CNA Daily News - Europe

Pope Francis helped young addict in struggle against drugs

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:02:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 21, 2013 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- According to an Argentine priest, Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires helped save a young mailman from the abyss of drug addiction and became his spiritual father.

Jesuit priest and Vatican Radio commentator Father Guillermo Ortiz recounted to CNA knowing then-Cardinal Jorge Bergolio when he was still provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina, as well as his own personal introduction to the young man.

“When I was living in Buenos Aires,” he recalled, “I met this guy. He listened to me on the radio and since he was a mailman, he knew the address of my office and he began seeking me out to talk about spiritual questions. He was getting out of drugs thanks to prayer, and he always asked for spiritual guidance.”

After a while, however, the young man stopped coming to visit, and Fr. Ortiz began to worry, until one day he ran across him on the street and found that he had completely recovered.

“Do you know who I have been with, Father? Cardinal Bergoglio!” the young man said. “I went by the chancery and I left a note with my name and number saying I wanted to speak with him, and the next Saturday I was in my room resting and my father knocked on the door.”

“I said, 'Don’t knock, this is my day off and I want to sleep a little bit more!' But my father said, 'No, you can’t right now, the cardinal is on the phone,'” he remembered.

“The cardinal himself had called to tell him when he could meet,” Fr. Ortiz said. “Without any calendar, he answered him immediately! These things are wonderful and one can only ask, 'How did he find the time?'”

Fr. Ortiz said the young mailman eventually overcame his addition through prayer and spiritual direction from priests and in this case from Cardinal Bergoglio, who helped him “continue his struggle against drugs.”

What he most admired about the cardinal was his “closeness to the people. He didn’t have any boundaries. Even as bishop and as cardinal he didn’t have a secretary and he called people himself and met with everyone that he could,” Fr. Ortiz said.

Fr. Ortiz is currently the director of Vatican Radio's Spanish-language broadcast. Since the election of Pope Francis, he has spoken with the pontiff on several occasions.

Rome university launches course on liturgical music

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:34:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 20, 2013 / 09:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A pontifical university in Rome has launched a master's program in Gregorian chant and the use of the organ at Mass so as to build unity among Catholics world-wide.

“The most important thing is that music, when it is truly liturgical, creates community,” Father Jordi Piqué, dean of the Pontifical University of Saint Anselmo's liturgical institute, said May 20.

“When one hears a Mass that is sung or the organ interpreting a beautiful melody, it’s never individualistic, it’s always as a group,” he added at the Benedictine Abbey where the university is located.

Fr. Piqué, who plays the organ, is from the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat, Spain, and was named dean of the program six months ago.

“The Pontifical Liturgical Institute has always had liturgical sources as its base and since the Second Vatican Council studies have been adapted to spread and make liturgy be valued by the faithful,” he explained.

“A very important part of liturgy is the music and chants, and now we’ve been able to unite with the Pontifical University of Sacred Music and offer this Master's.”

The degree will require that students study Gregorian chant with “a scientific reflection” as well as seeing its central place, “directed within the liturgy.”

Classes for the two-year program will be held every Thursday evening and will be divided into three main topics: liturgy, music, and theology.

The university will regularly invite speakers to lecture on topics such as organ improvisation, the sources of Gregorian chant, and music composition.

Students will also learn about how to use the principles of Gregorian chant to compose chant in their own vernacular languages.

There will also be guests for the course including the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will lecture on the vision of music within the liturgy.

“The biggest challenge of liturgical music is the same as always been: to take modern-day musical languages and translate them into liturgical languages, or vice versa,” reflected Fr. Piqué.

“We have to invite composers to adapt popular and modern day music, but within the environment of the (Eucharistic) celebration.”

Fr. Piqué believes that music can help people pray, but that liturgical celebrations should include times of silence, as well.

“Music needs silence,” he stated.

In explaining the essential link between Gregorian chant and the Roman liturgy, Fr. Piqué noted Saint Augustine's well-known dictum, “who sings, prays twice.”

St. Benedict directed his monks to “sing with pleasure, sing with wisdom,” he added.

He noted that liturgical participation includes not only singing the chants, but attentively listening to them as well.

“Whoever sings, or listens to music, is praying,” he explained, “because you are praying when you are listening” and that “by singing, you reveal what your heart contains.”

He also believes that sacredness has not been lost, but is “transforming itself and taking on new forms that are related to our times.”

Fr. Piqué noted the increasing use of Gregorian chant at Mass, and interpreted it as a refuge from the hurried pace of modern life.

