Vatican criticises ‘fragile agreement’

Giuseppe Fiorentino, deputy editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, criticised the agreement reached during the ‘migration’ summit of the leaders of the EU. 

In a front-page op-ed in the newspaper’s June 30-July 1 edition, Fiorentino wrote that the EU “is now reduced to the enunciation of a series of good intentions that will find practical application with difficulty”. 

He said that this “fragile compromise” allowed various European leaders to score political points at home while producing nothing of substance.

The EU’s “principal interest now,” wrote Fiorentino, is “to secure a short-term future, without strategic objectives”, while the plight of migrants is ignor­ed. He noted that during the summit, 100 migrants, including three babies, drowned off the coast of Libya.

No plot against government 

The bishops of the Philippines strongly denied that the Catholic Church is involved in some plan to destabilise the government. Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista of Imus said the Church would never be part of efforts to spread conflict. The reports were fuelled following President Rodrigo Duterte’s rants against Church leaders. 

“Wherever [the reported destabilisation efforts] came from, it cannot come from the Church,” said Bishop Raul Bautista Dael. He added that the bishops would surely not do anything to make the situation of the country more chaotic that it already is. 

A spokesman for the Manila Archdiocese denied that Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila had said that the Church “should take leadership ofthe government”.

The Pope’s prayerintention for July

The Pope’s prayer intention for July is “that priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests”, according to the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer).

In his message, the Pope reminded readers that St Paul and John the Baptist not only lived out solitude, abandonment, and persecution, but also the “nearness of the Lord”, especially in moments of trials. He said that all should strive to rediscover the presence of God always, even in times of suffering and illness.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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