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Month: March 2020

#9483 Open Forum – Mark Brumley

Posted by | Mar 6, 2020 | |

Callers choose the topics during Open Forum, peppering our guests with questions on every aspect of Catholic life and faith, the moral life, and even philosophical topics that touch on general religious belief. 
Questions Covered:

05:40 – What i…

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Pope’s message to youth: Don’t let your cell phone distract you from reality

Posted by | Mar 5, 2020 | , |

Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis is asking youth to wake up from the deadening static of staring at a cell phone to encounter Christ in their neighbor.

“Today, we are often ‘connected’ but not communicating. The indiscriminate use of electronic devices can keep us constantly glued to the screen,” Pope Francis said in his message to young people published March 5.

“When I look at things, do I look carefully, or is it more like when I quickly scroll through the thousands of photos or social profiles on my cell phone?” Francis asked.

The pope warned that he sees a “growing digital narcissism” among young people and adults alike.

“How often do we end up being eyewitnesses of events without ever experiencing them in real time! Sometimes our first reaction is to take a picture with our cell phone, without even bothering to look into the eyes of the persons involved,” Francis said.

Pope Francis encouraged young people to “wake up.” He said that if someone realizes that he is “dead inside,” he can trust that Christ can give them new life to “arise,” as he did with the young man in Luke 7:14.

“When we are ‘dead,’ we remain closed in on ourselves. Our relationships break up, or become superficial, false and hypocritical. When Jesus restores us to life, he ‘gives’ us to others,” he said.

The pope called upon young people to bring about “cultural change” that will allow those “isolated and withdrawn into virtual worlds” to arise.

“Let us spread Jesus’ invitation: ‘Arise!’ He calls us to embrace a reality that is so much more than virtual,” he said.

“This does not involve rejecting technology, but rather using it as a means and not as an end,” the pope added.

Pope Francis said that a person who is alive in Christ encounters reality, even tragedy, that leads him to suffer with his neighbor.

“How many situations are there where apathy reigns, where people plunge into an abyss of anguish and remorse! How many young people cry out with no one to hear their plea! Instead, they meet with looks of distraction and indifference,” Francis said.

“I think too of all those negative situations that people of your age are experiencing,” he said. “One young woman told me: ‘Among my friends I see less desire to get involved, less courage to get up.’ Sadly, depression is spreading among young people too, and in some cases even leads to the temptation to take one’s own life.”

With Christ, who brings new life, a young person can become more aware of those who are suffering draw near to them, he said.

“You too, as young people, are able to draw near to the realities of pain and death that you encounter. You too can touch them and, like Jesus, bring new life, thanks to the Holy Spirit,” he said. “You will be able to touch them as he does, and to bring his life to those of your friends who are inwardly dead, who suffer or have lost faith and hope.”

“Perhaps, in times of difficulty, many of you have heard people repeat those ‘magic’ formulas so fashionable nowadays, formulas that are supposed to take care of everything: ‘You have to believe in yourself’, ‘You have to discover your inner resources’, ‘You have to become conscious of your positive energy’ … But these are mere words; they do not work for someone who is truly ‘dead inside,’” he said.

“Jesus’ word has a deeper resonance; it goes infinitely deeper. It is a divine and creative word, which alone can bring the dead to life,” the pope said.

Pope Francis addressed this message to the young people throughout the world who will celebrate local diocesan World Youth Day gatherings on Palm Sunday this year.

The pope reminded young people that the next international World Youth Day will take place in Lisbon in 2022: “From Lisbon, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, great numbers of young people, including many missionaries, set out for unknown lands, to share their experience of Jesus with other peoples and nations.”

“As young people, you are experts in this! You like to take trips, to discover new places and people, and to have new experiences,” he said.

“If you have lost your vitality, your dreams, your enthusiasm, your optimism and your generosity, Jesus stands before you as once he stood before the dead son of the widow, and with all the power of his resurrection he urges you: ‘Young man, I say to you, arise!’” Pope Francis said.

