Tag: Vatican Spring

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What did San Diegan Aaron Bianco, once chased out of his church for his LGBTQ ministry, tell Pope Francis?

‘I work with LGBT Catholics in the United States, and I want to thank you for speaking up that all people should feel welcome in the church,’ he tells the pontiff

Aaron Bianco, a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, meets Pope Francis at the Vatican while attending an international conference exploring Pope Francis’ 2016 treatise on marriage and family, “Amoris Laetitia.”

By sandi dolbee

As he approached Pope Francis, who was seated in a wheelchair because of a painful knee and clothed in his familiar white cassock and cap, Aaron Bianco already had been coached on what not to do. Don’t bow or genuflect; he doesn’t like that. Don’t kiss his ring; it makes him angry. But do take off your mask; he wants to see your face.

Bending over to get closer to him, Bianco gave him a handwritten letter, which staff members promptly snatched. Then Francis reached up and clasped Bianco’s hands as his visitor began to speak.

“Your holiness, my name is Aaron Bianco. I’m a professor at the University of San Diego.” At the mention of San Diego, the pontiff noticeably brightened and they spent a couple moments sharing their mutual admiration for Robert McElroy, local bishop of this diocese who would be named a cardinal two weeks later.

Bianco pressed on. “I work with LGBT Catholics in the United States, and I want to thank you for speaking up that all people should feel welcome in the church.”

Francis squeezed Bianco’s hand. “He said, ‘You need to continue that work because they need to feel welcome in the church, and we need more people like you.’ ”

As Bianco walked back to his seat, tears filled his eyes.

What a difference four years can make.

In October 2018, Bianco’s tears were of another kind. He was stepping down from his lay ministry to gays and lesbians at St. John the Evangelist Church in Hillcrest, chased out by a vitriolic campaign mounted by anti-gay factions who published invasive diatribes on websites, vandalized his car, scrawled a homophobic slur on a church wall and even threatened his life.

It was, in short, a living hell.

But there he was last month at the Vatican as an invited guest, communing with the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics — the largest Christian church on the planet. And that leader had just told him to keep up the good work.

It was a long way from hell.

“Ineffable” is how he describes the experience — one of those precious moments that is beyond words.

Bianco, who teaches in USD’s theology and religious studies department, was in Rome to deliver a paper on the plight of LGBT Catholics at an international conference exploring Pope Francis’ 2016 treatise on marriage and family, “Amoris Laetitia.” The document, which called for better integration of divorced, remarried and LGBT Catholics, had gained widespread attention when it was released and the pope now wanted the church to explore the ideas more deeply. Held May 11 to 14, the conference drew more than 150 participants.

Pope Francis with attendees of an international conference exploring his 2016 treatise on marriage and family, “Amoris Laetitia.”

Sharing their stories

He began his presentation by introducing himself as a gay man living in a committed relationship for 17 years, but then segued into a slide show that told four stories of other gay Catholics and their feelings of exclusion and condemnation as they struggle to live authentic lives. Among them: An older gay man who, with his partner of 35 years, raised a niece who is now a nun, and a lesbian couple who watched Mass on TV for years rather than risk the pain of being denied the Eucharist because of who they are.

“I didn’t want the talk to be about me,” Bianco says. “I really do this for other people. I think I’m at a place where I understand the church and I know how the church works and I don’t get too flustered when I hear things that I don’t like. I know what it means to be a Catholic. But what’s sad to me is people who aren’t at that place and they leave because they’re unhappy.”

He was nervous when he stood to deliver his address, which was held in a breakout session. But as soon as he began to show the slides and tell their stories, he saw by the concentration on people’s faces that it was working. “There was one sister who teaches at a university in Nairobi. I do believe I saw tears starting to come down her eyes.”

Emily Reimer-Barry, an associate professor of Christian ethics at USD, sat in on Bianco’s talk. Most of the seats in the room were taken — and there was a line of people waiting afterward to speak to him.

The stories resonated with the audience, says Reimer-Barry, who delivered a paper on women in the church at the conference. “People see the humanity. Even I as a cisgender, heterosexual female can hear those stories and be moved. It’s not because I share their sexual orientation. It’s because I see their humanity. I see their struggle. He was able to bring those stories to light and that’s just such a gift.”

It was Reimer-Barry who urged Bianco to submit a proposal to speak at the conference. “I really thought that Aaron’s expertise and voice would contribute significantly to the conversation in Rome. I was not surprised when it did.”

