The Dialog

By Dennis Sadowski

Catholic News Service

Church reconstruction in Haiti is moving forward at a faster pace after months of discussions as Haitian and American church leaders gain confidence in the process they established to oversee the massive rebuilding effort.

Reconstruction continues at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Grand Goave, Haiti, in late 2012. Church leaders said rebuilding since the January 2010 earthquake was moving ahead more rapidly now that Haitian and American bishops, as well as donors, understand the steps needed to make buildings safe from natural disasters. (CNS photo/courtesy Marie Arago)

Planning for two new projects in the earthquake-damaged capital of Port-au-Prince was approved in mid-March by the PROCHE Joint Steering Committee overseeing the reconstruction, and the first church to be rebuilt with some of the $33 million donated by American parishioners was consecrated in February.

But church leaders cautioned that the challenge of rebuilding churches, schools, convents and seminaries is so immense that it will take millions of dollars more in donations and years of planning before the dozens of structures destroyed in the powerful January 2010 earthquake will be replaced.

“The problem is bigger than we can solve,” said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, a member of the steering committee.

While 36 projects are under way and one has been completed, dozens more across the expansive earthquake zone remain to be tackled.

Funds for planning the rebuilding of St. Louis King of France Church and Christ the King Church were the most recent to be approved under PROCHE, the Partnership for Church Reconstruction in Haiti.

PROCHE is a joint effort among the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Haitian Episcopal Conference, Adveniat, which is the German bishops’ agency for solidarity in Latin America, and the French bishops’ conference to coordinate the reconstruction effort.

It has taken PROCHE more than two years to gain its footing as the organization faced staffing challenges and the unwavering insistence from American partners that quality building codes be adopted for all construction projects.

“I think we’re (PROCHE members) becoming a little more at ease,” Archbishop Wenski told Catholic News Service April 1. “Since we began with PROCHE the expectations of many people were that we were going to get on the ground fast and start rebuilding … that we could begin construction sooner rather than later.

“In order to build structures that are hurricane resistant and earthquake resistant, to do it right, there are no shortcuts,” the archbishop said. “Because there are no shortcuts, it’s taken us longer than any of us really wanted.”

Father Juan Molina, director of the U.S. bishops’ Office for the Church in Latin America, said in the 29 months PROCHE has existed it has awarded more than $17 million for reconstruction, a little more than half of the money originally allotted for building projects

The $33 million came from a pot of $80 million American Catholics donated in the months following the disaster. The remaining $47 million went to Catholic Relief Services’ programs in Haiti.

“We’re at a very good point where we can see the efforts of the bishops of Haiti and the bishops of all the other episcopal conferences may be paying off,” Father Molina said.

The first church to be completed, St. Francis of Assisi in Grand Goave, about 35 miles west of the capital, was dedicated in February. Father Molina expects five other projects to be completed over the next several weeks.

About $8 million is expected to be awarded through the end of 2013, he said.

Reconstruction also has been boosted by the Koch Family Foundation of Gainesville, Fla., which has awarded funds for several projects.

“It is the first time in quite a few years we have collaborated with a Catholic foundation,” Father Molina said.

The foundation did not return calls seeking comment.

Some attention has been given recently to the rebuilding of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Port-au-Prince, which was destroyed in the earthquake as the century-old roof collapsed during the 35-second temblor.

An international competition resulted in several designs being submitted, bringing attention to the need for a new cathedral to the world, Archbishop Wenski told CNS.

Any plan for the cathedral is expected to cost $40 million to $50 million, and a separate fundraising campaign would be necessary, he explained.

“The cathedral is a national symbol,” the archbishop said. “To replace that cathedral, to do something like it was before, would be very expensive.”

By Judith Sudilovsky

Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM — U.S. President Barack Obama, visiting the West Bank city of Bethlehem, stopped twice to light candles for his family and himself: first at the Church of Nativity grotto, where Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born, then at the adjacent Catholic Church of St. Catherine.

On the last leg of his four-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Obama also took time for a few moments of private prayer and contemplation, said Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, who was the first to greet the American leader inside the church, welcoming him as “a messenger of peace and reconciliation.”

