Anti-Gay Protesters Object To Lesbian Pastors At Washington Church

Police were called after protestors "aggressively" engaged with members of a Baptist church in Washington that has appointed a lesbian couple as co-pastors. 

The group of 5-7 protesters "stormed through" Calvary Baptist Church on Sunday, shouting slogans and carrying signs as they made their way to the pulpit, according to the Baptist News.

The group was confronted by church members but only left after the police were called, before re-forming on the pavement outside the church.

Pastor Elijah Zehyoue of Calvary said the protesters were "aggressively engaging" members arriving for the 11am service, as well as a passer-by who appeared to be interested in attending the church.

The protesters, who said Calvary members were "going to hell" and that the church was "the house of Satan", reportedly did not identify themselves as representing any particular group.
 
The protest came after the church announced on 9 January that it was hiring Sally Sarratt and Maria Swearingen as the congregation's new senior ministers.

The couple, who married the weekend after same-sex marriage became legal in South Carolina (SC) in 2014, were ordained to the ministry by First Baptist Church in Greenville, SC, the following year.

The women, who are currently chaplains in the Greenville area, are scheduled to begin their work at Calvary on 26 February.

Zehyoue said of the protesters: "It was pretty difficult to get them to stop and leave the sanctuary. Outside they were still pretty aggressive with members and visitors and a random passer-by who looked like they may have been coming to the church."

The church was almost empty when the protesters took over the pulpit, except for choir members who were practicing at the time.

Nonetheless, Zehyoue, who is preparing new security measures before the pastors join in February, said the incident was "disturbing and unnerving".

Church moderator Becky Vaughn added: "While the language was not comfortable, it was still basically peaceful. There was no effort to do harm, and they did move out to the side-walk."

She said that about 15 members stayed at the front door while the protesters remained on the pavement, adding that members prayed and sang hymns and "assured them that God loves them and we love them."

After the confrontation the morning service went ahead planned, with the associate pastor, Erica Lea preaching her scheduled sermon: a call to unity.

"As disturbing as it was, the protest was a good moment where many of our church members were energised and found the presence of the Holy Spirit on the steps of our church and that was powerful moment," said Zehyoue.

He added that it was "what we call just another Sunday at Calvary."

ECHR’s Grand Chamber reverses Italian surrogacy ruling

The pro family Iona Institute has welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber overturning an earlier ruling in a case involving an Italian couple who used a surrogate mother in Russia to have a child to whom neither of them was biologically related.

On Tuesday, in a ruling ‘Paradiso and Campanelli v. Italy’, the court held that the Italian authorities were within their rights to remove the child from the couple in 2011.

This reversed a previous ruling in which the European Court held that Italy violated the right of the married couple to recognise the child as their own, despite there being no biological tie.

Donatina Paradiso and Giovanni Campanelli from Colletorto in Molise used the Russian law firm Rosjurconsulting, which specialises in reproductive law and surrogacy, after several failed attempts to conceive through IVF.

The baby boy was born in Moscow in February 2011 to a surrogate mother via IVF.

The couple were registered as the baby’s parents, in accordance with Russian law, but without any indication that the child was born through surrogacy.

They were later provided with documents from the Italian Consulate in Moscow allowing the child to leave for Italy.

But when the couple attempted to register the birth in Colletorto, they were accused of fraud after the Italian Consulate informed authorities that information provided on the child’s birth certificate was incorrect.

A DNA test later that year revealed that Campanelli was not the child’s biological father.
Under Italian law, the person who gives birth to a baby is legally its mother, and the use of surrogate mothers is illegal.

In October 2011, the Campobasso Minors Court ruled that the child be removed immediately from the couple and placed under guardianship, on the grounds there was “no biological relationship between them” and because there were doubts over the couple’s ability to raise a child.

The baby was placed in a children’s home, without Paradiso and Campanelli being informed of its location or allowed any contact, and in January 2013 the child was entrusted to foster parents. The child’s biological mother could not be traced.

In its ruling, the ECHR said the Italian state had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights enshrining the right to respect for private and family life.

Although Paradiso and Campanelli, aged 48 and 60 respectively, had spent only six months with the baby, the court considered the period to have “covered important stages in his young life and they had behaved as parents towards him during that period”.

However, Tuesday’s ruling highlighted that the Italian authorities removed the child from the parents in order to protect other children. They did not want to see what amounted to a market in children being created.

According to the Iona Institute, what the couple did was, “in effect, to order and buy a child that was not theirs”.

