Regina, Canada, May 7, 2017 / 03:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Saskatchewan government has said it will seek a temporary exemption to block a judge’s ruling that could force up to 10,000 students out of Catholic schools because they are not Catholi… […]
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, May 5, 2017 / 09:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following the Cuban bishops’ ad limina meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday, one of the nation’s bishops commented that the island is eagerly awaiting change.
“Cuba is waiting for change. Some changes happen faster than others, but we Cubans, whatever our personal ideas may be, realize that the people can live in better spiritual and material conditions, and that things must change,” Archbishop Dionisio García Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba told Vatican Radio May 4.
“They are economic and social changes, which necessarily go together … There are cultural changes which are rather rapid, especially among the youth who have familiarity with digital means of communication and have another mode of thinking. This makes the world come to Cuba and come to know better its reality. Political change is also to be expected: it is the structures, and above all the legal one, which have to change.”
Cultural change has been the most visible effect of the opening between the United States and Cuba, Archbishop García commented, saying that “there are now more possibilities for travelling abroad, and tourists can more easily come to Cuba. Although it is still limited, the population has a greater access to new communications technologies and this produces a cultural change which is the condition for any other change, because it makes it possible for persons to chance their own criteria for judgement.”
He said there has been a change for the Church in that “there is a better understanding of religion, and the people can express their own faith.”
“Cubans are a religious people, but we also see there is little faith formation. For us bishops, it is a difficult problem to face. However, we are a creative Church which has been close to its people and who is now witnessing their faith.”
Archbishop García also noted that “we have vocations, although there are not enough. Thanks be to God, we have fidei donum missionaries, both diocesan and religious, but we still need more. But I would like to say that any missionary who come to Cuba and who wishes to work, has much to do because he finds receptive persons.”
An important and positive change for the bishops has been an easing of permits for visas and residency for missionaries, he added: “The situation has changed a lot. I can say that now there are no more obstacles than before, because when a bishop asks for an entry visa for a missionary he does not encounter problems.”
Asked about the buildings the Church is recovering, the bishop said that “this process has just begun. It’s already a positive thing. In certain dioceses they have returned some buildings, but it’s a slow process.”
“We are working with the state in order that, after 50 years in which the population has grown, we might be able to have the places for worship that we need.”
While they wait for this to move forward, the archbishop explained, “we have houses of prayer, that is, the faithful make their homes available for their communities to gather there. There aren’t parish churches with their pastoral buildings, but nevertheless the Church lives.”
Lima, Peru, May 3, 2017 / 12:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a radio interview for the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, a cardinal from Peru discussed the sanctification of work and outlined a typical day in his own life.
“How many hours does a cardinal work?” asked journalist Miguel Humberto Aguirre. “I think all of them,” replied Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima.
In his weekly Saturday radio program on station RPP April 29, Cardinal Cipriani said that his day usually starts at 5:00 a.m. and normally ends around 10 or 11 at night.
He said that he gets up “early to be able to pray because there’s a moment for prayer, for the Divine Office where there won’t be phone calls or interruptions. So you try to do it first thing in the morning. Very early, I go into the chapel and many times I celebrate Mass” at that time.
Then, the archbishop continued, “comes work itself, and part of the work is to be informed about what’s going on in the country and the world, that is, to read news about the Pope, things about Peru,” and other topics.
Then comes “the office like anybody else: people who want me to bless their house, people who are going to get married, people with some difficulty, times to meet with priests who want to talk, I go to a hospital to bless a facility, I talk with a person who has a problem in their home life, and so on.”
Cardinal Cipriani also said that an important part of his daily work is that spent “praying the Rosary or reading a little theology to keep up to date.”
“I also have to go and attend social obligations. Sometimes a family invites you to some anniversary.” In the end, he reflected, “you spend the entire day serving. My time is for others, I don’t have my own time.”
“That’s the way it is for everybody,” he continued. “In the case of a married man, your time is for your wife, your children and your grandchildren, you don’t close yourself off.”
