Vatican

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2018 / 11:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead the presentation of the Biagio Agnes International Journalism Award, Pope Francis advised journalists to consider of all walks of life in their work, pursue truth, and always introduce hope.

Often, he said, “the nerve centres of news production are found in large centres,” but stories worth telling exist beyond these hubs of human activity. Many of these quiet existences are proof of great “suffering and degradation.”

Francis, however, suggested that these stories also offer perspective: “other times they are stories of great solidarity that can help everyone to look at reality in a renewed way,” he said.

The pope spoke to a delegation of the award June 4 at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall. The award will be presented in Sorrento June 22-24.

The award is named for Biagio Agnes, a well-known Italian journalist who was director of Italy’s state broadcaster, RAI, and who died in 2011.

“By taking to heart his teaching, you all commit yourselves, first of all personally, to a communication able to place the truth before personal or corporate interests,” Francis told the journalists.

“Being a journalist relates to the formation of people, their vision of the world and their attitudes when faced with events,” he reflected.

Practicing self-discipline, the pope said, is also key “so as not to fall into the trap of logics of opposing interests or ideologies.” Journalists should not be afraid to reveal even the most difficult of truths.

“Today, in a world where everything is fast, it is increasingly urgent to appeal to the troubled and arduous law of in-depth research, comparison and, if necessary, also of remaining silent rather than harming a person or a group of people or delegitimizing an event,” he said.

While acknowledging its difficulty, “the story of a life is understood at its end, and this should help us to become courageous and prophetic,” he added.

Finally, Francis encouraged the journalists to incorporate light and hope into their work. While they shouldn’t aim to communicate news in an unrealistically positive way, he said, they should certainly be “denouncing situations of degradation and despair.”

“It is a matter of opening spaces of hope,” he said.

The pope also called for adaptation to quickly evolving technology.

“It is increasingly necessary if we wish to continue to be educators of the new generations,” Francis said.

[…]

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2018 / 08:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With the death count of a massive volcanic eruption in Guatemala already at 65, Pope Francis has offered his prayers for the victims, their families and the thousands who have lost their homes due to the calamity.

In a June 5 telegram, the pope said he was “deeply distressed in hearing the sad news of the violent eruption” of Guatemala’s Volcano de Fuego, meaning “Volcano of Fire,” which so far “has caused numerous victims and enormous material damage which has affected a significant number of the area’s inhabitants.”

Signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and addressed to Guatemala’s apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Nicolas Henry Marie Denis Thevenin, the telegram conveyed Pope Francis’ prayers for the deceased and for all those “who are suffering the consequences of this natural disaster.”

The pope assured of his spiritual closeness and support to the families “who weep for the loss of their loved ones,” to wounded and to those who are working in relief efforts, asking that God would grant them “the gifts of solidarity, spiritual serenity and Christian hope.”

Francis’ telegram came after the June 3 eruption of Volcano de Fuego, one of the Guatemala’s most active volcano’s, resulting in a death toll of at least 65 people so far, with many still unaccounted for.

During the eruption, a heavy pyroclastic flow – an especially deadly combo of hot toxic gases and volcanic matter – poured out of the volcano and an engulfed several villages below, burying houses and covering surrounding areas with a thick blanket of ash.

According to CONRED, Guatemala’s national disaster agency, so far some 3,265 people have been evacuated and at least 46 others injured due to the volcanic eruption. The nation’s airport was also reportedly shut down due to the hot ash still hanging in the air.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has declared three days of national mourning over the tragedy, and, according to ABC News, has also called in his ministers to discuss declaring a state of emergency in several affected areas.

The eruption of Volcan de Fuego is Guatemala’s largest volcanic eruption since the 1902 eruption of the Santa Maria volcano, which killed thousands.

In a June 4 statement, Bishop Víctor Hugo Palma Paúl of Escuintla, one of the hardest hit areas, assured the people of his diocese of the Church’s “closeness and solidarity, illuminated by faith in the God of Jesus Christ, God of life and not of death, of peace, and not destruction.”

The bishop asked both local and national Guatemalan authorities to continue offering relief services with “promptness and civic commitment.”

In Escuintla, the villages of Los Lotes and El Rodeo – known for the rich agricultural diversity they provide to the nation – have practically been buried, leaving inhabitants largely cut off from aid and from their livelihood.

In his statement, Hugo said three make-shift welcome centers have been set up in parishes in his diocese for those who have lost their homes.

He thanked those working to support victims, and voiced confidence in God’s providence toward “the victims of this tragedy,” and entrusted “the life and spiritual and material well-being” of Guatemalans to the care of Mary, Mother of the Church.

[…]

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2018 / 07:53 am (CNA).- In a letter to Catholics in Chile on May 31, Pope Francis said he is ashamed of the Church’s failure to listen to victims, and urged all the baptized to make a commitment to ending the culture of abuse and cover-up.