“But our times are very filled with noise, and so music within the liturgy is taking on again the calm, tranquil and serene aspect that this open and serene dialogue with God needs to have,” he concluded.

Spanish bishop exhorts faithful to speak out against abortion

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:02:00 -0600

Cordoba, Spain, May 17, 2013 / 12:02 pm (CNA).- Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba, Spain, is calling on the faithful not to remain silent about the genocide of abortion and to work for “policies inspired in the culture of life.”

“The hundreds of thousands – more than a million – abortions that have taken place in recent years constitute the slow suicide of nation that is incapable to transmitting life to the next generation,” he warned.

In his latest pastoral letter, Bishop Fernandez said the defense of life from the moment of conception is not a religious matter, but is “above all a human matter.”

“The light of God makes us see more clearly that which simply human reason can perceive, if it is not obscured by selfish interests,” he explained.

“We are living in turbulent times in many areas,” the bishop said. For this reason, “we need the Holy Spirit to make clear to us the truth about God and man, to give us the strength to follow the will of God, to inspire us in the mission of brining the Gospel to every person.”

He noted that some people debate about how late into a pregnancy abortion should be allowed. However, he said, “any law that allows abortion will always be a law that is unfit for mankind,” because it allows for the killing of an innocent human life.

Because of the murders that are taking place in the womb, he cautioned, “Europe, and Spain included, is dying of old age.”

Policies should be enacted to encourage births and not to penalize “the family that is generously open to life,” Bishop Fernandez urged.

He also called the faithful to let the Holy Spirit enter into their lives as the “Lord and giver of life.”

Pope's plan to visit Bonaria shrine thrills pastor

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:05:00 -0600

Cagliari, Italy, May 17, 2013 / 05:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Giovannino Tolu said his heart began racing when he heard that Pope Francis will the visit the shrine he oversees on the Italian island of Sardinia, making it the fourth time he has received a pontiff.

Pope Francis announced at the end of his May 15 general audience that he will travel to the city of Cagliari in September to venerate Our Lady of Bonaria at the basilica of the same name.

“Can’t you hear my heart going tick, tick, tick?” Fr. Tolu, the basilica’s pastor, asked in reaction to the Pope’s declaration.

“We still don’t know yet if Pope Francis will be here one day or if he will be here several days because we just found out yesterday about this,” Fr. Tolu explained in a May 16 interview with CNA.

But regardless of how long the pontiff stays, Fr. Tolu said, “I feel my heart has accelerated; we have the joy of already having had three Popes here.”

Pope Paul VI visited the shrine in 1970, Blessed John Paul II in 1985 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

“The shrine has a special tie to this Pope because he is from Argentina,” the priest explained.

The link between the two places a world apart is that the city of Buenos Aires is named after Our Lady of Bonaria.

The city’s Spanish founder, Pedro de Mendoza, wanted to name the area “City of the Most Holy Trinity,” but Sardinian sailors, who knew of the special devotion to the Mary, wanted to name the city after her.

They then agreed to call the city “City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Our Lady of Bonaria.” But because the name was so long it was eventually shortened to “Bonaria,” which is translated into Spanish as “Buenos Aires,” which means “good air.”

“Our basilica here is an old sanctuary from the time of the Spanish soldiers who came here and built a small church for the soldiers,” said Fr. Tolu.

“But in 1704 they felt the need to expand the basilica, and there is a lot of devotion here,” he added.

Fr. Tolu revealed that the connection between the city and the basilica will soon be further strengthened by a small, blessed replica of the Madonna that measures around four feet (1.10 meters) and will be sent to Buenos Aires on July 1.

The devotion to Our Lady of Bonaria originated in 1370 when a violent storm began to strip all of the equipment from a Spanish sailing vessel.

But when a heavy wooden chest fell overboard and hit the water, the sea suddenly calmed.

The box was found on the shore at the port of Bonaria by some friars, who discovered a locust-wood statue of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus in her left arm and a lit candle in her right hand.

Devotion to the Madonna soon took root among the island’s inhabitants and especially among the sailors who looked to her for protection.

Vatican official urges renewal of spouses' life-long 'yes'

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:12:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 16, 2013 / 04:12 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said a cultural change is needed to recover the value and meaning of the life-long “yes” that spouses give each other in marriage.

“Unfortunately, today if you give a ‘life-long yes’ to your football team, that is more acceptable than if you give it to your husband or wife,” Archbishop Paglia said during a meeting with reporters on May 14 in Rome.