At the end of the day, he said, “to relax a little bit, I watch NBA basketball.” The cardinal himself was part of Peru’s national basketball team in the 1960s.
The cardinal also touched on the idea of sanctifying our work, pointing to St. Joseph as the patron in this regard.
The first key in seeking to sanctify work is to perform one’s tasks well, whatever they may be. “So right now we’re working on the radio, let’s do it right,” he told the radio host as an example. “May the people listen to us and say ‘it helped me, it was well done, it gave us some insights, it’s been inspirational for us’.”
Similarly, he went on, “the person who plays soccer should play it well, try to score goals, try to win. The person who’s in Congress should try to make proper laws, study the issues, attend your meetings. Do you work well.”
“We spend a lot of time engaged in our work, whether it’s at the office or at home. From the time we have breakfast and get ready, and then when we come back home and take care of the kids. We have to find God there,” he emphasized.
The second key to sanctifying work is found in the virtues, Cardinal Cipriani said.
“And you who are working, how to do you live out honesty, joy, generosity, justice, patience?” he reflected. “Do you do your work because the boss is looking, or do you do it knowing that you must do it well?”
“I sanctify myself if I do the work well, and if I do it before my Creator and my Father,” he emphasized.
Mexico City, Mexico, May 2, 2017 / 12:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the context of their 103rd Full Assembly, the Mexican Bishops Conference released a statement on the suffering on migrants, calling for efforts to fight corruption and promote a dignified life.
In a communiqué released April 27, the Mexican bishops said that “we hear in the suffering of the migrant the voice of God which, like a cry, is calling out to our hearts and invites us to action.”
It is the cry, they said, “of those driven by poverty or violence to leave behind their homes, to work honestly and contribute to the development of the country they have come to, but on their way and even in their destination, they are obliged to live in the shadows, suffering isolation, mistreatment, racism and exploitation.”
“The cry of those who are detained… the dramatic cry of the children and their parents who see their family ripped apart by deportations.”
It is “the cry of maladjustment and the helplessness of those repatriated who have to start over their lives. These are truncated lives and dreams. These are traumas and resentments that can fuel violence.”
“The cry of all of them is the cry of all of us as a Church. It’s our cry! And, if we are human, it ought to be everyone’s cry,” the Mexican bishops said.
They emphasized that the suffering of migrants “requires us to overcome the isolation of individualism that makes us vulnerable…we will only respond to this cry when we work together for a decent life for everyone.”
Everyone should have access to “an education that forms persons and citizens,” as well as “the opportunity for a decent job and a fair wage,” they added.
“And so it is urgent to fight corruption and impunity in any environment, since these things destroy trust, limit commitment and inhibit development,” they said.
“Although some voices are sowing pessimism and discouragement, we Christians are encouraged by the light of the Risen Christ, who has conquered evil and death,” the Mexican bishops said.
They noted that “the efforts of many men and women encourage us with their personal integrity, their family life and their creative service for their neighbor, (they) make it possible for this Mexican society to not remain in darkness.”
Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 30, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA).- Esmeralda Solís Gonzáles is a young Mexican woman who was crowned last year as a beauty queen in her native town – and now she’s joined the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament.
Twenty-year old Gonzáles has watched her story go viral over the last week on social media over a post on the Miss Mexico Facebook page.
Esmaralda was born April 12, 1997 in Valle de Guadalupe, Jalisco State, to a Catholic family. She currently resides at the convent of the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament of Cuernavaca in Morelos State, after leaving her career as a nutritionist.
“You really don’t know what religious life is until you’re within it. So far I have been able to see from another perspective what the world is and what it offers you,” Esmeralda told CNA.
“I was very happy with everything I had, but it does not compare with the happiness that God now places in my heart.”
The young postulant met the Poor Clare Missionaries some five years ago at 14, when her concern for a religious vocation “was awakening” through “vocational days, missions and camps.”
In addition, she pointed out how it was hardly a month after this process of discernment concluded when on March 2017 she gave her first yes to her vocation on the Feast of the Annunciation.
