2014-10-30T06:03:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 6:03 am   By

Trieste, Italy, Oct 30, 2014 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Diocese of Trieste has announced “with a spirit full of sorrow and dismay” that one of its priests, who had recently admitted to sexual abuse of a minor female, committed suicide on Tuesday. Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi of Trieste learned Oct. 23 “of a grave matter many years ago that involved a 13 year old girl” and Fr. Maks Suard, according to an Oct. 28 statement from the diocese. Fr. Suard, 48, was a priest of the Slovenian community of the Trieste diocese, and was parish priest of the small church of Santa Croce, in the territory of the Carso Triestino. He had served as a parish priest in several parishes of the San Dorligo area since his ordination in 1995; he was involved in the Boy Scout movement, and also worked as a teacher of religion in local schools. On Oct. 25, Archbishop Crepaldi met with Fr. Suard, and on that occasion “the priest had admitted his responsibilities” and consented to the canonical procedure which would have to be taken. In accord with St. John Paul II's 2001 motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, abuse cases – which are among the “delicta graviora”, or “more grave crimes” – must be forwarded to and investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The policy sped up and made more effective the Vatican's handling of such cases, which had been previously been handled by the Congregation for Clergy. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith can choose either to take over the case or authorize a diocesan trial, in which case the outcome must be forwarded to the congregation. After Archbishop Crepaldi had explained to Fr. Suard that he had to undergo the procedure, the priest “with humility and serenity of spirit, asked for two days during which he could prepare a resignation letter and a written statement in order to ask forgiveness from God, the Church, and the girl for the evil committed,” the diocese stated. The archbishop agreed, and arranged to meet with Fr. Suard the afternoon of Oct. 28, at which time he would officially notify the priest of his suspension and of the beginning of the canonical procedure. Archbishop Crepaldi “had informed Fr. Suard that he was going to arrive at around 4 pm,” and he got to the parish priest’s house around 4.30 pm. He found the rectory door locked, and received no answer to his repeated phone calls to Fr. Suard. He called the parish sacristan, who opened the rectory; once in the house, the bishop found the body of Fr. Suard, who had committed suicide by hanging. According a source in the Diocese of Trieste who spoke with CNA under condition of anonymity, the story of Fr. Suard was widely rumored locally, but until now no one had taken any measure. Archbishop Crepaldi had moved “as soon as he had gotten to know of the case, thus himself breaking a sort of wall of silence in the diocese.” This would be the reason why, the source maintained, “Fr. Suard wanted that the bishop himself would have found his corpse.” It is still unclear whether Fr. Suard left any written document, as he had said he intended to do. “The priest’s case had to follow its path, according to canonical and civil law, which would have perhaps helped him, in time, to a desirable human and Christian recovery, with respect to law,” the diocesan statement said. “This curia, distraught by the unexpected and dramatic repercussions of this story, entrusts the soul of the priest to the prayers of those of goodwill and to the mercy of the heavenly Father.” Read more

