2014-10-24T08:04:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 24, 2014 at 8:04 am   By

Front Royal, Va., Oct 24, 2014 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid the chilling dark chaos of a woman’s unwanted and unexpected pregnancy, a group of pro-life Catholics try to be a light to both the mother and the unborn child. Their mission is in an unassuming plot in a modest town well outside the sprawling Washington, D.C. suburbs. Not much car traffic passes through town other than tourists on their way to see the mountain leaves turn every October. Seventy miles outside the nation’s capital in northern Virginia, there is no national pro-life headquarters, army of lobbyists, or melodramatic political battle being waged. The Front Royal Pregnancy Center is simply part of a national chain of crisis pregnancy centers, “the real future of the pro-life movement,” as board member Mary Brand put it. And this future is carried out in a drab brick building on South Royal Avenue, ministering to pregnant women from town and from the surrounding area. Walk through the door, however, and one will meet a disarmingly festive atmosphere. Decorations festoon the ceiling and walls. A joyful, peaceful intoxication pervades the place. “It’s liberating to work in a place like this where every life is precious. Every life is important. Planned or unplanned,” said head nurse Rosemary Antunes, RN. If there’s any gravitas over a battle for the life of an unborn child, the volunteers aren’t showing it. There’s no grim reminder of what’s at stake, no guilt-trip ready for an anxious mother who is not sure what to do with her baby. The focus here is simply on the goodness of life and the Gospel. “We work hard to be across-the-board life-affirming,” Antunes told CNA. “Not just the baby’s personhood. (The mother's) personhood. Oh, and their significant other’s personhood.” Crisis pregnancy centers are sometimes criticized for existing solely to save babies. The staff flatly rejects that line of thought when treating expectant mothers. If the mother’s needs aren’t taken care of, if she is not affirmed and cared for through and even after the pregnancy, than the child will suffer the consequences, explained outreach coordinator Maura McMahon. A healthy mother is necessary for a healthy child. This includes a mother who freely chooses to carry the child to term. She may be feeling intense pressure, on multiple fronts, to abort or keep the child, but the volunteers will not pressure her to save the life of the baby. All the witness to life is done through gentle, patient affirmation and education, through an authentic personal care for the woman. “You’re merely giving them all the tools that they need to make an educated choice. And they know it,” McMahon said. “We’re giving them the space and time to make the decision. And we obviously pray that they keep (the baby), for the baby’s sake but (also) for their own sake. For the sake of their health, their well-being, and their conscience.” “We really work hard on our non-judgmental, cheerful attitude,” Antunes says. This welcoming atmosphere begins right when a mother walks in the door. “It’s important to get someone to smile or laugh,” said executive director Kathy Clowes. And no judgment of the woman is even considered. In fact, the staff admire the women who come through the door, knowing that many of them are under intense pressure to abort their child. “I think that a lot of them have heroic virtue, according to where they’ve come from, the very little training they’ve had,” Clowes added.From humble beginnings The center was begun in 1991, and presently ministers to almost 400 women per year and provides $23,000 worth of material assistance to mothers. A local Catholic businessman offered the building that is the current location, and once they saw the building, the staff then knew they had room for an ultrasound machine. They procured one with the fundraising help of the Knights of Columbus. The local Knights council, the John Carrell Jenkins Council at St. John the Baptist Church, raised $24,000. The national Knights of Columbus covered half the cost of the ultrasound machine. Through a program begun in 2009, the Supreme Council matches the funds raised by local Knights councils for ultrasound machines for local pregnancy centers. The staff acknowledge the machine has been a game-changer. “It’s been transformative, really,” Clowes said of the ultrasound machine. “The most common thing that the women say is that it did not seem real until they saw the baby on the screen. And they might expect to see a motionless little figure, they don’t expect to see it moving. Sometimes they don’t expect a heartbeat.” The staff recounted once how an unborn baby on the ultrasound screen waved with his hand and the two year-old in the room waved back. “You just let it dawn on them,” Clowes said. “Let the beauty of it come to mind.” The image of a baby on the screen is transformative for fathers as well. “They’re frequently stunned,” Antunes remarked. “There’s a genuine disconnect in our society between having sex and having a child. It’s documentable with the advent of contraception and the proliferation of contraception devices and use.”Caring for the woman, no matter what However, the woman needs more than pre-natal care if she decides to bring her baby to term. For many women the journey to childbirth can be a lonely and scary one. Motherhood, said McMahon, is a “life-changing experience,” and the women and babies need to be cared for even after the birth. Women can participate in the center’s “Earn While You Learn” program, where women can “earn” supplies for motherhood as they are educated about pregnancy and motherhood. “We make what seems like an impossible feat possible to them,” said McMahon. “Like you’re taking something that’s so intangible and you’re saying look, we have these material things for you to help you through the rough patches.” The program also brings women back to the center, where they can establish a relationship with one of the volunteers. “That first 45 minutes, you’re creating the start of a relationship, and if they come to ‘Earn While You Learn,’ you have all these hours to build on that relationship,” said Clowes. And it is especially though these personal one-on-one meetings that the center strives to “share the Gospel,” as Antunes put it. “A lot of centers have a group class, and you have to sign up for the group class, you come for the group class, you’re in the group with all these other people that you don’t really know,” Clowes explained. “And we do one-on-one individual lessons. You come, you come with your mom, you come with your boyfriend, whatever. And if we can, we’ll sit in with you, most of the time, sit in with you and spend that time with you one-on-one.” And any judgments of the women walking through the door go out the window. “If they’ve had a couple of kids, or something like that, we’re not looking down our noses that they’re pregnant again,” Antunes said. “We’re here to help you through this pregnancy. And we think your kids are cute, by the way.” “There has to be a safe place where they can know that this baby is welcomed,” Clowes said. “And their other kids are welcome,” Antunes chimed in. Read more

