Pope wants annual audit of church’s safeguarding measures worldwide

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis speaks during a meeting with members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors at the Vatican April 29, 2022. Also pictured is Sister Arina Gonslaves, vice-provincial of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, and Boston Cardinal Se·n P. O'Malley, commission president. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis asked his safeguarding commission to provide an annual audit of what the church is doing to protect minors and what needs to change, as well as to urge bishops’ conferences to set up special “centers” where victims can be heard and find accompaniment toward “healing and justice.”

The annual audit “report will be a factor of transparency and accountability and — I hope — will provide a clear audit of our progress in this effort,” he told members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors April 29.

“Without that progress, the faithful will continue to lose trust in their pastors, and preaching and witnessing to the Gospel will become increasingly difficult,” he said.

The pope addressed the commission’s plenary assembly, which focused on how to best continue assisting the pope and the local churches in promoting best practices in safeguarding strategies, implementing guidelines and accompanying survivors.

Commission members also were looking how they will work within the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia, a change that goes into effect June 5.

As outlined in the apostolic constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), the commission’s task remains providing the pope “with advice and consultancy and to propose the most appropriate initiatives for the protection of minors and vulnerable people.”

When the document was published in March, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, president of the commission and a member of the Council of Cardinals that drafted the constitution, said that linking the commission more closely to the doctrinal office “has made safeguarding and the protection of minors a fundamental part of the structure of the church’s central government” and would “lead to a stronger culture of safeguarding throughout the Curia and the entire church.”

Speaking to the commission members, the pope addressed a concern that the body would lose its independence now that it was within a larger dicastery.

“Someone might think that this could put at risk your freedom of thought and action or even take away importance from the issue with which you deal,” the pope said. “That is not my intention nor is it my expectation. And I invite you to be watchful that this does not happen.”

He said he did not want the commission to be like a “‘satellite commission,’ circling around but unattached to the organization chart” any longer, which had been an ongoing concern of members.

While the commission will be part of the dicastery that deals with the sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy, the pope said, the president will be independent and appointed by the pope. “I have made your leadership and personnel distinct, and you will continue to relate directly with me through your president delegate,” who has been Cardinal O’Malley since 2014. The cardinal has also been a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2017.

The pope told the commission that he still wants them to provide “a proactive and prospective vision of the best practices and procedures that can be implemented in the entire church” and to “propose better methods to enable the church to protect minors and vulnerable persons and to assist the healing of survivors, in the recognition that justice and prevention are complementary.”

While many “important seeds” have been planted, “much remains to be done,” he said, and the reform “marks a new beginning.”

The pope told commission members it will be their responsibility “to expand the scope of this mission in such a way that the protection and care of those who have experienced abuse may become normative in every sector of the church’s life.”

This will require close collaboration with the doctrinal dicastery and all the other dicasteries of the Roman Curia for the commission’s own benefit and so “your work can enrich in turn that of the Curia and the local churches.”

Cases of the abuse of minors by clergy have been decreasing for several years, he said, at least in places where reliable data and sources are available.

The data is essential, the pope told the commission, so “I would like you, on an annual basis, to prepare for me a report on the church’s initiatives for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults.”

The aim, he said, is “to furnish a reliable account on what is presently being done and what needs to change, so that the competent authorities can act.”

He also encouraged them to help meet other “more immediate needs,” such as “the welfare and pastoral care of persons who have experienced abuse.”

He praised the commission for providing many opportunities to meet with and listen to survivors, saying they have been “of great help in my pastoral mission to all those who have turned to me following their painful experiences.”

“For this reason, I urge you to assist conferences of bishops in establishing suitable centers where individuals who have experienced abuse, and their family members, can find acceptance and an attentive hearing, and be accompanied in a process of healing and justice,” as indicated in “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” which established procedures for reporting allegations of sexual abuse and for holding accountable bishops and religious superiors who protect abusers.

He reiterated that the presidents of bishops’ conferences are supposed to “establish commissions and the means needed to implement processes of care for persons who have been abused, with all the methods (of best practices) that you have, and for punishing abusers. And you must oversee this. I encourage you, please.”

“Abuse in any form is unacceptable,” Pope Francis said, and “the sexual abuse of children is particularly grave, as an offense against a life that is just beginning to flower.”

“Instead of flourishing, one who is abused is deeply injured, at times permanently,” he said.

