Some of prestigious Catholic colleges have routinely violated the civil rights of students by withholding due process protections from those accused of sexual assault. […]
Vatican City, Sep 28, 2017 / 10:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Thursday, the Vatican announced Pope Francis’ appointment of Fr. Ryszard Szmydki, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate, as the new under-secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Fr. Szmydki, 66, replaces Fr. Tadeusz Wojda S.A.C., an official of the congregation since 2012 who was appointed metropolitan archbishop of Bialystok, Poland on April 12.
Originally from Poland, Fr. Szmydki has been secretary general of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 2014. He holds a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland, where he also taught for several years.
He is also the author numerous studies in the field of dogmatic theology and ecumenism.
Born in Tarebiski, Poland April 26, 1951, Fr. Szmydki entered the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in 1970, making his perpetual vows on Jan. 21, 1977.
During formation with the Oblates he spent two years as a missionary in Cameroon before being ordained a priest July 2, 1978.
Before obtaining his doctorate, Fr. Szmydki received a licentiate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Urbanianum University in Rome.
In 1992 and 1998 he was elected assistant general in charge of mission in the OMI. He returned to Poland in 2005 and was appointed vicar provincial for the missions. In 2010 he was elected superior of the Oblate Province of Poland and was re-elected to the position Sept. 13, 2012.
In addition to Polish, he speaks Italian, French and English.
The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples was established by Pope Gregory XV on June 22, 1622 with the publication of the papal bull “Inscrutabili Divinae Providnetiae,” and is currently headed by Cardinal Fernando Filoni. Until 1982, it was known as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith or “Propaganda Fide.”
According to the Vatican, the role of the congregation “has always been the transmission and dissemination of the faith throughout the whole world.” It also holds “the specific responsibility of coordinating and guiding all the Church’s diverse missionary efforts and initiatives.”
In their last few rounds of meetings this year, Pope Francis and his Council of Cardinals have held a discussion of the possibility of restructuring the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as well as the Congregation of Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
So far no changes to the congregation have taken place, though they could in the future as part of ongoing reform of the Roman Curia.
While Universi Dominici Gregis is special law for a special event, it is not independent of the rest of canon law; it must be read in […]
Washington D.C., Sep 28, 2017 / 09:55 am (CNA).- The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it plans to resettle a maximum of 45,000 refugees in 2018, fewer than in 2017 and far fewer than the U.S. accepted in 2016.
The U.S. Conference of Catholi… […]
Denver, Colo., Sep 28, 2017 / 06:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Dr. George Isajiw, the grandson of a slain Ukrainian priest, always knew that his grandfather was martyred by the Soviet secret police, amidst the chaos of World War II.
“Of course everybo… […]
Naypyidaw, Burma, Sep 28, 2017 / 03:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Pope Francis visits Burma, also known as Myanmar, this November, his visit will come at one of the most contentious periods of the country’s history.
Over the past month, state-sup… […]
Washington D.C., Sep 28, 2017 / 12:42 am (CNA).- With the future uncertain for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors, three Republican Senators say they have a proposal to allow for permanent residency and potential citizenship.
&l… […]
Rome, Italy, Sep 27, 2017 / 06:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A leading opponent of assisted suicide says that while the movement supporting euthanasia seems strong, the reality is that, at least in the United States, it has had few political victories.
“The difficulty in this issue is that the media sells us this as a tidal wave that’s coming; it’s inevitable, this is people’s rights, it’s going to happen anyway, and in fact none of this is true,” Alex Schadenberg told CNA Sept. 23.
While a handful of states in the U.S. have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide, “over and over and over again [euthanasia] bills have been defeated.”
Assisted suicide became legal in the United States when Oregon approved the practice in 1998. Washington State legalized it in 2009, Vermont in 2013, and Colorado, California, and Washington, D.C. in 2016. In Montana, the practice was permitted by the state Supreme Court in 2009.
However, while the legalization of euthanasia in these states has been “tragic,” the losses for the euthanasia movement far outweigh their victories, Schadenberg said, explaining that thus far in 2017, assisted suicide bills were introduced in dozens of states, and “all of them were defeated.”
“U.S. courts have universally found that there is no right to assisted suicide,” he added. “So in the U.S. you don’t have a tidal wave.”
Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition in Canada, and was a speaker during a Sept. 20-24 conference for MaterCare International in Rome.
In his comments to CNA, Schadenberg said “the [euthanasia] movement has lost more battles than probably any other movement in the history of the U.S., and yet there’s supposedly a tidal wave in favor.”
“And for a group that has the kind of money they have, they should almost be embarrassed,” he said, explaining that Americans “are not buying the news, they’re not buying their lies.”
The euthanasia mentality is built on a lie, he said, because while those supportive of legalization argue that euthanasia supports freedom and autonomy, though actual laws are focused on protecting doctors’ rights instead.
In Canada, which legalized euthanasia in 2016, laws protect doctors and nurse practitioners who assist in euthanasia from nearly any liability or error, “so long as it is reasonable error.”
By law, then, there’s essentially “no way (for) a doctor who intentionally does something, (that) you can prosecute them. The law is so tightly protecting of them,” Schadenberg said.
He noted that the American College of Physicians reiterated their stance against euthanasia and assisted suicide in a recent position-paper on topic, published September 19.
In the paper’s abstract, the college said they remain unsupportive of euthanasia because it “is problematic given the nature of the patient–physician relationship, affects trust in the relationship and in the profession, and fundamentally alters the medical profession’s role in society.”
“Furthermore, the principles at stake in this debate also underlie medicine’s responsibilities regarding other issues and the physician’s duties to provide care based on clinical judgment, evidence, and ethics,” the abstract read, and stressed the need to focus on palliative care.
“There is no tidal wave in the U.S…the doctors don’t even want this,” Schadenberg said. What actually happens in the states and counties where euthanasia has been legalized, he said, is“terribly sad, because lives are being lost and vulnerable people are being abandoned.”
“The reality is when you legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide, there is money that’s saved because you are ending the lives of people who are not always terminally ill…but might have a significant health condition, which means they are expensive,” Schadenberg said.
He condemned the “eugenics mentality” that he said drives the push for euthanasia, saying it’s a part of our culture “whether we like it or not.”
Schadenberg said that euthanasia supporters “look at certain lives as not worth living, they would look at certain conditions” and, coupled with the fact that euthanasia is money-saving and makes healthy organs available, “would be in favor of it for those reasons, they would say that’s actually a good thing.”
However, the average person who supports the euthanasia cause wouldn’t argue on these points, but rather on the prospect of eliminating suffering, Schadenberg said.
People are afraid to suffer, “and that’s a normal human reality,” he said, explaining that “we’ve got to break down the issue and talk about our normal human experience, and my experience as a human being is that when I’m going through a terrible situation, I become very emotionally upset, and that’s because that’s how we are as humans.”
“This is how we were made to be, whether you believe in God or not, we’re wired this way,” he said, adding that throwing in the idea of euthanasia when one is “emotionally and physically distraught” makes the situation worse.
Rather than freedom and autonomy, euthanasia and assisted suicide are about “abandonment,” he said. “It’s about abandoning people in a time of need, it’s not about freedom.”
Vatican City, Sep 27, 2017 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, Pope Francis said that charity is central to the Church’s mission, and we are called to share it with the world, especially those in need.
“All of us, in truth, are called to water ourselves upon the rock that is the Lord and to quench the world’s thirst with the charity that springs from Him,” the Pope said Sept. 27.
“Charity is at the heart of the Church, it is the reason for its action, the soul of its mission.”
As Benedict XVI wrote in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate: “Charity is the main path of the Church’s social doctrine. Every responsibility and commitment outlined by this doctrine is attuned to charity which, according to Jesus’ teaching, is the synthesis of all the Law,” he said.
Pope Francis sent the message Wednesday for the 400th anniversary of the start of the charism of the Vincentian Family, a group of organizations founded by or under the inspiration of St. Vincent de Paul, whose feast is Sept. 27.
A 17th-century French priest, St. Vincent is known as the patron of Catholic charities for his apostolic work among the poor and marginalized.
“Inflamed by the desire to make Jesus known to the poor,” St. Vincent “intensely devoted” himself to the announcement of the Gospel, especially through missionary work, charity, and the care and formation of priests, Francis said.
