Pope explains how Christians can love bombers

Vatican City, Jun 18, 2013 / 11:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis tackled Jesus’ teaching that Christians must love their enemies by asking a series of provocative questions, such as, how can we love those who “bomb and kill so many people?”

As he began his June 18 homily, the Pope illustrated how difficult and wide-ranging Jesus’ teaching on loving one’s enemies can be by posing a series of questions to the congregation.

How can we love those who decide to “bomb and kill so many people?” How can we “love those who out of their for love money prevent the elderly from accessing the necessary medicine and leave them to die?”

And at the more general level, the Pope asked how Christians can love those who only pursue “their own best interests, power for themselves and do so much evil?”

“It seems hard to love your enemy,” he stated, but Jesus asks it of us.

It is a teaching that is “so hard, but so beautiful, because it makes us look like the Father, like our Father: it brings out the sun for everyone, good and bad. It makes us more like the Son, Jesus, who in his humiliation became poor to enrich us, with his poverty,” he preached.

The Holy Father’s homily for daily Mass at his residence was based on the Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and his charge to his disciples to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.”

Pope Francis told the congregation that there are two ways that Christians should love their enemies and they are both contained in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

The first way is to look to the Father who “makes the sun rise on evil and good” and “rain fall on the just and unjust.” God “loves everyone.”

The pontiff added, Jesus “forgive his enemies” and “does everything to forgive them.” Taking revenge, on the other hand, is not Christian, he warned.

The second thing that Christians should do to love their enemies is to pray for them. “When we pray for what makes us suffer, it is as if the Lord comes with oil and prepares our hearts for peace,” he remarked.

“Pray! This is what Jesus advises us: ‘Pray for your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!’ Pray!

“And say to God: ‘Change their hearts. They have a heart of stone, but change it, give them a heart of flesh, so that they may feel relief and love.

Pope Francis then made his homily more personal by posing a question for the congregation to consider.

“Let me just ask this question and let each of us answer it in our own heart: ‘Do I pray for my enemies? Do I pray for those who do not love me?’

“If we say ‘yes,’ I will say, ‘Go on, pray more, you are on the right path!’ If the answer is ‘no,’ the Lord says: ‘Poor thing. You too are an enemy of others!’

“Pray that the Lord may change the hearts of those. We could say: ‘But this person really wronged me,’ or they have done bad things and this impoverishes people, impoverishes humanity. And following this line of thought we want to take revenge or that eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” the Pope preached.

He also pointed out that loving one’s enemies “impoverishes us,” because it makes us poor “like Jesus,” who, when he came to us, “lowered himself and became poor” for us.

And yet, Jesus’ impoverishment was not a “bad deal” but brought about the salvation of the world, pouring out “the grace that has justified us all, made us all rich,” he said.

Pope Francis closed his homily by urging those present to pray for their enemies, “those who do not wish us well: it would be nice if we offered the Mass for them: Jesus, Jesus' sacrifice, for them, for those who do not love us."

Jesus 'wants pastors, not combers of sheep,' Pope Francis says

Vatican City, Jun 18, 2013 / 01:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians are called to be evangelists, seeking out the sheep who are lost rather than staying at home tending to the few who have never left, Pope Francis said at the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.

“It's the 99 who we're missing! We have to go out, we must go to them,” the Bishop of Rome said June 17 to the participants of the annual convention of the Diocese of Rome.

“The Lord wants pastors, not combers of sheep; pastors! And when a community is closed, always among the same people who talk, this community is not a community that gives life.”

Pope Francis opened his speech discussing grace, and its tremendous power to make saints out of sinners, through the freedom it brings. He called the power of grace “revolutionary,” and that it must have a revolutionary effect on the hearts of Christians.

“Only one thing is necessary to become saints: accept the grace that the Father gives us in Jesus Christ. Behold, this grace changes our heart. We continue to be sinners, because we are all weak, but even with this grace that makes us think that the Lord is good, that the Lord is merciful.”