 

‘Embracing vulnerability,’ sisters hope to draw strength, help others

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Catholic News Service
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Sister Mary Kudiyiruppil, a member of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit from India, speaks to reporters April 29, 2022, at the Vatican press office about the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General, which will meet in Rome and online May 2-6. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Superiors of women’s religious orders from around the world will gather in Rome or online to look at their areas of vulnerability and find ways to “embrace” them so that together they are stronger and can be signs of hope for other vulnerable individuals and communities in the world, said Claretian Sister Jolanta Kafka.

“We have often placed ourselves on the side of the needy, but from a position of power,” said Sister Kafka, president of the International Union of Superiors General. The challenge is “to recognize more consciously that we too need compassion, mercy, conversion, to be aware of our wounds, our sins.”

Nearly 700 superiors general — 520 attending in person — will participate in the UISG plenary assembly May 2-6 in Rome under the theme, “Embracing Vulnerability on the Synodal Journey.”

Sister Kafka and other leaders of the organization previewed the assembly April 29 for journalists in the Vatican press office.

As the sisters acknowledge their vulnerabilities, she said, “we feel the need for a new reading of the essentials of religious life and of the evangelical counsels” of poverty, chastity and obedience and how leadership and authority can be exercised in a more “evangelical, synodal spirit.”

“It is a paradox that when we embrace fragility, we are strengthened to support one another,” she said, and that applies not only to relationships among religious women, but also their relationships with and ministry to “suffering humanity.”

The sisters, she said, are exploring the topic of vulnerability as part of their contribution to the church’s “synodal journey,” learning better how to walk together and work together “to serve the church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel, caring and healing” in a way that embraces everyone, including those who “feel distant or excluded” from the church.

Sister Mary Kudiyiruppil, an Indian member of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit and vice executive secretary of the UISG, told reporters, “Religious congregations are experiencing vulnerability from several quarters,” including the obvious decline in numbers in many parts of the world.

But also, she said, “we experience vulnerability from the inner structure of religious life itself, exposed as we are to questions, challenges and attacks. We are being asked tacitly or aloud, about our professedly coherent positions and values, and the inconsistencies in practice.

“For example,” she said, “we profess to have our safety and security in God and a life of detachment, but sometimes in practice we worry, we amass, we keep gathering things, etc.”

“The intergenerational challenge,” is another vulnerability, she said. “Our younger members are asking questions that were not asked previously about our relevance and they are asking for change.”

But, she said, “it is important to note that the plenary theme says ’embracing’ vulnerability, which is different from merely tolerating or enduring or lamenting.”

Loreto Sister Patricia Murray, executive secretary of the UISG, highlighted some of the new projects the group has launched since its last plenary in 2019, including establishing a Commission for Care and Safeguarding with the men’s Union of Superiors General.

Looking at two other areas of vulnerability, she said that the UISG will launch May 9 two new initiatives focused on the needs of elderly sisters worldwide.

“The UISG, together with the (U.S.) Leadership Conference of Women Religious, will focus on the needs of individuals living with some form of cognitive impairment, especially Alzheimer’s,” she said, although she did not provide details. “The second focus will be on the care and support of elderly sisters in general. In many parts of the world, women religious have no social security or health insurance. I addition they were often in pastoral ministries and received no payment.”

 

Ideology obstructs beauty of family, pope says

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis greets family. members before leading the Way of the Cross outside the Colosseum in Rome April 15, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Families play an important role in a society’s development when ideologies are not imposed upon them, Pope Francis said.

The family is the “primary planter of the tree of gratuitousness,” and when civilization “uproots” that gift, “its decline becomes unstoppable,” the pope said April 29.

“I believe that there are certain conditions for rediscovering the beauty of the family. The first is to remove from the mind’s eye the ‘cataract’ of ideologies that prevent us from seeing reality,” he said.

Pope Francis addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who were holding a plenary meeting April 27-29 at the Vatican on the role of the family and “the challenge of love.”

The family is “almost always at the top of the scale of values” for people around the world, the pope said, because “it is inscribed in the very nature of woman and man.”

For this reason, marriage and the family are not “purely human institutions despite the many changes they have undergone over the centuries and the cultural and spiritual differences between peoples,” he said.

But, he said, families can become “isolated and fragmented in the context of society” when they are viewed “in an individualistic and private way, as is somewhat the case in the West.”

When that happens, the pope said, “the social functions that the family exercises among individuals and in the community are lost, especially in relation to the weakest, such as children, persons with disabilities and the elderly.”

Instead, families must continue to be “a place of welcome,” especially “where there are fragile or disabled members,” the pope said. In that way, they become an example of “love and patient endurance in life’s difficulties.”

