The Dialog

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Leaders of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith spent three days in late September listening to women theologians, canon lawyers, Scripture scholars and specialists in other academic fields talk about roles women have played in the Catholic Church and roles they could play in the future.

Women gather at the opening Mass of the 96th annual convention of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada and the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations North American Conference last April. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently hears three days of testimonies about the roles of women in the church. (CNS/Salt and Light)

After the symposium Sept. 26-28 was over, the congregation issued a brief statement outlining the topics discussed and listing the women who made formal presentations. The congregation said the papers will be published at a later date.

Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the doctrinal congregation, opened the meeting, which involved about 50 people, mostly women, and officials and consultants to the congregation, the statement said.

The theme of “the role of women in the church” was explored first by looking at “the definition of the feminine vocation in Catholic tradition,” and proceeded to a discussion about concrete roles women have played and can play within the church.

Women, several of whom are or have been members of the Vatican-related International Theological Commission or the International Biblical Commission, presented all the main papers. Other presenters serve as consultants to Vatican offices or professors at Catholic universities.

The doctrinal congregation did not provide specifics about the content of the talks. It said, for example, that Barbara Hallensleben, a theologian teaching in Switzerland, looked at the “feminine vocation” starting from the idea of the priesthood of all the baptized and in the sacrament of marriage. Margaret Harper McCarthy, a professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, gave the formal response.

French biblicist Anne-Marie Pelletier and Mary Healy, a professor of Scripture at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, spoke about the important contributions of women scholars to biblical studies, the statement said.

Other topics included the role of women in the education of priests; women as spiritual directors and retreat directors; canon law provisions regarding women’s roles in church decision-making bodies; and “sexual difference,” a theme treated by Spanish anthropologist Blanca Castilla Cortazar and Australian theologian Tracey Rowland, dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne.

The doctrinal congregation statement said that in addition to the formal presentations, participants “listened to interesting and moving testimonies” of the experiences of women in the church, in theology, working in the Roman Curia or for bishops’ conferences, in interreligious dialogue and ecumenism and in the field of Catholic charity.

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — As a brief cease-fire agreement failed and Syrian government forces returned to bombing Aleppo and fighting rebels in the city streets, Pope Francis made a forceful appeal for assistance for the thousands of innocent civilians trapped in the besieged city.

Medics inspect the damage outside a field hospital Sept. 27 after an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. More than 200 airstrikes bombarded the city since Sept. 24, leaving more than100 civilians dead, with hundreds more injured, according to the head of the Syria Civil Defense group, a volunteer emergency medical service. (CNS photo/Abdalrhman Ismail, Reuters)

“I appeal to the consciences of those responsible for the bombardments,” Pope Francis said at the end of his weekly general audience Sept. 28. “They will have to account to God.”

Dozens of civilians were reportedly killed by the bombardments in late September and the U.N. World Food Program said it was “extremely concerned about the more than 250,000 people trapped in eastern Aleppo city who are cut off from food, water, medicine and other essential supplies.”

Pope Francis told people gathered for his general audience that his thoughts and prayers were going “to the beloved and martyred Syria. I continue to receive dramatic news about the fate of Aleppo’s population.”

Expressing his “profound pain and deep concern for what is happening in this already martyred city,” the pope told people that it is a place where death strikes “children, the elderly, the sick, young people, old people, everyone.”

“I renew my appeal that everyone make a commitment with all their strength to the protection of civilians as a mandatory and urgent obligation,” the pope said.

Pope Francis spoke as representatives of dozens of Catholic charitable organizations and leaders of Catholic communities in Syria and Iraq were arriving in Rome for a Sept. 29 meeting to coordinate Catholic emergency and humanitarian assistance to the victims of war, displaced people and refugees in the region.

Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso from the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which coordinates Catholic charitable giving, said the Catholic Church and Catholic charities have 12,000 workers trying to provide care for people in Syria, Iraq and neighboring countries.

“Just in Syria the victims of the war, according to U.N. data, already exceed 270,000,” he said. More than 8.7 million Syrians have been forced from their homes and some 3.4 million Iraqis are still displaced.