While Bianco’s talk praised the pontiff for taking steps toward inclusion, he also pointed out where his treatise fell short. He especially took umbrage at Francis referring to gay relationships as “irregular.”

He also criticized priests and bishops who deny the Eucharist to LGBT Catholics. “Eucharist is the pinnacle of God’s love and dwelling within us,” he told the conference. “Should we not find ways to bring all those in ‘irregular’ situations back to the Lord?”

The letter Bianco wrote to the pope included two of the stories.

Wait — and see

What impact this conference might have remains uncertain. While Pope Francis himself seems open to change, his words have had little impact on official church policy, which continues to teach that “under no circumstances” are homosexual acts condoned.

Bianco acknowledges the challenge of balancing centuries of teaching with an evolving awareness of sexuality. And he is walking proof of the deeply held resistance on the part of many conservatives and traditionalists who are convinced this is a sin too great to overcome.

And this isn’t the only issue before the church. What about the debate over women priests and married priests?

“I think (Pope Francis) often thinks to himself, ‘If I move too fast, what’s going to happen?’ So how do we move at a rate that is not going to cause some kind of schism inside the church?”

Bianco remains convinced that he can do more good working for change within the church than leaving and going somewhere else.

“For me, I truly believe that at my baptism it became my home,” says Bianco, a cradle Catholic from New York.

He praises the pope’s decision to elevate Bishop McElroy, who is considered a progressive, to the College of Cardinals, leapfrogging over higher-ranking, but more conservative, archbishops.

“There are parts of the church that I disagree with. I make no bones about that,” Bianco tells me. “But I also in the church have found some of the most kind, loving, gospel-oriented people that I have ever met who love me just the way I am.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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San Diego Bishop McElroy named by Pope Francis as a cardinal

Robert W. McElroy, bishop of the diocese of San Diego, attends a conference at the Vatican on nuclear disarmament in 2017.

By DAVID CRARY

Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, one of Pope Francis’ ideological allies who has often sparred with more conservative U.S. bishops, was named by the pope on Sunday as one of 21 new cardinals.

The San Diego diocese said McElroy will be installed by Pope Francis on Aug. 27 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Among his notable stances, McElroy, 68, has been one of a minority of U.S. bishops harshly criticizing the campaign to exclude Catholic politicians who support abortion rights from Communion.

“It will bring tremendously destructive consequences,” McElroy wrote in May 2021. “The Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare. This must not happen.”

In selecting McElroy, Francis passed over the higher-ranking archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone. Earlier this month, Cordileone said he would no longer allow U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

McElroy, in a statement, said he was “stunned and deeply surprised” by the news of his appointment.

“My prayer is that in this ministry I might be of additional service to the God who has graced me on so many levels in my life,” he said. “And I pray also that I can assist the Holy Father in his pastoral renewal of the Church.”

A native San Franciscan, McElroy received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard in 1975 and a master’s in history from Stanford in 1976.

He studied at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, and in 1985 received a theology degree at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. He obtained a doctorate in moral theology at the Gregorian University in Rome the following year and a PhD in political science at Stanford in 1989.

He was ordained a priest in 1980 and assigned to the San Francisco diocese, where he served in a parish before becoming personal secretary to Archbishop John Quinn. Other California parish assignments included Redwood City and San Mateo.

He became an auxiliary bishop in San Francisco in 2010. In 2015, early in Francis’ pontificate, he was named bishop of San Diego.

Over recent years, McElroy has been among the relatively few U.S. bishops who questioned why the bishops’ conference insisted on identifying abortion as its “preeminent” priority. He has questioned why greater prominence was not given to issues such as racism, poverty, immigration and climate change.

“The death toll from abortion is more immediate, but the long-term death toll from unchecked climate change is larger and threatens the very future of humanity,” he said in a speech in 2020.

Last year, he was among a small group of bishops signing a statement expressing support for LGBTQ youth and denouncing the bullying often directed at them.

The bishops’ statement said LGBTQ youth attempt suicide at much higher rates, are often homeless because of families who reject them and “are the target of violent acts at alarming rates.”

“We take this opportunity to say to our LGBT friends, especially young people, that we stand with you and oppose any form of violence, bullying or harassment directed at you,” it read. “Most of all, know that God created you, God loves you and God is on your side.”

