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Month: March 2020

Bishop Steven Raica to follow Bishop Baker as head of Birmingham diocese

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | , |

Vatican City, Mar 25, 2020 / 06:56 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Wednesday accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, Alabama, nominating Bishop Steven J. Raica of the diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, as his successor.

Baker, 75, has been a bishop for 20 years. He headed the Diocese of Birmingham since 2007. The pope has appointed Baker apostolic administrator of the diocese until Raica’s installation.

Raica’s Mass of installation will be held June 23 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, according to the diocese.

The Diocese of Birmingham covers more than 28,000 square miles of Alabama and serves over 104,000 Catholics.

In a statement March 25, Baker promised his prayers for Bishop Raica and pledged collaboration and support.

The 67-year-old Raica, a Michigan native, has been bishop of Gaylord since August 2014.

He has experience working in deaf ministry and is fluent in American Sign Language. He can also speak Italian and Polish conversationally.

Born in 1952 in Munising, Raica was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Lansing in 1978. In 1998, St. Pope John Paul II named him a prelate of honor.

As a priest, Raica served in various parishes in Burton, Flint, Ovid, Charlotte and Bellevue. He served as co-rector of Lansing’s St. Mary Cathedral and chaplain of Olivet College in Olivet.

He was also superior of Casa Santa Maria, the North American College’s graduate studies house in Rome. He served as spiritual director and adjunct faculty at the college from 1999-2005.

From 2007-2009, he was vice postulator of the sainthood cause of Servant of God Antonietta Meo, a devout Italian girl who died of cancer at the age of six in 1937.

Raica is also a music lover with an affinity for classical, jazz, classical organ, and choral music. He enjoys reading, cooking, travel and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, according to the Diocese of Gaylord in 2014.

The bishop holds both a licentiate and a doctorate in canon law from the Gregorian University in Rome.

He wrote his doctorate on Canon 1529 of the code of canon law, which concerns a judge’s role in collecting evidence in canonical trials.

As a priest, he served on the Lansing diocese’s tribunal as a pro-synodal judge, the promoter of justice, and a tribunal judge.

 

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Pope Francis leads Catholics in worldwide ecumenical Lord’s Prayer against coronavirus

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | , , , , , , , , |

Pope Francis leads Catholics in joining Christians of all Churches and confessions worldwide in praying for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

The post Pope Francis leads Catholics in worldwide ecumenical Lord’s Prayer against coronavirus appeared first on Catholic Herald.

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Be It Done to Me According to Thy Will

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | , |

A blessed solemnity of the Annunciation! to all our readers, which commemorates the conception of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity united His divine nature with a human nature, through a human body, made from her own, who was given a choice[…]

The post Be It Done to Me According to Thy Will appeared first on Catholic Insight.

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Pope Francis: The Church’s pro-life message is more relevant than ever

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | , |

Vatican City, Mar 25, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that the Church’s pro-life message is more relevant than ever as the world faces the coronavirus pandemic.

“The attacks on the dignity and life of people unfortunately continue even in our era … We are faced with new threats and new slavery, and legislation is not always to protect the weakest and most vulnerable human life,” Pope Francis said March 25.

“The message of the encyclical Evangelium Vitae is therefore more relevant than ever,” the pope said in his livestreamed Wednesday audience.

This year’s Solemnity of the Annunciation marks the 25th anniversary of the encyclical Evangelium Vitae promulgated by St. John Paul II on the value and inviolability of human life.

Pope Francis said that the coronavirus pandemic makes the encyclical’s message on the defense of all human life more urgent.

“Today, we find ourselves relaunching this teaching in the context of a pandemic that threatens human life and the world economy. A situation that makes the words with which the encyclical begins even more demanding,” the pope said.

Pope Francis then quoted the first line of the 1995 encyclical: “The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message. Welcomed by the Church every day with love, it must be announced with courageous fidelity as good news to men of all ages and cultures.”

Pope Francis said: “The life we ​​are called to promote and defend is not an abstract concept, but always manifests itself in a person in flesh and blood: a newly conceived child, a poor marginalized person, a sick person alone and discouraged or in a terminal state, one who has lost his job or is unable to find it, a rejected or ghettoized migrant.”

The pope explained that the Catholic Church has a particular responsibility to ensure the protection of every individual human life, which in itself is unrepeatable and of inestimable value.

“The defense of life for the Church is not an ideology,” he said. “Every human being is called by God to enjoy the fullness of life; and being entrusted to the maternal concern of the Church, every threat to dignity and human life cannot fail to affect its heart.”

“Beyond emergencies, such as the one we are experiencing, it is a question of acting on a cultural and educational level to transmit to future generations the attitude of solidarity,” he said.

In his televised Wednesday audience delivered from the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis praised the “silent testimony” of many people who are witnesses to this “Gospel of Life” by serving the sick, the elderly, and those who are lonely and poor.

He said that their lives mirror the example given by the Blessed Virgin Mary, who went in haste to help her cousin Elizabeth after the Annunciation.

“Dear brothers and sisters, every human life, unique and unrepeatable, valid in itself, constitutes an inestimable value. This must always be announced again, with the courage of the word and the courage of actions,” the pope said.

