Washington D.C., Aug 21, 2014 / 11:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on same-sex “marriage” licenses in Virginia on Wednesday after a federal appeals court struck down the state’s marriage defense amendment in ... Read more

Manchester, N.H., Aug 20, 2014 / 07:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prayer not only served as a source of strength for Catholic journalist James Foley – who was allegedly killed by militant Islamic State forces – but is now a foundation for his family and community. Foley's bishop, Peter A. Libasci of Manchester, N.H., told EWTN Aug. 20 that the news of the journalist’s death is “very, very troubling,” but that the family and community have been “praying for him and for news of his whereabouts” since Foley's disappearance in Nov. 2012. “It's been a family that has continued to pray,” the bishop said, adding that the community has also offered its support and prayers since Foley went missing.   “You just know that the reality of faith is what’s holding them right now.” On Aug. 19, the Islamic State, a militant group who controls territory in Syria and Iraq, released a video titled “A Message to America” in which the video purportedly shows the beheading of Foley, though U.S. authorities have not yet publicly verified the film’s authenticity. After the beheading was shown in the online video, insurgents showed another man, stated to be another missing American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff, saying that his life depends on American President Barack Obama’s actions. Insurgents said that Foley’s execution was in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State targets in northern Iraq. In an Aug. 20 press conference, James Foley’s parents John and Diane spoke of their faith as well of their pride in their son. “We thank God for the gift of Jim. We are so, so proud of him,” said Diane Foley. She added that they prayed to God for strength and were grateful that “God has given us so many prayers” throughout James’ captivity. She also thanked their family, parish, local priests and community for their prayers. “It's not difficult to find solace in this point in time,” John Foley said. “We know he is in God's hands, and we know he’s done God’s work,” the father added through tears. “We need the courage and prayers now to continue without him,” John Foley continued. Previously detained for six weeks in Libya in 2011, James Foley wrote a letter to his alma mater, Marquette University, a Catholic university in Wisconsin, about how he turned to prayer, specifically the Rosary, during his captivity, and how the prayers of family and friends also gave him strength. “I began to pray the Rosary.” he wrote. “It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.” When he was first allowed to call home after over two weeks in captivity, Foley said his mother told him about the prayers others have offered up for him. This news made him wonder if instead of his own prayers, “it was others’ prayers strengthening me, keeping me afloat.” “If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom,” Foley said, “an inner freedom first and later the miracle of being released during a war in which the regime had no real incentive to free us.” Marquette University offered its prayers for Foley and his family at the news of his death, and stated that it will hold a memorial Mass for Foley on Aug. 26. President Obama stated that he was praying for the Foley family in an Aug. 20 press conference, and decried the tactics of the Islamic State. The organization, the president said, “speaks for no religion,” noting that many of the Islamic State’s victims are Muslim. “No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day,” said Obama. The president pledged that it would “do what we must do to protect our people” and would work to “do what’s necessary to see that justice is done.” Secretary of State John Kerry, who got to know the Foley family during Jim’s first captivity in 2011, also offered his prayers for the Foley family in an Aug. 20 statement, calling the Islamic State’s actions “evil.” “There is evil in this world, and we all have come face to face with it once again,” the Secretary of State said. “ISIL is the face of that evil, a threat to people who want to live in peace, and an ugly insult to the peaceful religion they violate every day with their barbarity,” he emphasized. “James Foley went to the darkest of places to shine the light of truth,” Kerry stated. “He was brave and bold, and no masked coward can ever steal the legacy of this courageous American who lived out the meaning of the word journalism.” Bishop Libasci said that those who feel frustrated and angry in the wake of Foley’s execution should look towards the example of St. John the Baptist, who also died from beheading and whose feast day will be celebrated shortly.  “All I can think of is here was this young man who was pointing the way toward truth, here was a man who pointing out what was happening in the country of Syria, here was a man who was pointing to what we should be aware of,” the bishop said. He added that Christians in this time should look to Christ as St. John the Baptist did. “Let us be one with Christ and let us remember the one who pointed the way towards Christ.” “A Christian must always remember that revenge does not belong to us,” Bishop Libasci added. “Mercy, as difficult as it may seem is the most important message we can carry at this time.” Read more

