VATICAN INSIDER AND JRS: JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE (PART II) – FUNERAL FOR CARDINAL LEVADA HELD IN ST. PETER’S – PAPAL CONDOLENCES FOR DEATH OF CARDINAL LEVADA

VATICAN INSIDER AND JRS: JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE (PART II)

Tune in this weekend to Vatican Insider for part II of my interview with Jesuit Fr. Tom Smolich, the international director of JRS, Jesuit Refugee Service. He has riveting stories about the JRS, where it serves, whom the Jesuits and their countless volunteers help and how we should get to know and better understand who refugees actually are. Do you know, for example, that many men and women classified as refugees today are degreed people – doctors, teachers, etc. Father Tom also tells us about JRS’ recent campaign to help a religious minority in Iraq. In addition, I ask Father about his great challenges and his greatest joys – memorable answers!

I took this photo in the JRS headquarters in Rome and told Father Tom I’d have to come back some day just to do a story about the scores of crucifixes and crosses that cover one wall of his office. They really tell the story of JRS!

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: https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive (write Vatican Insider where it says Search Shows and Episodes)

FUNERAL FOR CARDINAL LEVADA HELD IN ST. PETER’S

The funeral of American Cardinal William Levada, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, took place this morning at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica. The cardinal died in the early morning hours of September 26.

At the end of Mass, celebrated by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Francis presided over the rite of the final commendation and the “valedictio.” Fourteen cardinals concelebrated, along with 21 archbishops, bishops and priests, including Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawlowski, delegate for the pontifical representatives.

Joining members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, were Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, deputy secretary of State, and Monsignor Joseph Murphy, head of the protocol office. Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo assisted the rite, directed by the papal master of ceremonies. Among those present were many religious, including the sisters who assisted the cardinal. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the Papal Household, also attended the Mass.

A photo of Pope Francis over the casket of Cardinal Levada was on the front page of the Vatican’s newspaper. L’Osservatore Romano, that came out this afternoon with tomorrow’s date. All of page four was dedicated to Cardinal Levada, and included Cardinal Bertone’s homily.

PAPAL CONDOLENCES FOR DEATH OF CARDINAL LEVADA

The following telegram was published at 6 pm Rome time today:

To The Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco

Having learned with sadness of the death of Cardinal William J. Levada, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Archbishop Emeritus of San Francisco, I hasten to offer my heartfelt condolences to you and to the clergy, religious and faithful of the Archdiocese. Recalling with immense gratitude the late Cardinal’s years of priestly and episcopal ministry among Christ’s flock in Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco, his singular contributions to catechesis, education and administration, and his distinguished service to the Apostolic See, I willingly join you in commending his noble soul to the infinite mercies of God our heavenly Father. To all those who mourn Cardinal Levada’s passing in the sure hope of the Resurrection, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of consolation and peace in the Lord.

FRANCISCUS PP.

VATICAN INSIDER VISITS JRS, JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE – POPE TO DOCTORS: REJECT TEMPTATION TO ASSIST AND SUPPORT SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA

VATICAN INSIDER VISITS JRS, JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE

My guest this week in Vatican Insider’s interview segment is Jesuit Fr. Tom Smolich, the international director of JRS, Jesuit Refugee Service. He has riveting stories about the JRS, explaining its history, where it serves, who the Jesuits and their countless volunteers help and how we should get to know and better understand who refugees actually are. Do you know, for example, that many men and women classified as refugees today are degreed people – doctors, teachers, etc. So listen and learn a lot!

Father Smolich also tells us about JRS’ recent a campaign to help a religious minority in Iraq and so much more. I ask Father about his great challenges and his greatest joys – memorable answers!

I took these photos at the JRS center in Rome, not far from the Jesuit international headquarters on Borgo Santo Spirito. I may have to go back and do an interview just about the crosses and crucifixes on one wall in Father’s office as the stories linked to each cross are also JRS stories – stories of refugee’s lives, dreams and hopes.

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: https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive (write Vatican Insider where it says Search Shows and Episodes)

POPE TO DOCTORS: REJECT TEMPTATION TO ASSIST AND SUPPORT SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA

In a meeting on Friday with representatives of Italy’s surgeons and dentists, Pope Francis spoke about encountering in their patients, persons who are unique in their dignity and fragility, and not just their illness.
By Robin Gomes (vatiannews)

Pope Francis on Friday urged doctors to reject the temptation to assist and support suicide and euthanasia, reminding them of the Hippocratic oath that calls on them to commit themselves to absolute respect for human life and its sacredness.

“Medicine, by definition, is a service to human life, which involves an essential and indispensable reference to the person in his spiritual and material integrity, in his individual and social dimension. …Hence medicine is at the service of man, of the whole man, of every man,” Pope Francis told some 350 representatives of the National Federation of the Orders of Medical Surgeons and Dentists of Italy.

Vision of the human person
He told them that illness is not a mere clinical fact restricted to medicine alone, but includes the condition of a person, the sick. In this human vision, he said, doctors are called to relate to the patient, taking into consideration his singularity as a person who has an illness, and not just the case of the illness the patient has.

This is why, the Pope said, it is important that “the doctor does not lose sight of the uniqueness of each patient, with his dignity and his fragility. …A man or a woman should be accompanied with conscience, intelligence and heart, especially in the most serious situations.”

Suicide, euthanasia
“With this attitude,” stated Francis, “we can and must reject the temptation, also induced by legislative changes, to use medicine to support a possible willingness of the patient to die, providing assistance for suicide or directly causing death by euthanasia.”

The Pope said that these are hasty ways of dealing with choices that are not, as they might appear, an expression of the person’s freedom, when they include getting rid of the patient as a possibility, or false compassion in the face of the request to be helped to anticipate death.

Sacredness of human life
In this regard, Pope Francis recalled the “New Charter for Health Care Workers” of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers that says: “There is no right to dispose arbitrarily of one’s life, so no doctor can become an executive guardian of a non-existent right.”

He also recalled his predecessor, Pope Saint John Paul II, who pointed to the intrinsic and indispensable ethical dimension of the health care profession of the Hippocratic oath, according to which “every doctor is asked to commit himself to absolute respect for human life and its sacredness.”