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Vatican City, Mar 28, 2016 / 02:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Benedict XVI had a special response to Mother Angelica’s death falling on Easter Sunday: “it’s a gift.”

Archbishop Georg Ganswein, Benedict’s personal secretary, told CNA about the Pope emeritus’ comment March 28.

Mother Angelica, an Ohio-born Poor Clare nun, founded EWTN Global Catholic Network in Alabama in 1981. It has since become the largest religious media network in the world. She passed away March 27, Easter Sunday, at the age of 92.

Her death prompted memorials, eulogies and remembrances from around the world.

In Rome, Monsignor Dario Vigano, prefect of the Secretariat for Communications, pledged that he would pray for the repose of her soul. Many other priests, religious, and laity in Rome are praying for her.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, said Mother Angelica was an “extraordinary woman, devout believer and media pioneer.”

“Mother Angelica reflected the Gospel commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19), and like the best evangelists, she used the communications tools of her time to make this happen,” he said March 28. “She displayed a unique capacity for mission and showed the world once again the vital contribution of women religious.”

Archbishop Kurtz praised Mother Angelica’s role in founding EWTN, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and the Knights of the Holy Eucharist.

“Her work, begun in the cloister, reached across the globe. She was a convincing sign as to how even the humblest of beginnings can yield abundant fruit.”

Kristina Arriaga, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, remembered the nun as “a shining example of courage and faith.”

“We mourn her loss, but her legacy lives on in EWTN and in the lives of all those she touched,” Arriaga said.

The Becket Fund is defending EWTN in its legal fight against the federal government’s requirement that its insurance coverage include drugs and procedures that violate Catholic faith and morals, including provision of drugs that can cause abortions. Refusal to comply could result in heavy fines. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June could impact the fate of Mother Angelica’s network.

Other Catholic bishops reflected on the nun’s life.

“In founding and growing EWTN into a major media resource for the global Church, she achieved things almost everyone thought impossible,” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, a past EWTN board member, said March 27. “She will be sorely missed, but she has left us an on-going gift in the men and women who continue the great service of the EWTN apostolate.”

Bishop Robert Barron, an auxiliary of Los Angeles, remembered Mother Angelica as “one of the most significant figures in the post-conciliar Catholic Church in America.” She was “the most watched and most effective Catholic evangelizer of the last fifty years.”

He said that during the 1980s and 90s, some of her critics mocked her as a “crude popularizer,” an “arch-conservative,” and a “culture warrior.”

“And yet while her critics have largely faded away, her impact and influence are uncontestable. Against all odds and expectations, she created an evangelical vehicle without equal in the history of the Catholic Church.”

Bishop Barron praised Mother Angelica for “her trust in God’s providence, her keen sense of the supernatural quality of religion, and her conviction that suffering is of salvific value.” He lauded her emphasis on prayer, liturgy, the sacraments, the saints, Eucharistic Adoration, and spiritual warfare.

“Mother endured tremendous suffering, both physical and psychological, most of her life, and she appreciated these trials as opportunities for spiritual growth,” he said.

The bishop granted that Mother Angelica would have recognized she was not perfect. Sometimes her comments were “insufficiently nuanced and balanced,” while her “hot temper” could lead her to characterize her opponents unfairly.

However, the bishop said Mother Angelica will have “a very honored place” in Catholic history.

Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, the diocese where EWTN is headquartered, said Mother Angelica was a pioneer in using the media as a force for good.

“Her greatest gift was her strong reverence for the Lord of the Holy Eucharist and devotion to the Blessed Mother,” he said March 28.

“Mother Angelica has left the Church and world a great legacy through her Eternal Word Television Network and family, which have brought a multitude of people closer to the Lord and his Church,” he continued.

“How providential that her death occurred on Easter Sunday, our celebration of Our Lord’s victory over sin, suffering and death!”

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Lahore, Pakistan, Mar 28, 2016 / 04:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Religious freedom advocates have condemned the Easter Sunday bombing in Pakistan that killed more than 70, while insisting upon reform within the country to prevent future such attacks.

“We are horrified at this Easter attack, and the tragic loss of life,” Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, commissioner at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told CNA.

“It’s truly heartbreaking, and our hearts and prayers go out to all of those affected, those who lost family members, had family members injured, and really to the entire Christian community in Pakistan who were the focus and target of this attack.”

She added that the attack “is emblematic of the very deep challenges that Pakistan faces when it comes to doing a much better job protecting religious freedom and very specifically protecting endangered religious minorities in Pakistan.”

