Bishop Conley returns from medical leave of absence to head Lincoln diocese

Orange, Calif., Aug 23, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Returning from Bishop Robert Barron’s conference held this week on preaching, several priests said the experience was a grace-filled time to focus on one of the most important roles with which they are tasked.

The inaugural Word on Fire National Conference for Priests was held Aug. 20-22 in Huntington Beach, Calif., fewer than 20 miles southwest of Orange. Sponsored by the Napa Institute and led by Bishop Barron, an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, the gathering of more than 300 priests focused on homiletics.

“It was very helpful,” Fr. Matthew Magee of the Archdiocese of Denver said, to hear Bishop Barron “talk about [how] the first office, the primary office we have as priests, is to preach.”

Fr. Magee told CNA it was wonderful to have re-instilled the “importance of the gift of preaching … and to open up our hearts to experience what that is from a different perspective, and then to be able to collaborate with other priests about what that means for our ministry.”

The conference was meant to help priests guide parishioners through the Bible, to preach Christ-centered homilies, to present the gospel as a yes to life and to love, and to use beauty in preaching.

Along with Bishop Barron, another presenter was Dana Gioia, the California Poet Laureate and a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fr. Joe McLagan, also of the Denver archdiocese, said Gioia “gave a talk on beauty which was quite good … he used several, about five, different pieces of literature to coalesce into the fact that beauty needs to be brought back into the world,” and how the words of preaching can do that.”

Bishop Barron’s talks focused on theory of preaching, as well as philosophy, theology, and scripture, and finally practicalities. He also shared insights from the late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, whom he served as a priest for nearly 20 years.

“It’s putting preaching back to a level of importance that some people can relegate it from,” Fr. McLagan said.

Fr. Eric Zegeer, a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami who will be teaching homiletics this autumn, is studying for a doctorate in preaching.

“I found it still very informative and helpful,” he said, “so at any level of study in homiletics, or experience, there’s a lot to get out of it.”

Fr. Zegeer also described the conference as a consoling time of priestly fraternity.

“The fraternity and fellowship … was a great source of consolation, a wonderful experience of fraternity. It was a grace-filled, restful, and prayerful few days.”

Fr. Jason Keas of the Diocese of Colorado Springs called it “a God-anointed time … to gather as brother priests to focus on the word of God and our mission, to kind of get back to the basics of the teachings of the Church.”

“It was great to gather as priests, to build each other up, to encounter the Word, to be a support to one another.”

He said it was wonderful to consider the gift of the intellectual life and the importance of studying scripture to find Christ.

[…]

Washington D.C., Sep 13, 2018 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore City Commissioner of Health, is the new president of Planned Parenthood. The abortion provider announced Wen’s appointment on Sept. 12. She replaces Dr. Cecile Richards, who was appointed to the role in 2006.

In a three-minute video posted by Planned Parenthood announcing her hiring, Wen described her immigrant background–she moved to the United States from China at the age of eight–and her past work as an emergency room doctor and as the health commissioner of Baltimore.

“Reproductive health care is health care. Women’s health care is health care, and health care has to be understood as a fundamental human right,” said Wen in the video.

“Having a physician as the head of Planned Parenthood–it is a sign that what we are doing is mainstream medical care.”

While Wen stressed her enthusiasm for the role, former Planned Parenthood clinic director-turned-pro-life activist Abby Johnson told CNA that she hopes to one day welcome Wen into her ministry for former abortion industry workers.

“Doctors take an oath to first ‘do no harm’ and when it comes to pregnant women, there are two patients. Doctors understand this, even those who do abortions,” said Johnson.

“We have had seven abortionists come through our ministry at And Then There Were None–they left their jobs and realized they could authentically practice that oath elsewhere. It’s my hope that Dr. Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood’s new president, comes to realize the atrocity of abortion for both mom and baby. We are here when she decides to quit and to use her talents to first do no harm.”

Wen is the first physician to lead Planned Parenthood in five decades. In a statement on Twitter, she said her new position was “an incredible honor and privilege” and that she was “proud to stand alongside millions of (the organization’s) supporters as we embark on this next chapter together.

Americans United for Life President and CEO Catherine Glenn Foster said in a statement that she believes that Wen “puts politics ahead of women’s health,” and that she has an “abysmal and tragic record” combatting sexually transmitted diseases from her time in Baltimore.

During Wen’s time as a city commissioner for health, Maryland had some of the highest diagnosis rates in the country for diseases such as syphilis and HIV/AIDS, said Foster.

“Without irony, Wen further hails the ‘life saving work’ of the nation’s largest abortion network, even though Baltimore’s African-American community has been decimated by abortion.”

