Search

Results

Let the healing begin

08 Feb 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We hear in this Sunday's psalm that "the Lord rebuilds Jerusalem." In an effort to rebuild relations with the Jewish community that were damaged last week, the Vatican on Wednesday issued a statement demanding that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church. The statement also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other traditionalist bishops. The Vatican's Secretariat of State issued the statement a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an unprecedented move, strongly urged the German-born pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there had not been adequate clarification from the Catholic Church. The Holy See on January 24 announced the rehabilitation of four bishops excommunicated in 1988 after being consecrated without papal consent [see the February 1 issue of this Preaching in Light of the News]. The bishops had been consecrated by the late traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1969 founded the Society of St. Pius X opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including its outreach to Jews. Just days before his excommunication was lifted, Williamson was shown on Swedish state television saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II. Williamson has since apologized to the pope for having stirred controversy, but he did not repudiate his comments, in which he also said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none were gassed. Though the Vatican quickly said it did not share Williamson's views when the controversy erupted, Jewish groups voiced outrage at his rehabilitation and demanded stronger action be taken in order to restore relations. "This was the sign the Jewish world has been waiting for," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, after Wednesday's Vatican statement. Earlier, Cardinal Walter Kasper, in charge of ecumenical relations for the Holy See, admitted different parts of the Vatican administration had not talked to each other enough and failed to check for potential problems. Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, thanked Merkel for her "righteous comments" and said the process to heal the "deep wound that this crisis caused to the Catholic-Jewish dialogue" could now begin. Source: Articles by BBC News and Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press.

elan steinberg world jewish congress ronald lauder vatican holy see walter kasper jews society of st pius x angela merkel holocaust denial benedict xvi richard williamson holocaust american gathering of holocaust survivors and

Restricted
The Holy See sees scandal erupt

03 Jun 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading, the great law-giver Moses directs the Israelite people to keep the “statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper.” The Vatican’s reputation is not prospering in the wake of a scandal involving violations of codes of confidentiality, document leaks, abrupt dismissals, suggestions of corrupt banking practices, and—in a turn of events befitting an Agatha Christie mystery—the arrest of the pope’s personal butler.The Italian media have been in a frenzy since the papal butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested last week after Vatican investigators discovered papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He remains in detention and has pledged to cooperate fully with the investigation. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi acknowledged Monday that the scandal damages the Vatican’s reputation.News of Gabriele’s arrest capped a turbulent stretch of days in which the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was dismissed by the bank’s board, which accused him of failing to do his job, acting erratically, and not attending board meetings, according to a memorandum from the board published in the Italian news media over the weekend. The board also suggested that Gotti Tedeschi might have leaked some of the documents himself.Pope Benedict XVI broke his silence Wednesday over the scandal, saying he was saddened by the betrayal but grateful to those aides who work faithfully and in silence to help him do his job. Benedict criticized some of the media reports about the scandal, saying the “exaggerated” and “gratuitous” rumors had offered a false image of the Holy See.The scandal broke in January when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi revealed letters from a former top Vatican administrator who begged the pope not to transfer him for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican’s U.S. ambassador. Sources: Tom Heneghan for Reuters, Elisabetta Povoledo for theNew York Times, and Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press

benedict xvi gianluigi nuzzi ettore gotti tedeschi vatican bank paolo gabriele scandals federico lombardi vatican holy see carlo maria vigano

