Vatican

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2019 / 12:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican Secretariat of State received Monday a delegation from Venezuela affiliated with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized by the United States and a dozen other countries as the country’s interim president.

In the meeting, the Vatican’s “grave concern was underlined that a just and peaceful solution be urgently sought to overcome the crisis, respecting human rights and seeking the good of all of the inhabitants of the country and avoiding bloodshed,” Holy See Press Office Interim Director Alessandro Gisotti said Feb. 11.

The Venezuelan delegation was in Rome to meet with Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in their bid for official recognition. Francisco Sucre, the head of the Venezuelan National Assembly’s commission on foreign affairs and Antonio Ledezma, former mayor of Caracas and a former political prisoner, met with Salvini Monday, as well as an undisclosed member of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

The Holy See Press Office did not state who took part in the meeting, but confirmed that it took place.

Pope Francis has sought to maintain neutrality on Venezuela, telling reporters Jan. 28 it would be “pastoral imprudence” on his part to choose a side in the current split in Venezuela.

Both Guaido and Nicolas Maduro currently claim to be the Venezuela’s legitimate president. Maduro was inaugurated at the start of his second term Jan. 10, following a contested 2018 election. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops’ conference declared Maduro’s reelection to be invalid. Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, declared himself the nation’s interim leader Jan. 23. He has pledged a transitional government and free elections.

“The proximity of the Holy Father and of the Holy See to the people of Venezuela was reaffirmed, particularly in regard to those who are suffering,” Gisotti stated.

The meeting came after Pope Francis confirmed last week that he had received a letter from Maduro asking him to mediate in Venezuela, where both

In response, the pope said Feb. 5 that mediation would require the willingness of both parties and “little steps” diplomatically to “start the possibility of dialogue.”

Before becoming Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin served as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, where he took part in meetings between the bishops’ conference and the Venezuelan government under Hugo Chavez. Parolin was Venezuela’s nuncio from 2009 until 2013, the year that Maduro assumed the presidency.

Maduro’s leadership in Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation leading millions of Venezuelans to emigrate.

The status of Venezuela’s governance is currently split, as the United States, Canada, and more than a dozen European and South American nations no longer recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president. China and Russia are among the countries that continue to support Maduro’s leadership.

“I support in this moment all of the Venezuelan people – it is a people that is suffering – including those who are one side and the other. All of the people are suffering,” Pope Francis said Jan. 28.

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Vatican City, Feb 11, 2019 / 06:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will travel to Naples in June to discuss the impact of the apostolic constitution, Veritatis Gaudium, on theological studies.

In Naples, the pope wi… […]

Vatican City, Feb 10, 2019 / 08:15 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis on Saturday called on Italian judges to better society through their work, emphasizing the virtue of justice in building a healthy public life.

“We live in a context afflicted by tension… […]

Vatican City, Feb 10, 2019 / 04:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis called Sunday for an end to human trafficking, encouraging Catholics to pray for the intercession of St. Josephine Bakhita, the patron of trafficking victims.

“We all can and m… […]

Vatican City, Feb 9, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An environmental group is asking Pope Francis to abstain from all animal products during Lent, promising a $1 million donation to a charity of his choice if he does so.

“Today, Pope Francis, I am asking you to join me in abstaining from all animal products throughout Lent, and to endorse the Million Dollar Vegan campaign,” Genesis Butler wrote in a Feb. 6 open letter to the Roman Pontiff.

“Should you join me, the Blue Horizon International Foundation will donate $1 million to a charity or charities of your choice as a gesture of their utmost gratitude for your commitment.”

While a vegan fast is not now prescribed by the Church, the practice would hearken back to practices of the early Church, and of the Christian east.

Butler, 12, is an animal rights and environmental campaigner. Her letter is backed by Million Dollar Vegan, a non-profit group which highlights the effects of animal farming on climate.

She recalled that in Laudato si’, his 2015 encyclical on care for our common home, Francis “stated that every effort to protect and improve our world will involve changes in lifestyle, production, and consumption.”

