Why these Catholics are taking the slow boat to Panama

Alcalá de Henares, Spain, Mar 30, 2017 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Spanish bishop last week published criteria for the accompaniment of the divorced-and-remarried, inviting them to a “catechumenal itinerary” by which they come to live according to Christ’s words.

“The Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and to which he introduces us in the sacraments,” Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alcalá de Henares wrote March 20 in Accompanying the baptized who have divorced and live in another union, a set of provisions for his diocese.

The bishop began by noting the interest in and debate over pastoral care for the divorced-and-remarried  which has increased since the publication of Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.

He first recommended the indications found in a vademecum produced by Fr. José Granados, Dr. Stephan Kampowski, and Fr. Juan José Pérez-Soba, of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The guide had been presented at a family congress in Alcalá de Henares March 10-12.

“The Church in her beginnings, when she saw that many asked for the sacrament of baptism while living a life far removed from Christian demands, proposed a catechumenal itinerary which included an important change in their mode of living which had to be verified in order to access the sacraments,” Bishop Reig then said.

“She did so with the conviction that the approach to the Christian community and to her way of life was the necessary support so that the person could respond to the grace of God and convert to the live proper to a Christian.”

He also explained that “penitential itineraries” were also developed “which permitted to be received again fully into the Christian community the baptized who, having moved away from life according to the Gospel, repented of their sins.”

The bishop stated that “in this sense and as a principle to avoid any gradualness of the law which the Synod of Bishops rejected and which Pope Francis disqualified in his apostolic exhortation, I encourage all our divorced brethren in irregular situations to draw near to the Christian community in order to participate in her life and accompaniment.”

By doing so they can “thus set out on a path which, step by step, brings them closer to Christ, going deeper into the Gospel of marriage, instituted by God in the beginning as an indissoluble union of man and woman and transformed by Christ into a living and efficacious sign of his love for the Church.”

“The goal of this path will be for these baptized persons to be able to live in accord with the words of Jesus,” Bishop Reig wrote. “Only when they are disposed to take this step will they be able to receive sacramental absolution and the Holy Eucharist.”

He emphasized that “the objective conditions required by the Magisterium of the Church in order to be able to be admitted to the reception of the sacraments remain in force. These objective conditions were expressed by Pope St. John Paul II in the exhortation Familiaris consortio 84, ratified by Benedict XVI (Sacramentum caritatis 29) and contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1650. Moreover, in 2000 the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts published its Declaration Concerning the Admission to Holy Communion of Faithful Who are Divorced and Remarried.”

“It is by following these principles that we are to receive the magisterium of Pope Francis expressed in chapter eight of the exortation Amoris laetitia. That is, in continuity with the preceding magisterium (cf. Amoris laetitia chapter 3).”

Bishop Reig said that Pope Francis’ proposal “consists in promoting a greater outreach” to the divorced-and-remarried and “in promoting an itinerary that permits those who are in irregular situations to return to a life in conformity with the words of Jesus.”

“The discernment which the Pope asks of us refers to the path which we are called to travel, and not to the goal we must reach.”

He added, quoting from Familiaris consortio, that it is necessary to remember particularly that on the basis of Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the Church does not admit the divorced-and-remarried to Communion, because “their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist … Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they ‘take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.’”

“That is an objective requirement which does not admit of exception and whose fulfillment must be the object of careful discernment in the internal forum; no priest may be considered to have the authority to dispense with this requirement,” Bishop Reig taught.

He noted that the diocesan office for family counseling and its tribunal are both available as an aid to priests and families dealing with irregular situations.

Amoris laetitia “encourages us, as was already affirmed in Familiaris consortio 84, to open paths of accompaniment which will help these persons to take steps to have the capacity to live the sacramental truth of their situation,” the bishop concluded.

“This is the concrete way to live mercy toward these brethren, offering them a Love which heals their wounds and permits them to live the plenitude of Communion with God and with the Church.”

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Norwich, England, Aug 29, 2017 / 02:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday EWTN opened its first studio and office in the U.K. at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, emphasizing its role in supporting the Church’s evangelization in the region.

In an Aug. 29 statement on the studio launch, EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw called the opening of the facility “a particularly important” step for the network’s continued development in the U.K.

The new studio, he said, “will allow us to greatly expand our capacity to produce programming for our European channels as well as to more easily incorporate content from the U.K. into our other channels around the world.”

He said it’s appropriate that the new studio sits just steps away from the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, which annually draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the U.K. and the world, and which for centuries “has been one of the most important centers of Catholicism in Britain.”

With such strong pilgrim activity, Warsaw said he is “very happy that EWTN now has a presence in this extraordinary place and can share what happens here with our audience around the globe.”

Located in a converted house in the village of Walsingham, about 30 miles northwest of Norwich, the studio includes a street-level reception area and welcome center for visitors, where pilgrims can watch clips of EWTN’s most popular television shows, films, and documentaries.

