Mobile, Ala., Mar 4, 2019 / 03:47 pm (CNA).- Various storms spawned deadly tornadoes on Sunday, killing at least 23 people in central Alabama and causing more destruction through Georgia and Florida.
“Priests were present at the hospital yesterd… […]
Metuchen, N.J., Mar 4, 2019 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Metuchen has named a former public prosecutor as its new chancellor, Bishop James F. Checchio announced on March 1.
Anthony P. Kearns III, Esq. will begin his new role on April 12…. […]
Paris, France, Mar 4, 2019 / 01:19 pm (CNA).- France’s European affairs minister encouraged the Holy See last week to aid in an investigation of the apostolic nuncio to France, who has been accused of sexual assault in Paris.
Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, is accused of having inappriately touched a young male staffer of Paris City Hall during a Jan. 17 reception for the New Year address of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. He is being investigated by Parisian authorities.
Nathalie Loiseau, France’s Minister of European Affiars, told French television channel CNews March 1 that “this inquiry needs to be allowed to reach its conclusion, what matters is that the truth be known.”
“At this point, [Archbishop Ventura] benefits from diplomatic immunity, but the Holy See is clearly aware of the serious accusations that have been brought against the apostolic nuncio and I don’t doubt for a second that the Holy See will do the right thing … I’m waiting for the Holy See to take its responsibilities in hand.”
The deputy in the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs added that “if the facts are proven, they are very serious because when you are a religious leader you are supposed to have a moral authority, so I would say that’s an aggravating circumstance.”
Diplomatic immunity, which allows diplomats in a country to do their work without fear of interference from the host country’s laws or lawsuits from the host country, is based in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
The need for the practice has been highlighted by various accusations of spying or other wrongdoing between two countries with strained relationships. But the standard diplomatic protections can be removed by the diplomat’s home country, in special circumstances and at the country’s discretion.
In recent years, the Holy See’s practice has generally been to recall diplomats accused of civil crimes in their host countries. They are then tried by the civil court in the Vatican and by a canonical court, and they may later be stripped of diplomatic immunity so they can also be prosecuted by the host country.
For example, allegations of sexual misconduct arose against the apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic in 2013. The nuncio, Archbishop Józef Wesołowski, resigned later that year.
Wesołowski was found guilty of sexual abuse by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in June 2014, and was subjected to dismissal from the clerical state. Vatican City then decided also to hold a criminal trial for the former diplomat on charges of pedophilic acts and possession of child pornography. Wesołowski died in August 2015 while awaiting his criminal trial.
In August 2014, then-Holy See press officer Fr. Federico Lombari said that Wesołowski may “be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him” in the Dominican Republic, and that he no longer had diplomatic immunity as he had been removed from his post as nuncio.
Lombardi added that the Vatican had “from the very first moments that this case was made known to them, moved without delay and correctly in light of the fact that former nuncio Wesołowski held the position of a diplomatic representative of the Holy See,” particularly in recalling the former nuncio to Rome for canonical trial.
Similarly, in April 2018 Vatican police arrested former diplomat Fr. Carlo Alberto Capella, who was being investigation for the violation of laws concerning the possession of child pornography and its distribution or sale.
Capella was recalled from the US Nunciature in September 2017 after the Vatican was informed by the US State Department that there was a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by a member of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps.
The US State Department requested that the Vatican lift Capella’s diplomatic immunity, which requeste was declined. However, information regarding the findings of the US State Department was passed along to the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice.
Ventura has served as nuncio to France since 2009.
He was also accused last month of sexual misconduct against an adult male in Canada in 2008.
Christian Vachon, who was 32 at the time of alleged incident, says Ventura touched his buttocks at least twice during a banquet held at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec.
Ventura was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brescia in 1969. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978 and was stationed in Brazil, Bolivia, and the UK. From 1984 to 1995 he was appointed to serve at the Secretariat of State in the Section for Relations with States.
After his episcopal consecration in 1995, Ventura served as nuncio to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chile, and Canada, before his transfer to France.
Denver, Colo., Mar 4, 2019 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Last week, 44 U.S. Senators voted against legislation that would ban the willful or negligent homicide of babies -born alive after a botched abortion.
The bill would not have placed any restrictions … […]
A righteous man is not naive. He knows how evil works, and so he is on guard against it. He knows all the strategies of hell. In fact, he knows the enemy so well, he […]
Vatican City, Mar 4, 2019 / 10:56 am (CNA).- Pope Francis called Monday for a new approach to politics in Latin America that incorporates the principles of Catholic social teaching.
“A new presence of Catholics in politics is necessary in Latin … […]
Nashville, Tenn., Mar 4, 2019 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Tennessee have voiced their opposition to a fetal heartbeat law being considered in the state and instead urged alternative legislation less open to legal challenges.
The leaders of the state’s three dioceses released an open letter Feb. 26 stating that while they are opposed to abortion, they believe the Heartbeat Bill would fail a likely court challenge.
“We believe that the sanctity of human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception to natural death,” said Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville, Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, and Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville in a letter that was originally punished in the Tennessee Register.
