Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio)  Myanmar (also known as Burma) turned a new page in its gradual transition to democracy when the nation’s new civilian president, Htin Kyaw, was sworn in on Wednesday after decades of military rule.

Kyaw is a close ally of Aung San Suu Kyi whose National League for Democracy party scored a landslide victory in last November’s elections. She is barred by the constitution from becoming president but has said she will run the government from behind the scenes.

Benedict Rogers is an expert on Myanmar who works for the rights group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and has recently returned from a visit to the nation. He was interviewed by Susy Hodges.

Listen to the interview with Benedict Rogers of Christian Solidarity Worldwide: 

Rogers agreed with those describing the swearing-in of the new president as “an historic moment” but said the government will face “a lot of challenges ahead” because of the considerable power and influence still retained by the military.

Myanmar’s present constitution reserves 25 percent of the seats in parliament for military officers, guaranteeing that no government can amend the constitution without the army’s approval. Rogers also pointed out that the military “still controls the key ministries” of Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs which he said will also “constrain” the new government’s powers.   

Asked about the challenges facing Myanmar’s first civilian government after 54 years of direct and indirect military rule, Rogers noted that in addition to the constraints posed by the nation’s still incomplete democracy, Myanmar faces “huge problems” such as “the ongoing ethnic conflicts, religious intolerance, poverty and a host of other challenges.”

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According to an article by Uganda’s Daily newspaper, “New Vision,” the Archbishop of Kampala, Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has emphasised that only ordained priests have the authority to administer Holy Oils. This observation will be widely seen as an attempt to rein-in on abuses by some lay persons associated with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement in Uganda.   The Metropolitan Archbishop of Kampala says the new guidelines have been formulated by the Uganda Episcopal Conference. The Archbishop announced the guidelines during the celebration of Chrism Mass.

The Kampala prelate explained that the new guidelines had been formulated by the Uganda Bishops to prevent the emergence of controversies associated with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement.

Catholic Charismatic Renewal is a spiritual movement within the Catholic Church that incorporates aspects of both Catholic and charismatic practice. It places an emphasis on having a personal relationship with Jesus and expressing the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Charismatic Renewal as a movement within the Catholic Church is acknowledged in its right. Several Popes, starting with Pope Paul VI to the present Pope Francis have recognised the importance and significance of the Movement within the Church.

Archbishop Lwanga ha salso said it was not right for anybody to bless or sell Holy Oils.

According to Church teaching, the oils blessed at Chrism Mass are of three kinds: the Oil of Catechumens, Chrism and the Oil of the Sick. Each of these is oil extracted from olives. Chrism Oil is distinguished from the others by having balm or balsam mixed with it. The Oils can only be blessed by the Bishop with a particular form of prayer, expressing the purpose for which it is to be used, during Chrism Mass each year.

The new arrangement in Uganda, also provides for Charismatic prayers to be held only in places of worship or centres approved by a Bishop. The “New Vision” quotes Archbishop Lwanga as saying, Charismatic prayers will also be conducted only by an ordained priest or deacon, and not by anyone else.

According to the Archbishop, falling, rolling on the ground, or shouting will also not be allowed during Charismatic prayers. In unfolding these guidelines, Archbishop Lwanga took the time to remind the faithful that it is the responsibility of the Bishop to choose exorcists.

In the Catholic Church, only an exorcist officially appointed by the Bishop has the mandate and special permission to perform exorcisms. In the Archdiocese of Kampala, Msgr. Expedito Magembe, Fr. Athanasius Musajjakawa, Fr. Lawrence Mubiru and Fr. Dominic Mwebe were introduced as the official exorcists of the diocese.

Charismatic preachers who want to use the media will now be required to seek the approval of their Bishop. The Archbishop of Kampala also said parish priests need to be notified about any Charismatic activities taking place in the parish before such events happen.

Clarifying the need for these new measures, Archbishop Lwanga said the diocesan Bishop has the pastoral responsibility to ensure that whatever is being done in the diocese is in conformity with Catholic traditional practice, Doctrine of the Church and Canon Law. He stressed the need to protect the vulnerable lay faithful from self-styled preachers.

In attendance, at the Chrism Mass, were the Apostolic Nuncio to Uganda, Archbishop Michael Blume; Kampala Archbishop Emeritus, Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala and the Hoima Bishop Emeritus Edward Albert Baharagate.

(sources: “New Vision” - Uganda; Archdiocese of Kampala website; Additional reporting -Vatican Radio, English Africa Service)

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Denver, Colo., Mar 31, 2016 / 03:04 am (Denver Catholic).- One theme unifies the stories of all the saints: Christians are never alone. Even in the most isolated circumstances, saints have a profound union with God. This principle is demonstrated by the martyrdom of Franz Jagerstatter, a father and martyr during the Nazi occupation of Austria.

