The pope to the World Council of Churches: take the path to full communion without fear

Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father met with Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, secretary general of the World Council for Churches, accompanied by a delegation. The Pope remarked that this encounter “marks an important chapter in the long and fruitful relationship between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches”, and acknowledged “the service it performs in the cause of unity between believers in Christ”.

“Since its creation, the World Council of Churches has offered a great contribution to forming the sensibility of all Christians with regard to the fact that our divisions represent a major obstacle to our witness to the Gospel in the world. These divisions must not be accepted with resignation, as if they were simply an inevitable component of the historic experience of the Church. If Christians ignore the Lord’s call to unity, they risk ignoring the Lord Himself and the salvation He offers through His Body, the Church: ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name … by which we must be saved.’”

“The way to full and visible communion is a path which still proves today to be arduous and uphill. The Spirit, however, urges us not to be afraid, to go ahead with trust, and not to content ourselves with the progress that we have been able to experience in these decades. Prayer is fundamental on this path. Only in a spirit of humble and persistent prayer can we attain the necessary farsightedness, discernment and motivations for offering our service to the human family, in all its weakness and with all its needs, both spiritual and material”.

Mennonite and Catholic relief agencies partner

From Disaster News Network:

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen (CCDOM) and the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) have partnered to repair and restore homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. More than a year after the Storm, thousands of families are still unable to inhabit their homes in New Jersey.

The partnership between CCDOM and MDS is making it possible for families to return to their homes and neighborhoods, in homes rebuilt by volunteers recruited by MDS.

“This partnership is consistent with the mission our organizations share: to help others in their time of need,” said Larry Stoner, Disaster Response Coordinator (East), MDS , and Marianne Majewski, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen.

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Pope Francis: The spirit of war draws us away from God

From Catholic Peace Fellowship

Pope Francis: The Spirit of War Draws Us Away from God

“War is a scandal to be mourned every day. We see war in the newspapers ever and we’re used to reading about it: the number of its victims is just part of our daily accounts. We hold events to commemorate the centenary of the Great War and everyone is scandalized by the many millions of dead. But today it’s the same… instead of one great war, there are small wars everywhere. When we were children in Sunday School and we were told the story of Cain and Abel, we couldn’t accept that someone would kill their own brother. And yet today millions kill their own brothers and we’re used to it: there are entire peoples divided, killing each other over a piece of land, a racial hatred, an ambition.

Think of the children starving in refugee camps… these are the fruits of war. And then think of the great dining rooms, of the parties held by those who control the arms industry, who produce weapons. Compare a sick, starving child in a refugee camp with the big parties, the good life led by the masters of the arms trade. And remember, the Pope added, that the wars, the hatred, the hostility aren’t products we buy at the market: they’re right here, in our hearts. The Apostle James gives us a simple piece of advice: ‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.’ But the spirit of war, which draws us away from God, doesn’t just reside in distant parts of the world: the spirit of war comes from our own hearts.

Let us pray for peace, for that peace which seems to have been reduced to a word and nothing more. Let us follow James’ advice: ‘Recognize your misery.’ Let us recognize that misery which breeds wars within families, within neighborhoods, everywhere. How many of us weep when we read the newspapers, when we see the dead on television? This is what Christians should do today, in the face of war: we should weep, we should mourn.”

– Homily given by Pope Francis at the Casa San Marta on February 25, A.D. 2014 (*We are grateful for the English Translation provided by News.va)

New Vatican document says violence in God’s name is “the greatest corruption of religion”

VATICAN CITY, January 17, 2014 (Zenit.org) – The International Theological Commission has published a new document clarifying that Christian belief is not only inherently incompatible with the incitement to violence, but that calls for violence are the religion’s greatest corruption.

The new document, published so far only in Italian on Jan. 16, will soon be made available in other languages. The title is “God, the Trinity, and the Unity of Humanity: Christian Monotheism and its Opposition to Violence”. It is the fruit of a five year study by the commission.

“Our reflection takes the form of a reasoned testimony, not an apologetic argument,” says a summary of the text, published Jan. 16 by the Vatican. “The Christian faith, in fact, sees the incitement of violence in the name of God as the greatest corruption of religion.” Continue reading “New Vatican document says violence in God’s name is “the greatest corruption of religion”” →

C.J. Dyck, Mennonite observer at Vatican II, dies Jan. 10

News Release
Mary E. Klassen
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
January 13, 2014

CJDyck1998

Cornelius J. (C.J.) Dyck not only researched and taught Mennonite history, he lived it, and he will be remembered for the wisdom, wit and commitment with which he did all three.

Dyck (92) died Friday, Jan. 10, in Normal, Ill., where he and Wilma, his wife, had been living for several years. For 35 years he worked in administration at Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Chicago, Ill., and taught at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Ind. In addition, he made significant contributions in the General Conference Mennonite Church, through Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) assignments in Europe and South America, in Mennonite World Conference (MWC), and as an ordained pastor.