Society, he added, also benefits from the example of adoptive and foster families.

“As we know, the family is the principal antidote to poverty, both material and spiritual, just as it is to the problem of demographic decline and irresponsible motherhood and fatherhood,” he said.

Departing from his prepared remarks, the pope highlighted the “serious” nature of declining birthrates as well as “irresponsible” parenting, which he did not define.

“These two things are worth noting. The demographic winter is a serious matter,” he said. “Here in Italy it is serious compared to other countries in Europe. It cannot be left aside, it is serious. And the irresponsibility of motherhood and fatherhood is another serious thing that must be addressed to help prevent it from happening.”

Pope Francis said that through the help of other people and institutions, the family can become “a bond of perfection and a relational good the more it allows its own nature to flourish.”

“A ‘family-friendly’ society is possible because society is born and evolves with the family,” he said.

 

War and peace: Papal visit to South Sudan offers hope for lasting unity

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Catholic News Service
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Civilians celebrate the signing of peace agreement between Sudan's transitional government and Sudanese revolutionary movements to end decades-old conflict, in Juba, South Sudan, in this Oct. 3, 2020, file photo. Pope Francis plans to visit South Sudan July 5-7. (CNS photo/Samir Bol, Reuters)

By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As violence in South Sudan continues to raise concerns, Pope Francis’ visit in July can serve as a much-needed boost for the hopes of millions who yearn for peace after decades of war and bloodshed, the country’s newest bishop said.

Bishop Christian Carlassare of Rumbek, who made headlines last year after he survived a failed assassination attempt, said the long-awaited papal visit will reassure the country that the Christian churches have no plans to abandon them.

Pope Francis, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and moderators of the Church of Scotland have wanted to visit the country since 2016. But political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic forced repeated delays of the trip.

The pope, the archbishop and the Rev. Dr. Iain M Greenshields, who takes office as moderator of the Presbyterian church in May, will visit South Sudan together July 5-7.

“I think the pope is coming here not just to see that peace is achieved but to ensure that the path to peace continues,” said Bishop Carlassare during an online meeting with journalists April 21.

“That is why it is necessary for the pope to come; to do everything to give a continuity to this call, to this invitation for peace. But above all, to bring that peace that is sought after by the politicians and give it to the people,” he said.

Italian-born Bishop Carlassare, 44, was shot in his legs at his residence in Rumbek April 26, 2021, slightly over a month after the Vatican appointed him to lead the diocese. The attack forced a yearlong delay of the Comboni priest’s ordination as the bishop of the diocese in central South Sudan.

Prior to his appointment, Rumbek had been without a bishop since 2011, following the death of Bishop Cesare Mazzolari, also a Comboni missionary.

A High Court judge in Juba ruled April 25 that a Catholic priest and three others — Father John Mathiang Machol, Moris Sebit Ater, Laat Makur Agok and Samuel Makir — were guilty of participating in the attack.

After his recovery in Nairobi and rehabilitation in Italy, Bishop Carlassare returned to Rumbek to begin his episcopal ministry. Despite the ordeal, the Italian bishop said he holds no ill will toward his attackers.

“The wounds I received were from people who are also wounded for some reason,” he said.

The experience, he said, inspired him to go around the diocese to listen and meet with the faithful to better “understand what has wounded this diocese, what are their fears and what are their needs.”

Peace cannot be achieved by “closing our eyes to what has happened. It is by looking for a justice that is, above all, reparative so that forgiveness is possible and never a punitive justice that doesn’t forgive. That would not help us,” he said.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war. But, just two years after independence, political tensions erupted into violence.

Bishop Carlassare said the pope and the Anglican and Presbyterian leaders had an impact on the peace process in the country after the Vatican hosted a spiritual retreat in April 2019 with the leaders of all the warring political factions and clans.

At the end of the retreat, the pope knelt and kissed the feet of the leaders of South Sudan, begging them to “remain in peace” and to “not be afraid” despite the many problems.

The dramatic gesture shocked South Sudan President Salva Kiir, prompting him to tell the country’s parliament a month later that the pope’s planned visit “was a blessing and can be a curse if we play games with the lives of our people.”

Bishop Carlassare told journalists that prior to the retreat, the country’s leaders were “unable to come to an agreement” due to disputes over land size among the warring factions.

The pope’s request for peace brought much needed perspective to the peace process and a realization that finding an agreement “often means compromises and accepting perhaps a smaller slice (of land) so all may have a bit.”

Nevertheless, the bishop added, while the retreat “was a success, it is a success that must be repeated and renewed each year.”