The heart revolutionized by grace, he said, will be “full of tenderness for those bearing the wounds of life.” He turned to the many people in Rome who live without hope.

Everyone, the Bishop of Rome said, can think of those “who are immersed in deep sadness that they try to get out of, believing to have found happiness in alcohol, in drugs, in gambling, in the power of money, in sexuality without rules.” These people, he said, are living without hope.

“How can we go ahead and offer hope? Go down the street saying, 'I have hope'? No! With your testimony, with your smile, saying: 'I believe that I have a Father.'”

“The proclamation of the Gospel is this: with my words, with my testimony to say: 'I have a Father.'”

Yet, he emphasized, Christians should not proselytize, or to seek to convince others. “The Gospel is a like a seed,” he said, but the sowing must be done with both word and witness.

“The word alone is not enough, not enough. The word without the witness is air. Words are not enough.”

The proclamation of the Gospel, he said, is “destined primarily to the poor, to those who often lack the essentials for a decent life. The good news is first announced to them, that God loves them before all others and comes to visit them through the acts of charity that the disciples of Christ carry out in his name.”

“We have to go to the flesh of Jesus suffering,” Pope Francis said, “to the existential peripheries.”

To do this, he stressed, requires courage, but this courage is necessary to bring the Gospel to neighborhoods, workplaces, and “wherever people … develop relationships.”

Speaking to leaders in his diocese, which is approximately 82 percent Catholic, the pontiff made reference to the Gospel passage of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to seek the one which is lost.

“But, brothers and sisters, we have one; it's the 99 who we're missing! We have to go out, we must go to them! In this culture – let's face it – we only have one. We are the minority.”

“And do we feel the fervor, the apostolic zeal to go out and find the other 99? This is a big responsibility and we must ask the Lord for the grace of generosity and the courage and the patience to go out, to go out and proclaim the Gospel.”

He noted the temptation to “stay home, with the one lamb. It's easier to comb its hair, caress it.”

“But the Lord wants pastors, not combers of sheep; pastors! And when a community is closed, always among the same people who talk, this community is not a community that gives life.”

“It's a sterile community, it is not fruitful. The fruitfulness of the Gospel is by the grace of Jesus Christ, yet through us, our preaching, our courage, and our patience.”

Pope Francis assured his listeners that evangelization is not easy, and that it will be opposed by the devil, but this spiritual battle is “the daily lot of Christians.”

The work of bringing Jesus' grace to others, he said, is a martyrdom. “Martyrdom is this: to fight the fight, every day, through witness … Of some, the Lord asks the martyrdom of life, but there is the martyrdom of every day, of every hour: the witness against the spirit of evil, who does not want us to be evangelists.”

He concluded by focusing on the love God has for each person, noting that the “cross forcefully reminds us that we are sinners, but above all that we are loved, that we are so dear to God's heart.”

“Every person needs to feel themselves loved the way they are because this is the only thing that makes life beautiful and worthy of being lived.”

In our time, when what is freely given seems to fade in our interpersonal relationships, we Christians proclaim a God who, to be our friend, asks nothing but to be accepted,” he said.

“Think of how many live in desperation because they have never met someone who has shown them attention, comforted them, made them feel precious and important.”

“We, the disciples of Christ, can we refuse to go to those places that no one wants to go out of fear of compromising ourselves or the judgment of others, and thus deny our brothers and sisters the announcement of God's mercy?” the Pope added.

“We have received this gratuity, this grace, freely. We must give it freely. Don't be afraid of grace. Don't be afraid to go out of yourselves, out of our Christian communities, to go and find the 99 who are not home.”

“Go out to dialogue with them, and tell them what we think. Go show them our love, which is God's love.”

Obama threatens veto as fetal pain bill passes House

Washington D.C., Jun 18, 2013 / 05:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite passing the U.S. House of Representatives, a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy faces an uncertain future as President Obama's administration has suggested that he will veto it.

