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Vatican City, Oct 9, 2019 / 03:44 pm (CNA).- While the Catholic community in Morocco is small, it bears a strong witness to the Gospel as it proclaims the message of Christ and serves those in need, said one of the Church’s new cardinals this week.

Cristóbal López Romero, archbishop of Rabat, Morocco, was among the 13 prelates elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Francis on Oct. 5.

López Romero is a member of the Salesians. Born in Spain, he moved to Morocco in 2003 to head the Salesian community there. Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Rabat in December 2017.

The Church in Morocco is small, with only about 30,000 Christians among 37 million Muslims, the cardinal told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister agency.

“Nevertheless, it’s a significant Church,” he said, adding that the Christian community is “significant because of the message we can convey to the Universal Church and the entire world.”

Although small, the cardinal said, the local Church is “young” and “lively.” In addition, he noted that Catholics living in the country “come from more than 100 nationalities, so we’re quite universal, which is what the word ‘catholic’ means.”

This protects the local Catholic community from becoming self-referential, he said. Rather, they recognize the need to build the Kingdom of God in all places and circumstances.

“We are an ecumenical Church,” López Romero continued. “We work closely with our Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox Christian brothers.”

“We are a Church that’s a bridge between Europe and Africa, between Muslims and Christians, between Spain and Morocco, between East and West, between poor and rich. A bridge. That’s what we try to be in this time in which so many to seek to raise up walls, barriers, borders, or even pits.”

The local Church is heavily engaged in inter-religious dialogue, particularly with Muslims, the cardinal added.

He also pointed to the Church’s strong tradition of service, following the example of the Good Samaritan in scripture. The Archdiocese of Rabat often cares for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who pass through Morocco, he said. Some settle there, but most are traveling to Europe.

“We are…a Church that stoops down before the person in need, the person who’s really going through hard times, to help him. Whether he’s a Muslim Moroccan or an African Christian, it doesn’t matter. Like the Good Samaritan, we reach out to the person in need without asking him where he comes from, where he’s going, why he’s in that situation.”

Reflecting on his new role as cardinal, López Romero said that 98% of his daily life and responsibilities will remain the same as before his appointment.

“I’m still the archbishop of Rabat, that is my task, that is what the Church has asked of me. But in that remaining 2%, what will change is that I’ll have to travel a little more to Rome to take part in various meetings.”

He added that while much of his focus will remain on his archdiocese, “I will have to think a little bit more about the universal Church, because the task of a cardinal is to be beside the pope to support him, advise him, if he asks our opinion, or carry out the tasks that he entrusts to us on a temporary or long-term basis.”

“So I must keep in mind that, while being responsible for the Church in Rabat, my concern will have to go beyond those limits and out to the universal Church,” he said.

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

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2023 / 18:52 pm (CNA).
Some Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass are awaiting the next steps from their bishops after the Vatican ordered the dioceses to get approval from the Ho… […]

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2018 / 10:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.

“The Church has always paid special devotion to the martyrs, who have faith and love for the Lord Jesus, even to the shedding of their blood as witness,” he wrote in a letter to Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu.

Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Becciu, as the pope’s envoy, will celebrate the Dec. 8 beatification of the 19 Algerian martyrs at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Cross in Oran.

In his letter, composed in Latin, the pope recalled the suffering and persecution experienced by Christ, quoting his words to his disciples that “a servant is no greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

These words have been confirmed throughout time and place in the persecution and martyrdom of Christians, he continued.

“Persecutions are not a reality of the past,” he said, quoting his 2018 apostolic exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, “for today too we experience them, whether by the shedding of blood, as is the case with so many contemporary martyrs, or by more subtle means, by slander and lies.”

He also said that “at other times, persecution can take the form of gibes that try to caricature our faith and make us seem ridiculous.”

But Christians should not be afraid of persecution, Francis said, because Christ told his followers that “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. […] And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

The death of these 19 martyrs has acted like a seed planted in the desert, and “the seeds have sprouted,” resulting in the growth of virtues, Francis said. The martyrs loved eternal life more than death, and now “they possess what they loved, and they will possess it even more fully at the resurrection of the dead.”

Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to recognize the martyrdoms in January.

Bishop Claverie, who was a French Algerian and the Bishop of Oran from 1981 until his Aug. 1, 1996 martyrdom, is one of the future blesseds. He and his companions were killed during the Algerian Civil War by Islamists.

In addition to Claverie, those being beatified are: Brother Henri Vergès, Sister Paul-Hélène Saint-Raymond, Sister Esther Paniagua Alonso, Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín, Fr. Jean Chevillard, Fr. Alain Dieulangard, Fr. Charles Deckers, Fr. Christian Chessel, Sister Angèle-Marie Littlejohn, Sister Bibiane Leclercq, Sister Odette Prévost, Brother Luc Dochier, Brother Christian de Chergé, Brother Christophe Lebreton, Brother Michel Fleury, Brother Bruno Lemarchand, Brother Célestin Ringeard, and Brother Paul Favre-Miville.

The best known of Claverie’s companions are the seven monks of Tibhirine, who were kidnapped from their Trappist priory in March 1996. They were kept as a bartering chip to procure the release of several imprisoned members of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, and were killed in May. Their story was dramatized in the 2010 French film Of Gods and Men, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

After the death of the monks of Tibhirine, Bishop Claverie knew his life was in serious danger. A bomb exploded at the entrance of his chancery Aug. 1, 1996, killing him and an aide, Mohamed Bouchikhi.

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