On International Women’s Day, Pope Francis calls for an applause for women, saying “they deserve it,” while praising their “tender hearts” and “ability to construct a more humane society.”
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“On International Women’s Day, I think of all women: I thank them for their commitment to building a more humane society, through their ability to grasp reality with a creative eye and a tender heart.”
Pope Francis said this during his Wednesday General Audience in the Vatican, recalling that the international Day is being commemorated on 8 March, stressing,”This is a privilege of women alone!
“A special blessing for all the women in the square. And a round of applause for women! They deserve it!”
The Holy Father also greeted the sick, the elderly, newlyweds and young people.
“In these days of Lent,” he said, “walk even more courageously in the footsteps of Christ, seeking to imitate His humility and faithfulness to the divine will.”
“And, please, dear brothers and sisters,” the Pope appealed, “let us not forget the pain of the battered Ukrainian people, they suffer so much… let us always have them present in our hearts and in our prayers.”
This morning, during his General Audience, the Pope continued his series of catecheses on apostolic zeal, this week considering the ecclesial aspect of evangelization.
We publish Pope Francis’ preface to the volume “More Women’s Leadership for a Better World: Caring as the Engine for Our Common Home,” edited by Anna Maria Tarantola, published by “Vita e Pensiero.” The text is the result of joint research of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation and the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (Sacru).
By Pope Francis
This book is about women, about their talents, their abilities and skills as well as the inequalities, violence and prejudices that still characterise the female world.
Women’s issues are particularly important to me. I have referred to them in many of my speeches, emphasising how much still must be done to fully empower women. Among other things, I have stated that man and woman “are not equal; one is not superior to the other, no. It is just that man does not bring harmony: it is she who brings that harmony that teaches us to caress, to love tenderly, and who makes of the world something beautiful” (Mass at Santa Marta, 9 February 2017).
We are in great need of harmony to fight injustice, the blind greed that harms people and the environment, unjust and unacceptable war.
This book collects the results of the joint research, promoted by the Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation and the Strategic Alliance
of Catholic Research Universities, to which 15 academics from 10 universities in 8 countries offered their contribution, each in his/her field
of study.
I appreciate the fact that the topic is approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, since different approaches and analyses allow a broader view of the problems and the search for better solutions. The research highlights the difficulties that women still face in attaining top roles in the world of work and, at the same time, the advantages connected with their greater presence and full enhancement of their role in the domains of economy, politics and society itself.
The Church can also benefit from the valorisation of women: as I said in my speech at the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops of the Pan-Amazon Region in October 2019: “we have not yet understood what the woman signifies in the Church, and we limit ourselves only to the functional aspect […] But the role of women in the Church goes well beyond functionality. And more work must continue on this”.
It is not possible to pursue a better, fairer, more inclusive and fully sustainable world without the contribution of women.
We must work, all together, to open equal opportunities for men and women in every context, to aim for a stable and lasting situation of
equality in diversity: the road to women’s affirmation is recent, troubled and, unfortunately, not definitive. Situations like these can easily
be reversed.
Women’s thinking is different from men’s, they are more attentive to protecting the environment, their gaze is not turned to the past but to the future. Women know that they give birth in pain to achieve a great joy: to give life and open vast, new horizons. That is why women want peace, always.
Women know how to express both strength and tenderness, they are good, qualified, prepared, they know how to inspire new generations
(not only their children). It is right for them to be able to express these skills in every sphere, not just within the family, and to be remunerated equally with men for equal roles, commitments and responsibilities. The
still existing gaps are a serious injustice.
These gaps, together with prejudice against women, are at the root ofviolence against women. I have condemned this phenomenon on many occasions; on 22 September 2021, I said that violence against women is an open wound resulting from a patriarchal and macho culture of oppression. We must find the cure to heal this plague and not leave women alone.
The research presented here and the conclusions reached seek to fix the scourge of inequality and, in this way, of violence.
I like to think that if women could enjoy full equality of opportunity, they could contribute substantially to the necessary change towards a
world of peace, inclusion, solidarity and integral sustainability.
As I stated on International Women’s Day on 8 March 2019, women make the world more beautiful, they protect it and keep it alive. They
bring the grace of renewal, the embrace of inclusion and the courage to give themselves to others. Peace, then, is born of women, it rises and is rekindled by the tenderness of mothers. Therefore, the dream of peace becomes reality when we look to women.
It is my belief that, as the research shows, equality must be achieved in diversity. Not equality because women assume male behaviour, but
equality because the playing field is open to all players, without differences of gender (and also of colour, religion, culture…). It is what economists call efficient diversity.
It is nice to think of a world where everyone lives in harmony and everyone can see their talents recognised and contribute to a better world.
The ability to care, for example, is undoubtedly a feminine trait that must be expressed not only within the family, but equally and successfully in politics, business, academia and the workplace.
The capacity to care must be expressed by all of us, men and women. Men can also cultivate this capacity in parenting: how beautiful is the family where both parents, mothers and fathers together, take care of their children, help them to grow up healthy, and educate them to
respect people and things, to kindness, to mercy, to the protection of creation.
I also like the mention of the importance of education. On the one hand, education is the main way to provide women with the skills and
knowledge they need to face the new challenges of the world of work; on the other hand, it is necessary to promote change in the still prevailing patriarchal culture. Unfortunately, even today, some 130 million girls in the world do not go to school. There is no freedom, justice, integral development, democracy and peace without education.
Pope Francis
“Women are not even allowed to study. Young girls are not allowed to go to secondary school. This means they do not have their basic human rights,” says Oliver Müller, International Director of Caritas Germany, just back from the nation where the Islamist Taliban government allows Catholic organizations to provide humanitarian aid.
By Mario Galgano and Fr Paweł Rytel-Andrianik
On the eve of International Women’s Day, marked annually on 8 March, we shine the light on the plight of women in Afghanistan who are banned from attending University and girls are not allowed to go to secondary school.
Oliver Müller, International Director of Caritas Germany has just returned from Afghanistan, where, as a Catholic organisation, his team is allowed by the Taliban government, ton provide humanitarian aid.
In an interview with Vatican Radio he said Afghan women are deprived of their basic human rights.
Listen to an excerpt of the interview with Oliver Muller
Müller points out that Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries, with 28 million inhabitants dependent on outside aid. The present situation of the people, he says, calls for immediate assistance.
At the same time, the Afghan authorities have declared that women are no longer allowed to work in humanitarian aid.
“There’s no doubt about it: we can’t work without women.”
“And to see how it can be done was now the content of my visit here,” stresses Müller after his visit to Afghanistan.
He underlines that according to an international study, Afghanistan is the world’s worst place for girls and women. Women are banned from public life to a great extent.
“In Kabul, they are still allowed to go on the streets to do some shopping. But in several cities all over the country, they are not even allowed to leave their homes without a male person from their family.”
The International Director of Caritas Germany makes a heartfelt appeal: “Afghanistan deserves our solidarity and our help. We should do everything so that Afghanistan will not be a forgotten crisis, even if there are other conflicts closer to Europe that may be more relevant for Europe. Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable and poorest countries in the world. And for this reason, we will continue and stay here”.
Caritas Germany has been present in Afghanistan since 1984. It provides help to millions of people through various humanitarian projects.