“(S)cience is on our side,” Representative Marsha Blackburn, (R- Tenn.) told MSNBC in an interview.

Blackburn joined other pro-life representatives, including Michelle Bachmann (R- Minn.) and Virginia Foxx (R- N.C.) in defending the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions 20 weeks into a pregnancy and later, based on science indicating that unborn children can feel pain by this point. Exceptions in cases of rape, incest or a risk to the mother’s life were included in the final House version of the legislation.

The House of Representatives approved the bill by a vote of 228-196 on June 18, following its passage by the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation will now advance to the Senate, where opponents have vowed to fight it.

The Obama Administration has said that should the legislation gain the approval of both the House and Senate, the president's “senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill.”

A statement of administration policy criticized the bill, saying that it “would unacceptably restrict women's health and reproductive rights and is an assault on a woman's right to choose.”

The statement alleged that the legislation “is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and shows contempt for women's health and rights, the role doctors play in their patients' health care decisions, and the Constitution.”

It is unclear how the Supreme Court would react to the pro-life legislation were it to be challenged as a violation of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Pro-life advocates pointed to polls showing that the majority of Americans support restricting late-term abortions.

“May we in humility confront this national sin and may we mourn what abortion reveals about the conscience of our nation,” said Rep. Foxx.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who introduced the legislation, argued in a June 13 statement that “(k)nowingly subjecting our innocent unborn children to dismemberment in the womb, particularly when they have developed to the point that they can feel excruciating pain every terrible moment leading up to their undeserved deaths, belies everything America was called to be.”

“This is not who we are,” he said.

Pro-life advocates have attempted to gain support for the bill's cause, using the hashtag #theyfeelpain on Twitter.

Despite the pledged opposition from the Senate and White House, supporters are confident that the American people are becoming more aware of the reality of abortion.

Last year, a similar piece of legislation that would have applied only to the District of Columbia failed to pass the House of Representatives.

“The tide of the American conscience will only continue to shift toward life and away from dismembering unborn babies in the womb,” said Rep. Franks in a June 18 tweet.

NY abortion expansion fails amid Catholic opposition

New York City, N.Y., Jun 19, 2013 / 12:07 am (CNA).- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed bill to dramatically expand legal abortion in the state died in the state senate following months of Catholic and pro-life opposition.

The four-senator Independent Democratic Coalition, which has a power-sharing agreement to control the senate with the Republican Party, declined to introduce the abortion measure as part of Gov. Cuomo’s 10-point “Women’s Equality Agenda” measures.

The Republican co-leader of the senate, Sen. Dean Skelos, is pro-life. He said he would not allow a bill with the abortion plank to reach the floor, the New York Post reports.

Jeff Klein, who leads the Independent Democratic Coalition, said the coalition supports abortion rights but could not find the votes to pass it.

Gov. Cuomo, a Democrat, criticized the breakaway coalition. He warned in a radio interview that the issue would play a role in their re-election campaigns, according to Bloomberg News.

Cuomo is a possible presidential candidate in 2016. He is a Catholic but has strongly backed abortion rights despite Church teaching that abortion takes an innocent life.

The New York Catholic Conference strongly opposed the bill, saying the expansion of abortion is “unnecessary and harmful.”

“Rather than voting on a bill that will increase the tragedy of abortion for both women and children, we urge policy makers to look at constructive ways to reduce abortion and truly make abortion 'rare,'” the conference said June 10.

The proposal would have declared abortion to be a “fundamental right.” It would have allowed any licensed “health care practitioner,” including non-doctors, to perform abortions. It would have barred any abortion regulations such as parental notification for a minor considering abortion, while also decriminalizing abortions after 24 weeks into pregnancy when a woman’s health was in danger.

The legislation would also have protected abortionists who kill women during abortions from being charged with manslaughter.

Proponents of the bill contended that it simply codifies federal law, but the New York Catholic Conference said this was “disingenuous and misleading.”

