Month: January 2018

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Pence in Israel: US is committed to persecuted Christians, peace process

January 23, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Jerusalem, Jan 23, 2018 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed America’s commitment to both peace and persecuted Christians during his four-day trip to Israel and the Middle East, which concluded on Tuesday.

In a Jan. 22 speech to the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature, Pence confirmed that the U.S. government intends to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019.

“Our President made his decision…we believe that his decision is in the best interests of peace. By finally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the United States has chosen fact over fiction. And fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace,” said Pence, who added that America will support a two-state solution if both Israel and Palestine are in agreement.

On Dec. 6, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Israel has traditionally always recognized Jerusalem as its capital. However, Palestinians claim that the eastern portion of the city is the capital of the future Palestinian state. In recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the U.S. is the first country to do so since the state was established in 1948.

As a result of the announcement, Pence’s trip to the Middle East was postponed, taking on a new tone and focus.

Pence had posted on Twitter on Dec. 4, “Important dialogue with Bashar Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil, about @POTUS’ commitment to directly assist persecuted Christians & religious minorities in Iraq. I’m heading to the Middle East this month to discuss U.S. plans to accelerate funding those impacted in the region.”

However, following Trump’s Dec. 6 announcement, the Egyptian Coptic patriarch Tawadros II and other religious leaders stated that they would not meet with Pence.

Thirteen religious leaders in the region signed an open letter warning that the move would only lead to “increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, moving us father from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division.”

The announcement was also met with opposition from the Vatican, which has long called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

With stops in both Jordan and Egypt in additional to Israel, Pence cut his formerly planned visits to Bethlehem and the West Bank during his rescheduled four-day January trip this week.

Pence did have a chance to speak about U.S. plans to aid persecuted Christians towards the end of his speech to the Israeli parliament. He told Israeli lawmakers that the U.S. is dedicated to its assistance of Christians and other religious minorities in the region.

“We will also support faith leaders in this region and across the world, as they teach their disciples to practice love, not hate. And we will help persecuted peoples, who have suffered so much at the hands of ISIS and other terrorist groups,” he said.

“To this end, the United States has redirected funding from ineffective relief efforts. And, for the first time, we are providing direct support to Christian and other religious minorities as they rebuild their communities after years of repression and war.

“The United States has already committed more than $110 million to assist Christian and other religious minorities across the wider Middle East.”

The vice president rounded out his trip with a personal visit to the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Reflecting on his trip, Pence wrote of Israel on Twitter, “I never fail to leave without a sense our faith has been renewed – our faith in God, but also our faith in the people of Israel & their commitment to freedom, security & peace.”

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The complicated case of China’s Catholic bishops

January 23, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Beijing, China, Jan 23, 2018 / 03:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s efforts to resolve the split between underground Chinese bishops and the government-recognized Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association face another challenge, as an aging bishop faithful to Rome has reportedly declined a Vatican request to retire, to be replaced by a bishop favored by the Chinese government.

The Church in China is split between an underground Catholic Church and the officially recognized Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Every bishop recognized by Beijing must be a member of the association.
 
The Holy See’s negotiations with the Chinese government could eventually lead to Vatican recognition of seven illicitly ordained bishops aligned with Beijing. The Holy See could be pursuing China’s official recognition of 20 bishop candidates appointed by the Holy See, some of whom have already been secretly ordained, in addition to state recognition of up to 40 bishops in the underground Catholic community.
 
Many underground bishops, priests and lay faithful have faced persecution and harassment.
 
In December 2016, the Holy See asked 88-year-old Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou in southern Guangdong province to retire so that an illicitly ordained excommunicated bishop could take his place and be recognized by the Vatican, Asia News reports.
 
However, the Vatican-recognized bishop reportedly refused the delegation’s request that he retire.
 
The Holy See had previously asked Bishop Zhuang to resign in an Oct. 26, 2017 letter. A church source in Guangdong, who asked not to be named, told Asia News that at the time of the letter Bishop Zhuang “refused to obey and rather ‘carry His Cross’ for being disobedient.”
 
The bishop was secretly ordained in 2006 with Vatican approval.The Chinese government does not recognize the ordination, and considers the bishop to be a priest. The government supports Bishop Huang Bingzhang, a member of China’s parliament, called the National People’s Congress, for Zhuang’s position. This bishop was excommunicated in 2011 when he accepted episcopal ordination without the Vatican’s permission.
 
In December the elderly Bishop Zhuang was reportedly escorted to Beijing, despite poor health and cold weather, where he met separately with leaders of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, officials from China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, and the Vatican delegation.
 
If Bishop Zhuang resigned, the Holy See delegation reportedly said, he could nominate three priests, one of whom Bishop Huang would choose as his vicar general.
 
“Bishop Zhuang could not help his tears on hearing the demand,” Asia News’ source said, explaining “it was meaningless to appoint a vicar general, who is still a priest that Bishop Huang could remove him anytime.”
 
