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Madrid, Spain, Dec 18, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

In a message addressed to young people entering the workforce, Pope Francis, alluding to bosses, advised them not to "give in to requests that humiliate you or cause you discomfort, to ways of proceeding and demands that tarnish your authenticity." 

Pope Francis sent this message to Italian teenagers and young people participating in LaborDì, a day of reflection to promote decent work organized by the Christian Association of Italian Workers.

The Holy Father began his talk with an invitation to hope, reminding them that they are "made for the light." After adolescence, the pope continued, "the world scene opens up." Faced with this challenge, he assured the youth that with their contribution "the world can be improved" and that "everything, really everything, can change."

He urged young people to maintain the awareness of their uniqueness, "which transcends any success or failure" and to establish sincere relationships with others, paying attention to the quality of human life.

The Holy Father invited young people to "guard your heart," especially when they reach the age of taking on their first job. Faced with the demands and "too many directions and recommendations" that they can experience in the world of work, he asked young people to "remain at peace and free."

"Don't give in to requests that humiliate you and cause you discomfort, to ways of proceeding and demands that tarnish your authenticity. In fact, to make your contribution, you don't have to accept just anything, or even bad things," Pope Francis warned. 

The pontiff counseled them to "not conform to models you don't believe in, perhaps to gain social prestige or more money since "evil alienates us, extinguishes dreams, makes us lonely and resigned. The heart knows how to notice it and, when this is the case, we must ask for help and team up with those who know us and care about us." 

The pope emphasized that "results are not everything," explaining that machines are already there for that." Human, on the other hand, is "the intelligence of the heart, the reason that understands the reasons of others, the imagination that creates what is not yet." We are all "unique pieces", the Holy Father emphasized.

He then asked the adults who accompany them to not force them into conformity with the status quo or corrupt the young people: "Let us trust in what is planted in their hearts."

Pope Francis concluded by encouraging young people to join forces and "build networks" to repair our common home and rebuild human fraternity. "The human heart knows how to hope. Work that does not alienate, but liberates, begins in the heart," he concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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National Catholic Register, Dec 18, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Around this time last year, a Vatican document authorizing priests to provide non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples led to headlines around the world in the secular and Catholic presses. Some bishops from Africa rejected the pronouncement, some in Europe celebrated it, and bishops in various places issued guidelines explaining it. 

One year later, what has been the document's effect on the Catholic Church in the United States? How common, or uncommon, are blessings of people in same-sex relationships in parishes? 

To try to find out, the National Catholic Register, CNA's news partner, earlier this month contacted all 177 Latin Rite dioceses in the United States asking for their experiences with implementing the document, Fiducia Supplicans, which allowed what the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith called "the possibility of blessings for couples … of the same sex," providing the blessings be short, follow no liturgy to avoid looking like a wedding, and "not claim to sanction or legitimize anything." 

Twenty-one dioceses responded. Some of those declined to comment. All who provided information said they don't track blessings offered by priests; virtually none reported receiving either complaints or comments from priests or other people regarding practices stemming from the document. 

A year ago, supporters saw the document (which was followed by a clarifying statement two and a half weeks later) either as a useful pastoral approach to people in what the Church considers objectively sinful situations, or a step toward full endorsement of same-sex sexual relationships, which they welcomed. Some critics said it undermined Church teachings on marriage and sexuality; others opponents said that it didn't go far enough. 

Spokane silence 

Father Darrin Connall told the Register that as vicar general of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington, he speaks with many priests regularly and that not one has told him about a same-sex couple asking for a blessing. 

"I'm unaware of one case where that's happened," Connall said by telephone. "I haven't heard a priest talk about it since last December, last January." 

Bishop David O'Connell of the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, said he isn't aware of any blessings of same-sex couples by priests in his diocese. 

"I don't have any sense that it happened at all. It may have. But if it's been done, it has been done clandestinely, and done without my knowledge," O'Connell said. 

"I'm certainly aware of what the document says. I'm aware of the boundaries, and I have no problem discussing them, but it just doesn't come up," he said, adding that he hasn't been asked personally to do such blessings.  

In the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, discussion about the document quickly died down after its release, said Father Peter Karalus, vicar general of the diocese. 

"There was initial discussion at the Presbyteral Council and other consultative bodies when the document was first issued but there have not been any follow-up discussions or requests for discussion," Karalus told the Register by email through a spokesman for the diocese. 

That mirrors the experiences of almost all other dioceses that provided comment to the Register. 

