Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, S.J. Bishop Of The Chinese

Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, S.J.

Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, of Shanghai, a leader of China’s underground Catholic community, died March 15. He was 96. He refused to recognize the Chinese government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association. So, he served in prison with other priests, who were arrested in 1955, during a government crackdown. From 1958 to 1978, Fan was imprisoned in Qinghai Province. There, his work included carrying corpses to the cemetery, reports Ucanews. China claims it has 23 million Christians, 11 million of them Catholics. “The real number is somewhere between 60 to 130 million”, the Economist estimates. Shanghai refused permission that the funeral mass be held at St Ignatius Cathedral. Instead, it limited rites for Bishop Fan to an open courtyard at the funeral home. 

Chinese Catholics are divided between two communities. One group refuses to “render to Ceasar the things that are God’s”’ and therefore, driven underground. The Vatican accepts the other, with some compromises, to continue its existence. Both stand with the pope. Both face persecution from Chinese authorities, as have other Christian denominations.  

“The more persecution, the more the church grows,” said Protestant Pastor Samuel Lamb in 1993. He died in 2013, age 88.  His 20 years of jail and forced labor followed an earlier two-year sentence. Some 30,000 people attended his memorial service. Police constantly pressured Lamb to comply with official doctrine and register with the government. He always refused, as did Joseph Fan. “China strictly regulates the religious activities of Uighur Muslims,” the latest US State Department report on religious freedom notes. “…It harassed or detained Catholic clergy not affiliated with the government Catholic Patriotic Association... Some 83 Tibetan monks, nuns, and laypersons increasingly sought to express despair and dissent by selfimmolating in 2012.” Fan was baptized a Catholic in 1932, joined the Society of Jesus in 1938. He was named Shanghai bishop by John Paul II in 2000. But the Communist Party refused to recognize him. Ceasar rendered to itself what belonged to God. Security police arrested Fan repeatedly and ransacked his flat. In 1992, the accounts of the entire Shanghai underground church were closed down. His intended successor was Thaddeus Ma Daqin, but he too was taken into custody in 2012 after he quit the government association.

Link (here)

Jesuit Bishop Appointed By Pope Francis, " The New Bishop Is Arguably Very Conservative."

Bishop Michael Barber, S.J.

"The bishop hasn't responded to any inquiries or letters or phone calls," said Matt Werner, a longtime East Bay resident and Newman Hall parishioner since 1998. He wrote to Bishop Michael Barber, S.J. last month, requesting that he reconsider the dismissals. "He's been completely silent on the topic." Without any explanation from the diocese, Werner and others are left wondering whether the progressive ways of Newman Hall, which serves East Bay residents, including the UC Berkeley community, may be a contributing factor. "All are welcome here," Werner explained. "Gays, lesbians, people who may not find a home at other Catholic churches. We want to make it a home for everyone." For this reason, some are questioning whether Barber might be uncomfortable with Edens' admission that he is gay, Werner said. But at this point, he said, "We're in the dark. There are a lot of different theories and rumors and one of them is that [it is because] Father Bill Edens is an openly gay priest ... and the new bishop is arguably very conservative."

Link (here) to the full article at East Bay Express

Fr. Michael Barber, SJ Selected By The Holy Father

Bishop Michael Barber, S.J. at the Oratory of Oxford, England

Michael Charles Barber was born in 1954 to Californians living temporarily in Salt Lake City. He is the oldest of three brothers, two of them Jesuit priests. As a young boy his early teachers, Ursuline Sisters from Santa Rosa and Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, instilled the beauty of the Catholic faith in him. He was a youngster, like many baby boomers, who made his First Communion in a parish hall because the church was still being built and spent his school days in crowded classrooms, where he was enthralled by visiting missionaries' stories of faraway lands. He would later go on to serve halfway around the world on islands that lacked luxuries but not people of faith. That's the Michael Barber, SJ selected by the Holy Father.

True to the Jesuit of tradition of serving where he was needed most, Bishop Barber was willing to set aside his own pursuits, primarily, his post-graduate studies on Cardinal John Newman, to go the people. His long service as a military chaplain in the Navy has given him the closest thing to his own parish on his résumé — an aircraft carrier, and 7,000 military personnel awaiting deployment to Iraq in the tense days before the start of the war.

