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Sri Lanka holds first public Masses since Easter attacks

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Sri Lanka holds first public Masses since Easter attacks

Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 13, 2019 / 04:13 pm (CNA).- The Sri Lankan Catholic Church on May 12 held its first public Sunday Masses since suicide bombers claimed more than 250 lives and injured hundreds of others on Easter.

Attendees at the Masses saw heightened safety precautions, including full-body searches, ID checks, and street patrols by military and police forces, according to The Guardian. At the churches’ gates, volunteers kept an eye out for suspicious people.

Last week, President Maithripala Sirisena told the Associated Press that “99%” of suspects related to the bombings have been arrested and explosive material has been seized.

Church leaders are considering reopening Catholic schools on Tuesday, the AP reported.

As a security measure, all public Masses had been cancelled for the two weeks following attacks by eight suicide bombers on two Catholic churches, a protestant church, three hotels, a residence, and a zoo on April 21.

On the Sunday following the attacks, a televised Mass was held at the private residential chapel of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo. A private ordination Mass quietly went ahead as planned April 30 in the village of Thannamunai, with attendance lower than had originally been anticipated.

On Monday, several social media platforms were banned indefinitely by the government amid concerns surrounding hateful speech and fake news. Facebook, Whatsapp, and Youtube among those sites blocked, according to CNN.

Other safety precautions undertaken by the government include enforcement of curfews and banning face veils. The government has also sought to suppress the jiihadist group National Thowheeth Jama'ath, whom the police say was responsible for the attacks. ISIS leaders have also claimed responsbility for the bombings, saying the local jihadists had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.

According to The Guardian, 56 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks, 13 safe-houses have been discovered, and 41 bank accounts belonging to the bombers have been found. However, police officials have continued to caution people about potential threats.

Since the attacks, Catholic charity groups have provided aid to the victims and their families. UCA News reported that Caritas Sethsarana has been funding medical services, transportation assistance, legal support, and home repair.

“We have identified those who have been heavily traumatized, and counseling by professionals is underway,” said Father Claude Nonis, an organizer for these church-run operations.

“I was inspired by what I saw Caritas doing,” a policeman at one of the hospitals told UCA News.

“They were right there with the families, helping them to identify the bodies, and they stayed with them until all the necessary arrangements had been made.”

CNA Daily News – Asia – Pacific

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First Option - First Reading: Acts 13:13-25

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First Option - First Reading: Acts 13:13-25

13 Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphyl’ia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem; 14 but they passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisid’ia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel, and you that fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he bore with them in the wilderness. 19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years. 20 And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, `I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, `What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ CNA – Daily Readings

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Ontario court: Doctors must refer patients for abortion, assisted suicide

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Ontario court: Doctors must refer patients for abortion, assisted suicide

Toronto, Canada, May 15, 2019 / 06:30 pm (CNA).- Ontario’s highest court has ruled that doctors who object to procedures such as abortion and assisted suicide must refer patients to another, willing doctor.

In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday, the Court of Appeal upheld a 2016 policy set forth by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) requiring doctors in the province to provide an “effective referral” if they object to treatment such as abortion, contraception, transgender surgery, or assisted suicide.

"While the solution is not a perfect one for some physicians, such as the individual appellants, it is not a perfect one for their patients either. They will lose the personal support of their physicians at a time when they are most vulnerable," the opinion reads.

Though the lower court found in Jan. 2018 that forcing doctors to refer for those procedures  violated their religious freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it also determined that those violations were necessary in order to give patients access to those services.

Dr. Ryan Wilson, President of Canadian Physicians for Life, told reporters in a conference call that the group has yet to decide whether to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, but said an appeal "is not off the table," The Canadian Press reports.

Canadian Physicians for Life was one of several groups, along with 5 individual doctors, who challenged the CPSO’s rules in court. Collectively the groups said they would be willing to provide patients with a general phone number or website for the provincial government’s coordinating service for assisted suicide, but they argued that to go beyond that would violate their faith, The Globe and Mail reports.

The groups also argued in the appeal that the original decision was unreasonable, because it gave more weight to an assumed problem with healthcare than to a real infringement of doctor’s rights, The Canadian Press says.  

“This is a disappointing decision and puts our doctors – doctors who entered the field of medicine to provide quality, compassionate, and patient-centered care – in an impossible position,” Wilson said last year.

“They don’t believe ending a patient’s life is medicine, and they don’t believe they can offer hope and healing in one room while assisting in killing a patient in another.”

“Ultimately it is patient care that suffers, as our doctors will retire early, relocate, or change fields. For many, their religious and conscience rights are being violated and they won’t be able to practice medicine in Ontario. This is a significant loss for the entire health care system in the province and will have a direct impact on patient care,” he said.

