Author: Catholic News Agency

Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Hong, attends the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter's Square. / Credit: Diane Montagna

Rome, Italy, Jan 17, 2023 / 07:21 am (CNA).

Cardinal Joseph Zen has said that he is “very concerned” about what could happen with the ongoing Synod on Synodality and that he is praying that “our pope will have greater wisdom.”

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Giornale published on Jan. 17, Zen said he hopes the synod will change from its current course.

“I fear that the synod is repeating the same mistake of the Dutch Church 50 years ago when the bishops backtracked and accepted the faithful to lead the Church; then their number decreased,” he said.

The retired bishop of Hong Kong was likely referring to the Pastoral Council of Noordwijkerhout held in the Netherlands between 1966 and 1970, which called for Church authority to be carried out in dialogue, for women to assume ecclesial roles, and for priestly celibacy to be optional in the Church.

The council followed the publication of the “Dutch Catechism,” a text so controversial that Pope Paul VI asked a commission of cardinals to examine its presentation of Catholic teaching. 

In the interview, Cardinal Zen also reflected on his private meeting with Pope Francis when he was allowed to travel to Rome for the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month, calling it “a wonderful meeting, very warm.”

“I thanked the pope for the good bishop appointed to Hong Kong in 2021,” Zen said, referring to Hong Kong Bishop Stephen Chow.

He said Pope Francis replied: “'I know it well, he is a Jesuit!’”

The cardinal, who turned 91 last week, also told the pope about how he has dedicated his time over the past decade to prison ministry in Hong Kong and has baptized several prisoners: “Francis said that he was very happy for my ministry.”

Zen himself was arrested last year under Hong Kong’s national security law. He said that Catholics in China are living in a difficult situation and “we must never forget to pray in these difficult times.”

“Many faithful bear witness to their faith conscientiously but we know that when the situation becomes difficult, some think only of their own interests. We continue to uphold truth, justice, and charity. Darkness will not win over the light,” he said.

Pilot Raúl Ruiz. / Credit: Raúl Ruiz

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 16, 2023 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Passengers are used to the pilot getting on the intercom to give them flight information, but during a recent flight to Rome, Spanish pilot Raúl Ruiz, 50, took to the microphone to pay tribute to Pope Benedict XVI, speaking of his great legacy to the surprise and then applause of those aboard.

Born in Madrid, Ruiz explained he has a “Granadian” heart — he used to live in Otívar, Granada — but has lived in Seville for 15 years with his wife and three children.

He entered the General Air Academy in San Javier, in the Murcia region of Spain, in 1992, where he was greatly influenced by the priests of the Military Archdiocese. The pilot prays the rosary before going to the airport. However, he inherited his faith from his parents, he noted, who were “both catechists and blessed examples of Christian life.” 

Asked by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister news agency, about his courageous gesture, Ruiz replied that for him “those who are persecuted for their faith in many parts of the world, where they give and offer their own lives, they are courageous.”

They are “strong, without doubting, for Christ and for us. It’s easy here,” the pilot said.

‘I had to do something’

Ruiz explained that “in the afternoon of the previous day, listening to the radio, and at night, reading press articles about Benedict XVI, various things said stayed with me that made me meditate.”

The following day, Jan. 5, he was scheduled to fly the plane from Seville to Rome, the same day as Benedict XVI’s funeral.

“I was also thinking about the coincidence of flying to Rome for the funeral of Benedict XVI, since I had the great fortune of being one of the pilots who took Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain to the funeral of St. John Paul II."

“This was a sign,” the pilot thought. “I was moved to see how so many people went to Rome to say farewell, spending their savings and even their vacation days, they were doing something and I wasn’t doing anything.”

After “soaking in” the wisdom “of such a clear pope, so simple and at the same time so direct, so courageous that he even decided to resign out of his own conviction,” he felt the need to dedicate something to him “and share it with all the people who accompanied us on the flight.”

The pilot wanted to show them that “they were not alone; I also wanted to be there, a humble servant who accompanied them with my heart.”

“Although later I realized that the only one who was alone was me, and that somehow I would ‘hide’ in their suitcases to bid farewell to Benedict XVI.”