U.S. President Barack Obama tours the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, March 22 with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, center; U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, third from left; and Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun, second from left. (CNS photo/Jason Reed, Reuters)

Obama was then greeted by religious leaders according to the Status Quo protocol that governs holy sites: the custos of the Holy Land, Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, followed by Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Sevan Gharibian. Muslim religious leaders and Palestinian leaders also greeted Obama, who was accompanied by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas throughout the visit.

Obama viewed the Church of the Nativity’s floor mosaics, the Greek Orthodox liturgical platform, the Armenian altar, the Grotto of the Nativity, and the statue of the baby Jesus at the Church of St. Catherine.

Obama prayed again at the Church of St. Catherine, Father Pizzaballa told Catholic News Service following the visit. Obama also spoke about the importance of keeping a Christian presence in Jerusalem, said the custos.

Father Pizzaballa, who explained to the president about the Catholic community in the Holy Land, described the president as “very friendly, very simple and not difficult to talk to.”

Obama “said he felt the situation was very complicated but that he will do his best to help the people here and also to help the Christian presence,” said Father Pizzaballa.

Patriarch Theophilos described the visit as a “pilgrimage.”

“He was very happy to be at the church and appreciated the fact that this is a special holy place and important for the whole of mankind,” the patriarch told CNS.

Despite a 45-minute delay in the visit due to an originally unscheduled private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the president’s Jerusalem hotel, the Greek Orthodox patriarch said the 40-minute church visit “went smoothly and according to the program.”

Obama had been scheduled to arrive in Bethlehem by helicopter, but high winds blew desert sand and caused almost zero visibility in the area, so he arrived by motorcade.

Earlier in the day, Obama visited the Mount Herzl National Cemetery, where he placed a wreath at the tomb of the father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl and, according to pool reports, placed a stone from the grave of Martin Luther King Jr. on the tomb of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was killed by a Jewish extremist in 1995 for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.

Once again reassuring Israelis that America stands with them, Obama spent an hour at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, visiting the Children’s Memorial, where the names and ages of 1.5 million Jewish youngsters are intoned in darkness relieved only by pinpricks of light; the Hall of Names, where the details of 4.2 million Holocaust victims are recorded; and the Museum of Holocaust Art.

In the dim Hall of Remembrance, Obama, wearing a white yarmulke, stepped forward to rekindle the Eternal Flame and laid a wreath on a stone crypt containing the ashes of Holocaust victims, crouching close to the stone for a moment’s contemplation.

In his remarks after the ceremony, Obama said Yad Vashem was a testament to man’s capacity for good as well as evil, citing “the rescuers, the righteous among nations, who refused to be bystanders.”

He called the memorial “a source of hope. For we are never powerless. In our lives we always have choices — to succumb to our worst instincts or to summon the better angels of our nature; to be indifferent to suffering, wherever it may be, whoever it may be visited upon, or to display empathy that is at the core of our humanity. We have the choice to acquiesce to evil or make real our solemn vow of never again.”

On March 21, Obama met with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and spoke with young Palestinian students who presented their science experiments to the president. Later in the day, Obama told several thousand select Israeli university students that the young Palestinian women he had met were not “much different than my daughters, or your daughters or sons.”

Urging the Israeli young people to push their leaders to take courageous steps toward peace because it “was the strongest nation in the region with the support of the strongest country in the world,” the president said he believed that if Israeli parents were to meet the Palestinian students they would honestly want them to succeed. Despite a lone heckler, Obama received several standing ovations for what the Israeli media said Israeli politicians were too afraid to say: two states for two nations.

“Sometimes the biggest miracle is to recognize that the world can change,” said Obama.

By Catholic News Service

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle told journalists that when he went before newly elected Pope Francis to pledge obedience, the pope told him he had “high hopes” for the Philippines.

At a news conference at Manila’s international airport March 21, the cardinal said the pope also asked Filipinos “to deepen our faith, through our devotion to Our Lady and mission to the poor. Now, those three are already a whole program, as it were, for the whole church in the Philippines.”

