Month: August 2018

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News Briefs

Hundreds gather for Marian pilgrimage to Pennsylvania town on fire

August 30, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Philadelphia, Pa., Aug 31, 2018 / 12:36 am (CNA).- Centralia, Pennsylvania, is on fire … literally: a coal fire has been raging underneath the town for more than 50 years, but a century-old church still stands, drawing hundreds of Catholics for an annual Marian pilgrimage.

“The town is essentially gone, for all intents and purposes dead, but the Church is what gives life,” said Father John Fields, communications director and vice-chancellor for the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

“Jesus Christ gives life to the whole location,” he told CNA.

On August 26, four bishops and more than 500 pilgrims gathered to celebrate the Feast of Assumption of Mary, known in the Eastern rites as the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Pilgrims came from nearby and as far away as Texas and Florida for the third annual pilgrimage at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Centralia, a nearly deserted town where a fire still burns up to 300 feet underground.  

Believed to be from an attempt to burn trash in a former strip mine, the fire began under Centralia in 1962. The fire stretches 8 miles and could last up to 250 more years, according to the Smithsonian Institute.

Most of Centralia has evacuated, Fr. Fields told CNA, but added that the church still stands on the solid rock upon which it was built by Ukranian miners in 1912. He said that tests have shown the church to be safe from the fires.

The Marian pilgrimage was coordinated by Father Michael Hustko, the pastor of the Ukrainian church, built on a hill overlooking the now smoldering town and which still has about 50 families who are parishioners.

Also in attendance were Bishop Kurt Burnette of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, Bishop Ronald Gainer of Harrisburg, Bishop John Bura of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, and Bishop Andriy Rabiy, apostolic administrator of the same archeparchy.

The event began with the celebration of Divine Liturgy, followed by the Akafist hymn, a poem of 24 stanzas composed by St. Roman the Melodist, which reflects on the earthly life of Jesus and the Mother of God, and the theological reality of the redemption of humanity.

Later in the day, a procession of candles was held as attendees prayed the Moleben, an eastern liturgical service of thanksgiving. A healing service was also held.

Participants were also welcome to pray a living rosary, which used a large set of beads held by numerous people. The rosary was prayed in front of an 18th century copy of the Icon of Our Lady of Pochaiv.

Divine Liturgy was led by Bishop Rabiy, who compared the pilgrimage to the mountain parish to the Transfiguration of Christ in the New Testament.

“Our Lord went up the mountain with Peter, James and John and was transfigured before their eyes. They experienced something special,” he said during the homily.

“Today, during this pilgrimage, gathered on this holy mountain, may each of you encounter the Divine. You come here to seek God’s grace. Say to Him, ‘I am here to listen. Lord, what do you have to tell me?’”

Bishop Burnette led the Moleben, reflecting on the theme of forgiveness and especially Mary’s willingness to forgive those who killed her Son.

“If Mary could forgive those people [who crucified her Son], you and I could forgive anyone,” he said, and prayed that this time be one of “fresh beginnings” for the pilgrims.

“Ask God’s help for the forgiveness of sins and of each other. Ask God’s help, pray for others and ask the Mother of God for her help.”

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News Briefs

Cheyenne diocese finds credible third allegation of child abuse by retired bishop

August 30, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Cheyenne, Wyo., Aug 30, 2018 / 07:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Diocese of Cheyenne announced Wednesday that it has found credible a third allegation of child sexual abuse committed by Emeritus Bishop Joseph Hart.

After the diocese announced in July that a canonical investigation had concluded there was “credible and substantiated” evidence that Bishop Hart had abused two Wyoming boys, “a third individual reported that he, too, was sexually abused by Bishop Hart in 1980,” the diocese said Aug. 29.

“The diocese reported the allegation to the Cheyenne Police Department and is cooperating with their investigation.”

The Cheyenne diocese said Bishop Hart declined to be interviewed as part of the investigation, and that the investigation’s findings were handed over to the Diocesan Review Board.

The review board found the allegation credible and substantiated, and the investigation has been forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“I commend the victim for having the courage to contact us. If anyone has been abused, no matter how long ago, I encourage you to come forward,” Bishop Steven Biegler of Cheyenne said.

