A priest surveys the damage caused by ISIS at a Catholic Church in Karamles, Iraq. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Stephen Rasche
CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2023 / 08:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis cited the examples of Western intervention in Libya and Iraq in arguing that the West should not “export” its own “type of democracy” to other countries, according to a recently published interview.
The pope’s comments were published in the Italian newspaper La Stampa and excerpted from a book released this week by journalists Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin, “You Are Not Alone: Challenges, Answers, Hopes.”
In an excerpt from the book, the pope was asked by the authors about “the responsibilities of the most developed countries” for the “chaos” being experienced by other nations.
Francis responded that that chaos was due in part to “the failure of the West in its attempt to import its own type of democracy” in some countries around the world.
“We are thinking of Libya, which seems to be led only by very strong personalities such as Gaddafi,” the pope said. “A Libyan told me that they once had only one Gaddafi, while now they have 53.”
The Holy Father similarly pointed to the Iraq War, which he called “a real disgrace” and “one of the worst cruelties.” U.S.-led forces defeated the Iraqi military and deposed president Saddam Hussein, leaving in his place a country strained by worsened sectarian violence.
“Saddam Hussein was certainly not a little angel, on the contrary,” Francis said, “but Iraq was a fairly stable country.”
The pontiff cautioned that he was “not defending Gadaffi or Hussein.” But, he argued, “organized anarchy and other war” followed those conflicts.
“I therefore believe that we must not export our democracy to other countries, but help them to develop a process of democratic maturation according to their characteristics,” Francis said. “Do not wage a war to import a democracy that their peoples are unable to assimilate.”
The pope pointed out that some countries, such as monarchies, “will probably never accept a democracy,” but nations “can help to ensure that there is more participation” in those instances.
The pope confessed himself “ignorant in terms of international politics,” though he said the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) indicates “an unfortunate Western choice.”
Ambrogetti is an Italian-born journalist, while Rubin is from Argentina; the two previously collaborated on the 2014 book “Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words.” Rubin has also authored a biography of Francis.
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Vatican City, Aug 5, 2017 / 09:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Pope Francis sent a message mourning the death earlier that day of 83-year-old Italian Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Archbishop Emeritus of Milan.
“In learning of the news of the passing of the dear Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, I wish to express my condolences to his family and members of that diocesan community, which lists him among her most illustrious sons and most lovable and beloved pastors,” the Pope said in an Aug. 5 telegram.
Addressed to Cardinal Angelo Scola, the recently retired Archbishop of Milan, and Archbishop Mario Delpini, the archdiocese’s current leader, the telegram conveyed the affection and gratitude with which Francis said he would remember “the intense cultural and pastoral work lavished by this blessed brother.”
Francis praised Cardinal Tettamanzi, who “in his fruitful existence has borne witness to the joy of the Gospel and served the Church docilely.”
Tettamanzi, he said, was “always distinct as a caring pastor, totally dedicated to the needs and the good of the priests and of all the faithful, with special attention to the themes of the family, marriage and bioethics, of which he was a particular expert.”
Archbishop of Milan from 2002-2011, Tettamanzi was a moral theologian and a leading voice in the Italian Church, and at one point was even considered a likely candidate for the papacy.
Viewed as spanning the gap between liberal and conservative, the cardinal oversaw several dioceses and held various positions in the Italian Bishops’ Conference. He also collaborated in the writing of several Vatican documents in moral theology, including St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae.”
Born March 14, 1934 in Renate, Italy, Tettamanzi was just 11 years old when he entered the seminary of Seveso San Pietro, where he began his initial studies.
He then attended the Seminary of the Lower Venegono until 1957, when he received a licentiate in theology. That same year he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Milan, and later obtained his doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
For over 20 years, the cardinal taught fundamental moral theology at the Lower Venegono seminary and pastoral theology at the Priestly Institute of Mary Immaculate and the Lombard Regional Institute of Pastoral Ministry in Milan.
Throughout his career, the prelate authored several written works, contributing to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano and the Italian bishops’ daily paper, Avvenire.
From 1979-1989 he was active in the Italian Confederation of Family Counseling Centers of Christian inspiration as well as in “Oari,” a pastoral movement dedicated offering hope to those who suffer. He was also involved in the Milan branch of the Association of Italian Catholic Medical Doctors for nearly 20 years.
Tettamanzi was given the title “Monsignor” in 1985, and just two years later, in September 1987, he was tapped to serve the Pontifical Lombard Seminary.
While in that role, he continued to serve the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) in various roles, and collaborated with the Holy See and various theological institutes.
On July 1, 1989, he was named Archbishop of Ancona-Osma, and received his episcopal ordination Sept. 23, 1989. While there, he also served as head of the CEI’s Marche region. Then in June of 1990, he was elected president of the CEI Bishops Commission for the Family.
He was named Secretary General of the CEI in March 1991, and in April resigned from his position leading the diocese of Ancona-Osimo. Four years later, on April 20, 1995, he was named Archbishop of Genoa, and served as president of the regional bishops’ conference.
Just a month later, in May 1995, he was named Vice President of the CEI, a position he held until 2000.
In addition to the various responsibilities he carried out, Tettamanzi participated as an expert in the 1980 Synod of Bishops on the Family and the 1987 Synod on the Laity convoked by John Paul II. He was also a synod father at the two Special Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops for Europe in 1991 and 1999, as well as the 1994 Synod on Consecrated Life.
Tettamanzi was named Archbishop of Milan in July 2002, taking over for Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, whose legacy, for many, was carried forward by Tettamanzi.
He was named a cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of February 1998, and was tapped by Pope Francis to participate in the XIV Ordinary General Assembly on The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World in October 2015.
Having been under the age limit of 80 during the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Tettamanzi voted in both that and the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
In his telegram for the cardinal’s passing, Francis prayed that God would “welcome this faithful servant, whom he loved so greatly, in joy and eternal peace,” and offered his blessing to all those mourning, and to those who “lovingly assisted” the cardinal during his last few years of illness.
Pope Francis greets thousands of children and their families as he makes his way through St. Peter’s Square during the first World Children’s Day, Saturday, May 26, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, May 26, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
After an exuberant kick-off event on Saturday for the first World Children’s Day, Pope Francis gathered together with tens of thousands of children in St. Peter’s Square for Mass on this feast of the Holy Trinity. A piercing early summer sun moved everyone — from nuns to the boys’ choir — to shade their heads with colorful hats.
Thousands gather in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Saturday, May 26, 2024, for the first World Children’s Day with Pope Francis. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The creation of a World Children’s Day was announced by the pope on December 8, 2023, at the midday Angelus. The idea for it was suggested to the pope by a 9-year-old boy in an exchange shortly before World Youth Day in Lisbon.
Among the special guests at the Mass was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who together with her daughter Ginevra, met the Pope briefly before the Mass.
With this first event complete, Francis announced at the end of the festivities today that the next World Children’s Day will be held in September 2026.
Among the special guests at the Mass for the first World Children’s Day was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who together with her daughter Ginevra, met the pope briefly before the Mass on Saturday, May 26, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The One who accompanies us
The Holy Father, smiling and clearly happy to be surrounded by children, completely improvised his homily, making it a brief and memorable lesson on the Holy Trinity.
“Dear boys and girls, we are here to pray together to God,” he began. But then counting on his fingers and enumerating, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he asked, “But how many gods are there?”As the crowd answered “one,” the pope praised them and started talking of each of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
He began with God the Father — “who created us all, who loves us so much” — asking the children how we pray to him. They quickly answered with the “Our Father.”
Pope Francis went on to speak of the second person of the Trinity, after the children called out his name — Jesus — as the one who forgives all of our sins.
When he got to the Holy Spirit, the pope admitted that envisioning this person of the Trinity is more difficult.
“Who is the Holy Spirit? Eh, it is not easy …,” he said.
“Because the Holy Spirit is God, He is within us. We receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism, we receive Him in the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit is the one who accompanies us in life.”
Using this last phrase, the Pope invited the children to repeat the idea a number of times: “He is the one accompanies us in life.”
“He is the one who tells us in our hearts the good things we need to do,” the Pope said, having the kids repeat the phrase again: “He is the one who when we do something wrong rebukes us inside.”