Afghan women at a market on the eve of International Women’s Day
Meeting journalists on the sidelines of the inauguration of the “Chair of Welcome” in Sacrofano, near Rome, Italy, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, called for a “regularisation of migratory movements, so that it is safe” and tragedies such as the one in Cutro, southern Italy, do not happen again. In a message, the Pope recalled that the presence of our migrant brothers and sisters is “an opportunity for human growth, encounter and dialogue.”
By Alessandro Di Bussolo
Following his appeal made during the Sunday Angelus that “the journeys of hope never more be transformed into journeys of death,” Pope Francis has repeated his call for “welcome and solidarity” towards migrants. He did so in a message sent for the opening of a meeting on the theme of welcome called the “Cattedra dell’accoglienza” (the chair of welcome), a gathering promoted by the Fraterna Domus association from 6 to 10 March in Sacrofano, the province of Rome, Italy.
In the text signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the Pope calls for “a renewed commitment to fostering a spirit of welcome and solidarity, promoting peace and fraternity among peoples”. The Pope again encourages looking at “the presence of so many migrant brothers and sisters as an opportunity for human growth, for encounter and for dialogue between cultures and religions”.
Before giving his address, Cardinal Parolin answered a journalist’s question about the terrible tragedy of the recent shipwreck in Cutro, southern Italy, that cost the lives of at least 71 people. He recalled the shocking nature of the tragedy and how he believes marks “a call to rethink migrant reception policies” and how “the Church has offered a whole range of principles and guidelines that ought to be considered precisely to reconsider these policies.”
The most important consideration to avoid more disasters in what have been called “journeys of hope”, according to Cardinal Parolin, “is the regularisation of migratory flows, so that migration is safe.” For Cardinal Parolin, “above all, we must have a more positive attitude, ” that today is “unfortunately dominated by fear.” He added that what is needed “is a welcome that takes into account the situation from which these people come and the situation in which we find ourselves.”
Regarding the Pope’s words at the Sunday Angelus when he called on efforts to stop “traffickers in human beings,” the Cardinal joined his voice in condemning “those who speculate on this and those who profit from it.” The Secretary of State did not speak about the new rules requested by Italy from NGOs involved in the rescue of migrants at sea, but stressed that for the Holy See “the principle that always applies is that it is first and foremost a question of saving people, of not allowing human lives to be lost” as happened recently off the coast of southern Italy.
Rome Newsroom, Mar 7, 2023 / 06:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis appointed five new members to his council of cardinals advisers on Tuesday, including Synod organizer Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich and Canadian Cardinal Gérald C. Lacroix.
The Vatican announced on March 7 the nine members of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals tasked with assisting the pope “in the governance of the universal Church.”
The pope has nominated Brazilian Cardinal Sérgio da Rocha, Spanish Cardinal Juan José Omella Omella, and Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, the president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, to be new members of the council, along with Hollerich and Lacroix.
With the new appointments, Honduran Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, 80, and Germany’s Cardinal Reinhard Marx, 69, are no longer members of the Council of Cardinals. Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, the 80-year-old retired president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, has been replaced by his successor.
The group of cardinal advisers, also referred to as the C9 for its nine members, was established by Pope Francis one month after his election in 2013 to advise the pope on the reform of the Roman Curia, particularly the new apostolic constitution, Praedicate evangelium, published last year.
The group continued to meet after the constitution’s publication and discussed the Synod on Synodality and the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors at its last meeting in December.
The inclusion of Hollerich, a Jesuit who is one of the leading organizers of the ongoing Synod on Synodality, suggests that the council will continue to have a role advising the pope on the global synod process.
The appointment also indicates the esteem the pope has for the 64-year-old cardinal archbishop of Luxembourg, whom he appointed in 2021 as the relator general of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Last fall, Hollerich said in an interview with Vatican media that he believes the possibility of Church blessings for same-sex unions is not a settled matter.
Three original members of the C9 remain in the council: American Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state.
Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, who was appointed in 2020, will also remain in the council of advisers and Bishop Marco Mellino will continue to serve as the group’s secretary.
The next meeting of the Council of Cardinals will be held on April 24 at the pope’s Vatican residence, Casa Santa Marta, at 9 a.m.
This is a developing story.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
The Council of Cardinals has been renewed by Pope Francis, with Bishop Marco Mellino serving as Secretary. The first meeting of the new Council will take place on 24 April of this year.
By Vatican News staff writer
Pope Francis has renewed the Council of Cardinals, as known as the ‘C9’, since the mandate of the previous Council has expired.
The Cardinal members of the new Council are: Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State; Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State; Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa; and Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay; Seán Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston; Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona; Gérald Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec; Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg; Sérgio da Rocha, Archbishop of San Salvador de Bahia.
The Secretary of the commission is Bishop Marco Mellino.
The next meeting of the Council will be held on 24 April at 9 a.m. CET at ‘Casa Santa Marta’, the Pope’s residence.
Its last meeting, held in December last year, had been devoted to the continental phase of the ongoing synod, among other topics.
The first meeting of the Council was held from 1-3 October 2013.
Established by Pope Francis on 28 September 2013, the Council of Cardinals was created to assist the Pope in the governance of the universal Church.
The Council was also founded with the project to revise the Roman Curia, the latter accomplished with the new Apostolic Constitution ‘Praedicate Evangelium’ published on 19 March of last year.
The Council of Cardinals, the Chirograph states, is intended as “a further expression of episcopal communion and of the assistance to the ‘munus petrinum’ that the Episcopate scattered throughout the world can offer.”
In the Archdiocese of Maputo, Mozambique, hundreds of children gathered from the diocese’s parishes have celebrated the start of a year of activities for the silver jubilee of the Holy Childhood association.
Hermínio José – Maputo, Mozambique
Coadjutor Archbishop of Maputo in Mozambique, João Carlos Hatoa Nunes, presided over the Eucharistic celebration at the Immaculate Conception Mavalane Parish, Maputo.
The Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood, or the Missionary Childhood Association, is a Catholic children’s association for the benefit of the Church’s missions. It is dedicated to fostering children’s awareness of the missionary nature of the Church. It is one of four Pontifical Mission Societies.
Speaking about the gathering of hundreds of children, newly ordained priest Fr. Celso Vaz described the event as a happy occasion to open and launch the year-long activities of the Missionary Childhood’s silver jubilee.
In his message to the children, Fr. Vaz wished to see more Mozambican children join the Church and be protagonists of the Holy Childhood association.
The children, visibly happy with the opening of the year of jubilee activities (2023), told Vatican News that they enjoyed the way the Coadjutor Archbishop of Maputo, João Carlos, animated the Eucharistic celebration.
The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) receives new statutes that bring it in line with the new Apostolic Constitution ‘Praedicate Evangelium.’ The governing structure is simplified with new roles clearly defined for the various management offices to avoid duplication. New norms are issued regarding conflicts of interest. Management changes from a collegial body to one led by a single Director.
By Vatican News
The statutes guiding the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) have been renewed, now four years since their last revision. The changes are intended to bring the statutues in line with the new Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium. They include five-year mandates with the possibility of renewal only once, and a simpler governing structure with roles more clearly defined among the various offices in order to avoid overlap or duplication of activities.
