Pope pays tribute to Cardinal Cottier’s ‘strong faith and paternal kindness’

 

by Staff Reporter

posted Monday, 4 Apr 2016

Cardinal Georges Cottier (CNS)

The former theologian of the papal household has died at the age of 93

The Pope has sent a telegram of condolence to the sister of Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the papal household, who died last week at the age of 93.

In the telegram, the Holy Father spoke of his “profound gratitude” towards Cardinal Cottier and paid tribute to the cardinal’s “strong faith, paternal kindness, and intense cultural and ecclesial activity.”

Cardinal Cottier was born in Ginevra, Switzerland in 1922. He entered the Dominican Order in 1945 and was ordained as a priest in 1951. He was nominated Cardinal of the Consistory by Pope St John Paul II in 2003.

The cardinal had a diverse career as both a university lecturer and within the Church. He participated in the Second Vatican Council as an “Expert of the Council”.

Speaking about the impact of Vatican II on the theology of the Church, Cardinal Cottier said, “Those areas that regard justice and peace – these things didn’t exist before the Council, as well as concern for dialogue with the world, the idea itself of the New Evangelisation was born with the Council.”

The Cardinal served as the theologian of the papal household from 1989 to 2005, retiring at the age of 83.

Before his retirement, Cardinal Cottier explained to the Catholic News Service that the most important part of his job was to ensure that the many thousands of words written by Vatican aides did not contain any dubious theology or phrases which could embarrass the Church.

The cardinal explained that he also had to ensure that the Pope did not express too much about some topics. “By this, I mean that when we have a theological issue that is still open to discussion and study, it’s not a good thing that the Pope pronounce on it too early. Because when the Pope speaks with authority, it means the discussion is closed,” he said.

Cardinal Cottier served as president of the Vatican Theological-Historical Commission that prepared the way for the Church’s major “mea culpa” statements of Holy Year 2000, treating such specific themes as the Inquisition and Christians’ treatment of Jews.

Amid some controversy, the commission insisted the Church could and should ask forgiveness for the past sins of its members, while distinguishing between the holiness of the Church and the sometimes sinful behavior of individual Christians.

In professing belief in the “communion of saints,” Cardinal Cottier argued, the Church asserts a link among its members throughout history. He said the Church has an obligation to acknowledge “those things which were right to do and those which should not have been done and ask forgiveness for them.”

Asking forgiveness for historical wrongs has a practical value, he added, because “there are some facts which cast shadows and are an obstacle to evangelisation.”

His death leaves the College of Cardinals with 215 members, 116 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.

The funeral Mass will be held at St Peter’s Basilica on April 2.

Download our magazine app:

Related stories

In this article

Cardinal Cottier, Cardinal Georges Cottier, Pope Francis, Theology, Vatican

Share this

• Most Popular
• Commented

• 1. Amoris Laetitia: Five key passages you need to read
  2. Francis has delivered an eloquent defence of the Catholic vision of marriage
  3. Devotion to a heroic priest who died on the Titanic is growing
  4. Papal exhortation avoids clear statement on Communion
  5. Amoris Laetitia is ‘kitchen sink theology’ and all the better for it

Flight of a million Christians

 

by John Pontifex

posted Thursday, 7 Apr 2016

A Syrian refugee girl in Turkey holds a picture of St Michael the Archangel (PA)

An aid mission to embattled Syria reveals that thousands more faithful are fleeing the country than had previously been thought

“If you gave me a plane ticket and a visa to Germany, I’d go to the airport now.” Sitting in a dimly lit room crowded with fellow Christian refugees, Stephanos Giorgis could be forgiven for wanting a future outside the Middle East.

This young man had escaped from his home town of Rableh in western Syria after a ransom was paid following his abduction by an Islamist group. The extremists had threatened to kill him and a number of others after they refused to abandon their faith.

Almost all who made up Rableh’s large Christian community had fled for their lives, mostly to neighbouring Lebanon, which is where we met Stephanos. The exodus has been replicated in so many Syrian towns and cities, as we discovered when our small delegation from Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, visited the region.

A central finding of our trip was that unless there is a radical change in Syria’s fortunes, time is running out for the country’s Christian community.

We found that Christians in Syria are fleeing their homes at a far higher rate than hitherto reported. Almost every Christian we spoke to on the subject said they were avowed supporters of President Assad, and many went further, claiming that unless he emerged victorious in Syria’s civil war the country’s Christians would drain away.

If this is true, then the government’s apparent triumph over ISIS in the ancient city of Palmyra over the Easter weekend could be a crucial turning-point in the survival of Syria’s Christian community.

In the eyes of many, such military success could not come a moment too soon. When, a year ago, a European Parliament motion on the conflict in Syria claimed that 700,000 of Syria’s 1.25 million Christians had fled, there was widespread concern that the figures were exaggerated.

But the research we conducted while we were there suggested that the figure for the number of displaced and refugee Christians could now be nearer a million.

Proportionately, this is far higher than the exodus figures for the Syrian population as a whole. We spoke to our project partners in those centres where Aid to the Church in Need is providing urgent help (food, water, medicine and shelter), and they were able to give us some realistic figures.

Until the war broke out in spring 2011, Aleppo was home to the largest number of Christians, but we were told that the faithful had now dwindled from 200,000 to close to 35,000 – a decline of 85 per cent.

The second-largest Christian community in Syria before the war was in Homs, but when we visited the city, at a time of continuing insecurity, Church leaders said the numbers had slumped by an astonishing 95 per cent – 40,000 down to barely 2,000. Even in regions where the Syrian government had largely succeeded in the struggle against militants, the decline was still
very marked.

