Former Judo champion turned Catholic priest spiritually tends to athletes at Paris Olympics

Rome, Italy, Jun 5, 2017 / 11:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Last week the Order of Malta hosted diplomats and politicians from throughout Europe for a discussion on the effects of violent conflict on children.

Participants said the topic is increasingly urgent since children all over the world are growing up surrounded by war.

“It’s self-explanatory that the well-being of children is key for the future of humanity, and on the other hand the first victims of conflicts, of disasters, of any kind of turmoil, are the weakest in society, and these are women and children,” Order of Malta Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager told CNA.

Because of this, he said the order tries to concentrate the relief they give to “the weakest…especially, children.”

Providing educational opportunities and psychological care for children affected by violent conflict are among the top priorities “because the lack of education and the effect of traumas very often have very long-term effects, and sometimes they turn up only later and have a deteriorating effect on countries.”

The Grand Chancellor was one of several European leaders participating in a June 1 conference titled “Children Victims of Armed Violence” commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Lidice massacre in the Czech Republic.

Nazi troops stormed the village in 1942 on the order of Adolf Hitler in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking German official and the main architect of the Holocaust, a few months earlier. Nazi intelligence had erroneously linked the village to Heydrich’s assassins.

The men were rounded up and killed, and the women and 88 children of the village were gathered and sent to the Chelmno extermination camp, where they were gassed to death. Only a few children considered racially suitable for “Germanization” – the spreading of the German language and culture – survived, and were handed over to SS families.

To mark the anniversary, a Czech group came on pilgrimage to Rome last week. They met Pope Francis during his general audience May 31, and later had Mass with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who offered the liturgy for children who are victims of armed conflicts. The group then participated in the half-day conference Thursday, followed by a Mass said by Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague.

During the conference, Veronika Rymonova, a survivor of the Lidice massacre, shared her testimony. Although she was just five months at the time of the attack, Rymonova said the soldiers hit her on the face, leaving a scar on her forehead, and tore her earlobes.

She was one of the few children to survive, and said that despite the fact she has no memories of her village, she is proud of it because Lidice has become a “symbol against Nazism.”

“This unprecedented act of evil and hatred did not remain without a response,” she said, noting that after the massacre “a wave of solidarity arose all over the world,” with countries naming squares, streets, and towns after the village, and even sending donations to survivors.

“The fact that I am here today proves the fact that you are not indifferent to the fate of a small village in the heart of Europe, even 75 years after its massacre,” Rymonova said, voicing her hope that what happened in Lidice “would be a warning for the next generation” so that innocent lives “would never become a wasted sacrifice.”

In an opening address, Vaclav Kolaja, the Czech deputy foreign minister, told participants that while contemporary European youth have lived in relative peace, armed conflicts “remain part of everyday life in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

Armed conflicts are “leaving behind a growing number of victims, devastated countries and wounded families,” he said, noting that the situation “is even worse for the millions of children growing in war or post-war countries.”

These children “become the passive witnesses and victims of human cruelties, or accept an active role in armed conflicts, becoming child soldiers,” he said. They also face rape and other forms of abuse.

Many times children in conflict areas will lack access to basic food, healthcare, shelter, and education, as well as access to a stable family life.

In his comments, Kolaja noted that if war is the only reality children experience growing up, “this naturally shapes the future of the world.”

As millions of migrants including unaccompanied minors, continue to pour into Europe, greater concern is mounting not only for how to ensure them safe passage, but also for how to help them integrate into their new societies.

In their recent “A child is a child” report, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the global number of migrant and refugee children who move alone has reached a record high. At least 300,000 unaccompanied minors and separated children were recorded in around 80 countries for 2015-2016, a massive jump from the 66,000 recorded for 2010-2011.

UNICEF Italy Team Leader for Refugee and Migrant Response, Gianfranco Rotigliano also spoke at the conference, telling participants that we are “losing generations” to armed conflicts.

“There is no sanctity anymore for hospitals,” he said, noting that they have often become targets, with numerous children among the casualties.

He also lamented the fact that children from warring countries often stop going to school, saying: “when children do not go to school, they are out of society, or they become the last part of society. They will not participate in the process of development in their own country and in their own society.”

Tomas Bocek, the Council of Europe’s Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees, noted that children who grow up with war generally suffer from anger and often drift into criminal activities.

Children also simply disappear, many times because of poor organization in refugee camps, or out of fear of deportation, he said, stressing the need to focus on systemic problems “so children do not fall through the net.”

Good and effective systems must be put into place, he said, noting that 1 in 3 asylum seekers in Europe is a child.

Because trafficking is such a huge risk, especially for unaccompanied minors, Bocek said the rapid identification of victims is essential so that they are accounted for before they disappear.  

Stories from other panelists during the conference provided a shocking dose of reality in terms of what children go through.

One panelist recounted how in a visit to a warring country, she met a child who was waiting for the electricity to come back on after a bombing, not realizing that she had in fact lost her sight.

Other stories told of children who suffered from nosebleeds every time a bomb would go off, as well as the cases of children who, after coming home from school to see their homes destroyed and their family killed, wanted to commit suicide so they could be with their relatives.

In comments to CNA, Bocek said that of all the discussions taking place right now on global conflicts, the topic of how they affect children is one of the most important because “they are the most vulnerable ones, they are without protection, especially when they are on their own.”

One of the “most problematic areas” unaccompanied migrant children face is guardianship and obtaining basic information, he said, explaining that a plan of the Council for Europe provides for age-assessment, family reunification, and integration.

Integration, Bocek said, is key, and begins with learning the language, followed by education.

“They need to go to school. They not only need it, this is their basic right. So we really have to facilitate this, that all children who are coming are educated and can go to school.”