2014-10-24T06:36:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 24, 2014 at 6:36 am   By

Montecassino, Italy, Oct 24, 2014 / 12:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Thursday appointed a new Abbot of Montecassino – the first monastery built by St. Benedict – and at the same time reduced the territory for which the new abbot is responsible. “The Monastic Community warmly welcomes Father Donato Ogliari as 192nd Ordinary Abbot of the territorial Abbey of Montecassino,” the abbey posted on Twitter Oct. 23. Abbot Ogliari, O.S.B., who is 57, was professed as a member of the Consolata Missionaries in 1978, and ordained a priest of that institute in 1982. He later transferred to the Order of Saint Benedict, and was solemnly professed there in 1992. Before his appointment as Abbot of Montecassino, Abbot Ogliari had been abbot of Santa Maria della Scala Monastery in Noci, Italy. The Territorial Abbey of Montecassino had been vacant since June 2013, when Abbot Pietro Vittorelli resigned. Montecassino is one of the few remaining “territorial abbeys” in the world. This means that the abbey is independent of a diocese, and is in fact its own particular church. The Code of Canon Law defines a territorial abbacy as “a certain portion of the people of God which is defined territorially and whose care, due to special circumstances, is entrusted to some prelate or abbot who governs it as its proper pastor just like a diocesan bishop.” While they were more common in the past, a 1976 motu proprio of Bl. Paul VI, Catholica ecclesia, moved toward reordering territorial abbeys so that monks might focus on their proper charism rather than also being responsible for a portion of the people of God. Many were suppressed, and only 11 remain. There are six in Italy, two in Switzerland, one in Hungary, and one in Austria. There is also one in North Korea, Tokwon, though it has been vacant since its abbot died in 1950. The U.S. once had a territorial abbey: Belmont Abbey, in North Carolina. The abbey had been founded in 1876, and in 1910 was given the status of territorial abbey, with jurisdiction over the parishes in eight North Carolina counties. Belmont's territory was reduced twice, in 1944 and 1960, to the point that it retained jurisdiction over one parish. One year after Catholica ecclesia was issued, the territorial abbacy was suppressed and its territory transferred to the Diocese of Charlotte, though it remains an abbey. Pope Francis' Oct. 23 decision applied Catholica ecclesia to Montecassino. Prior to the reorganization, it had been responsible for a territory of 227 square miles, including 53 parishes, 37 priests, 50 women religious, a number of seminarians, and nearly 79,000 faithful total. Though Montecassino retains the status of territorial abbey, Abbot Ogliari will no longer be responsible for the care of so many faithful. They have now been transferred to the Diocese of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo, which had previously been responsible for 551 square miles and included 91 parishes, 83 diocesan priests, and 175 women religious. The diocese will now be known as Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo, according to Vatican Radio. “To the entire diocesan community of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo I extend my cordial greetings and I entrust my deep trepidation of soul,” Bishop Gerardo Antonazzao wrote to his newly-enlarged diocese Oct. 23. “I invite all to prayer for one another, and in a particular way for my episcopal service, invested in an expanded pastoral responsibility. Along with the charity of prayer and of fraternal friendship of the entire diocesan community, I am comforted by the trust accorded by the Holy Father.”   Read more