With the visit drawing near, the people of South Sudan, after decades of suffering, need to know and understand that the church is near to them, he said, and the unity among the different Christian churches and communities in the country can become a powerful sign that peace is not an unrealistic goal.

“Many times, the South Sudanese people are divided within their own groups, and they believe their own tribal group or clan or ethnic group can give them more security than the government. There isn’t a lot of trust in the government,” Bishop Carlassare said.

“It is important that in this peace process, the people know that the pope, the church, the (Christian) churches are close to the people,” he added. And that “despite situations of injustice, the people can choose peace, they can choose reconciliation, they can choose to put down their weapons.”

 

Vermont parish celebrates birth of Servant of God Joseph Dutton

By
Catholic News Service
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Father Jon Schnobrich celebrates Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church in Stowe, Vt., April 24, 2022. A portrait of Servant of God Joseph Dutton stands to the right in front of the altar. Dutton was a Civil War veteran who joined St. Damian of Molokai in his ministry to lepers. (CNS photo/Cori Fugere Urban, Vermont Catholic)

By Cori Fugere Urban, Catholic News Service

STOWE, Vt. (CNS) — Why would a parish celebrate the 179th anniversary of someone’s birth?

Blessed Sacrament Parish in Stowe, did just that on April 24 to mark the birth of Ira Dutton — a Civil War veteran born in Stowe who joined St. Damian of Molokai in his ministry to lepers and was declared a Servant of God last year, the first step toward canonization.

Blessed Sacrament Church, which was built on land that was once the Dutton farm where Ira was born, is dedicated to him.

He entered the Catholic Church on his 40th birthday, taking the name Joseph after his patron, St. Joseph. Although he was often called “Brother Dutton,” he was not a religious brother. Later in life, he became a Third Order Franciscan.

“We are proud to have the birthplace of this remarkable man from Lamoille County marked by one of our churches, and every year moving forward we will honor the work of grace that God accomplished in him, leading him to a life of penance and a life love and charity poured out in serving Christ in the poorest and most abandoned,” said Father Jon Schnobrich, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish.

Dutton’s birthday celebration, on Divine Mercy Sunday, included Mass, a tour of the exterior of the church that depicts his life on Molokai, Hawaiian music and dance, videos relating to his life and a Hawaiian-style luncheon. Many of the participants wore leis or floral hair clips.

“Our Servant of God Joseph Dutton’s life bears a beautiful witness to the mercy of God,” Father Schnobrich said in his homily, noting that God’s mercy accompanied Dutton through war and alcoholism and eventually to helping those in need.

God’s mercy transforms, heals and makes new, he added.

Dutton’s life “inspires us with hope for those great and holy things God desires to accomplish though us,” Father Schnobrich said.

He said Dutton was being ordinary, simple and uncomplicated, adding: “How much our God loves the ordinary, the simple and the uncomplicated.”

Claudia Kanile’a Goddard of New York City sang a song written by the boys of the Kalawao Band, leprosy patients, in 1879 to express their love for St. Damien.

Later, at the luncheon, she accompanied members of “Gracious Ladies” of New York who performed authentic hula dances.

Blessed Sacrament parishioner Jim Brochhausen called the birthday celebration “quite amazing” and said it is “phenomenal” to have such a connection with this Servant of God.

Another parishioner, Susi Clark, said, “We are so happy to celebrate Brother Joseph Dutton because now he has achieved the first level toward sainthood. And to have a layperson from Stowe is extraordinary.”

Dutton would be the third saint who cared for the lepers on Molokai, joining St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope.

Although Dutton was born in Stowe, his family moved to Wisconsin in 1847. He served in the Civil War and married in 1866. But his wife left him a year later, and he began a period he later called the “degenerate decade,” drinking heavily, something he later discontinued.

He was determined to do penance and atone for his “wild years,” and after studying the Catholic faith, he decided that being Catholic would best enable him to lead a penitential life.

He also learned about Father Damien and the Kalaupapa leprosy settlement in Hawaii and decided to go to there to help carry on the work of Father Damien, who had been diagnosed with leprosy, and soon became an expert in caring for the patients’ medical needs.

Dutton died in Hawaii in 1931.

Father Schnobrich said Dutton’s birthday celebration was a great way to honor and celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday because of how Dutton experienced God’s mercy.

Celebrating a 179th birthday is “an odd birthday to go big on,” he said, but the parish did so as a “way of honoring the new movement of raising up Brother Dutton” for canonization.

