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It was from St. Jerome (+ 420) that the west learned of the life of St. Paul the Hermit; the book, which he devoted to the life of the first Christian hermit, charmed and instructed generations of the faithful and formed the inspiration of many artists…
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 15, 2021 | Homily of the Day, News |
At one point in their history, the people of Israel ask for a king to reign over them. At first, Yahweh God tries to dissuade them but they insist, so He allows Israel to have her first king, Saul. Why does God not want His People to have an earthly king? Because He knew […]
Read MoreEvora, Portugal, Jan 14, 2021 / 09:22 pm (CNA).- A convent of Conceptionist Sisters in the Archdiocese of Évora, Portugal is experiencing a major COVID-19 outbreak, and the local bishop is asking for prayers for the sisters and the elderly they …
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CNA Staff, Jan 14, 2021 / 08:42 pm (CNA).- Bishop Richard Stika of Nashville voiced skepticism of Father James Martin’s recent essay claiming that Catholic leaders’ criticism of President-elect Joe Biden’s stance on abortion helped contribute to the conditions for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Martin’s essay, “How Catholic Leaders Helped Give Rise to Violence at the U.S. Capitol,” ran Jan. 12 at the website of the U.S. Jesuits’ America magazine, where Martin is editor-at-large.
Martin collected various bishops’ and priests’ comments critical of Biden’s stand on abortion and questioning whether a Catholic could vote for him. Though these criticisms ranged from respectful to inflammatory, Martin argued that their criticism “does not adequately reflect church teaching” and sent the message that the election was “an almost apocalyptic battle between good and evil.”
The priest suggested that “perhaps these comments were contributing to the unrest in the nation.”
Stika responded to Martin’s criticism of his comments about Biden.
“I don’t apologize for the tweet as I agree with the (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) that abortion is the preeminent issue in this day and age,” Stika said on Twitter Jan. 13. “Mr. Biden likes to speak about his Catholic faith. Perhaps he should realize that abortion is a human rights issue as well as the ultimate child abuse. Perhaps I missed something in the article concerning abortion as the preeminent issue.”
The dispute follows violence and riots at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump supporters last week, leading to several deaths and dozens of injured police officers. Prosecutors appear to have a suspect in custody linked to two explosive devices left at the major political parties’ respective headquarters.
In a lengthy essay, Martin sought to connect the unrest to vocal critics of abortion. He alleged there was “widespread personal vilification of candidates from Catholic leaders” in the run-up to the violence at the U.S. Capitol. He named various figures before quoting from two Aug. 21 Twitter comments from Bishop Stika.
“(I) don’t understand how Mr. Biden can claim to be a good and faithful Catholic as he denies so much of Church teaching especially on the absolute child abuse and human rights violations of the most innocent, the not yet born,” Stika said in one tweet.
“And he also praises his sidekick who has shown time and time again in Senate hearings that she is an anti-Catholic bigot,” The bishop also said on Twitter, in a possible reference to incoming Vice President Kamala Harris’ controversial questioning of Catholic judicial nominees who were members of the Knights of Columbus.
The remainder of Stika’s Twitter comment, which was not quoted by Martin, concluded: “So sad for this team. But also, I never thought the current President was all that pro-life but he is anti-abortion as well as helpful in religious liberty.”
After citing Stika, Martin immediately cited a deleted, inflammatory tweet from Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life and a former member of the Trump campaign’s Catholics for Trump group.
“Why is it that the supporters of this (expletive deleted) loser Biden and his morally corrupt, America-hating, God hating Democrat party can’t say a (expletive deleted) thing in support of their loser candidate without using the word Trump?” Pavone had said.
Pavone has drawn significant controversy for his campaign efforts on behalf of Donald Trump. He used the preserved remains of an unborn baby in a video attempting to rally support for Trump before the 2016 election.