Ramona Coelho, a Catholic family doctor in London, Ontario, told The Globe and Mail she is still hopeful a solution can be found that would allow her to avoid formally referring assisted suicide patients, despite the ruling.

“I feel like this decision is going to exclude from mainstream medicine most people of faith,” Coelho told The Globe and Mail.

Canada legalized assisted suicide in 2016. Only people who are over the age of 18, have been deemed to be “mentally competent,” and have been diagnosed with a terminal physical illness by two doctors or two nurse practitioners are eligible.

At the federal level in Canada, some members of parliament are attempting to pass a law that would protect the conscience rights of doctors.

Conservative MP David Anderson (Cypress Hills—Grasslands, Saskatchewan) introduced bill C-418 in October as a private member’s bill, seeking to protect medical practitioners unwilling to euthanize their patients or provide referrals for medically induced deaths.

That legislation would make it illegal to “intimidate a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner, pharmacist or any other health care professional for the purpose of compelling them to take part, directly or indirectly, in the provision of medical assistance in dying.”

Last year, assisted suicide accounted for 1.12 percent of all deaths in Canada.

The Archdiocese of Toronto has not yet commented on the ruling, but Cardinal Thomas Collins has pushed for conscience protections for doctors repeatedly in recent years.

“Physicians across our country who have devoted their lives to healing patients will soon be asked to do the exact opposite. They will not be asked to ease their suffering by providing them with treatment and loving care, but by putting them to death,” Collins in 2016.

“Once we make people’s worthiness to live dependent on how well they function, our society has crossed the boundary into dangerous territory in which people are treated as objects that can be discarded as useless.”

CNA Daily News – Americas

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German bishop supports 'Church strike' for women's ordination

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German bishop supports 'Church strike' for women's ordination

Munich, Germany, May 15, 2019 / 02:15 pm (CNA).- At least one bishop has offered his support for a week-long “Church strike” organized by German Catholic women, during which participants organize their own prayer services rather than attending Mass.

Calling itself "Mary 2.0" the initiative issued an open letter to Pope Francis, which called for the ordination of women, and claimed "men of the Church only tolerate one woman in their midst: Mary."

"We want to take Mary off her pedestal and into our midst, as a sister facing our direction," the letter said.

The website features paintings of Mary and other women with their mouths taped over.

The campaign has met with considerable criticism from German Catholics, some of when even launched of a "Maria 1.0" website, which says that the Mother of God "does not require any updates and should not be instrumentalized.”

But several Church representatives have gone public in support of "Mary 2.0."

The official news portal of the Catholic Church in Germany provided broad coverage of the call for a strike, taking place May 11-18. It also reported that Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück supports the campaign.

Bode, who leads the Commission on Women in the German bishops' conference, told press agency EPD that while he regrets the strikes will not attend Mass, he believes it important to acknowledge the impatience of "many women in the Catholic Church" and their feelings of "deep hurt" for not being adequately appreciated for their contribution.

Bode said that while he does not believe women will be ordained priests in the near future, the Church could soon ordain them as deacons.

Participants in the "Church strike" are refusing to step into a church from the week of May 11 to 18 and will not attend Mass. Instead, services such as a "Liturgy of the Word" are held throughout the week. According to the campaign's Facebook page, these services have garnered between 18 and 155 registered attendees.

Referencing the abuse crisis as a reason for the urgent need for change, the group’s letter to Pope Francis makes a range of demands, from the abolition of "mandatory celibacy" to an "updating" of the Church's teaching on sexual morality and the ordination of women to "all ministries" – including the orders of deacon, priest and bishop.

In an interview published on the official website of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, vicar general Fr. Alfons Hardt praised the organizers of the campaign as women who are "concerned about the sustainability of their church."

Hardt said "this is a motivation that I value highly," even though the campaign might also create division.

Whether women can be ordained to the priesthood is an open question, Hardt asserted, saying, "on the one hand we have a definitive decision by Pope John Paul II on the question of the ordination of women and on the other hand we still do not have a final answer. At least in Germany this question is discussed very openly, especially among theologians. It is clear that there is a need for a global ecclesial consensus for this which currently is not the case."

Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all taught that the sacrament of ordination is reserved to men by divine institution, and that, while the role of female “deacons” in the early Church can be studied, such study does not imply that women can be ordained sacramentally.

Despite its demands and – initially – very small numbers, "Mary 2.0" has not only received support from several German prelates but also sustained coverage in Germany, where many Catholics are turning their back on a church in crisis in the wake of the abuse scandals and other controversies, with a recent prognosis predicting the number of Catholics in the country will halve by 2060, and Church attendance in constant decline, hovering at the 10 percent mark on average according to most recent official figure.