Dialog reporter

CLAYMONT – Archmere’s soccer team controlled the play in its Diamond State Athletic Conference showdown with Delaware Military Academy on Sept. 27, but the Auks could break through just once. Sean Murray’s goal in the 56th minute, however, was enough, propelling Archmere to a 1-0 win on a sunny afternoon in Claymont and dealing DMA its first loss of the season.

The Auks had been frustrated all afternoon by Seahawks goalkeeper Jacob Davenport, but that changed when Murray took a pass from Reid Niermann and dribbled just inside the penalty box. He launched a shot to Davenport’s right, catching the inside of the netting to put his team ahead. Read more »

Catholic News Service

Benedictine Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki of St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was with Arnold Palmer when the golfing great died Sept. 25 in Pittsburgh.

Former champion Arnold Palmer of the U.S hits from a sand trap during the 2008 annual Masters Par 3 golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Palmer, known as “the King” for his transformative legacy in golf, died Sept. 25 at a Pittsburgh hospital at age 87. (CNS photo/Hans Deryk, Reuters)

It wasn’t the first time Archabbot Nowicki had visited Palmer that day. Palmer, 87, was in a hospital awaiting a heart operation scheduled for Sept. 26. “I went to say a prayer and give him a blessing. About an hour after I’d departed, I got a call” that Palmer’s health was failing rapidly, the archabbot said in a Sept. 26 telephone interview.

Even though Palmer was a lifelong Presbyterian, he’d had a relationship with St. Vincent’s spanning more than 50 years, when Archabbot Nowicki was in the high school at the archabbey.

Palmer did not let denominational differences deter him. “Arnie sort of appealed to everyone. There were no barriers, race, color, creed — those were things that never entered into” his mind, Archabbot Nowicki said. “He was welcoming to everybody and treated everyone with tremendous warmth and respect.” Palmer came with his wife on occasion to the archabbey’s 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass.

“I remember him coming here on one occasion after winning several of the golf tournaments early in his career. He was hitting golf balls for the students. By then he had a fairly good reputation,” Archabbot Nowicki recalled. “He would give a little demonstration. I remember when he was doing it they put a little trash pail out in the middle, about 150 yards out, and he was hitting balls out and he got about five in the tanker,” he chuckled.

“The first time he invited me over, I told him I didn’t know how to play, so I sent my prior, Father Albert. But this was after he retired professionally. But he still played golf, every day at Latrobe Country Club.” When the archabbot saw Palmer again, he said Palmer told him, “The next time you send someone, send someone who is as good as your prior. This guy cost me 20 bucks.”

“Arnie, as you know, was competitive and enjoyed playing with good golfers,” Archabbot Nowicki said.

“Fred Rogers (of ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ fame) and Arnie Palmer went to the same school together. I think they were one year apart. They were very good friends during his lifetime,” the archabbot said. “Arnie’s father taught Mr. Rogers how to play golf. … (Rogers) “said that his father taught Arnie better than he taught him.”

In retirement, Palmer lived five months of the year in his native Latrobe. Not only did he and his first wife, Winnie, who died in 1999, lend their name and their presence to various archabbey events, Winnie Palmer was “very helpful at keeping Wal-Mart out of our backyard,” Archabbot Nowicki said. Arnold Palmer also served on the St. Vincent’s College board of directors. In 1996 the college gave Palmer an honorary degree.

Archabbot Nowicki took up Palmer’s invitation to join him when the golfing legend received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2012. Jack Nicklaus was there and he paid tribute to Arnie at the service, the archabbot recalled. “I know Jack had always been a wonderful friend of Arnie’s, and the two enjoyed each other’s company.”

The archabbot remembered visiting Palmer at his Bay Hill Golf Club near Orlando, Florida. “He had given one of our commencement addresses. He talked about the importance of decorum. He said, ‘That means when you enter a room that you take your hat off.’” At the club, a man “came into the dining room and had his hat on. Arnie said very gently to him, ‘Will you please take off your hat?’ He had that respect for people.”

Palmer learned golf from his father, who was the greenskeeper at the Latrobe Country Club. He attended what was then Wake Forest College on a golf scholarship. He left school and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, serving for three years. In 1954, he won the U.S. Amateur golf tournament; a year later he won the Canadian Open, and his golf career was launched.

