News Briefs

Muslim refugee hails Pope Francis as the example of religion

February 17, 2017 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Feb 17, 2017 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Nur Essa, a Muslim Syrian woman whose family was brought to Rome from Lesbos by Pope Francis last April, said that the openness he has shown to those of different faiths has deeply impressed her.

“For me, I was surprised,” she told CNA. “(He is) very open to all of the cultures, all of the religions, and he sets an example for all the religious people in the world, because he uses religion to serve the human being.”

Essa, 31, has met the Pope on several occasions, most recently during the Pope’s visit Feb. 17th to Roma Tre University, a public research university in Rome where she currently studies.

She was one of four students of the university to ask the Pope a question, which he answered during his visit.

Essa’s question was about the integration of immigrants in Italy: what they must do to integrate into their host country, but also what the rights of the immigrant are.

Before this, Essa and her husband and their little boy met Pope Francis when he brought them to Rome April 16th, 2016, along with two other Syrian refugee families who had been staying in a camp on the Island of Lesbos. She said that the Pope greeted them and blessed her son.

Essa also had an opportunity to speak with him at length when they were invited to be guests at a lunch Aug. 11th at the Vatican, which Essa said was an “honor.”

“He’s very, very modest, a very simple man, a very real human being,” she said.
 
Essa has both an undergraduate degree and a master’s in microbiology, and is studying biology at Roma Tre.

She said that she and her husband are both from the city of Damascus in Syria and chose to flee the country because her husband had been asked to join the military service there.

They went from Damascus to Turkey, and then from Turkey to Greece, where they stayed in a refugee camp for one month before they were fortunate enough to be chosen as one of the families the Pope brought back to Rome.

Pope Francis visited Roma Tre University at the request of the Dean of the university, who wanted to invite a public figure for the university’s 25th anniversary.

According to Fr. John D’Orazio, who is a Catholic chaplain assigned to the university by the Diocese of Rome, the last pope to make a formal visit was St. John Paul II for the university’s 10th anniversary in 2002.

The chaplaincy just finished constructing its first Catholic chapel for students nearby to the university, something they’ve been wanting to do for a long time, Fr. D’Orazio said.

He said that although students don’t live on campus, they still try “to create opportunities for students to meet together” and to reflect on their Catholic faith and “what it means for them in their own studies and in being citizens in today’s world and in society.”

It’s a very diverse campus, he said, with students of no faith or of different religions, including Muslim students. “I think it’s very interesting and beautiful to be a chaplain inside of a state university,” he said, “because it means creating dialogue, creating collaboration.”

“It’s almost like mission work, because you’re working in a place where there are all kinds of different people, different backgrounds, different points of view. So it’s a good place to create bridges,” he said.

“Pope Francis talks a lot about creating bridges and not walls. And I think that also the chaplaincy in a state university is all about creating bridges of dialogue and collaboration.”

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Catholic thinker Michael Novak remembered with gratitude

February 17, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Feb 17, 2017 / 02:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The theologian, philosopher and Catholic commentator Michael Novak died Friday, drawing remembrances for his insights and influence on religion in public life.

“We are immensely grateful that he could end his academic life as he began it, as a member of our community,” Catholic University of America president John Garvey said, calling Novak a man of “great intellectual honesty.”

“Unlike some scholars, Michael Novak made it a point to reflect on new and different topics, always with a fresh and dynamic perspective,” Garvey said.

Novak died Feb. 17 at the age of 83.

He was a student at Catholic University of America in 1958 and 1959. In 2016 he was named a visiting fellow at the university’s The Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. He taught special topics in management and lectured on human ecology.

The center’s director, Andreas Widmer, stressed Novak’s pioneering role in considering the intersection of faith and economics. He said he and his colleagues were touched by Novak’s “kindness and humility,” his generosity with his time, and his encouragement for others.

“You would never have known from working with him that this was a man who had counseled popes and changed the course of history,” Widmer said.

St. John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan, and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher considered Novak a friend, Catholic University of America said.

Novak was the author of numerous books, most prominently the 1982 work The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism. He contended that democratic capitalism is “neither the Kingdom of God nor without sin,” but better than all other known systems of political economy.

“Such hope as we have for alleviating poverty and for removing oppressive tyranny — perhaps our last, best hope — lies in this much despised system,” he said.

The book was published around the world and had a particular impact among anti-communist dissidents in Eastern Europe. The book was illegally distributed in Poland by the Solidarity movement, the Washington Post reports.

His other books include Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter’s Questions About God, a 1998 work he co-authored with his daughter Jana.

