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Tag: pope

  • Vatican speaks on Pope Francis ‘Hell does not exist’ comment

    Three days before Easter, the Vatican tried to tamp down a firestorm over a comment attributed to Pope Francis that hell “does not exist,” which would mark a historic break with teachings of the Catholic Church.

    The Vatican on Thursday rebuked Eugenio Scalfari, 93, a well-known Italian journalist who is the founder of Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper.

    When asked where “bad souls” end up, according to the article in Thursday’s La Repubblica, Francis reportedly said that those who repent can be forgiven, but those who don’t repent simply “disappear.”

    And then came the four words heard ’round the world: “Hell does not exist,” the article quoted the pope as saying. “The disappearance of sinful souls exists.”

    The Vatican issued a statement after the comments spread like wildfire on social media, saying the pope never granted the interview and the story was “the result of (the reporter’s) reconstruction,” not a “faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

    Scalfari, an atheist, is known for not using tape recorders or taking notes during interviews.

  • Palm Sunday: Raise your voices against corrupt elders’ Pope tells youth

    Pope Francis on Palm Sunday urged young people not to be silent and let their voices be heard, even in the face of corrupt or silent elders.

    The pope’s message comes on the heels of a meeting of young Catholics who told the Vatican they want a more transparent and authentic church, and a day after hundreds of thousands marched in youth-led rallies across the United States to demand greater gun control.

    “The temptation to silence young people has always existed,” Francis said. “There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. … There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive. ”

    But he told youths in his homily that “you have it in you to shout,” even if “we older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet.”

    As the Roman Catholic Church enters Holy Week, retracing the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday, Francis urged youth to join those who offer praise, and not the masses calling for crucifixion.

    “Dear young people, the joy that Jesus awakens in you is a source of anger and irritation to some, since a joyful person is hard to manipulate,” the pontiff said.

    Some 300 youths meeting at the Vatican this week prepared a document for next October’s synod of bishops at the Vatican focusing on to help youths better find their way in the church. The document, which was presented to Francis on Sunday, asked church leaders to address the unequal roles of women in the church and how technology is abused.

    Before his traditional Sunday prayer at the end of Mass, the pope recalled the importance World Youth Day, marked this year on Palm Sunday at a diocesan level rather than as a big international gathering.

    The pope’s message also resonated with the Saturday protests across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence, a movement galvanized by the school shooting last month in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

    At the end of Mass, the pope and cardinals in red robes led a solemn procession clutching elaborately braided palm fronds as they walked through the throngs, followed by the papal blessing of palm fronds and olive branches.

    The processions recalls the bittersweet nature of Holy Week, with the faithful clutching simple palm fronds and olive branches to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only to be followed later by his death on a wooden cross.

    The pope concluded by greeting the faithful in St. Peter’s Square, getting out of the popemobile to shake hands as many cheered and took pictures.

  • Five years after, Nigerian bishop whom Pope Francis fiercely defended resigns – Vatican

    A Nigerian bishop whom Pope Francis had fiercely defended has resigned after a five-year, sometimes violent, standoff with rebel priests and faithful who rejected him as an ethnic outsider, the Vatican said on Monday.

    The case of the Vatican versus the people of the diocese of Ahiara in southeastern Nigeria had become a rare battle of wills that tested the power of papal authority and could set a precedent for future appointments.

    A Vatican statement said the pope had accepted the resignation of Peter Ebere Okpaleke as bishop of the diocese of Ahiara.

    The vatican said the position had been declared vacant and that a papal administrator would run it for the time being.

    Many priests and faithful had refused to swear allegiance to Okpaleke because he is not from Mbaise, a heavily Catholic area in southwestern Nigeria made up of an amalgam of indigenous clans connected by intermarriage.

    Okpaleke was appointed bishop by then-pope Benedict in 2012, but the protests prevented him from ever taking over the diocese.

    His installation ceremony took place in another area of Nigeria because the doors of the Ahiara cathedral were locked so the bishop could not enter.

    The situation came to a head in June 2017 when Francis demanded that all priests in the diocese write him a letter within 30 days pledging their obedience to and accepting Okpaleke as their bishop because he was appointed by a pope.