The Italian State wanted the child to be adopted by another couple instead.

The adoption process was begun but the couple went to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope of winning the right to become the child’s legal parents.

According to the Iona Institute, the decision by the European Court of Human Rights is quite narrow in scope.

“The fact that neither one of the couple has a biological relationship with the child was decisive. It was on this ground that the court has now decided they are not a family under the Convention.”

However, the Institute also highlighted that the decision has “nothing to say about cases where one of the couple might be biologically related to the child, nor does it require signatories to the Convention to follow the Italian path, but it is a step in the right direction because if the original ruling had stood, it would have put big pressure on signatories to the Convention, including Ireland, to authorise what amounts to baby-buying”.

Surrogacy per se, the Iona Institute underlined, remains “deeply problematic because it always divides the mother of a child into two people (the birth or surrogate mother, and the biological mother who provided the egg)”.

The Iona Institute statement concluded, “because the women who effectively rent out their wombs (even so-called ‘non-commercial surrogacy’ involves big payments), are nearly always poorer than those who use their wombs, the practice is almost inherently exploitative.”

Argentine nun's cause for beatification is advancing

The theological commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved last week a miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Catalina de María Rodríguez, foundress of the Slaves of the Heart of Jesus.
 
Following the Jan. 19 approval, the next step for her beatification is approval of the miracle by a commission of cardinals in the congregation.

The miracle is the healing, 19 years ago, of a woman in Argentina's Tucuman province who had severe heart disease.

In the event that the miracle is approved by the commission of cardinals, they must draw up the decree of beatification to be presented to Pope Francis. 

Saturnina Rodríguez de Zavalia, who took the name Catalina de María in religious life, was born in Cordoba, Argentina in 1823. Her mother died when she was three, and her father when she was nine. Thereafter she was cared for by her aunts.

She did the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius at age 17 and felt a call to an active religious life, but in Argentina at the time, there were only contemplative orders of women.

She dedicated herself to promoting the spiritual exercises and in 1852 she married Manuel Antonio de Zavalía, a widower with two children. She was strongly encouraged to do so by a secular priest, Fr. Tiburcio López, whom she had taken as her spiritual director when the Jesuits were expelled from Cordoba.

Zavalia had threatened suicide if Saturnina refused him, and Fr. López declared her responsible for the salvation of his soul, and she took the marriage to be God's will.

Saturnina conceived one child, who was stillborn, and Zavalia died in 1865.

After her husband's death, her desire to enter religious life re-emerged, as she was adoring the Blessed Sacrament. She was inspired to  form a community serving following the rule of St. Ignatius Loyola and forming vulnerable women with its spirituality. 

After seven years of trials and setbacks, she still maintained her spirits because  “that idea was embedded in my soul and even if I wanted to I could not do away with it” and in those attempts to pursue her dream said, “I found consolation in God, from whom I hoped for everything, and I never lacked confidence in him.”

Finally, on Sept. 29, 1872, she founded the Slaves of the Heart of Jesus, the first congregation of apostolic life in Argentina.

The order spread across Argentina, and is today also present in Chile, Spain, and Benin.
Mother Catalina de María worked during her religious life with Saint José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the “Gaucho priest”, sending 16 sisters of her congregation to a school he had founded.

She died April 5, 1896 at the motherhouse of her congregation, when more than 200 women had joined her community.

Her cause for canonization was opened in 1941, and she was named a Venerable in 1997. The acknowledgement of a miracle worked through her intercession opens the way to her beatification.

Catholic Girl Guides not taking boys who identify as females

The Catholic Girl Guides of Ireland (CGI) will not presently accept boys identifying as girls into their organisation. 

The Irish Girl Guides says it is considering welcoming boys who "self-identify" as girls.

However, while the CGI says it is taking a lot of time and effort to examine this measure, it will not currently welcome a self-identifying girl into the group in the meantime.

"I think this would be in the best interests of everyone, and especially for that child, until a policy is developed," said Michelle Finnerty, spokesperson and volunteer for CGI.

"We would tell the parent 'leave it with us, we are actively working on it and we will have a policy very soon'.

"We don't want to be in a position of making their [boys identifying as girls] lives any more difficult for them."

Ms Finnerty added that although the CGI has not been approached with a scenario such as this, one of its volunteers travelled to Sweden recently to attend a round-table discussion on gender and membership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

Interest

"One of our members has a special interest in this area and had gathered a lot of useful information on this topic while she was over there.

