Cartagena, Colombia, Sep 7, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his trip to Colombia, Pope Francis will visit Sept. 10 the home and shrine of St. Peter Claver, a Spanish missionary priest and fellow Jesuit who is the patron saint of Colombia.
Whi… […]
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Dagupan, Philippines, Sep 7, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite hostility, the Church must teach the truth of the Gospel with the courage of the martyrs, said the Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan in the Philippines.
In a Mass during the archdiocese’s second-ever synod, Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the most important work of those assembled is to reach everyone with the Church’s teachings.
“We must teach even if our voices get hoarse. We must teach even if they threaten us,” the archbishop said Sept. 2, according to CBCP News.
“We must teach even if they kill us and if they kill us, our message will echo even more because the best way to teach is through martyrdom!”
Archbishop Villegas spoke at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Dagupan – an archdiocese particularly known to voice its opposition to the government’s extreme measures in its fight against drugs.
Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016, over 7,000 deaths have been related to the war on drugs, with more than 2,500 killings attributed to the Philippines’ police force, according to Human Rights Watch.
However, despite cultural opposition from the government or even on social media, God will triumph, the archbishop said.
“In the lights and shadows of life, in the stormy and sunny days, in the persecutions we endure and the triumphs we bask in – the Lord speaks.”
He said during these times pastors must not be afraid to “fill the dark world with the light of Christ,” and he encouraged the crowd to live up to the challenge of Pope Francis – to meet people in “the peripheries” of society.
“We dream not of [a] status quo Church but an ever vibrant Church that is excited, not afraid to plunge into the deep,” Archbishop Villegas said, noting Catholics must be willing to reach out to the people in the streets.
One of the Philippine’s fastest growing pastoral jurisdictions, the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese was founded in 1963, and this is its first synod since 1985.
The gathering will discuss matters relevant to local parishes, but the archbishop said it will also be an opportunity to listen and serve.
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Lake Charles, La., Sep 6, 2017 / 03:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A non-profit group dedicated to studying and explaining the effects of the sexual revolution claims that its ability to process donations online was cancelled because of its views on sexuality.
“The Ruth Institute’s primary focus is family breakdown and its impact on children: understanding it, healing it, ending it. If this makes us a ‘hate group,’ so be it,” Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the Ruth Institute, said on Friday.
Morse said that on Aug. 31 she received a letter from Vanco Payments, which processed the Ruth Institute’s donations online, telling her that the service would be discontinued that day.
The reason Vanco gave for cutting their service was that the Ruth Institute “has been flagged by Card Brands as being affiliated with a product/service that promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse. Merchants that display such attributes are against Vanco and Wells Fargo processing policies.”
“We surmise that Vanco dropped us because we hold views about marriage, family and human sexuality that are considered ‘Anti-LGBT’,” Morse said.
Vanco did not reach out to discuss or inquire about allegations that the institute “promoted hate, violence, harassment, and/or abuse,” prior to sending the Ruth Institute a notice that service was being terminated, she said.
“We’ve never had any incidents or problems” with Vanco, Morse told CNA of their years-long relationship with the payment service. She said that the sudden termination of service without any prior notice was “rude” and “uncivil.”
Asked about the decision to cut ties with the Ruth Institute, a Vanco representative on Sept. 1 told CNA, “Vanco depends on the assessment of its banking partners to guide its decisions on continuing customer relationships that those partners believe violate processing policies. Accordingly, based on that assessment, we terminated our processing relationship with the Ruth Institute on Thursday, August 31.”
On Sept. 5, the representative retracted that statement, and issued a new statement saying, “Vanco terminated its processing relationship with the Ruth Institute on Thursday, August 31. Otherwise, we have no additional comment on the issue.”
Vanco did not specify how it had determined that the Ruth Institute “promoted hate, violence, harassment, and/or abuse,” Morse said. However, groups including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have criticized the Ruth Institute’s stance against same-sex marriage.
The SPLC was founded in 1971 and originally monitored persons and groups fighting the civil rights movement. It began to track racist and white supremacist groups like neo-Nazis and affiliates of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1980s. It also claims to monitor other “extremist” groups like “anti-immigrant” and “anti-Muslim” groups.
