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Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy Sells Ornaments to Support Bright Christmas

By Jessica Easthope

The ornaments on Our Lady of the Snows’ Christmas tree are more than decoration, they represent the spirit of giving. Each one costs a dollar, it’s not a lot, but students give because they know what it’s like to receive.

“It’s pretty cool unwrapping that wrapping paper and seeing what toys I got and I want to be able to give that feeling to someone else because I want other people to be happy and not sad on Christmas Day,” said 7th grade student council member Dylan Thomas.

Our Lady of the Snows has been participating in the Tablet’s Bright Christmas campaign, helping every kid get a toy, for 15 years. This year, starting on Giving Tuesday members of the student council went from class to class collecting money and giving out ornaments to decorate and put on the school’s Christmas tree.

Student council moderator, Liz Flynn says the kids take the lead on the money and the message.

“We want everyone to feel the love of Jesus at Christmas time, when we do for others, we do for Jesus, we are a witness for Jesus by helping those in need,” she said.

The school raises around $1,000 for Bright Christmas each year, but last year they got something in return.

Principal Joseph Venticinque says the $5,000 they received from Bright Christmas was put to good use.

“It wasn’t money that we had allocated throughout the year so it was a gift we were able to pass back to the people and families who lost their jobs during the pandemic or that were unable to afford tuition for all that they give to us and our community,” he said.

And the kids raise money with the same excitement they have on Christmas morning. They even made a Bright Christmas commercial to encourage their classmates to give. Some students say they don’t take the holiday for granted – and want to make others feel just as blessed.

“It’s important because some kids don’t have enough money and their parents can;t afford certain things they want,” said 5th grader Madison Brooks. “Us, we can get whatever we want if we just ask and have good grades this way people can get what they would like and everything they need for Christmas.”

The students will bring their ornaments home right before Christmas break to put on their own trees to remind them while they’re opening their gifts they helped another kid do the same.

Pope Francis Describes Not Ordaining Women Priests as ”A Theological Problem”

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In a wide-ranging interview with top staff of America magazine, Pope Francis decried increased polarization within the Catholic Church, affirmed the need to involve more women in church administration but ruled out women priests and emphasized the importance of the ministry of individual bishops over the role of a bishops’ conference.

“The more polarization there is, the more one loses the Catholic spirit and falls into a sectarian spirit,” the pope told staff from the Jesuit weekly. “What is Catholic is not either-or, but is both-and, combining differences.”

Jesuit Fathers Matt Malone and Sam Sawyer, respectively the outgoing and incoming editors of America, executive editor Kerry Weber, Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell and podcast host Gloria Purvis interviewed Pope Francis Nov. 22. The interview was released Nov. 28.

Asked about abortion and the way the emphasis on church teaching against abortion seemed to be politicizing and polarizing Catholics in the United States, Pope Francis insisted the fetus is a human being and repeated his view that abortion is killing a human being to resolve a problem.

But, he said, the problem for the church “arises when this reality of killing a human being is transformed into a political question, or when a pastor of the church uses political categories.”

“When I see a problem like this one, which is a crime, become strongly, intensely political, there is a failure of pastoral care in approaching this problem,” the pope said. “We cannot deal with (abortion) as if it is only a civil matter.”

Pope Francis did not explain how he thought a bishop or priest could explain church teaching in a way that was pastoral but not political and he declined to give an opinion on whether the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops should present the fight against abortion as its preeminent concern.

“This is a problem the bishops’ conference has to resolve within itself. What interests me is the relationship of the bishop with the people, which is sacramental,” he said. “The sacramental part of the pastoral ministry is in the relationship between the pastor and the people of God, between the bishop and his people. And this cannot be delegated to the bishops’ conference.”

“Jesus did not create bishops’ conferences,” the pope said. “Jesus created bishops, and each bishop is pastor of his people.”

On the question of women in the church, Pope Francis insisted that ordained ministry is open only to men but that the church has a feminine, Marian dimension that is even more important. But, he said, administrative roles do not belong to either theological category, and the church should appoint more women to those offices.

