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Posts Tagged ‘Pope Francis’
Standing Up For Freedom in China: Thaddeus Ma Daqin
April 1, 2014
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Rev. Thaddeus Ma Daqin gives the holy communion to a woman at Sheshan Cathedral, Shanghai in this April 30, 2012 picture provided to Reuters by ucanews.com on October 11, 2013. Credit: Reuters/ucanews.com
By Sui-Lee Wee
(Reuters) – It was shaping as a win in the Communist Party’s quest to contain a longtime nemesis, the Roman Catholic Church.
In July 2012, a priest named Thaddeus Ma Daqin was to be ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. The Communist body that has governed the church for six decades had angered the Holy See by appointing bishops without Vatican approval. Known as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, it was now about to install Ma, one of its own officials, as deputy in China’s largest Catholic diocese.
“The anticipation was he would be a yes man,” says Jim Mulroney, a priest and editor of the Hong Kong-based Sunday Examiner, a Catholic newspaper.
Instead, standing before a thousand Catholics and government officials at Saint Ignatius Cathedral, Ma spurned the party: It wouldn’t be “convenient” for him to remain in the Patriotic Association, he said. Many in the crowd erupted into thunderous applause. People wept. Ma had switched sides – and a crisis was under way.
.
Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin
The priest soon disappeared from public view, instructed by the late bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian to move to a mountainside seminary outside Shanghai, where he has been confined for 20 months. He was stripped of his new title, questioned by officials for weeks and required to attend communist indoctrination classes.
Ma’s renunciation of the association forced into the open a struggle that had been playing out for years. The Catholic Church in China is divided into two communities: an “official” church answerable to the Party, and an “underground” church that swears allegiance only to the pope in Rome. The most contentious issue between them is which side controls the ordination of bishops.
There are tentative signs a thaw may be possible. New leaders have been appointed in both the Vatican and China since Ma defied the Patriotic Association.
The Chinese government has privately signaled it could appoint Ma as the next full bishop of Shanghai, a position now vacant, and release two long-jailed bishops loyal to the Vatican, according to a source close to the Holy See. This person said several people had conveyed that message to a Vatican official in private meetings.
Any change in Ma’s status is likely to be gradual, the Vatican source said, given opposition from the Shanghai government, still furious over Ma’s repudiation of the official church.
The source declined to specify the identities of the people carrying the messages to the Vatican. Since the Vatican and China have no official ties, unofficial emissaries from Beijing pass messages to the Vatican either directly to Rome or through the Vatican’s Charge d’Affaires in Hong Kong. The emissaries are in contact with government or Communist Party authorities in China, said Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, from Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, who has previously acted as an unofficial emissary between Rome and Beijing.
“I’m a little positive this time,” the Vatican source said. “If this will happen, certainly the Vatican will take some steps for China. After that I think it will be possible to start a dialogue.”
China has yet to send any public signal that it is willing to resume a dialogue with the Vatican, and some hardliners in the Catholic Church oppose any accommodation with China.
Beijing’s impasse with the Catholic Church also coincides with a broader crackdown against dissident groups – including Christians who go to “house churches”, rights lawyers, academics and activists – that have resulted in a spate of trials and detentions.
China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
The Rev. Peter Pang Wenxian holds the Bible above his head at morning Mass in Beijing at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Jonah M. Kessel/For The Washington Post
“THERE ARE RELATIONS”
Pope Francis has been silent on the standoff, but he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera this month he has exchanged letters with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first acknowledgment of communication since both men took office in late 2012. “There are relations,” Francis said, without elaborating on the exchange.
Vatican watchers speculate Francis could visit Beijing this summer during a tour of Asia. If so, it would be the first by a pope to Chinese territory since the Communists took power in 1949. Since then, there have been no bilateral diplomatic relations.
The Vatican’s new Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, has also sounded an optimistic note. In February, he told Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, that he is hopeful “trust and understanding among the parties might increase.” He added: “This might be concretely realized in the resumption of a constructive dialogue with political authorities” in China.
The Vatican did not respond to requests for comment.
The enduring rupture, however, suggests any end to the standoff over bishop appointments may be a long way off. Ma’s rebuff still stings, says Anthony Liu Bainian, the layman who is the honorary chairman of the Patriotic Association.
“He deceived the bishops and cheated the government as well as the public,” Liu said in an interview, in his first public remarks on the Ma case. “How can you then take on the responsibility for such a large diocese as Shanghai? This clearly shows that (Ma) was under the influence of foreigners.”
Reuters went to Sheshan Seminary and met with Ma, who said that while he is allowed to chat with visitors as part of his pastoral duties, he cannot accept media interviews.
HUNGER FOR SPIRITUALITY
For the Vatican, the stakes in China are enormous: A population of nearly 1.4 billion lives in a society that hungers for spirituality at a time when Catholicism’s traditional stronghold in Europe is flagging.
The stakes are high for the Communist Party, too. The Catholic Church is perhaps the largest non-party institution in Communist-led China. The church has been in China since Jesuit missionaries first arrived in 1534, longer than the party, and it is growing.
China officially recognizes five religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity and Catholicism – and supervises them through state-run associations. The officially atheist government is wary of any organization that might challenge its moral authority, especially those tied to a foreign entity.
The Communist Party tried to force Catholics to join the Catholic Patriotic Association when it was established in 1957. Clergy and laity who refused to renounce ties with the Vatican were imprisoned, beaten and some were even killed. The campaign drove Catholics loyal to the pope underground, causing a split that remains today.
But nearly six decades of state control and sometimes brutal oppression has failed to eradicate the underground Catholic community. Membership today is about evenly divided between those who attend China’s official and underground churches. The number of Catholics has risen from an estimated 8 million in 1988 to about 12 million today, according to Anthony Lam, a senior researcher at the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong, an organ of the Diocese of Hong Kong.
China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs counts 5.3 million Catholics as belonging to the Patriotic Association, which oversees 70 bishops and approximately 6,000 churches nationwide.
But the lines are beginning to blur. Many underground churches are allowed to operate with the tacit approval of local officials. A new generation of Catholics, less angered by a bitter past, will go to Mass at both underground and official churches.
For Beijing, the ordination of bishops in the roughly 110 bishop seats in China is its main lever of control over the church. Rome, however, sees the ordination of “illicit” bishops as a trend that will weaken the validity of the Catholic Church in China.
QUIET DETENTE
Ma was born in 1966 to a staunch Catholic family in Shanghai. His grandfather and father both yearned to be priests but were frustrated by the Communist takeover and later the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. Ma’s family lived directly opposite St. Ignatius Cathedral, a gothic building built by French Jesuits between 1905 and 1910.
St. Ignatius Cathedral Shanghai
Ma began attending Mass daily with his parents at St. Ignatius after China eased government controls on religion in the late 1970s. He studied at the Sheshan Seminary and became a priest in 1994, going on to serve in each of Shanghai’s Catholic churches.
Ma always worked with the official church. He had risen to become the vice-chairman of Shanghai’s Patriotic Association.
For most of the last decade, the party and the Vatican tried to accommodate each other’s views on the crucial issue of bishop appointments (except in 2006 when the two sides clashed over the appointment of three bishops). A bishop in China’s official church is supposed to be “elected” by local priests, nuns and some laymen, and the government and the Vatican usually agreed on the choice.
That arrangement began to break down in 2010, when the Patriotic Association appointed four bishops who had not been approved by the Vatican. Rome excommunicated three of them, a move that hadn’t been taken against a Chinese bishop since 1951. Beijing called the excommunications “unreasonable and rude”.
After that, local authorities sent police to escort Vatican-appointed bishops to attend official church ordinations and detained other bishops loyal to Rome ahead of the ceremonies.
Yet a truce still seemed possible. On July 4, 2012, three days before Ma’s ordination, a spokesman for the government’s Religious Affairs Bureau said China was “willing to enter into consultations with the Vatican on issues including the ordination of bishops.”
AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE
Then, on July 7, 2012, came Ma’s ordination. By all accounts, it was an extraordinary scene at Saint Ignatius Cathedral that day. Scores of priests and nuns had gathered outside the cathedral to protest against the participation in the ceremony of Vincent Zhan Silu, a bishop loyal to the Patriotic Association who had been ordained without approval by the Vatican.