In March, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising announced that the church in Germany would embark on a "binding synodal process" to tackle what he described as the three key issues arising from the clerical abuse crisis: priestly celibacy, the Church's teaching on sexual morality, and a reduction of clerical power.

More recently, another German bishop, Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, voiced similar expectations for the "Pan-Amazonian Synod" in October.

Overbeck, who also leads the influential Catholic Latin America relief organization Adveniat, predicted that "nothing will be as it was before" after that synod.

Speaking to journalists on May 2, he said that the role of women in the Church would be reconsidered at the meeting, and so would sexual morality, the role of the priesthood and the overall hierarchical structure of the Church. The synod will take place from October 6 to 27.  

This story was originally published by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

  CNA Daily News – Europe

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Four more Burkina Faso Catholics killed in new attack

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Four more Burkina Faso Catholics killed in new attack

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, May 16, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Just one day after six Catholics were murdered by gunmen in Burkina Faso, four more Catholics were shot and killed in the northwest African country.

On Monday, unknown gunmen interrupted a religious procession in a village near Kongoussi, a northwest city of the Bam Province. After releasing the children, the assailants killed four adult worshipers and burned a Marian statue, according to reports.

“We will not be bogged down by the religious attacks,” said Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo, archbishop of Ougadougou, CNN reported.

The previous day, a group of gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Dablo, located in a nearby province. They shot and killed five men, including a priest, during Mass.

An estimated 20 to 30 men were believed to be involved with Sunday’s attack. They burned down the church, and also set fire to a health center and a few nearby shops, according to state media.

In recent years, Burkina Faso has seen an increase in terrorist activity from jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates. Human Rights Watch recently reported that the violence has displaced tens of thousands of villagers this year alone.

Last December, the government declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces as a result of these ongoing attacks, Reuters reports.

Five teachers were murdered in an attack last Friday. In April, four Catholics were killed in a separate church attack, and five parishioners and a pastor were shot down in a Protestant church.

Following Sunday’s attack, Pope Francis offered his prayers for the victims and communities of Burkina Faso.

“The Holy Father learned with sorrow the news of the attack on the church in Dablo, in #BurkinaFaso. He prays for the victims, for their families and for the whole Christian community of the country,” papal spokesman Alessandro Gisotti wrote on Twitter May 13.

CNA Daily News

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Nigerian Catholics brave persecution to remain steadfast in faith

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Nigerian Catholics brave persecution to remain steadfast in faith

Abuja, Nigeria, Feb 21, 2019 / 12:35 am (CNA).- Despite the constant threat of violence from Boko Haram terrorists, Catholics in Nigeria remain faithful to the Gospel, trusting God as they offer a witness of forgiveness, said a priest from the country.

As they attend Sunday Mass each week, Catholics in Nigeria “go into a church but don't know if they'll come out,” said Fr. Kenneth Chukwuka Iloabuchi.

The Nigerian priest, who is currently serving in the Diocese of Cartagena, Spain, recounted the experience of Christians in his home country to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language sister agency. Iloabuchi visited several cities in Mexico in mid-February as part of the second Night of Witnesses organized by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

The most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria for years has faced attacks and kidnappings by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The group is estimated to have killed tens of thousands over the last decade. Christians are targeted, sometimes in attacks during Mass.

But the Catholics in Nigeria hold fast to the faith “unto death,” Iloabuchi said.

“There's one case that really struck me,” he recalled, that of “a woman who during Christmas Eve Mass lost all of her family members” to a terrorist attack.

“This woman said at the burial that she would not give in, that she would remain a Catholic unto death, that that was not going to take away her faith,” he said.

“With that peace of heart, with this attitude of forgiveness, they're giving a great witness.”

Two years ago, the priest said, while visiting a village in northern Nigeria, “in the middle of Mass a sacristan came up, an assistant, and told me that a message had been received that Boko Haram was going to enter the village and was going to attack the people, was going to attack Christians.”

“At one point, I was scared and I asked him if I had to end the Mass so the people could leave. He told me no, that never for fear of this group… had they left the church. They had never abandoned their church for fear [the militants] were going to come in to kill the people, because if they started living that way, the terrorists will have won the war.”

Iloabuchi confessed he was afraid. “But seeing the people praising God, living the ceremony, praying, I had to ask myself: 'You, who are a priest are afraid, while these people are praising God?' And I had to take this encouragement from the people to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with dignity, and we celebrated it well without a problem.”

That night, they received a message that the militants had entered the neighboring village and killed six people.

The priest said he was struck by those who lost family members to attacks such as these, yet remained at peace.

“The ministers of the Church are working hard, beginning with the Nigerian Bishops' Conference and the priests who live in the parishes with the people,” he said.