Washington D.C., Aug 20, 2014 / 02:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Calling for work that honors the dignity of the human person, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenksi of Miami echoed the words of Pope Francis, noting the troubling rise of young adult unemployment. &l... Read more

Oklahoma City, Okla., Aug 20, 2014 / 11:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Organizers of a satanic black mass slated to take place in Oklahoma City next month face a lawsuit on grounds that the consecrated Host used for the sacrilegious event is stolen. “We are honored to represent Archbishop Coakley in this fight against the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament,” attorney Michael W. Caspino told The National Catholic Register. “The archbishop should be lauded for his courageous stance against the enemies of the Church.” “Our legal theory is very simple,” he continued, “a Consecrated Eucharist belongs to the Church.” “The Church has exercised dominion and control over the Eucharist for 2000 years. The Satanists procured the Consecrated Host by illicit means, by theft or fraud. We are simply asking the Court to return the stolen property to its rightful owner, the Roman Catholic Church.”    The lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma City District Court Aug. 20 on behalf of the local archdiocese by Busch & Caspino. On Sept. 21, a black mass is scheduled to take place at the Oklahoma City Civic Center music hall. Connected to witchcraft and demonic worship, a black mass is a sacrilegious ceremony structured as a parody of the Catholic Mass. Invoking Satan, the ritual is centered around the desecration of the Eucharist, which is generally done by stealing a consecrated host from a Catholic church and using it in a profane sexual ritual, or defecating and urinating on it. The event organizer Adam Daniels said the purported Eucharistic Host was “mailed to us by (a) friend.” “As far as I know, the host mailed to me is consecrated,” he told the Catholic news site Aleteia Aug. 6. In July, an official with the city music hall defended the decision, citing the hall’s neutrality policy. She told CNA that as long as no laws were broken during the event itself, the city hall was not concerned with whether laws may be broken in obtaining a consecrated host ahead of time. She said that similar events scheduled in previous years had poor or no attendance. Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City has called on the civic center to reconsider hosting the event, which he described as “grievous sacrilege and blasphemy of the first order.” Black masses, he told CNA in July, revolve around “taking what is most sacred to us as Catholics, and mocking it, desecrating it, in vile, often violent and sexually explicit ways.” “It's obviously horrendous…what they intend to do with that consecrated Host is offensive beyond description.” Archbishop Coakley and other bishops in nearby dioceses have called for novenas of prayer and fasting to stop the black mass. A similar event scheduled by Harvard Extension School’s Cultural Studies Club in May was “postponed indefinitely” amid protest among students and the local community.   Read more

Nashville, Tenn., Aug 20, 2014 / 07:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Actions by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious at its latest annual assembly suggest that it may be closed to the possibility of reform, one writer on Catholic religious life has said. “These are educated women, and certainly they have the intellectual ability to understand the doctrinal teachings of the church,” Ann Carey told CNA Aug. 19. “However, the LCWR leaders seem to be so convinced that they have taken the correct path that I think many of them have closed their minds to the possibility that they may have made some mistakes and need to rethink their positions.”   “Rather than actually engaging some of the doctrinal issues involved, they tend to bring in speakers who reinforce their own views and even propose unproven theories such as ‘conscious evolution’ and ‘new cosmology’,” said Carey, the author of the 1997 book “Sisters in Crisis” and its 2013 edition “Sisters in Crisis Revisited.” Carey suggested that the conference leadership’s mindset means it will be “very difficult” to have a dialogue with Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, who is overseeing the conference’s reform after the Vatican found a doctrinal crisis within the canonically-recognized group of U.S. women religious superiors. With some 1,500 members, the LCWR constitutes about three percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States. However, the group says it