25 January 2017

Pope Francis has warned against growing populism in Europe, saying such movements could result in the election leaders of like Germany's Adolf Hitler.

"In times of crisis, we lack judgment, and that is a constant reference for me," the pontiff said in an in-depth interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais. "The most obvious example of European populism is Germany in 1933. After the crisis of 1930, Germany is broken, it needs to get up, to find its identity, a leader, someone capable of restoring its character, and there is a young man named Adolf Hitler."

 

"Hitler didn't steal the power, his people voted for him, and then he destroyed his people," the pope added.

Pope Francis' warnings come as a wave of populism washes over Europe, and as voters angry with traditional political elites throw their weight behind nationalist, anti-immigrant leaders.

During the same interview, the pope said he was reserving judgement on President Donald Trump.

"I don't like to get ahead of myself nor judge people prematurely. We will see how he acts, what he does, and then I will have an opinion," he said.

Pope Francis sent a congratulatory message to President Donald J. Trump on Friday, telling the new president that the global stature of the United States will be measured "by its concern for the poor, the outcast and those in need."

"Upon your inauguration as the forty-fifth President of the United States of America, I offer you my cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office," the pope wrote.

Francis, who has made highlighting the global refugee crisis a hallmark of his papacy, wrote that "our human family is beset by grave humanitarian crises demanding farsighted and united political responses."

He wrote that he prayed that Mr. Trump's decisions as president would be "guided by the rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people and your nation's commitment to the advancement of human dignity and freedom worldwide."

The U.S. Catholic hierarchy was one of the staunchest foes of President Obama's signature health care law, nearly derailing its passage in 2010 over concerns about abortion funding and exacting a political toll that helped doom abortion-opposing Democrats who backed Obamacare while boosting Republican efforts to take control of Congress.

But faced with the prospect of the GOP following through on pledges to repeal health care reform, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops seems to be changing its tune.

On Wednesday (Jan. 18), the USCCB  warning Congress not to overturn the law without providing an immediate replacement to provide continuing coverage for the millions who have been insured under the Affordable Care Act.

 

"We recognize that the law has brought about important gains in coverage, and those gains should be protected," Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Fla., chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, wrote to House and Senate members.

He said the bishops will examine proposals to amend or replace Obamacare but said that "for now that a repeal of key provisions of the Affordable Care Act ought not be undertaken without the concurrent passage of a replacement plan that ensures access to adequate health care for the millions of people who now rely upon it for their wellbeing."

The head of the Vatican's financial watchdog agency has revealed that the city-state began pursuing prosecutions against people accused of financial crimes for the first time in 2016, in what may be seen as a breakthrough for Pope Francis' continuing reforms.

In an NCR interview Jan. 10, the president of the Vatican's Financial Intelligence Authority said the first prosecutions had begun without public announcement in 2016 and would continue at a faster pace in 2017.

"The work there is increasing and we are definitely making progress on that end," said René Brülhart, speaking about the process carefully.

Lack of prosecutions against those accused of financial crimes has long been a concern of international experts who have examined the Vatican's financial system.

 

The showdown between the Vatican and the Knights of Malta appears to have to come an end, with the leader of the historic order offering his resignation reportedly at the request of Pope Francis.

The communications office of the order's Rome headquarters said Wednesday that Grand Master Matthew Festing's resignation would be considered by the group's governing council in a meeting Saturday.

News of Festing's resignation was first reported late Tuesday evening by the Reuters news agency, which said Francis had asked for Festing's resignation in a meeting at the Vatican earlier that day.

The resignation caps an unusually tense month for the prestigious Catholic lay order, which had been openly resisting a Vatican investigation into Festing's firing of one of their top officials. At times it seemed that one of Catholicism's most storied organizations was challenging the authority and power of the pope.

Festing's resignation appeared to surprise the order's headquarters, which was unable to answer questions about the leader's status with the group until mid-Wednesday morning. The order's website was down throughout the morning, with visitors receiving a message that the server hosting the site was overloaded.

The dispute between the Vatican and the Knights had centered on Festing's decision to fire his order's Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Boeselager. After Francis appointed a Vatican commission to study the situation surrounding the firing, Festing fought against that move, saying his order's historic status as a sovereign entity gave the Vatican no legal grounds to interfere.

