Month: January 2023

Three Kings parades went down the streets of 800 Polish towns and cities Jan. 6, 2023, for the feast of the Epiphany, with estimates of some 1.5 million people taking part in what is believed to be the largest street Nativity pageant in the world. / Justyna Galant/CNA

Warsaw, Poland, Jan 9, 2023 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Three Kings parades went down the streets of 800 Polish towns and cities Jan. 6 for the feast of the Epiphany, with estimates of some 1.5 million people taking part in what is believed to be the largest street Nativity pageant in the world. This year, carols were sung not only in Polish but also in Ukrainian.

“We wish you and your homeland a peace stronger than war. We wish you and your homeland hope that is stronger than death. Glory to Ukraine,” Ukrainian Auxiliary Bishop Michał Janocha of Warsaw said to a large gathering of Ukrainian mothers with their children in Warsaw.

Jan. 6 is the feast of the Epiphany, which is commonly referred to as Three Kings Day, or the day of the three Magi. In Poland, it is a day off. In many cities across the country, colorful processions are held to commemorate the event, with participants remembering the journey of the three Wise Men who arrived in Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn Jesus.

After his Angelus prayer on Jan. 6 at the Vatican, Pope Francis greeted all participants of the Three Kings Parade, saying: “I also extend my thoughts to the ‘Parade of the Three Kings’ taking place in so many towns and villages in Poland today.”

The motto of this year’s Three Kings Parade was “Let us follow the star.” According to the organizers: “The star prompted the Wise Men from the East to set out on their journey. Each of us needs good guides to point us in the right direction on the way to Christ.”

“This year, 753 Three Kings parades were reported in Poland and a dozen or so in Germany, the U.K., France, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Zambia,” said Piotr Giertych, chairman of the board of the Three Kings Parade Foundation. The parade gathers nearly 2 million people every year, he said, “1 million on the streets and another million in front of their TV sets.”

Special words of appreciation and gratitude were addressed to the participants and organizers of the parades by Polish President Andrzej Duda. He stressed that these events contribute to reviving and popularizing Polish Nativity and carol traditions in the 21st century and thus strengthen the identity and family ties of those who boldly manifest their Christian faith in the streets and squares of Polish cities.

The event was accompanied by a fundraiser for a vocational school in Nairobi, Kenya, located next to the world’s largest slum.

The Three Kings Parade is currently one of the largest street Christmas pageants in the world. In 2022, it drew as many as 1.2 million participants in 668 towns and cities across Poland and on four continents. Colorful processions marched down the streets in many countries, including Ecuador, the United States, Rwanda, Cameroon, Zambia, and Chad.

null / Credit: Cathopic

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 6, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and the child Jesus traveled more than 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) from the time they fled to Egypt to escape the massacre of boys 2 years old and younger ordered by Herod, to their arrival in Nazareth, according to an expert.

The Gospel according to St. Matthew narrates how after the Magi had left Bethlehem, “an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.’” 

There they had to remain until further notice because “Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Mt 2:13).

Cayetana H. Johnson, professor of Aramaic and Hebrew Language at the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University in Madrid, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister news agency, that the Holy Family stayed in Egypt for about four years, according to tradition, and that in their journey there and back “they traveled more than 2,000 kilometers.”

“Although the route followed by the Holy Family is not recorded in the Bible, Coptic Christians have identified some 25 places where they believe Mary, Joseph, and Jesus stayed during their sojourn in Egypt,” the expert said.

It is believed that “the ruins of an ancient church in Farma (Pelusium) and four monasteries in Wadi Natrun mark stages in their journey through the Nile Delta,” she said.

This has been reflected in some artistic works, she said: “In Deir al-Suriani (The Monastery of the Syrians, in Wadi Natrun) a fresco from the sixth century shows Mary nursing the child Jesus.”

When Herod the Great died, an angel again appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead” (Mt 2:20).

Thus, “the Holy Family took the road back to the Dronka Mountain” where a monastery was later built in honor of the Virgin.

From there, “they arrived in Old Cairo after Matarieh, then traveled to Al Mahatma, Sinai, and finally entered the Holy Land to settle in the town of Nazareth in Galilee,” Johnson related.

A large Jewish community in Egypt

At that time in Egypt “there was a large Jewish community” because, according to the expert, “relations between Israel and the country of the pharaohs were historically more positive than negative.”

