Amid complaints, Irish broadcaster again apologizes for blasphemous NYE sketch

Refugees load a truck in Goris on September 26, 2023, before leaving to Yerevan. A continuous stream of vehicles crept along the only road out of Nagorno-Karabakh towards Armenia, carrying tens of thousands of refugees now faced with an uncertai… […]

CNA Staff, Sep 14, 2020 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth wrote Sunday to the people of his diocese encouraging them to return to churches for Mass and private prayer.

He wrote to Catholics and “to everyone of good will, to those ‘with ears to hear’, to anyone searching for God, and to all who wish to meet His Son, Jesus Christ and to know more about His Gospel. I say to you all: Come back! Come back to Mass! Come back to church for private prayer! Come back to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! You are truly welcome – we have missed you!”

Bishop Egan’s pastoral letter, ‘Come back to me’ says the Lord, was issued Sept. 13.

He called the recent months of the coronavirus pandemic ‘extraordinary’, and noted the hard work of medical staff and key workers, as well as what has been done in the Diocese of Portsmouth by priests, parishioners, and chaplains.

“Now that schools and many others are returning to work, let us keep up this good work,” he exhorted. “Let us keep safe. And let us ask the Lord for an end to the pandemic, the invention of a vaccine and the restoration or ordinary life.”

Bishop Egan wrote that “in inviting you back to Mass, I am aware that in some places and for some of you – those self-shielding, the sick, the vulnerable – this will not yet be possible. Moreover, we are aware too that the infection-rate is varying, and we might even face a local lockdown. Indeed, for everyone it will require care, prudence and adjustments. It might mean attending Mass on a weekday instead of a Sunday.”

He indicated that most of the churches in the diocese are now open, with “stringent safety procedures,” and asked for volunteers to assist in these efforts.

“The pandemic has shown us how fragile modern life is,” he reflected. “It has caused us to review our priorities. It has made us face our mortality and the question of God.”

The bishop said that “it is in our churches that the Lord sanctifies, teaches and guides us, uniting us together, giving us the Sacraments of eternal life, and sending us out on mission and service.”

While many “followed Mass online,” he noted that “online has its place and we thank God for all the work done to enable this. But online is not the same as ‘inline’ and being there. It’s not the same as actually receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. It’s not the same as participating in the presence of the eucharistic community.”

“This is why I say: Come back to the Lord to be nourished by His Word and His Sacraments,” Bishop Egan exclaimed.

While the canonical obligation to assist at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days is suspended in the Portsmouth diocese, he asked, “surely, we do not follow Jesus our Lord and Master simply out of habit or duty? No, we follow Him because we love Him. We follow Him because He has called us. We follow Him because He is our Saviour: He has laid down His life for us.”

Beginning Sept. 14, England has imposed a “rule of six” on both indoor and outdoor social gatherings, including in private homes. Gatherings of more than six persons are not allowed, though the rule to not apply to places of worship, as well as schools, workplaces, gyms, and organized team sports.

Individuals participating in gatherings of seven or more face a fine, starting at GBP 100 ($129). The UK police minister has encouraged people to report their neighbors who have had gatherings of more than six.

The government permitted public Masses to resume in England beginning July 4. Masses had been suspended March 20, and churches were closed beginning March 23.

The UK bishops ordered the closing of churches in March, even though houses of worship were exempted from the government’s stay-at-home order. Churches were allowed to reopen for private prayer from June 15.

In a March 19 pastoral letter, Bishop Egan had written to his flock saying, “let us keep our churches open for prayer,” while suspending the public celebration of Mass. He issued a decree that day stating that “all churches should be kept open during the day for the faithful to visit and to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.”

In a March 24 decree “in response to new government restrictions” he stated that “all churchesand chapels in the Diocese of Portsmouth are to be closed with immediate effect until further notice.”

According to the World Health Organization, as of Sept. 6 the UK had 344,168 cumulative cases of Covid-19, and 41,549 deaths.

