Aboard the papal plane, Nov 25, 2014 / 10:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to journalists in-flight on his way back from Strasbourg, Pope Francis touched on dialogue with extremist terrorists – saying that although it's difficult, the door is never completely closed. “Never give up anything for lost, never. Possibly you can't have dialogue but never close a door,” the Pope said in response to a question posed by international reporters on the papal plane Nov. 25. Although dialogue might be challenging – “you could say almost impossible” – the “door is always open, no?” Pope Francis responded to six questions posed to him in Italian during a brief press conference held on his return flight from Strasbourg, France, where he addressed the local seat of European Parliament as well as that of the European Council. In his response to the question on terrorism, posed by Andreas Englisch from Random House, the Pope noted how the journalist twice used the word threat when asking about “the terroristic threat and the threat of slavery,” particularly the slavery of human trafficking. “It's true. Terrorism is a reality and also a threat. But, slavery is a reality inserted in the social fabric of today (and has been) for a long time,” the Bishop of Rome observed, saying that the phenomenon of human trafficking is “a drama” that often involves the sale of children. He encouraged the handful of journalists present not to “close our eyes” to the daily reality of slavery, which exploits people. Terrorism, on the other hand, has another aspect besides the terrorists we are familiar with, and that is “the terrorism of states,” the pontiff said. “When things increase more and more and every state, for its part, feels the right to massacre terrorists and with the terrorists there are so many innocent people who fall. This is a high-level anarchy which is very dangerous.” He explained that terrorism needs to be fought, and repeated what he said during the in-flight press conference on his way back from South Korea: “When you need to stop the unjust aggressor, you have to do it with international consensus. No nation has the right to stop an unjust aggressor on its own.” Pope Francis had spoken about the presence of terrorism in both of his speeches for the day, first telling members of the European Parliament that by holding true to their religious roots, they would become “more immune to the many forms of extremism spreading in the world today.” The Pope said that this extremism is due in large part to “the great vacuum of ideals” that are currently being espoused in the West, and warned that it is primarily because of “man’s forgetfulness of God and his failure to give him glory” that such violence arises. In his speech to the European Council, the Pope said that peace is often “put to the test” by various forms of conflict, including religious conflicts and international terrorism which claims the lives of innocent victims. This terrorism is “unfortunately bankrolled by a frequently unchecked traffic in weapons,” he noted, and condemned the ongoing phenomenon of the arms trade, as well as that of human trafficking. During his return trip from Strasbourg Pope Francis also responded to a question from Spanish-speaking journalists regarding the current situation unfolding in Granada, Spain, in which three priests have been accused of abusing a youth over a decade ago. The alleged victim, now a 24-year-old man, wrote a letter to the Vatican speaking of his abuse. He eventually received a call from Pope Francis, who encouraged him to go to local authorities, and has already filed a lawsuit against the 3 priests, who have been removed from their ministry. In addition to the Pope’s words, the young man has also spoken to Granada’s Archbishop Javier Martinez Fernandez, who has been in contact with Vatican officials since mid-August. When asked how he received the news of the alleged abuse, Pope Francis said that he took it with “great sorrow. Really deep sorrow. But, the truth is the truth and we shouldn't hide it.” The Pope said that he called the young man and told him “you go to the bishop tomorrow,” and also wrote the bishop telling him to “begin the work, to make an investigation and move forward.” In addition to these topics, Pope Francis also discussed his devotion to St. Joseph, his return to France for a longer pastoral trip next year, and how the social doctrine of the Church aligns with the Gospel rather than a political party. Before retiring for the rest of the flight, the Pope thanked journalists for their work on a “truly busy day,” and asked again for continued prayers.Andrea Gagliarducci contributed to this report. Read more

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2014 / 05:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ address to the European Parliament touched on a variety of issues, all of which, he said, ought to promote the “centrality” of the human person so that a true cultu... Read more