Egypt was already part of the Roman Empire for some 30 years prior, after the defeat of Marc Antony and Cleopatra by Octavian Cesar Augustus.

The significant presence of Jews in Egypt dates back to the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 B.C. 

Johnson explained that “six months after the appointment of Gedeliah as governor of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon), Ishmael (a descendant of the king of Judah) murdered Gedeliah in Mizpah (cf. 2 Kings 25:22–26).”

Fearing reprisals, all the Israelites from Mizpah fled to Egypt, “taking the prophet Jeremiah with them.” These Jewish communities settled in “Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, in the Nile Delta region of Lower Egypt.”

There, after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., “the Jewish community prospered under the Ptolemaic pharaohs and adopted Greek as their mother tongue,” even translating the Hebrew scriptures into this language.

The importance of this Jewish community was such that after the looting of Jerusalem in 167 B.C., a Jewish temple was built near Memphis, “which would have been the center of a large Jewish community when Mary and Joseph arrived in Egypt.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris. / Ibex73 via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

CNA Newsroom, Jan 4, 2023 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

The former archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, is reportedly under preliminary investigation for sexual assault on a vulnerable person, according to a report from the Archdiocese of Paris in late November 2022, French news channel BFMTV reported. 

According to the TV channel’s report, the allegations date back to 2011 and concern a vulnerable former parishioner, subject to a judicial protection measure. Aupetit is suspected of having exchanged sexual emails with this parishioner, who suffers from a “slight mental deficiency.”

The investigations opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office have been entrusted to the French Brigade of Repression of Delinquency People. For the moment, neither the former archbishop nor the alleged victim — who has not filed any complaint — have been heard from by the police.

In a statement issued on the evening of Jan. 3, the Archdiocese of Paris said it was not “able to verify whether the facts in question were proven, nor if they constituted an offense.” 

“The report — which did not involve the classification of sexual assault — has been made” so that “all the necessary verifications can be carried out by the justice,” the archdiocese added.

Interviewed by the daily newspaper Le Monde following publication of the news, Aupetit’s lawyer, Jean Reinhart, stressed that he had learned through the press that a report had been made by the archdiocese. He said that the bishopric had never questioned him on this point. 

“[My client] is therefore even more surprised to learn that the Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation of which he knew nothing,” he said, adding that he had no idea who this woman could be, “no one having ever complained of the slightest inappropriate gesture on his part.”

On the morning of Jan. 4, Reinhart told the public radio station France Inter that the 71-year-old former archbishop remained “serene,” although “surprised and outraged,” and that he would “continue his pastoral mission from which nothing will divert him.” 

This case comes a year after Aupetit resigned as archbishop of Paris after an article by the weekly magazine Le Point questioned his governance methods and suggested he had an affair with a woman in 2012 when he was vicar general of the Archdiocese of Paris. 

Aupetit, who firmly denied any intimate relationship with the woman in question, claimed to have resigned in order to “preserve his archdiocese from division.” Pope Francis then specified during an in-flight press conference that he had accepted Aupetit’s resignation “not on the altar of truth, but on the altar of hypocrisy,” because the “gossip” “took away his reputation.” 

For those close to Aupetit, these accusations amount to an attempted social media lynching in order to definitively disqualify his voice on societal issues. Aupetit is known for his orthodox views on issues related to bioethics and the family and has been a vocal opponent of abortion, euthanasia, and gay marriage. 

Father Michel Viot, a priest in charge of the pastoral care of funerals and mourning at the Archdiocese of Paris since 2018, in an interview with CNA stressed that the former archbishop, who used to be a doctor before becoming a priest, has been an influential voice in debates over social issues.

Viot said that he played a key role in the Matignon Forum, an annual meeting between representatives of the Catholic Church in France and some key politicians and members of the government to discuss major current issues.

“On all bioethical issues, especially on the end of life, Aupetit has always been extremely clear, and while debates are being held in France in order to legalize euthanasia, he remained a dangerous man, even though he was already removed from the Archdiocese of Paris, because he still had the trust of many people, including the pope,” Viot said.

Since leaving the Archdiocese of Paris, Aupetit — who has been reportedly living in the south of France with a community welcoming vulnerable people — has remained very active on his Twitter account, where he has continued to outspokenly denounce the excesses of today’s society.

