2014-09-19T00:05:00+00:00

San Diego, Calif., Sep 18, 2014 / 06:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- San Diego’s late Bishop Cirilo Flores was “a man of the Beatitudes” with a deep affection for the people of his diocese, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles said at the bishop’s Sept. 17 funeral Mass. “We thank God today for the life of our brother and friend, Bishop Cirilo. What a beautiful example he was for all of us,” Archbishop Gomez said in his homily at Saint Therese of Carmel Church in San Diego. “He showed us how to be a priest, how to be a bishop — and how to be a Christian,” the archbishop continued. “He tried to live with humility, simplicity and purity of heart. He tried to be a merciful man with a heart for the poor and vulnerable.” Bishop Flores died Sept. 6 at the age of 66 at San Diego’s Nazareth House, a senior care facility. He had suffered a stroke in April and was still recovering from its effects. The diocese announced in August that he had also begun treatment for prostate cancer. More than 1,000 people attended the bishop’s funeral Mass, including about 400 priests and 50 bishops. Archbishop Gomez told the congregation that Bishop Flores helped teach Christians “the newness of life” even in his suffering and death. “I think he was surprised by his illness but he took it well. His first trial came when he had the stroke during Holy Week and then, just recently when he learned that he had cancer,” the archbishop said. “He was at peace when he learned that the cancer was terminal and could not be treated. He put himself in the hands of God,” he continued. “What a beautiful way to live and to die!” Archbishop Gomez voiced sadness at the bishop’s death. “We are going to miss him a lot. His smile, his peaceful way,” the archbishop said. “But we are happy for him, too. Because he has reached his goal! The goal that we are all striving for. The goal of Heaven, eternal life.” “He wanted Jesus Christ to always be present to his people. So he went out to be with you, as often as he could.” Bishop Flores was born in 1948 in Corona, Calif., 22 miles northeast of Orange, the child of Cirilo and Armida Flores. He has three brothers and two sisters, all of whom live in California. He studied law at Stanford University and practiced law in Riverside and Los Angeles counties prior to entering St. John's Seminary in Camarillo in 1986. Bishop Flores was ordained a priest of the Orange diocese in 1991, at the age of 43. He served in several parishes of the diocese. He was then consecrated as an auxiliary bishop for the diocese in 2009. In 2012, Bishop Flores was appointed coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, becoming its head in September 2013 upon the retirement of Bishop Robert Brom. Archbishop Gomez said that Bishop Flores’ last weeks “taught me to want to center my life more on loving God and loving others.” He encouraged the congregation to focus on “bringing the joy of Jesus to others” and “getting to heaven and helping people to be with God – now and forever.” “We entrust Bishop Cirilo to the welcoming arms of our Blessed Mother Mary. And we ask her to pray for all of us, that we might have the grace to follow his example and to always walk in the newness of life!” Archbishop Gomez said.   Read more

2014-09-18T21:24:00+00:00

Sydney, Australia, Sep 18, 2014 / 03:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has named the next Archbishop of Sydney: Parramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher, O.P., a Sydney native and a lead organizer for the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia. “I&rsquo... Read more

2014-09-18T18:10:00+00:00

Maiduguri, Nigeria, Sep 18, 2014 / 12:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri has denounced the militant Islamist group Boko Haram for the murders of more than 2,500 faithful in his Nigerian diocese. Bishop Doeme is currently ... Read more