Responding to Pope Francis’ many appeals to European leaders to not only be generous in accepting the number of migrants they can reasonably welcome, but also to facilitate their integration, Bocek said he views the Roman Pontiff’s words as an encouragement for leaders.

“All these pushes, encouragements for our action,” he said, “will help to convince the leaders of European States, not only me, but in Europe, to really think twice and show more solidarity, because now this is really needed most.”

[…]

Stuart Long (Mark Wahlberg) in Columbia Pictures’ Father Stu. / Courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Denver Newsroom, Feb 10, 2022 / 18:05 pm (CNA).

An upcoming film about a rough-and-tumble Montana priest has the potential to inspire every person to consider a relationship with God, Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg said in an interview that aired Feb. 10 on EWTN’s The World Over. 

“It felt like it was a story and a message that everybody needed to hear,” Wahlberg said. “If we get one other person, if we plant one more seed…and even if it takes him 50 years to get there to impact somebody else, we’re doing our job.”

Father Stu features the story of Father Stuart Long, a Montana priest who died of a rare muscular condition in 2014. Father Stu, as he was affectionately known, was a late vocation to the priesthood. He pursued careers in boxing, acting, teaching, and museum management before his ordination in 2007 for the Diocese of Helena. He is also remembered for his no-nonsense and, at times, rough demeanor. 

Wahlberg plays the role of Father Stu in the film and Academy Award-winner Mel Gibson plays the role of Bill Long, the late priest’s father. 

“It’s based on a true story,” said Father Bart Tolleson, a priest of the Diocese of Helena and a longtime friend of Father Stu. “It certainly will take liberties with the story, but it will get interest in his life, and that alone is a good thing. It’s a great story.” 

Father Stu was an avid athlete. He played football at Carroll College, a Catholic university in Montana, though he wasn’t Catholic at the time. He later pursued boxing, winning the Montana Golden Gloves championship in 1985. 

He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting, taking a job at a comedy club before managing an art museum in Pasadena for several years. He would ride his motorcycle, an artifact of his acting days, to and from the museum.

“One day, I was riding home after work, and I got hit by a car, and I smashed into a car in the next lane with my head,” Father Stu shared in a 2010 interview with The Montana Catholic. “The witnesses told the sheriffs and reporters that I was rolling down the road and another car ran over the top of me. And here I am.” 

Father Stu had what he called a “religious experience” in the hospital and he entered RCIA shortly after. On the day he was baptized, he knew he was going to become a priest.

He entered Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon in 2003. While in seminary, doctors discovered a fist-sized tumor and diagnosed Father Stu with inclusion body myositis, a rare muscular condition for which there is no cure. He died in 2014 after seven years as a priest. 

“That cross of his disease was the most powerful way to serve people,” said Father Tolleson. “He was tireless in his service and the Lord gave him many beautiful gifts, of counsel, of providing the sacraments. He was fearless even though he was limited.” 

The project seems to be one of incredible personal importance for Wahlberg. He first learned about Father Stu in 2016 during a dinner with two priests. 

Wahlberg said he was impressed by Father Stu’s perseverance in the face of suffering. 

“[His story] gives me so much hope…because death is inevitable. Sickness, all of those things are inevitable. We’re going to face those,” Wahlberg said. “But how you face those things and how Stu is able to embrace those things. And as his physicality started to deteriorate, his spirituality just soared.” 

“It allowed him to get closer to God through his suffering,” he continued. “And it gave him the ability to share that with other people in a very honest way that was very relatable.”

Wahlberg said he was able to connect with Father Stu’s suffering because of his own father’s battle with cancer. 

“My dad was the strongest guy that I ever seen,” Wahlberg said. “And then next thing I know my dad was in a wheelchair, and my dad couldn’t walk, and we had to take care of him. He lived in an assisted living home, so I understood that.”

Also, Wahlberg’s mother died during the production of Father Stu. Wahlberg said his grief plays out in the film. 

“Obviously [I] went to the services and everything and I was able to digest it a little bit. But I kind of kept it bottled inside,” he said. “And then I was…shooting the scene where I’m asking God ‘why?’ before crawling at the altar…and it was one take for probably about 15 minutes, and it all just came out.”

Wahlberg said he was also motivated to pursue the project because of his own Catholic faith. 

“I’ve always been kind of thinking about how…I continue to pay for all the blessings that have bestowed upon me,” he said. “I know God didn’t put me in this position to kind of forget about where I came from.”

“I’ve always been kind of saying, ‘okay, what is my mission? What is my purpose?’ And planting the seed, letting it blossom and then utilizing that to continue to spread His word.”

The project took about six years to complete because Wahlberg struggled to find the right screenwriter. He told EWTN’s The World Over that he prayed for God’s intercession for the film’s success. Wahlberg ultimately chose screenwriter Rosalind Ross, who also directed the film. Sony Pictures picked it up in January. 

The film does include foul language. Wahlberg said this was intentional, to make the film accessible to a wider audience: “We wanted to be brutally honest,” Wahlberg said. “We want to make sure that this movie is not exclusive to Catholics and devout people. This is inclusive to everybody…You remember what God’s mission was, right? He didn’t come to save the righteous.”

Father Stu will be released in theaters on Good Friday, April 15.  

​​”I cannot wait for people to see it,” Wahlberg said. “I cannot wait to go from city to city, state to state, encouraging people to see it, showing them, having conversations and encouraging people.”

[…]

Bishop-elect Raimo Ramón Goyarrola Belda of Helsinki, left, and Archbishop Julio Murat, apostolic nuncio to the Nordic countries. / Credit: Catholic Information Centre, Diocese of Helsinki

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2023 / 17:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis … […]