News Briefs

Vatican promotes ‘Bridges of Solidarity’ for Venezuelan emigrants

May 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, May 7, 2018 / 10:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The ongoing crisis in Venezuela has produced a tremendous flow of emigration, with thousands fleeing the instability and hyperinflation under Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government to seek refuge in neighboring countries.

Venezuelans who choose to leave their country, as with any migrant, face a plethora of obstacles, risks, and unknowns, including an increased number of neighboring nations closing their doors, as well as the danger of falling victim to traffickers.

In a bid to help host countries support the influx of their Venezuelan neighbors and provide migrants the resources they need to integrate into their new countries, the Vatican’s office for migrants and refugees has partnered with eight South American bishops’ conferences in launching a project aimed at providing this support.

Titled “Bridges of Solidarity,” the project was presented May 7 by the two undersecretaries of the Vatican’s migrant office – part of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and is overseen by Pope Francis directly – Fr. Michael Czerny, SJ, and Fr. Fabio Baggio, as well as Fr. Arturo Sosa, father general of the Society of Jesus and himself a Venezuelan.

The office is partnering with the bishops of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.

The project is in line with the 20 actions points drafted by the Vatican’s migrant section as part of Pope Francis’ 4-step plan for assisting migrants and refugees: to welcome, protect, promote and integrate.

Services offered through the project, which is designed to run for 24 months, include the building of centers and shelters for migrants; assistance finding housing and jobs; the facilitation of access to education and healthcare; advocacy and legal assistance; professional training of pastoral workers and awareness campaigns aimed at sensitizing local communities to the needs of migrants and the risks they face.

Funding, according to Fr. Baggio, happens partially at a local level, but the dicastery also helps in seeking support from private donors and partnerships.

Fr. Czerny said the department’s mission is to “assist the Church wherever needed, wherever possible, in accompanying migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking.”

As a refugee himself, Czerny said one of the biggest areas they want to address helping migrants to have access to good information, thus lowering the risks they face along the way.

The looming questions for any migrant, Czerny said, are “what awaits you? What lies ahead? What do you need to know now that’s going to happen that you can be a bit better prepared? Or are you always arriving shocked, surprised and disappointed?”

“I don’t think there’s a better example of where the Church, throughout [the continent] can cooperate so that as people undertake these difficult journeys and that they are supplied with good information all along the way,” he said, referring to the new project.

Providing the right information, he said, plays a key role in the prevention of trafficking, “because people are trafficked when they lack the necessary information in order to make good decisions.”

In comments to CNA, Czerny said migrants generally lack two key areas information, the first being the practical “what do you do when…” info, as well as answers to questions about what a migrant should do when they arrive to a bus station or shelter, and what to say and not to say.

The other area is a lack of correct information, he said, noting there is often an abundance of false information that reaches migrants, and “false information is the beginning of the trafficking problem…people are oriented in the wrong direction and they end up trapped.”

Compounding the issue is the fact that many see the issue as something chaotic, assuming that it would be difficult to get the right information to migrants in the first place.

However, “when we look at it practically it’s not chaotic, it’s practical. It’s people, and people are coming and if you have good information you can share it,” Czerny said, adding that cell phones and other digital tools make it easy to share information, “but it has to be good information.”

Pope Francis has often been outspoken about the issue of trafficking. He addressed the topic again, speaking specifically about the problem of false information, in a video message to the Second International Forum on Modern Slavery, taking place May 5-8 in Argentina, published May 7.

The pope said slavery is not something of the past, but is a grim reality for many men, women and children throughout the world.

Confronted with this “tragic reality,” the pope said “no one can wash their hands who does not want to be, in some way, complicit in this crime against humanity.”

He spoke of the need to overcome “the veil of indifference” covering this issue, and said it often times appears as if “many don’t want to understand the scope of the problem.”

“There are those who, being directly involved in criminal organizations, don’t want this to be talked about simply because they get high profits thanks to the new forms of slavery,” he said, noting that there are also those who know about the problem, but don’t want to talk about it “because they find themselves at the end of the chain of consumption.”

According to Fr. Czerny, the problem of prostitution, to which the pope was likely referring, is the biggest area of trafficking that migrants fall victim to.

Pope Francis said that enforcing stricter laws are not enough, but the root causes must also be addressed, such as poverty, violence, and corruption.

The response to this issue, he said, must be based on creating opportunities for a true integral human development, beginning with education, which he said is “the key point.”

Francis closed his message noting that the task is a difficult one which requires both patience and perseverance, but which will help in building “a society that is renewed and oriented toward freedom, justice and peace.”

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London waste company discovers relic of St Clement in the trash

May 6, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

London, England, May 6, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- London waste company discovers relic of St Clement in the trash

You know the old saying – one person’s trash is another person’s 2,000 year-old sacred bone fragment of an early pope.

An environmental waste company in London had a surprise discovery last week when they uncovered a reliquary in the garbage containing a bone of St. Clement, a Church Father and the fourth Pope.

The company, which posted about the discovery on their website April 25, said they could not pinpoint the exact location that the relic had come from, but they do know that it was collected in the garbage somewhere in central London.