“That the woman does not enter into the ministerial life is not a deprivation. No,” the pope said. The place of women, as a “mirror” of the church as mother and spouse, “is much more important,” although he admitted the Catholic Church has not done a very good job developing that aspect of theology and explaining it.

On the question of Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the Vatican’s relationship with China, Pope Francis insisted that openness to dialogue is the best way forward.

While many Ukrainians and others would like the pope to condemn Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, the pope said he did not think it was necessary. “If you have a martyred people, you have someone who martyrs them.”

“Why do I not name Putin? Because it is not necessary; it is already known,” he said, adding that “the position of the Holy See is to seek peace and to seek an understanding. The diplomacy of the Holy See is moving in this direction and, of course, is always willing to mediate.”

As for China, the interview was conducted two days before a bishop was installed as “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese the Vatican does not recognize and an appointment the Vatican said it did not agree to, in violation of its controversial accord with China on the appointment of bishops.

Asked about criticism that the Vatican has been silent on China’s human rights violations in exchange for having input on the appointment of bishops, the pope said: “It is not a matter of speaking or silence. That is not the reality. The reality is to dialogue or not to dialogue. And one dialogues up to the point that is possible.”

“With China I have opted for the way of dialogue. It is slow, it has its failures, it has its successes, but I cannot find another way,” Pope Francis said. “There are Christians there. They have to be cared for, so that they may be good Chinese and good Christians.”

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 11/29/22

Some Queens Catholic school students are in the giving spirit on this giving Tuesday. Our Lady of the Snows is raising money for The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund.

Students are buying and decorating Christmas ornaments. All the money raised will help ensure other kids have gifts on Christmas morning.

Reaching-Out Community Services Credits The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Campaign with Holiday Help

By Jessica Easthope

When Sandra Bazemore walks into Reaching-Out Community Services, she knows she’s going to be treated with dignity and respect.

They’ve given her family more than food. During the Christmas season, Reaching-Out Community Services has given her and her two sons hope.

“The community is definitely not forgetting about us unfortunate and I’m very thankful for it,” she said.

Sandra’s boys are two of hundreds of children that get toys during Reaching-Out Community Services’ Operation Christmas Smiles event every year.

“With the hard times that are going on now with me and my children I was able to see their eyes open and they had something to wake up to and they had a gift I was very thankful for it,” said Sandra.

“When we get something like Bright Christmas it makes a tremendous difference in the success of that event,” said executive director, Tom Neve.

The event wouldn’t be possible without the Tablet’s Bright Christmas Campaign. Founder and executive director, Tom Neve says this year he anticipates needing more toys because there’s been a 40 percent increase in people coming through their doors.

“It’s a blessing and we’re very fortunate we get support from that, we can’t handle that with our budget here because we need to handle the core of the program which is anti-hunger,” he said.

When people walk into Reaching Out Community Services, they shop for their food at a kiosk – but the bill never comes. A receipt pops out in the back and employees get to work gathering orders.

They have the resources to feed 125 people a day, but Tom says when they’re falling behind, Bright Christmas picks up the slack, and just like Santa – delivers on a promise to give every child a toy.

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear about God they want to see God in you and that’s the evidence and that’s why I love what I do it expresses the love of God and people need that tremendously,” said Tom.

Reaching-Out Community Services will hold its annual holiday event Operation Christmas Smiles this year on December 17.

Catholic News Headlines for Monday 11/28/22

 

Helping neighbors in need – that’s the focus of the Brooklyn non-profit “Reaching out Community Services.”

It’s a food pantry that offers much more than hot meals to families in need. Last year they received money from The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund to ensure their clients had a Merry Christmas. We’ll check in with them.

 

Cardinal Zen Convicted by Hong Kong Court, Ordered to Pay $500 Fine

By Elise Ann Allen

ROME (Crux) — In a highly anticipated ruling already making the rounds in international media, Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others were convicted Friday of failing to register a now-defunct relief fund that offered assistance to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

Cardinal Zen, along with barrister Margaret Ng, ex-lawmaker Cyd Ho, scholar Hui Po-keung, singer-activist Denise Ho, and Sze Ching-wee, the fund’s former secretary, appeared in front of Permanent Magistrate Ada Yim Shun-yee at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts Friday to hear the court’s verdict.