“God’s timing is perfect. During this time (of discernment) he allowed me to have some experiences such as being a beauty queen, and other experiences, which forever left their mark and which allowed me to learn a lot for what was to come later.”
The discovery of the vocation to which she had been called was always present in her life like a “little thorn,” Esmeralda said.
“I realized that I had to make room in my life to know what it was that God had planned for me. In the process of discerning my vocation there was also fear and doubts, but the love that Our Lord was showing every day made me overcome any feeling of discouragement,” she said.
Esmeralda said she had discovered that God was calling her “to serve him in a radical way,” that is, changing her “life to embrace the cross of Christ and live it more closely.”
“I have been in religious life very little time, but I truly have been very happy,” she said.
In order to discover her vocation, Esmeralda spent a lot of time in prayer and charity, “knowing from the outside or from the world” what this change would involve.
“Change is hard for the family because it involves detachment, but I have always had the the support of my parents, siblings and true friends. Even though I could have developed myself in some other setting, I feel that if the Lord needs me then I can bear fruit in a different way,” she told CNA.
Esmeralda had a few words for young people and said that in any vocation they will find difficulties, “but if you go and take God’s hand, you’ll always be able to take the next step.”
“In religious life every new day is a new beginning and a new opportunity to extend the kingdom of God. This involves making a lot of sacrifices but they are always rewarded with happiness,” she said.
The young novice also said that it is true that “the reality and the supposed happiness that the world sells is very attractive” but “it is necessary to fix your eyes on what lasts.”
“You mustn’t be afraid. If God is calling you, he’ll take care of everything. All you need to do is receive him with a lot of peace, joy and confidence. I believe fear is a big excuse that is responsible for truncating the true happiness that only God can offer,” she said.
The Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament are a Religious Institute of Pontifical Right founded by Blessed María Inés Teresa Arias in 1945 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
The spirit of the Institute is Eucharistic, Marian, priestly, missionary, and is centered on Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
The missionaries work in clinics, youth groups, preschools and schools, university dorms, centers for the spiritual exercises, missions, among others. They are present in Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, the United States, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Russia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Vietnam and India.
Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 28, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Italian priest Sante Babolin said that Satan is behind several recent attacks in various parts of the world against the Virgin Mary, noting that she is a powerful advocate for him during exorcisms.
“In my experience – so far I have performed 2,300 rites of exorcism – I can say that the invocation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary often provokes significant reactions in the person being exorcized,” he told Mexican weekly Desde la Fe.
Fr. Babolin, who also taught at the Gregorian University in Rome, said that “in face of the failure of the onslaught by non-believers, now, in order to offend and confound the Catholic people, the Virgin Mary, whom the devil hates, is being attacked.”
Desde la Fe noted the recent events of the Spanish drag queen Borja Casillas, who masqueraded as the Virgin Mary and mocked her in a performance, as well as a woman who dressed up as the Virgin Mary and simulated an abortion during a protest in Argentina.
The Italian exorcist said that “as proof of this hatred” of the devil toward the Mother of God, “while I was insistently invoking the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the devil answered me: ‘I can’t stand That One (Mary) any more and neither can I stand you any more.’”
Fr. Babolin also noted that “the Second Vatican Council declares that Mary, daughter of Adam, in accepting the divine message, became the Mother of Jesus, and embracing with her whole heart and without the hindrance of any sin the saving will of God, consecrated herself totally, as the servant of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son.”
The priest pointed out the passage in the book of Genesis – which is evoked in the Rite of Exorcism – where God says to the serpent that “she will crush your head.”
In this ritual, he said, the exorcist says to the devil: “Most cunning serpent, you shall no more dare to deceive the human race, persecute the Church, torment God’s elect and sift them as wheat (…) The sacred Sign of the Cross commands you, as does also the power of the mysteries of the Christian Faith (…) The glorious Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, commands you; she who by her humility and from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception crushed your proud head.”