“This needs to be re-introduced into the culture,” he stressed.

“Today, spouses do not jointly own their possessions because, they say, ‘You never know,’” he observed, adding that people are perceived as “crazy” if they say that are committed to their marriage “forever.”

Society today suffers from a grave cultural problem because the family is no longer supported by the culture, the archbishop continued.

“Thirty or forty years ago, it was not accepted in society if you didn’t get married by a certain age. But today it is the exact opposite,” he said, adding that there is a lack of trust in modern culture.

Archbishop Paglia lamented the growth of single-parent families and children with no siblings. He observed that families comprised of a father, a mother and children “are the backbone of our countries” and said that the state should promote these stable families.

Tango dancer dedicates performance at St. Peter's to Pope

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:05:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 14, 2013 / 04:05 pm (CNA).- A professional Argentine dancer, who recently travelled to Rome to see his fellow countryman, Pope Francis, hopes to one day perform for the Holy Father in person.

“It is truly a pleasure and an honor for Argentineans to have him as Pope,” Oscar Flores told CNA on May 8 after the Pope’s general audience. “He is a very charismatic person and he knows how to reach the people.”

The dancer was joined by a group of Latin Americans, including Mexicans, Peruvians, Argentineans and Colombians, who filled St. Peter’s with joyful songs dedicated to the Pontiff.

The group was led by Peruvian priest Father Luis Sandoval, who works with immigrants in the Italian Diocese of Benedetto de Tronto.

Flores delighted a group of the faithful with a performance of the traditional tango in St. Peter’s Square.

“I dedicate this dance to Francis,” he said, adding that “it would be an honor and a dream” to dance for the Holy Father in person someday.

Flores began dancing 18 years ago in Argentina, where he teaches various dance styles. He is currently in Italy to attend several different festivals.

This week, Flores will perform in San Benedetto de Tronto, where one of the largest Latin American communities in Italy resides. He will later return to Buenos Aires to teach at a dance academy.

Pontificate of Pope Francis consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:01:00 -0600

Lisbon, Portugal, May 14, 2013 / 12:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At the Holy Father’s personal request, Cardinal Jose Polycarp, the Patriarch of Lisbon, consecrated the pontificate of Pope Francis to Our Lady of Fatima on her feast day.

Addressing Our Lady of Fatima during the ceremony, Cardinal Polycarp said, “Grant (Pope Francis) the gift of discernment to know how to identify the paths of renewal for the Church, grant him the courage to not falter in following the paths suggested by the Holy Spirit, protect him in the difficult hours of suffering, so that he may overcome, in charity, the trials that the renewal of the Church will bring him.”

In statements to CNA, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, “As we know, an important celebration takes place on May 13 in Fatima during which it is normal that the pontificate be entrusted to Our Lady of Fatima.”

The consecration took place at the Portuguese shrine dedicated to Our Lady, with thousands of the faithful present.

Cardinal Polycarp recalled that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI visited Fatima and expressed his desire that Pope Francis do so as well.

“From here, at this altar of the world, he will be able to bless humanity, to make the world of today feel that God loves all men and women of our time, that the Church loves them and that you, Mother of the Redeemer, lead them with tenderness on the paths of salvation,” the cardinal said.

The path of Church renewal leads to a “rediscovery of the relevance” of the Fatima message and of the need to “converse with God,” he explained.

“Contemporary humanity needs to feel loved by God and by the Church,” Cardinal Polycarp said. “If humanity feels loved, it will overcome the temptation to violence, materialism, estrangement from God, loss of direction, and it will be able to advance towards a new world in which love will prevail.”

During the Mass, Bishop Antonio Marto of Leiria-Fatima read a message from Pope Francis to the Apostolic Nunciature in Portugal.

“The Holy Father said he was pleased with the initiative and expressed deep acknowledgment for satisfying his desire united in prayer with all the pilgrims of Fatima, upon whom he whole-heartedly confers the apostolic blessing,” the message stated.

Board game created by nun becomes a hit in Spain

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:03:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 13, 2013 / 04:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A new faith-based board game created by a Spanish nun has become one of the most popular First Communion gifts in Spain this year.

Sister Maria Granados Molina created the new game, “The Joy of the Faith,” which tests players’ knowledge of Catholicism. The game’s publisher said 2,000 copies have been made since the game went on sale a few months ago, and there are hopes to market it in the United States and Latin America.