She also expressed her appreciation for his “speaking out on climate change, habitat loss, and pollution, and for reminding the world that Earth is a home we all share.”

Butler said that “the current eating habits of predominantly richer nations are causing global destruction and devastation,” as animal farming is resource-intensive relative to calories yielded.

The activist said that “moving towards a plant-based diet will have substantial environmental benefits.” She said it would protect the environment, “help feed the world’s most vulnerable,” and “benefit human health.”

An accompanying petition asking Pope Francis to try vegan for Lent and to encourage others to do the same has garnered more than 33,000 signatures.

This year, the Lenten season begins March 6; Easter Sunday will be April 21.

Under the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Catholics aged 18-59 are to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. And Catholics 14 and older are  to abstain from meat on all Fridays; this rule allows the use of eggs, milk products, and condiments made of animal fat.

But in times past, a vegan Lent would not have been so different from Catholic practice.

According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, “during the early centuries the observance of the [Lenten] fast as very strict.”

The reference work says that in the early Church the Lenten fast allowed one meal per day, taken towards evening, and that “flesh-meat and fish, and in most places also eggs and lacticinia, were absolutely forbidden,” but that the practice “began to be considerably relaxed” in the west from the 9th century.

The 12th century Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of ecclesiastical law, includes the text of a letter which was believed by Gratian to be from St. Gregory the Great to St. Augustine of Canterbury. This letter says that during Lent “we abstain from flesh meat and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, eggs.” A critical edition of the Decretum calls the source of the quote Pseudo-Gregory, and according to Dr. Mark DelCogliano, an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, the quoted text “first appears in Gratian.”

Writing in the late 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas said that it was “common custom” that those fasting abstained from meat, eggs, and dairy products, but were allowed fish.

It is said that the practice of calling “Fat Tuesday” the day preceding Ash Wednesday derived from a period when the use of animal products was barred during Lent. “Fat” Tuesday was thus the last day to use up the meat, cheese, and animal fat stored in the home.

And while not precisely vegan, the traditional Byzantine fast barred the use of meat, dairy, eggs, and fish. Animal-based foods that were permitted included honey and invertebrates.

In the Byzantine rite, Lent is preceded by a pre-Lenten period known as Fore-Lent. The last two Sundays of this preparatory period are known as Meatfare Sunday and Cheesefare Sunday.

Under traditional fasting rules, Meatfare Sunday was the last day before Easter to consume meat, and Cheesefare was the last day to use dairy products. The Lenten fast then began on the Monday after Cheesefare.

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Denver, Colo., Feb 8, 2019 / 05:43 pm (CNA).- A long-awaited summit on sexual abuse will take place at the Vatican two weeks from now.

The meeting was announced in September, in the months after allegations of sexual abuse and coercion on the part of … […]

Vatican City, Feb 8, 2019 / 11:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In mid-nineteenth century Algeria, a French bishop sought to share the Gospel among the local Africans living in his diocese by forming a community that adopted the traditional dress in Algiers — a white cassock with a red fez.

One hundred and fifty years later, the Missionaries of Africa, commonly called the “White Fathers” for their distinctive attire, have grown to have more than 1,500 vocations in 22 African countries — 95 percent of which come from Africa.

Pope Francis welcomed members of the Missionaries of Africa and Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa to the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace Friday, and encouraged them to continue their mission on their 150th anniversary of their community’s founding.

“It is always for Him, with Him and in Him that the mission is lived. Therefore, I encourage you to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, so as never to forget that the true missionary is above all a disciple,” Pope Francis told the missionaries Feb. 8.

Founded by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie of Algiers in 1868, the White Fathers went on to evangelize in sub-Saharan Africa. Their priests notably brought Catholicism to Uganda, catechizing and baptizing St. Charles Lwanga and his 22 companion martyrs in the 1880s.

Today the White Fathers work to provide clean for orphanages in Tanzania, education for women in Burkina Faso, mental trauma aid for refugees in Burundi, and healing for victims of human trafficking in Kenya. They continue to be known for their dialogue with Muslim communities in Africa.

