A global crop of cardinals; Syria; Vatileaks; and possible popes (Opinion)

One could argue that in its strong focus on Western secularism, the papacy of Benedict XVI has been somewhat Eurocentric. 

When that case is made, however, the consistory of Nov. 24 will have to be recorded as a counter-example.

This will be Benedict's fifth crop of new cardinals, and for the first time, there's not a single European in the bunch. 

Granted, there are only six total, but most observers still expected a couple of guys from the old continent -- for instance, German Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or Rino Fisichella, an Italian and president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

Instead, Benedict announced he would hold a consistory one month hence that includes only one Westerner: Archbishop James Harvey, a Milwaukee native, following 14 years as prefect of the Papal Household. The pope said he plans to name Harvey as archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The other five come from the developing world: one each from the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, and two from Asia.

In that sense, November's consistory reflects the rise of a "world church" in which leadership will increasingly come from the southern hemisphere.

Immediately, the consistory would seem to elevate two figures into the ranks of the papabili, meaning candidates to be pope:

• Luis Antonio Tagle, 55, of Manila in the Philippines
• John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, 68, of Abuja in Nigeria

Tagle is widely considered one of the most impressive Asian bishops, popular among both the young and the media, two constituencies the church is desperately trying to reach. Onaiyekan is a boisterous and outspoken figure who incarnates the dynamism of the African church. He doesn't see himself as a junior partner in a multinational enterprise, but as a leader of the most rapidly growing and energetic Catholic community on the planet.

Both Tagle and Onaiyekan have impressed people at the current Synod of Bishops. Tagle called for a humbler, simpler church with a greater capacity for silence, while Onaiyekan restored some balance on Islam. He insisted that despite the rise of Boko Haram, "Christians in Nigeria do not see themselves as being under any massive persecution by Muslims."

(I confess that Onaiyekan is a longtime friend and my go-to guy on issues in the African church. He hosted Shannon and me in Abuja when I was working on The Future Church, becoming my Jewish wife's favorite African prelate.)

As for Harvey, many Italian observers believe he's being moved out of the Papal Household as part of the fallout from the Vatileaks affair. That may be, though a note of caution: Vatileaks is a national obsession in Italy, so everything that happens in the Vatican these days is seen through that lens, whether related or not.

* * *

At times, the Vatican seems to have a genius for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, taking what ought to have been a positive storyline and turning it into something less. 

That was the case with the peace mission to Syria announced Oct. 16 by the Synod of Bishops, which quickly fell apart and left behind the impression of a diplomatic embarrassment.

The idea was to express closeness to the suffering of Syria and a desire for peace, not just on behalf of the Vatican but all the world's bishops. In a particular way, it was to offer a shot in the arm to Syria's 2.3 million Christians, who fear their country will be the next Iraq, the next place where a historic Christian community is gutted.

In fairness, the Vatican can't be blamed for a spike in violence last weekend, which began with the assassination of Lebanon's intelligence chief and climaxed with car bombs in Christian sectors of Damascus and Aleppo. 

Nor can the Vatican be faulted for the difficulties of dealing with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which hoped to exploit the delegation for propaganda purposes, styling itself as the great defender of Syria's minorities against Islamic radicalism.

However, violence and truculence are predictable when dealing with Syria, which means you don't announce a mission to the country unless you have a plan for dealing with both. 

What's become clear is that the Vatican never had one, leaving most observers with the impression that good intentions had overwhelmed sound judgment.

On Tuesday, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, basically backtracked, saying the delegation probably won't depart before the end of the synod Sunday, and its composition will probably change before it ever happens.

It's striking that Bertone's statement wasn't accompanied by announcement of another gesture designed to achieve the same aims. For instance, Bertone could have said that because the bishops can't get to Syria, they'll bring Syria to them -- that the seven members of the delegation (which included Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York), along with Pope Benedict XVI, are inviting leaders from Syria and Lebanon to Rome on Monday for a special "Prayer for Peace" and that all 300 participants in the Synod of Bishops have been asked to delay their departures for one day as an expression of solidarity.  

By not doing that or something similar, Bertone let the delegation's collapse stand as the headline and missed a chance to send a signal that the Vatican and the synod aren't giving up.

That said, let's keep our eyes on the prize: The important question is not who's taken a black eye in terms of PR, but what the church can do on behalf of Syria, especially its vulnerable Christians.

Fortunately, there's something practical to suggest. 

The Catholic Near East Welfare Association -- among the largest the providers of aid to Christians in Syria, if not the largest -- has launched an emergency appeal to help Christian refugees get through the winter. 

The idea is to deliver "Winter Survival Kits" to 2,000 families at a cost of $210 each.

Issam Bishara, a representative of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association in Lebanon, told me Monday that because Syria's Christians generally have not headed for massive refugee camps in Turkey or Jordan, they're not getting help from international relief agencies. 

Fearing exposure to further hostility, they've headed to other parts of Syria and to Lebanon, taking refuge with families and friends, but in many cases, those folks are running out of food, water, heating oil and other supplies.

Bottom line: Without help, it's likely to be a long, cold and deadly winter.

Readers wishing to support the CNEWA appeal can find information and an online donation form here.

* * *

The Synod of Bishops on new evangelization drew to a close Sunday after three weeks of deliberations. 

As this column was written, the bishops were still debating the final propositions. 

Fortunately, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., offered a helpful rundown in his daily blog from the synod.

