– Tej Francis
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
UNIVERSITY REMOVES PRIEST WHO HOSTED ROSARY OF REPARATION FOR GAY PRIDE PARADE
(CNA/EWTN News) A Catholic priest in Glasgow has been removed as a university chaplain after hosting a rosary of reparation for the city’s gay pride parade. Father Mark Morris, who served as Catholic chaplain at Glasgow Caledonian University’s faith and belief center as well as a parish priest at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Balornock, hosted a ‘Rosary of reparation for the gross offence to God which is Pride Glasgow’ at the parish. The July 16 Rosary service was held in response to a gay pride event in the city on July 14.
After complaints from LGBT groups, University principal Pamela Gillies announced that “Following due consultation, Father Mark Morris will not return to his chaplaincy role at the university in September,” the BBC reported. A university spokesperson cited a commitment to “supporting equality and diversity on campus,” the Scottish Catholic Observer reported.
The GCU Catholic community issued a statement on Facebook voicing full support for and solidarity with Morris and asking the university to reconsider its dismissal of the priest.
“It is frankly abhorrent that a Catholic Priest would be dismissed from his post as a Catholic chaplain for merely reaffirming the teachings of the Catholic Faith,” the statement said. “In line with Church teaching, Fr Morris has made it clear on many occasions that homosexual persons are called to a life of chastity. In no way does this mean that homosexual persons are not welcome here at the chaplaincy, nor does it mean that they have fallen short of the love of God,” the university’s Catholic community said.
ROME, ITALY
WILL THIS YOUNG ITALIAN MOTHER BE MADE A SAINT? CANONIZATION CAUSE GETS UNDERWAY
(CNA) A formal call for testimony has been issued, the first step of an investigation into the possible sainthood of Chiara Corbella Petrillo, a young Italian mother who died in 2012. The call was issued by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, Vicar General of Rome, earlier this month.
The formal edict, signed July 2, calls Corbella a “Servant of God,” a title used for those under formal consideration for beatification and canonization. It recognizes her “increasing reputation for holiness” and invites “all the faithful, together and individually” to submit any information which could argue “for or against” her cause. The call for testimony comes just over a year after her cause for canonization was announced on June 17 last year, the fifth anniversary of her death on June 13, 2012.
Chiara Corbella met her husband Enrico Petrillo at Medjugorje in 2002, when she was 18. They married in Italy on September 21, 2008. During the early years of their marriage, the young couple faced many hardships, including the death of two children, who both died only 30 minutes after birth.
Corbella became pregnant a third time with their son, Francesco in 2010. However, the news of her pregnancy also came with a fatal diagnosis of cancer for Chiara. Her cancer was an unusual lesion of the tongue, which was later discovered to be a carcinoma.
Corbella rejected any treatment that could have saved her life during pregnancy because it would have risked the life of her unborn son. Her treatment only began after her son was born, in May 2011, after the cancer had progressed. It eventually became difficult for Chiara to speak and see clearly, eventually making her final days particularly excruciating. A year after Francesco was born, Corbella died. Corbella has been called “a saint for our times.” Her case remains open in the Diocese of Rome.
KOLKATA, INDIA
MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY EXPRESS SORROW OVER SCANDAL, OPENNESS TO JUST INQUIRY
(CNA/EWTN News) The superior general of the Missionaries of Charity said Tuesday the congregation is “deeply saddened and grieved” by the alleged sale of several children by an employee of one of its homes for unwed mothers.
“Even while we place our full trust in the judicial process that is underway, we wish to express regret and sorrow for what happened and desire to express in unequivocal terms our condemnation of individual actions which have nothing to do with the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity,” Sister Mary Prema Pierick said in a July 17 statement. “We are fully cooperating with the investigations and are open to any free, fair and just inquiry.”
Earlier this month two women affiliated with the Missionaries of Charity, one a religious sister and one an employee, were arrested over the alleged sale of a baby boy. Several child protection officers seized admission and attendance registers from Nirmal Hriday June 29, “without providing the receipt for such seizure to the Home,” according to Sister M. Prema.
The following day Sister Concelia and Sr. Marie Deanne, superior of Nirmal Hriday, were questioned by police, and Sr. Concelia was arrested. The home’s 11 unwed mothers, another mother with her child, and a guardian were all taken from Nirmal Hriday by the CWC.
On July 6, another Missionaries of Charity home in Ranchi, Shishu Bhawan, was raided by the police. Records there were seized without receipt, and 22 children living at the home were taken. Sister Concelia’s defenders, including the bishops of India, are asking whether she was an accomplice, or the victim of a coerced confession.
Members of opposition parties have accused India’s ruling party, the Hindu-nationalist group the Bharatiya Janata Party, of harassing and persecuting the missionaries on the basis of unbelievable allegations.
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