2014-09-18T12:10:00+00:00

Vatican City, Sep 18, 2014 / 06:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At daily Mass, Pope Francis drew from the Gospel reading of the woman who washed Christ's feet with her tears – noting God's tender response to those who have the humility to acknowledge their sin. “...the ability to acknowledge our own sins, to acknowledge our misery, to acknowledge what we are and what we are capable of doing or have done is the very door that opens us to the Lord’s caress, His forgiveness,” the Pope said during his homily the morning of Sept. 18. He reflected on the Gospel passage from the seventh chapter of Luke, recalling how Jesus was visiting the house of a prominent Pharisee – “a person of a certain level of culture.” Although the Pharisee “wanted to listen to Jesus” on an intellectual level, he is baffled by the contrite woman who approaches Christ and washes his feet with her tears. “He cannot understand the simple gesture: the simple gestures of the people. Perhaps this man had forgotten how to caress a baby, how to console a grandmother.” “In his theories, his thoughts, his life of government – because perhaps he was a councilor of the Pharisees – he had forgotten the simple gestures of life, the very first things that we all, as newborns, received from our parents.” The Pharisee “is not a bad man,” Pope Francis emphasized, but he simply “cannot understand the woman's actions.” Far from shaming the Pharisee, however, Jesus responds to him “with humility and tenderness,” as  “his patience, his love, the desire to save everyone” compels him to explain the woman's action. Amid the surprise of the surrounding guests, Christ says to the woman: “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace, your faith has saved you!” “He only says the word salvation – 'Your faith has saved you' – to the woman, who is a sinner. And he says it because she was able to weep for her sins, to confess her sins, to say 'I am a sinner,' and admit it to herself.” “He doesn't say the same to those people, who were not bad people: they simply did not believe themselves to be sinners. Other people were sinners: the tax collectors, prostitutes ... These were the sinners,” Pope Francis said. “Jesus says this word – 'You are saved, you are safe – only to those who open their hearts and acknowledge that they are sinners,” he emphasized. “Salvation only enters our hearts when we open them to the truth of our sins.” Read more

2014-09-18T10:22:00+00:00

Austin, Texas, Sep 18, 2014 / 04:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A pair of Catholic authors has found a new way to give mothers some time off while helping break the social isolation that can sometimes come with modern parenting: throw a weekend-long party jus... Read more

2014-09-18T10:09:00+00:00

Vatican City, Sep 18, 2014 / 04:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Pope Francis' council of cardinals for curia reform gather this week in Rome, the newly-created Pontifical Commission for Protection for minors will soon meet to finish creating its statutes. Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican's press office, announced in a briefing with journalists Sep. 17 that the commission will hold its next meeting Oct. 4-5. Monsignor Robert W. Oliver was appointed secretary of the commission Sep. 10, and that same day Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston was confirmed president of the commission. As the commission takes shape, Fr. Lombardi underscored that “in the next few weeks other very important aspects will be specified regarding the statutes and further members of the commission.” Msgr. Oliver immediately stressed that his first effort will be that of identifying new members for the commission, in order to include Asia, Africa and South America and thus represent all the world geographical areas. The new secretary will also work on the statutes, harmonizing with the work of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Speaking on the sixth overall gathering of the cardinals' council which took place this time around from Sep. 15-17, Fr. Lombardi said that a draft introduction of the new constitution for general curia reform “was also drawn up and distributed.” The council was chosen by Pope Francis shortly after his election in 2013 to advise him on matters of Church governance and curia reform. As part of this effort, the minors' protection committee was launched within the year. It aims to provide a model for practices which provide an adequate and pastoral response to situations of abuse. Fr. Lombardi said that Cardinal Oscar Andrés Maradiaga, coordinator of the council, “has prepared an overall plan to facilitate the organization of the contributions and reflections already offered during the previous meetings and the integration of new ones.” Each cardinal of the council has been entrusted with a specific area he has to deal with, and each of them has presented several proposals. During the last meeting, the council focused on two principal topics, Fr. Lombardi said. The first “includes the themes of the laity and the family,” a “very broad area, encompassing many issues, including for instance the role of women in society and in the Church, youth, childhood or matters related to lay associations.” The second dealt with “themes linked to justice and peace, charity, migrants and refugees, health and the protection of life and ecology, especially human ecology,” he recounted. Both of this discussion dealt about how “these topics may be included in the Curia reform,” Fr. Lombardi said. It has been widely speculated that the curia reform will streamline its offices by creating two super-congregations: one for Justice and Peace, which would include the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Migrants and Cor Unum; and another Congregation for Laity, including competences and offices of the Pontifical Councils for Laity, Family and Pastoral Health Care. The next meetings of cardinals are scheduled for Dec. 9-11 of this year and Feb. 9-11, 2015. Read more