While in her post in Baltimore, Wen sued the Trump administration over funding cuts to a grant for teen pregnancy prevention programs. The funding was eventually restored.

Foster was also critical of Wen’s attack on conscience rights, saying “[Wen] refers to the principled decisions of doctors and nurses to refrain from the destruction of innocent human lives as ‘refusals,’ and teamed up with NARAL in the attempt to force pro-life pregnancy centers to refer for abortions.”

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the United States. In 2016, the organization performed about one out of every three abortions, the largest single share by far.

While Wen emphasised the “basic health care” offered by Planned Parenthood, the past decade has seen its number of patients decline by about 700,000, while the number of cancer screenings, contraceptives distributed, and prenatal services provided by the organization decreased as well.

Abortions, however, have increased by about 10 percent since 2006, despite Planned Parenthood seeing fewer patients.

The amount of federal funding received by Planned Parenthood increased by 61 per cent over the past decade. In 2016, Planned Parenthood received over half a billion dollars in federal funds.

[…]

Xuanhua, China, Mar 29, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- A bishop of the underground Church in China’s Hebei province and his vicar general were placed in detention this week, and a lay Catholic activist was jailed in Hong Kong.

According to UCA News, Coadjutor Bishop Augustine Cui Tai of Xuanhua and his vicar general, Father Zhang Jianlin, were detained by officials of Hebei province this week.

“The government’s aim is to paralyze the diocese. If the diocese fails to manage the community, then the government will use this as an opportunity to take it over,” an anonymous priest from the underground Church told UCA News.

According to the UCA News, the bishop had been taken in custody the morning of March 29 after he received a text message in regards to his arrest. He had also been detained for indoctrination in April last year and was recently released in January.

UCA News reported that Father Zhang was seized March 28 for violating a traveling restriction. Since his identity papers were confiscated, the priest has not been allowed to travel even to a neighboring city.

In November two of Bishop Cui’s priests, Fr. Su Guipeng and Fr. Zhao He, were abducted to be “indoctrinated on the religious policy of the Chinese government … because they refuse to enroll in the Patriotic Association.” Two priests of the Diocese of Chongli-Xiwanzi, also in Hebei, were also taken.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Yip Po-lam, a member of the Justice Peace Commission of the Diocese of Hong Kong, was jailed March 28. A court had refused to hear an appeal regarding a conviction she received five years ago for disturbing the peace during a protest.

The peaceful demonstrations were protesting the controversial Northeast New Territories Development Plan, which displaced villagers and damaged property. Chairman of the Hong Kong Catholic Institution Staff Association, Alexander Yu, decried the court’s decision, stating Yip had acted justly, according to UCA News.

“We agree with Yip’s action as her motives were genuine when calling on the general public to examine the injustices of the development plan,” he said. “The social teaching of the Catholic Church points out that our love for neighbors urges us to seek social justice.”

The Church in mainland China has been divided for some 60 years between the underground Church, which is persecuted and whose episcopal appointments are frequently not acknowledged by Chinese authorities, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a government-sanctioned organization.

In September 2018 the Holy See and Beijing reached an agreement meant to normalize the situation of China’s Catholics and to unify the underground Church and the CPCA.

The agreement has been roundly criticized by human rights groups and some Church leaders, including Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.

In December, two bishops of the underground Catholic Church agreed to step aside in favor of bishops of the CPCA, in the wake of the September agreement.

One test of the result of the Holy See-Beijing agreement may be the appointment of a bishop to the Diocese of Jining (Wumeng) in Inner Mongolia.

The South China Morning Post reported March 29 that the diocese is nearing its selection of episcopal candidates, making it the first time that the Vatican and Beijing might agree on a bishop appointment since the September 2018 accord.

Religious freedom is officially guaranteed by the Chinese constitution, but religious groups must register with the government, and are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party. The Sinicization of religion has been pushed by President Xi Jinping, who took power in 2013 and who has strengthened government oversight of religious activities.

In 2017, Xi said that religions not sufficiently conformed to communist ideals pose a threat to the country’s government, and therefore must become more “Chinese-oriented.” Since he took power, crosses have been removed from an estimated 1,500 church buildings.

Reports of the destruction or desecration of Catholic churches and shrines have come from across China, including the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, and Shandong.

The US Commission on International Religion wrote in its 2018 report that last year China “advanced its so-called ‘sinicization’ of religion, a far-reaching strategy to control, govern, and manipulate all aspects of faith into a socialist mold infused with ‘Chinese characteristics.’” Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners have all been affected.

[…]