Christianity changing lives of India's Dalits
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| Two Dalit children: the boy on the right has a poor outlook in life, but his sister has an even worse one. |
Catholic News Agency has a story showing some of the practical advantages of Christianity.
A non-profit human rights group in India says Christianity has brought slow but lasting change to the country's Dalits, or "untouchables," especially the community's women, who are often victims of prostitution and trafficking.
"The Dalits are told that they are less than animals, and we tell them they are not, because they are made in the likeness of God," Jeevaline Kumar, director of Operation Mobilization's Anti-Human-Trafficking Project in Bangalore, Karnataka, told CNA.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. did not relate incident to Father Marcel Guarnizo's removal
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| Fr. Marcel Guarnizo. M. R. Stefanik Conservative Institute. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story from
Catholic News Agency about a priest who has been removed from ministering in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Father Marcel Guarnizo had received national attention earlier this year for denying a lesbian Communion:
“Father Marcel Guarnizo is a priest of the Archdiocese of Moscow, Russia, who was given a temporary assignment at St. John Neumann Parish,” archdiocesan communcations director Chieko Noguchi Scheve said in a statement provided to CNA July 10.
“That assignment period has ended and Father Guarnizo is no longer in ministry in the Archdiocese of Washington,” Scheve wrote.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Religious-themed tattoos are 'billboards for Christ'
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A tattoo of Jesus Christ's head by Shawn Legrow,
owner of Sakred Skinz Tattoo Studio in Bolton, Ont.
Photo courtesy of Tyler Erdelac / CCN. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story by Evan Boudreau of the Catholic Register about a Catholic man who shows his faith visibly with multiple religious-themed tattoos:
While getting a tattoo may not be considered the holiest practice, it shouldn't always be perceived as devilish.
"Religious tattoos are a sign of faith," said Jason Gennaro, of www.religioustattoos.net. "Those who tattoo themselves with Christian symbols of faith are displaying a belief that many try to subjugate and hide."
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Archbishop Miller celebrates 'symphonic' result
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Father Bruce McAllister (back left), cathedral rector Father Glenn Dion, and
Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, pose with 11 new Catholics outside
Holy Rosary Cathedral June 30. Alistair Burns / The B.C. Catholic. |
Alistair Burns recently witnessed 11 Anglicans coming home to the Catholic Church:
"This has been a long, sometimes trying journey, but one filled with hope," Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, said in his homily. "We are celebrating, as these nine adult members are confirmed and two children come into full communion, a joyous, historic occasion."
Archbishop Miller explained the unification process had been set in motion in 2007, when some bishops of the Anglican communion formally expressed their desire "to enter into full unity with the Holy See, without losing their Anglican distinctiveness."
Former drug dealer testifies to conversion from life of hedonism
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| Father Taras Kraychuk talks at the Catholic Family Life Conference at Lac Ste. Anne, Alta., July 1. (Roman Gonzalez / CCN). |
The B.C. Catholic has a story from CCN's Ramon Gonzalez on a Ukrainian Catholic monk who has led a fascinating life. He started as a devout child, turned into a law-breaking biker, and eventually returned to the Church to become a man of the cloth.
Father Taras (Terry) Kraychuk, who currently lives in Alberta, was born and raised in Winnipeg. The child of a devout Ukrainian family, he "grew up in the faith but drifted away from those roots. When I was 15 I was into the drug scene; I wanted to experience all the excitement, all the drugs, all the partying.”
When he was kicked out of high school he left the Church and his family, and then, whole-heartedly embracing his passion to find meaning and happiness in life, he became a biker and travelled throughout much of the U.S. and Canada.
Any time he got in trouble because of his lifestyle he would call on God. He constantly read his Gideon Bible, believing that if he read it often, God would protect him from the police.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Brother Guy Consolmagno says the so-called Higgs-boson particle may lead to new discoveries
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| Brother Consolmagno (CNS/Paul Haring) |
Catholic News Service went to the Vatican's top scientist for his comments after the recent discovery of a new sub-atomic particle nicknamed "the God particle." Brother Guy Consolmagno told CNS that the new discovery could lead to further discoveries to explain how the universe works:
When people go about their everyday business working or relaxing, they don't think about the tiniest building blocks of physical matter, but "without these underlying little things, we wouldn't be here," Brother Consolmagno said.
Physicists working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research laboratory in Geneva, announced July 4 that they were 99.999 per cent certain they had found evidence of a new particle that might be key to the structure of the universe and to understanding nature.
But the Vatican astronomer, who helped reclassify Pluto, told CNS that this discovery doesn't disprove the existence of God:
The Higgs-boson particle was nicknamed "the God particle" as "a joke" in an attempt to depict the particle as "almost like a gift from God to help explain how reality works in the sub-atomic world," he said. Because the particle is believed to be what gives mass to matter, it was assigned the godlike status of being able to create something out of nothing.
But such "God of the gaps" conjectures are not only bad reasons to believe in God, they are also bad science, Brother Consolmagno said.
"You'll look foolish, in, say, 2050, when they discover the real reason" for a phenomenon that was explained away earlier by the hand of God, he said.
Read the full story at the CNS website.
