The hunger strikers are denouncing the social policies adopted by the current administration and the country's court system.

They say the system is not obeying the Brazilian Constitution, which is resulting in increased violence, unemployment and hunger. Read more

The current work is the second stage of a project which grew from earthquake strengthening work to include renovation, refurbishment and maintenance work. Continue reading in NZ Catholic

The school is open to all people in Jericho who are aged 14-29. Most are Muslim.

The Franciscan-owned and run centre offers free courses in topics such as English lessons, art, theater and computers, as well as sports.

Those attending the school are enthusiastic.

"I want to be a professional photographer," said one student who has spent most of his summer at the center. "I can improve my skills in this class."

The professional training the photography students also learn about digital media in general, as well as videography and radio production.

A digital media student from a local university says the class "is giving students the opportunity to enhance their individual creativity and see things in new ways."

USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) contributed to the costs of setting up the centre.

Source

• Crux
• Custodia Terrae Sanctae
• Image: BBC

This was announced by the Ministers General of the First Order in a letter dated November 29.

"As an expression of the academic unity of the Franciscan family, this project will be committed to an emphasis on the distinctive wisdom of the primacy of love in the Franciscan School," the letter stated.

"This will give new impetus to the affective way, which in our history has been explored through a variety of avenues."

Continue reading

A trained psychologist, he was a fixture on Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network, better known as EWTN.

With other Capuchin priests, he formed the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, based in New York City, in 1987.

The y highlighted communal living and wore traditional garb while serving the poor and needy.

They would also use any means they could to promote their message; a rock band organised by some of the sandal-clad, bearded brothers inspired a 2007 New York Times story called "Monks Who Play Punk."

Fr Groeschel's community touched a chord, and, at his death, had nine friaries in the US, four in Europe and two convents in Central America.

In 2012, he apologised for controversial comments that blamed some child victims of clerical sexual abuse for inviting the molestation.

After this he stopped his EWTN appearances and gave up the public spotlight.

"At some point you have to take the car keys away from grandpa," Fr Glenn Sudano, a spokesman for the friars, said at the time.

Continue reading

The Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education announced that Franciscan Sr Mary Melone has been appointed rector of the Pontifical University Antonianum.

The Antonianum is run by the Order of Friars Minor.

Sr Melone is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Blessed Angelina and is currently president of the Italian Society for Theological Research (SIRT).

An expert of St Anthony of Padua, she has a doctorate in dogmatic theology and has previously served as the Antonianum's dean of theology, being the first woman to do so.

When she was elected dean of theology in 2011, she told L'Osservatore Romano that the Church does not need gender quotas.

"No, it doesn't need quotas, it needs collaboration. And collaboration needs to grow," Sr Melone said.

She pointed out that the board that appointed her as dean was made up entirely of men.

In the L'Osservatore Romano interview, Sr Melone said she didn't give much importance to labels like "female theology".

She said it is up to women to "get the ball rolling" in terms of their "space" in the Church.

"Women cannot measure how much space they have in the Church in comparison to men; we have a space of our own, which is neither smaller nor greater than the space men occupy," she said in 2011.

"It is our space. Thinking that we have to achieve what men have, will not get us anywhere," she said.

She added that "a great deal more can be done, but there is change, you can see it, feel it".

Sr Melone added that reference to female theology did not fit her vision, as "all that exists is theology".

Women's approach to mystery, the way women reflects on mystery, is often different to that of men, but they do not contrast, she said.

"I believe in theology and I believe that theology created by a woman is typical of a woman.

"It is different, but without the element of laying claim to it.

"Otherwise it almost seems as though I am manipulating theology, when it is instead a field that requires honesty from the person who places him/herself before the mystery."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• La Stampa
• Image: Salt and Light TV

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered Fr Zawada, 76, to live a life of prayer and penance at a Franciscan Friary in Wisconsin.

Fr Zawada, a long time peace and human rights activist, said he would refuse to do penance for his personal convictions and those of others.

Continue reading

The Associated Press reported that the case has become a flashpoint in the "ideological tug-of-war" in the Catholic Church over the pontiff's agenda.