It is now almost two years since the Assad regime won its first battle against extremist groups, retaking the mountain-top shrine town of Maaloula, north-east of the capital, Damascus. In spite of the heightened government security there, the town’s Melkite priest, Fr Toufic Eid, told us that only a third of Christians had returned. He explained that potential homecomers were discouraged by an absence of jobs, the slow rebuilding of homes and a breakdown of trust in Muslim neighbours, who they said had collaborated with the extremists in their effort to take and hold the town.

While there are many regions that have seen a massive reduction in the numbers of Christians, there are others that have seen an upsurge – places of relative sanctuary which have taken in tens of thousands of displaced faithful.

Tartous, on the eastern Mediterranean coast, is one such example, where Maronite Archbishop Antoine Chbeir said numbers had grown from 150,000 to 500,000 – though by no means all of these are displaced Christians.

Other Christians have sought sanctuary in Damascus, some of whom we met. Those we spoke to had come from as far as Aleppo, the epicentre of the conflict. We met these families in the suburb of Jaramanah, itself the victim of sporadic bombs from opposition groups seeking to destabilise Assad’s power base in the Syrian capital. Such violence and instability explains why so many of the displaced in Damascus are seeking a swift exit from the country.

Looking at the situation for Syrian Christians as a whole, the exodus figures are likely to be higher even than those suggested by Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo. The Jesuit bishop said just before Easter that two-thirds of Syria’s Christians had left the country since the conflict began.

Before we left Syria, the Damascus-based Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch – leader of one of the largest Christian communities in Syria – movingly described the “mission” of Christians in Syria. He spoke of them as the successors of the first Apostles who arrived in the country soon after Pentecost Day in Jerusalem, and whose cause was brilliantly taken up by their one-time persecutor, St Paul.

But the sad reality is that the future of the Church of St Paul can only be guaranteed if there is a quick victory over genocidal extremists and a swift return of law and order.

John Pontifex is head of press and information for Aid to the Church in Need (UK).

This article first appeared in the April 8 2016 issue of The Catholic Herald. To download the entire issue for free with our new app, go here.

Download our magazine app:

Related stories

In this article

Archbishop Antoine Chbeir, Bashar Assad, Bishop Antoine Audo, Damascus, Syria, Syrian Christians

Share this

• Most Popular
• Commented

• 1. Amoris Laetitia: Five key passages you need to read
  2. Francis has delivered an eloquent defence of the Catholic vision of marriage
  3. Devotion to a heroic priest who died on the Titanic is growing
  4. Papal exhortation avoids clear statement on Communion
  5. Amoris Laetitia is ‘kitchen sink theology’ and all the better for it

Comments

Vatican confirms Pope Francis will visit refugees on Greek island

 

by Catholic News Service

posted Thursday, 7 Apr 2016

A Syrian man carries a child as they disembark from a Greek navy vessel after a rescue operation near the shores of Lesbos (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Pope Francis and other Christian leaders to meet migrants next Saturday

In an effort to highlight the dramatic situation of refugees left in limbo on the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis and other Christian leaders will meet with the migrants next Saturday, it has been confirmed.

“Naturally, the Pope wants to be there in order to draw attention to the sense of solidarity and responsibility” of all Christians, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters today.

The Pope wants to go to Lesbos for the same reasons that drew him to visit the Italian island of Lampedusa: to point to “the reality of refugees and immigrants” and because “he sees an important emergency” unfolding there, Fr Lombardi said.

The joint visit by the Pope and two top Orthodox leaders in the region also shows “that the Christian churches are united on the frontlines of major challenges, before humanitarian emergencies, problems of justice and peace in the world today,” Fr Lombardi said.

The Pope accepted invitations by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox, to make the one-day visit, the Vatican said.

The Pope and patriarch will also be joined by Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and all of Greece when meeting with the refugees on the island.

Father Lombardi said it was still too early for further details about the trip, but that the itinerary would be “very basic.” It was expected the Pope would be welcomed at the airport by local authorities, he said, and in addition to the meeting with refugees, there would be a second organised event of some kind on the island.

It will be the second time in modern history a Pope visits Greece; in 2001, St. John Paul II made a historic pilgrimage that included Syria and Malta as he traced the evangelising route of St Paul.

Lesbos is just a few miles from the coast of Turkey, and for years migrants and refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East have been arriving on this and other nearby islands in an effort to reach Western Europe.

Approximately 172,000 migrants have crossed into Greece and Italy since the beginning of 2016, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

A new agreement between Turkey and the European Union stipulates that those who cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey illegally are sent back to Turkey, with the aim of stemming the flow of migrants to Greece.

The deal states that the EU will take in thousands of Syrian refugees from Turkey and offer the nation financial help and other assistance.

Some criticise the accord because it risks deporting asylum-seekers and refugees rather than illegal migrants, and it may not guarantee safeguarding human rights and living conditions of those on the move.

Download our magazine app:

Related stories

In this article

Lesbos, Orthodox, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos

Share this

• Most Popular
• Commented

• 1. Amoris Laetitia: Five key passages you need to read
  2. Francis has delivered an eloquent defence of the Catholic vision of marriage
  3. Devotion to a heroic priest who died on the Titanic is growing
  4. Papal exhortation avoids clear statement on Communion
  5. Amoris Laetitia is ‘kitchen sink theology’ and all the better for it