Philippine Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila reacts as he answers questions during a news conference upon his arrival at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila March 21. Cardinal Tagle was returning from the Vatican after the inaugural Mass of Pope Francis. (CNS photo/Romeo Ranoco, Reuters)

Cardinal Tagle was one of the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel for the election of Pope Francis March 13. He expressed gratitude for the “gift of a new pope” and for having had the opportunity to be in solidarity with him, in communion and prayer, regarding his mission.

“What he’s saying is go back to the roots,” said Cardinal Tagle. “Go back to Jesus Christ.”

The cardinal said he agreed with Pope Francis’ assessment that the church is in danger of becoming a “mere nongovernmental organization.”

“It has always been a danger in the history of the church, where with good intention  you see the plight of people and you want to serve,” Cardinal Tagle said. “But the motivation of the church for being of service is really the faith.”

The cardinal said that while some people carry out humanitarian work, some do not necessarily do it out of faith. He noted that past pontiffs have reminded the faithful to go back to “that encounter with the Lord as the font of our charitable works, the font of our service to the poor.”

“It is always good to serve the poor,” Cardinal Tagle said. “But the quality of the church’s service to the poor is of the faith. And it’s a spiritual experience and not just (a type of) pure social work.”

Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, retired archbishop of Manila, arrived with Cardinal Tagle. Cardinal Rosales said during his brief moments with the pope, he told him the Philippines was preparing for his first visit. The country is hosting the International Eucharistic Congress in 2016.

“We have an inkling that he might (come),” said Cardinal Rosales. He said Pope Francis replied, “Vamos a ver” (“We shall see.”)

The cardinal said if Pope Francis decides to visit, “We will see at close hand that he is very simple and humble. … You can see it comes from his heart. He’s not an actor.”

Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay attended the pope’s inaugural Mass and extended an invitation to Pope Francis to attend the International Eucharistic Congress.

In a news release, Binay said the pope told him, “Probably.”

More than 130 countries sent delegations to the March 19 inaugural Mass, and Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said that “invitations (to visit) came from practically every delegation.”

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said he plans renewed cooperation to further Catholic-Jewish relations and hopes to contribute to a world where all people live in harmony with the “will of the creator.”

In a message to Chief Rabbi Riccardo di Segni of Rome, the pope said he “profoundly hopes to be able to contribute to the progress that Jewish-Catholic relations have seen starting from the Second Vatican Council, in a spirit of renewed collaboration.”

He said he also hoped to be “at the service of a world that may grow in harmony with the will of the creator.”

The pope sent his “cordial greetings” to the head of Rome’s Jewish community the evening of his election March 13 and told the rabbi his installation Mass would be held March 19. The Vatican released a copy of the message to journalists March 15.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reported Rabbi di Segni planned to attend the installation Mass.

The rabbi sent his best wishes to the new pope hoping his leadership would be graced with “strength and wisdom in the formidable task that has been entrusted” to Pope Francis.

“In the past decades, Rome has been a privileged place where historical steps have been taken in Christian-Jewish relations,” Rabbi di Segni wrote the pope.

Pope Francis’ election as bishop of Rome “gives us the hope that the journey of friendship, respect and fruitful collaboration will continue,” he wrote.

Israeli President Shimon Peres congratulated Pope Francis, inviting him “to pay a visit to the Holy Land at the earliest possibility.”

“He’ll be a welcome guest in the Holy Land, as a man of inspiration that can add to the attempt to bring peace in a stormy area,” he said in a written statement March 14.

“The relations between the Vatican and the Jewish people are now at their best in the last 2000 years and I hope they will grow in content and depths,” the president said, adding that the new pope “represents devotion, the love of God, the love of peace, a holy modesty and a new continent which is now awakening.”

“We need, more than ever, a spiritual leadership and not just a political one. Where political leaders may divide, spiritual leaders may unite: unite around a vision, unite around values, unite around a faith that we can make the world a better place to live. May the Lord bless the new pope,” Peres wrote.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called Pope Francis’ election “a significant moment in the history of the church” that will foster positive relations in the wake of “the transformational papacies of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI — pontiffs who launched historic reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people,” he said in a March 13 statement.

“There is much in his record that reassures us about the future,” Foxman said, including “the new pope’s sensitivity to the Jews.”