They noted that Pennsylvania convicted the late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell for performing 21 abortions after the 24-week limit, but the New York would explicitly legalize these abortions.

The New York proposal would “make New York a safe haven for late-term abortionists like Gosnell, encouraging them to set up clinics here, without fear of prosecution, to prey upon vulnerable women and children.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan had criticized the bill in January, warning it would increase New York’s “scandalous” abortion rate.

Other pro-life groups, including Democrats for Life of America, opposed the bill.

New York state has one of the highest abortion rates in the nation. Over 40 percent of pregnancies in New York City end in abortion, almost twice the national average.

'Hypocrisy in the Church makes all of us bad,' says Pope

Vatican City, Jun 19, 2013 / 09:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis warned two Vatican offices attending his morning Mass against being hypocrites, stating it makes everyone “bad.”

“We think about the hypocrisy in the Church and how bad it makes all of us,” the Bishop of Rome told members of the Congregation of Bishops and of the Pontifical Council of the Family June 19.

“These do not know beauty, they do not know love, these do not know the truth. They are small, cowardly.”

He celebrated the Mass at the Saint Martha House alongside the heads of the Congregation and the Council, which include Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and Bishop Jean Lafitte.

The pontiff based his homily on the Gospel of the day, Matthew 6, in which Christ criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for proclaiming their good deeds to the world.

“They have no sense of beauty, they achieve only the beauty of a museum,” said Pope Francis.

“They are intellectuals without talent, ethicists without goodness, the bearers of museum beauty,” he added. “These are the hypocrites that Jesus rebukes so strongly.”

He explained that in the Gospel, Jesus speaks about fasting, prayer and almsgiving, which the Pope called “the three pillars of Christian piety and interior conversion.”

“There are even hypocrites along this path, who make a show of fasting, of giving alms, of praying.”

“I think that when hypocrisy reaches this point in the relation with God, we are coming very close to sin against the Holy Spirit.”

Those who impose “so many precepts on the faithful,” he said, are “hypocrites of casuistry, intellectuals without talent who don’t have the intelligence to find God, to explain God with understanding.”

They thereby prevent themselves and others from entering into the kingdom of God, he said.

“They are ethicists without goodness; they do not know what goodness is, but they are ethicists, aren’t they?” he told the members of the two Vatican offices.

“You have to do this, and this, and this,” said the Pope. “They fill you with precepts, but without goodness.”

He noted “those are some of the phylacteries, of the tassels they lengthen, so many things, to make a pretense of being majestic, perfect, they have no sense of beauty.”

“All of us also have grace, the grace that comes from Jesus Christ, the grace of joy, the grace of magnanimity, of largesse,” he underscored.

“Hypocrites do not know what joy is, what largesse is, what magnanimity is,” he stressed.

The Roman Pontiff then advised them to imitate the publican who prayed with humble simplicity, “have mercy on me, O Lord, a sinner.”

“This is the prayer we should say every day, knowing that we are sinners, but with concrete sins, not theoretical sins.”

Vatican theologians approve second miracle of John Paul II

Vatican City, Jun 19, 2013 / 12:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Theologians at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have approved a second miracle granted through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II, moving him closer to being declared a saint.

“The proclamation of his sainthood needs only the approval of the commission of cardinals and bishops and the final signature of Pope Francis,” Italian news agency ANSA reported June 18.

Before Blessed John Paul II can be canonized, the Congregation must formally approve the miracle and present it to Pope Francis. Pope Francis would then promulgate and celebrate the canonization.

The miracle was reportedly approved by two doctors in April as having been a cure that cannot be explained in natural terms.

On April 2, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pontiff's cause for canonization, told CNA that as a second miracle was sought, “I chose a few cases and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints chose one of those, which they are currently evaluating.”

The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints studies each case rigorously, to determine that no scientific explanation for the miracle is possible and that there is a direct relation to the intercession of the possible saint in question.

