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NEWS UPDATES

 

BANGLADESH: Q & A with Sr. Roberta Pignone, working for leprosy and tuberculosis patients by Uttom S. Rozario, Global Sisters Report

 

COMMENTARY: Why questions must be asked when the Church's own publications run articles attacking the Pope by Christopher Lamb, The Tablet (C N U A)

 

 

Pope Francis during the rite of washing of the feet at the juvenile prison of Casal del Marmo (2013) 

Opposition to Pope Francis can often be found at its most rancorous in the English-speaking Catholic world. Besides the articles weighing up the achievements and disappointments of the dramatic decade since his election, no one was surprised that several commentators chose to mark the occasion by launching splenetic attacks on the Francis papacy. All good knockabout stuff, perhaps. But some senior officials in the Church, including in Rome, were alarmed to see that one of these pieces was reproduced in the official publications of several English-speaking dioceses.  

George Weigel, the widely-respected biographer of Pope John Paul II, wrote a column entitled “A Somber Anniversary”, in which he describes Francis as an autocrat presiding over a “slough of dysfunction”, creating a “miasma of fear”, systematically trying to deconstruct the legacy of Pope John Paul II and failing to implement much-needed reforms on finances and abuse. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, has since offered a rebuttal to some of Mr Weigel's claims.

The bracing critique of the Pope by Mr. Weigel was written for the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver. Its archbishop, Samuel Aquila, once described Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal nuncio who released a dossier of accusations against Francis and called on him to resign, as “a man of deep faith and integrity”. Weigel’s column is syndicated widely. It also appeared in The Pilot (Archdiocese of Boston) and The Catholic Weekly (Archdiocese of Sydney).

The Archbishop of Boston is Cardinal Sean O’Malley, a member of the Pope’s Council of Advisers and president of the Holy See’s abuse commission. Sources close to the cardinal told me that when he was informed of the article in The Pilot, he immediately called for it to be taken down. In Sydney, however, it has stayed up.

The archdiocese is led by Anthony Fisher, who was appointed to his current role by Francis and is also a member of the Synod of bishops council and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Archbishop Fisher, a Dominican friar with a doctorate from Oxford, is a talented man. Last year, he addressed the US hierarchy on the theme of fraternity and communion among bishops.

But as I witnessed while reporting on the Australian Church’s synod assembly (the Plenary Council) in Sydney last July, his archdiocese’s publication ran a series of hostile articles about the council and has been very critical of synodality, a signature Francis reform.

Their publication of Mr. Weigel’s article was called out by Austen Ivereigh, a journalist, commentator and former Deputy Editor of The Tablet, who asked what this said about communion between bishops and Rome. To the publication's credit, the editor offered Dr Ivereigh the chance to respond to Mr Weigel's commentary. It's also important to point out that the publication ran several articles on the Francis anniversary, focussing on the central themes of the pontificate.

Dr. Ivereigh points out that Mr. Weigel is free to be “an incessant, querulous, ideological critic of Francis”, but the question is whether diocesan publications should give him a platform to do so. This is a crucial point. “A spirit of communion does not mean being uncritical or adulatory. But it asks us to assume the good faith of the successor of St Peter,” Dr Ivereigh writes. “It asks us to listen respectfully to him, to seek to understand him and his intentions. What counters the spirit of communion is casting what he does and says in the worst possible light, as if seizing weapons to use against him. This Dr. Weigel does in every line.” The Weigel article also comes weeks after The Catholic Weekly published a 95-page supplement devoted to Cardinal George Pell, paying tribute to the late Australian cardinal’s many gifts. Archbishop Fisher, 63, has been effusive in his praise of his predecessor’s legacy but has not distanced himself from Cardinal Pell’s notorious description of Francis’ pontificate as a “catastrophe” or his characterization of the synod as a “toxic nightmare”.  It has left some people asking: what is going on in Sydney?
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/16899/why-questions-must-be-asked-when-the-church-s-own-publications-run-articles-attacking-the-pope

 

GLOBAL: The power of prayer By Andrea Tornielli, Vatican News

 

 

