Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, now President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, speaks at the Holy See press office, Feb. 4, 2015. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
CNA Newsroom, Sep 3, 2024 / 14:07 pm (CNA).
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, 79, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has written a new book entitled “Destinati alla vita,” which translates to “Destiny for Life.” The book is a reflection on old age and highlights how this time of life can serve as a time for inner growth.
In an excerpt published by L’Osservatore Romano, Paglia praises Pope Francis’ work to honor the elderly and their importance in our lives throughout his papacy, especially in the establishment of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly.
“Pope Francis has taken up the spiritual challenge of old age … As a Pope he developed his teaching even more, to the point of establishing a special liturgical feast to celebrate his grandparents,” Paglia wrote. “But it is through the specific catechesis on the subject that he proposed a more articulated and comprehensive help to the elderly — in particular the believers, but not only — so that they face this last age of life as a time of grace, an appropriate time, a time of growth even if the body becomes fragile.”
He continued: “The years of old age lead to the fulfillment of every personal existence. We do not walk in the void and aimlessly at the mercy of fate,” he said.
Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, Paglia emphasized that this experience we endured served as a reminder that we are all fragile — not just the elderly.
He also touched on an “anti-age ideology” that “has led to a deep fracture between generations.”
“The ties have weakened, they have no duration, they have no history, they have no destination,” he said. “The effect is a sort of endless adolescence that empties affections and bonds. The change is sending the traditional humanistic parameters of training out of the axis.
The archbishop went on to ask: “How can you educate the new generations to the values of life that are not consumed over time if the time of old age is assimilated to that of an expired product?”
In his book, Paglia urged that a “new alliance between generations” be formed, “especially among the elderly and the young.”
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Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore pack the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen during a concluding listening session on the archdiocese’s major parish restructuring plan on April 30, 2024. / Credit: Matthew Balan
Baltimore, Md., May 1, 2024 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
Hundreds of Catholic residents of Baltimore packed the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on Tuesday evening to give their often-impassioned reactions to a process that could lead to the closure of two-thirds of the city’s parishes.
Several parishes from the state’s largest city organized large contingents to attend the April 30 meeting, which was the final of three listening sessions for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s “Seek the City” parish restructuring proposal. They made their presence known with custom-made T-shirts or ethnic attire, with some even carrying large banners that begged Archbishop William Lori to spare their churches.
Parishioners from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the Mount Washington neighborhood of the city printed a banner that proclaimed: “SOS! Save Our Shrine.” The group from the largely-Filipino parish also participated vocally in the session, including an emotional plea from John Tagle, a high school student. Tagle worried that his parish would be gone when he returned home from college.
Parishioners from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Baltimore’s Mount Washington neighborhood display an “SOS! Save Our Shrine” banner at an April 30, 2024, listening session. Credit: Matthew Balan
A non-Filipino member of the shrine, David Bender, bluntly stated: “The proposal does not make spiritual sense.”
Many of those wearing custom T-shirts came from Holy Rosary, a parish in the Fells Point neighborhood that has connections to two Polish canonized saints. Some of their group wore ethnic attire and waved the white and red flag of their Eastern European homeland.
A young woman from Holy Rosary wondered why the archdiocese would shutter a place that was visited by St. John Paul II (when he was Cardinal Karol Wojytla in 1976). The parish is also directly tied to the canonization process of St. Faustina Kowalska, as it was the site of a documented miraculous healing attributed to the Polish sister.
Auxiliary Bishop Bruce Lewandowski gave a grim assessment as he spoke to local media before presiding over the listening session. “This is difficult. It’s heart-wrenching,” he emphasized. “But we’re at a pivotal moment in the city Church. We need to do this.”
Lewandowski led the attendees in prayer before starting the main presentation about the parish closure/consolidation proposal under “Seek the City.” He, along with two lay consultants, began a slideshow that first gave an overview of the two-year process leading up to the current juncture.
The trio then unveiled several slides that outlined the proposal to shrink the city’s parishes from 61 parishes to 26 parishes. The City of Baltimore, along with some immediate surrounding parts of neighboring Baltimore County, was divided into five regions (center, east, west, north, and south). While the first four regions would have three to five consolidated parishes, the south region would be reduced to only two.
An additional two parishes have been designated “personal parishes”: St. Ignatius, which is administered by the Jesuits, and St. Alphonsus, the home of the Traditional Latin Mass in Baltimore. During the listening session, the archdiocese disclosed that a final decision on the “Seek the City” proposal would be made by mid-June.
The slideshow spotlighted that four of the merged parishes would specifically minister to Hispanic communities. It also noted that the Filipino community — currently centered at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart — would move to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
“This is difficult. It’s heart-wrenching,” Auxiliary Bishop Bruce Lewandowski said. “But we’re at a pivotal moment in the city Church. We need to do this.” Credit: Matthew Balan
Other parishoners with deep roots in Baltimore City also bewailed the spiritual devastation the proposed restructuring would cause. A representative from St. Rita’s in Dundalk (a community that was directly impacted by the recent collapse of the Key Bridge at the mouth of Baltimore Harbor) begged: “Don’t let the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ leave Old Dundalk!”
Sue Jones, who has lived her entire life in the region, reflected on entering her eighth decade as a Catholic in the primatial see of the United States. Jones, who attends St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in the Hampden neighborhood, underlined that “killing [the parishes], or turning them into unrecognizable hubs, … is the final nail in the coffin for the Church in Baltimore City.” Her parish would be closed under the current proposal.
The lifelong Baltimore resident added that she remained hopeful.
“I’m so proud, because the remaining Catholics are here in spite of the archdiocese’s leadership,” she said after the listening session.
Pro-life protesters outsider the Belfast High Court as Northern Ireland abortion laws were being challenged in Belfast, U.K., Oct. 3, 2019. / meandering images/Shutterstock
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