Catholic bishops fight for public Masses as England prepares for second lockdown

Pope Francis greeting pilgrims on St. Peter’s Square, Oct. 5 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA

Rome Newsroom, Oct 5, 2022 / 03:04 am (CNA).

Pope Francis shared a spiritual life hack for discernment at his general audience on Wednesday.

Speaking in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 5, the pope said that the “spiritual life, too, has its passwords.” 

Just like on one’s computer, where “we know how important it is to know the password in order to get into the programs where the most personal and valuable information is stored,” the pope said that discernment requires unlocking “the passwords of our heart.”

Pope Francis underlined that “self-knowledge” is key to discernment. When discerning who to marry or whether one is called to be a priest or religious sister, the pope said it is important to know what one’s heart is most sensitive to protect oneself from temptation. 

He said the devil “knows these passwords well, and it is important that we know them too, so as not to find ourselves where we do not want to be.”

“Temptation does not necessarily suggest bad things, but often disordered things, presented with excessive importance,” the pope said

“They can be, for example, degrees, careers, relationships, all things that are in themselves praiseworthy, but towards which, if we are not free, we risk having unrealistic expectations, such as the confirmation of our worth. … From this misunderstanding often comes the greatest suffering, because none of those things can be the guarantee of our dignity,” he said.

Pope Francis recommended the practice of an “examination of conscience” to learn and note “what we give most importance to” in daily choices. 

Above all, he said that it is crucial to understand what truly “satiates the heart.”

“For only the Lord can give us confirmation of what we are worth. He tells us this every day from the cross: he died for us, to show us how precious we are in his eyes. There is no obstacle or failure that can prevent his tender embrace,” he said.

The pope’s reflection was part of a weekly catechesis series on spiritual discernment that he launched on Aug. 31. 

Pope Francis noted that “underlying spiritual doubts and vocational crises” is often a lack of self-knowledge.

The pope quoted Thomas Green’s book on discernment, Weeds Among the Wheat: “I have come to the conviction that the greatest obstacle to true discernment (and to real growth in prayer) is not the intangible nature of God, but the fact that we do not know ourselves sufficiently, and do not even want to know ourselves as we really are. Almost all of us hide behind a mask, not only in front of others, but also when we look in the mirror.”

Pope Francis added: “Forgetfulness of God’s presence in our life goes hand in hand with ignorance of ourselves … ignorance of our personality traits and our deepest desires.”

At the end of his general audience, Pope Francis recalled that the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Faustina Kowalska on Oct. 5.

“Through her, God directed the world to seek salvation in his mercy. Let us remember this especially today, thinking especially of the war in Ukraine,” he said in his greeting to Polish-speaking pilgrims.

Pope Francis reminded people of his appeal for Ukraine in his Angelus address on Sunday and added: “We trust in God’s mercy, which can change hearts, and in the maternal intercession of the Queen of Peace.”

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Bishop Erik Varden of the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Trondheim presides at vespers at Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome, Nov. 28, 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA

CNA Newsroom, Nov 30, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Marking 500 years of his country’s history, a convert to Catholicism, Trappist monk, and Scandinavian bishop spoke about persecution in Rome this week.

Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO, said a “life in Christ will lead to persecution to some degree in this fallen world at all times. That’s just the way it is.”

The prelate of Trondheim — Norway’s former Viking capital — spoke during a special requiem that marked half a millennium of Catholic history in his country, as CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported.

The occasion — streamed by EWTN Norge — was a special commemoration of Archbishop Erik Valkendorf, who died in Rome 500 years ago on Nov. 28, 1522.

Valkendorf was the penultimate archbishop of Nidaros — now Trondheim — in Norway before the Protestant Reformation all but wiped out Catholic life in the country.

Bishop Varden, who had also celebrated vespers at Rome’s Santa Maria dell’Anima Church the previous evening, described the conflict between King Christian II and Valkendorf. The two, he said, had been “good comrades at first.” But then Christian prevailed upon Valkendorf to become archbishop of Nidaros in 1510 — and thus “metropolitan of all Norway, plus Greenland, Iceland, the Orkney Islands, and the Isle of Man.”

“Valkendorf took a promise from the king that the latter would not touch the rights of the Church, but Christian probably counted on some room for interpretation between old friends,” Varden explained.

