The Grand Magisterium Spring Meeting
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MMXVIII 2nd QUARTER UARTER MMXVIII 2nd QUARTER CONTENTS Page 1 • Calendar Page 2 • The Order offers a path of sanctification for everyone Page 3 • Sydney archbishop says priests will suffer martyrdom before divulging confessions Page 4 • Could Chesterton, inspirer of popes, soon be beatified? Page 5 • New priests’ appointments in the Latin Patriarchate 2018 Page 8 • The Virgin Mary THE GRAND MAGISTERIUM SPRING celebrated in the streets of Jerusalem MEETING Page 8 • The Grand Magisterium Spring meeting A new direction is emerging regarding the projects followed by the Grand Magisterium: human formation will be Page 10 • Corpus Domini: “The privileged over the construction of buildings, in particular through the support of the Catholic schools network of the Eucharist is a gift for which we must be prepared” Patriarchate in the Holy Land. (Read more) Page 11 • The Diocese of Jerusalem prays for peace in the Holy Land CALENDAR Page 12 • Fr. Rafic Nahra: “The The Order offers a path of sanctification personal parish will help us better support the life of faith of for everyone migrants and asylum seekers” Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, answers some questions about the Church in Sweden, the role of the Page 13 • We Remember Our Order and female participation. (Read more) Deceased Members Grand Master’s Visit Page 14 • Other Helpful Links and Details We are in the final Could Chesterton, inspirer of popes, stages of planning for soon be beatified? Editor the Grand Master’s His writings do not leave anyone indifferent, not even the Mr. Simon Milton KHS 0448 350 272 popes. (Read more) visit in September – [email protected] keep an eye out for further details and RSVP forms in the next Corpus Domini: “The Eucharist is a gift for which we must be prepared” few weeks. The faithful of the Latin Church of Jerusalem gathered at the Holy Sepulcher to commemorate the Presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. (Read more) 1 MMXVIII 2nd QUARTER UARTER The Order offers a path of sanctification for everyone April 2018 Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and Grand Prior of Honor of the then Lieutenancy for Sweden (today for Sweden- Denmark) answers some questions about the Church in Sweden, the role of the Order and female participation. The first Swedish cardinal in history, the Carmelite Cardinal Arborelius was elected in 2017 as “Sweden of the Year”, and this appointment is also a record since in the traditionally Lutheran country it is the first time that such recognition was given to a Catholic priest. What does it mean to serve the Church in a non- Catholic majority country? Do you think that the fact of being a minority Church invites one to perceive one’s own Catholic identity in a particular way? As member of a Catholic minority in a secular surrounding you have to live in a very deep personal relationship to Jesus and be well integrated into the local Church. There will be many circumstances when you can give witness of your faith and try to explain why you want to be a faithful Catholic. People are often more open and interested than we think. You have to rely on God’s grace and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and have the courage to speak with an open heart also about difficult issues. Then people will listen and respect you, even if they cannot accept everything you say. For many years you held the role of Grand Prior of the then Lieutenancy for Sweden (now Lieutenancy for Sweden-Denmark). What was your experience of this? How do you think the Order can support the call to holiness of Catholics in your country? It is important to show the candidates who enter and become part of the Lieutenancy that it is their vocation to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in their everyday life, not some kind of privilege or high position. The notion of evangelical service to God and his Church in the Holy Land is essential to understand. We belong to the holy people of God and there are many ways to live a life of sanctification, but they who want to enter the Lieutenancy have to understand that they shall be open to the call to holiness in the Order. Recently you spoke in favour of a broader involvement of women at various levels within the Church. As a lay institution, the Order already offers an example of collaboration between men and women thanks to the possibility for women to be nominated for any position within the Lieutenancy. Could you tell us something more about it? What would you suggest to bolster female participation in the Church? Many women today have difficulties to enter the traditional apostolic congregations and still many of them want to follow Jesus on the path to holiness and service of the Church. A more contemporary charism for modern women is highly needed, when this model of life seems to lose its force of attraction. As you said the Order could offer women of today the possibility to give themselves for God and the Church in the Holy Land. Similar possibilities have to be found on various levels for women of today. Interview by Elena Dini 2 MMXVIII 2nd QUARTER UARTER Sydney archbishop says priests will suffer martyrdom before divulging confessions While the Church increasingly takes a lead in fighting child sex abuse, including in Australia, Church leaders maintain that the seal of confession cannot be put under discussion. April 5, 2018 - The government of the Australian state of New South Wales is seeking to implement a range of laws targeting child abuse, in response to the final report of a broad investigation into abuse perpetrated by institutions, including members of the Church, which was released last year. Among the proposals being considered are those which would apply to priests, including regulation or negation of the seal of confession. The seal of confession is a set of strict rules keeping priests from revealing or commenting in any way on what is heard in the sacrament of confession. A priest who breaks the seal is excommunicated, and in the history of the Church, some priests have given their lives rather than break the seal. But some voices in the government reason that if a priest hears about sexual abuse in confession — either from the perpetrator, or perhaps more commonly, from the victim — he should be forced to reveal his knowledge of the crime. The premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, said the question of the seal of confession would not be included within the new state laws and should be handled at a national level: “We believe it is beyond the boundaries of any one state,” she said, also describing it as needing “to be balanced with what people believe to be religious freedoms.” While the Church increasingly takes a lead in fighting child sex abuse, including in Australia, Church leaders maintain that the seal of confession cannot be put under discussion. Archbishop Anthony Fisher, the archbishop of the city of Sydney, which is the largest city of New South Wales, spoke about confession in his Easter homily, which was focused on the sacraments. “Confession,” he said, “is another beautiful Easter gift, stirring us to contrition and resolve to sin no more, enabling a life-long journey of conversion, reconciling us to God and the Church, and giving us ‘pardon and peace.'” Like the sacrament of Baptism, Archbishop Fisher said, confession “is threatened today both by neglect and attack.” “But priests will, we know, suffer punishment, even martyrdom, rather than break the seal of Confession,” he said. “For Confession is a privileged encounter between penitent and God; here the Christian enters the silence and secrecy of the Tomb, to be re-Eastered; and no earthly authority may enter there.” Global question In 2016, a similar situation arose in the US state of Louisiana. 3 MMXVIII 2nd QUARTER A law that was set to require clergy to report allegations of wrongdoing, even if learned during sacramentalUARTER confession, was deemed unconstitutional by a state judge. There, too, the legislation arose because of a case of sexual abuse. Rebecca Mayeaux said she was 14 in 2008 when she told a priest in a confession that a 64-year-old parishioner was sexually abusing her. At trial, the priest testified that he would be automatically excommunicated if he revealed what was said in any confession. “If we ever violate the seal, it’s over. It’s finished,” said Father Jeff Bayhi in response to a question from one of his attorneys, Don Richard. When Richard asked if he would ever violate the seal of confession, Father Bayhi replied, “Knowingly? Absolutely not. If that’s not sacred, no one would ever trust us.” The priest said he cannot even disclose if a confession took place. So what is religious freedom? The issue in many way boils down precisely to what Berejiklian, the Australian premier, questioned: What is religious freedom? And can we reach an understanding of religious freedom that goes beyond, as Berejiklian remarked, what “people believe to be religious freedoms,” in other words, a definition of religious freedom that is not vulnerable to the changing trends of what a majority understands or what a certain power mandates. The Second Vatican Council declared “that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.” But what could and should those “due limits” entail? Benedict XVI considered religious freedom in his 2010 World Day of Peace message.