St Jane Frances de Chantal: a saint to inspire women keen to enter religious life

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/08/12/st-jane-frances-de-chantal-a-saint-to-inspire-women-keen-to-enter-religious-life/

by Mary O'Regan

posted Wednesday, 12 Aug 2015

A painting of St Francis de Sales gives St Jane Jane Frances the Rule of the Order of the Visitation

St Jane Frances struck up a close friendship with St Francis de Sales

Those who want to show that women have wielded great influence in the Catholic Church would do well to bring the life of St Jane Frances de Chantal to public attention. St Jane Frances worked closely with the hierarchy of bishops to achieve her goals and to make life easier for women who want to enter religious life – it’s her feast day today

St Jane Frances de Chantal was a Frenchwoman born in 1572. At the age of 21, she married her sweetheart, Baron de Chantal and together they had four children. Widowed at the age of 28, she decided not to remarry. She had an extremely busy life, managing the estate of her late husband, raising her children and also giving food and nursing care to the poor people who lived nearby. Four years after her husband’s death, St Jane Frances met St Francis de Sales, he was bishop of Geneva at the time, and they struck up a close friendship.

St Francis de Sales acted as her spiritual director, and supported her vocation to religious life and her ambition to become foundress of a new and daring religious order which would accept women who were turned away by other convents because of failing health, physical disability or their age. On at least one occasion she accepted a woman in her 80s and on another occasion she accepted a blind lady.

After making sure her children were provided for, St Jane Frances departed for Annecy, an alpine town in south-eastern France where she founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.

For its time, it was radical; the sisters were more like Mother Theresa than the nuns of their day who usually were cloistered. After about eight years, there were too many objections to the nuns of the Visitation being too involved in active service and St Francis de Sales decided to make it a cloistered community.

St Francis de Sales masterpiece, Introduction to the Devout Life, is still a popular text among Catholics who want to go deeper into holiness. But a lesser known body of spiritual direction are the letters of St Jane Frances. Through her interesting letters, we get a good sense of her character. In one she discusses a potential love match for her daughter, in another she is profusely thanking another nun for her prayers. One nice surprise is that St Jane Frances’s character comes across as genuinely kind and gentle. Too often nuns from a distant century are portrayed as cold-blooded fanatics who made the lives of other nuns hell.

St Francis de Sales’ decision to make the order a cloistered one did not inhibit its growth and by the time St Francis de Sales dies, there were 13 houses. 73 more houses had sprung up by the time St Jane Frances died, bringing the grand total to 86 houses founded in her lifetime

In UK, assisted suicide vote looms as a key moment for disabled

London, England, Aug 14, 2015 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- 

... Under current law in the United Kingdom, it is illegal to encourage or to help someone attempt to take their own life. On Sept. 11 the House of Commons will debate and vote on a private member’s bill to legalize assisted suicide.

Like the Catholic Church, the Church of England opposes changes to current U.K. law. On July 16 it urged churchgoers to contact their MPs to oppose the bill. James Newcome, the Anglican Bishop of Carlisle and the group's lead bishop on health care, said legalization would create a “very uncertain and dangerous” future for the most vulnerable, such as the elderly and the disabled.

“This is a key moment for all of us as we decide what sort of society we want to live in and what future we want for our children and grandchildren, one in which all are valued and cared for, or one in which some lives are viewed as not worth living,” he said.

The Church of England’s general synod unanimously passed a motion to oppose the bill. The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has called assisted suicide “mistaken and dangerous.”

The Catholic Church in England and Wales urged opposition to the bill in a July 1 Question and Answer, which stressed that every person’s life is equally worthy of respect and compassion.

Those say they wish to die, the statement said, “deserve care, support and sometimes medical treatment for depression, not assistance with suicide.” It emphasized the duty to provide good pain control and hospice care for those in need.

“The Church teaches that life is a gift from God and supports high quality care for the dying and protection for the weak and vulnerable.”

Lord Carey said he thought Parliament could craft laws that are resistant to abuse and unintended consequences.

However, the Catholic Church statement said it is “wishful thinking” to think there would be adequate safeguards once the ethical and legal principles against assisted suicide are violated. It pointed to abuses in Holland and several U.S. states where assisted suicide is legal or not prosecuted. The statement said doctors in these places often fail to diagnose clinical depression in those who would be eligible for legal suicide.

“Each year the numbers dying by assisted suicide increase and the ‘safeguards’ are taken less and less seriously,” the statement charged.

Pope Expresses Condolences to Victims of Tianjin Explosion

Rome, August 16, 2015 (ZENIT.org) Junno Arocho Esteves

Pope Francis has expressed his condolences to the victims of the tragic explosion that occurred in Tianjian, located in northern China.

On Wednesday night, a fire began at a Ruihai Logistics warehouse, which contained various hazardous chemicals. Firefighters, who were unaware of the dangerous reaction of water to the toxic chemicals, inadvertently caused a chain reaction of massive explosions.

The death toll of the explosions, as of now, has reached 112, with 95 people still missing, and hundreds more injured.

