Recently in Global Church Category
The Pope's new encyclical,Spe Salvis discusses several saintly examples of hope lived out. One of these is St. Bakhita, the first Sudanese saint. Back in 2000 when St. Bakhita was canonized, Fides News Service spoke to Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid, Sudan, about Bahita. Bishop Gassis describes Bakhita as a sign of "hope to be freed from many forms of slavery" and "hope for those who leave their homeland."
A consistory has been announced! New cardinals! Here's the list. Here is John Allen's analysis.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston recently completed a pilgrimage with his Orthodox counterpart, Metropolitan Methodios of the Greek Orthodox Church in Boston. They visited Rome, Constantinople and St. Petersburg. He wrote up the experience here and here, complete with gorgeous pictures.
In fact, the Cardinal has inspired me. In the spirit of promoting interfaith dialogue, I'm going to solicit donations to send my family on a worldwide pilgrimage along with an Orthodox family yet to be determined (first come, first serve).
I received an email back from the editor of AsiaNews with regards to their crazy story on the looming North American Union and the Amero. Attached was a letter from the article's author that was a history lesson stating that the US government doesn't always do what the people want. I realized then that I over-emphasized the ridiculousness of the ideas in the article and under-emphasizing the flimsiness of the author's sources.
I sent a clarifying email, pointing out that whatever my difference of opinion with the author, his research did not even reach high school levels of acceptability. Just to recap, here's what the author offered as evidence that "the United States along with Canada and Mexico, appears to be getting ready to launch a new single currency - the Amero":
- a report by the Council on Foreign Relations. The report nowhere calls for an Amero.
- a clip of a CNBC report he found on YouTube. The report cites no evidence, it's an interview with some conspiracy theorist who urges viewers to google Amero and see what the government is planning.
- a webpage of an alarmist far-right US radio host. The site features pictures of fake Amero coins which were made by a private Denver company.
- a suggestion that the Denver mint, currently being renovated, is actually being turned into an Amero factory.
- a Wikipedia page. The page he references merely discusses the CFR report and notes that one of its members has publicly called for an Amero.
Not one single person was interviewed. Not one actual piece of evidence that there are plans for an Amero was presented. He simply touted internet rumors.
If they can publish this, how do we know they're getting Lebanon, Indonesia or, for goodness' sake, Chinaright? This is a Church institution putting this stuff out. This is very very frustrating.
I read AsiaNews just about every day. It's a news service compiled by the Church's missionary congregation that features reports from around the world. Until today, I assumed they were a fairly reliable source of news.
But if they can get something like this so drastically wrong, one has to wonder what else they get wrong.
Really? Do they really think this?
A news report on the Amero broadcast on CNBC is also available on Youtube.
Similarly, 20 Amero coins can be seen on the Hal Turner Show webpage, with a small D visible, D as in ‘minted in Denver.’ Curiously, the Denver Mint is currently closed to the public, ostensibly for restoration work, till September 28.
It's on Wikipedia and YouTube - it must be true! And the Denver mint is being converted into an Amero-factory AS WE SPEAK! AMERICA LOSES MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY NEXT WEEK!
Here's the kicker:
If you read the entire article, you'll discover that the author did not interview a single person. It's based entirely on what likely amounted to 5 minutes of googling. He encountered some kooky websites - likely the products of either one-world wannabe master-planners or nationalist conspiracy-theorist fear-mongerers who respectively have dreams or nightmares about the North American Union - and wrote them up as newsworthy. Had he tried talking to actual Americans he would have found that not only is the idea of a looming North American Union a fiction, it's also opposed by any American with any sense. Sure, it's possible to find individuals, like former Mexican president Vincente Fox and various (looney-tunes) think tanks and opinion journalist, who favor the idea, but there are certainly no plans in the works.
I'm not being flippant here, this is kinda serious. I honestly don't care that they got this particular story wrong. I can't imagine it hurting anybody to propagate the idea that a North American Union is coming. This would be a laughing matter if it weren't for the source.
The problem is that up until now, I've considered AsiaNews a reliable source. They report on wars, refugees, famine, disease and religious tensions (including the persecution of Christians) around the world, and I've assumed they get reports from contacts "on the ground" so to speak. Yet this article was clearly written by somebody who does not live in America and has not the slightest clue about such things as a North American Union and a continental currency. If they can get something so completely wrong that's so easily refutable, how can we honestly trust what they have to say about complex civil wars on the other side of the world? We should hope that they take greater care to verify stories about more serious subjects, but really, how can we know that?