Please find below CNA’s translation of the full text of Pope Francis’ May 31 letter:

To the Pilgrim People of God in Chile
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
 
This past April 8, I called my brother bishops to Rome to seek together in the short, medium and long term the ways of truth and life in face of an open, painful and complex wound which for a long time has not stopped bleeding.[1] And I suggested that they invite the entire faithful Holy People of God to place themselves in a state of prayer so the Holy Spirit might give us the strength to not fall into the temptation of getting wound up in empty word games,  in sophisticated diagnostics, or in vain gestures which would not allow us the necessary courage to look directly at the pain caused, the face of its victims, the magnitude of the events. I invited them to look to where the Holy Spirit is moving us, since “closing our eyes to our neighbor also blinds us to God.”[2]
 
With joy and hope I received the news that there were many communities, towns, and chapels where the People of God were praying, especially the days we were gathered together with the bishops: the People of God on their knees who implore the gift of the Holy Spirit to find the light in the Church, “wounded by her sin, granted mercy by her Lord, and so that every day she may become prophetic in her vocation.”[3] We know that prayer is never in vain and that “in the midst of darkness something new always buds forth, that sooner or later bears fruit.”[4] 
 
1. To appeal to you, to ask for your prayers was not a practical recourse nor was it a simple goodwill gesture. On the contrary, I wanted to frame things in their precise and valuable place and put the issue where it ought to be: the condition of the People of God “the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in His temple.”[5] The faithful Holy People of God are anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit; therefore when we reflect, think, evaluate, discern, we must be very attentive to this anointing. Whenever as a Church, as pastors, as consecrated persons, we have forgotten this certainty, we have lost our way. Whenever we try to supplant, silence, look down on, ignore or reduce into small elites the People of God in their totality and differences, we construct communities, pastoral plans, theological accentuations, spiritualities, structures without roots, without history, without faces, without memory, without a body, in the end, without lives. To remove ourselves from the life of the People of God hastens us to the desolation and to a perversion of ecclesial nature; the fight against a culture of abuse requires renewing this certainty.
 
As I said to the young people in Maipú, I want to specially tell each one of you: “Holy Mother the Church today needs the faithful People of God to challenge us […] you need to take out your adult ID card, as spiritual adults, and have the courage to tell us ‘I like this,’  ‘this is the way I think we should go,’ ‘that’s not going to work,’ …Tell us what you feel and think.”[6] This is capable of involving all of us in a Church with a synodal character which knows how to put Jesus in the center.
 
The People of God does not have first, second or third-class Christians. Their participation is not a question of goodwill, concessions, rather it is constitutive of the nature of the Church. It is impossible to imagine a future without this anointing operating in each one of you, which certainly demands and requires new forms of participation. I urge all Christians to not be afraid to be the protagonists of the transformation that is demanded today and to propel and promote creative alternatives in the daily search for Church that every day wants to put what is important in the center.  I invite all the diocesan organizations from whatever area they may be to consciously and lucidly seek areas of communion and participation so that the Anointing of the People of God may find its concrete mediations to express itself.
 
The renewal of the Church hierarchy by itself does not create the transformation to which the Holy Spirit moves us. We are required to together promote a transformation of the Church that involves us all.
 
A prophetic Church and, therefore, full of hope, demands of everyone an eyes-wide-open mysticism, that questions, that is not asleep.[7] Do not let yourselves be robbed of the anointing of the Spirit.
 
2. “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:8) This is how Jesus responded to Nicodemus in the conversation they were having on the possibility of being born again in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
At this time in the light of this passage it is good for us to look back at our personal and communal history: The Holy Spirit blows where and how he wills with the sole purpose of helping us to be born again. Far from letting us get boxed up in schemes, modalities, fixed or obsolete structures, far from letting yourself be resigned or “letting down your guard” in the face of events, the Spirit is continually in movement to widen your horizons, to make the person who has lost hope[8] to dream, to do justice in truth and charity, to purify from sin and corruption, and always invited to necessary conversion. Without looking at this with faith, everything we could say or do would be useless. This certainty is essential to look at the present without evasions but with bravery, with courage, but wisely, with tenacity but without violence, with passion but without fanaticism, with constancy but without anxiety, and thus change all that which today puts at risk the integrity and dignity of every person; since the solutions that are needed demand facing the problems without getting trapped in them or, what would be worse, repeating the same mechanisms that we want to eliminate.[9] Today we are challenged to look straight ahead, assume and suffer the conflict, and thus be able to resolve and transform it in a new direction.[10]
 
3. In the first place, it would be unfair to attribute this process just to the recently experienced events. Every process of review and purification that we are experiencing is possible thanks to the effort and perseverance of specific individuals, who even against all hope or stains of discredit, did not tire of seeking the truth; I am referring to the victims of abuses of sexuality, power and authority and to those who at the time believed and accompanied them. Victims whose cry reached the heavens.[11] I would like once more to publicly thank all of them for their courage and perseverance.
 
