Minnesota bishop retires early while seeking health treatment

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 06:00 am (CNA).- U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo spoke out Wednesday about China’s religious freedom violations during a visit to the Vatican.

“When the state rules absolutely, God becomes an absolute threat to authority … human dignity is trampled … moral norms are crushed completely,” Pompeo said Oct. 2 in Vatican City’s Old Synod Hall.

The U.S. Secretary of State said this is why “China has put more than a million Uighur Muslims … in internment camps” and “why it throws Christian pastors in jail.”

Pompeo was at the Vatican Oct. 2 for the symposium “Pathways to Achieving Human Dignity: Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations,” co-hosted by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

An embassy source told CNA that Secretary Pompeo will meet Pope Francis on Oct. 3 in the Vatican library.

Pompeo’s speech at the Vatican began and ended with an example of a Uyghur Muslim who experienced persecution from the Chinese government in Xinjiang. 

The Holy See marked last week the one year anniversary of a provisional agreement with the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of bishops.

Secretary Pompeo said that countries around the world should “follow the wisdom of Jesus: ‘Be not afraid’” in defending religious freedom where it is under threat.

Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said that the US is calling on the Chinese government to “move away from this war on faith.”

“We are deeply concerned about what China is doing,” Brownback told CNA.

Brownback said that the State Department is particularly concerned with the Chinese government’s use of advanced technologies, like facial recognition and a social credit score system, to marginalize people of faith in the society.

“That system is starting to be exported to other places, other authoritarian repressive regimes … I think that is why the secretary talks about it, and it is certainly why I talk about it,” Brownback said.

Pompeo also singled out the governments of Iran, Myanmar and Syria for their repression of religious freedom, and denounced Cuba’s cancellation of National Catholic Youth Day this year.

The symposium was convened at the Vatican to highlight the world of faith-based organizations in advancing religious freedom, combatting human trafficking, and providing humanitarian aid.

“The stakes today are arguably higher than they were even during the Cold War,” Pompeo said.

“More than 80% of mankind lives in places where religious freedom is threatened or entirely denied. Approximately 71 million people around the world are displaced as refugees, roughly 25 million people are caught in human trafficking situations, and it is not coincidence that this has happened as unfree societies have proliferated,” he said.

The US Department of State this year launched the International Religious Freedom Alliance, a multilateral organization to advance religious freedom issues worldwide. “We humbly ask the Holy See to join us,” Pompeo said. “What could be more powerful than our voices all together calling for the freedom to worship God?”

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States spoke at the symposium opening about the need to “promote peaceful coexistence and peaceful societies.” He highlighted Pope Francis’ joint declaration on human fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi, and said that the Holy See seeks to develop an international network of religious leaders to promote “healthy pluralism.”

Pompeo commended Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis for speaking out in defense of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Catholic woman whose life was threatened under a blasphemy law.

As U.S. Embassy to the Holy See marks its 35th anniversary this year,  Pompeo spoke fondly of St. John Paul II and US President Ronald Reagan’s partnership during the Cold War.

“Think of the millions of believers who can live with dignity and purpose, who can now worship without fear, thanks to the joint efforts of a pope and a president,” Pompeo said.

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Vatican City, Mar 28, 2020 / 11:05 am (CNA).- The Vatican said Saturday Pope Francis does not have the coronavirus, and that recent testing of 170 Holy See employees for COVID-19 resulted in only one new case.

This brings the total number of coronavirus cases connected to Vatican City to six, papal spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement March 28.

“I can confirm that neither the Holy Father nor his closest collaborators are involved,” the spokesman stated.

The six positive cases include a priest who lives in the same Vatican guesthouse as Pope Francis. The priest, an official of the Secretariat of State, was put into isolation as soon as he presented symptoms of COVID-19, Bruni said.

Tests were carried out on those the official had been in physical contact with and later other Holy See employees were also tested “as a precaution,” bringing the total tested to 170, the spokesman said.

According to Bruni, only one other test came back positive from those tests – a Holy See employee who was in close contact with the Secretariat of State official.

The spokesman said other precautionary measures have been carried out, such as additional sanitation.

The Secretariat of State official is not in critical condition but has been admitted to a hospital in Rome for care and observation, Bruni added.

The Vatican’s first case of the coronavirus was found after a patient tested positive in the city state’s outpatient health facilities March 5. The facilities were then closed for one day to allow for their sanitation.

