1. Pope Francis: Jerusalem holds universal spiritual value, Pope Francis greets participants in an interreligious dialogue group between the Holy See and Palestine, and recalls the universal value of Jerusalem for the three major monotheistic religions., By Devin Watkins, Vatican News, March 9, 2023
The Holy See hosted a meeting in Rome this week of the Joint Working Group for Dialogue between the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Palestinian Commission for Interreligious Dialogue.
Pope Francis encouraged the efforts of this working group, as he met with participants on Thursday in the Vatican.
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Pope Francis also highlighted the spiritual significance of Jerusalem, which formed the theme chosen for the working group’s meeting.
He reiterated the appeal he made in 2019 with the King of Morocco, as he called for Jerusalem to be considered by everyone as “the common patrimony of humanity and especially of the followers of the three monotheistic religions, as a place of encounter and as a symbol of peaceful coexistence.”
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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-03/pope-francis-palestine-interreligious-dialogue-holy-see.html
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2. Pope bolsters women at Vatican but resistance remains, By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, March 8, 2023, 11:10 AM
Pope Francis has significantly increased the Vatican’s female workforce, including in high-ranking positions, but women face continued resistance from the all-male Catholic hierarchy to access leadership positions in the church, according to Vatican statistics and independent surveys released Wednesday.
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Beyond the words, Francis has overseen a marked increase in the number and percentage of women working at the Vatican in his 10 years as pope, from 19.3% in 2013 to 23.4% today, according to statistics reported by Vatican News.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/08/vatican-pope-womens-day-workforce/ccf8c786-bdcb-11ed-9350-7c5fccd598ad_story.html
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3. California to end Walgreens contract after abortion dispute, By Adam Beam, Associated Press, March 8, 2023, 7:58 PM
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday withdrew a $54 million contract with Walgreens after the pharmacy giant indicated it would not sell an abortion pill by mail in some conservative-led states.
Newsom on Wednesday ordered state officials to not renew a contract with Walgreens to purchase specialty pharmacy prescription drugs for California’s prison health care system, including antiviral and antifungal drugs and medication used for congestive heart failure. Walgreens has gotten about $54 million from the contract, which expires April 30.
Newsom’s office said the state will buy the drugs somewhere else.
“California will not stand by as corporations cave to extremists and cut off critical access to reproductive care and freedom,” Newsom said in a news release. “California is on track to be the fourth largest economy in the world and we will leverage our market power to defend the right to choose.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/08/california-governor-newsom-walgreens-abortion-pill/8e7c5c22-be0f-11ed-9350-7c5fccd598ad_story.html
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4. On eve of Women’s Day, top Vatican diplomat backs equal access to education, By Elise Ann Allen, Crux, March 8, 2023
After Fr. Marko Rupnik publicly concelebrated a Mass Sunday despite restrictions on his ministry, one Jesuit official has qualified those restrictions, claiming Rupnik can concelebrate Masses in the presence of his local religious community.
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That qualifier raises questions about whether Rupnik will be permitted to engage in other public ministry – like concelebrations of Sunday Masses in churches open to the public – as long as he does so in the presence of members of his local religious community.
And while Rupnik has been accused of sexually abusing and manipulating religious sisters while creating religious art, it is is not clear if he is also permit to continue artistic creation, if it is done in the context of his religious community.
The Jesuits have in the past permitted Rupnik activity which seems to contravene restrictions on the priest’s ministry.
Shortly after the priest was declared excommunicated in 2020, the Society of Jesus announced that Rupnik had been commissioned to install a set of mosaics in the Sanctuary of the Cave, a Spanish church connected to the cave where St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuits’ founder, composed his famous “Spiritual Exercises.”
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https://www.pillarcatholic.com/rupnik-concelebration-raises-questions-on-restrictions/
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5. Pope Francis confirms new statutes, independence for Vatican bank, Pope Francis confirmed new statues for the Institute for Works of Religion, underlining its relative independence from other Vatican departments., By The Pillar, March 8, 2023, 7:19 PM
Pope Francis confirmed new statues Monday for the Institute for Works of Religion, the Vatican’s bank.
The new regulations largely cement previous provisional reforms undertaken two years ago, reinforcing the trend of Francis doubling down on his plans to overhaul financial institutions.
The new statutes for the IOR were released March 7, along with a chirograph from the pope which explained he was eager to solidify the “collaboration and responsibility of competent lay Catholics” in the bank’s business dealings.
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https://www.pillarcatholic.com/pope-francis-confirms-new-statutes-independence-for-vatican-bank/
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6. The New Ultramontanism and the Dissing of Vatican II, The Feb. 21 Roche Rescript violates both the letter and the spirit of what Lumen Gentium taught., By George Weigel, National Catholic Register, March 8, 2023, Opinion
In its dogmatic constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), the Second Vatican Council firmly applied the brakes to “ultramontanism” — the overheated theory of papal supremacy that reduced local bishops to branch managers who simply execute dictates from the CEO of Catholic Church Inc. in Rome.
