Archbishop Gintaras Grušas, accompanied by Father Andriy Zelinsky of the military chaplaincy, met wounded Ukrainian soldiers and their families. / Photo courtesy of Father Andriy Zelinsky
Rome Newsroom, Jul 21, 2022 / 04:15 am (CNA).
The president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe met wounded Ukrainian soldiers and their families during a visit to Ukraine this week.
Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, Lithuania, also encountered recently released prisoners among the injured soldiers, according to a press release from the office of the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Grušas “expressed heartfelt words of support and consolation to [the soldiers’] mothers and wives| and bestowed his blessing on the soldiers, who expressed their desire to return to fight in the Ukrainian army after they have recovered, the press release said.
Archbishop Gintaras Grušas with an injured Ukrainian soldier. Photo courtesy of Father Andriy Zelensky
The archbishop — and serving president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) — is also the apostolic administrator of the Lithuanian military.
Before visiting Ukraine, he was in Przemyśl, Poland, nine miles from Ukraine’s western border, for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s synod of bishops July 7-15.
The sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church of the Byzantine rite currently has around 51 bishops in its synod. They carry out pastoral service throughout the world, including in the U.S. and Ukraine.
As president of the CCEE, Grušas addressed the assembly.
“The battle that rages in Ukraine reminds us of the truth which we profess, that the reality that surrounds us is both visible and invisible,” he said. “It is so closely intertwined that we cannot always clearly separate these two realities.”
Archbishop Gintaras Grušas with an injured Ukrainian soldier. Photo courtesy of Father Andriy Zelensky.
Archbishop Gintaras Grušas with an injured Ukrainian soldier. Photo courtesy of Father Andriy Zelensky.
The archbishop said: “The physical reality of the war is clearly seen, though it too tries to keep its atrocities and crimes hidden. Our moral teaching reminds us that each person and nation has the right of self-defense and there is a duty that in the sight of naked aggression, the world community must come to the aid of its neighbor under attack.”
The CCEE has invited the bishops of Europe to pray for peace in Ukraine before the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, Grušas said.
“We remain united in prayer. The Catholic Church of Europe remembers Ukraine in its prayers,” he said.
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ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 28, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).
The Colombian Bishops’ Conference decried the July 22 ruling of the Constitutional Court that expanded access to euthanasia to non-terminally ill patients. It sa… […]
Pope Francis delivers a video message to the conference “100 Years Since the ‘Concilium Sinense’” at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. / Credit: Fabio Gonnella/EWTN
Rome Newsroom, May 21, 2024 / 13:57 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis has praised the Catholic Church’s first council in China 100 years ago as “an authentic synodal journey” that opened the way for the Church in China “to increasingly have a Chinese face.”
In a video message to a conference in Rome on the Catholic Church in China, the pope noted that Chinese Catholics have endured “times of patience and trial” in the past century.
“The Lord in China has safeguarded the faith of the people of God along the way. And the faith of God’s people has been the compass that has shown the way throughout this time,” Pope Francis said in the May 21 address.
Pope Francis delivers a video message to the conference “100 Years Since the ‘Concilium Sinense’” at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Credit: Fabio Gonnella/EWTN
The pope pointed to a Church council that took place in Shanghai 25 years before the Chinese Communist Revolution as an example of a moment when “the communion between the Holy See and the Church in China manifested its fruits, fruits of good for all the Chinese people.”
The 1924 council, called the Primum Concilium Sinense, brought together 105 Catholic missionaries, bishops, and Chinese Catholics to establish a framework for a native Chinese hierarchy.
“The Fathers gathered in the Concilium Sinense lived an authentically synodal experience and made important decisions together,” Pope Francis said.
“Remembering the Council of Shanghai can also suggest today new paths to the entire Church and open paths to be undertaken with boldness to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel in the present,” he added.
Among the crowd listening to the pope’s video message were representatives from the People’s Republic of China, including Bishop Shen Bin of Shanghai, who was unilaterally installed by Chinese authorities as bishop of Shanghai in April 2023 without a papal mandate, thereby breaking the terms of the Vatican-China deal. Pope Francis confirmed his appointment in July 2023.
The Holy See first entered into a provisional two-year agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops in 2018, which has since been renewed twice and is again up for renewal this fall.
Pope Francis opted not to speak of the Vatican’s diplomatic efforts with Beijing or religious freedom in China in his message but said that Chinese Catholics today “bear witness to their faith through works of mercy and charity, and in their witness they give a real contribution to the harmony of social coexistence.”
A large statue of Our Lady of Sheshan stood on the pope’s desk as he spoke. The pope noted that during the month of May many Chinese Catholics usually go on pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Sheshan, located near Shanghai.
“I too ideally climb the hill of Sheshan, and let us all together entrust to Mary, Help of Christians, our brothers and sisters in the faith who are in China, all the Chinese people, and all our poor world, asking for her intercession, so that peace may always win everywhere,” Pope Francis said.
Following the pope’s message, Shen Bin delivered a 15-minute speech in Chinese to the packed auditorium of the Pontifical Urban University on the Janiculum Hill overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Chinese bishop offered a different interpretation of the 1924 council from the pope in his speech, saying that “the Council of Shanghai did not lead to an immediate and radical change in the Church in China,” adding that by the 1949 Communist Revolution “only 29 of China’s 137 dioceses had Chinese bishops, and only three of 20 archbishops were Chinese.”