Pope Francis greets staff at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, on July 11, 2021. (File Photo: Vatican Media)Our Editorial Director reflects on Pope Francis' continuous requests for others to pray for him, especially in light of his recent hospitalization for bronchitis.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-04/the-power-of-prayer.html

 

HOLY FATHER: Extends deadline to appeal dismissal from religious institutes By Salvatore Cernuzio, Vatican News

 

 

 

In an Apostolic Letter issued motu proprio, Pope Francis extends to thirty days the deadline for consecrated persons who are dismissed from religious institutes to appeal the judgment against them, a change which seeks to guarantee the person's rights.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-04/pope-extends-deadline-to-appeal-dismissal-from-institutes.html

 

INDIA: Catholic bishop, priest denied anticipatory bail in cheating case By Matters India

 

 

Bishop Gerald Almeida
https://mattersindia.com/2023/04/catholic-bishop-priest-denied-anticipatory-bail-in-cheating-case/

 

MYANMAR: There’s hope  - Jesuits at the Frontiers - Jesuits Global
The shocking coup of February 2021 ended Myanmar’s fragile road to democracy, plunged the country once more into darkness, and stole the future of millions of young people. Through the darkness, the young people shine a light. We witness their faith, their courage, and their determination to build a more just and peaceful nation. We Jesuits accompany them. Watch the first episode of the video series 'Jesuits at the Frontiers', in which we tell the stories of Jesuits and partners in mission who accompany the most vulnerable societies, groups, and individuals, on literal or metatheoretical frontiers. Discover the stories of the mission for reconciliation, peace, and hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdLaVa-DNs4

 

REFLECTION: I Thirst By Sr. Inigo SSA

 

 

 

ROME: Cardinal, star soccer coach say sports must emphasize formation By Justin McLellan, CNS / USCCB
https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/cardinal-star-soccer-coach-say-sports-must-emphasize-formation

 

THE SYNODAL CHURCH: Sr. Nathalie Becquart: 'Yes, yes, I will be voting' at the synod on synodality by Chris Herlinger, Global Sisters Report

 

U.K.: Call for lay and Religious to be involved in priestly formation by Sarah Mac Donald, The Tablet (C N U A) Contributions from Religious to the Synod contained a “powerful and fearless critique” of clericalism and a “clear call” for lay people and Religious to be involved in the formation of seminarians, according to a member of the group charged with drawing up the summary. Delivering an address at Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Gemma Simmonds CJ said members of religious orders felt that lay and religious involvement in formation might help a “more participative and welcoming” Church to emerge and ensure that ordained ministry was seen not as “a clerical caste” but a “refined form of the baptismal vocation” in line with the teaching of Vatican II. Dr. Simmonds was one of four religious on the synthesizing commission for Religious asked to produce the summary of the contributions received from hundreds of religious communities worldwide for the Synod on Synodality. The other commission members were José Cristo Rey García Paredes CMF, Maria Cimperman RSCJ, and Orlando Torres SJ.

 

The religious sister, who is Director of the Religious Life Institute at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge, was in Dublin to deliver the final lecture in the Loyola Institute’s Lenten Series: “Authentic, Effective Reform in the Church: Reading Yves Congar Today”. In her talk on “True and False Reform Today’” she said the religious contributions to the synod spoke with “openness and courage” about situations that must change if religious life itself and the wider Church are to survive and flourish. They offered “a vigorous self-critique”, as well as a critique of “oppressive attitudes and practices within the wider Church” which are preventing the general life of the Church from achieving its full potential. They spoke out of their “zeal and energy” she said, of “the signs of hope in the synodal process that they find in every human context and corner of the world”. The theologian, who is a member of the Congregation of Jesus, noted that the Catholic Church provides 25 percent of the global response to HIV and AIDS and that the experience of religious in caring for those who are most profoundly impacted by the AIDS pandemic was “a very powerful one”. “They are the ones who are on the ground seeing people dying with HIV and AIDS. That raises its own questions about Church teaching on safe sex and the like,” she said.

Collating the synthesis offered “a bird's eye view, not only of religious life today but of the life lived by those who are very often on the front line of the Church's delivery of its apostolic mission, from one end of the globe to the other”. The “biggest surprise” was the convergence in what was being said. “What was definitely most striking to us was precisely the united voice that came both from the global north and from the global south, from political, economic, and social contexts that differ massively from one another, but in which so often, one and the same reflective voice resonated.”

