Pope Francis has ruled that new religious orders must receive Vatican approval before being established. It is a significant move that is likely to prevent the hasty establishment of small groups of religious and seeks to put an end to the sexual abuse scandals that have bedevilled such institutes in recent decades.
Francis has amended Canon Law meaning that local bishops will now need written permission from the Holy See before approving the setting up of communities of religious in their diocese. It also signals that bishops will be required to undertake a more credible and rigorous discernment than they have in the past before establishing congregations.
A proliferation of new “institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life” have been established during the latter part of the 20th century, although many of them similar to one another. In an alarming number of cases, the founders of new orders have sexually and spiritually abused their members.
The Vatican has investigated a range of problems inside newly established congregations. These include cults of personality developing around the purportedly orthodox or charismatic founders; how members are formed; an excessive focus on traditionalist liturgies out of sync with the local church; authoritarian leadership styles; psychological manipulation oft those inside the groups and financial mismanagement.
“The faithful have the right to be advised by their pastors about the authenticity of the charisms and about the trustworthiness of those who present themselves as founders,” the Pope explained in the ruling. “It is the responsibility of the Apostolic See to accompany the Pastors in the process of discernment leading to the ecclesial recognition of a new institute or a new society.”
In a sign the Vatican is taking the issue very seriously, Archbishop José Rodríguez Caraballo, the secretary of the Holy See’s congregation for religious, recently wrote the foreword for a new book published this year Risques et dérives de la vie religieu-se (Risks and deviations of Religious Life), which examines sexual and spiritual abuses and how to combat them. The book is written by Dysmas de Lassus, the minister general of the Carthusian Order who is based at the historic Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps. Carthusians, who follow a strict rule of silence, do not normally give their names publicly to what they write but in this case, de Lassus has made an exception.
Pope warns Spanish prime minister of rise of nationalism, ideology
The rise of nationalism and the ideological divide that springs from it could create the same circumstances that led to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and World War II, Pope Francis warned.
In a rare move, Pope Francis asked for a microphone and gave an off-the-cuff speech to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who was accompanied by his wife, Maria Begona Gomez, and a delegation of officials on Oct. 24.
Citing a book by Italian philosopher Siegmund Ginzberg titled “Syndrome 1933,” the Pope said he agreed with its assessment that the ideological shift in today’s European political climate risks something similar to what occurred in Germany after the fall of the Weimar Republic, giving rise to the ideology of National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism.
Ideologies “sectarianize, ideologies deconstruct the homeland, they don’t build it,” he said. And Ginzberg “very delicately, makes a comparison of what is happening in Europe. He says: ‘Be careful, we are repeating a similar path.’”
In his roughly eight-minute address to Sanchez and the Spanish delegation, the Pope recalled St Paul VI’s recognition of politics as “one of the highest forms of charity.” “Politics is not only an art, but for Christians it is an act of charity, it ennobles and often leads to the sacrifice of one’s life, one’s privacy, so many things, for the good of others, and this is because the politician has in his hands a very difficult mission,” he said.
The Pope’s comments came at a time of political division in Spain when lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a vote of no-confidence on Oct. 22 brought against Sanchez, a member of Spain’s Socialist party, by members of the far-right Vox party.
Nice Jihad: Bishop Blames Europe, Cardinal Names Islam
A Portuguese bishop is blaming European prejudices for the slaughter and beheading of three innocent Catholics by an illegal Muslim migrant in Nice’s Notre Dame Basilica.
“The attack on the cathedral in Nice is not Islam’s fight against Christianity: It is the result of the prejudices of those Europeans who not only do not foster intercultural and interreligious dialogue but are always at the ready to accuse religions,” Bp Manuel Linda of Porto tweeted on November 6.
Calling upon the West to fight against jihadi forces with “force and determination,” the French-speaking Guinean prelate warned that Islam would “not stop its war” against Europe.
“Unfortunately, we Africans know this too well. The barbarians are always the enemies of peace. The West, today France, must understand this. Let us pray,” tweeted Sarah, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
At least one killed in terror attack in Vienna
At least one person was killed and at least 15 others – including at least one police officer – were seriously injured in exchanges of gunfire in central Vienna that Austria’s interior minister descri-bed as a terror attack.
One attacker was shot dead after incidents at six locations close to Seitenstettengasse street in the heart of the Austrian ca-pital, a spokesperson for Vien-na’s police force told broadcaster ORF.
The local APA news agency reported that a bystander had also been shot dead.
“At the moment I can confirm we believe this is an apparent terror attack,” Karl Nehammer, the interior minister, told ORF.
He said the attacks were thought to have been carried out by several people with long guns, adding there were likely to be more casualties.
“We believe there are several perpetrators. Unfortunately there are also several injured, probably also dead,” he said.
A total of 15 people were being treated for injuries in local hospitals late on November 2, a spokesperson for the Vienna hospital association told ORF. Seven victims were reported to be critical condition.
Trump wins white evangelicals, Catholics split
President Donald Trump won support from about 8 in 10 white Evangelical Christian voters in his race for reelection, but Ca-tholic voters split almost evenly between him and Democratic opponent Joe Biden, according to AP Vote Cast.