represents 80 percent of American sisters since its members are leaders of their respective religious communities. In April 2012, the Vatican released the findings of a multi-year doctrinal assessment of the women's conference, which raised concerns of dissent from Church teaching on topics including homosexuality, the sacramental priesthood and the divinity of Christ. Among the assessment’s key findings were serious theological and doctrinal errors in presentations at the conference's recent annual assemblies. Some presentations depicted a vision of religious life incompatible with the Catholic faith, or attempted to justify dissent from Church doctrine and showed “scant regard for the role of the Magisterium,” the assessment found. The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith granted Archbishop Sartain a mandate of up to five years to help lead reform efforts by working to review and revise the group’s statues, formation materials, presentations, events and links with affiliated organizations. The LCWR held its 2014 annual assembly in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 12-16. After the assembly, the conference’s 21-member national board met for three days. Their meeting included a one-hour session with Archbishop Sartain. The national board then issued a statement voicing their “deepest hope to resolve the situation between LCWR and (the) CDF in a way that fully honors our commitment to fulfill the LCWR mission as well as protect the integrity of the organization.” The board members said they wanted to continue in conversation with Archbishop Sartain in order “that new ways may be created within the church for healthy discussion of differences.” “We know that thousands of persons throughout the country and around the world long for places where they can raise questions and explore ideas on matters of faith in an atmosphere of freedom and respect,” the statement continued. Carey said she was not surprised by the board’s statement. “LCWR leaders realize the organization would lose many of its members if its canonical status were revoked, so they don’t want that to happen. On the other hand, they do not want to implement the mandate, either. So Plan A seems to be just to keep talking,” she said. However, she observed, this plan may have to change, given new requirements that assembly speakers be approved by the archbishop. Carey said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has a responsibility to protect the faith, especially when “a high profile entity” like the religious sisters’ leadership conference “expresses doctrinal errors.” “Many ordinary Catholics do not follow news of the LCWR, but most ordinary Catholics do recognize the importance of adhering to the doctrines of the faith if one is to be a practicing Catholic,” she said. At the annual assembly, the LCWR presented the conference’s Outstanding Leadership Award to Sister Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., a theologian whom the U.S. bishops have criticized for serious doctrinal errors, including misrepresentations of Church teaching on God. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith head Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller said in an April 2014 speech that the selection of Sr. Johnson for the award would be seen “as a rather open provocation against the Holy See and the doctrinal assessment.” The decision “further alienates the LCWR from the bishops as well,” he added. Sr. Johnson used her acceptance speech to strike back at her critics, claiming that the U.S. bishops’ assessment of her book misrepresented it. She said Cardinal Muller and his staff appear not to have read her book or her response to the concerns about it. She contended that both her book and the LCWR were the objects of “institutionalized negativity.” She suggested that criticism of the LCWR was the product of several factors, including centuries-old historical tensions between religious orders and the bishops and an alleged “patriarchal structure where authority is exercised in a top-down fashion” which prioritizes “obedience and loyalty to the system.” Carey, however, did not agree. She said Sr. Johnson’s remarks “easily could be seen as gratuitous defiance of church authority, particularly in the setting of a canonically-erected conference of women religious.” “I do not think the LCWR helped its cause by giving her that platform,” she said. Carey suggested that the criticisms of Sr. Johnson’s book and of the leadership conference are examples not of “institutional negativity” but rather “institutional integrity.” “The U.S. bishops and the CDF are taking seriously their responsibility to safeguard the integrity of Catholic doctrine,” she said. In Carey’s view, the LCWR has three options: implement the reform the Holy See requires of it and remain a canonical conference of religious superiors; “go its own way as a professional organization of women who are in leadership positions in religious orders without any canonical status”; or disband. While Carey hoped the leadership conference would choose reform, she suggested the conference is instead seeking another option that would allow it to go “its own way on doctrinal matters” while keeping canonical status. “I don’t think the CDF will allow that fourth option, however.”   Read more