By David Agren

Catholic News Service

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Oscar Justo, 60, begs for bills and coins from a perch next to St. Joseph Parish in Barrio de Flores, the neighborhood where Pope Francis was born.

As Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis passed by often, walking from the bus stop or surfacing from a nearby subway station. But he always took time to greet Justo, offer a blessing and provide a few pesos.

Olga Cruz, who runs a non-profit organization promoting the rights of migrant workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, poses for a photo March 16. Pope Francis showed support for her group and would personally attend to victims rescued from exploitation. (CNS photo/David Agren)

“He always gave me something … sometimes 100 pesos ($20),” said Justo, 60, who lost both legs in a railway accident.

Such stories of kindness abound in Buenos Aires, where Pope Francis was archbishop for 15 years, until being elected pope March 13. Portenos, as locals here are known, came to know Pope Francis as an unpretentious prelate, who took public transit, showed preoccupation for the poor and challenged the authorities.

The new pope is mostly portrayed as a pope for the poor and common people. But a more complex picture — as a priest, administrator and soccer fanatic — comes from Argentina, where vendors now peddle his pictures and posters, and where Peronists,the political movement founded by former President Juan Peron and his second wife, Eva Peron, have blanketed Buenos Aires with posters proclaiming him one of their own.

He ascended in the church, something attributed to his force of personality and ability to remember names and faces.

“He has a prodigious memory,” said Father Andres Aguerre, Jesuit vice provincial in Argentina. “You tell him your birthday once and he remembers.”

In the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis adopted the attitude that the church belongs in the street. He built chapels and missions in poor areas and sent seminarians to serve them.

He spoke out often against injustice, such as the treatment of migrant workers from neighboring countries and those lured into the sex trade, and against social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

He criticized the late President Nestor Kirchner and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded her husband in 2007, and their way of doing politics by building patronage groups, instead of alleviating poverty, he alleged. They responded by going to other churches instead of the cathedral for important ceremonies.

“They went off to the provinces … where there was a more friendly church,” said Jose Maria Poirier, director of the Catholic magazine El Criterio, who has interviewed Pope Francis frequently over the years.

“Here in Buenos Aires, he was a man politically at odds with the government, very much loved by the poor and members of the opposition. … But, fundamentally, he’s a pastor and political man,” he said.

“Bergoglio is very demanding . … He demanded a lot of discipline and obedience. He also considered himself a privileged interpreter of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and this caused controversy,” said Poirier. “Half (of the Jesuits) liked him a lot, but half wanted nothing to do with him.”

Gabriel Castelli, a member of the board of directors at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, said the new pope “always had the ability to say what he thinks.”

He put a priority on providing attention to his priests. He had a cellphone reserved just for his nearly 4,000 diocesan priests, and each morning he reserved one hour to take their calls.

“He was very committed to his priests, which is difficult with such a large archdiocese,” Castelli said.

Many in the church, like Poirier, speak of his administrative skills in Buenos Aires.

“He’s not an intellectual, rather a man of government, with great political and administrative abilities,” Poirier said.

Priests had to keep their parishes in order, Poirier said.

He said Pope Francis preferred the shanties to high society; he never dined out or went to parties; he cooked for himself and read voraciously. He especially liked Latin American literature and Fyodor Dostoyevsky novels. He did not use a computer or email and listened to games of his favorite soccer team, San Lorenzo, on the radio.

Barrio de Flores is a working class neighborhood. The new pope’s father was a railway worker, his mother a homemaker. As a youth, the pope studied in public schools, which included technical certification as a chemist.

He returned often to the barrio, to St. Joseph Parish, where he was scheduled to celebrate Mass on Palm Sunday.

At St. Joseph, parishioners shared memories.

“He always carried his own bags,” recalled Zaira Sanchez, 72.

After Mass, “People would wait outside and he would bless all of them and talk to them,” before leaving on public transit, she said.

He took time for causes, too, such as Fundacion Alameda, which sought support from Pope Francis for its work against the exploitation of migrants working in Argentina. It also works to prevent migrant women from being lured into the sex trade.

