Our world Bishop Álvarez proved alive as he appears in staged TV interview

DAVID AGREN OSV News

MEXICO CITY — Imprisoned

Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez appeared unexpectedly on Nicaraguan television March 24, more than six weeks after refusing to be exiled from his country, opting instead to face a sentence of 26 years behind bars.

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Pale, gaunt and dressed in blue, Bishop Álvarez was reunited with his brother and sister for a meal at the La Modelo prison, where he has been held since hastily being convicted in a secret trial of conspiracy for “undermining national integrity” and spreading false information.

The appearance followed weeks of Catholic leaders and human rights groups demanding proof of life – with the last photos of Bishop Álvarez dating back to a Jan. 10 court date. He had previously been held under house arrest after being detained in an August 2022 raid on his diocesan headquarters.

Government-friendly media showed Bishop Álvarez breaking bread with his siblings, then switched to a coerced interview with him. Bishop Álvarez was asked to confirm he had received “dignified treatment” – something he confirmed, though other political prisoners have described their conditions as squalid.

The interviewer then told Bishop Álvarez, “We’re glad to see you doing well,” to which the smiling bishop responded, “How do I look? Healthy? And my face, how does it look?”

Bishop Álvarez’s response ignited a social media storm among Nicaraguans – many of whom have fled the Central American country as the Ortega regime turns increasingly tyrannical and suppresses all dissenting voices.

“It overjoys me to see photos of my brother, Monsignor Rolando. I give thanks to God that he’s alive!” tweeted Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Baez of Managua, who is exiled in Miami. “The dictatorship’s staging of this has been repugnant and cynical and doesn’t erase its crime. The force of the people’s prayers and international pressure has been revealed. Release him now!”

Bishop Baez said in his March 26 homily, “Those who have locked up and have wanted to silence Rolando’s voice, don’t be deceived: you are the true prisoners, prisoners of evil, of ambition, of cruelty.

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Remove the stone from the prison door and release the bishop.”

Nicaraguan lawyer Yader Morazán told OSV News that the regime likely considered international pressure in presenting the bishop, as human rights lawyers are investigating the forced disappearance.

He also noted the bishop’s attire didn’t match the clothing given to inmates in Nicaraguan prisons.

“We can see this as using the justice system for political propaganda, having now exhibited a person this way,” said Morazán, who fled Nicaragua in 2018 and was recently stripped of his citizenship.

Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have branded Catholic bishops “terrorists” and “coup plotters,” and recently severed diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The Vatican closed its embassy in Managua in March with the chargé d’affaires, Monsignor Marcel Diouf, leaving the country.

“We have a bishop in prison, a very serious and capable man, who wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile,” Pope Francis told the Argentine media outlet Infobae just prior to relations being severed. “It is something from outside of what we are living, as if it were a communist dictatorship in 1917 or a Hitlerian one in 1935.”

Nicaragua released 222 political prisoners Feb. 9, sending them to the United States and stripping them of their Nicaraguan citizenship. Bishop Álvarez refused to board the plane and was subsequently convicted and sentenced.

Pope Francis calls for ‘ethical and responsible’ AI development

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis asked tech leaders to measure the value of their innovations not in processing power or profit potential, but in their capacity to promote human dignity. In a meeting at the Vatican March 27 with scientists, engineers, businesspeople and lawyers working across the tech industry, the pope reflected on the social and cultural impact of artificial intelligence. The benefits of artificial intelligence and automated learning for humanity will be realized only if developers act in an “ethical and responsible way” that respects the intrinsic dignity of each person, the pope said. But he expressed concern that such respect is missing when, for instance, artificially intelligent software is used in producing legal sentences by analyzing an individual’s criminal record and generalized data. “An individual’s past behavior should not be used to deny him or her the opportunity to change, grow and contribute to society,” he said. “We cannot allow algorithms to limit or condition respect for human dignity, nor can we allow them to exclude compassion, mercy, forgiveness and, above all, an openness to hope for personal change.”

Colombian bishops ask Vatican to consider creation of Amazonian rite

VATICAN CITY — Indigenous communities in Colombia are calling for a new liturgical rite that reflects their varied spiritualities and lifestyles, Colombia’s bishops said. About half of the country’s bishops met with Pope Francis March 24 at the end of their “ad limina” visit to the Vatican, the first for Colombia’s bishops since 2012. Bishop Omar Mejía Giraldo of Florencia, whose diocese sits along the border of the Amazon rainforest, told journalists that the pope is encouraging Colombia’s bishops to continue researching an Amazonian rite and remain close to the region’s Indigenous communities. In this moment the Church is asking CEAMA, the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon Region, “to reflect deeply and thoroughly to see how we can make inroads toward an Amazonian rite,” he said. The bishop said Pope Francis told them the Vatican would not “shut down” the development of an Amazonian rite and that “there will arrive a moment when (the Church) will discern it thoroughly.”

