Daily Archives: September 1, 2018

International

Former Vatican ambassador calls on Pope to resign

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano (r), former apostolic nuncio to the United States, German Cardinal Walter Brandmuller stands next to during opening prayer at a conference on Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” in Rome Oct. 28

A former apostolic nuncio to the United States has called on Pope Francis to resign over the developing scandal of clerical sex abuse that is casting a lengthening shadow over his visit to Ireland.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Holy See’s former ambassador in Washington, has accused Pope Francis of repealing sanctions imposed by his predecessor Benedict XVI on disgraced former Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick.

Pope Francis last month accepted Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals and directed the 88-year-old former Archbishop of Washington to observe “a life of prayer and penance in seclusion” until the end of the canonical process against him.

Although Archbishop Viganò says McCarrick had been placed under sanctions by Benedict XVI, Church observers point out that the former Archbishop of Washington continued with an active schedule of pastoral engagements following his retirement.

Archbishop Viganò was sent to Washington as papal ambassador to the United States in 2011. According to Vatileaks letters, Viganò was exiled to the US from an administrative post in the Vatican for whistleblowing on mismanagement of Holy See finances. He is an ally of the “dubia” cardinals, who have publicly challenged the Pope to correct his family life teaching. Earlier this year he attended a conference of Catholic critics of Francis in Rome where the keynote speaker, Cardinal Burke, set out times when a Pope should be “disobeyed.”

Viganò served in Washington until 2016 and towards the end of his tenure was at the centre of a fiasco involving the Pope meeting Kim Davis, a clerk from Kentucky who refused to perform same-sex marriages, during a visit to the United States.

In his 11-page open letter released in during the Pope’s visit to Ireland, as Francis prepares to celebrate Mass for half a million people in pouring rain, and published by the Veritas Vincit conservative blog, Viganò goes into substantial detail of what he knew about these sanctions, and subsequent events.

He makes numerous statements against many members of the hierarchy, including Pope Francis.

Some commentators pointed out on Twitter that Viganò is a long-time critic of Francis.

From The States

India comes together for Kerala flood victims

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Transgressing all barriers of religion and caste, rich and poor, high and low, Indians have joined hands to provide succour to people reeling under the worst flood in five decades in Kerala.

Justice Kurien Joseph, a Supreme Court judge, Catholic and Kerala native, worked until late at night in New Delhi to help pack and label boxes containing relief materials for flood victims.

“It was heartening to see people unite in love for their suffering brethren casting aside all boundaries of religion and region,” Joseph said as he assisted children and women packing materials.

The flood in the southern state washed away hundreds of houses and submerged villages, killing at least 370 people and displacing about 800,000 to relief camps.

Not only Kerala people living in New Delhi “but people from other parts of India have gathered here. It just goes to show that goodness has not disappeared from humans,” Joseph said.

A group of lawyers launched the initiative through social media. Despite the short notice, people gathered with clothing and food to be packed and sent to the flood-hit state 2,500 kilometers away.

In Kerala, fishermen took out their boats on their own to rescue people. According to reports, they refused remuneration from the government for their voluntary work, saying they did not do it for money.

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“Jesus’ love thy neighbor philosophy has never been so evident in our country,” said Lucy John, a teacher from New Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area, where a collection drive was organized by an association of Kerala people.

Organizations, agencies and resident associations are all busy collecting relief material in cash and kind in the capital.

From The States

Minorities must not be in awe of majority: Amartya Sen

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Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen said the minori-ties and the liberal forces in India, who oppose the divi-sive politics of the present day, need to be more vocal and assertive. Discussing the present scenario in India, Sen said those ruling the country do not constitute a majority, but they are in power by virtue of their ability to skilfully use the tools of the political system.

“I think in modern days, the majority and minority cannot be decided based on who is a Hindu or who is a Muslim, as it is not really clear who is a Hindu.

“Definitely, the number of Dalits and other minorities is very less. But the fact is that those who are ruling the nation they are not the majority in terms of number, but the reason of their power is that they are aptly using the tools of our political system,” Sen said at a discussion on where the Indian democracy is heading. According to Sen, if the census is considered then the number of Hindu popula-tion is quite high.

