Month: November 2018

Detroit, Mich., Nov 2, 2018 / 04:00 am (CNA).- A year after Detroit’s archbishop released a letter outlining a plan for his diocese’ revitalization, the diocese is working to put his words into action with a campaign called “Unleash the Gospel.”

The archdiocese held a year of prayer in 2014, asking the Holy Spirit to revitalize their diocese, which is facing a steady decline in practicing Catholics. In 2016 the diocese held a synod, a meeting of lay Catholics, priests, deacons, and religious, to discuss evangelization, the challenges facing the diocese, and potential solutions.

Communication director Edmundo Reyes told CNA that he hopes the archdiocese’ new initiative, which is primarily based around short videos, will encourage parishes, individuals and families to cultivate a missionary attitude.

Reyes said more than 550 volunteers plan to encourage parishioners at all 218 parishes Nov. 3-4 to sign up for the Archdiocese’ daily “Unleash the Gospel” emails. There will also be reflection booklets available for those without a smartphone or computer.

The initial goal, Reyes said, is to encourage parishioners to spend five minutes in reflection and prayer per day for six days, guided by short videos emailed to them the day after they sign up. Reyes hopes the videos will encourage parishioners to reflect on what it means to be a Church “on mission.”

He said the initiative is not primarily about “social justice,” although helping people, especially the poor, is a key part of the Archdiocese’ revitalization. Rather he hopes the videos and the initiative in general will refocus people on the “original issue” of Christianity, which is proclaiming the Gospel.

“It’s about us understanding that the main mission of the Church is to share the Gospel with others. That’s the wrong that need to be righted,” Reyes said. “The videos are trying to explain how to do that.”

Archbishop Allen Vigneron laid out some of the particular obstacles to evangelization in the Archdiocese of Detroit his 2017 letter. He wrote that these challenges have contributed to “a widespread pessimism of the possibility for authentic renewal.”

“For several decades the number of practicing Catholics has been in steady decline, a significant factor leading to many painful closings and mergings of parishes and schools, which has in turn caused more people to drift away in discouragement or frustration,” the Archbishop wrote.

“The number of active priests has also dropped considerably. In the last half century our metro area has suffered from urban blight, economic decline, racial tensions, family breakdown, substance abuse, and crime.”

Some solutions the archbishop offered in his letter had been discussed at the diocesan synod. They included an emphasis on repentance, personal testimonies, utilizing new media, and witnessing to faith within families.

In light of these challenges and using the archbishop’s letter as a guide, Reyes said the goal of the “Unleash the Gospel” initiative is to move from a focus maintenance of problems to an emphasis on outward-focused, mission oriented Church. He said a lot of archdiocesan parishes have already embraced the call to action, including Our Lady of Good Counsel parish in Plymouth, which he described as a very vibrant parish that is already cultivating a missionary atmosphere.

“[Jesus is] asking us to step up and share the Gospel with others,” Reyes said.

“It’s about evangelization, it’s about sharing the Gospel, it’s about being joyful missionary disciples, and to do things in a different way.”

Reyes said the diocese’ initiative was in the works before the current sexual abuse crisis began during summer 2018. He said his team made changes to at least one of the videos to emphasize the need for missionary renewal in the face of crisis in the Church.

“It is clear to us that we are called to “unleash the Gospel” not in spite of the crisis, but because of the crisis,” Reyes said.

“Sin is real, and it’s present in our society. We can see that very clearly…there’s sin in our Church as well. This is why the time to “unleash the Gospel” is now. This is why we should bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to people, to ourselves and to our Churches.”

Michigan’s Attorney General announced an investigation in September into all of Michigan’s eight diocese to look into any potential coverup of sexual abuse, which Vigneron said he welcomed.

The archdiocese will launch a new diocesan website in the coming days, and Reyes said other initiatives are in the works, including podcasts and training for all parishes to be “radically hospitable” to Catholics returning to the Church at Christmas. The archdiocese plans to launch a separate magazine and website for Unleash the Gospel in 2019.