In her lecture, she placed the late French theologian Yves Congar OP and his ideas of true and false reform into conversation with what had been learned from the Synod response from the religious. Referring to her work on hope over lockdown and the Covid pandemic and the need for hope in the Church, she said, “It feels, at least in my part of the world, as if hope has been in rather short supply within the Catholic Church of late.” One challenge she identified came from those who critique of the Synod as “an extended exercise in disloyalty that is destroying faith, hope, and love for the Church”. She did not agree with that analysis. She highlighted how Congar had had his critics too. He argued that the “self-critique of the Church does not lie in a lack of loyalty” as was claimed in his time and is being claimed today. On the contrary, he countered that it lies precisely in “a deep attachment to the Church” and a desire to be able to trust despite the disappointment of someone who loves and expects a great deal from the Church. It was not a “crisis of loyalty”.

Dr. Simmonds explained that her work on hope was centered on Pope Benedict’s encyclical Spe Salvi, which in its opening paragraphs said the Christian message is not only informative but performative. “Hope makes things happen and is life-changing. The one who has hope lives differently,” she quoted. And at the heart of that is the essence of what true reform in the Church is. “True reform is something that must be performative. It cannot stay at the level of grand statements, nor can it stay at the level of aspiration.”

She acknowledged that many people ask with “some trepidation”, what is the future of the Church? “Nobody is asking that question with greater urgency than the religious, certainly in the global north, who are seeing their median age rise exponentially, and are not seeing much of a structural future ahead of them.” “But if hope is life-changing, and if it makes things happen, then we are invited to believe, both in the Church and within religious life, that the dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open and is thrown open by the impetus for reform within the Church.”

Writing about the urgency of reform in the Catholic Church of the 16th century, Congar noted that a major problem in the push for reform at that time was the failure of the hierarchy to develop a sense of urgency. “We are in the midst of a major push for reform led by Pope Francis himself through the global Synod,” she said. While some may ask what is the point and if genuine reform was possible, her own response was “The process is the product”. “Once we have engaged with this process, we have become different people” because of the discussions heard and witnesses listened to. “The reform – the change starts when we open ourselves to being changed by what we hear when we listen to one another. And when we have the courage to tell one another the truth.”

Any authentic reform must come in dialogue with those whose vocation it is, mandated by the Church, both to teach and to lead. There is little call for shifts in doctrine or teaching as such, but a loud call for a broader and more genuine understanding of what lies within the Church’s teaching. She highlighted that there is a call for a profound shift in structures and methods of leadership, from problem-solving to appreciative inquiry, from leadership as a power to servant and transformational leadership, which changes the understanding of obedience from one of “silent compliance to one of mutual discernment, shared decision making and communal discernment”.

 

Gemma Simmonds said Pope Francis was engaged in “a kind of inside-out movement” and all were called to be “missionaries of listening”, whose key verbs are listening, participating, praying, and seeking. The weeds seen by religious as choking the seeds of synodality included the climate of division and polarization within the Church. Some religious expressed skepticism that critical voices would be heard without being censored in their diocese or their parish. They saw theological, moral, social and liturgical fundamentalisms as stifling the seeds of synodality and therefore a counter-reform.  “And when such fundamentalist movements are supported by political, economic and media groups, who are trying to regain patriarchal power and establish a pre-Vatican II model of seminary formation, it was seen as a profoundly pernicious cultural influence,” Dr. Simmonds said.
Those from the global south also named things like the caste system, tribalism, regionalism, and nationalism, as movements, which in and of themselves, are deeply contrary to the spirit of baptism described by Paul. They flagged up repeatedly the problem of sexism both within decision-making structures and in the language of the Church, and how women are excluded from meaningful roles in the life of the Church. Women religious were often regarded as cheap labour and discriminated against within Church structures when they did not receive a fair wage for their ministries and services.

