A Catholic nun who worked with lepers is on the verge of becoming Hawaii’s second canonized saint, after Vatican officials attributed a second miracle to her intercession.

Mother Marianne Cope, a German-born Franciscan nun who spent 30 years caring for lepers on the island of Molokai, died of natural causes in 1918. She succeeded St. Damien de Veuster, a Belgian priest known as “Father Damien,” who died of leprosy in 1889. Damien, who was canonized in 2009, is considered the patron saint of Hawaii and of HIV/AIDS patients.

Pope John Paul II declared Marianne “Blessed” in 2004, after recognizing as miraculous the 1993 cure of a teenage cancer patient in Syracuse, N.Y., who was dying of organ failure until a Franciscan nun prayed for Marianne’s intercession. A second miracle, occurring after beatification, is required for canonization.

On Tuesday (Dec. 6), the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, based in Syracuse, announced that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had recognized another healing as both medically “inexplicable” and due to Marianne’s intercession.

The canonization still requires the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, expected sometime next year, and the sisters say they will not reveal the details of the miracle until then.

“For little Hawaii, with our population and we’ve come up with two saints,” Sister Joan of Arc Souza of Honolulu told the local KHON2 television station. “This is spectacular.”

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A new study shows that the ‘global south’ is gaining more power in Christianity and may redefine Christian culture in the 21^st century.

The study by Oxford Analytica says that church leaders from the global south, namely Africa, Latin America and Asia, are becoming more outspoken and have gained more influence in Protestant and Catholic churches globally, according to their website.

The study also notes that the global south is more traditional, and has been outspoken against liberals and progressives in both churches, their website says.

The global south shift is being referred to by mission circles as “reverse-mission agenda,” Forbes says. They note that more missionaries are coming from India, Latin America and Africa, and are heading to Europe.

The global south is also becoming more active in South Asia and the Middle East. Of note too is that many church leaders from the U.S. and Europe come from the south, and are forming the laity and clergy of Methodists, Lutheran, Episcopal and Catholic churches, Forbes said.

Because of this, the global south is becoming a stronger voice on a number of church issues, and are taking a more traditional stance, Forbes said.

For example, among the British Anglicans, in 2005 an open letter was issued to the Archbishop of Canterbury from 14 southern members of the General Synod calling for action against the ordaining of priests who are openly gay, Forbes said.

Also cited in the study was harsh criticism from Catholics in Africa, Latin America and Asia when Pope Benedict XVI replaced Pope John Paul II after he died. The study noted that the global south argued for a southern pope, as they now comprise the majority in the world Catholic community, Forbes said.

The study suggests that more traditional views may come to pass on issues of homosexuality and abortion; and that the direction of the spread of Christianity now seems to be coming from the global south to the north, Forbes said.
The study also notes that while the church in North America seems to be in decline, a reversal is possible as more missionaries and immigrants move north from Latin America, and most especially from Brazil, Forbes said.

Noted too is the dramatic growth of Christianity in China, which has a higher church membership than that of the Party, and which exceeds the growth of other sects and religions. According to Forbes, these shifts will also influence the north’s political agenda and may alter Chinese Western relations.

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The recently announced plans by the Vatican to designate a papal envoy to head the Legionaries of Christ renders this powerful, conservative Catholic order directly under Vatican control.

The Vatican made this move after an eight-month inquiry by five Vatican investigators who reported directly back to Pope Benedict XVI about the double life of its late founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Associated Press reported.

The Vatican report said Maciel had been sexually assaulting minor seminarians and fathered at least three children from two different women—a daughter from what was described as a “stable relationship”, and two sons who are now grown, who admitted to being his children with another woman, according to CNN.

However, the Vatican hoped that by appointing a personal delegate to lead the order, they could help them “purify” what good still remains, and at the same time help them to undergo a “profound revision”, the AP said.