    Those who did not write such a letter would face suspension from the priesthood, the pope told them at the time. Francis also demanded that the rebellious priests write a letter of apology to Okpaleke.

    Fides, the Vatican’s missionary news agency, on Monday, published excerpts from Okpaleke’s resignation letter, saying he had not been able to take possession of diocese or even live within its territory because of continuing “violent reaction and resistance”.

    Fides said some 200 priests had written to the pope promising their obedience.

    Many had also told the pontiff that they had “psychological difficulty in collaborating with the bishop after years of conflict”.

    The agency, which is controlled by the Vatican, said the rebellious priests should “reflect on the grave damage inflicted on the Church” through their “unreasonable actions opposing a bishop legitimately appointed by the Supreme Pontiff”.

    In his resignation letter, Okpaleke said remaining a bishop would not be beneficial to the Church.

     

    Reuters/NAN

  • Pope orders excommunication of Nigeria-born priest

    Pope Francis has ordered the excommunication of a Nigeria-born Catholic priest, Father Ezinwanne Igbo of Stella Maris parish in Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia for allegedly breaching rules of confession secrecy.

    The Pope’s decision followed indicting findings from a two-year investigation.

    The investigation followed a complaint that he breached rules of confession secrecy from 2016.

    The Archbishop of Mark Coleridge said in a statement Father Igbo was alleged to have committed a canonical (church) offence.

    “The Archbishop then submitted the judgment to the Holy See, who subsequently requested that the communication be made public,” the Archbishop said.

    “The excommunication will remain in force until Fr. Ezinwanne seeks and is granted remission by the Pope, who alone can grant it.”

    While excommunicated, Fr. Igbo cannot participate in public worship, celebrate or receive sacraments and cannot exercise any office of ministry in the church.

    The priest’s lawyer Terry Boyce said 12 charges were brought against Fr. Igbo but all of them were “not proceeded with after Fr. Igbo defended them.”

    Fr. Igbo is planning to appeal the decision after he was found guilty by the church.

    The statement reads: “In 2016, the Archdiocese received a number of complaints concerning Fr Ezinwanne Igbo.

    “In one of those complaints, he was alleged to have committed a canonical offence which resulted in automatic excommunication.

    “This was not a criminal offence under civil law. An investigative process was authorised by the Holy See and conducted by senior canon lawyers. The process confirmed the allegation unanimously.

    “The Archbishop then submitted the judgment to the Holy See, who subsequently requested that the excommunication be made public.

    “The excommunication will remain in force until Fr Ezinwanne seeks and is granted remission by the Pope, who alone can grant it.

    “While the excommunication remains in force, Fr ­Ezinwanne can have no ministerial part in the celebration of Mass or any other public worship; he cannot celebrate or receive the sacraments; and he cannot exercise any office of ministry in the church.”

     

  • Israel: Pope, UN, EU, others criticize Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as capital

    World leaders have criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the US President had on Wednesday declared that United States will henceforth deal with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and directed the US Embassy in the country be moved Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    However, a chorus of international leaders criticized the Trump administration’s decision on Wednesday to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as a dangerous disruption that contravenes several United Nations resolutions and could inflame one of the world’s thorniest conflicts.

    Secretary General António Guterres and Pope Francis both expressed alarm that the announcement would provoke new tensions in the Holy City, which is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

    Within minutes of Mr. Trump’s speech, in which he said the American Embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Mr. Guterres delivered what amounted to a diplomatic rebuke.

    Reading a statement outside the Security Council chambers at United Nations headquarters in New York, Mr. Guterres criticized “any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” underscoring the administration’s departure from decades of American policy.

    “Jerusalem is a final-status issue that must be resolved through direct negotiations between the two parties on the basis of the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, taking into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides,” Mr. Guterres said.

    “In this moment of great anxiety, I want to make it clear: there is no alternative to the two-state solution,” he said. “There is no Plan B.”

    In Rome, Pope Francis prayed that Jerusalem’s status be preserved and needless conflict avoided.

    “I cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has developed in recent days,” Francis said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican. “And at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

    “Jerusalem is a unique city,” he said, “sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace.”

