Sudanese Christian woman released again

Khartoum, Sudan, Jun 27, 2014 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Meriam Ibrahim – a Christian woman who had previously been sentenced to death in Sudan for her faith – has been released after another detention for accusations of forging travel documents.

“The State Department has received confirmation that Meriam Ibrahim Ishag has been released on bail and is no longer being detained at a Sudanese police station,” said Marie Harf, deputy department spokesperson for the Department of State in a June 26 statement.

“She and her family are in a safe location and the Government of Sudan has assured us of the family’s continued safety,” she added.

In May, the 27-year-old woman was arrested and charged with abandoning Islam. Under Sudanese law, she was considered a Muslim due to her father’s Muslim faith, despite the fact that she was raised as a Christian by her mother after her father left the family when she was 6 years old.

Despite being sentenced to death, Ibrahim refused to renounce her Christian faith. She was released on June 23 after an appeals court dismissed her sentence, but was re-arrested on June 24 while at the Khartoum, Sudan airport for what Sudanese authorities claimed were forged travel documents.

Daniel Wani, Ibrahim’s husband, was granted U.S. citizenship when he fled Sudan to the United States as a child. He also holds South Sudanese citizenship.

The couple's young son Martin has lived in prison with his mother since February. Ibrahim gave birth to their second child, a baby girl, while in prison in May.

Besides the crime of apostasy – or the abandoning of the Islamic faith – Ibrahim was also charged with adultery. Her marriage to her Christian husband was not considered valid since she was legally considered a Muslim.

She was to receive 100 lashes for the adultery charge and was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy.

More than 140,000 people have signed a petition calling for Ibrahim’s freedom. Numerous members of Congress and religious freedom advocates have asked the U.S. to intervene and ensure her safety, as well as that of her family.

Harf explained in an earlier press conference, before Ibrahim’s release, that while it is a “fluid situation,” the United States and Sudanese governments were communicating “to ensure that she and her family will be free to travel as quickly as possible.”

She added that “from our perspective, Meriam has all of the documents she needs to travel to and enter the United States.”

“It’s up to the Government of Sudan to allow her to exit the country,” Harf said. “As I said, we’re working with them on that right now.”

Feast of Peter and Paul celebrates God's mercy, Pope says

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2014 / 09:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Sunday Angelus on the Feast of Peter and Paul, Pope Francis called the faithful to open themselves to the transforming power of God’s grace and mercy in their own lives.

“Since ancient times the Roman Church celebrates the Apostles Peter and Paul in one unique feast on the same day, June 29,” the Pope observed.

He explained that “this feast inspires in us a great joy, because it confronts us with God's work of mercy in the hearts of two men, and God's work of mercy in these two men, that were great sinners.”

Noting Peter’s denial of Christ during the Passion and Paul’s persecution of Christians, the pontiff stressed that it was grace that “has accomplished great things, has transformed them.”

“But together they both receive the love of God and are left transformed by his mercy; so they became friends and apostles of Christ,” he said. “Thus they continue to speak to the Church and still today show us the way of salvation.”

Similarly, the pontiff explained, even if we “fall into the greatest sin and into the darkest night,” God always wishes to transform our hearts and forgive our sins, bringing us from darkness into light.

He noted the radical transformation of St. Paul after encountering Christ on the road to Damascus: going from “a bitter enemy of the Church” to putting “his whole existence to the service of the Gospel.”

“Also for us the encounter with the Word of Christ is able to transform our entire life,” he continued. “It's not possible to hear his Word and remain firmly in one's place, getting stuck in one's habits. It pushes us to overcome the selfishness that we have in our hearts in order to decisively follow the Teacher that has given his life for his friends.”

Encountering Christ in our lives is what changes us and leads us to ask for forgiveness, he reflected.

On this feast day, the faithful can learn from St. Peter and St. Paul, two very different men who were both chosen by Christ and “responded to the call offering their entire lives,” the Pope said. “Faith in Jesus Christ has made them brothers and martyrdom has made them become one.”