The matter concerns the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a small but growing order of several hundred priests, seminarians and nuns that was founded in Italy in 1990 as an offshoot of the larger Franciscan order.

The previous pontiff, Benedict XVI, launched an investigation into the congregation when five of its priests complained that the order was taking on an overly traditionalist bent.

The dispute goes back to differing interpretations of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which include the use of local languages in Mass that some considered a break with the church's tradition.

Benedict relaxed restrictions on using Latin for the service in 2007.

The Vatican in July named the Rev. Fidenzio Volpi, a Franciscan Capuchin friar, as a special commissioner to run the order with a mandate to quell the dissent within its ranks and get a handle on its finances. In the same decree appointing Volpi, Francis forbade the friars from celebrating the Mass in Latin without special permission.

Four tradition-minded Italian intellectuals wrote to the Vatican accusing it of violating Benedict's 2007 edict, saying the Holy See was imposing "unjust discrimination" against those who celebrate the ancient rite.

Volpi though was undeterred, and on Dec. 8 took action, issuing a series of sanctions in the name of the pope that have stunned observers, the AP report said.

Volpi closed the friars' seminary and sent its students to other religious universities in Rome. He suspended the activities of the friars' lay movement. He suspended ordinations of priests for a year and required those who wish to be ordinated to formally accept the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and its new liturgy or be kicked out. And he decreed that current priests must commit themselves in writing to following the existing mission of the order.

Pope Francis has called Benedict's 2007 decree allowing wider use of the Latin Mass "prudent," but has warned that it risks being exploited on ideological grounds by factions in the church.

A group of tradition-minded lay Catholics has started an online petition asking for Volpi's ouster.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi defended Volpi as a sage administrator and dismissed calls for his ouster.

Sources

Associated Press/Trib Live
AP/The Globe and Mail
Image: Reuters/Trib Live

Scaffolding is needed for major repairs and maintenance, such as replacing a roof, or painting a tall building. Sometimes, this scaffolding is then plastic-wrapped, to provide privacy, safety, and a weather-proof working environment.

Once work is completed the scaffolding is dismantled. Ladders, cherry pickers, or long poles are then used to effect minor repairs and on-going maintenance.

We are a building - Shekhinah, a temple of God. Well-designed. The intrinsic design and health of my temple will enable it to weather many storms. But it still needs regular upkeep … and sometimes a major overhaul.

How do I maintain the spiritual life of this temple?

There is an infinite variety of 'scaffolding' available to us on our spiritual journey. Sacraments. Prayer. Worship. Community. Retreat. Spiritual teaching and reading. Spiritual direction and companionship. The framework provided by different spiritualities, such as Marist, Benedictine, Franciscan, Ignatian. Silence.

Some of this scaffolding is designed for major events … initiation, marriage, ordination, death. It shapes us, moulds us, gifts us with grace … but then we take it down and allow that grace to become visible in our temple.

Sometimes we erect scaffolding and wrap it in plastic, to effect a major change. Entering a time of retreat or discernment, when we become especially attentive to the voice of the divine, is a time when we are particularly vulnerable. We need the protection and privacy that exclusion of the outside world offers. But then we strip away the scaffolding and the protective wrap, and slowly the metamorphosis that has taken place deep within, will become evident in our attitudes, our words, our actions.

There are many tools available to us to effect minor repairs and on-going maintenance. Communal worship and liturgy nourishes and sustains us. Reconciliation and conflict resolution repairs cracks and dents in our relationships with others and with God. A personal prayer discipline, unique to each of us as we seek to relate to the God-within and the God-without. Service to others … being the eyes and ears and feet and heart of God to others. Reflection on sacred scripture. Small group interactions.

Our institutional churches are also temples - literally and metaphorically. Well designed. Intrinsically good. But the scaffolding has been up for many years - and I wonder why it has not been taken down. Scaffolding in the guise of Vatican 2 enabled major renovations within the Catholic Church - a major transformation. But not only is this scaffolding being dismantled, many of the renovations have also been removed. A little counter-productive.