Ma had been close to Shanghai’s official Bishop, Aloysius Jin Luxian, who died on April 27, 2013 at the age of 96. Jin himself had walked a fine line between Beijing and Rome, spending nearly three decades under house arrest, in reeducation camps and in prison before joining the official church.
Jin was criticized at times for being too close to the government after his release from prison. But his accommodation with the government seemed to have soured when Zhan was one of those named to help officiate at the ceremony.
Jin convened a meeting of Shanghai’s priests and nuns and told them to “act according to your conscience” when it came to attending the ordination.
“Bishop Jin was so furious,” said Cardinal Joseph Zen, a Shanghai-born former bishop of Hong Kong. “He called all the priests and said: ‘I did all I could but they are still trying to impose this illegitimate bishop (Zhan), so I will do all my best to humiliate this fellow.’”.
And, from the view of the official church, that is what transpired. Shanghai Bishop Jin and two other bishops performed the “laying on of hands” ritual that is meant to invoke the Holy Spirit during an ordination. Zhan and two other bishops were also supposed to perform the ritual. But Ma prevented them from putting their hands on his head by rising from his knees and hugging the three bishops instead. Zhan did not respond to requests for comment.
Ma then strode to the pulpit, and referring to the crowd of priests and nuns outside, said: “Today, from our diocese, there are several brothers, sisters, priests and nuns who were not able to attend due to various reasons. I would like to say, I love them.”
He spoke about the need to focus on pastoral duties – working with parishioners – in his new role as bishop, as opposed to the bureaucratic duties that come with the job as a Patriotic Association bishop.
“Therefore, starting from this day of consecration, I will no longer find it convenient to be a member of the Patriotic Association,” he said.
MUST ‘TRULY REPENT’
It isn’t clear what led Ma to turn against the Patriotic Association that day. Priests who knew Ma said that while he was close to Jin the official bishop, he also admired the Shanghai underground bishop, Joseph Fan Zhongliang, who died on March 16. And both of those bishops objected to Zhan’s participation in the ceremony.
The Patriotic Association’s honorary chairman Liu, who wasn’t in attendance that day, was furious. “When they told me about this matter, I said: ‘It’s finished, it’s finished,” he said in the interview. Ma’s actions “violated church regulations.”
Asked whether Ma could eventually be a full bishop, as the Vatican source has suggested, Liu said that Ma was “a talented person” but has to “truly repent. He first has to understand and recognize his mistake.”
Beijing has to take a stricter line with Catholics than other religions because of past actions by the church, Liu said, referring to former Pope John Paul’s sweeping apology in 2000 for the Church’s history of violence, persecution and blunders.
“Especially now that foreign ruling powers want to contain the development of China, they must also want to use religion to sow discord,” Liu said.
The Vatican tried to look for a diplomatic solution after Ma’s act of defiance. In October 2012, three months after the St. Ignatius ceremony, Rome proposed “a new way for dialogue”, calling for a “bilateral commission for relations”, similar to ones between China and Taiwan and between the Vatican and communist Vietnam.
The author of the proposal, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, is a China expert who heads the Vatican department that deals with missions. In a letter to Beijing outlining his proposal, Cardinal Filoni listed the stumbling blocks to better ties: the “sharpened control of the state over the Church” since 2010 and the “heavy interference of the civil authorities over the appointment of bishops.” Bishop Ma’s detention was “the latest worrying sign,” he wrote.
Filoni declined to comment for this report. He told the Italian news agency Ansa last October that he had not heard a reply from Beijing.
THE JESUIT POPE
Ma’s “patriotic education” classes ended last August, according to the source close to the Vatican. The Patriotic Association, meanwhile, has not ordained any bishops for over a year, a development the source called “a good signal”.
The change of leadership in Rome may help, Vatican watchers say. They note that Pope Francis is a Jesuit, the first-ever pontiff from the Catholic order that established the church in China. According to Cardinal Filoni, Pope Francis has in his room a statue of “Our Lady of Sheshan” – the Chinese icon of Mother Mary whose main shrine is at the seminary outside Shanghai.
Archbishop Parolin, the new secretary of state, was the Vatican’s chief negotiator with China in 2007.
“The Vatican, by appointing this man as a secretary of state, that in itself is a statement that it wants dialogue, and I think China understands this,” said the Catholic University of Leuven’s Heyndrickx.
The Vatican has previously signaled a willingness to cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan – a condition China has imposed for the resumption of diplomatic ties with the Holy See. In 2005, the-then Vatican Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, said the Vatican was ready to move its diplomatic office from Taiwan to Beijing if China agreed to uphold religious freedom.
A Taiwanese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Anna Kao, said Taiwan and the Vatican maintain official diplomatic ties and Taipei has “heard no news to the contrary”.
Ma remains at the Sheshan Seminary. He regularly posts blog items for the faithful, mostly excerpts from scripture and greetings to his flock.
In a December 6 post, shortly after the death of Nelson Mandela, the priest cited one of the South African liberation leader’s most famous quotations: “Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all my people were the chains on me.”
His quarters, which he shares with a half-dozen priests, overlook a lush bamboo forest. In one room, a photo of the retired Pope Benedict hangs on a wall and a small Chinese flag sits on a desk.
(Additional reporting by Philip Pulella in Rome, Paul Mooney and Greg Torode in Hong Kong and the Beijing Newsroom. Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Rev. Thaddeus Ma Daqin gives the holy communion to a woman at Sheshan Cathedral, Shanghai in this April 30, 2012 picture provided to Reuters by ucanews.com on October 11, 2013. Credit: Reuters/ucanews.com
By Sui-Lee Wee
(Reuters) – It was shaping as a win in the Communist Party’s quest to contain a longtime nemesis, the Roman Catholic Church.
In July 2012, a priest named Thaddeus Ma Daqin was to be ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. The Communist body that has governed the church for six decades had angered the Holy See by appointing bishops without Vatican approval. Known as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, it was now about to install Ma, one of its own officials, as deputy in China’s largest Catholic diocese.
“The anticipation was he would be a yes man,” says Jim Mulroney, a priest and editor of the Hong Kong-based Sunday Examiner, a Catholic newspaper.
Instead, standing before a thousand Catholics and government officials at Saint Ignatius Cathedral, Ma spurned the party: It wouldn’t be “convenient” for him to remain in the Patriotic Association, he said. Many in the crowd erupted into thunderous applause. People wept. Ma had switched sides – and a crisis was under way.
.
Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin
The priest soon disappeared from public view, instructed by the late bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian to move to a mountainside seminary outside Shanghai, where he has been confined for 20 months. He was stripped of his new title, questioned by officials for weeks and required to attend communist indoctrination classes.
Ma’s renunciation of the association forced into the open a struggle that had been playing out for years. The Catholic Church in China is divided into two communities: an “official” church answerable to the Party, and an “underground” church that swears allegiance only to the pope in Rome. The most contentious issue between them is which side controls the ordination of bishops.
There are tentative signs a thaw may be possible. New leaders have been appointed in both the Vatican and China since Ma defied the Patriotic Association.
The Chinese government has privately signaled it could appoint Ma as the next full bishop of Shanghai, a position now vacant, and release two long-jailed bishops loyal to the Vatican, according to a source close to the Holy See. This person said several people had conveyed that message to a Vatican official in private meetings.
Any change in Ma’s status is likely to be gradual, the Vatican source said, given opposition from the Shanghai government, still furious over Ma’s repudiation of the official church.
The source declined to specify the identities of the people carrying the messages to the Vatican. Since the Vatican and China have no official ties, unofficial emissaries from Beijing pass messages to the Vatican either directly to Rome or through the Vatican’s Charge d’Affaires in Hong Kong. The emissaries are in contact with government or Communist Party authorities in China, said Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, from Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, who has previously acted as an unofficial emissary between Rome and Beijing.
“I’m a little positive this time,” the Vatican source said. “If this will happen, certainly the Vatican will take some steps for China. After that I think it will be possible to start a dialogue.”
China has yet to send any public signal that it is willing to resume a dialogue with the Vatican, and some hardliners in the Catholic Church oppose any accommodation with China.
Beijing’s impasse with the Catholic Church also coincides with a broader crackdown against dissident groups – including Christians who go to “house churches”, rights lawyers, academics and activists – that have resulted in a spate of trials and detentions.
