_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________
The Vatican ________________
No support for divorce
Pope asks lawyers, judges to honor conscience
In an address at the formal opening session of the Vatican’s judicial year, Pope John Paul II emphasized the indissolubility of marriage, and suggested that lawyers might invoke their rights of conscience to avoid becoming involved in divorce cases.
The Holy Father followed the Vatican tradition of receiving the judges, lawyers, and other officials of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, as they opened their sessions for the first time this year. The Roman Rota is the equivalent of an appeals court, handling cases that have already been tried before lower ecclesiastical courts. A heavy proportion of the Tribunal’s work involves cases concerning marriages and annulments.
The Pope drew a distinction between ecclesiastical courts—which seek to determine whether a true marital union was formed—and secular courts—which frequently act on the assumption that a marriage can be sundered by a judicial process. Secular lawyers should not give their assent to such an approach, he said. “Lawyers, as members of a liberal profession, should always refuse to use their professional skills for an end that is contrary to justice, such as divorce,” he said.
The Holy Father said that Catholic lawyers could act to protect the rights of clients in cases of marital separation. But they should not give their assent to a legal system that does not recognize the permanence of marriage.
The same reasoning applies to secular judges, the Pope continued. He recognized, however, that judges may have a more difficult task, “because the legal systems do not recognize a conscientious objection that could exempt them” from divorce cases. He urged judges, when facing this predicament, to “find effective means to favor the marital union.”
Church courts, the Pope said, perform a great service to the cause of marriage by insisting that a valid marriage is indissoluble. He insisted that the Church’s teaching on the permanence of marriage is not a discipline imposed on Catholics, but an “objective fact” regarding the very nature of marriage. Those who do not recognize the permanence of marriage cannot understand the true nature of the union, he argued.
When a Church court issues an annulment—a declaration of nullity, or finding that no true marriage ever took place—the decision allows “peace to the consciences” of those involved, the Pope went on. He added that this decision must always be reached by courts “profoundly in favor of indissoluble marriage and family.”
Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, told the judges of the Roman Rota that they should not be discouraged by public criticism of the Catholic teaching on marriage.
The cardinal made his remarks in a homily during a Mass opening the judicial year for the tribunal of the Roman Rota. He was referring to the storm of criticism in the Italian media provoked by the Pope’s earlier remarks.
“Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake,” Cardinal Pompedda reminded the ecclesiastical judges. He conceded that judges might often face sharp criticism from those who do not understand the Church teaching. But he reminded them that their task is not to soothe public opinion but to “adhere to divine law and its applications.”
Brazilian cardinal to preach retreat
Lenten exercises close Vatican offices
Cardinal Cláudio Hummes of Sao Paulo, Brazil, was selected by Pope John Paul to
preach the Lenten retreat at the Vatican this year on February 17-25.
Cardinal Hummes, widely considered one of the more influential members of the College of Cardinals, was appointed to head the Sao Paulo archdiocese—the largest in Brazil, and second largest in all of Latin America—in April 1998. He received his red hat from Pope John Paul II at the consistory of February 2001. The 67-year-old Franciscan drew attention during last year’s Synod of Bishops with his insistence that a diocesan bishop must lead the Catholic faithful in “dialogue with a post-modern, urban, and pluralist society.”
Cardinal Hummes is the second Brazilian chosen by Pope John Paul II to preach the Lenten retreat. The first was Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves, then the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, who led the retreat in 1980. Another Latin American prelate, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, preached the retreat in 1993. Last year’s preacher was Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
World Catholic population edges up
Sharpest growth in African Church
The 2002 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the yearbook that contains the
official summary of statistics for the Catholic Church, was presented to Pope
John Paul II on Saturday, February 9.
Msgr. Vittorio Formenti, who heads the Vatican’s statistical bureau, presented the new edition of the Annuario, which contains the names and addresses of all bishops and other Church leaders, together with figures about the various dioceses, apostolic administrations, religious orders, and other bodies within the Church. The Annuario provides the most recent available statistics for the Church, through the year 2000.
The new Annuario shows that:
• Since 1978, the number of seminarians around the world has grown by 73 percent, and the number of seminarians in Africa has more than tripled. There were 63,882 seminarians in 1978, and 110,553 in 2000. While the growth in seminary attendance was by far most dramatic in Africa, there were also increases in Asia (125 percent), the Americas (65 percent), and even Europe (12 percent).
• From 1999 to 2000, the number of Catholic priests in the world grew slightly: by 189. A small loss (600) in the number of priests associated with religious orders was offset by some growth (789) among diocesan clergy. There was a remarkable increase in the number of permanent deacons, and in the number of lay people dedicated to evangelical missions.