“I want to listen to you and accompany you on a journey of healing. Recently, Pope Francis said of the sex abuse scandal, ‘We abandoned the little ones.’ As we move forward, we must heed the call of the Lord Jesus to be guardians of the least.”

Bishop Hart has denied accusations of abusing minors.
 
His first accusers came forward in 1989, when he was alleged to have abused boys while serving as a priest in Kansas City. Ten individuals named Hart in lawsuits related to child sexual abuse claims dating from the 1970s. These accusations were part of settlements the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph reached in 2008 and 2014, though Bishop Hart denied the accusations, the Missouri diocese said July 2.

Bishop Hart was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph in 1956, where he served until he was named an auxiliary bishop in Cheyenne in 1976, and appointed to lead the diocese two years later. He served as Bishop of Cheyenne until his resignation in 2001 at the age of 70.

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Essay

Abusing Zacchaeus

August 30, 2018 Dr. Leroy Huizenga 11

Fr. James Martin’s approaches to interpreting Scripture have a long pedigree in Western Christianity; they’re largely rooted in the modernism of liberal Protestantism. […]

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News Briefs

‘We deserve answers now’: 5,000 Catholic women pen letter to pope

August 30, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Aug 30, 2018 / 01:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A group of lay Catholic women have written an open letter to Pope Francis, demanding that he answer the questions raised by the recent allegations in the letter from former U.S. nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

In the opening of their letter, the women recall a quote from Pope Francis on the role of women in the Church: “You have said that you seek ‘a more incisive female presence in the Church,’ and that ‘women are capable of seeing things with a different angle from [men], with a different eye. Women are able to pose questions that we men are not able to understand.’”

“We write to you, Holy Father, to pose questions that need answers,” the letter notes.

Specifically, they are seeking answers to the questions raised in Vigano’s recent letter, which accused Pope Francis and other members of the Church hierarchy for covering up sexual abuse allegations against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The women’s questions for Pope Francis include if or when he was made aware of any sanctions allegedly placed on then-cardinal Theodore McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI, and whether he brought McCarrick back into public ministry despite knowing about these sanctions and accusations.

Asked these questions by journalists on his return flight from the recent World Meeting of Families in Ireland, Pope Francis responded by saying he “will not say a single word on this” and instead encouraged journalists to study the statement themselves and draw their own conclusions.

“To your hurting flock, Pope Francis, your words are inadequate,” the signers of the letter say, addressing the Pope’s response. “They sting, reminiscent of the clericalism you so recently condemned. We need leadership, truth, and transparency. We, your flock, deserve your answers now.”

“Please do not turn from us,” they ask in the letter. “You’ve committed yourself to changing clerical ways in the Church. That a cardinal would prey on seminarians is abhorrent. We need to know we can trust you to be honest with us about what happened. The victims who have suffered so greatly need to know they can trust you. Families, who will be the source of the Church’s renewal, need to know we can trust you, and thus trust the Church.”

The women who have signed the letter serve in a variety of positions and vocations within the Church, in both private and public life. They describe themselves as “deeply committed to our faith and profoundly grateful for Church teachings, the Sacraments, and the many good bishops and priests who have blessed our lives.”

They are “wives, mothers, single women, consecrated women, and religious sisters. We are the mothers and sisters of your priests, seminarians, future priests and religious. We are the Church’s lay leaders, and the mothers of the next generation. We are professors in your seminaries, and leaders in Catholic chanceries and institutions. We are theologians, evangelists, missionaries and founders of Catholic apostolates.”

“In short, we are the Church, every bit as much as the cardinals and bishops around you,” they say. The letter is signed, “With love for Christ and the Church.”

Some prominent signers of the letter include Mary Rice Hasson, the Kate O’Beirne Fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Professor Janet E. Smith, the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary; Leah Darrow, a Catholic speaker, author and evangelist; Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association; Kathryn Jean Lopez with the National Review Institute; and Obianuju Ekeocha, the founder and president of Culture of Life Africa.

Other signers include professors and faculty from Catholic institutions including Notre Dame, The Catholic University of America, and the University of St. Thomas, as well as women who are mothers of seminarians, homeschooling mothers, business owners, philosophers and psychologists.

The letter, dated August 30, 2018, is described as the personal initiative of the original signatories and was not organized or sponsored by any group or organization. It had 5,300 signatures as of press time.  

 

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