Msgr. Oder had told Italian daily Avvenire that alleged miracles worked through Blessed John Paul II's intercession had taken place in Poland, Italy, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

Benedict XVI beatified him on May 1, 2011, after a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, was miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease through his intercession.

ANSA speculates that Pope Francis might canonize him on Oct. 20.

Blessed John Paul II died a little over eight years ago, on April 2, 2005. Since he was beatified, his memorial has been celebrated, in certain dioceses, on October 22, the anniversary of his installation as Bishop of Rome.

Be humble 'from head to toe,' Pope Francis says

Vatican City, Jun 14, 2013 / 09:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said people must to admit their sins like Saint Paul and not just their good deeds during his daily morning Mass.

“We have to be humble, but with real humility, from head to toe,” said Pope Francis June 14.

“If we only pride ourselves on our service record and nothing more, we end up going wrong,” said Pope Francis.

He made his comments in his homily for morning Mass in the chapel of Saint Martha’s House. The head of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, concelebrated the Mass with the Pope, while staff and clergy from the congregation attended it.

“Not sinners with that kind of humility, which seems more a put-on face, no?” the Holy Father remarked. “Oh no, strong humility.”

He highlighted that “this is the model of humility for us priests, too.”

“We cannot proclaim Jesus Christ the Savior if we do not feel him present and at work deep down,” he added.

“Brothers, we have a treasure, that of Jesus Christ the Savior, the Cross of Jesus Christ, this treasure of which we pride ourselves, but we have it in a clay vessel,” said Pope Francis. “Let us vaunt our ‘handbook’ of our sins.”

The Pope underscored that Jesus is “a gift that we can only understand, only receive, in earthen vessels.”

He based his homily on the first reading for today, which was taken from 2 Corinthians 4.

The pontiff stated it is precisely from “the relationship between the grace and power of Jesus Christ and ourselves, poor sinners as we are, that the dialogue of salvation springs.”

“This dialogue, moreover, must avoid any self-justification and be between God and ourselves as we are,” he said.

The Pope stressed that St. Paul, author of the letter to the Corinthians, shows us his own weakness and sin, which is that he persecuted Christians.

“It always comes back to his memory of sin, he feels sinful but even then he does not say ‘I was a sinner, but now I am holy,’ no,” he said. ‘Even now, a thorn of Satan is in my flesh,’ the Pope said, quoting from St. Paul.

“He is a sinner who accepts Jesus Christ, who dialogues with Jesus Christ,” said Pope Francis.

According to him, “the key is humility” and believes that St. Paul proved this.

“He publicly acknowledges his track record of service, all he had done as an Apostle of Jesus, but he does not hide or gloss over his handbook of sins,” the Pope said.

He emphasized that the Samaritan woman also behaved similarly to St. Paul because she first admitted her sins before speaking of having met Jesus.

“I believe that this woman is in heaven,” he said.

“As Manzoni once said, I have never found that the Lord began a miracle without finishing it well, and this miracle that he began definitely ended well in heaven,” he said.

“The humility of the priest, the humility of a Christian is concrete, therefore, if a Christian fails to make this confession to himself and to the Church, then something is wrong,” he stated.

He stressed that “the first thing to fail will be our ability to understand the beauty of salvation that Jesus brings us.”

Pope: Selfish living leads to slavery, death

Vatican City, Jun 16, 2013 / 06:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As he met with thousands of pro-life advocates from around the globe, Pope Francis stressed that the Gospel is the “way to freedom and life,” but lifestyles that are “dictated by selfishness” lead to slavery and death.

“Dear brothers and sisters,” the Pope urged, “let us look to God as the God of Life, let us look to his law, to the Gospel message, as the way to freedom and life. The Living God sets us free!”

He addressed his homily for the June 16 Mass in St. Peter’s Square to pilgrims from Australia, Asia, Europe and North and South America, who filled the famous piazza up to its gates.