A peasant background

Franz was no St. Therese. He was the illegitimate child of a maidservant in a tiny village in Upper Austria. His mother married when Franz was 10.

Franz was a wild child. He was a womanizer, and even had a daughter born out of wedlock. Gordan Zahn, whose book In Solitary Witness is the definitive work on Jagerstatter’s life, discovered that Jagerstatter was exiled from his community for several years, during which time he stopped attending Mass.

However, Jagerstatter received a passable education in the village’s one-room school schoolhouse before becoming a farmer. Then he met his wife.

Marriage transformed him

He married Franziska Schwaninger on Holy Thursday 1936. On their honeymoon, they received a blessing from Pope Pius XI.

Franziska’s effect on her husband was subtle but persistent. Jagerstatter became the sexton of the village church, meaning he assisted at all the liturgies and maintained the building. This led to him becoming a daily communicant. He began to memorize the Bible and learn the lives of the saints. In fact, he once told his wife, “I could have never imagined that being married could be so wonderful.”

Road to martyrdom

Jagerstatter and Franziska had three girls together, and remained close to his other daughter. In 1938, around the time their eldest daughter was born, Germans invaded Austria.

The Catholic Church in Austria had warned against Nazi socialism for years. Catholics in Germany were facing severe restrictions, including the prohibition of Mass outside of Sundays, even for the holiest solemnities and feast days. Jagerstatter’s own pastor had been jailed for delivering an anti-Nazi sermon. His bishop had dictated an anti-Nazi letter to be read in all the parishes several years earlier. That same bishop would declare, “It is impossible to be both a good Catholic and a true Nazi.” He was later replaced with a bishop who spoke more cautiously.

The same pope who had blessed Jagerstatter’s marriage, Pius XI, in 1937 published the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, on the strained relations between the Church and Nazi Germany.

Buoyed by these witnesses, Jagerstatter was still the only person in his whole town to disavow Anschluss, or the German annexation of Austria. He was dismayed to see many Catholics support the Nazis. One cardinal even demanded that all parishes fly the Nazi flag from their churches on Hitler’s birthday.

“I believe there could scarcely be a sadder hour for the true Christian faith in our country,” he wrote.

The prevailing idea at the time was that a peasant layman should do what his country told him to do. By this obedience, the people who made the decisions, and not the peasant, would hold moral responsibility for the actions. But Franz couldn’t reconcile that worldview with the fact that he had free will, and that he could not call himself a disciple if he bowed that will to a movement he viewed as satanic. He would not fight for the Nazis.

At first it seemed that being a farmer would keep him from fighting–Germany’s massive army required equally massive amounts of food. Unfortunately, in 1943 the need for fighters grew, and Jagerstatter was called to active duty. He went to the induction center, where he announced that he would not fight. He was summarily carted to the military prison at Linz to learn his fate.

“I am convinced it is best that I speak the truth, even if it costs me my life,” he wrote.

Saints have saints for friends

Friends, family and even the local bishop visited Jagerstatter in prison, trying to convince him to fight. None of these visitors gave him a convincing argument against his moral convictions about conscientious objection. Instead, they all tried to convince him that God would not hold him accountable for doing what his state ordered. Jagerstatter was unconvinced.

“Since the death of Christ, almost every century has seen the persecution of Christians; there have always been heroes and martyrs who gave their lives — often in horrible ways — for Christ and their faith. If we hope to reach our goal someday, then we, too, must become heroes of the faith,” he said.

His wife accepted his need to follow his conscience. He was also part of a movement of Catholic martyrs who gave their life to fight the Nazis.

St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) had died the previous August in Auschwitz, almost a year to the day after St. Maximillian Kolbe. Blessed Marcel Callo was just beginning the undercover Catholic activities in his forced labor camp that would eventually lead to his 1945 martyrdom for being “too Catholic.”

Most impressively, Jagerstatter spent May to August of 1943 in the same prison as the renowned Lutheran pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There is not evidence that the two men ever met, or even realized they shared a prison with someone so similar in conviction. Jagerstatter was able to learn, though, of a priest who had been martyred in the same prison for the exact reasons he and so many others shared.

That conviction ultimately cost him his life. He was taken to Berlin, where he was sentenced to death for sedition. His last recorded words before he met the guillotine are, "I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord."

The Church agreed. During Vatican II, Jagerstatter’s life helped shape the section of Gaudium et spes that talks about conscientious objectors to war. He was beatified 50 years after his death. His daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren attended the ceremony.

