“Mexico opens its doors and hearts to the world”

adminonDecember 3, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

With a call from Pope Benedict XVI. for the protection of the family has this Wednesday the 6. World Family Day begins in Mexico City. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone delivered the approximately 7.000 participants the greeting of the pope. The five-day congress organized by the Vatican Family Council is led by Bertone. The Cologne auxiliary bishop Dr. Heiner Koch is on site and reports about his impressions in the this site interview.

The host Primate of Mexico's Catholic Church, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, stressed that from indigenous culture to today, the family plays a central role for Mexico. It is a "guarantor of a more humane world". The president of the Mexican bishops' conference, Carlos Aguiar Retes, urged in his speech the need for a more intensive pastoral care of the family. But politics must also make its contribution and respect and support the family as an indispensable member of society. Among those in attendance were many church dignitaries and politicians. Unlike at previous world meetings, this time the Pope will not attend in person. Benedict XVI. but said at his general audience Wednesday at the Vatican that he hoped for new impetus "for the beauty and value of the family". The head of the church will follow via video the prayer vigil on Saturday evening and the concluding service on Sunday, addressing attendees with a video message. The organizers expect more than one million people to attend the final event at the pilgrimage shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This year's World Family Day focuses on passing on values. Topics such as "Relationships and Values in the Family," "Family and Sexuality," and "The Educational Vocation of the Family" are on the agenda. In addition to individual guests, representatives of lay associations and spiritual movements, 200 bishops and 30 cardinals have registered for the panels and discussions. The congress, with participants from 98 countries, will be held under the motto "The family, educator of human and Christian values". Since 1994, Pope John Paul II's. (1978-2005) initiated world family meeting every three years in another country takes place; last 2006 in the Spanish Valencia.

In time of Corona pandemic, U.S. bishops' conference plenary meets only virtually. In addition to the fallout from the Corona crisis, the recently released McCarrick Report is also a topic of discussion at the meeting. How do the bishops deal with it?

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop Jose Gomez, called the church to "healing" and "hope" on the first day of the fall virtual convention. So says the strategic plan that the bishops adopted on Monday as a blueprint for their future work.

Accordingly, in addition to announcing the results of absentee ballots for seven open committee positions, discussions focused on the pandemic and how to deal with the sexual abuse crisis.

The Los Angeles archbishop characterized the pandemic as a "life ie" and urged the faithful to "proclaim the love of Christ for every person, the power of the cross and the promise of the resurrection". The pandemic, he said, demands "heroic Christianity," as the pope has charged the church to do. "In this time of dying, it is our task to speak about life."

McCarrick report topic

Comparatively brief in the recorded opening address was the USCCB chairman's take on the Vatican's report released last week on Theodore McCarrick's rise to cardinal and face of the U.S. church. He prays for victims to find "healing and hope". Gomez appealed to bishops to "protect children and vulnerable adults and banish the curse of abuse from our church".

Papal nuncio Christophe Pierre, urged the U.S. church to rise to the "challenge of healing the world". Jesus would be "at the center of the storm" in these turbulent times. Those who encounter it cannot return to "normality". The church suffers from the same problems, the same ills, as the rest of society, he said. 'Our mission is to reconcile the world'."

Cardinal-designate and Archbishop of Washington, Archbishop Wilton Gregory, called on bishops to work to "overcome the questioning of our integrity" in light of the church's sexual abuse crisis. This, he said, requires "transparency, repentance and commitment, prayer and reconciliation, authenticity and humility".

The McCarrick report, he said, had "brought out the darkest corners of our Church, about which I am deeply ashamed and deeply angry". Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, who is a rising figure in the U.S. church, was similarly outspoken. The report from Rome exposes the "tragic incompetence" driven by a clerical structure "preoccupied with itself and protecting its own.".

Conservative alignment

The results of the committee elections confirmed the USCCB's core conservative orientation, but brought some changes in important positions. The bishops' new secretary general will be Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, a conservative who is considered personally approachable.

In elections for the Religious Liberty, Education and Life Ies Committee, USCCB elected traditionalists to lead with New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bishop Thomas Daly and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori.

The virtual meeting is limited to two afternoon sessions on Monday and Tuesday.

A vigilant sexton in Munich's Church of the Holy Spirit convicted two offertory thieves in two days. After catching a man in the act on Thursday evening, he was able to catch another thief one day later.

This is reported by the "Munchner Merkur" (Monday). According to the report, 30-year-old Alexander Kastner noticed a man pushing his way around the offertory on Thursday evening last week. In order to be able to observe him more closely, Kastner sat down in one of the pews, pulled out his smartphone and thus had a view of the 16 installed church cameras. His suspicions were immediately confirmed: the unknown person had tried to pull bills and coins out of the boxes with the help of double-sided adhesive tape, according to the sexton.

Two days of special leave as a thank you

Kastner then briefly left the church, waved to a passing patrol car and a short time later the two policemen already arrested the man, as the newspaper reports. A day later, an accomplice of the first thief apparently turned up. Again, the sexton had called the police, so that the second perpetrator could also be caught. Pastor Rainer Maria Schiebler praised the efforts of Kastner. As a thank you, he wants to invite the sexton, with whom he shares a passion for motorcycling, on a trip. In addition, there will be two more days of special leave for his employee, as the "Munchner Merkur" writes.

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