Cardinal Jose Estepa Llaurens Pope calls for ‘apostolate of prevention’ against abuse
In an unscripted video message that appears to have been recorded on a mobile phone, Pope Francis spoke of the need for an “apostolate of prevention” to protect minors from abuse.
“Prevention. Prevention. Because you never know where a child will be abused, where the child will be misled, where someone will teach him to smoke drugs, a form of corruption. Let us not think that only sexual abuse is the only type of abuse. Any type of corruption is an abuse of a child,” Pope Francis said in Spanish in a YouTube video published by the Pontifical University of Mexico.
The Pope sent the video message to participants in a July 1-26 course on the protection of minors organised by CEPROME, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Formation for the Protection of Minors.
Pope Francis said that courses on abuse protection are important “for all children so that no one abuses them, no one prevents them from reaching Jesus”.
The Director of CEPROME, Fr Daniel Portillo told ACI Prensa that the Pope’s message was an encouragement to the participants in this month’s course.
“Above all, because he comes to ask us, to ask what our commitment to prevention really is,” Portillo said.
Francis appoints new press office vice director
Pope Francis has appointed Cristiane Murray as vice director of the Holy See Press Office. Murray (57) has worked for Vatican Radio for more than 25 years, where she provided live commentary on papal events and international trips. “I accepted this appointment with emotion. For journalists and colleagues in the Dicastery of Communication it is a great recognition of our daily work in bringing the Gospel to the world, the message of the Pope and the Church,” she said on July 25.
A native of Rio de Janeiro, Murray has collaborated with the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri since April 2018 in preparation for the Special Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region.
Murray is married and has two children. In addition to Italian and Portuguese, she speaks three other languages.
“The choice of a woman with roots in Brazil and an open outlook to the world testifies to the desire to build a team that can speak the language of those who listen to us,” Prefect of the Dicastery of Communications Paolo Ruffini said of Murray’s appointment.
Catechism cardinal Jose Llaurens dies age 93
Spanish Cardinal Jose Estepa Llaurens, a former military bishop of Spain, died on July 21 in Madrid. He was 93.
Pope Francis, offering his condolences in a telegram, praised the cardinal’s “generous service to the Church”.
Cardinal Llaurens was one of the six bishops who worked with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in editing the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also was in charge of overseeing the Spanish edition of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Born in Andujar, he studied in Salamanca, Rome and Paris and was ordained to the priesthood in 1954. In 1972, St Paul VI named him an auxiliary bishop of Madrid, where he served for 11 years as rector of the archdiocesan seminary.
Pope Benedict XVI elevated him to the college of cardinals in 2010; he was one of four cardinals over the age of 80 the Pope named that consistory because they were “distinguished for their generosity and dedication in service of the Church”.