New York City, N.Y., Oct 25, 2014 / 12:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church is mourning the death of Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, who died early Friday following a lengthy illness; he was deeply involved in the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation, and was a good friend of Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston. “Friends, I just learned of the passing of Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, the U.S. spiritual director of the Communion and Liberation movement,” Father Robert Barron, rector of Mundelien Seminary, posted on Facebook Oct. 24. “Join me in praying for the repose of his soul. Msgr. Albacete was a gifted theologian and physicist, an outstanding spiritual guide, and a model for the New Evangelization.” Msgr. Albacete was born Jan. 7, 1941, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He obtained a degree in physics, and after his ordination to the priesthood he earned a doctorate in theology at the Angelicum, officially known as the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. He served as the responsible for Communion and Liberation in the U.S. and Canada, and was chairman of board of advisors for Crossroads Cultural Center, a project which hosts events exploring the relationship between religion and culture. The priest was a co-founder of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C., and taught at St. Joseph Seminary in New York. He was rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico from 1996-1997. He was also for a time an advisor to the U.S. bishops' conference on Hispanic affairs. Among his books are “God at the Ritz: Attraction to Infinity”; “Priesthood and the Human Vocation,” a retreat for priests; and “The Sacramental Priesthood: A Gift to Humanity.” Msgr. Albacete's writings also appeared in such places as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Tempi, Communio, and Godspy, and he was interviewed by PBS and Slate. According to Marco Bardazzi at La Stampa, Msgr. Albacete's “simple and clear way of 'explaining' Jesus Christ attracted both ordinary people (particularly those with doubts and agnostics) and prominent figures he met,” citing his discussion with Fidel Castro during St. John Paul II's 1998 visit to Cuba. When Castro “asked him about evangelization in the world, Fr. Albacete began to explain the roots of 'the religious sense' (referring to Fr. Giussani’s homonymously titled book), the importance of the human figure of Jesus and the fact that this was the reason why the Pope 'emphasized that the commitment toward and the defense of humanity is an essential element of evangelization.' Castro was struck by the priest’s words because the priests he had met as a boy had never presented the subject to him in this way,” Bardazzi wrote. Shortly before his death, Msgr. Albacete was visited by Cardinal O'Malley on Oct. 10, who wrote on his blog that “it was a very moving visit with him and we were able to pray together. I would ask all of you to keep them in your prayers because his health is very poor.” Communion and Liberation released an Oct. 24 statement, recalling Msgr. Albacete as a man who sought “encounter with anyone, challenging the American intelligentsia with the sole weapon of his witness, as a man who had been seized and transformed by Christ in his reason and in his freedom.” “He was undoubtedly so captivating that he immediately became friends with anyone he met, because he was showing the beauty and usefulness of faith for facing life’s needs.” The statement reflected on Msgr. Albacete’s “tireless work,” perseverance in suffering and “love of the truth that is present in every person.” “Let us all pray together and personally that we may strive to live like he witnessed, so that we can inherit his legacy of how to follow the Movement within the Church.”   Read more

Raleigh, N.C., Oct 24, 2014 / 05:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A seminarian is looking forward to his ordination to the diaconate this spring and the priesthood a year later, even though he was given roughly a year and a half to live back in 2008. Phillip... Read more

