On June 20, Bishop César Franco of the Diocese of Segovia, Spain, ordained Álvaro Marín Molinera to the priesthood – almost 11 years after the last priest was ordained for the small diocese.
Family, friends and a broad representation of the priests and deacons of the province also attended the ordination ceremony in the cathedral.
Marín, 27, was ordained a deacon in October 2020, and received formation at the University of Ávila and the Pontifical University of Salamanca.
The last ordination of diocesan priests in the diocese was on July 4, 2010. Franco also ordained a young Claretian religious to the priesthood on June 5.
According to the newspaper El Adelantado de Segovia, the new diocesan priest chose as his motto, “I can do all things in the One who strengthens me.”
During his homily at the ordination Mass, Bishop Franco said that “the priesthood gives you the authority to confront evil, but to do this you have to imitate in your life the mystery of the cross.”
The bishop stressed that to exercise the ministry, “you can’t be a coward, not trust in Christ or live the faith in a mediocre way,” and so he encouraged Marín to put all his strength in Jesus Christ.
The newly-ordained priest quoted St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars: “I prostrated myself conscious of my nothingness and arose a priest forever.”
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Pope Francis meets with Argentine pilgrims on Feb. 9, 2024, ahead of the historic canonization of the county’s first female saint on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Mar 8, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).
On the day before Inter… […]
Gabriel Vance of Columbus, Ohio, prays the rosary, with his three young sons beside him, during the pro-life Men’s March in Baltimore on Nov. 15, 2021. / Shannon Mullen
Baltimore, Md., Nov 15, 2021 / 17:24 pm (CNA).
When the call went out for men to march and pray for the unborn in Baltimore on Monday, Gabriel Vance and his extended family turned out in droves.
A caravan of 20 of his family members made the seven-hour trek from Columbus, Ohio, including his own three boys, his brothers-in-law, and their sons.
“The greatest social issue we face is the issue of abortion, because it takes the lives of 2,300 human beings every day in America, and 200,000 human beings every day in our world,” said Vance, 26, who co-founded the pro-life group Catholics for Life with his wife Anna earlier this year.
“The Catholic Church,” he said, “needs to be taking a stand against that.” And that means Catholic men — bishops, priests, deacons, and laymen — can’t remain silent, he added.
Approximately 200 men and boys from across the country took part in the pro-life Men’s March on Monday. Held to coincide with the start of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ fall assembly, the march began in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and ended with the recitation of the rosary and speeches outside the Marriott Waterfront hotel, where the bishops are meeting this week.
Some of the youngest participants donned snow suits and mittens, because it was a cold, blustery November day, but the men and older boys marched in suits and ties, as the organizers requested. “We’re not here as protesters,” explained participant Larry Cirignano. “It was a simple message of Catholic men in support of life.”
But there also was a message marchers sought to deliver to the bishops. Signs and speeches called on the leaders of the Catholic Church in the U.S. to enforce Canon 915 of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law, which says, in part, that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” should not be admitted to Holy Communion.
One of the chief items on the bishops’ agenda this week will be a vote on a proposed new document on the Eucharist. Though the document grew out of discussions over whether adamantly pro-abortion Catholic politicians, such as President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ought to be allowed to receive Communion, the draft text under consideration doesn’t include any reference to politicians, nor any criteria for denying the sacrament in such cases.
Catholic radio talk show host Jim Havens was one of the co-organizers of the pro-life Men’s March in Baltimore on Nov. 15, 2021. Shannon Mullen/CNA
“We simply want them to live the faith and fulfill the sacred offices that they hold,” said Jim Havens, a Catholic radio talk show host in Fort Myers, Fla. who co-organized Monday’s march with Father Stephen Imbarrato, a pro-life activist.
“Canon 915 is there. If it applies in any situation, it certainly applies with pro-abortion politicians. They have been talked to many, many times. They’re obstinate. It’s public, manifest grave sin, and then they’re still going forward and receiving the Holy Eucharist,” Havens said.
“We cannot say this is OK. Out of charity, out of love for them, as well as out of love for others, we have to say no, we have to apply Canon 915,” he said.
Havens said he disagrees with those bishops who believe withholding Communion from pro-abortion politicians would politicize or “weaponize” the sacrament.
“This is not about politics. This is about morality. These are real people being murdered. So we have to push to make [abortion] illegal and unthinkable,” he said. “Not because it’s politics, but because it’s moral; it’s the morally right thing to do.”
New York City, N.Y., Jan 13, 2021 / 01:49 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has explained why Catholics are not ashamed of being ‘hung up’ on abortion, especially in the context of the upcoming Biden administration, in a Wednesday column.
Recalling a conversation with a politician who asked him, “why are you Catholics so hung up about abortion,” the Archbishop of New York explained in a Jan. 13 column at Catholic New York that “actually, we’re obsessed with the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of all human life! Yes, the innocent, helpless life of the baby in the womb, but also the life of the death row prisoner, the immigrant, the fragile elderly, the poor and the sick.”
“As a matter of fact,” Cardinal Dolan says, “this is not a uniquely ‘Catholic’ issue at all, but one of human rights. We didn’t learn that abortion was horrible in religion class, but in biology, and in our courses on the ‘inalienable rights’ tradition in American history.”
“How can we sustain a culture that recoils at violence, exclusion, suicide, racism, injustice, and callousness toward those in need, if we applaud, allow, pay for, and promote the destruction of the most helpless, the baby in the womb?”
Cardinal Dolan also writes that “pro-abortionists reassured us forty-eight years ago” that abortion would be kept safe, legal, and rare. “So much for the reassurances! We have hardly gotten used to it. Abortion remains the hottest issue in our politics, with polls showing that most Americans want restrictions on its unquestioned use, and do not want their taxes to pay for it.”
“We’re even more ‘hung up’ now, as our new president, whom we wish well, and who speaks with admirable sensitivity about protecting the rights of the weakest and most threatened, ran on a platform avidly supporting this gruesome capital punishment for innocent pre-born babies.”
“We’re all still cringing from the disturbing violence last week in Washington. This upheaval was made the more nauseating as it was seemingly encouraged by the one sworn to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, and because it trashed the very edifice designed to be a sanctuary of safety, reason, civility, and decorum,” the Cardinal added.
He finally praised President-elect Joe Biden for “reminding us that the rampage we saw was not America,” and concluded by asking if we can hope “that violence will subside,” and that “the sacredness of all life and the dignity of the human person will be revived, and that the sanctuary of the womb will be off-limits to violent invasion.”
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