2014-10-30T02:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 2:02 am   By

Juba, South Sudan, Oct 29, 2014 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops in South Sudan are calling for an immediate end to violence in their country, saying  it should be replaced with “dialogue and compromise.” As chair of the U.S. bishops' international justice and peace committee, Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines wrote to Donald Booth, U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, on behalf of the South Sudanese bishops on Oct. 22. The South Sudanese bishops "call on their political leaders to stop the fighting immediately and replace it with dialogue and compromise, and urge their leaders to trust their people and give them the chance to determine their own future with the help of traditional leaders, faith communities and civil society actors,” Bishop Pates said. Bishop Pates also thanked Booth for meeting with him in person last month to discuss these issues, calling their session “informative and productive” and urged him to continue putting pressure on both the South Sudanese government and the opposition to end the fighting. He noted that the South Sudanese bishops “do not offer specific political solutions to the national crisis, but they do offer guidance” as well-respected citizens of their country. Continued support from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development – a group of African nations assisting in peace negotiation –  and emergency aid from the international community continue to be necessary to “prevent a backward slide into greater poverty” especially as the country enters the dry season when fighting is likely to ramp up. “The bishops are forthright in their condemnation of all parties and individuals who persist in prosecuting the war at the cost of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes,” Bishop Pates wrote. South Sudan became an independent country in 2011, breaking from the Republic of Sudan eight years after the 2005 conclusion of a 20-year-long civil war. Violence in the new country broke out in mid-December 2013, intensifying a power struggle between forces loyal to president Salva Kiir and those allied behind former vice president Riek Machar. Violence has continued in the country despite a peace accord signed May 9, 2014. Thousands of people have been killed and 1.4 million have been displaced by the violence. Almost 5 million people are in severe need of humanitarian assistance, The Independent reports. The UN estimates that there are some 11,000 child soldiers serving in both the government and rebel armies. Last March, Pope Francis wrote to Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba, encouraging him and all parties involved in the conflict to “tirelessly seek peaceful solutions, enabling the common good to prevail over personal interests.”   Read more

2014-10-30T01:07:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 1:07 am   By

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2014 / 07:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Following the publication of a new text by Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari in 'La Repubblica' suggesting that Pope Francis believes in relativism, the Holy See spokesman has questioned whether Scalfari is advancing his own views. In a recent op-ed in the leftist Italian newspaper, Scalfari mentioned one of his recent conversations with Pope Francis, saying the Pope had acknowledged that truth is relative; and he used this comment to support the idea that the Gospels do not tell the whole truth. According to Scalfari, “the Pope refuses the word 'relativism,' i.e. a real movement with aspects of religious politics; but he does not refuse the word ‘relative’. No to relativism, but that truth is relative is a matter of fact that Pope Francis acknowledges.” Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, told CNA Oct. 28 that “Scalfari pursues his own discourse” and, “if there are no words published by the Holy See press office and not officially confirmed, the writer takes full responsibility for what he has written.” The founder of 'La Repubblica' and a self-proclaimed atheist, Scalfari has made it understood that he often has private conversations with the Pope, saying “these conversations started eight months ago” and that “the last of our meetings took place in September.” Scalfari had already published two of his conversations with Pope Francis, on Oct. 1, 2013 and July 13, 2014; both of those texts were dismissed by Fr. Lombardi. While not denying the meetings, Fr. Lombardi had stressed that the meetings were private and that the words of Pope Francis had been biased by the interviewer. Shortly after the publication of the first conversation, Scalfari himself admitted that he never uses