Pope advances sainthood causes of six candidates

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has advanced the sainthood causes of five women and a priest. The pope March 23 signed decrees recognizing that each of the six candidates heroically lived the Christian virtues. Beatification will require a miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession, and canonization – a declaration of sainthood – will require an additional miracle. Among the causes that were advanced were those of two laywomen: Maria Domenica Lazzeri, an Italian who lived 1815-1848; and Teresa Enríquez de Alvarado, a Spaniard who was born sometime around 1456 and died in 1529.

New rules bar male-to-female transgender athletes from female competition

ROME — The World Athletics Council, the international sports governing body, announced new rules that prohibit the participation of “male-to-female transgender athletes” from female competitions. In a statement published March 23, the association said it agreed “to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition” effective March 31. Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, said that while such decisions involving “conflicting needs and rights between different groups” are always difficult, the sport governing body must nevertheless “continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations.”

“We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount,” Coe said. The decision drew mixed reactions, with some LGBT activist organizations criticizing the decision as exclusionary. Others, including Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, thanked World Athletics for “standing up for female athletes across the world who are worthy of fair sport.”

Church calls for international protection of holy sites after attack on church at Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — The Greek Orthodox Church March 19 denounced what it called a “heinous terrorist attack” on a church at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem. As reported by AFP, Israeli police said that earlier that same day a 27-year-old resident of southern Israel was arrested over “a violent incident” at the church in annexed East Jerusalem, without providing further details on the suspect’s identity. While the police said the apprehended suspect entered the church with an iron bar and that there were no injuries, a witness told AFP that a priest had been injured in the forehead. The attack on the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem is one of many attacks on Christian sites in Jerusalem in recent months.

Confession is ‘encounter of love’ that fights evil, pope tells priests

VATICAN CITY — In a world where “there is no shortage of hotbeds of hatred and revenge,” Pope Francis told priests and seminarians that “we confessors must multiply the ‘hotbeds of mercy,’” by making it easy for people to access the sacrament of reconciliation. “We are in a supernatural struggle” with evil, the pope said, “even though we already know the final outcome will be Christ’s victory over the powers of evil. This victory truly takes place every time a penitent is absolved. Nothing drives away and defeats evil more than divine mercy.” Pope Francis was speaking March 23 with priests and seminarians attending a course at the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal dealing with matters of conscience, the sacrament of reconciliation and indulgences, and with priests who offer confession at the major basilicas of Rome. He told them, “If someone doesn’t feel like being a giver of the mercy he received from Jesus, don’t enter the confessional.”

Notre Dame Cathedral reopening date announced as reconstruction on its famous spire wraps up in eastern France

VAL DE BRIEY, France — Four years after a devastating fire, the date of the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has been set for Dec. 8, 2024, at 11:15 a.m., according to Philippe Villeneuve, the architect leading the reconstruction. Villeneuve made the announcement March 16 during a trip to Val de Briey in eastern France, a small agricultural town near the Luxembourg border. It was there that the base of the famous Notre Dame spire was being assembled before its installation on the four pillars at the crossing of the cathedral’s transept, at a height of nearly 100 feet. The spire was destroyed when a fire ravaged the cathedral April 15, 2019. Even if Paris’ famous medieval cathedral won’t reopen in time for the Paris Olympic Games scheduled for July 26-Aug. 11, 2024, the reopening date is a significant one for Catholics, as Dec. 8 marks the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, one of the biggest feast days of Mary, to whom French King Louis XIII consecrated himself, his dynasty and his kingdom in 1638.

Even after horrible violence, Jesus would have us pray: ‘Father, forgive them’

During the Church year, we journey through the Sermon on the Mount. We hear Jesus say, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” What Jesus calls us to look at is not the letter of the Law, but what is at the heart of the matter. Our actions arise from the movements in our heart, and so we need to change our hearts if we are to avoid acting in an evil manner.

Jesus goes from the exterior action to what lies inside of us. The commandment says, “You shall not kill. … But I say to you whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. … If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” What can lead to murder is anger that is allowed to seethe and grow until it bursts forth into hurting, even killing another.

Reconciliation is crucial. Even if the other person does not forgive us, God forgives us if we seek to be reconciled. If the wrong has been done to us, often we need to ask God to help us to forgive others. If we are unable to forgive, the hurt and anger often act as a weight that burdens us and keeps us from being free.

POPE FRANCIS VISITS WAR-TORN COUNTRIES

A few weeks ago, Pope Francis visited both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. Both countries have been plagued by war and unrest. In the eastern part of the DRC, war has gone on for some 25 years as various militias have fought to gain control of the mineral riches that are part of our cellphones and other electronic equipment. It is estimated that nearly 3 million people have been killed and millions more displaced. The Holy Father came to bring a message of peace and reconciliation, and to tell the people that they are not forgotten.