Martin argued “personal vilification from members of the clergy inevitably gives rise to a lack of respect from the faithful, making it easier for those in the pews to revile government and civic leaders.” He alleged “an alarming number of Catholic clergy contributed to an environment that led to the fatal riots at the U.S. Capitol. Ironically, priests and bishops who count themselves as pro-life helped spawn a hate-filled environment that led to mayhem, violence and, ultimately, death.”
Although President-elect Biden was a longtime supporter of some abortion restrictions, he changed his views to support for permissive abortion laws and federal funding for abortion during the 2020 Democratic primaries. He boasted of his 100% rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America. His 2020 campaign platform called for the codification of Roe v. Wade as federal law.
Martin’s essay criticized priests who had enjoyed some internet popularity like Father James Altman of the Diocese of LaCrosse. Altman’s viral YouTube video “You Cannot be a Catholic and a Democrat” drew some 1.2 million views before the election. The video drew some criticism from the priest’s local bishop, Bishop of LaCrosse William Patrick Callahan, but was recommended by Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas.
Other objects of Martin’s criticism included Cardinal Raymond Burke’s comment that Biden was involved in “grave, immoral evil that is the source of scandal.” Martin also cited Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane’s question asking how a Catholic can vote for “a candidate like Biden” if “abortion is an intrinsic evil.”
The priest also cited the claims of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the controversial former apostolic nuncio to the U.S., who has called Biden “a puppet manipulated by the elite, a puppet in the hands of people thirsty for power and willing to do anything to expand it.”
Martin said such examples led to violence and merited correction.
“Bishops and priests need to understand the real-life effects of such contemptuous and even dehumanizing language. Catholic bishops and priests are meant to teach morality, but they are not meant to judge others (as Jesus said clearly) or to treat people with such bitter contempt. The real-world effect of this kind of language was revealed at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” said Martin.
“The mistake for which Catholic leaders should be corrected, the mistake for which the church now needs to repent, is not simply casting this election in terms of good and evil; it is pretending that real questions of good and evil could be simplified to the point where violent responses, even acts of domestic terrorism, become thinkable and then are carried out,” he said.
The Jan. 6 protests drew a large number of Trump supporters, who began at the White House and moved to the Capitol.
It is still unclear to what extent the incursion into the Capitol was planned, and debate continues over whether law enforcement and security personnel were adequately prepared.
Rioters at the Capitol included devotees of QAnon, a fringe conspiracy theory that sees President Trump as a savior who will liberate the country from a powerful Democratic cannibalistic sex trafficking cabal. Some rioters sported anti-Semitic garb, and at least one bore a Confederate flag.
Prosecutors have filed dozens of cases against the most visible participants, many of whom posted their exploits on social media. Charges include violent entry and disorderly content, though Justice Department officials say these could be replaced with more serious charges, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Charges of seditious conspiracy are under consideration and officials are investigating the extent to which the disorder was planned by some rioters, including those with military training.
One of those charged, 70-year-old Lonnie Coffman, faces 17 criminal counts. He allegedly brought 11 Molotov cocktails and a weapons cache in his pickup truck that included a handgun, a rifle, a shotgun, large-capacity magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow, a stun gun, several machetes and a smoke device. Prosecutors appeared to link him to two explosive devices left at the headquarters of both the Democratic and Republican political parties.
Those arrested include Olympic gold medalist swimmer Klete Keller, who faces charges including obstruction of law enforcement, entering a restricted building without permission, and “violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.”
Prior to the riot, President Donald Trump refused to concede the election and claimed it had been stolen. Trump’s critics claimed that the violence at the Capitol was an insurrection incited by the president.
“Can anyone doubt that the moral calculus proposed by some Christian leaders, including Catholic priests and bishops, framed in the language of pure good versus pure evil, contributed to the presence of so many rioters brandishing overtly Christian symbols as they carried out their violence?” Martin asked in his essay.
The year 2020 saw a significant amount of civil unrest, including sometimes-violent protests against police brutality, systemic racism, and coronavirus restrictions.
There was also a wave of vandalism against Catholic churches and Catholic figures including St. Junipero Serra.