"Putting together a policy on this is going to take a long time, because it will need a lot of consultation. We have to listen to the views of our youth members and parents' opinions, along with expert advice, too," she said.

Linda Peters, chief executive officer of the Irish Girl Guides, said that "our policy is that anyone who lives their life as a female is welcome to join our organisation".

However, when asked if she would presently accept a boy identifying himself as a girl, she said: "I don't know. It's a hypothetical question, so I'm not going to answer it or comment further. We'll be in a better position to go into more detail when we finalise our guidelines on this topic."

Ms Peters added that there is an IGG volunteer who has a transgender child, but who is not a member.

"The adult is a volunteer leader with us and has a child that is transgender. We're consulting with her from a leader's perspective. Her child is not a member," she said.

Alan Matthews, group leader of the all-boys St Patrick's Scout Group in Dundalk, said that he wouldn't see any problem with allowing a self-identifying boy from joining his troop.

"I don't see why we wouldn't let them join. If they want to identify themselves as a boy, fair enough. I suppose it's their human right and we're not going to stand against them. I'm sure six- and seven-year-olds wouldn't notice the difference," Mr Matthews said.

Cardinal Wuerl: ‘Amoris Laetitia is part of Church’s faithful and living tradition’

Cardinal Donald Wuerl said Pope Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) reaffirms Catholic teaching on marriage and the family while recognising the importance of accompanying people, especially in their difficulties.

The document also stresses that the Catholic Church must help them to form — and live by — their conscience guided by the truth of the Church’s teachings, Washington’s archbishop said.

Cardinal Wuerl made the remarks in a January 6 letter to the priests of the Washington Archdiocese.

The cardinal — who participated in two Synods of Bishops on marriage and the family that preceded the release of the papal document — said Amoris Laetitia is part of a continuum of the papal magisterium, as were documents issued by St John Paul II and Benedict XVI following earlier synods.

He noted that individuals, guided by their conscience, are ultimately responsible for their own actions, including their reception of the sacraments. Some critics have questioned the document for seeming to allow an opening for some civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

“Amoris Laetitia presents unchanged the teaching of the Church on marriage and the family, the recognition that many have not appropriated the teaching and thus our task to help them do so, and finally, the distinct role of individual conscience when it comes to a judgment of culpability before God for individual human acts,” the cardinal said in the letter.

In addition to the letter to the priests, Cardinal Wuerl met with the stateside seminarians of the archdiocese on January 21 at the St John Paul II Seminary, to offer pastoral reflections on the papal document.

In his letter to the priests on Amoris Laetitia, the cardinal made reference to the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teachings on marriage (No. 1601-1666) and moral conscience (No. 1776-1794) and what the Code of Canon Law says about marriage (Canons 1055-1165).

Cardinal Wuerl said Amoris Laetitia emphasises the importance of priests presenting Catholic teaching on marriage and accompanying the faithful in this secular age when so many don’t understand or follow that teaching, so they can form good consciences and make right judgments.

“It is not enough to present the doctrine concerning marriage,” he wrote. “Our priestly obligations call us to accompany the faithful as they try to appropriate and live the teaching. We are teachers and pastors. Our walking with them is all the more important when they find themselves in difficult situations or when they do not yet see the value of our teaching, or its meaning in their life.”

The cardinal underscored the role of priests in helping people form their conscience so they can be guided by Catholic teaching and then make right judgements in their moral decision-making.

“Our task as pastors of souls is to provide the guidance that we hope will lead the person to more fully grasp the teaching and make a right judgment,” the cardinal wrote. Noting the catechism’s teaching on forming and following one’s conscience, he added that priests “are called to walk with the faithful so that they might grasp, understand and make their own the teaching of the church. … But the person, not the priest, makes the final personal conscientious judgment.”

Noting the complexities of today’s world and the importance of accompanying people on their journey of faith, Cardinal Wuerl said ministering to them is more than just a matter of truth and consequences.

“We have to recognise that moral teaching and pastoral accompaniment involve more than simply declaring the truth and imposing the consequences,” the cardinal wrote.

“Christian discipleship, as we experienced and as Amoris Laetitia affirms, is not so black and white –- cut and dry,” he continued. “Pope Francis tells us, what we already know, that some people, perhaps more than we appreciate, struggle to see meaning in our teaching, let alone embrace it as a fruitful guide to life. We have to find a place for all of these brothers and sisters in God’s family.”

