More than a year after the conclusion of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation of US communities of women Religious, the Vatican has begun asking more than a dozen orders to send their superiors to Rome to discuss concerns that surfaced.
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said: “We did a very positive report at the conclusion of the visitation.”
The 2015 report looked at the life of women’s congregations in the United States as a whole. But “there remained about 15 – more or less – congregations that we needed to speak with about a few points,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service.
The cardinal had attended a press conference about a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith looking at the relationship between the hierarchy and communities or movements that arise from “charismatic gifts”. “When you are speaking of religious orders, secular institutes and the order of virgins, all of this is part of the charismatic side of the Church,” he said. More than 2,000 orders and institutes are recognised by the Vatican as “paths of a special encounter with God”, he said, but it was the responsibility of bishops and the Church’s hierarchy to support and guide them.
When he announced the conclusion of the visitation, Cardinal Braz de Aviz told the press that “individual reports will be sent to those institutes which hosted an on-site visitation and to those institutes whose individual reports indicated areas of concern – because there are some of those, too”.
A statement posted on the Sisters of Loretto’s website said: “We are confident that our dialogue with the Vatican will be fruitful.” Sister Pearl McGivney, president of the Sisters of Loretto, has reportedly been invited to Rome to discuss “ambiguity” in the order’s adherence to Church teaching.
Francis: don’t call Christian martyrdom ‘genocide’
Using the word “genocide” to describe the persecution of Christians in the Middle East risks downplaying the courage and witness of those who boldly profess faith in Christ even in the face of death, Pope Francis has said.
“I want to say clearly that I do not like it when people speak of a ‘genocide of Christians’, for example in the Middle East,” the Pope said. Calling the persecution “genocide”, he said, is using a juridical and sociological category to speak of “something which is a mystery of the faith: martyrdom”.
Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Pope Francis “was not speaking about the use of the term ‘genocide’ on a political level, but on a level of faith. When applied to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, the dimension of faith is essential,” he said.
Pope Francis was responding to questions during a visit to Villa Nazareth, a residence for students in Rome. One student asked the Pope if he ever struggled with his faith. “Many times I’ve found myself in a crisis with the faith,” he said – either asking God why He lets something happen or wondering if it’s all true. “A Christian who has never felt this once in a while … is missing something.”
Bishops appeal for co-existence
Maronite Catholic bishops from around the world have criticised efforts to partition the Middle East and urged Christians to stand firm and to preserve coexistence with Muslims.
In a statement at the conclusion of their June 13-17 synod, the bishops called for resistance to “all international plans” to partition the region and said Christians and Muslims should live together “in a climate of freedom, democracy and respect for diversity”.
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