Maciel was born in Mexico in March 1920.  In January 1941 he founded the Legion of Christ, a powerful and wealthy order that spans 24 countries including Spain, Rome, Ireland, the United States, and several countries in South America and Central Europe.  Recently it had begun projects in Eastern Europe and the Philippines, according to CNN.

With a membership of over 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians, the Legion also has some 70,000 members in the Regnum Christi movement, which was also founded by Maciel. The Legion runs Catholic news outlets, charities, seminaries for boys, schools, and universities in Italy, Mexico and Spain, among others, The Seattle Times said.

In response to the Vatican announcement the Legionaries issued a statement on its website where they said that they “embrace his provisions with faith and obedience”, the AP said.

Critics and advocates of the victims are dissatisfied with the Vatican’s latest move.  They wanted the order to be dissolved.   Others felt the larger part of the Legion’s leadership should be taken out, noting that Macial could not have lived his double life without the knowledge of some of the order’s top leadership, the Seattle Times said.

The Vatican’s statement said, “Of this side of life, a great part of the Legionaries were in the dark — especially given the system of relationship built by P. Maciel, who very skillfully knew how to create alibis, obtain loyalty, trust and silence from those around him and strengthened his own role as charismatic founder,” the CNN reported.

The Vatican said that Macial “…created around him a defense mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life.”

According to the AP, Maciel’s victims had tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against him but were shut down.  The late Pope John Paul II had long championed the Legionaries for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in vocations and money.

In 2006, one year after Benedict became pope, the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead a “reserved life of penance and prayer,” and rendered him a priest in name only. He died in 2008 at age 87, the AP reported.

The Catholic church is also investigating complaints of abuse allegedly committed in Britain, Germany, Ireland and other countries, the CNN reported.

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As Poland mourned the loss of its president and other dignitaries, who died in a plane crash on April 10, two visiting Baptist preachers said that the answer to the country’s mourning is found in the Gospel.

Southern Baptist leaders Philip Roberts and Jerry Johnson of the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary comforted congregations in Gdansk and Sopot respectively, and shared the gospel in the aftermath of the crisis, during their 10-day trip to the country.

Polish flag with black mourning ribbon

MBTS president Roberts and academic dean Johnson were in the country to attend a conference at the Polish Baptist Seminary in Radosc.  They met with Andrzej Seweryn, president of the Polish Baptist Seminary.

Seweryn said, “For the Christians here, there is a great chance to step up and help the people work through their grief and suffering. Now is a time to help them in answering some of life’s toughest questions, including the ones about eternity that often surface when events such as this occur.”

Among the dead were Polish president Lech Kaczynsk, his wife Maria, the military’s chief of staff and the heads of Poland’s land forces, navy and air force.  Other dignitaries on board the plane included the national bank president, three military chaplains, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.  ­

Many of the leaders killed in the crash were instrumental in the Solidarity movement and the return of liberty and democracy to the country.  They were headed to a ceremony to commemorate the World War II slaughter of Poles that had divided the nation for seven decades and galvanized the beginning of the same Solidarity movement.

Pastor Roberts, who preached in Gdansk, the home city of the Polish president, cited Matthew 10: 39 (HCSB) where Jesus said, “Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.”

The MBTS leader continued by adding that “there will be a point when life will end for our physical body on this planet. With this in mind, each of us needs to make sure we are living for the correct reasons and the correct person — Jesus Christ — because He offers the hope of eternal life beyond what we experience in this life on earth.”

Roberts said that the time of soul-searching and reflection on these events presents a great time to share the love of Jesus Christ with the Polish populace.

Some 90 percent of the Polish population is Roman Catholic, with 75 percent practicing.  The second largest faith group is Eastern Orthodox at 1.3 percent, then Protestant at 0.3 percent.   The late Pope John Paul II was Polish.

Sources:

http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue9447.html

http://www.poland.gov.pl/Churches,and,Religious,Life,in,Poland,397.html

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