Monday, March 18, 2024

Former Raphoe Bishop Alan McGuckian to become Down & Connor Bishop this week

The former Bishop of Raphoe, Alan McGuckian, is going to be officially appointed as the Bishop of Down and Connor next month.

Bishop McGuckian was appointed to the Down and Connor Diocese in February by Pope Francis.

He has served the Raphoe Diocese since 2017, with Bishop McGuckian being well-liked by many across his tenure.

A mass of thanksgiving for Bishop McGuckian took place in Letterkenny just a few weeks ago.

Bishop McGuckian will officially take up his new role this coming Tuesday, the 19th of March.

Meanwhile the formal ceremony to install him as the new Bishop of Down and Connor will take place on Sunday the 14th of April.

Pakistani diocese winds up sainthood inquiry on martyred youth

Lahore archdiocese in Pakistan has officially concluded the inquiry into the martyrdom of Akash Bashir, the nation’s first candidate for sainthood, nine years after he was killed while preventing a suicide bomber from entering a packed church.

Hundreds of Catholics thronged to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore on March 15 as Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore along with other officials signed the documents saying they had faithfully fulfilled the required work.

The diocesan inquiry, the first process after a candidate has been accepted for canonization, examines if the candidate lived a life of sanctity, heroically practicing Christian virtues. 

Salesian Father Gabriel Cruz, vice-postulator of the cause of Akash, said the diocesan inquiry process was completed in 38 sessions. They included testimonies of people on the life, martyrdom and reputation of holiness of the candidate.

The cathedral was decorated with banners paying tribute to Bashir who was only 20 when he died.

Archbishop Germano Penemote, the apostolic nuncio, and about 40 priests joined the thanksgiving mass that began with a song dedicated to Bashir.  

Archbishop Shaw sealed the boxes containing reports on the life, martyrdom and reputation of Akash.

When the Vatican approves his heroic Christian life with a decree, Akash will be called Venerable.

A special prayer seeking his canonization as a martyr was distributed.

The archbishop urged Catholics to offer supplications with it and report to the dioceses when their prayers are answered.

“It will help us in the next step,” he said praying for Akash to achieve the rank of saints. It is a historical occasion. We thank his parents for the training. We pray for this grace for all parents to raise peaceful youth strong in their faith.”

The next step, after a candidate is declared a venerable, is beatification, which recognizes the saintly person as Blessed.

At least one miracle acquired through the candidate's intercession is required to declare the candidate as Blessed.

The nuncio garlanded security volunteers who accompanied Akash.

“His humility, simple life and determination are a source of bravery and courage for us all. We know that it is difficult to lead a Christian life in our environment. Akash has set a powerful example for young people. He will remain alive in our lives and church,” he said.

Akash stopped a suicide bomber from entering the St. John's Catholic Church in Youhanabad area of Lahore on March 15, 2015. The attacker — from a Taliban splinter group — detonated the bomb, killing himself and Bashir and at least 15 other people. More than 70 were also wounded in the attack.

A nearby Protestant church was bombed simultaneously.

In 2016, on the first anniversary of the attack, the Lahore Archdiocese began efforts for the canonization of Akash.

He then accepted the nomination of Akash Bashir, marking the formal opening of the diocesan process.

Hong Kong security law no threat to Confession, says diocese

The Catholic diocese in Hong Kong said on March 15 that the city's upcoming national security law will not change the confidential nature of Catholic Confession.

Hong Kong is fast-tracking a homegrown national security law, following the one Beijing imposed in 2020 after quashing huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

The government bill -- expected to be put to a legislature vote within days -- proposes a maximum jail term of 14 years for any person who knows that someone will commit treason but fails to report it to the police.

The diocese's response comes against fears that the law could force Catholic priests to divulge information they heard in Confession to authorities.  

In the three-sentence statement published on its website Diocese of Hong Kong said that it recognizes that citizens "have an obligation to ensure national security".

It has expressed its views on the proposed law, it said but did not elaborate on it.

The proposed security law "will not alter the confidential nature of Confession," said the statement issued in the name of the diocesan communication office.

UK-based activist group Hong Kong Watch earlier said the proposed law "directly threatens religious freedom," and in particular the confidentiality of the confession as it would force priests to reveal what was said in the confessional.

The former British colony is a common law jurisdiction with a legal system distinct from mainland China.

Hong Kong authorities defended the proposed criminal offense -- which used to be called "misprision of treason" -- saying that it had long existed in the city and other common law countries.

Responding to a lawmaker's question last week, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said it would be "very difficult to create exceptions" for people like clergy and social workers regarding the offense.

The government has said the measure "has nothing to do with freedom of religion."

Around 390,000 of Hong Kong's 7.5 million people are Catholic, according to the diocese, and notable Catholics include two former city leaders.

Taiwan accredits first Catholic priest to probe child abuse

Jesuit priest John Lee Hua became the first Catholic priest in Taiwan to obtain certification from the civil authorities in Taiwan to investigate child protection cases.

Lee dedicated himself to the work of protecting children and young adults for years, and recently obtained qualification in the “Scholar and Experts Pool for Investigating Violations of Laws by Individuals Involved in the Protection of Children and Young People,” says a report from the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) on March 12.

Lee, 58, a member of the Chinese Jesuit Province, is the first priest in Taiwan to attain this certification, JCAP said.

Last July, Lee participated in a three-day training session organized by the Ministry of Education.

The training aimed to ensure that investigation procedures for suspected cases of child abuse within educational and protection service organizations are fair and professional.

About 200 professionals from the fields of early childhood education, child protection, and children’s rights participated in this training.