China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
The Rev. Peter Pang Wenxian holds the Bible above his head at morning Mass in Beijing at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Jonah M. Kessel/For The Washington Post
“THERE ARE RELATIONS”
Pope Francis has been silent on the standoff, but he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera this month he has exchanged letters with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first acknowledgment of communication since both men took office in late 2012. “There are relations,” Francis said, without elaborating on the exchange.
Vatican watchers speculate Francis could visit Beijing this summer during a tour of Asia. If so, it would be the first by a pope to Chinese territory since the Communists took power in 1949. Since then, there have been no bilateral diplomatic relations.
The Vatican’s new Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, has also sounded an optimistic note. In February, he told Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, that he is hopeful “trust and understanding among the parties might increase.” He added: “This might be concretely realized in the resumption of a constructive dialogue with political authorities” in China.
The Vatican did not respond to requests for comment.
The enduring rupture, however, suggests any end to the standoff over bishop appointments may be a long way off. Ma’s rebuff still stings, says Anthony Liu Bainian, the layman who is the honorary chairman of the Patriotic Association.
“He deceived the bishops and cheated the government as well as the public,” Liu said in an interview, in his first public remarks on the Ma case. “How can you then take on the responsibility for such a large diocese as Shanghai? This clearly shows that (Ma) was under the influence of foreigners.”
Reuters went to Sheshan Seminary and met with Ma, who said that while he is allowed to chat with visitors as part of his pastoral duties, he cannot accept media interviews.
HUNGER FOR SPIRITUALITY
For the Vatican, the stakes in China are enormous: A population of nearly 1.4 billion lives in a society that hungers for spirituality at a time when Catholicism’s traditional stronghold in Europe is flagging.
The stakes are high for the Communist Party, too. The Catholic Church is perhaps the largest non-party institution in Communist-led China. The church has been in China since Jesuit missionaries first arrived in 1534, longer than the party, and it is growing.
China officially recognizes five religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity and Catholicism – and supervises them through state-run associations. The officially atheist government is wary of any organization that might challenge its moral authority, especially those tied to a foreign entity.
The Communist Party tried to force Catholics to join the Catholic Patriotic Association when it was established in 1957. Clergy and laity who refused to renounce ties with the Vatican were imprisoned, beaten and some were even killed. The campaign drove Catholics loyal to the pope underground, causing a split that remains today.
But nearly six decades of state control and sometimes brutal oppression has failed to eradicate the underground Catholic community. Membership today is about evenly divided between those who attend China’s official and underground churches. The number of Catholics has risen from an estimated 8 million in 1988 to about 12 million today, according to Anthony Lam, a senior researcher at the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong, an organ of the Diocese of Hong Kong.
China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs counts 5.3 million Catholics as belonging to the Patriotic Association, which oversees 70 bishops and approximately 6,000 churches nationwide.
But the lines are beginning to blur. Many underground churches are allowed to operate with the tacit approval of local officials. A new generation of Catholics, less angered by a bitter past, will go to Mass at both underground and official churches.
For Beijing, the ordination of bishops in the roughly 110 bishop seats in China is its main lever of control over the church. Rome, however, sees the ordination of “illicit” bishops as a trend that will weaken the validity of the Catholic Church in China.
QUIET DETENTE
Ma was born in 1966 to a staunch Catholic family in Shanghai. His grandfather and father both yearned to be priests but were frustrated by the Communist takeover and later the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. Ma’s family lived directly opposite St. Ignatius Cathedral, a gothic building built by French Jesuits between 1905 and 1910.
St. Ignatius Cathedral Shanghai
Ma began attending Mass daily with his parents at St. Ignatius after China eased government controls on religion in the late 1970s. He studied at the Sheshan Seminary and became a priest in 1994, going on to serve in each of Shanghai’s Catholic churches.
Ma always worked with the official church. He had risen to become the vice-chairman of Shanghai’s Patriotic Association.
For most of the last decade, the party and the Vatican tried to accommodate each other’s views on the crucial issue of bishop appointments (except in 2006 when the two sides clashed over the appointment of three bishops). A bishop in China’s official church is supposed to be “elected” by local priests, nuns and some laymen, and the government and the Vatican usually agreed on the choice.
That arrangement began to break down in 2010, when the Patriotic Association appointed four bishops who had not been approved by the Vatican. Rome excommunicated three of them, a move that hadn’t been taken against a Chinese bishop since 1951. Beijing called the excommunications “unreasonable and rude”.
After that, local authorities sent police to escort Vatican-appointed bishops to attend official church ordinations and detained other bishops loyal to Rome ahead of the ceremonies.
Yet a truce still seemed possible. On July 4, 2012, three days before Ma’s ordination, a spokesman for the government’s Religious Affairs Bureau said China was “willing to enter into consultations with the Vatican on issues including the ordination of bishops.”
AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE
Then, on July 7, 2012, came Ma’s ordination. By all accounts, it was an extraordinary scene at Saint Ignatius Cathedral that day. Scores of priests and nuns had gathered outside the cathedral to protest against the participation in the ceremony of Vincent Zhan Silu, a bishop loyal to the Patriotic Association who had been ordained without approval by the Vatican.
Ma had been close to Shanghai’s official Bishop, Aloysius Jin Luxian, who died on April 27, 2013 at the age of 96. Jin himself had walked a fine line between Beijing and Rome, spending nearly three decades under house arrest, in reeducation camps and in prison before joining the official church.
Jin was criticized at times for being too close to the government after his release from prison. But his accommodation with the government seemed to have soured when Zhan was one of those named to help officiate at the ceremony.
Jin convened a meeting of Shanghai’s priests and nuns and told them to “act according to your conscience” when it came to attending the ordination.
“Bishop Jin was so furious,” said Cardinal Joseph Zen, a Shanghai-born former bishop of Hong Kong. “He called all the priests and said: ‘I did all I could but they are still trying to impose this illegitimate bishop (Zhan), so I will do all my best to humiliate this fellow.’”.
And, from the view of the official church, that is what transpired. Shanghai Bishop Jin and two other bishops performed the “laying on of hands” ritual that is meant to invoke the Holy Spirit during an ordination. Zhan and two other bishops were also supposed to perform the ritual. But Ma prevented them from putting their hands on his head by rising from his knees and hugging the three bishops instead. Zhan did not respond to requests for comment.
Ma then strode to the pulpit, and referring to the crowd of priests and nuns outside, said: “Today, from our diocese, there are several brothers, sisters, priests and nuns who were not able to attend due to various reasons. I would like to say, I love them.”
He spoke about the need to focus on pastoral duties – working with parishioners – in his new role as bishop, as opposed to the bureaucratic duties that come with the job as a Patriotic Association bishop.
“Therefore, starting from this day of consecration, I will no longer find it convenient to be a member of the Patriotic Association,” he said.
MUST ‘TRULY REPENT’
It isn’t clear what led Ma to turn against the Patriotic Association that day. Priests who knew Ma said that while he was close to Jin the official bishop, he also admired the Shanghai underground bishop, Joseph Fan Zhongliang, who died on March 16. And both of those bishops objected to Zhan’s participation in the ceremony.
The Patriotic Association’s honorary chairman Liu, who wasn’t in attendance that day, was furious. “When they told me about this matter, I said: ‘It’s finished, it’s finished,” he said in the interview. Ma’s actions “violated church regulations.”
Asked whether Ma could eventually be a full bishop, as the Vatican source has suggested, Liu said that Ma was “a talented person” but has to “truly repent. He first has to understand and recognize his mistake.”
Beijing has to take a stricter line with Catholics than other religions because of past actions by the church, Liu said, referring to former Pope John Paul’s sweeping apology in 2000 for the Church’s history of violence, persecution and blunders.
“Especially now that foreign ruling powers want to contain the development of China, they must also want to use religion to sow discord,” Liu said.
The Vatican tried to look for a diplomatic solution after Ma’s act of defiance. In October 2012, three months after the St. Ignatius ceremony, Rome proposed “a new way for dialogue”, calling for a “bilateral commission for relations”, similar to ones between China and Taiwan and between the Vatican and communist Vietnam.
The author of the proposal, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, is a China expert who heads the Vatican department that deals with missions. In a letter to Beijing outlining his proposal, Cardinal Filoni listed the stumbling blocks to better ties: the “sharpened control of the state over the Church” since 2010 and the “heavy interference of the civil authorities over the appointment of bishops.” Bishop Ma’s detention was “the latest worrying sign,” he wrote.
