Madrid, Spain, Mar 16, 2017 / 01:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Spain-based branch of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has issued an urgent appeal for aid to continue its “Drop of Milk” project, which benefits more than 2,800 children in the city of Aleppo, Syria.
This initiative began in 2015 among various Christian churches to provide milk every month for children under 10 years of age.
Even though the fighting has ended in eastern Aleppo, ACN reported that “living conditions remain deplorable.” Some 80 percent of the population of Aleppo is displaced, and 70 percent live below the poverty line, the group said in a statement.
Dr. Nabil Antaki, coordinator of the “Drop of Milk” project, has made an urgent appeal to keep it going.
“Every month we distribute milk to some 2,850 children: 2,600 get powdered milk and 250 servings of special formula milk for infants, including babies that can't be nursed by their mothers,” the doctor said.
The charitable group also highlighted the testimony of Georgina, one of the project’s beneficiaries, who is the mother of two daughters, 10 and 6 years old.
“Both Myriam and Pamela receive each month a kilo (2.2 lbs.) of powdered milk. Pamela's situation was critical after being struck in the back with shrapnel, and now that she's recuperating, she needs milk to get her health back. This project is very important for us, I want it to keep going,” the mother said.
Aid to the Church in Need highlighted that a child in Aleppo can get milk for an entire month for $7.50 and for a whole year for $89. The foundation has committed to maintain this project during 2017 at a cost of $239,000.
The pontifical foundation has been sending funds for diverse emergency projects and support to the Syrian churches since the start of the war. In 2015, they allocated $5.9 million for Syria.
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Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 5, 2019. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Rome, Italy, Nov 25, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).
No, it does not seem as if Pope Francis is going to resign. Indeed, his dynamism and desire to do things, working to bring the Church closer to the people, should be appreciated.
That is how Cardinal Matteo Zuppi responded when asked if the Pope Francis era was about to come to an end.
The questions, however, were legitimate because they were asked at the launch of a book explicitly addressing the papacy’s future.
Zuppi was on a panel for the Nov. 18 presentation of the book “Cosa Resta del Papato? Il futuro della Chiesa dopo Bergoglio” (“What Remains of the Papacy? The future of the Church after Bergoglio”), by the Italian Vaticanist Francesco Antonio Grana.
The book examines what the institution of the papacy is and what it can become after the resignation of Benedict XVI and the pontificate of Pope Francis.
It reconstructs the last part of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, revealing that among the few people aware of the forthcoming resignation was Italy’s then president, Giorgio Napolitano. The book also offers a glimpse of what the next conclave might look like.
Returning from Slovakia in September, Pope Francis had complained about the prelates who were allegedly already seeking to identify his successor. For this reason, the presence of a cardinal at the launch of a book that also looks at the papal succession risked being viewed as part of a “hidden electoral campaign.”
This is especially the case as Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna, northern Italy, is seen by many as one of the possible papabili in a future conclave.
A leading figure in the Community of Sant’Egidio, and known internationally also for his role as a peace mediator in Mozambique, Zuppi has nevertheless always maintained a low-key and ascetic profile. This approach made him a beloved parish priest, first at the Rome church of Santa Maria in Trastevere and then in a parish on the city’s outskirts.
His hierarchical ascent began with his appointment as an auxiliary bishop of Rome in 2012. He was then called by Pope Francis to be archbishop of Bologna, a major Italian see, in 2015, receiving the cardinal’s red hat in 2019.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi receives the red hat on Oct. 5, 2019. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Zuppi’s presence at the book launch was all the more striking because he is a cardinal loved by Pope Francis, who gives little indication of wanting to detach himself from the legacy of the reigning pope and always defends his pastoral activities. (The one exception might be his decision not to clamp down severely on the Traditional Latin Mass in his archdiocese following the motu proprioTraditionis custodes.)
The 66-year-old cardinal’s words at the book launch were cautious. He began by reflecting on the book’s title. He then focused on the Statio Orbis of March 27, 2020: the solitary prayer in St. Peter’s Square in which Pope Francis asked for an end to the pandemic. Zuppi said that on that occasion, “for the first time, Ecclesialese — the language spoken among us priests — became the common language.”
Speaking of the crisis in the Church, Zuppi said that “we can spend a lifetime arguing among ourselves, fueling an internal conflict. But the point is that it is a crisis, generative of something new.”
He stressed that John XXIII was considered “a simpleton, who seemed to impoverish the greatness of the Church,” and that Benedict XVI “defined himself as a humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard.”