I wonder if ancient, ineffectual scaffolding is shoring up a crumbling edifice. Perhaps it is time for this scaffolding to be removed, and demolition experts invited in to remove all that is rotten. This is not a time for plastic-wrapping: everything must be done in plain view, open to inspection and inspiration.

Scaffolding is always a sign of hope; of new beginnings; of creativity and hard work; of attentiveness to what has been done, what needs to be done, and what needs to be protected. Scaffolding is always unique. It is shaped to the building and to the work that must be undertaken. Scaffolding can be used again and again but each time it will be different and will enable different work to be done. While scaffolding is designed to facilitate construction work and repairs, its primary purpose is ALWAYS the health and safety of those who use it.

Can we say that the scaffolding we use in our spiritual life is healthy - for us and for those who encounter us?

Can we say that the scaffolding our churches use is healthy - and considers first those who dwell within and those who are passers-by?

• Liz Pearce, a mother of three adult children, loves story, writing, and dollmaking www.heartfeltdolls.weebly.com

In the action of having our feet washed or in washing the feet of another, we acted out concretely the love and very presence of Christ.

Christ, then, the love of God that is present, hands-on, human, concrete.

What is so striking about the Raising of Lazarus is the wealth of that kind of detail: an actual place, Bethany, two sisters, Martha and Mary, a group of mourners, weeping; Jesus deeply moved and also weeping, and a corpse, Lazarus, already dead and decomposing. At the same time, a powerful countervailing movement that is all about life: Jesus, confessed by Martha to be, ‘the resurrection and the life'; Jesus, commanding the stone to be removed from the tomb; praying to God for strength; calling to Lazarus to ‘come out'; and then, ‘unbind him and let him go'.

In this - graphically portrayed - we see both the power and sheer concreteness of the Gospel.

As I read it, I thought spontaneously of the new Pope, Francis, formerly Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Cardinal of Buenos Aires. Already we know quite a bit about him: how he studied to be a chemistry technician before going to seminary; had a lung removed after a severe attack of pneumonia; as Cardinal, lived in a small two-room apartment, cooked his own meals; travelled on the Underground , supported a local football club; and now as Pope, has refused to live in the grand papal apartment; has washed the feet (on Maundy Thursday) of some young criminals in a Roman Jail; is interacting warmly and spontaneously with the crowds that throng around St.Peter's.

More importantly, however, this man of obvious humanity and humility, has, by his words and actions, made one big announcement: that the prime task of the Church in future years will be to care and advocate for the poor and dispossessed of the earth. To understand this, we have to recall that in 1968, in Medellin, Columbia, the whole Latin American Episcopate agreed on a document that expressed an ‘option for the poor'. Not only was this an acceptance of the central thesis of the Liberation Theology of the time, it was also a clear policy directive to parishes, schools, and other Catholic institutions on that continent, the place where 41% of all Catholics now live.

Pope Francis, I would say, is now set to make this same ‘option for the poor' the keynote of the mission of the entire Catholic Church in coming years - and this in the light of the widely acknowledged yawning (and growing) gap between rich and poor worldwide. Can our world live at peace with itself when injustice on this scale threatens to tear the social fabric of societies apart, and this in the name of a profit-driven economic theory? ‘No' says the new Pope and this in the name of God and a genuinely felt human compassion. His power in world politics is of course limited; but by example, by speaking out, and by choosing to travel to the poorer parts of the world - as I'm sure he will - he will make the poor publically visible at a time when the media make them invisible because not newsworthy.

I don't think the media have really caught up with this. Rather, we're hearing ‘will he/won't he' stories about reform of the Curia - which really means the de-centralization of the Church; about celibacy of the clergy, abuse scandals, gay marriage - largely the agendas of western liberal societies. While all these issues are important - and the Pope has already addressed some of them (abuse, the Curia)- I am reminded of the saying of a Greek poet (Archilochus ,7^th Cent BCE), ‘The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing'. By this reckoning, Pope Francis is a hedgehog, and the one big thing he knows and has at heart is the plight of the poor and dispossessed of the earth.