The Diocese of San Diego runs the length of California’s border with Mexico and serves more than 1.3 million Catholics in San Diego and Imperial counties. It includes 98 parishes, 49 elementary and secondary schools, and, through Catholic Charities of the Diocese of San Diego, various social service and family support organizations throughout the region.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Pope rules baptised lay Catholics, including women, can lead Vatican departments

Italian lay woman Francesca Di Giovanni, who was named by Pope Francis as the first woman to hold a high-ranking post in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, is pictured at the Vatican, December 23, 2013

By

Pope Francis introduced a landmark reform on Saturday that will allow any baptised lay Catholic, including women, to head most Vatican departments under a new constitution for the Holy See’s central administration.

For centuries, the departments have been headed by male clerics, usually cardinals or bishops, but that could change from June 5 when the new charter takes effect after more than nine years of work.

The 54-page constitution, called Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), was released on the ninth anniversary of Francis’ installation as pope in 2013, and replaces one issued in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

Its preamble says the “pope, bishops and other ordained ministers are not the only evangelisers in the Church”, adding that lay men and women “should have roles of government and responsibility” in the central administration, known as the Curia.

The principles section of the constitution says “any member of the faithful can head a dicastery (Curia department) or organism” if the pope decides they are qualified and appoints them.

Under the 1988 constitution, the departments – with a few exceptions – were to be headed by a cardinal or bishop and assisted by a secretary, experts and administrators.

The new constitution makes no distinction between lay men and lay women, though experts said at least two departments – the department for bishops and the department for clergy – will remain headed by men because only men can be priests in the Catholic Church.

The department for consecrated life, which is responsible for religious orders, could conceivably be headed by a nun in the future, the experts said. It is now led by a cardinal.

In an interview with Reuters in 2018, the pope said he had short-listed a woman to head a Vatican economic department, but she could not take the job for personal reasons.

ROLE OF LAITY ‘ESSENTIAL’

The new constitution said the role of lay Catholics in governing roles in the Curia was “essential” because of their familiarity with family life and “social reality”.

Francis also merged some offices, created a new one to oversee charity efforts, and set up a new order of importance.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which includes lay people and abuse victims, appears to have been given more institutional influence by being incorporated into the doctrinal department, which decides on sanctions for priests convicted of sexual abuse.

But one of the commission’s original members, Marie Collins of Ireland, said on Twitter this could hurt its independence.

While the Secretariat of State kept its premier position as administrative, coordinating and diplomatic department, the centuries-old high status of the doctrinal office was placed below that of the department of evangelisation.

The pope will head the evangelisation office himself, highlighting the importance he gives to spreading and reviving the faith.

Francis has already named a number of lay people, among them women, to Vatican departments.

Last year, he for the first time named a woman to the number two position in the governorship of Vatican City, making Sister Raffaella Petrini the highest-ranking woman in the world’s smallest state.

Also last year, he named Italian nun Sister Alessandra Smerilli to the interim position of secretary of the Vatican’s development office, which deals with justice and peace issues.

In addition, Francis has named Nathalie Becquart, a French member of the Xaviere Missionary Sisters, as co-undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, which prepares major meetings of world bishops held every few years.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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The Nun Reshaping the Role of Women Inside the Vatican

Sister Nathalie Becquart will play a prominent role at the Synod of Bishops next year as Pope Francis tries to encourage new voices in the hierarchy.

Sister Nathalie Becquart will serve as under secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops next year in Rome.

By Celestine Bohlen

Sister Nathalie Becquart, 53, a French Roman Catholic nun, was named to serve as under secretary of the Synod of Bishops, a summit of 250 bishops from around the world that will meet in Rome in 2023. She will become the first woman with a right to vote at such a high-level Vatican gathering.

What is the significance of your appointment?

We can read this as a call by Pope Francis to have a woman be there — not just as a woman, but as a lay person. I am a lay woman, since as religious (a church term for members of religious orders), we are not clerics. He really believes that the Holy Spirit speaks not only through the hierarchy, but also through all baptized people.

At the beginning of the church, there was this idea that the church was first of all a community. Then, for many historical reasons, the church put the focus on the institutional hierarchy. And now we rediscover that the main focus of the church is people walking together: Everyone has a role. Nobody should be set aside. We are together, the church, the people of God, all of us — bishops, men, women, lay people, religious, married, single, children — baptized. So we all have to be protagonists of the mission of the church.

What kind of issues will you be voting on at the synod?

That’s difficult to say. The Synod of Bishops is a process, one that was founded at the end of Vatican II as a way to continue the experience of the pope meeting with all the bishops, an advisory body for the pope. Now, it is a listening process that has already started in dioceses all over the world. This synod — which follows synods on youth (2018) and on the Amazon region (2019) — is about what kind of church we want to be, how we can best serve the world.

