Germany: “encouragement for priests””An encouragement for priests” was expressed by Mgr. Robert Zollitsch, President of the German Bishops’ Conference, on 17 March, commenting on the initiative of Benedict XVI to call a “year of the priest” which will begin on 19 June 2009. “I wish to thank the Holy Father for this initiative, for we need a period of time to devote ourselves to priesthood in a particular way. In the Year of the Priest it is important to reflect on the task and mission of priestly service. The aim is especially to encourage the priests who daily perform their service. In this particular year we will also accompany with our prayers all those who have chosen the road that leads to priesthood”, promised Zollitsch who sees the Year of the Priest as “an occasion to gain a new awareness of the vocation to the priesthood in all its beauty, and in this way also to encourage our youth to place themselves at the disposal of God’s call and to discover their vocation as priests”. “Fidelity in Christ, fidelity of the priest” is the motto chosen for the Year of the Priest, which will open on 19 June, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and end in the following year with a world meeting of priests in Rome. During the year, St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney will be proclaimed patron of priests, of whom there are some 400,000 throughout the world today.Belarus: conciliar documents translatedOn Monday, 16 March, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Metropolitan of Minsk and Mahilyow, handed over to Pope Benedict XVI a translation into the Belorussian language of the documents of Vatican Council II. The presentation of the translation to the Holy Father took place while Archbishop Kondrusiewicz was participating in a plenary session of the Congregation for the Clergy in the Vatican. According to Belorussian sources, the Holy Father received the new edition with great pleasure. In his address to the participants in the plenary session, the Pope among other things made reference to the doctrine of Vatican Council II. And in a conversation with Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, “Benedict XVI warmly greeted the Catholic Church in Belarus and acknowledged its revival and development”. Ukraine: Cardinal Husar, “unity is possible” Christian unity is “a duty”; it is the “will of God”; and therefore it “is possible”. So said His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, in an interview with the journal “Korrespondent” , the latest number of which has been published with the title “The Pope of Lviv” . Seven questions were put to the cardinal by seven readers of the magazine. They included a question on whether a union between the country’s three main Orthodox Churches – Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Patriarchate of Kyiv, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church – is possible. Cardinal Lubomyr Husar replied: “Christian unity is our duty. It is absolutely within our reach, because unity is a commandment of God. Christ said we must be one thing only. Just like the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one thing only. So we too, Christians, by inheriting the union of the Holy Trinity, must be one. If this is the will of God, it is possible. But the problem is not God or union: the problem lies in ourselves, in our persons”. Regarding the controversial decision to transfer the main seat of the Greek-Catholic Church from Lviv to Kiev, the cardinal made a point of explaining that in actual fact this was not a “transfer”. “We have returned where we were once before”, said the cardinal recalling that “at the beginning of the nineteenth century the Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Church had its seat at Kiev”. “Kiev moreover is the capital of the State, and all the great religious organizations have their main representations here. It’s entirely natural. For the Greek-Catholic Church – Cardinal Husar stressed – is not a church of Western Ukraine, but of the whole of Ukraine”.Ireland: renegotiating mortgages to help familiesBishop Christopher Jones, chairman of the Commission of the Family of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, has called for mortgages to be renegotiated to prevent families from having their homes re-possessed, or repayment rates to be re-adjusted according to the financial means of families in difficulty. In a communiqué the bishop writes that “in Ireland ownership of the family home has always been considered important. Turning families and family life upside down ought to be avoided”. “The temporary moratorium on mortgages offered by some banks was welcome”, said Mgr. Jones, “but it does not remove the fear that families have today of losing their homes. Since the government can intervene to support the banking system, I ask the government to explore, with mortgage providers, the ways in which the family can be protected from the loss of its own home”. The communiqué also contains an appeal to banks to review their procedures for making loans so as to ensure the necessary support to businesses to overcome the current economic crisis.