2014-09-18T08:18:00+00:00

Washington D.C., Sep 18, 2014 / 02:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The head of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee has renewed a call for Congressional action after a new report verified the bishops’ repeated warnings of taxpayer-funded abortion in the Affordable Care Act. “This report confirms the U.S. bishops’ longstanding concern about abortion coverage that we raised both before and after enactment of the Affordable Care Act by Congress,” said Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, chairman of U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. In a Sept. 16 statement, Cardinal O’Malley responded to a report by an independent government watchdog detailing how abortions are covered by most subsidized health plans offered under the health care law, despite promises to the contrary by President Barack Obama. The report by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, released Monday night, revealed abortion coverage present in more than 1,000 qualified health plans in the insurance exchanges created under the law. In addition, mechanisms set up under the law to separate abortion coverage from public funding were not being enforced, the report found. President Obama had promised in an executive order that no federal funding would go to abortions covered in the law’s health insurance exchanges. The action was meant to quell concerns of a dozen pro-life Democrats who supported the law but opposed any federal funding of abortion. Those congressmen were the last votes needed to pass the law through the House. The bishops, however, were among pro-life advocates who had warned that the order carried no legal weight since it was not part of the legislation itself and appellate courts had repeatedly required that federal health care laws include abortion funding. “Only a change in the law enacted by Congress, not an executive order, can begin to address this very serious problem in the legislation,” the bishops said at the time. Now that these fears have been confirmed, Cardinal O’Malley urged Congress to take renewed action to separate abortion coverage from the rest of the subsidized health plans. “The only adequate solution to this problem is the one the Catholic bishops advocated from the beginning of the health care reform debate in Congress: Bring the Affordable Care Act into compliance with the Hyde amendment and every other federal law on abortion funding, by excluding elective abortions from health plans subsidized with federal funds,” he stated. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, members of Congress have attempted to pass legislation that would preserve the Hyde Amendment's ban on abortion funding under the Affordable Care Act. Congressional Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) along with 163 other members of Congress co-sponsored the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would exclude insurance plans covering abortion procedures from receiving federal tax funds. Although the bishops have called for health care reform in the U.S. for decades, concerns including abortion funding and conscience rights ultimately prevented them from supporting the Affordable Care Act in 2010. During deliberations over the law, they warned that without provisions to preserve the ban on federal abortion funding required by the existing Hyde Amendment, the legislation would likely require American citizens to pay for others' abortion procedures. In November 2013, an analysis by the bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities pointed to a 2012 Obama administration mandate requiring many insurers to charge all enrollees for elective abortions. The bishops’ conference pointed out that through this rule, taxpayers were not only being forced to subsidize insurance plans that cover elective abortions, but individuals were also being forced to help directly pay for other people's abortion procedures.   Read more

2014-09-18T06:47:00+00:00

Manila, Philippines, Sep 18, 2014 / 12:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines in January will be an opportunity to lead the Church in the country down “new roads in the faith and in the mission,” said Cardinal ... Read more

2014-09-17T22:58:00+00:00

Washington D.C., Sep 17, 2014 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- President Barack Obama’s announcement of personnel and other aid to combat the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa drew praise from relief workers involved in the region. &ldquo... Read more

2014-09-17T20:41:00+00:00

Washington D.C., Sep 17, 2014 / 02:41 pm (CNA).- The U.S. bishops’ conference has praised federal lawmakers for reaching an agreement to reauthorize legislation that funds child care and job training for low-income families. “Child care ... Read more




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