Pope Francis: The Catholic Church must be welcoming

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2018 / 03:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the number of civilian victims in Syria’s bloody civil war continues to climb, Cardinal Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio in Syria, said the situation is “hell on earth,” especially for vulnerable children.

Referring to a statement recently made by the regional director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Zenari said Syria is currently “one of the most dangerous places for children.”

“It’s terrible. I always say, it’s a massacre of the innocents,” he said, and recalled how a few years ago near Damascus, where the nunciature is located, he met a 10-year-old girl who had both of her legs amputated after being hit by shrapnel from a mortar shell.

He recalled another story of a 15-year-old girl who was on her way back from school with a friend when a splinter from an explosion tore through her cheek and up through her head, killing her instantly.

There is “so much suffering,” Zenari said, adding that Pope Francis’ Christmas message for 2017 was “one of the most touching for me,” because it was entirely dedicated to the suffering of children.

From a humanitarian perspective, the situation is “out of control,” he said, and one could write “a book of lamentations” on the Syrian crisis alone.

Zenari, who has served as apostolic nuncio since 2008 and was named a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016, spoke at a March 9 event for the “Open Hospitals” project, developed by the AVSI organization in 2016 in partnership with the Gemelli Foundation and the pontifical charity branch “Cor Unum.”

The project aims to provide medical care for those living in poverty and supports the activities of four non-profit hospitals in Syria.

Since the beginning of the country’s civil war in 2011, more than 13.5 million Syrians, including 6 million children, have been affected by a dire humanitarian crisis, with the majority of the population living in situations of food insecurity and without access to basic supplies.

According to U.N. estimates, some 11.5 million people, 40 percent of whom are children, do not have access to adequate medical care. Hospitals have routinely been targeted in the fighting, and since the beginning of the war, nearly two-thirds of Syria’s medical staff have fled the country.

With money needed to pay for staff, general management, monthly bills, and the renewal of old facilities, patients increasingly file into the few hospitals that are left with both routine healthcare needs and war injuries, making the financial strain near crippling.

As of November 2017, roughly one million euros (nearly $1.2 million) had already been raised by the Open Hospitals project to support the four hospitals with whom they partner.

In his speech for the March 9 event, Cardinal Zenari showed a 2-minute video portraying images of buildings destroyed by shelling and people injured in bombings, many of them small children with bloody face, covered in dust.

The social fabric of society is being “attacked,” he said, and “the deep wounds, above all in these children, are worse than what is seen.”

The number of civilian victims of the war has drastically increased in recent weeks, after Russian-backed Syrian forces on Feb. 18 launched a series of deadly airstrikes and artillery fire on besieged Easter Ghouta enclave, which sits just northeast of Damascus.

Home to some 400,000 people, Eastern Ghouta is the last rebel-held area east of Damascus and has been a target of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since 2013 in a bid to drive the rebels out.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 900 civilians have died so far in the fighting. Although the U.N. Security Council demanded a 30-day ceasefire go into effect Feb. 24, fighting has continued, and efforts to get humanitarian aid into areas where citizens are trapped were recently halted due to fear of chemical attacks.

Cardinal Zenari said that of all the world disasters he’s witnessed, “I have never seen so much violence as in Syria,” and likened the situation to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

At times, Zenari said he asks himself, “Does the Lord not see this?” However, he said he is consoled when he thinks of the Jesus’ own suffering and death, because “Jesus in his passion sweat blood, from his whole body…(the) blood of the entire Church, the blood of the martyrs.”

“We are in the eighth year of the Passion” in Syria, he said.

He lamented the fact that no agreements have yet been reached to put an end to the violence, saying that so far the discussions either fail to yield a deal, or a deal is made but falls apart.

The cardinal also pointed to the millions who have fled Syria and are now living in other countries, including a high number of youth. Because of this, he said, Syria is rapidly becoming “a society without youth, a Church without youth.”

He closed his hour-long address with an appeal for prayer, asking attendees to pray for “our dear friends, brothers and sisters in Syria.”

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Vatican City, Mar 26, 2018 / 12:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop John McAreavey of Dromore, Ireland, who had asked to step down earlier this month following media claims that he mishandled an abuse report in the early ‘90s.

Pope Francis accepted McAreavey’s request to resign as bishop March 26 and appointed an apostolic administrator, retired Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe, 78, until the appointment of a successor.

In a letter announcing his resignation March 3, McAreavey wrote that “with a heavy heart” he would be resigning “following recent media coverage which has disturbed and upset many people.”

“I wrestled with this decision over recent weeks; it was not an easy decision to take,” he said, also asking for prayers for anyone who has been abused.

McAreavey, 69, announced his intention to step down at the beginning of March, after media and individuals called for his resignation following the airing of a program in February on allegations of child sexual abuse against a now-deceased priest of the Diocese of Dromore.

Twelve allegations of abuse have been made against Fr. Malachy Finnegan, who died in January 2002. All but two of the allegations emerged after his death.

According to the February program “Spotlight” by BBC Northern Ireland, McAreavey was asked to investigate an allegation of abuse involving Finnegan by then-Bishop of Dromore Francis Brooks in 1994. Critics said that McAreavey failed to act on the allegations that had been brought to his attention.

McAreavey, who did not become bishop until 1999, has said that he believed Bishop Brooks had reported the allegation to the authorities.

Finnegan was never prosecuted for abuse, but the allegations were investigated by the Church in Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding Children starting in 2011, at Bishop McAreavey’s request.

McAreavey was also criticized for celebrating the funeral Mass of Finnegan in 2002. He made an apology Feb. 7, 2018, stating that through the testimony of victims, he had come to see that the decision to celebrate the funeral in early 2002 “was the wrong one.”

“In November 2002 a victim told me how hurt he was by this, I realized that I had made an error of judgement. It is something I regret and will not repeat,” he noted.

He also said that as a bishop he is aware of the need for many victims to receive “acknowledgment, an apology, counseling and indeed compensation,” and that he would be doing his best to meet these needs with the help of the diocesan director of safeguarding.

The allegations against Finnegan are from the time he was on the staff of St. Colman’s College from 1967 to 1987, and later when he was a parish priest in Clonduff/Hilltown.

In his February statement Bishop McAreavey described Finnegan’s actions as “abhorrent, inexcusable and indefensible.”

“We speak about abuse cases as being historical, but we must never lose sight of the reality that the legacy of abuse lives on for victims and for them it is all too present. I ask you to pray for them and their families,” he added, also encouraging anyone who thinks they may have been abused in a church context to come forward in order to receive support.

Upon the announcement of McAreavey’s resignation March 26, Archbishop Eamon Martin, head of the Irish bishops’ conference, issued a statement acknowledging his 19 years of service as a bishop and his “generous contribution” to the local bishops’ conference, both as a member and as president.

“As the bishops stated following their Spring 2018 general meeting earlier this month, the Church can never become complacent concerning the safeguarding of children,” he said, noting that the Church is committed to the review process of dioceses and to cooperation with any inquiries by authorities.

Martin also stated that his prayers are with “the people, religious and clergy of Dromore and in particular with all who are suffering because of abuse.”

McAreavey was born in Drumnagally, Banbridge in 1949. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Dromore in June 1973 and received a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1978.

While a priest he taught at St. Coleman’s College and St. Patrick’s College. He also served on the Armagh Regional Marriage Tribunal and has written extensively on Church law.

Pope St. John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Dromore in June 1999.

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Pope Francis’ general audience in St. Peter’s Square, June 1, 2022. / Vatican Media.

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