Month: February 2020

Cologne, Germany, Feb 3, 2020 / 11:30 am (CNA).- A leading lay Catholic in the German city of Cologne has openly condemned his own archbishop for voicing concerns over the ongoing “binding synodal process” underway in the country.

Tim Kurzbach, chairman of the Diocesan Council of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cologne issued a public denunciation of Cardinal Rainer Woekli on Monday, accusing the cardinal of “destroying the authority of his episcopal office” by failing to support the so-called “synodal way.”

The statutes for a “synodal way” were formally adopted by the German bishops’ conference  in September last year, despite repeated warnings and interventions from the Pope Francis and the curia. The two-year process proposes to debate and reform issues of universal Church teaching and discipline, including clerical celibacy, Church-approved blessings for same-sex couples, and the sacramental ordination of women.

After months of controversy, including several interventions by the Vatican, the synodal assembly met for the first time last week in Frankfurt. Speaking after the session, Cardinal Woekli said that speeches at the meeting had made it clear to him that the assembly was not functioning as a Catholic body.

“I basically saw all my fears confirmed. We witnessed the implementation of a de facto Protestant church parliament,” Woekli said in an interview Feb. 1.

“The essential prerequisites of an ecclesiological nature with regard to what the Catholic Church is were – in my opinion – ignored in many speeches,” the cardinal said, explaining that the hierarchical communion of the Church was being set aside for a democratic reinvention of the faith.

“That was already the very clearly defined image when entering the [liturgical] service, when bishops and lay people all processed in together and thus it was expressed that everyone is equal. And that actually has nothing to do with what the Catholic Church is and means.”

In his statement on Monday, Kurzbach said that Woekli and a few “traditionalists” were “overwhelmed by the fact that suddenly everyone can speak with equal rights in the ‘synodal way’,” and accused the cardinal of refusing to listen to those demanding reforms and insisting on the authentic teaching authority of the Church and bishops.

Calling the synodal discussions “fearless,” Kurzbach said that bishops like Woekli had to convince the assembly of their defense of traditional Church teachings and that “he should have long since recognized that the office [of bishop] alone no longer establishes true authority.”

In an interview Saturday, Woekli was asked about the seating in the synodal assembly, in which all participants were seated alphabetically and not by group or status. “I can live with that,” said the cardinal, but explained that the so-called synodal process was proceeding in a way which undermined the teachings of Vatican Council II.

The seating arrangements were just one of “many other small sings” which “simply make it clear that the hierarchical constitution of the Church, as documented again in Vatican Council II and expressed in Lumen Gentium, is questioned,” Woekli said.

Pope Francis and curial officials issued repeated warnings to the German bishops last year ahead of the synodal process.

In a June letter to the whole Church in Germany, the pope warned against a false synodality rooted in making the Church conform to modern secular morals and thought, which he called “a new Pelagianism” which seeks “to tidy up and tune the life of the Church, adapting it to the present logic.”

The result, Francis said, would be a “well organized and even ‘modernized’ ecclesiastical body, but without soul and evangelical novelty.”

In response, Woelki urged the other bishops in Germany to “take the pope very seriously.” He told the plenary session of the German Episcopal Conference in September that the Church in Germany must begin by “re-evangelizing itself” as an “indispensable prerequisite” for its wider mission, noting that Francis’ letter made clear that this required the bishops to remain rooted in the essential unity of faith, in Christ, and with the whole Church.

“This is the indispensable sign for our synodal way, which has to run like a thread through it, so that the Synodal Way can bear true fruit. The Pope’s letter leaves no doubt about that,” the cardinal said at the time.

Different curial heads also made explicit interventions, first in private, then in public, telling the German bishops that their synodal plans were a challenge to the universality of Catholic teaching and discipline and not valid.

A legal assessment of the German synodal plans from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts concluded that the German bishops’ plan confers to the synod’s membership the ability to make new policies for the Church in Germany. This, the Vatican concluded, is not acceptable.

The Vatican letter also said that the proposed make-up of the synodal assembly is “not ecclesiologically valid.” It cited the bishops’ proposed partnership with the Central Committee of German Catholics, a lay group that has taken public stances against a range of Church teachings, including on women’s ordination and sexual morality.

The Vatican assessment noted with concern that the Central Committee of German Catholics only agreed to be involved in the process if the synod assembly could make binding policies for the German Church. 

“Synodality in the Church, to which Pope Francis refers often, is not synonymous with democracy or majority decisions,” wrote Archbishop Filippo Iannone, head of the PCLT.

“The synodal process must take place within a hierarchically structured community,” the letter added, and any resolutions would require the express approval of the Apostolic See.

On Jan. 27, the secretary of the German bishops’ conference gave a pointed interview insisting that it is “unacceptable” that Rome continue to have full discretion over universal teaching and discipline.

Instead, Fr. Father Hans Langendörfer, SJ, called for other regions to follow the German’s example and effectively force through a new federal model on the Church.

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Rome, Italy, Feb 3, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Hundreds of homeless people and volunteers prayed together in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere Sunday to honor those who have died on Rome’s streets.

A lit candle was placed before an icon of the merciful Christ for each of the deceased as their names were read aloud in the basilica.

The Catholic community of Sant’Egidio organized the memorial and a lunch reception for all of the participants.

Six homeless people have died in Rome this winter, according to the Catholic movement, who decorated a side altar in the basilica dedicated to their memory. The community also prayed by name for other homeless people who have died in recent years.

