The Pope John Paul II rose, a white tea rose cultivar, is included in a redesign of the Rose Garden overseen by First Lady Melania Trump, which was unveiled Aug. 22. Other roses included in the garden redesign are the JFK rose cultivar and the Peace rose.

The Rose Garden, a space of about 1,700 square feet, sits outside the Oval Office. It was first designed and planted in 1913 under the direction of First Lady Ellen Wilson, and a 1961 redesign was overseen by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Read more

On Monday, Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, the Vatican nuncio in Nicaragua, said Pope Francis had "granted with benevolence the absolution of all canonical censures" imposed on Cardenal.

Cardenal (94) was suspended from his priestly ministry and duties by St John Paul II because of his militancy and for being a minister in Daniel Ortega's government. St John Paul II suspended Cardenal "a divinis".

Cardenal, who is a poet and Marxist liberation theology activist, actively collaborated with the Sandinista National Liberation Front revolution that ended the dictatorship of then-president Anastasio Somoza.

He was appointed Minister of Culture the same day the Sandinistas were victorious on July 19, 1979. He held the office until 1987.

However, the Code of Canon Law (No. 285) prohibits priests from holding partisan political offices.

After repeated attempts by the Vatican and their religious orders to convince Cardenal and three conferes to resign their positions in the Sandinista government, Father Miguel D'Escoto, Cardenal and his brother Father Fernando Cardenal, who was the education minister, were suspended.

A fourth priest, Father Edgar Parrales, who was ambassador to the Organization of American States, requested laicisation.

In January 2017 Cardenal was interviewed about his suspension.

At the time, he confirmed his suspension was still in place. He said he was "not interested in their [the Vatican] lifting it."

However, the statement announcing the lifting of Cardenal's suspension references a request made by Cardenal to Pope Francis, which suggests Cardenal may have changed his mind about having not been interested in having the sanctions removed.

Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez posted a photograph of the visit he made with Cardenal in the hospital last friday on Twitter. In the accompanying tweet he said:

"Today I visited in the hospital my priest friend, Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, with whom I spoke for a few minutes. After praying for him, I knelt down beside his bed and asked for his blessing as a priest of the Catholic Church, to which he agreed joyfully."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Vatican News
• America magazine
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Francis says an 11-page document of claims released by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò "speaks for itself".

Asked about the letter from in a press conference aboard the Aug. 26 flight back to Rome after his visit to Ireland, Francis advised journalists to "read the statement attentively and make your own judgment."

"I will not say a single word on this," the pope said of the letter.

"I think this statement speaks for itself, and you have the sufficient journalistic capacity to draw conclusions."

"When some time passes and you have your conclusions, maybe I will speak," said Francis. "But I would like that your professional maturity carries out this task."

Three Popes knew about McCarrick

In the letter Viganò released to the National Catholic Register and LifeSiteNews, he claimed that since 2000, three popes, as well as former and current senior Church officials have been covering-up allegations about former cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually abusing seminarians.

On Sunday Viganò told The Washington Post he wouldn't comment further, beyond confirming that he was the letter's author.

The accusations in the letter are unsubstantiated, but a number of people are named who are said to have known about the situation.

This is not the first time Viganò has been the immersed in controversy.

Implicated in Vatileaks

Before becoming Ambassador to the United States Viganò, was the Secretary-General of the Vatican City Governatorate.

In 2010 he was implicated in the so-called Vatileaks scandal.

Some of Viganò's letters were leaked. In them, he warned of corruption, abuse of power, a lack of transparency in awarding contracts and opposition to financial reforms.

He was subsequently removed from office and appointed to Washington in 2011.

In February 2012 the current and immediate past presidents of the Governorate of Vatican City State released a statement about the leaked letters.

They said the letters contained assertions based on "erroneous evaluations" or "fears unsupported by proof".

Arranged a controversial meeting in the USA

When the Pope was visiting the United States Viganò arranged a meeting between the pope and a Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis.

She had gained notoriety by turning away gay couples seeking marriage.

Davis' attorney said that she received a phone call from Viganò insisting on a meeting with the pope.

"We were led to believe that the invitation did come directly from Pope Francis," the attorney said at the time.

The Vatican later accused Viganò of keeping the pope in the dark about the surprise encounter.

Cover-ups

According to Crux Now, Viganò was accused of his own mishandling of sex abuse allegations; encouraging Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche to destroy documents relating to the investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Source

• Crux Now
• National Catholic Register
• Get Religion
• Reuters
• salon.com
• The Washington Post
• National Catholic Reporter
• ncronline.org
• ncronline.org
• Image: LifeSite News

Shevchuk, who is the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church says "Ukrainians do not know Poles, their pains, aspirations, ambitions, as well as Poles do not know Ukrainians.

"That is why an exchange and a dialogue is essential. Only by dialoguing with others, we can understand how much we don't know each other." Read more

Graham was a Southern Baptist evangelical preacher from the United States who was admired by many Catholics.