One of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe, the Walsingham shrine dates back to 1061, and is widely referred to as “England’s Nazareth.” Both Anglican and a Catholic chapels are located at the site, which has become a hub for ecumenical prayer and devotion.

Inspiration for the shrine came when a devout English noblewoman, Richeldis de Faverches, prayed to undertake a special task in honor of Our Lady.

As the story goes, in answer to the woman’s request, Mary appeared to her in a vision and took her to Nazareth, showing her where the Annunciation occurred. Mary then asked De Faverches to build a replica of the house in Walsingham to serve as a perpetual memorial of that moment.

The shrine was built and a religious community put in charge of it. In 1150, a priory was built by the Augustinian Canons, and eventually Walsingham became one of the largest, most well-known shrines in Medieval Christendom.

However, during the English Reformation, the priory was handed over to the commissioners of King Henry VIII in 1538, and the highly venerated statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was burned along with the shrine.

As a result, pilgrimages to the site ceased, and wouldn’t pick up again for another 300 years, until after the Catholic Emancipation of 1829.

In 1896, Charlotte Pearson Boyd purchased a small, 14th century chapel called the “Slipper Chapel” – one of the last en-route to Walsingham – and restored it for Catholic use. A year later, in 1897, Leo XIII issued a rescript stating that the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham would be restored.

Official pilgrimages started up again that same year, and visits to the site increased as greater numbers of pilgrims began filing into both the chapel and the shrine for devotion.

Walsingham currently attracts some 150,000 pilgrims during peak seasons.

In 2015, on the Feast of the Holy Family, Pope Francis gave the shrine the title of a minor basilica.

Warsaw voiced his hope in his statement that the opening of EWTN’s studio there would help to form a “strategic collaboration” with the shrine in order to help the site carry out “its mission to evangelize.”

Present alongside Warsaw at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new shrine was the shrine’s rector, Monsignor John Armitage, and Bishop Alan Hopes of East Anglia.

Msgr. Armitage said Walsingham “is very much the crossroads of the Catholic Church in England, and has been for over 950 years.”

“This is a place where pilgrims come from all over the country and indeed all over the world,” he said, explaining that the Church itself “needs to be at the crossroads.”

For an organization dedicated to communications such as EWTN, “to be at a place where people are coming from all sort of different aspects of the life of the Church is particularly important.”

“So we are delighted as a shrine to be able to welcome EWTN to come here as an organization in their own right, but at this place where so many pilgrims come from all over the world.”

Bishop Hopes also spoke about the new studio, saying the facility “will certainly be a center for evangelization.”

“EWTN right at the front of evangelization in the media…it enters people’s hopes, it enables them to join in the prayer and worship life of the Church,” he said. “It means that people can see the teaching aspects of the faith, so it’s a real mission in itself.

Just as Richeldis de Faverches responded to Mary’s wish by building a shrine in honor of the place where the Annunciation took place, EWTN will do the same in terms of building the Church, he said, explaining that the organization “always contributed (to the Church in England), but it’s assisting in that building up of the Kingdom, that proclamation of the Gospel.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster sent a letter for the occasion, which was read aloud by Bishop Hopes at the ceremony.

Cardinal Nichols offered his gratitude for the addition of the studio, which he called a “valuable media center in the heart of our National Shrine.”

He praised the work of the media, noting that over the past 950 years “Walsingham has been a place of pilgrimage, proclaiming the joy of the Annunciation.”

“In this new chapter of its history, I welcome the opportunity for the shrine and EWTN to work together as servants of the New Evangelization,” he said, adding that he is looking forward to visiting the studios himself while in Walsingham for the Westminster pilgrimage in October.

All television and radio channels EWTN produces for the U.K. and Ireland are currently available on the Sky satellite platform, and cable and video streaming platforms throughout the area. The network also transmits two additional television channels for the European continent.

The Walsingham studio in particular was made possible thanks to the work of Saint Clare Media-EWTN, Ltd., the network’s non-profit affiliate in Britain. They conduct marketing, fundraising, and the production of programming for EWTN’s radio services in the U.K., and they are also create and distribute news content in collaboration with EWTN’s global news outlets.

Warsaw joined EWTN in 1991 and worked in senior management positions in television production, satellite operations and technical services. In 2000 he became president of EWTN, and in 2009 he assumed the post of CEO. In 2013 he was named chairman of the board.

EWTN was founded launched in 1981 by Mother Angelica of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. The largest religious media network in the world, it reaches more than 268 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories.

In addition to 11 television channels in multiple languages, EWTN platforms include radio services through shortwave and satellite radio, SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 AM and FM affiliates. EWTN publishes the National Catholic Register, operates a religious goods catalogue, and in 2015 formed EWTN Publishing in a joint venture with Sophia Institute Press. Catholic News Agency is also part of the EWTN family.

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CNA Staff, Jun 17, 2020 / 03:00 am (CNA).- When Paul Fulgoni heard the news about the coronavirus pandemic spreading across Europe, he decided that his small electronics company needed to leap into action.

KT Electronics, his firm on the outskirts of … […]