I have emailed the editor and asked for an explanation. I'll let you know what I hear.
The cause for beatification for Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân is officially open.
Today, the Holy Father received officials from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which Cardinal Van Thuân headed after being expelled from Vietnam. Zenit translated his address. Here's a snip:
Dear brothers and sisters I welcomed with profound joy the news that the cause for beatification of this singular prophet of Christian hope has begun and, while we entrust this chosen soul to the Lord, we pray that his example will be for us a valuable teaching. With that, I bless you all from my heart.
The Italian monthly 30 Days has their latest issue online, including this interview with the patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq.
Here is the address of His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, Archbishop of New Justiniana and All Cyprus at his audience with Pope Benedict XVI in June, which included this powerful plea:
Human rights are trampled upon, monuments are destroyed, works of our spiritual patrimony become the object of international trade, and the division of the last European capital, Nicosia, seems doomed to continue. Will no one hear our just lament and raise their voices in protest to the powerful of the earth, who exploit Christ's Name but are deaf to the law of love?
Your Holiness,
We ask your support through the invincible weapons of brotherly prayer, but also through your fatherly cry for the defence of the inalienable rights of the Ancient and Apostolic Sister Church of Cyprus, this crossroads of peoples, religions, languages and civilizations of the Mediterranean and Middle East.
We want you beside us! Through us the Holy Apostle Barnabas invites his elder brother, the Blessed Apostle Peter, to make a first Visit to his humble home and to receive hospitality in it, to feel as though it were his own home and to bless it!
Seriously, it's an excellent summary of the challenges of stem cell science, though I wish he went a little more into why some opponents of ANT approve of ANT-OAR.
The February English version of the Italian journal 30 Days has just come online and has five stoties on the plight of Iraqi Christians who have fled Iraq and have been taken in with open arms by Syria. It should shame us that the Baathist regime in Damascus is doing more for Iraqi Christians than the U.S.
Sr. Ann Thole, who died March 31st while trying to rescue patients from a fire that engulfed the AIDS hospice where she worked.
A couple of years ago, a few bishops from the Phillipines started blogs. Well, they've gone a step further: this year, they started video blogging for Holy Week.
Get the story.
Watch the videos.
Here's a sample:
It's this year's Easter Vigil homily delivered by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.
John Allen has been in South America researching his next book and has been writing up a storm about the Church there. Great stuff.
Whatever it is, I bet it's not based on Deus Caritas Est.
This week, The Tablet has coverage of Christians in the Holy Land suffering from the violence.
- Lebanese Christians
Food, clean water, milk and medicine were urgently needed and, despite the destruction of roads, bridges and power lines, the bishop was confident that the Church's infrastructure would enable him to get emergency aid through to villages in some of the most remote areas.
According to Aid to the Church in Need, Lebanon has for many years been seen by church leaders as a sanctuary for Christians in the Middle East, and the clash between Hezbollah and Israel has prompted fears that an exodus of Christians from the region could spell disaster for the survival of the Church in the whole region. The director of a centre east of Saida run by the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Lebanon described the situation as "tragic and catastrophic".
- Iraqi Christians
Half OF Iraq's Christian population has left the country in the last five years, according to Bishop Andreas Abouna of Baghdad.In an interview with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, Bishop Abouna said that the number who have fled Baghdad could even be as high as 75 per cent.
Speaking during a visit to London last week, the bishop described how the state of anarchy in Iraq was driving away his flock. "What we are hearing now is the alarm bell for Christianity in Iraq. When so many are leaving from a small community like ours, you know that it is dangerous - dangerous for the future of the Church in Iraq," he said.
The bishop estimated that 600,000 Christians had left since 2002 - most of them going to Turkey, Jordan and Syria, where they sought sanctuary, initially on a temporary basis. The signs of them returning in the near future, however, were "increasingly bleak".
- A general look at the situation of Christians in the Middle East
A profound series of crises has overtaken Middle Eastern Christianity in modern times. Displacement by war, genocide and interreligious conflict, leading to loss, emigration and exile are the main experiences of its followers. Some observers have even suggested that there is a "Christian barometer" that provides the world with an accurate measurement of the political atmosphere in the Middle East, according to how the Christian minorities are treated.The theory goes that as the Middle East becomes more free and prosperous, linked to the West and hospitable to minorities and women, the higher the probability that the Christians will continue to live there. The most highly educated and multilingual Christians, who are part of a large diaspora in Europe and North America, may even return. But if Christians sense that things are getting worse, if the Arab countries they live in lose their commitment to political, economic and religious freedom, they tend to emigrate from the Middle East.