The changes came in the Chirograph of Pope Francis with the new statutes made public on Tuesday 7 March, marking a renewal of the IOR’s service whose purpose is “to provide for the care and administration of movable and immovable goods transfered or entrusted to it by individuals or legal persons and intended for religious or charitable works.”
The primary changes contained in the two texts concern conformity to the five-year mandate and its renewability for the various offices that will be possible only one time, and therefore with a maximum mandate of ten years. The non-concurrent character of the mandate of members of the Commission of Cardinals and the Supervisory Commission, and the addition of a specific provision concerning conflicts of interest, determine that “each member of the Supervisory Commission abstains from participating in voting on measures where an interest is held, current or potential, on their own account or by third parties.”
Another change regards a clearer definition and distinction of respective roles and responsibilities of the IOR offices. The Supervisory Commission will handle the development of strategic guidelines, general policies, and the oversight of IOR activities. The Director General will have responsibility for IOR management and administration.
Lastly, management will change from a collegial body to one consisting of a Director with a Deputy Director, thereby becoming an entity directed solely by the Director General. This means the role of Deputy Director ceases to have a governing function and serves as a “functional” role that the Director General can delegate to one of the directors.
The Director General continues to be appointed by the Supervisory Commission and approved by the Commission of Cardinals, but from now onwards will be chosen “based on a shortlist of at least three suitable candidates.” The Director General can be hired for an indefinite or a fixed term.
Some five thousand people participate in the Stations of the Cross on Sunday at the site of the migrant tragedy in southern Italy. Leading the ceremony were an archbishop and an iman who called for a welcoming and inclusive Europe. To date, 70 bodies have been recovered, at least 27 – probably many more are still missing – and 80 people have survived.
By Salvatore Cernuzio – Cruto
A tiny grey sweatshirt lies on the beach at Steccato di Cutro, it is partially covered with sand, pebbles and debris washed up from the sea. Someone has crafted a small altar beside it, with candles, flowers and a cross.
The tragic memento marks one of the 14 Stations of the Cross organized by the Archdiocese of Crotone-Santa Severina to commemorate the scores of migrants who found death in the waters of the Ionian Sea at dawn on Sunday 26 February, when their boat, that had set sail from Turkey, hit a shoal, breaking into a million pieces, throwing men, women and children into the water.
As he did on Sunday 26 February, the day of the tragedy on the coast of Italy’s southern Calabria region, a week later Pope Francis at the Angelus again expressed his sorrow:
“May human traffickers be stopped, and may they not continue to throw away the lives of so many innocent people!”
On that shore where the bodies of 71 migrants – most of them Afghans and Pakistanis – have been returned from the water, stripped bare by the violence of the waves, the people of Crotone and the surrounding area walk in procession behind an enormous lopsided wooden crucifix. It’s made from the wood of the shattered barge, joined by the same bolts and nails that held the vessel together.
The crucifix was made by a local carpenter just hours after the tragedy and it will be kept in the parish of Le Castella. Parish priest Don Francesco Loprete says it reminds him of the cross of Jesus: “This rough, cold wood bears the body of so many innocent people who died for the sins they did not commit, it symbolizes the dreams of our brothers and sisters.” As the days go by, Don Francesco adds, “The sea is taking everything away.”
“The risk is that we too will erase from our minds this tragedy that has touched us so deeply.”
The cross
The faithful from the parishes of Botricello, Rocca Bernarda, Belcastro, Le Castella, Isola Capo Rizzuto, San Leonardo and all the neighbouring municipalities take turns to carry the cross on their shoulders during the procession. The lifeless bodies of some of the migrants have washed up the beaches of some of these villages in recent hours. The mayors shouldered the cross for the penultimate station.
Behind the Mayors, in the shadow of the cross’ wooden arms, Archbishop Angelo Raffaele Panzetta and the Imam of the Mosque in Cutro, Mustafa Achik, walk side-by-side praying together for the souls of the victims, most of whom are of Islamic faith. With his red stole, the bishop has his hands joined in prayer; the imam, flanked by his 14-year-old daughter Malak, holds the rug used by Muslims for their five daily prayers.
It’s a powerful image, like when the two kneeled together before the 66 bodies lined up on 1 March as they lay in state in the only structure in Cruto large enough to host them. As soon as Bishop Panzetta arrived on the beach, after kissing the cross and blessing those present, he immediately announced that the Stations of the Cross was being held “in union with our Muslim brothers and sisters, to pray together to the one God”.
Bishop Panzetta and Imam Mustafa Achik
Participation was enormous and unexpected. The “Migrantes” Office said thousands of silent citizens felt it was their duty to be present. A woman who had come to pay tribute to the victims with her husband said she felt “personally involved in this tragedy that has knocked at our doors.” The crowd making its way on the sand is made up of people from all walks of life: firemen, sports groups, local shopkeepers, children, the elderly, entire families, two boys in wheelchairs, the archbishop of Cosenza, Giovanni Checchinato, and the bishop of Lamezia Terme, Serafino Parisi.
The Stations of the Cross in Cruto
They wept, and they sang songs of praise to Jesus: “How can I be shipwrecked if you are at the helm…”, they prayed as they followed the indications of the parish priest of Botricello, Don Rosario Morrone, who was among the first to reach the shore when the tragedy happened. During the Way of the Cross that commemorates Christ’s journey to Mount Calvary on the day of the crucifixion, prayers are said for innocent children who die from injustice, for those who suffer due to the tragedies of the world or because of ‘exclusive and selfish policies’, for mothers who lose their children.
The sky, at first clear, darkens as the crowd arrives, almost as if to contribute to the sorrowful atmosphere before the remains of the shipwreck. Mismatched shoes, clothing, lifebuoys, toys, and food supplies. The undertow has washed everything ashore. Relatives of the victims, locals and even the survivors themselves who have visited what has been dubbed the ‘beach of sorrow’ in recent days, have gathered these sad items and arranged them under improvised crosses made of wood and wire. On one of these crosses, an elderly woman kneels and lays a red rosary. She makes the sign of the cross, then joins the crowd that reaches as far as the surrounding hillsides, to listen to the archbishop’s closing words beside the wreckage.
A moment of the ceremony
“Jesus is the open and welcoming heart of God towards humanity. As we walked together, we asked ourselves: ‘are we still Christians? Sure, we have Christian roots, works of art, the crucifix on a chain around our necks, we do our novenas, we baptise our children. But how is it that after 2000 years of walking behind Jesus we have not really learnt to welcome each other? There is something wrong in our lives…,” Bishop Panzetta says.
“If we truly welcome Jesus,” he continues, “we must allow our hearts to be changed and not allow fear to make us cold-hearted.”
“If we are Christians, we cannot not be welcoming, we must have an open heart like Jesus and therefore we do not want a Europe closed in by barbed wire, a Europe in which it is difficult to find a welcome.”
“The poor are the body of Christ, those who have lost their lives in this sea are the flesh of Jesus. And so, looking at this very sea, we must all repent, no one excluded. Because we have the responsibility to generate and fuel a climate of welcome, fraternity, friendship.”
“Let us ask the Lord for this gift of conversion: we want to be hospitable communities,” the bishop concludes saying “It’s in the DNA of our people, of our territory, to have a wide-open heart.”