Palmer won 95 professional championships, including 62 on the PGA Tour, and seven major tournaments. He earned $1.6 million in prize money, and another $50 million in golf-related business off the course. He also was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.

The archabbey will hold a memorial service for Palmer Oct. 4 at the basilica on the archabbey grounds.

Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Christians must put their mark on history, transforming the world every day driven by the joy of proclaiming God’s love, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis waves after celebrating a Mass for the Jubilee for Catechists Sept. 25 in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters)

“We are not prophets of gloom who take delight in unearthing dangers or deviations,” handing down “bitter judgments on our society, on the church, on everything and everyone, polluting the world with our negativity,” he told catechists Sept. 25.

Instead, “whoever proclaims the hope of Jesus carries joy” and can see both far-off new horizons and pressing needs under their nose, driving them to help and “go out from themselves to write history.”

The pope’s homily came during a special Mass for a Year of Mercy jubilee for catechists in St. Peter’s Square.

Nothing is more important for catechists, and all Christians who are likewise called to give witness and share God’s word, than to keep the core, essential message of the faith “front and center: the Lord is risen,” he said.

“The Lord Jesus is risen, the Lord Jesus loves you, and he has given his life for you; risen and alive, he is close to you and waits for you every day.”

“Everything in the faith becomes beautiful when linked to this centerpiece,” he said; from that proclamation all other teachings of the faith gain meaning and force, especially when Jesus’ commandment of loving one another is followed.

“It is by loving that the God-who-is-love is proclaimed to the world: not by the power of convincing, never by imposing the truth, no less by growing fixated on some religious or moral obligation,” he said.

Because God “is not an idea, but a living person,” Pope Francis said, he is proclaimed by an actual encounter with another person, accompanied by listening, welcoming and caring for the other’s past and journey forward.

Also, since God is love, goodness, joy and hope, then God must be proclaimed by living that way “in the present moment,” he said. “We do not speak convincingly about Jesus when we are sad; nor do we transmit God’s beauty merely with beautiful homilies.”

The pope highlighted the day’s Gospel reading in which Jesus tells the story of the poor man named Lazarus who went to heaven, while the rich man who ignored his plight, ended up in hell.

This parable in the Gospel according to Luke tells people “what it means to love,” the pope said.

The rich man did nothing overtly bad or evil, the pope said, he was just indifferent, an illness worse than whatever caused Lazarus’ sores.

The rich man suffered from being self-centered, materialistic and superficial, he said.

“This worldliness is like a ‘black hole’ that swallows up what is good and extinguishes love,” and anaesthetizes the soul, the pope said.

The rich man’s obsession with appearances also means he suffered from a kind of blindness that kept him from seeing anything that did not interest him.

This blindness makes people act “cross-eyed,” the pope said, with one eye looking “with adulation at famous people of high rank, admired by the world,” and the other shifted “away from the many Lazaruses of today, from the poor, from the suffering who are the Lord’s beloved.”

The rich man remains nameless and, therefore, forgotten in history, he said, while “Lazarus is the only one named in all of Jesus’ parables,” and is welcomed to the banquet in the divine kingdom.

“Whoever lives for himself does not write history,” Pope Francis said. “And a Christian must write history.”

With so much worldliness, indifference and selfishness in the world, he said, Christians “must go out from themselves to write history,” which means being disturbed by the pain they see and seeking ways to help without procrastinating or delegating the task to others.

Responding to a situation of need with ‘“I have no time today. I’ll help you tomorrow.’ This is a sin,” he said. The time given to help people now “is time given to Jesus; it is love that remains. It is our treasure in heaven, which we earn here on earth.”

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — With some stoic and others sobbing, survivors and family members of the victims of the July terrorist attacks in Nice met Pope Francis during a special audience at the Vatican.

Pope Francis greets a child during a special audience with more than 80 victims of the attack in Nice, France, during a special audience Sept. 24 in Paul VI hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Massimiliano Migliorato, Reuters)

After expressing his condolences to the families of the 86 people who died and his prayers for the recovery of the more than 400 people who were injured in the attack July 14, Pope Francis greeted each and every one of the more than 800 people who traveled from France for the audience.

The group also included city and regional officials, first responders and members of the Alpes Maritimes Fraternite, a group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders who have been working in Nice to promote mutual respect among different religious communities.