Thirty-five year-old Sr. Molina was born in Granada and belongs to a Carmelite order in the city of Cuenca. She works as a catechist for the Diocese of Cuenca.

In an interview with CNA, Sr. Molina said she never imagined the game would become so popular. She made the first version of the game at home with her own printer and the help “of the sisters from my congregation in Cuenca.”

“The Joy of the Faith” is intended to help players learn about Jesus and the experience of being a Christian. Players roll dice and answer questions about the Catholic faith to move along the spaces on the board. The game incorporates drawings, gestures and prayers.
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Sr. Molina debuted the game in Madrid last year during a conference on catechesis. It was picked up by a national distributor and made available later throughout the country.

“The game is the fruit of a desire, a concern and a prayer…and I think it has received a surprising reception. Nobody thought that with the way Spain is right now that a game like this would be a success,” she said.

The game is based on the children’s catechetical book “Jesus is Lord,” which was approved by the Bishops’ Conference of Spain. It is intended for children ages 7 and up, and it can be played by groups of young people, families, schools and catechists.

“I wanted people to draw closer to the experience of Jesus,” Sr. Molina said.

Italian pro-lifers hope Rome march has global reach

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:39:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 13, 2013 / 04:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The main organizer of Italy’s March for Life hopes that its location in Rome means it has global influence by sending “a message to the whole Christian world.”

“This event is very important for us and it gives a worldwide impact since it is in Rome. And I think in the future it could be the most important one,” said Virginia Coda Nunziante, organizer of Italy’s March for Life.

“Rome is the seat of Christianity and to host this here is important because it gives a message to the whole Christian world,” she remarked May 12 during the annual March for Life.

Sunday’s demonstration was the third time the Italian March for Life was held and the second time it took place in Rome.

Some news accounts reported around 40,000 participants for the demonstration, but CNA’s staff on the ground estimated the crowd at around 20,000 marchers.

The annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. regularly draws crowds in the hundreds of thousands that are underreported in the American media.

The most recent march, which took place on January 25, drew around 400,000 people, with about 80 percent of those demonstrators being young people, according to organizers.

People from the United States, Europe and Africa gathered on May 12 outside the Coliseum where they heard from pro-life advocates before beginning their route to Castel Sant’Angelo.

After completing their march, they joined thousands of pilgrims at Saint Peter’s Square who were there for a canonization ceremony and Pope Francis’ weekly Regina Caeli address.

The pro-life marchers were not disappointed, since the Pope greeted them in particular.

“I greet the participants of the March for Life which took place this morning in Rome and invite everyone to stay focused on the important issue of respect for human life, from the moment of conception,” he said.

However, contrary to some news reports, the Pope did not join the march but made a brief trip in the popemobile outside of St. Peter’s Square, as he has done in recent weeks. Participants in the march were at the end of his route and had the chance to see Pope Francis.

The event was organized by several Italian pro-life groups and featured well-known speakers, such as the president of the U.S. March for Life, Jeanne Monahan, pro-life activist Lila Rose, and the Mayor of Rome, Giovanni Alemanno.

“We would like to spread the culture of life in Italy so this is an occasion to get all of Italy’s associations and groups together to say a clear ‘yes’ to life and ‘no’ to abortion,” said march organizer Coda Nunziante.

Italy legalized abortion in 1978, leading to the deaths of six million babies between then and now, according to Coda Nunziante.

But Italians were not the only ones present, since groups from Poland, France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Albania and Nigeria also traveled to Rome to defend the unborn.

“This is very important for Italians to understand that abortion is a worldwide problem, so we all have to be tied together in order to have a wider impact,” she said.

A pro-life group from Szczecin, which is very active in Poland, also participated in last year’s march in Rome.

“We shouldn’t only demonstrate defending life in Poland but in the whole world because life is the most important value, it is global and universal,” said Alicia Kanselarcik outside the Coliseum.

Alan Holdren contributed to this report from Rome.

Mass held in Rome for kidnapped Syrian bishops

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:39:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 11, 2013 / 11:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Eastern Catholic clergy celebrated a Mass in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin to pray for two archbishops and two priests who remain the hostages of rebels in Syria.

Archimandrite Mtanious Haddad, rector of the Greek Melkite Catholic Basilica, said there are “so many” people who have been kidnapped.

“Our Mass today was to pray for all those Christians and moderate Muslims who have been kidnapped,” he told CNA.

According to Fr. Haddad, the rebels “want to show that there is no more coexistence between Christians and Muslims but this isn’t true.”

Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were kidnapped by rebels on April 22 and are still being held in a village northwest of Aleppo.

Gunmen pulled the two Christian archbishops out of their car and shot their driver, a deacon.

They were on their way to Aleppo from the Turkish border in an effort to negotiate the release of two priests, Armenian Catholic Father Michel Kayyal and Father Maher Mahfouz, a Greek Orthodox Christian.

The priests had been abducted on Feb. 9 when the bus they were riding on from Aleppo to Damascus was stopped. They are still being held captive.

Fr. Kayyal was the student of Monsignor Georges Dankaye Noradounguian, the rector of Rome’s Pontifical Armenian College. Msgr. Dankaye concelebrated the solemn Mass in Rome on May 10.

He described Fr. Kayyal as “an excellent and very good person with a lot of faith.”

“He was trying to distribute humanitarian aid with three or four other priests so he has been living the war in a very special way,” the monsignor told CNA after the Mass.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the Holy See, Georges El Khoury, attended the Eucharistic ceremony as did as the Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See, Habeeb Al-Sadr, who is Muslim.

Msgr. Dankaye said news coverage of Syria is too uniform.

He said that “the international community’s 600 TV channels broadcast the exact same version, while the only Syrian TV channel that exists and broadcasts daily news in English has been blocked.”

“People against the regime are outside Syria,” he said. “War always has its reasons and its logic, and the true reasons for it are always hidden.”

Fr. Haddad also criticized the war.

“The Syrian war is not a crisis between Muslims and Christians or Muslims and other Muslims and it’s not a Syrian civil war from and for Syrians,” he told CNA.

“This is a war imported from outside and we have traitors who have sold themselves to outsiders for a bit of money.”

He said that the rebels are “trying to show there is a problem between Christians and Muslims in Syria when there isn’t and there never has been.”

During his homily he called the kidnappers “traitors” and said Syrians need to solve their own issues “like in a conclave, without outside intervention.”

“Our petro-dollar Arabic neighbors have bought some Syrians and it’s a surprise to me when a Syrian is happy to see a Syrian soldier murdered,” said Fr. Haddad at the basilica.

He added that now there are “terrorists and non-terrorists from Libya, Pakistan and Afghanistan who have gone to fight in Syria saying they want to liberate Jerusalem.”

“But can one liberate Jerusalem from Aleppo?” he asked. “We all know where the path to Jerusalem is.”

Thousands expected at March for Life in Rome

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:03:00 -0600

Rome, Italy, May 9, 2013 / 04:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- More than 15,000 people are expected to gather outside the historic Roman Coliseum on May 12 to take part in the third March for Life.

Included among expected participants are leading representatives of pro-life originations from around the world, as well as members of the clergy and European royalty.

Lila Rose, the president of undercover investigative group Live Action, and Nicholas Windsor, the son of the Duchess of Kent and grandson of Queen Elizabeth of England, are only a few of the leading figures who are expected to join in the March.

The march will be preceded by a conference on bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and a prayer vigil on May 11, led by the prefect of the Apostolic Signature, Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The spokesman for the March, Virginia Coda Nunciante, told CNA, that “the main purpose of the march is to stop and to say ‘no’ to the 1978 law that legalized abortion in Italy, causing the deaths of more than five million children.”

“There are many dioceses and parishes that are committed to coming, in addition to the 120 movements and associations that have joined in this initiative,” she continued.

“ Let us take to the streets to reiterate a great yes to life, the first of all rights, because without life no other right can exist, and that is why we have so many families with children with us.”

“The defense of life is not only the responsibility of Catholics, but all those who acknowledge the existence of a natural law, written on the heart of each man which prohibits the killing of the innocent,” Coda said. “Abortion not only violates Catholic morality, but also natural law, which is valid for every man in every age and in all places.”

“We are also marching against euthanasia, which many want to introduce into our legislation, and to oppose the manipulation of embryos, for example, through a law on assisted fertilization,” she added.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, she observed “the number of abortions has fallen, but we also know that there has been an increase in sales of the abortion pill RU486.”

Coda invited all those who will be in Rome on May 12 to take part in the demonstration.

“We need to bring about real change to our own culture, so that it will be easier to understand the seriousness of each attack against life,” she said.

Ethicist lauds Ireland's ruling against assisted suicide

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:02:00 -0600

Dublin, Ireland, May 8, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- The finding of the Irish Supreme Court that citizens have no right to assisted suicide is being welcomed by an ethicist and healthcare professional as an affirmation of the value of human life.