They were also joined in the square by around 1,400 people on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles, who came to Rome to celebrate 110 years of the iconic American machine and to receive the Pope’s blessing during the Angelus prayer that followed the Mass.

Pope Francis based his homily on the first reading from 2 Samuel, which recounts King David committing adultery with Bathsheba and conspiring to have her husband killed, and the Gospel reading from Luke 4, where Jesus forgives the adulterous woman of her sins.

The Holy Father distilled his reflections into three simple points: “first, the Bible reveals to us the Living God, the God who is life and the source of life; second, Jesus Christ bestows life and the Holy Spirit maintains us in life; and third, following God’s way leads to life, whereas following idols leads to death.”

King David’s adultery serves to show “human drama in all its reality: good and evil, passion, sin and its consequences,” the Pope said, underscoring that despite his evil actions, God brought life to David when he repented.

“Whenever we want to assert ourselves, when we become wrapped up in our own selfishness and put ourselves in the place of God, we end up spawning death,” he said as he examined the consequences of David’s actions.

This raises the question of what our image of God is, Pope Francis remarked.

“Perhaps he appears to us as a severe judge, as someone who curtails our freedom and the way we live our lives. But the Scriptures everywhere tell us that God is the Living One, the one who bestows life and points the way to fullness of life,” the pontiff preached.

He then turned to the Gospel reading from Luke, in which Jesus allowed himself to be approached by a woman who was a sinner and forgave her sins.

The Pope said that in this interaction it can be seen how “Jesus is the incarnation of the Living God, the one who brings life amid deeds of death, sin, selfishness and self-absorption.

“Jesus accepts, loves, uplifts, encourages, forgives, restores the ability to walk, gives back life. Throughout the Gospels we see how Jesus by his words and actions brings the transforming life of God,” he preached.

The life-giving power of God is also given through the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis taught.

“The Christian is someone who thinks and acts in everyday life according to God’s will, someone who allows his or her life to be guided and nourished by the Holy Spirit, to be a full life, a life worthy of true sons and daughters. And this entails realism and fruitfulness,” he explained.

The Pope cautioned that this “does not mean that we are people who live ‘in the clouds,’ far removed from real life, as if it were some kind of mirage. No! Those who let themselves be led by the Holy Spirit are realists, they know how to survey and assess reality. They are also fruitful; their lives bring new life to birth all around them.”

Returning to the theme of the weekend – The Gospel of Life – Pope Francis made his final point: that following God leads to life but all other ways lead to death.

“But all too often, people do not choose life, they do not accept the ‘Gospel of Life’ but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others,” he said.

This way of living is not new, the Pope explained, calling it “the eternal dream of wanting to build the city of man without God, without God’s life and love – a new Tower of Babel.”

“It is the idea that rejecting God, the message of Christ, the Gospel of Life, will somehow lead to freedom, to complete human fulfillment,” he noted.

The result of this turning away from God is that he “is replaced by fleeting human idols which offer the intoxication of a flash of freedom, but in the end bring new forms of slavery and death,” the Pope stated.

He finished his homily by invoking the intercession of “Mary, Mother of Life,” asking her “to help us receive and bear constant witness to the ‘Gospel of Life.’”

After the Mass finished, Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with the faithful and gave a special mention to the Harley-Davidson contingent.

FRANCIS: SERENE CHILDHOOD IS A RIGHT AND OUR DUTY

Vatican City, 12 June 2013 (VIS) – At the end of his catechesis, the Holy Father launched an appeal for the protection of children, noting that today marks the World Day Against Child Labour, which is focusing particular attention on the exploitation of children in domestic work, a deplorable situation that is constantly increasing, especially in many of the poorest countries. The Pope called upon the international community to take more effective measures against “this real plague”.

