Daily News - Americas

Denver, Colo., May 19, 2012 / 01:10 pm (CNA).- St. Mary’s Parish in Littleton, Colo. played a key role last weekend in an international event—the 25th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious order established a quarter-century ago by five young men in a small Spanish town.

“This is an example of the fruits of the new evangelization—a young, new movement in the Church which has sprung out of the call of Blessed John Paul II,” said Bishop James Conley, archdiocesan apostolic administrator, who spoke during the festivities May 12.

The reception, which followed a thanksgiving Mass, drew in many of the parish’s several thousand families, who were treated to an impromptu serenade by their pastor, Father Alvaro Montero, and his pastoral team. Accompanied by accordion and guitar, the “band” included parochial vicars, all members of the order, Father Javier Nieva and Father Leopoldo Vives; Father Armando Marsal, who is in residence at the parish; and theology student, Brother Juan Espino. The entertainment also included the Disciples’ visiting superior general from Spain, Father Jose Noriega, who is also one of the order’s five founders.

St. Mary’s is one of only two parishes in the world led by the Disciples—the other parish is in Madrid, Spain. Yet the parishes represent an explosive growth of the order. Today, the order has 30 members, 19 of them priests, six of them stationed in Colorado. Its university professors are based in Madrid and Rome. The order’s mission is to provide family and youth ministry, strong Catholic education from elementary school to the university level, and to help each individual and family develop a personal friendship with Jesus, using the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as the foundation.

“This is something God put in our hearts,” Father Noriega said. “We were poor people in the beginning, without resources but a strong friendship with Christ and each other. So for something to grow this big, the way seemed impossible.  We wanted to be fruitful, to share with others what we received from Christ, although it was not clear how when or where. But God always surprises us.”

One of the biggest surprises is how the Spanish order found its way to a suburban parish in Colorado. That was the work of former Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., who was alert to authentic new movements in the Church and keen on bringing them to Denver, Bishop Conley said.  In this case, it meant placing one of the archdiocese’s largest parishes into the care of a pastor who had been a priest for only about two years.

Father Montero had met the order in 1992, when he was in college in Madrid. He was struck by the Disciples’ youth and friendship—first their friendship with Christ, and then with each other.

“And that’s how the mystery of a vocation unfolds,” Father Montero said.

Years later, in 2007, came the invitation from Archbishop Chaput.

“Archbishop Chaput did run a risk with us, but this is the way God works—he works with creativity and trust,” said Father Montero. “I told Archbishop Chaput, ‘You realize I have been a priest a little over two years and you are giving me faculties to run a big parish?’ He said, ‘You’ll make mistakes, but don’t worry—you’ll correct them!’”

The result has been an invigorated and involved parish.

“I knew they were special as soon as we got here,” said Mary Jo Rakowski, who joined St. Mary Church in 2007, virtually the same time as the Disciples arrived. Immediately she and her husband, Paul, enrolled their children, Aidan, now 8, and Keelee, 7, in the parish school.

“The Disciples really are disciples—true friends of Jesus,” Rakowski said. “They have this very clear desire for each person in the community to grow in holiness, and they make you desire it, too. They preach the truth with enthusiasm. My children love all of them. They are highly intelligent and educated, but still approachable, and that is really a gift.”

Since the Disciples arrived, the parish has experienced a lively growth in volunteering and programs. In the Encounters with Christ program, schoolchildren are awakened to friendship with Jesus using the methods of St. Ignatius. Friends of the Disciples has grown to 700 members who help support the priests with their “time, talent and treasure,” including a lively newsletter.  A new exchange program welcomes Spanish students to the parish for summer visits, and will send St. Mary’s youth to Spain.

The Disciples also issue constant invitations to young people to consider a religious vocation. The results are already paying off: the parish has produced three religious sisters and one potential seminarian. Now Father Montero has a new marketing pitch: Who wants to become the first American-born Disciple?

His call-out has already reached the ears of Cameron Schimmoller, 14.

“I’m thinking about it,” Schimmoller said, with a grin. “I think that would be pretty cool.”

Posted with permission from Denver Catholic Register, official paper for the Archdiocese of Denver, Colo.