So far we are at the listening stage, the first time in the history of the church that we have such a broad-based listening process.

How has Pope Francis given women a greater voice in the Church? What difference has it made?

Pope Francis has been trying to fill the gap that has sometimes been put between leaders and faithful — those who know or who teach, on one side, and the rest.

Women are a part of the church. Which is why it is so important that they have a voice, that they participate. There was a major change a year ago when Pope Francis opened up the possibility for women to have a specific role (in church services) as lectors and acolytes; before, that was only for men.

What are the obstacles to women being ordained priests in the Catholic Church?

The vision of Pope Francis, through this synod, is to get rid of a clerical church and move to a synodal church — to disconnect participation in the leadership of the church from ordination. We can say that the way now opening up is to listen to all different views; for instance, not everyone thinks ordination of women is a good path. You have some groups calling for that, but you also have some groups calling for new ministries.

The question of women is a sign of the times. It is a powerful call within our societies and in the church. The church has already said we should fight against any discrimination against women. But it is a long way, not only in the church.

What have been your experiences as a woman in what were once all-male gatherings?

I was the first woman to be director of the national office of youth and vocation at the French Catholic Bishops Conference; before it was always a priest. At a gathering in Lourdes, I remember a very old bishop asked me, “So whose secretary are you?” I said, “No, not a secretary, I am a director of a national office.” He was a little bit surprised because someone from his generation — they were usually trained in minor seminaries since the age of 12 — didn’t have a lot of experience with women.

The younger generation is different; many have had professional experiences. I work with young priests, and for many of them, working in team with women who may be their boss, it is no longer a question.

You have degrees in business management, philosophy, sociology and theology; you have worked as a volunteer in Lebanon; studied in Boston and Chicago; and worked as a consultant at a marketing agency for nongovernmental and religious organizations. What parts of that experience led you to this critical — maybe history-making — role at the heart of the Catholic Church?

When I was young, I was a girl scout and later a scout leader. It was kind of a school of leadership.

As a student at HEC Paris (the prestigious business school), I specialized in entrepreneurship, how to take risks, to organize a business plan. I learned a lot about how to work as a team, about project management, how to develop the spirit of entrepreneurship, how to take risks.

I became a nun in 1995, at age 26, so there is also my experience in religious life. I would highlight my spiritual path of transformation, of conversion, of living in a community. Throughout life, you face difficulties, crises, storms. But if you are really rooted in faith, and sure that Christ is with you, the main message of the Gospels and the church is that darkness is not the end. There is always this message of hope and resurrection. This has helped me, even through difficult times.

You are also a great sailor.

I am a skipper! And yes, sailing has been a great school of life and leadership. When you are a skipper, you have to listen to your crew. For many years, I received the gift to sail and lead retreats for young adults. It was a way to put together my experience sailing and my call for a ministry to help young people. Truly, the sea is my place.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Pope decries genital mutilation, sex trafficking of women

Pope Francis is decrying the genital mutilation of millions of girls and the trafficking of women for sex, including openly on city streets

Pope Francis delivers the Angelus noon prayer from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022.

Pope Francis on Sunday decried the genital mutilation of millions of girls and the trafficking of women for sex, including openly on city streets, so others can make money off of them.

In remarks to the public in St. Peter’s Square, the pope noted that the day was dedicated worldwide to ending the ritual mutilation, and he told the crowd that some 3 million girls each year undergo the practice, “often in conditions very dangerous for the health.”

“This practice, unfortunately widespread in various regions of the world, humiliates the dignity of women and gravely attacks their physical integrity,” Francis said.

Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures that involve changing or injuring female genitalia for non-medical reasons and violates the human rights, health and the integrity of girls and women, the United Nations says in championing an end to the practice.

The practice can cause severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infections, and difficulty in passing urine, as well as consequences for sexual and reproductive health. While mainly concentrated in some 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East, it is also a problem for girls and women living elsewhere, including among immigrant populations.

According to U.N. figures, at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone the practice.

The pope also told the faithful that on Tuesday, there will be a day of prayer and reflection worldwide against human trafficking.

“This is a deep wound, inflicted by the shameful search of economic interests, without respect for the human person,” Francis said. ”So many girls — we see them on the streets — who aren’t free, they are slaves of the traffickers, who send them to work, and, if they don’t bring back money, they beat them,” the pope said. “This is happening today in our cities.”

“In the face of these plagues on humanity, I express my sorrow and I exhort all those who have responsibility to act in a decisive way to impede both the exploitation and the humiliating practices that afflict in particular women and girls,” Francis said.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!