    In especially strong language, the pope added, “I pray to the Lord that such identity be preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the entire world, and that wisdom and prudence prevail, to avoid adding new elements of tension in a world already shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts.”

    The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, expressed concern about “the repercussions this may have on the prospect of peace.”

  • Pope Francis ready to declare 35 new saints

    Pope Francis ready to declare 35 new saints

    Pope Francis will declare 33 martyrs and 2 others from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Italy, as the Catholic Church’s new saints on Sunday at a Canonization Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.

    They include 30 so-called “Matryrs of Natal”, including priests and lay people, who were killed in 1645 in a wave of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch Calvinists in Natal, Brazil.

    Another group of 3 indigenous martyrs from Mexico – Cristobal, Antonio and Juan – known as the “Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala” will also be canonized.

    Aged between 12 and 13, the children were among the first indigenous Catholics of Mexico who were ‎killed between 1527 and 1529 for refusing to renounce their faith and return to their ancient ‎traditions.‎

    Among the new saints will also be two European priests. One of them is Spanish Piarist Father, Manuel Míguez González, the founder of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess, or the Calasanzian Institute.

    He died in 1925. The other is Italian Cappuchin priest, Fr. Angelo da Acri, who died in 1739.

     

     

     

    NAN

  • Pope to visit Russia – Vatican

    Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Tuesday that there was “positive momentum” behind the idea of Pope Francis visiting Russia, but suggested there was more work to be done if it were to happen.

    Parolin, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, did not give any date for such a possible visit.

    The Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart in 1054.

    The pope, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, is seeking to improve ties, and last year in Cuba held what was the first ever meeting between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch.

    Parolin said he had also used his talks in the Russian capital to also raise certain difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Russia.

    He said that Moscow and the Vatican disagreed about the plight of Christians in certain parts of the world.

    He did not elaborate.

    Parolin, who is due later on Tuesday to meet Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said he also believed Russia could play an important role when it came to helping solve a crisis in Venezuela because of its close relations with Caracas.

     

    (Reuters/NAN)

  • Leadership tussle: Obey my order or lose your jobs, angry Pope tells Nigerian priests

    Leadership tussle: Obey my order or lose your jobs, angry Pope tells Nigerian priests

    Pope Francis has laid down an ultimatum to defiant Nigerian priests: lose your job if you don’t obey me and your bishop.

    According to a report by Associated Press, Pope Francis met June 8 at the Vatican with a delegation from the Ahiara diocese, south-east Nigeria where priests have been refusing to accept the 2012 appointment by the then pontiff, Benedict XVI, of the local bishop.

    The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reporting the pope’s unusually harsh order, said on Sunday that Francis was acting “for the good of the people of God” by threatening to suspend the priests from the ministry if they didn’t pledge in a letter, by July 9, “total obedience” to Francis and accept Bishop Peter Okpaleke’s appointment.

    Pope Francis told the visiting delegation he was “very sad” about the priests’ refusal to obey and ruled out tribal loyalties as explaining the refusal.

    Africa has been one of the continents where the Catholic church is growing. The faithful and clergy there often imbue their practices with local culture in dynamic contrast to more traditional routines in Europe or North America.

    Francis’ move to end disobedience to the Vatican aims at ensuring the growing church there will be loyal to the pontiff.

    His remarks to the visiting delegation indicated how dangerous he viewed any rebellion against papal authority.

    Those priests opposing Mr. Okpaleke’s taking up of his office “want to destroy the church, which is not permitted,” the pope said in his address to the delegation.

    He added: “the pope can’t be indifferent” to the rebellion.

    He has often taken a conciliatory tone in resolving disputes, but in this one he was entertaining no diplomacy. He demanded that each priest in the diocese write to him asking forgiveness and “clearly manifest total obedience to the pope.”

    They must also accept the bishop chosen by Rome. If, within a month, each priest doesn’t do so, he will be “ispo facto suspended,” such as from the celebration of the sacraments, and “will lose his current office,” Francis warned.

    Francis acknowledged that his move “seems very harsh.” He added that he had even considered the extraordinary remedy of suppressing the entire diocese but didn’t, so as not to hurt rank-and-file faithful.