Aupetit has included Christians in his denunciations, saying that some have become mere “shopkeepers,” satisfied with “comfortable, clientelistic interiors,” or even “weathervanes.” He has also consistently denounced the practice of euthanasia as an “abuse” that is contrary to the Hippocratic Oath.

BFMTV also mentioned the fact that Aupetit was soon to return to Paris to discuss a possible assignment as a priest with the archdiocese.

According to Father Viot, the timing of the accusations in the press against the former archbishop, since the facts date back some 10 years, is no accident. He sees in it a concerted attack from certain members of the Church who favor an evolution of Catholic dogma on bioethical questions and the political and media world.

“The secrecy of the investigation is never broken on the side of the police but always on the side of the magistrates, who are more politicized. The fact that the information was leaked on BFMTV, often accused of being close to French President Emmanuel Macron, is also important,” Viot said.

He added that he is convinced the investigation “will lead nowhere” but fears the exposure in the press will have served to “further sully the reputation of a man who is considered a nuisance.” 

“I know the French political and judicial system very well, having been a prison chaplain for 10 years,” he continued. “I know the usual delays of the public prosecutor’s office in unraveling these cases of sexual assault, in particular on people who are not in their right mind, who are under curatorship. It takes a lot of time and requires a lot of precautions. Hence the importance of secrecy and of the presumption of innocence.”  

null / Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

London, England, Jan 4, 2023 / 07:30 am (CNA).

A leading former Anglican bishop who converted to Catholicism has described Benedict XVI’s famous initiative enabling Anglicans to convert to Catholicism as “prophetic.”

Reflecting on the life and legacy of Pope Benedict XVI, Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali, formerly the Anglican bishop of Rochester, told CNA in a phone call on Jan. 3 that the birth of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was a “prophetic step to take” because it provided those involved in ecumenical dialogue with “a concrete example of what unity could look like.”

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI to allow Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining much of their traditions and heritage.

Although the Ordinariate was still not fully developed, Pope Benedict’s inspiration had offered a clear outline for future ecumenical endeavors, Nazir-Ali said.

Benedict inspired conversions

Nazir-Ali served as the 106th bishop of Rochester from 1994 to 2009. His reception into the Catholic Church in 2021 was widely reported due to his considerable contributions to religious, academic, and political discourse in the U.K. and beyond. He is now a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

In the year in which Nazir-Ali converted to Catholicism, three other Anglican bishops also did the same.

Nazir-Ali spoke about Benedict’s “terrific” impact on his life, beyond the creation of the Ordinariate. “The reason I have been so influenced by him was his analysis of the cultural situation in Europe, which I think is beyond comparison because he saw that the absence of God was going to impoverish every aspect of European life, not just religion or spirituality, but culture, literature, and so on,” he observed. “There was no one who understood this as well as he could.”

An anniversary of conversion

Among those Anglicans who felt moved to embrace the vocation that the Ordinariate offered were 12 Anglican nuns who were received into the Catholic Church on Jan. 1, 2013.

The 12 were originally part of the Community of St. Mary the Virgin, based in Wantage Oxfordshire, but through their entrance into the Catholic Church under the patronage of the Ordinariate, they are now the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary and reside in Birmingham, U.K.

In a statement on the community’s website, issued following the death of Pope Benedict XVI, the sisters wrote: “We join with the rest of the Catholic world in prayer for the soul of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died yesterday. May he rest in peace, ‘good and faithful servant’ that he was.

“On this day 10 years ago, on 1 January 2013, we were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church at the Oratory in Oxford. How many blessings and graces have flowed from that day! We thank God for them all.”

Benedict understood the ‘Anglican soul’

Father David Palmer is also a member of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and serves the Diocese of Nottingham in the U.K. He was received into the Catholic Church during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI.

He told CNA in a statement on Jan. 3 that Benedict XVI’s legacy in bringing Anglican patrimony into the Catholic Church was “inestimable” and that the late pope understood the “Anglican soul.”

“Benedict seemed to just ‘get’ the English tradition. His love for St. John Henry Newman is well known, but more than this he seemed to understand the English tradition. Witnessing him at Westminster Abbey for evensong and again at Westminster Hall during the 2010 Papal Visit to the U.K., it was clear for all to see that he understood and appreciated the Anglican ‘soul’ or perhaps, more accurately, the historic English religious soul,” Palmer said.