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U.S. Catholic bishops are being asked how to better address young victims of extreme violence and drug addiction as part of a global youth survey supported by Pope Francis.

The survey of bishops and pastors includes questions that are specific to each continent and is part of the preparation for the 2018 Synod of Bishops, which will focus on young people.

As details of the survey were announced at the Vatican Friday (Jan. 13), Francis urged young people in an open letter to share their doubts and criticisms of the church.

The Catholic Church's power to dictate to people has collapsed, a silenced priest who defied a  ban to say Mass in public has said.

Fr  was disciplined and banned from public ministry by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 2012 for views he expressed on Catholic teachings in areas such as sexuality, contraception and the role of women in the church.

Fr Flannery, who turned 70 last Wednesday, decided to mark the occasion by celebrating Mass at Killimordaly Community Centre, near where he lives in east Co Galway on Sunday. He said he feared it would be the last time he did so.

A congregation of hundreds turned out to support him and, in his homily, Fr Flannery spoke of being overwhelmed by the good wishes he had received from across the Catholic community.

A leading critic of Pope Francis' approach to ministry to divorced and remarried Catholics and of his reforms to church annulment procedures will be the headline speaker at a San Francisco conference for canon lawyers.

Cardinal Raymond Burke will be the featured presenter at the Western Region Canon Law Meeting March 14-16 at San Francisco's St. Mary's Cathedral.

A conference flyer lists titles of the cardinal's talks as "Mitis Index Dominus Jesus: One Year Later" and "Current Issues/Concerns/Observations Regarding American Tribunals." 

Mitis Index Dominus Jesus ( "The Lord Jesus, Clement Judge" ) is one of two documents Francis issued in September 2015 aimed at reforming procedures for seeking declarations of marriage nullity. It addresses annulment protocols in the Latin rite Catholic church. The second, Mitis et misericors Iesus ("Clement and Merciful Jesus"), outlines reforms for the Code of Canons of Eastern Churches.

If you happen to receive a piece of mail from the Vatican this year, don't be surprised to see the face of Martin Luther.

The Vatican office charged with issuing stamps, known as the Philatelic and Numismatic , confirmed Tuesday to LifeSiteNews that Luther, who broke away from the Catholic Church in a schism 500 years ago, will be celebrated with a postage stamp in 2017. The office is in charge of the annual commission of stamps, coins, and other commemorative medals.

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While the Vatican has in the past collaborated with other national post offices to create stamps that are not of explicitly religious content, such as Charlie Chaplin or the fall of the Berlin wall, the Luther stamp has an undeniable religious connotation linked with much hostility to the Catholic Church

In an open letter published on 10 January, eleven priests from the archdiocese of Cologne have emphasised how crucial it is for the Church to admit women to the priesthood and make celibacy voluntary.

It makes no sense "continuously to pray to the Holy Spirit for vocations, if, at the same time, women are excluded from the priesthood. We urgently need to forge ahead with courageous initiatives regarding admission to the priesthood", the priests write.

 

The priests also point out that although they all accepted celibacy, they did not choose it. "Celibacy seldom releases a spiritual source for pastoral work", they point out, "but often leads either to loneliness and social isolation or to frantic workaholism".

They are also sharply critical of parish clustering. It only helps to increase the ongoing "anonymisation" and isolation taking place in society, they say. "For us - and for many others - these questions are burning issues and we know that they are also a great source of worry for Pope Francis and [Archbishop of Cologne] Cardinal [Rainer Maria] Woelki", Msgr Wolfgang Bretschneider, one of the eleven priests, told the archdiocesan radio station domradio.de.

Pope Francis is extending his controversial overhaul of the Vatican's liturgy department, adding a host of new advisers after an initial shake-up removed some leading conservative cardinals.

The 17 new advisers named Saturday include priests, laymen and two women. The experts in liturgy and theology join 27 cardinals and bishops named as full members in October. That reshuffling removed tradition-minded cardinals Raymond Burke and George Pell from the roster, although other conservatives were kept on

Catholic Church Reform Int'l congratulates Pope Francis on calling a Synod dedicated to young men and women. Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, told journalists yesterday that the presence of young men and women at the synod will help bishops understand how best to accompany youths who are searching for their vocation and path in life.