“The result of 2014 only reflects that the victorious party was successful in that particular system,” said Sen. Answering a question regarding the fear factor among Muslims residing in India, he said: “This very state of mind that if we are minority we will be deprived and will have to suffer, is very weakening in itself.”

“The result will not depend on numbers, but on the reach of electoral procedure and the political system. The important fact for victory would be the ability to strongly raise the issues that need immediate attention and deserve thorough discussion,” Sen said.

From The States

Mass readings from Gita, Quran: Jesuit priest apologizes

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A Jesuit parish priest in Mumbai has apologized for including verses from other religious scriptures in Mass readings after some Catholics protested calling him Anti-Christ. “I realize that the verses were not appropriate as part of the readings of the Mass and I apologize for this. However, to attribute this to the Antichrist is very shocking,” said Father Frazer Mascarenhas, pastor of St Peter’s Church in Bandra, a western suburb of India’s commercial capital, on August 21.

Father Mascarenhas issued a statement explaining his action. “St Peter’s has been making efforts to build human communities in our neighbourhood, as encouraged by the archdiocese. In this context, on the dual feast of the Assumption, and Independence Day, at the traditional Indian liturgy we hold at the 10 am mass, I took the theme, ‘Giving Jesus to the world as Mary did.’”

National

Kerala floods: Catholic nuns take forefront in relief work

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More than 6,700 Catholic nuns are among those helping over a million people taking shelter in relief camps after unprecedented floods ravaged Kerala, a south-western Indian state. “This is the biggest rescue and relief operation the Catholic Church in Kerala has under-taken in its history,” says Fr George Vettikattil, who heads the church’s relief operations in the state.

The church deployed its personnel and opened its institutions across Kerala to help people after rains and massive floods devastated 13 of Kerala’s 14 districts from Aug. 15 through Aug. 20. The rain has stopped in many places and water is now receding.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Aug. 24 told the media that the rains and floods have claimed 417 lives. At least 36 people are still missing. The floods initially displaced nearly 1.3 million people. About 869,000 people were still sheltered in 2,787 relief centres in the state, Vijayan said.

The initial estimated loss was around 200 billion rupees ($2.85 billion).

Vettikattil says all 32 Catholic dioceses in Kerala have joined relief works. As many as 69,821 young people and 99,705 lay volunteers joined 6,737 nuns, 2,891 priests and 354 seminarians to rescue stranded people with the help of government agencies and individually, the priest told Global Sisters Report.

The state also has 2,178 religious priests and 447 brothers who have also joined in helping the flood affected.

“We have formed separate groups comprising priests, nuns and brothers to clean the mud from houses of people living in relief camps,” Sister Modesta, who is a member of the Congregation of Teresian Carmelites, told GSR. “They leave in the morning and work until evening,” she added.

National

Fishermen become heroes of Kerala flood

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Fishermen in India’s Kerala State are being hailed as heroes for using their traditional wooden boats to rescue men, women and children from swirling flood-waters. “You are like our God,” a woman with folded hands told fishermen who saved her along with another female villager and 30 youngsters trapped in a children’s home in Alappuzha district, an area laced with waterways.

The fishermen, mostly Catholics and Muslims on the Arabian Sea coast, formed their own voluntary rescue service during flash flooding from Aug. 15-18.

While some people were just temporarily isolated by deluges, the lives of others were in serious peril as rising floodwaters submerged homes.

A team led by Raju Thomas from Trivandrum Archdiocese, some 200 kilometers away, carried their boats on lorries to the disaster area in central Kerala.

“We could not see the children’s home,” he said. “We found them after we heard the children screaming.”

National

Abp Barwa: Odisha Church enriched by the blood of its martyrs

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Christians in India are marking the 10th anniversary of the brutal violence that Christians of eastern India’s Odisha State faced in 2008, with a Mass in the state capital , Bhubaneswar, on August 25.

Archbishop John Barwa together with the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) are celebrating the 10th anniversary Mass at St Joseph Convent School of Bhubaneswar on the theme, “Reconciliation, Thanksgiving and Grace.”

The anniversary day is dubbed as Kandhamal Day, as most of the violence was perpetrated in the State’s Kandhamal District that comes under the jurisdiction of Cuttack Bhubaneshwar Archdiocese.

