Pope Francis voices commitment to full communion with Orthodox

Vatican City, Oct 27, 2019 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis Sunday encouraged protesters in Lebanon who have taken to the streets to challenge government corruption and mismanagement of finances. The pope’s message coincided with a series of protests taking place in countries around the world.

“I address a special thought to the beloved Lebanese people, in particular to the young people, who in recent days have made their cry heard in the face of challenges and the social and economic problems of the country,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Oct. 27.

Protests in Lebanon began Oct. 17 after the government announced a new tax on internet-based calls made over WhatsApp. Lebanon has high levels of public debt and low employment.

The peaceful protestors’ chants include “Revolution! Revolution!” and “All of them means all of them!” calling for the removal of all corrupt government officials.

Hezbollah supporters have attacked and injured the nonsectarian protestors, according to local Lebanese media, causing government riot police to intervene on Oct. 24 and 25.

“I urge everyone to seek the right solutions in the way of dialogue,” Pope Francis said.

“I pray, Virgin Mary, Queen of Lebanon, so that, with the support of the international community, that country will continue to be a space of peaceful coexistence and respect for the dignity and freedom of every person, for the benefit of the entire Middle East Region,” he said.

Protests also took place this week in Hong Kong, Iraq, Chile, Egypt, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and India.

Pope Francis spoke out about the protests in Lebanon 11 days after they began.

In Hong Kong, pro-democracy and free speech demonstrations have now entered their seventh month, drawing hundreds of thousands of people, and support from the local Catholic community, though the pope has yet to comment on the situation there.

At least 63 people have been killed in Iraq in the past two days of anti-government protests, according to the Iraq High Commission for Human Rights. In the first wave of protests earlier in October more than 150 people protesting corruption and unemployment  died in protests.

In Chile, officials said at least 18 people have died as protests against the country’s increasing cost of living and economic inequality turned violent, causing the Chilean president to declare a state of emergency on Oct. 19.

Protests across Ethiopia killed 16 people this week. In Egypt, more than 4,300 people have been arrested by government authorities since protests calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi began in September.

On Sunday, Pope Francis called for Catholics to continue to pray the rosary for peace, recalling that October is the month of the rosary and an extraordinary missionary month for the Church.

“I renew the invitation to pray the Rosary for the mission of the Church today, especially for missionaries who encounter great difficulties,” Pope Francis said.

The pope expressed his gratitude for the conclusion of the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazonian region, and said the Church must not remain indifferent to the difficulties in the region.

“The voices of the poor, together with those of many others inside and outside the synod assembly – pastors, young people, scientists – urge us not to remain indifferent,” he said.

“The cry of the poor, together with that of the earth, came to us from the Amazon. After these three weeks we can’t pretend not to have heard it,” Pope Francis said.

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Vatican City, Nov 16, 2017 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent a message Thursday to a conference on climate change, telling participants the problem is something that can’t be ignored, but must be met with a proactive desire to develop effective solutions.

“I would like to reiterate my urgent invitation to renew dialogue about the way in which we are building the future of the planet,” the Pope said Nov. 16.

“We need a solution that unites everyone, because the environmental challenge that we are living, and its human roots, involves and touches us all,” he said, noting that unfortunately many of the efforts to seek concrete solutions “are often frustrated by various motives that range from negating the problem to indifference, comfortable resignation or blind trust in technical solutions.”

Francis said we have to avoid falling into the “perverse attitudes” of denial, indifference, resignation, and trust in inadequate solutions, which “certainly do not help honest research and sincere dialogue on building the future of our planet.”

Pope Francis offered his words in a message to Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji, for the U.N. COP-23 Climate Change conference taking place Nov. 6-17 in Bonn, Germany, and which is being presided over by the government of Fiji.

He noted how the gathering is taking place two years after the Paris Climate Agreement was reached, which reached a consensus on the need to develop “a shared strategy to counteract one of the most concerning phenomenons that our humanity is living: climate change.”