“Therefore, with St. John Paul II, who wrote this encyclical, with him I reaffirm with renewed conviction the appeal he made to all twenty-five years ago: ‘Respect, defend, love and serve life, every life, every human life! Only on this path will you find justice, development, freedom, peace and happiness,’” Pope Francis said.

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‘Stay the course’ – Keeping the faith, keeping a restaurant, and helping employees amid coronavirus

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | , |

St. Louis, Mo., Mar 25, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Favazza’s Restaurant has been an institution in St. Louis for over four decades. It’s located on The Hill, an Italian neighborhood well-known for its cuisine.

Now, with fears of coronavirus shuttering restaurants throughout the country, Favazza’s owner, a Catholic family man, is trying to keep his restaurant afloat, while at the same time trying to take care of laid-off employees as well as he can.

“I couldn’t do this if it goes three or four months. I’ll probably have to close or something,” owner Tony Favazza told CNA.

“Good thing I own the building, I have a good reputation— I’ve been here 45 years, and we’ve saved our money over the years. But we couldn’t do this for a long time…We have business interruption insurance, but it does not qualify for this pandemic, evidently.”

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson ordered restaurants across the city to close their seating areas March 19, in favor of delivery, window, walk-up or drive-thru service. No date has yet been given for when the provision could be lifted.

Favazza has had to lay off almost 50 people, but has been able to help many of them get set up for unemployment, showing them how to fill out complicated government forms.

The restaurant now is open only for carry-out and curbside delivery, with only about 10 employees left. They’ve cut down hours, and are “operating on minimum,” Favazza said. Favazza is paying one of his remaining employees, who has worked at Favazza’s for 40 years, a full salary.

“I don’t know how long that’s going to last, and he told me ‘whatever you need to do,’ but I told him I’d pay him, and his insurance. He’s 62 years old, and I’m just trying to help him through this,” he said.

A couple of restaurants in the area have closed completely, Favazza said. His wife was diagnosed with myeloma a month ago.

Still, he and his family are doing their best to keep the faith during this trying time.

Favazza had been going to Mass for a long time every morning at 6:30, and though public Masses are suspended in the St. Louis archdiocese, the church has remained open from 6:30 am to 3:00 pm.

“So there’s about 10 of us, every morning we meet and do the readings, and we do the rosary, and the pope’s novena for the virus,” he said.

“We’re just trying to do all we can. Take care of your neighbors and just be more civilized…if you have faith, just stay the course.”

Favazza’s regular customers have been doing their best to help the business.

“Even last week, we had people in the area calling us, buying gift certificates, saying ‘What can we do?'” Favazza said.

“One lady had a party that she had canceled— it was supposed to be last weekend— and she came by and paid the $300 deposit, because she’s going to do it in July now. She said, ‘I figured you’d need the money now.’ So she pre-paid for the party.”

Favazza said he always gives law enforcement a 50% discount at his restaurant. This week, two policemen came to get food at the restaurant, and placed a large order.

“My brother went out to tell them they got half off, and the cops said: ‘Mo no, we’re here to splurge you,’” Favazza said. “So that was very nice.”

Kim Peters, who has worked at the restaurant for nearly 18 years, is confident that the restaurant will reopen, even though the feeling of not going to work every day makes her feel a little anxious.

“Favazza’s has been around a long time, and they’ll be opening back up,” she told CNA. “I have no doubt about it.”

As a hostess, her job has been rendered non-essential since the restaurant is only taking take-out and curbside orders. Her last day was Thursday, but hopes that she will soon be rehired at Favazza’s.

“We’ve got a lot of employees that have been there for many, many years, and even people that did different jobs and come back to fill in here and there. They’re just a wonderful family to work for,” she said of the Favazzas.

“They’re just more concerned about their employees than they are about themselves…they’re well established, they’re taking a crunch like everybody else, but they’re going to be ok. They’re a very strong, Catholic, close-knit family, and they’re going to be fine even though they’ll feel a crunch.”

Jimmy Naucke normally works as the head maintenance man at Favazza’s, and picks up the alcohol that the restaurant sells. But they’re not selling any beer, wine, or liquor at the moment, and multiple parties have been canceled.

Still, he said, Tony’s first priority has been his employees.

“Those of us that work at Favazza’s— Tony always looks at us and just does everything he can above and beyond what most bosses do,” Naucke told CNA.

“He’s keeping people working, but since you can’t serve food at the tables, there goes the bussers, and all the waiters, and everything,” he said.

“He’s trying to do what he can, but with a lot of this stuff, his hands are tied.”

Naucke, who has been working at Favazza’s for 20 years, encouraged people to support small businesses during this time.

“There are a lot of people, in a lot of trades, that aren’t working at all,” he said.

“There’s a lot of restaurants on the Hill that are completely closed. Nobody’s working.”

 

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Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | |

Reading 1 Is 7:10-14; 8:10

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O ho…

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Pope Francis calls Christians to prayer for end to coronavirus pandemic

Posted by | Mar 25, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , |

Pope Francis has asked leaders of all the world’s Christian confessions to join with all the faithful in reciting the Lord’s Prayer today — Thursday, March 25th, the Feast of …

The post Pope Francis calls Christians to prayer for end to coronavirus pandemic appeared first on Catholic Herald.

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