“Let us not allow fear to make us cold-hearted communities, terrified in the face of diversity. We want a conviviality of differences.”
The crowd gathered for the Stations of the Cross
The Eternal Rest Prayer concludes the Stations of the Cross. The Imam thanks everyone for the support shown to the Islamic community. Together with a priest he throws a wreath of white flowers into the sea. This gesture takes everyone’s memory back ten years, to Lampedusa, when Pope Francis made the same symbolic gesture to honour the memory of the dead, buried not in the earth, but in the waters of the Mediterranean, “an open-air graveyard”. Even more so, after this umpteenth tragedy.
The Imam and a Priest throw a wreath of flowers into the sea
Government leaders on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war remain reluctant to start negotiations immediately, with NATO expansion imminent and battles raging in Ukraine.
Listen to Stefan Bos’ report
By Stefan J. Bos
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goals, that of preventing further expansion of the NATO military alliance, seems to be under threat.
Hungary is sending a delegation to Sweden and Finland on Tuesday to discuss their entry into the NATO military alliance. Both countries want to join amid concerns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will spread to other nations.
Hungary is the last European Union country expected to ratify NATO expansion despite its disagreements with Sweden and Finland.
Both Nordic countries have criticized the Hungarian government’s perceived violations of the rule of law and democratic values.
After Hungary, only Turkey will have to ratify the NATO expansion, with Finland expected to be the first to enter the alliance.
Russia views the NATO move as a further threat to its security, but the West says the enlargement may not have happened without Moscow invading Ukraine.
Yet there were no signs Monday that the Russian invasion would end quickly despite a rapidly increasing death toll. U.S., and other Western officials now estimate that the number of total casualties on the Russian side — including dead and wounded — is approaching 200,000.
Bloodiest conflict in decades
But many thousands are also believed to have died on the Ukrainian side. If confirmed, it would make this Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, surpassing the horrors of the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
Moscow has acknowledged “significant” losses, but last reported accumulated casualties of under 6,000 by September. Many troops and civilians have died around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where fierce fighting continued Monday.
Yet with NATO rapidly expanding and recent losses on the battlefield, Moscow appears to view the Battle of Bakhmut as a way to regain at least some territory in Ukraine.
However, with the conflict and its trenches increasingly resembling World War One, calls for peace talks or a ceasefire have become even louder.
China is the latest big power to have presented a plan for peace talks. But Ukraine’s chief negotiator David Arakhamia remains skeptical. “The good sign is that China also started to feel that they also have to participate in some mitigation of the war. Because before, if you looked a year ago, they tried to pretend ss nothing happened. So it is a good sign that in their ideas or concepts, they are saying we have to obey the United Nations statute, which has to respect the legal borders of the country. So it plays for us.” Arakhamia said.
However, the negotiator added: “The bad sign, I think, is there was no single word about a call for Russian troops to go back.” And with the invasion now entering its second year, more deaths and destruction are expected.
Even if Russia wins the Battle for Bakhmut, Moscow has little to celebrate. The eastern Ukrainian city has been mostly reduced to rubble during the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion, and much more fighting awaits exhausted troops on both sides.
Welcoming a group from Saint Mary’s Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio (USA), Pope Francis encouraged them to deepen their listening to the Lord, walking together in communion, and giving witness to their faith, key elements that mark their seminary formation and the Church’s synodal journey.
By Thaddeus Jones
Pope Francis met with priests, deacons, seminarians and staff from Saint Mary’s Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday morning. The US group is celebrating the 175th anniversary of the seminary’s founding.
After opening greetings by Cleveland’s Bishop Edward Malesic, Pope Francis addressed the group by first giving thanks to God for the great number of priests formed by the seminary over almost two centuries. He noted how the seminary continues this mission today by educating and training deacons and lay ministers “to assist God’s holy people in living their call to be missionary disciples.”
The Pope in his prepared text then highlighted how this mission of formation takes on “ever greater importance” as the Church continues in its synodal journey by underscoring three key elements: listening to the Lord, walking together, and giving witness.
Listening to the Lord is an essential characteristic, as “by ourselves we can do nothing,” the Pope pointed out. This awareness calls us to mediate on the Lord’s word every day, to spend time in prayer, silence before the Tabernacle, and to have the help of spiritual accompaniment.
“Never forget the importance of placing yourselves before the Lord to hear what he wants to say to you. In fact, listening to God’s voice deep within our hearts and discerning his will is indispensable for our interior growth, particularly when we encounter urgent and difficult tasks”
Seminary life already helps develop this habit of prayer that is key to ministry, the Pope observed, and listening to the Lord helps in responding to our faith so that we can effectively teach and proclaim “the truth and beauty of the Gospel in an authentic and joyful way.”
The Pope then focused on the importance of deepening the spirit of fraternal communion among those at the seminary, but also with their Bishop, the faithful of the local Church, including men and women religious and the lay faithful, all with an eye to the wider world of the universal Church.
“We should recognize that we are part of one great people which has received God’s promises as a gift, not as a privilege. In the same way, your vocation is a gift to be placed at the service of building up the body of Christ.”
Pastoral ministry includes showing the path forward, encouraging others and always accompanying the flock.
Listening to God and walking together help us become “living signs of Jesus present in the world,” the Pope recalled, and in this way we can give witness to our faith. The Pope expressed his hope that their seminary formation will help prepare them to be give of themselves completely “in celibate love and with an undivided heart, to God and his holy people.”
“The Church needs your enthusiasm, generosity and zeal in order to show everyone that God is always with us, in every circumstance of life. I pray that, in the various educational and charitable apostolates in which you are already engaged, you will always be signs of a Church that goes forth, bearing witness to and sharing the merciful love of Jesus with all in the human family, especially the poor and those in need.”
The three actions of listening, walking together, and witness are key elements of the Church’s synodal journey, the Pope emphasized, as well as their own formation journey in preparing for ordination.
“Entrusting you to the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of your seminary, I warmly bless each one of you, your families and your local Churches. And I ask you please to pray for me. Thank you!”
Pope Francis sends a message to the 8th Our Ocean Conference held in Panama, and urges governments across the globe to protect the ocean for the benefit of future generations.
By Devin Watkins
Panama recently hosted the 8th Our Ocean Conference under the theme “Our Ocean, Our Connection” to highlight the importance of knowledge as “the basis of our actions and policies to ensure the protection of our ocean”.
The event took place separately but at the same time as national governments held UN-sponsored, breakthrough talks in New York in which they agreed to a new “High Seas Treaty” to codify conservation efforts of ocean areas beyond national jurisdictions.
Pope Francis sent a message to participants in the Our Ocean Conference held in Panama, on 2-3 March, which was released on Monday and signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
In his message, the Pope highlighted the importance of “humility, gratitude, and awe” as we say “Our” ocean.
“Starting from contemplation and study, our understanding of the complex and amazing mechanisms and balances of the oceans allows us to appreciate the role they play for everyone, not just coastal communities.”
He noted that all people depend on the oceans and are rightly considered the “common heritage” of humanity.
The oceans, he added, were given to us “as a gift from the Creator”, and we must therefore work to use them fairly and sustainably in order to pass them on to future generations.
Pope Francis urged the politicians and business leaders at the conference to embrace an “integral vision of ecology” in line with his encyclical Laudato si’.