A call to help build vocations has led to two stints — one at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, the most recent at St. John's Seminary in Boston — where he has not only spent time in the classroom with young men studying for the priesthood, but served as spiritual director. Many of those young priests were present at his ordination and installation as bishop.

Link (here) to The Catholic Voice

Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J., "Peace Which The World Cannot Give, I Give Unto You."

Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.

This is how the Catholic looks at life:
“What return can I make to the Lord for all He has given to me?”

He has given me myself,
I can give myself back to Him.

He has given me this life,
I can live it for Him.

He has given me His own Son,
I can receive and welcome Him.

He has given me His Son’s life,
I can live with Him and in Him.

He has given me His Son’s death,
I can make that love my standard.

He has given me His own Fatherhood,
I can be a true son.
I can believe in Him.
I can trust Him.
I can be true to Him.
I can be what He wants me to be.
I can do what He wants me to do.

This what my faith means to me:
It is the key to life’
It is the only key to peace;

“Peace which the world cannot give, I give unto you."

Link (here) to the full thoughtful piece on faith in Jesus by the Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.

New Jesuit Bishop In Oakland Will Shepard The Jesuit School Of Theology At Berkeley

The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California

Said to be a "low-key, humble" cleric, the Gregorian-trained pick – Fr. Michael Barber S.J., a Navy chaplian before taking up the Boston post in 2010. chaplain who likewise studied at Oxford – previously served as a spiritual director at the San Francisco seminary, St Patrick's at Menlo Park,

With the appointment, Barber – the fourth diocesan head named by Francis on these shores – becomes the first US Jesuit named a bishop by the first-ever Jesuit Pope. Ordained for the Company in 1985, the nominee professed his final vows in 2005. 

For purposes of context, the last time a simple priest was named to a Stateside post of this size came at a similarly early point in the last pontificate, when Msgr Kevin Vann – then a pastor in Springfield, Illinois – was tapped in May 2005 as coadjutor of Fort Worth, then a 400,000-member fold, which nearly doubled in size over the subsequent decade due to migration, birthrates and, well, just being Texas church. Yet while Vann was intended to have a period of apprenticeship under Bishop Joseph Delaney, the long-reigning prelate died the day before his successor's ordination, suddenly placing the provided ordinary-in-waiting on the cathedra with no prep. Back to the Bay, as indicated yesterday by the Oakland's apostolic administrator – Seattle's retired Archbishop Alex Brunett, who was parachuted into the diocese's reins amid the intensity of Cordileone's transition to "The City" – 

Barber will be ordained in an astonishingly short timeframe, the rites set for Saturday, 25 May at 11am in the postmodern Cathedral of Christ the Light, dubbed by locals on its 2008 opening as the "Space Egg." The diocese carved out of San Francisco in 1962, the fifth bishop of Oakland will be the first appointee to the post who requires episcopal ordination before taking office. 

A wildly diverse fold with a long history as a progressive bastion – not just among the secular clergy, but given the presence of institutions like the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley – beyond the challenges of the fold's broad ideological and cultural spreads, a notable hurdle Barber inherits is the remaining debt on the cathedral's $190 million construction cost, which is still said to extend into significant eight figures.

Link (here) to the full blog post at Whispers in the Loggia

Fr. Michael Barber, S.J. Named Bishop Of Oakland

 Next Bishop of Oakland, Fr. Michael Barber, S.J.

Pope Francis named a Boston-based priest with long-time ties to the Bay Area as the Bishop of Oakland, where the future bishop emphasized that he would lead a path more pastoral than political. Until now, Rev. Michael Barber had been the director of spiritual formation at a Boston seminary. In his first comments to diocesan staff in Oakland on Friday, Barber spoke of spending time in soup kitchens serving food, washing dishes, visiting jails and otherwise "getting my hands dirty." 

Barber, 58, is the first Jesuit bishop named by Francis, the first Jesuit pope. Oakland's bishop-elect said it was Francis' example he sought to follow, "to show, symbolically, that the church is there to serve the poor and the marginalized." The message is a notable contrast to that of his predecessor in Oakland, Salvatore Cordileone, the current San Francisco Archbishop. Cordileone has made the politics of marriage a central part of his leadership stretching back to his advocacy of Proposition 8, which seeks to ban same sex marriages. 