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One of the many oddities of this Catholic moment is that, in the name of a “synodality” proclaimed as fulfilling the promise of Vatican II — which presumably includes the Council’s teaching on the authority of local bishops as true vicars of Christ — the “supreme authority of the Church” is severely undercutting episcopal authority by micro-managing with a heavy hand the use of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite (the so-called “Traditional Latin Mass” or TLM).
The latest example of this new ultramontanism came in a Feb. 21 rescript, when “the supreme authority of the Church” laid down that, henceforth, bishops must obtain permission from Cardinal Arthur Roche and the Dicastery for Divine Worship before allowing the use of the extraordinary form in parish churches, and before allowing priests ordained after July 16, 2021, to celebrate the TLM.
The journalistic mouthpiece of the present pontificate, America’s Gerard O’Connell, reliably applauded this diktat for making “clear that bishops cannot take the law into their own hands.” On the contrary: The rescript of Feb. 21 contradicts the teaching of Lumen Gentium 27 on the local bishop’s role as the chief liturgist of his diocese. It also fails to define the “advantage [to] the Church or [to] the faithful” of the rescript’s exercise of papal autocracy. Thus, once again, bishops are reduced to order-executing minions of Roman Global HQ.
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I am a Novus Ordo man.
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Nonetheless, as a close student of the Council and the author of To Sanctify the World, it seems to me that the Roche Rescript violates both the letter and the spirit of what Lumen Gentium taught, while doing nothing to further the proper implementation of the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
These matters, and Cardinal Roche, are going to be the focus of considerable attention at Synod-2023 in October — and at the general congregations before the next conclave.
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/the-new-ultramontanism-and-the-dissing-of-vatican-ii
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7. Polish bishops: New allegation that JPII covered up sex abuse based on reports from communist secret police, By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency, March 8, 2023, 3:30 PM
The Polish Bishops’ Conference says that “further archival research” is needed to fairly assess a new allegation, based on communist secret police records, that St. John Paul II covered up child sexual abuse by a priest while serving as the archbishop of Krakow, Poland, prior to becoming pope.
The allegation was included in a documentary broadcast March 6 on Polish television channel TVN24.
The same TV report also cited two other instances where St. John Paul II, then Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, allegedly relocated Father Eugeniusz Surgent and Father Jozef Loranc to new parishes despite being aware that they had been accused of sexually abusing minors. However, those allegations, first made by a Dutch journalist on Dec. 2 of last year, were quickly refuted later that month by a pair of investigative journalists, the Polish bishops noted in a statement released March 7.
The journalists, Tomasz Krzyżak and Piotr Litka, found that St. John Paul II did not cover up any abuse and consistently acted against such cases during his time as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978.
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A third allegation, which is an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse allegedly committed by Father Boleslaw Saduś, is a new claim that was not addressed in prior reporting. The documentary alleges that Wojtyla knew Saduś was accused of sexually abusing young boys but recommended him to a diocese in Austria without noting this information.
However, this third case “was presented not on the basis of a prosecutorial or judicial investigation but on the files of the security services of the People’s Republic of Poland,” the Polish Bishops’ Conference statement noted. “On the basis of the sources presented in the film, it is impossible to determine the qualification of the acts attributed to Father Saduś.”
The Security Service was the secret police and counter-espionage agency for the atheistic communist government that ruled Poland and sought to subvert and control the Catholic Church in the country.
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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253820/polish-bishops-dispute-accusations-of-pope-st-john-paul-ii-sex-abuse-cover-ups
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8. EWTN News and Franciscan University to host journalism conference on ‘post-truth world’, By Peter Pinedo, Catholic News Agency, March 8, 2023, 4:00 PM
“Journalism does not come so much by choosing a profession as by launching oneself on a mission,” Pope Francis said in a 2021 address to journalists. “Your mission is to explain the world, to make it less obscure, to make those who live in it less afraid of it and look at others with greater awareness, and also with more confidence.”
This weekend, March 10–11, EWTN News and Franciscan University of Steubenville are partnering to host a conference titled “Journalism in a Post-Truth World,” focusing on the mission of Catholics in the journalistic and media industries.
Registration is open to the general public for in-person and livestream attendance. To register click here.
The conference, which will be held at Washington, D.C.’s Museum of the Bible, aims to confront the challenges facing Catholics in the journalistic world in a society that is increasingly antagonistic toward Christianity, Catholicism, and even truth itself.
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The conference will feature talks and panels with notable speakers representing a wide array of viewpoints in the Catholic media world, including Franciscan University president Father Dave Pivonka, National Review editor Kathryn Jean Lopez, Fox News correspondent Lauren Green, The Daily Signal senior reporter Mary Margaret Olohan, and many more.
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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253822/ewtn-news-and-franciscan-university-host-journalism-conference-on-post-truth-world
__________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
