Washington D.C., Mar 8, 2018 / 04:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Three major abortion providers received more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds over a three-year period, with a significant portion of the funds going to Planned Parenthood affiliates under le… […]
Grand Island, Neb., Mar 8, 2018 / 04:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A bill is being considered in Nebraska that would offer lower-income families a greater variety of educational opportunities. Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt of Grand Island is a major supporter of t… […]
Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 8, 2018 / 11:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Iceland’s parliament continues to consider a bill that would bar circumcision for non-medical reasons, the head of the country’s Catholic diocese has expressed concerns over religious persecution.
“To us it looks like this can be an opportunity for those who are interested in this matter to misuse the subject of circumcision in an attempt to persecute individuals for their religion,” said Bishop David Tencer of Reykjavik, according to RUV, Iceland’s public broadcaster.
Circumcision is a religious ritual in both Judaism and Islam. Jewish boys are circumcised eight days after birth, while Muslim practices vary widely.
The proposed bill states that “Anyone who…causes damage to the body or health of a child or a woman by…removing sexual organs shall be imprisoned for up to 6 years.”
Female genital mutilation has been banned in Iceland since 2005.
The bill was introduced by Silja Dogg Gunnarsdóttir of the Progressive Party of Iceland, who said, “We are talking about children’s rights, not about freedom of belief. Everyone has the right to believe in what they want, but the rights of children come above the right to believe.”
A recent poll suggests that 50 percent of Icelanders support the ban, 37 percent oppose it, and 13 percent have no opinion.
The health risks and benefits of circumcision have been a topic of debate for several years in some European countries, although none have banned the practice outright.
Iceland, which has a population of around 334,000, has a small Muslim population of less than 1,500, and an even smaller Jewish population of fewer than 250.
Agnes Sigurðardóttir, the Lutheran Bishop of Iceland, has warned that “the danger that arises, if this bill becomes law, is that Judaism and Islam will become criminalised religions. We must avoid all such forms of extremism.”
Yair Melchior, chief rabbi of Denmark, and and Yoav Melchior, rabbi of Oslo, have commented that “There is no country in the world now that bans circumcision. This sets a dangerous precedent that may affect other countries.”
Ahmad Seddeeq, an imam at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Iceland, said that circumcision “is something that touches our religion and I believe that this is… a contravention [of] religious freedom.”
Washington D.C., Mar 8, 2018 / 10:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As a sign of solidarity with Catholics in the Middle East, the National Council of Catholic Women has set up a pen-pal exchange pairing Catholic schools in the United States with those in the Ho… […]
Vatican City, Mar 8, 2018 / 09:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church is responsible for encouraging civil leaders to respond to migration on the basis of Catholic social teaching, the Pope told the International Catholic Migration Commission Thursday.
“Together we must encourage countries to coordinate more suitable and effective responses to the challenges posed by issues of migration; and we can do this on the basis of the essential principles of the Church’s social teaching,” Pope Francis said March 8 in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall to the members of the comission’s plenary council.
“I ask the Holy Spirit to continue to enlighten all of you, as you carry out your vital mission of showing forth God’s merciful love to our migrant brothers and sisters.”
He commented that “your commitment has deepened in response to the inhumane living conditions experienced by millions of our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters in various parts of the world. Just as he did at the time of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt, so too the Lord hears their cry and sees their sufferings.”
The commission was founded in 1951, and the Pope said its works “represent exemplary instances of the four verbs – welcome, defend, promote and integrate – by which I wished to characterize the Church’s pastoral response in the face of migration.”
Francis also said he hopes the commission “will continue to inspire local Churches to do all they can for persons forced to leave their home countries and who, all too often, become victims of dishonesty, violence and abuse of every sort.”
He referred again to Moses’ commission from the Lord to free the Hebrews from Egypt, and said that “In order to set free those who today are oppressed, rejected and enslaved, it is essential to promote open and sincere dialogue with government leaders, a dialogue that takes into account people’s actual experiences, sufferings and aspirations, in order to remind everyone once more of his or her responsibilities.”
The Pope commended the compacts on refugees and migrants being drafted at the United Nations as “a privileged forum for implementing such dialogue.”
“We must … commit ourselves to ensuring that, as a sign of shared global responsibility, concrete engagement follows from the words already codified in the aforementioned two agreements,” Pope Francis stated.
San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Mar 8, 2018 / 12:05 am (CNA).- Sister Consolata di Santo, one of the first religious sisters to work in the hospital developed by St. Padre Pio, died March 2 at age 101, according to the Italian publication Avvenire.
Born … […]
Vatican City, Mar 7, 2018 / 09:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For the Vatican’s point man on migration, ever since the crisis reached a fever pitch in 2015, the mass movement of people has been painted in an overly negative, ominous and threatening light – a narrative he says needs to change.
