International News

News from outside of Canada.

Visiting elderly, pope says 'it's wonderful being old'

November 15, 2012

ROME - Presenting himself as "an elderly man visiting his peers," Pope Benedict XVI visited a Rome residence for the elderly, urging the residents to see their age as a sign of God's blessing and urging society to value their presence and wisdom. "Though I know the difficulties that come with being our age, I want to say, it's wonderful being old," the 85-year-old pope said Nov. 12 during a morning visit to the residence run by the lay Community of Sant'Egidio. The residence includes apartments for independent living as well as rooms for those requiring more skilled care. Younger members of the Sant'Egidio Community volunteer their time assisting and visiting with the residents, who include an elderly couple from Haiti whose home was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. Walking with his white-handled black cane, the pope visited several of the residents in their rooms and apartments before addressing them and members of Sant'Egidio in the garden. One of the residents, 91-year-old Enrichetta Vitali, told the pope, "I don't eat so much anymore, but prayer is my nourishment." She asked the pope to "pray that I don't lose my memory so I can keep remembering people in my prayers." The pope told those gathered at the residence on the Janiculum Hill that in the Bible a long life is considered a blessing from God, but often today society, which is "dominated by the logic of efficiency and profit, doesn't welcome it as such." "I think we need a greater commitment, beginning with families and public institutions, to ensure the elderly can stay in their homes" and that they can pass on their wisdom to younger generations. "The quality of a society or civilization can be judged by how it treats the elderly," he said. Pope Benedict also insisted on recognition of the dignity and value of all human life, even when "it becomes fragile in the years of old age." "One who makes room for the elderly, makes room for life," the pope said. "One who welcomes the elderly, welcomes life." The pope told the residents that he knows the aged face difficulties, especially in countries where the global economic crisis has hit hard. And, he said, the elderly can be tempted to long for the past when they had more energy and were full of plans for the future. However, the pope said, "life is wonderful even at our age, despite the aches and pains and some limitations," he said. "At our age, we often have the experience of needing other's help, and this happens to the pope as well," he told the residents. Pope Benedict said they need to see the help they require as a gift of God, "because it is a grace to be supported and accompanied and to feel the affection of others."

World needs better tracking, disposal of weapons, Vatican official says

November 14, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The international community must get serious about enforcing humanitarian laws that make it possible to secure or destroy explosive devices leftover from a war before those devices harm innocent civilians or fall into the hands of terrorists, a Vatican official said. Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Vatican's representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, addressed a U.N. conference reviewing compliance with an international agreement on the restriction and use of certain conventional weapons; the conference was held in Geneva Nov. 12-13. The focus of the conference was on laws dealing with the tracking and disposal of "explosive remnants of war," such as landmines and roadside bombs. Failure to implement the agreement, Archbishop Tomasi said, has meant that many explosive weapons are not monitored during a conflict or removed after a conflict ends. As a result, they fall into the hands of terrorist groups and criminal organizations, and pose a threat to innocent civilians, he said. Any hesitation in documenting or removing the explosive remnants of war, the archbishop said, "means more victims and bigger economic and social costs, and long-term hampering of development." In past and present conflicts, civilians' safety has not been a priority, and "international humanitarian law was merely a set of non-respected rules," he said. Archbishop Tomasi called for full adherence to the international agreements and international cooperation in monitoring compliance. "This is the only way to protect the civilian population, and in some cases the national community as a whole, from the consequences of explosive remnants of war." The international community has a moral responsibility to protect civilians from explosive weapons during and after conflicts, the archbishop said. "Civilians should not have to pay twice for the absence of a secure, free and peaceful environment."

