Category: Rome

Pope Francis tells Europe, ‘I Have a Dream’

7ccfb754fe4e440cb9bbb0fdd6a2b3fdROME—On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech that became a defining moment in the American Civil Rights movement, laying out his dream for a racially reconciled nation.

On Friday, Pope Francis delivered his own “I have a dream” address, in this case dedicated to Europe, calling the continent to undergo a “memory transfusion” to avoid the mistakes of the past and to pursue a future based on economic justice, openness to newcomers, respect for life in all its stages, and dialogue with everyone.

“I dream of a Europe that is young, still capable of being a mother: a mother who has life because she respects life and offers hope for life,” Francis said on Friday, as he was accepting the prestigious Charlemagne Prize, given yearly to personalities or institutions for their efforts towards European unity.  Source

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A pope who shuns awards set for a big one on Friday

a0ccb9afe79cc48b853c8a0fda7e4be8-717x450ROME — Not that Pope Francis probably needs additional accolades, but on Friday he’s set to receive a big one anyway: The prestigious Charlemagne Prize, awarded each year to individuals or institutions for their service to European unification.

Technically, he’ll become the first pontiff to receive the award since it was created in 1950. In 2004 Pope John Paul II received an “extraordinary” edition of the prize, the only one given so far, but the actual award that year went to Irish politician Patrick Cox.

St. John Paul, and now Francis, are the only religious leaders to have received the recognition, even though its origins include a Christian element.  Source

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Religious order covered up for paedophile priest who abused up to 100 children

page18_courtA priest who abused up to 100 children was allowed to act “with impunity” and without any restrictions on his access to children by his religious order, which concealed his behaviour from the Archbishop of Dublin and the State authorities.

Salvatorian priest Fr Patrick McDonagh was convicted in 2007 by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on eight counts of sexual and indecent assault on four girls in Dublin, Limerick and Roscommon between 1965 and 1990, and was sentenced to four years in jail. He died in 2009.

The serious mismanagement and concealment of his crimes by his order was one of the findings published by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI), the Church’s own safeguarding watchdog.

The audit of 30 religious orders revealed that the Salvatorians failed to monitor Fr A, as Fr Patrick McDonagh is referred to, from 2002 – when one of his own relatives accused him of having abused her as a child – to 2004, when he underwent treatment for his behaviour and admitted the extent of his abuse.  Source

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Calling on a greater power! EU bosses hope for Pope Francis blessing for ‘common Europe’

pope-francis-667419The bloc’s chief bureaucrats – European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council president Donald Tusk and European Parliament president Martin Schulz – will tomorrow visit the Vatican City.

Pope Francis will be bestowed with the Charlemagne Prize by the trio, which is handed out each year for efforts towards European unity.

This is despite Pope Francis having previously hit out at the “aloof” and “bureaucratic” EU.

He also recently rebuked Brussels for its handling of Europe’s migrant crisis.  Source

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Food Theft in Italy May Not Be a Crime, Court Rules

Canzio, reato immigrazione clandestina inutile,dannosoROME — Stealing food from a supermarket may not be a crime in Italy if you are homeless and hungry, the nation’s highest appeals court has ruled.

In a case that has drawn comparisons to“Les Misérables,” the Supreme Court of Cassation threw out the conviction of a homeless man from Ukraine, Roman Ostriakov, who was caught trying to take 4.07 euros — about $4.70 — worth of cheese and sausage from a store in Genoa without paying for it. A trial court sentenced him in February 2015 to six months in jail and a fine of €100.

“The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the merchandise theft took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of need,” and therefore the theft “does not constitute a crime,” the appellate court wrote in its decision, which was reported on Monday by the Italian news agency ANSA.  Source

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Francis rails against child sexual abuse, saying abusers must be ‘severely’ punished

Pope Francis Visits SardiniaPope Francis railed against the sexual abuse of children in a weekly address in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, calling any such abuse a “tragedy” and saying the church cannot tolerate the matter and “must severely punish the abusers.”