A suicide bombing killed more than 70, including 29 children, at a public park in Lahore on Easter Sunday. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Pakistani Taliban splinter group, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their intent was to target Christians on Easter. While many of the victims were Christians, most of those who died were Muslims.

A spokesperson for the group said the bombing was “part of our annual martyrdom attacks,” according to Xinhua News Agency.

Pope Francis called the bombing “execrable” and “cowardly” in his Regina Coeli address at St. Peter’s Square on Easter Monday. He expressed his closeness to the victims and their families and called for prayers.

The U.S. State Department condemned the attacks on Sunday, saying such attacks “only deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism around the world, and we will continue to work with our partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism.”

Other groups strongly condemned the bombing. “These terrorists continue to show their cowardice, targeting women, children, and priests – unarmed, nonviolent, innocent civilians,” the advocacy group In Defense of Christians stated.

The attacks simply continue a bloody tradition of violence against Pakistani religious minorities, Swett noted.

“In our last report we call Pakistan out as really the worst religious freedom situation in the world for a country that is not currently designated by our State Department [as a Country of Particular Concern],” Swett said.

This situation exists largely because of two factors, she explained.

First, discrimination is “baked into” the country’s constitution, mainly to target minority Ahmadi Muslims who are considered non-Muslims by law. Consequently, this also “fuels a general climate and atmosphere in which extremism seems to thrive in Pakistan.”

Then when this extremism erupts in “chronic sectarian violence” against religious minorities such as Ahmadis, Hindus, Shia Muslims, and Christians, the government fails to protect these minorities and prosecute the perpetrators. This has “led to a climate of impunity,” she said, where the perpetrators of violence “flourish, and they feel like they will get away with these kinds of outrages.”

According to Reuters, the Pakistani government announced Monday that they would give the military authority to crack down on Islamist militants in the province where the attacks took place.

Although the government has recently pledged to take action to stop this violence – most notably after Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (the Pakistani Taliban) killed 145 at a school in December 2014 – Swett said it “remains to be seen” if they will actually take the necessary steps to do so.

The government may say the right things, she said, but when it comes to law enforcement, taking “swift and fair action through the court systems” against perpetrators of violence, and actually enforcing legal punishments, they may fail to do so.

In addition, the country’s notorious blasphemy laws must be reformed, she insisted. Pakistan has the most prisoners sentenced to death or life imprisonment from blasphemy convictions in the world, she noted, because existing laws allow for someone to be convicted of blasphemy simply based on the testimony of another, without further evidence.

“That is in clear contravention to building a society where differences and differing points of views and religious tolerance and religious freedom are well-respected and well-enshrined,” she said

All these problems combine create a “climate of extremism” and a “climate of impunity” that leads to these attacks, she added.

“How can you say that you are acting on all fronts to uphold religious freedom, to uphold social harmony and tolerance, when Pakistan’s constitution and its criminal laws basically criminalize a whole peaceful, wonderful Muslim community, namely the Amadi Muslim community, within Pakistan?” she asked.

The U.S. State Department could actively help by designating Pakistan a “Country of Particular Concern,” she said. This list is for countries where serious and ongoing violations of religious freedom occur, and the U.S. government can take actions, such as imposing economic sanctions, against these nations.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Debbie Hill

By Judith Sudilovsky

BEIT JALLA, West Bank (CNS) -- Nicola Sansour's voice had a tinge of sadness as he recounted how his family planned to celebrate Easter this year. They planned to attend Holy Week services at Beit Jalla's Annunciation Parish, purchase new clothes for the three small children, decorate eggs and attend the parish Easter egg hunt. His wife, Nivine, 34, would gather with his mother and sisters to make the traditional stuffed semolina "mamoul" Easter cookies.

But this would be another year in which he and his family would not be able to celebrate the holiday with a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher -- a mere three miles from his home.

Christian Palestinians need a special Israeli entry permit to enter Jerusalem for the holiday, and Nivine Sansour received the entry permit, but her husband did not.

As a university student during the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, Nicola Sansour took part in anti-Israeli demonstrations and was stopped by Israeli soldiers but never arrested. Perhaps, he said, that may be the black spot on his record that prevents him from being giving the permit. But 20 years have passed since then; he has received a university degree and become a teacher.

He has sent written appeals to the Israeli Civil Administration but has not received a response as to why they will not issue him a permit.

"It is important for us as Christians here to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on these very holy days. And I can't go," he said. "There is only one checkpoint I have to cross. I feel like I am in a big jail. Many times I just sit, and think that they are taking something away from me. "

"I am a peaceful person. They never told me (why I can't get a permit)," he added.