“You can imagine our amazement when we realised our clearance teams had found bone belonging to a Pope – it’s not something you expect to see, even in our line of work,” James Rubin, owner of Enviro Waste, said in a statement on the company’s website.

“We often come across some weird and wonderful things on clearances, but we were definitely not expecting to find a bone fragment of an apostle,” he added.

St. Clement was a first-century Christian thought to have been a disciple of Sts. Peter and Paul.

It is believed that St. Clement converted from Judaism to Catholicism, and may have shared in some of the missionary journeys of St. Peter or St. Paul, and assisted them in running the Church at the local level.

Around the year 90, he was raised to the position of Pope, following Peter, Linus and Cletus. His writings reveal much about the early Church, but little about his own life.

According to one account, he died in exile during the reign of the Emperor Trajan, who purportedly banished Clement to Crimea and had him killed in retaliation for evangelizing the local people, around the year 100. He is among the saints mentioned in the Roman Canon.

In 868, the Greek missionary St. Cyril claimed to have recovered St. Clement’s bones.

So far, no one has reached out to claim the relic, Rubin told the Huffington Post. He added that he is seeking the help of a U.K. laboratory to have the relic carbon dated to test its authenticity. The bone fragment is encased in a wax-sealed case and includes an inscription that it is “from the bones of St. Clement, Pope and Martyr.”

On their website, Enviro Waste has set up an electronic suggestion box, asking the public where the final resting place of the relic should be.

“We know this is an important piece of history and are keen to find the most appropriate place for its final resting place, which is why we’re asking for help from members of the public,” Rubin said.

So far, suggestions have included the British Museum or the Church of St. Clement in Rome.

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Virtual reality: An answer to the pope’s call for creativity in medicine?

May 5, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, May 5, 2018 / 03:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Chronic pain reduction. Improvement in paralysis. Restoration of sight amid macular degeneration. These are just some of the results being seen in experimental treatments using virtual reality technology.

And this technology could help answer Pope Francis’ call for doctors and scientists to collaborate in pursuing bold and creative approaches to medicine.

Stressing the importance of ethics and defense of human life, the pope at an April 28 conference called for an “open interdisciplinary approach that engages multiple experts and institutions,” which can lead “to a reciprocal exchange of knowledge.” He also encouraged “concrete actions on behalf of those who suffer.”

For at least one representative who was present at the conference, the future of medical care could rely significantly on the tech industry, using tools such as augmented and virtual reality as a treatment for certain conditions.

In an interview with CNA, Dr. David Rhew said virtual reality is already used in training scenarios for doctors and nurses, but is starting to be used to treat medical conditions as well.

Rhew is the chief medical officer, vice president and general manager of B2B Healthcare for Samsung Electronics America. He spoke at the Vatican’s April 26-28 “Unite to Cure” about the use of VR technology in medicine.

Virtual reality, he told CNA, is already used as a treatment in cases of pain relief, macular degeneration and spinal cord injury, and further research is being done in VR treatments for concussions, brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and strokes.

In aiding with pain management, Rhew said the aim of using virtual reality is to lessen dependence on narcotics and help patients deal with their discomfort in a more soothing, natural way.

Rhew said that patients underwent experimental treatment watched a calming video for 10-15 minutes through a VR headset, and afterward it took several hours or even days for the pain to come back, if it did at all.

In one randomized control trial conducted by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, 120 patients were randomly selected. Half were given VR pain treatment, while the rest were shown content on a regular television set.

Doctors saw a 52 percent pain reduction in the patients who used VR versus those who watched regular television, which is a “dramatic, remarkable” outcome, Rhew said.

Results have even been seen in children who suffer chronic pain due to sickle cell anemia. In at least one case, he said, a person came in with pain and left with no medication after using the VR headset.

“We’ve actually now been starting to think how can we go beyond even acute hospitalization, and even start thinking about how this could be used in the ambulatory setting and potentially be used to address the opioid epidemic,” he said.

The hope is that virtual reality could be used as an alternative to opioid treatments, so patients never have to start on narcotics, or can stop if they are currently using them.

Macular degeneration – in which the central part of the eye is damaged, usually resulting significant vision loss – has also been successfully treated with virtual reality.

“Researchers have long known that despite the fact that you have injuries to [the macula], other parts of the retina are still in tact,” Rhew said, noting that opthamologists have used virtual reality to target an area of the eye called the “preferred retinal locus (PRL),” which is small and hard to locate, but which can lead to better vision if found and utilized.

“Using the VR headset with an eye-tracking software helps locate the PRL,” and the magnification ability on the camera helps zoom in on the area they are looking for.

In one study carried out by Johns Hopkins University, some patients walked in legally blind and left with 20/30 vision, rhew said. This allows people “to do things they were never able to do – they can now read a book, they can watch TV, they can even do gardening.”

VR technology is currently being used as a treatment by some 80 opthamologist centers across the United States, including UCLA, but not many people know about it, he said.

Spinal cord injuries have also been treated with virtual reality.

