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Bogotá, Colombia, Jan 19, 2019 / 06:01 am (ACI Prensa).- Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota said that terror can never be the seed of justice and peace, following Thursday’s car bomb attack at a police academy in the Colombian capital.

The Jan. 17 attack which killed 21 has been attributed to the National Liberation Army (ELN), a left-wing guerilla group. Dozens more were injured, but most have been released from hospital.

“Death, violence and terror can never be the seed of justice and peace,” Cardinal Salazar said in a message posted on the Archdiocese of Bogota’s Twitter account.

“We reject this and every attack that violates the dignity of persons and society,” he added. Cardinal Salazar also expressed his “solidarity with the nation, the police, the victims and their families, and we implore the Lord for forgiveness and peace.”

A vehicle carrying 175 pounds of pentolite, a military-grade explosive, accelerated into the General Santander police academy after being stopped at a checkpoint. The pentolite detonated when the SUV struck a wall. The academy was holding a promotion ceremony for cadets.

Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez reported that the vehicle’s driver was José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez, the ELN’s top explosives expert, and that an accomplice had been arrested in Bogota.

Miguel Ceballos, High Commissioner for Peace, said the government will not dialogue with the ELN “until they hand over all the kidnapped people and completely renounce their criminal acts.”

Archbishop Oscar Urbina Ortega of Villavicencio, president of the Colombian bishops’ conference, stated that “every act of violence engenders more violence, which is why we reiterate the call to continue to work for reconciliation in the country. We pray for the victims. We stand in solidarity with their families and the national police.”

“I ask you to not lose heart in working to overcome enmities and creating bridges that lead us to fraternity in the family and in the various social environments,” he added.

The Military diocese also offered prayers for the victims, their families, and the officer training school.

In a telegram to Cardinal Salazar from Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis expressed his “deep sorrow for the victims who lost their lives in such an inhuman act.”

On the scene of the blast, the president of Colombia, Ivan Duque, said that the attack was “not just against young people, or the police, but against all of society.”

He said that what happened “was a demented terrorist attack which will not go unpunished,” and that
“we will act with unbending determination.”

Car bombings were once not uncommon in the Colombian conflict, which has been ongoing among the government, right-wing paramilitaries, and left-wing guerillas since 1964.

The conflict has abated since a 2016 peace deal between the government and the largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Duque has not taken up peace talks with the ELN.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

Saskatoon, Canada, Sep 12, 2017 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Mark Hagemoen of Mackenzie-Fort Smith was on Tuesday named as Bishop of Saskatoon, which covers a large portion of south-central Saskatchewan, one of Canada’s prairie provinces.

“Of course, I respond with obedience and enthusiasm to this new appointment, and I look forward to serving the People of God of the Diocese of Saskatoon as their new bishop. They have waited a year for this appointment, and I will strive to serve them to the best of my ability, with great help from Almighty God,” Bishop Hagemoen wrote in a Sept. 12 letter to the people of the Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese.

He added that he regrets having to leave the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, and that “the news comes at a time when we are in the midst of many developments and projects,” which will continue.

Bishop Hagemoen was born in Vancouver in 1961, and obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia in 1983. After completing his undergraduate, he travelled for a year throughout southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, before entering seminary.

He attended seminary at St. Peter’s in London, Ontario, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Vancouver in 1990. He served for 10 years as director of youth ministry, and as a parish pastor, vicar general, episcopal vicar, and head of two Catholic schools.

In 2007 he was named a monsignor.

He also studied youth ministry in the US, and earned a doctorate from Trinity Western University in 2007.

In 2013 he was appointed Bishop of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, and was consecrated a bishop. The Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese is centered in the Northwest Territories, and also includes parts of Nunavut and Saskatchewan.

His ministry has focused on Canada’s indigenous peoples, the new evangelization, youth ministry, and Catholic schools.

Bishop Hagemoen told the Saskatoon diocese’s publication that most Catholics in the Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese are indigenous, and that “In my whole way of approaching pastoral ministry, I have been shaped by walking with our Aboriginal people here. In terms of how I pastor, and how I approach things, that has been a real gift.”

