Pope Francis apologizes for persecution of Pentecostals

by Josephine McKenna
Religious News Service

CASERTA, Italy (RNS) Pope Francis sought forgiveness for decades of persecution of Italian Pentecostals when he met with around 300 evangelicals from the U.S., Argentina and Italy in the southern town of Caserta on Monday (July 28).

The pope made his second visit in as many days to the Mafia stronghold near Naples, this time to meet evangelical pastor Giovanni Traettino, whom he befriended while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

During the visit, Francis apologized for the persecution suffered by Pentecostals under Italy’s fascist regime in the 1920s and 1930s and urged Christians to celebrate their diversity and unity. Continue reading “Pope Francis apologizes for persecution of Pentecostals” →

Resisting an evil spirit: persecuted Nigerians uphold the gospel of peace

May 8, 2014 by Paul Schrag, Mennonite World Review

While Christians in North America debate theology and church rules, those in Nigeria face far greater challenges. The threat of death, fleeing one’s home or seeing one’s place of worship attacked and destroyed will put other problems in perspective.

Victims of persecution include members of the Church of the Brethren, whose Anabaptist peace beliefs are being tested.

How can Brethren leaders tell their members not to defend their homes and families? asks Samuel Dante Dali, president of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, in the Brethren Messenger magazine. Dali describes a “struggle to face a virtually impossible situation and yet maintain a voice for peace.”

Continue reading “Resisting an evil spirit: persecuted Nigerians uphold the gospel of peace” →

Greek Catholics in Ukraine restore former Mennonite church building

Release date:

Monday, 5 May 2014

Kitchener, Ontario (Mennonite World Conference) – In Ukraine a former Mennonite church building is being restored and transformed – with the help of Canadian Mennonites – into a Greek Catholic church.

This development, according to observers, is an example of Mennonite-Catholic collaboration in the spirit of other exchanges over the past decade or so. Continue reading “Greek Catholics in Ukraine restore former Mennonite church building” →

A dialogue gets renewed

Brenda Suderman, a writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, describes ongoing ecumenical initiatives between Mennonites and Catholics in Winnipeg, including Bridgefolk participant Helmut Harder.

More than just friends, not quite a family, a dozen Christians who gather regularly to share their faith over a meal are quietly setting an example for new ecclesiastical relationships.

After 14 years of meeting in parish halls and church basements, the members of Winnipeg’s Catholic-Mennonite Dialogue have no plans to end this long-running liaison between their two faith traditions.

“I’ve tried now and then to shut it down, but then people remind me they see value in this,” explains Helmut Harder, a retired Mennonite theologian who has participated from the beginning.

“It (the dialogue) keeps me abreast of what is going on in the Catholic Church.”

Whether in basement gatherings or meetings between high level faith leaders, Christians should expect more initiatives of this type under Pope Francis, says Catholic theologian Catherine E. Clifford of St. Paul University in Ottawa.

Suderman goes on to quote Clifford on how ecumenism has evolved since Vatican II and the continued importance of working toward unity, and Harder on the renewed interest in ecumenism that he observes in Winnipeg. The full article from the Winnipeg Free Press website is available here.

Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals, says all share blame for church divisions

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In an unusual video message, recorded on an iPhone by a Pentecostal pastor Pope Francis knew in Argentina, the pope says all Christians share blame for their divisions, speaks of his “longing” for their unity and insists that God will bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion.

“Pray to the Lord that he will unite us all,” the pope tells a group of Pentecostals meeting in the United States. “Let’s move forward, we are brothers; let us give each other that spiritual embrace and allow the Lord to complete the work he has begun. Because this is a miracle; the miracle of unity has begun.”

In the video, posted on YouTube and never released by the Vatican, the pope quotes a character from a novel by Alessandro Manzoni; the character says, “‘I have never found that the Lord began a miracle without finishing it well.’ He will finish well this miracle of unity,” the pope added. Continue reading “Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals, says all share blame for church divisions” →

Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans hold second round of dialogue on baptism

Co-chairs of the commission (from left): Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, Friederike Nüssel, Alfred Neufeld. Photo by Eleanor Miller

Release date: Sunday, 9 March 2014

Strasbourg, France – “I continue to be inspired by the mutuality of our work,” commented John Rempel of Toronto, Ontario, one of the Mennonite participants in the 26-31 January 2014 second meeting of the Trilateral (Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite) Dialogue Commission on Baptism.