At a Nov. 25 hearing, Yim said that after considering the size of the fund and the period over which it operated without proper registration, the defendants were found guilty, and all received fines.

Sze was ordered to pay HK$2,500 (US $320), while the rest, including Zen, were ordered to pay HK$ 4,000 (US $500).

Cardinal Zen, 90, is the former bishop of Hong Kong, and was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II and has long been one of the Catholic Church’s most influential figures in China. He has been a leading critic of Pope Francis’s China policy and his provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops, gaining international attention for his rebuke of the deal as ill-conceived and a “sellout” of Chinese Christians.

He was arrested in May along with Denise Ho, Cyd Ho, Ng, and Hui under a Beijing-imposed national security law for allegedly colluding with foreign forces, and all were released on bail. Sze was arrested in November on the same charge and was also granted bail.

The group was accused of failing to apply for local society registration for the now defunct 612 Humanitarian Fund between July 16, 2019, and Oct. 31, 2021, under Hong Kong’s Societies Ordinance law.

The fund, for which they all held leadership positions, provided financial and legal aid to pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets in 2019 to oppose a controversial bill allowing extradition to mainland China.

Hong Kong’s national security law, imposed by Beijing despite mass protests against it, went into effect June 30, 2020, and bans activities described as treason, secession, sedition, subversion, foreign interference and terrorism. It also stipulates that whenever it deems it necessary, the Chinese Central government in Beijing can establish agencies to help Hong Kong fulfill its security requirements.

A semi-autonomous region granted certain freedoms the rest of China is not afforded as part of China’s “one country, two systems” policy, Hong Kong was required to introduce security measures after the British returned the territory to China in 1997.

However, many pro-democracy activists and national leaders have criticized the law as stifling freedoms promised to Hong Kong when it came back under Chinese control, with some voicing fear that articles in Hong Kong’s Basic Law — a quasi-mini constitution in place in Hong Kong since the British returned the territory to China in 1997, and which protects freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom to assemble — would be dismissed.

The trial for Cardinal Zen and the other defendants was set to begin in September but was delayed after the presiding judge contracted COVID-19, and formally began in October.

According to local newspaper Hong Kong Free Press, at Friday’s hearing Yim noted that under the Societies Ordinance, an organization must apply for either registration or an exemption from registration within a month of its establishment.

Despite the defense’s attempts to dispute the ordinance, Yim said the 612 Humanitarian Fund did not meet any of the criteria for an exemption, and accused the defendants of establishing the organization for “political aims.”

Yim also ruled that each of the defendants could be regarded as “office-bearers” of the fund, since they were charged with administrative and financial management, and were therefore liable for failing to register it as a society.

In the trial, the defense team had argued that the Societies Ordinance was unconstitutional for “disproportionately” restricting peoples’ right to assembly. However, Yim dismissed this argument, saying Friday that the right to assembly was not absolute and could be curtailed in the interest of national security, public safety, and social order.

Yim also ruled that the information required for the registration of the fund was neither complex nor excessive, and that the public had a right to know basic information about the societies present in the territory, saying it is the government’s job to ensure that this data is available.

“The court, therefore, came to view that the purposes of the registration system were legitimate, and that the relevant requirements were reasonable,” Yim said.

In remarks to the press after the hearing, Margaret Ng said the case was “not just about the six of us,” since it marked the first such charge under the Societies Ordinance, and that the consequences of the case would be important going forward, especially in terms of freedom of assembly.

She said the defendants would now take some time to reflect and seek counsel on the judgment before deciding on their next move.

In comments to the press, Cardinal Zen told reporters not to place too much emphasis on his status within the Catholic Church, saying, “I am a Hong Kong citizen who supported this humanitarian work.”

Bishop Brennan: ‘A Lot of Work Still to Do’ Post-Roe

From the fall of Roe v Wade to the rise of a nationwide campaign about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it’s been a newsworthy year for the United States Catholic Church. And bishops from coast to coast got to discuss it all during their meetings in Baltimore.

Currents News Jessica Easthope spoke to Bishop Robert Brennan about the conference. In part two of her interview, she began by asking the bishop how the church has decided to move forward in a post-Roe country.