2014-10-24T02:26:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 24, 2014 at 2:26 am   By

Cairo, Egypt, Oct 23, 2014 / 08:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While problems still exist, Christians in Egypt feel “much safer” under the presidency of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former military officer who played a key role in the coup that ousted Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013, a Catholic official said. “The mood has improved considerably. The security situation is getting better. There is greater stability,” Father Rafik Greiche, press officer for the Egyptian bishops' conference, told Aid to the Church in Need Oct. 21. “Christians feel a lot safer. They are going to church without feeling threatened as they did under President Morsi … In all, a more peaceful atmosphere is being created.” A 2011 revolution, part of the Arab Spring, had overthrown Hosni Mubarak, a military officer who had been Egypt's president since 1981. The following year Morsi, of the Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood, became the first democratically elected Egyptian president. “Under the Muslim Brotherhood Molotov cocktails were hurled at churches or graffiti was sprayed on the walls,” Fr. Greiche recounted. On July 3, 2013, Egypt's military ousted Morsi, and in August began a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. Violence then spread across the country, with Islamists killing hundreds of people from August to October. Churches were vandalized, burned, and looted, as were the homes and businesses of Christians. In January, the interim government approved a new constitution, and then el-Sisi won elections in May, which were boycotted by the Muslim Brotherhood as well as other political groups. Three journalists from Al Jazeera have been imprisoned in the country since December 2013, accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and of spreading false news; the three have an appeals hearing scheduled for Jan. 1, 2015. “The number of acts of aggression has fallen to a low level, a minimum,” Fr. Greiche explained. “Sometimes there are still inter-religious tensions in some villages. It still happens that jihadists abduct Christian girls. But the situation has nevertheless improved considerably. The problems that exist are only a fraction of those that Christians experienced under Morsi.” He added, though, “That does not mean that there are no incidents whatsoever. There continue to be Muslim-Christian difficulties of the kind we have been familiar with for more than 30 or 40 years.” Fr. Greiche said that el-Sisi has received representatives from both the Orthodox and Catholics, as well as Protestants: “He told them that Christians have every right to have their churches and to pray.” El-Sisi's government is working with Christians “to prepare a law governing the construction of churches,” the priest reported. “This is one of our most urgent problems here in Egypt – to-date it has been very difficult to build a new church.” The drafted version of the law, Fr. Greiche said, would allow such symbols as crucifixes to “be mounted visibly on the exterior” and would “also stipulate that the construction of new places of worship is no longer subject to the approval of state security authorities.” “The President himself will no longer himself have to grant permission to build a new church; instead this will be the responsibility of the provincial governor. If the latter has no objections after a period of 60 days after a proposal is submitted, the work can proceed.” The proposed legislation, however, “is in limbo, as the country currently has no Parliament that could pass such a law.” Fr. Greiche said parliamentary elections “are due to take place at year’s end,” but he fears that Islamists will play a major role in the new legislative body. “The problem is that the civilian parties are very weak and lacking direction. They also don't have much backing. The Islamists will probably not have a majority, but they could form a substantial minority that is capable of upholding or delaying the passing of legislation.” Egyptian Christians, he said, are threatened both by “jihadists based in neighbouring Libya, who are sending weaponry into Egypt” and by those on the Sinai Peninsula. The priest added that when the Islamic State began to drive Christians from Mosul, “not a word was heard initially from the Sunni Al-Azhar University, for example.” It was only when Copts gathered in Cairo and appealed to the university – the highest authority in Sunni Islam – to condemn the violence that “the school actually did publish a statement.” “Unfortunately, the curriculum of the university and that of the schools managed by Al-Azhar feature many aspects that are pretty much in line with ISIS transgressions,” Fr. Greiche said. “Fundamental changes must be made because such teachings have a big effect on people’s thinking.”   Read more