 

Pope praises Papal Foundation’s generosity, including to Ukraine

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis greets members of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation during an audience at the Vatican April 28, 2022. The pope praised the group for its generosity in helping fund humanitarian and church projects around the world. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis praised members of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation for helping the Catholic Church build “a culture of solidarity and peace,” including by providing assistance to victims of the war in Ukraine.

“As we are witnessing in these days the devastating effects of war and conflict, you increasingly see the need to provide care and humanitarian assistance to its victims, to refugees and to those forced to leave their homelands in search of a better and more secure future for themselves and their loved ones,” the pope told members of the foundation April 28.

“Your work helps to bring the love, hope and mercy that the Gospel proclaims to all who benefit from your generosity and commitment,” the pope told the foundation’s major donors, who are called Stewards of St. Peter, and members of the board of trustees.

Although the six active American cardinals resident in the United States are part of the foundation’s board, only Cardinals Seán P. O’Malley of Boston and Timothy M. Dolan of New York were part of the group’s pilgrimage to Rome. The cardinals on the board include Blase Cupich of Chicago, Wilton Gregory of Washington, Joseph Tobin of Newark, and Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.

Cardinal O’Malley, chairman of the board, told Pope Francis, “As we gather today, we join in your Holiness’ concern and prayer for the tragic circumstances of the attacks on Ukraine and the desperate circumstances of the Ukrainian people.”

The foundation, he said, has provided funds to the Ukrainian Catholic Church “to assist with emergency relief efforts.”

After the meeting with the pope, the foundation announced the approval of $14 million in grants, scholarships and humanitarian aid that will be distributed throughout the world. The amount included more than $9 million in grants requested by the Vatican for 123 projects in 64 countries, the foundation said.

For the year ending June 30, 2021, the foundation reported distributing grants of just over $9.8 million and scholarships of $794,000. Since its founding in 1988, the Papal Foundation and its Stewards of St. Peter have allocated more than $200 million in grants and scholarships around the world to more than 2,000 projects selected according to priorities set by the pope.

The group’s 2021 report highlighted the foundation’s help to build a center for faith formation in Burundi, the construction of an orphanage in the Philippines, the renovation of a retreat house in Chile and the expansion of a church-run health center in Rwanda.

The scholarships provided by the foundation enable close to 100 priests, religious sisters, religious brothers and laity to study at one of the pontifical universities in Rome.

“From its inception,” the pope told the foundation members, “solidarity with the successor of Peter has been a hallmark of the Papal Foundation. I ask you, please, to pray for me and for my ministry, for the needs of the church, the spread of the Gospel and the conversion of hearts.”

 

Pope, Council of Cardinals meet, discuss war in Ukraine

By
Catholic News Service
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A Ukrainian serviceman is seen near buildings destroyed by Russian shelling in Irpin April 28, 2022. Pope Francis' international Council of Cardinals met at the Vatican April 25-27, and one of the topics was the war in Ukraine, the Vatican press office said. (CNS photo/Gleb Garanich, Reuters)

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals met in-person at the Vatican April 25, discussing the war in Ukraine, the Vatican press office said.

There was a discussion about the conflict and its impact on the church, ecumenism and the sociopolitical sphere, the Vatican said April 28.

The cardinals reflected on the situation and supported the different initiatives that have been launched by Pope Francis and the Vatican’s secretary and secretariat of state, aimed at finding a peaceful solution, according to the Vatican press office.

Each cardinal then presented a rundown of the different situations on their own continent, touching on such issues as peace, health care, poverty, tenuous political situations and pastoral problems in the local churches, it said.

Six of the seven members of the council participated: Cardinals Seán P. O’Malley of Boston; Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany; Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa, and Giuseppe Bertello, retired president of the commission governing Vatican City State. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, was in Mexico to mark 30 years of diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

On his doctor’s orders to rest an inflamed knee, the pope was forced to cancel his scheduled appointments April 26, which included that day’s session of the Council of Cardinals.

The cardinals spent the day discussing climate change and the upcoming COP27 meeting in Egypt in November. They reflected on what the church could be doing to draw attention to the urgency of the problem. Cardinal Ambongo gave a broader look at the global situation and what expectations came out of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, particularly in helping poorer nations in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Oceania.

The cardinals also continued an in-depth discussion begun in February on women in the church. The April meeting included a presentation by Sister Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso, a member of the Congregation of Franciscan Catechists and the Kariri Indigenous community from the Amazon region in Brazil.

The final day, April 27, the cardinals continued a reflection on the Vatican’s diplomatic service and the role of the apostolic nuncios. Cardinal Gracias presented a report on the subject, followed by an open discussion.