Novak wrote on human rights, economic systems, the history of labor unions, U.S. ethnic history, and the role of churches in the modern world.

He was born to a Slovak-American family in Johnstown, Pa. on Sept. 9, 1933. His studies for the priesthood took him to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and he was ordained for the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1960. Within months of his ordination, he left the priesthood and was later laicized.

He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stonehill College, a Bachelor of Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, and a master’s degree in history and the philosophy of religion from Harvard.

Novak worked as a journalist in the early 1960s, writing for the National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal before working for Time Magazine in Rome during the Second Vatican Council. He would go on to serve as an editor at Commonweal and Christian Century magazines, religion editor for National Review, a contributing editor for First Things magazine and editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine.

According to Novak’s website, his political work included the 1968 campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy and speechwriting for Democratic vice presidential nominee Sargent Shriver during Sen. George McGovern’s unsuccessful 1972 presidential campaign. He became an opponent of the Vietnam War after initially supporting intervention.

He would turn away from left-wing politics and the Democratic Party to join the Republican-trending neoconservative school of thought. Under President Ronald Reagan, he was named as U.S. Ambassador to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations and served on the Board of International Broadcasting that oversaw Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Liberty.

He served in multiple academic positions, teaching at Harvard, Stanford, Notre Dame, and Ave Maria University. In the early 1970s, he helped design a new humanities program for the Rockefeller Foundation of New York.

He joined the American Enterprise Institute think tank in 1978, where he worked as a scholar until his retirement in 2010.

Among Novak’s many achievements were his work to launch many academic institutes and seminars, including the Tertio Millennio Seminar that aimed to bring together North American and Eastern European students to discuss Catholic social teaching.

George Weigel, one of Novak’s collaborators, wrote in the National Review that “both Church and nation have lost one of their most imaginative and accomplished sons.”

Weigel remembered Novak “first and foremost” as a teacher, who “offered a model of patient counseling and courteous listening that our students will long remember.”

Novak’s honors include the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Ahead of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Novak went to the Vatican to argue that the war would be justified on the grounds of self-defense against Iraq’s then-leader Saddam Hussein. His remarks tried to counter some high-level Vatican critics of a war on Iraq.

Though Novak was careful not to criticize him personally, opponents of the war included St. John Paul II.

At the time, the Los Angeles Times reported that U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Jim Nicholson had brought Novak to Rome for an embassy-sponsored lecture series, but Nicholson stressed that Novak did not represent the U.S. government or its embassies.

Novak is survived by three children and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Karen Laub-Novak.

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Pakistan mourns victims of terrorist attacks

February 17, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Hyderabad, Pakistan, Feb 17, 2017 / 11:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pakistanis are mourning those killed and wounded in a series of terrorist attacks which have taken place this week in the country, including one on a Sufi shrine that left more than 80 people dead.

“People in Pakistan are above all sad; they are also angry with the institutions that are not able to protect citizens. Finally they feel fragile, vulnerable, helpless in the face of [a] terrorist threat that spares no one,” Fr. Inayat Bernard, director of Santa Maria Seminary in Lahore, told Fides.

“We condemn this senseless violence against innocent human beings. Before any ethnic, cultural or religious connotation, the victims are human beings,” he continued.

A suicide bomber reportedly loyal to the Islamic State attacked devotees at a Sufi shrine in Sehwan, more than 90 miles northwest of Hyderabad, on Thursday. In addition to the more than 80 killed in the attack, some 250 were wounded. Sufism is a form of Islamic mysticism which the Islamic State opposes, in part because it reveres individuals it regards as saints. The shrine in Sehwan which was attacked is devoted to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a Sufi poet and philosopher of the 13th century.

Since Monday, there have also been terrorist attacks or attempts in Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Mohmand, and Arawan.

In a security crackdown in response to the attacks, Pakistani forces have killed more than 100 militants. It has closed border crossings with Afghanistan, whence it claims the militants were based.

“Today we know that we are all potential targets,” Fr. Bernard commented. “Even us Christians – no one is excluded. The victims of these latest attacks are all Muslims, tomorrow it could be the turn of a Christian, a Hindu or a Sikh. This indiscriminate violence hits places of worship, such as the Sufi mosque in Karachi, or churches in the past.”

He lamented that “religious communities are forced to adopt their own security measures and cannot rely on the government. There should be more control, but it is very difficult when there is a great influx of faithful.”

“This violence profanes the name of God, profanes Islam and uses religion to try to overthrow the state. Public opinion strongly calls on the government to urgently implement the national action plan against terrorism, already outlined, but there is some hesitation on behalf of the government and this gives rise to many questions on the possible existing connections even in the institutional apparatus. We are in an impasse”.