[…]

Cologne, Germany, Feb 19, 2019 / 04:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Noting the challenges facing the Church in Germany, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne told EWTN last week that amid dispute over the Church’s “direction”, the bishops are called to preserve the faith.

“The current situation in Germany is indeed difficult. And there does seem to be a dispute about the overall direction [of the Church], which was certainly also triggered by the abuse scandal. There are now those voices who argue it is time to cast aside everything we have hitherto held onto. To abandon old times. I think that is a very dangerous concept,” Woelki told EWTN.TV’s program director, Martin Rothweiler, Feb. 13.

“We are part of a great Tradition. The Church also stands for truths that transcend time. And it is not our task to now go and invent a new Church by ourselves. The Church is not just leverage that we have been handed to exercise [as we see fit]. Rather, it is our task as bishops to preserve the faith of the Church, as it has come down to us from the apostles, and to say and proclaim it afresh in our times, and also to preserve it for generations to come, and to express it for them in such a way that they too can encounter Christ as their salvation.”

Woelki commented that “one of the fundamental challenges” facing the Church in Germany “is to keep alive the question of God in our society as a whole. More and more people are convinced that they can live their lives rather well without God. Right there is where the Church has a very important task to play in making clear that God does exist, and that God is in fact the very origin of everything. The question of God to me therefore is one of the fundamental challenges we need to tackle.”

Woelki, 62, has been Archbishop of Cologne since 2014. He was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 1984, and became its auxiliary bishop in 2003. He was Archbishop of Berlin from 2011 until his return to Cologne, during which time he was made a cardinal.

He was among the seven German bishops who wrote last year to the Vatican asking for clarification on the question of Protestant spouses of Catholics receiving Holy Communion, which possibility had been  promoted by the German bishops’ conference.

Woelki told EWTN.TV that Catholics in Germany are deeply concerned by the abuse crisis: “There has been a massive loss of trust both within and outside of the Church. The challenge now is how this trust can be restored.”

Regarding Church reform, Woelki noted that “it must simply be said that the Church has never been renewed by being less, but by being more” than the culture around her. “We must once again realize that as Christians, we must foster something of an alternative culture, which has to align itself solely with the standards of the Gospel and the will of Jesus Christ. And that is not less, but always more.”

This Christian culture, he said, “is not achieved by abolishing celibacy. It is not achieved by now demanding that women be admitted to the ministries. And it is also not achieved by saying that we must have a new sexual morality. No, the Gospel is and continues to be the touchstone. It is the faith of the Church that continues to be the touchstone, just as it was presented to us by John Paul II in his Catechism.”

“The challenge is precisely to witness and proclaim this timeless faith now in such a way that it becomes understandable and comprehensible to the people of today. This is a challenge that we must face up to, rather than retreating from.”

The ground for hope for the Church in Germany “is that Christ exists and remains and continues to be the Lord of the Church and that His Holy Spirit is promised and granted to us,” Woelki reflected.

“I am convinced that He will also lead us through these times. Of course, we must open ourselves to Him so that God’s Spirit can also work within us and guide us. And we mustn’t start playing Holy Spirit ourselves now.”

He said that “as bishops, we are subject to the Word of God and, like all the people and bishops before us, we must give witness to and proclaim this Word of God. In other words, Christ exists, Christ remains, and He is present. He is Lord of the Church. Just as He has led His Church through difficult times in the past, so He will lead us through these present times.”

Woelki’s faith is also “bouyed”, he said, “when I encounter young people who have let themselves be ignited by the faith of the Church. And it is the young people who seek precisely this ‘more’ of the Christian faith, who have a home in the Church, who have a home in the Eucharist, who live though he Eucharist and through adoration, and who live in the knowledge that their lives are touched by Christ.”

“That is something that encourages me, because these young people – as I experience them – live authentically and with conviction. And they simply give me hope in their witness.”

[…]