“And God also wants to fill us with his grace, as he did with Peter and with Paul,” Pope Francis added. “May the Virgin Mary help us to welcome it with open hearts, as they did, and not to receive it in vain! And may she sustain us in the time of trial, to give testimony to Jesus Christ and his Gospel.”

The Pope prayed especially for the new Metropolitan Archbishops who received their pallium earlier in the day at St. Peter’s.  

“We greet them all with affection together with their faithful and friends, and we pray for them!” he said.

After the Angelus, Pope Francis commented on the news of continued violence in Iraq, saying that it is “unfortunately very painful.”

“I join the bishops of the country in appealing the governments because, through dialogue, you can preserve national unity and avoid war,” he said.

“I am close to the thousands of families, especially Christians, that have had to leave their homes and that are in great danger,” the Pope continued. “Violence begets violence; dialogue is the only way to peace. We pray to the Madonna, because she watches over the people of Iraq.”

Pope Francis stops car to bless young disabled woman

Rome, Italy, Jun 23, 2014 / 10:19 am (CNA).- During his June 21 pastoral visit to the region of Calabria in southern Italy, Pope Francis stopped the car that was transporting him to see a young disabled woman and her family on the side of the road.

A video posted online by a family in the southern Italian region of Calabria depicts the encounter with the Holy Father.

The Pope passed by the highway near the family’s house as he returned from Cassano allo Jonio, where he spoke out against the mafia.

The Vatican’s news.va website reported that family members waited with banners reading, 'Please Pope stop here to see an angel who has been waiting for you', and 'Please come and bless little Roberta'.

When the Pope saw their signs, he asked for his car to stop, and immediately went to greet and bless the people.

Once the vehicle stopped, the Holy Father descended, approached the woman, who was laying on a moving stretcher, blessed her, kissed her and greeted her family and the children around her.

The young woman – Roberta – is disabled and cannot travel far from her home, because she is dependent upon a machine to breathe, according to news.va.

Her family voiced their gratitude to the Holy Father on Facebook.

“I still can't believe it, thank you Holy Father...I thank the Pope for having given us a moment of great joy,” her sister, Pamela, wrote.

“Today we can say that Christ stopped in Sibari in the vestments of Pope Francis,” added Ivan Vania, a friend who helped make the posters calling the Pope’s attention.

He added that “it was very emotional to see how Pope Francis greeted Roberta...there are gestures in life that are worth more than speeches, much more than you would think...Pope Francis is unique.”

Supreme Court's abortion clinic ruling hailed as win for women

Washington D.C., Jun 26, 2014 / 04:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A unanimous Supreme Court decision striking down a 35-foot buffer zone around Massachusetts abortion clinics is being praised as a victory not only for pro-life counsellors but for all women.

Jeanne Monahan, president of the March for Life, told CNA that the ruling “absolutely protects women.”

“Abortion is bad physiologically and psychologically for many, many, many women,” she continued, adding that the ruling supports counselling that “allows women to have informed consent.”

“Abortion can be the most important decision a woman makes in her life, and sometimes she rushes in there in a state of panic,” Monahan explained. “This allows her to put the brakes on, to think about it, to think about what’s actually happening inside of her.”

“So many women regret their abortions,” she lamented.

On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Eleanor McCullen and other pro-life sidewalk counsellors in McCullen v. Coakley, striking down a Massachusetts law that placed a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics, including on sidewalks and public streets.

McCullen’s lawyers argued that the law unconstitutionally violated freedom of speech and penalized only those with certain views – specifically pro-life views – from offering counselling and education to those entering the clinics, even if they do so peacefully.

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the buffer zone regulations “burden substantially more speech than necessary to achieve the Commonwealth’s asserted interests” of protecting access to health care.

“Petitioners wish to converse with their fellow citizens about an important subject on the public streets and sidewalks,” he noted, specifically highlighting the significance of such public places as areas for discussion and exchange of ideas.

The decision means that “there is no abortion exception to the First Amendment, and it may very well mean the end to abortion buffer zones around the country,” Casey Mattox, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA.

Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakle said in a June 26 press conference that the state and abortion officials were disappointed with the decision, seeing it as a blow against abortion access.

“The decision today is obviously a disappointment to us,” Coakley said, adding that she would work with law enforcement across the state to enforce portions of the law prohibiting “harassment,” such as “screaming” at abortion clinic employees, which still stand after the Supreme Court decision.

Catholic University of America law professor Mark Rienzi, who served as lead counsel in the McCullen v. Coakley case, praised the high court for affirming “a critical freedom that has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding.”

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, also welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision, saying the ruling “has affirmed the American tradition of basic constitutional rights for all.”

He criticized the overturned law, saying it discriminated against pro-life counsellors while exempting pro-abortion “clinic escorts.” This treatment, he continued, sought to “deny that their fellow Americans who seek to protect the unborn have the same rights as other Americans,” specifically “the right to participate in the public square and serve the vulnerable in accord with our moral convictions.”

Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America, called the decision “wonderful news” not only “because it upholds our crucial First Amendment rights of free speech” but also “for women considering abortion because it frees sidewalk counselors at abortion facilities to be able to offer compassionate and caring alternatives.”

In a June 26 statement, she challenged those who honestly call themselves “pro-choice” to welcome the decision, asking them to “give the woman a chance at choosing life by presenting her options she may not even know about.”

“Sidewalk counselors can't stop women from having abortions, but they can offer information, resources, and just a listening ear to those young women who feel desperate and alone,” she added.

Ashley McGuire, senior fellow at The Catholic Association, called the ruling “a double victory for the First Amendment.”

“The Supreme Court has rightly held that it is unconstitutional to grant preferential legal status to the speech of pro-abortion activists while punishing pro-life speech,” she stated, adding that this protection of free speech allows for free discussion in public places.

“This was a victory for free speech, this was a victory for religious liberty and, by the way this was a victory for women,” McGuire continued, saying that because all of the women on the Supreme Court agreed in the unanimous decision, it cannot be viewed as anti-woman.

Global Eucharistic Congress in Philippines to focus on hope

Cebu, Philippines, Jun 23, 2014 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The 51st International Eucharistic Congress will be held January 2016 in the Philippines with the theme, “Jesus in us, the hope of glory.”

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila explained the theme at a press conference.

“We hope in only one person. We hope in God,” he said.

The Eucharistic Congress will take place Jan. 24-31 in the city of Cebu, with more than 15,000 international and local delegates expected to attend.

Cardinal Tagle noted God is the source of our hope, because he “has already come to us,” and this is “the greatest reason for hope.”

“We have desires,” he explained, “but desires are not hope. The people can have many desires, but they may not have hope.”

The virtue of hope referred to in the theme of the congress enriches the spiritual life of every believer, especially amidst any suffering, the cardinal continued.

“We are not hoping in someone distant. We put our hope in someone who was a refugee, someone who was betrayed, who was homeless, someone who was the target of mockery, who was killed, but who God raised to life again. He is in us and for this reason we have hope.”

“This is not about passing whims and desires, but about something deeper that defines the human being and society: hope,” he added.

“Many of our desires will not be fulfilled, but our hope will never fail. And we hope to have this strong message as we prepare for the International Eucharistic Congress through our lives, through our relationships, through the dynamism of Jesus, who is in us,” Cardinal Tagle explained.

This will be the second time the Philippines has hosted the International Eucharistic Congress. The event was first held there in 1937 in Manila.

Three years earlier, in 1934, Buenos Aires hosted the 32nd International Eucharistic Congress. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli attended the event as the papal envoy. Five years later he was elected Pope Pius XII.

Hate group's presence shocks attendees at priest funeral

Salina, Kan., Jun 24, 2014 / 12:03 am (CNA).- Faithful who attended the funeral for Father Kenneth Walker were dismayed at the presence of picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church on June 20 near Paxico, Kansas.

As mourners filed into Sacred Heart Catholic Church, members of the hate group stood nearby holding signs and singing songs in order to broadcast their message.