They ended the session discussing the implementation of the “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), the papal constitution reforming the Roman Curia, a project Pope Francis began with the Council of Cardinals shortly after taking office in 2013. Published by the Vatican March 19, it will go into effect June 5, the feast of Pentecost.

The cardinals discussed possible ways to implement the new legislation and evaluate next steps and potential challenges.

The council is scheduled to meet again in June.

 

Arizona group creates third-class relics of Padre Kino

By
Catholic News Service
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A mural of Father Eusebio Kino is seen at the Plaza Monumental Eusebio Francisco Kino in Magdalena de Kino, Mexico, March 30, 2022. (CNS photo/Tony Gutierrez)

By Tony Gutiérrez, Catholic News Service

MAGDALENA DE KINO, Mexico (CNS) — As the cause for canonization of Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino — popularly referred to as “Padre Kino” and known as the “Padre on Horseback” — continues to progress, a small group from Arizona visited the famed missionary’s remains in Magdalena de Kino, Mexico, to create third-class relics for distribution.

Led by Jesuit Father Greg Adolf, pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and spiritual moderator for the Tucson-based Kino Heritage Society, the delegation brought several rolls of thin ribbon to the crypt at Plaza Monumental Eusebio Francisco Kino March 30 to be placed on Padre Kino’s bones.

The ribbons are then to be cut up and attached to 20,000 prayer cards to be distributed to parishes and others who may request them. The crypt containing Padre Kino’s remains have plexiglass windows allowing visitors and pilgrims to view and venerate the relics from above, but the crypt is rarely opened.

“I’ve seen the remains many times through the plexiglass, but to have the crypt open and to be on the ground looking at Father Kino’s remains was very moving (and) touching,” said Father Adolf. “To have that door swing open and be able to gaze in that way was a fantastic experience.”

The remains of Father Eusebio Kino are seen in Magdalena de Kino, Mexico, March 30, 2022. (CNS photo/Tony Gutierrez)

With the support of Rafael Barceló Durazo, Mexico’s consul in Tucson, the delegation coordinated the effort with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, or INAH — the country’s historical and anthropological institute. Rodolfo del Castillo López, a restorer from INAH’s Sonora center in Hermosillo, opened the crypt and placed the ribbons on Padre Kino’s skull, formally making them third-class relics. Del Castillo and Father Adolf then signed the rolls, certifying they had touched the missionary priest’s bones.

“I felt very fortunate and thankful that we were invited because how many people get to be close to the bones and be able to take pictures and peak inside and see it, not through the glass?” asked Lupita Teran, parish receptionist at St. Andrew who, along with her husband Deacon Lauro Teran, was a part of the delegation. “What an amazing thing, when he is declared a saint, to be able to say that I was there, and I saw him up close.”

Padre Kino was declared venerable in 2020, which put him on the path to being named a saint.

The priest was born in 1645 in Segno, Italy, and ordained as a Jesuit in 1677. He set out for Mexico the following year and went on to introduce Christianity to present-day Arizona, establishing missions there and in Mexico and California. Padre Kino always traveled in a group, said Father Adolf, dispelling the idea that he worked alone.

“He was a bridge builder, so he had this enormous capacity for friendship,” said Father Adolf. “Kino had such enormous friendships with so many of the Native Americans, and he regarded them as collaborators in his explorations.”

Adriana Moreno Salazar, assistant director of Art, Culture, and Tourism for Magdalena de Kino, said that opening the crypt and creating the relics will have a positive impact on the community.

“We’re grateful for Padre Kino because he was a great missionary and because he raised our pueblo,” said Moreno in Spanish. “He was the one that came to be with the original people. He was the one who dealt with them, spoke with them and built a partnership with them to build our city into what it is today.”

Ignacio Rodriguez, associate director of the Office of Ethnic Ministries for the Diocese of Phoenix, first visited Padre Kino’s crypt when that diocese started a partnership with the Diocese of Tucson and the Archdiocese of Hermosillo to pray and find a way to work collaboratively in ministry to immigrants.

He said he hopes Padre Kino’s cause will bring a sense of renewal and evangelization to the work that’s being done at the border.

“We’re called to evangelization, we’re called to remind people of God’s love, and we’re reminded to share the Good News with folks who are suffering,” he said.

“Ultimately, that’s what Father Kino was doing,” he added. “The establishment of missions throughout this country speaks volumes for his love of people who are on the margins.”

