Pope Francis upset by Germany floods

Pope Francis blesses a child in the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, July 13, 2021. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Jul 13, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Tuesday met with children on the oncology ward of … […]

Munich, Germany, Apr 24, 2018 / 04:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The government of Bavaria has decided to instruct all state administrative buildings in the German state to display a cross in their public entrances by June 1.

The move intends to “express the historical and cultural character of Bavaria” and present “a visible commitment to the core values of the legal and social order in Bavaria and Germany”, the office of Markus Söder, Bavaria’s premier, announced April 24.

The Bavarian Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, hailed the decision as a “clear signal for Christian tradition”. Söder was quick to put his cabinet’s decree into action, personally hanging up a cross on the wall of the State Chancellery, and tweeting that this constitutes a commitment to Bavarian identity and Christian values.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”de” dir=”ltr”>Klares Bekenntnis zu unserer bayerischen Identität und christlichen Werten. Haben heute im Kabinett beschlossen, dass in jeder staatlichen Behörde ab dem 1. Juni ein Kreuz hängen soll. Habe direkt nach der Sitzung ein Kreuz im Eingangsbereich der Staatskanzlei aufgehängt. <a href=”https://t.co/o99M0dV4Uy”>pic.twitter.com/o99M0dV4Uy</a></p>&mdash; Markus Söder (@Markus_Soeder) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Markus_Soeder/status/988768341820170240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Municipal and regional district buildings are not compelled, but encouraged to do likewise. Classrooms and courtrooms in traditionally Catholic Bavaria are already required to display a cross.

As some observers were quick to point out, the decision to display the crosses in the entranceways and not the actual government office rooms may be aimed at avoiding the controversy the display of the Christian symbol in classrooms and courtrooms has caused in the past.

Opposition party members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Greens criticised the move as an election campaign tactic. Meanwhile, the elected representative of the famous village of Oberammergau, whilst denouncing any political instrumentalization of the cross, also welcomed the potential for his electorate’s artisanal woodcarvers.

Bavarian voters will go the polls Oct 14 to elect a new government – and will likely return the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) government. The conservative CSU is the Bavarian sister party to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany. It has dominated Bavarian politics – and provided the State Premier – since 1957.

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Funchal, Portugal, Jan 31, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Portuguese Diocese of Funchal has said that a priest who fathered a child has resigned his duties as a pastor but will be able to continue his pastoral ministry.

In November 2017, Fr. Giselo Andrade, then pastor of  Our Lady of the Hill church, acknowledged his paternity of a girl born in August.

After investigating the case, the Diocese of Funchal stated that “the Church is a place of mercy and God forgives everything, but a double life is unacceptable.”

The diocese said that it is providing pastoral guidance in “the situation, respecting the delicateness of the case, the dignity of persons and the consequences it has in the parish itself and the other Christian communities.”

They also stated that “the priest himself had to discern, in dialogue with the bishop, if he intended to exercise the pastoral ministry according the requirements and norms of the Church or instead would embrace another vocation.”
In the Jan 28 notice, the diocese said that the decision that Fr. Andrade wouldd resign from his functions as pastor was made “after dialogue with the priest himself.”

The diocesan notice stated that the priest “will be able to continue the exercise of his pastoral ministry through some activities that were already entrusted to him in the area of communications and others that eventually may be assigned to him.”

The statement said that it was the priest himself who “expressed his desire to continue to exercise his priestly ministry under the conditions required by the Church.”

“Of course the need for clear discernment was seen, for a responsibly undertaken choice matured in reflection and prayer, a discernment made with serenity and free of pressure,” under the pastoral guidance of Bishop  António José Cavaco Carrilho of the diocese, the diocese said.

The notice also emphasized that by assuming the paternity of his daughter, Fr. Andrade demonstrated his commitment to the responsibilities inherent to this situation.

“This entire situation created an opportunity for debate and reflection in the news media and social media,” on the discipline of celibacy in the Church, considering that the Church “is not static but dynamic and has a history that allows it to recognize and evaluate its values and its faults.” he said.

The Diocese of Fuchal stressed that “Catholic priests accept and commit themselves in complete freedom, to live the gift of celibacy in their ministry of service to the People of God, in fuller conformity to Christ the Shepherd, with abundant fruits for the Church, including the sacrifice of some expressions and joys of family life.”

In a May 2017, interview, discussing the shortage of priests, Pope Francis said that “optional celibacy is not the solution.”

In November 2017, when Fr. Andrade acknowledged he was the father of a girl, the President of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Manuel Clemente, defended celibacy and rejected the possibility that it be abandoned or “softened.”

In a Nov 16 press conference at the end of the plenary assembly of bishops, the cardinal also commented that situations similar to Fr. Andrade’s also occur with romantic affairs involving priests.

According to the  Portuguese news agency Ecclesia, the cardinal, who is also the Patriarch of Lisbon, said that in cases of romantic affairs “responsibilities have to be assumed” and that priestly or conjugal life continues when there is the “will to repent going forward and do things more conscientiously and responsibly.”

As for celibacy, the cardinal said that “the priest is a living sign of Christ by choosing to not have a family in order to be family to everyone.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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