Group Advocates for Women’s Ordination on the Sidelines of the Synod

By Christopher White, The Tablet’s National Correspondent

ROME — As the Vatican’s meeting on the Amazon draws to a close this week, one group is using the occasion to seek new roles for women in leadership, hosting a prayer vigil on Oct. 23 in support of women’s ordination to the priesthood and the diaconate.

“Without women there would be no Catholic Church in the Amazon region,” said Miriam Duignan, a spokeswoman for Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), the organizing umbrella group that organized the event.

The gathering took place along the banks of the Tiber River, just steps away from where on Oct. 21 two individuals had created a frenzy in Rome after raiding a Roman church to steal a statue of a naked pregnant woman which has been used in several of the synod’s ceremonies and tossed it in the river.

Critics of the statue have accused the Synod’s organizers of supporting a pagan symbol, while the Vatican has insisted the statue is a representation of life and fertility.

“We want to remind everybody that women are already working in priestly ministry and diaconal ministry across the Amazon region,” Duignan told reporters before a group of seven women recited a series of prayers and joined together in singing, “Sister, Carry On.”

Holding a banner stating “Empowered women will save the Earth; Empowered women will save Church,” the individuals donned bright purple and green attire, noting that not only are they the colors of the suffragette movement, but green was chosen to be in solidarity with the ecological justice movement and purple is the traditional color of the women’s ordination movement.

As Pope Francis has convened bishops from the region to consider how the Church can more effectively respond to pastoral needs of the Amazon – where in some remote villages, a shortage of priests has led to Catholics only receiving the Eucharist once or twice a year – the proposal to ordain viri probati, established men within the community, some of whom are married, has dominated much of the headlines.

Participants of Tuesday’s gathering said they wanted the Holy Father not to “skip straight to organizing yet more men,” which they said would “supplant” the women who are already “doing the work” of pastoral ministry in the region.

“It is a matter of urgent justice that the role that women are playing is recognized,” said Duignan, adding that they would like for Francis not only to green light women’s ordination to the diaconate – a discussion he expressed openness to since establishing a committee to study the topic in 2016 – but also women’s ordination, a debate which the pope has previously said the Church has closed the door.

Earlier this year, he said the commission couldn’t come to a conclusion, and encouraged the members to continue to study the question.

Those on hand on Oct. 22 argued that the women in the Amazon region are already serving that function and pleaded for Francis and the synod’s participants to formally recognize it.

“Now we as a church must finally deliver justice for women and ordain women,” Duignan said, adding that the Church must stop “quibbling over medieval, manmade, technical differences between what the sacramental rite can and should be and what men and women can and should be and how they’re different.”

“They are not different when it comes to allowing women to do the work,” she said.

The Synod of Bishops on the Amazon is set to conclude on Oct. 27, and the final document is widely expected to recommend some form of ordination for married priests and to include some reference to women deacons.

After the first reports from the Synod’s small groups were released, the various working language groups appeared to be divided on the question of women deacons in the region, with one group deeming it “necessary and urgent” and others calling for more study on the question.

“Start in the Amazon,” Duignan concluded her remarks. “It will go elsewhere, but it has to start somewhere.”

Futures in Education Gala Raises $2.4 Million

MANHATTAN — Futures in Education, an organization that provides tuition assistance to help families pay for Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens, raised $2.4 million at its annual fundraising dinner at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan on Oct. 22.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said that Futures in Education’s “Angel” program is a great way to give to the scholarship fund. Donors, known as “Angels,” can correspond with the student receiving their help, and the donors receive progress reports to ensure their student’s success. The donors can also meet the students at an annual Angel Reception and visit their schools.

“When you really know who’s being helped, the person can say, ‘Thank you,’” Bishop DiMarzio said. “That’s one of the things we encourage tonight is giving as an Angel to the scholarship fund.”

New York City Police Department Commissioner James P. O’Neill, one of the evening’s honorees, said it is important to give the next generation the same chance at a Catholic education that he had.

“There’s so many people in this city today that don’t have the opportunities that even maybe we had when we were kids,” O’Neill said. “They’re coming in from other countries. Their parents are working hard, working two jobs. If we can do anything to help their kids move forward, I think it’s a great thing.”