The general topic of the dialogue, which is to extend over four years, is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The theme for this year was “Baptism: God’s Grace in Christ and Human Sin”.

“Everyone is treated equally even though we are by far the smallest confession,” noted Rempel. “We are all trying to rethink the issues in terms of the 21st century, not only the 16th century.”

He commented further, “I find myself grappling especially with two aspects of this year’s meeting. I’m discovering how important sacraments are to Lutherans and Catholics as expressions of God’s initiative: God is mysteriously at work by means of prayer and water, whether we respond to it or not. And yet I can’t understand God’s initiative in the New Testament without the human response to grace.”

“At the same time our partners fear that we put so much weight on the human decision to believe that God’s initiative is pushed to the background. The participants are aware that only through the work of the Holy Spirit will this dialogue lead us closer to the mind of Christ.”

Continue reading “Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans hold second round of dialogue on baptism” →

The pope to the World Council of Churches: take the path to full communion without fear

Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father met with Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, secretary general of the World Council for Churches, accompanied by a delegation. The Pope remarked that this encounter “marks an important chapter in the long and fruitful relationship between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches”, and acknowledged “the service it performs in the cause of unity between believers in Christ”.

“Since its creation, the World Council of Churches has offered a great contribution to forming the sensibility of all Christians with regard to the fact that our divisions represent a major obstacle to our witness to the Gospel in the world. These divisions must not be accepted with resignation, as if they were simply an inevitable component of the historic experience of the Church. If Christians ignore the Lord’s call to unity, they risk ignoring the Lord Himself and the salvation He offers through His Body, the Church: ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name … by which we must be saved.’”

“The way to full and visible communion is a path which still proves today to be arduous and uphill. The Spirit, however, urges us not to be afraid, to go ahead with trust, and not to content ourselves with the progress that we have been able to experience in these decades. Prayer is fundamental on this path. Only in a spirit of humble and persistent prayer can we attain the necessary farsightedness, discernment and motivations for offering our service to the human family, in all its weakness and with all its needs, both spiritual and material”.

Mennonite and Catholic relief agencies partner

From Disaster News Network:

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen (CCDOM) and the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) have partnered to repair and restore homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. More than a year after the Storm, thousands of families are still unable to inhabit their homes in New Jersey.

The partnership between CCDOM and MDS is making it possible for families to return to their homes and neighborhoods, in homes rebuilt by volunteers recruited by MDS.

“This partnership is consistent with the mission our organizations share: to help others in their time of need,” said Larry Stoner, Disaster Response Coordinator (East), MDS , and Marianne Majewski, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen.

Continue reading “Mennonite and Catholic relief agencies partner” →

Pope Francis: The spirit of war draws us away from God

From Catholic Peace Fellowship

Pope Francis: The Spirit of War Draws Us Away from God

“War is a scandal to be mourned every day. We see war in the newspapers ever and we’re used to reading about it: the number of its victims is just part of our daily accounts. We hold events to commemorate the centenary of the Great War and everyone is scandalized by the many millions of dead. But today it’s the same… instead of one great war, there are small wars everywhere. When we were children in Sunday School and we were told the story of Cain and Abel, we couldn’t accept that someone would kill their own brother. And yet today millions kill their own brothers and we’re used to it: there are entire peoples divided, killing each other over a piece of land, a racial hatred, an ambition.

Think of the children starving in refugee camps… these are the fruits of war. And then think of the great dining rooms, of the parties held by those who control the arms industry, who produce weapons. Compare a sick, starving child in a refugee camp with the big parties, the good life led by the masters of the arms trade. And remember, the Pope added, that the wars, the hatred, the hostility aren’t products we buy at the market: they’re right here, in our hearts. The Apostle James gives us a simple piece of advice: ‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.’ But the spirit of war, which draws us away from God, doesn’t just reside in distant parts of the world: the spirit of war comes from our own hearts.

Let us pray for peace, for that peace which seems to have been reduced to a word and nothing more. Let us follow James’ advice: ‘Recognize your misery.’ Let us recognize that misery which breeds wars within families, within neighborhoods, everywhere. How many of us weep when we read the newspapers, when we see the dead on television? This is what Christians should do today, in the face of war: we should weep, we should mourn.”

– Homily given by Pope Francis at the Casa San Marta on February 25, A.D. 2014 (*We are grateful for the English Translation provided by News.va)