The Ministry of Education invited scholars and experts with professional backgrounds in law and investigation of unsuitable teachers, as well as preschool principals and teachers with practical experience, to give lectures on various topics, such as the amended Early Childhood Education and Care Act, the Statute for Preschool Educators, basic concepts and practices in investigation procedures, handling procedures for violations of laws and regulations, and report writing.

The training provided a balance of theoretical knowledge and practical application.

As an accredited expert, he can now be invited by the civil authorities to conduct investigations into physical and psychological abuse, corporal punishment, bullying, sexual harassment, inappropriate discipline, and other illegal incidents involving young children.

This ensures the fairness of investigation procedures and lightens the burden on local authorities while fostering a more supportive environment for education and protection services, JCAP said.

To assist qualified investigators in upholding professionalism, Lee continued his education by participating in a two-day "Advanced Education Training for Professionals Investigating Correctional Services Violations” organized by the National Education Department in January.

This further deepened his understanding of relevant laws and operational practices in the field.

Lee said he hopes to have the opportunity to serve the church’s education and protection organizations, primarily through regular advocacy efforts, placing greater emphasis on prevention rather than investigation following an incident.

Born in the third generation of a Catholic family in Taiwan, Lee is the former provincial of the Chinese Jesuit Province which covers mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

He is now the director of the Office of the Protection of Minors and Professional Standards of the Chinese Jesuit Province.

In Taiwan, Jesuits have been serving for more than five decades.

A democratic nation, Taiwan never officially declared independence while China considers the island as a breakaway province and threatened to annex it militarily.

Catholic Church in Taiwan has about 300,000 members in one archdiocese and six dioceses.

Sri Lankan ex-prez accuses Church of having role in his ouster

Sri Lanka's former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has alleged in a new book that the Catholic Church played a key role in mass civil protests that blamed him for the nation’s worst economic crisis since independence and unseated him from power in July 2022.

“That the cardinal [Malcolm Ranjith] and sections of the Catholic Church played a major role in my ouster was obvious,” Rajapaksa wrote in his explosive memoir titled “The Conspiracy to Oust Me from the Presidency,” released on March 7.

“The most visible presence at the Galle Face protests was that of the Roman Catholic clergy,” he noted referring to demonstrations at Galle Face Green, a public space near the Presidential Secretariat building.

The sensational claims by the former president and member of the powerful Rajapaksa clan have made the book a bestseller in the Indian Ocean island nation, with the first edition sold out within a few days of its release.

However, the Church has yet to respond to the claims made in the book, although it’s been more than 10 days since its release.

Written in first-person narrative, the memoir claimed that there was an internationally backed conspiracy to oust him from office by various sections of Sri Lankan society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and Tamil diaspora outfits in Western countries.

The conspiracy was in the making, it claims, “since he assumed duties in November 2019 through a majority of Buddhist votes.”

“Talk of ‘Catholic Action’ and the clandestine political machinations of the Catholic Church was a part of the political discourse in this country some decades ago. But this time, Catholic priests and nuns came out openly onto the streets,” Rajapaksa alleged.

He further details how the Catholic clergy would “turn up every morning for the protests on Galle Face.”

“On 9 July 2022 when mobs took over the President's House, Catholic priests and nuns were seen among the intruders,” he alleged.

The former president even wonders “given the excellent relationship that existed earlier, why the cardinal and sections of the Catholic Church turned away from me in this manner is a mystery.”

He claims to have maintained close ties with Ranjith before he took office in 2019 while serving as defense secretary under his brother's government which was unseated in an election in 2015.

“A high point of my relationship with the Catholic Church was the invitation of His Holiness the pope to Sri Lanka towards the end of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government,” he wrote.

Rajapaksa wrote in detail on the lengthy process beginning about two years before the visit when personnel from the Vatican visited the country to conduct security assessments and other preparations.

“I became so close to the cardinal during this period that when the visit of the pope took place soon after we had lost power in 2015, he obtained a special audience for former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and myself to meet His Holiness at the house of the Papal Nuncio in Colombo,” he claimed in the memoir.

This contact, the former president stressed, remained during the years of “good governance government (2015-2019)” and “I and my wife would occasionally be invited to dinner with the cardinal.”

The close rapport between them underwent a dramatic change when the Catholic Church expressed its disappointment with his government’s probe into the Easter Sunday attack that shook the nation months before Rajapaksa was elected to office.

The deadly terror bombings on April 21, 2019, claimed the lives of 279 people including 37 foreign nationals, and injured over 500 others, most of whom had flocked to churches for Easter Sunday Mass.

The Church said it would be forced to seek "international justice" through other means in the absence of justice and truth over the attacks through local mechanisms.

The former president claimed the Church was misled to believe in conspiracy theories based on selective testimonies of witnesses.

Recalling Ranjith’s allegation, made in mid-January 2022, that certain leaders used the attacks for their political advantage, Rajapaksa claimed he did seek assistance from foreign governments and investigating agencies to ensure legitimacy to the probe assigned to a Presidential Commission of Inquiry.

“What was now being alleged in so many words was that eight Muslim fanatics had launched suicide attacks in order to make me president,” he claimed.

“In early 2022 when the cardinal started making the accusation that I had somehow orchestrated the Easter Sunday bombings in order to create the political conditions for me to get elected to power, I instructed Sri Lankan Ambassador Mahinda Samarasinghe in Washington to explore the possibility of obtaining the US government's Federal Investigation Bureau/ Central Intelligence Agency assistance in the investigations,” the former president explained.

He further claimed that the US Department of Justice, after a two-year-long investigation by the FBI, filed charge sheets against three Sri Lankan nationals in January 2021 for conspiring to provide materials to ISIS.