Also honored alongside O’Neill were Msgr. David Cassato, pastor at St. Athanasius, Bensonhurst; Stephen Squeri, chairman and CEO of American Express; and Tim Tynan, CEO of Bank of America Merchant Services.

Currents News for Tuesday, October 22, 2019

On the newscast: A Brooklyn priest is going to confront the boiling crisis in the Middle East himself. He’s taking over at a top Papal agency; President Trump is calling it a lynching – the attempt to impeach him; The saint who helped change the world – John Paul II. Today is his feast and Cardinal Dolan remembers; She’s fought cancer four times – and still Ruth Bader Ginsburg does pushups.

Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City area on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.

Brooklyn Priest Named New President of Vatican Agency for Humanitarian Relief

By Tim Harfmann

New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced Monsignor Peter Vaccari, a Brooklyn priest, as the new head of a Catholic organization considered to be a “lifeline for the poor.”

“Personally, it’s a great challenge for me. It’s a new challenge for me,” Msgr. Vaccari said of his new role as president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA).

As an agency of the Vatican, the organization provides funds to ensure the Eastern Churches and devoted religious sisters have enough money to do their vital work. Cardinal Dolan serves as chairman and treasurer of CNEWA.

“You’ve got to put CNEWA in that constellation of efforts of the Church that remind us of the universality and of the sacred responsibility, as Saint Paul reminds us, of thinking with and for the Church,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The new appointment comes at a turbulent time: the ceasefire in Syria is expiring and fighting could resume at any moment.

Msgr. Vaccari said the crisis in the Middle East is a high priority.

“This is a very, very painful time for Christians in the entire region, specifically in Syria where we are seeing martyrs for the faith,” he said.

Since the start of the Syrian refugee crisis, CNEWA has provided food and shelter, helped those who have been displaced and built churches.

Msgr. Vaccari succeeds Monsignor John Kozar, CNEWA’s president since 2011. Making sure that Catholicism stayed in the Middle East was one of the pillars of his Msgr. Kozar’s career and ministry.

“We always remained in support of the Eastern Catholic Churches, never dictating, but accompanying walking with,” said Msgr. Kozar.

Relief efforts won’t slow down under the new president.

“I really am considering Msgr. Kozar now to be my teacher, in so many ways, in the world of CNEWA” Msgr. Vaccari said.

The organization will remain dedicated to its mission as Msgr. Vaccari begins his new assignment.

Number of ‘Nones’ are Increasing in the U.S.

By Emily Drooby and Andrew Pugliese

BUSHWICK — A Pew Research Center study released on Oct. 17 shows that Americans who identify as “nones” — those describing themselves as atheists or agnostics or having no religious affiliation — are the biggest group in the country, outnumbering Catholics.

The report, gathered from surveys taken in 2018-19, said 26 percent of Americans are “nones,” up from 17 percent in 2009, while Catholics dropped to 20 percent of the population from 23 percent 10 years ago.

Still, in the Diocese of Brooklyn, there are signs of vibrancy in the church, especially among Hispanics. In Bushwick. Father Jorge Ortiz-Garay, administrator of St. Brigid, said that his parish is heavily Hispanic and that he has seen so many kids at the church’s youth group that he is starting a monthly youth Mass.

But Father Ortiz-Garay’s experience isn’t backed up by the Pew report, which said 47 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. are Catholics, down from 57 percent a decade ago. Mario Paredes, a longtime leader in the Hispanic-American community, attributed the drop to America’s consumer culture.

“Never mind if the church you belong to has historic continuity to the founding of the church by Jesus to today’s Christianity,” Paredes said. “That is not important. What is important is to find a church that is homey, a pastor that speaks the language, a community that will make me feel good.”

At Father Ortiz-Garay’s parish, the young adult group draws 20 people to its meetings and events on a regular basis. He credits Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and the bishop’s concern for young people. “When the young people find something real, truthful and honest, they come,” Father Ortiz-Garay said. “If they find something here and they’re happy here, they’re going to invite their
friends.”