In his message, he compared St. Vincent to a tiny mustard seed, which sprouted and spread through his charitable works, the priests he taught, and the religious orders he founded.
Like St. Vincent, “you are called to reach the peripheries of the human condition,” Pope Francis said, “to bring not your own capacities, but the Spirit of the Lord, ‘Father of the poor.’”
“He spreads you into the world as seeds that sprout on dry land, as a consolation balm for those who are hurt, as a fire of charity to warm up many hearts choked by abandonment and hardened because they are discarded.”
St. Vincent still speaks to us and to the Church today, his testimony inviting us to be on the road, working to sow the love of God in the hearts of others, even the unpleasant, the Pope said.
“I ask for the Church and for you the grace to find the Lord Jesus in the hungry brother, the thirsty, the stranger, the one stripped of clothing and dignity, the sick and imprisoned, but also the doubtful, the ignorant, the obstinate in sin, the afflicted, the offensive, the bad-tempered and the annoying.”
He also asked that from the “glorious wounds of Jesus,” the “dying seed that gives life,” and the “wounded rock from which water flows,” members of the Vincentian Family would find the strength and joy to go out of themselves and into the world, facing challenges with creativity.
Because “as St. Vincent said, ‘love is creative even to infinity.’”
“This is the way to follow,” the Pope said, “because the Church is always more and more mother and teacher of charity, growing and overflowing in mutual love towards all.”
“We ask for smallness of heart, full availability, and docile humility. It pushes us to fraternal communion between us and our courageous mission in the world.”
Vatican City, Sep 27, 2017 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, Pope Francis said that charity is central to the Church’s mission, and we are called to share it with the world, especially those in need.
“All of us, in truth, are called to water ourselves upon the rock that is the Lord and to quench the world’s thirst with the charity that springs from Him,” the Pope said Sept. 27.
“Charity is at the heart of the Church, it is the reason for its action, the soul of its mission.”
As Benedict XVI wrote in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate: “Charity is the main path of the Church’s social doctrine. Every responsibility and commitment outlined by this doctrine is attuned to charity which, according to Jesus’ teaching, is the synthesis of all the Law,” he said.
Pope Francis sent the message Wednesday for the 400th anniversary of the start of the charism of the Vincentian Family, a group of organizations founded by or under the inspiration of St. Vincent de Paul, whose feast is Sept. 27.
A 17th-century French priest, St. Vincent is known as the patron of Catholic charities for his apostolic work among the poor and marginalized.
“Inflamed by the desire to make Jesus known to the poor,” St. Vincent “intensely devoted” himself to the announcement of the Gospel, especially through missionary work, charity, and the care and formation of priests, Francis said.
In his message, he compared St. Vincent to a tiny mustard seed, which sprouted and spread through his charitable works, the priests he taught, and the religious orders he founded.
Like St. Vincent, “you are called to reach the peripheries of the human condition,” Pope Francis said, “to bring not your own capacities, but the Spirit of the Lord, ‘Father of the poor.’”
“He spreads you into the world as seeds that sprout on dry land, as a consolation balm for those who are hurt, as a fire of charity to warm up many hearts choked by abandonment and hardened because they are discarded.”
St. Vincent still speaks to us and to the Church today, his testimony inviting us to be on the road, working to sow the love of God in the hearts of others, even the unpleasant, the Pope said.
“I ask for the Church and for you the grace to find the Lord Jesus in the hungry brother, the thirsty, the stranger, the one stripped of clothing and dignity, the sick and imprisoned, but also the doubtful, the ignorant, the obstinate in sin, the afflicted, the offensive, the bad-tempered and the annoying.”
He also asked that from the “glorious wounds of Jesus,” the “dying seed that gives life,” and the “wounded rock from which water flows,” members of the Vincentian Family would find the strength and joy to go out of themselves and into the world, facing challenges with creativity.
Because “as St. Vincent said, ‘love is creative even to infinity.’”
“This is the way to follow,” the Pope said, “because the Church is always more and more mother and teacher of charity, growing and overflowing in mutual love towards all.”
“We ask for smallness of heart, full availability, and docile humility. It pushes us to fraternal communion between us and our courageous mission in the world.”
© Catholic World Report