For the most part, they're predictable based on the synod's discussions -- calls for strengthening the parish, the family and outreach to youth, for instance -- but vague enough that they don't immediately point to dramatic new initiatives.

Every now and then, however, a synod generates a concrete idea that actually has teeth. The 1985 synod on the 20th anniversary of Vatican II, for instance, came up with the notion of publishing a universal Catholic catechism. Work started a year later, and the catechism rolled out in 1992.

One candidate to be the breakthrough of the 2012 synod is a proposition calling for creation of a new global body of cardinals and other prelates to promote religious freedom around the world.

As I reported Tuesday, the idea was floated by English-speaking figures at the synod such as Cardinals George Pell of Sydney, Australia, and Dolan. According to Pell, it quickly attracted strong support from other quarters, including the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

As is well known, the U.S. bishops established an Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty last September, designed to fight what they see as a growing set of church/state battles. 

Although opinion on that effort may be divided, there's no question the bishops are serious about it, and in many ways, the committee has become the engine driving the policy-setting train within the conference.

The dream for this new global body is that it could play a similar role for the universal church, moving the ball on far more lethal and direct threats to Christians and people of other faiths in a growing number of global hotspots. 

The stark reality is that we are witnessing the rise of a new generation of Christian martyrs in the early 21st century, estimated at 150,000 every year, and if defending these people can't engage the unified energies of the church -- left, right and center -- it's not clear anything ever could.

To be sure, there's concern among some bishops that this new body could devolve into a vehicle for chest-thumping and provocation, especially in regards to Islam.

"We can't just wade in there and bang the table and say we demand this, this and this," said Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton in a session with reporters Tuesday. "There are all sorts of cultural sensitivities within other religious groups."

That said, virtually everyone concedes this is a real issue and something needs to be done.

In an interview with NCR, Pell said the details are still to be worked out -- whether this new body will be based in Rome, for instance, and if so, under whose aegis. (The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Secretariat of State have both been mentioned.) 

It's also not clear who would sit on it, though the clear desire would be to include bishops from the most heavily affected zones, beginning with the Middle East.

Of course, this new body may never get off the ground or it could stall out as just another bureaucratic dead-end. Yet if it's launched with verve and commitment, it could be a game-changer.

* * *

On the lecture circuit, I have a favorite joke to capture the slow pace at which the wheels grind in the Vatican: "If you hear that the end of the world is coming, head for Rome, because it will get here last."

By implication, the converse is also true: If something does arrive in Rome, you can usually take it to the bank that it's already crested elsewhere.

That bit of wisdom comes to mind in light of a conference Wednesday at Rome's University of the Holy Cross on transparency and accountability in the administration of the church's money, sponsored by Opus Dei. 

In effect, the conference is a signal that the push for greater transparency, which has already become "best practice" in many parts of the world, is now becoming conventional wisdom in Rome, too.

During a speech I gave last week to an international meeting of Carmelites, I argued that financial transparency would be among the mega-trends in the church in the 21st century for three reasons.

• In the West, the fallout of the child sexual abuse scandals has left many bishops afraid that financial misconduct will be round two of the sex abuse crisis.
• In the developing world, the fight against corruption in the political and economic sectors, often aided and abetted by Western interests, is the top social justice priority of many bishops, theologians and lay activists who know the church can't credibly oppose corruption if it's seen as corrupt itself.
• In Rome, Benedict XVI has launched a far-reaching financial reform, including creating a new watchdog agency and opening the Vatican to outside secular scrutiny with the explicit aim of also sending a signal to the rest of the church about the need for transparency and accountability.

That point was echoed at the Santa Croce conference by Fr. Daniel Mahan, director of the O'Meara Ferguson Center for Catholic Stewardship at the Marian University of Indianapolis, who said that case for transparency rests on two pillars.

First, he said, transparent and responsible administration of the church's temporal goods causes those assets to grow. "That's not a miracle, but a simple fact of life," he said.

Second, he argued, "when the members of the church, especially the laity, have a clear and accurate understanding of the temporal realities of the church they love, they're much more likely to support the church and its mission."

* * *

On Wednesday, journalist Enzo Romeo, who covers the Vatican for Italy's Tg2 television network, launched his new book, Guerre Vaticane ("Vatican Wars"), in a presentation across the street from the Vatican Press Office in Rome's Ancora Bookstore.

The book was prompted by the Vatileaks affair, which lurched to a sort-of conclusion this week with the release of the sentence for Paolo Gabriele, the mole who passed rafters of confidential Vatican documents to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Romeo has a reputation as a reliable reporter, and his book provides a useful tick-tock on the whole Vatileaks mess, beginning with the publication in early 2012 of two letters written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former No. 2 official in the government of the Vatican City State and the current papal ambassador to Washington, D.C., about alleged corruption and cronyism in Vatican finances.

For those not gripped by the ins and outs of Vatileaks, the book also provides some broader perspective. At his presentation Wednesday, Romeo said he was struck by how the Vatican seems increasingly disconnected from the outside world.

"The Vatican is becoming increasingly self-referential," he said. "They argue, they discuss, they talk, thinking only of one another. They've lost a sense of contact with the people."

To break through that, Romeo floated an intriguing proposal. Cardinals, he observed, are all assigned Roman churches for which they're responsible, a reminder of the origins of cardinals as pastors in Rome. 

Today, he said, their relationship with those churches is mostly "heraldic" in the sense that one sees their coat of arms at the entrance but not much else. Maybe, he said, the cardinals could be asked to play some sort of pastoral role in those churches as way of restoring a direct relationship with ordinary people.