Highest percentage of same-sex couples 

An exception is the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The city of San Francisco has the highest percentage of same-sex couples among large cities in the United States. 

"We have had some issues over the past year with people trying to insist they be blessed in an illegitimate manner," said Peter Marlow, a representative of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, by email. 

Marlow shared with the Register excerpts from a memo Archbishop Cordileone sent priests of the archdiocese a few days after the Vatican document was released. 

In it, the archbishop said that such blessings must be "spontaneous" and not "pre-planned, pre-scheduled, or ritualistically celebrated." 

He noted in the memo to priests that priests and bishops "are frequently asked by people to give them a blessing." 

"I'm sure you, as I, never ask information about their moral lives or how they are living out their intimate relationships. We simply bless them," Cordileone wrote. "Consequently, in the case of two people who present themselves as a couple in a marriage or marriage-like relationship, but it is evident that they are not in the bond of a valid marriage, it is always licit to bless them as two separate individuals." 

But such blessings shouldn't be given, he said, "if it would be a cause of scandal, that is, if it would mislead either the persons themselves or others into believing that there may be contexts other than marriage in which 'sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning.'" 

The last phrase in quotation marks is taken from Fiducia Supplicans (4). 

"As a consequence, any priest has the right to deny such blessings if, in his judgment, doing so would be a source of scandal in any way," Cordileone wrote. 

Judgment calls 

Father Connall, of the Diocese of Spokane, told the Register that priests make judgment calls about blessings and many other things all the time. 

"There are all kinds of pastoral decisions that we make on any one day that the bishop respects," Connall said. 

Fiducia Supplicans shifted the approach of a previous Vatican policy as stated in a document released in February 2021, which said that the Church can offer blessings "to individual persons with homosexual inclinations" but not to unions of same-sex couples, because God "does not and cannot bless sin." 

Vatican officials have said the December 2023 document does not alter Church teaching that sexual activity is moral only if engaged in by a man and woman married to each other who are open to the possibility of procreating new life. 

"The real novelty of this Declaration," wrote Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a January 2024 clarifying statement, "… is not the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations." 

Instead, he said, "it is the invitation to distinguish between two different forms of blessings" — what he called "liturgical or ritualized" on the one hand and "spontaneous or pastoral" on the other. 

That distinction is clear to priests in the Diocese of Buffalo, said Father Karalus, the vicar general there. 

He said, "Priests understand that it is not a blessing of a couple or a relationship, but a blessing upon the individuals." 

This article was originally published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's news partner, on Dec. 17, 2024, and has been adapted for CNA.

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Vatican City, Dec 18, 2024 / 11:17 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has officially declared the 16 Discalced Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, executed during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, as saints through the rare procedure of "equipollent canonization."

Mother Teresa of Saint Augustine and her 15 companions, who were guillotined in Paris as they sang hymns of praise, can immediately be venerated worldwide as saints in the Catholic Church.

The equipollent, or "equivalent" canonization, announced by the Vatican on Wednesday, recognizes the long-standing veneration of the Carmelite martyrs, who met their deaths with unwavering faith on July 17, 1794. 

Their final act of courage and faith inspired Francis Poulenc's well-known 1957 opera "Dialogue of the Carmelites," based on the book of the same name written by famous Catholic novelist and essayist Georges Bernanos.

Like the usual canonization process, equipollent canonization is an invocation of papal infallibility in which the pope declares that a person is among the saints in heaven. It avoids the formal process of canonization as well as the ceremony, since it occurs by the publication of a papal bull. 

Longtime veneration of the saint and demonstrated heroic virtue are still required, and though no modern miracle is necessary, the fame of miracles that occurred before or after a saint's death are also taken into account after a study is made by the historical section of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Though the process is rare, Pope Francis has declared others saints through equipollent canonization, such as St. Peter Faber and St. Margaret of Costello, something that Pope Benedict XVI also did for St. Hildegard of Bingen and which Pius XI granted for St. Albert the Great.

Who were the Martyrs of Compiègne?

The martyrs, comprising 11 nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs, were arrested during a time of fierce anti-Catholic persecution.  The French Revolution's Civil Constitution of the Clergy had outlawed religious life, and the Carmelites of Compiègne were expelled from their monastery in 1792. 

Despite being forced into hiding, the sisters secretly maintained their communal life of prayer and penance. At the suggestion of the convent prioress Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, the sisters made an additional vow: to offer their lives in exchange for an end to the French Revolution and for the Catholic Church in France.