‘Everyone’s words’

Ruiz told ACI Prensa that “it has been incredible, I have received a multitude of messages, even from people I don’t even know but who in one way or another have gotten my phone number.”

“I never thought that my words would be heard by so many people and that someone would thank me for listening to it, which is what is most moving for me.”

“Knowing that we are so many soldiers,” he continued, “who are not heard but who are there, that we form the most powerful army in the world with an invincible weapon, prayer,” he added.

Later Ruiz stressed that “the words I said were everyone’s, I just had the chance to hold the microphone.”

Evangelize by example

In addition, the pilot said that he wasn’t afraid of possible reprisals, since “if someone has to be afraid, it must be evil, seeing so many people praying.”

“When you speak well of a person as exemplary and good as Benedict XVI, no one can be offended, I don’t think anyone was offended,” he explained.

Thus he invited “people who don’t believe to meditate on the existence of God, to think that our civilization is governed by the commandments he gave us and without realizing it, they also accept and defend the Christian life, which is what we live out.”

“Believing in something gives you an advantage over not believing in anything. It is easier to fight for an objective, which is your faith,” he pointed out.

Regarding the apostolate, Raúl assured that “we all evangelize in our work, in our ordinary life. Being good people and good professionals, good friends, good parents.”

‘Benedict filled the void of St. John Paul II’

On the person of Benedict XVI, Ruiz said that “being from the generation of the ’70s, St. John Paul II was a great example for me, so his successor would have it more difficult, there also being less media coverage.”

“This aspect of Benedict XVI, on the other hand, was what most caught my attention. He was direct, clear, serious.”

“For me, Benedict XVI was the pope who achieved the difficult task of filling and overcoming the huge void that St. John Paul II left us,” he concluded.

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

Police officers attend the scene of a shooting by St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church on Jan. 14, 2023, in London, England. / Carl Court/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 15, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

A parish priest of a Catholic church in London where six people —including two children — were injured in a drive-by shooting Saturday described the panic that ensued after the attack.

Father Jeremy Trood said he heard the gunshots Saturday shortly after mourners left St. Aloysius Church in Euston, North London, to release doves following a memorial service for a young woman and her mother who died within a month of one another in November.

“I was inside the church and suddenly there was an enormous bang and people rushed back into the church screaming and saying shots had been fired,” the Catholic priest said, according to Sky News.

“There are no words that can describe what had happened and I can’t imagine why anybody could possibly do such a thing. There were hundreds of people in the church coming out. It was pandemonium.” Shouting and sounds of panic can be heard on a video taken from inside the church.

Shots were fired from a vehicle driving past the church on Saturday at about 1:30 p.m. local time. A funeral Mass for 20-year-old Sara Sanchez and her mother, Fresia Calderon, who died within a month of one another in November, had just ended inside the church.

One of the shooting victims, a 7-year-old girl, was reported to be in stable but life-threatening condition, while a 48-year-old woman was said to have potentially life-changing injuries.

“It was a shocking incident. People came here to attend a funeral to be with friends and loved ones and mourn together. Instead, they were the victims of a senseless act of violence,” Superintendent Jack Rowlands of the Met Police said during a news conference Saturday.

“We have a significant number of specialist detectives and local officers working around the clock. But we also need the public’s help. We want to hear from anyone who witnessed the incident or has information about it. Your information could be vitally important, no matter how insignificant you think it is,” he said.

“We believe the suspects discharged a shotgun from a moving vehicle, which was a black Toyota C-HR, likely a 2019 model or similar,” Rowlands said.

null / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Newsroom, Jan 12, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The Christian Lawyers Foundation in Spain has begun an online petition calling for the cancellation of “Scandal, Story of an Obsession,” a television series that portrays the relationship between a 42-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy.

For Christian Lawyers, the series promotes “the most absolute whitewashing of pedophilia," which “crosses the unhealthy line” of sexual attraction towards children.

“Scandal, Story of an Obsession” is a Mediaset España production that began being broadcast on Telecinco Jan. 11.

Christian Lawyers warned that this series will show scenes of explicit content “between an adult and a minor.”