More recently, the SPLC has listed mainstream Christian groups like the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom as “hate groups” for their “anti-LGBT” stance. The Ruth Institute has also been included in this list by SPLC.
The Ruth Institute has faced consequences for this designation. Morse told the National Catholic Register that the institute was denied its application for the “Amazon Smile” program, which sends portions of purchases to charities in the program, because of the SPLC’s “hate” designation.
SPLC has recently faced questions regarding its financial administration, after reports that the non-profit has transferred millions of dollars to offshore accounts and investment firms.
Morse voiced concern that one group like SPLC holds so much power in the public sphere for its designations.
Still, she said, the Ruth Institute will not be deterred in its mission of speaking out against “the sexual revolution in all its forms” – from divorce to the hookup culture to same-sex marriage – because these things are harmful to the human person.
“What the sexual revolution promotes is irrational,” she said.
Bogotá, Colombia, Sep 6, 2017 / 02:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid a dire political and human-rights crisis in Venezuela, Pope Francis will meet privately with “the bishops of Venezuela present in Colombia” during his trip to South America, according to the director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Greg Burke.
After his plane took off for Colombia Sept. 6, the Pope addressed the accredited journalists accompanying him on the flight and asked them to pray for peace in Colombia and for dialogue in Venezuela.
“I would like to tell you that during the flight we will fly over Venezuela,” Pope Francis said. “And so I’m asking you to pray so there can be dialogue, that there will be stability, with dialogue with everyone. Thanks for your work.”
The Pope also thanked journalists “for this work you’ll be doing to accompany me on this trip which is a little special because this is a trip to also help Colombia to go forward on its path of peace. I’m asking for your prayers for this during the trip.”
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas told CNA the bishops of Venezuela would “express to the Pope the affection of the Venezuelan people for the successor of Peter.”
“Also, of course, we’re going to converse with the Pope, we’re going to thank him for the support he’s giving to the Venezuelan people in such difficult circumstances that we’re going through, and also we’re going to express our concerns regarding some problems of the current situation,” he said.
Cardinal Urosa noted that Venezuela is currently going through “an extremely serious situation, a situation of poverty, of great distress.”
“Those of us who are inside the country are living through extremely distressing circumstances and great political unrest, of difficulty because of the shortage of food. There are people who simply and quite frankly aren’t eating or are eating very poorly, and the shortage of medicine. It’s shameful that there there is no medicine in Venezuela.”
“But on top of that there is a situation of ongoing turmoil and angst over the trampling of the rights of a great many Venezuelans in various circumstances,” he said.
Venezuela is in the midst of escalating protests and violence, as President Nicolás Maduro has suppressed opposition and democracy activists, and moved to seize legislative power in the country. The results of a July 30 election convened by Maduro have been dismissed as illegitimate by the United States and several other nations, and a burgeoning economic crisis has led to widespread chaos.
Cardinal Urosa reflected on the fact that “a great many Venezuelans have had to migrate due to the adverse circumstances and that that is always something very painful.”
“But thanks be to God those Venezuelans are very concerned about the country, are praying for Venezuela and are united in asking God that we may be able to resolve our conflicts in a peaceful manner,” he stressed.
Despite the crisis Venezuela is facing, Cardinal Urosa encouraged the faithful to not lose hope.
“We have to hope against all hope. We have to certainly trust in God Our Lord and we have to act.”
The archbishop lamented that often “the people get discouraged and don’t feel like taking action anymore. I’m not talking about fomenting violence but about defending our rights and the rights of others.”
The cardinal encouraged the faithful to “organize ourselves, seek to express our discontent, support the people that are suffering, support those who are imprisoned, support the people who are toiling away. We’ve got to do all this and not start complaining in an absolutely ineffective and frustrating way.”
During his homily at a Mass celebrated this week, Cardinal Urosa stressed the critical role of the Venezuelan bishops in opposing government actions for years before the current crisis broke out.
“During 1999, 2000, there was silence, nobody was criticizing the government, no one way saying anything, we Venezuelan bishops pointed to a series of very serious failures by the government and that’s why the president [Hugo Chavez] attacked us,” he recalled.