He noted that the oceans face a host of threats, including pollution, acidification, and illegal fishing, as well as the nascent extractive industry on the seabed.
The Pope also tied in the many migrant tragedies that occur on the high seas and the harsh treatment of seafarers.
In response, he called on governments to recognize the “interconnectedness and interdependence between communities and countries” which the oceans embody.
“We are one family, we share the same inalienable human dignity, and we inhabit a common home that we are called to care for.”
The Pope went on to offer three directions to improve humanity’s relationship with the oceans.
First, he said, we need to listen to the cry of the poor and of the Earth, and therefore “urgently review growth strategies based on waste and unsustainable models of consumption.”
Second, humanity needs to united “to protect and restore marine, coastal, and river ecosystems”.
Finally, said Pope Francis, governments need to create effective “governance systems” to regulate and coordinate activity on the oceans.
“By working in these directions,” he concluded, “there will always be hope.”
It wasn’t an easy day for delegates at the Synod’s Continental Assembly for Africa when it came to the discernment of priority issues for the Church in Africa as the meeting drew to a close.
By Andrew Kaufa smm
The synodal way can be hard but is absolutely necessary. Sometimes difficult conversations arise among brothers and sisters. This was the experience of many when it came to the discernment of priority issues for the Church in Africa. As a matter of fact, the mood in the auditorium of De Leopol Hotel in Addis Ababa could as well be described as tense on Saturday afternoon when delegates reconvened to pass the draft Africa Synod document.
Sr Esther Lukas Jose Maria had earlier warned the delegates saying, “At this point, we have to think not as me but as one Church family of God in Africa.”
“We have not yet reached the stage of what is to be done but listening to one another and to the Holy Spirit. This is what we shall offer as the Church in Africa. And priority means the most important thing, not everything. Since we have 15 groups, we want to get 15 priority areas which we shall reduce to five,” she continued.
However, as usual with spiritual discernment, picking few priorities out of fifteen proved a challenge. For the facilitating team of the Saturday afternoon session, it was a hustle to guide the assembly towards consensus on the eight cross-cutting topics.
After much listening, eventually, a synthesis of the contributions from the fifteen working groups highlighted the following priority areas for the Church in Africa:
1. Family pastoral care that focuses on present-day challenges such as divorce, broken marriages and re-married people, elective and circumstantial single parents.
2. Deepening African cultural values as already enshrined in the concept of the Church as family of God since the first African synod in 1995, with no disregard to the doctrine of the Church.
3. Consideration of the African communitarian culture as expressed in philosophies such as Ubuntu, Ujamaa, Indaba and Palaver where co-responsibility and subsidiarity are key principles.
4. Commitment to fighting against the exploitation of natural resources which often leads to wars and social conflicts on the continent.
5. Promoting liturgical renewal for active participation of the faithful with respect to the guidelines of divine worship.
6. Formation of the people of God where the notion of inclusivity is emphasized as a way of promoting synodality in Church governance.
7. Promoting the inclusion of women, the youth and all groups of the people of God that feel marginalized.
8. Ecological justice and stewardship as a way of living a synodal change in order to address the ecological crisis.
At the end of the final session which lasted over three hours, the Church leaders present at the assembly took turns to give closing remarks.
For his part, the Archbishop of Addis Ababa and President of the Catholic Ethiopian Conference of Bishops which hosted the event, Cardinal Berhanayesus Souraphiel, expressed gratitude to the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) “for choosing Addis Ababa as the venue for the Catholic synodal assembly for the delegates to reflect on the issues together and dialogue on them in view of presenting a documental on the continental and universal levels.”
SECAM First Vice President, Mozambican Bishop Lucio Muandula who chaired the entire process including the two preparatory sessions that took place in Accra (Ghana) and Nairobi (Kenya) prior to the assembly, made reference to the biblical passage “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes (Psalm 133).” The passage, Bishop Muandula said, summarised the experience during of the African continental synod assembly.
Speaking to delegates, the Relator General of the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Hollerich, appreciated the spirit that marked the assembly, especially during the deliberation on the draft document. He said, “Dear sisters and brothers, I would like to thank God and you for this wonderful time of listening. I express gratitude with my whole heart for everything you have said and discussed here. So important indeed is synodality, communion, participation and mission.
As the President of SECAM Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo finally closed the assembly, he thanked the government of Ethiopia, the local Catholic Church and the people of Ethiopia for their hospitality. He further expressed gratitude to the visitors from the Vatican, SECAM and the technical team of experts including all delegates from across Africa and its Islands for coming to the assembly.
“It is the first assembly, a Kairos for renewal of the Church in Africa. It has been a moment to study but also to live synodality. It has been a moment to experience the sense of family of God in Africa. It has been a moment to listen to one another, to listen to the Holy Spirit on the delicate issues affecting the Continent of Africa. It is a synodal assembly to mutually renew our mission here in Africa,” remarked Cardinal Ambongo.
Now that the African continental phase has ended, that the Synod process continues to the universal level. Perhaps there was not enough time to thrash out intractable issues such as religious ideological extremism which is on the rise and a source of great concern for the church and people of Africa.
And the climax of the closure of the continental synodal assembly was the Eucharistic celebration at Saint Gabriel Catholic Parish on Sunday, 5 March 2023.
The synodal journey will undoubtedly open a new page in the coming decades, as did the Second Vatican Council. This is the impression of Hatem Bourial, a Muslim from Carthage, Tunisia, who participated in the African continental phase of the synod on synodality in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Stanislas Kambashi, SJ – Vatican City and Lambert Riyazimana – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Hatem Bourial was speaking as a Muslim widely engaged with ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.
The African continental phase of the Synod on Synodality, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1 to 6 March, brought together more than 200 participants from 41 African countries and the Islands. Participants also comprised Ethiopians as hosts and guests from other continents, particularly those from the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops of the Holy See. One hundred lay people taking part included 32 young people and 50 women. There were also some consecrated persons, priests, Bishops and Cardinals.
The Synod in Addis Ababa also welcomed guests from other religious traditions: Muslims and members of traditional African religions. Equally invited were Christians from other denominations.
Addis Ababa continental synod assembly.
Hatem Bourial, a Muslim from Carthage, Tunisia, who took part in the synodal meeting, underlined the value of the African Synodal process, comparing it to the Second Vatican Council, which he said opened “a new page” for the Catholic Church and its relations with other faiths.
In an interview conducted for Vatican News in Addis, Hatem Bourial affirmed that walking together, in his opinion, means looking towards the same destination. “It is to stay in contact; to look at each other without judgment, to stop and sometimes to go back, to adjust the initial objective.” Evoking the example of the Israelites, who in Scripture were always a “people on the march,” the Tunisian emphasised that walking also implies an effort and a relationship that is reciprocal with fellow travellers but is also reflective with oneself; and transitive when it concerns a whole group.
Reflecting on the shared journey, Hatem proposed a return to Isaiah’s reflection on the widening of the tent (Is 54:2) if we are to comprehend the precariousness and fragility of this “walking together.” He insisted that only then could we understand better that being together is a strength and being many and in communion represents more strength, stressed the Tunisian journalist.
Group picture in Addis.