“For anyone to suggest that I had the capacity to organize suicide bombings by Muslim terrorists when I was out of power in order to create the political environment needed to bring me to power, is totally absurd,” Rajapaksa said in his defense.

Diocese of Camden, NJ, establishes $87.5 million trust for abuse victims in bankruptcy resolution

The Diocese of Camden, N.J., and related Catholic entities will fund a trust of $87.5 million for more than 300 survivors of sexual abuse in the diocese, in a plan confirmed March 14 to resolve the diocese's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The trust, which is to be paid over five years, is part of the diocese's plan for reorganization approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerrold N. Poslusny Jr.

"Once again, I express my sincere apologies and prayers to all those who have been affected by sexual abuse in our Diocese," said Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden in a March 14 letter posted by the Catholic Star Herald, the diocesan newspaper.

"I pledge my continuing commitment to ensure that this terrible chapter in the history of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey never happens again," he continued. "This settlement will enable the diocese to meet its obligations to the survivors of clerical abuse while we continue to serve the parishes, schools and those in need who utilize our social services throughout South Jersey."

The plan "embodies" a settlement reached with a committee of survivors that was first announced in April 2022, according to a March 14 statement from the diocese. The settlement "includes maintaining and enhancing the protocols for the protection of children," first implemented by the diocese in 2002, the statement continued.

The diocese began Chapter 11 proceedings Oct. 1, 2020. 

In a letter to the diocese announcing the Chapter 11 reorganization, Sullivan attributed the decision to the negative financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, payments totaling $8 million it paid in 2020 through the New Jersey Independent Victims Compensation Program to clergy abuse victims, and New Jersey's 2019 reform of its statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims, which expanded the time frame in which victims could file lawsuits.

At the time the diocese filed for reorganization, there were more than 50 lawsuits filed against it. During the process, those claims grew to represent more than 300 survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

"While these three years of reorganization proceedings proved challenging, I appreciate the shared commitment to survivors among those who worked to bring this process to conclusion," said Sullivan, who has led the diocese since 2013, in his March 14 letter.

"This decision opens a new chapter in the Diocese of Camden, allowing us to finally offer substantial reparations to survivors harmed by sinful priests dating back more than six decades," he said.

According to the diocese, its insurers have agreed to contribute $30 million to the survivors' trust.

In his March 14 letter, the bishop extended gratitude "to the survivors, our creditors, and all those involved in the reorganization proceedings." 

In a media statement from the diocese, he particularly thanked Poslusny "for his dedication to providing a fair venue for this case and for ensuring the interests of the survivors and the Diocese of Camden were considered justly."

"I again express my sincere apology to all those who have been affected by sexual abuse in our Diocese," Sullivan said in the media statement. "My prayers go out to all survivors of abuse and I pledge my continuing commitment to ensure that this terrible chapter in the history of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey never happens again."

According to research from Penn State Law Professor Marie T. Reilly made available through The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America in Washington, Camden joins 19 other U.S. dioceses that have emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to clergy abuse claims; 13 others are currently in bankruptcy proceedings.

Ireland’s Snakes of Secularization (Opinion)

There is a very understandable desire among the faithful in Ireland — and elsewhere — to interpret this month’s rejection by Irish voters of a pair of “woke” constitutional amendments as a decisive Catholic inflection point.

According to this narrative, the unexpected and overwhelming rejection of these amendments represents a watershed moment in terms of reversing the tide of secularization that has washed over Irish society in recent decades.

Unfortunately, that’s probably untrue.

What happened instead this month is that the large majority of Irish voters, secular and religious alike, correctly judged that the two proposed amendments to the Republic of Ireland’s Constitution were “solutions” to problems that exist only in the minds of the progressive activists who were primarily responsible for pushing forward the amendments.

The first amendment would have deleted an existing element of the Irish Constitution that constructively emphasizes the societal importance of at-home mothers.

Yet the reality on the ground is that the large majority of Irish women — just like their sisters in other developed countries — want their national government to provide more support to allow them to stay home and raise children, not less. 

It was obvious to anyone not blinded by progressive ideology that the amendment would not advance this widely shared aspiration. Instead, it would have entrenched the radical feminist perspective that views promotion of motherhood as oppression, not as an asset.

Similarly, with respect to the second amendment that would have widened the constitutional definition of the family to include other “durable relationships,” as well as marriage, voters understood the agenda in play wasn’t to make Irish society more inclusive towards same-sex couples and other groupings that depart from the traditional definition of the family. Like it or not, that’s already happened in Ireland.

Voters could readily discern that what social radicals were really seeking was the institutionalization of their own hostile attitude toward families headed by a man and woman joined in marriage — ignoring the positive and foundational role these families continue to play in the lives of most Irish people.

But the hostility of voters toward the progressive inanities expressed by both amendments can’t be taken as a sign that secularism is now generally on the wane in Ireland — or that a concomitant rebirth of Catholic faith is broadly underway. 

The outcome of other recent referenda establishes that strong public support now exists in Ireland for so-called abortion rights and for same-sex “marriage,” in both cases in direct contradiction to what the Church teaches about an issue of fundamental moral importance. 

Alongside a multitude of other indices, these electoral outcomes communicate just how far contemporary Ireland has strayed from its profound historical attachment to the tenets of Christian faith.

And, wounded by the fallout from the clergy sexual-abuse crisis as well as by the social and economic factors that have inclined so many local Catholics towards secularism, the condition of Ireland’s institutional Church remains dire.

