Swiss Guard welcomes 30 new members to elite force

Vatican City, May 6, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

The Pontifical Swiss Guard swore in 30 new recruits during a ceremony on an overcast Thursday evening at the Vatican. The event also commemorated the 147 guards who died defending the Pope during the Sack of Rome in 1527.

Gathering at 5 p.m. in the San Damaso courtyard under the threat of rain, the Swiss Guard held its annual swearing-in ceremony. Vatican Radio reported on Thursday that the 30 new “halberdiers” who enlisted in the last 12 months made their final vows during the ceremony. As part of the ritual, the new recruits lined up and raised three fingers in the air – a traditional sign of oath to the corps.

On Thursday morning, the guard, their families and friends attended a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, which was presided over by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State.

“The Pontifical Swiss Guard is characterized by the willingness of its members to place themselves in service of the Supreme Pontiff, to provide for the particular care of His person,” Cardinal Bertone said at Mass earlier in the day. This willingness, added the prelate, is something that “you – dear Swiss Guards – have expressed as Christians, that is, motivated by love for Christ and for the Church.”

“For this we are gathered here in the Eucharistic celebration: to pronounce our thanks to the Lord for your generosity.”

“Yours, dear friends of the Swiss Guard, is a skilled and appreciated service, that demands dedication and seriousness,” Cardinal Bertone said. “Being Swiss Guards means always adhering without reservation to Christ and the Church, with the willingness to spend every day of your life for this noble mission.”

The Swiss Guard is an elite force charged throughout the centuries with the task of safeguarding the Pope. The recruits, per guard requirements, must be between 19 and 30 years old, faithful Roman Catholics and Swiss citizens. Guardsmen commit to serving a minimum of 25 months, after which they can chose to leave or be promoted to sergeant.

Among those present at this year's swearing-in ceremony were Doris Leuthard, president of the Swiss Confederation, and Peter Stutz, chief-of-staff, who represented the Swiss army. Also participating as guests of honor was the council of the Canton of San Gallen.

Marriage is instrument of salvation for society, declares Benedict XVI

Vatican City, May 5, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

Welcoming future participants in the Congress on the Family, which will take place in Jonkoping, Sweden from May 14-16, the Holy Father taught on love and marriage on Wednesday. Through the love present in marriage, he said, we are given an idea of the love that awaits us in Heaven.

The Pope’s words on marriage came during his English-language greeting of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The message of the congress to the world is one of joy, said the Holy Father, “because God’s gift to us of marriage and family life enables us to experience something of the infinite love that unites the three divine persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Noting that “human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, are made for love,” he proposed that through the love between spouses, parents and children and siblings “we are offered a foretaste of the boundless love that awaits us in the life to come.

“Marriage is truly an instrument of salvation, not only for married people but for the whole of society,” he underscored.

He went on to explain that “like any worthwhile goal,” it is demanding, challenging and calls us to sacrifice for the good of another while also inviting us to “nurture and protect the gift of new life.”

The stable family, the Holy Father added, is the “first and most fundamental school for virtuous living and the qualities of good citizenship.”

The Diocese of Sweden’s congress aims to shed light on “Love and Life” through the three days of prayer, discussion and addresses. The talks will focus on God’s plan for men and women in marriage, the rights of children and social changes and challenges for Christian families today. Programs for children and youth have also been organized for the congress.

Pope Benedict concluded his message to participants by encouraging all people to “promote a proper understanding and appreciation of the inestimable good that marriage and family life offer to human society.”

Priests make God’s saving work present on earth, teaches Pope

Vatican City, May 5, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

“As ministers of Christ, priests bring us into life-giving contact with the mystery of God’s holiness,” the Pope said during the general audience on Wednesday. It is through their celebration of the sacraments, he taught, that they make Christ’s sanctifying work “present and effective” in the world.

Pope Benedict XVI appeared to be in good spirits as he addressed the approximately 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on an overcast morning, punctuated periodically by drops of rain.