“He was mistaken. Valkendorf became a sincere bishop who loved his diocese. He governed wisely and in turn was a popular shepherd.”

Varden noted that Norway owed Valkendorf “the first printed books in the country,” namely “a breviary and missal of the rite of Nidaros, published in 1519.”

“It aroused the archbishop’s displeasure that Christian constantly harassed him with financial problems and lacked respect for the rights of the Church,” Varden said, noting the tensions between the king and the archbishop.

“The king, in turn, wanted the former friend out of the way: He was no longer of any use to him.”

Valkendorf finally decided to “take the matter to the pope. At Candlemas 1522, he reached Rome. [The Bavarian theologian] Jakob Ziegler described him as a ‘venerable old man whose honest soul found expression in a pure countenance.’ Valkendorf was just 57 years old, but hardship and strife left their mark. Norway he never saw again. He died in the city on Nov. 28 of that year.”

Pope Hadrian VI praised him “for his commitment, reminiscent of Thomas Becket, ‘to the preservation of the freedom of the Church.’” Unlike Becket, however, Valkendorf was “not a martyr in the strict sense.”

“But his fidelity cost him everything: health, fortune, and reputation.”

Varden said: “The courage he displayed is more than mere natural fortitude. In freedom, he allowed the cross of the Christ to seal his life. A distinctive feature of the Rite of Nidaros is that after the consecration, the priest holds his arms ‘in the shape of a cross, pointing upward.’ One cannot stand in this posture day after day, year after year, without it leaving traces in the soul: We sense in Valkendorf a conformity to Christ.”

The 48-year-old Varden is the first Norwegian-born bishop of Trondheim in modern times. His five predecessors were German.

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Brentwood, England, Oct 26, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA).- In the wake of the discovery of the bodies of eight women and 31 men inside a semi trailer in eastern England on Wednesday, Catholics are calling for prayers for the victims and their families, as well as safer means for immigrants and asylum seekers in Europe.

‘We are praying for the thirty-nine women and men who died, for their families, and for all those across the world who have lost their lives while trying to reach a better future,” Bishop Paul McAleenan, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and lead bishops for migration and asylum in the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, said Oct. 25.

“This tragedy underscores the urgent need to redouble our efforts in establishing safe passages and combatting criminals who exploit desperate people,” McAleenan said.

Police have not yet released details about whether the people who died were migrants, or seeking asylum, and the nationalities of the victims has not been officially confirmed, though Essex police initially reported that all 39 of them were Chinese nationals.

Jesuit Refugee Service UK called for policies for safe and legal migration, including a widening the definition of family members eligible to reunite under refugee family reunion rules, in response to the discovery of the bodies.

“This is devastating news. We know very little about the people who lost their lives at this point, but they are someone’s son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother, friend or neighbour. We pray for those who died and for their families and friends,” said Sarah Teather, JRS UK’s Director, Oct. 23.

“This is truly tragic news, but depressingly predictable and avoidable news,” said Maurice Wren, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council.

“If you deny people safe and regular travel routes to find safety, you are leaving them with no choice but to risk their lives on utterly perilous journeys and in the hands of criminal gangs.”

Despite the police’s initial report on the victims’ nationalities, at least three of those on board may have been from Vietnam. Several Vietnamese people, who fear that their family members were on board and among the dead, have confided to the BBC.

“Our thoughts are with the 39 victims in #Essex, no matter where they are from,” Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to the UK, said in a tweet Friday.

“This has again drawn world attention to the issue of illegal immigration. The world should join hands and take resolute measures to prevent such tragedy from happening again.”

GPS data from the trailer, which had been leased from Global Trailer Rentals, shows that it left the Republic of Ireland Oct. 15, crossed into the UK and made its way to the port of Dover before crossing into mainland Europe. There it moved among several cities in France and Belgium before crossing the channel again to the town of Purfleet on the Thames.

A man and a woman, both 38, from a town near Liverpool, have been arrested and are being held on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people, The Times reports. On Wednesday a truck driver from Northern Ireland was arrested on suspicion of murder.

The Times also reports that the arrests come after port authorities and police were accused of failing to act on repeated warnings about migrant activity near the docks.

The BBC notes that this is not the first time that the bodies of people believed to be migrants have been found in England; in June 2000, the bodies of 58 Chinese people who had suffocated to death, along with two survivors, were discovered in a semi truck at Dover.

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