In the Catholic hierarchy, bishops run a diocese and often have auxiliary bishops to help them. It's extremely unusual for a simple priest, like Barber, to be named a bishop of a diocese. Barber will be the first non-auxiliary bishop to become Oakland's bishop when he is ordained by Cordileone on May 25. Barber said politics was not a driving concern for him. "I'm a pastor first," Barber said in an interview. "It's up to lay people to lead political movements in the church, to be elected representatives. I'm here ... to bring the message of love and Christ." Cordileone was traveling and unavailable Friday. But he released a statement saying that he knew Barber "to be a man of keen intellect, unswerving integrity and great love for Christ and his Church." Barber, who was born in Salt Lake City and grew up partly in San Francisco as the child of Bay Area natives, taught at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park for 8 years, directed the San Francisco Archdiocese' School of Pastoral Leadership and was a volunteer at San Quentin State Prison, where his brother was a chaplain. 

Link (here) to the liberal and secular San Francisco Gate for the full story.

China’s Most Famous—And Most Powerful—Catholic Bishop Has Died.

China’s most famous—and most powerful—Catholic bishop has died. When I last saw him in 2011, I knew “Old beloved friends.” He had not seen those faces in more than six long and eventful decades. 

He asked me to bring more photographs of “Catholic Shanghai before the Communists”; I do have more images to give him, but now he is perhaps seeing the real faces of his “beloved friends,” and I will file them away for posterity. Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, SJ (1916-2013), was one of the most gentle and charming people I have met, and he was also among the most enigmatic, and as I thumb through his dossier I vacillate between admiration, disagreement, speculation, and sometimes disappointment.

As I said in my 2010 interview with Bishop Jin for Ignatius Insight, with Jin there are “no easy answers.” I would like to offer a few remarks here about why Bishop Jin’s recent death, at the age of 97, is probably one of the most noteworthy events in the history of Catholicism in China.

then that age was finally catching up with Shanghai’s remarkable and indefatigable prelate. As we sat together, I handed him a pile of rare photographs of him and his fellow Jesuits, images that dated before his arrest in 1955. Pausing for some time as he looked over the first photograph, he said in a low voice,

Link (here) to Anthony E Clarke Ph.D.'s full bio-piece at Catholic World Report

Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian Became A Jesuit In 1938

Bishop Jin Luxian and his chosen successor, Joseph Xing Wenzhi

Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, who was to succeed Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, astonished and enraged officials by publicly declaring he was leaving the state-run church. The issue has not been resolved, with Bishop Ma reportedly stripped of his title and his movements curtailed. Catholics in China say the pressure from the state-run church can be unbearable, and priests, especially younger ones and those who “look to Rome,” may prefer to remain at a lower level in the hierarchy. Bishop Jin’s life was marked by extraordinary political conflict. Born in 1916, he was a patriot: in “The Memoirs of Jin Luxian, Volume One: Learning and Relearning 1916-1982,” a translation of which was published late last year in English, he wrote: “I was born at a time when the people of our country were suffering from the chaos of civil disorder and foreign occupation, so during my youth there was no National Day and only national disgrace.”

Bishop Jin had both “the unalterably Catholic faith and the unassailable confidence of a Chinese patriot,” wrote Father Michael Kelly, a fellow Jesuit who is executive director of the Union of Catholic Asian News.

In 1985 he was appointed a bishop by the state-run church, and in 2004 he was recognized by the Vatican, bringing full circle a life that included studies in Rome in the 1940s. Bishop Jin, who was orphaned by the age of 14, attended Jesuit high school in Shanghai and became a Jesuit in 1938, aged about 22. He obtained a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, returning to China not long after Mao Zedong took power in 1949, Union of Catholic Asian News reported. 

He was a “come-back kid,” it reported, whose reputation and influence led to his being dubbed the “Yellow Pope,” the title of a 2006 biography by a French journalist, Dorian Malovic. ignificantly, by cooperating with the authorities, he persuaded them eventually — by a circuitous route — to allow prayers for the pope to be said during Mass and helped to develop the liturgy in Chinese, Union of Catholic Asian News wrote. 

Writing in Ignatius Insight in 2010, the historian Anthony E. Clark described Bishop Jin as “China’s most powerful aboveground bishop” (in contrast to the “underground” church that follows the Vatican). “He is one of the Church’s most enigmatic men, and one often wonders if what he is saying is a direct truth or a circuitous statement, a result of his years of dealing with Communist officials who hold an ever-tighter grasp on his movements as China’s most public prelate,” Dr. Clark wrote. 

