Clericalism at root of abuse scandals in Church, pope told Jesuits in Ireland

Cardinal Tagle at the beatification of Pauline Jaricot in Lyon, France, on May 22, 2022. / In Your Name/Diocèse de Lyon Flickr photostream.

Rome Newsroom, May 26, 2022 / 09:40 am (CNA).
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has said that the Church needs… […]

Rome, Italy, May 12, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- While a lot has changed since Mary’s appearances at Fatima 100 years ago, we can’t stop heeding Our Lady’s request to pray and offer sacrifices for the world, an expert on Marian theology has said.

“Fatima is a stepping-stone. But we shouldn’t be complacent. We have a very, very long way to go – in God’s time – and we do need to consecrate ourselves daily to this goal,” Fr. Paul Haffner told CNA May 8.

“This 100th anniversary of the apparitions teaches us that there has been a victory of Christ over sin and death, there has been a victory of his Mother within the Church, but we still have a very long way to go.”

A theology professor and author of more than 30 books, Fr. Haffner has also been a member of the Pontifical Academy of Mary since 2012.

One hundred years ago on May 13, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in a field in Fatima, Portugal. She brought with her requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret regarding the fate of the world.

Every local bishop since has approved the apparitions and deemed them worthy of belief, the highest recognition a Marian apparition can receive from the Church.

In her third apparition, Mary revealed to the shepherd children what came to be known as The Great Secret of Fatima. The first secret was a vision of hell which Mary allowed the children to see.

The second was a statement that World War I would end, and a prediction of another war that would start during the reign of Pius XI, if people continued to offend God and if Russia were not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.
        
According to Sr. Lucia, one of the visionaries who lived until 2005, the consecration was completed during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who several times attempted to fulfill the requirements of the Russia consecration.

It was finally considered fully complete after the consecration he made on March 25, 1984, as confirmed by Sr. Lucia.

“It’s true, the world has been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Church has made this consecration,” Fr. Haffner said.

“However, this must not be a static thing, it must be an ongoing process.” The consecration must continue, he explained, because the world we live in is still filled with many false ideologies and many false gods, all “which tempt women and men away from their true goal.”

“Whether these false ideologies are in the political sphere, the social sphere, the family sphere, the personal sphere, or in the educational sphere, they’re there,” he said, and we must fight against them.

At the time of Mary’s appearance in Portugal, the country was at war, like most of the rest of the world. In addition to the hardships of war, Catholics in the country were also facing a strong wave of anti-clericalism.

Catholic churches and schools were seized by the government, and the wearing of clerics in public, the ringing of church bells, and the celebration of popular religious festivals were banned. From 1911-1916, nearly 2,000 priests, monks and nuns were killed by anti-Christian groups.

In one way, Mary’s appearance in 1917, Fr. Haffner noted, was “a remedy for these terrible evils.”

“So in that sense, Our Lady remains, as it says in the Book of Revelation or the Apocolypse, the woman who is fighting against the powers of evil, against the dragon, against Satan.”

And we get to be a part of that fight, he said. “She gives her sons and daughters a chance, also, to win that battle through Christ her Son. But they have to be dedicated to her, to the Church, and to Christ. And the way of dedication is the way of prayer and sacrifice.”

Throughout salvation history, Mary’s role is often “unfolded” in the history of mankind, Fr. Haffner pointed out.

“In the history of mankind her role is unfolded in the various quiet little miracles and in the big revelations, like Lourdes, Fatima and La Salette, Our Lady of Walsingham,” he said, naming several other Marian apparitions affirmed as worthy of belief by the Church.

“All these different revelations and apparitions teach us of her maternal presence. Mary is a mother to us, she cares for us very tenderly, especially when things seem to go wrong.”

“Now things seem often to not go very well for humanity, so Mary is there to pick us up. As Pope Francis often says, ‘you know when you fall, try to get up immediately,’ but sometimes you can’t get up! You have to have a motherly hand, a motherly arm, to help you up.”