a recording devices nor takes notes, and that he writes by memory, also sometimes putting within quotes words that the interviewed had not said, but that in Scalfari’s view better explain their thought. This third round of excerpts of the Scalfari-Bergoglio conversations have not been presented as an interview, but are inserted in a wider comment on a lecture given by the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. In his lecture, Bauman claimed that “truth is an agnostic idea for origins and for nature,” since it can emerge “only from a meeting with its contrary,” and this is the reason why “using the word ‘truth’ in singular mode in a polyphonic world is like applauding with one only hand.” According to Bauman, “Pope Francis not only preaches the need for dialogue, but he practices it,” and proof of this is that he had granted his first interview to Scalfari. Scalfari takes the moves from this to comment that “Pope Francis is one of the very few (Popes), in my view the only one, in fact, who faces the quest for truth this way” – that is, in the way Bauman put it. For this purpose, Scalfari reported he had asked Pope Francis what a missionary Church is in his view. Pope Francis replied, underscoring his full belonging to the Society of Jesus, and that despite this he had chosen the papal name of Francis. Scalfari reportedly objected that the Pope chose the name of Francis because “Francis was a mystic; and you love mystics, though you are not a mystic.” “This is certainly one of the reasons, but it is not the only reason,” Pope Francis reportedly responded. The Pope stressed that St. Francis “loved a travelling brotherhood that had renounced all the pleasures of life, but did not renounce joy, or love. Some of them, especially Francis, were profoundly mystic in every moment of their life, since they identified with the Lord and forgot their ego.” However, St. Francis also took care of “practical matters,” and wrote a rule for his order, that “the then Pope approved many years later.” But – Pope Francis reportedly said – “the Pope approved the rules under a condition: a portion of the Franciscans had to live in convents, while only a portion could be missionary and travelling. Francis accepted. The friars in the convents rediscovered St. Benedict, and  study, work, begging; but the real Franciscan and missionary Church is the travelling one.” Scalfari wrote that he asked the Pope “why the Church must be above all travelling and missionary,” and Pope Francis responded: “We have to speak the 'languages' of all the world, which does not necessarily mean the real language – consider that in China there are some 50,000 different languages.” “A missionary Church must above all understand the people it meets, their way of thinking… this is the premise, that is at once Franciscan and Jesuit, as our Society has always done: understand the other, whether they are socially miserable and culturally poor, or cultivated, remarkable in social life and important for the public life of people, but not for religion.” Pope Francis also reportedly underscored that “religion abhors political language, which must not be our thing. If we intend with politics a vision of the common good that for us is that of our religion, yes, politics becomes important, and institutions become important for everyone's good. People should commit to and realize these institution, but not elevating them to the name of a god. No one can appropriate the name of a god that is ecumenical and creator.” In the end, Scalfari underscored that Pope Francis wants to get in touch with the modern world, and “this means, if I understood well, that the Church must be in harmony with it.” And what about the truth? “The Pope refuses the word “relativism,” i.e. a real movement with aspects of religious politics; but he does not refuse the word ‘relative’. No to relativism, but that truth is relative is a matter of fact that Pope Francis acknowledges.” This reasoning brings Scalfari to stress that doctrine was elaborate by “religious thinkers” in the course of centuries, on the basis of the preaching of St. Paul and the Jewish-Christian community of Jerusalem. Scalfari also dismissed the Gospels, saying “they are the narrations written by people who had never met or seen Jesus of Nazareth … second or third-hand narrations which provided a doctrinal structure.” Likewise – Scalfari says – “monotheistic religions were born of stories,” because “God has no voice, and no imaginable figure,” while “the Son has, and this is the reason why Christians invented it.” This is how the culture of encounter pursued by Pope Francis has been completely overturned. How much Scalfari’s words and reports are reliable, one cannot assess: no proofs are provided that Pope Francis has worded his thoughts the way Scalfari wrote them down. Read more