 

The patriarchal and hierarchical model, which favours clericalism, and considers the clergy as a race apart, disregards the fundamental dignity of every baptized person, the religious felt. This model disrespected the laity and prevented collaboration and mutual relationships. “This was seen as being toxic for priests as well as toxic for the laity and placing intolerable burdens on many good men who go forward in a desire for service to the priesthood,” the Director of the Religious Life Institute said. Elsewhere in her address in Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Simmonds said the Church in the global north had been “devastated” by the impact of abuses of power, of conscience, and of the person within the church and by “justified” accusations that leaders did not recognize the urgency of the problem until it was too late, or fatally, called into question the principle of dealing with such accusations in a way that was consistent with justice and with the gravity of the crimes committed. Many religious believe, “the churches of the global south have barely begun to deal with these issues and the response when they do, will be a tsunami.”

 

Dr. Simmonds said that in the Synod response, religious also spoke of the need to listen to the lived experience of those who find themselves at odds with the Church’s teaching, whether that is about the role of women within the Church, or the acceptance within the Eucharistic community of those who are divorced or separated, or those who identify themselves as LGBTQ. “We specifically and deliberately checked the origin of these responses and we were surprised to find that they did not exclusively come from the global north, but also from countries within the global South, where such identification carries severe social and political penalties, including imprisonment and death.” “If we are to have true reform, it seems to me that one of the things we need to do is actually take off our unconscious cultural spectacles and try as best we can, in the light of the gospel, to see the world with the eyes of Christ Himself. We will only do that if we talk to one another. We will only do that as Congar and his renouncement theologian companions tell us, if we return to the sources, the sources of the Scriptures themselves, the source of the life of the Church.” https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/16898/call-for-lay-and-religious-to-be-involved-in-priestly-formation-

 

WORDS OF WISDOM: Grateful Living - C N U A

• Courage is fear that has said its prayers. - Anne Lamott
• Words of encouragement motivated by the wish for someone’s happiness can function as a source of revitalizing light,
  rousing courage, and strength. - Daisaku Ikeda
• You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.
  What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. - Jane Goodall
• If we only see the harvest as a time to be grateful, we miss the opportunity to be grateful for rest, planting, and caring. - Mike Martin
• Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. - Frida Kahlo
• The gift within the gift of any given moment is opportunity. - Br. David Steindl-Rast
• When suffering constricts the heart, awe stretches it back out, making us more compassionate, more loving, and more present. - Valarie Kaur
• The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all and then stands back to see if we can find them. - Elizabeth Gilbert
• Since there is nothing but just this moment, the time-being is all the time there is. - Dogen
• No matter how dark the cloud is, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for. - Wangari Maathai
• Grief and gratitude are kindred souls, each pointing to the beauty of what is transient and given to us by grace. - Patricia Campbell Carlson
• What you are, the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world. - J. Krishnamurti
• Our bodies are speaking to us all the time—and if we pay attention, we hear the gratitude they hold. - Colette Lafia
• You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming. - Pablo Neruda
• It’s precisely the people who are considered the least “likely” leaders who end up inspiring others the most.
  Everyday people and everyday acts of courage eventually change everything. - Ai-Jen Poo
• If you’re not now in touch with the mysterious majesty of life, look again. It’s just as mysterious as you thought it was as a child. - Br. Curtis Almquist
• Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen. - Robert Bresson
• A teacher comes, they say when you are ready. And if you ignore its presence, it will speak to you more loudly. But you have to be quiet to hear. - Robin Wall Kimmerer
• You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather. - Pema Chödrön
• You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don’t have to do anything to earn it…
  No one can take this love away from you, and it will always be here. - Ram Dass
• What would it be to awaken to a day devoted to gratitude, a day of thankfulness for what was and yet will be? - Stephen Levine
•  don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. - Anne Frank
• Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. - Helen Schucman
• Gratitude practice isn’t about pacifying our painful or challenging times
  it’s about recognizing them and finding self-compassion as we do the work. - Alex Elle
• Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed. - Mary Oliver
• What we are, what we have, even our salvation, all is a gift, all is grace,
  not to be achieved but to be received as a gift freely given. - Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Source: www.gratefulness.org

 

RELAX PLEASE: Astute Visionaries? - CNUA

 

 

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."  - Audrey Hepburn

 

"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish." - J. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

People know you for what you've done, not what you plan to do. -

 