According to Irish census data, weekly Mass attendance among Catholics plunged from 91% in 1975 to only 36% in 2016. A further precipitous decline has ensued this decade as a consequence of the Irish government’s lockdown of churches during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Almost half of Ireland’s priests are at least 60 years old; the average age of Irish nuns, whose numbers have dwindled by more than two-thirds over the last 50 years, is over 80; and vocations have been decimated, with only 20 seminarians studying for the priesthood last year at the national seminary in Maynooth.

Still, history assures us that this undeniably depressing numerical litany doesn’t mean hope of a spiritual rebirth has been extinguished in the land of St. Patrick, which has served as a beacon of Christian light for so many other lands since his time. 

Ebbs and flows in the depth and breadth of Catholic fidelity have been a fact of life in Ireland across the succeeding centuries, as in every other locale where the faith has taken solid root.

But a durable turnaround won’t result from favorable political outcomes, welcome though they might be. 

What’s required today in Ireland is the same thing that’s needed throughout the secularized societies of the West: sprouts from the seeds of the New Evangelization, generating holy and faithful disciples — both lay and clerical — who are willing to proclaim the Good News of Christ through their actions and words, no matter what the personal cost.

Such disciples are in fact already at work, often unnoticed by secular eyes but never without impact upon the hearts and minds of the people whose lives they lovingly touch.

We should recall that in St. Patrick’s own time, it was his saintly witness that legendarily was responsible for driving the snakes permanently out of Ireland. 

And it’s the saints of the present day who are the instruments that God intends to use to shoo away the contemporary snakes of secularization that beset our world today.

Small diocese and big visions: Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt turns 70

The first German insurance company did not just come from Gotha. 

The Bishop of Görlitz, Wolfgang Ipolt, was also born in the small Thuringian town. 

However, the city that attracted him on his spiritual career path was a different one: Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia on the river Gera. 

This is where Ipolt studied theology, where he was ordained a priest on 30 June 1979, where he worked as a chaplain in the 1980s and then as a sub-rector in the seminary from 1989, the year of reunification. 

After gaining experience as a parish priest in Nordhausen and as a lecturer in preaching at the pastoral seminary in Neuzelle, he returned to the Erfurt seminary as rector in 2004.

Ipolt's personal turning point came during Pope Benedict XVI's term of office: in 2011, the German Pope appointed him Bishop of Görlitz, the easternmost and smallest diocese in Germany

Just under 30,000 Catholics still live here. 

The diocese stretches from Lower Lusatia in Brandenburg to the north-eastern part of Upper Lusatia in Saxony. 

It is also a bridgehead to Poland. Görlitz, for example, shares the city with the Polish town of Zgorzelec.

Ipolt's favourite project: the new foundation of Neuzelle

Anyone who experiences Ipolt in everyday life at his episcopal see, as the internet portal katholisch.de did during a visit in 2020, gains the impression of a man with focussed energy. He wants to impart knowledge of the faith. 

Ipolt's favourite project fits in with this: the re-founding of Neuzelle Abbey by the Cistercians - 200 years after the order was expelled from there by the Prussian state.

Much has been written about this plan to revive a baroque monastery complex to spiritual life in the de-Christianised Oder-Spree region of all places. 

Ipolt went ahead with the plan. 

Together with the Cistercians of the Austrian monastery of Heiligkreuz, whose abbot Maximilian Heim initially rejected Ipolt's proposal. 

However, Ipolt did not give up and was also able to cleverly get political players such as Brandenburg's SPD Minister of Culture Martina Münch and later her successor Manja Schüle interested in the project.

Since 2018, there has once again been a permanent Cistercian monastery in Neuzelle, now with nine monks and one novice. 

With the blessing of the state-run Neuzelle Abbey Foundation, which continues to own the Neuzelle monastery complex, which attracts over 120,000 tourists a year as the northernmost example of southern German and Bohemian Baroque in Europe.

However, the man from Gotha is considered conservative when it comes to church policy issues. 

In the reform dialogue of the Catholic Church in Germany, the Synodal Way, he voted - unlike the vast majority of bishops - against a vote for more participation of women in ministries and offices of the Catholic Church and against a text that would allow lay people to preach at masses. 

He abstained from the votes on a doctrinal re-evaluation of homosexuality and considerations on relaxing celibacy.

Persistent in his goals

Ipolt is a man who acts in precisely composed contexts. 

On the walls of his detached house in Görlitz you can see a copy of his episcopal certificate of appointment, a joint photo with Pope Benedict XVI, a small statue of Hedwig von Andechs, the patron saint of the Görlitz diocese, and an icon of the Virgin Mary. 

His episcopal coat of arms is adorned with the wheel of Mainz, which is part of the Erfurt city coat of arms, while a pierced book is reminiscent of St Boniface, as Ipolt was once baptised in the parish of St Boniface in Gotha. 

Silesian lilies symbolise the close connection between the diocese of Görlitz and the archbishopric of Breslau/Wroclaw, to which it belonged until 1972.

Ipolt's motto as bishop is "Odorem notitiae Christi manifestare" (Spread the odour of the knowledge of Christ) - an indication that he persistently pursues his spiritual goals.

In the "Thüringische Landeszeitung" newspaper, Ipolt once explained what he considers to be the greatest threat to social coexistence: "Without God, our society becomes merciless. Without God, it loses certain standards." 

That sounded a bit like the legendary "Gothaer Fire Insurance Bank". 

For Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt, nothing works without a heavenly letter of protection.

Pastor on leave after positive cocaine test

After testing positive for cocaine, a Catholic priest in Italy has been suspended from the priesthood for the time being. 

This was announced by the diocese of Sulmona-Valva on its website. 