Catholics in Pakistan are called to “pray and show deep empathy and solidarity” to the Sufi victims in Sehwan, he said.

“We brought our condolences to the police, after the massacre in Lahore; we go to hospitals to offer assistance and solidarity to the injured,” he said.

He added that interreligious meetings are being organized “to reject, in the name of God, [the] terrorism that has bloodied our beloved nation, and say yes to peace and respect for life.”

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How one organization hopes to revolutionize orphanages

February 17, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Rome, Italy, Feb 17, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church puts a lot of effort into having excellent schools and hospitals, but what about its orphanages? For Caroline Boudreaux, conditions in orphanages are too often overlooked – something we all have the ability and opportunity to help change.

The Miracle Foundation, founded by Boudreaux, is a nonprofit which operates on the principle that orphaned children have the same fundamental rights as every other child, and that we help them the most when we help and support the institutions they live in.

One way the organization does this is through teaching those who run orphanages the “best practices” for facilitating the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of the children in their care.

“The idea is to get a model in every single Catholic orphanage around the world. To give every single Catholic orphanage the support that we would be giving our churches and our schools and our hospitals. That’s what I’m trying to do,” Boudreaux told CNA.

Compared to most of our Catholic hospitals and schools, the conditions in orphanages around the world, even those run by religious orders, are appalling, she explained.

We’ve left the religious sisters running these institutions “out to dry: We leave them with not enough resources, overcrowded orphanages, underfunded…”

But Boudreaux is optimistic that this is something people can change.

“I want to stop short of saying we should be ashamed, but you have a Catholic school or you have a Catholic hospital and you know that they’re going to be pretty excellent … and you can’t say that for our orphanages,” she said.

Part of the Miracle Foundation’s method is also based on the belief that, if possible, it is always best for a child to be in a family setting, so they strive to facilitate this as much as possible.

“Growing up without your family is a tough, tough, tough way to grow up,” Boudreaux said. “It scars more than just your stomach and your mind, it scars your heart, which is really the tough part.”

“We help orphanages reunite children with their families, we help orphanages put children in the adoption stream, and for the children that have to be there, until they have a family, we make the standards solid, so that they can thrive in real time.”

Boudreaux was first inspired with the idea for the Miracle Foundation after she went to India with a friend and witnessed the poor living conditions of orphanages there. The place was “like a concentration camp for kids,” she said, “very gray, very dark.”

The beds were wooden slats with no mattresses and the children, “bald and filthy,” were starved for attention. “I just decided somebody better help them, somebody needs to step in here, and that was it – that was the beginning – almost 17 years ago on Mother’s Day,” she said.

Inspired by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Miracle Foundation created its own list of 12 Fundamental Rights of a Child, focusing specifically on the rights of orphaned children, such as the right to a “stable, loving and nurturing environment.”

In addition to practical issues, such as proper nutrition, clean water, electricity and a clean environment, the Miracle Foundation trains caregivers in the areas they can improve themselves, and for others, helps them to bring in qualified experts, like counselors and doctors.

The children in these institutions are often suffering from grief, trauma, or other psychological issues, Boudreaux said, but the religious sisters who watch over them aren’t prepared to deal with the significant psychological problems they have, let alone “watch them go to bed hungry every night” because of the lack of resources.

The Miracle Foundation isn’t a religious organization and will serve anyone in need of help, she said, but they’ve also found that working with specific religious orders who run multiple orphanages throughout a country, or around the world, is one way to make a large impact and quickly.

The Miracle Foundation has been following their current model since 2011, and has experienced great success, with religious orders asking for their help in all of their institutions. For this, the organization’s principle to “train the trainer” has helped them reach even more children.

For the moment they are mostly based at orphanages in India, but are also helping some in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.

Nivedita DasGupta, head of their operations in India, gave an overview of a typical day in one of the children’s homes in which they’ve helped implement these “best practices.”

In general, the goal is to make the environment as home- and family-like as possible.

For this reason, there is usually one “house mother” for about every 20 children, who drops them off and picks them up from the bus stop on their way to and from school, who eats dinner with them, and generally spends the day supervising them all.

The organization made it mandatory for a healthy snack to be served after school and for there to be a period of physical activity and playtime. They also implemented different monthly sessions for the children focused on life skills with topics appropriate for different ages, such as career counseling, goal-setting, how to deal with peer pressure, and responsible sexual behavior.

As a way for the kids to have a say in the community, they also have children’s committees (run with supervision by an adult, of course) that are responsible for things like planning meals and organizing sports.