Link (here) to the New York Times

Jesuit Bishop, "One Lives Day By Day."

Bishop Antoine Audo, S.J.

Syrians caught up in the ongoing fighting in the devastated city of Aleppo are exhausted and starving, a senior Antoine Audo, the Jesuit Chaldean bishop of Aleppo and president of the aid agency Caritas Syria, told the missionary news service Fides: "One lives day by day. I have the impression that people are more and more exhausted. They have all become poor and everyone is always looking for something to eat for himself and his family. "In the streets of Aleppo you can see the people that run endlessly with bags in their hand, trying to find a bit of bread," he said. He added that roads in the formerly prosperous city were being closed and that doctors were being threatened and forced to flee.

bishop has warned.

Link (here) to the Tablet

Pope Francis, "Pitting Rich Against Poor, You Are Unfaithful To The Gospel"

Jesuit Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa told Canadians last week that while the new pope is all about ‘social justice’, it may not be the flavor of social justice that people associate with Latin America.Prendergast said that former Cardinal Bergoglio, as the Argentinean Provincial at that time, took a “very strong stance that the Jesuits should stay out of political issues and certainly not take up the liberationist theology.”

Liberation theology, which uncritically borrows various currents of Marxist thought, narrowly interprets the teachings of Jesus as they relate to liberation from unjust conditions that may be economic, political, or social.

In 1984, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith headed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), condemned liberation theology as a “novel interpretation of both the content of faith and of Christian existence which seriously departs from the faith of the Church and, in fact, actually constitutes a practical negation.”

Archbishop Prendergast said that at the time, Cardinal Bergoglio was criticized by his brother Jesuits for standing with the Church. “He was criticized by his brothers for that, but nonetheless his stance was that — similar to Pope Benedict’s — Marxism goes beyond what the social justice of the Church should embrace,” said the Archbishop during an interview with CFRA 580 NewsTalkRadio.

Former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio wrote in his 2011 book Sobre el cielo y la tierra (On heaven and earth) that the Church is as opposed to economic liberalism (economic decisions are made by individuals, not by collective institutions or organizations) as it is to communism (an atheistic system that abolishes private property to create a classless social order). 

“When you pick up a volume of the social teaching of the Church you are amazed at what it condemns. For example, it condemns economic liberalism. Everyone thinks that the Church is against Communism, but it is as opposed to that system as it is to the savage economic liberalism which exists today. That is not Christian either and we cannot accept it.” “We have to search for equality of opportunities and rights, to fight for social benefits, a dignified retirement, holidays, rest, freedom for trade unions. All of these issues create social justice. There should be no have-nots and I want to emphasize that the worst wretchedness is not to be able to earn your bread, not to have the dignity of work,” he wrote.

 Reflecting on why then Cardinal Bergoglio would take such a stand, Archbishop Prendergast said that it is one thing to “create an interest in the poor and serve their cause” but that it is quite another thing to “cause divisions in society” by “pitting rich against poor”. “If you cause divisions in society pitting rich against poor, you are unfaithful to the Gospel because the Gospel calls us to be reconciled, rich and poor, male and female, slave and free, are all to be one in Christ. That’s the Church’s teaching,” he said.

Holy Father Names Jesuit Bishop In Puerto Rico

Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio, S.J.

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio of Tyler, Texas as bishop of the Diocese of Mayaguez on Puerto Rico’s west coast. Bishop Corrada, a Jesuit, was born in the Santurce district of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan on May 13, 1942. He is the seventh of 14 siblings. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Washington in 1985, becoming the first Puerto Rican native to be named a bishop for the U.S. mainland, according to the U.S. bishops’ conference. He served as apostolic administrator of Caguas, Puerto Rico in 1997 and was named Bishop of Tyler in 2000. Bishop Corrada succeeds Bishop Ulises Aurelio Casiano Vargas, whose retirement-age resignation Pope Benedict has accepted. The Diocese of Mayaguez has 502,515 people, about 80 percent of whom are Catholic. It has 66 priests, 26 permanent deacons and 132 vowed religious. Bishop Corrada studied at Jesuit seminaries in Poughkeepsie, New York; Shrub Oak, New York; and New York City. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Fordham University and was ordained a priest in 1974. After ordination he completed course work for a doctoral degree in theology at the Institut Catholic in Paris. He has taught at Colegio San Ignacio in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and at Xavier High School in New York City. In the late 1970s he served as a retreat master and director of the marriage renewal movement at Casa Manresa Retreat House in Aibonito, Puerto Rico. He was assistant pastor at Nativity Parish in New York City from 1979 to 1982 and then served as pastoral coordinator of the New York-based Northeast Catholic Hispanic Center from 1982 to 1985. He has counseled Hispanic inmates at Riker’s Island Prison Center in New York and has served as a lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Link (here) to Catholic News Agency