“There are millions of children,” Francis said, “mostly girls, who are victims of this hidden form of exploitation that often involves abuse, mistreatment, and discrimination. It is real slavery. … All children should be able to play, study, pray, and grow, in their own families and in an atmosphere of harmony, love, and serenity. It is their right and our duty. A serene childhood allows children to look with confidence towards life and the future. Woe to whomever stifles within them their joyful enthusiasm of hope!”

In his final greetings, the Holy Father addressed members of the International Committee of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul who were present in the Square. They are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of their founder, Blessed Frederic Ozanam. “God is stronger than evil,” Francis told them. “In a world that is difficult at times, be bearers of God's hope and love.”

GENERAL AUDIENCE: THE CHURCH, THE PEOPLE OF GOD, SHOULD KEEP DOOR OPEN

Vatican City, 12 June 2013 (VIS) – The Church, defined in Vatican Council II as the People of God, was the topic of Pope Francis' catechesis during the Wednesday general audience. The Holy Father explained the concept of the People of God through a series of questions: “What does it mean to be the People of God? How does one become a member of this people? What is its law, its mission, and its goal?”

To be the People of God, the Bishop of Rome said, “first of all means that God doesn't belong to any particular people because He is the one who calls us … and this invitation is addressed to all, without distinction, because God's mercy 'wills everyone to be saved'. Jesus doesn't tell the Apostles and us to form an exclusive group of elite members. Jesus says: 'Go and make disciples of all nations'. … I would also like to say to whoever feels far from God and from the Church, to whoever is timorous or indifferent, to whoever thinks they are no longer able to change: the Lord also calls you to be part of his people and He does so with great respect and love!” A person becomes part of this people “not through physical birth, but by a new birth … Baptism … through faith in Christ, God's gift that must be nourished and made to grow throughout our lives.”

What is the law of the people of God? “It is the law of love, love for God and love for neighbour … which isn't a sterile sentimentalism or something vague, but is the recognition of God as the one Lord of life and, at the same time, welcoming others as true brothers and sisters … the two go hand in hand. How much further must we still journey to live this new law concretely? … When we look in the newspapers or on TV there are so many wars between Christians; how can this happen? Within the people of God, so many wars! In neighbourhoods, at work, how many wars for envy and jealousy! Even in the same family, how many internal wars! We must ask the Lord to help us understand this law of love. How beautiful it is to love one another as true brothers and sisters. Let's do this today. Maybe we all have the people we like and [those we] dislike. Perhaps many of us are a little upset with someone. So let's say to the Lord: 'Lord, I am angry with this person or that one. I will pray to you for him and for her.' Praying for those we are angry with is a good step in this law of love. Shall we do it? Let's do it today!”

“This people's mission,” the Pope continued, “to to bring God's hope and salvation to the world: to be a sign of the love of God who calls all to friendship with him … It is enough to open a newspaper to see that the presence of evil is around us, that the Devil is at work. But I want to say out loud: God is stronger! … Let's all say it together … God is stronger! And I want to add that reality, which at times is dark and marked by evil, can change if we first bring to it the light of the Gospel, above all with our lives. If, in a stadium … on a dark night, one person lights a light, it can barely be seen. But, if over 70,000 spectators each light their own light, then the stadium lights up. Let us make our lives the light of Christ. Together we will bring the light of the Gospel to all of reality.”

The goal of this people is “God's kingdom, begun on earth by God himself, and which must be further extended until it is brought to perfection, when Christ, our life, shall appear. The objective [of the people of God], therefore, is full communion with the Lord, familiarity with him, entering into the divine life itself, into his family, where we will live the joy of his boundless love.”

“Being the Church, being the people of God,” Francis concluded, “... means being God's leaven in this our humanity. It means proclaiming and bearing God's salvation in this our world, which is often lost and needful of having encouraging answers, answers that give hope, that give new energy along the journey. May the Church be the place of God's mercy and love, where everyone can feel themselves welcomed, loved, forgiven, and encouraged to live according to the good life of the Gospel. And in order to make others feel welcomed, loved, forgiven, and encouraged, the Church must have open doors so that all might enter. And we must go out of those doors and proclaim the Gospel”

Lawmaker calls for concrete action to fight modern slave trade

Washington D.C., Jun 12, 2013 / 05:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A U.S. congressman urged the international community to train transportation employees to identify and fight human trafficking situations, as well as to establish a hotline for trafficking victims.