One thing the Miracle Foundation does when they come in to an orphanage is to chart the health of the children, Boudreaux said, which they then train the house mothers to measure and record monthly, so that they have real knowledge about the health of the children and their progress on growth charts.

“We help orphans reach their full potential, that’s what we’re all about,” she said.

A Catholic, Boudreaux said she grew up hearing about the importance of being pro-life, but that after going to these orphanages and seeing the children, you realize that maybe we’ve “succeeded” in one way, so-to-speak, but are failing in another.

These children have all been born, but, she said, you have to ask: “Now what? Now they’re just going to be hungry? We’ve got to step up here.”

“We have an opportunity,” she said. “This is something right here, right now!”

Boudreaux explained that this isn’t something we have to go looking for: It’s easy “because they’re right there, and our nuns are right there, waiting for our help, ready to accept our help.”

“We’re not pro-orphanage, we’re not pro-institution,” she said. “We wish that every child in the world had a family.”

“But the real question is, what happens if we’re not there?”

“Between now and when they can find a family, we must support children, we must support them,” she said.

 

Elise Harris contributed to this article. 

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Papua New Guinea’s cardinal has bigger concerns than Amoris Laetitia

February 17, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Rome, Italy, Feb 17, 2017 / 02:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- While many in different sectors of the Church are pulling out their hair trying to resolve the Amoris Laetitia communion debate, Papua New Guinea’s new cardinal said his country has a much more immediate problem.

“For us, Amoris Laetitia will always be there,” Cardinal John Ribat told CNA Feb. 11.

“You can have time to talk about this,” he said, but stressed his country is facing one major problem that can’t wait for a solution: climate change.

“It is really the biggest issue for us. We cannot keep quiet about it. We have to come out with it,” he said, noting that the “king tides, king waves” and rough winds “belting” the island nation are already forcing many people from their homes.

These are the things “we cannot stop. They continue to come, and they are more powerful than us,” the cardinal said, explaining that while temporary sea walls have been set up, “they won’t hold.”

“Our situation, it’s timely, you either talk about it or you see these people finished…There’s not timing for it. The time is either now or never.”

Cardinal Ribat, a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was one of the 19 prelates that got a red hat from Pope Francis in November’s consistory, and is a prime example of the Pope’s affinity toward the global peripheries.

Not only does Ribat come from a small island nation with an equally small Catholic population, he is the first prelate from the country to ever be named cardinal, giving voice to a sector of the Church whose concerns might otherwise go unheard.

The cardinal said he didn’t know that he had been named a cardinal until the country’s nuncio came and told him.
 
“For me it was absolutely unexpected. I never dreamt about it, never, I never wrote for this. It just came. So it was really a shocking news for us,” he said, explaining that the appointment sent “a great message” to Papua New Guinea.

Not only did he get congratulations from the country’s Catholics, but he also received celebratory calls and messages from other Christian denominations as well as the nation’s small Muslim minority. Prime Minister Peter O’Neill also offered his congratulations in local papers and on TV.

For the cardinal, his appointment is “timely and it gives us a chance to come to the center and hear our voice, to listen to our voice.”

“It’s really looking at the small Church, the small area, and bringing it to the center. So the periphery, bringing us to the center where we are listened to, we are recognized, where we are appreciated, where our situation is also understood.”

Ribat said his red hat was timely above all because it allows him to have more heft when voicing the country’s concerns, particularly on the issue of climate change.

The phenomena is something new that most islanders have found themselves entirely unprepared for, he said, explaining that “we were happily living and it was not a concern for us. But at this time we cannot be quiet.”

“It’s happening at this time and we don’t know where it is coming from and why it is happening…we have islands disappearing, being washed because of the high-rise sea level and people there, they have to move,” he said, noting that many of the smaller islands “are not able to sustain themselves” for much longer.

Papua New Guinea is among the nations considered most at risk for the effects of climate change. For several years the country has been affected by rising sea levels and changes in temperature, rainfall patters and the frequency of tropical storms.

According to the Australian Government’s 2011 Pacific Climate Change Science Program report, temperatures in the capital city of Port Moresby have increased since at a rate of 0.11 degrees Celsius per decade since 1950, causing sea levels to rise at a rate of 7mm per year since 1993, since water expands as it gets warmer.

Predictions for the future look grim, anticipating that the trends will carry forward as temperatures continue to increase, leading to hotter days and more volatile rainy days, with sea levels continuing to rise.

Islands such as Carteret and Tuvalu have reportedly already begun to feel the sting, with rising sea levels leaving food gardens flooded while homeowners seek to transfer to higher ground. Coconut farms – the country’s primary agricultural product – have so far been most heavily affected.