On the day of their execution, the sisters were transported through the streets of Paris in open carts, enduring insults from the gathered crowd. Undeterred, they sang the Miserere, Salve Regina, and Veni Creator Spiritus as they approached the scaffold. 

Before meeting her death, each sister knelt before their prioress who gave them permission to die. The prioress was the last to be executed, her hymn continuing until the blade fell.

Within the following few days, Maximilien Robespierre himself was executed, bringing an end to the bloody Reign of Terror. 

The bodies of the 16 martyrs were buried in a mass grave at Picpus Cemetery, where a tombstone commemorates their martyrdom. Beatified in 1906 by Pope Pius X, their story has since inspired books, films, and operas.

The feast day of the Martyrs of Compiègne will remain July 17, commemorating the date of their martyrdom. 

Other sainthood causes recognized

In addition to the equipollent canonization, Pope Francis also approved decrees advancing other sainthood causes, including the beatifications of two 20th-century martyrs: Archbishop Eduardo Profittlich, who died under communist persecution, and Father Elia Comini, a victim of Nazi-fascism.

Profittlich, a German Jesuit and archbishop, died in a Soviet prison in 1942 after enduring torture for refusing to abandon his flock in Soviet-occupied Estonia. 

Comini, a Salesian priest, was executed by Nazis in 1944 for aiding villagers and offering spiritual support during massacres in northern Italy. 

Pope Francis also recognized the heroic virtues of three Servants of God: Hungarian Archbishop Áron Márton (1896-1980), Italian priest Father Giuseppe Maria Leone (1829-1902), and French layman Pietro Goursat (1914-1991), who founded the Emmanuel Community.

Márton, a bishop who stood against both Nazi and communist oppression in Romania, defended religious freedom and aided the persecuted before being sentenced to life imprisonment and forced labor by the Communists in 1951. He was later released and died of cancer in 1980.

Leone, an Italian Redemptorist priest, dedicated his life to preaching, spiritual direction, and aiding communities ravaged by epidemics. Renowned as a confessor and spiritual guide, he helped renew religious life and inspire lay faithful in post-unification Italy.

French layman Pietro Goursat founded the Emmanuel Community, a movement promoting prayer and evangelization, particularly among marginalized youth. Despite personal hardships, he transformed the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart in Paray-le-Monial into a spiritual hub and lived his final years in quiet devotion.

With the decree, the three Servants of God now have the title of  "Venerable" in the Catholic Church.

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Madrid, Spain, Dec 17, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

Did you know Pope Francis was a nightclub bouncer, his favorite movie is "La Strada" by Federico Fellini, and that he doesn't watch television? On the occasion of his 88th birthday, these and other interesting facts about Pope Francis are highlighted below.

1. How did he discover his vocation?

On the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, Pope Francis discovered his vocation to the priesthood after going to confession when he was 16 years old. It happened on Sept. 21, 1953. It was Student Day in Argentina, which coincides with the day when spring begins in the southern hemisphere and is celebrated with a big party.

"Before going to the party, I passed by the parish I attended and I found a priest I didn't know and I felt the need to go to confession. This was for me an experience of encounter: I found Someone who was waiting for me."

"I don't know what happened, I don't remember, I don't know why that priest was there, whom I didn't know, why I had felt that desire to go to confession, but the truth is that Someone was waiting for me. He had been waiting for me for a long time. After confession I felt that something had changed," the Holy Father shared.

He said that after that confession he said that he was no longer himself: "I had heard something like a voice, a call: I was convinced that I had to be a priest."

2. What is his favorite dish?

Nov. 19, 2022, was one of those rare occasions when Pope Francis left the Vatican without an official program. The reason? A family reunion in Asti, the Italian city where his cousin Daniela di Tiglione lives, who was celebrating her 90th birthday.

On that occasion, Pope Francis was able to enjoy his favorite dish: Bagna Cauda, ??a typical Piedmont dish prepared with anchovies, oil, and garlic and used as a sauce for vegetables.

3. A passion for tango

Before being ordained a priest, especially during his youth, Pope Francis enjoyed tango, one of the most emblematic dances of Argentina. He also liked the milonga, another typical dance from his homeland.

4. He was a bouncer in a nightclub

Like any young man, Jorge Bergoglio worked various jobs to earn his first salary. Although his first job was scrubbing the floors of the hosiery company where his father worked, in 2013 he confessed to a group of young people that he was also a bouncer at a nightclub. Thanks to that experience, he began "to guide the disillusioned to the Church."