Posted by bcadmin | Jan 15, 2021 | News, The Dispatch |
This past Sunday, Pope Francis issued a letter motu proprio amending canon law to allow for women to enter into the instituted ministries of lector and acolyte. In an article here at CWR, Fr. Peter […]
Read MoreRome Newsroom, Jan 14, 2021 / 07:20 pm (CNA).- A Vatican diplomat highlighted Thursday the “ever-growing intolerance and discrimination against Christians, Jews, Muslims and members of other religions.”
Addressing the permanent council of …
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CNA Staff, Jan 14, 2021 / 06:29 pm (CNA).- The US bishops’ chair for international justice and peace has expressed his disagreement with the State Department’s return of Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The decision was based in part on Cuba’s provision of haven to Colombian rebel leaders and fugitives from US justice, as well as Cuba’s support of Nicolas Maduro, the disputed president of Venezuela, who is not recognized by the US.
“As Chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace, I would like to express my profound disagreement with Secretary Pompeo’s decision to add Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism,” Bishop David Malloy of Rockford said Jan. 12.
“As our committee has said many times, we need more relations between the United States and Cuba, not less, in order to construct mutually beneficial trade, cultural, and scientific ties that will yield a lasting prosperity for both our nations. I pray that we never tire of working towards these goals and that both sides recognize the need for friendship and collaboration,” he stated.
“For decades, in conjunction with the Holy See and the majority of the international community, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has urged collaboration and mutually beneficial relations between the United States and Cuba, as well as the full lifting of the economic embargo against the island nation.”
In announcing the designation of Cuba Jan. 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it has provided “support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.”
He cited Cuba’s refusal to extradite 10 leaders of a Colombian rebel group which bombed a police academy in January 2019, and its harboring of at least three US fugitives.
The Secretary of State noted that by May 2020 the State Department had certified Cuba as not cooperating fully with US counterterrorism efforts.
Pompeo added that “the Cuban intelligence and security apparatus has infiltrated Venezuela’s security and military forces, assisting Nicholas [sic] Maduro to maintain his stranglehold over his people while allowing terrorist organizations to operate. The Cuban government’s support for FARC dissidents and the ELN continues beyond Cuba’s borders as well, and the regime’s support of Maduro has created a permissive environment for international terrorists to live and thrive within Venezuela.”
Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terror “subjects Cuba to sanctions that penalize persons and countries engaging in certain trade with Cuba, restricts U.S. foreign assistance, bans defense exports and sales, and imposes certain controls on exports of dual use items,” Pompeo said.
Cuba had been removed from the list in 2015 by the Obama administration; it had first been placed there in 1982 under Ronald Reagan.
After Sudan was recently removed, only three other countries are included on the list of a state sponsor of terrorism: North Korea, Syria, and Iran.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla condemned the U.S. action in a tweet on Monday, calling it “hypocritical and cynical” and characterizing it as “political opportunism”.
CNA Staff, Jan 14, 2021 / 05:47 pm (CNA).- Canada’s highest court has ruled that the Archdiocese of St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador will be responsible for Mount Cashel Orphanage child abuse lawsuits against the Congregation of Chri…
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Vatican City, Jan 14, 2021 / 05:45 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis might soon choose a new Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, to replace Cardinal Angelo Comastri, who turned 77 in September. His replacement, according to Vatican observers, may bring a broader generational change that could involve at least five Vatican dicasteries.
Comastri, who had a private audience with Pope Francis on Jan. 11, is a well-known preacher whose books are good sellers. During the lockdown due to the pandemic, Cardinal Comastri began to pray the rosary at noon in St. Peter’s Basilica.
St. John Paul II appointed Comastri as his general vicar for the Vatican City State, President of the Fabric of St. Peter, and coadjutor Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica in 2005. In 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Comastri Archpriest of the St. Peter’s Basilica. He succeeded Cardinal Francesco Marchisano.
One clue of Comastri’s upcoming retirement is Pope Francis’ decision to postpone the election of the members of the Chapter of St. Peter, the college of priests that governs the Basilica under the guidance of the archpriest. The elections were supposed to take place at the end of the summer or during the fall, but the Pope asked to hold them after Jan. 11.
The Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica is in charge of the worship and pastoral activity of the basilica. The position is very ancient and has always been assigned to a cardinal. Since 1991, the Archpriest of the St. Peter’s Basilica is also the Pope’s vicar for the Vatican City State.
The position is important not only because the Archpriest is one of the Pope’s closest collaborators, but also because he manages and organizes the worship of the most emblematic temple in the Catholic world.
St. Peter’s Basilica includes 45 altars and 11 chapels, while the Vatican Grotto has several Marian chapels.
The daily Mass schedule in St. Peter’s Basilica lists one Mass per hour from 9 to 12 am, in Italian, at the Altar of the Chair. There is another Mass in Italian at 8.30 am at the altar of the Most Holy Sacrament, while every day at 5 pm, there is a Mass in Latin.
On Sundays, there are 5 Masses celebrated in Italian and one in Latin.
Beyond the regular Mass schedule, there is the possibility to celebrate Mass in every chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica. The chapels are booked by groups of pilgrims or individuals who celebrate Mass in their own language. In fact, every day, St. Peter’s Basilica is filled with celebrations in several languages at the same time.
The new Archpriest will be called to manage this. Will he keep things as they are?
There is a broad discussion among members of the Chapter of the Basilica regarding whether to keep the possibility to celebrate private masses in the Basilica or instead ruling that the pilgrims who want to take part in a Mass must be at the Masses already scheduled. The debate is also about a possible abolition of the daily Mass in Latin. The Mass is celebrated according to the Paul VI missal, so it is not a Mass in the extraordinary form.
A Vatican source with knowledge of the facts, who asked to remain anonymous, stressed with CNA that these discussions were also behind the power struggle that led to allegations of mismanagement at the Fabric of St. Peter. This institution takes care of the maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Following these allegations and investigation initiated by the Vatican prosecutor, Pope Francis made the unprecedented decision to put the Fabric of St. Peter under an extraordinary commissioner, Archbishop Mario Giordana.
According to Vatican sources, there seems to be two candidates to replace Comastri. One is Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner. Krajewski is in the Pope’s inner circle, and the Pope strongly appreciates his work for the poor. Among his initiatives are the installation of showers for the homeless in the St. Peter colonnade, the opening of two dormitories for the homeless in Vatican facilities around St. Peter Basilica, and the doctor and barbershop services on the side of the colonnade.
The other candidate would be Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. Cardinal Gambetti was the exiting Custodian of the Sacred Convent of Assisi. A Franciscan Conventual, Gambetti has no posts assigned yet. After his creation as cardinal, he went back to Assisi, waiting for the Pope’s call.
If Gambetti indeed becomes Comastri’s successor, his appointment could be the first step in a generational change in several Vatican top positions. Cardinals Marc Ouellet, Leonardo Sandri, Luis Ladaria, Giuseppe Versaldi, Beniamino Stella, and Giuseppe Bertello are all older than the retiring age. The pope could be already looking for their successors at the helm respectively of the Congregation for Bishops, for the Eastern Churches, for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Catholic Education, for the Clergy, and at the Vatican City State administration.
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:
01:01 – Is it …
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 14, 2021 | Catholic news, Digital Edition, News |
Life after death, Faith and Culture series, Legislative preview, Capitol breach, Child protection leadership changes, Why do Catholics do that? Why I am Catholic
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 14, 2021 | Catholic Life, Featured, Featured Commentary, News |
The COVID-19 lockdown has placed a greater burden on the poor as many have lost their jobs or homes and are seeking assistance. In a previous post I discussed the obligation of almsgiving according to the authoritative sources of the […]
The post How to Help the Poor This Winter appeared first on OnePeterFive.
Read MoreWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 14, 2021 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of New York responded Thursday to questions about its victims’ compensation program.
An ABC News story Jan. 14 had reported that, according to an attorney chosen b…
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