Some observations following the court verdict issued on the case regarding the Sloane Avenue property purchase.
By Andrea Tornielli
It is surely incorrect to call it “the trial of the century,” even if what has just concluded in the multifunctional hall of the Vatican Museums has been without a doubt an important trial, the first of such significance and scope in the history of Vatican City State, that is from the time of the Lateran Treaty of 1929. It’s been a long and onerous trial that has entered into the “living flesh” of the management of the Holy See’s finances and has brought to the public domain both the ways in which funds have been administered in some cases, as well as attempts by some external actors to appropriate resources of the Church. A transparent and necessary path was undertaken for a regular trial given the charges made and that which emerged in the investigative and inquiry phases.
The management of Vatican finances has been the focus of investigative and at times court journalism for over half a century. The path of transparency began with determination under Benedict XVI and continued with steadfastness with the reforms of Pope Francis. Faced with the irregularities reported to judiciary authorities, and not by magistrates of other countries, but by internal offices of the Holy See, Pope Francis let justice take its ordinary and institutional course. Beyond the caricatures presented by some, the trial over the Sloane Avenue building investment and related issues was fair, a trial that was entirely played out in the hearings with full respect for the rights of the defendants. This is evidenced not only in the number of hearings, documents, and witnesses heard, but also in the fact that witnesses who first seemed fundamental, later became inconsequential because of the courtroom debate and documentary evidence.
The outcome of this trial also tells us that the magistrates of the tribunal, as should have been the case, reasoned with complete independence on the basis of documental proof and witnesses heard, not on preconceived theories. And they left ample room for debate. Therefore, the ruling was arrived at with respect for all the rights of the defendants, having taken into due consideration the petitions of their advocates and above all without ever bending the norms to the convenience of the prosecution. For example, this is demonstrated in the decision of the court to consider as inadmissible the statements made during the interrogation of Gianluigi Torzi at the Vatican Gendarmerie. The statements included accusations against other defendants, but they were not considered admissible given that Torzi himself did not appear in the courtroom to repeat and corroborate them.
Pope Francis said last February on the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year, that one must be clear and avoid ‘not seeing the wood for the trees’: the problem is not the lawsuits, but the facts and conduct that give rise to them and make them painfully necessary.” Norms regarding transparency, tight controls on the management of funds, also on the part of external managers, and the awareness that there are no free zones, will help contribute to the management of ecclesiastical goods that is evermore similar to the prudence of a good family father. The genesis of this trial has shown that the Holy See and Vatican City State possess the necessary “antibodies” to identify presumed abuses or misconduct. The way the trial hearings were carried out shows how justice is being administered without shortcuts, following a code of practice with respect for the rights of each person and the presumption of innocence.
Ukraine says air defense and mobile groups of drone hunters have shot down dozens of Russian drones. The attacks came after Ukraine suffered a significant defeat in the European Union, with Hungary blocking 54 billion dollars in aid.
By Stefan J. Bos
Kyiv said that its military shot 30 out of 31 Russian drones over 11 regions across the country out of the sky “so far” on Saturday.
It was a small victory following a massive defeat in the European Union that could impact the outcome of its war against Russia.
EU member Hungary vetoed 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in European Union aid to the wartorn nation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he blocked the money to Ukraine to ensure that Budapest gets the billions frozen by Brussels over worries about the rule of law in Hungary. “They immediately wanted to give 50 billion euros to the Ukrainians. In essence, they wanted to give the money from the Hungarians,” he said.
He added that Brussels wanted “the member states’ money, including Hungary’s money, to go to Ukraine. And that was the point when I said: ‘Wait a minute, this is a concrete infringement; I must veto this.'”
Orban recalled that the EU restored Hungary’s access to 10.2 billion euros ($11.1 billion) in frozen funds this week, but 21.1 billion euros ($23 billion) remain locked. EU leaders are however working on a plan B and will revisit the issue at an emergency summit at the end of January or early February, suggested the EU’s European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
He also opposed the start of talks on European Union membership with Ukraine. But he did not veto the move, opting instead to leave the room after pressure from Germany.
EU leaders also decided to open membership talks with Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia. Moscow praised Hungary’s tough stance and condemned the EU for what it said was destabilizing the region. They pledged to open accession talks with Bosnia-Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with membership criteria is achieved.
It came as Ukraine tried to counter Russian attacks Saturday after suffering setbacks, including what the British defence ministry described as the most significant cyber attack since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The attack reportedly left half of Ukraine’s population without mobile phone signals or the ability to use the internet. Additionally, the cyber attack disrupted air raid sirens, some banks, cash machines, and point-of-sale terminals.
However, all didn’t go well for Ukraine’s military, with Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo, in Ukraine’s partly occupied southern Kherson region, said that at least 15 Ukrainian aerial targets had been downed.
Kyiv says Russia is also stepping up efforts to capture the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, moving battalion reserves to the area.
In response to Russia’s actions, Ukraine’s interior ministry has placed the head of Russia’s Orthodox church – a backer of the Kremlin’s 21-month-old war against Kyiv – on its wanted list. The measure is symbolic, as Patriarch Kirill is in Russia and under no threat of arrest ahead of Christmas.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos
Cardinal Angelo Becciu is sentenced by the Vatican court to five years and six months imprisonment, perpetual disqualification from public office, and an eight thousand euro fine. Penalty fines also given to defendants Di Ruzza and Brülhart, while Monsignor Carlino is acquitted. Penalties given to defendants Tirabassi, Torzi, Crasso and Marogna.
By Salvatore Cernuzio
Five years and six months imprisonment, plus perpetual interdiction from public office and an eight thousand euro fine marked the penalties handed down in the sentence imposed on Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu by the Vatican Tribunal at the conclusion of the trial regarding the management of funds of the Secretariat of State, focused on the purchase and sale of a building in London. Cardinal Becciu was found guilty of three counts of embezzlement, according to the sentence pronounced Saturday afternoon at 4:07 p.m. by the Tribunal’s president, Giuseppe Pignatone, in the Vatican Museums’ multifunctional hall.
Fines were handed down to René Brülhart and Tommaso Di Ruzza, former president and director of the Vatican’s Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, respectively, amounted to a 1,750 euro fine. For Enrico Craso, former financial adviser to the Secretariat of State, the court imposed a sentence of seven years imprisonment and a ten thousand euro fine and interdiction from public office. For financier Raffaele Mincione five years and six months, an eight thousand euro fine, and disqualification from public office. For the former employee of the administrative office of the Secretariat of State, Fabrizio Tirabassi, the court sentencing called for seven years imprisonment and a ten thousand euro fine, and disqualification from public office.
For lawyer Nicola Squillace, with extenuating circumstances, one year and ten months imprisonment, and a suspended sentence of five years. For broker Gianluigi Torzi six years and six thousand euros, disqualification from public office, and a submission to special supervision for one year according to Article 412 of the Criminal Code. Three years and nine months were handed down to manager Cecilia Marogna, and a temporary ban on holding public office for the same period. A penalty of 40,000 euros was levied on her company Logsic Humanitarne Dejavnosti. Many of the prosecution’s charges have undergone a “requalification.”
The verdict issued on the afternoon of 16 December came after 86 hearings. The Vatican Tribunal has issued its first-degree judgment in the trial of ten defendants and four companies that as is well known regarded several issues, the primary one on the purchase and sale of the 60 Sloane Avenue building in London.
The court found that the crime of embezzlement was proven for the illicit use of the sum of US$200 million and US $ 500,000, “amounting to about one-third of the availability at the time of the Secretariat of State because it violated the provisions on the administration of ecclesiastical property.” This sum had been paid between 2013 and 2014, at the behest of the then Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, for the purchase of shares in Athena Capital Commodities, a hedge fund, referable to Raffaele Mincione, with highly speculative characteristics and which entailed a high risk for the investor on the capital without any possibility of managing control. The court therefore found guilty of the crime of embezzlement Cardinal Becciu and Mincione, who had been in direct contact with the Secretariat of State to obtain payment of the sum “even without the conditions having been fulfilled, as well as, in complicity with them, Fabrizio Tirabassi, an employee of the Administrative Office, and Enrico Crasso.”
Regarding the subsequent use of that sum, required for both the purchase of the company that owned the Sloane Avenue building and for numerous movable investments, the Court found Raffaele Mincione guilty of the crime of self-laundering. The Vatican magistrates, on the other hand, excluded the responsibility of Becciu, Crasso Enrico and Tirabassi Fabrizio about the other crimes of embezzlement charged to them by the Promoter of Justice, “because the fact does not exist, since the Secretariat of State no longer had available the money once it had been paid to invest in the fund’s shares.”
Enrico Crasso was then found guilty of the crime of self-laundering in relation to the use of a large sum of more than one million euros, “constituting profit from the crime of corruption between private individuals committed in complicity with Mincione.”
Regarding the Secretariat of State’s repurchase in 2018-2019 via a complex financial operation of the companies to which the property of the aforementioned building belonged, the Court found Gianluigi Torzi and Nicola Squillace guilty of the crime of aggravated fraud and Torzi also guilty of the crime of extortion in complicity with Fabrizio Tirabassi, “as well as the crime of self-laundering of what was illegally obtained.” Torzi, Tirabassi, Crasso and Mincione were instead acquitted “because the fact does not exist” of the crime of embezzlement ascribed to them in relation to the alleged overvaluation of the sale price.