The temporary suspension is intended to investigate the allegations against the priest. 

The priest's reputation and the well-being of the small parish of Rivisondoli in Abruzzo, where the priest worked, should also be protected. 

The suspension has been in force since Saturday.

The priest, who comes from Colombia, was involved in a car accident a few days ago.  

As the Roman daily newspaper "Il Messaggero" reported, he steered his vehicle into the crash barriers of a motorway on his way home from a dinner. 

When his injuries were treated at Sulmona hospital, the laboratory there found significant amounts of cocaine in the priest's blood.

"Il Messaggero" reported online on Sunday that the priest had had to leave his parish because the diocese had issued a six-month ban. 

The priest's lawyer told the newspaper that his client had taken the drug by mistake or through ignorance. 

He had temporarily withdrawn to a monastery.

Church in France against planned euthanasia law

The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) is stiffening its opposition to the planned law on the end of life. 

"Until now, fraternity has meant holding back someone who wanted to commit suicide and accompanying them to the end. 

Would it now mean watching the suicide or helping to commit it?" criticised the CEF Chairman and Archbishop of Reims, Eric de Moulins Beaufort, in the Sunday newspaper "Le Journal du Dimanche". 

President Emmanuel Macron has described the law, which is intended to enable euthanasia and will be debated in parliament on 17 May, as a "law of fraternity". 

Moulins Beaufort said he was expecting a tough battle.

The Archbishop expressed concern about manoeuvres by certain economic forces behind the legislative initiative and called the planned regulation a deception. "Quite directly, it will change our healthcare system." 

Regarding the planned criteria for access to euthanasia, he said that these only showed some people the obstacles that had to be overcome in order to have a suicide carried out. The example of countries that have taken the step towards euthanasia or assisted suicide shows the inevitability of this change, said the Archbishop of Reims.

According to Macron, terminally ill adults in the final stages of their illness should in future be able to ask for help to die. 

The patient would have to be fully capable of judgement, i.e. neither a minor nor mentally ill. 

Active euthanasia should then be carried out using a lethal preparation that the person wishing to die ingests independently or with the help of another person. 

 Until now, the law in France has only allowed terminally ill patients to be permanently sedated at the end of their lives and to have their devices switched off. 

Cases of seriously ill people who want to die or whose relatives want them to die repeatedly cause heated public debate.

The Conclave of the Future

While repeated influenza conditions hitting the Sovereign Pontiff are giving the media the opportunity to raise the prospect of a future conclave, other voices are being heard seeking to change the course of the election of Peter's successor, by taking into account the new challenges arising from the digital revolution and artificial intelligence.

“Slow down the conclave.” 

The article – Rendere il conclavo piu lento – appeared on February 20, 2024 in Il Mulino, signed by Alberto Melloni, renowned professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Bologna. He is known for assuming a vision of Vatican II in rupture with the pre-conciliar era. 

The author is also a member of the International Academy of Religious Sciences and the International Council of the Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique: suffice to say that the ecclesiastical world listens when he speaks.

In his contribution, Alberto Melloni is surprised by the “extraordinarily short duration” of the last two conclaves and is concerned that a future successor to Peter could be elected too quickly, under pressure from the media, without the necessary perspective.

To overcome what he considers to be a major drawback in the more or less near future where the weight of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are likely to weigh ever more heavily, the historian suggests situating the election of the Roman Pontiff in a longer period conducive to reflection. 

How? 

One proposal is reducing the number of daily ballots from four – as currently provided for by Church law – to just one.

Mr. Melloni notes that the last two conclaves only lasted around 24 hours each. If this short duration were to repeat itself, the weight of the media could prove decisive in bringing out a particular candidate or, on the contrary, triggering a press campaign against another so as to influence the vote of the porporati who, when they return to their apartments at St. Martha’s House, would not fail to be affected by the flow of the day’s information concerning them.

The representative of the School of Bologna recalls an event that occurred during the 2013 conclave: just before the first round of voting, they learned that one of the most prominent relatives of a papabile – Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop of Milan, who embodied a “Ratzinguerian” line – was being prosecuted for a case of corruption.

It didn’t take anything less – according to Alberto Melloni – to bring down Cardinal Scola’s candidacy, knowing that at the same time, the candidacy of a certain Jorge Bergoglio was supported by powerful porporati, such as the cardinals Kasper, Danneels, and O'Connor.

As FSSPX.News has already noted, the influence of the media will be all the more important as the members of an increasingly internationalized Sacred College know each other less. 

What then can be said about the impact of a media campaign for or against a particular porporato, whether they come from inside the Church or from outside, not to mention the famous “fake news” boosted by AI? 

The historian concludes that Francis will probably launch a reform of the proceedings of the conclave before the end of his pontificate, without knowing in which direction it will go. “How will he conceive it? 

It is difficult to say, but the canonists to whom he has already entrusted the previous reforms do not appear to have the ecclesiological talent of Eugenio Corecco nor the legal virtuosity of Mario Francesco Pompedda.”

“Let us hope that no state and no leading player in the information market succeeds in altering the election of the Pope resulting in an impasse fatal to the unity of the Church, as in 1378.”

Skiing priests illustrate the ‘rest of the story’ about the Catholic Church

 Skiing priests illustrate the 'rest of the story' about the Catholic Church  | Crux

To invoke a medical analogy, journalism rarely delivers a whole-body scan when it covers a subject. 

A news report is more akin to a targeted x-ray, focused on whatever part of the body is creating the biggest problem at the moment – great for identifying a specific ailment, not so much for capturing a patient’s overall state of health.

