Vatican

Vatican City, Feb 2, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA).- Pope Francis is set to celebrate the first papal Mass on the Arabian peninsula next week during his Feb. 3-5 visit to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.

The pope’s Mass at the Zayed sports stadium on Feb. 5 is expected to draw at least 135,000 people. Many in attendance will be migrant workers from Asia residing in the UAE, a country in which 89 percent of the population are not citizens. It will not only be the first papal Mass on the peninsula, but the first public Mass in the country.

Since the Second Vatican Council there have been significant milestones in Muslim-Catholic relations in the region. Here is a look at some of the highlights:

First pope on a plane

The first time a pope ever traveled on a plane was on a trip to the Middle East. Saint Paul VI flew from Italy to Jordan in January 1964, making history as the first pope to leave Europe. Paul VI met with King Hussein in Amman before continuing his journey to Jerusalem.

The following year, Paul VI issued Nostra aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, which stated that “the Church looks upon Muslims with respect” as worshipers of the one God.

First pope in a mosque

Saint John Paul II made history as the first pope to enter a mosque during his visit to Syria in May 2001. John Paul II went to Damascus’ Umayyad Mosque, which had been built in 715 on top of a fourth-century Christian cathedral said to contain the head of John the Baptist.

In March 2003, days before US President George W. Bush announced the official start of the Iraq war, St. John Paul II called for a worldwide fast for peace in the Middle East.

The Polish pontiff, known for his extensive papal travels during his 27-year pontificate, was also the first pope to visit several Middle Eastern nations, including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

First synod for the Middle East

Benedict XVI called for the first special Synod of Bishops focused on the Middle East over two weeks in October 2010. His post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, focused on the role of Christians living in the Middle East, predicting before the Arab Spring that many Christians would face a decision to emigrate due to the changing political situation in their countries or to remain as a witness to the faith.

Benedict XVI also added Arabic as one of the official languages in his weekly General Audience addresses in St. Peter’s Square. His final papal trip was to Lebanon in 2012, the first papal trip to the region following the outbreak of the Arab Spring.

First papal Mass in Arabia

Pope Francis’ trip to the United Arab Emirates Feb. 3-5 will be the first papal trip to the Arabian peninsula. The focus of the pope’s two-day visit will be interreligious dialogue, particularly with Islam. However, the papal Mass will also make history as the first public outdoor Mass on the peninsula, where each country has restrictions on the freedom of worship.

Pope Francis said that he hopes his trip to Abu Dhabi will be “a new page in the history of the relations between the religions” in the region. During the journey Francis will meet the Great Imam of al-Azhar for the fifth time and will also visit the great mosque of Abu Dhabi.

The UAE trip continues Pope Francis’ emphasis on a culture of encounter and interreligious dialogue. Pope Francis previously visited Egypt in 2017 and plans also to visit Morocco March 30-31.

History still to be made

The Middle Eastern countries of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain have yet to receive a papal visit.

On the way to World Youth Day in January, Pope Francis expressed his desire to visit Iraq, but noted that the local bishops have made it clear the country is not yet secure enough for a papal visit.

In Bahrain, construction is underway for the biggest Catholic cathedral in the region, due to be completed in January 2021. The mother church of the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Arabia will be the first consecrated under the title Our Lady of Arabia.

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Vatican City, Jan 31, 2019 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis expressed gratitude for his upcoming trip to the United Arab Emirates, noting it is an opportunity to promote greater peace between Muslims and Catholics.  

“I am happy for this opportunity offered to me by the Lord to write, on your dear land, a new page in the history of the relations between the religions, confirming that we are brothers even though we are different,” the pope said in a Jan. 31 video message to the people of the UAE.

“With joy I prepare to meet and to greet ‘eyal Zayid fi dar Zayid/ the sons of Zayid in the home of Zayid,’ a land of prosperity and peace, a land of sun and harmony, a land of coexistence and encounter!”