The Chinese Catholic community is also seeing a boom in converts in Brooklyn and Queens, where they account for one in 10 baptisms annually. Meanwhile, the Pew report said that less than 50 percent of “millennials” — those born between 1980 and 1996 — considered themselves Christians and 40 percent identify as “nones.”

Paul Morisi, director of youth and young adult ministry in the Diocese of Brooklyn, sees the Pew report as a chance to introduce new tools in evangelization. He noted that the diocese started the Catholic Youth Ministry Initiative eight years ago to train parish youth ministers in an effort to attract more young people to the church.

“We have this great opportunity to do evangelization in new and creative ways,” Morisi said. “We just have to be empowered to go out there and do it in those ways to meet the people where they are today.”

One of those youth ministers is Lauren Gentry, 26, who serves at Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians, Woodside. She sees a restlessness in young people’s hearts, saying they are asking questions like, “What’s my purpose? Do I matter? Am I good enough?” Many young Catholics see the faith as legalistic and all about checking off a series of boxes in order to get to heaven, she said.

Gentry pointed to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that showed the youth suicide rate rose 56 percent between 2007 and 2017. “It was alarming, but not surprising, because I see it in my teens every single day with anxiety,” Gentry said. “I see it with people in my generation every single day that are really struggling with a lot of pain.

“I feel like another important thing for us to do in the Catholic Church is help people see where Jesus is in their pain.” Gentry said that when she arrived at her parish, many teens were quiet, sad and closed off, including one pre-teen girl. Now that girl is 14 and attends the parish’s “youth night” every Sunday.

According to Gentry, the teenager’s father saw what God was doing in his daughter’s heart and wanted the same for himself. Now, the two go to Mass together, and they are getting more involved in the parish. Gentry said the example of the teenager and her father is just one of a number of similar stories.

“The youth ministry has really become a family where the teens always know that they belong there and that they are supported by people who really care about them and understand them,” Gentry said.

Twenty to 30 kids come to the weekly youth nights at the parish, and Gentry regularly sees 80 to 100 different teens. Meanwhile, the last time the Vatican collected data worldwide more than 14 million new Catholics entered in the church in 2017, bringing the total number of Catholics to 1.3 billion.

Catholics Commemorate Feast of St. John Paul II

Currents News Staff

Every year on Oct. 22, the Catholic Church commemorates the liturgical feast of St. John Paul II.

On this day in 1978, he officially began his pontificate.

Although this year is not a round anniversary, Pope Francis recalled it with a message on Twitter. The pontiff thanked God for the good that St. John Paul II did “in the world and in our hearts” with his “words, actions and holiness.”

Each day, thousands of people stop to pray before his tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Few people know that the Vatican has a webcam that makes it possible to visit the tomb from any device connected to the internet.

It’s a way of remembering this universal saint.

Chile Declares National Emergency as Protests Paralyze Capital

Currents News Staff

One of Latin America’s largest cities, Santiago, Chile, is paralyzed. At least 11 people have been found dead and hundreds more have been arrested. The city has seen millions of dollars in damage since October 18.

Late October 20, country’s president, Sebastián Piñera, didn’t mince words.

“We are at war with a powerful enemy, relentless, that does not respect anyone or anything,” he said.

The president’s rhetoric could spur further violence in protests that began over a transit fare hike. Violent clashes between police and protesters have now gone on for days.

Looting in the city has been rampant as massive buildings and train stations have been set on fire. For the first time since a military dictatorship ended in 1990, the country’s own military has been deployed on Santiago’s streets.

A national emergency has been declared as some politicians call for calm.

“We are trying to bring back peace to the people. We’ve received your message, but in order to carry it out we need to dialogue in peace,” said Karla Rubilar, Santiago’s mayor.

President Piñera first announced the hike would be suspended on October 19. it did little, if anything, to calm things down.

For protesters, the demonstrations and frustration are about much more than a pricier metro ticket, described as “years of repression, they are years of living in misery, they are years of government-imposed measures at the expense of the people.”