 "The mere presence of young people is not enough," said Rene Reid, director of Catholic Church Reform Int'l. "If any change is to come, this needs to be a synod where the bishops become the listening church and the young people become the teaching church sharing their heartfelt experiences."

A Rhode Island judge is allowing a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars to move forward against the disgraced Roman Catholic order the Legion of Christ.

The lawsuit, brought by the national anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, says the Legion interfered with an inheritance the group should have received from a wealthy widow. It says the Legion conspired to get Gabrielle Mee to cut the group out of her will and instead give her entire $60 million fortune to the Legion. Bernard Jackvony, a lawyer for Americans United for Life, said up to $6 million is at stake.

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In its lawsuit filed last year, Americans United for Life says Mee had bequeathed it 10 percent of her estate in a 1991 will. She later changed her will to leave everything to the Legion. Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein last week rejected the Legion's request to dismiss the lawsuit, although he agreed to dismiss two claims: fraud and undue influence.

A previous lawsuit, brought by the same lawyer on behalf of Mee's niece, alleged that Mee was defrauded by the order, and said the leaders orchestrated an effort to hide Maciel's misdeeds from her aunt. Silverstein threw out that suit in 2012 because he found the niece did not have standing to sue. But in that decision, he said there was evidence Mee had been unduly persuaded to give the Legion her money. He wrote that Mee transferred millions of dollars to "clandestinely dubious religious leaders."

Jackvony called last week's decision a "landmark" in Rhode Island, and said it could be used in similar situations where vulnerable people have been exploited.

Pope Francis has appointed Boston's Archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith-a move church officials say will expand his global involvement in the prevention of clergy sex abuse.

John Allen, the editor of Catholic news website Crux, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe that O'Malley's appointment reflects the influential role he's played in addressing the church sex abuse crisis.

"This appointment is another confirmation that he is essentially this pope's, and essentially the entire church's go-to man in the fight against child sexual abuse," said Allen. "If you want a signal that you're serious about something, and you want a signal that you're serious about reform, you want Cardinal O'Malley to be involved with it."

HBO's "The Young Pope" , beginning on Sunday and showing Sundays and Mondays, is a visually sublime but textually ridiculous horror tale in which the monster is the pontiff himself.

This 10-episode series begins after the election as pope of Lenny Belardo (Jude Law), a fresh-faced, little-known American. The church establishment, led by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando), hopes he will be "a telegenic puppet" and a bridge between church conservatives and liberals. Cardinal Belardo chooses the name Pius XIII.

For the complacent cardinals, XIII proves to be an unlucky number. The new pope is, superficially, novel: He's hooked on Cherry Coke Zero, he's pop-culture literate, he - well, he looks like Jude Law. But his beliefs turn out to be militantly conservative, if not medieval.

A McDonald's opening in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica is to offer free meals to the homeless in a move aimed at defusing controversy over the fast-food restaurant.

McDonald's said Thursday (Jan. 12) that it is working with the archbishop who dispenses charity on behalf of Pope Francis to provide 1,000 free lunches to the homeless who live in the area around the Vatican every Monday starting next week.

 Sr. Kate Kuenstler serves as an independent canon lawyer and has worked with Catholics from 30 dioceses across the United States as well as communities in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. In 2012,  from FutureChurch for her work promoting the rights of the laity, specifically in changing Vatican policy around preserving churches as worship sites.

Kuenstler holds a J.C.D. (doctorate in canon law) and a J.C.L. (licentiate of canon law) from the Angelicum, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome as well as a master's degree in theology from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kuenstler has also served as a diocesan tribunal lawyer, religious educator at both parish and diocesan levels, and as a second-grade teacher.

GSR: What is canon law, and what do you do as an independent canon lawyer?

Kuenstler: Canon law is a code of laws and regulations written for the Catholic church. I call it the final book of Vatican II. The 1983 Revised Code of Canon Law addresses the life of the contemporary church and gives the theological context and legal parameters of how to be a Catholic in today's church. I see it as the book that should be on the shelves next to the Vatican II documents.

As an independent canon lawyer, I do not work for a bishop or anyone in the Catholic hierarchy. Almost all canon lawyers work for a bishop or church agencies. The difference of being a canon lawyer with private practice is I am not in a diocesan office or chancery or international Catholic corporation. That gives me freedom to do something that almost no one else is doing.