After speaking briefly of the Holy Shroud, which he said "can nourish and feed the faith and reinvigorate Christian piety," the Pope returned to the figure of the priest for the third time in his Easter season series of catecheses. This time, he spoke on the numerous tasks of the priest, especially his ministry of sanctification.

“Holiness, as we know, is proper to God, who is himself absolute truth, goodness, love and beauty,” he said, noting that it is priests, as ministers of Christ, who “bring us into life-giving contact with the mystery of God’s holiness.”

By proclaiming the Gospel and celebrating the sacraments, the priest provides us with the possibility to “approach God and to be transformed gradually in the divine image.” Particularly through the Eucharist and Confession, the Holy Father taught, priests make Christ’s sanctifying work “present and effective” in the world.

Moreover, it is through the sacraments that they “sanctify the faithful and are themselves sanctified and configured ever more closely to Christ,” he underlined.

Speaking directly to priests, Benedict XVI said that just as it is important to teach and help the faithful to understand the sacraments' value, it is also necessary that they be "willing, generous and attentive in giving the faithful the treasures of grace that God has placed in our hands, treasures of which we are not masters but custodians and administrators."

The Holy Father concluded his catechesis by asking for prayers for priests and their “ministry of sanctification,” that they be “true shepherds according to God’s heart.” He also exhorted the faithful to realize the great gift that they are for the Church and the world.

This year, by decree of the Pope, the Church celebrates the Year for Priests, inaugurated on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus June 19, 2009 and to close on June 11, 2010. The stated purpose of the Year is to “deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.”

Vatican: Letter endorsing abuse cover-up shows why Curia was reformed

Vatican City, Apr 16, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

Late Thursday afternoon, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi released a statement about a letter from 2001 in which a cardinal appears to applaud a French bishop for his decision to not report a case of priestly sexual abuse to civil authorities. The spokesman said that cases such as this one highlight the importance of changes that were made giving the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith jurisdiction over cases of sexual abuse of minors.

A letter from September 8, 2001 has been published online by French magazine Golias, in which then-prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, offered congratulations to Bishop Pierre Pican for choosing not to report a priest who had been accused of sexual abuse to civil authorities.

The priest, Abbot Renè Bissey, was sentenced in 1998 to 18 years in prison for his abuses of minors, according to Italy's La Stampa. Bishop Pican later received a three month sentence for withholding information.

In 2001, Cardinal Hoyos wrote him a letter in which he says, "I congratulate you for not having reported a priest to the civil administration."

The cardinal adds later that he "rejoices" that he has a brother in the episcopate who would choose prison over reporting a priest under his watch.

Responding on Thursday, Fr. Lombardi said that the letter serves as confirmation of how timely the decision made in 2001 to channel all cases of sexual abuse through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was. This move guaranteed a “rigorous and coherent management," the spokesman said.

Prior to 2001, all cases of sexual abuse involving priests went to the Congregation for the Clergy, and at that time, there was a disagreement between cardinals about whether priests who were found guilty should be prosecuted under both civil and canon law or just under Church law.

Referring to the change in jurisdiction, Fr. Lombardi explained that it happened with the approval of John Paul II's Motu Proprio in May of that year.

After assuming control of the case load, then-Cardinal Ratzinger implemented norms for dealing with cases of sexual abuse by priests, which were made public by the Vatican on April 12.

Cardinal Bertone correct in linking clerical sex abuse and homosexuality, says psychiatrist

West Conshohocken, Pa., Apr 16, 2010 /(CNA/EWTN News).-

Following Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s comments in Chile about a link existing between homosexuality and pedophilia in cases of clerical sexual abuse, both Church officials and secular figures clarified his statement. But Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist with experience treating sexually abusive priests, told CNA that the cardinal's statement is accurate.

At a press conference last Monday evening at the Pontifical Seminary of Santiago, Chile, the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said, “Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia.” Instead, they have found a “relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia,” he added.