Tirabassi was also found guilty of the crime of self-laundering regarding the holding of the sum of more than 1.5 million U.S. dollars paid to him between 2004 and 2009 by UBS Bank. The court found that the receipt of this sum by the defendant “constituted the crime of corruption in respect of which, however, given the time that has elapsed, the prosecution is now barred by the statute of limitations.”
As for Tommaso Di Ruzza and Renè Brulhart, respectively at the time Director General and President of the Vatican’s Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, who intervened in the final phase of the buyback of the Sloane Avenue Building, both were acquitted of the crimes of abuse of office charged against them and found guilty only of the offences of failure to denounce and failure to report to the Promoter of Justice a suspicious transaction.
Finally, concerning two other areas of the investigation, Cardinal Becciu and Cecilia Marogna were found guilty over the payment by the Secretariat of State of sums totalling more than 570,000 euros in favour of Marogna, through a company referable to her, “on the grounds, not corresponding to the truth, that the money was to be used to facilitate the liberation of a religious sister, a victim of kidnapping in Africa.”
Cardinal Becciu was also found guilty of embezzlement for having disposed on two occasions the disbursement of the total sum of 125 thousand euros to an account in the name of Caritas-Diocese of Ozieri, actually intended for the SPES cooperative, of which his brother Antonino Becciu was president. “Although the final purpose of the sums was in itself lawful, the College held that the disbursement of funds from the Secretariat of State constituted, in the case at hand, an illicit use of the same, constituting the crime of embezzlement, about the violation of Article 176 of the Criminal Code, which sanctions private interest in acts of office, even through an interposed person, consistent – moreover – with the provisions of Canon 1298 C.I.C., which prohibits the alienation of ecclesiastical public property to relatives within the fourth degree.”
In contrast, defendants Mincione, Torzi, Tirabassi, Becciu, Squillace, Crasso, Di Ruzza and Brulhart were acquitted of all other crimes charged against them. Monsignor Mauro Carlino was acquitted of all crimes charged against him.
Many of the defence attorneys present in the courtroom have announced that they will file an appeal.
The Vatican Secretary of State on Saturday receives a delegation of the Arab League accompanied by several ambassadors from countries in the region. He recalls the Pope’s appeal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the Holy See’s position, including that of the two-state solution.
By Vatican News
The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has reiterated the Holy See’s concern for the situation in Israel and Palestine in a meeting on Saturday morning with Enas Sayed Mohamed Aly Mekkawy, delegate of the League of Arab States, accompanied by Issa Kassissieh, ambassador of Palestine; Farid El Khazen, ambassador of Lebanon; Rahman Farhan Abdullah Alaameri, ambassador of Iraq; and Mahmoud Talaat, ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
During the cordial talks held at the offices of the Secretariat of State, as noted in a communiqué from the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Parolin recalled Pope Francis’ frequent appeals for a cease-fire, humanitarian aid access to Gaza, the urgent need to achieve full implementation of a two-state solution, and an internationally guaranteed special status for the city of Jerusalem, in order to establish lasting peace in the region.
The Israeli Military has opened an investigation into how it mistakenly killed three hostages during its ongoing campaign in Gaza.
By Nathan Morley
The Israelis say the three men – all hostages – were misidentified as being a threat.
An Army official said one of its troops saw the hostages emerging from a building, holding a stick with a white rag attached to it. The soldier felt exposed and opened fire, declaring that the men were terrorists.
In response, hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Friday night, holding placards and candles calling on the government to secure the release of more than 100 more hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Speaking in Jerusalem, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described the deaths as an unbearable tragedy.
Meanwhile, the Israeli offensive has continued in Gaza – with residents reporting fighting in northern, central, and southern Gaza. A TV cameraman working for an Arabic news network was reportedly killed by either shrapnel or a drone.
Elsewhere, the World Health Organization’s representative in Gaza says more needs to be done on the humanitarian front. He said there were hospitals “barely functional” in the north of Gaza.
On Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry reported that 18,800 people are now known to have been killed since Israel commenced its campaign after the 7 October Hamas raid on Israel.
Listen to the report by Nathan Morley
The Israeli military has reportedly entered the compound of Holy Family Catholic Parish, shooting at anyone leaving the church. The victims are said to be an elderly woman and her daughter who rushed out of the building to rescue her mother. Israel has justified the attack, which is still ongoing, claiming the presence of a missile launcher in the parish.
By Vatican News
Israelis have opened fire on Gaza’s Christians. Following heavy bombardment overnight of the area around Holy Family Latin parish in Gaza City, dozens are reported dead, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and reports continue to arrive that shooting by Israeli snipers continues during these hours.
From the reports coming in, confirmed by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Saturday afternoon two women were reportedly killed, believed to be a mother and daughter, the latter murdered while attempting to rescue her elderly mother who had been shot by snipers. There are also several wounded, one of them in very serious condition.
The still-ongoing attack was reportedly justified by Israelis who claimed the presence of a rocket launcher in the parish. Despite the Patriarchate’s intervention, the operation has not been halted. Israeli soldiers reportedly entered the parish compound and are in the parish square itself from where they are firing at civilians sheltering in the building.
Meeting a group of actors performing a Living Nativity Scene at the Roman Basilica of St. Mary Major, Pope Francis again turns his thoughts to the war ravaging the Holy Land.
By Lisa Zengarini
Pope Francis has once again reiterated his closeness to all the people suffering the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.
During an audience on Saturday with a group of actors performing in a Living Nativity Scene at the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, he called on Christians to turn their thoughts and prayers this Christmas to the Holy Land.
“We know the situation, caused by the war, the consequence of a conflict that has lasted for decades.” he said, remarking that for Palestinians living in Bethlehem too this Christmas will be marked by suffering and grieving, with no pilgrims and celebrations.
Because of the conflict in Gaza, and rising tensions also in the West Bank, in Bethlehem tourism has halted and pilgrimages have been suspended, while all public celebrations have been cancelled, resulting in further hardships for its inhabitants many of whom live on tourism and pilgrimages. “We don’t want to leave them alone”, said Pope Francis, urging for prayers and tangible support.
In his speech, the Pope recalled the close connection of the Basilica of St. Mary Major to Jesus’ birthplace which goes back to the first centuries of Christianity. The ancient Roman church has a precious relic of pieces of Christ’s crib sent from Bethlehem by St. Sophronius, then the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to Pope Theodore I in the seventh century. For this reason, it was also referred to as “the Bethlehem of the West.”
Also, its underground Chapel of the Nativity once contained the first known nativity scene figurines, sculpted by Arnolfo di Cambio in the late 13th century for Pope Nicholas IV, who was inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, creator of the first Living Nativity in Greccio, Italy, 800 years ago.
Drawing attention to this second aspect, Pope Francis remarked that living nativity scenes must not be reduced to mere folkloric facts. Their purpose, as intended by St. Francis, he said, must “be to reawaken wonder in the heart, before the mystery of God who became a child.”
“Francis wanted to represent in life the birth of Jesus to inspire, in friars and in the people, emotion and tenderness towards the mystery of God born of Mary in a stable and laid in a manger. He wanted to give substance to the representation: not a painting, not statues, but people in flesh and blood, in order to highlight the reality of the incarnation.”
Concluding his address, Pope Francis reiterated his call to think about the Holy Land at Christmas, noting that the Living Nativity Scene in St. Mary Major will help remind everyone “of how the suffering of Bethlehem is an open wound for the Middle East and for the entire world.”
Pope Francis meets with participants in a Christmas Concert sponsored by the Gravissimum Educationis Pontifical Foundation held in the Vatican on Saturday 16 December, and invites them to sing “from the heart” and to not forget the people suffering in the Land of Jesus that is shattered by war.
By Linda Bordoni
Thanking Bishop Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Gravissimum Educationis Pontifical Foundation for organizing and promoting the annual Christmas Concert, Pope Francis upheld the value of popular Christmas songs “that evoke a powerful blend of emotions and associations.”
Noting that “Christmas is perhaps the holiday richest in popular songs,” he reflected on “the theology and harmony” contained in some of them, and expressed gratitude to those who continue to breathe life into this tradition.
“You lend your voices to these celebrated Christmas melodies, and each of you brings to them your own individuality, your own timbre,” he said.
The Pope reflected on the “ancient yet ever new” message of the birth of Jesus, the Saviour, and the “different voices, from all over the world, that come together to make it heard.”
He pointed to the variety of styles that exist in communicating this message that, he said, reflect a diversity of cultures and languages.
Pope Francis greets participants in the Christmas Concert
“Precisely because the Good News of Christmas is unique, it cannot be sung in just one way,” he added, noting that too often, “In our technocratic societies, everything tends to become uniform, homogenized, reduced to a single standard.”
And decrying the fact that commercialisation and consumerism sadly overcome the celebration of Christmas, he said: “Art is different, and Christmas songs must be sung with the art that stems from the heart.”
Pope Francis concluded his greeting saying that he knows the singers will be thinking of all those who are presently living in sorrow and fear on account of war.
“So many wars! Tragically, even in the land of Jesus,” he concluded, thanking them for their witness.
A funeral for the victim of a bombing in the Gaza Strip
On the afternoon of Saturday, December 16, the Vatican court will conclude the legal proceedings that began in July 2021, focusing on the sale of a property in London and other inquiries. Ten defendants, including a cardinal, 69 witnesses and millions of files and documents are some of the elements that make up the longest and most complex trial ever experienced by the Holy See.
