Mexico City women’s march erupts into violence outside cathedral

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Apr 19, 2018 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The tremor lasted less than a minute. Dr. Jude Banatte’s car was shaking, and then it was not.

Banatte assumed he was driving too fast as he made his way home from the Haitian capi… […]

Havana, Cuba, Apr 23, 2019 / 03:05 pm (CNA).- While recent policy changes in the U.S. have left the people of Cuba facing increasing uncertainty, the message of the Catholic Church is always that security is ultimately found in Christ, said a priest from the island nation.

“This is the task of the Church: to say that salvation is found only is Jesus, who gives concrete, precise answers to the person seeking the truth,” said Fr. Yosvany Carvajal, pastor of the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Havana and director of the Father Felix Varela Cultural Center.

“Ideologies don’t save people, ideologies are ideas. They are a body of ideas that exist in various political systems; but man’s definitive salvation is found only in that true man and true God who has come to speak to us of an everlasting love that saves,” the priest told Vatican News April 21.

He highlighted the participation of the faithful in the Holy Week celebrations, saying that although the Church in Cuba is poor, it is “a living Church” with hope in “the Risen One who has conquered death, sin and evil.”

Religious celebrations were publicly banned in Cuba after the triumph of Fidel Castro’s revolution. However, Christmas became a holiday beginning in 1997, as a concession to the request by Saint John Paul II before his visit in January 1998.

Likewise, during his visit to Cuba in March 2012, Benedict XVI made the same request for Good Friday. The communist government allowed its celebration as an exception in 2012 and 2013, and made it an official holiday beginning in 2014.

Carvajal said the faith of the Cuban people can be seen particularly clearly during Holy Week.

“Signs of Christianity are seen everywhere, and also popular religiosity. You can see that all this is alive, present in the people,” the priest said. He pointed to the high participation in Good Friday services as a sign that the people desire to be close to Christ in his Church.

The Cuban priest also said the Church in the country “is a Church that accompanies the people, which is suffering, especially these days due to the embargo policy.”

Last week, the Trump administration announced new penalties and tighter sanctions on Cuba. Among the new policies is the activation of a previously unused provision allowing U.S. citizens to sue foreign companies that operate on property confiscated by the government following the Castro revolution.

As a result of this, Carvajal said, “the population is going through hard times because they don’t know what is going to happen.”

“The economic situation is not easy, but the Cuban people are a joyful people,” he said, and they never lose “the sense of the joy of living.”

He recalled the visits that Saint John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis made to Cuba, which “helped greatly the Church to not be afraid.”

“The people now find themselves in this difficult situation following the measures announced by the U.S. Government. There is concern,” he noted. “But with the message of the Gospel we must always announce the joy and hope of the definitive triumph of Christ. We must always continue on this path of announcing reconciliation and dialogue as the only possible way of seeking the true good.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Santiago, Chile, Jul 25, 2018 / 10:04 am (ACI Prensa).- After the Chilean prosecutor’s office announced that it has compiled a list of 266 victims of sexual abuse by Church figures, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference said the figure is ‘alarming’.

“The temptation would be to dwell on the number of those accused, but what the Church is asking of us today is to first of all consider the individual victims. That number is alarming and is what concerns us the most,” Jaime Coiro said at a July 24 press conference.

According to the National Prosecutor’s Office July 23, the list identified 144 cases which occurred from 1960 to date. It also indicated some 266 victims, of which 178 are minors. It said 158 members of the Church are being investigated as possible perpetrators of sexual abuse or for covering it up.

Among those who possibly perpetrated or covered up abuse are bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and laypeople.

Prosecutor Luis Torres stated that the vast majority of complaints “entail sex crimes committed by priests, parish pastors or persons associated with educational institutions.”  

“There are also five cases of cover up or obstruction of justice against the superiors of congregations or bishops in charge of a given diocese,” he added.

The Rancagua Regional Prosecutor’s Office summoned July 23 the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, to testify Aug. 20 regarding possible cover up on his part.

Coiro said that “we have learned that besides the number (of victims), each one of these persons has had to go through an extremely painful process, many of them have had to recount time and time again in different instances before different people what happened to them.”

Ana María Celis, a member of the National Council for Abuse Prevention of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference, said that in cases of sexual abuse the action of both the civil and well as canonical jurisdiction is required, “because what one does the other cannot do.”

“We are going to do everything possible so that person has recourse to both jurisdictions,” she stated.

In another case, the Archdiocese of Santiago announced July 13 a new preliminary investigation against Fr. Jorge Laplagne Aguirre,  pastor of San Crescente and Our Lady of Luján parishes, in addition to working in a Marist Congregation school.

A complaint was filed June 27 for an incident alleged to have taken place in 2005. The archdiocese noted that in 2010 the same case was investigated but the accusations could not be determined to be credible.

The priest was prohibited from publicly exercising priestly ministry or acting as pastor during the investigation, which has a maximum duration of 60 days.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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