A priest with the Fraternity of St. Peter, Fr. Walker, 28, was shot and killed while coming to the aid of Fr. Joseph Terra at their parish, Mater Misercordiae Mission, in Phoenix on June 11. Fr. Terra, 56, suffered several injuries but was released from the hospital June 16.

Those in attendance at Fr. Walker's funeral were disheartened that a group would want to protest at such a difficult time for family and friends.

“I thought it was very inappropriate timing, very inconsiderate for what people are going through right now,” funeral attendee Bridget Bogowith said of the protestors. “It's really uncaring. I was just quite shocked to see them here.”

Funeral attendee Michael Drake said the Catholic response to such protests is a peaceful one.

“We pray for them,” he told CNA. And while he wished the group no ill will, Drake said he was confounded as to why people who believe in God would want to protest the funeral of a priest.

“It seems really unusual that folks would picket the funeral of a man who gave up so many things, including the possibility of a wife and family, in order to serve God,” he said.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church are known for picketing funerals, particularly those of soldiers. According to their website, group member believe God is punishing America through war due to the country's immoral society.

Drake's mother Claire said she felt sad for the protestors and didn't understand why they would want to picket funerals.

“I know that if one of their ministers died, I would be very sad for his family, I would be concerned, I certainly wouldn't be protesting in front of their church,” she said. “I just think it's a sad and not terribly Christian thing.”

Mother, daughter find faith despite unexpected pregnancy

Steubenville, Ohio, Jun 25, 2014 / 04:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Waking up to her bedroom light one late night in October, Linda Padgett was flooded with fear. Standing there, her 18-year-old daughter Sarah revealed that she was pregnant.

Raising a Catholic family of nine, Padgett was initially worried about judgment in the community, her daughter’s future, and the possibility that her daughter’s pregnancy may have been the result of bad parenting.

Over time, however, she was able to overcome the fears and difficulties, and the pregnancy became a source of faith and trust for both herself and Sarah.

Padgett, who lives in Steubenville, Ohio, explained to CNA that she quickly learned to push her own “selfish fears” aside to offer her daughter love and support.

“I needed to let her just talk and share,” she reflected. “I needed to hug her and love her and tell her that we are there for her.”

Noting that she had her husband Chris “have always been open to life” and “never doubted the blessing that a baby is,” Padgett noted that what was at first a “painful and frightening” reality eventually became transformed into abundant grace and countless blessings.

“It’s like God shined a bright light into a darkened, secret area in Sarah’s life,” she said. “That light dispels the darkness and brings grace and healing.”

“It didn’t take long to realize that God was going to use this major twist in Sarah’s life to help her focus and grow.”

Padgett is now joyfully anticipating the arrival of her granddaughter, who will be named Audrey.

“There is a new, little baby coming into our home and I don’t have to be the one doing all the work!” she laughed.

However, the growing baby is not the only new life in the family, she said. “New life is what is happening to both my daughter and to me.”

She explained that she has had the opportunity to exemplify Christ’s unconditional love to Sarah, part of her calling as a parent to model Jesus to her children and help them reach heaven one day.

At the same time, Sarah has been living a renewed life, spiritually focusing on the future and experiencing a lot of physical “firsts” with her pregnancy, Padgett said. “She has started living for someone other than herself.”

In addition, having her mother’s support has given Sarah “the benefit of living with another person who has experienced and felt everything she is feeling.”

Padgett said that the pregnancy has been a “very bonding experience” for herself and Sarah, as well as a time of growth.

She wants young women going through similar situations as Sarah to understand that “pregnancy is not the end of their life.”

“There are lots of stories of girls overcoming their situations and becoming something great, despite the difficulties they encounter,” she said.

Padgett said she has found a new trust and faith in God through seeing the work he has done in her daughter’s life. She believes that God will continue guiding her daughter and has beautiful plans for her future.

“I can’t even image what that will be like, but I am certain it will be amazing,” she said.

Being a Christian means belonging to the Church, Pope affirms

Vatican City, Jun 25, 2014 / 04:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his general audience address Pope Francis drew attention to how God formed the Church to unify humanity, emphasizing that no one is saved on their own, but rather through the help of others.