He died last Wednesday aged 99.

The Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has paid tribute to Graham.

"As anyone growing up in the 1950s and 1960s can tell you, it was hard not to notice and be impressed by the Reverend Billy Graham," Dolan said.

Even though his family was Catholic, Dolan said they respected and admired Graham for his work in bringing people to God.

"Whether it was one of his famous Crusades, radio programs, television specials, or meeting and counseling the presidents, Billy Graham seemed to be everywhere, always with the same message:

'Jesus is your Savior, and wants you to be happy with Him forever'".

US Council of Catholic Bishops president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo praised Graham for his work spreading the gospel around the country, and said he was thankful for his ministry.

Another tribute has been made by a former Anglican priest who became a Catholic priest. Fr Dwight Longenecker says he met Graham while he was studying at Oxford.

While he can't recall exactly what Graham said, only "the hardest heart" could resist his words. The gist of what Graham said was as follows:

"My friends, I come here feeling a little bit like Paul preaching in Athens. He was surrounded by the greatest minds and philosophers of his day, and he stood up and presented the simple, life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.

"That's what I feel like. Here you are ... and I'm just a poor country preacher.

"Nevertheless, it is my prayer that you will join me in witnessing to the love of Jesus Christ to this needy world."

In 1981, Graham had the first of several meetings with St. John Paul II, who said that the two were "brothers."

When John Paul II died in 2005, Graham said he believed that the Pope had been "the most influential voice for morality and peace in the world during the last 100 years," and praised his "strong Catholic faith" and perseverance through his illnesses.

Source

• Patheos
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Chattanooga Times Free Press

The Council of State, which is France's top administrative court, says the cross violates a law passed in 1905. The law bans any "religious sign or emblem" on a public monument or space.

Poland says it will save the memorial from the "dictates of political correctness" by having it shipped to Poland. John Paul was Polish.

Concern about the cross on the statue began in 2015. A local secularist group went to court about its presence on a monument in a public place. The court ruled the cross could remain on the monument.

A regional appeals court overturned the decision later that year.

The mayor of the Breton town where the statue stands is reported to be considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Another option the mayor mentioned suggests reclassifying the square around the statue as a private space.

A similar statue without a cross stands next to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and has not been challenged.

Source

• The Tablet
• The Telegraph
• Image: zupa.svanastazija

Their role would be similar to that of the College of Cardinals and would offer more opportunity for women's leadership in the church.

Francis made Arborelius Sweden's first cardinal in a consistory on Wednesday.

He said he thinks "it's very important to find a broader way of involving women at various levels in the church."

"The role of women is very, very important in society, in economics, but in the church sometimes we are a bit behind," Arborelius says.

In this respect he has wide support, including from the female advisory board for the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Their wish is to send an "electric shock" that will open discussion on women's roles in the Church.

"The Church is a male-dominated world, but the [wider] world in which it exists is both male and female," Consuelo Corradi, vice rector for research and international relations at the LUMSA University of Rome, told Crux.

"The global church needs to enter a continued dialogue with women," she says.

Arborelius noted the church has in the past sought women's advice, and mentioned that Pope John Paul II had often sought counsel from Mother Teresa and Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement.

"Maybe it could be made more official," he suggested.

"We have a College of Cardinals, but we could have a college of women who could give advice to the pope."

The College of Cardinals is the body of all the cardinals of the Catholic Church.

Cardinals are usually senior Catholic prelates who serve as bishops in dioceses or in the Vatican's central bureaucracy and have a special tie to the pope as the symbolic heads of Rome's parish churches.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Crux
• Image: franciscanmedia.org

Donne in Vaticano ("Women in the Vatican") is open to all 750 women working for the Holy See and its attached institutions. So far about 50 women have joined.

Women make up about a fifth of the Vatican workforce.

Most of them work in roles like answering the telephone and mending priests' vestments. The majority are nuns though other employees are professional lay staff.

The association says it offers members opportunities for collaboration, sharing and outreach.

"Women make up half of our Church and our contribution in all areas of its life is important," the group's president Tracey McClure said. McClure is a senior journalist at Vatican Radio.

"As Pope Francis says, ‘The Church cannot be herself without the woman and her role,' and D.VA just makes us a little more visible.

The project to establish the association began about four years ago.

Organisers, led by McClure, say the obstacles they needed to overcome included "normal bureaucracy_... like agreeing on statutes for the association, of which 35 drafts were made before one was adopted".

Other concerns that needed to be sorted out included fear the group would become a subversive association or a trade union. Both men and women were concerned about this.

Nor is it about female ordination or other "controversial or ideological matters", said Gudrun Sailer, a Vatican Radio employee.

She said it's important to acknowledge the support in getting the association approved was not from women but from the "hierarchy ... the Vatican's Secretary of State.

"They were very receptive.

"You always need to have the adequate person in place for a project like this, and I'm convinced that it's only fair that this recognition comes during the pontificate of Pope Francis, who's done so much to promote the female presence."