Always borrow money from a pessimist; he won't expect it back. -

 

Do you give as much energy to your dreams as you do to your fears? -

 

"The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting." - Oswald Chambers

 

"The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone." - Oswald Chambers

 

Lobster Tails - A guy was down on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco when he saw a seafood restaurant and a sign on the Specials Board which read, "Big Lobster Tales, $5 each." Amazed at the great value, he said to the waitress, "$5 each for lobster tails . . . is that correct?" "Yes," she said. "It's our special just for today." "Well," he said, "they must be little lobster tails." "No," she replied, "they're really big!" "Are you sure they aren't green lobster tails - and a little bit tough?" "No," she said, "they're really big, red lobster tails." "Big red lobster tails, $5 each," he said, amazed. "They must be old lobster tails!" "No, they're definitely today's." "Today's big red lobster tails - $5 each?" he repeated, astounded. "Yes," she insisted. "Well, here's my five dollars," he said, "I'll take one." She took the money and led him to a table where she invited him to sit down. She then sat down next to him, put her hand on his shoulder, leaned over close to him and said, "Once upon a time there was a really big red lobster ..." -

 

Guilt, Breaking The Law, Righteousness, Purity - A policeman pulled over a car, walked up to the driver's window, and asked the man if he knew why he was pulled over. "No," the man replied. "You failed to stop at the stop sign," the cop explained. "But I did slow down!" the guy argued. The cop shook his head. "You are required to stop. That's why they're called stop signs." The man started to get belligerent. "Stop, slow down -- what's the difference?" The cop pulled out his baton. "I can show you. I'm going to start hitting you with my baton. You tell me if you want me to stop or slow down." -

 

Contempt of Court - A New York man was forced to take a day off from work to appear for a minor traffic summons. He grew increasingly restless as he waited hour after endless hour for his case to be heard. When his name was called late in the afternoon, he stood before the judge, only to hear that court would be adjourned for the rest of the afternoon and he would have to return the next day. "What for?!" he snapped at the judge. His honor, equally irked by a tedious day and the sharp query, roared, "Twenty dollars for contempt of court - ten dollars for each word. That's why!" Then, noticing the man checking his wallet, the judge relented. "That's all right. You don't have to pay now" The young man replied, "I'm just seeing if I have enough for two more words." -

Astute Visionaries?

• "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of Science, 1949
• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
• "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
  --The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
• "But what is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
• "There is no real need for salespeople.  Customers will be attracted to good products without assistance." --Ken Olson, addressing a convention of DEC salespeople
• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.  The device is inherently of no value to us."
  --Western Union internal memo, 1876.
• "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.  Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
• "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
  --A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.  Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.
• "Who the {heCK] wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M.  Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
• "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind."
• "A cookie store is a bad idea.  Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
  --Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs.  Fields' Cookies.
• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
• "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment.  The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
  --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
• "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us?  Or, we'll give it to you.  We just want to do it.  Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And, they said, 'No.' So then, we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you.  You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

• 

   

• "Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react.  He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." --1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.
• "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles?  It can't be done.  It's just a fact of life.  You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." --Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.
• "Drill for oil?  You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?  You're crazy." --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
• "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." --Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
• "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." --Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
• "Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H.  Duell, Commissioner, U.S.  Office of Patents, 1899.
• "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
• "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."
  --Sir John Eric Ericksen, a British surgeon, was appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1873.
• "640K ought to be enough for anybody." --Bill Gates, 1981

By Pastor Tim, Cybersalt News - March 26, 2023, www.cybersaltlists.org

 

Legal Contracts - The professor of a contract law class asked one of his better students, "If you were to give someone an orange, how would you go about it?" The student replied, "Here's an orange." The professor was outraged.  "No!  No!  Think like a lawyer!" The student then replied, "Okay.  I'd tell him 'I hereby give and convey to you all and singular, my estate and interests, rights, claim, title, claim and advantages of and in, said orange, together with all its rind, juice, pulp, and seeds, and all rights and advantages with full power to bite, cut, freeze and otherwise eat, the same, or give the same away with and without the pulp, juice, rind, and seeds, anything herein before or hereinafter or in any deed, or deeds, instruments of whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding...'" -