Missouri Republicans propose ballot question to undo abortion rights amendment

Denver Newsroom, Jun 2, 2020 / 12:42 am (CNA).- Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport, Iowa has written a letter to the local homeland security chief asking for the release of three detained immigrants from Guatemala.

The bishop says that the three men are non-violent offenders who pose little risk to the community.

“The present COVID-19 pandemic places immigrants being detained in a very vulnerable situation,” he says in the letter, addressed to Michael Hindman, Homeland Security Chief of Cedar Rapids.

Zinkula told CNA that he read about the situation of the three men and their families in the local press and in emails from the Iowa City Catholic Worker House.

Jose Cerillo and his two brothers-in-law, Jacinto Cuyuch-Brito and Juan Daniel Cuyuch-Brito, were arrested March 4 in a Cedar Rapids immigration raid, according to local media. They were charged with possessing false work documents or entering the country illegally.

Jose’s wife, Juana, spoke at a May 6 press conference in Cedar Rapids. She said that law enforcement officers knocked on the door of their apartment shortly before 7 a.m. on March 4. The officers broke down the door, and searched their clothes and phone contacts, she said, according to The Catholic Messenger.

Juana said she was questioned for more than two hours. At the May 6 press conference, said she was worried about her husband, who is being held in Linn County Jail, which has seen at least two confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

Jose has a serious heart condition, his wife said, making him more likely to experience serious or fatal complications from COVID-19.

“We’re just here to work. We come here because we have to, out of need,” Juana said, according to the Des Moines Register. “If one of us gets it and we ended up dying, we won’t get to see each other again.”

Jacinto Cuyuch-Brito’s wife, Rosa, is also struggling with her husband’s absence. She and her baby boy – who was just two months old at the time of the arrest – have moved into the local Catholic Worker House, because they cannot afford to pay rent with her husband detained.

Bishop Zinkula said he was struck by Rosa’s story and wanted to see if there was a way that he could help. While writing a letter is a simple action, he said he thought “maybe given my role, I could give it a little more attention.”

The letter argues in favor of allowing the men to return home to their families while the await their court proceedings.

“Providing less restrictive sanctions will reduce the risk of exposure to the coronavirus for these three nonviolent individuals, those who are in jail for legitimate public safety reasons, and jail staff continuing their frontline essential public safety work,” the bishop writes.

Zinkula said his proposal would help protect the vulnerable and honor family unity without compromising public safety.

“These are basic principles of [Catholic] Social Teaching – the dignity of each and every human life,” Zinkula told CNA. “We’re all children of God, and everyone should be treated with respect. This is just an application of that principle. Here’s this real-life situation, where it doesn’t seem like that’s happening.”

He noted a CDC analysis in April which found that among correctional and detention facilities reporting statistics, 86% of jurisdictions had inmates testing positive for coronavirus. Because social distancing is difficult in prison environments, jails throughout the country have become hotspots for the virus.

Zinkula has not received a response to his letter, which was sent May 7, but is still hopeful that the three men will be released from detention.

The bishop encouraged the faithful to “look at the situation through a Catholic lens rather than a political lens. Remember, we’re Catholic before we’re members of a particular party.”

“Immigrants are fellow human beings, brothers and sisters in Christ and they need to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said. “They are here, and no matter how they got here, they are fellow human beings and so we need to treat them like they are.”
 

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Washington D.C., Nov 9, 2017 / 03:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Next week, the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., will open a 3D virtual tour of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Jesus’ tomb.

While the exhibit will likely draw tourists from around the country, could it also be used as a type of virtual pilgrimage, perhaps for those who are unable to visit the Holy Land in person, due to cost, disability, or other factors?

Yes, says Dr. Anthony Lilles, academic dean and theology professor at Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo.

Lilles told CNA that the intention is key in making the experience a pilgrimage. “A tourists goes because they are curious, a pilgrim goes for a sacred purpose,” he explained.

“We must not, so to say, stay on the level of surface appearance, but instead allow our imaginations to be baptized by the places we are visiting virtually – thinking about the reality of Christ’s historical presence and what it means for our lives now.”

The three-dimensional tour opens on Nov. 15 in Washington D.C. and will continue until August 15, 2018.

It will give viewers an inside look at one of the most revered spots in Christian history.

Veneration of Christ’s burial place dates back to St. Helena in the fourth century, who discovered and identified the tomb. St. Helena’s son, Emperor Constantine, built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 326 and enshrined the tomb.

The shelf on which Christ’s body was laid is the central point of veneration, which has been encapsulated by a 3-by-5 foot marble structure – the Edicule – since at least 1555.

A year-long restoration of the site was recently completed, and scientists are looking into additional restoration work on the foundation.

The virtual exhibit takes visitors through the history of the holy site and shows the new technologies used in its restoration.

However, Dr. Lilles said the virtual tour offers not only a lesson in history, but an opportunity for a deeper devotion to Christ.

“As beautiful as a virtual exhibit may be, we can be too passive in our engagement with holy places precisely because we are only experiencing them virtually,” he cautioned.

Those who wish to attend the exhibit as a type of spiritual pilgrimage should take careful steps to prepare, he said.