In short, Francis is not, according to Zuppi, a pope who is diminishing the institution’s importance. Rather, he is giving it a new impetus. So much so, that there is “anything but an air of resignation,” Zuppi said. “In the many decisions he has made, and in the processes he has initiated, there is a great awareness and sense of the future.”
He added: “Pope Francis tells us that there is so much to do now, and he helps us not to have a renunciatory attitude, as a retreating minority. His significant reform is pastoral and missionary conversion.”
“He allows us to place ourselves in an evangelical, straightforward way, close to the people, and shows us some priorities for a Church that speaks to the heart. He helps us to be more Church, in a world that makes identity fade.”
There was also talk of the Zan bill, a proposed anti-homophobia law discussed in the Italian Senate. The Holy See presented a formal diplomatic note to the Italian state, highlighting that the bill violated the Concordat between the Holy See and Italy as part of the freedom of education.
It was not an opinion of the Holy See, but rather a diplomatic initiative to avoid the violation of a treaty. One of the panelists, Peter Gomez, director of IlFattoquotidiano.it, suggested erroneously that the Holy See expresses an opinion and the secular state is free to make its own decisions. But this was not the focus of the discussion.
Zuppi has repeatedly refused to address the controversy publicly. Many have interpreted this as a tactical move. The general assembly of the Italian bishops’ conference is currently discussing who should be its next president. Zuppi is one of the leading candidates to succeed Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve.
Then there is the question of the next conclave that continues to hang over Zuppi. It was the author of the book himself, Francesco Grana, who sought to damp down any speculation. He explained that, despite its arresting title, the book was not presenting a manifesto.
He referred to a book recently published by Andrea Riccardi, founder of the community with which Zuppi is closely associated.
“Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, wrote the book ‘The Church burns.’ And if the Church burns, how can we not ask ourselves about the papacy of the future?” he asked.
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has asked the new bishop of a divided Swiss diocese to remain in the post for at least five years, serving beyond the customary retirement age of 75.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, conveyed the pope’s request in a letter dated Feb. 15, the day that the Vatican announced Msgr. Joseph Bonnemain’s appointment as bishop of Chur in eastern Switzerland.
Normally, the 72-year-old bishop-elect would be expected to offer his resignation to the pope when he reaches his 75th birthday on July 26, 2023. But he will remain in post until at least 2026 if his health permits.
CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported that the Diocese of Chur announced the pope’s request on Feb. 22.
In his letter, addressed to Bonnemain, Ouellet indicated that the pope knew that there were serious divisions within the diocese, which dates back to 451 and today covers seven of the 26 cantons of Switzerland, including the canton of Zürich.
He wrote: “The Holy Father is aware of the complexity of the situation in the diocese. Your Excellency is called to promote, above all, the communion and unity of the local Church, and to work generously in the service of evangelization.”
“Aware of the demanding dimensions of the mission entrusted to you, and considering your age, Pope Francis has decreed that, should your health permit, your mandate should last at least five years.”
Pope Francis stepped in last week to end the deadlock over the appointment of a new bishop in the diocese, which traditionally holds episcopal elections.
The see became vacant when Bishop Vitus Huonder retired on May 20, 2019, at the age of 77.
Local media reported last November that Chur’s cathedral chapter had rejected all three candidates to succeed Huonder proposed by the pope.
The 22 members of the cathedral chapter were due to elect a successor on Nov. 23. The list of candidates was supposed to remain secret, but local media reported that the three people proposed for the vacant see were Bonnemain, Abbot Vigeli Monn von Disentis, and Abbot Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori.
CNA Deutsch said at the time that the cathedral chapter saw the list of three candidates as an “attempt at interference” by neighboring dioceses. It quoted an insider as saying that the three names indicated that “the voice of the Diocese of Chur, which has previously deviated from the social mainstream, is being silenced” — a reference to the diocese’s reputation as a bastion of conservative Catholicism.
Pope Pius XII established the current rules for the selection of bishops in the diocese in the 1948 decree “Etsi salva,” giving the cathedral chapter the privilege of electing a bishop from among three priests proposed by the Holy See.
When the cathedral chapter is unable to choose a bishop, the pope is free to appoint the new bishop directly. Pope Francis did so, selecting Bonnemain, a member of Opus Dei who previously served as judicial vicar and canon of the cathedral chapter of Chur diocese.
Preaching at Mass in Chur Cathedral on Feb. 15, Bonnemain announced that he would not be adopting an episcopal coat of arms.
He said: “The cross is the sign of Christ’s loving devotion to the world. Therefore, do not expect me to design and use a bishop’s coat of arms, which is usually the case. The sign of the cross of Christ is enough for me. And this, only this, I will use.”
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