“What they are preaching is forgiveness, justice, peace and love,” the priest said. “That leads even young people in the Church, instead of taking up arms,…to forgive those who are persecuting them, and think that tomorrow will be better.”

  CNA Daily News – Middle East – Africa

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Australian bishop urges faithful to fight ‘radical’ abortion bill

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Australian bishop urges faithful to fight ‘radical’ abortion bill

Adelaide, Australia, Feb 16, 2019 / 05:15 am ().- A local bishop is speaking out against a bill to remove regulations on abortion in Adelaide, Australia, saying it would be the nation’s most radical abortion law.

“The unborn deserve love and protection, not destruction,” said Bishop Gregory O’Kelly SJ, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Port Pirie.

He warned that the legislation being considered “drastically reduces safeguards for the unborn” and would allow abortions “even well into the ninth month of pregnancy.”

In a Feb. 14 letter to the people of his diocese, O’Kelly said the faithful “should all be extremely concerned about the proposed Abortion Law Reform Bill.”

The Adelaide proposal would place abortion under the regulations of the state’s health laws, rather than the state’s criminal code. This would remove current rules such a requirement that a woman be a resident in South Australia for at least two months before procuring an abortion.

The legislation would also ban protestors from entering within 150 meters of an abortion clinic.

Greens MP Tammy Franks introduced the bill to Parliament and it will be debated in the comings weeks, with a vote later this year.

Similar legislation was recently passed in Queensland.

“This bill treats abortion simply as a medical procedure without moral significance,” O’Kelly said in his letter. “There is no need for a medical opinion or a doctor’s involvement and no reason need be given for an abortion. It will be the most radical abortion law in the country.”

“We believe life to be a gift of God, to be cherished and revered,” the bishop continued. “Christ said that he came that we might have life and have it to the full. Abortion is the destruction of the human life, an act that defies the sacred.”

He urged people to contact their local Member of Parliament and ask them to vote against the bill.

Bishop O’Kelly also published a letter from Dr. Elvis Šeman, a gynecologist and member of the Guild of St Luke.

The doctor stressed the adverse effects that abortion can have on a woman’s physical, psychological and emotional health.

He warned that the proposed legislation “aims to radically deregulate abortion and outlaw two important things – conscientious objection to abortion and the freedom to pray and offer pregnancy support near abortion clinics.”

Under the bill, he said, abortion could “be performed by a non-medical provider, using any method and for any reason (including sex-selection for social reasons), at any gestation (up to term), leaving babies born alive to die, and using SA Health funding without the accountability of reporting.”

Furthermore, Šeman warned, “Imposing a 'health access' zone makes pregnancy support services unlawful within 150m, restricts freedom of speech, denies potential support to vulnerable women who are ambivalent or may have been coerced, and provides excessive powers to police.”

The doctor also emphasized the need to do more for women facing difficult pregnancies.  

“As a Church community, I believe that, with few notable exceptions, we have done poorly in supporting those women and their families facing an unplanned pregnancy. They are left at the mercy of a health system which fast-tracks women to abortion and offers no alternatives.”

Bishop O’Kelly agreed that the Church must reach out to women in need.

“We believe our main focus should be on supporting women who find themselves faced with an unplanned pregnancy and are grappling with this terrible choice,” he said, “while also offering our unequivocal support and prayers to those women who are experiencing grief and loss.”

  CNA Daily News – Asia – Pacific

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First Reading: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22

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First Reading: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, 7 and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more. 13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” CNA – Daily Readings

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Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto

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Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto

Francisco, 11, and Jacinta, 10, are the youngest non-martyrs to be canonized in the history of the Church. The brother and sister, who tended to their families’ sheep with their cousin Lucia Santo in the fields of Fatima, Portugal, witnessed the apparitions of Mary, now commonly known as Our Lady of Fatima.During the first apparition, which took place May 13, 1917, Our Lady asked the three children to say the Rosary and to make sacrifices, offering them for the conversion of sinners. The children did, praying often, giving their lunch to beggars and going without food themselves. They offered up their daily crosses and even refrained from drinking water on hot days.In October 1918, Francisco and Jacinta became seriously ill with the Spanish flu. Our Lady appeared to them and said she would to take them to heaven soon.Bed-ridden, Francisco requested his first Communion. The following day, Francisco died, April 14, 1919. Jacinta suffered a long illness as well. She was eventually transferred to a Lisbon hospital and operated for an abscess in her chest, but her health did not improve. She died Feb. 20, 1920.Pope John Paul II beatified Francisco and Jacinta May 13, 2000, on the 83rd anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima.Pope Francis on May 13, 2017 officially declared Francisco and Jacinta Marto saints of the Catholic Church in front of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at Fatima, Portugal – teaching us that even young children can become saints. CNA – Saint of the Day

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Vatican restores priestly faculties to Ernesto Cardenal

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Vatican restores priestly faculties to Ernesto Cardenal

Managua, Nicaragua, Feb 18, 2019 / 05:28 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis has restored priestly faculties to 94-year-old Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, who had been suspended a divinis in 1984 for holding a cabinet position in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, in violation of canon law.