Hatem Bourial suggested that the African continental Synodal be understood in an ecumenical dimension because, for him, it was an experience similar to that of the Second Vatican Council, which “opened a new page” not just for Catholics but even in its relations with other faiths. This synod also opens a new page regarding participation, communion and inclusion. Inclusion creates synergy and brings together the Christian, the Jew and the Muslim believer and, in the process, strengthens each person in their faith, observed the Carthaginian.
Referencing his own Muslim faith, Hatem pointed out that the act of walking further implies and entails an effort towards the desire for self-improvement. He said that being in rapport with others is actually the foundation of any ecumenical relationship.
Some of the participants at the Synod in Addis.
Hatem said the African continental synod has demonstrated unequivocally the Church’s capacity to integrate, include, and move forward. This means there will be important openings for those who are neither in the Church nor are keenly practising their faith. Hatem believes that the willingness and inclination to include and listen to members of other religions is a good signal for those in mosques and synagogues. He felt that such an approach could help solve the “disaffection gap” from which the world suffers today, leading to a loss of religious reference among individuals and society.
If we want to place ourselves in the ecumenical trajectory, added the Tunisian, it is necessary to think in terms of universality. This means putting ourselves in a historical perspective: “as much as Vatican II was important, this synod will open a new page that could last for half a century,” he said. In this universality, Hatem advocates a return to an African cultural matrix that can be expressed in the Church and ecumenical circles without losing sight of the African particularity. Moreover, he emphasises that hospitality and charity must be the foundation of this march because to widen one’s tent means to be more charitable: the love of the neighbour being the heartbeat of the Christian tradition.
SECAM President, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo.
Hatem expressed his appreciation for this synodal process involving participants from various backgrounds and faiths. Taking the example of himself, the Tunisian recounted his experience of often visiting the historic basilicas that make up the prestigious history of his city, Carthage. This ancient Phoenician city, neighbouring Tunis, has many ruins, remnants of a solid Christian tradition that has given the Church significant figures, like St. Cyprian (3rd century). For Hatem, these basilicas can be revived thanks to this process that takes us back to these distant historical roots. Carthage’s Christian history should therefore inspire the ecumenical process.
By participating in the African continental synodal march, Hatem found his mind going back to what happened in Carthage -a place where some great discussions of Catholicism occurred. Thanks to this historic city, he could not help but also reminisce about the many synods that established specific Catholic doctrine points.
“Walking with you today allows me to go back to this Tunisian antiquity and see that the openness perspective is still alive. With this openness of the Church, we can converge towards common objectives, shared by all religions,” he concluded.
Ukraine says it is still holding off attacks from Russian troops trying to surround its eastern city of Bakhmut, where many forces on both sides have been killed along with civilians.
By Stefan J. Bos
As fighting continued, a row of army sleeping bags lined up a basement in what is left of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Sleeping is a challenge, as thousands of soldiers have been killed or injured on both sides in the battle of Bakhmut, as well as civilians.
Though Russian officials say their troops have virtually surrounded the city, Ukrainian forces here do not want to leave and try to catch some sleep between long battles. “We are exhausted, but the desire to fight, to win is not going anywhere,” said a Ukrainian soldier calling himself Talisman.
But he added: “We will only move forward. We are not sleeping some nights. And still, we drive out the enemy back to their Russian Federation, where they can die or whatever.”
There is also suffering elsewhere among civilians in Ukraine. Authorities said the death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit a five-story apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia rose to at least 11 after a woman’s body was found in the debris.
It was the same area where the Russian defense ministry claimed Sunday that the Russian army hit a command center of the Ukrainian forces’ Azov Regiment.
And Ukraine’s presidential office said Sunday that among the many other civilian casualties were a woman and two children who died in Russian mortar shelling of a village in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson.
Despite all the suffering on both sites, Russia’s foreign minister has defended Russian actions in Ukraine.
However, Sergei Lavrov was laughed at in New Delhi, India, where he told a geopolitical conference that the Ukraine war was launched against Russia.
Lavrov struggled to get to the end of a sentence when explaining that the West was wrong by saying Russia undertook an unprovoked invasion in February last year.
“The war which we are trying to stop and which was launched against us,” Lavrov said before laughter rang out among the audience. Lavrov paused briefly and appeared flustered as he tried to continue.
Finally, he finished the sentence that it “influenced Russian policy,” taking three attempts to say the word “influence” amid the cackles and an audience member shouting: “come on.”
Speaking after a Group of 20 foreign ministers’ meeting, he also accused the West of sabotage and said Russia would look for new energy partners.
“We would not allow them to the pipelines again. The energy policy of Russia will be oriented toward reliable partners and credible partners,” he said.
The rhetoric underscored that Europe’s most significant conflict in generations is far from over despite the mounting death toll and millions of displaced people, including many children.
Listen to our report
After ten years of negotiations, nations have agreed to the text of a UN Ocean Treaty to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdictions.
By Nathan Morley
These negotiations on ‘The High Seas Treaty’ had been stalled for years over differences on funding and fishing rights.
Now, though, after all-night talks in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the finalization of a text.
The new treaty aims to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Covering nearly two-thirds of the ocean, the treaty marks the culmination of nearly two decades of work, and builds on the legacy of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
According to conservationists, the development is a victory for international efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health, now and in the future.
Furthermore, it is considered vital for addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. It is also important for achieving ocean-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The UN Secretary General commended all parties for their ambition, flexibility and perseverance.
His spokesman said he looks forward to continuing working with all parties to secure a healthier, more resilient, and more productive ocean, benefiting current and future generations.
Listen to our report
Pope Francis expresses his sorrow for a recent migrant tragedy in the southern Italian town of Cutro, which killed at least 70 people, including 16 minors.
By Devin Watkins
“May human traffickers be stopped, and may they not continue to throw away the lives of so many innocent people!”
Pope Francis made that heartfelt appeal for the victims of a recent migrant tragedy on the Mediterranean, as he spoke to pilgrims gathered for the Angelus prayer on Sunday.
At least 70 people died last Sunday when their flimsy boat broke apart on a shoal off the coast of the southern town of Cutro, in Italy’s Calabria region.
The boat had set out from Turkey a few days earlier with around 170 passengers aboard.
The Pope expressed his sorrow for the tragedy, and prayed for the victims, their families, and those who survived the shipwreck.
“I express my appreciation and gratitude to local residents and institutions for their solidarity and welcome for these brothers and sisters of ours. I renew my appeal that such tragedies not be repeated.”
Pope Francis condemned the role of human traffickers in contributing to such tragedies, saying they “throw away the lives of so many innocent people.”
“May these voyages of hope never again turn into voyages of death,” he said.
He also prayed that God might give everyone the “strength to understand and mourn.”
“May the clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea never again be bloodied by such dramatic incidents!”
Pope Francis renews his prayers for the dozens of victims in a head-on train collision in northern Greece.
By Devin Watkins
“My thoughts have gone out frequently in recent days to the victims of the train crash in Greece.”
Pope Francis offered that expression of his concern on Sunday, as he prayed the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The Pope noted that many of the victims were young students who were reportedly returning to university from a long holiday weekend for the start of Orthodox Lent.
“I pray for the deceased. I am close to those who were injured and their families. May Our Lady comfort them.”
At least 57 people died late Tuesday night when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train.