Ottawa, Canada, May 17, 2012 / 12:32 pm (CNA).- The Vatican has dismissed from the clerical state a Canadian bishop who pleaded guilty to the possession of child pornography.

“Raymond Lahey has accepted the Decree of Dismissal, which also requires him to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in reparation for the harm and the scandal he has caused, and for the sanctification of clergy,” the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said May 16.

Bishop Raymond Lahey of Antigonish, Nova Scotia was arrested in 2009 after Ottawa airport workers found hundreds of images of child pornography in his possession on his return from a trip abroad.

In May 2011 he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was immediately jailed.

After the disgraced bishop was jailed, the Vatican responded to the case with a condemnation of “sexual exploitation in all its forms, especially when perpetrated against minors.” It also voiced pastoral concern for those who experienced “great pain” as a result of the scandal.

The latest Vatican decree is the response to the bishop’s crime under Church law.

The bishop’s dismissal from the clerical state means that he loses the rights and duties of the priestly state, except for his obligation of celibacy. He is prohibited from exercising any priestly ministry, except in case of emergency.

In January the former bishop was sentenced to 15 months in jail and two years of probation. However, he was given double credit for his time in custody before sentence and was released upon probation at the close of his trial, CTV News reports.

Bishop Lahey’s successor, Bishop Brian J. Dunn, in January announced a diocesan gathering scheduled for October 2013 to address questions and concerns about the direction of the Church and to give a clear focus for pastoral care.

Bishop Dunn said the gathering will give “a new impetus and new direction as we live out our faith.”

“The recent events that have touched every person in our diocese have led to a great deal of reflection upon the Church’s need to bring justice, compassion, healing, hope and new life to the people of God,” he said Jan. 6.

Lima, Peru, May 17, 2012 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Lima issued a statement clarifying the decision by Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani to strip local priest Father Gaston Garatea of his ministerial faculties.

On May 16, the archdiocese condemned what it called a “campaign of misinformation and discredit” launched against the cardinal by some in the media, stating that the priest is still able to exercise priestly ministry outside the cardinal's jurisdiction.

Father Garatea – a member of the religious order titled the Congregation of the Sacred Heart – was privately sanctioned in recent days by Cardinal Cipriani over his public support for homosexual activists and criticism of priestly celibacy.

The priest has also maintained a tense relationship with Church officials in Lima over his promotion of liberation theology.

Adding to the controversy, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru named Fr. Garatea an honorary professor on May 14, saying his new role would be as an advisor to the school on “social responsibility” due to “his commitment to the defense of human rights, equality and tolerance.”

The archdiocese clarified that the cardinal's handling of the case and the decision to strip the priest of his faculties “has been conducted with utmost prudence regarding the Church’s norms, and in a climate of charity.”

Below is the full statement from the archdiocese:

“In response to the obvious campaign of misinformation and discredit that has been launched over the decision not to renew the ministerial faculties of Father Jorge Gaston Garatea Yori, SS.CC., in the Archdiocese of Lima, out of respect for the truth and for his own good, we feel obliged to state the following:

According to the proper norms of the Catholic Church, religious priests who belong to a religious Institution of consecrated life report to their Superior General, with regard to the internal regimen of the religious community in question.

However, in order to carry out pastoral work in a specific jurisdiction, they require that the local ordinary, the bishop, grant them the corresponding ministerial faculties (cf. Canon 265).  In this sense, the local bishop, for sufficient reasons made known ahead of time to the Superior General of religious community in question, may determine that a religious priest can no longer work in his ecclesiastic jurisdiction. This action, as in the case of Father Jorge Gaston Garatea Yori, SS. CC., does not suspend the religious priest or prohibit him from exercising his priestly ministry in other places.

The universal praxis of the Church is fully recognized by Canon Law and is a very important expression that reinforces the unity of priests with their own pastor and local ordinary (cf. Canons 273 and 275).

We disapprove that some persons, whose aims are totally unrelated to this situation that has been handed with utmost prudence regarding the Church’s norms, and in a climate of charity, now seek to victimize a priest for the sole purpose of sowing confusion, damaging his priestly identity and at the same time in order to publicize the ideological reasons that motivate them and distance them from fidelity to the Church, with statements and manifestations that reflect their rejection, or at least, their lack of respect, for the Magisterium of the Church and her pastors.”