The pope speaks to thousands of children and many others who gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday for the first World Children’s Day on the feast of the Holy Trinity. May 26, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The pope ended the homily thanking the children and also reminding them that “we also have a mother,” asking them how we pray to her. They answered “with the Hail Mary.” The pope encouraged them to pray for parents, for grandparents, and for sick children.
“There are so many sick children beside me” he said, as he indicated the children in wheelchairs near the altar. “Always pray, and especially pray for peace, for there to be no wars.”
Applauding the grandparents
The pope frequently urges young people to seek out their grandparents, and the give-and-take of his homily gave the impression of a beloved grandpa surrounded by his grandkids. He insisted that the kids quiet down for the time of prayer.
When the Mass concluded, and after praying the midday Angelus, the pope summarized the lessons of the homily: “Dear children, Mass is over. And today, we’ve talked about God: God the Father who created the world, God the Son, who redeemed us, and God the Holy Spirit … what did we say about the Holy Spirit? I don’t remember!”
The children needed no further invitation to answer loudly that “the Holy Spirit accompanies us in life.” Joking that he couldn’t hear well, the Pope had them say it again even louder, and then prayed the Glory Be with them.
Pope Francis speaks with a group of children in St. Peter’s Square in Rome during the first World Day of Children on Saturday, May 26, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The pope also asked for a round of applause for all the grandparents, noting that at the Presentation of the Gifts, a grandfather had accompanied a group of children who brought forward the bread and wine.
Dreaming and dragons
After the closing procession, Italian actor Roberto Benigni took the stage for a lively and inspirational monologue that combined good humor and life lessons.
While Benigni is known especially to the English-speaking world for his role in Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful, in Italy he’s also known for his commentaries on important issues, combined with his exuberant humor.
“When I was a boy, I wanted to be pope,” he told the audience.
Urging the children to read — “Kids need to read everything!” — he paraphrased G.K. Chesterton who insisted that fairy tales are important: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed,” Chesterton said.
Italian actor Roberto Benigni speaks at the World Children’s Day in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. He took the stage for a lively and inspirational monologue that combined good humor with a call for children to read and to dream. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
“Dream!” Benigni urged the children. “It’s the most beautiful thing in the world. But I want to tell you a secret. You’ll tell me you know how to dream; you’ll say you just have to close your eyes, sleep, and dream. … No, no. I’ll tell you a secret — to dream, you don’t have to close your eyes. You have to open them! You have to open your eyes, read, write, invent.”
The actor emphasized the need to be peacemakers, saying that the Sermon on the Mount contains “the only good idea” that’s ever been expressed. War is the “most stupid sin,” he lamented.
“War must end,” Benigni insisted, going on to quote a famous author of children’s literature. “You will tell me: That is a dream, it is a fairy tale. Yes, it is, but as Gianni Rodari said, ‘Fairy tales can become reality, they can become true!’”
Dublin, Ireland, Jun 12, 2018 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- The World Meeting of Families being held in Dublin this August will include a presentation from American author Fr. James Martin, S.J., who will discuss ways “parishes can support families with members who identify as LGBTI+.”
Fr. Martin’s presentation was included among the highlights of the event during a June 11 press conference in Maynooth, about 20 miles west of Dublin. Another highlighted address is on the meaning of Pope Francis’ phrase “throwaway culture,” by Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila.
The World Meeting of Families will be held in Aug. 21-26 with the theme “The Gospel of the Family, Joy for the World.” It is organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and will include the participation of Pope Francis.
Fr. Martin is an editor at America Magazine, and in 2017 was appointed a consultor to the Vatican Secretariat for Communications.
He is also author of “Building a Bridge,” which addresses the Church’s engagement with those who identify as LGBT and which has drawn significant criticism.
Some critics say the book does not directly address Catholic teaching on celibacy and chastity or engage with Catholics who identify as LGBT while observing the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
Fr. Martin has suggested that same-sex attraction should be referred to as “differently ordered” rather than “intrinsically disordered,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.
“We have to be sensitive to the language we use. We can’t pretend that language like that isn’t harmful,” Fr. Martin told CNA in September 2017.
The priest’s book has drawn praise from Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, as well as Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, who said the book “marks an essential step in inviting Church leaders to minister with more compassion, and in reminding LGBT Catholics that they are as much a part of our Church as any other Catholic.”