Dyck was executive secretary of Mennonite World Conference in the early 1960s at the time of the Second Vatican Council. The MWC did not seek official observer status at Vatican II, but approved Dyck’s request to attend as a journalist. His reports were published in various Mennonite periodicals and are available here. Continue reading “C.J. Dyck, Mennonite observer at Vatican II, dies Jan. 10” →

Researcher speaks on religious freedom, meets pope

By Kelli Yoder, Mennonite World Review

Pope Francis receives a book from Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University. The pope greeted the 40 or so conference participants at the Vatican Dec. 13. — Photo by Donald Miller

Halfway through a conference on Christianity and freedom, Chad Bauman and his fellow presenters were told the schedule had changed.

The next morning they crossed the street from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome and met the pope.

“In my wildest imagination I had thought, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if I’d be able to meet the pope,’ ” said Bauman, who is associate professor and chair of religion at Butler University in Indianapolis. “But there was nothing on the schedule to indicate anything like that might happen.”

The international conference, held Dec. 13-14 to discuss Christian contributions to the idea of freedom and restrictions Christians face with regard to religious liberties, had come to the attention of Vatican officials.

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International theological commission publishes document on Christian monotheism and violence

Vatican City, 16 January 2014 (VIS) – The International Theological Commission, following studies carried out over the past five-year period (2009–2014), has drawn up a new document entitled: “God, the Trinity, and the Unity of Humanity: Christian Monotheism and its Opposition to Violence”. The text will appear in “La Civilta Cattolica”, no. 3926 (18 January 2014), the journal that traditionally publishes the Italian versions of the Commission’s documents. It will also be available, from today, on “La Civilta Cattolica’s” website (www.laciviltacattolica.it) as well as on the International Theological Commission’s webpage on the Vatican website (www.vatican.va). Awaiting its translation into the various languages, the Italian text is currently offered along with an introduction to the text in a few other languages.

As is evident from the document’s Preliminary Note, the text is the result of study regarding certain aspects of Christian discourse on God, particularly in response to theories that claim that a necessary relationship exists between monotheism and violence. The text was prepared by a subcommission composed of: Fr. Peter Damian Akpunonu, Fr. Gilles Emery, O.P., Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, S.D.B., Bishop Charles Morerod, O.P., Fr. Thomas Norris, Fr. Javier Prades Lopez, Bishop Paul Rouhana, Fr. Pierangelo Sequeri, Fr. Guillermo Zuleta Salas, and the subcommission’s president, Fr. Philippe Vallin.

Between 2009 and 2013, the subcommission met to discuss the issue, which was also treated during the Commission’s plenary sessions. The present text was approved by the Commission “in forma specifica” on 6 December 2013, and was then submitted to the Commission’s president, Archbishop Gerhard L. Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who authorised its publication.

Pope Francis affirms priority of Christian unity, cites “ecumenism of blood”

In a mid-December interview with the Italian periodical La Stampa, Pope Francis affirmed continuing work for Christian unity. But Christians should also recognize that they already are united through the “ecumenism of blood”:

Is Christian unity a priority for you?

“Yes, for me ecumenism is a priority. Today there is an ecumenism of blood. In some countries they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a Bible and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic or Orthodox. Their blood is mixed. To those who kill we are Christians. We are united in blood, even though we have not yet managed to take necessary steps towards unity between us and perhaps the time has not yet come. Unity is a gift that we need to ask for. I knew a parish priest in Hamburg who was dealing with the beatification cause of a Catholic priest guillotined by the Nazis for teaching children the catechism. After him, in the list of condemned individuals, was a Lutheran pastor who was killed for the same reason. Their blood was mixed. The parish priest told me he had gone to the bishop and said to him: “I will continue to deal with the cause, but both of their causes, not just the Catholic priest’s.” This is what ecumenism of blood is. It still exists today; you just need to read the newspapers. Those who kill Christians don’t ask for your identity card to see which Church you were baptised in. We need to take these facts into consideration.”

Click here to read entire interview by Andrea Tornielli, “Never be afraid of tenderness.”

Two bishops dialogue with Catholic peace activists

Baltimore Catholic peace activist Tony Magliano, in a November 25 article, describes the recent supper and dialogue involving his city’s Catholic Worker community and two bishops who were present for the U.S. Catholic bishops’ annual meeting (the plans for this dialogue were reported here).

On the evening of Nov. 12, several blocks away from the Waterfront Marriott Hotel, where the bishops were meeting, Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis and Bishop John Michael Botean, head of the Romanian Catholic Eparchy (diocese) of St. George in Canton, Ohio, sat down with us to talk about war-making, peacemaking, poverty and military chaplains in light of the teachings of the compassionate, nonviolent Jesus.

Continue reading “Two bishops dialogue with Catholic peace activists” →