Comboni nun works to help Eritreans tortured, raped en route to Israel

November 14, 2012

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNS) -- Comboni Sister Azezet Kidane is fluent in Amharic, Tigrit, Arabic and Sudanese dialects, so she was a natural choice when a shelter for African refugees needed help. It was only after the nun, known as Sister Aziza, began conducting interviews with Eritrean refugees that she realized the people she was talking to had been tortured. "It is a horror story what is happening," she told Catholic News Service from the African Refugee Development Center's shelter for single mothers and pregnant women in a low-income neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Shahar Shoham, director of migrants and statusless people at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said the first clue that something was happening in the Sinai Peninsula was the condition in which refugees arrived at their clinic in Tel Aviv. "They told us of torture and rape and we saw the scars of their torture. People who were shot by the Egyptian forces at the border started coming to our clinic," said Shoham. "Sister Aziza is a blessing for us. People feel comfortable opening up to her," she said. "The torture continues even now. As we are speaking it is happening." In two-and-a-half years, Sister Aziza has taken testimony from some 1,500 refugees. As the Eritrean nun taps on the doors of the rooms, women greet her with hugs and kisses; a young girl runs after her to clutch her hand as they walk down the street together. "I can't say all of the people I've interviewed have been kidnapped and tortured, but most of them have been," she said as she sat underneath the shade of tree in a dusty lot next to the women's shelter. "Sometimes (the victims) can't even (recount) what happened to them and when you know (what happened) you can't repeat it, it is shameful that a human being could do such a thing." Many of the women who arrive at the shelter are pregnant from rape. Eritreans leave their country to escape poverty and forced military service for the authoritarian regime. In October, a delegation from the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops' Committee on Migration visited Egypt and reported that Eritrean refugees were being apprehended by Sudanese enforcement authorities while en route to Egypt. The authorities turn the refugees over to members of the Rashaida tribal clan, who sell them to Bedouin tribesman in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. A statement by Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy for the USCCB, said some 700 refugees were in captivity in the Sinai in mid-October. The refugees are subject to systematic rape and torture, he said. Egyptian and Israeli authorities are aware of the kidnapping rings but still the practice continues, he said. He urged the U.S. government to work with Egypt to identify the "torture houses," rescue the refugees and consider them for "expedited resettlement." He also said the U.S. should also encourage Israel to "uphold its responsibility as a signatory of the 1951 refugee convention and halt the practice of denying entry to refugees and deporting them to dangerous situations." Physicians for Human Rights Israel reports that some 7,000 of Eritrean refugees have been held for ransom and tortured and raped at the hands of their Bedouin kidnappers. Another 4,000 people have died en route to Israel, either as a result of being smuggled, tortured, or shot by the Egyptian soldiers following a shoot-to-kill policy, the agency said. Israel is building a fence along its 150-mile southern border, cutting off the refugees' escape from the Sinai into Israel. In March, Israel began building a new detention center in the south of the country; initially, the center will hold 8,000 people. At the Tel Aviv shelter, two Eritrean women -- one visibly pregnant -- sit at a metal tray set with coffee cups and grinder in front of the open door of their sparsely furnished room. A blue-and-green checked kitchen towel protects the last of their traditional round ambasha sweet bread from flies. The women offer visiting journalists a slice of ambasha, but they decline to be interviewed or photographed. The refugees are tired of journalists and being interviewed, Sister Aziza said. They see no concrete results from all the interviews they have given. "How many journalists, how many videos have been done but the world is silent," said Sister Aziza, who was named a 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report Hero by the U.S. State Department for her work exposing the situation. "Nothing changes, nothing gets better for them. It is only getting worse. They are disappointed with all the efforts." Through Caritas Italy funding the Comboni sisters have helped the women open a nursery for the young babies at the shelter so the mothers can work. In a separate basket-weaving workshop, women use their traditional skills to create colorful cloth baskets they sell. Sister Aziza's phone number, which is passed around by word of mouth, is available 24 hours a day to refugees, human rights workers, diplomats and Israeli government agencies. The Israeli Prison Authority often contacts her for advice about underage refugees. The work of listening to the refugees' stories is difficult, she said, and all she can do is be there for them to listen and then listen some more. Just a few days earlier she had gone on a 10-day retreat with a silent order near Jerusalem in order to gather her strength together to continue the work she said. "Without prayer, I could not do this work," she said. "I want people of the world to break the silence, but only God will be able to change the hearts of the people."

