Tag: the vatican
Vatican Worried About Trump Immigration Order

Vatican Worried About Trump Immigration Order

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican said on Wednesday it was worried about U.S. President Donald Trump’s moves on immigration, in the Holy See’s first comment since his executive order banning travel into the United States by citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries.

“Certainly there is worry because we are messengers of another culture, that of openness,” the Vatican’s deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, told an Italian Catholic television station in answer to a question about Trump’s order.

Becciu, who ranks third in the Vatican hierarchy, was asked about the executive order as well as Trump’s promise to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

“Pope Francis, in fact, insists on the ability to integrate those who arrive in our societies and cultures,” he told TV2000.

Some Roman Catholic leaders in the United States have criticized Trump’s executive order. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago said on Sunday it was “a dark moment in U.S. history” and that it was “contrary to both Catholic and American values”.

Last February, while returning from a trip to Mexico, Pope Francis said then-candidate Trump’s view about building walls was “not Christian”.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

IMAGE: Archbishop Angelo Becciu (R) arrives at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside The Walls in Rome, Italy January 25, 2017. Picture taken January 25, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Irish Gay Marriage Vote ‘A Defeat For Humanity,’ Vatican Says

Irish Gay Marriage Vote ‘A Defeat For Humanity,’ Vatican Says

By Alvise Armellini, dpa (TNS)

VATICAN CITY — Last week’s referendum legalizing gay marriage in Ireland “is not only a defeat for Christian principles, but also a bit of a defeat for humanity,” according to a top Vatican official.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin — who is the Vatican’s second-in-command after Pope Francis — made the comments late on Tuesday at an awards ceremony. Vatican Radio published them the next day.

“These results make me very sad. Of course, as the archbishop of Dublin has said, the Church must take into consideration this reality, but in the sense that, in my opinion, it must redouble its commitment and make an effort to evangelize,” Parolin also said.

Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country where homosexual acts were illegal until 1993, conducted a public vote Friday on gay marriage in which the “yes” camp won 62.1 percent to 37.9 percent. The results emboldened gay rights calls elsewhere in Europe.

“We sincerely regret that some representatives of the Catholic Church fail to acknowledge that equality for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex) people does not go against Christian values at all,” Evelyne Paradis, executive director of ILGA-Europe, said.

“Throughout the (Irish) campaign, several practicing Catholics have come out in support of marriage equality saying that being a Christian is about loving all equally,” said Paridis, whose organizations campaigns for gay rights in Europe.

The Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said Monday that the Catholic Church was not going to issue any “anathema” — the harshest language it can use in relation to excommunication — but had to “pick up the challenge” posed by the Irish vote.

On Wednesday, the head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said the church was not opposed to recognizing gay people’s “individual rights,” but said their unions could not be given rights similar to those enjoyed by married couples.

Criticizing a draft law in the Rome parliament, Bagnasco said: “Leaving terminology aside, it de facto equalizes the legal status of homosexual unions to families based on the union between a man and a woman.”

The Catholic Church has always seen homosexuality as a sin, and there is no suggestion its stance may change.

When Pope Francis was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, he opposed gay marriage laws that Argentina introduced in 2010. He said they represented “a real and serious anthropological step back.”

However, the pontiff set a new, less confrontational tone on the issue with a famous 2013 statement. He said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?”

Francis has not made any direct comments on the Irish referendum. On Wednesday, he reiterated the importance of marriage for the Catholic Church, addressing engaged couples in his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square.

“The alliance of love between a man and a woman is an alliance for life. It cannot be improvised, it is not something you do from one day to the next,” he said.

Photo: C. via Flickr

Papal Canonizations Expected To Draw Up To 1 Million To Rome

Papal Canonizations Expected To Draw Up To 1 Million To Rome

ROME — The joint sanctification of popes John Paul II and John XXIII is expected to draw up to 1 million pilgrims and tourists to Rome this weekend, authorities said Wednesday.

John Paul II, born in Poland as Karol Wojtyla, led the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005, while John XXIII, born Angelo Roncalli in Italy, presided from 1958 to 1963. Both are hugely popular figures among the faithful.

“We expect a minimum of 500,000 and a maximum of 1 million people,” Maurizio Pucci, an adviser to Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino, told reporters at a news conference.

“From an organizational point of view, we are prepared for up to 800,000 arrivals,” added Msgr. Liberio Andreatta, who is organizing the event on behalf of the Vatican. “We will see if more people come.”