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2014 / 02:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new volume of Benedict XVI's collected works includes an updated version of a 1972 essay in which he had suggested that the divorced and remarried could receive Communion – but the Pope had long since abandoned that position, scholars noted. “In his book The Gospel of the Family, Cardinal Walter Kasper cites a 1972 essay by Joseph Ratzinger … it is unfortunate that Cardinal Kasper failed to mention that Ratzinger retracted the proposal or 'Vorschlag' outlined in his 1972 essay,” Dr. Nicholas Healy, an assistant professor at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C., told CNA Nov. 24. As a priest of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, Joseph Ratzinger – who would later become Pope Benedict XVI – published an essay in 1972 which argued for access, under certain limited conditions, to Communion for the divorced and remarried. While affirming the indissolubility of marriage, Ratzinger and similar authors “appealed to certain passages in the Church Fathers that seem to allow leniency in emergency situations,” Healy wrote in a recent issue of Communio. This line of argument was taken up in a 1977 book by Walter Kasper, who was then a priest of the Diocese of Rottenburg. That year, Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and in that capacity he participated in the 1980 Synod on the Family, where he stated that “it will be up to the synod to show the correct approach to pastors” in the matter of Communion for the divorced and remarried. The concluding document of that synod, 1981's Familiaris consortio, found that “reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they 'take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.'” Days after that document was issued, Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Then, in 1991, a canon lawyer, Fr. Theodore Davey, suggested that Confession and spiritual direction could open up the way for the divorced and remarried to receive Communion, and cited Ratzinger's 1972 essay in support of his position. Cardinal Ratzinger quickly retracted the “suggestions” of his 1972 essay as no longer tenable, because they were made “as a theologian in 1972. Their implementation in pastoral practice would of course necessarily depend on their corroboration by an official act of the magisterium to whose judgment I would submit … Now the Magisterium subsequently spoke decisively on this question in the person of (St. John Paul II) in Familiaris consortio.” The issue re-emerged in 1993, when Kasper, then Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, as well as two other German bishops, wrote a letter referring, according to Healy, to the teaching of Familiaris consortio as “a general norm that, while true, cannot regulate all of the very complex individual cases.” The following year, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a letter to bishops, reminding them that “if the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Holy Communion as long as this situation persists.” The letter, written by Cardinal Ratzinger and approved by St. John Paul II, moreover stated that “members of the faithful who live together as husband and wife with persons other than their legitimate spouses may not receive Holy Communion … pastors in their teaching must also remind the faithful entrusted to their care of this doctrine.” Cardinal Ratzinger and his congregation followed up on that letter, which “was met with a very lively response,” by studying several of the more significant objections to it. The cardinal's follow-up letter, published in 1998, noting that while varying from the “oikonomia” practice of the Eastern Orthodox and the opinions of a few among the Church Fathers, the practice of the Catholic Church “recovered … the original concept of the Church Fathers,” which prohibits a “more varied praxis” regarding Communion for the divorced and remarried. Finally, after his election as Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger wrote Sacramentum caritatis, the concluding document of the 2005 Synod on the Eucharist, which noted that “where the nullity of the marriage bond is not declared and objective circumstances make it impossible to cease cohabitation, the Church encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to living their relationship in fidelity to the demands of God's law, as friends, as brother and sister; in this way they will be able to return to the table of the Eucharist, taking care to observe the Church's established and approved practice in this regard.” Healy described each of these final three writings of Ratzinger – from 1994, 1998, and 2007 – saying that “on each occasion he reaffirmed the 'constant and universal' practice of the Church of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried.” “In short, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is adamantly opposed to the proposal of Cardinal Kasper and suggests that the teaching office of the Church already has resolved this question with a certain definitiveness.” Despite this, Ratzinger's 1972 essay has been cited by Cardinal Kasper in support of his desire to admit the divorced and remarried, under certain conditions, to the Eucharist. Yet in a newly-published edition of his collected works, available in German at the end of November, Ratzinger has amended the text of his 1972 essay. The emendation was first noted by Matthias Drobinski, of the German daily 'Suddeutsche Zeitung'. “The new version excludes the crucial final paragraphs quoted by Cardinal Kasper,” according to The Irish Times. “Now Benedict stops short of his earlier call, arguing instead for the Church to rethink existing marriage annulment procedures to allow greater leeway on dealing with remarried couples.” “Church watchers suggest the redacted essay should be seen as a warning by Benedict to his little-loved German rival in the Vatican, Cardinal Kasper, who has been liberally quoting the essay to justify a more liberal church teaching on remarriage.” Fr. Vincent Twomey, who studied under Ratzinger, told The Irish Times that the omission of those paragraphs “was a 'significant' attempt by the former pope to prevent his earlier words – written in a different context, time and role – being used against him now.” Healy told CNA that the development in Ratzinger's thought since his 1972 essay reflects a willingness to think with the Church in the light of the Magisterium. “Joseph Ratzinger’s writings will remain a source and guide for future generations not only because of the breadth and depth of his wisdom, but, above all, because he shows us what it means to think with the Church. Sentire cum ecclesia means allowing one’s partial perspectives to be integrated into the greater whole of the Church’s faith and occasionally corrected by the teaching office of the Church.”   Read more

Vatican City, Nov 24, 2014 / 12:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- God's love is the “source” and “destination” of all holiness, said Pope Francis on Nov. 24, speaking of India's newly declared saints ahead of a Mass of thanksgiving in the Vatican. The Mass was celebrated at the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica, and attended by pilgrims from India who have come to Rome to celebrate the canonization of  Saints Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Euphrasia Eluvathingal on Nov. 23. Greeting the congregation before the celebration, the Pope expressed his gratitude for the Church in India. He said the country's Kerala region, which is the birthplace of Saints Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Euphrasia Eluvathingal, is “fertile” with vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The Pope reminded the pilgrims who are in Rome for the canonization that, amid the celebrations and “intense spirituality,” they should also “contemplate the glorious work accomplished by the Lord through the lives and works of the new saints.” Members of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate and the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, Saints Kuriakose and Euphrasia serve as reminders “that God's love is the source, destination, and support for all holiness,” Pope Francis said. He added the this love is manifested most clearly in “love of neighbor.” He recalled how Saint Kuriakose, who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate in 1836 as the first male congregation of the Syro-Malabar Rite, spent his life working for the Church according to the maxim: “sanctification of self and salvation of others.” For her part Saint Euphrasia, who served as superior general for the congregation of sisters also founded by St. Kuriakose, “lived in profound union with God,” becoming an example to those around her who referred to her as “Praying mother,” the Pope said. The pontiff concluded his greeting by calling the faithful to follow the examples of Saints Kuriakose and Euphrasia, especially in their “love for the Eucharistic Jesus and the Church”, thereby advancing along “the path of sanctity.”  Correction: Nov. 25, 2014. The article originally said that the Pope presided over the Mass. This is incorrect. The Pope offered a greeting at the Mass, but did not preside over it. Read more