That's "not a utopia," Romeo insisted, "but a small step that could be taken" in the direction of a "post-war era in the Vatican," meaning a period beyond the internal conflicts revealed by the Vatileaks affair.

* * *

For readers outside Italy, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Romeo's book is his run-down of those prelates he considers papabili, meaning contenders to be the next pope. 

Here's how he breaks down the field:

Italians

1. Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan (whom Romeo clearly believes to be at the head of the pack)
2. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, president of the Italian bishops' conference
3. Archbishop Francesco Moraglia of Venice (not yet a cardinal, but a favorite of the more traditionalist wing of the church)
4. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture (Romeo concedes that Ravasi is an intellectual without pastoral experience and asks whether after Benedict XVI, "Can the church permit itself another professor?")

Non-Italians

1. Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
2. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria
3. Cardinal Peter Erdö of Budapest, Hungary
4. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France
5. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York
6. Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of São Paulo, Brazil
7. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
8. Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"

As a footnote, Romeo wrote the book before Turkson seemingly diminished his chances by playing an anti-Muslim video during the evangelization synod, a presentation criticized by bishops from several parts of the word for being alarmist and inaccurate.

As for Dolan, Romeo calls him "a conservative with a charismatic personality," saying that "those who don't know him well are struck by his good-natured personality and open smile."

Yet Romeo adds: "His sweet tone shouldn't deceive anyone. Dolan is sly (including in self-promotion, according to critics) but determined ... as president of bishops' conference in the United States, he's undertaken a battle to the last drop of blood against the Obama administration."

* * *

Finally, on an insider note, Romeo says something out loud that I've often thought about: The Vatileaks story was not broken by the vaticanisti, meaning journalists specialized in Vatican coverage, but by Nuzzi, an outsider to the world of the Holy See. That's all the more striking given that Gabriele, the papal butler who leaked the documents, actually knew many people in the Vatican press corps.

Romeo wonders aloud whether the vaticanisti didn't want to bite the hand that feeds them, meaning they're inclined to pull their punches, or whether their sense of responsibility prevented them from pursuing stories they knew would be overhyped and misunderstood. He calls that "an open question."

(For the record, I'm usually classified as a vaticanista myself, so the foregoing reflection also applies to me.)

In any event, Romeo said Wednesday, it's a fact that supposed specialists on the Vatican beat were largely "bypassed" on what turned out to be the most sensational Vatican story of recent years.

Scouts defend ‘duty to God’

THE Scout Association has defended its requirement that Scouts should promise to do their "duty to God", after a boy who is an atheist refused to do so.

The Bristol Post reported last week that George Pratt (above), aged 11, from Midsomer Norton, in Somer­set, could not be invested as a full Scout because, as an atheist, he did not feel able to make the Scout Promise. 

The promise states: "On my honour, I promise that I will do my best to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people and to keep the Scout Law."

George's father, Nick Pratt, told the newspaper that he believed that the Scouts had been "narrow-minded" in refusing to allow George to be invested as a Scout because he would not make a promise to God. 

A spokesman for the Scout Asso­ciation said: "All young people are required to make the Scout Promise if they wish to become a Scout. This is part of the fundamentals of Scout­ing. Variations of the Scout Promise are available for different faiths, such as the use of 'Allah' to replace 'God' for Muslim Scouts. However, all the variations of the promise recognise the 'duty to God' element. Young people are required to show both an understanding - relevant to their age - and an ac­cept­ance of the Promise before they become a member."
 
In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, Sarah Dale, from Lichfield, said that her eldest son, Tom, who is an atheist, "joined the 7th Lichfield Scout group a number of years ago, swearing 'to serve humanity and the Queen'."

The Scout Association spokesman said that pledging to serve "human­ity" instead of God was not accept­able, and that local Scouting managers would be looking into it.

The head of public affairs at the British Humanist Association, Pavan Dhaliwal, said that the Scout Promise "either excludes the non-religious, or forces them to make a dishonest state­ment. It is unaccept­able that organ­isa­tions which receive large amounts of public funding should be allowed to discriminate in this way."

The Woodcraft Folk, which de­scribes itself as an "educational movement for children and young people", is seen by some as a secular alternative to the Scouts. It does not require that children who join should make a promise to God.

The Chief Scout, Bear Grylls, is a Christian, and helps to promote the Alpha course.

The 'triple jeopardy' facing Britain

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has warned of the danger to the nation if the Government disregards Britain’s moral and spiritual heritage.

The bishop was speaking at the launch of his new book, Triple Jeopardy for the West: Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islamism and Multiculturalism, at All Souls Church in central London last night.

He said that radical Islam, multiculturalism and aggressive secularism were “real dangers” to Britain.

The failure of multiculturalism to integrate communities, he argued, had left them isolated and exposed to radicalisation.

“Multiculturalism to my mind has not been very productive in integrating communities,” he said.

“It has exposed communities in their isolation to extremism, whether of the far right or religious extremism.”

Bishop Nazir-Ali called for a change in approach by the Government to improve the integration of communities and enable social mobility in tertiary education.

Whilst acknowledging that it was the task of the Government to balance the competing interests of different communities, he insisted that the state “must have a moral and spiritual vision if it is to do that job properly”.

Criticising aggressive secularists, the bishop said that the absence of a moral debate on the hot button issues of the day would only make it harder to formulate policies and laws on a whole range of issues like embryo-related research, assisted suicide and abortion.