Dozens of world leaders are also expected to attend the canonization mass that Pope Francis is due to celebrate in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday.

Andreatta said 1.2 million picture cards of the soon-to-be-saints had been prepared for the crowds, who will be spread out between the Vatican, its surroundings, and other major public spaces in the Italian capital, such as Piazza Navona.

An extra 2,400 police, 2,000 traffic wardens, 1,000 street cleaners, 3,000 volunteers and hundreds of medical staff have been recruited for the event, which will cost the city more than $7 million, Pucci said.

For its part, the Catholic Church of Rome expects to spend about 500,000 euros on putting up giant TV screens and other items, Andreatta indicated. Private sponsors are expected to pick up most of the bill, he added.

On Sunday, 5,000 priests will be deployed in the streets to help out pilgrims, including 200 who will administer the Holy Communion in Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue that leads to Saint Peter’s Square.

The simultaneous canonization of two pontiffs is unprecedented in the Catholic Church’s history. The last pope to have been recognized as a saint was Pius X, who ruled from 1903 to 1914, in 1954.

Photo: @Doug88888 via FLICKR

Venezuela Factions Agree To Formal Talks To End Months’ Long Crisis

Venezuela Factions Agree To Formal Talks To End Months’ Long Crisis

By Jim Wyss, The Miami Herald

BOGOTA, Colombia — In what might be the first step toward ending Venezuela’s two-month-long political crisis, the government and opposition leaders agreed Tuesday to begin formal peace talks that will be mediated by the Vatican and the foreign ministers of Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.

The agreement came after the two sides held an “exploratory meeting”’ earlier in the day to lay the groundwork for negotiations.

As he left the meeting, Vice President Jorge Arreaza said the talks would “touch on every issue that’s of interest to the country” and “lead toward justice and peace.”

Arreaza said the date of the first meeting would be set this week.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, the executive director of the coalition of opposition parties known as the MUD, said both sides had agreed to televise their first formal meeting.

“This process has to take place in front of the world and Venezuela,” he said.

Even at this preliminary stage, however, some opposition voices were warning against capitulation.

Antonio Ledezma, the mayor of metropolitan Caracas, told Union radio that he was skeptical of the government’s intentions.

“For me, it’s one thing to engage in dialogue and it’s another to surrender,” he said.

Former opposition Deputy María Corina Machado, who has been at the vanguard of some protests, said talks shouldn’t take place unless all demonstrators were freed.

Since the anti-government protests began in earnest Feb. 12, the administration has arrested two opposition mayors and Leopoldo Lopez, the head of the Voluntad Popular political party. More than 2,285 protesters have also been temporarily detained and 192 are still in jail, according to government figures.

“We cannot have dialogue with students detained, mayors detained and (Lopez) detained, and while there’s repression,” Machado wrote on Twitter. “Students and the forces that are driving the protests have to be a part of the discussion.”

In the past, the MUD has called for the release of all “political prisoners” as a precondition to talks. But it’s unclear if those demands are still on the table.

What began as student-led protests in early February over soaring crime and a faltering economy have evolved into a nationwide demonstration that has left at least 39 dead on both sides of the political divide. President Nicolas Maduro, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, has accused the United States and other governments of using the protests as cover to try to topple his socialist administration.

Aveledo said the plight of students would remain at the center of the agenda, and that negotiators would seek solutions “within the framework of the constitution.”

“The best antidote to violence is respect for the constitution,” he said.

Along with Aveledo, Lara State Gov. Henri Falcon and Omar Barboza, a leader of the Un Nuevo Tiempo political party, represented the opposition at Tuesday’s meeting.

On the government’s side were Maduro, Arreaza, first lady Cilia Flores, Foreign Minister Elías Jaua and Jorge Rodríguez, the mayor of Libertador, part of Greater Caracas.

Miranda Gov. Henrique Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate who is often seen as the standard bearer for the opposition, said the talks did not mean “giving up principles.”

“The people have every right to protest against the thousands of problems that don’t have solutions in our country,” he wrote on Twitter. “No one can take away that right.”

On Tuesday, Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza urged the opposition to negotiate.

“If they have preconditions, they should go to the dialogue and say they want this or that,” Insulza told the Miami Herald. “And then we can talk about other things, but they should not refuse going because that will be a mistake.”

AFP Photo/Leo Ramirez