The foundation’s director, Olga Cruz, knew the then-cardinal previously, he baptized both her children, who were not infants, after she asked him personally.

“He said it would be an honor,” recalled Cruz, a native of Bolivia.

Pope Francis embraced the migrants’ cause, making public statements and celebrating Mass for the foundation.

“He told me, ‘Don’t be afraid’ … that I can confront this,” Cruz told Catholic News Service.

Cruz also recalled him coming at a moment’s notice to provide spiritual and moral support for women rescued from the sex trade, who were sometimes sheltered in parishes.

Parishioners at St. Joseph showed mixed emotions about Pope Francis having to leave Argentina for a higher calling.

“Once he got to know you, he knew you for life,” said St. Joseph parishioner Gloria Koen, 73. “Unfortunately, we had to share him with the world.”

By David Agren

Catholic News Service

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Lawyer Diego Morales often walks past the Metropolitan Cathedral in this South American capital. He recently popped in, however, taking a moment for prayer and reflection and to give thanks for what was previously unthinkable: that local Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be elected pope.

Many Argentines expressed emotions of shock, surprise and pride that the church would elect one of their own as pontiff, especially as they remember Pope Francis more as a humble servant, who made the poor his priority, rather than as someone seeking status and power.

People celebrate election of Pope Francis outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 13. Many Argentines expressed emotions of shock, surprise and pride that the church would elect one of their own as pontiff especially because they remember the 76-year-old Jesuit as a humble servant, who made the poor his priority, rather than as someone seeking status and power. (CNS photo/Enrique Marcarian, Reuters)

His origins in South America made it seem even more improbable that he would become leader of the universal church.

“He came from the end of the world,” the daily La Nacion announced in a headline.

Pope Francis became perhaps the best-known Argentine since soccer strikers Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. The latter led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title with a goal against England known as “the hand of God.”

Maradona, who tipped the ball with his hand and became a sort of demigod in Argentina and beyond, responded to Pope Francis’ election by saying: “The god of football is Argentine, and the pope is, too. … When I go to Italy, I hope to be able to have an audience with him.”

Pope Francis is different from the larger-than-life Maradona, whose battles with drugs are well documented. People interviewed near the cathedral recall Pope Francis as being personable, with a common touch, someone who took time for ordinary people.

“He’s the same person now as he was then,” said hardware store owner Antonio Franco, who was taught catechism classes by a young Father Bergoglio. “He’s a very humble person.”

“Even for some Jesuits, he was excessively modest,” said Jose Maria Poirier, director the Catholic magazine El Criterio. “But he’s authentically that way.”

Pope Francis endeared himself to many by acting like a common man, Poirier told Catholic News Service. He lived in a room next to the archdiocesan headquarters and cooked for himself. He had been preparing to move into a home for retired and sick priests, where he planned to celebrate Mass daily and help care for older prelates.

Poirier said the pope never went out to eat, except in archdiocesan missions in poor neighborhoods or to speak with a priest needing attention; rejected all invitations to society-style gatherings; and rode public transit.

“He never had a car,” Poirier added. With public transit, “He said that I lose less time and meet the people.”

The desire to not lose time describes Pope Francis’ abilities in administration, he added. He built parishes, promoted the priesthood to potential seminarians coming from poor barrios and overhauled archdiocesan ministries during his 15 years at the helm of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.

Mostly, though, the then-archbishop wanted the church to be closer to the people, regardless of income, Poirier said.

He made his mark in the media, too, by leading protests against same-sex marriage and abortion laws in Argentina. But he also protested against corruption, a touchy topic in Argentina, where a black market in U.S. dollars thrives and which ranks 102nd in the world on the annual survey by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

Pope Francis has been critical of the International Monetary Fund and the global economic system, especially after the 2001 peso crisis in Argentina.

The country devalued its currency at the time, setting off widespread protests and hardship, along with political unrest.

Pope Francis participated in commissions dealing with the fallout and took to the media to ask people to support those suddenly impoverished.

By Judith Sudilovsky

Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM — Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal commended Pope Francis on his election with the traditional Arabic greeting of “Alf mabrouk,” or “1,000 congratulations.”