If interpretations of the world and human life were reduced to materialism, he further warned, the result would be “legal positivism” or the assumption that “law is law is law”.

Catholic couple rescues 1,400 Chinese orphans

An American couple living in China for 15 years says their success in rescuing over 1,000 medically-fragile orphans is due to totally relying on God, especially during trying times.
 
“You really have to have an absolute dependence on God that the money's gonna show up when you need it and that you're going to stay out of trouble,” Brent Johnson of the organization China Little Flower told CNA Oct. 17.

Founded in 1998, China Little Flower is the parent organization of Brent and Serena Johnson's “apostolic hobby,” Little Flower Projects, a charity that seeks to reach out to the most vulnerable of China's population by providing medical care to abandoned orphans and children.

While one was a student and the other a tourist, Brent and Serena met in China in 1990 and soon returned to the United States, where they converted to Catholicism and were married.

When they returned to China as teachers shortly after the 1995 birth of their eldest son, Thomas Becket, the Johnsons were confronted with the “unbelievable” conditions of Chinese orphanages.

“It was a confrontation with the truly ugly side of humanity,” Johnson said. “So we said, 'We gotta do something.'”

Although conditions in the government-run orphanages have improved since the 1990s, he said around one-third of the country's roughly 700 facilities still have an infant mortality rate that hovers near 100 percent.

The Johnsons asked the orphanage leaders if they could foster one of the children in their own home and were granted permission.

“We were just kind of ordinary, young Catholics living our faith, trying to do the right thing,” Johnson said. “When we started this, we didn't think of ourselves as missionaries.”

From then on, they convinced family friends in China to do the same. Eventually, they began to pay Chinese families to take in orphans as well.

“This wasn't any great leap in brilliance, this was just doing what (Serena's) parents had done,” Johnson said, referring to his in-laws in Connecticut who three adopted children, had three biological children and served as foster parents for several years.

Since then, the Johnsons and those who work with Little Flower Projects have helped rescue 1,400 orphans who would have otherwise died.

In 2005, the organization also began to arrange group homes for children with physical disabilities, giving them a place where they can live and be educated in a family-like setting until adulthood.

“We feel this incredible pressure to just save as many babies as we can,” he said.

Johnson, who works full-time as a start-up business manager and now has 6 children of his own, said the charity generally has only about 2-3 months of funding in the bank at one time.

“I don't know if it's bad management on my part,” he said with a laugh, “or God's plan.”

Johnson added, “The truth of the matter is that every time we get ahead with money, we start a new project.”

While some people have called such a move financially irresponsible, Johnson generally ignores their criticism.

“I think, 'Well, I have this money now. I can save 100 babies this year that otherwise wouldn't be saved.'”

Regardless of one's opinion of China, Johnson said it is important that Americans not “forget the little people” who make up the “bottom rung” of the country's nearly 1.4 billion population.

Prayer and educating oneself about China's orphans is the best way to get involved, he added.

Those who are interested can receive updates about the organization and the children they serve by “liking” their Facebook page, which frequently adds prayer requests and photos of the children in their care.

“As I said in the beginning, I think this is God's hand at work here, and I'm not one of those kinds of Christians that says that lightly,” Johnson said.

To find out more about China Little Flower, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Flower-Projects/230680524654.

Catholic chapel to open near Oklahoma abortion clinic

Catholic pro-life advocates in Oklahoma plan to open a perpetual adoration chapel and counseling offices next to an abortion clinic in hopes of serving women in need and ending abortion through prayer.
 
“We are 20 feet from the abortionist,” Father M. Price Oswalt, a leader of the project, told CNA Oct. 25. “We’re going to have some signs in our windows that say ‘Pregnant? Need help? Come here.’ That will draw people in.”

Fr. Price hopes the adoration chapel will “end abortion through prayerful reflection and prayerful means.”

“It’s the ultimate good right next to the ultimate evil,” he said. “Good will triumph.”

The priest, who is rector of the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague in Prague, Okla., helped plan the chapel and an attached counseling office with the support of the Holy Innocents Foundation. The chapel’s building is next door to the Warr Acres, Okla. abortion clinic Outpatient Services for Women.

The clinic is one of the three main abortion providers in the state.

Fr. Price emphasized that women considering abortion need help.

“Most of the time those women are in crisis mode,” he said. “They don’t really know what they want. They’ve been talked into an abortion most of the time. If they come to us, we can say, ‘we can help you , we can help you find options, we can talk to you, we can be your friend.’”
 
He said the chapel and the foundation’s counseling staff aim to be “compassionate and loving” and not “in their face.”

The center will refer women to the pregnancy center network Birth Choice, which has an office with an ultrasound machine a mile away from the clinic.

The chapel will seat about 50 people. It will have statues of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of pregnancy St. Gerard and St. Gianna Molla, whom Fr. Price called “the martyr of modern-day motherhood.”

The back of the chapel will have a memorial to the unborn where people can write their name and the name of their children into a book.

Fr. Price rejected one critic’s claim that the chapel will make women feel guilty.

“A chapel can only help the subconscious, and the conscience, come to life,” he said. “When you’re in the presence of God, then the Holy Spirit works on you. He helps convict you of whatever you need to be convicted of. Going in front of a building that has a chapel in it may call you in and then God can work as God works,” he said. “But the guilt is from the act that’s been performed. That’s the reality.”
 
