A Croatian archbishop has said that the canonisation of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac is not in doubt despite opposition from some Orthodox leaders.
The Blessed led the Church in Croatia for more than 20 years – five of which, from 1946 to 1951, he spent in a communist labour camp.
Archbishop Zelimir Puljic, head of the Croatian bishops’ conference, said a joint Croat-Serb commission studying Blessed Alojzije’s life would not delay his canonisation.
“The Pope wants experts from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to work together on questions needing clarification – but the canonisation itself isn’t in question,” he said.
The Blessed was not on the list of saints’ Causes advanced by the Vatican in mid-December. Earlier in the month, the archbishop had told Catholic News Service: “It will take some time for the two sides to discuss everything. But there can be no doubting the heroism and saintliness of Stepinac, who resisted Nazism, fascism and communism.”
In February 2014, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes, said a medical commission was examining an alleged cure through Blessed’s intercession.
However, Serb newspapers reported that a letter from Orthodox leaders, protesting the canonisation process, had been handed to the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti.
Archbishop Puljic said many Serbs believed Blessed Stepinac had collaborated with Croatia’s Nazi-allied government and had done nothing to prevent “fascist crimes” against Serb civilians.
“We’re still living with the effects of communist propaganda and knowledge remains very distorted, but the Pope has expressed a clear wish to canonise Stepinac as soon as possible. We now have the time and opportunity to work through the prejudices, seeking the truth with honesty and objectivity.”
The Blessed, who was made a cardinal in 1953 by Pius XII, leading Tito to break relations with the Holy See, had been imprisoned for allegedly
collaborating with the previous regime.
Call to tighten euthanasia law
Leading medics, psychiatrists and ethicists in Belgium have called for an end to euthanasia on the grounds of “incurable psychological suffering”.
Their statement has been welcomed by the country’s bishops.
Fr Tommy Scholtes, spokesman for the bishops’ conference, said: “We’re always opposed to euthanasia, so we approve and support this initiative … Although strong suffering can be very difficult to bear, palliative care will always offer a better answer.” In a letter in Belgium’s De Morgen newspaper, 65 medical experts demanded the revision of the euthanasia legislation.
They said a significant proportion of the 2,000 euthanasia deaths annually in Belgium involved patients complaining of depression and mental pain.
They added that the term “incurable psychological suffering” had “no scientific foundation”, since it was impossible to judge when a patient had “resisted all treatment”.
Pope plans ‘cross-border Mass’ in Mexico
Pope Francis will celebrate a “cross-border Mass” and visit some of the most marginalised communities in Mexico when he visits the country in
February.
The Vatican announced earlier this month details of the Pope’s February 12-17 trip during which he will stop in six cities, including two in the state of Chiapas and the border city of Ciudad Juarez, which five years ago was considered the “murder capital of the world” during a battle of drug cartels.
The Pope said in November that he wanted to visit cities where St John Paul II and Benedict XVI never went. But he will stop at the capital, Mexico City, to pray at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “If it wasn’t for Our Lady I wouldn’t,” he told reporters.
Over the next four days, he will visit a children’s hospital in the capital and meet families and indigenous people in the southernmost state of Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state, which drew the world’s attention for the 1990s Zapatista rebellion.
He will meet young people and Religious in Morelia, celebrate Mass on the Mexican-US border in Ciudad Juarez and visit its infamous Cereso state prison, where at least 20 people were killed during riots in 2009, triggered by rival gangs among the prisoners.
“We are certain that the presence of the Holy Father will confirm us in the faith, hope and charity, and will help the Church move ahead in its permanent mission,” the Mexican bishops’ conference said in a statement. “It will encourage believers and non-believers and commit us to the construction of a just Mexico, with solidarity, reconciliation and peace.”
Fr Oscar Enriquez, director of a human rights centre in Ciudad Juarez, told Catholic News Service that Juarez is often seen as an example of overcoming extreme violence: “The Pope always looks for the peripheries. Juarez is the periphery of Mexico and it’s a place migrants pass through.”
Fr Patricio Madrigal, parish priest in the city of Nueva Italia, said that by visiting Morelia the Pope “wants to be closer to an area beaten down by violence”.
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