Quotes and news

“The soul-stirring influx of émigrés arriving in Europe, especially from Libya, victims of the war, is well-known to all of us. Masses of refugees reach Europe on Italy’s coasts. However, the issue does not affect just one nation, but calls for the solidarity, and institutional solidarity, too, of all peoples on the European continent, as well as that of the structures of the EU and other continental bodies.

“In every human person we must see the inalienable dignity of the creature bearing in him/herself the image of God,” the bishops added. “We are also responsible for safeguarding legal order and are respectful of the dignity of all people in the countries of our continent. We pray that arms may give way to reason and dialogue.”

Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe.

Confession is a teaching moment

The sacrament of confession can be a teaching moment for both priest and penitent, Pope Benedict XVI said. While penitents can discover grace and hope from God’s love and forgiveness, priests hearing confession can be inspired to be more honest, humble and transparent about their own sins, he said.

He said confessors can learn much from “exemplary penitents about their spiritual life, the seriousness with which they examine their conscience, about their transparency in recognising their own sins and their docility toward Church teaching and recommendations from the confessor”.

Less Catholic influence in Mexico

According to the agency Catholic World News, the Catholic Church has been losing about 1,000 members a day in Mexico for the past decade. Catholicism remains the dominant religion in Mexico, accounting for about 93 million of the country’s 112 million people. But the number of Mexicans who identify with no religion is growing.

In 1950, over 98 per cent identified themselves as Catholic. Now just under 84 per cent do so.

Church must change after abuse scandal

Much remains to be done to “turn around the culture of an institution” that allowed thousands of children to be abused by priests in the Dublin Archdiocese, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told a conference on the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Opening the two-day conference at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, he said “I can honestly say that with perhaps two exceptions, I have not encountered a real and unconditional admission of guilt and responsibility on the part of priest offenders in my diocese”.

“Survivors have repeatedly told me that one of the greatest insults and hurts they have experienced is to see the lack of real remorse on the part of offenders even when they plead guilty in court.”

French nun to speak at JPII prayer vigil

The French nun whose healing was accepted as the miracle needed for Pope John Paul II’s beatification will share her story with pilgrims at a prayer vigil in Rome the night before the beatification Mass.

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, the member of the Little Sisters of the Catholic Motherhood, had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and believes she was cured in 2005 through the intercession of Pope John Paul II.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)