Filoni declined to comment for this report. He told the Italian news agency Ansa last October that he had not heard a reply from Beijing.
THE JESUIT POPE
Ma’s “patriotic education” classes ended last August, according to the source close to the Vatican. The Patriotic Association, meanwhile, has not ordained any bishops for over a year, a development the source called “a good signal”.
The change of leadership in Rome may help, Vatican watchers say. They note that Pope Francis is a Jesuit, the first-ever pontiff from the Catholic order that established the church in China. According to Cardinal Filoni, Pope Francis has in his room a statue of “Our Lady of Sheshan” – the Chinese icon of Mother Mary whose main shrine is at the seminary outside Shanghai.
Archbishop Parolin, the new secretary of state, was the Vatican’s chief negotiator with China in 2007.
“The Vatican, by appointing this man as a secretary of state, that in itself is a statement that it wants dialogue, and I think China understands this,” said the Catholic University of Leuven’s Heyndrickx.
The Vatican has previously signaled a willingness to cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan – a condition China has imposed for the resumption of diplomatic ties with the Holy See. In 2005, the-then Vatican Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, said the Vatican was ready to move its diplomatic office from Taiwan to Beijing if China agreed to uphold religious freedom.
A Taiwanese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Anna Kao, said Taiwan and the Vatican maintain official diplomatic ties and Taipei has “heard no news to the contrary”.
Ma remains at the Sheshan Seminary. He regularly posts blog items for the faithful, mostly excerpts from scripture and greetings to his flock.
In a December 6 post, shortly after the death of Nelson Mandela, the priest cited one of the South African liberation leader’s most famous quotations: “Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all my people were the chains on me.”
His quarters, which he shares with a half-dozen priests, overlook a lush bamboo forest. In one room, a photo of the retired Pope Benedict hangs on a wall and a small Chinese flag sits on a desk.
(Additional reporting by Philip Pulella in Rome, Paul Mooney and Greg Torode in Hong Kong and the Beijing Newsroom. Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B. (traditional Chinese: 陳日君; simplified Chinese: 陈日君; pinyin: Chén Rìjūn;, born 13 January 1932) is a Chinese Cardinal of the Catholic Church, who served as the sixth Bishop of Hong Kong. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2006, and is famous for his outspokenness on issues regarding human rights, political freedom, and religious liberty, often attracting criticism from the Communist Party of China. He retired from his bishopric on 15 April 2009.
This Catholic Church in China dates to 1867
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Sheshan Cathedral, Shanghai
Sister Cristina the YouTube nun is a gift from heaven
March 31, 2014
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By Cristina Odone
The sun is out, the clocks have changed and spring is in the air. The Christian spring, that is: the Churches and their followers are bursting with a new exuberance.
The personification of this joyful new mood is decked in a modest dark veil and clod-hopper shoes. Sister Cristina Scuccia is a 25-year-old Ursuline whose singing on Italy’s The Voice has become a YouTube sensation.
The bespectacled young nun belted out the Alicia Keys song No One, and brought the studio audience to their feet. The lyrics are schmaltzy (“I just want you close / Where you can stay for ever / You can be sure / That it will only get better”) and Sr Cristina is not, she will forgive me for saying this, Monica Bellucci. I watched the video and, two or three seconds in, feared a pious pastiche of Gangnam Style, with rosary beads replacing the Korean’s shades.
But I, the doubting Thomas, was soon converted by my irresistible namesake and her foot-stomping, heart-thumping pop song. The audience chanted “So-rella! So-rella!” (the Italian for sister). The four judges laughingly admitted that they were pinching themselves to check if Sr Cristina were a dream. Four of her fellow Ursulines stood in the wings, cheering their sister on. Simon Cowell couldn’t have hoped for a more engaging spectacle.
Little wonder that the video of the audition has gone viral, racking up more than 30 million views on YouTube already. As the makers of The Sound of Music might say, what is it about the naive young nun singing a love song that has millions smiling? It’s proved a box office hit many times before: Julie Andrews as Maria, Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Sally Field in The Flying Nun.
But Sr Cristina is no gimmick. She is that old-fashioned figure, the evangelist. Her method – singing on a TV programme adorned with tattooed rappers and half-naked starlets – may sound unorthodox. But step into a church in one of the lively Caribbean parishes across this country and you’ll find Gospel choirs in flowing technicolour robes swaying in the aisles as they roar the chorus of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.
Like those singers, Sr Cristina draws energy from her faith: “God,” she told her cheering audience, “takes nothing away, but gives us always more.” She preaches this message to the world outside her convent; and with her boisterous singing, trumpets the new-found wellbeing and confidence of her faith. This upbeat mood draws its inspiration from the new popular Pope, Francis – whose congratulatory phone call Sr Cristina is expecting.
Pope Francis’s appeal has been widely recognised; Sr Cristina fuels it with her fresh and feminine presence. Their duet (I wouldn’t put it past them) couldn’t come at a more opportune time: Christians face increased persecution in the Middle East and Africa; and condemnation as homophobes and apologists for paedophile priests in the West. In Britain, the Rev Paul Flowers, a Methodist minister, had to be cast out of his church for allegedly buying illegal drugs. Only a few days ago, the novelist Ian McEwan told a literary festival that religious people were scientific illiterates who were “perverse” in their hostility to progress.
The young Italian nun would not recognise Christianity in this grim description. Nor can anyone watching her sing detect a molecule of negative emotion. Sr Cristina’s faith, like her voice, bubbles over in unbridled optimism. As she clasps that microphone to her bosom, and shuts her eyes in heartfelt concentration, the young nun looks as if she could make the walls come tumbling down. Armed with her holy fervour, Sr Cristina looks invincible.
Sceptics may carp about a one-hit wonder. But this nun will run and run and run.
By Cristina Odone
The sun is out, the clocks have changed and spring is in the air. The Christian spring, that is: the Churches and their followers are bursting with a new exuberance.
The personification of this joyful new mood is decked in a modest dark veil and clod-hopper shoes. Sister Cristina Scuccia is a 25-year-old Ursuline whose singing on Italy’s The Voice has become a YouTube sensation.
The bespectacled young nun belted out the Alicia Keys song No One, and brought the studio audience to their feet. The lyrics are schmaltzy (“I just want you close / Where you can stay for ever / You can be sure / That it will only get better”) and Sr Cristina is not, she will forgive me for saying this, Monica Bellucci. I watched the video and, two or three seconds in, feared a pious pastiche of Gangnam Style, with rosary beads replacing the Korean’s shades.
But I, the doubting Thomas, was soon converted by my irresistible namesake and her foot-stomping, heart-thumping pop song. The audience chanted “So-rella! So-rella!” (the Italian for sister). The four judges laughingly admitted that they were pinching themselves to check if Sr Cristina were a dream. Four of her fellow Ursulines stood in the wings, cheering their sister on. Simon Cowell couldn’t have hoped for a more engaging spectacle.
Little wonder that the video of the audition has gone viral, racking up more than 30 million views on YouTube already. As the makers of The Sound of Music might say, what is it about the naive young nun singing a love song that has millions smiling? It’s proved a box office hit many times before: Julie Andrews as Maria, Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Sally Field in The Flying Nun.
But Sr Cristina is no gimmick. She is that old-fashioned figure, the evangelist. Her method – singing on a TV programme adorned with tattooed rappers and half-naked starlets – may sound unorthodox. But step into a church in one of the lively Caribbean parishes across this country and you’ll find Gospel choirs in flowing technicolour robes swaying in the aisles as they roar the chorus of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.
Like those singers, Sr Cristina draws energy from her faith: “God,” she told her cheering audience, “takes nothing away, but gives us always more.” She preaches this message to the world outside her convent; and with her boisterous singing, trumpets the new-found wellbeing and confidence of her faith. This upbeat mood draws its inspiration from the new popular Pope, Francis – whose congratulatory phone call Sr Cristina is expecting.
Pope Francis’s appeal has been widely recognised; Sr Cristina fuels it with her fresh and feminine presence. Their duet (I wouldn’t put it past them) couldn’t come at a more opportune time: Christians face increased persecution in the Middle East and Africa; and condemnation as homophobes and apologists for paedophile priests in the West. In Britain, the Rev Paul Flowers, a Methodist minister, had to be cast out of his church for allegedly buying illegal drugs. Only a few days ago, the novelist Ian McEwan told a literary festival that religious people were scientific illiterates who were “perverse” in their hostility to progress.