By Salvatore Cernuzio
Twenty-nine months, 85 hearings, an average of over 600 hours spent in Court, the testimonies of 69 witnesses, 12,4563 printed and electronic pages and 2,479,062 files presented by the prosecution, 20,150 pages with attachments deposited by the defence, as well as 48,731 presented by civil parties. The trial, defined as the century trial, is the longest and most elaborate ever held within the Vatican walls and has garnered significant media attention, especially from the anglophone press. This attention has persisted throughout the 85 hearings, held, sometimes, five or six times a month – even at the height of summer – and reignited by various plot twists and dramatic turns that marked and even altered the course of events.
The trial was preceded by a lengthy and detailed investigation initiated by the then Promoter of Justice, Gian Piero Milano, and his deputy Alessandro Diddi (subsequently appointed Promoter). It unfolded through the investigations of the Vatican Gendarmerie, with the help of four rescripts by the Pope published in the course of the proceedings, expanding the powers of the prosecutors. The process involved a vast number of documents and seized electronic devices, along with interrogations of witnesses. All of this culminated in a 487-page indictment.
The trial truly began seven months and one day later, on March 1, 2022, leaving ample room for preliminary motions that dominated the first eight hearings according to instructions by the Vatican Court, which never rejected procedural disputes, rebuttals, or nullities. This trial, characterized by the “space and listening” granted to all, seems to echo the words engraved in Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which celebrates its 75th anniversary: “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.”
The trial concludes on the afternoon of Saturday, December 16. Between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. local time, as announced in the last hearing on Tuesday, by the President of the Court, Giuseppe Pignatone, who will read the verdict. It will thus be revealed whether the ten defendants will be convicted or acquitted.
Fourteen defendants face 49 charges; they include four companies and ten individuals. The companies are Logsic Humitarne Dejavnosti based in Slovenia; Prestige Family Office Sa; Sogenel Capital Investment, and HP Finance LLC. The latter three are linked to Enrico Crasso, a financial consultant to the Vatican Secretariat of State for about twenty years; the first is owned by Cecilia Marogna, the Sardinian manager accused of receiving funds from the Holy See for the release of Catholic hostages held by Islamic terrorists and then spending them on luxury travel and goods. She faces embezzlement charges. Crasso is accused of embezzlement, corruption, extortion, money laundering, self-laundering, fraud, abuse of office, material forgery of a public deed committed by a private individual, and private document forgery.
Among the defendants are René Brülhart and Tommaso Di Ruzza, former president and former director of AIF (Financial Information Authority, now ASIF), accused of abuse of office and embezzlement by the former, and embezzlement, abuse of office, and violation of office secrecy by the latter. Monsignor Mauro Carlino, personal secretary to two Substitutes (extortion and abuse of office); financier Raffaele Mincione (embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, misappropriation, and self-laundering); lawyer Nicola Squillace (fraud, misappropriation, money laundering, and self-laundering); Fabrizio Tirabassi, former employee of the Secretariat of State (corruption, extortion, embezzlement, fraud, and abuse of office); broker Gianluigi Torzi (extortion, embezzlement, fraud, misappropriation, money laundering, and self-laundering). Many of these offences are alleged to have been committed in collusion.
Finally, the list of defendants includes Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, former Substitute of the Secretariat of State, who is being tried, as legally required, for embezzlement, abuse of office, and subornation.
Most of the alleged crimes took place during the sale of a luxury property on Sloane Avenue, in the heart of London, by the Secretariat of State. According to the prosecution, this highly speculative operation resulted in a loss of at least €139 million for the Vatican, following a purchase for £350 million and a resale for less than £186 million. The Secretariat of State has become a Civil Party and has claimed €117.818 million in damages. This is accompanied by compensation claims from the four other Civil Parties in the trial: IOR, which has requested €207.987,494 million; APSA, €270.777,495 million; ASIF and Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, former head of the administrative office of the Secretariat of State, both of whom defer to the equitable assessment of the judging panel for the quantification of damages.
According to the prosecution’s reconstruction, the investment was initiated after the failure of an oil operation in Angola proposed by Becciu but never realized. From there, the transition to the Sloane Avenue palace took place in a whirlwind of funds, transactions, fees, commissions, agreements made without – it seems – the authorization of superiors, involvement of foreign banks, and the use of risky financial instruments. According to the plaintiffs, the investment opened the doors to the “money changers,” while the defendants argue that there was no criminal action, only “normal” transactions for those familiar with the financial world. To conclude the London affair, there is also the alleged extortion by Torzi, the broker, who demanded €15 million from the Secretariat of State to relinquish voting rights that allowed him to keep effective control of the property deal.
In addition to the “London affair,” the trial also includes the “Sardinia affair” and the “Marogna affair,” both involving Cardinal Becciu. The first concerns the payment of €125,000 from the funds of the Secretariat of State to an account associated with the local Ozieri Caritas office in Sardinia, and with Spes, a cooperative headed by one of the cardinal’s brothers, for the purchase and restoration of a bakery aimed at employing marginalized youth. The money is reportedly still in the Diocese’s coffers. The “Marogna affair” refers to the aforementioned payment of €575,000 to Cecilia Marogna, presented by Italian secret services and hired as an expert in diplomatic matters to help, through a British intelligence company, the Holy See to seek the release of the Colombian nun, Gloria Cecilia Narváez, who was kidnapped by jihadists in Mali. As mentioned, Marogna spent this money on the purchase of furniture, luxury bags and shoes, as well as luxury hotels, but she rejected all charges. On his part, the cardinal has always claimed to have been “deceived” by the woman and that the entire diplomatic operation was authorized and approved by the Pope, initially covered by pontifical secrecy. The Promoter, Diddi, and the Civil Parties have noted that Marogna continued to associate with the cardinal and his family even after the scandal erupted.
For the cardinal, the Promoter of Justice has requested in his closing arguments a sentence of seven years and 3 months of imprisonment, in addition to a fine of €10,329 and the perpetual ban from public office. For Monsignor Carlino, 5 years and 4 months of imprisonment, perpetual ban, and a fine of €8,800; for Crasso, 9 years and 9 months, perpetual ban, and a fine of €18,000; for Tommaso Di Ruzza, 4 years and 3 months, temporary ban, and a fine of €9,600; for Cecilia Marogna, 4 years and 8 months of imprisonment, perpetual ban from public office, and a fine of €10,329; for Raffaele Mincione, 11 years and 5 months, perpetual ban, and €15,450; for Nicola Squillace, 6 years of imprisonment, suspension from professional practice, and a fine of €12,500; for Fabrizio Tirabassi, 13 years and 3 months, perpetual ban, and €18,750; for Gianluigi Torzi, 7 years and 6 months of imprisonment, perpetual ban, and €9,000; for René Brülhart, 3 years and 8 months of imprisonment, temporary ban, and €10,329 fine. Added to this are a series of confiscations, totalling several million euros, and the sentences requested for the companies that are involved. The Vatican Court’s decision on all these requests will be known in the coming hours.
CAFOD reiterates its appeals for an urgent ceasefire and launches a campaign to help the people of Gaza, where people are starving and cold, and where half the entire population is displaced with far-reaching consequences.
By Sr. Nina Benedikta Krapić, VMZ
The official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales (CAFOD) has reiterated its appeal for an urgent ceasefire and help for the people of Gaza.
“We need medicines, and fuel, food and water are really desperately needed”, says Elizabeth Funnell, CAFOD’s Country Programmes Representative for the Middle East, speaking to Vatican News.
CAFOD’s emergency Israeli-Palestinian Crisis Appeal comes as the humanitarian situation facing people in Gaza has become increasingly desperate, and as supplies that entered into Gaza during a seven-day pause in fighting are running out.
Listen to the interview with CAFOD’s Elizabeth Funnell
Since the 1 December, when the hostilities have started again “the situation really has deteriorated very quickly”, says Funnell: “People are just exhausted and starving and it’s increasingly difficult to get information about how people are and where they are.”
“People are exhausted and starving and it’s increasingly difficult to get information about how people are and where they are.”
People who are sheltering in the church compound in Gaza City are “desperately in need of basic items like food and water”, she notes, explaining that “Because the intensity of the fighting is so fierce around them, they’re afraid to go out to get those basic essentials.”
The supplies that are able to enter Gaza are “just a drop in the ocean”, says Funnel and adds that an increase in aid getting to the ground is necessary.
Displaced Palestinian children in Rafah seek warmth under plastic sheets
Food, water and fuel are in increasingly short supply.
Fuel is essentially needed for the power generators in the hospitals, to keep the vital services going, including saving the lives of premature babies in the incubators. It is also necessary for running the machines for water purification.
“Fuel is needed to keep the vital services going.”
“Even if supplies are able to enter from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, if there’s no fuel for the trucks then those items can’t be distributed,” she explains.
In Gaza, CAFOD is working closely with its local partners to reach those who are affected by the conflict. Despite the danger, aid operators are on the ground, struggling to respond to the needs of the people since this crisis started.
During the pause in fighting from 24 November to 1 December, they got out with mobile medical teams and were able to deliver urgently needed medical assistance to parts of the south of Gaza. Also, they provided cash assistance so that people could go to the local markets and buy whatever was available.
CAFOD’s partners are continuing to work, reaching people with things that they desperately need. They are “showing remarkable ingenuity and resilience despite the circumstances”, says Funnel.
