SUMMARY:
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Statistics on the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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The Pope to the Italian bishops: denounce corruption, which
impoverishes all
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Other Pontifical Acts
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Statistics
on the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Vatican
City, 19 May 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father will make an apostolic
trip to Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 6 June. The following
are some statistical data on the Catholic Church in this country,
from the Central Office of Church Statistics.
Bosnia
and Herzegovina has a surface area of 51,197 sq. km. and a population
of 3,833,000 inhabitants, of whom 43,900 are Catholics – 11.5% of
the population. There are four ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 304
parishes and one parish centre. The apostolate consists of six
bishops, 624 priests, 14 men religious and 537 women religious. There
are 68 catechists and 120 major seminarians.
The
Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina has 16 educational centres
including pre-school, primary, middle, secondary and high schools,
and a university. There are also six clinics, four rest homes for the
elderly and disabled, four orphanages and nurseries, six family
counselling centres and life protection centres, three centres for
social education or re-education, and six centres of other types.
The
Pope to the Italian bishops: denounce corruption, which impoverishes
all
Vatican
City, 19 May 2015 (VIS) - “Our vocation is to listen when the Lord
asks us: 'Console my people'. Indeed, we are asked to console, to
help, to encourage, without discrimination, all our brothers who are
oppressed by the weight of their crosses, without ever tiring of
working to lift them up again with the strength that comes only from
God”, said Pope Francis yesterday afternoon to the bishops of the
Italian Episcopal Conference, as he inaugurated the 68th assembly, to
be held in the Vatican to analyse the reception of the Apostolic
Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel).
Proclaiming
the Gospel today, a difficult moment in history, requires prelates to
“go against the grain: or rather, to be joyful witnesses of the
Risen Christ to transmit joy and hope to others”, said the Holy
Father, who went on to illustrate the importance of the “ecclesial
sensibility”, which means assuming the same sentiments as Christ,
“sentiments of humility, compassion, concreteness and wisdom”.
A
sensibility that also involves “not being timid … in denouncing
and fighting against a widespread mentality of the public and private
corruption that shamelessly impoverishes families, pensioners, honest
workers and Christian communities, discarding the young, who are
systematically deprived of any hope for their future, and above all
marginalising the weak and the needy. It is an ecclesial sensibility
that, as good pastors, makes us go forth towards the People of God to
defend them from ideological colonisations that take away their
identity and human dignity”.
This
sensibility is also made tangible in pastoral decisions and in the
elaboration of documents “where the abstract theoretical-doctrinal
aspect must not prevail, as if our directions were intended not for
our People or our country, but only for a few scholars or specialists
– instead we must make the effort to translate them into concrete
and comprehensible proposals”, emphasised Francis.
The
strengthening of the essential role of the laity is another of the
concrete applications of pastoral sensibility, since “laypeople
with an authentic Christian formation should not need a bishop-guide
… to assume their own responsibilities at all levels, political to
social, economic to legislative. However, they do need a
bishop-pastor”.
Finally,
the ecclesial sensibility is revealed in a tangible way “in
collegiality and in the communion between bishops and their priests;
in the communion between bishops themselves; between dioceses which
are materially and vocationally rich and those in difficulty; between
the periphery and the centre; between episcopal conferences and the
bishops, and the Successor of Peter”. He remarked, “in some parts
of the world we see a widespread weakening of collegiality, both in
pastoral planning and in the shared undertaking of economic and
financial commitments. The habit of checking the reception of
programmes and the implementation of projects is lacking. For
example, conferences or events are organised which promote the usual
voices, anaesthetising the Communities, approving choices, opinions
and people, instead of allowing us to be transported towards the
horizons where the Holy Spirit asks us to go”.
“Why
do we let the religious institutes, monasteries and congregations age
so much, almost to the point of no longer giving evangelical witness
faithful to the founding charism? Why do we not try to regroup them
before it is too late?”. This is a global problem that, as the Holy
Father stated, indicates a lack of ecclesial sensibility.
“I
will end here, after have presented to you a few examples of weakened
ecclesial sensibility due to the need to continually face enormous
global problems and the crisis that spares not even the Christian and
ecclesial identity itself”, he concluded, asking the Lord to grant
to all during the Jubilee Year of Mercy “the joy of rediscovering
and making fruitful God's mercy, with which we are all called to
console every man and every woman of our time”.
Other
Pontifical Acts
Vatican
City, 19 May 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:
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Rev. Fr. James Massa and Rev. Fr. Witold Mroziewski as auxiliaries of
Brooklyn (area 466, population 4,838,406, Catholics 1,403,137,
priests 604, permanent deacons 225, religious 1,053), U.S.A.
Bishop-elect
Massa was born in Jersey City, U.S.A., in 1960 and was ordained a
priest in 1986. He holds a master's degree in theology from the Yale
University School of Divinity, New Haven, and a doctorate in
systematic theology from Fordham University, New York. He has served
in a number of roles in the diocese of Brooklyn, including parish
vicar, chaplain and professor at the Kansas Newman College, professor
at the Pope John XXIII national seminary and the seminary of the
Immaculate Conception, executive director of the ecumenical and
interreligious committee of the U.S.A. episcopal conference,
consultor of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue,
professor of the St. Joseph seminary, moderator of the curia and
administrator of the Holy Name Parish.
Bishop-elect
Mroziewski was born in Augustow, Poland in 1966 and was ordained a
priest in 1991. He holds master's degrees in theology and canon law,
and a doctorate in canon law from the Catholic University of Lublin,
Poland. He has served in a number of roles, including parish vicar in
the diocese of Lomza, Poland, and in Brooklyn, parish vicar,
administrator, parish priest, judge at the diocesan tribunal,
coordinator of the Polish apostolate, adjunct promoter of justice for
criminal causes, member of the presbyteral council and defender of
the bond. He is currently parish priest of the Holy Cross parish in
Maspeth.
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