5. He's missing a lung

When he was 21, he had to have a lung removed due to an infection, which has caused him to suffer from some breathing difficulties in recent years.

6. He has refused forgiveness only once

On more than one occasion, Pope Francis has encouraged priests to forgive "everything" in the confessional and to "not torture" the faithful in the confessional.

During an interview on Italian television in January, he stated that in his more than 50 years as a priest he has refused forgiveness only once, "because of the hypocrisy of the person."

7. The prayer he says every day to keep his good humor

On several occasions, Pope Francis has praised a good sense of humor and stressed that sadness is not a Christian disposition. He has even gone so far as to say that the "hallmark of a Christian" is joy and not being a sourpuss. 

To be good-humored, he says a prayer from St. Thomas More every day, a prayer he has referred to in numerous public appearances, most recently with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron.

"Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and be able to share it with others," the Holy Father prays every day.

8. St. Joseph, his help in difficulties

There is an image of St. Joseph that Pope Francis is very fond of that shows the "silent" saint  lying down asleep.

During his apostolic trip to the Philippines, the pontiff referred to St. Joseph as "a strong man of silence" and said that he keeps this figurine on his desk. "Even when he sleeps, he takes care of the Church," he said.

"When I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and put it under St. Joseph so that he can dream about it. In other words, I tell him: Pray for this problem!" the Holy Father confessed.

9. Pope Francis favors taking a daily nap

Pope Francis usually goes to bed at 9 p.m. and wakes up around 4 a.m. He sleeps about six hours a day, as he usually reads for an hour after going to bed, until 10 p.m.

"Later I need a nap. I have to sleep for 40 minutes to an hour. I take off my shoes and fall into bed. And I also sleep deeply and wake up alone. On days when I don't take a nap, I notice it," he once said.

10. What is his favorite soccer team?

Even though he no longer lives in Argentina, Pope Francis continues to root for the San Lorenzo de Almagro team from Buenos Aires. He keeps up to date thanks to a Swiss Guard who informs him of the team's news every week, since the pope doesn't watch the games.

In fact, during an audience at the Vatican in September, a delegation from the San Lorenzo club asked the Holy Father for his blessing to name the club's next stadium after him.

11. The day his life was saved

At the age of 44, Pope Francis suffered from gangrene of the gallbladder, a serious complication that occurs when the tissue of this organ of the digestive system becomes necrotic due to an interruption of blood flow.

"I felt like I was dying," said the Holy Father, referring to the night in 1980 when he was operated on by Dr. Juan Carlos Parodi, an eminent Argentine surgeon who saved the life of then-Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio. In 2014, 34 years later, the two held a private meeting in the Vatican.

12. Where does he want to be buried?

Unlike many pontiffs throughout the history of the Church, whose coffins are in the crypts of the Vatican in the grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica, the Holy Father revealed that he has had his tomb prepared in St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome due to the great devotion he has to the Virgin Salus Populi Romani (protectress of the Roman people), to whom he made a promise.

In addition, in December 2022, the pontiff gave an interview in which he announced that he had signed his resignation in case his health did not allow him to continue exercising his ministry.

13. What is his favorite movie?

"La Strada" by Federico Fellini, winner of the Oscar for best foreign film in 1957.

14. He doesn't watch television because of a promise to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Pope Francis says he hasn't watched television since July 15, 1990, when he promised Our Lady of Mount Carmel that he would no longer do so. The Holy Father made this promise because he "felt that God was asking me to do it."

15. He went to therapy at age 42

In the book interview "Politics and Society" by Frenchman Dominique Wolton, Pope Francis recounted that, when he was provincial of the Society of Jesus in Argentina, he went to therapy for six months with a Jewish psychologist. "She was very good, very professional," the Holy Father said.

16. An 'incognito' pope on the streets of Rome

In 2013, the year he was elected bishop of Rome, a Vatican source informed the Huffington Post that Pope Francis went out at night dressed as a priest to give alms and help the poor on the streets of Rome.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel this week released the fourth report in a series of investigations the state is conducting into abuse by Catholic clergy there. 

The attorney general's report, released on Monday, looks at reported abuse in the Diocese of Lansing. Previous reports, released in 2022 and 2024, examined alleged abuse in the dioceses of Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the earlier investigations, the Lansing report looks at allegations of abuse dating back decades. The report includes "allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, including grooming and misuse of authority against minors and adults."

The attorney general's office lists a total of 56 clergy and religious in its report, including two bishops, with more than 150 abuse allegations identified in the investigation.  