“It's a clear tragedy when society endorses assisted suicide...I was happy to see the supreme court decision in Ireland,” Doctor Marie Hilliard, director of bioethics and public policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA May 7.

On April 29, the supreme court of the Republic of Ireland ruled against Marie Fleming, who has multiple sclerosis and so is unable to commit suicide. Fleming wanted to ensure that she could end her life with the help of her partner, Tom Curran.

Fleming is in an advanced stage of multiple sclerosis, and is restricted to bed much of the time and has only some effective use of her arms. She reports also having difficulty speaking and swallowing, and frequent severe pain. She cannot control her electric wheelchair, has no bladder control, and requires assistance to eat and drink, and be washed and dressed.

Ireland decriminalized suicide in 1993, but assisting another person to kill themselves is still a criminal offence. Fleming argued that there is a “right to die” and that the prohibition against assisted suicide discriminates against the disabled.

Fleming “states that she now lives with little or no dignity,” and her condition has “left her feeling totally undignified,” according to the ruling.

In its finding, the court said that “there is no constitutional right to commit suicide or to arrange for the determination of one’s life at a time of one’s choosing,” and so Fleming “has no right which may be interfered with by any disability.”

In remarks to CNA, Hilliard reflected that a right to assisted suicide “would undermine the role of physicians as healers, expose the vulnerable to abuse, and would initiate a steady slide toward euthanasia.”

“We don't kill the sufferer to kill the suffering; that's not what health care is about. And it's a societal failure too, in terms of walking with our loved ones.”

She also called the promotion of assisted suicide a “palliative care failure.” Those with diseases such as multiple sclerosis can often fear abandonment, that they won't be cared for because they “won't have the same value in our society.”

“From a medical standpoint, a nursing standpoint, and a social standpoint, it's a communal palliative care failure...so certainly we're happy to see that the Irish supreme court saw this.”

Hilliard pointed out the similarities between the Fleming case and a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Washington v. Glucksberg.

In that decision, authored by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee, the court found that the U.S. Constitution does not protect the right to assistance in committing suicide.

The loneliness and fear which motivate calls for assisted suicide “means we don't have good palliative and hospice care,” according to Hilliard.

To promote assisted suicide “does the opposite of what people think, in terms of developing a caring approach to end of life care.” Rather, a “holistic perspective” needs to be adopted, which integrates families, palliative care nurses, physicians, patients, and pain control.

Hilliard emphasized the difference between subjects of terminal illness and terminal illnesses themselves. Palliative care deals with “how suffering is to be alleviated, not how to alleviate the sufferer,” she said.

The ethicist said it is important for Catholics to engage in hospice care, because “we can't just say we're against assisted suicide and then let folks continue to suffer.”

“We have to have an organized way of addressing what people think is an unresolvable problem in terms of suffering at the end of life. It's not.”

The good works of palliative care, she said, “are the real alternatives that are going to spare the patient, the physicians, and society from doing down that road towards eugenics.”

Theologian dismisses call for women 'deacons'

Fri, 03 May 2013 02:02:00 -0600

Bern, Switzerland, May 3, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- Theologian Father Manfred Hauke said recent comments from a German archbishop appearing to support a particular diaconate for women are confusing to Catholics and others.

“Allowing women to be deacons would create great confusion for the faithful,” Fr. Hauke, a professor of patristics and dogmatics at the Theological Faculty of Lugano, told CNA April 30.

“You would have to explain to them the difference between male and female deacons,” he pointed out.

Female “deacons” would not be ordained to the sacrament of Holy Orders, and calling them deacons would be “ambiguous,” Fr. Hauke said. Women could “receive a benediction for services of charity” but not ordination, he clarified.

At the conclusion of a diocesan conference on possible Church reforms last week, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg im Breisgau discussed the possibility of “a specific office of deacon for women.”

This “specific,” or “particular” office of deacon for women was an example of how the Church might “promote the use of new Church ministries and positions, open also to women.”

Archbishop Zollitsch went on to speak of the importance of leadership roles for women, and had earlier talked of the importance of being a more strongly charismatic-oriented Church and the strengthening of the “common priesthood of all the baptized.”

He believes the Church needs to commit to reform in order to regain credibility and strength.

Fr. Hauke said that Archbishop Zollitsch, who was ordained a priest in 1965, has made some confusing remarks on previous occasions and that he probably “got his idea” to introduce a “specific office of deacon for women” from fellow German Cardinal Walter Kasper.