She invites anyone who wishes to log on to CAFOD’s Emergency Appeal page and donate much-needed financial support, “if people are able to give, it will be very well used to support people in Gaza.”
Funnell points out that it’s getting colder and wetter in Gaza: “I’ve been in Gaza at this time of year and it does flood, so people really need those items for shelter – tents and sheeting – to kind of cover damaged buildings.”
CAFOD’S partners on the ground have been able to buy and distribute those things, she continues, “But is becoming more difficult because the items that were available inside Gaza are running out.”
“Items that were available inside Gaza are running out.”
A displaced Palestinian man in his makeshift tent at a camp in Rafah
As the war entered its third month, over 18,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis have been killed, thousands more injured, and over 1.9 million people in Gaza are displaced.
People have been displaced many times. “They have to leave the areas they have been displaced to when they get informed it’s going to come under attack, so they are forced to leave with nothing,” Funnell explains.
“Almost half of Gaza’s population is now thought to be living in just one area (Rafah) in the south, and it was already one of the most densely populated areas in the world,” she says.
“Almost half of Gaza’s population is living in just one area.”
In such overcrowded conditions, without essentials, it is hard to keep the hygiene standards.
“Organizations like the World Health Organization are increasingly worried that the disease is going to kill more people than fighting will”, stresses Funnel.
Makeshift toilets in Rafah
In the light of the upcoming Christmas holidays, she says, there are ways to help those who seek peace the most, to help people who suffer in Gaza, be it with prayers, appeals or donations.
CAFOD’s partners in Gaza are “fearful about the future and desperate to see a peaceful future for their children”, stresses Funnel and encourages people to pray for them.
“When I’ve been speaking to our church partners in the region, they feel very isolated and sometimes they feel forgotten,” says Funnel. “And just when I tell them that people are praying for them, it really encourages them.”
Another action CAFOD encourages is for citizens to write to their elected representatives urging them to support a permanent ceasefire or to give financial support.
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah
Pope Francis thanks the organizers of the fourth edition of the Christmas “Concert with the Poor and for the Poor” in the Vatican which will see some 3,000 destitute people attend as guests of honour.
By Lisa Zengarini
Some 3,000 destitute people, homeless and migrants living in Rome will gather in the Paul VI Hall at 17.30 on Friday to attend a special Christmas concert organized for them.
They have been invited as “guests of honour” of the fourth edition of the “Concert with the Poor and for the Poor”, through the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Service of Charity.
The event, which was first launched in 2015 to raise money for Pope Francis’ charities, will include a dinner and the distribution of necessary daily items.
On Friday morning the Pope received the organizers, including the conductors Msgr. Marco Frisina and Speranza Scappucci, to thank them.
“I thank you because, by involving so many people, you manage to offer a free concert to thousands of poor people, and with your music you offer a moment of meeting and sharing, and then a meal and blanket,in other words fraternity”, he said, noting this “is very consistent with the message of Christmas.”
The Pope remarked that the concert is not only “for” the poor, but, most importantly “with” the poor , where “with” is the key word and has a special Christian relevance/ where we can find the true meaning of the Christian message. Indeed, he explained God came “for” us, by living “with“us, thus becoming like us.
“This mystery always leaves us speechless. Yet,” Pope Francis remarked, “we can experience it in the encounter with someone other than me: when my giving something for him or her becomes receiving, sharing, friendship.”
Pope Francis therefore invited those present to pray for this to happen, for he said, “music is not enough, lights, decorations are not enough, we need prayer.”
The “Concert with the Poor and for the Poor” is organized by Opera Nova Onlus and the choir of the Diocese of Rome, with sponsorship from the Governorate of the Vatican City State along with the Dicastery for the Service of Charity
Conductor Speranza Scappucci and Msgr. Frisina, will alternate in conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome.
As in previous years, the 200 member Choir of the Diocese of Rome will be positioned behind the orchestra to provide vocals for the various pieces performed.
Soprano Maria Grazia Schiavo – a Baroque and Bel Canto specialist – and South African tenor Levy Sekgapane will provide solo vocals throughout the concert.
The programme includes a selection of masterpieces from Mozart, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and Bethoven. These selected works of sacred music will be rounded out by holiday favorites like “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night” to celebrate the Christmas season.
Free-will donations taken at the end of the concert will benefit Pope Francis’ charitable projects.
CNA Staff, Dec 15, 2023 / 09:38 am (CNA).
The Vatican has decided to shut down the religious community of sisters co-founded by accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik, the Slovenian Archdiocese of Ljubljana announced Friday.
Sisters from the Loyola Community were presented with a decree on Dec. 14 from the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on the dissolution of their community “due to serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of living together,” the archdiocese said.
According to the Dec. 15 statement, the dissolution of the community must take place within one year. The Vatican decree ordering the dissolution of the Loyola Community was issued on Oct. 20.
Rupnik co-founded the Loyola Community with Sister Ivanka Hosta in Ljubljana, Slovenia, more than three decades ago. The priest and mosaic artist was removed from the Jesuits in June after having been accused of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse of religious sisters. Yet the Slovenian Diocese of Koper confirmed on Oct. 25 that Rupnik was incardinated there at the end of August for priestly ministry, a revelation that sparked a public outcry and shocked Rupnik’s alleged victims.
Since then, the Vatican has announced that Rupnik will face a canonical process over the abuse allegations after Pope Francis decided to waive the statute of limitations on the claims.
According to one alleged Italian victim, Rupnik guided her to enter the Loyola Community in Slovenia, demanding “absolute availability and obedience,” isolating her from her friends and family, at a time when he was physically and spiritually abusing her.
“Father Marko had openly started to duress other sisters in the community with the usual psycho-spiritual strategies he had already used with me, with the goal of having sex with as many women as possible,” the former Loyola sister told the Italian media outlet “Domani” in December 2022.
“At the beginning of the 1990s there were 41 sisters and, from what I know, Father Rupnik managed to abuse almost 20,” she said.
Rupnik acted as the Loyola Community’s chaplain until he dramatically broke from the religious community in September 1993. Several sisters left the community with Rupnik, following him to Rome, where he subsequently opened his art and theology school, the Aletti Center. The priest artist has also been accused of engaging in sex acts with consecrated women at the center.
Hosta acted as the superior general of the Loyola community from 1994 to 2023. She was quietly removed from the governance of the community in June by a decree sent by Rome auxiliary bishop Daniele Libanori, SJ.
The former religious superior was ordered not to have any contact with current or past members of the Loyola Community for three years and, as an “external penance,” to make a monthly pilgrimage for one year to a Marian shrine to pray “for the victims of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik’s behavior and for all the religious of the Loyola Community,” whom she is accused of harming.
Libanori first uncovered allegations of Rupnik’s sexual and spiritual abuse of religious sisters when he was sent to investigate the Loyola Community in Slovenia amid complaints about Hosta.
According to the statement from the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Archbishop Stanislav Zore asked for a visitation of the Loyola Community in 2019 and informed the Vatican dicastery for consecrated life of the results in February 2020.
Because the Loyola Community had its general house in Rome, the Vatican dicastery handed the matter over to the Diocese of Rome, who sent a commissioner to speak with the sisters and sent a final report to the dicastery in September 2022 through the Apostolic Nunciature.
The Diocese of Rome issued a report on its investigation of Rupnik’s Aletti Center in September concluding that the center had “a healthy community life … that is free of particular serious issues,” a statement that drew “bewilderment” from victims of Rupnik’s alleged spiritual and sexual abuse.
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CNA Newsroom, Dec 15, 2023 / 09:20 am (CNA).
A leading Catholic moral theologian this week offered insight into the Vatican’s newest guidance on the handling of cremated remains, noting that Church teaching on “reverence for the body” must still be at the center of any decisions related to a loved one’s ashes.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said in recent guidance that it may be permissible for a Catholic to keep a small portion of a deceased loved one’s ashes in a personal place of significance if some conditions are met.
The office also said that it is permissible for the commingled ashes of deceased and baptized persons to be set aside in a permanent sacred place if the names of the persons are indicated so as to not lose memory of them.
Father Thomas Petri, president of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception as well as a moral theologian, said on “EWTN News Nightly” that, historically, cremation “was always considered a problem because it has pagan tendencies.”
“There were pagan rituals attached to cremation, especially with the practice of scattering ashes,” he told EWTN anchorwoman Tracy Sabol. But a few decades ago the Church began to revise its guidance on the matter, he noted.
“Because cremation is inexpensive or less expensive, often, than burial of the body, and because in many places around the world there’s a shortage of cemetery space, the Church said that cremation can be allowed, and can be done, provided that the cremated remains of the person are preserved in a sacred space,” Petri explained.
Petri noted that the Church’s latest guidance sought to answer “whether or not it is possible to mingle multiple cremated remains together as long as they’re kept in a sacred space.”
“The Vatican office said this is possible as long as, of course, it’s kept in a sacred space and that the names of who is mingled there [are written],” he said.
“The concern that our remains are being mingled and that’s somehow going to deter the resurrection of the body at the end, of course, is a theological question,” he noted. “The Vatican dicastery said the resurrection is part of God’s power. Even when you have a body that’s been buried for a thousand years and practically nothing is left, God still can resurrect that body and make it glorious.”
Also addressed by the dicastery, Petri said, was “whether or not the faithful, in that situation, could keep a portion of the remains of their loved ones separate to have them distinguished, and have it placed in some place of personal significance.”
