Josef Mayr-Nusser (1910-45), an Italian who had refused to take the oath of loyalty to Hitler was beatified as a martyr at the cathedral in Bolzano. The celebration was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
During last Sunday’s Angelus address, Pope Francis said Mayr-Nusser “died a martyr because he refused to adhere to Nazism out of fidelity to the Gospel”. The Pope added that “because of his (Mayr-Nusser) great moral and spiritual intelligence, he constitutes a model for lay faithful, especially for fathers”.
Mayr-Nusser held leadership positions in Catholic Action and the Society of St Vincent de Paul. He married in 1942, and a son was born the following year. When in 1944 he refused to take the Hitler oath he was sentenced to death but died while he was being transported to Dachau.
Vatican UN envoy on respect for women’s equal dignity
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican’s UN representative, said fair treatment for women requires both respecting their equal dignity and recognising differences between women and men. To protect women’s equal dignity, he said, “adequate measures are needed to combat the growing informality and precarious nature of women’s employment”.
He also suggested that men should be expected to support “a better sharing of responsibility within the family” and that world leaders should recognise women’s “expressed preference and gift for caring for others”.
On the value of work women do in the home, he said “even though women’s unpaid work is not recognised by the formal economy, it not only contributes to every country’s economic development, but it also sustains the fundamental pillars that govern a society”.
St Patrick was a migrant
In a message in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, said: “This St Patrick’s Day, prompted by the situation of thousands of displaced people around the world, let us think about Patrick the ‘unlearned refugee’ (as he once described himself), the slave in exile, Patrick the undocumented migrant. As Irish people, we cannot think of Patrick without acknowledging the enormous humanitarian and pastoral challenges facing growing numbers of people who find themselves displaced and without status in our world.”
Reaction to Dutch election
Anton De Wit, editor of Dutch Catholic weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, said the Church in the country was relieved at the election result but added that many Catholics voted for the Party for Freedom headed by Geert Wilders, which has advocated banning the Quran and closing mosques and Islamic schools. De Wit said many Catholics share Wilders’ concerns and believe they should be taken seriously.
The Dutch bishops refused to publish a formal statement expressing their opinion following the election result.
Holy Land collection appeal
The Congregation for the Eastern Churches issued an appeal for the annual Holy Land collection, which takes place in churches around the world on Good Friday. “Today, living the Christian faith in the Middle East is not at all easy,” the Congregation stated. “Especially in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, where Christian communities have experienced an ‘ecumenism of blood’, individuals are daily pressured to abandon their land, or even their faith.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)