“The Holy Father has graciously granted the absolution of all canonical censures imposed on Rev. Father Ernesto Cardenal, accepting the request he had recently made to him through the Pontifical Representative in Nicaragua, to be readmitted to the exercise of the priestly ministry,” said a Feb. 18 statement from the Apostolic Nunciature of Nicaragua.

The statement, signed by Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, the apostolic nuncio to Nicaragua, said that “Cardenal has been under suspension of the exercise of the priestly ministry for 35 years due to his political party involvement. The religious accepted his canonical penalty imposed on him and has always observed it without carrying out any pastoral activity. In addition, he had abandoned all political commitment for many years.”

Cardenal, a poet and Marxist liberation theology activist, actively collaborated with the Sandinista National Liberation Front revolution that ended the dictatorship of then-president Anastasio Somoza. He was appointed Minister of Culture the same day the Sandinistas were victorious on July 19, 1979, an office that he held until 1987.

He was suspended a divinis by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1984 for violating canon law by assuming a public office that involves the exercise of civil power.

Several other priests – including Ernesto’s brother Fernando, Miguel D’Escoto and Edgard Parrales – were also suspended.  

John Paul II publicly reprimanded Cardenal when he visited Nicaragua in 1983. In a now-famous photo, the Polish pope can be seen with a serious expression, standing before the Nicaraguan priest who is genuflecting and smiling.

Cardenal would say some time later that on that occasion the Holy Father asked him to “regularize his situation.”

In a January 2017 interview, Cardenal said that his suspension was still in place and he was “not interested in their lifting it.”

The statement announcing the lifting of Cardenal’s suspension references a request made by the priest to Pope Francis, indicating a change of position on the part of the priest since the 2017 interview.

According to the El Nuevo Diario news, Cardenal has been hospitalized in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua since Feb. 4 for a kidney infection.

Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez of Managua posted on Twitter Feb. 15 a photograph of the visit he made with Cardenal in the hospital.

“Today I visited in the hospital my priest friend, Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, with whom I was able to talk for a few minutes. After praying for him, I knelt down in front of his bed and asked his blessing as a priest of the Catholic Church, to which he gladly agreed. Thanks, Ernesto!” Bishop Báez wrote.

CNA Daily News – Americas

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Cologne's cardinal warns against inventing 'a new Church'

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Cologne's cardinal warns against inventing 'a new Church'

Cologne, Germany, Feb 19, 2019 / 04:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Noting the challenges facing the Church in Germany, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne told EWTN last week that amid dispute over the Church's “direction”, the bishops are called to preserve the faith.

“The current situation in Germany is indeed difficult. And there does seem to be a dispute about the overall direction [of the Church], which was certainly also triggered by the abuse scandal. There are now those voices who argue it is time to cast aside everything we have hitherto held onto. To abandon old times. I think that is a very dangerous concept,” Woelki told EWTN.TV's program director, Martin Rothweiler, Feb. 13.

“We are part of a great Tradition. The Church also stands for truths that transcend time. And it is not our task to now go and invent a new Church by ourselves. The Church is not just leverage that we have been handed to exercise [as we see fit]. Rather, it is our task as bishops to preserve the faith of the Church, as it has come down to us from the apostles, and to say and proclaim it afresh in our times, and also to preserve it for generations to come, and to express it for them in such a way that they too can encounter Christ as their salvation.”

Woelki commented that “one of the fundamental challenges” facing the Church in Germany “is to keep alive the question of God in our society as a whole. More and more people are convinced that they can live their lives rather well without God. Right there is where the Church has a very important task to play in making clear that God does exist, and that God is in fact the very origin of everything. The question of God to me therefore is one of the fundamental challenges we need to tackle.”

Woelki, 62, has been Archbishop of Cologne since 2014. He was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 1984, and became its auxiliary bishop in 2003. He was Archbishop of Berlin from 2011 until his return to Cologne, during which time he was made a cardinal.

He was among the seven German bishops who wrote last year to the Vatican asking for clarification on the question of Protestant spouses of Catholics receiving Holy Communion, which possibility had been  promoted by the German bishops' conference.

Woelki told EWTN.TV that Catholics in Germany are deeply concerned by the abuse crisis: “There has been a massive loss of trust both within and outside of the Church. The challenge now is how this trust can be restored.”