Anyone feeling guilty, he said, should remember “that there’s hope, and that there’s reconciliation with God.”

Confession and Mass will be available at the chapel when a priest is available. Organizers hope to have a continuous prayer presence at the chapel, whose tabernacle is a gift from the Sisters of St. Joseph in LaGrange, Ill.

“Many will be reconciled to the Lord, especially if they’ve already committed abortion, they have one in their past or are contemplating it,” Fr. Price said.

The priest found inspiration in a similar project by Fr. Stephen Imbarrato in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. 

In North Dakota, the Diocese of Fargo approved a Catholic chapel across the street from an abortion clinic.

The chapel in Warr Acres is not funded by the archdiocese, but it operates with the permission of Archbishop Paul Coakley. He will celebrate a Mass dedicating the chapel.

Fr. Price appealed for prayer partners and financial partners to help meet the chapel’s monthly operating expenses and its $365,000 mortgage.

The Holy Innocents Foundation website is www.holyinnocentsokc.org.

Austrian bishops call for church unity to bust stalemate

In a 15-page pastoral letter, which Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna admitted was the "outcome of intensive dialogue with Rome," the Austrian bishops insist that renewal of faith in full communion with the pope and the church's magisterium, and with special emphasis on church unity, is the only way out of the stalemate between the bishops and the Austrian Priests' Initiative, which demands far-reaching structural church reforms.

The pastoral letter, titled Jahr des Glaubens or "Year of Faith," has a special chapter on the ongoing deadlock in the Austrian church since the Austrian Priests' Initiative, which has more than 400 members, published its "Appeal to Disobedience" in June 2011. 

The initiative, which has the support of a large number of Austrian lay Catholics, calls for radical church reforms, including the ordination of married men and women.

Schönborn, president of the Austrian bishops' conference, presented the pastoral letter at a news conference in Vienna in the first week of October, before he headed to Rome for the 2012 Synod of Bishops, which has the theme "the new evangelization" or reviving Christian faith in increasingly secular societies. 

The synod coincides with the opening of a special "Year of Faith," which runs from Oct. 11, 2012, to Nov. 24, 2013, which also has focus on "the new evangelization."

In announcing the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI said, "The church is well aware of the problems facing the faith" and recognizes that without a revitalization of faith rooted in a personal encounter with Jesus, "then all other reforms will remain ineffective."

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a "note" Jan. 7 outlining the aims of the special year. Critical to renewing one's faith and being a credible witness is having a firm and correct understanding of church teaching, it said.

According to Schönborn, after intensive talks with Vatican authorities, the Austrian bishops had agreed to use the Year of Faith to state their "position on the controversial issues under discussion in Austria with absolute clarity."

"And that is what we have done at Rome's request -- but also from our own, personal conviction," Schönborn said at the news conference.

The chapter in the bishops' pastoral letter titled "Reform Backlog?" begins: "We do not want to conceal what we are repeatedly being told in private and in public, namely that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the church situation and particularly with "church leadership," that is, with us bishops and with Rome. Behind this dissatisfaction, there is usually deep concern about a way forward for the church and about its future. Pope Benedict XVI showed how well-informed he was about these concerns in his impressive sermon at the chrism Mass on Maundy Thursday [April 5], in which he went into the "Appeal to Disobedience" by a group of priests in Austria. Many people in our country are under the impression that "no progress is being made," that "we're not moving forward" and so the catchphrase "reform backlog" has established itself. On the other hand, we bishops have been saying quite clearly for more than a year now that an "Appeal to Disobedience" cannot be left uncontradicted. Does this mean that we will now remain in a sort of "no-win situation for everyone involved," in which we continue to goad one another with more and more accusations? We see the Year of Faith as a chance being offered us by the Lord to find a way out of apparent or real deadlocks together."
 
The bishops go on to say that they share the concerns behind certain demands for reform. 

"Many Catholics are above all worried about the shortage of priests. In some parts of our country this is being felt more and more acutely. More and more people, whether they belong to the church or not, find it difficult to understand why the conditions for priestly ordination cannot be changed in such an emergency and why 'proven married men' (viri probati) cannot be ordained. They think that we bishops should put pressure on Rome to reform the present stipulations. What most people overlook, however, is that the Second Vatican Council decided in favor of retaining mandatory priestly celibacy in the Roman Catholic church and that all the episcopal synods since the council have confirmed this. Should this not be seen as a sign from the Holy Spirit?"

They then add, "We are convinced that God is calling men to the priesthood today. The question is only whether the humus in which such vocations can grow is there and is being nurtured."

Citing the priest shortage and the drastic reduction in regular church attendance, the bishops appeal to Austria's Catholics to become more mobile, amalgamate with neighboring parishes, travel farther to celebrate the Eucharist, and above all renew their faith.

The bishops repeat that they can understand that the faithful are impatient and expect and demand reforms, but point out that some of the changes could only be made at the cost of church unity and that they "as bishops are bound to preserve and promote that unity."

At the press conference, Schönborn emphasized that this statement did not mean that the bishops were no longer in dialogue with the priests who had signed the "Appeal to Disobedience."

"We remain in dialogue but some demands can only be made at the expense of church unity and that cannot be our [the bishops'] aim," he said.

The Austrian bishops did not think that their differences with the Priests' Initiative would lead to a schism, Schönborn said. He suggested that all those involved should take a "step back" (he used the English words) and take a critical look at the deadlock with the aim of finding out what they had in common.

