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Pope Francis recently said in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, and on several occasions over the last year, that Western nations are exporting an idea that gender is a choice. Pope Francis asserts that this “gender ideology” is the enemy of the family. Here the pope disappoints many in America and Europe, who hoped that he might free Catholics from the heritage of homophobia and repression of women that has been protected and promoted for millennia by the Roman Catholic Church.
ममतामयी Mother Teresa मदर टेरेसा का संत बनना वाकई में बहुत खुशी और गर्व की बात है. संत बनी मदर टेरेसा इसलिए आज उनका पहनावा पहन कर बहुत अच्छा महसूस हो रहा है.. ममता और मानवता की मूर्ति का नाम है मदर टेरेसा.. शांति की शुरुआत मुस्कराहट से होती है संत बनी मदर टेरेसा ने बहुत […]
Pope Francis is boldly liberalizing Catholic teaching on sexual matters. Or so it is commonly believed. In earlier ages of the Christian Church, both East and West, its canons and its teachings always understood human sexuality as having a very powerful effect upon the human soul.
Pope Francis recently announced a “Year of Mercy.” He called on all Catholics to once again realize that God is love and that this includes infinite mercy. Yet, the message of mercy, also with its practical consequences, has been constant on the agenda of the Catholic Church, even in the eighteenth century—a time which is allegedly known for its rigid, sectarian close-mindedness. Here are four ways that the Catholic Church has emphasized "mercy" over time.
Loyola Press has unveiled the book trailer for the Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World. The video embedded above features an animated cartoon.
This picture book will feature a total of thirty letters, the Pope’s responses, and drawings. The publisher has scheduled the release date for Mar. 1.
Here’s more from The Wall Street Journal: “On February 22, eight of the children whose letters appear in the book, plus a couple of siblings, will travel to the Vatican for a private meeting with the Pope. They will present the finished book and all 259 letters to the pontiff.” (via Philly Voice)
The book from the 266th pope will feature a collection of letters and drawings from children ages six to 13, which were sent to the Pope from around the globe. His personal responses will run alongside these thirty handwritten letters and drawings.
Loyola Press in Chicago will publish Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World on March 1, 2016. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and Tom McGrath of Loyola Press will edit the work. It will be available as a hardcover in English and Spanish in the United States.
On his recent trip to the United States, Pope Francis made an appeal for caring before a joint meeting of Congress: “A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk, is always based on care for the people.” At various points on his trip the Pope expressed concern for poverty, immigration, incarceration, and capital punishment. He was clearly suggesting that the United States could do so much more to care for its citizens and the world’s citizens.
"I’ll leave for you a question so that each one may respond to it. In my house do people yell? Or do you speak with love and affection? This is a good way to measure our love."
— Pope Francis
Goodbye, beloved man of humility and wisdom. You have taught the power of silence over boast, prayer over demand.
Thank you, Philadelphia and all who gathered here.
0 Comments on how to measure our love, from the Pope as of 1/1/1900
One single man unites three cities, also the world. He wears white. He raises his hand. He stops his Fiat to kiss a young boy on a head, to touch a baby, to nod at an Argentine flag, to laugh at something, to mime a quick sprint. He speaks, at a mass, of St. Katherine. He honors educators and peacemakers. He talks about the power of being individually different together and about the devastations of attempting global sameness.
Celebrate your history.
Celebrate your culture.
Celebrate our many languages.
He celebrates the immigrant, reminds those who must be reminded that we, here in America, we, here, in Philadelphia, are all products of movement; my own Italian great-grandfather became a naturalized citizen not even 100 years ago. He asks us to look past walls and barriers. To be honest with each other. To seek out peace, to stop perpetuating damage, to hold together family and family life.
Money, fame, celebrity, awards, job titles: These things do not impress him. He prefers his own shoes, his own small apartment, his single suitcase of possessions.
We are watching him, learning from him, studying the skies (the morning hue here is the brightest pink). We are celebrating with those, like Sister Kimberly Miller, who have stood in his presence. We are praying for him today, another long day, and we will be praying for him, as his plane departs tonight, and then after, when he has more meetings to attend to, another continent to greet and to inspire.
Make the peace, he says. Or to keep it.
Be honest.
0 Comments on one single man. one world. the Pope in Philadelphia. as of 1/1/1900
Not long ago, in Krakow, I discovered the living legacy of Pope John Paul II. I reflect on that, and on the anticipated arrival of Pope Francis to Philadelphia, in today's Philadelphia Inquirer. The story can be found here.