In the DRC, Pope Francis met with a number of people who had been caught up in the violence to listen to their stories and to pray with them for peace and healing.

One was a woman who as a young girl watched her parents and siblings be murdered before her eyes. The militia leader then gave her the knife that killed them and told her to give it to the DRC military as a sign of what would be done to them.

The second was a fellow who, as a boy, watched his father and an uncle be hacked to death by a machete and his mother be taken away. He has never seen his mother again.

The third was a young woman who was taken as a sex slave by a militia leader. She was raped time and again, but finally managed to escape after a year and a half. On her back were the twins that she bore as a result of the rape.

The first woman took the knife that had killed her family and laid it at the foot of the cross as she forgave the murderers.

The fellow took a machete like the one that had massacred his father and uncle, and he laid it at the foot of the cross in forgiveness of what had been done to his family.

The second woman took a mat, like the one on which she was repeatedly raped, and placed it at the foot of the cross in forgiveness of the one who had so brutally abused her.

With tears in his eyes, Pope Francis blessed each one.

African Believers Lead The Way

This is the power of the cross. This is following Jesus, who on the cross called out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Once again, our African brothers and sisters have shown us in the West that the power of the cross can bring about forgiveness and even reconciliation. They showed this in South Africa and in Rwanda.

Will we in the West learn from them? Will we help to bring about peace in their countries? Will we bring about peace in our own country? Will we believe what we pray during Holy Week: “Lord, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world.”

What do you do at Eucharistic Adoration?

When I dragged a friend to Adoration recently, she pumped me with panicky questions while on the way. “Sitting for an hour in silence? But what do you do?”

Her question was not unexpected. We live in a utilitarian society where everything in our lives, and indeed our own self-worth, is terribly bound up in what we do. It’s one of the first things we ask each other as new acquaintances – not “How do you be” but “What do you do?”– which is the question by which we measure another’s value and worth, not just materially but within the scope of humanity.

The question reveals the entrenched mindset that permits society to consider the “benefits” of euthanasia or the in utero genocide perpetrated against babies whose quality of life might be deemed not good enough – not useful enough – to permit their birth.

Sitting before Christ at Adoration is less about doing than about being. “I look at the Master and the Master looks at me,” and nothing much more than that needs to occur at Adoration, because in that silent interlude something supernatural is at work, “doing” more than we can even imagine.

Nevertheless, our need to attach some value to Adoration drove my friend’s question, and I answered it simply. “I pray. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I doze. Sometimes I do nothing at all. It’s all good.”

ALL GOD WANTS IS OUR WILLINGNESS

Adoration seems to me a great privilege coupled with an experience of real humility. I go there in poverty – unworthy of anything, but willing to be open, because I trust that all God wants of us is our willingness. Always I go with the reminder jangling in my brain: Weakness is sown, strength rises up (1 Cor 15:42b-43). This is part-and-parcel of St. Paul’s paradox: When I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10).

I am weak, often at my weakest, when I go to Adoration. But I know that my prayer there – even though I have nothing of myself, am nothing – is made strong, because it is made before the physical Presence of the Christ, and because He sees my willingness.

Often, by the time I have reached the pew for my weekly hour, I am like a desert maniac who has crossed the burning sands and finally found a clear stream at which to collapse and drink, and my first prayers are like groanings without thought as I try to gulp down the light and peace radiating before me. I have no words.

FROM GRATITUDE TO PRAISE TO INTERCESSION

After a time, I am able to collect myself, and then my prayer takes the form of thanksgiving, for I am always grateful to have an hour in His Majesty’s Presence. I ponder all I am grateful for: husband, sons, in-laws, friends, employment, health, the good news my friends have shared, the ability to raise a cup of water to my lips on my own steam. These lead to prayers of praise, because gratitude enables praise, and our praise joins the prayers of the angels. Prayers of praise are a reprieve from earth. They are a simple, direct, heavenward thrust of love.

Then, I begin to intercede for others. Call me presumptuous but in renewed calm I bring the whole world into prayer: the people on my lists; the Holy Father; priests and religious, naming them when I can; firefighters and emergency responders; newsmakers; cities; states; continents. I bring it all forward, feeling ragged and unworthy – like a slave or the lowliest servant – escorting one person after another, one group after another, into the presence of the King, as I have been taught through the example of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity:

Lord, the one you love is sick ...

Lord, the one you love is weeping ...

Lord, the ones you love are overworked and fretful ...

Lord, the one you love is lonely ...

Lord, the one you love is under siege ...

Lord, the ones you love are oppressed ...

Lord, the ones you love are over-burdened ...

Lord, the ones you love are slaves to hate ...