US bishops endorse sainthood cause of Catholic Worker's Dorothy Day

November 14, 2012

BALTIMORE - The U.S. bishops, on a voice vote, endorsed the sainthood cause of Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, who was famously quoted as saying, "Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily." The endorsement came at the end of a canonically required consultation that took place Nov. 13, the second day of the bishops' annual fall general assembly in Baltimore. Under the terms of the 2007 Vatican document "Sanctorum Mater," the diocesan bishop promoting a sainthood cause must consult at least with the regional bishops' conference on the advisability of pursuing the cause. In the case of Day, whose Catholic Worker ministry was based in New York City, the bishop promoting her cause is Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. bishops' conference. The cause was first undertaken by one of Cardinal Dolan's predecessors in New York, Cardinal John O'Connor. Cardinal Dolan had earlier conducted a consultation with bishops in his region, and subsequently chose to seek a consultation with the full body of U.S. bishops. He and the other bishops who spoke during the consultation, some of whom had met Day, called her sainthood cause an opportune moment in the life of the U.S. church. Cardinal Dolan called Day's journey "Augustinian," saying that "she was the first to admit it: sexual immorality, there was a religious search, there was a pregnancy out of wedlock, and an abortion. Like Saul on the way to Damascus, she was radically changed" and has become "a saint for our time." "Of all the people we need to reach out to, all the people that are hard to get at, the street people, the ones who are on drugs, the ones who have had abortions, she was one of them," Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said of Day. The retired archbishop of Washington is a native New Yorker. "What a tremendous opportunity to say to them you can not only be brought back into society, you can not only be brought back into the church, you can be a saint!" he added. "She was a very great personal friend to me when I was a young priest," said Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. "To be able to stand here and say yes to this means a great deal to me." Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, recalled being assigned to Nativity Parish in New York City in the 1970s. "I had the privilege of being in that parish for the last years of her life. ... her final days and suffering" and her 1980 funeral. The work of the Catholic Worker movement is still active 80 years after Day co-founded the movement with Peter Maurin. There are many Catholic Worker houses in the United States, some in rural areas but more in some of the most desperately poor areas of the nation's biggest cities. They follow the Catholic Worker movement's charism of voluntary poverty, the works of mercy, and working for peace and justice. The Catholic Worker, the newspaper established by Day, is still published regularly, and still charges what it did at its founding: one penny. "I read the Catholic Worker when I was in high school and I've read it ever since," said Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago. He recalled meeting Day soon after the 1960 presidential election. "I had just voted for the first time, for John F. Kennedy. I listened to her critique of our economic and political structures. I asked her, 'Do you think it will help having a Catholic in the White House who can fight for social justice?' "She was very acerbic. She said, 'Young man' -- I was young at that time -- 'young man, I believe Mr. Kennedy has chosen very badly. No serious Catholic would want to be president of the United States.' I didn't agree with her at that time. And I'm not sure I agree with her now." Day's early life was turbulent and unsettled. She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1897, but her family soon moved to San Francisco, where she was baptized an Episcopalian. Her family later moved to Chicago, and Day attended the University of Illinois in Urbana. However, she left college to go to New York City to work as a journalist. While in New York, she got involved in the causes of her day, such as women's suffrage and peace, and was part of a circle of top literary and artistic figures of the era. In Day's personal life, though, she went through a string of love affairs, a failed marriage, a suicide attempt and an abortion. But with the birth of her daughter, Tamar, in 1926, Day embraced Catholicism. She had Tamar baptized Catholic, which ended her common-law marriage and brought dismay to her friends. As she sought to fuse her life and her faith, she wrote for such Catholic publications as America and Commonweal. In 1932, she met Maurin, a French immigrant and former Christian Brother. Together they started the Catholic Worker newspaper -- and later, several houses of hospitality and farm communities in the United States and elsewhere. While working for integration, Day was shot at. She prayed and fasted for peace at the Second Vatican Council. She died in 1980 in Maryhouse, one of the Catholic Worker houses she established in New York City. She has been the focus of a number of biographies. Other books featuring her prayers and writings have been published. In the 1990s, a film biography "Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story" starring Moira Kelly and Martin Sheen, made its way to theaters.