Regarding Church reform, Woelki noted that “it must simply be said that the Church has never been renewed by being less, but by being more” than the culture around her. “We must once again realize that as Christians, we must foster something of an alternative culture, which has to align itself solely with the standards of the Gospel and the will of Jesus Christ. And that is not less, but always more.”

This Christian culture, he said, “is not achieved by abolishing celibacy. It is not achieved by now demanding that women be admitted to the ministries. And it is also not achieved by saying that we must have a new sexual morality. No, the Gospel is and continues to be the touchstone. It is the faith of the Church that continues to be the touchstone, just as it was presented to us by John Paul II in his Catechism.”

“The challenge is precisely to witness and proclaim this timeless faith now in such a way that it becomes understandable and comprehensible to the people of today. This is a challenge that we must face up to, rather than retreating from.”

The ground for hope for the Church in Germany “is that Christ exists and remains and continues to be the Lord of the Church and that His Holy Spirit is promised and granted to us,” Woelki reflected.

“I am convinced that He will also lead us through these times. Of course, we must open ourselves to Him so that God's Spirit can also work within us and guide us. And we mustn't start playing Holy Spirit ourselves now.”

He said that “as bishops, we are subject to the Word of God and, like all the people and bishops before us, we must give witness to and proclaim this Word of God. In other words, Christ exists, Christ remains, and He is present. He is Lord of the Church. Just as He has led His Church through difficult times in the past, so He will lead us through these present times.”

Woelki's faith is also “bouyed”, he said, “when I encounter young people who have let themselves be ignited by the faith of the Church. And it is the young people who seek precisely this 'more' of the Christian faith, who have a home in the Church, who have a home in the Eucharist, who live though he Eucharist and through adoration, and who live in the knowledge that their lives are touched by Christ.”

“That is something that encourages me, because these young people – as I experience them – live authentically and with conviction. And they simply give me hope in their witness.”

CNA Daily News – Europe

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Supreme Court rejects appeal to make Texas bishops release abortion communications

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Supreme Court rejects appeal to make Texas bishops release abortion communications

Washington D.C., Feb 20, 2019 / 06:30 am (CNA).- The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal in the case Whole Woman’s Health v. Texas Catholic Conference et al, in which the abortion provider sought to force the Catholic bishops of Texas to hand over all internal communications related to abortion.

  The Feb. 19 decision was the last in a series of setbacks for Whole Women’s Health as they tried to compel a massive disclosure of in-house documents by the Church in Texas, in response to the bishops' support for a law which would require the burial or cremation of all aborted children.

  In a statement released to CNA, the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the decision by the Supreme Court which, they said was a vindication of their religious freedom rights.

  “The bishops are very grateful the Supreme Court has upheld the ruling of the Fifth Circuit, which protects the private religious communications of the bishops from a fishing expedition by abortion providers seeking access to our ministry information,” said the statement.

  A 2017 law passed in Texas required that the remains of unborn children must be buried or cremated rather than disposed of by other means, including be flushed into the sewer system or sent to landfills.

  At the time the law was passed, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops (TCCB) voiced their support for the legislation and offered free burials for the remains of aborted babies.

  Whole Woman’s Health responded by subpoenaing the bishops and demanded access to all internal communications regarding abortion, including any theological and doctrinal debates on the issue. The subpoena was filed despite the bishops not being party to the suit.

  The Texas bishops released more than 4,000 pages of external communications on abortion, but applied for emergency relief to preserve their private correspondence.

  In July 2018, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the trial court’s application of the subpoena, and the full court declined to hear the case in August. Whole Women’s Health then applied to the Supreme Court, which rejected the appeal on Tuesday.

  In the Fifth Circuit Court’s decision, the judges described the subpoena as going “to the heart of the constitutional protection of religious belief and practice as well as citizens’ right to advocate sensitive policies in the public square.”

  The court said that the Catholic bishops were left with a “Hobson’s choice” of either “retreating from the public square or defending its position.”

  The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the Texas bishops in the case, released a statement praising the outcome.

  Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket said in the statement that the court “saw this appeal for what it was: a nasty attempt to intimidate the bishops and force them to withdraw their offer to bury every child aborted in Texas.”

  “Abortion groups may think the bishops ‘troublesome,’ but it is wrong to weaponize the law to stop the bishops from standing up for their beliefs,” he said.

  In an earlier comment on the Fifth Circuit’s decision, Rassbach noted that “Constant surveillance of religious groups is a hallmark of totalitarian societies, not a free people.”

