CATHOLIC NEWS

Brother of kidnapped priest is staying at home to pray and wait for ‘good news’

by Anto Akkara

posted Friday, 8 Apr 2016

Mathew Uzhunnalil, brother of kidnapped Salesian Fr Thomas Uzhunnalil, at his home in Ramapuram, India (CNS photo/Anto Akkara)

Mathew Uzhunnalil is living away from his family, praying and reciting the rosary

The Indian government might have dispelled rumours of the Good Friday crucifixion of kidnapped Salesian Fr Thomas Uzhunnalil, but Mathew Uzhunnalil still worries.

“I am waiting for clear good news. Until then, I will stay at home,” Mathew Uzhunnalil, 73, told Catholic News Service from his ancestral home in Ramapuram.

For more than a month – since his brother was kidnapped in Aden, Yemen, in early March – Mathew Uzhunnalil has lived alone, with no TV or radio, in the house tucked in the midst of rubber plantations. He said he will return to his family in Gujarat “only after I have clear news about Fr Tom”, his 56-year-old younger brother.

Mathew Uzhunnalil said many people have come to visit and have told him how the Indian foreign minister said his brother was safe. The government also assured a delegation from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India that the government was exploring all possible means for his “quick and safe release”.

“A lot of people are coming here [to the house] and even hold prayer meetings [for the safety of the priest],” he told CNS.

“I pray, recite the rosary and read,” Mathew Uzhunnalil replied when asked how he spent time in the home, where all the eight Uzhunnalil siblings were born.

“Leave everything in God’s hands and trust in him. Everything is secure in God’s hands,” Mathew Uzhunnalil said, quoting a book his sister gave him years ago.

Reflecting on the deep faith of younger brother, Mathew Uzhunnalil said: “Fr Thomas is a very cool and quiet person.”

He recalled that his brother shared what he used to tell the Missionaries of Charity in the evenings at the old-age home in Aden, where four nuns and 12 others were killed when the priest was kidnapped.

“We got one more day today. Let us thank God for that,” Mathew Uzhunnalil said, quoting the kidnapped priest.

Papal exhortation avoids clear statement on Communion

by Staff Reporter

posted Friday, 8 Apr 2016

Copies of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia ('The Joy of Love') document are on display prior to the start of a press conference at the Vatican (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A footnote narrowly addresses the question of Communion for the divorced and remarried

Pope Francis has avoided making a direct statement on the question of Communion for remarried couples but in a footnote to his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, he has left the question open to debate.

The Pope writes that a person “in an objective situation of sin” – a second union is not named directly – “can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end”.

A footnote adds: “In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments.” It does not expand on this statement, which is likely to lead to considerable debate and discussion.

The Vatican commentator Fr Mark Drew said: “On the question about which everybody was waiting for a decision, the only concrete answer is a twice repeated reference (although it is slipped into footnotes) to two paragraphs from Evangelii Gaudium in which the Pope had reminded us that priests should not behave like torturers in the confessional, and that Holy Communion ‘is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’.

“We must now expect continued, protracted, and perhaps acrimonious debate about how this principle is to be applied in the cases under consideration.”

There had been speculation that the Pope would make an explicit statement in favour or against Communion for some remarried people.

Amoris Laetitia makes a general call for discernment, saying: “Neither the Synod nor this Exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases. What is possible is simply a renewed encouragement to undertake a responsible personal and pastoral discernment of particular cases.”

The Pope presents the document as “gather[ing] the contributions of the two recent Synods on the family, while adding other considerations as an aid to reflection, dialogue and pastoral practice, and as a help and encouragement to families in their daily commitments and challenges”.

Elsewhere, the document calls for a more tender style of preaching and speaking about Church doctrine. It calls for a “healthy dose of self-criticism”, adding: “We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life.”

The document speaks against abortion, artificial contraception and same-sex marriage. It draws attention to the problems faced by many families, whether migration and unemployment or the rise of smartphones, but also pays tribute to the family, saying: “The joy of love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church”.

Cardinal Schönborn: Pope Francis follows John Paul II’s teaching on communion

by Staff Reporter

posted Friday, 8 Apr 2016

Cardinal Christoph Schonborn (right) and Cardinal Lorenxo Baldisseri hold a copy of Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (CNS)

The cardinal presented the document during a press conference at the Vatican this morning

Pope Francis in in line with John Paul II’s teaching on communion, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has said.

At the press conference to mark the publication of Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Schönborn was asked twice whether the Pope intended to break with John Paul’s Familiaris Consortio. That document said that remarried people should not be allowed access to communion unless they live “in complete continence”.

The key passage comes in paragraph 84 of the document. A journalist asked: “Has anything in the entirety of those paragraphs changed? Does everything still stand as is?”

“I don’t see why there should be a change,” said Cardinal Schönborn.

“The Pope is not innovating,” the cardinal said. “There are no novelties in this document. But the cautious pastoral care tradition can help here.”

There had been speculation that Pope Francis would teach in contradiction to Familiaris Consortio. But the cardinal said that Amoris Laetitia was a development in continuty with Pope John Paul II’s teaching.

Paragraph 84 of Familiaris Consortio was included in the final document of last year’s family synod. However, that document omitted John Paul II’s statement that “Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage.

“This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they “take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.’”

Cardinal Schönborn was pressed to say whether Francis had contradicted John Paul II, but would not accept the suggestion, saying: “Pope Francis intends to express a global vision and not being entangled in a specific point, which is important, but rather peculiar, rather specific. Discernment itself in some cases, like the help of sacraments, might not be heaven-sent.”