“The Catholic Church in China had not really freed itself from foreign powers to become a work led by Chinese Christians and had not yet managed to shed the label of ‘foreign religion,’” he said.
Shen Bin, who has held leadership positions in the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association established by the Chinese Communist Party and under the control of the United Front Work Department, went on to defend Beijing’s religious freedom record and underlined the need for the Church in China to “follow a path of sinicization.”
“The policy of religious freedom implemented by the Chinese government has no interest in changing the Catholic faith but only hopes that the Catholic clergy and faithful will defend the interests of the Chinese people and free themselves from the control of foreign powers,” Shen Bin said in his speech.
“Today the Chinese people are carrying out the great rebirth of the Chinese nation in a global way with Chinese-style modernization, and the Catholic Church in China must move in the same direction, following a path of sinicization that is in line with Chinese society and culture today,” the Shanghai bishop added.
The conference, titled “100 Years Since the ‘Concilium Sinense’: Between History and the Present,” was held in Chinese and Italian in the Great Hall of the Pontifical Urban University. The Pastoral Commission for China and Agenzia Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, organized the conference, which featured Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as speakers.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the conference, Parolin said the Holy See would like to increase and deepen its contacts in China.
“We have been hoping for a long time now to have a stable presence in China, even if initially it may not have the form of a papal representation of an apostolic nunciature,” Parolin said.
London, England, Jan 21, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- An undergraduate student in a midwife program was barred from placement in a hospital, reportedly due to her pro-life beliefs. The decision was overturned last week, but free speech advocates say the case is troubling.
According to The Telegraph, Julia Rynkiewicz, a 24-year-old student at the University of Nottingham in the U.K., was blocked from entering her program’s hospital placement phase, after the university learned of her pro-life beliefs and her leadership in a pro-life student group.
Rynkiewicz underwent a “fitness to practice” hearing by the school last Monday.
While the university overturned its decision and will allow Rynkiewicz to continue as a midwife student, the investigation and temporary ban from the placement set her back a year in her studies.
Concerns were raised by school officials about Rynkiewicz’s fitness to practice as a midwife after they saw her tending a booth at a school fair in her position as president for Nottingham Students for Life (NSFL), an approved pro-life student group that supports life from conception to natural death.
Just days after the fair last September, Rynkiewicz said she received a letter from officials at her Midwifery School saying that a formal complaint had been filed against her due to her pro-life activities.
The complaint alleged that she had “provided reproductive health advice without the support of a registered midwife and…expressed personal beliefs regarding reproductive sexual health in the public domain (including the press and social media) to the effect that it may create the perception of an impact on patient care,” The Telegraph reported.
“I think it’s important to remember that being pro-life isn’t incompatible with being a midwife,” Rynkiewicz, who is a Catholic, told The Telegraph.
The Abortion Act of 1967 in the UK allows for conscientious objection to abortions for healthcare providers.
Rynkiewicz said she is concerned about what her case could mean for freedom of speech on university campuses. “But (universities) should be a place where we can speak up about your beliefs and debate with people in a civilized way so I’m shocked that this happened,” she told The Telegraph.
Pro-life advocacy and legal groups spoke out on behalf of Rynkiewicz, arguing for her freedom of speech and right to conscientious objection.
“What has happened to Ms. Rynkiewicz is a flagrant violation of her moral and legal right to freedom of expression,” Mark Bhagwandin, senior education and media officer at pro-life group Life Charity, told The Telegraph.
Laurence Wilkinson, legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom International, told The Telegraph that this case “represents a very chilling prospect for freedom of speech on campus.”
“Despite the allegations being dismissed, the practical effect of this investigation is that Julia is now forced to graduate one year later than her classmates. It is to Julia’s credit that she remains absolutely committed to completing her training, caring for women and bringing life into the world,” he added.
“She is now considering her options, as no student should have to go through this kind of daunting process in the absence of clear and compelling reasons.”
Rynkiewicz told The Telegraph that she is demanding an apology from the school, and that she has filed a formal complaint about her case against the school. She added that she is seeking compensation for the stress and inconvenience caused to her, and that she is willing to take her case to court if necessary.
“It all felt a bit ridiculous and I have had to put my life on hold for a year and that’s been frustrating. I have been suspended for almost four months as a result of not being able to attend my placement and been forced to take year-long interruption to my studies. I won’t be back until September and will now be graduating a year later than I wanted to,” she told The Telegraph.
“I would quite like an apology for everything they have put me through. I feel fine about it all now but I would still like them to apologize as a matter of justice. I suppose that they have realized they have done wrong and (I hope they) will change it so no one else has to go through what I have,” she said.
A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham told The Telegraph that it takes fitness to practice investigations seriously, “to ensure they can provide appropriate and professional advice and care to patients.”
The university added that it would be considering ways to help Rynkiewicz reconvene her studies without further delay.
“The student’s complaint will be carefully considered while their School is actively considering how they can recommence their studies without delay,” the school said.
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