By Catholic News Service
Iraqi archbishop: Plight of fleeing Christians has challenged his faith
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil, Iraq, placed his face in his hands when asked how his faith has been challenged and changed in the crisis he has helped manage over the past year. He said he has outwardly encouraged the Christians whom he welcomed to Irbil when they fled Islamic State, but within his heart he would frequently “quarrel with God. I don’t understand what he is doing when I look at what has happened in the region,” Archbishop Warda said. “I quarrel with him every day.” However, the arguments take place within his intimate relationship with God, one that, with the help of grace, withstands even the previously unimaginable challenges to his faith that he has faced over the past year. “Before going to sleep, I usually hand all my crises, wishes, thoughts and sadness to him, so I can at least have some rest,” Archbishop Warda told The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. “The next day, I usually wake up with his providence that I would never dream about.”
Maryland priest, editor to pace pilgrimage to Philadelphia papal Mass
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — As the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Catholic Review Media finalized preparations in early summer to transport hundreds of pilgrims to the only public Mass Pope Francis will celebrate on his first trip to the U.S., the wheels turned. Planners thought about the possibility embarking on the ancient concept of pilgrimage, and walk from Baltimore to Philadelphia in September. Hours after the idea was bounced off Father John J. Lombardi, pastor of St. Peter and St. Patrick parishes in Washington County, Maryland, was on board. He is a veteran of dozens of such walks, most recently in Ireland, and in 2012 from St. Peter Parish in Hancock, to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore to promote awareness of the inaugural Fortnight for Freedom. Father Lombardi and Paul McMullen, managing editor of the Catholic Review, newspaper of the Baltimore Archdiocese, will lead a group of as many as 20 pilgrims, departing from that same Baltimore basilica Sept. 20, through Baltimore City, Baltimore, Harford and Cecil counties, and then into Pennsylvania on the way to the Sept. 27 papal Mass in Philadelphia.
Priorities, preaching, personal touch reflect Pope Francis’ background
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A self-described “homebody,” Pope Francis will make the 10th foreign trip of his pontificate in September, visiting Cuba and then, for the first time in his life, the United States. The visit of the 78-year-old Argentine pope comes in a year packed with important events for him: the publication in June of “Laudato Si’,” his encyclical on the environment; the world Synod of Bishops on the family in October; and the opening Dec. 8 of a special Year of Mercy. The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was not a household name to most North American Catholics when he was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI March 13, 2013, but his brothers in the College of Cardinals knew who he was. The Argentine Jesuit had been second on the balloting in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict to succeed St. John Paul II in 2005. His growing up with four siblings in a family with strong ties to its Italian origins, his training and ministry as a Jesuit — including what he says were mistakes as a provincial superior — and his regular contact with the poorest residents of Buenos Aires are influences seen in his preaching, priorities, style of governance and, especially, in the way he interacts with individuals.
Pope’s encyclical cited as totem pole blessed on way to coal mines
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) — Portland Mayor Charlie Hales got a roar of approval Aug. 24 when he told a packed Catholic church that he opposes new fossil fuel projects that would affect his city. The crowd of more than 400 at St. Philip Neri Church had convened for the blessing of a totem pole that residents of Washington state’s coastal Lummi Nation carved as a symbol of opposition to coal export facilities along the Columbia River. Hales discussed his July trip to the Vatican, where he had been invited by Pope Francis to discuss how cities are leading action on climate change. Hales said the takeaway was this: Climate change is serious, and it’s affecting the poor, but it’s not too late. “We have an obligation here in Portland to keep moving,” he said, announcing that he would push for the city to divest from fossil fuel companies. The mayor, who is running for re-election, also announced hopes to quadruple solar power use by city government. In his encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” the pope said that human life depends on the well-being of the planet. Matt Cato, director of the Portland Archdiocese’s Office of Life, Justice and Peace, told the crowd that the encyclical is a moral document, not a political one.
Family prayer time can start with small, simple gestures, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Parents who juggle packed work and family schedules deserve a Nobel Prize in mathematics for doing something not even the most brilliant scientists can do: They pack 48 hours of activity into 24, Pope Francis said. “I don’t know how they do it, but they do,” the pope told thousands of people gathered Aug. 26 for his weekly general audience. “There are moms and dads who could win the Nobel for this!” Focusing his audience talk on the family and prayer, Pope Francis said he knows modern life can be frenetic and that family schedules are “complicated and packed.” The most frequent complaint of any Christian, he said, is that he or she does not have enough time to pray. “The regret is sincere,” the pope said, “because the human heart seeks prayer, even if one is not aware of it.” The way to begin, he said, is to recognize how much God loves you and to love him in return. “A heart filled with affection for God can turn even a thought without words into a prayer.”
Pope urges prayers for creation Sept. 1
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation should be a time for individuals to examine their lifestyles and the way they impact the environment, Pope Francis said. At the end of his weekly general audience Aug. 26, the pope asked Catholics and “all people of goodwill” to join members of the Orthodox Church in the special day of prayer Sept. 1. “We want to make our contribution to overcoming the ecological crisis that humanity is experiencing,” the pope said, explaining why he decided the Catholic Church should mark the annual day of prayer begun by the Orthodox Church in 1989. Around the world, the pope said, church groups are planning prayer and reflection initiatives in order to make the day of prayer a key moment for “assuming coherent lifestyles” that have less negative impact on nature.