“Our identity is one of belonging. To say 'I am Christian' means to say: 'I belong to the Church. I belong to this People with whom God established an ancient alliance that is always faithful,'” the Pope explained in his June 25 general audience address.

His address to those gathered in St. Peter's square continued the reflections he began on the Church last week.

“Dear Brothers and Sisters, in our catechesis on the Church we have seen that God gathered a people to himself in the Old Testament and in the fullness of time sent his Son to establish the Church as the sacrament of unity for all humanity.”

“God wanted to form a people that takes his blessing to all the nations of the Earth,” and he “sets it as a sign and instrument of union of all men with God and each other through Jesus Christ," the Pope said.

Explaining how we are all called to be a part of “this great family,” the Pope drew attention the importance of “belonging to this people."

"We are not Christians as an individual, each one on his own,” he said. “None of us become Christians on our own," but rather “we owe our relationship with God to so many others who passed on the faith, who brought us for Baptism, who taught us to pray and showed us the beauty of the Christian life.”

Pope Francis then encouraged those present to give thanks to “our parents and grandparents, our priests, religious and teachers” who helped bring us into the Church.

“We are Christians not only because of others, but together with others” he pointed out, describing the Church as “a large family that welcomes us and teaches us to live as believers and disciples of the Lord.”

Observing how our relationship with God “is personal but not private,” the Roman Pontiff stated that our journey of faith “is born of and enriched by the communion of the Church.”

“Whoever says they believe in God but not in the Church, has a direct relation with Christ outside of her, falls into an absurd dichotomy” he noted, stating that “God has confided his saving message to human persons, to witnesses, and it is known to us through our brothers and sisters.”

However, to walk our path in the Church is not always easy, because “at times we encounter human weakness, limitations and even scandal in the life of the Church,” the Bishop of Rome continued.

But despite these difficulties, “God has called us to know him and to love him precisely by loving our brothers and sisters, by persevering in the fellowship of the Church and by seeking in all things to grow in faith and holiness as members of the one body of Christ.”

Concluding his address, Pope Francis encouraged those present to keep in mind that “as Christians, we cannot disregard the other, the Church; we cannot save ourselves on our own.”

Following his catechesis, the pontiff offered a special welcome to groups present from various countries around the world, including England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Greece, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, the Antilles, the United States, Spain, México, Honduras, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.

He then gave a special greeting to the representatives of Bethlehem University, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding this year.

“I offer cordial greetings to the delegation of Bethlehem University” he said, “with appreciation for its praiseworthy educational apostolate among the Palestinian people.”

Chaldean priest says little hope for Christians in Iraq

El Cajon, Calif., Jun 25, 2014 / 04:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- It has been more than four decades since Father Michael Bazzi left his home country of Iraq. But the plight of Christians there at the hands of militant Muslim groups remains at the forefront of his mind.

“Today, there is no future (for Christians),” Fr. Bazzi, pastor of Saint Peter Chaldean Catholic Church in El Cajon, Calif., told CNA on June 18.

“These people, they hang, they behead people who don't believe in their faith,” he lamented. “Our village had 15,000 Catholics when I was there. Would you believe today there are how many: only 150 families.”

He explained that Christians in Iraq are targeted for the faith, as well as caught in the midst of fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

“Our church is in trouble today. As long as Iran exists, Shia exists. And they are the majority in Iraq. And as long as Saudi Arabia is there, and the Emirate, that means Sunni has to exist ... (But) those people go against each other because of their faith. And as Christians, we are always caught in the middle.”

Fr. Bazzi is a native of Mosul, which was one of the first major Iraqi cities seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Group (ISIS).

The militant group aims to establish a Sunni state within Syria and Iraq, which is a majority Shia region. ISIS launched its offensive in Iraq in early June, overtaking its second-largest city of Mosul on June 10. ISIS now controls most of north and north-central Iraq, including the city of Tal Afar.