Many gay rights organizations reacted vehemently to Cardinal Bertone’s statement, leading Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press office, to assert that “it obviously refers to the problem of abuse by priests and not in the population in general."

A statement from the French Foreign Ministry calling the linkage “unacceptable” was followed by a statement by Fr. Marcus Stock, the General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. “To the best of my knowledge, there is no empirical data which concludes that sexual orientation is connected to child sexual abuse,” he said.

“The consensus among researchers is that the sexual abuse of children is not a question of sexual ‘orientation,’ whether heterosexual or homosexual, but of a disordered attraction or ‘fixation,’” Fr. Stock added.

However, a U.S. psychiatrist with experience in treating priests with pedophilia disagrees that there is no link between homosexuality and sexual abuse of children. “Cardinal Bertone's comments are supported completely by the John Jay study report and by clinical experience,” Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons told CNA. “In fact, every priest whom I treated who was involved with children sexually had previously been involved in adult homosexual relationships.”

Fitzgibbons, who has been the director of Comprehensive Counseling Center in West Conshohocken, Penn. since 1988, has worked extensively with individuals suffering from same sex attraction (SSA) and priests accused of pedophilia. He also presently serves as a consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy at the Holy See.

In his 2002 “Letter to Catholic Bishops,” Fitzgibbons identified priests prone to sexual abuse as having suffered “profound emotional pain” during childhood due to loneliness, problems in their relationships with their fathers, rejection by their peers, lack of male confidence, and poor self image or body image. Fitzgibbons said that these experiences lead priests especially to direct their sadness and anger towards the Church, her teachings on sexual morality, and the Magisterium.

He also noted that priests who have engaged in sexual misconduct with minors suffer from a “denial of sin in their lives.” “They consistently refused to examine their consciences, to accept the Church's teachings on moral issues as a guide for their personal actions, or regularly avail themselves of the sacrament of reconciliation. These priests either refused to seek spiritual direction or choose (sic) a spiritual director or confessor who openly rebelled against Church teachings on sexuality,” the letter said.

When asked what sort of new information has become available since the publication of the letter, Fitzgibbons put an emphasis on narcissism. “This epidemic personality weakness in the west predisposes individuals to excessive anger, the worship of self, rebelliousness against God and His Church particularly in regard to sexual morality and sexual acting-out,” he said.

The psychiatrist also reviewed the findings of the John Jay researchers, who reported that 81percent of the victims of clerical sexual abuse were male of those makes who were abused, 51 percent of whom were age 11-14, 27 percent were aged 15-17, 16 percent between 8-10, and 6 percent were under 7 years of age, emphasized Fitzgibbons.

For priests who do suffer from SSA, “I would recommend that they become more knowledgeable about the emotional origins and healing of same-sex attractions, as well as the serious medical and psychiatric illnesses associated with homosexuality,” advised Fitzgibbons. “We have observed many priests grow in holiness and in happiness in their ministry as a result of the healing of their childhood and adolescent male insecurity, loneliness and anger and, subsequently, their same-sex attractions.”

Because of the link between homosexuality and clerical sexual abusementioned by Cardinal Bertone, men with same sex attraction have a solemn responsibility to seek help and to protect the Church from further shame and sorrow, said Fitzgibbons.

Before attacks of the world, penance is a necessary grace, Pope Benedict says

Vatican City, Apr 15, 2010 /(CNA/EWTN News).-

"We must obey God instead of men," said the Holy Father in a memorable address to members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission at Mass on Thursday. During the course of the homily he also spoke of the "attacks of the world," a phrase that was interpreted by some news reports as the recent sex abuse scandals. Pope Benedict said that Catholics must respond to attacks by doing acts of penance.

"Obedience to God has primacy," Pope Benedict XVI began his homily, which he delivered without prepared remarks. The Holy Father told members of the commission gathered in the Pauline Chapel for a Mass to mark the beginning of the Biblical Commission's full assembly on Thursday morning.

Obedience to God makes us free, he said, while the the idea of being "free, autonomous and nothing else," and supposedly free from obedience to God "is a lie."