Aloysius Jin Luxian SJ, Bishop Of Shanghai

He’s had more comebacks the Deng Xiao Ping. Deng famously was deposed twice only to bounce back a third time and reshape modern China. Aloysius Jin Luxian SJ, bishop of Shanghai, has been knocked about and pushed over by life, the Catholic Church in China and at the Vatican, by the Jesuits and the Communist Party on so many occasions you could expect him to be punch drunk by now. As recently as last year, his patiently prepared succession plan for leadership of the Shanghai diocese came to an abrupt halt in a single speech. His successor, Bishop Ma Daqin, earned the hostility of the Communist Party and removal from office in a single short speech shortly after his episcopal ordination. So with Ma sidelined and Aloysius Jin’s succession plans thwarted, it was back to the drawing board in Shanghai. But reversals, challenges, conflicts, misunderstandings and opposition are the staples of Jin’s long life, the outline of which is contained in his memoirs published in Chinese in 2008 with the English translation becoming available in late 2012. The worst thing he says about anyone in his memoirs is that they are or were naïve. And he says it of himself frequently enough through the account of his own life as it takes its, at times, tortured path. But what is endearing about his account is the way the almost fresh-faced innocence of the young man still survives in the 90-something’s record of how his long life – including 27 years in various forms of imprisonment – has unfolded. Surprise, wonderment and gratitude flow with the pages.

Link (here) to  UCANEWS

Syrian Jesuit Bishop Tells Of Devastation In The City Of Homs

Bishop Antoine Audo, S.J. on the right

The Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, told an audience at Parliament in London that the city is in “chaos.” Christians “have fled their homes because of the threat of bombs, they have lost their livelihoods; schools, hospitals and other public services do not function,” said Bishop Antoine Audo, a Jesuit who has led his eparchy (Eastern-rite diocese) of 35,000 Chaldean Catholics since 1992. “80% of people have no job and have no option but to stay at home,” he added. “Poverty is getting very serious, especially with rising prices and no salaries. The face of the city has changed. There is no security, everything is dirty, there are difficulties in basic travel, no taxis, no buses.” “In the city of Homs, home to what was the country's second-largest Christian community, all but a few of the faithful were forced to leave after a wave of persecution—all the churches desecrated,” he continued. 

Link (here) to Catholic Culture

Jesuit Bishop Tells Democrat, "Abortion Extinguishes An Unborn Human Life. It Is An Intrinsically Evil Action"

For the second time this commencement season, a pro-abortion rights commencement speaker had their invitation rescinded at the request of the local bishop. On Friday, State Representative Democrat Bob Hagan’s reported pro-abortion rights stand led the Youngstown campus of Mercy College of Ohio to rescind its invitation for him to speak at the school’s commencement ceremony on Tuesday at the public urging of Bishop George Murry, S.J..

Bishop Murry released a statement regarding his decision.

Ohio - Democrat Rep. Robert Hagen

“It recently came to my attention, without any proper review by my office, that the Mercy School of Nursing, a Catholic institution, invited Representative Robert Hagan to be its commencement speaker at the Cathedral of St. Columba. “While I respect and appreciate many of the social justice positions taken by Representative Hagan, it remains a fact that he also has consistently voted for pro-abortion legislation, policies and funding. Abortion extinguishes an unborn human life. It is an intrinsically evil action which the Catholic Church has condemned for centuries. As Catholics, we must in good conscience oppose Representative Hagan’s position in support of abortion. Therefore, I asked the Mercy School of Nursing, a Catholic sponsored institution, to rescind their invitation to Representative Hagan to speak at the Nursing School graduation. “I am most willing to meet with Representative Hagan to discuss his position and concerns, while, at the same time, speaking with him about the Church’s long standing teaching about the sacredness of human life in all its dimensions.”