Concert educates listeners to 'appreciate beauty, wonder of God's creation'
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The Holy Father poses with the Sistine Chapel Choir (Cappella Musicale Pontificia).
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L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's newspaper, reports that the Anglican choir from Westminster Abbey in London, England, recently joined the Sistine Chapel choir for a dual concert in St. Peter's Basilica. Composer Colin Mawkby, a former Master of Music at Westminster Abbey, writes on the vocal encounter.
This unique event had two aspects: the first spiritual and evangelical; the second musical. Music creates a sense of unity, and this is precisely what different communions are striving to achieve. The combination of these two fine choirs would have been unthinkable 50 years ago, and it underlines how well, despite many difficulties, relations between the Catholic and Anglican Churches have developed over recent years.
Music has an important role in ecumenism: it educates performers and listeners to appreciate the beauty and wonder of God’s creation.
The Holy Father has spoken about the evangelical work of sacred music. Hearing these two great choirs underlined precisely what he meant. Religious music superbly sung can be a shining beacon for open-minded non-believers. How can one listen to sacred music without questioning its ultimate source? In a spiritually troubled world it forms a deeply rooted and secure spiritual anchor to which most people can cling.
Read the
full article here.
House members seek to repeal administration's 'Religious Freedom Tax'
Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill to protect religious groups, as well as private businesses with "moral and religious objections," from being heavily taxed for refusing to pay for insurance "that violates their religious or moral views," Representative James Sensenbrennner, a member of the Republican Party from Wisconsin, said July 10.
At a press conference, he explained that the law known as "Obamacare" would allow the Internal Revenue Service to collect $100 per day for each employee of an organization that fails to cover services such as contraception and sterilization without a co-pay. The tax penalty is part of the Health and Human Services contraception mandate, currently being challenged by over 50 organizations in 23 lawsuits.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Cardinal Eugênio de Araújo Sales elevated to college by Pope Paul VI in 1969
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| Cardinal de Araújo Sales was Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro for 30 years. |
Vatican Radio reports that the longest-serving cardinal in the Church has died.
Cardinal Eugênio de Araújo Sales, archbishop emeritus of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, died July 10. He was 91 years old, and was named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI April 28, 1969. He was Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro for 30 years, and retired in 2001. With his death, Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns and Cardinal William Wakefield Baum are the only living cardinals created by Pope Paul VI.
Recovered 12th-century manuscript guided pilgrims on Way of St. James
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| A page from the Codex Calixtinus photographed in 2004. (Associated Press) |
Ciaran Giles of the Associated Press reports that a priceless manuscript, the Codex Calixtinus, has been found in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. The news came a day after four suspects were arrested in connection with a theft.
The richly-decorated Codex was found in a garage close to the cathedral from which it had been taken in Santiago de Compostela in July 2011. The tome is considered to be the first guide for pilgrims following the ancient Christian trek known as the Camino de Santiago (or the Way of St. James).
The find came after police arrested an electrician who previously had worked at the cathedral and three others July 3. Police reportedly found 1.2 million euros, as well as a number of valuable religious works at houses belonging to the detainees.
The Codex was named after Pope Calixto II, who promoted the tradition of the Camino de Santiago in the early 12th century. A local daily newspaper, El Correo Gallego, called it "the theft of the century."
Vocation transports her overseas for decades of missionary work in the Land of the Rising Sun
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Sister Michalec shops for fresh produce in Tokyo. She was sent to Japan in 1966
and became fluent in Japanese to teach high school and university students about the
environment. She learns alongside her students "to love our earth with all its mystery,
and history." Special to The B.C. Catholic. |
Alistair Burns has a story about a sister from New
Westminster who works for
God in Japan:
Sister Jean Mary Michalec, MM, has spent decades in Japan preaching the Good News. Born in New Westminster, she celebrated a half-century as a Maryknoll Sister of St. Dominic June 17.
To "put it in a nutshell, I originally wanted to be a missionary," she said in a telephone interview from Japan. "Instead, I went to become a sister."
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
OT’s difficult stories draw us deeper into mystery of the Triune God
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Speaking at St. Paul University July 2, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Scripture
scholar Edith Humphrey addressed the ways even problematic parts of the
Old Testament can draw us more deeply into the mystery of the Trinity.
Deborah Gyapong / CCN. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story from CCN's Deborah Gyapong about a theology scholar who explains how the
Old Testament links to the
Holy Trinity:
It may be tempting to ignore the Old Testament, or to spiritualize its more bloodthirsty or seemingly contradictory stories, but wrestling with them can lead to a deeper understanding of the Gospel and the nature of the Triune God, says Scripture scholar Edith Humphrey.
Whether it is the story of Abraham being told to sacrifice his only son Isaac, God’s genocidal ban placed on some of the peoples who already inhabited the Promised Land, or God portrayed as angry, jealous, or vengeful, these difficulties have sometimes led to heresy, and they continue to tempt Christians today to avoid the Old Testament.
“When God enters the world, He enters this world with all its limitations, corruptions, and conditions,” the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary professor told a plenary session at the Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies' annual Study Days at Saint Paul University July 2. “That route is messy, and ultimately led to the cross and beyond the cross to Hades itself – which Our Lord conquered, not by waving a wand or by mere proclamation, but by entering those domains and destroying them from the inside.”
