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.”