Investigators believe that poor record keeping, as well as several major discrepancies left authorities unable to identify the dangerous substances that were stored in the warehouse.

Following his Angelus address on the Feast of the Assumption on Saturday, the Holy Father conveyed his thoughts and prayers to the victims of the tragic explosion.

"I assure my prayers for those who have lost their lives and for all those who are suffering from this disaster," he said.

"May the Lord give them comfort and support to all those engaged in relieving their suffering."

According to Vatican news blog, Il Sismografo, Chinese television broadcasted the Holy Father's words on the explosion. Italian journalists in Peking noted that the broadcasting of the Pope's message was "an important gesture" and unprecedented in nature. 

(August 16, 2015) © Innovative Media Inc.

Benedict XVI and Christian Europe, as seen by a Japanese scholar

From: Catholic News Agency
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/benedict-xvi-and-christian-europe-as-seen-by-a-japanese-scholar-77849/
By Kevin J. Jones

Vatican City, Aug 14, 2015 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Benedict XVI’s role in Europe is the focus of a Japanese scholar who says the Pope emeritus’ recent decades show his engagement in a dialogue that promotes both Catholic identity and what he saw as the best of Western values.

“What Pope Benedict XVI wanted to emphasize was the independence of the Catholic Church,” Hajime Konno told CNA Aug. 12. He said this principle of self-determination was central to the Pope on questions of Church reform.

At the same time, Benedict did not hesitate to dialogue with thinkers such as the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas and the Italian Social Democrat and atheist Paolo Flores d’Arcais.

“In his opinion, a dialogue does not automatically mean a compromise of the Catholic side, as many outsiders expected,” Konno explained. “But a dialogue without agreement is much better than violence without dialogue, for the coexistence of many cultures.”

Konno, who teaches German studies at Aichi Prefectural University in Japan, has authored a new book on the former Pope: Benedict XVI: the Renewal of Christian Europe. The Japanese-language book draws on his research in German history, culture, and politics.

In Konno’s view, Benedict’s efforts to renew Christian Europe had two main methods. The first approach: an emphasis on Christian and Catholic identity.

“He insisted that the dialogues with other confessions and religions must not be confused with one-sided compromises of the Catholic Church. He did not hesitate to criticize other confessions and
religions,” the professor said. He noted Benedict's Regensburg speech of 2006, which critically compared the roles of faith and reason in Islamic thought with their roles in Christianity.

This approach, as well as Benedict’s dedication to liturgical principles, encouraged traditional Catholics in their faith. While this helped build bridges with such groups as the Society of St. Pius X, it sometimes drew protests and objections from the Pope’s opponents.

Benedict's other approach emphasized “Western values” as a common base for humanity.

“He insisted that the modern ‘western values’ were originally Christian ones, that Christianity is a religion of rationality and an indispensable foundation for the European community,” Konno said.

According to Konno, Benedict’s 2004 discussion with Habermas was among his successes, and the Pope emeritus' work has had an impact.

“Thanks to these efforts, he was accepted by most political leaders in the world as the moral leader of the time,” Konno said. He acknowledged that some of the Pope’s past rivals, like the Swiss theologian Hans Kung, were not satisfied.

Benedict saw the dignity of humankind as a valuable principle of modernity. He also saw possibilities to cooperate with political progressives in areas such as bioethics and Middle East peacekeeping.

At the same time, the Pope’s most important target of criticism was “the idea that man can always decide his fate by himself.”

“According to Pope Benedict XVI, this attitude means a lack of modesty before God, and is the main cause for many problems of the time, such as environmental problems, divorce, abortion, and social inequalities. But this idea is a basis of freedom for the progressives,” Kanno said.

He explained that Benedict is not well-known in Japan, and he wants his book to show Japanese people “the western discussion on the modernity of the Catholic Church.”

Kanno, who is agnostic, said Benedict’s arguments were not always persuasive. The professor found his view of the rationality of Christianity to be “one-sided.”

Kanno’s family, from the north of Japan, was traditionally Orthodox Christian. “Although my father was an atheist and I am not a Christian, I am interested in Christianity as a culture,” he said.

One of his areas of interest includes the conflicts between the Catholic Church and German left-wing intellectuals in the late 20th century.

“The German progressive intellectuals insisted that all persons in Germany must accept unconditionally ‘Western values’.” This insistence applied to the Catholic Church, to East Germans, Turkish immigrants, and Japanese students.

“I thought, the modern ‘Western values’ are really theoretical weapons against the people who seem to be not completely modern,” Kanno said.

He explained that he first became interested in Cardinal Ratzinger when the future Pope was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger published the 2000 declaration Dominus Iesus, on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church.

Kanno saw the document as a rejection of the idea that the Catholic Church must adapt without conditions to the mode of the time.

“That was a very courageous and dangerous act,” he said.

Kanno sees Pope Francis, Benedict’s successor, as a “modest and humble man,” but not a strong reformer.

“The Catholic Church needs his reign as a truce,” the professor said. Following Francis' pontificate, he thinks the cardinals “must think again how the Catholic Church has to confront the modern world.”

Kanno’s book is available in Japanese, though he hopes to have it translated into English.