New Ways Ministry, a dissenting Catholic group that has been the subject of warnings from the U.S. bishops and the Vatican for confusing Catholic teaching, awarded Fr. Martin in 2016 for having “helped to expand the dialogue on LGBT issues in the Catholic Church.”
In September 2017, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia wrote an essay saying that “perceived ambiguities in some of Fr. Martin’s views on sexuality have created much of the apprehension and criticism surrounding his book. There’s nothing vindictive in respectfully but firmly challenging those inadequacies. Doing less would violate both justice and charity.”
“Clear judgment, tempered by mercy but faithful to Scripture and constant Church teaching, is an obligation of Catholic discipleship – especially on moral issues, and especially in Catholic scholarship,” the archbishop added.
The Irish government has exerted pressure on the World Meeting of Families, with one government minister warning it should not express “intolerance” of LBGT groups or same-sex couples.
“There should be a welcome for all. And never again should public statements or remarks which seek to isolate certain families be tolerated,” said Katherine Zappone, the Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, according to the Irish Times.
Cardinal Farrell has noted his hopes for the meeting, saying that the event should revitalize family life and will not exclude anyone.
“This encounter… is to promote the Christian concept of marriage, and the Catholic concept of marriage, and will focus on that. All people are invited, we don’t exclude anybody,” stated Cardinal Farrell.
Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia is the guiding theme of the World Meeting of Families and of all the topics chosen for presentation during the event.
In a May 2017 interview with CNA, Cardinal Farrell had said in reference to Amoris laetitia that the document is about the beauty of marriage and the family, and that “we need to say what our teaching is, and that’s not a yes and no answer.”
The World Meeting of Families developed after St. John Paul II requested an international event of prayer, catechesis, and celebration for families. The first took place in Rome in 1994. It is held every three years.
The spirit of democracy cannot be superimposed from the outside. It must come from within. Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism. True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village – Mahatma Gandhi
The pope confessed himself “ignorant in terms of international politics,” though he said the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) indicates “an unfortunate Western choice.”
The rise of Islam is now Western Civ’s fault?!? The pope is woke! We ought not be shocked to next see Francis’ wheelchair amidst the anti-Israel pro-Hamas protestors, proclaiming the holy spirit of Islam.
We read: “The pope confessed himself ‘ignorant in terms of international politics,’ though he said the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) indicates ‘an unfortunate Western choice’.” Four points:
FIRST, it gets worse! But to begin, this from Gaudium et Spes: “The Church guards the heritage of God’s Word and draws from it religious and moral principles, without always having at hand the solution to particular problems” (n.33). This is why the Church retains/invites/teaches (?) attention to the COMMON GOOD, rather than favoring more temporal forms of government. In communally divided societies (most post-colonial regions now fitted into arbitrary “state” boundaries), tensions easily erupt across races, languages, religions, clans, tribes, castes, new elites, and whatever.
The case is even made that if anti-Catholic sentiments had not prevailed amongst the deal makers (David Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson), a retained multinational-state (!) or Austro-Hungarian Federation (not an Empire) could have averted the power vacuum in central Europe that invited aggression from both the fascist north and communist Russia from the east. World War II. In general, eastern Europe resembles the complex human condition shared with post-colonial states, more so than do the more anomalist and homogeneous “societies” assumed by Western sociologists and political “scientists”—and readily soaked up by secularist minds.
SECOND, now, as to things “being worse” than Pope Francis opines….there are other forms of governance in other contexts, that are also bargained away by ideological pygmies in high places. The form of the “apostolic” Catholic Church, for example, is a “hierarchical communion” (Vatican I, with Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium) in service to the baptized—who certainly can be consulted especially with respect to the secular realm, but who are not sacramentally ordained bishops in the ecclesial realm. (In comparison, the form and self-identity of Islam—with the fused mosque & state—is as a sectarian [“polyhedral”?] collage, or a “congregational theocracy” quite capable of encompassing even ISIS which the pope mentions—and now Hamas which is totally diabolical.)
THIRD, so now, likely to dislocate the Church from within, we see a cut-and-paste Synod on Synodality which (con)fuses the apostolic succession with the vast majority of baptized who are not “sent” as are the Successors of the Apostles (“apostello”)—that is, not “aggregated, compiled and synthesized”) and who are not with the same personal responsibility and accountability for the gifted (not constructed) Deposit of Faith, under the gaze of the incarnate Christ Jesus with the Father on Judgement Day, and even now. This isn’t 1789, or is it?