More of what this means comes out if we reflect on the name he has chosen, Francis. Interestingly, the historical St. Francis of Assisi, who lived in the late 12^th and early 13^th Century, had his great conversion experience in a society that, like ours, was in rapid social change. It was experiencing the rise of cities in which people more and more saw themselves as individuals bent on economic and social success. Economic rationality and the profit motive were being vigorously explored for the first time. The downside of this, the losers or victims, were large numbers of poor, beggars, lepers and other sick people. For them, there was little or no provision.

In the same way that Jesus was ‘deeply moved' by the plight of Lazarus, Francis, the well-off son of a wealthy cloth merchant, was deeply moved by the crying needs of these same poor, the beggars and lepers of his own city and society. In February 1208 in the presence of the local Bishop and his father, Pietro di Bernadone, Francis publically divested himself of his fine clothes until he stood naked and from that day wore a habit made of sackcloth. More importantly, he dedicated his life to the poor and, at the same time, to rebuilding the Church - as the place where Christ was explicitly named and celebrated - and to gathering disciples around him, disciples later to become the Franciscan Order. He died in 1226.

To get the whole Franciscan ‘thing', we must also pay attention to Francis' wonderful vision of God and creation. Here's part of The Canticle of the Sun:

Praised be You, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom you give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour and bears a likeness of You, Most High One…. Praised be to You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs …

As St. Bonaventure, great theologian and second generation Franciscan, reflected on this in conjunction with the whole life of St. Francis - and not forgetting Francis, the mystic, the contemplative, the man of prayer - what emerges is a picture of God as the fullness and source of all goodness, truth, and beauty, a fullness that this Creator God pours out in unimaginable prodigality upon the whole creation: people, animals, wild and tame, rocks, air, fire, water, earth, life and death - each and all in their different ways partakers of the same goodness and fullness of God. Thus, not only does the whole created order cohere - or better, co-inhere - this deep interconnectedness of all things creates an active or political solidarity. Each must care for the other, nothing and no one must be left out. Why? Not only because this goes against the grain of things, but also because it contravenes the very nature of God present in all things.

In appealing to St. Francis of Assisi as the inspiration of his Pontificate, the new Pope is perhaps doing two things: first, pointing - as in the story of the raising of Lazarus - to the real or concrete incarnation or embodiment of the living God in Jesus, the ‘resurrection and the life'; but this as touching the realities of the embodied life of all people, especially the poor; and second, to the way the whole created world is shot through - to our joy and delight! -with the very goodness, power, and life of God.

We thus not only have an ‘option for the poor', but also an ‘option for the creation and the care of creation'. All this, surely, is to be welcomed not only by Christians but by people everywhere. We're talking about ‘good news' that really is good news! In Catholic belief and practice this is centered in the burning, living - actual, concrete - presence of Christ in the bread and wine of the Eucharist: ‘Christ among us, the hope of glory' (Colossians, 1:27).

In this way, we're talking not about ideas of God or things that point to God, but the ‘here and now' challenge of the nearness and concreteness of the living God. Or, put another way, we could say that in Pope Francis, and in Christians or people like him, Lazarus Comes to Town! and boy, does he mean business.

• Raymond Pelly is a Priest and Theologian who works out of the Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul in Molesworth Street in Wellington New Zealand

Until his appointment as secretary of the congregation, Father José Rodríguez Carballo was in his second term as minister general of the Orders of Friars Minor — the 119th successor of St Francis of Assisi.

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as the congregation is formally known, has responsibility for about 739,000 women religious, 135,000 religious priests and 54,000 religious brothers.

In a March 14 video greeting to the new Pope, Father Carballo recalled their first meeting, when "it seemed to me that I had before me a Franciscan brother, a companion, a friend as if we had known each other all our lives".

Father Carballo was born in 1953 in Lodoselo, Spain. He speaks Spanish, Galician, Italian, French, English and Portuguese, and also knows Latin, Biblical Greek and Biblical Hebrew.

He succeeds American Archbishop Joseph Tobin, who was appointed to lead the Indianapolis archdiocese in October 2012.

In his new role Father Carballo will work closely with the head of the congregation, Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz.