“There is depth in our communion. Holy Father, it is with gratitude and great hope that we look forward to all that you do for the church, the world and the pastoral solicitude that you will have for our Latin patriarchate during your pontificate,” Patriarch Twal said March 14 in a statement.

The patriarch pledged “full support and assurance of our fidelity, affection and prayers” for the new pope.

“As the mother church of Jerusalem, we are profoundly delighted with the election of the new pastor of the Catholic Church, chosen by the cardinals and above all by the Holy Spirit,” he said. “We bless the Lord and let flow from our hearts a fervent ‘Deo gratias!’”

Patriarch Twal also invited Pope Francis to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, offering the traditional Arabic welcome “Ahlan we sahlan.”

“We also hope and trust that you will continue the work for peace and justice in the Middle East, especially in the Holy Land,” he added.

Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, custos of the Holy Land, noted in a March 14 statement that he was surprised when he heard the announcement that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, would be the new pope and that he chose the name Francis.

“I didn’t expect it, and it was a shock,” Father Pizzaballa said. “The evening before, I spoke with the apostolic nuncio in Jordan (Archbishop Giorgio Lingua), who said that he hoped the new pope would take a name like Joseph or Francis as a prophetic gesture for the future. And here we have it. In fact, I believe that in this name we have an entire program.”

He recalled having met Pope Francis when he was a cardinal in Buenos Aires and being touched by his “humility and simplicity.’

“Buenos Aires is one of the largest cities in the world. When meeting the cardinal, one expects a certain protocol. But it is he who opens the door, shows you where to park your car in the courtyard of the diocesan residents and makes the coffee,” Father Pizzaballa said.

He noted that Pope Francis is known for “being much attached to the principles of the faith and also very open to dialogue with everyone.” As cardinal he had excellent relations with both the Argentine Jewish community as well as the Muslim community there, he said.

The custos noted that because of the great distance between Latin America and Argentina it may take Pope Francis some time to “grasp the realities here (in the Middle East).”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on an official visit to Moscow, also congratulated the new pontiff and invited him to visit Bethlehem, according to press reports. He expressed hope that Pope Francis would work toward peace in the Holy Land.

Yusef Daher, executive secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Center, saw Pope Francis’ election as a sign of hope.

“When I saw him on the balcony last night I saw hope, for the poor, for the Catholic Church, for unity of the Christian body and healing for the world’s agonies,” Daher told Catholic News Service. He said he had first heard Cardinal Bergoglio’s name about 10 days earlier while discussing papal candidates with a Catholic bishop.

“For some reason when he stopped to tell us about this cardinal and that he was from Argentina and a Jesuit, I prayed for him,” Daher said.

By Catholic News Service

NEW DELHI — The Catholic Church in Pakistan condemned a March 9 attack by an estimated 3,000 Muslims on a Christian colony in Lahore that left more than 175 buildings, including two churches and dozens of homes, torched and hundreds of people homeless.

The attack came after a Christian sanitary worker allegedly criticized Mohammed three days earlier.

A demonstrator burns a cross during a protest in the Badami Bagh area of Lahore, Pakistan, March 9. The Catholic Church in Pakistan condemned a March 9 attack by an estimated 3,000 Muslims on a Christian colony in Lahore that left more than 175 buildings, including two churches and dozens of homes, torched and hundreds of people homeless. (CNS photo/Adrees Hassain, Reuters)

The church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace in a March 10 statement also criticized police for charging the worker, Sawan Masih, who is Catholic, with blasphemy.

“The police and administration (were) mainly responsible (as they) allowed the situation to develop for 24 hours into a tragedy in the heart of provincial capital,” the statement said.

Lahore is the capital of Punjab, one of Pakistan’s five provinces.

Father Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, commission director, lamented that “the political leadership in the country also did not find courage to address the sufferings of religious minorities especially those related to abuse of blasphemy laws.”

The statement said “the government is responsible … because it paid no heed to recommendations made by the judicial inquiry into the Gojra (incident) in 2009.”

That incident, involving an allegation of blasphemy against a Christian, resulted in the deaths of 10 Catholics as 140 homes were destroyed in anti-Christian mob violence. Two Muslims apologized in 2011 for the rampage.