Although Kurtz’s archdiocese is in Kentucky, he currently served as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Memphis.
“While we wholeheartedly support the intention of the ‘Heartbeat Bill’ being considered by the Tennessee Legislature, we must also be prudent in how we combat the pro-abortion evil that dwells in our society,” said the bishops.
Despite enjoying majority support in both houses of the state legislature, and the endorsement of Gov. Bill Lee, the bill is also opposed by Tennessee Right to Life, the state’s leading pro-life group.
In 1973, the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade found that a woman had a constitutional right to abortion throughout pregnancy. This, the bishops noted, created a legal precedent that must be considered when framing legislation that seeks to restrict abortion.
The bishops cited similar laws in other states that were passed, but never went into effect because of legal challenges. In those cases, the laws were found to be unconstitutional, and the state was forced to pay significant sums of money to the lawyers representing the pro-abortion challengers to the laws.
“Given the field of legal realities that we must consider, we believe it would not be prudent to support the ‘Heartbeat Bill’ knowing the certainty of its overturning when challenged, in addition to the court ordered fees that would be paid to the pro-abortion plaintiffs,” they said.
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest chain of abortion providers, has already said they would file suit against Tennessee if the Human Life Protection Act were to become law.
If Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, which would free up states to enact their own restrictions on abortion.
The bishops said they would prefer to see pro-life legislation less likely to face legal challenges and more likely to be found constitutional. They voiced “urgent support” for an alternative Human Life Protection Act which would, in the event that Roe were overturned, trigger an automatic ban on abortion in the state.
Tennessee currently prohibits abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy, and requires a woman wait 48 hours before receiving an abortion. Americans United for Life ranked the state as the 18th-most friendly to life in their 2019 Life List.
In 2014, voters in the state approved a constitutional amendment to the state constitution that said “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or the funding of an abortion.”
This constitutional amendment was approved by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018.
Editor’s note: This interview was first posted on October 26, 2018, and is reposted today in light of the news that the Vatican will open its archives on the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. Pius […]
Vatican City, Mar 4, 2019 / 07:33 am (CNA).- Pope Francis announced Monday that the Vatican will open its archives on the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. Confidential files of the pope who led the Church during World War II will be made available next year.
“Serious and objective historical research” will be able to evaluate Pius XII’s “hidden but active diplomacy” “in its proper light,” Pope Francis said March 4. The pope said that the full confidential files, called a “secret archive,” will be released March 2, 2020.
The pontificate of Pius XII has been often misunderstood. Critics have accused him of indifference to the plight of the Jewish people during the Second World War, despite several already public documents which show the pope’s systematic efforts to assist Jews in Italy.
In the late 1990s, debate over whether Pius XII did enough to counter the Nazis reached a high point with the publication of the deeply controversial book, “Hitler’s Pope,” by British journalist John Cornwell. The book was highly critical of Pius XII, charging that he was culpably silent – if not an accomplice – in the rise of Nazism.
A book published in 2015 documented how Pope Pius XII chose to resist Adolf Hitler with covert action in lieu of overt protest. Historian Mark Riebling, author of Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler, drew on wartime documents and interviews with American intelligence agents to tell how Pope Pius XII secretly provided support for three attempts to overthrow Hitler.
“The Church is not afraid of history, rather, loves it and would like to love it more and better, as God loves it!” Pope Francis said in a meeting with Vatican secret archives personnel in which he made the announcement.
The Vatican archives for the entirety of Pius XII’s pontificate March 1939 – Oct. 1958 will open on March 2, 2020. The complete catalog is expected to include approximately 16 million documents.
Pius XII “found himself leading the Barque of Peter at one of the saddest and darkest moments of the twentieth century,” Pope Francis said.
He faced “moments of serious difficulties, of tormented decisions, of human and Christian prudence, which some might have seemed reticent,” he explained. For this, some have criticized Pius with “some prejudice or exaggeration,” Francis added.
Pope Francis has previously considered Pope Pius XII’ cause for sainthood, according to a source in the Vatican’s Congregation for Causes of Saints.
Benedict XVI declared Pius XII Venerable on Dec. 19, 2009, based on the recommendation of the committee investigating his cause.
When Pope Paul VI started the beatification and canonization process in 1967, nine years after Pius XII’s death, he formed a committee of historians to conduct an in-depth study of his predecessor’s life and behavior, giving particular attention to the events of World War II.
Their work led to the publication of “Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale” (Acts and Documents of the Holy See related to the Second World War), an 11-volume collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archive about Pius XII’s papacy during that tumultuous time. The remainder of the documents from Pius XII’s papacy have remained unpublished.
“Knowing what I do about Pius XII, and having researched him for many years, I believe he wanted to be a saint. He wanted people in Germany to be saints,” Riebling previously told CNA.
“When he heard that a priest was arrested for praying for the Jews and sent off to a concentration camp, he said: ‘I wish everyone would do that’ … But he didn’t say it publicly,” the writer acknowledged.
“Today, more and more, individuals are of the opinion that religion is a waste of time, that only social action can make a significant contribution to man’s well-being.” — Joseph Ratzinger, 1980.1 “Men need more than […]
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