CNA Staff, Aug 25, 2020 / 10:57 am (CNA).- A hermitage outside the small town of Planes, Spain was desecrated this month. Vandals robbed the building and damaged parts of the chapel.
Christ Most Holy hermitage is located outside Planes in Alicante Province, about 25 miles from Spain’s central coast on the Mediterranean. The local people have a great devotion to the hermitage’s image of Christ Most Holy.
In a post on the Archdiocese of Valencia’s website, parish administrator Fr. Juan Crespo reported that the vandals stole several religious objects and significantly damaged the building. The incident was discovered August 15 and reported to the Civil Guard, Spain’s national police.
The missing religious objects include a ceramic chalice and paten, as well as the metal crowns from the statues of Christ Most Holy and the Sorrowful Virgin. Also missing was the sword from the Sorrowful Virgin statue.
In addition to the theft, the assailants smashed through the altar dedicated to Saint Joseph, possibly with picks or other tools. The archdiocesan post said the thieves placed the statue of Saint Joseph on a chair, as “they were probably looking for something of more value, but it wasn’t there.”
“The damage done was worse than the monetary value of what was stolen,” Crespo noted.
The vandals also dumped out the drawers of the hermitage's furniture and scattered devotional and liturgical books all over the floor.
“The incident is very lamentable because the hermitage is the very history and heart of Planes, the people here carry the devotion to Christ Most Holy and all that it means deep within them, and they’re naturally quite upset,” the priest said.
This makes the third time the hermitage has been robbed in the last three decades.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Berlin, Germany, May 6, 2019 / 10:43 am (CNA).- The number of Germans who pay a state-administered “Church tax” to the Catholic Church or the country’s largest Protestant group is expected to be halved by 2060, according to researchers at the University of Freiburg.
Researchers say the expected decline can be predicted a dwindling number of baptisms in Germany, the number of Germans who have departed from formal religious enrollment, and a decrease in Germany’s overall population, which is expected by 2060 to be reduced by 21 percent.
In total, the number of Germans who pay the country’s “Church tax” is expected to decrease by 49%. German law collects an income tax on the country’s Church members, which it distributes to Church organizations, among them the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church of Germany, a federation of Protestant groups, mostly Lutheran, which constitutes the largest Protestant group in Germany.
Taxpayers have the option of opting out of tax payment by notifying state authorities that they have left the religious group in which they are enrolled. In 2017, the Church tax generated $13.5 billion for religious groups in the country. The predicted decline in membership would lead to major budget shortfalls for the Catholic Church in Germany.
Economist Bernd Raffelhüschen, who led the project, told the protestant church portal EKD.de that there is still potential for change, and the prediction should not be read as a “doomsday prophecy.
Instead, Raffelhüschen said, it presents a “generational task,” since for the next two decades Catholic and Protestant Churches will still have “resources for transformation.”
Likewise, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference, has said the report represents a “call to evangelize.”
In March, Eichstätter Bishop Gregory Maria Hanke had called the German bishops to discuss the topic.
“We, the German bishops, urgently need to consider how church taxation can and should continue – I miss this discussion because the Catholic as well as the Protestant Church faces a large number of church departures each year,” Hanke said.
“At the latest in ten years, the church tax receipts will collapse.”
A better way for the future is for the Church to rely on voluntary contributions, Hanke suggested.
After the study’s report last week, Cardinal Marx encouraged German Catholics, “in view of this project, do not panic.”
“The church is always about sharing the gospel, even under changed circumstances, and for me the study is also a call for mission.”
A version of this story was originally published on CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language sister agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).
Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries.
“Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God’s love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid,” the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark’s Square.
Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: “Remaining united to Christ, we can bring the fruits of the Gospel into the reality we inhabit.”
Pope Francis delivers his homily during Mass in St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, on April 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
“Fruits of justice and peace, fruits of solidarity and mutual care, carefully-made choices to preserve our environmental and human heritage,” the pope continued, seated center stage in a red velvet chair and vested in a white cope.
Pope Francis arrived in Venice early Sunday morning for a day trip to the prestigious Biennale art exhibition — which is celebrating its 60th anniversary — where the Holy See’s pavilion, titled “With My Eyes,” dovetails with this year’s broader theme: “Foreigners Everywhere.”
The pope’s visit also holds a deep meaning as Francis is the first pontiff to visit the Biennale — where the Vatican has held a pavilion since 2013.
In his homily, Pope Francis pointed out that our relationship with Christ is not “static” but an invitation to “grow in relationship with him, to converse with him, to embrace his word, to follow him on the path of the kingdom of God.”
Francis built upon this point to encourage “Christian communities, neighborhoods, and cities to become welcoming, inclusive, and hospitable places,” a point he linked to the image of the city of Venice as a “a place of encounter and cultural exchange.”