Of the next three cases to have been discovered, two are employees of the Vatican Museums and one is a warehouse employee.

Bruni told journalists March 24 that these four coronavirus patients “had been placed in solitary confinement as a precaution before they tested positive and their isolation has already lasted for over 14 days; currently they are being treated in Italian hospitals or at home.”

Pope Francis’ schedule has lessened during the coronavirus pandemic, though he continues to have some meetings in the apostolic palace, from where he is also livestreaming his weekly Wednesday general audience and Sunday Angelus during Italy’s lockdown.

March 28 the pope met with Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, as well as other Vatican officials.

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Vatican City, Mar 10, 2017 / 08:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis will make a six-day trip to Colombia in September with four cities on his itinerary, almost a year after the government and FARC rebels signed a major peace agreement.

“Accepting the invitation of the President of the Republic and the Colombian bishops, His Holiness the Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Trip to Colombia from 6 to 11 September 2017,” a March 10 communique from the Vatican read.

While the official schedule is expected to be released shortly, the Vatican confirmed that Francis will visit the cities of Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín and Cartagena.

The trip will mark the third time Francis has visited his native South America since becoming Pope, with the first taking place in July 2013 when he traveled to Rio de Janiero for World Youth Day. The second tour took place in July 2015, with stops in Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

In August 2016 a peace accord between the Colombian government and the country’s largest rebel group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was finally reached following four years of negotiations in Cuba.

Since 1964, as many as 260,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the civil war.

According to Human Rights Watch, with more than 6.8 million people forcibly displaced due to the conflict, Colombia has the world’s second largest population of internally displaced people, with Syria in first place.

However, the August agreement was narrowly rejected in a referendum Oct. 2, with many Colombians claiming that it was too lenient on FARC, particularly when it came to kidnapping and drug trafficking.

A revised agreement was signed Nov. 24, and sent to Colombia’s Congress for approval, rather than being submitted to a popular vote. The reformed accord was approved Nov. 30, with revised features including the demand that FARC hand over assets to be used for reparations, a 10 year time limit for the transitional justice system, and FARC rebels’ providing information about their drug trafficking.

In December Pope Francis met with Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón and former president Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, at the Vatican, encouraging them to continue working for peace.

When the deal was initially reached, the Pope praised the move, voicing his support “for the goal of attaining the peace and reconciliation of the entire Colombian people, in light of human rights and Christian values, which are at the heart of Latin American culture.”

The Pope’s trip was officially presented in the country March 10 by Bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis, head of Colombia’s military diocese and who is in charge of the preparation committee for the trip.

During presentation, Bishop Suescún said the Pope’s visit “is a moment of grace and joy to dream with the possibility of transforming our country and taking the first step,” according to the Colombian Bishops Conference website.

“The Holy Father is a missionary for reconciliation,” he said. “His presence helps us to discover that yes, it’s possible to re-unite as a nation in order to learn to look at ourselves again with eyes of hope and mercy.”

He pointed to the logo of the trip, which in yellow and white pictures Pope Francis walking next to the thematic phrase “Demos el primer paso,” meaning “Let us take the first step.”

To take the first step, Suescún said, means “to again draw near to Jesus, to meet again the love of our families, to disarm words with our neighbor and to have compassion with those who have suffered.”

According to the Colombian Bishops Conference, after receiving the official confirmation of the Pope’s visit, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his joy saying “we will receive (Francs) with open arms and hearts, as a messenger of peace and reconciliation.”

He noted that on many occasions Pope Francis “gave courage and impelled” the peace process in the country, adding that “he is a messenger of love and faith; he’s a forger of bridges and not walls.”

The president pointed to the fact that the Pope’s trip will be made exclusively to Colombia, whereas there are typically multiple countries included in international papal trips.

“To have the Pope with us for four days, to know that he’s traveling exclusively to give a voice of encouragement and faith to Colombians, is a privilege that fills us with gratitude,” Santos said.

The Pope’s visit, he said, is an “encounter with the teachings of Jesus, the encounter among ourselves, as a society, as compatriots, as human beings and as children of God.”

He voiced his hope that the visit would help Colombians to unite around the “building of a more just and equitable country, with peace and more solidarity.”

“We have already begun to prepare and will continue to prepare so that this apostolic journey of Pope Francis in Colombia will bear the greatest of fruits of harmony and unity in our country.”

(This article was updated at 5:06p.m. local time in Rome with the words of Bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos).

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