However, Cardinal Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, had clearly distinguished between a service ministry for women and the sacramental ordination of men as deacons.

Fr. Hauke said that that most people who advocate for women deacons “ultimately want women in the priesthood.”

The Code of Canon Law makes clear that ordination, including to the diaconate, is validly received only by “a baptized male,” and John Paul II's 1994 apostolic letter “Ordinatio sacerdotalis” teaches definitevly that only men may be ordained priests.

On May 29, 2008, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decreed that whoever “shall have attempted to confer holy orders on a woman” – including necessarily the diaconate – “as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive holy orders, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.”

Fr. Hauke noted that in 2003, the International Theological Commission “published a document with evidence that we have no historical basis for the sacramental diaconate being bestowed on women.”

And in September 2001, the prefects of the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith (Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope emeritus Benedict), of Divine Worship, and of Clerics prepared a document, which was approved by John Paul II. It affirmed that “it is not licit to put in place initiatives which in some way aim to prepare female candidates for diaconal ordination,” according to the Italian paper La Stampa.

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg has said he can appreciate Archbishop Zollitsch's call for a greater role for women in the Church, but that the sacramental diaconate cannot be received by females.

He was quick to distance himself from Archbishop Zollitsch's remarks, and said that a non-sacramental female diaconate would not satisfy the desire for a greater leadership role by women in the Church.

Bishop Voderholzer pointed out that abbesses, general superiors, and school principals all generally have more influence than deacons.

“The sacramental diaconate – like the priesthood and episcopacy – is inextricably a sacrament, which according to the bible-based Tradition of the Church – even the Eastern Churches – is reserved to men,” he stated April 28.

Some have called for the ordination of women deacons by noting ancient documents referring to “deaconesses,” including a letter of Saint Paul.

Fr. Hauke responded that in such instances, the “deaconesses” “cannot be identified as really deacons.”

The word 'deacon' comes from a Greek word which simply meant 'servant,' and so early references to “deaconesses” signify women in roles of service in the Church.

In the early Church, which more frequently practiced baptism by immersion, such “deaconesses” assisted in the baptism of females for the sake of modesty.

These deaconesses were servants of the Church but were not sacramental deacons, as there is no mention of a bishop laying hands on them in an act of ordination.

Council of Europe hailed for religious freedom resolution

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:02:00 -0600

Strasbourg, France, Apr 30, 2013 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A resolution passed by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly is being lauded as an important – although limited – recognition of religious and conscience rights in the public sphere.

“The important step with this resolution is the mention of the right to conscientious objection and the enlargement of its scope of application,” Dr. Grégor Puppinck, director general of the European Centre for Law and Justice, told CNA April 29.

“It is the first time that I see a document, a source of law, saying there is a right to conscientious objection and freedom of conscience in all 'morally sensitive matters,'” he said, which means it applies to the fundamental right of parents to educate their children.

Resolution 1928, passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 24, says, “The Assembly therefore calls on member States to … accommodate religious beliefs in the public sphere by guaranteeing freedom of thought in relation to health care, education and the civil service.”

However, this accommodation is “provided that the rights of others to be free from discrimination are respected and that the access to lawful services is guaranteed.” This has made some critics wary that rights of religious freedom will be viewed as inferior and secondary to abortion and gay “rights.”

The Council of Europe, which works to promote co-operation among its 47 member states in the area of human rights, adopted the measure almost unanimously, by a vote of 148-3, with seven abstentions.

The resolution's adoption followed spirited debate on a report by an Italian representative, Luca Volonte, on “violence against religious communities.”

The effort to pass the measure met strong resistance from Scandinavian delegates. One Danish representative, complained that the report “insists on putting religious rights above other fundamental rights … of course freedom of religion should be respected, but it should not stand in the way of the right to lawful service, the right to abortion and equality for all, regardless of their homosexuality or heterosexuality.”

Puppinck explained that while “the wording of the resolution is not perfect” and he would have preferred that it be “stronger,” it is not “absolutely bad” and it will in fact “make it easier to uphold Christians' rights” to education of children, freedom of expression and conscientious objection.

The resolution, he said, is a follow-up to a 2011 resolution of the Assembly which focused on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, which was re-iterated in strong terms in Resolution 1928.

Because it has become “more and more difficult to advocate in Europe” for the three areas of religious freedom mentioned above, Puppinck explained that the resolution is a step forward as an affirmation of those rights.

“Those rights were negated widely in northern Europe, and they are negated by the Socialist governments, so it's important to talk about and to recognize those rights.”

