Savannah, GA’s Bishop Gregory Hartmayer to lead Atlanta archdiocese

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2018 / 10:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò sent Tuesday a message to the bishops of the United States, who are holding a plenary assembly, encouraging them to act as courageous shepherds in the face of the sex abuse crisis.

“I am writing to remind you of the sacred mandate you were given on the day of your episcopal ordination: to lead the flock to Christ,” the emeritus Apostolic Nuncio to the US said Nov. 13.

“Meditate on Proverbs 9:10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! Do not behave like frightened sheep, but as courageous shepherds. Do not be afraid of standing up and doing the right thing for the victims, for the faithful and for your own salvation. The Lord will render to every one of us according to our actions and omissions.”

“I am fasting and praying for you,” Archbishop Viganò concluded.

The former nuncio’s message came on the second day of the USCCB’s autumn general assembly, being held in Baltimore Nov. 12-14.

It was intended that the assembly would vote on proposals meant to form the basis for a response to the sexual abuse crisis facing the Church in the US.

But Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the conference, announced Monday morning that the Congregation for Bishops had directed that the vote not be held.

DiNardo said that the Holy See insisted that consideration of a code of conduct for bishops and a lay-led body to investigate bishops accused of misconduct be delayed until the conclusion of a special meeting called by Pope Francis for February.

Archbishop Viganò, who was nuncio to the US from 2011 to 2016, has issued a series of testimonies and letters in recent months.

In August, he wrote that Benedict XVI had “imposed on Cardinal McCarrick sanctions similar to those now imposed on him by Pope Francis” and that Viganò personally told Pope Francis about those sanctions in 2013.

Viganò claimed that this was ignored by Francis, who pulled McCarrick back into public ministry and allowed him to become a “kingmaker for appointments in the Curia and the United States.”

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Vatican City, Jun 29, 2017 / 12:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Saints Peter and Paul are pillars of the Church and a reminder that God is with us always, Pope Francis said Thursday in St. Peter’s Square.

“The Fathers of the Church liked to compare the holy apostles Peter and Paul to two columns, on which the visible building of the Church rests. Both sealed with their own blood their testimony to Christ of preaching and service to the nascent Christian community,” he stated during his June 29 Angelus address on the saints’ feast.

He reflected on St. Peter’s deliverance from prison by an angel “so that he could complete his evangelizing mission, first in the Holy Land and then in Rome, putting all his energy at the service of the Christian community.”

St. Paul similarly experienced hostility to his mission, the Pope said, from both civil authorities and his fellow Jews, “from which he was freed by the Lord.”

“These two ‘deliverances’, of Peter and of Paul, reveal the common path of the two apostles, who were mandated by Jesus to announced the Gospel in difficult and in certain cases hostile circumstances.”

They both, through “their personal and ecclesial stories, demonstrate and say to us, today, that the Lord is always at our side, walking with us, never abandoning us,” said Pope Francis.

“Especially at the moment of trial, God touches our hand, comes to our aid, and frees us from the threats of our nemeses. But let us recall that our true nemesis is sin, and the Evil One who drives us to it.”

He said that “when we reconcile with God, especially in the sacrament of Penance, we receive the grace of pardon, we are freed from the chains of evil, and are lightened from the burden of our errors. Thus can we continue our journey of as joyous announcers and witnesses to the Gospel, demonstrating that we ourselves first received mercy.”

Pope Francis concluded his address by praying for Rome, the city of the martyrdom of both Saints Peter and Paul.

“May the goodness and the grace of the Lord sustain all the Roman people, for they live in fraternity and concord, resplendent in the Christian faith, witnessed to with intrepid love by the holy apostles Peter and Paul.”

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Vatican City, Feb 8, 2019 / 11:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In mid-nineteenth century Algeria, a French bishop sought to share the Gospel among the local Africans living in his diocese by forming a community that adopted the traditional dress in Algiers — a white cassock with a red fez.

One hundred and fifty years later, the Missionaries of Africa, commonly called the “White Fathers” for their distinctive attire, have grown to have more than 1,500 vocations in 22 African countries — 95 percent of which come from Africa.

Pope Francis welcomed members of the Missionaries of Africa and Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa to the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace Friday, and encouraged them to continue their mission on their 150th anniversary of their community’s founding.

“It is always for Him, with Him and in Him that the mission is lived. Therefore, I encourage you to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, so as never to forget that the true missionary is above all a disciple,” Pope Francis told the missionaries Feb. 8.

Founded by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie of Algiers in 1868, the White Fathers went on to evangelize in sub-Saharan Africa. Their priests notably brought Catholicism to Uganda, catechizing and baptizing St. Charles Lwanga and his 22 companion martyrs in the 1880s.

Today the White Fathers work to provide clean for orphanages in Tanzania, education for women in Burkina Faso, mental trauma aid for refugees in Burundi, and healing for victims of human trafficking in Kenya. They continue to be known for their dialogue with Muslim communities in Africa.

Pope Francis thanked the White Fathers and Sisters “in particular for the work you have already done in favor of dialogue with Islam, with our Muslim sisters and brothers.”

“May the Spirit make you builders of bridges among men. Where the Lord has sent you, may you help to grow a culture of encounter, be at the service of a dialogue that, while respecting differences, can draw wealth from the diversity of others,” he said.

The pope commented on the community founder’s zeal for abolishing slavery.

Called the “the apostle of the slaves of all Africa,” Cardinal Lavigerie was an outspoken opponent of the European slave trade in the 19th century. He traveled around Europe campaigning against the practice of slavery in Africa and elsewhere.

Today the White Fathers continue to fight slavery in the form of human trafficking with the establishment of the “Human Trafficking Rescue Center” in Ngong, Kenya.

“In the wake of Cardinal Lavigerie, you are called to sow hope, fighting against all today’s forms of slavery; making you close of the little ones and the poor, of those who wait, in the peripheries of our society, to be recognized in their dignity, to be welcomed, protected, raised, accompanied, promoted and integrated,” Pope Francis said.

“With this hope, I entrust you to the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Africa,” he added.

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