The young Italian nun would not recognise Christianity in this grim description. Nor can anyone watching her sing detect a molecule of negative emotion. Sr Cristina’s faith, like her voice, bubbles over in unbridled optimism. As she clasps that microphone to her bosom, and shuts her eyes in heartfelt concentration, the young nun looks as if she could make the walls come tumbling down. Armed with her holy fervour, Sr Cristina looks invincible.
Sceptics may carp about a one-hit wonder. But this nun will run and run and run.
Pope Francis Shows The Way by Going To Confession Before Vatican Crowd at St. Peter’s Basilica
March 29, 2014
By Billy Hallowell
The Blaze
Pope Francis stunned parishioners, faith leaders and his own master of ceremonies Friday when he broke protocol to do something wholly unexpected: he bowed down in front of the crowd at St. Peter’s Basilica and confessed his sins to an ordinary priest, Reuters reported.
Typically, the pope goes to confession in private, so his decision was a departure from the past.
Francis made the noteworthy move after uttering a sermon in which he covered the importance of confession in the Catholic faith.
When Monsignor Guido Marini, master of ceremonies, pointed Francis toward an empty booth to hear the congregants’ sins, the pope went to a different booth and knelt before a priest to share his own sins for a few minutes.
After that, Francis did hear confessions from the faithful.
Watch it unfold on video below:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/28/pope-francis-breaks-tradition-and-stuns-thousands-with-bold-move/
Popes traditionally hear confessions of the faithful on Good Friday morning, though Francis chose to hold this event three weeks early, the Associated Press reported.
Last year on Holy Thursday, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of prisoners at Casal del Marmo youth prison in Rome. March 28, 2013
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Pope Francis embraces a man during his visit to St. Francis of Assisi hospital for rehabilitation of drug addicts in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. Photo by EPA
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Pope Francis at the St Francis of Assisi hospital, located in the run-down Tijuca district of northern Rio de Janeiro. Note the statue of St. Francis of Assisi. At this hospital, Pope Francis met with and embraced men and women recovering from drug addiction.
The Blaze
Pope Francis stunned parishioners, faith leaders and his own master of ceremonies Friday when he broke protocol to do something wholly unexpected: he bowed down in front of the crowd at St. Peter’s Basilica and confessed his sins to an ordinary priest, Reuters reported.
Typically, the pope goes to confession in private, so his decision was a departure from the past.
Francis made the noteworthy move after uttering a sermon in which he covered the importance of confession in the Catholic faith.
“Who can say he is not a sinner? Nobody. We all are,” the pope told an audience of thousands.
Afterward, he was supposed to join 60 priests around the massive church in hearing the sins of the faithful, but he had a very different plan.When Monsignor Guido Marini, master of ceremonies, pointed Francis toward an empty booth to hear the congregants’ sins, the pope went to a different booth and knelt before a priest to share his own sins for a few minutes.
After that, Francis did hear confessions from the faithful.
Watch it unfold on video below:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/28/pope-francis-breaks-tradition-and-stuns-thousands-with-bold-move/
Popes traditionally hear confessions of the faithful on Good Friday morning, though Francis chose to hold this event three weeks early, the Associated Press reported.
Last year on Holy Thursday, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of prisoners at Casal del Marmo youth prison in Rome. March 28, 2013
.
Pope Francis embraces a man during his visit to St. Francis of Assisi hospital for rehabilitation of drug addicts in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. Photo by EPA
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Pope Francis at the St Francis of Assisi hospital, located in the run-down Tijuca district of northern Rio de Janeiro. Note the statue of St. Francis of Assisi. At this hospital, Pope Francis met with and embraced men and women recovering from drug addiction.
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Vatican: Obama’s Small Bow To Pope Francis Eclipsed By Friendly Laughter, Serious Discussion
March 27, 2014- Obama arrived this morning at the Vatican’s ornate grounds
- After a slow procession he was introduced to Pope Francis
- Obama said that it was wonderful and a great honour to meet the Pontiff
- Their private discussion went over by nearly half hour
- Obama presented the Pope with a chest of fruit and vegetable seeds
- It is hoped the seeds will be planted in gardens of the papal residence
- Pope Francis has a 76 per cent approval rating in the U.S. according to poll
One is a world leader who has been praised for his humility and outlook on the world.
The other is an American president, once the international superstar of the political stage.
So it is no surprise that President Barack Obama has travelled to the Vatican in Rome possibly to get some tips from the popular Pope Francis who now even has own weekly glossy magazine.
As he sat down with the Pontiff in Vatican City this morning, Obama called himself a ‘great admirer’ of the pope.
Their historic first meeting comes as Obama’s administration and the church remain deeply split on issues of abortion and contraception.
Obama and Pope Francis Meet in Rome
March 27, 2014
By Carol E. Lee and Liam Moloney
The Wall Street Journal
VATICAN CITY—President Barack Obama arrived here Thursday for his first meeting with Pope Francis, a highly anticipated visit the White House hopes will gain support for its economic agenda but that is also likely to highlight divisions between the two on issues such as gay marriage and contraception.
Pope Francis greeted Mr. Obama with a handshake as they approached each other just outside the Papal Library, where they met for nearly an hour.
“Wonderful meeting you,” Mr. Obama said, thanking Pope Francis for receiving him.
The two walked into the Papal Library and took seats at opposite sides of the pope’s desk, along with their interpreters. “It is a great honor. I’m a great admirer,” Mr. Obama said, adding that he brought greetings from his family. “The last time I came here to meet your predecessor I was able to bring my wife and children.”
Mr. Obama arrived at the Vatican shortly after 10 a.m. local time. He stepped out of a black presidential sport-utility vehicle adorned with American and Vatican City flags on a chilly morning in San Damaso Courtyard at the papal residence. There he was greeted by Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the head of the papal residence, and shook hands with a line of Vatican officials before inspecting a cordon of Swiss Guards standing at attention in the courtyard.
The president and the pope were expected to discuss their mutual interest in addressing income inequality, as well as immigration. While Mr. Obama and Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had a cool relationship, the White House is hoping for better chemistry between the president and the first pope from the developing world. Mr. Obama has tried to highlight the similarities in his policy agenda and Pope Francis’ strong anti-poverty message, even quoting the pontiff in his speech on economic inequality.
But sharp differences remain between the White House and The Vatican on abortion, gay marriage and contraception. In a statement released before Mr. Obama’s visit, the Vatican made pointed reference to the “complex phase” of the current relationship between Mr. Obama and the Catholic Church.
The statement highlighted concerns about the administration’s health-care law and emphasized the differences between the pontiff and the president. While Pope Francis has called for less emphasis on such issues by the church’s leadership, he has nonetheless strongly reaffirmed church doctrine opposing birth control, abortion and same-sex marriage.
Pope Francis exchanges gifts with U.S. President Barack Obama, wearing a suit, during a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday. Reuters
The White House played down divisions between Mr. Obama’s policies and the Catholic Church ahead of the visit. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser at the White House, said the meeting would be an opportunity for the president and the pope “to get to know each other personally” and discuss areas of mutual interest.
In an interview published Thursday with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Mr. Obama said he expected income inequality to be one of the main topics they discussed and that he hoped to share with the pope his policy efforts on the issue.
The lift a nod from the pope could give Mr. Obama’s agenda wasn’t lost on the president, who has struggled to get his policies through Congress. “And as we’ve seen repeatedly, his words matter,” Mr. Obama said in the interview. “With a single sentence, he can focus global attention on an urgent issue.”
He added: “It doesn’t mean we agree on every issue, but his voice is one that I think the world needs to hear.”
A small group of American Hispanics outside St. Peter’s Square during Mr. Obama’s visit with Pope Francis were asking for reforms to U.S. immigration policy.
“First of all we ask for the U.S. authorities to stop the deportation of those held without proper documentation,” Rev. Marco Mercado told reporters.
Mr. Obama recently said his administration is reviewing its deportation policy, which has come under sharp criticism from the president’s supporters.
Mr. Obama was joined Thursday by Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and other senior administration officials.
The president arrived in Italy Wednesday night. The stop is part of a six-day trip that has taken him to the Netherlands and Belgium, where he held a series of discussions with European leaders on the crisis in Ukraine.