Pope Francis greets youth gathered in St. Mark’s Square during his visit to Venice, Italy, on April 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Pope Francis observed that Venice “is called to be a sign of beauty available to all, starting with the last, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home,” the pope continued, highlighting the tenuous situation of Venice, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which faces a myriad of problems ranging from excessive tourism to environmental challenges such as rising sea levels and erosion.
After the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the pope entered St. Mark’s Basilica to venerate the relics of the evangelist before leaving by helicopter to return to the Vatican as pilgrims and tourists bid farewell from land and sea.
Earlier in the morning the Holy Father met with female inmates, staff, and volunteers at Venice’s Women’s Prison on the Island of Giudecca, where he spoke on the topic of human dignity, suggesting that prison can “mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others.“
The deeply symbolic visit was followed by a brief encounter with the artists responsible for the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale, where the pope encouraged artists to use their craft “to rid the world of the senseless and by now empty oppositions that seek to gain ground in racism, in xenophobia, in inequality, in ecological imbalance and aporophobia, that terrible neologism that means ‘fear of the poor.’”
The Holy Father traveled by a private vaporetto, or waterbus, bearing the two-tone flag of Vatican City, to the 16th-century baroque Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, which sits on the Punta della Dogana, where he met with a large group of young people.
Reflecting on the visit as a “beautiful moment of encounter,” the pope encouraged the youth to “rise from sadness to lift our gaze upward.”
“Rise to stand in front of life, not to sit on the couch. Arise to say, ‘Here I am!’ to the Lord, who believes in us.” Building on this message of hope, which the pope emphasized is built upon perseverance, telling them “don’t isolate yourself” but “seek others, experience God together, find a group to walk with so you don’t grow tired.”
Pope Francis arrives outside St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy, on April 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The pope made his way to St. Mark’s Square in a white open-top golf cart bearing the papal seal, where he closed his visit with Mass. At the end of the Mass Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the patriarch of Venice, thanked the pope for his visit.
“Venice is a stupendous, fragile, unique city and has always been a bridge between East and West, a crossroads of peoples, cultures, and different faiths,” Moraglia noted.
“For this reason, in Venice, the great themes of your encyclicals — Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si’ — are promptly reflected in respect and care for creation and the person, starting with the good summit of life that must always be respected and loved, especially when it is fragile and asks to be welcomed.”
Rome, Italy, Jul 13, 2017 / 11:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After nearly a year since his kidnapping, Yemen officials say that Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil is in fact alive and efforts are being made for his release.
“The Yemeni deputy prime minister conveyed that as per available information, Father Tom was alive and the Yemen government has been making all efforts to secure his release,” Gopal Baglay, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in India said July 11.
The statement was made after Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulmalik Abduljalil Al-Mekhlafi, told Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that the Salesian priest was in fact alive, and that continued efforts were being made to obtain his release.
According to India’s Deccan Herald news service, Al-Mekhlafi met Swaraj during his current tour to New Delhi. Swaraj had inquired about Fr. Tom, voicing concern for his safety.
Baglay said Al-Mekhlafi “assured all cooperation” in working for the priest’s freedom.
The confirmation comes more than a year after Fr. Tom’s abduction. He was kidnapped in Yemen in March of last year during an attack on a Missionaries of Charity house that left four sisters dead.
He garnered international attention when rumors spread that he was to be crucified on Good Friday, which were later discredited. Since then, numerous photos and videos have been released picturing Fr. Tom, thin and with an overgrown beard, pleading for help and for his release.
The videos were never officially authenticated, however Al-Mekhlafi’s assurance that the Kerala priest is alive confirms the likelihood the man shown was in fact Uzhunnalil.
In the most recent video, published in May, Fr. Tom spoke slowly in English, saying the Indian government has been contacted several times concerning his release. The bishop of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates has also been contacted, he said, claiming that he’s seen their responses, and they were “very, very poor.”
The priest indicated that he is in poor health, saying: “my health condition is deteriorating quickly, and I require hospitalization as early as possible,” he said.
He then made an appeal for his release, asking “my little family people” to do what they can “to help me be released. Please, please do what you can to help me be released. May God bless you for that.”
Since his kidnapping, Salesians in the Bangalore province of India have made continued efforts for his safety and release, including holding a prayer vigil Jan. 4 and a worldwide novena Jan. 15-23.
Although some attribute the kidnapping to ISIS, no one has claimed responsibility, which has made it difficult for the Indian government to broker the priest’s release. In addition, the situation has been exacerbated by the political instability in Yemen.
Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since March 2015, when Shia rebels attempted to oust Yemen’s Sunni-led government. Saudi Arabia has led a pro-government coalition. Both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have set up strongholds in the country amid the power vacuum. More than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.
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