“Our interest has always been in working for and defending our people,” he pointed out, since “we want to be good shepherds.”
The cardinal then told CNA that the Venezuelan bishops “fulfilled our duty as good shepherds. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, the good shepherd seeks the welfare of his sheep, the good shepherd does not want his sheep to be mistreated, and all this we’re doing and we will continue to do because that’s our duty.”
“May the Lord hear our prayers and may we be able to quickly resolve this terrible situation that we’re going through.”
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Medellin, Colombia, Sep 6, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Simplicity and transparency have been key words in the preparations for Pope Francis’ visit to Colombia, according to the secretary general of the Colombian bishops’ conference.
Pope Francis is a “champion” of simplicity through his personal way of life and well as the requirements he makes for an apostolic voyage, Bishop Elkin Fernando Álvarez Botero, an auxiliary bishop of Medellin, told CNA.
“If we just begin with what the Pope asks for during an apostolic visit: a non-armored car, that there be no luxuries, that he’s not going to ride in a luxury car, these things. Even thinking about how to host his delegation and himself, that this not entail exorbitant expenses,” he emphasized.
“I have participated in the preparations and I can disclose … that we have really cut back a lot of things. You can’t cut everything back on everything, some things are required, but many situations in fact have been trimmed down,” Bishop Alvarez added.
The prelate also stressed the importance of transparency, since “this has special significance on a continent where corruption scandals occur every day. Our country is not the exception.”
“I know what goes on in other Latin American countries to a greater or lesser extent, but the issue of financial management for the Pope’s visit has to be transparent. The accounting always clear and you can see where the resources are coming from,” he said.
“This has been a commitment and we’ve had to sacrifice, for example putting a cap on donations because it is necessary to exercise a certain control.”
A third important point, Bishop Alvarez emphasized, “is that we all feel responsible.”
“If we all work together from our limited means, we can accomplish it. That’s what we call in Colombia the dynamic of ‘everyone puts in.’ If all of us Catholics put in a minimum amount, a dollar, we all feel responsible,” he pointed out.
The Colombian prelate emphasized that “as the days go by, as we get closer to the Holy Father’s arrival, our expectations are high, there is great hope. The same feeling one has when something important that you’ve been preparing for, all of a sudden it’s right there.”
“At this time we would have wanted to optimize a lot of things that we’ve been preparing in order to receive well the Holy Father’s message, but I believe we’re at a good point and therefore we’re going to receive it with an open heart, eager for his message and knowing that this is the visit of the Successor of Peter among us,” he said.
Bishop Álvarez emphasized that there is “widespread expectancy” in the Colombian people “for feeling the nearness of the Pope.”
“And this is an expectancy common to people of faith, of no faith, because they feel that the Pope interprets human aspirations,” he emphasized.
“This is a very Colombian term among us, colloquial: the Pope is arriving, which means the Pope is near, he is able to understand us, the way he and his audience connect.”
“The prevailing feeling here is that having the Pope close, is to have confidence, it’s to have security, it’s to receive a good message, and everyone wants to feel the nearness of the Pope,” said Bishop Alvarez.
“We should take advantage of this, experience more deeply the closeness not just of a human leader, it’s the closeness of the Successor of Peter, who invites us to strengthen our faith, that is to firm up our faith and all that it involves. Not just from the liturgical point of view, but also the aspect of the practice of our faith.”
“I believe that the pope’s consistency is admired such that the same consistency ought to appear in the lives of all Christians,” he said.
In addition, Pope Francis’ visit to Colombia has a special repercussion among the bishops, since it brings with it “the strengthening of the faith and communion of the college of bishops as well.”
“I believe that this experience of communion among us and with the Holy Father on the part of the bishops, has been greatly heightened in this preparatory stage,” the prelate said.
Bishop Alvarez also stressed that “Pope Francis is a master of discernment, the discernment of situations. So let us say that the the bishops place themselves at his side to discern the present time and to determine the pastoral direction that can help us, with all the implications of that discernment.”
“Let us say, before God, whose word, to use a biblical term, lays bare our lives, before him the Church has to mark out the way. And if the Pope goes out in front then we will most assuredly have the way,” he said.
© Catholic World Report