The majority of the individuals on the list, 37, are "known or presumed to be dead." Of the remaining 19, just one — a deacon — is in "active ministry" in the Lansing Diocese, while three retired priests have "no restrictions on their ministry." 

The report says the "vast majority" of the alleged abuse occurred prior to 2002, the year the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops promulgated its "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." 

Numerous allegations involve the alleged abuse of minors, while others involve inappropriate conduct or abuse of adults. One allegation involves a 5-year-old child.

The attorney general's office said the materials in the report were gathered from "[a] tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese of Lansing, and the electronic documents found on the diocesan computers," as well as "reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese."

Nessel on Monday said the state government "made a promise to the survivors years ago" to produce the abuse reports and that the investigations serve the purpose of "sharing their stories and validating their experiences." 

The prosecutor's office noted that prosecution of many of the allegations is barred by Michigan's statute of limitations, though Nessel said that "criminal prosecutions are just one accountability metric."

"Ensuring each victim is heard, regardless of how long ago the sexual abuse and misconduct may have been, is important in acknowledging their pain and fostering a culture that prioritizes these victims over their silence," she said.

In a statement on Monday, the Diocese of Lansing noted that the attorney general's report indicated that "the 1970s and '80s were the peak decades for alleged instances of sexual misconduct" regarding clergy in the diocese.

"Over half" of the allegations, from 1950 until the present, occurred during those decades, the diocese said.

Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea said in the statement that his "heart breaks for all those who have suffered due to the evil of clerical sexual abuse."

The bishop described the abuse as "a great betrayal of Jesus Christ, His Holy Church, the priesthood, and, most gravely, those victims — and their families — who were harmed physically, emotionally, but above all spiritually when they were so young."

"To all those injured by such criminal and immoral actions I say clearly and without hesitation: these terrible things should never have happened to you; I am so deeply sorry that they ever did; please be assured of my prayers, penance, love, and support," the prelate said. 

Diocese of Lansing general counsel Will Bloomfield, meanwhile, said on Monday that since the 2002 charter, the diocese has been referring abuse allegations to law enforcement and removing clerics "credibly accused" of abusing minors. 

The diocese mandates that "all allegations of grave clerical misconduct, including those involving adult victims, are professionally investigated and reviewed by a body of lay professionals called the Code of Conduct Advisory Council," Bloomfield said. 

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CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Tuesday penned an essay for the New York Times on the importance of fostering a sense of humor, of quelling narcissism through "appropriate doses of self-irony," and of avoiding "wallowing in melancholy at all costs."

"The Gospel, which urges us to become like little children for our own salvation (Matthew 18:3), reminds us to regain their ability to smile," Pope Francis wrote in an essay adapted from his new book, "Hope: The Autobiography," set to be published in January. 

The pontiff called the many children he meets, as well as the elderly, "examples of spontaneity, of humanity." 

"[T]hey remind us that those who give up their own humanity give up everything, and that when it becomes hard to cry seriously or to laugh passionately, then we really are on the downhill slope. We become anesthetized, and anesthetized adults do nothing good for themselves, nor for society, nor for the Church," he wrote.

"Irony is a medicine, not only to lift and brighten others but also ourselves, because self-mockery is a powerful instrument in overcoming the temptation toward narcissism," the pope continued. 

"Narcissists are continually looking into the mirror, painting themselves, gazing at themselves, but the best advice in front of a mirror is to laugh at ourselves. It is good for us. It will prove the truth of that old proverb that says that there are only two kinds of perfect people: the dead and those yet to be born."

Pope Francis has spoken about humor several times throughout his papacy; in June of this year, he hosted and entertained a group of over 100 comics, stand-up comedians, and humorists in the largest — and possibly only — gathering of comedians in the Vatican since Pope Pius V eliminated the role of the papal jester in the 1500s.

During a recent visit with French President Emmanuel Macron in Corsica, Pope Francis recommended that Macron read his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate, drawing attention to a passage referencing St. Thomas More's prayer for a sense of humor.

"Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others," reads the prayer, which Pope Francis has previously described as "very beautiful" and recites daily.

The pope in his essay offered examples of good humor shown by his fellow popes St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.

St. John XXIII, for example, was said to have showcased his self-deprecating wit when he joked that he often resolved to speak with the pope about serious problems before remembering "that the pope is me."

Relaying an anecdote about St. John Paul II's playful resistance to rigid expectations of clerical conduct, Francis wrote that the saint was once, while still a cardinal, rebuked for enjoying many outdoor sporting activities, whereby John Paul responded that "these are activities practiced by at least 50% of cardinals." In Poland at the time, there were only two cardinals.