Together with Cardinal Braz de Aviz, he is expected to play a key role in working to overcome and heal the tensions between the Vatican and the leadership of the umbrella organisation of some 59,000 American women religious, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

In April 2012 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a highly critical doctrinal assessment of the LCWR, accusing it of taking positions that undermine Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality and of promoting "certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith".

In the light of that report, Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle to supervise the reform of the LCWR within five years.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Reporter

Vatican Insider

Image: Ordo Fratrum Minorum

"Speed skating was such a huge part of my life," Holumn said. "I still loved the sport, but I had this incredibly strong calling that it was time to move on and take a different path in life."

That calling had begun on a pilgrimage to Fatima. She decided outside the Fatima basilica that she wanted to follow a religious calling.

After completing an art degree, including a thesis on the Olympics at the Art Institute of Chicago, Holum, taking the name Catherine, joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, whose mission is "work with the poor and homeless and evangelization."

Based first in New York, Sister Catherine and her fellow nuns stepped onto the mean streets of the Bronx to work with some of the most underprivileged children in areas steeped in gang culture. Such work and sacrifice in homeless shelters and soup kitchens gave her a deep-rooted sense of satisfaction that skating had never been able to provide.

Last year, missionary work took Sister Catherine to England, where she has found her previous life as an athlete a useful tool in providing some "street cred" when dealing with skeptical youngsters.

"When I give my religious testimonies, it is fun to watch the reaction of the kids when I tell them I was in the Olympics," she laughed. "Their eyes get really big and they start paying a lot more attention. It is a great thing to share with them and it gives me a lot of pleasure to think back and talk about it."

There is no television and no internet at St. Joseph's Convent in Leeds, England, meaning Holum won't get to watch the Winter Olympics where she was supposed to become a star.

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"Currently there are three Franciscan friars barricaded in the convent in Tripoli," a source told the Vatican-based Fides news on Aug. 23. "No one dares to walk in the street because people are shot on sight, even if it is not clear who shoots who."

Br Ignatius, the Facebook Monk, has more than 3,500 friends on Facebook and he says that making religious announcement and proclamations to the masses as "offensive".

It's like "walking into somebody's living room and then preaching to them the whole time. It's kinda rude and most of all, it doesn't work."

Brother Ignatius uses Facebook the way most others do. He posts videos and photos, makes observations about everyday happenings and "messages" his "friends".

The key he said is "authenticity".

"When I send a message, I make sure there is an answer and a dialogue so it's not just me stating my opinion and that's it," Brother Ignatius said.

"My hope is to bring people some sense of joy and hope," he told the Catholic Anchor. "In the end, my ultimate goal is to bring people to Jesus Christ — to have them be curious enough to find what animates me and what makes me put things like this on a Facebook page."

"Beyond the photos and videos are the messages," he explained. "The goal is to create dialogue and to message back in forth in a profound way and then to go beyond that. I often encourage people to go beyond the computer and pick up a phone and talk."

Despite the fact that a growing number of teens are abandoning their religious upbringing — especially in Europe — Brother Ignatius finds that even hyper-secularized teens respond to the truth.

"They react to truth and they are not afraid to admit in front of everybody, that, 'Yeah, what Brother just said makes sense,'" he said. "That for me is the hope. There is tons of hope."

Sources

• CNA
• Catholic Anchor

Both men were admitted to the hospital just days before dying of heart failure. They were aged 92.

Brother Julian died in the morning and Brother Adrian died in the evening, after being told of Julian's death.

Few who knew them were surprised, and many were relieved, as it would have been hard to imagine one surviving without the other.

The twins, who spent the past three years in retirement at a Franciscan friary in St. Petersburg, had been Franciscan brothers for 65 years.

They were like paired birds of Franciscan brown. If Brother Julian was gardening in front of the friary, Brother Adrian weeded in the back. If Adrian was driving the van, Julian sat by his side. Preparing the altar for chapel, chopping wood for kindling, exulting in ice cream at the Twist & Shake, the identical Riester twins were together, always.

Sources

• NY Times
• American Catholic