1. Can we please let Catholic schools stay Catholic?
By Grazie Pozo Christie, New York Post, April 5, 2017, Pg. 27
American schoolchildren ought to have access to a quality education in a safe and nurturing environment — yet too many children are consigned by geography to public schools that are anything but safe and nurturing.
That’s where Catholic schools come in.
It’s at these schools that many underprivileged and minority children get a great start in life, and their parents the satisfaction of knowing they are in the best of hands.
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Even with all the quantifiable good that they do, Catholic schools are under constant attack.
A case in point is in New York, where a Catholic elementary school, St. Anthony, is being sued for something that is its right under US law: to choose a principal who will in fact promote the Church’s teachings — something that parents both desire and expect.
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They believe that, as the plaintiffs state in a court brief, “organized religion and religious dogma are dangerous to a society, and what society needs is enlightened rationality.”
This is not only an insult to millions of children and parents benefiting from and greatly pleased with Catholic education; it’s something that has already been litigated and denied. Just five years ago the Supreme Court protected a Lutheran school’s right to choose their teachers.
A principal has an even more important role — as a supervisor of all the teachers — and a religious school has the right to choose without interference who will fill these roles.
http://nypost.com/2017/04/04/
2. A Bishop of Consequence.
By George Weigel, First Things, April 5, 2017
When I first met Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., more than twenty years ago, I was struck by his boyish demeanor, his exquisite courtesy, and his rock-solid faith. … Moreover, his striking modesty and personal gentleness exemplified the Franciscan vocation he had embraced. Here, I thought, is a real pastor, living out the meaning of his episcopal motto, “As Christ loved the Church.”
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For years, I was angered by the vicious caricature of Archbishop Charles Chaput as a dour, stridently orthodox, rigid culture-warrior: a calumny that dominates certain circles of portside Catholic commentary, here and elsewhere. But I’m no longer angry at the poor souls who continue to treat Archbishop Chaput as an ideological punching bag or dismiss him as a pre–Pope Francis bishop. Rather, I feel sorry for them. If Charles Chaput does not embody the spiritual and pastoral qualities the pope says he values in bishops, no one does. Those who continue to miss that truth, here and elsewhere, are to be pitied for having failed to appreciate an admirable human being, a man of God, and a great churchman.
https://www.firstthings.com/
3. Pope ‘Horrified’ by Syria Chemical Weapons Attack.
By Reuters, April 5, 2017, 6:12 AM
Pope Francis said on Wednesday he was horrified by the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, calling it an “unacceptable massacre” of innocent civilians.
Western countries including the United States blamed Syrian government forces for the attack, which choked scores of people to death in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in a rebel-held area of northern Syria hit by government air strikes. The Syrian army has denied any role.
4. Italy Puts Vatican on ‘Clean’ Financial Institutions List, Ending Years of Mistrust.
By Reuters, April 4, 2017, 3:48 PM
Italy put the Vatican on its “white list” of states with cooperative financial institutions on Tuesday, ending years of mistrust and providing an endorsement of efforts by Pope Francis to clean up the city state’s banking sector.
The list includes countries with which Italy has agreements on the exchange of financial and tax information, such as other EU member states.
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Inclusion on the white list follows more than five years of reforms, started under former Pope Benedict and strengthened under Francis, to bring the Vatican and its troubled bank up to international standards to guarantee transparency and combat money laundering.
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Francis has made financial reform a central plank of his papacy and under his watch the IOR [Institute for Works of Religion] closed thousands of accounts held by people with little or no connection to the Vatican.
https://www.nytimes.com/
5. Pope to meet with UK imams in bid to promote moderate Islam.
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, April 4, 2017, 3:10 AM
Pope Francis is scheduled to meet Wednesday with four British imams two weeks after the London extremist attack, part of his effort to encourage Muslim leaders who renounce using religion to justify violence.
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Francis will try to further the cause later this month when he visits Al Azhar university in Cairo, Sunni Islam’s main center of learning.