"[S]ometimes we [popes] unfortunately come across as bitter, sad priests who are more authoritarian than authoritative, more like old bachelors than wedded to the Church, more like officials than pastors, more supercilious than joyful, and this, too, is certainly not good," the pope wrote.

"But generally, we priests tend to enjoy humor and even have a fair stock of jokes and amusing stories, which we are often quite good at telling, as well as being the object of them."

The pope in his essay also told a joke involving himself, printed here in its entirety:

As soon as he arrives at the airport in New York for his apostolic journey in the United States, Pope Francis finds an enormous limousine waiting for him. He is rather embarrassed by that magnificent splendor, but then thinks that it has been ages since he last drove, and never a vehicle of that kind, and he thinks to himself: OK, when will I get another chance? He looks at the limousine and says to the driver, "You couldn't let me try it out, could you?" "Look, I'm really sorry, Your Holiness," replies the driver, "but I really can't, you know, there are rules and regulations."

But you know what they say, how the pope is when he gets something into his head … in short, he insists and insists, until the driver gives in. So Pope Francis gets behind the steering wheel, on one of those enormous highways, and he begins to enjoy it, presses down on the accelerator, going 50 miles per hour, 80, 120 … until he hears a siren, and a police car pulls up beside him and stops him. A young policeman comes up to the darkened window. The pope rather nervously lowers it and the policeman turns white. "Excuse me a moment," he says, and goes back to his vehicle to call headquarters. "Boss, I think I have a problem."

"What problem?" asks the chief.

"Well, I've stopped a car for speeding, but there's a guy in there who's really important." "How important? Is he the mayor?"

"No, no, boss … more than the mayor."

"And more than the mayor, who is there? The governor?"

"No, no, more. …"

"But he can't be the president?"

"More, I reckon. …"

"And who can be more important than the president?"

"Look, boss, I don't know exactly who he is, all I can tell you is that it's the pope who is driving him!"

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Madrid, Spain, Dec 17, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A ruling by the Supreme Court of Spain states that surrogacy exploits the woman who rents her womb and harms the dignity and rights of the children conceived.

The Dec. 9 decision by the country's First Chamber of the high court determined that "it is contrary to public order" to recognize a ruling by a foreign court (Bexar County, Texas) that validates a surrogacy contract and attributes the paternity of the children born to the intended [contracting] parents."

The decision is based on the "fundamental rights and constitutional principles" of the Spanish legal system, which include "the rights to physical and moral well-being of the pregnant woman and the child, and respect for their dignity."

"Surrogacy violates the moral well-being of the pregnant woman and the child, who are treated as things up for sale, deprived of the dignity proper to the human being," the Supreme Court stated.

This practice also "deprives the minor of his right to know his biological origin" and threatens "the physical well-being of the mother, who may be subjected to aggressive hormonal treatments to get her pregnant," the ruling explained.

At the same time, the Supreme Court stated that this practice also means "threatening the physical and moral well-being of the minor, given the lack of control over the suitability of the intended parents."

According to the judges, "a surrogacy contract such as the one validated by the American court's ruling entails exploitation of the woman and harms the best interests of the child."

Consent vitiated by payment

The Spanish Supreme Court also pointed out that "surrogacy is a huge business in which the commissioning parents pay significant amounts of money, part of which goes to the surrogate mother."

This circumstance means that her consent to hand over the child she is gestating in her womb, "given before birth, has been obtained through payment or compensation of some kind."

Regarding the determination of the best interests of the child in these cases, the Supreme Court pointed out that "it should not be done in accordance with the interests and criteria of the [contracting] parents."

Nor should it be done because of "the existence of a surrogacy contract and of filiation in favor of the intended parents provided for by foreign legislation."

The criteria for determining the best interests of the child must be based on "the severance of all ties between the child and the woman who gestated and gave birth to him, the existence of a biological paternal filiation and a family unit in which the child is integrated into," according to the court.

Finally, the Supreme Court stated that the fundamental rights of mothers and children "would be seriously violated if the practice of commercial surrogacy were to be promoted."

In the court's opinion, this "will facilitate the action of surrogacy intermediation agencies, in the event that they could assure their potential clients the almost automatic recognition in Spain of the filiation resulting from the surrogacy contract," despite violating the rights of the gestating women and the children "treated as mere merchandise."

