Check your local listings for EWTN’s coverage tomorrow, Saturday, May 18, of Italy’s 9th March for Life
Here’s a lovely story: Before the terrorist attack, Sri Lankan Catholics were remembered for their beautiful religious art. Five hundred years ago, the Christian converts of Sri Lanka earned considerable respect from the Portuguese missionaries. This was partly due to their enthusiasm for the new faith, but mostly because of their creative skills. https://aleteia.org/2019/05/17/before-the-terrorist-attack-sri-lankan-catholics-were-remembered-for-their-beautiful-religious-art/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en
PS. Did you know that Sri Lanka (Serendib as it used to be, then Ceylon) gave its name to the English word “serendipity”?
VATICAN INSIDER: A PAPAL NUNCIO AND THE VATICAN’S CELEBRATED DIPLOMATIC CORPS
My guest this week in the interview segment is Archbishop Francisco Javier Lozano, apostolic nuncio or papal ambassador. Ordained a priest in Rome in 1968, he has Doctorates in Theology, Philosophy and Canon Law. He was called to Rome to study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy of Rome and in his early years worked in the nunciatures of Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Yugoslavia and Guatemala.
In his Rome home with many of his famous Russian icons –
From 1984 to 1994 he was Head of the Latin America-Spain Department of the Vatican’s Secretary of State under Pope John Paul II. Abp. Lozano was eventually Apostolic Nuncio in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Croatia, Romania and Moldova. He speaks Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, English, Serbo-Croatian, German, Russian and Romanian.
This is a bike that Pope John Paul gave him after his apostolic voyage to Uruguay, Chile and Argentina March 31-April 12, 1987:
Biking, tennis and golf were his sports preferences!
Listen to Part I to learn more about the Vatican’s celebrated diplomatic corps.
IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at http://www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. OUTSIDE THE U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on http://www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: http://www.ewtn.com/multimedia/audio-library/index.asp (write Vatican Insider where it says Search Shows and Episodes)
NEWS IN BRIEF: FRIDAY, MAY 17
POPE FRANCIS MET WITH PARTICIPANTS IN THE SOCIETY OF AFRICAN MISSIONS ongoing General Assembly, and praised their “courageous missionary zeal.” The Society of African Missions is a missionary order of priests who serve Catholics in Africa, often in rural areas, as well as communities of African origin in other parts of the world. Francis urged them to persevere in serving victims of war and human trafficking, and he prayed with the priests for Fr. Pierluigi Maccalli, who was abducted last year in Niger. The Pope thanked the missionaries for their “great work of evangelization” in places where the Christian community is still fragile and for their special attention to migrants. “These new pastoral horizons are a sign of the vitality of the Holy Spirit at work in you.”
THE HOLY FATHER RECEIVED MEMBERS OF THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS on the 40th anniversary of its founding. “I am pleased to meet you,” said Francis, “and to share with you the intent to defend and promote life, starting from those who are most defenseless or in need of assistance because they are sick, or elderly, or marginalized, or because they face existence and ask for be welcomed and looked after. To all of them, in different ways, you provide an irreplaceable service whenever, as health workers, you offer them the care they need or the closeness that sustains them in their fragility.”
COMMUNIQUE FROM TRIBUNAL OF THE APOSTOLIC SIGNATURA
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith communicated on January 29, 2019 the resignation of Rev. Fr. Hermann Geissler, FSO, to the office at the same Congregation and the request of the same (person) that the canonical process be continued, deeming the accusation against him not true. At the Apostolic Signatura, to which the Holy Father, at the request of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had entrusted that cause, the administrative penal process was celebrated. A College was formed consisting of five Members of the Supreme Tribunal itself, who, meeting on May 15th, issued the decree of acquittal of the accused, not having been proven with due moral certainty, after a careful examination of the matter, the configuration of the alleged serious crime.”
(JFL: The Apostolic Signatura is one of the Church’s three tribunals and is similar to a supreme court as it is the highest judicial authority in the Church, although the Pope “is the supreme ecclesiastical judge and final point of appeal for any ecclesiastical judgment.” The responsibilities of this tribunal are laid out in Pope John Paul’s 1988 Apostolic Constitution “Pastor Bonus”: http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19880628_pastor-bonus-roman-curia.html#TRIBUNALS
Pope Francis and his cardinal advisors are currently writing a new constitution, and it will be interesting to see of the competencies of the Signatura remain or if they are in some way changed or added to)
Joan's Rome 