“And the Vatican office said yes, but it also has to be a sacred space,” the priest said. “So the Vatican is still insisting that any cremated remains still have to be preserved in a sacred space.”
“We can’t have urns of, say, your mother or your grandmother being placed on the mantle in your house, which a lot of people want to do,” he said. “But that’s just not the Christian practice.”
Asked by Sabol how the Church might respond to those who wish to keep loved one’s remains in such places, Petri said it would be necessary to emphasize “the importance and reverence for the body, the deceased body.”
“The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” Petri said. “Even when it disintegrates over hundreds and hundreds of years in the ground, or even when it is cremated. We have to be careful not to reduce the importance of the body, even cremated remains, [or] to somehow commercialize them, or make [the body] a trinket of remembrance.”
It is necessary to have the remains “in a sacred space where prayer, where reverence is possible … rather than simply on a shelf in one’s home or on one’s mantle,” Petri concluded.
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Guyana is refusing to budge over a territory spat with Venezuela concerning the Essequibo region rich with oil deposits. A meeting in St Vincent sees the twp Presidents agree not to use force but fails to change entrenched positions or minds, already made up.
By James Blears
This meeting at St Vicent`s Argyle International Airport between Guyana`s President Irfaan Ali and Venezuela`s President Nicolas Maduro was intended to diffuse rising tensions over the oil-rich Region of Essequibo.
Considerable petroleum deposits were discovered there offshore in 2015. The territory covers 159,500 square km, constituting two-thirds of Guyana`s landmass and 125,000 of its 800,000 population live there.
It became part of what is now Guyana, via an international tribunal ruling in 1899…. something which Venezuela has always disputed. The current issue is being assessed by the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
The situation came to a political boil after Venezuela held a Referendum on December 3rd claiming that 95 percent of those who voted said it must become part of Venezuela.
Even prior to this closed-door meeting, a statement from Guyana`s Government stressed: “It`s not up for discussion, negotiation or deliberation.”
Venezuela has condemned joint military exercises involving US Southern Command and Guyana`s military.
President Ali has said that the notion that this is aimed at Venezuela, is false, misleading and provocative. But during a break in these latest talks, he said: “Guyana isn`t seeking war but reserves the right to work with all of our partners to ensure the defence of our country.”
Listen to the report by James Blears
Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household, delivers his first Advent homily to Pope Francis.
By Joseph Tulloch
In his first sermon for Advent 2023, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa meditated on the figure of John the Baptist, and his roles as prophet and preacher.
The Cardinal, a Franciscan friar, delivered his homily on Friday morning to the Papal Household, including Pope Francis himself.
A key theme of Cardinal Cantalamessa’s reflection was Jesus’ description of John the Baptist as “more than a prophet”.
In what sense, he asked, is this the case? “Where does the prophecy lie? The prophets announced a future salvation. But John the Baptist does not announce future salvation; he points to someone who is present.”
John, Cardinal Cantalamessa said, counts as “more than a prophet” because he helped people to understand that the long-awaited Messiah was in front of them here and now.
“It is easy to believe in something grandiose, divine, when it appears in an indefinite future,” the Italian friar said. “More difficult is when you have to say, “Now! It’s here! It’s this!”
John the Baptist, he suggested, helps us to understand “the scandal of God’s humility”, who reveals himself “with such ordinary and modest appearances and origins.”
Cardinal Cantalamessa also reflected on John the Baptist’s role as a “preacher of conversion”.
John’s message, he said, is “Repent and thus the kingdom of God will come to you!”. He suggested that this stands in contrast to Jesus’ preaching, which has at its core the call to “Repent because the kingdom of God has come to you!”.
“This,” Cardinal Cantalamessa said, “is not just a chronological difference, as between a before and an after; it is also a qualitative difference.”
“It means that it is not the observance of the commandments that allows the kingdom of God to come; but it is the coming of the kingdom of God that allows the observance of the commandments.”
A final theme of Cardinal Cantalamessa’s reflection was John the Baptist’s “evangelical fervour”.
John, he noted, is “no great theologian”, and uses “very simple images” – “I am not worthy to untie the straps of his sandals”, he says of Jesus.
Nevertheless, Cardinal Cantalamessa emphasized, “How he manages to make us feel the greatness and uniqueness of Christ!”
The Italian friar then brought his reflection to a close by reading aloud a prayer to John the Baptist from the Orthodox tradition:
“The hand that touched the head of the Lord and with which you pointed out to us the Savior, now extend it, O Baptist, towards him in our favor, by virtue of that assurance which you largely enjoy, since, according to his own testimony, you were the greatest of all the prophets; the eyes that saw the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove, turn them to him, O Baptist, so that he may show us his grace. Amen.”
Meeting some 70 boys and girls of the Italian Catholic Action Pope Francis turns his thoughts to the children suffering war in Gaza, Ukraine and Yemen and reminds them that the gift of God’s love at Christmas invites us to love Him, the others and also His creation.
By Lisa Zengarini
Only by loving God and loving each other “will the world find the light and peace it needs,” Pope Francis said on Friday as he met young members of the Italian Catholic Action (Azione Cattolica Ragazzi) for the exchange the Christmas greetings.
In his prepared remarks to the youths, accompanied by the national president and the General Assistant, their leaders and educators, the Pope recalled the many peoples and especially children suffering war in the world.
He mentioned in particular the thousands of children who have died since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza over two months ago, but also those killed in Ukraine and in the years-long war in Yemen.
“Do you know how many children died in Gaza in this war? More than three thousand. It’s incredible, but it’s the reality. And in Ukraine there are more than five hundred, and in Yemen, in years of war, there are thousands.”
“Their memory – said the Pope – invites us to in turn be lights for the world, to touch the hearts of many people, especially those who can stop the spiral of violence.”
The “wonderful gift” of God’s love at Christmas invites us to love Him, but it also shows “that we too can love one another as brothers,” Pope Francis said.
He then drew attention to another love that ensues from God’s love: that for His creation.
In this regard, he expressed his appreciation the slogan the Italian Catholic association has chosen this year, ‘This is Your Home!’: “It helps you understand that God calls us to recognize and respect the beauty that surrounds us, in nature and in people, and thus to grow in sharing and brotherhood”, he said encouraging them follow this path with commitment, which is in itself a message of hope.
Concluding, Pope Francis exhorted the boys and girls of Azione Cattoloca to heed God’s invitation by embracing “with their friendship and tenderness, heaven and earth.”
The Hamas leader has said his faction is ready to discuss with Israel any initiative that could lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.
By Nathan Morley
The Hamas leader has said his faction is ready to discuss with Israel any initiative that could lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.
International media reports that Ismail Haniyeh said he was open to discussing any arrangement or initiative that could end the ongoing bombardment.
In a speech aired by Arabic news networks, Haniyeh – the head of the Hamas political bureau – said that without Hamas, any arrangement regarding the future of Gaza would not succeed. Haniyeh welcomed the UN’s resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel says scores of Hamas fighters surrendered at a hospital in northern Gaza.
Elsewhere, Egypt says it will increase the volume of fuel sent daily to the Gaza Strip from 129,000 to 189,000 liters. Since 21 October, 4,057 humanitarian aid trucks passed from Egypt to the enclave through the Rafah crossing.
This includes medical supplies, food, water, 2,678 tons of fuel, and 48 ambulances and tents.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to Britain has rejected a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the Palestinians ‘never wanted to have a state next to Israel.’
Listen to the report by Nathan Morley
Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presents Pope Francis’ 2024 message for the World Day of Peace at the Holy See Press Office on Thursday. Accompanying him are scholars and experts who illustrate various aspects of the theme, “Artificial Intelligence and Peace,” underscoring the need for AI to serve the common good.
By Tiziana Campisi
Artificial intelligence is a hallmark of the present, ever-changing world and “requires careful scrutiny to make sure that it really serves the common good, protects the inalienable value of the human person, and promotes our fundamental rights.” Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, illustrated this point in his presentation of the Pope’s message on the theme at a press conference held by the Holy See Press Office on Thursday morning. He noted that this is why Pope Francis in dedicating his Message for the 57th World Day of Peace on the theme of artificial intelligence wished to identify the challenges that new technologies pose in building a more just and fraternal world.
Also presenting aspects of the Pope’s message alongside him were Professor Mathieu Guillermin, an associate professor at the Université Catholique de Lyon and coordinator of the international project New Humanism at the time of Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence,” Fr. Riccardo Lufrani, O.P., professor of Theology and Theology of Techno-sciences Rome’s LUMSA University, and Professor Barbara Caputo, professor at Italy’s Politecnico di Torino and a co-founder of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems Society.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
Cardinal Czerny pointed out that the Pope in his 2024 Message for the World Day of Peace draws attention to the “unscrupulous use of technology, driven exclusively by lust for profit and vested interests” that can cause “inequalities, injustices, tensions, conflicts”. Artificial intelligence poses challenges that are not only technical, he noted in quoting from the Message, “but also anthropological, social, educational and political”, and so its use for the purposes of war is frightening. Increasingly sophisticated and destructive, artificial intelligence can “remove human responsibility from the scene of battle.”
“Artificial intelligence can also threaten social justice”, Cardinal Czerny continued, because in the world of work, for example, “‘knowledge machines’ and robotics are wiping out more and more jobs, with major increases in poverty.” In the field of information, on the other hand, “there are new ways to distort both words and images, deliberately to misinform and manipulate, and these seriously endanger civil order and democratic government”. And so, as the Pope points out, education is crucial. “forming those who design algorithms and digital technologies to be more responsible,” and then “training everyone, especially young people, to use new technologies consciously and to think critically about their impacts, especially on the poor and the environment.”