2014-10-23T23:02:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 11:02 pm   By

Washington D.C., Oct 23, 2014 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- St. John Paul II's life and teachings offer a witness to love that is so profound it is only beginning to be be mined for its riches, said the chaplain of the late pope’s national shrine in Washington, D.C. “I think we’re just touching the surface, the scope of his teachings,” Fr. Jonathan Kalisch, O.P., said Oct. 22. The chaplain of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine told CNA this, pointing to the legacy and witness the newly-recognized saint brings to the Church, made known in part through his teachings in his numerous writings, encyclicals and public speeches. “They’re so rich with defense of human rights, and also religious freedom,” he commented, also noting the Pope's writings on forgiveness and on human sexuality. “And even his personal witness and the ways that he did those things,” Fr. Kalisch added. Fr. Kalisch also spoke to how the saint’s life demonstrates “his witness to non-violence.” Saint John Paul II, he said, “supported the churches under communism, never calling for a violent overthrow” and cautioned political leaders “to stand for the truth, even if it meant imprisonment. But never to resort to violence.” Greatest, however, the chaplain said, was the Pope’s witness to love and friendship, noting that it’s demonstrative that Saint John Paul II “kept his friends,” and grew in those friendships despite changing life circumstances. “I think he understood, having grown up under Nazism,” Fr. Kalisch said, “the power of fraternity. And he understood (that) under communism, where again you couldn’t be together in widespread circles, that he had to help create spheres of freedom.” These friendships created a space that led to God and that deepened in exploration of truth and beauty. Throughout his life, the chaplain said, Saint John Paul II drew those around him to a greater relationship with others, with truth, and with God. This habit of fostering deep and meaningful friendships also followed Saint John Paul II to Rome and the papacy, Fr. Kalisch said. “You wouldn’t think that was the case: ironically you would think the Pope would be completely shut off,” he explained. “But no, they all came to him.” “Despite whatever tragedies in his own family life that he went through,” Saint John Paul II was able “to flourish and to give a witness and example for himself personally, to inspire others to lead lives of holiness.” Read more

2014-10-23T17:05:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 5:05 pm   By