In his archdiocese, Schönborn said, he would continue the policy of not appointing to leadership posts priests who had signed the appeal. One cannot represent the bishop and at the same time support an appeal against the bishop, Schönborn said.

The bishops had chosen not to write a shorter pastoral letter, he said, so that they could go into problems more deeply. The letter was to have been printed in full in all nine diocesan newspapers, which have a readership of approximately 460,000. 

"My wish would be for as many of the faithful as possible to study [the document] in their parishes, families and in prayer groups during the Year of Faith," Schönborn said.

Msgr. Helmut Schüller, head of the Austrian Priests' Initiative and initiator of the "Appeal to Disobedience," said that the letter showed church leaders were playing faith and the wish for reform against one another.

"'Renewal can only come from faith, and wishes for reform obviously cannot.' That is something I reject," said Schüller, a popular media personality and once Schönborn's vicar general.

While the Priests' Initiative wanted consensus, he said, "consensus must be built on a necessary altercation beforehand, otherwise it is a dead consensus. And if the majority of the people of God are excluded from finding the consensus, then the consensus is not very genuine."

He also said that it was "historically untrue" to say that Vatican II had decided in favor of retaining mandatory priestly celibacy, pointing out that Pope Paul VI had specially requested that the topic not be discussed at the council.

Vatican synod warns of "eclipse" of faith in rich countries

The Roman Catholic faith in many advanced countries risks being "eclipsed" by an increasingly secularized and materialistic world, bishops who discussed strategies on how to woo lapsed faithful back to the fold said on Friday.

The alarm was sounded in the final message of a synod of bishops from around the world who met at the Vatican on the theme of the "New Evagelisation", or the need to stop the hemorrhaging of the faithful, particularly in developed countries.

"Everywhere indeed we feel the need to revive a faith that risks eclipse in cultural contexts that hinders its taking root in persons and its presence in society ...," the message said.

The 1.2 billion-member Church will have its work cut out for it in developed nations in order to win back "the often distracted and confused hearts and minds of the men and women of our times", it said.

The Church is suffering desertions from its practicing flock in former strongholds in Europe, North America and Latin America due to sex abuse scandals, increasing secularism, rival faiths and open dissent against Church teachings on homosexuality and its ban on a female priesthood.

The message, a synthesis of the topics discussed in three weeks by more than 260 bishops, said that while the gospel could not be "a product to be placed in the market of religions", the Church needed to find new ways of putting it "into practice in today's circumstances".

It took a dig at the United States and Canada, saying the countries of North America needed "recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the Gospel".

SEX ABUSE SCANDALS

While the 10-page message tried to convey optimism, the synod was dotted with examples of the hurdles the Church faces in its attempt to re-evangelize people in countries that were once a bedrock of the faith.

During the synod, some bishops said it had become more difficult to ask lapsed and lukewarm Catholics to return to the Church after the sexual abuse scandals that hit the worldwide institution in the past decade.

"We are believers ... we believe that the spirit of the Lord still is the principle of the source of whatever healing should happen," Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila told a news conference presenting the message when asked about the sexual abuse crisis.

"This optimism is not in order to lead us to a false sense of serenity but really to drive us to find ways in addressing those really painful and scandalizing moments in the Church," said Tagle, who is one of six prelates who will be elevated to the high rank of cardinal next month.

Abuse scandals have been one of the greatest challenges faced by the Catholic Church, undermining its status as a moral arbiter and forcing it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation worldwide.

When the synod opened three weeks ago the pope acknowledged there were "bad fish" in the Church but urged lapsed Catholics to rediscover their faith and stop the advance of what he called a "spiritual decertification" in the developed world.

The synod formally ended on Sunday when the pope celebrated Mass with the bishops in St Peter's Square.

Brian D'Arcy: I felt like giving up when the Catholic Church tried to gag me

The well-known broadcaster and priest Fr Brian D'Arcy contemplated leaving the priesthood following his censure by a Catholic Church watchdog, a new BBC documentary reveals. 

The documentary, titled 'The Turbulent Priest', which was  screened by BBC NI on Monday evening last, provided an insight into the high-profile cleric's dilemma as he confronts his censure by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and grapples with some of its thorny issues such as its teachings on clerical celibacy. 

He also openly discussed his personal experience of clerical abuse as a young seminarian.

Last April it emerged that the Passionist priest had been censured by the the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome, which was angered by his criticism of the church's mishandling of clerical sexual abuse and his views on celibacy for priests, its teachings on contraception and homosexuality.

The BBC documentary followed the Enniskillen-based priest over a number of months as the 67-year-old talked to individuals within the church in a search for an answer as to whether he should stay or leave after 50 years in the priesthood. 

It showed him attending the International Eucharistic Congress last June and travelling to the UK as well as to Austria, where he met dissident priest, Fr Helmut Schuller, who is lobbying for reform of some of the church's core teachings. 

In a letter to Cardinal Sean Brady, Fr D'Arcy questions him about the future of the church. 

The cardinal responds, telling him: "I know that with your excellent access to media and superb communication skills you are well placed to share the fruits of such reflection with others. I wish you well as you continue to do so." 

Speaking ahead of Monday's broadcast, the popular 'Sunday World' columnist explained that talking to a range of contributors helped "clarify in my own mind" the answer. 

"I want to be a priest. I love being a priest. But I am not sure if the church loves me being a priest," he explained.