2014-10-29T23:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 11:02 pm   By

Washington D.C., Oct 29, 2014 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Men – particularly men within the Christian church – have a crucial role in changing cultural attitudes surrounding the sexual exploitation of women, say organizers of an upcoming New York conference. Rather than being confined to a matter of personal behavior or morality, the need to put an end to the scourge is a greater issue of societal justice, according to Paul Horrocks, founder of Justice NYC.   Christian men, he told CNA, “acknowledge that this is a problem and it is a problem within the churches,” but also tend to view the issue of sexual exploitation through media such as pornography as a topic “that we can't do anything about.” “This can change,” he urged. “We can bring about cultural change, and it can start in the church.” Justice NYC is a New York-based organization that will host a conference on the sexual exploitation of women on Nov. 1. The event, which will include over a dozen churches and national organizations, will focus on areas such as human trafficking, pornography, prostitution and abortion, among other avenues of the exploitation of women. In preparation for the conference, the organization also conducted a nationwide survey of 300 men, investigating their understanding of sexual exploitation, its causes and its effects. Horrocks noted that one of the largest challenges in motivating men to help end sexual exploitation is combating the impression “that it’s victimless.” In many parts of society, he said, men are “treating women as sex objects” by viewing them only as objects of pleasure such as in pornography or prostitution, or by abandoning women during unplanned pregnancies. He encouraged men to confront the “issue of sexual narcissism,” and “look at the impact of sexual exploitation” both on society at large an on individual women. Some women who participate in the pornography or prostitution industries, he noted, “have been forced into it, and some of those women have been trafficked,” saying that men’s participation continues “to create demand for this.” “I think the reason men should be engaged on this issue is that when you look at it, men are the ones responsible for a lot of this exploitation,” he pointed out. The negative impacts of sexual exploitation also affects women who may have willingly chosen to participate in these industries and practices,  he added. Horrocks noted the negative health, psychological and economic impacts of women facing prostitution, abortion, and the pornography industry, even when these paths are chosen by the woman. These factors can also lead to an illusion of a lack of choice- particularly for poor women, he stressed. Looking specifically at abortion, Horrocks said, it is “disproportionately poor women who are being impacted” and left in situations where they “'felt like I didn’t have a choice.'”  “We are treating poor women like sex objects, we are abandoning them and leaving them on their own to make this choice which leads to harmful impact,” he stated. He noted that women face “all this economic harm,” as well as a physical and emotional cost either in bearing and raising a child alone or facing an abortion. “This is why I think men need to rethink this,” he urged.   Horrocks noted that men do view sexual exploitation as an important issue but do not understand their role in the issue. “Men really see this as a critical problem,” he said, pointing to his survey’s results showing an overwhelming majority of men seeing exploitation and men’s attitudes to it as problematic. However, he continued, “when we dig into some of these different questions, men don’t understand the scope of it,” underestimating the number of women affected by sexual exploitation as well as the kind of impact it has on women’s lives.    “How are we going to attack this as a justice issue if men don’t even understand the problem?” Horracks asked. He pointed, for example, to men’s use of pornography, and the nearly “identical” use of pornography both inside and outside Christian communities. “Men need to be involved in challenging other men to change the culture,” he urged. “Let’s change the culture where the church is.” Read more

2014-10-29T18:21:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 6:21 pm   By

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2014 / 12:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis spoke out against oppression of the poor due to greed and warned again of the growing presence of a “globalization of indifference” – a warning, he said, which has wrongly type-casted him.   “It is not possible to tackle poverty by promoting containment strategies to merely reassure, rendering the poor 'domesticated,' harmless and passive,” the Pope told those gathered for his Oct. 28 encounter with leaders of various Church movements. He called the basic needs for land, housing and work an “aspiration that should be within the reach of all but which we sadly see is increasingly unavailable to the majority.”   “It's strange, but if I talk about this, there are those who think that the Pope is Communist,” he said. “The fact that the love for the poor is in the center of the gospel is misunderstood,” the Pope added. “Those (values) for which you’re fighting for are sacred rights. It’s the Church’s social doctrine.” Held in the Vatican's Old Synod Hall, where previous synods took place before the construction of the Paul VI Hall, the meeting was organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in collaboration with the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, along with the leaders of various movements. Solidarity, the Pope observed in his speech, is a word that is often forgotten in today’s society, and which extends far beyond sporadic acts of generosity. Instead it requires thinking in communal terms, and includes fighting structural causes of poverty such as inequality, unemployment, lack of land and housing, and the denial of social and labor rights, he said. It also requires facing the destructive effects of the “empire of money” such as forced displacement, painful migration, human trafficking, drugs, war and violence. “Today the phenomenon of exploitation and oppression assumes a new dimension, a graphical and hard edge of social injustice,” the Pope noted, explaining that this “throwaway culture” makes it so that those who are unable to integrate are marginalized and discarded as “cast-offs.” Situations such as this arise when economic systems make money their god and put it at the heart of their work rather than centering on the human person, created in the image of God, the pontiff continued. He then turned his attention to the phenomenon of unemployment, saying that each person who works, whether part of the formal system of paid work or not, “has the right to fair remuneration, social security and a pension.” These people, the pontiff noted, include those who recycle waste, street vendors, garment makers, craftsmen, fishermen, farmers, builders, miners, workers in companies in receivership, cooperatives and common trades which are often excluded from employment rights and denied the option of forming trades unions, as well as those who don’t receive a stable or sufficient income. “I wish to unite my voice to theirs and to accompany them in their struggle,” Pope Francis said. On the theme of peace and ecology, the Pope said that it is not possible to pursue land, housing or work if we can’t maintain the planet, or if we destroy it. “Creation is not our property which we may exploit as we please, (and) even less so the property of the few,” he explained, saying that instead creation is a gift from God that we must care for and use for the good of all humanity with respect and gratitude. Pope Francis went on to question those present in the audience, asking why, instead of viewing the world as our gift and fighting for justice, do we instead see work taken away, families evicted, peasants expelled from their land, war and harm done to nature. “Because this system has removed humanity from the center and replaced it with something else! Because of the idolatrous worship of money! Because of the globalization of indifference – ‘what does it matter to me what happens to others, I'll defend myself,’” the Pope explained. The world, said the pontiff, has forgotten God and so become “an orphan” because it has turned away from him. However, Christians have been given a strong guide and “revolutionary program” for how to act, which can be found in the Beatitudes, the Bishop of Rome noted, and encouraged all to read them. Pope Francis emphasized the importance of walking together, saying that popular movements express urgent need of revitalizing our democracies, which “so often (are) hijacked by many factors.” “It is impossible to imagine a future for society without the active participation of the majority, and this role extends beyond the logical procedures of formal democracy,” he said. Read more