Fr. Babolin also said that “the strongest reactions” of the devil during the exorcism occur “when references are made to her apparitions.”
Because of this, he frequently pronounces the name of Holy Mary with her titles of Lourdes, Fatima or Guadalupe. In the latter case, he said, “I use this formula: ‘Holy Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Tepeyac.’”
The exorcist warned that “the instrument the (the devil) normally uses to trap us is money, since it offers the possibility of satisfying the impulses that converge in pleasure and power.”
Satan “subjugates us to himself manipulating the truth and offering us his dazzling light, showing us his version of ‘freedom’ and promising us the instant gratification of our whims.”
“As far as interpersonal communication, the sense of sight overtakes the sense of hearing; and consequently the image over the word; that is to say, desire precedes reflection,” he said.
Fr. Babolin encouraged Catholics to denounce attacks on the faith as well as to organize and participate in prayer events, pray the Rosary, and participate in Masses at places where offenses were committed.
Regina, Canada, Apr 27, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Non-Catholic students at Catholic schools in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan will not receive taxpayer funding, a judge ruled last week.
The Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association criticized the April 20 ruling, saying Catholic school divisions have “the right to decide to admit non-Catholic students” and to determine the extent to which their admission allows them to have “a truly authentic faith-based Catholic school system.”
“Our faith is a journey that includes inquiry of non-Catholics and growth of existing members. This requires inclusion and a welcoming spirit,” the school boards association said in a letter responding to the decision.
The association charged that the complaint threatens parents’ choices and limits the choices of non-Catholic parents.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donald Layh ruled that any provincial government funding would violate Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the state’s duty of religious neutrality, and equality rights.
The ruling will take effect in July 2018.
The decision concerned a lawsuit between the Good Spirit School Division and the Christ the Teacher Catholic Separate School Division, the Canadian site Global News reports.
The lawsuit challenged the creation of a separate school division in 2003 in the village of Theodore, 130 miles northeast of Regina, before the village’s public school closed.
Some parents of non-Catholic students decided to send their children to the local Catholic school instead of busing them to a public school in another town.
A local public school division filed a legal complaint against the Catholic school division and the provincial government in 2005. The complaint charged that the funding was unconstitutional and wrongly put the Catholic school in the role of a public school. Funding of non-Catholic students at the Catholic school constituted discrimination against public schools, the complaint said.
The complaint also charged that the creation of the new school division was not qualified. It charged that the division was created to prevent the public school from closing.
Tom Fortosky, the Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association president, said the association was “obviously disappointed” by the decision and was evaluating its response.
“This has already been a 12-year journey instigated by the public boards, and we don’t have much of an appetite to spend more on legal defense,” he said April 20. “However, we have an obligation to stand up for the constitutional rights of separate school divisions, so we are giving serious consideration to an appeal.”
Saskatchewan’s head of government, Premier Brad Wall, has said the ruling “is not good news” for the province’s students. “Consider the implications here … you could have massively overpopulated public schools and empty or near-empty separate schools. You could actually risk the viability of community schools because there’s a number of people who will choose to send their students to the school closest to them.”
“We want to give parents as much choice as possible,” Wall said April 24. “That’s where we will stand on this issue and we’re going to work to be able to preserve that stance.”
Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 26, 2017 / 03:34 pm (Church Pop).- With abortion illegal in Mexico, a ship providing the procedure has landed on the country’s coast, drawing outrage from the local pro-life movement.
The boat, property of the the Dutch abortion NGO Women on Waves, was expelled from Guatemala in February this year and will be stationed off the Mexican coast April 21-23.
According to the Women on Waves website, during these days they will perform abortions on women “up to nine weeks pregnant.” The vessel dropped anchor in international waters across from the port of Ixtapa in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
Among the Mexican institutions that support the “abortion ship” are GIRE (Group for Information on Chosen Reproduction), the abortion multinational Catholics for Choice, and IPAS which funds abortion initiatives in various parts of the world.