In the documentary he asked: "Is the price of being a priest that you stay quiet, that you don't be a whistle blower, and that the price of dying a priest is that you don't speak the truth?" 

The broadcaster also reveals his struggle with mandatory clerical celibacy, stating: "I would have been a much better priest had I married. I think it would have been the whole thing of sharing your life with somebody else and the whole thing of making sacrifices for somebody else and also that idea of a companion, a closeness, a friend, someone to call home." 
 
He is frank about the pain of his own personal experience of sexual abuse in the church, which occurred when he was an 18-year-old seminarian.

"I was preyed upon by a member of my own order. Of course the threat was made that unless I co-operated with this that I would not be ordained." 

As early as 1985, the 'Turbulent Priest' wrote about clerical sexual abuse in his 'Sunday World' column but the church in Ireland wasn't listening.

"There were scandals in Alaska ... and I had picked up on this from the American papers."

He is also concerned that the Vatican is returning to the conservative church of his youth, which he believes will alienate Catholics and warns that if "we allow them to impose this legalistic church again. . . that's what led to the abuse of children, abuse of power, the abuse of the church itself".

Is there a new face of atheism?

The winds of change are blowing through the world of atheism, as it seeks a softening of its ‘Dawkinsian’ attitude to religion and a more inclusive approach.

ATHEISTS ARE on the march. 

Census results published last week showed there was a four-fold increase in the number of people who said they had no religion, or were either atheist or agnostic, between 1991 and 2011, with 277,237 people falling into this category last year. 

The figures, however, only tell part of the story.

Ireland is seeing the emergence of a newer kind of atheist, who is anxious to dispel the myth that they are all one-dimensional, rabidly anti-religious Dawkinsians.

The winds of change could be seen at last weekend’s AGM of Atheist Ireland, where delegates agreed a new focus on promoting “an ethical society”, engaging in charity work and social justice campaigns, and even collaborating with religious groups on issues of common concern.

Leonie Hilliard, a Dublin-based science graduate who joined the group a year ago, admits, “Some of my friends are quite surprised by the charity aspect.” 

Atheist Ireland has already raised some money for microfinance projects in Africa under its “Good Without Gods” initiative.

Plans are afoot for a registered charity (one delegate joked that it should be called “a non-prophet organisation”) while members are also being encouraged to take on informal outreach work, such as visiting people in institutions “without preaching”.

Atheism might not have a clearly defined “ethical backbone”, says Hilliard, noting, “atheism is a belief system in the same way that not playing football is a sport.” 

However, she stresses, it does lend itself to a number of strong moral positions, including a “worldview of not judging people”. 

She adds: “Most people involved in the atheist movement are compassionate and want to do something good for the community and challenge the idea that it’s all about secularising Ireland.”

Astrid Malachewitz, who is originally from Germany but now lives in Arklow, Co Wicklow, is similarly irked by some Irish misperceptions about atheism. 

“I don’t think atheism is a negative movement to start with. Belief in God is replaced with belief in science, justice and equality, and that’s a positive thing.”

She admits some Irish atheists are extremely hostile towards the Catholic Church but such bitterness is not universal.

“I am not one of those people who say if you are a religious person you must automatically be evil,” she says. Nor must every interaction with a person of faith be an opportunity for point-scoring. If attending a mass, for example, a funeral, “I don’t kneel, but I went to my nephew’s communion and it was a wonderful day, and it was very important for me to be there.”

While she has never been asked to be a godparent, “as a cultural thing I’d have no problem with it”, and she finds it amusing rather than annoying that Irish people often finish conversations with “God bless”. 

She puts it down to cultural Catholicism, something she can fully understand: “I feel culturally Lutheran.”

In tone at least, Malachewitz and Hilliard seem to represent a departure from the New Atheists, the sharp-tongued, all-male troupe of writer-activists led by Richard Dawkins. 

What might be called the newer atheists are not only more diverse but perhaps slower to judge and quicker to turn the spotlight inwards.

Such introspection has triggered no small amount of debate in the atheist movement internationally, a lot of it focused on the issue of gender. 

Last August, a new online forum, Atheism Plus, or A+, was launched by Jen McCreight, a Seattle-based blogger and secularist. Backed by a number of prominent women atheists, it seeks “a new wave of atheism” aimed at “promoting social justice” and “working against bigotry, hatred and discrimination”.

Her biggest concern is what she sees as deep-rooted misogyny in the atheist community. 

Whenever she speaks in a light-hearted way about sexual issues, she says she receives obscene propositions, while posts about feminism are usually met with abuse.

Likening atheism to a “boys’ club”, she wrote to fellow secularists: “I don’t feel safe as a woman in this community – and I feel less safe than I do as a woman in science, or a woman in gaming, or hell, as a woman walking down the f***ing sidewalk.”

McCreight was not the first woman to make this complaint. In a notorious incident, dubbed “Elevatorgate”, blogger Rebecca Watson alleged she received an inappropriate late-night proposition in a lift during the World Atheist Convention in Dublin last year. 

She wrote about the episode online, drawing a critical response from none other than Dawkins, who sarcastically contrasted her situation with the plight of women in Islam.

McCreight spoke on the issue on a visit to Dublin last June, describing Dawkins’s response as “totally inappropriate”. 

Because atheists “are so hyperrational and hypersceptical”, if a woman among them says she felt harassed, “if you don’t have photographic evidence that it happened, it never happened,” she told an event hosted by Atheist Ireland.