Like an emcee, I bring everyone in and then mentally, spiritually recede into the background, imagining my own self nose-to-the-ground, almost prostrate, and daring not to look up, as I pray:

Help them to comprehend the truth and strength and inviolability of your love, the generosity of your mercy; show them the outpouring of your grace; gift them with your healing and let them recognize it and trust that your gifts once bestowed are never rescinded. You, Alpha and Omega, in whom we live and move and have our being, spread forth your peace like sweetest honey to refresh starving hearts and weary spirits. Let your Light touch us, like consoling balm, to soothe and warm our chilled humanity, that we might be opened to your justice and willing to be made whole.

But I am no worthy intercessor, only a faulty and broken vessel trusting in your mercy. Consider not what I deserve in your sight, but only the needs of these whom you love, these I bring before you and for whom I, the least, plead. Let my prayer rise before you like incense to carry these forward. Forgive my sins, especially my failures in love, my sins of omission, and cast them behind your back as your prophet Isaiah has promised, and with your grace may I do better. Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, the sinner, in your name I pray ...

Prayer Is Not Just For Priests

The word “epiclesis” means “calling down upon.” As a Benedictine Oblate, I know that an oblation is a self-offering, and we all know that intercessions are pleas on behalf of others. Combined with other important essentials – the greatest being silence – these three words form the foundation for my prayers at Eucharistic Adoration.

Prayer is a force, and it is real. It takes a priest to pray the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, but we members of the laity have access to epiclesis, oblation and intercession. We can implore and call down. We can offer our puny selves as conduits through which unimaginable graces may flow, through no doing of our own. We can intercede through the priesthood acquired at our baptism.

‘What books should I let my kids read?’

When people discover I have a master’s degree in children’s literature, they tend to corner me with one impossible question: “What books should I let my kids read?”

These are primarily loving, caring parents with the best of intentions. They’ve been hearing, however, that most of today’s popular Young Adult (YA) novels include immoral characters, inappropriate situations or gratuitous vice, and they are looking for some Catholic literary guru to pronounce the “safe” YA titles that won’t corrupt young readers through subtle seductions.

As a parent and an author, I do sympathize, and I am quick to point out that some Catholic-specific YA literature resources do exist. The Catholic Writer’s Guild has its YA “seal of approval” list; more than a dozen curated blogs (such as Catholic Teen Books) likewise have indie titles to recommend; and, of course, Our Sunday Visitor has options for young readers, too.

Parents should be warned, however, that – without discrediting those resources – such exclusively Catholic options will never fully address their concerns, nor best serve the children who will, inevitably, become adults. Preventing them from choosing books on their own may then prove to have been a grave disservice to their growth, maturity and judgment.

Instead of asking which books we should PERMIT our children to read, parents would do well to wonder: “How can I help my kids better discern what to read, themselves?”

When I was a teenager, one of the best things my dad ever did for me was to read the same books I’d brought home and then discuss them with me. He’d listen to my thoughts and share his own, casually pointing out what he found good and bad, positive and pernicious. He was curious before he was critical and, in this way, he subtly validated my ability to choose books while also teaching me to hone my standards.

My dad would never disparage my preferences outright, only critiquing stories after he’d read them and never belittling my own thoughts. As a prolific and more experienced reader, he helped me to interpret the subtler elements that I didn’t yet have the maturity to decipher on my own. I knew how to read, of course –but my father taught me how to see what I was reading, in fullness.

When parents are too quick to negatively judge a book based solely on form, not content, children aren’t being taught to judge rightly or well. Worse, when we dismiss our reader’s preferences outright, we too may miss out on something that shines with the beauty, goodness and truth we want them to encounter.

I know a parent who rejected Kelly Barnhill’s fantasy novel, “The Girl Who Drank the Moon,” because the back cover copy mentioned magic, and therefore it could only be a gateway to the occult (Tolkien and Lewis sob from their graves!). Another parent frowned upon Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novels, “Boxers and Saints,” believing them to be “low art” that mocked the Catholic Church – the tragic irony being that Barnhill and Lang are both faithful Catholics and awardwinning authors. They’re quite brilliant at presenting timeless Gospel truths in richly poetic ways, but – as in Jesus’ parables –the truth is folded within the storytelling: You must unwrap the prose before you can receive it.

So my advice to concerned parents is to take a breath, and then take a page out of my dad’s book: Read along with your young readers. If you haven’t the time for that, you can still encourage them to discuss what they’re reading. What’s it about? Who’s their favorite character and why? How do they think the story will end? A parent’s genuine interest will mean the world to them, and their passion and questions will be met with insight and guidance. This is how we leave the door open for future conversations where, over time, our young readers will know how to recognize wheat from chaff.

CHRISTINA EBERLE earned her Master of Arts in children’s literature in 2010. Her young adult fantasy novel, “Brio,” was published in February 2022 under the pen name Chris Cross.

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