When it comes to the perplexing question of migrants and refugees, “we need positive stories,” Fr. Michael Czerny, SJ, told members of the International Catholic Migration Commission March 7.
He said the migration crisis which has captured the public eye and dominated much of the world’s political discourse over the past few years has largely been painted in a negative light.
As one of two co-secretaries for the Dicastery for Integral Human Development’s section for migrants and refugees, Czerny said part of their job is “to help change the narrative” on the issue, because “the public view is negative.”
Fr. Czerny was one of three panelists addressing the 2018 U.N. global compacts on migrants and refugees during the ICMC’s March 6-8 plenary assembly in Rome. Speaking alongside him were Fr. Fabio Baggio, who serves as the second secretary for the dicastery and helps Czerny to oversee the section for migrants and refugees, and Stephane Jaquemet, the ICMC’s head of policy.
In comments to CNA, Czerny said a simple answer for the negative reaction is globalization and the fact that it was first viewed “as the great leap forward for the whole world, it was supposed to benefit everybody … the bitter, bitter, bitter disappointment of people all over the world and the way in which they’ve been betrayed by their economic and political leaders, is easy to scapegoat on people who are different from us, and who need and deserve our help but who are caught up in this pattern.”
Czerny said that in his view, the prevalent negative narrative on migration issue has nothing to do with migrants and refugees, but is rather “a misplaced disappointment with our leaders.”
Migrants and refugees, he said, “are being scapegoated. So I think by telling the truth and by telling positive stories, that’s how I hope we can reverse that narrative.”
Especially where the Church is concerned, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking “should feel that they are part of the life of the Church,” he said. “They should feel that they are welcomed and accompanied.”
Part of dicastery’s task, he said, is to ensure that “migration is a matter of choice,” and that no one is forced to leave their home country, especially not as a result of poverty or violence.
However, since migration is and always will be a reality the world has to face, another part of their mission means supporting the Church “in her mission to accompany migrants.”
“It’s no lie” that societies have been “enormously enriched” by migration and will continue to do so, he said, and pointed to the global compacts as a means of both helping migrants throughout their journey and making the process more bearable when they arrive.
The UN is drafting compacts aimed at improving the international community’s response to large movements of refugees and migrants, ensuring safe and orderly passage for migrants, and as well as to protracted refugee situations.
According to Czerny, issues of pastoral interest for the Church are ensuring that migrants, refugees, displaced persons, asylum seekers, and victims of trafficking have the adequate resources and support needed to arrive safely and integrate into their new societies.
To this end, he pointed to the four-point “action plan” outlined by Pope Francis in his message for this year’s World Day for Peace, titled “Migrants and Refugees: men and women in search of peace.”
The four points – to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate – have been adopted by the Holy See as a response to the migration issue and have been widely promoted in the diplomatic scene.
By promoting and advancing the integral development of migrants and refugees, the Church is putting into action “what social doctrine has taught all along,” he said, adding that by helping migrants and refugees integrate, the communities where they live become enriched.
In his comments to CNA, Czerny noted how many western governments in particular, not wanting to take in their share of the influx of migrants and refugees, try to solve the problem by providing financial support to countries of origin so citizens don’t have to leave in the first place.
“We have been trying to promote – we the west, the well-developed countries, have in some ways been trying to promote development in the third world practically since World War Two,” Czerny said. However, “the results are not very impressive.”
“So if there is going to be a real effort to promote real integral sustainable development, God bless us, let’s do it,” he said, but cautioned that if this promise of “development” is in reality “a way of trying to trick and bribe people to stay home because we don’t want them here, I think we should denounce it.”
In his comments during the panel, Jaquemet outlined the process of drafting and discussing the compacts.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for the compact on refugees, Jaquemet said, is the issue of “solidarity,” because there are many states who have taken in refugees for years, but who are now seeing a decrease in financial support.
“Those countries are not happy,” he said, noting that western countries tend to be “quite reluctant to go into formal commitments in terms of burden sharing and solidarity.”
La Crosse, Wis., Mar 7, 2018 / 05:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Diocese of La Crosse has announced that it will end its pension plan for lay employees, but it hopes to preserve almost all the value of promised benefits for hundreds of present and past wo… […]
Victoria, Canada, Mar 7, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The culture assumes celibacy is unhealthy, repressive, and gamophobic, but is it?
Canadian priest Father Harrison Ayre says no, which is why he started the trending Twitter hashtag #celibacymatters.
“The common misconceptions people have about celibacy: sexual repression, the confusion between celibacy and chastity, and that [priests] didn’t want or couldn’t handle marriage,” Ayre told CNA.
“No, this is a healthy lifestyle. It’s the way Jesus lived. If Jesus can live it then with his grace we can live it too.”
