The actor Mark Wahlberg has praised the priests he has known, and said he is praying for new vocations to the priesthood in America.
In a Facebook video message to the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, which met last week, the twice Oscar-nominated star said: “I want you to know of my support for your work to foster vocations to the priesthood, because I want my children and future generations to have good priests in their lives, just like I had.”
Mr Wahlberg said the Catholic faith was “the anchor that supports everything I do in life”, in his “vocation” as an actor, husband and father. (He is married to the model Rhea Durham, with whom he has four children.)
Mr Wahlberg welcomed the vocations directors to his home town of Boston, where last week’s conference took place. The actor paid tribute to the priests who had helped him when he was growing up, who had baptised his children and accompanied dying family members.
“My sins have been forgiven when I go to Confession to a priest,” Mr Wahlberg said. “Every time I go to Mass, is through a priest’s hands that I receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which strengthens me to share my Catholic faith with others.”
Mr Wahlberg said that he and all Catholics “are counting on you to bring us good and holy priests.” He told the vocations directors: “I am praying for you.”
In a recent interview to promote his new film Deepwater, Wahlberg told the Evening Standard that he goes to Mass “almost” daily, and that he starts every day on his “hands and knees. I read my prayer books for 15 minutes and do the same before I go to bed.”
He has previously said that Catholicism is “the most important aspect of my life”.
Mr Wahlberg has said he is working on a biopic of the beloved priest Fr Stuart Long, a former prizefighter who died shortly after being ordained.
Church fails to end deadly political stand-off in Congo
The Catholic Church has pulled out of a national dialogue in Congo amid a stand-off between the country’s president and the opposition.“Only an inclusive dialogue which respects the constitutional order will provide a framework for resolving our crisis,” said Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, president of the Congolese bishops’ conference. “A large part of our fellow citizens will not feel themselves affected by a compromise which fails to obtain real solutions.”
The statement was published as Congo’s main opposition leaders boycotted talks.
Mgr Donatien Nshole, the Church’s representative at the dialogue, told Voice of America that the bishops believed President Joseph Kabila should not be seeking a third term, and they would not sign an accord that failed “to engage all political actors” and “respect the constitutional order”.
Archbishop Utembi said the Church had urged the government to meet opposition preconditions, including the release of political prisoners and return of seized media.
In a protest over President Kabila’s decision to delay autumn elections, more than 50 people died.
New York’s Teresa statue unveiled
Albania’s president Bujar Nishani has unveiled a statue of St Teresa of Calcutta in New York.Hundreds gathered for the ceremony outside St Athanasius Church. St Teresa was born to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje in what is now Macedonia. Mr Nishani described Mother Teresa as a woman of “iron will” and “boundless love” and said she was the “most precious gift that the Albanian nation has generously bestowed to all mankind”.
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