Mr. Obama’s visit to Italy will also be closely watched for comments on issues such as Ukraine, which has dominated his time in Europe this week. The White House issued a statement Thursday welcoming the announcement from the International Monetary Fund that it reached a deal to provide $14 billion to $18 billion aid package to Ukraine.
The issue is likely to arise during Mr. Obama’s meetings with Italian leaders. He is scheduled to meet with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and the country’s new prime minister, Matteo Renzi. In the interview published Thursday, Mr. Obama said one of his highest priorities is finishing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which has met resistance from U.S. lawmakers in his own Democratic Party. The trade pact, Mr. Obama said, would be “a win-win for Europe and America, and I believe we can get it done.
But the president’s stop in Italy—which will also include a tour of the Coliseum—is primarily about meeting the pope.
Mr. Renzi, who will hold a news conference with Mr. Obama around 3:30 p.m. local time, attended Pope Francis’ daily 7 a.m. Mass at a Vatican chapel, along with about 500 parliamentarians and other members of his government.
In his homily, the pope warned against leaders “distancing themselves from the people” and “closing themselves within their own internal power struggles.” Mr. Renzi took power just last month after ousting his predecessor, Enrico Letta, who had been in power for just 10 months.
After Rome, Mr. Obama will fly to Saudi Arabia Friday for a meeting with King Abdullah, before returning to Washington on Saturday.
Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com and Liam Moloney at liam.moloney@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
Mr. Obama and Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had a cool relationship. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the previous pontiff as Benedict XIV.
Mr. Obama and Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had a cool relationship. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the previous pontiff as Benedict XIV.
Report from CNN contains video:
Obama Seeks Common Ground With Pope Francis
March 27, 2014
By and
The New York Times
VATICAN CITY — They are an unlikely pair with seemingly much in common: an Argentine pope and an American president who each burst onto the global scene as a history-making change agent, each promising to promote a new post-partisan ethos, each having made the cover of Rolling Stone.
But when President Obama and Pope Francis meet on Thursday, the question is whether the common arcs of their political biographies also amount to true political common ground.
Having spent the first leg of his European tour consumed by the Ukraine crisis, Mr. Obama arrives at the Vatican hoping to change the subject to income inequality and America’s struggling middle class, a topic in which his aides see similarities to the antipoverty economic themes embraced by the pope in his first year.
Francis’s plain-spoken and humble style has quickly made him one of the world’s most recognizable and popular figures — so popular that the pope recently criticized his own celebrity status. White House aides see significant political upsides in the meeting at a time when the president is hoping his economic initiatives, such as a push to raise the minimum wage, will minimize losses in midterm elections this fall.
Yet the meeting also bears risks for the president: Francis’s economic message, if still not fully defined, has focused on the abject poor, not the middle class. As the first pope from the developing world, Francis has expressed a more biting skepticism about the impact of American-style capitalism than any American president ever could.
And even as Francis has sought to steer the Roman Catholic Church away from the culture wars, he is still expected to raise the strong opposition by American bishops to provisions in the Affordable Care Act that require most employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception. A senior Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted a smooth and successful meeting but noted that Francis “will be well prepared on Obamacare.”
Popes and presidents have been meeting since President Woodrow Wilson came to the Vatican in 1919. President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II made common cause against communism, but often what resonates are the gestures and the personal chemistry between the two men — or the lack of it.
When Mr. Obama met Pope Benedict XVI in July 2009, the meeting was described as very cordial, with broad discussions over foreign policy. Yet the tone-setting gesture was a gift from Benedict to the president: a copy of a Vatican book on bioethics that condemned embryonic stem cell research and abortion rights. The president, who supports both issues, joked that it would provide him with reading material for his outbound flight.
“I don’t expect Francis will be handing out books,” said John Thavis, a longtime Vatican analyst and author of “The Vatican Diaries.”
He said differences on abortion and the Affordable Care Act would most likely arise in the private conversation between the two men, but predicted that the agenda would focus more on issues of shared concern like inequality, human trafficking, food security and conflict-torn regions in the Middle East and Africa.
“Everyone knows they disagree about this issue already,” Mr. Thavis said. “It isn’t a surprise. The meeting will remind people that there are issues that go beyond the health care and contraception issues.”
Changing the tone of the papacy has been central to Francis’s first year, and his distaste for the confrontational emphasis on issues like abortion and homosexuality has given hope to some Democrats that the political emphasis of the hierarchy of the American church might also gradually shift. But Francis has been more critical and outspoken than most establishment Democrats, repeatedly addressing the plight of the global poor, condemning the “idolatry of money” and warning about unchecked capitalism.
“Pope Francis is challenging the capitalist system to deal with the common good,” said Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby founded by nuns.
“While President Obama talked about the need to build up the middle class, I don’t see any politician here changing the economic structures.”
Even so, White House aides welcome the pope’s broader anti-poverty message at a time when Mr. Obama has been talking about income inequality in the United States. They say the president is eager to discuss these issues with the pope.
“He has very much admired the leadership he has provided in his first year as pope, his commitment to address issues like income inequality, and his leadership of the church more broadly,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.
After a brief public appearance at the Vatican, the pope and the president will meet privately on Thursday morning, and analysts expect the agenda will closely follow talks held in January between Secretary of State John Kerry, himself a Roman Catholic, and his Vatican counterpart, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
In that meeting, Archbishop Parolin raised the Affordable Care Act, but the bulk of the time was spent discussing Syria, the Middle East, South Sudan, religious freedom and global poverty.
Last September, as the Obama administration was contemplating military strikes against Syria, Francis condemned any escalation of the violence and held a prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter’s Square.
Mr. Obama ultimately turned away from military action, and while it is difficult to gauge the pope’s influence, if any, the moment signaled that Francis, like other popes, intends to press his agenda on global peace and also on the persecution of Christians in countries that prevent freedom of worship.
“Popes have been dealing with world leaders since the time of Charlemagne,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of America, the national Catholic magazine. “This is part of their role.”
Father Martin also noted that for all the political and social issues likely to be discussed between the pope and the president, he expected that one “overlooked” topic would also be on the agenda: Christianity.
“This is a meeting between two Christians who take their faiths seriously, and who are both public Christian intellectuals,” he said. “I would imagine that some of the meeting would probably focus on the Gospel.”
Prominent U.S. Catholic Cardinal Blasts Obama as a ‘Totally Secularized Man’ Who Is ‘Hostile Toward Christian Civilization’
March 27, 2014
By Billy Hallowell
The Blaze
U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, overseer of the Vatican’s highest court, recently accused President Barack Obama of impeding Christians’ religious liberties, charging that he “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
Burke, who serves as the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, said during an interview with Polonia Christiana Magazine that Obama’s policies have been increasingly unfriendly toward Christians.
“It is true that the policies of the president of the United States have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Burke said. “He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
Burke’s comments came after the interviewer proclaimed that Obama’s policy toward “the Christian civilization” is becoming “more and more aggressive” and asked whether Burke believes that there has been notable Catholic reaction to these intrusions.
“Now [Obama] wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that one is free to act according to his conscience within the confines of his place of worship but that, once the person leaves the place of worship, the government can constrain him to act against his rightly-formed conscience, even in the most serious of moral questions,” the cardinal continued. “Such policies would have been unimaginable in the United States even 40 years ago.”
“It is my hope that more and more of my fellow citizens, as they realize what is happening, will insist on electing leaders who respect the truth of the moral law as it is respected in the founding principles of our nation,” Burke added.
Read the entire interview, which was fully translated from Polish to English by Life Site News here.
Obama and Pope Francis are scheduled to meet Thursday at the Vatican.
(H/T: KMOX-TV)
The Blaze
U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, overseer of the Vatican’s highest court, recently accused President Barack Obama of impeding Christians’ religious liberties, charging that he “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
Burke, who serves as the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, said during an interview with Polonia Christiana Magazine that Obama’s policies have been increasingly unfriendly toward Christians.
“It is true that the policies of the president of the United States have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Burke said. “He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
Burke’s comments came after the interviewer proclaimed that Obama’s policy toward “the Christian civilization” is becoming “more and more aggressive” and asked whether Burke believes that there has been notable Catholic reaction to these intrusions.