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2014 / 11:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As founders of an institute studying reproductive healthcare, Thomas and Susan Hilgers have seen the benefits that natural family planning can offer in the realms of health, sexuality and human relationships. But the couple was not always focused on advocating Church teaching on sexuality and family planning. Their years of dedication to the subject were largely inspired by reading Blessed Pope Paul VI’s “Humanae Vitae” and later St. John Paul II’s “Familiaris Consortio,” documents that they say bring “great hope and joy to the people to utilize them.” “This whole concept is rich. I said in another place we should be shouting out from the mountain tops as a Church, we shouldn’t be crawling under like it’s something we have to be embarrassed by,” Dr. Thomas Hilgers told CNA on Oct. 15. The Hilgers were present in Rome for the Oct. 19 beatification of Pope Paul VI at the end of the Synod of Bishops on the Family. During the Mass, the doctor read aloud one of the Prayers of the Faithful in English. Together with his wife, Dr. Hilgers founded the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women's Health in Omaha, Neb., in 1985 after reading Paul VI’s encyclical letter “Humanae Vitae” on the regulation of birth. The doctor recalled that he was one of many people who had expected the Church’s position on contraception to change at the time that the encyclical was released. However, he said, upon reading the document, he was “an instant convert, because the things that were being portrayed in the newspapers and television was not what Humanae Vitae was saying.” “It was much more, (it was) a rich document spiritually, rich sociologically and rich in a lot of other ways,” he said, noting how at the end of the encyclical Bl. Paul VI had written a series of pastoral directives to physicians and those working in the fields of science and healthcare. With the feeling that the pontiff was speaking directly to him, Dr. Hilgers went on to complete his first research project in natural methods of parental planning in December 1968, after which he received training in obstetrics and gynecology. He currently works at the St. Louis University and Creighton University Schools of Medicine. At Creighton, he serves as a clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The doctor is also a senior medical consultant in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine and surgery at the Pope Paul VI Institute, where he still serves as director. He was appointed to the permanent membership of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1994. Together with his other colleagues, Dr. Hilgers developed NaPro Technology – Natural Procreative Technology – a method of women’s healthcare that relies upon scientific methods of monitoring and maintaining a woman's reproductive health. Using Creighton Model Fertility Care System biomarkers to monitor the hormonal patterns during the menstrual cycle, NaPro Technology is the current method practiced at the Paul VI Institute, which will change its name following the beatification of its patron. The technology has successfully been used to help women better understand their bodies’ natural fertility, achieve or avoid pregnancy, and find solutions to a variety of health problems. In his more than 35 years of experience in the reproductive medical field, Dr. Hilgers said that since the publication of Humanae Vitae, “I don’t know of any other field that could claim such advances in (so) many ways.” Although medical sciences have changed since the time of Pope Paul VI, the late pontiff knew the importance of promoting natural methods, “and that’s why he called on people to be involved, and that’s why I became involved,” the doctor noted. “So what we see is the potential that these approaches bring: balance in your sexual life, harmony into your physical life with regard to your illnesses, diseases or whatever you might have, and it builds relationship in marriage.” Among the institute’s biggest advocates are the women and couples themselves who have received treatment there, said Dr. Hilger’s wife, Susan. Most women, she told CNA, don’t understand their fertility because “we haven’t been teaching women about how their bodies work and how to live with their fertility.” For perhaps the first time in history, women are truly starting to understand how their bodies function, she explained, saying that it brings her “great joy as a woman” to see other women know exactly what their bodies are doing. “It’s been a great blessing for us personally, and to see the blessings that have come from this work because of the teachings of the Church has been absolutely miraculous and unbelievable for us. That’s why we’re so dedicated to this.” When asked if it was difficult for him and the 22 members of the institute’s staff to stay faithful to the precepts laid out in Humanae Vitae in a secularized culture, Dr. Hilgers said: “Not at all,” because Pope Paul VI “predicted all of those sociological calamities we have come up against.” “The way we treat women, the divorce rate, abortion and everything that has occurred in one way or another is predicted in Humanae Vitae,” he said, observing how some have referred to the revolutionary encyclical “as ‘Paul VI’s Prophecies’ (precisely) because they were so prophetic.” Although they never met Bl. Paul VI, “he spoke to us in Humanae Vitae and we listened, so it is an honor” to continue his work, the couple observed. To see Pope Paul VI beatified “brings a lot of emotion out of me personally,” Dr. Hilgers explained. “Sometimes it is hard for me to talk about it because he suffered so much; he was an incredibly courageous man and I personally have no doubt he’s in heaven.” “I am deeply grateful for the Church recognizing him as being blessed and I hope someday he will be canonized. For us, he’s our namesake.” Dr. Hilgers has recently written a book entitled “War on Women,” in which he compiled 17 of the cases he has seen at his clinic of women who have experienced great damage and trauma due to the use of contraception, abortion and in vitro fertilization. “There has been a lot of political chatter about the so-called war on women, but they described it as the inability to abort, the inability to get contraceptive measures, and it pretty much stops there, abortion and contraception,” the doctor noted. However, he said that the real “war on women” doesn’t come from a lack of access to these “very accessible” products and procedures, but rather from “the result of abortion, contraception and in vitro fertilization,” which can often be physically damaging and emotionally scarring to women. The book, he said, could just as easily be filled with “1,700 or 17,000 cases,” because most everyone that comes to his institute has some sort of history with artificial contraception in their background. “And that is why they’ve sought services with us; because we provide a real alternative to them, we look for the causes, we treat the diseases.”   Read more