Catholic News Agency also picks up this beat with a sketch of the efforts of Catholic Relief Services to help all Lebanese people displaced by the violence.
If you want to donate to the relief efforts, here are two links:
Catholic Relief Services
Aid to the Church in Need
One of my favorite news agencies is Fides News, a service associated with the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Fides carries news from all over the world, giving an "on the ground" Catholic perspective on world events. From natural disasters, wars and famines to new seminaries, schools and hospitals and addresses from bishops in third world countries, Fides gives an account of what's going in the world and how the Church is ministering to those those affected by these events.
Here's a sample of some recent news items, follow the links for the whole stories:
- From the Democratic Republic of Congo
Repeated violence in east Congo is causing tens of thousands to abandon homes and fields. Warned that food supplies will soon run out the United Nations World Food Programme has launched an urgent call to international donors to give more funds assist these suffering people. The situation is most serious in Gety, in Ituri province, where 38,000 displaced persons are sheltering. On July 14 WFP took two week food rations from its stores at Bunia to distribute to 30,000 people in Gety, but now its supplies are almost finished and more funds are urgently needed. - From Israel
St John of God Catholic Hospital in Nazareth was the first to give emergency treatment to victims of an attack on the town a week ago in the present conflict. At about 5pm on Wednesday 19 July, re-named Nazareth’s black Wednesday, without any warning three Katyusha rockets suddenly landed in the Bilal district of the Arab part of the town hitting a mosque in front of which several children were playing. - From East Timor
If more young men ask to serve the Lord and consecrate their lives to service of the Church and the people in East Timor, there is still hope for the youngest democracy in Asia, despite conditions of political and social instability. The occasion of the solemn profession of new Salesians di Camilo Boavida and Venancio Fatima Freitas was in fact a festive event for the whole community in Baucau. People put aside their daily worries and anxieties to share in the joy of the two young men called by God to follow in the footsteps of Saint John Bosco.
Journalist and long time St. Blogger Robert Duncan has a great article about the World Meeting of Families over at Spero news.
Not to be forgotten amidst the coverage of the Pope's visit last week to Valencia, Spain for the 5th World Meeting of Families was the theological congress that preceded it.
Here is Zenit's coverage of the opening proceedings.
"In my judgment, the most emblematic event of this obscuring is that on Jan. 18, 2006, with 468 votes in favor, 149 opposed and 41 abstentions, the European Parliament approved a resolution which calls for equating homosexual couples with those of man and woman and condemns as homophobic those states and countries that are opposed to the recognition of gay couples," lamented Cardinal Caffarra.
More coverage:
- From Zenit: Cardinal Dziwisz: Cardinal Dziwisz on "John Paul II, Pope of the Family and of Life"
- From Zenit: The work of movements in supporting families
- From Zenit: Panel on "Ecumenism and the Family"
- From Zenit: Conclusion: "The family is subjected to an unprecedented crisis"
- From Fides - news service of the Church's missionary congregation: "The family that hands on the faith is a guarantee of hope for the future of the Church and humanity"
- From Fides: Summary of first day's proceedings
- From Catholic News Agency: Cardinal Re: Faith is greatest inheritance parents can leave their children
- From Catholic News Agency: More Dziwisz on JP2
- From Catholic News Agency: Request to recognize traditional marriage
- From Catholic News Agency: Summary of address by Christian Life movement founder
- Jennifer Roback Morse was a guest speaker at the Congress. She did some blogging (1, 2, 3, 4) from Valencia at the Acton Institute's Power Blog and wrote this column. She will eventually be posting her full speech on her website.
Here's a quick roundup of coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Valencia, Spain to close the 5th World Meeting of Families.
- The Vatican website has the texts of the Holy Father's addresses. Some snips from the major addresses appear at the end of this post.
- Estimates on attendance at the Sunday Mass range from several hundred thousand to 1.5 million. Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was conspicuously though not exactly surprisingly absent from the Mass. The whole world knows where his sympathies rest, and he felt no need to make a show otherwise.