Cardinal Czerny then noted that “effective regulations are needed within States as well as multilateral agreements and binding treaties” in order to regulate the development and use of artificial intelligence in a responsible manner. He explained that is why Pope Francis in his Message urges heads of state, political authorities, and leaders of civil society to exercise co-responsibility and invites everyone to “pay attention and choose well, if we are to hand down a better, more peaceful world to the generations to follow”.
In order to promote the Pope’s Message and better explore and understand its theme and implications, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has made available a number of multimedia aids in Italian, English, Portuguese, Spanish and French, as well as information material and theological reflections. Also posted are the full texts of the experts presenting at the press conference on 14 December.
Press Conference presenting the 2024 World Day of Peace Message
Religious sisters brought voices of the local communities and marginalised to the COP28. The conclusion of the UN conference opens complex questions like the one on the fossil fuel lobby, but it also shows determination for planet protection, they say in a statement issued by UISG.
By Sr. Nina Benedikta Krapić, VMZ
Religious sisters will continue to bring the voices of local communities to global networks, according to a statement released by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), returning from COP28. This was the first time that UISG, the umbrella organization for sisters committed to addressing the challenges of international development, was part of the UN Conference of the Parties dedicated to climate change, which concluded on 13 October in Dubai.
“The conclusion of COP28 confronts us with complex questions”, said Sister Maamalifar Poreku, coordinator of the UISG Sowing Hope for the Planet campaign.
She explains that COP28 highlighted, on the one hand, the proactive resistance with which the fossil fuel lobby opposes the measures needed to stop the destruction of our planet. On the other hand, it highlighted the strength, ubiquity and determination of world networks engaged to protect and regenerate our common home.
Sister Maamalifar Poreku described the UISG’s inaugural participation at COP as an opportunity to comprehend international climate change dialogues, learn from the experiences of religious groups engaged in UN advocacy, and explore coordinated strategies for future collaboration.
One of the priorities of UISG was ensuring that the voices of those affected on the front lines of climate change are at the centre of the global debate.
The key points that the UISG brought to COP28 were “integrating climate action with a holistic approach to address biodiversity loss, pollution and other environmental challenges; integrating care for the environment and care for people, rejecting an anthropocentric vision that supports destructive consumption habits; and integrating the demands of the most vulnerable within institutional and leadership frameworks.”
Sisters all over the world are dedicated to tackling environmental challenges through action and advocacy, influencing global development discussions based on the needs of local communities.
In 2022, with support from the Global Solidarity Fund, UISG launched a declaration Sisters for the Environment: integrating marginalised voices, expressing the sisters’ vision for ecological conversion rooted in faith, which also outlined the priorities for advocacy. This declaration set the tone for UISG’s advocacy in 2023, culminating in their first representation at a COP summit.
Looking ahead to 2024, UISG’s priorities involve strategic participation in global advocacy spaces, strengthening environmental networks at the national level, and targeted intervention in areas of particular concern such as sustainable agriculture and mining industries.
Sr. Maamalifar stresses, “To address the root causes of this momentous crisis, we must encourage our leaders to seek radical solutions to radical challenges.”
She concluded that UISG is “committed to walking side by side with communities living on the global margins to move together toward a safe, just and peaceful future for all people and for our sacred planet.”
Although Pope Francis was not able to attend the COP28 climate change conference in person, his message had an impact there. That’s according to Joachim Von Braun, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, who was on the ground in Dubai.
By Joseph Tulloch
COP28, this year’s annual UN climate conference, came to a close on Wednesday, calling for the first time for a global transition away from fossil fuels.
The agreement – known as a ‘global stocktake’ – was unanimously agreed on by almost 200 countries.
While many have welcomed it as a step in the right direction, others have said it does not go nearly far enough.
Vatican News spoke to Joachim von Braun – the head of the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences, who was on the ground in Dubai for the COP– to get his reaction to the deal.
Listen to our interview with Joachim von Braun
In the interview, von Braun suggested that “disappointment is appropriate” regarding many aspects of the deal, which ultimately took a “softer” line than many had hoped.
In his address to the COP assembly, for example, Pope Francis had called for the international community to ‘phase out’ fossil fuels, but the final document contained only a weaker commitment to ‘phase down’ their usage.
Nevertheless, he said, even this softer language represents a “breakthrough”, and von Braun thus described himself as “pleasantly surprised” by the final outcome.
Equally, while praising “improvements” in climate financing, he stressed that not enough has been done to help the global poor, who will suffer the consequences of climate change the most.
Von Braun also stressed that, although Pope Francis was not able to attend the summit for health reasons, he was “there in spirit”, and his message, delivered by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “got a lot of attention.”
The following interview transcript has been lightly edited for reasons of style
Joseph Tulloch, Vatican News: What is your initial reaction to the COP final document?
Professor Joachim von Braun, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: COP28 experienced a lot of global attention, so the expectations were high. I must say my expectations were not as high, having been around on the campus in Dubai. But I’m all in all pleasantly surprised about the final outcome document.
I was reading earlier a statement from CAFOD, the UK branch of Caritas, which said that the Pope “may be disappointed” by the outcome, because he had pushed for stronger action. Do you think that’s accurate?
If we look at the statement of Pope Francis that was presented at the beginning of COP28, we see a significant congruence with some key points in the outcome document. Pope Francis had asked for phasing out carbon emissions related to coal, oil, and gas. Well, the formulations there are softer, and that’s why disappointment is appropriate. But for the first time, “phasing down”, that’s a formulation in the outcome document, the so-called ‘stock-taking document’ to be formal, and it’s a breakthrough.
And the focus on transition to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 is also new. We would have wished for an end to coal and an end to gas and an end to oil by 2050, as was also the wish of Pope Francis.
Our interview with Joachim von Braun
Another theme that’s important to the Holy See is help for poorer countries, which are not the leading cause of climate change, but will suffer the majority of the consequences. I’m wondering if you have any thoughts about the steps that were taken towards a Loss and Damage fund for poorer countries.
The address by Pope Francis had a call for a focus on poverty, respect for indigenous peoples, a focus on food and agriculture and water, resilience and sustainability. These topics we find in the outcome document. However, not strongly enough.
The idea is that we move to climate justice by transferring more resources to low-income countries where climate change – the climate crisis, I would say – shows the biggest impact. These resources are too small, still too small. There are improvements in climate finance – 90 billion are currently on the table, with the idea to double these climate finance resources in the coming years. The Green Climate Fund also got more resources, 12 billion.
But the problem is the focus on the poor would require a lot more finance for climate adaptation and that’s not yet happening. For instance, in the critical sector of food system and agriculture there’s only 4% of climate finance and that matters most for the poor.
We’re talking about the Pope’s message, and the Holy See’s message, but as we know the Pope wasn’t able to be there in person for health reasons, and I’m wondering what difference you think that made to the Pope’s message and to the Holy See’s diplomacy at this COP?
I think it was properly recognized that Pope Francis couldn’t come for health reasons. He was there in spirit, and the voice of Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State, got a lot of attention. I think that was appropriately recognized.
And, by the way, there was a faith pavilion on the campus right in the middle of it, which I also visited, and interacted with some of the delegates there. So the idea which we had promoted here from the Vatican’s Academy of Sciences, namely the dialogues between science and faith for climate change, does continue, and that process must continue in the future. We will engage in that.
We had on the table here a moment ago a statement produced by your Academy, and I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about that?
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has been engaged in climate science matters and climate policy matters for about 10 years already. And in the run up to COP 28, the Academies of Science and Social Sciences came together and, building on a conference which we had last year, drafted a statement of our perspective, what needs to change at COP28.
Let me just highlight three points.
We ask for a new approach, which combines bending the warming curve, accelerating adaptation – so dealing with the acute climate crisis from the perspective of poor people, the bottom three billion – and investing in transforming our economic systems. The transformation includes also a focus on changing our consumption habits.
Secondly, we call for a broader inclusion of local communities. We cannot leave the climate policy agenda to heads of states and the COP process. So we call for a meeting of mayors and governors and local people and civil society and corporate actors for a conference which we plan next year in May here in the Vatican.
And thirdly, we ask for a much stronger focus on science and sharing science, because adaptation and dealing with climate risks also is a problem of climate change and health, and requires knowledge, science, education. The world scientific communities need to come together to share scientific insights with low-income countries in order to strengthen our capacity to deal with climate problems.
You said something about the Faith Pavilion at COP and some of your experience there. I believe I’m right in saying this is the first time there’s ever been a Faith Pavilion, and I wonder if there’s anything more you wanted to say about that?
In the preparation of this COP, faith communities came together and lobbied for a more significant positioning in the ‘market of opportunities’ of the COP. You can imagine that on the campus of Dubai, there are hundreds of organizations who present their thoughts, their technologies, and their concerns. Since the COP in Glasgow, so two years ago, faith-based communities have come together with science communities.
I think that’s the real novelty. It’s not just faith, it’s not just science, but it’s faith and science, articulating what needs to happen from a perspective of scientific insights and moral and ethical perspectives. The two must go together and there is some progress to be felt in this COP and the previous one.
It’s very impressive how inter-religious it is – there’s representation from many Christian denominations, from the Muslim Council of Elders, and so on …
That’s right. In the faith and science dialogues, we had top representatives of more than 30 world religions, so Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jain and what have you.