Washington D.C., Aug 20, 2014 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The new dystopian movie “The Giver” has drawn praise for its deep thematic content on the value of human life, suffering, free will and the dangers of a world that distorts language to do evil. “We all love to be comfortable,” actor Jeff Bridges, one of the movie’s leads, told EWTN's The World Over host Raymond Arroyo in an interview broadcast Aug. 14. “The movie asks the questions: 'What are you willing to pay for that comfort? What does that comfort cost?'” Bridges told Arroyo that he was drawn to the work because of its themes. “It’s provocative,” he added. “Hopefully it will have people asking these questions: What am I willing to do just to be comfortable? What is that costing me? Is there any value to the suffering that life has for all of us?” Bridges plays the title character in “The Giver,” based on the 1993 young adult book by Lois Lowry. The movie, which co-stars Meryl Streep, depicts a futuristic society that seems ideal, but is colorless. The society purports to eliminate passions and suffering, as well as past memories, in the name of sameness and harmony. Bridges’ character transmits the community’s suppressed memories of its past to Jonas, played by young actor Brenton Thwaites. Thwaites plays the solitary role of a “receiver” of memories who learns the concealed truths about the society he lives in. Lowry told Arroyo her vision for the book “was to take a young person to perceive the hypocrisy in the world and to try to do something to change it, to forestall a hideous future, and then put myself in the mind of that young boy.” Michael Flaherty, president of the Walden Media entertainment company and producer of “The Giver,” reflected on one line in the movie: “Have faith that is beyond seeing.” Flaherty said faith is “central” and “absolutely everything” to Walden Media films like “The Giver,” “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Charlotte’s Web.” “Everything we do is children believing in something and adults telling them that they’re crazy,” Flaherty said of Walden Media’s movies. In “The Giver,” he said, the main character realizes “the way the totalitarian regime kept control over people.” The regime imposed control “because they didn’t want people to think that there was an authority that was higher than the government.” The regime wanted to prevent belief in “an actual creator outside of the government” who “had endowed these people with free will.” Though the leaders in the world of “The Giver” claim to prevent murder, Flaherty explained, “they just call it by a different name.” Flaherty said the movie’s themes resembled those of dystopian writers George Orwell and Adolus Huxley, who saw that language “is one of the greatest weapons in the totalitarian arsenal.” The movie shows what happens when rulers “can pervert the language” and “call something entirely different than what it is” For instance, the movie depicts people who are called “nurturers” but commit infanticide. “Language is so important. You can call them ‘nurturers’, but they are still killers,” Flaherty reflected. Arroyo said the movie is “one of the films that strikes the heart and speaks to our time.” “The questions it raises about free will and the preciousness of every human life regardless of what society says are worthy of consideration,” he said. Read more

Houston, Texas, Aug 19, 2014 / 05:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church in the U.S. should not and cannot ignore the ever-increasing Latino population, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said Saturday, because they are the future of the Church in America. Before launching into his full Aug. 16 address to the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders national conference in Houston, the archbishop paused to remember and to pray for the young undocumented immigrants on the southern border who “are stuck in an ugly kind of limbo.” “There’s simply no excuse for the suffering of children and families,” he said. “I hope each of us will find time today to pray for the young people caught in our immigration mess, and also for the officials who need to deal with this reality quickly and humanely.” CALL is a national organization dedicated to the growth and spiritual formation of the Latino leaders of the U.S. in their knowledge and understanding of the faith. Continuing his talk, Archbishop Chaput noted that one of the biggest challenges facing the Church in America is creating a just and wholesome society in the face of an increasingly secular culture. But changes in culture, he said, must begin with patterning one's heart and personal life after Christ. “If we really want God to renew the Church, then we need to act like it. We need to take the Gospel seriously.  