- In addition to the major addresses, the Pope made a stop to lay a wreath at the site of last week's train cash that killed 41 people earlier. The Pope later met with families of victims of the crash and prayed an Our Father with them. Here's a particularly moving picture of that encounter.
- The best pictures of the trip I've found are here. Most of the pics are screen captures posted by devoted Benedict fans.
- John Allen was in Valencia for the Holy Father's visit, and as always provides detailed coverage. His reports can be found here and here.
- Click on the link below for excerpts of the Holy Father's major addresses. Better yet, click here and read 'em all.
This is a stale piece from May, but I haven't seen it around much:
The Spanish bishops are getting with the times.
The Spanish bishops conference has set up a blog (Spanish only, sorry) where the bishops will be live-blogging the World Meeting of Families.
As a reminder, the homepage of the meeting - whose theme is "Transmission of the Faith in the Family" - can be found here.
This week, the Catholic spotlight will be on Valencia, Spain where an International Family Fair, catechesis and theological forums are taking place leading up to next weekends's Fifth World Meeting of Families.
This past Sunday, Pope Benedict dedicated his weekly Angelus address to reflecting on the meaning of the event:
If this gesture, in which the whole meaning of the transmission of the faith in the family lies, is to be authentic, it must be preceded and accompanied by the parents' commitment to further their own knowledge of the faith, rekindling the flame with prayer and the assiduous practice of the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist.
Let us commend to the Virgin Mary the success of the forthcoming great Valencia meeting, and of all the families of the world so that they will be genuine communities of love and life, in which the flame of faith is transmitted from generation to generation.
On a sadder note, 41 people died in a subway accident in Valencia on Monday. Please pray for the repose of the soul of all killed and for peace of mind for all affected.
The Vatican recently published "Associations of the Faithful," a directory of the new ecclesial movements and communities that have been started since the Second vatican Council.
Additionally, next week will see the Second World Congress of ecclesial movements and new communities, in the Roman suburbs, where members of these movements will meet. Here is the homepage, which includes a schedule of events.
On Saturday night, the Vigil of Pentecost, the Congress will conclude in St. Peter's square with a program of music, prayer and testimonies leading up to the arrival of the Holy Father, who will celebrate first vespers of Pentecost with those gathered.
The Holy See has granted a plenary indulgence to those who attend the liturgy. Actaully, it is merely an extesion of an indulgence which is already available to any of the faithful who "in a church or oratory, participates devoutly in the solemn signing or praying of the hymn 'Veni, Creator' ... on the solemnity of Pentecost."
Leading up to the event, Zenit is publishing the profiles from "Associations of the Faithful" of the communitites and movements that will be participating in the Congress.
And, as a way of demonstrating that my wife and kids are in Chicago and I have nothing better to do, here are the profiles that have already been published:
- Schoenstatt Movement
- The Bread of Life Community
- Amigonian Cooperators
- Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities
- Chemin Neuf Community
- Catholic Integrated Community
- Christian Life Movement
- Christian Life Community
- Community of the Beatitudes
- Cooperators of Opus Dei
- Emmanuel Community
- Couples for Christ
- Fondacio. Christians for the World
- Foyers de Charité
- Fraternity of Charles de Foucauld
- Heart's Home
- Communion and Liberation
- Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Mercy Association
- International Alliance of Catholic Knights
- International Association of "Caterinati"
- Heralds of the Gospel
- Institute for World Evangelization
- International Association of Charities
- International Association of Faith and Light
A tip: don't read them all at one sitting, your eyes will start to glaze after about a dozen or so. Do try to read some of them, though, as it's inspiring to see the different authentic expressions of the one Catholic faith all over the world.
Sandro magister has the scoop on Sino-Vatican relations.
Oh to have been able to attend! The Peoria Journal Star has a write-up.
How incredibly cute is this?
The event has two main goals "Celebrate together the feast-day of the co-patroness of universal mission, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and provide an opportunity for children, adolescents and animators to share the faith and renew missionary commitment".
The Holy Childhood Day programme will include prayers, games and talks to illustrate the theme of missionary animation. The participants will work in discussion groups as well as a "mini Plenary" for the presentation of Conclusions. The programme also includes a distribution of paper flowers made by the children themselves, a play with the title "Jesus continues to call us today". The highlight will be a solemn celebration of Mass at which children will present offerings for the missions and missionaries collected in their mission boxes.