The Paris Agreement was an international climate accord reached in 2015 after representatives of more than 150 countries met for COP 21, or the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Signatories pledged on various levels to help reduce global carbon emissions and aim to keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees Celsius, as compared to average temperatures from the pre-industrial age, by the end of the 21st century.

When the agreement was initially reached, Pope Francis hailed it as “historic” and said it would require “a concerted and generous commitment” from members of the international community. Over 190 countries have signed on to the agreement.

However, United States President Donald Trump decided earlier this year to pull out of the accord, arguing that the requirements would harm the U.S. economy and jobs.

In his message to the COP-23 conference, Pope Francis said the challenge of climate change requires the commitment of every country, some of whom “must try to assume a guiding role,” with due consideration for vulnerable populations.

He noted how in this year’s conference participants are trying to implement a new phase of the Paris agreement, which is “the process of defining and building guidelines, rules and institutional mechanisms so that it can truly be effective and capable of contributing to the achievement of the complex objectives it proposes.”

In coming up with solutions, the Pope cautioned against limiting them only to the economic or technical dimensions, because “technical solutions are necessary but insufficient.”

Rather, he said “it’s essential and desirable to also keep in attentive consideration the ethical and social aspects and impacts of the new paradigm of development and progress in short, medium and long-term.”

To this end, Francis emphasized the need to focus on an education and lifestyle that are based on an integral ecology capable of assuming “a vision of honest research and open dialogue” where the various aspects of the Paris Agreement are intertwined.  

The agreement, he said, calls for “serious responsibility to act without delay as freely as possible from political and economic pressures, overcoming particular interests and behaviors,” and requires a “responsible awareness” of our common home.

Pope Francis closed his message voicing his hope that the work done in the conference would be animated by the same “collaboration and proactive” spirit of the COP-21 conference in 2015.

“This will accelerate awareness-raising and the consolidation of the will to make effective decisions to counteract the phenomenon of climate change while at the same time fighting poverty and promoting a true integral human development.”

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Vatican City, Apr 18, 2018 / 10:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has reportedly rejected a plan approved by the German bishops’ conference to publish guidelines permitting non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist in some limited circumstances.

Austrian news site kath.net has reported that Vatican sources say the CDF, with papal approval, has suspended the German bishops’ proposed plan, and sources close to the congregation have confirmed this to CNA.

It is not clear whether the Vatican has asked the bishops’ conference to modify the contents of draft guidelines, whether they have suspended the development of a draft while the matter is considered further, or whether it has been entirely rejected.

In February, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising announced that the German bishops’ conference would publish a pastoral handout for married couples that allows Protestant spouses of Catholics “in individual cases” and “under certain conditions” to receive Holy Communion, provided they “affirm the Catholic faith in the Eucharist”.

The announcement was made “after intensive debate” at the conclusion of the general assembly of the German bishops’ conference, which was held Feb. 19 – 22 in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, and attended by 62 members of the bishops’ conference under the leadership of conference chairman Cardinal Marx.

Last month, seven German bishops sent a letter to the CDF and to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity asking for clarification on the matter. The signatories did not consult beforehand with Cardinal Marx.

The seven bishops asked whether the question of Holy Communion for Protestant spouses in interdenominational marriages can be decided on the level of a national bishops’ conference, or if rather, “a decision of the Universal Church” is required in the matter.

The letter was signed by Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne, Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg, Bishop Gregor Hanke of Eichstätt, Bishop Konrad Zdarsa of Augsburg, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, and Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz.

“From the view of the signatories, the goal in a question of such centrality to the Faith and the unity of the Church must be to avoid separate national paths and arrive at a globally unified, workable solution by way of an ecumenical dialogue,” the Archdiocese of Cologne told CNA Deutsch April 4.

The Code of Canon Law already provides that in the danger of death or if “some other grave necessity urges it,” Catholic ministers licitly administer penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick to Protestants “who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed.”

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