Why do they come together? Because they care for Earth – Mother Earth, some of them call it – and they care for the future of humanity.
Is there anything you want to add?
Maybe one more point. It is time to think fundamentally about the need for reform of the COP processes. These COP processes have played an important role, especially since the Paris Agreement, which articulated that we need to try to control global temperature increases at most to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
But we need much more action-oriented communities to come together. That requires local government, more inclusiveness of people who are affected, and forming coalitions of the willing. The complete consensus of 200 plus countries at these COPs makes consensus building too difficult. We have already lost too much time. And that’s why communities of science, faith, investment, corporate, government at different levels need to come to a governance reform on transforming climate policy.
You can find a statement released by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences ahead of COP28 here.
Vatican City, Dec 14, 2023 / 10:55 am (CNA).
More than 400 years after her death, Pope Francis has recognized a miracle attributed to Carmelite Sister Ana de Jesús, a spiritual daughter of St. Teresa of Ávila and a friend to St. John of the Cross.
In a decree signed on Dec. 14, Pope Francis authorized the beatification of Ana de Lobera y Torres (1545-1621), better known by her religious name Sister Ana de Jesús, who helped to expand the Discalced Carmelites to France and Belgium.
Ana was orphaned at the age of 9 and in 1569 in the city of Toledo was introduced to St. Teresa, who saw Ana’s virtues and invited her to join the Carmelites. Ana and Teresa went on to form a strong bond and even shared a cell in the Salamanca monastery while Teresa was writing “The Book of the Foundations.”
After Teresa’s death, Ana collected together all her literary works and sent them to a friar to be published. She continued Teresa’s legacy by founding new monasteries in France in Paris, Pontoise, and Dijon, and in Brussels.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux later wrote in her spiritual autobiography “Story of a Soul” that Ana de Jesús had appeared to her in a dream and let her know that she would soon be able to go to heaven: “Without the least hesitation, I recognized Venerable Anne of Jesus, foundress of the Carmel in France. Her face was beautiful but with an immaterial beauty.”
St. John of the Cross wrote the opening commentary on his “Spiritual Canticle” at Sister Ana’s request and entrusted the document to her while he was imprisoned in Toledo.
Pope Francis advanced Ana’s cause for beatification on the feast of St. John of the Cross.
The pope also recognized a miracle attributed to a Mexican priest, Father Moisés Lira Serafín (1893-1950), whose intercession healed an unborn child of fetal hydrops in 2004, according to the Vatican.
Lira served as a priest amid the religious persecution during Mexico’s Cristero War. He expanded his clandestine apostolate in 1926 by forming groups of catechists to encourage young people in their faith. Lira went on to found the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate in 1934.
In Thursday’s decree, Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of five priests and one seminarian.
Father Luigi Carrara, Father Giovanni Didonè, and Father Vittorio Faccin were Xaverian missionary priests from Italy serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were martyred by anti-religious guerrillas in the Kwilu Rebellion in 1964. Father Albert Joubert, a local diocesan priest born to a French father and African mother, was killed along with them.
The pope also approved the martyrdom of Ján Havlík, a Slovak seminarian who was arrested and tortured by the communist government and sentenced to 10 years of forced labor in a uranium mine, where he carried out a clandestine apostolate among the prisoners until his health deteriorated due to the harsh working conditions leading to his death in 1965.
The martyrdom of Father Giuseppe Rossi, an Italian diocesan priest killed by Fascist soldiers on Feb. 26, 1945, was also recognized in the decree.
With the papal approval of their upcoming beatifications, Sister Anna of Jesus, Father Moisés Lira Serafín, Father Luigi Carrara, Father Giovanni Didonè, Father Vittorio Faccin, Father Albert Joubert, Father Giuseppe Rossi, and Ján Havlík are each one step away from being canonized as saints, which will require a miracle attributed to their intercession.
Three 20th-century Catholics were also declared Venerable in the decree. Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtue of a father of five from Guatemala named Ernesto Guglielmo Cofiño Ubico (1899–1991) as well as Father Alberto Beretta (1916–2001), an Italian Capuchin priest and physician who served as a missionary in Brazil for 33 years, and Francesca Lancellotti (1917–2008), an Italian laywoman known for her spiritual gifts.
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Presiding over the closing Eucharistic celebration of the Congress on the restitution of the “African educational pact in the spirit of Pope Francis,” Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo urged those involved in Africa’s education sector to work in synodality and to carve out a path for a new approach to Africa’s Education. The closing Mass was held at the Sainte-Famille Parish in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Vatican News with Marcel Ariston Blé – Abidjan.
After three days of work at the Catholic University of West Africa – Abidjan University Unit – “the African Congress on the Restitution of the African Educational Pact in the spirit of Pope Francis” closed last Sunday with a call to do more to improve and encourage investment in Africa’s education.
«Despite the discouraging news coming from some parts of Africa, we are firmly convinced that God is at work in our continent and that Africa cannot become a continent of despair,” declared Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was in Abidjan as Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) President and chair of the Congress.
Imagining a “new Africa,” the SECAM President called on African states to “invest more in the education of our young people, who are not only the future of our societies, but are already present with us.”
In the face of the various ills afflicting Africa, including “corruption, conflict and poor governance, which are unfortunately mortgaging the future of its youth,” the Congolese Cardinal proposed the formation of “an educational alliance that would respond to the new challenges of our African societies.” Such an alliance consisting of “our families, our Small Christian Communities, our lay apostolic associations and Christian movements working in the spirit of synodality and in synergy … would become an educational community that can carve out a path for the future of our African youth despite the desert of these times.”
To achieve this, Cardinal Ambongo continued, “We must commit ourselves to raising all the valleys and lowering all the mountains and hills we encounter as obstacles to quality education in Africa … We must also dismantle obstacles that threaten education and our children’s future,” the President of SECAM urged.
For three days, Catholic education stakeholders from Africa’s national episcopal conferences and conferences of major religious superiors, as well as other stakeholders from countries of the North, gathered in Abidjan at the initiative of the Religions and Societies International Foundation and its partners to reflect on putting the African Education Pact into practice.
In the opinion of Professor Jean-Paul Niyigena, General Secretary of the Foundation and Consultor to the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the participants at the end of the conference were more than determined to work together to strengthen and renew the contribution of the Catholic Church in the field of education.
Responding to a question from a bishop in the Dominican Republic, who pointed out that some single mothers abstain from Communion out of fear of the clergy’s rigorism, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recalls with Pope Francis that women in such situations, already facing difficulties for having chosen life, must be encouraged to encounter the saving power of the Sacraments
Vatican News
Single mothers must not be prevented but encouraged to approach the Sacraments, writes the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in response to a question from Bishop Ramón Alfredo de la Cruz Baldera of San Francisco de Macorís, in the Dominican Republic.
In the Letter, approved on Wednesday by Pope Francis and published today on the Dicastery’s website, Cardinal Victor Fernandez responds to the Dominican bishop’s concern that some single mothers “abstain from Communion out of fear of the rigorism of the clergy and community leaders.” The prefect notes that “in some countries, both priests and some lay people prevent mothers who have had a child outside of marriage from accessing the sacraments and even baptizing their children.”
Recently, the Letter points out, Pope Francis himself has recalled that “the Eucharist is God’s response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the hunger for authentic life, for in the Eucharist Christ himself is truly in our midst, to nourish, console and sustain us on our journey” (Greeting of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Organizing Committee of the National Eucharistic Congress of the United States of America, 19 June 2023). This, the Dicastery says, is why “women who in such a situation have chosen for life and lead a very complex existence because of that choice, should be encouraged to access the saving and consoling power of the Sacraments.”
“The issue of single mothers and the difficulties that they and their children face in accessing the sacraments,” the document notes, “was already addressed by the Holy Father when he was the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires: ‘There are priests who do not baptize the children of single mothers because [the children] were not conceived in the sanctity of marriage. They are the hypocrites of today. They have clericalized the Church. They turn God’s people away from salvation. And that poor girl who could have sent her child back to the sender but had the courage to bring him into the world goes on pilgrimage from parish to parish to have him baptized” (Homily of September 2012).
The letter notes, too, that Pope Francis has recognized the courage of these women in carrying the pregnancy to term: “I know that it is not easy to be a single mother. I know that people can sometimes look down on you. But I want to tell you something: you are a brave woman because you were able to bring these two daughters into the world. You could have killed them in your womb, yet you respected life: you respected the life you had inside you, and God will reward you for that, and he does reward you. Do not be ashamed; walk with your head held high: ‘I did not kill my daughters; I brought them into the world’. I congratulate you; I congratulate you, and may God bless you” (Video conference hosted by ABC, 11 September 2015).
“In this sense, pastoral work should be done in the local Church to make people understand that being a single mother does not prevent that person from accessing the Eucharist,” the Letter explains, adding, “As for all other Christians, sacramental confession of sins allows the person to approach communion. The ecclesial community should, furthermore, value the fact that single mothers welcomed and defended the gift of life they carried in their wombs and struggle, every day, to raise their children.”
Indeed, the Letter observes, “there are ‘difficult situations’ that need to be discerned and accompanied pastorally. It can occur that one of these mothers, given the fragility of her situation, sometimes resorts to selling her body to support her family. The Christian community is called to do everything possible to help her avoid this very serious risk rather than judge her harshly.”