 

This article first appeared in the Denver Catholic.

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Vatican City, Mar 31, 2016 / 04:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Thursday that Pope Francis’ highly anticipated post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the gifts and challenges of family life will be published April 8.

Titled “Amoris Laetitia,” on love in the family, the document will officially be presented to journalists next Friday, April 8, in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Speakers presenting the exhortation will include Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., Archbishop of Vienna.

Additionally, married couple Francesco Miano, a lecturer in moral philosophy at the University of Rome at Tor Vergata, and his wife Giuseppina De Simone in Miano, a lecturer in philosophy at the Theological Faculty of Southern Italy in Naples, will also be among the panelists presenting the document.

The apostolic exhortation is the conclusion of a two-year synod process discussing both the beauty and challenges of family life today.

In 2014 the Vatican hosted an Extraordinary Synod which was in preparation for the October 2015 Ordinary Synod. An estimated 190 bishops from around the world participated in each gathering.

The 2015 synod, which the Pope’s exhortation is expected to focus on, was themed “the vocation and mission of the family in the church and the modern world.”

Both synods were marked by controversy, particularly regarding the hot-button topics of ministry to homosexuals and the divorced-and-remarried, which dominated the majority of media coverage.

Discussion in the synod hall, however, also touched on a variety of issues such as marriage preparation, pornography, and domestic violence and abuse.

Francis’ exhortation is expected to be based largely on the final report from the synod, which was released Oct. 24. That report reflected collegiality among the bishops, though two of the 94 paragraphs were included by only a slim margin.

Rumors have consistently circulated as to what the Pope will say regarding the issues of communion and homosexuality.

However, in a recent book-length interview with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli titled “The Name of God is Mercy,” Francis dropped a few hints that there will be no eyebrow raisers, and that not much will change in terms of Church teaching and current pastoral practice.

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New York City, N.Y., Mar 31, 2016 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy See paid homage to all women and girls who have selflessly served others in education, healthcare, and forming the youth and upheld the four Missionaries of Charity murdered in Yemen as an example of women with unwavering dedication to peace.

“My delegation feels duty-bound at this moment to remember with gratitude and sorrow the four Missionary Sisters of the Charity Sister Anselm from India, Sister Marguerite and Sister Reginette from Rwanda, and Sister Judit from Kenya, who were massacred by cowardly fundamentalists on March 4 in Aden, Yemen,” a Vatican spokesperson told the United Nations Security Council March 28.

“There is no greater sacrifice for peace and reconciliation than to lay down one’s life for it,” he said. “May their blood these be seeds for a peaceful and reconciled Yemen!” Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Archbishop Bernardito Auza said.

His address was part of the U.N. Security Council Open Debate entitled, “Women, peace and security: The role of women in conflict prevention and resolution in Africa.”

The archbishop explained that women are “beyond crucial” to conflict resolution and peace-building efforts, as is their “special gift” of showing others “to be more receptive and sensitive to the needs of others.”

Therefore, it is essential that the work of women in these initiatives is highlighted and supported by the U.N. Security Council and all participating governments, especially in the area of education, he said.

He lauded all the women who, “even in the most difficult circumstances,” have found a way to “distinguish themselves for their bravery, constancy and dedication” in the development of their nations through work in “education, healthcare and values formation.”

He thanked the Council for its work in raising awareness about “the vital role of women in preventive diplomacy, mediation, peacekeeping missions and peace-building processes,” but said that this recognition “must be fully translated into action.”

The archbishop highlighted the work of the Catholic Church in supporting the “inspiring work of African women” on their path to foster human dignity in their countries by standing up for the weak, preventing violence in their communities, and caring for victims of conflict.

However, the Church must continue its work in support African women in political power and diplomatic influence by to provide education to future generations of leaders.

“I am proud to say that the Catholic Church in Africa is the leading provider of quality education for all, ensuring to the best of its possibilities that no woman or girl would be left unschooled, preparing them to become dignified agents of their own personal flourishing and active protagonists in building strong families and peaceful societies.”

Women in leadership positions are especially helpful to those who have been victims of rape or violence, he said. Some find it easier to trust organizations run by women, many of whom are religious sisters or nuns, than men.

Still, it is difficult for many women to “emancipate themselves” from abuse and exclusion, especially in areas of conflict where rape is used as a weapon of war, or where women are coerced into marriage, conversion or abortions.

“Instead of being eradicated, some of these acts of violence have re-emerged in even crueler forms, constituting some of the most horrendous violations of human rights,” he said.

The U.N. Security Council and all governments have a particular obligation to “put an end to these barbaric acts.”

Photo credit: www.shutterstock.com.

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