Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Photo: CNS Cardinal Parolin urges cooperation and friendship in North Korea speech
The Vatican Secretary of State said last week that the Holy See supports cooperation over confrontation in efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin delivered a virtual keynote speech to the South Korean government’s annual forum to discuss issues concerning North Korea and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
In his speech, the Vatican’s top diplomat highlighted St John XXIII as a model for today’s Vatican diplomacy. John XXIII, who was Pope from 1958 to 1963, is known for pursuing a policy of “Ostpolitik” in his diplomatic efforts with communist countries in Eastern Europe.
“To set out some … principles that can help define a new vision of relationships within the Korean Peninsula, I would draw inspiration from Pope John XXIII, who always emphasised the universal values that bring people together,” Cardinal Parolin said.
“Pope John XXIII spared no effort to make world leaders understand the inestimable values of peace, and the value of dialogue, dialogue for bringing peoples of very different histories and traditions closer together,” he said in the live-streamed speech to the Korea Global Forum for Peace.
US Bishop DiMarzio cleared of sexual abuse allegations
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced September 1 that it found the allegations against Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio to “not to have the semblance of truth” following an independent investigation that lasted over a year.
A statement released by the Archdiocese of New York said the CDF has informed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, that it has found the allegations of sexual abuse of minors brought twenty-one months ago against Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn, to be baseless.
“Given this finding, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will not authorise any further canonical process to address the accusations,” the statement said.
Two civil lawsuits have been filed against Bishop DiMarzio alleging that, as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark a half-century ago, he had committed acts of sexual abuse against minors, which Bishop DiMarzio has steadfastly denied.
In a personal statement released following the announcement, Bishop DiMarzio said: “I repeat what I have said from the beginning. There is no truth to these allegations. Throughout my more than 50-year ministry as a priest, I have never abused anyone.”
Pope encourages participation in 2021 Season of Creation
Pope Francis has called on Catholics to take action during the Season of Creation.
In the Pope’s video for the month of September, he encourages everyone to question the way we live, and to turn “towards lifestyles that are simpler and more respectful of the environment”.
The Holy Father has also stressed that the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are becoming increasingly serious and alarming,” urging Catholics to take “decisive, urgent action to transform this crisis into an opportunity.”
Furthermore, at the weekly General Audience last Wednesday, he recalled the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and the beginning of the Season of Creation. He noted that a message for the occasion had been prepared together with Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“Together with our brothers and sisters of different Christian denominations, let us pray and work for our common home in these times of grave planetary crisis,” the Pope said.