The international pro-life website CitizenGo, however, said that Women on Waves is trying to “circumvent the law” and that “they are running interference by choosing precisely the dates prior to the tenth anniversary of the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City, Monday, April 24.”
In a petition drive addressed to the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto and senior military officials, CitizenGo said that “abortion in Mexico is in no case considered a right. It is decriminalized in the case of rape provided the rape has been reported.”
“And in the case of Mexico City it is decriminalized, not legalized – in specific circumstances,” the organization said. “Trying to circumvent the law is a malicious fraud. Attempting to change it is interference and an attack on national sovereignty.”
Lima, Peru, Apr 25, 2017 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop José Antonio Eguren of Piura and Tumbes, Peru visited the inhabitants of one of the areas most affected by the recent floods in northern Peru, who asked him to help them get some Bibles.
According to the Archdiocese of Piura, a group of victims from the Pedregal Chico settlement in Baja Piura approached the archbishop last week and asked him for some Bibles because the ones they had were lost in the flood.
“They said that the Word of God is essential for them and for the continuity of their family catechetical programs and ongoing catechesis they have implemented in their village,” said a news brief from the archdiocese.
Archbishop Eguren promised to get the Bibles and assured the victims that “the love of God does not abandon them nor has he forgotten them.”
The archbishop, accompanied by volunteers and authorities from the charitable group Caritas, brought three tons of food supplies for the more than 300 families in this area, who were hard hit by the Piura River overflowing in recent weeks.
The river waters obliterated homes, workshops, plazas, ranches and farm fields, completely flooding the village and reaching a level of five feet.
To save their lives, the villagers had to leave everything behind and flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Much of the village has been buried under a thick layer of much. Some 80 percent of the homes have been demolished, while rice and cotton fields have been destroyed.
Today, the almost 1800 inhabitants of this village, devoted mainly to farming and handicrafts, “spend the day in makeshift and uncomfortable tents, without basic services, living together with sickness and extreme poverty,” the Archdiocese of Piura reported.
“They just ask that we don’t forget about their situation and that we help them so they can recover.”
“They are people of deep faith and despite everything they have suffered they have not lost hope or the desire to go on, since they’re sure that with the help of the love of God, their desire to work and our aid they will be able to again see their people better off than before,” the news brief concludes.
Mendoza, Argentina, Apr 21, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Holy Thursday Father Alejandro Béjar, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mendoza, narrowly escaped being killed by a train. He attributes his survival to consecrated Hosts he was transporting on his way to visit the sick.
The April 13 incident took place at a railroad crossing in San Roque as Fr. Béjar was on his way to visit several sick persons, in addition to saying three Masses in the communities under his care.
Fr. Béjar, 50, told CNA that he crossed the railroad tracks that day for lack of a signal and got trapped. He explained he did not see the rails because of some bushes, and that there was no railroad crossing barrier.
Trapped on the tracks he could hear the train’s horn, and saw the train appear, coming around a curve.
Within seconds, he tried moving his car. He was unable to, so he quickly unfastened his seat belt and ran from the car.
His Ford Escort was struck, and dragged some 80 feet by the train, which was unable to brake in time. The vehicle was destroyed but the priest could not get over his astonishment that the bag holding the consecrated Hosts on the front passenger seat was undamaged and remained in place.
“That’s strange because in the back of the car there was a bag of fine flour I was taking for the community where I was going to celebrate Mass. That bag opened up and (the flour) spread all over, but the bag (with the Hosts) didn’t even move,” he said.
Fr. Béjar said he was ashamed he did not take with him the consecrated Hosts when he abandoned the vehicle, but he thanked God for saving him from the onslaught of the train.
“I thank God because I was calm and didn’t despair. It was a sign from God that he was present at that moment and helped me have those reflexes to stay calm and not give up hope,” he said.
The priest was unable to get the first Mass on his schedule for that day.
Fr. Béjar noted that eight years ago two women died in similar circumstances, and so he hopes the authorities will clean up the area from bushes and put up appropriate railroad crossing signage.
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