“He was able to recognize in the Anglican Church that which was beautiful, and indeed those bits that still reflected something of Catholic England,” he continued.

“In England there has often been peddled the idea that Catholicism is somehow ‘foreign’; Benedict reminded us that in reality England was a Catholic country, and even after the (so-called) Reformation, Anglicanism, at its best, remained shot through with Catholic sensibility,” Palmer noted.

“The Ordinariate, so close to Benedict’s heart, was a prophetic move, a realized ecumenism that says that those who become Catholic do not have to abandon all that went before, but rather all that is good and noble from their previous community can find its fulfillment in communion with the one holy Catholic and apostolic Church,” he said. “In other words, there is nothing ‘foreign’ about Catholicism.”

Reflecting further on the legacy of the late pope emeritus, Palmer said: “We no longer have Benedict alive on earth to be our ‘protector’ (as it were) but I have every confidence that he will be interceding for us in heaven, alongside St. John Henry Newman.

“We in the Ordinariate are deeply grateful for all that Benedict did to bring us home; we will miss him immensely — he was like a grandfather to us, and we entrust him to the maternal arms of Our Lady of Walsingham, and her Son, the only name under heaven by which we can be saved.”

Archbishop Broglio blesses Sashko Lenevych, a lieutenant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. / Ukraine Catholic University

Washington D.C., Jan 3, 2023 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and head of the Archdiocese for Military Services, USA, visited Ukraine Dec. 27–29 to express the American Catholic Church’s continued support.

Meeting with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and key leaders of the Ukrainian military chaplaincy in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv, Broglio offered messages of encouragement and solidarity. 

“You may not see this in Ukraine, but today Ukrainians bring great hope to the world! Your nation has united and stood up to this unjust Russian invasion. In your resistance, we see hope for the future,” Broglio told Ukrainian officials, as reported by Ukrainian Catholic University.

In an interview with CNA after his return, Broglio talked about what he had witnessed.

“I was very grateful for the opportunity to visit; obviously it was very moving to see some of the destruction, particularly to stand in front of a hospital that had been destroyed, those kinds of things are incomprehensible,” he said.

“I also participated in the funeral of three Ukrainian soldiers that were killed during the war, and it’s an almost everyday experience for the people of the Garrison church, so I came back encouraged by the spirit of the people, depressed by the inhumanity they’ve experienced, and anxious to try to encourage Catholics in the United States certainly to pray for peace, to support them in any way that we can, and also to look forward to the future when the situation might be more positive,” Broglio told CNA.

While in Lviv, Broglio toured Ukrainian Catholic University and spoke with Ukrainian military chaplains, some of whom were just recently returned from the front lines.

As head of the Archdiocese of Military Services, USA, Broglio offered a unique perspective to Church leaders in war-torn Ukraine. 

“We have to take care of the people who are currently fighting,” Broglio said. “When I became a chaplain in 2008, I realized that my mission was to serve the men and women affected by war.”

Broglio noted “a significant difference” between his ministry to U.S. soldiers fighting in faraway nations and ministry to Ukrainian soldiers fighting in their homeland. 

“Unfortunately, the war is happening here, on your land. My visit is a visit of solidarity and support,” Broglio said. 

In Kyiv, at the funeral of three young Ukrainian soldiers who were recently killed in the nation’s conflict against invading Russia, Broglio addressed the mourners. 

“We are sincerely grateful to the defenders for the sacrifice they make for their country and for all of us,” Broglio said. “We pray peace reigns in Ukraine and other parts of the world.”

Speaking to the families of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers, Broglio said: “On behalf of all Catholics in the United States of America, I extend my sincere condolences. We must continue to live in hope.”

Broglio’s visit comes at a time when Russia is increasing missile strikes, which, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are attempts to “exhaust” the nation’s defenses. 

Back in the United States, Broglio told CNA that he has two messages he’d like to communicate to American Catholics.

“One, gratitude for the tremendous support that has come from the Catholic Church in the United States for Ukraine. The second message being one to encourage prayer for those people in this moment of great suffering, but also to know that there is a tremendous spirit there and a conviction that they are going to win. And so there’s great hope,” he said.