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Supporters say 'partisan' charge misses point of bishops' efforts
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| Dr. Matthew Bunson |
Catholic News Association is pointing out in this story that U.S. media do not seem to be totally impartial.
Critics who accuse the U.S. bishops of "partisanship" have misunderstood their motives by viewing religious questions in secular terms, supporters of the Catholic hierarchy say.
"The media has no quibble at all when the bishops issue a statement questioning some aspects of Paul Ryan's budget, or when they express their support of recent decisions on the part of the Obama administration relating to immigration," Church historian Dr. Matthew Bunson told CNA.
"It's only when the bishops decide to exercise their authority in areas the media disagrees with," such as marriage, sexuality, or theological orthodoxy, "that the bishops are suddenly 'reactionary.'"
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Catholics provide Syrian refugees with medical treatment
This Catholic News Association story tells of the heartache being caused by the violence in Syria.
It was the end of March when the violence in Syria became unbearable for Salwa, a young mother who lived in the besieged city of Homs with her husband and four children. After more than a year of almost daily bloodshed, she and her family left behind everything they owned and fled Syria with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing.
They crossed the border into neighbouring Jordan, where they finally found safety in the town of Mafraq. There, with the help of Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Jordan is helping families like Salwa's get through the crisis.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Popular pastor faces theft and fraud charges
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| Father Joe LeClair. |
The B.C. Catholic has a story by CCN's Deborah Gyapong about a priest who is accused of taking money from his parish:
Father Joe LeClair, 55, will appear in court July 25 to answer the charges related to the financial administration of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood.
The Ottawa Police Organized Fraud investigation found more than $240,000 in parish cheques were “misappropriated by the parish priest, Joseph LeClair,” according to a July 3 news release, and “over $160,000 in cash revenues were unaccounted for.” The investigation reviewed parish finances from January 2006 to May 2011
The police found $20,000 worth of furniture and other parish property had been taken from the rectory and some of that was recovered at a residence outside the province.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Stewardship director gives account of recent International Eucharistic Congress
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| A Virgin Mary statue at St. Damian's monastery in Dublin keeps watch over the faithful. |
Alistair Burns didn't go to the
International Eucharistic Congress in
Dublin but he talked to Barb Dowding,
the vice-chancellor and Stewardship Director of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, who did. The event also included a talk by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB:
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The archbishop's talk highlighted how "important and vital" it is
for mutual respect to exist between clergy and laity.
Barb Dowding / Special to The B.C. Catholic.
|
Barbara Dowding, the vice-chancellor and Stewardship Director of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, usually plans and hosts events for priests, laity, and Catholic organizations. However, at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, she came not as an organizer, but as a pilgrim looking for solace.
"I went with my husband, not in an official capacity, and it was the first time in a long time I didn't have to look out for everyone," she said.
She arrived in the Irish capital for the week-long event June 10. Throughout the week, her enthusiasm grew.
Read the full story at
The B.C. Catholic website.
Government cannot take away true freedom, Archbishop Chaput teaches
This Catholic News Association story records the end of a 2-week campaign in the U.S.
Government cannot give or take away the ultimate freedom found in obedience to God, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said during his homily at Mass at the close of the U.S. bishops' "Fortnight for Freedom."
"True freedom knows no attachments other than Jesus Christ," Archbishop Chaput said in his July 4 homily at Washington, D.C.'s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. "True freedom can walk away from anything: wealth, honour, fame, pleasure," he said. "It fears neither the state, nor death itself."
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
Holy Father extends message of 'deep gratitude' to Patriarch of Constantinople
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| Pope Benedict XVI chats with a member of the Orthodox delegation June 28. (CNS) |
The Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, reports on the Holy Father's meeting
with a delegation sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. The group was received on the eve of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
The Pope expressed the hope that progress may be made “to arrive soon at the blessed day when we will be able to share in the Eucharistic banquet."
He recalled the importance of the Second Vatican Council in the development of ecumenical dialogue, which inspired the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and the Pontiffs John XXIII and Paul VI. They “made themselves champions of courageous projects that led to renewed relations between the patriarchate and the Catholic Church."
For this very reason the Pope asked the members of the delegation to convey to the patriarch “sentiments of fraternal affection and deep gratitude.”
Read the
full story here.
Pope to visit Lebanon, meet Christians, Muslims in September
Here is a Catholic News Service story about the Pope's next trip abroad.
Pope Benedict XVI will present a papal document addressing the Church's concerns in the Middle East, meet with representatives of local Christian and Muslim communities, and address political and cultural leaders on a three-day visit to Lebanon Sept. 14-16.
Pope Benedict's primary task on the trip will be to present a document, called an apostolic exhortation, based on the deliberations of a special synod of bishops held at the Vatican in 2009. That two-week meeting, which was attended by 185 bishops, most of them from the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with the Holy See, focused on the precarious circumstances of 5.7 million Catholics in 16 Middle Eastern countries.
For
full story see
The B.C. Catholic website.