The jurists charged that this production is a “disgusting normalization that minors can enjoy these relationships in which their will is annulled and their vulnerable position is abused.”

In addition, the foundation encouraged people not to tolerate “sexual violence against children being encouraged,” adding that “this abuse is sold as a romantic story to viewers.”

Christian Lawyers emphasized that to make this new series, “they have chosen a woman taking advantage of a boy because they know that society would resist accepting the story of a man abusing a girl.”

Through the signature campaign addressed to Cani Fernández Vicién, president of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), the foundation asked the Spanish lawyers “to intervene and immediately cancel the broadcast of the ‘Scandal’” series.

According to its website, the CNMC is a public agency independent of the executive branch but subject to the legislature “that promotes and preserves the proper functioning of all markets in the interest of consumers and companies.”

The Christian Lawyers Foundation explained that Fernández must intervene because the series violates the CNMC’s section on content control.

This section “prohibits the broadcast of audiovisual content that could seriously harm the physical, mental, or moral development of minors.”

The same section censors programs “that include scenes of pornography or gratuitous violence.”

Last September, Spain’s minister of equality, Irene Montero, stated that minors “have the right to know that they can love or have sexual relations with whoever they want. Based, of course, on consent.”

HazteOir.org (CitizenGo) called for an urgent protest demanding the resignation of Montero for defending pedophilia. However, Montero, a psychologist and a former congresswoman for the leftist Podemos (We Can) political party, remains in office. 

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

The bishops' call for adherence to Catholic "rules" follows an internet controversy over a August 2022 video of a laywoman who seemed to concelebrate Mass with priests. / Katholisches Medienzentrum YouTube screenshot

Denver, Colo., Jan 12, 2023 / 10:10 am (CNA).

Only ordained priests may preside at Mass, and the liturgy should not be “a testing ground for personal projects,” three Swiss bishops have said. Their intervention follows internet controversy over a video of a laywoman who seemed to concelebrate Mass with priests.

“You all know that only the priest validly presides at the Eucharist, grants sacramental reconciliation, and anoints the sick. This is precisely why he is ordained. This rule of the Roman Catholic faith must be respected without restriction in our dioceses,” Bishops Joseph Bonnemain of Chur, Felix Gmür of Basel, and Markus Büchel of Sankt Gallen said in a Jan. 5 letter to people active in pastoral care, the French Catholic newspaper La Croix reported.

Their three dioceses are the predominantly German-speaking dioceses of Switzerland.

The bishops acknowledged people’s desire to participate in the liturgy but said the Catholic liturgy has a universal character, and this especially concerns celebrations of the sacraments.

“Common witness requires common forms and rules. We bishops regularly receive requests and worried reactions: the faithful have a right to religious services that respect the rules and forms of the Church,” their letter said.

Their letter came after controversy over an August 2022 Mass in the Diocese of Chur at which a longtime de facto parish administrator, Zurich resident Monika Schmid, appeared to concelebrate the Eucharist to mark her retirement.

Bishop Bonnemain quickly opened a preliminary canonical investigation into the action on the grounds of alleged liturgical abuse. Canon 907 of the Catholic Church’s canon law bars Catholic deacons and Catholic laity from offering the eucharistic prayer and from performing actions “proper to the celebrating priest.”

Schmid has denied her actions constituted an attempt to concelebrate Mass or to be provocative, the Swiss Catholic internet news portal Cath.ch reported. Schmid acknowledged that as a woman she can’t validly celebrate the Eucharist as ordained Catholic priests do. She said the controversy was based on a video clip uploaded to the internet without the knowledge of all the participants.

“And some are already seeing red when they see a woman at the altar in a photo,” she said.

According to Cath.ch, the video of the Mass “clearly shows her, in civilian clothes, at the altar, surrounded by two priests and pronouncing with them, extending her arms, the text of the consecration of bread and wine and of the eucharistic prayer.”

The text of the eucharistic prayer had been “extensively revised,” La Croix reported in September.

In their letter, the bishops of German-speaking Switzerland said they are aware that some have argued that women participate in the liturgy.