2014-10-29T15:12:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 3:12 pm   By

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2014 / 09:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his weekly general audience Pope Francis spoke of the visible actions carried out by the Church, explaining that they are an expression of her deeper spiritual reality rooted in the two natures... Read more

2014-10-29T10:13:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 10:13 am   By

Maiduguri, Nigeria, Oct 29, 2014 / 04:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Oliver Doeme, who heads the Nigerian diocese which has suffered the most from Boko Haram, has lamented his government's failure to effectively counter the militants, saying human life is being devalued. “We use to think that salt is the cheapest commodity in the market, well, life is cheaper now especially in the Northeastern part of Nigeria,” Bishop Doeme of Maiduguri wrote in a report delivered recently to his fellow bishops and to Aid to the Church in Need, which is helping him to rebuild Church infrastructure and to care for the thousands of displaced persons in his diocese. Maiduguri is the capital of Borno State, which is the center of activity for the radical Islamist group whose name means “Western education is sinful.” It launched an uprising in 2009, the same year Bishop Doeme was transferred to Maiduguri. Bishop Doeme's diocese covers much of the territory of Borno State, as well as the states of Adamawa and Yobe. In May 2013, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency in those three states because of Boko Haram's violence. “The last one month has seen the intensification and aggressive devastation of the Boko Haram activities in Northern, Central and Southern part of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri,” Bishop Doeme wrote, noting their “brutality and callousness.” “Many of our people are being forced out of their ancestral homes, villages and towns. Right now, thousands are living in caves on the mountains, some in the forest; the few who were able to escape are being absorbed by friends and relatives in Maiduguri, Mubi and Yola. Thousands have managed to escape into the Cameroons and are living under very difficult conditions of lack of food, shelter and medication.” Boko Haram has declared its animosity for Christianity and the Church; eucational institutions; the Nigerian government; and moderate Muslims, attacking all of these alike. Bishop Doeme commented that “while I refused to believe a single narration of this reality … there is still a religious under-tone to this whole mess. We might shy away from it, we may be silent and unable to speak up or speak out now against the plan to Islamize the Northeast and eventually Nigeria.” He did acknowledge Boko Haram's targeting of all who oppose their radical Islamist agenda, noting that “both Christians and Muslims are being affected, both Christians and Muslims have been killed; both Christians and Muslims have been driven out of their ancestral homes, villages and towns, Christians and Muslims have been Internally Displaced and are refuge(e)s in their own home state.” “But what we are witnessing in Northern Adamawa is a clear confirmation and the unfolding of this agenda,” he added. “I am speaking as a leader and shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri and how much destruction and devastation we have seen and are still going through.” He lamented that his people are dying daily, their homes looted, and “they have become slaves and prisoners in their fatherland … life has become so cheap that it can be wasted any moment.” Violence continues unabated, Bishop Doeme commented. “In the last one month more Parishes have been closed down and the people and the Priests are on the run.” He narrated eight attacks on ecclesial institutions in the past month. First in Pulka, St. Peter parish was burnt down, the rectory looted, and more than 20 “outstation Churches closed and burnt down.” A diocesan hospital was subject to arson. Many people fled to nearby Cameroon, and many youths were captured. “Women who could not escape were forced to convert to Islam and married out to the terrorists; some of the elderly who cannot escape are being killed, some are left to die from hunger and starvation.” The bishop continued, showing the path of destruction levied by Boko