Francis will visit Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, Feb. 3-5. There, Pope Francis will hold an interreligious meeting and a private meeting with the Muslim Council of Elders. He will make a private visit to the cathedral, and say Mass at a stadium.

The trip’s theme is “Make me an instrument of your peace,” a 20th century prayer which is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. The trip will focus on “how all people of goodwill can work for peace,” according to the Holy See press office.

The trip is widely seen as a part of the Pope’s emphasis on a culture of encounter and interreligious dialogue. Pope Francis visited Egypt in 2017 and plans to visit Morocco March 30-31.

In the video, the Pope said the UAE is a land aiming for “coexistence, human fraternity and encounter between diverse civilizations and cultures.”

He thanked Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, for his invitation. The pope also thanked Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, for his assistance in the meeting’s preparations.

“I thank… those who have collaborated in the preparation of the meeting, for theircourage and will to affirm that faith in God unites rather than divides, that it brings us closer even in difference, distancing us from banishing hostility and aversion.”

Pope Francis quoted the words of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the UAE: “True wealth does not reside solely in material resources; the true wealth of the nation resides in the people who build the future of their nation … Men are the true wealth.”

The trip was announced in December. Then-papal spokesman Greg Burke said the visit is a testimony to the Pope’s desire for peace among religions.   

“This visit, like the one to Egypt, shows the fundamental importance the Holy Father gives to inter-religious dialogue. Pope Francis visiting the Arab world is a perfect example of the culture of encounter,” Burke said Dec. 6.

According to Al Arabiya, the crown prince said the country looks “forward to the pope’s historic visit aimed to maximize opportunities for dialogue and coexistence among nations.”

The official religion of the UAE is Islam, with a Sunni Muslim majority. About 12.6 percent of the total population is Christian, according to the Pew Research Center.

The UAE is unique in that many of its residents hail from other countries. An estimated 89 percent of the population of the UAE are not citizens of the country.

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Vatican City, Jan 29, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- In a recent interview, Cardinal Kevin Farrell offered his view of criticisms of the apostolic exhortation on love in the family, Amoris laetitia.

“There is nothing in ‘Amoris Laetitia’ that is contrary to the Gospel. What does Francis do? He goes to the gospel. Look at every chapter, its straight out of one of the gospels or the letters of St Paul,” Farrell asserted in an interview with Christopher Lamb of The Tablet, a weekly British magazine, published Jan. 23.

Excerpts of the interview were published Jan. 25.

Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, also touched on his association with Archbishop Theodore McCarrick while the two were in the Archdiocese of Washington; opposition to Pope Francis; and the sexual abuse crisis.

Lamb wrote that Farrell’s tasks as prefect include “the implementation of Amoris Laetitia.”

“From what I see from information that is coming to us from the conferences of bishops and lay groups involved in marriage and family life in different parts of the world, [Amoris laetitia] is very well received, overwhelmingly well received,” Farrell stated.

He did acknowledge that “there are some elements in the United States, on the continent of Africa, and some here in Europe – but not very strong” who have not received Amoris laetitia warmly.

“Cardinal Farrell said the teaching is clear: the Pope is opening a way for divorced and remarried Catholics to return to communion following a process of discernment and on a case-by-case basis,” Lamb wrote.

According to Farrell “It’s not just a question of going up to a priest and saying ‘can I receive communion?’ It is a process, a process that could take one year could take two years, could take three years. It depends on the people. Fundamentally, this is about encountering people where they are.”

Farrell told Lamb that those opposed to admitting the divorced-and-remarried to Communion say those people are “outside the Church for ever.”

“There’s no redemption whatsoever? None? You mean to tell me that Christ and Christ’s redemption didn’t work for those people? No.”

The cardinal called opposition to the pope’s policy “an ideological conflict … deep down.”

He discussed “theological courses” offered at the World Meeting of Families, which is organized by his dicastery.

He contrasted a “practical” viewpoint with those of theology and canon law.