He cited efforts in France, Spain, Germany and Russia which aim to decrease parental rights regarding the education of their children and use state education to promote secularist values.

“In France we are facing a difficult time with our government, which does not at all respect parental rights,” Puppinck explained. “We have some members of the French government who say children belong first to the state, to the community, and secondly to the family.”

He therefore lauded the resolution for reaffirming the “rights of parents concerning the education of children.”

The part of the resolution restricting religious freedom when it clashes with other rights was neither authored by Volonte nor was it present in the original draft, Puppinck said. Rather, this language entered through amendments adopted after debate on the topic, and Volonte assented to them so as to gain a large majority of support for the resolution.

Volonte chaired a seminar after the resolution's adoption which focused on the cases of two British Christians who were penalized in their workplaces for their religious beliefs.

In January, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Shirly Chaplin, a nurse who was kept from wearing a cross at work, and Gary McFarlane, a therapist who was fired for saying he would be unable to give sex therapy to homosexual couples, had not had their rights unduly violated by U.K. workplace discrimination law.

While acknowledging that the religious beliefs motivating their acts at work were worthy of protection, the court decided that British law in their cases fell within a wide “margin of appreciation,” which gives legislatures and employers broad discretion about how to balance conflicting “rights.”

Chaplin and McFarlane have appealed the decision to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which is also a body of the Council of Europe.

The assembly's resolutions influence the decisions of the court, Puppinck noted, adding that the cases of McFarlane and Chaplin were part of the motivation for introducing the resolution.

In the January decision against Chaplin and McFarlane, the court did find that British law had insufficiently protected another Christian, Nadia Eweida. It ruled that her freedom of religion had been breached after she was kept from wearing a cross in her employment at British Airways.

All these cases, and the resolution, are part of a growing trend of Europe's “clash of rights” cases involving Christian identity and expression in the public sphere.

Chaplin and McFarlane have appealed to the Grand Chamber saying that protections for the freedom of “thought, conscience and religion” will be effectively meaningless if the Court does not clarify how the rights of Christians, and other religious persons, are to be balanced with the rights upheld by secular persons and societies.

The Grand Chamber is not expected to decide whether to hear the case for several weeks.

Court protects Scottish midwives from abortion involvement

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:05:00 -0600

Glasgow, United Kingdom, Apr 25, 2013 / 12:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two Scottish midwives won an appeal on April 24 against a court's decision forcing them to indirectly take part in abortions against their will.

“Connie and I are absolutely delighted with today's judgment,” said midwife Mary Doogan in a statement Wednesday.

Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital placed Doogan, 58, and Concepta Wood, 52, in charge of delegating and supporting staff who performed abortions.

Although they objected, the hospital’s management argued that a conscientious objection clause in the 1967 Abortion Act applied only to those directly performing abortions.

The Catholic women then filed a case – with the financial help of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board – but lost it on Feb. 29, 2012.

Local judge Lady Anne Smith had argued that the 1967 Act allowed only qualified conscientious objection and noted that they were “being protected from having any direct involvement with the procedure to which they object.”

“Nothing they have to do as part of their duties terminates a woman’s pregnancy,” Lady Smith had said last year.

The midwives then appealed the court’s decision and won. Both called the ruling “a welcome affirmation of the rights of all midwives to withdraw from the practice that would violate the conscience and which over time, would indeed debar many from entering what has always been a very rewarding and noble profession.”

The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Children's general secretary, Paul Tully, underscored that “the result is a tremendous victory for these devoted and caring professional women.”

“This outcome will be a great relief to all midwives, nurses and doctors who may be under pressure to supervise abortion procedures and who are wondering whether the law protects their right to opt out,” said Tully in a statement released today by Britain’s largest pro-life organization.

The midwives maintained that their right to opt-out of providing abortions for reasons of conscience was upheld by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Section 4(1) of the U.K.’s 1967 Abortion Act.

Both Doogan and Wood had worked for over 20 years at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital and had always openly stated their conscientious objection to abortion.

Hospital management told midwives employed as “labor ward co-ordinators” that they had to oversee abortion procedures when the hospital transferred late abortion patients to the labor ward instead of the gynecology ward.

But three appeal court judges, Lord Donald Mackay, Lady Leonna Dorrian and Lord Robin McEwan, ruled in their favor.

They said the women can exercise their right to conscientious exemption by “refusing to delegate, supervise or support staff in charge of women undergoing abortions.”