“To establish a sincere dialogue and fraternal relations among all people, particularly among those who confess belief in one merciful God, is an urgent priority that all leaders, both political and religious, must seek to promote and which each person is called to establish” with his or her neighbors, the pope said.

“When the temptation to turn in on oneself or to respond to hatred with hatred and violence with violence is great,” he said, “an authentic conversion of heart is necessary.”

“One can respond to the devil’s attacks only with the works of God, which are forgiveness, love and respect for one’s neighbor, even if he or she is different,” the pope said.

After apologizing that his French was not good enough, Pope Francis said it was very moving to encounter so many people “who suffer in body and soul because, on an evening of celebration, violence blindly struck you or your loved ones without regard for origin or religion.”

“May the certainty of eternal life, a belief also shared by members of other religions, be of consolation to you,” the pope said.

Dialog reporter

HOCKESSIN – Salesianum’s soccer team had two challenges heading into their game on the afternoon of Sept. 22.

First, the Sals had not played since returning from a two-game trip to Colorado, where they split a pair against the top two teams from that state. Second, their initial opponent upon their return to Delaware was Charter School of Wilmington, the school Salesianum defeated last year in the state championship match and Delaware’s second-ranked team. Read more »

Catholic News Service

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After two nights of violence in Charlotte, Bishop Peter J. Jugis called on men, women and children in the Diocese of Charlotte to join him in prayers for peace and justice for all victims of violence and for law enforcement personnel who have been victims of “unjust violence.”

A man confronts riot police during Sept. 21 protests in Charlotte, N.C., after police fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott in the parking lot of an apartment complex. (CNS photo/Jason Miczek, Reuters) See CHARLOTTE-SHOOTING-REACT Sept. 22, 2016.

“Let us pray for all men and women of good will to be instruments of harmony and the always-shining light of Christ in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and public places,” the bishop said in a statement Sept. 22.

The protests late Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, with the crowds swelling at one point to 1,000 people, followed the fatal police shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, an African-American, outside an apartment complex the afternoon of Sept. 20.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said while they were trying to serve a warrant on another person in the area, Scott approached them from his parked car carrying a handgun and ignoring their calls to drop it.

In their statement, police said Officer Brentley Vinson, who also is an African-American, perceived an “imminent deadly threat” and shot Scott. Scott later died at a local hospital.

Family members insisted that Scott was unarmed and was reading a book while waiting in the parking lot to pick up his son from a nearly school bus stop. Police said they recovered a weapon from the scene, not a book.

Vinson has been placed on administrative leave while police conduct an investigation that includes eyewitness interviews and review of police video footage.

When Scott family members took to social media to criticize police the evening of Sept. 20, people began to gather at the site of the shooting. By 11 p.m., the protest had swelled to about 1,000 people.

When some protesters began throwing rocks and smashing the windows of several police cars, police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, but people continued to protest and block two roadways and, at one point, a nearby segment of Interstate 85, until early morning Sept. 21.

Police arrested one person. More than a dozen police officers were slightly injured in the melee. Local television video also showed a few people looting and burning the cargo of a semi-truck that had stopped on the Interstate.

Protests turned violent for a second night Sept. 21 in uptown Charlotte, about 10 miles away from the site of the fatal police shooting, with several people injured and several businesses vandalized and looted. One young man was shot in the head reportedly by another civilian. He was taken to the hospital and put on life support; he died Sept. 22.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police again used tear gas to try to clear the crowd, some of whom tried to block a section of Interstate 277 as they departed the protest area.

“My heart bleeds for what is going on right now,” said Gov. Pat McCrory, who declared a state of emergency late that night after a request from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney. The emergency notice triggered the North Carolina National Guard and the State Highway Patrol to assist local law enforcement in responding to the violence.

“Let’s pray for our city and let’s pray for peace,” added McCrory, who was Charlotte’s mayor from 1995 to 2009.

At a news conference Sept. 22, Putney said he would allow the family to view the footage, but it would not be released to the public.

At St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, just a few blocks from the scene of the police shooting and the protests there, about 150 people gathered Sept. 21 to pray for peace.

During the evening eucharistic adoration and benediction, Father Patrick Winslow, pastor, offered prayers for police and for people who have suffered injustice, as well as prayers for his neighborhood and the city of Charlotte.

