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Catholic Light Dignitas, Gaudium, and deportations A certain passage in Dignitas infinita , the recent document on human dignity, strikes me as phrased in a misleading way, and I wonder if anyone else is noticing this too. In paragraph 34, the Congregation Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith states that the Second Vatican Council denounced ‘all offenses against human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, degrading working conditions where individuals are treated as mere tools for profit rather than free and responsible persons.’” Dignitas infinita 34, quoting Gaudium et spes , section 27 The word that stands out to me is deportation”. Is Dignitas trying to tell us that Vatican 2 denounced deportation in general? That would be politically useful now, as it would seem to fit in with the frequent emphasis from Pope Francis about the rights of migrants, who are mentioned directly in paragraph 40 of Dignitas . But I doubt that the Council meant to reject deportation broadly in Gaudium , since the Church has acknowledged the right of countries to regulate immigration: Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions… Catechism of the Catholic Church , paragraph 2241 and that implies a right for countries to refuse foreign nationals who don’t meet the juridical conditions. But Gaudium et spes names deportation” without any specifics. If it could not have meant deportation in general, it must have been referring to categories of deportation that readers at the time would recognize as abusive. What might those be? Gaudium was promulgated at the height of the Cold War, in 1965. The deportations that drew the most attention then were probably the occasional expulsions of individual Soviet-bloc dissidents to the West, and there had also already been the expulsions committed by various empires for the sake of what we now call ethnic cleansing”: that is, in the Ottoman Empire, the German Third Reich, and the Soviet Union: expulsions of millions of people, some deported outside the respective empires, some exiled internally to places where they were treated as cheap or even enslaved labor. So 59 years ago the Council had good reason to list deportation as an insult to human dignity, in Gaudium et spes (in section 27, Latin deportationes ). But now, when Abp. Fernandez incorporates the passage into Dignitas infinita , the bare, unexplained word may give present-day readers the false impression that an Ecumenical Council had broadly denounced normal governmental control of immigration as a grave moral offense. It would be a rhetorical sleight-of-hand, even though unintended. Published April 12, 2024 Categorized as Uncategorized Bishop of Amsterdam’s statement on alleged apparitions Bishop Johannes Hendriks of the diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam has issued a statement in the wake of the CDF rejection of the alleged apparitions to Ida Peerdeman, from which the title Lady of All Nations” was promoted. He writes that the title is, in itself, legitimate and can be used, but must not be treated as any sort of endorsement of the apparition claims. The English text below was published on the diocesan web site . Where dates appear in numeric form in the text, the translation gives them in American format (month/day/year). Clarification by the Bishop of Haar­lem-Am­ster­dam regar­ding the Lady of All Nations Having consulted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and in accordance with it, I declare the follo­wing: Through devotion to Mary, the Mother of All Nations, many faithful express their desire and their effort for the universal fraternity of man­kind with the help and support of Mary’s intercession. Mary is our Mother, she is the Mother of our peoples, she is the Mother of us all” (Francis, Homily of 12/12/2019) and she invites us to collaborate with God’s plan and His desire that we all are, and become always more, brothers and sisters (cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate , n. 42). Pope Francis writes in his Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti : For many Christians, this journey of fraternity also has a Mother, whose name is Mary. Having received this universal motherhood at the foot of the cross (cf. Jn 19:26), she cares not only for Jesus but also for ‘the rest of her children’ (cf. Rev 12:17). In the power of the risen Lord, she wants to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters, where there is room for all those whom our societies discard, where justice and peace are resplen­dent” (n. 278). In this sense, the use of the title Lady of All Nations for Mary is in itself theologically acceptable. Prayer with Mary and through the intercession of Mary, Mother of our peoples, serves the growth of a more united world, in which everyone recognizes themselves as brothers and sisters, all created in the image of God, our common Father. Nevertheless, the recognition of this title cannot be understood—not even implicitly—as the recognition of the supernaturality of some pheno­mena from which it seems to have come. In this sense, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirms the validity of the negative judg­ment on the supernaturality of the alleged apparitions and revelations” to Ms. Ida Peerdeman approved by St. Paul VI on 04/05/1974 and published on 05/25/1974. This judg­ment implies that everybody is urged to cease any propagation concer­ning the alleged apparitions and revelations of the Lady of All Nations . Therefore, the use of the images and prayer cannot in any way be consi­dered a recognition—not even implicitly—of the supernaturality of the events in question. Regar­ding the mere title Lady”, Madonna” or Mother of All Nations” the Congregation generally is not opposed to its use, provided that this is clearly separated from the recognition of the alleged apparitions. If the Virgin Mary is invoked under this title, pastors and faithful must ensure that all forms of this devotion refrain from any reference, even implicit, to alleged apparitions or revelations. Haar­lem, the 30 th of December 2020 + Johannes Hendriks Bishop of Haar­lem-Am­ster­dam (Translation from the Dutch original) Published January 1, 2021 Categorized as Apparitions and Mystical Phenomena More on Amsterdam Journalist David Murgia, on his web site ilsegnodigiona.com , has published a copy of the recent (July 20) letter about CDF’s position on the Amsterdam apparition case. The letter from the Apostolic Nuncio in Lebanon, addressed to the Maronite Patriarch, appears there, and here is my own English translation of the Italian text. Apostolic Nunciature in Lebanon Harissa, July 20, 2020 Prot. N. 2353/20 Your Eminence, in response to the request of Your Most Eminent Beatitude on what is the official position of the Church regarding devotion to the Virgin Mary Our Lady of All Nations”, this Nunciature has requested clarifications from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The aforementioned Dicastery explained that the Notification published on May 25, 1974, available on its web page , remains valid. In the declaration it is stated that, after appropriate study, there was found no evidence of the supernatural nature of the apparitions.” Therefore the faithful are invited to discontinue all forms of propaganda with regard to the alleged apparitions and revelations of ‘Our Lady of All Nations’”, and are exhorted to express their devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, Queen of the Universe […] by forms of piety which are recognized and recommended by the Church.” The letter of the same Congregation to the Philippines Episcopal Conference of May 20, 2005 does not contain anything that could lead to thinking that the judgment of the Congregation on the matter had changed. Taking all of that into consideration,...