Homs, Syria, Jan 28, 2015 / 05:09 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- “Most of them were students at the university, young people who had not left the city. So what sort of message does this attack send out now? I believe they were deliberately targ... Read more
Denver, Colo., Jan 28, 2015 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The battleground for religious freedom is currently the soft, frosted tops of cakes in Colorado. Jack Phillips, owner of the Lakewood, Colo., Masterpiece Cakeshop, was sued in July 2012 for refusing to make a same-sex “wedding” cake on the grounds that it violated his Christian beliefs. He and his staff were ordered by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to undergo anti-discrimination training and to submit quarterly reports on changing company policies. In July 2014, the commission rejected Phillips request to temporarily suspend the orders against him while his case proceeds in court. It has recently come to light that at that same hearing, Diann Rice, a member of the commission, compared Phillips’ case to that of the Holocaust, which cost 6 million Jewish lives, and slavery. “Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust,” Commissioner Rice said at the hearing. “And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use – to use their religion to hurt others.” Meanwhile, down the street in Denver, Azucar Bakery owner Marjorie Silva is fighting a similar battle, but with a slightly different twist. Bill Jack approached Azucar bakery in March 2014 and ordered a Bible-shaped cake. When the cake was nearly done, Jack asked Silva to add two men holding hands with an X through them, and anti-gay written sentiments to the cake. When Silva refused to create the cake, Jack told KUSA-TV he believed he “was discriminated against by the bakery based on my creed.” Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado, who has supported the legal action against Phillips, contended that the case differs from Phillips because he had refused to make any wedding cake for two men, while Silva only objected to a single message. But Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Jeremy Tedesco, who is supporting Philips’ case, said these two cases are dealing with the exact same principle. “Whether you have a narrow objection or a broad objection, what matters is the basis of your objection, the fact that you don’t want to engage in expression that violates your beliefs,” he said. “They’re both in the exact same position, they both don’t want to create a cake that expresses a message that they disagree with.” Tedesco said the Azucar case will make for a telling test of the Civil Rights Commission and the American Civil Liberties Union, as far as which rights and whose rights they are willing to uphold. “They’re either going to have to play favorites when it comes to these issues… or they’re going to have to disregard everybody’s rights and say that no one has this first amendment freedom in Colorado.” “The ACLU is now having to say, under these circumstances (Silva) has every right to say no,” Tedesco added. “So if we were to rely on the ACLU for when to creating a cake creation is speech and when it’s not, I guarantee you, the only people who would ever be creating expression when they bake cakes are people who agree with the ACLU’s ideological beliefs.” Tedesco added that he found the commissioner’s anti-religious sentiments during Phillips’ hearing to be disquieting. “Such alarming bias and hostility toward Jack’s religious beliefs – and toward religion in general – has no place in civil society, let alone on a governmental commission that sits in judgment of whether he may follow his faith in how he runs his business,” he said. “Commissioner Rice compared a private citizen who owns a small bakery to slaveholders and Holocaust perpetrators merely for asking that the state respect his right to free speech and free exercise of religion.” CNA sought comment from the Department of Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the commission. A spokeswoman said that the department staff and commission members are not free to discuss the hearing because it is presently before the Colorado Court of Appeals. These two cake cases are part of an increasing trend against religious freedom, warned Tedesco, and all Americans should be concerned. He pointed out that a flower shop in Washington State has been sued for declining to take part in a same-sex ceremony and an Idaho wedding chapel run by a husband and wife who are both ordained ministers has been told to perform same-sex ceremonies or face the possibility of jail time or fines. “A government that forces any American to create a message contrary to his own convictions and surrender his livelihood is a government every American should fear,” Tedesco said. “Today the government is targeting Jack Phillips, but tomorrow it could be you." Read more
Washington D.C., Jan 28, 2015 / 03:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Several bishops in the U.S. have welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to re-examine death penalty protocols, and have called for the abolition of the death penalty. “We pray that the court’s review of these protocols will lead to the recognition that institutionalized practices of violence against any person erode reverence for the sanctity of every human life. Capital punishment must end,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who chairs the U.S. bishops’ pro-life activities committee, said Jan. 27. Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who chairs the committee on domestic justice, said recent executions have shown “how the use of the death penalty devalues human life and diminishes respect for human dignity.” The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will consider the case Glossip v. Gross, brought by three Oklahoma death row inmates, Richard Glossip, John Grant, and Benjamin Cole. The inmates’ lawsuit asks the court to reject the three-drug protocol used in Oklahoma executions, saying it can cause extreme pain that violates constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment. Among the drugs in the cocktail is midazolam, a sedative. The case was filed in response to the botched April 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, which took more than 40 minutes. Although sedated, his body writhed and he breathed heavily as he was being killed. He eventually died of a heart attack. Oklahoma officials said Lockett’s vein failed during the execution, which prevented the lethal drugs from working as intended. Other reports said officials failed to deliver the intravenous drug properly. Following Lockett’s execution, Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin had issued a temporary stay of the exeuction of Charles Warner. The federal government also investigated the execution practices. Warner, who was one of the inmates listed as a plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, was executed in mid-January. Supreme Court justices, by a vote of 5-4, voted not to stay the execution of Warner, who was a convicted child rapist and murderer. Glossip, was scheduled to be executed Jan. 29. However, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution Jan. 28 to all three living inmates who are plaintiffs in the case, writing that "it is hereby ordered that petitioners' executions using midazolam are stayed pending final disposition of this case.” It is disputed whether or not midazolam produces a deep enough sleep for the inmate to experience less pain when the other two drugs of the cocktail are administered. The Supreme Court failed to stay not only Warner's Jan. 15 execution, but also the Jan. 27 execution of Warren Hill in Georgia. Hill's execution was being challenged on grounds of intellectual disability. Catholic leaders have criticized the continued use of capital punishment. Cardinal O’Malley said that society can protect itself “in ways other than the use of the death penalty.” “We bishops continue to say, we cannot teach killing is wrong by killing,” Archbishop Wenski added. The inmates’ attorney, Dale Baich, characterized Oklahoma’s new drug protocols as “novel and experimental.” Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has defended the state’s use of lethal injection, saying its constitutionality has been affirmed by two federal courts. Defending the constitutionality of the execution procedure will preserve the Oklahoma Department of Correction’s ability “to proceed with the sentences that were given to each inmate by a jury of their peers,” he said Jan. 23. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the inmates’ case in April. States that use lethal injections have faced increasing difficulty in obtaining the drugs used, mainly because the drugs’ manufacturers refuse to sell them for use in lethal executions, NBC News reports. In May 2014, Ohio’s botched execution of inmate Dennis McGuire, which also used midazolam, also prompted calls to revisit the death penalty. Several U.S. states have moved away from capital punishment in recent years. In total, 18 states have abolished capital punishment. The U.S. bishops’ conference cited Pope Francis’ October 2014 call to abolish the death penalty “in all its forms.” The conference is working with state Catholic conferences, the Catholic Mobilizing Network, as well as with other groups, to work to abolish the death penalty in the U.S. In 2005, the bishops launched the Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. Read more
Washington D.C., Jan 28, 2015 / 02:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. Catholics are being encouraged to get to know local religious communities, as a new study offers insight into the potential impact of vocational programs, Catholic schools, and encourageme... Read more
Vatican City, Jan 28, 2015 / 06:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his general audience catechesis, Pope Francis turned to the role of fathers, saying that they play an irreplaceable role in family life, and their absence leaves children prey to false idols. “When children feel neglected by fathers who focus only on their problems, on their work or their own personal realization, this creates a situation of orphans in the children and youth of today, who live disoriented, without the good example or prudent guidance of a father,” the Pope said Jan. 28. Pope Francis directed his words to pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for his Wednesday general audience address. Continuing his catechesis on the family, the pontiff spoke on the theme of fatherhood. The Pope’s reflection falls after a separate general audience address on the role of mothers earlier this month, during which he hailed motherhood as the “antidote to individualism.” In today’s society, the word “father” is a reality understood throughout world and which transcends history, the Roman Pontiff told today’s audience participants. This word, he said, is the one “which Jesus taught us to call God, giving new depth and richness to the mystery of the intimacy of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is the center of our Christian faith.” However, in modern times we frequently speak of a “society without fathers,” in which the crisis of fatherhood can lead one to associate the term with authoritarian and repressive tendencies, the Pope noted. Children who feel “neglected” because their fathers focus too much on work, personal achievements or are constantly away from home are often left as “orphans” without guide, he said. “Fathers are so necessary as examples and guides for our children in wisdom and virtue. Without father figures, young people often feel orphaned; left adrift at a critical moment in their growth and development,” the pontiff continued. Pope Francis then recounted how he has often asked the fathers he encountered if they “had the courage and love” to play with their children and to spend time with them. Rather than hearing a reassuring yes, often “the answer is ugly, eh? In the majority of cases it's ‘I can't, there's too much work,’” the Bishop of Rome observed, and said that it is the responsibility of Christian communities and civil society as a whole to find a remedy to the crisis of fatherhood. The pontiff also drew attention to the temptation of some fathers to try and be their child’s friend more than their parent, saying that although being a friend and companion to one’s child is