With thanks, as always, to Kevin Ferris and the thoughtful design team at the Inquirer. And with thanks to dear Karolina, whose impassioned stories about her childhood home, Krakow, led me across the waters to that beautiful city. And with thanks to Philadelphia, this city that I love.
0 Comments on On Finding Grace and Papal Visits, in Today's Inquirer as of 7/12/2015 6:40:00 AM
Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Laudato Si, will be surrounded for some time by intense debate among and between journalists, columnists, Catholic journals, political leaders, and environmentally-focused scientists and NGOs. In other words, the fight over how it’s received is well underway. In the 125 years or so that papal social encyclicals have been written, their reception has been hotly debated, with the most infamous such episode occurring in the pages of the National Review.
The Pope is coming to our city. LOVE is his vision, his banner, his mission. His grace and his grace notes. Love: A Philadelphia Affair is due out in September, in time for this historic visit.
0 Comments on LOVE and the Papal Visit to Philadelphia (World Meeting of Families) as of 6/12/2015 8:29:00 AM
From 5-19 October 2014, Pope Francis held the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family in Rome. The purpose of the synod was to discuss the Church’s stance on such issues as divorce, birth control, and especially, the legalization of gay marriage. On 13 October, the Synod released a relatio (a mid-term report) on its preliminary findings. Paragraph 50 of the relatio stated:
Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community. Are we capable of providing for these people, guaranteeing them a place of fellowship in our communities? Oftentimes, they want to encounter a Church which offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of this, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?
Even though the paragraph was phrased more as a question than a statement, it was immediately pronounced an “earthquake” in the history of Catholicism. Apparent sympathy toward homosexuals delighted liberal Catholics while horrifying conservatives and traditionalists. When the synod concluded, this language was removed from the final version of the document, having failed to acquire a necessary two-thirds vote from participants.
Although the Mother Church has always held synods and councils to reassess doctrines and practices, it presents itself as timeless and immutable. In the nineteenth century American bishop John Ireland mused, “The church never changes and yet she changes.” When change does occur (or is even suggested), conservatives often respond with horror. The paradox of an unchangeable, changing Church creates what sociologist Peter Berger calls a grenzsituation (drawing on the work of psychologist Karl Jaspers), in which a taken for granted reality suddenly appears alien and factitious. To articulate their feeling of betrayal, critics of Church Reform frequently invoke the language of evil and the demonic.
Following the “earthquake” of 13 October, those opposed to the relatio used a variety of strategies to express their dissent including legalistic arguments, suggestions that devil was confusing the synod, hints of conspiracy, and even snippets of prophecy delivered by Marian seers at Fatima and other apparition sites. This response demonstrated the same constellation of forces that occurred in the aftermath of Vatican II when traditionalist Catholics turned to a homemaker from Queens who claimed to see visions of the Virgin Mary. Veronica Lueken, “The Seer of Bayside,” was declared “the seer of age” primarily because her prophecies offered a framework by which traditionalists could make sense of the radical changes of Vatican II. Lueken’s most controversial revelation was that Paul VI––the pope who approved the Council’s reforms––had been replaced by a Soviet doppelganger. Accordingly, loyal Catholics were justified in rejecting Vatican II because it was, in reality, the product of a demonic conspiracy unfolding in the final days.
Today, as in the 1970s, conservative Catholics express pain and outrage that a pope would challenge their understanding of what it means to be Catholic. Some have presented legalistic arguments, citing such documents as a 1986 letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith that described homosexuality as “an objective disorder.” But repeatedly, conservatives have articulated their dissent by invoking a dark triad of demonology, conspiracy theory, and millennial prophecy.
On 20 October, Archbishop Charles Chaput gave a talk entitled “Stranger in a Strange Land,” in which he suggested that Catholics were now the targets of intolerance for advocating traditional family values. When asked about the synod, Chaput first specified that he had not been there and that the media might be distorting what was actually said. He then added, “I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was one of confusion.”
In the Catholic magazine First Things, Peter Leithart discussed the synod in terms of spiritual warfare, suggesting that advocates of gay marriage are the victims of demonic deception. He explained, “When Christians see something that looks like a collective delusion, they’re looking at demonic deception and/or divine judgment. We live in a culture that has venerated idol-ologies of unbounded freedom with relentless zeal, and God has given us over to the logic of our folly.”
Others invoked the language of willful betrayal and conspiracy, rather than demonically-inspired confusion. John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family, commented, “Those who are controlling the Synod have betrayed Catholic parents worldwide. We believe that the Synod’s mid-way report is one of the worst official documents drafted in Church history.” In this assessment, it is not the synod itself that has betrayed Catholic families, but by a shadowy “them” who are controlling it.