This recent time is a time of listening and discernment to arrive at the roots that allowed such atrocities to occur and be perpetuated and thus find solutions to the abuse scandal, not merely with containment strategies—essential but insufficient—but with the measures necessary to take on the problem in its complexity.
 
In this regard I would like to pause on the word “listening,” since discerning supposes learning how to listen to what the Spirit wants to tell us. And we will only be able to do it if we are capable of listening to the reality of what is going on.[12]
 
I believe that here resides one of our main faults and omissions: not knowing how to listen to the victims. Thus partial conclusions were drawn which lacked crucial elements for a healthy and clear discernment. With shame I must say that we did not know how to listen and react in time.
 
The visit of Archbishop Scicluna and Monsignor Bertomeu was born when we saw that there were situations that we did not know how to see and hear. As a Church we could not continue to walk ignoring the pain of our brothers. After reading the report, I wanted to personally meet with some of the victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience, to listen to them and to ask forgiveness for our sins and omissions.
 
4. In these meetings, I noted how the lack of recognition/listening to their stories, as well as the recognition/acceptance of the errors and omissions in the entire process impedes us from making headway. A recognition that ought to be more than an expression of goodwill toward the victims, rather that ought to be a new way to for us to adopt a new attitude before life, before others and before God. Hope for tomorrow and confidence arises from and grows in taking on the fragility, the limitations and even the sins in order to help us go forward. [13]
 
The “never again” to the culture of abuse and the system of cover up that allows it to be perpetuated demands working among everyone in order to generate a culture of care which permeates our ways of relating, praying, thinking, of living authority; our customs and languages and our relationship with power and money. We know today that the best thing we can say in face of the pain caused is a commitment to personal, communal, and social conversion that learns to listen to and care for especially the most vulnerable. It is therefore urgent to create spaces where the culture of abuse and cover up is not the dominant scheme, where a critical and questioning attitude is not confused with betrayal. We have to promote this as a Church and to seek with humility all the actors that make up the social reality and promote ways of dialogue and constructive confrontation to move toward a culture of care and protection.
 
To attempt this enterprise by ourselves alone, or with our efforts and tools, would shut us up in dangerous voluntaristic dynamics that would perish in the short term.[14] Let us allow ourselves to be helped and to help create a society where the culture of abuse does not find the space to perpetuate itself. I exhort all Christians and especially those responsible for centers of higher education, formal or informal, healthcare centers, institutes of formation and universities, to join together with the dioceses and with all of civil society to lucidly and strategically promote a culture of care and protection. Let each of these spaces promote a new mentality.
 
5. The culture of abuse and cover up is incompatible with the logic of the Gospel, since the salvation offered by Christ is always an offer, a gift that demands and requires freedom. Washing the feet of the disciples is how Christ shows us the face of God. It is never by way of coercion or obligation but by way of service. Let us say it clearly, every means that attacks freedom and a person’s integrity is anti-Gospel. Therefore it is also necessary to create processes of faith where we learn to know when it is necessary to doubt and when not to. “Doctrine, or better our understanding and expression of it ‘is not a closed system, deprived of dynamics capable of bringing up questions, doubts, questionings,’ since the questions of our people, their anxieties, their fights, their dreams, their struggles, possess an hermeneutical value that we cannot ignore if we want to take seriously the principle of incarnation.[15] I invite all centers of religious formation, theology schools, institutes of higher learning, seminaries, houses of formation and spirituality to promote a theological reflection that is capable of rising to the challenge of the present time, to promote a mature, adult faith that assumes the vital humus of the People of God with their searching and questioning. And thus, to then promote communities capable of fighting against abusive situations, communities where exchanges, debate and confrontation are welcome.[16] We will be fruitful to the extent that we empower and open communities from within and thus free ourselves from closed and self-referential thoughts full of promises and mirages which promise life but which ultimately favor the culture of abuse.
 
I would like to make a brief reference to the pastoral ministry of popular devotion carried out in many of your communities since it is an invaluable treasure and authentic school of the heart for our people and in the same act the heart of God. In my experience as a pastor I learned to discover that pastoral ministry of popular devotion is one of the few places where the People of God is sovereign from the influence of that clericalism that seeks to always control and stop the anointing of God on his people. Learning from popular piety is to learn to enter into a new kind of relationship of listening and spirituality that demand a lot of respect and does not lend itself to quick and simplistic readings since popular piety “reflects a thirst for God that only the poor and simple can know.” [17]
 
To be “the Church that goes out” also is to allow itself to be helped and to be challenged. Let us not forget that “the wind blows where it wills: you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:8)
 