That teaching on conscience is not new, Cardinal Wuerl wrote. “From the beginning, it has always been understood that while we present the Church’s teaching, and this we should do with clarity and precision, it is the individual’s conscientious judgement that places the person before God in determining his moral responsibility.”

That same moral dynamic takes place regarding the reception of the sacraments, the cardinal added. “At Mass, we priests invite people to the banquet of the Lord. Individual parishioners are responsible for the judgment of the state of their soul before God.”

Cardinal Wuerl pointed out that Amoris Laetitia “presents a rich reflection of God’s mercy,” a point that Pope Francis made at the closing Mass of the Year of Mercy, when he noted that the power of Christ “is not power as defined by the world but the love of God, a love capable of encountering and healing all things.”

In facing any questions about what Amoris Laetitia means and how it should be applied, the cardinal encouraged the priests to remember “that its teaching is the clear and perennial voice of the church’s witness to the truth.”

Teaching the faith and accompanying the faithful is a matter of leading people to Jesus and helping them form good consciences and follow them as best they can in their own situations, the cardinal wrote.

“But we must also reaffirm that the living of that truth in the real concrete order involves individuals, their appropriation of it and our effort to accompany them as they form their conscience — to the best of their ability — and try to grow closer to the Lord,” Cardinal Wuerl wrote.

“It is one thing to affirm clearly the teaching of the church. It is another to claim to be able to apply the teaching in every individual setting with the assurance that you can make the individual’s conscientious judgement for him.”

Cardinal Wuerl noted that over the Catholic Church’s more than 2,000-year history, critics have questioned popes and papal teaching, but Pope Francis, like St Peter the first pope and all successive popes, remains the rock upon which Jesus promised to build the Church, and the touchstone for the faith.

“Keeping in mind also that even if a few object to Amoris Laetitia, the vast, overwhelming majority of bishops around the world in union with the pope see in this teaching — the teaching of Amoris Laetitia and its call to pastoral care — the faithful, living tradition of the church,” the cardinal wrote.

School facilities to be leased instead of transferred to non-religious patrons

School facilities will be leased out by bishops and religious orders instead of fully transferred to new non-religious patrons, under Education Minister Richard Bruton’s plan to speed up the widening of choice for parents.

With only 10 school properties so far handed over to multi-denominational patrons under current divestment arrangements, he is announcing details of a new process to encourage more divestment of religious-controlled primary schools where parents want alternative patrons.

The ability of some religious orders to retain ownership of school properties while they might still owe the Department of Education millions of euro for redress over industrial school child abuse could cause political headaches for the minister.

But his department told the Irish Examiner that this process and the redress issue are entirely separate.

advertisement

“It is envisaged these transfers of patronage will be voluntary in nature,” it said.
 
Rather than transferring property to a new multi-denominational patron, a process Mr Bruton says has proved complicated in many areas so far, school properties will now be leased by the existing landowner in most cases where a new patron is required and selected.

The decision on which alternative patron takes over a school will be left to the landowner, usually the local bishop or a trust acting for religious orders, instead of the minister or his department. 

Such a policy could lead to concerns that bishops or religious bodies might try to keep control of schools away from patrons whose treatment of religious education they do not support.

However, Mr Bruton says the new process should respond to the wishes of local families, and is based around principles of transparency.

“Where the need for a transfer to a multi-denominational patron is identified, the existing landowner, in co-operation with the local school community, will decide what multi-denominational patron to transfer to,” he said.

The minister has outlined the proposals to Catholic bishops and wants them to make nominations to working groups that will develop protocols on the reassignment of patronage and on school amalgamations.

Where they wish to do so, existing staff and pupils whose parents allow it, could remain in place under the new patron in an existing school building, or should be free to transfer to local schools that remain under religious patronage. 

The plans are part of the Programme for Government.

Educate Together challenges Minister's 'flawed' divestment plan

Educate Together has today criticised the Government's plan to speed up the divestment of religious-run schools as "unfair and unworkable".

Education Minister Richard Bruton and his Department said today that they have consulted widely with the main school landowners, with different patron groups as well as a range of education stakeholders before developing the plans announced today. 

advertisement

However, Educate Together said that it was not consulted on the current proposal, which it claims prioritises the wishes of the Church and the Education Training Boards rather than parents in deciding the reassignment of schools. 

"The proposed plan is not a fair or transparent one as the state agencies charged with running the selection process - the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) - also have a vested direct interest in the process in that they are patrons of Community National Schools (CNS) and have clear and stated ambitions to grow that number," said Educate Together Communications Manager Luke O’Shaughnessy.