“Last evening we were all taken by surprise when two events collided here in Charlotte — you could even say, in our own backyard,” Father Winslow said. “One, the national ongoing concern about racism in law enforcement and, two, the incident of an African-American man who lost his life in an altercation with local police.”

“In times such as these, it is good to recall that light shines in the darkness, and it must shine through you,” Father Winslow urged parishioners. “Knowing the genuine spirit of our parishioners, I am confident that you will embrace a path of peace, prayer and charity.”

History makes it clear, the priest said, that the light that vanquishes the darkness is not on the battlefield between nations or races, or “in the streets of Charlotte or any U.S. city.” “The true battlefield is within the human heart, within each of us,” he said.

“Injustice must be defeated” in the heart, the priest said. “This is where prejudice and unjust discrimination live. This is the place from which fear and darkness enter the world. And likewise, it is the place where it can be vanquished.”

He urged people to “storm and loot your hearts, not the streets, if you want true change for the good. Vanquish the enemy within and then you will truly help your neighbor.”

By Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor of the Catholic News Herald, newspaper of the Diocese of Charlotte.

Dialog reporter

WILMINGTON – A year ago, Paige McKune was playing field hockey for Middletown. On Sept. 21, when the Cavaliers visited Serviam Field to meet Ursuline, McKune scored what proved to be the winning goal – for the Raiders, who held on for a 3-2 win in an entertaining matinee.

McKune, a junior, put Ursuline ahead, 3-1, when she pounced on a ball at the goal line behind Middletown goalie Lauren Berry with 13:52 remaining in the contest. The original shot had come from sophomore Jane Lyons, but it was deflected and stopped before it crossed the line. Read more »

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — God wants people to be merciful, which means forgiving others and giving freely with love, Pope Francis said.

“We don’t have the power to condemn our brother who makes a mistake, we are not above him. Rather we have a duty to return him to the dignity of a son of the father and to accompany him on his path of conversion,” the pope said Sept. 21 at his weekly general audience.

Pilgrims from Indonesia wave before Pope Francis arrives to lead his weekly audience Sept. 21 in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS/Remo Casilli, Reuters)

In his talk, the pope focused on a reading from the Gospel of Luke (6:36-38) in which Jesus tells the disciples to stop judging others and be merciful just as God is.

The motto for the Year of Mercy, “Merciful Like the Father,” comes from this biblical verse, the pope said.

But more than a pithy catchphrase, the motto is a lifelong commitment to give to others the love one has received, without merit, from God, he said. It is a call to reflect upon all that God does for humanity so as to be inspired “to be like him, full of love, compassion and mercy,” he said.

But what does it mean to be merciful, the pope asked his audience. Jesus said it means to forgive and to give, he said.

Mercy is shown by forgiving and not judging and condemning, the pope said.

“A Christian must forgive,” he said. “Why? Because he was forgiven! All of us here in the square have been forgiven, not one of us never needed God’s forgiveness in life.”

“If God has forgiven me, why shouldn’t I forgive others? Am I greater than God?” the pope said, underlining that “judging and condemning one’s brother who sins is wrong.”

“Not because one doesn’t want to recognize the sin, but because to condemn the sinner breaks the bond of fraternity with him and ignores the mercy of God, who does not want to give up on any of his children.”

By asking his disciples not to condemn, “Jesus does not mean to undermine the course of human justice,” Pope Francis said, rather he shows that suspending judgment is needed to hold together a Christian community and maintain fraternal ties.

The other essential element of mercy, he said, is that it is freely giving to others because it flows from having received such abundant gifts from God.

Also, by giving to others, God will return that measure once again, showing “it is we ourselves who decide how we will be judged” after death, the pope said.

For a Christian, he said, merciful love is the only path to follow.

“We all need to be a little more merciful, to not badmouth others, not judge, not rip people apart with criticism, envy, jealousy,” he said.

By giving and forgiving, he said, one’s heart will expand with love, while selfishness and hatred will turn the heart into a hard, tiny stone.

“Which do you want?” he asked.

When people in the audience shouted “no” to having “a heart of stone” and “yes” to a heart filled with love, the pope said, “then be merciful.”