The Sant’Egidio community was first inspired to organize the memorial by the story of Modesta Valenti, a woman who died in front of Rome’s Termini train station on Jan. 31, 1983 after an ambulance refused to take her to the hospital because she had lice.

Each following year, the Catholic lay movement has gathered to pray near the anniversary of Valenti’s death for those who have died on the streets.

There are an estimated 8,000 homeless people living in Rome about half of whom are cared for in shelters run by charities, according to La Repubblica.

Throughout the year, Sant’Egidio volunteers aid Rome’s homeless with a meal delivery program, overnight shelters, and medical clinics.

In November, Pope Francis opened a 4-story homeless shelter right off of the St. Peter’s Square colonnade. The homeless shelter, staffed by the Sant’Egidio community, has two floors of dormitories that can sleep 50 men and women, a kitchen to provide breakfast and dinner, and a recreation area for fellowship, educational programs, and psychological counseling.

Sant’Egidio has also organized similar memorials for the homeless in at least 5 other cities around Italy, including Genoa and Turin.

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Dublin, Ireland, Feb 2, 2020 / 02:11 pm (CNA).- As Ireland grapples with high rates of depression and suicide, Irish filmmakers point to the Knock Shrine as a place of hope and healing.

“We want to put Our Lady, our Blessed Mother, front of stage for the Irish people and the world as a beacon of hope. We want this film to be a message for people that there is hope,” Aidan Gallagher, CEO of EWTN Ireland told CNA.

“Hope,” a new docudrama produced by EWTN, tells the story of the Knock apparition.

On a very rainy August 21, 1879, 15 official witnesses saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, angels, and Jesus Christ (as the lamb of God) on the south gable of the town church, which was named St. John the Evangelist. For a period of about two hours, a crowd gathered to adore the apparition and to pray the rosary. Despite the rainstorm, the ground around the gable did not get wet.

Unlike most other Marian apparitions, the Virgin Mary was silent the entire time and did not offer any sort of message or prophesy. Some have theorized that she was silent due to the cultural changes occurring in Ireland at the time–the oldest of the 15 witnesses could only speak the Irish language, and the youngest, who was only six years old at the time, was being taught only English.

Vatican officials found the apparition at Knock to be “trustworthy and satisfactory” after two separate commissions; in 1879 and again in 1936.

The new film contextualizes the apparition with the sufferings endured by the Irish people in the 19th century, particularly in County Mayo, which was hit especially hard by the potato famine.

The Great Famine of 1845-1849 devastated Ireland resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1 million people, with 1 million more emigrating from the country by 1951.

Recurring famines plagued Ireland in the decades that followed, particularly in the northwest.   The year 1879, when the apparition took place, was itself “a famine year” for the Irish people.

“When Mary appeared at Knock in 1879, she brought light and hope to the Irish people, and she did so at a time of great darkness,” Gallagher said.

“Today it could be said that there is another famine or blight over Ireland, a spiritual one. We have a massive problem of suicides, as well as depression. It has been called a national crisis,” he said.

Ireland has the highest rate of chronic depression among young people in E.U. countries. The latest Eurofound statistics state 12% of Irish between the ages of 15 and 24 were chronically depressed.

Northern Ireland, where Miller is based, has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Knock Shrine is just under 70 miles from the Northern Ireland border.

“This film shows us that no matter how desperate we are or how serious our circumstances through Mary there is hope — hope in Christ,” Gallagher said.

The film’s director, Campbell Miller, said that Ireland and the world need this sense of hope “now more than ever.”

“We hope to give the young people who get a chance to watch this [the message] that there is a sense of hope, that things can get better,” Miller told EWTN News.

A statue of Our Lady of Knock was present on the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica for the papal Mass for the Sunday of the Word of God on Jan. 26.

The rector of Knock Shrine, Fr. Richard Gibbons, traveled to Rome for the Mass and attended the Vatican premiere of the film Jan. 27.

“The Word of God is important in the apparition,” Gibbons told EWTN, noting that St. John appeared preaching the word of God, alongside Mary, in the apparition at Knock.

The Irish priest also highlighted the Eucharistic message of the apparition, in which a lamb appeared on top of an altar and in front of a cross.

“The message is Eucharistic …. the Mass is so important. During the penal times, the persecution of Catholics in Ireland, there was a saying, in Irish. The saying was ‘For the Irish, it is the Mass that matters.’ So the Mass maintained the faith of the people during very, very bad times in terms of our faith,” he said.

The film also tells the story of a miraculous healing involving Eucharistic adoration that occured at Knock Shrine in 1989 and was officially recognized in Sept. 2019.

Marion Carroll, a woman who had been bedridden for years with multiple sclerosis, was healed during a blessing with a monstrance at Knock Shrine.

Fr. Gibbons said that the Knock Shrine, built on the site of the 1879 apparition, is a place where many people find spiritual healing and peace by reencountering the sacraments.

On average, 4,000 confessions take place each week at the shrine.

“At Knock people come to confession all the time. I call it our engine room — that’s where the miracles happen and the dynamic happens — in the confessional,” Gibbons said. “People that come to Knock wouldn’t even think about going to confession, but they see others going … it gives them such peace and hope and joy that they in turn then speak that to other people.”

“It is a place of hope, a place of peace, and a place of reconciliation. That is what Knock offers to people,” Fr. Gibbons said.

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