6. As I told you, during the meetings with the victims I was able to see that the lack of recognition prevents us from getting anywhere. That is why I think it is necessary to share with you that I rejoiced and it gave me hope to confirm in conversation with them their recognition of people that I like to call “the saints next door.”[18] We would be unfair if alongside our pain and our shame for those structures of abuse and cover up that have been so much perpetuated and have done so much evil, we would not recognize the many faithful lay people, consecrated men and women, priests and bishops who give life through love in the most obscure areas of the beloved land of Chile. All of them are Christians who know how to weep with those who weep, who hunger and thirst for justice, who look and act with mercy;[19] Christians who try every day to illumine their lives in the light of the standards by which we will be judged: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (Mt 25:34-36)
 
I recognize and am thankful for their courage and constant example – in turbulent, shameful and painful moments they continue to make a stand with joy for the Gospel. That witness does me a lot of good and sustains me in my own desire to overcome selfishness to give more fully of myself.[20] Far from diminishing the importance and seriousness of the evil caused and seeking the root of the problem, it also commits us to recognize the acting and operating power of the Holy Spirit in so many lives.   Without looking at this, we would remain half-way there and we could enter into a logic that far from seeking to empower what is good and remedy what is wrong, it would partialize the reality, falling into grave injustice.
 
Accepting the successes, as well as the personal and communal limitations, far from being just one more news item, becomes the initial kickoff of every authentic process of conversion and transformation. Let us never forget that Jesus Christ risen presents himself to his own with his wounds. Moreover, it is precisely from his wounds that Thomas can confess his faith. We are invited to not dissimulate, hide, or cover over our wounds.
 
A wounded Church is able to understand and be moved by the wounds of today’s world, make them its own, suffer them, accompany them and move to heal them. A wounded Church does not put itself at the center, does not think it is perfect, does not seek to cover up and dissimulate its evil, but places there the only one who can heal the wounds and he has a name: Jesus Christ.[21]
 
This certainty is that which will move us to seek in season and out of season, the commitment to create a culture where each person has the right to breathe an air free of every kind of abuse. A culture free of the cover ups which end up vitiating all our relationships. A culture which in the face of sin creates a dynamic of repentance, mercy and forgiveness, and in face of crime, accusation, judgment and sanction.
 
7. Dear brothers, I began this letter telling you that appealing to you is not a practical recourse or a gesture of goodwill, on the contrary it is to invoke the anointing which as the People of God you possess. With you the necessary steps for ecclesial renewal and conversion will be able to be taken, that will be sound and long term. With you the necessary transformation can be generated that is so needed. Without you nothing can be done. I exhort all the faithful Holy People of God who live in Chile to not be afraid to get involved and go forward moved by the Holy Spirit in search of a Church which is increasingly more synodal, prophetic and hopeful; less abusive because it knows how to place Jesus at the center, in the hungry, the prisoner, the migrant, and the abused.
 
I ask you to not cease praying for me. I pray for you and I ask Jesus to bless you and the Virgin to care for you.
 
                                                                                                                           Francis
 
Vatican May 31, 2018, Feast of the Visitation of Our Lady.

[1]Cf. Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops of Chile following the report of His Excellency Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, April 8, 2018
[2]BENEDICT XVI Deus Caritas Est, 16.
[3]Cf. Meeting of the Holy Father Francis with priests, men and women religious, consecrated men and women, seminarians, Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, January 16, 2018.
[4] Cf. FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, 278
[5]Cf. VATICAN COUNCIL II, Lumen Gentium, 9.
[6]Cf. Meeting of the Holy Father Francis with young people at National Shrine of Maipú, January 28, 2017
[7]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudate et Exsultate, 96
[8]Cf. FRANCIS, Homily at Solemnity of Pentecost Mass 2018
[9]It is good to recognize some of the organizations and media that have taken up the issue of abuse in a responsible way, always seeking the truth and not making out of this painful reality a means to boost program ratings.
[10]Cf. FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, 227
[11]“The Lord said ‘I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering’.” Ex 3:7
[12]Let us remember that this was the first word-commandment that the people of Israel received from Yahweh: “Listen Israel” (Dt 6:4)
[13]Cf. Visit of the Holy Father Francis to the Women’s Correctional Center, Santiago de Chile, January 16, 2018
[14]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate, 47-59
[15]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate, 44
[16]It is essential to carry out the much needed in the centers of formation promoted by the recent Apostolic Constitution Veritates Gaudium. By way of example, I emphasize that “in fact, are called to offer opportunities and processes for the suitable formation of priests, consecrated men and women, and committed lay people. At the same time, they are called to be a sort of providential cultural laboratory in which the Church carries out the performative interpretation of the reality brought about by the Christ event and nourished by the gifts of wisdom and knowledge by which the Holy Spirit enriches the People of God in manifold ways – from the sensus fidei fidelium to the magisterium of the bishops, and from the charism of the prophets to that of the doctors and theologians. FRANCIS, Veritates Gaudium, 3
[17]PAUL Vl, Evangelii Nuntiandi,48.
[18]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate,6-9.
[19]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate,76, 79, 82.
[20]Cf. FRANCIS Evangelii Gaudium,76
[21]Cf. Meeting of the Holy Father Francis with priests, men and women religious, consecrated men and women, seminarians, Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, January 16, 2018.