FOURTH, to this observer, the synodal “mess” (now even “welcoming” the German “non-synod” (!) and smiley-button Fr. James Martin & Co.) looks a lot like the political mess, in international politics, that Pope Francis correctly decries, and attributes to everyone except himself and his lieutenants. Not only forgivably ignorant of international politics (that’s not his calling nor the mission of the Church), but quite willing to dismiss his constructive interlocutors as “backwardist.” Just as in the tripwire post-colonial world: forward, ever forward!
Credit must be given where it is due. Pope Francis is exactly right on the disastrous impact of the immoral and stupid US wars against Iraq and Libya. Whether the West was really trying to “export democracy” or something else was at work is another question.
The spirit of democracy cannot be superimposed from the outside. It must come from within. Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism. True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village – Mahatma Gandhi
The pope confessed himself “ignorant in terms of international politics,” though he said the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) indicates “an unfortunate Western choice.”
The rise of Islam is now Western Civ’s fault?!? The pope is woke! We ought not be shocked to next see Francis’ wheelchair amidst the anti-Israel pro-Hamas protestors, proclaiming the holy spirit of Islam.
We read: “The pope confessed himself ‘ignorant in terms of international politics,’ though he said the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) indicates ‘an unfortunate Western choice’.” Four points:
FIRST, it gets worse! But to begin, this from Gaudium et Spes: “The Church guards the heritage of God’s Word and draws from it religious and moral principles, without always having at hand the solution to particular problems” (n.33). This is why the Church retains/invites/teaches (?) attention to the COMMON GOOD, rather than favoring more temporal forms of government. In communally divided societies (most post-colonial regions now fitted into arbitrary “state” boundaries), tensions easily erupt across races, languages, religions, clans, tribes, castes, new elites, and whatever.
The case is even made that if anti-Catholic sentiments had not prevailed amongst the deal makers (David Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson), a retained multinational-state (!) or Austro-Hungarian Federation (not an Empire) could have averted the power vacuum in central Europe that invited aggression from both the fascist north and communist Russia from the east. World War II. In general, eastern Europe resembles the complex human condition shared with post-colonial states, more so than do the more anomalist and homogeneous “societies” assumed by Western sociologists and political “scientists”—and readily soaked up by secularist minds.
SECOND, now, as to things “being worse” than Pope Francis opines….there are other forms of governance in other contexts, that are also bargained away by ideological pygmies in high places. The form of the “apostolic” Catholic Church, for example, is a “hierarchical communion” (Vatican I, with Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium) in service to the baptized—who certainly can be consulted especially with respect to the secular realm, but who are not sacramentally ordained bishops in the ecclesial realm. (In comparison, the form and self-identity of Islam—with the fused mosque & state—is as a sectarian [“polyhedral”?] collage, or a “congregational theocracy” quite capable of encompassing even ISIS which the pope mentions—and now Hamas which is totally diabolical.)
THIRD, so now, likely to dislocate the Church from within, we see a cut-and-paste Synod on Synodality which (con)fuses the apostolic succession with the vast majority of baptized who are not “sent” as are the Successors of the Apostles (“apostello”)—that is, not “aggregated, compiled and synthesized”) and who are not with the same personal responsibility and accountability for the gifted (not constructed) Deposit of Faith, under the gaze of the incarnate Christ Jesus with the Father on Judgement Day, and even now. This isn’t 1789, or is it?
FOURTH, to this observer, the synodal “mess” (now even “welcoming” the German “non-synod” (!) and smiley-button Fr. James Martin & Co.) looks a lot like the political mess, in international politics, that Pope Francis correctly decries, and attributes to everyone except himself and his lieutenants. Not only forgivably ignorant of international politics (that’s not his calling nor the mission of the Church), but quite willing to dismiss his constructive interlocutors as “backwardist.” Just as in the tripwire post-colonial world: forward, ever forward!
Credit must be given where it is due. Pope Francis is exactly right on the disastrous impact of the immoral and stupid US wars against Iraq and Libya. Whether the West was really trying to “export democracy” or something else was at work is another question.