More or less randomly, that thought comes to mind in light of a March 11-12 skiing competition for priests from the Alpine regions of Italy, France and Switzerland, which took place this year in the Italian resort city of Courmayeur, nestled at the foot of the towering Monte Bianco. 

By all accounts, the roughly 35 clerics who took part thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as did townspeople and visitors enchanted by the spectacle.

To judge from most journalism on the Catholic Church, you wouldn’t know such moments were even possible.

Recent Catholic headlines have focused on sources of heartburn such as a Vatican document approving the blessing of same-sex unions, comments from Pope Francis calling on Ukraine to wave a white flag in its war with Russia, and excerpts from a new papal autobiography in which, among other things, he takes aim at his critics. 

The cumulative impression can be that Catholicism is basically a battlefield, with opposing camps fighting each other continually.

Yet the ski contest, which is just one tiny example among countless others, captures an important corollary: Sure, the Church has its problems and tensions, but despite them, most Catholics, much of time, actually are having a blast. 

Walk into most parishes, rectories, seminaries, or other Catholic venues, and you won’t find a debating society or a MMA octagon cage – you’ll find family, with all the pathos but also all the joy it implies.

Think of it as the Hillaire Belloc rule: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so, Benedicamus Domino!”

All of which brings us to the March 11-12 “Alfred Delavay Challenge,” which featured a cross-country race, a downhill slalom contest, and a combined event, involving deacons, priests, and even a bishop from Switzerland, France and Italy, all of which share an Alpine border. The competition dates from 1962, making this the 62nd edition.

The event began with a Mass celebrated by Italian Bishop Giovanni Ambrosio, who retired from the Diocese of Piacenza in 2020, but who, at 80 years old, still strapped on his skis and took part in the race – though he admitted his goal wasn’t so much to win as to make sure that his old-fashioned wineskin, which he was carrying to sip on between events, came through unscathed.

Ambrosio concluded the opening Mass with the usual blessing, telling competitors, “The Lord be with you!” One wag shouted back, “Was that ‘be’ with us or ‘ski’ with us?”, to general titillation. (The quip works ever better in Italian, where the difference between Il Signore sia con voi and scia con voi is just one consonant.)

For the record, the overall winner was Father Jean-Yves Urvoy, a parish priest in Arles in Frances, who sashayed down the slopes in style, with the number 26 displayed on a white square over his black clerical soutane.

Technically, Urvoy actually came in third in combined times, with the best overall result belonging to Father Paolo Viganò, a pastor on the Italian side of the Alps. 

However, Viganò is just 34 while Urvoy is 55, and the competition comes with a handicap for age, so Viganò ended up in third place. The youngest competitor, by the way, was 29-year-old Father Valentin Roduit of Sion in Switzerland, meaning the age range spanned more than a half-century.

France was declared the national winner, while Como in Italy took home the diocesan prize.

In most ways that count, however, those results weren’t the heart of the matter.

Instead, it was the spirit of fun, illustrated by Father Gregorio Mrowczynski, a Polish priest who’s now a pastor at Courmayeur and who took part in the contest. While grousing about his own performance – “I need to eat less and build some muscle,” he said afterwards – he conceded he’s not really concerned with winning or losing.

“The silence of the peaks is relaxing,” he said. “Plus, I must say that while doing sport, you meet a lot of different people. If I waited for them to come to church, I’d only see them at funerals!”

Then there was recently ordained Father Maurice Sessou from the African nation of Benin, now serving in the Swiss mountain hamlet of Saint-Maurice.

“I only saw snow for the first time when I got here in 2017,” Sessou recalled, adding with a laugh, “I scooped it up and wanted to know what kind of flour it was!”

Sessou took part in the skiing contest last week, though he said his main achievement was not falling down. Nonetheless, he said, “I adore the mountains, because you discover how small you are … plus, I love the ordinary people who come out at night to prepare the trails.”

Undoubtedly, though, the prize for the most contented cleric on the course probably had to go to 84-year-old Father Claude Duverney of Gran San Bernardo in Italy, who’s been coming to the contest annually since 1980, except for a 14-year gap when he served as a missionary in Senegal.

Born in Switzerland but an Italian for most of his life, Duverney originally earned a degree in viniculture and helped low-income winegrowers in the Val d’Aosta region of Italy compete with bigger and more established vineyards. 

Later, he was enlisted to use his agricultural expertise in a microcredit program in Senegal, helping locals plant vegetable gardens in a region of the country where less than one percent of the population is Christian.

Duverney briefly made national headlines four years ago, when he decided to undertake a roughly 500-mile pilgrimage on foot from his home in the Alps to Rome for his 80th birthday, with the hope of being greeted by Pope Francis. 

For 42 days he walked the highways and byways of Italy, carrying only a small sack with water, a Bible and a change of clothes, and afterwards described the experience as a great time – among other things, he said, he made friends with some kids in the Lombardy region along the way with whom he’s still in touch.

For the record, he got his birthday greeting from the pope, who hailed him as a fellow octogenarian.

As for the ski contest, Duverney showed up driving himself in his small Fiat Panda, still carrying his own skis on his shoulders like a teenager. Although he didn’t place among the top finishers, he proudly told anyone who would listen that he’d out-performed at least three fellow priests who were less than half his age.

Does the “Alfred Delavay Challenge” represent news? Maybe not, at least in the classic sense.

However, if you want to understand the Catholic Church – and I mean the whole experience of the Church, not simply the elements that drive social media, cable TV talk segments, and snarky commentary – then you can’t overlook what happened last week at Monte Bianco, and the innumerable other moments of good cheer that percolate at all levels.