Haram as it advanced along a national highway, the A13. Parishes and rectories have been burnt or requisitioned as operational bases, women enslaved, men conscripted, and some killed. He presented a list of towns and villages under Boko Haram's control: 10 in Borno, 10 in Yobe, and five in Adamawa. Bishop Doeme noted that nearly 20 priests of his diocese have taken refuge in Yola, the capital of Adamawa. “Thank God for our brother, Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza who has been kind to accept them and assigned them to parishes within Yola where they can at least eat and sleep.” He said that his own cathedral city is threatened by Boko Haram, saying it “is sitting on a keg of gun powder … the number of civilians that have migrated into Maiduguri on foot from Bama, Kawuri and Kunduga is suggestive that the terrorists have an upper hand in the fight.” “We are faced with a huge humanitarian crisis; people are sleeping on the streets in Maiduguri, despite the Seven or more camps within the city for the Internally Displaced Persons.” The bishop told Aid to the Church in Need Oct. 25 that the Diocese of Maiduguri “has given some relief materials to over 1,500 IDPs and it has joined hands with the Yola Diocese to assist those who have taken refuge there.” He added that “we are in dire need of external assistance to help alleviate the difficult situation of the refugees, especially of the children who, out of school and vulnerable to diseases, face an uncertain future.” In his situation report, Bishop Doeme also discussed the Nigerian government's and military's inability to cope with Boko Haram: “What is very worrying and discouraging in the whole scenario, is the attitude of the military whom we mortgage and depend on for security. In the face of these attacks they flee and ask civilians to do the same.” He said Boko Haram are able to overrun towns “almost unchallenged,” saying their “mastery and tact … is unequalled” by the Nigerian military. The government “cannot safe guard the lives of its citizens,” he charged, adding that “the bottom line is that the government and our political leaders have failed us and we have lost total trust and confidence in our government and our leaders.” His comments echoed those made previously by such leaders as Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, who has said that “our government has not been able to smoke them out” and “I don't believe that our government is making this a top priority.” Bishop Doeme continued: “The almost inaction of the government, the lukewarm attitude and the silence of the government is very disturbing. There is a total disconnection between what our so called leaders in Abuja report in the media and the reality on ground.” On Oct. 17, the Nigerian government announced a ceasefire with Boko Haram, saying that they had agreed to the release of more than 200 girls abducted in April. Boko Haram never confirmed the ceasefire, and by Oct. 23 there were reports that they had abducted dozens of women and girls from two villages in Adamawa. A presidential spokesman said Oct. 28 that the government is holding talks with Boko Haram, adding he is optimistic there will be a “concrete and positive” outcome. Since 2009, Boko Haram's attacks have killed thousands; including at least 4,000 in 2014 alone, according to Human Rights Watch. The UN estimates that the attacks have led to more than 470,000 internally displaced persons, and some 57,000 refugees. Bishop Doeme urged that in light of Boko Haram, Nigerians “come together … forgetting our religious, ethnic, regional, cultural and ideological differences to face this menace,” and urged international assistance: “We are sinking fast in the quick sand, let us swallow our empty pride as Nigerians and ask for International assistance in tackling this problem. After all, if we have been assisting other countries and nations restore peace and Order why do we feel that it is humiliating to ask for help now that our house is on fire.” He concluded saying that “we will ever remain grateful and thankful to all of you for your prayers, support and closeness in this moment of great trials and tribulations.” “I as the chief shepherd of the Diocese of Maiduguri the Priests and the lay faithful feel the warmth of your prayers and solidarity. We are committed to witness to the Gospel and pay the price when the time comes.” Read more

2014-10-29T08:07:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 8:07 am   By

Naples, Fla., Oct 29, 2014 / 02:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A federal court in Florida has granted Ave Maria University preliminary protection from the federal contraception mandate, which the school has challenged on religious freedom grounds. “After dozens of court rulings, the government still doesn't seem to get that it can't force faith institutions to violate their beliefs,” said Eric Baxter, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the university. “Fortunately, the courts continue to see through the government’s attempts to disguise the Mandate’s religious coercion,” Baxter said in an Oct. 28 statement. “We congratulate Ave Maria for its courage, even under the threat of crippling fines.” On Oct. 28, a federal district court in Florida ruled that the new regulations surrounding the Department of Health and Human Services’ controversial contraceptive mandate do not adequately protect religious employers and their consciences. In its decision, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted Ave Maria University preliminary protection from violating its deeply-held religious beliefs or being penalized with substantial fines. Issued under the Affordable Care Act, the HHS mandate has faced more than 100 lawsuits brought by over 300 for-profit and non-profit plaintiffs, objecting that the rules force them to violate their religious convictions.   The mandate requires that employers offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, including some drugs that can cause early abortions, and sterilizations. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the mandate, as written, violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act by forcing the owners of “closely-held” for-profit employers to go against their religious beliefs. The high court said that the government had not proven that the mandate was the least restrictive means of providing free contraceptives to employees. In response to the court ruling, Obama Administration proposed modifications to the mandate. Among these modifications was a change to the way that the rule affects non-profit religious groups that object to it.    The proposed modifications alter an earlier “accommodation” provided to non-profit religious employers. The suggested changes would allow employers to notify the government of their objection to the mandate, prompting the government to then arrange the coverage that the employers find objectionable. This would change an earlier provision that required the religious employer itself to authorize an insurer or third-party administrator to provide the objectionable products and procedures. However, some employers, such as Ave Maria University, argue that that this arrangement still requires an employer’s participation in facilitating access to products and procedures that violate their deeply-held religious beliefs. The Florida court’s ruling on behalf of Ave Maria University protects the school from facing millions of dollars in fines that could have been levied against the school after the revised mandate would have taken effect on Nov. 1. “The government has been retreating since it first issued the Mandate three years ago,” Baxter said. “Now it's time for the government to stop going after religious colleges and ministries and start respecting religious liberty.”   Read more

2014-10-29T06:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 6:02 am   By

Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct 29, 2014 / 12:02 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- Travelling to Ukraine as the country prepared to go to the polls Oct. 26, Neville Kyrke-Smith of Aid to the Church in Need found a people traumatized by recent events and conflict, bu... Read more

2014-10-28T23:03:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 28, 2014 at 11:03 pm   By