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#9482 Open Forum – Jimmy Akin

Posted by | Mar 5, 2020 | |

Callers choose the topics during Open Forum, peppering our guests with questions on every aspect of Catholic life and faith, the moral life, and even philosophical topics that touch on general religious belief. 
Questions Covered:

03:20 – How wa…

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Mary McAleese writes to Pope Francis over Jean Varnier

Posted by | Mar 5, 2020 | , |

Dublin, Ireland, Mar 5, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Mary McAleese has written to Pope Francis about the allegations of sexual misconduct against L’Arche founder Jean Vanier. The former Irish president told the pope she could leave the Catholic Church if the Holy See is found to have failed to act in the case.

McAleese wrote to Pope Francis Feb. 26 asking for an explanation about how Varnier was able to rise to such acclaim in the Church despite his sexual misconduct. The letter was published on her own website.

On Feb. 22 L’Arche International announced the conclusions of an internal report which found Vanier had abused his position and relationship to sexually coerce six women over a period of decades. Vanier died on May 7, 2019, at the age of 90. After his death, Pope Francis issued a statement mourning Vanier, and praising his work with persons with intellectual disabilities. 

“I am conscious that you yourself have publicly praised Vanier and indeed spoke to him and of him in glowing terms just before his death,” McAleese wrote to the pope, noting that by 2019 the Vatican was aware that one of Vanier’s associates had a history of sexual predation.  

Vanier, a Catholic layman, founded L’Arche, which is an organization that assists people with intellectual disabilities through the creation of communities. L’Arche has no official ties to the Catholic Church.

“Given that vulnerable men and women were the intended beneficiaries of L’Arche, and that Vanier was consistently lauded by the Church at the highest level without the remotest suggestion that there was anything worrying in his character it is essential that the Holy See now explains how it came to so publicly commend a man whose predatory proclivities it was aware of,” said McAleese in the letter.

McAleese said that she had “regarded Vanier as inspirational for decades” and was devastated by the report stating he had engaged in sexually manipulative relationships with six women over a 45 year period. None of the women had intellectual disabilities. 

The former Irish president said that while she had “reason to despair at the failures at papal, episcopal and Curial level” in recent abuse crises, she would be unable to reconcile any knowledge that the Vatican shielded Vanier. 

“If however it transpires that the Holy See failed to protect members of L’Arche community by alerting them to the known predatory activities of Vanier and (Fr. Thomas) Philippe, I have to say that this will be my final line of least resistance,” she said. 

“I could not in conscience continue to support an institution capable of such gross negligence.” 

Vanier’s spiritual mentor, Fr. Thomas Philippe, O.P., was a French Dominican who died in 1993. Philippe was accused of sexual misconduct and was suspended from public ministry following a canonical process in 1956. He ignored this suspension. 

As part of his penalty, Philippe was ordered to inform all of his lay companions, including Vanier, about his suspension from public ministry. 

In 2014, L’Arche received new reports regarding Philippe’s misconduct, and requested an additional canonical inquiry, which concluded in March 2015. A report by L’Arche investigating the professional relationship between Vanier and Philipe was published in June 2017. 

“Now that both Philippe and Vanier have been unmasked, the spotlight moves to the Holy See,” wrote McAleese. She asked the pope to explain what the Vatican knew, and what they did “to prevent Vanier and Philippe living their grand lie.” 

“What did it do or not do which allowed Vanier to grow into the uncontested legend of folk saint and icon, a reputation which must have made it so very difficult for victims to come forward,” she wrote.

McAleese said there is “undoubtedly a cloud of doubt over the Holy See,” and she urges the Church to deal with it “as openly, courageously and honestly as L’Arche dealt with the investigation into its founder.” 

In addition to being an outspoken critic of the Church in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis, especially in Ireland, McAleese has in the past clashed with the Church on doctrinal issues, advocating both for the ordination of women to the priesthood and for Church recognition of same-sex marriage. 

In November 2019, while serving as Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, McAleese stated that the Catholic priesthood was based on a “fundamental lie” and that many potential priests have a “deeply problematic” sexuality. 

“The number of fake-hetero misogynistic homophobic gays I met frightened me,” said McAleese, recounting her time living in Rome among seminarians. 

In June 2018, three months before she was awarded a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University, she described the practice of baptizing infants as “coercion” and said it should be stopped.

In March 2018, she was forbidden from speaking at the Voices of Faith conference, which was typically held in the Vatican. The conference was then moved outside the Vatican, and held as scheduled. In her keynote speech, McAleese accused the Church of maintaining a misogynistic attitude which seeks to drown out women.

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