Pope Francis enthusiastically greeted Italian actor and come-dian Roberto Benigni at the Va-tican on Wednesday morning.
Benigni, best known for his Oscar-winning film “Life is Beautiful,” met privately with the pope to tell him about his latest project, a new show about St. Francis of Assisi.
The comic, who recited a line from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy from memory on the Oscars stage in 1999, now serves as the host of the Italian program based on St. Francis’ poem “The Canticle of the Sun.”
The show, “Francesco Il Cantico,” is currently streaming on Paramount Plus in Italy. Benigni also gave the pope a copy of the program on DVD, accor-ding to Reuters.
Pope Francis meeting with Roberto Benigni, Dec. 7, 2022. Vatican Media.
Greeting the pope with a hug, Benigni joked that the pontiff was “emanating light.”
Pope Francis told him not to exaggerate, to which the actor replied: “I have to exaggerate, I’m happy to be here.”
Francis Slams Door on Women’s Ordination
Pope Francis has firmly slammed the door on admitting women to holy orders on the grounds that women’s ordination constitutes a “theological problem” and a violation of the “Petrine principle.”
In an interview published Monday with left-wing Jesuit magazine America, the pontiff categorically stated that a woman “cannot enter ordained ministry … because the Petrine principle has no place for that.”
The pope was responding to a question that asked what he “would say to a woman who is already serving in the life of the Church but who still feels called to be a priest,” especially since “many women feel pain because they cannot be ordained priests.”
Francis stressed that focusing exclusively on “the ministerial dimension of the life of the Church” or the “Petrine principle” of the “ordained ministry” would be to “amputate the being of the Church.”
Instead, the “Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity in the Church, of the woman in the Church, where the Church sees a mirror of Herself because She is a woman and a spouse,” was “still more important” but sadly ignored, the pope explained.
“The ministerial dimension, we can say, is that of the Petrine Church. I am using a category of theologians,” Francis reiterated. “A church with only the Petrine principle would be a church that one would think is reduced to its ministerial dimension, nothing else.” Francis said the Church had failed “to develop a theology of woman that reflects” the “Marian principle, which is that of the spousal Church” and had neglected to explain through catechesis how a woman “looks more like the Church, which is mother and spouse.”
Madhya Pradesh police probe alleged religious conversion
Police in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have initiated a preli-minary probe into a woman’s allegation that she was paid to convert Christianity.
The move came on an order from the National Commission for Women (NCW), a federal statutory body empowered to protect the rights of women in India.
The NCW order came after a video footage of the woman went viral on Nov. 18 in which she accused a couple Christian men of offering her money to convert.
The woman, believed to be a resident of Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh, said she became Christian after 120,000 rupees was paid to her. She took the money as she was in need of it. The men, according to her dipped her in a water tank and told her that she had become a Christian. But their relationship strained after she stopped going to church. The men, she added, demanded the money back four times. She claimed to have returned 90,000 rupees and promised to pay the rest but they were not ready to listen.
The woman whose identity is not revealed also said in the video footage that at least five others were also converted to Christianity in the same spot, but failed to mention when that had happened.
NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma took cognizance of the video footage and demanded action against the culprits.
Sharma in her official tweet said her commission has taken cognizance of the video footage. The commission, she added, had “written to director general of police, the top police official, Madhya Pradesh to immediately file the First Information Report (FIR) and arrest all the accused if the allegations are found to be true. “NCW has also written to the district collector, top government official Damoh, seeking strict action She also wrote the alleged conversion is “not acceptable at all.”
Thousands flock as Berhampur diocese resumes Marian feast after two years
Thousands of devotees from east-ern Indian state have flocked to the cathedral church of Berhampur diocese in Odisha to celebrate a Marian feast after two years. The Queen of the Mission feast was suspended because of the Covid-19 restrictions. The feast concluded on Nov. 27 after a nine-day novena.
Salesian priest dies of heart attack in New Delhi airport
Salesian Father Joseph Chittattukalam died of heart attack November 27 at New Delhi air-port. He was 82.
Rome studies miracle attributed to Venerable Agnelo
The canonization process of Venerable Agnelo D’Souza has entered a new phase after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints began to study a miracle attributed to the saintly priest from Goa.
India deports 3 Swedish Christians for proselytizing
Indian police are deporting three Swedish citizens who violated their visas by trying to convert people to Christianity in India’s remote northeast region, officials said Thursday.
India’s Latin rite bishops reelect office bearers
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, archbishop of Goa and Daman, was re-elected president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), the national body of the country’s Latin rites bishops.
The election took place during the conference’s 33rd plenary assembly held November 11-12 at St. John’s National Institute of Health Sciences in Bengaluru, southern India.
Archbishop, top clergy named prime accused in violence against Adani Port…
The police in Kerala have registered a case against a Catholic archbishop, his auxiliary and 48 others in connection with violence during a protest against an under construction international seaport in the southern Indian state.
The police and protesters clashed at Vizhinjam police station close to the port protest site on November 27 night that led to injuries to more than 50 people, including 36 police personnel.
The violent mob also ran-sacked the police station and destroyed equipment and police vehicles parked in the compound.
The protesters came to the police station demanding the release five men detained by the police the previous day for violent clash in front of the port site. The protestors had blocked the entry of dumper trucks with construction materials.
Some claiming to be su-pporters of the port project acco-mpanied the trucks and threw stones at the protestors.
The clash continued alle-gedly in connivance with the police. Many had sustained wounds in the violence.
The police later charged Archbishop Thomas J Nettor of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese, his auxiliary Bishop R Kristudas, priests and other protesters for the violence.
Odisha’s temporary teachers on strike for job regularization
Hundreds of temporary teachers are on an indefinite strike demanding regularisation of their service in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
“We were employed by the government during 2003-2004 but the government sacked us in various false cases,” says a statement from the association of Swechasevi Sikshya sahayak (SSS, Student Assistant volunteers).
The association wants the government to follow a High Court order and re-employ all dismissed teachers and regularize those still working.
The protest that began November 14 continues even after two weeks at the Lower PMG Square in Bhubaneswar, the state the capital.
“The government has divided us into three parts, regular, contractual, and overthrown members. This is how we have been harassed for 19 years,” bemoans Duryajan Sethi, president of the SSS teachers’ federation.
He said the high court on November 9 gave the order in the teachers’ favor. “If the government does not listen, we will intensify the protest and continue to demand to re-employ 243 teachers who were removed unjustly and regularize the 412 teachers who are working on a contractual basis.”