"We need to be able to go to Jerusalem every day," said Nivine Sansour. "But here we are in a prison, and only on the holidays are we free."

Of the 350 families in their parish, some 30 families are in the same situation as they are, Nicola Sansour noted, with the fathers being denied the permit. In addition, 10 unmarried men also did not receive permits. His brother was among those denied a permit.

Yusef Daher, executive secretary of the Jerusalem Interchurch Center, earlier said there were many similar cases of some members of Christian families not receiving permits throughout the West Bank, but the exact numbers would not be known until the end of the holiday season.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem website said 847 of the 890 Christian Gazans who had requested permits for the holiday received them, for some -- 95 percent of the requests.

"The most impressive thing was that the majority of young Christians got the permit. Some of them didn't leave Gaza since eight years. We praise the Lord for this grace," Father Mario de Silva, parish priest, was quoted as saying.

Israel maintains that the system of permits and checkpoints -- including the separation barrier that surrounds Bethlehem and the adjacent villages of Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour -- are needed for security reasons following the second intifada, when Palestinian suicide bombers from the West Bank carried out deadly attacks in Israeli cities, many of them in Jerusalem which borders Bethlehem.

According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, some 34 Israelis have been killed in terrorist attacks and 404 people injured, including four Palestinians, in the wave of violence that began last autumn. There have been 331 stabbings and other attacks and attempted attacks, according to their statistics. According to Defense for Children International, some 180 Palestinians were killed and more than 15,000 injured from September through February. Some of the injured and killed included attackers.

Last year, Nicola Sansour received a permit to travel to Jerusalem for Christmas, but Nivine Sansour's permit got lost in the bureaucracy, and she could not go.

Nicola Sansour went alone and spent the day meandering around the streets of the Old City before he returned home. But it was lonely without his family, he said.

"When I go to Jerusalem, I feel the past. I feel what it was like in the past, and Jerusalem was a very, very big city," said Nicola Sansour, who said he enjoys watching movies about Jerusalem's Crusader history. "I would like to introduce my children to the church (of the Holy Sepulcher). I need them to feel the moment. To be able to take all my children to the church during Easter would be like a dream."

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Aden, Yemen, Mar 28, 2016 / 10:24 am (CNA).- Reports claiming that a kidnapped priest in Yemen was crucified over the weekend are likely false and irresponsible, the local bishop told CNA Monday.

Several blogs and media outlets are reporting that Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil was crucified by ISIS on Good Friday. However, there has been no confirmation of the event by friends, family or Fr. Uzhunnalil’s community.

The original reports were based on a statement Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna allegedly made during Easter vigil services.

On March 4, four gunmen attacked a Missionaries of Charity-run retirement home in Aden, Yemen, killing 16 people including four Missionary of Charity sisters. Fr. Uzhunnalil was kidnapped by the gunman during the attacks, which are thought to have been perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, though no specific group has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Bishop Paul Hinder of Southern Arabia (a region in Saudi Arabia, the country just north of Yemen where Fr. Uzhunnalil was kidnapped), told CNA on Monday that he has "strong indications that Fr. Tom is still alive in the hands of the kidnappers," but could not give further information in order to protect the life of the priest. 

Bishop Hinder added that Cardinal Schönborn has since corrected his alleged statement, which was made on the basis of an incorrect statement from Archbishop Moras in Bangalore.

“Cardinal Schönborn has already corrected his statement which he had made on the basis of the wrong statement of Archbishop Moras in Bangalore. Certain media in India are too nervous and curious and not aware that they are playing with the life of Fr. Tom. I cannot say more for the reason I gave in my first sentence (to protect the life of Fr. Tom),” Bishop Hinder told CNA.

Rumors of a possible impending crucifixion spread last week on the basis of an unconfirmed e-mail and were dismissed by Fr. Uzhunnalil’s Salesian community as hearsay.

“We have absolutely no information” on Fr. Uzhunnalil, said Father Mathew Valarkot, spokesman for the Salesians’ Bangalore province to which the kidnapped priest belongs. His comments were reported last week by both by ANS news, a Salesian news agency, and UCA News, an independent Catholic news source in Asia.

Correction (3/28 11:02 a.m.): A previous version of this story said Bishop Hinder was from Southern Arabia, the country just north of Yemen where Fr. Tom was kidnapped. Southern Arabia is a region in Saudi Arabia, the country just north of Yemen. The story has been changed to reflect this correction.

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