2014-10-23T15:57:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 3:57 pm   By

Ottawa, Canada, Oct 23, 2014 / 09:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Ottawa, Canada, released a statement canceling its annual charity dinner in the wake of yesterday’s shooting, and urged Catholics to pray for all those affected by the violent act. “Even though our annual Charity Dinner is an event which supports and shows our solidarity with the most vulnerable of our community, the tragic events of today take priority in the prayers, thoughts and actions of our Catholic community,” Archbishop Terrence Prendergast said in an Oct. 22 statement. “For this reason, I have decided to cancel the dinner which was scheduled for this evening at the Ottawa Event and Conference Centre on Coventry Road.” The archbishop’s statement came after Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, was gunned down by a man with a rifle while standing guard at Canada’s National War Memorial. Minutes later, dozens of shots were fired from inside the parliament building. Cirillo died from his injuries, while three others were admitted to the hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries before being released, according to ABC News. The gunman was shot dead inside of the parliament building by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, 58, reports said. According to BBC News, the gunman was reportedly a recent convert to Islam named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had a history of minor drug offenses and theft, and who was described by a friend he met at a mosque as being unstable. Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, was reportedly dubbed as a high-risk traveler, and his passport had been taken away due to suspected jihadist sympathies. Yesterday’s shooting comes a mere two days after another Canadian soldier was killed in a hit-and-run in Quebec. Authorities said that the act was carried out by a 25-year-old man who had recently been radicalized by Islamists and had also had his passport taken away. Canada had recently announced that they will join the U.S.-led campaign of airstrikes against ISIS militants in Iraq, however police investigating the shooting have not confirmed whether it has any official link to ISIS or the country’s new military campaign, BBC reports. In a televised address aired late Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to step-up the country’s anti-terror efforts. “We will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated,” he said, but rather, “this will lead us to strengthen our resolve and redouble our efforts...to take all necessary steps to identify and counter threats and keep Canada safe.” Archbishop Prendergast closed his statement by thanking all those who worked to put the diocese’s charity dinner together, and asked for prayers for those involved in the shooting. “Let us offer our prayers to God in support of those who have been most affected by today's events. As we do, let us also thank God for the beauty of our country and for the blessings of peace and security which are the blessings bestowed upon Canadians.”   Read more

2014-10-23T11:57:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 11:57 am   By

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2014 / 05:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his homily on Thursday, Pope Francis said no one has the strength to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit, and encouraged attendees to imitate St. Paul in praying with praise and adoration. ... Read more

2014-10-23T10:21:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 10:21 am   By