Civilians who choose to stay in ISIS-controlled areas must follow an extreme interpretation of Islamic law. According to the BBC, ISIS has offered Christians in seized areas three choices. They can either convert to Islam, face death or pay a jizya tax in exchange for their safety while observing certain conditions.

Those conditions reportedly bar Christians from public prayer and display of religious symbols. Christians are also reportedly banned from making renovations to churches, and women must wear the Islamic veil.

The Sunni militant group's persecution has further decreased Iraq's dwindling Christian community. Many Christians have sought refuge in neighboring countries or the autonomous Kurdish region in the north.

The Christian diaspora from Iraq and the Middle East isn't exactly news to Fr. Bazzi. He remembers facing persecution for his Christian faith while growing up in a suburb of Mosul.

Fr. Bazzi said that when he was younger, his village was entirely Catholic. As a boy, he attended Catholic school. Then, his community started growing as strangers began moving into the region.

“People we never met, people we never knew: Muslims,” he said. “They started to settle…and people were just in trouble with their traditions, with their religion, with their faith.”

Fr. Bazzi said the new neighbors aimed “to root Christianity from Iraq,” and he began to be treated as a “second-class citizen.”

He described being looked at “as a second-class person, as not normal,” and viewed as “a blasphemer, an infidel.”

This second-class treatment developed into persecution, which eventually inspired Fr. Bazzi's vocation to the priesthood. He said he was eager to teach young people in his region how to defend their Catholic faith.  

Fr. Bazzi was ordained a priest in Baghdad in 1964. After serving for several years in his home village, he moved to Rome for his studies. In 1974, he moved to the United States, spending time in Wisconsin and Michigan before settling in California, where he now serves as pastor of Saint Peter Chaldean Cathedral.

The priest said the Chaldean community in the area has multiplied as more Christians have left Iraq due to persecution. Today, he says the Chaldean community accounts for nearly a quarter of El Cajon's population of more than 101,000 people. And spirits are high.

“We have two churches, we have the bishop and we are living so happily,” Father Bazzi said. “But, the problem is that we are so eager to get back home to our country.”

Unfortunately, this dream may not become a reality.

“Today, there is no future (for Christians),” he said. “To them, that’s what their God tells them to do – kill for the sake of their God, Allah. How can you resolve that?”

For himself, Fr. Bazzi says he brought a bag of dust with him from Iraq when he left all those years ago. To this day, he says he sleeps on it.

“I'm an American,” he said. “And I pledge allegiance to America. But, always you remember your birthplace, your country. You survive.”

Fr. Bazzi said he doesn't consider U.S. financial intervention a viable solution to the rapidly disintegrating situation in Iraq. He warned that US intervention may instead foster sectarian divides between the Shia-backed government and the Sunni minority in the country.

Instead, Fr. Bazzi said Iraqi Christians must pray and trust in God.  

“We are praying for those persecutors because that’s what Jesus told us. And we are praying for those people who are still left behind...We believe what Jesus said 'If they persecute you in this city, go to another city,' and that’s what we did.”

Presbyterian denomination's 'gay marriage' votes draw criticism

Detroit, Mich., Jun 22, 2014 / 07:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s general assembly has voted to allow its ministers to perform “gay marriage” and to redefine marriage as a “commitment between two people,” drawing objections that it is moving away from Christian orthodoxy.

“Only declining denominations reject historic Christian standards and in nearly every case that rejection reinforces the decline,” Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy said June 19.

“Who respects a church that only echoes the secular world?” asked Tooley, whose inter-denominational organization aims to support orthodox theology and practice in mainline Protestant denominations.

The Presbyterian General Assembly, meeting in Detroit, on Thursday approved an amendment to change the definition of marriage in the denomination’s constitution, the Associated Press reports.

The amendment, which passed by a vote of 429-175, defines marriage as “a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman.”

The amendment must now be approved by a majority of the denomination’s 172 regional groups, called presbyteries.

By a vote of 371-238, delegates to the general assembly also voted to allow the denomination’s ministers to preside at same-sex “weddings” in states where the civil law recognizes such unions and where local congregation leaders approve.

