Cardinal Roger Etchegaray Long-time Vatican official dies age 96
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a long-time Vatican official and papal envoy who was sent to some of the world’s most wounded and challenging places, died in France on September 4. He was 96.
The French cardinal also played key roles in ecumenical relations, including with the late Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, and in interreligious dialogue; he was one of the key organisers of the first Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986, which brought 160 religious leaders together at a time of increasing world tensions and fears of nuclear war.
But it was his efforts spanning two decades as an able negotiator for St John Paul II that stood out the most: being sent to the Middle East to seek peace, meeting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the hopes of avoiding war in 2003, visiting communist Cuba to meet Fidel Castro, witnessing the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda and encouraging Lebanon to rebuild after 16 years of civil war.
Pope Francis, who was visiting Mozambique last week, expressed his sorrow after hearing the news of the cardinal’s death. The cardinal “profoundly influenced the journey” of the universal Church and the Church in France, the Pope said.
Archbishop responds to JPII institute dispute
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, grand chancellor of Rome’s Pontifical Institute John Paul II and president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has responded to controversy over a plan to restructure the school’s faculty and curriculum.
“We will be able to address and overcome the concerns and the hesitancies that have greeted the renewed structure of the Academy, and I might add of its sister entity, the John Paul II Institute as well,” Archbishop Paglia said at Loyola Marymount University in California.
He added that concern can be overcome through the “solid and loving theological basis” outlined for the Academy in a January letter from Pope Francis, written to commemorate the Academy’s anniversary.
Archbishop Paglia acknowledged the recent conflict which has engulfed the pontifical institute, following the approval of new statutes for the school in July.
The new statutes were issued in response to a 2017 announcement by the Pope that he would legally refound the institute to broaden its curriculum, from a focus on the theology of marriage and the family to an approach that will also include the study of the family.
Church ministers must always journey closer to God – Pope
The Church’s ministers – including catechists and bishops – are called to be realistic, to treasure the Christian identity and to never be afraid to move forward and try new ways to bring the Gospel to life, Pope Francis said.
At Maputo’s art deco Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on September 5, the Pope told Mozambique’s church workers to follow the example of Mary, who welcomed the news of God’s plan for her without too many questions, then set off to visit her cousin, Elizabeth.
Pope Francis acknowledged the questions, but did not answer them directly. Instead, he emphasised the need for Church workers to be faithful to their vocations and to return again and again to remembering that moment when they first experienced God’s loving call.
Firm in faith and in the knowledge that God continually calls Christians to move forward, to journey further and draw closer to Christ and to their neighbours in need, Pope Francis urged courage and self-giving.