The Supreme Court had also previously ruled, in April 2022, against surrogacy.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Vatican City, Dec 17, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis, who celebrates his 88th birthday today, has become one of the oldest-serving popes in the Catholic Church's 2,000-year history.

Having instituted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly in 2019, the Holy Father is keeping true to his inaugural message dedicated to older Catholics: "There is no retirement age from the work of proclaiming the Gospel."  

Just this past Sunday, Dec. 15, he completed his 47th apostolic journey to the French region of Corsica to spend a full day with the Catholic faithful and take part in their cultural and pious traditions.

In the wake of the opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, the pope has not put a pause in his work schedule.

In December alone, Pope Francis has met with country leaders, dicastery prefects, and even smaller delegations of Catholic communities who have come to visit him in the Vatican.   

According to Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the pope makes the effort to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza every evening and has become "the grandfather for the children" of the parish who eagerly await his 7 p.m. call.    

"Think about it: What is our vocation today, at our age?" the pope asked grandparents and elderly in his 2019 message for the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly. 

The answer? "To preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young, and to care for the little ones. Never forget this."

Since the early days of his pontificate the Holy Father has often highlighted the need to connect the old and the young through "intergenerational dialogue" in order to advance peace within families, the Church, and wider society.

Just months after his papal election, Pope Francis embarked upon one of his first apostolic journeys to take part in the 2013 World Youth Day festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and asked the millions of young pilgrims to thank their grandparents "for the ongoing witness of their wisdom."

"How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society!" he said during his Angelus address on the July 26 feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

"How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family," he added.

Throughout his pontificate, the Holy Father has never shied away from sharing candid stories and memories from his own childhood in his homilies and public audiences. 

Even his third and latest encyclical Dilexit Nos includes seeds of practical faith and wisdom learned from his grandmother who tells him that lies — just like the carnival pastries whose Spanish name, "mentiras," means the same thing — "look big but are empty inside."

While continuing to draw inspiration from his grandparents to guide the world's approximately 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Francis also expressed his respect and gratitude for having his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI — whom in 2014 he affectionately called the wise "grandfather of grandfathers" — live at home with him in the Vatican for many years.    

"I have said many times that it gives me great pleasure that he lives here in the Vatican, because it is like having a wise grandfather at home," he said at the time. "Thank you!"

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Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dec 17, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A recent healing service at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Brighton, Michigan, offered a glimpse into part of a Catholic charismatic ministry that also takes place in many other parts of the world, according to a priest and a prominent theologian.

On the evening of Dec. 6, pastor Father Mathias Thelen, co-founder and president of Encounter Ministries, spoke to a near-capacity congregation. His talk was preceded by congregational singing and praise music played with a piano, guitars, and drums. There was also a video presentation of a healing service he conducted earlier this year in Brazil.

Before Thelen spoke, Encounter Ministries Director of Operations Rachel Grech put her hand on his shoulder and prayed audibly for him, as members of the congregation also held up their hands in blessing. Thelen started by saying: "This is all about God's love, so turn to your neighbor and say, 'You are loved.' Why am I doing this? Because this makes no sense without that truth." 

Thelen said the purpose of the evening service was to bring God's love to bear on "our bodies, our lives." Paraphrasing Mark 16:15, he said: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature… In my name they will drive out demons … They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover." 

Thelan holds a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He authored "Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization" and has appeared in the documentaries "Fearless" and "Revive." He also wrote "The Explosive Growth of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in the Global South and Its Implications for Catholic Evangelization" in Homiletic and Pastoral Review. 

At the service, Thelen said that evil came into the world when humanity rejected God. "One of these evils is sickness, and it was never part of God's plan. It makes perfect sense that when God sends his son, Jesus, to reign and heal us of sin that he heals us of sickness."

He called for prayers in the name of Jesus while naming various parts of the body. When congregation members stood up, their companions placed hands on them and prayed for healing. Thelen asked to "pray resurrection life" into those with brain injuries, for example, and for those with terminal illness.

Father Brian Gross of North Dakota told CNA: "I would have told you that you're crazy if you had told me six years ago that I would be doing this." An encounter with Thelen encouraged his priesthood and to offer healing services. Now teaching at St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota as director of pastoral formation, he shares his experience of Encounter Ministries with seminarians.

Informal healings not held on church grounds are also frequent in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, where St. Patrick Parish is located. At least one instance was at a dinner event organized by St. Thomas Parish in Ann Arbor last month. 