    He said he thought the rebellious priests might have been manipulated from outside the diocese or even abroad, but named no culprits.

    In 2015, the diocese served around 520,000 Catholics, out of a local population of about 675,000, and had 128 diocesan priests and seven other priests. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the priests were involved in the rebellion against the bishop’s appointment.

     

  • Pope wades into ethnic crisis in Catholic Church in Imo

    Pope wades into ethnic crisis in Catholic Church in Imo

    Pope Francis has intervened in an ethnic crisis involving the Nigerian town of Ahiara, Imo state , whose bishop, Peter Okpaleke, appointed by Benedict XVI in 2012, is unwanted by lay people and priests of the diocese.

    Though Mr. Okpaleke is an Igbo from Anambra State, the Catholic leaders in Ahiara rejected him because he is not an Igbo man from Mbaise.

    The Vatican Insider said the pope received on Wednesday a delegation from the Diocese of Ahiara, accompanied by Archbishop of Abuja and apostolic administrator of Ahiara, Cardinal John O. Onaiyekan.

    Others at the meeting were Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri, Monsignor Anthony Obinna, Archbishop of Jos and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Monsignor Ignatius Kaigama, and the Bishop of Ahiara, Bishop Okpaleke.

    Priests Clement O. Ebii, Jude N. Uwalaka, Uhuegbu Innocent Olekamma, Sister Bernadette O. Ezeyi and Stanley Pius Iwu, chief of the staff were also part of the delegation.

    After a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and a visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Nigerian delegation attended the Pope’s private Mass celebration.

    The delegation had previously met with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Fernando Filoni, and the superiors of the same dicastery, with whom the Church’s situation in Ahiara was widely examined.

    Pope Francis spoke of the inadmissibility of the situation in Ahiara and reserved to take the appropriate measures.

    He said he was entrusting the Diocese of Ahiara to the motherly care of Mary.

    It was Benedict XVI who appointed Monsignor Okpaleke in 2012, only to meet a storm of opposition by the leaders and congregation. He was not even allowed to hold mass in the church.

    His predecessor, late Victor Adibe Chikwe, came from Mbaise and was accepted by the worshippers, because he was “son of the soil”.

    Pope Francis appointed John O. Onaiyekan apostolic administrator since July 2013. But the crisis has lingered.

    Since Okpaleke’s appointment in 2012, the priests and Catholic faithful from Mbaise had insisted they wanted a Bishop of Mbaise extraction.

    Nonetheless, Okpaleke was ordained a Bishop on May 21, 2013 in Owerri, the mother Diocese to Ahiara Diocese.

    His ordination was graced by the cream of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, including Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Jos and President Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN); Ignatius Kaigama, Archbishop of Owerri and Metropolitan of the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Archbishop Anthony J.V. Obinna and the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, His Grace, Archbishop Augustine Kasuija.

    In a post-ordination speech, Okpaleke said: “My ordination is a celebration of my marriage to the Church of God in Ahiara. Just like wives married into families, I have left my people and have become “onye” (member of) Ahiara Diocese. I remember a piece of music by monks of Western Priory in the State of Vermont USA, which I love so much. The monks set into song Ruth’s response to Naomi: “wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live I shall live. You people will be my people and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried.

  • ‘Mother of all bombs’: ‘Mother’ shouldn’t be used to describe bomb – pope

    ‘Mother of all bombs’: ‘Mother’ shouldn’t be used to describe bomb – pope

    Pope Francis has criticized the naming of the U.S. military’s biggest non-nuclear explosive as “Mother of All Bombs”, saying the word “mother” should not be used in reference to any deadly weapon.

    The Pope said he was ashamed when he heard the name of the U.S. most destructive non- nuclear bomb, reports said.

    Pope Francis told an audience of students on Saturday that: “I was ashamed when I heard the name.

    “A mother gives life and this one gives death, and we call this device a mother. What is happening?”

    The U.S. Air Force dropped one of the bombs, officially designated as the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) on suspected Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan in April.

    The nickname was widely used in briefings and reporting on the attack.

    Pope Francis is set to meet President Donald Trump on May 24 in a potentially awkward encounter given their opposing positions on immigration, refugees and climate change.