“Rosary” (2005) by Michael Peligro. CC BY-ND 2.o via Flickr.
Outside the sphere of mainstream discourse, traditionalist groups have been much more explicit in framing the synod in terms of an apocalyptic war with Satan. Lueken died in 1995, but her followers, known as “Baysiders,” strongly opposed the 13 October announcement. These Last Days Ministries, a Baysider, website, prefaced a report on the relatio with a prophecy delivered by Lueken on behalf of Jesus on 3 May 1978:
The Eternal Father has given mankind a set of rules, and in discipline they must be obeyed. It behooves Me to say that My heart is torn by the actions, the despicable actions, of My clergy. I unite, as your God, man and woman into the holy state of matrimony. And what I have bound together no man must place asunder. And what do I see but broken homes, marriages dissolved through annulments! It has scandalized your nation, and it is scandalizing the world. Woe to the teachers and leaders who scandalize the sheep!”
A Catholic author named Kelly Bowring even speculated that the relatio signaled a the beginning of an prophesied end times scenario, writing:
Will today be remembered as the first day that led to the Church’s prophesied schism? Quite likely yes. By many accounts people are waking up to see that the Family Synod of October 2014 is an officially Vatican-orchestrated work of manipulation. The mid-way report was released October 13th, a day of great spiritual significance.
Like many apocalyptic Marian groups, Bowring has located the relatio within a “theology of history” by finding other significant dates that also occurred on 13 October. On 13 October 1884, Pope Leo XIII composed the prayer to Saint Michael. According to Catholic legend, he did so after a mystical experience in which he overheard a conversation between God and Satan in which Satan was given “time and power” so that he could attempt to overthrow the Church. The “Miracle of the Sun” in Fatima, Portugal occurred on 13 October 1917. The Marian apparitions at Fatima were the most significant in modern history and the three “secrets of Fatima” delivered by the child seers remain the object of intense speculation among traditionalist Catholics. Finally, on 13 October 1973, Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, a Marian seer near Akita, Japan, delivered a prophecy of a great schism that would destroy the Church. By forming these connections, Bowring can locate new developments like the relatio within a cosmic scheme of history.
These responses––from off-the-cuff remarks equating confusion with the devil, to intricate webs of numerical correspondences––can be read as attempts to make sense of what previously seemed unthinkable. For some, it is easy to dismiss such language as hysterical or even evidence of mental illness. But demonology, conspiracy, and millennial prophecies are all interpretive tools that can be brought to bear in times of crisis. For lay Catholics who feel helpless and betrayed as strangers in Rome attempt to shift the core values of their tradition, these are also discourses of resistance.
Critics of Veronica Lueken claimed she was either mad or a con artist. (One reporter even suggested that her visions were a side effect of diet pills.) But if we examine Catholic tradition as an asymmetric collaboration between lay Catholics and Church authorities, figures like Veronica Lueken are easier to understand. Marian seers do not simply pop up fully formed. Instead events like Church reform create an alignment of social forces in which seers arise. The relationship that forms between seers and their followers creates a charismatic authority that––in some cases––can rival the authority of the Catholic hierarchy. For this reason, it seems likely that as Pope Francis continues to voice his preference for social justice rather than tradition, we can expect a backlash that imbues reform with dark and apocalyptic significance. Like Paul VI, Francis will likely be a pope who gives rise to seers.
On 27 April 2014, Pope Francis will canonize two of his predecessors, John XXIII and John Paul II. As the rules require, devotees have long been preparing for their recognition as saints, gathering biographical materials and evidence of miracles. This act brings the number of canonizations in his papacy to ten.
But on 3 April, Francis canonized three lesser known Blesseds, two of whom were French-born Canadians, the other a missionary to Brazil born in the Canary Islands. In the case of these three saints and John XXIII, Francis relied on an equivalent canonization without miracles.
The new round of saint making invites us to consider the role of miracles in the canonization process and ask if it is changing in our time. Below are five things you may not know about the canonization process.
(1) Miracles are used as evidence in the canonization process
Saint-making was once a local procedure, overseen by bishops. During the Counter Reformation, the church codified the analysis of causes through a special committee, the Sacra Rituum Congregatione (SRC). Launched in 1588, these rules were clarified in the 1730s by Prospero Lambertini (1675-1758), who became Pope Benedict XIV in 1740.
Three stages are necessary: first, veneration following an authoritative biography to establish a life of “heroic virtue”; second, beatification following miracles; finally, canonization following more miracles.
In the Catholic tradition, only God works miracles. Therefore, miracles received after appeals for intercession are taken as evidence that the candidates for sainthood are with God. Elements of due, canonical process, miracles also illustrate how the faithful experience illness.