[…]

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2018 / 03:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an address Monday to a delegation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pope Francis encouraged ongoing ecumenism between Catholics and Lutherans.

Referencing efforts such as “various joint prayers” and “many ecumenical meetings,” Francis observed an increased inclination toward Christian cooperation during the past year. He also emphasized its importance.

“It is increasingly becoming a necessity and a desire,” he said.

The pope expressed gratitude for the communal Catholic-Lutheran commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Francis spoke positively of the commemoration’s outcomes, which he said created productive conversation around points of division and differences between the communities. He called for a thorough and honest continuation of these topics.

“Let us support one another in the journey, also by carrying forward theological dialogue,” he said. “No ecumenical dialogue can advance if we remain still.”

Several topics he thought warranted thoughtful, joint deliberation were “the Church, the Eucharist and the ecclesial ministry.”

Ecumenism must “start from prayer,” he said, so that collaboration centers on the purpose to which the Spirit calls us, rather than human intentions and agendas.

“The Spirit of love cannot but drive us on the paths of charity,” Francis said.

Beginning with prayer and guidance from God, he said, “the steps to be taken” in order to continue this peaceful and fruitful conversation will be revealed to us.

The pope also highlighted outreach to the persecuted and the needy as a function of ecumenism.

Those suffering because of their faith need the support of all Christians, he said. Collaborative endeavors among Christian communities is necessary to provide complete support for them.

Evidence of suffering, Francis said, is a “pressing invitation to reach an ever more concrete and visible unity among us.” He called this concept “the ecumenism of blood.”

Including all of humanity in outreach is also key in these church-uniting activities, he said. There should be no exclusion of any one person in the mission to love Christ and live for him. All are called “to involve as many brothers and sisters as possible in the faith, growing as a community of disciples who pray, love and proclaim.”

[…]

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2018 / 02:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Luis Fernando Figari, a layman accused of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, has launched a second appeal against a 2017 Vatican decision prohibiting him from living with the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, the society of apostolic life he founded.

A May 25 letter from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life said that the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which functions as the Holy See’s supreme court, rejected Figari’s initial appeal Jan. 31.

The congregation also denied charges that it has been protecting Figari, who currently lives in Rome, from criminal investigation in Peru.

“Figari has never been hidden, sheltered, or protected in any way by the Apostolic See, and it considers unfounded the claim that Mr. Figari is prevented from defending himself or responding to accusations formulated against him in Peru,” the congregation wrote in its letter, which was made public June 1.

The congregation stated that its prohibition on Figari returning to Peru “is not in fact absolute”, and written permission for his return may be given by the pontifical commissioner of the Sodalitium.

Regarding Figari’s second appeal, the congregation wrote, “We are awaiting the final decision which, we hope, will be delivered as soon as possible and, above all, will confirm what was previously handed down.”

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is a society of apostolic life which was founded in 1971 in Peru, and granted pontifical recognition in 1997. CNA’s executive director, Alejandro Bermúdez, is a member of the community.

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life decreed in January 2017 that Figari may not have contact with members of the Sodalitium. It directed the community’s superior, Alessandro Moroni Llabres, to order that Figari be “prohibited from contacting, in any way, persons belonging to the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, and no way have any direct personal contact with them.”

The congregation also directed Moroni at that time to order that Figari not return to Peru, except for very serious reasons and with written permission; that he be placed in a residence where there are no Sodalits; that a member of the Sodalits be entrusted with the task of referring to Figari, for any eventuality and request; and that Figari be prohibited from granting any statement to the media or from participating in any public demonstrations or meetings of the Sodalitium.

The congregation said an apostolic visitation had resulted “in the conviction that Mr. Figari … had adopted a style of government excessively or improperly authoritarian” and that he had “committed acts contrary to the sixth commandment”, at least one with a minor. The congregation wrote that they consider it credible that Figari committed the crime of abuse of office, as outlined in canon 1389.

In January Bishop Noel Antonio Londoño Buitrago, C.Ss.R., of Jericó was appointed pontifical commissioner of the Sodalitium. Londoño will oversee the leadership of order as they continue to reform their governing policies and formation procedures, while Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, who has been papal delegate to the Sodalitium since May 2016, will focus on reforming the community’s economic matters.

Figari stepped down as superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae in 2010, after allegations of abuse surfaced in Peru.

The community was investigated after the publication of a book in 2015 by journalists Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas, chronicling years of alleged sexual, physical and psychological abuse by members of the SCV. In addition to Peru, the community operates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, and Italy.

