In an effort to reach out to local people, a German Catholic priest from the Diocese of Limburg has adopted the habit of taking a weekly train journey during which he makes himself available to chat to other passengers. Father Olaf Linden-berg has experienced enormous success with his simple idea of setting out to meet people while he travels on local trains.
Nearly every Tuesday he boards the 6.55 a.m. train between Limburg and Frankfurt-am-Main.
Over 5.1 million babies were born in the European Union (EU) in 2016. In eight of the 28 Member States, the majority of babies were born outside marriage, while in eight other member States two-thirds of babies were born to married parents.
With six in every ten babies born to unmarried parents, France had the largest proportion (59.7%) of live births outside marriage in the EU in 2016. France was closely followed by Bulgaria and Slovenia (both 58.6%). More than half of births also occurred outside marriage in Estonia (56.1%), Sweden (54.9%), Denmark (54.0%), Portugal (52.8%) and the Netherlands (50.4%).
In contrast, fewer than 1 in 10 babies were born to unmarried parents in Greece (9.4%). Births outside marriage also accounted for a quarter or fewer of all babies born in Croatia (18.9%), Cyprus (19.1%) and Poland (25.0%), and for under a third of babies born in Lithuania (27.4%), Italy (28.0%), Romania (31.3%) and Malta (31.8%).
Compared with the situation in 2000, the proportion of live births outside marriage rose in all Member States, albeit to different extents.
On the one hand, the propor- tion of babies born out of wedlock has grown significantly in Mediterranean Member States. It has increased eightfold in Cyprus (from 2.3% in 2000 to 19.1% in 2016). It has tripled in Malta (from 10.6% to 31.8%) and Italy (from 9.7% to 28.0%), while it is now about 2.5 times higher in Spain (from 17.7% to 45.9%), Greece (from 4.0% to 9.4%) and in another southern Member State: Portugal (from 22.2% to 52.8%).
As the Austrian Catholic news website Kath.net reports, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – with explicit approval of Pope Francis – rejected the 22 February 2018 pastoral handout concerning the admittance, in individual cases, of Protestant spouses of Catholics to Holy Communion as it had been approved by the German Bishops’ Conference under the leadership of Cardinal Reinhard Marx. We have confirmed their report with our own sources close to the Vatican.
Kath.net relies for its story on “well- informed Vatican sources,” according to which this handout “has been sent back to the sender.” Only last time, there had come out reports about a letter written by seven German bishops and addressed to the Vatican, in which they ask for clarification in this matter. One of these seven bishops, Bishop Stefan Oster, had subsequently explained in detail what the objections of these bishops were.
As Oster explained in an article published in his own diocesan newspaper, “We wish to receive a clarification as to whether this expansion of the interpretation of grave emergency situations is correct.” It does not seem a “simple” thing to “share the full Catholic understanding of the Eucharist,” while at the same time remaining in another denomination; and “thus to preserve for oneself, at the same time, that confession’s own understanding, let’s say of the Last Supper.” Oster does not see how this inner contradiction could – or should – be preserved of holding two different, incommensurate understandings of Holy Communion at the same time. While Cardinal Reinhard Marx meets Pope Francis to discuss a proposal by the German bishops to loosen restrictions on giving communion to Protestants married to Catholics.
The bishops’ conference revealed the forthcoming meeting at the Vatican in a statement where they described reports that the Vatican – on the Pope’s instruction – had rejected the German plan as “false.”
While a convincing majority of the bishops voted to agree a “pastoral hand-out” on how more spouses in inter-church marriages might receive the Eucharist, seven prelates have written to the Vatican asking for clarification on the matter.
With faith, people can confront and help to overcome the evil of racism, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said in an April 17 talk at The Catholic University of America.
“The elimination of racism may seem too a great task for any one of us or even for the whole church,” he said. “Yet we place our confidence in the Lord, because in Christ, we are brothers and sisters, one to the other. With Christ, we stand in the spirit of justice, peace and love.”
Wuerl, who as the archbishop of Washington is Catholic University’s chancellor, was invited by its president, John Garvey, to speak on his recent pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Racism Today.”
Speaking at the university’s Pryzbyla Centre to an audience consisting mostly of seminarians and other students, the cardinal compared racism to a residue that has contaminated streams that flow into the societal well from which people drink. He warned that the unhealthy contaminants causing racism in our culture can be subtle and ubiquitous. “We have the possibility to be that fresh stream of water flowing into the societal well,” he said. Noting that the U.S. bishops in their 1979 pastoral letter “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” identified racism as a sin, the cardinal said that evil has spanned continents and centuries and continues in today’s world.
A man standing for election to a village council in the southern Philippines has been criticized by a church leader for using the nickname “Jesus Christ” on his certificate of candidacy.
The Commission on Elections upheld the use of the name by 40- year-old Charlie Bucao Talledo.
But Father Bobby Puracan, chancellor of Surigao Diocese in Mindanao, cautioned against using the name for political purposes.
“The term ‘Christ’ is a title that means ‘Messiah’ or ‘the anointed one’ from the Greek ‘Christos’,” he said. “He is the central figure of Christianity, so we must be careful in using it.”
Father Puracan said he knows Talledo, who always attracts the attention of people every time he attends Mass.