“Now [Obama] wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that one is free to act according to his conscience within the confines of his place of worship but that, once the person leaves the place of worship, the government can constrain him to act against his rightly-formed conscience, even in the most serious of moral questions,” the cardinal continued. “Such policies would have been unimaginable in the United States even 40 years ago.”
President Barack Obama has grown “hostile toward Christian civilization, a prominent American cardinal charged. (AP)
While he said U.S. Catholics are reacting to “ever-growing religious persecution,” he believes that a large proportion of the population is unaware of what is happening.“It is my hope that more and more of my fellow citizens, as they realize what is happening, will insist on electing leaders who respect the truth of the moral law as it is respected in the founding principles of our nation,” Burke added.
Read the entire interview, which was fully translated from Polish to English by Life Site News here.
Obama and Pope Francis are scheduled to meet Thursday at the Vatican.
(H/T: KMOX-TV)
Obama to Meet Pope Francis — “When your poll numbers are down it can’t hurt to be seen with someone who has better poll numbers.”
March 27, 2014
By Tangi Quemener, Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere
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US President Barack Obama greets Archbishop Francesco Canalini (C) after arriving on Air Force One at Fiumicino Airport in Rome, on March 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)
Vatican City (AFP) – Barack Obama will meet Pope Francis for the first time Thursday for talks on a shared agenda to fight inequality which the US President hopes will help boost support at home.
The talks between the first Latin-American pope and first African-American US president will focus on tackling the gap between the rich and the poor, but are likely to spill over into thornier issues such as abortion, homosexuals and contraception.
The meeting at the Vatican comes as a welcome rest-stop for Obama during a six-day European tour dominated by the crisis over Crimea, and the US leader will doubtless be hoping some of the pope’s overwhelming popularity will rub off on him.Obama will also meet new Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and the country’s president Giorgio Napolitano during his visit to the eternal city, as well as going on a private guided tour of the Colosseum.
Diplomatic relations between Italy and the United States are close, though Rome still needs some convincing on the value of imposing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, amid fears it would take a toll on a key market.
Italy’s 39-year-old Renzi, who used Obama-style catchy slogans and social media campaigns to shoot up the political ladder, will be keen to strengthen ties with the US leader.
Obama is “mostly going I think to bask in the glow of the new Pope,” said Jeremy Shapiro, visiting fellow at Washington’s Brookings institute.
Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square on March 5. The pope’s popularity raises a theological question: Is it good for the Catholic Church if the pontiff is a superstar? Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images
- ‘Challenge’ of income inequality -
According to the White House, Obama hopes to speak to the pope about their “shared commitment to fighting growing inequality”, though the peace process in the Middle East, the environment and immigration are also expected to be on the table.
Obama, whose approval rating has been slipping, will be keen to repeat his denunciations about income inequality, which he has described as “the defining challenge of our time”.
Earlier this month, he used the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington to argue that his calls for tax hikes on the rich and curbs on abuses by big banks had a strong moral and religious grounding, in an election-year swipe at Republicans.
Pious religious observance should guide political motives and lead to policies that help the sick and the needy, he said — echoing Francis’s rallying cry for more to be done for the poor and disadvantaged.
The pope’s critical comments about capitalism last year saw him forced to rebuff accusations from rightwing Americans that his teaching is Marxist. But his condemnation of “the economy of exclusion and inequality” won the support of progressive Catholics.
Obama said he was “hugely impressed” by Francis’s inclusive approach after the pope called for the Church to stop obsessing debating teachings on abortion, homosexuals and contraception.
However, Vatican experts say the relationship is not as cosy as it once was between pope Jean Paul II and Ronald Reagan, and Francis is unlikely to refrain from tackling Obama on his domestic and foreign policy.
The pontiff spoke out strongly against a proposed military intervention by the US in Syria last year, organising a vigil at the Vatican which drew tens of thousands of people.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly challenged Obama’s signature accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act, arguing that it the health care scheme violates religious freedom by requiring for-profit corporations to provide insurance for contraception.
Controversy surrounding the Affordable Care Act and Obama’s drop in popularity risk resulting in a Republican victory in an upcoming Senate election, which would dramatically weaken the US leader’s negotiating position for his remaining two years in power.
Religious expert John Allen told Vatican Radio Obama will be fishing for Catholic votes to help him keep a hold on the Senate.
Words of support from Francis would certainly boost his case: a survey published by the Saint-Leo University found that Francis was popular with 85 percent of Catholics and 63 percent of Americans.
Related:Barack Obama: From Catholic Roots To Meeting Pope Francis
President Obama: Pope Francis “seems somebody who lives out the teachings of Christ”
Prominent U.S. Catholic Cardinal Blasts Obama as a ‘Totally Secularized Man’ Who Is ‘Hostile Toward Christian Civilization’
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Pope Francis washed and kissed the foot of a prisoner at Casal del Marmo youth prison in Rome March 28, 2013
Pope Francis greets a man as he meets with patients, family and staff at St. Francis of Assisi Hospital in Rio de Janeiro July 24, 2013. The pope addressed a group of recovering drug addicts offering them a message of compassion and hope as well as a call to self-determination. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
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Meet the Most Influential Catholic in America
March 25, 2014
Despite his highly influential religious office, he makes time to sit with the people, comfort the sick, and help the poor. He often forgoes traditional fancy threads and maintains a quiet, humble disposition. He is, above all things, a pastoral man.
If you think I’m talking about Pope Francis, think again.
If you were to see Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley walking around in his characteristic brown smock, with a small ego but a big laugh, you might not even realize that he is the single most important American prelate. As one of the eight cardinals Pope Francis famously selected to advise him in April 2013, and the only one from the United States, O’Malley has the ear of the pope. As Francis stirs a worldwide resurgence of interest in the Catholic Church, it’s worth noting that American Catholics have a pastoral cardinal of their own who’s shifting views of the church.
Many people who know him refer to him as “Francis before there was Francis.” What they mean is, Cardinal O’Malley is the quintessential embodiment of a Francis bishop — a religious leader whose priority is being of the people.
“He’s a powerful person who uses power sparingly,” says John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. Carr worked with O’Malley in the 1980s in the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., and remained in contact with him while serving on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for more than two decades. “He doesn’t throw his authority or his access to the Holy Father around at all.”
On top of that, he’s beloved and respected by his brother bishops. “I think he’s by far the most popular American cardinal,” says Christopher Hale, who works for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. “His support transcends ideology. Both conservatives and liberals seem to really love him.”
While O’Malley’s life is marked by praise, he is not without criticism. He recently had a female Lutheran minister anoint him in a sign of ecumenism, which received backlash as a “farcical ritual” by the far right. He was also criticized when he participated in Senator Ted Kennedy’s funeral, because of Kennedy’s pro-choice stance.
To call O’Malley a “liberal Catholic” would be incorrect. He is staunchly pro-life, often participating in marches to end abortion. In 2006, Boston made headlines when Catholic Charities under his leadership stopped adoptions instead of complying with laws to allow gay couples to adopt children. And just this week, O’Malley encouraged caution among those who predict the Church might change its stance on divorced Catholics seeking communion, a matter that has been widely discussed since Francis became pope.
A year ago, many Vatican observers thought O’Malley would be selected as pope. He is fluent in several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese. He founded the Hispanic Catholic Center in Washington D.C. and has been praised widely for helping Boston heal after clergy sex abuse scandals rocked the city, where he began serving as archbishop in 2003 and continues to this day. He’s served as a bishop in the Virgin Islands and Florida, traveled to Portugal to represent the pope and conducted seminary visitations on behalf of the Vatican across Latin America. He was the first cardinal with a personal blog, written so he could connect with a younger audience. He pushes for immigration reform. Many Church observers say that if it were up to the people of Italy to decide the pope, O’Malley would have been chosen last year.
Much of O’Malley’s legacy up until this point has been tied to the enormous challenge he faced when starting out as archbishop to Boston. Clergy sex abuse is still a problem that plagues the Catholic Church today, and O’Malley may be positioned to help combat the problem on a wider scale with his rising prominence.
“Boston was the epicenter of the sex abuse crisis in 2002,” says Michael Sean Winters, a writer for the National Catholic Reporter who has known O’Malley for more than 18 years. It was the first time in U.S. history that a cardinal had resigned, making the circumstances of O’Malley’s arrival in Boston unprecedented, Winters explains. “He had to meet with the victims, deal with the settlements. He slowly but surely turned the Church around.”
