(Vatican Radio) The eminent theologian, Cardinal Karl Josef Becker, SJ, passed away in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after several months of increasingly grave and painful illness. Ordained a priest in 1958, ten years after entering the Society of Jesus, Fr. Becker, SJ, (as he preferred to be known even after his elevation to…
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Vatican City, 10 February 2015 (VIS) – “The Holy See is following attentively the situations of crisis in various parts of the world, including the eastern regions of Ukraine. In the presence of an escalation of the conflict that has claimed many innocent victims, the Holy Father Francis has renewed his appeal for peace on several occasions. By these interventions, while inviting the faithful to pray for those who have been killed and injured as a result of the hostilities, the Pope also underlined the urgency of resuming negotiations as the only possible way out of the logic of mounting accusations and reactions. “Faced with differing interpretations of the Pope’s words, especially those of Wednesday 4 February, I consider it useful to specify that he has always wished to address all the interested parties, trusting in the sincere efforts of each one to implement agreements reached by common consent and invoking the principle of international law, to which the Holy See has referred several times since the beginning of the crisis. As St. John Paul II often repeated, humanity must find the courage to substitute the right to force with the power of law. “The Holy Father joyfully awaits the ‘Ad limina’ visit of the Ukrainian Episcopate, scheduled for the days 16-21 February. This will constitute a further occasion to meet those brother Bishops, to be directly informed on the situation of that dear country, to console the Church and those who suffer and to evaluate together paths for reconciliation and peace”….
Vatican City, 10 February 2015 (VIS) – “The Holy See is following attentively the situations of crisis in various parts of the world, including the eastern regions of Ukraine. In the presence of an escalation of the conflict that has claimed many innocent victims, the Holy Father Francis has renewed his appeal for peace on…
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(Vatican Radio) The head of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, on Tuesday spoke about the situation in the Ukraine.
The full declaration follows:
The See is following attentively the situations of crisis in various parts of the world, including the eastern regions of Ukraine. In the presence of an escalation of the conflict that has claimed many innocent victims, the Holy Father Francis has renewed his appeal for peace on several occasions.
By these interventions, while inviting the faithful to pray for those who have been killed and injured as a result of the hostilities, the Pope also underlined the urgency of resuming negotiations as the only possible way out of the logic of mounting accusations and reactions.
Faced with differing interpretations of the Pope’s words, especially those of Wednesday 4 February, I consider it useful to specify that he has always wished to address all the interested parties, trusting in the sincere efforts of each one to implement agreements reached by common consent and invoking the principle of international law, to which the Holy See has referred several times since the beginning of the crisis. As St. John Paul II often repeated, humanity must find the courage to substitute the right to force with the power of law.
The Holy Father joyfully awaits the Ad limina visit of the Ukrainian Episcopate, scheduled for the days 16-21 February. This will constitute a further occasion to meet those brother Bishops, to be directly informed on the situation of that dear country, to console the Church and those who suffer and to evaluate together paths for reconciliation and peace.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The eminent theologian, Cardinal Karl Josef Becker, SJ , passed away in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after several months of increasingly grave and painful illness. Ordained a priest in 1958, ten years after entering the Society of Jesus, Fr. Becker, SJ, (as he preferred to be known even after his elevation to the Cardinalate in 2012) was for more than four decades missioned to the Pontifical Gregorian University, serving actively as Professor of Dogmatic Theology from 1969-2003, and then for a dozen years as Professor-emeritus.
Cardinal Becker is remembered as a teacher, who happily shared his prodigious intellectual gifts and erudition with students and fellow professors in a spirit of humility and selfless generosity.
Especially during the years of his retirement from full-time teaching, Cardinal Becker, SJ, dedicated himself increasingly to the study of world religions, in particular in their relations to the Catholic Church – a study that took him around the world and saw him make friends with people in many different religious traditions. These years of study culminated in the 2010 volume, Catholic Engagement with World Religions: a comprehensive study , which he jointly edited with Prof. Ilaria Morali, Prof. Gavin D’Costa and Prof. Maurice Borrmans, M.Afr.
In addition to his academic work, Cardinal Becker served from 1985 as a Consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making particular contributions to the 1997-1999 dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation that produced the Joint Declaration on Justification, and taking part in the eight sessions (2009-2011) of the working group of the Ecclesia Dei commission with the Society of St. Pius X.
(from Vatican Radio)…