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Philadelphia, Pa., Nov 1, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- Foster parents in Philadelphia will be in court next week, asking a judge to allow a Catholic agency to continue placing kids in foster care during a lawsuit that charges the city has unjustly discrimin… […]

Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2018 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A plan floated by President Donald Trump to end “birthright citizenship” through an executive order is likely unconstitutional, according to a law professor at The Catholic University of America.

“This idea that you can pass this kind of a fundamental change to the Constitution through the signing of a pen…does not comport with the Constitution,” CUA law professor Stacy Brustin told CNA.

In a recent interview with news site Axios, Trump said that the U.S. is “the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States,” according to an Oct. 30 Axios report.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end,” Trump added.

The president reportedly said that he would soon end “birthright citizenship” through an executive order.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is generally understood to establish that citizenship is conferred upon all children born in the United States, regardless of the legal status or citizenship of their parents.

Brustin told CNA that the president is not empowered to change the Constitution through an executive order.

“There are two very clear and established ways of changing the Constitution that are actually articulated in the Constitution,” she explained.

“Either two-thirds of both houses of Congress have to pass a proposed amendment, and then send that amendment to the states for ratification by three-quarters of the states,” or else a Constitutional convention must be held. Typically, the Congressional route has been used for the passage of previous amendments.

If Trump were to pursue an amendment to change the practice of birthright citizenship, Brustin said, it would likely be “extremely difficult,” pointing to the failed attempts at passing other amendments, such as the unratified Equal Rights Amendment.  

The practice of jus soli, or “birthright” citizenship is fairly common throughout North and South America, while no European country grants immediate citizenship to all those born on its soil. In most European countries, the conferral of citizenship depends upon the legal status of a child’s parents, regardless of where the child happens to be born. Some countries permit citizenship to be granted after a child has resided in the country for a set number of years, but this practice varies widely.

The Fourteenth Amendment was passed shortly after the Civil War, to ensure that former slaves could not be denied citizenship. The amendment says that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Trump’s remarks appeared to endorsing a minority perspective on the amendment centered around the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” While some argue that this phrase is meant to exclude people who are in the country illegally, Brustin disagreed.

“’Subject to the jurisdiction’ has been interpreted by our court as meaning ‘present in the United States,’” explained Brustin, with the sole exception being the children born to diplomats.

“But otherwise, those who are physically present are subject to the laws of the United States. That’s generally that’s what that means,” she said.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Bustin is the director of CUA’s Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Clinic. Brustin said that the president’s words have created fear among the immigrant community she works with at the clinic.

“Whether the law is changed or not, there will be fear among those in the immigrant community that children born in the United States to immigrant parents will not be able to become citizens,” she said.

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Orange, Calif., Nov 1, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On any typical weekend, the white cassock-clad priests of the Norbertine order from St. Michael’s Abbey in southern California preach in about 35 parishes, sharing the fruits of their contemplative and communal life with the Church.

As canons regular, they are religious priests who live in community and share a charism and common life of prayer. During the week, they are teachers and preachers in area schools, colleges, and catechetical programs.

But the order felt called to bring their preaching and formation beyond the bounds of their abbey and apostolates in the Orange County and Los Angeles areas, and so on All Saints’ Day they launched a digital library called “The Abbot’s Circle” which will provide video, audio, and written resources on the Catholic faith.

“Many people, after they’ve gone through Catechism or Catholic school, they lack further formation in their faith,” Father Justin Ramos, O.Praem., a priest of the order and a Latin teacher, told CNA.

“The Abbot’s Circle is really a great means for people to be able to hear homilies during the week, not just on Sunday, or read reflections and learn about their faith in the various ways in which we offer it.”

The Abbot’s Circle website includes video, podcasts and written reflections, as well as chant recordings and audio lectures and a documentary on the fathers called “City of Saints.”

The digital library, which is free for the first two weeks of its launch, will be a subscription service that donors will be able to access for a monthly donation of $10 a month or more.