In an interview with CNA, Mary Healy, a professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and counselor to Encounter Ministries, noted that anointing of the sick, once popularly known as "last rites," is one of the two healing sacraments offered by the Church. "It is for healing, but over time the emphasis has been much much more on healing of the soul and the healing of sin and its effects."

She said that other dimensions of healing by anointing were de-emphasized so that it was seen for centuries as "extreme unction" near death. "People saw a priest with his anointing oils would despair because it meant the hour of death was near," Healy said, adding that there was a rectification of the practice by the Second Vatican Council. She said she knows priests who have witnessed miraculous healings following anointing.

"Prayer for the sick laity," she said, "has always been present in the Church. It really initiated with the words of the Lord, who commanded the apostles first but then the wider group of disciples to go heal the sick and proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand." 

Paraphrasing the Gospel of Mark, Healy noted that Jesus told believers to proclaim the Gospel to all creation and that signs will accompany them. Jesus said in the Gospel: "In my name 'they will lay their hands on the sick and the sick will recover.'"

"The primary place, not the only place, for the healing through the laying of hands by lay Christians is meant to be evangelization. Healing is particularly for the context of evangelization," Healy affirmed. "Healing is a sign for those who do not yet believe, those who only partially believe, those who are mixed up in their belief system, and those who do not have a rich and profound relationship with Jesus Christ. Healing is a sign that truly the kingdom is here because the King is here."

Encounter Ministries came as a result of Thelen's friendship with co-founder Patrick Reis. Thelen told Faith magazine earlier this year: "We wanted to begin demonstrating what the Holy Spirit can do in the Church but also teaching people how to walk in that power, walk in that goodness that God has for the whole Church." 

Healy is also a theological adviser to Renewal Ministries, based in Ann Arbor and founded by fellow theologian Ralph Martin. It has spread to Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Martin founded  the charismatic Word of God and Sword of the Spirit Christian communities. The latter has been recommended by Bishop George Bacouni of the Melkite Catholic rite. 

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec 17, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The president of Argentina's Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, openly declared himself to be pro-life and anticipates that in 2025 an attempt could be made to repeal the abortion law passed in December 2020 during the administration of former president Alberto Fernández.

In an interview with Alejandro Fantino, the legislative leader, who belongs to the La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) ruling coalition, considered that "the previous [law] can be modified or a new law can be made that repeals the previous one."

Asked about the possibility of moving in that direction next year, he acknowledged that "it could be," but "I don't think we have the numbers," that is, the number of legislators necessary to pass it.

"I'm pro-life, literally. Without hesitation. A light blue neckerchief supporter from here to China," Menem emphasized, referring to the color of the neckerchief adopted by pro-life advocates and often seen at pro-life events defending "both lives" in Argentina.

When the journalist interviewing him warned of the social consequences that a change in the abortion law could bring, Menem was firm: "We have dealt with a lot of other interests and we haven't hesitated about that."

Ana Belén Mármora, a lawyer, journalist, and pro-life leader, spoke with ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, and considered "a fact to be celebrated that for the first time in many years that we have a president of the chamber who is openly pro-life, something that did not happen during any debate."

Mármora said that Menem's opinion makes it clear that "we must fill the Chamber of Deputies, and also the Senate, with legislators who respect life from conception and are willing to prepare for a new debate, so that respect for life can make progress in Argentina."

Toward this goal, she anticipated "the legislative elections in 2025 will be crucial" and expressed hope: "The possibility of reversing [the abortion law] is in our hands."

At the same time, Mármora said, "there is no doubt that [President] Javier Milei will set our agenda and future debates." Milei has spoken out on several occasions against abortion, which he describes as "murder aggravated by the bond" (relationship) between the killer and the victim.

However, the government has not introduced a bill on the matter, and last May Milei said the issue was not on the agenda.

María Guadalupe Correa of the organization Frente Joven (Youth Front) told ACI Prensa that every year they see "how the issue of abortion kills not only children but also the mothers and families that we accompany."

"Since the passage of Law 27.610, we find ourselves in a society that has accepted abortion as a reality and has stopped talking about the issue," she lamented.

She therefore considered it essential "that the issue be part of the national agenda again, that our officials speak in favor of life. We want the life of all Argentines to be upheld from conception, that hospitals be places that welcome life, where both physical and mental health are accompanied and cared for," she said.

In this regard, she appreciated that the current president of the Chamber of Deputies "openly expresses his position, giving rise to a new debate." This, she said, "brings hope to all those who, through foundations or small actions, seek to serve families, mothers, and children."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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