“Combatting modern-day slavery is everybody’s business. We are all in this together,” said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) on June 10.

“Cooperation and coordination are key to mitigating – and someday ending – the cruelty of human trafficking,” he stated. “Best practices need to be shared and implemented to the widest extent possible.”

Smith delivered an address at an international conference on trafficking, held in Kiev, Ukraine, by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In addition to being the organization’s special representative on human trafficking issues, Smith is a senior member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and chair of its subcommittee on global human rights. He also co-chairs the U.S. Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

The congressman focused his address on the need to implement “best practices” to help identify and combat human trafficking throughout Europe and the world.

He specifically recommended situation training and awareness for flight attendants on airplanes.

“Flight attendants are in the unique position – especially on long flights – to observe a potential trafficking in progress and then call a trafficking hotline or inform the pilot to radio ahead so that the proper authorities intervene as they deplane,” he explained.

“The current-day risk to a trafficker of getting caught transporting a victim or victims is pathetically small. And they know it,” he said. “You and I have the ability to change that.”

The congressman added that these methods for flight attendants could, “with minimal modifications,” be altered for use by “bus drivers and station operators, train conductors, trucking associations, and other transportation industry professionals.”

In addition, he suggested the use of a single trafficking hotline for use by victims of human trafficking and those who suspect the illegal transport and use of persons.

Smith reflected on the work that has been done since he first introduced the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 1998. At the time, he explained, there were concerns in Congress and around the globe, largely due to misunderstandings in the nature of human trafficking.

“Today, much progress has been made,” he said. “Most countries in Europe – and many around the world – have enacted comprehensive laws to combat this preventable exploitation.”

But while faithful implementation of laws to decrease trafficking is important, legislation “is only a step,” he stressed.

“I hope you’ll agree that this ‘best practice’ training initiative must be included, be prominent, and thoroughly implemented. Indeed, this effort requires almost no cost, just the will to do it,” he emphasized.

Report finds Catholic population growing in South Korea

Seoul, South Korea, Jun 12, 2013 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Recent statistics indicate that the Catholic population in South Korea has increased over the past year.

Last month, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea released a publication entitled Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2011.

The report, prepared by the Catholic Pastoral Institute of Korea, states that at the end of 2012, there were 5,361,369 Catholics in the country, an increase of 1.6 percent – or 84,959 individuals – over the last year.

This accounts for just over 10 percent of the total population. According to the report, these numbers have “slightly and consistently increased at a yearly average of 2 – 3 percent during the past 11 years.”

Just over half of South Korea’s Catholics live in the metropolitan areas of Seoul, Suwon, Incheon and Uijeongbu.

The number of parishes in 2012 was 1,664, an increase of 17 from the previous year, while the number of mission stations rose by three to a total of 796.

Despite these increases, however, the report found that the number of newly baptized persons in 2012 was 132,076, a decrease of 1.8 percent from the previous year. Of those baptized, 25,141 were infants, a decrease of 2.2 percent from the previous year.

The statistics document also found a decline in new ordinations to the priesthood in 2012. While 131 priests were ordained, this represented a 7.6 percent decrease from the previous year. The total number of clergy in South Korea was 4,788, including 34 bishops.

Furthermore, the report found that the number of seminarians decreased by three percent to reach 1,540.

Reception of the sacraments also declined in 2012. The number of Catholics receiving the Sacrament of Confession was just under 4.9 million, down by 4.6 percent from the year before.

The average rate for Sunday Mass attendance was 22.7 percent of the total Catholics in Korea, a decrease of 0.5 percent from the previous year.