Sodalit founder expelled from congregation

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Madrid, Spain, Dec 7, 2021 / 11:50 am (CNA).
Pro-life pregnancy centers in Latin America were unfairly and inaccurately portrayed in a recent article published by a Spanish newspaper, an investigation by ACI Prensa has found.T… […]

Panama City, Panama, Jan 23, 2019 / 01:59 pm (CNA).- At the opening Mass of World Youth Day 2019, Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta of Panama told young people from across the globe that a life of holiness is really possible, with the help of God’s grace.

“The Church is looking forward to this springtime of young people. We have confidence in you, we expect a lot from you, because we are fully convinced that…the changes and transformations that humanity and the Church require are in your hands,” he said.

To prepare themselves for the responsibilities ahead of them, Archbishop Ulloa said, young people must learn their personal, familial, cultural, and faith history. He emphasized the role of grandparents in transmitting family identity.

He encouraged the youth to swim against the tide of the culture, fighting for holiness rather than simply seeking the avoidance of suffering in life.

“Being holy leads us to break out of spiritual and material corruption, of all that which causes us evil and offends God,” he said. “A saint defends the defenseless – the unborn, but also the born child who is destitute, a saint defends migrants, seeks justice, prays, lives in and loves the community, is joyful and has a sense of humor, is always striving, breaks out of mediocrity, lives the mercy of God and shares it with his neighbor.”

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world are expected to flood Panama this week for World Youth Day, which culminates with an overnight prayer vigil and Mass with Pope Francis Jan. 26-27.

The opening Mass for the event was held at Santa María La Antigua Field in Panama City.

Archbishop Ulloa reminded those present that sainthood is “not a myth,” but a reality for their lives. He pointed to the witness of saints including Martin de Porres, Rose of Lima, Juan Diego, José Sánchez del Río, John Bosco, Oscar Romero and John Paul II.

The archbishop of Panama expressed his hope that World Youth Day would be a “balm” for the plight of many young people, especially migrants, those from homelands experiencing violence, and people suffering due to “drug trafficking, human trafficking, crime and so many other social evils.”

He encouraged young people to trust in the Virgin, not only asking for her intercession, but also striving to imitate her virtues.

“Let’s not be afraid, dear young people, have the courage to be saints in today’s world,” he said, adding that in doing so, “you’re not renouncing your youth or your joy; completely the opposite, you will show the world that it’s possible to be happy with so little, because Jesus Christ, the reason for our happiness, has already won for us eternal life with his resurrection.”

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Caracas, Venezuela, Mar 11, 2020 / 03:05 pm (CNA).- Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets March 10 in Caracas and other cities to demand democratic change, amid the ongoing economic, political and social crises in the country under the regime of President Nicholas Maduro.

“Today, March 10, the Venezuelan people have returned to the streets demanding their rights and manifesting their desire for a change of direction in the economy and the political order to permit democracy,” the president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference, Archbishop José Luis Azuaje of Maracaibo, said in a statement

“The deterioration in the quality of life, which has led us to get by as best we can, without electricity, without water, without just compensation for our work, without gasoline, without peace, without family” has created “social instability and greater poverty,” the bishop added.

The march was led by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, and organized to present to the National Assembly a call for free and fair presidential elections.

As  Guaidó led the marchers toward the National Assembly building, they were blocked by security forces.

Police used teargas to turn back the marchers before they reached the National Assembly. Opposition party lawmakers held an impromptu, but legally valid, outdoor session of the legislative assembly in a nearby city square.

In January 2019, Guaidó, as president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself interim president of the country, after president Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term, having won a contested election in which opposition candidates were barred from running or imprisoned. Guaidó and the Venezuelan bishops held Maduro’s second term to be invalid, and the presidency vacant.

Much of the international community consider Maduro’s re-election illegitimate. Nearly 60 nations led by the United States have recognized Guaidó as the country’s acting president, but with the backing of the military, Maduro is firmly entrenched and Guaidó has no practical power other than the popular support he can muster.

The communications office of the interim president described a statement of demands passed during the impromptu legislative session, the National Conflict Statement, as “a legal instrument,” which following its passage, creates laws “to provide a response to the country’s social needs.”

The document has a legal character and compliance would be obligatory should a transitional government actually be constituted.

Azuaje said that the country can’t continue to go down the spiral of deterioration. Therefore “structural changes are needed in politics, the economy and the leadership that go beyond ideological interests or to holding on to power at all costs,” he pointed out.

“Hence the challenge to continue to build a citizenry that facilitates a more just and free society, which permits the promotion and protection of the dignity of the human person and encourages  integral human development,” Azuaje noted.

The bishop also expressed his dismay that an unnamed member of Maduro’s government called for a “countermarch,” and he criticized the people “who have had to bow to official purposes for different interests.”

“Sent by their superiors, the military establishment has been present on a large scale since March 9, on different streets and avenues in the cities that belong to civil society, but are blocked by those who should be the servants of the people,” the bishop lamented, urging the country’s military forces “to fulfill their mission to safeguard and protect the people.”

The president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference added that “we’re all Venezuelans and we have to respect each other, find ways to understand each other, and meet each other as brothers.”

“Violence leads us to the destruction of what’s left of the social fabric,” he stressed.

Venezuela has been torn by violence, upheaval, shortages of basic necessities and food stuffs, widespread hunger, power and water supply outages and hyperinflation under the Nicolas Maduro regime. According to the Organization of American States (OAS), the number of Venezuelans fleeing the country is expected to total 6 million by the end of the year.

A version of this story was first published by Aci Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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