good, the role of the parent is essential. “It's true that you need to be the friend of your child, but without forgetting that you are a father, eh. If you are only there for your child as a friend, it won't be good for them,” he cautioned. The absence of the father figure in society is something that persons at every level of society should be aware of because it leaves “gaps and wounds” in the formation of today’s youth, the Pope explained. “Without guides to rely on, youth can be filled with idols that end up stealing their heart, enthusiasm and genuine wealth,” he said. Pope Francis closed his address by recalling Jesus’ promise in the Gospel of John that “he would not leave us orphans,” and prayed that the Lord would “deepen and renew our appreciation of fatherhood and raise up good fathers for the benefit of our families, our Church and our world.” The pontiff said that although the prognosis he gave of state of fatherhood today might have been a bit negative, next week he will follow-up with a reflection on the blessing and “beauty” of fatherhood. “I chose to begin in darkness in order to arrive to the light,” he said, and gave his blessing before greeting pilgrims present from various countries around the world. Read more
Washington D.C., Jan 28, 2015 / 04:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Just days before Super Bowl XLIX, the U.S. House of Representatives is pushing for a bipartisan crack-down on the hidden menace of sex trafficking, which some human rights advocates refer to as... Read more
Lilongwe, Malawi, Jan 28, 2015 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A national symposium of Catholic communicators set out to explore pathways in new media to build unity in Malawi and to connect people to the faith in the small southern African nation. Held under the patronage of the Malawian bishops’ communication department, the communications secretaries from the nation's eight dioceses met with Catholic journalists in a media symposium at Msamba Catholic Center in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, Jan 12- 15. According to Prince Henderson, communication officer of the bishops conference, the workshop objective was to plot a path in enabling the Church “to embrace new forms of communication for evangelism.” “The workshop stressed increasing the visibility of Catholic communicators and to enhance coordination of Catholic diocesan secretaries and lay Catholic journalists, among others,” Henderson told CNA Jan 20. In a telecast message, Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Karonga encouraged the participants to promote the new evangelization. He urged them to maintain unity and collaboration among Catholic journalists, while promoting vigorously the Church and embracing digital communications. Fr. Andrew Kaufa, secretary of the bishops' social communications and organizer of the conference, solicited the members to “deliberate on how to help the Church encourage youths to embrace new forms of evangelization.” Fr. Kaufa lauded the efforts of the communicators in the African region and urged the members to find ways to make themselves visible in regional and international meetings. Opening the inaugural address, Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo, acting secretary general for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, emphasized to the participants that “good communication could be a recipe for bringing people of diverse backgrounds together and growing unity.” “Good communication helps us grow closer, to know one another better, and ultimately grow in unity,” Fr. Chimombo said. “Media can help us greatly in this, especially now when the networks of human communication have made unprecedented advances.” Analyzing the the pros and cons, Fr. Chimombo acknowledged that social media is a speedy and cheap way of exchanging information and sharing ideas, such that they are making the world a global village. However, Fr. Chimombo also advised the participants to be vigilant regarding the disadvantages, saying, “Media may be used to disseminate inauthentic information, and ideas whose effects may be toxic to the Gospel and other values, such as truth telling.” Lamenting the negative publicity which can “distort truth,” Fr. Chimombo invited journalists to be catalysts and to proactively “act as missionary disciples who can transform the world.” He suggested countering it with positive news for promoting unity in faith in the communities. The diocesan communication secretaries sharing their vision for strengthening and mobilizing Catholic communications, underlining the need for partnership and networking among media in the region. The workshop examined the challenges facing Catholic media in the region, including paucity of financial and material resources and a lack of trained personnel. Fr Chrisantus Ndaga, coordinator of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa, commended the positive effort and extensive role played by the media during the organization's plenary meeting held in 2014. Fr. Ndaga pointing out that bishops, priests and religious are among the most illiterate in information communication technology in the region. He recommended the “need to embrace ICT” and called its usage “a vital key to evangelisation.” Fr. Ndaga also noted that communication is needed to take the center stage in the work of the digital age so that the Church could move at the same pace as the world, saying it was the responsibility of every member of the Church to defend her teachings and values. Malawi is a small nation in southern Africa, bordered by Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Its 16.4 million people live on an adjusted per capita GDP of less than $860 annually, and over a third of GDP comes from agriculture. Some 80 percent of the population are Christian (20 percent Catholic), and around 15 percent are Muslim. Read more