The report also states that inconsistent weather and rain patterns have already led to more frequent onsets of malaria and the common flu, and will soon start to have an impact on the economy, since the country’s agricultural production is being affected.

In his comments to CNA, Cardinal Ribat, who met with Pope Francis right before coming to the interview, said he brought the issue up with the Pope during their meeting, and that Francis was sympathetic to their plight.

“His response was that the nations are not listening, that’s what he said,” Ribat explained, recalling how the Pope told him that while “we do our best, we try to voice our concerns,” the answer ultimately depends on other nations.

Pope Francis has often spoken out about the need to make more firm commitments in trying to find solutions to climate change, focusing on the issue at length in his 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si.

He also issued several strong statements on the issue ahead of the 2015 COP21 climate summit in Paris, which was attended by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Speaking of Laudato Si, Cardinal Ribat said the encyclical helped the world to see “the importance” of the problems they face not just in Papua New Guinea, but “in the whole Pacific.”

Ribat called on nations to take greater action, specifically asking “powerful” countries in the West “to respond in a positive way to help us, because this high-rise sea level, we’ve never experienced it before (and) we are wondering what is happening to us, why all this is happening.”

For those who doubt the effects of climate change or think that it’s a myth, the cardinal said his response would be to “come and see” if they “really want to be sure about what is happening.”

“This is where you really see the effect of what is happening,” he said. “So when you talk about climate change, maybe here because you have a big land mass you are talking about it and waiting for it to come in the future. For us, it is right now.”

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How this couple has stayed married (and in love) for 75 years

February 17, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Madrid, Spain, Feb 16, 2017 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Eulogio Martínez and Martina Abian are 100 and 95 years-old, respectively.

They were married Nov. 26, 1942, in Guadalajara, Spain, and they will soon celebrate their 75th anniversary. On the occasion of World Marriage Day, which coincides with the feast of Saint Valentine, the Marriage Encounter movement gave them the “2017 Lifetime of Love” award.

But in a world where nuptial unions fall tragically apart – or increasingly fail to happen in the first place – how did this couple stay married, and happily at that?

In an interview with the Spanish ABC daily, Eulogio and Martina both agreed that the key to success that keeps them together and in love after 75 years is “patience” and above all, “loving each other a lot.”

“People don’t put up with anything, with the slightest trouble, it’s over,” Martina lamented. In fact, she finds herself baffled at how marriages can break up so quickly: “We always discuss things, and why not? … You have to have patience.”

Eulogio recalled when they started going out together – she was 18 and he was 23. “I asked her if we could have a relationship and I realized that she had already been looking forward to it,” he laughed.

“Yes, it’s true, I liked him a lot,” Martina responded, “he was very handsome, very formal, he captivated me. He’s 100 years old and look at him!”

They got married a year later. “It was a really big day, as it is for all engaged couples in love that marry – not like today, where people get married and then just change spouses,” Martina said.

They had seven children. Eulogio joined the Civil Guard, a police force in Spain, and because of his work and promotions he had to move several times. “I went with him everywhere,” Martina told ABC.

After a lifetime together, they said they were sure “they couldn’t live without each other,” not because it is a routine, or they are used to it, but because of love. One of their children told the newspaper that Martina recently had a hip operation and Eulogio could not wait to visit her at the hospital.

Even though they still have a lot of energy, Eulogio said that he would prefer “to go before she does so she can enjoy life and look for another man.” Martina laughed, but insisted, “I’m dying with him, there’s no body else like him.”

Marriage Encounter said that Eulogio and Martina “are proof that love can last a lifetime.”

“It’s not a question of luck: You have to want to love, to cultivate the relationship, to work through those differences that any couple has. And also it’s that you can learn to love well,” they said in a statement.

The witness of these spouses stands out in Spain when, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, during 2015, more than 100,000 spouses separated, divorced or obtained an annulment.

Marriage Encounter is a Catholic movement that offers a “Special Weekend” as an experience that contributes to the couple strengthening their love and deepening their relationship. It is open to couple of any religion and also non-believers.

Every year Marriage Encounter gives “A Lifetime of Love” awards to the longest married couples to demonstrate that it is possible to have just one love and have it forever.

Marriage Encounter is present in more than 100 countries and the five continents. Each year, more than 30,000 couples throughout the world are able to renew their love thanks to this experience.

¿Quieres que tu amor dure 75 años? Eulogio, de 100 años, y Martina, de 95, tienen el secreto https://t.co/e3I0kHGPcl #DíaDeLosEnamorados pic.twitter.com/JWxtkFoFvW

— abc_conocer (@abc_conocer) February 14, 2017

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