Restricted
Charitable choice for Vatican ambassador

11 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own," remarks the psalmist this Sunday. Presidents choose those they would like on their foreign service team, but choices for ambassadorships must be "blessed" by the U.S. Senate. Last week that body confirmed former Catholic Relief Services head Ken Hackett as the next ambassador to the Vatican.“In watching Pope Francis, his focus on changing the way the world looks at issues of poverty and injustice and so many social issues, I think we as Americans are right there,” Hackett said when he was nominated. “There is common cause. That makes me excited."As a longtime president of CRS, the American church’s primary international relief arm, Hackett is a familiar figure in Rome and has contacts across the U.S. church, a background that could help the administration’s relations with the Catholic hierarchy which have been at odds with the White House over healthcare coverage and other issues.Hackett acknowledged that “there will be times where the position of the [Obama] administration differs, obviously, from [that of] the Holy See.” But, he added, “I am going to look for, as many of my predecessors did, those opportunities where we can come together and find strength in collaboration, coincidence of interests. There are some powerful connections that together will really make a difference.”Homily hint: CRS is one of the largest charitable relief services in the world. It has served over 100 million people in 91 countries since its founding in 1943. Its mission is to assist impoverished and disadvantaged people overseas regardless of their faith or creed, working in the spirit of Catholic social teaching to promote the sacredness of human life and the dignity of the human person. Within the United States, CRS engages Catholics to live their faith in solidarity with the poor and suffering people of the world. Encourage your congregation to learn more at CRS.org/about. Source: An article by David Gibson for Religion News Service

Pope Francis holy see ken hackett amabassadors vaticann crs catholic relief services

Restricted
U.S. Vatican embassy Rome relo draws criticism

08 Dec 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"Welcome one another," Saint Paul tells the Christians at Rome, "as Christ welcomed you." Romans these days will be called on to welcome the staff of the United States embassy to the Holy See after the State Department announced it's moving its Vatican mission into a larger compound which includes the U.S. Embassy to Italy. The relocation has troubled several former U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican and also goes against the policy of the Holy See, which wants every country to put its missions to Italy and the Vatican in separate places.The State Department says security and cost savings of $1.4 million a year were behind the move. Former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson, however, called the move a “massive downgrade” in U.S.-Vatican ties, turning the Vatican embassy “into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy,” he said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. Other former U.S. representatives to the Vatican—Francis Rooney, Mary Ann Glendon, Raymond Flynn, Thomas Melady—also objected.In the past the Vatican has insisted that countries maintain embassies to the Holy See and to Rome in different locations, but it hasn’t protested the current U.S. move. A State Department official said that while the embassies will be located on the same compound, the Vatican embassy will have separate entrances.The safety of embassies has been a concern since the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. The U.S. has multiple embassies in places such as Brussels and Vienna.Homily hint: The exact location of an embassy to the Vatican may not seem particularly earthshaking—the U.S. mission's move itself will be only one tenth of a mile—but it draws attention to the important role that the Holy See, the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world, plays in international relations. Find out more about the activities of the Vatican's diplomatic arm, the Secretariat of State, on its website. Source: An article by Sarah Pulliam Bailey or Religion New Service

holy see vatican italy state department embassies james nicholson

Restricted
Vatican changes: Wait till next year

11 May 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want,” the psalmist prays this Sunday. "He guides me in right paths." Roman Catholics looking to their shepherds for reform of the Curia, the Holy See’s administration, will likely have to wait until 2015 for results. “There is much work ahead,” said the Vatican’s chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi of the efforts of the eight-cardinal commission charged with guiding the restructuring, “so we can expect it to be done not this year but the next."Though implementation of the changes will have to wait, the work of evaluation is ongoing. At a meeting last week of Pope Francis' advisory council of cardinals, the prelates received input from the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and heard a report from the president of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA), Joseph F .X. Zahra.Among the "right paths" the pope and COSEA will be attempting to steer the Curia toward include tighter financial and auditing procedures amid moves to overhaul the Vatican bank after allegations of money laundering and corruption. The eight cardinals—backed by seven lay financial experts—are now focusing on an individual appraisal of each pontifical council and will meet again in July.“The work is of some importance,” said Australian Cardinal and former archbishop of Sydney George Pell, a council member and head of the Vatican’s new economic secretariat.(More Vatican news: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Gerhard Mueller's message to the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Cardinal Walter Kasper's take on it.)Homily hint: Like any good organization, the church should always look for ways to respond to the needs of the times and implement better decision-making processes. As a community of faith, it has a special responsibility to live out its commitment to justice by being as effective in its mission as possible, and needs not only the action of leadership but also the support of its members to do so. Source: An article by Josephine McKenna for Religion News Service

holy see vatican george pell curia

Restricted