Pope Francis thanked the White Fathers and Sisters “in particular for the work you have already done in favor of dialogue with Islam, with our Muslim sisters and brothers.”

“May the Spirit make you builders of bridges among men. Where the Lord has sent you, may you help to grow a culture of encounter, be at the service of a dialogue that, while respecting differences, can draw wealth from the diversity of others,” he said.

The pope commented on the community founder’s zeal for abolishing slavery.

Called the “the apostle of the slaves of all Africa,” Cardinal Lavigerie was an outspoken opponent of the European slave trade in the 19th century. He traveled around Europe campaigning against the practice of slavery in Africa and elsewhere.

Today the White Fathers continue to fight slavery in the form of human trafficking with the establishment of the “Human Trafficking Rescue Center” in Ngong, Kenya.

“In the wake of Cardinal Lavigerie, you are called to sow hope, fighting against all today’s forms of slavery; making you close of the little ones and the poor, of those who wait, in the peripheries of our society, to be recognized in their dignity, to be welcomed, protected, raised, accompanied, promoted and integrated,” Pope Francis said.

“With this hope, I entrust you to the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Africa,” he added.

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Vatican City, Feb 6, 2019 / 11:34 am (CNA).- The Vatican clarified Wednesday Pope Francis’ comments on the sexual abuse of women religious made during his in-flight press conference returning from Abu Dhabi Feb. 5.

“When the Holy Father, referring to the dissolution of a Congregation, spoke of ‘sexual slavery,’ he meant ‘manipulation,’ a form of abuse of power that is also reflected in sexual abuse,” Holy See Press Office Interim Director Alessandro Gisotti said Feb. 6.

The clarification refers to a specific sentence in the pope’s response to a question regarding the sexual abuse of women religious by clerics.

Francis said Tuesday that, “Pope Benedict had the courage to dissolve a women’s congregation that had a certain level because this slavery of women had entered, even sexual slavery, by clerics or by the founder.”

The Holy See Press Office clarified that sexual manipulation had occurred within this women’s religious congregation, not actual sex slavery.

Gisotti later told CBS News that Pope Francis’ remarks referred to the Contemplative Sisters of Saint-Jean in France suppressed by Benedict XVI in 2013.

Sexual abuse of women religious by priests has been a recent subject in the women’s section of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

Recent reports have also suggested incidences of the abuse of women religious by clerics in Africa and Asia.

In India, a police investigation is ongoing into a case of an alleged abuse of a nun of the Missionaries of Jesus by a bishop. The religious sister has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jullunder of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

The sister had said that she filed a complaint against Bishop Mulakkal in March 2018 with Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, and that he failed to report it to the police.

Mulakkal was removed from his responsibilities as Bishop of Jullundur, arrested Sept. 21, 2018, and then released on bail.

The pope said Feb. 5 he believes the problem is more common in some cultures than others but acknowledged that “there have been priests and also bishops who have done that. And I believe it may still be being done.”

The Church has “been working on this for a long time,” including through the suspension of clerics and the dissolution of some congregations involved in “corruption.”

“It’s a problem. The mistreatment of women is a problem,” the pope said. Asking for prayers, he added that he wants to go forward. “There are cases, yes,” he said, adding: “We are working.”

The issue was broached as the Vatican approaches a four-day meeting of the heads of bishops’ conferences and religious orders to discuss the sexual abuse of minors. The summit will be held Feb. 21-24.

In his response the pope also denounced the treatment of women as “second-class” and said it is often a cultural problem which in some countries can escalate even to the point of female babies being the targets of infanticide.

“I would dare to say that humanity still hasn’t matured” regarding the full equality of women, he said.

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Vatican City, Feb 6, 2019 / 05:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope St. Paul VI’s feast day will be celebrated annually on May 29 as an optional memorial.

“Before and after becoming Pope, Saint Paul VI lived wi… […]

Vatican City, Feb 6, 2019 / 03:23 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that his recent trip to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates was a step forward in Catholic-Muslim dialogue and promoting peace among religions.

Though a brief visit, … […]