How New York became ‘Jewish’
(RNS) - It happened 370 years ago, in downtown New Amsterdam. It deserves to be an American Jewish holiday.
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(RNS) - It happened 370 years ago, in downtown New Amsterdam. It deserves to be an American Jewish holiday.
The post How New York became ‘Jewish’ appeared first on Religion News Service.
Rome Newsroom, Sep 18, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).
After more than four decades of investigation into alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office will hold a press conference Thursday about the “spiritual experience” at the Marian site, the Vatican said.
The alleged visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje occurred to six children starting on June 24, 1981, originally on a hilltop near the town.
Since they began, the alleged events and messages from Mary have been a source of controversy and division, as fame of the phenomena spread despite declarations from local bishops and Vatican authorities that there was no confirmation of their authenticity.
Devotees continued to flock to the area, however, even while Church-organized pilgrimages were banned. They were later allowed after a papal envoy found evidence of spiritual fruits for those who visited.
More than 40 years since they first claimed to have been visited by Mary, the alleged visionaries say they continue to receive messages from Mary conveying a desire for peace for the world, a call to conversion, prayer, and fasting, and certain secrets surrounding events to be fulfilled in the future.
Below is a timeline of the Catholic Church’s investigations into and decisions about Medjugorje.
April 10, 1991: After local bishops formed three different commissions to study the phenomena at Medjugorje starting in January 1982, the bishops’ conference of what was then Yugoslavia rules that “on the basis of studies conducted so far, it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring” at Medjugorje.
March 23, 1996: Affirming the indications of the Yugoslavia bishops, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Tarcisio Bertone, says in a response to a letter from a French bishop that official pilgrimages to Medjugorje as a site of authentic Marian apparitions, organized at the diocesan or parish level, are not permitted.
March 17, 2010: At the request of the bishops of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pope Benedict XVI establishes a commission chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini to investigate the supernatural character of the events in Medjugorje. The commission includes approximately 20 cardinals, bishops, and experts.
Jan. 17, 2014: After nearly four years of investigations into the doctrinal and disciplinary aspects of the Medjugorje apparitions, the commission formed in 2010 completes its work and submits a document, the so-called “Ruini report,” to the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
June 6, 2015: Pope Francis visits Bosnia and Herzegovina but declines to stop at Medjugorje. During the in-flight press conference on the papal plane returning to Rome, the pope says the Vatican’s investigation into the apparitions is nearly complete.
Sometime in 2016: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the leadership of Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, reads and discusses the findings of the “Ruini report.” The opinions of the congregation’s members are then sent to Pope Francis.
Feb. 11, 2017: Pope Francis appoints Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser papal envoy to Medjugorje “with the aim of acquiring a deeper knowledge of the pastoral situation there and above all, of the needs of the faithful who go there on pilgrimage.” A Vatican spokesman clarifies that the archbishop’s mandate is pastoral, and not doctrinal, in nature.
Two months after his appointment as special envoy, Hoser tells members of the press that the site bears many genuine expressions of faith, and many vocations are found there. However, he clarifies that the final determination of the apparitions’ authenticity remains to be seen.
May 13, 2017: Pope Francis speaks about the commission formed by Benedict XVI in 2010 and the so-called “Ruini report” during an in-flight press conference aboard the papal plane returning from Fátima, Portugal. He says he is personally “suspicious” of the apparitions since they appear to him to turn the Blessed Virgin Mary into a “telegraph operator” delivering daily messages.
May 17, 2017: A report in the “Vatican Insider” section of the Italian newspaper La Stampa says that the 2010–2014 commission’s “Ruini report” found a difference between the first seven alleged apparitions of June 24–July 3, 1981, and those that followed. The vote on the first seven alleged visions gave a mostly favorable opinion of supernaturality.
According to La Stampa, the majority of commission members also expressed an opinion that the spiritual fruits of Medjugorje were positive or mostly positive. On the supernatural character of the later alleged visions, the majority of the commission’s members said an opinion could not be expressed and two members voted against.
Dec. 7, 2017: Hoser tells Catholic media outlet Aleteia that while the pope will make a final decision on the authenticity of the alleged visions at Medjugorje, “today, dioceses and other institutions can organize official pilgrimages. It’s no longer a problem.”
May 31, 2018: Pope Francis reappoints Hoser, retired archbishop of Warsaw-Prague, apostolic visitor to Medjugorje, tasked with overseeing the pastoral needs of the site for an undetermined length of time. This nomination follows the archbishop’s earlier role as papal envoy.
May 12, 2019: Pope Francis formally authorizes Catholics to organize pilgrimages to Medjugorje in acknowledgment of the “abundant fruits of grace” that have come from visits to the shrine, though the Church had still not issued a verdict on the authenticity of the alleged apparitions.
Aug. 14, 2021: Hoser dies in a hospital in Warsaw, Poland, after a long and serious illness. He was 78.
Nov. 27, 2021: Pope Francis names Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, a longtime Vatican diplomat, as special apostolic visitor to the parish community of Medjugorje for an indefinite period following Hoser’s death.