• The proportion of baptized Catholics among the world’s population edged slightly upward from 17.3 to 17.4 percent. The most heavily Catholic continent is America, where 49.4 percent of the people are Catholics. (The Vatican treats North and South America as a single continent.) Europe is now 26.7 percent Catholic, Africa 12.4 percent, Asia 10.7 percent, and Oceania 0.8 percent.
• The number of people formally involved in Catholic pastoral work is over four million, broken down in this way: 4,521 bishops; 405,178 priests; 27,284 permanent deacons; 55,057 monks (other than priests); 801,185 nuns; 30,687 members of secular institutes; 126,365 lay missionaries; and 2,641,888 catechists.
Security increased
Papal thanks for protection
Pope John Paul II held an audience on January 17 with the members of the General
Inspectorate for Public Security at the Vatican, and thanked them for their
faithful service.
Noting that concerns about security have become much more intense since September 11, the Holy Father said that the Vatican security force “protects many people, famous and unknown, who come to visit the Pope.” He also acknowledged their extra efforts to cope with the “peaceful invasion” of pilgrims during the Jubilee Year of 2000.
Visitors to Rome have noticed that the lines of pilgrims and tourists outside the Vatican basilica and museums have grown longer in recent weeks, as the entry process is slowed by tighter security screening.
Utilizing the Internet
At best, an instrument for evangelization
In his message for the World Day of Social Communications, Pope John Paul II
laid heavy stress on the importance of utilizing the Internet as a tool for
evangelization.
The World Day for Social Communications will be observed on May 12, but the Pope’s message was released by the Vatican late in January. The message was released in Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and English translations. In his message, the Holy Father cautions that the Internet can be used in “degrading and damaging ways.” And the very immediacy of Internet communication can encourage users to focus their attention “on what is tangible, useful, instantly available” so that “the stimulus for deeper thought and reflection may be lacking.”
Nevertheless, the Pope
continues, Christians should find ways to tap the power of the Internet for
positive purposes. The Church has always used every opportunity to spread the
message of the Gospel across geographical and cultural boundaries, he points
out. “Now with the communications and information revolution in full swing, the
Church stands unmistakably at another decisive gateway.”
The Pope sets the proper use of the Internet in perspective by saying: “The fact
that through the Internet people multiply their contacts in ways hitherto
unthinkable opens up wonderful possibilities for spreading the Gospel. But it is
also true that electronically mediated relationships can never take the place of
the direct human contact required for genuine evangelization.”
Testing for seminarians
Psychology as a diagnostic tool
During a meeting with the members of the Congregation for Catholic Education,
Pope John Paul II said that psychological testing can be an important help in
the selection of young men to enter the seminary.
The proper use of psychology, the Pope said, “does not eliminate all difficulties and tensions,” but it can help people to gain a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. The use of psychological testing, he continued, can “promote a better discernment in the choice of seminarians and in their formation.”
Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, later told Vatican Radio that his dicastery is studying plans for widespread psychological testing of candidates for the priesthood. He said that testing and continued psychological assistance could be a “precious aid” in the task of forming young priests. He cautioned at the same time that “a seminarian cannot depend on psychology or psychiatry” to replace an active life of prayer.
Pope John Paul, in his remarks to the members of the Congregation, also emphasized the importance of helping young men to understand the choice of celibacy as a positive gift to the Church. And he asked for renewed efforts to form young men who will be actively engaged in the “new evangelization.”
The Congregation for Catholic Education supervises seminarians around the world—virtually all of the young men studying for the priesthood, except those in the Eastern Catholic churches or in missionary territories, which are under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Evangelization.
Not for sale
Vatican dismisses rumor about selling Pieta
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls
has flatly denied a report that Pope
Paul VI
wanted to sell Michelangelo’s renowned sculpture, the Pieta.
The Italian monthly Diario had raised eyebrows in Rome by publishing a report that Pope Paul, shortly before his death, inquired with an art dealer about the possibility of selling the work. The story in Diario was based on a book published in France two years ago, and soon to appear in an Italian translation. The author, Daniel Wildenstein, claims that Pope Paul wanted to sell Michelangelo’s sculpture in order to raise funds for the Third World.
This report, Navarro-Valls insisted, “has absolutely no foundation.” The Vatican spokesman remarked: “Indeed, it was Paul VI who, following the exposition of the Pieta in the United States, gave specific indications that Michelangelo’s marble sculpture should not leave the Vatican again without special permission from the Holy Father, through the Secretariat of State.”