The hashtag began after the priest read a tweet from comedian Joe Rogan, a frequent critic of the Catholic Church. Rogan tweeted on March 6 the question: “At what point are we going to realize that forced celibacy is unnatural and unhealthy?”
Ayre, the pastor of Holy Family Notre Dame parish in Port Alberni, British Columbia, lamented that authentic human sexuality has been misrepresented in popular culture today, and that the importance of sexual love has been over exaggerated.
The culture has “this overemphasis on sex, like it’s the ‘end all, be all’ of life,” said Ayre. “When you see something like Joe Rogan’s tweet, they are trying to tear down the Church to its level.”
Society, he said, considers celibacy an impossibility, and views celibates as people sexually repressed or afraid of marriage. Rather than repressing their sexuality, he said priests “are actually sexually free in a good way… living our sexuality in a beautiful healthy way.”
Additionally, he said celibacy is an opportunity to sacrifice a good aspect of creation, not a window to escape from marriage. He said the sacrifice, though, doesn’t mean that sexuality is forgotten.
“Sexually, I’m a man, and I’m always living that out, but I’m just not acting on a particular aspect of what I’m created for. I’m giving that up for a greater good.”
He said celibacy points to Christ’s fulfilling promises, especially to heaven, where people will no longer be given in marriage.
“#CelibacyMatters because the world needs to know that there is more to live for, that Christ is the true substance of life,” Ayre tweeted.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CelibacyMatters?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#CelibacyMatters</a> because the world needs to know that there is more to live for, that Christ is the true substance of life.</p>— Fr. Harrison Ayre (@christian_state) <a href=”https://twitter.com/christian_state/status/971135849248079874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Since Ayre started the hashtag on March 6, #celibacymatters has gained popularity with religious men and women, lay people, and other priests.
Rather than an attack on Joe Rogan’s tweet, the priest said the hashtag has inspired a witness to something positive, beautiful, and life giving.
“It was great to see a lot of people take up that hashtag as a sign to say [celibacy] is something beautiful.”
Madison, Wis., Mar 7, 2018 / 03:22 pm (CNA).- Fr. Alfred Kunz was a 67-year-old parish priest at St. Michael’s church in the rural town of Dane, Wisconsin.
He recorded radio shows and was known for his love of the traditional Latin Mass, serving as a parish priest for 31 years. He often cooked cod at the local fish fries on Friday nights in an effort to raise money for the parish school.
On March 4, 1998, Fr. Kunz was found dead in a pool of blood with a slit across his throat inside St. Michael’s school.
The killer was never found.
In an effort to revive Fr. Kunz’s cold case 20 years later, the local police department is launching a social media campaign to see if there is any new information on who killed the priest.
“On the 20th anniversary, we thought we would start releasing information to the public that has not been publicly released,” said David J. Mahoney, a Dane County Sheriff, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I’m at a position in this case now, that if we haven’t solved it in 20 years, we need to do something different,” Mahoney continued.
Theories behind the murder abound, ranging from an attempt to prevent the priest from exposing sexual abuse to the work of a Satanic temple active near the parish. Fr. Kunz was reported to have a harsh, controlling personality, and police officials had told reporters that there were suggestions of financial and sexual impropriety in connection with the priest.
The social media campaign includes posts from the police department with the hashtag #whokilledfatherkunz. The posts include information about the case, such as the murder weapon, which was never found, and various conversations that Fr. Kunz had in the last days of his life.
In addition to the campaign, Kunz’s cold case will be featured on season three of the podcast “Unsolved,” which is currently under production.
William Yallaly, chancellor of the Diocese of Madison, told CNA that the sheriff’s office initiated the investigation, but the diocese is in full support.
He noted that Bishop Robert Morlino, who currently heads the diocese, arrived several years after the death of Fr. Kunz, but said that the bishop has affirmed the sheriff in undertaking the campaign to re-open the case.
“We want the truth to come out, whatever it is,” Yallaly said.
Regarding reports of possible motives, he noted, “We have heard rumors, gossip, and third party accusations, but have not received any concrete accusations of romantic, sexual, or financial improprieties.”
He encouraged the faithful to “pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Kunz.”
Over the weekend a Requiem Mass was celebrated in honor of Fr. Kunz, marking the twentieth anniversary of his death.
“He was a very holy man,” said Fr. Richard Heilman of St. Mary’s parish.
Although two decades have passed since his death, Mahoney hopes that the killer will come forward with a guilty conscience, or a perhaps a family member of the killer will offer new information.
In the initial investigation of the murder, the sheriff said, investigators may have focused too narrowly on one suspect, although there were several other people of interest.
However, Mahoney is hopeful that the new campaign could give them the second wind they need to close the case.
“We’re at the 10-yard line, but we’re pitted against a pretty strong defense and we need a good Aaron Rodgers to get us across the goal line.”
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