“We hear the requests of many people to be able to participate in the liturgy in other ways, for example as women,” they said. “However, we urge you to not make the sign of unity that is the liturgy into a testing ground for personal projects. It is precisely in the worldwide celebration of the same liturgy that we are Catholic and in solidarity with one another.”

The bishops rejected any claim that they were defending “patriarchal clericalism.” Rather, they said, “priests, in the service and execution of the sacraments, make visible that Jesus Christ himself acts in and through the sacraments.” Priests “keep open, as it were, space for God’s action in the liturgy.”

Schmid, the pastoral worker whose retirement Mass sparked the controversy, was critical of the bishops’ letter. She advocated a liturgical celebration that, in her view, “reaches out to people in their daily lives, in their language and in their understanding of themselves,” Cath.ch reported.

The bishops referred to Pope Francis’ June 2022 apostolic letter Desiderio desideravi. It insists on the quality of liturgies, the careful attention to every aspect of liturgical celebration, and the observance of every rubric.

According to La Croix, the German bishops invited Catholics to use “the diversity of forms for liturgical celebrations that the Church offers … and to use places in the liturgy, such as reflection, preaching, meditation, intercessions, songs, music, and silence, so that you can be part of it personally.”

Father Marko Rupnik, SJ. / Screenshot Vatican News

Rome Newsroom, Jan 11, 2023 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Jesuits in Slovenia have asked for forgiveness from the women who have have accused Father Marko Rupnik, S..J, of spiritual and sexual abuse, saying they believe the claims.

Rupnik, a Jesuit priest and artist originally from Slovenia, has been accused of the sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of at least nine women from a religious community with which he was formerly connected.

The alleged abuse took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s. An investigation into the claims was dropped by the Vatican in October 2022 due to the statute of limitations.

“It is obvious that, as a province, in the past we did not know how to listen to the victims and take appropriate action to clear up the issues and put an end to the suffering. We fully accept and understand the indignation, anger, and disappointment of the victims and their loved ones,” the Slovenian Jesuits wrote in a statement posted to their website Jan. 6.

The Jesuits said the abuse claims “deeply shook us. We believe in the sincerity of the religious sisters and other victims who spoke about their suffering and other circumstances regarding emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse by our brother.”

“We sincerely ask everyone for forgiveness,” they said, addressing in particular the victims and former and current members of the Loyola Community.

The allegations of victims “undoubtedly show that the competent Church leaders did not take appropriate action, as a result of which the unsuspected suffering of a number of women was increased and prolonged,” the statement said.

Rupnik’s ministry is overseen by superiors in Rome, where he has lived since 1993.

The artworks of the 68-year-old sacred artist decorate Catholic churches, chapels, and shrines around the world, including the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vatican and the major seminary of Rome.

“We all want the whole truth to come out, which will allow everyone involved to get justice,” the Slovenian Jesuits said, noting that “an investigation and judicial process is usually necessary to reveal the truth.”

Following media revelations, the bishops of Slovenia also issued a statement about Rupnik.

The bishops said they held an extraordinary meeting in Ljubljana on Dec. 21, 2022, to discuss the Rupnik case.

They condemned the alleged abuse and said they support the Jesuits “in their quest for truth and justice.”

“Victims are never guilty!” the bishops said. “We are on the side of the victims. We express our compassion and closeness to them and commit ourselves to help them.”

In light of Rupnik’s success as a sacred artist, the bishops also asked people to “distinguish his unacceptable and reprehensible actions from his extraordinary spiritual and artistic accomplishments in mosaics and other areas. These facts are a great test of our faith and trust in God.”

Media reports published in early December 2022 alleged that Rupnik had, approximately three decades ago, sexually, spiritually, and psychologically abused sisters in a religious institute with which he was formerly associated.

Following the reports, the Jesuits in Rome confirmed that Rupnik had also incurred an automatic excommunication for absolving an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment. The excommunication was verified, and shortly afterward lifted, by the Vatican in 2020.

The Jesuits said Rupnik’s ministry has been under restrictions since 2019 and 2020. While under restrictions, the Jesuit artist has continued to preach online and receive public accolades. In March 2020, he gave one of the annual Lenten sermons to the Roman Curia and Pope Francis.

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.”