Exemptions from miracles were allowed for rare individuals, especially martyrs—whose deaths were sufficient evidence of sanctity. Nevertheless, the Vatican archives holds many records of miracles ascribed to martyrs, such as the English and Welsh martyrs, Andrew Bobola, John de Brito, and the Jesuit saints of Canada.
The Miracle of Saint Donatus. Amiens, Museum of Picardy. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
(2) The majority of miracles over the last four centuries are healings from physical illness, for which scientific testimony is required.
In my study of 1,400 canonization miracles over four centuries, more than 95 per cent were healings from physical illness. The proportion of “medical miracles” increased to 99 per cent in the twentieth century.
Most investigations required testimony of physicians, some of whom were nonbelievers: treating doctors, expert consultants, and occasionally medical family members. In addition, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (successor of the SRC) relies on a committee of distinguished physicians, the Consulta Medica, to evaluate the claims of postulants.
Most investigations seek evidence not only that the patient prayed, but also that she appealed to physicians who used up-to-date diagnostic and treatment strategies.
(3) Diseases that are healed miraculously change through time, reflect changes in science, epidemiology, and medical therapeutics.
The diseases healed by divine intercession reflect the major concerns of any period: fevers in the early period; tuberculosis in the nineteenth century; cancer, neurological, and heart diseases in our time.
Diseases healed by intercession often match characteristics of the new saint. For example, the first miracle ascribed to John Paul II was a French nun’s recovery from Parkinson’s disease. In the cause of Kateri Tekakwitha, whose face had been disfigured by smallpox, the final miracle was the survival of an American boy with native ancestry who suffered flesh-eating disease of his face.
The committee of expert physicians examines every miracle submitted for consideration, assessing the diagnosis, the quality of treatments, and plausible, scientific explanations for the cure.
If the diagnosis was unreliable, or the treatment short of contemporary standards, or the cure scientifically explicable, then the healing may be recognized as an act of grace, but not a miracle.
(4) Saint-making and recognition of miracles has been streamlined.
Many miracles were necessary for canonization in the past. Seventeenth-century causes saw an average of fifteen to twenty miracles. Benedict XIV emphasized quality and scientific scrutiny over quantity. Thereafter, the average number of miracles for each cause declined to approximately four, although some boasted many more.
For much of the twentieth century, a cause could not be considered until at least fifty years had elapsed following the death of the candidate. Also, the would-be saint should have interceded for two miracles before beatification, and another two for canonization.
During the papacy of John Paul II, the process was streamlined. The wait time was reduced to five years after death, and the miracle requirement, to only one for each of beatification and canonization.
(5) The need for miracles in the canonization process may be on the wane.
Gathering miracle evidence is expensive and time-consuming. Emerging nations rarely have elegant technologies, such as CT and MRI machines, demanded for exacting proof of diagnosis and healing. Finding witnesses and documenting illnesses long past is difficult.
Some churchmen worry that the emphasis on miracles and up-to-date medicine poses an unfair and unnecessary hurdle for people of developing nations who should be entitled to venerate exemplary lives of local champions. In causes from 1588 to 1999, only three hailed from Africa: all beatifications by John Paul II on the basis one medical miracle each; one of these three, Sudanese nun Josephine Bakhita (d. 1947), was canonized in 2000.
Similarly, some clerics are concerned that the emphasis on miracles skews the process away from its main mission: to celebrate inspirational, human lives. Miracles sensationalize a process intended to enhance the accessibility of faith in daily life.
They also argue that emphasizing miracles downplays the intrinsic merits of prayer. Most people who pray do not receive miracles. Nevertheless, prayer provides consolation, comfort, insight, and strength.
With his first canonizations, Pope Francis is bucking tradition in a manner consistent with his focus on person-centered simplicity. His April 2014 decision to canonize four saints without miracles is technically within “the rules.” But it bypasses the strict, centuries-old procedures of miracles in order to celebrate their intellectual lives, as well as their spirituality, by drawing attention to their contributions as educators and scholars for the disadvantaged.
Miracles notwithstanding, saint-making is and has always been a product of politics and diplomacy between the Vatican and flocks of the faithful.
Jacalyn Duffin is Professor in the Hannah Chair of the History of Medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, where she has taught in medicine, philosophy, history, and law for more than twenty years. She has served as President of both the American Association for the History of Medicine and the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine. The author of seven other books and many research articles, she holds a number of awards and honours for research, writing, service, and teaching. She is the author of Medical Miracles; Doctors, Saints, and Healing, 1588-1999and Medical Saints: Cosmas and Damian in a Postmodern World.
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