Aid groups gather in Beirut to discuss Syrian refugee crisis

November 12, 2012

BEIRUT - Representatives of 26 humanitarian agencies gathered in Beirut to discuss and coordinate efforts to address the increasing Syrian refugee crisis. Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, who visited with Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley, presided over the Nov. 9 meeting. During the cardinal's Nov. 6-10 visit, he also met with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and participated in the monthly meeting of the council of Maronite Catholic bishops in Bkerke. At the meeting sponsored by Caritas, the church's charitable agency, the humanitarian organizations agreed to carry out social work for the vulnerable populations inside and outside of Syria, to help alleviate their suffering, including providing medical and spiritual assistance as well as helping them to find shelter and prepare for the winter. The groups also agreed to institute an efficient coordination system among the Catholic humanitarian organizations to unify their approach on the field. They also stressed the importance of efforts to allow refugee children to continue their education and to recover some kind of routine in their daily lives. Pope Benedict XVI had hoped to send a delegation of three cardinals, three bishops and a priest to Syria during the world Synod of Bishops, which met for three weeks at the Vatican in October, to show solidarity with victims and encourage peace negotiations. The papal delegation to Damascus was to have included Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the board of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Pope Benedict announced Nov. 7 that he would send Cardinal Sarah to Lebanon to deliver a $1 million donation and boost the church's humanitarian response to the crisis. Syria's civil war has left thousands dead and has displaced hundreds of thousands of people since March 2011. The U.N. refugee agency said Nov. 9 that a record number of Syrian refuges had crossed into Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, setting a record for a 24-hour period. The majority -- reportedly 9,000 Syrians -- had crossed into Turkey's Urfa province during the night Nov. 8, said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The remaining 2,000 Syrians were registered and assisted by UNHCR in Jordan and Lebanon, the agency said. Those arrivals bring the number of Syrian refugees in the region to 408,000, the UNHCR said, but the numbers are actually greater because not all of the displaced Syrians entering the countries are registering with the agency. It said about 115,000 Syrian refugees live in Lebanon. It said approximately 1,000 entering the country daily, including migrant workers who go back and forth between Lebanon and Syria.