The controversy is part of a delicate diplomatic effort to advance Vatican-Chinese relations while also considering the circumstances of underground Catholics. Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli is responsible for the negotiations and was identified by Asia News as head of the Vatican delegation.
 
Even bishops in the patriotic association can be faithful to the Holy See, and they sometimes bristle against the association. Shanghai’s Auxiliary Bishop Taddeus Ma Daqin was jointly approved for ordination by the Holy See and the Chinese government, but announced his resignation from the patriotic association at his July 2012 ordination Mass. He was immediately placed under house arrest. Though he later appeared to back away from his stance against the association, he still faced isolation.
 
Initially eight bishops illicitly ordained as part of the patriotic association were awaiting recognition from the Holy See, but one of them passed away last year.
 
For its part, the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping is pursuing an effort to “Sinicize” religion. In his role as general secretary of the Communist Party, last October, Jinping called for “new approaches” to religious and ethnic affairs.
 
“The gist is to demand all religions to uphold an independent principle and follow the leadership of the Community Party,” Asia News said.
 
Other arrangements to reunify the country’s licit and illicit bishops are underway in the Diocese of Mindong in China’s eastern Fujian province. Its ordinary, Bishop Joseph Guo Xijin, is an underground Catholic who was detained for a month before Holy Week in 2017.
 
Citing local sources, Asia News said the Vatican delegation has asked the bishop to voluntarily accept a position as coadjutor bishop under Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu, one of the seven illicitly ordained bishops favored by the government. This was also among the conditions Chinese officials had proposed to Bishop Guo during his detention.

According to canon law, coadjutor bishops have the right to succeed the bishop in their diocese, meaning that, in principle, Zhan could eventually resume the leadership of a diocese.
 
Bishop Zhan did not confirm the meeting to Asia News or discuss the recognition process in detail, but said there are regular meetings between Vatican and Chinese officials about the negotiations.
 
Two leading cardinals in the region have different views of Vatican diplomacy in China.
 
In a February 2017 article for the Hong Kong’s Sunday Examiner newspaper, Cardinal John Tong Hon of Hong Kong said the illicitly ordained bishops are willing to show their obedience to the Pope. He voiced optimism that the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association could transform into a more voluntary body.
 
In May 2017, the Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen voiced skepticism of the Vatican’s current diplomatic approach towards China. In his view, the Pope’s advisors are “giving bad advice.” He doubted the goodwill of the government.
 
“They are still controlling the Church and they want to control it even more,” he said.
 
However, Cardinal Zen has also voiced optimism about the clergy of the Chinese-recognized Catholic association.
 
“The majority of the priests and bishops in the official church, they may, in their heart, still (be) very much united with the universal church, but they are under tight control,” he told CNA in February 2017. 

 

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Which Catholics oppose abortion? A closer look at the data

January 23, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2018 / 02:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A recent Pew study shows that support for legal abortion varies widely among religious groups, with Catholics falling somewhere in the middle when it comes to beliefs about legal abortion.

Among Catholics in the United States surveyed in the study, 48 percent said they were in favor of legal abortion, while 47 percent said they were opposed to it and 5 percent said they didn’t know.

Unitarian Universalists are the most likely religious group to support legal abortion at 90 percent, while Jehovah’s Witnesses were the least likely to support, it at 18 percent, according to the study.

Among both atheists and agnostics, 87 percent support legal abortion; as do 83 percent of Jews; 82 percent of Buddhists; 68 percent of Hindus; 55 percent of Muslims; and 27 percent of Mormons. Among Orthodox Christians, 53 percent support legal abortion.

The numbers may be surprising, as the Catholic Church is one of the most outspoken opponents of legalized abortion in the U.S. and teaches that abortion under any circumstance is a grave sin.

However, a closer look at other available data for Catholics helps to explain some of this discrepancy.

Overall, “the more frequently you go to Mass the more likely you are to oppose to oppose abortion,” Mark Gray, a senior research associate with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) out of Georgetown University, told CNA.

However, responses vary significantly depending on the frequency of Mass attendance of the respondent as well as on the phrasing of poll questions about abortion, according to data from the General Social Survey analyzed by CARA.

When asked if they would support abortion if a woman wants it for any reason, 85 percent of frequent Mass attendees (those who go weekly) said they would not support abortion, while 56 percent of Catholics who attend Mass less than monthly said they would oppose abortion if a woman wants it for any reason.

Responses changed the most among Catholics when were asked whether they would support abortion in situations in which the “woman’s health is seriously endangered.”

When posed this question, 26 percent of weekly Mass attendees said they would oppose abortion in this circumstance, compared with 5 percent of infrequent Mass attendees saying the same.

The discrepancy between these two different sets of responses may be attributable to a misunderstanding of the principle of double effect, an aspect of moral theology which can be used in evaluating acts which will have multiple effects.

The principle of double effect states that an act which is not inherently evil may be chosen for a good end, even if it is foreseen that this act will have an additional, evil effect, which is not disproportionate to the good end. The actor chooses the positive end, and tolerates the evil effect as a consequence of achieving that good end. The act may never be chosen for the sake of the evil effect.