Mosul, Iraq, Oct 23, 2014 / 04:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Reflecting on his recent trip to the Holy Land and to Iraqi Kurdistan, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City said that for all practical purposes, the bishops of Mosul no longer have Churches to shepherd. “When we were in Erbil, we met with the Archbishop of Mosul, who along with his priests and all of the faithful of the archdiocese, have been driven out,” Archbishop Coakley told CNA in an Oct. 16 interview. “He is, in effect, the archbishop of a Church that no longer exists.” Archbishop Coakley continued, saying, “they've all been scattered. There are no more Christians in his archdiocese. That's a traumatic, but illustrative situation, of what's happening there, and what can happen, if things don't improve.” There are in fact two Catholic archbishops of Mosul: one for Chaldean, and one for Syriac Catholics. Both of them, as well as three Orthodox bishops, were forced from their home along with their people by the Islamic State in mid-July – three months ago. As chairman of Catholic Relief Services, Archbishop Coakley spent seven days earlier this month travelling to Gaza, Jerusalem, and Iraqi Kurdistan to survey the work being done by the U.S. bishops' international charity. “Some of the fears that we were hearing from the bishops, particularly in Iraq, was that the Middle East is going to soon be without Christians. Christians have been in the Middle East for 1,800 years, or more, 1,900, 2,000 years, and they're being squeezed out completely.” The exodus of Middle East Christians is not only caused by such extremist groups as the Islamic State; the situation is much the same in Israel and Palestine, the archbishop said. “Our politics in the U.S. are so pro-Israel, it's very hard to criticize some of the policies, and to point out some of the effects those policies are having in the lives of innocent people, Palestinians in this case, some of whom are Christians. But many of the Christians, unfortunately because of those policies, have been driven out already of Israel and Palestine,” he said. “So the Christians are really the ones who are kind of suffering between a rock and a hard place, between a hostile Israeli government and sometimes a hostile presence within the Palestinian people who happen to be Muslim. It's difficult; the decline in the Christian population of the Holy Land. Like so much of the Middle East, it has dropped precipitously in the last 40 years.” Speaking of the Gaza Strip, Archbishop Coakley discussed the violence there this summer, in which Israeli attacks killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, and left upwards of 100,000 homeless. The violence began after the murders of both Israeli and Palestinian teens in June and July. Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets on Israel, and Israel responded with airstrikes against Gaza. Sixty-seven Israelis died in the conflict. “I saw hospitals flattened in Gaza … the devastation there is terrible,” Archbishop Coakley said. “And I know there is blame all the way around – it's a very complex situation – but I think (people) really need to understand that not only the Christians, obviously, in Gaza, but the Muslims, all of the Palestinian people there, are really suffering.” “The vast majority of the people who are suffering are innocents, civilians, not (Hamas) party members, not militants.” Acknowledging that Gazans have “poor leadership” in Hamas and that “Israel has security rights – there's no question about that,” the archbishop said that “it is truly a complex situation.” “We saw the effects of the bombing from the Israeli side that devastated so much of Gaza. And with the borders being closed, people are not able to access medical care. I mean, it's just, terrible.” Following his time in the Holy Land, Archbishop Coakley, together with Catholic Relief Services' CEO Carolyn Woo and COO Sean Callahan, travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan, visiting the cities of Erbil and Dohuk. Together, the two cities are hosting more than 130,000 persons who were displaced from Nineveh province by the Islamic State (ISIS). “We were meeting with local bishops, and they were introducing us to some of the situations on the ground there, and the needs that need to be addressed rather urgently; particularly transitional housing with the onset of winter coming, so it was quite an immersion, really, to a very, very tragic situation.” Iraqi Kurdistan is dominated by the Zagros Mountains, which reach elevations of more than 11,000 feet. The winters, lasting from November to April, are rainy and cold, with occasional flooding in the more mountainous areas. “Obviously the most immediate concern” for Catholic Relief Services, Archbishop Coakley said, “is winterization, up there in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, because the winters can be rather severe.” Catholic Relief Services is working to get the displaced – many of whom are living in tents – “into transitional housing.” “What is being done, is there are a lot of vacant buildings, partially constructed buildings, that can provide some reasonably good shelter,” Archbishop Coakley explained. “I think with some of the work we intend to do through CRS and the national collection that is being taken up to assist the refugees and internally displaced persons in the Middle East, is to probably secure some of those buildings, make them more weather-proof, put windows and doors on, where at this point they're open.” “At this point it's premature to know where all these people are going to finally end up” in the long run, the archbishop commented. “Without something rather dramatic occurring with ISIS that would provide security for Christians, it's not likely that they would be able to return to ISIS-controlled areas.” “But I think whether they would stay in Iraq in the Kurdish region where they presently are, around Dohuk and Erbil, or whether they might migrate to other parts of the Middle East, or migrate to Europe, or North America, it's premature to know.” He added, however, that both the local government – he met with the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechervan Barzani – and local bishops “would like to keep them close, within their own communities.” “We found that the local government in the Kurdistan region, the prime minister included, were very concerned that they don't lose the Christian population. It seems the Kurdish government is very tolerant of religious diversity … it's a very religiously diverse area.” Barzani, he reported, “was very glad to have the support of the Catholic community in the United States.” The archbishop noted that the Kurds, while majority Muslim, “pride themselves in that kind of inclusive nature of their ethnic makeup,” citing the welcome presence of Yazidis and Christians, as well as “a tiny little sect we learned about, they're still followers of John the Baptist.” Concluding, Archbishop Coakley noted the importance of continuing to remember and support the millions of displaced Iraqis. “What we heard repeatedly, especially from the Church leaders, the bishops we met with – we met with the bishop who's the head of Caritas Iraq, the Archbishop of Erbil, the bishop in Dohuk, the Archbishop  of Mosul – they all repeated the same thing: don't forget us, don't abandon us.” “They really want us to advocate with not only our Church here in the U.S., but with our government, to not forget the suffering people of Iraq.”   Read more