“This is repetition of Gojra,” said Joseph Francis, director of the Center for Legal Aid Assistance-Settlement, who visited the burned out area.

Francis told Catholic News Service March 11 that the arson attack came a day after Masih was taken into custody under pressure from Islamic fundamentalist groups.

“Since the Christians had fled fearing attack, no one was injured,” said Joseph, whose organization has been in the forefront of extending free legal aid Christians accused of blasphemy.

By Catholic News Service

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Hugo Chavez, a socialist president who transformed Venezuela while acting as chief protagonist in what was one of the worst Catholic Church-government relationships in Latin America, died March 5. He was 58.

Chavez died of complications from a respiratory infection nearly two years and four surgeries after his cancer diagnosis was made public. He flew to Cuba for his fourth surgery in early December and developed post-surgical complications, including bleeding and a lung infection, doctors said.

President Hugo Chavez waves to supporters after casting his vote in Venezuela’s 2008 election. Chavez, the socialist president who transformed Venezuela while acting as chief protagonist in what was one of the worst Catholic Church-government relationships in Latin America, died March 5. He was 58. (CNS photo/Reuters)

Last April 5, Holy Thursday, shortly before his third surgery for cancer, Chavez attended a Catholic Mass in Barinas, the state in western Venezuela where he was born and where his brother, Adan Chavez Frias, is now governor. Wearing a rosary and dressed in a blue and white tracksuit, Chavez pleaded for his life.

“I ask God to give me life, however painful. I can carry 100 crosses, your crown of thorns, but don’t take me yet. I still have things to do,” he said, according to press reports.

Catholic leaders spoke of Chavez’s relationship with the church and his legacy for Venezuelans.

“The people of Venezuela held him up, considered him a public leader that they felt a connection to; someone they were close with,” said Auxiliary Bishop Jesus Gonzalez de Zarate of Caracas, secretary-general of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference. There was “great hope for his recovery and that he would serve his third term.”

Chavez, a former military lieutenant colonel, gained attention as leader of a failed coup in 1992. In 2000, he was elected president. He was due to be inaugurated for his third six-year term Jan. 10, but because of his illness he was never sworn in.

During his 13 years in office, he placed price caps on products sold by multinational companies and food basics. Chavez’s critics, including many church leaders, said his programs were inefficient and indoctrinated poor Venezuelans in socialist philosophy.

Those programs won him political popularity among the poor, but with food basics, like milk and sugar, in short supply, the cost of some products rising with runaway inflation, and a high crime rate, his support within the poor neighborhoods waned.

The roughly 90,000 mostly poor, mostly Catholic Venezuelans that live in Carcacas’ 23 de Enero neighborhood have mixed feelings about Chavez’s legacy, said Franciscan Father Angel Antonio Tornero, pastor at Cristo Rey Parish.

“There have been many improvements to infrastructure and the community. The prices of food are lower. Chavez has support from many for the work that his government has done,” Father Tornero said. “But there are contradictions. There are shortages of food, and many people feel like the government ignores their needs.”

Father Tornero said the government has slashed funding to Catholic schools in the barrio, leaving them in a “financial crisis.”

Church leaders said the church’s relationship with the president was complicated, if not at times downright nasty.

“There were years that were difficult, tense,” said Bishop Gonzalez de Zarate. “There were attacks and strong responses. … But I feel that there was a calming in the past year.”

He said that in the second half of 2012, the bishops’ conference held two meetings with top Chavez government officials, including Vice President Nicolas Maduro, whom Chavez tapped as his successor.

In July, Chavez called the conference and suggested he was open to a face-to-face meeting, which would have been the first in at least six years, Bishop Gonzalez de Zarate said.

Chavez first won election promising a Cuban-influenced socialist “Bolivarian revolution.” He used the nation’s oil resources and a ballooning national debt to fund social programs that cut the South American country’s poverty rate.

Initially, the relationship between Chavez and church leaders seemed warm. But it did not take long for things to sour.