I am sponsored by my religious institute, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. They have missioned me formally to be an advocate for the laity as a canonical counselor. I have four areas that have developed over the last 10 years.

First, I help the laity use their voice to speak against actions of bishops that laity perceive as detrimental to their faith life.

Secondly, I give seminars about the rights and obligations of the laity as found in canon law. Laity have no clue that they are in canon law and that they have rights and obligations.

 

 

Thirdly, I give seminars on the associations of laity and religious institutes. I have developed a process to describe the new expression of laity in the church. I have had the privilege of giving language to it and helping laity and sisters learn what it is and isn't.

The fourth thing I do is respond to questions and concerns that laity, priests, and religious bring to me.

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GSR: How is your work an expression of the PHJC charism, and how does being a part of a religious community support what you do? 

Kuenstler: Our charism is staying listening to the Word of God within and practicing discernment to bring the Incarnation into the world. We seek to name it and provide for its entrance as Mary did when the angel came to her at the Annunciation. Her response was, 'I am a poor handmaid.' That is where our title comes from. We listen for that call. We strive to walk hand-in-hand with the full Body of Christ and dream with them. We seek to encourage and welcome. We also have charism of building up leadership of laity so they are proactive and have the courage to be who they are called to be as the People of God.

A former employee of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is suing the advocacy group, claiming she was fired after she learned that SNAP's principal officers collude with attorneys representing sex abuse survivors and that SNAP accepts financial kickbacks for referring abuse victims to attorneys.

The charges by Gretchen Rachel Hammond were made in papers filed with the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, yesterday, Jan. 17.

The filings say Hammond was fired after she "learned ... [that] SNAP does not focus on protecting or helping survivors - it exploits them. SNAP routinely accepts financial kickbacks from attorneys in the form of 'donations.' In exchange for the kickbacks, SNAP refers survivors as potential clients to attorneys, who then file lawsuits on behalf of the survivors against the Catholic Church. These cases often settle, to the financial benefit of the attorneys and, at times, to the financial benefit of SNAP, which has received direct payments from survivors' settlements."

Defendants in the lawsuit are SNAP, Barbara Blaine, the founder and president of SNAP, David Clohessy, the executive director of SNAP, and Barbara Dorris, SNAP's outreach director.

For about a year, the guys at the gym just called him Joe. He lifted weights in the early mornings wearing a skull-printed do-rag. He worked out on the elliptical, wiping it down when he was done.

Then one day Shaun Yeary, a salesman at a landscape supply company, asked him in the locker room what he did for a living. "I used to be a priest," Joe recalled telling him. "And now," he said, his voice growing quieter so as not to scare anyone in earshot, "I'm the archbishop of Indianapolis."

As many of you may already know, on August 24, 2016, feminist theologian and scholar Rosemary Radford Ruether suffered a significant stroke. There has been some speculation from those who know or have known Rosemary about her current condition.  Here is the short of it.  While Rosemary has made progress, her doctors and therefore Medicare feel it is insufficient to warrant continued physical and speech therapies. Those who interact with Rosemary on a daily or weekly basis disagree with this medical prognosis.  The stroke damaged the part of Rosemary's brain that allows for communication, therefore she, at this time, is not able to speak.  That said, Rosemary recognizes individuals, is able to respond to some commands and engage in therapeutic exercises.  The more attention and care she receives the greater her capacity grows for a more meaningful life that includes a level of agency.  

 

The first year of a stroke demands ongoing therapies in order to truly assess a clear diagnosis.  To what degree Rosemary will recover from her stroke is uncertain, but at the minimum ongoing therapies will prove beneficial towards her overall quality of life.  Unfortunately, Rosemary does not have secondary health insurance that will cover the cost of these badly needed therapies.   For example, one month of Physical Therapy at 3x/week and Speech Therapy 2x/week amounts to $3,289.00.  Put another way, 15 minutes of physical or speech therapy costs $41.00.  To be effective, Rosemary should have, at the minimum, five hours of combined therapy per week.  

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Our lives are busy, very busy and it is understandable that this remarkable woman and her needs might slip from our rearview mirror.  One way to remember Rosemary is to hold her in the light through prayer.