However, Arch. Barwa said that many will not be able to come for the Mass in Bhubaneswar on August 25 because of the distance and the current rainy season. But the day will be marked locally at various different levels.

The archbishop told Vatican News that 3 days after the 10th anniversary, Christians are organizing a demonstration to press for their demands.

On August 28 Christians plan to hold a public rally in Phulbani during which they intend to hand a memorandum to the state chief minister Naveen Patnaik, to demand justice and compensation that many victims and their families have been waiting for 10 years now.

But more than all these external manifestations, the archbishop said, Christians are relying on prayers.

It was under late Archbishop Raphael Cheenath that the August 2008 anti-Christian violence flared up in Kandhamal. Archbishop Barwa who took over in February 2011 noted that in the past 10 years the life of the Church in Odisha and Kandhamal has grown and enriched enormously.

Asian

Franciscans preach in extremist territory in Mindanao

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Undaunted by the danger posed by extremists in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, Franciscan missionaries hold Masses and other church activities in the mountains of Basilan province, home of the bandit Abu Sayyaf group.

Franciscan Father Elton Viagedor, pastor of San Roque parish in the town of Lantawan, said they want to show that the church is “centrifugal” in its missionary approach, that it can be “flexible in spreading the mission.”

“We hold Masses either in the streets or in backyards to show that the church should not wait for people to come to the parish chapel,” the priest told ucanews.com.

He said it is the Franciscan congregation’s “simple way of responding to the present day challenge of going out of the comforts of the parish or the convents to be with those on the peripheries.”

“It is on the peripheries that we are transformed,” said Father Viagedor.

“As Franciscans, I believe that we should be willing to go to the margins, even if they are considered risky and difficult,” said the priest.

“Such daring is not driven by arrogance but by the simple fact that we are dependent on God’s grace and by the desire to encounter the people on the peripheries,” added Father Viagedor.

The priest said the Masses he celebrates in the streets are not meant to attract Muslims to convert to Christianity, noting that people in the province maintain a healthy inter-religious and inter-cultural relationship.

The conflict displaced about 400,000 people.

Asian

Chinese Catholics: Sinicization is a trap to block the Church and distort the religions

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Sinicization “is a trap,” a way to “intimidate the Catholic Church;” it has the purpose of “distorting the creed of all religious communities” in China. These are the thoughts of two Chinese Catholics, Peter of Hebei, and Paul of Shaanxi referring to the program wanted by Xi Jinping to assimilate religions to Chinese culture and society, a program that provides for submission to the Communist Party and verification of assimilation by the Patriotic Association (PA), the Party’s long arm over religious communities. The PA and the Council of Bishops have already prepared a five-year plan for the implementation of sinicization. By the end of August, every diocese in China will have to present its plan at a diocesan level.

There is no precise definition of the term “sinicization.” The interpretation depends exclusively on the Party. Hence, sinicization means only the absolute and total obedience to the Party’s wishes.

And since the Party is atheist, this campaign aims to distort the beliefs of all religious communities. These, in assimilating themselves to the will of the Party, will lose their values and become less credible, so the Party can eliminate all its rivals.

It is obvious that the Council of Chinese bishops and the Patriotic Association will have to follow the political line of the Party: this explains the five-year plan that was recently published.

Asian

Third church demolished in China’s Jinan Diocese

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Qianwang Catholic Church in China’s Shandong province has become the third church in Jinan Diocese to be demolished by local authorities this year.

Liangwang Catholic Church was bulldozed on July 17 following the demolition of Shilihe Catholic Church, but a Catholic source told ucanews. com that the latter church would be rebuilt in another place.

More than 170 officials demolished Qianwang Church in Huashan town of Jinan city’s Licheng district on Aug. 13, according to a source.

He said authorities “had no explanation or solution and then forcibly demolished it.” A Marian statue and a statue of Jesus were destroyed, while the church’s alms box disappeared.

The source accused officials of ignoring the law, regulations on religious beliefs and the basic demands of the faithful. Such a barbaric demolition of the church had seriously hurt the trust of the faithful in the local authority, he said.