“During the singing of the Lord’s Prayer, he would go to the middle of the church and raise his arms, getting unnecessary attention,” said the priest. There were also incidents when Talledo walked around the city dressed like Jesus while carrying a crucifix attached to a baton.
Two Catholic Priests and at least 17 worshippers have been killed in an attack by herdsmen on St Ignatius Catholic Church in Ukpor -Mbalom community in Gwer East Local Government of Benue State in Nigeria.
Stressing that the country will not bow to the machinations of evildoers, President Buhari vowed that the assailants would be hunted down and made to pay for the sacrilege committed. The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi confirmed the killing of two of its priests, Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, in an early hour attack on St Ignatius Quasi Parish.
A statement by its Director of Communications, Rev Fr Moses Iorapuu, said that the attacks were perpetrated by herdsmen who stormed the Mbalom community and killed the two priests during the morning mass at the church.
The Diocese expressed regret at the nonchalant attitude of the security agencies in containing the killings. It said the herdsmen, who stormed the community, burnt down houses, destroyed crops and killed people. The church, there- fore, urged the relevant authorities to stop the killings in the Benue valley.
Then-Deacon Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia in vocations video. The priest was murdered outside Guadalajara.
A priest on the outskirts of Guadalajara has been murdered, the second priest in a week killed in Mexico. Father Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia, 33, was shot dead late on April 20 in Tlajomulco de Zuniga by unidentified attackers in his parish office, reportedly while hearing a confession. “We make an urgent call to build a culture of peace and reconciliation. These lamentable events call all of us to a much deeper and sincere conversion. It is time to look honestly at our culture and society, and to ask ourselves why we have lost respect for life and for the sacred,” said Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega, the Archbishop of Guadalajara.
The cardinal asked the Catholic faithful to accompany their priests with prayer and in the pastoral service to the communities entrusted to them.
A Catholic priest brought Britain’s Got Talent judges to tears, following his audition on the national TV talent show.
Fr Ray Kelly, a parish priest from Ireland, went through to the next round of the competition after receiving the coveted four ‘yeses’ from the judging panel, after singing a rendition of REM’s Everybody Hurts. The judges praised his performance at the auditions, including judge Simon Cowell, who described it as one of his ‘favourite auditions ever.’
The 65-year-old priest of almost 30 years has been a parish priest in Oldcastle and Moylagh, Co Meath since 2006, and has already become a hit online with his musical performances.
Hundreds of civilians have fled their homes and are seeking refuge in churches in Myanmar’s conflict-torn Kachin State amid the military’s offensive against Kachin rebels.
More than 900 civilians from Kasung and Zup Mai villages are taking refuge in two Catholic Churches and a Baptist Church in Namti town after church groups rescued them on April 22. Father Peter Hka Awng Tu, parish priest of St Columban’s Cathedral, said people from Zup Mai had to walk for three days after fleeing their homes on April 20.
The priest said clothes donated by parishioners and food were given to the displaced people on April 23.
He said they rescued fleeing civilians, including women, children and the elderly, after he had a meeting with the military’s northern commander, who gave the green light. “At present people can’t go back to their villages as it is not safe for them because more fighting could erupt. Church groups will continue providing humanitarian assistance,” Father Awng Tu told.
On April 20, Myanmar’s military launched an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) by using airstrikes near Kasung village that led to hundreds of people fleeing their homes.
More than 1,000 civilians from Kasung, which is about 25 kilometers from Namti town, fled their homes in August 2017 following clashes between the military and the KIA.
More than 2,000 people remain trapped in a jungle since heavy fighting between Myanmar’s military and the KIA erupted near Awng Lawt and nearby villages on April 11.
About 200 Catholics remain stranded after attending a jubilee celebration on April 8-9 in Tanai, a gold and amber mining region, and cannot return to their village, according to Father Awng Tu.
“I am nothing but an instrument in God’s hands, a channel to show the world His mercy,” Fr Jyoti Francis Costa, tells Asia News. We met the assistant to the general secretary of the Bengali Episcopal Conference (Cbcb) in Rome, where he participated in the meeting convoked by Pope Francis with the Missionaries of Mercy. The Pope created this body of priests during the Extraordinary Jubilee of 2016 to “absolve even the most serious sins.” Fr Costa is one of the two missionaries chosen for Bangladesh.
Reflecting on his delicate assignment he states: “I am superior to none. I am there to listen, console the anxieties, welcome the faithful who want to be reconciled with God. I have no merit, it is the love of God that converts hearts.”
The priest is incardinated in the archdiocese of Dhaka, but thanks to the assignment he has been able to visit “parishes, dioceses and pilgrimage centres. Here the local Churches have organized masses, meetings, seminars and retreats.” In particular, he recounts, “I went on several occasions to the dioceses of Barisal [in the south of the country,] and Sylhet [to the east]. Some meetings have been dedicated to religious and consecrated persons, others to all the local faithful and neighboring parishes.”
With the papal mandate, since 2016 he has been able “to preach to thousands of people the teachings of the Gospel and the mercy of the Lord. Moreover, thanks to the special faculties granted us by the Pope, I have been able to confess to many faithful and absolve the sins reserved for the Apostolic See. I have listened to many personal stories and experiences.”