Yes, Catholic life is marked by endless tension, resentment and scandal, and no responsible coverage can pretend it’s not so. 

Yet it’s equally irresponsible, and misleading, to style all that as the whole story – because, let’s remember, laissez les bons temps rouler is also an eminently Catholic sentiment.

Vatican opens probe on ‘trial of the century’ amid widening Italian privacy scandal

In the latest twist to a mounting privacy scandal in Italy, a Vatican prosecutor has announced opening an investigation to determine whether confidential information was used illicitly to influence the recent “trial of the century” on financial crime, which ended with the first-ever conviction of a cardinal by a Vatican civil court.

“As soon as I discovered, from articles in the press, the existence of electronic stalking regarding the Holy See, I opened a file, because I believe that someone followed our investigations from the outside,” said Alessandro Diddi, a veteran Italian lawyer who serves as the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice.

Diddi was the chief prosecutor in the recent trial of ten defendants, including Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, for various forms of financial crime, mostly linked to a controversial $400 million real estate transaction in London. Last December, Becciu and the other defendants were found guilty by a three-judge panel and sentenced to various prison terms and fines.

Diddi’s comments were made to the Italian newspaper Il Tempo March 17.

The background to the new Vatican probe is a widening Italian scandal popularly known as dossieraggio, meaning the use of confidential and illicitly obtained information to compiles damaging dossiers against high-profile individuals.

The origins of the scandal date to March 2022, when an Italian newspaper published a series of articles on the business dealings of Guido Crosetto, who had been named the country’s defense minister under the new conservative government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Crosetto filed a complaint for breach of confidentiality, and a resulting investigation discovered that a lieutenant in Italy’s Guardia di Finanza, or financial police, named Pasquale Striano, had accessed highly sensitive databases regarding money laundering and organized crime in order to extract the information on Crosetto and pass it to journalists.

From there, it became clear that Crosetto was far from Striano’s only target. Other searches, all allegedly performed without authorization, concerned the soccer player Ronald, the Italian rapper Fedez, and a girlfriend of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Investigators say they’ve identified at least 800 suspicious searched undertaken by Striano related to 165 different individuals, although in recent comments to the Italian press Striano claimed the actual number of database searches he performed could reach as high as 40,000.

Among other things, investigators are seeking to understand if Striano and anti-mafia prosecutor Antonio Laudati, who’s also been named in the investigation, conducted these searches on behalf of other parties who were seeking to influence the outcome of political or legal procedures through the use of well-timed leaks.

According to the report in Il Tempo, investigators have established that Striano also performed a series of illicit database searches related to key figures in the Vatican trial.

In July and October 2019, for example, Striano reportedly conducted three separate searches regarding Raffaele Mincione, one of two Italian financiers charged with defrauding the Vatican over the London transaction.

Striano also reportedly sought information on Luciano Capaldo, an architect and consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, and a key witness in the trial; Gianluigi Torzi, the other businessman involved in the London deal; Fabrizio Tirabassi, a former official of the Secretariat of State and another defendant in the case; and also Cecilia Marogna, a self-described security consultant tapped by Becciu to help negotiate the released of a kidnapped missionary nun, who was convicted of diverting ransom funds to purchase luxury goods for herself.

It’s not immediately clear if any of the information allegedly extracted by Striano, or other parties, affected the outcome of the Vatican trial, but Diddi said it’s essential to look into the possibility.

“Opening a file is a necessary act, though at the moment it’s against unknown parties,” Diddi said. “We must also understand what kind of crime might have been committed, but it’s something that absolutely deserves to be looked into.”

Vatican cardinal hints at possible rethink on two-state solution in Middle East

A top cardinal and leading papal diplomat has said that amid the ongoing war in Gaza, peace in the Holy Land requires a change of mentality in which both sides recognize and respect each other’s right to exist, regardless of whether there is one state or two.

“I don’t know if two states are better than one, integrated,” said Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, a veteran diplomat and currently Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Asked whether the two-state solution was still a viable option, Filoni said, “I can’t say,” and added that predicting the potential outcome of such a solution is difficult, because “they are two realities that live in the same territory.”

The Vatican has long insisted on a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a position reaffirmed recently by Pope Francis in an interview with an Italian media outlet. Filoni’s comments represent one of the first hints that at least some in the Vatican may be rethinking that stance.

Filoni said the most important thing, in his view, is to have “the rights of each one” respected, meaning both Israel and Palestine, “without having citizens of first-class, second-class, third-class.”

Speaking to journalists at a media roundtable last week, Filoni said that as a basic principle, “You cannot have peace without justice.”

“A peace that is not just creates new wars, new hatred, new violence,” he said, noting that the Second World War broke out because citizens in Germany believed they were victims of injustice.

“I’m not judging whether it’s true or not, but it was like this. Then in other parts of the world, it’s the same thing. When a people, a group, a reality, feels that they are the victim of injustice, if they are not listened to, it foments and hatred is born and grows and, at a certain point, becomes violent,” he said.

Former nuncio to Iraq and Jordan from 2001-2006, Filoni served as sostituto of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, a position akin to the pope’s chief of staff, from 2007-2011, when he was named prefect of the former Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a position he held until his appointment Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 2019.

When it comes to the Holy Land, Filoni said that in his view, the current divisions stem from a lack of tolerance and respect for basic rights on either side.

“You cannot negate Palestinians the right to exist, and you cannot deny Israelis the right to exist, both of them, in peace. You cannot say, we want the destruction of Israel, this always generates new violence. Just as you cannot say, we want to destroy the Palestinians, you can’t say this,” he said.

