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Month: October 2020

St. Bruno

Posted by | Oct 6, 2020 | , |

Bruno was born in Cologne in 1030. He studied at the Cathedral school at Rheims, and on his return to Cologne about 1055, was ordained and became a Canon at St. Cunibert’s. Bruno taught theology, criticized the worldliness he saw in his fellow clergy, and eventually became chancellor of his archdiocese. Following a vision he […]

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Aid to the Church in Need providing aid to nuns in poverty during pandemic

Posted by | Oct 6, 2020 | , |

CNA Staff, Oct 5, 2020 / 10:00 pm (CNA).- The Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in Spain is providing aid to nearly 70 religious communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo facing extreme poverty due to the coronavirus crisis.

ACN said that because of the pandemic and lockdown in the African country, they will extend urgent subsistence aid to 69 religious communities in the ecclesiastical province of Bukavu, located in eastern Congo.

The pontifical foundation noted that the pandemic has worsened the nuns’ already “extremely difficult” situation, in a country constantly suffering from ethnic conflicts, insecurity, armed incursions from neighboring countries, kidnappings and rapes.

“Since the state of emergency decreed by the president of the DRC on March 24, wages have been suspended,” ACN explained.

Some of the religious sisters work in healthcare and that sector has lost income because it is compensated “according to the number of patients and now people are reluctant to go to the hospital for fear of being infected with the virus.”

“Those who work in schools would receive a part of what the students’ parents paid, but at a time when schools are closed due to COVID-19, they have also lost this income,” the charitable organization lamented.

The Archbishop of Bukavu, François-Xavier Maroy, applied for aid from ACN, which responded by allocating 120,000 euros (about $140,000) to support 464 religious from six different congregations.

ACN’s project director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Christine du Coudray, said that as a foundation it is obliged “to give them relief in their destitution, relief that they will know how to multiply to those people more dispossessed than they are,” in a country that “has lived under smoldering conflict for 20 years.”

“When the conflicts have made all the NGOs flee, the Church and especially the religious sisters remain close to the most disadvantaged population, like anonymous good souls, in accordance with the spirit of Mother Teresa,” she added.

ACN noted its support for sisters is an addition to the work that it has already been doing in the country with the aid provided to priests, who because of the lack of Sunday collections and other resources have no means to survive on or carry on their pastoral work.

“Now that their parishioners are confined to their homes, life has become more difficult for everyone because most of the people are unemployed  (around 96% of the population) and live only on what they get from day to day,” lamented the bishop of the diocese of Mbuji-Mayi, Bernard-Emmanuel Kasanda.

The novice master of the Congregation of Labor Chaplains, Fr. Clemente Mwehu Muteba thanked ACN for its support and said that with the financial help he has been able to pay for fuel to continue his apostolate at his chapel in Lubumbashi, in the province of Alto Katanga and but also to pay “for some paper to meet the needs for the formation of the young people.”

Another member of the congregation of chaplains, Fr. Alain Mwila Wa Ilunga, said that it‘s a real relief to receive this financial support, which he has decided to share “with the most helpless and the poor who are sick so they can nourish themselves with their daily bread.”

This report was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Catholics globally credit pope for encyclical’s call to uphold human dignity

Posted by | Oct 6, 2020 | , , , , , , |

Pope Francis’ new social encyclical offers a vision for the world of dignity for every person around the world and promotes a call to “build a new culture of fraternity and dialogue,” said the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

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Cardinal Pell accuser denies Becciu bribery allegations

Posted by | Oct 5, 2020 | , |

CNA Staff, Oct 5, 2020 / 05:45 pm (CNA).-  

The accuser of Cardinal George Pell has denied he was bribed into making allegations of abuse against the cardinal, after Italian media have reported the allegation that Cardinal Angelo Becciu might have wired money to Australia as a bribe during Pell’s trial.

“My client denies any knowledge or receipt of any payments,” attorney Vivian Waller, who represents a man who accused Pell of sexual abuse, said in an Oct. 5 statement. “He won’t be commenting further in response to these allegations.”

That denial came after speculative reports in Italian newspapers indicated that Becciu had been accused of wiring money from an undisclosed Vatican account to Australia while Pell was facing a 2018 criminal trial, on charges that he sexually abused two boys while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

Pell was convicted of that charge, after a first trial ended in a hung jury, and in 2019 sentenced to prison. He was freed on April 7, 2020, after Australia’s High Court concluded the jury in Pell’s trial did not act rationally when it found no possibility of doubt in the charges the cardinal faced.

The cardinal’s initial conviction deeply divided Australia, with many jurists otherwise unfavorably disposed toward Pell calling the allegations against him unreasonable and implausible. The cardinal was accused of sexually abusing two boys in a cathedral sacristy while fully vested and carrying his crozier, or bishop’s staff, at a time when multiple people testified that Pell was elsewhere and the sacristy occupied.

Until 2017, Pell led an effort called for by Pope Francis to bring order and accountability to the Vatican’s finances, which have long lacked centralized procedures, controls, or oversight. Bell clashed in that role with Becciu, who as sostituto of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State served effectively as the pope’s chief of staff. Becciu at one point acted to cancel a contract Pell had made for an external audit of Vatican finances.

Since at least 2018, criminal investigators have been reviewing a web of investments and transactions at the Secretariat of State that are connected to Becciu; last month the cardinal was fired from his position at the Vatican and resigned “the rights proper to cardinals,” while formally remaining a member of the College of Cardinals.

It is believed Becciu may soon face criminal charges for his role in several Vatican investment and financial schemes of questionable integrity and legality that amount to hundreds of millions of euro.

Reports that Becciu may have transferred money to Australia to set up Pell have attracted international attention since they emerged in Italian newspapers on Friday and over the weekend.

The allegation is reportedly tied to Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, a former Pell deputy who is said to be cooperating with investigators. But while the supposed allegations have made headlines in Italy, Australia, the U.K, and the U.S., they have not been independently confirmed and remain attributed only to anonymous sources.

Pell’s former attorney, Robert Richter, QC, has called for an investigation into the allegations, and on Monday morning Pope Francis met with the apostolic nuncio to Australia. Becciu has denied the allegations.  

 

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#9786 Peace in the Storm – Gregory Popcak

Posted by | Oct 5, 2020 | |

How can we best handle the trials of life and manage our emotions? How can we calm the fears of our family members?
Questions Covered:

13:33 – How do you help someone who is in the middle of an anxiety attack? 
22:26 – I have a 10-year-old…

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Bishops say ‘Rosary for America’ Oct. 7 imperative for a country in crisis

Posted by | Oct 5, 2020 | , , , |

Invoking Mary’s intercession for the U.S. together as Catholics is imperative for a country beset by multiple crises, said bishops participating a virtual “Rosary for America” Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The event will premiere at 2 p.m. Central time via the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ YouTube channel and […]

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