Being free from obedience to God is an "ontological falsehood, because man doesn't exist of himself and for himself," the Pope said, adding that "it's a political and practical falsehood, because collaboration and sharing of liberties is necessary ..."

The Holy Father also warned that if the majority consensus prevails and becomes the dominant power in a society, it can also be "a consensus of evil." In this way, we can see that "so-called autonomy doesn't free man," he pointed out.

This was the ideology of the Nazi and Marxist dictatorships, he noted, saying the while we are fortunate that they no longer exist, mankind still lives with dictatorships in more subtle forms, such as in conformism. The obligation "to think like everyone thinks, act like everyone acts, and the subtle aggression against the Church, or also less subtle, demonstrate how this conformism can truly be a real dictatorship," the Pope said.

Pope Benedict went on to stress in his homily that for Christians, obedience to God means really knowing Him and wanting to follow his will, and not a question of using Him as a pretext for our own desires.

The Pope applied this practically to the Christian fear of speaking of eternal life. "We speak of the things that are useful for the world, we show that Christianity helps also to improve the world, but that its goal is eternal life and that from the goal might come the criteria of life, we don't dare say it."

We must also work on our avoidance of the word "penance," he explained, noting that the word may seem too strong to Christians in recent times, but that it is through the grace of penance that we recognize our sin, a need for renewal, change and transformation.

"Now," he emphasized, likely alluding to the media accusations against him in the past weeks, "under the attacks of the world that speak to us of our sins, we see that being able to do penance is a grace and we see how it is necessary to do penance, recognize that which is mistaken in our life."

It means opening ourselves to forgiveness, preparing ourselves for forgiveness and allowing ourselves to be transformed, said Pope Benedict XVI. "The pain of penance, that is of purification and transformation, this pain is a grace, because it is renewal, it is the work of divine mercy."

The Pope delivered his homily on the first day of the the Commission's plenary assembly, which will run for five days and be based on the theme "Inspiration and Truth in the Bible."

Cardinal Hummes calls priests to Rome to close Year for Priests

Vatican City, Apr 15, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

"Come to Rome and God will bless you," the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy Cardinal Claudio Hummes wrote in a letter to priests inviting the world's priests to Rome for the conclusion of the Year for Priests. The cardinal asked them to come to show that they are prepared to serve and that they support the Pope in trying times.

Just two months from now, from June 9-11, the International Meeting of Priests will take place in Rome marking the end of this special year for clergy which was inaugurated on June 19, 2009.

Cardinal Hummes repeated the Pope's invitation from February and made his own call to priests from all over the world to come to Rome and join the three-day affair. "Do not, then, hesitate to respond to the heartfelt and cordial invitation of the Holy Father," he wrote.

"Come to Rome and God will bless you," he added.

The cardinal went on to propose that the presence of a multitude of priests in St. Peter's Square for the occasion, in addition to providing a chance for the Pope to "confirm" them, "will be a proactive and responsible way for priests to show themselves ready and unintimidated for the service of the humanity entrusted to them by Jesus Christ.

"Their visibility in the Square, before today's world, will be a proclamation of their being sent into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it."

The prelate underlined that, in such a context, a good turnout will take on a "special significance"

Further motivation for so many priests to be in Rome for the conclusion of the Year for Priests, he continued, is that of offering the Pope "our solidarity, our support, our confidence and our unconditional communion, in the face of frequent attacks directed towards Him ..."

Highlighting the injustice of the accusations that the Pope failed to respond to cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy, Cardinal Hummes emphasized that "no one has done as much as Benedict XVI to condemn and combat properly such crimes.

"Therefore, the large presence of priests in the Square with Him will be a determined rejection of the injust attacks of which he is a victim."

Another major event of the Year for Priests, an International Theological Convention, took place in March in with 50 bishops and 500 priests in attendance. They discussed the subject of the ministerial priesthood, touching on such themes as the priestly identity and the vow of celibacy.