In February 2017, a team of independent investigators commissioned by the Sodalitium reported that “Figari sexually assaulted at least one child, manipulated, sexually abused, or harmed several other young people; and physically or psychologically abused dozens of others.”

[…]

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2018 / 06:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- One month after Vatican and German delegates met in Rome to discuss a proposal put forward by German bishops to allow Protestant spouses in inter-denominational marriages to receive the Eucharist in certain circumstances, Pope Francis has rejected it.

In a letter dated May 25 and addressed to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and president of the German bishops conference, Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria SJ, the Vatican’s top authority on matters of doctrine, said the text of the German proposal “raises a series of problems of considerable importance.”

The letter was published June 4 on the blog of Veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister.

The Holy See press office has confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which was also sent to members of the German delegation who attended a May 3 meeting between German prelates and Vatican official on the topic in Rome, including Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne; Bishop Felix Genn of Münster; Bishop Karl-Heinz Wieseman of Speyer; Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg and Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg.

After speaking with Pope Francis about the matter in light of the May 3 discussion, Ladaria said the pope “came to the conclusion that the document is not mature enough to be published,” and cited three main reasons for the decision.

First, Ladaria stressed that admission to Communion of Protestant spouses in inter-confessional marriages “is a topic that touches the faith of the Church and has relevance for the universal Church.”

Allowing non-Catholics to receive the Eucharist, even in certain limited conditions, would also have an impact on ecumenical relations with other Churches and ecclesial communities “which should not be underestimated.”

Finally, he said the question of Communion is a matter of Church law, and cited canon 844 of the Code of Canon Law, which deals with access to the Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Specifically, canon 844 states that “Catholic ministers administer the sacraments licitly to Catholic members of the Christian faithful alone, who likewise receive them licitly from Catholic ministers alone,” apart from a number of exceptions spelled out in the canon.

These exceptions include allowing non-Catholic Christians to receive the sacraments of Confession, the Eucharist, and the Anointing of the Sick by non-Catholic ministers in churches where these sacraments are valid “whenever necessity requires it or true spiritual advantage suggests it, and provided that danger of error or of indifferentism is avoided.”

Catholic ministers, the canon says, can also administer these sacraments licitly on members of Eastern Churches that are not in full communion with Rome, “if they seek such on their own accord and are properly disposed.”

The canon says this is also valid “for members of other Churches which in the judgment of the Apostolic See are in the same condition in regard to the sacraments as these Eastern Churches.”

For non-Catholic Christians unable to approach a minister from their own confession, the canon says they are able to receive these sacraments only “if the danger of death is present or if, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops, some other grave necessity urges it.”

However, to receive the sacraments they must seek reception “on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed.”

The canon concludes underlining that in the case of the exceptions, “the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops is not to issue general norms except after consultation at least with the local competent authority of the interested non-Catholic Church or community.”

In his letter to Cardinal Marx, Ladaria noted that while there are “open questions” in some sectors of the Church in regards to the interpretation of canon 844, “the competent dicasteries of the Holy See have already been charged with producing a timely clarification of these questions at the level of the universal Church.”

However, he said it would be left up to diocesan bishops to judge when there is a “grave impending need” regarding the reception of the sacraments.

Ladaria, who was recently tapped by Pope Francis to get a red hat in a consistory later this month, heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

His letter to German prelates follows a May 3 meeting on the topic of inter-communion between a delegation of German bishops and members of Vatican dicasteries to discuss whether the question of inter-communion for non-Catholic spouses in inter-denominational marriages could be decided at a local level, or whether it needed Vatican intervention.

The meeting was called after reports, later denied by the German bishops’ conference, came out saying the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had rejected a proposal by the German bishops to publish guidelines allowing non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist in certain limited circumstances.

In February, Cardinal Marx had announced that the German bishops conference would publish a pastoral handout explaining that Protestant spouses of Catholics “in individual cases” and “under certain conditions” could receive Holy Communion, provided they “affirm the Catholic faith in the Eucharist.”

Marx’s statement concerned a draft version of the guidelines, which was adopted “after intensive debate” during a Feb. 19-22 general assembly of the conference.

After Marx’s announcement on the inter-communion proposal, several German prelates appealed to the Vatican for clarification. Specifically, they wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Council for Legislative Texts.

Signatories, who did not consult Cardinal Marx before writing the letter, included: Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg; Bishop Gregor Hanke of Eichstätt; Bishop Konrad Zdarsa of Augsburg; Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau; Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg; Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz and Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne.

None of the signatories, apart from Cardinal Woelki, were present for the May 3 meeting at the Vatican, which was held at the Vatican.

Members of the German delegation for the May 3 meeting also included: Cardinal Marx; Bishop Genn; Bishop Wiesemann, president of the Doctrinal Commission for the German bishops conference; Bishop Feige, president of the German bishops’ Commission for Ecumenism; Bishop Voderholzer of Regensburg, and Fr. Hans Langendörfer SJ, secretary of the German bishops conference.