"The proposed plan seems to be designed to facilitate the handover of religious-schools to ETB-run schools in return for payment.

"It proposes a role for existing patrons or the trusts or individuals behind them who are the original landowners in deciding which patron would take over the running of a school. 

"This gives these bodies a disproportionate influence over the process and is a denial of the fundamental democratic rights of parents."

Educate Together has proposed an alternative approach, which would involve the State contacting the parents of all three-year-old children and seeking their first second and third preference for primary school via a confidential online process.

Statement by Bishop Brendan Kelly, chair of the Council for Education of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

On behalf of the Bishops’ Council for Education, I welcome the statements of today, and of last Friday, published by the Minister for Education & Skills, Mr Richard Bruton TD, in relation to the teaching of religion with sacramental preparation in Community National Schools, and concerning the plurality of provision of schools.  

The Council for Education will study these proposals and, in the meantime, will continue to engage with Minister Bruton, his departmental officials and with the Education and Training Boards.

Bishop Michael Smith describes his meeting with Pope Francis as ‘open and engaging’

Bishop Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath celebrated the 33rd anniversary of his episcopal ordination on Sunday 29 January. 

Bishop Smith was appointed Bishop of Meath by Pope Saint John Paul II and ordained bishop in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar on 29 January 1984.

As he celebrated the anniversary of his episcopal ordination, Bishop Smith reflected on the conclusion of the recent ‘ad limina’ visit to Rome which included a meeting with Pope Francis.

Pope Francis met Ireland’s Catholic bishops on Friday 20 January. Bishop Smith described the meeting, which lasted for over two hours, as “open and engaging”.

He said, “It was a unique experience for us.  All the bishops met Pope Francis together and it was very relaxed and open. The Holy Father was informal and positive during the discussions. He listened to our views and shared his own insights on a whole range of questions, including the challenges and opportunities facing the Church in Ireland today.”

While less than half of the bishops meeting with Pope Francis had attended a similar gathering before, this was Bishop Smith’s fifth ‘ad limina’ meeting.

During the course of 10 days, the bishops had discussions with all the major departments of the Roman Curia, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the offices dealing with Catholic education, clergy, liturgy and missions.  

The topics considered at these meetings included the role of women in the Church, the right to life, vocations and immigration.

“This was the most engaging series of meetings I have attended at the Vatican” Bishop Smith added.  “There was a sense of people listening to each other and real dialogue.  I think the openness of Pope Francis is having an impact in Rome.”

The bishops stayed at the Pontifical Irish College during their time to Rome.  

They celebrated Mass at each of the major basilicas, praying for the needs of the Church.  

They also had opportunities to meet Irish religious and missionaries in the city and were received at receptions in the Irish Embassies to the Holy See and to the Republic of Italy.

As he marked the conclusion of his fifth ‘ad lumina’ visit in Rome, Bishop Smith also celebrated the 33rd anniversary of his episcopal ordination on Sunday 29 January.

Schoolchildren to raise their voices in new musical celebration of faith in Archdiocese of Dublin

Over a thousand primary schoolchildren will raise their voices in a unique Festival of Faith taking place in Dublin this week.

The new Laudate Festival organised by the Archdiocese of Dublin will see children, representing 21 National Schools from all over the city, come together in an intergenerational signing fest of hymns,  new and old.

To accommodate the numbers taking part, the children, their parents, brother & sisters, grandparents, teachers and friends will be singing in concert in two large Church venues.  

The first takes place in Our Lady of Victories Church in Ballymun Road on Tuesday 31 January and the second in the Church of St. Laurence O’ Toole in Kilmacud on Wednesday 1 February.

The Laudate project hopes to encourage children and their families across the generations to learn, recall and sing hymns together in schools and parishes so the children, along with the parish community, may feel more connected at parish liturgical events and weekly celebrations.

Alongside newer hymns that children have learnt in recent years in schools such as Liam Lawton’s Send Forth your Spirit & Hiding Place, Mams, Dads, and Grannies & Grandads will remember and hopefully sing along with BringFlowers of the Rarest and Ag Críost an Síol.

The Laudate Festival in Dublin is part of the national celebration of Catholic Schools Week 2017.

Members of the local community, parish choirs, parishioners along with all members of the school community are all invited to attend Laudate to gather in song, celebration and reflection.

For more see www.dublindiocese.ie.