She also acknowledged Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's support for women and St Pope John Paul who "wrote beautiful things about women, making us more visible in the pontifical magisterium."

Source

• Catholic Herald
• Crux
• The Tablet
• Image: Zenit

However, priests are going to be learning about environmental concerns during their formation period at seminaries.

Later, they'll be expected to preach about the environment at Mass.

How did this topic come to be included in the formation of clergy?

Caring for the environment is a responsibility the Church accepts, just as it accepts responsibility for caring for others, says the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The Academy believes global climate change is at least partly caused by human activity.

"Protecting the environment and caring for our common home - the Earth, belong fully to the Christian outlook on man and reality.

"Priests should be 'promoters of an appropriate care for everything connected to the protection of creation'."

This view is also shared by the authors of "The Gift of the Priestly Vocation".

This document sets out how to go about priestly formation.

Regarding stewardship of the environment it says "education must include a study of climate change and other environmental threats".

The document draws together three decades' work by three Popes - St John Paul II, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, as well as Vatican bureaucrats.

" ... creation care is part of our mission. We are called to be stewards of creation," the Pontifical Academy of Sciences says.

"It's [caring for creation] also important because climate change can exacerbate the ills of poverty.

"Poor people in much of the world are the most vulnerable to changes."

When preaching about global climate change other environmental issues, priests will be taking a "stewardship" perspective.

This will involve preaching on issues like environmental awareness, conservation and management, for example.

At the same time, balanced decision-making that offers mutually beneficial results for people and the environment are both being sought.

Source

• Catholic Online
• Fox News
• Catholic News Service
• Image: TES

Pope Francis's condolence message to Raul Castro expressed his "sentiments of grief". He promised to pray for Fidel.

Jesuit-educated, Fidel Castro followed a Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Believing the Church was a state enemy, he declared Cuba an atheist state.

He seized all Cuba's church-run schools, shut down Church publications and expelled numerous priests.

Many were sent to "re-education camps".

He was rumoured to have been excommunicated by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

The reasons for this are supposed to be for affiliating with the Communist Part of Cuba, preaching communism and supporting a communist government.

Pius XII's "Decree against Communism" is said to have provided the basis for the excommunication.

Whether Castro was excommunicated has never been confirmed.

He did, however, meet three Popes.

They were St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

All three helped broker the restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba.

This repaired a breakdown between the countries' relationship that began when the US embargoed exports to Cuba after Castro nationalised American-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation.

The only goods the US would trade were except for food and medicine.

Pope Francis clinched the reconciliation last year.

Like Castro, Francis often speaks out against unregulated capitalism.

Fidel Castro believed Christianity and revolutionary socialism were compatible beliefs.

"If people call me Christian, not from the standpoint of religion but from the standpoint of social vision, I declare that I am a Christian," he said in 2006.

Source:

• Reuters
• Herald Malaysia Online
• USA Today
• The Daily Caller
• BBC News
• Wikipedia
• Image: The Telegraph

She says the Church is very far from the brotherhood these days.

This hurts the members she says as they have what she calls a "complex and varied" relationship with the Church.

They rely on the Church for spiritual strength.

"Entering a Mafia is converting into a religion - one never stops being a priest and one never stops being a Mafioso."

A short biography about Merlino on Setpon Hall University's website this year, where she was a guest lecturer, says she is "Lecturer and Head of Italian at the University of Bangor"

Her research focuses on "the cultural dimension of Italian organized crime, with a specific reference to the Sicilian mafia and religion ..."

Merlino says the Church tolerated and bowed down to the Mafia until the 1980's.

It wasn't until pro-Mafia police, magistrates and politicians died off in the 1980's and 1990's that the church began turning away from the criminal brotherhood.

The Church relationship with the Mafia is very different today.

Merlino used a situation involving the Cardinal Archbishop of Palermo in 1964 as an example of how far the Church has changed over the years.

Ernesto Ruffini, the Cardinal, claimed the Mafia was a much maligned small band of petty criminals.

He also claimed the name Mafia was a detergent brand.

St Pope John Paul denounced the Mafia in 1993. Then in 2014 Pope Francis excommunicated all Mafia members for adoring evil.

Merlino says in the past some priests have been close to the Mafia, said Mass for them and offered spiritual support.

In return, some Mafia members offered the Church financial support. These days many priests refuse this and return donations.

In fact, Merlino says some clergy have always refused favours from criminal gangs. even before the post-1980s changes.

"For example, there was the famous Sicilian priest Pino Puglisi [pictured], from a very Mafia-dense part of Palermo, who was killed in 1993," Merlino says.

"It was because he was clearly opposing the Mafia."

In Merlino's opinion, excommunicating the Mafia will help keep clergy away from them.

Pope Francis has said the Mafia's values and "morals" are incompatible with the Church's.

Source

• DW
• Image: First Things