CNA Daily News

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With Nigerian elections postponed, Catholic leaders stress peace

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With Nigerian elections postponed, Catholic leaders stress peace

Lagos, Nigeria, Feb 19, 2019 / 12:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic leaders have voiced disappointment at a last-minute delay in Nigerian elections, but called for Christians to remain peaceful and participate in the postponed vote next weekend.

Just before polls were set to open Feb. 16, election officials announced that the presidential and national assembly elections were being postponed until Feb. 23.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), said the decision was due to a delay in the delivery of ballots, and not a political move.

“Our decision was entirely taken by the commission. It has nothing to do with security, nothing to do with political influence, nothing to do with availability of resources,” said Yakubu, according to Africa News.

Catholic Action Nigeria said the delay places a burden on citizens, especially those who underwent difficult travels to vote. The group asked Yakubu to consider resignation if the delay continues.

“INEC had four whole years to plan for this election. No matter the excuses being bandied now, the postponement makes us doubt the readiness, sincerity and capacity of INEC to give Nigerians a free and fair and credible election they truly deserve, even in the coming week,” the statement read, according to NAIJ.

At the same time, Catholic Action encouraged Nigerians to vote in the rescheduled election. The group said residents cannot quit working for a better nation.

Electors should “vote in a government that will put Nigeria and Nigerians first and uphold the values and dignity of human life as espoused through the social teachings of the Catholic Church,” the group said in its statement.

Catholics in the country also offered prayers for the future of their nation.

Father Ben Alozie challenged parishioners at Saint Peter and Saint Paul Catholic Church in Lagos to entrust the upcoming election to God’s providence.

“As a church, we are first Nigerians before being members of our congregation; therefore, we need to take that which is of concern to our country to God in the same way we take our individual needs to God for a solution,” he said Feb. 17, according to NAIJ.

“Saturday’s elections will determine to a large extent the fate of our dear country in the next four years; so, no amount of supplication is enough to God in order for us to have a peaceful country after the polls.”

Africa Independent Television reported that Bishop Paulinus Ezeokafor of Awka asked Nigerians to take the rescheduling in good faith and not give up on INEC.

He disagreed with the call for Yakubu’s resignation, saying this would only lead to confusion at a time when the nation needs unity and a focus on a successful election.

The election in Nigeria comes as crashing oil prices leave the country facing economic uncertainty. The most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria for years has faced attacks and kidnappings by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Over the weekend, 11 people were killed in an attack by the group south of Maiduguri, the BBC reported.

CNA Daily News – Middle East – Africa

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Australian bishop urges faithful to fight ‘radical’ abortion bill

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Australian bishop urges faithful to fight ‘radical’ abortion bill

Adelaide, Australia, Feb 16, 2019 / 05:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A local bishop is speaking out against a bill to remove regulations on abortion in Adelaide, Australia, saying it would be the nation’s most radical abortion law.

“The unborn deserve love and protection, not destruction,” said Bishop Gregory O’Kelly SJ, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Port Pirie.

He warned that the legislation being considered “drastically reduces safeguards for the unborn” and would allow abortions “even well into the ninth month of pregnancy.”

In a Feb. 14 letter to the people of his diocese, O’Kelly said the faithful “should all be extremely concerned about the proposed Abortion Law Reform Bill.”

The Adelaide proposal would place abortion under the regulations of the state’s health laws, rather than the state’s criminal code. This would remove current rules such a requirement that a woman be a resident in South Australia for at least two months before procuring an abortion.

The legislation would also ban protestors from entering within 150 meters of an abortion clinic.

Greens MP Tammy Franks introduced the bill to Parliament and it will be debated in the comings weeks, with a vote later this year.

Similar legislation was recently passed in Queensland.

“This bill treats abortion simply as a medical procedure without moral significance,” O’Kelly said in his letter. “There is no need for a medical opinion or a doctor’s involvement and no reason need be given for an abortion. It will be the most radical abortion law in the country.”

“We believe life to be a gift of God, to be cherished and revered,” the bishop continued. “Christ said that he came that we might have life and have it to the full. Abortion is the destruction of the human life, an act that defies the sacred.”

He urged people to contact their local Member of Parliament and ask them to vote against the bill.

Bishop O’Kelly also published a letter from Dr. Elvis Šeman, a gynecologist and member of the Guild of St Luke.

The doctor stressed the adverse effects that abortion can have on a woman’s physical, psychological and emotional health.

He warned that the proposed legislation “aims to radically deregulate abortion and outlaw two important things – conscientious objection to abortion and the freedom to pray and offer pregnancy support near abortion clinics.”

Under the bill, he said, abortion could “be performed by a non-medical provider, using any method and for any reason (including sex-selection for social reasons), at any gestation (up to term), leaving babies born alive to die, and using SA Health funding without the accountability of reporting.”