On the Vatican side, the meeting was attended by: Archbishop Ladaria; Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Msgr. Markus Graulich, undersecretary for the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and Fr. Hermann Geissler, who serves as a kind of office manager for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

After the meeting, Ladaria was tasked with recounting the details of the discussion to Pope Francis. In his May 25 letter to Marx, Ladaria said he spoke to the pope about it May 11, and again May 24. It was after these discussions, he said, that Francis decided the inter-communion guidelines put forward by Cardinal Marx could not be published.

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Ostia, Italy, Jun 3, 2018 / 02:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Only the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the food of life, can satisfy the hunger of hearts for love, a universal experience, Pope Francis said during Mass Sunday for the Solemnity of Corpus Christ… […]

Vatican City, Jun 3, 2018 / 05:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In off-the-cuff comments after the Angelus Sunday, Pope Francis denounced violence against protestors by armed groups in Nicaragua and prayed for the country’s victims and their families.

&l… […]

Vatican City, Jun 2, 2018 / 03:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Survivors of sexual abuse and other abuses perpetrated by Chile’s most notorious abuser priest, Fernando Karadima, met with Pope Francis Saturday. They said they found a pope who not only listened and suffered with them, but who truly understood the depth of the crisis and the steps that are needed going forward.

“I came to Rome with three ideas. First, that he invited us, the advice that Peter would share with us, and also with hope. I have to say that the three things are confirmed and have exceeded my expectations,” Fr. Eugenio de la Fuente Lora told journalists June 2 after meeting with the pope.

Three fundamental takeaways from the encounter, he said, are the pope’s “listening, empathy and welcome.”

De la Fuente, who was a victim of Karadima’s abuse, voiced gratitude for feeling “completely understood by someone admirably empathetic, who suffered with my pain and understood it.”

Pope Francis, he said, “has a very deep understanding of the problem and… he has some very concrete ideas for how to advance, always on the short, medium and long term.”

Renewal won’t be immediate, but it will take time, he said, adding that the pope is “very clear” about what needs to be done.

De la Fuente is part of a second group of priests and victims of Chile’s most notorious abuser priest, Fr. Fernando Karadima. They are holding meetings with Pope Francis at the Vatican June 1-3.

Staying at the Santa Marta guesthouse, where Pope Francis lives, the group of nine includes five priests who were victims of abuse of power, conscience, and sexuality; two priests who have been assisting the victims; and two lay people.

In addition to De la Fuente, the group includes Fr. Francisco Javier Astaburuaga Ossa, a priest who accompanied victims Juan Carlos Cruz and James Hamilton before they went public about their abuse. Another victim of Karadima’s abuse, Fr. Alejandro Vial Amunátegui, is also in the group.

Two of the other priests who will meet with the pope are Fr. Javier Barros Bascuñán and Fr. Sergio Cobo Montalba. The remaining four participants have chosen not to go public.

Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, who assisted Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna in the February investigation of the Chilean crisis, was also present. The two investigators will travel to Chile again in the coming days, this time visiting the Diocese of Osorno, rather than Santiago.

Saturday’s meeting with survivors began with 4 p.m. Mass June 2, after which the group stayed with the pope for four hours and fifteen minutes. Francis met them individually and as a group before taking his leave at 8:15 p.m. No other encounters with the pope are expected before the group returns to Chile.

In comments to the press after meeting with the pope, Astaburuaga said Francis focused heavily on the concept of the “holy faithful People of God” spoken of in the Second Vatican Council document “Lumen Gentium,” saying the Church must work harder to build an ecclesiology that has “a strong sense” of this concept.

“The people of God are essential, pastors are from the people of God and they are also there to serve the people of God,” Astaburuaga said, adding that all baptized are called to be “builders of the Church.”

The priest said that in order to change the “culture of abuse and concealment” Pope Francis spoke of in a recent letter to Chilean Catholics, a careful process of discernment is needed which takes three things into consideration: time, people and place.

When contemplating any decision, it’s important to think about “who are the people, places and times,” he said, stressing that the process of renewal in Chile is “the work of everyone, not just one.”

“This is why the pope insisted on returning to the concept of the people of God from the Second Vatican Council. We are all responsible: priests, bishops, laity, the holy people. It’s a joint task.”

Pope Francis, he said, listened “very carefully” when he spoke about his experience accompanying victims of abuse. “This is the testimony he gave us. To listen, and to listen with a lot of attention (and) a lot of trust.”

Though the process has at times been difficult, Astaburuaga said accompanying victims such as Cruz and Hamilton over the past 20 years “has its fruits,” and “it’s a great joy in the midst of their great suffering.”

Pope Francis, he said, also asked them to continue praying for the Church in Chile, particularly by emphasizing Eucharistic Adoration more strongly in local dioceses.