Trump’s strong hold on white evangelical voters illustrates the GOP’s enduring success with a bloc of religious conservatives who have been a linchpin of the president’s political base since his 2016 victory. The president’s path to a second term has grown narrower, however, amid a divide among Catholics between Trump and Biden, a lifelong member of the faith.
AP Vote Cast showed 50% of Catholics backing Trump and 49% favouring Biden, reflecting the faith’s longstanding role as a closely contested vote in presi-dential elections — particularly in Rust Belt battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump won both of those states by less than 1 percentage point in 2016, but Biden prevailed in both this year. The survey of more than 110,000 voters nation-wide was conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
‘Hard times’ ahead for Church in Poland after cardinal sanctioned by Vatican
In an unprecedented move for the Polish Church, the Vatican banned a retired cardinal from public ministry, public appearances, and the use of the bishop’s insignia. Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz of Wroclaw also cannot be buried in the archdiocesan cathedral after his death. The disciplinary measures are a historic and symbolic moment for the Church in Poland.
Priest Suspended for Blasting ‘Heretic’ Pope
An Italian priest who called out Pope Francis as “mediocre” and a “heretic in need of conver-sion” in his All Saints Day sermon has been suspended by his bishop. Father Fabio Ragusa, assistant priest in the parish Borgio Verezzi, Savona, denounced the pontiff for “uttering truly senseless statements” endorsing homosexual civil unions and stressed that “it was imperative to obey the Catechism and the Church’s doctrine.”
Pope Francis vows to end sexual abuse after McCarrick report
Pope Francis pledged November 11 to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offered prayers to victims of former Cardinal Theodore Mc-Carrick, a day after the Vatican released a detailed report into the decades-long church cover-up of his sexual misconduct.
The Vatican report blamed a host of bishops, cardinals and popes for downplaying and dis-missing mountains of evidence of McCarrick’s misconduct starting in the 1990s — but largely spared Francis. Instead, it laid the lion’s share of the blame on St John Paul II, a former Pope, for having appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington in 2000, and making him a cardinal, despite having commissioned an inquiry that found he had slept with seminarians.
Francis concluded his weekly general audience by recalling that the report into the “painful case” of the former high-ranking American cardinal had been released the previous day.
“I renew my closeness to victims of any abuse and commit-ment of the church to eradicate this evil,” Francis said. He then paused silently for nearly a minute, apparently in prayer.
Cardinal Dziwisz defends himself in wake of McCarrick report
While the world is still digesting the McCarrick report, released by the Vatican on November 10, the blame game has begun in Poland, St John Paul II’s homeland. One of the report’s few living protagonists is Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul’s longtime personal secretary, who was mentioned 45 times in the document.
But the storm for Dziwisz actually started the day before the report was released, when TVN24 aired “Don Stanislaw” by journalist Marcin Gutowski, a 90-minutes-long documentary “showing another face of Cardinal Dziwisz,” as the station advertised it.
RELATED: Poland becomes testing ground for Vatican’s new anti-abuse legislation
The film aired a long list of accusations from covering up for his friends from the seminary, to the role of Dziwisz in the case of the late Father Marcial Maciel, the disgraced founder of the Legionaries of Christ, another other dark spot in John Paul’s pontificate.
The McCarrick report and the documentary “Don Stanislaw” both contained accusations Dziwisz hid correspondence from John Paul.
But the Vatican report also confirmed letters sent to Dziwisz regarding the McCarrick case, and even the one written by the American prelate in August 2000 defending himself, was indeed given to the pope. The release of the McCarrick report has been hotly debated in Poland, especially how it might influence the legacy of John Paul.
Opposition parties demand release of Jesuit priest, activists
Opposition leaders on October 21 expressed solidarity human rights activists such as Jesuit Father Stan Swamy and lawyers arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and demanded the repeal of the stringent law.
Addressing a webinar organized by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), they urged the public to break their silence on the government’s efforts to “chip away the rights of the people.”
The National Investigation Agency arrested Father Swamy, 83, and others in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
Father Swamy was arrested on Oct. 8 from his residence near Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand State in eastern India. Next day, it took the priest, a patient of Park-inson’s disease, to Mumbai, some 1,710 km west of Ranchi, and presented him before a court that sent him to judicial custody until on October 23.
Addressing the webinar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren alleged that the federal government was trying to silence the voices of marginalized commu-nities. He also alleged that the country’s unity, integrity and democratic structures were under attack under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury as well as the DMK’s Kanimozhi urged civil society groups and the public to break their silence over the “government’s attacks on the rights of the people.”
Yechury said entire UAPA law needs to be repealed, as it is prone “gross misuse.” He said that UAPA, sedition law and National Security Act need to be seen together as part of the “larger plan of the BJP and RSS” to pave the way for a “fascistic, intolerant and authoritarian Hindutva nation.” The Centre, he alleged, is using central agencies to undermine the Constitution, while shielding the real perpetrators of violence.
A total of 16 people have been arrested under the UAPA in the case, which include three cultural activists of the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) – Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Ghogre and Jyoti Jagtap – as well as rights activists, writers, lawyers, and academics Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Shoma Sen, Hany Baby, lawyers, Sudha Bharadwaj, Surendra Gadling, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Arun Ferreira.