According to news reports, Hagan posted a response to the bishop’s position on his Facebook page, declaring his commitment to social justice:
Link (here) to The Cardinal Newman Society  to read the full report

A New Jesuit Bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba

Pope Benedict XVI announced on Friday the appointment of a highly educated Jesuit priest as the new bishop of the Fontibon district in Bogota. Born in Quito, Ecuador in 1951, Juan Vicente Cordoba went on to study philisophy, technology and history at Bogota's Pontificia Javeriana University, before specializing in clinical psychology at Rome's Pontificia Gregoriana University. The clergy has held numerous academic positions during his time in Colombia's Jesuit order, including rector of San Pedro Claver College in Bucaramanga, and dean of the faculty of medicine at Bogota's Pontificia Javeriana University.

Link (here) to Columbia Reports

Jesuit Archbishop's War Time Diary

Archbishop James T.G. Hayes, S.J.

A Jesuit missionary in Cagayan de Oro City kept a diary of the Japanese war in northern Mindanao. For security, he excluded personal names, but he could not pass over the "terrible days during the occupation, during the puppet Republic of the Japs." It covers a period of three years less three months, but here we cite only a few passages of the lengthy manuscript. Without any provocation or "just cause," the Japanese attacked the Philippines. On Jan. 2, 1942, Manila fell. Bishop James T. G. Hayes, S. J. of Cagayan left his convento and the cathedral for a safer place chosen by the commanding officer of the USAFFE. He left as vicar in charge of the diocese a Filipino Jesuit, the author of this diary.

An excerpt of that diary.

A Filipino Jesuit missionary went to Dansalan to minister to the people there. On July 1, 19__, guerrillas attacked the barracks the Japanese had built in the town. The missionary hid in a foxhole, but the Japanese caught him. They tied him up for interrogation. Many times, the poor missionary had to raise his voice and weep loudly as a little boy, according to a Filipino caught with him. They slapped him, kicked him from head to foot, hit every part of his body, and clubbed his shoulders.

Link (here) to read the article at Business World

Jesuit Bishop In Syria, "“We Do Not Want To Become Like Iraq. We Don’t Want Insecurity, Islamization, And The Threat Of Islamists Coming To Power"

Jesuit Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo

The Syrian government must resist the uprising – and has the people’s backing in quelling forces seeking “destabilization and Islamization” – according to one of the country’s most respected Catholic bishops.   In a strongly worded defense of President Bashar al-Assad’s response to the protests and instability, 

Bishop Antoine Audo accused the media, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, of  “unobjective” reporting and unfairly criticizing the Syrian regime. The Jesuit who is the Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Aleppo went on to warn that, if Assad’s government were overthrown, it would cause widespread instability, a breakdown of basic services such as electricity, increased poverty, and a drive towards Islamization. 

Speaking from Aleppo in an interview with the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Audo said, 

“The fanatics speak about freedom and democracy for Syria, but this is not their goal.   They want to divide the Arab countries, control them, seize oil, and sell arms.   They seek destabilization and Islamization.   Syria must resist will resist.   80 percent of the people are behind the government, as are all the Christians.” 

Bishop Audo warned that, if President Assad were ousted, Syria would suffer the problems of a post Saddam Hussein Iraq, with a widespread breakdown of law and order. “We do not want to become like Iraq. We don’t want insecurity, Islamization, and the threat of Islamists coming to power.” “Syria has a secular orientation. There is freedom. We have a lot of positive things in our country.” The bishop was speaking after reports on Monday, June 13, of a third refugee camp being set up on the border between Turkey and Syria, amid no sign of an end to the violence and instability which dates back to the end of January.  The Syrian government has been strongly criticized for a hard-line military response to the uprising amid reports that the security forces have killed hundreds of protestors and injured many more. 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Syria’s armed retaliation against protestors as “unacceptable.” But the bishop stressed the scale of violence against Assad’s regime, saying how more than 100 police were killed within a few days, adding that the government had a right to defend itself. He said, “In some media organizations, such as the BBC and Al Jazeera, there is an orchestration to deform the face of Syria to say the government does not respect human rights and so on.” 