Therefore, in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, a physician may licitly choose the act of removing the affected area of the mother’s fallopian tubes to achieve the end of saving her life. The consequent death of the embryo or fetus owing to its removal is a foreseen, but unchosen, side effect of that act.

This principle of double effect is sometimes also invoked (incorrectly) to justify an abortion performed to save the life of the mother. However, the principle of double effect does not apply in this case, because the act of abortion is the direct killing of an innocent – an inherently evil act which is proscribed in all cases. Even if the act of abortion is chosen as an end to the means of saving the mother’s life, the act is itself nevertheless evil.

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Dairy farm to the episcopate: Stockton gets a new bishop

January 23, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2018 / 05:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday the Vatican announced that Bishop Myron Joseph Cotta, who grew up on a dairy farm and has until now served as Auxiliary bishop of Sacramento, has been tapped to take the reins in the Diocese of Stockton.

In a Jan. 23 communique, the Vatican announced that Cotta will be taking over for Bishop Stephen Blaire, who has passed the age of 75, the when bishops are traditionally required to retire.

Born March 21, 1953, in Dos Palos, Cali., Cotto grew up on a dairy farm in Merced County and attended public school, graduating from Dos Palos High, according to a biography on the Sacramento diocese’s website.

After graduation, Cotta obtained an associate’s degree from West Hills Junior College in 1973. He entered St. John’s College Seminary in Camarillo in 1980 to finish his undergraduate studies. From there, he entered major seminary where he finished his theological education and received a Master’s degree in Divinity.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Fresno in 1987. After his ordination, Cotta carried out several pastoral assignments, including St. Anthony parish in Atwater; the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Laton; and the Shrine of Our Lady of Miracles in Gustine.

In July 1999 he was named Vicar General for the diocese of Fresno, and since that time has also served in various capacities, such as Moderator of the Curia, Vicar for Clergy, Director of Continuing Education of the Clergy, supervisor of the Safe Environment Program and director of the office for the Propagation of the Faith.

Cotta was named “Chaplain to His Holiness” in 2002, and “Prelate of Honor” in 2009, receiving the title “Monsignor.”

He then served as diocesan administrator for Fresno from 2010-2012 after the passing of the late Bishop John Steinbock. In 2014 Cotta was named Auxiliary Bishop of Sacramento. He was ordained March 25, 2014.

Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cotta also serves as part of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs. In addition to English, he also knows Spanish and Portuguese.

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Belgian deacon on trial for murder

January 22, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Bruges, Belgium, Jan 23, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Ivo Poppe, a 61-year old Catholic deacon in Belgium, went on trial this week under the suspicion of killing at least ten people, including multiple family members.

In 2014, Poppe was arrested after tell… […]

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Damascus bombing kills 9 in Christian districts

January 22, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Damascus, Syria, Jan 22, 2018 / 06:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An estimated nine people were killed in a bombing on Monday afternoon in Damascus. The shelling targeted the Bab Touma and al-Shaghour districts, which are historically Christian areas, and several churches were damaged as well.

At least 18 additional people in Old Damascus were injured in the bombings.

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

A bomb reportedly caused “severe damage” to the Maronite cathedral in Damascus. According to Archbishop Samir Nassar, the bomb also knocked out water and electricity.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>From Archbishop Samir of Damascus &quot; Another bomb hit the Archdiocesan complex which includes the Cathedral at 14h today January 22nd . There is severe damage . We are without water and electricity. <br>3 bombs not far from here have claimed 15 victims.<br>We pray to the Lord.&quot; <a href=”https://twitter.com/acn_uk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@acn_uk</a></p>&mdash; Edmund Adamus (@EdmundPAdamus) <a href=”https://twitter.com/EdmundPAdamus/status/955450206018994176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>BREAKING NEWS: Another bomb hit the Maronite Archdiocesan buildings in Damascus, Syria today, 22 January at 14:00 – damage is severe. 3 bombs close by claimed 15 victims. Please pray for them <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Prayforus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Prayforus</a></p>&mdash; Aid to the Church (@acn_uk) <a href=”https://twitter.com/acn_uk/status/955464058970558465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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This is not Archbishop Samir’s first brush with death this month: a bomb hit his bedroom Jan. 8. He survived unscathed due to an extremely well-timed trip to the bathroom before the bombing began.

The Maronites are an Eastern Catholic Church that is in full communion with Rome. There are about 3 million Maronites in the world. Although the church originated in the Levant, there are now significant Maronite populations in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. The Maronites have faced persecution throughout their history.

The Syrian civil war began nearly seven years ago, in March 2011. More than 400,000 people have been killed. At least 4.8 million have become refugees, and another 8 million have been internally displaced.

What began as demonstrations against the nation’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has become a complex fight among the Syrian regime; moderate rebels; Kurds; and Islamists such as Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State.

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