The collision took place near the northern Greek city of Larissa, in the Tempe Valley, some 380 kilometers north of Athens.
Greece’s government has blamed human error, and prosecutors have charged the local station master with negligent homicide and bodily harm, as well as disrupting transportation.
Protests broke out in multiple Greek cities in the wake of the collision against the perceived lack of safety measures in Greece’s rail network.
Funerals for some of those killed in the crash—many of whom were in their late teens and early 20s—have been held in recent days.
Angelus
Angelus Dómini nuntiávit Mariæ.
Et concépit de Spíritu Sancto.
Ave Maria…
Ecce ancílla Dómini.
Fiat mihi secúndum verbum tuum.
Ave Maria…
Et Verbum caro factum est.
Et habitávit in nobis.
Ave Maria…
Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei génetrix.
Ut digni efficiámur promissiónibus Christi.
Orémus.
Grátiam tuam, quǽsumus, Dómine,
méntibus nostris infunde;
ut qui, Ángelo nuntiánte, Christi Fílii tui incarnatiónem cognóvimus, per passiónem eius et crucem, ad resurrectiónis glóriam perducámur. Per eúndem Christum Dóminum nostrum.
Amen.
Gloria Patri… (ter)
Requiem aeternam…
Benedictio Apostolica seu Papalis
Dominus vobiscum.Et cum spiritu tuo.
Sit nomen Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus,
Pa ter, et Fi lius, et Spiritus Sanctus.
Amen.
The Angelus Prayer
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, etc…
Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Be it done unto me according to Your Word.
Hail Mary, etc…
And the Word was made Flesh.
And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary, etc…
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord,
Your Grace into our hearts;
that as we have known the incarnation of Christ,
Your Son by the message of an angel,
so by His Passion and Cross
we may be brought to the glory of His Resurrection.
Through the same Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.
Glory be, etc… (3 times)
Eternal rest…
Apostolic Blessing
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now and forever.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Who has made Heaven and Earth.
May Almighty God bless you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The Church in Africa needs radical conversion to be open to dialogue, to build together a society that is marked by justice, reconciliation, and peace, said the Bishop of Emdeber Diocese, Ethiopia.
Sheila Pires, Vatican News English Africa Collaborator – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Addressing participants at the divine liturgy held at the Nativity Cathedral on Saturday morning, Bishop Musié Ghebreghiorghis O.F.M. Cap focused on the continental stage of the Synod on Synodality Assembly underway in Addis Ababa.
Some of the participants at the Synod in Addis.
Bishop Musié described the continental stage of the Synod on Synodality as a moment of “grace” and as a fruitful experience for the Church in Africa.
“The whole of Africa is represented in this assembly. We speak different languages. We have different cultural backgrounds. We have different liturgies, and yet we are members (of the same Catholic Church),” said the Ethiopian prelate.
Cherish our rich cultural values
According to Bishop Musié, the assembly was an opportunity “freely share our joys and concerns” of the African continent. “African society”, he said, “is a vibrant society, with rich cultural values that need full attention… These values should not be diluted by the dictatorship of democracy or globalization because these values have much to teach the whole world.”
Bishop Musié went on to say that because most of the conflicts in Africa are among Christians, the Synod on Synodality invites the Church to be “open to dialogue, to build together a society that is marked by justice, reconciliation, and peace.”
Listen to Sheila Pires’ report here.
Sheila Pires in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A local fisherman tells of his attempts to rescue migrants whose boat broke apart and splintered at dawn on 26 February on the southern Italian coast just meters from the shore. 68 bodies have been pulled from the water but authorities say there are still between 27 and 47 people missing. 80 people survived the shipwreck. They include Afghans, Pakistanis, Syrians, Iraqis and Somalis.
By Salvatore Cernuzio – Cutro
“There, there, where that black thing is”. Vincenzo points to a spot to the right of the beach at Steccato di Cutro: it’s where at 6.30am on Saturday morning, the body of a 2-and-a-half-year-old boy was found. “His head was swollen… Now that the bodies are disfigured, it is even harder to recover them. They are in a condition best left unsaid.” The little boy had been in the water since last Sunday, since the tragedy that shocked the city of Crotone, Calabria, Italy, and the world: the shipwreck of a migrant boat that had set sail from Turkey and that hit a shoal, throwing about 180 people overboard while the sea was rough and the waves were up to four-metres-high. “The boat looked as though it had been in a washing machine.” Witnesses tell of “pieces upon pieces, boards smashed.”
Sixty-nine people have been found dead so far, including the child who resurfaced today from the waters of the Ionian Sea. That number soon turned to 70 when the body of a 12 or 13 year-old boy was found on a nearby beach in Botricello. More than forty people are still presumed missing, possibly caught in the rocks on the opposite side of the shipwreck site. The wind and the fine, but driving rain, that has been making the water murky are hampering the work of divers and Civil Defence teams .
50-year-old Vincenzo Luciani is a local fisherman who was on the beach on Saturday morning when the toddler was brought to shore. He was also there at dawn on 26 February. He describes the dramatic moment when the waves started returning bodies. “I was sleeping and I got a phone call from a friend saying: ‘Vincé, run, I hear screams, I don’t know what’s happening!’ I live nearby, I got dressed and five minutes later I was here. When I arrived I saw some frightening images but I didn’t have time to think about anything because I jumped into the water to reach the people in the waves. I thought they were alive but they were all dead. There was a powerful current, I had a hard time bringing them to the beach because the undertow took them back again. I would take them to the beach and the sea would take them back… It was a huge effort.”
Vincenzo in his white Nissan on Cutro beach
The fisherman’s blue eyes are reddened by little sleep and salt: “The further I looked, the more bodies I saw,” he says, “even children”. It is the image of a child, he adds, that shocked him so much that it took away his sleep and appetite for days: “He was small, I picked him up in the water, his eyes were open, he seemed to be looking at me. I shouted: this one’s alive, we’ll save him! Instead when I put him on the shore, I saw that he was no longer breathing and I closed his eyes. I haven’t been able to forget that scene for a week”.
Since that day, the fisherman has practically lived on the beach, where the scenario, a week after the shipwreck, is still ghostly. Almost warlike. There are shoes – mismatched, destroyed, soaked in the sand, or placed under a cross cobbled together with two wooden rods and some steel wire – all along the coast. And there are socks, packets of crackers, a life jacket, a medicine bottle, a can of Red Bull, a bouquet of mimosas placed under a piece of the wreck lying on its side, put there perhaps, to mark 8 March, Women’s Day, an occurrence the drowned women will not be able to celebrate. No one has touched anything since Sunday, the beach seems crystallised in that hour of death and despair. A continuous stream of inhabitants of nearby Crotone, despite the bad weather and roads rendered almost impassable due to potholes and mud, are like pilgrims treading this difficult path to the place that has been called the ‘beach of sorrow’. Many of them took part, last night, in a Stations of the Cross organised by the Archdiocese of Crotone in the local cathedral, guided by meditations from Pope Francis’ words on migration. Another Way of the Cross will be held tomorrow, 5 March, along the same beach with the title With Christ among migrants before the indifference of the powerful.
a shoe amidst the seaweed on Cutro beach
Vincenzo does not participate in the ongoing search efforts. He just stands on the beach or seeks shelter from the cold inside his white Nissan. It is the only car close to the shore, the other cars, those of the Municipal Police, of the Civil Defence, and of Misericordie volunteers are parked further back, next to the mobile emergency response centre blue tent. He wants to be there, monitoring the situation day and night, together with operators and volunteers, looking for missing persons. There is someone ankle-deep in the sea, with a pair of binoculars: “Maybe some waves will bring something else back,” he comments bitterly. Every shadow below the surface of the water sets the teams into action.