 

Higher prices not the biggest problem in this year’s growing season

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Catholic News Service
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People shop at a grocery store in New York City March 10, 2022. (CNS photo/Carlo Allegri, Reuters)

By Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The cost of food in the United States has been going up as of late, but that’s not the biggest problem as this year’s growing season begins.

What’s a bigger problem than high prices? You name it: dry weather, climate change, war and spot food shortages around the world.

“There won’t be a food shortage in America, but that is not what farmers think about. They concern themselves in a more global fashion,” said Lochiel Edwards, a Catholic farmer in southeast Montana. “There will be food shortages (elsewhere), and there have been, it’s not a new thing. But it’s going to be worse.”

According to Shelby Myers, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, U.S. farmers have committed to plant more than 240 million acres of principal crops — corn, wheat and soybeans, with cotton in the mix. It’s the biggest commitment in nearly a decade, when just 1 million or 2 million more acres had been committed as of March 31 of that year, according to Myers in a market outlook report he penned for the Farm Bureau.

Edwards said higher prices are inevitable, given the convergence of conditions.

“Most of it are supply-and-demand problems not at the level of the farm or the beginning of the chain. Those prices are higher, too, because of various droughts in the world and the Ukraine-Russia conflict,” he said.

“But whatever those raw commodities paid to farmers are, they have very little effect on the price in the grocery store. If there’s a nickel’s worth of white flour in a loaf of bread, it doubles, it’s 10 cents. The price of bread will probably go up a dollar, two dollars, a loaf. The price of the raw commodities is just a very small part of food.”

James Ennis, executive director of Catholic Rural Life, noted that farmers are making money this year. And they might make even more before the crops come in. Often, the farmer, as the first link in the supply chain from seed to supermarket shelf, gets the short end of the stick.

“Farmers usually have a portfolio of strategies,” Ennis said. “They won’t put all their eggs in one basket.”

They may have a small percentage of their expected yield already committed in contracts to buyers. That, Ennis told Catholic News Service, gives them the option to hold on to the balance of their crop and make additional contracts later. Any contracts may give “a guaranteed price, but they’re locked in at that price.” Future sales could be made to cooperatives or to open markets.

“As soon as a farmer sells his grain, his buyer knows where it’s going, usually, and it depends on its geographic area,” Edwards said. “If I grow it, Montana is farther than Portland (Oregon). It’s geographic where those commitments are committed to go.”

Profit is good, said Ron Rosmann, a Catholic organic farmer in Iowa, but he’s not into price gouging. “We’re not waiting for the high price,” he said. “If it’s profitable, we may not hit the high (market price). We don’t hold all (crops) for a contract. We just try to average it out. If we’re happy with what we’re getting, we’re happy.”

Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is more competition for scarce commodities. Soybeans are one example.

“China’s the big user of soybeans and they travel quite a ways,” Edwards said. “And there’s newly developed biodiesel. The (soybean) growers are pretty excited about biodiesel,” which promises to do for trucks what ethanol does for cars: stretch out a finite resource — fossil fuel — with a renewable resource.

But that leads to a bigger question: Should crops be used as fuel for vehicles or fuel for humans? That leaves out the fact that many crops fatten cows, hogs and chickens for slaughter.

“In the big-picture scheme of things, the two major commodities of corn and soybeans are going to have tremendous competition in the future,” Rosmann said, noting the federal government April 12 gave its OK to raising the maximum of ethanol permissible in “unleaded” gasoline from 10% to 15% during the summer months, even though, Rosmann asserted, the new blend will result in more air pollution.

And “soy diesel is supposedly going to ratchet it (production) up because of the high prices of diesel nowadays,” he said. “What’s the best thing to do for climate change and what’s best for our earth and natural resources? I’m going to say it’s only going to hurt the environment” while “more people are going to grow more corn and soybeans” to meet the demands of competing markets.

“We’re going to do what we do,” Edwards said. “If you’re going to farm in Montana, you’ve got to expect drought every once in a while.” The state’s wheat yield in 2021 was down from the year before and early 2022 isn’t showing signs of improvement.

“Wheat is about as efficient a crop as you want,” according to Edwards. One alternative are “pulse” crops such as peas, lentils and chickpeas. But “if you don’t grow wheat, you’re not going to grow much of anything,” he said. “The chickpeas are more expensive to plant. And they’re much more dependent on water. If there is a shift it will be more in winter wheat and less in pulse crops.”

Rosmann thought beyond what he’s got in his fields.