Though Chile is Latina America’s wealthiest country, it also has one of the highest levels of economic inequality in the world. People are frustrated by what they call a lack of economic reform on a number of topics including pensions, healthcare and public education.

There’s also concern about government overreach, as on October 20 authorities imposed a curfew in the city. Some 10,000 police and armed soldiers were deployed.

This comes just weeks before the APEC summit is set to being in Santiago, a highly anticipated event for many reasons, not the least of which being that President Trump and President Xi of China could sign a trade deal on the event’s sidelines.

Should these protests continue, senior government leadership might choose to skip the summit altogether, a blow to the Chilean government’s hope to show off a modern, efficient capital city. Now, it’s one racked with unrest.

Amazon Synod Enters Critical Stage

Currents News Staff

The Amazon Synod is in its final phase.

Cardinal Claudio Hummes is preparing the conclusions. A commission of 12 people — four of them chosen by Pope Francis — will verify that they reflect everything that was discussed.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, is one of the four named by the Pope.

“The role of women in our Catholic communities and the role of instituted and ordained ministers are some of the themes that we discussed in the Synod. We’ll see at the end of the Synod what proposals regarding them are offered to the Pope,” said Cardinal Schönborn.

The provisional document will not be very long. It will be given to the 185 synod priests on Friday. They will have a few hours to review it and propose changes.

More than anything, the Synod has drawn global attention to the extreme situation of people in the Amazon and the environmental crisis.

“A tragedy, a human tragedy. Pope Francis insists to alert the whole Catholic Church about the destiny of these people. I think this is for me a great sign, and I’ve learned a lot to be attentive to those who have no voice,” said Cardinal Schönborn.

On Saturday evening, the 185 synod members will vote on the concrete proposals. This will show on which issues there is consensus.

Of the 12 discussion groups, six were in favor of ordaining married men to mitigate the lack of priests. Two are opposed and three propose studying the issue further.

Seven groups have engaged the possibility of ordaining women to the permanent diaconate. Everyone supports the general idea of increasing the ministries of lay men and women.

The Synod is a consultative body. It will give its proposals to Holy Father on October 26, and he will make a decision in the coming months.

Currents News for Monday, October 21, 2019

On the newscast: Angry Kurds take out their frustrations on the U.S. troops who are pulling out of Syria; Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Governor Andrew Cuomo are huddling to find the best way to honor Mother Cabrini; Polish Catholics in the Brooklyn Diocese are honoring their heritage and are hearing from a bishop who traveled here from Poland; A high school coach ended a dangerous situation with a hug.

Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City area on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.

Controversial Amazon Statue Stolen From Church, Thrown in Rome’s Tiber River

By Melissa Butz and Christopher White, The Tablet’s National Correspondent

ROME — A wood carving statue of a naked pregnant woman that has been at the heart of brewing controversies since before the Vatican’s major summit on the Amazon region began was stolen from a Roman Church on October 21 and tossed in the Tiber River.

News of the incident, along with a video of it, was first reported by LifeSite News and Church Militant, traditionalist websites that have been frequently critical of the image.

Critics of the statute have repeatedly characterized it as a graven pagan image, while other defenders of it initially characterized it as an indigenous statue of the Virgin Mary. A Vatican spokesperson has since repeatedly said that the image is “simple representation of life.”

The nearly four-minute video first shows the statue present before the altar at the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina and moments later shows two men carrying it toward a bridge near Castel Sant’Angelo, the mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Hadrian that has been used by popes as both a castle and fortress.

Moments later, pieces of the statue are placed on the bridge and one by one, knocked into the muddy waters below.

The statue first appeared at a prayer ceremony in the Vatican Gardens on October 4 and has created a social media frenzy. On October 19, the image was again present at the Via Crucis procession on Saturday, which included the participation of several bishops from the Synod on the Amazon.

Following the incident, Paolo Ruffini, the head of Vatican communications, repeated that the image resents “life, fertility, mother earth.”

Ruffini said the incident “seems to me to contradict the gesture of dialogue” that the Synod should represent.

The Synod of Bishops focused on the pastoral needs of the Amazon region has now entered its final week and is set to conclude on October 27.