Furthermore, Šeman warned, “Imposing a 'health access' zone makes pregnancy support services unlawful within 150m, restricts freedom of speech, denies potential support to vulnerable women who are ambivalent or may have been coerced, and provides excessive powers to police.”

The doctor also emphasized the need to do more for women facing difficult pregnancies.  

“As a Church community, I believe that, with few notable exceptions, we have done poorly in supporting those women and their families facing an unplanned pregnancy. They are left at the mercy of a health system which fast-tracks women to abortion and offers no alternatives.”

Bishop O’Kelly agreed that the Church must reach out to women in need.

“We believe our main focus should be on supporting women who find themselves faced with an unplanned pregnancy and are grappling with this terrible choice,” he said, “while also offering our unequivocal support and prayers to those women who are experiencing grief and loss.”

  CNA Daily News – Asia – Pacific

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First Reading: Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10

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First Reading: Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10

5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. CNA – Daily Readings

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St. Conrad of Piacenza

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St. Conrad of Piacenza

Conrad was born into a noble family in northern Italy. He married the daughter of a nobleman, Euphrosyne. One day, while he was hunting, Conrad ordered his attendants to make a fire. The wind carried the flames, which set fire to nearby fields, forests, towns and villages. Upon seeing this, Conrad ran away in fear. Because he ran, an innocent man was convicted for spreading the fire and was condemned to death as punishment.Upon hearing of this, Conrad stepped forth to accept the blame, saving the innocent man’s life. He paid for the damaged property and he and his wife gave everything they owned to the poor in recompense. Conrad then left to join a group of Franciscan hermits, and his wife joined the Poor Clares.Word eventually spread of Conrad’s holiness, piety and gift of healing. When many visitors began to destroy his life of silence and solitude, he moved to Sicily where he lived and prayed as a hermit for 36 years.Legends say that when the Bishop of Syracuse visited him, the bishop asked Conrad if he had any food to offer guests. Conrad went to his cell and returned with newly made cakes, which the bishop accepted as a miracle. Conrad visited the bishop later to make a general confession to him. As he arrived, Conrad was surrounded by fluttering birds.Conrad died kneeling before a crucifix. CNA – Saint of the Day

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Vatican restores priestly faculties to Ernesto Cardenal

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Vatican restores priestly faculties to Ernesto Cardenal

Managua, Nicaragua, Feb 18, 2019 / 05:28 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis has restored priestly faculties to 94-year-old Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, who had been suspended a divinis in 1984 for holding a cabinet position in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, in violation of canon law.

“The Holy Father has graciously granted the absolution of all canonical censures imposed on Rev. Father Ernesto Cardenal, accepting the request he had recently made to him through the Pontifical Representative in Nicaragua, to be readmitted to the exercise of the priestly ministry,” said a Feb. 18 statement from the Apostolic Nunciature of Nicaragua.

The statement, signed by Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, the apostolic nuncio to Nicaragua, said that “Cardenal has been under suspension of the exercise of the priestly ministry for 35 years due to his political party involvement. The religious accepted his canonical penalty imposed on him and has always observed it without carrying out any pastoral activity. In addition, he had abandoned all political commitment for many years.”

Cardenal, a poet and Marxist liberation theology activist, actively collaborated with the Sandinista National Liberation Front revolution that ended the dictatorship of then-president Anastasio Somoza. He was appointed Minister of Culture the same day the Sandinistas were victorious on July 19, 1979, an office that he held until 1987.

He was suspended a divinis by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1984 for violating canon law by assuming a public office that involves the exercise of civil power.

Several other priests – including Ernesto’s brother Fernando, Miguel D’Escoto and Edgard Parrales – were also suspended.  

John Paul II publicly reprimanded Cardenal when he visited Nicaragua in 1983. In a now-famous photo, the Polish pope can be seen with a serious expression, standing before the Nicaraguan priest who is genuflecting and smiling.

Cardenal would say some time later that on that occasion the Holy Father asked him to “regularize his situation.”

In a January 2017 interview, Cardenal said that his suspension was still in place and he was “not interested in their lifting it.”

The statement announcing the lifting of Cardenal’s suspension references a request made by the priest to Pope Francis, indicating a change of position on the part of the priest since the 2017 interview.

According to the El Nuevo Diario news, Cardenal has been hospitalized in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua since Feb. 4 for a kidney infection.

Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez of Managua posted on Twitter Feb. 15 a photograph of the visit he made with Cardenal in the hospital.

“Today I visited in the hospital my priest friend, Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, with whom I was able to talk for a few minutes. After praying for him, I knelt down in front of his bed and asked his blessing as a priest of the Catholic Church, to which he gladly agreed. Thanks, Ernesto!” Bishop Báez wrote.

CNA Daily News – Americas