Church leaders lent support to a short-lived coup that overthrew Chavez for 48 hours in 2002, saying he was abusing power and eroding democratic institutions. They kept up their criticism and, several years later, some Chavez supporters said that, with the hierarchy’s almost obsessive opposition to the president, the bishops had distanced themselves from poor Venezuelans.

One community activist told Catholic News Service: “I agree there should be criticisms” of the government, “but constructive criticism that unites instead of separating.”

The war of words continued, with successive Venezuelan Catholic leaders criticizing the president, who returned the criticism.

More recently, Chavez had suggested he was willing to mend relations with church leaders. In a July interview with Venezuelan state-owned television, he said, “hopefully we can manage to establish a good relationship with the Catholic hierarchy and to work together for the country.

“The church can contribute much along with the government in the fight against poverty, misery and crime,” he said.

Bishop Gonzalez de Zarate said that Chavez had “opened the door” to improved relations.

“I’m not saying we have had fluid relations with the government, but there has been improvement,” he said.

Born July 28, 1954, as the second of seven children of schoolteachers, Chavez was raised by his grandmother, a devout Catholic. He was an altar boy at his local church in a rural village in Barinas. As a child, he reportedly had always thought that he would become a priest.

As an adult, has described himself as a “Christian” whose policies are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

He used religion to win support from religious groups that helped elect him president in three consecutive elections.

“You have to take into account the evangelical card, which is his support base,” Nikolas Kozloff, author of “Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics and the Challenge to the U.S.,” said in an email several months before the president’s death. “Chavez has his own brand of Christian socialism, and he plays up the Christ martyr complex in his rhetoric.”

By Jonathan Luxmoore

Catholic News Service

WARSAW, Poland — Bishop Julian Voronovsky, the last Ukrainian Catholic bishop to be secretly consecrated during the church’s Soviet-era persecution, died Feb. 28. He was 76.

During a March 4 memorial service, clergy extolled Bishop Voronovsky’s leadership as head of the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy as well as his efforts to improve relations with Orthodox church leaders and government officials.

“We thank God for this spiritual giant, a man of great heart and heroic faith,” Auxiliary Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh of Kiev, secretary of the Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, said during the service in Transfiguration Church in Drohobych.

“His greatness wasn’t that of earthly glory, estates, awards and honors, since he lived humbly among the poor of Christ, with nowhere to lay his head. His greatness was that of God’s love,” Bishop Dziurakh told the 300 clergy and hundreds of worshippers who packed the cathedral.

Bishop Voronovsky served the church when it was “humiliated, shattered and driven to Golgotha,” and in doing so had earned the title “confessor of the faith” by ministering “in the catacombs,” he added.

In leading the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy from 1994 to 2011, Bishop Voronovsky restored parishes, founded monasteries and schools and dedicated a seminary and catechetical center in an effort to rebuild the Ukrainian Catholic Church after it had been outlawed and forced to merge in 1946 with the Russian Orthodox Church under Soviet rule.

Born May 5, 1936, in Busk, Bishop Voronovsky trained as an engineer at Ukraine’s Polygraphic Institute and became a director of the Lviv Project Institute, which oversees construction projects. His tenure was short; he was dismissed because of his religious faith. He then was forced to work as a boiler operator.

He joined the underground Eastern Catholic Studite order in 1958 and was secretly ordained in 1968 after training at its hidden seminary.

In 1986, Bishop Voronovsky was ordained as an auxiliary bishop, also secretly, by Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk of Lviv. He became rector of the archeparchy’s higher seminary when his consecration was publicly announced after the church’s legalization in the early 1990s.

A biography in the diocesan website said Bishop Voronovsky ordained more than 200 priests, built about 100 churches and pioneered social and educational projects during his tenure.

He also built ecumenical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, which many Eastern Catholics blamed for their persecution, and spearheaded “open and frank dialogue” with government representatives.

In an interview before retiring in September 2011, Bishop Voronovsky told Ukraine’s Express daily that his parents had nurtured his vocation as his “first spiritual mentors,” adding that the church’s underground ministry had recalled the “first centuries of Christianity.”

The bishop, who was frequently detained by the Soviet KGB police, said he had followed his church’s advice to “sign and agree to nothing” during interrogation, for fear of being entrapped as a collaborator.