Malachewitz agrees “there is a misogynistic streak” in the broader movement, but stresses, “on the whole I do feel welcome as a woman”. 

She adds that organisations such as Atheist Ireland have done a lot to combat prejudice, adopting a new policy on diversity and inclusion last year, and speaking out strongly on the issue. 

Its chairman Michael Nugent says he believes the misogyny identified “is not a specific atheist thing. It’s a societal issue and it’s an online issue. People are willing to say things about each other online that they would not say face-to-face.”

He is also keen to defend Dawkins, saying, “Richard is the opposite of the uncaring dogmatist his critics unfairly caricature him as.” He is, rather, “a sensitive, caring man.”

But what of the new emphasis being placed on ethics as an atheist concern? 

“I would not see it as a departure,” says Nugent. While there is a “mini-dogma” that says “atheism only means non-belief in gods, in practice we have already moved beyond that.”

Nugent has published a manifesto on “ethical atheism” (it “predates Atheism Plus”, he notes) which “tries to combine the best of our existing ideas into a set of principles”. The manifesto seeks to promote not only “reason, critical thinking and science”, but also “natural compassion and ethics . . . inclusive, caring atheist groups” and “fair and just societies”.

Practising what it preaches, Atheist Ireland has built alliances with human rights, LGBT and women’s groups to campaign on issues such as constitutional reform. 

It is now hoping to work in partnership with religious campaigners on shared concerns such as blasphemy laws.

“Ideally I would like to see ourselves and various religious groups taking a common stance on people being jailed or persecuted on the basis of belief. Our problems with the blasphemy law in Ireland pale into insignificance compared to problems faced by religious people in Islamic countries.”

In time, such initiatives may help to change the public perception of what it means to be an atheist.

“People feel the word atheist has a stronger assertion that it actually has,” says Nugent. “I think people believe, firstly, atheism means you are claiming with certainty that there are no gods and, secondly, that you are implying your position is unbreakable, whereas every atheist I know will say this is a position based on currently available evidence and we may be mistaken.”

Does this represent a softening of the New Atheist stance? 

Or are Irish atheists simply becoming better understood? 

 One thing’s for sure, they are no longer the novelty they once were. 

Malachewitz moved here 12 years ago from a country “where atheism was never a big deal”.

“I realised Ireland had changed when my mother-in-law started quoting Christopher Hitchens.”

ATHEISTS IN IRELAND by the numbers 

320 – number of atheists in 1991 census

277,237 – number of people categorised as non-religious in 2011 census (3,905 atheists, 3,521 agnostic and the remainder no religion)

10.5% – percentage of non-religious people in Galway

2.4% – percentage of non-religious people in Monaghan

14:10 – proportion of men to women in non-religious population

56% – proportion of non-religious people with a third-level qualification (compared to national average for such a qualification of 36 per cent)

14,769 – number of non-religious primary-school children

47% – proportion of Irish people who consider themselves religious, as surveyed last year by pollsters affiliated to Win-Gallup International (a drop from 69 per cent in 2005).

Source: Census 2011.

Note: “non-religious” category covers respondents who declared themselves as either atheist or agnostic, or having no religion

Priest’s name finally cleared after two-year ordeal

THERE was joy, applause and even cheers at the vigil Mass on Saturday evening at St Oliver Plunkett Church Blackrock when Cardinal Sean Brady announced to the congregation that former Parish Priest Fr Oliver Brennan has been fully cleared by the Catholic Church investigation into allegations of child abuse which were made against him.

Fr Brennan had already been cleared last November in an investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Fr Brennan spoke to the Democrat about his two-year ordeal, the long wait for his name to be fully cleared.

“It has been two years since I have been without a ministry, and a year since I was told my the PSNI that the allegations against me were false. From the very beginning the PNSI could tell me I was innocent, but the Church took up its own investigation and this went to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome. I expected that investigation to be completed in June but it has taken until now.”

“In the past the Church did not deal properly with actual abuse cases, but now it investigates everything even if the allegations are false.”

“It has been two very difficult years. I will not be back working in Haggardstown as changes and parochial appointments have already been made. But the Cardinal contacted me on Friday and told me the news so I am looking forward to taking up a new ministry as soon as possible. Hopefully I will have news by the end of the week. I was not at Mass on Saturday evening when the announcement was made but I believe that people were delighted and I grateful for their support and good wishes.”

The allegation against Fr Brennan was supposed to have occurred over 30 years ago.

In August 2010 the Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh Gerard Clifford announced at Mass in Blackrock that the allegation had been made and that Fr Brennan would stand down from his ministry until the investigation was completed.

October - The Holy Rosary

To Our Lady of the Rosary

O Virgin Mary, grant that the recitation of thy Rosary may be for me each day, in the midst of my manifold duties, a bond of unity in my actions, a tribute of filial piety, a sweet refreshment, an encouragement to walk joyfully along the path of duty.

Grant, above all, O Virgin Mary, that the study of thy fifteen mysteries may form in my soul, little by little, a luminous atmosphere, pure, strengthening, and fragrant, which may penetrate my understanding, my will, my heart, my memory, my imagination, my whole being.

So shall I acquire the habit of praying while I work, without the aid of formal prayers, by interior acts of admiration and of supplication, or by aspirations of love.

I ask this of thee, O Queen of the Holy Rosary, through Saint Dominic, thy son of predilection, the renowned preacher of thy mysteries, and the faithful imitator of thy virtues.

Amen.