“Beef and pork are also really high, I guess, because as feed costs go up, the corn and the soy protein has gone up, that has raised the meat prices,” he said. “But that is also because the meat people have a monopoly, Tyson and Smithfield, pretty much control, what is it, 62% owned by or under contract to Smithfield and Tyson.”

Rosmann added: “We’ve got to remember that we spend less for food than any other country. People think that food is God-given right. Cheap food is what makes America America. And that its somewhat of a historical thing. As agriculture got bigger and started producing, the emphasis was on production and yields in order to keep our food plentiful and cheap. That’s always been a part of government policy, that I know.”

But “I think that’s going to be harder to do as this competition for food and fuel keeps going unless we stop using food as fuel — this ethanol and soy diesel.”

An alternative, Rosmann said, is “food waste and garbage. We could be creating a lot of fuel from the food we throw away. Food waste or landfill waste. We wouldn’t have to be using our most precious resource — our soil.”

Rosmann called CNS after an initial interview to offer some practical advice to consumers.

“When food prices go up, a commonsense thing to do, even if you’re in an urban environment, if it’s possible, is grow a little bit of your own food. And don’t buy processed food! Buy the raw ingredients, the vegetables, and even the raw meat, and learn how to cook,” he said.

It produces “a kind of life that I’m talking about where we’re not having to have instant gratification and always having to have the easy way out. Those easy days are over, or they should be,” Rosmann said. “If we just used our heads. If food prices are going up, gee, what can we do? Eat out less often.”

He added, “I guess what I’m saying is grow your own, buy raw ingredients and don’t buy processed foods. They’re not good for you anyway.”

Edwards broke it down this way: “Every farmer wants good crops. He takes pride in his work,” he said. “At the end of the day, good crops are better income. That’s the name of the game. That’s what we do. That’s our business — to produce as much as possible.”

 

Pope wanted to ‘turn page’ on costly property, defendant says at trial

By
Catholic News Service
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Tommaso Di Ruzza, the former director of the Vatican's financial watchdog agency, then known as the Financial Information Authority or AIF, took the stand April 27, 2022, at a Vatican trial regarding the Vatican's majority stake purchase of a property development project in London's Chelsea district. He is pictured in a 2015 photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The former director of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency told the Vatican court that his office’s minimal involvement in a costly property deal was at the behest of Pope Francis and several top Vatican officials.

Tommaso Di Ruzza, the former director of the Vatican watchdog agency, then known as the Financial Information Authority, or AIF, is one of nine defendants facing a slew charges related to financial malfeasance.

At the April 27 session of the trial, he testified that, during a March 2019 meeting, the pope asked Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute secretary for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State, to update AIF on the situation with the London property.

The pope, he said, “told me that he had invited Archbishop Peña Parra to speak to the president and the director of AIF as trustworthy persons of the Holy See,” Di Ruzza said, referring to himself and the former president of AIF, René Brülhart.

He also said Pope Francis told him “that it was in the interest of the Holy See to turn over a new page” and that the Vatican would directly manage negotiations regarding the London property.

Di Ruzza also said he had “frequent meetings” with Archbishop Peña Parra and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

The former director of AIF was questioned by prosecutors and defendants’ lawyers for several hours regarding his alleged involvement in the Vatican’s majority stake purchase of a property development project in London’s Chelsea district.

London-based Italian financier Raffaele Mincione purchased the London property in 2012 for 129 million British pounds. In 2014, he sold a minority stake in the development project to the Vatican for 200 million euros.

After relations with Mincione soured in 2018, the Vatican turned to Gianluigi Torzi, an Italian broker, to serve as the middleman in purchasing the majority stake on the property so the Vatican could end its dealings with Mincione.

According to prosecutors, the Vatican lost 350 million euros for the entire deal, including the debt owed on the property. Both Mincione and Torzi are facing several charges, including extortion, fraud and abuse of office.

In their 487-page indictment, Vatican prosecutors accused Di Ruzza and Brülhart of failing “to carry out any type of investigation” before approving the payments made to Mincione and Torzi.

Addressing the Vatican court, Di Ruzza said neither he nor his office played a role in a London property development deal that cost the Vatican millions of euros.

“I acted in the interest of the Holy See within the limits of my mandate and information available,” Di Ruzza said.

He also said he had no contact with several defendants, including Mincione and Torzi.

Di Ruzza’s testimony echoed that of Brülhart, who told the court April 5 that after a meeting Archbishop Peña Parra, he understood that the archbishop “and the secretary of state wanted to proceed under any circumstance,” despite various warnings against dealing with Torzi.

The trial resumes May 5.

 

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