Rome, Italy, Jan 28, 2015 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A plan to reduce the number of Italian dioceses has been widely debated in the Italian bishops conference, and a first draft of the plan has reportedly already been given to the Congregation for Bishops and has undergone some adjustments. There are currently 222 dioceses in Italy. An internal commission to study a possible reduction of Italian dioceses, by consolidation, had been established under Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis referred to it during his May 23, 2013 meeting with the General Assembly of Italian Bishops. “I know that there is a commission to reduce a little the number of the dioceses… it is not easy, but there is a commission for this,” Pope Francis said. According to a source who works in the Italian bishops conference, the first draft for a possible reduction of Italian dioceses was given to the Congregation for Bishops earlier this month, suggesting the suppression of all dioceses with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. The suppressed dioceses would be merged with larger existing dioceses. This draft has undergone some adjustments. At the moment, the plan would suggest the suppression of dioceses with fewer than 90,000 inhabitants. In Italy, there are 36 dioceses which would fail to meet the 90,000 mark. Perhaps the best known of these is the Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra – Gualdo Tadino, which hosts the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi but has only 88,000 inhabitants. The Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino diocese is in the vicinity of several other dioceses smaller than 90,000 persons, including the Citta di Castello, Foligno, and Gubbio dioceses. The Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino is itself the fruit of an earlier reduction in the number of Italian dioceses. In 1986, St. John Paul II suppressed 101 dioceses in the country, setting the number to the current 222, plus five territorial abbeys. That year, the Diocese of Assisi was united with the Diocese of Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino. That diocese, in turn, was created through the 1915 union of the Diocese of Gualdo Tadino with the Diocese of Nocera Umbra. Thus Italy's 222 dioceses serve the 49.3 million Catholics in the country which has an area of 116,000 square miles. By way of comparison, in the US there are only 177 dioceses to serve the country's 76.5 million Catholics, spread over 3.8 million square miles. The possible reduction of the Italian dioceses is still under discussion. However, the issue is not on the agenda of the Permanent Council of the Italian bishops conference, which is in the midst of its Jan. 26-28 meeting. Read more
San Francisco, Calif., Jan 27, 2015 / 05:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The eleventh annual Walk for Life West Coast broke its own records this year, drawing the largest crowd it has ever seen, as well as more press coverage than in previous years. “... Read more
Rome, Italy, Jan 27, 2015 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As Pope Francis tweeted Jan. 27 to observe the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it is worth remembering Bl. Odoardo Focherini, who died a martyr to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution. Tuesday marks the anniverary of the 1945 liberation by Soviet troops of the death camp where some 1.1 million people – the vast majority of them Jews – were put to death by the Nazis. “Auschwitz cries out with the pain of immense suffering and pleads for a future of respect, peace and encounter among peoples,” Pope Francis tweeted this morning. When he was arrested over his inolvement in the salvation of 100 Jews from a similar fate, Bl. Focherini was 37, had been married 14 years, and had seven children. Most of his children have only a vague memory of their father. On March 11, 1944, the day of his arrest, his eldest daughter Olga was 13. Born in Carpi in 1907, Bl. Focherini worked with L'Osservatore Romano and was managing director of the Catholic newspaper L'Avvenire d'Italia. He began his work to help save Jews in 1942. Cardinal Piero Boetto of Genoa told Raimondo Manzini, then editor of L’Avvenire d’Italia the story of some Polish Jews who had arrived aboard of a train of injured people. Manzini entrusted Focherini with the issue. Focherini thus started an enduring work of assistance to Jewish refugees, and his commitment increased after the armistice the Italian government signed Sept. 8, 1943 and the following Nazi occupation of Italy. Bl. Focherini built a network in order to get blank identity cards, which he eventually filled with false data and gave to the persecuted, whom he accompanied to the border with Switzerland. This network helped 100 Jews to escape Nazi persecution. On March 11, 1944, he organized the salvage operation of Enrico Donati, a Jewish medical doctor who was imprisoned in the concentration camp of Fossoli, near Carpi, in northern Italy. Bl. Focherini took Donati out of the concentration camp with the excuse of an urgent surgery the doctor had to perform but, once he arrived at the hospital, Focherini was arrested. Bl. Focherini was first imprisoned in Bologna, then transferred to the concentration camp in Fossoli, and then in the concentration camps of Gries, near the Austrian border, then Flossemburg and finally in Hersbruck, in Germany. He died there Dec. 27, 1944 of septicemia after a wound in his leg became infected. The most important testimony of his Christian life are the 166 letters he wrote to his wife Maria Marchesi. In his testament, Focherini wrote that he died “offering his life in holocaust for his diocese and for Catholic Action.” His heroism was soon acknowledged: Yad Vashem gave him the title “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1969. The seventieth anniversary of his death fell exactly one month before the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. His martyrdom was recognized by Benedict XVI in 2012, and he beatified June 15, 2013 in Modena. On the occasion of the beatification Mass, Bishop Francesco Cavina of Carpi said that Odoardo’s life proved that “who rejoices in the encounter with Christ becomes more human, more real. Odoardo worked hard in all aspects of his life; he also ran the risk not to be understood, but he accepted being a prophet in the world, and this is the mission of every Christian.” Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Catholic News
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In