Bill Norton, a delegate whose Presbytery de Cristo includes parts of Arizona and New Mexico, asked for a delay in any changes.

“We are laying hands on something that is holy, that God has given us, so we need to be sure any changes we make are in accord with God's will revealed in Scripture,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

Krystin Granberg, a minister of the New York Presbytery and a supporter of the changes, said she frequently receives requests from friends and parishioners who “want to be married in the church they love and they want me to do it.”

The Presbyterian Lay Committee accused the general assembly of making “an express repudiation of the Bible.”

The committee in a June 19 statement called for “repentance” and “reform.”

Tooley contended that the decisions will hasten the denomination’s “already fast-paced demise.”

Previous changes within the denomination have eroded its membership, with 428 Presbyterian congregations disaffiliating from the denomination or dissolving since a 2011 vote to eliminate clergy requirements of marital fidelity and chastity in single life.

That vote allowed the ordination of ministers and the selection of lay leaders who are openly homosexual or living in unmarried relationships.

The denomination now has fewer than 1.8 million members, down from 2 million members in 2010, and 3.1 million in 1983, when two Presbyterian denominations merged.

Holy Spirit enlivens Church, preaches Pope on Pentecost

Vatican City, Jun 8, 2014 / 06:02 am (CNA).- On the feast of Pentecost, Pope Francis focused his homily and Angelus address on the work of the Holy Spirit in guiding and giving life to the Church.

The first Pentecost “does not remain only limited to that moment, but is an event that is renewed and renews itself again. Christ, glorified at the right (hand) of the Father, continues to realize his promise, sending the Holy Spirit to enliven the Church who teaches us, reminds us, and makes us speak,” the Pope preached to the congregation at mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 8.

The Holy Spirit is the “interior Teacher,” explained the pontiff, guiding us “along the right path, throughout the situations of life.”

“In the early days of the Church, Christianity was called ‘the way’, and Jesus himself is the way. The Holy Spirit teaches us to follow him, to walk in his footsteps. More than a teacher of doctrine, the Spirit is a teacher of life.”

Pope Francis noted that the work of the Spirit is something “we have all experienced” - for example, in reading Scripture, when we are drawn to one passage after another and feel Christ speaking to us.

“The Spirit of truth and charity reminds us of all that Christ has said, makes us enter more fully into the sense of his words.”

This ‘reminding’ helps Christians remain fully in the Church, for “a Christian without memory is not a true Christian,” he stressed. Rather he or she is a “prisoner of the moment, who doesn’t know the treasures of his history, doesn’t know to read it and live it like the story of salvation.”

The Holy Spirit gives us “the wisdom of memory,” which grows in us through prayer, another gift of the Spirit that allows us “to call God father - and this is not just a ‘figure of speech,’ but is the reality,” Pope Francis emphasized.

It is not only the speech of prayer that the Holy Spirit gives us, however, but also “fraternal dialogue” and “prophecy,” helping us to “speak with friendship, with tenderness,” as “humble and docile ‘channels,’ for the word of God.”

It was this power of the Holy Spirit that allowed the apostles to be heard in many different languages on that first Pentecost, explained Pope Francis later in his Angelus remarks.

“The book of Acts describes the signs and fruits of that extraordinary outpouring: the strong wind and the flames of fire; the fear disappears and gives way courage; tongues are loosened and everyone understands the announcement,” he recounted to the crowds filling St. Peter’s Square at noon on Sunday.

Pentecost marks the “birth of the Church,” the Pope noted, which has two aspects: “a Church that surprises, and that makes a mess.”

“Our God is a God of surprises, we know this,” he exclaimed.

The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost “inspires awe because with the strength that comes from God, (the disciples) announce a new message - the Resurrection of Christ - with a new language - universal love.”

Although Jesus’ disciples had been gathered together in fear, at the Holy Spirit’s coming they are empowered to “speak with courage...and frankness, with the freedom of the Holy Spirit.”

Pope Francis then emphasized that the Holy Spirit leads Christians “into the world” to proclaim the gospel, even if at times it can be an uncomfortable truth for people.