He said that “The diocese of Saskatoon seems to be a very dynamic diocese, with a rich history, a strong Catholic legacy and culture, and I am looking forward to contributing to that legacy with all my might and energy, as well as I can, with the help of almighty God.”

Bishop Hagemoen was among the six bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories who issued guidelines in September 2016 directing “authentic and effective pastoral accompaniment” of the divorced-and-remarried.

A response to Pope Francis’ summons in Amoris laetitia for guidelines about pastoral accompaniment, the document clarified that the belief “that there has been a change in practice by the Church, such that now the reception of Holy Communion at Mass by persons who are divorced and civilly remarried is possible if they simply have a conversation with a priest” is “erroneous”.

Saskatoon’s last bishop, Donald Bolen, was transferred to the Archdiocese of Regina in July 2016.

[…]

Santiago, Chile, Oct 19, 2017 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, proposed last week five keys for pastoral education “to respond in depth to the current challenges of society.”

The cardinal participated in Chile’s Sixth National Congress on Catholic Education, Oct. 12-13, organized by the Chilean bishops’ conference and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

In his keynote address,  Cardinal Versaldi explained that education “must be careful to avoid  two  extreme and opposite dangers: that of an educational program imposed on the student without respecting his autonomy and requirements; and an educational program that simply goes along with whatever the  students ask for, or without any consideration for their personal growth.”

The cardinal then proposed five keys for education in Catholic schools:

Proclamation of the Christian life

“The Catholic school has both the right and duty to not only teach in consistency with its own values, but also to have an inner dynamic of  proclaiming and living the Christian life,” Cardinal Versaldi said.

“Such an educational program  becomes for believers in Christ an opportunity for  growth and the  integration of faith and reason and also for living out the life of the Church.”

For non-believers it is “an opportunity to better know the authentic Gospel message which their conscience has to then consider and  which they’re always  free to accept or not,” he said.

“It would be unjust to ask, in the name of tolerance for Catholic schools to take a neutral approach  in what they teach  and to not to be able to foster a religious way of life, while still respecting  people’s freedom, since the students  have decided to go to an  institution they already know is Catholic.”

The witness of charity

Cardinal Versaldi said a school community’s  witness must be “obviously noted for” its charity, which makes “the values conveyed through its teaching credible and attractive.”

“A Christian school community imbued with this charity is in and of itself the best means of pastoral ministry.”

Ongoing formation of teachers

The ongoing formation of professors in teaching methods and especially in “their spiritual growth  and their truly living out their faith … is not a waste of  time or effort which takes way from their actual  teaching,” Cardinal Versaldi said.

Such formation can make both the faculty and the administration able to “credibly engage with and also to be a partner in dialogue with civil society and the state schools in order to create a Chilean society founded on the  shared values of respect for cultural and religious diversity.”

Working together with the Church

Cardinal Versaldi said the school’s pastoral ministry must work side by side with the local Church and parishes so that they “mutually help each other out in their different  roles” without “imposing  on the school the responsibilities that mostly belong to the parish or vice versa.”

In addition “it is important to foster a consistent witness, including that of their lives outside the classroom, such that the Church community would think the school a living example of her realities.”

Providence as a guide

“Schools need to deepen their knowledge of what’s going on in society in both its positive and negative aspects, discerning  the signs of the times, animated not by a paralyzing pessimism but rather with Christian hope founded on the faith that human history is always guided by Divine Providence despite people’s free will,” the cardinal stated.

“It is important to maintain this faith and translate it into the work of education as an overriding way of acting in order to become protagonists in a true renewal of the social scene without letting oneself be manipulated by the various political factions.”

“Thus the Catholic school will always be on the forefront of dealing with the new challenges that the world must face such as care for the environment and immigration that politics in general tends to discount, marginalizing more people and creating dangers for future generations,” Cardinal Versaldi concluded.

[…]