He suggested reading the Gospel accounts of Christ’s passion and resurrection before visiting. Going to station from station in the 3D tour, a pilgrim might choose a prayer or scripture verse to meditate on at each stop.

Additionally, he said, the pilgrimage should be accompanied closely by Mass, confession, and a work of charity. It should culminate with firm resolutions on how to “live differently in light of the mystery of our faith.”

While the spiritual pilgrimage to the D.C. exhibit would not have an indulgence attached to it as other formally recognized pilgrimages do, Lilles said, virtual pilgrimages have been supported by the Vatican before.

“John Paul II once led pilgrims in the footsteps of Abraham from Ur to the Holy Land to Egypt and back to the Holy Land. He wanted to actually go to these places during the Great Jubilee of 2000, but Saddam Hussein refused permission,” he recalled.

“So instead, in the Paul VI audience hall, he led us on a ‘spiritual’ pilgrimage where slides of the sacred sites of Abraham were shown,” and the Pope led prayerful meditations.

With the right mindset and adequate spiritual preparation, Lilles said, a virtual pilgrimage can yield spiritual fruits.

“One who goes as a pilgrim goes to out of devotion to Christ who became a pilgrim for our sake, do penance for his own sins and the sins of our society, to ask for the mercy of God for forgiveness and healing, and to thank God for pouring out His loving kindness.”

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Denver Newsroom, Aug 20, 2020 / 03:01 am (CNA).- He’s been called Terror of Demons, but even St. Joseph has to adhere to some coronavirus restrictions. The Diocese of Lafayette was going to kick off their Year of St. Joseph a couple months ago, but coronavirus restrictions bumped the celebration to this past weekend.

“We waited until our diocese and the state of Louisiana was at a safe point in our recovery,” Blue Rolfes, the communications director for the diocese, told CNA. She said they consulted the state’s Department of Health before the launch, and they were on board with the August start date. “We’re just excited that we were going to be able to do it after all,” Rolfes said. Bishop Douglas Deshotel of Lafayette started the year Aug. 17 by celebrating Mass at St. Joseph parish in Patterson, one of 13 parishes in the diocese named after the saint.

There is “not one recorded word of St. Joseph spoken in the Gospel,” Deshotel said in his homily. “But we know him as a man of action.” “Spiritual writers give St. Joseph many attributes, saying he was a very religious man, he was civic-minded, humble, a hard worker, obedient to the will of God, a provider to his family, Jesus and Mary, and the protector of the holy family,” he said. The bishop noted that the diocese had chosen to celebrate this year as the Year of St. Joseph because it is the 150th anniversary of Bl. Pius IX declaring Saint Joseph patron of the universal Church in 1870.
“As St. Joseph cared for the holy family of Jesus and Mary, we ask him during this year to care for the Church. The Church is the body of Christ, as St. Joseph loved and cared for and protected Jesus, we ask him to do the same for the Church,” Deshotel said. But even though St. Joseph was a quiet man, Rolfes said, he is one of the greatest saints of the Church. “He wasn’t martyred, he didn’t go out in blaze of glory. But the contributions that he made to our faith and our Church, and to the life of Jesus are just secondary to none,” Rolfes said. “He was asked by God to do the unthinkable, especially back then, very much as Mary was. And he immediately obeyed and said that he would follow God’s request. And because of that, he was able to become Christ’s earthly father, foster father,” Rolfes said. As the protector of the Holy Family and the chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “he set a wonderful standard for fathers, for human fathers for the rest of eternity,” Rolfes added. Catholics in the Diocese of Lafayette can participate in the year in many ways, Rolfes noted, including by making a pilgrimage to any of the parishes named for St. Joseph in the diocese, by participating in the parish missions about St. Joseph, and by participating in the St. Joseph Workday at their parishes.

A Year of St. Joseph pamphlet contains photos of each St. Joseph parish that may be visited, and pilgrims can receive stamps at each parish, indicating that they have made a pilgrimage there. The pamphlets also include prayers to St. Joseph, such as the Litany of St. Joseph, that may be prayed throughout the year. Pope Francis has also granted a plenary indulgence to Catholics in the diocese who make a pilgrimage to at least one of the parishes, and meet the other ordinary conditions of receiving a plenary indulgence: that the individual be in the state of grace by the completion of the acts, have complete detachment from sin, and pray for the Pope’s intentions. The person must also sacramentally confess their sins and receive Communion, up to about twenty days before or after the indulgenced act.
Rolfes said she thought St. Joseph was a strong example and witness for all Catholics during this time in history.

“The society and the culture that we live in now is so divisive in so many ways, and not only politically, but also on a lot of other different levels,” she said. “And I think St. Joseph is a wonderful example to us of staying true to the faith and being strong, and doing what God asks of us. And caring more for others than we care for ourselves. I think he’s a wonderful role model for fathers, definitely, but for all of us,” she said.

The Year of St. Joseph in the Diocese of Lafayette will conclude May 1, 2021, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, with a closing Mass at St. Joseph Church in Milton.

“We’re asking everyone to go to Joseph, to take all of their concerns and worries and fears and anxieties…and requests and prayers. Go to Joseph during this year.”

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