Rome, Italy, Oct 28, 2014 / 05:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A health adviser for a top global Catholic relief agency stressed the Church's key efforts on the Ebola front in West Africa: helping people overcome panic and avert devastating social stigmas by providing accurate information. “Much of the work has been to educate people about the facts surrounding Ebola, because there’s so much fear and panic and misinformation that goes out among the people,” Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo told CNA on Oct. 20. A special adviser on health for Caritas Internationalis, the priest observed that in the areas most affected by the disease – namely Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – the Catholic Church has been “a credible witness” where people go to get good information. Most of the facts are given by churches during Mass, as well as by Caritas and other Catholic organizations who offer special training to priests, religious and lay catechists on how to talk about the virus. Msgr. Vitillo offered his comments after addressing the United Nations conference in Geneva last week during an Oct. 20 Caritas Internationalis briefing. The information on how to prevent the spread of Ebola that the Church gives is basic, he said, and involves simple, practical procedures such as hand-washing, keeping three feet away from people, not touching those who already show symptoms of Ebola, and above all avoiding direct contact with the bodies of those who have already died of Ebola. A lack of knowledge about Ebola has led to numerous social problems, including the ostracization of infected persons – or those suspected of being infected – by their own families, the abandonment of children orphaned as a result of Ebola, as well as pastoral problems for priests who want to visit the sick. “During my visit to Liberia, priests shared with me that their healthy parishioners did not want them to visit the sick – they were afraid that priests would be infected themselves and transmit the disease to others,” Msgr. Vitillo explained. Priests, as well as pastoral staff members and other charitable agencies, have had to remind parishioners that the Church “was mandated by Jesus to serve all in need,” and have strongly urged them to “avoid any tendencies toward stigmatizing or discriminating” against anyone affected by Ebola or who is living with or near someone that is infected. The priest then recounted the story of a doctor who had contracted Ebola while caring for infected patients at the Catholic Hospital in Monrovia. Although she made a full recovery, her neighbors still barred her from returning to her own home. Only when the local pastor arranged for her to give her testimony in her parish did the parishioners begin to understand that she had recovered and therefore developed an immunity to the disease, so she posed no threat. “Reactions of fear and panic can be observed among many people in local communities,” Msgr. Vitillo observed, noting how some family members “reject their relatives who become sick because there is an almost automatic presumption that these people have been infected by the Ebola virus.” The priest then recounted another story from his visit to Liberia earlier this year, this time of a family who had abandoned their 90-year-old grandfather because he was showing symptoms of Ebola. Even when the man’s test results came back negative, the family still refused to take him home, and he died before being transferred to a facility run by a group of religious sisters. What the monsignor dubbed as “Ebola orphans” are also rejected by their families, and are often abandoned in treatment centers. Catholic institutions are working to provide care for these children until their relatives understand the situation and are able to take responsibility for them, he said.   “The trauma of multiple losses in families and of strong fear, panic, and misinformation may be felt in society long after the epidemic has ended,” Msgr. Vitillo noted. The effects of the outbreak will be “very deep and multifaceted and will be long-lasting.” He recalled how at a Special Briefing on Ebola held in Washington, DC on Oct. 9, president of World Bank Dr. Jim Kim predicted that if the international community does not act more quickly, the economic impact could reach close to $32.6 billion before the end of 2015. Despite the fact that Sierra Leone experienced tremendous economic growth last year, the situation has now reversed due to Ebola, the priest said. The infrastructure Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, “is at the point of collapsing.” Already weak from recurring wars and “abject poverty,” the countries are headed for catastrophe if the economic impact is as high as predicted, he said, adding that the situation is worsened by the numerous school closures. Children who are not in school are at greater risk of falling into petty crime or being manipulated or abused, Msgr. Vitillo went on. Health infrastructure in these countries was already “quite weak and now is unable to respond to the crushing demands of Ebola care, routine health care and other health emergency situations.” However, despite the challenges the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of the Ebola fight, and has provided an essential role in maintaining continuous care, he said. In Liberia 14 of the 16 Catholic health clinics remain open while many of the governmental or other private health facilities are closed. “So it’s continuing its care for the sick beyond Ebola to make sure we can take care of those who have other illnesses or who are victims of automobile crashes and things like that,” he said. Caritas is currently making an effort to reopen the Catholic hospital in Monrovia, which closed after it lost nine of its staff members to Ebola. “Now we’re working on making sure that we have careful prevention methods and facilities before people get into the hospital, and we want to re-open that facility as soon as possible.” The Ebola epidemic is continuing to devastate parts of West Africa. The World Health Organization said that nearly 5,000 deaths had been reported as of Oct. 19, but the true numbers could be as high as 15,000. Read more

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