Bogotá, Colombia, May 16, 2012 / 12:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of Colombia condemned the terrorist attack that took place in the capital city Bogota on May 14 that left five people dead and nineteen wounded.

The attack took place on 74th Street and Caracas Avenue on a public bus, moments after another car bomb was deactivated in the Eduardo Santos district in downtown Bogota. Two other explosive devices on the bus failed to detonate.

Bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba, secretary general of the bishops' conference, told CNA that the local Church “deplores and rejects these terrorist acts that are an attack on the peace that should reign in our society.” 

“We are disturbed by these acts of violence that have just taken place,” the bishops said. “It is a shame that we are returning to this terrorist escalation that only leaves behind death and sorrow.”

According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, those wounded in the attack included former interior minister Fernando Londono, who was sitting in a gray van that was parked nearby.  His driver was killed by the blast.

Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, also condemned the attack “in the strongest terms.” 

“We don’t understand what the purpose was behind this, but be assured that the Government will not be derailed by these terrorist acts,” he said.

The bishops’ conference released a statement expressing solidarity with the victims, the wounded and their families, as well as with former minister Londono.

Bogota Police Chief Luis Eduardo Martinez said all the evidence suggests that the Marxist rebel group FARC was responsible for the attack.

Ottawa, Canada, May 15, 2012 / 11:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Canada's 15th annual National March for Life has broken attendance records by a dramatic margin, due in part to rising youth participation in the country's pro-life movement.

“It's been growing every year by thousands. Last year we had 15,000, and this year we had 19,500,” Campaign Life Coalition National Coordinator Mary Ellen Douglas told CNA on May 14. 

“It is a significant increase,” she said, noting that the pro-life movement was “constantly growing” in Canada. The May 10 march to Parliament Hill was part of a three-day event in Ottawa, which also included a candlelight vigil, prayer services and Masses, banquets and a youth conference.

Local marches also took place in at least four other provinces, protesting the 1969 legislative act that made abortion legal in Canada as well as the 1988 decision that left the country with no abortion restrictions.

“Over 60 percent of the people who attended the march were under 30,” Douglas said. “It was alive with young people, with lots of enthusiasm, and with other people who are long-term veterans.”

In addition to the remarks delivered by pro-life and religious leaders, 17 members of Parliament also addressed the crowd. Population Research Institute President Steve Mosher, a prominent opponent of China's one-child policy, gave an address at the Rose Dinner on Thursday evening.

On that same evening, an 800-strong crowd attended the youth banquet with an address by Reformed Presbyterian minister Reverend Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition. A day-long youth conference followed on Friday.

“It's getting the attention of the media, who are shocked by the numbers,” Douglas observed. “Even though they try to diminish them all the time, they notice. They know that we're there in force.”

Douglas, a 40-year veteran of the movement, said the timing of this year's march was “providential,” coinciding with a motion in Parliament by Conservative MP Steven Woodworth.

“This motion is calling on Parliament to bring together science and the law – because the law of Canada says you're not a human being until you're fully emerged from the womb.”

Woodworth's motion calls for a science-based examination of the legal question of life's beginning. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is said to oppose the motion, in keeping with his past statements that the abortion question should not be reopened in Canada.

Douglas noted that life's beginning at conception “cannot be decided by a committee. It's a scientific fact … and it can't be deviated from by a committee who decides that it might be better to have a law protecting babies after 20 weeks, or after 12 weeks.”

“If it ever gets to the committee, that will be our next battle: to ensure that all unborn children are protected, from the time of conception.”

At a press conference kicking off the March on May 9, Campaign Life Coalition Youth Coordinator Alissa Golob declared: “Whether you like it or not, the abortion debate is on.”

The group's national coordinator agrees, and says she is hopeful for the next generation of activists and their determination to shape attitudes and public policy.

“I think there's a sense of the terrible injustice going on here,” Douglas observed. “In general, we may see more bills going forward – as more MPs find the courage to stand up, in different ways, until we have all the unborn children protected.”

“We hope next year the numbers will keep increasing, until we have so many people on Parliament Hill that they have to respond. And we'll be there as long as we have to be.”