Vatican court finds computer tech guilty of aiding, abetting butler

November 12, 2012

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican court found Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert in the Secretariat of State, guilty of aiding and abetting the papal butler, who was convicted of stealing sensitive Vatican correspondence. The three-judge panel hearing the case Nov. 10 initially sentenced Sciarpelletti to four months in jail but reduced the sentence to two months, saying Sciarpelletti had never been in trouble with the law and previously had served the Vatican well. The judges suspended even the two-month sentence and said that if, over the next five years he commits no other crimes, the penalty would be lifted. The Vatican court indicted Sciarpelletti in August, accusing him of helping Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler, by obstructing the Vatican investigation of the butler's role in stealing, photocopying and leaking private Vatican correspondence to an Italian journalist. The butler is serving an 18-month sentence in a cell in the Vatican police barracks. After an unnamed source told Vatican investigators in late May that Sciarpelletti and Gabriele were in frequent contact, Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's office in the Secretariat of State. The police said they found an envelope marked "Personal: P. Gabriele." The court did not reveal details about the envelope's contents other than mentioning assorted emails signed "Nuvola" (cloud in Italian), a small section of a book written by the Italian journalist who received leaked documents from Gabriele and pages of articles downloaded from the Internet. Sciarpelletti was arrested in late May and held in a Vatican cell for one night, after which he was released on a bail of 1,000 euros (about $1,270). In its sentence Nov. 10, the court said it would return the bail to Sciarpelletti, but it also ordered him to pay the court costs, which are about the same amount, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman. The Vatican prosecutor accused Sciarpelletti of obstructing the Gabriele investigation by giving different versions of how he obtained the envelope and by changing his descriptions of his relationship with Gabriele. The court session Nov. 10 began with the testimony of Sciarpelletti. Giuseppe Dalla Torre, president of the three-judge panel, asked the defendant why he changed his story in the month after his arrest. Sciarpelletti said his arrest was "traumatic," which, combined with the fact that he received the envelope years ago, made it difficult to remember exactly how he came to have it in his desk. He said he did not know what was in the envelope since he never opened it because it was marked "personal." The computer tech first told investigators that he received the envelope from Gabriele; then he said he received it from his superior, Msgr. Carlo Maria Polvani, head of the Vatican Secretariat of State's office for information and documentation. Saying, "I swear on my baptism and my priesthood," Msgr. Polvani told the court Nov. 10 that he had never violated the secret of his office and had never improperly removed, copied or shared any confidential Vatican documents. He denied giving Sciarpelletti the envelope. Msgr. Polvani, the 47-year-old nephew of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the nuncio to the United States, said he only met Gabriele when the butler came to visit Sciarpelletti in their office, something Msgr. Polvani said he thought happened often. "I think they were good friends," he said. Gabriele, who also testified Nov. 10, told the court that Sciarpelletti "was a friend and I confided in him," including about "worrying things that were happening in the Vatican." The butler said he gave Sciarpelletti the papers, seeking his opinion about them. But Gabriele said, as far as he remembers, he gave Sciarpelletti the papers on various occasions, so Sciarpelletti must have put the papers in the envelope himself. Father Lombardi told reporters that Vatican investigators had not closed their files on the "VatiLeaks" scandal; further investigations and even indictments are possible, he said. The court session Nov. 10 was not without its lighter moments: the court reporter's computer stopped working at a certain point. Sciarpelletti asked, "Do you need a technician?" and everyone in the courtroom burst out laughing. Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti, the Vatican police officer who was testifying, got up and discovered that the electrical outlet being used was no longer working. An extension cord was plugged into a different outlet and the testimony resumed.

People lost ‘stuff,’ but have each other

November 8, 2012

ISLAND PARK, N.Y. - Sacred Heart Church in Island Park is in an area of the diocese of Rockville Centre among the most devastated by Hurricane Sandy, but the pastor urged parishioners not to fret about the material goods they have lost. “Don’t be angry. We lost stuff. We will get other stuff,” Msgr. John Tutone, pastor, told the congregation during his homily at Sunday Mass Nov. 4. “We still have each other and the people we love. That’s the most important thing. “There are people on your block that need you. Knock on their doors and offer your help. We have to maintain our souls. We have to maintain ourselves by helping others.” In the community of 10,000 people in the southwest corner of Nassau County, Long Island, 80 per cent of the homes were flooded. The church, too, was flooded. A metre of water was pumped out of the parish centre, which is now being used for Masses. As of Nov. 5, the death toll from Sandy was at least 106 in the United States, two in Canada and 67 in the Caribbean. The Associated Press reported that about 1.4 million people were still without power, down from a peak of 8.5 million. Of those, about 800,000 were in New Jersey, down from 2.7 million, and about 530,000 in New York, down from 2.2 million. Early damage estimates put Sandy’s cost in the range of $30 billion to $50 billion. St. Ignatius Martyr is a sturdy 88-year-old brick church that sits a block from the ocean. Sandy caused minimal damage to the church, though the rectory basement was flooded to the ceiling. Nearly 200 people gathered in the cold, dark church for the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass Nov. 4, celebrated by Msgr. Donald Beckmann. Chris and Dawn Hagen attended with their children. Going to Mass “was important to restore some routine to our lives. We wanted to be with other people in a place that gives us comfort,” Chris said. “It’s good to come together and pray with people. It’s comforting to see our church is here and we can worship.” “We’re grateful we are alive and have each other,” said Dawn. “We’re praying for our friends and our family and our own recovery.” Beckmann described his most important tasks after Sandy: “One is to continue the sharing of the sacraments and preaching the Gospel in as normal a way as possible. ... A couple of people said to me, ‘It’s nice to come back here and see things as normal as possible.’ To see the church functioning is important to them. ... The second thing is to do whatever the church can do to help the wider Long Beach community.” He said he was “praying a prayer of thanksgiving for all who have survived. I’m also asking the Holy Spirit to show us the proper way to move forward, our three parishes, the whole community and other religious institutions.”