“And so often in history that hand is found in Mary, he explained. “And that is the link between the apparitions of Our Lady: Mary’s motherly hand helping us along the way – a pilgrim way.”

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CNA Staff, Mar 25, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- Church bells rang simultaneously across France at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, in a show of national unity amidst the COVID-19 outbreak and in commemoration of the Feast of the Annunciation. 

Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit said that the ringing of the church bells shows “that there is a communion between the people whom the message of the Gospel invites us to build,” in an interview published in the French magazine Le Parisien on Tuesday. 

Wednesday’s Feast of the Annunciation marks the Church’s celebration of the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Christ. In France, it also marked the ninth day of a national lockdown to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“In difficult times, it is the means to achieve unity, the unanimity of our country. Joy still lives in our hearts,” said Aupetit. 

Since the first confirmed case of coronavirus in France in January, there have been more than 25,000 additional cases, and over 1,300 deaths from the virus. 

On Twitter, the Archbishop of Paris encouraged Catholics and all French people to light a candle as a show of solidarity while the church bells were ringing. 

Many people posted videos of the bells ringing in their local villages. 

Church bells ringing in my village, as all over France «non pour appeler les fidèles à s’y rendre, mais pour manifester notre fraternité et notre espoir commun» pic.twitter.com/0kje2bNEgr

— Craig Drake (@csdrake) March 25, 2020

“Church bells ringing in my village, as all over France, ‘not to call the faithful to go there, but to show our fraternity and our common hope,’” tweeted Craig Drake. Dioceses in France suspended public Masses earlier this month, as mirroring similar restrictions in Italy, Spain, and the United States. 

#Églises #COVID2019
Sonnez, sonnez, cloches de nos clochers, cloches de nos églises de France!
Sonnez !
Et que la prochaine fois marque la fin de cette terrible pandémie! pic.twitter.com/gwNHzHqNVT

— Philippe GOSSELIN (@phgosselin) March 25, 2020

“Ring, ring, bells from our steeples, bells from our churches in France! Ring! And the next time, it will mark the end of this terrible pandemic!” tweeted Philippe Gosselin from the town of Saint-Lô in Manche. 

Churches of other denominations joined the Catholic churches in ringing their bells on Wednesday. A video taken by Stephen Brown shows the bells tolling at a Lutheran church in Courbevoie, near Paris. 

Church bells ring in France at 19:30 to support all those with Covid19 and those looking after them – in the background the local hospital pic.twitter.com/kHuv1Olpca

— Stephen Brown (@stephengbrown) March 25, 2020

In his interview with Le Parisien, Aupetit expressed hope that the suspension of Masses may lead to a renewed desire for faith among the French people. 

“When you are thirsty, you become more and more thirsty. And when water is given to us, we drink in abundance. We are currently weaned from this communion, so I hope that we will live it more intensely when the epidemic is over,” he said. 

Aupetit, who worked as a doctor for two decades before entering the priesthood, said that he is volunteering to treat the sick, and that fear of the virus was not a deterrent for him. 

“I even think I caught it,” he said, noting that about two weeks ago, he lost his sense of smell, which was a symptom of the novel coronavirus. 

“Fear does not prevent death, nor disease. The one who is afraid is unable to fight the virus,” he said. 

“In a situation of distress, you have to arm yourself to be able to face it. And if it’s my hour, it’s the one God chose.”

Aupetit also preached a message of hope in his interview, saying that Christian hope is one of the things that can come from something evil, especially in this season of Lent and preparation for Easter.

“We can imagine more fraternity, delicacy, civility, a different look on others and those who do not think like us. We are not quite in the worst with this virus, it can still get worse. But now is not the time to let go,” he said. 

“You have to be standing in hope. When Christ is crucified, we tell ourselves that everything is finished. Three days later, we celebrate his resurrection. The last word is not to death, but to life.” 

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