Referring to the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, Filoni said the Palestinians believe their land has been illegally occupied, and that “this is not normal, this is an act of violence.”

Peace, he said, is “not about balancing between one side and the other, it’s to say that these elements, these violences, create situations of conflict that become war.”

“We remain in the principle that peace is possible if done in justice and in recognition of everyone’s rights,” he said.

In terms of how to get out of the longstanding regional dispute between Israel and Palestine, Filoni said regardless of whatever proposal is deemed best, “you must sit at the table and discuss it, but the right to existence must be guaranteed by all.”

“Little by little empty, these hatreds, these tensions, must be emptied, otherwise they’ll become almost natural and little by little they grow and then they erupt,” he said, voicing his belief that peace is still possible, but “we must want it, we must work for this.”

However, most of all, he said, “We should not carry injustices forward, otherwise peace will not be achieved.”

Filoni also spoke of the work performed by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, composed of some 30,000 knights and dames from around the world. It attracts roughly 1,000 new members annually and is dedicated to providing financial support to the church in the Holy Land.

Filoni said most of the support provided by the order is sent directly to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and distributed to projects and populations most in need.

One major source of funding, aside from the contributions of individual members, is the order’s famed Palazzo della Rovere along the Via della Conciliazione, the main street leading up to the embrace of Bernini’s colonnades in St. Peter’s Square, which is about to be converted into a luxury Four Seasons hotel.

Filoni said that around 10 percent of the money the order draws in from these and other sources is used to cover administrative costs of running the order, and that around 90 percent, “if not more,” is sent directly to the Latin Patriarchate.

In terms of what role the order may have in promoting peace amid the ongoing conflict, which erupted after Israel retaliated for an Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas that left some 1,200 Israelis dead and over 200 others taken as hostages, Filoni said it comes down to daily actions.

“We are not architects of peace in the Holy Land, we are small workers, we stay in our place, and we try to do well what we can, or no one else will,” he said, saying members are tasked with promoting justice and love through their work.

One of the main ways to promote peace is through education, he said, noting that the Order funds schools in the Holy Land where some 20,000 students, around half of whom are Muslim, are educated.

“We can teach peace from the base to young people,” he said, saying, “if we create a calm, respectful environment where we teach peace, mutual respect, and human rights (then) we are promoting peace” to both students and their parents.

Filoni said surrounding countries such as Jordan also have a role to play in the current conflict in Gaza, and that longstanding regional alliances can help alleviate the situation for those bearing the brunt of the violence.

To this end, he noted that Jordan runs a hospital in Gaza that is still operational amid the current war, and that the pastor of Gaza has taken people there for treatment.

He noted that in some areas of the Holy Land, a crossroads of different peoples live in peace, whereas in other places there is conflict. He noted there are still many places where Christians are a minority and face hostility, being required to pay a tax to live in Muslim territory or enduring legal and social discrimination, among other things.

“Culturally, this exists. So, if we eradicate the concept of who is first-class, second-class, who has the divine right, then” peace would be easier, Filoni said.

The first and most important thing to work for, he said, is coexistence, “always in the right of all to live with justice and the recognition of everyone’s rights, because if this is lacking, two states or three states, problems would exist.”

Pope Francis: God’s glory does not correspond to human success

Pope Francis Angelus in Sweden in Solemnity of all Saints

Pope Francis said Sunday that God’s glory and our true happiness are not found in success, fame, or popularity but in loving and forgiving others.

In his Angelus address on March 17, the pope asked: How it is possible that God’s glory is manifest in the humiliation of the cross?

“One would think it happened in the Resurrection, not on the cross, which is a defeat, a failure,” he said. “Instead, today, talking about his passion, Jesus says: ‘The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified’ (Jn 12:23). What does he mean?” 

The pope explained that “for God, glory is to love to the point of giving one’s life.”

“Glorification, for him, means giving himself, making himself accessible, offering his love,” he said.

“And this reached its culmination on the cross, where Jesus outspread God’s love to the maximum, fully revealing the face of mercy, giving us life and forgiving his executioners.”

Pope Francis underlined that giving and forgiveness “are very different criteria to what we see around us, and also within us, when we think of glory.”

Yet while worldly glory fades, this Christian way of life brings lasting happiness, he explained.

“And so, we can ask ourselves: What is the glory I desire for myself, for my life, that I dream of for my future?” Francis asked.

“That of impressing others with my prowess, my abilities, or the things I possess? Or the path of giving and forgiveness, that of the crucified Jesus, the way of those who never tire of loving, confident that this bears witness to God in the world and makes the beauty of life shine? What glory do I want for myself?”

“Indeed, let us remember that when we give and forgive, God’s glory shines in us,” Pope Francis said.

After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin from the window of the Apostolic Palace with the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square, the pope asked people to pray for war-torn populations in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Syria.

Pope Francis expressed his relief at the release of some of the religious brothers kidnapped three weeks ago in Haiti as he made an appeal for the “beloved country tried by so much violence.”

Four of the six religious from the Brothers of the Sacred Heart Institute who were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 23 have been freed, along with a teacher. The pope called for the release of the two remaining kidnapped religious and all other people who have suffered at the hands of kidnappers in Haiti.

The pope called on all political leaders and social actors in Haiti to “abandon all special interests and to engage in a spirit of solidarity in the pursuit of the common good” while supporting “a peaceful transition to a country … that is equipped with solid institutions capable of restoring order and tranquility among its citizens.”

Before waving goodbye to the crowd, the pope gave a shoutout to the athletes who ran in the Rome marathon on Sunday morning, especially the volunteers and runners from the Vatican’s own sports club, Athletica Vaticana.