Ongoing search operations on Cutro beach
The rhythm of the past days continues unabated: “We’ve been here since 4 a.m., we were supposed to take a break this morning but we’re going on,” says a volunteer. “Searching, searching, searching: this is what we do from morning to night. Even at night.” Vincenzo says he equipped himself with a searchlight: “it’s a duty to search. It is a duty towards people like the Afghan woman who came to the beach yesterday to beg the fisherman to find her son’s body. “I was really grieved… She held my arm and using a phone translator she said: ‘Please find my son…’. Of her other two sons, one is dead and the other is missing. I promised to try my best”.
Why? “I made a promise to this mother, I made the same promise to a brother who came yesterday from France. He sent me a photograph and his telephone number and said: ‘please, if you find this person call me.’ I also made a promise to myself: how can one leave them in the sea? This keeps me from sleeping at night”.
A twig of mimosa under a shard of the wreck
The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner says his fighters have practically encircled Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city the Kremlin has been trying to seize for months.
By Stefan J. Bos
Ukrainian forces are fighting to keep Bakhmut under their control. Fierce battles are raging in the urban center of this eastern industrial city, once known for its salt and gypsum mines and the site of a famed winery with sparking wines.
Many of its 71,000 residents have fled. But those who stayed behind now risk their lives if they leave.
Authorities say a woman was killed and two men seriously injured by Russian shelling while trying to cross a makeshift bridge out of Bakhmut on Saturday.
The chief of Russia’s paramilitary group Wagner says his fighters have ‘practically encircled’ Bakhmut, which Moscow has been trying to seize for months.
Yevgeny Prigozhin urged the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to abandon the city. “I am addressing the President of Ukraine,” he said. Prigozhin told him in his video message that his Wagner mercenaries had surrounded Bakhmut and that there was only one road out of the city.
The strategic importance of Bakhmut, more than 640 kilometers or 400 miles southeast of Kyiv, has been disputed.
But for Prigozhin, the battle represents a chance to showcase his Wagner group’s abilities — even at an enormous human cost, analysts say.
Russia also wants to regain at least some territory after significant losses in recent months. To Ukraine, the city has become a symbol of resistance.
But the trenches in the area are now filled with shivering or killed soldiers on both sides in an armed conflict resembling the horrors of World War One.
Listen to our report
A U.N. human rights groups releases a report detailing abuses committed by the government of Daniel Ortega against dissidents of the regime.
By Linda Bordoni
The United Nations Human Rights Group on Nicaragua said the government of Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega executed at least 40 people and ordered hospitals not to treat demonstrators wounded in anti-government protests.
In a report released this week, the experts listed abuses that they say constitute “crimes against humanity”. It explained that the violent crackdown began with the jailing of opponents and the outlawing of civic groups following the 2018 anti-government protests.
President Ortega claimed those protests were part of a foreign-orchestrated plot to oust him.
The report also condemned Ortega’s government for stripping 222 opponents of their nationality, after they were loaded aboard a plane and flown to the United States last month.
The independent group’s findings come in the wake of a series of actions taken by Ortega against the Catholic Church. These include a 26 jail sentence for Bishop Rolando Alvarez of Matagalpa, who was falsely accused of conspiracy and false news, and an order to strip Bishop Baez of Managua of his citizenship.
A number of priests, a deacon and two seminarians have also been condemned to 10 years imprisonment on charges of conspiring against the government.
In the past few days, the government has also banned the celebration of traditional public processions of the Way of the Cross during the Lenten season.
According to the report, Ortega’s government engaged in “extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, torture, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.”
The report found that “between 70 and 80% of the deaths of demonstrators were caused by firearms, and revealed that police and doctors demanded that relatives sign documents renouncing their rights to an autopsy of the victims’ bodies or to file criminal complaints in the deaths.
It said those implicated in the killings include Ortega’s Frente Sandinista party, its youth group, government employees, former members of the military and even street gang members recruited by people linked to high-ranking officials.
As the Church marks the Second Sunday of Lent, Fr Edmund Power, OSB, offers his thoughts on the day’s liturgical readings under the theme: “The Lord’s Day Reflection: ‘Lenten journey up the mountain of renewal”.
By Fr Edmund Power, OSB
Behind the journey of Lent lies the Exodus experience of the people of Israel on their difficult but purifying passage from slavery to freedom.
In this Sunday of the Transfiguration, the Genesis reading invites us to consider another journey: the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you”.
A God hitherto unknown, bids him to leave everything he knew to find a new life.
So, the voice of Lent, a word that originally meant “springtime”, calls us to a renewal of life.
This renewal will require commitment and maybe suffering on our part: the poet T. S. Eliot reminds us that “April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land.”
Between two predictions of the Passion, Jesus leads His closest disciples up Mount Tabor: they must understand the inseparable unity of passion, death and resurrection.
Four phrases from Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration are particularly suggestive.
The first is led them up a high mountain apart. Why apart? Perhaps because all of us need moments of solitude and detachment that enable us to listen and see with greater clarity the presence of the Lord in our midst.
The second is a bright cloud overshadowed them. Matthew alone specifies that the cloud was bright. Brightness and shadow come together in this ambiguous phrase. At his conversion, Paul saw a light so bright that he was cast into darkness. There will certainly be moments of darkness in our life and Lenten journeys: such moments test us and may serve to deepen our desire for the true light. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is the light of the world, nevertheless, both light and darkness, bless the Lord.
The third phrase is listen to him! The voice of the Father addresses the disciples, proclaiming the identity of Jesus and issuing this command. The words chime in harmony with the voice of the psalmist in the invitatory psalm 94/5 with which the Divine Office begins every day: O that today you would listen to his voice! This admonition is set in the context of the Exodus and the hard hearts of those who did not listen well. Now we on our Lenten way can learn from their mistakes and intensify our attention to what really matters.
Our fourth phrase is the only thing that Jesus says to them before they start their bewildered descent of the mountain: Rise, and have no fear. This is an invitation to wakefulness and to hope.
So, we too continue our courageous Lenten journey, lit up by the hope of glory and realistically intrepid in the disciplines and trials required of us.
Many people search “Catholic Mass near me” when traveling and searching for Mass times at the nearest Catholic Church. CatholicMasses.org allows you to search for Catholic Churches and to find Mass times near you!
This feature helps while traveling. Along with Mass times, Mass schedules and Catholic news you can also watch daily Catholic Mass streamed online.
Try our free resource to “find Roman Catholic Churches near me” today!
St Alphonsus Liguori praised the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the best way to Honor God. Join Catholics as we celebrate daily Mass from various parishes around the world, online and offline. Please visit daily to pray with us as we recite the Rosary, offer daily scripture, today’s Catholic mass readings, devotions and Catholic focused news. We bring you daily Catholic Mass from various USCCB parishes around country and around the world along with Catholic news today.