Providence, R.I., Oct 24, 2014 / 01:55 pm (CNA).- In an election where all political candidates hold problematic positions, Catholic voters may choose “the lesser of two evils,” cast a protest vote, or simply not vote, one U.S. bishop has advised, with pro-life groups calling for prudence in making this decision. “It’s a real problem that many faithful Catholics face these days – how to vote when all of the candidates are pro-abortion,” Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, R.I., acknowledged in an Oct. 16 column for The Rhode Island Catholic, his diocese's official publication. “I know, it’s a tough time to be a moral, pro-life voter. The field is narrow and the options are few. But, vote according to your conscience, pray for our state and nation, and sleep well. Remember, God’s still in charge!” Bishop Tobin presented the three voting options as an answer to a member of the diocese who revealed that the candidate for whom she had intended to vote supported both abortion and same-sex “marriage.” “I responded to my letter-writer that it wasn’t appropriate for me to suggest candidates for whom she should or shouldn’t vote, but that it was important for her to become well-informed about the candidates and their positions, pray about it, and then vote according to her conscience,” the bishop wrote, adding the importance of the virtue of prudence. In such a scenario, “when no candidate presents an acceptable position, especially about critical moral issues like abortion,” one of three options would be, Bishop Tobin said, “to choose the candidate who, in traditional terms, is the lesser of two evils.” Alternatively, a voter could cast a “protest” vote by choosing to “write-in the name of someone who represents pro-life values … Even though this person surely wouldn’t be elected to office, a vote in that direction would send a clear signal that at least some voters won’t settle for anything less than a pro-life candidate. Contrary to what critics will charge, it’s not a wasted vote; it’s a sincere expression of conscience that upholds moral truth. And that’s never a waste!” Another legitimate option, Bishop Tobin said, is that a citizen “might well decide to skip this year’s election and not vote at all, or at least not vote for a particular office.” “Although Catholics have a general moral obligation to participate in the life of our nation, there are many ways to do that, and there’s certainly no obligation to vote in each and every election, particularly when the options are repugnant to the well-informed conscientious Christian voter.” In Rhode Island's gubernatorial race, both the Democratic candidate, Gina Raimondo, and the Republican candidate, Allan Fung, support legal abortion. However, pro-life groups pointed out that the candidates differ on a number of policy points. For instance, Fung opposes both taxpayer funding of abortions and late-term abortions, and supported the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby religious freedom decision. Raimondo was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, and opposed the Hobby Lobby decision. Joshua Mercer of CatholicVote.org suggested that citizens follow Bishop Tobin's first or second scenario – participate in the election, either to send a “protest vote” or to elect the candidate who one thinks will do the least amount of harm. Mercer advised against the idea that one might choose not to vote for a particular office, saying to CNA that “staying at home doesn't do any good at all,” and, “I still think every Catholic has an obligation to vote, because you’ve got to communicate some way that this is what it should be like.” He did add that “a protest vote is definitely an option. And it’s one that Catholics in good conscience should consider (in some) circumstances, precisely because you have a very flawed candidate and then a very horrible candidate.” “When pro-lifers are in a distinct minority, you have to make very difficult choices.” “It would be wonderful to have both political parties fighting over each other to see which one is more pro-life,” Mercer commented. “Unfortunately, we’re not faced with that situation. There is going to be a governor sworn into office in January of next year for Rhode Island. The question is, will that governor support taxpayer funding of abortion or not?” Rhode Island Right to Life, meanwhile, urged citizens to follow Bishop Tobin's first voting option: to vote for the candidate who will do the least amount of harm. The group has drawn attention for their endorsement of Fung for governor, despite the pro-abortion elements of his record. In September, Bishop Tobin responded to the group's decision by telling GoLocalProv, “I know that RI Right to Life approaches these issues very carefully, and I can only presume that they have more information about Mayor Fung's position than I do. I won't second guess their endorsement.” He added, however: “Personally, though, I can't vote for any candidate for any office, who claims to be pro-choice, which to me translates to being pro-abortion.” Rhode Island Right to Life spokesman Barth Bracy explained that Fung still matches up with the group on a number of legislative issues such as supporting both “incremental pro-life legislation” and a health care plan option in the state’s insurance exchange that doesn’t cover abortion. Currently the state’s insurance exchange offers only health plans covering abortion. The current plans include an abortion surcharge which forces all participants in the exchange to pay separately for abortion coverage, raising conscience concerns, Bracy maintained. Fung has promised to support an alternative plan on the exchange “that does not provide abortion coverage, except in the circumstances of rape, incest, or to protect the life of a woman.”   “So essentially every single issue that we’ve got pending before the General Assembly that we’re trying to pass, he supports. And every single issue before the General Assembly that Planned Parenthood is trying to pass, he opposes,” Bracy told CNA. “We would love to have perfect candidates in every race, but when that doesn’t happen, you have to choose between who is running. And when you have on the one hand one candidate that will support every single one of the initiatives that you can reasonably foresee raising over the next four years, and on the other hand you have a candidate who is the most extreme abortion advocate we have ever seen, it’s a pretty clear decision.” “If Gina Raimondo, the Planned Parenthood candidate, wins, we’re going to lose a lot of legislative battles over the next four years, plain and simple. If Allen Fung wins, we’re going to win a lot of legislative battles over the next four years. So lives are at stake, conscience is at stake.”   Read more

Washington D.C., Oct 24, 2014 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Nina Pham, a Dallas nurse who has been battling Ebola after treating a patient in Texas, has now been declared free of the disease, and gave thanks to God and all those who have prayed for her ... Read more

Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 24, 2014 / 08:38 am (CNA).- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia rejected claims that he had harshly criticized the Vatican or the recent synod, saying that he had instead been cautioning against a public image of the synod created by media reports that distort the truth. “That's simply false,” Archbishop Chaput told CNA Oct. 24 about claims that he had “blasted” the recent Synod on the Family. “The synod isn't mentioned in my formal remarks, and what I said in answer to a question from the audience about the synod is easily available, in full, online. People can see or read for themselves.”   Archbishop Chaput’s comments followed a report by David Gibson of Religion News Service covering the archbishop’s Oct. 20 delivery of the 2014 Erasmus Lecture, hosted by the interreligious journal First Things. The lecture itself did not involve the synod, but focused on the role of religious believers in modern America. After the lecture, an attendee asked Archbishop Chaput about the Synod on the Family, a global gathering of bishops that recently concluded in Rome, and the archbishop replied: “Well, first of all, I wasn’t there. That’s very significant, because to claim you know what really happened when you weren’t there is foolish. To get your information from the press is a mistake because they don’t know well enough how to understand it so they can tell people what happened. I don’t think the press deliberately distorts, they just don’t have any background to be able to evaluate things. In some cases they’re certainly the enemy and they want to distort the Church.” “Now, having said all that, I was very disturbed by what happened. I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was of confusion. Now, I don’t think that was the real thing there,” he said, adding that he is eager to hear from the U.S. bishops who were present at the event. “I want to hear from them. Then you can ask me the question and I can give you a better answer,” he said. The archbishop then went on to say that “the Church has a clear position” on matters of marriage and communion, adding, “I’m not fundamentally worried because I believe the Holy Spirit guides the Church.” In his reporting for Religion News Service, Gibson omitted the archbishop’s qualifying remarks about not presuming to know what really happened at the synod that he had not attended. He also omitted the archbishop’s comment that while confusion was the public image presented in the media, he did not think “that was the real thing” at the synod. Gibson quoted Archbishop Chaput as saying, “I was very disturbed by what happened. I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was one of confusion.” He then moved on to other parts of the archbishop’s remarks. The Religion News Service article was picked up by several other publications. Michael Sean Winters, a blogger for the National Catholic Reporter, pointed to Gibson’s article to argue that Archbishop Chaput was challenging Pope Francis, “criticizing the process of synodality,” and pushing an “agenda.” Archbishop Chaput reiterated to CNA that when he had spoken of confusion being from the devil, he was not referring to the Vatican or the synod debates themselves, but to the way that the proceedings had been presented. “The news media, sometimes innocently and sometimes not, distort the public image of the Church and her efforts. That creates confusion, including confusion in public perceptions of the synod, and there's nothing Godly about that,” he said. He lamented a sense of “infallibility” among some parts of the press, adding that “the worst offenders refuse to acknowledge their own mistakes and prejudices.”      Matthew Schmitz, deputy editor of First Things magazine, responded to Gibson’s article in an Oct. 23 blog post. He included both the video and written transcript of the archbishop’s comments. Gibson’s article portrayed the archbishop as critical of the synod itself, Schmitz stressed, while “(i)n fact, Chaput denounced its public image while saying he would need to hear more from his brother bishops who actually attended before forming a firm opinion.” Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, also voiced “grave concerns” about Gibson’s article, particularly its headline, which initially read, “Archbishop Chaput Blasts Vatican Debate on Family, says ‘Confusion is of the Devil’.” After the archdiocese contacted Religion News Service, the headline was changed to, “Archbishop Chaput ‘disturbed’ by Synod Debate, Says ‘Confusion is of the Devil’.” Both of these headlines, however, inaccurately present Archbishop Chaput as being critical of the Vatican and the synod, Gavin said, when in reality, the archbishop was simply criticizing “those who used the draft report from the Synod out of context to reinforce their own opinions and agendas.” Additionally, Gavin said, the focus that Gibson’s article places on the comments could lead the casual reader “to believe that the Archbishop’s talk was all about the Synod,” when his comments were actually in response to an audience question, and his lecture was not about the synod at all. “The RNS piece that was published just isn’t an accurate reflection of reality. It mischaracterizes both Archbishop Chaput and what he said,” Gavin said. “The story has been picked up by secular and religious media at the national level and it has created a false and misleading image. That’s problematic and unfair. People have a right to the truth. Media have an obligation to present it.”   Read more

Washington D.C., Oct 24, 2014 / 04:51 am (CNA).- Recovering an understanding of friendship as a vocation could be a way for the Church to help ease spiritual problems of isolation, especially for those who are gay, said one Catholic author who is both ... Read more