And that means we need to live it as a guide to our daily behavior and choices – without excuses.” But this challenge is not new to the Church, and history often repeats itself, the Archbishop noted. “Sometimes the best way to move forward as a culture is to look back first,” he said, illustrating his point with a story about the Cathars, followers of a dualistic heresy that flourished in the 12th century. “That can sound harmless to modern ears,” he said. “But their beliefs had deeply destructive implications for the fabric of medieval society.” Cathars believed that all matter or anything with a human influence was evil and corrupt. They rejected marriage, family life, government, and the Church, and ultimately believed the human race should stop reproducing in order to be free of the corruption of created matter. Although their beliefs may sound outlandish, Cathars drew in many followers because of their zeal and simplicity, which threatened the Church and the political order of the day. Even though the Albigensian Crusade was led to wipe out the Cathars, they were difficult to eliminate completely until one man, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, had a conversion and became known as Francis of Assisi. The purity, simplicity and zeal of St. Francis and his religious brothers soon surpassed the influence of the Cathars, and the entire Church experienced a revival. “Francis and his brothers in faith were then -- and they remain today -- a confirmation of how God renews the Church through a kind of gentle rebellion against the world; an uprising of personal holiness; a radical commitment to Christian poverty, chastity and obedience in service to the Church and the poor,” Archbishop Chaput said. But what has St. Francis to do with Latinos and the Church in America? “The Franciscan revolution of love teaches a lesson that Catholics too often forget,” Archbishop Chaput reflected. “Rules, discipline, and fidelity to doctrine and tradition are vital to the mission of the Church.  But none of them can animate or sustain Catholic life if we lack the core of what it means to be a Christian.” He said that “most of our practicing Catholics are catechized but not well evangelized. Catholics in Canada and the United States may know the 'lyrics of the song,' but they don't always know the tune.” “In contrast, most Latinos Catholics have a deep sense of God's grandeur,” he said, noting how Latinos have a deep sense of Catholicism and devotional practice rooted in their culture. It is not uncommon to see Catholic art or hear God referenced in public in their native countries. Latino Catholics are also more likely to refrain from receiving Communion when not in a state of grace because they truly understand the meaning of how the prayer, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you...” he said. Therefore, Latino Catholics may know the “tune” of Catholicism, but not always the lyrics. While many remain Catholic when they come to the U.S., some fall away to protestant or evangelical communities, or, especially among young people, simply become “unaffiliated.” And because the population in the U.S. is comprised more and more of Latinos – they make up half of the millennial generation ages 14-34 years old – the Church should recognize Latino issues as issues that will affect the future of the Church in America. “I believe we are at a very powerful 'Latino moment' in our Church -- a moment that takes nothing away from the dignity or importance of any other ethnic community, but that simply acknowledges, again, that demography is destiny,” Archbishop Chaput said. The election of the Latino Pope Francis is another example of this “Latino moment”, he said, “because the election of a Latin American Pope dramatically highlights the importance of the Latino community in our country, and it practically shouts out an invitation for Catholic Latino leadership.” Recognizing that he doesn't have all the answers when it comes to helping Latino in the U.S. grow in their faith, Archbishop Chaput made a few suggestions. Bishops can attract more Catholics who are Latino in their diocese by providing more Masses in Spanish, as nearly half of the Latino population prefers Spanish Masses. “As Pope Francis says: 'The Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the Liturgy, which is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed self-giving,'” he said. Also important is the teaching of the faith, he said, “so that our Latino brothers and sisters get to own more profoundly the substance of what we believe.” Finally, Archbishop Chaput specifically challenged those present at the CALL conference. “Ask yourselves if you’re really putting all your talents, all your efforts, and also  your material resources into making sure that Latino Catholics receive appropriate formation,” he said, “from the most basic catechesis, to the preparation of our senior lay leaders, to the education of our future Hispanic priests.” And so, inspired by Pope Francis and the Holy Spirit, the joy and energy of the American Latino Catholics “will mark the dawn of a new Catholic witness in this, the nation we share and love.” Read more