Massachusetts defeats assisted suicide; California keeps death penalty

November 7, 2012

WASHINGTON - Massachusetts voters narrowly defeated a "death with dignity" measure, rejecting attempts to legalize assisted suicide, while in California, an initiative to end the use of the death penalty was defeated as well in another close vote. The Massachusetts initiative, known as Question 2, was defeated by fewer than 39,000 votes — 1,395,227 to 1,356,899 — with the largest opposition rising in counties in the centre of the state and those north and south of Boston. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston was pleased with the outcome, saying the common good was served in the measure's defeat. "The campaign against physician-assisted suicide brought together a diverse coalition from medical, disability rights and interfaith communities, all dedicated to ensuring that our residents were well informed on the issue," he said in an e-mailed statement. The cardinal called upon wider society to work with hospice organizations and palliative care providers "to improve the care provided to the terminally ill." "It is my hope and prayer that the defeat of Question 2 will help all people to understand that for our brothers and sisters confronted with terminal illness we can do better than offering them the means to end their lives." The measure may have generated the widest debate of any statewide ballot issue in the country. The initiative would have allowed terminally ill adults to commit physician-assisted suicide under certain conditions. The Massachusetts Catholic Conference, Massachusetts Medical Society and disability rights groups opposed it. Under the proposal, patients estimated to have six months or fewer to live and judged medically capable to make a medical decision could decide to end their lives after submitting such a request twice orally and once in writing. In video and written messages on the Massachusetts Catholic Conference web site, O'Malley urged voters to reject the measure, saying it would place vulnerable people at risk and that it promotes suicide. California voters rejected Proposition 34, which would have repealed the death penalty clause in the state constitution, by 52.6 per cent to 47.4 per cent. Inmates already facing a death sentence would have been resentenced to life in prison without parole under the measure. With 95 per cent of the vote counted early Nov. 7, the tally stood at about 4.7 million opposed to the death penalty ban and nearly 4.2 million in favour of it. Proponents of the measure said banning capital punishment would have ended the possibility of an innocent person being put to death for a crime. They also projected that California would have saved $130 million annually by ending capital punishment. The measure called for a one-time expenditure of $100 million for solving major crimes. Opponents, including law enforcement officers and three former governors, maintained that the savings estimates were overblown and that the state's onerous death penalty system is in need of repair and should not be replaced. The California Catholic Conference backed Proposition 34, saying that the inherent dignity of each person must be upheld and that even people convicted of any serious crime must not be put to death. The church also called for wide-scale restorative justice efforts to afford the opportunity for repentance and reconciliation among the affected individuals. In Florida, voters defeated an amendment to the state constitution that would have prohibited public funding of abortion services or insurance coverage that covered abortions and also would have allowed legislation to restore parental consent for a minor less than the age of 16 to have an abortion. Amendment 6 failed, by a 55 to 45 per cent margin. A second constitutional amendment that would have lifted a ban on public funds going directly or indirectly to any church or religious denomination for the delivery of social services also was defeated by a similar margin, 55.5 per cent to 44.5 per cent. In Montana, voters approved by more than 2-1 a referendum that would require parental approval of a minor child's abortion.

