During her funeral this week Mother Angelica was praised for espousing “a practical spirituality for the man in the pew”.
In a two-hour ceremony broadcast live on EWTN, the network she founded, Fr Joseph Wolfe of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word also said: “You cannot understand Mother Angelica without reference [to] the one that she loved with a passion: Jesus, the Eternal Word, who became man and dwelt among us.”
Fr Wolfe told of the time that a teenage Rita Rizzo suffered from a stomach ailment for nearly four years. He said that she had recalled of those events: “When the Lord came in and healed me, through the Little Flower [St Thérèse of Lisieux], I had a whole different attitude. I knew there was a God. I knew that God loved me and was interested in me. I didn’t know that before.” In a letter, Mother Angelica had said: “Before I was cured I was a lukewarm Catholic … When I think of all that He has done for me and how little I have done for Him, I could cry.”
The priest also read a recollection from Sister Mary Michael the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration’s mother vicar. She said: “Being a spiritual daughter of Mother Angelica has been a unique, privileged experience. Mother had a wealth of spiritual knowledge.”
However, Sister Mary Michael added, “she had to use ‘yelling theology’.” To which Fr Wolfe added: “Most of us have experienced that, her yelling theology! Problems and challenges did not discourage Mother,” Fr Wolfe said. “No pity parties allowed … Mother was not afraid to do what seemed ridiculous.”
A French cardinal has repeated a promise to cooperate with police after his offices were raided in connection with charges of failing to discipline a priest who abused children.
Police raided the offices of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon to search for information related to the case of Fr Bernard Preynat, charged with “sexual aggression and rape of minors” between 1986 and 1991.
“The cardinal has many times expressed his willingness to cooperate in full transparency with the judicial process and confidently remains at its disposal,” a spokesman said. France’s La Croix daily said Cardinal Barbarin met family members of Fr Preynat’s victims at his home last week.
In January, Lyon archdiocese said Cardinal Barbarin had launched an inquiry after first hearing a victim’s testimony in 2014. But in a La Croix interview the cardinal admitted he had heard about the priest’s activities six years earlier, but took no action after the priest assured him he had not committed further offences.
A group of 45 abuse survivors is suing Cardinal Barbarin for failing to report abuse, a crime that carries a three-year jail term.
Build monuments to mercy
Pope Francis has asked dioceses around the world to set up a permanent memorial of the Year of Mercy by establishing a hospital, home for the aged or school in an under-served area.
Celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday with an evening prayer vigil, the Pope said: “As a reminder, a monument, let’s say, to this Year of Mercy, how beautiful it would be … Let’s think about it and speak with the bishops.”
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