Carr similarly complimented the work O’Malley did in Boston, and brought up a story he heard about when Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington D.C. O’Malley arranged a quiet meeting between Benedict and the victims of sexual abuse. He also gave the then-pope a book containing all of the names of people who had been sexually abused in Boston. “He asked the pope to look at every page in that book to see the scale of the harm that had been done,” says Carr. “I’m told that the pope had tears in his eyes.” Carr points out that, when dealing with the pope, many people want to talk about the great things the Church does, and that it was an act of courage on O’Malley’s part to call attention to the hurt, loss and anger that had occurred with these victims. And now, it seems O’Malley continues his fight. In December 2013, O’Malley announced Francis was assembling a commission to advise him on clergy sex abuse.
“The Pope is setting the agenda,” says Winters. O’Malley advises the pope when asked, and is careful not to lobby him.
Winters adds that O’Malley is “quite conservative” but rather than aggressively fighting culture wars, he is pastoral in how he applies his views. ”He thinks change is best done gradually. He consults widely before he makes his decisions, kind of like Francis,” says Winters. “He thinks change, if it’s going to happen, should happen organically. You don’t use power to force it.”
It sounds like O’Malley and Francis are a match made in, well, heaven.
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars-and-provocateurs/cardinal-sen-omalley/30465.article#.UzA1CtOx1u8.facebook
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If you think I’m talking about Pope Francis, think again.
If you were to see Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley walking around in his characteristic brown smock, with a small ego but a big laugh, you might not even realize that he is the single most important American prelate. As one of the eight cardinals Pope Francis famously selected to advise him in April 2013, and the only one from the United States, O’Malley has the ear of the pope. As Francis stirs a worldwide resurgence of interest in the Catholic Church, it’s worth noting that American Catholics have a pastoral cardinal of their own who’s shifting views of the church.
Many people who know him refer to him as “Francis before there was Francis.” What they mean is, Cardinal O’Malley is the quintessential embodiment of a Francis bishop — a religious leader whose priority is being of the people.
“He’s a powerful person who uses power sparingly,” says John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. Carr worked with O’Malley in the 1980s in the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., and remained in contact with him while serving on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for more than two decades. “He doesn’t throw his authority or his access to the Holy Father around at all.”
On top of that, he’s beloved and respected by his brother bishops. “I think he’s by far the most popular American cardinal,” says Christopher Hale, who works for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. “His support transcends ideology. Both conservatives and liberals seem to really love him.”
Cardinal Seán O’Malley at an Ecumenical Service held at Sudbury United Methodist Church. Source: George Martell/Pilot New Media
He was the first cardinal with a personal blog, written so he could connect with a younger audience.His response? “Our ability to change people’s hearts and help them to grasp the dignity of each and every life, from the first moment of conception to the last moment of natural death, is directly related to our ability to increase love and unity in the church, for our proclamation of the truth is hindered when we are divided and fighting with each other,’’ he wrote as part of a longer statement defending his actions.
To call O’Malley a “liberal Catholic” would be incorrect. He is staunchly pro-life, often participating in marches to end abortion. In 2006, Boston made headlines when Catholic Charities under his leadership stopped adoptions instead of complying with laws to allow gay couples to adopt children. And just this week, O’Malley encouraged caution among those who predict the Church might change its stance on divorced Catholics seeking communion, a matter that has been widely discussed since Francis became pope.
A year ago, many Vatican observers thought O’Malley would be selected as pope. He is fluent in several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese. He founded the Hispanic Catholic Center in Washington D.C. and has been praised widely for helping Boston heal after clergy sex abuse scandals rocked the city, where he began serving as archbishop in 2003 and continues to this day. He’s served as a bishop in the Virgin Islands and Florida, traveled to Portugal to represent the pope and conducted seminary visitations on behalf of the Vatican across Latin America. He was the first cardinal with a personal blog, written so he could connect with a younger audience. He pushes for immigration reform. Many Church observers say that if it were up to the people of Italy to decide the pope, O’Malley would have been chosen last year.
Much of O’Malley’s legacy up until this point has been tied to the enormous challenge he faced when starting out as archbishop to Boston. Clergy sex abuse is still a problem that plagues the Catholic Church today, and O’Malley may be positioned to help combat the problem on a wider scale with his rising prominence.
The Group of Eight pray with Pope Francis during a Mass in front of St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. Source: Alessandra Tarantino/Corbis
It was an act of courage to call attention to the hurt, loss and anger that had occurred with these victims…O’Malley may be humble, but he has a head for the business side of the Church. Winters says every single account at the Archdiocese was in the red when O’Malley arrived, and they are all now in the black. St. John’s seminary went from 34 students to 106, and Catholic school enrollment in Boston has slightly increased in the past two years and for the first time in forty years.
Carr similarly complimented the work O’Malley did in Boston, and brought up a story he heard about when Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington D.C. O’Malley arranged a quiet meeting between Benedict and the victims of sexual abuse. He also gave the then-pope a book containing all of the names of people who had been sexually abused in Boston. “He asked the pope to look at every page in that book to see the scale of the harm that had been done,” says Carr. “I’m told that the pope had tears in his eyes.” Carr points out that, when dealing with the pope, many people want to talk about the great things the Church does, and that it was an act of courage on O’Malley’s part to call attention to the hurt, loss and anger that had occurred with these victims. And now, it seems O’Malley continues his fight. In December 2013, O’Malley announced Francis was assembling a commission to advise him on clergy sex abuse.
“The Pope is setting the agenda,” says Winters. O’Malley advises the pope when asked, and is careful not to lobby him.
Winters adds that O’Malley is “quite conservative” but rather than aggressively fighting culture wars, he is pastoral in how he applies his views. ”He thinks change is best done gradually. He consults widely before he makes his decisions, kind of like Francis,” says Winters. “He thinks change, if it’s going to happen, should happen organically. You don’t use power to force it.”
It sounds like O’Malley and Francis are a match made in, well, heaven.
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars-and-provocateurs/cardinal-sen-omalley/30465.article#.UzA1CtOx1u8.facebook
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April 18, 2013: Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and President Barack Obama at the end of Thursday’s interfaith service honoring the dead and wounded of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. Photo: CJ GUNTHER/EPA. Cardinal O’Malley spoke about the culture of life.
Vatican Chief Justice: Obama’s Policies ‘Have Become Progressively More Hostile Toward Christian Civilization’ — Obama “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
March 24, 2014
Cardinal Leo Raymond Burke walks on St Peter’s square after a cardinals’ meeting on the eve of the start of a conclave on March 11, 2013 at the Vatican. (credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY (CBS St. Louis) — The Vatican’s chief justice feels that President Barack Obama’s policies have been hostile toward Christians.
In an interview with Polonia Christiana magazine –and transcribed by Life Site News — Cardinal Raymond Burke said that Obama “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
“It is true that the policies of the president of the United States have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization. He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies,” Burke told the magazine.
The former archbishop of St. Louis stated that Obama is trying to “restrict” religion.
“Now he wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that one is free to act according to his conscience within the confines of his place of worship but that, once the person leaves the place of worship, the government can constrain him to act against his rightly-formed conscience, even in the most serious of moral questions,” Burke said.
Burke took a swipe against Obama’s Affordable Care Act over the law’s birth control mandate, saying “such policies would have been unimaginable in the United States even 40 years ago.”
“In a democracy, such a lack of awareness is deadly,” Burke told the magazine. “It leads to the loss of the freedom which a democratic government exists to protect. It is my hope that more and more of my fellow citizens, as they realize what is happening, will insist on electing leaders who respect the truth of the moral law as it is respected in the founding principles of our nation.”
Burke also believes there is hope that abortion will be overturned in the U.S.
“There is hope that the evil anti-life laws of the United States can be overthrown and that the anti-life movement which urges yet more of such legislation can be resisted,” Burke said. “The pro-life movement in the United States has been working since 1973 to reverse the unjust decision of the Supreme Court which struck down state laws prohibiting procured abortion. It is true that the Supreme Court decision stands, but it is also true that the pro-life movement has grown ever stronger in the United States, that is, that more and more citizens, especially young citizens, have been awakened to the truth about the grave evil of procured abortion.”
Pope Francis removed Burke from the Congregation for Bishops last December.
Obama will be meeting Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican on Thursday.
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