“What we’ve seen is that in patients who have injured the spinal cord, like we talked about with the eye, they may have lost some of the major components of the neuro-pathways, but some of the minor ones are still intact, and we in general have not figured out how to utilize those minor ones,” Rhew said.

The virtual reality “tricks” the brain by targeting and activating pathways in the brain and spine that might still be intact and could lead to eventual mobility.

In a case study of eight patients who suffered from chronic paraplegia from anywhere between 3-18 years, after undergoing a year of an intensive VR treatment with physical therapy, “all of them were upgraded from paraplegia to partial paralysis.”

“This can help us in managing patients and restoring function for those with disabilities,” but success depends on individual effort, Rhew said, explaining that “we have it within ourselves but we sometimes need that ability to go over that little hump, and technology can sometimes help us.”

Rhew said he believes the unanticipated rise in VR and digital treatments is due in part to the fact that devices have become more powerful, battery life has grown longer and storage has increased.

Increasing use of mobile phones is also a factor, since the technology can be accessed from anywhere. Additionally, VR can in many cases be significantly cheaper than typical medical equipment.

“We’re going to continue to learn more over the coming years, the technology is going to get better, we’re probably going to able to make further advancements, we’re going to improve the user experience” and will likely participate in more clinical trials, Rhew said.

Doctors will also likely become increasingly aware that they can “truly use this as an adjunct or alternative to things today that are major issues. So I see it improving the lives of people pretty dramatically, especially those with disabilities.”

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Prayer necessary for consecrated life, Pope Francis notes

May 4, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, May 4, 2018 / 04:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prayer, poverty, and patience are essential to living religious life, Pope Francis said Friday to a gathering of consecrated men and women.

The pope set aside his prepared remarks and spoke extemporaneously May 4 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to some 700 participants in a conference organized by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

He was reflecting on discernment and how to avoid losing oneself among worldliness and provocations.

The pope jokingly said the Holy Spirit “is a calamity, because he never tires of being creative.”

“Now, with the new forms of consecrated life, he is so creative, with the charisms … He is the author of diversity, but at the same time is Creator of unity. This is the Holy Spirit. And with the diversity of charisms and many things, he makes a unity of the Body of Christ, and also the unity of consecrated life. And this too is a challenge.”

Francis posited that the Holy Spirit wants prayer, poverty, and patience to stay strong in consecrated life.

For the consecrated person, prayer is “turning always to the first call … to that Person who has called me,” he said.

Consecrated life is a call to renounce all things for the sake of the gospel, and for the consecrated person “every prayer has to turn back to this … prayer is that which makes me work for the Lord, not for my interests or for the institution in which I work, no, for the Lord.”

Pope Francis reiterated that for the consecrated person prayer is a return to the meeting with the Lord in which they were called by him.

“And prayer, in the consecrated life, is the air which makes us breathe that call, renew that call. Without this air we could not be good consecrated persons. We would be perhaps good persons, Christians, Catholics who do many works in the Church, but consecration you must continually renew, in prayer, in an encounter with the Lord,” he said.

CNA contacted the Holy See Press Office about these unclear remarks concerning prayer and those living in the world, but did not receive a response by deadline.

The Pope went on to say that there are no excuses for not devoting time to prayer, including busyness, pointing to St. Teresa of Calcutta as an example. Someone might say: “But I’m busy, I’m busy, I have so many things to do,” he pointed out, stating “[prayer] is more important: Go pray.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta had concerns, he acknowledged, yet “the two hours of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, nobody took them away from her… Do as she did, do the same.”

Another reason prayer is so important for men and women in consecrated life, he said, is that it helps to direct action to the correct purpose, keeping the focus on God, instead of just serving an institution or one’s own interests.

“Search for your Lord, the one who called you… Not just in the morning,” he said. “Everyone must look for how to do it, where to do it, when to do it. But always do it, pray. One cannot live the consecrated life, one cannot discern what is happening without speaking with the Lord.”

Pope Francis then turned to poverty, which he noted St. Ignatius of Loyola called the mother of consecrated life.

“Without poverty there is no fecundity in consecrated life,” he said. The spirit of poverty is necessary for discernment, and is a defense against all that would destroy consecrated life.

Even in religious life there can be a worldliness, the Pope said, which comes from a lack of poverty; vanity; and pride.

Francis finally spoke about the quality of patience in consecrated life, which, he said, is not just about bearing patiently with those with whom we live and work – it is also about bearing patiently with the suffering of the world, “carrying [it] on the shoulders.”

“Enter into patience,” he said, because without patience “you cannot be magnanimous, you cannot follow the Lord.”

Internal struggles in a congregation and careerism at general chapters are attributable to impatience, the Pope said.

There must even be patience in the face of a lack of vocations, he added. Choosing to stop accepting members and to sell off the community’s property is a sign that the congregation “is close to death” and has become attached to money, rather than having the patience to pray for new vocations.

This “art of dying well” – a congregation choosing not to pursue prospective vocations – is a “spiritual euthanasia” which “doesn’t have the courage to follow the Lord … We follow [Jesus] to a certain point and by the first or second trial, goodbye.”

The pope concluded by telling the consecrated men and women that they will surely be fruitful if they are prayerful, poor, and patient.

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