Martin fills cathedral
Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral was filled on two consecutive nights as Fr James Martin SJ (above), offered Lenten reflections. The invitation to speak at the cathedral was made by Cardinal Blase Cupich last October after a prominent seminary disinvited Fr Martin from speaking. This happened after conservative groups voiced objections to his presence.
Rethink after $25m grant request
A traditional audience between Pope Francis and members of a US-based philanthropic foundation has been postponed following a row over a request for a grant of $25 million made to the body by the Vatican.
The Papal Foundation, which has dispensed $100m to Catholic causes since it was founded in 1990, has said it is rethinking its governance and “relationship to the Holy See”.
The controversy started after the Vatican asked the charity for for an unusually large sum to help with the reform of a Rome-based hospital, the Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI), which the Holy See has been overseeing. The request split its members. Some of them opposed the grant on the grounds that, in the past, the hospital’s management has faced allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
In a statement, the Papal Foundation attributed the problems to a failure to correct “anonymous, inaccurate and misleading information, as well as unsubstantiated claims” that called into question “the integrity of the request by the Holy See and of members of the board”.
While the donors are wealthy lay Catholics, the Foundation is controlled by US cardinals. When the IDI request was submitted, the lay members protested. In the end, only half the grant was paid out.
The Foundation said it aimed to provide “necessary corrective measures for healing” by providing “its full membership with the facts of the IDI grant.”
The French bishops have urged the government not to legalise euthanasia later this year as public consultations on a revision of France’s bioethics law took place around the country. Holding their spring assembly at Lourdes, the bishops called on citizens and parliamentarians to “stir their consciences, so we build a fraternal society where we take care of each other individually and collectively”.
Opinion polls suggest that the Church faces an uphill battle, as growing numbers of people in France seem willing to legalise euthanasia. The law now allows doctors only to put terminal patients into deep sedation until death. The bishops said new legalisation would force doctors to view some lives as not worthy of being lived; this would go against their Hippocratic oath, and create “institutions specialised in death”.
Vizcarra replaces Kuczynski
President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru resigned on 21 March, amid corruption allegations and on the eve of a planned vote to impeach him in the country’s Congress.
The Episcopal Conference of Peru said that his resignation marked not only a change in power but a return to morality in politics. “We have arrived at a point of political breakdown. A new start requires not only a change in command but to recuperate ethics and morals at all levels,” the bishops said. Martin Vizcarra, who had been serving as Peru’s ambassador to Canada, was sworn in as the new President on Friday 23 March.
Kuczynski is accused of benefiting from a contract with the Brazilian construction firm, Odebrecht, which is linked to a continent-wide corruption scandal, when he was a government minister a decade ago. He denies the charges.
Vote for ‘possible good’
The Mexican Episcopal Conference issued a press statement on 19 March, calling on the country’s Catholics to vote for the “possible good” instead of the “lesser evil” in this year’s elections. On 1 July, a new president will be elected, along with 128 senators and 500 federal representatives. The bishops’ letter, “Participate to Transform”, calls on voters to select candidates based on their individual merits rather than their party affiliation.
The left-wing populist presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is polling ahead of his two main rivals. They are Ricardo Anaya, of the socially conservative PAN party, and Jose Antonio Meade, representing the incumbent PRI party.
The bishops exhort Mexicans to remember the lessons of their religion when they go to vote, including “the respect that people deserve from the moment of conception until natural death [and] the importance of monogamous, heterosexual marriage”.
Baniwa’s first priest ordained
The first priest of the Baniwa indigenous people – one of 23 indigenous groups in a border region between Brazil and Colombia – has been ordained in the Diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira in Brazil by Bishop Edson Taschetto Damian. Fr Geraldo Trindad Montenegro will now work among the Baniwa. “I think it will be easier for me to talk with my people and show them that a priest is another member of the community”, he says, “and not one who decides and commands or responds to everything, which unfortunately was very present [previously] in our Catholic evangelisation.”
The São Gabriel de Cachoeira Diocese has the highest percentage indigenous population in Brazil, exceeding 90 per cent.
Sydney’s Archbishop, Anthony Fisher, has begun the formal process for the beatification of Eileen O’Connor, (1892-1921). Despite having broken her spine aged three and suffering constant nerve pain from tuberculous osteomyelitis, she went on to co-found Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor in April 1913 with the Missionary of the Sacred Heart priest, Fr Edward McGrath. The members of the order are dedicated to caring for the sick and dying poor in their homes.
Australian Cardinal George Pell entered what was thought to be the final few days of his committal hearing on historical sexual offences in Holy Week, but is expected to have to wait until April to find out whether he will have to stand trial.
The hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told on 23 March that Magistrate Belinda Wallington may take several weeks to rule on whether the 76-year-old Cardinal will stand trial. The hearing was expected to adjourn on Holy Thursday. Ms Wallington’s decision is expected in April.
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