The pope also again asked for forgiveness in the name of the Church for the suffering each of them has lived, said Astaburuaga, who called the act “a great humility” on the part of the pope.

“I’ll go back to Chile with a lot of hope,” he said, adding that “beyond the difficulties there are, conflicts are always an opportunity. Conflicts that we have to face, but always with hope.”

Most of those who came to the Vatican for the June 2 meeting with the pope participated in an investigation of abuse cover-up by the hierarchy in Chile, which took place in February and was conducted by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The others worked with the investigation after the archbishop’s time in Chile.

This weekend’s gathering conclude the pope’s first round of meetings with the victims of abuses which occurred at Karadima’s Sacred Heart parish in Santiago.

Pope Francis said Mass for the group June 2, after which he met the nine as a group before holding individual conversations. He had met with three more of Karadima’s victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton, and Andres Murillo, at the Vatican April 27-30.

Karadima was convicted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2011 of abusing minors, and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. He has not been sentenced by civil courts because of Chile’s statue of limitations.

A priestly association Karadima was involved in and which he had led for many years, the Priestly Union of the Sacred Heart, was suppressed within a year of his conviction.

Attention to Karadima’s abuse has heightened since the appointment of Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid to the Diocese of Osorno in 2015. Barros had been accused of both covering up and at times participating in Karadima’s abuses.

Pope Francis initially defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. He later relented, and sent Scicluna to investigate the situation in Chile.

After receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis apologized, said that he had been seriously mistaken, and asked to meet the country’s bishops and more outspoken survivors in person.

He met with Chile’s bishops May 15-17. As a result, each of them tendered letters of resignation, which Pope Francis has yet to accept or reject. The pope also gave the bishops a letter chastising them for systemic cover-up of clerical abuse and calling them to institute deep changes.

On May 31, the Vatican announced that Francis has decided to send Scicluna and Bertomeu back to Chile in the coming days, this time traveling to the Diocese of Osorno, where Barros is stationed, in order to “advance the process of healing and reparation for victims of abuse” in Chile.

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Vatican City, Jun 2, 2018 / 07:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis begins his second set of meetings with victims of Fr. Fernando Karadima, a Chilean priest who committed sexual abuse, as well as abuse of power and conscience, at the Vatican Saturday afternoon.

At 4:00 p.m. June 2, according to the Holy See press office, Pope Francis will say Mass with the group of priests, who are guests at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse June 1-3.

The scheduled group and individual meetings with the pope will begin following the Mass.

The group of nine includes five priests who were victims of abuse of power, conscience, and sexuality; two priests who have been assisting the victims; and two lay people.

The reason the meeting was called by Pope Francis, the Holy See press office stated, “is to deepen the reality experienced by a part of the faithful and the Chilean clergy.”

“With the help of these five priests, the Pope seeks to remedy the internal rupture of the community. In this way we can begin to rebuild a healthy relationship between the faithful and their pastors, once everyone becomes aware of their wounds.”

Most of those coming to the Vatican participated in Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta’s investigation of abuse cover-up by the hierarchy in Chile, whick took place in February. The others worked with the investigation after the archbishop’s time in Chile.

The meeting will conclude the pope’s first round of meetings with the victims of abuses which occurred at Karadima’s Sacred Heart parish in Santiago.

“These priests and lay people represent all the victims of abuses by clerics in Chile, but it is not ruled out that similar initiatives may be repeated in the future,” stated a May 22 press release announcing the meeting.

“The Holy Father continues to ask the faithful of Chile – and especially the faithful of the parishes where these priests carry out their pastoral ministry – to accompany them with prayer and solidarity during these days.”

Francis had met with three more of Karadima’s victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton, and Andres Murillo, at the Vatican April 27-30.

Karadima was convicted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2011 of abusing minors, and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. He has not been sentenced by civil courts because of Chile’s statue of limitations.

A sacerdotal association which Karadima had led, the Priestly Union of the Sacred Heart, was suppressed within a year of his conviction.

Attention to Karadima’s abuse has heightened since the 2015 appointment of Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid to the Diocese of Osorno. Barros had been accused of covering up Karadima’s abuses.

Pope Francis initially defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. He later relented, and sent Scicluna to investigate the situation in Chile.

After receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis apologized, said that he had been seriously mistaken, and asked to meet the country’s bishops and more outspoken survivors in person.

He met with Chile’s bishops May 15-17. As a result, each of them tendered letters of resignation, which Pope Francis has yet to accept or reject. The pope also gave the bishops a lettter chastising them for systemic cover-up of clerical abuse and calling them to institute deep changes.

On May 19, Bishop Alejandro Goić Karmelić of Rancagua suspended several priests after allegations of sexual misconduct were raised against them. He also apologized for not following up when the accusations were first brought to his attention.

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