(The Conversation) — The settler movement has unprecedented power in Israel today − the result of a decades-long push to mainstream its views and leaders.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — “They feel the threat. They feel not welcome,” Bernardette Dor, 51, one of the pastors, said after the Catholic Church service. “Even in the school system sometimes, they feel different, not because of their skin color but because they’re Haitian. But the reality is that we’re beautiful and we’re blessed.”
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Vatican City, Sep 18, 2024 / 08:54 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday said the Catholic Church is “more alive” outside of Europe as he reflected back on his recent apostolic journey to Southeast Asia.
“A first reflection that comes spontaneously after this trip is that in thinking about the Church we are still too Eurocentric, or, as they say, ‘Western,’” the pope said in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 18.
“But in reality, the Church is much bigger, much bigger than Rome and Europe … and may I say much more alive in these countries,” he added.
In his first general audience since returning from the longest international trip of his pontificate, the pope expressed gratitude to God for his experiences in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore Sept. 2–13.
“I thank the Lord who allowed me to do as an elderly pope what I would have liked to do as a young Jesuit,” Francis said.
The pope, who turns 88 in December, expressed his enthusiasm for the “missionary, outgoing Church” he encountered on his visit to the four island nations in Asia and Oceania.
In Indonesia, where only 3% of the Muslim-majority country’s population is Catholic, Pope Francis said that he encountered “a lively, dynamic Church, capable of living and transmitting the Gospel.”
The pope recalled his visit to the grounds of the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, where he signed a joint declaration with Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar condemning religious-based violence and promoting religious harmony.
“There, I saw that fraternity is the future, it is the answer to anti-civilization, to the diabolical plots of hatred, war, and also sectarianism,” he said.
Pope Francis commented that the missionaries and catechists were the “protagonists” of his visit to Papua New Guinea, where the pope was welcomed by the beating drums of some of the country’s Indigenous tribes who have accepted the Catholic faith.
“I rejoiced to be able to stay a while with the missionaries and catechists of today; and I was moved to listen to the young people’s songs and music: In them, I saw a new future, without tribal violence, without dependency, without economic or ideological colonialism; a future of fraternity and care for the wondrous natural environment,” Francis said.
The pope added that he has “a beautiful memory” from traveling to the remote coastal town of Vanimo, a jungle outpost where he said Argentine missionaries “go into the jungle in search of the most hidden tribes.”
Pope Francis said that he experienced the “air of springtime” in East Timor, a small Catholic country that gained its independence from Indonesia in 2002.
He praised the Catholic country for its many large families and many religious vocations.
“I will never forget the smiles of the children,” he said. “In East Timor, I saw the youthfulness of the Church: families, children, young people, many seminarians and aspirants to consecrated life.”
Frequently throughout his trip, Pope Francis commended the high birth rates found not only in East Timor but also in Indonesia, saying that such high fertility rates should be an example for other countries around the world.
On his return flight to Rome, the pope praised East Timor’s “culture of life,” adding that wealthier countries, including Singapore, could learn from the small country that “children are the future.”
Looking back on his final stop in Singapore, the pope remarked that the modern city-state was very different from other countries he visited during his apostolic journey.
“Even in wealthy Singapore there are the ‘little ones,’ who follow the Gospel and become salt and light, witnesses to a hope greater than what economic gains can guarantee,” he added.
Pope Francis reflected on his journey to the four tropical islands on a cloudy fall morning in Rome. The pope was quite animated as he spoke about his travels, frequently making extra comments off the cuff to the crowd.
He underlined to the crowd that an “apostolic journey” is much different than tourism because “it is a journey to bring the Word of God, to make the Lord known, and also to know the soul of the people.”
At the end of the audience, the pope offered a prayer for the victims of the recent severe flooding in Europe and encouraged the local Catholic communities who are working to provide relief to the flooding caused by Storm Boris.
“In these days, heavy torrential rains have hit Central and Eastern Europe causing victims, missing persons, and extensive damage in Austria, Romania, Czech Republic, and Poland, who have to cope with tragic inconveniences caused by the floods. I assure everyone of my closeness, praying for those who have lost their lives and their families,” he said.
Pope Francis commented that there were many newly married couples who came to the general audience to receive his blessing for their marriages, with the Holy Father giving a shoutout to two Vatican employees who will be married in Vatican City this weekend.
The pope asked the Virgin Mary’s intercession for the newlyweds to have the grace “to accept work and daily crosses as opportunities for growth and purification of your love.”
Francis also prayed for the sick, elderly, and disabled present at the general audience.
“May Our Lady of Sorrows, whom we recalled a few days ago in the liturgy, help you, dear sick and elderly people, to grasp in suffering and difficulties the call to make of your existence a mission for the salvation of your brothers and sisters,” he said.
I was particularly amused recently by a story in which pianist Jeremy Denk wrote about his “My Favorite Mistake” — trying to major in both chemistry and music. He had...
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More than 80 neurodivergent and neurotypical comedy fans came together in an accessible environment. The show featured comics Willie Hunter, Kruger Dunn, Josh Meyrowitz, Laurie Kilmartin, Jeremiah Watkins and Erik Griffin.
The post ‘Let It Out’ Stand-Up for Neurodivergent Adult Comedy Fans and Friends at The Laugh Factory appeared first on Jewish Journal.