“The Church of Pentecost is a Church that is not resigned to being innocuous,” or just a “decorative element” in the world, he insisted.

Rather, “the Church does not hesitate to come out, meet the people, to proclaim the message that has been entrusted to it, even if that message disturbs and worries consciences.”

The message, however, is a message of love, which “embraces the world” not to “capture” it but rather to “receive” it.

After leading the faithful in the Easter-time Marian prayer of the Regina Coeli, Pope Francis greeted the pilgrims who had journeyed to the Vatican and then asked for special prayers for this evening’s prayer event with the presidents of Israel and Palestine.

“As you know, this evening in the Vatican the Presidents of Israel and Palestine will join me and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, my brother Bartholomew, to ask God for the gift of peace on Holy Land, the Middle East and throughout the world. I wish to thank all those who personally and in the community have prayed and are praying for this meeting, and will join spiritually in our supplication.”

The Pope closed with his customary wishes for a “good Sunday and a good lunch.”

God's immeasurable love transforms lives, emphasizes Pope

Vatican City, Jun 22, 2014 / 07:22 am (CNA).- In his Sunday Angelus today Pope Francis stressed the limitless nature of God’s love that transforms the heart and life of every Christian.

“One cannot measure the love of God: it is without measure. And so we become capable of loving even those who don’t love us: and this is not easy,” the Pope said to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on June 22.

His reflections followed Sunday’s reading from the gospel of John in which Jesus proclaims himself to be the “living bread sent from heaven.”

The Christian community’s union with Jesus in the Eucharist, underscored Pope Francis, “obliges us, his disciples, to imitate him, making our existence with our attitudes, bread broken for others, as the Master has broken the bread that is truly his flesh.”

“Jesus underlines that he has not come into the world to give something, but to give himself, his life, as nourishment for those who have faith in Him,” Pope Francis explained.

Christ’s gift of himself in the Eucharist is a not only a model for the Christian life, but acts to transform us interiorly, the Holy Father noted.

“Every time that we participate in Holy Mass and we are nourished by the body of Christ, the presence of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit acts in us, shaping our hearts, communicating interior attitudes to us that translate into behaviors according to the gospel.”

“Thanks to Jesus and to his Spirit, even our life becomes ‘broken bread’ for our brothers,” he said.

Pope Francis acknowledged that Christian attitudes and actions can be difficult to practice. “To love someone who doesn’t love us… It’s not easy! Because if we know that a person doesn’t wish us well, then we also carry ill-will.”

Nevertheless, “we must love even someone who doesn’t love us! Opposing evil with good, with pardon, with sharing, with welcome.”

Christians gain a type of “maturity” in following Christ by receiving the Eucharist, including “docility to the word of God, then fraternity amongst ourselves, the courage of Christian witness, the creativity of charity, the capacity to give hope to the disheartened, to welcome the excluded.”

Just as Jesus’ life was a total gift of himself, so too, his followers are called to make their lives a gift for others.

“Our life, with the love of Jesus received in the Eucharist, is made a gif - as was the life of Jesus,” he explained. This self-offering brings “true joy” in “reciprocating the great gift that we have first received, without our own merit.”

The Pontiff reflected that Jesus “was made flesh thanks to the faith of most holy Mary,” who not only gave birth to him, but “followed him faithfully unto the cross and at the resurrection.”

“Let us ask the Madonna to help us rediscover the beauty of the Eucharist, to make it the center of our lives, especially in Sunday mass and in adoration,” he said, leading the crowds in the Angelus prayer.

Following the prayer, Pope Francis noted that June 26 is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. “In this circumstance I reiterate the firm condemnation of every form of torture and I invite Christians to oblige themselves to work together for its abolition and to support victims and their families.”

“Torturing people is a mortal sin!” he exclaimed. “It is a very serious sin!”

The Pope closed his Angelus remarks by greeting the pilgrim groups who had traveled to the Vatican, and wishing everyone a “good Sunday and a good lunch.”

“Pray for me!” he added.