“The government respects people who respect law and order. Syria has a lot of enemies and the government has to defend itself and the country.” “There is a war of information against Syria. The media reporting is unobjective. We have to defend the truth as Syrians and as Chaldeans.” Stressing how the violence was centered on the country’s borders, especially in the northern sector overlooking Turkey, he said that, for most of the people in the Aleppo area, there was relative calm. But he did warn of increasing poverty, transportation and other communications problems, and described growing unemployment. He said,  

“Generally, life in Aleppo is very normal. Everything is continuing, but there is less work and transportation is poor.” In a reference to the country’s 1.5 million Christians, he said, “Our situation as Christian faithful is not really any different from other communities. We want peace and security.” “We do not want war and violence, and we very much hope that in the next few weeks the situation will be better.” 

As a Catholic charity dedicated to the persecuted and other suffering Christians, Aid to the Church in Need has worked with Bishop Audo to provide long-standing emergency aid for thousands of Christian refugees arriving in Syria from Iraq.

Link (here) the blog entitled, The Realm of the Virgin Mary 
Link (here) to the statement on the same subject by the public relations department of the Syrian Jesuits.

Mexican Jesuit Organization Publicly Supports Abortion

Fr. Luis Arriaga, S.J.

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa announced that Father Luis Arriaga, a fellow Jesuit and director of Centro Prodh (the Miguel Pro Centre) in Mexico City, would not be making scheduled presentations at the diocesan center and local parishes because of the “Centre’s support of groups espousing abortion.” According to press reports, Centro Prodh is a partner of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP), the official international development organization of the Church in Canada. CCODP had sponsored Father Arriaga’s appearances in Canada as part of its Share Lent campaign. 

“Since the Centre’s support of groups in favor of abortion rights in Mexico is incompatible with the Church’s defense of the right to life from conception to natural death and the mission of Development and Peace, and in order to remove any doubt about this commitment, the speaking engagements of Fr. Arriaga have been cancelled,” 

the Ottawa archdiocese announced.

Link (here) Lifesite to read the full article.

Archbishop Terrence Pendergast, S.J. "Skilled Spiritual Captain "

Archbishop Terrence Pendergast, S.J.

On September 10, 2009, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ratified a massive financial settlement for clerical child abuse victims in Nova Scotia; this “unprecedented” settlement was negotiated by Bishop Raymond Lahey. The decision extended financial compensation to abuse victims, ensured strict public confidentiality regarding the details of the thirty-nine abuse cases, and placed a significant burden on the lay faithful who are expected to share the financial costs of the settlement.7 According to police allegations, the very bishop who played a critical role in concluding this landmark settlement was, five days later, caught transporting child porn from a foreign country.8 Bishop Lahey’s trips to countries notorious for child pr@stitution and his evasive answers triggered concerns by a border agent who ordered a search on his laptop computer.9 If police allegations prove to be true, it will be a tragic symbol of ecclesial failure: a shepherd called to oversee reconciliation with abuse victims turns out to be plagued with an appetite for porn@graphy dealing in the criminal exploitation of children.10  Caught in the middle of the media furor over these allegations are two outstanding leaders in the Canadian Catholic Church today. Archbishop Anthony Mancini is at the center of the storm since Lahey’s diocese has been brought under his jurisdiction. 

In Ottawa, Canada’s capital, Archbishop Terence Prendergast, S.J. is dealing with unexpected fallout due to the fact that Lahey was arrested in his diocese and now seeks sanctuary there while his legal proceedings unfold. 

Both men are gifted leaders. Archbishop Mancini is noted for his exemplary work in pastoral psychology and ministry to priests. He is a bishop who embodies Newman’s motto, always ready to speak “heart to heart.” Archbishop Prendergast, S.J. is a seasoned biblical scholar and a straight-talking dedicated shepherd—the kind of tough, hard-hitting, skilled spiritual captain who inspires confidence in the hockey-hallowing hearts of Canadians.

Link (here) to the extremely well written article by Daniel Cere at  the Homiletic and Pastoral Review on the abuse scandal and the fallout from it.

Jesuit Bishop In Vietnam

In a letter to Vietnamese Catholics following the congress, the bishops announced that Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Ha Noi, 72, will remain president of the conference. Jesuit Bishop Cosma Hoang Van Dat of Bac Ninh was named secretary general, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Ha Noi who stepped down for health problems.

Link (here) CathNews Asia