Pope sends $1 million in aid for Syria, cardinal delegate to Lebanon

November 7, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Instability and increasing violence in Syria have prompted Pope Benedict XVI to cancel the planned visit to the war-torn nation by a delegation of cardinals and bishops. Instead, the pope announced Nov. 7, he has sent a smaller group to Lebanon to deliver a $1 million donation and boost the church's humanitarian response to the crisis. The pope also appealed for dialogue to end the Syrian conflict, saying: "We have to do everything possible because one day it could be too late." "I renew my invitation to the parties in conflict, and to all those who have the good of Syria at heart, to spare no effort in the search for peace and to pursue through dialogue the path to a just coexistence, in view of a suitable political solution of the conflict," Pope Benedict said at the end of his general audience in St. Peter's Square. "I continue to follow with great concern the tragic situation of violent conflict in Syria, where the fighting has not ceased and each day the toll of victims rises, accompanied by the untold suffering of many civilians, especially those who have been forced to abandon their homes," he said. He said he had hoped to send a delegation of three cardinals, three bishops and a priest to Syria during the world Synod of Bishops, which met for three weeks at the Vatican in October, to show solidarity with victims and encourage peace negotiations. The papal delegation to Damascus was to have included Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who is chairman of the board of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. "Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances and developments, it was not possible to carry out this initiative as planned," the pope said, "and so I have decided to entrust a special mission to Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum," which promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable giving. Together with Cor Unum's secretary, Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso, and Michel Roy, secretary-general of the Vatican-based umbrella group of Catholic aid agencies, Caritas Internationalis, Cardinal Sarah was to be in Lebanon Nov. 7-10, where he was to meet with priests, religious and lay representatives of Christian churches in Syria. "He will visit a number of refugees from that country and will chair a meeting of Catholic charitable agencies to coordinate efforts, as the Holy See has urgently requested, to provide assistance to the Syrian people, inside and outside the country," the pope said of Cardinal Sarah's mandate. The cardinal will deliver a $1 million donation made by participants in the Oct 7-28 synod and the pope himself. The money is to provide humanitarian aid and support local churches in an effort to bring some relief to those hit by the crisis, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters. The papal delegation's visit itself is also meant to "prompt all sides involved, as well as those who hold dear the good of Syria, to seek a just and peaceful solution to the conflict, Father Lombardi added. Syria's civil war has left thousands dead and has displaced hundreds of thousands of people since March 2011.

Pope sends Obama telegram with prayers that freedom, justice flourish

November 7, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama on his re-election, saying that he prayed the ideals of freedom and justice that guided America's founders might continue to flourish. The Vatican did not make public the full text of the pope's telegram to Obama, which was sent via Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Nov. 7. "In the message, the Holy Father sent his best wishes to the president for his new term and assured him of his prayers that God might assist him in his very great responsibility before the country and the international community," the Vatican said in a statement. The pope also told Obama he was praying that "the ideals of liberty and justice that guided the founders of the United States of America might continue to shine" as the nation goes forward, the statement said. In remarks to reporters, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, voiced hopes that Obama would also promote "a culture of life and religious freedom." It is the hope of everyone that President Obama "respond to the expectations" of the American people and "serve law and justice for the well-being and growth of every person, by respecting essential human and spiritual values and by promoting the culture of life and religious freedom, which have always been so precious in the tradition of the American people and their culture," the priest said. U.S. Catholic bishops have been at odds with Obama over his support for legalized abortion and his administration's plan to require that the private health insurance plans of most Catholic institutions cover surgical sterilization procedures and artificial birth control, which are forbidden by the church's moral teaching. The role of president of the United States is "an immense responsibility not just for the great nation, but for the whole world, given the United States' role on the world stage," Father Lombardi said, expressing hopes that the president would be able to "find the best ways to promote the material and spiritual well-being of all and effectively promote integral human development, justice and peace in the world."