Greeting members of an Italian association that has worked to raise awareness against pedophilia and to report sexual abuse crimes, who were present in the Square for the recitation of the Regina Coeli prayer, the pontiff thanked them for their work before departing from his prepared text.

“This is a tragedy,” said Francis off the cuff, his voice raised and his arm extended from the window of the Vatican’s apostolic palace above the Square. “We must not tolerate the abuse of minors. We must defend minors. And we must severely punish the abusers.”

The Catholic church around the world has been embroiled in scandals over its handling of sexually abusive clergy for decades, with survivors, advocates, law enforcement agencies, and some local jurisdictions saying members of the hierarchy covered up crimes in order to protect the institution at the risk of children’s well-being.  Source

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Group of teenagers get opportunity to confess sins to Pope Francis

1461480443025VATICAN CITY –  Sixteen teenagers have gotten an unexpected opportunity to confess sins to Pope Francis.

The pontiff made a surprise appearance late Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Square, where thousands of Catholics faithful, ranging in age from 13 to 16, were participating in a special Holy Year youth day, including confession near the famed Colonnade of Bernini.

Francis and each of the 16 teenagers sat face-to-face in simple chairs set up in pairs for him and many others hearing confessions in the square. The teenagers seemed at ease, with Francis shaking hands warmly with the youths. In all, the pope spent more than an hour in the square.

He has dedicated the Holy Year to two central themes of his papacy: mercy and reconciliation. Source

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Evangelicals lose water supply as officials punish them for refusing to pay amount to fund Catholic fiesta in Mexico

evangelicals-in-mexicoAn evangelical community in Mexico is now suffering from lack of potable water after local authorities cut off their supply for refusing to pay their contribution for the holding of a Roman Catholic fiesta in honour of a Catholic saint.

The family of Maranatha Church’s pastor Octavio Gomez and four other evangelical families in San Jose village in the city of Teopisca in Chiapas state, Mexico refused to pay when the authorities, together with the fiesta organisers, came to visit them early this month demanding a fixed contribution of 200 pesos, equivalent to about $12, the Evangelical Focus reports.

The authorities threatened to cut off their water supply if they persisted in not paying the amount. Moreover, the authorities warned that they would have to pay a fine of 4,000 pesos ($229) to have the water line reconnected once it’s been cut.  Source

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‘Shameful’: Catholic Spanish teacher admits molesting 9 kids, but gets no jail term

5718c72fc461887a658b4599A Catholic Spanish schoolteacher has admitted in court that he abused nine children, all seven years old, but won’t be spending any time behind bars because of a legal loophole.

Roberto P.S. admitted he had molested eight girls and one boy, a spokeswoman for the court said, as cited by The Local.

The teacher got individual sentences of one year per child, totaling nine years in jail, prosecution and defense have agreed, Cadena Ser TV reported.

However, here’s when the tricky law comes to the molester’s rescue: due to the fact that the teacher received individual sentences of one year, and not an entire nine-year sentence, he qualifies for a suspended sentence, according to a reform to the country’s criminal code. Source

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Pope hailed as savior for opening Vatican to refugees

web-pope-mytilene-getPope Francis, during a trip to the Greek island of Lesbos, chose 12 Syrian refugees to come live at the Vatican – all clean-cut, two-parent families with children, one of which is headed by a microbiologist and another, by a tailor and teacher.

NBC News reported one of the families, Hasan and Nour Essa, are simply like any other in the world, hoping to find a decent preschool for their son, 2, Riyad, and are thankful for the pope’s intervention.

“What’s happening with us, it’s like a dream,” said Nour Essa, who’s a microbiologist, to NBC News. “It’s like a beautiful dream.” She later called Francis a “real human being” who’s “more important than any Muslim religious mans,” the news outlet reported.

The pope, in what he described as a “last minute decision,” let the Essas and two other Syrian families join him on his flight back to Rome over the weekend. Vatican officials say the three families were chosen simply because their papers were in order.  Source

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