2014-10-23T08:04:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 8:04 am   By

Edinburgh, Scotland, Oct 23, 2014 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new marriage preparation program in the Archdiocese of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh aims to help engaged Catholics on their path to marriage by rediscovering beauty, value of the sacrament... Read more

2014-10-23T06:03:00+00:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2014 at 6:03 am   By

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Oct 23, 2014 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines has written to the US state department urging that it support efforts of the Congolese bishops to oppose the suggested end to presidential term limits in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “As we are both painfully aware, Constitutions have been changed previously in other countries as a means to monopolize political power and a nation’s natural wealth,” Bishop Pates, who chairs the US bishops' international justice and peace committee, wrote Oct. 16. “This political maneuver excludes political opposition and destroys the peaceful democratic process,” he said in the letter to Ambassador Russ Feingold, the U.S. Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bishop Pates attached a letter from the Congolese bishops signed Sept. 14, during their ad limina visit to Rome. Two days earlier, Pope Francis had exhorted them to be “men of hope” for the Congolese people and to contribute “to the happy future” of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mindful of this, the bishops wrote that “the happy future of the DR Congo lies undoubtedly in the strict adherence to our Constitution, which is the basic law and foundation of our young democracy.” The country's current constitution, adopted in 2006, places a two-term limit on the Congolese president; but president Joseph Kabila – who has been in office since 2001 – has raised the possibility that this limit could be amended. The relevant constitutional article, the bishops wrote, “lays the foundation for the country's stability and the balance of power in its institutions.” “Any change would be a step backward on the road to building our democracy and would seriously undermine the harmonious future of the nation. After all the wars and tribulations that Congo has known, we believe that citizens and politicians, who truly love this country as much as any of us, would avoid sending the nation down a dead end road.” The Democratic Republic of the Congo suffered a series of civil wars which began in 1996, and ended in November, 2013. In light of the potential end to presidential term limits, the Congolese bishops asked that all priests read their statement at Sunday Mass and lead the faithful in three days of prayer “to ask that the Lord protect our country and its people.” They also asked that priests and catechists educate Christians “so that they commit themselves to protecting the nation against any attempt to amend Article 220.” In addition, the Congolese bishops announced they were suspending their participation in the Committee for Integrity and Electoral Mediation, but added they will, through their own commission, “contribute to the success of the electoral process in accordance with the Constitution.” In his message introducing the letter, Bishop Pates noted that Secretary of State John Kerry called on Kabila in May to respect his country's constitution and not run for a third term. Kabila became Congolese president in 2001 when his father, Laurent-Désiré, was assassinated. He oversaw the drafting of a transitional constitution in 2003, and the current constitution in 2006. He was elected president in 2006, and elected to a second term in 2011. In 2013, Transparency International ranked the Democratic Republic of the Congo 154 out of 175 among countries worldwide for public sector corruption, on par with the Republic of the Congo and Tajikistan. This means the country is slightly less corrupt than Burma and Zimbabwe, and slightly more corrupt than Angola. Bishop Pates urged that Feingold “take the Church’s letter and actions into consideration as you chart the future of U.S. policy towards the DRC in the run up to the next elections. I hope you will explore ways to support Church efforts to ensure that the DRC Government serves the common good by preserving the integrity of Article 220 of the Constitution. I strongly recommend that you work with the Church to support their electoral education and monitoring programs before, during and after the upcoming elections.” “I want to renew our commitment to work with the United States Government to promote the peace and prosperity of all the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Bishop Pates concluded. Read more

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