I think this is one of the greatest ideas for celerating a feast day I've ever heard.
Allen proves himself again to be the man when it comes to Americans covering the Church. This week's word contains a snippet about the homosexuality issue, but most of it is a talk Allen gave to in Chicago about the global Church. It's quite good.
I'll say it again: the paper he writes for is not at all recommended reading, but Allen's reporting is always accurate, fair and insightful - and when it comes to journalism, that's the Triple Crown.
Some snippets follow, but if you have the time, the whole thing is worth reading:
Just after it appeared, I attended a workshop for rectors of seminaries around the world, held in Rome at the Casa Tra Noi, down the street from my office. In one workshop, a Jesuit theologian led a discussion on Dominus Iesus. A rector from Bangalore in India popped up and said, "This document is a disaster. It has destroyed our dialogue with Hinduism, since they don't understand these exclusivist claims." Next a rector from St. Petersburg in Russia jumped up to say, "No, you've got it all wrong. This document has saved our dialogue with the Russian Orthodox, because they have an even higher Christology than we do, and this is the first Vatican document since the Council they've been excited about."
The same document, filtered through two different cultural perspectives, produced diametrically opposed reactions. Catholicism finds itself increasingly faced with the challenge of making room for the instincts, concerns, and aspirations of an astonishing variety of cultural backgrounds. Church officials in a globalized world have to be concerned not merely with how something will play in Peoria, but also in Beijing, in Tehran, in Kinshasa, and in Kiev.
In all the reporting I ever read about Dominus Iesus (caveat: I wasn't this much of a newshound when it came out), I never saw coverage of any positive effects it was having on dialogue. This bit about the Russian Orthodox is nice to hear.
He then analyzes the Church's changing global demographics, demonstrating that the future of the Church in terms of growth is the so-called "global south." From here, he makes some predictions as to what the top issues in Rome will be in coming years/decades:
Poverty/Globalization: ...For many African Christians, the defining issues for the church are not the usual topics in the West -- birth control, women in the church, theological dissent, and so on. African Catholics will of course have different views on these questions, but by and large the overwhelming majority of Southerners regard them secondary. The truly urgent matters, they tend to believe, are poverty, war, the arms trade, HIV/AIDS, and structural reform of the international economic system...
Religious Pluralism: There's a sense in which Asian Catholicism is to the Catholic church today what Latin America was in the 1970s and 1980s, that is, the frontline of the most important theological question of the day. In Latin America, the debate was over liberation theology, and more broadly, the proper relationship between Christianity and politics. Today, it's over what theological sense to make of religious diversity, meaning whether or not we can say that God wills religious diversity, and if God does will it, what does that do to Christianity's missionary imperative?...
Traditional Sexual Morality: ...As the South comes of age, the Catholic church will be proportionately less likely to tolerate liberal positions on these questions... Some suggest that as Africa develops economically, more relativized secular attitudes on sexual morality will take hold there as they have in much of the West. Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, told me some time ago that he finds this a patronizing Western conceit, as if to say, "Once the Africans get out of their huts and get some education, they'll think like us." He predicts that if anything, as Africa's self-confidence and development levels grow, it will become bolder about asserting its moral vision on the global stage.
Islam: ...Many Catholic bishops in the South, especially Africa, take a harder line, insisting that the church must stand up for itself in situations of conflict, especially in states where Islam is in the majority and seeks the application of Islamic law. This is likely to press the Catholic church towards a more cautious stance with respect to Islam, especially around issues of reciprocity... Phenomena such as the $65 million Mosque in Rome, the largest in Europe, while the one million Christians in Saudi Arabia cannot legally import Bibles, will be less likely to pass under silence within church circles...
His concluding remarks are worth citing:
This reality will pose a challenge to the "catholicity" of some American Catholics. How willing are we to see ourselves as part of a worldwide family of faith, even if things don't go the way we believe they should? To what extent can we accept that Roman Catholicism is a maddeningly complex welter of different, and at times competing, cultures, theological schools, political agenda and private instincts, the interplay among which always involves compromise, disappointment, and frustration? Can we bring ourselves to accept that the church before our eyes will probably never be the church of our dreams, and perhaps that's for the best, since our own dreams are always more limited than those of the entire communion spread across space and through time?
My take: if American Catholics can come to grips and adjust in a healthy way to being a small part of a global community, we can be an example for the rest of the country.