“We wanted to ensure that ‘Amoris Laetitia’ was dealt with from a practical point of view, not from a theological-canonical point of view,” Farrell stated. “And, therefore, I didn’t include any courses on Canon Law. None.”

The cardinal characterized opposition to Pope Francis as “unprecedented” and “vicious”, and claimed that the pope “has put the Church on an evangelical road” based on the Gospel.

He also said that “it’s so important that lay people take responsibility for the Church, and for the future of the Church.”

Discussing the sexual abuse crisis, he focused on the meeting being held at the Vatican next month among presidents of bishops’ conferences, saying, “My hope is that there would be a clear vision of where we are going in the future,” while managing expectations for the summit: “expectations for the meeting are being created that can’t humanly be met”.

“Instead of passing the problem to Rome, I think bishops need to take responsibility for the situation in their own nation,” he added.

Farrell also faced questions about his time living with now-disgraced Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

“I lived in the episcopal residence, where there were six other priests, two bishops. Did I ever know? No. Did I ever suspect? No. Did he ever abuse any seminarian in Washington? No. I never went anywhere with him. I was the Vicar-General, I was the one stuck in the offices all the time, dealing with all the problems. The archbishop of the diocese is out and about. He’s in Rome, he’s in Latin America, all over the world.”

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Aboard the papal plane, Jan 28, 2019 / 07:48 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Monday that he sensed “inflated expectation” surrounding the Vatican’s February sex abuse summit, and outlined his specific aims for the meeting.

Speaking on the papal flight returning from Panama, the pope said he wanted the world’s bishops to receive a “catechesis” on the suffering of abuse survivors, and understand better the urgent reality of combating sexual abuse. This understanding, he said, would lead into a penitential liturgy during the February meeting.

“There will be testimonies to help to become aware and then a penitential liturgy to ask forgiveness for the whole Church,” Pope Francis told journalists Jan 28.
The pope emphasized the importance of bishops meeting with victims of sex abuse to hear their testimonies directly to understand the lasting effects of sexual abuse.

Pope Francis said that he regularly meets with abuse victims. “I remember one … 40 years without being able to pray. It is terrible, the suffering is terrible,” he said.

Francis also said he sensed many were expecting too much from the three-day meeting being held Feb. 21-24, and that he had a particular vision for what would be achieved: understanding the experience of victims, prayer, and the establishment of “protocols” for handling abuse cases world-wide.

“I permit myself to say that I’ve perceived a bit of an inflated expectation. We need to deflate the expectations to these points that I’m saying,” he said. “Because the problem of abuses will continue. It’s a human problem.”

“We, resolving the problem in the Church, [and] raising awareness, will help to resolve it in society … but first, we must become aware, have the protocols, and move forward,” he said.

Pope Francis said the Vatican invited all of the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences and the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches to attend the February summit because his council of cardinal advisors “felt the responsibility to give a ‘catechesis’… on this problem to the episcopal conferences.”

Victims of clergy sexual abuse and leaders of men’s and women’s religious orders will also be present at the bishops’ summit, which the Vatican has previously clarified will be “an assembly of pastors, not an academic conference.”

On the papal flight, Pope Francis expressed his desire that the heads all of the episcopal conferences leave Rome next month with a common understanding of the “protocols” needed to address sexual abuse in their respective countries.

The pope said that each episcopal conference would make “general programs”  detailing the responsibilities of each local Church authority for handling sex abuse cases, but that these must address a common set of responsibilities.

“That they are protocols that are clear. This is the main thing,” he said.

In his interview on the papal flight, Pope Francis also touched on the formation and sex education of young people with regards to Church teaching.

“We need to give an objective sexual education, that is without ideological colonization,” he said. “If you start by giving sexual education full of ideological colonization, you destroy the person.”

The pope warned that it is important which teachers or textbooks are chosen for this task in schools. “There are things that mature and things that do harm,” he said.

“Sex as a gift from God must be taught,” Pope Francis said. “The ideal is to start from home, with the parents.”

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