Pope cannot exercise primacy if he is not joined to the Church of Rome.” Cardinal Mueller stressed that “the Pope exercises the universal pastoral ministry because the Pope is the successor of Peter,” but also explained that “the Pope puts into action this ministry with the assistance of the Church of Rome.” The rationale that lies behind the existence of the Roman Curia is that “the Roman Church collaborates with the Pope’s task through the college of cardinals,” and so “groups of cardinals and bishops appointed by the Pontiff shape the body of the Roman Curia.” “The cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia assist the Pope in his service to Catholic unity,” while the Pope on the other hand “is not limited by the action of the Curia, and he is rather supported” by it. Cardinal Mueller described the collegial modus operandi of the Roman Curia, and said that “it is fundamental, for the reform of the Curia, that it be understood as a spiritual family: its character and its necessarily pastoral orientation are guaranteed by mutual cooperation and by charity, by prayer and the Eucharist, by retreats and pastoral commitments and preaching.” It is important, he said, “that the Roman Curia be distinguished from the civil institutions of Vatican State, whose structures are subject to the law of public administration and safeguard the Church’s political independence.” Cardinal Mueller also explained that “the Synod of Bishops is not a part of the Roman Curia in the strict sense: it is the expression of the collegiality of bishops in communion with the Pope and under his direction. The Roman Curia instead aids the Pope in the exercise of his primacy over all the Churches.” “The Synod of Bishops, the bishops conferences, and the various aggregations of particular Churches belong to a theological category distinct from the Roman Curia,” he said. “Only those who think through the lens of power, influence, and prestige will interpret the organic relation of primacy and episcopacy as a struggle between competences,” clarified Cardinal Mueller. “The Holy Spirit, however … creates harmony between the poles of unity and multiplicity, between the universal Church and particular Churches.” This is why – the prefect continued – “fostering a just decentralization does not mean attributing more power to the bishops conferences, but only that they exercise the genuine responsibility to which they are entrusted” always “in union with the primacy of the Pope and with the Roman Church.” True reform, according to Cardinal Mueller, will allow the Church to counter both the “dictatorship of relativism” identified by Benedict XVI and the “globalization of indifference” seen by Pope Francis. “The challenge for the hierarchy and for all members of the Church is to resist these worldly infections.” In conclusion, Cardinal Mueller stressed that Pope Francis “is pursuing a spiritual cleansing of the temple, at the same time both painful and liberating, so that the glory of God can shine in the Church and be a light for all people. Recalling then, like the disciples of the Lord, the words of Scripture, 'zeal for your house will consume me', we will understand the objective of the reform of the Curia and of the Church.” Read more

Vatican City, Feb 8, 2015 / 05:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle knows a thing or two about urban evangelization. Ranked among the youngest cardinals in the Catholic Church, he heads the Archdiocese of Manila, based in one of the most... Read more

Vatican City, Feb 8, 2015 / 10:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis marked the Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking by calling on governments to remove this “shameful wound” which has no place in “civil society.” “Each one of us feels committed to being the voice of these, our brothers and sisters, humiliated in their dignity,” the Holy Father said to the crowds gathered in Saint Peter's Square, moments after the recitation of the Angelus. The Feb. 8 the Day of Prayer coincides with the feast of Saint Josephine Bakhita, the 19th century Sudanese nun who as a child had been a victim of slavery, the Pope noted. Pope Francis offered his encouragement to those working to end the trafficking of “men, women, and children” who are “enslaved, exploited, abused as instruments of work or pleasure, and often tortured and humiliated.” He then called governments to action in “removing the cause of this shameful wound... a wound unworthy in a civil society.” The United Nations estimates that as many as 2.5 million people are living as victims of human trafficking at any given time. Speaking ahead of the Angelus, Pope Francis focused the theme of healing in the Gospel,  basing his address on the the day's Gospel reading (Mark 1: 29-29) which recounts the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. “To preach and to heal: this is the principle activity of Jesus in his public life,” the Holy Father said. “By preaching, he announces the Kingdom of God, and by healing demonstrates that this is near, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst.” Having come to earth to “proclaim and bring about the salvation of all mankind,” the Pope said, Jesus demonstrates a “particular inclination” for the physically and spiritually wounded: “the poor, the sinners, the possessed, the sick, the ostracized.” “He is the true Savior: Jesus saves, Jesus cures, Jesus heals.” Pope Francis recalled the upcoming World Day of the Sick which is commemorated Feb. 11 on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the vigil which will precede the feast the evening before in Rome. The feast day marks the anniversary of the first in a series of Marian apparitions in 1858 to St. Bernadette in Lourdes. Due to the spring which sprung over the course of the apparitions, the town has become a major pilgrimage site for the sick and disabled. In light of this upcoming feast day, the Pope led the crowds in praying a Hail Mary for Archbishop  Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, who is in Poland suffering from a serious illness. Christ's salvific work does not end with a person's “earthly life,” Pope Francis said, but “continues through the Church, the sacrament of love, and God's tenderness for man.” Jesus sent his disciples out with a “double mandate: to proclaim the Gospel of Salvation an to heal the sick,” the Holy Father said. The church has always considered aiding the  sick as an “integral part” of Jesus' statement that “the poor and the suffering you will always have with you,” as well as a “privileged path for encountering Christ,” the Pope said. “To care for a the sick, to welcome them, to serve them, is to serve Christ: the sick person is the flesh of Christ.” Despite the scientific advancements today, there remain existential questions surrounding the existence of sickness, suffering, and death, he said. “The pastoral action of the Church must respond” to these questions, the Pope continued, “with the light of faith, having before her eyes the Crucifix, in which appears the whole salvific mystery of God the Father who, out of love for men, did not spare his own Son” (Romans, 8:32). “Therefore, each of us is called to bring the light of the Word of God and the strength of Grace to those who suffer,” as well as the families, doctors, and healthcare workers who serve them. Before leading the crowds in praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis invoked the intercession of Mary, Health of the sick, that all those suffering from illness can experience “the power of God's love  and the comfort of her maternal tenderness.” Read more