“For this reason,” the Letter continues, “‘the Church’s pastors, in proposing to the faithful the full ideal of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, must also help them to treat the weak with compassion, avoiding aggravation or unduly harsh or hasty judgements’” (Amoris laetitia, 308).
Cardinal Fernandez then points out that often, commenting on the biblical episode of the adulterous woman (Jn 8:1-11), Jesus’ final words – “Sin no more” – are emphasized. “Certainly,” he writes in his Letter, “Jesus always invites us to change our lives, to respond more faithfully to God’s will, and to live with greater dignity. However, this phrase does not constitute the central message of this Gospel pericope, which is simply the invitation to recognize that no one can cast the first stone.”
For this reason, he writes, “Pope Francis, referring to mothers who must raise their children alone, reminds us that ‘in such difficult situations of need, the Church must be particularly concerned to offer understanding, comfort, and acceptance, rather than imposing straightaway a set of rules that only lead people to feel judged and abandoned by the very Mother called to show them God’s mercy’” (AL, 49).
Finally, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recalls what the Pope said in his message to the Synod on the feminine and maternal face of the Church, when he denounced “chauvinist and dictatorial attitudes” of those ministers who “exaggerate in their service and mistreat the people of God” (Address to the Synod of Bishops, 25 October 2023).
“It is up to you,” Cardinal Fernández concludes in his reply to the Bishop of San Francisco de Macorís, “to ensure that such behaviour does not occur in your local Church.”
In an audience granted to the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorizes the promulgation of decrees of martyrdom for several priests of various nationalities who were killed “in hatred of the faith” during the 20th century.
By Alessandro De Carolis
Their stories largely span the 20th century, apart from that of a nun who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Of the eight upcoming new Blesseds for whom the Pope approved the promulgation of the Decrees on Thursday, six are martyrs who were victims of fascism and communism. The other two involved the recognition of miracles attributed to the intercession of a Carmelite nun and a founder of a religious institute.
The Decrees also concern three new Venerables, a Capuchin Franciscan and two lay people: an Italian mother of a family and a Guatemalan father.
The dramatic stories of the six martyrs killed in odium fidei (“out of hatred of the faith”) concern priests, religious, and a seminarian. Don Giuseppe Rossi, born in 1912, was a diocesan priest in the Ossola Valley, in Piedmont, when this territory, a few months before the end of the Second World War, became the scene of a clash between partisans and fascists, which caused deaths and injuries. In retaliation, the militia of the Ravenna Black Brigade, one of the cruellest and most anticlerical fascist groups, unleashed a reprisal against the local population. Father Giuseppe was kidnapped on 26 February 1945, transported to the Vallone dei Colombetti, forced to dig his own grave with his bare hands, and then shot dead by fascist militiamen.
Luigi Carrara and Giovanni Didonè were professed priests of the Pious Society of St Francis Xavier for the Foreign Missions (Xaverians). Together with Vittorio Faccin, a professed religious of the same Society, and the diocesan priest Albert Joubert, they were killed on 28 November 1964 in Baraka and Fizi. The two locations are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which at that time was experiencing a complex transition from Franco-Belgian colonialism to a new socio-political scenario, characterized by unrest that also involved the Church, which was the victim of repeated looting, persecution, and outrages. While many missionaries decided to leave the country, the Xaverians remained, and in the early afternoon of 28 November 1964 a military jeep stopped in front of the church in Baraka and the leader of the rebels opposed to the dictator Mobutu ordered Brother Faccin to get into the vehicle. When he refused, he was shot dead. Father Carrara, who was hearing confessions, came out to see what had happened and instead of getting into the jeep, he knelt in front of his brother’s body and was also assassinated. The remains of the religious were desecrated horribly and carried around the village. One of the militiamen who took part in this terrible exhibition later converted. Towards evening, the squadron arrived in Fizi and the leader knocked on the door of the mission, killing Father Didonè in cold blood when he came to the door, and shortly afterwards doing the same to Abbé Joubert.
Three years later, hatred of the Church was the cause of the death of 37-year-old Slovakian seminarian Ján Havlík, a member of the Missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul. Like many priests, religious, and nuns, he was forced to undergo formation in hiding due to the communist persecution. In 1951 he was arrested along with his superiors and other seminarians. He was interrogated and tortured, and sentenced to 14 years in prison. This was the beginning of an ordeal of imprisonment and forced labour, which seriously undermined his health. He also suffered psychological harm due to the administration of drugs, and three years after regaining his freedom, on 27 December 1965, he died suddenly in Skalica.
There are numerous stories of the two blesseds whose journey to the altars continues after miracles attributed to their intercession have been recognized. Moisés Lira Serafín was a Mexican priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit from the Puebla area. During the religious persecution in 1926, he distinguished himself for his missionary dedication, which he shared with a group of acolytes and catechists. Later, in 1934, he also founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate. Father Moisés died in Mexico City in 1950. The miraculous healing of a woman has been attributed to his intercession. Rosa María Ramírez Mendoza was pregnant and discovered at 22 weeks that her baby was suffering from a very serious foetal abnormality. She refused the suggestion of doctors to end the pregnancy through abortion, faithfully entrusting her situation to Father Moisés, whose book about his priestly vocation she was reading at the time, and invoking healing from him for nine consecutive days. At a check-up in the sixth month of her pregnancy, the doctor, to her amazement, informed Rosa María that the abnormality had disappeared and the baby was in good health. On 6 September 2004 she gave birth to Lissette Sarahí, a perfectly healthy baby girl.
The story of Anne of Jesus, a Spanish Discalced Carmelite, is much older. Anne was born in 1545. In 1570, she entered the monastery of Ávila, where she was taught by St Teresa of Jesus herself. With her she moved shortly afterwards to Salamanca and in 1570, she met St John of the Cross, who dedicated to her the commentary of the Spiritual Canticle. Later, Anne founded new monasteries in Spain as well as in France and Belgium. She died in 1621, at the age of 75, in the monastery in Brussels, which she led for 14 years. The miracle attributed to her intercession concerned a younger Carmelite sister, Sister Jeanne of the Holy Spirit, whom she met in the Brussels monastery. On 24 April 1613, Sister Jeanne was struck by a high fever for about ten days and showed the first symptoms of paralysis in her lower limbs. The illness worsened, and by the end of 1619, the nun became completely paralyzed in her legs and was bedridden, deprived of treatment by the doctors because she was considered incurable. On 4 March 1621, four hours after Anne of Jesus’ death, Sr Jeanne asked the sisters to be brought before her body. While attempting to kiss the body with the help of two sisters, Sr Jeanne was assailed by a sudden tremor. The sisters, believing she had fallen ill, placed her in the chair in which they had carried her, but Sister Jeanne immediately said she felt recovered. She began to walk and knelt before the body of the Venerable Servant of God. On that day she resumed walking and carrying out the activities of daily life and community life normally. From the testimonies it appears that the Venerable Servant of God Anne of Jesus was saddened by the illness of Sister Jeanne of the Holy Spirit and, a few days before she died, had expressed the intention to intercede, after her death, for her recovery.
Pope Francis also approved the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Capuchin religious Father Alberto Beretta (born on 28 August 1916 in Milan and died on 10 August 2001 in Bergamo), the brother of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. Alberto became a doctor and felt the desire to become a Capuchin priest and go as a missionary to Brazil, where he worked for 33 years. A cerebral haemorrhage brought him back to Italy in 1982, and for almost 20 years he lived between the Capuchin infirmary in Bergamo (the hospital where he was hospitalized due to his worsening clinical situation), and the home of his brother Fr Giuseppe. He took part in the beatification of his sister by John Paul II in ’94. He died in Bergamo on 10 August 2001.
Francesca Lancellotti, who was born in Basilicata in 1917, lived a life characterized by charisms and mystical gifts, but lived in total humility and a deep sense of poverty. From a very young age, she worked in the fields. She studied until second grade, and dedicated herself to an intense life of prayer, venerating in particular the Madonna della Purità of the Sanctuary of Belvedere in Oppido. She desired to be a nun, but her father wanted her to marry; and in 1938 she celebrated her marriage to Faustino Zotta, a saddler and farmer, with whom she had two children. She opened a tobacconist’s, liquor, and food shop and while continuing to cultivate her spiritual life. Following an alleged private revelation in July 1956, and after selling the business and property, Francesca moved with her family to Rome in 1960. They lived first in the Primavalle district, later near the Pantheon, and finally on the Via del Seminario, where she regularly attended the Church of St Augustine. Her house became a centre of refuge for the needy and for those who asked for spiritual and material help. She died in 2008 at the San Giovanni Addolorata hospital in Rome.
A similar story in terms of evangelical values lived with intensity of faith is that of layman and family man Ernesto Guglielmo Cofiño Ubico, born in 1899 in Guatemala. He became a doctor and created and directed the chair of Paediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of San Carlos for 24 years. In 1933 he married Clemencia Samayoa Rubio, with whom he had five children. He collaborated with various organizations for the education and instruction of peasants, workers, and women with little financial means; and in the training of young university students. He was a tenacious defender of the right to life of unborn children. In 1956 he joined Opus Dei and from then on intensified his relationship with God, through a profound sacramental life and Marian devotion. On 8 December 1961, Pope John XXIII made him a Knight of the Order of St. Sylvester. A widower in 1963, he intensified his commitment to the “Work.” A tumour in his jaw led to his death in 1991.
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