Shane Giblin, chief advancement officer for the Norbertine Fathers at St. Michael’s, said the platform was a way to thank and spiritually feed the order’s benefactors, while contributing to the day-to-day costs of running the abbey.

“The guy in the pew on Sunday who’s just trying to make his life work, we want to reach that person and help him make sense of his life and help him grow spiritually,” Giblin told CNA.

“The beauty of the Norbertines is watching them meet people where they’re at…whether they’re highly engaged Catholics, or just very eager to learn more about the faith, or whether they’re just new to their faith and wanting to learn more, they’re able to reach them in a very unique way,” he said.

New content will be added to the platform will be added every week, Giblin said, and will answer such questions about the Catholic faith as: How do we attain salvation? Why do we pray to the saints? What role does Mary play in the life of a priest?

Giblin said the website allows users to submit their questions and prayer intentions, and the frequency of new content allows the priests to respond to the needs of the people using the platform.

The Norbertines also believe The Abbot’s Circle is one way their order is called to respond to the current crisis of abuse scandals in the Church.

“St. Norbert, a Catholic reformer, founded the Norbertines to lift up a demoralized clergy, preach to the lay faithful, and so renew the Church in difficult times,” Fr. Chrysostom Baer, prior of St. Michael’s Abbey, said in a statement about The Abbot’s Circle.

“We are fulfilling this very same mission today, in a time when both laity and clergy are demoralized by scandal, by using new media to connect with the faithful and offer support and guidance. While atypical for religious priests to use digital media in this way, we believe in the power of new media to reach out to the faithful and support them in their faith lives.”

Ramos said he thinks the digital library will offer Catholics hope at a dark time in the Church, particularly in knowing that there are orders of priests striving to live holy lives and to teach the faith in line with tradition and the magisterium of the Church.

“The message that we want to convey to people is that there is hope, and part of that hope is to know your faith well and to be able to live it out well, and it empowers the layperson to understand more about their faith and defend it,” he said.

“Our faith is always tried when things like this happen, and to strengthen it, it’s just one way to help,” he added.

Fr. Ambrose Criste, O.Praem., who serves as novice master and director of vocations and formation for the order, told CNA he thinks The Abbot’s Circle responds to Catholics who are “hungry” for good formation.

“They’re hungry for clear doctrine – what does the Church teach and what does the Church believe? I think there’s so much confusion that comes from the world and the mainstream media, and from to be honest from much of the Catholic media,” Criste told CNA.

“And so clarity of doctrine is something that the faithful really want. They also want priests and consecrated religious who are striving for holiness and who aren’t afraid to talk about it, because otherwise I think what the faithful hear is the spirit of the world, and how that has infected even people in the Church.”

Ramos said The Abbot’s Circle is an “ingenious” way to live out the charism of the Norbertine order and to share the fruits of their contemplation, prayer, and community.

“What takes us away from prayer is our apostolic work, when we have to go into the parishes and we can’t be with the community. But now that we have this means to communicate and to proclaim the truth of our faith…and I think it reinforces our way of life because we don’t have to do as much exiting from the monastery as we would otherwise have to do in order to reach a greater audience.”

The launch of The Abbot’s Circle follows the end of a successful $120 million capital campaign by St. Michael’s Abbey to support the building of a new abbey, as the order is running out of space for its new members. It also follows a documentary series on the order called “City of Saints”, which was released last year.

“Holiness is attractive, young men don’t want to live their lives by halves,” Giblin said. “They want what the Norbertines at St. Michael’s have, and because of that we ran out of room.”

The abbey currently supports 38 seminarians, with three aspirants on a waitlist. Giblin said the community has become the “unsung heroes” of the Church in southern California, where they are renowned for their holiness, service and preaching, and that the new platform is another way to share their gifts with the world.

“Holiness is attractive, and people are looking for that in the modern world, and they invest money in it because they crave it, they want more of it,” Giblin said. “And we hope The Abbot Circle website is a larger platform to showcase the holiness of the men here, and I think the world is very much hungry for that.”

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